DAP: Gov’t manipulated laws to legitimise debt
Posted by Kit in DAP, Finance, Good Governance on Friday, 17 February 2012, 1:20 pm
Malaysiakini
Feb 17, 2012
DAP has blamed the country’s rising debt level to the ruling BN having raised the statutory borrowing ceiling “multiple times” to legitimise the debt.
DAP national publicity secretary Tony Pua slammed the government for modifying the ceiling “at its whims and fancies over the past decade, rendering meaningless the legal debt ceiling”.
Therefore, he said, the government’s debt at 53.8 percent of GDP as reported in the Economic Report 2011/2 is below the statutory borrowing ceiling of 55 percent, is purely the result of the government’s “creative manipulation”.
“What is worrying is the fact that the ‘statutory borrowing ceiling’ has actually been raised multiple times by the BN government over the past decade to ‘legalise’ the federal government debt level which has been increasing at a much faster pace than our GDP.
The 55 percent statutory borrowing ceiling only came into effect in July 2009 by order of current second finance minister Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah.
“Prior to the revised limit, the limit was set at 45 percent in June 2008, barely 13 months before by the then second finance minister Nor Md Yakcop,” said Pua in a statement today.
He added that the limit was raised to 40 percent five years before that, by then second minister finance minister Jamaluddin Jarjis.
“Hence our statutory borrowing ceiling has been raised by 15 percent of our GDP in just six years. Read the rest of this entry »
At crossroads – MCA or Chinese community?
By Stanley Koh | February 17, 2012
Free Malaysia Today
Some equate truth and falsehood to water separating from oil. The Chinese proverb “shi zhen nan jia, shi jia nan zhen” means if it is the truth, it is impossible to falsify and likewise, equally difficult to make a truth out of falsehood.
This in mind, if MCA is at the crossroads, does it also mean that the Chinese community is facing the same predicament?
The symbolic relationship between MCA and the Chinese community is akin to fish to water and is destined to become irrelevant as more and more conscientious Chinese Malaysians abandon the party at the crossroads.
In the 2008 electoral tsunami, some 3.7 million Malaysians voted against the Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties of which the opposition DAP garnered more than one million votes against MCA’s 840,000 votes despite having a membership population of 1.3 million.
Read the rest of this entry »
Nasib masa depan Shahrizat adalah ‘prerogative’ PM, kata Najib
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Najib Razak on Friday, 17 February 2012, 11:41 am
Oleh Aspan Alias | February 16, 2012
The Malaysian Insider
16 FEB — “Masa depan politik Shahrizat bergantung kepada Perdana Menteri” kata PM Najib. Sesungguhnya itulah hakikatnya jika dipandang dari sudut jawatannya sebagai ahli jemaah kabinet negara. Sememangnya jawatan menteri itu adalah ‘prerogative’ Perdana Menteri seratus peratus. PM boleh melantik sesiapa sahaja dalam jamaah menteri, waimma melantik orang yang tidak berguna kepada negara dan rakyat.
Begitu juga dengan pemilihan sesiapa yang hendak dilantik sebagai senator yang dicadangkan oleh Kerajaan Persekutuan. Itu juga adalah ‘prerogative’ Perdana Menteri. Oleh kerana ‘prerogative’ Perdana Menteri itulah maka kita lihat ramai menteri-menteri kabinet Najib itu ramai dikalangan mereka yang menjadi persoalan dan isu besar dalam politik negara pada hari ini.
Itulah sebabnya kita melihat ramai menteri-menteri yang masuk ke dalam jemaah menteri itu mengikut ‘pintu belakang’ kerana mereka telah ditolak oleh rakyat dalam pilihanraya yang lalu. Selalunya mereka ditolak oleh rakyat kerana bersebab. Tentulah penolakkan itu disebabkan kerana mereka tidak melepasi tahap kelayakan yang asas tetapi oleh kerana Perdana Menteri tidak menghormati pandangan rakyat, mereka ini dibawa juga ke dalam kabinet oleh Najib dan tentunya Najib mempunyai sebab yang tersendiri membawa yang ‘reject’ ini ke dalam jemaah menteri beliau.
Read the rest of this entry »
Of regime change and democracy in Malaysia
By Dr Mustafa K Anuar, Aliran Hon Secretary
16 February 2012
Aliran is troubled by the ex-premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s recent prediction in warning Prime Minister Najib Razak that Israel and the United States were “conspiring to cause a regime change in Malaysia through ‘a puppet government’ to be led by Anwar (Ibrahim)”.
