Archive for June 23rd, 2009
Is the Najib Cabinet serious about a KPI culture of high-performance?
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak, Parliament, PKFZ on Tuesday, 23 June 2009
This morning, when Tsu Koon was giving his long answer to the question on KPIs for Ministers and ministries, the Ministerial front-benches were totally empty except for three Ministers who could not get elected and had to enter Parliament through the backdoor.
Is the Najib Cabinet serious about a KPI culture of high-performance?
If so, then no Minister should be allowed to abscond or go overseas from his or her responsibility of accountability to MPs when Parliament is meeting, except for important international functions which could pass muster with Parliament!
When Parliament reconvened last Monday on June 15, the Transport Minister Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat deliberately avoided parliamentary responsibility for the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal by flying off to France to attend the Paris Air Show.
Why is Ong’s attending the Paris Air Show more important than his appearance in Parliament to give a full, proper and satisfactory accounting for the PKFZ “mother of all scandals”?
What is the use of talking about KPIs and KRAs (key result areas) for the government servants when there is simply no high-performance culture among Cabinet Ministers?
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak, Parliament on Tuesday, 23 June 2009
The first Najib Cabinet saw the removal of seven Ministers in the old Abdullah Cabinet, namely Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar (Home); Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said (Tourism), Senator Tan Sri Muhammad Muhammad Taib (Rural and Regional Development), Senator Datuk Amirsham Abdul Aziz (Prime Minister’s Department), Datuk Ong Ka Chuan (Housing and Local Government), Datuk Mohd Zin Mohamed (Works) and Datuk Seri Zulhasnan Rafique (Federal Territories).
No one shed any tears for the dropping of the seven Ministers in the Abdullah Cabinet.
What outraged Malaysians is the new set of Ministers in the Najib Cabinet, for they are not only another set of “old faces” but include 11 new Ministers or Deputy Ministers who entered Parliament from the backdoor of the Senate.
Worse still, they include “political rejects” like Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon, Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun and Datuk Dr. Awang Adek Hussin who were trounced by the electorate in last year’s political tsunami in the March 8 general elections, making the Najib Cabinet even more unrepresentative and unpopular than the second and last Abdullah Cabinet.
Why has Najib shied away from seeking a confidence motion in the House?
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak, Parliament, PKFZ on Tuesday, 23 June 2009
With every passing day, public confidence in the credibility, integrity and legitimacy of the Prime Minister has worsened, as illustrated by the two following indicators:
- In an opinion poll conducted by opinion research firm Merdeka Centre in his second month as Prime Minister from May 6-15 on 1,067 registered voters, Najib could only secure 45% popularity.
- In poll on the blog of the MCA President, Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat, 78% of those polled wanted MCA to get out of Barisan Nasional.
Now Malaysians have even more reasons why they have no confidence, the credibility integrity and legitimacy of Najib as Prime Minister – the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal; galloping crime in the country with Malaysians, tourists and investors losing their fundamental rights to be free from crime and the fear of crime; worsening of the crisis of confidence in independence of the judiciary.
This was why I had called on Najib to seek a vote of confidence when Parliament reconvened on June 15.
Najib facing deepening of the national and international crisis of credibility, integrity and legitimacy as 6th PM of Malaysia
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak, Parliament on Tuesday, 23 June 2009
The Bukit Gantang and Bukit Selambau by-election results, with increased majorities for the Pakatan Rakyat candidates as compared to last year, are a clear and unmistakable endorsement of the March 8, 2008 political tsunami telling the nation and the world that what happened in the 12th general elections in March last year was neither accidental nor a fluke, to disappear like fireworks in the skies, but a major political paradigm shift representing the deep-seated and widely-held aspirations of Malaysians regardless of race or religion for democratic change.
Furthermore, that such fundamental political change is here to stay!
Although UMNO and Barisan Nasional leaders had claimed after the March 8 political tsunami, which toppled Barisan Nasional governments in five states and ended its unbroken two-thirds parliamentary majority, that they had heard and learnt the message of the voters, the verdicts in the Bukit Gantang and Bukit Selambau by-elections were loud and clear – that UMNO and Barisan Nasional had failed in the past 13 months to heed the message of the 12th general election results.
Najib’s first 74 days as Prime Minister is the most uninspiring when compared with the past five Prime Ministers
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak, Parliament on Tuesday, 23 June 2009
This motion to re-allot the 2009 Budget among the various Ministries is the direct result of the Cabinet reshuffle by the new Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak on 10th April 2009 – a week after he replaced Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
Najib should be enjoying his first two-and-a-half months as the new Prime Minister but there is no air of expectation, hope or euphoria in the country that is normally associated with the advent of a new national leader – the political honeymoon of the First Hundred Days!
In fact, nobody can really disagree when I say that Najib’s first 74 days as Prime Minister is the most uninspiring when compared with the past Five Prime Ministers, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak, Tun Hussein, Tun Mahathir and Tun Abdullah! Is this a sign of the final fulfillment of the most famous political prophecy in the country, RAHMAN, indicating the end of the line of Umno Prime Ministers in Malaysia as well as the end not only of Umno hegemony but Umno rule in Malaysia?
PKFZ scandal – Ong Tee Keat caught red-handed telling an untruth on the RM1.2 billion KDSB variation order
My three questions (No.73 to No. 75 on the 25th day in the current series) to Transport Minister Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat on the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal today are:
Question No. 1: Port Klang Authority (PKA) Chairman Datuk Lee Hwa Beng made a very revealing and incriminating admission when he came to the defence of the Transport Minister, with reference to a letter by Ong to the Prime Minister dated May 10, 2008 after it surfaced on the Internet.
According to the New Straits Times, Lee clarified that the letter on RM1.2 billion variation order by the PKFZ turnkey developer, Kuala Dimensi Sdn. Bhd (KDSB) was not Ong’s request for more money to be approved but merely a relay of the PKA board’s decision (that they needed more money) to the prime minister.
“The letter from the transport minister dated May 10, 2008 to the then prime minister was to inform the latter that the PKA board had already deliberated and approved in February 2008, the final costs of the main development agreement of the contract with the developer.”
Unity govt a betrayal all around
Posted by Kit in Pakatan Rakyat, PAS, UMNO on Tuesday, 23 June 2009
by Oon Yeoh
The Edge
The much-hyped, but now abandoned, unity-government concept, first touted by PAS President Datuk Seri Hadi Awang in March, and welcomed by all and sundry within Umno is a betrayal.
From Pakatan Rakyat’s perspective, it is a betrayal of voters’ trust. Malays who voted for PAS did so because they preferred it over Umno. Non-Malays who voted for PAS didn’t do so because they wanted PAS but because they rejected Umno. In either case, PAS teaming up with Umno is the last thing these Malay and non-Malay voters want.
By pushing for unity-government talks, the faction headed by PAS Deputy President Nasharuddin Mat Isa, is betraying PAS’ coalition partners DAP and PKR, which consider Umno the enemy (as do most of PAS’ grassroots).
Lastly, this faction is betraying PAS itself, which campaigned on a platform of a “welfare state”, with justness for everybody, not just Malays or Muslims.
What else could you call a PAS-Umno unity government but a race-exclusive government? Read the rest of this entry »
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