Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News
Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News |
- Civil servants: Tony Pua is right
- The Oracle on Economics and Business
- Freedom of faith for Malaysian Malays
| Civil servants: Tony Pua is right Posted: 17 Nov 2011 10:30 PM PST Tony Pua is right about the need to reduce the size of civil servants. By virtue of his position as a MP from DAP, his political opponents are obliged to, or even eager to, seize any opportunity to take a pop shot at him; turning a technical matter into a racist, counter-productive and down right detrimental course of arguments. Let technical people make technical decision. For those with vested interest or with skewered intention, butt out! Then again these shallow minded people are unable to debate real issues with commonsense and can only resort to what they know best, which may not be the best for the rest. As a tax payer and not an elected MP from Pakatan Rakyat, I am free to speak my mind on this matter. I pay my taxes hence their salaries, perks, office supplies, pension, equipment, amenities, maternity leaves, bonus, parking lot and even their toilet soap. The statistics of our bloated civil service is well documented elsewhere and for this post, I depart from my usual research base way of writing and just conclude my thoughts base on materials I have come across at one time or the other. FACT: Malaysian civil servants are not comparable to first world countries. I have dealt with civil servants in Hong Kong and Singapore. I went to the Hong Kong income tax department to register a new tax payer, submit his assessment and get his tax clearance within 3 hours. In Malaysia, it would be lucky to get this done in 3 weeks. I have observed the following incidence first hand: · Despite the victim producing written confession from the assailant who attacked him, an officer at Gombak police station refused to take action against the culprit · Staff at general hospital Seremban only prescribe panadol to a man dying of hemorrhage · Nurses at the same hospital refused to find and handover urinal pan to an invalid old lady who was wailing for one and me, as an outsider, came to her aid by locating the utensil myself · I have to renew the work permit of my company's expatriate and have to drive all the way from Kuala Lumpur to Putrajaya just because I rang the immigration office dozens of time to ask some simple question and no one bothered even to pick up the phone! Other more hideous proofs of the competency level of the civil service are for all to see: · The annual read and weep report from AG, and just when you think such act cannot be surpassed, MACC out performed by declaring the Marine Park scandal is not a scandal · The infamous 3 fingered out by Teoh Beng Hock's RCI · The money recovered from the airport robbery went missing inside the police station · Unnecessary deaths due to gross incompetence of ambulance service Social re-engineering is one thing but first and foremost, put competent people in charge of life and death decisions. There is no social re-engineering to speak of when you only have dead people around. And these ring wing opportunists say that they deserve their iron rice bowl, able to enjoy no responsibility and accountability? Fine, if they want to look at it from race point of view then: 1) Who is responsible for making Malaysian civil service populated mainly by 1 race only? 2) Isn't the same administration also responsible for excessive size of civil service? Maybe it is beyond the racists' comprehension but when we have excessive debts, continuing deficit budgets, we have to trim spending and avoid the fate that befell the PIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain). Any accountant will tell you that to cut cost, one has to study the cost drivers and one of the biggest cost component is headcount. Those employed in private sector are facing numerous challenges such as sales targets, deadlines, response time, retrenchment, constructive dismissals, overtime without pay etc. Who are these cry babies to complain when they have such comfortable environment and became little napoleons? In fact, there are dubious "civil servants" such as those JKKKs appointed by BN federal government in Pakatan controlled states, which result in duplication. With mass privatization of public services such as water, electricity, sewerage, healthcare, waste management, education services in Malaysia, (even hospital linen cleaning services are privatized !) how could BN justify let alone embarked on mass expansion of civil service population? In fact, GLCs' staff are probably categorized as private sector staff when their behavior and allegiance may not totally reflective of a private sector staff. Reading the AG report and encountering them on a daily basis make tax payers, at least this one, feel that a lot of them do not deserve to be in their position. Many of them should be sacked, tried for offences and ill-gotten gains confiscated and returned to the people in accordance with the MACC Act. Instead, they get blanket bonus without basic performance appraisal. |
