Economists no longer able to predict economic crisis, says ISIS chief
By Lee Wei Lian
The Malaysian Insider
Sep 14, 2011
KUALA LUMPUR, September 14 — The global economy is now so unbalanced that economists are no longer able to predict crises, said Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) chief Datuk Mahani Zainal Abidin today.
This comes as the global markets continue to be plagued with uncertainty due to the lingering effects of the 2008 financial meltdown that hit the United States and Europe.
While Malaysia was spared from the financial crisis and has resumed economic expansion after the 2009 recession, its stock market has been rocked by global volatility, while inflation has soared due to pressure from high commodity prices. Property prices have also jumped dramatically owing to ample liquidity.
The think tank chief said that the problem was that the financial economy has become much larger than the real economy and admitted that assumptions used by economists no longer work. Read the rest of this entry »
Chief Jester’s Circus and Charade Comes to a Close (Part 2)
Posted by Kit in Judiciary, Martin Jalleh on Wednesday, 14 September 2011, 3:23 pm
by Martin Jalleh
14 Sept 2011
Zaki Azmi, the “Judiciary’s Renaissance man” has left behind a legacy of a judiciary scandalously compromised, shamelessly cowed and a slew of shocking contradictory and convoluted judgments. Below are some examples.
“Creatures of the Government”
In Dec. 2009, Abdul Aziz Bari, a constitutional law expert, declared that the judiciary has been reduced to one that “takes its cue from the government”.) But it has been the then CJ’s belief that since the 1988 judicial crisis “the confidence in the judiciary has improved a great deal” (The Nut Graph, 26.03.10)!
Zaki called those who criticized the judiciary for its lack of independence “a small group of vociferous people out there, who go onto the internet and blogs and Facebook and all that and make comments without knowing the proper background. Many are not even lawyers.”
A few months later lawyer Edmund Bon, who was then the chairman of the constitutional law committee of the Bar Council revealed that “the perception that the judiciary is executive-compliant still remains till today” (Free Malaysia Today, 17.08.10)!
According to former Federal Court judge Gopal Sri Ram: “… the judiciary has become so ‘executive-minded’ and that “the judges have become creatures of the government” (Malaysiakini, 16.09.10).
The NST quoted Zaki on 12 May this year that feedback from lawyers showed that they were happy with the integrity of the judiciary and had not heard anything negative since 2008. He added: “I am sure many, if not all, agree that the Malaysian judiciary is now free from any criticism or accusation of bias or partiality.”
Very apparently he had not listened to N H Chan who had often pointed out that the “Perak crisis has brought out a host of cases that showed that the judges gave the impression that they were one-sided. The perception of the people is that they sided with the BN government.” Read the rest of this entry »
Chief Jester’s Circus and Charade Comes to a Close (Part 1)
Posted by Kit in Judiciary, Martin Jalleh on Wednesday, 14 September 2011, 3:13 pm
By Martin Jalleh
14 Sept. 2011
Zaki Azmi has retired as the Chief Justice (CJ) of Bolehland. Weeks before the final curtain, he held himself in high regard in press interviews by giving rave reviews of his own tenure. He felt “very satisfied with the judiciary’s achievements in less than three years” (Bernama).
For a long time the mainstream press had portrayed Zaki as a “reluctant” CJ. But as his retirement date drew nearer, the Malay Mail (MM) revved up the farewell accolades by revering him as the “Judiciary’s Renaissance man” (25.08.11).
According to MM’s executive editor Terence Fernandez the feedback he received from Zaki’s contemporaries in the Federal Court including Arifin Zakaria, Raus Sharif, James Foong, Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin and Abdull Hamid Embong was that Zaki “has revolutionised the judiciary”.
Praise for Zaki’s tenure also came from the Bar Council. Its chairperson Lim Chee Wee lauded him as one who has “surpassed the Bar’s expectations as he has implemented many positive changes”. Lim listed 11 of the changes (Malaysiakini, 06.09.11).
