When a government loses credibility, even when the judge decides on "acquitted" as a verdict, many Malaysians still doubt the independence of the Judiciary.
After all, this case has dragged on for about two years and most Malaysians worry about other things like the rising cost of living and many believe it was definitely a case of executive abuse of power; with the PDRM and the AG's office pandering to the whims of the Executive to hammer down any threat to their political power.
Now if that is true, we should really investigate if indeed the PDRM and the AG have become simply tools of political leaders.
In fact, in a thriving democracy, MPs will severely question their leaders for improper conduct but so far no BN MP has voiced out about abuse of power.
But getting back to economics, the Malaysian Insider has this chilling article about National Debt Equals GDP by 2019 if Putrajaya Remains Spendthrift.
What is the meaning of "spendthrift"?
One meaning is someone who spends money wastefully or recklessly.
Do you think the PM is the nation's chief spendthrift?
What justifiable reasons did he have to fly 1Malaysia all the way to South Africa for just 2 days on taxpayers' account?
Looking at the TV footage of his appearance there, it looked like he and his wife were mere spectators at some ceremony or parade. Was it worth the RM30k bill?
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Sunday, January 8, 2012
malaysiakini and the Right to Peaceful Assembly....
The planned peaceful assembly for Monday to show support for Anwar Ibrahim appears to be a recipe for a draconian crackdown if this malaysiakini report IGP: Car park can only accommodate 5,000 people is correct.
One wonders how the police gave the approval and then came up with the major restrictions that will hamper any peaceful assembly and most likely result in the usual carnage of tear gas, water cannon and broken bones.
During my recent holidays in South America, I saw peaceful demonstrations in Buenos Aires, Santiago and Lima and not once was there any violence done by the police against the demonstrators. Maybe they have had their fill of violent confrontations and during a demo in Lima, I saw cops all around the financial area; with the crowd gathering in the plaza.
Then at about noon, the march began with about 50 to 100 people and the cops merely provided a kind of security alongside the marchers and keeping a distance of a few metres.
The photo shows a demo in Buenos Aires, right in front of the Presidential palace....this has been going on for months.
We walked past the protesters and even got a free ride on the Subte as they were trying to get people away from the area.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
An Example of how Crooks Steal your money at the Bank.....
Your PBE Public Bank account has been locked due to some internal issues on 13/12/2011. To avoid losing important information such as your current ballance, scheduled payments or payees, you must unlock your PBE Public Bank account.
Please follow these steps:
1. Visit our secure website by clicking here
2. Login using your username and password.
3. Enter the PAC you receive via SMS in order to unlock your account.
4. Logout. Please wait between 2-4 hours for your account access to be restored.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.
Thank you for using PBE Bublic Bank.
Regards,
PBE Customer Service
________________________
Please remember: PBE Public Bank will never ask you for sensitive information such as your credit card number or PIN. Do not give your PIN to anyone.
________________________
A few notes:
1.they ask you to click on their link.
2.they need a few hours to steal your money!
3.spelling error in bank's name
Please follow these steps:
1. Visit our secure website by clicking here
2. Login using your username and password.
3. Enter the PAC you receive via SMS in order to unlock your account.
4. Logout. Please wait between 2-4 hours for your account access to be restored.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.
Thank you for using PBE Bublic Bank.
Regards,
PBE Customer Service
________________________
Please remember: PBE Public Bank will never ask you for sensitive information such as your credit card number or PIN. Do not give your PIN to anyone.
________________________
A few notes:
1.they ask you to click on their link.
2.they need a few hours to steal your money!
3.spelling error in bank's name
Highlights of a Trip to South America and Singapore's SMRT's problems.....
My wife and I have just completed a 30-day trip to South America and we combined a quick tour of major tourist attractions like Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Iguassu Falls and Machu Picchu before we joined a 12-day cruise on the ms Veendam with Holland America Line that sailed from Valparaiso back to Buenos Aires from where we took the 20hour flight back to Singapore.
One of the most interesting ports of call was the Falklands Islands where we took an excursion to observe the penguins. The place was note-worthy as one has to brave 60kph winds on the open beaches where the penguins were nesting....the second was that the tenders ferrying the passengers from the cruise ship to land had to navigate very high waves of about 2 metres high and some tours could not depart from the ship.
Cape Horn was so calm that you wonder if the certificate they give you means anything important.
Still we did sail to the furtherst point south on the globe; that is if you exclude the Antartica.
