Archive for February 2nd, 2012

Jika Mempunyai Peluang, Saya Akan Menyertai DAP

Oleh Ahmad Tajuddin Abdullah

Kenyataan ini seolah-olah saya mahu menyertai politik selepas tamat pengajian. Tidak, bukan itu maksud saya. Tetapi sedikit komentar dari saya setelah memerhatikan beberapa siri kejadian yang tidak disangka-sangka oleh ramai rakyat Malaysia yang aktif memerhatikan gelombang politik tanah air muttakhir ini. 

Siri kemasukan ramai nama-nama besar melayu (terpulang kepada persepsi pembaca) ke dalam Parti Tindakan Demokratik (DAP) akhir-akhir ini menimbulkan persoalan, apakah tuduhan dan serangan UMNO selama ini terhadap parti tersebut tidak berjaya mempengaruhi orang melayu?

Saya membaca beberapa keluhan dan rasa resah dalam kalangan rakan-rakan saya dan komen-komen pembaca mengenai berita ini, dengan menganggap mereka yang menyertai DAP sudah lupa asal usul, terpengaruh dengan ideologi komunis, dasar tidak mengenang budi dan sebagainya.

Bagi saya, ini lumrah dunia politik. Orang akan mengecam segala 1001 perkara yang mereka tidak suka. Tambahan pula, apabila perkara itu berlawanan dengan kebiasaan mereka.
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A Critique of the ETP: Part 3 (i) – Execution (i) – PEMANDU strengthens the ‘know-who’ cancer

By Dr. Ong Kian Ming BSc (LSE), MPhil (Cantab), PhD (Duke)
Teh Chi-Chang, CFA, BSc (Warwick), MBA (Cantab)

Refsa

Very swift progress, but is it due to PEMANDU? In its 8 ETP updates so far, PEMANDU has announced multiple new EPPs (Entry Point Projects) worth billions of ringgit of investment and creating thousands of jobs. One EPP – Johor Premium Outlets (JP Outlets) – is already open. But how much of this rapid execution is due to PEMANDU instead of normal private sector efficiency?

Opportunistic naming of existing projects as EPPs. For example, the JP Outlets and St Regis Hotel projects pre-dated the ETP. Their completion dates were unchanged by their subsequent EPP status – suggesting minimal input by PEMANDU. Naming them as EPPs gives the illusion of quick wins and overstates PEMANDU’s success.

PEMANDU might have indeed helped. PEMANDU might respond that these projects would have been delayed without its help in cutting red tape. Note that the developers Genting-Simon Property and Chua Ma Yu-MRCB are global multinationals, a prominent local businessman and a GLC.
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Malaysia: Why do I care? (Part 2)

By Clive Kessler | February 02, 2012
The Malaysian Insider

FEB 2 — Part 2: The “philosophical” aspect.

Why do I care about Malaysia?

Why do I have ideas and opinions? Why do I voice them? And why do I believe that people might occasionally listen and give some heed when I do?

Half the answer, which I have already provided in sketchy outline, is biographical. It is a matter of, literally, one’s “curriculum vitae”, the “small pathway” of one’s personal, individual life-course.

The other part, which I will now try to suggest in this complementary discussion, is a matter of the attitudes and sensibilities acquired during the course of that life.
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‘Umno warlords will not let Najib succeed’

By Mohd Ariff Sabri Aziz | February 2, 2012
Free Malaysia Today

Sometime ago I met The Economist correspondent Dr Richard Cockett who asked me whether Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak will succeed in his transformation ideas.

I said, Najib will not suceed. And why not? Because Umno won’t let him succeed.

Take the case of his New Economic Model (NEM). Nowadays we hardly hear about it. In the 2011 Umno general assembly, Najib did not even mention it.

Instead he devoted much of his speech sounding very combative and full of vehemence. What he did at the time was to actually retrograde to Umno cavemen politics – stick and stones.

So how is he going to push his tranformation agenda? Knowing Najib, he will revert to the ‘old’ tested ways of ‘patronage’.
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In just two years, Najib has “given up the ghost” on his signature 1Malaysia policy

“Why must I be Malaysian first and Malay second?”

This seemingly innocuous question by the Minister without Portfolio in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Idris Jala yesterday marked another watershed in the 34-month premiership of Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

In just two years, the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak has “given up the ghost” on his signature 1Malaysia policy to create a Malaysia where Malaysians regard themselves as Malaysians first and their race, religion, region or socio-economic status second.

It marked another abandonment of Najib’s grandiloquent “transformation” policies, like the even more short-lived New Economic Model (NEM) which was given an unceremonial burial in three short months.

This was why the theme of my speech in Parliament on the Tenth Malaysia Plan on 21st June 2010 was “Tenth Malaysia Plan: Long live NEP – RIP NEM” although the NEM was unveiled only on 30th March 2010. Read the rest of this entry »

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