Zaki’s changes may have been impressive but the reputation of the judiciary was sullied irreparably during his term of office. In the eyes of the public the judiciary sunk so low as to allow itself to be intimidated, its independence and impartiality interfered with, and its integrity reduced to ignominy. Read the rest of this entry »
Hasty deadlines, languid decisions marring MRT project
By Jahabar Sadiq
Editor
The Malaysian Insider
Sep 14, 2011
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 14 — Rushed tender deadlines, slow decision-making and an abrupt change of project owners is blighting the Klang Valley Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) project that is already reeling from controversial land acquisitions along the Sungai Buloh-Kajang line, critics say.
The Malaysian Insider understands that the key independent check engineer (ICE) job has finally been issued — eight months after it was first put up for tender in the last week of December 2010 — just before the change of project owners.
It was one of many tenders that had short deadlines, much to the dismay of many engineering companies interested in taking part in the bidding.
“The ICE tender was on the last week of December 2010 when most people are on holiday. If that is not bad enough, it took them eight months to finally send out the official award letter,” an industry source told The Malaysian Insider.
“And what is strange is the award was given out so late by Syarikat Prasarana Negara Bhd (Prasarana) but just days before the project was transferred to MRT Co as the new owners,” he added, referring to the switch in project owners by Putrajaya. Read the rest of this entry »
Continuity and discontinuity: Prof Zainal Kling and Malaysian history
Posted by Kit in History, nation building on Tuesday, 13 September 2011, 11:23 pm
— Clive Kessler
The Malaysian Insider
Sept 13, 2011
SEPT 13 — It is not my objective to argue the historical facts of this issue, to take sides.
On the facts, Farish Noor and Art Harun are clearly right and Prof Zainal Kling, however ingenious the hair-splitting technicalities that he invokes, is wrong.
But that is not the end, or even the heart, of the matter.
We must ask, what is the purpose, and what are the practical effects, of Prof Zainal now making his seemingly fanciful argument?
Prof Zainal’s argument is simply wrong, marvellously eccentric and absurdly counterfactual historically. But it is wonderfully clever, cunning and “very strategic”, politically. Read the rest of this entry »
Pua: Telcos’ tax is illegal
K Pragalath | September 13, 2011
Free Malaysia Today
Decision to charge the 6% service tax is akin to price fixing and is against the soon to be implemented Competition Act 2010, says PJ Utara MP.
PETALING JAYA: Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua criticised the decision by telecommunication companies to charge the 6% service tax as illegal because the companies were trying to fix prices.
“There is no question that the joint statement (on the decision) and attempt by the four telecommunication companies to raise prices by the same percentage concurrently is illegal because they are colluding to form a cartel for the purposes of price-fixing.
“The real issue at hand is the blatant and coordinated attempt by the telecommunication companies to raise prices concurrently, contemptuous of the competitive spirit,” said Pua. Read the rest of this entry »
And the pretending goes on …
Posted by Kit in Elections, Finance, Najib Razak on Tuesday, 13 September 2011, 8:25 pm
— The Malaysian Insider
Sep 13, 2011
SEPT 13 — Presumably, if you keep on message all the time, you must hope that fiction turns into fact. Let’s take the issue of the six per cent service tax on users of prepaid mobile services.
It was introduced by this government (included somewhere in the last budget by the Finance Minister) and yet Malaysians have had to go through this painful sandiwara by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak (who urged the telcos to reconsider passing on the tax to consumers), Information Minister Datuk Seri Rais Yatim, who was keen to paint the telcos as the bad guys, and now DPM Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
The country’s number two, like his Cabinet and Umno colleagues, is keen to show that the government is compassionate and mindful of the pain felt by the rakyat. He, like his friends, speaks as if it was some third party who suddenly imposed this tax out of thin air and the BN fairy came along, waved a wand and took away the pain of the rakyat. Read the rest of this entry »
Pakatan asks BN to jointly fix polls date
Posted by Kit in Elections, Najib Razak, Pakatan Rakyat on Tuesday, 13 September 2011, 1:58 pm
By Shannon Teoh and Mohamed Hosni Ibrahim
September 13, 2011
The Malaysian Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 13 — The federal opposition has called for the Barisan Nasional (BN) government to negotiate and fix the date of the next general election together to avoid any dispute over the implementation of electoral reforms that Datuk Seri Najib Razak has promised.
