If Najib can get away with the 1MDB “kleptocracy at its worst” in the 14GE, what is there to prevent Malaysia from scaling  greater kleptocratic heights after the general election with 2MDB, 3MDB and worse money-laundering scandals which will make 1MDB scandal look like peanuts?

This has never happened before.

Malaysia singled out in an international forum as the No. 1 rogue nation in the world, with the  United States Attorney-General Jeff Sessions condemning 1MDB, the brainchild of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, as “kleptocracy at its worst” at the Global Forum on Asset Recovery (GFAR) co-organised by the UK and  US governments on 4th December DC.

Again, never  happened before, news reports of Sessions’ castigation of Malaysia  as  global kleptocracy completely blacked out by UMNO/BN owned and  controlled mainstream media, whether online or printed, in the country – whether  the New Straits Times, Utusan Malaysia, Berita Harian or  The Star.

I shudder to think that if Najib can get away with the 1MDB “kleptocracy at its worst” in the impending 14th General Election, what is there to prevent Malaysia from scaling greater kleptocratic heights after the general election with 2MDB, 3MDB and worse money-laundering scandals which will make 1MDB look like peanuts?

If Najib can get away scot-free from the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering scandal, the “wonder boy” of the 1MDB scandal, Penang billionaire Jho Loh may even return to Malaysian shores like a conquering hero to receive a hero’s welcome, although for the past several years, he had become  a fugitive from justice cruising from one port-of-all to another in his  US$265 million SuperYacht Equanimity, bought from 1MDB funds.

In the 13th General Election, Jho Loh masterminded a special  operation against the DAP in Penang and in particular to oust  Penang Chief Minister, Lim Guan Eng, from the  Air Puteh State Assembly seat, with money flowing ike water in the constituency, with free dinners, free-wheeling angpows and lucky draws  costing tens of millions of ringgit in the whole paraphernalia of give-aways to Air Puteh voters.

Would Jho Low operate on a national canvas in the 14GE with money flowing like water  to fund gifts and giveaways to the voters of Malaysia to steal the next general election?

If Najib can get away with the 1MDB scandal in the 13th General Election, it would be a double vindication – for Najib and for Jho Loh!

It will be a day of infamy for Malaysia!

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 12 December 2017, 1:41 pm and is filed under
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Najib’s misdeeds at the 71st UMNO General Assembly which still  rankle Malaysians who are rational, fair-minded, patriotic and nationalistic

It is almost a week  week since the 71st  UMNO General Assembly but what the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak  said and did at the opening of the  UMNO General Assembly and the winding-up still rankle rational, fair-minded, patriotic and nationalistic  Malaysians who believe in what   Bapa Malaysia Tengku Abdul Rahman said in 1957 about the country being “a beacon of light in a disturbed and distracted world” and the Dream and Vision in the  Merdeka and Malaysia Proclamations of a Malaysia of excellence, justice, integrity, freedom and harmony despite the diverse races, religions and cultures in Malaysia.

Firstly, Najib’s resort to lies and falsehoods when he accused the DAP of being anti-Malay and anti-Islam, that “DAP yang terang terang Anti-Melayu dan Islam, sebagai tercatat dalam perlembagaan DAP, langsung tidak meyebut Islam sebagai Agama Persekutuan”.

Present at the 71st UMNO General Assembly opening were the leaders of the other 12 Barisan Nasional component parties, such as MCA, MIC, Gerakan and the Sabah and Sarawak component parties.

His criticism of DAP that “tercatat dalam perlembagaan, langsung tidak sebut Islam sebagai Agama Persekutuan” applies in equal measure to the 12 other BN component parties.

Will Najib accuse the other 12 BN component parties, and therefore  the Barisan Nasional coalition, as anti-Malay and anti-Islam?

Najib attacked  the DAP as anti-Malay and anti-Islam because of  DAP’s commitment to  a secular Malaysia.

The first three Prime Ministers of Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak and Tun Hussein Onn had stood for a secular Malaysia.

Is Najib suggesting that the first three Prime Ministers, including his father Tun Razak and his uncle Tun Hussein had been anti-Malay and anti-Islam?

Secondly, his resort to the politics of fear and hatred by drumming baseless fears and hate, as when he warned that if Pakatan Harapan wins, “the Malays will be vagabonds, cursed and despised, until they ‘terbangsat’ (become bastards) in their own homeland”.

It is shocking that sixty years after Malaysia achieved Merdeka in 1957 and 54 years after the formation of Malaysia, the Prime Minister could use such language and  be so irresponsible as to resort to such politics of fear and hatred to hang on to power.

Najib should know that if Pakatan Harapan defeats the UMNOB/BN coalition in the next general election, the Pakatan Harapan Federal Government will be doing  its utmost in the next five years to prove that it is better than the UMNO/BN government in protecting and promoting the rights and interests of all Malaysians, especially the Malays and Islam,  and no one will be “terbangsat” in their own land or it will lose the mandate to govern and be repudiated in  the subsequent general election five years later in 2013.

But the greatest indictment for the UMNO General Assembly  is the silence not only of Najib but of the 71st  UMNO General Assembly to the international multi-billion 1MDB money-laundering scandal which has  catapulted Malaysia into a global kleptocracy.

Najib and the 71st UMNO General Assembly not only ignored the condemnation of Malaysia as a rogue country, and 1MDB scandal as “kleptocracy at its worst” at an international forum on the eve of the UMNO General Assembly, news of the  international condemnation was completely blacked out by  the UMNO/BN owned and  controlled mainstream media, both online or printed, in the country – whether  the New Straits Times, Utusan Malaysia, Berita Harian or  The Star.

If Najib can get away with the 1MDB “kleptocracy at its worst” in the impending 14th General Election, what is there to prevent Malaysia from scaling greater kleptocratic heights after the general election with 2MDB, 3MDB and worse money-laundering scandals which will make 1MDB look like peanuts?

This is why the call by G25, the group of former top Malaysian public  servants,  urging the government to disclose a full transparent report of 1MDB for a proper closure of the 1MDB scandal  is both urgent and timely.

In its report entitled “Invigorating Economic Confidence in Malaysia”, G25 said such disclosure should contain reasonable explanations about the planned management and proposed credible direction towards meeting 1MDB’s financial commitments and ultimately achieve its corporate objectives.

Will the Najib government heed the rational voice of G25, when it had banned the subject from Parliament and even  ignored the statement of concern of the Malay Rulers on the 1MDB scandal more than two years ago?

The 71st UMNO  General Assembly is proof that nothing would be known about the 1MDB kleptocratic scandal unless there is a change of government in Putrajaya in the next general election.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 13 December 2017, 4:08 pm and is filed under
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Malaysia is already the butt of jokes of Africans for our global kleptocracy, let us not be another African butt of jokes for our democracy

Malaysians have two objectives in the forthcoming 14th General Elections.

Firstly, for Malaysia to mature to become a normal democracy and secondly, to save the nation from the infamy and ignominy of being regarded worldwide as a global kleptocracy.

The Pakatan Harapan parties of DAP, PKR, AMANAH and Bersatu  are fully committed to the ballot box as the sole avenue for political and democratic change. The 14GE will be the 12th general elections for the DAP in over five  decades and the history and record of the DAP is unswerving commitment to the democratic and constitutional process to effect political change.

The real question at issue in the 14GE is whether Najib and UMNO are equally committed to see Malaysia mature as a normal democracy where change of the federal government through the ballot box is accepted as a healthy democratic process and not one to invite threats of violence, bloodshed, chaos, riots or coups.

There is no need to look at the developed democratic examples in Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia or  New Zealand where changes of government through the ballot box have become a fundamental  principle accepted by all political parties and political leaders.

Lets look at Asia. Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, India, Philippines and even Indonesia have graduated to become normal democracies where the voters, the political parties and political leaders accept the democratic principle that the government-of-the-day is decided through the ballot box.

Is the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak  prepared to prove that he is a democrat by declaring that he would accept the democratic verdict of the people in the 14th General Election and will peacefully and democratically hand over power if this is the decision of the Malaysian voters in the 14th General Election?

Najib failed to  make this commitment to democracy  at the recent 71st UMNO General Assembly, where he sounded the war drums for the 14th General Elections and gave  expression to the most undemocratic Hitlerite  thought of rule for a thousand years and the false doomsday scenario for the Malays if UMNO is defeated at the polls.

Patriotic Malaysians have a second mission at the next general election.

On the eve of the UMNO General Assembly last week, Malaysia was singled out in an international forum as the No. 1 rogue nation in the world, with the  United States Attorney-General Jeff Sessions condemning 1MDB, the brainchild of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, as “kleptocracy at its worst” at the Global Forum on Asset Recovery (GFAR) co-organised by the UK and  US governments on 4th December DC.

Sessions’ denunciation has blown to smithereens the theory that Najib could use his ties with his golf buddy, the US President Donald Trump, to withdraw the US Department of Justice (DOJ) largest kleptocratic litigation to freeze US$1.7 billion of 1MDB-related assets derived from international money-laundering in the United States, United Kingdom and Switzerland as well as to end  the FBI’s criminal investigations into the 1MDB scandal.

There was no mention,  not even a word of repudiation,  of the grave charges of the US Attorney-General by Najib in his policy speech to the UMNO General Assembly.

What is even more shocking, not a single one of the 5,000-odd UMNO delegates and grassroots UMNO leaders who attended the UMNO General Assembly bleated a single word to defend the honour, reputation and good name of Malaysia in the international arena.

There was no patriotic fervor or outpouring of patriotism to launch an international campaign to  combat an  international conspiracy against Malaysia and clear and cleanse Malaysia of the ignominy and infamy of being regarded worldwide as a global kleptocracy – which undoubtedly would be the case under the first five UMNO Presidents, Datuk Onn Jaffar, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak, Tun Hussein and Tun Mahathir.

