Category Archives: Governance

GE13: What Chinese Tsunami?

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fnutusan07e

(“Chinese Tsunami” – would it be Najib’s new “unity” motto for the next 5 years? Why call for national reconciliation when at the same whack one community for your failures at the polls? What else the Chinese want, you ask? How about an all out fight against corruption, fair treatment for all Malaysians and wastage of public funds & resources? Image source: http://www.malaysia-chronicle.com)

GE13 polling has officially ended but not the subsequent implications. It will take probably weeks and even months before things get settled down. Anwar have indicated that Pakatan will not accept the outcome of the elections until EC explains on some of the glaring irregularities – they just had a large public rally on this which in turned caused a massive traffic jam (Raja Petra however raised concern of something more sinister) and surely there will be legal suits flying around. And there are quite number of states and seats won on slim margin – so one needs to wonder if there will be another round of frogs jumping ships as what we saw back in 2008? And trouble is brewing in Selangor as to who will get the Menteri Besar seat – I just hope the PKR fellows do not screw things up big time – pro-BN bloggers already having a field day on this.

The Results

All in all, it is a good election for Pakatan Rakyat. Racial bigots of Ibrahim Ali and Zulkfli Noordin were promptly shown the exit by multi racial voters but rest assured they will be around to cause the usual trouble. Nurul Izzah won the closely contested Lembah Pantai seat and a big thanks to the extra vigilant supporters, had managed to ensure the fight was fair and square and won it accordingly. Dr M got a good slap when Lim Kit Siang won the Gelang Patah seat with a good majority of 14,000 plus votes – still remember this old-man asking people to bury Lim Kit Siang in Gelang Patah and then recklessly said that there will be racial confrontation if Lim wins? Thankfully the voters thought otherwise and handed Uncle Lim a good margin to win.

On a bigger scale, despite failing to capture Putrajaya (which many of us were hoping for), Pakatan improved their number of seats in both parliamentary and state level. They kept Penang and Selangor with a higher majority and came close to regaining Perak and Terengganu. The popular votes also went to Pakatan – with 51% of the votes going to them (BN got 47% of the votes). The Kedah was a different story altogether – the votes in Kedah shifted to BN in a big way not because BN was better than Pakatan but rather it was because PAS screwed things up after they won it in 2008. Still remember them going over the board with their extreme Islamic way of governance even on non Muslims? We would have been dumb to still think that PAS would be able to keep Kedah. Its fall was predicted from day 1 and it did. Terengganu was a 50-50 thing.

However the biggest disappointment that Perak did not go to Pakatan – especially after they were robbed of the state by 3 frogs that jumped to BN last time around. Was it because Perakians had forgotten about this incident? Or it was rigged in a way that BN were meant to win – after all it was a very close fight with BN’s 31 seats against Pakatan’s 28 seats. Some of the stories reported do raise some red flags:-

“At that point the results for the Perak state seats were 29 for BN and 28 for Pakatan. I insisted on the recount because the results from these two seats would be the deciding factor in the formation of the next Perak government. “When I insisted that these documents be produced before the announcement of the results, the returning officer instructed the police to push my polling agents and me out of the hall.”

At this juncture, Vasantha Kumar said, “Saravanan threw a chair at me while I was being pushed out.” “I was shocked when the police manhandled me, pushing me 50m out of the centre, while Saravanan and his assistant tried to attack me. However, the police stopped them.” Vasantha Kumar claimed that he and his counting agents were pushed out by the police all the way to the main road outside the hall.

(Source)

It was also disappointing to note that a number of spilt votes screwed up some of the seats for Pakatan. Independents (all whom been wiped out for good reasons) screwed up the chance for Pakatan in Cameron Highlands big time – MIC’s G Palanivel got more votes against him and yet he won with slim margin, no thanks to almost 1,200 votes going to independents. The Pakatan’s screw up in Kota Damansara and Semenyih however is not excusable. Two good state seats were lost because of the stupid in-fighting within Pakatan for the same seats. Thankfully Pakatan had garnered enough seats to form the State Government otherwise Pakatan fellows would have kicked themselves for the major screw-up.

Hopefully this would be the last time Pakatan make a fool of themselves and have overlapping claim for the same seat. Every win counts (especially in situation like in Perak now) and the last thing they need to give away the seat on a platter with split votes. That would be really dumb.

najib_sweets

(Still remember the various promises before the election? Come on lah, Malaysians are not stupid – if the Government had wanted to, as a responsible government, they could have carried up the various promises way before the election. Instead it was back to the usual “you help me, I help you” nonsense from Najib’s administration. A clear breach of election laws but one that EC did nothing to curtail or punish the offenders. Image source: theSun)

Interestingly despite the claims of the success of NKRA especially in area of crime fighting, BRIM 1.0 & 2.0 give-outs, lavish dinners & live concerts (including one by Psy) and over the board “be grateful” propagandas, “you help me, I help you” rallies and advertisements in the media, Najib still fared worst than the sleepy Pak Lah by winning less parliamentary (and state) seats compared to 2008. Although some of these pre-election money, gifts and promises had influenced some of the voters to vote for BN especially in the rural areas and helped them to starve off the Pakatan onslaught for Putrajaya, a majority of them (especially in Penang and Selangor) did not buy them in exchange for their votes:-

No one asked you to give free dinners, RM500, lucky draw, etc. You syok sendiri. The Chinese did not cheat you. But I must congratulate the Penangites. They had two weeks of free food (no need to cook), a lot of free entertainment, money, and 2 weeks later, they get a good government in place! You have got the best of both world!

