From a Shenzhen factory job to world’s richest self-made woman

by David Barboza

New York Times

July 30, 2015

How a Chinese Billionaire Built Her Fortune

Zhou Qunfei started out making watch lenses for $1 a day, but honed her hands-on knowledge into a world-class, multibillion-dollar operation at the vanguard of China’s push into high-end manufacturing.

Zhou Qunfei is the world’s richest self-made woman. Zhou, the founder of Lens Technology, owns a $27 million estate in Hong Kong. She jets off to Silicon Valley and Seoul to court executives at Apple and Samsung, her two biggest customers. She has played host to President Xi Jinping of China, when he visited her company’s headquarters.

But she seems most at home pacing the floor of her state-of-the-art factory, tinkering.

She’ll dip her hands into a tray of water, to determine whether the temperature is just right. She can explain the intricacies of heating glass in an ion potassium salt bath. When she passes a grinding machine, she is apt to ask technicians to step aside so she can take their place for a while.

Zhou knows the drill. For years, she labored in a factory, the best job she could get having grown up in an impoverished village in central China.

“She’ll sometimes sit down and work as an operator to see if there’s anything wrong with the process,” said James Zhao, a general manager at Lens Technology. “That will put me in a very awkward position. If there’s a problem, she’d say, ‘Why didn’t you see that?’ ”

Zhou has honed her hands-on knowledge into a world-class, multibillion-dollar operation, one at the vanguard of China’s push into high-end manufacturing. Lens Technology is now one of the leading suppliers of the so-called cover glass used in laptops, tablets and mobile devices, including the Apple iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy. This year, her factories are expected to churn out more than a billion glass screens, each refined to a fraction of a millimeter.

In creating a global supplier, Zhou, 44, has come to define a new class of female entrepreneurs in China who have built their wealth from scratch — a rarity in the world of business.

In Japan, there is not a single self-made female billionaire, according to Forbes. In the United States and Europe, most women who are billionaires secured their wealth through inheritance.

No country has more self-made female billionaires than China. The Communist Party, under Mao Zedong, promoted gender equality, allowing women to flourish after capitalism started to take hold, according to Huang Yasheng, an expert in China’s entrepreneurial class and a professor of international management at MIT.

And in a country with few established players, entrepreneurs like Zhou were able to quickly make their mark when they entered business in the 1990s as China’s economic engine was revving up.

Zhou’s stake in Lens Technology, which went public in China this year, is worth $7.2 billion.

But she isn’t a celebrity chieftain, like Jack Ma, the billionaire founder of Alibaba, the e-commerce giant. Few in China had even heard her name before her company’s public offering this year. She rarely grants interviews or makes public appearances.

An elegant woman with glasses and a preference for Christian Dior suits, Zhou is fastidious and demanding — “Sit up straight!” she orders a general manager during a meeting. Yet she exudes a quiet recognition that things could have easily turned out differently.

“In the village where I grew up, a lot of girls didn’t have a choice of whether to go to middle school. They would get engaged or married and spend their entire life in that village,” she said in an interview. “I chose to be in business, and I don’t regret it.”

The youngest of three children, Zhou was born in a tiny village in central China’s Hunan province, a farming community about two hours south of Changsha, the provincial capital. Her mother died when she was 5. Her father, a skilled craftsman, later lost a finger and most of his eyesight in an industrial accident.

At home, she helped her family raise pigs and ducks for food and additional money. At school, Zhou excelled, but she dropped out of school at 16 and traveled south to Guangdong province, to live with her uncle’s family and search for better work.

She eventually landed a job on a factory floor in the city of Shenzhen, making watch lenses for about $1 a day.

After three months, she decided to quit and wrote a letter of resignation to her boss complaining about boredom and the 16-hour workdays. Even so, she expressed her gratitude for the job, saying she wanted to learn more.

The letter impressed the factory chief. He asked her to stay, offering her a promotion.

Three years later Zhou, then 22, decided to set out on her own. With $3,000 in savings, she and several relatives started their own workshop next door.

“In the Hunan language, we call women like her ‘ba de man,’ which means a person who dares to do what others are afraid to do,” said her cousin Zhou Xinyi, who helped her open the workshop and now serves on the Lens board.

Her work habits lean toward the obsessive. Her company’s headquarters is at one of her manufacturing plants in Changsha. In her spacious office, a door behind her desk opens into a small apartment, ensuring she can roam the factory floor day or night.

She was still making glass for watches when she received an unexpected phone call in 2003 from executives at Motorola.

They asked if she was willing to help them develop a glass screen for their new device, the Razr V3. At the time, the display screens on most mobile phones were made of plastic.

“I got this call, and they said, ‘Just answer yes or no, and if the answer’s yes, we’ll help you set up the process,’ ” Zhou recalled. “I said yes.”

Soon after, orders started rolling in from other mobile-phone makers like HTC, Nokia and Samsung.

Then, in 2007, Apple entered the market with the iPhone, which had a keyboard-enabled glass touch screen that rewrote the rules of the game for mobile devices. Apple picked Lens as its supplier, propelling Zhou’s company into a dominant position in China.

More than once as she expanded the company, colleagues say, Zhou put up her apartment as a guarantee for a new bank loan.

Within five years, she had manufacturing plants under construction in three cities.

“She’s a passionate entrepreneur, and she’s very hands-on,” says James Hollis, an executive at Corning, which has a partnership with Lens Technology. “I’ve watched her company grow, and her develop a strong team. Now, there are over 100 competitors in this space, but Lens is a Tier 1 player.”

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 11 August 2015, 7:23 am and is filed under
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Mahathir exaggerating when he said “democracy is dead” but there is no doubt that Najib would shed no tears to kill democracy and even launch a  bigger “Operation Lalang 2015” than Mahathir’s 1987 Operation to save his political life

Former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad said yesterday that democracy in the country is dead.

Mahathir is exaggerating though there is no doubt that the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak would shed no tears to kill democracy and even launch a bigger “Operation Lalang 2015” than Mahathir’s 1987 Operation to save his political life.

Mahathir’s Operation Lalang in 1987, which unleashed a multi-faceted assault on democracy, human rights and the independence, impartiality and professionalism of key national institutions involving the Press, Parliament, Judiciary, key agencies like the Police, the anti-corruption agency, the election commission, the universities, entire civil service, brought the fragile plant of Malaysian democracy to the brink of ruin and disaster.

But Malaysian resilience, the spirit and love for freedom, justice and the nation, did not wilt or capitulate to Mahathir’s iron-fisted policies, but sprang back not only to recover lost ground during the Mahathir decades, but to achieve new democratic breakthroughs as in the 13th General Election when 52% of popular vote sought the first change of national government with new Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, but the people were denied the fruits of democratic victory because of undemocratic gerrymandering  of parliamentary constituencies.

Democracy in Malaysia is facing another crisis, and undoubtedly an even bigger one than under Mahathir’s premiership.

Malaysia is in the midst of  another round of intensive attacks on democracy, human rights and the independence, impartiality and professionalism of key national institutions, which have not yet  fully recovered from the first round of assaults on the institutions in the Mahathir era.

The blocking of Sarawak Report website, the three-month suspension of The Edge Weekly and the Edge Financial Daily; the sacking of the Attorney-General, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister for Rural and Regional Development; the assault on  Parliament by the  sabotage of  Public Accounts Committee (PAC) investigations into the 1MDB; the scuppering of the multi-agency Special Task Force on 1MDB scandal and the RM2.6 billion deposits in the Prime Minister’s personal accounts; the “nine days of madness in Putrajaya” marked by police  arrests and interrogation of MACC officers and most lately the immediate transfer of two MACC directors out of MACC to the Prime Ministers’ Office are all milestones of this second wave of  attacks on democracy and national institutions in Malaysia.

It has not been all smooth-sailing for the advocates of hardline response in the Najib camp to the 1MDB and RM2.6 billion scandals, like the cancellation this morning of the  punitive  transfer orders to the two MACC directors to the Prime Minister’s Office because of widespread negative responses from all sectors of society (including among UMNO members), but the offensive against democracy and human rights in general and  the national institutions in particular have not run its course.

This can be discerned from Mahathir’s forecast that Bank Negara governor Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz will be  the next to be investigated after the assaults on the MACC.

Why have senior public servants, like the former Attorney-General who had served three Prime Ministers for nearly 13 years or the Bank Negara Governor who has recently been described as “an icon of integrity, brilliance and professionalism who stands for the very best our nation has to offer” whom Malaysia desperately needs “to help navigate Malaysia out of the troubled economic times ahead”, are suddenly looked askance by the powers-that-be and even suspected of being “traitors” involved in an international plot to topple the elected government of Malaysia?

In such a hot-house atmosphere artificially generated in  the top reaches of government over the so-called “international conspiracy” to topple Najib as the elected Prime Minister, the administration seems to find a national  enemy or traitor  behind every bush and stone, as if traitors are crawling all over the key national positions, in particular in three of the four agencies which had constituted the Special Task Force investigating 1MDB and RM2.6 billion deposits – the Attorney-General Chambers, Bank Negara Malaysia and MACC.

I call on Najib to end this “madness” which is evidence of  the most fractured government in the nation’s history and  for a return of sanity to the highest counsels of of the nation – starting with the Cabinet meeting tomorrow.

Or is this halt of the  “madness” which had engulfed the highest reaches of government and a return to sanity in the affairs of the state  complete beyond Najib’s powers and capabilities?

[Speech (1) at the DAP Perlis State Committee sixth anniversary celebrations DAP Perlis branch representatives in Kangar on Monday, 10th August 2015 at 8 pm]

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 11 August 2015, 10:48 am and is filed under
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Malaysia suffers today because it didn’t in 1990s

― William Pesek

Malay Mail Online

August 11, 2015

AUGUST 11 ― Malaysia’s ongoing currency crash has many causes: a worsening global outlook, plunging commodity prices and, of course, the political scandal enveloping Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak. But the real culprit is the year 1997.

