Archive for 2012
Why police are impotent: A response to PDRM
Posted by Kit in Crime, Lim Teck Ghee, Police on Saturday, 4 August 2012
— Lim Teck Ghee
The Malaysian Insider
Aug 03, 2012
AUG 3 — I thank the Polis Diraja Malaysia for the response to my commentary on why the police are impotent in fighting rising crime in the country.
Massaging of official statistics and reports
Firstly, with regard to the lengthy explanation on how the crime count statistics are generated, whilst the information is quite useful, it does not make a convincing case that the crime rate has dropped dramatically during the past three years.
I am sure that the police leadership — as with the ordinary man in the street — is aware that police reports generated through the official reporting system considerably understate the actual incidence of crime.
Furthermore, methodologies, definitions and categorisations vary from year to year. These changes, together with other forms of “massaging” (authorised and unauthorised) are the most likely explanations as to why there has been such a sharp fall in the reported crime statistics in the past three years compared with 2008. Read the rest of this entry »
Dissecting the ETP Annual Report (Part 6): Recommendations for Pemandu
— Ong Kian Ming and Teh Chi-Chang | August 02, 2012
The Malaysian Insider
AUG 2 — Is asking for a few more facts and some additional background too much? Pemandu has accused us of “nit-picking” and not providing alternatives. That conveniently shifts the focus to other issues while Pemandu ignores our very pertinent questions and suggestions. We summarise here three recommendations, and remind Pemandu of the positive outcomes of our nit-picking.
Recommendation #1: Be clear about targets, data and methodology.
Pemandu now has three different targets for national income by 2020. Please be clear, so we can all work towards the same ultimate target. Also, Pemandu should declare now its GNI, investment and job creation targets for 2012 and 2013. This is to prevent a repeat of the discrepancies surrounding 2011, when its `targets’ were declared only after the actual numbers were out.
Recommendation #2: Remove doubtful EPPs.
Read the rest of this entry »
Of National Day and party ploys
Posted by Kit in nation building on Thursday, 2 August 2012
Mustafa K. Anuar
The Malaysian Insider
Aug 02, 2012
AUG 2 — National symbols are — at the risk of sounding stupid here — expected to be “national” in character, meaning and appeal so that they are able to attract, and be appreciated, honoured and even jealously guarded by the citizenry concerned. They may range from the Malayan tiger to the national flower or Bunga Raya (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis).
And like these national symbols, national institutions such as the National Museum are to evoke a certain kind of collective identity among ordinary Malaysians as a people of a particular nation.
The National Museum is supposed to display exhibits that represent the history and cultural heritage of the Malaysian people from diverse ethnic, religious and cultural backgrounds.
In other words, anything that is supposed to be “national” should have the capacity to enable ordinary Malaysians to relate to and identify with it rather easily — and even with patriotic pride.
Likewise, the national flag, or Jalur Gemilang as it is now known, has the characteristics or elements to represent the nation called Malaysia. Most, if not all, Malaysians are able to identify themselves with this piece of cloth that kindles national consciousness.
The flag, on the other hand, would not be able to stir up that vital sense of belonging to a nation among the citizens if it has, for instance, elements of a dacing, or scale, that is easily associated with the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN). Read the rest of this entry »
A tale of two themes
Posted by Kit in nation building on Thursday, 2 August 2012
By Goh Keat Peng | August 2, 2012 0
www.ongohing.wordpress.com
In these past several weeks, Malaysians have seen a drama unfold over what should be the Theme for their country’s forthcoming observance of its independence day. And now placed on the table of the rakyat (people) are two very different Themes.
In this drama, Malaysians have been given a look at not just the output or outcome but the PROCESS in which each of these two very important Themes have been conceived and delivered. Perception comes from how leaders (political or otherwise) go about things. Rightly or wrongly, this is how I perceive things. Correct me if I am wrong.
One theme came straight from the ruling political party coalition via the ministry of information. The party=nation. The party knows best. The rakyat (people)? Just vote us in every 4-5 years. Trust us; we do everything for you. You will always have official avenues to channel your voice to your government. On the issue of national day theme, though, we don’t need really need to hear your suggestion or criticism. We know what is good for you. We have the experience- fifty five years of it. Here then is the Theme for our independence day: “Janji Ditepati”(Promises fulfilled). The rakyat does not have to tell us but we tell you that we have kept our promises! We see no reason why our re-elections campaign theme cannot be the independence day celebration theme. Why not? As the ruling coalition, have we not kept our promises to the nation?
