Posted on

Questions for Umno delegates

Azly Rahman
Malaysiakini
Dec 11, 2013

Malaysia’s most exciting political party of the old, United Malays National Organisation (Umno) just had its general assembly. A ritual of the political blood transfusion and the annual health check and administration of medications and treatments of a body politics ageing and grumbling. Too much good food and good life. Too sedentary of a life after its early years of “winning the war of independence” through a victory presented essentially and arguably, on a silver platter.

With the advent of mega-issues such as the most hegemonic and imperialistic US-imposed proposal of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), the rise of fascist and hate-mongering groups, the disillusionment about our education system, run amuck and latah behaviors displayed in our Parliament, massive growth of the underclass amongst the overpopulated nation on immigrants shipped en masse to build the country to such giddy heights, a daily rise of cases of mindless crimes, a slackening and weakening school system that is criticised for not preparing the next generation for a competitive economy requiring the cultivation of brainpower, resilience, and a sense of economic republicanism with a heart of social-democraticism, the clamour for a sense of unity reminiscent of the 70s – with all these and more, why are the speeches in this party assembly out of focus?

Here are my questions to the Umno delegates:

Why can’t your speeches be about:

•Coming up with strategies to create a better understanding between the races, since we’ve been together for centuries?

•Designing our education system to be inclusive of all Malaysians with each race treated on equal terms,

•Helping any group progress, regardless of race, religion or political affiliation, since we are all lawful citizens and we are not going back to “where we belong”,

•Stopping this nonsense called ‘1Malay’ as a greeting since 1Malaysia is already enough as a meaningless slogan and even 1Mandela would be better,

•Dismantling all systems that will perpetuate hatred amongst us and redesign our lives around celebrating our strength in diversity,

•Find ways to unify all races as one dignified race of Malaysians united against any threats from outside (if there are any real or imagined),

•Coming together as Malaysians to redesign our education system that will truly enhance children’s understanding of concepts, skills, attitude to become good learners, global and transcultural in outlook, and will grow up to see each other as a human race with a common humane destiny, rather than see more divisions and destructions,

•Collaborating with all races to see how best we can help those who are marginalized regardless of race and religion, and how best we can design an economic system that will promote cooperation, collaboration, and the enculturalisation of conscience and conscientiousness amongst us, rather that perpetually create competitions that lead to hatred and warmongering,

•Mediating the differences between Muslims of different interpretive practices, schools of thoughts, ways of leading their ‘Islamic life’ rather than create bogeymen and bogey-women for the purpose of witch-hunting and persecuting each other of the things we cannot fully understand,

•Stopping the total closing of the Malay mind by constantly instilling fear of themselves since time immemorial, since feudal times, so that the Malays can be spared of being called stupid, weak, lazy, and dependent on Umno as savior – all these a perfect model of a Master-Slave Narrative.

We need new speeches, Umno, saner ones. Continue reading “Questions for Umno delegates”

Posted on

What Our Leaders Can Learn from Mandela

By Kee Thuan Chye
msn.com
10.12.2013

When Nelson Mandela died last Thursday, some Malaysian political leaders paid him tribute and expressed their admiration for what he stood for.

Prime Minister Najib Razak, who recently bought back preventive detention, tweeted, “Mandela lives on in the spirit of every human that believes in democracy and freedom.”

Former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, the champion of Perkasa, Ketuanan Melayu (Malay Supremacy) and the New Economic Policy (NEP), called Mandela a great leader dedicated to the cause of social justice.

Kedah Mentri Besar Mukhriz Mahathir, who in September said he would not entertain any requests for allocations from Chinese schools in Kedah, called Mandela “a true international patriot” for having suffered for the freedom movement against Apartheid.

Wanita Umno chief Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, who last year raised the threat of another May 13, extolled his message of unity and called him a “role model for all of the world”.