The conventional wisdom is that Malaysia’s then-leader Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad saved the country from the worst ravages of the Asian financial crisis when he imposed capital controls, pegged the ringgit and waged verbal war against speculators. It’s true that Malaysia avoided much of the chaos that toppled economies in Indonesia, South Korea and Thailand. But events today show why, 18 years later, Malaysia may wind up the biggest loser in the region.

Malaysia’s neighbours recovered by improving transparency, strengthening their financial systems, and limiting collusion between public and private sectors. Such urgency never swept Malaysia, where the ruling coalition has held power for almost six decades.

Improvements in Malaysian corporate governance have been slow and uneven. Hopes for an end to 46 years of affirmative action ― which benefits the Malay majority while sapping productivity and repelling foreign investors ― have been for naught. Efforts to weed out corruption and ween the economy off energy exports have been tepid.

Today’s economic troubles are the product of that complacency. Had the Malaysian government worked harder to strengthen economic fundamentals and win the trust of global investors, Najib’s scandal might not be sending the ringgit to its lowest level in 17 years. Had officials in Putrajaya, the country’s administrative capital, done more to internationalise Malaysia’s business culture, foreign investors wouldn’t now be rushing for the door. The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI Index has fallen more than 11 per cent from its April 21 peak, while official foreign-exchange reserves dropped below $100 billion for the first time since 2010.

As has been well reported, Najib faces questions about US$700 million (RM2.6 billion) that allegedly moved through government agencies and state-linked companies to accounts bearing his name. (Najib denies it, while Malaysia’s anti-graft commission says it was a “donation.”) But foreign investors’ mistrust of the Malaysian government traces back to policies pursued over the past 18 years.

Perhaps the most notorious was Dr Mahathir’s September 1998 decision to sack Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. After months of sparring with Anwar over post- crisis reforms, Mahathir fired him and named himself finance minister, an awkward centralization of power that persists today and enabled Najib to create and oversee scandal-plagued state investment company 1Malaysia Development Bhd. And when Najib recently fired Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who was demanding answers from the prime minister, it seemed like history repeating itself. Just as in 1997 and 1998, the government is more concerned with closing ranks than retooling the economy.

Indonesia, Korea and Thailand are also having their share of troubles as China wobbles and the Federal Reserve prepares to hike interest rates. But Malaysia’s accelerating capital flight is particularly worrisome.

Malaysia’s central bank appears to be struggling to slow the ringgit’s 18 per cent plunge over the past 12 months. The currency is now the lowest since Anwar’s departure in September 1998. That makes for an inauspicious economic bookend: Dr Mahathir is now among those suggesting Malaysia peg the ringgit anew.

There’s certainly less stigma attached to such policies than there once was. In 1998, the International Monetary Fund called Malaysia’s peg a “retrograde step.” By December 2002, the IMF was terming it a “stability anchor.” And the IMF notably didn’t slap Greece for imposing capital controls, the way it did Mahathir in the late 1990s.

But the mere mention of another peg suggests Malaysia’s political establishment is still more concerned with the symptoms of the country’s problems than the underlying causes. The ringgit isn’t sliding because speculators like George Soros (who Mahathir blamed in 1997) are attacking it. Malaysian assets are suffering because the government failed to do basic economic maintenance ― in part because it avoided the worst of 1997 and 1998, in ways Bangkok, Jakarta and Seoul couldn’t.

As that dawns on investors, the pressure to sell will intensify. Overseas ownership of Malaysian government and corporate debt fell 2.4 per cent in July as a sense of crisis began to permeate the air.

Malaysia isn’t about to collapse. With its moderate growth and the highly-respected Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz helming the central bank, meltdown risks are limited. But Malaysian officials are wrong to argue that the ringgit’s slide doesn’t reflect underlying fundamentals. It does indeed, and that’s the real problem ― one that can be traced back to 1997.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. ― Bloomberg View

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 11 August 2015, 11:33 am and is filed under
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New Pakatan Rakyat to be formed must not repeat the mistakes of Pakatan Rakyat which died an early death because of the lack of trustworthiness of one of its component parties

Recently, the PAS Deputy President Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man called for the revival of a united opposition amid the twin scandals of 1MDB and  RM2.6 billion deposited into Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s oersonal bank accounts in AmBank just before the 13th General Election.

He said  this was the “crucial hour for all opposition parties to unite” and sit together to find common ground and minimise their differences.

I admit to great wariness of such a call  after the early death of Pakatan Rakyat despite the high hopes and trust placed on it  by Malaysians regardless of race, religion or region rooting for the first political change on the national landscape, vesting it with 52% of the popular vote in the 13th General Election.

Tuan Ibrahim is perfectly correct on the need to unite all possible opposition forces for political change, but it must not be an opportunistic “unity for unity sake” without a clear set of common political principles and objectives for the good of the people and country.

Mat Sabu, when he was PAS Deputy President  had also made very sound, reasonable and rational  proposals but we in Pakatan Rakyat found to our shock and disbelief  that he did not have the authority and mandate of PAS No. 1, who would override and veto him with regard to  Pakatan Rakyat Leadership Council decisions and resolutions on the ground that only the PAS No. 2 attended and not PAS No. 1 – the PAS President Datuk Seri Hadi Awang.

What is more mortifying, we also found later to our horror that the PAS No. 1 could even renege and violate Pakatan Rakyat Leadership Council decisions of which he had been a party, having attended the meetings himself!

This is why we have the following sad examples of disunity among Pakatan Rakyat despite unanimous decision at the Pakatan Rakyat Leadership Council level:

1.	Violation of  the Pakatan Rakyat policy of promoting a one-to-one electoral contest with Barisan Nasional by despatching PAS candidates on Nomination Day to contest against PKR in six state assembly constituencies in the 13th General Elections, causing UMNO candidates to win in all these six seats;

2. Overruling the Pakatan Rakyat Leadership Council decision on August 17, 2014 with PAS represented by Deputy President Mat Sabu on behalf of Hadi, that the PKR President Datuk Seri Wan Azizah Wan Ismail be appointed as Selangor Mentri Besar.

3. Hadi’s breach of his personal commitment at the PR Leadership Council meeting of Feb. 8, 2015 that any amendment to the 1995 Kelantan Syariah Criminal Enactment and any private member’s bill motion in Parliament on hudud implementation would first be presented to the PR Leadership Council.

In Perlis, I have been informed that the DAP’s sole State Assembly  candidate for the Titi Tinggi seat,  DAP Perlis Chairman Teh Seng Chuan, found some of the Perlis PAS state leaders were not trustworthy as they did not give  full support to his candidature in the 13th general election.

The new Pakatan Rakyat to be established after the formation of a new Islamist party from Gerakan Harapan Baru – whether we call it New PR, PR 2.0, Harapan Rakyat or any other name –  must not repeat the mistakes of Pakatan Rakyat which died an early death because of the lack of trustworthiness of one of its component parties.

Malaysians must not condone or even countenance the scandal of the RM2.6 billion deposited into the Prime Minister’s personal bank accounts in March 2013.

Although the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has issued a statement that the RM2.6 billion had not come from 1MDB funds, Malaysians are entitled to continue to question this  until and unless satisfactory proof is provided to prove that it has nothing to do, directly or indirectly, from 1MDB.

But regardless of whether the RM2.6 billion had anything to do with 1MDB or otherwise, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act is very clear that gratification or corruption includes donations, which makes the RM2.6 billion deposited into Najib’s personal bank accounts highly suspect as “corruption money”.

What is shocking is that Najib could claim that MACC had cleared him of corruption in connection with the RM2.6 billion deposits in his private bank accounts, when the MACC had never given any such clearance or made any such statement.

Leaving this issue aside for the moment, Najib seems to suggest that the RM2.6 billion were used not for his personal purpose but for the benefit of UMNO.

Former Prime Minister and UMNO President Tun Dr Mahathir made a very pertinent when he asked how Najib could claim that the three million UMNO members supported Najib on the RM2.6 billion scandal.

Do the three million UMNO members know how the RM2.6 billion in Najib’s personal bank accounts for UMNO had been spent?

Let Najib inform the three million UMNO members how much from this sum had been allocated to UMNO and Barisan Nasional candidates  for the 13th general election campaiging, whether 10%, 20% or 30% had been spent for this purpose – which are already astronomical sums of money, coming to RM260 million, RM520 million and RM780 million respectively!

If RM260 million  or RM520 million or RM780 million had been allocated to UMNO and Barisan Nasional leaders or candidates for the 13GE campaigning, then let Najib give such a full list, and announce what he has done to the balance of the RM2.6 billion in his personal bank accounts – as more than RM1.8 billion would be involved  if we are talking about the balance of 70% of the RM2.6 billion deposited into Najib’s personal accounts.

I do not believe that the three million UMNO members are so dumb that they could give support to Najib about the RM2.6 billion deposited into the Prime Minister’s personal accounts without knowing how the RM2.6 billion had been spent.

Najib should not regard the three million UMNO members as a flock of sheep who will give hima blank cheque of support regardless of how he had made use of the RM2.6 billion in his personal bank accounts in AmBank.

Let Najib be truthful, frank and forthright with the three million UMNO members about the RM2.6 billion in his personal bank accounts!

[Speech (2) at the DAP Perlis State Committee sixth anniversary celebrations by DAP Perlis branch representatives in Kangar on Monday, 10th August 2015 at 8 pm]

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 11 August 2015, 2:09 pm and is filed under
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Penolong pengarang Utusan cabar menteri, pengarah Jasa debat isu derma RM2.6 bilion Najib

The Malaysian Insider

11 August 2015

Menteri Komunikasi dan Multimedia Datuk Seri Dr Salleh Said Keruak dan Pengarah Jasa Datuk Dr Puad Zarkashi perlu bersedia berdebat dalam isu RM2.6 dimasukkan ke dalam akaun peribadi Datuk Seri Najib Razak bagi membuktikan mereka pembela perdana menteri, kata Ku Seman Ku Hussain.