| The Oracle on Economics and Business Posted: 17 Nov 2011 05:53 PM PST He was already prepared with a small note on the topics he wanted to speak about and through experience, for me to write on. Before he could share with me the contents of the note, I asked him about the listing of Felda Ventures. Why is the issue about Felda listing evolving into a very hot topic? Isn't it illogical and highly unreasonable for any right thinking individual to oppose the listing that would result in more cash in the hands of ordinary Felda settlers? To oppose the listing would be selfish and even envious on the part of the objector over the benefits that would go to settlers. That would be a very reasonable argument indeed. Our objection to the proposed listing is based principally on our concern that businesswise, the listing isn't aimed at actually giving Felda settlers long term benefits. IPOs are usually used as a means, by the underwriting banks to make money as well as the people in the listing company to reap sudden windfalls. Two groups make big money. One, the underwriting bank or banks. Two, the people with large block of shares- those who got pink forms and have money to subscribe to the IPO. After the initial euphoria, look at the long term price of stocks belonging to GLCs. They stay just above par value for the next 10 years. So, the stakeholders, namely Felda settlers maybe who own 5,000 to 10,000 worth of stocks cannot expect to make big money. Those who make money are those owning more than 250,000 shares. How many are of this type in the Kumpulan Permodalan Felda presently? Maybe 2. The basic philosophy of our economics is wrong. The listing of Felda Global Ventures for instance. Felda should stay close to its core business which is plantations and its related business. That's where its business skills are. It can't compete here except under a protective regime yet it wants to compete in global business. It has to be managed by a team which knows how to compete in global business in a variety of ways. We are told, the new listed company will be managed by the team that is managing the present unlisted FGV. The record there is dismal having an accumulated loss of RM 500 million. This raises a cause of concern whether the new entity will be managed by capable team. It does place KPF berhad( the cooperative arm representing the Felda settlers) which has been making money and declaring dividends, potentially at risk. The problem with our economics managers here is they have flouted the first fundamental law. If the thing is unbroken don't try to fix it. Improve on it yes, but not alter its entire character. Before something happen everyone is buoyant. We can write beautiful treatises and working papers in support of our business model. The man who helped Salleh Budu prepare his paper on the NFC project in order to get money from MOF/MOA must have given a detailed model to succeed getting RM 240 million. Did it also prescribe buying a high end condo at 1 Menerung to earn revenue? If it did, then NFC is also in the property business. Because of that we get the funds we aim for. If it fails, how do we justify that? We can't say we worked hard as hindsight. Prostitutes work hard. GRO in Karaoke joints do so. The touts asking for donations on 1001 religious orphanages and schools work hard with patrons at eateries and petrol stations. We can't defend by saying we haven't disbursed the money fully. Then the borrower can say we fail because we don't have sufficient funds. It's even more disingenuous saying its ok, we placed the money in escrow account. Show it then. If placing public funds in escrow account, we have to have a lawyer in charge of that account. Ask him or her to speak about the escrow account. If placing public fund in escrow accounts is good policy, then perhaps we will be better off placing the entire appropriated fund from our consolidated fund aka the budget in escrow accounts. By giving all those excuses we are skirting around the issue. We seem to miss the point. The point is managing our assets and public money responsibly and accountably. These are the issues. Back to Felda listing. There is the real question of managerial capabilities. You are going to place felda in a wide ranging business fields. If listing is an all-consuming obsession, then it would be rationally better to list the successful KPF rather than having it team up with FGV which has a bad record. You are putting the interests of the 220,000 settlers at risk by teaming up a poorly performing business arm and have it listed. FGV is then riding off KPF. Can FGV go listing on its own? It can't right? It has to depend on KPF. If that is the case, KPF is the entity that should go for listing, not FGV. IPO can't be an excuse for Felda to get funds right? It has and can borrow from our EPF funds. In any case it says it has money and large reserves. Ahmad Maslan once threatned to sue people over allegations that Felda funds are so low. So why want to do an IPO? What is the typical spread between the issuing company and the public? The public is usually given 25% of the listed shares. Out of that maybe 5% is reserved for directors, Felda employees, selected persons. Those who can and are able to subscribe more than 250,000. For these people, a moratorium is a small price for waiting. Ananda Krishan took his public company private because he reasoned out, the public isn't appreciative of his business. We can't argue with the owner if he feels it that way. Delisting his company and making it private allows him to control the business and gives him more freedom. When you go for listing there are some many rules and regulations and protocols with which you now must adhere. Every 3 months, you prepare voluminous reports to the SC. Not that SC necessarily reads them, but that is the protocol by law. You have to submit quarterly reports. That means a lot of paper work for a long time. Then you have to maintain the reporting accounting firms. You retain them to monitor the public listed company on a fee costing a few million Ringgit a year. That means, you take up more costs not associated at all coming from business operations. These are additional administrative costs. But if the FGV thinks it can absorb all these costs, who are we to argue with them? We wait for them to publish escalating administrative costs in the next few years.
