Archive for November, 2017
Three dominant thoughts when ploughing through RCI Report on Bank Negara Forex Losses
Posted by Kit in Financial Scandals, Parliament on Thursday, 30 November 2017
I had three dominant thoughts when ploughing through the Royal Commission of Inquiry Report into the Bank Negara Forex Losses in the 1990s, tabled in Parliament today.
Let me share these three dominant thoughts before I have gone through the 830-page report.
Firstly, how accurate I was when I spoke in Parliament about a quarter of a century ago in 1993 and 1994 about the Bank Negara Forex Losses.
In my speech in Parliament in the debate on the Royal Address in April 1994, I estimated that the Bank Negara forex losses in the early nineties could exceed RM30 billion. Read the rest of this entry »
Adnan commended for setting good example for his apologies to DAP Pahang State Assembly Opposition Leader Tengku Zulpuri and DAP Assemblyman Leong Ngah Ngah for improper State Assembly conduct
Pahang Mentri Besar Datuk Adnan Yaakob is to be commended for his apologies to the DAP Pahang State Assembly Opposition Leader Tengku Zulpuri Shah Raja Puji and the DAP Tanah Rata State Assemblyman Leong Ngah Ngah for his improper State Assembly conduct last week.
Adnan had threatened to punch Tengku Zulpuri and had questioned if he was a Muslim when Tengku Zulpuri had challenged Adnan’s statement that the Penang floods earlier this month had been an act of God in retaliation to beer festivals that were allowed to happen in the state. Read the rest of this entry »
The Trap of Monolingualism
M. Bakri Musa
27th Nov 2017
Language is not only a means of communication but also an instrument through which we look at the world. Fluency in a foreign language gives us another instrument to view reality, the equivalent of shining the light from a different angle and giving us a fresh perspective. While we have come a long way from the earlier brash assertion of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis that language controls our thoughts, nonetheless the way we look at reality is conditioned by the habits and attributes of our mother tongue.
When hunting with an Australian aborigine, telling him that there is a kangaroo on the left would not be terribly helpful as he would first have to figure out whether you are referring to his or your left, a critical differentiation. It would be more meaningful and less chance of your being struck by a stray bullet if you were to say that the critter is to the west or east. Those Australian natives are more adept with cardinal signs. Out in the arid barren plains of the continent’s interior, there are few terrestrial landmarks to make meaningful references to left or right.
In their book In Other Words: The Science and Psychology of Second-Language Acquisition, Ellen Bialystok and Kenji Hakuta suggest that the benefits of being bilingual go beyond knowing two languages. As the structures and ideas of languages are different, a child has to think in more complex ways than if he were to know only one language. That increases “meta-linguistic awareness,” a greater sensitivity to language in general and awareness of its meaning and structure. Read the rest of this entry »
50-year dependence of villagers of Kampong Kelanaan in Melalap on rainwater a clear case of criminal neglect of development needs of people of Sabah when DAP Impian Sabah resolved their problem in seven days with solar-pump clean water project costing RM50,000
This solar-pump clean water project at Kampong Kelanaan in Melalap, Tenom is the fourth mini-infrastructure project by DAP Sabah Impian Malaysia team which I had to privilege of launching since Friday, firstly a water gravity project at Kampong Pangas Ulu in Keningau, secondly, a water gravity project in Kampong Magatang in Sook, Pensiangan, a third a solar-pump clean water project at Kampong Molosok, Dalit, Pensiangan.
For 50 years, the fifty households in Kampong Kelanaan in Melalap comprising Lun Dayeh people had to depend on rain for their water supply.
Despite repeated pleas by the villagers in Kampong Kelanaan for help to resolve their water, road and land problems, no help was forthcoming at all, although the State Assemblyman for Melalap is none other than the Minister for Rural Development Datuk Radin Malleh.
