Call for a Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights whose terms of reference would include reviewing the ban of over 1,600 books  in the past 40 years

It is an honour and privilege to be here to take part in the dialogue on “Maju Malaysia: Buku Sumber Kebijaksanaan atau Penggugat Keharmonian?” at Summit USJ Mall organized at the initiative of the Office of Hannah Yeoh, Selangor State Assembly Speaker  and to have such a distinguished panelists of discussants, namely Pak Samad Said, Dr. Ahmad Farouk Musa, Art Harun and Al-Mustaqeem Mahmud Radhi.

Recently, there had been a spate of bans on books and publications, but  the most shocking was the ban in July   on the book produced by G25 titled
“Breaking the Silence: Voices of Moderation ― Islam in a Constitutional Democracy”
 in a country founded on  the principles of moderation, tolerance, openness and inclusivity and whose Prime Minister has gone to the United Nations General Assembly three times since 2010 to sell his international initiative of a Global Movement of Moderates, which has proved to be neither global, a movement nor moderate.

Early this month, the government banned the latest work of Malaysian cartoonist Junar, whose book
“Sapuman: Man of Steal”
, making a mockery of Malaysia’s commitment to human rights and freedom of expression.  This follows earlier bans on Zunar’s other cartoon books –
Gedung Kartun
,
1 Funny Malaysia
,
Isu Dalam Kartun (Vol 1, 2, 3)
,
 Conspiracy to Imprison Anwar
,
 Perak Darul Kartun
and
Pirates of Carry-BN
. Zunar’s
Ros in Kangkongland
 and other titles are also  investigated under the Sedition Act.

Malaysia also banned the international best-seller
“Islam Without Extremes: A Muslim Case for Liberty”
published in United States in 2011, just after an unpleasantly-enforced end to a  lecture tour  by Turkish author Mustapha Akyol, who suddenly found himself a “persona non grata” by the religious authorities in Malaysia, subjected to harassment and detention.

Mustafa was in Malaysia to launch the Bahasa Malaysia version of his book,
“Islam Tanpa Keekstreman: Berhujah Untuk Kebebasan”
.  Aside from Akyol, Ahmad Farouk Musa, director of Islamic Renaissance Front (IRF), Nur Asyhraff Mohd Nor and Shuhaib Ar Rumy Ismail are  credited as authors for the translated work.

At the same time, the home ministry announced the ban on two of Farouk’s own books –
Wacana Pemikiran Reformis (Jilid 1) and (Jilid 2)
 – and Faisal Tehrani’s book entitled
“Aku ___ maka aku ada”
, the seventh  book by Faisal that has fallen foul of the authorities. His first book to be banned in 2014, a novel
Perempuan Nan Bercinta
was launched by the Prime Minister in 2012.

As Faisal told the 4th ASEAN Literary Festival in Jakarta in August this year,   the banning of books is a betrayal of the 1957 Merdeka Proclamation and a symptom of a defeated Constitution meant to safeguard fundamental rights and liberties.

What are we to make recent spate of book bans.

Firstly, it represents the rise of extremism, bigotry and intolerance.

I was struck by  the pledge  given by the  Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman last week to  return to a moderate past and looked forward to a technology-driven future.

Speaking at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) conference in Riyadh last week, the Saudi Crown Prince said:

“We are returning to what we were before — a country of moderate Islam that is open to all religions and to the world.

“We will not spend the next 30 years of our lives dealing with destructive ideas. We will destroy them today.”

Although time will tell whether the Saudi kingdom could become an example of  moderate Islam and become an open society, this is in stark contrast to some Malaysians who want to take the country towards an extremist direction, completely at odds with the country’s bedrock constitutional and nation-building principles of openness, tolerance, moderation and inclusivity.

All Malaysians must unite to defend these bedrock constitutional and nation-building principles as they will decide whether Malaysia, a nation of diverse races, religions, languages and cultures, will succeed and prosper as a nation and be a model to the world or become a failed state.

It is most ironic that while the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak had mooted the initiative of a Global Movement of Moderates in international forums, there has been a rise of extremism, intolerance and bigotry inside the country resulting in the worst racial and religious polarization in the country’s history.

All Malaysians, regardless of race, region or even politics, should reject such a dangerous trend of rising intolerance, bigotry and extremism, as they threaten the very basis of the nation’s Constitution and existence.

The spate of book bans are not only a violation of human rights of Malaysians to freedom of expression, they represent a direct attack on the bedrock principles of Malaysian Constitution and nation-building.

There must be a Parliamentary Committee to review the ban on over 1,600 books in the past 40 years to uphold the bedrock principles of moderation, openness, tolerance and inclusivity in the nation’s Constitution and nation-building process.

However, such a Parliamentary Committee is not possible under the present regime, as at  present, MPs cannot even submit  controversial questions about the 1MDB scandal or have a wide-ranging and comprehensive debate on the 1MDB scandal which has made Malaysia infamous worldwide as a global kleptocracy.

Such a parliamentary reform will have to await a Pakatan Harapan victory in the 13th General Election, which will usher in a spate of parliamentary reforms in the first 100 days of Pakatan Harapan  in Putrajaya.

(Speech at the dialogue “Maju Malaysia: Buku Sumber Kebijaksanaan atau Penggugat Keharmonian?” at Summit USJ Mall, Subang Jaya on Monday, 30th October 2017 at 8 pm)

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 31 October 2017, 8:46 am and is filed under
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Najib’s “mother of all budgets” delivering fake news

The Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak described the Budget being about “gifts, rewards and incentives”. It is most mistaken view.  It is a tool or instrument for presenting a statement about the state of the economy, its prospects, and policy announcements for improving governance. A well-crafted budget statement should be an objective and honest presentation meeting the goal of accountability.

Sadly, the Budget for 2018 presented by Najib fails these basic tests. His speech of almost 12,000 words was more akin to a laundry list of items of giveaways, expenditure allocations both real and imagined, and vague statements about the economic consequences that would result.

The speech omitted any reference to urgently needed policy changes to restore the competitiveness of the economy that would enable the nation to escape the middle-income trap it finds itself in. The speech was silent about measures to correct the stagnation in real incomes, and address the looming danger associated with the mountain of debt: – public, corporate and household.

The Budget has been turned into an unabashed and irresponsible first salvo in the campaign for the GE 14. Page after page of the speech detailed expenditures and proposed allocations; no group was ignored in the largess being extended.

Little was said about how the proposed expenditures were designed to advance the overarching economic goals; no reference was made to how the addiction to deficit spending was to be overcome.

The projected deficit was itself a meaningless figure as the profligate spending in some measure would be financed outside of the budget, and nor did the Prime Minister in his speech or in the Economic Report provide details about the level of contingent liabilities or the new liabilities being assumed.

Electioneering

The Prime Minister chose to describe the Budget as the “Mother of All Budgets”. Ironically, he was on target as this Budget was an exercise in deception and was an unvarnished sales pitch seeking votes in the upcoming election.

The PM’s claim about “good news” needs to be taken with a large pinch of salt. The reality is that the news as reported in the Budget statement is more in the nature of “Fake News”. The Budget framework is built upon dubious interpretation of statistical data in a highly selective manner.

The Prime Minister gloated over the growth numbers but was being selective. He failed to make any reference to issues of a structural nature raised by the World Bank and the IMF in particular in the latter’s Annual Article IV Consultations and reported on its website.

Economic Growth Rates

The Prime Minister made much about the revised growth rates issued by the International Financial Institutions and attempted to claim credit. He omitted to indicate that the revisions pertained to almost all countries- Malaysia being one in the group.

The revised growth rates should not therefore be interpreted as an approval of the competence of the Government in managing the economy. Growth rates are revised to be higher because of global economic developments, primarily resulting from changes in monetary policies by the US Federal Reserve Bank and its counterpart the European Central Bank and the partial recovery in prices for oil and gas.

The Prime Minister’s has been selective in the use of data. This is best illustrated by his use of the year 2009 as the base for measuring change. There is no rational reason for this choice other than an attempt to glorify his own tenure of office. It is also pertinent to note that the year 2009 represented the Global Recession. The choice of this low base amplifies the recovery in the years since.

The Prime Minister however chooses to remain silent about the negative developments, for instance, in the losses in the country’s external reserves (from a peak of US$ 140.0 billion in 2012 to US$101.2 billion in Sept 2017.; Total Reserves as a percentage of External Debt fell from a high of 121.1 percent in 2007   to 47.2 percent in 2016 or the decline in the value of the Ringgit from US$1 =RM 3.34 in 2007 to US$1=4.20 in Sept 2017. These are not indicative of “efficient governance and prudent discipline” as claimed by the Prime Minister.

The Federal Government Fiscal Situation

For two decades the Federal Government has operated with a deficit; the reported Federal Government debt now approximates 55%; additionally, the Federal Government has concealed its borrowings and the true size of its debt by making GLCs and other quasi-government entities undertake borrowings to finance public sector projects under the guise of so-called public-private projects; the Federal Government has at the same time accumulated large hidden contingent liabilities by extending guarantees for borrowings by GLCs and other entities.

The fiscal situation has been worsened by corruption, mismanagement and other abuses including non-competitive acquisition of goods and services. The absence of competitive bidding results in price distorted costs.  Tax revenues have been eroded by way of so-called “incentives” extended to cronies of the Government without resulting in any discernable rise in private investment.

NEM Goals

The reference in the speech to the New Economic Model(NEM) is more in the nature of a throwaway remark.

Certain clear-cut goals and policies adopted at the launch of the NEM have fallen by the way side. It should be recalled that there was a commitment to pursue further privatization of Government’s Non-Financial Public Enterprises and reduce the Government’s holdings in the GLCs which in reality function as State Owned Enterprises.

It is significant that the Speech contained no reference to the pursuit of these stated goals.

The findings from a recent highly professional study led by Professor Terence Gomez has highlighted the dominant role played by GLCs in the Malaysian economy. They dominate almost all sectors of the economy from aviation, banking, manufacturing, plantations to various modes of transportation.