Weighed against what these people have said, done and been perceived to believe, the tributes sounded hollow. Even hypocritical. It makes one wonder if they truly understand the meaning of Mandela’s legacy. Continue reading “What Our Leaders Can Learn from Mandela”

Posted on

Umno Baru running scared

Mariam Mokhtar
Malaysiakini
Dec 9, 2013

The 4Rs – race, royalty, religion and the rural people – have been used by Umno Baru to divide and rule Malaysia.

When Najib asked the rhetorical question, “Where would the Malays be without Umno Baru?”, it was a cry of desperation and an admission of defeat.

Umno Baru’s hold on the Malays is slipping. Najib and Umno-Baru are scared. Without the Malays, where would Umno Baru be? Domination of the Malays is not about protecting their rights. It is all about power and status.

The line that Umno Baru has used for over five decades to divide the nation, is no longer relevant. Malay graduates who return to Malaysia do so because they have to fulfil the terms of their scholarship or loan. Try asking them what they really feel about Malaysia, about Umno Baru and its leaders. Their stories will fill you with hope.

The current clampdown on dissent and the hunt for Malays who speak their minds is because the government is afraid. A thinking Malay is a threat to Umno Baru. A thinking Malay who is prepared to question the leaders and make them accountable for their actions will erode the power of Umno Baru.

Umno Baru knows that one thinking Malay will embolden other Malays and very soon, Umno Baru will become irrelevant. Continue reading “Umno Baru running scared”

Posted on

How Dare Najib Discredit Mandela

By Kee Thuan Chye
Yahoo! News
9.12.2013

Umno President Najib Razak diminished the stature of a great man when he said last Saturday at his party’s general assembly that Umno fought for the “same cause” as Nelson Mandela, who had died two days before.

What same cause? Mandela fought against racial discrimination whereas Umno institutionalised racial discrimination a few decades ago and still upholds it.

Mandela never advocated black supremacy, whereas Umno promotes Ketuanan Melayu (Malay supremacy).

After he became president of South Africa, Mandela proposed reconciliation and sought to bring the races in his country together, whereas in Malaysia, Umno divides the races in order to keep itself in power.

Even at its general assembly, Umno’s delegates lobbied for the ethnocentric ‘1Melayu’ to replace the more inclusive ‘1Malaysia’, bashed the Chinese for not supporting the party at the last general election, and demanded a bigger stake in the economy, totally ignoring the reality that most of the country’s economic development is now already in Malay hands. Continue reading “How Dare Najib Discredit Mandela”

Posted on

Umno’s never-ending theatrics

Jeswan Kaur| December 8, 2013
Free Malaysia Today

Refusing to deal with the truth and reality has left Umno in a vulnerable position.

COMMENT

When it comes to self-aggrandization, no one does it better than the nation’s largest political party, Umno. The party whose reputation precedes it continues to be ‘recycled’ by its leaders under the myth of ‘evolution’.

Umno after it was ‘reinvented’ by former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad is full of vengeance, of hatred towards those who refuse to be cowered in the face of injustices.

Racist, seditious, ethnically intolerant, disrespectful of fundamental rights and selfish – this best defines Umno Baru, the party which continues to be in denial over its marred credibility and warped reason d’etre.

The fact is that Umno has long lost its bearing and left many of its supporters disenchanted. Still, the hands that dictate Umno’s fate continue to be out of sync with the truth, acting instead in their own best interests.

This is perhaps the reason why the 64th edition of the Umno general assembly that kicked off on Dec 5 has turned into a ‘circus’ of sorts, with members trying to outsmart one another by resorting to ‘talking shop’.

While the keris wielding has stopped making its presence felt in the Umno assembly, Malay supremacy and racially-charged speeches continue to be harangued at the party’s gatherings. Continue reading “Umno’s never-ending theatrics”

Posted on

Despite Najib’s much vaunted 1Malaysia, Umno debates show otherwise, say analysts

by Eileen Ng
The Malaysian Insider
December 08, 2013

Two facts were established during debate time at the Umno general assembly – Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s much-vaunted transformation programme and his 1Malaysia dream have failed.

His party men clamoured for contracts and projects and continued to see everything through the prism of the Malay race.

