I just read a story (posted below) about Mexico celebrating its bicentennial even as many Mexicans say there is nothing to celebrate.
After 200 years of independence, Mexico is still struggling with inequality - it is home to the richest man in the world while half its population (107 million) are stuck in poverty - and corruption, which has become a way of life.
Drug traffickers rule parts of the nation like warlords even as the people lose faith in their political leaders.
A majority of Mexicans are not satisfied with the country's direction and the oil that once financed the nation's growth is running out. Mexico is slipping behind the Emerging Markets and its influence in the region is weakening.
A Mexican director made a movie for his nation's 200th anniversary and named it "Hell".
After reading the story, I realised that there are a lot of similarities between Mexico and Malaysia although Malaysia is a much younger nation.
Is corruption a way of life in Malaysia? Is there great inequality? Are the majority of Malaysians satisfied with the nation's direction? Is Petronas' oil running out? Is Malaysia slipping behind in global competitiveness? Is Malaysia losing its regional influence?
Though drug warlords are not controlling segments of Malaysia, other criminals are - just look at the Ah Longs (moneylenders) who paste their phone numbers all over phone booths, signboards and Tenaga Nasional power distribution boxes and the number of prostitutes from China, Russia and Central Asia who ply their trade in the red-light districts of Malaysian cities and towns. Look at the amount of smuggled cigarettes and liquor flooding the market. Look at the number of people selling pirated and porn DVDs.
These criminals are contributing very much to the black economy and the authorities don't seem too bothered about their activities. If you believe the rumours, some people in positions of power are partners in these 'grey' market 'business ventures'.
And, finally, how many Malaysians at this moment feel that Malaysia is 'heaven'?
By MARK STEVENSON (AP)
MEXICO CITY - The movie that Mexican director Luis Estrada is putting out for his country's bicentennial is bluntly named "Hell."
Like many Mexicans, Estrada says there is little to celebrate in Mexico today, with its violence, corruption and inequity. Yet in another way, the harshly critical movie shows how far the country has come - it was made with government funding, and nobody tried to censor it.
"I think this should be seen as enormous progress," Estrada says.
As Mexico limps into the bicentennial of its 1810 independence uprising, it is battered and full of self-questioning, but with more openness and debate than perhaps at any other time in its history.
The bicentennial marks the 1810 uprising led by Catholic priest Miguel Hidalgo, who gathered a band of Indians and farmers under the banner of the dark-skinned Virgin of Guadalupe. He was caught and executed soon afterward, but by 1821 the movement he started ousted the Spanish, a feat Mexicans celebrate Sept. 15-16.
"A bicentennial should inspire and generate hope, and this one hasn't," notes longtime environmental and consumer activist Alejandro Calvillo. "It comes at a time of deep crisis."
Why couldn't it have been in 1977, when Mexico was flush with oil money? Or in 1993, when Mexico negotiated the North American Free Trade agreement with the U.S., portrayed as a ticket to prosperity? Or in 2000, when the country experienced the first democratic transition of power in its history?
But all those "victories" proved hollow. The oil is running out. NAFTA failed to lift Mexican wages or stem migration. And democracy - in a country with no ballot initiatives, independent candidates or open city council meetings - has only strengthened the grip of the three main political parties.
A Pew Research Center poll released in August shows 79 percent of Mexicans are dissatisfied with the country's direction. Even U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton jumped into the fray last week, saying that Mexico, plagued with drug-running and violence, is looking more and more how Colombia looked two decades ago.
Mexico seems to be slipping behind: Chinese auto workers who once earned wages their Mexican counterparts wouldn't stoop to take now earn more. Mexico's cherished role as defender of Latin America's right to self-determination has largely been taken over by Brazil and Venezuela. And Mexico's view of itself as the protector of refugees was badly shaken when drug cartel gunmen massacred 72 mainly Central American migrants in the north in August.
"We are a generous and hospitable people, without doubt, but now we are realizing with shock and shame that we have become a corrupt and murderous country," the Catholic Archdiocese of Mexico wrote in an editorial.
Perhaps what Mexicans have to celebrate is their own endurance - the real glue that's held the country together for centuries.
"We won't migrate, and we won't allow ourselves to be defeated," says Victor Suarez, 57, who started a national farm cooperative movement in 1995, right after NAFTA opened the door to imports of U.S. grain. Suarez' group now negotiates better prices for about 60,000 small farmers, and has built 200 grain warehouses.
"Farmers are the country's future," he says. "We are fighting to save something that is key to the national identity."
Yet in the past 15 years, Suarez says he's seen increasing numbers of poor farmers migrate to the United States, or be recruited by drug gangs to work as hitmen or lookouts, or to plant marijuana or opium. In a country where roughly 10 percent of the population has migrated abroad - and a Pew Research Center poll shows another 33 percent would like to do so - merely remaining is often a statement in itself.
That's especially true in Ciudad Juarez, where drug violence has killed more than 4,000 people since 2009, making it one of the deadliest cities in the world. The violence is so bad that the city canceled its Independence Day celebration for the first time since Pancho Villa raided towns along the border during the 1910-1917 Revolution.