In 2013 a total of 455 companies (including subsidiaries) were classified as government-linked investment companies (GLICs).

There were 35 publicly listed companies which were among the top 100 companies listed on the Bursa Malaysia. The latter account for an overwhelming percentage of the capitalization of the exchange.

Without a doubt the Government’s footprint is large in the business and commercial sectors. The entities in question act as monopolies or privileged entities thus stifling private enterprise. This has led to flagging private investment despite tax and other incentives.

Of late several entities (e.g. MARA, FELDA, Tabong Haji) have become mired in financial scandals. There is little or no accountability by such entities.

Furthermore, it is strange indeed that while Malaysia as a upper middle income country seeks to attract FDI flows, but government linked agencies are currently exporting capital. These endeavors taken represent contradictions. But, more troubling is the fact that they give rise to abuses and corrupt practices.

The claims of successes in employment creation merit comment. While indeed some 2.3 million jobs have been created in the past eight years, most of these have been low paying jobs with many filled by migrant workers.

Serious shortages of skilled workers exist; paradoxically the brain drain continues unabated. These labor market developments along with the stagnation in wages are indicative of a failed set of policies that are contributing to the loss of competitiveness and the entrapment as a middle-income country.

The self- congratulatory remarks about export growth are yet another example of delusion. The current level of exports expressed in Ringgit terms. The Prime Minister has chosen to ignore the fact that he is comparing values based on different exchange rates.

The comparison of international reserve levels is rather devious —- this is the only comparison linked to 1997!

The reporting of an increase in income per capita from RM 27,819 in 2010 to RM 49,713 in 2017. This trend is contradicted by the World Bank as the following numbers show:

World Bank: MALAYSIA GNI per capita in US Dollars

Year

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

GNI per cap

8240

9040

10150

10760

11000

10440

9850

The significance of these numbers points the extent to which Malaysia is lagging in terms of achieving “high Income” status which in 2016 was set as income levels in excess of US$ 12,235. Indeed, taking account of the current level of GNI per capita, projected exchange and growth rates, it is patently clear that the much-touted goal of achieving “high income” country status by 2020 is a fading dream.

Budget Allocations

The budget allocations for 2018 are projected at RM280.25 billion, an increase of RM 20 Billion, with RM 234 billion for operating expenditure and some RM 46 billion for development.

While further details are highlighted, the Prime Minister chose to be silent about a large item, namely debt service which amounts to 11 percent of the operating expenditure. The increased allocations are largely to restore cuts that were imposed earlier in the year.

Revenue collection in 2018 is projected at RM 240 billion and increase from RM 220 billion in 2017, an increase of approximately 9 percent.

No details are given either about the sources of revenue, or the in amounts reduced by way of tax cuts and exemptions. The projected growth lacks credibility given the rate of GDP growth, reductions in revenue attributable to the exemptions from GST granted for big ticket items alongside the reductions in income tax rates.

In brief the rosy estimates of modest growth in expenditure coupled with unrealistic level of revenue receipts follow a pattern. Revenue projections are pitched high whilst expenditures are restrained in the Budget.

There are inevitable supplementary expenditure requests later in the year. These approaches in budgeting enable the Government to put out massaged numbers for the deficit. These practices appear to be sharpened in the preparation of the Budget for 2018.

Lip service was paid about fiscal consolidation without mention of how the Minister proposes to reduce debt levels. While the Prime Minister was upbeat about all manner of “progress”, no mention was made about the record concerning deficits. It is noteworthy that it now more than 20 years since Malaysia enjoyed a budget in surplus.

Once again total debt along with contingent liabilities will rise in the year ahead. These will represent burdens passed on to future generations. With an ageing population, the burden will be all the greater. The nation’s long-term interests are being sacrificed for short term political gains.

The claim that “this document” (the Budget) will chart the course for building the nation for the next 30 years is a farfetched assertion. This is all the more questionable considering the fact that the Budget hardly lays out any long- term policies and goals but is only concerned with the “here and now” issues assumed to be of interest to a highly jaded electorate.

Re-Writing History

Most remarkable, however, is the Prime Minister’s assertion: “ Since we declared Independence, we have been fortunate as our forefathers have governed and administered this country embedded with sharia requirements”. The Prime Minister appears to be rewriting history by ignoring the fact that country adopted a secular constitution and up until recently Sharia played no major role in administration.

To claim that for six decades a Shariah framework has operated with the Federal Constitution etc., playing a secondary role, is an outright distortion of the facts. The formulation used by the Prime Minister ought to raise a red flag about his coalition’s intensions regarding the status of the Federal Constitution.

The Prime Minister while acknowledging that “the framework has not been written in any Government documents, but its practices are reflected in all inter-related national philosophies and policies”-  by making this statement appears to be outlining a position that the Government will adopt in the event it is returned to power.  It is thus a signal of how the secular Federal Constitution will be further sidelined.

Trends in Investment

The Prime Minister set out several targets dealing with investment and trade. The statistics about trends in investment were selective.

Once again by choosing a low bench mark year (2009), a year that recorded a Global Recession, and inflated targets for 2018,  he attempted to project progress.

These statistics appear impressive in attributing performance of private investment. A closer review however paints a different picture.

Given that the GLCs dominate the private sector, and that they largely operate as SOEs, much of the “improvement “can be attributed to Government initiatives handled by these entities.

The process permits the Government to by-pass concerns about the debt ceiling and at same time permit nefarious projects as evidenced by the 1MDB saga.

The trends in private investment are erratic as inappropriate policies and political uncertainties have impacted on private investment, both domestic and foreign. The failure to announce corrective policy measures will result in sluggish investment patterns along with continuing outward capital flows.

Passing reference is made in the 2018 Budget to accelerating exports. However, no indication is given as to what policies will be introduced to develop capacities in new products and promoting industries involving new technologies for instance the use of artificial intelligence.

No mention is made about how the Government proposes to deal with the withdrawal of the US Government from the TPPA; the PM was silent about what posture it intends to take viz other trading arrangements within ASEAN or with the EU and the China-led proposals for a regional trade arrangement.

The claim that “….for the first time in the history of the nation’s budget…” a large allocation “is provided to assist farmers, fishermen smallholders and rubber tappers” appears to be a most strange claim. Every Five-Year Plan, every Budget over the past 6 decades has contained allocations for these groups; it is disingenuous indeed to make claims that are short on a factual base.

The mega rail transportation projects that have been announced raise multiple concerns. For a start, cost benefit and feasibility studies have not been disclosed, assuming these have been done.

It is worthy of note that the projects will be financed by loans from China; the terms of these loans have yet to be announced. Reports in the media appear to suggest that major parts of these projects will be assigned to China’s enterprises who will invite some Malaysian entities to collaborate.

The Prime Minister evaded the entire issue of port expansion using loan funds in the face of overcapacity in the nation’s major port, Port Klang, following the departure of a major user. Many of the other transportation projects highlighted in the speech will not be financed from the Federal budget.

The following quote from the Prime Minister’s speech is most remarkable –  it projects self-glorification and is somewhat insulting of past holders of the office of Finance Minister:

“This Budget that has never been crafted so well, even during the last 22 years or the past 60 years of our own nation, and marked in history, making this Budget the Mother of All Budgets.”

Ironically, this Budget may indeed qualify as the MOTHER OF ALL BUDGETS for reasons other than those offered by the Prime Minister. The Speech represents an open attempt to create Fake News in pursuit of gaining credibility with an electorate that is largely disenchanted by the workings of a Government tarred by endless scandals, led by someone viewed as a kleptomaniac.

The current budget also qualifies as a MOTHER OF ALL BUDGETS for its extensive giveaways, without a realistic vision or any demand for sacrifices. It provides no coherent strategies to permit the nation to escape the middle-income trap.

Malaysia urgently needs a course correction if it is to regain dynamism to enable it to move forward on the road to greater prosperity.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 1 November 2017, 9:48 am and is filed under
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Was “the power of 1MDB scandal” at  play  when in Parliament yesterday  former Second Finance Minister Husni transformed  from a Najib critic on 1MDB to a Najib sycophant, talking about Najib’s legacy of “zero corruption” when everybody knows it is “global kleptocracy”?

Was  the “Power of the 1MDB scandal” at play  in Parliament yesterday when former Second Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah transformed from a Najib critic on 1MDB to a Najib sycophant, talking about Najib’s legacy of “zero corruption” when everybody knows it is “global kleptocracy”?

Before further commentary on Husni’s speech in Parliament yesterday, Husni should clarify what he said a year ago, whether they were the truth and  still relevant, for instance:

•	That handling 1MDB had made him ill, that he was under heavy stress for months while trying to resolve the controversy and suffered high blood pressure; that a question from a senior official of Bank Negara that “Everyone knows that you are not involved in 1MDB. Why are you feeling stressed over the 1MDB issue?” finally prompted his decision to resign from the Cabinet; and that after his resignation, he felt relieved as “1MDB no longer disturbs my mind and heart”.

•	Whether he stood by his speech on the 2017 Budget in Parliament in  October 2016  about worsening corruption and loss of competitiveness  in Malaysia, citing development of South Korea against Malaysia as an example. Malaysia’s gross domestic product per capital was higher in 1980: USD1,770 in Malaysia while USD1,711 in South Korea. In 1990, South Korea’s GDP per capita was USD6,642 and Malaysia  was USD2,549. South Korea’s GDP per capita had gone up to USD27,000, which was why it was “crucial to lead the country with dignity, integrity and good governance” and stop “patronage politics”.

•	Whether he stood his speech in Parliament during the 2017 Budget debate, questioning the government’s motive in setting up 1MDD which he stated had seen a lot of misappropriation with no action taken; why USD4 billion was invested in Aabar Investments PJS Ltd, which was not owned by IPIC; why no legal action was taken against the management of 1MDB for investing in the wrong places; the reasons for the  Retirement Fund Incorporated (KWAP) decision to loan a lump sum of RM4 billion to SRC International, a former subsidiary of 1MDB; and the  reason behind limited tenders in government procurements without the knowledge of the tender committee.

