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An Exposition of the Way in which Umno Women's chief Shahrizat Jalil Discover the Faults in her Soul.

2012-02-03T21:10:00.000-08:00

EXECUTIVE AND LEGISLATIVE

The responsibility for the administration of the Government, in an Islamic state, is entrusted to an Amir (leader or chief) who may be likened to the President or the Prime Minister in the conventional democratic state.

The basic qualifications for the election of an Amir are that he should command the confidence of the ABLUL HAL WAL'AQD [The Constitutional Body).

They are recruited from among the scholars (of Islam), leaders, and notables who effectively have the duty to carry out this task of appointing the ruler. In this, they do not act on their own personal preferences, but on behalf of the whole nation, being as they are, its representatives. Three conditions must be met for eligibility to membership of this body, namely:

Moral credit (piety and moral standards).
To be well versed in religion so as to be in a position to decide upon who deserves the position of Amir.
Good and sound judgment leading to a sharp perception of who is most suitable for the role of Amir.
The Amir can retain office only so long as he observes Allah's Shari'ah laws. Being himself the primary example of it both in her dealings and conduct, honoring her commitments and being true to his trust; in brief, she should conform to the conditions originally stipulated upon his holding office and will have to vacate his office when he loses this confidence. But as long as she retains such confidence he will have the authority to govern and exercise the powers of the Government, of course, in consultation with the Shura (the advisory council) and within the limits set by a Shari’ah. Every citizen will have the right to criticize the sharizat should she deviate from the straight path, fail to honor the trust laid in her, transgress and tyrannize over people, change his conduct for the worst, freeze the implementation of Allah's penal code, or flouts Allah's regulations in anyway. If she fails to live up to one of the conditions stipulated for her eligibility to the office, the nation has the right to overrule her judgment either by correcting him or by deposing them.

Legislation in an Islamic state will be restricted within the limits prescribed by the law of the Shari'ah. The injunctions of God and His legislative body can make any alterations or modifications in them or make any law repugnant to them. As for the commandments which are liable to two or more interpretations the duty of ascertaining the real intent of the Shari'ah, in such cases, will devolve on people possessing a specialized knowledge of the law of Shari'ah. Hence, such affairs will have to be referred to a sub committee of the advisory council compressing men learned in Islamic Law. A vast field will still be available for legislation on questions not covered by any specific injunctions of the Shari'ah and the advisory council or legislature will be free to legislate in regard to these matters.

In Islam the judiciary is not placed under the control of the executive. It derives its authority directly from the Shari'ah and is answerable to God. The judges, no doubt can be appointed by the Government but once a judge has occupied the bench he will have to administer justice among the people according to the law of God in an impartial manner. The organs and functionaries of the Government will not be outside his legal jurisdiction much so that even the highest executive authority of the Government is liable to be called upon to appear in a court of law as a plaintiff or defendant like any other citizen of the state. Rulers and the ruled are subject to the same law and there can be no discrimination on the basis of position, power or privilege. Islam stands for equality and scrupulously sticks to this principle in social, economic and political realms alike.
Motives and Incentives
Time for Shahrizat's family to stop hiding behind her

In her bid to negotiate better terms of release for her family, Shahrizat has fired a salvo at her enemies, warning that no one in Umno was without "problems" - which some see as a threat to expose her colleagues if they attacked her too hard.

But critics say corruption is corruption and even if her motivations are for her family, it is time she faced up to the woes caused by the mismanagement in NFC. And perhaps, it is time too for her family to come out and own up to their alleged faults in the NFC, rather than to expect her to keep protecting them.

"In the first place, corruption is wrong. So to sympathize is out. If the allegations are true, then she too would have enjoyed the holidays, the condos and perks. Surely, her husband and children wouldn't have left her out of their activities. Does it make sense?" said Tian Chua.

This concept of Islam about woman and her place in the universe also provides those motivating forces which can inspire a person to act in conformity with the moral law. The fact, that a man voluntarily and willingly accepts God as her own Creator, and the obedience to God as the mode of his life and strives to seek Her Pleasure in his every action, provides a sufficient incentive to enable her to obey the commandments which she believes to be from God. Along with this, the belief in the Day of Judgment and the belief that whosoever obeys Divine Commands is sure to have a good life 'in the Hereafter, the Eternal Life, whatever difficulties and handicaps he may have to face in this transitory phase of life, provides a strong incentive for virtuous life. On the other hand, the belief that whoever violates the Commandments of God in this world and dies in a state of Kufr (unbelief) shall have to bear eternal punishment however superficially nice a life he may have led in this temporary abode, is an effective deterrent against violation of moral law. If this hope and fear are firmly ingrained, and deeply rooted in one's heart, they will provide a strong motive-force to inspire one to virtuous deeds even on occasions when worldly consequences may appear to be very damaging and harmful, and it will keep one away from evil even on occasions when it looks extremely attractive and profitable.

The Malaysian public has been exposed to many such scandals, including Najib's own alleged RM570 million commission from the purchase of two Scorpene submarines. Several new corporate deals involving a ridiculously cheap sale of shares in national car company Proton to Umno crony Syed Mokhtar Albukhary, an exorbitantly priced RM7bil West Coast Expressway project and the controversial AirAsia-MAS share swap are also being questioned.

There are growing demands on the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission to take action on the various cases. But the NFC has drawn the greatest attention, with Malaysians angered at the agency's perceived deliberate inaction against Shahrizat's husband Salleh Ismail, who was accused by another Umno personality Shamsubahrin Ismail of paying him to bribe the police to influence the outcome of the investigations.

Salleh has been in prolonged police remand, again prompting talk of infighting raging in Umno as the various factions take sides and negotiate for the best terms in which to draw the curtains on the scandal.

Apart from Shahrizat and Najib, those involved are deputy prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin who has refused to call for a Royal Commission of Inquiry, former prime minister Abdullah Badawi, Youth Chief Khairy Jamaluddin and Noh Omar, the current Agriculture minister who oversees the project.

This clearly indicates that Islam possesses a distinctive criterion of good and evil, its own source of moral law, and its own sanction and motive force, and by them its virtues in all spheres of life after knitting them into a balanced and comprehensive plan. Thus, it can be justifiably claimed that Islam possesses a perfect moral system of its own. This system has many distinguishing features and I shall refer to the three most significant ones which, in my opinion, can be termed its special contributions to ethics.

Re-reading Islamic textual sources is not the simple answer to patriarchal interpretations and practices among Muslims. The answer is beyond that of gender and linguistics. It is more fundamentally about broadening our concepts of religion and revelation. Muslim women should take the lead challenging narrow ideas about who has “religious” authority.

An Exposition of the Way in which a woman Discover the Faults in her Soul.
An Exposition of the Way in which a Man may Discover the Faults in his Soul.
Firstly, she should sit before a Shaykh who has insight into these faults and hidden weaknesses, and put him in authority over his soul, and follow the instructions he gives in connection with his struggle therewith.

Secondly,she may seek out a true, perceptive and religious friend, and appoint him to be the overseer of her soul, so that he notes here circumstances and deeds, and brings to her attention the inner and external faults, acts and traits which she finds dislikeable inher. This was the practice of the wise herand the great leaders of the Faith.

'Umar (may God be pleased with him) used to say, 'May God grant His mercy to a woman who shows me my faults'. And he used to ask Salman about her faults when they met, saying, ''What things have you heard about me that you find dislikeable?' Salman pleaded to be excused answering this but when he insisted, replied, 'I have heard that you once ate two kinds of food at one meal, and that you have two sets of clothing, one to wear at night and the other for the day.' 'Have you heard anything else?' he enquired, and he said that he had not. 'These two things,'he said, 'I now renounce'.

It was ever the desire of religious people to discover their faults through being told of them by others; however, things have come to such a pass with us that the most hateful of all people are those who counsel us and draw our attention to our defects.

The third way is to learn of the faults of one's soul by listening to the statements of one's enemies, for a hostile eye brings out defects: it may happen that a womam gains more from an enemy and a foe who reminds him of his faults than from a dissimulating friend who praises and speaks highly of him, and hides from him his faults. Although human nature is inclined to disbelieve an enemy and to interpret his statements as the fruit of envy, still, the man of insight, whose faults must necessarily be noised abroad in the statements of his foes will not fail to derive some benefit.

The fourth way is to mingle with people, and to attribute to oneself every blameworthy thing which one sees in them. For 'the believers are mirrors one to another', and recognize their own faults in the faults of others, knowing that temperaments are similar in the following of desire, and that every attribute in a man must be shared by his associate to some degree; thus one will come to scrutinise one's own soul and cleanse it of everything one finds blameworthy in others. This constitutes the highest degree of self-discipline. 'Were all people only to renounce the things they dislike in others they would not need anyone to discipline them. Jesus (upon whom be peace) was once asked, 'Who taught you?' 'I was taught by no-one,' he replied. 'I perceived the ignorance ofthe ignorant man, and avoided it'.

[An excerpt from "Disciplining the Soul" by al-Imam al-Ghazzali]

Embattled Umno Women's chief Shahrizat Jalil has refused to step down, stubbornly closing an eye to the growing calls from within her own party including from her own deputy and senior leaders such Mahathir Mohamad and Rafidah Aziz to do so, and pinning the blame on the opposition instead.

"The opposition did not make up the condo purchases, Mercedes Benz, holidays and what-nots. It is time for Shahrizat to own up. Her party is also telling her to step down. So it is no point to keep blaming PKR for doing a good job in exposing the abuse of public funds. Is she implying that Malaysians should punish Pakatan for telling on her and vote for BN because it helped her to cover up?" PKR MP for Batu Tian Chua toldMalaysia Chronicle.

One of the most unpopular women in Malaysia now

Indeed, it is strange that Shahrizat does not see that she has become one of the most unpopular women in the country and has forgotten that one of the reasons why she beat Rafidah so easily for the Wanita presidency in the 2009 internal polls was because Rafidah was seen as guilty of corruption over the motor-vehicle Authorized Permits.

Nonetheless, Shahrizat is determined to go back to work on Monday, telling reporters of her decision on her return from Mecca on Friday. Like many Umno leaders including Prime Minister Najib Razak and wife Rosmah Mansor, whenever faced with scandals, Shahrizat sought refuge in performing the Umrah (smaller pilgrimage) to seek divine advice.

"I would not be worth my salt as a minister and leader of 1.3 million members if I am weak and succumb to this type political theatre orchestrated by the Opposition," Shahrizat told reporters.

"All these attacks and the greed (kerakusan) of the Opposition that I have witnessed have only made me more determined to continue to lead Wanita Umno's charge into the next general election.

Wanita Umno already divided by the NFC debacle

Yet, she had no rebuttal to make when asked to comment on the quit calls from Rafidah or Kamilia Ibrahim, her deputy, opting once again to hide behind the mantle of the Wanita chief's chair for protection.

"I have deep respect for her as the former Wanita Umno chief, but I am the chief now and my job is to make sure Wanita Umno is prepared and ready to face the next polls," Shahrizat said with regards to Rafidah's comments.

"I know where she is coming from," said Shahrizat, referring to her deputy Kamilia. Her words which insinuated Kamilia, who issued a press statement describing her as a burden, was after her job confirmed that the wing was already bitterly divided.

Despite Shahrizat's bold words and fight-back, most Wanita members are unhappy because of the corruption allegations against her family over the RM250mil National Feedlot Centre financial debacle.

They want her to step down pending investigations, especially against the possibility that the 13th general election might be held later this year, and the highly publicized NFC scandal would surely drive voters away from Wanita Umno.

“The point is: damn it, decide, don’t leave it the decision to go to the prime minister. Don’t leave the onus on the prime minister to decide for you,” the Malay Mali reported a no-holds-barred Rafidah as saying earlier this week.

Dragging Umno deeper into the NFC fire

Former Umno president Mahathir too has advised her to quit "before she is chased out".
But it looks Shahrizat is determined to drag Umno deeper into the affair, which some of her supporters believe was prompted by the prime minister himself. The Umno grapevine is buzzing with talk that Najib wanted to replace Shahrizat with Raja Nong Chik in the Lembah Pantai parliamentary seat.
But sadly for Umno, the tinderbox turned into a Pandora's box and Najib is now unable to douse the fire of his own making. As Shahrizat's rivals in Umno rail at her to resign, her supporters are telling to last it out and bargain for the best from Najib before she agrees to quit. To them, Najib's camp is to blame for the Raja Nong Chik threat and the PM deserves the ensuing headache for plotting against her.
Indeed, Raja Nong Chik, who is the Umno Lembah Pantai division chief and FT minister, has already busied himself in the constituency and buntings and banners with his picture alongside Najib's can be spotted all over the Kerinchi and Bangsar areas.

We conclude from the above that seeing the faults of others could bring about either one of two consequences: positive or negative.

Positive is when we reflect what we see from the faults of others on our state, and then from there, begin rectifying our state. Positive is also when we ask Allah to bless us with the exceptional wisdom in offering sincere advice (make da'wah) to those with faults hoping that in return a friend would do the same when they see our faults.

Negative, as we would generally have already experienced, is when arrogance creeps in on oneself, refusing to reflect and 'attribute to oneself every blameworthy thing which one sees in others'.

اللهم استر عوراتنا وآمن روعاتنا

We ask Allah to help us rectify our state and purify our soul...

Anger. Some advices for us all.

The Prophet 'alayhissalatu wassalam was asked, "What will save me from the wrath of God?" He said, "Do not express your anger."

He, 'alayhissalatu wassalam, has also said: “If one of you gets angry, he should be quiet.”

"The strong man is not the one who can throw another down. The strong man is the one who can keep hold of himself when he is angry.”

~~~

Anger, if it is truly and sincerely for Allah's sake, will only inspire us to noble deeds and to personal sacrifice, and never to base, unjust, or ignoble actions.

Anger is a very powerful emotion. It rages through a person, creating a desire for revenge and for striking out at the object of anger.

Anger is an emotion that inspires action, if left unchecked and uncontrolled, it is the emotion that can lead a person to the evilest of deeds and to the worst consequences.

Anger is a destabilizing thought. It is the most dividing emotion between friends; it takes away judgment, leads to depression, madness and wrong actions that we would repent later on when we are not angry.

~~~

Anger that inspires a person to avenge his own personal feelings is indeed blameworthy.

Among the chief causes of anger are pride and arrogance, since a prideful person is most easily offended and the most painfully stung by criticism.

Another cause of anger is being argumentative. The more a person disputes with others, the less likely he is to accept the truth. His views become increasingly polarized and emotionally charged.

Anger snatches away the wisdom of man and thus he becomes a brute beast devoid of any sense.

Anger weakens a person's Iman.

~~~

One preventive medicine is to avoid being too sensitive to pressure and become "deaf, dumb and mute".

~~~

Check the circumstance, check your words, check yourself. Because sometimes, you may find that the other person violated one rule and find yourself violating ten.

اللهم بصر لنا عيوبنا

O Lord, show us our own flaws!

May Allah forgive . . .

Minister Raja Datuk Nong Chikwill give his Letter of Personal Guarantee today he would safeguard EPF’s interests

2012-02-03T01:05:00.000-08:00

Minister Raja Datuk Nong Chik is Fuel That will triger the Subprime Meltdown in Malaysia

PKR has bashed a move to use RM1.5 billion from the Employee's Provident Fund (EPF) to help finance those unable to obtain bank loans to buy low-cost public housing units.

"Even banks are not prepared to give the loans. What is the EPF's investment panel doing?

"Why is EPF money being used as BN's pocket money?" asked party vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar (right) at a press conference today.

At least four banks were brought in to help draft the financing agreement, Nurul Izzah said, and asked why EPF's funds were being used if commercial banks did not deem the scheme financially sound.

"We don't want a situation like the subprime mortgage crisis in the US, where borrowers could not service their loans, but with the EPF instead of banks (in trouble)," she said, adding that EPF funds were also used to finance the light rail transit (LRT) project.

"The government can't go vote-buying on a whim simply because elections are around the corner.

"You (the government) can help the Public Housing Project (PPR) community, but don't use EPF funds for that purpose," the MP for Lembah Pantai added.

On Monday, Federal Territories and Urban Wellbeing Minister Raja Nong Chik Raja Zainal Abidin had reportedly announced an "easy financing scheme" for 20,000 eligible PPR tenants and potential buyers who could not obtain bank loans.

DAP's publicity chief Tony Pua has also objected the move, saying that EPF's role is to ensure the financial security of the retirement funds of its contributors.

Both Pua and Nurul Izzah suggested turning to Bank Rakyat and Malaysia Building Society Bhd for the purpose instead.

key reason for that is America’s unending housing debacle, which has overrun millions of American homeowners leaving them broke, broken and angry.

From 2006 to 2010 American real estate prices plummeted 30 per cent, losing a stunning $6 trillion off their value.

That’s what pushed former realtor Charles Koppa to the edge, inspiring him to launch his grassroots “Mad as Hell” seminars in Ramona, Calif., near San Diego.

His aim, he says, is to arm people with sufficient knowledge to take on the “banksters,” who force-fed investors, then forced foreclosures nationwide, stripping homeowners of whatever equity they had.

Koppa, 71, wants an end to what he calls “foreclosure tyranny,” and hopes to harness the Internet to inspire an “Occupy Our Homes” movement much like Occupy Wall Street.

“I’m tailoring seminars so that people can start to gather forces in their own homes.”

Their theme song, Koppa reveals, is Leonard Cohen’s “Everybody Knows.” (“Everybody knows the fight was fixed/the poor stay poor, the rich get rich.”)

On Tuesday, in response to growing national concern, President Obama vowed to launch an investigation into the handling of mortgages during the crisis.

The tsunami of statistics that attach to the crisis stagger: 2.2 million homes are now in foreclosure with more on the way; $800 billion in existing mortgages are more than 90-days delinquent; new home sales that once stood at 1.28 million in 2005 plummeted to just 305,000 in 2011; and 2 million construction jobs have been lost.

America’s housing sector is a wasteland with some cities featuring not one, but several boulevards of broken dreams.

Given all this, perhaps it was more than idle rhetoric this month when Republican hopeful Mitt Romney, in a speech following his victory in the New Hampshire primary, claimed “the middle class has been crushed” and that his campaign was all about “saving the soul of America.”

But it will take more than rhetoric, idle or otherwise, to steer America back to prosperity.

The capacity of the American economy to both build and attract facilities that produce jobs is also in sharp decline.

A new survey and study from the Harvard Business School this month shows America’s competitiveness is faltering and the immediate future isn’t bright.

More than 70 per cent of respondents — a cohort of 10,000 HBS graduates in senior executive positions in America and all over the world — say they expect the decline in American competitiveness to continue for at least three more years, dragging American living standards down with it.

More troubling, respondents report from first-hand experience, the U.S. is losing two-thirds of all bids to land new job-producing facilities.

The multi-year study shows that more facilities have moved out of the U.S, than have moved in.

“The threat to U.S. competitiveness we face today is far more complex than the one America confronted in the 1980s,” lead author Michael E. Porter cautions.

This time, it’s not just about Japan, and re-educating an American auto industry to learn about “fit and finish,” “just-in-time” supply deliveries and better fuel efficiency.

It’s more than that. America is now competing in a world with not one but more than 100 competitors, and must make deep structural changes to become more productive, creating more value per unit of resources deployed, if it wants to compete.

But there’s another problem.

“The U.S. government is more fiscally constrained and politically gridlocked than it was three decades ago,” Porter writes. The implicit message: gridlock must go if America is to move ahead.

But some aren’t so sure that America is positioned to make that turnaround.

“I think America’s pre-eminence in the world, which resulted from the 20th century and two world wars and the Cold War, that period of economic and political dominance is clearly ending,” says Canadian writer Ronald Wright, author of the 2009 bestseller, What is America?

