How graft, racial-religious politicking killed Malaysia’s economy


By Wong Choon Mei, Malaysia Chronicle

In 2019, Malaysia would be 62 years old. If that is all it takes – just 62 years – for a nation to go bankrupt, then it only shows how grossly mismanaged the country has been.

Of the six prime ministers who have led Malaysia since 1957, the leader who must take the greatest blame for the sorry state the economy is now in is Mahathir Mohamad, whose 22-year rule alone accounts for nearly half of the nation’s post-independence history.

Thanks to his chase for mega projects, political opportunists and cronies were able to benefit from massive overpricing in almost all of the major deals that framed his career. From the North-South Expressway to Perwaja Steel, 1st Silicon to Proton, Bakun Dam to PKFZ, few of his projects have not ended up requiring some form of bailout from taxpayers at one time or another.

Smell of bankruptcy clearly in the air

It was also during his tenure that high-level government corruption in Malaysia really took off in a big way, and running parallel to this was his use of racial and religious politicking to divide and rule the multiracial country. Twin blows, double whammies for the economic future of the country. Didn’t anyone warn the Malaysian people then?

Yes, there were countless reports by research analysts and economic experts forecasting gloom and doom through the decades – from 70s to 80s, 90s and even now. But Mahathir chose to do it his way and no one dared to counter him.

The problem is that by now the gloom and doom is already a distinct possibility rather than a prophecy. Experts are talking about how and is it possible to reverse this trend rather than argue will it really happen. Even the Prime Minister’s Department has spoken – the smell of bankruptcy is clearly in the air.

Prime Minister Najib Razak’s minders have begun warning Malaysians if they refuse to allow the government to slash subsidies on a range of essential goods, then the government won’t have enough money to churn economic activity and a fate similar to Greece, Dubai and even Thailand 13 years ago will be unavoidable.

Inviting junk bond status for Malaysian debt 

At the same time, there is cross-talk from these same officials, who say the economy needs to grow an average 6 percent each year to reach developed nation status by 2020. How does this reconcile with the bankruptcy warning? Will Malaysia become a developed nation or will it be bankrupt? Surely it can’t declare bankruptcy in 2019, and a year later, become a developed nation. Which is it to be.?

By World Bank’s definition, developed nation status would mean achieving a minimum per capita income of US$14,800. In 2008, Malaysia’s per capital income was US$7,733.

This means Najib, who is also finance minister, needs to roughly double the income per person in the population within the next 10 years. But can he do so? His hands are already severely tied by record-high national debt. Malaysia’s gearing or debt to national gross domestic product is 52 percent or about RM405 billion.

This level may not be disastrously high yet but it is enough to makes the government’s ability to pump-prime the economy extremely difficult. Hence, the absence of large-scale projects so far by the Najib administration. To continue borrowing would invite reduced bond ratings and even junk status for Malaysian debt.

The government’s annual cash flow is also affected as it has to set aside large sums to pay for the interest charged on the loans. This again bites into the amount it can spend on projects and other activities to raise the economic pace.

Driven out by Mahathir

What other way is there when you can’t borrow your way out of trouble and cash flow is tight? The answer is of course – other people’s money. These would come in the form of investments from Malaysians themselves and from foreigners as FDI.

But the big Malaysian investors are no longer so sure about their country. This is not a recent development. As far back as the 80s, Malaysian Chinese tycoons began diversifying their fortunes and investing in serious amounts in Hong Kong, China, Australia and more recently Vietnam.

At that time, Mahathir was in his prime. Brain drain, flight of talent and Malaysian capital didn’t bother him. The Singaporeans, Americans, Canadians and the British would come in and their wealth would more than compensate for these ‘disloyal people’, so went his rhetoric. Never did he once acknowledge that he was the one who drove them away with unequal opportunities, race-based policies and sheer arrogance.

Because the economy is a large animal, it takes time for trends to show. Thirty years ago, as long as Mahathir was in power and he suppressed costs, foreign investors didn’t mind about the country’s human rights record. Malaysia was still a good place to make money – many things including rent and wages were cheap, and the people could speak English relatively well.