After his speech in October 2016, the then Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar announced police investigation on Husni alleging that Husni had tried to incite the people into believing that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had committed an offence, even though investigations into 1MDB had not been completed.

What is the outcome of the police investigations and whether it has any bearing on Husni’s speech in Parliament yesterday?

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 2 November 2017, 4:07 pm and is filed under
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UMNO/BN government caught red-handed in trying to “steal” the 14GE by shifting 1,051 army voters to an uncompleted Segamat military camp

Yesterday, together with the Johor DAP State Chairman and MP for Kluang, Liew Chin Tong, Johor State Assemblyman for Jementah Tan Chen Choon, State Assemblyman for Mengkibol, Tan Hon Ping, State Assemblyman for Bekok, Lim Eng Guan and State Assemblyman for Tangkak, Ee Chin Li, I went to Batu Anam in Segamat to see for myself the UMNO/BN attempt, in cahoots with the Election Commission, to “steal” the 14th General Elections by shifting 1,051 army voters to an uncompleted Segamat military camp to save the MIC President and Health Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. S. Subramaniam from defeat in the Segamat parliamentary constituency.

A new military camp at Jalan Pulapol, Segamat was under construction, and it would not be completed until April next year, but 1,051 voters comprising  army personnel and spouses have already been shifted there, appearing in the new electoral roll for Segamat parliamentary constituency.

How is this possible?

We have heard of phantom voters, but this is the first case of phantom voters in a phantom military camp – and is irrefutable proof of UMNO/BN government caught red-handed in trying to “steal” the 14GE by shifting 1,051 army voters to an uncompleted Segamat military camp which, among other things, will help to save the MIC President and Health Minister, Datuk Seri S. Subramaniam who won the Segamat parliamentary seat in the 13th General Election with a slim majority of 1,217 votes.

This is not a case of a one, ten or 50 persons committing the electoral offence of illegally registering as  voter in a place which is neither a place of residence or work, or one or two Registering Officers taking in part in  electoral scams and committing election offences, but involves the army and the Election Commission in a major illegal conspiracy to pad parliamentary constituencies which UMNO/BN regard as dangerous and could lose in the 14GE with safe army votes – to the extent of over a thousand votes.

How many  thousands voters will be shifted to the Segamat parliamentary constituency in the next  voter-registration exercise, although the military camp would not be completed or occupied as yet?

These are some of the despicable and undemocratic  tricks and stratagems that the UMNO/BN government is using to try to “steal” the next general election and change the result on polling day, and it is no hidden secret that the UMNO/BN strategists are hoping to cheat to win the next general election to the extent of recapturing two-thirds parliamentary majority which they lost in the last two general elections.

For the past eight days, both the military authorities and the Election Commission have maintained a thunderous silence although DAP Johor State Assemblymen had exposed such illegal electoral scams a week ago, which explains why the Malaysian public have lost confidence in the credibility, impartiality and professionalism in national institutions to carry out their functions and duties.

The military authorities, including the Defence Minister, Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Hussein and the Election Commission cannot continue their silence, and must explain why they allow such a large-scale cheating in registration of voters for the 14th General Election expected in the next six months.

There should be a full public inquiry why there is such a large-scale cheating in the voters’ registration exercise involving phantom military camps.

(Speech  at the Dialogue Kopitiam in Kangkar Pulai, Gelang Patah on Saturday, 4th November 2017 at 9 am)

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 4 November 2017, 3:38 pm and is filed under
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1MDB-linked Prince Turki among those nabbed for corruption in Saudi Arabia

The Edge Markets

November 06, 2017

(Nov 6): Prince Turki bin Abdullah, co-founder of Petrosaudi, the company that is embroiled in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd scandal, was among the 11 princes arrested in anti-corruption raids in Saudi Arabia on Saturday.

Reuters had named Prince Turki bin Abdullah, the former governor of Riyadh province, as among those arrested.

“A Saudi official said former Riyadh Governor Prince Turki bin Abdullah was detained on accusations of corruption in the Riyadh Metro project and taking advantage of his influence to award contracts to his own companies,” Reuters reported.

Prince Turki bin Abdullah, the seventh son of Saudi Arabia’s late King Abdullah was appointed governor of Riyadh Province on May 14, 2014. He was removed as governor following the death of King Abdullah on Jan 23, 2015.

According to www.ft.com, PetroSaudi was founded in 2005 as a private oil company by Prince Turki bin Abdullah bin Abdel Aziz and his business partner Tarek Obaid, a former banker. The company grew from drilling and oilfield management into trading, opening offices in London’s Mayfair district that have pictures of Saudi royalty and are decked with national flags.

“At the heart of the 1MDB-PetroSaudi relationship is a 2009 agreement for the Malaysian fund to invest US$1bn in a joint venture in exchange for the Saudi company bringing in mineral extraction concessions in Turkmenistan and Argentina allegedly valued at US$2.7bn, according to the US complaint.

“Some 1MDB officials and others then allegedly arranged for the fund’s share of the money to be fraudulently transferred to a Swiss bank account controlled by a young Malaysian businessman and impresario named Jho Low. The DoJ court filing claims Mr Low laundered more than US$400m into the US, using at least US$106.7m to acquire a stake in EMI Music Publishing Group North America Holdings Inc, the world’s third-largest music publishing company,” the Financial Times website reported.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 7 November 2017, 9:11 am and is filed under
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Singapore Police Examine Goldman’s Role in 1MDB Deals

By Andrea Tan

Bloomberg

November 3, 2017

Singaporean prosecutors and police are examining Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s relationship with the Malaysian state investment fund at the center of global money laundering probes, people with knowledge of the matter said.

The Commercial Affairs Department, the police’s economic crime unit, and city prosecutors have interviewed current and former Goldman Sachs executives who worked on bond offerings from 1Malaysia Development Bhd., said the people, who asked not to be named because the queries are confidential. Investigators are also looking into the firm’s links with Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho, who the U.S. has alleged controlled a plot to siphon billions of dollars from the bond proceeds, the people said.

Investigators’ meetings with current and former Goldman Sachs employees are part of a criminal probe into fund flows related to 1MDB, the people said. The bank itself isn’t the focus of the investigation, they said. Neither Goldman Sachs nor its current or former employees have been publicly accused of criminal offenses or charged in relation to the fund, whose dealings have sparked probes in Singapore, Switzerland and the U.S.

The interviews, which took place as recently as October, add to the scrutiny the New York-based bank faces over its role in raising almost $6 billion for 1MDB in 2012 and 2013. The money was meant for development projects but U.S. prosecutors allege that the bulk of it was diverted by high-level 1MDB officials and their associates.

Investigators in Singapore have asked for details about specific meetings involving Goldman Sachs officials concerning the bond deals, the people said. They’ve also quizzed the current and former bank employees about the nature of the firm’s relationship with Low, and whether he was considered a client, according to the people.

“We are unable to comment because investigations are ongoing,” a spokeswoman at the Singapore Attorney-General’s Chambers said in response to questions. A Goldman Sachs spokesman declined to comment.

The 1MDB bonds were arranged and underwritten by Goldman Sachs International, the bank’s London-based unit. Both 1MDB and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who formerly chaired its advisory board, have consistently denied any wrongdoing.

It’s not clear whether Singapore’s investigation will result in any charges, and if so, against whom. Goldman Sachs’s work with 1MDB has also drawn scrutiny from U.S. authorities, including the Justice Department and New York’s banking regulator.

Goldman Sachs earned some $593 million in fees and commissions for arranging the 1MDB bond deals — a sum that drew scrutiny from Malaysian politicians. Investigators in Singapore have asked the current and former employees about the fees the bank received, as well as if any fees were due to the Abu Dhabi government-owned fund International Petroleum Investment Co. for guaranteeing two of the bonds, the people said.

Goldman Sachs has previously said the Malaysia fees represented its underwriting risks and market conditions at the time.

Representatives for 1MDB and IPIC didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. Three calls to Low’s Hong Kong-based Jynwel Capital Ltd. weren’t answered. Low said through a representative in July that no wrongdoing has been proven in any jurisdiction on the alleged misappropriation of 1MDB funds. While IPIC has verified the guarantees it made on the 1MDB bonds, it denied ownership of a company known as Aabar BVI, to which 1MDB said it sent $3.5 billion.

Industry Bans

U.S. investigators alleged in a July 2016 lawsuit that the offering circulars of the bonds contained material misrepresentations and omissions, including how the proceeds would be used and whether any officials from 1MDB and IPIC, and their associates, would personally benefit. The prospectus for one of the bonds said the proceeds could be used for general corporate purposes.

Goldman Sachs’s ties with 1MDB have already ensnared one former senior executive. Tim Leissner, the former chairman of Southeast Asia who was the lead banker to the fund, has been barred from the financial industries in Singapore and the U.S. He left Goldman Sachs in February 2016.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore in March barred Leissner from its securities industry for 10 years, saying he issued an unauthorized reference letter on behalf of Low to a financial institution and made false statements on behalf of Goldman Sachs without the bank’s knowledge. In September, the U.S.’s Financial Industry Regulatory Authority indefinitely barred Leissner for failing to provide documents related to the letter.

The meetings being examined by Singapore investigators include one in early 2012 about the bond offerings that was attended by Leissner, Low and officials from Swiss private bank BSI SA, said the people. Also in focus was a presentation that took place that year that led to IPIC agreeing to guarantee one of the bonds, dubbed Project Magnolia, and indirectly vouch for another, known as Project Maximus, one of the people said.

A representative for Leissner didn’t reply to a request for comment. Leissner’s lawyer Marc Harris said in December that his client looked forward to responding to the MAS about the allegations against him.

Funds Diverted

About $1.4 billion from the bond proceeds were diverted to a bank account at BSI in Switzerland over several months in 2012, according to U.S. court filings. The Swiss bank has seen three of its former employees receive jail terms in Singapore on charges linked to the 1MDB probe, and its local branch was shut down by the city’s authorities.

