Tag Archives: Politicians

GE13: You Know, BN Talks Cock Too

by

Read these first:-

zul

(A kiss on the cheek and all religion bad-mouth nonsense is quickly forgiven? Never mind it looks more like Zul is being strangled than being kissed but it’s irrelevant. Najib seems to think that all can be forgotten with a simple peek on the cheek. So can Salman Rushdie do the same? Image source: Malaysiakini)

Over the last few days as we get nearer to 5th May, the focus has shifted to Najib and how he has been the “best” PM to date and how the country will be better if “Najib led” BN continues to rule it. I am not sure about you but Najib is definitely better than the sleepy Pak Lah but is he the best PM to date? If you ask me, that honor should go to the first PM – Tuanku Abdul Rahman.

Anyway, in between the subtle messages in the media to remind Malaysians to be more “grateful” and how the oppositions have been (and will be) “screwing up” things up, some of the BN politicians have been putting their foot in the mouth. Are they talking cock or the truth or they are simply too dumb to run for office?

Let’s start with the obvious:-

BN chairperson Najib Abdul Razak today attempted to douse the anger over Perkasa vice-president Zulkifli Noordin‘s disparaging remarks about Hindus, claiming that Indians have now warmed up to him.

“There are Indians who have even kissed him already,” Najib said, adding that he endorsed Zulkifli’s (right) candidacy for the Shah Alam parliamentary seat.

“Forget about the remarks he has made. He has apologised. Let it be,” the caretaker prime minister said in Shah Alam as he stressed that the statements were made when Zulkifli was part of a “backward” party.

(Source)

Somehow after lacing the Indians with water cannon, tear-gas and imprisonment without trial under draconian ISA, it was a big surprise when Hindraf turned around, wipes the dried stain from their back and then worships the same old BN as their one and only savior. It does not take rocket science to know why Najib had become extra polite to the Indians this time around. Hindraf may have opened their champagne on the day Najib signed the MOU with them but seriously how they expect to enforce a MOU if it is not carried out. And speaking about the Indian votes, I am sure that would have been last on his mind when Najib set Zul loose to run in Shah Alam against the tolerant, well-liked Khalid Samad from PAS.

Yes, the Indians were not happy. MIC has been silent and so do the new ally of BN – Hindraf. Najib may have his own strategy with Zul in Shah Alam but I think he should not rub it in with the Indians by saying that the Indians are warming up to him and some of them (must have been highly paid morons) had even kissed him. Make no mistake about it – Zulkifli Noordin is not an angel. He lied about making the racial and insensitive statement about the Indians 10 years ago. He made fresh one last March. And we all know that his half forced apology is nothing but a ruse to gain some votes from the Indians. And of course, he took the opportunity that blame on his one sided view of the various races and religions in this country on PAS. You have to be a very dumb person to believe that. If it is indeed that it is due to PAS, then what about Khalid Samad – his opponent in Shah Alam who even gave a talk in a church and very moderate in his views on race and religion. What about the other PAS politicians who highly respect other Malaysians irrespective of race or religion? Even there is some sense of truth on his claims, doesn’t he has a brain and self-conviction to sense something is not right and resign from the political party?

Then we had this:

A newcomer representing BN in the Pasir Gudang parliamentary constituency has urged Indian voters to be patient with the government in solving the longstanding issue of stateless Indians as the government does not want to create another Sabah.

Linking the stateless Indian issue with the influx of illegal immigrants into Sabah, Normala Abdul Samad explained that the government should learn from the lesson in Sabah and be cautious in handing out citizenship to Indians.

(Source)

I don’t know who Normala Abdul Samad character is but it is clear that this “newcomer” is certainly walking on the wrong side of the plank. The issue of citizenship in Sabah is a whole different than the issue of citizenship to Malaysian Indians in the country. The one who got the citizenship in Sabah were foreigners and some are newcomers. And if we follow the serious allegations in Dr M’s Project IC, it even borders on sense of treason. Stateless Indians on the other hand were born to parents who are Malaysians and had failed to get their national identity card due to missing documentary evidence, plain ignorance and procedural red-tape. If you trust the figures on the net, it is frightening too:-

The plight of some 300,000 stateless Indians is more than enough a reason for you to change the federal government. This problem should have been resolved long ago and therefore the Indian community in Malaysia cannot continue to trust the Umno-led Barisan Nasional (BN) federal government.