Don't miss Iguassu Falls if you visit Argentina....the side from Argentina is truly spectacular.....I would rate it higher then Niagara Falls.
We both had a slight bout of altitude sickness during the time in Cusco but managed to tour Machu Pichhu without problems.
When we got back to Buenos Aires, we made a mistake of taking the subway or Subte that is very cheap like RM1 for any single journey in the system. The only problem is that the commuters do not know when a train is full.....they just pile in the bodies until you feel worse than a sardine! I wonder if anyone has been killed in the crush of bodies that occurs every rush hour.
Definitely plenty of scope for perverts! A woman dropped something and the crush was so bad she could not bend to pick it up.
So the news about Singapore's MRT problems seem pale by comparison.The Malaysian Insider has this feature Singapore MRT breakdowns douse Christmas cheer Given the high stresses caused by the high-speed trains, it is only natural that mechanical components will fail over time and it may be a question of simply replacing such components maybe after 15 years instead of 20 years. I am sure it is not an insurmountable problem with better means of analysis and improved materials.
In a sense, it is good that such failures do occur as it enables the public to learn more about such systems. I have just heard on ChannelNewsAsia that the China fast trains have a design flaw that caused the trains to crash.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
malaysiakini Reports Another HORROR Report from the Auditor-General.
Just when you think it's safe to drive on the highways comes this article in malaysiakini Senai-Desaru Highway fails road test.
Building a highway is not really rocket science and this report claims the depth constructed in some places is "not built according to specifications, with the lowest coring recorded at 72mm compared to the minimum 95mm,” .
What happens is that the highway cannot take the loading and soon the surface will become bumpy as the road sinks. This can cause accidents with subsequent loss of lives.
The consultant engineer who supervised the works should be reported to the Board of Engineers for allowing such shoddy construction that can endanger our lives.
The results show that the contractor tried to save costs by short-changing. I suggest the authorities should withhold 25% of the costs for a fund to repair the damaged sections.
Measuring the depth of the road is quite simple. How about the number of passes for compacting the different layers using the correct road construction equipment? If they cheat on materials, do you think they will not cheat on reducing the number of passes so that equipment hire costs can also be reduced?
The authorities are letting contractors get away with murder!
Building a highway is not really rocket science and this report claims the depth constructed in some places is "not built according to specifications, with the lowest coring recorded at 72mm compared to the minimum 95mm,” .
What happens is that the highway cannot take the loading and soon the surface will become bumpy as the road sinks. This can cause accidents with subsequent loss of lives.
The consultant engineer who supervised the works should be reported to the Board of Engineers for allowing such shoddy construction that can endanger our lives.
The results show that the contractor tried to save costs by short-changing. I suggest the authorities should withhold 25% of the costs for a fund to repair the damaged sections.
Measuring the depth of the road is quite simple. How about the number of passes for compacting the different layers using the correct road construction equipment? If they cheat on materials, do you think they will not cheat on reducing the number of passes so that equipment hire costs can also be reduced?
The authorities are letting contractors get away with murder!
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
malaysiakini and HUDUD Laws for Malaysia?
As the issue of hudud is again in the news, I suggest all Malaysians should ponder and reflect on how such Islamic laws can be applied for a secular nation like Malaysia.
malaysiakini describes how the PAS leader want to Discuss hudud issue with non-Muslims, PAS told.
My view on hudud is as follows:
A PR-led government can introduce hudud provided 70% of all Malaysians agree to it in a national referendum and hudud applies ONLY for Muslims AND
Muslims are allowed to change their religion FREELY with the present definition of Malay being changed so that a MALAY NEED NOT practice Islam; ie you can be a Malay without being a Muslim.
I propose this is a way forward for Malaysia. What do you think?
malaysiakini describes how the PAS leader want to Discuss hudud issue with non-Muslims, PAS told.
My view on hudud is as follows:
A PR-led government can introduce hudud provided 70% of all Malaysians agree to it in a national referendum and hudud applies ONLY for Muslims AND
Muslims are allowed to change their religion FREELY with the present definition of Malay being changed so that a MALAY NEED NOT practice Islam; ie you can be a Malay without being a Muslim.
I propose this is a way forward for Malaysia. What do you think?
Saturday, October 8, 2011
EXCITED over Malaysia's 2012 Budget?
malaysiakini has a good article Salient points of Budget 2012 that summarises the main items in the budget.