This political ‘forecast’ has serious implications and repercussions for the country. If there is any grain of truth to this international conspiracy, then our sovereignty, and political independence and security would indeed be in jeopardy.
The gravity and severity of this matter, therefore, demand that Mahathir presents incontrovertible evidence to support his allegation. This will enable Malaysia to safeguard itself and remain as an independent nation in the world community, without fear that it would be transformed into a “client state” of the US or any other world powers for that matter.
Mahathir’s honest response would enable Malaysians, particularly their leaders, to take the necessary steps available in order to safeguard the country’s independence and sovereignty.
Read the rest of this entry »
The story of a prime minister
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak, UMNO, Zairil Khir Johari on Friday, 17 February 2012, 11:29 am
By Zairil Khir Johari | February 17, 2012
The Malaysian Insider
FEB 17 — This is the story of a man who became prime minister not very long ago.
This man had not, however, been elected into the premiership, and consequently never earned his own governing mandate. He had succeeded into the job when his predecessor was forced to resign under internal pressure. While the coup was not entirely of his own orchestration, this prime minister had played an important albeit implicit role in facilitating it.
His predecessor is an altogether different story. Initially elected with much fanfare by a buoyant nation on a platform of hope and change after years of rule by an authoritarian and right-of-centre leadership, his premiership had by its tail-end been reduced to a lethargic disappointment.
Though heavily criticised and the subject of mass ridicule, he was still able to pull through with a mediocre win at the general election. Remaining defiant, he announced that he would fulfil the mandate of the people and see through his term as prime minister.
Read the rest of this entry »
That Saturday with the Oracle (Part 2)
By Sakmongkol AK47 | February 16, 2012
The Malaysian Insider
FEB 16 — I think one commentator misread my article “Another Saturday with The Oracle”. He accused me of underestimating Bangsar Bala. I know Mr Bala personally and am aware of his capabilities as a political operative.
The sting of my short mention of Bangsar Bala isn’t Bala, but Raja Nong Chik.
He doesn’t fraternise with people like Bala and, when given casual assurance that the Indians are back with BN, is easily over enthused. His exuberance leads him to generalise on the thinking of Malaysian Indians. Anecdotal evidence on the other hand indicates that Malaysian Indians are not for BN. But let the illusion permeate the BN camp.
If Raja Nong Chik contests in Lembah Pantai, that will be his Waterloo. At the function he was asked some sharp questions and was clearly agitated in his response. Many people who know the lean Raja Ning Chik are aware of his short fuse.
Read the rest of this entry »
If Malaysia does not buck up on the anti-corruption front, Indonesia and China may overtake Malaysia before 2020 in the annual Tl CPI both in ranking and score
Posted by Kit in Corruption on Thursday, 16 February 2012, 1:54 pm
Just before I came up to the rostrum, I was reading the Jakarta Post report today “We are the best at anti-graft: SBY”, as follows:
Amid intensifying reports of massive corruption implicating many of his Democratic Party members, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono claimed on Wednesday that his administration had conducted the best anti-corruption campaign in Indonesia’s history.
“We have carried out the most aggressive anti-corruption measures in this country’s history,” the President said in his speech before 128 foreign envoys assigned to Indonesia in a meeting held at the Foreign Ministry office. Read the rest of this entry »
DAP: RM97b in hidden loans pushes public debt over legal limit
Posted by Kit in Auditor-General Report, DAP, Finance on Thursday, 16 February 2012, 11:50 am
By Shannon Teoh
The Malaysian Insider
Feb 16, 2012
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 16 — The DAP today accused the government of not reporting RM96.9 billion in loans it has guaranteed as public debt, which would push the amount of federal loans above the 55 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) allowed by law.
Party publicity chief Tony Pua said the combined public debt of RM455.7 billion reported last year and the “off-balance sheet” financing would amount to RM552.6 billion, or 65.2 per cent of the economy.
“For all intents and purposes, even though these loans are not taken by the government, they are essentially government debt or otherwise known as contingent liabilities.
“This expanded figure would then constitute 65.2 per cent of our GDP, well above the 55 per cent federal government loan limit as defined in the Loan (Local) Act 1959 and Government Funding Act 1983,” Pua (picture) said in a statement today.
Malaysia’s national debt has been a hotly debated issue after the Auditor-General said in October it grew by 12.3 per cent to over RM407 billion in 2010, or 53.1 per cent of GDP. Read the rest of this entry »
Dalam pilihanraya lalu lebih 1 juta ahli Umno keluar parti semasa mengundi … Kali ini bagaimana?
