Archive for November, 2009
Najib and Cabinet should do what is right – honour the Hatyai Agreement and allow Chin Peng home to visit his hometown in Sitiawan
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak on Monday, 30 November 2009
The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, should do what is right – honour the Hatyai Agreement and allow Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) leader Chin Peng home to visit his hometown in Sitiawan.
It reflects most adversely on the credibility and international standing of Malaysia for the Malaysian government to renege on its solemn commitments and undertakings in the Hatyai Agreement.
When the Hatyai Agreement was signed 20 years ago, both signatories agreed to move on and this is what the Malaysian government and country should do – allow Chin Peng home to visit his parents’ graves in Sitiawan.
DAP: No sense gaining RM1b from GST to lose RM28b to graft
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Economics on Monday, 30 November 2009
By Clara Chooi | The Malaysian Insider
IPOH, Nov 29 – DAP has urged the Federal Government to reconsider the proposed 4 per cent Goods and Services Tax (GST), claiming it would do nothing to narrow the nation’s current deficit budget and would only further burden the poor and the middle class.
Party secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said that the Government should, instead, concentrate on fighting corruption and realising savings of at least RM28bil annually instead of a mere RM1bil in additional revenue from GST.
“This RM28bil was admitted by Second Finance Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah as the cost of leakages from having closed tenders in government procurement or just failing to have open tenders for government contracts in an open manner.
“If the government focuses on changing this, there is no need to impose GST on the people to raise funds.
Read the rest of this entry »
BTN should not only be revamped – heads must roll for the poisoning of a whole generation of Malaysian leaders, civil servants, university students
Posted by Kit in nation building on Monday, 30 November 2009
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz told reporters in Parliament this morning that the Cabinet has agreed to revamp the Biro Tata Negara (BTN) following national furore against the BTN’s divisive, racist and seditious course which pump communal poison, incite racial hatred and illwill which are no different from Nazi indoctrination camps.
Nazri is reported to have:
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agreed that the divisive, racist and seditious BTN course is not in line with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1Malaysia concept;
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that “the recent Cabinet meeting saw it necessary to do away with the BTN co-curriculum which government leaders, including the prime minister, saw was racially divisive and destructive”; and
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the Chief Secretary to the Government has been instructed to oversee BTN’s revamp.
Top Umno leaders should stop all double-talk, abandon race politics, be national leaders for all Malaysians or they should scrap and bury Najib’s seven-month-old 1Malaysia slogan and concept
Posted by Kit in nation building, UMNO on Sunday, 29 November 2009
Top Umno leaders should stop all double-talk, abandon race politics, be national leaders for all Malaysians or they should just scrap and bury Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s seven-month-old 1Malaysia slogan and concept.
Malaysians are shocked that the outrageous “defense” of divisive, racist and seditious Biro Tata Negara (BTN) courses by Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, was not the lone voice in Cabinet but represented the consensus of the top Umno leadership.
On my call for the closure of the racist BTN courses which go against everything Najib’s 1Malaysia could stand for, Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said it was “just the opposition’s tactics to divert attention from their problems”.
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Abu Dhabi poised to throw lifeline to Dubai
From Times Online
November 28, 2009
By Rhys Blakely in Dubai
Abu Dhabi is poised to come to the aid of Dubai’s debt stricken-businesses, but only on a “case by case” basis, senior bankers an officials said today.
The Dubai Government sent global markets into a tailspin this week after it asked creditors of Dubai World, the state-owned conglomerate behind the city state’s building boom, for a six-month standstill on $80 billion of debt repayments.
The move kindled fears that the world economy is yet to rid itself of toxic debt, and may even succumb to a fresh downturn in a “double dip” recession.
Oil rich Abu Dhabi, which has the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, thought to be worth as much as $700 billion, could easily bail out Dubai, but is thought to be unwilling to pour more money into its neighbour’s beleaguered property sector, which has buckled under the weight of a series of half-finished grand projects. Read the rest of this entry »
Call on Cabinet to set up an independent public inquiry into the BTN “brainwashing” to have public airing of its racist, anti-national and anti-1Malaysia courses over the years
Posted by Kit in nation building on Saturday, 28 November 2009
Pretender Perak Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Zambry Abdul Kadir hit today’s New Straits Times front-page headline: “‘Disclose BTN course syllabus’ – Perak MB: This will allay doubts about its objective”.
Zambry said it is time for the government to make public the contents of the Biro Tatanegara syllabus to dispel suspicions by certain quarters about its objective.
Claiming that he had himself attended BTN or National Civics Bureau courses, Zambry said these courses were about educating public servants, students and other participating groups on their roles and responsibilities towards the country.
