What leadership?

Rom Nain

Malaysiakini

Jul 5, 2012

Many of the people in the news these days – and, by and large, that, of course, means BN politicians – really must have been smoking some pretty bad weed, as it were.

Indeed, it’s as though, in their stupor, they’d been soliciting roadside snake oil merchants to get some modal – anything that’s deemed mujarab – from how to come up with expensive and totally unconvincing, made-in-Thailand sex videos, to tall tales of infidelity that even a village idiot would find far-fetched and absolutely ridiculous.

Many of us, on the other hand, wish that, instead, they would spend their time – and our money – on more constructive, productive and, certainly, creative pursuits, like resolving the country’s debt problems and really, genuinely, bringing down our crime statistics.

Indeed, we wish that they would do the job that they were put there for in the first place instead of just bumming around making mischief.

Unfortunately, many of them simply seem incapable of doing so.

Years ago, these jokers and miscreants could get away with their nonsense, principally because we were easily distracted and/or had short memories. Also, then these incidences were few and far between.

But now, as if caught in an epidemic of stupidity and crassness, over and over they go slip sliding away, convincing us that they are, seriously, absolutely useless and way past their sell-by date.

In this regard, I am reminded of the Italian thinker, Antonio Gramsci, a favourite writer of mine back in the old days I was an impoverished student.

While imprisoned by the fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini, Gramsci wrote his remarkable Prison Notebooks which, even today, remains a classic for many students of culture, media and politics.

It was through Gramsci’s writings that I first came across the term ‘hegemony’, often loosely defined as ‘leadership’, although it describes more than that.

Be that as it may, to summarise, perhaps unfairly, Gramsci’s use of this concept to theorise society, the concept of hegemony helps us to understand how regimes remain in power through the use of both force and persuasion, coercion and consent.

But what should interest us more is that, for Gramsci, hegemony is never permanent and there will be moments of crisis.

These happen when that leadership is no longer heeded, when, as Gramsci would put it, the old is dying and the young cannot be born.

Indeed, when the regime runs out of convincing, believable  ideas. When it starts losing credibility.

It’s a bit like a person going senile or, in Malay, nyanyuk, and nobody believing in him/her any more. Yes, reminds us of one or two of the old guard who’ve been shooting their mouths off quite a lot lately, doesn’t it?

Raining banana peels

If we look around us these days, we see one purported leader after another making an utter ninny of himself (or herself, if you throw someone like Shahrizat into this pack). It’s as though, apart from the seasonal haze clouding our environment, it is raining banana peels for these idiots to slip on.

Thus making them look less and less credible as leaders. And more and more like buffoons.

Indeed, looking at events randomly, recently, there was, first, the PTPTN debacle. Like the petty schoolyard bully, the higher education minister, in an attempt  to hit out at the opposition, who had suggested that free education would be possible with a regime change, decided to freeze the PTPN loans for Unisel students. Loans gathered from the taxes we pay, mind you.

Amid the uproar that ensued, the Selangor (Pakatan) government, in response, stood firm and took on the minister’s dare and offered to sell off some of Unisel’s assets to fund the students’ education.

Clearly outmanoeuvred,  and suddenly realising that his had been an extremely unpopular, indeed moronic, move, the minister – and PTPTN – relented, lifting the freeze. Already with egg on his face, he nonetheless refused to concede, let alone apologise, especially to the victimised students and their parents.

In one fell swoop, he managed to illustrate to the whole nation what an arrogant and vindictive decision this had been. And, at the same time, contribute even more to this ongoing crisis of BN leadership, this crisis of hegemony.

Then there was the spectacle of our BN politicians and Perkasa – such loving bedfellows – hitting out at Singapore diplomats for allegedly being part of the Bersih 3.0 rally. Most of us are already aware – and are rather sick – of this old, jaded tactic of trying to gain mass support through hitting out at a purportedly common, external ‘enemy’.

The official stand then was that foreign diplomats shouldn’t have been at the Bersih 3.0 rally, certainly not as ‘participants’. But it later transpired that the Malaysian envoy in Australia, quite unfortunately perhaps, had also attended one of the the Bersih rallies there. And had been caught on tape responding to questions posed by a television crew.

Thus evidently contradicting this ‘official’ Malaysian stand. Thus making more of them lose credibility. Thus contributing more to the crisis of leadership.

Ever-changing crime statistics

Then also there’s the ever-changing statistics on crime and crime prevention.. all in the space of a few days recently. With such contradictory announcements by the authorities, backed by a truly insensitive comment – by  the home minister this time – that this is all merely ‘perception’, people invariably have become more than a little bit annoyed.

More so when the victims of such crimes, fearing that the police reports they lodge will come to nought, decide to use social media to alert people, to share their frightening experiences with the wider public. These shared fears cannot be dismissed or contemptuously wished away by the authorities.

They are very real. And they also indicate, yet again, a loss of faith.

It doesn’t take a genius to see that when people no longer believe they are being protected; that they can be robbed, assaulted, raped, murdered, in broad daylight and in popular shopping malls, they begin to question the reliability of the agencies entrusted with maintaining law and order – especially the police.

And it doesn’t help matters when these same boys and girls in blue are so quick to take action against peaceful marchers and demonstrators exercising their right under the Malaysian constitution. But evidently slow to solve real, very serious, crimes.

So, when there’s no attempt at appeasement, no effort to address these fears and concerns but, instead, you meet these fears with derision, you – more specifically the home minister and other assorted jokers… I mean, leaders – simply contribute further to this crisis and, quite likely, the regime’s downfall.

And no amount of BR1M money, tyre vouchers and other forms of handouts, all funded by our taxes, will resolve that feeling of being betrayed, that rising resentment.

That crisis of hegemony.

——————————————————————————–

ROM NAIN is a media analyst and  academic who is weary of incompetent, unethical leaders and their apologists and spin doctors in the media who try to get away with murder while professing to rub shoulders with God’s angels.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 8 July 2012, 12:42 pm and is filed under
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Anatomy of the civil service pay rise debacle

— Dr.Lim Teck Ghee

CPI

Jul 09, 2012

JULY 9 — New Straits Times group managing editor A. Jalil Hamid recently wrote an analysis of the recent changes in the civil service top leadership. The article titled ‘Of accountability in the civil service and putting people first’ ended with the lines “[t]hose in the public service can now look forward to a better and a more rewarding career as the country marches towards meeting the Vision 2020. We can now put the dark episode behind us”.

But has the dark episode ended? Although one prominent head has rolled, more were implicated in the salary revision debacle and should have been lopped off. Even with the latest attempt at salary revision, the basic problems besetting the civil service remain unresolved and continue to be kept out of the arena of public discussion and discourse.

Rushing through the SBPA

When the new Skim Baru Perkhidmatan Awam (SBPA) for the public service was mooted, it was clear that the scheme had the top echleon of the civil service as its principal beneficiaries. To prevent public scrutiny of the scheme, few details were provided and there was a concerted attempt made to rush the implementation through.

None of the country’s major stakeholders and key players emerged with any credit during the period when the SBPA was being pushed through with indecent haste.

Cuepacs, the main civil service union responsible for looking after the interests of lower-grade workers, only got to grips with some of the main flaws relating to the salary inequities very late in the game. Why did the Cuepacs leadership flip-flop over SBPA and finally register its opposition so late? Were their arms twisted or were they blinded by personal ambition and self-serving interests or by other factors?

Aspiring economists would do well to study the Cuepacs role in this episode of labour negotiations to uncover the tangled and often invisible dynamics of individual, group, organisational and political interests converging and diverging.

Politics and the civil service

The stand of the country’s top leaders was negligent and irresponsible. Thrilled at the prospect of the civil service continuing to serve as the Barisan Nasional’s fixed deposit, Prime Minister Najib Razak, deputy PM Muhyiddin Yassin and their entire cabinet failed to pay attention to the details of the proposed SBPA and were unconcerned with its shortcomings.  A cabinet paper on the proposed SBPA was tabled and therefore the cabinet cannot claim ignorance on the matter or shift responsibility away from itself.

Aside from the civil service being one of the game-deciding voter segments in the coming elections, national interest also appears to be furthest from the minds of our political elite. Many would have benefitted personally if the SBPA had been successfully implemented because the practice in Malaysia is that the salaries and allowances of elected politicians are pegged to those of the country’s top administrators.

Thus it was not merely the nation’s top 5,000 civil servants that would have benefited from the durian runtuh or windfall of the SBPA. Tens of thousands of our political elite would have benefitted similarly from the surreptitious attempt to benchmark the pay rise to the wages of top private sector professionals and managers.

Is this why the political parties and politicians were so quiet on the SBPA during the critical months when the Public Services Department (PSD) attempted to ram the scheme down the country’s throat?

Another key force – the mass media – was also derelict in their responsibilities when the SBPA was being rolled out. Instead of critically analysing the new scheme and seeking feedback from the public, they dutifully reproduced the stream of official propaganda applauding the impact of the new scheme. Not a single editorial appears to have been written in the mainstream media calling attention to the obvious defects of the scheme and subjecting it to judicious scrutiny.

Today, four months after the scheme was aborted, there are belated editorials about how bold and responsive the government is to the needs of the lower rank civil servants and how fortunate it is that the scheme did not “see the light of day”. Spinning and hypocrisy, it seems, reigns supreme amongst most of our top media practitioners when it comes to crucial matters of state that may have political consequences.

The only stake player that has emerged with any credit in this sorry and continuing saga of political opportunism taking advantage of a national issue is the Internet media.  It was the Internet media that raised the alarm bells over the defects of the SBPA and smelled a rat in the way that the scheme was being railroaded through by the government and the PSD. It was the Internet media that carried the comments of indignant readers calling for the scrapping of the scheme and decrying the attempts by government aimed at milking political mileage from it (see here).

Dark episode behind us, really?

Yet another special commission has now been set up. Headed by the former Chief Justice Tun Zaki Azmi, the commission is to study the transformation of the civil service in a comprehensive and holistic manner. The commission does not have to look long or far and wide to identify the key problems of the civil service.

NGOs such as the Centre for Policy Initiatives have identified four key reforms needed for a revitalized civil service. They are:

1.	Fighting corruption within the service

2.	Depoliticizing the service

3.	Ensuring that the service is representative of our multiethnic population

4.	Right sizing the service

To these should be added now another factor that requires scrutiny. How much did the Malaysian Salary Remuneration system (SSM) correct the salary inequality within the service or did it further reinforce the imbalance? Under the Barisan Nasional government, the salary differential within the Malaysian civil service has developed to be amongst the more inequitable ones in the world.