A restaurant owner in the violence-wracked border city - he asked for his name not be printed to avoid reprisals - isn't leaving, even after gunmen barged into his eatery one year ago to demand protection money. He moved his family to El Paso, Texas and opened another eatery there, but he remained in Juarez to keep his business open and continue providing jobs for his 10 employees.
"My dad started this place on a shoestring," he says, amid the warm smell of his family's turkey burritos. "I want to stay here, I'm from Juarez, and I'm going to stay and help my employees' families as long as I can....I'm not going to let some bastards run me out."
Mexicans are losing faith in many institutions. After the hero in Estrada's movie bursts into a bicentennial celebration and mows down corrupt figures - a drug lord, a mayor, police chief and local priest - with an assault rifle, audiences in Mexico City clapped.
But the search for new values is somewhat disorienting. For most of its 200 years, Mexico was dominated by three institutions, whose buildings loomed over hundreds of town squares: the church, the city hall and the house of the most prominent family.
The church - whose falling number of priests can hardly serve their flocks anymore - now strives to be relevant in a country where most still list themselves as nominally Catholic, but hardly ever attend mass anymore.
Rev. Alejandro Solalinde runs a shelter for Central American migrants in the southern state of Oaxaca, where he has braved threats from corrupt officials and drug gangs. Even Solalinde questions his church and his country's direction.
"I think that nationalism isn't much help any more," he said. "I think what we need is new humanism, that places value on the individual human being."
Today, one of the buildings on a Mexican town square is likely to be an evangelical temple. Evangelical and Protestant groups provide involvement and a sense of revivalism, holding "prayer meetings for peace" in places like Ciudad Juarez.
Other aspects of life are changing; today, a Mexican town square is likely to hold an Internet cafe, a money exchange for migrant remittances, and a store selling plastic Chinese sandals instead of leather huaraches.
The family remains a bulwark, albeit one that is often split by mass migration. But the enormous, close-knit Mexican family may be a thing of the past; Mexico's birth rate has fallen from about 7 children per woman in the late 1960s to 2.1 today.
Upper-middle class Mexicans today are firmly implanted in the developed world, with iPhones, modern apartments, high education levels and small families. They sometimes feel ignored amid all the talk of violence: Mexico's nationwide murder rate, after all, is a relatively low 14 per 100,000, well below the average for Latin America.
"The dangerous, violent, tragic, corrupt and cynical Mexico is not the country most Mexicans belong to," philanthropist Manuel Arango wrote in an open letter in August. "The millions who go to work everyday, despite street protests that often block traffic, who work to get ahead and support their families ... this invisible Mexico is the real Mexico."
Today, Mexico has strong civic movements on issues like crime, human rights and environmental protection that didn't exist 25 years ago. And despite suffering the most severe recession since the 1930s in 2009, the country has sound government finances and growing accountability. There is also now a truly independent Supreme Court.
Yet a few rich still hold the reins of the country's highly concentrated economy, where one or two firms dominate key sectors like television, telephones, cement, and food distribution. Half of the country's 107 million people live in poverty. Mexico is home to both the world's richest man, Carlos Slim, whose fortune is estimated at about US$53.5 billion, and about 20 million Mexicans who live on less than US$3 per day.
"Closing the gap that separates these two Mexicos is a commitment we owe to the heroes of the past, and to Mexicans of today and tomorrow," Calderon said in Sept. 1 speech.
In the meantime, social activists are trying change Mexico in various ways. Mothers whose children disappeared in counterinsurgency or police campaigns have taken to washing the Mexican flag in a tub of water outside the steps of the country's Supreme Court in the weeks leading up to the bicentennial. They say the flag has been stained with blood and needs to be cleaned.
A quasi-military group, the Pentatlon Deportivo, believes military-style discipline, personal development and an ardent, nationalist love of Mexico are the cures for the country's ills. In Mexico City, teenage Pentatlon recruits jog down the tree-lined main boulevard, dropping to calisthenics and chanting "I will train very hard, because I'm no coward/I will give my life for my country ... to end all the evil."
Others, like Calvillo, are trying to organize consumers to pressure the country's powerful, highly monopolized business sector, with campaigns to stop big corporations from selling junk food in schools in Mexico, where children simultaneously suffer from malnutrition and one of the world's highest obesity rates.
And some are trying to use the courts to introduce class-action lawsuits taking on big business. But activism can only do so much; for example, antiquated labor laws make union organizing nearly impossible, and wealth and power often prevail in Mexico's bureaucratic, opaque court system.
"It's a contradictory situation, because on the one hand, people are a little desperate and want to participate, but the lack of democratic processes discourages that," Calvillo said. "Because of the situation, people ... kind of retreat into their private lives and try to solve their own problems."
This year also marks the centennial of the 1910-1917 revolution, when the old heroes like Emiliano Zapata and Villa overthrew the dictatorship of Porfiro Diaz on behalf of small, impoverished farmers.