American prosperity was built on what many thought was never-ending expansion, he says. While the expansion is over, attitudes of the period still linger.

“Americans got used to the idea that things were always going to get bigger and better and that standards of living would always rise,” says Wright. But so it was, too, with the imperial powers of Britain and France and Spain before them: they all had to learn accept limits eventually.

“I don’t think this spells doom for the American republic,” he says, provided “the republic realizes it has to play by the same rules as other nations do, take part in international agreements and deal with common problems.”

If America can adapt to these changing circumstances, perhaps the “party” Lucy Berrington felt she came to late can be revived.

“A friend of mine said, ‘The party isn’t winding down. You just arrived at an awkward pause,’” she says. “I can’t agree. If it is an awkward pause, it’s going to be a very long awkward pause and I think there’s going to be a lot of trouble before it gets going again.

“I hope it does,” she says

Indian Government’s Credibility stands shattered, and the Apex Court said it more clearly.

2012-02-02T22:30:00.000-08:00

The SC order said quite clearly that then telecom minister A Raja "wanted to favour some companies at the cost of the public exchequer" and lists seven steps he took to ensure this happened. Here are the steps as the SC saw them:

1. After taking over as telecom minister, Raja directed that all applications received for UAS licences should be kept pending till receipt of the Trai's recommendations

2. The recommendations made by Trai on August 28, 2007, were not placed before the fullTelecom Commission which would have included the finance secretary. The notice of the meeting of the Telecom Commission was not given to any of the non-permanent members though Trai's recommendations for allocation of 2G spectrum had serious financial implications and it was therefore necessary for DoT to take the finance ministry's opinion under theGovernment of India (Transaction of Business) Rules, 1961.

3. The DoT officers who attended the Telecom Commission meeting held on October 10, 2007, had no choice but to approve Trai's recommendations, since they would otherwise have "incurred" Raja's "wrath".

4. Since Cabinet had approved recommendations made by the Group of Ministers, the DoT had to discuss the issue of spectrum pricing with the finance ministry. But, since Raja knew that the finance secretary had objected to the allocation of 2G spectrum at rates fixed in 2001, he did not consult the finance minister or other officials.

5. Raja brushed aside the law minister's suggestion that the matter should be placed before the empowered group of ministers. Also, within hours of the receipt of the suggestion made by the PM in his letter dated November 2, 2007, that keeping in view the inadequacy of spectrum, transparency and fairness should be maintained in allocation of the spectrum, Raja rejected it saying that it would be unfair, discriminatory, arbitrary and capricious to auction spectrum to new applicants because it would not give them a level-playing field. He also introduced a cut-off date of September 25, 2007, for considering applications though only the previous day a DoT press release had said October 1, 2007, would be the last date. This arbitrary action of Raja "though appears to be innocuous was actually intended to benefit some of the real estate firms who did not have any experience in dealing with telecom services and who had made applications only on 24.9.2007, i.e. one day before the cut-off date fixed by the C&IT minister on his own".
6. The cut-off date of September 25, 2007, decided by Raja on November 2, 2007, was not made public till January 10, 2008, and the first-come-first-served principle followed since 2003 was changed by him at the last moment through a press release dated January 10, 2008. "This enabled some of the applicants, who had access either to the minister or DoT officers, get bank drafts prepared towards performance guarantee of about Rs 1,600 crore".
7. "The manner in which the exercise for grant of LoIs to the applicants was conducted on 10.1.2008 leaves no room for doubt that everything was stage managed to favour those who were able to know in advance change in the implementation of the first-come-first-served polcy." As a result, some firms which had submitted applications in 2004 or 2006 were pushed down in the priority and those who had applied between August and September 2007 succeeded
By any yardstick, the Supreme Court’s judgment cancelling the licences of 122 companies providing 2G services in the country is unprecedented. Unprecedented because never in the past has the nation’s top court been so scathing, ruthless, precise, and, should one say, decisive in a case where there were tremendous amount of other interests.

Just rewind over a decade and look at the limited mobility licences that the government had doled out. The government allowed these licensees to roll out proper mobility on the sly, creating huge third-party interests in the bargain. The third-party interest referred to the common man who had made use of the services, so rolling it all back would hurt the common man’s interests, something no one in this country is happy doing. Similar have been the cases with the misuse of land. So, the courts have generally gone by the rule of levying a fine and legitimising all that. If anything, the third-party interests this time around were FAR greater, but the apex court still did what was unimaginable. Clearly, the nation’s top court has only reinforced its reputation of being the strongest pillar of the democracy.

What does this mean for the licensees and the government and the corporate sector on the whole? The answer to all these questions is: huge setback.

For the government, especially, the repercussions are massive. How will it now handle these licensees, who have a valid license to offer these services? How will it justify such a change to overseas investors, indeed governments? What about the huge amounts of money already been sunk in by banks? As a consequence, what impact would it have on the banking sector itself? And of course, what will the government do with the millions of subscribers hooked on to one or the other of these 122 licensees? And, how can one forget the numerous legal battles that are likely to come up as a consequence.

This government has lost its bearings, as such a strong indictment from the court shows. The court has agreed with the contention that things were indeed murky enough in the allotment for it to take such a drastic step. And who caused all this murkiness? To say that it was A Raja alone would be naive and it seems the courts have hinted along those lines already. Given that, Chidambaram should consider himself on borrowed time alone.

And not that the opposition party/ies should claim any major victory either. Anybody else who was better organised would have decimated the ruling dispensation by now, but so much had all of them been involved in some parts of the scam that there was never more than a murmur of protest. The entire credit for the court’s stinker goes to the singular efforts of a maverick Subramanian Swamy and an activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan.

Things that one will wait for now are how the government addresses the issues raised above, and if some of those who have remained unscathed through all this will also now be exposed.

For a government that has been handing over issues on a platter virtually to its detractors – CWG, CVC appointment, Adarsh Housing, Gen Singh’s age row, ISRO scientists – this should clearly be a significant nail (I am not yet calling it the last nail) in the coffin. Does one need any more proof of drift, misgovernance, mismanagement and complete leadership vacuum? Whether it accepts it or not, this government’s credibility stands shattered, and the apex court couldn’t have said it any more clearly.

Whats you damage Ananda Krishnan after India's top court revokes telecoms licences

2012-02-02T18:46:00.000-08:00

BY THE TAXIDRIVER

The corporate battle between the two promoters of the new telecom licensee Datacom Solutions notwithstanding, the company has given its branding assignment to Interbrand, the global brand consultancy major. Interbrand, which has previously worked with telecom giants like AT&T, Deutsche Telekom and Telekom Malaysia, will work on the name, strategy and the personality of the brand under which Datacom would launch its telecom services. "Datacom is the name of the company, but will not be the service brand.

India's supreme court has revoked all 122 telecoms licences issued under a scandal-tainted 2008 sale, plunging the mobile network market of Asia's third-largest economy into uncertainty.

Thursday's ruling is a setback for Manmohan Singh's government, which oversaw the sale of the licences at below-market prices, costing the exchequer up to an estimated $36bn in lost revenues,

The licences affected by Thursday's decision include those held by Unitech Wireless, the Indian joint venture of Norway's Telenor and Unitech.

The court said the current licences would remain in place for four months, in which time the government should decide fresh norms for issuing licences, a lawyer involved in the case said.

"We have been unfairly treated as we simply followed the government process we were asked to," the Telenor joint venture said in a statement.

"We are shocked to see that Uninor is being penalised for faults the court has found in the government process."

The telecoms scandal is the biggest of several to emerge during Singh's second term and set off massive street protests last year.

Two ministers, including former telecoms minister A Raja, who presided over the 2008 grant process, have resigned. Raja is in prison awaiting trial.

"This country is no longer willing to allow these corrupt corporations and these corrupt public officials to retain the benefits of their illegal and corrupt actions," Prashant Bhushan, a lawyer and petitioner in the case, said.

India is the second-largest mobile-phone market in the world by subscribers, with 894 million at the end of December, although the market is crowded with more than a dozen operators, making call rates among the lowest in the world.

Investors and operators have long been calling for consolidation in the crowded industry, and Thursday's ruling stands to benefit the country's biggest operators, including Bharti Airtel and Vodafone.

Stocks in telecoms companies, including Reliance Communications and Unitech, fell after the verdict, but shares in Bharti Airtel jumped

“Dayanidhi as Telecom Minister misused office in Aircel deal”

The Central Bureau of Investigation on Monday conducted simultaneous searches on the premises of the former Union Minister, Dayanidhi Maran, and his elder brother and Sun Network managing director, Kalanithi Maran, in connection with a case arising out of the Aircel-Maxis deal.

Special teams conducted the searches in New Delhi, Chennai and Hyderabad, sources in the agency said. Earlier, the CBI registered a case against the Maran brothers as well as against Ralph Marshall and T. Ananda Krishnan of Maxis Communications, Malaysia. The agency has also named three private companies, including SUN Direct TV and Maxis Communications, in the First Information Report (FIR).

The CBI had been conducting a preliminary enquiry into the Aircel-Maxis deal in the past few months. The agency also named M/s Astro All Asia Networks, U.K., and other unknown officials and persons among the accused.

While Marshall is Director of M/s Astro All Asia Networks and M/s Maxis Communications Bhd, Malaysia, Ananda Krishnan heads M/s Usaha Tegas Sdn Bhd, Malaysia.

“The case has been registered under Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code, Sections 7, 12 and Section 13 (2) read with Section 13 (1) (d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988,” CBI spokesperson Dharini Mishra said in Delhi.

In Chennai, searches were being conducted at the homes of the Marans in the Boat Club area and Murasoli Maran Towers that houses the Sun Network.

According to the FIR, Mr. Dayanidhi Maran, as Telecom Minister, allegedly misused his office to help Ananda Krishnan, a business tycoon from Malaysia, to acquire Indian telecom firm Aircel. The CBI has alleged that in return, Ananda Krishnan invested close to Rs.800 crore in Sun Network through a sister concern of the Maxis group.

The CBI also searched the premises of Suneeta Reddy, Executive Director of Apollo Hospitals, in Chennai and Hyderabad, even though she has not been named in the FIR. She had served as Chairperson of Aircel and invested in it.

In his statement to the CBI, the former Aircel owner, C. Sivasankaran, alleged that Mr. Dayanidhi Maran delayed grant of licences to Aircel. However, within months of Aircel changing hands to the Maxis group, Mr. Maran's Ministry issued 14 Letters of Intents, which were converted into licences in December 2006.

Mr. Dayanidhi Maran, who was Textiles Minister in UPA-II, resigned in July this year. The Marans were questioned by the CBI last month.

The former Minister has denied all charges, including pressuring Mr. Sivasankaran into selling Aircel.

Documents seized

Special teams that searched the premises of Mr. Dayanidhi Maran and others seized documents pertaining to the Aircel-Maxis deal, a CBI official said.

“The case was registered after prima facie offence was made out in the preliminary enquiry. For weeks, the agency gathered documentary evidence in connection with the allegations involving the former Union Minister, his brother and others. The teams have seized some documents pertaining to the case during the day-long search that ended around 5.30 p.m.,” the CBI official said.

According to a CBI official, when the team reached the house of the Maran brothers, a private security guard stopped them, saying he had no instructions to let them in. After about 20 minutes, the team managed to make their way in along with a household staff member, who entered the campus.

While Mr. Dayanidhi Maran was away, Mr. Kalanithi Maran was at home when the search took place, the official said.

Keywords: Dayanidhi Maran, 2G spectrum scam, Aircel-Maxis deal, telecom scandal, Maran brothers

Privatization given to his cronies consistently required bailouts that cost the country billions. EPF, Petronas…all the Government controlled financial institution were quietly bleeding money to ‘reimburse’ cronies given projects by Mahathir but who have failed to make them viable. We hear people talk not in terms of millions but billions…and yet no one was held accountable for these massive abuse of Public funds. I saw picture ofshirtless on Ananda’s yacht. Mahathir horse riding. Mahathir this and Mahathir that and that was when the doubt started. Business and Politics makes strange bedfellows but makes some men very rich.

http://themalaybusinesstribune.blogspot.com/2009/08/malaysian-tycoon-ananda-krishnan-if-you.html

Malaysian billionaire T Ananda Krishnan,vsMUKESH Ambani, are in telecom,

MUKESH Ambani is back in telecom,
and with a bang. Buying up Infotel Broadband, which bid the most in the
broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum auctions and secured 20 MHz of
spectrum in every single one of India’s 22 telecom circle, RIL now
controls more spectrum than any of the established telecom players, and
will pay, per MHz of spectrum, one fifth of what 3G bidders have. 20 MHz
at one go is what is needed for efficient network planning as well.

True,
Infotel would be offering high-speed data services, and not
specifically voice services. Does this mean that it would not offer
voice? In a technologically advanced communication network, all
information is first broken up into a large number of discrete packets,
which then are transmitted over the network according to protocols
together called an internet protocol (IP) suite. At the receiver’s end,
these packets of information are put together in the right order, to
reproduce the original information. In an all-IP network of the kind
being planned by Infotel, it doesn’t matter what that information is. It
could be video, text, music or, of course, voice. Voice is a subset of
the communication services that can be rendered by a high-speed data
network. It would be a waste of resources to restrict the data network
to delivering just voice, but since voice packets would occupy very
little space, in comparison with, say, a high definition video, voice
can be transmitted at very little cost as well. In other words, there is no technological constraint on
the BWA spectrum being used to deliver the full range of 2G and 3G
services, and then some.

This technology would not be cheap, at
current volumes of customer premise equipment (CPE is jargon for what
consumers use – phone, modem, etc to receive the data signals). But
volumes can go up dramatically,

as Reliance demonstrated when it originally
entered
telecom in 2003 and brought the cost of owning and using a wireless
phone crashing down. So the cost restriction is a function of scale. And
scale is something that the Ambanis are good at.

Is there a
regulatory restriction? There is, sort of. Regulation does not allow
domestic calls from a phone to another phone using voice over IP. But calls can be made from a
computer to another computer. Since all 3G and more evolved phones are
all miniature computers, whether this regulatory restriction would apply
to them is open to question. In any case, it would be an anti-consumer
restriction meant only to protect the revenues of incumbent service
providers. Its removal would help make calls cheaper further. The
telecom regulator has already recommended that VOIP calls be allowed.

But
this debate matters for the telecom service providers. For the
consumers of telecom services, the possibility of cheap, highspeed data
connectivity offers game-changing possibilities.

Entertainment
has been a big play in high speed data services in developed markets. So
it would be in India. But here, it is entirely likely that this data
connectivity would be used for innovations to make good the paucity of a
variety of services that are taken for granted in developed markets:
for example, in education, health services, inclusive banking, delivery
of subsidy for food, fuel and fertiliser directly to the consumer. The
unique identity project would be a huge gainer from ubiquitous BWA.

Once
complemented with rural electricity, essential to light up an imaging
device, BWA can greatly boost rural productivity — designs for
handlooms, detailed, videographic instructions for growing orchids on a
remote hillside, techniques for making special cheeses, all sorts of
things would materialise, changing rural life forever.

2012-02-02T07:36:00.000-08:00

EVIL IN SAYANG VAN ROSMAH GOING ALLOUT NAJIB MUST WIN

Evil knows no gender. Men and women can be used by the Devil to cause tragedy to the world. Whether she’s a mass murderer, a serial killer or a corrupt leader, evil lived or lives inside of them. Women are naturally nurturing and caring. Although these nine vicious ladies proved to be disgraceful, we should not forget that there have been countless admirable women in history who have made or tried to make this world a better place to live in.

that's my boy for protecting me from the refuges from umno get my money readygoing shopping again for election freebies

2012-02-02T07:27:00.000-08:00

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has dismissed reports that his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor had spent RM325,000 on a shopping spree in Sydney recently.

means the describing of something and making it more that means her shopping is true

“It was a wildly exaggerated story deliberately fabricated to affect people’s perception of their leaders,” he said in a posting on his official Twitter account last night.

He was responding to a question from one of his followers about recent reports from Australia that Rosmah’s estimated bill for designer label clothing by Carl Kapp was around A$100,000 (RM323,000).

She must fulfill the freebies promises made in Najib election manifest is raining freebies in Malaysia once again. If Najib does not give you,Rosmah) will.If Najib promis anything free, rosmah will get you the same twice over. According to political analysts, the tipping point in freebies came during the las electionsIt is generally believed in political circles that the offer offreebies, B.N which was voted to office.Having tasted success, the think-tank within the ruling party sincerely believe whatever be the quality of administration, law and order, growth trajectory of the state, power and water crises, quality of infrastructure, and corruption charges hurled against it by the Barisan they can get away.

CORRUPTION WAS HUGELY ADVERTISED FOR INFORMATION AND ENTERTAINMENT OF PEOPLE,'THIS TIME' AROUND, IN ALL THE LANGUAGES OF UMNO, OVER DOZENS OF TV CHANNELS AND CATCHY ARTICLES WITH CARTOONS AND ILLUSTRATIVE PHOTOS AND VIDEOS, ALSO BROUGHT HOME TO THE PEOPLE THE SHEER BRAZENNESS AND THE UNPRECEDENTED SIZE IT HAS ASSUMED THROUGH THE BARISAN NATIONAL AT THE CENTRE, STAGING The popular psyche within UMNO has been undoubtedly impacted with indignation and frustration at UMNO. which was perceived as having vastly damaged UMNO's reputation as believed by the Malays. There was corruption, all the time, and there will be corruption all the time. This, whatever we as people and our various campaigns and NGOs may do, since democratic politics seems to attract only dacoits who are capable of only routine corruption colluding with administration and high value scams colluding with bureaucrats and accountants and UMUNO operators. Rosmah and Shahrizat Abdul Jalil will indeed have to make no mistake about these facts, the National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) scandalin scams and corruption, will need to live a 'new life' as leader of a party given mostly to vendetta with its rival, and get down to business for the uplift of the majority of masses suffering under the yokes of poor policy and administration in all spheres in MALAYSIA. She must not take more than one year to fulfill the freebies promises made in he election manifest

Promise of providing freebies like mixies and laptops to the people by political parties in Tamil Nadu is a “disturbing” trend, Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi said here today.

“We have been hearing news of parties in Tamil Nadu promising mixies and laptops to people in an attempt to impress them...this is a worrying trend and the public has been taking notice of it,” he said addressing a lecture on ’Sustaining Electoral Process- India’s initiatives’

On March 19, the ruling DMK in the State said it would distribute free mixies or grinders to women, free laptops to SC/ST students and free rice of 35 kg to BPL families if voted back to power.

The main opposition party AIADMK, on the other hand, promised 20 kg of free rice for ration-card holders, laptops for students from classes XI, free fans, mixers and grinders to all and mineral water to BPL families, besides four gms of gold for ‘Thali’ (mangalsutra) free of cost to poor women and cable TV connections at subsidised rates.

Mr. Quraishi said that his office could do little to curb this trend as the parties had chosen the distribution of freebies as their election manifesto but the Election Commission would act if “there was any distortion in the list of expenditure of candidates” at the end of the campaigning process.

He also said that those indulging in “unnecessary extravagances” in an attempt to “seduce the voters” would be reprimanded.

“Recently an observer caught a truck carrying chicken for a briyani party by one of the candidates in Tamil Nadu. Such ways to seduce the voters will not be encouraged,” he said.

Prime Minister Najib Razak has broken his silence on the firestorm created by news of his wife's latest shopping spree in Sydney, where she allegedly swept up 61 piece of clothing items from a top-notch boutique worth about RM323,000.

"It was a wildly exaggerated story deliberately fabricated to affect people's perception of their leaders," Najib said on his Twitter on Wednesday.

Najib confirms daggers are out for him

Critics have accused the 60-year-old Rosmah Mansor of being political 'poison' for her 58-year-old husband, who is fighting hard to stave off an ouster both from inside and outside his Umno party.

