Utusan Malaysia or Chua Soi Lek – which of them lied? Answer: Both lied!

Yesterday, when Utusan Malaysia accused DAP of being the world’s most racist political party, I did not know whether to laugh or to cry.

To laugh at the poverty of ideas and bankruptcy of journalistic principles of the Utusan editors or to cry at the lack of loyalty and patriotism of Utusan editors to an united, harmonious and successful multi-racial Malaysia!

What came to me immediately was  the Greek saying: “Those whom the Gods wish to destroy they first make mad!”

The Utusan Malaysia charge was so ridiculous that I put the Utusan Malaysia item on my blog in verbatim, to let more people see the depths Utusan had sunk to from its early days when it was a great newspaper.

Only few days earlier, the MCA President Datuk Seri Chua Soi Lek was in his stentorian best, spinning the tune that a vote for DAP is a vote for PAS and a victory for DAP in the next general elections is paving the road for PAS’ “days of glory”.

If Utusan Malaysia is right that DAP is the world’s most racist party, then Chua  is wrong. If Chua is right, then Utusan must be wrong.

Now which of the two lied – Utusan Malaysia or  Chua Soi Lek?

The answer is: Both lied!

Utusan Malaysia is living up to its reputation as the most unprincipled, unscrupulous, extremist and racist voice in Malaysia. Even UMNO President Datuk Seri Najib Razak cannot bring it into line.

This should concern the MCA President as Utusan Malaysia is the official newspaper of UMNO, the political hegemon in Barisan Nasional.

Have MCA Ministers and leaders ever raised in Cabinet and the Barisan Nasional supreme council their concern and objection to the falsehoods and  unprincipled, unscrupulous, extremist, racist and downright evil contents in Utusan Malaysia, which not only make nonsense of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s signature 1Malaysia policy and his call on Moderates to speak up to fight extremists, but also exposes the subservience, impotence and irrelevance of MCA and other non-UMNO political leaders in Barisan Nasional?

Of course not, because UMNO is the “Big Brother” and Utusan Malaysia is the “Big Voice of the Big Brother” in Barisan Nasional!

This is why MCA and other non-UMNO BN political leaders have been conspicuously silent when Utusan Malaysia tried to incite racial hatred and religious tension with lies and falsehoods, the most egregious being its baseless charges that DAP wanted to establish a Christian Malaysia and appoint a Christian Prime Minister and that DAP is guilty of the 3Rs of being anti-Malay, anti-Islam and anti-Malay Rulers.

If Utusan Malaysia had screamed that DAP is the world’s most racist political party in the 90s, I would have been more concerned than its lies yesterday as Utusan Malaysia is now a pale shadow of its earlier self – with its daily circulation  plunging by more than half of its one-time high of 350,000.

In the nineties, the majority of Malays still believe what they read in Utusan Malaysia but today it is the reverse – as only a minority of Malays believe what they read in Utusan Malaysia.

As Hata Wahari, when he was still President of the National Union of Journalists,  said last May: “Some 50% of Utusan’s sales are government-sponsored.  Thirty-six government ministries subscribe to Utusan and the government spends up to RM50 million annually on advertisements. These are Utusan’s only profits because most organisations are reluctant to advertise.”

As far back as January last year, Wahari had blamed the racial rhetoric of the Utusan Malaysia editors fanning racial sentiments as the cause for the daily’s declining sale.

Utusan Malaysia is increasingly desperate because both its circulation and credibility have plunged to new lows.

I had in fact expected an attack from Utusan Malaysia in response to my Chinese New Year Message issued on January 21 and I find it quite amusing that Utusan Malaysia had to take more than a week to pluck up the courage to launch its attack for there is nothing in my Chinese New Year message calling on the Malaysian Chinese “ to unite and rise as one dragon, together  with all other Malaysians, to effect a change of power in Putrajaya in the next general elections to begin a new page of history celebrating the greatness of all Malaysians” to justify any   person of reason or sound mind  to accuse the  DAP of being the world’s most racist party.

Utusan is indeed scraping the bottom of the barrel to come out with such a baseless and  dastardly charge.

Now, let us ask Chua Soi Lek – whether he  agrees with Utusan Malaysia that DAP is the world’s most racist party,  which means Chua and all the MCA leaders have been talking rubbish about the DAP all these months. If Chua does not agree, dare he publicly express his dissent with Utusan Malaysia?

If Chua agrees with Utusan Malaysia, let him have the courage and the conviction to speak up!

                This entry was posted on Monday, 30 January 2012, 2:53 pm and is filed under
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4 MCA Ministers should make amends for their ministerial cowardice/irresponsibility by speaking up in first post-CNY Cabinet meeting for full public transparency and accountability for the RM330 million “cattle condo” scandal

Just before the Chinese New Year, the MCA President Datuk Seri Dr. Chua Soi Lek gave an interview where he blamed the Barisan Nasional government, “particularly embattled minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abd Jalil”, for the “poor handling” of the RM330 million “cattle condo” scandal, causing the public to perceive the National Feedlot Centre (NFC) project as “real rotten”.

If the MCA President is right, then the four MCA Ministers must also bear full responsibility as they have allowed the RM330 million “cattle condo” to drag on for three months in the public limelight, with the relentless expose of one abuse of power and misuse of public funds after another, without any rebuttal and providing no light whatsoever  “at the end of the tunnel”!

In fact, as it is more than six months since the completion and submission to the government  of the Auditor-General’s Report 2010 in early July last year which led to the expose of the “terrible mess” of the NFC scandal, Malaysians are entitled to an explanation why the Cabinet (including the four MCA Ministers) had been sleeping on their jobs to get to the very bottom of the NFC scandal?

In view of the MCA President’s statement blaming the “rotten mess” of the NFC scandal on Barisan Nasional’s “poor handling”, are the four  MCA Ministers prepared to make amends for their ministerial cowardice and  irresponsibility by speaking up in first post-Chinese New Year Cabinet meeting for full public transparency and accountability for the RM330 million “cattle condo” scandal?

Let Malaysians, for instance, know when the Auditor-General’s Report 2010 was first tabled in the Cabinet, when the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and the Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin (who was the Minister for Agriculture and Agros-based  Industries in 2006 who approved the NFC project) and the current Minister for Agriculture and Agro-Based Industries respectively  received their copies of the Auditor-General’s Report 2010?

Are the four MCA Ministers prepared to make clear at the forthcoming Cabinet meeting that it is most disgraceful for the Najib administration, with the slogan of “People’s First, Performance Now”, unable to satisfactorily handle the RM330 million “cattle condo” scandal to match the pledges of public  accountability, transparency and integrity after more than three months of public uproar and more than six months of completion of the Auditor-General’s Report?

Are the four MCA Ministers brave enough to raise in the Cabinet the fact that Malaysians have no faith in either the police or the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to get to the bottom of the RM330 million “cattle condo” and that the only credible and acceptable solution is the formation of a Royal Commission of Inquiry to conduct a full-fledged inquiry?

Will the four MCA Ministers demand in Cabinet that Shahrizat should extend her leave as Minister for Women, Family and Community Development when her three-week leave expires this Friday, if not to resign altogether from her Cabinet post to allow for unimpeded investigations into the “cattle condo” scandal?

Also, will the four MCA Ministers get the Cabinet to issue a clear statement that it welcomes the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee conducting full and wide-ranging investigations into the “cattle condo” scandal, promising full co-operation from all Cabinet Ministers and public officers, past and present – so as to circumvent the objection of the PAC Chairman Datuk Azmi 	Khalid in allowing a PAC investigation?

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 31 January 2012, 1:33 pm and is filed under
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Cuepacs steps up fight against new scheme

Stephanie Sta Maria | January 31, 2012

Free Malaysia Today

KUALA LUMPUR: Cuepacs has set up an action committee as its latest step in its fight against the Public Service New Remuneration Scheme (SBPA).

A 15-member team, led by Cuepacs deputy president, Azih Muda, will present a paper on its recommendations to Prime Minister, Najib Tun Razak, by early March.

These recommendations were compiled during a two-day workshop on SBPA which was attended by all Cuepacs officials.

Cuepacs president, Omar Osman, told the media this afternoon that the paper would be based on the five items that Cuepacs has already submitted for review by the SBPA task force.

“The prime minister introduced the SBPA in the hope that it would be better than the Malaysian Remuneration Scheme (SSM) but instead it is the worst scheme we have ever seen,” he said.

“And this is because the Public Services Department (PSD) never consulted us in drafting the scheme and then kept the details a secret from us.”

Among the recommendations is a review of the Civil Service Premier Post (JUSA) level. Omar stated that of the current 36 posts, only seven are qualified for a Premier classification.