Penolong pengarang akhbar milik Umno edisi Ahad, Mingguan Malaysia itu berkata Salleh dan Puad memutar belit kenyataannya yang sama sekali tidak mempersoalkan dana RM2.6 bilion itu datang daripada sumber rasuah.

“Kedua-dua panglima ini sama sekali tidak menyentuh isu yang saya bangkitkan iaitu derma RM2.6 bilion itu bukan milik Umno. Hujah saya seluruh kepimpinan tertinggi termasuk bekas timbalan perdana menteri Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin tidak tahu tentang kewujudan derma itu.

“Saya mencabar sama ada Salleh (menteri RTM) atau Puad supaya mengatur debat dengan saya mengenai isu fundamental derma RM2.6 bilion yang saya anggap bukan kepunyaan Umno ini.

“Kalau disiarkan secara langsung di RTM lagi bagus supaya mereka lebih kelihatan sebagai pembela Najib.  Saya sanggup untuk berdebat satu lawan dua dengan Salleh dan Puad,” katanya menerusi blognya, kayangdailypost semalam.

Ku Seman berkata kedua-dua “panglima” Najib itu tidak menjawab persoalan yang diajukannya menerusi rencana yang disiarkan Mingguan Malaysia pada Ahad sebaliknya membangkitkan isu derma RM2.6 bilion itu sebagai rasuah.

Katanya, jawapan Salleh dan Puad membuatkan rakyat melihat pemimpin kanan Umno sebagai terlalu dungu hingga tidak tahu apa yang ada dalam akaun parti.

“Mereka ini kaki spin, sebab itulah cybertrooper yang diketuai Puad hanya layak dibaca pengampu Umno saja.

“Cuba cari dalam tulisan saya, adakah ayat yang membawa maksud saya mempertikaikan derma itu sebagai rasuah? Saya hanya mengatakan derma itu sebagai hak peribadi.

“Yang saya bangkitkan adalah derma itu kepunyaan Najib. Kalau dana politik Umno, sudah tentu Umno tahu sejak awal lagi,” katanya.

Beliau berkata kedua-dua pemimpin itu tidak perlu menyembunyikan sesuatu yang tidak cerdik dengan tindakan tidak cerdik.

Katanya, Salleh dan Puad seharusnya menjawab soalan cepu emas anak menteri besar Johor dulu sebelum menjawab tulisannya.

“Sebenarnya apabila membaca kenyataan mereka di Utusan Malaysia hari ini (semalam) yang cuba merendahkan hujah saya, tiba-tiba saya hilang hormat kepada mereka. Mereka cuba menonjolkan diri sebagai pembela Najib tetapi pada masa sama tidak mempunyai kecerdikan yang tinggi.

“Maka akhirnya Puad dan Salleh hanya boleh disamakan dengan juak-juak Umno yang sudah disihirkan supaya menjadi tukang angguk.

“Sama ada mereka mahu menjadi pembela buta dan tuli, itu soal mereka tetapi jangan menggunakan kuasa untuk menafikan hak rakyat mendapatkan maklumat yang betul,” katanya.

Semalam, Utusan Malaysia ditegur Umno kerana lantang mempersoalkan derma RM2.6 bilion yang masuk ke akaun Najib sebagai dana politik, melalui tulisan Ku Seman.

Puad berkata, Ku Seman sepatutnya menjelaskan kepada pembaca tiada peraturan yang menghalang seseorang individu menggunakan akaun peribadi bagi tujuan dana politik.

Puad berkata, jika benar Najib mahu menggunakannya untuk kepentingan peribadi, beliau pasti menyimpannya di akaun peribadi di luar negara dan bukan dibawa balik ke Malaysia.

Ku Seman melalui artikel “Derma RM2.6 bilion dan Integriti Umno” pada Ahad mempersoalkan integriti parti itu dalam menjelaskan perkara sebenar isu derma RM2.6 bilion ke akaun Najib.

Katanya, pada masa sama wujud tangan ghaib yang menghalang siasatan kes 1MDB apabila pegawai Suruhanjaya Pencegahan Rasuah Malaysia (SPRM) ditukarkan ke Jabatan Perdana Menteri (JPM).

Salleh pula dilaporkan berkata, Utusan Malaysia tidak sepatutnya mempersoalkan lagi dana politik yang diterima Najib kerana ia sudah disahkan bukan rasuah oleh SPRM dan Najib.

Katanya, apa yang penting adalah penjelasan berterusan kepada ahli parti hingga ke peringkat akar umbi untuk mengelakkan salah faham atau kekeliruan.

“Apa yang ditimbulkan penulis dalam rencana berkenaan adalah pandangan peribadi beliau berdasarkan dapatan dan kefahamannya mengenai maksud dana parti, tetapi SPRM sudah jelaskan ia tiada unsur rasuah.

“Malah penderma dana tersebut juga sudah memberi penjelasan,” katanya dipetik Utusan Malaysia melalui kenyataan, semalam.  – 11 Ogos, 2015.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 11 August 2015, 3:49 pm and is filed under
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Singapore celebrates 50 years of statehood

Financial Times

August 9, 2015 5:35 am

Jennifer Hughes in Hong Kong and Andrew Whiffin in London

Happy 50th birthday Singapore.

Whatever is said about the Lion City — its nanny state tendencies, a seeming obsession with finicky rules, the challenges it faces sustaining its position — its economic achievements of the past 50 years are substantial.

The death of Lee Kuan Yew in March this year gave an outlet for a raft of reviews of Singapore’s performance.

Here we present a few charts to put the city state in a global context.

Gross domestic product per capita has risen at a 10 per cent compound annual growth rate for the past five decades in one of the world’s best performances, according to economists at Morgan Stanley.

That puts Singapore on a par with the likes of far older countries such as Denmark, Sweden, Canada and the Netherlands.

Its performance is even more impressive when considering that GDP per capita was roughly a third of those countries’ level in 1965.

That fast growth has, however, left Singapore facing challenges.

The labour immigration that spurred its performance before the global financial crisis has widened income inequality and strained infrastructure.

Singapore has achieved a lot of its growth from improving productivity. The question however is how it copes with the impact of slowing immigration and an ageing population on workforce output.

As a contribution to GDP, productivity gains have fallen from about 0.9 percentage point a year measured over the past decade, to about 0.3 percentage point in each of the past five.

Higher fertility rates could help — but only after a couple of decades if they do begin to rise once more. And politically, the tougher immigration rules imposed since 2010 are unlikely to be modified.

That leaves more nebulous factors such as innovation, where Singapore is lagging behind and could in theory take action. While it ranks number two globally in terms of competitiveness, according to the World Economic Forum, it ranks only 11th forinnovation and business sophistication.

Education is one area where Singapore has been driving hard.

Part of the city state’s pragmatic approach has involved shifting its training to where it is needed, from the early days when vocational training was key through the transition to a higher-skilled white-collar workforce.

Now the focus is on creativity and innovation — somewhat at odds with a previous emphasis on heavy use of standardised testing.

Spending on education certainly has room to improve.

According to Morgan Stanley, Singapore’s public spending on education amounts to about 3 per cent of GDP — far behind the Nordic countries, which spend 7 per cent or more, and even Malaysia at its 6 per cent.

For wider comparison, the US spends about 5.5 per cent and Hong Kong 3.5 per cent.

Singapore’s high employment is another notable achievement.

After high levels of joblessness in the 1960s, Singapore sought international capital to kick-start industrialisation and achieved full employment in the 1970s.

The slowdown in immigration in recent years has helped keep the employment rate high, but has not so far produced significant wage growth.

Instead, employees are taking home a larger share of GDP — which is slowing — but companies are unable to pass on any labour costs rises by raising prices.

Singapore is wealthy, and Singaporeans — or rather residents, whether Singaporean or other — who have it increasingly do not mind flaunting it. Flashy luxury cars are increasingly prevalent downtown.

Billionaire headcounts may not be the best way of measuring true economic progress, but they still say something about where the wealth is accruing.

In this case, China’s billionaire boom — a 38 per cent compound annual growth rate in the past decade — has clearly overflowed into Hong Kong, Singapore’s closest rival. And Singapore’s own 9 per cent growth rate is not that far short of Hong Kong’s 12 per cent.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 11 August 2015, 11:27 am and is filed under
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The contrasting fates of Singapore and Malaysia

 — Devadas Krishnadas

Malay Mail Online

August 10, 2015

AUGUST 10 — Fifty years ago, Singapore was ejected from the Malaysian Federation. The two countries have since travelled very divergent paths while sharing some common characteristics. Both countries were colonised by the British, both were occupied by the Japanese during the World War II, both are multi-racial and multi-religious, and both have experienced considerable economic improvement since independence.

They also have significant differences. These differences should have been telling in favour of Malaysia. It was the hinterland for the Singapore economy. It had land, a multi-source commodity economy and a sizeable population. Singapore found itself suddenly distinct from its major market, dependent on Malaysia for water and faced with the hurdles of setting up shop as a newly sovereign state.

However, today, Singapore has celebrated its 50th year of independence in the best possible shape — politically stable, economically promising and socially affluent.

Malaysia, in contrast, lags behind Singapore on these counts. Putrajaya’s credibility has been undermined by its handling of the controversy over 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

The political landscape is poisoned by suspicion and distrust among the races.

The Malaysian economy is running on fumes. The ringgit is at a 17-year low as investor confidence bleeds away.

Malaysia has for decades suffered a brain drain of its most talented, with Singapore a major beneficiary.