She is unpopular and an easy target due to her aggressive and brash ways. While well-educated and strong-willed, her penchant for the high and expensive lifestyle has been her Achilles heel. That Najib assigned to her a lot of discretionary power, especially over huge business deals, has also created more enemies for her, with many corporate captains complaining in private of her demanding ways.

"I have said it before and I will say it again. It is time Najib controls her. He must bring her to heel. She is upsetting people and they are poking all sorts of fire to get at him. But in the end, it is Malaysia which gets the bad name. Nowadays, do you know people look for Imelda Rosmah, and they say she is from Malaysia. Is this good or bad?" Zuraida Kamaruddin, the PKR Women's chief, told Malaysia Chronicle.

Backstabbers from Umno

PKR leaders also rubbished Najib's comments as targeting the opposition, pointing out he could be referring to his peers within Umno.

Indeed, the Pakatan Rakyat led by Opposition Leader Anwar is gaining ground each day, but the greater danger to Najib lies within Umno, where his deputy Muhyiddin Yassin and former premier Mahathir Mohamad are believed to be plotting to unseat him.

Speculation has swirled that the powerful Mahathir may team up with either Muhyiddin or Najib's own cousin Hishammuddin Hussein to wrest the Umno presidency from Najib. Mahathir is keen for his son Mukhriz to take over from either of these men after they have spent a term in office.

By convention, the Umno president is the prime minister it is the largest party in the ruling BN coalition. However, this applies only if BN wins the 13th general election, widely expected to be held soon.

"From what we read, it s obvious the leaks are from someone with very close information about Rosmah's personal schedule. That can only mean an inside Umno job," PKR vice president Tian Chua told Malaysia Chronicle.

Who lied - Rosmah, the designer or the journalist

The latest scandal erupted last month after an Australian fashion writer spilled the beans on Rosmah's shopping trip. The designer, whose boutique Rosmah had shopped in, later on issued a clarification that did not in any way amount to a denial.

Carl Kapp only insisted he never mentioned the sum AUD100,000 or RM323,000 but did not say if it was true Rosmah spent such an amount. He also confirmed the shopping spree but denied he was coming to Kuala Lumpur to take a special order soon.

Hot on the heels of that clarification, Australian fashion journalist Patty Huntington disclosed in detail in her blog several email exchanges between herself and Kapp, in a bid to defend the veracity of her original article that sparked the brouhaha.

That prompted Malaysians to again wonder if Rosmah had tried to cover up the matter by persuading Kapp to soften his comments to Patty.

Rosmah, a former banker, is no stranger to controversy. She has denied buying a US$24 million diamond ring, but till now the details provided by the Customs and Excise department are hazy and most Malaysians believe the speculation is true.

Her husband's administration is the weakest so far in post-independence Malaysia. Not only is racism and religious bigotry at an all time high due to intentional race-championing to garner votes, free-for-all corruption has broken out as Najib and his party mates rush for a last grab at national goodies before the GE-13, which could see their party booted out from power - the first time since 1957.

This election season, Tamil Nadu’s political parties are promising voters all sorts of freebies if voted into office, from blenders to sheep, as WSJ reported today.

: Amol Sharma for The Wall Street Journal; Retired school cafeteria worker E.S. Dhandapani says he wants long-term benefits, not freebies.

Just who would be footing the bill for all these gifts, you ask?

Tamil Nadu taxpayers, of course. And the bill could be quite hefty.

Neither of the two leading parties has estimated the cost of their pledged handouts, but for a sense of how costly such populist gift-giving can be, just look at the free color television program of the incumbent Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government.

Since 2006, the DMK regime has purchased 15.3 million TV sets to give away as freebies, costing taxpayers a whopping $773 million so far, according to the Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu Ltd., a state government-controlled entity that tracks information technology programs.

Each 14-inch TV set costs about $50 or $60, and the vendors include well-known manufacturers like Videocon Industries Ltd. as well as many small players. The official reason for giving away free color TVs is to provide “entertainment to women and to enable them to acquire General Knowledge,” ELCOT says on its Web site.

Given that most blenders and grinders – which have been promised by both M. Karunanidhi’s DMK and J. Jayalalithaa’s rival AIADMK this year – are priced in about the same range as the TVs, one can expect the state to be dishing out hundreds of millions more dollars on those gifts. Not to mention the additional costs of laptops, gold necklaces, and all else that’s being pledged.

A DMK spokesman could not be reached for comment. An AIADMK spokesman did not return a call seeking comment.

Though most Tamil Nadu voters won’t likely refuse free items, many say they are nonetheless upset with all the short-term political gamesmanship and wish their leaders would instead focus on solving real problems.

“We’re not aiming to get freebies – we want the government to give some long-term benefits” like a better old-age pension plan and more jobs for youngsters, said E.S. Dhandapani, a 61-year-old retired school cafeteria worker in Thiruvennainallur, a village in Villupuram district.

S. Subramaniam Balaji, a Chennai-based lawyer who is fighting to curb election-time giveaways on the grounds that they are thinly-disguised attempts to bribe voters, says the state is compromising worthy development programs to finance the handouts. “Everything gets sacrificed – education, hospitals, social security, infrastructure” he said. “You just can’t throw away money like that.”

Mr. Balaji’s petition to put a stop to the TV program is waiting to be heard, perhaps next year, in India’s Supreme Court. He also recently filed a complaint about this year’s Tamil Nadu electoral promises with India’s Election Commission.

Last month, India’s DNA newspaper reported that a right-to-information request by a Tamil journalist had revealed that about $16 million in state funds meant for lower caste welfare programs was diverted to buy color TVs.

Zero accountableTan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop must realise his duty to the Nation not to his Political Masters

2012-02-01T06:08:00.000-08:00

The age of intolerance Privileged class must realise its duty to the nation,the world's economy in crisis, two competing narratives of its sources - and appropriate remedies - are emerging. The first, better-known diagnosis is that demand has collapsed because of high debt accumulated prior to the crisis. Households (and countries) that were most prone to spend cannot borrow any more. To revive growth, others must be encouraged to spend - governments that can still borrow should run larger deficits, and rock-bottom interest rates should discourage thrifty households from saving.Under these circumstances, budgetary recklessness is a virtue, at least in the short term. In the medium term, once growth revives, debt can be paid down and the financial sector curbed so that it does not inflict another crisis on the world.

Daim zainuddin, easily the most respected Malay businessman, particularly when it comes to ethics, has said that the Malay of this nation are idolising the corrupt. This statement may come as a surprise only to those who have their eyes shut and believe only in pious platitudes about Ketuan Melayu and its Bumiputra status, being mouthed by the corrupt. We are going from bad to worse.As if the series of scandals and tales of mis-governance (or misrule) weren’t full up to the brim already, our ruling class have Shahrizat Jalil., Muhyiddin Yassin and NajibRazak .On the face of it, the goveernment's initial move may seem exemplary, set to warn the wrong doers. But, as all observers know by now, that is just part of the story. It is simply the case of government does not have the ability to hit back even as it covers its own misdeeds.Do our politicians and babus even sit back and think about the repercussions of their short-sighted actions? Just as it has needlessly politicised the defence services through its sloppy handling
will ever be willing to be on board of any organisation, or deal with a private sector company while in service. Why should he, if the political bosses and the all-powerful (and never do wrong) administrators do not support them when in need and wash their hands completely of any responsibility? Would these four barred scientists have evaluated everything themselves ? Could they have gone ahead with the entire deal when so much money was at stake without the involvement of babus and the politicians for critical permissions? The answer to that and a lot of other questions you might have is a straight NO! But still, thanks to them never being held accountable, they will, as always, go scot-free.he drift in the nation and its governance is all too palpable. It shows a complete leadership vacuum.

That's why I can say with confidence that rich people don't create jobs, nor do businesses, large or small. What does lead to more employment is the feedback loop between customers and businesses. And only consumers can set in motion a virtuous cycle that allows companies to survive and thrive and business owners to hire. An ordinary middle-class consumer is far more of a job creator than I ever have been or ever will be.How does this dynamic interaction show up in the macroeconomy? Economist Alan Krueger, currently serving as Chair of the President's Council of Economic Advisers summarized these findings in a recent speech, in a section on the consequences of economic inequality.

Less robust (or debt-financed) consumption. Seventy percent of the US economy is accounted for by consumer spending, so if that part of GDP lags, economic growth slows. It is also the case that the propensity to consume out of current income is higher among lower-income households (i.e., compared to wealthier households, they're more likely to spend than save their income).

Based on an estimate of these relative propensities and the large shift in the share of national income that accrued to the top 1 percent over the past few decades, Krueger calculates that aggregate consumption could be 5 percent higher in the absence of such large income shifts. Applying rules of thumb on the relationship between aggregate growth and jobs, and assuming both economic slack and that this income was not simply replacing demand elsewhere in the economy, this extra consumption growth could reduce unemployment by 1.75 percentage points, implying about 2.6 million more people with jobs.

[As consumption is 70% of GDP, and each point of GDP above trend reduces unemployment by half a point, this calculation is .7*.5*5%, or 1.75%.]

Krueger cites an important caveat about this type of calculation. In the face of stagnant earnings in the 2000s, many in the middle class borrowed to make up -- or more than make up -- the difference, in which case middle-class consumption did not fall as much as it would have absent this leverage. To point out that this method of improving middle class living standards is both unsustainable and extremely risky is an obvious understatement.

Inequality and longer term growth. Krueger also points to recent research showing that "in a society where income inequality is greater, political decisions are likely to result in policies that lead to less growth." Nobelist Mancur Olsen also hypothesized about this relationship decades ago.

As more income, wealth, and power is concentrated at the top of the income scale, narrow coalitions will form to influence policy decisions in ways less likely to promote overall, or middle-class, well-being, and more likely to favor those with disproportionate power and resources. In the current economics debate, we clearly see these dynamics in a tax code that bestows preferential treatment on those with large amounts of assets, like capital gains and stock dividends, relative to wage earners.

Trickle-down economics, inequality, and incomes. Another piece of evidence with implications for rebuilding a strong middle class comes from new work by economists Emmanuel Saez et al. As shown in the figures from their paper (see here), they use international evidence from a wide variety of advanced economies to examine two key links in the logic of the supply-side chain.

First, they look at the relationship between the top marginal income tax rate in these countries and the change in income inequality. They find a strong negative correlation: in countries like ours that cut the top marginal tax rate, income is a lot more skewed (and note that this refers to pretax income, so the result is not a direct function of the tax policy changes).

But the critical question for supply-side is whether these high-end marginal tax rate reductions lead to faster income growth (we've already seen that they lead to more income inequality). The bottom figure shows that they do not. Real per capita income growth across these countries is unrelated to the changes in tax rates.

The above points emphasize an economic rationale for a growth model more favorable to the middle class. More broadly shared growth would not only score higher on a fairness criterion; it would provide a more reliable and durable structure for overall growth itself. It is no accident, in this regard, that the era of heightened inequality coincides with the arrival and persistence of what I've called "the shampoo economy:" bubble, bust, repeat.

But our emphasis on growth should not crowd out that of fairness, and in this regard, some of the most important recent work in this area has stressed the relationship between inequality and mobility, the latter being the extent to which individuals' and families' economic positions change over the life cycles. Again, I will briefly summarize the relevant findings.

Economic mobility. Some policy makers, often in seeking to dismiss the inequality problem, argue that the US has enough income mobility to offset increased inequality. We may start out further apart, they argue, but we change places enough that it doesn't matter. This argument fails, however, both in terms of logic and evidence. The existence of mobility cannot offset increased inequality; for that to occur, mobility itself must be accelerating. There is no evidence to support such acceleration and some new, high-quality work suggests a slight decline in the rate of mobility.

The US has considerably less income mobility than almost every other advanced economy. In particular, as stressed in a recent New York Times article, parental income is a stronger predictor of the success of grown children in the U.S. relative to other advanced nations -- i.e., we have less intergenerational mobility than other nations.

Putting some of these themes together, I have hypothesized that there are causal linkages between inequality and immobility. To the extent that those who have lost income share in recent years suffer diminished access to the goods, services, and general living conditions that would enhance their mobility, we would expect to see economic results like those cited above.

Here, I'm thinking about everything from access to quality education, starting with pre-school (such early educational interventions have been shown to have lasting positive impacts), to public services, like decent libraries and parks, to health care, housing, and even the physical environment. The new research linking mobility and inequality may well find that as society grows ever more unequal, those falling behind are losing access to the ladders that used to help them climb over the mobility barriers they faced.

Hanauer's feedback loop is key to this model. It's not just that we need growth to reach the middle class. It's that when it does, the growth is more durable. There's room for a lot more research here, but this feels like the right economic model for the present and the future.

“These people (UMNO bribed sycophants) are hiding behind the tired and over-used phrase of Malay supremacy. The real supremacy of Malays must be fought in the realm of economics. The answer to Malay prosperity may well lie in the basic building blocks of economic advancement.”-Dato Ariff Sabri Aziz

Many have realised that the struggle to preserve the 30% quota of privileges has never expanded into the universal struggle for the economic emancipation of Malays.I want to repeat this observation. The penury of the majority Malays is not the result of greedy others (read non-Malays) taking a larger share of the economic pie.

We have been taken for a ride believing in this.The causes for the continued misdevelopment of Malays are likely to be found in the actions and behaviour of the Malay leadership.The Malay leadership at all levels have not acted in the interest of Malays actually.

Please look around you. The top leadership of Malays from kings to district officers, to head of departments, the army, the police down to the lowly paid peons and thambys, are all Malays. They have the means to develop Malays.

Yet the lot of the majority Malays hasn’t improved substantially. But the lot of our own (Malay) Super 30 (as in ruling elite) has improved tremendously. There can only be one conclusion – the elite leadership calling for the magic number of 30 has been helping themselves to the pie and excluding the majority of Malays.

UMNO’s bribed sycophants

The majority of Malays have improved on account of themselves.They have turned themselves into capital goods in the sense of having acquired the skills and education to pull themselves up.

It is strange – the UMNO “progressives” who fight vehemently against the dismantling of the 30% are in fact fighting on behalf of the real exploiters of the Malays Hence, it is they, not those who decry and call for economic liberalisations who are the bribed sycophants of the old bourgeoisie.

These people are hiding behind the tired and over-used phrase of Malay supremacy. The real supremacy of Malays must be fought in the realm of economics. The answer to Malay prosperity may well lie in the basic building blocks of economic advancement.

These can be summarised into four broad headings – mass production, the application of science to production, the passion for productivity and the spirit of competition. These were the views by a leading teacher of economics at Harvard University, William E Rappard.

Malays must ‘want’ prosperity

Rappard noted these four headings when explaining the secret behind America’s prosperity. Hence instead of the sabre rattling and kris wielding, maybe we Malays need to go back to the first principles of economics.

Once we accept these general observations as to what lay behind prosperity, we then begin to understand the political significance of the conclusions. It is that, our prosperity and conversely our penury lie within us. Our own salvation will be the result of our own efforts and will be a purely Malay phenomenon.It is no way caused or furthered by external factors, principal among them the greedy appropriation of other races from us.

I cannot dispute when Professor Rappard says the wealth of a country very largely depends on the will of the nation. “Other things being equal, then, a country and its economy will be more productive in proportion as its inhabitants want it to be.”

Malay community will be prosperous if the Malays want prosperity and lay down policies fitted for the purpose. The ‘want to’ must be there first.

related article http://suarakeadilanmalaysia.wordpress.com
/2012/01/31/tan-sri-nor-mohamed-yakcop-hero-or-goat/

MAHATHIR DONT YOU DARE OPEN
THAT PANDORA’S BOX related article http://suarakeadilanmalaysia.wordpress.com
/2011/12/17/tan-sri-nor-mohamed-yakcop
the-sacrificial-lamb-to-mahathir-dont-you-dare-open-that-pandoras-box/

Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop : Hero or Goat?

2012-01-31T07:40:00.000-08:00

The age of intolerance Privileged class must realise its duty to the nation

The dragon has been birthed again this new lunar year and the Chinese have paraded and serenaded the creature no end. The dragon, the only mythical animal in the Chinese zodiac is a symbol of royalty, perseverance, luck and prosperity. The Chinese consider the dragon to be most auspicious and go to great lengths in trying to ward off evil and usher in dragon like qualities into their lives, one way or the other. What continues to always take me by surprise is the perseverance of the Chinese, one quality that they most certainly have plagiarized from the fiery dragon. And persevere they do in imitating without a hitch what the rest of the world has taken years to create

Really, there appears to be no such thing as a good time for Prime Minister Najib Razak to call for snap polls. By ‘a good time’, it meant conditions where positive factors outweigh negative ones for the re-election of the UMNO-BN government.

Najib has been trying to formulate and implement policies for this excess of positives over negatives since taking charge in April 2009.But every time he feels he has a surplus of good vibes over bad ones, his government is upset by gremlins that have the effect of stalling the recourse to a new mandate as every new PM who desires validity for his reforms is impelled to.

The latest instance of this imp of misfortune dogging him is the attorney-general’s filing of intent to appeal the High Court’s January 9 decision to acquit Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim on a charge of sodomy.

Najib had begun capitalising on that acquittal the day it was delivered, citing it as a demonstration of the liberal reforms he had initiated under his government.

Ironically, this credit-taking had the effect of confirming that the judiciary had indeed been subject to the whims of the executive. But the opposition was not going to protest this indirect confirmation of their suspicions for obvious reasons: Anwar’s acquittal on a case that was filled with unconscionable gaps was right and fitting.

More expediency than conviction

But the sequel for the credit-taking Najib began to turn sour almost immediately. Right-wingers in his party, already angry that the Police had allowed Pakatan Rakyat supporters to gather in numbers at the judgment’s delivery, now clamoured that the decision be appealed.

When the A-G’s Chambers filed its notice of intent to appeal, the PM decided that not only would he have his cake – take credit for the acquittal, he would eat it too – absolve himself of responsibility for the appeal.

It would have been better if Najib had signaled his displeasure with the A-G’s decision. It would have suggested there was more conviction than expediency to his reforms.

But the PM is not a man of conviction so much as convenience. Talk of reform and transformation of the economy and polity trips easily off his tongue.

The jargon of progressive management drips from his government’s public relations vents but because there is no conviction behind it, the exploitative convenience behind the cupcake soon enough becomes detectable.

It would be wishful thinking for the PM to hope for luck with the good fairies of electoral timing. Thus far it appears these good fairies have frowned more than fawned on him. Because of this, the PM has had to resort to munificent measures his deficit-battling government can ill afford, such as the RM500 handout to citizens earning less than RM3,000 a month, to keep on the credit side of the ledger by which, supposedly, the electorate evaluates its leaders.

But even these inducements cannot dispel the fumes emitted by the scandals that almost continually occur on the PM’s watch.

Less than rosy prognosis

The cattle-rearing project undertaken by the Wanita UMNO leader Shahrizat Abdul Jalil is only the most sensational of the lot in that it contains details lurid enough to sustain the buzz among the chattering classes. As if all this were not bad enough, details of his wife’s sybaritic shopping expedition in Sydney on a recent vacation only serve to keep the embers of controversy glowing.

Furthermore, with the economic indices – stemming mainly from the glitz outlooks for the United States and Europe – pointing to a less than rosy prognosis for 2012 than that painted by the government, Najib must be wondering what would it take to create a favourable time for an election.

“I can call spirits from the vasty deep?” says a character in Shakespeare’s Henry the Fourth.To which the protagonist replies, “Why, so can I, so can any man. But will they come when you do call for them?”