He listed the seven as the Chief Secretary to the Government, Secretary-General of Treasury, Director-General of Public Services, Treasury Auditor-General, Attorney-General, Chief Justice and Accountant-General of Malaysia.

Omar also slammed the mismatch of job titles and functions under the SBPA. Under the scheme, “drivers” will now be known as “operations manager”, “hostel supervisor” as “administrative supervisor” and “nursing trainer” as “health trainer”.

“There is a complete imbalance here,” he pointed out. “The reasoning behind the title change it to supposedly add prestige to the job but there are better ways of doing this.”

Lopsided salary adjustments

Omar confirmed earlier claims by PAS vice president, Mahfuz Omar, that those in the Premier group had already been given offer letters and that some of them are already receiving the new salary under the SBPA.

“Who authorised this?” he demanded. “I also have text messages from pensioners who have received as much as RM9,800 in pensions under the SBPA.”

“These are the surprises that we are being subjected to because of the SBPA’s lack of transparency.”

Omar also maintained his earlier threat to pull out from the SBPA task force if no additional Cuepacs representatives are included on the panel.

He has asked for Azih Muda, secretary-general Lok Yim Pheng and financial secretary Jaafar Mansor to also sit on the task force as he alone cannot represent 1.3 million members.

The head of the SBPA task force, Ismail Adam, yesterday said that he had no objections to the three coming on board but that the power to make appointments rested with the Chief Secretary to the Government, Sidek Hassan.

“We have no heard anything on this matter yet but if the three are not invited to the second task force meeting on Feb 8 then I will officially resign on that day,” Omar said.

The SBPA was meant to be implemented on Jan 1 but has been delayed due to strong objections over the lopsided salary adjustment between senior government officials above Grade 54 and those below.

Cuepacs is conducting a roadshow until April on the SBPA and civil servants have until Feb 15 to submit their protests on the scheme.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 31 January 2012, 6:54 pm and is filed under
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Dissecting Mahathir’s grand design

by Liew Chin Tong

The Rocket

30 January, 2012

Not many of us remembered that Barisan Nasional survived and thrived electorally for an extended period from 1991 to 2005 as a result of Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad’s grand compromise in the form of Vision 2020.

Coercive tools and undemocratic means like security power to arrest legitimate political opponents without trial, legal and financial controls over mass media, and a distorted electoral system, have helped BN to remain in power, becoming the current longest serving elected government in the world.

The Alliance formula and the beginning of “Malay First” hegemony

BN’s predecessor the Alliance’s formula was to win half of the votes of all ethnic groups. Being the sole coalition with multi-ethnic representation at all levels, the strategy paid off well in 1959 and 1964.

But the Alliance also pursued a small-government-do-very-little approach, resulting in rising inequality. It eventually resulted in an increased support for the opposition among members of all ethnic groups, including Malays, in 1969.

Contrary to the popular belief that only Chinese supported the opposition in the 1969 election, the Malays played their part too.  Dr. Mahathir lost his Kota Setar Selatan seat as well as the defeats of other UMNO bigwigs demonstrated that there were substantial Malay swing against the Alliance.

Post-1969, Tun Razak’s formula strived to achieve a 70 percent Malay electoral support for BN. Non-Malay support was considered non-essential in such formula. All policies under the new arrangement, symbolised by the New Economic Policy, were geared towards that goal.

The “Malay first” strategy served UMNO well until the 1990 general election when the Malay votes were split after the formation of Semangat 46, led by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and other former senior UMNO leaders.

The Semangat 46-led opposition front almost won the day when BN managed to survive through a very cunning last-three-day manipulation of Tengku Razaleigh’s photo image with Kadazan headgear which resembled a Christian cross, suggesting to the Malay constituents that the opposition was about to sell out on Malay rights and dignities to foreign powers.

However, Malay votes for BN have not returned to the NEP-era level since then. Indeed, Malay votes for BN have further declined in every election since 1990, with the exception of the 2004 election, the first in the post-Mahathir era. (In 2004, Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi won due to his promises of reforms.)

BN won the 1995 election with the all-time high of 65 percent popular votes despite suffering a mild decline in Malay support and continued to survive the 1999 election despite more than half of the Malays voting against BN; a reaction against the sacking and subsequent jailing of Anwar Ibrahim.

How did Dr Mahathir and Barisan Nasional survive since the 1990 election?

Vision 2020 and “Bangsa Malaysia”

Barely four months after the October 1990 election, Dr Mahathir unveiled his Vision 2020 and the concept of “Bangsa Malaysia” in February 1991 which set the tone for the next fourteen years until July 2005.

The strategy was to supplement the declining Malay base of UMNO with new-found Chinese middle class support by staring down the Malay right and cooling off racial temperatures. The major bones of contention among ethnic Chinese against UMNO between 1970 and 1990 were the lack of economic opportunities and cultural rights.

In the early 1990s, however, the economy was growing rapidly and life was good. Instead of curbing the cultural desire of ethnic Chinese, all rights were allowed as long as the price was paid.

For instance, higher education opportunities for ordinary ethnic Chinese were extremely lacking in the 1970s and 1980s. But in the 1990s when one was willing to pay for private education, hundreds of colleges were jostling for students.

Another example is Chinese language television broadcast time. In the 1970s and 1980s, not more than two hours of airtime were allocated for Chinese language broadcast on television. In the 1990s, if you could pay for satellite television, endless programmes await to tame the noisy middle class.

If you do not belong to the burgeoning middle class, or could not afford to pay for your children’s private education, or to pay for satellite television, don’t blame the government. It is your problem – either you are not lucky or you don’t work hard enough. After all, BN strategists were fully aware that the poorer components of both Malay and Chinese electorates would vote for PAS and DAP, respectively, anyway.

Imagined enemies and the short reign of Abdullah Badawi

During the 1970s and 1980s, a month would not pass without seeing some racial fanfare being played out in the media. But in the 1990s, whenever Dr Mahathir needed a whipping boy to consolidate his standing among the Malay base, it was always a choice among the British “colonisers”, the American “oppressors”, the Jewish “conspirators”, or the “arrogant” and “uncouth” Australians.

And, if Dr Mahathir needed an ethnic Chinese-looking enemy, the “surrogate” Chinese across the Causeway was there for him to attack. Images of UMNO Youth demonstrating in Johor Bahru against Singapore from this side of the Tebrau Straits vividly summed up the politics of the time perfectly – that UMNO did not have to change its methods, just look beyond our shores to see the “enemy”.

In 2004, Abdullah Badawi inherited Dr. Mahathir’s framework with an even more “Malaysian” or wasatiyyah (moderate) message. In his first National Day Address in August 2004, Abdullah said, “Kita semua adalah sama, kita semua rakyat Malaysia. Tidak ada individu di negara ini yang diiktiraf ‘lebih Malaysia’ dari individu lain.” (We are all the same, we are all Malaysians. No individual in this country is more Malaysian than others)

But something changed in 2005. The grand bargain ended abruptly in the last week of July of that year, something which I will discuss next week. –The Rocket

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 31 January 2012, 10:25 am and is filed under
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Malays have no qualms about joining DAP: Only Umno says they have

by Moaz Nair

Malaysia Chronicle

30 January 2012

Some UMNO leaders and the nuisance-to-society Perkasa apparently still belong to the old school of thoughts that race and religion can be used to gain votes from the Malays. More often than not, they prefer to sow hatred among races in the country to achieve their selfish goals.

The new educated or enlightened Malay race – New Malays (Melayu Baru) do not auspiciously subscribe to this divisive politics or racial and religious rhetoric of UMNO or Perkasa anymore. The New Malays see race, religion and the country as a whole from an entirely different political perspective. They seem to spurn politics based on shallow discourse relating to race and religion. They have a bigger ambition for the country to see it develop with people of all races having a fair share of the economic pie.

Some irrelevant Malay politicians belonging to the old school of thoughts are wasting their precious time organising public speeches trying to delude the Malays into thinking that non-Malays are a threat to them or that Christianity is a threat to the Malays and the religion of Islam in this country. When these bigots sense that they are not getting the crowd to their numb sermons – as the people are not interested in their story telling – they resort to their friendly media to pad the events. They fail to realise that the majority of Malays are at ease living together with other races and seeing the many religions being practised in peace. There are many more Malays working, studying in Christian countries without fear that they will be converted to Christianity. Many Malays have even left this country for good after having hatred for  UMNO’s approach to politics.

In truth, the New Malays in the country will not fall to UMNO’s bilk that DAP is a threat to the Malay race, Islam and the royalty.  The country and its political parties have evolved for many years. DAP is today perceived by the New Malays as a party for all Malaysians. Never in the history of DAP’s party manifesto has it shown any predisposition towards the Malays, Islam or the royalty.

