He's warned us again! Yesterday, the NST reported on its front page Dollah Badawi's warning for his detractors NOT to push him. "It's harder to be nice," he declared. A while ago, in his 90-minute presidential address to the Umno general assembly, the PM and Umno president issued the same warning: don't test his patience. His government will not blink in acting against those who dare exceed the realm of reason.
I don't know if he was issuing that warning to Dr Mahathir, Bush, Kit Siang, his own son-in-law, me, you, Lee Kuan Yew, the world, the Devil or the half-past-six advisers from the 4th floor and NSTP. What I know is this kind of talk, from a bully or a statesman, always leaves a bad smell. Oh, yes, what a pong!
Other highlights from the address:
FDI - Yes it's slow but that, Dollah said, is because we're not as opened to mergers and acquisitions. But the PM vowed that national interest will always come first. Malaysia will not go the Pak Kadok way, menang sorak kampung tergadai. He will not sell off the country.
[note: no mention of Pantai Hospital, Parkway Holdings or the Singapore-Johor Economic Region, though]
The Economy - Yes it's slower. But that's because he wanted to reduce the deficit. Dollah said he has succeeded - deficit was 5.3 per cent of GDP when he took over; it is now 3.5 per cent. Now we are in better position to spend!
Stock market - Yes it's a little drab but we'll just have to be patient. The PM said he can, if he wants, get the Cabinet to agree and list Petronas and Felda on the Bursa. That will add billions of ringgit in market cap and make Bursa KL the biggest stock exchange in Asia. But, he said, that is not the economic transformation he has in mind for the nation. "It's not like cooking instant mee," he said.
Corruption - Is the fight against corruption waning? No, it's not. There seems to be more corruption but that, Dollah said, is because the media are freer in reporting about corruption cases. No arrest? That does not mean he is slowing down in his fight against corruption. At the same time, the PM said the people should come forward and provide proof of corruption and not just make wild accusations.
Bumiputera equity - To say that the Bumis have achieved more than 30 per cent equity is to accuse the government of lying. "This government does not lie".
Islam Hadhari - Islam Hadhari
Misc - Let's pray for Dr M's health, the PM said. And a Tun Ghafar Fund will be set up.
Bru and all! Check out what No 1 AAB fan (as in kipas), Tok Din from Johor, has to say! Ahaks!!!
ReplyDeleteMuhyiddin Yassin:
"I don't think the Prime Minister was issuing a warning, but he was merely showing firmness to prevent any quarters from looking down on his working style including in government administration.
"This is a new breeze of fresh air. It can be called a different approach, because his approach earlier was rather gentle, people had made the wrong perception before."
This is good lah Rocky. Who has time to sit around for hours to hear the same old song.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what you got for your “Ringkasan Karangan” for your MCE.
Just kidding.
Good job.
Firstly, great news that TDM has been discharged.I was hoping to see him attending the meeting and voicing relevant issues. I really wish him a speedy recovery and better health. God speed TDM and fingers crossed that you will be back with more vigour.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, after reading the PM's speech and listening to the news and reading the write ups on yesterdays meetings, instead of being encouraged, I am even more discouraged. Like it or not, the decisions and attitude of the members of UMNO have a direct influence on the direction this country takes. Instead of focusing, discussing and addressing more important and pertinent issues, all I got yesterday was smug looks, don't mess with me attitude and the usual racial politics thrown in my face by KJ and his minions. I am just sick and tired of it. What I am more concerned about (and the majority of the rakyat is more concerned about)is my well being, financial standing, security and safety, and how to notch a decent living for myself. If the bigger problems are not addressed how are these ever going to be improved. Its been stagnant and the FDI dropping! But no, rather than as the dominant party deciding in unity how they can contribute better to the country as a whole, it was again racial politics in my face. I was just disgusted.
