Why it is in the interests of non-malays to see a growing and prosperous Malay middle class

 Contrary to some who perceive rather unsympathetically saudara wahid’s recent assertions that the malays lag behind the non-malays and hence need a more level playing field in terms of employment and economic opportunities to catch up with the other races (ie the minorities in Malaysia), I for one take wahid at face value and i am supportive of such initiatives. Indeed, it is in the best interests of us non-malays to see a strong and prosperous malay middle class emerge in malaysia so if we can play our part to facilitate a greater and more stable Malaysia, why not, i ask. The main stumbling block to this however, is the skills set that the malay employee or business associate brings to the table. It isn’t for want of opportunity but for want of better linguistic and business sense that the malays are excluded from the dynamic growth engines in Malaysia’s economy. Young malays in particular must equip themselves with a progressive mindset and knowledge so that they are attractive employment options and not just stick to the old herd. To do this, we need to revamp Our education system by emphasising a curriculum That places strong emphasis on the mastery of both the Malay and English languages as was intended by our founding fathers. Once the political will to do this asserts itself and a new crop Of young progressive and open minded malays come to the fore, believe me, they will be snapped up like hotcakes. Do Not be content with wallowing in self-pity and looking at others with jealousy or seething resentment but do seize the various government jnitiatives to better yourselves. Then and only then will you be the towering malays the world will universally respect and accept.

Why has the government not abolished the Sedition Act?

A common grouse against the Madani reformist Government of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is its failure to-date to fulfil many campaign promises, amongst of which the most notable being its pledge to repeal the Sedition Act 1948. This Act was originally enacted by the colonial authorities of British Malaya in 1948 to contain the local communist insurgence. Now that the communists are no longer a threat (real or imagined), what use then is the Sedition Act in today's context? Well, basically anyone who plots to overthrow the government can be charged under the Act and, if found guilty, can be imprisoned for up to 3 years or fined RM5,000, or both. Let's examine the Act.

Under Section 3(1), those acts defined as having a "seditious tendency" are acts with a tendency:

(a) to bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection against any Ruler or against any Government;

(b) to excite the subjects of the Ruler or the inhabitants of any territory governed by any government to attempt to procure in the territory of the Ruler or governed by the Government, the alteration, otherwise than by lawful means, of any matter as by law established;

(c) to bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection against the administration of justice in Malaysia or in any State;

(d) to raise discontent or disaffection amongst the subjects of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong or of the Ruler of any State or amongst the inhabitants of Malaysia or of any State;

(e) to promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races or classes of the population of Malaysia; or

(f) to question any matter, right, status, position, privilege, sovereignty or prerogative established or protected by the provisions of part III of the Federal constitution or Article 152, 153 or 181 of the Federal Constitution.

For an Act that has been challenged as being unconstitutional, these are very wide sweeping powers indeed to fortify the almost unassailable position of the incumbent powers-that-be and silence dissent. 

However, Section 3(2) provides certain exceptions, providing examples of speech which cannot be deemed seditious. It is not seditious to "show that any Ruler has been misled or mistaken in any of his measures", nor is it seditious "to point out errors or defects in the Government or Constitution as by law established". It is also not seditious "to attempt to procure by lawful means the alteration of any matter in the territory of such Government as by law established" or "to point out, with a view to their removal, any matters producing or having a tendency to produce feelings of ill-will and enmity between different races or classes of the population of the Federation". However, the act explicitly states that any matter covered by subsection (1)(f), namely those matters pertaining to the Malaysian social contract, cannot have these exceptions applied to it.

 It is small wonder that the government of the day is slow to repeal an Act which obviously protects incumbency. It is to be seen whether this dragging of feet on reforms will adversely affect the Madani Government come the 12 Aug 2023 state elections which will be held in 6 peninsular states, namely Kedah, Terengganu, Kelantan, Penang, Negeri Sembilan and Selangor. It will not affect hardcore supporters of the Madani Government, but the fence-sitters who are being hotly-courted by both sides of the political divide may be swayed or they may spoil their votes in protest. We shall see.  

 

The Failure of Modern Malay Secular Politicians in Malaysia

The last Malaysian general elections held in 19 November 2022 was a watershed moment for local Malay politicians. Amidst the "Green Wave" from newly-registered Undi-18 voters, the old Malay political establishment came crumbling down and were largely washed aside. UMNO which thought itself a clear winner ended up as the biggest loser in GE 15 with PAS emerging as the dominant Malay party in Parliament.

Old fogeys like Tun Dr Mahathir, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and the elite secular Malay politicians fell like dominoes. 

There is a very clear message being sent by young Malay voters. The Malay elite political establishment has failed them and they want an alternative representation. The old order is seen as corrupt, crony-benefitting and self-serving compared with the likes of PAS, inflammatory incendiary and all-provoking as they may seem to us non-Malays. But the fact remains that PAS is perceived as cleaner and mostly untouched by the horrid corruption and other scandals befalling the Malay elites. It is closer to the roots of the Malay psyche, the kampung pondok agama, and the common Malay peasant. It is remarkable how from being a marginalised, fringe looney religio-party that PAS has emerged as the main voice of the discontented and restless segment of the Malay voters.

In less than 30 years, PAS has grown from strength to strength, benefitting always from the many follies and scandals befalling its arch-rival UMNO. The final straw that literally broke the UMNO camel's back was 1MDB involving disgraced former UMNO President and ex-PM Najib Tun Abdul Razak. In their final hours of desperation, najib and his deputy zahid both sought the support of PAS to stave off their court cases and when that and the Perikatan Nasional tie-ups didn't work, they sought an alternate refuge: Pakatan Harapan.

Who can save the so-called secular modern Malay politican, if such a man/woman truly exists? If najib tun abdul razak personifies the modern moderate secular malay polituician, then the future looks bleak indeed. Can there be a clean, honest and competent Malay politician free from political Islam and yet far-seeing enough to guide KD Malaysia to safe harbour away from the storms of racial and religious extremism and gutter poltics? Perhaps a taste of Hadi Awang as Prime Minister for one term is all the anbtidote that is really needed to stir the slumbering hordes out of its morbid fantasies.  

 

Hear us Roar?

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. 

Yes it is 06 January today and we are fast into the new year with some predicting a global runaway inflation and economic mayhem this evil 2022 the year of our Lord. It sure looks pretty gloomy with prices of most essentials and foodstuffs rising globally amid unresolved supply chain bottlenecks. Meanwhile, the government of Ismail Sabri has had to contend with floods and missing ministers who took year end leave only to be summoned home to help Malaysians suffering from the floods. The government's response has been to give handouts again though thankfully the EPF is left alone this time. Once GE 15 is called and it has to be called by June 2023, the government which is expected to win hands-down will likely turn its attention to reviving the economy and its revenue base so what better way to collect more monies than to re-introduce the Goods and Services Tax (GST)? After all, our neighbour downsouth is revising upwards their GST rate from 7% to 9% soon since it is mid-term for the singapore govt and therefore there is no better time to raise taxes than now. I am thinking that post GE 15, GST in the region of 4-5% for Malaysia will be the case for us. Alrighty then, bring it on, 2022.    