In desperation, the villagers of Kampong Kelanaan sought help from DAP Sabah Impian Malaysia, which ended the 50 years of dependency of Kampong Kelanaan villagers on rain for water supply by building a solar-pump clean water project in seven days with five DAP Sabah Impian Malaysia personnel, five volunteers from Penang, Johore and Selangor and gotong-royong effort by 50 villagers.
The whole project cost RM50,000! Read the rest of this entry »
Never before in six decades of nation’s history have Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, region or station, been so concerned about the future of the country as we had clearly taken the wrong turn in nation-building at variance from the bedrock principles of the Malaysian Constitution and Rukunegara
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Elections, nation building, Sabah on Saturday, 25 November 2017
Never before in six decades of the nation’s history have Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, region or station, been so concerned about the future of the country as we had clearly taken the wrong turn in nation-building at variance from the bedrock principles of the Malaysian Constitution and Rukunegara.
This is best illustrated by the following developments:
• The failure of the federal government to fully honour the Malaysia Agreement 1963 for Sabah and Sarawak, with the Keningau Batu Sumpah standing as an indictment of such failure, particularly the three core issues of religion, land and local customs.
• In the Cobbold Commission Report 1963, the Malayan representatives made the commitment that the Malaysian Constitution “in effect would be secular”, and it is most shocking that such constitutional safeguards had been so undermined in recent years, that the Federal Government is openly funding activities of organisations which attacked the “secular” principle in the Malaysian Constitution and the Rukunegara principle on the supremacy of the Malaysian Constitution. Land which embraces territorial waters raise the question of Sabah and Sarawak’s rightful share of oil royalties, while Malaysia’s unique asset of linguistic, religious and cultural diversity has come under intense attack in recent years.
• Even the Malay Rulers are concerned that the Malaysian nation-building process has gone awry, resulting in three statements by them in the past two years, the first one in October 2015 expressing concern on the 1MDB scandal, the second statement in February 2016 on the National Security Council (NSC) Bill with its impact on democracy and human rights and recently, the third statement in October this year expressing the Malay Rulers’ concern on national unity and harmony. Read the rest of this entry »
THE CLARION CALL
Alwi Jantan
Kuala Lumpur
23rd November 2017
Where are my brothers and sisters,
My friends of yester years?
Who together built this nation
With a democratic constitution?
The time has come for us to rise
In unison and in one voice
To save our beloved nation
For our future generations. Read the rest of this entry »
Lau Dak Kee is the best grassroots DAP leader in the first four decades of the DAP struggle to achieve the Malaysian Dream
We are gathered here tonight to remember Sdr. Lau Dak Kee, the best grassroots DAP leader in the first four decades of the DAP struggle for the achievement of the Malaysian Dream.
Dak Kee’s political struggle was distinguished by his unswerving loyalty, commitment and stamina to the ideals of justice, freedom and national unity – the core principles and ideals of the DAP’s political objective.
Dak Kee underwent three great tests when the DAP was quite “down and out” in the doldrums and emerged with flying colours.
The first test was from 1969 to 1974, when the DAP underwent great trials and tribulations, losing four of the 13 MPs and 11 out of the 31 State Assemblymen elected in the 1969 general elections, as a result of the pincer onslaughts of intimidation and inducement on the DAP elected representatives to betray the party.
Many were pessimistic that the DAP could survive the ferocious and systematic political offensives focussed on the DAP, with one top government leader so confident that he declared in 1972 that the DAP was already one foot in the grave. Read the rest of this entry »
A sad and shameful way to celebrate Malaysia’s 60th anniversary, with an ever-widening circle of nations regarding Malaysia as a state rife with corruption and kleptocracy – from the US, Europe, Asia and now even in Africa
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Elections on Monday, 20 November 2017
It is a sad and shameful way to celebrate Malaysia’s 60th anniversary, with an ever-widening circle of nations in the world regarding Malaysia as a state rife with corruption and kleptocracy – from the United States, Europe, Asia and now even in Africa.