These stateless Indians have either lived here for decades or were born in this country. They can also communicate fluently in Bahasa Malaysia. Why must their application for citizenship be rejected or their files left in the cupboard to collect dust?

In contrast, why were 600,000 Muslims from Indonesia and the Philippines in Sabah given citizenship and bumiputra status to vote in Malaysia? The majority of the Filipinos cannot even speak Bahasa Malaysia.

(Source)

Thus to say that it is one and the same with the issue in Sabah itself and then asking the same Indians to be patience (when they have been very patience for some bloody years) is derogatory and insulting to Malaysian Indians. And the issue of Sabah although has been an issue for sometime now, hardly made any dent on the federal government list of critical issues until lately when the Government is somehow forced to set a RCI on the issue. One cannot use it as an excuse to hold back the granting of citizenship to the Malaysian Indians who should have gotten them a long time ago. So is Hindraf still comfortable with the BN being the one and only saviour for the community when simple things like stateless Indians are kept on hold with dumb excuses?

And finally here is the evidence why the Pakatan led state government are having hard time to get the necessary funding and assistance from the Federal Government:-

The Barisan Nasional (BN) wants to wrest Selangor in the May 5 general election to pursue the coalition’s transformation programme for the people in the state, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak said today. He said the support from Selangor voters was needed to return BN to power in the state.

“We want the state leadership in Selangor to return to BN’s fold. We’re tired of the Pakatan Rakyat-led state government (in Selangor). “If the state government is different from the federal government, it’s difficult,” he said when speaking to BN supporters at Taman Melawati in Hulu Kelang.

(Source)

Najib may have forgotten that it was the people of Selangor back in 2008 voted for Pakatan Rakyat. It was not like they woke up one fine morning and found that the government had magically changed hands to Pakatan. And if the only excuse that Najib is making his case for the state to be returned to BN is that it will be “difficult” if the state government is different from the federal government, then it is high time we go for a complete change of the federal government. What BN is expecting in a free democratic country? Are they expecting to have BN to be ruling every nook and cranny of Malaysia forever? It’s time they wake up and accept reality.

It is obvious that in the last 5 years, the one who have been making things “difficult” for the people in the state is not the State Government.

Think about it – when Pakatan took power, instead of channelling the necessary funding to the new State Government entitled to, the Federal Government went on and appointed BN friendly “representatives” at village level, duplicating the work of the official appointed headmen, usurping powers illegally and end up making things hard for the State to do its work. And the State failed to carry on with its project due to a lack of funding and necessary approvals from the federal government, it did not take long for BN fellows to jump in and accuse the State as not keeping their promises. That was back in 2008 when unexpected happened and BN lost the states of Selangor, Penang, Perak and Kedah to Pakatan.

Moving forward, what does Najib implies when he says “if the state government is different from the federal government, its difficult”? It is a warning to the voters not to vote for opposition? The federal government can make it difficult for the state government if only if they want to. The last general election in 2008 already showed that things are changing and its high time they change their stand too.

Related articles

So It Ends at Lahad Datu? Part 2

by

doc693jkigpg5z196dk26xh

Ops-Daulat

(Now it is a whole different ball game in Lahad Datu once the military steps in with its might with surgical air strike and armoured infantry mopping and search exercise – Photo sources: the Net)

The number of our fallen heroes went up to 8 before the Government decided to end their passive approach to the whole situation and came to their senses and finally brought in the might of our trained military power as how it should have been probably after the first 24 hours deadline to surrender unconditionally.

The fact that the Government pushed the military to be second liner to the situation perhaps caused more confusion and suspicion (one that Tian Chua accidentally got entangled for the wrong reasons when he questioned the passive action by the Government) and even ex-military men started to ask questions. First from Capt (Rtd) Hussaini Abdul Karim (http://hak55.blogspot.com/):-

News photographs show some troops in bullet-proof vests but no helmets; others in T-shirts and “soft” headgear; and many not wearing bullet-proof vests. This is wrong. However, soldiers guarding the area were wearing helmets and bullet-proof vests. There didn’t seem to be any trenches or bunkers with sandbags to protect troops keeping watch.