But 1997 blew in. Foreign investors lost their shirts. The Singapore parallel trading system of Malaysian shares was shut down overnight to prevent their investors from selling their Malaysian stock. A large British investment bank was said to have lost US$3 billion in Malaysian assets within a week.

The nightmare stories are countless and this was when short-term portfolio investors first began falling out of love with Malaysia. Though they have since returned after boycotting the country for years, the amounts they bring in are much smaller and their investment horizon or the time they keep the money in the country much shorter.

The FDI players – and these include U.S. chip makers like Intel, Motorola and AMD – were shocked but saw no reason to suddenly shut down their plants. But even so, they were happy to go when a few years later, Vietnam, China and India beckoned with even lower-cost facilities and superior tax packages.

Najib destroyed confidence in the Malaysian system

Meanwhile, the Malaysian tycoons, including Mahathir’s own coterie of cronies, began feeling uncomfortable when he started to tear at his successor Abdullah Badawi and tried to bring his administration down. That’s when it dawned on them that perhaps ‘stability’ – as in how they always been allowed to carry out their money-making schemes without question or trouble – may no longer be taken for granted.

Slowly they began channeling to other countries more of their money – and many say this also includes the money they held on behalf of corrupt top leaders. Even the profits they made in other countries, they repatriated less and less of it home to Malaysia.

Then came the 2008 general elections and in blew a new political dimension Pakatan Rakyat. Worse still in 2009, in came Najib as Badawi’s successor. Not that they had anything against him – he seemed pro-business. But then he signaled ‘civil war’.

With the Perak coup d’etat, Najib single-handedly triggered the down spiral of the entire Malaysian system. In his insistence to annihilate Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim, he abused his power to such an extent that few people have any trust left in the Malaysian judiciary. They never had much faith in the police and the MACC to begin with.

Corruption, racial and religious politicking still rule

And so they began to step on the pedal to divest in Malaysia and invest elsewhere in the region. The foreign investors were not slow to catch on either. They too rushed to join the exodus. And this how in 2009, Malaysia recorded an 81 percent plunge in FDI – due to a combination of falling inward foreign investments and increasing reverse or outbound Malaysian investments.

Can Malaysia still achieved developed status by 2020? Only if these investors changed their minds and poured back their funds will the country of 28 million have a chance to raise its per capita income. This is the only way for Malaysians to break out from the middle-income trap into a high-income or developed status nation.

But for that to happen, it would require a miracle from Najib. Judging from his latest corruption battle that many have described as a charade with the arrest of former Transport Minister Ling Liong Sik over the PKFZ debacle, corruption is here to stay for so long as he is the prime minister.

As for a system of meritocracy, healthy competition and non-racial politics, again Liong Sik is a fine indication that racism will reign in Malaysia during his rule.
And judging from the way his Umno party is going hell-for-leather to beat PAS for the championship title of who is the No. 1 protector of Islam – even to the extent of minority bashing – it looks religion will continue to be a weapon of economic destruction in this country. Rather than a sanctuary for the spirit and the soul.

  1. #1 by k1980 on Sunday, 8 August 2010 - 1:41 pm

    Will umno now demand 7% discounts for BMWs, first-class air tickets, luxurious home entertainment items such as LCD HDTVs, ect for booomeees? AS for the non-booomeees, balik negara masing-masing lah

  2. #2 by dcasey on Sunday, 8 August 2010 - 2:15 pm

    Interesting as well as factual article written by Wong Choon Mei but then hate to say this, to the bapa of DUMNO all said is irrelevant and will fall on deaf ears and to his gang of thieves, they will say correct, correct, correct. To save Malaysia fast, we must underscore a clear message that BeEnd=DeEnd.