Read the rest of this entry »
Oh Malaysia, Oh Merdeka
Posted by Kit in nation building on Thursday, 2 August 2012
By Allan CF Goh
Oh Malaysia, Oh Merdeka
I will always choose fair Malaysia,
The land where I was born and raised;
So are the many people like me,
Malaysia was our true love to praise.
Once it was a calm idyllic land,
Richly suffused with kind, genteel grace.
It was filled with real beauty and flair,
Compared to today’s mounting disgrace.
Now this beautiful country of ours
Is sadly on the slope of decline,
Because the men who helm her are so
Very exploitatively inclined.
To save the country from further slide,
We all have a duty to perform:
We need to excise all things rotten,
To remove all bad laws, and reform.
Read the rest of this entry »
Race to the bottom in Malaysia
Posted by Kit in Brain drain, Economics, Elections, Najib Razak, UMNO on Thursday, 2 August 2012
By William Barnes | Aug 2, 2012
Asia Times Online
BANGKOK – As Malaysia approaches a general election season, opposition politicians claim Prime Minister Najib Razak’s ruling party and government are stoking racial politics to gain a popular edge with the ethnic Malay majority.
A year after the World Bank warned Malaysia over its acutely debilitating race-based brain drain, veteran opposition leader Lim Kit Siang has said the government is compounding the damage by blatantly playing the “race card” in the run up to the next election, which must be called by next April.
The ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition’s ambitions to lift the economy out of its disappointing holding pattern can go hang when it fears losing for the first time since independence in 1957, he has argued. “They talk all the time about being world beating and wanting to get all Malaysians behind the economy … but it all goes overboard when the focus is on the Malay identity.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Charging Rafizi – gross miscarriage of justice
Posted by Kit in Court, Dr. Chen Man Hin, Financial Scandals on Thursday, 2 August 2012
By Dr Chen Man Hin, DAP Life advisor
I feel there is a gross miscarriage of justice by charging Rafizi for revealing bank accounts of NFCorp.
In my opinion, Rafizi by revealing the bank accounts of NFCorp has shown that the officers of NFCorp were involved in a major offence of laundering money belonging to the people.
NFCorp obtained a sum of RM250 million from the government, ostensibly to invest in a major cattle venture.
The company officers led by its chairman Datuk Seri Mohamed Salleh misused the money and attempted to hide the money in properties in foreign countries. They were engaged in money laundering.
Rafizi discovered this and reported the money laundering operation to the press, based on bank accounts in the names of NFCorp officers.
Read the rest of this entry »
Mounting Malaysian debt could lead to downgrade, says ratings agency
By Lee Wei Lian
The Malaysian Insider
Aug 01, 2012
KUALA LUMPUR, August 1 — Malaysia’s public finances are weak relative to those of its ‘A’ range peers and the country is now on par with more heavily indebted ‘A’ range sovereigns such as Italy, said Fitch Ratings today.
This comes after some economists said that the federal government’s debt, which nearly doubled since 2007 to RM421 billion, poses a fiscal risk to the country if not managed carefully as it impairs Malaysia’s resilience to economic shocks, which appear to be occurring with increasing frequency.
Fitch said that despite strong GDP growth, the deterioration in public debt ratios is affecting Malaysia’s credit profile and a lack of progress on fiscal reforms could lead to a ratings downgrade.
Fitch said that the rise in the federal government debt-to-GDP ratio and the limited broadening of the fiscal revenue base have pushed Malaysia’s debt-to-revenue ratio to 246 per cent in 2011, which is well above the ‘A’ and ‘BBB’ range medians of 137 per cent and 119 per cent respectively and is now on par with more heavily indebted ‘A’ range sovereigns such as Italy at 261 per cent and Israel at 180 per cent.
Italy is considered one of the countries at risk of a debt default and saw its borrowing costs soar to above seven per cent in November last year. Read the rest of this entry »
No more NST for Aliran!
