Odette's commentary:
The article below is taken from Tony Pua's blog.....
I think that his sentiments really reflect what every thinking Malaysian feels and witnesses on a daily basis. Rhetoric is nothing if not substantiated by action. That is why most of us will only watch and wait. Actions ultimately speak louder than words...
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In brief, here are Najib's promises when he launched is 100-days in power celebrations:
The prevention of crime;
The fight against corruption;
Access to quality education;
The improvement of the living standards for the lower income group;
Improvement of rural infrastructure;;
Improvement of public transportation.So what's new? We have heard all of the above before from Mahathir's era to Pak Lah to now Najib. Will things actually change?We had such high hopes when Pak Lah made the above promises, but we all fell flat on our faces. Anyone remember the "18 big fish"? Or the "All out war against crime"? Or the twice announced public transportation fund in 2006 and 2008 (with absolutely nothing to show)?He has rightly placed the prevention of crime on top of the list. But he has shown that he is absolutely unwilling to reform the police force, for he is obligated to them to clamp down on all civil and political dissent. Najib was so engrossed in grabbing power in Perak, maximised the use of the police to suppress dissent, which resulted in crime rising massively in the state over the past 6 months.We are faced with the greatest financial scandal in living memory with the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone scandal. But til today, all we see is Najib washing his hands completely over the issue. Such a big scandal afflicting Malaysia, and yet, not a word from the Prime Minister. All he has mentioned about the subject so far is that the MCA president will deal with it. In other words, "Let Ong Tee Keat sink all by himself, I'm not going to get my hands dirty on this." How does that sit with his promise to "fight corruption"?And public transportation? He must be joking. The most important move today is to consolidate all departments involved with transportation under 1 ministry/minister. And yet, when the Entrepreneurs & Cooperatives Ministry was dissolved under his cabinet reshuffle, the Commercial Vehicles and Licensing Board is transferred to the Prime Minister's office instead of the Transport Ministry. So we have the Prime Minister directly taking care of taxis and public buses, the Finance Ministry taking care of RapidKL buses, the transport ministry taking care of KTM and LRT, and the Works Ministry taking care of the road transport network. A complete recipe for disaster.And as for quality of education? We've not seen any moves yet from the Najib's administration on this except to reverse the teaching of Maths and Science back from English to Malay. My views are expressed here.I think Malaysians in general will do well not to have their expectations set too high, if they were to have any expectations at all. I'm certainly once bitten twice shy, and I never trust somebody who will use ruthless measures to suppress peaceful protests, clampdown media freedom and stifle dissent. At least for Pak Lah, he appeared to be more "liberal" with his management of opposing voices, whether intentional or otherwise.
Showing posts with label Najib. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Najib. Show all posts
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Najib Must Deal with Corruption
Odette's commentary :
Visionary and well summarized. My worry is that corruption is already too entrenched in the current system that good intentions alone will not be enough to make any difference. Too many warlords defending their turf and holding each other at ransom. Arrogance and pursuit of self interests will eventually lead to the the decline of this country unless the problem is arrested. I'm not sure if anyone has the political clout to achieve this realistically........
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Article By Tunku Abdul Aziz MySinchew
PRIME MINISTER Najib Abdul Razak has done it again. His high income vision for Malaysia, following so closely on the heels of his yet to be fully charted 1Malaysia has caught the nation off guard.
Najib, while remaining largely uninspiring as a leader, is at least aspirational. Nothing wrong with indulging in a little fantasy from time to time, but Najib has to learn to control his propensity for grandstanding. I don’t suppose it is too rude to ask Najib to spell out in the clearest possible terms what precisely he has in mind when he talks about 1Malaysia. Is it fair to ask us to support a concept that he has difficulty in articulating to our satisfaction?
Najib cannot be so naïve that he cannot see what the inherent problems are in the way of turning Malaysia into a high income nation. For starters, a country such as ours which has been so mismanaged these last thirty years in all the important areas of governance is a most unlikely candidate for the High Income Country Stake.
That does not mean that we have not the potential; indeed we have but, I am afraid we have squandered it beyond belief by putting in place investment, trade and industrialisation policies that have tended towards excessive, crippling control rather than encouragement to compete globally.As long as the spirit of the New Economic Policy is kept alive, competitiveness, the key to growing the economic cake, will remain on the back burner.
Najib and his UMNO colleagues may be dismissive of the debilitating effects of corruption on economic growth that will turn a middle income country such as Malaysia into a high income one. Let us look at countries at the top of the economic league table – countries that enjoy high income status. Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Holland, and closer to home Singapore, Hong Kong. Japan, Taiwan, New Zealand, and Australia are among the least corrupt countries in the world.