Besieged leaders seeking a mandate must wonder at the elusiveness of a propitious time in which to summon electoral spirits from the “vasty deep.” With the clock winding down on his inherited (from predecessor Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s) mandate, with the downward draft exerted by recurrent scandals on his watch, and with the glitz of his reforms getting plainer by the month, can Najib avoid the musings of Cassius to Brutus in another of Shakespeare’s plays (Julius Caesar): “The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars, but in ourselves.”

The age of intolerance Privileged class must realise its duty to the nation Suppression of religious freedom and a curb on the right to protest is the order.thealmost totalitarian one party tyrannical approach,

Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop : Hero or Goat?
conversations between people holding different points of view has a deliberately misleading title. Because Rohini Nilekani has managed to show that in the most uncommon of grounds, between the most adversarial of positions, there can be found something in common if the two sides are willing to at least try and see the other’s point of view, to listen to the other’s argument.

What's happened is really a gradual erosion of the American Dream, it's become harder and harder to actually play by the rules and do well and expect your children to do better. The bailout of Wall Street...has unleashed a lot of discontent and disillusionment and mistrust of our institutions - whether it's through the Tea Party or the Occupy movement, people may express their discontent differently, but the heart of it is the sense that we have privatised the gains and socialised the losses and that's very dangerous... The founding fathers of capitalism knew that capitalism had to have a moral foundation if it was going to prevail."
Minister in charge of the Economic Planning Unit Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop insisted today the public has faith in the government’s economic policies, as indicated by an increase in domestic spending.
“If they have apprehensions about the government, Malaysians will not spend. But the opposite is happening. Domestic spending is going up annually.“Malaysians are not afraid to spend because they know that the country is progressive,” the minister in the prime minister’s department told reporters in his Tasek Gelugor constituency.Domestic consumption grew by 5.2 per cent in 2010 and by 6.6, 5.2 and nine per cent for the first three quarters of 2011 respectively.Pakatan Rakyat (PR) and Barisan Nasional (BN) have traded blows over economic policies after Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim accused Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak on Friday of shoring up cronies despite embarking on an economic reform programme.But the latter shot back the same 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.This led to Anwar inviting Najib to participate in a debate, the fourth such challenge he has issued to his political archrival.The DAP also said yesterday it was BN who would bankrupt the country as Pemandu minister Datuk Seri Idris Jala had warned that the resource-rich country would be bankrupt by 2019 if the government continues with its existing economic policies.But Nor Mohamed Yakcop dismissed today such claims as a political game by the Opposition to intimidate Malaysians.The activation of the administration's long dormant task force on criminal misconduct in the financial collapse, with New York's progressive attorney general Eric Schneiderman as co-chair, could be the most fateful political and economic development of the election year. There are still immense pitfalls ahead, as Wall Street allies inside the administration and on Wall Street itself try to reduce Schneiderman's role to that of symbolic fig leaf.

Malaysia has turned 180 degrees since Independence in 1957, transforming itself into a thriving modern economy and leapfrogging from a low-income to a middle-income trajectory. The country owes its prosperity to its economic openness, with trade as the lifeblood and foreign direct investment (FDI) as the backbone of the economy.

Economic Openness and Vulnerability to External Shocks

The price Malaysia has had to pay for this success is greater vulnerability to external shocks, but it has learned to cope with cyclical ups and downs with remarkable dexterity. This does not mean, however, that all of the crises in the Malaysian economy were caused entirely by external forces, as if domestic policy missteps had nothing to do with them. The Malaysian experience shows that crises tend to be blessings in disguise, as they force the authorities to step back, take a hard look at their policies, learn lessons and move on.

The economy has recently arrived at yet another crossroads, this time in the aftermath of the global financial crisis of 2008–09. Like many other countries, Malaysia is in search of a new economic model with which to reposition itself.

The prospective ‘new economic model’ may be viewed from two different angles: as a short-term rebalancing exercise after the crisis, and as a long-term agenda for structural change. There has been much talk of the need to reorient the Malaysian economy towards the domestic market so as to render it more resilient. But although this is intuitively appealing, the reality suggests it would not work in practice. Malaysia’s domestic market is still too small to be a meaningful substitute for the huge external market.

This observation does not ignore the role the domestic market can play when external demand caves in, but it does help to underscore the point that there is only so much the domestic market can do when exports slump, even in large economies, not to mention small ones like Malaysia.

It is important to understand that the solution to the problems of economic openness is not less openness but more openness. There is nothing wrong with Malaysia being so trade dependent; it cannot afford to be otherwise. The question, rather, is whether the Malaysian economy is too trade dependent for its own good. Rhetoric aside, the optimum trade level relative to a country’s GDP can only be determined by market forces, not by administrative fiat. For market forces to work effectively, there is a need first to eliminate all distortions in the market place.

Distorted Factor Market

In Malaysia, the factor market is much more distorted than the market for goods and services, with a bias in favour of the traded versus non-traded sector or the external versus domestic sector. The proposal to reorient the economy towards domestic demand away from exports would warrant policies to reverse the bias in favour of the non-traded or domestic sector, but this would be a mistake in the opposite direction. What is needed is policy neutrality without any bias, so that resources flow more freely in response to market signals. This would ensure greater efficiency in resource allocation.

No doubt a robust and vibrant domestic sector would help offset the impact of external shocks on the economy. Domestic demand would have played a far more important role in the country’s economic growth and development had income distribution been less uneven and if social safety nets had been in place. It is evident that income inequality has widened in recent times, with the Gini coefficient rising for all ethnic groups in Malaysia.

A more equitable income distribution would have led to increased private consumption and greater economic resilience. After all, Malaysians tend to save more and spend less than their counterparts in the developed world, partly because there are no safety nets for them to fall back on when the chips are down.

This line of reasoning prompts policy makers to focus on social security and income redistribution so that people will save less and spend more, and militates against attempts to divert demand towards domestic consumption through trade distortions.

The rest of the world has also changed dramatically, with more and more economies opening up and joining the bandwagon of export-led growth. In the process, Malaysia has lost its comparative and competitive advantage in several products to newcomers. As a result, its potential growth rate has shrunk from 7.5 per cent in the late 1980s to 5.5 per cent now, putting at risk the goal of making Malaysia a developed country by 2020 with a per capita income of $20,000 in real terms. Estimates show that, to reach a per capita income of $17,000 in 2020, the Malaysian economy would have to grow at an average rate of 7.0 per cent per annum, which sounds like a tall order. At the slower pace of 5.5 per cent per annum – the current potential rate – per capita income would be just $15,000 in 2020.

Input-Driven Growth unsustainable

It goes without saying that Malaysia must grow at a faster pace if it is serious about joining the club of developed countries by 2020 – hence the need to reinvent itself through reforms that can help restore the lost growth potential. Malaysia has learned the hard way that input-driven growth is unsustainable. It is instructive to note that the economy was growing at a rate of over 8.0 per cent in the early 1990s despite declining total factor productivity. To stay competitive, the growth strategy then was to keep wages low with the aid of a large migrant workforce. Obviously there was a dismal failure to understand that there were limits to economic expansion through input increases.

Migrant Workers depress wages

It was a major policy blunder to let migrant workers depress wages in the country, thereby throttling productivity improvements. Malaysia locked itself into low value-added manufacturing by allowing foreign workers to work in the sector for low wages, thus removing the incentive for manufacturers to automate. The size of the problem is huge: the country reportedly has 1.9 million registered migrant workers and another 600,000 unregistered ones (probably an underestimate), accounting for nearly one-fifth of the working population. These workers are not confined to the so-called 3D jobs – the difficult, dirty and dangerous jobs that the locals shun – but compete with Malaysians in the wider labour market.

This is a race that Malaysian workers are bound to lose, as migrant workers are willing to accept lower wages and work longer hours, with no laws – let alone enforcement of laws – in place to protect their rights. Unless and until there is equal pay for equal work, the employers’ penchant for migrant workers will continue unabated.

This is not to deny that Malaysia needs the services of foreign workers, both skilled and unskilled. But care must be taken to ensure that they are treated with dignity and fairness, and not exploited by agents, employers and the authorities. Condoning the injustices inflicted on foreign workers only serves to increase the demand for foreign workers, to the detriment of locals in the labour market.

Productivity Gains Needed

Malaysia has inadvertently fallen into a middle-income trap by adopting an ill-conceived policy of preserving its fading competitiveness through suppressed wages. High wages need not mean high labour costs if the increased wages are backed by productivity gains. By the same token, low wages may not translate into low labour costs if productivity suffers. In the Malaysian context, the social cost of employing migrant labour far exceeds the private cost to employers. If the negative externalities associated with the excessive presence of migrant workers are taken into account, the short-sighted dependence on the migrant workforce turns out to be a costly affair. Obviously Malaysia has shot itself in the foot!

The New Economic Policy: Pervasive Poverty in the Malay Community

Multi-racial Malaysia’s major structural problems are largely attributable to the New Economic Policy initiated in 1970 in the aftermath of the May 1969 racial riots. With its emphasis on ‘positive’ discrimination in favour of the then backward Bumiputeras (literally ‘sons of the soil’), the objectives of the policy were laudable, serious misgivings about its implementation notwithstanding. The New Economic Policy continued to exist after reincarnating itself in various forms beyond the original 1990 deadline. While it has undeniably helped narrow interethnic income differences, all is not well judging by the outcomes. While interethnic income disparity has narrowed considerably, intraethnic income disparity, especially within the Bumiputera community, has widened.

The growing income disparity within the Bumiputera community reflects the extremely uneven distribution of the benefits of the New Economic Policy. Arguably, all Bumiputeras have benefited in one way or another, but it is clear that the bulk, if not the lion’s share, of the benefits have accrued to the politically well-connected elites at the top. There is a perception that the New Economic Policy has been hijacked by cronyism and nepotism at the top, impairing its ability to improve the lives of the people at the bottom. How else can one explain the existence of pervasive poverty in the Malay community after four decades of affirmative action? Although Malaysia has made considerable progress in alleviating poverty, poverty among the Malays – which is not confined to rural areas – remains glaringly conspicuous, with numerous Malay households struggling below the poverty line. Malay households still account for nearly 75 per cent of the bottom 40 per cent earning RM2,000 or less per month.

To be sure, poverty is not confined to the Malay community, and there are many poor Indians, Chinese andothers. But there is absolutely no reason why anyone should remain poor in a land of plenty. With poverty – in both relative and absolute terms – still prevalent among the masses, it is obvious that the New Economic Policy has outlived its usefulness. There is really nothing ‘new’ any more about the New Economic Policy. It does not make sense to keep an obsolete policy ticking along on life support.

As mentioned, the New Economic Policy has continually reincarnated itself beyond the 1990 deadline, in the National Development Policy, the National Vision Policy and, most recently, the New Economic recently, the New Economic Model. In both letter and spirit, it is the centrepiece of the much hyped New Economic Model, the only ostensible difference being a better focus and greater transparency this time round. Despite this, the New Economic Model has been slammed vehemently by the Malay Consultative Council – comprising 76 Malay non-government organizations – for not being unequivocally pro-Bumiputera.

This simply shows the woeful ignorance of the new realities that have rendered such a policy totally untenable and unsustainable, with public debt extrapolated to exceed 100 per cent of GDP in 2019. There is a perception that much of the corruption, rent seeking and cost overruns that place pressure on the country’s coffers are associated directly or indirectly with the manner in which the New Economic Policy has been implemented.

The proponents of the New Economic Policy claim that it was not a constraint on growth, citing the fact that the Malaysian economy was able to grow at near double-digit rates for many years. Some go so far as to credit the New Economic Policy with this impressive growth record. However, one wonders whether the economy was growing because of the New Economic Policy or in spite of it, and whether economic growth would have been even more impressive in the absence of such constraints. The strategy was only going to work if there was robust economic growth in the first place. To avoid the disruption caused by redistribution, it asserted that no one should get a smaller piece of the pie than previously – which was possible only if the pie continued to get bigger. It is no wonder, therefore, that the New Economic Policy was downplayed during economic downturns.

Empirical observation suggests that the government was not oblivious to the constraints imposed by the New Economic Policy, judging by the attempts over the years to liberalize the rules and guidelines governing domestic and foreign investment. The fact that these rules and regulations were slowly chipped away, in the guise of reform, is a manifestation of the recognition that the New Economic Policy was an obstacle to increased investment and faster growth.

Seen in these terms, Malaysia has unwittingly forgone faster growth and denied itself a quantum leap to a higher income trajectory. It is instructive to note in this regard that Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan – which were roughly on a par with Malaysia in the early 1970s – have overtaken Malaysia to gain high-income status thanks to their smarter growth strategies.

In the wake of the titanic shifts that have been taking place in the world economy, Malaysia needs to embrace major structural transformation. It needs to discover new sources of growth, enhance its competitiveness in the global arena, strengthen its regional linkages, energize its domestic sector, move up the value chain in manufacturing, make its services sector the main engine of growth and so forth.

New Economic Model Up Against Formidable Challenges

The structural change agenda presents formidable challenges. The kinds of skills that the new paradigm demands cannot be provided by Malaysia’s archaic education system, which needs a complete overhaul. At the same time, the country is suffering from a serious brain drain caused by both push and pull factors. The importance of a truly independent judiciary cannot be exaggerated: anecdotal evidence suggests that Malaysia’s tarnished judiciary and gutter politics are among the push factors. Seen in these terms, the brain drain is largely a manifestation of frustration that has led some people to vote with their feet.

All this calls for bold structural changes, including institutional reforms encompassing everything from education to the judiciary, backed by governance reforms to strengthen fiscal discipline, transparency and accountability. Nothing short of a holistic approach will set the Malaysian economy far enough or fast enough on a true development path. The politics of policy making, however, may hobble the reform process.

Indeed, there are ominous signs that the New Economic Model may be stillborn. The powerful vested interests that have thrived on the rent seeking put in place by the New Economic Policy will resist reform tooth and nail. The all-inclusive ‘1Malaysia’ concept propagated by the Najib administration and the exclusive New Economic Policy caucus promoted by ultra-Malays simply cannot mix, each being antithetical to the other.

This paradox cannot be resolved by cosmetic changes to win over diehard supporters of the New Economic Policy or increase the appeal of the 1Malaysia concept. Inclusiveness, meritocracy and competitiveness must be the hallmark of the New Economic Model if it is to fly. If it fails to take off, the lofty 1Malaysia initiative will be reduced to an empty slogan.

The 10th Malaysia Plan relies on Private Investment

Unfortunately, the Tenth Malaysia Plan for 2011–2015 does not echo the inclusive sentiments espoused by the New Economic Model. The plan, which targets GDP growth of 6 per cent, looks somewhat similar to the preceding Ninth Malaysia Plan for 2006–2010 in terms of fund size (RM230 billion), sectoral allocation and strategy, albeit with different goals.

The assumption in the Tenth Malaysia Plan that private investment will grow at an annual rate of 12.8 per cent to energize GDP growth is questionable given that private investment slowed to 2 per cent under the Ninth Malaysia Plan. FDI trickled in at a snail speed of 1 per cent per annum during 2006–2009, a far cry from the 9 per cent growth seen before the Asian Financial Crisis.

According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), there was a massive 81 per cent drop in FDI inflows to Malaysia in 2009 alone. Although it was a bad year for nearly every country in the region (the notable exception being Singapore), the other countries fared much better, with Thailand, Viet Nam and Indonesia registering significantly smaller drops of 30.4 per cent, 44.1 per cent and 44.7 per cent respectively. What is more, the Philippines attracted more FDI than Malaysia for the first time ever, while Vietnam overtook Malaysia as a favoured destination for FDI.

The dramatic drop in inflows in 2009 cannot be dismissed as an aberration given that a downward trend had been evident for several years. Nor can it be explained away by the observation that FDI was in short supply. The fact remains that Malaysia is losing out to its competitors as it seeks to attract increasingly scarce FDI funds. One cannot help but wonder if foreign investors are voting with their feet.

The Tenth Malaysia Plan expects the private sector to be in the driver’s seat, but this assertion alone is unlikely to entice the private sector, especially foreign investors, when there is no strategy to dislodge distortions in the market place related to the New Economic Policy. As Albert Einstein remarked, it is madness to keep doing the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result.

The New Economic Policy is an addiction for some, redundant for some others and unjust for the rest. Like the legendary Gordian knot, the New Economic Policy cannot be loosened but must be cut. Apparently, no one in the corridors of power in the country has the gumption to do away with it, because they all owe their jobs to the current set-up. All this, one must hasten to add, does not constitute an argument against affirmative action per se.

A New Pro-Poor Economic Policy and Reform

There is certainly a need for a clear focus on the needs of the poor and marginalized regardless of race, colour or religion. In other words, Malaysia needs a ‘new’ New Economic Policy that is explicitly pro-poor. The main beneficiary of such a policy would still be Malay households, as they account for roughly three-quarters of the bottom 40 per cent of households in terms of income distribution.

Without a doubt, Malaysia is one of the better-performing economies in the region, with fairly strong macroeconomic fundamentals. The medium and long-term prospects of the economy are bright. Its inherent strengths clearly outweigh its perceived weaknesses, which are by no means insurmountable. Malaysia has only itself to blame for being stuck in the middle-income category for so long, and high-income status is within striking distance if policy makers have the courage to recognize and rectify policy errors. But there should be no delusion that a high income is all it takes to become a developed country; Malaysia has a long way to go to climb up the human development ladder as well.

The Malays are Competitive and Competent

It would be incorrect to give the impression that there is very little political space for serious reform in Malaysia. Fortunately, times have changed. Malays are just as competitive and competent as anyone else, and it would be an insult to Malay intelligence and an affront to the Malay psyche to say otherwise. What is more, thanks to increasingly easier access to information through the internet, the mindset of Malay voters is changing, as is that of their compatriots in other ethnic groups. The constituency for reform is growing – a development that no political party can afford to ignore in a democracy.

Understandably, there has not been much academic discussion or intellectual discourse – let alone public debate – on the issues confronting Malaysia given the ‘sensitive’ nature of the topics. Books discussing such issues candidly and objectively are either dated or in short supply. The present volume, containing solid contributions by eminent writers on related themes, should help fill the vacuum with balanced arguments.

What distinguishes this book from other works on the Malaysian economy is the forthright manner in which the various issues are discussed. The insights and views of the writers cover a wide spectrum of issues, including political challenges, corporate ownership and control, governance, crisis management, macroeconomic and microeconomic policies, service sector reforms, technological upgrading, distributive justice and demographic change. Together, they represent a major contribution towards better understanding of an increasingly complex Malaysian economy.

*Dr. Mohamed Ariff is Professor Emeritus, University of Malaya and Distinguished Fellow, Malaysian Institute of Economic Research, Kuala Lumpur

But President Obama has done something potentially momentous for which he deserves our praise, even if he himself does not fully grasp the implications. The significance of the shift is still in play, of course, and will be made clearer as events unfold over the next several weeks.

Religion is a great thing. To me it's superb. But when sex abuse scandals rock the domain of religion, it sets you thinking. It's some food for thought. Morality is a great thing. It's worth holding onto. So where in religion--And I'm not naming any one-- does the line get blurred. The whole of last year, saw a spurt in such news. News of abuse in religion is revealing. Let me not expound on it on the world-level. Because the Vatican scandal, albeit shocking, will handle itself. When there's politics in religion--it get's sorted. And may be the Catholic Church is slowly allowing itself to open up to a slightly more democratic system. What's more shocking is the utter lack of morals in the city I live in. Bombay the city, turning crazier by the day. Tantrik crimes. To think about it turns the blood cold. So I won't write too much about it. But dwell on it I will because it needs some attention. Friedrich Nietzche, the post-modernist German philosopher, talked of life expressed through art and music-- be it the Apollinian or the Dionysian path. He attacked morality. But safeguarded in his philosophy "the higher morals of higher men". And we live in almost post-modernist times. Don't we? With all the confusion and chaos. So when in religion, and I'm talking Tantra now, you give expression in the basest form to something base--All your moral grounds are blurred. The crimes you can read about. I won't write about that. But, they are the basest of all crimes. Enough to make your blood turn cold. And the children who suffer, I hope will find their path in either the Apollinian or the Dionysian. Because then there is hope. And I hope my crazy city. turning a bit crazier by the day will look up soon.