Some of the militants have SLRs using 7.62 mm bullets and 81mm mortars. These are deadly. A hit on the arm from as far as 600m, because of its sheer power, can kill. This is unlike the bullets used by our troops which are the 5.56 mm type where sometimes even a direct hit to the body may only injure and is not strong enough to kill. If I were the commander, I wouldn’t want to position my men anywhere nearer than 200m of the enemy.

Malaysian troops, police and the army, with our strength and superiority in numbers, equipment and logistics support, should be fully ready. Strafing from the air, harassing fire using high explosive ammunition from mortars, the light and even the medium guns of the artillery regiment should have been carried out. Tanks should have been deployed.

And another from Major (Rtd) D.Swami (http://7rangers.blogspot.com/)

We should have struck using the Malaysian Armed Forces with great audacity and at will to bring terror into the hearts of these Sulu pirates who think themselves hardy warriors.

The Police did not have the assets to destroy them. Those Sulu pirates were with automatic weapons and mortars, which killed two of our people. They had frigging mortars, for f***sake!! Najib and company were handling these terrorists with kid gloves, using the Police who are trained to handle internal security situations like the Bersih or Hindraf rally.

The Police are not trained to launch attacks on enemy locations, where the enemy fires back. It is not a Bersih rally. They do not have Mortars, Artillery, Infantry Fighting Vehicles or Special Forces skilled in Reconnaissance, Air Force and Navy. One of the principles of attack is, “the momentum of the attack must be maintained”. There will be more casualties as they did not observe this principle. I doubt the Police have any inkling of that. I guess more Policeman have to die before the sheep calls in the Military.

The Military knows that. It should be their job, as it is an external threat, they are equipped and trained for this. I am sure any soldier worth his salt is raring to go. This should be handled by the 5th Brigade Commander without sparing all the niceties. In fact there is a Tank Regiment in Kota Belud, that would make it all the more easier, minimizing the Malaysian casualties and maximizing casualties amongst the Sulu pirates. We can even use the FGA’s located in Labuan. A couple of sorties with them, followed by a mortar and artillery barrage, would be nice. After which the Infantry mounted in Stormers, accompanied by tanks can finish the job. We should use these assets which are there, instead of throwing away the lives of our brave Malaysian men.

But thankfully all that nonsense that went on for 3-odd weeks (which was way too long to be dealing with a foreign force claiming a stake of the country and asking everyone to buzz off) ended when Najib called in the military and told the intruders that there is only one way out for them – unconditional surrender.

First there was the surgical bombing using laser guided bombs using the F/A 18 jet fighters and BAe 200 Hawks and then pounding of the area with artillery to clear the area for the police and the armed forces to move in and do their mopping and search mission and with that managed to stop further casualties and in the same process managed to kill off up to 52 of the armed intruders and x number of arrested/caught. More battalions were moved up to Sabah and the naval blockade tighten to prevent more intrusion from taking place. And more recently Najib also issued orders the set up of special security areas to maintain high military presence – it makes a lot of sense, we do not want another wave of intrusion taking place soon after we had finished with the clean up of the current intrusion.

The fact that we are getting more of the intruders dead or caught whilst at the same time suffering no causalities of our own simply points that we are doing the right thing at the moment. But there is still room for improvement and lesson to be learned when it comes to dealing with foreign armed intrusion.

The obvious one would be the role of the military and the police in dealing with such armed intrusion? Semantics aside (one may argue that it is still considered as an internal affair and that is why we have the police in the lead), we would not seem a positive improvement to the armed intrusion stand-off if the military (with all due respect to the brave & skilled police commandos who had endangered themselves for the country and still fighting in the front-line) have not move in with their powerful assets in land, sky and sea. It is clear that there is a confusion as who to take the lead when such incidents happened (which may have explained the 3 weeks delay nonsense) – on whether the Home Ministry or the Defence Ministry should take charge.

In this instance, the answer is crystal clear – the police may come in to cordon the area and negotiate with the intruders to surrender themselves but once the order has been issued to wipe the Sulu terrorists, they should have fallen back and leave the military to do their job. Press releases thereafter should only come from the Chief of the Armed Forces, Gen Tan Sri Zulkifeli Mohd Zin or in some instances from the Defence Minister or the Prime Minister. The police will still have vital role to play with maintaining rule of order in other areas (they still have their normal policing work to do), with forensics of the dead bodies and to interrogate & process those who have been caught (and already cleared as not holding any vital information to the on-going military mission) by the military.