What is even more shocking, news reports of Sessions’ castigation of Malaysia  as  global kleptocracy was  completely blacked out by UMNO/BN owned and  controlled mainstream media, whether online or printed, in the country – whether  the New Straits Times, Utusan Malaysia, Berita Harian or  The Star – as if Malaysia has become the frog in the well in the era of information!

I shudder to think that if Najib can get away with the 1MDB “kleptocracy at its worst” in the impending 14th General Election, what is there to prevent Malaysia from scaling greater kleptocratic heights after the general election with 2MDB, 3MDB and worse money-laundering scandals which will make 1MDB look like peanuts?

Malaysia is already the butt of jokes of Africans for our global kleptocracy, let us not be another African butt of jokes for our democracy.

Better still, let us not the butt of jokes for the world on both instances.

(Speech at the Serdang  DAP Branch Anniversary Solidarity Dinner at Serdang on Thursday, 14th December 2017 at 8 pm)

                This entry was posted on Friday, 15 December 2017, 8:30 am and is filed under
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Hadi has jumped on the Najib bandwagon spreading the lies that I want to be Prime Minister and that if UMNO loses, the Malays and Islam will perish in Malaysia

PAS President Datuk Seri Hadi Awang has jumped on the Najib bandwagon, spreading the lies that I want to be Prime Minister and that if UMNO loses in the next general election, the Malays and Islam will perish in Malaysia.

The UMNO mouthpiece, the New Straits Times, today  reported Hadi’s comments from Marang on the UMNO-generated controversy that “DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang could end up becoming the prime minister in the event the opposition wins the General 14th General Election”, quoting Hadi as saying that PAS most  definitely oppose a non-Muslim leader becoming prime minister.

Hadi said: “Our priority is to ensure that a Muslim leads the country.

“That is important. We must ensure this country remains under the leadership of a Muslim.”

In the past week, both the UMNO owned and controlled printed and online media had been trying to generate a controversy over the dual theme of Najib’s speech at the recent UMNO General Assembly and which was repeated ad nauseam during the five-day UMNO Assemblies,, that  I want to be Prime Minister and that if UMNO loses in the next general election, the Malays and Islam will perish in Malaysia but with no success.

Now  Hadi is trying to salvage UMNO  to keep alive the dual lies of Najib and UMNO, that I want to be Prime Minister and that if UMNO loses, Malays and UMNO will perish in Malaysia?

Hadi has traversed a great distance from his early days in politics, when he accused UMNO for the plight of Malays and Islam in Malaysia. Now, as if by a wand of magic, the sins of UMNO to Malays and Islam in Malaysia  have all been transferred to the DAP.

If only Hadi can change the real life in Malaysia with a magic wand!

But both Naib and Hadi are wrong.

There is no doomday scenario for any race or religion in Malaysia.

By the very nature of the elective system at least for every five years, if Pakatan Harapan replaces UMNO/Barisan Nasional as the Federal Government in Putrajaya, the new Pakatan Harapan government will have to prove that it is better than the UMNO/BN government in protecting and promoting the rights and interests of all racial and religious groups in the country, especially the Malays and Islam, or it will  lose the mandate to govern and face rejection in the subsequent general election five years later.

Why is it necessary for Hadi to become to rescue of UMNO to make the UMNO lies about my wanting to be Prime Minister and the disastrous fate of Malays and Islam in Malaysia if UMNO loses as both these lies had been UMNO handiwork and had nothing to do with the PAS leadership?

I could think of two reasons:

Firstly, to sustain the credibility of the two UMNO lies as demonstrating that even the PAS leadership led by Hadi find them credible and are adopting them as campaign materials in the run-up to the next general election.

Secondly, to stem the loss of support of PAS leadership led by Hadi by PAS members and supporters by employing both these lies.

I was quite intrigued by a statement by Hadi yesterday questioning the absence of the majority of the top leaders of the Muslim nations at the extraordinary Summit of the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC)  in Istanbul censuring the United States for recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

What realty shocked me was Hadi’s commendation of the President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro for attending the Istanbul OIC Extraordinary Summit.

This is because Nicolas Maduro was named “2016 Person of the Year” by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), an award which “recognizes the individual who had done the most in the world to advance organized crime activity and corruption”.

The citation for Maduro’s award by the OCCRP said:

“A panel of eight journalists, scholars and activists expert in fighting corruption chose Maduro for the global award on the strength of his corrupt and oppressive reign, so rife with mismanagement that citizens of his oil-rich nation are literally starving and begging for medicines.

The Financial Times dubbed him Venezuela’s ‘Lord of Misrule’ in dissecting his performance.

Reporters Without Borders named him a ‘Press Freedom Predator’ for his ingenuity in silencing critical media.

He has had friends buy up key outlets, orchestrated newsprint shortages, and criminalized articles that “call into question legitimately constituted authority.”

As  Drew Sullivan, editor of OCCRP and one of the judges said: “When a country’s leader can watch his people starve and still oversee a government stealing $70 billion a year all while his family deals drugs, it’s a special kind of evil. He deserves this prize.”

When Hadi can glorify Maduro, the OCCRP “Person of the Year 2016” for the person “who had done the most in the world to advance organized crime activity and corruption”, may be Malaysians can understand why Hadi could form a political alliance with Najib and apologist not only for 1MDB scandal but Malaysia becoming a “global kleptocracy”.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 16 December 2017, 4:17 pm and is filed under
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Is DAP “unclean” because it does not  support Hadi as Prime Minister?

The attack by the PAS President, Datuk Seri Hadi Awang that the DAP is unclean sets many Malaysians asking whether the DAP is unclean because it does not support  Hadi as Prime Minister but would  become instantly “clean” if DAP   supports Hadi as Prime Minister.

For seven years from 2008 to 2015, Hadi led PAS to co-operate with DAP and PKR in Pakatan Rakyat to replace the UMNO/BN coalition in Putrajaya.

At which point Hadi found that the DAP was “unclean” and not worthy of co-operation?

Was it in 2012 when Hadi sought and failed to get the support of DAP that the Pakatan Rakyat candidate for Prime Minister should  be Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and not Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim?

Was Hadi preparing to spring a surprise to use the  quota of PAS MPs as the  “kingmakers” to decide which coalition, Pakatan Rakyat or Barisan Nasional, should form the federal government after the 13th General Election, depending among other things on whether Hadi got his way on who would be  the Prime Minister – with  Hadi always preferring to be Deputy Prime Minister of a Najib-led instead of an Anwar-led Cabinet?

Hadi suggests that DAP is unclean because it is not Muslim.

I am reminded of three things: Firstly, of what the great Egyptian scholar and jurist Muhammad Abduh  said more than one-and-half century ago: “I went to the West and saw Islam, but no Muslims; I got back to the East and saw Muslims, but not Islam”.

Secondly, of a 2016  research study by the George Washington University which finds that it is the Western nations which apply Islamic principles in economics and business more than the countries that are known to be “Islamic” or “Muslim” either by their demography or Constitutional declaration.

In their Economic Islamicity Index, the two researchers, Scheherazade S. Rehman, Professor of International Finance and Professor of International Affairs and Hossein Askari, Professor of International Business and International Affairs, ranked  Ireland on the first place, followed by Denmark, Luxembourg, Sweden, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Singapore, Finland, Norway and Belgium as more committed to Islamic principles in dealing with economy and business than any Muslim country.

Malaysia is the first Muslim country in the list, at the 41st place in the ranking of nations.

Thirdly, the annual Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) in the past 22 years.

In the first TI CPI 1995 comprising 41 countries, the first 20 nations ranked as least corrupt countries were all non-Muslim countries, with New Zealand, Denmark, Singapore, Finland, Canada, Sweden, Australia, Switzerland, Netherlands and  Norway  as the first ten countries at the top of the ranking.

In the last 2016 TI CPI comprising 176 countries, the  ten least corrupt nations are Denmark, New Zealand, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Singapore, Netherlands, Canada, Germany and Luxembourg and there is not a single Muslim country in the top-ranked  20 nations. Seven of the ten most corrupt nations among the 176 countries  are Muslim countries.

It is most mind-boggling that Islam, or for that matter, any great religion, could be used to justify the worst kleptocracy on a global level.

These instances should be eye-openers for Hadi, as he seemed to have overlooked the fact that the Federal Constitution, Malaysia Agreement 1963 and the Rukunegara do not divide Malaysians into Malays and non-Malays, or Muslims and non-Muslims, but is dedicated to develop a Malaysia of excellence, justice, integrity, freedom and harmony for every Malaysian, regardless of race or religion, who are equally endowed with all the fundamental rights and liberties enshrined in the Constitution.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 17 December 2017, 3:23 pm and is filed under
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No anger or outrage but only pity and contempt that the MCA leader has sunk so low as to spread the atrocious lies of UMNO and PAS leaders that I want to be Prime Minister

I should feel angry or  outraged but I have  only pity and contempt for  the MCA President, Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai that he  has sunk so low as to spread the atrocious lies of UMNO and PAS leaders that I want to be Prime Minister.

Even a person of minimum political sense would know that this canard has been used by UMNO leaders for quite some time to scare and railroad the Malay electorate to vote for UMNO in the next general election, as the centerpiece of their campaign of lies, fake news and false information that if UMNO is defeated in the next general election, the Malays and Islam would perish in Malaysia.

There is no need for me to repeat what I had said before that in my 52 years in politics,  the thought of becoming Prime Minister has never entered my mind.

Let me reiterate my three basic political positions:

Firstly, I am in politics because of the Malaysian Dream, which I believed is shared by many Malaysians down the decades who have undivided love and loyalty to Malaysia – to build a nation where all Malaysians, regardless of their different racial, religious or regional backgrounds, are united and feel as one because they are Malaysians and proud to be a Malaysian, and where Malaysia can leverage on the best of the diverse races, cultures, religions and civilizations which meet in confluence in Malaysia, to be a top world nation in different fields of human endeavour.

