Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News
Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News |
| Posted: 06 Dec 2011 10:51 PM PST The odd thing is that the MPAJ council is not interested in pursuing this issue and a cover up is in progress to conceal the details of this subject. No inquiries were initiated and nothing on the MPAJ agenda has been planned to look into this issue. Everything seems Umno-like where it is swept under the carpet. Hakim Joe Bazar Larut Malam has been a proposal mulled over by the Majlis Perbandaran Ampang Jaya (MPAJ) for quite some time back in 2008/9 but was resoundingly rejected by most of the MPAJ council members, as it would create a lot of social issues and security problems to the residents in that area. MPAJ council representatives from both the DAP and PAS would not condone this proposal and the only supporting votes came from council representatives from PKR. The initial target area was Ampang Waterfront on Jalan Ampang itself, a then new commercial development by Tan Sri Dato' Dr. Ir. Chan Ah Chye of the infamous Talam Corp. Berhad. Bazar Larut Malam has a pasar malam concept except the operating hours are between 9pm and 2am. When the proposal was repeatedly rejected by MPAJ, a new proposal was resubmitted whereby the Bazar Larut Malam will be situated in the carparks of the Jelatek Putra LRT Station instead of Ampang Waterfront. Again this proposal was rejected, as this was basically a cosmetic change of venues and the subject in pertinent to the social and security issues are merely transferred from one location to another location and henceforth not addressed. Additionally, the Ampang PDRM was against this proposal as they foresee a lot of problems. However the Bazar Larut Malam proposal, with conditions, was finally approved in 2010 after constant pressure was applied by the PKR Wanita Chief to approve this proposition as one of the National PKR Wanita activities (in conjunction with MPAJ). YB Zuraida Kamaruddin is also the MP of Ampang Jaya. One of the conditions is that this approval is on a temporary basis for a period not exceeding three months and should there be constant complaints from the residents of Jelatek or the PDRM, this temporary approval will be rescinded. Three months led to six months and eventually the Bazar Larut Malam at Jelatek was abandoned after nine months in operations, not because of any social or security issues but for the fact that business was bad and the stall operators were losing money (and sleep) As with any pasar malams anywhere in Malaysia, all stall operators must apply for a license to operate their stall in the pasar malam. The respective municipal councils additionally collect a token sum of three Ringgit every time they set up their stalls there and this amount is used to pay the MPAJ cleaners or an independent cleaning company fees to clean up the mess before the next workday. MPAJ itself does not collect this fee but allows the respective Ketua Zon to do so on their behalf. Let me elaborate. Every municipality is divided into 24 zones and each zone is headed by a Ketua Zon elected by the Municipal Council. Usually these are politically affiliated individuals on their second step up the political ladder (the first being a member of the respective The Municipal Council specifically does not allow the Ketua Zon to collect the license fee on their behalf as these applications needs to be processed at the municipal council itself but turns a blind eye when the Ketua Zon does it and pays accordingly. When the Bazar Larut Malam @ Midnite Jelatek kicked off on the 2nd of October 2010, the MPAJ issued the respective licenses to the stall vendors as per instructions from someone powerful enough to order so, without the collection of any fees. Nobody except YB Zuraida Kamaruddin and the Yang Dipertua (YDP) Dato' Mohammad Yacob, possess the clout to do so as it infringes on the municipal regulations whereby the stall vendors are required to apply for the licenses in person. As the Ketua Zon (Puan Hayati Abd Samad) does not have authority or power to order the Licensing Board of MPAJ to do so, the command must have been issued from either the YB or the YDP. When the Bazar Larut Malam @ Midnite Jelatek project was abandoned nine months later, the license fees were still outstanding at approximately RM19,000. Here comes the kicker: all the stall vendors say that they have paid their respective license fee, else they would not have been allowed to set up their stalls for a single night let alone for a continuous nine months, but MPAJ says that they have yet to collect a single cent. The odd thing is that the MPAJ council is not interested in pursuing this issue and a cover up is in progress to conceal the details of this subject. No inquiries were initiated and nothing on the MPAJ agenda has been planned to look into this issue. Everything seems Umno-like where it is swept under the carpet. |