— Aspan Alias
The Malaysian Insider
Feb 15, 2012
15 FEB — Saya telah diberitahu oleh rakan-rakan dalam Umno yang parti itu akan membawa Tengku Ahmad Rithauddin, Pengerusi jawatankuasa disiplin parti, ke setiap negeri melalui badan-badan perhubungan Umno setiap negeri. Tujuannya ialah untuk memantau permasalahan yang besar didalam Umno dalam pilihanraya umum nanti, iaitu sabotaj oleh ahli-ahlinya sendiri.
Saya telah banyak menulis tentang kerapuhan sokongan ahli-ahli Umno terhadap partinya. Tidak pernah saya terlupa dalam pilihanraya 1999 dan 2008 begitu ramai ahli-ahli Umno telah mengundi parti-parti pembangkang dan itu merupakan satu perkara yang begitu ‘normal’ dalam Umno sekarang ini. Parti itu sedar yang ia tidak boleh mempercayai ahli-ahlinya apabila sampai waktu pilihanraya.
Umno ini merupkan satu parti besar tetapi masalah menguruskan ahlinya pun besar. Ahli-ahli Umno sekarang bukannya seperti dahulu, hanya mengikut lenggang dan tari pemimpin mereka. Sekarang mereka lebih kritis dari dahulu. Dalam pilihanraya yang lalu lebih dari 50 peratus (1.6 juta) ahli-ahlinya telah bertukar haluan dengan mengundi parti-parti ‘alternative’.
Jika semua ahli-ahli Umno itu menyokong partinya, masakan ramai calon-calon Umno telah rebah bergelimpangan dalam pilihanraya yang lalu kerana ditolak oleh pengundi-pengundi termasuk oleh ahli-ahlinya sendiri. Inilah masalahnya jika sebuah parti itu terlalu bergantung kepada jumlah ahlinya. Banyak parti-parti didunia ini termasuk di negara kita ini, berjaya tanpa ahli yang ramai. DAP hanya mempunyai 135 ribu orang ahli sahaja tetapi undi yang diperolehi oleh parti ini dalam pilihanraya yang lalu melebihi dua juta orang. Read the rest of this entry »
Not a penny more, BN
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Health on Thursday, 16 February 2012, 11:40 am
— CL Tang
The Malaysian Insider
Feb 15, 2012
FEB 15 — After handing out one-off payments of RM500 to the poor, the government turns around and is now asking for a handout from the taxpayers, under the guise of paying for an improved healthcare system.
The people must now realise that this is a government that has neither the vision nor the will to move Malaysia forward in the global marketplace. After a lousy victory in 2008 general elections, the Barisan Nasional (BN) government has virtually been on a re-election campaign mode since, devising short-term populist agendas such as KR1M, BR1M, etc., none of which addresses the current malaise the country is facing — stagnant wages in the face of rising costs in the midst of a long-drawn out, slow global growth.
As it stretched out is left hand to hand out cash to poor households, its right hand is dipping into the pockets of ordinary Malaysians to fund its lavish spending and greedy cronies. Read the rest of this entry »
Moooving Tales in Bolehland!
Posted by Kit in Martin Jalleh, Muhyiddin Yassin on Wednesday, 15 February 2012, 6:04 pm
By Martin Jalleh
Q: What is the nation suffering from at this moment?
A: Cowburn Mooonoxide!
Q: What are the twists and spins given by the bosses of the National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) scandal called?
A: Mooodifications!
Q: Who was the then Agriculture minister who dubiously awarded the project to the incompetent Shahrizats in 2006 and initially said he saw “nothing unusual or anything wrong” with the project and passed the buck to current minister Noh Omar to answer further questions?
A: DPM, Mooyiddin!
Q: The Shahrizats has no cattle-rearing experience whatsoever?
A: Yes, they were moo-clue-less!
Read the rest of this entry »
A Critique of the ETP: Part 4 – Enterprise – Private enterprises are rejecting the ETP
The very basis of the ETP is in jeopardy. A key foundation of the ETP is that the private sector is to lead the massive RM1.4 trillion of investments needed to catapult Malaysia to high-income status by 2020. But the 35% private sector share of ETP investments to date is far below target. The RM114 billion investments by government and GLCs are nearly double the RM62 billion invested by the private sector.