Secondly, DAP has always been a party for all Malaysians and never a party for any one race. DAP leaders, who come from diverse ethnic and religious groups, never aspire to be leaders of only one ethnic or religious group, as we always see ourselves as representing all Malaysians regardless of race, religion or region.

No person can be a Malaysian leader if he or she is against any one race or religion or concerned only about the rights and interests of only one community – as Malaysian leaders must set an example of rising above the racial, religious and regional differences in the country to serve the common national weal.

Thirdly, Malaysians who had supported DAP loyally and consistently in the past half a century did so not because they want a Chinese Malaysia or an Indian Malaysia, as they know that DAP never advocated a Chinese Malaysia, Indian Malaysia or Malay Malaysia, but because of the Malaysian Dream to build a Malaysia where all citizens, regardless of race, religion or region, have a rightful place under the Malaysian sun.

The  nation celebrates the  60th National Day anniversary this year.

Had  Malaysia in the past six decades lived up to the promise when we achieved Merdeka on August 31, 1957 and established Malaysia on Sept. 16, 1963  to be “a sovereign democratic and independent State founded upon the principles of liberty and justice and ever seeking the welfare and happiness of its people and the maintenance of a just peace among all nations”?

If so, a Cabinet Minister who is the President of MCA would not have made the statement he made in Kluang yesterday, or the Prime Minister and UMNO leaders would not be spearheading the campaign of lies, fake news and false information to frighten and railroad the Malay electorate to vote for UMNO in the next general election with lies that  DAP is anti-Malay and anti-Islam, that I want to be  Prime Minister to  dominate Pakatan Harapan and that if UMNO is defeated in the next general election, the Malays and Islam will perish in Malaysia.

And when the lies that DAP is anti-Malay and anti-Islam, that I want to be Prime Minister and that the Malays and Islam will perish if UMNO,  find difficult traction and credibility among the Malay population, the  PAS President Datuk Seri Hadi Awang is   roped in  to lend authority and credibility to such lies, fake news and false information.

Now, even  the MCA President is dragooned to disseminate  such lies, fake news and false information – not for the urban electorate of Chinese, Indians and Malay voters  but for the consumption of the rural Malay voters!

I had thought that after gaining the appellation of “Tung Shin Liow”, the MCA President would have learnt an expensive lesson about the importance of political integrity but I was wrong and he has done no MCA President had ever done!

Why are the lies, fake news and false information about the DAP being anti-Malay and anti-Islam, that I want to be  Prime Minister to  dominate Pakatan Harapan and that if UMNO is defeated in the next general election the Malays and Islam will perish in Malaysia,  find difficult traction and credibility even among the Malay electorate in the rural areas?

There are probably three reasons.

Firstly, this is the information era and even rural voters have access to information.

Secondly, how can DAP be anti-Malay and anti-Islam when the Penang Chief Minster Lim Guan Eng was once imprisoned and disqualified as a Member of Parliament for defending the honour and dignity of an underaged Malay girl and the DAP-led Penang State Government had done more than previous Barisan Nasional state governments for Malays and Islam – as well as other races and religions?

Thirdly, the question posed by National Laureate Pak Samad, who asked: “How are Malays under threat? How can religion (Islam) and Malays be threatened when those in power have been Malay for over five decades? What have they (Malay leaders) been doing for five decades (if Malays can be under threat)?”

Far  from the Malays and Islam perishing in Malaysia, a Pakatan Harapan government in Putrajaya  will prove that it is more capable than the UMNO/BN government in protecting and promoting the rights and interests of all racial and religious groups in the country, especially the Malays and Islam, as it will otherwise lose the mandate to govern and face rejection in the subsequent general election five years later.

The remarks by the PAS Vice President and Kelantan Deputy Mentri Besar Datuk  Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah yesterday  that a leader from the party could become the next prime minister in ways that “can cannot imagine” shows it is Hadi who is dreaming of becoming Prime Minister.

Has Liow come around to accepting Hadi as Prime Minister or Deputy Prime Minister?

                This entry was posted on Monday, 18 December 2017, 11:40 am and is filed under
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Reports of the World Bank and IMF

In past week the World Bank and the IMF have issued reports and statements concerning the Malaysian economy. The IMF released a brief statement entitled IMF Staff Completes 2018 Article IV Visit to Malaysia while the World Bank published its report in the  Malaysia Economic Monitor.

The IMF note highlighted in highly nuanced language, in summary form, the outcome of the Annual Article IV Consultations with the Government.

The highlights made reference to recent economic performance and revised forecasts for the current year and expected growth in 2018. The revisions in the estimated and projected GDP growth rates for Malaysia are thus in step with revisions that the IMF has made for almost all countries since it issued its earlier estimates and forecasts.

Beyond the reference to growth prospects the statement took up a number of other policy concerns. It made veiled statements about the need for “higher revenues”—alerting all and sundry that taxes will have to be raised; it reminded the need to implement the adjustment programs outlined in the 11th Five Year Plan; etc. meaning that reform policies are not being implemented. The statement is thus a  rap on the Government’s  knuckles .

It is not inappropriate to read between the lines from the following:

“In the medium term, fiscal policy should follow a gradual consolidation path, and the composition of adjustment could be improved to make it more revenue based and to make room for the structural reforms and increased social spending for inclusive growth. Medium term fiscal targets should be better communicated.“

The statement contains cautionary remarks that urge the Government to pay heed to the downside risks it faces for which it is ill prepared.

Note the following statement: “…while downside risks include policy uncertainty in advanced economies and tighter global financial conditions. Going forward, striking the right balance in policies will be key.”

This is further emphasized by:”In the medium term, fiscal policy should follow a gradual consolidation path, and the composition of adjustment could be improved to make it more revenue based and to make room for the structural reforms and increased social spending for inclusive growth”.

These are interim conclusions. The Fund will undoubtedly issue a fuller report in which it will for certain spell out its concerns in greater detail.

The Prime Minister in his remarks commenting on the IMF Statement, limited himself to boasting about the revised growth rate.

He chose to wholly ignore the nuanced rebuke about the failure to implement reform measures and made a not-too-cryptic point about the need to tighten fiscal policy and take up structural reforms. By taking this stance, the Prime Minister is acting in a highly irresponsible manner.

The World Bank’s latest Malaysia Economic Monitor  is a report commissioned and paid for by the Government. It attempts to take an overview look at recent economic developments in the Malaysian economy.

It too presents revised macro-economic growth estimates and forecasts reflecting revisions to global numbers that take account of changes in the global economy.

The higher estimates for Malaysia are thus in tandem with international developments and have little to do with either better policies or improved economic fundamentals.

However, the Prime Minister has been quick in making claims implying that the somewhat higher GDP growth is wholly attributable to the efforts of his administration.

What is particularly noticeable is the fact that neither the Prime Minister nor the mainstream aka the fake news media chose to ignore the main thematic findings presented in the Malaysia Economic Monitor.

Based on data collected by the Department of Statistics, the Bank reported that the rising cost of living is having a disproportionate impact on lower-income households in Malaysia, with those in urban areas the hardest hit. The poorest households have been disproportionately affected by the build-up of inflationary pressures over the past years with higher relative increases in food prices.

The report points out that the higher inflation experienced by low-income households has been further compounded by the persistent deterioration in the affordability of housing since 2012, as a result of a undersupply of affordable homes, particularly acute in the highly-urbanized areas of the country.

The report points to the need for better targeted social assistance, a point also made in the IMF’s note. These mildly stated criticisms and policy failures have not been taken up by the Prime Minister who has been quick to mouth feel-good remarks often taken out of context. The mainstream media aka the fake news media have failed in its duty to report faithfully and fully.

Illustrative of such selectivity is provided by The Star in its reporting. In an On-Line posting it carried a story entitled: World Bank: Malaysia to achieve high-income nation status as early as 2020 ( https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2017/12/16/world-bank-malaysia-high-income-status-by-2020/#sATharQ25LYjprd2.990.

The Star made no attempt to make any cautionary statements pointing out that the World Bank’s presentation was a simulation and hypothetical in nature. There are many caveats and no one should under-rate that all forecasts for GDP growth in the near term as precarious.

Witness the recent revisions. Much will depend on how the US, Chinese and EU economies perform. The US faces uncertainties e.g. the impact of Federal Reserve interest rate adjustments; China must tackle its debt issues; the EU must worry about BREXIT – there are many uncertainties in the Middle East.

These impact on Malaysian economic growth prospects. And for Malaysia there are the further uncertainties associated with the value of the Ringgit once the Federal Reserve raises interest rates leading to an outflow from the Malaysian market of short term foreign funds.

 Second: The notion that Malaysia will “cross” the high-income bar by 2020 is false. Note the Chart which shows a static cut off at   US$12,236. This figure changes annually in accordance with the Atlas methodology. This figure NEVER gets projected because of the nature of how the number gets calculated. The bottom line is: the bar is NOT STATIC.

In this regard the Bank in making this prediction has acted less than responsibly. It has chosen to ignore its very own Atlas methodology. It would almost seem as if it is dancing to the piper’s tune!

Beyond the assessments offered by the Fund and the Bank, Moody’s (the rating service) in its recent Global Credit Research noted that Malaysia has “a relatively high but stable government and household debt burden.”

 It further noted: “Malaysia is also exposed to a potential sharp and lasting negative change in external financing conditions, given the country’s reliance on foreign financing.”

Moody’s goes on to point out that Malaysia’s reserves are insufficient to meet maturing external long-term debt repayments and short-term debt. It cautions that Malaysia’s household debt levels — while stable — pose downside risks to growth. The general tone of Moody’s assessment, while not negative, appears to urge caution.