Has the yawning gap in civil service pay between the top earners and the rank-and-file become even worse with the SSA? The new special commission, Cuepacs and others should have something to say on the salary inequality within the civil service even if the government would rather this issue be put into permanent cold storage.

In fact, all Malaysians should be very concerned with the civil service salary inequality and other issues affecting the well-being and productivity of the largest body of workers in the country.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 9 July 2012, 7:28 pm and is filed under
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Don’t mix National Day theme with political party theme

— Vinod Naidu Munikrishnayya

The Malaysian Insider

Jul 09, 2012

JULY 9 — An independence day celebration is a day to appreciate the progress of our beloved nation, along with the ups and downs that we have undergone ever since 1957.

This day is to be celebrated and cherished by each and every Malaysia across the political and racial divide.

Having an independence day themed after a political party’s theme does not do justice.

I don’t think we want to see only a portion of Malaysians celebrating it. This is not the anniversary of the existence of a political party but a nation. Do not mix this with politics.

Keep those political party themes for your party events and campaign; leave independence day alone.

All previous themes from “Muhibah dan Perpaduan”, “Bersatu Maju”, “Bersatu Menuju Wawasan” until “Perpaduan Teras Kejayaan” reignite the patriotism within each one of us.

Political themes will not remind us of our independence struggle and to some might even ignite hatred.

I sincerely would request National Day themes, current and in future, to be independent and for all Malaysians and not any political party.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 9 July 2012, 2:44 pm and is filed under
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Utusan Malaysia confirmed it is “lies-paper”  when it front-paged the lie that DAP would contest 90 parliamentary seats to dominate PR and appoint the Prime Minister in 13GE

Utusan Malaysia today confirmed  that it is a “lies-paper” and not a newspaper when it plumbed a new depth of dishonest and unethical journalism by front-paging the lie  that DAP would contest 90 parliamentary seats to dominate Pakatan Rakyat and appoint the Prime Minister in the 13th general election.

The Utusan  report that DAP would be contesting 90 out of 222 (i.e. 40.5%)  parliamentary seats in the next general election,  with PAS and PKR contesting in 66 seats each, is the latest in an irresponsible,  malicious and anti-national campaign by UMNO propagandists and spinmasters to stoke racial suspicion and distrust that the Malays will lose political power if UMNO is defeated and the Barisan Nasional replaced by Pakatan Rakyat in the 13th general election.

Last week, I had debunked former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad’s scare tactics when he warned that the Chinese voters are the kingmakers for the 13th general election on the ground that  the Malays are divided among three  “small” parties and that the Chinese voters will decide who forms the government after the general election.

I had pointed out that “the  harsh reality is that the electoral arithmetic does not allow the Chinese voters to be the ‘kingmakers’”.

There are only 34 parliamentary seats out of 222 where the Chinese comprise a majority of voters. Even if Pakatan Rakyat (PR) wins all of the Chinese votes in these seats, it will only yield 15% of total parliamentary seats.

There are another 55 parliamentary seats where Chinese voters constitute between 30% to 50% of the voters. Even if PR is able to win 80% of Chinese votes in these seats, it would still need between 35% to 40% of support from the other communities in order to win these seats.

In total, this means that there are only 89 parliamentary seats where the Chinese comprise more than 30% of total voters.

Even if PR is  to win all these seats (which needs significant support from the other communities in the majority of cases), this would only constitute 40% of total parliamentary seats  which  is not enough to comprise a majority of parliamentary seats.

Now the UMNO propagandists and spinmaters  have come out with a new twist in their campaign of scaremongering to stoke racial suspicion and distrust – that the DAP will be contesting the most number of parliamentary seats, i.e. 90 seats while leaving PAS and PKR with 66 seats each.

This is utterly wild and baseless.  Final seat allocations between Pakatan Rakyat parties have still to be fully completed but the DAP is not contemplating contesting in more than 60 parliamentary seats or less than 28 per cent of the total 222 parliamentary seats.

Although the lie that DAP will contest 90 parliamentary seats has been demolished,  the edifice of lies to frighten Malay voters, that the DAP will be the dominant party as compared to PAS and PKR even to the extent of deciding who is the Prime Minister, will be reconstructed by the UMNO propagandists and spinmasters using other lies and falsehoods.

Malaysians regardless of race, religion or region are facing the greatest test in the nation’s history whether they  could discern the lies and falsehoods passing off as truths and facts appearing in the “lies-papers” like Utusan Malaysia – which is also a critical test whether the Malaysian nation and Malaysian democracy have matured after more than half a century of nationhood.

The true fact of the matter is that it is only with the support of the majority of the Malay and non-Malay voters that Pakatan Rakyat can win in the next general election and replace UMNO/Barisan Nasional as the next federal government of Malaysia.

But what struck me most from the latest lie of the UMNO propagandists and spinmasters is their growing conviction and desperation that the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and UMNO/Barisan Nasional could  be defeated in the ballot box in the 13th general election.

This is also what is causing Najib to keep postponing the date for the 13th general election.

They are not completely wrong as the signs are for all who have eyes to see that there are increasing indications that Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, class, region, age or gender, are prepared for change in Putrajaya in the next general election  despite all the politics of lies, fear, money and corruption of UMNO/BN in the less than 10 months left for  the 12th Parliament and the Najib government, when Parliament will be automatically dissolved on April 28 next year to give way for the holding of the 13th general election.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 9 July 2012, 4:13 pm and is filed under
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Return of Mahathirism triumphant

Last week, Tun Mahathir asked why I hated him so much.  Yesterday, he asked why I am so afraid of him.

It is neither. As I had said on Saturday, “like three former Prime Ministers, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Hussein and Tun Abdullah and the majority of Malaysians in 2012, I am opposed to Mahathirism and its return to Malaysian politics in the 13th general election”.

Mahathir is in his cynical best.

Tongue-in-cheek, he made the grandiloquent announcement that “Mahathirism” is dead, that it “died” when Tun Abdullah took over from him as Prime Minister in 2003.

In actual fact, “Mahathirism” is not only alive and thriving, the return of Mahathirism is enjoying its most triumphant phase since the unceremonious exit of Abdullah as Prime Minister and his replacement by Datuk Seri Najib Razak 39 months ago.

This is most evident by the almost ceaseless spouting of “Mahathirism” recently, viz:

•	Mahathir’s Sunday interview with Mingguan Malaysia  where he castigated Malay “kebodohan” (stupidity) resulting in a major ethnic group bowing down to demands of minority groups, which included the government recognition of certificates by Tunku Abdul Rahman College (TARC), and claiming that the community had failed to “exploit its majority since Independence to consolidate power”;

•	his speech in Penang last night that if Barisan Nasional is rejected in the 13th General Election, the Opposition will destroy the country;

•	his recent stoking of racial fears among the Malays with his warnings and baseless allegations that (i) Malay will lose power if Umno loses next general election; (ii)  that Najib is a weak Prime Minister and reforms could spark unrest; (iii)  that the 13GE will be about race and that the Chinese voters are the kingmakers for the 13GE and will decide who forms the government.

The question at issue  is whether the forces representing the “Return of  Mahathirism Triumphant” is at the core of the massive anti-national conspiracy of lies and falsehoods to  create racial distrust, suspicion,  panic and fear particularly among the Malays in the 13GE, totally in utter disregard of their destructive effects on 54-years of nation building, including the Bangsa Malaysia concept of Vision 2020 as well as Najib’s 1Malaysia concept.

Yesterday provided a classic example of such dangerous,  racist, anti-national  and treacherous campaign tactics when the UMNO publication, Utusan Malaysia plumbed a new depth of dishonest and unethical journalism and  front-paged the lie that DAP would contest 90 of the 222 parliamentary seats in the 13GE to  dominate Pakatan Rakyat and appoint  the Prime Minister.

Although DAP and Pakatan Rakyat  leaders had yesterday itself denied and debunked the Utusan report as “utterly wild and baseless”, and I said in my media statement that although final seat allocations between Pakatan Rakyat parties have still to be fully completed, “DAP is not contemplating contesting more than 60 parliamentary seats or less than 28 per cent of the total 222 parliamentary seats”, Utusan Malaysia completely ignored these denials and  today continued to publish reports and articles on the basis that its lies about “DAP to contest 90 seats” are true!

This is one example of “Return of Mahathirism Triumphant” at its worst and most irresponsible!

It will be interesting to find out how many Malaysians believe Mahathir or agree with him that “Mahathirism” died when Abdullah took over as Prime Minister.

Mahathir charged that Abdullah “changed UMNO, the BN and the Government so much that they no longer resemble the institutions I used to know” and he had to resign from UMNO.

Abdullah’s greatest tragedy is his failure to dismantle the Mahathirish architecture of racism, authoritarianism, corruption and cronyism to make the return of Mahathirism (as distinct from the return of Mahathir) an impossible agenda.

This is now among the issues that have to be resolved in the 13GE – for a new start in Malaysia that could put the Mahathirish past of  abuses of power, corruption and cronyism completely behind the country, where Malaysians regardless of race, religion, class, region, gender or age could come together in a common national endeavour as on Bersih 3.0 on April 28 to build a united, harmonious, democratic, just, competitive,  progressive and clean Malaysian nation.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 10 July 2012, 1:44 pm and is filed under
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Rebellious divisions holding Najib back

Mohd Ariff Sabri Aziz  | July 11, 2012

Free Malaysia Today

Is Najib Tun Razak, who has been groomed since young to lead the country, facing a coup in Umno?

COMMENT

Why is Prime Minister and Umno president Najib Tun Razak procrastinating in naming an election date?

After all, he’s enjoying a good personal rating, and good reports from the ground. Not forgetting Umno is now flush with cash.

The real reason he delays and delays, and huffs and puffs is that he fears a looming revolt within Umno.

The incumbents are insisting they are winnable. Would anyone dare replace warlord Tajudin Rahman (Pasir Salak), for example?

Najib is facing potential revolts in all divisions.

Even if he pays the incumbents lots of money, the people supporting the replaced incumbents will sabotage Umno.

More so the incumbents who feel they are winnable but are humiliated because they are not chosen.

The eager beavers who thought they would be chosen but sidelined will muster whatever they can to sabotage Umno.

This is the only reason why Najib is delaying the election date.

