Global Economic Crisis: The Largest Economy In The World Is Imploding

Michael Snyder

ETF Daily News

October 7th, 2012

A devastating economic depression is rapidly spreading across the largest economy in the world.  Unemployment is skyrocketing, money is being pulled out of the banks at an astounding rate, bad debts are everywhere and economic activity is slowing down month after month.  So who am I talking about?

Not the United States – the economy that I am talking about has a GDP that is more than two trillion dollars larger.  It is not China either – the economy that I am talking about is more than twice the size of China.

You have probably guessed it by now – the largest economy in the world is the EU economy.  Things in Europe continue to get even worse.  Greece and Spain are already experiencing full-blown economic depressions that continue to deepen, and Italy and France are headed down the exact same path that Greece and Spain have gone.

Headlines about violent protests and economic despair dominate European newspapers day after day after day.  European leaders hold summit meeting after summit meeting, but all of the “solutions” that get announced never seem to fix anything.  In fact, the largest economy on the planet continues to implode right in front of our eyes, and the economic shockwave from this implosion is going to be felt to the four corners of the earth.

On Friday, newspapers all over Europe declared that Greece is about to run out of money (again).

The Greek government says that without more aid they will completely run out of cash by the end of November.

Of course the rest of Europe is going to continue to pour money into Greece because they know that if they don’t the financial markets will panic.

But they are also demanding that Greece make even more painful budget cuts.  Previous rounds of budget cuts have been extremely damaging to the Greek economy.

The Greek economy contracted by 4.9 percent during 2010 and by 7.1 percent during 2011.

Overall, the Greek economy has contracted by about 20 percent since 2008.

This is what happens when you live way above your means for too long and a day of reckoning comes.

The adjustment can be immensely painful.

Greece continues to implement wave after wave of austerity measures, and these austerity measures have pushed the country into a very deep depression, but Greece still is not even close to a balanced budget.

Greece is still spending more money than it is bringing in, and Greek politicians are warning what even more budget cuts could mean for their society.

For example, what Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras had to say the other day was absolutely chilling….

“Greek democracy stands before what is perhaps its greatest challenge,” Samaras told the German business daily Handelsblatt in an interview published hours before the announcement in Berlin that Angela Merkel will fly to Athens next week for the first time since the outbreak of the crisis.

Resorting to highly unusual language for a man who weighs his words carefully, the 61-year-old politician evoked the rise of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party to highlight the threat that Greece faces, explaining that society “is threatened by growing unemployment, as happened to Germany at the end of the Weimar Republic”.

“Citizens know that this government is Greece’s last chance,” said Samaras, who has repeatedly appealed for international lenders at the EU and IMF to relax the onerous conditions of the bailout accords propping up the Greek economy.

But don’t look down on Greece.  They are just ahead of the curve.  Eventually the U.S. and the rest of Europe will go down the exact same path.

Just look at Spain.  When Greece first started imploding, Spain insisted that the same thing would never happen to them.

But it did.

By itself, Spain is the 12th largest economy in the world, and right now it is a complete and total mess with no hope of recovery in sight.

The national government is broke, the regional governments are broke, the banking system is insolvent and Spain is in the midst of the worst housing crash that it has ever seen.

On top of everything else, the unemployment rate in Spain is now over 25 percent and the unemployment rate for those under the age of 25 is now well above 50 percent.

An astounding 9.86 percent of all loans that Spanish banks are holding are considered to be bad loans which will probably never be collected.  Before it is all said and done, probably ever major Spanish bank will need to be bailed out at least once.

Manufacturing activity in Spain has contracted for 17 months in a row, and the number of corporate bankruptcies in Spain is rising at a stunning rate.

Five different Spanish regions have formally requested bailouts from the national government, and the national government is drowning in an ocean of red ink.

Meanwhile, panic has set in and there has been a run on the banks in Spain.  The following is from a recent Bloomberg article….

Banco Santander SA (SAN), Spain’s largest bank, lost 6.3 percent of its domestic deposits in July, according to data published by the nation’s banking association. Savings at Banco Popular Espanol SA, the sixth-biggest, fell 9.5 percent the same month.

Eurobank Ergasias SA, Greece’s second-largest lender, lost 22 percent of its customer deposits in the 12 months ended March 31, according to the latest data available from the firm. Alpha Bank SA (ALPHA), the country’s third-biggest, lost 26 percent of client savings during that period.

Overall, the equivalent of 7 percent of GDP was withdrawn from the Spanish banking system in the month of July alone.

Thousands of Spaniards have become so desperate that they have resorted to digging around in supermarket trash bins for food.  In response, locks are being put on supermarket trash bins in some areas.

But Greece and Spain are not alone in seeing their economies implode.

As I wrote about recently, the number of unemployed workers in Italy has risen by more than 37 percent over the past year.

The French economy is starting to implode as well.

The unemployment rate in France is now above 10 percent, and it has risen for 16 months in a row.

It is just a matter of time before things in Italy and France get as bad as they already are in Greece and Spain.

The chief economist at the IMF is now saying that it will take until at least 2018 for the global economy to recover, but unfortunately I believe that he is being overly optimistic.

As I have said so many times before, the next wave of the global economic crisis is rapidly approaching.  Depression is already sweeping much of southern Europe, and it is only a matter of time before it sweeps across northern Europe and North America as well.

Neither Obama or Romney is going to be able to stop what is coming.  The global economy is getting weaker with each passing day.  The central banks of the world can print money until the cows come home, but that isn’t going to fix our fundamental problems.

The largest economy in the world is imploding right in front of our eyes and nobody seems to know what to do about it.

If you believe that Barack Obama, Mitt Romney or Ben Bernanke can somehow magically shield us from the economic shockwave that is coming then you are being delusional.

Just because what is going on in Europe is a “slow-motion train wreck” does not mean that it will be any less devastating.

 Yes, we can see what is coming and we can understand why it is happening, but that doesn’t mean that we will be able to avoid the consequences.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 10 October 2012, 12:16 am and is filed under
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ROS

By Martin Jalleh

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 10 October 2012, 2:30 pm and is filed under
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Champion Chameleon!

By Martin Jalleh

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 10 October 2012, 10:36 am and is filed under
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Mahathir lwn Soros

— Sakmongkol AK47

The Malaysian Insider

Oct 10, 2012

Oct 10 — Kenyataan Dr Mahathir semakin hari semakin bizarre. Orang Melayu kata macam buang tebiat. Sewel, biul dan merapu. Terbaru Dr Mahathir berkata mengundi Pakatan Rakyat bererti mengundi Soros dan mengundi Soros bererti penaklukan semula. Re-colonisation.

Makna nya kalau Anwar PM- maka Soros dibelakang nya. Haji Hadi, Kit Siang semua menjadi antek neo-kolonialisme. Begitu? Rakyat Malaysia yang 29 juta ini apa pula? Anak kambing? Who are you trying to kid DR Mahathir? ( kid =anak kambing). Keluarga Shahrizat anggap kita lembu. Mahathir anggap kita anak kambing.

Siapa Soros? Kita tahu dia seorang yang kaya dan membuat pelaburan melalui beberapa syarikat milik nya terutama flagship company nya- Quantum Funds. Dia guna kekayaan nya untuk membantu pertubuhan dan gerakan2 mendapat kemerdekaan. Dia juga seorang dermawan yang terkemuka membantu rakyat yang buta huruf, kebuluran dan yang ditimpa mala petaka.

Dr Mahathir kata dia tak bagus dan penyangak. Tapi jutaan rakyat dalam negara yang duduk dibawah pemerintah yang zalim menganggap Soros sebagai anugerah Tuhan kepada mereka.

Kepada Dr Mahathir Soros penyangak. Tapi Dr Mahathir menulis suatu surat kepada Soros dengan nada yang merayu rayu ajak berjumpa untuk menyelesaikan masaalah ekonomi secara bersama. Kalau Soros ini jahat mengapa Dr Mahathir tulis surat kepada Soros dan kemudian nya berjumpa?  Boleh jadi inilah agaknya maksud lebih baik berkawan dengan syaitan yang dikenali daripada malaikat yang tidak dikenali. Syaitan mesti kenal geng seangkatan dengan nya.

Dan bukan sahaja Mahathir jumpa Soros- beberapa menteri Malaysia pun turut bersalaman dengan Soros. Kalau tak jumpa manakan boleh berjabat tangan?

Apa masaalah Dr Mahathir ini sebenarnya? Siapa yang beri dia otoriti untuk menentukan orang ini baik untuk Malaysia atau tidak? Setiap hari Dr Mahathir walaupun bukan lagi PM kita, insults our intelligence. rakyat bukan wanita Kemas atau anggota RELA. Ini bukan zaman Dr Mahathir ketika informasi dan maklumat bergerak sehala sahaja- dari dia kepada kita kita. Pada masa itu, apa cakap Mahathir semesti lah benar. Sekarang keadaan berubah. Kita dapat membentuk kefahaman dan pemikiran sendiri. Kita ucap terima kasihlah kepada Dr Mahathir- tapi biarlah kita rakyat Malaysia yang buat keputusan dan putuskan fikiran. Tak perlu Dr Mahathir. kita dah beri dia 22 tahun. Apa lagi yang dia mahu?

Dr Mahathir kata Soros jahat. Soros kata, Dr Mahathir is a menace to his own country. dan saya boleh senaraikan 1001 alasan dan keterangan untuk menyokong kenyataan Soros. Dr Mahathir pun is equally jahat punya orang.

Kita tak tahu apa masaalah Mahathir dengan Soros. Adalah sedikit orang kenal dengan nama Soros yang Dr Mahathir kata sebagai punca krisis ekonomi dunia suatu masa dahulu. Di Malaysia, Dr Mahathir menuduh Soros sebagai punca krsis kejatuhan nilai Ringgit yang mencederakan ekonomi Malaysia suatu ketika dahulu. Tapi pada masa itu, Dr Mahathir menyalahkan apa2 sahaja didepan mata termasuk tiang lampu TNB. Tapi kita tahu punca sebenarnya ekonomi Malaysia jadi kelam kabut adalah akibat dasar2 ekonomi yang dilaksanakan oleh Dr Mahathir sendiri. Apa yang terjadi kepada Malaysia pada ketika itu adalah akibat pembetulan kuasa pasaran kepada ketamakan dan penyelewengan dasar ekonomi DR Mahathir.