The likelihood of Malaysia crossing over to join the ranks of the high- income group of countries by 2020 is remote. It is all the more unlikely given the inability of this scandal driven government making the hard but necessary policy corrections recommended by both the Fund and the Bank. These concerns should be noted by the electorate as it makes its choices in the GE14 due in the near term.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 22 December 2017, 2:49 pm and is filed under
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WE THE G25

Alwi Jantan

Kuala Lumpur

10th January 2018

We seek true democracy,

Envisioned by our founding fathers.

We seek multi-racial harmony,

Religious freedom and equal genders.

We condemn kleptocracy,

Corruption and nepotism,

Racial and religious bigotry,

Power abuse and cronyism.

We call for good governance,

And maintenance of law and order,

Free from political interference,

And power and influence vender.

We promote justice and mercy.

For national unity we strive.

We speak for the silent majority.

We are members of G25.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 9 January 2018, 8:32 pm and is filed under
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GE 14

Allan CF Goh

11th Jan 2018

The coming election 14

Brings the loud howling of the wolves,

And the braying of the asses,

To proclaim the country is well,

That everything with us is swell.

Yet people are struggling with debts,

Unable to make their ends meet,

In the face of high rising costs.

To give away this election

Is to prolong that stagnation.

It is time for citizens’ wraith

To destroy all the corruptions,

And the official malfeasance,

To make our country great again,

To grant us life without the pain!

Let us vote wisely this time round.

Remove the voracious wolves,

And those useless, brainless asses,

To build the greatest Malaysia,

To return us the ambrosia.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 11 January 2018, 3:49 pm and is filed under
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Mahathir, for now, the only choice to lead opposition

Dr. I. Lourdesamy

Malaysiakini

5 Jan 2018

LETTER |
 The ongoing debate about whether Mahathir should be the opposition candidate for the next PM is politically bankrupt. It reflects poor understanding of political reality and the crisis the country is facing.

Those who oppose Mahathir base their argument on his past record. His 22 years of reign had inflicted much pain on many, including imprisonment for some. Democratic institutions were destroyed or eroded. It was a period of autocratic rule. Mahathir was no angel.

They argue how can we trust Mahathir with power again. Leopards do not change their stripes. He will kill any attempt at democratic reforms. ‘Reformasi’ will be dead. Anwar would have fought in vain.

The argument is not without merit, but it misses the point. The point is, how do you defeat the current government led by Najib who has shown to be a clever political strategist? To defeat the current government is not easy because Najib has built a political fortress that is extremely difficult for the opposition to penetrate.

And certainly he has more plans and strategies for the coming election to ensure the opposition does not win. This is politics. Those in power will do everything to remain in power.

The liberals and democrats may call it undemocratic or unprincipled, but it is not going to change anything in the Malaysian context until we have built the necessary institutions that can check the abuses of power and ensure true democracy.

For that, the opposition first needs to win the next election.

How do you win the next election? Not by talking about democracy and the wrongs of Umno and the government. These are important enough to be pointed out, but they will not win the election for the opposition. These issues are important to only some of the electorate.

These are people who are in the know – the already converted voters. Addressing them will not turn the tide for the opposition. You need the non-customers – those who do not vote or those who support the government or sympathise with them. They will decide the outcome of the election.

Where does Mahathir fit in here? The opposition needs him because he is a master political strategist. He can be relied on to come up with plans to reach the non-customers – the voters that will count in the next election.

These are the heartland Malays. Only Mahathir has the capacity and the appeal to reach them, not even Anwar. The heartland Malay still has enough respect for Mahathir to listen to him.

His contribution to the country and the Malay community is acknowledged. Yes, he was not perfect. There were many things wrong, very wrong. But, on balance, the heartland Malay is likely to believe Mahathir when he says the country is in trouble and change is necessary.

There is no one in the opposition that has the stature of Mahathir. There is no scandal similar to 1MDB that readily comes to mind when talking about Mahathir.

What is critical now for the opposition is strategy and leadership. Whether you like Mahathir or not is not relevant. Only he can provide the strategic thinking and leadership that is needed.

Given his age and the structure of the coalition parties in the opposition, fears about he holding on to power or abusing his power appear to be unfounded. It is going to take time to build a viable democracy in Malaysia.

Mahathir is certainly not a deacon of democracy, but in order to win the war one first needs to win the battle – the next election. For that, Mahathir is the right general.

Also, after the election there is the important task of reconstruction – rebuilding the economy and institutions. For this, there is no better person than Mahathir.

His capacity for developing the country is a matter of record. So, all in all, Mahathir may well be the only choice to lead the opposition at this juncture.

There are several good people in the opposition, but leading the team, given the present challenges, calls for someone like Mahathir.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 11 January 2018, 9:10 pm and is filed under
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Malaysian premier Mahathir Mohamad returns at 92 to lead the party he once opposed

Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia Editor

The Times, London

January 8 2018

He is a figure from another era, a contemporary of Thatcher and Reagan who was supposed to have retired from politics 15 years ago. Yet Mahathir Mohamad, the 92-year-old former prime minister of Malaysia, is once again in the running to lead his country, this time for the opposition he battled against for so many years.

At a convention of its four constituent parties, Dr Mahathir was chosen to lead the opposition into a general election that must be held by August. It will pitch him against the United Malays National Organisation, the party that he led as prime minister for more than two decades.

It puts him in direct competition with the prime minister, Najib Razak, who is embroiled in a multibillion-pound fraud scandal and under investigation by the US Justice Department. Most remarkably of all, it places him in alliance with the family and supporters of Anwar Ibrahim, the man who would almost certainly be leader of the opposition if he were not in prison for sodomy, an accusation first brought against him 20 years ago by his former friend and mentor, Dr Mahathir.

“Our great focus is to save our beloved country,” Dr Mahathir said on Sunday. “It wasn’t easy for the parties that were my enemies before to accept me — but they are aware of the importance of bringing down the current government.”

Until his retirement in 2003, Dr Mahathir was a towering presence in southeast Asia. He, more than anyone else, shaped the modern Malaysian state. Malaysians grew accustomed to his rants against the West and liberal democracy but even they are shaking their heads at the ironies of his attempted comeback.

After coming to power in 1981 he was unassailable, goading Malaysians into unprecedented economic achievement. Malaysia was a democracy but an authoritarian one in which the press agreed with almost everything the government said and those who spoke out were liable to find themselves locked up without trial.

Mr Najib has vehemently denied claims first made in 2015 that he stole hundreds of millions of dollars from the state investment firm 1Malaysia Development Berhad, which he founded.

Lawsuits filed by the US Justice Department describe a money-laundering scheme in which huge sums of state money were transferred to senior government officials via shell companies.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 11 January 2018, 11:06 am and is filed under
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Malaysia’s unlikely alliance

Editorial

The Australian

January 10, 2018

Amid the $US4 billion 1MDB corruption scandal surrounding Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak’s government, the need for a strong opposition to contest the next general election, which could take place as soon as March, is incontrovertible. It remains to be seen, however, whether that can be achieved by the previously inconceivable alliance formed between 92-year-old former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad and his one-time deputy Anwar Ibrahim, who is serving a second prison term on trumped up sodomy charges.

Dr Mahathir stepped down in 2003 after 22 years of authoritarian rule as leader of the United Malays National Organisation, which has ruled Malaysia exclusively since 1957. UMNO is now led by Mr Najib. Mr Anwar was Dr Mahathir’s deputy when they fell out 20 years ago. Mr Anwar was then targeted ruthlessly with the dubious allegations that saw him jailed.

Yet the two men — Dr Mahathir at the same age Robert Mugabe was when he was deposed, and Mr Anwar from his prison cell — have cobbled together an unlikely arrangement aimed at prising UMNO from its 60-year domination of Malaysia. That nation’s stability is of immense importance to our region, which is why Australia has close defence and security ties with it. Dr Mahathir will lead the campaign of the fractious Pakatan Harapan, Malaysia’s main opposition coalition. Should he win, he will seek a royal pardon to allow Mr Anwar to take over as prime minister.

An opposition under the leadership of a hard-headed, controversial warhorse such as Dr Mahathir (as recently as May he insisted the US and Israel were responsible for 9/11) faces an uphill battle against Mr Najib’s UMNO. Polls show race-based politics still reflect overwhelming support in the Muslim-Malay community for UMNO.

But Dr Mahathir and Mr Anwar deserve credit for seeking to bring Mr Najib and UMNO to book for the 1MDB and other scandals that have damaged Malaysia’s standing in the world. The corruption surrounding the 1MDB scandal must be front and centre in the election race.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 11 January 2018, 10:55 am and is filed under
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Trump’s ‘war on media’ reverberates in Asia

Keith B. Richburg

Nikkei Asian Review

January 12, 2018

Region’s strongmen endanger prosperity with press crackdowns

Asia witnessed a particularly disturbing rollback in free expression last year amid escalating attacks on the media and harassment of journalists. And 2018 holds little promise for improvement.

One striking shift over the past year has been in the role of the United States under President Donald Trump. Once a staunch defender of media freedom, Washington can no longer be counted on to advocate for the rights of journalists worldwide. Trump, who has labeled U.S. reporters as “the enemy of the American people” and purveyors of “fake news,” has abrogated the president’s traditional role of standing up for the value of an independent press and the free flow of information.

Asia’s authoritarian leaders have begun to echo Trump’s cry of “fake news” to justify their crackdown on the media. From Beijing and Bangkok, to Phnom Penh and Naypyitaw, journalists have been jailed or subjected to violence, media outlets shuttered, and new restrictions imposed on reporters. This has happened without a word of concern, let alone condemnation, from the White House. In many cases, Asian leaders have echoed Trump’s words, with some, such as Cambodia’s Hun Sen, acting as if they had the U.S. president’s tacit support.

“I would like to send a message to the president that your attack on CNN is right,” Hun Sen said, calling journalists “an anarchistic group.”

Recent developments suggest such pressures on the media in Asia are only likely to increase this year. In the coming year, at least three Southeast Asian countries — Cambodia, Malaysia and Thailand — are scheduled to hold elections that seem set to further cement authoritarian rule. In all three countries, muzzling the media through censorship, arrests or even closures of media outlets have been a central part of government strategies to retain control and quell dissent.