P Ramakrishnan explains why Aliran has terminated its subscription to the New Straits Times.
As of today, Aliran has stopped subscribing to the New Straits Times. It is a decision that was postponed several times because we felt we had to monitor the mainstream media’s coverage. But the one-sided reporting and the biased coverage have been hard to stomach; indeed it has upset thinking and caring Malaysians.
It does not mean we are now going to subscribe to The Star. We discontinued The Star and Utusan many years ago for the same reason. The Star’s reporting has been even worse than the NST. (But some might dispute this!) We shan’t even talk about Utusan…
Of late, both The Star’s and the NST’s coverage of the political situation has been nauseating. There is a commonality in blatantly misleading the public. Malaysians are misinformed, told to keep their eyes only on one side of the coin and kept in the dark about the other side.
The Opposition is deliberately denied space in their coverage. The Opposition is misquoted and words are added when they were not even uttered. Repeated and strenuous attempts by the Opposition to rebut misleading reporting are totally ignored, unfairly and unjustly.
Journalistic ethics and adherence to truth are no longer sacrosanct. They have gone with the wind. Spinning stories and inventing lies to distort the truth are no longer antithetical to respectable journalism. Read the rest of this entry »
Royal Malaysia Police response to ‘Why police are impotent’
CPI Intro: We are sharing with readers the response of Polis Diraja Malaysia (PDRM) to a commentary by Dr Lim Teck Ghee on “Why police are impotent in dealing with growing crime“(23 July 2012).
Interested readers are encouraged to send in their views on the various points raised by PDRM in defending the official crime statistics and the steps taken to combat crime.
By ACP Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf | Tuesday, 31 July 2012 16:39
CPI
There have been quite a number of debates lately on the issues of crime, particularly on the accuracy of official crime statistics and police efficiency in combating crime. Various articles and reports have been written with many quarters offering differing views. The Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM) have constantly been keeping the public abreast on the crime situation and police efforts in crime prevention. In this article, PDRM would like to clarify pertinent issues concerning crime and in particular respond to the article written by Dr. Lim Teck Ghee entitled “Why police are impotent in dealing with growing crime” in CPI website which was published on 23July 2012 .
Read the rest of this entry »
Rafizi Ramli arrested
Posted by Kit in Corruption, UMNO on Wednesday, 1 August 2012
Tweets @limkitsiang :
Rafizi Ramli PKR director of strategy arrested this morning under BAFIA 4exposing RM250 million National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) scandal
9:05am
Najib’s iron fist coming out of velvet glove. Greatest crime in UMNO/BN Msia is not corruption but expose of corruption. Janji Ditepati
9:13am
@rafiziramli Country n good/sensible Msians behind you. You have put Najib in national/international dock. GTP ETP etc in tatters.
9:39am
Olympics Opening Ceremony: Lessons for Malaysia
Posted by Kit in 1Malaysia, nation building, Sports on Tuesday, 31 July 2012
blog.nikicheong.com
Posted on Jul 30, 2012
Last night, I watched the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games for the second time, in the solitude of my room. I had a great time watching it with friends at their place for the first time on the actual night, and in general really enjoyed it. That night, I posted this updated on my Facebook account:
I admit that I’m a sucker for all Olympic Opening Ceremonies but today’s was special. It was patchy as a production, didn’t necessarily like the video/live action stuff, but can Danny Boyle tell a story. The underlying narrative was genius and hats off to him for giving so much credit to those who would never usually get attention – from the NHS to the miners, construction workers who built the stadium to the seven young athletes who lit the gorgeous cauldron. Amazing.
I watched it again because I was still reeling from the show the night before. Plus, having spent the better part of the day reading commentaries and reviews about the event, I realised that there were so many little things I missed. Watching it alone again, and being able to listen to all the commentary, it really did feel like I was watching a different show.
And I still loved it. Read the rest of this entry »
Are We Celebrating Barisan Nasional Day?
Posted by Kit in Elections, Kee Thuan Chye, UMNO on Tuesday, 31 July 2012
By Kee Thuan Chye | Tuesday, 31 July 2012 09:53
Malaysian Digest
BARISAN Nasional (BN) has already started campaigning for the general election – even though it has not yet been called – and the Election Commission (EC) is doing nothing about it.
