Poor quality of political blogging ...

I was trying to surf the internet to look for comments on the latest PKR debacle. I chanced upon some blogs and was completely taken aback by the level of profanity and lack of objective discussion.  While I will not mention these blogs here, I would like to merely highlight that something has to be done to shape the minds of bloggers productively and develop and nurture sound discussion rather than  profane and racist debate.

This is scary - it really is and I am ashamed that our education system has generated this sort of mentality.

There may be more to the "Name" issue

After reading the analysis of the situation by columnist Jocelyn Tan, I started thinking more about the current situation wondering why the government took a stand to appeal the High Court decision. After all, was it wise to bring an additional parameter (politics) into an already complicated mix? It does not take a genius to know that this is a very sensitive and highly charged area and the potential that it could escalate into something bigger would be a very real threat. Why allow it to escalate further?

Who would stand to gain from this situation, I wondered?

There are several possibilities . However, these are merely my random thoughts.

The next General Election is fast gaining on us . What does the government need to do to retain their control? The major battle that must be fought, I would think is to regain the support of the majority of the Malaysian Malays who contributed significantly to the loss of 5 states in the previous general election in March 2008. What was the main contributing factor to the loss of support by this large and growing group? Was it the charisma of DSAI? Or was it largely due to the growing influence of PAS? Was it a combination of the two?

It is clear that the government realized the growing threat and needed to take action to regain this lost support base.

Here, understanding the enemy's weaknesses becomes an item of major importance.

What would be needed to weaken the enemy? Ever heard of divide and conquer? PAS, one of the largest political parties on the opposition divide is clearly divided on this matter...... the situation now is open to vulnerabilities but the fact that other parties are unknowingly being dragged into the mix is sad to watch.

Why allow the word to be used only in Sabah and Sarawak? Oh yes - wasn't it East Malaysia that saved Barisan Nasional in the last election..... Clearly, retaining the support of Sabah and Sarawak is also paramount. It is noteworthy that leaders from these two states have been distinctly silent on the "Name" matter.

There is also the other side of the coin to look at - would the opposition stand to gain from this?

Please refer to this article :

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/LA16Ae02.html

Is this a ploy to win over Sabah and Sarawak by the opposition?

It seems to me that both sides of the political divide are jumping on the bandwagon and using this issue to gain political mileage.

We will watch as this situation continues to unfold. Let's hope that the affected parties will not allow themselves to be casualties in what many would see as an unnecessary battle. What happened to responsible leadership?

Let us not be pawns in this sinister battle.

Please don't use religion to gain political mileage. It's just not nice!

Let's hope that 1Malaysia will deliver...or will it be more of the same?

As commented in response to Tony Pua's blog article (highlighted in my previous post)
_____________________________________________________

I think that the public will give recognition if it is due. Somehow though, I cannot help but agree with you ... the whole concept that is currently being pushed forward sounds really nice like a rather expensive advertorial but fear that the actual product does not match the description. The whole concept is good but the manner in which Perak was handled and peaceful dissent clamped sends out opposing messages. PKFZ -what's the latest dig on this? - UMNO seems to bulldoze through many other policy matters without considering the views of the component parties but does not offer any assistance to OTK? Our "favourite" Umno politician, KT of Selangor getting away with all his excesses also leaves the public feeling short changed and angry at his blatant disregard for public opinion and accountability. The MACC and police force is more a convenient and selective tool used by the government to serve its needs rather than an institution that the public can believe acts with integrity and independence. The whole point is that when the actions do not match the rhetoric, Malaysians will end up with a product which doesn't deliver but costed alot to advertise. I would rather they focused more on action and less on the packaging. Just got my first dose of propaganda on TV ..... looks nice but......Still, I would rather not continue to rant but will give the benefit of the doubt (yet again), watch and wait. Can someone explain more about Equinas to me?

A good summary of the PKFZ debacle - from Yahoo Asia News

Q+A-Why is Malaysia Port Klang scandal important?
Reuters - Thursday, May 28

KUALA LUMPUR, May 28 - Malaysia's government is to unveil later on Thursday an independent auditors report into the construction of a free trade zone in Port Klang, a project aimed at boosting capacity in the port.
What started off as a 1.8 billion Malaysian ringgit ($516.2 million) project has ballooned into one which could cost more than 10 billion ringgit following an acrimonious pullout by the project's Dubai-based international partner.
The issue raises the question of risk foreign investors face when doing business in Malaysia. It has been used to attack the integrity of the government by the opposition at a time when Malaysia's new prime minister is still reeling from losses in the 2008 general election.
The port authority is due to release the auditor's report at 3.30pm . Some members of the ruling coalition have been pressing for disclosure to prevent the project from tarnishing the government's image.
Transparency in the way Malaysia does business will be a major factor in whether it can attract much-needed foreign direct investment.
WHAT IS PKFZ? The Port Klang Free Trade Zone started as a joint venture between the Port Klang Authority and the promoters of the Jebel Ali Free Trade Zone in 1999 to attract foreign investment and promote Malaysia's main ports situated near Kuala Lumpur.
HOW DID THE SCANDAL UNFOLD?
Land for the project was acquired by a company, Kuala Dimensi, whose shareholders include senior politicians from the ruling United Malays National Organisation , the lead party in the National Front coalition that has ruled Malaysia for 51 years, as well as politicians from other Front component parties.
The port authority reportedly ignored advice from the government chief legal adviser and bought the land from the company in 2002 for 1 billion ringgit, or about 25 ringgit per square foot, compared with the 3 ringgit per square foot which the company acquired the land for.
The company was later awarded sole rights to develop the zone without competitive bidding. Kuala Dimensi later raised funds through the issuance of bonds backed by the Transport Ministry.
PricewaterhouseCoopers was later called in by the Port Klang Autrhority to prepare a report amid mounting public anger.
PKFZ came under public scrutiny due to its escalating cost. Previously, the government had said the project would not cost more than 4.6 billion ringgit.
On 5 May, MPs briefed by the authority told reporters that the cost of the project could exceed 10 billion ringgit.
WHY DID THE FOREIGN PARTNER PULL OUT?
Jebel Ali Free Zone Internation , the Dubai-based company appointed to managed PKFZ terminated its 15 year-contract, withdrew from the project in July 2007, citing "strategic purposes".
A newspaper report on Jafza's pullout, which cited documents relating to the project, said the separation was acrimonious and due among others to interference by politicians and others with vested interests.
BOND LIABILITIES
The Port Klang Authority paid RM1.09 billion for the land to be settled over 15 years in a deal that was backed by a government guarantee and Kuala Dimensi sold bonds worth 1.3 billion ringgit. Kuala Dimensi sold 1.4 billion ringgit of bonds, again backed by a government guarantee to develop the site.
Two more tranches of bonds with a total face value of more than one billion ringgit were then sold.
POLITICAL DIMENSION
The heads of the PKA have all been senior leaders from the Malaysian Chinese Association, the second largest party in the National Front coalition.
Among its board members, Kuala Dimensi has Azim Zabidi, who was a one-time treasurer of UMNO. Tiong King Sing is director of Kuala Dimensi and treasurer of the Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party, another member of the coalition.
Also involved in the project are a former UMNO youth leader from Selangor state, Faizal Abdullah, whose father-in-law, Onn Ismail, is another influential figure in Selangor UMNO, was a former chairman of the cooperative that sold the land to Kuala Dimensi.