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| Freedom of faith for Malaysian Malays Posted: 17 Nov 2011 05:16 AM PST Joshua Woo raised an important question, "Why do Muslim politicians tell us only one perspective?" Why indeed does the Malaysian government not strive to educate 1Malaysia, especially Malaysian Muslims, with progressive Islamic teachings that could promote not only faith and action, but also reason? Can't Malays voluntarily give all – heart, hands, and head – to God? They can, and should be empowered to do so. Obviously, when Tun Ahmad Badawi launched his vision of "Civilizational Islam," the Malaysian government was partially convinced that progressive Islam could help the nation flourish. Now it would be to Malaysia's advantage to further synchronize the classical and modernist Islamic teachings as ethically relevant in daily social life. Such a movement need not be de-Islamising but instead may foster a renaissance for Islam. Ignorance about what does and does not constitute Islam is hindering Malaysia's goal of becoming a fully developed nation by 2020. What are the criteria that a majority Muslim country must have in order to be a developed world player? Tariq Ramadan of Oxford University, one of the most prominent Muslim scholars in this century, wrote in Globalisation Muslim Resistance:
These are values that Malaysia can offer on the world stage, but the effort must first begin within our own homeland. The current conflict about apostasy and proselytising, among other faith and cultural issues, must be urgently and purposefully addressed in a way that is consistent with the ethos of 1Malaysia, which insists that all citizens must be treated equally and with justice. In other words, we must move away from Malaysia's previously ethnocentric model towards a more religio and ethno-relative nation. As society matures through discourse and debate on difficult issues, it will become more aware and more concerned about the impartiality and injustice of the laws relating to matters of faith, particularly in the harsh treatment of those deemed apostates. Meanwhile, the voices and writings of critical thinkers, grass roots activists and leaders are evidence of an increasing demand for nuance in conversation. 1Malaysia's spirit of solidarity is modeled in the support of key change agents who, regardless of their ethnics and faiths background, stay united in the midst of resolving contentious issues; clearly, a hermeneutic change is on its way, and no government can avoid the momentum of this change. In general, the response to converts is articulated on three levels: the grass roots movements; the federal and state governments; and the scholars and strategic thinkers. Although this description is simple and does not represent voices of all citizens, it covers the voices of the majority of the population and key players and provides a reasonable starting point. Thus far, confusion and distress have arisen from a lack of experience and humility in handling this issue, the failure of current framework to allow "hidden" information to trickle down, and poor leadership in thriving towards reasoned and harmonious responses on apostasy. It also causes the Malaysian non-Muslims (40 percent), especially the converts from Islam – who love the country and contribute tremendously to its growth – feel that they live in an "unsafe" environment. This "fear for own safety" is surely one of the contributing factors towards Malaysia's brain drain problem. In tackling this issue systematically – all three groups need to move towards the same direction while sufficient space and time are graciously allocated for each to rub against each other until tension is eased. The foremost step is to "intentionally" draw insights on what is right according to Malaysia context in order to synchronize progress. Then, to study the current situation of each group, what went right and wrong, prior to developing proper and standard procedures and remedying what went wrong. At the grass roots level, "Christianophobia" for example, can be mitigated through agreed-upon standard of dialogue discussing pressing issues, e.g. the etymologies and definitions of proselytizing, da'wa, and evangelism; differences, and boundaries. Dr. Rick Love in his paper "Ethics of Da'wa and Evangelism – Respecting the Other and Freedom in Religion" presented two principles derived from his discussion with nine Egyptian Sheikhs and two Syrian muftis: first – da'wa and evangelism should focus on a positive presentation of what one believes, not on negative attacks on the other's faith; second – converts should not be held as public "trophies" to humiliate the other faith community. Instead of harsh condemnation such as what was spoken against the Evangelical Christians during HIMPUN, these are some constructive points that Muslims' NGOs could have proposed to help Christians understand Muslims' expectation on evangelism, and vice versa. Similarly, mutually respecting dialogue can be developed with the adherents of other faith traditions. Dialoguing with love with "others" is indeed a fundamental and common value among mankind, as advocated by the World Interfaith Harmony's motto: "loving God, loving neighbours, and loving good."
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