Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News
Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News |
- Sg Buloh Nursery
- The 13th General Election will witness multi-corner contest
- After Reading Mark Levine's Al Jazeera Article (Arab Revolutions Mask Economic Status Quo)
- Anak Malaysia - Expats Mushrooming in KL dated 11/6/11
- Expats Mushrooming in KL
- Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief
- MCLM Urges all Malaysians to Support the Call for Electoral Reform by Walking with Bersih 2.0
- It’s the people’s money, not the BN’s!
| Posted: 11 Jun 2011 09:22 PM PDT We managed our assets to generate income to fund our education agenda in spite of not receiving any grants from the Selangor State to date. You call that mismanagement? By Ilham (GM Yayasan Selangor)Dear Wong Chun Wai, The Star Why shouldn't Yayasan Selangor be given the TOL if we can generate income to fund our Education Program? Please take a look at Yayasan Selangor's P&L for the last 10 years:- From 2001 to 2007, Yayasan Selangor under the Chairmanship of Khir Toyo(BN), had continuous deficits except for a surplus in 2007. From 2008 to 2010, Yayasan Selangor under the Chairmanship of YAB TS Khalid Ibrahim(PR), Yayasan Selangor had continuous surplus except in 2010. Why the fuss? We managed our assets to generate income to fund our education agenda in spite of not receiving any grants from the Selangor State to date. You call that mismanagement? The land will never be developed with permanent structures for as long as the massive water pipes run underneath. Yayasan Selangor generates maximum income from land development. It should have been making much more than it has now if not for the "plundering" from 1991 to March 2008. The matter has been reported to MACC and we shall see how enthusiastic they are to probe the complaint. To date, investigations has not begun! The water pipes has been there for donkey years. Yayasan Selangor proposes to keep the site clean and safe especially the water pipes against possible damage by anyone. Yayasan Selangor also intends to beautify the surroundings to attract and facilitate customers, if the study by Waterworks Engineering Consultant allows the continuous conditional usage of the site with strict conditions to ensure safety of the water pipes. Yayasan Selangor awaits the Consultant study and report. If the recommendation is for the site to be cleared for safety and security reasons, the operators and Yayasan Selangor must abide by it. This is as clear as daylight. On the other hand if the findings allows the Nursery to continue, why not Yayasan Selangor, a Selangor State GLC managing it in an orderly manner. The operators, comprising "rent-seekers/landlords" who collect rental up to RM6k/month from some sub-tenants, have paid nothing to the Selangor State since March 2008. The nursery is still in a sorry state. But the "rent-seekers/landlords" can afford expensive cars. Yet they said business is bad. Shall we invite LHDN/Auditors to check their books, if they keep any? Please refer to Yayasan Selangor's audited financial statement of 2010. We hide nothing. All expenses are accounted for. All the Board Members have returned the RM5k bonuses to Yayasan Selangor. Please let us know if this has been done before. Yayasan Selangor hanya mahu Tolong, bukan jadi Along! |
| The 13th General Election will witness multi-corner contest Posted: 11 Jun 2011 09:15 PM PDT Todate, the third force has not pinpointed to where the PR government has gone wrong in the four states they are currently ruling. They did not provide any concrete criticism in the manner the state governments are running or how the state government could do a better job, which it supposedly has failed. By A. Tanasekharan (State assemblyman for Bagan Dalam, Penang)
The 13th general election will no longer witness straight fights between Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat. On the other hand we will witness multi corner fights with BN, MCLM, HRP, KITA, SAPP, SNAP vs Pakatan Rakyat. HRP is hell bent to defeat all Indian candidates from Pakatan Rakyat whom they have termed as mandores. By so doing they are not going to win but will allow BN to win. As for KITA, its number 1 enemy is Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and PKR and it is working to defeat them; and its President sounds more like an UMNO man. MCLM has its own list of candidates which it believes is better than the Pakatan Rakyat's candidates or at least better than those who have jumped ship and they also want their candidates to win. Now, the MCLM argues that we need a third force for the people to choose. They probably got the idea from the results of the polls in England. In England a two party system has been in existence for years and it is very well rooted. So they could afford the luxury of a third force. In Malaysia, the two party system of government has not got started yet. We have been ruled by one single collusion since independence. We are just seeing some light after the 2008 political tsunami. We hope that the 13th general election will give Malaysians for the first time a choice of an alternative government. Would Malaysians want to miss this golden opportunity and allow Barisan Nasional to continue to rule until another tsunami comes and that will probably take another 50 years? Todate, the third force has not pinpointed to where the PR government has gone wrong in the four states they are currently ruling. They did not provide any concrete criticism in the manner the state governments are running or how the state government could do a better job, which it supposedly has failed. Why