Interesting contradictory

Read “We have convinced Dr M on English policy, says Muhyiddin“.

Then read “Dr M claims his opinions on language switch ignored“

So, i guess that is what convincing means.

 

It’s Roddick and not Murray

Picture taken from Wimbledon Official website

It looks like Federer will meet Andy Roddick in the final. Roddick defeated home favourite Andy Murray 6-4, 4-6, 7-6, 7-6. It will be a repeat of the 2004 and 2005 final but Roddick will hope that the result won’t be the same.

 

Federer in the final! As always…

Photos taken from Daily Mail website

Roger Federer has qualified to the Wimbledon Final for the 7th time in a row. He brush off Tommy Haas 7-6, 7-5, 6-3 on Centre Court at SW19. He is still on course in winning his 15th Grand Slam and will set a new record. We’ll just wait to see who he meets at the final, either Andy Murray or Andy Roddick.

 

Midnight bus should stay on…

I hope I’m not too late to wish everybody Happy New Year! I know everybody is probably still in holiday mood. Since end of 2008 we Malaysian have been in holiday mood. Some people even say that the new year will only start after Chinese New Year.

First of all, congratulations to Abdul Wahid Endut on his victory in Kuala Terengganu by election. Now it is time for you to serve KT people and bring their grouses to parliament attention. Did you guys find it weird that the news coverage for KT by-election suddenly stops on Sunday? If you compare the coverage given to the by-election the past two weeks, on Sunday there was just some news of Abdul Wahid victory.

Anyway, one news in particular that caught my eyes on Sunday was Transport Ministry proposal to ban midnight buses. Read here and here. I must admit that lately there have been a lot of accidents involving express busses. However banning altogether midnight bus services is not the solution that will benefit the public. Why do most people travel using midnight bus services?

The simple fact is that most of them work during the day and the only free time people have to travel is at night. Let’s say my hometown is in Kelantan and I work in KL. I work from Monday to Friday and the only time I have to go back is weekend. Previously I will normally take the midnight bus from Hentian Putra and arrived in Kota Bharu early Saturday morning. I will have two days to spend with my family in Kelantan before taking the midnight bus from Kota Bharu and arrived early morning in KL. Basically I save my time traveling at night since I will be sleeping anyway throughout the journey.

If the ministry proposal to ban midnight busses goes through, the only possible day for me to go back is on Saturday morning and come back on Sunday evening. That will only leave me with less than 24 hours to spend time with my family in Kelantan. Without taking a holiday leave, it is almost useless to go back on weekend. The proposal to ban midnight busses will not only affect the bus operators, but the biggest effect will be felt by the passengers.

 Instead on focusing to pass a new law, the Transport Ministry should focus on the existing law and enforce it. Limit bus driver’s trips per day. Make sure errand bus drivers are being punished. Do random drug test on the drivers. Make sure the busses used are in tip top condition. There are already enough laws to ensure the safety of the passengers. But without proper enforcement, any number of laws passed won’t help to solve the number of road accidents.

 

Bukit Antarabangsa tragedy

I would like to send my condolences to the families of the victim of the recent landslide at Bukit Antarabangsa. The tragedy that occurred last Saturday is a reminder for all Malaysian of the need of continuous monitoring of development area.

 

But I would not go into the argument of whether hillside development should be stop or not. I think that is an issue that I will dwell in later. However, an interesting news came to my attention recently. There was a report that saying that the rescue worker who arrived while Mr. Eng Yee Peng was digging the rubble with his hand to find his wife only threw him a shovel instead of helping him to find his wife. Mr. Eng wife, Ng Yee Ping, was later found dead under the rubble. The family of Ms. Ng is now contemplating on suing the government for the rescue workers actions. They also claim that their house was looted by the rescue workers.

 

Even surprisingly Selangor Chief of Police, Khalid Abu Bakar explained that the rescue workers did not help Mr. Eng because they lack the training needed. So, what training do you need to help find Mr. Eng’s wife? I don’t think that Mr. Eng have gone for any training as well. We are talking about rescue workers who duties among others are rescuing people. If they can’t even do that, why bother coming to the place to begin with? And Khalid’s explanation blaming the lack of training is bullshit. Where have the millions government spend for training of rescue workers gone?

 

I do not know whether the rescue workers loot the victim’s property. That is up to the police to look into it. If the allegation by Mr. Ng is true, the tragedy on December 6 does not only highlight the weak supervision and maintenance undertaken by developers but also the weakness in our rescue forces.  

 

I was told by a friend who was stranded on Bukit Antarabangsa that the military did a great job in constructing a temporary bridge in record time. Kudos to our Malaysian Army. At least the millions spend on them has not gone to waste.

 

Single School System

Mukhriz: Implement single structure in school to enhance unity

 

KUALA LUMPUR: Umno Youth chief aspirant Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir has called on the Government to abolish the vernacular school system to enhance unity among the people.