No doubt the main papers and the TV channels will be full of praise for the budget proposals and a sense of euphoria will be generated.
To me it seems the BN regime has designed this budget without taking into account our future situation. Remember we had one minister declare that Malaysia is headed for BANKRUPTCY if there is no CHANGE in the government's direction?
The Budget seems to be more a populist one that engages mainly the civil servants who already consume the biggest portion of the RM232.8bil portion. Look at figure for the Budget overall costs.
It shows that for every RM1 collected, 78sen is the cost of administering the system. In other words, government is too heavy or inefficient. The years of easy oil money have resulted in a bloated administration that is surely leading us to a GREEK-type crisis and we do not have an EU-type organisation that will come to our aid.
If you analyse the balance sheets of most banks, you will find that the cost/profit ratios ranges from 40% to 60% but the Malaysian government operates at 78% and the figure is still rising.
How did we end up with such a situation? Based on what has been happening, maybe the chart should be renamed with "Management Costs" replaced with "Mismanagement Costs". You see the government has been employing unemployable graduates for many years as their concept of CSR or Corporate Social Responsibility.
If you look at the picture on the "Mismanagement Costs", the picture is equally startling.
Emoulements is 28.6%, Service & supplies 16.8%, Allotment & fixed costs 53% - these are the main cost centres.
I presume that emoulements is basically the costs of salaries and perks of existing government employees.
Service and supplies would include work that has been outsourced? Not to forget the contract for the PM's executive jets.
Allotment and fixed costs is particularly worrisome as it is a whopping 53%. I suppose it includes the costs of pensions and medical costs of retirees.
I am not at all inspired by the populist Budget as it shows the government is unable to cut costs and reign in spending.
It is definitely an Elections Budget and I believe the polls will be held during the December holidays shortly after the civil servants and the marginalised have been given their "sweets".
Instead of just announcing the way "sweets" will be distributed, the Budget Speech should include how government has tackled wastage in the past year, based on the Annual Horror Report or the Auditor-General's Annual Report. In fact, we should table the AG's Report 2 weeks before the Budget Speech so that MPs can debate the Horror Report and hopefully avoid the Horror Budget.
charts thanks to malaysiakini
No doubt the main papers and the TV channels will be full of praise for the budget proposals and a sense of euphoria will be generated.
To me it seems the BN regime has designed this budget without taking into account our future situation. Remember we had one minister declare that Malaysia is headed for BANKRUPTCY if there is no CHANGE in the government's direction?
The Budget seems to be more a populist one that engages mainly the civil servants who already consume the biggest portion of the RM232.8bil portion. Look at figure for the Budget overall costs.
It shows that for every RM1 collected, 78sen is the cost of administering the system. In other words, government is too heavy or inefficient. The years of easy oil money have resulted in a bloated administration that is surely leading us to a GREEK-type crisis and we do not have an EU-type organisation that will come to our aid.
If you analyse the balance sheets of most banks, you will find that the cost/profit ratios ranges from 40% to 60% but the Malaysian government operates at 78% and the figure is still rising.
How did we end up with such a situation? Based on what has been happening, maybe the chart should be renamed with "Management Costs" replaced with "Mismanagement Costs". You see the government has been employing unemployable graduates for many years as their concept of CSR or Corporate Social Responsibility.
If you look at the picture on the "Mismanagement Costs", the picture is equally startling.
Emoulements is 28.6%, Service & supplies 16.8%, Allotment & fixed costs 53% - these are the main cost centres.
I presume that emoulements is basically the costs of salaries and perks of existing government employees.
Service and supplies would include work that has been outsourced? Not to forget the contract for the PM's executive jets.
Allotment and fixed costs is particularly worrisome as it is a whopping 53%. I suppose it includes the costs of pensions and medical costs of retirees.
I am not at all inspired by the populist Budget as it shows the government is unable to cut costs and reign in spending.
It is definitely an Elections Budget and I believe the polls will be held during the December holidays shortly after the civil servants and the marginalised have been given their "sweets".
Instead of just announcing the way "sweets" will be distributed, the Budget Speech should include how government has tackled wastage in the past year, based on the Annual Horror Report or the Auditor-General's Annual Report. In fact, we should table the AG's Report 2 weeks before the Budget Speech so that MPs can debate the Horror Report and hopefully avoid the Horror Budget.
charts thanks to malaysiakini
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