China’s growing presence in the region also makes it much easier for Asian autocrats to tamp down the media in their countries. All three countries holding elections, Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia, have been growing closer to Beijing’s orbit in the face of criticism from the West. China recently announced plans to assist Cambodia with its elections after the European Union and the U.S. pulled out, citing the ongoing repression.

The media clampdown is more than a moral concern. A free press is also an economic imperative. Corruption is the cancer eating away at many Asian economies, deterring investors and retarding growth, and one of the cures is to unshackle the media.

Various academic and research studies have concluded that countries where journalists can report and publish unfettered have lower levels of corruption than those under authoritarian regimes, and their governments are more accountable. Organizations like Transparency International and Corruption Watch list Cambodia and Myanmar among the world’s most corrupt countries, while graft is also a serious problem in Vietnam, Laos, China, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines.

The list of Asia’s most corrupt nations and those where the media is most restricted or under threat is closely correlated. According to Reporters Without Borders, which ranked 180 countries in 2017 for their degree of press freedom, Myanmar came in at 131, followed by Cambodia at 132, Thailand at 142, Malaysia at 144, Laos at 170, Vietnam at 175 and China at a dismal 176. Only the city-state of Singapore managed to score high for not being corrupt while also registering low on the press freedom index.

Corruption cleanser

In almost every case, a free press is integral to a corruption-free economy. An independent media, playing a watchdog role and holding government officials accountable, is an essential pillar of democratic development.

Asia’s authoritarian leaders did not need Trump to pursue their own media clampdowns. They were restricting the media long before Trump emerged on the political scene. But Trump’s “fake news” meme has given them a handy cudgel with which to beat their own media into submission. It allows them to dismiss the foreign media, particularly U.S. outlets, as dishonest — parroting the Trump line.

Trump seemed to bolster growing hostility among some Asian leaders such as Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi and Cambodia’s Hun Sen against negative Western coverage, tweeting after his November trip to the region: “While in the Philippines I was forced to watch @CNN, which I have not done in months, and again realized how bad, and FAKE, it is. Loser!”

People’s Daily, the official mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, followed suit with its own tweet saying: “Trump’s #fakenews mantra speaks to a larger truth about Western media.” The Twitter post was linked to an editorial in the paper which accused the Western media of only reporting biased and negative stories that downplayed China’s accomplishments.

“If the president of the United States claims that his nation’s leading media outlets are a stain on America, then negative news about China and other countries should be taken with a grain of salt since it is likely that bias and political agendas are distorting the real picture,” said the People’s Daily.

Hun Sen, in office for more than 30 years and preparing for re-election, also reflected Trump’s attacks on the media. He used Trump’s vitriolic attacks to justify closing down the Cambodian broadcasts of Voice of America and Radio Free Asia.

It is no coincidence that the venerable Cambodia Daily newspaper, closed by Hun Sen over purported unpaid back taxes, was exposing alleged human rights abuses, including the arrests and forced exile of opposition figures, and government corruption. The paper reported on land disputes involving associates of Hun Sen and misappropriated funds by government officials.

Similarly, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak launched a campaign against local media outlets that exposed the huge scandal involving his personal bank account and the country’s sovereign investment fund, 1MDB.

Hiding crimes

In Myanmar, authorities accused Western media of reporting “fake news” on the military’s brutal campaign against the minority Muslim Rohingya — a campaign that has been widely labeled ethnic cleansing. Two Reuters journalists covering the Rohingya crisis were jailed on Dec. 12 and remain in custody, accused of violating the Official Secrets Act.

U.S. presidents have traditionally used the power and prestige of their visits abroad to pry open official doors a little for journalists in the most restrictive countries by insisting on taking along a large contingent of White House reporters, raising the cases of jailed journalists, and insisting on joint press conferences with often recalcitrant foreign leaders. Not so with Trump.

As far as is known, Trump did not raise the issue of press freedom in China or with any Southeast Asian leader he met during his Asian trip in November. Press access was largely restricted throughout his tour. I n China, there was no joint press conference with Chinese President Xi Jinping because “it was at the Chinese insistence there were no questions,” according to White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Sanders was recently asked whether the White House was concerned about authoritarian regimes adopting the phrase “fake news” to try to delegitimize the press.

“I’d have to look at their comments to be more specific on what they’ve said,” Sanders replied. “But our concern is making sure that the information that the people receive in this country is fair and accurate.”

Shortly before Trump’s election in 2016, the U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists took the unprecedented step of warning, “Any failure of the United States to uphold its own standards emboldens dictators and despots to restrict the media in their own countries.”

At the time, the group’s warning was criticized by some as hyperbolic. One year into Trump’s term, it seems eerily prescient.

Keith B. Richburg, a former foreign editor of The Washington Post, is director of the University of Hong Kong’s Journalism and Media Studies Center.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 12 January 2018, 6:03 pm and is filed under
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Powerful rebuttal to Hishammuddin

A powerful rebuttal by the Secretary-General of Persatuan Patriot Kebangsaan (National Patriot Association), Mej Hj Mior Rosli TUDM (Bersara)  to the Defence Minister’s caution of Patriot’s recent Press Release
:

I would like the Defence Minister & his Deputy to listen very carefully to what I have to say in this video clip …

Yesterday, Hishammudin accused Persatuan Patriot Kebangsaan of being Racist. I demand you to say sorry to us because it is not us who are racist … it is you. Don’t you remember when you were the UMNO youth chief? You unsheathed the Keris in the air and waved it while demanding for Chinese blood? Isn’t that Racist and dangerous? The police should have charged you with ISA and put you behind bars. We don’t need Racist people like you leading a multiracial country. Now just because the General Election is around the corner you have the cheek to talk about increasing the number of non-malays in the Armed Forces. We have heard of this many many times in the many years that have passed.

Let me tell you and all your bloody UMNO goons … THERE ARE NO RACIAL CONFLICTS AMONG SOLDIERS WITHIN THE MAF. We have gone through tough team training day and night for 6 months for the other ranks, and 12 months training for the officers. We eat, sleep, train, sweat, cry and laugh together. After recruit or cadet training, we were enlisted and commissioned into our various corps and services. Except for the Royal Malay Regiment, in all corps and services we were not concerned if our fellow comrades was a Malay, Chinese, Indian, Punjabi, IBAN or Kadazan. Whatever race and religion, our loyalty only went to our Commander, to our Corps/services, to the MAF, to our King and country. That was how we were taught and trained.

During both emergencies (1948-1960/1960-1989), during the confrontation with Indonesia, and the war in Sarawak, till the early 90s … we fought like brothers, to defend and maintain the independence of this country. We made sure that people like you would be safe, and enjoy your freedom in this country.

You were never there to see our comrades die …. got their legs and arms blown off. You were never there to see how their wives and children cried when their husbands came back in coffins or without legs or arms.

You were born with a silver spoon … you only show off donning a military uniform, with a Commando beret, with senior airborne wings on your chest. You made many veterans sick,  looking on at your stupidity.

During the emergencies, combating the CTs, there were many non-Malays, who were involved in clandestine operations, became agents in the enemy ranks, and acted as rubber tappers, farmers, etc. Some were caught and killed.

Our pilots, many were non-Malays, too were shot down. When they took part in rescue work, bodivac and medical missions, they didn’t care if the dead or injured were Malays, Chinese, Iban or Indians, or whatever race the victims were.

Today UMNO is kissing lips with the CPC. Having closed door meetings, all for power and money,  forgetting the sacrifice that the armed forces rendered to save the UMNO, so that it is in existence until today.

It is your (UMNO) policymakers who try to separate and divide us racially. It was your party that created the quota for entry and promotions … it was your party who decide who should be generals and who should not.

Soldiering is a professional job. If you get unskilled people to be promoted, you will get a half baked Armed Forces. A half baked Armed Forces will Never be able to defend this country effectively.

If you want the Chinese to show their loyalty, make the Armed Forces more professional and non-Political.

We, the veteran Armed Forces Officers and the ex-senior police officers are the real Patriots. More Patriotic than any of you, “power and kleptocracy” crazy politicians. DON’T EVER BELITTLE US. IF THERE IS A WAR TO DEFEND THIS SOIL, WE WILL BE THE SECOND OR THIRD LINERS BEHIND THE REGULAR FORCES TO DEFEND THIS COUNTRY! PLEASE DON’T MESS US UP WITH YOUR POLITICAL DREAMS!!!

What your party are doing towards the MAF is degrading it, making it weak, making the Generals like ‘puppet on the strings’, until they do not know what is right and what is wrong.

You are making the Rakyat live in a “BOILING FROG SYNDROME”.  By the time the Rakyat realise what has happened to this country, it will be too late.

The problem with politicians like you is that you rose up not from the  grassroots level … from the beginning until now you are just “A TORTOISE ON A POLE”. Don’t know how you got up there … but just because your father was the PM, if not you are nothing.

The majority of us, who served from 1948 – 1989/91, are still very much alive. Your party betrayed us, ignored us, and lied to us. Many of us are struggling to live on with our lives … while over all these years, you and your party members became kleptocrats and took away what actually belong to us and the Rakyat.

May Allah curse all of you if you don’t realise what you did are wrong.

Wallahualam.

Mej Hj Mior Rosli TUDM (Bersara)

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 21 January 2018, 9:10 am and is filed under
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14GE is the only one opportunity and possibility in 60 years to Save Malaysia from being a failed, rogue and kleptocratic state and to be a great and united plural nation

The 14th General Election to be held in 100 days is the one opportunity and possibility in 60 years to Save Malaysia from being a failed, rogue and kleptocratic state and for the country to a be a great and united plural nation.

For over half a century and through eleven General Elections, Malaysian electoral politics were cast in stone as to who was the governing coalition of the country, and the question to be decided was how many seats Opposition parties can win in the very undemocratic and one-sided electoral process.