  3. #3 by monsterball on Sunday, 8 August 2010 - 2:25 pm

    Back home….he started to make Malays live in fantasy world by employing few Malaysian Chinese chauffeurs and indirectly insult the Malaysian Chinese too…to kowtow to him.
    Mahathir is evil and a racist that pretends to treat everyone equal.
    He encourages CORRUPTIONS for 22 years and successfully made UMNO B ….corrupted to the core.
    So used to easy money with false titles and luxurious lifestyles….this band of robbers and thieves he created are fighting to stay in power or go to jail.
    Yes….they were put there by Malaysian voters.
    And you cannot blame them..for the mind control methods used by UMNO B are so powerful yet… low class …and out-dated now…..that minds are getting stronger and stronger and cannot be fooled so easy like before.
    They can control all the medias and tell half truths. They can steal billions and use that to buy votes.
    Hulu Selangor…maybe won…but with fewer votes…inspite of Najib’s famous bribes.
    It is this plus Sibu miracle…that Najib knows he can never be elected as PM…but stay as an APPOINTED PM.
    Even an idiot who claims he has 72% support will take the opportunity to declare snap GE…to stand tall as elected PM….unless he is a liar…which we all know he is.
    Added to that…the ghost of the Mongolian model….will follow him forever.
    He maybe blackmailed….who cares.
    These are ordinary Malaysians behaving like little Napoleons…with Mahathir still thinking he is the father of all as the rightful King of Malaysia…to do or say what.. as he likes.
    Beloved Father of Independence..Tunku have warned UMNO members…..and today UMNO B have proven him right.
    How many more Muslims in UMNO B really love Tunku…and be grateful?
    Vast majority Malaysians are grateful and can feel ans see truths more and more day by day.
    The devil reincarnated man is loosing his grips daily talking nonsense like a crazy nut…if you care to observe.
    He loves to be in the limelight…all the time….thinking all his CORRUPTIONS formulas are safe and done legally.
    When you steal by the hundreds of billions and make the whole Nation going bankrupt soon…no way can those rouges escape justice…sooner or later… with lives or with votes.
    Will the Police allow Malaysians to die like flies…fighting for their rights?

  4. #4 by frankyapp on Sunday, 8 August 2010 - 2:37 pm

    Corruption, racial and religious politicking still rule/// Wong Choon Mei
    Pretty true to keeping Umno/BN staying in power. What else you expect them to do ? Do the opposite,they will crack and fall to pieces. You know,I know and everyone knows that Umnoputras and cronies needed graft,racial-religious politickicking to creating the down trend of the economy to keeping the ordinary malays folks in fear of losing their rights and relilgion and that only UMNO is their saviour. Weird thing though most of the malays folks do not realise that for the past 50 years they have been living in this fear and remaining poor and ordinary while Umnoputras and cronies have built castles and palaces,living in an extravaganza life styles in and out of the country with their families and mistresses. Since the ordinary malays folks have eyes but not see,then,it’s up to PR and some good citizens to shake and wake them up from suffering all the crutches and madnesses thrown to them by Umnoputras to save themselves and their next generation to come. Failing which,Umnoputras and cronies will continue to enjoying priveleges life styles and laughting all the way to the local and foreign banks with millions if not billions of the people’s hard cash.

  5. #5 by monsterball on Sunday, 8 August 2010 - 3:02 pm

    There is no other choices for all Malaysians.
    Live with dignities and free yourselves or else stay forever as slaves to UMNO B…including greedy and foolish UMNO B ordinary members.
    You may drive Merz and live well beyond your means with easy money…but easy come…easy it will go…and your debts to the devils means you have sold your sold your souls.. to the devils.
    Are your children souls worth few millions are priceless?
    Evil actions and deeds create jealousies and injustice feelings.
    Those who are chosen cronies may think how lucky they are.
    Those not chosen..will complaint and rebel.
    Yes…jealousies is the work of the Devils…to make men fight against men..brothers against brothers…which we all know are some of the signs of the end of our country or end of the Devil’s rule…you choose.
    Personally…I do not care who is PM …for I have never depended on easy money…like beggars.
    But I care for my country and my people…and will talk with no fear to wake up sleeping minds…to think seriously for their families…country and a prosperous Malaysia.
    Enough have been said…how luck we are to live in Malaysia and as Malaysians…but the devils want us to live as Malaysians with full awareness of our race and worst of all…one race controls tall others.
    For hundreds of years…so many grandfathers of other races have helped built Malaysia and are declared Malaysian citizens….equal to all.
    Mahathir was the man who started to separate Malaysians…and applied dirty .filthy cruel low class race and religion politics…to be a Dictator and steal as much as he want…with no fear…cleverly encourages all UMNO B members to steal…and MONEY being the root of all evils..did wonders for him.
    But that wonder is made by him and will never last.
    And so the story begins…with an appointed UMNO B PM leading the useless out-dated show.

