Archive for December, 2017
Reports of the World Bank and IMF
In past week the World Bank and the IMF have issued reports and statements concerning the Malaysian economy. The IMF released a brief statement entitled IMF Staff Completes 2018 Article IV Visit to Malaysia while the World Bank published its report in the Malaysia Economic Monitor.
The IMF note highlighted in highly nuanced language, in summary form, the outcome of the Annual Article IV Consultations with the Government.
The highlights made reference to recent economic performance and revised forecasts for the current year and expected growth in 2018. The revisions in the estimated and projected GDP growth rates for Malaysia are thus in step with revisions that the IMF has made for almost all countries since it issued its earlier estimates and forecasts.
Beyond the reference to growth prospects the statement took up a number of other policy concerns. It made veiled statements about the need for “higher revenues”—alerting all and sundry that taxes will have to be raised; it reminded the need to implement the adjustment programs outlined in the 11th Five Year Plan; etc. meaning that reform policies are not being implemented. The statement is thus a rap on the Government’s knuckles .
It is not inappropriate to read between the lines from the following:
“In the medium term, fiscal policy should follow a gradual consolidation path, and the composition of adjustment could be improved to make it more revenue based and to make room for the structural reforms and increased social spending for inclusive growth. Medium term fiscal targets should be better communicated.“
The statement contains cautionary remarks that urge the Government to pay heed to the downside risks it faces for which it is ill prepared. Read the rest of this entry »
No anger or outrage but only pity and contempt that the MCA leader has sunk so low as to spread the atrocious lies of UMNO and PAS leaders that I want to be Prime Minister
I should feel angry or outraged but I have only pity and contempt for the MCA President, Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai that he has sunk so low as to spread the atrocious lies of UMNO and PAS leaders that I want to be Prime Minister.
Even a person of minimum political sense would know that this canard has been used by UMNO leaders for quite some time to scare and railroad the Malay electorate to vote for UMNO in the next general election, as the centerpiece of their campaign of lies, fake news and false information that if UMNO is defeated in the next general election, the Malays and Islam would perish in Malaysia.
There is no need for me to repeat what I had said before that in my 52 years in politics, the thought of becoming Prime Minister has never entered my mind.
Let me reiterate my three basic political positions:
Read the rest of this entry »
Is DAP “unclean” because it does not support Hadi as Prime Minister?
Posted by Kit in Corruption, DAP, Islam, PAS on Sunday, 17 December 2017
The attack by the PAS President, Datuk Seri Hadi Awang that the DAP is unclean sets many Malaysians asking whether the DAP is unclean because it does not support Hadi as Prime Minister but would become instantly “clean” if DAP supports Hadi as Prime Minister.
For seven years from 2008 to 2015, Hadi led PAS to co-operate with DAP and PKR in Pakatan Rakyat to replace the UMNO/BN coalition in Putrajaya.
At which point Hadi found that the DAP was “unclean” and not worthy of co-operation?
Was it in 2012 when Hadi sought and failed to get the support of DAP that the Pakatan Rakyat candidate for Prime Minister should be Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and not Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim?
Was Hadi preparing to spring a surprise to use the quota of PAS MPs as the “kingmakers” to decide which coalition, Pakatan Rakyat or Barisan Nasional, should form the federal government after the 13th General Election, depending among other things on whether Hadi got his way on who would be the Prime Minister – with Hadi always preferring to be Deputy Prime Minister of a Najib-led instead of an Anwar-led Cabinet? Read the rest of this entry »
Hadi has jumped on the Najib bandwagon spreading the lies that I want to be Prime Minister and that if UMNO loses, the Malays and Islam will perish in Malaysia
PAS President Datuk Seri Hadi Awang has jumped on the Najib bandwagon, spreading the lies that I want to be Prime Minister and that if UMNO loses in the next general election, the Malays and Islam will perish in Malaysia.
The UMNO mouthpiece, the New Straits Times, today reported Hadi’s comments from Marang on the UMNO-generated controversy that “DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang could end up becoming the prime minister in the event the opposition wins the General 14th General Election”, quoting Hadi as saying that PAS most definitely oppose a non-Muslim leader becoming prime minister.
Hadi said: “Our priority is to ensure that a Muslim leads the country.
“That is important. We must ensure this country remains under the leadership of a Muslim.”
In the past week, both the UMNO owned and controlled printed and online media had been trying to generate a controversy over the dual theme of Najib’s speech at the recent UMNO General Assembly and which was repeated ad nauseam during the five-day UMNO Assemblies,, that I want to be Prime Minister and that if UMNO loses in the next general election, the Malays and Islam will perish in Malaysia but with no success.