He said a single school system was the only way to check racial polarisation.

“The Government should consider introducing only a one school system with Bahasa Malaysia as the medium of instruction, except for the teaching of Science and Mathematics, which is already in English,” Mukhriz told reporters at Parliament House yesterday.

“Of course, pupils should then be given the option to study their mother tongue. Under this system, the Malays will also have the option of studying other languages like Chinese and Tamil, and this will further boost unity among the races,” the Umno Youth exco member added.

For more click here.

 

This article is taken from TheStar online today. For once, I think Mukhriz has come out talking about a brilliant idea. Malaysia has too many school systems. We have the National school, Venecular school, the International school and private school. This does not include the ‘sekolah pondok’.

I am a keen supporter of a single school system. I agree with Mukhriz that having separate school for different races has been one of the factors for the deteriorating unity between races. Children of different race are now not mixed with each other. School is the best platform where children can mix. This is where they will form up their clicks and when they learn about other people. We should teach the younger generation to be more tolerance of other races through mixing them up in the same school.

Going to a National school doesn’t make anyone less Malay, Chinese or Indian. You are still Malay, Chinese and Indian wherever you go. So why the fear of going to National school? If it’s the language issue, teach Chinese and Indian language in National school. Maybe the Malay student should learn Mandarin and Tamil as well. Commanding a lot of language is actually a skill that is highly demanded.

I see there are more benefits that can come from a single school system. Politician should think more about what is good for the community as a whole as compared to certain segment in the community. They should think of solution for the long run and the continuation of Malaysia’s harmony. How can we meet the challenge of globalization when we are unable to meet the challenge of unifying our own people?

 

Immunity for the worthy

 Royal push for immunity  from Malaysian Insider

NOV 26 — A member of Malaysia’s constitutional monarchy has urged that full immunity for the Malay Rulers from criminal and civil proceedings be reinstated, hoping perhaps to tap the spring of positive vibes towards the institution since the general elections in March.

The Regent of Negeri Sembilan, Tunku Naquiyuddin ibni Tuanku Jaafar said that if a Ruler exercised his duties in protecting the Federal Constitution in a fair and just manner, he should be protected as well.

“The full immunity from civil and criminal proceedings should be reconsidered so that he is on par with other constitutional monarchs around the world…Royal immunity has been lost for 15 years. It needs to be reclaimed and reinstated so that the constitutional monarchy can be restored to its full sovereignty so as to play a more fitting role in the 21st century as a guardian of the Federal Constitution,” he said when delivering a talk on the “The Role of the Constitutional Monarch in 21st Century Malaysia.”

He noted that immunity is essential for the Malay Rulers. “Take the situation where we have a hung Parliament, the Ruler comes in to decide on a Prime Minister from one side of a political party and imagine if the other side of the political party opposes it and takes the Ruler to court,” said Tunku Naquiyuddin, adding that the loss of immunity was a major setback for the monarchy.

His move to float this balloon is likely to be rebuffed by a number of stakeholders, including former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. It was Tun Mahathir who led the charge against constitutional monarchy in the late 1980s and 1990s. Around 1992, the media exposed the excesses of the royalty and their extravagant lifestyle.

It so happened that a hockey coach was assaulted by a member of the Johor royalty. This unleashed a wave of public anger against the Rulers and culminated in Parliament, amending the Constitution and withdrawing royal immunity.

The personal immunity of Rulers was removed, except for the legal process relating to the performance of their duties.

Some Malaysians may question the timing of Tunku Naquiyuddin’s statement on reinstating the full immunity of the monarchy. His father, the Ruler of Negeri Sembilan was recently in the dock in a legal tussle with a bank.

A special court ruled that Tuanku Jaafar Tuanku Abdul Rahman had to pay Standard Chartered Bank nearly USD1 million to honour his commitment in a letter of credit over a business deal.

This was the first time the special court had heard a case involving a member of the royalty.

The Malay Rulers have been a pillar of strength and certainty since Election 2008 changed the political landscape and injected a degree of chaos in the system here.

Royals such as Raja Nazrin Shah of Perak and the Sultan of Selangor have become voices of moderation and progress and have attempted to keep politicians and overzealous civil servants in the check.

They and other members of the monarchy have also sought to make the Malay Rulers institution more relevant to these times.

But this is the first time that one of them has come out publicly seeking for immunity against criminal and civil prosecution to be reinstated.

 

This news caught my eye during my blogging holiday. My personal view is that “royalty is an essential part of the country. Royalty is entrusted by the people to become the custodian of the constitution and one of the checks and balance system. Royalty should be neutral since they control significant influence in the public. They shouldn’t have any political allegiance or have anything that would compromise their neutrality. Ruler’s should be given immunity when taking action as a custodian of the constitution and whenever fulfilling their duties as prescribed in the constitution”.