(Source)

He also failed to wrestle back Selangor despite leading the BN’s well oiled election machinery and with defeat of some of the BN Chairman in other states which included Malacca, Penang and Johore, the Fat Momma’s expensive overseas trip in coming months may be short lived. And the consequences would have been worse for him in the coming months if the allegations of phantom voters and other irregularities are proven to be true.

The Chinese Tsunami?

Najib after been declared as the winner as far as BN and the federal government is concerned started on the wrong footing by blaming the defeat wholly on the Chinese and then half sincerely turns around and calls for national reconciliation (it seems nothing changed for BN and nothing will in the future). It did not take long for UMNO-run Utusan Malaysia and Dr M to rub it in and provide the fuel to the fire:-

Mahathir repeated his stance that the DAP’s campaign was to make the Chinese community hate the Malay community. “I have said this several times in my campaign, even in Johor. Lim Kit Siang brought about the concept of Malaysian Malaysia, with the intention of making the Chinese hate the Malays,” he said. “As a result, many Chinese rejected the Malay hand of friendship.”

(Source)

At the end of the day, it has nothing to do with the Chinese, Malay or even the Indian tsunami. Yes the number of Chinese turning up and voting for Pakatan was higher than before. Are you going to blame them for that? Where it says that the Chinese (or any Malaysians for argument sake) have to vote for BN only? What a bunch of sore losers! It’s a fact that Pakatan could not have gained more votes using Chinese votes alone.

Meanwhile, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng lambasted the move to turn the Chinese as “scapegoats” and shape the election results as a “Chinese-versus-Malay” vote. “Many analysts have disputed this as a gross distortion of data, as this was more a urban-rural divide between Pakatan Rakyat and BN,” Lim said in a statement today. “How can this be a Chinese tsunami in states like Terengganu when PAS won 15 state seats as compared to Umno’s 17, when more than 95 percent of Terengganu voters are Malays?”

And the same was reflected by PAS:-

PAS has expressed gratitude to Chinese voters who backed Malay Pakatan Rakyat candidates in the recently concluded general election, even if it meant having to vote against a fellow Chinese. PAS information chief Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man said the action of these voters proved the claim by Umno that the Chinese had rejected the Malays to be slander.

“There are tens of Parliament and state assembly seats that were contested by Malay candidates against candidates from the Tiong Hua (Chinese), in mixed constituencies, which were won by the Malays, proving that Chinese voters were willing to reject candidates of their own race,” Tuan Ibrahim said in a statement today.

(Source)

GE13numbers

(Pakatan had won the popular votes but was it due to an overwhelming swing by the Chinese Malaysians or was it due to Malaysians from all races in the country who just fed up on the blatant corruption, wastage and unfair treatment? Image source: Malaysiakini)

Well, to those who keeping harping on the Chinese tsunami and how the Malays will be left out in the country, it is not about the race, and here’s why.  It’s a fact that Najib did miserably when it comes to fighting corruption and national unity.

He did nothing on instances of sheer corruption just because those implicated were from his own political party and he needed them for his own political survival. It took two independent journalists to break the story on PKFZ, a young politician from Pakatan to prove the abuse of taxpayers money dubbed “The Cowgate” (Najib even did not have the balls to sack the Minister) and some foreigners going undercover to show that there indeed a shadow state in the country. Despite the urgency and the need for an independent and robust corruption busting agency, Najib did nothing to strengthen the MACC – it remained lame duck. He promised to do something about it but that promise came with a condition that BN must win the election. Now he had won, will Najib keep up his promise?

On the national unity, it seemed a joke for Najib to call for national reconciliation. By blaming the Chinese for his own losses, he had started his administration by pitting the Chinese against the Malays. The king-makers Indians who were the darling of politicians before the election are now nowhere to be seen. Tough luck for Hindraf and their MOU with Najib – let’s see how sincere Najib will be now that he blaming it on the Chinese. He started the notion of 1Malaysia which seemed to be a good thing as we head towards the year 2020 but did nothing to curtail racial statements from his own party controlled mainstream medias and the UMNO friendly Perkasa extremists who even at one point threatened to burn Bibles. Where was the tough action back then? Najib justify the remarks in Utusan by saying that the Chinese media does the same. Once again, where the tough action against the Chinese papers if they been doing the same?

Is this how a Prime Minister of a multi-racial country speaks when it comes to curtailing racial incitements?

So What’s Next?

At end of the day, there must be a proper closure – both to the acceptance on the outcome of the GE13 and incorrect blame of the losses on the fellow Malaysian Chinese.

Yes we must protest against unfair election process and bring forward any irregularities to be rectified but then again, we should go on with our life – after all, there is a government to be run here. It is almost sure every political party (in addition to the various blogs, political analyst, media, etc) out there would be making their own assessment on the outcome of the elections, see where they have made mistakes and how they can improve on it for the greater benefit of the people and country (not for themselves and the political party).

Pakatan must improve their standing in the next general elections if we want to see a real change at federal level and hence improvement in competency, accountability and transparency. Unlike some politicians from the other side, Pakatan politicians need to ensure that their service centre are still operating and still providing the best service especially in areas where they had lost. Losing does not mean doing nothing and blaming others. Losing means an opportunity to improve on their standard of service and engage the people on the real issues facing them. The sooner the politicians do this, the sooner the country can get back on its feet.

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GE13: Manifestos, Fantasies & Imaginations

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najib_sweets

(Santa Claus of a different nature – he seems to be promising a lot of things to many sector of the community but does that promise comes with a catch? Where the millions of ringgit is coming from and from who’s pockets?)

Malaysians will go to the polls on May 5 and it does not matter whether you will vote for BN or PR. What is important is that on May 5, you wake up on time and go to the polling station and vote someone. Remember it is your duty as the citizen of this country and it only comes once in 5 years.

