We begin trumpeting the oft-repeated phrases of freedom and the greatness of our age-old civilization, patriotic values and the glory to the motherland. We speak about the lofty ideals of pluralism and freedom of expression and repeat 'Umno laying groundwork for Sex Video 2.0'Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia's front-page report yesterday quoting one of the 'Datuk T' trio about a new sex video allegedly involving Anwar Ibrahim is yet another attempt to further tarnish the opposition leader's reputation. Despite being front-paged by Umno newspaper Utusan, the much-threatened Datuk T sex video sequel drew a big yawn, reflecting the low esteem the Malaysian public held for Prime Minister Najib Razak's party which has been blamed for sinking the country into unprecedented depths of gutter politicking. ...
"Basically, the game is up. Nobody is so stupid as to fall for it anymore. Malaysians have made up their minds how capable a PM Anwar will be and how capable a PM Najib has been. They will make their decision at the ballot box, and it will be in Anwar's favor even if Datuk T screens a different sex video every night," Batu MP Tian Chua told Malaysia Chronicle.
Indeed, even in throwing the challenge to Anwar to sue them if they were slandering him, the Datuk T trio were quick to warn that they would create a circus by getting Malaysia's pliable courts to allow them to screen the video in the courtroom - a threat that is unlikely to deter Anwar.
In 2011 ruse to discredit Anwar and Pakatan, Shazryl and Rahim played the lead roles in engaging the press. However, after the tape failed to do anything more than attract the odium of the Malaysian public, both men have kept a low profile, with Umno insiders saying that Rahim was still angling to get a seat to contest in GE-13.
Utusan also challenged Anwar to secure the services of video experts if he wanted to disprove the man in the tape was him. The 64-year-old Anwar has denied the allegations and has lodged a police report.
SPEND SPEND SPEND
India - The year 2011 will be remembered as the time when many ever-optimistic US citizens began to give up hope. President John F Kennedy once said that a rising tide lifts all boats. But now, in the receding tide, those in the US are beginning to see not only that those with taller masts have been lifted far higher, but also that many of the smaller boats had been dashed to pieces in their wake.
In that brief moment when the rising tide was indeed rising, millions of people believed that they might have a fair chance of realising the "American Dream". Now those dreams, too, are receding. By 2011, the savings of those who had lost their jobs in 2008 or 2009 had been spent. Unemployment cheques had run out. Headlines announcing new hiring - still not enough to keep pace with the number of those who would normally have entered the labour force - meant little to the 50-year-olds with little hope of ever holding a job again.
Indeed, middle-aged people who thought that they would be unemployed for a few months have now realised that they were, in fact, forcibly retired. Young people who graduated from college with tens of thousands of dollars of education debt cannot find any jobs at all. People who moved in with friends and relatives have become homeless. Houses bought during the property boom are still on the market or have been sold at a loss. More than seven million families in the US have lost their homes.
The dark underbelly of the previous decade's financial boom has been fully exposed in Europe as well. Dithering over Greece and key national governments' devotion to austerity began to exact a heavy toll last year. Contagion spread to Italy. Spain's unemployment, which had been near 20 per cent since the beginning of the recession, crept even higher. The unthinkable - the end of the euro - began to seem like a real possibility.
This year is set to be even worse. It is possible, of course, that the United States will solve its political problems and finally adopt the stimulus measures that it needs to bring down unemployment to six or seven per cent (the pre-crisis level of four or five per cent is too much to hope for).
New twist to US foreclosures
But this is as unlikely as it is that Europe will figure out that austerity alone will not solve its problems. On the contrary, austerity will only exacerbate the economic slowdown. Without growth, the debt crisis - and the euro crisis - will only worsen. And the long crisis that began with the collapse of the housing bubble in 2007 and the subsequent recession will continue.