Now Hadi is trying to salvage UMNO to keep alive the dual lies of Najib and UMNO, that I want to be Prime Minister and that if UMNO loses, Malays and UMNO will perish in Malaysia? Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysia is already the butt of jokes of Africans for our global kleptocracy, let us not be another African butt of jokes for our democracy
Posted by Kit in Corruption, democracy, Elections, Financial Scandals on Friday, 15 December 2017
Malaysians have two objectives in the forthcoming 14th General Elections.
Firstly, for Malaysia to mature to become a normal democracy and secondly, to save the nation from the infamy and ignominy of being regarded worldwide as a global kleptocracy.
The Pakatan Harapan parties of DAP, PKR, AMANAH and Bersatu are fully committed to the ballot box as the sole avenue for political and democratic change. The 14GE will be the 12th general elections for the DAP in over five decades and the history and record of the DAP is unswerving commitment to the democratic and constitutional process to effect political change.
The real question at issue in the 14GE is whether Najib and UMNO are equally committed to see Malaysia mature as a normal democracy where change of the federal government through the ballot box is accepted as a healthy democratic process and not one to invite threats of violence, bloodshed, chaos, riots or coups. Read the rest of this entry »
Najib’s misdeeds at the 71st UMNO General Assembly which still rankle Malaysians who are rational, fair-minded, patriotic and nationalistic
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Election, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak, Pakatan Harapan on Wednesday, 13 December 2017
It is almost a week week since the 71st UMNO General Assembly but what the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak said and did at the opening of the UMNO General Assembly and the winding-up still rankle rational, fair-minded, patriotic and nationalistic Malaysians who believe in what Bapa Malaysia Tengku Abdul Rahman said in 1957 about the country being “a beacon of light in a disturbed and distracted world” and the Dream and Vision in the Merdeka and Malaysia Proclamations of a Malaysia of excellence, justice, integrity, freedom and harmony despite the diverse races, religions and cultures in Malaysia.
Firstly, Najib’s resort to lies and falsehoods when he accused the DAP of being anti-Malay and anti-Islam, that “DAP yang terang terang Anti-Melayu dan Islam, sebagai tercatat dalam perlembagaan DAP, langsung tidak meyebut Islam sebagai Agama Persekutuan”.
Present at the 71st UMNO General Assembly opening were the leaders of the other 12 Barisan Nasional component parties, such as MCA, MIC, Gerakan and the Sabah and Sarawak component parties.
His criticism of DAP that “tercatat dalam perlembagaan, langsung tidak sebut Islam sebagai Agama Persekutuan” applies in equal measure to the 12 other BN component parties.
Will Najib accuse the other 12 BN component parties, and therefore the Barisan Nasional coalition, as anti-Malay and anti-Islam? Read the rest of this entry »
If Najib can get away with the 1MDB “kleptocracy at its worst” in the 14GE, what is there to prevent Malaysia from scaling greater kleptocratic heights after the general election with 2MDB, 3MDB and worse money-laundering scandals which will make 1MDB scandal look like peanuts?
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Elections, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Tuesday, 12 December 2017
This has never happened before.
Malaysia singled out in an international forum as the No. 1 rogue nation in the world, with the United States Attorney-General Jeff Sessions condemning 1MDB, the brainchild of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, as “kleptocracy at its worst” at the Global Forum on Asset Recovery (GFAR) co-organised by the UK and US governments on 4th December DC.
Again, never happened before, news reports of Sessions’ castigation of Malaysia as global kleptocracy completely blacked out by UMNO/BN owned and controlled mainstream media, whether online or printed, in the country – whether the New Straits Times, Utusan Malaysia, Berita Harian or The Star.
I shudder to think that if Najib can get away with the 1MDB “kleptocracy at its worst” in the impending 14th General Election, what is there to prevent Malaysia from scaling greater kleptocratic heights after the general election with 2MDB, 3MDB and worse money-laundering scandals which will make 1MDB look like peanuts?
Read the rest of this entry »
JASA Director-General is paid higher than a Minister because he must be a person who is no respector for the truth and must be in the forefront to tell lies to defend Najib and “global kleptocracy”
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak, UMNO on Monday, 11 December 2017
Last month, Parliamentary Opposition Leader Datin Seri Dr.Wan Azizah Wan Ismail asked in Parliament why the Director-General of of Special Affairs Department (Jasa) is paid more than the monthly salary of Ministers, including the Communications and Multimedia Minister, to whom the JASA Director-General is supposed to be answerable to.