Election Santa Claus

As we move closer to this date, the level of insanity seems to be increasing as well – more sex videos exposures (which seems to be more important than corruption by millions of ringgit for some morons) and Najib continuing his Santa giveaways – plucking millions from thin air and promising to deliver them only if people are “grateful” when it comes to casting their votes.

Some even get some last minute “miracle” granted by BN politicians:-

After 20 years of struggle, prayers were finally answered when an 85-year-old Chinese temple in Minyak Beku was granted ownership for the piece of land it sits on. The land title for the 0.696ha plot, including a 280m access road to Persatuan Penganut-Penganut Agama Buddha Ching Boo Tian in Jalan Segenting here, was approved by the Johor Government recently. “We could not have done it without MCA and the Mentri Besar,” he said at the thanksgiving dinner organised by the temple, which was attended by more than a thousand people here on Sunday.

(Source)

Should temple be “grateful” (Najib’s buzz word of the day) for the recent approval of ownership or more rightfully be angry that it took the Government over 20 bloody years to approve the ownership and it only happened because of the upcoming general elections and not for other matters?

And speaking about being grateful, did you read about Hindraf’s 180’ degree turn on their relationship with BN? P Waythamoorthy now insists that the community’s welfare will only be cared for by the ruling coalition BN and not Pakatan Rakyat. This is same man who just before 2008 blamed UMNO and BN led Government for the dire state of the Indian community and caused many to take to the streets to protest. This is the same man when things got more tricky (when the rest of the key leaders were caught under ISA), fled to overseas. Now he turns around and says only BN can take care of the community? That’s interesting. I surely hope that he has forgotten the fact that Najib have been longing for the lost Indian votes and will be willing to promise the sky as long he gets the crucial votes in the coming election – nothing more, nothing less. After all, if BN had been serious in dealing with the community’s issues, it would have acted on it a long time ago – after the Hindraf rally and not at the eve of a general election. Why it have come to a point where Hindraf have to come out with a blueprint for the community and asks both BN & PR for endorsement? As the famed comedian Goundami would say – “arasiyalila ithellam saatharanam pa” (it is all normal in politics), uh Waytha?

And looking at the bigger picture, doesn’t the very promise of goodies in return for votes contravene the law?

Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) today chided the federal and state governments for enticing voters with cash handouts and other freebies in what the corruption watchdog said is a blatant breach of electoral laws. The local branch of Transparency International also criticised the election regulator and Malaysia’s graftbusters for failing to clamp down on politicians in Barisan Nasional (BN) and Pakatan Rakyat (PR) who have been giving cash and vouchers and promising perpetual aid such as bonuses, cheap homes and free water with their eye on the bottomline in the May 5 polls. “Caretaker governments and candidates are breaking the Election Offences Act 1954 Section 10 which states all these gifts, loans, offers, promises, pronouncements are to procure votes,” Josie Fernandez, TI-M secretary-general, said in a statement.

(Source)

Is someone sleeping on the job then? Or it is just business as usual in the Bolehland?

The Invisible Bogeyman

But in the midst of intensive campaigning, vote buying election promises and stiff fight for seats, it was not a surprise that we have this kind stupidity cropping up:-

A Lim Kit Siang win in Gelang Patah will result in racial confrontation, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today, arguing that Chinese-Malay economic partnership will be ruined. With weeks left to Election 2013, the former prime minister continued his doomsday prediction by hammering on the opposition leader with his warning that Lim’s victory in the southern state would trigger racial clashes that would replace the existing cooperation between the Malay majority and Chinese community. “Kit Siang is going to bring about conflict and antagonism between the races, to wage the Chinese to dislike and hate the Malays,” Dr Mahathir wrote in his chedet.cc blog.

(Source)

As usual, Dr M is not far from talking nonsense and jumping on his dumb cheap antics of blaming the invisible Chinese bogeyman and culture of fear. When we will ever come to a stage that a vote for Chinese Malaysian (or a Malay or a Indian for argument sake) at end of the day is a vote for a Malaysian? Hasn’t the ghost of May 13 and culture of fear put to rest a long time ago? Why there will be racial confrontation when Lim Kit Siang is just one man and it is not like he has not run for Parliament and won many times before?

So, why need an invisible bogeyman to burn down the country when you can have the same with this kind of politicians going around promoting culture of fear and disunity? Najib has only kept mum on this which will not reflect well on his overused slogan “1Malaysia”. One thing is for sure – we will never achieve a developed nation status by 2020 – not when we still have this kind of people asking us to distrust fellow Malaysians. We must reject anyone who are willing to do anything just to win the elections and to remain in powers (even it means causing racial confrontations when there is none in the first). Dr M should look back into his dictionary and understand what the word retirement really means.

Election Manifesto

And of course, you have political manifestos flying around with some claiming each other as unachievable. Fine, manifestos may not be contract cast in stone and to some, it is nothing but a convenient way to let the voters to know on what the party intends to do – ideal intentions that may change over time due to political pressures, financial constraints and of course, dirty politics. So, it was not a big surprise when Najib claims BN’s recently launched manifesto as a serious matter but turns around and say that Pakatan’s manifesto as a mere fantasy and imagination:-

Najib said as the manifesto or pledge was an important document, it must be launched at a gathering and broadcast live so that the people throughout the country could appreciate the content of the manifesto. “They can study what is the commitment of the BN to the people,” he said. “Let the opposition say that the manifesto is not a pledge, if it’s not a pledge, why present a new manifesto, what’s the point of presenting a new manifesto. “To the BN, the manifesto is a serious matter,” he said. On the other hand, Najib criticised the opposition and described their manifesto as a ‘fantasy and imagination’ by making all kinds of promises as they liked.