Will the one million plus Umno members who have shifted from the “dark side” to the “bright side” come back?

Najib ‘begs’ Taib

Well maybe 5% have but that still leaves more than one million Umno members who will vote for Pakatan Rakyat.

Najib is desperate and he is looking at Sabah and Sarawak for help.

He went to Sarawak recently to plead for an extended lifeline. But the people of Sarawak are not easily fooled any longer.

Chief Minister Taib Mahmud is an old but wizened geezer. He is keen and sharp to the deceptive manoeuvres of Najib.

After all, wasn’t Najib, the Umno president, who repeatedly humiliated him (Taib) by asking him to retire quickly (and in public too)?

The call came from the president of a party who wasn’t able to achieve a 100% win in 2008.

Najib was talking down to Taib, the president of another party who retained all (read 100%) of the seats his candidates contested in.

That’s why Taib sent word to Najib, through an emissary, saying “we shall see who leaves office first”.

The fact is Najib can’t win over the reasonable Malay.

The reasonable Malay is the person riding the LRT, the Metro, or the successor to the famed Sri Jaya bus.

‘All thunder but no rain’

We can’t underestimate the intelligence of these commuters who read in between the lines and are able to seive through all the nonsense played up by the mainstream media and Umno politicos.

Are the reasonable Malays, Umno general members including, going to stand idly by and watch Najib cheat his way in the 13th general election by using use instant Indonesian Bumiputeras against our original Malays on this land?

Already, you see it in the fierce competition they are putting up in the market place. Today it’s like that.

Tomorrow? Your BR1M handouts will be reduced because there will be more “instant Malays” who need it.

No more can the reasonable Malay be fooled.

The reasonable Malay is no longer easily blinded by the fetish sense of patriotism hawked around by Perkasa or to mouth-foaming gesticulations of Hidup Melayu by any of the Umno leaders.

Because the reasonable Malay knows it’s all so much thunder but no rainfall.

The writer is a former Umno state assemblyman but joined DAP earlier this year. He is a FMT columnist.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 11 July 2012, 12:08 pm and is filed under
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Smoke and mirrors

— Rom Nain

The Malaysian Insider

Jul 11, 2012

JULY 11 — For many, certainly among the educated, urban middle class, it has become quite apparent why this administration has become increasingly unpalatable.

There have been the barefaced lies and arrogant disdain in response to scandals such as the National Feedlot Corporation (NFC), Scorpene submarines, and controversial projects such as the Lynas plant.

There also have been the crass accusations and misrepresentations of important and meaningful events like Bersih 3.0, the ongoing blatant buying of the peoples’ votes using public funds and, of course, the continuing, unprovoked character assassination of people and parties who, for some inexplicable reason, seem to scare the living daylights out of the members of this regime.

The call by the Barisan Nasional’s Seri Gading MP, Mohamad Aziz, for Bersih co-chairperson Ambiga Sreenevasan to be hanged for treason is a perfect example of this desperation, this stupidity, this insanity.

All this, evidently, has contributed to a general feeling of revulsion among many at the antics of a regime that appears to have gone mad with power. And will do anything to cling on to it, especially at a time when its legitimacy is evidently at an all-time low and is rapidly sinking further.

Indeed, things seem to have all gone wrong for Prime Minister Najib Razak.

He started off with grand talk of reform and giving Malaysians more freedom. Just a few days after becoming the prime minister, on April 7, 2009, he boldly declared: “If we are truly to build a democracy that is responsive to the needs of the people, we need a media — both old and new — that is empowered to responsibly report what they see, without fear of consequence.”

Of course this was three long years ago, before the personnel from some of the media he was talking about were soundly beaten to a pulp by his boys in blue one Saturday afternoon in April.

But, nonetheless, over these years, as if to constantly divert our attention, these words have been supplemented by even more words, empty slogans and even emptier promises.

The 1 Malaysia spiel, for example, has certainly been flogged to death, despite his deputy and an assortment of his “ketuanan Melayu” mates continuing to make a mockery of the slogan.

But even if he’s not been consistent, Najib has certainly been persistent, especially with his seemingly empty talk about “transformation”, “freedom”, and Malaysia’s ability to become “the best democracy” around.

And not surprisingly, despite the continuous missteps, there are those in his administration who evidently feel that something, anything, needs to be done to stem the tide, to help make the regime look acceptable, even if it’s nothing more than just smoke and mirrors.

One such person who tries but evidently isn’t very good at it is arguably the PM’s chief propagandist, Information, Communication and Culture Minister Rais Yatim.

In his latest foray, Rais announced in early June that “for the first time ever”, non-BN political parties may promote their manifestos on RTM or other broadcasters.

But before we could all go out and celebrate this “great” breakthrough, the old man went and spoilt it all — reminding us that this, after all, is Malaysia — by outlining various rather ridiculous conditions.

This includes the condition that such broadcasts can only begin once Parliament is dissolved and the campaigning period starts.

The fact that Rais “did not state how much airtime would be given or the conditions that parties had to comply with to access the facility” really should make us cautious about this “opening” up of the media to all parties concerned.

Indeed, firstly, why are the “guidelines” — government imposed, at that — being provided only at the beginning of the campaign period, without any discussion with the interested and affected parties?

Second, will all parties be given equal time in the same time slots? It would make a mockery of the facility if, for instance, the opposition coalition and other non-BN parties are provided time slots that have small audiences, hence minimum reach, to promote their manifestos.

Indeed, more conditions have now been imposed. The most insidious is the one that disallows live broadcasts of these manifestos and that the recorded ones may indeed be subject to editing — read manipulation, read distortion — by RTM.

And, of course, it has gotten sillier. Rais has since been quoted as saying that “the manifestos would be aired depending on their newsworthiness”. And you can be sure he said all that with a straight face, as comedians do.

By no stretch of the imagination can what is being proposed — with the conditions imposed — be interpreted as “free and fair access” to the media. Indeed it yet again simply insults our intelligence for the minister and even the chairperson of the Election Commission to suggest so.

Even a first year media studies undergraduate could tell the PM and his toadies that to begin even thinking about “free and fair access” we would need to look at media ownership patterns, indeed, the concentration of media ownership in the hands of BN political parties.

We would also need to come up with ways to dismantle these undemocratic ownership structures. Equally, we would need to consider getting rid of undemocratic laws that impede free and fair access.

And looking at recent developments, we would certainly need to rethink the amendments to the Evidence Act.

So when we begin to look at it seriously — and not in a vacuous manner — “free and fair access” really means much more than the handing out of ‘free’ airtime during the campaign period.

More and more of the Malaysian population are quite aware of this. Unfortunately, many of these dinosaur politicians are not, especially after all these years of not being able to recognise “democracy” even when they tripped over it. — aliran.com

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 11 July 2012, 12:37 pm and is filed under
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Teoh Beng Hock like Ahmad Sarbaini, Aminurasyid and V.Kugan will be among  priority cases of “transitional justice” in a new Pakatan Rakyat  government in Putrajaya after 13GE to address past human rights violations and rebuild social trust in a democratic system of governance

We are here to remember Teoh Beng Hock, cruel victim of injustice and misgovernance, and to reaffirm our commitment to continue to do all we can to ensure that we will not cease until justice is done to Beng Hock and his family.

The death of Teoh Beng Hock at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) headquarters at Shah Alam on July 16, 2009, together with cases of Ahmad Sarbaini, Aminurasyid and V. Kugan will be among the priority cases of “transitional justice” in a new Pakatan Rakyat government in Putrajaya after the 13th General Election to address human rights violations and rebuild social trust in a democratic system of governance.

What is “transitional justice”?

Let me quote from the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ):

Transitional justice refers to the set of judicial and non-judicial measures that have been implemented by different countries in order to redress the legacies of massive human rights abuses. These measures include criminal prosecutions, truth commissions, reparations programs and various kinds of institutional reforms.

Transitional justice is not a ‘special’ kind of justice, but an approach to achieving justice in times of transition from conflict and/or state repression. By trying to achieve accountability and redressing victims, transitional justice provides recognition of the rights of victims, promotes civic trust and strengthens the democratic rule of law.

In the aftermath of massive human rights abuses, victims have well established rights to see the perpetrators punished, to know the truth, and to receive reparations.

Because systemic human rights violations affect not just the direct victims, but society as a whole, in addition to satisfying these obligations, states have duties to guarantee that the violations will not recur, and therefore, a special duty to reform institutions that were either involved in or incapable of preventing the abuses.

A history of unaddressed massive abuses is likely to be socially divisive, to generate mistrust between groups and in the institutions of the State, and to hamper or slow down the achievement of security and development goals. It raises questions about the commitment to the rule of law and, ultimately, can lead to cyclical recurrence of violence in various forms.

As it is seen in most countries where massive human rights violations take place, the claims of justice refuse to ‘go away.’

In recent decades, transitional justice has gained an important foundation in international law and increasingly, all states are expected to enshrine and uphold  four fundamental obligations of vital importance in the area of human rights in the fight against impunity and respect for victims’ rights. These are:

•	To take reasonable steps to prevent human rights violations;

•	To conduct a serious investigation of violations when they occur;

•	To impose suitable sanctions on those responsible for the violations;

•	To ensure reparation for the victims of the violation.

In the tragic case of Teoh Beng Hock, the Malaysian government has failed to live up to all these four fundamental obligations – powerful reasons why transitional justice has to be invoked when there is a change of government in Putrajaya in the 13GE.

The Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak broke his solemn undertaking to Teoh Beng Hock’s family on July  28, 2009 that “no stone would be left unturned” to find the causes and circumstances of TBH’s death. It is clear that the Najib administration is not serious in wanting to bring Teoh’s killers to justice.

Two weeks ago, MACC  Chief Commissioner Datuk Seri Abu Kassim Mohamad said the MACC would decide on the form of disciplinary action against three MACC officers named by the TBH Royal Commission of Inquiry of having “driven…Teoh…to commit suicide…by their aggressive, relentless, oppressive and unscrupulous interrogation” – when the three should be charged in court for a variety of criminal offences including perjury at the RCI and the TBH inquest  as well as the re-opening of high-powered investigation into Teoh’s killers as the RCI has found that the  initial police investigations had been undermined by the conspiracy of “blue wall of silence” of MACC officers to thwart police investigations from establishing the truth and to pervert the course of justice.