From demands for government-linked companies to award public contracts to more Bumiputera firms to the re-examining of the BR1M cash handouts and calls for a 1Melayu slogan, the attitude at the Umno general assembly makes a mockery of the 1Malaysia slogan and talks of national reconciliation.

There was also nothing about inclusiveness in the debates. Nor was there any mention about corruption in the country, wastages, leakages or wrongdoings by those in power – concerns that are shared by other Malaysians.

“The tone of the debates reflected the sentiments of members on the ground and it is a sad situation,” said Institute of Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) CEO Wan Saiful Wan Jan. Continue reading “Despite Najib’s much vaunted 1Malaysia, Umno debates show otherwise, say analysts”

Posted on

Three slaves and the rakyat

Mariam Mokhtar
Malaysiakini
Nov 25, 2013

The three women in London who were imprisoned as slaves have much in common with the Malaysian rakyat. Their escape plan was hatched in secrecy but their story, which is slowly unfolding, has shocked the world. It is doubtful if many Malaysians realise the similarities between themselves and these three women.

For the past 30 years, the women were forced to serve a married couple from India and Tanzania. The oldest woman was a 69-year-old Malaysian who was denied medical treatment when she suffered a stroke, another was a 59-year-old Irish woman, and the youngest was a 30-year-old, who grew up in this family.

The women cleaned, cooked, shopped, ran errands and cared for their masters. As punishment, they would be beaten but despite their treatment, were too terrified to escape when an opportunity to flee presented itself.

The women were imprisoned for three decades, but the Malaysian rakyat have been metaphorically imprisoned for the most part of 56 years. The women were described as having been shackled by “invisible handcuffs”, just like the Malaysians.

Despite being aware of the injustices and abuse of power, older Malaysians are reluctant to embrace change. The married couple are just like the leaders of Malaysia. The tools of control for both the London slaves and Malaysian rakyat, are a combination of threats and emotional blackmail. Police said that the mental hold on the women was strong and “cult-like”.

Umno Baru leaders know how to pitch their stories. For instance, older and more conservative Malays are told that a vote for the opposition would mean that the Chinese and Christians would overrun Malaysia. Continue reading “Three slaves and the rakyat”

Posted on

Rosmah oh Rosmah … Ready, Get Jet, Go!

By Kee Thuan Chye
Yahoo! News
Nov 24, 2013

Rosmah oh Rosmah, you are so endearing that Malaysians love you. So much that they are questioning why you used the Government’s jet to fly to Qatar for the International Business Women Forum earlier this month. And why you took with you the MP Azalina Othman, your hubby’s special adviser Shahrizat Abdul Jalil and several ministers’ wives.

Minister Shahidan Kassim said you went on “official business”, and that the Cabinet approved your use of the jet. Your own special officer Siti Azizah said you went to Qatar in the national interest.

She even explained what she meant: “It was not for personal reasons. … [Rosmah] does not represent the Government, but she went there for the sake of the Government’s interest. She is the prime minister’s wife, she went to give the keynote address [at the forum]. So she made the address not as a government representative, but in the national interest.”

Not a government representative and yet doing it in the national interest? Hmmmm … can what, right? Why not? Even many ordinary Malaysians go overseas to do things in the national interest without their even knowing it what, right? Like when they go on holiday and tell the foreigners they meet what a nice country Malaysia is or how delicious Malaysian food is. That’s in the national interest. That’s boosting tourism. Continue reading “Rosmah oh Rosmah … Ready, Get Jet, Go!”

Posted on

Show us your income tax returns, Najib

By Kee Thuan Chye

Dear Najib,

You have come out to call tax evaders traitors. That’s a very strong word. If you had used it on corrupt public officials and politicians, especially government ministers, that would have been more apt. It would have struck a resonant chord. It would also have indicated your seriousness in fighting corruption within your ranks.

As it is, according to your minister Paul Low, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) arrested nine politicians who were reported to be involved in corruption between 2010 and August 2013, and only five have been charged. That’s a pretty low number over the course of four years. The minister did not clarify who these politicians were, but one would presume that they were part of the ruling party.

