ETP.....Solving the Mystery of Malaysia's Economic Transformation

The PM's the grandiose plan for Malaysia to achieve "developed nation" status by 2020 with the masterplans drawn up by a minister who was recruited from a multinational company(SHELL) who had been put in charge of MAS(Mana Ada Sistem), the national airline that was going to crash financially.
So Idris Jala and his team at PEMANDU(in Malaysia the word means driver not pilot) and the team came up with a whole alphabet of acronyms for the various programs.....even today the government is still coming up with goodies to develop the 1Malaysia brand image.
I guess the idea is that if one throws enough mud at the wall, some of it will stick. The latest acronyms are BR1M(the RM200 vote-buying ang-pow) and AS1M(the Invest-Rich Scheme, where RM5000 will get a guaranteed return of RM8000 after 5 years).
All these schemes do benefit the poorer Malaysians and it certainly looks like the Elections are coming soon. Otherwise why are all the Ministers ranting against the Opposition every day and in every speech?
I thought there is no official word on when the Elections are going to be held?
But back to the ETP...the Economic Transformation Plan. It appears they should have kept that file highly confidential.
You see it is not meant for the ordinary folks like you and I.
malaysiakini has this report on the Generous Highway Project that has been awarded for a record period of 60 years.
In Johor, plans are afoot to collect tolls at the CIQ for all motorists; even those who do not use the new EDL highway, a 8km project that cost RM1billion. Why are projects in Johor more expensive than elsewhere?
I have created an online protest No Extra Tolls at CIQ for Motorists who Do NOT Use EDL Highway and if you sign the online petition, it will help a lot. If you have not signed such a petition, it's easy to do so and takes about one minute.
All these crony deals will certainly cause an Economic Transformation but it ain't for you and me.
How long more can we tolerate such crony deals?

BR1M....Caring for POOR Malaysians or Treating Them like BEGGARS?

The Malaysian government recently announced a financial assistance package whereby poor families were given RM500 in cash assistance.
Those who applied had to fill in a form at the Income tax office and the qualified Malaysians had to come back for the collection of cheques.
So they had to go twice in order to complete a simple transaction of collecting RM500. It seems that the government's intention was not so much helping the poor citizens but to milk the public relations angle for the General Elections campaign. At all the payment counters, some Minister proudly proclaims this is the way forward.
For me, dishing out RM500 to some poor Malaysians is going to wish away all the corrupt practices like mega-projects without proper tenders and paying through our noses for unsophisticated weapons of no destruction.
If they really cared about these poor folks who are easily manipulated, they can bank in directly into the bank accounts.
Oh I forget-no chance then for a publicity shoot!

Photo: thanks to Fung Lee Jean

Now Everyone Can Invest! The 1Malaysia Investment Scheme....

Move over JP Morgan and other investment gurus like Warren Buffet.....this Malaysian scheme will leave you for dead.
According to the malaysiakini article 1M'sia investment scheme: Old wine in new bottle?, the Malaysian government has devised a scheme that will pay an investor back an investor RM13,000 if he invests RM5,000 in the fund for 5 years.
That is a pretty good scheme if the returns are guaranteed; quite unlke unit trusts where the manager can never guarantee the return and even your capital can decline.
So why is the government only doing this now?
Well the General Elections are due soon and the BN regme is touting this scheme as proof they are transforming the nation.
But for me, this is a blatant form of vote buying!

The Anwar Ibrahim Acquitted Verdict....Was JUSTICE Served?

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?

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.

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,
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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.
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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.