The prioritisation of the case of Teoh Beng Hock for transitional justice will serve eight broad objectives – establishing the truth, providing victims a public platform, holding perpetrators accountable, strengthening the rule of law, providing victims with compensation, effectuating institutional reform, promoting reconciliation, and promoting public deliberation.

All cases of victims of gross violation of human rights and the culture of impunity, whether the mysterious deaths of Teoh Beng Hock, Ahmad Sarbaini, Aminurashid, V. Kugan, will be proper cases for transitional justice if Pakatan Rakyat forms the new government in Putrajaya in the 13GE.

(Speech at the forum “Justice in a Period of Change” as part of the Teoh Beng Hock third death anniversary programme held at KL/Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall on Tuesday, 10th July 2012 at 8 pm)

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 11 July 2012, 9:05 am and is filed under
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Thugs at my doorstep

— Ong Kian Ming

The Malaysian Insider

Jul 11, 2012

JULY 11 — At approx 4.45pm [yesterday] (July 10), three thugs, in their early to late twenties, tried to break into my house in Petaling Jaya.

Thankfully, they were unsuccessful. Thankfully, I am not hurt. I am immensely grateful at the outpouring of support shown by my friends and family. I am thankful to the police for their quick response in sending three squad cars to my house five minutes after I reported the incident and their follow up on this case.

Many are probably wondering why I think it was politically motivated rather than just a simple attempted break in. I cannot be 100 per cent sure that it was politically motivated but I’m quite sure of it. And here’s why:

The thugs came in a car and they parked directly in front of my house, which is about 200m from the community guard house. It is a simple and spartan double story terrace house. It is not a flashy house. I drive a Toyota Vios.

There are other houses along the same row with Mercedes-Benz and other nicer cars. Some of my neighbours were not at home. It would have been much easier to break into their homes instead of mine (not that I am recommending that they do this). Or a house that is more secluded. Or a house which seems to have more stuff to steal.

My car was in the driveway. The thugs must have considered the possibility that someone was at home. They broke the automatic gates, which create a huge noise, rather than scaling over the gate, which would have been easy to do and much more discreet.

I was in the living room when they broke the automatic gate. I got up immediately and shouted at them, screaming “Police! Police!” They didn’t even break their stride after I got up but kept on coming, which indicated to me that they knew I was at home.

They proceeded to try and kick the door down while I kept on shouting. If it was an opportunistic break in, they would have left knowing that there was someone at home.

They then left even though they could have kicked the door down. On the way out, one of them pointed his finger at me as if to give me a warning. He then used a screwdriver or some metal instrument to make a puncture in the bonnet of my car. If they had really wanted to break in even knowing that there was someone at home, they could have kicked the door down and easily overpowered me.

They were in and out of the place in less than three minutes. Not long enough for the police to come and catch them but long enough to send a message.

I don’t think it is a coincidence this happened a few days before a Bersih event in Malacca on Friday and three Bersih events in Kedah and Penang on Saturday and Sunday, at which I will be speaking. I don’t think it is a coincidence that Ambiga has been targeted as well as Wong Chin Huat.

I am no Ambiga or Chin Huat but I have been publishing a series of highly damaging articles regarding the many problems in the electoral roll that I know that the Election Commission, National Registration Department and even some members of the Cabinet have read and are aware of.

Initially, I said to a Malaysiakini reporter that I thought that this attempted break in could be due to my critique against MCA on the Talam issue, the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) and other government policies.

After giving it some thought, I think that it is much more likely that it was due to my Bersih-related activities given the record of how thugs have been deployed to harass and intimidate various people related to the Bersih movement.

Regardless, I won’t allow this incident (if it was indeed an intimidation tactic) to cow me into fear or submission. I will continue to publish my findings on the problems with the electoral roll and share these findings with members of the public.

I will continue to write my critiques as a contributor to Refsa on the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP). I will continue to write political commentaries. I will continue to play my own very small part in trying to make this country a better place.

* Ong Kian Ming is an analyst for Research for Social Advancement (Refsa). The note above was originally posted on his Facebook page

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 11 July 2012, 4:03 pm and is filed under
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Can’t keep silent about crime

― Gomen Man

The Malaysian Insider

Jul 12, 2012

JULY 12 ― Firstly, Eugene Teh of Pemandu should know his place. He is a consultant, employed by Idris Jala.

He is not the prime minister or the home minister or even our wakil rakyat. He is a consultant who depends on the co-operation of the police to do his work. If the cops are unhappy with Teh, he will have to look for work elsewhere.

So I suppose it is no surprise that he issues a plea to Malaysians to stop bashing the cops because they are our only hope, etc. He goes on to describe the stressful conditions in which they work.

Don’t take us for fools. We deal with the cops daily. We go to police stations to report snatch thefts only to either face unsympathetic faces or worse yet, to be told “banyak kes macam ini”.

Some of us are “discouraged” from lodging reports by cops who either are lazy or have been told to do their best to keep crime statistics down. (What is that again? Crime is down 10 per cent!)

Those of us who have to deal with cops know how investigations papers can go missing and how clear-cut cases can drag on for a long time because the perpetrator is connected.

Corruption is endemic in the force and meritocracy does not exist with those who suck up to the politicians moving up the ladder while the real crime busters seek early retirement.

Mediocrity runs through the force from the IGP to the mata-mata. Eight times out of ten, policemen on patrol are shaking down foreign workers.

The simple fact is that we deal with cops on a daily basis and most of us are respectful, but we know that we will not get much help from them. We trust them as much as we trust the crime statistics.

Teh, you say that we should not bash the cops and demoralise them.

I say that it is a bigger danger for Malaysians to keep silent when the cops bash up their own people, steal from them and pretend that the crime situation is all good.

Semua OK!

And may I know why The Malaysian Insider has become the Pemandu webpage?

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 12 July 2012, 10:37 pm and is filed under
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Drop  sedition charges against Karpal and Uthayakumar to prove Najib’s bona fides when announcing repeal of Sedition Act

The Attorney-General Tan Sri Gani Patail should drop sedition charges against DAP National Chairman and MP for Bukit Gelugor Karpal Singh and Human Rights Party leader P. Uthayakumar to establish the bona fides of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak when announcing that the Sedition Act 1948 will be repealed and replaced with a new act to be known as the National Harmony Act.

In his speech yesterday, Najib said the decision to repeal the Sedition Act was to find a mechanism that could ensure the freedom of speech for every citizen and the need to handle the complexity of plurality existing in the country.

He said that with the new National Harmony Act, the country would be “better equipped to manage our national fault lines” and “help to strengthen national cohesion by protecting national unity and nurturing religious harmony”.

The history of the Sedition Act in Malaysia is the history of an undemocratic, draconian, archaic, authoritarian and repressive law used in a most selective and discriminatory manner by the powers-of-the-day not only to suppress freedom of speech and expression  by criminalising dissent but also to target and penalise Opposition personalities.

While the repeal of the Sedition Act is welcome, and had been the subject of demands for democratisation for decades, Malaysians are understandably wary of Najib’s announcement as the promise of “political transformation” by Najib in his Malaysia Day speech last year on the repeal of the Internal Security Act,  amendments to the Police Act and Printing Presses and Publications Act, the passage of the Peaceful Assembly Act and the revocation of the Emergency Proclamations, have not resulted in the full democratisation of the rights of Malaysians as illustrated by the high-handed and unconscionable police crackdown on peaceful Bersih 3.0 demonstrators and the post-April 28 state-sponsored campaign of vilification and demonisation against Bersih 3.0 organisers and protestors.

What is equally of grave concern to patriotic Malaysians is the growing culture of impunity by irresponsible quarters to stoke hatred to create racial and religious ill-will and polarisation through a high-level diabolical campaign of lies and falsehoods to perpetuate UMNO/Barisan Nasional hold to power in the forthcoming general election.

The question that must inevitably be asked is whether Najib’s latest announcement on the repeal of the Sedition Act and its replacement by a National Harmony Act is part of the Prime Minister’s programme designed to make Malaysia “the best democracy in the world” and if so, why he is not prepared to make the most important commitment of all, that UMNO/BN and he himself will fully accept and even facilitate a peaceful transfer of power at the federal level if this is the choice of the Malaysian voters in the next general election?

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 12 July 2012, 1:06 pm and is filed under
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Janji dimungkiri, Mahathirisme hidup lagi

— Sakmongkol AK47

The Malaysian Insider

Jul 12, 2012

12 JULAI — Dr Mahathir yang masih tidak boleh melupakan seronok jadi PM selama 22 tahun menyatakan masa depan Malaysia musnah jika Pakatan menang. Dia sebenarnya rindukan Mahathirisme. Najib di anggap kurang cerdik melaksanakan doktrin Mahathirism. Sebab itu Mahathir sedang asah parang hendak sembelih leher Najib di bantu oleh Muhyidin al lelongi dan Mukriz a/l Mahathir.

Sebelum masa itu tiba, perkara yang serupa dislogankan oleh PM Najib. Mengenai slogan-slogan rakyat dah lali dengan jerit sana sini Najib. Ketika meraikan ahli Umno yang di angkut dan dibayar berhimpun di stadium Bukit Jalil, dia kata nak istihar pilihanraya dia tetap takut. Di Melaka dia kata Umno akan menang 14-0, saya kata, kalau demikian, semalam sudah Najib istihar PRU. Najib tahu perpaduan orang Umno akan kurang 30 peratus pada hari dia menamakan calun. Jadi bagaimana hendak bertarung dalam gelanggang, apabila diluar pun sudah kelam kabut.

Orang Umno dah letih menunggu bila PRU akan di adakan. Kepada orang Umno, PRU ialah Hari Raya. Sebab masa itu, duit datang mencurah curah. Motorsikal dan kereta Myvi sudah di pesan tapi duit belum turun. Orang Umno gelisah. Hendakkan PRU di cepatkan. Mereka tahu kalau Umno kalah, orang Melayu tetap akan terbela bahkan di jagai dengan lebih baik dari yang Umno mampu.

Pilihan alternative yang Najib ada ialah menyibarkan fitnah dan dakyah menakutkan rakyat. Orang Melayu hancur jika Umno tewas. Islam dalam bahaya jika Umno tewas. Raja Melayu musnah jika Umno tewas. Negara akan di perintah oleh DAP. Cina akan membunuh orang Melayu. Pemimpin Umno buat bisness semua dengan Cina. Raja Melayu buat bisnes pun semua dengan Cina.

