Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News
Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News |
| NEM at ground level: Same old model, no paradigm shift Posted: 03 Mar 2013 01:01 PM PST No business person is immune from the big and little 'Napoleons' that are in cahoots with their business cronies. When the New Economic Model (NEM) was first unveiled by the government, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak promised that it would be market-friendly, merit-based and transparent. Three years later, most business people have discovered that it is the same old model in new packaging — still not market-friendly, not merit-based and opaque. It is turning out to be little changed from the corrupt-ridden, crony-dominated, patronage-driven, racist-oriented system of doing business that came with Dr Mahathir Mohamad's extension of the New Economic Policy (NEP). Last week, I had dinner with my brother, a commodity trader in Canada. He was on his annual Chinese New Year trip back, when he combines a family reunion with meetings with business clients. His line of trade is pork, which Malaysia imports at the considerable quantity of over 15,000 tonnes annually from around the world. When I asked him how his business was in Malaysia, he said that it was down. He had finished a meeting with his main client and returned disappointed as the client had wanted to substantially reduce his purchases. I was surprised by this disclosure since his client is a major meat importer, and from all accounts, the importation business in pork is booming according to trade data. My brother explained that this slash in imports was not because of reduced demand or the client's lack of business acumen. According to my brother, he heard the common refrain "cronyism, corruption and rent-seeking at the highest level". He offered to introduce me to his client so I could find out the real situation. Politicians make profit from semi-monopoly My informant's storyline and details (he asked that his identity be concealed to protect his business) is depressingly similar to that of other long-established practices of the NEP where the right to importation and the issue of licences has become a gold mine for the politicians, bureaucrats and the coalition of distributors who control them. It is a tale of how pork importation has degenerated from a freer market with few entry barriers to a semi-monopoly controlled by a business-political mafia and which involves the highest level of leadership in the ministry and agency responsible for the welfare of its constituency and the consumers. According to my informant, complaints made to the relevant authorities, including the Prime Minister's Department and MACC on the issue of import licences, quotas and the tight control by the cartel, the Malaysian Association of Pork Importers (MAOPI), fell on deaf years. Apparently the MAOPI, under the leadership of two Datuks, is closely linked to the political and bureaucratic wielders of power. So powerful is this new cartel and the hidden hands that support it that even the MCA — for whom the issue of unfair pork importation licences and quotas is critical to the party's political support — has been powerless to help my informant and his colleagues. Incidentally, the MCA president's son who holds the position of Deputy Minister of Agriculture is either impotent or refuses not to antagonise the more powerful vested interests involved in the operation of the scam. This is giving him the benefit of the doubt that the MCA and the deputy minister are themselves not beneficiaries of the scam. Read more at: http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/opinion/2013/03/04/nem-old-model-in-new-packaging/
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| Did the police walk into a trap in Semporna? Posted: 03 Mar 2013 12:27 PM PST Inspector General of Police Ismail Omar says his men may have been lured in by decoys and fired upon as they entered the water village. Police searching for a group of gunmen in Kampung Sri Jaya in the Simunul area in Semporna may have walked into a trap that was set for them. According to sources, the gunmen appeared ready for the police raid and opened fire as the police were on the narrow single-plank walkways linking the various houses on stilts. Six policemen, including an officer, and six unidentified gunmen were killed during the firefight that occurred around 7pm yesterday. Police have encircled the village, one of many that are perched on stilts over the sea, to track down remaining gunmen. Inspector General of Police Ismail Omar confirmed that his men may have been lured in by decoys and fired upon as they entered the water village. He said that police had moved in based on a tip off that there were armed men in the vicinity. "Based on this information, a police team from the Semporna district police headquarters entered the place but were ambushed when they arrived," he told a press conference in Felda Sabahat Residence, Lahad Datu today. The Semporna shooting comes just after the killing of two policemen on Friday in Lahad Datu, where a shootout with armed intruders loyal to the Sulu Sultanate took place. Ismail said police were unsure if the two incidents are linked. He also said the police had arrested three men, one armed with a knife, who were trying to slip through a security cordon around Kampung Tanduo in Lahad Datu late Saturday. They are being interrogated. The death toll has now climbed to 26 in two days with eight policemen killed in the line of duty both in Lahad Datu and Semporna. Friday also saw 12 gunmen loyal to the 74-year-old Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III killed. This group had 'invaded' Lahad Datu on Feb 12 to stake a claim on Sabah. A source said that police are also "keen to get in touch with Mohd Akjan Ali Muhammad, the businessman who proclaimed himself as the 'Sultan of Sulu' in 2011. Akjan is also a former Umno member who has the loyalty of a large number of Filipinos in the state. Akjan, according to sources, however cannot be located. There are also unconfirmed reports that the General Operations Force (GOF) centre in Kinarut near here, a complex that was contracted to Akjan, is on heightened alert as is much of the police stations throughout Sabah. There is a large Filipino refugee settlement in Kinarut, a small town located about 20 kilometres south of Kota Kinabalu. Read more at: http://hornbillunleashed.wordpress.com/2013/03/04/42460/
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