It may well be that Malaysian politicians, including those holding public office, are generally clean, but the unofficial allegations that have been brought up from time to time tell us a hugely different story. You may be aware of them yourself – allegations about this minister living beyond his means, like building a palatial home, and that minister receiving kickbacks or laundering money for his so-called “adopted son”. And of course the biggie surrounding Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud and his relatives, some of whom were caught on video earlier this year by the international NGO Global Witness allegedly offering logging licences in return for profit.
Continue reading “Show us your income tax returns, Najib”

Posted on

Sabah bishop reminds Najib of his assurance to shun extremism

by Desmond Davidson
The Malaysian Insider
November 26, 2013

Sabah Council of Churches president, Bishop Datuk Dr Thomas Tsen, today sent a barb message to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak saying that while he is “inspiring people across the world in the fight against extremism”, back in his own backyard, Malaysians are “experiencing extreme action against the church”.

In urging Najib to urgently rein in extremism, Tsen claimed “religious intolerance has reached a dangerous level”.

Tsen then reminded the prime minister when he first mooted the idea for building a “Global Movement of Moderates”, in his maiden speech at the 65th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September 2010, Najib called on all faiths to reclaim the agenda for peace and pragmatism, and to marginalise the extremists.

“We, therefore, call on him to restore the middle ground for religious tolerance and to respect the constitutional rights of non-Muslims to freedom of religion and the right to manage their own affairs,” Tsen said in a statement. Continue reading “Sabah bishop reminds Najib of his assurance to shun extremism”

Posted on

Moody’s has given us a good mood… but is it sustainable?

– Ramon Navaratnam
The Malaysian Insider
November 21, 2013

After the earlier cautious Fitch Rating Report on Malaysia’s sovereign credit outlook, the Moody’s Investors Service’s upgrading of our credit outlook from “stable to positive”, uplifts our mood on our country’s economic prospects.

Yes Moody’s has given us a good mood on our economic prospects. But unfortunately the question lingers as to whether this feel good mood, about our sovereign credit and economic outlook, can be sustained and for how long?

The upgrading had been due to the positive and bold promises made in Budget 2014 Speech by Dato Seri Najib Tun Razak. His speech has obviously made an impact on Moody’s. Continue reading “Moody’s has given us a good mood… but is it sustainable?”

Posted on

Najib perlu memberi kenyataan kementerian di Parlimen pada hari Isnin ini tentang kelonggaran kawalan keselamatan Esscom sehingga menyebabkan seorang pelancong dari Taiwan ditembak mati dan isterinya diculik oleh kumpulan yang disyaki sebagai pengganas Abu Sayyaf di pulau Pom Pom berhampiran Semporna

Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Najib Razak perlu memberi kenyataan kementerian di Parlimen pada hari Isnin ini tentang kelonggaran kawalan keselamatan Esscom sehingga menyebabkan seorang pelancong Cina ditembak mati dan isterinya diculik oleh kumpulan yang disyaki sebagai pengganas Abu Sayyaf di pulau Pom Pom berhampiran Semporna awal pagi ini.

Najib perlu memaklumkan kepada Parlimen tindakan apa yang akan diambil oleh Esscom untuk mengetatkan kawalan keselamatan supaya kejadian pembunuhan dan penculikan oleh para pengganas Filipina tidak akan berulang lagi di Sabah.

Laporan awal menyatakan bahawa sekumpulan lelaki lengkap bersenjata telah tiba di pusat peranginan Mandur Pom Pom dan menyerbu restoran di pusat peranginan tersebut yang ketika itu hanya dilanggani oleh pasangan dari Taiwan terbabit dan lalu melepaskan beberapa tembakan.