  6. #6 by vsp on Sunday, 8 August 2010 - 3:04 pm

    Mamakutty cannot be blamed for not taking advantage of the situation. The problem here is that the present PM is not a man of high principles and he has many skeletons in the cupboard for a crafty fox of Mahathir’s calibre not to exploit.

    Najib is a pathetic man: he has a very good recipe, like ‘1Malaysia’ to unite the people, but he just couldn’t articulate it with sincerity. He waffles like a snake in the grass, wobbles like a crab on the beach, zig-zags like a car on a slippery road and flip-flops like a turtle in a ninja movie. If he were to have the veracity of a Hussein Onn, people like Ibrahim Ali and Muyiddin could not have mocked his precious ‘1Malaysia’ with impunity; Mahathir would have quietly ridden off into the sunset instead of trying to revive his dynasty; and foreign and local investors could not have fled with their money to less fertile grounds like Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines and Indonesia.

    The day when the VAT is implemented is the day when Bolehland is truly bankrupt. VAT is an instrument for governments to recover from their excesses.

  7. #7 by monsterball on Sunday, 8 August 2010 - 3:11 pm

    I mean…”Are your children souls worth few millions or priceless?”
    That’s for UMNO B members only.
    However…for parents that cannot be bribed or for some UMNO B members that are treated unfairly…all will join hands to treat their children trully priceless and will fight the devils to defend them..with their votes or with their lives.
    Allah being neutral in politics will know what to do with cries of sufferings from the people being bullied and forced to submit to the devils wishes.
    If HE does not listen…then there is no God..but our faith in HIM will never allow the Devil to fool us.
    Signs are so clear.

  8. #8 by monsterball on Sunday, 8 August 2010 - 3:17 pm

    Mahathir is the real Devil.
    Najib is his best student.
    Get to the root cause and do not defend Mahathir….like a fool.
    As much as I agree Mahathir have no power these days…we are focusing on the ROOT CAUSE.
    And Najib???….why everyone knows who he is…powerless and APPOINTED PM to defy Malaysians and let him lead the many shows.

  9. #9 by Dap man on Sunday, 8 August 2010 - 4:47 pm

    Kit has been warning us since the 1970s. Please read his books “Time Bombs in Malaysia” and the “Dangerous Eighties”.

    Here is a local futurologist warning us but the stupid Malaysians (including the Chinese) were voting for MCA, Gerakan and BN.
    Blame yourselves for the present predicament.
    As for me, I voted DAP all my life.

  10. #10 by Jeffrey on Sunday, 8 August 2010 - 4:47 pm

    The front cover of Time Magazine in 1988 featured Dr Mahathir as “Father of Development”. In 2019 it is “Father of Bankruptcy”!

    The prophetic words of a Malaysian journalist, sometime in 2010, are quoted, and praised as “prescient” – “In 2019, Malaysia would be 62 years old. If that is all it takes – just 62 years – for a nation to go bankrupt, then it only shows how grossly mismanaged the country has been. Of the six prime ministers who have led Malaysia since 1957, the leader who must take the greatest blame for the sorry state the economy is now in is Mahathir Mohamad, whose 22-year rule alone accounts for nearly half of the nation’s post-independence history.” – Wong Choon Mei

  11. #11 by Thor on Sunday, 8 August 2010 - 4:58 pm

    And a”smart” public toilet costing RM400,000?
    Must be studded with diamonds!
    And these people who approved such a toilet must have a very big appetite.

  12. #12 by boh-liao on Sunday, 8 August 2010 - 4:59 pm

    MMK is sitting on his god-like pedestal n expecting every M’sian 2 show their gratitude 2 him by kissing his arrse
    MMK is lamenting dat M’sian mudah lupa after showering him with all sorts of titles, including ‘Father of dis’ n ‘Father of dat’
    Wonder Y no local universities or organizations hv d guts 2 honor MMK as ‘Father of Mega Corruption‘ or ‘The Great Corrupt Racist‘?