Moreover, the major emerging-market countries, which steered successfully through the storms of 2008 and 2009, may not cope as well with the problems looming on the horizon. Brazil's growth has already stalled, fuelling anxiety among its neighbours in Latin America.
Meanwhile, long-term problems - including climate change and other environmental threats, and increasing inequality in most countries around the world - have not gone away. Some have grown more severe. For example, high unemployment has depressed wages and increased poverty.
The good news is that addressing these long-term problems would actually help to solve the short-term problems. Increased investment to retrofit the economy for global warming would help to stimulate economic activity, growth and job creation. More progressive taxation, in effect redistributing income from the top to the middle and bottom, would simultaneously reduce inequality and increase employment by boosting total demand. Higher taxes at the top could generate revenues to finance needed public investment, and to provide some social protection for those at the bottom, including the unemployed.
US students drown in sea of debt
Even without widening the fiscal deficit, such "balanced budget" increases in taxes and spending would lower unemployment and increase output. The worry, however, is that politics and ideology on both sides of the Atlantic, but especially in the US, will not allow any of this to occur. Fixation on the deficit will induce cutbacks in social spending, worsening inequality. Likewise, the enduring attraction of supply-side economics, despite all of the evidence against it (especially in a period in which there is high unemployment), will prevent raising taxes at the top.
Even before the crisis, there was a rebalancing of economic power - in fact, a correction of a 200-year historical anomaly, in which Asia's share of global GDP fell from nearly 50 per cent to, at one point, below ten per cent. The pragmatic commitment to growth that one sees in Asia and other emerging markets today stands in contrast to the West's misguided policies, which, driven by a combination of ideology and vested interests, almost seem to reflect a commitment not to grow.
As a result, global economic rebalancing is likely to accelerate, almost inevitably giving rise to political tensions. With all of the problems confronting the global economy, we will be lucky if these strains do not begin to manifest themselves within the next twelve months.
"Basically, the game is up. Nobody is so stupid as to fall for it anymore. Malaysians have made up their minds how capable a PM Anwar will be and how capable a PM Najib has been. They will make their decision at the ballot box, and it will be in Anwar's favor even if Datuk T screens a different sex video every night," Batu MP Tian Chua told Malaysia Chronicle.
Datuk T - Umno's shame or luminaries?
Just last week, the Opposition Leader had slapped on a RM150 million defamation suit on Utusan and there is little doubt that after discussion with his lawyers, Anwar will take the most advantageous course of action against his accusers.
To many Umno members, the Datuk T trio are a disgrace although the top party leadership doesn't seem to think so. The trio consists of three prominent members, namely former Malacca chief minister Rahim Thamby Chik, former Perkasa treasurer Shuaib Lazim and former consul to Thailand Shazryl Eskay Abdullah.
All three men were allegedly promised seats to contest if their first ruse had been successful. Last year, the trio had shocked the nation when they screened in public a video showing a man they alleged was Anwar having sex with a female sex worker.
The tape was unveiled just as the Sarawak state assembly was dissolved, paving way for the statewide polls. It did little to stop Anwar's PKR party from winning three seats and Pakatan Rakyat colleague DAP from wresting 12 seats.
However, it created a huge backlash against Umno and the bloggers it hired at enormous cost to drum up the shenanigans against Anwar.
A seat each to contest for the Datuk T trio
In the latest 'sequel', it has been left to Shuaib Lazim, who is also the father-in-law of Rural minister Shafie Apdal, to throw down the gauntlet.
"All 3 men thought they would be like PKR's Loh Gwo-Burne who gained fame and won the Kelana Jaya seat after exposing the Lingam tape showing judge-fixing activities in Malaysia. But they made a terrible mistake and it is silly for Rahim to keep pestering Najib for a seat to contest. The only seat he has a chance to win would be in an Umno stronghold but these seats are precious and cannot be simply given to just any candidate," an Umno insider told Malaysia Chronicle.