One hundred years later, most farms remain small and impoverished, and the "revolutionary" rhetoric that helped keep the Revolutionary Institutional Party in power for 71 years - a paternalistic government that would hand out subsidies, housing projects and sports complexes - has faded just like the paint on government-built apartment blocks.
The 2000 presidential elections - won by President Felipe Calderon's conservative National Action Party - marked the first peaceful transition of power in the country's history. Embarrassingly, Calderon's administration has had to delay a park and a commemorative arch for the bicentennial, because some of the work had to be done abroad.
Today, Mexicans are looking less to the government than ever before; they have largely tired of the official version of what it means to be Mexican.
At Mexico City's alternative music market every Saturday, Mexican Goths in black robes and white face powder mix with punk and rock fans known as "skaters." With shaggy hair, ripped jeans and skateboard, graffiti artist and high-school student Antonio Yanez, 19, likes U.S. bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Flaming Lips, but defines his Mexican identity as something that strikes to the ageless core of the country.
"Being a Mexican is about working hard, getting ahead by your own efforts," Yanez says. "It's like, looking for some way to get ahead, even when there is no way, and just hoping to find it." - AP
Monday, September 13, 2010
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Dinars and Dirhams
Here's a story on Malaysia that appeared in the respected financial newspaper Wall Street Journal. However, I'm not sure if it's for the right or wrong reason...
By JAMES HOOKWAY
The Wall Street Journal
KOTA BHARU, Malaysia: Umar Vadillo bounds into a hotel room here in northern Malaysia with several stacks of gold and silver coins in his hands and slaps them down on a coffee table. "This," Mr. Vadillo says, "is what it means to be free."
A quarter century ago, this Spanish-born Muslim convert set to work with other European Muslims to find a substitute for the U.S. dollar and other paper currencies.
State minister Nik Abdul Aziz presented certificates to local traders who accept dinar as payment.
Pricing goods in greenbacks, they argued, was unfair. Many countries earn their income from finite resources like oil and other minerals, they said, while the U.S. and other countries can crank up their printing presses to pay for them—especially after Richard Nixon helped break the Western world's historical dependence on gold as a measure of value by taking America off the gold standard in 1971.
Last month, Mr. Vadillo's solution took shape when the local Muslim-led government in Malaysia's Kelantan state joined forces with Mr. Vadillo to introduce Islamic-style gold dinar coins as alternative currency.
Mr. Vadillo and the Kelantan government have persuaded more than a thousand businesses here in the state capital, Kota Bharu, to paste stickers in store windows saying they accept the coins.
Ordinary people can also pay taxes and water bills in gold and silver instead of paper money.
"Our lands are being subjugated," says Mr. Vadillo, a powerfully built 46-year-old with a shiny suit, swept-back hair and a tidy goatee. "Today, in Kelantan, we're fighting back."
Plenty of people have their doubts about the dollar, as well as other currencies that aren't backed by gold or silver.
American libertarians such as Ron Paul frequently call for the reintroduction of a gold-backed currency, arguing that the Federal Reserve's ability to print money causes inflation and destroys savings.
Gold bulls have developed a cult following among investors who worry that precious metals are the only reliable store of value during rocky economic times.
If there's a utopia being formed for the globe's gold bugs, though, it's happening in a few unexpected outposts in the Muslim world like Kelantan.
Mostly that is because some Islamic thinkers teach that using currencies whose value is declared by governments is a form of usury. A piece of paper, they say, is just an IOU.
But with the global economy showing fresh signs of faltering, some believers think there's also a strong financial incentive to switch to gold dinars or the silver coins, known as dirhams.
At the Peter Libly tailor shop in central Kota Bharu, proprietor Ariffin Yusof reckons the new dinars "save people from exploitation."
Husam Musa, Kelantan state's economic policy chief, says he saves half his salary in dinars and believes it to be a good investment. "Its value is stated not by the World Bank, but by Allah," Mr. Husam says.
An initial run of coins worth about US$640,000 and ranging from one dirham — containing about US$4 worth of silver at current prices — and one dinar — worth US$189 — to an eight-dinar coin worth US$1,518 sold out quickly, prompting Malaysia's political leaders to say the paper-based ringgit, worth around 32 U.S. cents, is still the country's legal currency.
"Gold is money because people make it money. Paper money is money because governments make it money," says Peter Schiff, President of Euro Pacific Capital Inc. in Westport, Conn., and a notable dollar bear. "But what happens if people lose their faith in governments, and the U.S. government in particular?"
This latest quest to wean the world off dollars actually began in Adam Smith's homeland, Scotland, when an aspiring actor named Ian Dallas left his home near Glasgow to seek out the bright lights of London in the 1960s.
Mr. Dallas, now 79 years old, fell into the hippie circuit and played a telepath in the Federico Fellini movie "8½" before ultimately converting to Islam in Morocco.
Mr. Dallas took the name Abdalqadir al-Sufi and set up his own sect, the Murabitun—or "the people of the outposts"—before settling into a wind-blasted mansion named Achnagairn near Inverness in the Scottish highlands.