A result-oriented party

Malays join or vote for DAP for many legitimate reasons. These Malays are those who are able to think rationally as what elements should constitute good governance. They are actually fed-up with UMNO’s relentless propaganda and its endless rhetoric demonising the Chinese and DAP.  And they see DAP as a less-rhetoric based but a result-oriented party. They perceive UMNO in many ways that have failed the majority of the Malays and Malaysians in general. To the New Malays UMNO is a political vehicle only to enrich a few of their cronies. And this practice has impeded the country’s progress.

The New Malays generally perceive UMNO of today as corrupted to the core and that it is less prudent and  accountable  in the management of the country. They cannot be blamed for this view. There is obviously lack of transparency in big government projects in negotiated tenders awarded to those closely connected to those in power. The New Malays feel that the country must do away with the present corrupt and obscure policies that only benefit a few select cronies at the expense of other competent and deserving Malaysians.

Huge sums of money have been wasted by giving multi-million ringgit projects to those who have no experience in the trade. Money spent or taken as loans from the government end up as sub-serviced or non-performing loans. In many cases in the past, these companies  had to be bailed out by the government using money from national resources and taxpayers. Individuals who initially secured the projects would conveniently enrich themselves, never mind if their companies were in the red.

Malays have left the country

Malays are not only leaving UMNO in droves but also the country for greener pastures. Over 3 million Malaysians have left the country for a better life within the past 6 decades and this includes ethnic Malays, It was reported that in 2007, 140,000 professionals of all races emigrated and the figure doubled to more than 300,000 the following year. The flight of the country’s cream of the crop among Malays and non-Malays would continue if UMNO continues to play the race card for their self-made failed policies and keeps using the Chinese threat to frighten the Malays. Those who leave are the talented ones  who are seeking a better space to ensure a better life for them and their future generations.

The New Malays feel that UMNO has failed to change the feudal mindset of the Malay race despite the many years of independence. When they see UMNO using race and religion and also the royalty to remain in power they know that UMNO will never make sincere efforts to change the mindset of the Malays. UMNO has made Malays stay inferior and fear of competing with other races. UMNO seems not to believe that Malays can compete with other races and this has made the Malay race lagging behind the Chinese economically and their mindset remaining static and weak.

Many successful and enlightened Malays have left the country and to attract back these talents is not going to be easy. UMNO’s ethnic-based policies also have deterred many competent non-Malays from coming back home. With UMNO’s policy of favouring a single race many local-based industries and entrepreneurs are moving out to other developing countries like Indonesia, Vietnam and China to invest.

The country indubitably cannot be turned into a high-income nation with the exodus of too many local talents. Besides, UMNO-led BN is not perceived by New Malays as pursuing a clean, fair economic policies to ensure that it can attract sufficient talents to transform the country into a high-income nation. UMNO seems not the least bothered about the loss of talents to other countries. Their prime concern is, as long as they can take in the majority Malays and remain in power they are pleased.

Children must learn to mix

The New Malay race believe in their true abilities, unlike some despondent Malay leaders who keep on branding the Malay race as weak and having a static mindset.  It is not surprising that an UMNO leader who helmed the country for 22 years had himself claimed that he had failed to change the mindset of the Malays. Was it deliberately done to lull the Malays or he was not competent enough as a leader to change the mindset of the Malays? The home-grown new Malays are those who are willing to stand on their feet, have friends and work together with the other races trusting each other. They have faith that Malays and non-Malays can work together to bring the best out of them for the country. They find that UMNO is not their platform to achieve their goals. Many disillusioned with UMNO are leaving the party to join DAP and other alternative parties.

They believe that just policies for all the races will lead to high-income status for the country. They believe that schools and colleges must not be created for a single race but for a multi-racial community. Their children must learn to mix with all the races in the country to help understand each other better. They have to grow up not to hate other races or religions but abhor injustice and corruption in the country. The New Malays realise that injustice, unbridled corruption and abuse of power are destroying the country – not the Chinese, Opposition or faith of Christianity.

UMNO has failed to wipe out poverty despite the many years in power. More than 60 percent of this ethnic group are still in the poor category. But then the New Malays see that poverty is not only confined to a single race. They have seen how poor Indians, Chinese and the Indigenous are suffering in life without any decent income, shelter and proper education. Thus they feel that government policies should not favour a single race.

The trademark of NEP

The more UMNO tells the people that DAP is not for the Malays the more inquisitive the Malays would become. The New Malays sees DAP as a political party from entirely a different perspective. They are educated and well exposed to the media. They can differentiate between a party or government that does not subscribe to competency, accountability and transparency and that which does.  The majority of the Malays have come to realise that UMNO is not a political party that they wish to be part of. They sense that it is a party shrouded with a lot of hidden agenda. Despite 40 years of having the NEP only a handful of Malays have got out of the cycle of poverty. The NEP has actually created many rich cronies who were associated to those in power when the poor have been marginalised.

Ali Baba business has always been the trade mark of the NEP. Those with connections at the top were given huge government projects through negotiated tenders. And most of these projects were later sub-contracted down the line while the favoured party who first obtained the project make clean profits with no sweat.  Many of those who had won projects were known to have abused the privilege by spending on luxuries instead of getting their projects completed. Despite the UMNO-led government realising this failure they keep on practicing the same ‘art of business’ in the name of NEP.

Many huge projects through negotiated tenders – not open tenders –  had failed  in the past and had to be bailed out. Elements of corruption cannot be ruled out in any negotiated tenders. The culture that bred corruption began 30 years ago and it has trickled down to the present time. Many of these projects when handed out enriched many individual contractors when the companies they handled flopped. The New Malays thus see no virtues in UMNO’s brand of governance. Unlike the state of Penang under the DAP-led Pakatan government, UMNO-led BN government has underrated the ability of genuine Malay contractors, as in many cases in the past contracts procured by dubious contractors or companies were abandoned, sold off or passed on to others for immediate profits.

Failed government projects were known to have been bailed out using taxpayers’ hard-earned money. Ironically,  some blacklisted companies were again given projects on the platter to see them repeating the same ‘art of doing business’. In this process, the rich and the well-connected have become richer.

Despite all the excitement on the NEP, ethnic Malays – 60 percent of them – have remained poor until today. And many of those enriched by UMNO have left the country after conning the government. The New Malays are aware that the Chinese are not a threat to the Malays but the real threat comes from within the race itself.  They are aware that many of the critical economic sectors like oil and gas, plantations, transport, ports, insurance, banking, banking, highway infrastructure and tolls, telecommunication, government universities, foods monopoly are all dominated by the Malay community. Their concern is not on who owns them but on the efficiency of all these economies for a better Malaysia.

Better progress

For instance, when they see RM250 million National Feedlot Corporation (NFCorp) where money meant for rearing cows is used instead to purchase luxury condos, they see something amiss in the system of governance here. When SIA (Singapore Airlines Limited) could make huge profits, they want to know why Malaysian Airlines (MAS) is forever losing money. In 2010, Singapore Airlines – coming from a tiny island – was announced by the International Air Transport Association as the world’s second largest airline in the world by market capitalisation with a worth of 14 billion US dollars. Where does MAS stand in this category?

The New Malays are concerned that Tenaga Nasional Berhad – a Government Linked Company (GLC) – is not able to make money of late and keep on seeking tariff increase despite their monopoly and being the single entity to power distribution in the country. Why must tolls still be collected when the companies entrusted to build the highways and collect tolls have made billions far exceeding the costs of building the infrastructure?  Bridges are still highly tolled despite the authority having recovered the costs of building them. The New Malays also perceive that there is a lot of hanky-panky in the procurement of defence equipment for the country. They feel that a lot of matters are hidden from the people. They are now seeking a government that emphasises more on integrity in the management and the delivery system of all government bodies, government-related companies and other related entities.

It is not surprising then the New Malays are resorting to DAP to bring better governance to the country. DAP today is fast becoming popular among the Malays and other races. If truth be told, it’s the fear of losing power  and Malay support that UMNO is demonising DAP.

Fast achieving its goals

Pakatan government under DAP in Penang has proven what integrity means in management. There are no elements of corruption and abuse of power in governance and delivery system. The four years of Pakatan rule in Penang has seen all round success. Policies and implementations are transparent and the state government entertains no political cables to win projects. Many genuine and capable Malay contractors with no party affiliation have won projects in the state.

No Ali Baba business or sub-contracting by cronies to make easy money is entertained by the DAP-led Pakatan government. Bribery is no more a business culture in the state. The New Malays are convinced by DAP’s sincerity and they have no qualms to being part of this team  to see a fair and honest administration in the country.

