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Ariff: Malays must shed fairy tales, false notions

Joe Fernandez | April 5, 2016
Free Malaysia Today

Mahathir, like the Malays, was wrong to assume that Najib Razak’s nobility can be equated to him doing what’s right and carrying out noble deeds
ariff,mahathir

KUALA LUMPUR: Raub MP Mohd Ariff Sabri Abdul Aziz, taking to his blog, said that he was present at Dataran Merdeka on April 1 when former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, at 91, addressed the crowd at an anti-GST rally. “The gathering this time was not as large as that during the Bersih rallies although the issue was also about Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.”

“The weather was too hot and besides, the GST issue was too technical for many unlike what Bersih was all about.”

The people, added the MP, prefer the big picture. “The people want to see Najib out from Putrajaya and replaced by a government that’s aware of the environment.”

As Mahathir spoke, said Ariff, he couldn’t help but feel that Najib was also a result of the former Prime Minister’s fault. “It was a mistake on his part to believe that Najib comes from a noble family and will naturally do what’s right.” Continue reading “Ariff: Malays must shed fairy tales, false notions”

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ANZ quizzed over AmBank link to Malaysia’s 1MDB corruption scandal

Leo Shanahan
THE AUSTRALIAN
APRIL 4, 2016

ANZ’s deputy chief executive and acting chief financial officer has been quizzed over the bank’s holdings in Malaysia’s AmBank amid the multi-billion dollar 1MDB corruption scandal engulfing that country’s government.

Appearing at a Senate committee looking into constructive default loans, Graham Hodges defended the role of ANZ in sitting on the board of Malaysian bank AmBank which held billions in the 1MDB funds at the centre of a global financial scandal.

With ANZ holding almost a 25 per cent shareholding in the Malaysian bank, ANZ has three permanent positions on AmBank’s board, which will soon include Mr Hodges himself and, formally, ANZ’s chief executive Shayne Elliott.

Under questioning from senators Mr Hodges described as “simplistic” allegations ANZ had governance questions to answer over AmBank and the scandal involving state investment fund 1MDB.

“Clearly the directors on that board are not at liberty to talk about what goes on … we do not control that bank. We are directors on that bank, it is a separately listed public company,” Mr Hodges told the committee in Sydney.

“As an ANZ executive and one which is a shareholder in that are we happy with that? Certainly not. But that’s different to implying that the culture or the integrity of one of the people who sat on the board is less than it should be because they’ve sat on the board.” Continue reading “ANZ quizzed over AmBank link to Malaysia’s 1MDB corruption scandal”

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The Brain, Mind, and Mindset

M. Bakri Musa
5th April 2016

A discussion on the “free mind” begins with clarifying three related terms: brain, mind, and mindset.

The brain is the jelly-like structure in our skull, part of our central nervous system. To use the language of computers, the brain is the central processing unit of our nervous system. It is, however, much more; the brain is the core of our consciousness.

Like any other organ, the brain has its own blood supply, support structures, and nutritional requirements. Like the heart, any developmental or other abnormalities of the brain will adversely affect its many functions. Unlike the heart however, which is fully developed and functional at birth (a baby’s heart functions in the same manner as an adult’s), the brain continues its development for many years after birth. Indeed, significant development of the brain occurs after birth, especially in the first few critical years of early childhood.

There is another major difference between the brain and other organs. While the internal parts of the heart for example, do communicate with each other, they do so only so they can function in a coordinated and rhythmic way to make the organ mechanically efficient. In the brain however, the communications of its various internal parts define the function of the whole brain. The significant point is that this development of communication pathways is as much dependent on what had been programmed in that individual through his genetic make-up as much as on the environment, internal and external, physical as well as non-physical. Continue reading “The Brain, Mind, and Mindset”

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Battle of Sarawak in the 11th Sarawak State General Election is the Battle for Malaysia for future generations in Sarawak as well as rest of the country

The Battle for Sarawak in the 11th Sarawak State General Election with the dissolution of the Sarawak State Assembly on April 11 is the Battle for Malaysia for future generations, in Sarawak as well as rest of the country.

Never before have the Sarawak state general election been so important in the 53-year history of Sarawak, for what happens on Sarawak polling day is not just about Sarawak, about how big a majority Chief Minister Datuk Adenan Satem will have in the new State Assembly, but even more important, how it will affect Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s tenure as sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia and his ability to deflect or to continue to disregard the national and international furore over his RM55 billion 1MDB and RM4.2 billion “donation” twin mega scandals.

In fact it is no exaggeration to say that the forthcoming Sarawak State General Elections is even more important to Najib than to Adenan in determining the fate of the sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia.

This is the reason for Najib’s cryptic remark in Kuching yesterday that he was fighting fit for the crucial Sarawak state general election, with the symbolic reference of his choosing between two T-shirt sizes – XL and XXL. Continue reading “Battle of Sarawak in the 11th Sarawak State General Election is the Battle for Malaysia for future generations in Sarawak as well as rest of the country”