What lessons can be learnt from this dichotomy that seemed so unlikely 50 years ago?

Finding the right leadership

First, what seemed like a disadvantage — not having a resource economy to rely on — proved to be a blessing for Singapore. The absence of the easy option of selling natural resources forced the Republic to focus intently on finding a myriad ways of making herself relevant to the global economy. This continues to be a perennial preoccupation for Singapore’s economic planners.

Second, an emphasis on human capital. Singapore’s leaders recognised that to make a go of things, it had only the quality of the people to rely on. Hence, it had to mobilise the full extent of Singapore’s human capital and to deal with the world on a competitive basis. This led to a decision to make English the language of commerce, administration and education and heavy investments into public education.

The high level of literacy and education among Singaporeans has been a major factor in ensuring that our workforce is plugged into the global economy.

Malaysia chose to adopt Malay as its language of administration and education, and its public education infrastructure leaves much to be desired. The result is a population whose most-driven opt for private education to help actualise their educational and professional aspirations.

Third, from the onset Singapore adopted the principal of meritocracy. Malaysia chose to legalise racial preference through the bumiputra policy. Its politics are also explicitly organised along racial lines. The end result of the choice of meritocracy is a Singapore where there is social mobility, reward for achievement and a sense of fair play. People vote with their feet, and Singapore has been the beneficiary of decades of talent migration from across the border.

Fourth, integrity. Lee Kuan Yew’s pioneer administration set a hard and uncompromising standard of incorruptibility. This reputation for political and administrative integrity has had positive spillover effects as a generally desired social value in private and economic spheres as well. Malaysia, in contrast, has been dogged by decades of allegations of impropriety, of which the ongoing case involving 1MDB is merely the latest.

However, despite where things stand, Singapore’s future is not necessarily more assured than Malaysia’s.

First, while Malaysia can continue to reply on resource extraction, Singapore is in a permanent state of economic competition. The republic’s success has been paralleled by rising costs that make it less cost competitive. Singapore now faces competition from rising regional neighbours and from changing global chains, most particularly the opening-up of the north and northwest trade routes in the Arctic.

Second, Singapore is facing hard constraints on land and population. Malaysia has space and people to spare. Singapore has to adapt its way past these constraints through innovation in land use and with significant labour productivity improvements.

Third, neither Malaysians nor global investors have high expectations of Malaysian political and bureaucratic leaders. This is in contrast to Singapore, where both the population and investors treat a high standard of political and public leadership as synonymous with Singapore and a critical success factor.

The recurring political question for Singapore is, can it continue to find the right leadership for each generation? The formula of using academic achievement to filter out those to lead is simplistic and naive. So much of what constitutes leadership is not what is in the head, but what is in the heart. The exam for the heart is life, struggle, hardship and failure — the very opposite of unrelenting success, career ease and guaranteed professional validation.

Singapore’s greatest risk is not that we cannot find leaders, it is that we may not find the ones that really matter. We must not lose sight of what leading should mean and assume that we can administratively churn out leaders.

The more pertinent tale of two countries is ultimately not about Singapore and Malaysia — although there are lessons to be heeded — but between Singapore past and the Singapore to come.

Singapore is a hard act to follow. The contrast in performance with Malaysia is stark. But Malaysia’s future as a nation is not in doubt. Singapore’s future, however, is highly conditional. As we celebrate 50 years of independence, we would do well to keep in mind that there is no certainty that we will have another 50. — TODAY

* Devadas Krishnadas is chief executive of Future-Moves Group, an international strategic consultancy and executive education provider based in Singapore. This commentary first appeared on his Facebook page.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 11 August 2015, 6:44 am and is filed under
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Why is the newly-minted Director of Strategic Communications breathing panic and fear – is he afraid that the Najib government where he had swiftly  ascended in power and influence may suddenly collapse like a house of cards?

The Housing and Local Government Minister, Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan, said today that Sabah and Sarawak, as the backbone of Barisan Nasional, must be consulted before the Prime Minister is changed.

Nothing exceptional in such a statement, although it had not earlier  occurred to the newly-minted Barisan Nasional Director of Strategic Communications who hails from Sabah, or he would have demanded that before Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin was sacked as Deputy Prime Minister and removed as the next-in-line to be Prime Minister if Datuk Seri Najib Razak has to step down or before Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi appointed as new Deputy Prime Minister, Sabah and Sarawak should be consulted first.

But Abdul Rahman would have been the first to dismiss any such suggestion at the time to consult Sabah or Sarawak before the Cabinet reshuffle on July 28 whether for the sacking of Muhyiddin as DPM or the appointment of Zahid as the new DPM, considering his “strategic” role in Najib’s “1MDB war cabinet”.

Why now, then, for the surfacing of the  question of consulting Sabah and Sarawak on the appointment of Prime Minister of Malaysia?

Why is the newly-minted Director of Strategic Communications breathing panic and fear – as if  he  is afraid that the Najib government where he had swiftly  ascended in power and influence because of the twin scandals of 1MDB and the RM2.6 billion in  Najib’s personal bank accounts may suddenly collapse like a house of cards?

Abdul Rahman must thank former Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir who rightly pointed out yesterday that Zahid is not necessarily the successor to be Prime Minister if for some reason, Najib does not complete his term as Prime Minister.

As Mahathir said, Muhyiddn, as UMNO deputy president, could take on the job.

I agree with Mahathir that until the Umno/BN coalition government is removed from office, if there is a vacancy of the premier’s post, it is for UMNO to decide and Muhyiddin would enjoy preference and priority as  the elected UMNO deputy President.

Will this belated realisation by  the Najib 1MDB “war cabinet” that Zahid may not be the person to take over the premiership if Najib steps down set in motion a new train of party and political manoeuvres, such as attempts to expel Muhyiddin from UMNO?

Only time will tell.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 11 August 2015, 5:04 pm and is filed under
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Cabinet should convene a  National “Save Malaysia” Summit before or on Merdeka Day involving all political parties and NGOs to form a national consensus on a blueprint to save Malaysia from becoming a rogue and failed state

Open Letter to Cabinet by DAP Parliamentary Leader and MP for Gelang Patah Lim Kit Siang on Wednesday, August 12, 2015:

To the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and Cabinet Ministers.

I will not beat about the bush and get to the point straightaway for this Open Letter for your Cabinet meeting today.

Never before has Malaysia been faced with such a grave national crisis as today, with a minority Prime Minister helming the most fractured government ever – as evident from the ‘Nine Days of Madness in Putrajaya” when there was a confrontation between the Police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), compelling the latter to hold a  solat hajat to seek divine intervention to match the force and might of the police – and a full-blown economic crisis  illustrated by foreign-exchange reserves dropping below US$100 billion for the first time since 2010,  the rapid and unchecked deterioration of the Malaysian ringgit, the plunge in the stock exchange  index and the exit of foreign capital.

Malaysia’s ringgit has fallen the most in the past seven weeks, retreating for a fifth day of losses to 3.9605 dollar , the lowest level since August 1998, and is down almost 20 percent in the past 12 months.

The Malaysian ringgit first fell below the level of 3.2 to a US dollar  on 20th June 2013, maintaining this level for two months before breaching 3.3 to a US dollar on  22th August 2013.

It  was not until 15 months later that the ringgit deteriorated to 3.4 to a US dollar on 1st December 2014.

After that, the ringgit devalued at a rapid rate, breaching the level of  3.5 to a US dollar  on 8th December 2014, 3.6 to a US dollar level on 21st January 2015 and 3.7 to a US dollar level  on 11th March 2015.

The 3.8 to a US dollar level was first breached on 6th July 2015 and it took just another month to breach the next level of 3.9 to a US dollar on 7th August.

When I was in Kangar on Monday night (August 7) speaking to  the Perlis DAP state and branch leaders, I had warned that  at the rate of only one month for the Malaysian ringgit to devalue from 3.8 to 3.9 to the US dollar, we might see the Malaysian ringgit falling below 4 to a US dollar next month before Malaysia Day on Sept. 16.

But I have been  proved wrong, as the Malaysian ringgit had been plunging precipitately in value, falling to 3.92 on Monday and as low as 3.9605 yesterday.

At this rate of ringgit devaluation, Malaysians will be marking the 58th Merdeka celebrations on August 31 with the Malaysian ringgit at more than 4 to a US dollar!

The double rout of the Malaysian ringgit and the and local stocks with the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI dropping to more than two-year low to 1,652.76 at the close yesterday, together with the exit of foreign capital amounting to RM11.7 billion in foreign funds leaving the Malaysian bourse for the year to date compared to RM6.9 billion for the entirety of last year, are clear signs of a crisis of confidence which cannot be ignored by the new Cabinet.

The root causes of the crisis of confidence are not just economic, but also political and about good governance, in particular the two scandals of the 1MDB and the RM2.6 billion deposited in  Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s personal bank accounts before the 13th general election.

The reshuffled Cabinet on July 28, which saw not only the sacking of the Deputy Prime Minister but also the Attorney-General who had served three Prime Ministers and just two months short of mandatory retirement on reaching 60 years, have deepened the national crisis, as the new Cabinet is not to seek new directions to steer the government and country out of the crisis, but to find new ways to defend the Prime Minister on 1MDB and RM2.6 billion scandals – which is why it has been described as the 1MDB Cabinet.

Professor Danny Quah, the Penang-born Professor of Economics and International Development at the London School of Economics and Political Science, wrote in The Diplomat recently that Malaysia has “gone rogue” – deviating from the ideals of democracy, rule of law, free speech and egalitarianism.

I call on the Cabinet today to take the bold step to face up to the national crisis plaguing Malaysia and to convene a National “Save Malaysia” Summit involving all political parties and NGOs before or on Merdeka Day on 31st August to form a national consensus on a blueprint to save Malaysia from becoming a rogue and failed state.

