Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News
Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News |
- ‘Illegitimate’ Comango funded by foreign powers, alleges Muslim NGOs
- Budget 2014: End subsidy mentality, says economist
- Former Anwar aide to debate Ambiga
- Suaram tells British PM about M’sia’s sad state of affairs
- Malaysia’s Budget Woes
| ‘Illegitimate’ Comango funded by foreign powers, alleges Muslim NGOs Posted: 23 Oct 2013 09:28 PM PDT
(MM) - A coalition of Muslim groups accused human rights lobbyist Comango of being an illegitimate and foreign-funded organisation, in a move believed timed for Malaysia's turn at the United Nations (UN) Universal Periodic Review (UPR) tonight. The attack by the Muslim NGOs banding together under the MuslimUPRo umbrella comes as it vied for attention from UN members in Geneva, Switzerland against the Coalition of Malaysian NGOs (Comango) in the UPR this week, several days ahead of the review.
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| Budget 2014: End subsidy mentality, says economist Posted: 23 Oct 2013 08:07 PM PDT
(The Star) - This budget, the government is expected to announce the new amount that will be given out under the 1Malaysia People's Aid (BR1M) scheme and Alliance Investment Bank Bhd chief economist Manokaran Mottain (pic) feels that such short-term solutions should be dispensed with. "The government is already trying to get rid of the subsidy mentality but these types of hand-outs only reinforces the mentality," he said, adding that the government's intentions were good but the execution was not. The government should also identify the target group and ensure that no one takes advantage of the scheme," he said. He added that although the money that is given out may boost consumption. there was no guarantee that it would be used wisely. "Even if the government give the RM500, do you think the people are really going to keep it for their children's education expenses etc? There are many other ways to help them instead," he said.
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| Former Anwar aide to debate Ambiga Posted: 23 Oct 2013 07:07 PM PDT Tweets between a former Anwar aid and Ambiga suggest that a debate is in the making on issues related to the People's Tribunal Athi Shankar, FMT Bersih co-chairperson S Ambiga is set to debate Yuktes Vijay, former aide of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, on the recent general election, according to some tweet exchanges between them. Ambiga and Yuktes tweeted and mutually agreed to hold the debate on Nov 16. Ambiga recently organised a People's Tribunal to put some light on Pakatan Rakyat's allegations that the 13th General Election held on May 5 this year was marred by fraud. Yuktes on the other hand attempted to hold a public forum on October 11 to scrutinise the findings of Bersih's People's Tribunal. The forum was to expose the lies spread by Pakatan and Anwar on the election. The forum however was disrupted by a group of rowdies, who Yuktes alleged, was led by a special officer to Anwar. Yuktes has already emailed Anwar to claim compensation for his financial loss. "Until today, Anwar has failed to reply to my email," said Yuktes. Following the fiasco, a former aide of Zaid Ibrahim, Firdaus Christopher tweeted to question Ambiga on the incident. In her tweet, Ambiga said that she was least concerned about the forum and had nothing to do with the disturbances that occurred. Thereafter Yuktes joined into the tweeting and challenged Ambiga for a head-on debate in relation to the election issues. The tweet exchanges suggest that Ambiga has accepted Yuktes' challenge and even named a Macfaisal, as the moderator.
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| Suaram tells British PM about M’sia’s sad state of affairs Posted: 23 Oct 2013 06:46 PM PDT Suaram wants the British government to review its business ties with Malaysia and to urgently look into the allegations of electoral fraud, corruption and human rights abuse. P Ramani, FMT Human rights watchdog Suaram has called on the British government to review a range of critical issues affecting Malaysian civil society before Britain could strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries. Suaram made the call via a letter to the British Prime Minister David Cameron, Lord Mayor of London Boris Johnson and the British Government in view of the 9th World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF) that would be held from Oct 29 and 31 in London for the first time. Former prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi founded WIEF in 2009 with Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak as the patron of the coming event. Suaram had also in the letter brought to the attention of the addressees the burgeoning violence, electoral fraud, corruption and serious human rights abuses that had been ongoing under the leadership of Prime Minister Najib. "We remained deeply concerned that while Najib promoted Malaysia and his administration as moderate and peace-loving on the world stage, basic human rights in Malaysia remained under serious threat," the NGO said. It also informed the British leaders that the BN government continued to employ harsh measures against any form of dissent, institutionalised religious inequality, bribery and gerrymandering in the electoral system with protests calling for electoral system reform brutally suppressed over the years. Besides that, Malaysian government allowed detention without trial, ignored police brutality, compromised the rights of indigenous people and minority groups as well as staunchly curbing the freedom of expression, assembly and association, added the letter. In the light of these issues, Suaram urged the British government to review its business ties with Malaysia and to urgently look into the allegations of electoral fraud, corruption and human rights abuse.
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| Posted: 23 Oct 2013 08:38 AM PDT
(The Diplomat) - Government expenditure is the highest among the five biggest Southeast Asian economies, accounting for nearly 27 percent of GDP, while Malaysia also has the highest civil servant to population ratio in the region. An Asian government facing persistent budget deficits is under pressure from financial markets to introduce a consumption tax, despite popular and internal party opposition. Sound familiar? This time though, it is Malaysia and not Japan whose leader is in the firing line ahead of its 2014 budget announcement on Friday. ANZ economist Weiwen Ng did not mince words when describing the challenge facing the Malaysian government in an October 22 research note, which was headlined "Bitting the fiscal consolidation bullet." "Given international capital's aversion to 'deficits' and Malaysia's multi-year structural fiscal deficit, we would prefer to see Malaysia err on the side of fiscal prudence rather than growth…Malaysia's fiscal deficit is still woeful – multi-year structural deficit (for 15 consecutive years) and not enough has been done to narrow the structural deficit," Ng said. "Tax reforms such as the introduction of GST [goods and services tax] is never popular but is a necessary evil that has been long overdue for Malaysia," he added. According to Bloomberg News, the Malaysian ringgit has shown the biggest gains this month among 24 emerging market currencies on speculation that Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak will honor promises to curb the budget gap by enacting politically unpopular tax hikes. Fitch Ratings cut Malaysia's credit outlook to negative in July, citing increasing debt levels and a lack of fiscal reform. After responding with a cut to fuel subsidies, Najib, who also serves as finance minister, faces the threat of further downgrades and potential spikes in government bond yields should his budget disappoint. Read more at: http://thediplomat.com/pacific-money/2013/10/23/malaysias-budget-woes/ |
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