It will be even better if politicians with limited knowledge of military tactics and skills stay clear from the on-going military exercise and leave it to the experts to get the job done. This kind of confusion needs to be cleared before we face a similar intrusion in the future (although we hope this would be the last one). The amount of confusion (and unfounded rumours) generated at the first 3 weeks of the intrusion (and no thanks to strict media blackout) is simply astonishing.

Then we have this – one that well observed by Capt (Rtd) Hussaini Abdul Karim above and another by Singaporean former defence correspondent:-

During the three-week long standoff against a force which claims has 200 gunmen and even after blood was shed, Malaysians deployed for security duty do not seem to care much for their personal protection. Body amour is rarely seen.

When worn by some officers, the body amour appears to be of the soft body amour type which is not designed to withstand full metal jacket projectiles discharged from firearms or mortar rounds. Headgear in the form of ballistic helmets is almost never worn. And let’s not even go into protective eye wear like goggles.

(Source)

The American foot soldier in the Iraq and Afghanistan theatre of war complained the same thing at the initial start of the battle – the lack of body amour when facing a more determined insurgents and when the body counts started to rise, it took some time for the Government to act before the troops on the ground getting the right body armour. Coming back to the scenario in Lahad Datu, due to the media blackout and lack of details on the actual mission on the ground, it is possible that those in the front-line are actually have the right body armor but then if what we see on the news and media is reflective of what is our troops are using to face the heavily armed intruders, we need to revisit this if we are going to face a more sophisticated and trained foreign troops (remember, everyone with military interest in the region is looking at us on our tactics and state of readiness).

And finally there is a small incident of the media in Philippines (quoting their military intelligence) tying the culprits behind the armed intrusion with an opposition party in Malaysia. Utusan and TV3 (given this sweetener) wasted little time and jumped the gun and named Anwar was the one. I don’t think any Malaysian in their right mind (more so a leading politician at the time of general elections) would be dared to do that because it meant high treason and rightfully Anwar have denied the same and is now suing Utusan & TV3 for RM100 million for gross defamation. He should now raise the same concern to the same Philippines media and should demand them to name the opposition politicians. After all, Anwar is the Opposition Leader in the Parliament and any implication of the opposition with the armed intrusion (even if the media there did not name any names) is the last thing that the Pakatan wants at the moment. He should get this thing done and over now instead of just waiting out for the defamation suit trial date which will come over after the general elections.

In the meantime, whilst the rest of us would be looking forward to spend our time with our families on the weekend, our prayers and hopes remains entrenched with our security forces in Sabah to bring the armed intrusion to a swift end and without any casualities.

Related articles

And God Strikes Back!

by

Just a quick one before I am off for the holidays…

(It was good to see a very familiar face at the helm of, surprisingly a public demo – perhaps it was high time to learn a thing or two on public demo from Hindraf and Bersih. Unfortunately this was done before it was revealed that it was BN and not Pakatan who approved the development plans. It then turned to be a comedy piece from there onwards)

Happy belated Deepavali and happy holidays to all and since we are on the subject of religion & culture, let me tell you a story.

A long time ago or rather more than 100 years old someone “discovered” Batu Caves and decided to open a temple in one of the caves (thank God that no one lives in caves these days; otherwise we would have another cow-head incident). And over all those years, this temple have grown bigger, more organised and became one of the “must have” place for the Hindus in this country to visit and pray – more so during Thaipusam. And it has been so for damn good years until the 2012 when someone discovered that a private developer is going to build a 29 storey condominium project near the temple and started to make some noise. Religion fanatics, opportunists and issue-hunger politicians then decided to put their 2-cents words and squarely blamed the State Government and demanded that the project to be scrapped otherwise to face the wrath of the Indian community (hoo, are you scared now?) and legal suits. After all, Batu Caves is in Selangor and election is just around the corner – so who want to miss this rare opportunity to create some “inconveniences” to the State Government? Well they tried with the water issue and then with the Talam issue but nothing much happened, so this is not so surprising.

Former MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu spearheaded today a demonstration at the Batu Caves Hindu temple, objecting to the construction of a 29-storey condominium project, in what is seen as a bid to pressure the Selangor Pakatan Rakyat (PR) administration ahead of the 13th general election.