I wake up feeling as a Malaysian. I have breakfast with Malaysians and let me tell you irrespective of race, it all about making a living and friendship and nothing about race for the general wage owner. But the minute I listen to politicians or I read the newspapers, I no longer feel Malaysian, rather I become an Indian malaysian. In fact sometimes I feel like an Indian living in Malaysia (unfortunately it doesn't come with any expat benefits!). Seriously, I just wish they would get on with what needs to be done.
While Malaysia fiddles, its opportunities are running dry
ReplyDeleteEmail Print Normal font Large font Michael Backman
November 15, 2006
MALAYSIA'S been at it again, arguing about what proportion of the economy each of its two main races — the Malays and the Chinese — owns. It's an argument that's been running for 40 years. That wealth and race are not synonymous is important for national cohesion, but really it's time Malaysia grew up.
It's a tough world out there and there can be little sympathy for a country that prefers to argue about how to divide wealth rather than get on with the job of creating it.
The long-held aim is for 30 per cent of corporate equity to be in Malay hands, but the figure that the Government uses to justify handing over huge swathes of public companies to Malays but not to other races is absurd. It bases its figure on equity valued, not at market value, but at par value.
Many shares have a par value of say $1 but a market value of $12. And so the Government figure (18.9 per cent is the most recent figure) is a gross underestimate. Last month a paper by a researcher at a local think-tank came up with a figure of 45 per cent based on actual stock prices. All hell broke loose. The paper was withdrawn and the researcher resigned in protest. Part of the problem is that he is Chinese.
"Malaysia boleh!" is Malaysia's national catch cry. It translates to "Malaysia can!" and Malaysia certainly can. Few countries are as good at wasting money. It is richly endowed with natural resources and the national obsession seems to be to extract these, sell them off and then collectively spray the proceeds up against the wall.
This all happens in the context of Malaysia's grossly inflated sense of its place in the world.
Most Malaysians are convinced that the eyes of the world are on their country and that their leaders are world figures. This is thanks to Malaysia's tame media and the bravado of former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad. The truth is, few people on the streets of London or New York could point to Malaysia on a map much less name its prime minister or capital city.
As if to make this point, a recent episode of The Simpsons features a newsreader trying to announce that a tidal wave had hit some place called Kuala Lumpur. He couldn't pronounce the city's name and so made up one, as if no-one cared anyway. But the joke was on the script writers — Kuala Lumpur is inland.
Petronas, the national oil company is well run, particularly when compared to the disaster that passes for a national oil company in neighbouring Indonesia. But in some respects, this is Malaysia's problem. The very success of Petronas means that it is used to underwrite all manner of excess.
The KLCC development in central Kuala Lumpur is an example. It includes the Twin Towers, the tallest buildings in the world when they were built, which was their point.
It certainly wasn't that there was an office shortage in Kuala Lumpur — there wasn't.
Malaysians are very proud of these towers. Goodness knows why. They had little to do with them. The money for them came out of the ground and the engineering was contracted out to South Korean companies.
They don't even run the shopping centre that's beneath them. That's handled by Australia's Westfield.
Next year, a Malaysian astronaut will go into space aboard a Russian rocket — the first Malay in space. And the cost? $RM95 million ($A34.3 million), to be footed by Malaysian taxpayers. The Science and Technology Minister has said that a moon landing in 2020 is the next target, aboard a US flight. There's no indication of what the Americans will charge for this, assuming there's even a chance that they will consider it. But what is Malaysia getting by using the space programs of others as a taxi service? There are no obvious technical benefits, but no doubt Malaysians will be told once again, that they are "boleh". The trouble is, they're not. It's not their space program.
Back in July, the Government announced that it would spend $RM490 million on a sports complex near the London Olympics site so that Malaysian athletes can train there and "get used to cold weather".
But the summer Olympics are held in the summer.
So what is the complex's real purpose? The dozens of goodwill missions by ministers and bureaucrats to London to check on the centre's construction and then on the athletes while they train might provide a clue.
Bank bale outs, a formula one racing track, an entire new capital city — Petronas has paid for them all. It's been an orgy of nonsense that Malaysia can ill afford.