When UMNO and Perkasa are good at rhetoric (menang sorak), DAP is fast achieving its goals and objectives of building a state worth replicating by the other states. Selangor, Kedah and Kelantan have equally proved to be successful within a shot span of four years under competent and honest leadership. The New Malays feel that instead of demonising DAP and its leaders, UMNO should emulate the exemplary performances of the state of Penang. Penang has been internationally acknowledged as the best state governed in the country since 2008 by a team of politicians who are competent, accountable and transparent.

Penang has earned the admiration of national and international business conglomerates when the CAT (Competency, Accountability and Transparency) Governance of Penang was praised for the anti-corruption efforts by Transparency International 2010. When abuse, wastage and corruption have tarnished the image of some other states under UMNO-led BN, the Auditor-General’s Reports for the past three years have described Penang as the best financially managed state in the country.

The success is due to the state’s prudent management of public funds. The state has benefited by eliminating waste, corruption  and implementing open tenders. The state has shown what better things could be done if the government eliminates waste and if there is open tender.

Since the new government took over in 2008, Penang Development Corporation (PDC) had issued 23 tender awards, of which 7 (30 percent) were won by non-Malay contractors and 16 (70 percent) were won by Malay contractors. Perbadanan Bekalan Air Pulau Pinang (PBAPP) had issued 66 tender awards of which 22 (33 percent) were won by non-Malay contractors as compared to 44 (67 percent) by Malay contractors.

The performance by Malay contractors in an open tender system with non-Malays proves that Malay contractors could compete with others and win tender awards on their own merit. Ethnic Malays could do it if given the path to compete in all sectors. Seemingly, it is not the race that is an issue here but the failed policies of UMNO-led BN government that keep on perpetuating a dependency system to help UMNO-BN maintain the status quo and its clutch on power that have deprived the Malays compete fairly with the other races.

Prudence and transparency in governance

Penang under DAP has been the first state in the country to eradicate abject poverty among its people. There is genuine multi-racialism in the state where every citizen feels that he or she is not discriminated against. It is not the policy of the DAP-led Penang government to discriminate against any race or religion. It’s fair treatment for all races.

Prudence and transparency in governance have made it possible for the state to help the people. When the Gerakan government allocated a mere RM12 million for the Penang Islamic Council, the DAP-led Pakatan government managed to provide RM62 million just within four years’ of their governance.

In fact, the problems faced by the Malays in Penang existed long before Pakatan took over the state in 2008. Penang was under Alliance and BN rule for 51 years. Nothing much was done to bring glory to the Malay race in the state. Give 10 years to Pakatan under DAP and the Malays in Penang will see their dreams of a better life fulfilled. What more if the whole country is governed by Pakatan. Matters at the state level could then be accomplished very much faster without any political bickering or prejudice.

What UMNO and BN have promised the people for 54 years could be done within 4 years by DAP-led Pakatan in Penang. This achievement is equally convincing in the state of Selangor under the competent leadership of the incumbent Menteri Besar with his team of DAP, PKR and PAS lawmakers. Thus, there is no convincing reason why Malays have to turn away from DAP.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 31 January 2012, 11:20 am and is filed under
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Open letter to Dr M

— Mohd Ikhram Merican

The Malaysian Insider

Jan 30, 2012

JAN 30 — Dear Tun Dr M,

 Many years ago, in 1986 or ‘87, I can’t remember the exact year, I had the pleasure of meeting you in a private family dinner. You were the guest of honour and I was a very young boy, excited to be in the vicinity of your towering presence. I had many things I wanted to say to you and when I walked up to where you were seated I could only manage one rhetorical question.

You were very kind. Although in the midst of conversation with my uncles, you stopped and gave me, a little boy, a few minutes of your time. I spoke to the prime minister. It was my two minutes of fame.

For the better part of my life you have been the prime minister of Malaysia. In all those years, I saw you as the best prime minister Malaysia has ever had. Sadly, I’m not so sure anymore. I don’t despise you or loathe you but I question your rationale for a good many things. There are so many issues that I would like to raise with you. It is near impossible to cover everything here but let me start with your latest blog post titled “Kaitan Bangsa Dengan Bisnes”. The Malaysian Insider reported this with the headline, “Dr M: Scrapping race-based policies will lead to chaos.”

I find it hard to believe that scrapping race-based policies will lead to chaos. The status quo is more detrimental to the country in the long run. The existing race-based policies have done little to improve the plight of the Malays. In fact it has created a class divide between the Malay haves and have-nots. This WILL split the Malays because severe class inequalities have caused revolutions, even in singular nations.

You believe not everyone has equal capabilities and some people must be given special consideration in business and other areas based on their race. This is an argument that neither makes sense nor justifies special considerations. Let me elaborate. Would you allow an aspiring surgeon to become one via special considerations, even if he is inherently bad at it? And would you trust your life under the knife with this person? This is what you propose.

Allow me to provide a further example. UiTM was founded in 1956 (as Dewan Latihan Rida) to facilitate the creation of Bumiputera professionals. Fifty-six years later, it ranks among the last in the QS World University Rankings. While it is the largest university in Malaysia, and has admittedly created many graduates, it has done little to create world-class professionals.

The IITs of India were created with similar ideals to UiTM. The first IIT was conceived in 1950, a mere six years before UiTM. In the same QS World University Rankings, IIT Delhi ranks in the top 200. The IITs are internationally recognised for engineering and technology with entrance exams that are so tough, candidates use Ivy League universities as a fall back in case they don’t make the cut. Bill Gates has been quoted as saying: “And it’s hard to think of anything like IIT anywhere in the world. It is a very unique institution.”

This happens when you pursue meritocracy.

In your blog post you ask if it is true that race consideration in business vis-a-vis the NEP has stifled economic growth. My answer is, yes it has. The NEP’s original intention was noble but it has become a tool to justify and facilitate nepotism, cronyism and, contrary to its original purpose, inequality. The nation’s resources have been unscrupulously plundered to benefit cronies NOT the common man, be he Bumiputera or not. Yes, we’ve had a good run under your stewardship but our fundamentals have been hindering us from the type of progress that Singapore enjoys. In short, a system that does not promote and reward performance is inherently flawed. If you need proof, look at Malaysia Airlines.

I quote the book “Winning in Asia” by Peter J. Williamson (Harvard Business Press):

“Those Bumiputera companies with a continued reliance on preferential treatment and local connections and without a broader set of competitive advantages have been unable to successfully expand internationally. To grow, they have therefore diversified across industries within their home country, often resulting in a loss of focus and an inability to build deep operational competence in particular businesses.”

And so again, yes, the NEP has stifled economic growth.

You say that when the distribution of wealth is disparate between the races, there is a high probability of enmity between the poorer and richer races. After 40 years of implementation, and devoid of significant success, don’t you think there is a serious problem with the NEP as a tool to bridge the economic gap? Furthermore, the Malays, Chinese, and Indians have not been at each other’s throats during this period. In fact, it is the ruling coalition that regularly stokes racial fire. The race card has been played to the hilt and it is now a misnomer for economic and social stability. I wish you had more faith in us and our ability to co-exist.

Progress is hindered by fear. It is the fear of change, fear of each other, fear of betrayal, fear of riots, fear of racial tension and fear of so many other things that keep us from progressing. Amplifying our fears by attributing wrong causes to effects is not going to help with nation building. I believe that the socio-economic divide can be closed through prudent management of the economy, a world-class education system, observance of the rule of law, and nation-building policies. I ask that you use your influence to condemn corruption, nepotism and cronyism. This is the real problem that undermines Malaysia and stifles its growth. — malaysia-today.net

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 31 January 2012, 12:10 am and is filed under
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The fracturing of the Malay community (2)

S Thayaparan | Jan 30, 2012

Malaysiakini

COMMENT

Umno’s interaction with “multiracial parties” has so far been with Anwar Ibrahim’s PKR – ostensibly a multiracial party but for the most part, an organisation filled with ship-jumping Umno rejects – and the Islamic PAS, often used as a bogeyman by Umno to keep the non-Muslims in line.

That Umno considers PKR a threat to its power has more to do with the fact that it was always perceived to be the third moderate way of the Malay polity and not for any multiracial reasons.

Umno is fighting a battle on two fronts, against vocal liberal Malay voices of PKR and the more religious tones from PAS.

In both these cases, the fight for the Malay soul is confined within the Malay community and the non-Malays have been collateral damage in the ongoing shadow war that will determine the fate of this country.

So it should come as no surprise that Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin (left) is concerned over the possible influx of moderate Malay voices into the routinely demonised DAP.