Pakatan Rakyat (PR) lawmakers said today that as Putrajaya has set aside six months for a parliamentary select committee to table recommendations to the House, the government should allow enough time for the reforms to take place before federal polls are called.
“It will show their commitment to electoral reforms. It has never happened before but we can make history and avoid any dissatisfaction,” said PAS vice-president Salahuddin Ayub.
Read the rest of this entry »
‘Evidence fabricated in Anwar’s corruption trial’
Posted by Kit in Anwar Ibrahim, Court, Judiciary, Mahathir, Najib Razak, Police on Tuesday, 13 September 2011, 1:47 pm
Malaysiakini
Sep 12, 11
Anwar Ibrahim’s 1999 conviction for abuse of power was wrong as the prosecution had concocted evidence and cheated through the actions of then investigating officer Musa Hassan and then lead prosecutor Abdul Gani Patail.
This was revealed in another open letter, sent to Inspector-General of Police Ismail Omar today, by former Kuala Lumpur CID chief Mat Zain Ibrahim.
Mat Zain states that Musa and Gani had done this for their joint benefit. Both had risen in ranks, with Musa becoming the police chief and Gani, the attorney-general. Musa retired recently.
“It is not wrong to say the jail term Anwar faced is an injustice to him as a result of both their (Musa’s and Gani’s) actions. I am basing this argument on documentary evidence and statements that I have and are within my knowledge,” he said in the letter.
“I am also saying this because there are important statements made by (former prime minister) Dr Mahathir Mohamad in Chapter 53 of his memoirs ‘Doctor in the House’ on the black eye incident, and the actions by the public prosecutor are different from what I have in the official case files of 1998.
“I believe that Mahathir was given a wrong briefing and he had been manipulated.” Read the rest of this entry »
Top court says Lingam video RCI findings ‘cannot be reviewed’
The Malaysian Insider
Sep 13, 2011
PUTRAJAYA, Sept 13 — The Federal Court ruled today that the findings of the royal commission of inquiry (RCI) into the controversial V.K. Lingam video clip cannot be reviewed as the commissioners merely made findings and it was not a decision.
Lawyer Datuk V.K. Lingam wanted the Court of Appeal to review the RCI’s findings that he had committed criminal misbehaviour which, he said, was a grave attack on his reputation, and that he had been adversely affected.
The senior lawyer argued that although he had not been prosecuted, his reputation had been gravely tarnished and injured, and that it was his fundamental right under the Federal Constitution to safeguard his reputation.
Justice Raus Sharif ruled that Lingam and two former chief justices were not adversely affected by the findings of the commission. Read the rest of this entry »
DAP causing a ‘Riot’ in Serian
Joseph Tawie | September 12, 2011
Free Malaysia Today
The five-term incumbent MP Richard Riot is having sleepless nights because of the opposition party’s attack on his constituency.
KUCHING: The centre set up by Sarawak DAP in Serian has not only set in motion its determination to wrest the parliamentary seat from the Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) in the coming general election but also caused ripples among the Bidayuh community as well as in the Barisan Nasional camp.
Weekly education programmes are organised by the party to instil political awareness among the Bidayuh community, so that they know their rights as voters as well as their rights and privileges to development, scholarships, business opportunities and so on.
With all these activities going on, Michael Manyin, the state assemblyman for Tebedu and state minister as well as Martin Ben, state assemblyman for Kedup, have expressed concern. Read the rest of this entry »
Official arrogance will bring Najib down
Posted by Kit in Elections, Human Rights, Najib Razak, Sarawak on Tuesday, 13 September 2011, 11:15 am
Jeswan Kaur | September 13, 2011
Free Malaysia Today
When he took over as prime minister, Najib Tun Razak said he will listen to the people but his officers have turned a deaf ear to the promise with their arrogance.
COMMENT
In 2009, when Najib Tun Razak took over the country’s affairs from Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, he promised the rakyat that his government would be all ears. But two years down the road it appears that the promise was just lip service.