Zamry is creating a red herring. The issue is not so much the BTN syllabus, but the more than ample evidence that BTN courses pump communal poison and incite hatred in plural Malaysia.
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BTN — Between true education and indoctrination
Posted by Kit in Azly Rahman, nation building on Saturday, 28 November 2009
By Azly Rahman
I agree we must give credit to those working hard to “improve the psychological well-being of the Malays” and for that matter for any race to improve its mental wellness. This is important. This is a noble act. The question is: in doing so, do we want to plant the seeds of cooperation and trust– or racial discrimination and deep hatred? Herein lies the difference between indoctrination and education. Herein lies what the work of Malaysia’s Biro Tata Negara is about.
These days, the idea of Ketuanan Melayu is going bankrupt, sinking with the bahtera merdeka. It works only for Malay robber barons who wish to plunder the nation by silencing the masses and using the ideological state apparatuses at their disposal. In the case of the BTN it is the work of controlling the minds of the youth. The work of BTN should be stopped and should not be allowed anymore in our educational institutions. It is time our universities especially are spared of counter-educational activities, especially when they yearned to be free from the shackles of domination. Look at what has happened and what is still happening to our institutions with the University and University Colleges Act and the Akujanji Pledge.
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Close down Biro Tata Negara if Najib is serious, sincere and genuine about the 1Malaysia concept
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak, nation building on Friday, 27 November 2009
When he became Prime Minister seven months ago, Datuk Seri Najib Razak came out with the slogan of 1Malaysia.
It was an admission of the failure of 52-year nation-building to create a Malaysian citizenry forged by a common Malaysian consciousness and identity, transcending their ethnic, religious, cultural and linguistic differences.
The Biro Tata Negara (BTN) is one important factor for this failure in Malaysian nation-building.
In Parliament in March this year, I read out an indignant email from a recent participant in BTN course, on how BTN operated as the propaganda arm of UMNO, pumping communal poison instead of spreading the message of national unity.
The complaints against the BTN included:
Their purpose is to convey THEIR Message to us but I think they are absolutely wrong. It made us more irritable towards BN government and make us more stronger to vote opposition.
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Open Tender for all government procurements – most effective way to prevent corruption and ensure efficiency
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Dr. Chen Man Hin, Good Governance, Najib Razak on Friday, 27 November 2009
by Dr. Chen Man Hin
Last year on August 5th the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak was quoted as saying that open tender would be implemented for government procurements. This was a very encouraging statement and gave the impression that he really intended to institute reforms to bring about better governance. Was this the signal that things are changing?
Later, when he was anointed prime minister, he announced further reforms to launch off his “1 Malaysia, People First, Performance Now” concept. This was even more promising.
Unfortunately, the euphoria engendered so far has now vanished by the announcement in Parliament on Wednesday that MATRADE expo – the biggest and most comprehensive exhibition center – would be awarded to a private contractor NAZA TTDI through private negotiated deal. The government procurement was NOT given out by OPEN TENDER.
This is a shocking development and has unravelled all the attempts by Najib to initiate a series of reforms for better governance in a “1 Malaysia”. Read the rest of this entry »
PAC must act fast – prevent another multibillion-ringgit Matrade 2 scandal after the 10-year RM287 million Matrade 1 scandal
Posted by Kit in Corruption, NEP, Parliament on Thursday, 26 November 2009
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) must act fast – prevent another multibillion-ringgit Matrade 2 scandal after the 10-year RM287 million Matrade 1 scandal.
The PAC had previously held several meetings on the Matrade 1 scandal, but they were of no practical relevance or consequence as what the PAC did was to lock the stable door after the horses had bolted.
As far as I know, not a single sen had been recovered by the government despite solemn assurances in Parliament by the Ministers concerned to pursue legal actions and penalties against the defaulting parties – with the Umno cronies laughing all the way to the bank with their ill-gotten multi-million ringgit NEP gains.
In the first Matrade scandal, the 24-storey Matrade building took some 10 years to be completed at a RM120 million cost overrun resulting in a final cost of RM287 million, i.e. at over 70 per cent of the original estimates of RM167 million. For years, the cracked façade of the incomplete Read the rest of this entry »
Before telling the world the true Malaysian story, let Malaysians know the truth of what is happening in Malaysia – beginning with the story of Altantuya C4 murder
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak on Thursday, 26 November 2009
In his recent visit to New York, the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak said Malaysia’s message of reforms and transformation needs to be told to foreign investors consistently or risk being overshadowed by countries like China and other emerging economies.