Celakanya orang Umno, mereka ingat mereka sahaja yang berhak di anggap Melayu. Semasa saya berada dalam Umno, keMelayuan saya tidak pernah di pertikai. Melayu itu ada pada diri saya bukan terletak pada Umno. Mengapa pula, apabila orangnya yang serupa yang Melayunya tidak dipertikai semasa dalam Umno sekarang mahu di pertikaikan ketika bukan dalam Umno? Umno janganlah bongkak sangat. Melayu itu orang, bukan parti politik. Orang Melayu walau dalam apa parti pun tetap Melayu. Orang Melayu tidak jadi bukan Melayu bila mengistiharkan dirinya bukan Umno.

Orang Umno macam takde rasa malu. Sudah berkuasa lebih dari 50tahun, kalau tidak dapat mengurus dan mentadbir dengan baik, eloklah berundur. Serahkan kepada rakyat mengadili parti mana yang mereka hendak.

Bila Mahathir dan Najib mengeluarkan keresahan serta bimbang dan ragu mereka, sesungguhnya itu luahan kata-kata dari orang yang cemas. Jika Umno/BN kalah semua dasar pentadbiran negara yang merosakkan negara akan terdedah. Ketika itu, metos kehebatan Mahathir akan pecah.

Cuba kita tanya sebagai misalan kenapa ekonomi orang Melayu secara keseluruhannya masih rendah berbanding dengan kaum lain? Yang bertambah baik ialah ekonomi Melayu yang terpilih dan istimewa. Anak Mahathir, anak orang bangsawan, Raja-raja Melayu, anak pemimpin tinggi kerajaan; Melayu jenis ini tidak mewakili Melayu keseluruhan dan mereka tidak pun peduli apa berlaku kepada orang Melayu. Yang mereka penting ialah bangsa Melayu boleh di perkudakan untuk mengukuhkan kedudukan Melayu istimewa dan terpilih.

Kenapa jurang perbezaaan pendapatan di kalangan bangsa Melayu paling besar berbanding dengan jurang pendapatan antara kaum lain di Malaysia? Sebab semenjak Mahathir ambil alih kerajaan tahun 1981, dasar memajukan ekonomi Melayu secara organic di gantikan dengan dasar memilih bulu oleh Mahathir. Itulah masanya kita melihat anak-anak emas yang di anggap sebagai pemangkin ekonomi orang Melayu muncul. Mahathir beri lesen, beli konsesi, beri monopoli, beri peluang menswastakan punca-punca kekayaan negara kepada orang-orang yang di pilih, untuk mewakili pencapaian ekonomi Melayu. Mereka ini jadi kayalah, tapi rakyat Melayu kebanyakan masih ketiggalan. Rakyat terus di haramjadahkan sehinga kini.

Dan Mahathir kata Mahathirimse sudah habis? Lihat sahajalah di keliling kita. Penswastaan lapangterbang Sungai Besi akan dimajukan oleh rakan-rakan Najib dan Rosmah. Penglibatan 1MDB hanyalah hiasan tingkap. Lihat pula projek LRT Ampang yang dimenangi oleh syarikat Belfor-Beattty-Invesys pada harga RM1.01 billion di rampas dan di beri kepada syarikat George Kent milik rakan golf Najib dengan tambahan harga sebanyak RM167 million.

Kita lihat dasar mengayakan rakan-rakan kroni yang di pelopori oleh Mahathir masih di teruskan. Jadi bagaimana kita boleh menerima bahawa Mahathirisme sudah berakhir?

Paling akhir dasar memerah dan memicit rakyat berlaku apabila Najib menyenaraikan perniagaan FELDA. Counter FGVH baik dan harga menuju kepada RM6 (buat masa ini) tapi baik untuk siapa? Baik untuk peneroka yang hanya memiliki 810 unit saham berbanding dengan puak yang tidak ada kena mengena dengan FELDA yang di anugerahkan 3-5 juta unit saham? Berani tidak pihak MITI mengeluarkan senarai penerima saham yang mereka agihkan? Ketua bahagian, pemimpin Umno, pemimpin kerajaan, menteri Umno yang memboloti bahagian singa terbitan saham tersebut.

Kita biarkan Dr Mahathir dengan igauannya kerana fakta-fakta mendedahkan pendustaan Mahathir. Dia pembohong dan cara terbaik mendedahkan pembohongan orang yang kian cemas ialah menunjukkan pencapaian-pencapaian kerajaan Pakatan. Kedah, Selangor, Kelantan, Pulau Pinang dan negeri yang di rampas secara tidak etikal Perak.

Rakyat sudah terdedah kepada kebaikan berada dibawah kerajaan-kerajaan yang di pimpin oleh Pakatan. Tiga dari 5 buah negeri yang menerima FDI yang terbanyak sekali ialah negeri yang di pimpin oleh Pakatan. Umno gagal menguasai top 5 penerima pelaburan asing. Punca utama ialah kerana pimpinan mereka tidak cekap dan boros dan banyak ketirisan yang berlaku. Rasuah menjadi-jadi dan rompakan keatas sumber-sumber kekayaan negeri dilakukan oleh pimpinan Umno dan BN dengan sewenang-wenangnya. Pelabur takut hendak pergi berniaga dalam negeri-negeri Umno -BN. Syarikat Jepun yang membuka ladang menanam Spirulina di Perak memutuskan untuk tidak melabur kerana campurtangan golongan bangsawan negeri itu.

Lapuran ketua odit negara menunjukkan bahawa pengurusan ekonomi dan kewangan dalam negeri di bawah Pakatan lebih baik dari negeri dibawah kerajaan Umno. Jadi bagaimana Dr Mahathir boleh mengambil konklusi bahawa jika Pakatan mengganti Umno, maka masa depan negara akan musnah?

Yang musnah ialah penerima-penerima habuan dari Mahathirisme. Sama ada Mahathirisme mati atau sudah tidak ada, bukanlah terletak kepada perakuan Dr Mahathir. Ianya terletak kepada orang lain untuk menilai sama ada mimpi seram yang bernama Mahathirisme masih ujud atau tidak. Dan petanda ianya masih hidup segar, terlalu banyak menyebabkan kenyataan Mahathir sebagai seorang yang bersalah mahu menegakkan benang yang basah.

Dan kita perlu ingatkan orang Umno dan rakyat bahawa ketika Pak Lah mendapat undi dan kerusi terbaik pada tahun PRU 2004, ialah kerana rakyat meraikan pemergian Dr Mahathir dari tampuk kuasa.

Kita mengalu-alukan perlantikan Mahathir sebagai pengarah PRU Umno. Sudah tentu ianya akan mempercepatkan pengebumian Umno. — 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 Thursday, 12 July 2012, 9:57 pm and is filed under
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Harassment of pro-democracy activists in Malaysia reveals a worrying undercurrent of racism

Economist

Jul 14th 2012 | KUALA LUMPUR

Politics in Malaysia

The racial question

THE house of Ambiga Sreenevasan in a leafy neighbourhood of Kuala Lumpur looks ordinary enough. Getting into it, though, betrays a different reality. A security guard greets visitors, who are then scrutinised by newly installed surveillance cameras. A bodyguard hovers somewhere inside the house.

The precautions are revealing. Ms Ambiga has become the target of what she describes as “relentless attacks”, including death threats. They have thrust a middle-class lawyer (she is a former president of the Malaysian Bar Council) into the centre of politics in the run-up to what could be a pivotal general election.

Ms Ambiga is co-leader of the Bersih movement, a coalition of NGOs campaigning for free and fair elections. To her supporters, Bersih, which means “clean” in Malay, is dedicated to strengthening democracy in Malaysia, where the system is heavily skewed in favour of the ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO). The party has been in power continuously since independence in 1957; it governs in a coalition known as the Barisan Nasional (BN) mainly with two minority parties, one ethnic Chinese and the other Indian, reflecting the racial composition of the country. To many within UMNO, Ms Ambiga is a grave threat, the more so because Najib Razak, the prime minister, has to go to the polls by the second quarter of next year, but appears to be reluctant to call the election. Though his personal support rating is high, the coalition is less popular.

A mass rally called by Bersih in the capital in April attracted tens of thousands of people, including many opposition leaders. The event ended in riots and violence. Ever since, UMNO and its underlings have been demonising the leaders of Bersih, which may have cheered some from the majority Malay population but could also backfire against the government.

When it started in May, the harassment of Ms Ambiga was almost farcical. A posse of traders turned up outside her door frying burgers to protest about their lost earnings on the day of the rally; silly stuff, though still offensive to a Hindu vegetarian. Sillier still, a group of ex-soldiers marched on her house and shook their buttocks at it, calling her a subversive.

Then things turned nasty. Several hundred men handed over a petition saying that she was anti-Islamic (in a Muslim-majority country) and should leave Malaysia. Ms Ambiga says that these protests were “either sanctioned or supported by the state”. Finally, on June 26th, a veteran UMNO politician, Mohamad Aziz, said in parliament: “Can we not consider Ambiga a traitor…and sentence her to hang”.

This has caused a storm. Quite apart from the overt threat, the MP lit the touchpaper of Malaysia’s highly flammable racial politics; this was a Malay MP insulting a prominent member of the Indian community. The country’s 2m Indians are normally a divided lot, but they quickly rallied behind Ms Ambiga. Even the leaders of the BN-aligned Malaysian Indian Congress party denounced the MP, ostensibly their political ally. Mr Mohamad issued a limited apology to Indians in general, but not to Ms Ambiga personally.

Ms Ambiga believes the attacks on her, all by Malay men, are racist. She points out that her Malay co-leader of Bersih, a famous writer called A. Samad Said, has never been targeted.

It is as yet unclear whether the souring climate could turn Malaysia’s Indians against the BN. They make up only 8% of the population. Traditionally they have mostly voted for the BN, but some may now change their minds, especially in urban areas where Ms Ambiga is respected. After the BN’s Indian vote fell at the last election in 2008, Mr Najib worked hard to court Indians. Now, that may have been to little avail.

Mr Najib may also be personally tarnished. He portrays himself as a liberally minded champion of multiracial politics, yet critics say he has done little to rein in the racist attacks. When under pressure, the “warlords” of UMNO who constitute its nationalist backbone have often drawn on racial politics, playing up to Malay voters the supposed threats that Chinese and Indians pose to their institutionalised privileges in jobs and education. Under Mr Najib people had hoped for something better. Ms Ambiga accuses him of being “wet” for failing to take a stronger stand. His belated rebuttal to Mr Mohamad merely urged MPs not to say things that might “hurt the feelings of other races”.