Luciano Crobu, a spokesman at EFG International AG, which acquired BSI in 2016, declined to comment.

The MAS wrapped up a two-year regulatory review of banks involved in 1MDB fund flows in May, and vowed to intensify its supervision of the financial industry after the city’s image was dented by the scandal. The regulator has fined some of the world’s biggest banks over lapses related to 1MDB.

The U.S. Justice Department in August asked a judge to put on hold more than a dozen civil forfeiture lawsuits seeking at least $1 billion in assets, while the Federal Bureau of Investigation said possible witnesses related to 1MDB are too scared to talk for fear of retaliation. Switzerland’s financial regulator said in April that it’s still probing three private banks over their roles with 1MDB.

— With assistance by Shamim Adam, and Elffie Chew

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 7 November 2017, 6:05 pm and is filed under
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Attention: Saudi Prince in a Hurry

Thomas L. Friedman

New York Times

NOV. 7, 2017

To understand the upheaval that is taking place in Saudi Arabia today, you have to start with the most important political fact about that country: The dominant shaping political force there for the past four decades has not been Islamism, fundamentalism, liberalism, capitalism or ISISism.

It has been Alzheimer’s.

The country’s current king is 81 years old. He replaced a king who died at 90, who replaced a king who died at 84. It’s not that none of them introduced reforms. It’s that at a time when the world has been experiencing so much high-speed change in technology, education and globalization, these successive Saudi monarchs thought that reforming their country at 10 miles an hour was fast enough — and high oil prices covered for that slow pace.

It doesn’t work anymore. Some 70 percent of Saudi Arabia is under age 30, and roughly 25 percent of them are unemployed. In addition, 200,000 more are studying abroad, and about 35,000 of them — men and women – are coming home every year with degrees, looking for meaningful work, not to mention something fun to do other than going to the mosque or the mall. The system desperately needs to create more jobs outside the oil sector, where Saudi income is no longer what it once was, and the government can’t keep eating its savings to buy stability.

That’s the backdrop for this week’s daring, but reckless, power play by the 32-year-old son of King Salman — Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known by his initials M.B.S. I’ve interviewed M.B.S. twice. He is a young man in a hurry. I’ve found his passion for reform authentic, his support from the youth in his country significant and his case for making radical change in Saudi Arabia compelling.

Indeed, there are two things I can say for sure about him: He is much more McKinsey than Wahhabi — much more a numbers cruncher than a Quran thumper. And if he did not exist, the Saudi system would have had to invent him. Somebody had to shake up the place.

But here is what I don’t know for sure: Where does his impulse for rapid reform stop and his autocratic impulse to seize all power begin? After M.B.S. arrested a slew of Saudi princes, media owners and billionaire businessmen on “corruption” charges, President Trump tweeted his applause, saying, “Some of those they are harshly treating have been ‘milking’ their country for years!”

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I could only laugh reading that tweet. Hearing that Saudi princes were arrested for “corruption” is like reading that Donald Trump fired seven cabinet secretaries “for lying.” You know it has to be something else. Trump obviously missed the story last year that M.B.S. impulsively bought a yacht while on vacation in the south of France — it just caught his fancy in the harbor — from its Russian owner for $550 million. Did that money come out of his piggy bank? Savings from his Riyadh lemonade stand? From his Saudi government 401(k)?

I raise this point because when you’re making as many radical changes at once, and making as many enemies at once, as M.B.S. is, your robes need to be very clean. People have to believe that you mean what you say and that you have no hidden agendas, because change is going to be painful. Look at what M.B.S. is doing all at once:

To speed up decision-making, he is reshaping the Saudi state — from a broad family coalition where power is shared and alternated among seven major families and decisions taken by consensus — to a state governed by a single family line. This is no longer “Saudi Arabia.” It is becoming “Salman Arabia.” In the latest series of arrests, M.B.S. basically eliminated the “young old guard” — the key sons and his natural rivals from the other main Saudi royal lines. He also arrested the owners of the three main quasi-independent private television networks, MBC, ART and Rotana.

At the same time, M.B.S. is shifting the basis of legitimacy of the regime, ending “the 1979 era.” In 1979, in the wake of the takeover of Islam’s most holy site in Mecca by an ultra-fundamentalist Saudi preacher who claimed that the al-Saud family was not Islamic enough, the Saudi ruling family — to shore up its religious legitimacy — made a sharp religious turn at home and began exporting its puritanical Wahhabi Sunni Islam abroad, building mosques and schools from London to Indonesia.

It has been a disaster for the Arab/Muslim world, spawning offshoots like Al Qaeda and ISIS and retarding Arab education and women’s advancement.

M.B.S. has vowed to give birth to a more moderate Saudi Islam, starting by curbing his religious police and permitting women to drive. This is hugely important. He is daring people to judge his government not on piety but on performance, not on Quran but on KPIs — key performance indicators on unemployment, economic growth, housing and health care.

But he is replacing Wahhabism as a source of solidarity with a more secular Saudi nationalism, one that has a strong anti-Iran/Persian/Shiite tenor. And that is taking him to some dangerous places. To confront Iran, M.B.S. got the Sunni Prime Minister of Lebanon, Saad al-Hariri, to quit his office on Saturday while on a visit to Riyadh, and blamed Iran and its Shiite allies for making Lebanon ungovernable — and for a missile attack from Yemen. Lebanon, which had forged a relatively stable balance among Sunnis, Christians and Shiites, is now shaking. M.B.S. also led a Gulf effort to isolate Qatar for being too close to Iran and to crush Iran’s influence in Yemen — and crush Yemen in the process. It’s overreach, and there seems to be no one around to tell him that.

As a veteran Saudi journalist remarked to me of M.B.S.: “This guy saved Saudi Arabia from a slow death, but he needs to broaden his base. It is good that he is freeing the house of Saud of the influence of the clergy, but he is also not allowing any second opinion of his political and economic decisions.”

I worry that those urging M.B.S. to be more aggressive in confronting Iran (whose malign regional influence does need counterbalancing) — like the U.A.E., Trump, Jared Kushner and Bibi Netanyahu — will push M.B.S. into a war abroad and at home at the same time, and we could see Saudi Arabia and the whole region spin out of control at the same time. Be afraid.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 8 November 2017, 9:01 am and is filed under
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Saudi mass arrests jolt markets but many see overdue swoop on corruption

Katie Paul, Stephen Kalin

Reuters

8th November 2017

RIYADH (Reuters) – All major Gulf stock markets slid on Tuesday on jitters about Saudi Arabia’s sweeping anti-graft purge, a campaign seen by critics as a populist power grab but by ordinary Saudis as an overdue attack on the sleaze of a moneyed ultra-elite.

U.S. President Donald Trump endorsed the crackdown, saying some of those arrested have been “milking” Saudi Arabia for years, but some Western officials expressed unease about the possible reaction in Riyadh’s opaque tribal and royal politics.

Authorities detained dozens of top Saudis including billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal in a move widely seen as an attempt by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to neuter any opposition to his lightening ascent to the pinnacle of power.

Admirers see it as an assault on the endemic theft of public funds in the world’s top oil exporter, an absolute monarchy where the state and the ruling family are intertwined.

“Corruption should have been fought a long time ago, because it’s corruption that delays society’s development,” Riyadh resident Hussein al-Dosari told Reuters.

“God willing, everything that happened … is only the beginning of what is planned,” said Faisal bin Ali, adding he wanted to see “correcting mistakes, correcting ministries and correcting any injustices against the general population.”

But some analysts see the arrests as the latest in a string of moves shifting power from a consensus-based system dispersing authority among the ruling Al Saud to a governing structure centered around 32-year-old Prince Mohammed himself.

Investors worry that his campaign against corruption – involving the arrests of the kingdom’s most internationally known businessmen – could see the ownership of businesses and assets become vulnerable to unpredictable policy shifts.

Saudi banks have frozen more than 1,200 accounts belonging to individuals and companies in the kingdom and the number keeps rising, bankers and lawyers said.

The authorities sought to reassure the business community late on Tuesday, with the central bank saying it was freezing suspects’ personal bank accounts at the request of the attorney general but not suspending operations of their companies.

“In other words, corporate businesses remain unaffected. It is business as usual for both banks and corporates,” the bank said in a statement, adding there were no restrictions on money transfers through proper banking channels.

A separate statement said Prince Mohammed had directed a powerful ministerial committee, the Council for Economic Affairs and Development, to ensure that national and multinational companies, including those wholly or partly owned by individuals under investigation, were not disrupted.

“The Council recognized the importance of these companies for the national economy, and the importance of ensuring that investors could operate with confidence in Saudi Arabia,” the state news agency SPA said.

In Washington, Heather Nauert, spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department, said it had urged Saudi Arabia to undertake any prosecutions of corruption suspects in a “fair and transparent” manner.

She said the United States had received assurances from the Saudi government that it would do so. But another U.S. official later told reporters she had misspoken and that they had no such assurances that they could discuss in public.

INVESTOR NERVES

The Saudi stock index .TASI sank 0.7 percent in heavy trade, led by shares in companies linked to people detained in the investigation.

The market, which was down 3.1 percent at one stage, would have finished much lower without apparent buying by government-linked funds seeking to prevent a panic, fund managers said. A mass pull-out of foreign funds was not apparent.

Among the companies, Prince Alwaleed’s Kingdom Holding (4280.SE) plunged by its 10 percent daily limit, bringing its losses in the three days since the investigation was announced to 21 percent. The fall has wiped about $2 billion off his fortune, previously estimated by Forbes magazine at $17 billion.

In Dubai, where Saudis have been significant investors, the index .DFMGI slipped 1.8 percent. The index in Abu Dhabi .ADI, less exposed to Saudi money, fell only 0.4 percent. But Kuwait continued to slide, its index .KWSE losing 2.8 percent.