"Anyway, what has Rahim done for Umno to deserve a safe seat. If Najib gives in, it can indicate Rahim is applying pressure and this again reflects on Najib's inability to think clearly and for the longer term. Najib is setting himself up for all types of political 'blackmail' because of his unscrupulous dealings. One by one, the creepy crawlies will come out from the woodwork and demand their 'rightful' seats, and to oblige, Najib will be forced to take from the deserving. In the end, Umno will be a disaster party with the most awful lineup of disreputable contestants, mark my words."
Malaysia Chronicle was not able to contact Rahim, who is also chairman of the government's agricultural agency RISDA. Meanwhile, in a front page Utusan report, Shuaib said the new sex video was recorded on January 12 and 13 last year in Thailand.
"I have seen the video passed to me by Eskay. I believe Eskay is ready to make an expose of the video in court if Anwar sues us. Look at (Anwar’s) passport to check where he was. Or ask his wife Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail," Shuaib was reported as saying.
Zoo house
The courts have since found the Datuk T trio guilty of screening pornography in public, passing only the minimal possible fines. However, the police - accused of collusion with the Najib administration - are still investigating Anwar under Section 182 of the Penal Code for giving "false information" meant to injure another person” by denying he was the man in the video.
Few Malaysians have doubts that Najib will not resort to gutter politicking to cling to power. His administration has already appealed a High Court judgment acquitting Anwar from trumped-up sodomy charges.
"Which Malaysian would be surprised if the police comes up with the Omega watch and charge Anwar for another fabricated allegation? So, what is this new sex tape Shuaib has brought out? He just wants negative publicity for Anwar, but basically Malaysians are fed up of Umno's sex, sex, sex. strategy.This will hurt them, not Anwar or Pakatan. From our get-togethers with the people, I can tell you the Malays are not happy at the way Umno is going about using dirty means to win votes and this is good news to us," PKR vice president Chua Jui Meng told Malaysia Chronicle.
"Also very important was the world reaction when Anwar was declared not guilty for the Sodomy II. The spontaneous response across the globe was an eye-opener for Malaysians. The rakyat (citizens) know the world believes it was Najib and Umno that tried to frame Anwar. It was also clear that to the other governments, Anwar is the best candidate to be prime minister and they hope he will make it because the situation is quite critical. Malaysia is at the brink and if we leave things to people like Najib and the Datuk T - to manipulate situations and run wild in the country, we will become a zoo-house."
SPEND SPEND SPEND Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim again challenged Datuk Seri Najib Razak to a debate after both rivals had lashed out at each other’s economic policies yesterday.
Opposition Leader Anwar had said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal the prime minister’s policies benefited cronies despite embarking on an economic reform programme.
But Najib returned fire in the evening, saying the opposition’s promises of abolishing tolled roads, writing off study loans and reducing fuel prices were “a recipe for economic disaster” as the government would have to absorb RM40 billion in study loans alone.
Anwar (picture) issued at least his fourth challenge to the Umno president in front of over 1,000 who attended a ceramah here last night despite Najib so far declining to go head-to-head with the former finance minister.
“Najib said our policies will destroy the country. So I say, let’s have a dialogue. He can speak for 20 minutes, I will speak for 10. He can reply for 20 minutes, and then I will reply in 10.
“He said he is not afraid of Anwar but afraid he will give me a fever. But I will use the space (in a debate) with respect,” the PKR de facto leader said.
BN chief Najib has previously demurred by saying that political parties were more important than individuals in Malaysia’s parliamentary democracy.
Anwar’s call for an open debate has so far been answered only once — in July 2008 — by then-Information Minister Datuk Ahmad Shabeery Cheek, an event broadcast live on national television.
Independent pollsters Merdeka Center revealed earlier this week that focus group discussions showed that most Malay professionals would like to see the two go toe-to-toe on policy issues.
“There appears to be a change in what the people want. They want a new culture of debate rather than smear campaigns,” Merdeka Center director Ibrahim Suffian had said.