The message is clear. Corrupt countries like Malaysia may continue to dream: the reality is that if they are happy to bed down with corruption, there is no hope in hell or heaven, take your pick, that they will ever achieve high income status. Corruption is the antithesis of best practices, and as we have seen time and time again, all over the world, they are mutually exclusive.
Najib needs to fully understand the prerequisites for economic sustainability. The government under his stewardship must adopt rules, and values, based policies underpinned by systems of checks and balances as a minimum citizens’ charter. Key institutions such as the judiciary, the office of the attorney-general, the police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission have to be revamped to ensure that they perform their duties and functions in accordance with the law.
An incorruptible independent judiciary goes a long way in generating confidence within the business community. It says a lot about the reputation of the judges in our country when disputing parties prefer to seek arbitration elsewhere if they can help it. We need to clean up our act quickly as this is the only way we can show the world that we mean business, and that we have the best justice system that money cannot buy.
While it is necessary to rebuild our institutions at the earliest possible opportunity, more to the point is the need to put men and women of integrity in charge. Integrity is not restricted to any one race in our multi-racial Malaysia. A point often ignored is that if we put crooks and scoundrels in charge, we are putting the future of our country at very considerable risk, and yet the record of government management remains one of unbridled corrupt excesses because the government apparently is more at home with the crooks. The records speak for themselves.
A few years ago, at an anti-corruption conference in Cambodia, I had the honour of sharing the rostrum with Jim Wolfensohn, the President of the World Bank. It was his last overseas appearance before stepping down after a long and distinguished career at the WB. He was asked by a reporter what three bits of advice he had for Cambodia in its search for sustainable economic development. He said advice number one, fight corruption; advice number two, fight corruption, and advice number three, fight corruption!
So, Najib, the solution is staring you in the face, and all that is required of you is unadulterated political will. When as a result of systemic corruption government projects are conservatively estimated to cost 30% more than in a non-corrupt country, then is it any wonder foreign contractors concerned about ethical business bypass our country? We need a complete review of our systems of governance because there is much that has gone wrong with the way we manage our affairs. Of course, the tragedy is that there is none so blind as will not see.
In summary, therefore, a high income status is about competitiveness, open and accountable policies. It is also about sustainable economic and social development, equality of opportunity, respect for cultural diversity, human rights and public duty in the public interest. Is Najib up to it?
Visionary and well summarized. My worry is that corruption is already too entrenched in the current system that good intentions alone will not be enough to make any difference. Too many warlords defending their turf and holding each other at ransom. Arrogance and pursuit of self interests will eventually lead to the the decline of this country unless the problem is arrested. I'm not sure if anyone has the political clout to achieve this realistically........
_____________________________________________________________
Article By Tunku Abdul Aziz MySinchew
PRIME MINISTER Najib Abdul Razak has done it again. His high income vision for Malaysia, following so closely on the heels of his yet to be fully charted 1Malaysia has caught the nation off guard.
Najib, while remaining largely uninspiring as a leader, is at least aspirational. Nothing wrong with indulging in a little fantasy from time to time, but Najib has to learn to control his propensity for grandstanding. I don’t suppose it is too rude to ask Najib to spell out in the clearest possible terms what precisely he has in mind when he talks about 1Malaysia. Is it fair to ask us to support a concept that he has difficulty in articulating to our satisfaction?
Najib cannot be so naïve that he cannot see what the inherent problems are in the way of turning Malaysia into a high income nation. For starters, a country such as ours which has been so mismanaged these last thirty years in all the important areas of governance is a most unlikely candidate for the High Income Country Stake.
That does not mean that we have not the potential; indeed we have but, I am afraid we have squandered it beyond belief by putting in place investment, trade and industrialisation policies that have tended towards excessive, crippling control rather than encouragement to compete globally.As long as the spirit of the New Economic Policy is kept alive, competitiveness, the key to growing the economic cake, will remain on the back burner.
Najib and his UMNO colleagues may be dismissive of the debilitating effects of corruption on economic growth that will turn a middle income country such as Malaysia into a high income one. Let us look at countries at the top of the economic league table – countries that enjoy high income status. Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Holland, and closer to home Singapore, Hong Kong. Japan, Taiwan, New Zealand, and Australia are among the least corrupt countries in the world.
The message is clear. Corrupt countries like Malaysia may continue to dream: the reality is that if they are happy to bed down with corruption, there is no hope in hell or heaven, take your pick, that they will ever achieve high income status. Corruption is the antithesis of best practices, and as we have seen time and time again, all over the world, they are mutually exclusive.