One such example of refusing to listen to the rakyat was displayed through the insensitive remark by the Federal Territories and Urban Well-Being Minister Raja Nong Chik Raja Zainal.
In February this year, Raja Nong Chik had admonished the Bukit Jalil estate workers who turned to him for help in trying to avoid being evicted from their homes. The minister told the residents that they should be contented with the Little India project when they wanted to negotiate compensation. Read the rest of this entry »
Freeing the Malays and Muslims from religious mind control
Posted by Kit in Islam, nation building, Religion on Monday, 12 September 2011, 6:21 pm
— Pak Sako
The Malaysian Insider
Sep 12, 2011
SEPT 12 — There appears to be a Malay-Islamic Inquisition in Malaysia.
It does not involve burnings at the stake.
It comes as ostracism at school, the workplace and in the community for failing to comply with rigid parameters. Not wearing a headscarf is frowned upon. Transgenders are institutional pariahs.
Religious arrogance and zealotry are norms. Muslim leaders can assuredly rebuff equal partnership on inter-religious discussion panels. The Islamic moral police is free to raid churches and insult the Malay person’s dignity and autonomy.
Refusal to play along with another community’s passion for its customs is condemned as chauvinistic or unconstitutional — the fate of elected representatives in Sarawak who chose the customary suit and tie over expensive uniforms and songkoks for a state assembly opening.
Closing the gap with South Korea or Singapore at the top of quality-of-life indicators such as the UN Human Development Index is a minor national concern. Read the rest of this entry »
Toying with history again in Malaysia
Posted by Kit in Farish Noor, History, Mahathir on Monday, 12 September 2011, 5:54 pm
-Farish A. Noor
The Malaysian Insider
Sep 12, 2011
SEPT 12 — In all honesty, I really have many other things to do than waste my time commenting on what has to be one of the most inane and counter-productive debates in Malaysian politics today. Yet as the tide of silliness gains strength all around us, I feel it necessary to add my two-sen’s worth to this debate before I get back to my real work which happens to be teaching and research, so here it goes…
It appears that some academics in Malaysia now claim that Malaya (as it was then called) was never colonised by the British after all — or at least that the Malay kingdoms were never colonies in the fullest sense of the word, but rather protectorates. This is, literally, correct and it has to be said that the legal-political status of these states was precisely that: protectorates rather than colonies. But we need to raise some crucial questions at this point in order to flesh out the debate a little further, and try to understand how and why such an arrangement came about in the first place.
Firstly, it ought to be noted that the use of the term “protectorate” rather than “colony” offered (then, in the 19th century) a fig-leaf of respectability to what can only be described as a mad scramble for power and domination by the British who were not satisfied with the acquisition of their outright colonies in Penang, Dindings, Malacca and Singapore. Read the rest of this entry »
Slide began before Bersih
Posted by Kit in 1Malaysia, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Bersih, Elections, Najib Razak on Monday, 12 September 2011, 5:48 pm
— Lucius Goon
The Malaysian Insider
Sep 12, 2011
SEPT 12 — Sorry but I don’t buy this attempt to blame the slide in the prime minister’s rating to his mishandling of Bersih 2.0 rally.
What happened on July 9 and the twisting and turning of words after that by the PM (I offered the stadium and no I didn’t and yes I did) is just symptomatic of an administration which lost its direction and a leader who is afraid of his own shadow.
Long before Bersih happened, the country was in a drift towards worsening race ties, upsurge in the power of the right wing and flip-flops in policy reforms. Sad to say but Najib has become Abdullah Ahmad Badawi: good with slogans and rhetoric but very elastic with implementation.
Abdullah had Islam Hadhari and Najib has 1 Malaysia but under the umbrella of those two “concepts” is the same rubbish which has been stinking up Malaysia since the Mahathir administration: corruption by politicians, worsening race relations, abuse of powers, widening gap between the haves and have-nots, talent drain, inflated privatisation contracts, cronyism and nepotism and a complete hijacking of the Bumiputera agenda by Umno politicians and the decaying state of institutions. Read the rest of this entry »
Mat Zain: Musa, Gani duped Dr M into sacking Anwar
Posted by Kit in Anwar Ibrahim, Court, Mahathir, Police on Monday, 12 September 2011, 5:42 pm
By Shannon Teoh
The Malaysia Insider
Sep 12, 2011
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 12 — A former senior police officer today claimed that Tan Sri Musa Hassan and Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail had fabricated evidence against Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, leading to his sacking from government by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in 1998.