Meanwhile, Ms Ambiga and other Bersih co-leaders (not the Malay one) have been issued with a bewildering demand for compensation from the Kuala Lumpur city council for costs incurred during the April rally. This includes a claim for “damage to trees” ($5,246) and “food and drink” for staff. The government has also brought charges against Anwar Ibrahim, the leader of the opposition, and several of his colleagues for a variety of offences arising from their participation in the April rally. Their cases go to court in the next few months; if they are convicted, they could be banned from standing in the election.

Political analysts argue that such tactics are a sign of nervousness—though the BN is very unlikely to lose the election. Since May, surveys suggest his support among Chinese and Indian voters has fallen, though that of Malays has increased a bit. It is all likely to make for a more acrimonious election when one is at last called.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 13 July 2012, 11:45 am and is filed under
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Malaysia safest country in Southeast Asia. Really?

By
Ong Kian Ming

Malaysiakini

The issue of crime, especially in the urban areas, has once again surfaced as a hot political issue.  The Home Minister, Hishamuddin Hussein, was quoted as saying that the
fear of crime is a result of ‘public perception’
 while the CEO of PEMANDU, Idris Jala, was reported as having asked the
media to focus more on the crimes that have been solved rather than those which have been committed
. Meanwhile, DAP MP for PJ Utara, Tony Pua, seems to have been given conflicting sets of crime data on Selangor and has called for PEMANDU and the Home Ministry to released detailed crime statistics by the type of crime and the places where they were committed.

It is very difficult to question the validity of the crime statistics since this data is collected, compiled and later disseminated to the various ministries and later the public at large by the police. An in-depth audit is required in order to get a better handle on the veracity of these statistics.

However, what we can do is to take a closer look at some of the cross country indexes which the Government Transformation Program (GTP) and various Ministers including the Prime Minister, the Home Minister and the PEMANDU CEO have used as ‘external validation’ that the Reducing Crime National Key Results Area (NKRA) is working as planned. This ‘evidence’ falls apart upon closer examination.

Global Peace Index

Take the Global Peace Index (GPI)
1
 as an example. The 2011 GTP Annual Report says that:

“In the fifth edition of the Global Peace Index (GPI) released in May 2011, Malaysia was declared the most peaceful country in Southeast Asia and the 4th safest in the Asia Pacific region behind New Zealand, Japan and Australia. The country rose three spots to 19th place, supplanting Singapore as the highest-ranked Southeast Asian nation. In its GPI rankings, the Sydney-based Institute for Economics and Peace also placed Malaysia as the 19th safest and most peaceful country out of 153 nations worldwide. This is the fifth successive year that Malaysia has improved on its GPI score.” (pg.55, GTP Annual Report 2011)

None other than our Prime Minister, Najib Tun Razak, has used Malaysia’s ranking on the latest 2012 Global Peace Index (GPI) to argue that “one of our country’s achievements that we should be proud of is our ranking by the Global Peace Index which ranked Malaysia as the safest country in Southeast Asia” (http://1malaysia.com.my/blog/preserving-our-safety-by-cutting-crime-and-boosting-pdrm-performance/)

But what should be made clear is that safety and security is only ONE of the THREE broad themes which the GPI is concerned about – the other two being ‘the extent of domestic or international conflict’ and ‘the degree of militarisation’.

This index is made up of 23 sub-indicators out of which only 6 have direct connection to crime and safety.
2
 The other indicators have to do with military conflicts and military expenditure and political and civil violence. Out of the 6 sub-indicators which are linked to crime, only ONE – the number of jailed population per 100,000 – have improved since 2007. (We are jailing fewer people as a percentage of the population which doesn’t necessarily mean that crime has fallen. We may be less efficient in catching criminals and putting them behind bars) The rest have remained the same. (Table 1) Where we have made improvements is by decreasing military expenditure as a % of GDP, the number of armed personnel per 100,000 and in our relations with our neighbours. (Table 2) All are laudable achievements but have nothing to do with the state of crime and safety in our country.

Table 1: Malaysia’s scores in Crime and Safety related Indicators in the Global Peace Index (2007 to 2012)

Indicator

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

Level of perceived criminality in society

2

2

2

2

2

2

Number of internal security officers and police per 100,000 people

2

2

2

2

2

2

Number of homicides per 100,000 people

2

2

2

2

2

2

Number of jailed population per 100,000 people

1.6

1.7

1.5

1.5

1.5

1.5

Ease of access to small weapons and light weapons

1

1

1

1

1

1

Level of violent crime

2

2

2

2

2

2

Note: 1 is the best score, 5 is the worst score

Table 2: Malaysia’s scores in Military related Indicators in the Global Peace Index (2007 to 2012)

Indicator

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

Military expenditure as a percentage of GDP

1.8

1.7

1.5

1.5

1.5

1.4

Number of armed services personnel per 100,000 people

1.7

1.3

1

1

1

1

Relations with neighbouring countries

2

2

2

2

1

1

Note: 1 is the best score, 5 is the worst score

The GPI cannot be used as ‘evidence’ that Malaysia has become ‘safer’ than Singapore under the GTP. Malaysia became more ‘peaceful’ than Singapore in 2010 according to this index. But this was driven largely by a significant increase in the number of military imports to and exports from Singapore, which obviously has nothing to do with crime and safety.

In the latest 2012 GPI, Malaysia is ranked 20, 3 spots ahead of Singapore, which is at 23. It would a very brave (or ignorant) man to say that Malaysia is safer than Singapore from a crime and safety perspective. And in fact, this is NOT want the index is trying to say since it crime and safety is less than one third of the total indicators. It is therefore misleading for to use this indicator in the GTP 2011 Annual Report as evidence that the Reducing Crime NKRA has been successful. It is even more misleading for Prime Minister Najib to equate the Global Peace Index to safety and then make the leap of judgement to claim that Malaysia is the safest country in South East Asia.

Positive Peace Index

Sadly, the Prime Minister forgot to read the second part of the Global Peace Index (GPI) where details of a new index, the Positive Peace Index, were unveiled. According to the GPI report, “the Positive Peace Index (PPI) is a measure of the strength of the attitudes, institutions, and structures of 108 nations to determine their capacity to create and maintain a peaceful society.” (pg.34, Global Peace Index 2012 Report) It is important to note that the PPI is not a measure of crime and safety but rather, it describes ‘the optimum environment for peace to flourish’. (pg.35, Global Peace Index 2012 Report) The components of this index include the following domains:

Well-functioning government

Sound business environment

Equitable distribution of resources

Acceptance of the rights of others

Good relations with neighbours

Free flow of information

High levels of education

Low levels of corruption.

According to the PPI, Malaysia is ranked at 47 out of 108 countries.

More worryingly, Malaysia is flagged in the top ten ranks of countries with the largest positive peace deficit, which is the difference between a country’s GPI and PPI rank. (Table 3)

Table 3: Top 10 Positive Peace Deficit Countries

Positive Peace Deficit

Country

GPI Rank

PPI Rank

Region

Income Group

Group Type

-57

Burkina Faso

45

102

Sub-Saharan Africa

Low Income

Authoritarian

-55

Malawi

35

90

Sub-Saharan Africa

Low Income

Hybrid

-55

Mozambique

42

97

Sub-Saharan Africa

Low Income

Hybrid

-46

Zambia

46

92

Sub-Saharan Africa

Low Income

Hybrid

-41

Tanzania

50

91

Sub-Saharan Africa

Low Income

Hybrid

-35

Ghana

36

71

Sub-Saharan Africa

Low Income

Flawed Democracy

-31

Cameroon

72

103

Sub-Saharan Africa

Lower Middle

Authoritarian

-29

Bangladesh

70

99

Asia Pacific

Low Income

Hybrid

-28

Malaysia

19

47

Asia Pacific

Upper Middle

Flawed Democracy

-25

Indonesia

58

83

Asia Pacific

Lower Middle

Flawed Democracy

Source: Taken from Table 3.4, pg. 45, Global Peace Index 2012 Report

These countries with a high positive peace deficit are described as ‘relatively peaceful but theoretically lack the institutions to adequately deal with external shocks or move closer to peace’. These high deficits also ‘suggest that while these countries have relatively moderate levels of violence, they comparatively lack positive peace, meaning that they are ‘vulnerable to external shock or violence’. (pg. 45)

In the Malaysian context, for example, this deficit, which point to shortcomings in the rule of law and respect for democratic rights and due process, may indicate a future rise in violence in the event that there is a transition in power at the federal level.

World Justice Report Rule of Law Index 2011

“The World Justice Project (WJP) Rule of Law Index 2011 too has ranked Malaysia safest among 19 upper-middle income countries and 12th globally. Malaysia’s 12th position out of 66 countries covered under the WJP’s assessment on Order and Security, has placed the country ahead of the United States (13th position), followed by Britain, Belgium and France.” (pg.55, GTP Annual Report 2011)

But only one in three of the components of the ‘Order and Security’ factor have to do with crime and safety. The WJP assessment on the extent to which “Crime is effectively controlled” is the most relevant component. “Civil conflict is effectively limited” is an assessment of the extent of armed conflict and terrorism in the country, which Malaysia is thankfully free from but is also not directly related to crime and safety. A drug invested area, for example, may have little civil conflict but would have a high crime rate. “People do not resort to violence to redress personal grievances” is the third component of this factor and while we should be thankful that vigilante justice is not practiced in Malaysia, this is not a measure which directly touches on crime and safety. Malaysia’s ranking for these three components are 37, 1 and 6 respectively (out of 66 countries)

Table 4: Malaysia’s ranking on the components of “Order and Security” in the WJP Rule of Law Index 2011

Factor

Malaysia’s Ranking (out of 66 countries)

3.1 Crime is effectively controlled.

37

3.2 Civil conflict is effectively limited.

1 (shares this ranking with 52 other countries)

3.3 People do not resort to violence to redress personal grievances.

6

Overall: Order and Security

12

In other words, Malaysia’s ranking of 12 out of 66 in this index is largely driven by the fact that we do not have any serious civil conflicts and that we do not practice mob or vigilante justice or revenge killing. For the one component which actually relates to crime directly, Malaysia did poorly, coming in at 37 out of 66, putting it at 6th position in South East Asia, behind Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia.

The GTP Annual Report also fails to highlight the fact that Malaysia was ranked 33 out of 66 on “Effective Criminal Justice”, the other crime and safety related indicator in the WJP Rule of Law Index 2011. While Malaysia’s ranking on some of the subcomponents are commendable e.g. 18th for ‘Crimes are effectively investigated’ and 14th for ‘Crimes are effectively and timely adjudicated’, its performance on other components which contribute to the overall crime and safety environment are quite appalling e.g. 49th for “The correctional system is effective in reducing criminal behaviour” and 57th in “The criminal justice system is free of improper government influence”. (See Table 5)

Table 5: Malaysia’s ranking on the components of “Effective Criminal Justice” in the WJP Rule of Law Index 2011

Factor

Malaysia’s Ranking (out of 66 countries)

8.1 Crimes are effectively investigated.

18

8.2 Crimes are effectively and timely adjudicated.

14

8.3 The correctional system is effective in reducing criminal behaviour.

49

8.4 The criminal justice system is impartial.

58

8.5 The criminal system is free of corruption.

23

8.6 The criminal justice system is free of improper government influence.

57

8.7. The criminal justice system accords the accused due process of law.

48

Overall: Effective Criminal Justice

33

World Economic Forum Global Competitive Report

“In the 2011 Global Competitiveness Report (GCR) conducted by the World Economic Forum in the sub-category of Business Costs of Crime and Violence, Malaysia’s ranking improved by 30 positions from 93rd in 2010 to 63rd place in 2011.” (pg. 55, GTP 2011 Annual Report)

Malaysia’s ranking in the “Business Costs of Crime & Violence” sub-category did improve by 30 places from 93 in 2010 / 2011 to 63 in 2011 / 2012. Indeed, Malaysia’s ranking on the “Organized Crime” ranking also improved from a high of 83 in 2009 / 2010 to 54 in 2011 / 2012. But if these rankings are to be used as ‘external validation’ for the success of the Reducing Crime NKRA, then an explanation also has to be provided as to why Malaysia’s ranking for the reliability of police services, at 39, although an improvement from the 50th ranking in 2010 /2011, is still worse than the 2008 / 2009 ranking of 37. (Table 6 below)

Table 6: Malaysia’s ranking on crime and safety related sub-categories in the Global Competitiveness Report (2008 to 2012)

Sub-Category

2011 to 2012 (out of 142)

2010 to 2011 (out of 139)

2009 to 2010 (out of 133)

2008 to 2009 (out of 134)

Business Costs of Crime & Violence

63

93

95

74

Organized Crime

54

77

83

75

Reliability of Police Services

39

50

48

37

Source: World Economic Forum, Global Competitiveness Report, 2008 to 2011

Conclusion

It is frankly silly to erroneously quote indexes as ‘evidence’ that Malaysia is safe country from a crime and safety perspective, especially if the index in question – the Global Peace Index – only partly measures crime and safety. For indexes such as the World Justice Project Rule of Law 2011, an examination of the components of the “Order and Security” factor shows that Malaysia does poorly in the only component which measures crime and safety. Even for the Global Competitiveness Report sub-category rankings which measure crime and safety, one important measure – ‘the reliability of police services’ – actually shows a result that is worse than the 2008 / 2009 figure.

If street crime has dropped by 40% since 2009, as reported in the GTP 2011 Annual Report and if these results are genuine and can be sustained, the public would naturally feel safer and perhaps even have the confidence to terminate the services of the private security companies which patrol most of the middle class neighborhoods in the Klang Valley. If it was truly “People First, Performance Now” rather than “Publicity First, Deception Now”, the people will validate the results by voting with their feet by walking along the streets without being scared of snatch thieves and robbers. There will be no need for ‘external validation’ to tell the people what they are already experiencing for themselves.

__

1
 A copy of the 2012 GPI can be downloaded here:
http://www.visionofhumanity.org/globalpeaceindex/2012-gpi-findings/

2
 These indicators are: (i) level of perceived criminality in society (ii) number of internal security officers and police per 100,000 (iii) Number of homicides per 100,000 (iv) Number of jailed population per 100,000 (v) East of access to small weapons and light weapons (vi) Level of violent Crime

Ong Kian Ming holds a PhD in Political Science from Duke University. He can be reached at im.ok.man(at)gmail(dot)com. His house was attacked by 3 thugs while he was doing research for this article. His account of the attack can be read here (
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/sideviews/article/thugs-at-my-doorstep-ong-kian-ming/
)

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Is Petronas an ungrateful child of Malaysia?

Anas Alam Faizli

Free Malaysia Today

July 12, 2012

In early June Petronas hinted publicly at the World Gas Conference that they are tired of being the Malaysian government’s cash cow. They said no to fuel subsidy and last year they said they wanted to pay less dividends! Is Petronas ungrateful? The money belongs to the rakyat anyway and hence the government.

While many have attempted to comment on the sustainability of Petronas’ payouts, this article aims to give some insights into the realities of the local oil & gas industry, and why returning all oil harvests back to Malaysians may not benefit them in the longer run.

In 1974, Petronas, fully owned by the government of Malaysia, was established and given full ownership and control of our Petroleum reserves. Today, it has evolved into a fully integrated oil and gas multinational corporation, ranked among FORTUNE 500’s largest and most profitable oil and gas corporations with a total workforce of more than 30,000.

Many will credit Tun Abdul Razak and Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah as the founding fathers of Petronas. They have established solid foundations and values with which, the successive leadership and managements such as Tan Sri Azizan, Tan Sri Hassan Marican, and now, CEO Shamsul Azhar, were able to continue to uphold and flourish the corporation to its current stature.

These foundations have also made Petronas’ presence visible in more than 30 countries worldwide, that it is now dubbed the new “seven sisters”, a term originally coined by Italian businessmen Enrico Mattei, to refer to the likes of Exxon Mobil, Chevron, BP and Royal Dutch Shell.

Question 1:
 Is Malaysia too dependent on Petronas and its petroleum reserves for its economic survival?

Naturally, Petronas’ disbursements contribute a lion’s share to the growth and development of Malaysia. Let’s see the numbers. Since Petronas’ inception in 1974, it has been paying the Malaysian government a total of RM 529 .0 billion in dividends, taxes, petroleum proceeds and export duties. On top of that it has also been paying subsidies to TNB, IPPs and non-power parties a total of RM 136.5 billion since 1997. (Source: Petronas Annual Report 2011)

For the past five years since its Financial Year (FY) 2007, Petronas has been paying the Malaysian government about RM 61.0 billion each year, on average. Dividends alone, averaged 53.0% of Petronas’ annual profits, and are higher than the average of 38.0% paid by national oil companies around the world to their respective governments. Total monies disbursed to the government constitute an average of 41.0% of the Malaysian government’s total revenues.

This doesn’t end here, the Malaysian government has also utilised Petronas for various bail- outs, such was the case for Bank Bumiputera, RM 2.5 billion in 1985 and another billion in 1991. Through MISC in 1997, Petronas also bailed out Konsortium Perkapalan Berhad (KPB), which was facing losses to the tune of RM 2.0 billion at the time.

Not surprisingly, Petronas footed a few infrastructure bills too, including the RM 6.0 billion to construct the Petronas Twin Towers and RM 22.0 billion to complete the majestic Putrajaya.

Question 2:
  Is Malaysia drying Up?

We all know fossil fuel is non-renewable and finite. Malaysian oil production registered the highest output at about 650,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 1994, persistently declining thereafter. 2002 saw a slight uptick but production trends have been back in the decline for the past three years, currently registering only about 600,000 barrels per day. For gas, based on projects already online, Malaysia’s domestic current gas production stands at 6.1 billion scfd. This is forecasted to decline to 1.5 billion scfd by 2025.

This is consistent with the world oil production growth trend, which was flat from 2005 to 2009. Journal of Energy Security (2008) has frighteningly concluded that there is limited potential to increase production of both gas and especially oil.

Saudi Aramco, the biggest oil and gas operator in Saudi, admitted that its mature fields are now declining at a distressing rate of 8.0% per year. According to an International Energy Agency (IEA) report (2007), based on 800 oilfields surveyed, global supply sees production decline to 6.7% a year.

Remaining untapped Malaysian oil and gas reserves are also not as abundant as before. What previously were just parcels of marginal oil fields are now “opportunities” we scurry to put our foot onto. If I haven’t painted a gloomy enough picture, productions from the existing oilfields in Malaysia are either near its peak, or are already declining.

The oil and gas reserves left available for development are more difficult to be developed as the reserves are either marginal, (typically less attractive economically) or are located deepwater, representing more technological challenges. Studies have also shown that in Malaysia, not even vastly increased investment in exploration and production can ensure increased output, especially in mature petroleum regions.

Between 1974 and 1978, a total of 40 exploration wells were drilled, resulting in the discovery of 1,580 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe), adding to our oil and gas reserves. However, between 2004 and 2008, a total of 140 wells were drilled (that is 3.5 times more wells), but this only resulted in the discovery of 1,050 mmboe!

The current average recovery factor from producing fields in Malaysia is at 33.0%. This number can be improved, and we can get more from the ground, but it will require expensive technology.

What does this mean? Well, for one thing, more complex and expensive technology will be required to increase production of oil and gas from marginal fields and deepwater offshore areas, i.e. Petronas needs to have deeper pockets.

Question 3:
 How much cash do we need to sustain the business?

It is estimated that in 2012, the global oil and gas industry will register a total capital expenditure of more than RM3.0 trillion. According to Pemandu, future growth in upstream Malaysian oil and gas will come from initiatives such as Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) methods, “innovative” approaches to the development of marginal fields and intensification of exploration activities undertaken by oil and gas operators in Malaysia and also the exploration of deepwater discoveries.

As nice and dandy as this may sound, this is extremely costly and operators like Petronas Carigali will need the cash to finance these initiatives. Petronas has largely attempted to mitigate this by emerging on the international scene, expanding its operations into 30 other countries. This is a strategic move; a result of foresight on the part of management, and possibly the government, in addressing concerns over the “mortality” of Malaysian oil wells.

At the same conference, CEO and MD, Datuk Shamsul also argued that now is the time to acquire cheap overseas stakes to supplement the depleting production. This too, needs cash. In fact, Petronas needs about RM 300 billion in the next five years in capital investment, as it has announced last year. Some might argue that this cash can easily be borrowed through sukuk and bonds issuances but building a sturdy cash reserve should be priority too.

Question 4:
 Is our local oil and gas services industry at its full potential?