then would we need a third force for? If the performance of the PR governments in the four states are worse then the previous BN government, then we would probably need a third force to replace them. So what is the basis of their complaints? Do these third force leaders know that if they join in the fray and contest the general election it will be detrimental to Pakatan Rakyat and Najib will happily sail back to Putrajaya leaving the third force and PR to blame each other. I am sure that the third force leaders know the consequences of a 3 corner fight. Rather than threatening PR, why can't they talk. Why don't they have direct negotiations. PR is not just PAS, DAP & PKR, they have a partner Parti Socialis Malaysia (PSM). If PSM can work with PR I am sure PR can accommodate the third force. PR is also not just about Datuk Sri Anwar Ibrahim. There are other many talented leaders. Even if DSAI loses his case, the third force need not be worried. PR leaders can handle the situation. Datuk Nizar Jamaludin, before he became the Mentri Besar of Perak he was an unknown. After he became the Menteri Besar the Perakians love him. If a person like Najib can be a Prime Minister, PR has a better pool of leaders for the job. However, if the third force still wants to contest which is their right to do so, the message Malaysians must give in the coming general election is that we do not want a third force but a two party system and give Pakatan Rakyat a resounding victory. |
| After Reading Mark Levine's Al Jazeera Article (Arab Revolutions Mask Economic Status Quo) Posted: 11 Jun 2011 09:08 PM PDT By batsman It struck me that many of the policies that Mark Levine described as friendly to the Arab populations were exactly what UMNO has been practicing in Malaya for the first 30 odd years since Merdeka (1) and that ruling Arab elites made a subtle but important shift in the 70's towards more friendly "Washington Consensus" policies (2) that were the unmitigated disasters that resulted in the current ongoing Arab Spring (3). It would seem then that we are going through a phase that the Arab countries went though in the 70's and 80's (4). It would seem that we are actually historically behind the Arab countries and that our grouses with UMNO stem from the fact that government policies are now migrating towards being more "Washington Consensus" friendly in line with what the Arab ruling elites did 40 years ago.Would this mean that we are due for a Malaysian Spring or a Hibiscus Revolution in 40 – 50 years time? Does it mean that what the Malaysian reform movement is striving for today will backfire horribly in 40 – 50 years time? It does seem that it will probably go that way, but I think not. To justify my opinion, it is necessary to look not only at historical phases of development of the countries involved but also current realities. The Arab struggle for modern economic development started much earlier than ours so it is no surprise that we are actually historically behind them (5). According to Mark Levine, the socialist experiments that the Arab countries tried in the 50's and 60's actually resulted in rapid economic development that gave the population a modicum of wealth, so what happened that forced the ruling Arab elites to turn towards IMF and World Bank "recommended" or "enforced" policies? Are these the same pressures that resulted in communist China and socialist Vietnam turning towards more market friendly economic policies? Sadly, I am not such a great historian, so I can only hazard a guess. I surmise that in spite of the socialist experiments, the ruling elites were actually national capitalists, as Mark Levine seems to have (6). These people harboured great ambitions for their countries and for themselves and they went for a short cut to glory, wealth and power that integration with the globalised capitalist economies promised. At any rate, socialist economic experiments which benefit the poor do very little for capitalist accumulation and concentrations of wealth within their own countries. Socialist experiments had to be quietly abandoned in favour of the seduction of glory, power and wealth. My second surmise is that short cuts to glory, power and wealth became shorter still over time and corruption became rampant as patience wore thin and it is easier to be a big fish in a small pond than a big fish in a big ocean. In Malaysia, the same trends can be seen in our history. First we wanted to be a big and famous player in the whole wide world with Malaysia Boleh and Vision 2020 as well as politicians with big opiniated mouths and politician's wives with big bags all to match their even bigger statures. Grand mega projects were the norm. Now apparently we are buying French submarines and Russian MIG jets to protect "our national security" in case we do become a great power in 2020 in line with the military might of all the great powers of the world. Corruption and vain glory apparently is common to both Arab countries and Malaysia. It is the same evil that screws up the works whatever phase of historical development each is in. In the Arab countries, corruption and vain glory screwed up the socialist experiments in the 50's and 60's and corruption screwed up the "Washington Consensus" economic policies of the 80's to the present. In Malaysia, corruption and racism screwed up the NEP and in spite of the privatizations, corporatisations, ETP's, GTP's, promised transparencies, 1Malaysia's, KPI's and so on, good people keep falling from tall buildings and policemen still protect themselves by shooting people from 45 degree angles at close range according to some brave claims. All