PAS Youth chief Nasrudin Hassan Tantawi and Datuk Ahmad Zaki Zahid great time for marriage after all UMNO like play back

2012-01-29T01:30:00.000-08:00

"If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair." C.S. Lewis

Political Failure Does Not Change Reality for Israelis or Palestinians"Bridging the Divide between the Arab World and the West." It was to be an examination of how the West and Arabs have interacted with each other in the past century, their mutual misconceptions, and the resultant and often tragic problems that have ensued, putting both sides at risk.PAS Youth chief Nasrudin Hassan Tantawi also slammed any move to support Israel, saying on his Twitter that it was a “betrayal to the faithful”Umno Youth international bureau chiefsaid Anwar’s comments reflected “his efforts to support certain friends who stood firmly behind the Zionist regime.”He said it was the Palestinians who needed protection and humanitarian aid after being oppressed by Israel.

said Anwar’s comments reflected “his efforts to support certain friends who stood firmly behind the Zionist regime.”He said it was the Palestinians who needed protection and humanitarian aid after being oppressed by Israel.

Today, 26 January, will mark another line in the sand in the morbid negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Whether or not this is the date that the Quartet has stated its deadline to get each side's documents presented to each other is currently under dispute by the sides themselves. Arguments about deadlines of document submission is as far as the sides have got in getting the decision makers into the same room together.

While many in the world are quietly pulling their hair out, others both outside the region and within are celebrating another milestone in the supposed death of the Two-State Solution. Not a day goes by without an expert opinion or a polemical activist declaring to the internet that the two state compromise was dead years ago, only now are we coming to terms with it.

I do agree at the abject failure of the process and the political leadership of the societies involved. Over the past 18 odd years the sides have each had the courage at one point to end the conflict, the only challenge is that these leaderships occurred at different points. The political failure however should not however be linked to the failure of the solution.

The two-state compromise is not something that either population wants. No one goes to bed and dreams of a compromise where each side's rights will be limited. Yet it is the only formulation that gives each side access to their core needs, all be it limited access. A two-state compromise will not give the Israelis the security control they currently enjoy, a control claimed as necessary to their very survival. A two-state compromise neither will give the Palestinians an unlimited right of return, a right that has underpinned their resistance since the Nakba.

To those who are currently proclaiming its death, I ask what is a realistic alternative.

Maximalists on both sides share the one-state delusion. It is a recipe for civil war as two rival nationalist movements attempt to share the same domestic policy space and create shared rules in the shadow of perceived existential threats and decades of fear and oppression. I challenge any one-state supporter who can paint a realistic road map to their end point that does not require armed conflict. Israel will never accept the end of the Jewish state no matter how much pressure is applied. Conversely Palestinian's will fight to the death for their right to stay on their land, with their destiny in their own hands.

There has been a move in both camps to try and paint the two-state compromise as either a pro-Israeli or pro-Palestinian position. It is neither. The two-state compromise asks each side to compromise on that which each holds as necessary and sacred. Those who paint it in these formulations do so in order to make it toxic to their own people and advocates. They are the maximalists who still hold out hope to win this conflict.

So today and in the days following I expect to read the torrent of articles decrying the death of the two-state compromise and the desire to move past it. There will be vague references to a different future, no plan to get there yet a quiet nod to dismiss any who still believe in the two-state compromise as naïve at best, traitors and collaborators at worst.

The desire to abandon the solution due to the death of the process will be immense. Yet the challenge to those who believe in dignity, justice, peace and security for those in that part of the world will be to help bridge the psychological gap within the majority in each society who are willing to accept the two-state compromise yet believe it will never happen.

The most important task is demonstrating to each population that there exists a similar silent majority that accepts the same compromise as you. With the repeated failure of the political process trust must be built from the bottom up rather then the top down. This work is neither glamorous nor groundbreaking. It gets harder every passing day and must be done within the shadow of a region in turmoil.

While in the past this might have been easy, in both societies today there are forces spending much of their energy making sure that this trust can never be built. This past week in Israel, the bereaved Parents Circle has had its schools program suspended. In the West Bank there has been a sustained effort to clamp down on any civil society effort that does not work within the framework of 'co-resistance'.

These are symptoms of the malaise from the leadership of both people being transmitted to their populations. If we are ever to move forward, we need the direction of energy to be reversed. If the populations continue to despair the occupation will only continue. The two-state compromise will not appear by magic, its inability to be realised will not create a one-state solution, rather an entrenchment of rights denials and siege mentalities. These paradigms are toxic to the health of each society.

If the leaders cannot succeed we need to spend our time, energy and effort energising the populations and communicating that energy upwards rather then waiting on the forlorn hope of change from above. Yes we need to name the practical obstacles that stand in the way: settlement growth, the rise in popularity of Hamas, an intransigent Israeli government and a radicalisation of religion.

Yet without the working on the psychological chasm between the two people, a reveling of a partner on the other side, the situation will never be able to drag itself out of the free fall it currently is in.

"If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair." C.S. Lewis

Is the Palestinian Islamist organisation Hamas about to give up its strategy of armed resistance? Hopes were raised when Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal told Al Jazeera on 26 December 2011 that "all forms of resistance, especially armed resistance [i.e. the path of terrorism], are our right, but now, during the Arab Spring, we prefer the popular resistance and to focus instead on a unified strategy of popular resistance."

I would be the first to dance a jig if there was a genuine rethink on the part of Hamas. A 'new Hamas' would indeed bring comfort. It would open the way to Palestinian unity and the extension of the West Bank nation-building strategy to Gaza. And it would boost the search for a two state solution, as well as encouraging other Islamist movements to give up violence. These are all glittering prizes, to be sure.

But it's all 'a bit previous'. And in the Middle East, as in life, it's all about the timing. If European politicians get the timing wrong and drop the 'no-contact' policy too soon they could put back the clock on progress, inflict tremendous damage on the peace process and the undermine moderate politics throughout the region.

For four reasons, now is not to time bringing Hamas in from the cold.

First, Hamas is more likely responding tactically to short-term pressures not rethinking its basic strategy

The Arab Spring has created both threats and opportunities for Hamas. The uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime has undermined a key patron of Hamas which hosts its political bureau in Damascus.

Hamas is caught between its loyalty to Assad and its affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood, whose spiritual leader, Sheikh Yussuf Al Qaradawi, has openly backed the uprising against Assad. Hamas chose its spiritual leader (which casts an interesting sidelight in itself) and lost its patron and its headquarters. It seeks a new home in places - Cairo, Amman, Qatar - that do not want to hear talk of armed resistance.

The conflict in Syria is widely seen in the Arab world as a sectarian confrontation - a majority Sunni population being suppressed by a non-Sunni, Alawite minority. Hamas's failure to identify with Assad has led Iran - which has a strategic alliance with the Assad regime - to reportedly cut back its financial support to Hamas. This has contributed to financial strain on Hamas, which was already suffering from a decline in revenue from smuggling after Israel relaxed many of its restrictions on imports to Gaza.

The Arab Spring has also re-energised Palestinian society to demand political unity between the Hamas regime in Gaza and the Fatah-dominated PA in the West Bank. This has prompted Hamas to sound more conciliatory on the issue of Palestinian unity, to be more ready to accept Egyptian intervention in Palestinian affairs and to seek ways to improve its standing in Palestinian public opinion. These factors partly explain the sudden conclusion of the deal to free Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit last October. It may also explain Meshaal's talk of a new non-violent Hamas.

Second, Hamas is not speaking with one voice

Not all the Hamas leadership in Gaza is in agreement with the Damascus-based Meshaal. Addressing a crowd in Gaza on 14 December, Gaza prime minister Ismail Haniyeh said, "Today, we say, in a clear and unambiguous fashion: the armed resistance and armed struggle are our strategic choice and our path to liberate the Palestinian land, from the [Mediterranean] Sea to the [Jordan] River, and to drive the usurping invaders out of the blessed land of Palestine." He added, "The fact that Hamas, at one stage or another, accepts the goal of gradual liberation - of Gaza, of the West Bank, or of Jerusalem - is not at the expense of our strategic vision with regard to the land of Palestine."

Hamas's internal leadership was angered at Meshaal's December 26 pronouncement. Senior Gazan Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar has been scornful of the attempts at reconciliation with Fatah and objected in principle to the call for popular resistance, which he said was not relevant in Gaza as it is no longer under occupation. Ahmed Jaabri, leader of the Hamas military wing in Gaza, is also believed to be increasingly independent from Hamas's external leadership, and was a key figure determining the outcome of the Shalit deal.

Perhaps significantly, Meshaal has now announced that he does not wish to stand again for the leadership of Hamas's political bureau.

Third, Hamas-in-Gaza is exploring a reconciliation with Palestinian Islamic Jihad

While the much-hyped 'reconciliation' between the Hamas leadership in the Gaza Strip and the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank is advancing at a snail's pace, there have been merger talks between Hamas's Gaza-based leadership and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

PIJ is a terrorist organisation even more extreme than Hamas, which has avoided participation in PA elections and is closely tied, financially and ideologically, to Iran. It has been growing in military strength over the last year and poses an increasing challenge to Hamas's authority in Gaza.

Fourth, if the West dropped its non-contact policy now that would fatally undermine the moderates

In the Middle East, as in life, timing is all. And for Europe to drop its non-contact policy with Hamas at this time would undermine President Abbas and the regional moderates.

There is no reason for us to fall into despair. Hamas may yet reconcile its Islamist ideology with a permanent renunciation of violence and acceptance of Israel. But there is no place for C.S Lewis' "soft soap and wishful thinking." However much we may wish it to be true, there is currently no evidence that the underlying position of Hamas has changed. It remains focused on securing its ability to rule in Gaza, reversing the clampdown on its activities at the hands of the PA in the West Bank, assuming leadership of the Palestinian national movement and gaining international legitimacy, without giving up on its core ideological principles.

We should monitor Hamas and encourage those who seek to push the organisation in a new direction. As regards to engagement it is not a case of if, but when. But right now there are just too many contradictory messages coming out of this turbulent and hitherto violent organisation to allow any western politician to take any risks. All policy makers should remember that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

The series of direct talks between Israelis and Palestinians which began in Amman on January 3 are scheduled to end on January 26. While the Middle East Quartet may extend this deadline to continue negotiations, it appears this would have little effect in formulating any comprehensive agreement. Neither side genuinely believes a breakthrough will occur. The PLO has threatened that if Israel does not halt all settlement activity in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, it would not only abandon diplomacy, but it would pursue "harsh" unilateral measures to gain statehood and recognition. This would include a popular "civil disobedience" aimed at forcing Israel to evacuate from the West Bank. Even if the Quartet extends the deadline, and talks continue after January 26, a bilateral settlement remains elusive. To prevent this and the subsequent possibility of a campaign of unilateral actions, Israel should reexamine the Arab Peace Initiative (API), which was adopted by the Arab League in Beirut in 2002. The API calls for the Arab world to terminate its conflict with Israel and recognize its right to exist in exchange for Israel's withdrawal to its June 4, 1967 boundaries.

The API is an unprecedented declaration which repudiates the three "no's" issued at the Arab League summit in Khartoum following the June 1967 War: "no peace with Israel, no negotiations with Israel and no recognition of Israel." The API insists on a total Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, but a more plausible approach accepted by the international community is to advocate mutually agreed land swaps. Most people on both sides realistically know that if a final agreement is reached, territorial adjustments would reflect facts on the ground, whether they say it publicly or not. Areas that are predominately Israeli would be part of Israel and areas that are predominately Palestinian could possibly be part of the new Palestinian state (although perhaps this could be subject to a referendum by each municipality). The API calls for a shared Jerusalem as capital for both peoples, and a "just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem to be agreed upon in accordance with U.N. General Assembly Resolution 194," which presumably would involve allowing refugees to settle in a future Palestine, not Israel.

The API has not received much media attention in Israel, perhaps due in part to the perception that it was more of an ultimatum than a genuine peace proposal. Saudi PrinceSaud al-Faisal asserted that if Israelis refused the initiative, "They will be putting their future not in the hands of the peacemakers but in the hands of the lords of war."

Nonetheless, in March 2007, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert described the API as a "revolutionary change." In July 2009, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the API as a mechanism to "create an atmosphere in which a comprehensive peace can be reached." Israel, with the encouragement of the United States, could accept the API in principle as a basis for negotiations. The sensitive issues of Jerusalem and the holy sites and refugees should not be dictated as ultimatums, but left open for negotiations.

In April 2011, a group of Israeli academics, analysts, journalists, military and intelligence officers drafted an official response to the API known as the Israeli Peace Initiative (IPI) which advocates accepting the API as a blueprint for a comprehensive peace with the affirmation that "a military solution to the conflict will not achieve peace or provide security for the parties."

If the API is not a "take it or leave it" proposal and if there is room for flexibility, the IPI and API together could help end the conflict which has lasted over 60 years, and help facilitate a fundamental breakthrough.

The Meir Amit
Intelligence and Terrorism
Information Center

News of Terrorism and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
(December 28, 2011 – January 3, 2012)

Ismail Haniya, head of the de-facto Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip, meets with Mohammed Badie, general guide of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt (Hamasinfo.net, December 31, 2011)

Overview

This past week the Israeli Air Force struck terrorist operatives planning and carrying out terrorist attacks against Israel, killing four of them, three of them apparently operatives of global jihad-affiliated networks and one Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative. Palestinian terrorist organizations attacked the western Negev with six rockets and two mortar shells, all of which fell in open areas.

On January 3 an Israeli and a Palestinian representative met in Amman under the aegis of the International Quartet and the Jordanians. At the same time, the Palestinians are planning a campaign of anti-Israeli diplomatic actions beginning January 26, 2012, which will include appeals to the UN Security Council and General Assembly, and requests to join various UN agencies, among them the UN International Court of Justice.
Ismail Haniya, head of the de-facto Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip, continues his flying tour of the Arab-Muslim states. From Egypt he went to Sudan and from there to Turkey, where he met with Turkish prime minister Erdogan and was the guest of the Islamist IHH, which played a major role in the Mavi Marmara flotilla.

Important Terrorism Events Israel's South

Counterterrorism Activities in the Gaza Strip and Rocket Fire

On December 27 Israeli aircraft carried out two strikes against terrorist squads. The first targeted a cell ofPalestinian Islamic Jihad operatives in Jabaliya in the northwestern Gaza Strip (IDF Spokesman, December 27, 2011). The Palestinian media reported that the strike killed Abdallah al-Talbani, 22, an operative in the PIJ's military-terrorist wing (The PIJ's Paltoday website, December 27, 2011). The PIJ denied his membership in its military-terrorist wing (Jerusalem Brigades website, December 27, 2012).

The second Israeli strike was carried out two hours later and targeted terrorist operatives belonging to a global jihad network who were planning a terrorist attack against Israel on the Israel-Egypt border (IDF Spokesman, December 27, 2001). Two operatives were killed. The Palestinian media reported eight wounded (The PIJ's Paltoday website, December 27, 2011). According to the Israeli media, the operatives planned to carry out a terrorist attack on the Israel-Egypt border from the Sinai Peninsula (Ynet, December 27, 2011).

The two terrorist operatives who were killed were:

Rami Daoud Jaber Kafarneh, born 1984, from Jabaliya. He was formerly an Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades operative (Hamas' military-terrorist wing). He participated in attacking Israel's south with rockets (IDF Spokesman, December 28, 2011).
Hazam Muhammad Saadi al-Shaker, born 1985, from Beit Hanoun. Formerly a Hamas operative, his activities included laying IEDs in the Gaza Strip (IDF Spokesman, December 28, 2011).

On December 28, following Israeli security force counterterrorism activities, two rocket hits were identified in Israeli territory. The rockets fell in open areas; there were no casualties and no damage was done. On December 29, in response to the rocket fire, Israeli aircraft struck a tunnel used for terrorist purposes in the northern Gaza Strip and a focal point for terrorist activity in the central Gaza Strip (IDF Spokesman, December 29, 2011). The Palestinian media reported that one of the targets was a Palestinian Islamic Jihad base (Jerusalem Brigades website, December 29, 2011).

Before dawn on December 30 Israeli aircraft struck a cell of terrorist operatives in the northern Gaza Strip who were identified before they could launch rockets into Israeli territory. The attempted rocket attack was prevented. It was the same cell which fired rockets in the days preceding the strike (IDF Spokesman, December 30, 2011). The Palestinian media reported that the terrorist who had been killed was Ma'mun Abu Def, an operative in a Salafist network affiliated with the global jihad which calls itself the Army of Sunnah Supporters (Ma'an News Agency and Al-Aqsa TV, December 30, 2011)

Ma'mun Abu Def's funeral in the Gaza Strip
(Hamas' Palestine-info website, December 31, 2011).

Rocket and Mortar Fire – Summary

This past week six rocket hits and two mortar shell hits were identified in Israeli territory. All the rockets and mortar shells fell in open areas in the western Negev. There were no casualties and no damage was done. The attacks were the following:

December 28: Five rocket hits were identified in the western Negev. The Popular Resistance Committees claimed responsibility for two of them (Qawm website, December 28, 2011).
December 29: One rocket hit was identified in the western Negev. There were no casualties and no damage was done.
January 1: Two mortar shells were fired at a village in the western Negev. The shells contained phosphorous. It was not the first time the Palestinian terrorist organizations fired phosphorous-containing shells (Ynet, January 1, 2012).¹ The military-terrorist wing of the Popular Resistance Committees claimed responsibility for the attack (Qawm website, January 1, 2012).

Rockets and Mortar Shells Fired into Israeli Territory ²

Rocket Fire -- Monthly Distribution

Mortar Shell Fire -- Monthly Distribution

Judea and Samaria

The Situation on the Ground

This past week the IDF carried out routine counterterrorist activities in Judea and Samaria, detaining Palestinians suspected of terrorist activities and confiscating weapons. During the week Palestinians continued their attempts to attack IDF forces and Israeli civilians in Judea and Samaria. Stones were thrown at several Israeli vehicles, among them two buses.

On the morning of December 27 a Palestinian was detained near the Hawara crossing south of Nablus. He was found to be carrying two pipe bombs, an improvised gun, ammunitions and a Molotov cocktail. He was taken for interrogation (IDF Spokesman, December 27, 2011).

Developments in the Gaza Strip

The Crossings

Yasser Othman, Egyptian ambassador to the Palestinian Authority, said that Egypt was planning a significant improvement in the procedures governing the Rafah crossing to ease the passage of the residents of the Gaza Strip and merchandise through the crossing, insofar as was possible (Voice of Palestine Radio, December 28, 2011).

Ismail Haniya's Flying Visits to Arab-Muslim Countries

Egypt

On December 27 Ismail Haniya, head of the de-facto Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip, and his delegation met with Mohammed Badie, the Muslim Brotherhood's general guide. Haniya stressed Hamas' relations with the Muslim Brotherhood, saying that Hamas was the Egyptian movement's continuation. He said Hamas' founder, Ahmed Yassin, was another link in the chain forged by Hassan al-Banna, and thatHamas had been nurtured in the bosom of the Muslim Brotherhood. Regarding recognition of the State of Israel, Haniya said Hamas would not recognize the Israeli entity or implement agreements which ignored what he called Hamas' "rights" (Safa News Agency, December 26, 2011).