A rogue state because of violations of democracy, rule of law, free speech and egalitarianism.

A failed state because of rampant corruption, socio-economic injustices, collapse of governance, unbridled racial extremism and religious intolerance and bigotry.

All political parties and NGOs should be invited to send representatives to form the protem committee to  convene the  National “Save Malaysia” Summit to decide on the agenda, which should invite personalities like former Prime Ministers, Tun Mahathir and Tun Abdullah, former Deputy Prime Ministers, Tun Musa Hitam,  Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, and political and NGO veterans like Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, Datuk Ambiga Sreenivsam and  Tan Sri Simon Sipaun to present keynote address on how to “Save Malaysia”.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 12 August 2015, 9:30 am and is filed under
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Can Cabinet answer whether 1MDB debts are now  RM42 billion or over RM50 billion as stated by Muhyiddin before he was sacked as DPM?

The 1MDB Cabinet reshuffled by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak on July 28 should come clean on the 1MDB scandal, starting by explaining to Malaysians whether 1MDB debts are not just RM42 million,  which is an outdated figure, but have mushroomed to be more than RM50 billion as stated by Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin in his speech at the UMNO Cheras AGM on  July 26, two days before he was summarily sacked as Deputy Prime Minister by Najib for “disloyalty” to him.

Is Najib and the Cabinet going to wait for several months before admitting to the truth, as in the case of the RM2.6 billion deposited into Najib’s personal accounts in AmBank in March 2013 before the 13th General Elections, where for some five weeks, Najib refused to give a simple “Yes” or “No” to the question whether RM2.6 billion had been deposited into his personal accounts.

Now UMNO Ministers and leaders are competing with each other as to who could produce the most outrageous  justifications to justify the RM2.6 billion deposit into Najib’s personal accounts!

If what Muhyiddin said before he was sacked as DPM that the 1MBD debts have mushroomed to over RM50 billion is untrue, then there should be a simple and prompt correction from the Ministerial team of “spin doctors” to defend Najib’s integrity and reputation!  Just come out and say “No”!

If what Muhyiddin said is true, why can’t the 1MDB Cabinet confirm it?

If Najib’s Cabinet of 37 Minister and 31 Deputy Ministers are incapable to answering such simple questions, it is a powerful case for the sacking of most of the Ministers and Deputy Ministers so that Malaysia has a leaner, more serious and committed Cabinet say of 20 Ministers and 20 Deputy Ministers – which will save Malaysian taxpayers a lot of money!

Malaysians are  befuddled by the many contradictions coming out from the Ministers especially on the twin scandals of 1MDB and the RM2.6 billion in Najib’s personal bank accounts.

I will give just one example.

Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister, Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi told reporters after opening the Tanah Merah UMNO delegates meeting on Saturday that the government and UMNO leadership will give a detailed explanation to UMNO members “soon” on the issues of 1MDB and the RM2.6 billion political fund.

Zahid stressed that this was  to ensure that each Umno member would not fall for the lies and incorrect information being circulated in the social media.

Zahid said: “Without the explanation, Umno grassroots members will eventually fall for the waves of information in the social media, which has taken over the function of non-verbal communication.”

But this was immediately contradicted two days later by the UMNO Secretary-General and Minister for Federal Territories, Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor who said that there was no need for Najib to entertain further demands for explanations on 1MDB controversy as he had provided his detractors with sufficient answers.

This is a most astonishing answer as none other than the UMNO Deputy President Muhyiddin Yassin had said when he was still Deputy Prime Minister that apart from Najib, no one in Cabinet really undertstood the 1MDB scandal?

In fact, Muhyiddin even admitted that he had to get information from the media including the suspended business weekly The Edge Financial Daily, on the 1MDB scandal!

Muhyiddin was probably referring to Ministers like Adnan when he said that “even those who talk about 1MDB did not even understand what is the problem faced by the debt ridden company” – and this also fits admirably the second Finance Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah and the newly-minted Barisan Nasional Strategic Communications Director Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan.

Can the three million UMNO members and the Malaysian public have an answer to the simple question whether there is going to be a detailed explanation about the teeming questions surrounding the two scandals of 1MDB and the RM2.6 billion funds in Najib’s personal accounts – and when will this be done?

Or is this going to join the long catalogue of broken Ministerial promises connected with the twin scandals of 1MDB and RM2.6 billion funds in Najib’s personal accounts?

The 1MDB Cabinet today should choose a date before Merdeka Day for the Emergency Parliament to elect the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee and to revamp the Dewan Rakyat Selection Committee which appoints ordinary members to the various Parliamentary Select Committees so that the other three PAC vacancies could be filled.

There has been talk of the appointment of UMNO MP for Ketereh Datuk Seri Annuar Musa as the new PAC Chairman.

There cannot be a more unsuitable choice to be PAC Chairman, for Annuar Musa should in fact be hauled up before the PAC for the various MARA INC property scandals in Melbourne exposed recently by the Australian newspaper The Age, but Annuar Musa was lucky to escape rigorous scrutiny for  the MARA INC scandals were completely overshadowed and buried by the larger scandals on 1MDB and RM2.6 billion in Najib’s personal accounts.

But Annuar’s luck should not run to his appointment as PAC Chairman!

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 12 August 2015, 12:04 pm and is filed under
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Malaysian PM’s moral authority is slowly bleeding to death

By
Mahmood Hasan

The Daily Star

Asia News Network

Dhaka August 12, 2015 1:00 am

After a month of extraordinary revelations, Political survival is now the No 1 priority for Najib

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak is facing an uncertain future amid allegations of his involvement in a huge financial scam. In early July, the Wall Street Journal reported that $700 million was transferred through a complex web of transactions to Najib’s bank accounts in Kuala Lumpur in 2013. Graphic details of the flow of millions of ringgit through banks, companies and government agencies linked to 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), into Najib’s private account also came to light.

Neither the source of the money nor its final destination is clear. Handsome amounts from Najib’s accounts went to the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition component parties. Apparently, the funds were used for the election campaign in 2013.

1MDB is a Malaysian government-owned development company. It was established in January 2009, to drive initiatives for long-term economic development through international partnerships and promoting foreign direct investment (FDI) focused on energy, real estate, tourism and agribusiness. Najib chairs the advisory board of 1MDB.

In 2009, 1MDB and PetroSaudi International Ltd set up a $2.5-billion joint venture to facilitate the flow of FDIs from the Middle East to Malaysia. According to reports, this joint venture was part of the financial scam, aided by middlemen close to Najib.

Allegations of financial mismanagement of 1MDB’s operations have been mounting for years, especially among opposition parties. Its credentials and transparency were frequently questioned by the media as its debts rose to over $11 billion. There were allegations that 1MDB overpriced its purchases and donated the surplus money to Najib’s foundation.

In early March, the government set up a joint task force to probe the alleged financial mismanagement at 1MDB. A second Special Task Force (STF) was established in July to investigate the allegations against the prime minister. The members include the attorney-general, central bank governor, police chief and anti-corruption commission. STF members were drawn from different departments supposedly in a bid to curb any undue influence on their investigation.

When the allegations appeared in local and international media, Najib responded by denying that any such funds were transferred to his account. “Accusations by the WSJ are malicious and supported by certain quarters in the country with the purpose of forcing me to quit as prime minister and president of the UMNO [United Malays National Organisation],” said the embattled premier.

Indeed, the federal political culture in Malaysia largely revolves around UMNO. Najib’s UMNO is the largest component of the Barisan Nasional (BN), a coalition of 13 parties that has been in power since Malaysia’s independence from Britain in 1957.

The Special Task Force has been sniffing around for clues surrounding the sudden swelling of funds in Najib’s personal accounts. Bank accounts have been blocked, the 1MDB office has been raided and several arrests have been made so far.

To keep the situation under control, Najib made a drastic move on July 28 by sacking his deputy Muhyiddin Yassin and replacing Attorney General Abdul Gani Patail. Muhyiddin had asked Najib to give up the 1MDB chairmanship and was critical of the prime minister’s handling of the allegations. Najib also promoted close ally and Home Minister Ahmed Zahid Hamidi to deputy prime minister and replaced four other ministers. Gani, who was heading the investigation, had likely turned up something incriminating and was apparently preparing a charge sheet against Najib.

Though the new Cabinet has stood by Najib, there are rumours of restlessness in UMNO.

In another move to stifle the media, the Home Ministry suspended two newspapers – The Edge Financial Daily and The Edge Weekly – for reports on the scandal that the ministry deemed “prejudicial to public order”.

Biggest threat

Najib Razak’s probable nemesis lies within his party. His greatest threat is former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, still widely acknowledged as the architect of modern Malaysia. Mahathir, who carries considerable weight within UMNO, called upon Najib to prove his innocence by letting the Special Task Force look into his accounts, or else resign. Much now hangs on Mahathir’s next move.

The opposition alliance has been making loud noises. Azizah Ismail, wife of the opposition’s guiding light Anwar Ibrahim, asked Najib to go on a leave so that the investigation can proceed without any hindrance. But the loose opposition alliance is in disarray after splitting into several factions, and it has failed to capitalise on Najib’s vulnerability.

In an interesting twist, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) on August 3 claimed that the $700 million transferred to Najib’s account came from “donors” and not from 1MDB. It did not disclose the identities of the donors or the purpose of the contribution. Neither did it say how the money was spent. The MACC said it was referring the matter to the central bank and police. But the MACC says no charge sheet has been prepared against Najib and that it had diverted its probe away from the prime minister’s bank accounts and towards a subsidiary of 1MDB.

Though this news may give some relief to Najib, it smacks of manipulation and intimidation. The dismissal of top officials earlier was a clear enough warning to the MACC. Najib has apparently made arrangements to delay the findings of the Special Task Force and eventually clear his name.