Uneven development and transformation, Vision 2020 and beyond

Uneven development and transformation, Vision 2020 and beyond

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram (published in The Edge, 1346 the week of Nov 23-29, 2020 and re-produced here without permission for academic discourse purposes). All credits to the author.

Work in an Evolving Malaysia - by Hawati Hamid, Siti Aiysyah Tumin and Nur Thuraya Sazali - is the second Khazanah Research Institute (KRI) report in a month to revisit the period associated with Vision 2020, announced in early 1991, after the era typically associated with the New Economic Policy (NEP) of 1971 to 1990.

Vision 2020 sought to create a psychologically liberated, mature, ethical, tolerant, liberal, democratic, scientific, industrialised, prosperous, progressive, caring, economically just and united Malaysian nation.

Arguably, Vision 2020 was killed by the 1997/98 Asian financial crisis followed by the Mahathir-Anwar political fallout and the 2008 global financial crisis. Two decades before, the NEP was introduced to create the conditions for national unity after the traumatic racial riots of May 1969 by eradicating poverty and restructuring society to eliminate the association of race with economic function.

It is a pity that the country has not had a fuller debate over what happened to this progressive national vision, which sought to go beyond the ethnically divisive dominant interpretation and implementation of the NEP, repudiating its intent to forge national unity.

Capturing public policy, ruling party politicians and their business partners ensured the NEP undermined such prospects by invoking ethno-populist victimhood to secure "ketuanan Melayu" privilege.

Curiously, former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed hardly referred to Vision 2020 that he launched during his recent political comeback, although many consider it to be his finest moment, rising - albeit briefly - above the divisive legacy of NEP implementation, privatisation and the mid-1980s' split in UMNO.

It is no secret that Vision 2020's modernist unifying vision was first drafted by three now-departed Malay intellectuals at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS), namely its director-general Noordin Sopiee, fiscal economist Ismail salleh and political sociologist Rustam Sani.

Rustam - son of progressive nationalist politician Ahmad Boestmam, who helped draft the 1947 PUTERA-AMJCA People's Constitution (Perlembagaan Rakyat), which envisaged a bangsa Melayu (Malay nation defined by patriotism and not ethnic genealogy or religion and long-concerned with nation-building) - was key to envisaging Vision 2020's bangsa Malaysia (Malaysian nation).

Sadly, the main reference to Vision 2020 often made in Malaysia these days is to Datuk Seri Najib Razak's caricatured equation of developing the nation with achieving high-income country  (HIC) status, a World Bank category. Najib's regime claimed that Malaysia was on the cusp of HIC status by statistically ignoring foreign labour, especially the undocumented foreign workers.

This remains a major problem, inetr alia, in Malaysian economic statistics as we pretend they do not contribute significantly to economic output despite being poorly treated. For example, discriminating against them adversely affects Malaysian workers working in similar jobs and puts the malaysian public at risk by refusing to test them for Covid-19 as if the virus discriminates on the basis of citizenship.

Official data acknowledges over 32 million citizens and over 15 million in the labour force, including 2.2 million non-citizens. Half a decade ago, the then human resources minister announced that an estimated 6.7 million foreign workers in the country used data from telcos. In other words, about 4.5 million were undocumented, and hence not recognized as part of the labour force.

This implies that about a third of the labour force in Malaysia of closer to 20 million is foreign and of whom two-thirds were not acknowledged. By ignoring their contribution and meausring productivity and income without them, we only delude ourselves that we have nearly achieved high-income status despite lacklustre investment and development for well over two decades.

Uneven structural change and employment

With such caveats in mind, we can learn a great deal from the KRI report's review of Malaysia's labour trends from 1989 to 2019, almost coinciding with the period since 2020 was proclaimed. Work influences incomes, consumption and well-being, covered in last month's report, especially as labour incomes accounted for more than four-fifths of household income in 2019.

Household incomes are linked to spatially varying employment conditions in the country. Using available official data, it offers a spatial perspective, reviewing workforce characteristics in different states to identify some challenges and opportunities.

Such uneven economic development resulted in varied employment conditions. More economically advanced states had higher labour force participation rates (especially for women), more skilled and educated workers as well as lower unemployment rates. Hence, better paid jobs were mainly in the central hub of Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya.

But differences in work conditions persist. Formal and secure employment is widespread, but vulnerable and precarious jobs are growing. In the more economically advanced states, almost four-fifths of workers had more secure employment terms. But decent work deficits have been increasing, even in richer states.

Transformations

As Malaysia's economy has grown, the distribution of economic activities among states has evolved. Agriculture's share of employment declined from 31% in 1982 to 10% in 2019 but remained important in most rural areas and, relatively more significantly, in the poorer north and east coast states of Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak.

Thus, agriculture still accounted for 24% to 26% of employment in Sabah, Sarawak and the federal territory of Labuan, and 14% in the other poor Peninsular Malaysia states in 2019 (highest in Pahang at 21%). Decent work deficits - for example, in occupational health and safety and non-standard jobs lacking formal social protection - are strongly  associated with agriculture.

Manufacturing employment shares grew in all states in the decade before the 1997/98 Asian financial crisis, with the national share peaking at 24% in 2000 before falling to 18% in 2019. West coast states in Peninsular Malaysia have industrialised more. More export-oriented high-technology manufacturing, with more skilled workers, is also concentrated in the advanced states.

Penang and Johor still have higher shares, at 37% and 25% resepctively. Manufacturing accounted for 21% of employment in Selangor-Kuala Lumpur-Putrajaya in 1982, declining slightly by 2019 despite its huge population increase and high concentration of modern services. Meanwhile, the 2019 manufacturing employment shares were only 7% in Sabah and Sarawak and 12% in the other poorer states. 

Traditional services growing most

Employment in services continued to grow faster throughout the country, especially between 1999 and 2019, amid lacklustre growth in other economic activities. With 63% of national employment in 2019, its job share in Sabah and Sarawak also rose from 30% in 2009 to 37% in 2019.

While the sector has provided many jobs, traditional services - including wholesale and retail, food and beverage and accomodation - have grown more, offering lower pay and more irregular employment compared with modern services such as finance, information and communication, and professional services.

Between 2009 and 2019, traditional services rose from 35% to 40% for all jobs as the job share of modern services shrank from 8.0% to 6.8%. Modern services, typically involving more skills and better pay, were more common, with 15% in more urbanised Selangor-Kuala Lumpur-Putrajaya, which is more than triple the average elsewhere.

Meanwhile, employment in social services like education, health and public administration contracted from 17.2% in 2009 to 15.8% in 2019. Such services not only improve social well-being but also employ more skilled workers, providing stable jobs and better pay.

Jobs, gender, skills, pay

The more economically advanced states have seen increasingly higher labour force participation rates (LFPR). In Selangor-Kuala Lumpur-Putrajaya, close to three quarters of the working age population (15 to 64 years old) were in paid employment, while other states had rates below 70%.

Women's participation drives the oevrall LFPR, rising from 45% in 1982 to 56% in 2019. Women's LFPR rose fastest in Selangor-Kuala Lumpur-Putrajaya from half to over two-thirds while other states grew less, from 45% to 51%. Flexible work arrangements, support for care work and other policies enabling women's participation could further raise women's LFPR.

Over the past two decades, the share of skilled employees has risen faster in these states, as low-skilled employees became more significant elsewhere while semi-skilled jobs' share declined everywhere. Of semi-skilled jobs, services and sales workers grew most in recent years, but with low wage growth.