There, Mr. Dallas and his followers surrounded themselves with banks of computers and began work on creating an Islamic currency to replace the dollar and help speed up the collapse of the West's credit-driven financial system.
When Mr. Vadillo joined the mission, the Murabitun fine-tuned their thinking and began minting gold dinars—the same currency used in the early days of Islam.
The first coin was stamped in 1993 with a Jacobite sword in honor of one of Mr. Dallas's Scottish ancestors who fought against the English army at the Battle of Culloden in 1746. A silver dirham was minted with the Dallas family crest.
"People laughed at us," says Mr. Dallas, who now lives in South Africa and dressed up in an Afghan cap and navy blazer in a video recently released to mark the arrival of the new dinar in Malaysia. "People thought we were going back to the past. Now, the whole atmosphere has changed."
"1,400 years ago, a chicken cost one dirham. Today, it still costs one dirham," Mr. Vadillo says.
Mainstream economists are skeptical about how quickly Malaysians will take up dinars.
Tim Condon, chief Asia economist at ING in Singapore, says he regards gold enthusiasts as "monetary cranks."
He points out that central banks around the world have by and large managed to contain the worst ravages of inflation.
Paper money can also help economies avoid tough periods of deflation, which some economists associate with rigidly backing currencies with gold.
Either way, getting people to use dinars and dirhams regularly isn't easy, and already there are some teething problems in Kota Bharu.
Some people see dinars as a way to save rather than a means of exchange. Others aren't sure what to do with them or worry about how to store them safely.
Snack vendor Ros Abdul Rashid confesses she wouldn't know what to do if somebody tried to buy a bag of peanuts with gold or silver. "I'm not sure how it's supposed to work yet," she says.
One white-robed dinar dealer, 68-year-old Awaludin Mohal, has to offer paper bank notes as change when customers buy his gold and silver coins.
To read the story, click: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882304575465623070689934.html?
By JAMES HOOKWAY
The Wall Street Journal
KOTA BHARU, Malaysia: Umar Vadillo bounds into a hotel room here in northern Malaysia with several stacks of gold and silver coins in his hands and slaps them down on a coffee table. "This," Mr. Vadillo says, "is what it means to be free."
A quarter century ago, this Spanish-born Muslim convert set to work with other European Muslims to find a substitute for the U.S. dollar and other paper currencies.
State minister Nik Abdul Aziz presented certificates to local traders who accept dinar as payment.
Pricing goods in greenbacks, they argued, was unfair. Many countries earn their income from finite resources like oil and other minerals, they said, while the U.S. and other countries can crank up their printing presses to pay for them—especially after Richard Nixon helped break the Western world's historical dependence on gold as a measure of value by taking America off the gold standard in 1971.
Last month, Mr. Vadillo's solution took shape when the local Muslim-led government in Malaysia's Kelantan state joined forces with Mr. Vadillo to introduce Islamic-style gold dinar coins as alternative currency.
Mr. Vadillo and the Kelantan government have persuaded more than a thousand businesses here in the state capital, Kota Bharu, to paste stickers in store windows saying they accept the coins.
Ordinary people can also pay taxes and water bills in gold and silver instead of paper money.
"Our lands are being subjugated," says Mr. Vadillo, a powerfully built 46-year-old with a shiny suit, swept-back hair and a tidy goatee. "Today, in Kelantan, we're fighting back."
Plenty of people have their doubts about the dollar, as well as other currencies that aren't backed by gold or silver.
American libertarians such as Ron Paul frequently call for the reintroduction of a gold-backed currency, arguing that the Federal Reserve's ability to print money causes inflation and destroys savings.
Gold bulls have developed a cult following among investors who worry that precious metals are the only reliable store of value during rocky economic times.
If there's a utopia being formed for the globe's gold bugs, though, it's happening in a few unexpected outposts in the Muslim world like Kelantan.
Mostly that is because some Islamic thinkers teach that using currencies whose value is declared by governments is a form of usury. A piece of paper, they say, is just an IOU.
But with the global economy showing fresh signs of faltering, some believers think there's also a strong financial incentive to switch to gold dinars or the silver coins, known as dirhams.
At the Peter Libly tailor shop in central Kota Bharu, proprietor Ariffin Yusof reckons the new dinars "save people from exploitation."
Husam Musa, Kelantan state's economic policy chief, says he saves half his salary in dinars and believes it to be a good investment. "Its value is stated not by the World Bank, but by Allah," Mr. Husam says.
An initial run of coins worth about US$640,000 and ranging from one dirham — containing about US$4 worth of silver at current prices — and one dinar — worth US$189 — to an eight-dinar coin worth US$1,518 sold out quickly, prompting Malaysia's political leaders to say the paper-based ringgit, worth around 32 U.S. cents, is still the country's legal currency.
"Gold is money because people make it money. Paper money is money because governments make it money," says Peter Schiff, President of Euro Pacific Capital Inc. in Westport, Conn., and a notable dollar bear. "But what happens if people lose their faith in governments, and the U.S. government in particular?"