The show of investor nerves coincided with sharply heightened strains between Riyadh and Tehran, reflected in a fresh denunciation of adversary Iran by Prince Mohammed over its role in Yemen, and by continuing mutual acrimony over political turmoil in Lebanon, another cockpit of Iranian-Saudi rivalry.

Displaying an apparently undimmed taste for navigating several challenges simultaneously, Prince Mohammed said Iran’s supply of rockets to militias in Yemen is an act of “direct military aggression” that could be an act of war.

He was speaking in a phone call with the British foreign minister after Saudi forces intercepted a ballistic missile they said was fired toward Riyadh on Saturday by the Houthis.

A Saudi-led coalition, which backs Yemen’s internationally-recognized government, has been targeting the Houthis in a war which has killed more than 10,000 people and triggered a humanitarian disaster in one of the region’s poorest countries.

Iran has denied it was behind the missile launch, rejecting the Saudi and U.S. statements condemning Tehran as “destructive and provocative” and “slanders”.

The coincidence of heightened Saudi-Iranian tensions and Saudi domestic political upheaval has stirred unease among some Western governments and analysts about the emergence of an impromptu policy-making style under Prince Mohammed and turmoil in a region traditionally seen as a haven of stability.

“He seems to be pushing the creation of a personalized system of rule without the checks and balances that have typically characterized the Saudi system of governance,” wrote Marc Lynch, professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University, in the Washington Post.

“In both domestic and foreign affairs, he has consistently undertaken sudden and wide-ranging campaigns for unclear reasons which shatter prevailing norms.”

PIVOTAL POWER BASE

Among those held in the anti-graft purge was Prince Miteb bin Abdullah, who was replaced as minister of the National Guard, a pivotal power base rooted in the kingdom’s tribes. That recalled a palace coup in June that ousted Mohammed bin Nayef, known as MbN, as heir to the throne.

MbN made his first confirmed public appearance since then at the funeral for Prince Mansour bin Muqrin, deputy governor of Asir province, who was killed in a helicopter crash on Sunday. No cause has been given for the crash.

A photo shared online by a state media photographer showed MbN greeting another royal at the first major family gathering since the anti-corruption sweep began.

The crackdown removed any remaining political counterweights to the crown prince, according to Steffen Hertog, a Saudi scholar at the London School of Economics.

“This allows for fast decision-making and reduces costly involvement of princes in state contracts, but also potentially reduces internal criticism and review of new policy initiatives,” he said.

A former senior U.S. intelligence official cautioned that given the National Guard’s loyalties, Prince Mohammed could face a backlash. “I find it difficult to believe that it (National Guard) will simply roll over and accept the imposition of new leadership in such an arbitrary fashion,” he said.

But the purge may go some way to soothing public disgust over financial abuses by the powerful, some Saudis say.

“There is no doubt that it (the detentions) soothes the anger of the regular citizen who felt that such names and senior leaders who appeared in the list were immune from legal accountability,” said Saudi-based political analyst Mansour al-Ameer.

“Its spread to the general population is evidence that no one is excluded from legal accountability, and this will eventually benefit the citizen and (national) development.”

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 8 November 2017, 8:19 am and is filed under
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The Saudi Purge Isn’t Just a Power Grab

By Peter Waldman  and Glen Carey

Bloomberg

November 9, 2017

It’s a go-for-broke upheaval. The question now, for hopeful investors, is whether the crown prince follows his corruption crackdown by opening up an economy dominated by plutocrats and royal cronies.

It makes sense to be cynical about Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s ostensible crackdown on corruption in Saudi Arabia.

Among the 11 princes, 4 ministers, and dozens of well-known businessmen arrested were some of the 32-year-old’s last potential rivals to the Saudi throne.

The move also smacks of an asset snatch. Police nabbed 3 of the Arab world’s 10 richest men, including investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the billionaire best known for rescuing Citicorp in 1991 and making big bets on Apple Inc. and 21st Century Fox Inc.

But was it only a Machiavellian power play? Or is this the start of a dramatic, go-for-broke attempt to transform a country that’s resisted change for decades?

Prince Mohammed seems to be playing the equally ruthless roles of autocrat and reformer.

The millennial has been outspoken about his bold plans to modernize Saudi society and wean the kingdom from fossil fuel. Now, Prince Mohammed has locked up globe-trotting tycoons and other dynastic rivals, sending shock waves across the desert and around the world.

Since Saudi Arabia’s founding in 1932 by his grandfather, Abdulaziz Al Saud, successive kings have sought consensus among the family’s thousands of princes, balancing religious, princely, and tribal factions to maintain stability in the world’s largest oil supplier. Decisions were made at a glacial pace, often capped with generous payouts for anyone left unhappy. Prince Mohammed has smashed that conservative status quo in an act, he no doubt believes, of creative destruction.

This is a man of dead-certain belief in himself, who told this magazine in a long, autobiographical interview in April 2016 that his childhood experiences among princes and potentates were more valuable and formative than Steve Jobs’s, Mark Zuckerberg’s, and Bill Gates’s. So, he wondered aloud, “if I work according to their methods, what will I create?” Now we know his disruptive potential.

The prince’s unprecedented arrest of a who’s who of Saudi society is a first stab at fulfilling his vow to hold the corrupt accountable. “I confirm to you, no one will survive in a corruption case—whoever he is, even if he’s a prince or a minister,” Prince Mohammed said in a televised interview in May. The vow has now become a Twitter sensation among Saudis under the age of 30, who make up 70 percent of the population, the demographic bulge the prince has made his base. They’re still plenty skeptical of Prince Mohammed and his father the king, who recently visited Moscow with 1,500 retainers, his own carpets, and a golden escalator for his Boeing 747.

No one imagined the crown prince would go so far. The takedown, set up by his father, King Salman, through a new anticorruption commission that Prince Mohammed chairs, rounded up his most visible potential adversary, Prince Miteb bin Abdullah. A favored son of the late King Abdullah, who died in 2015, Miteb, 65, commanded the Saudi National Guard, which, until his arrest, had been the last military branch not under Prince Mohammed’s control.

Other detainees included princes and ministers who have been linked to questionable, if not corrupt, transactions. Prince Turki bin Nasser, for example, is infamous for his involvement in the so-called Al Yamamah arms deal between Britain and Saudi Arabia, a massive sale that led to corruption probes in the U.K. and the U.S. Adel Fakeih, a top economic policymaker before his Nov. 4 arrest, was mayor of Jeddah during a flood in 2009 during which scores of people died because of the failure of infrastructure, apparently shoddily made. Dozens of people were convicted of criminal charges including bribery, but not Fakeih, who was never charged and went on to serve as a minister in Riyadh for an additional half-dozen years.

Ever since the floods, Abdullah Jaber, a popular Saudi cartoonist, has drawn caricatures of Fakeih, without naming him, to symbolize the toll of corruption on Saudi Arabia. He couldn’t believe his eyes when he read Fakeih had been arrested and that the Jeddah flood case had been reopened. “I still can’t absorb the greatness of what has happened,” Jaber said in a Twitter post.

In total, the government froze bank accounts of the more than three dozen men detained, putting about $33 billion of personal wealth at risk. Three of the detainees, Alwaleed among them, own three of the largest privately held television networks in the country. Saudi authorities also moved to freeze the private accounts of hundreds more suspected of corruption but not yet arrested. The crackdown is Prince Mohammed’s strongest blow yet at the rentier state, the system of gatekeepers, sinecures, and handouts that’s sapped the incentive in Saudi Arabia for entrepreneurship to flourish, the prince has said.

The question now, for hopeful Saudi and foreign investors, is whether the prince builds on the anticorruption momentum with new rules to open up an economy until now dominated by princes and their cronies as well as wealthy families. Ayham Kamel, a director with Eurasia Group, says the crackdown will help. “Mohammed bin Salman is in effect taking steps to separate the Al Saud family from the state,” Kamel wrote in a note on Nov. 6. “The process of destroying old elite networks that monopolized access to profitable contracts bodes well for the business environment.”

Robert Jordan, the former corporate lawyer who served as George W. Bush’s ambassador in Riyadh, said if Prince Mohammed’s anticorruption campaign is real, “it will add credibility to the Saudi business posture, to its operations, and to the potential IPO of Aramco,” the Saudi national oil company. “If it turns out to simply be a power grab,” he told Bloomberg Television, “then I think it will hurt the Saudis in the long run and certainly hurt this crown prince.”

One downside, of course, is more repression, wielded by a headstrong prince cocksure he knows what’s best for society. He told Bloomberg last month that a $500 billion city he wants to build on the Red Sea “represents a civilizational leap for humanity,” with a bayside community to become “like the Hamptons in New York.” While the prince has reined in the religious police and taken the once-unthinkable step of allowing women to drive, he’s shown little interest in participatory governance. The government has promised a transparent judicial process for the detainees but still hasn’t disclosed specific charges against any of them.

“The one positive thing is that maybe things will get more equitable, more meritocratic,” says a young Saudi management consultant who, tellingly, declines to be named. “It’s also scary. There’s no due process, and people can disappear.”

Some Saudis are nervous that Prince Mohammed’s bellicose campaign against Iran will lead to war. Nerves frayed on Nov. 4 when a missile fired by Houthi rebels in Yemen was shot down on its way to Riyadh, the farthest encroachment yet into Saudi territory by a Houthi-fired missile. The Saudis blamed Iran for supplying the missile and said they reserved the right to respond. Iran rejected the allegation and accused Saudi Arabia of threatening an attack. The kingdom has also intensified its anti-Iran rhetoric over proxy conflicts in Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon.

“Confrontations will widen with Iran’s unchecked expansion,” Abdulrahman Al Rashid, a prominent columnist for the newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, wrote on Nov. 7. “Strengthening local militias in unstable countries remains the only path forward.”

The prince is racing the clock. When he and his father came to power in 2015, oil prices had recently plummeted, leaving the country in imminent danger of a budget meltdown. They slashed spending and reduced subsidies for energy and water, grounding the economy to a halt. With little prospect that oil prices will rise much higher, the country has only about four more years at its current rate of deficit spending until its currency reserves are depleted. “Four years is not a long time; time is running out,” says Ziad Daoud, an economist with Bloomberg Intelligence.