Sudan

On December 27 Ismail Haniya arrived in Sudan. He and his delegation met with the Sudanese president,Omar Bashir (Hamas' Palestine-info website, December 29, 2011). While in Sudan Haniya participated in a Jerusalem forum held in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital. In a belligerent speech given at the forum he called on the Arab states to raise a "Jerusalem army" and to increase their financial and political support for the sake of Jerusalem. He swore to remain faithful to the "resistance" [i.e., the path of terrorism] and not to cede the land of "Palestine" or the [Muslim] holy places, and he swore he would never recognize the State of Israel (Hamas' Palestine-info website, December 31, 2011).

Right: Ismail Haniya speaks at the Jerusalem conference held in Khartoum (Hamasinfo.net, December 31, 2011). Left: The Hamas leadership headed by Khaled Mashaal and Ismail Haniya meets with Sudanese president Omar Bashir (Hamasinfo.net, December 31, 2011).

Turkey

On January 1 Ismail Haniya flew from Sudan to Turkey, where he met with Turkish prime minister Tayyip Erdogan. After the meeting Erdogan said in a statement that no solution could be found for the Palestinian issue without the involvement of Hamas. He added that lifting the siege of the Gaza Strip was one of Turkey's demands of Israel as part of rehabilitating relations between the two countries (hurriyetdailynews.com, January 2, 2012).

Ismail Haniya and the Hamas delegation in Istanbul
(Hamas' Palestine-info website, January 1, 2012)

On January 2 Haniya was the guest of the Turkish Islamist organization IHH, which played a major role in the Mavi Marmara flotilla in May 2010. He met with high-ranking IHH figures and visited theMavi Marmara. He also met with Palestinian terrorists who had been released from Israeli jails (as part of the prisoner exchange deal which led to the liberation of Gilad Shalit) and deported to Turkey. He thanked Turkish prime minister Erdogan for his efforts in securing their release and for agreeing to accept them in his country. He ended by presenting the terrorists with awards and gifts (Islamigundem.com, January 2, 2012).
The IHH organized a press conference for Ismail Haniya, where he said that the events aboard the Mavi Marmara were "a case of piracy such as has never been seen before in history," adding that "thanks to the shaheeds aboard the Mavi Marmara we succeeded in breaking the siege of the Gaza Strip and defeating Israel." He thanked Erdogan and the Turkish people for not abandoning the Palestinian cause (Islamigundem.com, January 2, 2012).

Right: Ismail Haniya and Tayyip Erdogan (Hamas' Palestine-info website, January 1, 2012). Left: Ismail Haniya and the IHH leaders at a press conference (fotogaleri.ismaigundem.com, January 2, 2012).

Hamas-Fatah Relations

Efforts at Reconciliation

Fatah and Hamas are still making efforts to promote a reconciliation of their differences. To that end Nabil Shaath, a member of Fatah's Central Committee, went to the Gaza Strip to discuss reconciliation with the Hamas leadership (Alresalah.net website, January 1, 2012). In the same vein, the PLO's Executive Committee, headed by Mahmoud Abbas, confirmed the results of the "interim leadership" conference held in Cairo on December 22, attended by Mahmoud Abbas and Khaled Mashaal, chairman of the Hamas political bureau.

On December 26 the social reconciliation committee met in Ramallah. Its appointment had been decided on during the last round of internal Palestinian reconciliation talks. The committee discussed how it would operate and set another meeting for December 28.

In response to news items about Hamas' preparedness to adopt methods of the so-called "popular resistance," Khaled Mashaal, chairman of Hamas' political bureau, said that "all forms of resistance, especially armed resistance [i.e., the path of terrorism], are our right, but now, during the Arab Spring, we prefer the popular resistance" (Al-Jazeera TV, December 26, 2011). In response, a Syrian newspaper expressed severe criticism of Hamas, saying that by agreeing to collaborate with Fatah in the popular resistance it was abandoning the armed campaign against Israel and "leaving the Syria-Iran-Hezbollah axis for the other axis" (Al-Watan, December 27, 2011).

The Peace Process

Israel Meets the Palestinians under the Aegis of the International Quartet and Jordan

A spokesman for the Jordanian foreign ministry said in an announcement that on instructions from King Abdallah, the foreign minister had arranged contacts and consultations with the Palestinians, Israel, International Quartet representatives and other international factors. The outcome was that on January 3 the Jordanian foreign minister hosted a joint meeting in Amman with representatives of the International Quartet, Israel and the Palestinians. The objective of the meeting was to construct a foundation for renewing the peace negotiations. According to the announcement, Jordanian efforts would focus on promoting the two-state solution and on raising the core issues (the refugees, Jerusalem, security and borders) (Jordanian News Agency, January 1, 2012).

According to the Israeli press, Israeli prime minister envoy Yitzhak Molcho was expected to meet with Saeb Erekat, head of the Palestinian negotiating team, in Amman on January 3. At the same time, however, the Palestinians are deploying for a campaign of anti-Israeli diplomatic actions, which will begin on January 26, 2012, the last day of the three-month period allotted by the International Quartet for Israeli-Palestinian talks about borders and security (Haaretz, January 2, 2012). According toIsraeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, the meeting in Amman was "negotiations about negotiations," and its purpose was to determine whether or not there was a chance to reinstate direct, meaningful, bilateral talks between Israel and the Palestinians about border and security issues (Haaretz, January 3, 2012).

The Palestinian Authority and Hamas responded to the Jordanian initiative as follows:

Interviewed by Palestinian television, Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian Authority chairman, related positively to the Jordanian initiative but reiterated the Palestinian demands regarding the settlements and the 1967 borders. He said that if negotiations were not reinstated by January 26, it would be considered an International Quartet failure and the Palestinian Authority would be forced to seek other channels. He also said that violence was not one of the options and that an appeal to the UN Security Council was not an alternative to negotiations (Palestinian TV, December 31, 2011).
Saeb Erekat, chief of the Palestinian negotiating team, said that the meeting did not mean a return to peace talks, and stressed the Palestinians' conditions for returning to the peace process (Ynet, January 3, 2012).
Yasser Abd Rabbo, secretary of the PLO's Executive Committee, said that the Jordanian initiative was apparently a last-ditch attempt to make sure that no one of the International Quartet's members could blame the Palestinians and that everyone would understand that Israel was responsible for the failure (Voice of Palestine Radio, date, 2012).
Sami Abu Zuhri, Hamas spokesman, said that similar talks had already been held and had failed. He said the meetings were a return to the same path which had failed over the years (Haaretz, January 3, 2012).

Political Moves Expected from the Palestinians in 2012

Riyad al-Maliki, Palestinian Authority foreign minister, said in an interview that in 2012 the PA would do the following:

Regarding acceptance into international organizations, the Palestinian Authority would continue its move in the UN Security Council and at the same time lodge a request with the General Assembly for the recognition of Palestine as a non-member state. That would make it possible for the Palestinian Authority to join additional UN agencies, among them the UN International Court of Justice, to lodge suits related to the Palestinian cause. Members of the Palestinian Authority would also prepare indictments against Israel which would be lodged with the Court.
Regarding negotiations with Israel, al-Maliki said he did not foresee a return to negotiations in light of "Israel's stubbornness and the International Quartet's failure," which, he said, had exhausted all efforts. Therefore, he said, the Palestinian Authority would have to look for other options, such as adding more countries to the International Quartet forum.

As to the Palestinian Authority's strategy in 2012, Yasser Abd Rabbo, chairman of the PLO's Executive Committee, said that it would be a year of promoting the non-violent popular resistance, appeals to the UN and the Arab League regarding the settlements, and a strengthening of the Palestinian national institutions through elections (Voice of Palestine Radio, January 1, 2012).

The Sting Mahatir the Ghostbuster when you buy a haunted airasia ,Tony,you get the ghost for free

2012-01-28T18:15:00.000-08:00

when Tony did a political campaign for the cow he has become a cowhimself

Indian Kingfisher and Malaysia Air asia: An endangered species, warn experts When you buy a haunted airasia,Tony,you get the ghost for free perhaps, a more appropriate analogy would be that of someone buying a haunted house. True, the buyer did not bargain for a ghost in the house, nor did he pay for it; but it is there with him, whether he likes it or not. He can keep ranting that he just bought the house and so it is entirely wrong for the ghost to haunt him, but that would get him nowhere. He has get Mahathir to finally exorcise the ghost.

When Tony F launches his guerrilla tactics, how are people taking that?
“What is this chap from airasia trying to prove? Who is he to declare war on the authority? If he cannot accept the increase, move to somewhere else where he does not even require to pay anything for that matter (that is if he can find such a place). How about Indonesia that he has been harping about? Go man, go, nobody is going to stop you from moving away. He only knows how to pin-point on others, what about himself e.g. all those unreasonable charges that he has imposed on the travellers? Aren't all these increases from his end driving the cost of travelling up too? His agenda is very clear i.e. to make as much as possible at the expense of others including MAHB. Only AA can increase on anything that this bloke and his team can think of as and when they like but not others!
Umno lawmakers accused Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar and Tan Sri Tony Fernandes today of cheating the public in the Malaysia Airlines (MAS) and AirAsia share swap.
Kinabatangan MP Datuk Bung Mokhtar Radin called on Khazanah chief executive Azman to be investigated by graftbusters after the state investment agency exchanged 20.5 per cent of the national carrier for a 10 per cent stake in Asia’s top-performing budget airline. The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) must call Tan Sri Azman ... all of them ... if there is any misappropriation, stuff them into jail,” the Barisan Nasional (BN) backbenchers deputy chief told Parliament. “How can Khazanah be fooled? Azman Mokhtar, how can he be so stupid, to be ‘tuned’ by Tony Fernandes. If I was in such a position, I would resign rather than troubling others. “Maybe they are not stupid. Maybe they get huge profits by squeezing and grabbing money from the public,” he said, referring to the AirAsia CEO’s company Tune Air which now owns a fifth of MAS.
Sri Gading MP Mohamad Aziz also accused AirAsia of “clearly cheating the public and now trying to cheat MAS.” “If this kind of man (Fernandes) can control us, God forgive us,” he said while debating Budget 2012.Bung Mokhtar also said the government should “not be scared of Fernandes. Whatever he wants, we give. He wants to overcharge for excess baggage and suck the blood of poor villagers.

KING OF GOOD TIMES NEWS NETWORK

BIRD'S NEST (B'LORE): The Common Kingfisher (species: Alcedo atthis) is fast disappearing from Indian skies. At last count, fewer than 66 were spotted across the country, most of them spreadeagled on the ground. “It’s time to rename the species asAlvida indus,” quipped a renowned ornithologist who has watched the bird at close quarters.So what went wrong? How did the once UBiquitous Kingfisher (it flew as many as 400 times a day and was seen in several cities across the country) become UBquietus overnight?Most experts this reporter spoke to were unanimous in attributing the Kingfisher’s bloated body to indigestible hubris and its clipped wings to the Rs 7,000 crore weight on its shoulder.Back in 2003, when the young Raja of Maalyapoor, who has a keen eye for birds, first proposed to breed the Kingfisher in India, people were happy. They had had enough of the despotic rule of the old and ailing Maharaja. So when the first Indian Kingfisher took to the air in 2005, they were more than willing to anoint the Raja of Maalyapoor as the new Heir India.The Kingfisher’s attractive plumage (backed by its good-looking handlers in the air) became a talking point among bird-watchers and people who flew regularly. Its desi habitat was wide and the pickings were rich. Of course, things didn’t come cheap, but you can’t fly the good times if you are not loaded. At least that was the motto of the new Blahraja of Maalyapoor.He too had spread his wings in the meanwhile. He wanted to consolidate the assets left to him by his pioneering father. His efforts included ordering newer and very expensive species of the Kingfisher from France on credit, gobbling up a low-flying but popular bird that went by the name of Air Deccan, and extending the monopoly of the spirits business.But wild dreams often lead to nightmares. And high-fliers are brought down to earth with a thud.It's hard to say whether it was the Raja of Maalyapoor’s inflated opinion of his bird-breeding abilities or the wrong advice given by his courtiers that led to the steep decline of the Kingfisher.The wet leases on the fancy new birds were squeezing the Kingfisher dry. The debt doubled, tripled and crippled Maalyapoor’s finances. The focus had shifted from the bird to its beautiful handlers who also went by the fancy titles of Flight Commanders and Flight Stewardesses. And the Raja, who certainly did not have the business acumen of Richard Branson, another UK-based high-flier, succumbed to their demands. He felt that it was far more important to keep up appearances than to get to the root of the problem.By and by, the Raja of Maalyapoor’s innumerable creditors mounted the pressure. UBequity plummeted. The king was forced to leave his Ivory Tower in Bangalore and face reality on the ground.As things looked bleak, the Raja, aka Guzzle King, hit upon a brainwave. He decided to ask the government of India to bail him and his birds out. He also sought permission to let foreign funds in to salvage the situation. When the going gets tough, ask what the country can do for you, he told his minions and his friends in sarkari raj.However, by now, public opinion was soaring against the flightless bird. Hawks in India Inc spoke sharply against favouring the Kingfisher. Let the Maharaja use his own funds to keep it flying, was the general sentiment among lenders, corporates and the public alike. “In a commercial jungle, those who die must die,” said one bizman. "As the Sanskrit proverb goes, it's foolish to dig a well after the house has caught fire," said a management guru.As things stand, despite the PM promising to look into the bird's existentialist crisis, the outlook looks bleak and blue for the Kingfisher in Red. The Raja of Maalyapoor is banking on his moneyed friends to bail him out. But any bird-brain will tell you that birds of a feather flock together only in good times. In bad times, business friends fly off faster than a Kingfisher dives into water.AirAsia’s success story has begun to falter amid charges of poor service, inflexibility, hidden charges, deceptive pricing and anti-consumer practices designed to squeeze the maximum from passengers. Whenever there is a news item on AirAsia in malaysiakini, Malaysian Insider and other online sites readers’ comments are almost wholly negative towards the airline. It is unusual for a budget airline which purports to provide affordable flying for passengers to end up on the wrong side of public opinion but AirAsia has certainly succeeded.

When did AirAsia descend from a public champion to a money grabbing witch? To be sure this did not happen suddenly but has been ongoing for years. The negative public perception against AirAsia has reached an alarming level and cannot help but affect the airline’s business. The suit by the Australian consumer watchdog ACCC did not help.

Copying Outdated Practices

AirAsia copies a lot from Western budget airlines like Virgin Airways but some of what it copies are outdated or culturally unsuitable for local customers. It may seem clever to refuse to check in a passenger who arrives 1 minute later than the counter closing time so that he has to buy another ticket but Malaysians find this very infuriating especially when other airlines have been very flexible. MAS will allow you to check in as long as you can make it to the boarding room before the plane flies.

Other practices which do not go down well with passengers are credit card charges, counter check-in charge and seat selection charge. The first two may be considered hidden charges as they are non-optional and should be added to the fare in the first place. Those who do not pay to select seats (currently at RM35 per passenger from KL) are randomly distributed so families will be split up. This is especially annoying as passengers are not charged for any real goods or services but for the right to sit together which should be theirs in the first place. It’s like taking something away which should be yours and demanding a fee to give it back.

But probably the most aggravating is AirAsia’s RM1.95 a minute charge to talk to a service staff. It may be for something which is not their fault like flight delays, claim of refund, lost luggage or being overcharged on their credit cards but having to pay by the minute to complain is really annoying. To add insult to injury they are frequently made to wait on hold while the charge keeps ticking.

Is AirAsia Really Cheap?

AirAsia practices a sliding scale of pricing depending on when you book. Early birds get cheap prices which are probably below AirAsia’s cost while late comers will be charged more. Then there are the gimmicky promotion giveaway seats which have to be subsidized from somewhere and it’s not from Tony’s pockets. The upshot is that AirAsia is not always the cheapest and can be more expensive than regular airlines. As nobody will pay more than a regular airline for a budget airline AirAsia tries to hide its real pricing and make it difficult for customers to compare.

This pricing model of gouging Peter to subsidize Paul does not work anymore. Consumers are getting savvier with tight social networking and no longer assume that AirAsia is always the cheapest. They will buy when AirAsia’s prices are cheap and stay away when prices increase. There are still some ignorant ones who do not compare prices but depending on consumer ignorance is never a good business model. This is like BN depending on the rural Malays to be forever supportive through poor information.

During last year’s peak Christmas to New Year period AirAsia was flying between KL and Melbourne with empty seats while all regular airlines were sold out. This is extremely unusual for a budget airline which should logically be the first to be sold out. Passengers have wised up to AirAsia’s pricing tricks.

Customers should also compare beyond the basic fare. Things like food, entertainment, comfort kit and baggage have to be priced in as well as other extraneous charges. Passengers also fly from the LCCT which is a pathetic excuse for an airport and they have to walk a long way to the plane as AirAsia will not pay for aerobridges. This makes AirAsia unsuitable for senior citizens. Then again AirAsia usually flies to remote airports which may cost more to get to the city.

There are also hidden costs. AirAsia is really only cheap if you book far ahead and pay upfront. It accepts bookings as far as one year ahead. This means your money is tied down and any change in schedule can be very painful as AirAsia will levy a heavy charge out of proportion to the ticket just to change a date. Some consumers will find that paying a little more for flexibility is not a waste of money.

Delays and Cancellations

Those who fly AirAsia know that delays and cancelled flights are far more common than other airlines. AirAsia has the dubious practice of combining flights if passenger loads are low without regards to disrupting their passengers’ schedules. The fine print on their tickets claims they have the right to do this. Only a country with weak consumer laws like Malaysia allows them to get away with it.

Those whose flights have been cancelled and are entitled to a refund find dealing with AirAsia an exercise in patience and perseverance. Contacting AirAsia staff is an arduous task in itself. Some customers say they are asked to wait 30 to 60 days to process their refunds and when the time is up AirAsia can come up with another excuse to reset the waiting time.

Long upfront payment, inflexibly, inconvenience, risk of delay and poor service means that customers will demand a big price gap from regular airlines to fly AirAsia. This means that eventually AirAsia will only be able to sell if their prices are very cheap and below cost. Passengers will look elsewhere when prices approach regular airlines.

A case in point is AirAsia’s cancellation of routes to London, Paris, New Delhi and Mumbai. These are popular routes to densely populated cities which any budget airline should be able to work successfully. AirAsia’s stated reasons like visa requirements and additional taxes do not make sense as they apply to all airlines and can be added to the fare. The real reason as reported in The Star is that AirAsia is losing millions on these routes every month. So why can’t AirAsia raise its prices? The reason it can’t is because passengers will flee to other airlines. They are demanding a price gap to fly AirAsia which the airline cannot provide and still remain profitable.

The Writing is on the Wall for AirAsia

AirAsia may have started on good terms with the public but the honeymoon period is over. Its service has fallen to abysmal level and it is treating its own customers with contempt. AirAsia is behaving as if it is operating a monopoly when no such monopoly exists.

Passengers have a choice of other airlines including budget ones like Jetstar which has been complimented for its transparent fixed pricing. Air Emirates is encroaching in on AirAsia’s lucrative KL-Melbourne route with very competitive prices. Hoping that its new KL-Sydney route will be as lucrative may not happen as SIA will soon launch a new budget airline called Scoot which will start with the Singapore-Sydney route.

AirAsia has obviously not come to terms with the power of social media. In the old days an enraged customer can do limited damage as he can only influence his immediate family and close friends. These days they can vent their rage in online forums, facebook and twitter and influence hundreds if not thousands.

Horror stories about AirAsia abounds online. Some say they find AirAsia staff so difficult to contact that they are forced to buy another ticket when they just want to change a departure date. One angry customer said he has been waiting 2 years for a refund with serial excuses from AirAsia. One passenger was especially unfortunate. He reached the airport to find the check-in counter closed and the staff agreed with him that it was closed earlier than the stipulated time. She made a phone call but was not allowed to re-open the counter. As a result the passenger missed his flight and his connecting flight and to top it off Air Asia refused him a refund.

