Archive for August 5th, 2015

Call on former PMs, DPMs and Ministers, former and current MPs, former heads of Ministries and departments, former and current civil society leaders to step forward as patriots to save Malaysia from becoming a failed state because of a fractured government, rampant corruption, socio-economic injustices and collapse of good governance

Malaysia is terribly sick and in an unprecedented crisis.

Never before in the nation’s history has there been a more fractured government and divided nation – with the government warring against itself after the sacking of Gani Patail as Attorney-General, the scuttling of the multi-agency Special Task Force on 1MDB and the Wall Street Journal report of July 3 about RM2.6 billion deposited into Prime Minister’s personal accounts in AmBank in March 2013, and the “witch-hunt” against the other three agencies in the Special Task Force, the AGC, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and Bank Negar Malaysia (BNM).

AGC had already been decapitated with the sudden and shocking sacking of Gani Patail (who seemed to have become the first Malaysian to become a non-person and disappeared into Malaysia’s Gulag Archipelago) and the appointment of a new head, Tan Sri Mohamad Apandi Ali, who had to instantly resign his Federal Court judgeship to replace Gani as Attorney-General.
The “witch-hunt”, grounded on the expose of an international conspiracy to “criminalise” Najib and topple the elected Prime Minister of Malaysia involving top government officers, seemed design to decapitate more than one enforcement agency.

The top two in the MACC, Chief Commissioner Tan Sri Abu Kassim Mohamed and his deputy, Datuk Mohd Shukri Abdull have gone on unexplained leave, raising the question whether their heads are on the chopping block. Read the rest of this entry »

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Call on Najib to halt the “witch-hunt” in the past week in high government places to ferret out so-called traitors involved in an international conspiracy to topple him as the elected Prime Minister of Malaysia

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak should halt the “witch-hunt” in the past week in high government places to ferret out so-called traitors involved in an international conspiracy to topple him as the elected Prime Minister of Malaysia.

The sacking of Tan Sri Gani Patail as the Attorney-General of Malaysia after serving as the first legal officer of the land for three Prime Ministers for nearly 13 years seems part of such a “witch-hunt”, so too the wave of police arrests or questioning since Friday night starting with the former MACC adviser Rashpal Singh, Attorney-General Chambers’ (AGC) officer Jessica Gurmeet Kaur, followed by six senior Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officers including MACC deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Sazalee Abdul Khairi, MACC special operations director Bahri Mohamad Zin forensics director IG Chandran and MACC’s Special Operations Department officer Roslan Che Amat.

With the MACC Chief Commissioner Tan Sri Abu Kassim Mohamed and his deputy, Datuk Mohd Shukri Abdull on unexplained leave, the question is whether the heads of the two MACC chiefs are on the chopping block, especially with the latter being named as among the top government officers involved in an international plot to topple Najib as the elected Prime Minister of Malaysia. Read the rest of this entry »

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When Najib sacks AG and DPM and produce a reshuffled 1MDB Cabinet, understandable MACC can only seek divine intervention to be allowed to carry out their anti-corruption duties

When the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak sacks Tan Sri Gani Patail as Attorney-General who had served three Prime Ministers in nearly 13 years, and Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, for asking questions all Malaysians are asking about the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal, and the multi-agency Special Task Force on 1MDB becomes “the hunted” instead of being the hunters in the 1MDB investigations, it is understandable that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) could only seek divine intervention to be allowed to carry out their anti-corruption duties.

The MACC often bragged that Malaysia is now the world’s model of a comprehensive systemic attack on corruption, and it is undoubtedly pioneering anti-corruption efforts in a new dimension – seeking divine help and intervention!

Najib’s reshuffled 1MDB Cabinet which meets today will not admit that Malaysia has becoming a laughing stock, not only among Malaysians, but to the world when the MACC made the astonishing admission that the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) was correct when its report of July 3 said that government investigators had found that US$700 million (RM2.6 billion) had been deposited into Najib’s personal accounts in AmBank in March 2013 just before the dissolution of Parliament for the holding of the 13th General Election, but that the RM2.6 billion was a donation and not from 1MDB funds.

This MACC statement did not come as a surprise as Najib’s new Ministerial “spin doctors” had been preparing the public for such an announcement, but it furnishes a classic example of Najib’s recent admission that he valued loyal people over smart people in Cabinet. Read the rest of this entry »

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The scandal in Malaysia

– Danny Quah
The Malaysian Insider
31 July 2015

In 1971, more than forty years before the world would turn its attention to the top 1% and the problem of income inequality, Malaysia embarked on one of history’s boldest and most noble of experiments to reduce social disparity. Malaysia’s New Economic Policy or NEP would seek to “eradicate poverty for all” and “eliminate identification of race by economic function and geographic location”. This polity was setting out to solve the massive problem of injustice and inequality that other societies much more mature continued to struggle with.

Malaysia was a democracy that hewed the rule of law. The NEP would be Malaysia’s key political driver. Over the decades that followed, the NEP’s mantra would serve as backdrop to almost all political discourse in the country. NEP-themed policies would, among much else, flesh out the concept of Bumiputera – an ethnic-driven formulation of native peoples in Malaysia.

It is difficult to grow an economy – look at train wrecks strewn around the world. But seeking to do so and at the same reduce ethnic- and rural-urban inequality, and maintain social harmony among diverse ethnic and religious groups is an order of magnitude more arduous. Malaysia succeeded: Its income is now well above world emerging-economy average, and its urban infrastructure and worker skills approach those in the first world. Malaysia’s top bankers, business people, and entrepreneurs are admired everywhere. NEP reduced pockets of extreme poverty and created a significant, thriving, and successful Bumiputera middle class – a group of professionals and intellectuals whose contributions to Malaysian society would be the pride of any country.

And, although from time to time patchily diverging from the ideal, throughout this history Malaysia worked hard to maintain its young democracy and its adherence to rule of law, and to support a healthy vigorous open sphere of public debate. Sensitive racial questions were out of bounds, but open questioning of the government was lively. Top government officials routinely had the judiciary rule against them. And a national identity emerged, one that combined the best aspects of local culture and an easy-going open-minded cosmopolitanism developed from, among other things, the many Malaysians who have seen significant international experience. More so than even when within, Malaysians outside Malaysia saw each other for the warm and lively friends they genuinely were, people who felt driven by a mission to make their country better.

Since his 2009 swearing-in, Malaysia’s current prime minister has sought to articulate an international vision for a ‘coalition of moderates’. As leader of a successful moderate Muslim country, he carried an authority and credibility sorely needed in global discourse. He was widely accepted in international circles, and even famously golfed with Barack Obama.

All this is now at risk. Read the rest of this entry »

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Economic research body says ringgit to decline further if confidence crisis remains

The Malaysian Insider
4 August 2015

The ringgit can be expected to deteriorate further if Malaysia does not solve its confidence crisis stemming from political instability in the country.

Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER) executive director Dr Zakariah Abdul Rashid said lack of public confidence is the key factor resulting in the weakening ringgit, should crude oil prices remain stable.

“The political situation is complex – from the lack of confidence on how 1MDB is handled to the Cabinet reshuffle – these have put pressure on investors’ confidence and the ringgit,” he said during MIER’s 13th national economic briefing. Read the rest of this entry »

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