There is a maxim in bureaucracy – “Do not set up an investigation, unless you know the results of the findings well in advance.” It would be naive to think that Najib does not know the findings of the Special Task Force.

Whatever the ultimate findings of the Task Force, the fact that huge amounts of money were transferred to Najib’s accounts has been established.

While it looks like Najib will probably ride out this crisis, he will emerge with his moral authority and credibility badly dented.

Mahmood Hasan is a former ambassador at the Bangladesh

Foreign Ministry.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 12 August 2015, 3:44 pm and is filed under
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Malaysia’s Stunning Street Art: The Coolest Murals and Where to Find Them

Yahoo Travel Explorers

August 10, 2015

By
David Hogan/Malaysia Asia

In recent years, street art in Malaysia has picked up quite a bit, and you’ll now find murals and paintings by both local and international artists.

While this form of art has been alive and well in many other areas of the world for decades, the movement in Malaysia really got rolling in 2012, when Ernest Zacharevic created six murals for Penang’s George Town Culture festival. The paintings were so popular that the BBC even called him the Banksy of Malaysia. Today, there are many cities around the country following in Penang’s footsteps, calling on locals of all ages to add new life to their walls. For visitors, that means it’s easy to find these open-air museums; since they are usually located in high tourist areas, you barely have to look around. But you do need to know which towns and cities to start in. Here are some of my favorites:

Penang

Penang artist Ernest Zacharevic has been called the Banksy of Malaysia. (Photo:
Ernest Zacharevic
)

The most famous murals in Malaysia are by Zacharevic, a Lithuanian-born artist based in Penang. In 2012, he was commissioned to paint six pieces as part of the George Town Culture Festival here, and he chose to depict scenes of everyday Malaysian life using local people as the models.

Zacharevic’s Children on Bicycle uses a common technique of his: combinin found objects with painted portraits. (Photo:
Ernest Zacharevic
)

Two extremely popular pieces from this series have been featured the world over: Children on Bicycle and Boy on Motorcycle. In both, he uses a clever combination of real-life objects and painted images that allow admirers to interact with the artworks.

Kuching

Tourists have been known to take selfies “wheeling” the orangutans in this Zacharevic mural.  (Photo:
Ernest Zacharevic
)

Kuching, the capital of the state of Sarawak on the island of Borneo, is one of the new players in the street art scene, also thanks to Zacharevic. In early 2014, he was hired to contribute some pieces, and his inspirations were the local rainforest and orangutan population. Explore the Kuching waterfront to find apes in wheelbarrows, apes on posts, and apes sipping kopi O peng from a bag (iced black coffee with sugar).

Ipoh

Ipoh-based OldTown White Coffee hired Malaysia’s most famous street artist to promote its kopi. (Photos: OldTown White Coffee)

Coffee was the theme for another Zacharevic series of 2014, this one in Ipoh in the state of Perak. “Ever since I first visited Ipoh, Old Town I’ve been touched by how cosy and intimate the town is,” Zacharevic said. “Its architecture, culture, food and people have continued to captivate and inspire my heart and soul. I’ve wanted to come back to Ipoh, Old Town, take my time, soak in its rich culture and heritage and perhaps leave my mark here.” He got that chance when OldTown White Coffee approached him for this series of seven pieces painted throughout the neighborhood in 2014.

Sibu

The first street painting in Sibu depicts a wharf coolie, a nod to the city’s history as a commercial port during the 1950s and 1960s. (Photo:
ccwen08.blogspot
)

In preparation for its big Visit Sibu Year tourism campaign of 2017, this Sarawak port has also jumped on the street art bandwagon. Organized by the Sibu Municipal Council, the initiative is seen as a way to brighten up street corners throughout the town and to pay tribute to Sibu’s past while showcasing contemporary local artists. The first painting to go up (completed in May of this year) depicts a worker at Khoo Peng Loong Wharf, which served as a gateway for goods coming into Sarawak in the 1950s and ‘60; today the wharf is quiet, and an infrastructure of roads replaces the riverways.

Johor Bahru

Akeem poses with his interesting MonaPod piece at Pasar Karat (Photo: David Hogan)

One of the iconic street art paintings here is the MonaPod by Akeem. This quirky version of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa has the famously smirking model posing with a selfie stick.

Petaling Jaya

One of the winning murals in Petaling Jaya’s street art competition. (Photo:
Yeo Bee Yin/Facebook
)

The latest street in Petaling Jaya (or PJ) is found at the main SS2 area, thanks to the SS2 ‘Bestnya Malaysiaku’ (Best of Malaysia) Wall Art Competition held in November 2014. The competition offered up 22 walls for decoration, and the winning murals have become a permanent attraction for both locals and tourists. Browse them on your way to or from a meal — SS2 is well known food area, there is even an all-you-can-eat durian center here.

Shah Alam

A classic Malaysian mini bus is depicted in one of many murals decorating Laman Seni 7 Shah Alam. (Photo:
Azuan Zahdi
)

Shah Alam, located about an hour’s drive from Kuala Lumpur, has also participated in the street art movement. Here, the local council created an area especially for artists to show off their skills: Laman Seni 7 in Section 2.

Turning backstreets into walk-through art galleries was a big hit with the locals and you can now discover 37 paintings throughout the area — in fact, the project was so successful that the council is expanding it with another section this year.

Kuala Lumpur

This mural was created as part of the 2014 #Tanahairku: Street Art Project, which celebrate patriotism and unity.  (Photo:
TheStar
)

It is no wonder that Kuala Lumpur finally saw the light and produced its own street art paintings, especially with all the hype that Penang and other towns are getting.

You’ll see the most murals in the Chinatown area or Petaling Street, and there are some around the Lebuh Ampang area as well. However, if you look towards the Klang River just nearby, you will see a lot of graffiti along the river walls. Maybe those taggers are tomorrow’s artists.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 12 August 2015, 11:28 am and is filed under
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Call for release of Anwar Ibrahim to fully participate in a National “Save Malaysia” Summit to prevent Malaysia from becoming a rogue and failed state

The plethora of political and economic crisis plaguing the country is  symbolized by  the ringgit falling to over 4 to a US dollar and 2.84 to a Singapore dollar today when 50 years ago the Malaysian ringgit was at par with the Singapore dollar.

There is gloom on the economic front, as apart from the worst devaluation of the ringgit in 17 years since August 1998, the stock market has continued to plunge across-the-board, foreign-exchange reserves have dropped below US$100 billion for the first time since 2010 and foreign capital is exiting the country at an unprecedented rate.

But economic woes are not Malaysia’s only problems.

Malaysia is also suffering from the worst crisis of confidence and the government with a minority Prime Minister has never been so fractured today as at any period in the nation’s 58-year history –  evident from the ugly stand-off between the Police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (which I had described as the “nine days of madness in Putrajaya), the sacking of the Attorney-General and the Deputy Prime Minister, the  reshuffle to produce a 1MDB Cabinet and a new wave of attack on the independence and professionalism on the key national institutions.

There is not only a fractured government, but  also a fractured UMNO, for nobody believes that Datuk Seri Najib Razak has the support of three million UMNO members, although he has the support of the UMNO party machinery!

The time has come to end the  political and economic crisis confronting Malaysia – for all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, region or  party affiliation to stand on the common platform as Malaysians to save Malaysia from hurtling towards a rogue and a failed state.

We must stop Malaysia from becoming a  rogue state and  protect and uphold our Constitutional guarantees of  democracy,  rule of law, human rights of free speech and assembly.

We must halt Malaysia from  becoming a  failed state because of rampant corruption, socio-economic injustices, collapse of governance, unbridled racial extremism and religious intolerance and bigotry.

This is why Malaysia needs a National “Save Malaysia” Summit involving all political parties and NGOs with one and only one agenda –  to save Malaysia from becoming a rogue and failed state.

Let all national elders in the country contribute in  this National “Save Malaysia” Summit – former Prime Ministers like Tun Mahathir and Tun Abdullah, former Deputy Prime Ministers like Tun Musa Hitam, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin,  political and NGO veterans like Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz, Tan Sri Simon Sipaun, Datuk Seri Daniel Tajem,  Datuk Ambiga Sreenivasan, Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam,   Rev Paul Tan and many others.

In this connection, I call on the government to release Anwar Ibrahim from Sungai Buloh prison to fully participate in a National “Save Malaysia” Summit to prevent Malaysia from becoming a rogue and failed state.

(Speech at the DAP Petaling Jaya “1MDB Titanic – New Hopes Brighter Future” fund-raising dinner at the MBPJ Civic Hall on Wednesday, 12th August 2015 at 9pm)

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 13 August 2015, 1:05 pm and is filed under
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Call on police to focus on important cases and not  abuse their powers just to target and harass DAP activists, particular young promising talents like Rara

The police should focus on important cases and not abuse their powers just to target and harass DAP activists, particularly young promising talents like Syefura Otham (Rara).

Rara is wanted for police investigation under the Sedition Act 1948 over a case which is a year old, and for use of a controversial hashtag on her FaceBook which were used by hundreds if not thousands of others at the time.

Is the police going after the hundreds or thousands of others on the social media for using the controversial hashtag after the passage of a year, and can the police explain why this is so when the police have more urgent and important businesses at hand to uphold law and order?

There is a new website which went up on the very same day (July 28) that Tan Sri Gani Patail was summarily sacked as Attorney-General and Tan Sri Muhyiddin sacked as Deputy Prime Minister, making the most ludicrous and outrageous allegations and top officers in government, especially key officers in three of the four “Special Task Force” investigating into 1MDB and the RM2.6 billion in Prime Minister Najib Razak’s personal bank accounts – Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) – for involvement in an international conspiracy to topple the elected government of Malaysia, and among those named is the Bank Negara Governor Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz.

Zeti has today pointedly denied that she and Bank Negara were involved in a purported plot to topple Najib as Prime Minister and warned that BNM would take legal action against the perpetrators of the allegations.