Najib needs to fully understand the prerequisites for economic sustainability. The government under his stewardship must adopt rules, and values, based policies underpinned by systems of checks and balances as a minimum citizens’ charter. Key institutions such as the judiciary, the office of the attorney-general, the police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission have to be revamped to ensure that they perform their duties and functions in accordance with the law.
An incorruptible independent judiciary goes a long way in generating confidence within the business community. It says a lot about the reputation of the judges in our country when disputing parties prefer to seek arbitration elsewhere if they can help it. We need to clean up our act quickly as this is the only way we can show the world that we mean business, and that we have the best justice system that money cannot buy.
While it is necessary to rebuild our institutions at the earliest possible opportunity, more to the point is the need to put men and women of integrity in charge. Integrity is not restricted to any one race in our multi-racial Malaysia. A point often ignored is that if we put crooks and scoundrels in charge, we are putting the future of our country at very considerable risk, and yet the record of government management remains one of unbridled corrupt excesses because the government apparently is more at home with the crooks. The records speak for themselves.
A few years ago, at an anti-corruption conference in Cambodia, I had the honour of sharing the rostrum with Jim Wolfensohn, the President of the World Bank. It was his last overseas appearance before stepping down after a long and distinguished career at the WB. He was asked by a reporter what three bits of advice he had for Cambodia in its search for sustainable economic development. He said advice number one, fight corruption; advice number two, fight corruption, and advice number three, fight corruption!
So, Najib, the solution is staring you in the face, and all that is required of you is unadulterated political will. When as a result of systemic corruption government projects are conservatively estimated to cost 30% more than in a non-corrupt country, then is it any wonder foreign contractors concerned about ethical business bypass our country? We need a complete review of our systems of governance because there is much that has gone wrong with the way we manage our affairs. Of course, the tragedy is that there is none so blind as will not see.
In summary, therefore, a high income status is about competitiveness, open and accountable policies. It is also about sustainable economic and social development, equality of opportunity, respect for cultural diversity, human rights and public duty in the public interest. Is Najib up to it?
Friday, March 20, 2009
Taken from Bloomberg- Father’s Racial Policy May Be Najib’s Undoing at Malaysian Helm
This article was taken from Bloomberg News :
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By Shamim Adam
March 20 (Bloomberg) -- Najib Razak was a teenager when his father, Malaysia’s second prime minister, started a program that gives preferential treatment to the ethnic Malay majority. Days away from becoming leader himself, Najib may find that policy shackles his efforts to revive a faltering economy.
Najib, 55, is running unopposed in elections next week to head the biggest party in the ruling coalition, a sure-fire ticket to the highest office. Business leaders -- including his brother, who runs Malaysia’s second-largest bank -- say the racial program impedes growth just when Najib needs it most.
“He’s got an uphill task ahead of him,” said Azrul Azwar Ahmad Tajudin, an economist at Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd. in Kuala Lumpur. “How he handles the economic crisis and political developments will show us if he has the mettle and staying power to be leader.”
Najib, currently deputy premier, will replace Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who failed to serve out his term after presiding over the coalition’s smallest election victory since Malaysia’s independence in 1957. Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim won support from Indian and Chinese minorities in the March 2008 elections after pledging to scrap the race policy, open up the awards of government contracts and cut corruption.
Malaysia may be set for its first recession in a decade. Najib, who is also finance minister, predicts the economy will shrink 1 percent this year at worst. As exports and commodity prices tumble, economists at CLSA Asia Pacific Markets in Kuala Lumpur expect a 5 percent contraction. January’s overseas sales fell 28 percent, while oil is down 52 percent in the past year.
Murder Case
Najib is also burdened by allegations from a private investigator, a blogger and an opposition lawmaker that he is linked to the murder of a woman near Kuala Lumpur in 2006.
Last June, blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin said in a declaration at the Kuala Lumpur High Court that Najib’s wife witnessed the placing of explosives on the victim’s body. Najib called the allegation “garbage” and said he and his wife gave a statement to the police. Najib has denied any connection to the death and declined to comment for this article.
Raja Petra was arrested on Sept. 12 under the country’s Internal Security Act. His wife, Marina Lee Abdullah, said the arrests were for articles that criticized the country’s leadership. He was released from jail on Nov. 7 after a Kuala Lumpur court ruled that his detention was unlawful.
In July, investigator P. Balasubramaniam said at a press conference that Najib had had an affair with the 28-year-old victim. He retracted the allegation a day later and subsequently disappeared, said his lawyer, Americk Sidhu.