The former works minister accused the Selayang Municipal Council (MPS) of having approved the construction project without a proper study. He said legal action could be taken against the council.

“This project is not planned properly and without referring to any professional party,” Samy Vellu told a 300-strong crowd of Hindus and non-governmental activists who had turned up at the famous temple complex this morning to protest the condominium construction, saying the work was an environmental risk and would jeopardise the temple grounds.

(Source)

More accusations flew in the media and the long-lost political party readied themselves to come out from the political wilderness and to champion this great “danger” to the rights of the community. It is not a big secret that some Indians (there’s one in every community) are quite passionate (and brainless) when it comes to religion and any intrusion to their turf (despite having too many unregistered temples at the same place) and how the destruction of temples in Selangor was one of the key factor for the swing of Indian votes to Pakatan in 2008. The plan on paper was rather simple – highlight the great “danger” to the temple due to the development so to “unite” Indians from both divides, give a final option to the Pakatan led Government (well knowing that Pakatan Government cannot keep due to obvious legal implications and short of time) and once that deadline is passed, accuse Pakatan of selling out the Indians in the State and tell the Indians that the ONLY way out from the mess is to vote Pakatan out from the State (as predicted, with the usual I help you, you help me kind of pre-election promises thrown in for good measures).

Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has given the assurance that Barisan Nasional will stop the controversial 29-storey condominium project in Batu Caves if it regains power in Selangor.

In making this promise, the Prime Minister said Batu Caves is a revered and respected site among the Hindu community in the country and worldwide. “I give you my assurance that if Barisan takes over Selangor, we will cancel this project.

“We do not want development of the surrounding area to pose a threat to this place,” he said at the MIC Deepavali open house held at the Batu Caves temple complex. The Prime Minister also said the Cabinet had decided to submit an application to Unesco for Batu Caves to be considered a World Heritage Site.

(Source)

Of course, during this chaos, the so-called community champions will conveniently forget some key questions – why no demonstration and objections when the development was approved back in 2007? It was not like they were kept in the dark. Why nothing was done in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011? Why nothing was done in the first few months of 2012? Why only now the Federal Government has plans to apply Unesco World Heritage Site status despite for donkey odd years BN ruled Selangor? Why only now Batu Caves is “deemed” a revered and respected site among the Hindu community in the country and worldwide? And doesn’t the World Heritage Site status irrespective of who govern the State is good for Malaysia (and the Indian community) as whole?

Of course, none of these questions would be made and heavily discussed in public by the same champions but the condemnation and accusations against the Pakatan led State Government will continue, hoping the Indian community will fail to see the bigger picture and will swallow whatever that is dished out by the crusaders of the community as the gospel truth.

Apparently God has been watching this for some time now and decided that the whack way back in 2008 was not enough. Nothing much has changed since then, nothing much is likely to change in the near future. He decided to throw in the spanner into the woodwork – just for the fun of it.

Its official – all 19 members who attended the full board meeting of the Selayang Municipal Council voted in favour of approving the Dolomite Avenue Park project in Batu Caves in 2007. Despite earlier denials and assertions by some councillors that they were neither party nor privy to the approval process, minutes of the meeting held on Nov 29, 2007 – obtained by theSun – show otherwise.

Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Datuk A. Kohilan Pillai, who was a councillor between 1997 and 2008, had voted in favour of the project. So did the three councillors from the MIC – Rajakupal Sinnathamby, Jayakumaran Govindasamy and Rajandran Muniandy.

(Source)

Wonder who is having the last laugh now? It was interesting to see how the same crusaders and the 300 odd demonstrators are going to spin themselves out of this new found truth. Many thanks to good sensible journalism by theSun, we now know that out of the 19 fellows who approved the development way back in 2007 (before Pakatan came in power),  THREE were MIC councillors and also included Gerakan’s Kohilan Pillai.

As much as Kohilan must be given a chance to give his side of the story, equally important is that he gives plausible explanations.

Are we to assume that the Selayang council at one time or the other operated like a “secret society” keeping vital information away from the residents? Are we to assume that minutes are not recorded accurately? Are we to assume that the minute-taker took it upon himself or herself to “censor” the proceedings and only showed the “good side” of the council reflecting the buddy-buddy working relationship of councillors with no dissent? Are we to assume minutes of council meetings are nothing but pieces of formalities to record what had been previously agreed upon?