That is just a simple view on the importance of the royalty. We should be careful when granting royalty with absolute immunity. As I said above, the rulers should be given immunity when fulfilling their duties as prescribed in the constitution. I agree with the Regent of Negeri Sembilan on his argument on Rulers should be given immunity when dispensing their duties. However, this immunity should not be extended on personal action that they take. The incident of the Johor royalty in the early 1990s and the recent court decision on the Ruler of Negeri Sembilan should not be taken lightly. The Rulers have to be make accountable of any wrongdoing they do in their daily lives.

Now it is a good time for Rulers to assert their influence in Malaysian politics. They should show that they are aware of the people’s grievance and also aware of their constitutional duties. After laying in slumber for the last 20 years, the Monarchy has to start play a bigger role. But do not think the public is stupid by taking advantage for their own benefits. A king without its subject is just another man.

 

Malaysiakini’s trouble – what is the different?

This post is related to yesterday’s front page report in NST titled ‘Crap on the web’.

So what is the different between this report titled ‘DPM unveils manifesto for top Umno job’ (subscription needed) reported in Malaysiakini and the article titled ‘Azan, jawi, JAIS, UiTM dan ba-alif-ba-ya’ reported in Utusan Malaysia? Both are false story and intended to tarnish the reputation and the credibility of the respected person. However, only one person was sent to ISA. Only one person has yet to received apologise from the respected party on the false report.

I am all up for freedom of press. A lot of people have came out to support Utusan after Teressa Kok wanted to sue Utusan for their report. While I agree that media shouldn’t be scared from reporting because people might sue them, but reporting false report with the intention to tarnish someone reputation should also not be allowed. The threat of people might sue the media should be there so that the media could be accountable for what they report.

Malaysiakini have issued apologies on the ‘DPM unveils manifesto for top Umno job’ report. The journalist who wrote that have resigned. This is less than a week since the report came to surface. But after almost two month, Utusan has not come out to publicly apologise to Teressa Kok. Both the report have been found to be false.

Journalist need to be fair and unbias in their reporting. The authority need to be fairin dealing with media. Just because certain media are owned by the rulling coalition, that does not justify them being exempted from the law. I applaud the swift action taken by Malaysiakini management in dealing with the blunder they made on the ‘DPM unveils manifesto for top Umno job’ report. Utusan may want to learn a few ethical process and take responsibility on article published on their newspaper and website. If not Utusan might end up being another tabloid newspaper.

So Rocky, what is your take on the Malaysiankini’s predicament?

 

RM5 billion – Will it benefit Malaysians as a whole?

I was reading this report in TheStar Online this morning and find it so ridiculous. The headline says “Najib: Country not in financial crisis”. But if you read the report, the title is very deceiving. This is n example of our government spinning news. Lately it has been happening a lot.  This is what Najib said during in the report:

“While we are confident of the resilience of our financial sector, we are mindful that the financial turmoil in markets elsewhere will bear consequences on the real economies there as well as globally.

“As a result, the Malaysian real economy will inevitable be negatively impacted.”

You see what I mean right? It is true that we are not in financial crisis yet. But the outlook does not look good. Sooner or later, we will get caught in the crisis.

Anyway, my main concern is not the title of the article or that what Najib said. I was concern with the action taken by the government to prevent or soften the looming economic crisis. Among the measures taken are:

1)      Bank Negara to guarantee all deposits up to December 2010

2)      Government will inject RM5 billion to Valuecap Sdn Bhd to invest in undervalued companies

3)      Reviewing the FIC guidelines to attract foreign investors

Bank Negara guaranteeing all deposits for my opinion is a boost of confident for all depositors in Malaysia and will calm any fears depositors have in Malaysia. We don’t want something similar that happen to Bank of East Asia in Taiwan where depositors withdrawing all their money amidst the anxiety of collapsing banks. I will not comment on the third measure until the guidelines is reviewed.

My concern is the second measure. Whilst the first measure benefiting almost all Malaysians, injecting RM5 billion to invest in undervalued companies is something that is worrying. Valuecap Sdn Bhd is according to Khazanah Nasional website:

“…, Valuecap is a fund management company which was created to invest specifically in the Malaysia equities market. ……., Valuecap’s key mandate is to undertake investments in equities listed on Bursa Malaysia on a portfolio basis, based on superior fundamental investment research.”

In the midst of a financial crisis, why would the government spend RM5 billion just to make sure share price of certain company not undervalued? Don’t confuse yourself this action to the steps taken by the European and US government to save their banks. In the US, the government spent USD700 billion on giving loans or injecting capital into distress companies. Similar action has been taken by the Europeans government. The new funds will be used by the companies to continue operations and helping it from collapsing.