Why? Because Malaysia's oil will run out in about 19 years. As it is, Malaysia will become a net oil importer in 2011 — that's just five years away.
So it's in this context that the latest debate about race and wealth is so sad.
It is time to move on, time to prepare the economy for life after oil. But, like Nero fiddling while Rome burned, the Malaysian Government is more interested in stunts like sending a Malaysian into space when Malaysia's inadequate schools could have done with the cash, and arguing about wealth distribution using transparently ridiculous statistics.
That's not Malaysia "boleh", that's Malaysia "bodoh" (stupid).
email: michaelbackman@yahoo.com
http://www.michaelbackman.com
*TypicalProgrammer*
ReplyDeleteI knew that Rocky would have detected the flaw in his speech. FDI is slow because we are not willing to sell the country, WTF! The first thing that ran into my mind was the Pantai disaster. Then he had the nerve to claim that other countries are selling them self. Where is the bloody proof. At this point he is accusing countries like Indonesia selling them self. He even said that "We can increase the FDI figures many times over at the stroke of a pen". Idiotic comment, doesn't he know that even if we do decide to sell our self there are not that many interested buyers! We are just not attractive anymore. The decline of FDI does not only mean that we can't sell off our companies. It shows that a decline in interested companies to set up a business here, create new companies. You don't need me to explain how the non-competitive nature of UMNO first policy affects that. This does shows his incompetence in economic. I hope he isn't the Finance Minister, I can only imagine the economy we go through with such an incompetent economist. Wait I think I am too late.
To top that up he was issuing threats. He dare to say that questioning the government is the same as implying the government is lying. He was threatening us of committing treason. We are not implying the government is lying, we are trying to show that the government is made a mistake. How narrow minded can you be, you are the PM! Is it wrong to question the government if they might make a mistake. How dare he claim that this government doesn't lie. Ask anyone on the street and they will agree that this government does lie.
His speech shows that either he has his pants on fire and cannot cover it up or he is an incompetent PM. My opinion it is both.
I used to wait eagerly to hear former Umno president Tun Dr Mahathir's policy speech at the party GA.
ReplyDeleteHis speeches had always been inspiring - very inspirational, invogarating & bersemangat.
I got lost half way during Pak Lah's speech on his 12 gagasan & changed the tv channel.
Sooo boringlah!
Thanks Rocky, for summing it up for us. I dont think I missed much.
A lot of what you recapped, especially on corruption...I think Pak Lah should direct it to his nearest kin, that no-good-son-in-law Khairi Jamban-luddin and son, Kamaluddin.
So much rhetoric, banyak cakap saja, tapi tak serupa bikin.
Bro Rocky
ReplyDeletePlease tell the Bodowi that DON'T PUSH THE RAKYAT, who are the bosses to him.
He better stop sleeping and don't allow Khariy and the 4th Floor boys to run his life otherwise he will be out in the cold very soon. Does he not knowthat his popularity is at its lowest ebb!!
Just saw on TV the PM's speech. Agree with the other commentators that it is boring. Apart from that, it is quite obvious that it was not written by him and that he was reading a script. No prizes for guessing who wrote the speech.
ReplyDeleteOne would have thought he would have the presence of mind to read the script beforehand and make it look more real. But no...the man's in love and he is distracted. No time, mah!
Dear dear Pak Lah....if you have no idea about economics dont talk about it. Sure if you list Petronas or/and Felda maybe our stock market will have the biggest market cap. But what does that offer to us in the streets? We need activities and opportunities to enable us to earn a living pleez.....
ReplyDeleteBru, as an umno member i should from this moment rated our PM (if the performance card issued to all umno members) he is just C- ( below average PM. I think Dato Seri Nazri is much better as a politician. Our PM actualy lost his memory all the time.0ne moment he said something and one day later he said something else. Do you think so ????
ReplyDeleteBru, as an umno member i should from this moment rated our PM (if the performance card issued to all umno members) he is just C- ( below average PM. I think Dato Seri Nazri is much better as a politician. Our PM actualy lost his memory all the time.0ne moment he said something and one day later he said something else. Do you think so ????