Something is certainly fishy. So many questions remain unanswered. The most important is: Why did the council, including its president and the councillors, defy the views of the Department of Environment which stated that development would cause imminent danger to the nearby limestone hills? Enough of pussy-footing. Let’s have some straight answers.

(Source)

In the end this is a story of how some people screwed themselves left, right and center. In the meantime, enjoy the up-coming wayang kulits and a string of memory lapses as the Pakatan State Government gets their hands into the mess left behind by the same community crusaders. Happy holidays to all.

Political Public Fund Managers

by

Update 1: The advertisement below lists the criteria for the RM180 million fund

Back to the original post

There has to be a better way to manage our limited resources and public funds, right?

(How true! Sometime we forget that the money we get is actually from our own pockets and to make things worse, some of it ends up in the politicians’ pockets as well. Image source: http://www.sodahead.com)

First read this:-

MIC President Datuk Seri G. Palanivel has been given the task of managing a RM180mil special government allocation meant to help Indian entrepreneurs. The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department said the decision for him to take charge of small and medium enterprise (SME) projects for Indians was made by the Cabinet last week.

“The RM180mil fund is intended to assist all segments of Indian entrepreneurs, including micro-enterprises,” Palanivel told a press conference yesterday after handing out cheques to recipients of Community Builders Foundation (CBF) pre-schoolers aid. He said his responsibility would be to monitor the loan applications as well as engage with the public.

“This is to ensure that genuine and deserving Indian entrepreneurs have access to finance to grow their business,” he said, adding that those interested to apply should contact SME Corporation Malaysia.

(Source)

In 2010, as part of reforms to be implemented by the Najib’s Administration, the Government introduced the Transformation Programme to address 7 key areas concerning the people of the country. They should have added one more – Elimination of Unwanted Political Hands on Tax-Payers Money.

I know it is not the first time we are reading these kind of nonsense in the papers but one need to ask why in the world, the Government want to trust millions of ringgit of taxpayers’ money to a political party to “manage it” when we already have a more effective of doing it by using the various departments of the Government? How can one be held accountable for the money managed? Yes, one may ask what’s new in Malaysia – the abuse of tax-payers funds have been going on for many, many years now. True I say but then again, for how long we want to allow this to go on where public funds somehow ends up as political party’s personal fund.

Same case here with the RM180 million fund – no doubt the final handling of the fund may be done via SME Corp (or some agencies or NGOs who has the proper resources, logistics and professional fund managers) but why the need for middle man for the so-call management of the funds? If it is an act of public relationship (in view of the general elections – i.e. to show that MIC is relevant and takes care of the community), how certain we are that:-

  1. All of the funds allocated by the Government will end up in real entrepreneurs’ pockets and not siphoned off under the disguise of administration charges and commission or phony entrepreneurs or worse – as personal funds for the up-coming elections and shopping? Remember that all these money comes from the tax-payers fund and must be held accountable for every cents used; AND
  2. Whether all the funds will be disbursed regardless of the political stand of those who need the funds? We have heard cases in the past where opposition supporters have been denied to certain benefits even though they are entitled to. With MIC behind the manager’s seat, will they be professional enough to ensure dirty politics and political affiliations biasness stays out from the management of the funds?

This is because allegations of abuse of public funds by politicians or the manner in which the said money was disbursed have surfaced before:-

PKR today claimed that public money meant to fund activities of the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry has been channelled to pay for the activities of Wanita Umno . PKR Wanita chief Zuraidah Kamaruddin today said the funds were channelled to the Council of Women and Family Development under the ministry.

The council was established in 2001 during the tenure of Shahrizat Abdul Jalil as its minister. Shahrizat is also the Wanita Umno chief. According to Zuraidah, the council was initially made up of women state executive council (exco) members nationally. But she claimed that over time the membership of the council has been hijacked by Wanita Umno.

(Source)

And;

The government has promised millions of ringgit to upgrade Tamil schools in the country but one question still remains. Would the millions really be spent on the reconstruction of these schools or would it go to crony contractors; or be channeled back to the government? The lack of transparency in releasing the funds had raised heckles from non-governmental organisations, who wanted a system to streamline funds to ensure it reached the “target” group fast.