If more Malays enter this political party, the Malay vote will be further fractured into a diverse range of political aspirations that don’t neatly fit in the bigoted ethnocentric agenda of the ruling Umno regime.

If the point of the Umno game is to limit the choices of the Malay population then any attempt to provide avenues for different forms of political expressions is a threat to the natural order of their reality.

There can be no plurality of voices when it comes to expressing Islam. Anything which is a threat to Malay unity, which should be read as Umno hegemony, should be shot down in a hail of racial, religious or cultural bullets.

Unfolding DAP dilemma

Just as Umno fears the breaking away of Malays form the three manufactured roads made available to them, the DAP should take into consideration that with an influx of Malay members into their party, they are finally achieving a possible majoritarian mandate.

This is a rather ominous possibility considering the multicultural demographic of this country.

The political landscape would also change, since it is now possible for the DAP to achieve a certain degree of influence without the need of its coalition partners.

The reality is that the Malays (constitutionally created or otherwise) are the largest demographic and in the end, it is the Malay vote – either in unison with a coalition or by themselves – which will determine the form of governance this country will have.

Any successful multiracial party which is reflective of the aspirations of this multicultural demographic would have to comprise a sizeable Malay voting base.

This is an axiom that is rarely acknowledged by opposition parties for various political reasons.

A fractured Malay community free from the vicious grip of Umno is exactly what this political landscape needs and the possible influx of Malay members into the DAP should be encouraged but carefully watched.

If the DAP is truly to be a multiracial party (and I have argued that it is many times) then the reality is that it should prepare itself (if it is not doing so already) for a time when it becomes a Malay-dominated party or rather for a time when it becomes so successful in attracting Malay membership because of its ideological perspective, that the racial make-up of the party changes.

We speak the language of race

The possibility of Malays dominating this venerable party no doubt fills the hearts of non-Malays with dread and rightly so. Of course, we conflate the aspirations of the Umnoputras and the larger Malay community.

But when we understand how non-Malays have been marginalised not only from the political process but also education opportunities and other social programmes, our voices stifled by the system, is it any wonder that we view the Malay community, which has benefitted the most from the ruling Umno regime, as detrimental to the liberties we are desperately fighting for?

We, of course, forget that when it comes to the social policies of Umno, everything is smoke and mirrors, be it the gilded cages that they use to ensnare the urban Malay population or the stagnating Felda settlements that house the disenfranchised rural Malay population kept going with promises of fortune from the taxes of the much-maligned non-Malays.

Malays who join the DAP should be fully aware that they are not only bound to whatever Islamic principles they hold true but also to the egalitarian principles of the party.

This should not be a difficult proposition since there is nothing in the political agenda of the DAP which is at odds with core Islamic values or any other religion, for that matter.

And since the language of race is the only way this country has communicated for so long there will no doubt be communal problems within a large multiracial party that is dominated by Malays, just like there is in the PKR, where non-Malays have felt they have been excluded from the political decision-making process within the party.

The inconvenient truth

However, what the DAP has going for it is a long history of political opposition within a fairly secular framework, unlike say the Islamic PAS.

It is a polyglot of class-based interest that has felt the shift in political fortunes over many years of fierce just opposition unlike say the fairly recent PKR, which is dominated by the personality of one man and the baggage of an Umno mindset of most of its members.

This would mean that non-Malay communal interests (which the DAP has rightly championed over the years) would have to be replaced by a broader Malaysian perspective, one that encompasses the rights and aspirations of all communities.

This should not be a problem because the core philosophies of the DAP already embraces such a concept of Malaysia-ness.

It would however be an uncomfortable situation for the non-Malays and Malays because this would mean that the Malays would have to abide by the egalitarian principles established by the DAP, principles that are in conflict with long cherished state sanctioned racialist policies and the non-Malays would have to live with the fact that DAP would no longer be perceived by the larger Malay electorate as a Chinese (mostly) based entity because the Malays would probably have a big influence on how the party is run.

As long as all members are faithful to the ideals and constitution of the party, then any short-term tensions would subside in the long run and this country would be better for it.

This perhaps is the only measure of success that really means anything when it comes to the reality of political life here in Malaysia.

That is to say that an influential political party would have the memberships of a sizeable fraction of the Malay population, able to attract votes based on not only its coalition relationships with other “Malay-based” parties but on its own.

This is an inconvenient truth about an end game that most observers wish to ignore.

A new kind of mindset

We have been stuck in this mindset that a ruling coalition of race-based parties is the future of this country despite the fact that the past 50-odd years of a post-Merdeka landscape has proven that this formula for ruling this country has had a deleterious effect on the citizens of this country.

If we continue down this road of race-based parties or rather parties closely associated with race, then we will stagnate politically and the minorities in this country will never truly be a part of the political process.

We will continue claiming little victories and slide deeper into a possible racial clash between the Malays brought upon by the machinations of a corrupt federal government.

What needs to be done right now is a concerted effort not only by the DAP but also PKR into establishing multiracial parties in substance rather than form and be cognisant of the fact that Malays would naturally make sizeable voting blocks of such parties but not necessarily lead these political organisations.

What the DAP offers is an alternative to both the personality-driven PKR and the Islamic PAS, with its democratic socialist roots the anchor for a new kind of mindset that hopefully will take root first amongst the urban Malays and then the rural communities.

The DAP will then truly become a multiracial party reflective of the demographic of this country.

The DAP has said that no member of its party will ever have aspirations to the office of prime minister and perhaps this could be starting point where Malays who join this party acknowledged this dubious concept of ‘Kepimpinan Melayu’ put forward by the honourable gentleman from Rembau and constrain their aspirations for the highest office in the land until the day any member of their party, regardless of race, can occupy that seat.

——————————————————————————–

S THAYAPARAN is commander (Rtd), Royal Malaysian Navy

Part 1: Malay matters in the nation’s future

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 31 January 2012, 12:20 am and is filed under
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Umno parti rasuah

— Sakmongkol AK47

The Malaysian Insider

Jan 31, 2012

31 JAN — Kawan kawan saya dalam Umno bercakap mengenai rasa cemas bila kerajaan yang di pimpin oleh Umno menabur wang begitu banyak kepada rakyat. Bayaran RM100, RM200, dan sekarang ini RM500 sedang rancak di jalankan. Tapi apa yang hendak di risaukan? Bukankah ini hasil pejuangan Umno dan bukti Umno dan BN amat perihatin kepada rakyat?

Mereka bertanya kepada saya, bayaran2 ini, adakah ianya meningkatkan peluang Umno dan kerajaan BN menang? Saya cakap sudah tentu ia meningkat peluang- peluang untuk rakyat merasa sakit hati. Bila rakyat sakit hati, bertambah ramailah musuh2 Umno.

Hah? Macam mana itu berlaku? Saya menyatakan bahawa dalam hal beri memberi ini, Umno selalu menghadapi masaalah. Siapa yang menentukan siapa dapat RM100, RM200 dan RM500? Selalunya yang menentukan ialah ketua kampung.

Ketua kampung punya keutamaan ialah menyenaraikan adik beradik, saudara-saudara terdekat, dan geng-geng yang sebulu dengan mereka. Golongan yang terpinggir ramai daripada yang dapat imbuhan. Ini memang resam sesetangah ketua kampong. Semasa saya jadi ADUN dahulu, saya mempunyai masaalah dengan ketua-ketua kampung yang seperti inilah juga — yang jadi pagar yang memakan padi.

Kalau buka kawasan pembesaran kampung, lot-lot tanah di sapu mereka dan keluarga mereka sendiri. Kalau ada rumah rakyat, rumah PPRT, sanak saudara di dahulukan. Bahkan lot-lot tanah di beri kepada suku-sakat mereka yang tidak pun tinggal dalam kawasan pemberian tanah.

Apabila saham Felcra di beri oleh kerajaan, yang sepatutnya di beri kepada kepala keluarga, pemimpin kampung mendesak di beri kepada anggota isi rumah. Kalau keluarganya ada lima orang, mereka mahu saham Felcra di beri kepada ke lima-lima ahli keluarganya. Apa akan jadi bila perkara seperti ini di biarkan? Ianya bermakna lima ketua keluarga yang lain di nafikan peluang untuk dapat saham Felcra.

Nah, sekarang perkara yang serupa berlaku apabila pentadbiran Najib Razak membayar wang kepada rakyat. Ramai orang menerima wang tersebut tapi bilangan yang di nafikan hak untuk menikmati rezeki dari Najib Razak juga kian bertambah.