this is quite apart from politicians and their sons happily spending rumoured RM6 million on renovations for their mansions or rumoured RM400 million for divorce settlements. To be fair to UMNO, it is actually not easy to come up with and implement a proper economic plan for a country – especially one that is smaller than the big powers. As Mark Levine (sort of) points out, they will do whatever it takes to ensure you are in your small little place and they have their tentacles in all the best economic pies. Traditions are difficult to change. In spite of the liberalism that the big powers cloak themselves with, their true faces often reveal themselves if you care to look honestly. For example, US universities invested heavily and profitably in S. African apartheid businesses in the past until they were forced by public opinion to give it up. Today they are using hedge funds to buy vast amounts of land in Africa, I suppose to make their assets and balance sheets look seductive. Old habits die hard. Old style colonialism makes way for new style IMF and World Bank recommended investments. Actually colonialism is heavy handed and clumsy and you have to deal with lots of troublesome natives often with brutal force. By buying vast amounts of land in impoverished countries, you sort of create Black Homelands in reverse. Labour will be at your pick and choosing and you can even claim to be offering jobs and security with better pay than the rest of the native employers. You don't have to deal with troublesome natives who will fall off tall buildings or get shot at 45 degree angles by their own kind and in case all else fails you can always depend on the UN and NATO to impose no-fly zones. Best of all you can process rare earths on your own land in faraway places if you wish. After all it is your land which you bought and paid for. So it is actually quite a difficult thing to survive in this dangerous world let alone come up with good economic policies and implement them well. UMNO must be given due credit. Unfortunately credit comes with the discredit of corruption. So while the Arab Jasmine Revolution (at some level) may be trying to achieve the opposite of what the Malaysian reform movement is trying to achieve – one is trying to free itself from IMF control and manipulation while the other is trying to be more competitive and integrate itself even more into the globalised economic system, it does not necessarily follow that Malaysia being behind the Arabs in historical development will have to follow in their wake at a later stage. Good economic policies and honest management and implementation can make the difference. I am for a strong domestic economy enhanced by world class competitiveness in niche sectors (above all, no more people falling off tall buildings or policemen defending themselves by shooting people at 45 degree angles). We don't have to take extreme positions to be isolationist like N. Korea or a complete slave to the IMF. What do you think? Notes - quoted from Mark Levine's article. (1) Instead, analyses by the IMF and World Bank "extensively praised this stabilisation success in Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco", ignoring the social costs of policies such as reducing the size of the public sector through privatisation, removing controls over investment, eliminating subsidies and most tariffs on imports and liberalising trade regimes. (2) "Washington Consensus" policies, which advocate trade liberalisation, privatisation, opening economies to foreign goods and investment, stabilising budgets and exchange rates, and cutting government expenditures and presence in the economy. (3) Both the IMF and the Bank now state loudly that the Arab Spring has taught them the appropriate "lessons" and that they now realise that "we have to listen to people" and help ensure that wealth is now "for everyone" and not just the privileged few. (4) Despite the conflict with the United States and other Western powers, this period was in fact marked by unprecedented levels of both economic growth and relative economic equality within ostensibly socialist-inspired societies such as Egypt, Syria or Iraq. But by the 1970s, and especially in the 1980s, leaders of these countries began to integrate themselves into the Western political-economic fold, and such growth and egalitarian distribution of wealth changed for the worse. (5) …. a history of frustrated economic development that stretches from the mid-19th century, when Muhammad Ali's attempt at independent modernisation was met by a joint European-Ottoman front that ultimately forced Egypt - and the Ottoman state - into a European-dominated economic fold that, within three decades, led both states to bankruptcy (and soon thereafter, for Egypt, to more than half a century of British occupation). (6) IMF official Youssef Boutros-Ghali, who were accruing significant power through the financialisation of the economy and other policies that weaken the power of the army and the more traditional national capitalist elite. |