I still remember the very uphill struggle in the early decades when DAP parliamentary representation, often the largest Opposition grouping in Parliament, only managed to secure from a lowly nine to 24  and back to 9, 10 and 11 parliamentary seats from 1969 to 2004 General Elections.

The ruling coalition of Barisan Nasional and previously Alliance was not only assured of being returned to power, they have always taken for granted that they are destined to govern the country with a two-thirds parliamentary majority – and a heavy price was extorted when it appeared that it would not be able to retain two-thirds parliamentary majority on one occasion.

The 12th General Election on March 8, 2008 broke this mould of Malaysian electoral politics, when five states – Penang, Perak, Selangor, Kedah and Kelantan- fell into Opposition hands.

The voters were ahead of the political parties and leaders in the 12th General Election, for I had not expected the Opposition parties, brought together in an united front  by Anwar Ibrahim and later fornalised as Pakatan Rakyat, would be able to win the state governments  in Penang, Perak, Selangor and Kedah.

Even more important, the hitherto unbroken two-thirds parliamentary majority of Barisan Nasional was denied – and Malaysia began the process to become a normal democratic country, as to be found not only in developed Western countries but more and more in Asia like Japan, India, South Korea, Taiwan, and even Philippines and Indonesia where democracy and elections represented the sovereign right of the voters to change the government peacefully and democratically through the ballot box.

We are on the cusp of becoming a normal democracy graduating from an undemocratic country camouflaged under the trappings of democracy, but not yet a normal democracy.

The 12th General Election on March 8, 2008 is one case where the people’s yearnings and aspirations for political and electoral change ran ahead of the expectations of political parties and leaders.

The 13th General Election  of May 5, 2013 was a continuum of the political tsunami of the 12GE, but unless we could get the rural voters to rise up like the urban voters to vote for political change, it is not possible to effect political change nationally and for Malaysia to become a normal democracy where the voters can change the government of  the day through the ballot box.

This was why I had not expected  that  a change of Federal government was on the cards in the 13thGeneral Election.

On the eve of the 13thGeneral Election, PAS President Datuk Seri Hadi Awang approached the DAP and wanted support for the proposal to replace Anwar Ibrahim as Pakatan Rakyat Prime Minister-designate, and he was very disappointed when DAP did not agree as it would be contrary to the DAP commitment that Anwar Ibrahim would be the Prime Minister under a Pakatan Rakyat Federal Government.

Hadi had hoped that the DAP would support Hadi as the Pakatan Rakyat Prime Minister-designate, as PAS had not agreed to Anwar as Prime Minister-designate and PAS could not secure DAP’s agreement for Tengku Razaleigh as the Pakatan Rakyat Prime Minister-designate.

On looking back, this was probably the beginning of Hadi’s decision to scuttle and destroy the Pakaran Rakyat, which he succeeded in doing after the 13thGeneral Election.

There are two conditions to pave the way for Malaysia to become a normal democracy, where the people can peacefully and democratically change the government through the ballot box:

Firstly, to sustain the urban political tsunami by ensuring an even higher voter turn-out and support for political change as in the 2008 and 2013 General Elections; and

Secondly, for the rural electorate to stand side by side with the urban electorate to vote for both a change of government in Putrajaya as well for institutional and systemic reforms to prevent Malaysia from sliding down the trajectory towards a failed, rogue and kleptocratic state so as to become a united and great plural nation which is a showcase of success of a democratic, just, progressive and prosperous nation.

The 14GE in 100 days is the last chance of all Malaysians, whether Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans, Ibans or Orang Asli; whether Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Christians or Toasts; whether in the rural or urban areas to unite as Malaysians to Save Malaysia.

In fact, it is the last chance to Save Malaysia!

(Media Conference Statement in Johor Baru on Sunday, 28th January 2018 at 11.30 am)

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 28 January 2018, 12:36 pm and is filed under
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The battle  in the 14GE is not between Najib and Mahathir but between Najib/BN and the people of Malaysia

Firstly, I wish to thank all Malaysians, especially Pakatan Harapan and DAP leaders, members and supporters, as well as those from other political parties and organizations, for their support, concern  and good wishes during my cancer operation and month-long break and recuperation.

I found however that I could not escape the demonization campaign against me, even during the five-week break.

I was in fact hospitalized on the day the MCA newspaper launched a major demonization against me, with the screaming headline: “Kit Siang as PM will create racial rift, says Liow” on December 18, 2017, quoting the MCA President and Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai warning that “Racial ties among the people will be damaged if DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang becomes prime minister” and that “Lim’s ambition would steer Malaysia towards the path of ruin”.

This is the stuff of fake news and false information, the staple diet of demonization by UMNO/BN propagandists and cytrops (cybertroopers), adopted wholesale by the MCA President as I had never thought of becoming Prime Minister of Malaysia.

I continued to be demonized by the UMNO/BN cytrops as an anti-Malay, anti-Islam, responsible for the May 13 riots, a “mysterious” billionaire who threw tens or hundreds of millions of ringgit to sponsor news portal and fund cytrops, a communist, stooge of foreign powers – quite a devil, a puaka, even jembalang.

If true, we must have one of the most inefficient Special Branches in the world, but Malaysia’s Special Branch is one of the most efficient in the world. How come?

For the first time, I was even mentioned in the Prime Minister’s New Year Message, who specifically quoted me as having “long called for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the forex losses between 1992 and 1994”, going back to over two decades ago.

However, Najib continued to turn a deaf ear to my repeated current calls for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the international multi-billion 1MDB money-laundering scandal, which had catapulted Malaysia to the infamous stratosphere of “global kleptocracies”, singled out by the United States Attorney-General, Jeff Sessions at a global forum on asset recovery in Washington last month as “kleptocracy at its worst” with the pledge that the US Department of Justice (DoJ) is working to provide justice to the victims.

Earlier this week, the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak conceded in his address at InvestMalaysia 2018 in Kuala Lumpur that there were failings with regard to 1MDB but claimed that certain quarters who wanted to sabotage the nation’s economy for political gain had amplified the issue.

Only a week earlier, on the 17th January 2018, Malaysia suffered international ignominy when the  1MDB kleptocratic scandal was one of three cases mentioned by the US Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney-General, Criminal Division, M. Kendall Day in his testimony before the US Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs hearing on “Combating Money-laundering and other forms of illicit finance”, where it was revealed that out the US$3.5 billion worth of “corruption proceeds to date” seized or restrained under the US Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative, half or more than US$1.7 billion in assets were associated with the 1MDB sovereign fund in Malaysia.

This is what Kendall Day testified at the US Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs on Janaury 17:

“In the Malaysia matter – the largest single action ever brought under the Initiative – the Department filed a complaint in 2016 to forfeit and recover assets associated with an international conspiracy to launder more than $4.5 billion stolen from the country’s sovereign wealth fund, known as 1Malaysia Development Berhad, or 1MDB.

“The Malaysian government created 1MDB to promote economic development through international partnerships and foreign direct investment, with the ultimate goal of improving the lives of the Malaysian people.

“However, corrupt 1MDB officials treated this public trust as a personal bank account.

“Between 2009 and 2015, those corrupt officials and their associates took more than $4.5 billion from the development fund in four phases.

“These funds were laundered through a complex web of opaque transactions and fraudulent shell companies with bank accounts in countries around the world, including Switzerland, Singapore, Luxembourg, and the United States.

“The funds were then used to purchase approximately $1.7 billion in assets that the Department seeks to recover, including a $261 million, 350-foot yacht; a $35 million jet; masterpieces by Van Gogh, Picasso, and Monet; and a motion picture company that used the funds to finance, among other things, the production of the films ‘The Wolf of Wall Street,’ ‘Daddy’s Home,’ and ‘Dumb and Dumber To.’

“MLARS (US Criminal Division’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section) and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles filed civil complaints targeting assets that, according to court documents, were misappropriated and diverted by Malaysian officials and their associates from 1MDB.

“In June 2017, the Department announced additional steps to forfeit and recover assets, bringing the total assets subject to forfeiture in this case to more than $1.7 billion.

“If the United States is successful in court, we will forfeit this more than $1.7 billion in property, liquidate it, and, ultimately, return as much as possible to the citizens of Malaysia.”

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission had been very busy recently, but had there been any MACC action against “corrupt officials” who took more than US$4.5 billion from 1MDB?

Or is Najib and the Malaysian Cabinet accusing the US Government (of President Donald Trump) of “sabotaging” the Malaysian economy and “amplifying” the 1MDB scandal – together with a host of other foreign countries including Singapore, Hong Kong, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Luxembourg and Switzerland who had launched 1MDB investigations, slapped fines on financial institutions and even convicted and jailed offenders in connection with the 1MDB crimes?

One if the major developments during past month had been the Pakatan Harapan announcement of January 7 on Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad as Prime Minister-designate and Datuk Seri Dr. Wan Azizah Wan Ismail as Deputy Prime Minister-designate, sparking a long drawn-out debate as to whether Tun Mahathir should be the Prime Minister-designate for Pakatan Harapan for the 14th General Election.

There are in fact two questions to be answered, not one, and both these questions must be answered at the same time:

Firstly, is Tun Mahathir as Prime Minister-designate the best arrangement to ensure a change of government in the 14GE?

Secondly, will a Pakatan Harapan government with Tun Mahathir as the seventh Prime Minister and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as the eighth Prime Minister bring about a change of government with institutional and systemic reforms to “Save Malaysia”?

What is the use of talking about institutional and systemic reforms when it is not possible to defeat UMNO and Barisan Nasional in the 14thGeneral Election?

Similarly, what is the use of change of government in the 14th GE from Barisan Nasional to Pakatan Harapan when there is not going to be institutional and systemic reforms?

Let’s take the first question.