| M’sian Malaise: The govt as everybody’s cash cow Posted: 06 Dec 2011 10:43 PM PST The bigger the loan that is provided by the Government, the surer it appears to become transformed into a bad debt – this appears to be another financial axiom of life in Malaysia. Koon Yew Yin Since my retirement from active business, I have been more and more concerned about our increasing financial profligacy and irresponsibility. Every day new details emerge about how spendthrift we are as individuals, as households and as a nation. At the national level, the Auditor-General's recent report pointed out that Malaysia's national debt rose 12.3 percent to over RM407 billion in 2010. The amount is equivalent to 53.1 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) and is the second straight year that the national debt has exceeded 50 percent. At the micro level, details of how ordinary Malaysians who have accumulated huge debts and are hotly pursued by Ah Longs (loan sharks) fill the papers. These stories sit beside constant advertisements urging Malaysians to apply for credit cards with generous spending limits – ads which we have not been able to resist. At last count, there are more than eight million credit card holders, owing over RM30 billion. About one quarter – over two million of card holders – earn less than RM3,000 a month, meaning that many are unlikely to be able to settle their debts. As for household debt, this has also been rising steadily. According to recent estimates, household debt had reached RM560 billion by the end of August 2010. Household debt-to-GDP ratio had increased sharply from 66.7 percent in 2004 to 76 percent in 2009 making it amongst the highest in Asia. What is especially worrying is that this rate of household debt increase is rising more quickly than the level of increase of household income or wages, meaning that most households are spending more than what they are earning and making up for the difference through borrowing. Besides borrowing from Ah Longs, family members, friends, pawn shops, credit card companies and banks, Malaysians are heavily indebted to the government. Borrowing from the government for many Malaysians start at an early age and is in the form of loans from the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN). Between 2000 and 2009 over 1.3 million young Malaysians in the public and private higher education institutions had received loans ranging from RM8,500 to RM20,000. In all, a total of RM20 billion, RM39 billion and RM71 billion were allocated to the PTPTN for loans to students for the 9th, 10th and 11th Malaysia Plan periods respectively. Whilst it is encouraging that many young Malaysians are prepared to pursue higher education even though they may not be able to afford it, what is worrisome is the widespread failure to repay the loans taken for the purpose. Authoritative data on loan defaults is not easily available but estimates from a World Bank study in 2007 indicate that the PTPTN management estimates that it recovers only 25 percent of the total amount it should be receiving. As until 2004, the number of graduates making their repayments was only 44 percent of the total number of loan beneficiaries. In my opinion, some of the blame for the culture of financial profligacy and irresponsibility in our society is traceable to this government policy aimed at providing cheap and easily accessible loans to higher education of our young. Providing low interest loans for educational purposes is in itself an admirable policy. But its noble intentions become subverted when implementation is seriously flawed as students from well-to-do families who can afford the tuition fees are provided access, and there is an inability or unwillingness by the authorities to enforce the repayment of loans. Once young people learn that they can get away with not paying back their loans or are able to get access to credit despite being ineligible, the bad apples amongst the graduate to scamming the public exchequer and private financial institutions in other ways after they obtain their degrees and diplomas. How else does one explain the massive loans given out to finance businesses in every sector of the economy which have gone sour and have not been repaid? Readers can identify a sector – whether agricultural or non-agricultural; hi-tech or low-tech; rural or urban – and I am willing to donate a large sum to any charity of their choice if they can show me proof that the repayment of loans provided by the government has been able to exceed more than 70% in that sector. The bigger the loan that is provided by the Government, the surer it appears to become transformed into a bad debt – this appears to be another financial axiom of life in Malaysia. Recently during the Dr Ling Liong Sik cheating