A survey commissioned by PKR in August last year showed that Najib was more popular than Anwar especially among Malays despite being seen as indecisive and a poorer communicator.
The poll noted, however, that Anwar could combat Najib’s “surface appeal” by leveraging on his image as a strong, decisive leader with good communication skills and an understanding of economic issues.
Opposition Leader Anwar had said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal the prime minister’s policies benefited cronies despite embarking on an economic reform programme.
But Najib returned fire in the evening, saying the opposition’s promises of abolishing tolled roads, writing off study loans and reducing fuel prices were “a recipe for economic disaster” as the government would have to absorb RM40 billion in study loans alone.
Anwar (picture) issued at least his fourth challenge to the Umno president in front of over 1,000 who attended a ceramah here last night despite Najib so far declining to go head-to-head with the former finance minister.
“Najib said our policies will destroy the country. So I say, let’s have a dialogue. He can speak for 20 minutes, I will speak for 10. He can reply for 20 minutes, and then I will reply in 10.
“He said he is not afraid of Anwar but afraid he will give me a fever. But I will use the space (in a debate) with respect,” the PKR de facto leader said.
BN chief Najib has previously demurred by saying that political parties were more important than individuals in Malaysia’s parliamentary democracy.
Anwar’s call for an open debate has so far been answered only once — in July 2008 — by then-Information Minister Datuk Ahmad Shabeery Cheek, an event broadcast live on national television.
Independent pollsters Merdeka Center revealed earlier this week that focus group discussions showed that most Malay professionals would like to see the two go toe-to-toe on policy issues.
“There appears to be a change in what the people want. They want a new culture of debate rather than smear campaigns,” Merdeka Center director Ibrahim Suffian had said.
A survey commissioned by PKR in August last year showed that Najib was more popular than Anwar especially among Malays despite being seen as indecisive and a poorer communicator.
The poll noted, however, that Anwar could combat Najib’s “surface appeal” by leveraging on his image as a strong, decisive leader with good communication skills and an understanding of economic issues.
“The world economy is slowing sharply, and the euro region headed for recession this year, the International Monetary Fund predicted Tuesday in a bleak update of global conditions. Overall, the world economy is expected to expand 3.25 percent in 2012 - down from the 4 percent projected by the IMF in the fall.
That figure includes 8.2 percent growth in China, still the world’s most quickly expanding economy, and 7 percent in India. U.S. growth is forecast at 1.8 percent, the same as the fund projected in the fall. In those cases and for the rest of the world, growth was being crimped by what remains the world’s major economic risk - the ongoing financial crisis in the euro zone. In a trio of reports released Tuesday morning, the IMF forecasts a “mild recession” for the 17-nation euro zone this year, and warns that matters could easily worsen”.
The above is indeed a grim outlook from the world financial body and will definitely affect the Malaysian economy, but what is Prime Minister Najib Razak doing about it?
Well, it looks like he is going to do what he does best - NOTHING!
To understand the man, you need to know his background
Having been brought up with a silver spoon, the 58-year-old Najib is oblivious to the actual predicament and hardship faced by the people, both hardcore poor and those who can hardly make ends meet.
As he is constantly being surrounded by all the good things in life, he can never understand what the word poor means. There may not be a good correlation for such an inference but the fact is - Najib is not able to and does not care for the people.
His main concern now is to ensure that UMNO-BN wins the 13th general election so that he can remain the prime minister of Malaysia. It is a simple one-item priority.
The rest is of little concern to him as he seems to show no worry at all about the state of our economy. He continues to hand out more goodies to the people with the latest being the RM500 per household that earns less than RM3,000 per month. How caring can this be when it is a one-off aid meant to entice votes for GE-13?