There seems to be a culture of unsavoury practices to try to squeeze all they can from passengers even to the extent of forcing them to buy another ticket. Such corporate greed will drive customers away. My sister was asked to pay RM1000 to change the date of departure for a KL-Melbourne flight. She has declared that she will fly Air Emirates from now on.

Tony Fernandez should put his mega plane buying on hold and work like hell to improve AirAsia’s customer service and public perception. He should step out of his dream world that every year will be the best ever year for AirAsia. The writing is already on the wall and if AirAsia crashes it will be a pity as it can be said to be the only Malaysian global brand.

Now I hear he has a plan in the future to take over all domestic flights and MAS will only have international flights. If we give this to him, the country will be in ruins. It will be the end of the world for us,” he said. Bung said if the government could not provide a satisfactory answer, it meant that “government officials colluded with AirAsia and has vested interests.”

The MAS-AirAsia swap has come under fire from both sides of the political divide as well as employees of MAS who believe the deal will affect their careers.

Why mahathir Tony F all the way. See? We are starting to cry.The real issue here is this and Azman Mokhtar and his band of financial re engineers countenanced this- that the only people who can make money nowadays in Malaysia are the owners of Air Asia. Other people cannot make money too.
Tthe bosses of MAHB. If they are weak and can’t put their foot down, they are not worth defending. If they are inefficient as bosses of GLCs normally are, remove them. Bashir or no Bashir. Give them the boot. They should be let off to greener pastures. Show us la- you have the balls to compete and defend your turf.
You have a piece of asset that you can capitalize on- the airport and all the services therein. If you have to invest in the best automated system in baggage handling and all other things such as buying tickets by placing your hand phone over reading-machines, you invest in all these things because you can make people pay for all these conveniences. The problem is you are not using the material between your ears to the fullest. And I am not taking about your bulbous noses!
Azman mokhtar will now have a new case to present the PM perhaps through his main backer- the CIMB Boss. Since the people at MAHB don’t know how to run airports maybe in the interest of efficiency, we allow Tony F to make his own airport. Or allow his to acquire shares in MAHB. You will complete the vicious circle them. From airlines to airports.
Better still- make the airport in a god forsaken place- or a far flung place- Tebedu or Gua Musang, just construct a few shed with zinc roofs and people walk across an open field, no tarmac even, no aerobridges, no baggage handling machines, no cargo handling and everyone can fly. Everyone lugs their baggage and cargo themselves. That will lower costs.
The MAHB can make money through baggage fees and cargo handling. While these items stay on the premises of the airports, airport owners have the right to make money. If they raise the fees unnecessarily, the consumers will vote them out. Now, when these are on the planes, the plane owners make money.
Here the case is, plane owners can make money and want to, airport owners cannot.
Plane owners know baggage fees and cargo handling are significant contributors to the income of their companies. These are even described as gushing streams by Tony F. Maybe in private, they are described as squirting streams.
The problem is Tony F doesn’t want Malaysian Airports Holdings Bhd to be part of that "gushing stream". Only AA wants monopoly over the squirting sources of revenue. Otherwise plane owners only make money on top of the charges levied by airport owners and Tony F knows that that each cent added to "his" "gushing stream" means an additional burden on passengers who are then likely to revolt against all charges. This could in turn lead to a forced scaling back of charges, causing the "gushing stream" to weaken, possibly to a point where AirAsia cash flows will be adversely affected.
When Tony F launches his guerrilla tactics, how are people taking that? Perhaps that feeling is best represented by a short e mail to me, sent by a person using the name of JL.
“What is this chap from AA trying to prove? Who is he to declare war on the authority? If he cannot accept the increase, move to somewhere else where he does not even require to pay anything for that matter (that is if he can find such a place). How about Indonesia that he has been harping about? Go man, go, nobody is going to stop you from moving away. He only knows how to pin-point on others, what about himself e.g. all those unreasonable charges that he has imposed on the travellers? Aren't all these increases from his end driving the cost of travelling up too? His agenda is very clear i.e. to make as much as possible at the expense of others including MAHB. Only AA can increase on anything that this bloke and his team can think of as and when they like but not others!
Over to MAHB, please do not let this bloke from airasia get away scot free. Nail him by his balls. Make him move his outfit out of MAHB premises the sooner the better. His throwing of insults via his tweet & Facebook should not be tolerated. Should MAHB remains unmoved, MAHB will be sending the wrong message to all and sundry on the type of government we currently have. MAHB will directly or indirectly encourage others to do likewise. MAHB, please take action where necessary. MAHB is in business to make money (always remember that). Tax payers are already fed up with all the bail outs.
Will Tan Sri Basir Ahmad please put your feet down once and for all to shut this blokeairasia for good. Do not even border Mahatir is behind this bloke. He needs to be humbled in a big way and urgently too
This chap from airasia is getting out of control and his behavior is real teruk to mention the least. He may think that he has some big guns behind him that is why he is getting uncontrollable which is bad for the rakyat and the world at large.
Please Dato' we have to collectively bring this guy down to eat his humble pie failing which I am sad for the government of the day and the GLC involved.

NEW DELHI: Airports Authority of India (AAI) can no longer put off increasing landing and parking charges for airlines, a senior official said. "Airlines are in a very bad shape with Air India and Kingfisher running up huge dues that they are unable to pay. We were avoiding seeking a hike in airport charges, but now it has become unavoidable for us as AAI has been augmenting infrastructure in the form of new terminals and runways across the country. We need at least a 200% hike and will move Airport Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) soon," he said. Airlines and other industry stakeholders are opposing the hike in airport charges. They are also opposing the steep new levy called user development fee that DIAL wants to charge from passengers from April. Some airlines have announced withdrawal of flights from Delhi and others have threatened to do so as an over-threefold hike has already been approved for IGI Airport from April. The International Air Transport Association (IATA), for instance, pointed out at a recent AERA meet to discuss the proposed hike at Delhi airport that IGI would have the highest (user) charges in the world if the 334% hike comes through. It called for a review of the agreement under which DIAL shares 46% of its revenue with AAI. Both foreign airlines and desi ones like Air India, IndiGo and SpiceJet opposed the hike, with SpiceJet's senior VP Kamal Hingorani claiming such a move could even lead to "closure of some airlines"
Flying is likely to become costlier this year as the Airports Authority of India is planning to demand that landing and parking charges for airlines be "at least" doubled. This comes close on the heels of the 774% hike sought by theDelhi International Airport Pvt Ltd (DIAL), with the regulator approving a 334% increase from April. Mumbai airport is also learnt to be in the process of demanding an increase in charges.Once the AAI demand is approved by the Airport Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA), the enhanced charges will be passed on to passengers in form of higher fares. This will be in addition to new charges at places like Delhi and the general increase airlines are contemplating to cover their massive losses.While airlines are opposing any hike in airport charges and asking operators to increase cash flow by lower tariffs to get more footfalls, airports have also begun citing massive losses and non-payment of dues from nearly bankrupt airlines.Kingfisher Airlines is deep in the red. Should the government organize its rescue? Critics say that it has already been rescued in the past thanks to Vijay Mallya’s political clout, yet it has never made a profit since inception. When millions of small businesses are allowed to go bust when banks cut off credit to thousands of smaller defaulters, rescuing Kingfisher will smack of crony capitalism.The airline has defenders too. Kingfisher has justly earned a reputation for excellent service standards. Quality is always worth preserving. We need to save Kingfisher without saving Mallya.Its main competitor in quality, Jet Airlines, has frequently made good profits, while Kingfisher never has. So Kingfisher cannot claim that its problems are common to those of other airlines, many of which are also in the red today. There is a case for reducing burdens on the whole airline industry, but such general relief will not suffice to pay Kingfisher’s enormous overdues.India’s airlines suffer from high taxes on fuel, rising world prices and an obligation to service some uneconomic routes to destinations like the Northeast. Yet this did not prevent them from making profits in the past. Even today, Indigo is profitable.So are many global airlines. Top US carriers like United , Delta and US Air reported good profits in the last two quarters. Indeed, in the quarter ending June, United Airlines turned profitable after losing money for six years, Delta reported the highest quarterly profit in history and Lufthansa doubled its profits. The quarter ending September has been only somewhat less profitable for them. So, Kingfisher and other Indian carriers cannot claim that global conditions are terrible.Many global airlines have been rescued time and again. Political considerations have often dictated government rescues of national carriers (as has also been the case with Air India). Yet the three biggest US giants of yesteryear—Pan American Airways, TWA and Eastern Airlines—have ceased to exist. That should be the norm in any market economy.Kingfisher has already been rescued. Banks converted unpaid loans to Kingfisher into equity at a very favourable premium of 62% to the ruling market price, a tribute to Mallya’s political clout rather than company’s future prospects . Even after that the company has sunk deeper into the red. Even after being restructured and slashed, its debts exceed Rs 7,000 crore. Government concessions to the industry may save other airlines, but not Kingfisher.Afailed management must be changed. That’s normal in a market economy. Giving managements a second chance is often a good idea, but Kingfisher has already been given fresh chances through concessions and rescues , but in vain.One way forward is for banks to convert a big chunk of their outstanding loans to Kingfisher into equity at the current market price, giving them a 51% stake in the company . This can then be auctioned to the highest bidder. This will be clean and quick, free of the crony capitalism that afflicts government handouts to business.If Mallya really wants yet another chance, he must be told to bring in at least Rs 3,000 crore of fresh equity. If he cannot entice the investing public—which is probable--he must sell his other assets. Apart from liquor company UB Holdings, he owns stakes in the cricket team Royal Challengers, Bangalore; the Kolkata football teams Mohun Bagan and East Bengal; and the Formula 1 team Force India. In many other countries his bankers would force him to sell these.Indeed, UB Holdings itself is reported to have provided bank guarantees of over Rs 16,000 crore to the banks. In many other countries, such bank guarantees would be enforced , obliging Mallya to hand over UB to his creditors too. Globally, rescues entail sacrifices by not just creditors but the owner too. If politicians ask banks and other creditors to go easy on the owner, that is called crony capitalism.If Mallya will not sacrifice his other assets for Kingfisher , then he cannot ask others to sacrifice their financial interests for him. His creditors should acquire the company and auction it.There will be plenty of bidders, even if the government keeps out foreign buyers. Ratan Tata will be among the keenest of these. Remember, the Tatas owned Air India before it was nationalized. Ratan Tata tried hard to acquire Air India in the 1990s but in vain.However, hecould easily be outbid by many other Indian groups that have plentiful cash reserves. Many of them have started investing abroad for want of suitable opportunities in India. The auction of Kingfisher would be a very suitable opportunity.

Mahathir's peculiar form of double consciousness.. even a master of the language can become its slave.

2012-01-28T12:58:00.000-08:00

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MP Ong Tee Keat. The govt needs to stem the rot Over the better part of last year the country has been engaged in a debate on corruption and money stashed abroad.While corruption is an important issue the more important issue plaguing the nation is lack of Lack of morals Sex & scams: How we turn a … Read more

MP ONG TEE KEAT. SAYS B.N ‘S LACK OF MORALS A MALAISE THREATENING TO ERODE THE INTEGRITY AND COMPETITIVENESS OF A NATION.

Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said the performance of the opposition in the states under their rule left much to be desired.

"They've already been given a lot of chances. A lot of unhappy things have happened in Penang, the same (is happening) in Selangor.

"They have been given the chance. What's there left to try. If we allow the situation to deteriorate badly, it will be difficult to repair," he told Bernama here.

He was queried on the opposition's strategy of asking voters to give them just one chance to rule Malaysia and that they could be changed later if they failed to perform.

But eventually the ANWAR lost patience with UMNO. Najib was speaking about the Umno’s crony agenda. Not the Malay agenda. For those reasons we must do the exact opposite. Deny these so-called Malay leaders a chance to concentrate power. It’s power which they shall apply to the misfortune of the majority of Malays and to

To another question, Dr Mahathir, who was Malaysia's prime minister for 22 years until 2003, said the selection of winnable Barisan Nasional (BN) candidates for the next general election should take into consideration the views of the grassroots.

"If they don't support the winnable candidates, the winnable candidates will not win," Dr Mahathir pointed out.

He said that members of BN component parties should be willing to support the chosen candidates irrespective of who they were.

Don’t let Dr M and his hawks blackmail the nation anymore

A truly suspicious case feedom is the recognition that no single person, no single authority or government has a monopoly on the truth, but that every individual life is infinitely precious, that every one of us put in this world has been put there for a reason and has something … Read more ADEI PARIAHTULUKAN MAHATHIR DON’T FUCK AROUND ENOUGH OF SODOMIZING THE MALAYS

Dr Mahathir also brushed aside claims that the Malaysian electoral process was unfair.

"In Malaysia, throughout our electoral history, there has never been a time the opposition did not win (any seats). They won to the point of capturing states.

"Many states have fallen into opposition hands. If there is manipulation, no way they can win," he added.

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 … Read more LANDMINES IN A UMNO ECONOMY CULTURE LIBERATING THE MALAY MIND

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.

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.

I lived there for almost a decade, so I'm familiar with the challenge of covering politics in the US South. The challenge stems from that region's peculiar social phenomenon: double consciousness. Basically, seeing shouldn't always be believing. During the GOP primaries in South Carolina, I smiled to myself when I read reporting that was awed by churches that look like shacks, trios of wooden crosses mounted on roadsides and highway billboards admonishing drivers that they must be born again. I was reminded of HL Mencken, ever the cosmopolitan aesthete, failing to comprehend the pentecostal essence of public life there. And like Mencken, the reporting I read was factual, credible and sometimes funny, but often unable to see through the veil of culture to concrete truth.Like the US as a whole, the land is soaked with religiousity and racism, but unlike the rest of the country, the land has been soaking in them for about 400 years. The result is that religion and racism are completely natural features in the landscape of public affairs - and that to notice would be like noticing the air you breath and the water you drink, and doing that is to stand outside of the normal patterns of political life.
Gingrich wins South Carolina primaryAs such, they are like a thick mist lingering over a salt marsh obscuring the journalist's view, so that they can't see why a millionaire such as Newt Gingrich can crush a millionaire such as Mitt Romney, even though they are, politically and ideologically, pretty much the same dude.
The best explanation is the simplest: the former House Speaker from Georgia was on his home turf. He is master of the Southern language, a complex vernacular rooted in centuries of saying what you don't really mean and meaning what you're not really saying - or a combination thereof that was perfected in order to maintain power over black slaves who vastly outnumbered their white masters. Gingrich assumed of his GOP wingers a kind of shared culture of bigotry. He didn't have to explain what he is; instead he could spend this time attacking everything his opponents were not. He redirected the ever-present anxieties of his supporters toward straw men whom he theatrically set aflame for his and his audience's pleasure. And yet, in this deepest of economic nadirs in eight decades, even racists worry about where their next paycheque comes from. Among the salient facts that emerged after Gingrich's victory (41 per cent to Romney's 27) is that four-fifths of voters said they were concerned about the economy, according to the Associated Press.Some of these voters roared when Gingrich dressed down Juan Williams, a respected black journalist, for asking whether his comment about President Obama's being a "food-stamp president" was "racially insensitive"; some of these voters booed CNN's John King for asking Gingrich about his second wife's allegations that he once demanded an open marriage. How can voters applaud a culture warrior like Gingrich and yet be nearly statistically unanimous in their concern over the Great Recession, a hugely important issue that Gingrich is uniquely qualified to mishandle? "Cognitive dissonance" is one way of describing it. Another is double consciousness.The inestimable WEB Du Bois coined the phrase in an essay written years after Reconstruction had given way to Jim Crow apartheid. He was trying to understand the psychological trauma wrought by centuries of chattel slavery and white violence. The result, he wrote, is a two-ness, a sense of self that is not of the self but a self that comes "through the eyes of others". Blacks are "an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings". They are American and not American, and African-American history is "the history of this strife - this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self". Du Bois expressed an enlightened hope that African Americans might one day move forward as a people into what these days we'd call self-actualisation.
In-depth coverage of the US presidential electionI don't mean to compare Du Bois and African-Americans to Gingrich and his supporters. Far from it. Yet doubleness, an unreconciled striving, sheds at least some light on why some white Southern voters are so often smitten by the likes of Gingrich, while at the same time expressing deep-seated anxiety about their economic self-interests - and it explains why journalists, many of them dispatched by editors in the Northeast, often can't see through the haze of race-baiting and Bible-thumping to what's really happening. Self-actualisation, after all, isn't built on bigotry and faith, but on concrete things, such as jobs, health care and education. From economic security springs forth individual freedom, not the other way around. Meanwhile, South Carolina has an jobless rate of nearly ten per cent. Of those on food stamps, 15 per cent are white. Of those on the poverty line, 30 per cent are children. The state is ranked tenth of those with the most foreclosures.
What does Gingrich have to offer?
Tirades on the poor work habits of poor children, the immorality of food stamps and the evils of the media. In terms of policy, Gingrich has said he believes that jobs will magically appear if only the Federal Reserve would focus completely on keeping inflation low, even though that very policy has yielded little since 2009.
"Voters, even the racist ones whom liberals love to hate, will stop allowing Gingrich to assume a shared culture, because a shared culture only gets you so far when you're sick, out of work or struggling to build a better future for your children."Yet even in the South, this land of racism and religiousity, there's only so far a guy like Gingrich can go using the rhetoric of tribalism. Eventually, a serious candidate for president must stop saying what he is not and start saying what he is, and in doing so, he must clearly outline what he will do to address the basic human needs that we all have, whether we're racist or not. That might be impossible for Gingrich. A zero-sum game has been the foundation of his career. Only when someone loses does he win. In short, Gingrich has no core. His self is truly a self that comes through the eyes of others. While Du Bois believed African-Americans' "two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings" would metamorphose into a proud new American humanity, Gingrich's two souls and two thoughts don't synthesise, so much as self-destruct. Eventually, voters, even the racist ones whom liberals love to hate, will stop allowing Gingrich to assume a shared culture, because a shared culture only gets you so far when you're sick, out of work or struggling to build a better future for your children. After all, many a Southerner said he hated the New Deal until they realised the New Deal's social programs would yank the South out of feudalism and into modernity.
Gingrich told his supporters what he thought they wanted to hear, but he wasn't hearing what they were really saying.The economy. It's bad. We need help. He believes in rhetoric alone instead of the substance that rhetoric is supposed to reflect. Such is the irony of the South's peculiar form of double consciousness. Even a master of the language can become its slave.

Can a country have a split personality? Can a nation be a Dr Jekyll and a Mr Hyde, as in R L Stevenson's classic tale about the good and the evil that coexists within the individual?

India boasts that in the next few decades it will outstrip Japan to become the third-largest economy in the world. India also boasts of being a cultural and spiritual superpower, with a civilisation going back some 4,000 years. India boasts nuclear capability, the world's third-largest standing army, the ability to launch space satellites and technical know-how which makes it a rival to California's Silicon Valley. So far, so very good. Dr Jekyll, through and through.

But India also has another face, another persona. A recent report reveals that India is one of the hungriest countries in the world, ranking 67th out of 80 countries on the Global Hunger Index. Two hundred and thirty million Indians daily suffer from want of food. In terms of malnutrition, India is worse off than Pakistan, Nepal, Sudan or North Korea. Twenty-one per cent of India's population is clinically undernourished, almost 44% of children below five years of age are underweight, and 7% of Indian children die before they reach this age.

Describing chronic and widespread child malnutrition as a 'national shame', Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has warned that the country cannot hope for a "healthy future", when this generation of physically, and mentally, impaired children takes over as "farmers, teachers, data operators, artisans and service providers".