The Federal Government and the national institutions have not lifted a finger in the last few years to clear and cleanse Malaysia of the infamy and ignominy of being regarded by the world not only as a new member of the infamous club of world kleptocracies but shooting up to a leading position as a global kleptocracy.
Malaysia’s failure to ensure and maintain good governance and descent to a kleptocracy is reflected by the history of the 22-year annual Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) from 1995-2016, which shows that Malaysia had stagnated and even regressed in integrity and principles of accountability and good governance in the past two decades as compared to some countries, like China and Indonesia. Read the rest of this entry »
Touched by David Choi’s apology to Taiping farmer Lee who was arrested and remanded in Kuantan for two days as a result of MCA Youth police report for sharing a video deemed insulting to deputy minister Chong Sin Woon
I am touched by the news report of the Pahang MCA division leader who was suspended from party positions for apologising to a Taiping farmer Lee who was arrested as a result of a MCA Youth police report for sharing a video deemed insulting to deputy education minister Chong Sin Woon, following the latter’s “deity” jibe after the Penang floods, and was brought to Kuantan and remanded for two days.
David Choi was stripped of all party positions in the Indera Mahkota division, including as its public complaints bureau chief, committee member, and GE14 operation room, banner and pamphlet chief.
It is reported that the MCA division will write to the MCA central disciplinary committee to decide on Choi’s party membership.
Very aptly, Choi said in Chinese: “Man doing, heaven watching”. Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysia’s international standing and reputation have suffered such a slump that we are the butt of jokes of Africans in international conferences for corruption and kleptocracy
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Election, Pakatan Harapan on Friday, 17 November 2017
The forthcoming 14th General Election which would be held in the next few months is a golden opportunity for patriotic Malaysia to cleanse our international image and standing and to regain the respect and admiration of the world for our democracy, economic prowess, integrity and good governance.
A few days ago, I experienced a very humiliating experience when I saw a video of an African leader at an international conference making a joke about corruption in Malaysia.
This is a sign of the slump of Malaysia’s international standing and reputation that instead of Malaysians making Africa the butt of jokes about corruption, Malaysia has become the butt of jokes of Africans in international conferences about corruption and kleptocracy. Read the rest of this entry »
Report: Bank’s board briefed on deposits into Najib’s account
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Thursday, 16 November 2017
Free Malaysia Today
November 13, 2017
PETALING JAYA: Members of AmBank’s board were in the know about large quantities of money deposited into the accounts of Prime Minister Najib Razak in 2013, according to Australian broadcasting agency SBS.
It said the full 12-man board had been briefed about the matter on multiple occasions between September and November 2014, but was not aware then of the source of the funds.
Following the briefing, then-CEO Ashok Ramamurthy, who had been seconded by the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) to head AmBank, was directed to report the transactions to Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), it added. Read the rest of this entry »
Attendance of 54% of 2012 DAP delegates at DAP Special Congress yesterday a most commendable turnout
Contrary to the hype of Barisan Nasional-owned and controlled media about “DISMAL TURNOUT IN DAP POLLS”, the attendance of 54% of the 2012 DAP delegates at the DAP Special Congress to elect for the third time the 2012 DAP Central Executive Committee as directed by the Registrar of Societies is a most commendable turnout.
One thought that struck me at the DAP Special Congress yesterday was what would have been the turnout of the Barisan Nasional component parties, in particular UMNO, MCA, Gerakan and MIC, if they had to assemble their party delegates five years ago for a re-enactment of a special party conference.
I have grave doubts that anyone of them would be able to muster a turnout of over 50 per cent of their delegates five years ago, and I won’t be surprised if some of them can’t even get 30% attendance turnout rate. Read the rest of this entry »
Will those who conspired long and hard in past five years to snuff out DAP from the Malaysian political landscape succeed tomorrow?
Posted by Kit in DAP, nation building on Saturday, 11 November 2017
Will those who conspired long and hard in the past five years to snuff out the DAP from the Malaysian political landscape succeed tomorrow when the DAP holds a special congress to re-elect the 2012 DAP national leadership based on the 2012 DAP delegates’ list – as directed by the Registrar of Societies?