(Source)

Before we precede even further, bear in mind that manifestos – whether it is from BN or Pakatan, is nothing but a mere intention of the various political parties on what they may do if they are voted into power. It is not formal contracts that one can sue when it is not carried out – otherwise BN would have been riddled with lawsuits for all these years they have been power. Strip away the icing, sugar-laced thumbs up and “wow” statements (especially from pro-BNs sites & BN politicians) in the media and re-read BN’s manifesto in a bigger picture and you may find BN’s manifesto itself suffering from the same problem of mere fantasy and imagination.

Let’s take some for analysis:-

  • Increasing BR1M up to RM1,200 for households and RM600 for singles while maintaining it on an annual basis

(BR1M – is it a sincere safety net for the poor or a sweetener for the people to vote for BN? You tell me. The main contention of BR1M is a. where does all the money is coming from? The final damage is not small – the first BR1M cost the taxpayers about RM1.92 billion, while BR1M2.0 cost around RM3 billion and now Najib is talking about an annual BR1M of RM1,200 per person which will cost the taxpayers almost RM5 billion annually. and b. it is clear that RM500 is not much for a family to use in the long run. So what is the long term solution for the lower income citizens? Simply throwing money without any long term plan is wasteful and is bad governance.)

  • Expanding the Rapid Bus System to every state capital, complete with facilities for the aged and disabled

(Well BN has been at this problem for x amount of years now, laying down the same old solutions for same old problems but nothing has been so simple and nothing has been so straight forward. Deployment of RAPID buses is nothing new but will the control of the route and some part of management be allowed to be delegated to the individual state governments for greater efficiency? Will there be a decentralization of the public transport management in the country which also includes the grant of license and permits?)

  • Solving the treated water supply problem in Selangor, the Federal Territory and Kelantan. Extending the supply of clean water to another 320,000 homes throughout the country

(Then there is always of dangling the issue of water and electricity – the basic needs of any voters and is an issue where one could not afford to take it so lightly. But the question that needs to be answered is this – do we really have an issue to contend with or it is an issue played out for political reasons? What about investing on alternate source for electricity and backup plans for potential blackout?)

And lastly, probably the dumbest of all (worth to be classified as the mother of all fantasy & imagination)…

  • Empowering MACC through the establishment of a Service Commission whereby the power of recruitment and service matters will lie entirely with the commission. Giving equal emphasis on investigations into, and action against, bribe givers and receivers

(Why the “wayang kulit” on MACC? After Taib’s show of the middle finger to MACC and no action whatsoever on the highly corrupt even after Global Witness’s video revelation, it would have been more proper and acceptable if Najib had instead proposed to shut down MACC permanently. MACC simply lacks the independence and prosecution powers to be effective against corruption. And to maintain MACC toothless is simply means an endorsement on the corruption and abuse of powers. If Najib wants to salvage his past promise of fighting corruption in this country should instead granted MACC wider powers which includes prosecution powers)

Winnable Candidates

It’s too bad that Samy Vellu was not named as a candidate for up-coming election despite naming himself as a winnable candidate (something that theSun columnist labelled as a Bollywood comedy) – it would have been interesting to see what would have been the outcome – whether MIC have indeed regained Indians’ support to the party. And speaking about winnable candidates, as you may be aware, Najib have dropped some from the list – the one we are happy to see to go would be Shahrizat Jalil and Ng Yen Yen but I won’t be so cheerful if I were you. Najib still carrying a substantial baggage of candidate with tainted history and as we have seen in the past, there is a good chance of those dropped from the list coming into the limelight through the “back-door”.

And one that Najib promoted for this election is Zulkifli Noordin who will be running for Shah Alam. Yes the same fellow who insulted the fellow Malaysians who are Hindus. The same fellow who stormed the Bar Council inter religion discussion back in 2008. Is Najib truly serious about getting the Indians to vote for BN? If he can’t get a better character than Zulkifli Noordin for his winnable candidate list, then that says a lot of the quality of people running loose in BN. If this is the best he can do to show that BN have changed, it is clear that it does not deserves our votes. At end of the day, nothing but a complete change of the government is what this country needs to stop the high wastage, blatant corruption and more importantly to promote a greater unity and fair-play in this country. Make your vote count for the right reasons.

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GE13: Quote of the Day 2

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TaibNajib_1

(Well it was a big surprise to know that MACC had actually been “fingering” Taib on the allegations of corruption, at least not in the open and at least to a point where Taib is forced to make arrogant statement in the media but it was an even bigger surprise if the Government & MACC comes hard on Taib after this – after all, we have not see any “big fish” spending his / her last days in prison. Image source: http://fz.com)

When one is talking about “winnable candidates” and coming down clean for the voters to make the right decision, one cannot be far from dealing with the issue of corruption as well.

With the rather damaging revelations of broad-daylight corruption in Sarawak (now dubbed as the Shadow State) by the Global Witness and the growing call for MACC to make its investigations based on this revelation, we have this:-

Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud said that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) does not deserve his cooperation in regard to the exposé made by Global Witness.

“They [MACC] don’t deserve my cooperation because they have been naughty and dishonest with me. “Let them investigate if they want to victimise me,” Taib said after attending the Barisan Nasional presidential council meeting at the PWTC here today. Last month, foreign-based NGO Global Witness made a shocking exposé on the alleged corrupt practices involving those linked to Taib pertaining to the sale of native customary land in Sarawak.

