A field trip to Tanjung Lumpur in Kuantan on January 21 to gauge the people’s perception on the aid given to the poor by the government and their appraisal of UMNO politics was quite inspiring.
It was found that the aid recipients are aware that the RM100, RM200, RM500, RM5000 now given to the people and the salary increase for government servants before the next general election are all from taxpayers’ money. The people are cognisant of the fact that the money distributed here does not come from UMNO or Barisan Nasional (BN). It comes from the hard-earned taxpayers’ money.
Also, it was found that the recipients could not be easily convinced by all those ‘generous tricks’ and make them vote for UMNO or BN in the next general election. “Yes, I received RM500. It’s the people’s money. I’m now indebted to the people, not UMNO or BN,” said a 56-year-old aid recipient in Kuantan. When asked if he would vote for BN in the coming general election he coyly replied, “No. I will not.”
When asked if the RM500 was sufficient to make ends meet, he replied, “This is too little. They make more and spend more but give us pittance. I will take this money, as I am poor. It’s the people’s money. I’m grateful to the people but not UMNO.”
Another 58-year-old aid recipient, a farmer from Peramu, queried, “I know that I can do nothing much with this amount. The BN government could give a RM250 million loan to a minister’s family. I only have a few animals in my small shed. Can I get a RM10,000 loan to help me rear more cattle?”
People on ‘top’ are enriching themselves
Most of those disgruntled recipients were generally expecting more from UMNO. They generally felt that they were not given enough when people on ‘top’ were enriching themselves and spending huge amounts of taxpayers’ money on shopping sprees. “The poor have got no choice. Forget about shopping sprees. The costs of living is now unbearable. The government is not doing much to bring down inflation. Prices of almost everything keeps on rising,” grumbled a 50-year-old recipient from Tanjung Lumpur.
It appears like despite all the pomp and hype on the ‘free lunch’ for those who earn less in terms of income many aid recipients are not indebted to UMNO or BN. They seem to interpret that UMNO or BN does not generate money for the country. But it’s the people – the ordinary people out there who are slogging hard to pay taxes to the government to sensibly manage the country.
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They are still not happy with Umno
23 January 2012 – Malaysia Chronicle
Shahrizat vs Raja Nong Chik
Deputy Prime Minister Muhiyuddin Yassin’s call to Barisan Nasional to go all out in Lembah Pantai and make sure they win the parliamentary seat is a tall order. And for Raja Nong Chik, the ambitious Lembah Pantai division chief, to bypass former incumbent Sharizat Jalil and fulfil the DPM’s wishes will be a even greater task.
Have we not heard the phrase ‘Hell has no wrath like a woman scorned’. If true, then scorned indeed will be Shahrizat, the Bollywood-like Queen Bee, and Raja Nong Chik will be the first one likely to receive her sting.
There is speculation Shahrizat may support current incumbent Nurul Izzah to exact revenge on Raja Nong Chik for allegedly hijacking the seat and destroying her political career, although you can be sure if it is true, she will do it quietly and with great inner satisfaction.
Diabolical scheming and plotting?
Raja Nong Chik’s purported hijack of the seat is not news to her or to anyone in the political circles. It seems she started smelling a rat when he began flaunting himself and stirring up waves in Lembah Pantai right under her nose. In fact, from as far back as two years ago, there was already talk in her camp that she was upset with Raja Nong Chik’s presence in Lembah Pantai.
Sure she lost it to Nurul, but that doesn’t mean she won’t get it back in GE-13, so she tells herself and her supporters. Sad to say, not many were listening to her.
As for Raja Nong Chik or RNC as he likes to be called, this new hotshot appears to be bold and brazen with a capital B. He seems to think Lembah Pantai is like taking cotton candy from a child, perhaps he feels Lembah Pantai is simply his for the taking. His party mates says he has even given an assurance to the top leadership in UMNO that he will deliver the seat to them on a silver platter. Yes, he seems to being very cocksure and ruthless about it. Even now, his banners showing himself and Prime Minister Najib Razak are all over Bangsar, and even his close associates are aghast at his political aggressiveness.
This can only further infuriate the Shahrizat camp. She is after all the UMNO Women’s chief. You can be sure her supporters will see it as a slight – nay, a chainsaw attack – that Shahrizat and her shell-shocked family will never be able to forget or to forgive. As some of her upset supporters say, this scorned Mama will teach RNC a lesson soon enough, he is lucky she has hands full with the RM250 million NFC debacle still whirring around her head. No doubt, she is still seeing stars and the NFC has drained her weary, but it will not stop her from exacting sweet revenge and collecting her pound of flesh once the new reality starts to sink in.