Banned From Parliament
This week, lawmaker Gobind Singh Deo was banned from parliament for a year for saying in the chamber that Najib was “involved in a murder case.” Najib’s adviser, Abdul Razak Baginda, was cleared in 2008 of abetting the killing of the woman, with whom the adviser said he had had an affair.
Abdul Razak, Najib’s father, initiated the New Economic Policy in 1971. He was seeking more national wealth for indigenous Bumiputera, the mostly Malay “sons of the soil.” That group, about two-thirds of the population of 28 million, gets cheaper housing as well as priority for college places, government contracts and shares of publicly traded companies.
The 38-year-old policy is a “serious” impediment to competitiveness, and undermines unity and investment, Nazir Razak, Najib’s brother and chief executive officer of Bumiputra- Commerce Holdings Bhd., told reporters last month. The Razaks are ethnic Malays.
Corruption Concerns
Opposition members argue that the affirmative-action program has done more to enrich politicians and their cronies than foster national unity. Sixty-one percent of voters say corruption is the biggest problem for Najib’s United Malays National Organization party, or UMNO, according to a poll last month by the independent Merdeka Center, near Kuala Lumpur.
Najib said in an interview last October that he will gradually remove the program, which aimed to raise Malays’ share of total wealth to 30 percent, and replace it with a needs-based system at an unspecified time. Bumiputeras held 19 percent of corporate equity in 2006, up from 2 percent in the 1970s, according to a government report.
“He might try to buy time claiming that he will scrap the policy once the Bumiputera equity share has been achieved,” said Khoo Kay Peng, an independent political consultant based near Kuala Lumpur. “The main point is the equity share will never be achieved. It is now a political tool and used extensively to grease the gravy train.”
Unemployment Rise
Racial tensions that dogged Abdullah, 69, may escalate on Najib’s watch as unemployment rises in the slowdown, said Azrul at Bank Islam. The government expects the jobless rate in 2009 to increase to 4.5 percent from 3.7 percent last year. The ethnic program forces Chinese and Indians to compete for some jobs after Malay slots are filled.
“People are clamoring for a more level playing field,” Azrul said. “As things get tougher and people lose jobs, that’s a trigger for more social unrest.”
Even as the government spends 67 billion ringgit ($18 billion) on economic stimulus, Lin Yun Ling, managing director of Malaysian builder Gamuda Bhd., told a seminar last month that ethnic quotas may lead Malaysia down a “long and slippery road.” Foreign direct investment may fall 50 percent in 2009, the government forecasts.
About 1 million people emigrated from Malaysia between 1972 and 2007, according to the Democratic Action Party, a member of the opposition coalition.
Come Back Later
“The outflow of the more educated non-Malays has adversely affected Malaysia’s transition to become a more knowledge-based economy,” said Lee Hock Guan, senior fellow at the Singapore- based Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. Lee, a Malaysian who has studied and lived overseas for more than 30 years, plans to return only when he retires.
Anwar, 61, a former UMNO deputy leader, is bidding for power with his multiethnic coalition and courting disaffected Malays. Najib’s National Front coalition lost its two-thirds parliamentary majority and control of five of 12 contested states in 2008 elections.
“Dismantling the New Economic Policy could mean losing the last bastion of support,” said Ibrahim Suffian, director of the Merdeka Center.
To contact the reporter on this story: Shamim Adam in Singapore at sadam2@bloomberg.net
Share Email Print A A A
By Shamim Adam
March 20 (Bloomberg) -- Najib Razak was a teenager when his father, Malaysia’s second prime minister, started a program that gives preferential treatment to the ethnic Malay majority. Days away from becoming leader himself, Najib may find that policy shackles his efforts to revive a faltering economy.
Najib, 55, is running unopposed in elections next week to head the biggest party in the ruling coalition, a sure-fire ticket to the highest office. Business leaders -- including his brother, who runs Malaysia’s second-largest bank -- say the racial program impedes growth just when Najib needs it most.
“He’s got an uphill task ahead of him,” said Azrul Azwar Ahmad Tajudin, an economist at Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd. in Kuala Lumpur. “How he handles the economic crisis and political developments will show us if he has the mettle and staying power to be leader.”
Najib, currently deputy premier, will replace Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who failed to serve out his term after presiding over the coalition’s smallest election victory since Malaysia’s independence in 1957. Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim won support from Indian and Chinese minorities in the March 2008 elections after pledging to scrap the race policy, open up the awards of government contracts and cut corruption.