    His legacy prevails
    Look, elections r round d corner, all d signs r emerging
    D EC declared dat it is ready 2 move into actions
    BN-controlled Perak n Terengganu states had lately proposed astronomical 2010 state budgets – d last hurray b4 GE, grab n run, suck it dry

    No worries, we r only a few years fr bankruptcy – dat’s 4 PR 2 worry, not BN
    R PR kaki still keen 2 climb over each other 2 grab power 2 b d next rulers n holders of d red hot potatoes?

  13. #13 by Cinapek on Sunday, 8 August 2010 - 5:05 pm

    After the May “69 riots, we had a fundamental cause and that was racial. This was a single dimension problem that though tough, was not too difficult to resolve to achieve harmony.

    Now we have added another dimension and that is religion to the equation. The rising dominant voice and actions of the more extreme religious elements has triggered and provoked reactions from other faiths who are forced to take a more hardened defensive stance to prevent the increasing erosion of their freedom to practise their religion as protected by the Constitution. This in turn prompted and offered to the instigators more ammunition to accuse the other faiths that they are making more demands. These extreme elements seize on all these counter arguments as excuses that their religion is under attack and hence they are entitled to resort to more threats and actions to intimidate the practitioners of other faiths. Behind all these smoke screen is the hidden hands of politicians who are now using a multidimensional approach to combine race with religion and their derivatives to exploit the situation to the fullest for political gains for themselves and party.

  14. #14 by Jeffrey on Sunday, 8 August 2010 - 5:09 pm

    Time in 2019 observes: ‘There was this simple pocket notebook: buff-colored, 5 cm x 8 cm, spiral-bound at the top” belonging to the Malaysian Maverick. He went nowhere without it. On trips abroad, he noted things that Malaysia might emulate. He jotted it down his immediate impressions so that he would not forget. There was this page in which it was noted, “Inspiration really comes from the most unlikely sources. Who would have imagined a casual visit to an optometrist for eye irritation and learning from him the term 20/20 vision to express normal visual acuity (the clarity or sharpness of vision) measured at a distance of 20 feet would have ended up moving 26 million people for so long???”

  15. #15 by boh-liao on Sunday, 8 August 2010 - 5:11 pm

    On d other hand, Y r we worried or concerned abt M’sia going bankrupt in 2019?
    An ancient Mayan calendar ends on December 21 2012, dat’s d Judgement Day 4 all of us
    Dah takdir lah!
    So, enjoy mah, spend, spend, spend with our credit cards, don’t worry abt repayment

  16. #16 by yhsiew on Sunday, 8 August 2010 - 5:58 pm

    The nightmare is BN leaders still do not want to admit graft and racial-religious politicking has killed Malaysia’s economy.

    1. Chua Soi Lek said Malaysia’s depressed economy is due to competition between BN and PAS for Malay support.

    2. Mahathir said investors have no money to spend during global downturn. That is why they don’t invest.

    3. Mustapa said Europe slowdown won’t dampen FDI to Malaysia.

    4. Najib’s brother, Nazir Razak, said outflow of funds is not necessarily a negative sign as more Malaysians are making lumpy investments overseas.

    If our leaders still refuse to admit the economic ills of the country are due to graft and racial-religious politicking, how are they then going to fix the economy?

  17. #17 by Jeffrey on Sunday, 8 August 2010 - 6:36 pm

    Malaysia has always had a hybrid legal system that incorporates both Islamic and civil laws : Muslims governed by Islamic laws, Non Muslims by civil/secular laws.

    For 22 years of his administration TDM had embarked on an aggressive Islamisation of the country’s administration, which requires in 1988 an amendment to the Constitution by insertion of Article 121(1A). This amendment basically frees Sharia from Civil Courts’ oversight and review. Henceforth religious bureaucrats are unfettered to formulate rules on all matters pertaining to religion in every corner of the administration, at federal or state level.

    The hybrid system is bearing the weight of this aggressive expansion of religious governance and is now reaching a crisis of strain as evinced for examples by rise of moral police surveillance, the conversion cases, the “Allah” by East Malaysian Controversy and of course the latest Malacca’s decision to remove the 16 year old age limit for girls to be married, ostensibly to resolve the problem of unwanted pregnancies and abandoned offspring.

    It has reached a stage where ruling politicians cannot resist the pressure of what bureaucrats want. Even if Home Minister Hishammuddin regretted his predecessor’s ‘Allah’ ban – that caused MCA’s politicians to seize the opportunity to request for its reversal – it was met by an immediate public objection from Minister for Islamic Affairs.