Dr Mahathir yang berkelahi dengan Soros .rakyat tak tahu pun. Dr Mahathir kelahi dengan semua orang. Dia kelahi dengan Musa Hitam. Dia sabotaj Tengku Razali. Dia kencing Ghafar Baba. Dia kelahi dengan Anwar Ibrahim. kalau dia kelahi dengan satu orang, mungkin orang terima boleh jadi yang berkelahi dengan Mahathir lah yang bersalah dan jahat. Tapi kalau DR Mahathit kelahi dengan ramai orang- there must be something wrong with Dr Mahathir. sebetulnya dengan Najib pun Mahathir kelahi tapi adalah seorang dua yang mengawal Dr Mahathir. agaknya, negara akan selamat dari gangguan Mahathir bila dia sudah meninggal.

Rakyat bukan inginkan neo kolonilisme. Rakyat mahukan keadilan dan perubahan. Rakyat menolak UMNO . itu sahaja. Tak perlulah Dr Mahathir mengaitkan gelombang kebangkitan rakyat dengan ejen2 luar negara. Dr Mahathir ni hidup dalam dunia paranoia yang berterusan atau dunia schizophrenia kah? Rakyat tidak gila, tapi mereka mahu membebaskan diri dari orang yang gila kuasa. Yang gila kuasa sekarang ialah Najib dan gerombolan UMNO.

Sekarang rakyat menolak UMNO bukan menyokong Soros. Isiu peribadi antara mereka berdua, biarlah Dr Mahathir sendiri selesaikan. Kita tak tahu pun apa yang Soros akan lakukan yang akan membawa kepada kolonisasi kepada rakyat Malaysia. Yang kita tahu ialah, pada waktu ini, gelombang kesedaran rakyat ialah menolak UMNO dan agenda parti tersebut untuk menghamba-abdikan orang Melayu dan bangsa Malaysia.  Soros ada atau tidak, rakyat tetap diatas gelombang menolak UMNO yang rasuah dan pembelot!

Agenda rakyat sekarang bukan menyokong Soros tapi menolak UMNO. Sejak tahun 1981, Dr Mahathir, lebih daripada orang lain, menerbalikkan UMNO- kaki diatas, kepala dibawah. UMNO tidak lagi dilihat sebagai wadah membawa perubahan- tapi wadah mengukuhkan kuasa golongan elit menakluk pemikiran orang Melayu. Dalam zaman Mahathir lah, orang Melayu diajar berkelahi sesama sendiri- abang lawan adik, ibu lawan ayah, adik beradik bertelagah dan benci membenci. Itulah yang agenda yang dibawa oleh UMNO Mahathir. Dalam zaman Mahathirlah, orang Melayu diajar kurang ajar terhadap agama Islam. Islam dipersenda dan diejek oleh orang Melayu sendiri. Kalau hukum Islam dijalankan, ramai rakyat Malaysia akan kudung; orang Islam tidak bercukur kerana tidak ada pisau cukur. Kalau rejam batu, maka Malaysia kehabisan batu.

Jadi, apa yang dilambangkan oleh pemerintahan UMNO ciptaan Dr Mahathir? UMNO Mahathir lah yang sebenarnya melambangkan penjajahan keatas bangsa sendiri. Penjajah lama diganti dengan penjajah baru dan kemuncak penjajahan dan penaklukan keatas bangsa Melayu dimulakan oleh Dr Mahathir.

Malu kita terutama penyokong UMNO mahu mempertahankan kenyataan yang bizzare dan tidak masuk akal. Ini suatu lagi contoh kenyataan yang sengaja dikeluarkan untuk menakutkan orang Melayu. Macam lah UMNO sahaja yang boleh menjaga orang Melayu dan negara ini.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 10 October 2012, 8:17 pm and is filed under
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Spyware Leaves Trail to Beaten Activist Through Microsoft Flaw

By Vernon Silver

Bloomberg

Oct 10, 2012

On a Monday in July, Ahmed Mansoor sat in his study in Dubai and made the mistake of clicking on a Microsoft Word attachment that arrived in an e-mail, labeled “very important” in Arabic, from a sender he thought he recognized.

With that click, the pro-democracy activist unwittingly downloaded spyware that seized on a flaw in the Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) program to take over his computer and record every keystroke. The hackers infiltrated his digital life so deeply they still accessed his personal e-mail even after he changed his password.

Since then, Mansoor, 42, an electrical engineer and father of four, says he has suffered two beatings by thugs in September during his campaign for citizens’ civil rights in the Persian Gulf federation of the United Arab Emirates. While those assailants remain unknown, researchers say they’ve figured out what was behind the virtual assault.

The spyware that penetrated his laptop appears to be a Western-made surveillance tool sold to police and intelligence agencies that’s so powerful it can turn on webcams and microphones and grab documents off hard drives, according to the findings of a study being published today by the University of Toronto Munk School of Global Affairs’ Citizen Lab.

Mansoor’s predicament shows how nations have rapidly moved beyond the surveillance of phone and e-mail transmissions to rifle through the most intimate details stored by personal computers and the smartphones that citizens carry with them everywhere. The tools, which can peer into people’s living rooms and access rough drafts of love letters, business strategies or plans for street demonstrations, mark the latest escalation in a digital arms race between governments and the people they watch.

Countering Encryption

As traditional monitoring of communications has pushed dissidents to encrypt e-mails and shun phone lines for Skype, Mansoor’s story shows how governments are countering with off- the-shelf commercial spyware that in the wrong hands can be turned against people fighting for democracy, rather than the products’ advertised targets such as criminals and terrorists.

“People need to understand how this type of thing occurs and under what circumstances, because without oversight these systems will be prone to abuse,” says Morgan Marquis-Boire, 33, the San Francisco-based researcher who led today’s study independently of his job as a security engineer at Google Inc.

Remote Control System, a tool made by Milan-based HackingTeam, is the product that the findings indicate infected Mansoor’s computer.

Spyware’s Enablers

The details of how the software takes over a computer or smartphone expose the important role played by spyware’s enablers — from software makers, which often send flawed products to market, leaving computers vulnerable to attack; to companies run by hackers-turned-executives that profit from the bugs, building and selling tools called exploits that turn the weaknesses into open doors for intruders.

Mansoor’s is not the only case of Western-made hacking software targeting political dissidents, who in the past two years have embraced the power of the Internet and cell-phone text messages to share information and organize — only to see those technologies used against them.

Earlier this year, Bahraini activists, including two people who now live in the U.S. and Britain, received e-mails laden with FinFisher spyware made by U.K.-based Gamma Group, showing the far-reaching capabilities of the hacking tools. Marquis- Boire also participated in identifying FinFisher in July after Bloomberg News provided him with the e-mails as part of an investigation into the abuses of electronic intrusion products and the costs and threats of global cyber espionage and its enablers.

Only Governments

HackingTeam and Gamma say on their websites that they only sell the surveillance systems to governments.

The work of unmasking these tools is already serving to protect people from them. The world’s biggest computer security companies such as McAfee Inc., and Symantec Corp., have since written anti-virus protection based on the FinFisher samples.

HackingTeam Chairman David Vincenzetti didn’t respond to e- mailed requests for comment or to messages left at his office. Vincenzetti, 44, the company’s biggest shareholder, co-founded the privately held, 35-employee company in 2003, according to its website. There it boasts in bold black and red letters its ability to give clients, “Total control over your targets. Log everything you need. Always. Anywhere they are.”

A U.A.E. government spokesman didn’t respond to several e- mailed requests for comment.

Surveillance Abuses

More than a year after the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings exposed repressive regimes’ abusive surveillance of phone calls, text messages and e-mails, examples of more intrusive monitoring are surfacing.

In July, the software that appears to be HackingTeam’s also targeted a group of journalists in Morocco who run a pro- democracy website, Mamfakinch.com, today’s study shows, confirming earlier findings by other researchers. The site, formed in the wake of 2011’s street protests, had just won an Internet freedom award from Mountain View, California-based Google and Global Voices, an online community promoting free speech.

“It’s very easy to fall into these traps,” says Mansoor, who says he has a master’s degree in telecommunications. He contacted Citizen Lab researchers after reading about their work on the nearby Persian Gulf kingdom of Bahrain.

The disclosures are putting pressure on Western governments to rein in the largely unregulated monitoring trade. Sales by European and U.S. companies of digital eavesdropping systems to governments around the world are legal, with some exceptions for countries such as Syria and Iran.

Export Restrictions

The British government informed Gamma in August that it must obtain export licenses to sell its FinSpy tool outside the European Union.

The U.K. is now lobbying other Western nations to amend their conventions on arms-related exports to include some surveillance technology, according to the U.K. Department for Business.

Martin J. Muench, the managing director of Gamma’s Munich- based German unit, which develops the FinFisher product line, including FinSpy, says his company complies with the export regulations of Germany, the U.K. and U.S. The samples reported on by Citizen Lab are demonstration copies of FinSpy, not the fully operational versions sold to clients, he says.

Targeting Bugs

Technologies sold by HackingTeam and Gamma are a type of malicious software, or malware, known as a Trojan, named after the legendary wooden horse that Greek warriors used to sneak into Troy before sacking the ancient city. They are the retail cousins of state-made cyber weapons such as the Stuxnet computer worm, which damaged centrifuges in an Iranian nuclear plant and was jointly developed by the U.S. and Israel, according to the New York Times.

To make the intrusions work, malware often relies on flaws in some of the most common computer applications.

In Dubai, the Trojan snuck into Mansoor’s laptop by using an exploit aimed at a specific bug in Microsoft Office software, Marquis-Boire found.

The flaw, catalogued as CVE-2010-3333, has been a hackers’ favorite around the globe — even after Redmond, Washington- based Microsoft issued a fix in November 2010, available for download online.

One China-based hacking campaign that targeted Tibetan activists and industries including energy and military research has used that weakness in most of its 90 attacks since June 2011, according to a report published by Tokyo-based Trend Micro Inc. in March.

Complete Control

“An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could take complete control of an affected system,” the Microsoft bulletin that alerted users to the patch said two years ago. “An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights.”

“We continue to encourage customers to apply the bulletin to ensure they are protected,” Yunsun Wee, director of Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing Group, which handles security and privacy issues for the company, said in an Oct. 4 statement.

Mansoor says he bought his laptop this year and doesn’t know if his Microsoft Office was fully updated.

Marquis-Boire’s research led him to seek the origins of the code that exploited the Microsoft flaw in Mansoor’s case, a hunt that took him on a detour to other samples of similar malware in a public database.

Possible Link

The exploit contained in one sample raised the possibility that a vulnerability linked to Montpellier, France-based Vupen Security SA was used to gain entry into Mansoor’s computer with HackingTeam’s Remote Control System, the report says.

Vupen Chief Executive Officer Chaouki Bekrar said in e- mails that his company has no relationship with HackingTeam and has nothing to do with any exploits found in HackingTeam’s product.

Marquis-Boire’s reasoning is based on discovering an exploit created when only Vupen and its clients may have known about it, and finding it had similarities to the exploit used in Mansoor’s case.

In the key sample Marquis-Boire found, the attached exploit was based on a bug in Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE)’s Flash Player graphic design program.

Vupen had discovered that flaw in January and shared it with customers before publicly disclosing it in August, according to a notice on an online mailing list in which Vupen appears to take credit for the find. In a series of e-mails asking about the notice, Bekrar didn’t dispute that the document correctly represented the company’s discovery of the flaw, without directly addressing questions about its authenticity.

Similar Codes

With those dates in hand, Marquis-Boire built a timeline showing when, according to Vupen’s post, the firm had discovered the bug and when the bug was made public. The malware with the Adobe exploit bore a date stamp of May, the report says, midway between the dates.

That meant Vupen knew about the flaw when the malware was built.

Marquis-Boire then compared the Trojan sample that used the Adobe flaw to the malware that hit Mansoor. He found that the computer code written to deliver each of the two exploits was similar, the report says.

The Citizen Lab report says, however, that while Vupen takes credit for discovering the Adobe bug, it’s possible the exploit was made by another party.

‘No Evidence’

Vupen’s Bekrar said in an Oct. 3 e-mail that, “There is absolutely no evidence that links us to those samples, this is a common and classic vulnerability collision issue where other researchers unrelated to us have probably found the same vulnerability, they exploited it, and they supplied the code to HackingTeam or their customers.”

Vupen wrote exploits for both flaws only after the software makers released patches for the programs, Bekrar said in a separate e-mail. Doing so allows customers to protect against attack, he said.

He declined to comment further on Oct. 4, saying, “Since there is no evidence or proof that the code came from us, we will not comment nor respond to any other question.”

Adobe spokeswoman Wiebke Lips said the San Jose, California-based company alerted customers about the vulnerability in an Aug. 21 security bulletin and had no comment on findings that commercial spyware had capitalized on the flaw.

Wiretapper’s Ball

Governments that buy these tools — including the U.S. — and suppliers such as Vupen are purposely keeping the Internet unsafe, says Christopher Soghoian, principal technologist for the American Civil Liberties Union’s speech, privacy and technology project. Allowing the market to flourish could backfire if these tools start being used against us, he says.

“By fueling and legitimizing this global trade, we are creating a Pandora’s box,” Soghoian says.

The confluence of hacking and surveillance is scheduled to be on view Oct. 11 in Washington at the ISS World trade show — known as the Wiretapper’s Ball — where Vupen, HackingTeam and Gamma are the sole presenters for a program called “Encrypted Traffic Monitoring and IT Intrusion Product Training.”

The convention, at which makers of eavesdropping systems peddle their wares, is closed to the media. The daylong training session itself is further restricted to attendees from police, public safety or intelligence departments.

The ISS description of Bekrar’s hour-long talk provides clues to his company’s role in spyware.

Lucrative Market

“This session presents and demonstrates how VUPEN’s exclusive and sophisticated exploits taking advantage of computer and mobile vulnerabilities can be useful as attack vectors to remotely penetrate criminals’ PCs and phones (e.g. to install monitoring software) via various attack vectors.”

Vulnerabilities are actively tracked by hackers, software companies and government agencies alike, with each working in dual roles — sometimes protecting people or companies from flaws, and other times using the tools for attacks.

A lucrative market for vulnerabilities and exploits has developed because companies in the market, such as Acton, Massachusetts-based Netragard Inc., pay bug hunters more for the information than the makers of the flawed software themselves.

Netragard CEO Adriel Desautels says that while the software industry might pay a few thousand dollars for vulnerabilities to patch systems and better protect customers, his company sometimes pays $100,000 or more for an exploit of an unknown flaw.

Shoddy products are to blame for the vulnerabilities, not the people profiting from the flaws, says Desautels, whose company motto is “We protect you from people like us.”

Connecting Dots

“The software vendors make people vulnerable,” Desautels says. His company only sells exploits in the U.S., he says.

Citizen Lab isn’t the first to identify the Trojan, which has been analyzed by several security companies, as HackingTeam’s. A Russian anti-virus company, Dr. Web, said in a July 25 report that the malware was HackingTeam’s, without explaining how it made the connection. The following day, Bellevue, Washington-based security company Intego, which had first published the virus under the name OSX/Crisis, said the Trojan had been used to target Moroccan journalists, without linking it to HackingTeam.

On Aug. 20, the Web magazine Slate connected the dots, publishing a story about the Moroccan journalists and saying evidence pointed to the spyware being HackingTeam’s. HackingTeam did not comment for that story.

Marquis-Boire writes in his Citizen Lab report that he can attribute the malware to HackingTeam because one of the samples he found — an apparent demonstration copy that was similar to the Moroccan sample and the one sent to Mansoor — transmits its data back to the Web location rcs-demo.hackingteam.it.

Unrest Avoided

Since the July Citizen Lab study first unmasked FinSpy, researchers have traced Gamma’s product to at least 15 countries, including the U.A.E. It’s unclear whether government agencies in those countries are Gamma clients or whether the users may be based elsewhere.

The oil-rich U.A.E., a safe haven for investments by foreigners and multinationals in areas such as energy, finance and trade, stands apart from other Middle East nations that have been convulsed by unrest in the past year and a half. It has avoided most of the Arab Spring protests that toppled dictators in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt.

Still, the country’s lack of democracy has moved activists such as Mansoor to push for change, drawing official scrutiny, he says. He was imprisoned last year after signing a petition supporting elections, and became known as one of the “U.A.E. Five.” A presidential commutation of a three-year sentence for insulting the government’s top officials freed him, he says.

Suspecting Spies

Mansoor’s cyber ordeal began on July 23. He was sitting in his home office when he received the malware-laden e-mail from a sender who used an address that looked familiar, .

Once open, the document contained only scrambled data, giving him the first hint something was amiss. Unseen to him, the attachment had also delivered the exploit.

The infection complete, the Trojan established a connection out of Mansoor’s laptop to a command and control server, a computer to which spyware sends its pilfered data.

While Mansoor couldn’t tell the program was tracking his virtual movements — stealing his e-mail password, and possibly more — he did notice his computer started running slowly.

After seeing coverage of FinFisher and Bahrain, Mansoor reasoned he, too, may have been targeted by such software. He forwarded the infected e-mail to one of the researchers, Bill Marczak, a 24-year-old computer science doctoral candidate at the University of California Berkeley who also is active in the pro-democracy group Bahrain Watch.

Tracking Hackers

Over the next couple of days, Marczak helped Mansoor make sense of the hack. Using menus that Google provides its Gmail users to track account activity Mansoor found someone was logging into his account. The Gmail feature pinpointed the location of the unauthorized login to an Internet address in the Emirates.

Working with Marquis-Boire, they also found that the malware itself at times communicated with a Web address in the U.A.E.

Marczak worked through the first week of August securing Mansoor’s computer. He says he’s motivated by a desire to rein in spyware abuses and to help promote democracy in the Gulf. “Since I can’t participate on the ground, I participate online,” Marczak says.

First Assault

They hit an unexpected hitch when simply changing Mansoor’s e-mail password didn’t keep out the intruders. Whoever had hacked him had installed a feature that allowed access to Mansoor’s account regardless what password he’d set.

They finally disabled the tool on Aug. 7 and Mansoor finished cleaning the computer.

The virtual attack stopped, but a month later Mansoor says he was physically attacked. The two might not be linked, Mansoor says, though he suspects it is part of a broader pattern of surveillance that includes his mobile phone.

He had continued his activism, bringing attention to cases that included the detention of men with links to a group advocating greater adherence to Islamic precepts.

Human Rights Watch on Aug. 1 said 50 dissidents were arrested, most during July. The government afterward said the people arrested were involved in a conspiracy to destabilize the country.

Mansoor says the first assault came on Sept. 11, when a man approached him as he was walking to his car on the campus at the Ajaman University of Science and Technology, where he is studying law.

Cornered Again

“When he reached me he asked, ‘Are you Ahmed Mansoor?’ And I extended my hand for a shake. He spit on me and then pushed me to my back,” says Mansoor, who provided hospital records showing treatment for an elbow injury.

In this case he suspects his whereabouts were being tracked through his mobile phone because no one should have known he was coming to the campus, he says.

Six days later, another assailant cornered Mansoor on campus and without saying a word dragged him to the ground and punched him in his head until a crowd gathered, he says. Doctors X-rayed his skull, dressed his wounds and gave him a tetanus injection, according to hospital records that describe him as the victim of an assault.

While he understands the physical risks he faces when venturing outside, the impact of the digital attack within the confines of his own home remains a mystery to Mansoor.

Scaring Activists

“They downloaded my e-mails, and who knows what else they’ve done?” he says. “My bigger concern is that they are violating my privacy.”

In Casablanca, Moroccan activist Hisham Almiraat, who is a French-trained physician, says that help from San Francisco- based Electronic Frontier Foundation helped confirm the journalists had been attacked by malware.

“After the Arab revolutions happened, those governments have maybe realized they have to harness the power of the Internet and use those tools to try to scare activists, or try to spy on them and follow their steps,” says Almiraat, 35, a founder of the Mamfakinch.com site.

His next step, however, may be through Europe’s courts.

“It’s something that I hope would not change our belief as activists in the Internet,” Almiraat says of the malware attacks.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 10 October 2012, 7:35 pm and is filed under
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UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon should explain whether Dmitri Vlassis’ praises for Malaysian government’s anti-corruption campaign reflects the official stand of the world body and UNODC

In the past few days, I have been receiving negative reactions from Malaysians to the recently-held 6th annual conference and general meeting of the International Association of Anti-Corruption Authorities (IAACA) in Kuala Lumpur, and in particular the praises given by the highest-level representative from the  United Nations anti-corruption agency to the Malaysian government for its anti-corruption campaign.

During the IAACA Conference in Kuala Lumpur last weekend, Dmitri Vlassis, the head of the UN’s Corruption and Economic Crime Branch of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), commended the Malaysian government for its “serious efforts” at tackling corruption.

This has horrified anti-corruption campaigners in Malaysia as they regard this as a major blow by the United Nations anti-corruption agency undermining their efforts to get the Najib government to have the political will to really walk the talk to fight corruption, in particular “Grand Corruption” involving  VVIPs, especially top political and public personalities.

Furthermore, they are mystified as to how the Malaysian government could merit praise for its anti-corruption efforts when from the 17-year history of Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI), Malaysia’s ranking and score for 2011 on both counts is lowest on record – ranking No. 60 and score of 4.3 when in 1995 Malaysia was ranked No. 23 and attained a score of 5.32 in 1996.

In simple terms, TI CPI 2011 underlined the brutal fact that corruption in  Malaysia under Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is worse and more intractable than at any time under his predecessors, whether the five years under Tun Abdullah or the 22 years under Tun Mahathir.

To add insult to injury, Vlassis also used the IACAA Conference to run down the  credibility and usefulness of TI CPI, dismissing it as “outdated”, “counter-productive” and “does not serve anyone’s purpose”.

As a result, Vlassis appeared to be sending out the message to Malaysians that they do not have to be overly worried about Malaysia dropping to the worst 60th ranking and the lowest 4.3 score in 17 years of TI CPIs.

There are weaknesses to the annual TI CPI, but has Vlassis a better alternative to help countries to keep track of progress or regression of their anti-corruption campaigns – seven years after the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) came into force in 2005?

Anti-corruption activists and campaigners in Malaysia want to know why Vlassis is condoning or seeking to “cover up” the  failures of the government’s  anti-corruption campaign in Malaysia, in particular in the past 42 months of Najib premiership despite the fanfare about the Government Transformation Programme and NKRA on fighting corruption.

Vlassis will no doubt be quoted extensively by the Najib government, whether in Parliament or outside, as testimonial of its success on the  anti-corruption front, when it has not only a poor record in its anti-corruption campaign but a most dismal one as far as “Grand corruption” involving VVIPs is  concerned whether involving the Chief Ministers of Sarawak and Sabah or the Attorney-General.

This is why the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon should explain whether Dmitri Vlassis’ praises for Malaysian government’s anti-corruption campaign reflect the official stand of the world body and UNODC, before the United Nations and UNODC are  quoted liberally in and out of  Parliament as stamps of approval by world organizations for the anti-corruption campaigns of the Najib premiership.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 10 October 2012, 4:12 pm and is filed under
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What’s keeping Malaysia’s Opposition together?

 — Bridget Welsh

The Malaysian Insider

Oct 10, 2012

Oct 10 — What keeps the Malaysian opposition Pakatan Rakyat (People’s Alliance) together? The quick answer often given is the common search of political power.

While power frames the relationships between three disparate political parties – Islamist PAS, secular-committed Democratic Action Party and the umbrella reform-oriented PKR of Mr Anwar Ibrahim – it is not the glue of the opposition alliance. Were this the case, PAS would have left the coalition when UMNO floated the offer of joining the government in 2008 and intense jockeying took place within PAS.

The answer lies in the three parties’ shared moral compact. Pakatan Rakyat is an alliance of profoundly different backgrounds, with secularists, theocrats, conservatives and progressives working together. In a world wracked with tensions over religion and misunderstandings, Malaysia’s opposition stands out in bucking international trends of difference.

CORRUPTION IN EVERYDAY LIFE

Three common principles bind the Opposition together. The first is deep concern with endemic corruption.

The problem of corruption is not new, and while Malaysia’s practices are assessed above many in Asia, including Indonesia, what has become increasingly apparent is that it has crossed the line of acceptability for many Malaysians. Survey results show that an overwhelming majority view their officials as corrupt and believe that their officials do not abide by the law.

Scandal after scandal, from the National Feedlot Corporation and Scorpene, to the recent revelations about the extension of the Ampang LRT, has inundated citizens. While there are many civil servants who work hard to deliver services, there are pressures within the system to conform to predatory practices.

Malaysian corruption was initially concentrated among the elite through the practice of “money politics”. But more and more, it is extending into everyday issues such as school fees, crime prevention and service provision.

Most basic food items, such as sugar and rice, are tied to non-transparent deals of politically-aligned businessmen, as are bigger items such as cars through Approved Permit licence allocations.

These weaknesses in governance share a common moral thread – a privileged minority using the system to their advantage, and this is hurting the majority and widening inequality.

FAIRNESS AND THE PLAYING FIELD

This leads to the second shared principle – fairness. The three political parties each have a different take on what is fair, but there are areas of similarity: Namely, everyone should have a seat at the table; everyone should be treated fairly in a court of law; and social and economic inequalities should be minimised.

This shared view of fairness extends into the outrage over unfair legal decisions and deep-seated concerns about poverty and displacement of many Malaysians. Pakatan’s conception of citizenship has evolved into one in which all Malaysians are exactly that — Malaysians. It is a modern view of citizenship, in which everyone has rights and the government is to respond to the people, not the other way round.

The Opposition’s moral compact is also driven by a mutual interest in expanding democratic governance to level the political playing field.

Calls for the removal of the Internal Security Act (which was suspended and replaced by the more benign but less tested Security Offences Act earlier this year), electoral reform, freedoms of assembly, religion and speech, among other things, all fall under the umbrella of expanding political space and rights.

Ever since the reformasi movement of 1999, opposition activists have joined forces in highlighting democratic deficits and showcasing reasons for an expansion of democracy. Each protest and political crisis has brought the opposition together – from Bersih 1.0 in 2007, to the defections and subsequent takeover of the Perak state government in 2009. The bonds forged by protesting together are strong.

Since 2008, there have been significant efforts to rupture the Opposition’s moral compact on multiple fronts. The charges of sodomy and corruption have been tied to attempts to discredit opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim and raise doubts about his moral calibre to lead. The introduction of issues such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual (LGBT) rights puts pressure on the relationship between the liberals and others within the Pakatan Rakyat.

The sensitive “Allah” issue that rose to the fore in 2010 tested the Islamists’ position. The push for Malay rights under the rubric “Ketuanan Melayu” reflects efforts to reinforce ethnic supremacy over shared humanity and equality, to reimpose the social contract of the past.

Each of these issues has not broken the ties between the opposition actors, and it is in part due to the prominence of the underlying principles that bring them together.

THE PROBLEM OF HUDUD

This is not a moral compact without problems, however. The biggest challenge for the Opposition lies within. It has to do with an issue being negotiated throughout the Muslim world: The place and form of Islamic law, notably hudud.

Globally, Islamist political parties from AKP in Turkey to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt are grappling with how to bring about Islamic governance while maintaining rights. For liberals, the introduction of measures such as hudud violates the shared democratic ideals, as there remains deep mistrust of Islamists in office.

For secularists, hudud violates their view of governance. Doubts persist in some quarters about whether the Islamists will continue to hold to the ideals in office, respect different religious rights and, importantly, tolerate difference within their own community.

Detractors point to Algeria and Iran as testimony to a potential violation of trust. Others more open-minded highlight the negotiated paths of Turkey and Morocco.

For Malaysia, the hudud issue remains on the agenda, unresolved and unlikely to be so before polls. In public remarks, Mr Anwar has stressed the centrality of dialogue and principle of consensus. There appears to be a working agreement to agree to disagree.

Among Islamists there has been a global trend towards greater accommodation of difference and an appreciation of constitutional frameworks for governance. Many in the PAS old guard, nevertheless, are tied to the vision of a religious theocracy that is increasingly becoming outmoded, even in Egypt where the President comes from one of the historically strongest advocates of these measures, the Muslim Brotherhood.

Islamists the world over are having to reprioritise their principles in order to govern societies, and PAS will have to as well. What is important is that it will need to do this on its own terms, rather than respond to ultimatums from allies and opponents alike.

Hudud will remain salient to this campaign, because at its core, it puts pressure on Malaysia’s Opposition to reassess, reaffirm and reinforce their common moral priorities. It is this common ground however, that is Pakatan’s moral compact — and for now it is on firm ground. — Today

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 10 October 2012, 8:28 am and is filed under
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Years of living precariously in Malaysia

Mustafa K. Anuar

The Malaysian Insider

Oct 10, 2012

Oct 10 — Malaysians are living in the grip of fear, not necessarily because of the spike in crime. Perceived or otherwise. Nor is it necessarily because of the number of deaths on the road which has risen over the years.

And certainly not because of two jet engines — as well as large amounts of money — that have somehow flown out of the country.

No. It is because there are “devils” — in various manifestations and aberrations — lurking in modern-day and technology-savvy Malaysia.

Why, quite recently Malaysians were warned by the federal government — which is visibly concerned for the common good of ordinary Malaysians especially those who can be quite impressionable — of the cunning and naughty attempts by “foreign elements” to topple the present-day government through their funding of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) such as Suaram, Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) and online newspaper Malaysiakini.

Indeed, this is an issue of national import that would not and should not escape the rapt attention and deep concern of serious newspapers worth their salt. This explains why dailies such as the influential and socially responsible Utusan Malaysia had front-paged this plot in the hope that fellow Malaysians would be patriotic enough to be on high alert and to defend their beloved country when the occasion arises.

The Scorpene case is a classic example of how some foreign powers have tried to infiltrate into our defence and security systems. For these wily foreign elements are fully aware that Malaysia desperately needs a submarine or two to check and prevent piracy along the popularly-plied Straits of Malacca; ascertain the depth of the South China Sea to help enhance deep-sea fishing that would in turn ensure our food security; and also to monitor the Earth’s movement for early and invaluable detection of tsunami, both geological and political.

Indeed, to play footsie with these foreign elements, like some Malaysian human rights-based NGOs have done, is only to invite trouble, big time. That is why a number of Malay-based NGOs are clever enough not to be easily seduced by the sweet talk of these foreign elements. As a premeditated act of defiance, these patriotic NGOs had figuratively shown their middle finger, or literally bared their bums, to these foreign elements.

In this era of uncertainty and globalisation, you have to be very careful about who you befriend at the international level. For before you know it, there would be a communist hiding under your bed, trying to be your strange bedfellow.

Or at the very least, a Jew or two to bring chaos to our prosperous nation that has become the envy of many countries in the world.

Viewed from this perspective, one would appreciate the conscientious action taken by the Najib administration to ensure that our national security has not been and will not be compromised. Hence, the seemingly high-handed move by the government against Suaram and its ilk. Surely, a government that has the ordinary people’s interests at heart can warm the cockles of the collective heart of concerned Malaysians.

It is within this larger scheme of things that we can begin to fully understand what former premier Mahathir Mohamad was trying to say when he contended that it’s better the devil you know than the angels you don’t.

Additionally, we should also be able to understand better by now what Prime Minister Najib Razak, who once declared that Malaysia was the “best democracy in the world”, was trying to arrive at when he said that it’s taboo to vote for the Opposition.

Surely to give support to those voices that criticise the ruling elite would only open doors to our foreign enemies via our local civil society groups.

As one astute MP rightly alerted us, co-operating with the local NGOs is one way in which these dangerous foreign elements try to influence our government in their long-term strategy to weaken our big neighbour and world’s economic powerhouse, China. We are truly indebted to this politician for his intellectual prowess and precociousness.

We are indeed living in extraordinary and dangerous times. That is why it really isn’t far-fetched when a Cabinet minister dexterously proclaimed that — in the aftermath of the massive Bersih rally — salt and water bottles could be weapons of mass destruction! Moreover, in this age of the Internet and YouTube (which is a Western invention), you could actually learn the delicate method of mixing salt and water (from foreign experts) and — voila! — transforming them into something really volatile after shaking them in a certain calculated fashion.

This sense of being extra careful with our country’s sovereignty and security is well placed and must be instilled in Malaysians from an early age. Thus, it makes a whole lot of sense when certain schools in the country recently categorised the Bersih movement as “illegal” in the trial exam for the subject of Moral Studies. Clearly this is a matter that goes beyond the mundane business of getting more A’s.

It is also imperative that we acknowledge the fact that the “devil” in these foreign elements stem from the human rights that they’ve been fighting for and flaunting all these years. As Mahathir pointedly revealed, the freedoms advocated by these foreign elements have been taken to the extreme to the extent that mothers, particularly the ones in the US, have had indiscriminate and free sex all in the name of human rights!

Surely Mahathir wasn’t off the mark if we consider the fact that Malaysian mothers have been well behaved to a large degree. With the exception of a few misled teenagers who dumped their newborn in bins and toilets, most of the Malaysian mothers spend their time gainfully in the shopping malls, peacefully and patiently searching for that prized Prada and other coveted handbags.

That said, Malaysians should not be unduly worried about the security and prosperity of their progressive country as they’re in the good hands of the federal government.

As Mahathir and his BN friends would caringly tell you, necessity is the mother of invention, and one would find ways and means to survive and jealously protect one’s interests against any attempt to undermine one’s position.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 10 October 2012, 11:46 pm and is filed under
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Menjelang PRU, musuh ulangi pujukan

 — Abd Shukur Harun

The Malaysian Insider

Oct 11, 2012

11 OKT — Semakin hampir PRU Ke-13, semakin rancak desakan dan pujukan supaya PAS memutuskan hubungan dengan DAP sekaligus menarik diri dari Pakatan Rakyat, kerana DAP didakwa menolak Islam.

Desakan ini tidak sekedar datang dari musuh PAS — Umno/BN — bahkan datang dari segelintir yang amat kecil jumlahnya dari ahli PAS yang keliru dan kecewa atas sebab tertentu.

Juga mereka yang tidak memahami sejarah PAS dan tidak memahami secara mendalam konsep dan pengertian Tahalluf-Siasi (Pakatan PAS dengan parti lain).

Tahalluf-siasi, seperti saya katakan dalam tulisan saya dulu, bukan rekayasa sembarangan, tidak juga ijtihad perseorangan, jauh sekali didorong oleh kepentingan duniawi.

Tetapi ia dicetuskan sebagai suatu ijtihad jamai’e (Ijtihad kumpulan) PAS setelah diadakan muzakarah antara ulama dan pemimpin tertinggi PAS dengan ulama di peringkat antarabangsa, khususnya termasuk pemimpin Ikhwanul-Muslimin dan pemimpin ulama sedunia, Dr Yusuf Al-Qaradhawi.

Mereka semua, diberitakan, bersetuju PAS mengadakan ikatan politik dengan parti-parti politik di Malaysia untuk kepentingan Islam, memandangkan situasi dan iklim politik di Malaysia memerlukan demikian.

Seperti diketahui, Tahalluf Siasi adalah keputusan Majlis Syura Ulama dan juga keputusan tiga kali Muktamar Tahunan PAS. Ini bermakna keputusan ini didukung oleh semua pendukung PAS, di mna tidak ada percanggahan pendapat justru hujah-hujah yang tercetus di dalam tiga Muktamar PAS itu sangat kukuh.

Tiga muktamar itu telah menjadi saksi nyata bagaimana Tahalluf Siasi diterima dan bagaimana kedudukan PAS dalam Pakatan Rakyat. Dengan Tahallub Siasi PAS melaksanakan siasah Muajahah Silmiah.

Tiba-tiba semakin dekat dengan PRU Ke-13, muncul desakan demi desak dari pelbagai pihak, termasuk segelintir yang amat kecil ahli PAS sendiri, supaya PAS keluar dari Pakatan Rakyat. Suatu desakan yang aneh, mengelirukan, malah merbahaya kepada kelangsungan perjuangan PAS sendiri dalam percaturan politik tanah air yang bermasyarakat majmuk ini.

Pemikir dan AJK PAS Pusat, Dr Mujahid Yusuf Rawa dalam kolumnya memetik pelbagai pandangan mengenai persoalan hudud pasca kebangkitan revolusi rakyat di negara-negara Arab.

Beliau melihat sikap parti Islam yang menang dalam perubahan iklim politik di benua sebelah sana kerana dari sudut geopolitiknya umat Islam adalah majority. Oleh itu pasti persoalan hudud akan menjadi perdebatan hangat. Apa yang saya temui, kata Mujahid, ialah jawapan yang menarik antara lain ialah pandangan Fahmi Huweidi penulis profilik Mesir mengenai kontemporari Islam yang menyatakan persoalan perlaksanaan hudud perlu difahami dalam kerangka keutamaan demokrasi dan kebebasan.

Rashid Ghanouchi tokoh gerakan Islam, An Nahdah Tunisia pula, katanya, yang muncul sebagai pemenang terbanyak kerusi Parlimen Tunisia menyatakan “menjamin kebebasan dan kematangan demokrasi adalah lebih utama buat masa ini dari perlaksanaan hudud.”

Mujahid menyebut tokoh ulama dunia, Dr Yusof Al Qaradhawi secara khusus menyatakan bahawa kemenangan pihak Islam bukan untuk menghukum rakyat dengan hudud sebelum isu pengangguran dapat di atasi dan memberikan kehidupan yang adil dan baik kepada rakyat dapat dijamin.

Beliau menghujahkan bahawa Rasulallah s.a.w datang membawa kebahagaiaan hidup pada manusia dengan keadilan sebelum hudud dilaksanakan pada tahap penghujung kerasulannya. Pengajaran ini, kata Dr Yusuf Al Qaradhawi, perlu diberi perhatian supaya hudud diletakkan pada tahap yang sepatutnya.

Dengan pandangan demikian, saya percaya bahawa isu hudud tidak wajar menjadi penyebab dan hujah untuk mendesak PAS keluar dari Pakatan Rakyat. Oleh itu kita jangan terperangkap dengan strategi musuh.

Saya masih ingat kata-kata Tuan Guru Nik Abd Aziz Nik Mat bahawa sejak PAS berkawan dengan DAP, semakin mudah PAS berdakwah kepada orang bukan Islam dan mereka semakin faham Islam kerana PAS memberi kefahaman jelas mengenai kesyumulan Islam kepada mereka. Seperti gerakan Islam yang lain di dunia, PAS telah menjalani  perubahan pendekatan. Maka itu ia akan terus menjadi parti politik Islam yang mampu menyesuaikan diri dengan perubahan zaman. Dalam masa yang sama ia tetap dalam orbit Islam.

Adapun yang perlu menjadi fokus utama sekarang ialah bekerja keras untuk mencapai kemenangan dalam PRU akan datang bersama Pakatan Rakyat dan saya percaya pendukung PAS akan terus menyokong Tahalluf Siasi.

Fokus utama PAS dan Pakatan Rakyat ialah mendesak pemerintah, khususnya SPR, supaya memenuhi tuntutan lapan perkara yang diutarakan oleh Bersih, khususnya membersihkan senarai pengundi.

Mungkin hanya sebulan dua lagi PRU Ke-13 akan diadakan, di mana semakin hampir PRU semakin banyak fitnah yang dihamburkan oleh musuh Pakatan Rakyat dalam pelbagai bentuk. Sebab itu parti-parti dalam Pakatan perlu menyelesaikan masalah dalaman mereka sesegera mungkin, justru perpecahan dalama hanya menguntungkan musuh.

Tugas sekarang ialah bersiap sedia dengan jentera pilihan raya yang canggih, strategi yang betul dan tenaga kerja yang cukup. Sekarang bukan masanya berkhayal siapa bakal memegng jawatan tinggi jika berkuasa nanti. Khayalan seumpama itu perlu dihentikan segera, kerana pilihan raya belum tiba, malah belum tentu bagaimana keputusannya.

Jikapun ditakdirkan Pakatan Rakyat menang dan berjaya menguasai Puterajaya, serahkan kepada pucuk pimpinan tertinggi Pakatan untuk menentukan siapa yang akan menduduki jawatan-jawatan penting. Sebarang bentuk khayalan mengenai hal ini hanya menjadi bahan tertawaan dan mengelirukan. — harakahdaily.net

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 11 October 2012, 12:16 pm and is filed under
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The good news… and the bad

Rom Nain

Malaysiakini

Oct 8, 2012

After a couple of weeks or so of unrelenting inanity, enough to make me wax lyrical (well, almost) in this column, I thought of writing something nice, inoffensive, light-hearted even, this week.

After all, two Malaysian court decisions this past week certainly gave many of us reason to cheer.

The judgment for the five ex-ISA detainees in the illegal detention suit they brought against the regime, for one, must have been the perfect pick-me-up for many of us.

The KL High Court found that the five had been  detained unlawfully and in bad faith in 2001 and reportedly awarded them ‘RM15,000 each, for every day of their detention under Section 73 of the Internal Security Act, as well as RM30,000 each as aggravated damages’.

Altogether, in the Oct 2 judgment, five former ISA detainess, then Reformasi activists, including the irrepressible Hishamuddin Rais (left), PAS’ Hulu Selangor assemblyperson Saari Sungib and PKR’s Batu MP Chua Tian Chang, better known as Tian Chua, were awarded a total of RM4 million.

There are probably those who may think that this is a big, even exorbitant, sum.

But when we read the litany of abuses they had to go through in the hands of the authorities, which, according to their lawyer,  included being ‘shamed, made to change their clothing in front of police personnel, made to walk barefoot into a filthy toilet, interrogated for hours on end and for the first few days of detention, the Muslims among them were not allowed to perform their prayers’, it would seem that RM4m is a rather reasonable sum. Small change even.

Small change indeed, when compared to, say, the amounts that evidently changed hands with the PFKZ scandal, the NFC debacle and, most certainly, the amounts quoted in the Scorpene case.

Of course, the regime may still appeal the decision. But that will be another story.

A day before this memorable decision, yet another piece of good news had been  received by the many Malaysians genuinely wanting reform.

This was The Kuala Lumpur High Court’s decision to quash ‘the Home Ministry’s decision not to grant a publishing permit to Mkini Dotcom Sdn Bhd, which operates the Malaysiakini news portal’.

It was a wonderful piece of news, especially given the ridiculous, idiotic accusations hurled by the increasingly unpopular mainstream media at Malaysiakini just a few days before, among which were accusations that Malaysiakini was out to topple the BN government.

In an almost immediate, certainly predictable, response to the High Court verdict, Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein announced that he was in favour of appealing the decision.

Baffling statements

Indeed, in two rather baffling statements given at the same press conference, the often-bewildering, if not himself bewildered, minister is quoted by the respected Edge newspaper, as having first said, ‘…on a personal basis, of course, I would like to see the matter appealed’.

Then, when reportedly asked the reason for rejecting Malaysiakini’s appeal in 2010, he had this to say: “I was not around at the time…this is a legacy issue, that is what happened before. [If we dwell on the past],  then we will not be able to move forward.”

I don’t know about you, but in my neck of the woods, this is what we would call a contradiction.  And with this contradiction – not the first of its kind by the jokers of this regime – it looks as though Malaysiakini’s problems getting a newspaper permit will continue.

But, as a friend in Vermont, USA, texted me, ‘Celebrating even fleeting victories, without gloating over or making too much of them, would seem important.’

The more important point is that this story of Malaysiakini’s problems was covered quite significantly in the overseas media, in, among others, the New York Times. Indeed, it was the news item in the NYT that prompted my Vermont friend to message me.

However, this being Malaysia, and with the elections just down the road, however long, rocky and winding it may seem for some, such happy news tend to be drowned out by quite pathetic ones.

The most odious story had to come from the state that for so long was held in awe for having produced five legendary warriors. Indeed, Malacca, according to our ever-changing history books, is renowned for the warriors five, Tuah, Jebat, Lekir, Lekiu and Kasturi.

Tuah, especially, has long been credited with having provided the rallying call that always warms the cockles of the ketuanan mob.

Unfortunately, the reputation of these five as proud Malay warriors has received a bit of a setback lately, with some historians asserting that they were more fantasy figures than real ones, and others whispering – shock, horror – that they may not have been Malays after all and, may, instead, have had Chinese origins.

But all this pales in comparison to the reputation of the current chief minister, Ali Rustam, who seems to have sailed into a storm with his Malaysian Book of Records (who follows that, I wonder?) wedding feast for his son.

A feast for 130,000 people no less, which Ali says cost him ‘a mere’ RM600k. Indeed, a feast which, according to an alleged memo, was partly ‘sponsored’ in the form of equipment and personnel belonging to the Malacca state authorities.

God-given right to use office

Such, it would seem, is the screwed up understanding of what constitutes right and wrong in this country that when this story first broke, the response by those implicated in this potential abuse of state services and personnel, was one of indignation; that the people who were raising the complaints were simply ‘jealous’.

Indeed, reading through the reports, one couldn’t help but feel that this person – like others in his position of power – believed that it was his God-given right to use, indeed abuse, his office, for his own gain.

This, many believe, is the depths this regime has sunk too. Indeed, it has truly sunk so low that the head of the regime had the gall even more recently to give us all a lecture on the need for leaders at all levels of society to fight corruption, at a time when whistle blowers like Rafizi Ramli and, of course, Suaram, are being harassed and intimidated by his own regime’s minions for doing just that.

What has become of accountability, we may well ask?

What, indeed, has become of shame?

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 Thursday, 11 October 2012, 8:51 am and is filed under
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The NFC tale continues

— Fikri Osman

The Malaysian Insider

Oct 11, 2012

OCT 11 — Just when you think it’s safe to read what is happening in Malaysia, you get a spin of the National Feedlot Centre (NFC) saga.

In her defamation suit against several PKR leaders, Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil had her day in court yesterday to give her side of the story.

And what a tale it was, or a yarn as the case may be.

But the facts are simple when it comes to the NFC. Taxpayers lost RM250 million and public funds were used for the purchase of condominiums and whatever else.

Some Umno leaders might have defended her family’s use of public funds but it remains indefensible. And troubling that they can’t differentiate right from wrong.

But what is amazing is that after all the information in public domain that began with the Auditor-General’s Report last year, Shahrizat still stuck to her own narrative of events.

She argued that Datuk Bung Mokhtar Radin, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz and Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had called for her head because they were influenced by the opposition.

Really, Datuk Seri, really?

By this line of thinking, did Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak ask her to step down because he too was influenced by the opposition?

Maybe it’s true that politicians live in their own cocoon or are blinkered to think everything is hunky-dory and whatever they do is good for the rakyat.

But the NFC wasn’t good for the rakyat in the end. And it isn’t because the PKR leaders brought it up. The Auditor-General blew the whistle on your family, as simple as that, not the opposition.

You can believe your story but there are Malaysians out there who know the difference and can spot the travesty of the NFC saga.

If might have taken him some time, but I commend Najib for taking action on this embarrassing episode for his government.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 11 October 2012, 5:55 pm and is filed under
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Where is Najib’s “natural abhorrence” of corruption when as PM he could be completely indifferent about RM40 million “black money” attempted to be smuggled into Malaysia – whether for Sabah Chief Minister or Sabah UMNO?

The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz invites national and international disbelief when in a written parliamentary reply to Batu MP Chua Tian Chan he said that investigation papers submitted to the Attorney-General by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) show that RM40 million a Sabah businessman was caught with in trying to smuggle into Malaysia from Hong Kong were political contributions to the state Umno and not for Chief Minister Musa Aman and that “no element of corruption was proven”.

On August 22, 2008, Sabah DAP officials comprising DAP MP for Kota Kinabalu Hiew King Cheu, DAP Sabah State Assemblyman for Sri Tanjong Jimmy Wong Sze Phin and Sabah DAP leader Edward Mujie lodged a police report at the Dang Wangi police station in Kuala Lumpur to demand that the Anti-Corruption Agency (before its replacement by MACC) investigate the allegation which had appeared in the press and Internet about a Hong Kong seizure of S$16 million cash and arrest of Michael Chia, a confidante of Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman at the Hong Kong International Airport on August 14, 2008 for alleged money trafficking and laundering before boarding flight bound for Kuala Lumpur.

More than four years after the event, Sabahans and Malaysians are now asked to believe that the RM40 million was not meant for Musa’s “personal use” as they were meant for Sabah UMNO – which contradicted media reports at the time that Chia had allegedly told the Hong Kong authorities that the money belonged to Musa.

It was only last week at the opening of the 6th conference and general meeting of the International Association of Anti-Corruption Authorities (IAACA) that the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak preached to the international community about the crucial importance in the battle against corruption to instil “a natural abhorrence to corruption” into the conscience of society.

After taking the high moral ground stressing the critical role for people in positions of power and authority to exemplify and exhibit the “right values” to fight corruption at the IAACA conference last week, Najib has intensified  the incredulity and disbelief felt by  Sabahans and Malaysians, because all are asking one question:

Where is Najib’s “natural abhorrence” of corruption when as PM he could be completely indifferent about RM40 million “black money” attempted to be smuggled into Malaysia – whether for Sabah Chief Minister or Sabah UMNO?

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 11 October 2012, 5:45 pm and is filed under
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Budget 2013: Federal government subsidies go up in flames while poor Malaysians watch

By
Teh Chi-Chang
, CFA

Executive Director

REFSA (Research for Social Advancement)

Friday, 12 October 2012

We write to rebut Dr Lim Teck Ghee’s assertion that “There is little empirical research to back up what has become an increasingly popular line of argument” that blanket subsidies such as for cheap petrol and sugar “benefit upper-class Malaysians who consume much more than their poorer cousins[1]”.

These are the basic facts:

The federal government subsidy bill is expected to exceed RM42 billion this year.

If we can agree that subsidies should go only to the poor, and we define the poor as the bottom 1/3rd of households, there will be 2.3 million households or nearly 10 million Malaysians[2] who will get subsidies.

RM42 billion is enough to give these bottom 1/3rd of households RM1,650 per month – which will more than double their current incomes of RM1,500 per month!

Quite clearly, federal government subsidies are not going where they should. RM42 billion is enough to give the poorest 1 of 3 households RM550 every 10 days, as opposed to the occasional RM500 BR1M payment. Note that in addition to the RM42 billion federal government subsidies, Petronas bears another RM20 billion or so per year in supplying cheap gas to the independent power producers and other industries.

Let’s not fritter away resources on unnecessary ivory-tower analysis. The simple truth is that the bulk of the subsidies goes to cheap fuel which is burnt, and the rich man burns more than the poor. Just ask the average man on a small motorbike how much he spends on petrol and contrast that to what a man driving a gleaming new BMW spends.

Figure 1: Who uses more petrol?

Figure 2: And who takes more sugar?

Cartoons from UMNO-Nomics: the Dark Side of the Budget, Teh Chi-Chang & Johnny Ong, REFSA, July 2012.

Dr Lim also says these subsidies are a “necessary burden” in a “highly skewed capitalist economy like Malaysia”. We would highlight that income inequality in Malaysia remains high [3] despite the quadrupling of subsidies under Dato’ Sri Najib’s administration. The subsidy bill has soared from RM10 billion in 2007 to over RM42 billion today [4].

The massive 4-fold increase in subsidies has clearly not been effective. In their current form, the massive amount spent on subsidies is literally going up in flames, while the vast majority of Malaysians remain lowly-skilled and poorly-paid. 77% of our work-force has SPM-level qualifications, at best; and the bottom 40% of our households survive on RM50 per day [5].

It is in this context that IDEAS (Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs) and REFSA issued a joint-statement [6] expressing shock at the ballooning federal government subsidy bill [7] and calling for blanket subsidies such as for cheap petrol and sugar to be restructured so that the poor rather than the rich would benefit. REFSA calls for a constructive national discourse on restructuring our subsidy policies. This discourse should centre around 3 main issues:

Who should receive subsidies?
 All Malaysians? Or just the poor and marginalised and other selected groups?

How much should they get?
 Should all Malaysians get the same amount each? Or should the amount be calibrated according to need?

In what form should the subsidies be given and should there be a time limit?
 Should it all be in cash? Or should it be in the form of an enhanced social safety net that includes, for example, housing, child-care, educational, skills-training and micro-financing  support? And should there be a time limit for some or all of these subsidies?

It is obvious the existing subsidies are poorly delivered. Even the currently ‘targeted’ subsidies, such as cheap fuel for fishermen are misused as some fishermen choose to sell the fuel and make an immediate profit instead of actually going out to fish [8].

We believe subsidies should be directed towards the most disadvantaged segments of the community, including single parents and the disabled. Let’s work together to identify the disadvantaged groups that require support and craft subsidy policies that meet their needs, with the aim of ultimately lifting as many Malaysians as possible from the need for welfare.

______

[1] REFSA and IDEA’s misplaced focus on critiquing subsidies in the budget. Dr Lim Teck Ghee, 1 Oct 2012. Available at http://english.cpiasia.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2419&catid=118&Itemid=162 Retrieved 6 Oct 2012.

[2] Number of households data from Endnote 17 of UMNO-Nomics: the Dark Side of the Budget. Teh Chi-Chang and Johnny Ong, REFSA, July 2012.

[3] Data from the 2009 Household Income Survey shows the Gini coefficient (a measure of income inequality) rising slightly to 0.441 in 2009 from 0.440 in 2007. It is little changed from 0.443 in 1999.

[4] Subsidies have increased dramatically under Dato’ Sri Najib Razak’s administration. Federal government subsidies were just RM10.5 billion in 2007. In 2010, that had doubled to RM23.8 billion; and in 2012 are now more than quadrupled to RM42.4 billion. The federal government projects the subsidy bill to fall to RM37.6 billion in 2013, but this is on the expectation of lower global oil prices rather than due to subsidy reform.

[5] As discussed in Sections 1.7 and 4.3 of UMNO-Nomics: the Dark Side of the Budget.

[6] Budget 2012: The shocking explosion of federal government subsidies. Wan Saiful and Teh Chi-Chang, 28 Oct 2012. Available at www.refsa.org.

[7] The original amount budgeted for subsidies in 2012, as stated in the Economic Report 2011/2012 released last year, was RM33.2 billion. In the latest Economic Report 2012/2013, it is now estimated that the subsidy bill will hit RM42.4 billion in 2012.

[8] For example, fishermen near Sepang buy subsidised petrol at RM1.30 per litre and then sell it at RM1.80. Reported in Fishermen selling subsidised diesel and petrol to others. Stuart Michael, Star Metro, 15 Feb 2012. Available at www.thestar.com.my. Retrived on 8 Oct 2012.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 12 October 2012, 12:45 pm and is filed under
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Christian monsters in Malaysia

— Terence Martin

The Malaysian Insider

Oct 12, 2012

OCT 12 — With the elections just around the corner, it seems that the battle for the Malay votes is heating up to unprecedented levels.

A number of prominent politicians has fashioned themselves as defenders of Islam in order to entice the huge vote banks of the Muslim electorate.

In order to protect the akidah of Muslims, they need a bogeyman. A convenient fall guy to stir the emotions of Muslims in the country.

Take a bow Malaysian Christians…

In a never-ending crusade since the last general election, Christians, regardless of denomination, are unofficially the favourite punching bag of these hypocritical Muslims.

The litany of accusations, harassment and the likes is long. There’s the legal tussle over the ownership and right to use the term “Allah”.

Catholics would surely remember the authorities turning a blind eye to the desecration of the Holy Communion. What about the seizure and desecration of the bibles?

Now, we are hearing how Christians are working hand in glove with the opposition to turn the country into a Christian nation on the basis of hearsay and some photographs.

I know the age-old adage about a picture saying a thousand words. But isn’t a few photographs as absolute proof of a diabolical plan a wee bit too preposterous? I mean, even in a fairy tale, that remark would stick out like a sore thumb!!!

Quite frankly, I am growing weary of this Christian bashing. When I go out for my weekly outings with my close Christian friends, we make it a point to say a prayer before meals. We must be quite a sight, making the sign of the cross, bowing our heads in silent prayer before crossing ourselves again.

It makes me wonder now if we are going to be arrested in future by the authorities for plotting to turn this nation into a Christian one? And to think that a few snaps of us praying would be sufficient evidence of our alleged wrongdoings sends a chill down my spine.

I do fear for the country’s future if we allow these blatant acts of sowing religious and, by extension, racial discontent to continue unchecked. Are we moving closer to the stone ages as we inch towards a supposed developed nation with our unbridled suspicion and fear towards others?

I dread the thought of these divisive politicians leading Malaysia. Perhaps, they will even ban live international football matches as a large number of players cross themselves during matches. Maybe in these leaders’ opinion, that act repeated enough by the players will shake one’s Muslim faith to the core.

I’m not an ordained member of the church, but I wish to speak out to all Christians out there. Cast your votes wisely in the next general election. Let us use the ballot box to show those divisive personalities the door. Let us not allow them the opportunity to disparage the faith of others to create fear, rifts and conflict.

Likening community prayer as a prayer to Christianise Malaysia is akin to acknowledging the presence of monsters under the bed. Maybe, they just need to get their head checked by a shrink…

                This entry was posted on Friday, 12 October 2012, 11:59 am and is filed under
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Governing Malaysia

Zairil Khir Johari

The Malaysian Insider

Oct 12, 2012

OCT 12 — A favourite line of attack adopted by the Barisan Nasional (BN) government these days is the accusation that the opposition is only capable of making empty promises and hence is unable to govern.

To corroborate this premise, the prime minister recently suggested three points, namely: that the opposition coalition has failed to formalise itself under a common party symbol, that the inability to formulate a shadow Cabinet reveals a lack of credibility, and that the opposition’s sweet promises are in reality “venomous poison” that will eventually bring financial ruin to the country. In stressing the last point, he even went so far as to say that the Buku Jingga, the opposition’s official policy manifesto, “is not worth the paper it is printed on.”

Now, it’s all very fine for the prime minister to partake in showboating, especially when the mainstream media will offer no space for a rejoinder by the opposition. Unfortunately, even with the near-monopoly of information that he enjoys, it is disappointing that the prime minister has to resort to mischievous half-truths, unabashed hypocrisy and outright lies in order to malign the opposition.

Take the first point, on the matter of a common symbol. It is true that after four years of working together as a de facto coalition, Pakatan Rakyat (PR) is still not a registered entity. But what the PM has conveniently failed to mention is the fact that an application had actually been submitted three years ago, and has since been sitting at the doorsteps of the Home Ministry awaiting approval. Thus, the prime minister has really got some cheek to accuse PR for “failing” to register as a single party!

The second bone of contention has arguably a little more merit. It cannot be denied that the PR coalition has to date not drawn up a “shadow Cabinet” (although Utusan Malaysia has kindly taken upon itself to produce one on its behalf). While this is an oft-repeated criticism, I feel that it is rarely discussed in the proper context.

Many who speak of a shadow Cabinet often refer to the British equivalent. Yet there are two great dissimilarities at play here. Firstly, unlike the British Parliament, the Malaysian Parliament accords no institutional space for an “official opposition”. Members of a would-be shadow Cabinet would be neither recognised nor given the same amount of standing, respect or access as their British counterparts. In fact, the way our parliamentary sessions are conducted, even the opposition leader has no real opportunity to debate directly with the prime minister.

Secondly, when Labour was in power prior to the current Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government, both the Conservatives and the Liberal-Democrats had their own separate shadow Cabinets. This is due to the nature of multi-party democracy in Britain, in which coalitions are ad-hoc and not formalised arrangements. In our country, we have a pseudo “two-coalition” system with entirely different dynamics. Added to the fact that the formalisation of the opposition coalition under a single umbrella is being deliberately blocked by the government, the demand for a shadow Cabinet is grossly unfair.

That said, to say, as the prime minister did, that a shadow Cabinet is “fundamental” in proving governing ability is disingenuous. Take the United States, for example. There, whichever party in the opposition does not have a “shadow president” until a presidential candidate is chosen in the lead-up to the national elections. And even then, besides selecting a running mate, the alternative president does not go further by naming a shadow Cabinet.

What Malaysia really needs more than a shadow Cabinet is a capable opposition which is able to “check” the government by provoking accountability and pointing out shortcomings. And in this regard, I believe the PR leaders are doing their job. For example, can anyone recall prior to 2008 the national Budget being scrutinised as meticulously as is done today? Furthermore, various scandals, leakages and problems have been successfully unearthed and made public in the last few years due to diligent detective work by opposition MPs.

Finally, is it not an exercise in hypocrisy for the BN to attack PR for not having a shadow Cabinet when the BN themselves are unable to form shadow executive councils for each of the four PR-ruled states? At least all three parties in PR have publicly agreed on an alternative prime minister — does the BN even know who their chief minister-designates are?

Moving on to Najib’s third point — that PR is unable to govern and is only good at mouthing populist policies that will bankrupt the country. This is of course a serious matter. After all, Malaysians want to be convinced that they are voting for a credible alternative government.

In rebutting this point, I will not attempt to rattle off the string of achievements that have been accomplished by the “inexperienced” PR state governments over the last four years, particularly their success in overcoming fiscal deficits, plugging leakages, reducing corruption, increasing investments, and implementing welfare policies.

Instead, I would like to make a few observations about the Federal government. Let us consider some of the more recent policy decisions by Putrajaya. Firstly, there is the recently-launched Go-KL free bus service in the inner city. I must say that free public transport is a fantastic way to promote sustainable urban mobility. I would also hail it as an innovative idea if it weren’t for the fact that a similar service had been pioneered in Penang through the inner-city CAT (Central Area Transit) buses and the bridge-crossing BEST (Bridge Express Shuttle Transit) service, both provided free (wi-fi included) courtesy of the Penang state government.

And then we have an announcement in the recent national Budget about a programme to provide women with free mammogram scans for cancer detection and early intervention. An admirable idea indeed, and I am prepared to accept that its resemblance to the MammoSel programme introduced by the Selangor state government two years ago is purely coincidental.

Next, it is impossible to ignore the infamous BR1M welfare assistance programme. Giving cash aid to poor families — now where have I heard that done before? Surely not in an “irresponsible” PR state? It must be another coincidence, along with the selection of the target group of households earning less than RM3,000 monthly income, a key demographic originally highlighted by the “worthless” Buku Jingga.

Speaking of irresponsible policies, the Buku Jingga’s proposal to abolish highway tolls by nationalising toll companies has of course been the target of stinging ridicule. Yet was it not only last month that the prime minister announced a proposed government takeover of the Eastern Dispersal Link in Johor Baru in order to make it toll-free?

Let us not also forget the abolishment of the ISA and the formation of a royal commission of inquiry to investigate the problem of illegal immigration in Sabah, two more Buku Jingga proposals that have since been adopted by the BN government. At the rate it is going, all the “poisonous” promises in the Buku Jingga are set to be fulfilled.

If imitation is the best form of flattery, then the prime minister must have a very brown nose.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 12 October 2012, 3:59 pm and is filed under
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I weep for Malaysia

by J.C.

As the week draws to a close, I am struck by three events that occurred earlier in the week that would make every educated Malaysian tear his/her hair out.

The first is the allegation surrounding the award of a contract to supply padi seeds to companies that originally failed the evaluation criteria.  Does this sound familiar ?  My mind goes back to the Ampang LRT extension where a disqualified tenderer got reinstated, and then won the contract despite not being the lowest bidder.  Back to the padi seeds case.  Apparently the tender process was well crafted, and three committees from various ministries were created.  The advertisement was clear enough:  companies need to have the requisite qualifications to submit bids for the RM 164.8 million contract.  When the successful tenderers were announced, it became clear that at least one company, linked to a Negeri Sembilan exco member, did not fulfill the original requirements of the tender.  When asked about this, the Agriculture Minister Noh Omar sarcastically commented that “….it is suprising that when we introduced the open tender…..there were more protests…”.

The second event was the announcement by Minister in the PM’s department Nazri Aziz that the MACC had investigated the complaint made 4 years ago regarding the Michael Chia case where Chia was apprehended at Hong Kong International Airport and charged with attempting to smuggle out 16 million Singapore dollars in cash.  Chia apparently divulged to investigators that the money belonged to the Sabah Chief Minister, Musa Aman.  Separately, a news blog also published details of an account said to be Musa Aman’s with Union Bank of Switzerland, Hong Kong branch which showed a considerable amount of deposits with the bank.  Nazri said in a reply to an Opposition MP that the subsequent MACC investigation showed no element of corruption and that the money, RM 40 million equivalent, was actually meant for Sabah UMNO.  This is rather strange to say the least, for the money apparently was routed through several jurisdictions before ending up in Hong Kong.  Who was the rich donor or donors who made the donation to Sabah UMNO ?  Does this mean that UMNO is agreeable to receiving donations from abroad after hammering Suaram for being funded by foreign interests ?  Did this rich donor or donors win any contracts from the Sabah government ?  Furthermore, Musa Aman claimed he did not know of Michael Chia.  Why would Chia carry the equivalent of RM 40 million meant for Sabah UMNO if he did not know the Chief Minister who is also the treasurer for Sabah UMNO ?  The announcement by Nazri Aziz in Parliament was all the more hypocritical as several days earlier his boss Najib Tun Razak had spoken at a conference of the need to “stamp out corruption at all levels”.

The third event relates to the testimony of a certain former minister when she took the stand in her suit against two PKR representatives for defamation in the well-known cow-and-condo scandal.  According to news reports, Shahrizat Jalil railed against news media for sowing the seeds of confusion in the scandal and distorting the initial report of the Auditor-General.   Yes, the rakyat probably doesn’t know the difference between the National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) and the National Meat and Livestock Corporation, but what we know is that RM 250 million in the form of a soft loan was given for a specific purpose.  It was not given to buy condominiums in Bangsar or in Singapore, nor to set up downstream businesses in the form of high-end restaurants in Singapore and Malaysia, nor to set up a chain of supermarkets in Singapore.  I would dearly like counsel for the defence to ask Shahrizat where the tens of millions used to set up these businesses came from.

I can’t wait for the week to be over.  My head reels from all these happenings that take all of us for fools.  I weep for Malaysia.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 12 October 2012, 1:52 pm and is filed under
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Malaysians could just imagine what would have happened if RM40 million cash Michael Chia caught trying to smuggle into Malaysia from Hong Kong were meant for Anwar or anyone of the PR parties

The case of the Sabah businessman Michael Chia caught red-handed at the Hong Kong International Airport on August 14, 2008 with RM40 million cash in his luggage before he could board a flight to Kuala Lumpur is bizarre enough  but even more weird is the utter indifference and unconcern shown by  the authorities to  the case purportedly because  the RM40 million which Chia was trying to smuggle into Malaysia from Hong Kong were political contributions to the state Umno and not for Chief Minister Musa Aman’s personal use and that “no element of corruption was proven”.

Malaysians could imagine the prolonged nation-wide furore that would have ensued if the RM40 million cash  Chia had been caught red-handed at the Hong Kong International Airport trying to smuggle into Malaysia had been meant for Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim or anyone of the three Pakatan Rakyat parties!

The leaders at various levels of Barisan Nasional component parties and their mainstream mass media would have competed, day-in-day out for weeks, demanding full accounting and action by the authorities, including throwing the books on corruption or money laundering.

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak would have trotted out his exhortation at the recent International Association of Anti-Corruption Authorities (IAACA) conference in Kuala Lumpur on the critical and crucial importance to instil “a natural abhorrence to corruption” among people in positions of power and authority.

UMNO/BN Ministers and leaders would have issued one warning after another  about treachery, traitors and the betrayal of the nation from  the dangers and evils of foreign funding, particularly dirty money while dubious organisations and individuals would have crawled all over the country with demonstrations, butt-dances and denunciations.

But now, there is pin-drop silence from all these sectors and no “natural abhorrence to corruption” whatsoever!

The question Sabahans and Malaysians are entitled to ask the Prime Minister is whether the case of the RM40 million dirty cash – whether for Sabah Chief Minister or Sabah UMNO (of which Musa is Chairman) – is now fully closed as far as the Malaysian government is concerned, for this will also signal  the end of all credibility of the independence, integrity and professionalism of  the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and Najib’s Government Transformation Programme (GTP) which prioritised  “fighting corruption”, including “grand corruption”,  as one of the key NKRA programmes.

It is really tragic. Just a week ago, Najib was waxing lyrical,  taking the moral high ground at the opening of the IAACA Conference in Kuala Lumpur about the critical role for people and positions of power and authority to exemplify the “right values” to fight corruption, and today, all credibility and reputation of Najib’s anti-corruption campaign and the MACC completely in tatters.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 12 October 2012, 3:30 pm and is filed under
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