PEMANDU obfuscating again. PEMANDU responds that private sector investments are closer to the targeted 60% share if big-ticket public sector projects like the MRT are excluded. This is intellectually dishonest. The ETP Roadmap Report includes such projects in its desired investment mix. There is no justification to exclude them. It is akin to giving a recipe for a rich chocolate cake and then saying it is not fattening if you exclude the calories from the butter.
Is PEMANDU attempting to cover up tepid private sector response? We would expect the big-ticket, long-gestation infrastructure projects to be prioritised in the early days of the ETP. However, PEMANDU has chosen to obfuscate rather than clarify. Is it because the gap between the desired 60% private sector target and the current 30% is unlikely to be bridged?
Read the rest of this entry »
Why should I care about 1 Care?
By Shamini Darshni | February 15, 2012
The Malaysian Insider
FEB 15 — When the idea of a national health financing mechanism came up in the mid-2000s, the question of how the funding scheme would be implemented caused much concern.
As a journalist then with an interest in public health issues, I followed the arguments made, then observed how the idea of “the rich paying for the poor” disappeared.
Logic suggests that the then-proposed national health financing mechanism — or scheme, as it was also referred to — had gone back to the drawing board. Today, it seems that the same idea has been repackaged under 1 Care.
Rebranding aside, the idea of 1 Care is noble. But the sketchy details are worrying. Why a major announcement is made without being accompanied by proper details boggles me.
Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysia in the Era of Globalization #100
Chapter 12: A Prescription For Malaysia
An Open Letter to the Prime Minister
May 13, 2002
The Next Young Mahathir
Today you are busy attending to the nation’s business. Rightly so, but I do hope that you ponder these questions and answer them in your memoirs. Subsequent generations need to learn the lesson. In the remaining years you must concentrate not on party or policy, but on personnel. You once quipped that you would like to be succeeded by your clone. Alas, there is no young Mahathir out there. Sadly, this more than anything else is the most glaring failure of your leadership.
Finding the next cadre of leaders will not be easy. While previous generations were inspired by the struggle for freedom, no such inspirations exist now. Today’s young Mahathirs, if they have not already succumbed to the lures of the First World, are busy pitting their talent in the highly lucrative private sector. You must make a personal and concerted effort at talent scouting. Fortunately, again thanks to the successes of your very policies, there are many capable Malaysians. Finding them would not be difficult, but enticing them into public service would be the challenge. There will be a few who, having reached the peak of their career and having put aside a comfortable nest egg, would consider public service a noble calling. Grab them. Under your masterful tutelage, these fast learners would grasp the political skills soon enough. You will also find them to be a different breed from the ones currently serving you.
Read the rest of this entry »
Siapa yang guna wang rakyat untuk kepentingan peribadi, sila kembalikan
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals on Wednesday, 15 February 2012, 11:19 am
By Aspan Alias | February 15, 2012
The Malaysian Insider
15 FEB — Nazri Aziz meminta NFC membayar balik semua wang yang telah dipinjamkan oleh kerajaan sebanyak RM 250 juta itu. Nazri berpendapat Shahrizat Jalil tidak perlu berhenti atau berundur dari kerajaan.
Kata-kata Nazri ini memberikan banyak perkara yang membuatkan kita lebih memahami cara dan kaedah Umno menyelesaikan masalah yang dilakukan oleh pemimpin-pemimpin kita dan keluarga mereka.
Kenyataan Nazri ini boleh membayangkan cara berfikir dan sikap pemimpin kita berhubung dengan isu-isu besar yang dihadapi oleh negara. Sikap pemimpin kita boleh membezakan nilai diantara sikap serta “attitude” kepimpinan yang sepatutnya ada kepada pemimpin demokrasi dengan apa yang sebenarnya ada pada pimpinan kita.
Jika Shahrizat menjadi pemimpin dinegara maju, misalnya di England, beliau sepatutnya berhenti dari awal lagi untuk menjaga imej kerajaan.. Shahrizat adalah ahli jemaah Kabinet negara, maka etika wajar menjadi elemen yang terpenting dalam pentadbiran itu.
Read the rest of this entry »
Another Saturday with The Oracle of Syed Putera
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak, UMNO on Wednesday, 15 February 2012, 11:01 am
By Sakmongkol AK47 | February 14, 2012
The Malaysian Insider
FEB 14 — Malaysian Indians are back with BN. The Oracle appeared pleased when he told me that. Who told you I asked? Nong Chik. Does the boss (Tun Daim) feel the same way? He does, said The Oracle.