The 13th General Election was the high-water mark for change in Malaysian electoral history when the ruling UMNO/BN coalition lost the popular vote – winning only 48 per cent of the national vote. But Datuk Seri Najib Razak could continue as Prime Minister because the BN coalition, thanks to constituency gerrymandering and undemocratic practices, won 60 per cent of the parliamentary seats.

UMNO through its Utusan Malaysia mouth-piece asked: “Apa lagi orang Cina mahu?”

The political tsunami, which started in the 11th General Election in 2008 and continued in the 2013 General Election, was not a Chinese tsunami, but an urban tsunami of the urban Chinese, urban  Indians as well as  urban Malays.

They wanted to see political change in Malaysia resulting in greater democracy, justice, accountability, integrity and good governance where the voice of the ordinary people are heard, heeded and respected.

If the UMNO/BN is to be defeated in the 14GE, then the Pakatan Harapan coalition must be able to do better than Pakatan Rakyat in the 13GE, not only to sustain the voting support of those who voted for change in the 12th and 13th GE, but also to win over the rural voters who had voted and supported Najib and the UMNO/BN coalition in the 13GE, in particular the Malay and UMNO voters in the 13GE who had been responsible for UMNO winning 73 seats in Peninsular Malaysia.

Without the support of the rural Malay voters in the 73 parliamentary seats won by UMNO in Peninsular Malaysia in the 13GE, no political change, no institutional or systemic reform is possible.

Hence the Pakatan Harapan decision of Tun Dr. Mahathir as Prime Minister-designate and  Datuk Seri Wan Azizah as Deputy Prime Minister-designate, and why the battle in the 14GE is not between Najib and Mahathir, but between Najib and the people of Malaysia.

Pakatan Harapan does not want only a change of government, but institutional and systemic reforms, like the repeal of all laws and agreements that violate the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Federal Constitution and the restoration of the independence, professionalism and integrity of the national institutions in the country, like Parliament, the Judiciary, the Police, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and the Election Commission.

As PPBM President, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said in Kota Kinabalu a few days ago, the Prime Minister under Pakatan Harapan (PH) will not be similar to a Barisan Nasional (BN) Prime Minister, as the Prime Minister of Pakatan Harapan will be bound by the consensus principle and policies of the four parties in Pakatan Harapan coalition as decided by the Pakatan Harapan Presidential Council.

The question in the 14GE is not whether to choose between Najib and Mahathir but whether to be  trapped in the trajectory of a failed and rogue kleptocratic state or  whether to Save Malaysia by re-setting nation-building policies based on the fundamental principles of the Malaysian Constitution to build a united, democratic, competitive,  progressive and prosperous Malaysia where all Malaysians, whether Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans or Ibans; whether Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Sikhs and others can feel proud.

Najib not only wants to be re-elected  in the 14GE, but  to regain two-thirds parliamentary majority. If Najib succeeds, and  in particular regains two-thirds parliamentary majority, Malaysians would have lost the option of democratic change through the electoral process and we can almost write off the 15GE and subsequent general elections.

The choice before the voters of Malaysia in the 14GE, which will be held within the next 100 days, is urgent, dire and imperative.

(Speech at the Ceramah Luaskan Harapan, Menuju Harapan at Taman Impian Emas, Skudai, Johor on Saturday, 27th January 2018 at 9 pm)

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 28 January 2018, 9:00 am and is filed under
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If Mahathir cannot help create a wave of change among the rural Malay voters for the 14GE in the remaining 100 days, then no other  political leader could accomplish this “Mission Impossible”

The UMNO/Barisan Nasional is clearly rattled and panicking from the Pakatan Harapan Presidential Council decision on January 7 to announce Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad as the Pakatan Harapan Prime Minister-designate, Datuk Seri Dr. Wan Azizah Wan Ismail as the Deputy Prime Minister-designate, and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as the eighth Prime Minister of Malaysia.

The  most important lesson of the 13th General Election of May 5, 2013 is that unless we can ensure a political tsunami in  both the urban and rural areas, it will be impossible to bring about political change in Malaysia through the democratic process.

All Malaysians, whether Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans, Ibans or Orang Asli; whether Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Christians or Sikhs; whether in Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah or Sarawak; whether in urban or rural areas; must stand united in the 14GE to be held in 100 days to vote for the first change of Federal government in sixty years through the ballot box.

We have two  formidable challenges: firstly, to sustain or even increase the voter turn-out and electoral support for political change in the 14GE as compared to 13GE; and secondly, a more uphill task to ensure that there is a political tsunami in the rural areas to match the political tsunami in the urban areas.

If Mahathir cannot help create a wave of change among the rural Malay voters for the 14GE in the remaining 100 days, then no other  political leader could accomplish this “Mission Impossible”.

An urban political tsunami without a rural political tsunami will end up like the 13GE, with Datuk Seri Najib Razak continue as minority Prime Minister because of constituency gerrymandering and unfair democratic practices.

A rural political tsunami without an urban political tsunami because the urban voters have given up hope that there is possibility of democratic change, surrendering to a sense of hopelessness about the future, will also end up redounding to the benefit of Najib, UMNO and Barisan Nasiona

We need both an urban and a  rural political tsunami in the 14GE – and that depends not only on Mahathir, Azizah, Anwar, Muhyiddin and Mat Sabu but on the   efforts of the four Pakatan Harapan parties of DAP, PKR, AMANAH and PPBM and the “social mobilisation”  efforts of all Malaysians, in both the urban and rural areas,

(Speech at the Ceramah Luaskan Harapan, Menuju Harapan in Batu Pahat on Sunday, 28th January 2018 at 9 pm)

                This entry was posted on Monday, 29 January 2018, 8:51 am and is filed under
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If Pakatan Harapan can win Ayer Hitam,  both the Johore State Government and the Federal Government in Putrajaya would have changed hands from  Barisan Nasional to Pakatan Harapan

I have an observation to make about the Ayer Hitam parliamentary seat and its Member of Parliament and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Wee Ka Siong, the Deputy President of MCA which is a race-based political party  claiming to represent the Malaysian Chinese.

This is an observation which applies equally to  the MCA President and Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai, with regard to his parliamentary seat of Bentong.

When Wee contested in the Ayer Hitam parliamentary seat in the 2004 General Election, it was a Malay-voter majority seat and the racial breakdown of the voters in the constituency were 55.5% Malays, 40% Chinese; 4.3% Indians and 0.3% Others.

In the past 14 years, Ayer Hitam has become an even more Malay-majority constituency, with a decrease in the percentage of Chinese voter and increase in the percentage of Malay voters.

The racial breakdown of the voters in the Ayer Hitam parliamentary seat in the 2013 General Election was 55.8% Malays, 38% Chinese, 3.9% Indians and 2% Others.

In the second quarter of 2017, the racial breakdown of the Ayer Hitam voters were  Malays 57.6%; Chinese 38.3%; Indians 3.9% and Others 0.2%.

The question is why the No. 2 in a race-based political party claiming to represent the Malaysian Chinese had to depend on an increasingly Malay-voter majority constituency to get into Parliament and the Cabinet!

How can Wee claim to represent the Malaysian Chinese when he had to depend on the Malay voters to get into Parliament and the Cabinet?

This applies to the MCA President, Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai as well.  When Liow contested in the Bentong parliamentary constituency in the 2004 General Election, the Chinese voters in Bentong still present the largest ethnic group with 48.6% Chinese, 40.5% Malays, 9.4% Indians and 1.4% Others.

Over the past 14 years,  the Malay voters n Bentong parliamentary constituency have  replaced the Chinese voters to become the largest ethnic group – with Malays 44.4%, Chinese 43.9%, Indians 9.0% and Others 2.6%.

In the second quarter of 2017,  this trend has continued with the racial breakdown in Bentong parliamentary constituency being Malays 46.1%, Chinese 42.4%, Indians 9.0% and Others 2.5%.

The question immediately raised is why Liow Tiong Lai and Wee Ka Siong contested  in   Malay majority seats to become MPs and Ministers when they are  the top two leaders of a party claiming to represent the Chinese in Malaysia?

How can Malaysians, including UMNO and other Barisan Nasional parties,  respect or believe that Liow and Wee represent the Malaysian Chinese when the President and Deputy President of MCA  have to depend on Malay-majority constituencies and Malay voters to get into Parliament and Cabinet.

May  be we can expect an explanation from Liow and Wee.

As the DAP Johor Chairman, Liew Chin Tong said just now, Ayer Hitam is not among the 40 marginal seats Pakatan Harapan is targeting to effect a change of federal government in Putrajaya in the 14GE.

I have said that with a 10% swing in the Malay vote and a 5% swing in the non-Malay vote against the Barisan Nasional, Pakatan Harapan would be able to win 113 parliament seats in Peninsular Malaysia out of a total of 165 parliament seats – and Malaysia is on the way to the first change of Federal Government in 60 years.

To win Ayer Hitam parliament seat, however, is a more uphill and herculean effort, as it requires at least a 15% swing in the Malay vote and a 10% swing in the non-Malay vote.

It will be a very formidable and difficult challenge to win the Ayer Hitam parliamentary seat, but one thing is certain, if Pakatan Harapan can win Ayer Hitam parliamentary seat, then we would  have accomplished the very difficult and uphill  mission of toppling Najib as Prime Minister, evicting UMNO and Barisan Nasional from Putrajaya and ushering a new  coalition Government and a new Prime Minister to effect institutional and systemic reforms in the country,  bringing hope to Malaysians of the restoration of democracy, justice, tolerance, national unity, quality development and prosperity for all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or territory.

If Pakatan Harapan can win Ayer Hitam,  both the Johore State Government and the Federal Government in Putrajaya would have changed hands from Barisan Nasional to Pakatan Harapan!