Mangsa tembakan Lim Min Hsu, 57, telah ditembak dua kali pada bahagian dada dan rusuk. Beliau meninggal di tempat kejadian. Isterinya, Lim Min Hsu, 57, dilarikan oleh kumpulan bersenjata tersebut dengan sebuah bot kecil ke arah Filipina selatan.
Continue reading “Najib perlu memberi kenyataan kementerian di Parlimen pada hari Isnin ini tentang kelonggaran kawalan keselamatan Esscom sehingga menyebabkan seorang pelancong dari Taiwan ditembak mati dan isterinya diculik oleh kumpulan yang disyaki sebagai pengganas Abu Sayyaf di pulau Pom Pom berhampiran Semporna”

Posted on

Masanya sudah tiba untuk kita berusaha bersama demi merealisasikan Impian Malaysia, dan menyelamatkan rakyat daripada ‘Mimpi Ngeri Malaysia’ yang panjang ini

Masanya sudah tiba untuk kita berusaha bersama demi merealisasikan Impian Malaysia, dan menyelamatkan rakyat daripada ‘Mimpi Ngeri Malaysia’ yang panjang ini

Saya bangun untuk mengambil bahagian dalam perbahasan peringkat Jawatankuasa Bajet 2014 mengenai Jabatan Perdana Menteri dan Jabatan-jabatan yang lain termasuk Majlis Keselamatan Negera (MKN), Jabatan Perpaduan Negara dan Integrasi Nasional (JPNIN), Biro Tatanegara, Suruhanjaya Pencegahan Rasuah Malaysia (SPRM), Jabatan Peguam Negara, Pejabat-pejabat Setiausaha Persekutuan, Sabah dan Sarawak.

Pertama sekali, saya ingin merakamkan ucapan takziah kepada keluarga Allahyarham Mohd Raffli Abdul Malik yang mati ditembak di Kuantan, Pahang; keluarga Allahyarham Norazita Abu Talib, yang menjadi mangsa rompakan Ambank tempoh hari; serta Allahyarham Hussain Ahmad Najadi, yang turut menjadi mangsa tembakan beberapa lama dahulu.

Kesemua mangsa jenayah ini adalah korban-korban tidak berdosa akibat daripada kelalaian dan kerakusan pihak yang berkenaaan mengejar kuasa dan jawatan, sehingga mengabaikan persoalan integriti, tanggungjawab kepada negara dan impian besar rakyat Malaysia.

Saya juga ingin merakamkan ucapan takziah kepada keluarga mangsa warga Taiwan dalam tragedi pembunuhan dan penculikan di Pulau Pum-Pum beberapa hari sudah. Ternyata Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom) tidaklah efektif dalam menjaga keselamatan negara sungguhpun ia ditubuhkan sebagai tindakbalas terhadap peristiwa pencerobohan di Lahad Datu. Walaupun Ketua Polis Negara dan Menteri Dalam Negeri menyifatkan ini sebagai kejadian terpencil, nyawa yang hilang pasti tidak dapat diganti. Keyakinan rakyat terhadap kesungguhan pihak berkuasa dalam melaksanakan tugas menjaga keselamatan negara dan rakyat jelata sekali lagi berkecai.
Continue reading “Masanya sudah tiba untuk kita berusaha bersama demi merealisasikan Impian Malaysia, dan menyelamatkan rakyat daripada ‘Mimpi Ngeri Malaysia’ yang panjang ini”

Posted on

Racism and inequality

Sakmongkol AK47 | NOVEMBER 17, 2013
The Malaysian Insider

Government leaders preach inclusiveness and togetherness. At the very least they pretend to want that. The idea of togetherness and inclusiveness can be summed up in the powerful idea of unity.

Something of that nature cannot be sold like an advertising product and commoditised- it must be secured by living out that experience. It must be practised as an everyday life experience.

Something of that nature too must be formed on the basis of earning and giving trust. The government has neither earned our trust and they have never trusted the people.

PM Najib paid a lot of money to consulting firms to come up with slogans to reflect the idea. He has actually paid RM7.2 billion to a number of consultants since 2009. Over a 5 year period, the fee is like RM3.945 million a day.