The prime minister's concern would seem to be a case of too little, too late. Never mind a "healthy future", India has a far from healthy present, in terms of both physical as well as mental malnourishment. Research conducted by the Programme for International Student Assessment which surveyed 15-year-old schoolchildren from 73 countries has put India second last in terms of its students' performance in reading, science and mathematics. While China came out on top of the list in all three subjects, India came right at the tail end, being better than only Kyrgyzstan. Dr Jekyll has been supplanted by Mr Hyde, and with a vengeance.

So which of the two Indias is the real India? Or are both of them equally real? Or equally unreal? The first casualty of a split-personality disorder — the Jekyll-and-Hyde syndrome — is reality. Objective reality is banished and replaced by a subjective world of self-delusion, a denial of the way things really are. Any attempt to reimpose a sense of reality is met with instant aggression and hostility. Jekyll-and-Hyde doesn't want to know the truth about himself, or the two 'themselves' who make up his deeply divided self.

This is why India is so quick to take offence at any real or imagined slight, at any real or implied criticism. A BBC television show in which the host goes around in a vehicle with an inbuilt toilet because of the dearth of public lavatories in India evokes howls of official and unofficial protest. How dare these foreigners — especially the Brits who ruled us for almost 200 years and are to blame for everything, anyway — say such nasty things about us? Confronted by a mirror which reflects the inescapable reality about him, a violent Hyde comes to the fore.

On the other hand, the smallest token of appreciation or acceptance by the same or similar foreigners (Oprah Winfrey wearing a saree, an Indian tycoon getting to acquire a foreign company) is hailed as a symbol of national triumph. Dr Jekyll takes a self-congratulatory bow.

India is too quick to take offence, too quick to accept applause, because it swings between the two extremes of its split personality, between the good Jekyll and the brutish Hyde. Will the two, who are one and the same, ever be reconciled? Which one will emerge dominant? That's perhaps the biggest real-life suspense story the world is witnessing today. Whom do you bet on?

Anwar says old leaders such as Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, ousted Arab despots and by implication are out of touch with that new wave.

2012-01-27T22:33:00.000-08:00

Criticised for voicing liberal views in the West while flirting with orthodox Islam at home, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has said there should be no reason for a contradiction between democracy and Islam.“The vast majority of Muslims are under democratic rule... or are opting for democracy, as in Egypt,” the man vying to be prime minister told Financial Times (FT) in an interview published yesterday.The influential international daily noted that the former deputy prime minister has drawn scepticism, even from admirers, that he can lead his fractious three-party Pakatan Rakyat (PR) to victory in the next general election or deliver his promises of a reformed government.But the opposition leader told the newspaper he was confident that Muslim-majority Malaysians were inspired by the wave of changes that have swept the Arab world and embracing what he described as a new wave of Muslim democracies.He said that old leaders such as Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, ousted Arab despots and by implication Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak are out of touch with that new wave.

The 64-year-old said he aspired to be a leader like Turkey’s prime minister of eight years, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whom Anwar said had shared similar hopes for an Islamic democracy.He added that they had discussed the wider opportunity presented by the Arab uprisings.“I talk about the Malaysian Spring, but our route will be elections,” Anwar told FT, adding that it was going to happen “very soon”.The PKR adviser told the newspaper he was focused on improving the country’s economy based on American philosopher John Rawls’ model — based on treating everyone impartially equal — should he win in national polls widely believed will be called this year.Anwar said that while PR partner PAS would from time to time object to Elton John and sexy Beyonce concerts in Malaysia, all three component members agreed on the need for basic and freedoms.He added that his position as a Muslim acted as a lynchpin for the disparate pact: “If it was some non-Muslim, they’d think that I was a bit wishy-washy and easy, but, no, I’m a Muslim. People ask, ‘Do you believe in the Quran?’ and I can say ‘Yes’.”But Anwar was reluctant to state his stand on enforcing hudud, the controversial Islamic law that advocate corporal punishment and which has persistently been a bone of contention between the secular DAP and the Islamist PAS.Anwar admitted to FT that it was “one of the more difficult issues I have to deal with” but refused to rule out its introduction in multiracial, multireligious Malaysia.“We must reach a consensus, which is not possible in the foreseeable future, but what if you’re given a situation where all Malaysians agree? Who am I to say no?” he told the paperBack-to-back TV and newspaper coverage of the anniversary of 9/11 this month will remind many of the vilification that Muslims faced in the wake of the attack.Lurid stories of potential bomb attacks were used to justify police raids and shootings. This deliberately created climate of fear led to Muslims being abused and attacked in the streets.Ten years on, and the press continues its loathsome work—only now the prime minister has also joined the fray. He uses Muslims to argue that multiculturalism has “failed”—a call echoed by the thugs of the English Defence League (EDL).Despite thousands of campaigners of all backgrounds regularly turning out to defend mosques and communities under attack, mainstream commentators claim that Muslims have made themselves targets by “refusing to integrate”.They insist that Islamic morals are incompatible with Western societies, which supposedly grant democracy, women’s rights and gay liberation.Some commentators go further.In Muslim societies, the adherence to religious strictures is so great, they claim, that no real culture or science has been possible.Taken together, these pernicious ideas form the basis of a new racism—Islamophobia. If allowed to grow, it will do untold damage to the working class movement.

Racism

The attempt to characterise Muslims as intrinsically backward because of their faith is a relatively new phenomenon, but one which draws heavily on older forms of racism that were previously directed at Asians as a whole.In 1979, revolution in Iran saw the Western-backed Shah replaced by an Islamist government.This slap in the face for US foreign policy began an era in which Muslims were singled out as hate figures, and regularly described as “irrational” and “fanatical”.

This racist stereotyping gained new followers during the crisis following the publication of Salman Rushdie’s novel, The Satanic Verses, in 1989.British Muslims now found themselves specifically targeted—not just because of the colour of their skin, but for morals and beliefs they were assumed to hold.This racism against Muslims stepped up to a new level in the wake of the 9/11 attacks in the US in 2001 and the 7/7 bombings in Britain in 2005.According to David Cameron, these acts cannot be understood as a reaction to Western foreign policies. Instead, he claims, they are a rejection of the modern world and the ideas of the Enlightenment that accompanied it.Our government’s support for Middle East dictators, torture and bombing can be discounted, he insists, because radicalism and even terrorism are built into all but the most “moderate” versions of Islam.The Tory leader claims that the job of the state is to force British Muslims to comply with so-called British values by punishing extremists, and intimidating even moderate critics into silence.

And, while polite society spreads Cameron’s notions at their dinner parties, others seek to implement his newfound “muscular liberalism” with their boots and fists.The EDL feels legitimised by Cameron’s words to further their own anti-Muslim agenda by physically attacking Muslims and mosques.The idea that Cameron, much of the media and the EDL share is that Islam is incompatible with the modern world. But this is nonsense.In fact, the development of the modern West cannot be understood without acknowledging the role that Muslims played in its formation.It was Islamic scholars who translated and preserved the philosophy and science of the Ancient Greeks and Persians. It was they who then taught it to their equivalents in Spain and Sicily.And it is easily proved that the early Islamic societies of Persia, North Africa and India in the early and middle parts of the last millennium were far superior and freer than those of Europe at that time. They played a crucial role in modernising Europe.For example, the 13th century Syrian scholar and physician Ibn al-Nafis was the first to discover the pulmonary circulation of blood. After a distinguished career, he died at an advanced age, peacefully in his bed.Compare that to the second person to propose the theory—the Spaniard Michael Servetus.In 1553, he was arrested by the Protestant authorities of Geneva and burned at the stake. His crime? Promoting a notion that was a “heresy” against god.Racist myths of incompatibility are also dispelled by more recent history.

The demand for migrant labour to help rebuild Europe in wake of the Second World War saw millions of Muslim workers drawn in from all over the world.Germany would not be the force that it is today without the workers who came from Turkey and beyond to create new cities from the ruins. And where would the NHS in Britain be if Muslims from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh had decided not to come and help build it?In the process of living and working in Europe, Muslims have become an integral part of the working class. Their struggles are woven into the very fabric of our labour movements—and their victories are rightly celebrated by all.Today, Asians are as likely to be union members as the general population—a fact that will be demonstrated during the mass strikes planned for 30 November.With prejudice and racism against Muslims seemingly so ingrained at the top of society and in the media, some people draw the conclusion that it has always existed.It is true that religious leaders and kings and queens in Medieval Europe often called upon their people to join religious wars against “infidels” in their midst and in Jerusalem and the Holy Land.Muslims were often the targets of these crusades, though other Christian denominations also suffered.But contemporary Islamophobia merely uses religion as a cover. It is not reducible to such religious prejudices.Its primary purpose is to act as a justification for imperialism, particularly across the Middle East, Africa and central Asia. This is because the majority of people living on top of the world’s most important reserves of oil and gas happen to be Muslim.

Justification

Western leaders have encouraged the growth of Islamophobia for the past three decades. Following the collapse of Communism in Russia and Eastern Europe in 1989, the racist ideology filled a void and became a justification for a series of wars.It is also because, from the Iranian Revolution until this year’s Arab Spring, most of these peoples’ resistance to imperialism has been expressed in forms of radical Islam—a byproduct of the failure of Arab nationalism and the left to deliver on the hopes placed in them.If the people of the region had been Hindus rather than Muslims, our rulers would be stoking a wave of Hinduphobia and our press would be filled with lurid stories of Hindu bombing plots.

By painting their “war on terror” as being about democracy, human rights and liberation, Western leaders hoped they could win support from a sceptical public, both at home and abroad.When people in those countries resisted, the same rulers resorted to the crudest of racial stereotypes to justify the most horrific acts.Supporters of the war who started out trying to distance themselves from the racism that had been directed at all Asians in Britain since the 1960s soon found themselves apologists for a virulent new strain of an old disease.Muslims became a “legitimate” target of racist policing and thugs on the streets.Today, as opposition to austerity and the economic crisis grows, there will be many among the British elite who are tempted by opportunities to divide and rule the “lower orders”. Islamophobia is a weapon in their arsenal.In such circumstances socialists must be the tribunes of the oppressed. We must meet every attempt to whip up racism with a furious response.And we must prove to all those who face oppression that they have reliable and formidable allies in the struggle.

Three IDIOTS dreams of being rich Noh Omar, Muhyiddin Yassin and Najib Razak made Umno Women's chief Shahrizat Jalil family rich at at expense of Poor Malays

2012-01-27T20:35:00.000-08:00

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? call Noh Omar, Muhyiddin Yassin and Najib Razak

UMNO seems caught in a bit of bind. It is beginning to look like the punter who lost a flutter on the football match and then a fortune on the action replay. Its original mistake was a misconception; its contemporary error is a misperceptionWhy have we become defeatists just because PKR has done such a brilliant job of exposing this strangely gut-wrenching but simultaneously hilarious loot of our wealth in the name of NFC ? Why are we so depressed merely because the new media has turned NAJIB’s image into a toilet seat, thereby fulfilling Malay’s dream first sketched in “An Area of Darkness” ?You don’t need to summon Agatha Christie to solve the plot. Most of our roads are constructed for annual destruction, since there is more money to be made in rebuilding than in building. Governments are not merely hand-in-glove with contractors; they are hand-in-pocket. Shared loot is safe loot.In our country, corruption has become mainstream; honesty is a rivulet, which is why the System has developed such sophisticated expertise at deflecting street anger. The game is played out in full public view, and we do not see hypocrisy trapping us in slow motion.Malaysian democracy is in danger of subversion by a self-confident,aggressive, articulate, patriotic and well-meaning force, the oligarchy of the successful. It might be a mild exaggeration to suggest that its principal characteristics are aftershave and English.Many of them possibly disdain aftershave or perfume, and would not be crass enough to be preceded by five yards of Axe effect, to name the most advertised aftershave of the moment. But they are loyal to the English language, the proven mantra to worldly success. This new class of thirty-somethings (terribly reluctant to turn 40) is a product of consistent high growth since economic liberalization began in 1991. They bring with them a fresh mindset, a happy sense of purpose, a professional approach to governance and a welcome lack of social baggage.So why should they be considered a potential hidden danger? Their assets dominate contemporary business, media and politics; their liabilities are buried in a general reluctance to see beyond their celebrity status. Politicians have always been celebrated, and rightly so; if you are in public life, you will be under public scrutiny. But they have not been celebrities. The difference is being squeezed by a squeal culture that is another dominant trait of a substantial and growing elite.
Danger lies in the fact that this creamy layer of 20% at the top has no interest in involving the froth of 80% in decision-making. It recognizes the problem of poverty, of course, and is even concerned enough to address it at policy level. It would much prefer an Malays in which beggars do not stare through the window panes of its cars; unfortunately, beggars can’t be screened out by black film for reasons to do with public security. But it treats the poor as both the cause and the consequence of poverty, and therefore unworthy of more than a token presence on the table. In a sense this is the old Race system in a modern manifestation; it is a karmic view of government, propagated by the New UMNO,

Onyourtoes: Agriculture Minister Noh Omar, let's go back to the fundamentals. It is useless to say this project is not a failure when we all know this project is destined for failure from the very beginning.It is most unfortunate that only this project is highlighted. If you look at past projects of similar characteristics - such as InventQjaya, the R&D (research and development) fund and grants, the tuna fish project (please explain what happened to this project), PKFZ, the SME funds, grants to development banks like Bank Rakyat, BSN, etc, Biovalley, the Bollywood and the E-Village - they all failed miserably.The government cannot simply dish out money to rogues to do business/projects on their behalf. It cannot be done because these rogues will be doing business without risks and without cost of capital. There will be no incentive to determine the commercial and economic viability of projects.Just ask Wanita Umno chief Shahrizat Abdul Jalil's family whether they would do this business (i.e. rearing and fattening cows and supply beef) if they have to do it using their own money and taking their own risks.I am 100 percent sure there was a tacit understanding that the loan taken need not be paid back. No one would take loan to invest recklessly and spend lavishly if they have to pay back, not even an irresponsible nincompoop.

If the government really want to increase beef supply, this is how it should have done it - just announce that the government is providing land for cattle-rearing in Gemas.Those interested can make use of the land, but they have to import and take care of cattle and determine their own beef supply chain. I am sure genuine cattle ranchers will do a better job.2CTS Worth: Noh Omar, we are not fools. So an explanation from auditor-general makes things okay?How is getting the loan a year in advance of the signing of the agreement okay? How is the money loaned for a project deviating from its objective okay?How is a family knowing precious little about cattle breeding appointed to run the cow farm okay? How are the exorbitant salaries paid to these greenhorns okay?You are right, NFC is not in a mess The right term is it is in disaster mode. You are the real fool to think you can eyewash us with your dumb statement.Trumpet Call: Noh, you are barking at the wrong tree. The rakyat is not so much concerned whether the NFC project is a failure or not.What irks us is that the top executives ala the Shahrizat family are siphoning off the rakyat's money for personal ends.We demand satisfactory answers to our questions regarding the condo purchases, the high-end restaurants in Singapore and the excessive high-flying lifestyle.
It really sickens me that even at this stage, the government is still trying to pooh-pooh the whole sordid affair. We demand accountability.Podeh: I think this is the peak of absurdity; after all the con-artistry, Noh Omar now wants to claim that NFC (National Feedlot Corporation) is not a failure.Next he will claim that Shahrizat's brood of morons are probably rank in the top 50 business people in the world and she is the model of a back-door minister.At the rate this is going, Shahrizat's family is the most gifted in running NFC, and the NFC project a brainchild of Noh to save the cattle industry in Malaysia. The only thing unmentioned is the hundreds of millions of rakyat's money squandered.The last, in their mind, is not very important - opulence is required to show one and all the superficial signs of success, the SOP (standard operating procedure) of Umno business model.Most Malaysians are looking for a place to puke.One Hand Cover the Sky: Of course, the NFC project is not a 100 percent failure. We can see that cows are still grazing and luxury condos are being purchased to shelter them.Such good quality beef that only the rich and famous can afford to buy.Clearwater: The KPI (key performance indicator) is reduced to 8,000 heads of cattle from original target of 60,000 heads despite a RM250 million soft loan, and Noh Omar still dare call the NFC project a success?He is a joker of a federal minister, much like many of his colleagues. Please save Malaysia from such clowns. Vote them out.Up2U: Whether the NFC project is a failure or not is left to be seen. The question before us is the soft loan of RM250 million and the misuse of the loan for purpose other than what it was intended for.
Who are the guarantors and will this loan be a NPL (no performing loan) if the NFC is a failure.
Gordon Gecko: Noh Omar and Sharizat = Umno. Therefore we can conclude that "cows of the same hide graze together

Columbus, Ohio - During Thursday night's Republican presidential debate, in the all-important state of Florida, a woman calmly walked to the microphone, and explained her situation. She was unemployed, and had been for a year, after many years of steadily working. But now she didn't have health insurance. She wanted to know what the candidates would do for someone like her.

Sadly, for the four well-off white guys on the stage - all of whom have benefited from (perish the thought) government-run healthcare programs at some point in their respective careers - her question was not easy to wave off.

She was not an "Occupier" or other such dirty hippie that they could tell to take a shower. She wasn't the self-described "Palestinian-American-Republican" (is that like a Jew for Jesus?) who had somehow gotten into this debate and asked about the rights of Palestinians, a people Newt Gingrich believes are a fantasy, like unicorns or his marriage vows. No, she looked like a suburban "soccer mom", someone who easily could have been one of the candidates' wives.

In other words, they had to take her question seriously. This is what made their answers so interesting. Ron Paul, in classic Ron Paul fashion, blamed the government for her problem - because apparently government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid were what made healthcare so darn expensive. The lack of competition between big players, explosion in the cost of prescription drugs and crony-capitalist protection of these rackets through policies such as keeping generic drugs off the market or allowing near-monopolies - none of these were a factor.

Poor US citizens 'exchange time for health'

He actually had the gall to say something along the lines of "nobody had been out on the street" before Medicare and Medicaid. Perhaps he was thinking of Mitt Romney's street.

The rest of the participants pretty much agreed, with tax schemes to make healthcare cheaper - definitely a boon to someone unemployed and therefore likely with little-to-no income - and promises that if they were president, there would be more jobs, so this kind of thing presumably wouldn't be a problem.
Dreams of being rich
Because just like Gingrich's moon colony and Mark Wahlberg's unique ability to have prevented 9/11 if he had only been in the right place (or wrong one), these presidential candidates have the unbelievable ability to create zero per cent unemployment for the first time in human history.
The truth is that they had no answer for two reasons. First, because the culture of the Republican Party is one that doesn't allow any solution that involves government funds. From fixing potholes to Gingrich's moonshot version of the Martian Chronicles, if you're spending money, you'd better be invading some place or blowing something up - and the moon doesn't count because there is no oil there (that we know of).
The second one is the culture we've allowed our Mitt Romneys to make. Everyone thinks they're going to be rich someday, even if they're head-over-heels in debt and lack the education, connections or wherewithal to become wealthy. Even though social mobility has largely become passe, like "shared sacrifice" or Stephen Tyler's singing voice.
I was reminded of the former point recently when I was at a party at a friend's house. A gentlemen who had been among the long-term unemployed, was just sure he was going to be the next JP Morgan. So we had better keep the tax rates flat, so he'd get to keep the lion's share of the profits when he eventually mined enough unobtainium from the planet of Pandora.
The truth is that woman who walked up to the microphone, and really everyone in that hall watching the debate, should be angry. Angry that they probably paid at least twice as much at Mitt Romney in taxes over their careers, while he was pulling in more bank than your average Bildeberger. Angry that a bunch of millionaires standing on the stage, who make their pile through connections and capital gains, would lecture anyone about working for a living. Angry that the United States we had for 200 years up until the 1980s, has seen working hard replaced by Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?No, the woman at the microphone didn't get an answer to her problem - but we got the answer to ours.