A rough estimate would show that at least RM 1.0 trillion has been spent for the Malaysian oil and gas industry, as capital expenditure for development over the past 38 years. How much of this capital has cascaded down the value chain locally? One indicator is that there are about 25 oil and gas companies listed (based on the Industrial Classification Benchmark) on Bursa Malaysia with total revenues of RM73.0 billion.

As a comparison, Singapore, which is not an oil and gas producing nation, domiciles 31 oil and gas companies with revenues of RM 149.0 billion! Indeed, there have been visible, local oil and gas industry players like the Malaysian Marine Heavy Engineering (RM 9.0 billion market cap), and the recently merged SapuraKencana Petroleum (RM 11.0 billion market cap) who have emerged as regionally competitive fabrication and marine players.

But how do these look, compared to the amount of CAPEX that we have spent in developing our local oil and gas industry? Furthermore, how are they compared to other global players like Hyundai Heavy Engineering, Samsung Heavy Industries, Keppel Shipyard, Sembcorp Marine and McDermott to name a few?

To be fair, we have successfully groomed and developed local expertise in all sectors of oil and gas. This ranges from engineering, fabrication, offshore installation and commissioning, specialised equipments, skill labourers and the list goes on. Our local talent pool is also competitive globally and is working everywhere across the globe. Local engineering design houses like Ranhill Worley, RNZ Engineering and MMC O&G are also of international standards.

Another strategic parallel that deserves credit are attempts to grow our domestic oil and gas sector to transform Malaysia into an oil and gas hub. This means regionally and globally, players will come to Malaysia for their A to Z oil and gas needs. A project like RAPID is a good start to becoming that “hub”. Let us make Malaysia the Houston of Asia Pacific!

But, there are also other sectors within the industry which we can further develop our capabilities in; namely (1) equipments manufacturing and (2) oil & gas services. Local operators have always had to depend on imports of specialized equipments like turbo machineries (heavy generators and compressors), pumps, multiphase meters, electrical and instrument control equipments, super sized valves.

This is one area of opportunity for local manufacturers. From the oil & gas services perspective, we should also nurture and grow our local players to an extent that they can provide world class and value-added services at competitive rates; at par with the Schlumbergers and the Halliburtons of the world. When these are achieved, we can depend less on actual oil, and still have an oil & gas industry, even when our motherland herself has run dry.

Food for thought

Since last year, Petronas has been mulling over the idea to lower its annual dividends paid to the government through a new proposed dividend calculation format; using a percentage of profit instead of an absolute amount. This means Petronas pay less, if they make less that year. This idea has actually been supported by Former Prime Minister Tun Mahathir (one cannot help but think it is because the spending had been done in his days).

And recently, discussions at the World Gas Conference have openly questioned the legitimacy of subsidising gas. Fact remains that if we continue to depend heavily on Petronas, there is risk of stunting its full potential growth, as we reduce Petronas’ cash reserve. For the past five years, Petronas has been spending on average 28.5% as CAPEX from its free cash flow (FCF). In contrast, Royal Dutch Shell, with among the highest reinvestment ratios in the world, reinvests a whopping 75.0% of its FCF, dwarfing that of Petronas’!

We depend on oil and gas income very much and it has become an indispensable instrument of the state, so much so that we cannot begin to imagine living without it. It goes without saying that efforts to reduce this dependency on this “ungrateful” child should be made. This is to not weigh him down to much at the expense of its growth, and more importantly to ensure Malaysia does not end up without a “retirement plan.”

So is Petronas ungrateful? Or are they simply trying to be the obedient child that is politely proposing a counter offer, for the betterment of this nation that it belongs to?

Anas Alam Faizli is currently serving an international oil and gas operator. He holds a Master’s degree in Project Management and is currently pursuing a doctorate in business administration. His research is in capital investment evaluation practices and decision making.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 13 July 2012, 12:00 am and is filed under
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Mahathirism is alive and kicking!

 — Sakmongkol AK47

The Malaysian Insider

Jul 13, 2012

JULY 13 — Dr Mahathir seems unable to let go of the fact that he isn’t PM of Malaysia anymore. He plays the eternal busybody, offering unsolicited advice. He employs sophistry of reasons to convince people of his biased conclusions. So, he says almost sage-like that Malaysia will be in dire straits if Pakatan takes over. But the age of unidirectional reasoning is over. Previously he had help from the media industrial complex — TV and mainstream newspapers.  That isn’t going to happen anymore.

No right-thinking person wants to read Utusex Malaysia where only reports on prayer times and the 4-digit lottery are true; readership of the NST has gone down because, as Lee Kuan Yew observed, the paper has lost credibility. People are turned off at watching TV3 because as soon as we switch it on we see the apparitions of Ustazah Ummi Hafilda berating Anwar; we see Hasan “membetulkan aqidah” Ali and all the other lost souls picked up ravenously by talent-starved Umno and now dancing to the tune the paying pied piper plays.

Now, the people can talk and reason back. What Mahathir says is no longer accepted unquestioningly.

What does Mahathir want? What can he do if people don’t believe what the government says and are willing to accept Anwar — warts and all? If the people have been willing to accept the degenerates in Umno as leaders, why can’t they try out Anwar? Of course Mahathir believes Anwar will never make it to Putrajaya.

What he actually desire is for Mahathirism to be translated correctly, which Najib isn’t doing properly. Najib is sloppily relying heavily on others to do the thinking for him. Mahathirism needs a man of sterner stuff. Mahathir does not believe Najib has got what it takes to implement the doctrine of Mahathirism.

Mahathirism in politics means the concentration of power in the chief executive (the PM) and the emasculation of all other contending forces — the judiciary and the civil service. Mahathirsim needs ISA. Mahathirism needs a yielding judiciary. Mahathirism needs a pliant civil service headed by a sycophant. Najib seems to get only that part right in Ali Hamsa.

Mahathirism in economics means the economics of cronyism. Since 1981, the economics by organic growth was replaced by the economics of choosing and picking winners. But Mahathir chose from a restricted talent pool consisting of those he knows or those recommended by close associates such as Tun Daim. The strategy has been proven wrong. Malay share in the economy is just under 20 per cent. But those who got picked and chosen got rich beyond imagination. The general Malay public remained condemned to be dependents of the government. Umno runs a paternalistic and, at times, bullying government.

Mahathir is preparing the ground for the inevitable ouster of Najib. He’s getting help from the chief auctioneer of Malaysia, Muhyiddin Yassin who has sold whatever available land there was in Johor when he was MB there. The other fellow waiting in the wings is Mukhriz Mahathir who will team up with Muhyiddin.

For the time being, Najib has no choice but to ape what Mahathir says. The country has no future under any government but Umno-BN. So Najib continues to crisscross the country airing slogans loudly. When hosting the thousands of Umno members transported to Stadium Bukit Jalil, Najib announced that he felt so uplifted that he was thinking of meeting up with the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to call for elections then. But that was only loud noises coming from a nervous PM. The ground, as Tun Daim told the personal emissary of Najib, Jamaluddin Jarjis, is not ready to support Umno-BN. But Najib is confident, said JJ. We have reports saying that the ground is supportive of Najib and look at his personal rating.

So the chief political seer in this country retorted by asking JJ: can you believe all those reports? If they are prepared by that eager-to-please-his-master Rais Yatim, then you are dead. Rais will inflate BN chances by 50 per cent and downplay Pakatan chances by 30 per cent. You are going to decide on flimsy foundations. Hence Najib has to postpone the elections that he wanted to hold in June 2012.

In Malacca, he played football pundit by boasting that Umno-BN will win 14-0. If that is so, Najib would have declared elections yesterday. Najib knows the unity which Umno pretends it has will disintegrate by 30 per cent the very day Najib announces the BN candidates for GE13. So how to face elections with a house divided? He does what a desperate man will do.

The Umno foot soldiers are fatigued. They have waited eagerly for elections. Elections for them are a huge festival where loads of money will be poured indiscriminately. How to continue paying for the Myvi and the Kris motorcycle which they have ordered now that Najib is flip-flopping in announcing the election date?

Umno people know this is the last chance to fleece the party. After GE13, they will be taken care off better by the Pakatan government. They are hearing good stories coming out from Pakatan-governed states and nightmarish stories of rampant corruption and land grabs from Umno-led states. They will join their other brethren in kicking out corrupt Umno and BN.

They know Umno has degenerated into a party selling pirated porn VCDs and a party that installs hidden cameras in toilets. So the next time people go into public toilets remember to bring umbrellas to cover yourselves. Otherwise Umno will politicise the size of your penises. It’s that desperate.

The biggest lie that Umno hawks claim is that all other Malays not in Umno aren’t Malays. If Malays join any other political party than Umno, she or he ceases to be Malay. When I was in Umno, my Malay credentials were taken for granted and never disputed. Now when I join the DAP, my Malayness is disputed. The same person whose Malayness isn’t questioned when in Umno now has his Malayness disputed as soon as he leaves Umno. No Malay ceases to be one when he abandons Umno. One’s Malayness resides in the person not in Umno. Umno need not be so arrogant. The Malay is the person not a political party.

When both Mahathir and Najib expressed their fears about a dismal future under Pakatan, they are actually showing their nervousness about actually losing power. When Umno-BN loses, the myths and all the fallacies about the policies which Umno-BN has implemented will be exposed and along with those the role played by Mahathir and his team.

Start by asking, for example, why after so many years, the Malay economy hasn’t achieved its target? The Malay economy that got better is the economy for the selected Malay elite — the royalty and its scions, the economy of Mahathir’s son. Also, the economy of the recently retired Chief Secretary’s daughter. These are the Malays who don’t give a rat’s ass about the other Malay economy. That’s the economy that concerns ordinary Malays, farmers, fisherman, FELDA settlers, etc. The lot of these people isn’t top priority for the select Malays. They are more concerned of their own future.

Start by asking why the income disparity within the Malay communities is highest compared to the intra-income disparity within the other races. Because since Mahathir took over the country, policies aimed at driving economic growth of Malays are replaced by policies of picking winners by Mahathir. That’s when we saw the emergence and accelerated rise of Mahathir’s golden boys. They were given licences, concessions, monopolies and the opportunities to privatise state-owned revenue-generating resources. They grew fabulously wealthy while the rest of the Malays, deprived of sources of organic economic growth, grew to become dependents, relying on the government for economic succour. — 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 Friday, 13 July 2012, 4:53 pm and is filed under
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