We won’t know how much PM Najib paid consultants who came out with slogans and follow through plans of 1Malaysia and now Endless Possibilities. What seems truly endless is the rapacious appetite to gobble up taxpayers’ money.
Continue reading “Racism and inequality”

Posted on

Najib should give Ministerial statement in Parliament on the Esscom security lapses resulting in a Taiwanese tourist shot dead and his wife abducted by suspected Abu Sayyaf terrorists on Pom Pom island off Semporna

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak should give a Ministerial statement in Parliament on Monday on the Esscom security lapses resulting in a Taiwanese tourist shot dead and his wife abducted by suspected Abu Sayyaf terrorists on Pom Pom island off Semporna early this morning.

Najib should tell Parliament what actions would be taken by Esscom to tighten security to ensure that such killing and kidnap by Filipino terrorists would not be allowed to recur in Sabah.

Initial reports indicated a group of heavily armed men arrived at the Mandur Pom Pom island resort and stormed into the resort restaurant, where the Taiwanese couple were the only customers and fired several shots.

The victim Lim Min Hsu, 57, was shot twice in the chest and ribs. He died at the scene. His wife, Lim Min Hsu, 57, was taken away by the gunmen who fled in a pump boat towards southern Philippines. Continue reading “Najib should give Ministerial statement in Parliament on the Esscom security lapses resulting in a Taiwanese tourist shot dead and his wife abducted by suspected Abu Sayyaf terrorists on Pom Pom island off Semporna”

Posted on

Sworn statement on Gani’s alleged misdeeds out due to Putrajaya inaction, says former top cop

by Lionel Morais
The Malaysian Insider
November 12, 2013

Datuk Mat Zain Ibrahim has revealed the alleged wrongdoings of Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail after Putrajaya failed to act on the retired senior police officer’s statutory declaration which contained a litany of complaints against the Attorney General.

Mat Zain’s initial revelation about the meeting with former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Umno lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah on Gani’s failings only amounted to two pages of his 31-page sworn statement.

He promised more disclosures soon and said he was also mulling the possibility of having the statutory declaration (SD) tendered in court.

“Since my SD was made in accordance with the Statutory Declaration Act 1960 it can be used in any judicial proceeding, civil or criminal. In that manner the SD will be considered a public document,” the former Kuala Lumpur CID chief told The Malaysian Insider. Continue reading “Sworn statement on Gani’s alleged misdeeds out due to Putrajaya inaction, says former top cop”

Posted on

Racial extremism bad for economy, warns ex-diplomat

Lawrence Yong
Malaysiakini
Nov 7, 2013

Malaysia will lose its competitive economic edge if its politics continue to cater to racial and religious extremes, a former senior diplomat warned today.

Razali Ismail, who was a diplomat for 35 years before retiring in 1998, warned that although polemics – the practise of one-sided political arguments – was inescapable in multi-racial, multi-religious Malaysia, it must not translate into a welfare state.

“If you just want to be a backwater country somewhere, that’s a different story.

“But we are in a strategic position (for economic growth) …all the differences between us have to be worked out,” Razali said at the Prime Lecture on Culture 2013, where he was invited to speak on “polemical politics” by the Tourism and Culture Ministry.

To emphasise his point, Razali cited that Malaysia’s rivals, such as Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia, already woke up to global realities and are well on their way to fortifying their own economies to attract foreign investments.

During his years as a diplomat, including as ambasadors to several European counctries, he saw almost all countries he served in as seeing Malaysia as a stable country.

However, Razali added, his international friends have of late started to question the divisive goings-on in the country. Continue reading “Racial extremism bad for economy, warns ex-diplomat”

Posted on

Perspective is everything

Mariam Mokhtar
Malaysiakini
Oct 28, 2013

Kim Jong-un of North Korea, the world’s youngest leader, is usually known as ‘The Great Successor’. He could use other titles like Supreme Leader, First Chairman, Commander and First Secretary, but the one he treasures, because it gives him respect, is the honorary doctorate awarded by HELP University which is based in Kuala Lumpur.

Nowadays, we all take honorary degrees for granted. Despots or those who literally shoot their way to the top, use their titles like badges of honour. Unscrupulous vice-chancellors desperate for donations award honorary degrees like confetti at a wedding.

