The Man who would Be King.....

The last time I checked, Malaysia is still a democratic nation and yet we have so-called "leaders" that want to deny others the right to express their views in a peaceful manner.

According to this malaysiakini article, the authorities have been urged to "come down hard on a planned mass rally calling for electoral reforms to be held in Kuala Lumpur on Nov 10".

This same person was offered a police permit to stage a demonstration when Condoleeza Rice came to Malaysia in July 2006.
They were allowed to burn flags and now this person is trying to deny others the same right that he so readily enjoyed.

The demo against the USA had the greater potential to harm the nation than the Bersih campaign that is asking for a free and fair elections.If the police simply deny the permit, it can be seen to be a non-partisan force and that is really bad for its already tarnished image.

The Bersih organisers should apply for a police permit and if that is denied, take them to the courts for being selective in their treatment of law-abiding Malaysians.

All moderate Malaysians should beware leaders who do not have any sense of decency and fair play.

To Illustrate the DPM's Speech....

I try to watch our leaders speaking as one can learn a lot from the body language etc.
Usually our DPM appears quite polished and poised but this speech as reported in malaysiakini seems rather strange with reference to the tongue, the keris and the penis.

Too much use of the latter has resulted in broken families when men cannot control their urges. Worse still, they take it out on their own children or step-children.

Methinks he should encourage them to make better use of their brains instead.

Waiting for Vanna White?

(Click2 on picture to enlarge)
We should not be too perturbed by this article in malaysiakini headed "Panel to submit ‘individual’ reports".

Most of us had the impression that the "No Authority" panel was set up just to impress the public and mainly to buy some time to ponder.

There are so many articles on the No Work Panel so maybe I will share a little about Lee Lam Thye. He was a classmate in Secondary School; IIRC from Sec3 to Sec5 and was a good speaker in school; usually being selected for debates. Patrick Teoh was another classmate. I met LLT and PT just once since school days and that was at least 25 years ago.

Here are the latest results on MALAYSIAWATCH POLL 30 that posed the question:
"What is Your Reaction to the Video on the Judges Scandal?"

Of the 754 readers who took the poll,

449 or 60% felt "We Need a Royal Commission"

150 or 20% chose "The Chief Justice Should Be Brought Before a Tribunal"

104 or 14% picked "The Authorities Will Just Ignore the Findings"

44 or 6% felt "The tape is a fake"

7 or 1% chose "The Independent Panel will Find the Answers"

It is interesting to note that the rankings did not change during the 2-month poll period.

The NEP Has Failed. PERIOD

When one reads a story like this in malaysiakini,it does not a rocket scientist to figure out that a poorly implemented policy like the NEP will never succeed when there is a lack of accountability and non-existent checks and balances.

Those with the proper connections will get immensely wealthy (think APs for a start) while those who are uneducated will just get left behind. Sadly in life that happens anyway but when you start a skewed program like the NEP, there will be many who also try to become qualified and the pool of "grabbers" becomes larger all the time.

I am thinking of those recent migrants and those who marry locals. Many don't have strong religious convictions to start with and so getting converted to another religion is no big deal - after all, the bonanza is quite substantial.

Now after about 40 years people still talk about more NEP - these people are absolutely greedy and will only stop if we turn off the NEP gravy train.

I only support poverty eradication programs based on the following "race-blind" concepts:
1.The government will provide annual grants to charity groups.
2.Work for aid programs will benefit the poor based on needs testing.
3.The poor and uneducated will be counselled to care for smaller families.
4.The government will grant one scholarship for a useful career to each poor family so that the cycle of poverty will be broken.

If we simply carry on as before, do you seriously think the NEP can succeed in another 20 years?

Banks and Unhappy Employees...

Perhaps the government has given the private sector a wrong signal by giving such a massive pay increase without taking into account the effect on inflation.

So now the NUBE is organising pickets to demand a 30% salary increase plus the retention of the 2 months bonus that the banks want to abolish. You can read the article from malaysiakini and watch the video.

The people involved in the pickets do not seem to know what they are fighting for except to be swayed by their leaders.

Instead of simply making demands that banks are making excessive profits they should propose a more realistic framework of how employees can also share some of the bank profits.

A more acceptable plan would be a 15% to 20% salary increase; the retention of the 2 months bonus plus a flexible wage component that will be paid by the bank based on perhaps a percentage of annual profits after tax.

A Post from Hanoi

I've just returned from a trip to Halong Bay which is a world heritage site. Today is also my 60th birthday.

But getting back to the problems in the judiciary, just look at Pakistan and see how a country can really go to the dogs with a dictator in power. It looks that the rule of law is being replaced by the rule of the gun.

We Malaysians must guard against this happening and the so-called silent majority cannot remain silent anymore unless we want things to get worse.

malaysiakini's article "Fairuz gone, but crisis remains" shows what needs to be done to improve the situation in Malaysia.

The MALAYSIAWATCH POLL (in green)also shows that 80% out of 747 readers believe "We Need a Royal Commission" or "The Chief Justice Should be Brought Before a Tribunal".

The choice of "The Independent Panel will Find the Answer" was selected by only 1%.
That really shows how much confidence we have in this toothless mechanism. For a government that has been in power since independence, it shows an utter lack of interest or intention to do the right thing.

It shows the height of arrogance couple with the dearth of integrity.
We need more capable people in government soon or I expect in about 15 years Vietnam will overtake Malaysia as a more vibrant economy.

For the silent majority, please do this. Write to your MP about your concerns in the Judiciary and ask him/her what he/she is doing about it. Better still, get a group of friends and ask to meet your MP.That should be quite an interesting adventure.

When Corruption is Allowed to Grow....

The CCID's case of alleged non-disclosure of assets as reported in malaysiakini shows what can happen when the influential and powerful do not report to a public body where everyone knows how top leaders earn their wealth.

We have a system where ministers report to the PM who keeps all details private so that the public really do not know how monies are earned.

The reason given is that ministers etc should be allowed some privacy and that the PM will ensure that everyone behaves.

This is not really good enough for a nation that wants to achieve Vision 2020 or a developed status.

For instance if the PM does not really bother about such reporting, ministers will omit many details and even worse, if the PM makes the wrong use of such information to control people, we need up with a situation where blackmail is used to influence others.

The PM reports his own details of assets to no one so it does not take a rocket scientist to appreciate the overall weakness.

It is quite simple to remedy the basic weakness. The PM should submit all details of his Cabinet and his own assets to a Parliamentary Committee that overseers assets of ministers.
Only then will Malaysians believe that the case of this CCID Director is being properly managed.