Asked whether the video had tarnished his image in Sarawak, Taib replied in the negative, saying that the exposé was not in tune with what Sarawakians wanted.

(Source)

Is he really above the law as many have claimed it to be?

Can Taib afford not to cooperate with MACC at a time when Najib desperately need to show that BN are far from the taint of any corruption? Does he has a choice in the first place? Does this means enforcement agencies like MACC is under the thumb and rule of such arrogant politicians? If the expose of corruption, tax evasion and gross abuse of government assets is not what the “Sarawakians wanted”, what else is then? That few can continue to enrich themselves with tax-payers money and native land whilst leaving the rest to remain under the poverty line but when investigations starts, turn around and claim that they have been victimised?

If Najib and MACC do not come hard (without the end result of Teoh Beng Hock of course) on this kind arrogance by politicians with shady background, then it is clear that a change of Government is grossly needed. Despite the past misgiving of MACC that resulted in people turning up dead and the lack of bite to go after the big fish in corruption, unfortunately it is still the only corruption agency in the country that was entrusted of fighting corruption on all levels.

So with Taib telling MACC off, does this means we have closed MACC down? Some seems to think so:-

What is the MACC to do now? All eyes are on the MACC, again.

After all, two people have died in the course of their investigations since they were set up in 2009. Will it back down and keep quiet after this brazen response from Taib? Won’t this kind of snub embolden others to thumb their nose at the MACC and refuse to cooperate too?

If the MACC doesn’t do anything about this response from Taib, it might as well close shop. It is already working on a trust deficit basis and this snub from Taib has just shown how powerless the commission can be when it comes head-to-head with the powerful.

(Source)

Just because Taib had won the state seats for Najib, does it means Najib had to hold back any action on wrongdoings (some even borders high treason) in sheer gratitude? Otherwise corruption and mismanagement of funds will continue without any prosecutions and the nation bled to death and the same politicians will claim that they have done the best for the nation. Remember and vote wisely when the time comes even if you are not in Malaysia’s shadow state.

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Redefining Enemy of the State

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881280-xenophon

(Still remember this ‘enemy of the state’ from Australia. Thanks to the armed intruders in Lahad Datu, Malaysian Government is made a laughing stock when they immediately arrested and deported this ‘enemy of the state’ at the entry point but missed the 200 odd intruders from Sulu and gave 23 days of grace for these intruders to claim a part of Malaysia)

Read these first:-

PKR vice-president Chua Tian Chang has been charged with sedition in a Sessions Court here for making statements linking the Government to the Lahad Datu shootings.

He was charged with making the statements claiming the shootings in Lahad Datu was a planned conspiracy by Umno to divert attention and frighten the people. He also said it was a “drama” by the Government to scare the people and divert their attention in Sabah, particularly away from the RCI into the state’s immigrants issue.

Tian Chua said from the dock: “This is a political allegation. I will answer this defamation to clear my name”.

(Source)

And

In the last stretch before GE13, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad dropped all pretense for a Bangsa Malaysia and has gone for the Malay vote and slammed the Opposition for listening and accommodating the views and needs of the non-Malays.

State news agency Bernama quoted the country’s longest-serving prime minister as saying that Selangor must be saved from the opposition to ensure the rights and position of the Malays and Bumiputras are maintained in the state.

Dr Mahathir said the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) had taken over Selangor’s economy and now had great ambition to control politics in the state.

(Source)

And

Police have busted a Nigerian drug trafficking syndicate, using women’s shoes, to ship drugs. The ‘unique’ modus operandi is the first of its kind, catering to customers overseas but the packing of the drugs is done in Gombak, said Selangor Narcotics chief Asst Comm Nordin Kadir on Thursday.

Three Nigerian men, who are students of private colleges were detained on Tuesday, along with the seizure of more than RM380,000 worth of heroin. The syndicate has been active for six months, gaining entry to the country using student passes.

(Source)

The intrusion in Sabah in one way or another have forced us to relook into how we enforce the security of our national borders and how things have been taken for granted when it comes to foreigners in the country. It is a good thing. We cannot to keep things at status quo if we do not want another armed intrusion at our borders and our security forces suffering unnecessary causalities.

In that sense, let’s look at Tian Chua’s case. He questioned the Government’s inaction against the armed intruders and may have said 1-2 things more about this but it did not take long for a number of police reports to be made against him – some claiming that he belittled the integrity of the armed forces dealing with the intrusion in Sabah. But then again, did he intend to do so? In the initial massive confusion of the whole intrusion, I believe Tian Chua was not alone in questioning the passive action by the Government in dealing with the armed intruder for 23 days before the first shot was fired.

So much so, Mariam Mokhtar writes:-

The rakyat has every right to question our leaders for spending billions of ringgit on armaments, which appear to be overpriced and ineffective. We certainly must question our leaders when it appears that the purchase price includes a heavy commission. A sum of RM1 billion was allegedly paid to the Defence Minister who purchased the Scorpene submarines.

We have a right to criticise our leaders for neglecting the Suluk threat and waiting 23 days before taking action. We condemn our leaders for depriving us of news when family and friends live and work in the area. We condemn Najib’s tactic of locking up opposition politicians who ask questions on our behalf. When we criticise the failure of our leaders to handle the Suluk threat, we are not questioning the bravery of the security forces. A prime minister who resorts to silencing the rakyat with lies and obfuscation, does not deserve our vote.