ReplyDeleteBro Rocky
ReplyDeleteThe PM is just incoherent period. He only has Khairy, Kalimullah and Kamaludin in his vaccabulary. What do you expect from him????
He cannot remember what he has uttered yesterday let alone 3 months. Because he allowed Khairy or Kalimulah or Brendan to prepare his speeches and press statements.
May be the PM is too busy with his latest escapade in Sri Perdana i.e. living in sin. The religious department should start to visit Sri Perdana otherwise the American couple of Langkawi will scream unfari and no transparency in the actions taken by the religious department.
Mr PM why you wna to sin so much and put your self in such bad light. Do you have enough of adverse publicites so far?
Do you need to be called a KAFIR for living in such sinful manner in Sri Perdana?
Do you know that if the Religious Department were to raid than your Islam Hadhari will be out of the window?
To borrow your own word in your speech at the UMNO conference: Please do not KAFIRkan yourself by committing such serious sin. Please do nto think that nobody know about it. It is already an open secret.
Since you always like to put your Islamic credential on the table and using the word Kafir agasint other races, we compelled to examine your life style in more details.
So please do not blame us for calling you a Kafir PM because you have sinned!!! Only you, Khairy, Kalimullah and Kamaludin think we, Rkayat, do not know.
AAB and his advisers must really beleive their own rhetoric, if they think we beleive that he is soft-he's not, especially when defending his children or demonising (by proxy) his detractors. In tun dr m's case they even try to do a whitewash of history.
ReplyDeleteThey don't realize that the problem is not whether he is firm or otherwise but whether he is effective and credible. And a prerequisite of that is to be consistent and be ahead of the curve, if not all the time than some of the time. but, unfortunately for us(not them)in too many instances he has simply lost the plot- inconsistent, incompetant & ignorant.
In the case of the prophet mohamad's cartoon he was too harsh on the sarawak tribune and too soft on the nst.
in the case of the squatting incident he was too meek- so fearfull of china, that he was willing too apologize to them for something that did not happen. And to top it of, after the identity of the person was establish,judging by the toning down of the media offensive, it seem more ok simply becoz it happen to be a malay, and not a chinese. There were even attempts by some irresponsible politicions and media operatives to use the'squatting incident' to sugest, by inssinuation, innuendoes and juxtoposition that it was another example of the discrimination sufferd by the non-malay minority at the hands of the malay majority. Did the Malays in particular and Malaysians in general receive an appology for the whole fiasco? That is not only inconsistent and double standards- its simply racist.
With regards to govmt stats, we question it becoz in some instances it simply doesn't jive with reality. The inflation figures-c'mon! If AAB had to pay for his own shopping n petrol bills in the last 15years even he would not beleive his own goverment's figures. And too have the gall to suggest that we should discard our 'subsidy mentality'to justify the price hike is simply insulting and hypocritical- a classic case of blaming the victims instead of the victimizers.
The top leaders who have higher pay that most malaysian's r subsidize in almost every way- no fuel bills, no utility bills, free air tickets, free driver and entertainment and free medical bills too- they epitomize the subsidy mentality(pls note:no exclamation marks- it might suggest that i'm being emotional n hence incapable of sound thinking)
And than there is the corruption in the anti-corruption drive. AAB seem's oblivious to the complexities of corruption and its many manifestations.
Sometimes corruption is apparent and overt, like a cop taking money while sometimes it is subtle and innate- like instances where conflict of interest's happen. We've got laws and guideline's too minimize this- for ex: when applying for a contract, any direct/indirect family members on the approval commitee related to the applicat must remove him/herself from the award making process.
But we have to practice self regulation too becoz it is the nature of laws not to be able to cover every instance of conflict of interest. The point here is conflict of interest is morally wrong, it is a form of corruption irrespective of its legal definition simply bcoz it distorts the dicision making process.In this regard AAB as PM and anti-corruption champion must be whiter than white and take the lead in not only being clean but being seen to be clean.
