malaysiakini and latest on TNB tariff hikes.....

Electricity rates have been increased so this is a good time to study why we are in this situation.
For me, the government has become too big to benefit anyone except its employees. At the last count it seems we have maybe 40% surplus civil servants as we have already spent billions in ICT without the corresponding drop in manpower. Everyone knows the BN has been giving jobs to unemployable graduates who get a one year's paid internship for on the job training and also acquiring soft skills.
That is why the federal budget cannot be managed as salaries and other benefits eat up a major portion of revenue.
But this article is about the TNB rate hikes....
TNB used to be an efficient statutory board until it became public and had to dance with IPPs that now burden it, like a mill-stone around its neck. The way IPPs were introduced could be construed as a major conspiracy to defraud Malaysians as they were given a golden hand-shake when they started....maybe a golden hand-cuff is more appopriate as the government claims the IPP agreements are protected under the OSA.
Maybe the major power shortages that saw the birth of IPPs was planned on purpose by the EPU?

According to an interview given by the Chairman of TNB who "was put out to pasture", TNB had to agree to all EPU demands.

Since our gas is about 35% cheaper (RM13.70 to RM18.23) than Thailand's, the only reasons why TNB has to charge more are:

1.It cannot generate the units to optimum capacity and
2.It must pay the IPPs a price way above their operating costs.
This is a sure way to generate expensive units when the nation has 50% plus reserve; with TNB having to restrict production when it has the highest overheads.

TNB has been bleeding while the IPPs are laughing all the way to the banks!
Just imagine TNB can produce at 8sen per kWhr but has to purchase at 14sen per kWhr -that is a cost increase of 75%.
Also according to an earlier article, we have a reserve capacity of ~50% with TNB generating only 40% as it has to buy everything the IPPs supplies.
It would be interesting to discover what are the production costs of the individual IPPs and whether any have been able to become more efficient.
The EPU imposing the 14sen rate when an IPP could offer 12sen could be considered a serious anti-competition measure and deserves a proper investigation.

The entire IPP power-sharing should be renegotiated-with TNB declaring how much supply it will buy on the open market and IPPs making their bids. TNB can then purchase units at its own cost plus maybe a margin of 10% of 50% of IPP capacity. If IPPs want to offer more they can offer at TNB cost plus x% margin. This creates more competition among IPPs.

Since the government claims it cannot disclose the IPP agreements as it is not a party, for me the only resort is to VOTE out the BN and lift the veil of the OSA secrecy that it itself imposed on the agreements.
We should also have a public inquiry on the sacking of the TNB Chairman at the time IPPs were sponsored by the government.

malaysiakini on PEMANDU and cutting Subsidies....You Forgot the BLOATED Civil Service!

I believe in a free market in general and so I believe any government program on control and subsidies will result in distortions and an inefficient market.
We spend so much energy on trying to control prices and sometimes the cost of such control is too high....now we have a special group like PEMANDU to propose ways on how to improve government performance.
Yes, they have proposed how the petrol price of RON95 should be increased so we can cut may RM20bil of the cost of this subsidy program.
But we all know that the civil service is also too large and I would guess by 40% overstaffing and the cost per year to taxpayers would certainly be more than RM1bil if we reduce the numbers by 100,000. So where is PEMANDU'S graph to reduce the numbers in the civil service? We have spent billions in ICT but instead of the numbers reducing, they somehow grow by leaps and bounds.

malaysiakini's Latest Article on Highway Robbery...An Overview

(please click on diagram to enlarge)
The spreadsheet is based on figure given in the malaysiakini article and if you compare some of the highway deals, there appears to be some discrepancies that can be investigated further.
If you look at the right most column, you will find that the construction costs vary quite a bit from the very expensive Penang Bridge (~RM70mil/km) to the reasonable (RM7.7mil/km) for the NSH. The NSH is an exception as the project was done over a long period like about 10 years but if you consider the other 2 highlighted projects - Grand Saga and LDP, the costs are relatively high-more than 3 times higher than the Karak Highway that was built during the same period.
Since the toll agreements are now available to the public at the PWD, I suggest someone from malaysiakini ashould get the full details of the highways; especially those that have received significant compensation from the government.
I find it absurd that for some toll companies,after receiving almost 60% back of the construction costs they still have 22 years to collect tolls.
The other major assistance to the toll companies is that the government extended the concession period for major improvements to Penang Bridge and also the NSH. Making improvements should have been part and parcel of the company's duties and the government should have included a KPI like average speed of tolled road 60kph.
If you look at the details of the Penang Bridge, the tolls should have stopped in 2009(according to Wikipedia) but because of the extra lane built later, they are still collecting tolls.
Don't you think this is highway robbery?

A WARNING for Parents! Don't Let This Happen to Your Son or Daughter....

This a another tragedy that could have been prevented.
The 3 trainee nurses were killed in a dawn accident in a car driven by the 22-year old driver who must have made an error in judgement. Tragically she was killed in the accident and so were two other passengers.
My warning to parents is please make sure you supervise your child's driving ability after passing the driving test before you allow them to drive independently.
I suggest the driving test should also include an overtaking exercise on a single-lane road. It seems that the accident occurred at a place where the road had an unbroken line - not an ideal place to overtake.
Also cars with auto-transmission are slower to respond to accelerating as compared to a car with manual gear where you can engage a lower gear quickly.

Instead of DESPERATE Moves like 15% tax for Returning Citizens, Better Schools would Help

This article shows why the Talent Corp has an impossible task to achieve.
Land for La Salle school seems to indicate that the government has been very generous to provide 1.3ha of land to build the school.
Now if you read the article, you will note that an existing school of 2000 pupils is being relocated from Brickfields to Sri Petaling.
I would guess that the land value in Brickfields is probably twice that in Sri Petaling and the Brickfields land area is probably larger than the land for the new school.
To cut a long article short, the company that is taking over the Brickfields site should pay for the construction of the new school and not burden the parents more as most are already paying taxes.
Can do for 1Malaysia?

Sarawak State Elections....The PM and his Cabinet Have Abused their Official Positions

Okay, the state elections are important for BN but that does not give the PM and his Ministers the right to go electioneering as they hold important posts in government.
In the meantime, even the weekly Cabinet meetings have been cancelled or maybe that really is not so important; more like just an excuse to have coffee and snacks.
Unfortunately the Elections Commission has become like the 3 monkeys of "see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil".
You can read the malaysiakini article Najib saving Taib or seeking his ouster?
For me, I hope Sarawakians will decide that both leaders are not good for Malaysia in general and Sarawak in particular.
When they vote for a change in government, they will "kill 2 birds with 1 stone".

photo:thanks to http://www.mysticunicorn.com/monk29586.html

Do We NEED Elections before this Problem is SOLVED?

We know the PM is busy these days trying to shore up a crumbling regime in Sarawak.
That's why he feels justified to spend 6 days campaigning in the buy elections.
The whole Cabinet is over in Sarawak and nobody is taking care of more mundane issues.
Like the case of young Malaysians who are being denied the basic right of education as in the article Future looks bleak for eight pupils.
Why are young children being marginalised through no fault of their own? In the case of the orphans the Welfare Department should have taken steps to ensure they obtained the birth certificates.
There have been cases before where the kids were not able to attend school and when they grow up and cannot find jobs, they may become gangsters or prostitutes to survive.
Is this what we can expect under 1Malaysia?


photo: thanks to the Star.