| Anak Malaysia - Expats Mushrooming in KL dated 11/6/11 Posted: 11 Jun 2011 09:01 PM PDT By Long Wong I write in reference to Anak Malaysia's comment that KL is being inundated with Expats and in his context, a bank in Cyberjaya. He appears to be frustrated and possibily he failed in getting a job there that led him to write this, but the very problem here lies in his inability to see the bigger picture. Thanks but no thanks to BN's 53 years of brain washing, making us mostly callow in mind. The first thing that comes to mind is what's wrong with these expats? They are after all, better educated than those unskilled and semi-skilled imports that we have today, including the illegal ones, with many creating fear in our everyday life insofar as safety is concerned. This is a typical cry of someone that is brought up in a "handout" culture. Come on, have some lateral thinking my friend. This won't work for our country if we continue to want to protect ourselves. Isn't it the same as bumi privilege? Just that now it is "Malaysian" privilege? What? You want 30% Malaysians to be employed? Let's face the fact. Malaysians are not that great anymore. They are an inferior nation! Firstly, we have a huge brain drain away from the country. Secondly, what makes one think we have the capability to manage such an organisation. The good ones left are generally those above 40 and many of them are already holding good positions in the corporate world which, anyway, is starved of good people. You think HR can be handled by someone local? Maybe, maybe not. Firstly, the command of the English Language for this job must be good. Without effective communication skills there is virtually no hope for the local to fulfill this position. Secondly, even if there are (please forget about Malaysians overseas. They won't come back and that is a fact. In other words, just look at what's left in this country), these people would be holding steady jobs here in Malaysia that are paying well (I personally know of an HR manager that is being paid very well and who always laments that there are not enough good people around). Additionally, this someone has to be above 40. Anything less is not good enough. Then comes the other positions, which basically require the same level of qualifications and communication skills. Your point obivously is, aren't there any Malaysians at all? My point is a big No! Just look at the corporate world around you. Almost every profit making corporation out there is saying they do not have the right kind of people for the right job. I have been an entrepreneur and professional for more than twenty years and I am beginning to give up doing business in Malaysia, simply because we do not have the right people here in this country anymore. Good ones who are educated overseas won't want to come back, leaving only rotten apples behind that do not have the calibre at all to be in the big league. I should say 80% of the graduates in Malaysia today are not even of the same standard compared to those who passed out from MCE and HSC some 30 years ago. In those days, if one passed out after Form 5, one would almost certainly have a good command of the English Language and if they fast forward to today, they will definitely get a good paying job - and without a degree! Say what you want, but communication skills is the number priority, not just locally but globally. Without that, there is no way one can ever progress. Just look at the quality of our local graduates. They cannot express themselves well enough, even in their own mother tongue! This is the reality in our country. It has been purposely engineered so that those who are in power will continue to be in power. Malaysia is a feudal state and in line with the history of feudalism, this country is doomed and will need at least 60 years after a revolution (i.e., at the lowest point in feudalism whence a revolt will start) before it can come back up. There is no guarantee that if the opposition wins tomorrow, we can come back up. In fact, it may be further downhill after that. This country is suffering from tertiary cancer and there is no recourse other than death, which is a matter of time. Back to your cry of too many expats. Isn't it good that they earn big dollars and spend it here rather than the semi and unskilled labourers sending our money back to their home countries? After all, the money these expats earned here is actually foreign income. As a matter of fact, I do not know whether you realise that but the money they earned is oursourced from their regional and/or global operations and therefore is foreign income and does not have anything to do with Malaysia at large. They may be chauffeured driven, go to expensive restaurants, rent expensive apartments and live an expensive lifestyle, but remember, they are contributing to Malaysia's economy and that's what we want from the little we can offer at this stage. I think you are barking at the wrong tree. The crux of the problem in this country that we have is not the expats. It is the system in which we are living in. It is a corrupt society and in a corrupt society, only a handful will eventually benefit, leading to general mass discontent. The current scenario is, they have created racial disharmony so much so that when the situation explodes it will be one layman versus another layman. This is what the ruling elite wants us all to see and eventually react to it and I can safely say that the elite is winning from this perspective. In my opinion, the only change that we can see is all the poor, whether they are bumis or nons, come together and vote the current corrupted Governement out. The majority of the poor are the local indigenous of East Malaysia and the Malays of West Malaysia. Unless they can overcome this oppression by the elites, we will not see daylight. Even if that happens, do not be too happy as we will definitely see the country going further downhill before it turns back up. In the absence of a revolution, maybe 20 to 30 years. In the event of a revolution, we can expect two generations of sufferings before things can turn around. Until then, enjoy your life and savour whatever little left in Malaysia as you may not be around by then. I know I will not be around for sure.