The mystery is why the Internet-savvy Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar had not done anything in the past two weeks on this malicious and mischievous website, when he would have tweeted a few dozen times if such a website was from Opposition camp and directed at Najib?

Why the double standards, Khalid, or is this proof enough that this website had the backing from very powerful forces – even more powerful than Khalid himself?

Among the important cases which Police have failed to take action would include:

1.	The RM2.6 billion in Najib’s personal banki accounts – if DAP or any DAP leader had such astronomical sums deposited into our personal account, let alone from foreign sources, the police will be crawling all over our homes and DAP hqrs for corruption malpractices and an assortment of other offences. Why have Najib been spared from such investigation for over a month since the allegation was made?

2.	Investigation of Najib under Section 124 of the Penal Code for “activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy” in receiving RM2.6 billion from foreign funding. Why has the Police yet to act?

3.	Former Attorney-General Tan Sri Abu Talib has said that the Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Ali Hamsa and Director-General of Public Service Department Tan Sri  Mohamad Zabidi could have flouted the law by transferring two MACC officers last week.

Abu Talib said Ali and Mohamad Zabidi could have breached Section 186 of the Penal Code for obstructing public servants from discharging their duties, and although the transfer of  MACC special operations division director Bahri Mohamad Zin and MACC strategic communication director Rohaizad Yaakob to the Prime Minister’s Department had been cancelled, the offence convicted still stands.

Have the police investigated Ali Hamsa and Mohd Zabidi under Section 186 of the Penal Code, which provides for a penalty of two years’ jail, a maximum fine of RM10,000 or both.

If the police have not started investigations, I  would suggest that Ali Hamsa and Mohd Zabidi to set an example as model public servatns and lodge police reports on the matter to enable the police to start investigations.

(Media Conference Statement on Police investigating DAP activist Syefura Othman under Sedition Act held at DAP hqrs in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, 13th August 2015 at 3.30 pm)

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 13 August 2015, 5:46 pm and is filed under
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I am Muslim, I don’t have a ticket to heaven

Fa Abdul | August 13, 2015

Free Malaysia Today

How can we eradicate racism when we have half brained teachers who teach absolute nonsense to our children?

COMMENT

Nine year old Alicia who goes to Sekolah Kebangsaan Sri Hartamas came home from school last week and asked her mom if she will end up in hell when she dies.

“Mommy, Lina said her teacher told the Agama class that when we die, the Malays will go to heaven and non-Malays will go to hell. Is it true?”

Eleven year old Yasmin who goes to Sekolah Kebangsaan Taman Desa was confused over who her friends should be and decided to seek her mom’s advice.

“Ummi, my Ustaz says it is haram to be friends with Olivia and Annie. He said it is because they are not Muslim. But I like Olivia and Annie, they are my best friends. Will God be angry with me if I talk to them?”

Both incidents you just read about aren’t made up. The names have been changed to protect the identities of the children but the stories are very much real.

I can understand how confused those two girls are because I was confused myself having experienced it some 30 years ago.

“Bangsa lain tak sama dengan kita. Agama pun lain, perangai pun lain. Kalau kamu rapat sangat dengan depa tu, nanti terikut-ikut pula dengan perangai buruk,” my ustazah reminded me in my primary school days.

It seems to me that nothing has changed since my days at school. With every new Education Minister syllabuses, policies and guidelines change as well, but the core teachings never seem to change. Each Education Minister tries to outdo their predecessor but all they do is create a bigger mess.

Despite making press statement after press statement about unity and tolerance, our younger generation is taught the supremacy theory right from school. A few days ago, our new Education Minister, Dato’ Seri Mahdzir Khalid blamed the social media for inciting racial sentiments…but it is not just social media that is at fault.

Instead of nurturing young minds to love and bond with each other, we are spawning hatred, fear and discrimination from within the system itself.

Why are we brainwashing our children if unity is what we hope to achieve?

The Honourable Minister also claimed to be in the midst of identifying programmes to foster racial ties among primary school children. He plans to gather students in one place, so that they can communicate, assimilate and get to know each other.

Excuse me, but isn’t that one of the objectives of sekolah kebangsaan?

We provide our children a platform to communicate and assimilate throughout their 6 years in primary school and 5 years in secondary school. But how can we eradicate racism when we have half brained teachers who teach absolute nonsense to our children?

We begin to segregate our children at age seven, sending off non-Muslims to learn moral and good behaviour while we teach Muslim students that the nons will go to hell because they are immoral. Seriously, aren’t our teachers and education officers the ones in need of lessons on unity and tolerance?

With all due respect, Dato’ Seri Mahdzir, perhaps you could begin your new portfolio by setting a good example to all our educators out there. Send your message of harmony, unity, tolerance and love, loud and clear. You may want to begin by apologising for your insensitive remarks about Christians…

To all Muslim parents, I urge you to talk to your children about what goes on in their Agama classes. Let it be known to them that being born a Muslim doesn’t necessarily entitle anyone to a ticket to heaven– even if you happen to be an ustazah or a minister – most especially if you are not kind, respectful and caring!

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 13 August 2015, 9:05 am and is filed under
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Malaysia just published a new theory about how missing flight MH370 fell into the ocean

Pamela Engel

Business Insider

AUG. 13, 2015

Malaysia’s government news agency has published a new theory about what might have happened to missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 upon impact, The Week reports.

Satellite expert Zaaim Redha Abdul Rahman, who helped UK satellite firm Inmarsat analyze data shortly after the plane went missing in March last year, said the plane likely made a soft landing on the water, floated for a while on the surface, and then sank mostly in one piece.

This is consistent with what other experts have said about the likely fate of the plane after new evidence came to light last month.

A piece of debris that was almost certainly part of MH370 suggests that the aircraft may have glided along after running out of fuel and descended slowly into the water. The Boeing 777 “flaperon” washed up on Reunion Island near Madagascar in the Indian Ocean.

Former US National Transportation Safety Board investigator Greg Feith told Bloomberg that since the piece was not “crushed,” experts could “deduce it was either a low-energy crash or a low-energy intentional ditching.”

Rahman came to the same conclusion.

“It (the flaperon) was only slightly damaged and was just encrusted with barnacles. Its appearance indicates that it was not violently torn off from the aircraft’s main body … it does seem that it got detached pretty nicely at its edges,” Rahman told the Bernama news agency.

“If MH370 had crashed with a really hard impact, we would have seen small pieces of debris floating on the sea immediately after that,” he added. “Furthermore, the flaperon that was recovered (from Reunion Island) wouldn’t have been in one piece … we would have only seen bits and pieces of it.”

It’s possible that the flaperon broke off from the submerged plane body, Rahman explained.

“Similarly, other parts would also become detached and float with the help of the strong water current, before being washed up on the shores of islands like Reunion,” he said.

Teams continue to search the southern Indian Ocean, where the plane is believed to have crashed, for the rest of the aircraft.

Patrick Smith, airline pilot and author of the book “Cockpit Confidential,” told Business Insider last month that the debris could hint at the manner of the crash — but it would still just be speculation at this point.

“If indeed the wing piece was in the extended position, consistent with where it would be in low-speed operations, this MIGHT suggest the airplane was still under control when it crashed,” Smith told Business Insider in an email.

“But we’re looking at one tiny, badly damaged piece from the jetliner. It’s merely supposition at this point.”

MH370 disappeared on March 8, 2014, while flying from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing. The Boeing 777-200ER vanished with 239 people onboard.

The search for the Malaysian jet has been focused on a 7.3-million-square-mile area in the southern Indian Ocean off the western coast of Australia.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 13 August 2015, 12:02 pm and is filed under
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Anwar Ibrahim should be released to take part in “Save Malaysia” National Summit which should focus on change of policies and not change of Prime Minister to prevent Malaysia becoming a rogue and failed state

Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim should be released to take part in a

“Save Malaysia” National Summit involving all political parties, NGOs and national elders as the real challenge confronting Malaysia today is to prevent the nation from becoming a rogue and failed state and  not about the change of the Prime Minister. It is about the  change of national policies.

Malaysia has clearly lost our way since the nation’s Merdeka 58 year ago and the formation of Malaysia 52 years ago, and  a “Save Malaysia” National Summit involving all political parties, NGOs and national elders like former Prime Ministers like Tun Mahathir and Tun Abdullah, former Deputy Prime Ministers like Tun Musa Hitam, Anwar Ibrahim and Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin,  political and NGO veterans like Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz, Tan Sri Simon Sipaun, Datuk Seri Daniel Tajem,  Datuk Ambiga Sreenivasan, Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam,   Rev Paul Tan and others is the best way to return to our bearings and what is the best medicine for the country to take at present.

Compare the achievements of Malaysia and Singapore after 50 years of separation, and Malaysian leaders cannot continue to belabor under the denial syndrome that everything in Malaysia is fine, when the country is sliding down the slippery slope of collapse of good governance, worsening corruption, losing out in the international competitiveness race for a robust economy and educated citizenry, accompanied by the most worrying national division caused the worst racial and religious polarization in the past few years.

A “Save Malaysia” National Summit pooling the talents, expertise, resources and experience of patriotic Malaysians should be able to come out with a blueprint to halt Malaysia from hurtling towards a rogue and failed state, and set the national direction to become a  showcase to the world of an economically successful and political vibrant plural society, where democracy, rule of law and human rights are examples for the rest of region if not the world.

Malaysian democracy, rule of law and good governance took a turn for the worst sixteen days ago since July 28 when Deputy Prime Minister and the Attorney-General were summarily sacked.

This is why the past 16 days had been very dark days for Malaysia, the economic crisis ever-worsening, with the Malaysian ringgit falling to over 4 to a US dollar and near to 3 to a Singapore dollar, when 50 years ago the Malaysian ringgit was at par with the Singapore dollar.