(Speech (2) at the launching of the DAP Ayer Hitam Election Centre on Sunday 28th Jan 2018 at 5.30 pm)

                This entry was posted on Monday, 29 January 2018, 8:44 am and is filed under
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Three tests for the four honorary MACC advisers as to whether they will be allowed to play credible and effective roles to combat corruption or they are only used to camouflage the weaponisation of MACC to harass and persecute Opposition leaders

The question that must be  asked is whether the appointment of four Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) honorary advisers is to allow them to play credible and effective roles to combat corruption or they are only  used to camouflage the weaponisation of MACC to harass and persecute Opposition leaders.

There are three tests for the four honorary MACC advisers as to whether they will be allowed to play credible and effective roles to combat corruption or they are only used to camouflage the weaponisation of MACC to harass and persecute Opposition leaders.

Firstly, whether the four honorary MACC advisers are allowed to discuss and decide on whether the  Chief Commissioner of MACC, Tan Sri Dzulkifi Ahmad should resign from the top MACC post as his credibility and effectiveness had been gravely undermined by a scandal which had caused him to suddenly disappear from the public scene, when before the scandal, Dzulkifli’s appearance was almost a daily affair  in the public limelight.

Secondly, will the four honorary MACC advisers be empowered to advise the MACC to launch a full-scale investigation into the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering scandal, as it is a great  infamy that the investigative and regulatory agencies in various countries have taken action against 1MDB money-laundering and corruption, penalizing by imposing hefty fines or closing down  financial institutions or even convicting or imprisoning errant officials, while nothing had been done by the anti-corruption authorities in Malaysia.

Recently,  the United States Attorney-General Jeff Sessions described the 1MDB scandal as “kleptocracy at its worst”!

Only two weeks ago, on the 17th January 2018, Malaysia suffered further international ignominy when the 1MDB kleptocratic scandal was one of three cases mentioned by the US Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney-General, Criminal Division, M. Kendall Day in his testimony before the US Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs hearing on “Combating Money-laundering and other forms of illicit finance”, where it was revealed that out the US$3.5 billion worth of “corruption proceeds to date” seized or restrained under the US Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative, half or more than US$1.7 billion in assets were associated with the 1MDB sovereign fund in Malaysia.

As Kendall Day testified at the US Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs on January 17:

 “The Malaysian government created 1MDB to promote economic development through international partnerships and foreign direct investment, with the ultimate goal of improving the lives of the Malaysian people.

“However, corrupt 1MDB officials treated this public trust as a personal bank account.

“Between 2009 and 2015, those corrupt officials and their associates took more than $4.5 billion from the development fund in four phases.

“These funds were laundered through a complex web of opaque transactions and fraudulent shell companies with bank accounts in countries around the world, including Switzerland, Singapore, Luxembourg, and the United States.”

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission had been very busy recently, especially on  corruption investigations and allegations against Opposition leaders, but the MACC had been singularly and thunderously silent on the 1MDB scandal.

Can the four honorary MACC officials put this grave MACC omission and negligence right after seven long years?

Thirdly, can the four honorary MACC advisers advise the MACC to launch an international campaign to clear and cleanse Malaysia of  the infamy, ignominy and iniquity of been regarded world-wide as a “global kleptocracy” as the result of the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering scandal?

(Speech at the kopitiam ceramah in Mantin, Negri Sembilan on Wednesday, 31st January 2018 at 9 am)

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 31 January 2018, 5:11 pm and is filed under
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Appointment of retired Brigadier General Mohamad Arshad Raji as honorary MACC advisor?

The President of Persatuan Patriot Kebangsaan, retired Brigadier General Mohamad Arshad Raji has rightly questioned why the authorities have yet to take action on reports that Majilis Amanah Rakyat’s (Mara) had purchased a block of apartments in Melbourne, Australia at an inflated price.

Mohamad Arshad said: “Four days have passed (since the news report), and not a squeak is heard from those in authority.

“Why the eerie silence on this alleged scandal? Where is the accountability?”

Australian daily The Sydney Morning Herald last Saturday reported that the original owner of the apartment block UniLodge, Australian businessman Lionel Harber, has confirmed the valuation of his property in 2012 as nearly half what Mara Inc had paid.

Harber was reportedly “taken aback” when he learned that within weeks of selling the building for A$23.5 million (RM77.6 million) to an agent connected to an offshore company, it was resold to Mara Inc for A$41.8 million (RM138 million).

Mohamed Arshad said that “good sense and ethics” demand that the minister concerned address the claims made in the report immediately.

“Malaysians demand a thorough investigation and ultimately a clear explanation to what has transpired,” he said.

He said if an offence has been committed, those who are guilty must be severely punished.

MACC has already launched a probe into Mara Inc’s Australian property purchases, after the scandal erupted in 2015.

Last November, Rural and Regional Development Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the graft probe was almost complete.

Mohamad Arshad said:

“Public money must be spent carefully for the good of the people and as such, any purchase at an inflated price is wrong.

“We are reminded of the shocking report in 1982 by the auditor-general regarding the inflated purchase price of a packet of Maggi instant noodle at RM4, whereas the market price then was only 30 sen.

“This nonsense of government departments and civil servants’ purchases at inflated prices must stop now,” he said.

I have no doubt that if Mohamad Arshad is appointed as one of the MACC’s honorary advisors, he would demand MACC accountability for the MARA scandal and for the heads of those responsible for the MARA scandal in Australia, whether current or former Cabinet Ministers, to fall.

In fact, I have no doubt that Mohamad Arshad would pass the three tests of credibility for hononary MACC advisor with flying colours, viz: to demand a review as to whether Tan Sri Dzulkifli Ahmad should step down as  MACC Chief Commissioner so that MACC’s credibility and effectiveness as an agency to combat corruption would not be adversely affected; to advise the MACC to launch a full-scale investigation into the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering scandal; and thirdly, to advise the MACC to launch an international campaign to clear and cleanse Malaysia of the infamy, ignominy and iniquity of been regarded world-wide as a “global kleptocracy” as the result of the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering scandal.

Recently, the MACC has been silent on a multitude of issues when it should not be silent, but loud and even loquacious on other matters although undergoing  premature investigations.

The MACC should respond to the query by the lawyer of former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, Mohd Khatri Abdulla on the legality of how the MACC and the government could appoint honorary advisors for the MACC Chief Commissioner, when the MACC Act 2009 does not have any provision for appointing  honorary advisers to the chief commissioner.

Mohd Khatr pointed out that the Act’s Section 13 already sanctions the appointment of an Advisory Board for Corruption Prevention which has its members appointed by the Yang Di Pertuan Agong.

He asked: “There is no provision under the Act for honorary advisers to the chief commissioner. There is provision under Section 13 for the board of advisers but not specifically for chief commissioner Dzulkifli.

“Where is the valid legal power for the formation of such a body to specifically advise Dzulkifli as the chief commissioner and what is the purpose of forming it?”

The authorities including the Prime Minister cannot continue their thunderous silence, including whether the Judicial and Legal Service Commission had  recommended that Dzulkifli be sacked as MACC Chief Commissioner.

(Media Statement Gelang Patah on Thursday, 1st February 2018)

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 1 February 2018, 2:52 pm and is filed under
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DAP calls for a Parliamentary Select Committee on Fake News to decide on fake news laws as well as mechanism to tackle fake news

The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Azalina Othman Said, has announced a special committee to formulate laws to tackle fake news; that the committee has been endorsed by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and will include representatives from the police, the Attorney-General’s Chambers and the Communications and Multimedia Ministry.

This announcement will not inspire any public confidence  as the Prime Minister and the UMNO/Barisan Nasional both Government and political coalition are  the biggest manufacturers of fake news and false information in the country.

It will be  like asking thieves to catch thieves!

The best examples of Najib as a mega manufacturer of fake news and false information were his UMNO Presidential speeches in the past two years, where he concocted and disseminated  fake news and false information, viz:

1. That the 14th General Election will be a contest between UMNO and DAP;

2. That the DAP is anti-Malay or anti-Islam.

3. The “nightmares” Malay will suffer if UMNO loses power in the next general elections.

Will the special committee on fake news, as announced by Azalina, be empowered to summon Najib to appear before it about these  fake news and false information which he perpetrated at the UMNO General Assembly in the past two years and to recommend laws and mechanism to tackle such fake news and false information?

The  14th General Election will not be a battle UMNO vs DAP. It will be a battle between the Barisan Nasional led by UMNO and the Pakatan Harapan coalilion of DAP, PKR, Parti Amanah and  Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) to save Malaysia from a kleptocracy by defending the founding Constitutional principles of a democratic, just and united plural Malaysia.

DAP  is not anti-Malay or anti-Islam. DAP is not a Chinese party as right from the beginning of our formation 50 years ago, we were committed to the principles and vision of a Malaysian party, led by Malaysians and serving the interests of all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or region.

Equally shocking is the most irresponsible fake news and false information that the  Malays will have “nightmares” if UMNO loses power in 14GE,  with  Najib trying  to create scare and panic among the Malays that they will lose political power to the Chinese.

This is because whatever happens in the 14GE, whether Najib is toppled as Prime Minister or UMNO loses the Federal Government, the Malays in Malaysia will continue to exercise political power in the country as there is no way they will lose their political power  – which are the demographic, electoral and political realities in Malaysia.

Azalina said that the “fake news” phenomena would disrupt political stability and threaten public order and national security.  It is most ironical that the biggest manufacturer of fake news and the greatest threat to political stability and public security stems from the Prime Minister and the UMNO/BN government themselves.

The fake news phenomenon must be combatted but its must not be weaponised by the authorities, not to combat fake news but to harass and persecute legitimate political opponents – just like the MACC is being weaponised not to combat corruption but to harass and persecute Pakatan Harapan  leaders.

Dissolve the present special committee on fake news and form instead   a bi-partisan  Parliamentary Select Committee on Fake News to decide on the fake news laws and mechanism to tackle fake news.

(Media Statement Gelang Patah on Thursday, 1st February 2018)

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 1 February 2018, 9:58 am and is filed under
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