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| Posted: 11 Jun 2011 01:00 AM PDT By anak malaysia I write with disgust as we have more and more expats coming into Malaysia on the pretext of "transferring knowledge to the local Malaysians" under the so-called Multi Media Supercorridor and they have abused their rights to stay on in Malaysia stating ... "Malaysians are not ready". Utter rubbish. One such banking corporation in Cyberjaya has been set up for 9 years now and today, instead of a reduced number of expats, it has has tripled and more are coming from UK, US, Singapore and India!!! They have deprived the local Malaysians who have so much more experience and caliber and replaced locals with these expats. Dont get me wrong - we need expertise but not to the point of doing so blindly. They are creating jobs so that expats and their spouse can get a job here with luxury condos/bungalows and chauffeur-driven cars when in their own country they don't have them. I am hoping for this to be published and investigated through immigration, MOF, BNM and the Prime Minister's Dept. The bank downtown lost many jobs and they are bringing in an expat to manage their change delivery?? More job cuts?? The outsourced arm in Cyberjaya has an expat from India as their HR Head - tak ada orang Malaysia yang boleh memenuhi jawatan in?? Sampai kita dipandang sebagai negara yang tak kemahiran HR??? Head of Operations dari Singapore? Head of Facility from Sri Lanka?? And many more VPs - at least 15 of them - enjoying sunny Malaysia and not wanting to go back. As we speak, more Indian and British people are being employed and due to come to KL and they get "hardship" allowance?? So where is the fairness in the job market for people with 15 - 20 years of experience as they lose out to these expats who do not match the job compatibility. |
| Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief Posted: 11 Jun 2011 01:00 AM PDT By J. D. Lovrenciear Malaysia's political, social and economic landscape well fits the tale of the rich man, poor man, beggar man and thief analogy. Here is the rakyat's discourse Рsimple minded but relevant for further serious thinking. Why is BN Рmore so UMNO, so adamant, determined and dead beat on retaining governance even to the extent where one of its coalition member party had openly taken an oath to kill and maim if need be to retain PutraJaya? It is because of the' rich man' syndrome - rich in terms of enjoying the spoils of the nation's wealth and the addiction to power. The well worn clich̩ fits perfectly well here, namely, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Having tasted power and control and the easy wealth that comes as a package, as is well known in all third-world politics, UMNO in particular is not going to give up these five decades of partying in the skies so easily. Can you imagine someone who lived in palatial-like comfort and adorned all those expensive jewelry and frolicked, shopped, and dined across the globe's finest destinations and had slave-like servants and subordinates at the snap of a finger would ever want to move over to a modest home and end up holidaying in Port Dickson? Oh no, what an acrimonious thought. Not even in the rich man's nightmare can that be allowed. Certainly the generations old family cartels that are synonymous with Malaysian political history will not want to lose all these social and economic privileges that come with their entrenched political right-of-way. The 'thief man' would be all those who are politically and socially connected to the Who's Who within the power corridors. They have amassed incomprehensible wealth and pride themselves within the hallways of the Rich and Famous (should be infamous actually). Their wealth comes from concessions, APs, IPPs, monopolies and questionable Tender qualifications, to name a few. The ISA and the OSA will be fortified even further to ensure that the thieves have things their way. The rich man grouping will be happy to protect the thief-man's interests as long as the rich-man entourage stands to remain rock solid. Likewise, another grouping of thief man are all those who have pawned their souls to the devil. They will do anything and everything just to profiteer along the way. The range of sins is wide from manipulating the weighing scale under their tattered pasar malam stall to importing and reselling big time in dubious manners or engaging in slave and flesh trading. To these thieves, their mantra is: who cares mate, if they can do it why can't we. Meanwhile the poor man is the band wagon of opposition political parties and NGOs associated with fighting for social, political, economic and environmental rights and justice. They get the consent of the voters to rule some states but suffer from strangulation