Jadi saya suka sangat Najib Razak buka lebih banyak fronts kebencian rakyat. Ini melanggar nasihat yang dia selalu beri kepada rakan-rakan dan ahli Umno. Jangan open up fronts terlalu banyak untuk orang membenci kita.

Dan saya harap ada orang membawa perkara ini kepada mahkamah. Adakah pemberian wang ini suatu bentuk sogokan dan rasuah untuk mendapatkan undi rakyat? Kepada saya, ianya satu bentuk rasuah yang di lakukan dengan terang. Duit dan wang ini bukan Umno yang punya. Ianya duit yang datang dari hasil pendapaatn kerajaan. Operasi menyampaikan wang tersebut sepatutnya di lakukan melalui pejabat pejabat daerah. Kenapa wang tersebut di sampaikan oleh ketua bahagian Umno dan bakal-bakal calun dari komponen BN?

Di Sentul Kuala Lumpur, penyampaian wang RM500 ini menonjolkan bakal calun dari parti Gerakan yang akan menentang Tian Chua dalam PRU 13 nanti. Tapi jangan risau, kita sudah tahu outcome PRU tersebut.

Tian Chua yang berani membaringkan diri di hadapan jentera dan kenderaan polis tidak mungkin di kalahkan oleh rasuah Gerakan dan Umno.

Sukalah saya mengingatkan dalam soal beri duit dan wang ini, ianya bukan lah suatu perkara yang luar biasa. Bahkan, inilah bukti yang saya suka sebut sebagai satu-satunya cara dan kaedah yang DS Najib tahu dan gunakan untuk menyelesaikan masaalah. Caranya ialah membayar sana sini. Itu dianya, cara parti Umno dan pemimpin tertingginya menyelesaikan masaalah.

Elok kita biarkan Umno mengamalkan cara merasuah rakyat. Sebab sebuah parti seperti Umno yang sustain sokongan kepada nya melalui merasuah rakyat tidak akan kekal lama. Ini berbanding dengan parti politik yang mencerna dalam diri penyokong nilai nilai, keyakinan dan kepercayaan kepada seruan perjuangan.

Saya mahu orang Melayu sedar bahawa Umno tidak mempunyai seruan perjuangan. Alif Ba Ta Umno (Agama, Bangsa dan Tanah Air) sudah lama di singkirkan dan di gantikan dengan perjuangan kepentingan peribadi dan kelompok.

Adakah Umno berjuang untuk kepentingan bangsa Melayu?

Ianya hanya suatu metos yang di bina oleh pemimpin-pemimpin haprak Umno. Apabila keadaan cemas dan sesak, ketika itulah Umno akan menjerit sana sini, bahawa hanya merekalah yang melindungi kepentingan bangsa Melayu, Agama dan Tanah Air.

Berhentilah dari menipu bangsa Melayu.

Jika Umno berjuang untuk kepentingan Melayu, maka tidaklah mereka menafikan hak bangsa Melayu mendapat royalty minyak di Kelantan dan Terengganu. Penduduk dalam dua negeri ini majoritynya Melayu tapi mengapakah royalty minyak tidak di beri secara lansung kepada rakyat kedua negeri itu secara lansung?

Rakyat Kelantan di nafikan hak mendapat royalty hanya semata mata rakyat negeri itu menyokong parti PAS. Dalam kes negeri Terengganu, orang Umno sendiri tidak percaya kepada pemimpin Umno negeri untuk mengendali pemberian wang royalty minyak. Orang Umno tak percaya kepada orang Umno sendiri kerana mereka tahu, jika royalty minyak Terengganu di kendalikan oleh Mat Said dan geng-geng, wang tersebut akan masuk kedalam poket orang lain.

Makanya, Umno bukanlah memperjuangkan kepentingan bangsa Melayu secara keseluruhan. Pertama, orang Melayu yang di maksudkan oleh Umno itu tidak termasuk Melayu yang bukan dalam Umno. Melayu yang di maksudkan oleh Umno ialah Melayu dalam Umno itulah jua. Dalam kamus Umno orang Melayu hanya ahli Umno yang tiga juta itu sahajalah yang layak di gelar Melayu. Orang Pahang, bila tidak bersetuju dengan sesuatu pendapat akan berkata — kepala bapak awaok! Maka bila orang Umno kata mereka berjuang untuk orang Melayu, saya orang Pahang akan berkata, kepala bapak awaok!

Kedua, daripada tiga juta ahli itu, Umno berjuang untuk kumpulan terpilih. Jika cawangan Umno mempunyai 50 orang ahli, ketua cawangan akan berjuang untuk 30 orang sahaja. Itu terdiri dari yang sekabilah dengannya. Amalan ini di lakukan di peringkat cawangan, bahagian dan seterusnya pada peringkat induk.

Bayangkan sebuah parti yang membina kekuatan nya diatas perpecahan yang bermula di peringkat cawangan lagi adakah parti seperti ini layak bercakap mengenai perpaduan dan bersatu?

Dasar yang ada dan di amalkan oleh Umno ialah dasar Bumiputera — yang berada di hadapan mengaut dan memonopli segala hasil peuangan ialah putera-putera pemimpin, putera raja, putera ahli politik, putera ketua cawangan, putera ketua bahagian, putera ahli MKT Umno dan putera-putera orang berkuasa dan bernama. Bumi? Anak Bumi ketinggalan di belakang putera tanpa apa-apa selain dari memegang telur sendiri. — sakmongkol.blogspot.com

* Sakmongkol AK47 is the nom de plume of Datuk Mohd Ariff Sabri Abdul Aziz. He was Pulau Manis assemblyman (2004-2008).

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 31 January 2012, 6:44 pm and is filed under
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Beginning of a shift in racial politics

Jan 31, 2012

YOURSAY

Malaysiakini

‘What is happening today is a revolt against corruption, and by extension revolt against Umno. It is not about race.’

The fracturing of the Malay community

Cala:
 S Thayaparan’s argument is surprisingly simple – that Umno due to its various weaknesses is slowly and steadily losing its grip on the Malays and thus giving rise to a fragmented Malay community.

The future, as seen by the writer is in DAP given its multi-ethnic stance and hopefully it will over the years allow “a reformed Malay-majority DAP” to work with other partners within the Pakatan Rakyat coalition.

In theory, the argument makes sense because in this case number matters. To be effective and be counted, DAP needs Malay memberships.

In practice, however, it is a painfully long process to anyone who wishes to boot out the corrupted and unrepentant regime quickly.

While waiting for more enlightened Malays to join DAP, the better way is to work closely with PKR and PAS as the latter two share similar political aspiration.

FellowMalaysian:
 This is a thoughtful opinion with lots of insight. But Thayaparan’s eloquent expression fell short in advice of suggestions and remedies for DAP to attract the Malay votes and groom Malay leaders.

This has not been an easy task coupled with the fact that Umno resorts to using hideous racial and religious undertones to deter the Malays from supporting Pakatan Rakyat parties, including the DAP.

Given the unscrupulous ways Umno is capable of committing, I believe DAP’s current method of winning over the Malay votes, albeit slow in progress, is gaining grounds.

Blind Feddo:
 A brilliant analysis.

Wanderer:
 Umno has cornered the lower tiers of the Malay community for their political strength with coalition partners, MCA and MIC, playing the supporting role to cling on to power.

They have enjoyed this ‘divide and rule’ principle for the past half century successfully – hoodwinking the ignorant by offering peanuts in exchange for their votes, while the Umno elite robbed the nation to glory with the crumbs falling off the table to the ‘beggar’ coalition partners.

The changing of the tide and the realisation of nation-building must be the effort of all Malaysians. Many Malays now are willing to come to face the reality.

The future of the nation does not belong to the racists, bigots and corrupts. Unite we prosper, divide we perish.

David Dass:
 The DAP cannot be indifferent to the fact that a particular community is lagging behind the others on any front and must take steps to address the issue.

The NEP (New Economic Policy) as formulated is a good policy. It speaks of the eradication of poverty and the removal of the identification of race with vocation or location.

The NEP may have to be reformulated to deal with today’s reality as the Malays have become more urbanised and are also more visible in all the professions. More non-Malays are needed in the civil service and the armed forces.

The point is that any government in power must be mindful of the needs of the poor and must ensure that opportunities for participation in all spheres of the economy or the life of this country is not denied to any particular segment of Malaysian society.

Baiyuensheng:
 If this is the mindset that the non-Malays have to adopt, then we must accept and ready ourselves for such eventuality that the Malays form the majority in DAP.

The question is are the Malays capable to uphold the universal values without succumbing to their inferiority complex and started engaging policies the likes of Perkasa and Umno?

Still, I am waiting for the day DAP is being led by capable Malay leaders and lead the country.