This latest quest to wean the world off dollars actually began in Adam Smith's homeland, Scotland, when an aspiring actor named Ian Dallas left his home near Glasgow to seek out the bright lights of London in the 1960s.
Mr. Dallas, now 79 years old, fell into the hippie circuit and played a telepath in the Federico Fellini movie "8½" before ultimately converting to Islam in Morocco.
Mr. Dallas took the name Abdalqadir al-Sufi and set up his own sect, the Murabitun—or "the people of the outposts"—before settling into a wind-blasted mansion named Achnagairn near Inverness in the Scottish highlands.
There, Mr. Dallas and his followers surrounded themselves with banks of computers and began work on creating an Islamic currency to replace the dollar and help speed up the collapse of the West's credit-driven financial system.
When Mr. Vadillo joined the mission, the Murabitun fine-tuned their thinking and began minting gold dinars—the same currency used in the early days of Islam.
The first coin was stamped in 1993 with a Jacobite sword in honor of one of Mr. Dallas's Scottish ancestors who fought against the English army at the Battle of Culloden in 1746. A silver dirham was minted with the Dallas family crest.
"People laughed at us," says Mr. Dallas, who now lives in South Africa and dressed up in an Afghan cap and navy blazer in a video recently released to mark the arrival of the new dinar in Malaysia. "People thought we were going back to the past. Now, the whole atmosphere has changed."
"1,400 years ago, a chicken cost one dirham. Today, it still costs one dirham," Mr. Vadillo says.
Mainstream economists are skeptical about how quickly Malaysians will take up dinars.
Tim Condon, chief Asia economist at ING in Singapore, says he regards gold enthusiasts as "monetary cranks."
He points out that central banks around the world have by and large managed to contain the worst ravages of inflation.
Paper money can also help economies avoid tough periods of deflation, which some economists associate with rigidly backing currencies with gold.
Either way, getting people to use dinars and dirhams regularly isn't easy, and already there are some teething problems in Kota Bharu.
Some people see dinars as a way to save rather than a means of exchange. Others aren't sure what to do with them or worry about how to store them safely.
Snack vendor Ros Abdul Rashid confesses she wouldn't know what to do if somebody tried to buy a bag of peanuts with gold or silver. "I'm not sure how it's supposed to work yet," she says.
One white-robed dinar dealer, 68-year-old Awaludin Mohal, has to offer paper bank notes as change when customers buy his gold and silver coins.
To read the story, click: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882304575465623070689934.html?
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Shocked by shocks
People say that only in Malaysia will you get shocking news like what had taken place recently.
First shocker was when the former Transport Minister and MCA president (now) Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik was charged with cheating the Malaysian government by misleading the Cabinet on the land acquisition for the infamous PKFZ project in Port Klang.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges on July 29.
Then the second shocker came 11 days later when it was revealed that Teoh Beng Hock, 30, the political secretary to Selangor executive councillor Ean Yong Hian Wah, who was found dead on July 16 last year on the fifth floor of Plaza Masalam in Shah Alam after giving his statement to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, located on the 14th floor of the same building, had left a 'note' in his backpack.
Though the contents of the note were not revealed, there was much speculation that it was purportedly a 'suicide' note.
The news was shocking because the circumstances surrounding the discovery of the 'note' were so unbelievable.
The investigating officer found the note a day after Teoh's death, but did not realise its significance as it was written in Chinese and Roman characters. What kind of investigation was that?
The Attorney General's Chambers later was told about the note and it was translated and analysed on Oct 9 and Oct 20.
The AG's Chambers knew about the note 10 months ago, but did not introduce it as evidence purportedly because they wanted to ensure that it was authentic.
Now after all the learned testimonies in the inquiry into Teoh's death, including one expert who opined that there was a high possibility of foul play, the AG suddenly pulled out an ace card by introducing the 'note' as evidence and claiming there had been no suppression of evidence, are the people expected to believe all that?
If the government had wanted to score some points with the people by charging Tun Ling by effectively saying that no big-shot, no matter how big physically or politically, will escape the long arm of the law, then they lost all the points with the debacle concerning Teoh's 'note'.
What are the people saying? The talk is that Ling's case will be a show trial as the authorities would hear his case before the next general election and then acquit him on grounds of insufficient evidence after the election (if Barisan wins).
As for Teoh's 'note', most people think it's a fake and no matter how hard the prosecution tries to convince the coroner that it is original by producing expert witnesses, the people will say it's a 'pirated' copy.
I think the people's opinion of Teoh's 'note' will be of more significance than Ling's case as far as voting trend is concerned.
First shocker was when the former Transport Minister and MCA president (now) Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik was charged with cheating the Malaysian government by misleading the Cabinet on the land acquisition for the infamous PKFZ project in Port Klang.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges on July 29.
Then the second shocker came 11 days later when it was revealed that Teoh Beng Hock, 30, the political secretary to Selangor executive councillor Ean Yong Hian Wah, who was found dead on July 16 last year on the fifth floor of Plaza Masalam in Shah Alam after giving his statement to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, located on the 14th floor of the same building, had left a 'note' in his backpack.