The honorary award resembles Najib Abdul Razak’s ‘I help you, you help me’. Theoretically, awards may be revoked, if the recipient is involved in human rights abuses or corruption, but few universities are willing. Curtin University has honoured Rosmah Mansor, the self-styled First Lady of Malaysia, and the University of Adelaide gave an honorary doctorate to Sarawak Chief Minister, Taib Mahmud.

Dr Kim’s award brought worldwide notoriety to HELP and its president, Dr Paul Chan, has been villified.

They say that Dr Chan is either stupid or ignorant; he is neither. When Myanmar opened up its doors, there was a stampede of Malaysian businessmen touting for business. North Korea cannot isolate itself forever, but Dr Chan has already got a head start. Continue reading “Perspective is everything”

Posted on

Improving budget management: Our obssession with the 55% debt ceiling

– Sakmongkol AK47
The Malaysian Insider
October 27, 2013

MPs were supplied with voluminous documents relating to the state of the economy. We were ploughing through the documents to analyse the management of the economy while Najib drone on waxing lyrical, poetic and at times, waxing sarcastic over his thematic budget. 2014 has another theme. The theme of the 2014 budget is ‘Strengthening economic resilience, accelerating transformation and fulfilling promises’. If that makes him happy, so be it. Giving an artful theme to the budget does not make it a better budget. The devil is in the details.

But where is the promise of giving RM1200 BR1M which he sold the voting public in last May’s elections? Where is the promise to narrow the gap between the rich and the poor?

Najib has reneged on this promise and stated poker-faced about paying out reduced BR1Ms. The scaled down BR1M hand-outs are downsized by the financial capacity of the government. Finally the chickens come home to roost. He has to face reality something the opposition MPs have warned continuously- that out of control spending is bad for the economy.

Public debt is now more than the 55% legislated debt ceiling simply because this government hides the real debt by various tricks. Eventually the weight of public debt will come down crushing. In 2013 alone, the deficit incurred by some GLCs amounted to RM93billion. When opposition MPs say this budget is for the rich, it wasn’t said out of spite. In 2013, the BR1M given to poor people amounted to RM7 billion.

Compare this to the freedom given to some GLCs to overspend by RM93 billion. The people who should be grateful are not the ordinary rakyat but the BN politicians and their corporate conspirators for being able to hide from the rakyat the magnitude of their extravagance. They should be grateful the public hasn’t turned on them yet. Maybe we should do a Louis and Marie Antoinette on them and that is not even Islamic law.

In the coming days, we will dissect his budget. Apart from minor jeering, we did not steal the Finance Minister’s thunder. We jeered only when he made political capital of certain portions of his presentation. Continue reading “Improving budget management: Our obssession with the 55% debt ceiling”

Posted on

Duo message of 2014 Budget – Malaysia continues to be land of “heinous crime without criminals” and Ministers enjoy immunity and impunity for Ministerial dereliction of duties

A few hours before the Prime Minister cum Finance Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak presented his 2014 Budget in Parliament announcing the regressive and controversial 6% Goods and Services Tax (GST) from April 2015, the Kuala Lumpur High Court acquitted and discharged former MCA President and Transport Minister Tun Dr. Ling Liong Sik for cheating the government over the multi-billion ringgit Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) project scandal.

Without going into the details of the case against Liong Sik, the Kuala Lumpur High Court decision carries two messages which have a direct bearing on the 2014 Budget, Najib’s National Transformation Plan and the future direction of the Malaysian nation and economy, viz:

• Malaysia continues to be a land of “heinous crimes without criminals”, with Malaysians victimized by mega corruption and scandals which neither the government nor the anti-corruption agency, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), could do anything to combat when confronted with “grand corruption” involving “big sharks” instead of “ikan bilis” in the Malaysian corruption waters; and

• Cabinet Ministers are now given a blank cheque to enjoy immunity and impunity for whatever dereliction of duties in the course of official duties, including up to Cabinet level.

Continue reading “Duo message of 2014 Budget – Malaysia continues to be land of “heinous crime without criminals” and Ministers enjoy immunity and impunity for Ministerial dereliction of duties”