First things first. Najib should allow the true Malaysian story to be told to Malaysians first or the credibility of the Malaysian story to global investors by Najib’s spin doctors would come under a great discount.
In the era of instant communications, it is both imprudent and self-defeating to believe that it is possible to mislead global investors about what is happening in the country.
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Matrade gets expo centre for ‘free’, says Mustapa
Posted by Kit in DAP, Good Governance, Parliament on Wednesday, 25 November 2009
The Malaysian Insider
Wednesday November 25, 2009
By Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 25 — International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Mustapa Mohamed today defended the proposed expo centre in Jalan Duta from controversy after the RM628 million project was given to Naza TTDI, saying the government was getting it for free.
Mustapa explained that building-for-land deal is good value for the Malaysian External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade).
“The valuation of the land in 2007 is RM197 million and we are getting RM628 million’s worth building so we are getting value for money for us. We need a big centre,” he told reporters in parliament here.
The mammoth expo centre being built on a 13.1-acre site in Jalan Duta here is to be developed by Naza TTDI, a unit of the Naza Group, in exchange for 62.5 acres of state land at RM226 per square foot although the market value of the land could reach RM1.5 billion. The entire project will have a gross development value of RM15 billion.
The Matrade centre is estimated to be 90,000-sq-m and set to be completed in 2013.
Mustapa noted that the currently available exhibition centres in the Klang Valley were too small to lure major investors. Read the rest of this entry »
Bumiputera contractors: A wasteful national mission to date
By Koon Yew Yin
Wednesday, 18 November 2009 07:54
Centre for Policy Initiatives
It is an indictment of our system that IJM is able to compete internationally for contracts but yet is required to work as a sub-contractor to Bumiputera companies on the North-South Highway in Malaysia.
On Oct 25, 2009 our Second Finance Minister Ahmad Husni Mohamad Hanadzlah said that government has vowed to cut down on wasteful spending to lower its budget deficit and all major public projects must go through the open tender system.
Earlier, the Auditor-General’s report for 2008 revealed continuing financial management weaknesses at every level of the government. Delays in project completion seem to be a perennial problem and the lack of oversight by various ministries and departments in the procurement of goods and services continue to cost the government hundreds of millions of ringgit.
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Lack of transparency in RM628 million Matrade expo centre deal for 65 acres of prime land in KL for Naza TTDI with GDV of RM15 billion could further plunge Malaysia’s competitiveness and corruption perception rankings next year
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Economics, Parliament on Tuesday, 24 November 2009
Just spoke in Parliament on the Ministry of International Trade and Industry. I started by asking Parliament and government to give serious thought to a Malaysian Insider report today, and in particular its catchy headline “Malaysia’s next export: Maids?”
The Malaysian Insider report states:
The nation’s mismanagement of talent could have serious repercussions not only on its ambitions to become a high income economy on par with that of developed nations but could also lead it to fall further behind even its counterparts in the region. Read the rest of this entry »
More answers from Minister in PM Department on Corruption
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Parliament on Tuesday, 24 November 2009
(1) Jawapan Bertulis YB Dato’ Seri Mohamed Nazri bin Abdul Aziz, Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri semasa menggulung perbahasan Bajet 2010 peringkat dasar pada 9 November 2009
Tuan Yang di-Pertua
Berhubung kenyataan YB Ipoh Timur bahawa tiada political will (dengan izin) yang diperlihatkan oleh YAB Perdana Menteri dalam memerangi rasuah dan pembentukan SPRM serta pembaharuan lain bagi memerangi rasuah adalah tidak efektif, sebenarnya kenyataan YB mengenai perkara ini adalah tidak berasas sama sekali. Hakikatnya the record speaks for itself (dengan izin) telah membuktikan bahawa Kerajaan dan SPRM komited dan bersungguh-sungguh dalam menangani isu rasuah. Ini terbukti melalui perangkaan tangkapan dan pertuduhan terhadap ahli-ahli parti politik dan juga pegawai kanan Kerajaan yang telah saya bentangkan sebentar tadi.
Bukankah kesediaan Kerajaan pimpinan YAB Perdana Menteri untuk memperkenalkan Whistle Blower Protection Act (dengan izin) bagi menggalakkan pemberi maklumat untuk tampil membuat pendedahan jenayah rasuah merupakan satu contoh political will (dengan izin). Bukan setakat itu sahaja, Kerajaan juga akan menambah 14 buah Mahkamah Sesyen dan 4 buah Mahkamah Tinggi bagi mempercepatkan process perbicaraan sesuatu kes berbanding 4 buah Mahkamah Sesyen sedia ada.