More on taxi's...

This time, it concerns the Airport Limo driver. Pakcik is my regular driver and picks me up whenever I need to go to the airport or return from the airport. He diligently takes receipts from the limo company instead of trying to solicit his own business which many of the limo drivers are inclined to do. In short, he is an honest, hardworking man.

I spoke with him regarding the terms and conditions for driving the airport limo. He drives a Proton Waja which costs approximately RM40-50 k per car. Pakcik pays RM142 per day (RM100 for daily rental, Rm42 for misc. maintenance charges). He has to pay the rental 364 days a year with only 2 days free (New Years Eve and Day) - at this rate, per Proton Waja, an whopping amount of RM251,000 is paid to the company over a period of 5 years.....

Gas, petrol , tolls are all borne by the driver.
They get 8 sets of tyres per year but when they request for the tyres - sometimes the company replies that stocks are limited....

There are also stiff fines to be paid for late delivery, pick up etc.

I asked if the Waja will eventually be transferred to the driver after a reasonable duration. Apparently I was told that none of the drivers has ever taken ownership of an airport limo vehicle

Naturally I asked if he had a copy of the Agreement that was signed between the company and himself..

He wasn't given a copy....AND he had to bear the stamping fee for the agreement of RM100... I thought to myself..RM100 for ad valorem stamping? Hmmmm..... shouldn't it be Rm25 only?

Of course, though he feels cheated, he is afraid to complain - his bolder colleagues have tried to voice their grievances but these "brave" people were terminated hence losing their livelihoods, a fate that he cannot afford to have seeing as he has to support a family of 8.

He silently brooded that the owner of the company is a crony of UMNO ..........

Hmmmm....Rm251,000 over a 5 year period for one Waja......

The license holder for the Airport Limo company is getting a rather good deal, if I may say so but who has the short end of the stick again?

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

Response to Che Det - migrated from previous blog for correct classification

This is my second post to this blog : When all is said and done, I appreciate that there exists a channel for us to share and express our thoughts openly - reading through many of the comments posted, I realise that playing the race card remains a dangerous and irresponsible option. This is something that we cannot take lightly. Instead of playing the racial card or even coining such a term as "Ketuanan Melayu" - which could be so often be misinterpreted, wouldn't it be wiser to promote affirmative action instead? Let's choose to be progressive and wise. Remember, we do not choose to be born one race or another - we make the most of what we have been given by God. Let every man/ woman work hard and earn their own right to be respected, regardless of race. Let us be judged on our own merits. Give us all equal opportunities hence we can be truly proud of our efforts and our successes. Is it not better to teach a man to be strong and to fend for himself to succeed in a competitive world than to provide him with a silver spoon which will not build his character or earn him respect? And is that not what affirmative action is all about? Once again, let's not use race to smokescreen the larger issues that we have to face today. Malaysians, be wise - there are more pressing issues that need to be addressed. 1) Restore an independent judiciary 2) Weed out corruption that exists in our government. Is it possible that a charity society for State assemblymen's wives can amass RM9.9m? Bocor affair - please examine the root cause? This is a real embarassment and the very perpetrators/ criminals are vying for key UNMO positions? Come on Malaysians, let's not be stupid - WISE UP! Let our country be run by intelligent, progressive individuals - where the rights of the people will be taken care of, regardless of race, religion or creed. WE are not competing amongst ourselves so much as with the rest of the world and if we do not rise to the challenge, we will all be sadly left behind. Please think about it, be wise and fair........

My questions to Dr M on why he decided to leave UMNO...

Dear Tun, It would appear that the main reason you are doing this is to force our current PM to resign. I have some questions: 1) What alternative do you have planned for UMNO's succession? 2) Will removing the current PM improve the state that UMNO is on now? - ie. Will money politics and corruption cease? 3) Will an independent judiciary be restored? Or is there a hidden agenda behind this? Just one more question : Who would you like to see as the new leader of Malaysia and please justify why? If this person can correct items 2 and 3 above, then maybe you are doing the right thing - if it is to be more of the same thing, Malaysia is doomed.