The prospects on the political front and democracy, human rights, media freedom and the rule of law are equally forbidding.

The time has come to end the  political and economic crisis and deadlock confronting Malaysia – for all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, region or  party affiliation to stand up on the “Save Malaysia”  common platform as Malaysians instead of the country from hurtling towards a rogue and a failed state.

Malaysia not be allowed to degenerate into  a  rogue state by   protecting and upholding our Constitutional guarantees of  democracy,  rule of law, human rights of free speech and assembly.

Let the nation’s representatives, from all the political parties, NGOs as well as the nation’s elders, congregate to find ways to break out of the present national impasse  so that all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, region or even political affiliation can feel proud again of being a Malaysian, whether inside the country or abroad.

(Speech at the PKR Himpunan Selamat Malaysia ceramah at Pandan Indah, Ampang Jaya on Thursday, 13th August 2015 at 10 pm)

                This entry was posted on Friday, 14 August 2015, 3:20 pm and is filed under
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Call on newly-appointed Minister for Higher Education Idris Jusoh to advise university administrators to respect the intellectual freedom of students and stop treating them as children as Malaysia aspires to university academic excellence

I call on the newly-appointed Minister for Higher Education, Datuk Idris Jusoh to advise university administrators in the country to respect the intellectual freedom of students and to stop treating them as children if Malaysia truly aspires to achieve university academic excellence in the world.

Idris should advise Universiti Islam Antarabangsa (UIA) to withdraw the suspension of two students, Hanif Mahpa and Afiqah Zulkifli for organising a forum on the goods and services tax (GST) and inviting a Member of Parliament and PKR vice president Rafizi Ramli to the forum last May.

Idris must send a clear and unmistakable message that the new priority of the new Higher Education Ministry is to restore  the academic and intellectual excellence of Malaysian universities, whether of academic staff or students, and not to continue to treat universities as factories to produce graduates based on scrolls of paper.

Dare Idris break with the UMNO/BN tradition of the past few decades to open up the Malaysian universities to the challenges of free intellectual inquiry and debate, or is Idris just another UMNO/BN Minister whose duty is to produce a nation of sheep of the UMNO/BN variety rather than independent-minded, critical and inquisitive Malaysian citizens of tomorrow able to face up the challenges of the information age?

                This entry was posted on Friday, 14 August 2015, 3:52 pm and is filed under
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Police  arrests and investigations under Section 124B in the current crackdown against the Ministerial assurances when the law was passed in Parliament that this section will only be used against those who used “violent and unconstitutional means”

Until a month ago, nobody has heard of Section 124B but in the past few weeks, Section 124B of the Penal Code has forced itself into public consciousness as the new monstrous weapon which the Najib administration is using to launch a major crackdown and usher a new Dark Age in Malaysia.

How many people have been arrested or investigated under Section 124B of the Penal Code.

I do not know, but it is safe to say that never have so many people been arrested or investigated under Section 124B of the Penal Code on “activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy” which can send a person to jail for a maximum of 20 years – and all these police arrests and investigations are against the ministerial assurances given to Parliament in 2012 when the new law was enacted that it  would only be used against those who carry out “activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy” by “violent and unconstitutional means”.

When pressed in Parliament on why Section 124B had not spelt out clearly that Section 124B only referred to “activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy” by  “violent and unconstitutional means”, the then de facto Law Minister, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz claimed that this is understood and even referred to Oxford Dictionary that “activities detrimental to Parliamentary Democracy” means “by violent and unconstitutional means”.

When Nazri presented the Penal Code amendment of the new Section 124B, Parliament was in fact given to understand that  it was meant to tackle terrorism previously covered by the already repealed Internal Security Act.

Unfortunatley, what was clear and obvious to the Law Minister in 2012 at the time of the passage of Section 124B  in Parlaiment is no more “clear and obvious” whether to the new Attorney-General or the Inspector-General of Police as I dare say that all the police arrests and investigations under Section 124B in the past month do not have the element of “violent or unconstitutional means”.

It would appear that we have reached a stage where anyone who wants to have a change of Prime Minister or government is liable to be investigated, arrested and charged under Section 124B for “activities detrimental to Parliamentary Democracy” which is a total betrayal of both the Parliamentary and Ministerial intention in enacting Section 124B of the Penal Code.

The majority of Malaysians (as the Umno/BN government is a minority government winning only 47 per cent of the popular vote in the 13th General Election) would want to see Datuk Seri Najib Razak toppled as Prime Minister and the UMNO/BN Government replaced as well.

But this cannot bring them under the ambit of Section 124B of the Penal Code for “activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy” which can send those guilty under this section to 20 years in jail because they reject any violent or unconstitutional means of change and are only  committed to  peaceful, democratic and constitutional means of change or toppling of the Prime Minsiter or government.

If a law which is meant to deal with the advocates of violent and unconstitutional means of political change could be used on those advocating peaceful, democratic and constitutional means of political change, it would even mean the death of democracy itself!

What I find most astonishing is the emergence of a website on the very same day (July 28) that Tan Sri Gani Patail was summarily sacked as Attorney-General and Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin sacked as Deputy Prime Minister, which made  the most ludicrous and outrageous allegations implicating top officers in government, especially key officers in three of the four “Special Task Force” investigating into 1MDB and the RM2.6 billion in Prime Minister Najib Razak’s personal bank accounts – Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) – for involvement in an international conspiracy to topple the elected government of Malaysia.

The first posting of this new website entitled “Ops Lalang 2015: Special Branch leads investigation into conspirators” named at first  12 then 13 names on a “list of conspirators to be investigated under Section 124 of the penal code which carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison”.

The website said:

“The power to carry out the investigation is held by the police and special branch whilst the power to charge an offender under section 124 lies with the Attorney General.

“It is no surprise that the position of the head of the Special branch was changed today. It was announced that Datuk Seri Mohamad Fuzi Harun was appointed as the new Special Branch director, replacing Datuk Seri Akhil Bulat.

“This comes at a time when on the same day the Attorney General has been replaced as reported here and here.

“Federal Court judge Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali has been named the new Attorney-General today, replacing Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail.

“With Section 124 in place coupled with the new appointments for special branch and the Attorney general, it is possible to imprison anyone for up to 20 years. The new appointments are instrumental in making this possible.”

The names listed in what is described as
“Top Wanted List of Conspirators Against the Democratically Elected Government”
are:

Top Wanted List of Conspirators Against The Democratically Elected Government:

1) Datuk Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus (BNM)

– Deputy Governor

2) Shamsuddin bin Mohd Mahayidin (BNM)

– Foreign Exchange Administration

3) Abdul Rahman bin Abu Bakar (BNM)

– Financial Intelligence and Enforcement

4) Dato ‘ Sri Mohd Shukri Bin Abdul (MACC)

– Deputy Chief Commissioner (Operation)

5) Datuk Tan Kang Sai

– MACC Special Operation Division Deputy Director

6) YBhg Tan Sri Datuk Rashpal Singh a/l Jeswant Singh

-A Member of the Advisory Board of the Anti-Corruption (ACAB)

7) Jessica Gurmeet Kaur D/O Nashattar Singh

– Heads the Special Task Force Secretariat, Administration and Finance department

8) Dr.Tong Kooi Ong

– Executive Chairman, The Edge Communications Sdn Bhd.

– Executive Chairman, Sunrise Berhad

– Chairman, Taiga Building Products Ltd

– International Advisory Panel, CIMB

9) Ho Kay Tat

– Group Chief Executive Officer and Publisher, The Edge Communications Sdn. Bhd.

10) Clare Rewcastle Brown

– British investigative journalist Editor-in-chief of Sarawak Report

11) Sufi Yusof

– Mahathir Mohamad’s Press Secretary

12) Tony Pua

– Member of Parliament for Petaling Jaya Utara – National Publicity Secretary for Democratic Action Party (DAP)

13) Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz

– Governor Bank Negara Malaysia

The 13th name of Tan Sri Zeti was not in the original posting but was added soon after it was posted.

As is publicly known, No. 5, 6 and 7 i.e. Tan Kang Sai of MACC, Tan Sri Rashpal Singh and Jessica Gurmeet Kaur had been arrested and released on bail, while No. 8 and 9, i.e. Tong Kooi Ong and Ho Kay Tat are under police investigation under Section 124B, while their publications Edge Weekly and Edge Financial Daily have been suspended for three months. A warrant of arrest has been issued for No. 10, i.e. Clare Rewcastle Brown.

Also on the so-called “Top wanted list of conspirators” are the DAP MP for PJ Utara, Tony Pua who became the first MP in the country to be banned from leaving the country; the Bank Negara Governor Zeti and Bank Negara Deputy Governor Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus; the No. 2 of MACC, Deputy Chief Commissioner Dato’ Sri Mohd Shukri bin Abdul and  Sufi Yusof, Press Secretary to Tun Dr. Mahathir.

Is there any truth in this website, and has it violated any official secrets in stating that there would be a police crackdown under Section 124B against them?

If there is no truth in these allegations, or if there had been violations of the Official Secrets Act in making public top police secrets, why is there no police action against this website, as this website is still up and operating when l last checked before the forum.

The mystery is why the Internet-savvy Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar had not done anything in the past two weeks on this malicious and mischievous website, when he would have tweeted a few dozen times if such a website was from Opposition camp and directed at Najib?

Why the double standards, Khalid, or is this proof enough that this website had the backing from very powerful forces – even more powerful than Khalid himself?

If the IGP is not aware of this website, I am prepared to be of help.

(Speech at the DAP forum “Section 124B – An Affront to Parliamentary Democracy” at MBPJ Civic Hall on Thursday, 13th August 2014 at 9 pm)

                This entry was posted on Friday, 14 August 2015, 7:00 am and is filed under
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