25-Day Countdown to 13GE – Parliamentary Reforms and restoration of the doctrine of Separation of Powers

Under the Federal Constitution and in keeping with the concept of the Separation of Powers, Parliament consisting of the Dewan Rakyat and the Senate are the supreme law making bodies.

They constitute the Legislative branch of Government, other branches being the Executive and the Judiciary.

The supremacy and independence of Parliament are accepted concepts adopted and practiced by all Parliamentary democracies.

In the Malaysian system of governance, after over five-and-a-half decades of Umno/Barisan Nasional rule, the Executive branch has usurped power and turned Parliament into a subordinate institution thus trampling on  the fundamental concept and principle  of representative government.

Several aspects of the current scene merit mention.

The Dewan Rakyat is controlled by the Executive through a party appointee as Speaker who has largely ignored the voice of the minority –  the Speaker has often denied the Opposition the right to debate “urgent and definite matters of public importance”; the Standing Orders have been amended over time to grant Government benches an advantage; Parliamentary time is distributed unevenly thus preventing the Opposition benches adequate time to debate issues of public interest and to provide the checks and balances that are a core feature of a Parliamentary democracy.

The centralization power in the hands of the Executive has enabled the emergence of an authoritarian system of government.

The absolute control exercised by the Executive has led to certain other practices. A particular practice concerns the manner in which Bills are introduced and enacted into laws.

Draft bills are made available to Members of Parliament literally at the eleventh hour; thus MPs have hardly any time to review complex pieces of legislation and are denied the opportunity to consult and seek inputs from the public. These  processes do not allow for close scrutiny of proposed laws.

A further matter raising serious concerns relates to the practice of inserting a clause ” ….. the decision of the Minister shall not be questioned in any Court of law….” into legislation passed by Parliament.

This formulation has the effect of placing Ministers and in effect the “Little Napoleons” above the law and their actions beyond judicial review. This leads to abuse of due processes and enables the Executive branch to amass huge powers and avoid accountability.

This pernicious practice negates the concept of Separation of Powers and represents a serious deviation from the norms of a functioning Parliamentary democracy. Indeed, this practice is in contradiction to the spirit of the Constitution

A Pakatan Rakyat Government will take remedial steps that will restore the principles embodied in the Constitution.

The concept and principles of  Separation of Powers, the Supremacy of Parliament as representing the will of the People will be restored through the following measures:

*The Speaker shall be a truly independent appointee not beholden to the Executive;

*The Dewan’ s Standing Orders shall be revised with the aim of creating an even playing field for the Executive and the Opposition to play their respective roles; the Opposition shall be granted an appropriate allocation of time to debate issues and policies;

*All Bills would be distributed two weeks ahead of the Second Reading with the establishment of Select Committees to permit more careful consideration  and permit inputs from the public on proposed legislation;

*The practice of including clauses that empower Ministers and place them above the law shall cease with the objective of restoring the Separation of Powers;

*A review of all existing laws that provide extraordinary powers to Ministers shall be undertaken with the objective of repealing these provisions;

*Appointment of an  Ombudsman and establishment of a Constitutional Court;

*Repeal of Official Secrets Act to be replaced by a Freedom of Information Act.

These proposals, when implemented, will contribute to the  dismantling of centralization of powers in the hands of the Executive branch.

They will contribute to the emergence of a system of Government that is open, transparent and accountable. Better governance will strengthen democracy and prevent abuses associated with authoritarianism.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 17 March 2013, 7:10 am and is filed under
Pakatan Rakyat
,
Parliament
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Ex-cop: Lahad Datu cops’ pleas ignored

Anisah Shukry |	 March 15, 2013

Free Malaysia Today

A former Lahad Datu police chief says that years of government indifference towards the dire state of security forces in the district paved the way for an armed incursion into Sabah.

PETALING JAYA: Insufficient police personnel, lack of equipment, police vehicles in bad shape — those were the security issues plaguing Lahad Datu for years, said a former Lahad Datu police chief.

Yet, the federal government continued to ignore Lahad Datu police’s requests to upgrade security, said Kamis Daming, and this was why the Royal Sulu Army was able to breach Sabah with ease on Feb 9.

“When I was in Lahad Datu five years ago, I often expressed concerns to our superiors about the possibility of intrusion by foreign elements, but our proposals and requests for security beef-up were looked at very lightly,” Kamis was quoted as saying by the Daily Express.

He told reporters in Kota Kinabalu yesterday that the Lahad Datu district police had scarce equipment and police vehicles such as their four-wheel drives and patrol boats were in terrible shape and constantly broke down.

Meanwhile, the force faced fuel shortages because their supplier allegedly refused to supply them fuel due to unsettled debts, he added.

And despite the district being short of police personnel, he said there were not enough living quarters in the police compound for the force to reside in.

“Another sad thing is that some of the police officers and personnel have to rent a house outside the police compound because there are not enough quarters,” he was quoted as saying.

But even houses for rent were scarce, forcing low-rank personnel to stay in dilapidated police barracks riddled with holes, he said.

“And when we filed an application for funds to repair the barracks, headquarters would reply that no allocations were available yet.

“Living under such an environment is so demoralising for the low-rank personnel, so what can be expected from them?” he asked.

Kamis also reportedly supported Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) President Yong Teck Lee’s claim that Sabahans had alerted authorities for decades on the threat illegal immigrants in Sabah posed, yet the government remained indifferent about it.

On Feb 9, some 200 armed men from the Royal Sulu Army entered Sabah to take the state by force as they believed they had an ancestral claim on the land.

Weeks of peaceful negotiations with Malaysian authorities culminated in a shootout in Lahad Datu on March 1 that saw two local policemen and 12 or the armed intruders killed.

The following day, six more Malaysians were killed in an ambush by the Sulu army on Saturday in Semporna. On Tuesday, another local soldier died in a gun battle, while another died in a vehicle accident.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 17 March 2013, 7:41 am and is filed under
Defence
,
Police
,
Sabah
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Is It Part of Our Culture?

By Kee Thuan Chye

Malaysian Digest

14th March 2013

Last week, I was speaking to students of a higher institution of learning about a play of mine that they are studying called
We Could **** You, Mr Birch
.

When I got to the issue of getting Malaysians to discuss so-called sensitive issues openly, one of the students commented, “It’s not part of our culture.” I asked her if she was being ironic. The bright lass nodded.

She was alluding to the favourite catchphrase of the Government that is invariably invoked when it wants to discourage Malaysians from taking part in certain activities, usually those that are adversarial or threatening to it.

One such activity is taking part in demonstrations and street protests. Many a government official has used “it’s not part of our culture” to denounce especially large gatherings that challenge the Government’s rulings and actions, like the Bersih and anti-Lynas rallies.

However, when Barisan Nasional (BN) groups like Umno Youth or even pro-BN NGOs like Perkasa and Jaringan Melayu Malaysia (JMM) stage street protests, public officials are silent.

And on one significant occasion at least, even the Prime Minister and the Home Minister seemed to subtly endorse demonstrations. This was right after the High Court ruled in 2010 that the Christian publication The Herald could use the word ‘Allah’. When asked about the intention by some quarters to stage a demonstration against the ruling, PM Najib Razak said, “We can’t stop people from protesting.”

And minister Hishammuddin Hussein was reported to have said that the Government did not prohibit the people from expressing their views on the ‘Allah’ issue. He later said he was misquoted, but the question remains as to why he did not say unequivocally from the start that any protests would not be allowed.

As it turned out, the protests did take place. The next day, fire-bombs and molotov cocktails exploded in a couple of churches.

Of course, demonstrations and street protests cannot be said to be alien to Malaysian culture. In 1946, Onn Jaafar led Umno in street protests against the Malayan Union. The fact that it was a protest against the colonial British administration does not make it any less a protest. So we have had a precedent. It is therefore bunkum to say that protests are not part of our culture.

Protests that resort to violence, however, are a different matter.

Some protests do not start out with violence as their premeditated course but nonetheless do end in violence because of provocation, such as what happened with Bersih 3.0, for which the police have much to answer in terms of their mishandling of public order and their mistreatment of rally participants. But there are also those protests that are deliberately aimed at inflicting violence in order to intimidate a target group. This becomes thuggery, actually; it amounts to gangsterism.

In the past two years, we have seen a disturbing increase in this sort of protest – or, for want of a better word, counter-protest. Even the threats by Perkasa and Umno Youth to hold counter-rallies to Bersih 2.0 in 2011 can be filed under this category although they did not openly threaten violence (there was some hint that it could break out, nonetheless) and when the actual happening took place, Umno Youth’s counter-rally was a farce and Perkasa’s was a non-event.

The insidious counter-protests are those that attempt to disrupt rallies that are deemed to be challenging the ruling party and the political status quo. Such attempts can take the form of heckling followed by the use of robust physical force, as was the case when Umno Youth and Perkasa members interrupted an anti-Lynas gathering at Speakers’ Corner in Penang in 2011 at which Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng was also a speaker and experienced harassment by the troublemakers.

The more direct approach of inflicting violence straight away has also been practised a lot. We have seen this happen at the ceramah co-organised by Anything But Umno (ABU) and Hindraf in Shah Alam last year, in the attacks on students who were part of Solidariti Mahasiswa when they held a talk in Klang and on the students who camped out at Dataran Merdeka calling for the abolition of PTPTN (National Higher Education Fund Corporation) loans.