That is why Khairy having an interest in ECM Libra previously while his FiL was the finance minister was wrong-it was a case of conflict of interest and subsequantly ECM Libra would have an unfair advantage.But to undur-lah it wasn't probaly bcoz no one was proven to be taking money or buying votes:). He doesn't realize that the insidious forms of corruption can be just as damaging as the obvious ones or even more so. He should just have a peek at the recent corprate scandles in the US like Enron n Artur Anderson to see how damaging it is to ordinary joes like u and me.
On the economic front, lossing out to Indonesia in terms of FDI indicates that something is really wrong. Why is it that investors see Indonesia with its "fantastic" track record on corruption, human rights, race relations etc, etc as a preferable place to put their money is very serious question we have to ask. I'm sure there are many concrete reasons but even too a casual observer AAB's many comments on economic matters does not instill a alot of confidence that he knows what he's talking about. N like it or not, today's reality is such is that the public coments and annoucement by the top leaders of our country on economic matters will be the first form of advertistment to investers local or otherwise on the compatentcy of our leaders in safeguarding thier money.
How to instill confidence when even on simple issues like inflation you can get it soo ireedemably wrong?When at the begining of the petol hike there existed the incipient threat of general inflation, you ordered an army of enforcement officers to make sure it doesn't. Look, doesn't AAB realize that you cant control inflation by executive fiat.. not even the US president can do that. You may be able to influence it by controlling the money supply, playing with the reserve ratio or adjusting the interst rates but definately not by policing it or issuing out decrees. We even had the added option of fiddling around with ringgit to dollar peg, for heaven sake
The point of the matter is simple-AAB is there to serve us and our interest or to borrow his words dia 'hamba no 1 rakyat'. A slave shouldn't be making threats only tyrants do. And as a leader he should'nt be blaming others, especially those who do not have the privillages to influence the fortunes of our nation like he does.
We have been bamboozle once, so lets make sure come next election we won't be bamboozle twice.
Salam to all.
ReplyDeleteI think Pak Lah's speech Fulfilling promises should be renamed " Cakap tak serupa bikin".
Most of the 12 pillars are words to please the delegates and to please the many UMNO members and rakyats who depended on Utusan ,Berita Harian, Kosmos and Harian Metro for info.
The content of his speech will be used by delegates to influence members and fence-sitters in the Malay heartland. PL will be ampu-ed and bodek-ed and most probably DrM will be degraded as if he is from the Opposition camp.
The AJK bahagian and cawangan will then use these info to rally support for PL in warongs and kedai kopi.At the end of the day PL will be the ideal PM for these folks.
We, the users of alternative media knew that PL is only giving lip service to Malaysians.
Memang cakap tak serupa bikin.
Ayub Tulakang
Dear Rocky, in relation with the michael blackman artical sent by anonymous i would like to share a thought with the other readers.
ReplyDeleteWith regards to the calculation of malay equity ownership, if one is calculating the composition of ownership in terms of percentage, there shouldn't be a problem using a par value instead of market value. If the whole equity ownership,both malay and non- malay is calculated using par value than in terms of composition one should get a pretty accurate picture.Whatever shortcomings of using par value will apply to both parties and generally should cancell each other out.
Now, if you are using par value only for the Malay owned equities and market value for the rest, than of course you'll get a distorted picture of equity distribution among the races.
Since i have not read the papers in the last 2 years-it makes me sad- i might have missed out on certain aspects of the contevarsy. Hence whatever i wrote above might be irrelevant. But, with specific regards tothe EPU using par value, it would be helpful if anyone could clarify the following:
1)Are people who aren't happy with EPU figures implying that they are using two standards, ie, par value for the malays and market value for the non-malays?
2) Or are they unhappy using par value bcoz it doesn't generally give a good picture of the real value of equity ownership?i agree but isn't the percentage of equity owned by the malays IN COMPARISON with others the bone of contention?