Hmm… this was an unusual slippage on the part of Daim , I said to myself. Usually he takes statements and information as preliminary “noises”. He will then investigate further by sending out the Baker Street Boys or the Baker Street Irregulars like Sherlock Holmes did. It was unusual of Daim to accept what Raja Nong Chik tells him. Daim must be fatigued.
BN must be really desperate. They have resorted to reading tea leaves and, in some places, chicken entrails. Some whispers here and there are taken and read as signifying real and substantial progress. Hence, for example, some casual and insouciant intimation that Indians are coming back to support BN is treated as orgasmic news.
What are we to make of these innocuous remarks? Should they be taken seriously? The Indians are coming back into the fold of BN. Yes indeed, there are so many of them.
Read the rest of this entry »
What every Malaysian needs to know about ‘race’.Part 2: Exploring and disaggregating ‘bangsa’
Posted by Kit in nation building on Wednesday, 15 February 2012, 10:59 am
By Clive Kessler | February 15, 2012
The Malaysian Insider
FEB 15 — So important in private thinking and central to public discussion of Malaysia’s most fateful challenges, the word bangsa, it was suggested in Part 1, is inherently vague, complexly ambiguous.
It is a general, multi-purpose word that yokes closely together a number of related but ultimately differing ideas.
That is the strength and value of the word.
By bringing a number of divergent things together, it helps us to compress and condense out thinking and, then too, the verbalisation of our thoughts.
It makes possible all sorts of mental “short-cuts” around difficult issues.
Read the rest of this entry »
I don’t know, Noh Omar says of NFC breach of trust
Posted by Kit in Auditor-General Report, Corruption, UMNO on Wednesday, 15 February 2012, 6:17 am
By Shannon Teoh
The Malaysian Insider
Feb 14, 2012
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 14 — Datuk Seri Noh Omar insisted today he did not know if the National Feedlot Corporation (NFCorp) breached loan conditions despite de facto law minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz pointing out the family of their Cabinet colleague Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil should return the RM250 million federal loan.
The agriculture and agro-based industry minister said he could not comment as he has yet to receive any information from ongoing investigations into the controversial national cattle farming project.
“I don’t know. I don’t know because we have not received any decision. As agriculture minister, I have not received any report. Let them investigate,” he told reporters here.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nazri said earlier today NFCorp, owned by Wanita Umno chief Shahrizat’s husband and three children, had committed breach of trust by using the government loan meant for cattle farming to fund other purchases. Read the rest of this entry »
Target: Lim Guan Eng
Posted by Kit in Lim Guan Eng, Najib Razak, Penang on Tuesday, 14 February 2012, 6:53 pm
— Whistleblower 57
The Malaysian Insider
Feb 14, 2012
FEB 14 — This is some friendly advice to Lim Guan Eng. Watch your back. Team Najib have identified you as a main target, a real problem for them in the coming general elections.
In the power circles in Putrajaya, Lim Guan Eng is a problem, not only in Penang but in urban areas and even in East Malaysia where the feedback is that the Penang CM is popular.
So the strategists in Umno have decided that Lim must be kept busy fending off attacks. He must be kept off balance and so worried that he will not leave Penang to campaign for Pakatan Rakyat.
Aiding and abetting Umno in this task are some turncoats in DAP and PKR and Chinese businessmen. They have been promised a big payoff.
Guan Eng, you can expect your name to be dragged in the mud just like Anwar Ibrahim’s. Read the rest of this entry »
Restructuring the Malaysian health system: Is there a need?
— Academy of Medicine of Malaysia
The Malaysian Insider
Feb 14, 2012
FEB 14 — We observe with concern and interest the recent discussions by the ‘rakyat’ and explanations by the Ministry of Health Malaysia (MOH) in the print and electronic media regarding the planned National Health System Transformation. We agree that there are deficiencies in the present system that need to be addressed and applaud the Director-General of Health’s pledge to engage the ‘rakyat’ and stakeholders in its planning.
There is no denying that the Malaysia’s Health System is acknowledged internationally as being successful in providing health services to the ‘rakyat’. Notable successes include:
1. Reduction in mortality and morbidity and increased life expectancy, rising from 56 yrs for male in 1957 to 72 years in 2006; and 58 yrs for females to 76 years correspondingly. Infant mortality rate is comparable to developed countries.
2. An equitable public sector and universal access to comprehensive treatment; where everyone has access to medical treatment up to tertiary level at a nominal fee; and for the poor for free. Read the rest of this entry »