(Source)

Can you imagine if armed men had rushed into the Petronas Twin Towers, held no hostages and claim that the building belongs to them? Would they be allowed 23 days to evacuate the building? At the most, they would have given a couple of hours before they would have been flushed out one way or another by the police commandos. Same case in Lahad Datu and given the sensitivity of the place, a longer extension of 1-2 days may have been given but certainly not up to 23 days and after final deadlines went unheeded. If you want to find faults with politicians like Tian Chua, he probably is guilty in picking the wrong choice of words and the wrong expression in addressing this concern but certainly not guilty of questioning the integrity of our armed forces. However since he has been charged in the courts, let’s wait for the trial for the final outcome.

And then we have aged politicians like Dr M who claim that a rule under the oppositions means eradication of the rights and privileges of the Malays. Apparently the state of Selangor is in “great danger” due to the accessions to the Non-Malays and must be saved at all cost. This is despite the fact that both the Malays and Non-Malays are Malaysians at the end of the day and the rights and privileges of the Malays are entrenched in the constitution. At this point, one need to wonder what this is so different with the Sulu bandits in Sabah threatening the security of the country? Why there are no barrage of police reports made then? After all, such irresponsible statements (despite coming from a retired old man) are grossly untrue and can cause unnecessary animosity between the various races in the country. Doesn’t a threat to national unity is a threat to the national security? Doesn’t this borders the same Sedition Act that Tian Chua is facing now?

We can understand and tolerate to an extent, the dirty politics and personal attacks on certain individuals or political parties – we had already expected it, from the various instances of Pakatan claiming that BN is corrupt and wasteful with tax-payers money and BN claiming undesirable needs of an Opposition Leader and some opposition politics corrupt as well. If there is proof, we highly welcome it – it will allow us to make an informed decision on who to vote for in the coming general elections. But causing hatred on the basis of Malays are loosing out to the Non-Malays just because BN is not ruling the State should not be tolerated and entertained at all. It should not be allowed to continue as well. Dr M may have done things in the past that gained some respect from Malaysians but at this point of time, he is nowhere at that level. Not when he continues to make statements that only causes disunity between Malaysians.

And whilst we seem to have defined the threat to national security in the wrong way in the past, we seem to be heading at the right direction by looking at the existence of 800,000 Filipinos in Sabah and re-looking at the tightening of the border security. It is a good start but we still have foreigners in this country and some of them determined to be a menace and threatens the good name and the security of the country. We still have Nigerians “students” caught for drug related crimes on a regular basis when we have seen and experienced the same in the past. So why we are still allowing student visas for these Nigerians and how well we did the background check and verifications before we granted them access into this country? We have South Americans doing ATM robbery jobs (I don’t think they have been caught) and Iranians, Indians, Pakistanis and others caught for drug related crimes.

We have a sizeable number of foreigners in this country and we need them for the growth of the nation. We appreciate their hard work, investment and participation but at the same time, the Government should be very mindful on who comes in and out of the country. The Lahad Datu armed intrusion could just be a rare incident and we may not see any further escalation once the on-going clean-up by our security forces ends but then again, it also happened because we took things for granted and swept the issue of foreigners in Sabah under the carpet for far too long. Malaysia is a peaceful country but we should not sit on our laurels – we need to be mindful on who are the real enemy of the state.

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Talam: Facts or Spins?

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(Chua Jr claims that it is a RM1 billion bailout by a reckless State Government and demands for a concrete answer. But the thing is, the Talam Debt Restructuring itself is very confusing and is not easy to be understood by the man on the street unless you are prepared to go into the details and analyse the debt restructuring ringgit by ringgit. Image source: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com)

The first I heard about Talam is when my colleague of mine was complaining about the half completed house that he bought from Talam. That was in the late 1990s and it was not a big news back then because there were a couple more housing developers who facing the same problems.

Now Talam, is back in the headlines, thanks to the so-called revelations by MCA’s Chua Tee Yong and whilst we wonder why now and why no similar revelations were made by Chua on BN deals (does PKFZ rings a bell?), the constant barrage of allegations on the Selangor State Government proves nothing but a menace to Pakatan Rakyat. DAP’s Tony Pua have countered these allegations rather well and have attempted to explain the reasoning behind Talam Debt Restructuring Exercise.  But before one’s goes further into the micro details of the debt restructuring exercise, one needs to understand why we have the Talam issue in the first place.

For that, it will be prudent to read these 2 articles that explains the beginning of the Talam affairs.

First titled “Kicking into your own goal”:-

By exposing what the previous Umno-BN led GoS was trying hard to keep under wraps, Chua Junior may have unwittingly opened the proverbial Pandora’s box. I am, of course, referring to his Talam Debt Expose. If the current GoS had exposed this scandal, it would not have got even one line of coverage in the mainstream media (MSM). However, because it was MCA-BN that exposed it, it gets front-page coverage for weeks on end. Let us look at the details of the Talam Debt Settlement and see what skeletons are rattling where.

Debt Settlement of 2009

YB Teresa Kok had said on Tuesday that the Debt Settlement of 2009 was a continuation of the earlier Debt Settlement Agreements made in 2006 and 2007 — that means during the previous Umno-BN State Government.

One earlier Debt Settlement in particular is of great interest. That is, the one signed between Talam and Kumpulan Hartanah Selangor Berhad (KHSB) in 2005 — again, under the previous Umno-BN State Government. When this agreement was signed, Tan Sri Chan Ah Chye was a Director of KHSB and Talam was a major shareholder of KHSB. So this required KHSB calling for a Shareholders Meeting in 2005 to have the agreement approved by the shareholders. However, it was not done, as it would have meant that KHSB would have to appoint an Independent Adviser and all the shit would have been exposed — especially the ‘haircut’ or reduction that was being given to Talam from a more than RM150 million debt to slightly over RM100 million.