Between 2011 and 2019, such workers grew from 20% to 23% of total employment, without stemming the overall decline of semi-skilled jobs, with sluggish wage growth (3.4% annually), relatively lower wages (RM2,060) and great risk of job displacement by automation.

Jobs needing more education and skills are now more concentrated in the economically advanced states. More skilled and educated employment, including in modern services, have raised wage levels and household incomes, but also living costs in Selangor-Kuala Lumpur-Putrajaya above other states.

Employment and vulnerability

The more economically developed states have lower unemployment rates. In 2019, close to four-fifths of working people in these states were paid employees, mostly in standard employment relations. Shares in paid employment were 71% in Sabah and Sarawak and 68% in the poorer states of Peninsular Malaysia, which include Kelantan, Perlis, Kedah, Pahang and Perak, but not Terengganu.

Between 1982 and 2019, unemployment in the more advanced states averaged under 3%, and slightly more in the less-developed states. Unemployment rates for women, rural areas, the less educated and younger people and in Sabah and Sarawak were also generally higher. Less-advanced states have more employed in small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which typically have more decent work deficits.

Thus, precarious employment, including own account and unpaid family workers constiuting vulnerable employment, has been rising with more sluggish growth since the turn of the century. Although employment conditions appeared stable after the pandemic, increasing numbers in the economically advanced states were experiencing decent work deficits. 

Investments, technology and the pandemic

Industrialisation grew rapidly with investments in the early and mid-1990s; but slowed as services, mainly traditional, became more important. As investments slowed, the country deindustrialised, becoming more service-oriented.

Capital accumulation, averaging 16% annually from 1989 to 1997, fell to around 6% yearly from 1999 to 2019. Reduced investments slowed long-term growth as investments in modern services declined with high-technology manufacturing. Less R&D also lowered demand for highly-educated employees.

Traditional services' jobs grew as modern and social services employment relatively declined in the past decade. Sales and services work, accounting for about a quarter of total employment in Malaysia, is at greater risk due to increased automation.

Half of existing jobs, mostly those considered semi-skilled, are considered to be at greater risk of being automated, with the pandemic probably accelerating this trend. Moreover, Covid-19 may accelerate the automation of some jobs that cannot be done from home during the pandemic.

However, timely and appropriate policy interventions can ensure that workers are upskilled or reskilled to anticipate, rather than be displaced by, technological advances. Flexibility and openness to innovation and willing ness to adopt new technologies would also ease such transitions.

Melayu Baru

One early reaction to Vision 2020 was the notion of Melayu Baru, which sought to assert a new self-confident Malay in bangsa Malaysia but get rid of the supremacist racist pretensions of "ketuanan Melayu".

The notion of "ketuanan Melayu" was first advanced in 1986, after Mahathir announced economic, educational and cultural liberalisation following the economic downturn and political challenges of the mid-1980s.

Mahathir successfully courted Pakatan Harapan leaders to take over PH leadership before its victory in the May 2018 general election. While as PM7, he worked with others within and outside PH to use ethno-populism to keep his other PH partners in check, perhaps hoping to eventually lead a government of national unity as the seemingly indispensable leader.

Today, UMNO and PAS have successfully hijacked the new discourse of Malay-Muslim unity, with the DAP designated "bogey-man", a caricature some culturally insensitive DAP leaders seemed all too ready to confirm, inadvertently undermining the popular legitimacy of PH, especially its Malay leadership.

Beyond 2020

Can the nation's future be saved or at least salvaged from the debris of the decades? Or is Malaysia condemned to continue replaying newer versions of the same old ethno-populist tunes, for a farcical tragedy with new casts and sets, while smug in our culture of self-congratulation and self-delusion?

Malaysian politics since February this year is slowly but surely exposing the emptiness of all ethno-populisms. But tragically, unlike in 1971 or 1991, there is no shared alternative national project ready to fill the vacuum left by the expiry of Vision 2020 and the earlier post-May 1969 quest for national unity with the Rukun Negara and the NEP.

Although the Vision 2020 alternative was wounded and abandoned, its envisioning and ensuing efforts in its name, however brief and compromised, remind us that all is not lost. For all patriots of goodwill, it is imperative to strive yet again despite the odds.

The Vision 2020 commitment is to establish a modern, industrialised, developed and united Malaysian nation. The potentially progressive nationalism of the Rukun Negara plus NEP and, later, Vision 2020 is still urgently relevant. Today, not only does the nation remain divided but the major political tendencies strive to split it further, albeit in the name of rival ethno-populism. 

And while most post-colonial societies struggle to overcome colonial legacies and to cope with contemporary hegemonic rivalries, ethno-populist jingoism invokes nationalistic rhetoric to serve narrow reactionary agendas. To make things worse, internal divisions have not only compromised national resolve but also allowed hegemonic foreign interests and ideologies greater influence.

Undoubtedly, today's Covid-19 pandemic as well as containment, relief and recovery meaures are not only disruptive but also costly. But its dangers and threats also offer new opportunities to move forward, albeit to a less certain future, which certainly cannot be either a throwback to business as usual or an unchanging new normal.

We can only emerge stronger as a nation if we pull together, instead of working at cross-purposes for political advantage and economic gain. Covid-19 underscores the need for an all-government approach, unifying the whole of society, acknowledging the inevitable while striving to make the most of the new circumstances in the near, medium and long term. 

The courage of his convictions

Today marks a milestone in Malaysian politics with the conviction of najib tun razak of all 7 charges in relation to the SRC corruption scandal. He was sentenced to 7 concurrent sentences for each offence, the longest being 12 years’ jailtime and a fine for RM210 million, a record-shattering quantum by Malaysian standards. Najib has of course appealed And his lawyers managed to obtain a stay of execution of his jail sentence pending the outcome of his appeals. 

The conclusion of najib’s case marks a milestone in Malaysian politics. Never before has a former prime minister been convicted of corruption in or out of office, for that matter. The razak family name has taken a terrible fall from grace, the scion of Malaysia’s second Prime Minister known widely as “mr establishment” himself has tested the judicial waters and it totally froze him out.

Najib still has legal avenue to appeal his 7 convictions and the appellate process will be yet another test of the Malaysian bench’s independence and virility as a force for good or well, not so good. In order to overturn his 7 convictions, najib’s lawyers must prove that the trial judge had erred in law or that fresh compelling and material evidence had emerged rendering their client’s convictions unsafe and unsatisfactory. 

One hopes that the days of Eusoff Chin sitting at the head of the bench and passing shocking, unwarranted appellate decisions are well and truly a thing of the past. Indeed, the new appellate bench almost comprising exclusively of female appellate judges could just be the refreshing change that this country needs. But we will see. 

For now, justice has been done and it has been seen to be done. And that is all that one can hope for. 

It is today the 06th Jan 2022 and as i write this, najib's appeal to the Court of Appeal has been dismissed a few months ago with the appellate judge calling him a "National Embarrassment" when najib pleaded "national interests" in his defence. Najib's next and final appeal is to the Federal Court and he has in the meantime obtained  a stay of execution of his conviction pending the hearing of his final appeal. 

Sex lies and videotape

Malaysians, it seems, never tire of the sexual peccadilloes of our politicians. The latest sleaze allegation comes from PKR's (the People's Justice Party's) Haziq Aziz, a hitherto obscure senior private secretary to the deputy Primary Industries Minister Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin. Haziq posted on facebook what sounded like a statutory declaration admitting to be the actor in a video of Haziq bedding down with an individual who is widely perceived to be no less than the Economic Affairs Minister himself, Dato' Seri Azmin Ali. The video, it seems, was recorded without Haziq's permission and has since gone viral but now Haziq says that he is willing to brief journalists and he further urged the Malaysian anti-corruption commission to investigate Azmin Ali.

I have a few issues with this.

Firstly, if the video footage was indeed taken without his (Haziq's) permission, shouldn't he (Haziq) be outraged and immediately lodge a police report against the perpetrators of this heinous invasion of his privacy under the Personal Data Protection Act?

Second, wouldn't the police be more interested to apprehend the culprits behind the viral video for propagating obscenity/pornography under the Film Censorship Act rather than pry into the private lives of individuals?

Third, why would Haziq jump to the conclusion that elements of corruption are actually at play here? If there are 2 consenting adults, a formal charge for "having carnal intercourse against the order of nature" under the Penal Code comes into mind, but what is there that reeks of corruption or the abuse of official position unless Haziq comes forth to say that he was sodomised against his free will?
But if not, wouldn't Haziq be an accomplice himself and hence be liable to be charged for the archaic offence of sodomy?

A Very Malaysian Spring

"In the spring a young man's fancy lighly turns to love" - Lord Alfred Tennyson, Locksley Hall. 

Locksley hall is a poem written by Lord Alfred Tennyson in 1835 and published in 1842 centering on a young man's unrequited love.  It narrates in monologue the emotions of a rejected suitor who comes to his childhood home, the fictional Locksley Hall.

Like the protagonist's unrequited love, the demise of Barisan Nasional had been many years in the making, only its leaders failed to read the writing on the wall. They succumbed to the trap of ego/personality-worship at their own peril for far too long and for all the wrong, farcical reasons. 

To be true, UMNO the mainstay of Barisan still retains 54 seats in Parliament and will likely reform itself - as an Oppostion party - to stay relevant to the Malays who are still loyal to the party. The UMNO which was founded by Onn Ja'afar who ironically left the party he founded in disgust over its communalistic leanings, is now drifting into uncharted waters. Bereft of its source of government largess and now cast out into the political wilderness, UMNO is struggling to stay afloat.

 MCA and MIC will ponder their future in barisan with the same gloom as do all its other minor component parties, loyal to the wrong cause to the last. How long more will this misconceived loyalty subsist remains to be seen. Already some have abandoned ship.

But after the dust has settled, BN leaders will have conducted a post-mortem into what went so wrong with PRU-14. The answer has always been obvious. For UMNO, its leaders became so manifestly corrupt and inwards-looking that party elections were postponed well beyond the norm to prop up the corrupt. It became manifestly UNREPRESENTATIVE of the people that it professed to protect. Most of its candidates were above the age of 60, save for a token few paraded around proudly as the model of najib's "transformasi" which never was. MCA lacked an agenda for the Chinese community. MIC the same, its squabbles with the PPP over who held the leadership mantle for the Malaysian Indian community was the butt of jokes everywhere. 

Irrelevance equals to loss of support from their respective communities. Barisan ceramahs were empty, hollow reminders of the arrogance of its leaders, echoing the microphone of speakers who shouted to invisible audiences their messages of denial and defiance in the face of mounting evidence of wrongdoings and falling mostly on deaf ears. They were roundly rejected by the people but the resulting rout was not felt by its leaders until too late into the night of 9th May 2018.

Is this the end of communal politics in Malaysia?

Not quite but it seems that all roads lead to Bangsa Malaysia from hereon. The new government is still forming as i write this but all hopes are for a better tomorrow. That most of its leaders were ex-UMNO stalwarts anyway is an irony not lost on us. It will become apparent that unity over division, national interest over parochialism, love over hate, hope over fear will now finally be allowed to flourish,  perhaps even to prevail at long last.  The strong undercurrents of Malaysiana will make its presence felt more and more in our national life. It is now up to the new government to navigate the waters and bring the ship Malaysia to port safely. Our common destiny beckons.   

We have witnessed a most equatorial blossoming of our young democracy from the tyrannical rule of the corrupt into a multi-racial, multi-religious people's power which toppled najib's regime and ushered in hitherto undreamed of freedoms our forefathers wrote about when they crafted our Constitution. Long live freedom and long live Malaysia. Let us hope that, unlike Tennyson's young man, may our love be requitted and may we always be loved by our country.

Pride and Prejudice

It is difficult to overcome ancient prejudices in matters of race and culture but if one makes a conscious effort to disassociate one's mind from overly simplistic generalizations and avoid giving in to that temptation (because thinking is hard), it is rather doable. As philosophers ponder on whether laziness or fear is the biggest obstacle to human progress, in this alley at least, i believe intellectual laziness is the cause and effect of our innate prejudices. But wait, how about one's past bad experiences that reinforce one's prejudices against a certain race/culture? If say, a Chinese Landlord had a tough time with his defaulting Malay tenant or a Malay customer gets cheated by a Chinese towkay selling counterfeit goods/gets overcharged or an Indian man drunk on alcohol physically abuses his spouse/partner, do any of these experiences justify and should they reinforce our ever lurking prejudices and preconceptions? The answer is NO. 

One must always remain vigilant and alert but especially with focus on the INDIVIDUAL and not to give in to easily stereotype an individual belonging to a certain race to a group of misbehaving miscreants based on the color of their skin or their cultural association. 

In Malaysia we still have some ways to go before we graduate from merely tolerating each other into open arm acceptance and embrace of our racial and cultural differences. Some of us are already there but the rest of us still have some catching up to do. But if the truth matters to you, that little effort in objective thinking is well worth the sacrifice.

Politicus Minimis

When No Politics is Good Politics

I've always believed that in life politics is inevitable. Like Bernie Sanders, one needs to get into politics so as to steer life clear of its ugliest excesses. However, i also believe that too much politics is bad in any given situation. Our country has been embroiled in endless politics for what seems like forever. From the Perak state government ouster to the stripping of titles of the incumbent Terengganu Menteri Besar, the casual observer can be forgiven to feel an overwhelming sense of nausea at the direction that this country is spinning towards. Instead of a sleeves-up and let's-get-down-to-work attitude, our people seem to favour indulging more and more in political play mostly of the petty and egregious type. I admit, politics cannot be avoided. But surely it can be moved away from always hogging the limelight? We have more important work to be done. Our educational system is still stuck in limbo, our system of checks and balances have mostly given way to a system of governance under the thumb of the executive branch of government, our judiciary appear trepidatious and afraid to stand its ground on matters of Principal. Granted that this country is still peaceful at least, we can count our lucky stars for that. But as Shakespeare's Julius Caesar co-conspirator Cassius said, "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars But in ourselves, that we are underlings".   

Book Review: "The Chinese Dilemma" by Ye Lin-Sheng

I'm about 12 years late to review this book which was first printed in Feb 2004. I had seen its title and my initial reaction was: "Oh no, not another Dilemma book." And so i didn't give it a second glance back then. But having just finished all 197 pages of it, I can say that Malaysian Chinese businessman Ye Lin-Sheng has done an admirable job of summarising the concerns and common grouses of the Malaysian Chinese and non-Malays especially in regards to the New Economic Policy (NEP) and its 1990 successor the National Development Policy (NDP) or the Affirmative Action program of the Malaysian Government. From its inception to implementation and the public reception and the mainly (according to Ye) positive results through all these years. Ye who grew up in a rural environment with Malay neighbours and friends and has worked in the civil service during the colonial era, struck a conciliatory tone with the merits of such government policies. He lays out the pros and cons of affirmative action policies in Malaysia, compares it with American experiences, lists the Malaysian Chinese' largely lukewarm reception to it, its social and economic impact, the nett effect on outwards migration of the Malaysian Chinese and whether it truly is as bad as it is made out to seem. 

He ends the book on a positive note with this piece of advice: "Make it work or lose it all here". 

No Glue for Unity and yet...

I went for Tun Dr M's speech during the recent world international peace day open forum organized by the Malacca Bar. He said something interesting. Speaking on the topic of unity, Tun said that there is no "glue" holding Malaysians of different races and religion together and yet somehow we have managed to get along peacefully without any major incidents for the past 58 years except for the May 13 tragedy which happened 46 years ago. How was this possible? That we are thrown into this land whether or not we like each other but for the sake of making a good life we sacrifice certain wishes so that we can get along with each other? Tun remarked that in Malaysia, perhaps it was not such a bad thing that everyone is dissatisfied for not being able to get their way 100% of the time but if this was the price to pay for peace and relative harmony, then it is a sacrifice well worth the price. Let's hope that the next 58 years will draw us closer and not further apart. 

Seasons

"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose..."

I'm not a theist so i have left out the last part "...under heaven" because i don't believe in a theist heaven anymore. But what i do believe is there is a time and a place for everything. A time to live, a time to rejoice, a time to love, a time to weep, and a time even for death. The time for our incumbent Prime Minister now isn't death literally, but time overdue for him to resign. Please please please, letak jawatan before the office of prime minister becomes a hollow shell echoing only the eerie sounds of your hired sycophants. You do not want to be remembered as a tyrant, you do not want to besmirch the memory of your father our second prime minister. If you truly love Malaysia, quit now.   

Oh Najib, remorse repent resign retire reflect

Events of the last year or so have culminated in the suspension of TheEdge Daily and The Edge weekly papers today, arguably the last bastion of what's left of Malaysia's formerly free press. There are of course opposition-based publications and perhaps The Sun newspaper, but the night is now darkest before the breaking dawn, as the saying goes. 

I'll not mince words. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has lost the confidence of the majority of Malaysians and he must resign immediately. 

He is unable to answer the various allegations leveled against him, he is evasive, he has kept silent in the face of serious questions posed on the moral and legal legitimacy of his premiership and he has shown time and time again that he is morally intellectually politically and legally unfit to be our prime minister. 

Whatever coercive actions being taken by his morally-challenged administration to perpetuate its grip on power cannot whitewash his shortcomings, indeed they amplify it all the more. If Parliament is unable to move a motion of no confidence because of the party whip that is in force, then it is incumbent on us the rakyat to keep pushing until he does sign his letter of resignation. The judiciary, the press, the legislative branch, the police, the PAC, the MACC, all the organs of government are under the powerful sway of the executive office and they are unable to discharge their duties effectively nor do as  they are mandated to do by law. Rule of law has degenerated into rule by law. All our institutions have become emasculated and they are scarce able to safeguard the constitution, let alone the rights of the rakyat. Whistle blowers are being persecuted while the well-connected elites continue with their abusive rule unscathed, unafraid, disrespectful of the true objects of the law.  

But i am optimistic even in these dark times. I believe in the light at the end of the tunnel. And i believe with a passion that we are witnessing the dying throes of a hopelessly corrupt regime ensnared in its own trap. We will prevail and we will have a brighter future.

Long Live Malaysia. Long Live Freedom. Power to the People. Hidup Rakyat Malaysia!

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad on "The Malaysian Dilemma"

The following are a very rough transcript of the Center for a Better Tomorrow's talk by Tun Dr Mahathir entitled, "The Malaysian Dilemma" held on 12 Feb 2015 from 10.10am till 12.30pm at the Connexion@ Nexus, Bangsar South City, Jalan Kerinchi, Kuala Lumpur. I could not transcript the entire 2 hour talk so i can only publish the more notable bits which i found relevant and amusing in Tun's own light-hearted manner.

(Tun flanked by Lim Chee Wee standing to the left and Gan Ping Sieu seated to the right)

I was the first to get at the venue this morning after an hour and a half of driving during the early pre-dawn hours up to KL to meet The Man. And boy, Tun didn't disappoint me in the least. Let's just say that this was a most memorable and fruitful trip in recent memory for Yours Truly.

Tun: "Dilemma means if you do you are damned, if you don't you will also be damned. So, if you are going to be damned anyway, let's do something about it (referring to the government's efforts to decrease the disparity between the rich and the poor in Malaysia and the disparity between the races which was why the New Economic Policy was introduced). "It resolved the disparity during that time and the country grew by 12% almost every year but now we grow by about 5% annually so it is still OK. When you are poorer the rate of growth is much higher. If you look at the Developed countries, if they achieve 1-2% growth that is fantastic because they already have a high base but for us we still need about 5% growth which is still good."

Tun: "So we have a dilemma. Do we continue with the formula which has served us well or do we discard it now that we have done well? That is the Dilemma. It is a Tongkat. Some people think that it is a Status Symbol but we have to disabuse them of this thinking. The process is one of changing their culture, their values system. I find that whether they (the Malays) succeed or not is a function of their culture/values system. The hardworking men, the hardworking nation will succeed. A nation that is postponing everything till tomorrow will not succeed. That is why we promoted the "Look East" Policy. You know, today Europe is in Big Trouble. Japan is also in trouble. But China and Korea (South) are doing well. Samsung is doing well, they manufacture all sorts of gadgets tvs handphones and consumer items, etc So we have to look east because we see people who have succeeded there while in the west people have failed. It is the culture needed by the Malay community. They HAVE to CHANGE if they want to succeed. They do not have to go to Japan, they have a role model from the Chinese in this country."

 During the Q & A session which lasted for about an hour after the hour-long talk by Tun (remarkably, this almost 90-year old man stood for over 2 hours speaking on the rostrum!), a teenage student posed a question about the difficulties faced by students under the new education system.

Tun replied that he personally never liked the Malaysian education system even when he was still the Prime Minister and that he wished to emphasize the importance of mastering the English language so as students can better grasp maths and science subjects where daily advancements and tremendous changes are all written in the English medium. That is why he insisted on having maths and science to be taught in English. He added that it was impossible to translate all technical advancements from English to the Malay language and the quickest way to acquire such knowledge and know-how was to be competent in English.

Tun's personal advice to Students in particular and Malaysians in general?
"Read as widely as you can, acquire knowledge and skills through reading as many books as you can. Nowadays people do not do much reading, kids play with their hand-held gadgets or computers etc, adults do the same. But reading books is so very important."

Asked about his comments on the perception that Malaysian society had become more polarised and divided in recent times, Tun remarked that there will always be extremists from all sides of the political divide and of all races and one had to have the courage as a moderate to speak up and not remain quiet although the tendency of a moderate is usually to be quiet and maintain a low profile. Tun said: "They (the extremists) will always be a minority but sometimes when we speak up we are accused ourselves of being an extremist (to much laughter from the floor). But if you do not speak up as a moderate, then you will be deemed to have accepted the extremists' views and so their views will set the agenda." He added that the perception of increased polarisation and division in Malaysian society was also a minority view as whenever he personally went out shopping to places like Pavillion in Kuala Lumpur as he liked to do, ordinary malaysians from all walks of life and ethnicity would come up to him and tell their children to shake his hands and greet him which would not happen if there truly was such polarisation and division in Malaysian society.

On communal politiics and whether the Barisan Nasional ethnic-based parties were themselves a cause of the perceived polarisation, Tun continued: "By and large we have gotten well together through the years after independence, despite the occasional bickering and quarrels. We have not become like Iraq, Syria or Libya for example. What is so important is the concept of "KONGSI" or Sharing in Malaysia. The Malays being the majority with the political power shared their political power while the Chinese with their dominant economic clout in Malaysia shared their economic power. We are not depriving anyone of their slice of the cake but we seek to enlarge the cake so that everyone can have a bigger slice of it respectively."
Tun stressed that only by continuing and being willing to Share can the  peace and stability enjoyed by all Malaysians and the nation's continued prosperity be assured and Wawasan 2020 or Vision 2020 (the year when the Malaysia government has set its target to become  a developed nation) is achieveable.

He said that someday a time may come when there was no need to have communal-based parties but for now as people still generally identified themselves by race first rather than as Malaysians, they were a part of life in Malaysia. He described how once during an overseas trip to Japan he overheard some young people walking behind him speaking in perfect Malay amongst themselves. "When i turned around i found that they were Indonesian ethnic Chinese", he said. So it is this issue of race and language which must first be overcome before a Bangsa Malaysia can be achieved.

To a question from the audience about 1MDB, Tun said that he would never have such a body in his time as it was not necessary. "They have only loans and you must pay back loans", he added, saying that loans were not assets as such. He likened 1MDB's loans to the Malays in the kampungs owing monies and loans to their local chettiars and once when his own father had passed away, his late father's chettiar appeared at his doorstep to ask for repayment of his late father's loan. When told that Tun's father had died, the chettiar simply replied that although tun's father had died, the loan had not died (to much roars of laughter from the floor).

Tun said that at the end of the day, a leader was only a leader when he had followers. "A leader does what he does to serve the interests of his followers. If he is there just to enjoy himself, then well..." (again to much applause and laughter).

 (Tun accepts a token of appreciation from Cenbet moderator Gan Ping Sieu)

While the above transcript is faithfully reproduced from memory and personal handwritten notes and Yours Truly was seated about 5 rows away from Tun, apologies are in order for any unintended mistakes errors omissions or misheard/misreported comments. No malice is intended and this transcript is intended to be for public consumption in honour of our former Prime Minster. Tun was also good enough to autograph my copy of his memoirs (see below, but alas to rotate anti-clockwise once).

1MDB - no more the elephant in the room (article extracted and re-reproduced from TheEdge Malaysia, Dec 22, 2014)

1MDB - no more the elephant in the room (pages 27 & 30, TheEdge Malaysia, Dec 22, 2014)

By Ben Shane Lim

For most Malaysians, 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) has been a complex engima - just one of the many plots and subplots that form the political background noise to everyday life. But the troubling story of the state-owned fund that is Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib's brainchild finally came to the fore in 2014, with potentially far-reaching implications for the nation's finance and politics.

Opposition politicians and former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad may have their own agendas for criticising 1MDB, but the man in the street has many reasons to be worried as well - about 42 billion and counting.

Even one of Najib's own from Umno broke ranks earlier this month, with Batu Kawan deputy cheif Datuk Seri Khairuddin Abu Hassan lodging a police report against 1MDB, whose advisory board is chaired by Najib himself. Penang Umno members were quick to step in and pacify the party president, stressing that Khairuddin had been acting alone.

Political motives aside, there are justifiable reasons for Malaysians to be concerned as well.

In a nutshell, 1MDB appears to have borrowed a huge amount of money at too high a price to purchase overpriced assets that cannot cover the debts. Why this has happened is open to speculation.

The net effect is that 1MDB has been relying on massive land revaluation gains to book accounting profits, but auffers from negative cashflows as whatever cash it has is used to service the debts. In the financial year ended March 31, 2014 (FY2014), it suffered a negative cash flow of RM2.25 billion.

Ultimately, this business model doesn't appear sustainable, a fact that became more apparent when 1MDB posted a loss of RM665.3 million for FY2014, weighed down by RM2.4 billion in financing costs.

This isn't particularly surpirsing, since 1MDB had relied on over RM2.74 billion in land revaluation to turn a profit in FY2013. But the losses have been a wake-up call for Najib's administration.

There are two linchpins that are supposed to turn 1MDB around - the development of the 70-acre Tun Razak Exchange (TRX) land in the heart of KL and the listing of 1MDB's power assets.

While the development of TRX saw little progress this year, it has been an eventful year for 1MDB's energy unit that aims to list next year and raise over RM9 billion.  The listing is crucial to raise money for 1MDB to pay off some of its debts, evidenced by the fact (that) 1MDB is willing to retain 20% stake in the listed company.

So what happended?

1MDB started the year on a sour note, having to change auditors for a second time in four years to Deloitte from KPMG. This in part resulted in 1MDB delaying the lodging of its FY2013 financial results with the Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM) by over six months.

The 2013 financials revealed that 1MDB had channelled over RM7.18 billion to the Cayman islands. 1MDB claims that the funds were professionally managed by Hong Kong-based Bridge Partners, but little is known about the obscure firm and 1MDB largely kept mum about the funds.

The financials also showed that 1MDB overpaid for the acquisition of its power assets by some RM3.3 billion in the form of goodwill. Recall that 1MDB acquired Genting Sanyen power assets from the Genting group for RM2.3 billion, and the Tanjong Power assets from tycoon Ananda Krishnan for RM8.5 billion.

By March 2013, slightly over a year after the acquisitions, 1MDB would write off RM1.9 billion of that goodwill.

While this was a poor start to 1MDB's planned listing of its power assets, the group has had a wi ndfall year when it comes to securing new projects.

It began when it was awarded Project 3B, a 2,000MW coal-fired power plant project worth RM11 billion, after a close fight with a consortium consisting of YTL Power International Bhd and the Sultan of Johor's SIPP Energy Sdn Bhd.

1MDB would go on to win two more projects on a direct-award basis - a 50MW solar project as well as a 2,000MW combined cycle gas turbine plant in Melaka due in 2021.

Including a few more undisclosed hydroelectric projects in and outside the country as well as a joint venture with Tenaga Nasional Bhd to undertake new projects in Bangladesh, 1MDB went ahead with its plans for list its power assets, aiming to go public in the first quarter next year.

However, this would prove to be extremely challenging for the group, which came under yet another round of scrutiny when its FY2014 financials were filed, revealing losses and negative cahs flow amounting to RM2.25 billion. At this point, the fund's borrowings also expanded to RM42 billion.

1MDB would come under even more pressure when documents revealed that it had paid very expensive fees, around 10%, for US$4.75 billion (RM15.2 billion) worth of borrowings it had raised via Goldman Sachs. This is on top of expensive coupon rates as high as 5.99%, compared with government guaranteed bonds which are typically issued at less than 4%.

Goldman Sachs came out to defend the deal, pointing out that the fees reflected the risk that it had undertaken in raising the money for 1MDB.

Unsurprisingly, opposition politicians took the opportunity to grill Najib about 1MDB in Parliament. After all, he is the minister of finance and his ministry owns 1MDB.

Questions were raised in the media as well as in Parliament over the exposure of the government should 1MDB fail to meet its debt obligations, which in FY2014 totalled a whopping RM2.5 billion. After an initial denial to Parliament, Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Ahmad Maslan would backtrack and finally admit that the government issued a letter of support for 1MDB's debts of around RM5.8 billion.

Of more concern was the fact that 1MDB has had to extend and restructure some RM5 billion worth of borrowings in the form of a bridging loan with Malayan Banking Bhd.

On a more positive note, 1MDB claims that it would be redeeming RM4.26 billion of its funds invested in the Cayman Islands.

The negative publicity was enough to draw out 1MDB's chairman, Tan Sri Lodin Wok Kamaruddin, to address the questions. However, only select media organisations that were controlled by the government were invited to the "press conference" in mid-November.

With all the negative news flow, it isn't surpirsing that 1MDB's soon-to-be-listed energy unit has distanced itself from its parent, changing its name to Edra Global Energy Bhd from 1MDB Energy Group Bhd.

Edra Global has already lodged its draft prospectus with the Securities Commission Malaysia, but it is taking longer than usual for the SC to expose the prospectus as it is constantly being tweaked.

That said, it will still be an uphill battle for Edra Global, which is expected to offer yields of between 2.5% and 3.5% - which are hardly attractive. On top of that, given the size of the issuance in excess of RM9 billion, it may not be tenable to list in the first quarter of next year due to weak market sentiment.

Furthermore, the group even had to delay the issuance of RM8.4 billion worth of sukuk to finance the construction of Jimah East, which is also expected to be delayed.

Nonetheless, the fact remains that 1MDB sorely needs Edra Global to be listed as soon as possible to pare down the group's borrowings - and time is running out.

The recent depreciation in the Ringgit against the US dollar is putting more pressure on the fund, given that it has an estimated US7.4 billion in dollar-denominated debts. As at March 2014, that amounted to RM22.048 billion but has since increased to an estimated RM25.7 billion at the current exchange rate of 3.48 against the dollar.

It remains to be seen how 1MDB will support its ever-growing debts, but a default is certainly in nobody's interest, which would be catastrophic - not only for the many banks that are exposed but also the country's balance sheet and indirectly, every Malaysian's pocket.

Silent and ominous, 1MDB has been much more than a four-letter word that has defined 2014. It could well be the legacy that Najib is remembered for, perhaps not in a way he would have hoped for, unless something quick is done to fix its fundamental problem - debt and asset heavy but lacking in cash flow. 

(All rights proprietary and intellectual belong to the abovenamed author and to TheEdge Malaysia, this article was extracted from and re-produced by this blogger without prior written permission on the grounds of public interest and in the interests of academic discussion only and is not to be sold or used in any form or manner for commercial purpose whatsoever).  

Apa Lagi Cina Mau?

Hari ini saya menulis blog dalam bahasa malaysia untuk kali yang pertama. Ini adalah kerana saya rasa kalau saya mengarang dalam bahasa inggeris seperti biasa, maka ia boleh dipandang oleh orang umum bahawa penulis blog ini dan kandungan blognya tidak relevan kepada isu-isu yang sedang menghadapi negara kami yang tercinta ini.  Saya terlebih dahulu mohon maaf daripada semua pembaca blog saya sekiranya taraf bahasa malaysia saya tidak begitu elok ataupun karangan saya mengandungi kesilapan tatabahasa. Sila betulkan saya jika saya salah atau telah silap. Tetapi percayalah bahawa motif saya adalah ikhlas.

Saya merasa amat sedih melihat negara kami semakin lama semakin huru-hara dengan isu-isu politik terutamanya dari segi isu-isu perkauman. Bagi kami orang yang biasa, hubungan diantara pelbagai kaum-kaum dalam kehidupan kami setiap hari tidak menjadi sedikit masalah pun. Saya berani mengatakan bahawa kawan-kawan saya meliputi melayu, india, eurasian, cina, iaitu semua jenis kaum yang ada di Malaysia hari ini. Jadi, saya berasa amat hairan apabila ahli-ahli politik yang tertentu boleh anggap sesuai untuk selalu mengkategorikan rakyat malaysia kepada kaum-kaum masing-masing dan memecahbelahkan masyarakat malaysia sampai perasaan benci-membenci dan ketidakpercayaan menimbul dalam hati sebahagian masyarakat kami. Seolah-olahnya seperti malaysia ini hanya meliputi satu kaum, satu agama, satu budaya dan apa-apa yang tidak asli walaupun dari beberapa tahun/generasi dahulu dan apa-apa yang bukan berasal dari tanahair ini sesuai untuk dikeji sebagai pengasing yang haram. 

Adakah semua ini berlaku kerana masyarakat cina di malaysia mengundi untuk pihak pembangkang dalam pilihan raya umum Malaysia ke-13? Dan olehkerana mereka tidak mengundi untuk parti kerajaan, maka mereka ini boleh dianggap sebagai pengkhianat negara dan pembuat kacau/huru-hara? Saya rasa tidak. Masyarakat cina dimalaysia pernah dipuji oleh sesuatu pemimpin dahulu sebagai rakyat yang baik, setia, rajin dan yang tidak memberi masalah yang besar ataupun banyak masalah sosial. Tetapi, pada masa itu majoriti masyarakat cina mengundi untuk pihak kerajaan. Lihatlah betapa mudahnya untuk mengubah nasib sesuatu bangsa pada keseluruhannya! Dari kawan menjadi lawan. Senang.

Saya disini tidak menafikan bahawa masyarakat cina di malaysia tidak dikecualikan daripada masalah sosial dan boleh dengan sepenuh kepercayaan dianggap sebagai warga negara teladan ("model citizen"). Saya mengaku bahawa adanya unsur-unsur masyarakat cina di malaysia yang terlibat dalam aktiviti-aktiviti yang kurang sihat seperti menjudi haram, kegiatan kongsi-kongsi gelap, menjual dvd dan cd cetak rompak, berniaga secara pencatutan demi untuk mendapat keuntungan yang lumayan, yang tidak membayar cukai ataupun mengelakkan kewajipan untuk membayar cukai, yang bersikap tidak jujur, suka bohong/menipu dan seterusnya. Tetapi disebalik batu ada juga masyarakat cina yang jujur, rajin bekerja untuk memajukan perniagaan mereka yang sah, yang sanggup membayar cukai kepada kerajaan, mempunyai pendidikan yang tinggi, penyayang negara dan yang boleh dianggap sebagai aset kepada negara dalam bidang perniagaan, sukan dan seni mereka. 

Kelebihan ataupun kelemahan seorang individu itu tidak bergantung kepada kaumnya kerana kami semua adalah anak-anak keturunan Adam. Kalau kamu berkata bahawa kamu tidak kenal saya daripada Adam, maka saya akan menjawab bahawa darah saya yang berwarna merah serupa dengan warna darah kamu yang merah juga. Walaupun kami berasal daripada pelbagai kaum-kaum, tetapi kami semua tetap adalah anak malaysia. Kami dilahirkan di malaysia, dibesarkan dimalaysia, dan akhirnya akan dikuburkan dimalaysia. Keistimewaan satu kaum daripada kaum yang lain adalah sesuatu ciptaan politik dan tidak boleh memisahkan rakyat malaysia dan tidak patut menjadi punca pencerobohan muhibbah negara kami yang tercinta ini. Pada masa-masa yang merisaukan ini, negara kami sangat memerlukan seorang pemimpin yang boleh, yang sanggup dan yang berazam untuk menyatukan semua rakyat malaysia tidak kira kaum ataupun agama, dan bukanlah oportunis politik yang memecahbelah rakyat dan memainkan isu-isu perkauman untuk mengekalkan kuasanya.    

      

MPHB throws down the gauntlet to Johor

MPHB throws down the gauntlet to Johor

By Kamarul Azhar

Is it right for the Johor government to forcibly acquire private land and then resell it for a hefty profit?

That is the crux of the suit MPHB Capital Bhd has brought against the state government as the first defendent and national oil company Petronas as the second defendent.

MPHB's subsidiary Kelana Megah Development Sdn Bhd (KMD) filed the suit as the landowner on May 9.

In essence, the Johor government and Petronas are being accused of conspiring to unfairly and forcibly acquire seven parcels totalling 1,150 ha (2,841 acres), which is an abuse of the Land Acquisition Act.

Here are the salient points of the suit according to affidavits filed in court by Kelana Megah:

- The Johor government used the Land Acquisition Act to buy the land at 93 sen psf without granting KMD sufficient time to appoint an independent valuer to value the land. KMD was notified on Aug 9, 2012, and at a land enquiry conducted by the state land administrator on Sept 3, 2012, that the administrator had fixed the acquisition price at 93 sen after refusing a KMD request to delay a decision pending submission of an independent valuation.

- The state government proceeded with the acquisition at 93 sen on Oct 8, 2012, while it already had an agreement to sell the same land to Petronas at RM8 psf, which the national oil company needed for its Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (RAPID) project.

- KMD alleges that the RM8 psf price was agreed upon by the state government and Petronas in May 2012 - four months before the Sept 3 enquiry that decided that KMD was only to get 93 sen psf from the state.

- KMD further alleges that three of the seven parcels acquired were not on the original list of land that Petronas had asked for and needed for RAPID and so should not have been acquired by the state.

The  land administrator set the price at 93 sen psf despite KMD producing a receipt for the payment of stamp duty on one of the parcels, which had been valued at RM5.75 psf just a year before.

At RM5.75 psf, all seven parcels would have been valued at RM711.55 million, based on a back-of-the-envelope calculation by The Edge.

The price differential between the RM8 psf paid by Petronas to the state government and the 93 sen psf awarded by the land administrator to KMD means that the state government made a whopping profit of RM800 million.

"Why should the state get the difference between the RM8 and 93 sen?" sks a corporate executive. "If the acquisition was made in the name of national interest, surely, the state should not have made money at the expense of the private landowner?"

Landowners are watching the outcome of the court case with great interest, although this is not the first time one of them has taken both the federal and state governments to court (see accompanying story).

The RAPID project, announced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak in May 2011, is positioned to turn southern Johor into Southeast Asia's oil and gas and petrochemical hub.

Petronas plans to have the RAPID project commissioned by 2016. However, opposition to the project from the local residents and the complexity of acquiring individual parcels and relocating the affected people raised concerns that the project may not see the light of day.

Petronas then turned to the state government for assistance in acquiring 8,200 acres in Pengerang, including the seven parcels belonging to KMD.

According to KMD, it should have been given sufficient time to determine the valuation of its land since Petronas had said it would only make a decision on RAPID in 2013. In fact, it was only in April this year that a final investment decision was made by the national oil company on the project.

In its suit, KMD is seeking a declaration by the court that the acquisition of the land was illegal and of no effect and to order the state authority to take all necessary steps to revoke the acquisition.

It is also seeking an order that Petronas deliver vacant possession of the land within seven days, pay damages for trespassing on the land, general damages for cutting down trees and destroying its oil palm estate as well as interest at the rate of 5% per annum from the date of the acquisition.

(Re-produced without permission from the Edge Malaysia magazine, the week of May 26 to June 1, 2014. All rights belong to the author of this article and the Edge Malaysia magazine, i own no proprietary rights and am only re-producing it for the sole purpose of academic discussion)   

Drought

It's been almost a month since we last had a full good rain. Now everyday that passes without rain is a day to dread. The grass is yellowing and drying up and becoming tinder, fires are breaking out in more places and some states like in Seremban and Selangor have already begun rationing water supplies to residents. Some desperate residents have taken to protests and there are even reports of foreign workers hijacking water trucks. If this dry spell keeps up it won't be long before we are hit here. Already some people are stocking up on water containers and water tanks in anticipation of a last-minute rush for these items. At times like these, no amount of money you possess is good when water is scarce. It just goes to show how fragile we are - and what we have done to the environment has come back to bite us with a vengence!      

release the hounds

And so it has begun, the backlash against voters who voted for the opposition. The government has received a bloody nose from GE 13 and is sore about it. We are now witnessing a rising crescendo of verbal attacks against non-Malays from establishment figures such as a certain ex-Court of Appeal Judge, a Perak Mufti, an assortment of second-rate Malay NGOs and who-else-have-you-wannabe-race champions whose utterings range from the inane to the slightly insane. I predicted that there would be calls to abolish the vernacular schools for non-Malays and that has happened, notwithstanding what happened to the late MP Mark Koding in 1978 who lost his Parliamentary seat for sedition when he suggested the same thing but then again, that was under the saintly Tun Hussein Onn's administration, wasn't it? (Mark Koding subsequently rose to become the Sabah Deputy Chief Minister after PBS defeated Party Berjaya in the 1985 state elections). All of these calls would ordinarily have been deemed seditious if not downright incitement to violence against minorities but as it is now open season on the non-Malays and najib needs to appease the hawks in his party, expect that no one will be prosecuted. After all, it's not seditious if it's not against the government, right? Apparently now it's the non-Malays that are "bigots" and "racist" whereas a "Malay" (and that definition of who is a "Malay" is broadly understood in its widest possible sense) is free to voice his/her opinions on matters of race and religion without being tarred with the same brush. How lovely indeed. So apparently, in Malaysia if one votes against the government, that would be tantamount to usurpation of the political power of the "Malays" and treason. My question then is, why vote? I doubt very much that najib is intent on raising a race riot, but what we are now witnessing is a natural progression of what najib is all about all along. a race-baiter. no soul, no content, no substance, nothing more than a race-baiter. Not even a demagogue because najib is incapable of demagoguery which requires mass appeal. Just a common race-baiter. Which in Malaysian politics, is quite perfectly acceptable. Or is it now?