Recent history doesn’t bode well for anticorruption reformers, Daoud says. Chinese President Xi Jinping instituted a similar purge for a few years, only to backtrack on economic reforms after some of his rivals had been vanquished, the economist says. And each time the prince has assumed more power, such as in June when he usurped his older cousin as crown prince, he’s given generous handouts to the public.

“This time could be different. You never know,” Daoud says. “Now that Prince Mohammed has unrivaled and unprecedented power, he may forge ahead with his reform agenda. It’s highly uncertain.”
—With Vivian Nereim and Alaa Shahine

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 9 November 2017, 6:47 pm and is filed under
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Five decades of DAP have proven that DAP  is a patriotic Malaysian party dedicated to the betterment of all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or region and committed to  the fundamental principles of the Constitution

It is a special privilege to welcome Datuk Yeop Adlan Che Rose as a DAP member, as it is a home-coming, as his father Che Rose bin Haji Abdullah was the DAP candidate in the first by-election after the 1974 General Election in the Alor Pongsu constituency in Perak  state assembly on 18th December 1974.

The Alor Pongsu by-election 43 years ago is testimony  that right from the beginning of DAP’s formation 52 years ago, DAP had never regarded itself  as a Chinese or  non-Malay party,  never  an anti-Malay and anti-Islam party, but a party for all races and religions in the country.

DAP contested the rural Alor Pongsu by-election not because we expected to win, but part of a long-term reach-out by the party to all Malaysians and regions with the DAP message for national unity, justice, freedom, development and good governance for all.

When I visited Bagan Serai (the centre of the Alor Pongsu constituency) in December 2015, I was pleasantly surprised by an old photograph taken when I visited Bagan Serai at  the end of 1970, which was shortly after I was released from the first Internal Security Act (ISA) detention.

Bagan Serai is the birthplace of one of the foremost DAP leaders –  DAP Deputy Secretary-General, Member of Parliament and Perak State Assemblyman P. Pattoo, born on 10th December 1946 who unfortunately died at the young age of 48 on 12th July 1995.   His daughter, Kasthuri Patto is now the MP for Batu Kawan.

The old 1970 photograph took  me down the memory lane and the DAP’s political struggle for the past five decades.

One common value the early leaders of DAP like our founder Chairman Dr. Chen Man Hin (still healthy and strong at the age of 93), departed comrade-in-arms like Karpal Singh, Ibrahim Singgeh (the first Malay DAP State Assemblyman in Perak in 1969), Peter Dason, Loke Swee Chin,  Patto, Kerk Kim Hock, Lau Dak Kee and Che Rose bin Haji Abdullah  shared in great bounty was our love for the country and our commitment and dedication to make Malaysia a better place for future generations.

We were and  are in politics not for what we can get from it for ourselves whether in terms of monetary gain or material advancements, but for what we can do to translate our ideals and convictions to ensure that there is genuine national unity, greater justice, freedom, good governance and better society for all Malaysians.

We set out in politics without any idea of wanting to become Members of Parliament or State Assembly representative, but in terms of what we can do to serve and improve the nation and make it  closer to our ideals and aspirations.

In the process, we became Members of Parliament or State Assembly representatives but we must never lose sight of the fact that  becoming elected as MPs or SAs should not become the be-all and end-all of our political involvement, but  only as a means to achieve our political ideals and aspirations.

For the same reason, both in DAP and in Pakatan Harapan,  we must work hard to win Federal government in Putrajaya and several state governments  apart from Penang and Selangor in the 14th General Election, but we must never be a slave to the idea of  just becoming a government.

In other words, while we must work hard and toil without rest to achieve the objective of achieving Federal power and win more state governments in the 14GE, we must not be afraid NOT to  be the government-of-the-day if we have to compromise our fundamental principles and beliefs.

This is an important reminder to all DAP leaders, especially with the activation of a very high-powered black operation of fake news and false information to continue to demonize the DAP as anti-Malay, anti-Islam and anti-Rulers although we have repeatedly reaffirmed our endorsement and commitment  to the fundamental features of the Malaysian Constitution.

No one can be loyal and committed to the fundamental principles of the Malaysian Constitution if he is anti-Malay or any racial group in the country; anti-Islam or anti any religion in the country; or anti-Malay Rulers or the institution of constitutional monarchy.

I had been the most demonized political leader in the past  50 years. I was  accused of being a communist (not used now, after the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s overtures to China and UMNO invited to the 19th Communist Party of China national congress); responsible for the May 13, 1969 riots, leading the street demonstrations in Kuala Lumpur making anti-Malay and anti-Islam epithets although I was never in Kuala Lumpur after the May 10, 1969 General Election; painted as quite a devil, a puaka, even jembalang; that I am anti-Malay, anti-Islam; a stooge of foreign powers (although it was Najib who paid homage to US President Trump at the White House, offering to “strengthen” American economy with Malaysia’s puny economy!); that I dominate Pakatan Harapan and made other leaders like Tun Mahathir Mohamad, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Datuk Seri Wan Azizah, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, Datuk Seri Azmin Ali, Mohamad Sabu and Husam Musa into my stooges and puppets.

In our plural society today, there are still Chinese who are living completely in the Chinese world, Malays who are living in a completely Malay world, Indians who are living in a completely Indian world, and the same goes with the Ibans and the Kadazans.

Our greatest challenge is how to reach out to them, the Chinese living in a completely in the Chinese world, Malays living in a completely Malay world, Indians living in a completely Indian world, to share with them a larger Malaysian picture and perspective – to share our ideals that this beloved Malaysian nation belongs to all of us, that we have a  shared destiny.

Five decades of DAP have proven that DAP  is a patriotic Malaysian party dedicated to the betterment of all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or region and committed to  the fundamental principles of the Constitution.

This is what the DAP had embarked on 52 years ago, the mission for which DAP leaders and stalwarts, like Karpal, Patto, Ibrahim Singgeh, Peter Dason, Kerk,  Dak Kee and  Che Rose Abdullah  had  lived and died for but it is an unfinished business.

It is no easy task. We may even fail as there is no guarantee of success. But what we can be sure  that if this Malaysian mission fails, then there is no way that  the Malaysian Dream which we are share can succeed.

The Penang flood-and-storm disaster is an object lesson for all Malaysians, when Malaysians stepped forward, regardless of race, religion, region or politics  to help Malaysians in distress and need.

This is what we saw during the great Kelantan flood disaster at the end of 2014, when Malaysians throughout the country, regardless of race, religion, region or politics came forward to render assistance to their human fellows in distress and need.

There were countless examples  of such humanity transcending race, region or politics in the Penang flood/storm disaster, like the bilal, Sapno Tukijo opening up a surau to 70 non-Muslim flood victims at Taman Free School; the yellow temple (Kew Ong Yeah temple) along Jalan Megat Harun, Bukit Mertajam which took in five Malay families; and Muslim and non-Muslim NGOs who extended a helping hand to all victims, in utter disregard of race, religion or politics.

Can this spirit of oneness as Malaysians transcending race, religion, region or party politics prevail in our country so that we are not distracted from our Malaysian Dream to build a great Malaysia for all Malaysians?

How do we nurture the bond of oneness among Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, region or even party politics and to stop the rise of intolerance, bigotry and extremism in our plural society?

This is our greatest challenge as Malaysians in our 60th year of nationhood, on the eve of the 14th General Election.

Datuk Yeop Adlan Che Rose’s following his late father’s footsteps in joining DAP for a Malaysian for all Malaysians is a small step towards this Malaysian Dream.

All Malaysians must step up in this direction so that the Malaysian Dream can be achieved.

As a first step, let us stop fake news and false information in the country.

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak said last week at the MCA annual general meeting that  Chinese community must realise that that the DAP cannot form the federal government on its own and that the choice is between a strong Chinese representation or a weak representation in government.

This is exactly opposite to what Najib had been telling the UMNO members and Malays that the country must choose between a  coalition led by UMNO or another led by DAP.

He even alleged  that “if UMNO is rejected, this country will be ruled by those who are against the Islamic struggle and reject the Malay and bumiputera agenda”.

Let us therefore take the first step to ensure that Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, region or politics can unite  for the larger Malaysian good, by halting all fake news and false information in the country.

(Media Conference Statement to welcome former Malaysian ambassador to Mexico, Brazil and Argentina Datuk Yeop Adlan Che Rose as a DAP member at DAP Hqrs in Kuala Lumpur on Friday, 10th November 2017 at 11.30 am)

                This entry was posted on Friday, 10 November 2017, 12:32 pm and is filed under
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Will those who conspired long and hard in past five years to snuff out DAP from the Malaysian political landscape succeed tomorrow?

Will those who conspired long and hard in the past five years to snuff out the DAP from the Malaysian political landscape succeed tomorrow when the DAP holds a special congress to re-elect the 2012 DAP national leadership based on the 2012 DAP delegates’ list – as directed by the Registrar of Societies?

Time will tell but the DAP is not going to allow itself to  be snuffed out of the struggle in Malaysia for democracy, justice, freedom, development, good governance and national unity.

I said yesterday that the Penang flood-and-storm disaster is an object lesson for all Malaysians, as in natural disasters like the great Kelantan flood disaster at the end 2014, all Malaysians throughout the country, regardless of race, religion, region or politics, demonstrate that they are Malaysians first and last, and  came forward to render assistance to their fellow-Malaysians in distress and need.

The question is why we need to wait for a natural disaster to happen for these feelings of solidarity, compassion, goodwill and unity to surface – transcending race, religion, region or politics?

Or is the National Patriots Association (Patriot) right, that it  is the “evil” politicians who are stoking the fires of racial and religious bigotry, intolerance,  hatred and extremism to  create a rift among Malaysians?

On Monday, G25, a group of prominent former civil servants, warned that governments which  use race and religious politics eventually turn their nations into failed states.

It said in a statement: “We should learn from countries which have turned into failed states because their governments used race and religious politics which do not take in account the religious sensitivities of all its citizens.

“If Malaysia acts in ways that jeopardise harmony by implementing extremist policies and ignoring the rule of law, it will negatively impact its economy and society.

“Many of our skilled professionals and our capital will flow out to other countries while private investors will feel nervous about the economy and the nation’s future.”

G25 urged all political parties to not use racial or religious rhetoric in their respective manifestoes and urged them to commit to:

•	A moderate administration of Islam in line with the Federal Constitution to preserve social and economic stability.

•	An open democratic system based on rule of law and checks and balances to guard against corruption and abuse of power.

It said: “Malaysians are tired of racial politics and want a type of politics that brings people together into a ‘bangsa Malaysia.”

We are in the 60th year of nationhood, and it is time that all political parties commit themselves to a politics of inclusivity, openness and tolerance and foreswear the politics of exclusivism, a closed society and intolerance.

I asked yesterday whether  this spirit of oneness as Malaysians transcending race, religion, region or party politics could prevail in our country not just during natural disasters  so that Malaysians  are not distracted from our Malaysian Dream to build a great Malaysia for all Malaysians?

This is a question that deserves serious thought by national leaders from all political parties as well as Malaysians, as I find distressing that there are political leaders who does not miss a beat by continuing in the old politics of race and religion, packaged in new packet of fake news and false information, to create rifts in our society.

An information chief of a political party is no more the party’s principal official to convey information but to  disseminate fake news and false information, with the UMNO Information Chief providing the most recent illustration.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 11 November 2017, 11:12 am and is filed under
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Attendance of 54% of 2012 DAP delegates at DAP Special Congress yesterday a most commendable turnout

Contrary to the hype of Barisan Nasional-owned and controlled media about
“DISMAL TURNOUT IN DAP POLLS”
, the attendance of 54% of the 2012 DAP delegates at the DAP Special Congress to elect for the third time the 2012 DAP Central Executive Committee as directed by the Registrar of Societies is a most commendable turnout.

One thought that struck me at the DAP Special Congress yesterday was what would have been the turnout of the Barisan Nasional component parties, in particular UMNO, MCA, Gerakan and MIC, if they had to assemble their party delegates five years ago for a re-enactment of a special party conference.

I have grave doubts that anyone of them would be able to muster a turnout of over 50 per cent of their delegates five years ago, and I won’t be surprised if some of them  can’t even get 30% attendance turnout rate.

I was moved by the dedication, stamina and commitment of the DAP’s 2012 delegates to re-assemble from all over the country yesterday to vote for the third time the 2012 DAP Central Executive Committee, although they know this was most unfair and unjust.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 13 November 2017, 3:21 pm and is filed under
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Report: Bank’s board briefed on deposits into Najib’s account

Free Malaysia Today

November 13, 2017

PETALING JAYA: Members of AmBank’s board were in the know about large quantities of money deposited into the accounts of Prime Minister Najib Razak in 2013, according to Australian broadcasting agency SBS.

It said the full 12-man board had been briefed about the matter on multiple occasions between September and November 2014, but was not aware then of the source of the funds.

Following the briefing, then-CEO Ashok Ramamurthy, who had been seconded by the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) to head AmBank, was directed to report the transactions to Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), it added.

ANZ, the largest shareholder in AmBank with a 24% stake, had the right to appoint key management positions at the Malaysian bank and occupy four seats on the board, it added.

“In late 2015, AmBank was fined more than A$16 million (RM50 million) by the Malaysian banking regulator for non-compliance with anti-money laundering reporting obligations involving the account of an unnamed ‘politically exposed person’,” the report said.

On Sept 6 last year, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that transactions amounting US$680 million (RM2.85 billion at present exchange rate) related to 1MDB had been deposited into Najib’s accounts in 2013.

The Malaysian government later said the money was a political donation from a member of the Saudi royal family, and the bulk of the money was returned.

WSJ however disputed the assertion, relying on court documents filed by the US Department of Justice.

Najib himself, who was until last year the chairman of 1MDB’s advisory board, has denied any wrongdoing and was cleared by Attorney-General Mohamed Apandi Ali last January.

The SBS report also said ANZ chief executive Shayne Elliott had told an Australian parliamentary inquiry in October last year that the allegations surrounding AmBank revolved around 1MDB.

He said ANZ had no relationship with 1MDB, and none of its workers had any involvement in the company or the related occurrences at AmBank.

He added that staff seconded to AmBank were no longer ANZ employees.

In May this year, PPBM chairman and former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad reportedly accused Australia of neglecting to take action against ANZ, one of the country’s biggest banks, for possible complicity in the transactions.

“They (ANZ) hold a big share in that bank and that bank (AmBank) is involved in practically money laundering, so I think Australia should show some interest,” the SBS had quoted Mahathir as saying.

“Australia has been involved to a certain extent but it looks as if the government of Australia wants to avoid any involvement in this crime committed,” he added.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 16 November 2017, 8:57 am and is filed under
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Malaysia’s international standing and reputation  have suffered such a slump that we are the butt of jokes of Africans in international conferences  for corruption and kleptocracy

The forthcoming 14th General Election which would   be held in the next few months is a golden opportunity for  patriotic Malaysia to cleanse our international image and standing and to regain the respect and admiration of the world for our democracy, economic prowess, integrity and good governance.

A few days ago, I experienced a very humiliating experience when  I saw a video of an African leader at an international conference making a joke  about corruption in Malaysia.

This is a sign of the slump of Malaysia’s international standing and reputation that instead of Malaysians making Africa the butt of jokes about corruption, Malaysia has become the butt of jokes of Africans in international conferences about corruption and kleptocracy.

The past three weeks of Parliament have shown that the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his government are incapable of clearing and cleansing Malaysia of the infamy and ignominy of being regarded by the world as a global kleptocracy, and although the world continues to be  aghast at the twin allegations over the  international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering mega scandal and the RM2.6 billion donation in the Prime Minister’s personal banking accounts, the Malaysian government continues with the charade that the twin scandals do not exist within the borders of Malaysia!

Only Malaysians voters can make a historic quantum leap to save Malaysia from the infamy and ignominy of a global kleptocracy and rescue Malaysia from being the butt of jokes even among African countries for corruption and kleptocracy by voting out the UMNO/Barisan Nasional government and  replacing it instead with a Pakatan Harapan Federal Government in Putrajaya, with the priority commitment to restore Malaysia’s international standing and reputation by clearing and cleansing Malaysia of the infamy and ignominy of a global kleptocracy.

(Speech at the DAP “Save Malaysia, Hapuskan Kleptocrasi” ceramah at Kampong Simee, Ipoh on Thursday, November 16, 2017 at 9 pm
)

                This entry was posted on Friday, 17 November 2017, 2:16 pm and is filed under
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Touched by David Choi’s apology to Taiping farmer Lee  who was arrested and remanded in Kuantan for two days as a result of MCA Youth police report  for sharing a video deemed insulting to deputy minister Chong Sin Woon

I am touched by the news report of the Pahang MCA division leader who was suspended from party positions for apologising to a Taiping farmer Lee who was arrested as a result of a MCA Youth police report for sharing a video deemed insulting to deputy education minister Chong Sin Woon, following the latter’s “deity” jibe after the Penang floods, and was brought to Kuantan and remanded for two days.

David Choi was stripped of all party positions in the Indera Mahkota division, including as its public complaints bureau chief, committee member, and GE14 operation room, banner and pamphlet chief.

It is reported that the MCA division will write to the MCA central disciplinary committee to decide on Choi’s party membership.

Very aptly, Choi said in Chinese: “Man doing, heaven  watching”.

In the present era of social media, there is not only rampant fake news, but also rampant abuses of power.

There is  need for every  social media user to practise  a high standard of responsibility and not to believe in what  appears on the social media. Furthermore, everyone must exercise discretion and not to cause anyone to become  victims of  abuses of power.

Although Choi is punished by his party superiors, he has done right in apologising for the injustice suffered by Taiping farmer Lee.

In fact, the MCA national leadership should emulate Choi’s example and tender  apologies and make amends to Taiping farmer Lee as well.

(Speech  at the DAP Kopitiam dialogue at Pasar Taman Cempaka, Ipoh on Friday, November 17, 2017 at 8 am)

                This entry was posted on Friday, 17 November 2017, 3:26 pm and is filed under
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A sad and shameful way to celebrate Malaysia’s 60th anniversary,  with  an ever-widening  circle of nations regarding Malaysia as a state rife with corruption and kleptocracy –  from the US,  Europe, Asia and now even in Africa

It is a sad and shameful way to celebrate Malaysia’s 60th anniversary, with an ever-widening circle of nations in  the world regarding Malaysia as a  state rife with corruption and kleptocracy – from the United States, Europe, Asia and now even in Africa.

The Federal Government and the national institutions have not lifted a finger in the last few years to clear and cleanse Malaysia of the infamy and ignominy of being regarded by the world not only as a new member of the infamous club of world  kleptocracies but shooting up to a leading position as a global kleptocracy.

Malaysia’s failure to ensure and maintain good governance and  descent to a kleptocracy is reflected by the history of the 22-year annual Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) from 1995-2016, which shows that Malaysia had stagnated and even regressed in integrity and principles of accountability and good governance in the past two decades as compared to some countries, like China and Indonesia.

In the first year of TI CPI in 1995, which listed only 41 countries, Malaysia was ranked in the middling position of No. 23 with a score above the midpoint – i.e. 5.28 in a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 10 (very clean).

China and Indonesia came in at the bottom end, with China ranked as No. 40 with a score of 2.16 out of 10 while Indonesia came in last ranking No. 41 out of 41 with a score of 1.94.

If Malaysia had made a decimal-point improvement in the TI CPI score of 0.1 point each year the past 22 years, Malaysia’s present score would have been 7.48, or roughly translated into 74.8 out of a scale increased from 10 to 100, which would have placed Malaysia in the rank around No. 18 of the least-corrupt nations out of 176 countries.

Unfortunately, Malaysia’s TI CPI worsened with the TI CPI ranking falling to No. 55 out of 176 countries while the TI CPI score fell below the midpoint to 49 in the new scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).

In contrast, both China and Indonesia have made significant improvements in the TI CPI in the past 22 years, with China improving its score from 2.16/10 in 1995 to 40/100 with its TI CPI Ranking improving from No. 40/41 in 1995 to 79/176 in 2016 and Indonesia improving its score from 1.94/10 in 1995 to 37/100 with TI CPI ranking from 41/41 in 1995 to 90/176.

If for the next two decades, China and Indonesia improve in their TI CPI ranking and score at their pace in the past 22 years, while Malaysia stagnates, both countries would have overtaken Malaysia in both the TI CPI ranking and score well before 2040. We do not even have to wait for National Transformation (TN) 2050!

When Malaysian voters go to the polls in the forthcoming 14th General Elections, which would be held in the first half of next year, the clearing and cleansing of Malaysia as a global kleptocracy and the restoration of democracy and good governance should be one of the common top objectives of Malaysian voters, regardless of race, religion, region or even political affiliation.

(Speech at the DAP Bukit Mor Branch, Muar,  Anniversary Dinner on Sunday, 19th November 2017 at 9pm)

                This entry was posted on Monday, 20 November 2017, 9:20 am and is filed under
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Lau Dak Kee is the best  grassroots DAP leader in the first four  decades  of the  DAP struggle to achieve  the Malaysian Dream

We are gathered here tonight to remember Sdr. Lau Dak Kee, the best grassroots DAP leader in the first four  decades of  the  DAP struggle for the achievement of the Malaysian Dream.

Dak Kee’s political struggle was distinguished by his unswerving loyalty, commitment and stamina  to the ideals of justice, freedom and national unity – the core principles and ideals  of the DAP’s political objective.

Dak Kee underwent three great tests when the DAP was quite “down and out” in the doldrums and emerged with flying colours.

The first test was from 1969 to 1974, when the DAP underwent great trials and tribulations,  losing four of the 13 MPs and 11 out of the 31 State Assemblymen elected in the 1969 general elections, as a result of the pincer onslaughts of  intimidation and inducement on the DAP elected representatives to betray the party.

Many were pessimistic that the DAP could  survive the ferocious and systematic political offensives focussed on the DAP, with one top government leader so confident that he  declared in 1972 that the DAP was already one foot in the grave.

But  through the dedication, commitment and loyalty of stalwarts like  Dak Kee,  the party withstood the tests and proved the doomsayers wrong, and it was in this period that Dak Kee was catapulted to  the forefront battleline as a candidate in the Ulu Selangor parliamentary by-election in May 1972.

The second test was when the DAP suffered its first worst electoral defeat in the 1982 general election, with Perak DAP securing  its worst record  with its slate of four parliamentary and nine state assembly seats in Perak in the 1978 general election slashed to zero parliamentary and four state assembly seats,  with the sole win in the Kinta Valley, Kepayang, through the slimmest majority of 161 votes.

Undaunted by the inclement political scenario, Dak Kee took up the challenge to restore DAP Perak, contesting as a candidate in the Kepayang state assembly by-election five months after the April 1982 general election, winning with a landslide majority of 9,764 votes – spearheading the DAP revival and victories not only in the subsequent Seremban parliamentary and Raub state assembly by-elections in 1983 but also the DAP’s  greater electoral victories in the 1986 general election.

DAP won 24 parliamentary and 37 state assembly seats in the 1986 general election, with Perak netting four parliamentary and 13 state assembly seats.

The third test for Dak Kee was when he had retired from politics, having served two terms as Perak MP and three terms as Perak State Assemblyman.

In the 1995 and 1999 general elections, DAP Perak performed badly – wiped out completely in parliamentary representation in 1995 and winning only one parliamentary seat the 1999 general election, while state assembly representation was slashed to only one and four seats in the two general elections respectively.

When I contested in Ipoh Timor parliamentary seat in the 2004 general election to rejuvenate and restore DAP’s political standing in Perak and take it to greater heights, Dak Kee was in the forefront and campaigned vigorously and was one of the key factors for Perak DAP’s present leading role in Perak and Malaysian politics.

We were both victims of Operation Lalang dragnet and  Internal Security Act detainees  in Kamunting Detention Centre three decades ago.

Dak Kee’s commitment, dedication, loyalty and “never say die” spirit   should be an example for all DAP leaders and activists in the continuing struggle to achieve the Malaysian Dream.

(Speech at the Lau Dak Kee memorial reception held at DAP Hqrs, Kuala Lumpur on Monday, 20th November 2017 at 8 pm)

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 21 November 2017, 3:29 pm and is filed under
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THE CLARION CALL

Alwi Jantan

Kuala Lumpur

23rd November 2017

Where are my brothers and sisters,

My friends of yester years?

Who together built this nation

With a democratic constitution?

The time has come for us to rise

In unison and in one voice

To save our beloved nation

For our future generations.

We have to fight against corruption,

And call for clean administration.

We have to fight against nepotism,

And abuse of power and cronyism.

We have to install good governance,

And law and order maintenance.

We have to fight religious bigotry,

And preserve racial unity.

We have to get rid of corrupt leaders

As well as their boot lickers.

We have to remove kleptoracy,

And re-establish true democracy.

Only then can the future be assured,

And our progress be measured

As a multi-racial country

Living in peace and harmony.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 23 November 2017, 6:42 am and is filed under
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Never before in six decades of nation’s history have Malaysians, regardless of race,  religion, region or station, been so concerned about the future of the country as we had clearly taken the wrong turn in nation-building at variance from the bedrock principles of the Malaysian Constitution and Rukunegara

Never before in six decades of the nation’s history have Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, region or station, been so concerned about the future of the country as we had clearly taken the wrong turn in nation-building at variance from the bedrock principles of the Malaysian Constitution and Rukunegara.

This is best illustrated by the following developments:

•	The failure of the federal government to fully honour the Malaysia Agreement 1963 for Sabah and Sarawak, with the Keningau  Batu Sumpah standing as an indictment of such failure, particularly the three core issues of religion, land and local customs.

•	In the Cobbold Commission Report 1963, the Malayan representatives made the commitment that the Malaysian Constitution “in effect would be secular”, and it is most shocking that such constitutional safeguards had been so undermined in recent years, that the Federal Government is openly funding activities of organisations  which attacked the “secular” principle in the Malaysian Constitution and the Rukunegara principle on the supremacy of the Malaysian Constitution.  Land which embraces territorial waters raise the question of  Sabah and Sarawak’s rightful share of oil royalties, while Malaysia’s unique asset of  linguistic, religious and cultural diversity has come under intense attack in recent years.

•	Even the Malay Rulers are concerned  that the Malaysian nation-building process has gone awry, resulting in three statements by them in the past two years, the first one in October 2015 expressing concern on the 1MDB scandal, the second statement in February 2016 on the National Security Council (NSC) Bill with its impact on democracy and human rights and recently, the third statement in October this year expressing the Malay Rulers’ concern on national unity and harmony.

•	The concern of former top Malay civil servants, diplomats and corporate chiefs resulting in the formation of G25, which in a recent statement, said: “While there is much to celebrate, there is also much to be concerned about the growing intolerance for our differences. G25 observes that tolerance and respect for our diversity in languages, religions, cultures and traditions have been declining. This is regrettable considering that diversity is universally recognised as a valuable asset among the factors for successful development.  Indeed, it is for this reason that there is emphasis in the Rukun Negara to uphold the constitution and rule of law so that we can protect the multicultural character of our population and human rights in the country. This will also ensure moderation in the application of Islam in the daily life of Muslims.”

•	The formation of National Patriots Association  comprising retired military and police officers concerned at the failure by the authorities to uphold the bedrock constitutional and Rukunegara principles of moderation and tolerance and about the basic structure of the nation.

•	Growing numbers of Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, politics or region, who have come around to the view that the present direction of nation-building must be halted before the country is trapped in the trajectory leading to a failed, divided  and rogue state.

The forthcoming next general elections in the first half of next year is probably the only chance to save Malaysia before enormous harm are suffered by Malaysians.

It is an uphill but not an impossible job to defy the odds to bring about change in Putrajaya, which will be the first time in 60 years, to save Malaysia and destroy kleptocracy, and stop the country from hurtling towards the trajectory of a failed, divided and rogue state.

These concerns were very well captured in a poem by a former top civil servant, octogenarian Tan Sri Alwi Jantan, whose public career spanning 32 years had served as a Director General of National Archives and Library; State Secretary of Selangor; Secretary General of Ministry of Local Government and Federal Territory; Secretary General of Ministry of Health; Secretary General of Ministry of Agriculture; and from 1987 to 1990, Director General of Public Services Department.

I commend Alwi Jantan’s poem, The Clarion Call, to all Malaysians who love Malaysia to inspire them to save Malaysia:

THE CLARION CALL

Where are my brothers and sisters,

My friends of yester years?

Who together built this nation

With a democratic constitution?

The time has come for us to rise

In unison and in one voice

To save our beloved nation

For our future generations.

We have to fight against corruption,

And call for clean administration.

We have to fight against nepotism,

And abuse of power and cronyism.

We have to install good governance,

And law and order maintenance.

We have to fight religious bigotry,

And preserve racial unity.

We have to get rid of corrupt leaders

As well as their boot lickers.

We have to remove kleptoracy,

And re-establish true democracy.

Only then can the future be assured,

And our progress be measured

As a multi-racial country

Living in peace and harmony.

I dread to think of what is in store for Malaysia if the UMNO/BN coalition can steal the 14th General Election!

(Speech in Keningau when officiating the launching of the Sabah DAP Impian Malaysia water gravity project at Kg Pangas Ulu on Friday, November 24, 2017 at 6 pm)

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 25 November 2017, 6:44 am and is filed under
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