He said going by these estimates, in actual fact the government would only complete work amounting to RM33 million out of the RM100 million set aside under the 2012 Budget. “This is because the relevant authorities especially JKR has quoted three-fold prices. While work will be done for RM35 million, the remainder of the allocation will either go back to the government or into the pockets of contractors or cronies given the contracts,” he added.

(Source)

And whilst the “how” and “who” is being worked out, there is another question need to be considered – how and when MIC (or any other political party) will be involved in the management of the funds? Are they going to be the decision makers on who will get what? Are they going to be just managers on paper (for publicity sake) but the real work will be done by professional fund managers?

I am not accusing anything here but we want to know how MIC as the “managers of the fund” is going to ensure that the tax-payers money will be used for the right reasons and for the right persons. This is because whilst the objective and the creation of the RM180 million special fund is welcomed but the manner it will be disbursed and monitored may leave rooms for abuse and for that, we need to ask if we have the best practices in place to manage and deal with public funds? Have we addressed the shortcomings, plugged the leakages and improve on the end delivery in accordance to the objectives that it was intended to? And we should start by not allowing any politicians from one side of the political divide managing these public funds.

And whilst we have been talking about the management of existing funds, Rafizi Ramli from PKR raised another interesting point – where does the Government gets all the money for these ad-hoc funds? Certainly some of these ad-hoc funds has not been budgeted for in the last Budget presentation in the Parliament so where does these allocations are coming from?-

PKR’s Rafizi Ramli today slammed the prime minister for his heavy “vote-buying” spending of RM5.77 billion, saying that the money comes from taxpayers. Rafizi said the loss of yearly revenue from Pakatan Rakyat’s (PR) proposed car tax cuts would be eclipsed by Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s unplanned spending.

“(T)he total sweets simply used by the prime minister in just the first six months (of this year) to buy the people’s votes is RM5.77 billion,” said Rafizi at a press conference today. He based his calculations by adding up the RM2.2 billion civil service bonus recently announced and various “one-off” spending by Najib’s administration which he claimed had reached RM3.57 billion. Under the RM3.57 billion “unplanned spending”, he gave examples of the Bantuan Rakyat 1 Malaysia (BR1M), Bantuan Kembali Ke Sekolah 1 Malaysia and Bantuan Buku 1 Malaysia. He said these schemes respectively cost the government RM2.6 billion, RM530 million and RM260 million.

He also referred to “various schemes to buy votes under the 1 Malaysia brand, and various announcements of “instant noodle projects” throughout the Jelajah Janji Ditepati (Promises Fulfilled Tour) estimated to reach RM180 million.”

(Source)

Considering the amount of money being spent on ad-hoc funds and being passed into the hands of politicians to manage the said fund, we are left to wonder when this nonsense will stop especially when same group of people who have doing this nonsense are bent on bringing in 2 pandas and pay millions for their up-keeping (for more interesting insight, read this as well – “15 Silliest Uses of Taxpayers Money“). We need more control and we need it to be done on an urgent basis before we end up bankrupting the country with unnecessary expenses and leakages of public funds.

Related articles

GE 13: DAP’s Early Irreplaceable Loss?

by

Gosh, I hope DAP have not scored their own goal…

(I am not sure which one is more damaging – a senior politician resigning from the party due to opnion difference or a group of old ex-soldiers doing a butt “exercise” in front of Ambiga’s house. Image source: NST)

Read this:-

PETALING JAYA: Senator Tunku Abdul Aziz Tunku Ibrahim has announced his resignation from the DAP, citing “irreconcilable differences” with the party leadership. His resignation comes days after his criticism of the recent Bersih 3.0 rally and the announcement that his senatorship, which ends on May 31, would not be renewed.

During an interview aired on NTV7 last night, the party vice-chairman said he would advise the DAP of his resignation “within the next few minutes”.

“I think the time has come for me to take a hard, very serious look at my own position within the party. Given the very wide differences now, which are irreconcilable, there is no alternative but for me to seek to withdraw, with some dignity left. “I will therefore resign my membership from DAP and I will be advising the party within the next few minutes,” he said.