The RM5 billion the government is injecting wouldn’t affect the company at all. Since Valuecap is a fund management company and it invest in equities market listed in Bursa Malaysia, The one who would be benefiting the RM5 billion is the shareholders of these companies. The RM5 billion won’t help any company survice adverse economic condition. What it does is bailing out investors or owners of these distress companies. How would this help the country?

It won’t. The RM5 billion would neither maintain employment level, help businesses to survive, grow or maintain GDP nor attract new investors. It just would help some rich fellow not to loose money. It will also artificially keep our Composite Index high.

It would be better if government will spend RM5 billion to help distress companies. The RM5 billion could be use for government spending to stimulate economic growth. A lot of things can be done with RM5 billion.

In the initial TheStar Online report, Najib said:

“We are mindful that we have to take steps to ensure long term competitiveness whilst managing short term crisis, but we must not forget our long term position as a nation that is able to compete much more effectively,”

Guaranteeing deposits will only be a short term measure to manage the crisis. The RM5 billion given to Valuecap is not even a measure that will help manage the crisis in the short or long term. Lets hope somebody would start looking measures for the long run instead of just focusing for the short term. As Najib said, “we must not forget our long term position as a nation”.

 

Budget – Did DSAI have a point?

DSAI took almost 6 hours (as reported here) in the first day of the new Parliament session to urged government to come up with a refine budget for 2009. The mainstream media reported that DSAI was wasting the parliament time. Najib has come out to say that the government will not revised the budget 2009 which was presented by AAB before Ramadhan.

 

While all the mainstream media is trying hard to play down the issue brought up by DSAI as if the issue is trivial, for DSAI to waste 6 hours of its time to try and convince parliament members to review the budget intrigue me. What is DSAI trying to tell the parliament members? Is the budget in danger due to the current economic condition? What is the impact of the fast dropping of crude oil and crude palm oil price to the budget?

 

People always focus on what the government is going to spend during the budget. The fact is, in order for the government to spend, they need to have revenue to fund the expenditure. Yes the government can function with a budget deficit, but a country can not operate with a long period of deficit. Deficit means that the government need to borrow money. Borrowing money now will result in the government having to pay interest and like individual; there is a limit on how much a government can borrow.

 

Where does government get their revenue? Government revenue are mainly derived from direct tax income (eg. Income tax, corporate tax), indirect tax (eg. Excise duties, sales tax), investment income and sales of license and permits. Below is the table of government revenue from 2006-2008.

 

source: http://www.treasury.gov.my/view.php?dbIndex=0&website_id=1&id=2827

 We can see that revenue from oil tax was 15.9% in 2007 and it is estimated that oil tax contribution to be 15.1% in 2008. A big chunk of the investment income comes from Petronas which comes from the profit they made from oil & gas activities. Easily, 25% of the government revenue comes from the oil & gas sector. If it includes the palm oil, it could represent up to 40% of the government revenue.

What is the impact to government revenue if crude oil continues to fall? During the preparation of Budget 2009, treasury staff must assume a certain price of the crude oil in order to estimate the budgeted government revenue. The budget was presented on August 29, 2008 at which Malaysian Tapis Spot price was USD123.48/barrel. One month earlier, the price of Malaysian Tapis Spot price was USD139.87/barrel. The highest point was at mid-July at USD151.97/barrel (data is from Energy Information Administration website). Assuming that the policy maker in Treasury Department have a pessimistic view of crude oil price and assume that crude oil price would be USD100 per barrel for the budget, the current crude oil price of USD74/barrel yesterday have significantly reduce the budgeted revenue.

 

CPO price have also drop significantly. In early July 2008, CPO price was at the USD3500/tonne. At the end of September 2008, the price has drop until USD2100/tonne. Note that it was at its all time high of USD4300/tonne at the end of March 2008.

source: http://www.palmoil.com/index.php?q=D1VTW1NASgIEAhEbVg9RAAYB

Since CPO and crude oil has been supporting the government revenue for the last couple of years and lesser contribution from income tax, budgeted government revenue is expected to fall short. With global credit crunch, the government might find it difficult to get borrowings through bonds. So how will the government implement the plan in the budget 2009?

 

Some issue you can play politics. But the issue of the country’s economy shouldn’t be politicized. Economy and plans to face the impending world recession should be a non-partisan issue. Even in the US, the senate was bipartisan in agreeing the rescue plan of USD700+ billion to rescue AIG and several others financial institution. The well being of the country’s economy is way bigger than UMNO and PKR.

 

So, yes the issue raised by DSAI in the parliament is important. This is not about taking over the government, it is the well being of the people in the country, be it BN or Pakatan supporters. Government should study back the budget and make necessary adjustment if there is a need since the sudden changes in the crude oil, CPO and the credit crunch. A well planned and long term solution needs to be figured out. Hopefully the era of knee jerk decision is over.