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Calling Muhyiddin’s bluff: Shahrizat vs Raja Nong Chik
29 January 2012 – Malaysia Chronicle
Can wily veteran Taib Mahmud outwit the Umno ‘immortals’ in the game of political charades?
KUCHING: Chief Minister Taib Mahmud’s absence from Sarawak United People’s Party’s (SUPP) Chinese New Year open house on Monday has further fuelled speculations of “Putrajaya’s hand” in Sarawak.
This is the second time that Taib has excused himself from a SUPP function organised by “agents of Putrajaya”.
He sent his deputy Alfred Jabu Numpang in his place. Also present at the open house was acting Yang di-Pertua Negeri Asfia Awang Nassar and scores of other VIPs.
Last December, he sent Abang Johari Tun Openg, Pesaka Bumiptera Bersatu (PBB) deputy president, to attend the party’s controversy-ridden triennial delegates conference (TDC), which was opened by Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak. Taib is PBB president.
The TDC also saw the election of federal minister Peter Chin as the party’s new president.
Chin’s last-minute decision to contest the presidency had apparently come about on the advice of Najib – much to the consternation of the party’s former deputy secretary-genetal Wong Soon Koh who had expected to assume the position uncontested.
Wong is a senior minister in Taib’s administration. Chin is the Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister in Najib’s Cabinet.
Chin had reportedly “never” shown an interest in the state leadership position until very recently.
The Chin-Wong war is seen here as a covert battle between Taib and Najib.
It is common knowledge here that Umno wants to gain a foothold in Sarawak, with or without Taib’s support.
Umno ‘immortals’ eyeing Sarawak
In the run-up to the Sarawak state election last April, Najib had publicly pressured Taib to step down and many saw this as a sign of disrespect for the veteran politician who had always delivered “the goods” to Umno.
But in recent months it has become increasingly obvious that a sense of urgency and desperation has set in Putrajaya.
Said political analyst Peter Minos, who is also PBB’s information chief: “The federal Barisan Nasional is very keen on Sarawak.”
Although BN won the state election, it suffered historic losses to the opposition.
The “Umno immortals” believe that Taib is old and weak and they need to come into Sarawak and “win over” the fence-sitters.
But wily Taib has his own plan and is playing Najib’s political charade.
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Taib snubs Najib’s man in Sarawak
January 25, 2012 – FMT
I REFER to my earlier letter on talks in the streets of Penang that Malaysia’s pioneering accelerated programme for excellence (APEX) university, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), has been left in the doldrums, high and dry for the cesspool.
It seems USM had in December 2011 started an exercise to retrench some 1,000 or more contract workers comprising cleaners to researchers due to financial constraints.
I visited USM’s website and found this:
“APEX performance measures for world-renowned universities have to be measured within the context of “academic space” which in USM’s case is the “sustainability issues at the bottom of the pyramid”. The key indicators used by USM for the budget request is according to three main pillars, namely, talent, governance and resources.
“The proposed budget was given due consideration in its preparation in line with the current financial and economic situation.
Only received RM234.4mil
The university has made a budget request totalling RM624.5 million for the fiscal year 2009 to 2011 of which RM234.5 million was granted. The shortfall of RM390 million or 62.45% has affected the university’s plans towards achieving its target.
Too much is at stake
There is a growing consensus that we cannot allow things to carry on as they are if we want to prevent the country from plunging into an abyss, writes Anil Netto.
This coming general election promises to be a watershed in our country’s history. There is a growing consensus that we cannot allow things to carry on as they are if we want to prevent the country from plunging into an abyss.
Here’s what is at stake: We all know the record on corruption has been abysmal. That billions of ringgit have been lost is common knowledge in coffee shops the length and breadth of the country.
Thus far we have been saved by our rich natural resources especially oil. But the oil is running out now. Unfortunately, the fat cats have not stopped feeding from the trough.
The opportunity costs have been tremendous. Ours could have been a land of milk and honey but alas, a minority especially the cronies and well-connected politicians have grown fabulously wealthy while the a huge number of workers toil away at low wages. These wages are further suppressed by middlemen importing migrant workers, many of whom are paid even lower wages in return for working even longer hours.
Neo-liberal policies have worsened the situation. Privatisation and corporatisation have forced Malaysians to pay more for services – education, health care, utilities – that had previously been provided free or at little cost. The neglect of food production has led to higher food prices. And after the general election, we can expect GST, an electricity tariff hike and the possibility of national health insurance premiums (while government spending on public health care remains miserly).