as the Federal Government remains within the clenches of the rich-man. They get the mandate and support of their members to march in protest or rally to show displeasure at a gross injustice despite being hauled up, locked up, beaten, or even ending up dead. It would take the poor man group tremendous energy, innovative resolve and god-fearing fidelity to keep going the distance. And because they remain poor without the financial pipeline on the nation's wealth, the rich-man will go marching with the credo that the poor man cannot perform. And in the process the poor man misses his real target and ends up back-firing his own commrade. And the other compounding factor is that there is also the defecting within the poor man's team - all because its the poor man. Poor man! Not his fault. Not his own doing. But because he is the poor man. And who then is the beggar? We, the rakyat. Unable to give the poor man the magic wand of power to govern; crippled into propping the rich man all the way; and being a slave to the thief, the rakyat are lost in a sea of hopelessness. Each time a State election or a By-election makes its round the beggar raises his or her hope. But that hope gets mauled either by the rich man's antics, the thief's ringgit power or the beggar's lack of will to shift and the poor man's lack of financial resources to combat. And now the beggar has the GE-13 to pine for. Will the much touted GE-13 make a difference to the beggar man? Or will the beggar man make the GE-13 any different? Therein then lies the challenge for the rich man, poor man, beggar man and thief. So stop blaming others. Stop blaming God. It is we Рthe rich man, poor man, beggar man and thief, who are to blame for the mess this nation is in.
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| MCLM Urges all Malaysians to Support the Call for Electoral Reform by Walking with Bersih 2.0 Posted: 11 Jun 2011 01:00 AM PDT
The Malaysian Civil Liberties Movement (MCLM) supports BERSIH 2.0 (Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections) and will walk with them at the BERSIH 2.0 rally, "Walk for Democracy," which will take place on 9 July 2011. MCLM is in complete agreement with the aims of BERSIH 2.0, which has been actively pursuing electoral reform since 2005, as well as the demands of the BERSIH 2.0 rally, namely: ● Clean the electoral roll
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| It’s the people’s money, not the BN’s! Posted: 11 Jun 2011 01:00 AM PDT Can Max build houses for the people if he was in the opposition? He can't even build a house for Annie and her starving children even though he is in the seat of power! By Daniel John Jambun When the Chief Minister officiated the Umno Keningau delegates meeting on June 4, he made another swipe at the opposition with the same old rhetoric, saying that the opposition can only talk about development and poverty eradication but are not doing anything about them, "unlike we in the BN who are consistently fighting poverty." He also said that "the opposition … only complain but are unable to bring out from poverty those who are poor." But the first one to offer to build a house for Annie Marambal was PKR, not Umno! I am very sorry to say this but when I read this coming out of our top state executive, I felt like screaming and throwing up because there is a whole lot of nonsense and insulting realities behind this statement. I can't take it anymore, so I must say what needs to be said and hopefully this 'logic' will be stopped once and for all when those BN leaders realize how stupid they sound when they say it. First of all, this kind of nonsensical logic has been around for decades now and it has been repeated so many times that it has become a cause for instant nausea – you just want to vomit! It is so stupid that we voters who have brains can only react with revulsion and contempt. When is it ever going to stop? All the BN leaders have the same old habit of saying again and again that the opposition can only talk big and make promises and it is only BN who can deliver. And the worst thing is that a lot of BN supporters also believe this sickening nonsense. They applaud loudly and, like their leaders, think that the leaders of the opposition are a bunch of idiots. But it will need only a little bit of reflection to realize how stupid this line of thinking is. To the Sabahans with enough brains, even small kids in primary schools, they know that this is a real insult to their intelligence. Why? Firstly, it is the BN leaders who have been given a mandate by the people to run the state and to solve the problems of the state. It is the BN leaders who have been given the responsibility TO SPEND THE PEOPLE'S MONEY to improve their lot. Unfortunately, BN has failed to do their assigned