This answer has been given by the JASA Director-General Datuk Mohd Puad Zarkashi in his response to my criticisms of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s summing-up speech at the UMNO General Assembly on Saturday.
It is clear that the reason why the JASA Director-General is paid higher than a Minister, including the Minister of Communications and Multimedia to whom he is not answerable to as he is accountable only to the Prime Minister is that the Jasa DG must be a person who is no respector for the truth and must be in the forefront even to tell lies to defend Najib and Malaysia’s infamy and ignominy as a “global kleptocracy”. Read the rest of this entry »
14th General Election will be battle of truth vs lies, people of Malaysia vs UMNO/BN and “No Kleptocracy in Malaysia vs 2MDB/3MDB and more”! I have a confession to make.
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Sunday, 10 December 2017
I have a confession to make.
UMNO/BN owned or controlled media made quite a circus during the UMNO General Assembly over a former Penang DAP State Assemblyman for Jawi, Tan Beng Huat leaving the party to join the People’s Alternative Party (PAP), and I was singled out as the main reason for Tan’s departure from the party.
When I saw a photograph of Tan’s submitting his membership application to People’s Alternative Party, I had thought that the younger person to his right was Tan Beng Huat.
Tan resigned from the DAP more than a year ago, and he did not breathe a word about what he was purported to have said on Friday.
Now a person whom I have no impression whatsoever is quoted as authority by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak that I want to be Prime Minister of Malaysia.
This is quite a reflection on the credibility and authority of Najib as the sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia.
Read the rest of this entry »
Will Najib set a “wasatiyyah” example instead of leading a campaign of lies and falsehoods against the Opposition in the run-up to the 14GE?
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Corruption, DAP, Najib Razak, Pakatan Harapan, UMNO on Saturday, 9 December 2017
Will the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak set a “wasatiyyah” example and not lead a campaign of lies and falsehoods against the Opposition?
It is most unfortunate that in his UMNO Presidential Speech on Thursday, beating the war-drums for the impending 14th General Election, Najib spearheaded a campaign of lies and falsehoods against the Opposition.
He accused DAP of being anti-Malay and anti-Islam, that “DAP yang terang terang Anti-Melayu dan Islam, sebagai tercatat dalam perlembagaan DAP, langsung tidak meyebut Islam sebagai Agama Persekutuan”. Another Najib argument why the DAP is anti-Malay and anti-Islam is DAP’s commitment for a secular Malaysia.
Present at the 71st UMNO General Assembly opening were the leaders of the other 12 Barisan Nasional component parties, such as MCA, MIC, Gerakan and the Sabah and Sarawak component parties.
Is Najib aware that his baseless attack on the DAP as anti-Malay and anti-Islam applies in equal measure to the 12 other BN component parties, as his criticism that “tercatat dalam perlembagaan, langsung tidak sebut Islam sebagai Agama Persekutuan” applies to all the other 12 BN component parties as well?
Is Najib accusing the other 12 component parties of Barisan Nasional of being anti-Malay and anti-Islam just because of this? Read the rest of this entry »
Let Najib prove he is not a false democrat who accepts the verdict of the electorate when he wins but rejects democracy and overturns the verdict when he loses by declaring he will accept the voters’ judgment in 14GE including replacement of UMNO/BN Government by Pakatan Harapan in Putrajaya
Posted by Kit in Elections, Najib Razak on Friday, 8 December 2017
The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak has the opportunity in his winding-up speech as UMNO President tomorrow to prove that he is not a false democrat who accepts the verdict of the electorate when he wins but rejects democracy and overturns the verdict by declaring he will accept the voters’ judgement in the 14th General Election including a peaceful and democratic transition of power in the replacement of UMNO/BN Government by Pakatan Harapan in Putrajaya.
Najib’s democratic credentials came into doubt when in his UMNO Presidential speech yesterday, he said he wanted UMNO to continue to rule the nation, not only in the next 30 years, but for another 1,000 years.
This is not the mindset of a democrat, but a Maharaja or Maharaja-wannabe.
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Zahid Hamidi said at the opening of the 2017 UMNO Wanita, Youth and Puteri wings general assembly on Tuesday night that UMNO is the only political party in the world that continues to rule and has never been defeated in elections since 1955.