What’s more, BN is campaigning on a large scale and everyone can see it. It has done this by unabashedly hijacking the National Day celebrations and using it to promote its own propaganda.
The theme for the celebrations is Janji Ditepati (Promises Fulfilled) which does not sound at all like a National Day theme. It instead speaks for BN, which desperately wants to tell the rakyat that it is a government that delivers.
The National Day theme song is glaringly partisan – but for BN, not for the country. Also entitled ‘Janji Ditepati’, it highlights BN’s latest initiatives and hints that it’s time for the rakyat to show its gratitude to BN.
Read the rest of this entry »
Like shooting fish in a barrel
Posted by Kit in Corruption, UMNO on Tuesday, 31 July 2012
By Rom Nain | 10:40AM Jul 26, 2012
Malaysiakini
When it comes to public figures, mainly BN politicians and their families, making a quick and dirty buck or two in this blessed land of 1Malaysia Boleh, evidently nothing, absolutely nothing, is sacred.
Sure, we could go back to the decades of pillage and plunder of the 1980s and 1990s for illustrations, for examples of ‘corruption’, ‘cronyism’ and ‘nepotism’ that appalled and galvanised civil society not only across the sea, in Indonesia, but also closer to home, leading to many thousands marching on the streets of Kuala Lumpur demanding reformasi.
But, really, we don’t have to go that far.
Recent history quite simply is full of such disgraceful tales of greed and the betrayal of the rakyat.
Read the rest of this entry »
Perilous in Perak
By Sakmongkol AK47 | July 31, 2012
The Malaysian Insider
JULY 31 — Perak has 24 parliamentary seats. In 2008, BN won 13 of those seats. Most of them were won on the slimmest of margins. So the argument goes, the opposition also won on slim margins. The counter argument is, the victory by the opposition was won on the courage of convictions while the victory of BN was won as a result of the erosion of confidence. These are two different things. One won as a result of convictions is hard to slip back while the one won as a result of erosion of convictions is extremely difficult to sustain.
Will the people of Perak forget that during the reign of Zamri, he has given out more land than Nizar did when the latter was MB? Many landless people who were without land titles and who have worked the land got it during Nizar’s stint as MB. What wasn’t told was that more Malays got their titles too during Nizar’s time.
During Umno’s time the grant of land was the hijacked prerogative of Umno divisional heads, Umno reps and merciless pengerusi JKKK. During Zamri’s time, more land was given to companies and cronies rather than people.
Read the rest of this entry »
Letter from Tom Pepinsky
Dear Limkitsiangblog,
I want to thank you for including my recent post on your blog. However, I would like to ask you to edit the post in a way that shows proper attribution of the source. I would be grateful if you could make a short editorial comment prior to the post that acknowledges that the text was originally posted at blogs.cornell.edu/indolaysia, and that what you are posting is a reproduction.
This is important for two reasons. First, as a foreign observer of Malaysian politics, it is important that I not be considered to be endorsing any Malaysian politician or political party. Second, it is good blog etiquette to be as clear as possible about the sources of your web links. You do this very well for other posts–for example, your post “Formation of 1 Malaysia national culture in the ‘new regime’” make it clear that that post was originally from The Malaysian Insider. I ask only that you extend the same courtesy to my humble blog.
Thank you for your attention,
Tom
[Admin’s Note: In reproducing above the email from Tom Pepingsky, this blog extends fullest apologies to him for the oversight to provide the proper attribution to the source of the stated article, namely blog.cornell.edu/indolaysia. It is never our intention to claim or suggest that Tom was writing for this blog or giving implicit endorsement of LKS or his party’s program. The oversight in the article “Malaysia and the Perfect Storm” has been rectified.]
Formation of 1 Malaysia national culture in the ‘new regime’
Posted by Kit in 1Malaysia, nation building on Monday, 30 July 2012
— Norani Abu Bakar
The Malaysian Insider
Jul 30, 2012
JULY 30 — As we conceive of a new regime in Malaysia, there are various ideas for a new political structure which must be articulated further. One of these, that of a two-party political system having great potential for transforming Malaysia’s current democracy into a means to national character and human flourishing.