Hibiscus:
 By harping on race, Thayaparan has missed the point. BN was much accepted by voters until TDM (Dr Mahathir Mohamad) became PM.

His 22-year government brought in corruption, inefficiency and deceit. Apart from ruining the economy and education, his style had caused Umno members to not even trust him either. They too wanted to throw him out, but he used mafia-style politics to entrench his power in the ruling party.

Malaysians of all races are largely fair minded and are not racial. TDM replace Umno leadership with people who are greedy for money, while keeping the rural Malays poor so that their votes could be easily bought.

TDM used deceit and blatant corruption to rule. Today Umno is so infested with corruption they see nothing wrong in the NFC (National Feedlot Corporation) rip-off.

Their aim is to hold on to power to continue to enrich themselves and their children without regard to suffering of fellow citizens.

What is happening today is a revolt against corruption, and by extension revolt against Umno. It is not about race.

Sadirah:
 It is good that there is a fracturing amongst the Malays as is the case with the Chinese and Indians. This will strengthen the need for multi-racial parties which campaign on the basis of justice, equity and freedom, and not on race-based goodies.

What we are witnessing is an evolution that is taking place – albeit slowly – and we, the people who are fed up with race-based politics, should encourage this.

The days of BN are over because it has never evolved beyond its commitment to race. This can never be the basis for nation-building in the long run.

When we share power and are part of one team, even the minority will have a voice and be part of a majority that must address their concerns.

After 40 years of NEP, if the Umno hegemony is still crying for 30 percent of equity, then they have lost the plot.

Swipenter:
 What we are having now is essentially a two political (BN vs Pakatan) coalitions system instead of a true two-party system.

Once the reality of a two-party system is achieved and Malaysians are politically matured and savvy, then the PM of the country can be anybody best qualified for the job.

Any American born in the 50s or 60s could have thought that it was impossible for Barack Obama to become their president or even for a woman one day to lead them. That barrier is now shattered.

Whether we can discard political parties based on race and embrace political parties based on ideals is something we must work and look forward to.

There are hopeful signs – the Chinese dumping MCA and Gerakan and losing fear of PAS and Malays joining DAP and losing fear of the Chinese.

For our politics not be identified by race would take time and effort. Just remember how racist America and Australia were before they took real efforts to stamp out racism at all levels in their societies.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 1 February 2012, 9:56 am and is filed under
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Breaking up wealth concentration in Malaysia

— Dr Lim Teck Ghee

The Malaysian Insider

FEB 1 — The past year has seen the government and the opposition unveil their respective economic reform policies. Even if these reform policies and their attendant programmes are implemented they will not be able to resolve the country’s economic problems. This is because the policies advocated by both sides of the political divide are merely palliative. They do not address the root or fundamental cause of the problem of structural deformation of the country’s economy.

How has this deformation come about? What are its characteristics? And what can be done to bring about a reversal or correction of the deformation so that we have a really transformed economic system that can live up to its full potential?

First we need to recognise that wealth in any country — and Malaysia is no exception — is created by economic activity engaged in by individuals or enterprises that bring profits or gains to the entrepreneur. Much of this wealth creation and subsequent accumulation is legitimate. It is based on material reward arising from work (or gift) and is socially and ethically acceptable. It comes from risk-taking and from the social utility and superiority of the products and services generated by the individual or enterprise.

Wealth generated and accumulated by individuals through legitimate means and conforming to the norms of justice and fairness is not only desirable but beneficial to society and the economy.

But what about wealth that is created or amassed by less than legitimate or illegitimate or illegal means? Is it a minor or non-issue and do we just ignore it as is the case with the Barisan Nasional government?

Outflow of massive illegal wealth accumulation

One important clue to the massive wealth capture by illicit means in Malaysia was exposed recently by the Global Financial Integrity, a US-based watchdog.

In its study on ‘Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries’ it estimated that Malaysia was fifth in the world on cumulative total illicit financial flows (IFF) since 2000.

For 2009 alone, IFF (non-normalised) amounted to approximately US$47 billion (approximately RM145 billion at the exchange rate of RM3.1 = US$1) and over the cumulative nine years, total IFF amounted to US$350 (approximately RM1,086 billion).

Two methods of estimation were used in the study, one being the World Bank residual model (using the change in external debt or CED), and secondly, trade mispricing (using the Gross Excluding Reversals method or GER).

Through the balance of payments (a component of CED), it captures unrecorded capital leakages i.e. illicit transfers of the proceeds of bribery, theft, kickbacks, and tax evasion. Outflow of unrecorded transfers due to trade mispricing was captured under the GER method.

Based on the study, Malaysia’s nine-year average normalised i.e. conservative IFF, amounted to US$14.2 billion (42 per cent; RM43.9 billion) due to CED while GER accounted for $19.6 billion (58 per cent; RM60.8 billion). Meanwhile, average non-normalised IFF was US$15.4 billion (44 per cent; RM47.5 billion) due to CED and US$19.6 billion (56 per cent; RM60.8 billion) due to GER.

MNCs and Illicit Financial Flows

According to the study, “illicit flows involve capital that is illegally earned, transferred, or utilised and covers all unrecorded private financial outflows that drive the accumulation of foreign assets by residents in contravention of applicable capital controls and regulatory frameworks. Hence, illicit flows may involve capital earned through legitimate means such as the profits of a legitimate business”.

If taxes were levied on the illegal outflows, the country’s finances would have benefitted to the tune of close to US$100 billion. When the GFI’s findings were made public recently, the finger of blame for the massive outflows was placed by the MP for Kota Belud, Abdul Rahman Dahlan, on multinational corporations (MNCs). Indeed, MNCs have been a convenient scapegoat for transfer pricing woes in developing countries where they have major operations.

One local observer — a specialist in transfer pricing — has demolished this accusation for Malaysia. According to his letter of December 27, 2011 to Free Malaysia Today, “transfer pricing has been the one of the most scrutinised subjects by the Malaysian Inland Revenue Board since the Transfer Pricing Guidelines was introduced [in 2003].”

He has argued that “more likely than not, where there are cases of transfer mispricing, MNCs would always step forward and rectify the situation. This is so because “getting caught by authorities in doing illegal activities will most likely cause serious damage to business integrity and reputation.”

He concluded that “compliance by MNCs is one of the most stringent as far as I understand from a corporate culture perspective, or at least for cases I have seen.”

So if MNCs are not the culprit for the illicit financial outflows, who are the real culprits?

The Global Financial Integrity study has noted that besides transfer pricing outflows — MNCs alone are not to blame for this; local conglomerates and GLCs also play the same game with greater insider knowledge — IFF was caused by illicit transfers arising from the proceeds of bribery, theft, kickbacks, and tax evasion.

Malaysia is in fact the only country where IFF is caused by a comparable proportion of transfer and non-transfer pricing transgressions.

Real culprits in illegal wealth accumulation and concentration

While the study has been helpful in providing some hard data on the quantum of the illicit financial outflows, it does not provide much assistance on other key details such as who are responsible for the outflow; the countries of fund relocation; etc.

At this stage, we can only hazard a guess as to the likely individuals or parties involved in the non-transfer pricing illicit outflow. The most likely culprits are those who have been able to accumulate enormous wealth and who for various reasons find it expedient or necessary to conceal their wealth accumulation as well as to diversity their wealth havens and assets away from Malaysia.

The GFI study does not cover the illicit wealth accumulated locally and not yet remitted to foreign shores. The size of this locally retained illicit wealth is likely to be several if not many times more than that sent abroad.

A crude estimate of the extent of legal wealth concentration in the country can be obtained from the 40 individuals identified by Forbes as the richest billionaires in Malaysia. Collectively this group was worth US$62.5 billion in 2011. In addition there must be many other extremely wealthy individuals who have avoided making the list through their ability to conceal their wealth and others who though not making the top 40 list still possess enormous wealth.

The most widely rumoured name not on the Forbes list has to be Taib Mahmud, the chief minister of Sarawak, who together with his family is reputed to have shares in more than 330 companies in Malaysia alone and more than 400 companies around the globe worth several billion US dollars.

Various quarters have questioned the legitimacy of the wealth accumulation engaged in by the chief minister. A recent article in the blogsite Sarawak Headhunter provides in-depth details into what is alleged to be the income stream of the chief minister’s financial vacuum machine.

These include:

– Income from timber licences;

– Surcharge on timber exports;

– Kickbacks from timber shipping companies;

– Agency and other fees levied on shipping companies;

– Privatisation of government companies;

– Illegal logging receipts;

– Federal government contracts;

– Alienation of state land to plantations; and

– State contracts

The chief minister has refuted these claims and has argued that that his daughter’s considerable property empire was amassed through the daughter’s and son-in-law’s business acumen in investing wisely the gratuity which Taib earned from his earlier service in the federal government.