    In 2007 it seems that AG Chambers had submitted to the Government a Constitution Amendment Bill to mitigate the effects of 121(1A) to resolve the conversion cases. There is no political will to follow through and being apparently still borned nothing more is heard since then.

    If one thinks that UMNO has no will, think again because the PR coalition partners too have not raised this issue.

    It is the political reality on the ground that made even the DAP’s secretary general to oppose legalizing sports betting in Penang, talk about the great history of Islamic civilization in the International Integrity Conference 2010 and reject Chua Soi Lek’s assertion of fact that many muslim countries were straddled with economic backwardness and mired in corruption!

  18. #18 by frankyapp on Sunday, 8 August 2010 - 6:44 pm

    Since Umno/BN has much willing dirty blood to spare,why would they wanted to throw in the towel to stop the breeding and admit defeat. These greedy guys are arrognant to the core,don’t you know that ?

  19. #19 by Jeffrey on Sunday, 8 August 2010 - 6:47 pm

    (Continuing) The changed scenario has led also to the first in MCA’s rhetoric against the DAP in the face of MCA’s dwindling support from its traditional vote base.

    Sure, speaking out against PAS – and DAP’s marriage of convenience or inconvenience with it – is nothing new for MCA. It has always done that. But this “new fangled” approach of implicating its own senior partner in wrong doing ie. “when the two Malay-Muslim parties compete, the consequence was the implementation of non-progressive policies, which has resulted in the country falling into a middle-income trap”??? This is a NEW approach! It is also a pointed attack on the DAP – borne out of desperate times. MCA’s electoral performance was in the last GE a fiasco. Judging by Hulu Selangor & Sibu by-elections, the next one will be greater. CSL knows MCA’s dilemma. It is surviving on borrowed time.

    In light of the existing splitting of Malay votes between Umno and PAS/PKR, UMNO too faces the predicament of how to attract more Malay Votes. It is perceived by ruling party that the allegiance of majority of Malay Vote Bank is pivotal in electoral outcome in next election; that (rightly or wrongly) the political reality is such that the majority of this Vote Bank are still not prepared to cross the race and religious lines to vote on neutral issues like corruption and abuse of power. [The proliferation of NGOs like Perkasa since 1 Malaysia/NEM was mooted and recent poll by the independent Merdeka Center that showed that nearly 60% of Malays polled still believed that special privileges should continue have reference].

    MCA knows that it is not in an enviable position given such a scenario of its senior partner beating more loudly its chest on race and religious issues! The greater assertion of Malay agenda by its senior partner will diminish MCA’s standing before the Chinese electorate even more, thereby making it even more irrelevant by the next GE, surviving only by the grace of Malay votes.

    CSL therefore embarks on ’scotch earth policy’ of making sure that even if MCA will lose in the next GE, its political opponent DAP cannot win by earth being scotched by retreating party.

    This is done by highlighting the incontrovertible fact that even Opposition’s die-hard supporters cannot dispute – “that when the two Malay-Muslim parties compete, the consequence was the implementation of non-progressive policies, which has resulted in the country falling into a middle-income trap”….

    So the argument becomes stark and pointed: if you DAP say that MCA cannot be exonerated in its complicity with UMNO’s “non-progressive policies” (relating to race and religion as such a term in context is meant to be understood) – and this we MCA are not disputing – can you DAP however dispute that you are “no better” for consorting with PAS and its policies??? What’s the difference between you and us?

    Note that CSL’s ‘new fangled approach’ does not seek explicitly to absolve its own-self or even its senior partner UMNO in non-progressive policies.

    CSL merely asserted a challenge – in what way the DAP could be less contributory than MCA in terms of non progressive policies being generated by PAS/UMNO competition by DAP’s association with PAS?

    Especially so when, as Cinapek astutely observed in #13, the country is already in the political milieu of an added dimension – that of religion – that promises to be even harder to control and reverse than the dimension of race (since May 13)?

  20. #20 by cseng on Sunday, 8 August 2010 - 9:46 pm

    This article should be read by all politicians and Malaysians, the points raised are spot on.
    The M fella has given all credits due, what remain are those damages to be accountable for. The damaged done is too great and takes generation to undo.