Not surprisingly, the gap between the rich and the poor has grown wider over the years, and this may have contributed to all kinds of social problems (Richard Wilkinson, The Spirit Level). The latest round of civil service pay rises, now held back for review, aggravates this trend.
The ‘Che Det Consensus’ is an economy built around problem solving that is ‘practical’ only for the Malaysia’s business and Umno political elite.
COMMENT
I found it odd the statement from Khazanah Nasional Bhd that it didn’t make profit from its sale of Proton Holdings Bhd’s shares to DRB-Hicom Bhd. If no profits were made, why sell the shares?
Secondly, Khazanah’s statement can be construed as an admission that it was given a fait accompli – take this price and don’t ask any questions. In Malaysia, only one person can do that – the man who can walk on water – Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
I hope I can throw more light on the sale of Proton shares to DRB-Hicom. Were there any other bids besides DRB-Hicom presented to Khazanah?
Is Khazanah brave enough to publish the identity of all the bidders?
If it has the courage to do so, we shall not be surprised if the bidders were the Tengku Mahalil-Arumugam group, DRB-Hicom and Nazmi and company. And they all have only one master – Mahathir.
We all know Mahathir’s end-game.
He wants to be the Malaysian “King” Croesus. Croesus was a legendary king in a country known as Lydia in Asia Minor.
He was fabulously rich. It was said that gold from the mines and sands filled up his coffers.
Allow me to re-tell a short story about King Croesus in my own style.
I hope he (Mahathir) will suffer the same fate as the original King Croesus.
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Khazanah sold Proton for no profits?
Mohd Ariff Sabri Aziz
January 25, 2012 – FMT
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 26 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak should use his powers as prime minister to expedite the probe into the National Feedlot Corporation (NFCorp), a former senior police officer said today.
Former city CID chief Datuk Mat Zain Ibrahim said Najib could instruct the police, graftbusters and the Attorney-General’s Chambers to finish investigating the scandal-hit livestock company within a fortnight.
“Straightforward criminal breach of trust cases like [NFCorp] need at most two weeks,” he said in a statement.
“If the PM says he can’t interfere in the investigation or decision to prosecute, that’s just a weak and childish excuse.”
Mat Zain pointed out that in 1998, then-Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had ordered him to quickly wrap up the high-profile investigation into Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s black eye, failing which a royal commission of inquiry (RCI) would be set up to look into the police force.
He noted that Dr Mahathir formed the RCI on January 27, 1999 as promised when the results of the investigation were allegedly stalled by the Attorney-General.
“Based on existing precedent, Najib has no reason to draw out this NFC issue beyond two weeks,” Mat Zain stressed, saying that Putrajaya’s move to appoint an auditor to look into NFCorp’s books was a delaying tactic.
He added that the appointment of the auditor would waste more taxpayers’ money and was a slight to the integrity of the Auditor-General, who had been appointed by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.
“It is very unfair to the people if Najib is willing to destroy the credibility of royal institutions like the Auditor-General just to protect Shahrizat,” he said.
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Instruct police to speed up NFCorp probe, ex-top cop tells Najib
January 26, 2012 – MI
NFC still a ‘mess’
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 26 — The entire national cattle-farming project is still in a “mess”, regardless of who said it, PKR Wanita chief Zuraida Kamaruddin said today.
She added that the federal government must now take full responsibility for the financial blowout that has resulted in the loss of millions of ringgit of taxpayers’ money because it had approved the project in the first place.
“It’s still in a mess, whatever they say and going by the books,” Zuraida (picture) told The Malaysian Insider today, on the heels of the Auditor-General’s clarification yesterday that he had never described the National Feedlot Centre (NFC) project as a “mess” in his 2010 audit report, contrary to news reports.
The PKR lawmaker said both the government and the corporation picked to run the project were trying to divert from the real cause of the scandal that the Auditor-General was trying to make clear.
“The money goes from the government to the National Feedlot Corporation and the National Feedlot Centre is just where they run the project,” the Ampang MP pointed out.
She said that the federal government must stop the mismanagement of public funds from continuing by immediately moving to take stock of whatever infrastructure and facilities had been invested into the project.
She added that the government should then immediately terminate the contract it has with the National Feedlot Corporation (NFCorp) for mismanagement and then proceed with legal action to recover the rest of its losses.
She stressed that the government needed to do this because it had been entrusted with the public’s money and had to ensure that the original agenda of the cattle project, to lower Malaysia’s dependence on meat imports, would be met.
Auditor-General Tan Sri Ambrin Buang was reported saying again today that there were several weaknesses in the implementation of the feedlot centre project.
“Why else would the government have, in May 2009, postponed the implementation pending viability and business model studies on the centre?” he was quoted as saying today by The Star newspaper.