Though the contents of the note were not revealed, there was much speculation that it was purportedly a 'suicide' note.
The news was shocking because the circumstances surrounding the discovery of the 'note' were so unbelievable.
The investigating officer found the note a day after Teoh's death, but did not realise its significance as it was written in Chinese and Roman characters. What kind of investigation was that?
The Attorney General's Chambers later was told about the note and it was translated and analysed on Oct 9 and Oct 20.
The AG's Chambers knew about the note 10 months ago, but did not introduce it as evidence purportedly because they wanted to ensure that it was authentic.
Now after all the learned testimonies in the inquiry into Teoh's death, including one expert who opined that there was a high possibility of foul play, the AG suddenly pulled out an ace card by introducing the 'note' as evidence and claiming there had been no suppression of evidence, are the people expected to believe all that?
If the government had wanted to score some points with the people by charging Tun Ling by effectively saying that no big-shot, no matter how big physically or politically, will escape the long arm of the law, then they lost all the points with the debacle concerning Teoh's 'note'.
What are the people saying? The talk is that Ling's case will be a show trial as the authorities would hear his case before the next general election and then acquit him on grounds of insufficient evidence after the election (if Barisan wins).
As for Teoh's 'note', most people think it's a fake and no matter how hard the prosecution tries to convince the coroner that it is original by producing expert witnesses, the people will say it's a 'pirated' copy.
I think the people's opinion of Teoh's 'note' will be of more significance than Ling's case as far as voting trend is concerned.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
The right move
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak should be praised for cutting subsidies even though the political cost may be high.
Today, he announced that the price of RON 95 petrol and diesel will go up by five sen while that of RON 97 petrol will be subjected to a managed float which will fluctuate according to world prices.
The price of sugar went up by 25 sen per kg and that of LPG was up by 10 sen a kg.
He gave three reasons to justify the reduction in subsidies - the subsidies benefitted foreigners and wealthier Malaysians; the subsidised prices of some products encouraged smuggling; and thirdly "unless the government reduces our fuel and sugar consumption, we face potentially serious consequences as a nation".
Previous administrations had been reluctant to reduce subsidies even though economists and those with common sense could tell anybody who cared to listen that the system and culture of subsidising could not be sustained.
This was because any reduction in subsidies would result in an increase in prices of certain goods which would affect the majority of the population, especially those earning low and even middle-level incomes.
Since this would affect a large number of Malays, previous governments did the politically-correct thing - don't fix it if it ain't broken yet and just passed the buck to some sucker in the future.
But they were just postponing the inevitable - the cost of subsidising has risen so high that the opportunity cost of it is incalculable. If I'm not wrong, the cost of subsidies in the annual Budget is about as much as the amount allocated for development projects.
Much of the Government's revenue comes from Petronas and for the next few years, Petronas can still make plenty of money. But inevitably, the day will come when Malaysians will spend more money on petrol than what Petronas makes from its exports i.e. Malaysia will become a net importer of oil. That is when all hell will break loose.
Top Petronas managers have warned previous Governments about this doomsday scenario before, but previous Prime Ministers did the politically-correct thing - don't do anything and let their successors worry about the issue.
Well, their successor did exactly that - worry about the issue - and he has actually done something about it.
The people will feel the pain, the Opposition politicians will play up the issue, some votes will inevitably be lost, but Najib - like it or not - has done the right thing.
There is an old saying that a stitch in time saves nine. It is very apt for the current situation.
What Najib did will ensure that the finances of the nation will not be in dire straits years from now (when he may not even be the Prime Minister). It will benefit Malaysia and Malaysians.
His move to reduce the subsidies also reveals another thing - the general election will not be called in the next six months or so.
Today, he announced that the price of RON 95 petrol and diesel will go up by five sen while that of RON 97 petrol will be subjected to a managed float which will fluctuate according to world prices.
The price of sugar went up by 25 sen per kg and that of LPG was up by 10 sen a kg.
He gave three reasons to justify the reduction in subsidies - the subsidies benefitted foreigners and wealthier Malaysians; the subsidised prices of some products encouraged smuggling; and thirdly "unless the government reduces our fuel and sugar consumption, we face potentially serious consequences as a nation".
Previous administrations had been reluctant to reduce subsidies even though economists and those with common sense could tell anybody who cared to listen that the system and culture of subsidising could not be sustained.
This was because any reduction in subsidies would result in an increase in prices of certain goods which would affect the majority of the population, especially those earning low and even middle-level incomes.
Since this would affect a large number of Malays, previous governments did the politically-correct thing - don't fix it if it ain't broken yet and just passed the buck to some sucker in the future.
But they were just postponing the inevitable - the cost of subsidising has risen so high that the opportunity cost of it is incalculable. If I'm not wrong, the cost of subsidies in the annual Budget is about as much as the amount allocated for development projects.
Much of the Government's revenue comes from Petronas and for the next few years, Petronas can still make plenty of money. But inevitably, the day will come when Malaysians will spend more money on petrol than what Petronas makes from its exports i.e. Malaysia will become a net importer of oil. That is when all hell will break loose.
Top Petronas managers have warned previous Governments about this doomsday scenario before, but previous Prime Ministers did the politically-correct thing - don't do anything and let their successors worry about the issue.
Well, their successor did exactly that - worry about the issue - and he has actually done something about it.
The people will feel the pain, the Opposition politicians will play up the issue, some votes will inevitably be lost, but Najib - like it or not - has done the right thing.
There is an old saying that a stitch in time saves nine. It is very apt for the current situation.
What Najib did will ensure that the finances of the nation will not be in dire straits years from now (when he may not even be the Prime Minister). It will benefit Malaysia and Malaysians.
His move to reduce the subsidies also reveals another thing - the general election will not be called in the next six months or so.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Fight for the Malay heartland
The battle is on between Pakatan Rakyat and Umno for the hearts of the Malays in rural areas because this category of voters will decide who forms the next government.
It is highly probable that the Pakatan leaders know they have most of the urban Malays on their side and as the recent Hulu Selangor by-election showed, the rural Malays - who are still tuned to and are influenced by Government-controlled television stations rather than be swayed by the numerous blogs offering alternative news in the Net - are still backing Umno and Barisan.
What Pakatan will try to do is attempt to convince the rural Malays that they have been left out of development and progress that can so obviously be seen in urban areas. Urban folks have benefitted from the Barisan government's hand-outs and projects, etc, and they are far richer and live in bigger mansions than the rural Malays who still sleep in crumbling wooden kampung houses and live a hand-to-mouth existence.
In Hulu Selangor, observers noted, Umno was still strongly supported in the Felda schemes and that was one of the chief reasons that Barisan won the by-election in April.
Thus it is not surprising that Suara Keadilan recently ran a front-page story alleging that Felda is bankrupt.
This is a stab in the heart of the Malay heartland - winning over the Felda settlers carries more symbolic weight as the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak's father, the second Prime Minister, was instrumental in creating the Felda schemes in the first place.
Though it is unlikely that PKR can show evidence that Felda is indeed bankrupt, the damage has been done - which is probably the intention in the first place. Plant a seed of doubt and watch it sprout and grow - I think that's PKR's game plan.
Not only that but by having the Home Ministry 'ban' the Suara Keadilan (actually the publishing permit expired and was not renewed), another political issue is created.
The Barisan Nasional government must be wary of such trickery and not fall into cunning traps set by Pakatan.
It is highly probable that the Pakatan leaders know they have most of the urban Malays on their side and as the recent Hulu Selangor by-election showed, the rural Malays - who are still tuned to and are influenced by Government-controlled television stations rather than be swayed by the numerous blogs offering alternative news in the Net - are still backing Umno and Barisan.
What Pakatan will try to do is attempt to convince the rural Malays that they have been left out of development and progress that can so obviously be seen in urban areas. Urban folks have benefitted from the Barisan government's hand-outs and projects, etc, and they are far richer and live in bigger mansions than the rural Malays who still sleep in crumbling wooden kampung houses and live a hand-to-mouth existence.
In Hulu Selangor, observers noted, Umno was still strongly supported in the Felda schemes and that was one of the chief reasons that Barisan won the by-election in April.
Thus it is not surprising that Suara Keadilan recently ran a front-page story alleging that Felda is bankrupt.
This is a stab in the heart of the Malay heartland - winning over the Felda settlers carries more symbolic weight as the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak's father, the second Prime Minister, was instrumental in creating the Felda schemes in the first place.
Though it is unlikely that PKR can show evidence that Felda is indeed bankrupt, the damage has been done - which is probably the intention in the first place. Plant a seed of doubt and watch it sprout and grow - I think that's PKR's game plan.
Not only that but by having the Home Ministry 'ban' the Suara Keadilan (actually the publishing permit expired and was not renewed), another political issue is created.
The Barisan Nasional government must be wary of such trickery and not fall into cunning traps set by Pakatan.
Monday, July 5, 2010
All mixed up
Malaysia is stuck in a most peculiar situation currently.
Just the other day, I was listening to the radio while driving and the deejays in their community message said something about Malaysians having to live together in harmony and peace, etc.
Back home, I picked up the newspaper and there was a story about Perkasa, the Malay-supremist NGO, urging the government not to bow to the demands of the non-Malays.
Perkasa, which is supported by none other than the former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, has been more actively fighting for the rights and privileges of the Malay bumiputras than even Umno, the political party that is supposed to represent and protect the Malays.
At the same time, the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak is still going on his walkabouts, playing Chinese chess with the Chinese and selling his concept of 1Malaysia to anybody who cares to listen.
Perkasa is playing the racial card - something that Umno normally does - and alienating the non-Malays while the president of the Malay party and Prime Minister of the nation is trying to reach out to non-Malays who have been alienated.
The signals are obviously mixed up and if the people are totally confused, can they be blamed?
Who is the average Malaysian supposed to listen to? The racial/racist chants of Perkasa - supported by an ex-PM - or the repetitive assurances of the current PM that the rights of the non-Malays will be protected?