Time will tell but the DAP is not going to allow itself to be snuffed out of the struggle in Malaysia for democracy, justice, freedom, development, good governance and national unity.
I said yesterday that the Penang flood-and-storm disaster is an object lesson for all Malaysians, as in natural disasters like the great Kelantan flood disaster at the end 2014, all Malaysians throughout the country, regardless of race, religion, region or politics, demonstrate that they are Malaysians first and last, and came forward to render assistance to their fellow-Malaysians in distress and need.
The question is why we need to wait for a natural disaster to happen for these feelings of solidarity, compassion, goodwill and unity to surface – transcending race, religion, region or politics? Read the rest of this entry »
Five decades of DAP have proven that DAP is a patriotic Malaysian party dedicated to the betterment of all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or region and committed to the fundamental principles of the Constitution
Posted by Kit in DAP, nation building on Friday, 10 November 2017
It is a special privilege to welcome Datuk Yeop Adlan Che Rose as a DAP member, as it is a home-coming, as his father Che Rose bin Haji Abdullah was the DAP candidate in the first by-election after the 1974 General Election in the Alor Pongsu constituency in Perak state assembly on 18th December 1974.
The Alor Pongsu by-election 43 years ago is testimony that right from the beginning of DAP’s formation 52 years ago, DAP had never regarded itself as a Chinese or non-Malay party, never an anti-Malay and anti-Islam party, but a party for all races and religions in the country.
DAP contested the rural Alor Pongsu by-election not because we expected to win, but part of a long-term reach-out by the party to all Malaysians and regions with the DAP message for national unity, justice, freedom, development and good governance for all.
When I visited Bagan Serai (the centre of the Alor Pongsu constituency) in December 2015, I was pleasantly surprised by an old photograph taken when I visited Bagan Serai at the end of 1970, which was shortly after I was released from the first Internal Security Act (ISA) detention. Read the rest of this entry »
The Saudi Purge Isn’t Just a Power Grab
Posted by Kit in Corruption, International, Islam on Thursday, 9 November 2017
By Peter Waldman and Glen Carey
Bloomberg
November 9, 2017
It’s a go-for-broke upheaval. The question now, for hopeful investors, is whether the crown prince follows his corruption crackdown by opening up an economy dominated by plutocrats and royal cronies.
It makes sense to be cynical about Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s ostensible crackdown on corruption in Saudi Arabia.
Among the 11 princes, 4 ministers, and dozens of well-known businessmen arrested were some of the 32-year-old’s last potential rivals to the Saudi throne.
The move also smacks of an asset snatch. Police nabbed 3 of the Arab world’s 10 richest men, including investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the billionaire best known for rescuing Citicorp in 1991 and making big bets on Apple Inc. and 21st Century Fox Inc.
But was it only a Machiavellian power play? Or is this the start of a dramatic, go-for-broke attempt to transform a country that’s resisted change for decades? Read the rest of this entry »
Attention: Saudi Prince in a Hurry
Posted by Kit in Corruption, International on Wednesday, 8 November 2017
Thomas L. Friedman
New York Times
NOV. 7, 2017
To understand the upheaval that is taking place in Saudi Arabia today, you have to start with the most important political fact about that country: The dominant shaping political force there for the past four decades has not been Islamism, fundamentalism, liberalism, capitalism or ISISism.
It has been Alzheimer’s.