job. They failed even to solve the simple problem of poverty. And when the problem is pointed out, they fly off the handle and start cursing at the opposition. But let us be reminded that the case of Annie Marambal's suffering was revealed not by the opposition but by the Girl Guides and by the wife of the Prime Minister, no less! And when the opposition picked on the issue, leaders like Dr. Maximus Ongkili went into a rage as if the opposition leaders were a group of hook-tailed devils. I felt it was really amusing to see Maximus lose his temper with all sorts of childish ranting at the opposition. And when he challenged the opposition to build houses for the poor, it sounded so idiotic that I wondered if this Ph.D. holder still has his faculties in place. He was the one who accused Dr. Jeffrey of suffering from a the Ph.D. disease, or permanent head damage, but now he has to examine his own head for asking a dumb question like, "If we ask the opposition to build houses, can they build it?" The answer, my dear Dr., is very simple: "Yes, we can build them, even 10,000 houses! But why should we use our money? Test us by giving us the people's money which you have in your hands and WE WILL SHOW YOU HOW TO DO YOUR JOB!" Can Max build houses for the people if he was in the opposition? He can't even build a house for Annie and her starving children even though he is in the seat of power! And he should go screaming to Rosmah for embarrassing him as the MP for Marudu, and not scream at the opposition for doing their job, which is to keep the BN leaders on their toes. Max should know this because he had been in the opposition for a long time. By saying that the opposition cannot deliver, the BN leaders are showing that they are totally illiterate about our system of government. Have they forgotten that we practice democracy and those elected are responsible to deliver because they are the custodians of the state resources and revenues? They are supposed to administer the state and manage its resources in a world-class management expertise worthy of praise from Peter Drucker, worthy of an ISO certification – at least in an honest and transparent manner. They should not behave and talk as if those resources belong to their grandfathers because the resources and revenues belong to the people, largely from taxpayers. At the same the opposition functions as a check and balance for the government and to offer constructive criticisms. The opposition should be respected, not insulted because the opposition also commands support from a large portion of the population. As proof that the government doesn't know what it is doing, it is talking about the economy only in terms of infrastructural development (roads, suspension bridges, balairayas, housing, drains), while not enough emphasis is put on long-term strategic planning to strengthen the state's economic fundamentals for a sustainable and accelerating economic growth. There is the more serious problems of the deteriorating state economy, the high unemployment, rural and urban poverty which is getting very much worse with high inflation, mostly due to subsidy cuts. All those papers presented in seminars and those recommendations made by economic brains just end up gathering dust – because the government servants and leaders don't understand them! And all they have in their heads is how to enrich themselves as fast as possible before they lose their positions of power. With this 10-percent-for-me mentality, the government cannot focus on long-term strategies. Is Umno still calling itself the people's hero (juara rakyat) or is it now the people's terror (kengerian rakyat)? What I believe is that BN leaders are indulging in nonsense because they have run out of ideas to convince the people they are running an efficient government. Normally, nonsensical logic is the sign of a failing government. Gaddafi claimed the Libyan people were united against the NATO 'aggressors' while he was shooting and killing his own people. The BN leaders will never admit their weaknesses and they would rather talk rubbish rather than try to correct their errors. So the same old baloney about the opposition being unable to deliver is repeated again and again, ad nauseum. But when the opposition took over Selangor and Penang, it was PROVEN that the opposition can deliver better than the government – Penang has attracted more FDIs than all the other 11 states combined! And the BN hates that so much it is using RTM and TV3 to try and shame Penang and Selangor over small and trivial matters. The BN leaders have lost touch with the people so much so that they have to talk garbage and promote garbage as political capital. And that, by itself, is a tragedy waiting to unfold.
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