Long list of flops
Then the award of Proton to DRB-Hicom, which immediately said they didn't have money but must borrow from Maybank, which in turn has to borrow from somewhere else. What if the whole exercise flops and Maybank ends up with a huge bad debt? By the way, if you have guessed that the Employee Provident Fund and PNB are among the biggest Maybank shareholders - which ultimately translates to the ordinary Malaysian worker and the poor Malay fishermen and farmers - then you are right.
The Ministry of Defence is also going to waste money on some exorbitantly expensive naval vessels, similar to the useless Scorpene submarines that Najib ordered in 2002 and allegedly received a RM570million kickback from. No wonder, current Defense minister Zahid Hamidi has had his eye on the Typhoon jet fighter for a while now. What a juicy piece of steak this must be for him!
MRT Corp, set up under the Ministry of Finance is expected to raise bonds soon for financing the RM50 billion Klang Valley MRT project. More money has to be borrowed and interest paid. Of course when the project starts there will be economic activities, but like all previous mega projects it is just a transient rise and will abruptly disappear once the money-making scheme is completed. Malaysians will then be treated to the same sour ending with the National Debt ballooning dangerously, while UMNO leaders and their cronies smile all the way to the bank, pockets bulging even more than ever.
The future is plain to see. The people will suffer from the poor service and with the maintenance of the KVMRT deteriorating so rapidly, the project will eventually need a bail out. No surprises for Malaysians used to this by now. With all due respect, history has shown that all the Malaysian LRT lines were bailed out because of bad planning and poor construction.
But for the KVMRT - the mother of all potential bailouts - this project is not going anywhere, and the completed structures will end up as white elephants, with the overall system only be partially completed. Due to its myriad problems, the entire system won’t be able to work and function properly. The KVMRT is doomed from the start. Don't forget - you read it first here!
The Iskandar project in Johor has been hailed by UMNO as being a huge success. But sad to say, that is only on paper. UMNO has been on an advertisement propaganda to show the people that all is fine on the southern end. But basically, it is mere photo-shoots, nice photos, charts and statistics but Iskandar, like the KVMRT, will only benefit select contractors and be of limited economic reach because the project will hang halfway due to poor planning.
Not economic projects but money-making schemes
You see, only the 'first mile' is important. This is where the crony contractors and developers get their hands on the juicy government contracts. What doe they care if the entire project fails to integrate with both the local and national economy? After does Najib, the PM and also Finance minister care? No, he is even more busy than they are excavating the economy for his benefit and those of select UMNO allies.
UMNO and Najib have succeeded only in launching money-making schemes. This is why Malaysia is slowly but surely going bankrupt. The people are not getting richer. Only a certain group have become fabulously rich. This is the problem with all UMNO economic activities. Because of their short-term nature, there is no lasting effect and in the end they create more trouble and burden for the people.
The IPPs are milking TNB and Petronas dry and that directly hurts the people who have to pay high fuel and energy tariffs. The completed highways are still collecting the ever increasing tolls and the effect is hiking the cost of everything. Again, this is another example of the UMNO money-making schemes, the worst and most clumsily covered-up example being the RM12.5billion Port Klang Free Zone scandal.
Praised for doing nothing
So, what a joke it was when the World Chinese Economic Forum (WCEF) crowned Najib the Father of Modernisation and Transformation when he has not even completed a single term in office and he has not even won a mandate of his own to lead Malaysia.
Despite all that, MCA president Chua Soi Lek put on a great show of support, tapping contacts in the WCEF group to honor Najib. But the joke was on them because the WCEF actually gave Najib an award for doing nothing!
What an achievement indeed! Were they being sarcastic by awarding Najib such a “grand” accolade that even the mainstream media did not dare to play up for fear it might spark nationwide sarcasm and boomerang on the BN.
But if ridicule, empty promises, giving more burden to the people, leading Malaysia to the brink of bankruptcy, whitewashing financial debacles like the RM250mil Shahrizat-NFC scandal and indecisiveness are the basis for the award, then Najib truly deserves it. What say you?