trial, we heard that the Port Klang Authority (PKA) cannot afford to pay back its RM4.6 billion loan for the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) project to the government. This was according to the prosecution's witness, Adnan Abidin. Mind you, this was a project in which the development cost ballooned from RM1.088 billion to RM4.6 billion in 2007 and which the cabinet, according to Dr Ling's lawyers, had given their retrospective approval. It is not surprising therefore that the cabinet is not concerned about the small fry of student loan defaulters when it is blind to other possible financial scandals that involve billions of dollars. Clearly too, those who are likely to have access to government loans are those with the most powerful political strings such as happened in the RM250 million cattle-farm scandal linked to Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil's husband and children. Although I am critical of students who have taken out loans for their education and have refused to repay them, it is unfair for the government to put their names into a blacklist for public consumption as has been done periodically. However if the government intends to continue carrying out this measure, I would like to propose that it also publishes the names of other Malaysians who have obtained loans for their projects and businesses and failed to repay them, especially those with large multi-million ringgit loans. Only if this non-discriminatory public disclosure of all Government debtors (and not just of student defaulters) is undertaken can justice be said to be equally meted out. Needless to say, it would be especially revealing to read the names of these large debtors and the amounts that they owe to the government – or actually, to the people of Malaysia. |
| Posted: 06 Dec 2011 07:02 PM PST ...UMNO General Assembly speeches portend dangerous trends in the nation's politics as they make nonsense of Najib's 1Malaysia call, New Economic Model and proposal for a "Global Movement of Moderates" Lim Kit Siang Datuk Zaid Ibrahim is right and spot-on. Recent statements from UMNO leaders about the Opposition parties at the UMNO General Assembly are both regrettable and worrying. They portend dangerous trends in the nation's politics as they make nonsense of the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's 1Malaysia call, New Economic Model and his proposal for a "Global Movement of Moderates". Has Najib decided to cancel his initiative to launch "the Global Movement of the Moderates" in Kuala Lumpur with an inaugural International Conference of the Global Movement of Moderates from Jan 17 to 19 as his speeches and those of UMNO leaders at the UMNO General Assembly are completely antithetical to any acceptable definition or concept of "moderates" or "moderation". I challenge Najib to conduct a public opinion poll whether he is perceived by Malaysians as speaking for 1Malaysia and for all Malaysians, as well as whether he is speaking as a "moderate", in his UMNO Presidential Address, or just for UMNO and in particular UMNOputras? Or have an opinion poll whether Deputy Prime Minister and Deputy UMNO President, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yasin had not come across as an out-and-out extremist and racist in his speech to the joint general assemblies of UMNO Wanita, Pemuda and Putri – not only to Chinese, Indians, Kadazans and Ibrans or but also to thinking and enlightened Malays. If the race-baiting and incitement of religious hatred and tensions by UMNO leaders and delegates at the UMNO General Assembly had taken place at Opposition conferences, the police and special branch would have already hauled up Opposition leaders and delegates for committing crimes of sedition and other offences. Why the immunity and impunity for UMNO leaders and delegates? UMNO leaders, especially Najib and Muhyiddin, are guilty of the height of irresponsibility when they led other UMNO leaders in playing the 3R cards of race, religion and Malay rulers, for instance, falsely accusing the DAP of being anti-Malay, anti-Islam and anti-Malay rulers. Thinking and patriotic Malaysians, whether Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans or Ibans are concerned when UMNO leaders upped the ante after the UMNO General Assembly in escalating the exploitation of the 3R cards – as illustrated by Najib's speech at the Perkida general assembly on Monday. Are there no UMNO national leaders who are prepared to put nation before party and self and dare to step forward to draw the line to declare like Zaid Ibrahim that there should be an end to the irresponsible politics of playing the 3R cards of race, religion and Malay Rulers, especially when based on lies and falsehoods?
|
| You are subscribed to email updates from Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
0 ulasan:
Catat Ulasan