The country’s current king is 81 years old. He replaced a king who died at 90, who replaced a king who died at 84. It’s not that none of them introduced reforms. It’s that at a time when the world has been experiencing so much high-speed change in technology, education and globalization, these successive Saudi monarchs thought that reforming their country at 10 miles an hour was fast enough — and high oil prices covered for that slow pace. Read the rest of this entry »
Saudi mass arrests jolt markets but many see overdue swoop on corruption
Posted by Kit in Corruption, International on Wednesday, 8 November 2017
Katie Paul, Stephen Kalin
Reuters
8th November 2017
RIYADH (Reuters) – All major Gulf stock markets slid on Tuesday on jitters about Saudi Arabia’s sweeping anti-graft purge, a campaign seen by critics as a populist power grab but by ordinary Saudis as an overdue attack on the sleaze of a moneyed ultra-elite.
U.S. President Donald Trump endorsed the crackdown, saying some of those arrested have been “milking” Saudi Arabia for years, but some Western officials expressed unease about the possible reaction in Riyadh’s opaque tribal and royal politics.
Authorities detained dozens of top Saudis including billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal in a move widely seen as an attempt by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to neuter any opposition to his lightening ascent to the pinnacle of power.
Admirers see it as an assault on the endemic theft of public funds in the world’s top oil exporter, an absolute monarchy where the state and the ruling family are intertwined. Read the rest of this entry »
Singapore Police Examine Goldman’s Role in 1MDB Deals
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals on Tuesday, 7 November 2017
By Andrea Tan
Bloomberg
November 3, 2017
Singaporean prosecutors and police are examining Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s relationship with the Malaysian state investment fund at the center of global money laundering probes, people with knowledge of the matter said.
The Commercial Affairs Department, the police’s economic crime unit, and city prosecutors have interviewed current and former Goldman Sachs executives who worked on bond offerings from 1Malaysia Development Bhd., said the people, who asked not to be named because the queries are confidential. Investigators are also looking into the firm’s links with Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho, who the U.S. has alleged controlled a plot to siphon billions of dollars from the bond proceeds, the people said.
Investigators’ meetings with current and former Goldman Sachs employees are part of a criminal probe into fund flows related to 1MDB, the people said. The bank itself isn’t the focus of the investigation, they said. Neither Goldman Sachs nor its current or former employees have been publicly accused of criminal offenses or charged in relation to the fund, whose dealings have sparked probes in Singapore, Switzerland and the U.S. Read the rest of this entry »
1MDB-linked Prince Turki among those nabbed for corruption in Saudi Arabia
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals on Tuesday, 7 November 2017
The Edge Markets
November 06, 2017
(Nov 6): Prince Turki bin Abdullah, co-founder of Petrosaudi, the company that is embroiled in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd scandal, was among the 11 princes arrested in anti-corruption raids in Saudi Arabia on Saturday.
Reuters had named Prince Turki bin Abdullah, the former governor of Riyadh province, as among those arrested.
“A Saudi official said former Riyadh Governor Prince Turki bin Abdullah was detained on accusations of corruption in the Riyadh Metro project and taking advantage of his influence to award contracts to his own companies,” Reuters reported. Read the rest of this entry »
UMNO/BN government caught red-handed in trying to “steal” the 14GE by shifting 1,051 army voters to an uncompleted Segamat military camp
Posted by Kit in Elections, Pakatan Harapan on Saturday, 4 November 2017
Yesterday, together with the Johor DAP State Chairman and MP for Kluang, Liew Chin Tong, Johor State Assemblyman for Jementah Tan Chen Choon, State Assemblyman for Mengkibol, Tan Hon Ping, State Assemblyman for Bekok, Lim Eng Guan and State Assemblyman for Tangkak, Ee Chin Li, I went to Batu Anam in Segamat to see for myself the UMNO/BN attempt, in cahoots with the Election Commission, to “steal” the 14th General Elections by shifting 1,051 army voters to an uncompleted Segamat military camp to save the MIC President and Health Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. S. Subramaniam from defeat in the Segamat parliamentary constituency.
A new military camp at Jalan Pulapol, Segamat was under construction, and it would not be completed until April next year, but 1,051 voters comprising army personnel and spouses have already been shifted there, appearing in the new electoral roll for Segamat parliamentary constituency.
How is this possible? Read the rest of this entry »
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