Former city criminal investigation chief Datuk Mat Zain Ibrahim claimed in an open letter to the Inspector-General of Police today that Musa, who was then Bukit Aman’s assistant criminal investigation chief, had stolen Anwar’s DNA to ensure that the sacked deputy prime minister would be convicted of sodomy.
“I believe this happened because Tun was given information or a briefing that was manipulated and misleading,” said the policeman who led the 1998 probe into the black eye inflicted on Anwar by then police chief Tan Sri Rahim Noor.
Mat Zain based his claim on “documentary evidence and statements that I have and are within my knowledge” as well as Dr Mahathir’s memoirs that were released earlier this year. Read the rest of this entry »
Revision of M’sian history should not be one-sided
By Sulok Tawie | 11 September 2011
The Sun Daily
KUCHING (Sept 11, 2011): Sarawak Teachers’ Union president William Ghani Bina said today that any revision of the school’s history textbook must be to correct the one-sided history on the formation of Malaysia.
“It is important that the new history textbook highlight the correct version of the formation of Malaysia,” he said when commenting on a statement by Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Khaled Nordin that the history syllabus for schools was to be revised following a disclosure of new findings.
Ghani noted that the formation of Malaysia had not been put into the right perspective as it did not indicate clearly how Malaysia was formed.
Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysia in the Era of Globalization #82
Posted by Kit in Bakri Musa, globalisation, Islam on Monday, 12 September 2011, 10:21 am
Chapter 9: Islam in Malay Life
Reform in Islam
Educating Ulamas on Modern Economics
By educating Muslims generally and the ulama in particular on such modern and useful concepts of economics, and replacing such loaded terms as interest and insurance with the morally neutral terms as rewards on savings and risk sharing, we would channel the natural propensity for Malays to save even more. This in turn would encourage other productivity-enhancing economic activities.
Read the rest of this entry »
PM’s blame game
Posted by Kit in Bersih, Elections, Najib Razak, Police on Sunday, 11 September 2011, 11:38 pm
— The Malaysian Insider
Sep 10, 2011
SEPT 10 — So far the only people not blamed for the mishandling of the Bersih 2.0 rally are Al-Qaeda, Chin Peng, Kermit the Frog and Ayah Pin.
You get the drift, right. It seems that the order to turn Kuala Lumpur into a war zone and treat ordinary Malaysians like criminals was everybody’s fault but that of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
In the short time following the rally on July 9, Najib’s operatives and aides spent considerable time convincing journalists and pundits that he was all for offering Bersih organisers the use of a stadium but was persuaded otherwise by
a) Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein;
b) Information Minister Datuk Seri Rais Yatim;
c) Deputy IGP Datuk Seri Khalid Abu Bakar;
d) Datuk Ibrahim Ali and Perkasa; and
e) Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhiyiddin Yassin Read the rest of this entry »
Religious issues hurting Najib’s chances
Posted by Kit in Elections, Najib Razak, Religion on Sunday, 11 September 2011, 6:16 pm
The Malaysian Insider
Sep 11, 2011
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 11 — A raid on a church by Muslim authorities has raised religious tension in Malaysia and could cost Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak votes in an election set for 2013 but which many expect to come much earlier.
The raid has sparked an angry verbal battle between Christians and the majority Muslims, forcing Najib to seek what may be an elusive peace between the ethnic Malays and minorities, both of which believe the government isn’t doing enough to safeguard their rights.
Conservative Muslims want the government to crack down on what they say is growing boldness by Christians to try to convert Muslims, which is an offence in Malaysia, while ethnic minorities worry their rights are being eroded.
Analysts say Najib is caught in a bind and will have to tread extremely carefully to avoid being seen as favouring either side in his efforts to mediate. Read the rest of this entry »