So Chua Junior did the Selangor voters a favour by exposing the issue and requesting for an investigation and action to be taken, as now the Bursa and SC can investigate the matter and take the appropriate action against the Board Members of KHSB in 2005. Interestingly enough, even the now controversial Debt Settlement in 2009 was also kept under wraps by the KHSB Board in 2009 — which was then still being controlled by Umno/BN — by not calling for another Shareholders Meeting to approve the 2009 Debt Settlement Agreement. I am sure the then Executive Chairman, Company Secretary, Board and Management were aware of the requirement to call for the Shareholders Meeting. But then, if they did, all would be exposed.

So, again, Chua Junior did the Selangor voters a favour by exposing the issue and requesting for an investigation and action to be taken, as now the Bursa and SC can investigate the matter and take the appropriate action on the Board Members of KHSB in 2009.

But what is this ALL?

How did Talam get to owe so much? Actually, the ‘problem’ started way back in the early 2000s when the then Umno-BN GoS was hard-pressed by unit holders of their unit trust, Amanah Saham Selangor or ASAS, to redeem their units for the minimum guaranteed price of RM1.00. The price of the units was then less than 30 cents. This shows the investment expertise of the then GoS, which can reduce a RM1.00 value to less than 30 cents.

Anyway, in order to show profits and redeem the units at RM1.00, the GoS came out with a plan, or I prefer to call it a devious scheme, to increase the value of their companies by having these joint-ventures with people like Chan Ah Chye. So, they created joint-ventures with their two public listed companies, Brisdale and SAP, and inflated the value by more than 300 million and then floated the shares through an IPO by creating two new companies, KHSB and Kumpulan Perangsang Selangor Berhad. The ‘profit’ made by the GoS in floating these companies were then used to redeem the units from the unit holders in 2003, just before the 2004 general elections. So, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak was right, Malaysia can create history with their IPOs. This is yet another one.

But then what happened to the two companies, Brisdale and SAP? Brisdale is today under receivership and SAP is burdened with close to RM300 in million losses due to all these failed joint-ventures. So, as I said, Chua Junior did the Selangor voters a favour by exposing this issue.

Joint-Ventures

Let us now look at the controversial lands and the failed joint-ventures. In order to create the value for the IPO, the then GoS took, as what Chua Junior is now indicating, useless pieces of land, which are more than half underwater, and placed them in the joint-ventures at inflated prices. This then created the illusion and impression that the joint-ventures would be worth much more than they really were. So, today, Chua Junior has done the GoS a favour by showing that these lands were worthless pieces of land placed to create value and nothing more.

However, good, reputable and respectable property developers would say that land with 50% water, are now prime development land for Lakeside Properties. Look at the Mines, SunWay, CyberJaya, etc. In fact, KHSB, which also owns about 5,000 acres in the same area of Bestari Jaya, with about 50% underwater, recently signed a MoU with some Chinese investors to develop the 5,000 acres into an eco-city development with a value of more than RM8 billion. This is what I would call creating value and my hats off to the new Board and Management of KHSB, which I believe is only about a year old.

And then read Malaysiakini’s “Nathaniel Puts TALAM in Perspective” who also explains the Debt Restructuring Exercise:-

“Confusing” probably describes most of our initial attempts to get to the bottom of what the deal was between Talam Corporation and Selangor. With a little diligence, clear thinking and attention to detail however, most mysteries can be unravelled and articulated efficiently.

This article attempts to explain in easy to understand terms the background and context of this issue, how Selangor recovered the debt owed to it by Talam, and how this debt recovery differs from the bailouts we have seen at the federal level.

In the Beginning

The story begins in the late eighties and early nineties, with an engineer and project manager who worked in Selangor state subsidiary PKNS – one Chan Ah Chye. This man later goes on to form Talam Corporation, and before long – possibly due to close connections with the ruling elite in Selangor, then headed by BN Menteri Besar Muhammad Muhammad Taib – he becomes a major player in the Selangor property and development scene.

Over time, an extremely large amount of state land is alienated to Talam, who basically gets it for free. A strong imagination is not required to speculate in whose pockets any resulting profit eventually ends up. Talam’s modus operandi seems to be to pledge this land to the bank in exchange for huge loans, which they then use to finance their development and profit making projects. In essence, since they got the land free, they have successfully achieved money for nothing (it is uncertain as to whether “chicks for free” were involved). The ‘wise’ businessmen of that era believed in the dictum of never using your own money when you can use someone else’s. This heavy lending continued to characterise Talam’s business approach, and their loans consistently kept getting bigger and bigger.

Tumbling down

Of course, no student of recent economic trends is unfamiliar with the concept of a bursting bubble. The financial collapse of the late nineties brings Talam’s debt-ridden house of cards crashing down. An overgearing of loans and inability to service them halts various half-completed projects, rendering them idle, half-built ruins. Incredibly however, this does not prevent Talam and their political patrons from altering their basic modus operandi.

In 2001, under BN Menteri Besar Khir Toyo, three parcels of land are alienated by Selangor to Talam via their subsidiary Maxisegar Sdn Bhd, who undertakes to construct Unisel’s campus at an estimated cost of RM750 million. It will probably come as no surprise that Talam failed to complete this project. By September 2006, the company had been classified as an affected company under Practice Note 17 (PN 17), indicating dire financial straits.

New Sheriff in town

In 2008, when Khalid Ibrahim assumes the Menteri Besar’s post, he inherits a situation in which Talam owes the state of Selangor and its subsidiaries (among other creditors), a great deal of money. Urban legend has it that when Talam was called in to explain why they have never endeavoured to pay their debts, the sheepish reply given was, “No one ever asked us to.” Thankfully for the citizens of Selangor, there was a new sheriff in town.