If the Malaysian electorate, comprising voters from all races, religions and regions, decide in the 14th General Election which will be held in the next 150 days, that Malaysia should become a normal democratic country and have a new start after 60 years of UMNO rule to avoid being trapped in the trajectory of a failed, rogue and kleptocratic state, will Najib demonstrate that he is the true “democrat” by declaring in advance that he will accept the verdict and personally ensure a peaceful and democratic transition of power? Read the rest of this entry »
14GE is critical and crucial test whether Malaysia is capable of becoming a normal democratic country to make the country a top world achiever in every field of human endeavour
Posted by Kit in Elections, Najib Razak on Thursday, 7 December 2017
When the country achieved Merdeka in 1957 and Malaysia was formed in 1963, we had a national vision expressed in the 1957 Merdeka and 1963 Malaysia Proclamations.
Bapa Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman, called on everyone in the country “to work and strive with hand and brain to create a new nation, inspired by the ideals of justice and liberty – a beacon of light in a disturbed and distracted world”.
The Merdeka and Malaysia Proclamations outlined the pursuit of the great dream of a Malaysia of Excellence, Justice, Integrity, Compassion and Freedom, pledging that we “shall be for ever a sovereign democratic and independent State founded upon the principles of liberty and justice and ever seeking the welfare and happiness of its people and the maintenance of a just peace among all nations”.
Have we achieved our Malaysian Dream in the past 60 years? Read the rest of this entry »
THIS IS THE MOMENT OF TRUTH FOR MALAYSIA’S RACE-BASED POLITICS
BY OOI KEE BENG
South China Morning Post
6 DEC 2017
As the Umno General Assembly gets underway, the time has come to deal with the long-term negative consequences of the party’s Malay-centrism
After all the analysing done by pundits on Malaysia’s political dynamics in the post-Mahathir period, the country has now come to the strange point of being in a potential pre-Mahathir period.
There is now the more-than-theoretical possibility that 92-year-old former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad will return to lead the country, should the opposition coalition win the coming general election. Though unlikely, the chances of that happening are not exactly slim. Read the rest of this entry »
Phantom Segamat army camp with 1,051 phantom registered voters is most recent example of Election Commission’s “strategic manipulation” of electoral roll to help UMNO/BN coalition to steal the next election and why Malaysia’s electoral integrity is at rock bottom in the world, just above Zimbabwe
The phantom Segamat army camp with 1,051 phantom registered voters is the most recent example of Election Commission’s “strategic manipulation” of the electoral roll to help the UMNO/BN coalition to steal the next election and why Malaysia’s electoral integrity is at the rock-bottom in the world, just above Zimbabwe.
Segamat was the venue for the farce and charade of the padding of 1,051 army voters to Segamat parliamentary constituency to save the MIC President and Health Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. S. Subramaniam who won his seat in the 13th General Election with a slim majority of 1,217 votes. Read the rest of this entry »
Will UMNO General Assembly ignore three years in a row what the United States Attorney-General Sessions described yesterday as the world’s “kleptocracy at its worst” – the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering scandal?
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak, UMNO on Tuesday, 5 December 2017
Will the 71st UMNO General Assembly ignore three years in a row what the United States Attorney-General Jeff Sessions described yesterday as the world’s “kleptocracy at its worst” – the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering scandal?
At the opening speech for the Global Forum on Asset Recovery in Washington DC yesterday, US Attorney-General Sessions described the 1MDB scandal as “kleptocracy at it worst” when referring to United States government efforts in combatting corruption on the global level.
No other kleptocracy rated the prominence given by Sessions to the 1MDB scandal. Read the rest of this entry »
How Yemen became the most wretched place on earth
Posted by Kit in International, Middle East/Africa on Sunday, 3 December 2017
Economist
Nov 30th 2017 | ADEN, HODEIDA AND SANA’A
A report from a conflict zone the world ignores
ALONG the road from the port city of Hodeida to Sana’a, Yemen’s capital, rugged mountains rise sharply from a coastal plain, then level off, giving way to a raised plateau. Old stone farmhouses overlook terraced fields, fed by mountain rains. To the south are lush forests, where baboons and wildcats live. Yemen’s vast deserts spread to the east. The diversity of the landscape is breathtaking. But amid all this natural beauty, there is misery.
Yemen was the poorest country in the Middle East even before the outbreak of war in 2014 between Houthi rebels and government forces. The conflict has heaped devastation upon poverty. Since fighting began Yemen has suffered the biggest cholera outbreak in modern history and is on the brink of the harshest famine the world has seen for decades. The conflict has shattered the water, education and health systems. The UN says that it is the world’s worst current humanitarian crisis. Three-quarters of the population of 28m need help.