Malaysians are the nation’s stakeholders, and thus this maturation of this new regime has the potential to define their national culture in terms of holistic values. This national culture is a powerful “soft force” that can form, support and move a nation — building and rebuilding it especially in severe conditions such as war, epidemic, natural disaster, collapse of governance, and regional economic melt-down. Can the two-party regime support their collective aspirations for a holistic, rich and cohesive 1 Malaysia culture or will the regime further fragment this community, leaving any newly developed or reformed policies on paper only?
The post-colonial governance, in all of its strengths and weaknesses since 1957, has persevered to secure the physiological needs of Malaysians. However, as Professor AR Embong wrote in “The Role of Social Sciences in Malaysian National Development,” the implementation of Vision 2020 was, as Joseph Stiglitz called the roaring 1990s, “a decade of clutching over wealth and profit.” There is some truth in this, and so for good reason, some Malaysians doubt the efficacy of this new vision. Hence, progressive efforts to revitalise the nation’s soul and identity through 1 Malaysia, and its reorientation towards the higher levels of Maslow’s hierarchy, are perceived with great suspicion. Read the rest of this entry »
What do the polls really tell us?
Posted by Kit in Elections, Najib Razak on Monday, 30 July 2012
— Clive Kessler
The Malaysian Insider
Jul 30, 2012
JULY 30 — You will perhaps allow me to provide a brief commentary on your story “Actual voter sentiment not shown in opinion poll, say analysts”, The Malaysian Insider, July 28.
As any knowledgeable person will tell you, it is pointless to argue about small variations, such as rises or falls of two or three per cent, in a leader’s popularity as indicated by polls such as that of the Merdeka Center.
National trends are assessed on the basis of carefully chosen samples of less than 2,000 respondents. The margin of error in such cases is usually around three per cent.
So it is pointless to argue about small variations.
What is significant about the Merdeka Center’s figures, what has been shown to be a consistent pattern for some time now, and what cannot be denied is this: that those polls show a dramatic gap “across the board” between popular support for (or positive perceptions of) the prime minister and support for his party.
If the PM consistently rates at around 60 per cent (three out of five) and the party at around 40 per cent (or two out of five expressing themselves as “satisfied”), something interesting may be happening. Some interesting forces and perceptions are likely to be “in play.” Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysia water “crisis” signals fierce fight for richest state
By Siva Sithraputhran
KUALA LUMPUR, July 29 | Sun Jul 29, 2012 11:03am IST
(Reuters) – The surprise statement came during a rainy spell and when the seven dams in Malaysia’s richest, most populous state were full.
Reserves of treated water in the opposition-controlled state of Selangor were perilously low, said the water company supplying a population of 7 million in the country’s main industrial base. It was seeking approval to start immediate rationing.
For many it looked like politics, not water, was behind the problem – a measure of how high tensions are running ahead of national elections that must be called by early next year and which may be the closest in Malaysia’s history.
“Of course, it’s a political conspiracy,” said Teresa Kok, a member of the Selangor state executive council and opposition member of parliament.
Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysia and the Perfect Storm
By Thomas B. Pepinsky | July 27, 2012
blogs.cornell.edu/indolaysia
Let’s say that you’re a pessimist about global growth prospects. If so, you’re not alone: Q2 GDP growth in the U.S. is weak, the U.K. is in a double-dip recession, and there’s no end to the Eurozone crisis in sight. Growth in China is softening too, and the rest of the BRICs aren’t registering the growth that we have come to expect over the past five years. If you also think that global financial markets remain fragile, then you’d be right to worry about a perfect storm in the global economy.
This is bad news all around for the big economies. But we should also pay attention to how global economic conditions will affect small open economies. By definition, these are economies that are dependent on trade and investment, and which therefore have harnessed themselves to the global economy as a basic engine for growth and development. This gives them access to markets for their exports and to investment, but by the same token, it makes them vulnerable to whatever ups and downs the global economy experiences.
Malaysia is a classic example of a small open economy. And a new report (unfortunately behind a paywall) from Roubini Global Economics argues that Malaysia is not only the Asian country whose economy is most vulnerable to a perfect storm, but also the country which is perhaps least able to do anything about it. Take note of the following: Read the rest of this entry »
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