This may well be true but if so, it needs to be substantiated by an opening of the financial records and bank accounts of the family and the companies owned or controlled by the family in Malaysia and abroad. Only then can the authorities and public determine the truth of the allegations of financial and political impropriety.

That the chief minister and his family own an extraordinary amount of wealth — held locally and abroad — at least is not denied. Some idea of the enormous size of the Taib family wealth emerged when Taib’s daughter-in-law filed a RM400 million claim on her estranged husband, Mahmud Abu Bekir Taib, in court recently, including what she claims is her share of property worth RM300 million.

These tantalising details of the extraordinary wealth accumulation by Taib and a small group of Malaysians show a common pattern. Firstly, they have all been beneficiaries of the Barisan Nasional government and its policy aimed at working with an elite few individuals in driving the economy forward.

Many if not all of the names that appear on the Forbes list are regarded as cronies of past prime ministers Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and the present Prime Minister Najib Razak, and are widely perceived as owing their considerable wealth to their political loyalty to the Barisan Nasional.

All the business empires of the former ‘Sugar King’ Robert Kuok, Genting Highlands’ late Lim Goh Tong, Public Bank’s Teh Hong Piau, YTL’s Yeoh Tiong Lay, Astro’s Ananda Krisnan, Air Asia’s Tony Fernandez and the rising Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary — deservedly or undeservedly — are seen as built on government preference and patronage. This connection is what has provided them with head starts and privileged monopolies without which their enterprises could never have come about, let alone flourish.

Getting to the bottom of how the business empires of our richest Malaysians have taken shape may be a useful way of dealing with the thorny question of how wealth concentration — whether legitimately derived or under a cloud of illegitimacy — has occurred.

We should have no illusions about the obstacles that lie ahead of such investigative efforts. We should also be mindful that in countries where illegal wealth accumulation by the leaders of impoverished countries has drawn national and international ire, attempts at recovery of the wealth, much of which has been spirited abroad and stashed in overseas banks and assets, has been a long-drawn and difficult process.

Admittedly the hope for any confiscation of illicit or illegitimate wealth is distant and dim. The time may not even be ripe to insist on a full-blown opening up of the records and having the truth come out on how the crème de la crème of our business and political leaders have accumulated their fortunes.

But there may be need for public scrutiny in a few special cases in Malaysia despite the concern that such efforts may be construed as an anti-capitalist or anti-Barisan witch hunt.

National discussion on wealth accumulation and concentration

The time is right at the least though for a national discussion on what are the pros and cons of the current economic system which encourages the concentration of wealth and its illegal outflows on such a systemic basis, and whether this is the right economic model for the country.

The time is also right to focus on sectors and processes which have been the main playgrounds of unfair or illicit wealth accumulation; and to implement actions aimed at decisively containing or neutralising them.

Best practice examples are readily available for example, in the natural resource sector of countries with the same natural wealth as us. These countries such as Norway have been able to avoid the mistakes that we have made in exploitation of our mineral and forest resources which have permitted opaque policies and procedures, and condoned corrupt or shady businesses that have reaped windfall illicit gains.

For the national discussion on wealth concentration and outflows to take place, we need to break the conspiracy of silence by our political elites that have befitted from the system and that have collaborated in the accumulation of illicit wealth and wealth generated from dubious means.

We need the professionals to play their role. We need more studies by academics and civil society to uncover where illicit and less than legitimate accumulations are taking place and what can be done to plug up leakages and bring to justice the offenders and culprits. We need more whistleblowers to step forward.

Discussion needs to be followed by action, whether by the Barisan or Pakatan government.

This action needs to be more than just the tweaking of economic policy as envisaged

by the Pakatan parties. It needs to be a fundamentally new paradigm of development

based on the de-concentration of wealth and its more equitable distribution.

New paradigm of development

The radically new paradigm of development that puts the spotlight on the wealth of the country (within and outside) as well as on the wealthy, and with a major focus on the eventual breaking down of wealth concentration — beginning with illicit wealth — is needed for three reasons.

Firstly, it is a superior approach to the narrowly race-based New Economic Policy model that has dominated the country’s economic life and which is based on a simplistic caricature of affirmative action policy.

Secondly, our oil wealth is rapidly depleting and our treasury is depleted. Going after wealth that has been illegally accumulated or rightfully belongs to the state will provide the country some breathing space until we get our act together on the other pieces of the bigger economic transformation jigsaw.

The final reason is that the primary cause of poverty and stunted development in Malaysia is an economic system that promotes excessive concentration of wealth.

So long as the excessive concentration of wealth exists, our poverty and deformed development problem will remain unresolved.

It has been said that economics is not only about production and wealth creation. It is also about morality, and the first moral principle is that the strong owe a duty towards the weak. It is the role of government to ensure that the strong and wealthy fulfil their duty and not to encourage them in wrongdoing in their obsessive wealth accumulation.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 1 February 2012, 10:51 am and is filed under
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Hassan Ali talking as if he got more than a screw loose in his head – impossible  to get angry and outraged but only feelings of great pity at the gibberish pouring out from him

Expelled PAS member and former Selangor state exco member Datuk Hassan Ali must have shocked his “masters” when he made the wildest and most preposterous of allegations in the first stop of his nationwide roadshow in Bangi yesterday, alleging that “once they take over Putrajaya”, DAP will merge Malaysia with Singapore into a republic and abolish Article 153 of the Federal Constitution and do away with Islamic enactments.

One should get outraged and incensed at lies and falsehoods, but when they are so far-fetched with Hassan Ali talking as if he has got more than a screw loose in his head, it is impossible to get angry and outraged but only  feelings of great pity at the gibberish pouring out from him.

It is clearly an utter waste of time to try to reason with such a deranged person.

DAP however reserves the right to take all necessary legal action against such defamatory falsehoods, whether from Hassan personally or others spreading his defamatory falsehoods.

Hassan Ali has become the very personification of the “extremist” whom Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak had exhorted all moderates to rise up to oppose.

With extreme ease, Hassan seems to have  put  Ibrahim Ali – of Perkasa and the Chinese New Year “white Ang Pow” notoriety – in the shade and emerged as the No. 1 Extremist in the land.

A question all Malaysians should ponder is why there has been such an  upsurge of extremists during Najib’s 34-month premiership, causing the worst racial and religious polarization in the country’s 55-year history, despite Najib’s 1Malaysia and “Moderates of the world, Unite” calls?

Are Hassan Ali and Ibrahim Ali basically the creations of Najib’s premiership and the reasons why the only way Malaysia can be saved from such extremists is to effect real political change in the forthcoming 13th General Elections by electing a new Pakatan Rakyat Federal Government in Putrajaya?

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 1 February 2012, 2:10 pm and is filed under
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Idris Jala: Why must I be Malaysian first?

By Clara Chooi

The Malaysian Insider

Feb 01, 2012

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 1 – Datuk Seri Idris Jala said today that nationality, race and religion are of equal importance when determining an individual’s true Malaysian identity.

As such, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department said the “Malaysian first, Malay next” dilemma should not arise as being Malaysian as well as Malay are different matters and are both important.

“I get upset with people stuck with this whole Malaysian first dilemma. Why must I be Malaysian first and Malay second?” he said when dissecting the 1 Malaysia concept during his keynote address at an intercultural dialogue this afternoon.

The Sarawakian Christian minister, who served as mediator between the religious community and the government during the Alkitab bibles row last year, said race, nationality and religion contribute equally to a person’s identity and should not be placed in a contest against one another.

He added that by insisting that the “Malaysian” tag should supercede others, it was tantamount to saying that the hand is more important than the leg or vice-versa.

“My name is Idris, that is my name, my identity. Kelabit is the tribe I was born in.

“I belong to a group called the Orang Ulu. I am Sarawakian, I am Malaysian, I am Asian.

“They are all individual identities that are equally as important – you cannot say one is more important than another,” he said.

Jala added that under the 1 Malaysia concept, an “ideal world” would be for society to comprise those who are proud to call themselves Malaysians, friends who mix with those of all backgrounds, schools with a healthy mix of races and religions, residential areas with a similarly diverse make-up and a system of social support that is needs and not merits-based.

In such a world, said Jala, Malaysians would have achieved “level two and level three” of the 1 Malaysia concept, which is accepting and celebrating diversity.

The “Malaysian first, Malay next” dilemma hit the headlines first in 2010 when DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang challenged Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to declare if he placed his national identity above his race.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 1 February 2012, 9:43 pm and is filed under
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