    The swelling debt, bond is going to drive this country’s future. Once oil run out, once FDI find M’sia no longer green, that is when the economy is going to bite Malaysian following by M’sian way of unique social problem. For how long the government could afford GLC style of ATM withdrawal, the public service as employment dam, pump priming to benefit only the cronies and foreign workers, under the curses of NEP!

    We are not critical or anti-government; we are worry about the bleak future of future as Malaysian. But, most worrying part is the way the current regime’s plan for the future, either is plan to fail or fail to plan.

  21. #21 by dagen on Monday, 9 August 2010 - 9:29 am

    No no no. Cintanegara says:

    “These are all necessary costs for maintaining umno’s top secret Rambutan Tree Economic Principles.”

  22. #22 by k1980 on Monday, 9 August 2010 - 12:10 pm

    Don’t sneer at umno’s top secret Rambutan Tree Economic Principles. After all, they succeeded in sending an angkasawan, ooops I mean angkasapelancungwan, to outer space. Look at those stupid Singaporeans, Indons and Filipinos, they no boleh hantar angkasapelancungwan!

  23. #23 by Godfather on Monday, 9 August 2010 - 12:21 pm

    The EPU gave the maverick’s favourite crony a RM 8 billion deal. The crony then tried to sell the deal to a listed company for an outright profit of RM 800 million. The EPU and the MoF officers were incensed, and refused to sign the transfer of the deal from the crony to the listed company.

    What did the maverick do ?

    He asked the crony to draft the letter of the transfer, and the maverick signed the approval letter in his capacity as Minister of Finance. With one stroke of the pen, the maverick ensured that his crony received RM 800 million for his “hard” work.

  24. #24 by ktteokt on Monday, 9 August 2010 - 12:21 pm

    Will money, food and other daily necessaries fall from HEAVEN by just embracing RELIGION? These guys have not been heeding the saying “GOD HELP THOSE WHO HELP THEMSELVES”!

  25. #25 by boh-liao on Monday, 9 August 2010 - 3:40 pm

    O no, in fact, UmnoB/BNputras r heeding d saying “Allah helps those who help themselves”
    Dat’s Y they jiak, jiak, jiak n r corrupt 2 d core, helping themselves 2 bcome filthy rich, not 4 1 generation but 4 many generations
    Yes, sir, they help themselves alright; ask MMK n his children, NR, HH, Toyol, LLS, SV, etc

  26. #26 by negarawan on Monday, 9 August 2010 - 11:10 pm

    UMNO and all its BN leaders are failures. Much of beloved country have been plundered and damaged by its corrupt and selfish “leaders”, and sadly the trend will continue as long as UMNO is in power. With abundant resources, yet Malaysia has fallen far behind Singapore. Most damage was done by Mahathir resulting in racial polarization and disunity, corrupted judiciary and police force, deteriorating education standards, corrupt business practices, enrichment of his UMNO cronies, and massive outflow of FDI. Imagine, we could have been better than Singapore if we had true leaders with the caliber Lee Kuan Yew. Enjoy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGY5ff831B8

  27. #27 by Bigjoe on Tuesday, 10 August 2010 - 2:29 pm

    How many Malaysian honestly don’t think graft and religious politics affect the economy significantly and negatively? BUT the problem is most Malaysian also believe that graft and religo-politics works in this country and do not think they have a responsibility for it.

    It makes no practical sense to tackle religo-politics head on the same way in tackling corruption. This is where CSL and MCA got it all wrong. They same way MCA underestimated the Malays or rather the right-wing in UMNO ability to politics back in the 1960s, they are underestimating PAS discipline in religo-politics. It would be a big mistake by PR and DAP to underestimate and underappreciate PAS religo-politics. This is where LGE promoting issues to address that are Islamic is most important and good foresight and more need to emulate rather than the easy addiction of frivolities and addiction of religo-politics. In other word, you can’ t beat a popular label or brand not matter how bad it is for you say fastfood McDonalds, the best you can do is produce a product that feels like that label or brand but features better than it e.g. healtheir roasted chicken like Nando or Kenny Roger roasted chicken with salads.

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