India - The year 2011 will be remembered as the time when many ever-optimistic US citizens began to give up hope. President John F Kennedy once said that a rising tide lifts all boats. But now, in the receding tide, those in the US are beginning to see not only that those with taller masts have been lifted far higher, but also that many of the smaller boats had been dashed to pieces in their wake.
In that brief moment when the rising tide was indeed rising, millions of people believed that they might have a fair chance of realising the "American Dream". Now those dreams, too, are receding. By 2011, the savings of those who had lost their jobs in 2008 or 2009 had been spent. Unemployment cheques had run out. Headlines announcing new hiring - still not enough to keep pace with the number of those who would normally have entered the labour force - meant little to the 50-year-olds with little hope of ever holding a job again.
Indeed, middle-aged people who thought that they would be unemployed for a few months have now realised that they were, in fact, forcibly retired. Young people who graduated from college with tens of thousands of dollars of education debt cannot find any jobs at all. People who moved in with friends and relatives have become homeless. Houses bought during the property boom are still on the market or have been sold at a loss. More than seven million families in the US have lost their homes.
The dark underbelly of the previous decade's financial boom has been fully exposed in Europe as well. Dithering over Greece and key national governments' devotion to austerity began to exact a heavy toll last year. Contagion spread to Italy. Spain's unemployment, which had been near 20 per cent since the beginning of the recession, crept even higher. The unthinkable - the end of the euro - began to seem like a real possibility.
This year is set to be even worse. It is possible, of course, that the United States will solve its political problems and finally adopt the stimulus measures that it needs to bring down unemployment to six or seven per cent (the pre-crisis level of four or five per cent is too much to hope for).
New twist to US foreclosures
But this is as unlikely as it is that Europe will figure out that austerity alone will not solve its problems. On the contrary, austerity will only exacerbate the economic slowdown. Without growth, the debt crisis - and the euro crisis - will only worsen. And the long crisis that began with the collapse of the housing bubble in 2007 and the subsequent recession will continue.
Moreover, the major emerging-market countries, which steered successfully through the storms of 2008 and 2009, may not cope as well with the problems looming on the horizon. Brazil's growth has already stalled, fuelling anxiety among its neighbours in Latin America.
Meanwhile, long-term problems - including climate change and other environmental threats, and increasing inequality in most countries around the world - have not gone away. Some have grown more severe. For example, high unemployment has depressed wages and increased poverty.
The good news is that addressing these long-term problems would actually help to solve the short-term problems. Increased investment to retrofit the economy for global warming would help to stimulate economic activity, growth and job creation. More progressive taxation, in effect redistributing income from the top to the middle and bottom, would simultaneously reduce inequality and increase employment by boosting total demand. Higher taxes at the top could generate revenues to finance needed public investment, and to provide some social protection for those at the bottom, including the unemployed.
US students drown in sea of debt
Even without widening the fiscal deficit, such "balanced budget" increases in taxes and spending would lower unemployment and increase output. The worry, however, is that politics and ideology on both sides of the Atlantic, but especially in the US, will not allow any of this to occur. Fixation on the deficit will induce cutbacks in social spending, worsening inequality. Likewise, the enduring attraction of supply-side economics, despite all of the evidence against it (especially in a period in which there is high unemployment), will prevent raising taxes at the top.
Even before the crisis, there was a rebalancing of economic power - in fact, a correction of a 200-year historical anomaly, in which Asia's share of global GDP fell from nearly 50 per cent to, at one point, below ten per cent. The pragmatic commitment to growth that one sees in Asia and other emerging markets today stands in contrast to the West's misguided policies, which, driven by a combination of ideology and vested interests, almost seem to reflect a commitment not to grow.
As a result, global economic rebalancing is likely to accelerate, almost inevitably giving rise to political tensions. With all of the problems confronting the global economy, we will be lucky if these strains do not begin to manifest themselves within the next twelve months.
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