Malaysia may be set for its first recession in a decade. Najib, who is also finance minister, predicts the economy will shrink 1 percent this year at worst. As exports and commodity prices tumble, economists at CLSA Asia Pacific Markets in Kuala Lumpur expect a 5 percent contraction. January’s overseas sales fell 28 percent, while oil is down 52 percent in the past year.
Murder Case
Najib is also burdened by allegations from a private investigator, a blogger and an opposition lawmaker that he is linked to the murder of a woman near Kuala Lumpur in 2006.
Last June, blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin said in a declaration at the Kuala Lumpur High Court that Najib’s wife witnessed the placing of explosives on the victim’s body. Najib called the allegation “garbage” and said he and his wife gave a statement to the police. Najib has denied any connection to the death and declined to comment for this article.
Raja Petra was arrested on Sept. 12 under the country’s Internal Security Act. His wife, Marina Lee Abdullah, said the arrests were for articles that criticized the country’s leadership. He was released from jail on Nov. 7 after a Kuala Lumpur court ruled that his detention was unlawful.
In July, investigator P. Balasubramaniam said at a press conference that Najib had had an affair with the 28-year-old victim. He retracted the allegation a day later and subsequently disappeared, said his lawyer, Americk Sidhu.
Banned From Parliament
This week, lawmaker Gobind Singh Deo was banned from parliament for a year for saying in the chamber that Najib was “involved in a murder case.” Najib’s adviser, Abdul Razak Baginda, was cleared in 2008 of abetting the killing of the woman, with whom the adviser said he had had an affair.
Abdul Razak, Najib’s father, initiated the New Economic Policy in 1971. He was seeking more national wealth for indigenous Bumiputera, the mostly Malay “sons of the soil.” That group, about two-thirds of the population of 28 million, gets cheaper housing as well as priority for college places, government contracts and shares of publicly traded companies.
The 38-year-old policy is a “serious” impediment to competitiveness, and undermines unity and investment, Nazir Razak, Najib’s brother and chief executive officer of Bumiputra- Commerce Holdings Bhd., told reporters last month. The Razaks are ethnic Malays.
Corruption Concerns
Opposition members argue that the affirmative-action program has done more to enrich politicians and their cronies than foster national unity. Sixty-one percent of voters say corruption is the biggest problem for Najib’s United Malays National Organization party, or UMNO, according to a poll last month by the independent Merdeka Center, near Kuala Lumpur.
Najib said in an interview last October that he will gradually remove the program, which aimed to raise Malays’ share of total wealth to 30 percent, and replace it with a needs-based system at an unspecified time. Bumiputeras held 19 percent of corporate equity in 2006, up from 2 percent in the 1970s, according to a government report.
“He might try to buy time claiming that he will scrap the policy once the Bumiputera equity share has been achieved,” said Khoo Kay Peng, an independent political consultant based near Kuala Lumpur. “The main point is the equity share will never be achieved. It is now a political tool and used extensively to grease the gravy train.”
Unemployment Rise
Racial tensions that dogged Abdullah, 69, may escalate on Najib’s watch as unemployment rises in the slowdown, said Azrul at Bank Islam. The government expects the jobless rate in 2009 to increase to 4.5 percent from 3.7 percent last year. The ethnic program forces Chinese and Indians to compete for some jobs after Malay slots are filled.
“People are clamoring for a more level playing field,” Azrul said. “As things get tougher and people lose jobs, that’s a trigger for more social unrest.”
Even as the government spends 67 billion ringgit ($18 billion) on economic stimulus, Lin Yun Ling, managing director of Malaysian builder Gamuda Bhd., told a seminar last month that ethnic quotas may lead Malaysia down a “long and slippery road.” Foreign direct investment may fall 50 percent in 2009, the government forecasts.
About 1 million people emigrated from Malaysia between 1972 and 2007, according to the Democratic Action Party, a member of the opposition coalition.
Come Back Later
“The outflow of the more educated non-Malays has adversely affected Malaysia’s transition to become a more knowledge-based economy,” said Lee Hock Guan, senior fellow at the Singapore- based Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. Lee, a Malaysian who has studied and lived overseas for more than 30 years, plans to return only when he retires.
Anwar, 61, a former UMNO deputy leader, is bidding for power with his multiethnic coalition and courting disaffected Malays. Najib’s National Front coalition lost its two-thirds parliamentary majority and control of five of 12 contested states in 2008 elections.
“Dismantling the New Economic Policy could mean losing the last bastion of support,” said Ibrahim Suffian, director of the Merdeka Center.
To contact the reporter on this story: Shamim Adam in Singapore at sadam2@bloomberg.net
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