as the stomach turns

Lately there have been several below-the-belt attempts by neo-conservatives in this country to use the Sultans as justification for clamping down on legitimate free speech. Take the case of the International Islamic University of Malaysia's law lecturer Prof Dr Abdul Aziz Bari who has been issued a show-cause letter from that university's disciplinary board for his remarks published in a news portal regarding the Sultan’s decree that no persons be prosecuted for the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (JAIS) inspection during a thanksgiving dinner by NGO Harapan Komuniti at the Damansara Utama Methodist Church in Petaling Jaya in Aug 3. What was plainly an academic discussion from a learned source on a matter of public importance has been deemed as an assault against the Sultans themselves and an excuse to clamp down on legitimate public discourse and free speech. Such cynical disregard for the right of the public to know and be informed of its rights and the use and abuse of the Sultans as a weapon of choice must be nipped in the bud immediately before the rot is allowed to fester and stew. We have become accustomed to politicians and their minions using the Sultans as and when they see fit to suit their agenda and the trend has only worsened in recent years. We give an inch, they take a mile. Then they take a few hundred more miles. Until one day, we wake up and find that we are stooges to be told what to think and say. If they have forgotten, we have NO lese majesty laws in Malaysia and our freedom from such archaic laws is something that we can be rightfully proud of. Certain countries may have need for lese majesty laws but they are always at best, criticised or at worse, ridiculed outright for it internationally. The Sultans may be the head of Islam in their respective states and that gives them the authority to make proclamations on all matters of Islam. But if an issue affects non-Muslims as well, you can hardly say that it is the sole and exclusive prerogative of the Sultans to comment on such matters which must then immediately be closed off in a vacuum-proofed seal and kill all further discussion or investigation into the truth of the matter. NO WAY. We need to fight tooth and claw against such insidious attempts to stifle our basic right to free speech and fair comment. So STOP using the Sultans to justify your narrow-mindedness. The Sultans don't need you to defend them. Our Sultans are clever enough to speak up for themselves and to join public discourse affecting their non-Muslim subjects. Don't insult their intellect by suggesting that they're not capable of standing up for themselves or backing up what they have said. Stop it. It's disgusting.

My First Home Scheme

Right. The Government announced in the PM's Budget 2012 speech on 7th October, 2011 that, effective from 1st January 2012, the "My First Home Scheme" first launched in March this year to assist young people to buy and own their first homes would increase its present ceiling limit of RM220,000 to RM400,000 (the price of the home). So this means that if you're aged from 18-35, is/are employed in the private sector, is/are a confirmed employee with the same employer for at least 6 months and your combined household income does not exceed RM3,500-00 (i know, they reported it as RM3,000-00 but bankers informed me otherwise - so if you earn RM3,000 a month and your wife earns RM2,000 then as husband and wife jointly you do not qualify unless only one of you apply for the scheme), techinically you MIGHT be eligible for 100% financing in the purchase of your first home. You can buy landed or stratified (condos, apartments, flats) properties it doesn't matter. The government's national mortgage company Cagamas Bhd will guarantee your downpayment of 10% deposit so that the loan covers everything, including even an extra 5% financing to cover fire insurance/takaful. But that's not all. The term of the loan is 30 years' tenure but if  you're a graduate or a professional, the banks can, on a case-to-case basis, stretch your loan tenure to 40 years (elitism? you tell me). Other criteria filtering out loan applicants include the requirement that your savings' reserve be at least 3 times your loan instalment sum and your combined household income is at least 3 times your total monthly commitments (that means your housing loan plus car loan, student loan, etc) or, with the approval of Cagamas Bhd, your combined household income be at least 2 times your total monthly commitments. Contrary to rumours, you DO NOT enjoy 100% exemption off stamp duty (not for the transfer nor the loan) but since this is your first home, and provided that the price of your home is not more than RM350,000-00, you get a 50% discount off stamp duty like any other first-time house buyer. (Eligible buyers of the government's other scheme, the PR1MA in which developers build on land given to them by the govt get to enjoy 100% stamp duty exemption off their loan but not My First Home Scheme). There are no other restrictions, you can sell off your home like other property owners at any time (unlike PR1MA where there is a 10-year moratorium against selling your property) but subject of course to real property gains tax as usual. Details are a bit sketchy but under the old scheme, only husband and wife or siblings are eligible. Friends, business partners, relatives do not qualify. And if you already bought a house previously and sold it off and now you want to buy a new house, you do not qualify neither. Only first-time, VIRGIN house buyer is eligible, geddit?

The following 25 banks/financial institutions are participants in the My First Home Scheme:

1. Affin Bank Bhd
2. Affin Islamic Bank Bhd
3. Alliance Bank Malaysia Bhd
4. Alliance Islamic Bank Malaysia Bhd
5. AmBank Bhd
6. AmIslamic Bank Bhd
7. Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd
8. Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd
9. CIMB Bank Bhd
10. CIMB Islamic Bank Bhd
11. EON Bank Bhd
12. EONCAP Islamic Bank Bhd
13. Hong Leong Bank Bhd
14. Hong Leong Islamic Bank Bhd.
15. Maybank Bhd
16. Maybank Islamic Bank Bhd
17. OCBC Bank Malaysia Bhd
18. OCBC Al Amin Bhd
19. Public Bank Bhd
20. Public Islamic Bank Bhd
21. RHB Bank Bhd
22. RHB Islamic Bank Bhd
23. United Overseas Bank Malaysia Bhd
24. Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia Bhd
25. Standard Chartered Saadiq Bhd

Unfortunately, the interest rate for this scheme will cost more. I am informed by a source at the time of writing that, while the interest rate for housing loans is now BLR - 2.2%, under the My First Home Scheme the interest rate is BLR - 1.8%. So, stretch that over 30 or 40 years and this scheme isn't exactly going to save you money.

At the end of the day, you decide whether this scheme really helps young salary earners to buy their first home or it is just another elections gimmick with precious little to offer in substance.

Hazy rants

I've a bone to pick with the Indonesian government. Or rather, the lack of thereof. I'm talking about the haze which has become a yearly fixture for us here in south east asia and has worsened to become a serious health hazard. My father, a senior citizen of 75 years old, has been suffering from coughing fits for over a fortnight now. His doctor tells us that at least 4 other elderly patients have been admitted into the hospital Intensive Care Unit for haze-related acute respiratory problems. This isn't funny, if the Indonesian government continues to sit on its ass and do nothing while its peat land/jungles burn, then i propose that the matter be taken OUT of the Indonesian government's hands and into the international arena. They have had more than 10 years to deal with the fucking problem and they have utterly failed. They are making our lives miserable because they are too impotent or too corrupt to enforce the letter of the law and stop these burnings. Will Indonesia bear our medical bills? Fat chance. So screw them. If they're helpless to control what goes on in their land which has been causing us so much grief and anguish just because we are unfortunate enought to be their next door neighbours, then we, as victims of the Indonesian government's gross incompetence and mismanagement, have the right to take matters into our own hands. Sue their pants off in the International Court of Justice. Even if we get only a paper judgment, at least that's good enough, if only just to put on record that the Indonesian government is/can be held liable for its actions or omissions. I'm talking TORT their asses off. I'm fed-up and so is everyone else.

This Hari Raya

I just had a beautiful, satisfying dream. And it prompted me to wake up, log on and blog about something important that has been happening in the Arab world of late. Because what is happening in the Maghreb is of incalculable importance to the rest of the world, including us in Malaysia. If the events of the Arab Spring were to usher in a new era of fairness, justice, transparency and truly democratic, representative governments in a part of the world long mired in corruption, darkness and repression, then the Arabs who have succeeded where so many others have failed would now become as beacons of light to the rest of the world, including us in Malaysia. May God bless them and guide them in their hour of need.  

Say what you mean and mean what you say

Today I found a man who agrees with me on the meaning of this word: "stakeholder". Radzuan Halim, a former Merchant Banker who now teaches MBA and law students, puts it succinctly in the forum column of The Edge Malaysia weekly business paper for the week of August 15-21, 2011:

"Of late, we find people within a financial setting saying, 'We will ensure the rights of all stakeholders'. "Stakeholder" is actually a third party to whom parties taking a bet or making a purchase entrust their money or make a deposit.

Over time, the term has become wrongly associated with someone having an interest in a particular matter. Shareholders, employers, creditors, suppliers and taxman have "interests" in a company but should not be described as stakeholders in it.

The above diversion is intended to show, firstly, that inaccuracies often creep into word usage and, secondly, that meanings of words do change with time and given sufficient persistent usage, the "wrong" meaning can become accepted. I suspect "stakeholder", which had been wrongly applied to start with, is now accepted to mean an "interested party."

Thanks for setting the record straight, Radzuan. I have the same problem trying to reconcile what i know to be the definition of "stakeholder" with what has crept into common usage and popular understanding nowadays. I guess that if you repeat something often enough, what started off as a false premise could eventually be accepted to be the truth. That doesn't really gel too well with me but it does get down to that when push comes to shove. Adoi!

the Viet Cong picture

There is something strangely comforting about this photo which is supposed to shock and repulse ordinary folks but in my mind i've been in some situations when i feel like that viet cong and this photo captures the essence of such moments.

The protectionist threat

I've been getting a free ride lately as far as coming up with a reading list is concerned.

I read chartered accountant Andrew Sheng's column in the Star newspaper biz section every saturday and follow through on his recommended reads. His latest one is "The Next Convergence - the future of economic growth in a multispeed world" by nobel prize winner Michel Spence, professor of economics at the Stern School of Business at New York University. This excerpt which is taken from Part Four, Chapter 30, page 189 is noteworthy:

"The flow of knowledge, finance, and technology that underpins sustained high growth rates in emerging economies is closely linked to an open, rules-based, and globalized economy. Yet this global construct is coming under pressure in an environment in which advanced countries have stubbornly high unemployment and experience bouts of financial volatility. Growth  in the global economy comes to be seen as a zero-sum game, leading to suboptimal reactions.

As a result, the continued openess of industrial-country markets cannot be taken for granted. Political and policy narratives are becoming more domestic and narrow, while the international agenda and those voices advocating collective common global interests are having greater difficulty being heard."

In short, if the developed/industrialised nations decide to start slapping tariffs on imports and provoke a similar response from emerging market countries, this would be the start of a trade war and a lose-lose situation on all sides. What is truly scary is that the Doha round of trade talks which started in 2001 has been stalled for close to a decade now and the propects of WTO nations coming to a meeting of minds appear elusive. Unless Doha can somehow reach a conclusion and achieve a fresh consensus to strengthen the global free trade system, everyone's growth prospects will be jeopardised. So it's either Lose-lose or Win-win.