A man of strong principles, Tunku Aziz is among the few Malays who joined the Chinese-dominated party and was immediately made a DAP vice-chairman. In 2009, he was nominated as a senator for Penang.

Tunku Aziz said he had already been warned by friends and colleagues to be prepared to be sacked.

(Source)

From the start, I have been very supportive of the opposition in this country for a simple reason – without them, you can kiss goodbye to rule of law, enforcement of human-rights, abolishment of double standard and better governance in this country. You know how things went before 2008 when arrogance and abuse of power & trust ruled the day. And since 2008 (thanks to BERSIH 1.0 and Hindraf rallies coupled with the general feeling of frustration even at BN level) the opposition got just a bit stronger with the capture of 2 important states (at one point we had 3) and denying BN the two-third in Parliament and things have improved somehow. It is not perfect though – there are still areas where both BN and PR need to work especially on national unity and governance.

But still, you get this strong feeling that despite capturing 2 states and making a stronger impact in the Parliament, the opposition has not matured enough to handle valid criticisms and dissenting voices within the party tactfully. Yes, there is dissenting voices within the opposition parties especially within PKR in the past – not all made in the best interest of the people but when it is, they either do it openly in the public – throwing mud at each other at the expense of the party image, ideal principles and the public trusts or they simply indirectly force the other resign or to keep their mouth shut. It seems to have affected DAP as well now

Tunku Abdul Aziz Tunku Ibrahim was one of the few politicians who had the right charisma and conviction on what need to be done right in this country (the other is Tengku Razaleigh) – after all, he was one of the founders of Transparency International-Malaysia (an NGO that monitors and publicizes corporate and political corruption). And just because he did not agree on breaking the law to have street protests which did not go along with the hard-cores in the party, he was heckled and abused to the extent of he gracefully resign from the political party.

Perhaps the cause for resignation could have been due to some other reasons which is not made known to all (some are saying that DAP forced the resignation, others are saying that Tunku decided to resign on his own free will) but still, the resignation of a respectable politician from DAP could not have come at the worst time for the DAP and the opposition even if DAP is not in the wrong.

It is apparent now that DAP is doing a serious damage control whilst the pro-BN bloggers and media is having a field day (a massive one with some even bordering stupidity) painting DAP as just another Chinese chauvinist party or a party who dislikes dissenting voices (with the elections just around the corner, who wouldn’t?).

It’s good that Lim Guan Eng was quick to make the statement that DAP still needs Tunku but they not only need to only show that they are sincere in calling Tunku to reconsider his resignation but also that they are matured even to accept and consider valid dissenting views positively (valid and not the usual stupid ones like this). This is necessary if they want to show that it is truly a multi culture, multi race political party. This could be easier said than done for DAP considering now Tunku is unlikely to heed Lim Guan Eng’s appeal to reconsider his resignation – not when he had said this:-

Tunku Aziz Tunku Ibrahim has openly attacked Lim Guan Eng, saying he does not trust the DAP secretary-general and ending any hopes of bringing the former party vice-chairman back into the fold after his resignation on Monday. Tunku Aziz, who was the party’s most senior Malay leader, said Guan Eng “had no sense of decency and was biadap (uncouth).”

“Kit Siang and I are old friends. I trust him but his son (Guan Eng) is a different kettle of fish,” he told The Star in an interview published today, referring to DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang.

(Source)

Strong words indeed from the ex-DAP man (very damaging to PR and another bullet for BN to shoot on PR’s creditability). What is done is done and it is good that Lim Guan Eng decided not to retaliate these strong words – there is no point trying to pacify those have decided to resign and moved on but continued the personal attacks on the leaders and the party. The same shit happens in BN too (still remember Dr M’s attack on Pak Lah?) and expect more with elections around the corner.

And considering the whole country is readying for the next general elections and when BN is determined to win back the key lost states of Penang and Selangor and have recently gained substantial grounds, it is hoped that the opposition treads more carefully when it comes to address political issues in and out of the party. Calling Lim Guan Eng biadap may have cause some dents on DAP’s stronghold in Penang.

It is not as bad as some dumb “ex-soldiers” doing a butt exercise but still a bad publicity is the last thing we need now. I just hope that the party have learned their lessons and act wiser next time – Tunku has decided to resign and nothing much DAP can do about it – it’s time for them to move on and focus on more important things.

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta