PKR's Ansari,Edmund's widow,Teck Lee in thrilling Batu Sapi fight

Malaysia Chronicle

SANDAKAN - Pakatan Rakyat has named lawyer Ansari Abdullah as its candidate for the Batu Sapi by-election, while BN's PBS raised eyebrows by naming the widow of the late Edmund Chong as its candidate.

Former Sabah chief minister Yong Teck Lee of SAPP has already declared his intention to join the contest.

Sunday's announcements complete the three key figures battling for the seat left vacant by Edmund, who was killed in a bike accident earlier this month. It also sets the stage for a thrilling fight in what had initially been believed would be a predictable walkover for the PBS.

AnsariSeveral independent candidates are expected to throw their hats into the ring as the Election Commission has revealed more than 20 sets of nomination papers have been sold.

How they stack up

Ansari, a prominent lawyer, is also the Tuaran PKR division chief. Party insiders say he is a well-liked figure and regarded as being one of the fast-rising leaders in the 'new-breed' reforms-oriented movement within Sabah PKR.

As for 54-year old Linda Tsen, she is also no stranger to politics, being a vice-president and executive council member of the PBS Wanita's central leadership.

LindaHowever, political watchers say it may be too soon to hail her agreement to contest her late husband's seat as a BN coup. Although she may garner a lot of sympathy votes, it may not be enough to win in Sabah's extremely competitive political arena, they warned.

Working against her will be the flamboyant and well-seasoned Yong Teck Lee, who can be expected to mount a strong challenge for the Chinese vote! s.
PKR people believe this will boost Ansari's chances as he will not only be able to tap into the Muslim electorate, but can also count on the Pakatan's multiracial reach for support from the non-Muslims.

Yong Teck LeeThe Batu Sapi electorate is made up of 59 percent or 15,099 Muslim bumiputra, 38 percent or 9,737 Chinese, 2.69 percent or 689 non-Muslim bumiputra and 0.22 percent or 57 others.

The late Edmund was a two-term MP for Batu Sapi.

Nomination day is on Tuesday, Oct 26, while balloting is on Nov 4.

Concurrently, another by-election will be taking place in Galas, Kelantan, where the main contest will centre around PAS' Dr Zulkefli Mohamad and Umno's Abdul Aziz Yusof.
Letter & Opinion From Joe Public

Tee Keat's renewed PKFZ push sparks talk of a move to Pakatan

Tee Keat - unable to change MCA

Wong Choon Mei, Malaysia Chronicle

When former Transport minister Ong Tee Keat revealed that 4 out of the 10 questions he submitted to Parliament were directly related to the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone financial debacle, he inadvertently lit a fire of speculation that he was set to join Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim's Pakatan Rakyat soon.

“Might as well Tee Keat does it and the sooner the better. There is no role left for him in the MCA and he can serve the country and his constituents better outside of the BN, rather than be marginalized and slowly squeezed out from the party,” was among the common responses from the Chinese community.

The 54-year Tee Keat is the former MCA president, but was ousted midway through his 3-year term that began in October 2008, by his deputy Chua Soi Lek.

Indeed, the temperamental but gifted Tee Keat had exasperated Malaysian Chinese with his non-stop high-profile bickering with Soi Lek. His belligerence led to his downfall, although there is also some evidence that he was betrayed by some of the people he trusted the most, as he himself has claimed.

PKFZ and Tee Keat's ouster

Even so, Tee Keat still commands high respect for refusing to back off from exposing the PKFZ scandal and many MCA members compare him favorably against Kong Cho Ha, the new Transport minister and Soi Lek's ally. On his very first day at work in the Transport ministry, Cho Ha had already disappointed by insisting there was no need to continue the government's probe into PKFZ.

Integrated ports project, PKFZ fell to massive cost over-runs

Billed the biggest scandal in Malaysian financial history, PKFZ is a complex tale of high-level Umno-BN intrigue and corruption with the involvement of MCA leaders who allegedly fronted the project.

Despite repeated hints from Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is also Umno president, to drop the investigation, Tee Keat had stubbornly clung on. In the end, Najib took PKFZ away from the Transport ministry's charge and placed it under a special taskforce headed by the government’s Chief Secretary.

Tee Keat was slowly ousted from MCA, removed as Transport minister and his supporters cut off from influential positions.

Ling's arrest - a warning to MCA

A few months later, with Soi Lek fully ensconced in the MCA leadership, another former president Ling Liong Sik was arrested for his involvement in the PKFZ scandal. In typical fashion, the Najib administration leaked out news that Liong Sik was just the first in a series of top Umno-BN leaders to be hauled up over PKFZ. But so far, there have been no other high-profile arrests.

Ling's arrest - a warning to MCA not to expose BN scandals

“Liong Sik was arrested as a warning to MCA not to be funny or try to be too independent and raise the PKFZ issue or blow the whistle on any other BN scandal again. It was a clear reminder from Umno of who’s the boss. The whole anti-corruption thing was just a sham put out by Najib’s advisers. It may have confused the ordinary folk but I think MCA leaders are in no doubt what the message meant,” PKR strategic director Tian Chua toldMalaysia Chronicle.

Not surprising then, the MCA grapevine has been buzzing with talk that Liong Sik, who still wields significant influence, is extremely upset with Tee Keat. Meanwhile, MCA watchers say Soi Lek - who has always been on bad terms with Tee Keat - is also eager to shut the door on his nemesis once and for all.

They believe that the MCA leadership will not select Tee Keat to stand for Pandan or any other seat in the coming general election. He has been the Pandan Member of Parliament since 2004, and before that was MP for Ampang Jaya for 4 consecutive terms.

Given the MCA's dismal electoral performance in the March 2008 general election and its failure to reform and re-brand itself, pundits say Tee Keat would have a much better chance of retaining the Pandan seat if he competed under a Pakatan ticket rather than a BN one.

Najib kena fvcked by Niamah

I am Malaysian

from Niamah!!! by patrickteoh

I am Malaysian and proud of it!

Deputy Prime Minister, Muhyiddin Yassin, at the Umno general assembly, proudly announced......

"My late father was Bugis.My late mother was a Javanese. I am Malay."

After reading that I thought I would join in the light-hearted exchange by declaring......

"My late father was born in Malaya. My late mother was from China. I am Malaysian!"

Come on, join the fun. Shout it out! Be proud. And be part of the Malaysian root.

Niamah!!!

Video: Tender Process Only Benefits Cronies (Shah Alam Hospital)

from Khalid Samad

Khalid Samad (PAS-Shah Alam) queried the government for refusing to take up the offer from the main contractor of the Shah Alam Hospital to complete the controversial RM482 million project.

He said GM Healthcare, which was engaged by developer Sunshine Fleet as the main contractor of the project, had offered to complete the project within 18 months with a RM3 million discount on the project cost.

Video courtesy of Malaysiakini
-Pejabat YB Khalid Samad-
www.khalidsamad.com

Video: 100-Storey Tower

from Khalid Samad

Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and YB Khalid Samad, the PAS MP for Shah Alam spoke at Keadilan dinner held in Penang on 22 October, 2010. Both of them questioned the need to build the 100-storey tower.

MP Khalid also illustrated to the audience the cost of maintaining the building and used the Petronas 88-storey twin buildings as an example.

Has Bako land issue become a hot potato?

NEWS ANALYSIS Recent allegations by disgruntled land owners of "unfair compensaton" following land acquisition by the Sarawak state government in the Bako area are raising temperature with elections around the corner.

Common Law practice in equity demands that owners of land should be compensated fairly if the state acquires it for one reason or other, including for development purposes.

Recently, land owners have alleged that this has not been practised where the Sarawak state government is concern. For example, 3,000 acres of 437 parcels of land were being acquired at Bako, 37km from Kuching.

In Sarawak, it is common for state lands, Native Customary Lands (NCR), and even private lands, to be taken with minimal compensation or none at all, at times under its common laws.

The majority of the land owners at Bako whose lands were acquired are not giving it away on a silver platter. Most are willing to fight for a fair compensation.

Most of the land owners are middle class Chinese from all over with the majority from Kuching and Sibu. Many are professionals, with a number of them working overseas.

The land acquisition only come to light in September when notices were sent to land owners to attend enquiry meetings in stages. Furious land owners made a beeline to the DAP headquarters seeking justice.

Over 200 of disgruntled land owners have grouped together and formed committees in each main cities to have an easier way of networking with each other.

A DAP team led by state assemblyman Chong Chieng Jen, which included state assemblywoman for Pending, Violet Yong, and Stampin secretary, Wong King Wei, gave legal advice to the group who had started off by signing a petition to the Chief Minister and sent copies to all the 71 state assembly representatives ! in Saraw ak.

The first batch of enquiry at the Land Office started on Oct 4 with many of them returning home unhappy with the compensation, which ranged between RM40,000 to RM80,000 per acre.

Chong, calling the state government a bully, said people invested in lands which were supposed to yield higher price in the future, but in Sarawak, people are losing out on this investment.

He said the state government in acquiring the 3,000 acres had never stated their intention of what they wanted to do with the land. He said it is similar to the cases of taking state lands or NCR lands under the disguise of development before giving them to private cronies and companies for commercial purposes.

In meetings with the land owners which were mostly loud and angry, all sort of names were hurled at the state government, from "daylight robbery" to unprintable names.

A number of land owners were unhappy with some SUPP leaders, who had told them to accept the compensation awarded.

Chong said if SUPP President George Chan (right) had not staged a walkout in the Dewan sitting last May when he was about to move a motion on the Land Law Reforms, this (he said of the acquisition) would not have happened.

He said George had assured through the media that he would solve the Bako land issues but it appeared that solving means asking the land owners to accept the minimal compensation.

All the land owners, over 200 of them who gathered for the meeting at the DAP headquarters recently, had a sad tale to tell. Many spoke of the "blood and sweat" money they toil to invest for their old age, or to use the land as a collateral for their childrens education.

A pensioner Ting, who would be 70 by year end, said he worked hard to buy a few acres of land. The land I bought with my hard work today came to nothing. I bought an acre for ! RM120,00 0 and now they want to compensate me with RM80,000. What is this," he said in exasperation.

Wong Pak Wun, who is in his 40s, and currently working in Australia, flew all the way back after being told by his mother that his four and half acres of land has been acquired.

Wong said all over the world, people invested in land for the sole purpose of getting good financial returns except in Sarawak where its a different story.

He told of how he toiled for 14 years in the United States and after being repeatedly asked by his mother to return home, he took out 90% of his savings to invest in the land.

He was told by the surveyor that each acre of his land would cost between RM200,000 to RM250,000. To be paid a mere amount of RM40,000 or even RM60,000, it just blew my mind away, he said shaking his head.

Wong had since returned to Australia, where he has built his home, and has asked his mother to join him. He said his mother had in the past, wanted to stay on in Sibu as it was her hometown and where she grew up.

With all the happenings in Malaysia, from corruption to robbing the ordinary people, even my mother is now willing to uproot herself and set home elsewhere, said Wong.

Stating that he would be willing to take a lower amount if the government were to build schools, hospitals or public facilities, Wong said the worst is that the land would be given to cronies for commercial purpose.

Then count me in. I am ready to be involved in any commercial development. Afterall, the land is mine, he added.

To add salt to the wound, three land owners at Bako discovered that their parcel of land was issued to different owners.

Violet, who helped the trio to sort out their predicament, said Ong Teck Chuk, Ong Siew Lan, and Ong Teck Eng bought the three acres of land in 1974 from one Salleh bin Gama.

When the Bako issue was highlighted, the Ongs went to the Land Office to do a search, but were shocked to find out that their land belonged to three! other o wners. The Ongs title was under Occupation Ticket, which will expire in 2014, while the new owners were given perpetuity title.

While the Ongs had never failed to pay their yearly quit rent of RM212, the new owners are incredibly paying only RM8.

Violet blasted the Land and Survey for the discrepancy and believed that this was not the only case. "Imagine the anguish the owners are going through. They have lost much in the investment and now they are fearful of their lands being 'sold' without their knowledge.

It looks like there is some hanky panky going on. How come the same plot of land could be given to two sets of different owners who were both paying annual quit rent. This goes to show how inefficient the Land and Survey is, she stated.

She said the Enquiry for the land owners would be on Oct 26 and despite this, the Ongs have never received any notices. A police report has been lodged and the matter had also been brought to the attention of the Land Office.

When asked, George said SUPP understands the feelings of the Bako land owners in wanting a fair deal and would welcome them to see him if they want.

He said the actual price of the land cannot be determined until an evaluation has been done.

Chan also hit out at the DAP and said a dialogue session can be arranged to meet the land owners.

In the latest development, the chairman of the Bako land pro tem committee, Ting Hwa Ling, claimed Sayturday that Chan had promised to help their members fight for higher compensation.

Ting said he and several landowners met the SUPP president at the party HQ. He said they told Chan that the reasonable compensation price should range from $150,000 to $200,000 per acre, depending on the location.

In the final analysis, what has started as a legal problem has finally turned into something of a political issue. The political leaders of the state should therefore realise the political, economic and social implications if this issue is not resolve! d to the satisfaction of all parties.

From a political angle, the dissatisfaction which has surfaced will no doubt make those frustrated by their dissatisfaction over the compensation issue to turn against the government in general, and the SUPP in particular.

The fact that the unhappy landowners have approached the DAP is a clear indication of this manifestation.

From an economic angle, those planning to invest in the state, particularly in land, will now think twice, knowing that their future expected income will not be as lucrative as they may have thought. If this trend persists, then those who have made their fortune overseas in their youth will not plan to return, causing not only further brain drain, but a loss in financial resources to the state.

The social implication should also be looked into by present and future leaders, particularly those who intend to hold to power and their expected supporters are from the Chinese community. The ruling parties will not be seen as "people friendly" and this attitude will be further taken advantage of by the opposition.

If the problem persists, one would prudently conclude to claim to know where the Chinese votes will go in the next elections. Malaysian Mirror
Letter & Opinion From Joe Public

Ronnie Liu’s team loses in Klang DAP divisional polls

By A.Letchumanan, The Star

PETALING JAYA: A group aligned with Selangor DAP strongman Ronnie Liu suffered an embarrassing defeat when they lost their bid for the various posts during the Klang DAP divisional election at Pusat Sukan Pandamaran in Klang on Sunday.
Liu's proxy, Ang Leng Kiat only garnered 46 votes while his opponent, Ivan Ho received 93 votes for the division chairman's post.

Instead, a group calling themselves Justice Reform Group aligned to Selangor state legislative assembly speaker Teng Chang Khim and sacked Selangor DAP organising secretary Tee Boon Hock, who was also the former Klang division chairman, swept the posts. Ho was part of the winning team.

Ang's defeat is a great blow to Liu, who is aligned with DAP secretary general Lim Guan Eng, who tried to gain control of the division held by his confidante-turned rival Tee.

Ho's team also swept the posts of deputy chairman, vice chairman, secretary, assistant secretary, treasurer, politial secretary, organising secretary, political education, woman leader and three committee member.

A total of 140 delegates attended the meeting.

The Justice Reform Group has also swept the Petaling Jaya Utara, Kuala Langat and Puchong divisions to strengthen themselves for the Selangor DAP elections on Nov 28.

A DAP official said the win in Klang Division clearly showed the strong influence wielded by Tee in the Klang division.

He said a resolution was also passed urging the National DAP leadership to reinstate Tee's membership in the party.

There has been a great interest in the divisional elections in Selangor after Tee, a special assistant to Liu was sacked from DAP for allegedly misusing a Selangor exco members letterhead.

Tee, who was also sacked as Klang Municipal Councillor, had appealed against the sacking but the DAP central executive committee had upheld the decision.

The committee, which was chaired by Cheras MP Tan Kok Wai, also severely reprimanded Liu over the letterhead controversy.

Last week, Kampung Tunku state assemblyman Lau Weng San lost to veteran James Ooi for the PJ Utara chairman’s post in a keenly fought contest.

Ooi, who is the incumbent, garnered 30 votes to edge out Lau who received two votes less. PJ Utara MP Tony Pua who lost to Ooi in the last election, did not contest but backed Lau, who is also the state DAP secretary.

A DAP official said Ooi’s group swept all the positions except for a vice chairman post which Lau got in on a single vote majority in PJ Utara division.

He said dropped Petaling Jaya councillor Michael Soon, was elected as the division secretary while Selangor DAP publicity secretary Tiew Wai Keng who stood on Lau’s ticket, lost by seven votes to Chris Chu for the organizing secretary’s post.

In Kuala Langat, Teluk Datuk state assemblyman Philip Lim took a severe beating as he only managed 22 votes while his opponent Low Chai Yong received 51 votes for the division chief post.

This is the first time that an election has been held in Kuala Langat as the protem committee was only set up in April last year.

MCA is actually right

Let’s hope I don’t get to say ‘I told you so’ after the Galas and Batu Sapi by-elections. Let’s hope the opposition, for once, gets to prove me wrong. I would love to be proven wrong and having to eat my words once the by-election results are in.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

MCA's Wee says Chinese in Galas "actually don't like" Pakatan

(Bernama) - MCA Youth chief Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong is convinced that voters in the Galas state constituency, particularly the Chinese community, are not easily influenced by the tactics employed by the opposition.

Dr Wee, who is also the Deputy Education Minister, said the Chinese voters were now more mature in choosing leaders in their constituency.

"The Chinese community has made a clear stand that they actually don't like the opposition (PAS) because the party had never been concerned before and had never visited them to give any assistance.”

"The situation is so different with the Barisan Nasional (BN) and MCA leaders showing interest on their living condition and giving immediate aid if necessary," he told reporters after visiting Chinese homes in Kampung Baru, here Saturday.

As such, Dr Wee said the MCA machinery would continue to monitor the tactics of the opposition who tried to incite the Chinese voters to the extent of affecting racial harmony.

The by-election for the Galas state constituency seat is being held on Nov 4 following the death of the incumbent (PAS) assemblyman Chek Hashim Sulaima who died on Sept 27.

*********************************************

What the MCA Youth chief said is actually quite true. And when the government leaders say something that is true we should admit so and not disagree with them just because they stand on the opposite side of the political fence. The Chinese from the three villages in the Galas constituency are very angry with the state government. And this anger has been there for some years now.

The state normally appoints the ketua kampung or village heads as well as the local councillors -- as there are no local council elections as what we from the civil society movements would like to see. Most times these village or council heads would be cronies of those in power. That is sort of how politicians reward their supporters -- by giving them positions in the local councils and villages.

But these Chinese heads of the villages have been behaving like Little Napoleons or warlords (taiko in Chinese). And they have been bullying the Chinese villagers.

For example, in one incident, the Chinese villagers had applied for a piece of land to build their temple. However, since that land is a very nice piece of land the Chinese village head hijacked it for his holiday resort. This has of course angered the Chinese villagers.

Complaints have been made to the state, in particular to Husam Musa, but no action was taken and these gangster village heads continue to terrorise the Chinese villagers. So now it is payback time. The villagers are going to teach the state a lesson by voting for Umno -- whereas it was the Chinese votes that gave that Galas seat to the opposition in the last election.

Then we have the significant number of Orang Asli voters who are very angry that the local council demolished their church and still refuses to allow them to rebuild it even though the court has ruled in favour of the church. No doubt it was the local council that did this and not the state government. However, since the local councillors are selected by the state and not voted into office, the Orang Asli blame the state government.

And this matter is still unresolved. So the Orang Asli may want to teach PAS a lesson by voting for Umno.

Can PAS win the Galas by-election? With Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, the taiko of Gua Musang, leading the charge (which means the Malay votes are in jeopardy) and with the Orang Asli and Chinese both angry with the state, it will be an uphill battle for PAS. And maybe it is good they lose this by-election or else they will not listen when we tell them of the problems on the ground. They will go on thinking that they need not listen to us since they and not us are the politicians (so they know better).

Of course, it is not too late to salvage things but PAS will need to bend over backwards if they want to win back the support of the Orang Asli and Chinese. And, considering that the Malay votes are in jeopardy, it is either they win back the support of the Orang Asli and Chinese or else they will lose the by-election.

The Batu Sapi by-election in Sabah is not any better for the opposition. With a one-to-one contest it is already difficult to beat PBS, especially when the widow of the late candidate is contesting the seat. But in a three-corner fight it will be plain sailing for PBS/Barisan Nasional.

The situation is so hopeless that there are some in DAP who are saying they had better not waste their time by going to Sabah. BN is going to win anyway. Yong Teck Lee of SAPP is going to grab the Chinese votes while Ansari Abdullah of PKR is going to grab the Malay votes. But with the Chinese and Malay votes split, all PBS needs is 40% of the votes to win. And it is not that difficult to win at least 40% of the votes.

The logic of both SAPP and PKR contesting that by-election in a three-corner fight is to see who wins second place. In an election, winning second place means losing because only number one counts. So what is the novelty of winning second place when second place is a loser just like third place?

This is so that they can decide who contests that seat in the coming general election. If SAPP wins more votes than PKR then SAPP will contest that seat in the next election -- and vice versa.

Okay, that may solve Batu Sapi (and I say ‘may’). But what about the 84 other seats in Sabah? There are 25 parliament and 60 state seats in Sabah. They can arrive at a formula for Batu Sapi but what formula are they going to use for the other 84 seats?

Are they also going to contest in three-corner fights in the coming general election for these other 84 seats and then decide, based on who wins number two spot, who should contest that seat come two general elections from now?

What if it is a four-corner or five-corner contest two general elections from now? SAPP and PKR can agree on the formula and shake hands on the matter (and it is only a handshake, mind you, not a sealed contract) but what is there to stop another party other than SAPP or PKR from joining the contest and, again, turning it into a three-corner fight?

This ‘gentleman’s agreement’ thing does not make sense. You can come to an agreement but you can’t control what others do. Someone can always resign from their party and contest the election as an ‘independent candidate’ like what happened back in 2004. So we shall still see a three- or four-corner fight.

The trouble is the politicians always think they know better what they are doing than those of us who ‘comment only’. But then, those of us who 'comment only' always get to say ‘I told you so’ later.

Let’s hope I don’t get to say ‘I told you so’ after the Galas and Batu Sapi by-elections. Let’s hope the opposition, for once, gets to prove me wrong. I would love to be proven wrong and having to eat my words once the by-election results are in.

PM Najib threatening speech at UMNO Assembly, a sign of desperation

By Dr Chen Man Hin

Najib’s opening speech at the UMNO Assembly has shocked bloggers, internet surfers and the public.

The main media has censored Najib’s opening speech before the UMNO Assembly, filled with threats of crashed bodies, lost lives and ethnic cleansing to avoid causing panic and loss of support among the people and investors.

The Altantuya murder and the trumped up sodomy charge against Anwar and now a speech laced with threats of ethnic cleansing reveal the dark side of Najib.

How do you reconcile this with the sweet talk of 1 Malaysia and Malaysia is for all races?

Now it is obvious that we are dealing with s aplit personality prime minister, who is flip flopping most of the time.

The threats uttered before UMNO leaders is a serious breach of democratic protocol and should be brought up in Parliament.

The UN should be informed and let them see the contrast between his speech before the UMNO assembly, and the speech Najib made before the UN Assembly.

It could be that Najib is influenced by hard core UMNO leaders who feel they are losing control, and the only way for Umno to survive is to revert back to their trusted ideology of Ketuanan Melayu (Malay supremacy), Malay privileges (rights) and 30% bumi quota.

Timber camp arson: Lawyer of suspects questions allegations

from Hornbill Unleashed

By Chris Reubens

PKR state publicity chief See Chee How (right) , who is representing seven suspects arrested for an arson at a timber camp in Ulu Sebanggan, hoped that the police would do a fair job in their investigation.

See, who was with the villagers Saturday at Semujan police station, said he understood the police had a job to do but they must be fair and not to be prejudice against the suspects.

“The company in their press statement had made unfound accusations against the villagers. I am not denying and neither are the villagers who admitted to setting up the road blocks on Oct 15 but to burn down the camp and to use firearms is too far fetched,” he said.

He said one of the suspects, activist Nicholas Mujah, was in Pulau Beruit near Sibu when the fire started in the timber camps.

“And the protestors were at the road blocks at least four kilometers away. How can they be in two places at the same time?” asked See.

See hoped that the police will carry out their investigation fairly. The villagers had made a number of reports before as the camp sit on their NCR land.

“I hope the police would be daring to carry out their job and not to ignore the reports of the villagers, just because the CM’s sister is a non-executive director of the company,” he said.

The seven persons arrested, including two local NGOs and Tuai Rumah, for alleged arson were ordered to be remanded for four days.

The first group of four arrested would be remanded until Monday and the second group who surrendered Saturday was ordered to be remanded until Tuesday, said OCPD Semujan DSP Choo Yin Kok (left).

Choo said a group of about 200 longhouse folk arrived at the police station with See, including the three suspects. The 200 also wanted their statements to be taken as they claimed they know the whole story regarding the arson.

The police later asked 10 of the villagers to have their statements recorded and released while the three who surrendered were arrested. Describing the crowd as calm and peaceful, he said the villagers left later peacefully.

On Thursday, the managing director of Sri Berjaya Enterprise and Com, Lau Poung Siing, held a press conference in Sibu alleging that he lost RM2 million due to arsonists who burned his camp and fired shots in the air after asking his employees to go.

He alleged that his employees were scared and left the place. It was then a fire started and equipments and heavy machineries were lost in the fire. He also alleged to have a licence to operate in the camp.

The timber camp is 50km from Semujan town by road and an hour ride by boat.

Choo said a team of 20 CID officers and personnel from Kuching Police Headquarters had been deployed to help in the investigation.

A supervisor of the camp had lodged a police report after the burning of the camp and he claimed to be able to identify the suspects.

An identification parade was held Saturday afternoon at the Semujan police station. The seven were identified by the complainant.

“We will record all the statements of the seven suspects, wait for the forensic reports and then forward the findings to SFC. As far as we are concern, we work within the perimeter of the laws,” said Choo.

He was also glad that the villagers had co-operate and there was no untowards incident the last few days.

It is understood that due to the problems in Semujan, nearby districts police were also deployed to help Semujan police station which had over 70 uniformed men. It was to ensure calm and security in the area.

Pakatan banks Batu Sapi hopes on Ansari Abdullah

The PKR Tuaran division chief, Ansari Abdullah will lead the reformasi fight for the Sabah east coast Batu Sapi parliamentary seat.

Linda Tsen BN Candidate for Batu Sapi

Datin Linda Tsen Thau Lin, wife of the late Datuk Edmund Chong Ket Wah and also PBS Elopura Deputy Wanita head, was announced as the Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate for the Batu Sapi Parliamentary by-election on Nov 4. Malaysian Digest

Social Contracts

from Malaysians Must Know the TRUTH by Malaysians Must Know the TRUTH

THIS SO-CALLED SOCIAL CONTRACT THAT UMNO CLAIMS, WHICH IS ALSO KNOWN AS THE MERDERKA AGREEMENT WHICH WERE AGREED BY OUR LEADERS OF UMNO, MCA & MIC AROUND 1956 /1957, THE SPECIAL POSITION OF THE MALAYS WERE FOR 15 YEARS, WHICH EXPIRED IN 1972, BUT WAS EXTENDED BY TUN ABDUL RAZAK AFTER THE SO-CALLED "MAY 13" WITH THE INTRODUCTION OF THE NEW ECONOMIC POLICY (NEP) FOR ANOTHER 15 YEARS WHICH SHOULD HAVE EXPIRED AROUND 1990.

IT SEEMS THIS SO-CALLED UMNO'S SOCIAL CONTRACT HAS LONG EXPIRED AND MALAYSIANS NEED TO BE TREATED FAIRLY & EQUALLY.

WILL THIS HAPPEN - IF UMNO IS STILL AROUND ?

by batsman

I do not know what the fuss is about with regard to social contracts. As far as I know, Dato’ Onn never mentioned it. Neither did the Tunku or Tun Razak or Tun Hussein or Tun Dr. Ismail for that matter.

It is only recently that people started to harp upon it. As far as I know not even TDM talked about it until recently when it became a favourite topic and he jumped on the bandwagon.

So what is this famous social contract that nobody seemed to talk about in the past but suddenly became so important? Is it some sort of a new invention?

In case you wish to find out more about social contracts, visit Wikipedia or whatever site you are especially fond of.

As far as I am concerned, social contacts need to be distinguished from political contracts. But even then there are so many types of social contracts that the mind boggles.

The way UMNO talks, it seems to me that they are actually talking about a political contract whereby some non-defined non-identified forefathers sat down and made an agreement. This sounds more like a political contract than a social contract. However, if the forefathers are not properly identified and there is no written contract, it becomes more convenient to describe it as a social contract so that there is more room to maneuver and manipulate.

There are 2 instances that come immediately to mind when discussing social contracts. The first was when the English Parliamentarians made an agreement with their constitutional monarch that they are willing to be ruled by him provided he respected their rights and that if he strayed from this, they, the people had a right to rebel and remove him. But then again such an agreement was actually put down on paper. So with readily identified persons involved and a written agreement, it properly belongs to the category of a political contract.

The other social contract has now become infamous. It was actually the title of a book written by Rousseau. In it Rousseau propounded his ideas that free men could band together such that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, but in doing so, they submitted to the authority of the group or to the “ general will” . This was called the Despotism of the General Will by some other people a bit later.

Apparently Rousseau was just trying to a good democrat, but during the French Revolution, Robespierre used his ideas to launch the Reign of Terror and excused the free use of guillotines as an expression of the General Will. Judge for yourself how
Rousseau’s ideas can be both democratic as well as despotic at the same time depending on how you interpret them.

“The problem is to find a form of association … in which each, while uniting himself with all, may still obey himself alone, and remain as free as before. This is the fundamental problem which the Social Contract provides the solution … the total alienation of each associate, together with all his rights to the whole community …. Each man, in giving his all, gives himself to nobody …. Each of us puts his person and all his power in common under the supreme direction of the general will …. In order that the social contract may not be an empty formula, it tacitly includes the undertaking, which alone can give force to the rest, that whoever refuses to obey the general will shall be compelled to do so by the whole body. This means nothing less than that he will be forced to be free.”

This seems to be exactly what UMNO means by social contract. The non-Malay immigrants in wanting to be citizens of the association known as Malaysia submit themselves to the general will and since the Malays are the majority and were the original residents, they represent the general will and since UMNO represents the Malays, UMNO is the single sole representative of the general will of the people.

UMNO therefore has the right to force the immigrants to be free (of course as long as they pay taxes, put up with a discriminatory government, be content to be second class citizens and keep their mouths shut). In the meantime, UMNO can also use it powers to force dissident Malays who disagree with UMNO to be free as well and it can exercise the powers of this general will on the descendents of the immigrants and dissenting Malays for all time and to eternity. The only way to avoid enjoying this freedom while you are still alive is to emigrate to another country where I suppose you are subject to the general will of the people of your new home.

The funny thing is that this particular version of the social contract is very recent. In fact, Dato’ Onn wanted to invite non-Malays to be part of UMNO while Tun Razak in framing the NEP envisaged only a limited time of about 30 years before everything reverted to normal.

Did Dato’ Onn and Tun Razak have this recent version of the social contract in their minds? Were they the famous forefathers that UMNO mentioned who framed the social contract?

However if UMNO meant a social contract by way of the Constitution, it properly belongs to the arena of political contracts and there is absolutely no problem with debating and analyzing the Constitution at all. In fact it would be funny indeed if we are barred from learning more about our own Constitution and understanding it better.

Still it is ominous that volunteers who distribute copies of the Constitution or any legal documents for that matter can get arrested by the police. It does not bode well at all. In fact some of the people who much later made good use of Rousseau’s ideas were the Nazis and Communists each with their very own interpretation of freedom. Hopefully UMNO does not get it into their heads to try and interpret freedom as well – then we will all be in serious trouble, Malay and non-Malay alike.

Yong Teck Lee eyes former glory with Batu Sapi

KUALA LUMPUR — Batu Sapi hopeful Datuk Yong Teck Lee is turning to the old playbook — Sabah for Sabahans — which once propelled him and Tan Sri Pairin Kitingan to power in 1985.

Beginning with the Tambunan by-election of that year, Pairin had leveraged local discontent with the federal system and successfully ousted the Berjaya government of Datuk Harris Salleh, landing him the spot as Sabah’s first Christian chief minister the year after.

Then, Yong had-been a fresh-faced 27-year-old lawyer in the hopscotch team that Pairin eventually led to victory, and saw his nascent PBS defeat all the Berjaya state ministers it challenged.

Harris himself was toppled by another new face, Malaria inspector Kadoh Agundong, who became an overnight celebrity as the “giant killer”.

Later in 1994, Yong along with other PBS leaders like Tan Sri Bernard Dompok and Tan Sri Joseph Kurup took part in defections engineered by then Umno deputy president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, which consigned Pairin to winning the state election but still losing control of the administration.

Yong went on to form SAPP and enjoyed his term as Sabah chief minister, along with Dompok and others under the state’s rotation system that Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamd enforced for Sabah in order to placate the state’s various ethnicities.

At the same time, Umno also co-opted the Usno founded by Sabah veteran Tun Datu Mustapha Harun, into its fold.

Following Election 2004, when Muslims mustered the majority to rule Sabah, the rotation system was abolished and political power passed firmly to Muslim Sabahans, both indigenous and recent arrivals.

Since then, Chief Minister and head of Sabah Umno Tan Sri Musa Aman, has kept a firm hold of the East Malaysian state.

Today, Yong is hoping to rekindle that magic of his youth by contesting in Batu Sapi, a mixed but primarily Muslim (60 per cent) seat with a sizeable Chinese vote.

The by-election was called following the death of incumbent Datuk Edmund Chong Ket Wah (PBS) in an accident on October 9.

In the Batu Sapi vote, Yong sees the tinder to re-ignite the same flame of discontent as in 1985.

“He sees it as another Tambunan,” the veteran said. “He and others are all political offspring of Tambunan. It’s in their psyche.”

“I think he is wrong,” he added.

Musa has kept a firm hold on Sabah since coming to power.
Nonetheless, Yong’s supporters argue that whether there is a wave or not, the public mood is turning ugly and Sabahans are again looking for another Pairin to rise and fly the “autonomy” flag.

It is also a platform that Yong had tried to stand on following the political upheaval of Election 2008.

In that year, Anwar, invigorated by his sterling performance at the ballot box, re-entered Sabah politics and re-connected with Yong, who was to have provided the impetus for the eventual botched takeover of Putrajaya on September 16 then.

Yong failed to deliver largely because of Musa Aman’s sway over the state’s MPs.

Undeterred, Yong saw in the aftermath of the September 16 takeover attempt the seedlings of adventurousness in Sabahans.

“Sabahans have changed governments before, and in 2008, they were in the mood to change not only in Sabah but at the federal level,” a Sabah veteran politician said.

“Yong was a forerunner of that movement. Where MPs failed, he felt the people — given a fair chance at the polls — would make the change,” the veteran said. “He believes (in 2008) that a wave is forming in Sabah and hopes to ride it.”

Other Sabah leaders, both veterans and newcomers, have been unable to fill the “Sabah for Sabahans” vacuum, leaving Yong as the unlikely candidate.

Since he pulled SAPP out from Barisan Nasional (BN) in August 2008, he has been a one-man-band for Sabah autonomy trying to whip up a wave ahead of the 13th general election.

“He (Yong) speaks of nothing but autonomy but while the sentiments are there, people are not really biting,” a PBS leader said.

“The reason might be because Sabah, whether you like it or not, is Muslim majority now. Muslims are happy with the current set-up,” he said. “They are happy with Musa Aman as chief minister.”

“So whipping up a wave is difficult; the political demography has changed,” the PBS leader said.

However, Yong’s supporters insisted that anti-West Malaysia sentiment was simmering and there was deep unhappiness over how easily foreigners in the state were given citizenships.

“Sabahans want a permanent solution to immigrant problems and to rising crime,” said one supporter.

“People don’t feel safe,” he added. “SAPP has been raising these and other autonomy issues like oil royalty and a bigger share of the nation resources for Sabah’s development. We are getting good reception,”

“Yong is the man to bravely raise these issues, he can save Sabah,” he continued.

Beyond Batu Sapi, Yong also wants to contest 40 of the 48 seats in Sabah state assembly and hopes to capture the state from BN in the upcoming general election.

“We are growing and mustering public support. We can defeat BN,” Yong told The Malaysian Insider.

“Before, in BN, we were seen as a mosquito party but now as an opposition party we are the main challenger to BN here. People know we can form the next government.”

Yong’s ambitions, however — not only in Batu Sapi, but also the coming general election — has set him on collision path with Pakatan Rakyat (PR), who are seeking to capture Sabah and Sarawak to realise their dreams of entering Putrajaya.

If he makes good on his promise to contest in the 40 seats, the opposition vote would be split between SAPP and PR — as it will be in Batu Sapi — giving BN a clear advantage.

But Yong feels he has a tryst with destiny.

“It is [his] duty to rally Sabahans and make the changes — from autonomy to an immigrant-free Sabah. Neither he nor Sabahans are expecting Peninsular leaders to do the job for us,” Yong ally said.

“We are home-grown, we want autonomy and we want to take back the country from the immigrants. It’s our job, we have to do it,” one SAPP leader said.

“Sabah voters will know what to do.”

Kelantan announces Nov 4 holiday for Galas balloting

KOTA BARU — Kelantan has declared the polling day for the Galas state by-election on November 4 as a public holiday, State Secretary Datuk Mohd Aiseri Alias said in a circular.

“The state government has agreed to declare Thursday, November 4, as a ‘cuti peristiwa’ (occasional holiday) for the whole state in conjunction with the by-election,” he said.

The by-election was called following the death of its incumbent Chek Hashim Che Sulaima on September 27.

Nomination is on this Tuesday. — Bernama

Calon-calon yang bakal merebut Batu Sapi dan Galas....

Datin Linda Tsen Thau Lin(BN) lwn. Yong Teck Lee(SAAP) lwn. Ansari Abdullah(PKR)











Abdul Aziz Yusof(BN) lwn. Dr Zulkefli Mohamad(PAS)







Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya menetapkan hari penamaan calon bagi pilihan raya kecil itu pada 26 Oktober 2010 dan hari mengundi 4 November 2010.


Harap pengundi-pengundi di Batu Sapi dan Galas ramai-ramai tolah Barisan Nasional(BN)





Read 'PBS Linda Tsen picked as Batu Sapi candidate'' here.

Read 'In Batu Sapi, SAPP sees path to glory' here.

Read 'BN gives Umno Gua Musang rep nod for Galas' here.

cheers.
See What Barisan Nasional Gotta Say?

Timber camp arson: Lawyer of suspects questions allegations

By Chris Reubens

PKR state publicity chief See Chee How(right) , who is representing seven suspects arrested for an arson at a timber camp in Ulu Sebanggan, hoped that the police would do a fair job in their investigation.

See, who was with the villagers Saturday at Semujan police station, said he understood the police had a job to do but they must be fair and not to be prejudice against the suspects.

The company in their press statement had made unfound accusations against the villagers. I am not denying and neither are the villagers who admitted to setting up the road blocks on Oct 15 but to burn down the camp and to use firearms is too far fetched, he said.

He said one of the suspects, activist Nicholas Mujah, was in Pulau Beruit near Sibu when the fire started in the timber camps.

And the protestors were at the road blocks at least four kilometers away. How can they be in two places at the same time? asked See.

See hoped that the police will carry out their investigation fairly. The villagers had made a number of reports before as the camp sit on their NCR land.

I hope the police would be daring to carry out their job and not to ignore the reports of the villagers, just because the CMs sister is a non-executive director of the company, he said.

The seven persons arrested, including two local NGOs and Tuai Rumah, for alleged arson were ordered to be remanded for four days.

The first group of four arrested would be remanded until Monday and the second group who surrendered Saturday was ordered to be remanded until Tuesday, said OCPD Semujan DSP Choo Yin Kok(left).

Choo said a group! of abou t 200 longhouse folk arrived at the police station with See, including the three suspects. The 200 also wanted their statements to be taken as they claimed they know the whole story regarding the arson.

The police later asked 10 of the villagers to have their statements recorded and released while the three who surrendered were arrested. Describing the crowd as calm and peaceful, he said the villagers left later peacefully.

On Thursday, the managing director of Sri Berjaya Enterprise and Com, Lau Poung Siing, held a press conference in Sibu alleging that he lost RM2 million due to arsonists who burned his camp and fired shots in the air after asking his employees to go.

He alleged that his employees were scared and left the place. It was then a fire started and equipments and heavy machineries were lost in the fire. He also alleged to have a licence to operate in the camp.

The timber camp is 50km from Semujan town by road and an hour ride by boat.

Choo said a team of 20 CID officers and personnel from Kuching Police Headquarters had been deployed to help in the investigation.

A supervisor of the camp had lodged a police report after the burning of the camp and he claimed to be able to identify the suspects.

An identification parade was held Saturday afternoon at the Semujan police station. The seven were identified by the complainant.

We will record all the statements of the seven suspects, wait for the forensic reports and then forward the findings to SFC. As far as we are concern, we work within the perimeter of the laws, said Choo.

He was also glad that the villagers had co-operate and there was no untowards incident the last few days.

It is understood that due to the problems in Semujan, nearby districts police were also deployed to help Semujan police station which had over 70 uniforme! d men. I t was to ensure calm and security in the area.

Filed under: corruption, logging, Native Customary Rights, Politics Tagged: Anak Sarawak Bangsa Malaysia, Human rights, Native Customary Rights, NCR, Sarawak, Sarawak politics, Save Sarawak
Letter & Opinion From Joe Public

BN gives Umno Gua Musang rep nod for Galas - Abdul Aziz Yusof as candidate

GUA MUSANG, Oct 24 Umno Gua Musang secretary Abdul Aziz Yusof will be the Barisan Nasional (BN) representative for the November 4 Galas by-election, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin announced today.

When making the announcement, Muhyiddin noted that Aziz was a youthful candidate with a record of service with Kesedar, the South Kelantan development agency.

He added that Aziz has relinquished his position at Kesedar because he has chosen to run as the BN candidate for the Galas by-election.

He is a local, a Gua Musang man and still young, he said while speaking at Umnos Gua Musang division at Bukit Chekati.

The was being called following the death of PASs Che Hashim Sulaima from cancer on September 27.

Pakatan Rakyat component party PAS had three days ago selected its acting chief for the area, Dr Zulkefli Mohamad, to fly its colours in the countrys thirteenth by-election since Election 2008.

Nomination was slated for October 26. Both nomination and voting days are the same as for the Batu Sapi by-election in Sabah.

According to the Election Commissions figures, there are 11,553 registered voters in the locale. Of this, 7,125 were Malay; 2,317 Chinese; 1,889 Orang Asli; 185 Indian; and 10 Siamese. MORE TO COME. - Malaysian Insider

Letter & Opinion From Joe Public

Students, question authority!

The essence of being human is that of having the insatiable urge to question and to search for answers, and next, not satisfied with the answers, to continue to question.

A REPUBLIC OF VIRTUE

Dr. Azly Rahman

(Below is Part 2 of the speech on student idealism delivered at the annual gathering of the Malaysian and Indonesian Muslim Students in Washington DC, USA, December 2007.)

Most respected Malaysian and Indonesian students, let us continue. I begin with two quotes:

Everything is good in the hands of the author of Things, everything degenerates in the hands of Man, said Jean Jacques Rousseau, the spiritual force of the French Revolution.

Know thyself know thy enemies, one hundred battles one hundred victories, said the legendary Chinese military leader Sun Tzi.

If there is a thesis statement or a guiding idea or an inquiry theme in my speech today, it is this: question authority, break new frontiers of thinking, but listen to the voice of the inner self in order to serve humanity.

We live in interesting times, as chairman Mao Zedong once said; interesting because the forces of globalisation is at perpetual war with humanitys inner sense of beingness.

We are a republic onto itself. We are a kingdom we govern ourselves. In each and every one of us lies an inner world bigger than the world outside a world if known, if and only if we know ourselves is a world in which freedom reigns and one in which the self refuses to be caged and shackled by structures of oppression built by others.

The essence of being human is that of having the insatiable urge to question and to search for answers, and next, not satisfied with the answers, to continue to question. Some revolutionary [thinkers call this dialectics; the permanent revolution in our world of cognitio! n. Becom ing a human being is a process we are as a French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre would say, beings in the process of becoming and by doing so we define the world and able to "name" it. We have always lived a life in which our world is already pre-determined, our belief system prepackaged, and our knowledge of the political world prepared for us as propaganda produced and disseminated by those who owns the means of producing propaganda. We have live in what a British writer Eric Blair/George Orwell called a world of "doublespeak" wherein what it said has its form and appearance.

Ethos of questioning

As students living and breathing the world of knowledge, in a culture the American progressive culture of learning, we must embody the ethos of questioning. We must question everything and not allow answers to live inside of us for long. It is only through this process that we will feel and experience within ourselves our Inner world the process of constant or permanent revolution in how we acquire our understanding of the world.

To evolve into wiser individuals with enquiring minds, we must ask questions and reflect upon the answers suggested to us. If we are afraid to ask questions, our mind and consciousness will be owned and manipulated by those who think they have the right answers, or by those who wants to use force to tell us what the right answers shall be.

Question authority that was what a Harvard University historian of science Thomas Kuhn spoke about in his book "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" which chronicled the advancement of scientific knowledge made possible by questions raised in each field of science questions that made paradigms collapse, giving birth to newer ones.

Every moment of our waking life must be a philosophical one. Every moment must generate enough questions to make us go to bed still questioning the phenomena we see around us and the experiences we are confronted with in that waking moment. Questions make us more human just as the foo! d we eat gives us the strength to continue living as human beings and the self-affirmation mantras/doas/zikirs/prayers we say silently to ourselves give us the inner strength to feed our spirit so that we may know ourselves better and ultimately know the Creator.

The mind, the body, and the spirit become the tripartite of this beingness and becomingness of our existence. It creates, recreates, constructs and reconstructs this kingdom of the Self we inhabit. Not even the Sultans some choose to bow down to in this world of illusion, can ever see how powerful the inner kingdom we have built within us only if we are aware of the power within. No even the Neon Gods on Times Square New York reigning on New Year's Eve, come close to understanding how beautiful and glorious the Inner World we inhabit - again, only if we know who we are.

We are evolving selves in a journey to understand, realize, and finally inhabit and embody the Ultimate Truth. The truth is universal. We are little truths that live in the moments of the particular. I shall not elaborate further this philosophical notion of Universalism versus the Particularism, Form versus Appearance, the evolving self versus the larger Self as to confuse you. You will need to experience this journey yourself by first questioning authority and freeing yourselves from the mental and spiritual cages you let others with money and the skills to create architecture of power built.

Basic questions

Who are you as a self that questions your very existence? Let me offer some a clue of what being an "individual" means; of what being a ruler of one's own kingdom entails. But first, let us ponder upon these basic questions:

How are human beings controlled by those who own the means of intellectual and economic production?

How does power, in its raw and refined form, operate in our society?

How is it dispersed?

How is power sustained?

How is truth produced?

How is truth multiplied?

How is the self constructed?

How ar e we alienated?

What is inscribed onto the body and into the mind, in the process of schooling?

How is human imagination confined and how might it be released?

How is the mind enslaved by the politics of knowledge?

How is historical knowledge packaged?

How do we define our existence in this Age of Information?

Who decides what is important in history?

What is an ideal multi-cultural society?

How has our idea of multi-culturalism influence the way we live our lives?

What historical knowledge is of importance?

What tools do we need to create our own history?

How is the individual more powerful than the state?

How is a philosopher-king created?

How is justice possible?

Who should rule and why?

How are we to teach about justice?

And finally, how might we realise a democratic-republic of virtue - one that is based on a form of democracy that is meaningful and personal?

Thank you for not falling asleep during this lecture. I suppose you have the right to do so if this is a dead boring lecture. I will have to tell the conference organizers to provide you with pillows then yellow pillows with pictures of the Malaysian flag and the Petronas Twin Towers on it.

OUR USUAL REMINDER, FOLKS:

While the opinion in the article is mine,

the comments are yours;

present them rationally and ethically.

AND -- ABOLISH THE ISA -- NOW!

facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=689079971

See What Barisan Nasional Gotta Say?

Hello Mahyuddin, Sejarah UMNO atau Sejarah Malaysia??

TPM Mahyuddin Yasin telah mengumumkan bahawa matapelajaran Sejarah dijadikan subjek wajib lulus di peringkat SPM mulai 2013.Katanya, tempoh itu diberikan untuk memberi ruang bagi menyediakan pelajar dan guru-guru bagi menghadapi keadaan baru itu.Tambahnya, mata pelajaran itu sebelum ini hanya diwajibkan untuk diambil tetapi tidak diwajibkan untuk lulus.


Kenapa secara tiba2 Mahyuddin mahukan matapelajaran Sejarah dijadikan matapelajaran wajib lulus? Adakah kerana pelajar2 hari ini sudah tidak lagi kenal siapa itu Dato Onn,Tunku Abdul Rahman dan Tun Abdul Razak? Sebaliknya pelajar2 lebih tahu siapa itu Chin Peng,Asri Hj.Muda dan Anwar Ibrahim! Sejarah apa yang difokuskan, sejarah Malaysia atau sejarah UMNO?

Gomen boleh wajibkan itu dan ini tetapi kalau orang dah meluat kat UMNO depa tetap akan meluat dulu,kini dan selama2nya. Apakata wajibkan semua pelajar lulus Bahasa Inggeris sebagai syarat mendapat sijil SPM? Bukankah ini lebih berfaedah.....

cheers.
Letter & Opinion From Joe Public

Trading in money: Why Malaysia can't modernize its financial sector

M Bakri Musa

A weak economy will have a weak currency, regardless of the nationalistic frenzy used to whip support for it. Malaysia lost billions and nearly exhausted its foreign exchange reserves in the early part of the 1997 economic crisis trying to defend the value of the ringgit, only to admit finally that the market was correct.

Malaysia cannot modernize its financial sector and capital markets in part because its leaders are stuck in the pre-globalisation mindset, especially in their attitude towards money and capital. While to consumers everywhere money is now simply a convenient medium of commercial transaction, to Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and other Third World nationalists it assumes a more important symbolic function. Currency represents the nations sovereignty.

It is instructive that one of the first orders of business for many newly independent nations is to declare a new currency or to rename its old one. Malaysia has the ringgit, and to symbolise its new beginning, prints a portrait of its king on the paper notes. Money is no longer simply money, rather a powerful symbol of the nations sovereignty.

It is this symbolic attachment to the currency that irrationally dictates many economic policies. Governments often go to extreme lengths to defend the value of their currency when market conditions dictate otherwise, as happened in Thailand and Malaysia during the 1997 crisis. They forget that the value of a currency is a reflection of consumers and investors confidence in the underlying economy.

A weak economy will have a weak currency, regardless of the nationalistic frenzy used to whip support for it. Malaysia lost billions and nearly exhausted its foreign exchange reserves in the early part of the 1997 economic crisis trying to defend the value of the ringgit, only to admit finally that the market was correct.

Even as a medium! of comm ercial transaction, money or more accurately cash, has been supplanted by other instruments. The most widespread is the credit card. Even when I travel abroad I carry very little cash, only a pair of credit cards with the second as insurance in case the first is stolen or lost.

With that I could purchase anything and execute any transaction. It is also safer and more convenient; if stolen all I have to do is notify my bank and the card would be rendered useless and a new one reissued. In practical terms my credit card with my picture on it is as good as the paper money with the Kings portrait on it!

To an increasing number of people today money is just a commodity, like rubber and sugar. And like those commodities there is a market in money futures, that is, in predicting or anticipating its future values. Just as sugar futures traders take the risks from the producers and consumers of sugar, so do currency traders take the risk from lenders and borrowers.

In its simplified form a commodity futures trader works thus. Imagine I am a beverage manufacturer and use tonnes of sugar every day for my product. I cannot afford to have the price of sugar, my prime ingredient, fluctuate wildly. I need it to be relatively stable so I can budget appropriately. But the price of sugar, like other commodities, will vary depending on weather, political upheavals, world markets, and labour disputes, among others.

As a wholesale consumer, I do not have the time or expertise to monitor the various market conditions affecting the price of sugar, otherwise I cannot devote my full energy towards producing my primary product. All I need is a steady supply of sugar at a reasonable and predictable price.

Enter the futures trader. For a fee he will guarantee for me my supply of sugar for the next few months (or years) at an agreed upon price. If the price of sugar drops he will reap his profit, but if Castro throws his usual political antics and the price of sugar suddenly jumps, then I will be p! rotected but the trader will lose in the deal.

And if that sugar commodity trader were prudent, he would spread his risks by diversifying. That is, he would also invest in other commodity futures so that if he were to lost money in sugar, he would be able to recoup in soya beans, for example.

Traders in currency futures, too, serve a similar function. Assume MAS were to borrow US$100 million (RM310 million) to buy a 747 jet and had to repay the loan in US dollars. MASs revenue, however, is in ringgit (at least the bulk of it).

If the ringgit appreciates in value with respect to the US dollar, then MAS will need fewer ringgit to service the loan. That would be a bonanza to the company. However, if the ringgit were to depreciate, then MAS would have to spend more to service the same loan. Small variations in the exchange rate would not be disruptive, but wild fluctuations could put the company under by making the amount of loan payments unpredictable.

Competent financial managers guard against such unanticipated changes by hedging, that is, for a small down payment (options) he would be guaranteed a certain amount of dollars at a preset conversion rate.

As with the sugars options discussed earlier, if the dollar appreciates then the currency trader would absorb the loss and spare MAS the added costs. By securing such options, MAS would be acquiring an insurance policy against the potential weakening of the ringgit.

The debacle that snared MAS and many other Malaysian companies during the 1997 economic crisis was in part because they borrowed huge sums of dollars that were unhedged. When the ringgit depreciated, the costs of those loans effectively went up.

Thirty years ago, almost all cross-border transfers of currencies were for payments of goods and services, that is, for payments of actual trading. Today the overwhelming bulk of cross-border movements of funds are by currency traders using money as a commodity, trying to exploit changes and small differentials in! exchang e and interest rates in the different markets. Every day over trillion dollars are sloshing around the worlds money markets, and only a very tiny fraction of that is being used to pay for actual physical trade in goods and services.

Money is now a commodity, to be traded across borders just like sugar and rubber futures, and with as much sentiment as for those products. Just as traders at the Chicago Commodity Board earn more than the farmers who produce those commodities, so do currency traders make more money that those whose hard work generated those cash in the first place.

Dr Mahathir may rail against these speculators but they are not likely to disappear. I have always regarded futures trading as nothing more than 90 per cent gambling and 10 per cent useful economic activities (protecting producers and consumers from the risk of price volatility), but as long as it serves even that small an economic function, it will remain. No government can outlaw it; doing so would only drive them underground. Then they would become 99 per cent gambling.

Left wing social science professors may condemn these commodity traders. Why should these young hustlers in their bowties and red suspenders working in the comfort of their air-conditioned trading pits, and who cannot tell apart the wheat from the shaft, be earning more than the hard working wheat farmers? It is sinful and unjust.

If anyone should benefit from any increase in the price of grain, it should be the farmers, not those speculators. This was the theory behind the Soviet collective farms, with the farmers (with the help of the state) controlling not only the production but also the distribution and marketing of their products.

The collapse of the Soviet farms proved the fallacy of such a system. Farmers should stick to farming, marketers to marketing, and risk takers (commodity traders) to managing financial risks.

Currency traders like George Soros indeed make a killing when they guess or gamble right. But wh! en they are wrong, they eat more than humble pie. They could be wiped out. The near collapse of the billion-dollar hedge fund Long Term Capital Management in 1999 is a grim reminder of the stakes in this new form of trading.

Economists and others who have long tried to grapple with how to control or tame currency trading have been humbled by their attempts. Many a conference and seminar have been devoted to rebuilding the architecture of international finance. The fact that there is no solution as yet points to the difficulty of getting unanimity on the issue.

Chile once charged a premium for short-term capital (hot money) by requiring a portion to be deposited in a non-interest bearing account with the central bank. That was then. Now with the intense competition for foreign funds, Chile has done away with that novel scheme.

The Yale Nobel economist James Tobin suggested a similar concept, the so-called Tobin Tax, to damper speculative activities of currency traders. The fact that such schemes have not been adopted suggests that there are associated costs. Ultimately it is borrowers, not lenders, who would end up bearing the added cost. Thus instead of ranting and raving against currency traders, we would be wiser to accept them and to learn their ways in order to protect ourselves. Countries should concentrate on producing goods and services efficiently, and let the currency traders assume the foreign exchange risks.

While Dr Mahathir may now righteously condemn currency traders, specifically George Soros, his own central bank was actively involved in the foreign exchange market. Indeed Bank Negaras excessive speculative activities in the early 1990s prompted the United States Federal Reserve Bank to issue a stern warning.

As it turned out, that was unnecessary as Bank Negara was later humbled by the loss of billions on a wrong gamble on the dollar. The difference between Soross and Bank Negaras loss is that with the latter, it is the Malaysian taxpayers who ultimately foot t! he bill while Soros loss was borne entirely by his affluent clients and investors.

Thirty years ago there was no currency trade. For one, there were only a few major currencies in the world so there was not much room to speculate. Today, every tiny little independent country wants its own currency; thus opportunities for speculators are wide open. The other reason is that currencies then were tied to the value of gold. Money then held its value.

The US dollar was the last major currency to de-link itself from gold. Without an underlying precious metal to support it, the value of paper money is based largely on the confidence people (the market) have on the underlying supporting economy. Of course if the world were to have a single currency then those speculators would be out of business.

In this Internet age, money is nothing more than blips of positive and negative charges (digitisation) spinning around the globe at the speed of light seeking the highest returns commensurate with the risks.

Once we consider money as a commodity in addition to its traditional functions, we will then better understand and come to terms with the currency market, which is now so much an integral feature of globalisation. www. bakrimusa.com
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Anwar tells Malaysians not to be scared by Najib's wild speech

Don't be afraid. Go for change and vote Pakatan!Malaysia Chronicle

Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim slammed Prime Minister Najib Razak for his overheated rhetoric at the Umno annual assembly where he pledged to retain control of the federal government even if he had to use violence and lives were lost.

Don't be scared. Let Najib speak in the way he feels which is that he is willing to stop the Pakatan Rakyats advance with lost lives and bodies. It shows he is worried, but too cowardly to admit it. He will be retiring from Putrajaya soon, Anwar told the cheering crowd at a DAP fund-raising dinner in Raja Uda.

In a speech that shocked his countrymen and the international community, Najib had warned of 'crushed bodies', 'lost lives' and even 'ethnic cleansing' such as in Rwanda and Bosnia if the status-quo was not retained.

Apart from Anwar, other Pakatan leaders including PAS' Dr Hatta Ramli have demanded that he immediately apologize to the nation.

However, in what has become Najib's trademark reaction to criticism, his minders have gone on a binge of vengeance instead, targeting alternative news websites and blogs like Malaysiakini and Malaysia Chronicle for reporting his speech almost verbatim.

Vote Pakatan

Meanwhile, the charismatic Anwar reminded Malaysians not to worry because if they wanted to reform the way their country was governed, all they needed to do was to vote for the Pakatan in the coming general election.

Najib - irresponsible speechHe also condemned Najib for putting his personal comfort way above that of the ordinary people by allocating for his recently done-up official residence a further whopping RM65 million in renovation funds.

Anwar also took issue with a RM! 70 milli on project to extend the National Mausoleum, which when completed would only be able to house 250 deceased statesmen.

The people are tired with the Prime Ministers behavior in the past and now. Their money is getting wiped out for projects that benefit himself and his family, said Anwar, who is also the Permatang Pauh MP.
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