There have also been frequent thuggish attacks on ceramahs held by the Opposition in various parts of the country, from Kedah to Johor. Even its roadshow vehicles have been pelted with paint and rotten stuff. It is interesting to note that by and large, such thuggery has been inflicted against the Opposition or against groups that challenge the federal government. Seldom has it been the other way round.

Only last week, at Komtar in Penang, a group of protestors representing Malay NGOs tried to break the glass doors to get to the state government’s offices. They wanted Chief Minister Lim to withdraw his call made last Christmas for the word ‘Allah’ to be allowed in the Malay versions of the Bible in East Malaysia. When they were not allowed inside the building, they pounded, kicked and rammed the glass doors and shouted obscenities.

A couple of days later, a group of 50 protesters from pro-BN groups including JMM marched to the PKR headquarters in Petaling Jaya and threw eggs, bricks, stones, sticks and a traffic cone at PKR members there.

One of the protestors reportedly said, “We are not gangsters”, but he also said to the PKR members, “If there were no police, I would burn down your building.”

Speaking of the police, it is amazing to note from this phenomenon of political violence that videos recorded show that the police appear to do nothing when the violence occurs. They seem to just stand and watch. Which explains why of the many cases so far, hardly any of the troublemakers is apprehended. Which also explains why those who have been making trouble of this nature over the last two years continue to do so because they know they can get away with impunity.

Is this part of our culture?

In the first place, is it part of our culture to use physical force rather than rational argument to get our messages across? And if the assailants happen to be pro-BN, is it part of our culture for the police to not take strong action?

Can anyone rightly justify such violence?

Chief Minister Lim pointed out after the Komtar episode, “If we allow law-breakers to threaten law-makers, then we don’t have rule of law in Malaysia.”

Is it part of our culture not to uphold the rule of law?

* Kee Thuan Chye is the author of the bestselling book No More Bullshit, Please, We’re All Malaysians, and the latest volume, Ask for No Bullshit, Get Some More!

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 17 March 2013, 6:09 am and is filed under
Bersih
,
Kee Thuan Chye
,
Law & Order
,
Lynas
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


PI Bala’s death is a tragedy

by P Ramakrishnan

Private investigator P Balasubramaniam’s death is a national tragedy for truth and justice.

By his death, truth and justice are left hanging in a limbo – for he possessed explosive information and stunning evidence to establish who were responsible for Altantuya Shaariibuu’s death.

Bravely and valiantly, he had provided a sworn Statutory Declaration dated 1 July 2008 detailing very meticulously in chronological order all that had taken place resulting in the murder of Altantuya.

All those implicated and directly accused of involvement in this foul deed that shattered the Mongolian beauty into smithereens have failed to refute his allegations; they dared not even sue him.

Thinking Malaysians are left wondering if there was no shred of dignity in those implicated to defend themselves in a court of law. They have done nothing to establish their innocence or dispel justified suspicions cast upon their character.

Bala showed gritty determination and tremendous courage in standing up to the state and pointing accusing fingers at the Prime Minister and his wife.

Bala had categorically stated:

*who was responsible for the murder of Altantuya;

*why she was murdered;

*that she had a sexual liaison with a very important political personality;

*that on the day Abdul Razak Baginda was arrested, he received a sms which read: “I am seeing IGP at 11.00a.m. today …… matter will be solved … be cool” and named the sender of the message;

*that the two convicted accused facing the death penalty are innocent;

*that during the trial of the three accused the prosecutor did not raise questions about those implicated in Bala’s statement (to the police) when he was called as a witness;

*that the trial itself was not a satisfactory due process of justice.

Will all these issues remain buried with Bala’s death? Will there be no answers to these issues? You

can bet there will be no further investigation into the death of Altantuya under the Barisan Nasional.

On the other hand if the Pakatan takes over Putrajaya, hopefully there will be a Commission of

Inquiry. And Altantuya’s spirit can be laid to rest.

In the meantime, there will be joy and jubilation in certain quarters. They will be able to heave a sigh of relief and breathe easily now that the threat is finally gone!

Aliran would like to extend our heart-felt condolences to Bala’s family.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 17 March 2013, 5:48 am and is filed under
Crime
,
Najib Razak
,
Police
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Who Knows What the Truth is These Days?

By Kee Thuan Chye

Yahoo Newsroom

Mon, Mar 11, 2013

How do you decide what is truth and what is falsehood as the build-up to Malaysia’s 13th general election hots up? So many bizarre twists and turns have emerged in recent days that Malaysians must be in a state of shock and awe.

First, businessman Deepak Jaikishan openly alleged that Prime Minister Najib Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor were involved in forcing private investigator P. Balasubramaniam to make a second statutory declaration to contradict his first, which had implicated Najib in the murder of Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu.

Then Bala returned from exile earlier this year to affirm that he stood by his first statutory declaration, reinforcing the revelations made by Deepak about how the second declaration came about.

The latest twist is Azlan Mohd Lazim’s announcement that Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim is innocent of the charge of having sodomised Azlan’s son, Saiful, and that Anwar is the victim of a political conspiracy. Taking everyone by surprise, including apparently Saiful as well, the father attests that his son was “used by several unscrupulous individuals”, including a special officer of Najib’s, to tarnish Anwar’s image.

Saiful, however, disputes his father’s testimony. He stands by his accusation of Anwar, which had led to the Sodomy II trial, debunks the claim of political conspiracy, and insists that it is his father who is being used. He actually lashes out at Anwar and warns him not to “use my father to twist the truth, no matter how desperate you are”.

Is Anwar desperate? He was acquitted of the charge by the High Court in January last year, but the attorney-general appealed, and the hearing has been scheduled for July 22. By that date, the general election should be over, and if Anwar’s coalition, Pakatan Rakyat, is in control of Putrajaya then, he might be able to get his new attorney-general to quash the case, but if it isn’t, he could be in for troublous times.

If the Court of Appeal finds him guilty and subsequently, upon his expected appeal, the Federal Court upholds the verdict, he could be shut away for years. In that sense, he might truly be anxious – if “desperate” is too strong a word – to avoid being in the soup.

But then again, would getting Azlan to denounce Saiful’s claim be of any help to Anwar at the appeal hearing itself? Unless Azlan is called as a witness and has new evidence to clear Anwar, his denunciation will be of no consequence in court.

The only value it may have for now is in creating a perception among the public that Anwar is indeed innocent and a political victim, as this would boost his image and help his coalition’s chances at the polls.

But even so, discerning Malaysians are already waxing sceptical about Azlan’s sudden turnaround. He was, after all, quite forceful in urging the attorney-general to file an appeal after Anwar’s acquittal. They are also questioning his motive and the timing of his announcement. And why he was accompanied at his press conference by Johari Abdul, an Opposition member of Parliament.

Such circumstantial indicators promote speculation that the coalition might have engineered the new twist to aid its chances of winning Putrajaya so Anwar could escape further prosecution, but other questions arise which confound that theory, like why would a father discredit his own son?

Then there’s the other theory that is being bandied about a lot – of promised rewards to Saiful that have not been fulfilled prompting retaliatory action by his father. And another popular one – that the recent bombshell developments, starting with Deepak’s revelations, followed by Bala’s return and now Azlan’s volte face implicating Najib or at least his men, are the work of Najib’s own party rivals plotting his downfall.

Although this seems foolhardy and potentially suicidal for his party since the general election is so near, one never can tell in politically surprising Malaysia, especially with so much intrigue piling up almost every other day.

So far, Najib has said or done hardly anything to counter the serious allegations against him, and this is something that greatly befuddles the public. It could mean that there is truth to the allegations or that he is someone who doesn’t bother with what others say about him and prefers to let his performance as prime minister do the talking.

But even on that score, Najib has been coming across as a rather weak leader, and his confidence in winning the elections seems to be waning. He may have to drop a few bombshells of his own to blow up his rivals’ chicanery and set a course for not just winning the elections but winning big.

As such, in the coming days, Malaysian politics could get even dirtier than it already is. And the public could become more bewildered trying to figure out truth from lies, reality from fiction, and the other way around. As it looks so far, the 13th general election will certainly be the dirtiest one ever.

* Kee Thuan Chye is the author of the bestselling book No More Bullshit, Please, We’re All Malaysians, and the latest volume, Ask for No Bullshit, Get Some More!

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 17 March 2013, 5:24 am and is filed under
Anwar Ibrahim
,
Elections
,
Kee Thuan Chye
,
Najib Razak
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


24-Day Countdown to 13GE – Malaysians deserve a Cabinet and a Government which is not a laughing stock of the world because of the frequency of stupid statements and foolish acts by Ministers

I believe we are entering the final week when the 12th Parliament will at last be dissolved to pave the way for the holding of the long-awaited and much-postponed 13th General Elections next month.

This explains why UMNO/Barisan Nasional leaders are getting more and more panicky, with some even making hysterical statements, under the intense pressure of the impending 13GE, which cannot be postponed much further after the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak had put the country on an election campaign footing for close to four long years and breaching the five-year natural life of Parliament – and now just a week ahead of the automatic dissolution of the Negri Sembilan State Assembly on March 26!

Najib has said he wants Malaysia to become the world’s best democracy. Then Najib and Umno/BN leaders must first learn to accept Lesson One of the most basic prerequisites of a functioning normal democracy, i.e. to accept that their power in government is not a divine right but a trust granted by the people once every four or five years to be withdrawn or renewed in every general elections.

Up to now Najib and all the Umno/BN leaders have been conspicuously silent on what would be very routine and matter-of-fact in developed democracies all over the world – that they will submit to the verdict of the electorate in the impending general elections and if they lose the mandate to continue as the Federal government for the first time in 56 years, they would peacefully and democratically ensure a peaceful transition of power from Barisan Nasional to Pakatan Rakyat and they would all serve the role of a loyal Opposition in Parliament as the DAP had done in the past 47 years since the formation of DAP in 1966.

Are the Umno/BN leaders, including Najib, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hashim prepared to declare what would be so common-place and matter-of-fact in mature democracies – that they would respect the choice of the Malaysian electorate in the impending 13GE, including the mandate for a new Pakatan Rakyat Government and Prime Minister after 13GE?

There are examples galore of the stupid statements and foolish acts by Umno/BN leaders in recent days, all the way to the Prime Minister.

For instance, last Friday, Najib waxed eloquent in Tanah Merah, Kelantan about the “seven major sins” of the Opposition, which are lies and falsehoods in blatant violation of the Transparency International-Malaysia “Election Integrity Pledge” which he signed with such fanfare last month.

For instance, it is a downright lie for Najib to allege that the Kelantan PAS government had granted 10,000 acres (4,000 hectares) of land to two DAP Perak leaders, Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham and Nga Kor Ming, clearing the jungle in Lojing with the rhetorical question: “They give land to the DAP leaders but do the Kelantan people get any?”

This is downright unethical and irresponsible, a violation of the Election Integrity Pledge which Najib signed so solemnly last month, as the Prime Minister know better than anybody else that the 10,000 acres of land in Lojing were alienated by the Kelantan State Government to a company 13 years ago in 2,000, even before Ngeh and Nga were elected as MPs and State Assemblymen in the 2008 general elections.

If we want to dwell on the “major sins of Najib”, I don’t think seven would be adequate, even 7 times 7 would not be able to recount Najib’s “major sins” – may be, it will need to be 7 times 7 times 7!

Does Najib want the run-up to the 13GE be a competition as whether the Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Rakyat leaders have a longer list of “major sins”?

I am prepared to accommodate Najib, provided he says “yes”!

Today, Deputy Minister and UMNO Youth Deputy Chief, Razali Ibrahim, provided another example of stupid statements from Umno/BN leaders when he alleged that the “DAP’s ambition” to contest 15 out of 26 Parliamentary seats in Johore in the 13GE is proof of its domineering attitude in Pakatan Rakyat over its partners PAS and PKR.

I never said DAP wanted to contest in 15 Parliamentary seats in Johore. What I said is that Pakatan Rakyat comprising DAP, PKR and PAS must target 15 parliamentary seats with the objective of winning over one-third of the 26 parliamentary seats in the state, i.e. over nine or preferably twelve and above parliamentary seats to provide the necessary numbers for PR to succeed in the journey to Putrajaya.

I am not surprised that Umno/BN Ministers and deputy Ministers have proved to be “favourites” in making stupid statements and responsible for foolish acts.

This is one reason why there should be UBAH in the 13GE as there should be better calibre and more principled people in Cabinet as Malaysians deserve a Cabinet and a Government which is not a laughing stock of the world because of the frequency of stupid statements and foolish acts by Ministers.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 18 March 2013, 2:05 pm and is filed under
Elections
,
Najib Razak
,
UMNO
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


As the Altantuya Murder Plot Thickens

By Kee Thuan Chye

from
Yahoo! Malaysia

Private investigator P. Balasubramaniam is gone, and his untimely death from a heart attack makes it all the more pressing for Malaysians to find answers to the mystery of the murder of the Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu.

Who actually did it? Logically, it would seem unlikely that the two police personnel who have been convicted acted on their own. What would be the motive of Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar and Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri? They didn’t even know Altantuya before they whisked her away and dealt the fatal blow. It would seem they were merely hitmen.

Furthermore, according to Sirul’s cautioned statement, they were offered RM50,000 to RM100,000 to dispose of Altantuya. If this is true, who made the offer?

Other questions float in limbo like ghosts whose souls have not been put to rest. How did these two men get their hands on the C4 explosive used to blow Altantuya’s body to smithereens? It’s something that is difficult to procure. Did they have help from certain quarters?

Bala had said that he wanted to reveal what he knew about matters related to the murder in order to bring justice to Altantuya and the two convicted men. But now he is unable to testify in court.

He did, however, manage to come home from exile to publicly announce that he stood by his first statutory declaration (SD) in which he implicated Prime Minister Najib Razak – if only in the sense that the latter knew Altantuya and had had a sexual relationship with her, and that he might have influenced the attorney-general on the handling of the murder trial.

This first SD also stated that although Bala gave a statement to the police that included Najib’s alleged relationship with Altantuya, what he was given to sign omitted this detail. And when he gave testimony at the murder trial, the lawyers never asked him about that relationship either.

So seemingly damning was this first SD that the very next day, Bala took everyone by surprise when he came out with a second SD that not only retracted the entire contents of the first but also specifically named as being untrue all the parts that referred to Najib.

Since then, businessman Deepak Jaikishan has come out to divulge that he was involved in getting Bala to make the second SD, together with Najib’s brother, Nazim. He said he did this at the request of Najib’s wife, Rosmah Mansor, and that Najib arranged for a senior lawyer to prepare the second SD. He said he regretted getting involved: “It was the biggest mistake I have made.”

Does this vindicate Bala? Well, it depends on whether Deepak is telling the truth. Najib has said Deepak is “not credible” and dismissed what he has revealed as “not an issue”, even though it reinforces Bala’s statement that Najib allegedly knew Altantuya.

And now to further consolidate Deepak’s allegations about the second SD, Bala’s lawyer, Americk Singh, has disclosed to the Bar Council that the senior lawyer who Deepak said prepared it is Cecil Abraham.

Americk said Cecil disclosed this to him in confidence, and – even more interesting – that Cecil said he was acting on instructions from Najib.

Americk apologised to Cecil for breaking his promise of confidence, but felt he had to make it for the sake of carrying on Bala’s quest for justice. To many, Americk did the right thing.

The obvious next step now is for the relevant authorities to query Cecil to verify if this is true. Of course, it could still be one man’s word against the other’s. If Cecil did prepare the second SD knowing that it would contradict Bala’s true intent, he would be guilty of professional misconduct. But if he denies it, and assuming that he believes Bala’s first SD to be true, he would be maligning the word of a man who has just died.

It will be a tough call for Cecil. And even if he were to admit that it was Najib who gave him the instructions, it still may not prove anything unless he has black-and-white evidence of those instructions, or someone else was present to corroborate the fact.

In view of all the allegations that have come about and the keenness of Malaysians to get to the bottom of the murder mystery, perhaps it’s time for everyone concerned to do the right thing. Including Najib.

Some of the pieces seem to fit, and although the picture that emerges may be hazy and inconclusive, his face keeps popping up because of certain circumstances. For example, the two men who have been convicted were at the time of the murder serving as bodyguards to then prime minister Abdullah Badawi and also to Najib. And DSP Musa Safri, who is said to have been a potentially important witness but never called to the stand, was Najib’s aide-de-camp then.

At some point, Najib must surely have to come out and categorically debunk the allegations. Saying that Deepak lacks credibility is not enough to convince the people. And although Najib has sworn on the Quran that he has never met Altantuya, this may not satisfy logical minds.

The impression one gets is that Najib prefers to ignore the issue so that it won’t get any bigger, and that he hopes people will in time forget. But the issue is not getting smaller, and people have not forgotten after seven years.

As such, Najib is being confronted with a big dilemma. As the plot of the Altantuya mystery continues to thicken and he continues to distance himself from it, he could be leading the ruling party into the upcoming general election with an albatross around his neck.

*Kee Thuan Chye is the author of the bestselling book No More Bullshit, Please, We’re All Malaysians, and the latest volume, Ask for No Bullshit, Get Some More!

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 19 March 2013, 5:22 pm and is filed under
Kee Thuan Chye
,
Najib Razak
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Confirmed! Kit Siang will do battle in Gelang Patah

by Lee Way Loon

Malaysiakini

9:47PM Mar 18, 2013

After weeks of speculation, Pakatan Rakyat officially announced tonight that DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang will be contesting the Gelang Patah parliamentary seat in Johor.

The announcement was made by Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim at DAP’s 47th anniversary celebration and ceramah in Skudai.

“It’s true that Gelang Patah was a PKR seat. But we can discuss.

“I hold the opinion that it is still a PKR seat. But if Kit Siang comes and assists us, leads us and becomes the Gelang Patah candidate, I give him my full support,” Anwar told a cheering 20,000-strong crowd.

The PKR de facto leader then invited Lim and all the DAP leaders to come on stage to endorse his decision.

PKR contested Gelang Patah in the last two general elections and lost both times.

Johor DAP chief Dr Boo Cheng Hau and state PKR chief Chua Jui Meng have been crossing swords in the mass media over seat allocation in Johor, a matter that has since been taken over by the national Pakatan leadership.

Anwar, who is also the Permatang Pauh MP, admitted that there were some problems in the seat negotiations among the Pakatan parties.

However, he said, the three parties were keeping united in order to face their only enemy, the BN.

‘My biggest challenge ever’

“We cannot say DAP can win Johor alone, or that PKR or PAS alone can. The only one that can win Johor is Pakatan,” Anwar adde.

In his speech later, Lim said his contest in Gelang Patah would be his biggest challenge ever.

“This is my biggest challenge. I do not know whether I will be safe or not.

“But I must take this risk in order to bring changes in this country,” the Ipoh Timor MP said.

In a high spirited tone, he told the crowd that he would be more than ready if the Johoreans were ready for Pakatan.

“If you are ready, we are ready to bring the changes,” Lim said, adding that Pakatan was targeting to win at least 18 parliamentary seats from the BN in Johor, Negeri Sembilan and Malacca.

His old comrade and DAP national chairman Karpal Singh said Johoreans must rise to help Pakatan to win 15 parliamentary seats in the state.

“Johoreans must do what the Penangites have done,” Karpal said.

To this, the crowd responded with a loud “yes!”

The emcee announced that more than 40,000 people attended the event. However, our estimate is a crowd size of about 20,000 only.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 19 March 2013, 7:15 am and is filed under
DAP
,
Elections
,
Johore
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Kit Siang: Unleash political storm in the south

by
Lee Way Loon

Malaysiakini

11:12AM Mar 19, 2013

Some predict a handsome win for Pakatan Rakyat in the Gelang Patah parliamentary seat when the general election is held, but its candidate does not expect the battle to be easy.

 Nevertheless, DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang is willing to take the risk, in order to “set off a political storm” in south Malaysia and in Sabah and Sarawak as well.

Lim coined the term “political tsunami” to describe Pakatan’s gains in the last election in March 2008.

“This is a historic chance to decide whether there will be a regime change. We need to set off a political storm in Johor, Malacca and Negeri Sembilan,” he told a press conference in Skudai, Johor, last night after he was named as the Pakatan candidate for Gelang Patah by Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim.

 “And then the storm must cross the South China Sea and reach Sabah and Sarawak. With this, the people can complete a movement for political awareness and democracy.”

Lim, the Ipoh Timor MP, said this would be his fifth move into a new state to contest the election in his political career spanning 47 years.

“This is not an easy battle… but it is worth (fighting for) as it is for our goal, as well as for the nation and people,” he said.

He reiterated that Pakatan was targeting to win at least 18 parliamentary seats from BN in these three southern states: 15 in Johor, two in Negri Sembilan and one in Malacca.

DAP to contest seven seats

Lim said the DAP will contest about seven of the 26 parliamentary seats in Johor, but he declined to name the constituencies.

 He also refused to confirm whether party political education bureau chief Liew Chin Tong (right) would contest in Johor, saying this would be announced when the time was right.

Gelang Patah, located near Johor Bahru, is now held by Johor Wanita MCA chief Tan Ah Eng, who retained the seat with a 8,851-vote majority in 2008.

However, it is speculated that Tan would be replaced with MCA Gelang Patah division chief Jason Teoh, a staunch supporter of MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek, in the coming election.

Chinese Malaysians make up 54 percent of the voters in the constituency, with Malays comprising 34 percent and Indians 12 percent.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 19 March 2013, 2:48 pm and is filed under
DAP
,
Elections
,
Johore
,
Pakatan Rakyat
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Najib looks more and more like a Crime Minister than the Prime Minister!

by Martin Jalleh

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 19 March 2013, 11:05 am and is filed under
Martin Jalleh
,
Najib Razak
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Return Of The Heroic Son: Lim Kit Siang

by Allan CF Goh

He is born in Batu Pahat,

But since has lived in people’s heart.

He dares to stand up to torment

For his conscientious fair comment,

On all aspects of corruption,

And every discrimination.

To silence him up, they jailed him,

But truth remains his battle hymn.

He is never cowed by prison,

Violent threats, or words of poison.

His heart beats for a true nation,

Full of unity, compassion;

A State in tune with people’s dream,

With solid values in full stream.

Like all patriots, he wants the best

In the country’s progressive quest.

His vision of one destiny

Of all races in harmony,

With noble spirituality,

And justice, a commonality,

Fulfills the Malaysian vision,

That has been his lifelong mission.

Like us, he dreams of one people,

Many hopes, but non being crippled.

Answering  the patriotic drum,

He’s home to resolve the grumps.

To Johor, he is to return,

To renew hope, to goodness turn.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 19 March 2013, 5:29 pm and is filed under
Poem
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Umno’s culture of “Slander first, Sorry later” continues

by Martin Jalleh

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 19 March 2013, 5:17 pm and is filed under
Martin Jalleh
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


23-Day Countdown to 13GE – Will Najib make a mockery of his signing of the Transparency International’s Integrity Pledge by not taking any action against Taib Mahmud and his family on the explosive video evidence produced by Global Witness?

On 20th February, 2013, almost a month ago, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak signed the Transparency International Malaysia’s Election Integrity Pledge with much aplomb in the presence of many BN leaders including the Chief Minister of Sarawak and leader of PBB, Taib Mahmud.

Today, international NGO, Global Witness released a shocking video involving a nexus of prominent figures all of whom connected to Taib Mahmud. These individuals included Norlia and Fatima Abdul Rahman, daughters of former Sarawak Chief Minister, Abdul Rahman Ya’akub and cousins of Taib Mahmud. Fatima was caught on camera admitting that she could ‘speak to the CM very easily’ in order to obtain the necessary approvals for a land sale to a Global Witness representative, land which Fatima said was given to them by Taib. This land sale would involve a company, Ample Agro Sdn Bhd, whose first six shareholders are all daughters of former Sarawak CM, Rahman Ya’akub which includes not only Norlia and Fatima but also Tanjong Manis MP Nora Abdul Rahman as well as Najib’s sister in law Khadijah Abdul Rahman.

Norlia is also caught on tape asking the potential ‘buyer’ from Global Witness to undergo an illegal transaction whereby only 10% of the sale price of the land would be booked in Malaysia while the rest would be booked in Singapore in order to avoid Reals Property Gains Tax (RPGT). Norlia also said that these sorts of deals ‘have been done before’ in order to assurance the buyer that this is a standard operating procedure. The lawyer for Ample Agro, Alvin Chong, also confirmed the nature of this transaction in the Global Witness video who also proposed ways for the potential buyer to evade the 49% foreign shareholding limitation by appointing nominees based in Singapore. Alvin was caught on video saying that “I’ve put this to use many a time”.

Another individual who was implicated in this video is Huang Lung Ong, the nephew of Sarawak timber tycoon Hii Yi Peng. Ong implied that his uncle and majority owner of Billion Venture, would pay a percentage of the sale price – ‘probably 10%’ – to Taib Mahmud in order to show his ‘gratitude’ to the CM of Sarawak.

With the release of this video, I call upon Prime Minister Najib to:

(i)                 Instruct the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to conduct an immediate investigation into the individuals who appeared in the Global Witness video including Ample Agro’s Norlia and Fatima Abdul Rahman and lawyers Alvin Chong and Hii Yi Peng

(ii)               Instruct the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) or Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri (LHDN) to conduct an immediate investigation into previous deals carried out by companies owned by Norlia and Fatima and their sisters in order to ascertain if other such previous deals had been carried out with the intention of evading Real Property Gains Tax (RPGT)

(iii)             Ask the Singapore government for their cooperation in any commercial activities or transactions involving the named individuals in the Global Witness video to ascertain if these deals were done in order to evade tax and / or to circumvent the 49% foreign shareholding limit.

On the day which Najib is expected to give an account of his ‘report card’ under the Government Transformation Program (GTP) which includes the Corruption National Key Results Area (NKRA), it would indeed be a mockery of the whole process if Najib were to keep an ‘elegant silence’ in regards to the Global Witness video and make a sad mockery of the signing of the Transparency International Malaysia’s Elections Integrity Pledge.

(Media Statement in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday, 19th March 2013)

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 20 March 2013, 8:57 am and is filed under
Corruption
,
Elections
,
Sarawak
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


An open note for Dr Chandra Muzaffar

by
Choo Sing Chye

Malaysiakini

5:09PM Mar 18, 2013

Once your heart was  filled with egalitarian ideals which copiously propagated into the pages of  your books and Aliran Monthly.

I admired your courage to say these forbidden ideals which in the eyes of the Umno kingpins were seditious.

I believed that you had the passion then, to offer solace for the poor without fear of offending the BN elites of the day.

You didn’t speak for the opposition, nor the BN government, but you spoke up eloquently for the poor and injustices.

In your heart you felt the anguish, despair, misery and wretchedness of the poor.

But today I see a different you.

You have unmistakably  soaked up  the best tradition of the 5th Century Greek Sophist, Thrasymachus where he expounded his theory that “justice is simply whatever is to the interest of the stronger party.” (1)

Today’s reality and challenges are the same as to the day you wrote this book in 1989, Challenges and Choices in Malaysian Politics and Society. Below are some of the quotes from your book which are still as relevant as today’s woes:

“The instability within Barisan parties, the cliques and factions that have emerged in some of them, the fierce and ferocious competition for power among groups and individuals, the buying and selling of votes even in divisional and branch elections, and indeed the foul filth that oozes out of every pore of Barisan Nasional politics…

“Perhaps most of all, it is the growing gap between word and deed, promise and performance that has disenchanted the people.

“One talks all the while of trust and integrity and yet there is no determined, concerted endeavour to unravel the truth about the shameful, scandalous BMF affair.

“One talks all the while of the danger of corruption and money politics and yet corruption through cronyism and the politics of money are allowed to flourish.

“One talks all the while of clean, healthy business practices and yet small but powerful cliques and coteries have entrenched themselves in the world of commerce and industry.

“One talks all the while of thrift and austerity and yet there is lavish spending on prestige projects, tourist complexes, exclusive clubs, expensive mansions, grand celebrations, extravagant ceremonies, and costly trips and travels abroad.

“One talks all the while of how important national unity is and yet one does not cease to divide the people by racialising issues.

“One talks all the while of how liberal the administration is and yet one imposes the severest curbs upon ceramahs and publications.

“One talks all the while of hard work and yet whenever the apostle of hard work visits a state or district everyone stops working!

Crisis of credibility

“It is these blatant contradictions between what is said and what is done which has now led to a serious crisis of credibility. When a government’s credibility is at stake, it must know that it is in trouble. For the crisis of credibility is the stage that precedes the crisis of legitimacy. Once a government faces a crisis of legitimacy, it ceases to command any moral authority. It is a sure sign of its downfall. Needless to say, our government is still some distance away from that stage.

“In this sort of situation, it is quite possible that unscrupulous elements among the ruling elites seeing that both their Malay and non-Malay bases of support have been weakened considerably may in desperation try to create ethnic tensions which may lead to ethnic conflicts. They may then use the resulting ethnic breakdown as an excuse to set aside democratic procedures and rule by decree in order to consolidate and expand their power.

“If this happens, it would be a grave blow to the people’s power. It would be a betrayal of the will of the rakyat. This is why though we may never be able to prevent a formal authoritarian regime from establishing itself, we should not do anything that will make it easier for anyone to impose such rule…”

I believe what you had written then was based on egalitarian idealism that was close to your heart and ours too.

Gone are days when you speak like an idealist, and today you speak like a BN politician and write like certain columnists in the mainstream media.

Whatever you write now does not matter to us and the poor any more and perhaps to you now the “foul filth that oozes out of every pore of Barisan Nasional politics,” smells like roses..

Reference:

1.  ‘
An introduction to Political Philosophy
,’ ARM Murray, published by Cohen and West Ltd, London, 1953.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 20 March 2013, 10:16 am and is filed under
Politics
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Johor tidak lagi simpanan tetap

oleh Subky Abdul Latif

The Malaysian Insider

March 20, 2013

20 MAC ― Bunyinya Datuk Ghani Othman tidak lagi dikekalkan sebagai Menteri Besar jika Barisan Nasional hendak mengekalkan Johor di bawah perintahnya.

Nama Datuk Khalid Nordin, Menteri Pelajaran Tinggi yang hampir menggantikan Ghani tahun 2008 dikatakan  akan menggantinya kali ini.

Pemerhati yang  dekat dengan Umno masih percaya Johor akan kekal di bawah BN tetapi kedudukannya tidak lagi seperti sepanjang separuh abad lalu. Nama Ghani mulai mewarisi dua Menteri Besar yang awal dulu iaitu Datuk Hassan Yunus dan Tan Sri Othman Saad sebelum mereka digantikan dengan Menteri lain.

Maka bagi memastikan Johor kekal dengan Barisan Nasional walaupun tidak segagah dulu, MB-nya mesti ditukarkan. Itu ikhtiar politik BN.

Pakatan Rakyat sangat yakin, Johor bukan lagi simpanan tetap Umno/BN. Inilah peluangnya yang terbaik untuk merampas negeri Datuk Onn, Musa Hitam dan Muhyiddin Yasin itu.

Dalam usaha melucutkan kuasa BN itu, PAS menurunkan Salahuddin Ayub yang kedudukan selesa di kerusi Parlimennya di Kubang Kerian kembali ke Johor. Penasihat DAP, Lim Kit Siang, disebut sedia kembali bertanding di negerinya di Johor bagi memastikan negeri BN terlucut dari  tuannya.

DAP amat yakin hampir 80 peratus pengundi Cina akan mengundi pembangkang tidak kira calonya PAS atau PKR,  apa lagilah DAP. Mereka bertanya banyak mana yang mereka boleh tarik dari undi Melayu?

Jika undi Melayu boleh berubah antara 30 dan 35 peratus, maka Pakatan di negeri pasti mara  ke Johor Baru.

Tetapi banyak yang  tidak yakin PR dapat meraih  sokongan hingga 80 peratus seperti kepercayaan setengah orang Cina. Tetapi sebusuk-busuknya pembangkang tetap menguasai tidak kurang  dari 70 peratus undi Cina.

BN tetap meraih antara 65 hingga 70 peratus undi Melayu. Kalau undi Cina kepada pembangkang boleh dikurangkan dibawah 70 peratus, maka ia akan kecewakan PR.

Dalam PRU 2008 undi Melayu yang bersama pembangkang hanya 18 peratus. PAS dapat dua DUN. Kalau kali ini ia boleh mencapai 35 peratus, selamat jalanlah BN.

Saya tanya Mazlan Aliman, ketua ANAK Felda yg juga Jawatankuasa PAS pusat adakah ia boleh dapat 35 peratus undi Melayu. “Tak dapat,” katanya. Tetapi tambahnya, “Kami boleh dapat 32 peratus.”

Adakah PR boleh dapat 80 peratus  undi Cina? “Tinggi sangat,” katanya. Tetapi ia boleh mencecah antara 70 hingga 75 peratus.

Jika dugaan itu benar, semua kawasan Parllimen dan DUN yang lebat pengundi Cina akan jadi milik Pakatan. Mana-mana kawasan yang pengundinya bercampur, ia masih mirip kepada PR. Yang tinggal buat BN ialah kawasan Melayu yang pengundi bukan Melayu kurang dari 35 peratus.

Dengan sifir politik yang mudah itu, inilah kali pertama BN merasa tidak  selamat di Johor tetapi tidaklah sampai hilang kuasa.

Orang Melayu atas pagar yang bercakap dengan  saya berkata, keadaan di Johor sudah jadi 50-50 puluh. Dia tidak mahu kata BN akan jatuh. Ia mungkin boleh menang lagi.

Tetapi belum pernah di Johor itu boleh jadi 50-50. Selalunya 70-30.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 20 March 2013, 9:31 am and is filed under
Elections
,
Johore
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Lim Kit Siang the ‘giant slayer’

Malaysiakini

9:48AM Mar 20, 2013

YOURSAY
 ‘
Kit Siang could have stayed in Ipoh and nobody would fault him. But a general never sits still when the war is raging.
‘

Confirmed! Kit Siang will do battle in Gelang Patah

MrM
: Uncle Lim Kit Siang is getting on in his years. Last time, he mentioned that 2008 will probably be his last election.

It is understandable that he will choose to stand again to give Pakatan Rakyat a fighting chance in Johor. So people of Gelang Patah, it is up to you.

Give Uncle Lim a resounding victory so that it may be the finest hour in his career and he can retire in peace.

Observer_2013
: Kit Siang in Gelang Patah? The reason is because Pakatan doesn’t have any strong candidate in Johor.

Where is PKR state chief Chua Jui Meng? Trouble in PKR camp? In reality, BN will retain Johor easily.

Taikohtai
: Kit Siang could have stayed in Ipoh and nobody would fault him. But a general never sits still when the war is raging.

For Kit Siang to extricate himself from a safe seat to go head on against a formidable enemy looks like a death wish. But is it?

Kit Siang is not known for a giant slayer for nothing and then Penang CM Lim Chong Eu was his Goliath.

Now Johor beckons. The prodigal son returns. This is better than Hollywood and Bollywood combined. This is Sun Tze 2013.

Hero325
: Twenty-seven years ago, when Kit Siang went to Penang to challenge Gerakan, he also said: “This is my biggest challenge ever.” It is as if he is the only leader doing all the great things in politics. Ini semua syiok sendiri.

CQ Muar
: Hero325, when Kit Siang first uttered those words, “This is my biggest challenge ever”, yes, that was 27 years ago in Penang.

But what is wrong with him saying the same thing again, and this time in Johor? This simply meant the present challenge (in 2013) is bigger than it was 27 years ago.

Kit Siang, I wish you all the very best. Those old school mates from our alma mater, then known as GES (Government English School) and thereafter HSBP (High School Batu Pahat), will all pray for your success and good health.

Our hope lies in Pakatan to knock the hell out of Umno and MCA of BN. Put an end to all the corruption, evil, lies, murder, etc. We have witnessed enough the kind of transformation brought about by the present government for over 55 years.

We missed the good old days when our best friends were not only Chinese, but Malays and Indians. Change is needed if we want to see a ray of hope for an equitable country in which we can proudly call ourselves as Malaysians regardless of race, creed and religion.

Eradicate the seeds of evil brought about by Umno and their component parties in BN come GE13. By the grace of God, may we realise our dream of a brighter future for us and our children in this homeland of ours.

Tiger
: Kit Siang is a true warrior by all means. I salute you. You will have the backing of any decent Malaysian who wants to vote for a change in this corrupted and evil regime. Lawan tetap lawan.

Sali Tambap
: It’s great move from a master tactician. Johor is an important frontier and a key factor in the GE13.

If it falls, it is going to spread like wild fire and create the domino effect. That is why it takes no less than a personality like Kit Siang to spearhead the campaign there. Kudos to PKR to come out with this decision.

Whatsdown
: We salute you, uncle Kit Siang. This move is very strategic and timely. It will send shiver down the spine of BN even though everyone is trying to show a brave face.

This move signifies the confident level and seriousness of Pakatan leaders in capturing Johor – the most important frontline state, besides Sabah and Sarawak.

Awakened
: Kit Siang, I takes my hats off and salute you as a true statesman with big visions and guts.

PKR has lost twice in Gelang Patah and yet you have chosen this seat to help spearhead the Johoreans for change.

Previously when you moved from one seat to another, you have lost a number of times. Clearly, you are a person who dares to take risk to prove a point and at the same time spread the DAP ideology.

I go to Johor Bahru quite often and have sense the spirit of change there. Good luck.

Sinner
: Chua Soi Lek, you can run but you can’t hide. Pick up the gauntlet if you are a man. Let the people decide once and for all whether it is you or Kit Siang who has their support.

Fantastic4
: It’s definitely an uphill task. But it doesn’t matter if Kit Siang wins or not. What matters is that he tried.

Let’s hope that the Johoreans will wake up from their slumber and break the shackles of the BN.

The above is a selection of comments posted by
Malaysiakini
 subscribers.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 20 March 2013, 10:04 am and is filed under
Elections
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Najib is no Transformer but mere Performer!

by Martin Jalleh

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 20 March 2013, 9:06 am and is filed under
Martin Jalleh
,
Najib Razak
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Political suicide or stroke of genius?

Written by
Mohsin Abdullah
 of fz.com

The Edge Malaysia

Wednesday, 20 March 2013 10:56

PAKATAN’S move in putting Lim Kit Siang to contest Gelang Patah is obvious. Political analysts say it’s to win all Chinese majority seats in the state of Johor. Not only Gelang Patah.  Using Lim’s “image” and “stature” to garner the votes.

Still, before that, the analysts as well as strategists within Pakatan itself agree that the major challenge now is to get the entire Pakatan fraternity, in particular the grassroots in Johor, to “see the big picture”.

The big picture, of course, is winning GE13 and forming the federal government. But isn’t that obvious? Why reiterate the need to see the big picture? If not for anything else, it’s to “pre-empt any chance” of an “implosion” arising from the move of bringing in Lim to Johor.

Pakatan strategists agree “there can be problems”, citing the recent PKR-DAP spat as an example. Other “potential  time bombs” could be a PKR backlash as Gelang Patah has always been their’s to contest and MCA man turned PKR leader Datuk Chua Jui Meng’s “disappointment” of being overlooked after eying the Gelang Patah candidacy for some time. Enter the big picture.

“If they understand the bigger picture, no one needs to throw a tantrum,” said a DAP headquarters source. PAS GE13 director Dr Hatta Ramli agrees that Pakatan supporters should see the bigger picture but “at the same time leaders should appreciate the contribution and sacrifices of grassroots and local leaders”.

Lim’s Gelang Patah candidacy was announced by Opposition Leader cum PKR Ketua Umum Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim himself. “I believe Anwar speaks for his party and this is for the good of Pakatan,” said Hatta.

Already word has it that Chua will be given the relative safe seat of Bakri to contest. And said Hatta: “I’m not ruling out other compromises to sooth any ill feeling”.

According to a Chinese political affairs watcher, DAP is confident of winning in constituencies where PKR candidates had failed previously. And Gelang Patah is one of them. “So DAP managed to convince Anwar to give them the seats to contest.”

According to another political observer,  Pakatan aims to win 15 parliamentary seats in Johor which will help in its quest of taking over the federal administration. “Pakatan feels winning the parliamentary seats in Johor is realistic. If they do win the state government, it will be a big bonus.”

The DAP source has this to say: “Johor is a front line state for DAP in GE13. And the best person to lead the attack is Lim Kit Siang. He is anak  (a child of) Johor. Like the Malay saying “sirih pulang ke gagang (going back to his roots).”

And, said the political observer, Lim needs to win Gelang Patah as well as help the opposition pact win all Chinese majority seats. “With him leaving the safe seat of Ipoh Timur, it shows DAP is serious in Johor.”

The observer went on to say:  “All the while the Chinese in the state have not been part of the political tsunami, but this time the DAP feels it’s going to be different.”

The Chinese political affairs watcher however said it’s not going to be easy for DAP, and in particular Lim, in Gelang Patah. But to the DAP source, Gelang Patah is tough “but winnable for Pakatan”.

Still the Chinese political affairs watcher said while “most Chinese voters are rumoured to have made up their minds to kick out BN out of Johor, we must not lose sight of the fact that the majority of Malay and Indian voters are likely to defend BN”.  And he also pointed out there are no parliamentary seats in Johor which have more than 60% Chinese voters.

Yet a PAS activist has an interesting theory, something he has been saying for quite some time. And I’ve written about this last year. It’s worth repeating. He said that in the 1999 general election, Umno lost the Malay votes due to the sacking of Anwar by then PM Datuk Seri (now Tun) Dr Mahathir Mohamad and what saved BN then was the Chinese votes as admitted by Dr Mahathir himself.

“So in 2003, a massive re-delineation exercise was held and as a result big numbers of Chinese were brought into Malay areas to dilute Malay voter strength. This was obvious in Johor and Kedah,” claimed the PAS activist.

In the general election the following year, said the PAS activist, even PAS leaders like Mohamad Sabu and Datuk Mahfuz Omar lost in Kuala Kedah and Pokok Sena, their strongholds.

To the PAS activist, that “tactic” deployed in 2003 will be Umno’s undoing as there are “not many Malay majority areas per se in Johor now”. That’s of course is his theory, of what he believes.

Anyway it is a fact that PAS and PKR will need to work extra hard in Johor if Pakatan’s ambiton is to be realised.  PAS has named one of its formidable leaders, vice president Salahuddin Ayub, to contest in Johor, leaving the safe seat of Kubang Kerian in Kelantan.

“Pakatan targets 15 out of 26 parliamentary seats in Johor. If PAS and PKR can put in suitable candidates, of the same calibre as Salahuddin, to lead the PAS campaign, it is not an impossible task,” said the DAP source.

However, Umno remains a strong force in Johor. Pakatan inroads notwithstanding. According to the political observer, Umno “can and will exploit Pakatan’s decision to send Lim to the state”.  Umno, he said, “will say the chauvinist DAP wants to control everything as PKR and PAS will bow to them. This can frighten Malay voters”.

Retorted Hatta: “Numbers wise, DAP is knocking down MCA so no extra Chinese dominance. I agree PAS and PKR must go all out to get the Malay wave”.

As for Lim, this will be his biggest challenge, as he himself admits. It is said that the move for him to contest Johor was discussed and decided by Lim and Anwar. Both knew of the risk.  The deal between them can either pay off big time or can prove fatal.  But politics is all about risks, strategies, manoeuvres. And of course smoke screen.

Many feel other big names will join in the fray in Johor. Expect more major announcements. Shocking it may be.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 20 March 2013, 12:07 pm and is filed under
Politics
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Scandal-hit PM still sits in office in Shameless Silence!

by Martin Jalleh

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 20 March 2013, 2:38 pm and is filed under
Martin Jalleh
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


The myth of the rich and poor

by
Anas Alam Faizli

The Malaysian Insider

MARCH 20, 2013

MARCH 20 ― “They are simply lazy”

“His father is a Tan Sri”

“He knows someone from the inside”

“I made it purely out of effort; I worked hard to get where I am today”

These are some typical expressions that are sure to be heard in coffee chats, every time the topic of rich and poor is brought up. People have grown easily accustomed to brushing off the topic of inequality as welfarist or socialist.

This happens even amongst supposedly “middle class” Malaysians, not realising that they are in actuality, most likely top income earners and wealth owners. Households earning RM10,000 a month and above already qualify as top 4 per cent Malaysians!

In fact, while partisan voices continue their discourse in the racial imbalance tone, Malaysia has silently migrated into new battles, concerning intra-racial, income, and class-based imbalances.

It is often argued that the poor and the low income earners are plain lazy and do not work hard; that one earns what one deserves. This is not true. Many are simply unlucky, to be born to parents who lack education or skills to escape from the clutches of poverty.

Some were born with disabilities and diseases, while some others live in flood-prone or hazardous places. On the other hand, we have sub-quality undeserving businessmen linked to political patrons, estate and fortune inheritors, and individuals plainly lucky to be placed in lucrative industries with high economic rent. Accusations like laziness then become hardly the issue. The rich can be lazy too!

There are those who do not deserve to be in poverty, just as there are those who do not deserve their wealth. The cases above are simple yet fitting examples to describe that not all poverty is a result of unwillingness for hard work, and not all wealth is a result of it.

Thus, the fight against inequality is rather a fight to equalize opportunities so as to reach more equitable outcomes, not to distortively equalize outcomes. This is not a crusade against the rich, but a crusade to help the poor.

What’s the big deal with inequality?

Inequality is very real, whether or not we have problems with the GINI coefficient as a measure. In fact, the attention regarded to inequality is very much driven by consequences of inequality, rather than pre-emptive. We can see real consequences to the society; including societal backlashes, power imbalances, effects on wages, effects on growth, crime and quality of living, to name a few.

As long as the income and wealth inequality gap remain large and public investment for education, training, childcare and public infrastructure remain inadequate, progressive taxes and affirmative action in its true and productive spirit have a place within public policy.

It is imperative that the richer within the society share the responsibility of helping the poor; in the bigger picture, it is actually in their interest to do so, as they too will feel the consequences of inequality.

The fallacy of the free market

In any discourse of inequality and the rich and poor, the “free market” will almost immediately arise. The basic tenant of a free market is well described by the “Invisible Hand” coined by 18th century economist, Adam Smith. It argues that prices, and thus distribution of goods, services, labour, capital goods, land and human skills are all determined by market forces, or this “hand” that cannot physically be seen.

Proponents of this market-based allocation system are naturally against increased forms of government intervention like transfers, donations, taxes, subsidies and benefits. To put simply, they believe that letting the market run its course freely will reach desirable market equilibriums in the fairest manner, thus achieving productivity and wealth for a nation.

The marketplace does have some elements of arguable fairness; hard work will get you higher income, and laziness will be punished. Jobs, goods and wages are “naturally” supplied to and demanded by society, according to their needs and capabilities, instead of government allocation which is dangerously prone to over or under budgeting.

However, one must note critically that the fairness of the marketplace should not be exaggerated. Market forces can be “brutally unsentimental”, as put by Jeffrey Sachs. Pockets of failures in the market are impossible to deny because not everyone in the economy starts from the same baseline. Endowments like wealth, opportunities, or physical health vary extremely amongst people within the system.

While some manage to climb out of low income brackets and make it, as a result of opportunities and big breaks, others remain pressed in a vicious downward cycle. Indeed, not everyone gets a big break.

The taxation antagonist

The most common proponents of the free market are libertarians; whose ethical core is liberty. They hold the best economic outcomes will only prevail when each individual is left free to act economically and live without an authority governing their economic decisions. Individuals are in no way held responsible to the society, other than to be respectful towards the liberty and property of others.

The government’s sole responsibility is to only maintain law and order such as protection of private property. Extreme libertarians even hold that there is no requirement for government to build infrastructures, road or highways; such should be left to market forces because the need for them itself is incentive enough for someone to build them.

Libertarians are like “taxation antagonists”. Amongst other forms of government intervention, libertarians reject governments promoting fairness and efficiency through a system of taxation. Tax is regarded as just another form of government extortion; de-motivating those who work hard while potentially over compensating those who don’t.

In summary, libertarians hold that free market is the only way economic allocations are done “democratically”; hence it is the saviour of democracy and enough on its own to ensure prosperity. Therefore, talk of government intervention in helping the poor will also become a point of contention in the books of libertarians.

Malaysian libertarians

Many quarters have easily discarded the New Economic Policy (NEP) in hindsight, but it arguably did its job to almost eliminate poverty; reducing it from 50 per cent in 1970 to the current 3.8 per cent. Previously poor now form middle class and professional Malaysians.

Unfortunately, there is nothing to be proud of with the NEP mid 90s onwards. Rampant corruption, leakages and a breakdown in the integrity system demonstrated by those within the government have further worsened the situation. Perhaps this frustration in the government is behind the mushrooming of libertarian ideologies in Malaysia.

Is Libertarianism for Malaysia? We can first answer this by revisiting typical problems of missing a government sector. There is the question of who will provide public and common goods. We also do not need more than one police force, firemen, or court of law competing against each other. Without the government, who will then take care of the environment, regulate moral hazards, ensure individuals do not hurt each other, and protect the sovereign rights of Malaysians? Reducing government role is perhaps agreeable, but its total elimination has grave repercussions.

We then approach the issue of poverty. In all its admirable intentions of rewarding hard work and reducing influence of corrupt governments, libertarianism leaves too much room for an upward continuity of wealth and a downward spiral of poverty. As argued earlier, people start from different baselines.

Holders of wealth are in the position to continue leveraging on existing wealth, to create more wealth- they can hardly be blamed as they are only incentivized and allowed to do so! It is worse when wealth comes from extracting economic rent, rather than the creating of true values that ultimately increases the size of the economic pie.

Consequently, the levers of power will be in the hands of corporations and the wealthy, which will have a bigger say in public policies, thus countering the libertarians’ intended “democracy”.

Unlike the government of the day, boards of directors are not voted in by the people. Their fear of how a socialist nation will lead to fascism can also happen in free market except under the disguise corporate power. The free market failure then becomes as much political as economic!

Now imagine this “free market” is Malaysia, with one of the highest inequality levels in Asia (measured by GINI). The helpless poor will be left drowning in the currents of this market force, contending against the rich. This is exactly where a true, free, and liberal form of the market may not be able to generate the pristine intended outcomes it initially set out to do.

The Pakatan Rakyat Manifesto: A manifesto for its time

Political preference aside, there is cause to applaud the recent Pakatan Rakyat Manifesto. Tackling core economic issues, its four pillars hit home the concerns of the common rakyat; fraternity of the people, the people’s economy, people’s well-being and people’s government.

In Malaysia, the published absolute poverty number may be low, but in relative terms, many rakyat including daily creation of urban poor are effectively impoverished by demanding cost of housing and living that are unmatched by salary levels, high indebtedness, and low productivity levels due to limited skills and education.

For the government to maintain relevance in the face of libertarian claims, government interventions need to be tactical. If the government’s stance is pro-business, it must be backed-up with robust social safety nets to hoist up and bring along poor households in the sprint towards growth and wealth creation.

If the focus is the rakyat, care must be put to ensure business appetite is not suppressed. Such aspirations will be impossible to achieve without policies such as those proposed by the PR Manifesto; such as expanded educational opportunities (by making tertiary education free), reduction in the cost of living (utilities and tolls), targeted instead of blanket subsidies, and an upward pressure towards wages and salaries that are currently depressed by influx of foreign labour.

We have yet to see what Barisan Nasional has to promise with its manifesto but as a start, it should be more defined than its 2008 one; “to grow the economy” and start quantifying them. In fact, growing the economy is really a given.

Uplifting the poor: Levelling the playing field

This is no plan to pull a modern-day Robin Hood, robbing the rich off of their hard work to reassign some wealth to the poor. The rich may be reached out to, to shoulder some responsibility to raise the level of education, health and productivity of the poor.

Imagine the difference between a community with a billionaire worth RM40 billion and lots of poor people, versus one with 400 households worth RM10.0 million each. We might not love to pay tax but we accept its legitimacy as long as it is properly enacted into law and is used properly.

This by no means entails slacking off on the part of the poor. Opportunities are provided, but they still need to be capitalized upon. The idea is a bigger economic pie and an unleashing of further values that the poorer population could have produced and Malaysia could have enjoyed.

Putting all these into consideration, where does it leave libertarianism, minimal taxes to the rich and businesses, and the free market? Need bigger government roles necessarily mean bigger inefficiencies, and more corruption?

Welfare states in Scandinavia have ranked higher than America in terms of the Human Development Index (HDI). At the same time, Scandinavian nations are among the most equal nations, high in governance and control over corruption, despite the bigger size of their government.

 Ultimately, a healthy economy is a mixed economy, in which both the government and market forces both play their role. The exact balance remains an ongoing battle; but it’s good to start with unravelling the realities of inequality. Inequality is neither a hobby for anti-capitalist activists, nor development economists looking for the next trendy topic for their thesis. It’s true that government intervention in the shapes and sizes that they take form, may have distortive capabilities, but the “lazy poor and the hardworking rich” is a myth. For a better Malaysia, we have no choice but to continue our strive for productivity albeit with a new focus; inclusiveness.

Otherwise, Malaysia will be dragging its feet into the future, carrying the baggage of the past policies and its repercussions.

“A statesman is he who thinks in the future generations, and a politician is he who thinks in the upcoming elections.” ~ Abraham Lincoln

* Anas Alam Faizli is an oil and gas professional. He is pursuing a post-graduate doctorate, executive director of TFTN and tweets at @aafaizli

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 20 March 2013, 9:56 am and is filed under
Economics
,
nation building
,
Pakatan Rakyat
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


What has Najib Achieved?

by Martin Jalleh

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 20 March 2013, 8:59 am and is filed under
Martin Jalleh
,
Najib Razak
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


What Kit Siang hasn’t done

by Jimmy Chia

The Malaysian Insider

March 19, 2013

MARCH 19 – Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek today rattled off what Lim Kit Siang has not done – which is not serving his constituents as the DAP leader keeps switching parliamentary seats.

Soi Lek has a point there.

I’d like to help the MCA president by listing off what else Kit Siang has not done in his long career as a politician. After all, MCA needs all the help it can get these days when even Datuk Lee Hwa Beng is wondering how well this towkay party can do in GE13.

So, what else hasn’t Kit Siang done?

Kit Siang has not been caught having sex outside marriage. Whether physically or on tape like a certain MCA president.

Kit Siang has not been accused of cheating the Cabinet like a certain MCA president.

Kit Siang has not been accused of being involved in deposit-taking scandals like some MCA leaders.

Kit Siang has not been accused for any kind of share manipulation like some MCA leaders.

Kit Siang has not been accused of being a Lone Ranger like a certain MCA president.

Now let me tell you what Kit Siang has done.

He has been at the forefront of defending the people and exposing scandals.

He has served detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA).

Soi Lek, you could be right he might not have the interests of his constituents in one seat.

That’s because he is defending the interest of every Malaysian, Can we say the same for the MCA? Or you?

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 20 March 2013, 9:23 am and is filed under
DAP
,
Elections
,
MCA
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Whistleblower on hidden truths of the pork import business

Introduction by
Dr Lim Teck Ghee

Centre for Policy Initiatives

On 5 March 2013, CPI posted an article on ‘NEM at ground level: same old model, no paradigm shift’. The article revealed how pork importation has degenerated from a freer market to a semi-monopoly controlled by a business-political mafia and which involves the highest level of leadership in the Ministry responsible.

On 13 March, the Malaysian Association of Pork Importers (MAOPI) issued a press statement – apparently available only to the Chinese mainstream media – in which it denied the charges in the CPI article and alleged that the contents of the article were untrue and aimed at smearing the good name of MAOPI.

Since then we have received further damaging disclosure from both members and non-members of MAOPI on the subject.

We are reproducing below unedited excerpts from another informant.

We hope that the new information can be the basis of an open inquiry into monopolistic and cartelization practices emanating from and justified by those manning the higher levels of politics and the civil service. These practices aimed at extracting undeserved or exorbitant rent returns are found not only for the pork importation trade. All sectors of the economy in which licences are required are vulnerable to corruption and manipulation by the public officials responsible for licensing and by individuals or groups favoured with unfair advantage in the licensing process.

Fingers need to be pointed and guilty parties exposed when dubious licensing and quota systems proliferate or are permitted to run amok as is happening with the New Economic Model.

Another major area of concern raised by our latest informant’s letter is that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission has been acting in support of the corrupt parties and complicit in preventing the issue from being fairly investigated. This – if shown to be correct – confirms the widespread belief that the MACC is not an independent body and is simply functioning as a tool of the ruling party.

Finally, we note that the officials of MAOPI present at the press conference stated that the CPI article was written with bad intentions by someone with political motives and belonging to the opposition party.

We would like to place it on record that the Centre for Policy Initiatives does not have any association with any political party and that I am not – and have never been – a member of any political party.

Our mission is to provide the public and other key stakeholders with accurate information, data and analysis on national issues, and the best way of doing this is by ensuring our independence and integrity.

(
Dr Lim Teck Ghee is CPI director
)

Letter received by the CPI (below)

Dear Dr Lim,

Thank you so much for your article titled ‘NEM: Old Model in New Packaging” dated 4 March 2013 that you had highlighted half of the very true insights and challenges faced by current Malaysian pork importers.

In fact, the 50 cents per kilogram surcharge were taken by the two Datuks’ (President and Vice president of MAOPI) personally owned companies since early 2012 until end 2012. The consortium mentioned in your article was approved to collect 50 cents per kilogram only via MAOPI’s second AGM meeting in March 2013, AFTER the release of your article.

Another main part of the truth is, since year 2012, all importers were “threatened” and forced to “share” 50% of the quota allocated with the two Datuks owned companies. In short, the two Datuks owned companies will actually hold more than 50% of total import quota allocated and become majority of the market holders instantly.

For any importers who refused to contribute 50 cents and refused to “share” 50% of the quota with Datuks, MAOPI will “mark” those “uncooperative and disobedient” importers. Eventually, those marked importers’ quotas were withheld and “cut throat” by Director General of Department of Veterinary Services and further excluded in the future quota allocation name list and unable to import until today.

The unfair practices and policies of MAOPI are fully supported by Director General of Department of Veterinary Services. During many occasions, for those who were unhappy with MAOPI policies were approached by Director General of Department of Veterinary Services personally, and it was made very clear verbally that quota will be given only if cooperating with MAOPI (even though the Ministry of Agriculture has never approve to allocate quota to MAOPI and it is never a mandate to join MAOPI in order to be eligible to import).

Another problem is none of the importer “dare” to question the validity and legality of Konsortium MAOPI Sdn. Bhd. (Co. no. 1017113-D) as a 50 cents collector now as might lead to “cut throat” consequences! In fact, many letters were written to Ministry of Agriculture and even Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to highlight the corruption and collaboration between MAOPI and Director General of Department of Veterinary Services.

However, most of the complaints letters were looped back to MAOPI due to its strong “networks”. MAOPI questioned those importers where their letterheads were used and advised them to lodge police report to proof [prove] that those complaint letters were forged by someone else. A copy of the police report to be given to MAOPI and MAOPI will further clarify with the reported authority to “cancel” the complaints. In short, there is no chance for the true independent party to initiate corruption investigate.

Attached are 2 MAOPI’s official letter dated 8/8/2011 was sent to many importers and letter dated 1/8/2011 was sent to many foreign embassies / trade commission / importer members.

These letters are a clear proof of monopolization, power politics, cartelization, foreign discrimination, and against free trade act. For a true NEM, quota implementation in many industries especially small industry such as pork importation should be ceased immediately. Quota implementation in pork importation is just a legalized excuse and powerful tool to encourage and further boost corruption at the expense of the importers and final consumers.

The attached letter given to President of MAOPI dated 8 July 2011 by Director General of Department of Veterinary Services is another proof of power abuse, as quota allocation is given to the individual importer instead of association.

Although the quota of 15,000 metric tonne given to MAOPI for 6 months stated in the letter was eventually abolished, the manipulation of quota allocation cannot be avoided. This is because, as at today, the quota allocation proposal including the importer name lists are still filtered by the Director General of Department of Veterinary Services.

Another attachment is the committee members of MAOPI as at 2013. The companies mentioned are all controlled and owned by either President or Vice president of MAOPI. Again, this is a clear proof of monopolization of quota. Based on SSM search, the first five companies were allocated quota since implementation in 2011.

Below findings are worth investigating.

Wide Dynamic Sdn Bhd

Delight Corner Sdn Bhd

Sim Swee Hin Sdn Bhd

Tumpuan Cerah Sdn Bhd

Golden Century Import & Export Trading

Fantasy Ruby Sdn. Bhd

CL Integrated Resources Sdn. Bhd

Dr Lim, importers really hope that you can help, such as posting the attachments to foreign trade commission in various countries such as Canada, Australia, USA, European Union, embassies of Germany, Spain, Belgium, Sweden, The Netherlands and Denmark, as these are the main countries that are exporting.

Importers urge the interference from exporting countries authorities to demand to cease the quota implementation since it is a main barrier to the free trade and free market, to request Director General of Department of Veterinary Services to step down, and to dissolve MAOPI.

Importers will also appreciate if you could lodge a report to the top position and the right person of MACC with the attachments given. Let the MACC investigate by interrogating all importers individually. Importers will be more than happy to tell the truth to MACC directly.

Importers apologize for not being able to disclose their names as they really need to protect themselves from being “marked” by MAOPI and “cut throat” by the Director General of Department of Veterinary Services.

CPI note

We have not included the attachments in this article for now and have blanked out the names and i/c numbers of various individuals listed as heading the companies.

MAOPI and Ministry of Agriculture officials in a recent group photo

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 20 March 2013, 2:17 pm and is filed under
Lim Teck Ghee
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


21-Day Countdown to 13GE – The empty drumbeats from Pemandu (Part 1)

The EPT Annual Report for 2012 prepared by PEMANDU and launched by the Prime Minister with great fanfare is nothing more than a public relations effort.

The report has been written and delivered as part of the electioneering effort mounted by a Government that is desperately attempting to convey to a disbelieving electorate a picture of progress and achievements together with promises of attaining the promised land of a High Income country by 2020.

Taken as a whole, the Report is a document that attempts to project illusions, highly massaged selective facts to lull the electorate. The primary objective is to gain a return to power at all costs.

The Report contains glossy charts and graphs and statements that cannot be substantiated.

It fails dismally by not providing a true and candid assessment of the challenges the nation faces because of squandered opportunities for mounting genuine economic reforms particularly needed in view of the uncertainties linked with weaknesses in the global economy that emerged in 2007.

The past failure to act responsibly, it would appear, will continue even as the economy moves towards slower growth, a worsening fiscal situation, a public debt level that has breached the limit of 55 percent if account is taken of the contingent liabilities of the Federal government, double digit growth in household debt, stagnant wage and earning levels, the failure of private investment to respond to the so-called stimulative and incentive measures announced in successive Budgets.

The Report begins by referring to the fact that the ETP goals were to achieve a Gross National Income (GNI) of US$15,000, create 3.3 million jobs and secure US$444 billion in investments by 2020.

It should be recalled that these targets were essentially set at the time when the current Five Year Plan was launched. They were based on optimistic assumptions about the direction of the global economy, the return of robust private sector investment and growth.

The current report takes no serious account of the change in the global environment and its impact on the performance of the Malaysian economy.

The injection of external shocks represented by the recent slowdown in exports, lower net flows of FDI, and an acceleration in illicit capital flows are new developments demanding policy course correction. The economy continues to lose competitiveness and suffers from a brain drain.

All of these issues are swept under the carpet. No course corrections are offered in the Report even as the economy drifts.

What the Report offers are bold assertions based on dubious statistics, selective for the most part, and pie in the sky forecasts for the future.

Little is offered by way of policy analysis and an outline of policies that are needed over the medium term.

In launching the Report, the Prime Minister, predictably offered more of the same accompanied by a promise of distributing more largesse in the form of BR1M.

It would seem “Giver Najib” is now a permanent  resident!

                                                   Lim Kit Siang

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 21 March 2013, 6:03 pm and is filed under
Elections
,
ETP
,
Najib Razak
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.