“Whether there are elements of misappropriation is for authorities like the police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate,” he was quoted saying, adding that his audit department made no mention of misappropriation of funds as it was beyond the scope of its powers.
Ambrin said the audit was to determine whether the centre had been carefully planned, prudently carried out and met its objective.
“Audit analysis showed the objective of the centre had not been fully met and this was due to various factors as explained in the Auditor-General’s Report 2010,” he said.
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NFC still a ‘mess’, says PKR’s Zuraida
January 26, 2012 – MI
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 26 — The National Felda Settlers’ Children’s Association (ANAK) said today the federal land development programme will be saddled with annual losses of over RM1.5 billion if plans to list Felda Global Ventures (FGV) go ahead.
The association said the lease agreement between Felda and FGV will see the listed company paying RM251 million in rental for the 880,000-hectare plantation landbank and also 15 per cent of profits from its oil palm plantations, which will amount to RM257 million at the projected price of RM2,900 per tonne of oil palm fruits.
“With Felda’s expenditure amounting to RM2 billion last year, and wages alone amounting to RM500 million, how will it be able to cover its costs?
“In the end, the government will have to cover this, meaning taxpayers’ money of at least RM1.5 billion,” ANAK president Mazlan Aliman (picture) told reporters.
The group has strenuously opposed the plan which will see FGV take over the 51 per cent stake owned by more than 200,000 smallholders in Felda Holdings, which made RM760 million in 2010.
According to ANAK, settlers, through the Felda Investment Co-operative (KPF), will be given a 35 per cent share of FGV, whose international subsidiaries reportedly lost RM500 million up to 2010.
Mazlan also said there has been no guarantee from the government over how the shortfall will be covered with Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Ahmad Maslan only promising verbally that Felda will have enough income.
“Why should Felda rely on the government when it has been able to find its own income? Then what is the point of starting Felda? This is contrary to the objective of making settlers independent,” he said.
He also said that under the agreement, FGV would gain all decision-making power over Felda but “if the business fails, there is no penalty except that they hand over the land back to Felda.”
“This means they can wash their hands clean without any punishment,” the PAS central committee member said.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had recently said the listing of FGV, announced in Budget 2012, is expected to take place in April, instead of the middle of the year as earlier planned.
But Mazlan said mentris besar in the three Pakatan Rakyat (PR) states — Kedah, Selangor and Kelantan — have indicated to ANAK they will not sign the agreement, which must be agreed to by all state governments.
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ANAK says Felda will face RM1.5b annual deficit under listing plans
January 26, 2012 – MI
After five decades of BN governance, what have Malaysians gained and at what price and what have we lost in exchange?
To begin with, where is all of this nation’s booty? There was a time when the colonial masters (rather raiders) came and took all our rubber and tin. But at least they gave us education, healthcare, roads and rails without asking us to pay toll and taxes. Right?
But what can we say of our post-independence masters? They lorded over us and sold us the ‘nationalism’ mantra. They sang ‘Look East’ and ‘Buy British Last’. Later they seemingly sold us that piped-dream of a modern Malaysia with jobs for all and wealth to be shared by Malaysians.
And so we ran the race at full throttle for the local masters and helped them build their own cartels and fortunes. Today, not only are we left in serious debt but have also pawned our bread and butter jobs that are enriching neighboring countries at the expense of the 27 million citizens of this land.
The factory jobs have gone to foreign labor. The petrol kiosk attendant and car wash jobs have gone to the illegal labor. The maid jobs are sold too. The construction industry is no more an easy entry for locals. Let us not forget the plantation sectors.
We are not even talking about the thousands of massage parlor workers and sex workers coming in under the cover of tourist visas.
Even pasar malam stalls, taxi driving, retail outlets – and many more have all gone to the foreign labor. Just take a tour of Petaling Street or any pasar malam all across the nation to see the reality.
And mind you, there must be truth in the perception that while there may be two million legalized (or authorized) immigrant workers here, it is everyone’s guess that that figure could just as well be doubled given the illegal workers coming and going and the recently ‘malaysianized’ foreigners.
So today we have a situation where foreign workers are not only talking back money by the millions from the country but are also leaving us with a youth population that knows nothing about housekeeping, building and construction, harvesting the fields, trading, and a long list of economic activities, survival skills and know-how.
And let us cut the bull out of that argument that the nation is advancing and therefore Malaysians will not take on menial tasks. Take a look at the West or the East if you will. Their retired folks are gainfully engaged. Their youth population Has the option to go into any of the industries that BN has ‘pajak’ to the foreign cheap substitute.