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Parliament question on DPM use of Nuri helicopter for Umno functions
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Muhyiddin Yassin, Parliament on Monday, 23 November 2009
Question:
To ask the Prime Minister the guidelines on the use of government aircrafts by Ministers for personal and political party purposes, and why no action has been taken against abuses of power in August by Deputy Prime Minister who had crash-land in Sabah when using RMAF Nuri helicopter for Umno functions.
Answer: (Dato Seri Mohd Nazri Aziz)
Mr Speaker, Sir,
The guidelines for the use of aircrafts are based on the Surat Pekeliling Am Sulit Bil. 1 Tahun 1987 Peraturan Peraturan Penggunaan Jet Eksekutif Kerajaan dan Pesawat-pesawat TUDM which allocates government executive jet aircrafts for the use of DYMM Seri Paduka Baginda Yang Di Pertuan Agong, YAB Prime Minister and YAB Deputy Prime Minister.
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Chief Secretary Sidek’s failure to carry out Cabinet decision of July 2007 to take action against culprits responsible for RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal a factor why Malaysia has worst ranking and score in 15 years in TI CPI 2009
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Parliament, PKFZ on Monday, 23 November 2009
During the 2010 budget debate on 29th October 2009, I questioned the Cabinet decision to set up a super task force headed by the Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan to take over all investigations into the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal as it represented a “major step backwards in public accountability and good governance”, smacking of a super “cover up” instead of a demonstration of political will to get to the bottom of the “mother of all scandals”.
I argued that what is needed is a Royal Commission of Inquiry to conduct a comprehensive and no-holds-barred investigation into the “mother of all scandals” including relevant Ministerial and Cabinet aspects of the scandal instead of trying to sweep the whole issue back under the carpet.
I also posed the following question:
“In the first place, is Mohd Sidek the most appropriate person to head the super task force on the PKFZ scandal?
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No open tender for deal building RM628m Matrade Centre for RM15 billion 65-acre prime KL land – dare Tsu Koon raise in Cabinet warning of adverse KPI/NKRA combating corruption?
Posted by Kit in Corruption on Sunday, 22 November 2009
In his first month as Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak received praise and applause for his assurance that he would cut down on direct negotiations for government procurement contracts and instead adopt the tender system on efforts to curb corruption and restore public confidence in the government.
The award of the building-for-land deal to Naza TTDI Sdn Bhd involving 65 acres of prime land in Kuala Lumpur with a gross development value of RM15 billion for building a RM628 million Matrade expo centre has dashed public hopes and expectations that Najib is serious about open tenders, accountability, transparency and the war against corruption.
As combating corruption is one of the six National Key Result Areas (NKRAs) announced by Najib, is the Key Performance Index (KPI) Minister, dare Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon raise in Cabinet urging for a review and to ask for the Matrade building-for-land deal to be submitted to open tender to ensure that the government and the public obtains the best deal.
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Malaysia, no pass marks in the corruption index
Posted by Kit in Corruption on Sunday, 22 November 2009
By Tunku Aziz
About this time each year when Transparency International in Berlin releases its Corruption Perceptions Index, there are many in high places chewing their sticky, dirty fingers while keeping them crossed, hoping against hope, that the world would be kinder and Malaysia’s score on the corruption league table would come out more favourably than last year’s and all the previous years since the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index was first released in 1995. The prayers of the corrupt in government and politics have been ignored again. The predictability of it all is uncanny. The question is why are we continually perceived as corrupt, and are the perceptions justified?
The ambivalence of Tun Mahathir to corruption during his 22 year administration was never in dispute. In a perverse sort of way, he was charmingly honest and did not try to pretend that he was against corrupt practices. He was a great “in the national interest man” who saw corruption not in monochrome, but in glorious Technicolor which could even be made to look extremely attractive seen through his 20/20 Vision however sordid it is in reality.
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What the Greater Unity Plan involves and implies:
By Thomas Lee
(1) Ignoring and dismissing the majority will of the party central delegates in wanting to remove the top two leaders by claiming that they lack the two-third vote to effect the dismissal, but not acepting the fact that the top two lack the support of more than half of the grassroots delegates.
(2) The coming together of the two former enemies for the sole purpose of retaining power despite losing massive support from the grassroots members. One leader is a shameless person who has no intergrity and lost all credibility when he reneged on his pledge that he will resign even if he lost by a vote but shamelessly stays on and becoming the laughing stock of the country. Another leader has a soiled reputation the subject of ridicule and derision among the people, bringing disrepute to the party.
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