Corporate finance is not only an area of expertise for Khalid (left) – it is a passion. With great gusto, he set out to solve this problem, and recover that which was owed by Talam to the people of Selangor. The problem was undoubtedly challenging, but after some work and careful strategising, a plan was set into motion.The end goal was simple: to leverage the assets still held by Talam to repay the debt Talam owed to the Selangor and its state subsidiaries.

The technical nitty-gritty

Making this happen was a technically complicated process that required considerable financial acumen. The summary is this: firstly, the debts that were owed by Talam to Selangor state subsidiaries were properly booked and accounted for – something that, very suspiciously, had not been done before. Once these debts were acknowledged by all parties, the debts were consolidated and transferred to one state subsidiary – Menteri Besar Incorporated (MBI), which was then responsible for collecting the debts from Talam in the form of land and cash.

The rest of this section explains how this was done.

It is a boring and complex explanation, but I list it here for the record and for those interested. Talam owed RM392 million to three Selangor state subsidiaries: KHSB, PIYSB, and PNSB. After acknowledging and booking these debts, the next step was to have another state subsidiary, Selangor Industrial Corporation (SIC), purchase these debts from the other three companies. A loan from CIMB Bank of RM 392 million was given to SIC to complete this purchase. In November 2009, the state exco and legislative assembly both approved a grant of RM392 million to MBI, which then used the funds to purchase the original consolidated debt from SIC. SIC then uses those funds to pay off their CIMB loan. The end result is as simple as the transaction itself is complex – without any major or excessive transactional expenses, Talam now owes the same amount of money to just one state subsidiary, instead of the original three.

Restructuring and successful collection

It is important to note that at no point are funds transferred from taxpayer monies to Talam. Funds have instead only been transferred from one pocket of the state to another. This differs wildly from federal bailouts of corporations like Indah Water Konsortium, MAS, or the Putra/Star LRT, where taxpayer money was injected directly into companies that had probably lost untold amounts via mismanagement, corruption and plundering.

The transfers in the Talam debt restructuring allowed for a structure in which there is a clear acknowledgement and accounting for the RM392 million owed by Talam, and a single company for them to pay it to. The story does not end there. Another extremely important milestone in this tale is that MBI has in fact already succeeded in recovering all RM392 million in debt owed by Talam. For those who would like to keep score, this recovery came in two forms. RM340.88 million was recovered via acquisition of land and assets: 1,322 acres of land in Bukit Beruntung worth RM150.28 million, 2,264 acres of land in Bestari Jaya worth RM105.3 million, 400 acres of land in Ulu Yam and 60% equity in Ulu Yam Golf & Country Resort worth RM22.2 million, 134 acres of land in Danau Putra worth RM52.1 million and five office units in Menara Pandan worth RM11.1 million.

The remaining RM51.12 million was collected in cash: RM12 million from sales of land in Puncak Jalil, RM5 million in cash assignments from EON, RM7.68 million in payments by Unisel for earthworks, RM9.04 million from the sale of 25.94 acres of land in Bukit Beruntung, and RM17.4 million from sales of 218 acres of land in Bestari Jaya. Go ahead, count it – it’s all there.

Now that one have read the 2 articles, the next question that one need to ponder is whether the Selangor State Government did the right thing when they decided to get SIC to obtain the loan from CIMB (and whether there were still liabilities unaccounted for – Read “Talam Debts for Dummies – Questions for Khalid“) and why the Menteri Besar did not publish the White Paper earlier (which would have cleared all doubts and spins for once and for all) as promised and why Tony Pua (instead of the Menteri Besar or the State Financial Advisor) is taking charge in answering most of the allegations by  Chua Jr. Of course there is the question of why Khalid want to hire 5 international accounting firms to review the Talam Debt Restructuring which does not make any sense when the Debt Restructuring exercise is a done deal and there are capable accounting firms right here in the country to do the same review.

There is no easy answer for the above questions of course and it is made worse by the consistent barrage of allegations on the same issue from Chua Jr and very little effort (from the State Government) made to reply and to put to rest the issue for once and for all. And whilst we wait for a proper response by the State Government on the Talam issue, we should not also lose sight of the other side of the story on the Talam debts – the story of how a private entity end up owing millions of ringgit to State agencies which clearly happened when the Pakatan Rakyat was still in the wilderness and had yet to take over the control of the State.

The solution by Pakatan’s State Government may not been the best or the “cleanest” solution to the mess that they had to take over in 2008 but it is a solution nonetheless. The debt may have been collected in full without any bailouts with taxpayers money (other than perhaps the interest for the CIMB loan) as insisted by the State Government but this need to be clearly explained to the masses. Most of us agree that the Talam Debt Restructuring exercise is confusing (mainly because the debt is assumed and transferred to different parties) and that coupled with lack of access to debt restructuring papers and lack of financial understanding, the success of the debt collection seems to be obscured and laced with pre-election dirty politics.

We are aware that in any debt collection, there is a good chance that we may not be able to recover the debt in full. And since part of the repayment comes in form of land assets, the true recovery of the debt is highly subjective on factors like valuation, location, ready purchasers, etc. Thus creates the uncertainty on how much and how fast the State Government can sell those lands that they got in place of the debt. That is where the State Government need to work hard to convince the people that they have a solid plan in the event they have a problem to capitalise on the land obtained.

But what we are more interested is whether taxpayers money have been used to do multi-million bailout to Talam and whether there has been clear accountability, transparency and due diligence on the way the debt restructuring exercise was planned and executed. That is more important than harping on the value or the location of the land and that is is what we want to know from the Menteri Besar before the next general elections.

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