The danger is that the non-Malays may get so fed up and dump both Perkasa and Umno (or the Umno-dominated Barisan Nasional) and support Pakatan Rakyat all the way.
That leaves Umno having to win Malay support to stay in power. And standing in their way will be PAS, the Islamic party that had vowed to set up an Islamic state in the past but that has in recent times been rather accommodating to non-Muslims.
Are you confused by now? I honestly don't blame you.
As I said before, the signals are all mixed up.
Just the other day, I was listening to the radio while driving and the deejays in their community message said something about Malaysians having to live together in harmony and peace, etc.
Back home, I picked up the newspaper and there was a story about Perkasa, the Malay-supremist NGO, urging the government not to bow to the demands of the non-Malays.
Perkasa, which is supported by none other than the former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, has been more actively fighting for the rights and privileges of the Malay bumiputras than even Umno, the political party that is supposed to represent and protect the Malays.
At the same time, the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak is still going on his walkabouts, playing Chinese chess with the Chinese and selling his concept of 1Malaysia to anybody who cares to listen.
Perkasa is playing the racial card - something that Umno normally does - and alienating the non-Malays while the president of the Malay party and Prime Minister of the nation is trying to reach out to non-Malays who have been alienated.
The signals are obviously mixed up and if the people are totally confused, can they be blamed?
Who is the average Malaysian supposed to listen to? The racial/racist chants of Perkasa - supported by an ex-PM - or the repetitive assurances of the current PM that the rights of the non-Malays will be protected?
The danger is that the non-Malays may get so fed up and dump both Perkasa and Umno (or the Umno-dominated Barisan Nasional) and support Pakatan Rakyat all the way.
That leaves Umno having to win Malay support to stay in power. And standing in their way will be PAS, the Islamic party that had vowed to set up an Islamic state in the past but that has in recent times been rather accommodating to non-Muslims.
Are you confused by now? I honestly don't blame you.
As I said before, the signals are all mixed up.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Huge ruckus over RM1
PKR's MP for Batu bit a cop some time back and just the other day he discovered that he bit off more than he could chew.
Due to no fault of his, Tian Chua's position as MP is hanging in the balance simply over the interpretation of a rather straightforward phrase - "not less than RM2,000".
Balding lawyers, who have been trained to split whatever hair they have left over definitions, are now divided over whether Tian Chua has been disqualified as an MP because he was fined RM2,000, in default two months' jail, for biting the cop.
Ironically, the fine was reduced by High Court judge Datuk Ghazali Cha from RM3,000, in default six months' jail, because he did not want a by-election to be held.
Now, the quibbling has spilled over to involve the Election Commission and the Dewan Rakyat with the Commission passing the buck to the august House to resolve.
Legal precedence and case history suggest that a by-election has to be called because, as veteran lawyer-politician Karpal Singh said, Menglembu MP Fan Yew Ting had his seat declared vacant by the Dewan Rakyat Speaker in 1975 after he was fined RM2,000 under the Sedition Act.
It would be really tragically comical if the learned judge was not aware of the implications of Fan's case. Has the quality of the judiciary become so deplorable?
Article 48(1)(e) of the Federal Constitution states that an MP is disqualified if he is convicted of an offence and jailed for not less than one year or fined not less than RM2,000.
The debate now is whether the phrase "a fine of not less than RM2,000" means a fine of RM2,000 and above or RM2,001 upwards.
During current inflationary times, one ringgit does not buy many things, but it looks like Tian Chua's case is causing a huge ruckus - and creating legal and political history - over a buck.
The question to ask is: "Where does the buck stop?"
Due to no fault of his, Tian Chua's position as MP is hanging in the balance simply over the interpretation of a rather straightforward phrase - "not less than RM2,000".
Balding lawyers, who have been trained to split whatever hair they have left over definitions, are now divided over whether Tian Chua has been disqualified as an MP because he was fined RM2,000, in default two months' jail, for biting the cop.
Ironically, the fine was reduced by High Court judge Datuk Ghazali Cha from RM3,000, in default six months' jail, because he did not want a by-election to be held.
Now, the quibbling has spilled over to involve the Election Commission and the Dewan Rakyat with the Commission passing the buck to the august House to resolve.
Legal precedence and case history suggest that a by-election has to be called because, as veteran lawyer-politician Karpal Singh said, Menglembu MP Fan Yew Ting had his seat declared vacant by the Dewan Rakyat Speaker in 1975 after he was fined RM2,000 under the Sedition Act.
It would be really tragically comical if the learned judge was not aware of the implications of Fan's case. Has the quality of the judiciary become so deplorable?
Article 48(1)(e) of the Federal Constitution states that an MP is disqualified if he is convicted of an offence and jailed for not less than one year or fined not less than RM2,000.
The debate now is whether the phrase "a fine of not less than RM2,000" means a fine of RM2,000 and above or RM2,001 upwards.
During current inflationary times, one ringgit does not buy many things, but it looks like Tian Chua's case is causing a huge ruckus - and creating legal and political history - over a buck.
The question to ask is: "Where does the buck stop?"
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