The war in Yemen, and looming humanitarian catastrophe, has gone largely unnoticed beyond its borders. The fighting is rooted in old conflicts and now involves many groups, sucking in Yemen’s neighbours. But no single force has emerged that is strong enough or competent enough to hold the entire country together, making the prospects for peace dim. Read the rest of this entry »
The war the world ignores
Posted by Kit in International, Middle East/Africa on Sunday, 3 December 2017
Economist (Leader)
Nov 30th 2017
How—and why—to end the war in Yemen
A pointless conflict has caused the worst humanitarian crisis in the world
YEMEN lost the title of Arabia Felix, or “Fortunate Arabia”, long ago. It has suffered civil wars, tribalism, jihadist violence and appalling poverty. But none of this compares with the misery being inflicted on the country today by the war between a Saudi-led coalition and the Houthis, a Shia militia backed by Iran.
The UN reckons three-quarters of Yemen’s 28m people need some kind of humanitarian aid. Mounting rubbish, failing sewerage and wrecked water supplies have led to the worst cholera outbreak in recent history. The country is on the brink of famine. The economy has crumbled, leaving people with impossible choices. Each day the al-Thawra hospital in Hodeida must decide which of the life-saving equipment to run with what little fuel it has.
Perhaps the worst of it is that much of the world seems unperturbed (see Briefing), calloused by the years of bloodshed in Syria and other parts of the Middle East, and despairing of its ability to effect change. To be cynical, Yemen is farther away from Europe than Syria is; its wretched people do not, on the whole, wash up in the West seeking asylum. Read the rest of this entry »
Najib should speak up on behalf of all Malaysians, regardless of race or religion, to deplore US President Trump’s Islamophobic tweets
The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, should speak up on behalf of all Malaysians, regardless of race or religion, to deplore United States President Donald Trump’s Islamophobic tweets.
The is the time for Najib to rescue his “wasatiyyah” preachings in promoting the Global Movement of Moderates from utter irrelevance and inconsequence. Read the rest of this entry »
3Vs in the RCI Report of the Bank Negara Forex Losses in the 1990s, presenting the top political leaders and public servants in 1990s as a cast of villains raises questions about the present top political and government leaders in relation to 1MDB scandal – greatest corruption scandal in nation’s history
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Saturday, 2 December 2017
Everything is happening with unusual rapidity advertising that the motivating impulse is not to seek justice but the 3Vs of vengeance, vindictiveness and vendetta to target Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim with the impending 14th General Election in 120 days.
One sad outcome is the besmirching and devaluation of the institution of Royal Commission of Inquiries – as evident by the dishonourable manner in which the RCI Report on Bank Negara Forex Losses in the 1990s was surreptitiously circulated to Members of Parliament on the last day of Parliament, without any notice whatsoever and without any opportunity for MPs to debate it! Read the rest of this entry »
Pakatan Harapan will form Royal Commission of Inquiry into 1MDB scandal in the first 100 days and seek international co-operation to clear and cleanse Malaysia of the ignominy and infamy of a global kleptocracy
Posted by Kit in Anwar Ibrahim, Corruption, Mahathir, Najib Razak on Friday, 1 December 2017
Today is the last day of the 2018 Budget meeting of Parliament, where MPs were surprised with the tabling of the 830-page Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry on Forex Losses by Bank Negara in the 1990s but no debate was allowed in Parliament.
The RCI Report was dated 13th October 2017, when it was presented to the Yang di Pertuan Agong.
Can the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak explain why the RCI Report on the Bank Negara Forex Losses in the 1990s was not presented in Parliament earlier in the intervening seven weeks and why there was no debate in Parliament?
It is obvious that the purpose of the RCI into the Bank Negara Forex Losses in the 1990s was not so much to find out the truth as to the forex losses about a quarter of a century ago, but to distract national attention from the greatest financial scandal in Malaysian and even global history, the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering scandal which for the past few years had continued to make international headlines about its monstrous corruption and criminality involving top Malaysian leaders, including “MALAYSIANN OFFICIAL 1” (MO1)!
The RCI into the Bank Negara Forex Losses in the 1990s had a second objective, to persecute and harass Pakatan Harapan leaders like Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim who posed a serious political challenge to Najib – and this is proven by the police report lodged by the RCI Secretary, Dr. Yunus Ismail based on the RCI findings. Read the rest of this entry »
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