Will Other Communities Also Start Making Similar Demands?

P. Waytha Moorthy

This is the 13th day of my Hunger Viratham. The visitors are streaming in and it is becoming more difficult to stay focused on my writing. It has somewhat slowed down my writing. Still, there is no let up in my resolve to achieve our goals of obtaining binding endorsement and commitment to implement Hindraf’s proposals and I continue with my Hunger Viratham.

More people are beginning to ask just where the BN and the PR political leaders are. Do they not care?

Well, I will let them answer the people.

For today I will discuss the question of the costs of implementation of Hindraf’s five-year blueprint proposals.

The politicians in power go to great length to propose, promote and implement mega project like the MRT, the High Speed Rail Link between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore and the Undersea Tunnel linking Penang to the mainland. These projects can cost when done, from RM10 billion to RM80 billion.

The NEP: The Good and the Bad - Revisited

Anas Zubedy

What is the NEP?

In a simple definition, the New Economic Policy is Malaysia’s socioeconomic affirmative action plan. It was implemented in 1971 in the aftermath of the 1969 racial riots, and the period set for the implementation of NEP was 1971-1990.

The overriding objective of the NEP was stated as national Unity. The goal of the NEP was two pronged – one, eradicate poverty; and two, restructure society to eliminate the identification of race with economic function through rapid expansion of the economy over time. However, it was clearly stated that this restructuring of the racial composition of employment and ownership of wealth was to be done without denying opportunities to others. The strategy was to accelerate economic growth, but at the same time, redirect the benefits more to the disadvantaged.

What is the background of the NEP?

The NEP has historical basis. Even from the colonial days before Merdeka, the Malays had been given certain privileges by the British, especially quotas for public scholarship and civil service employment.

The period of British rule left behind some remnant effects on our society and economy. The economic system and the geographical location of where we lived and worked were divided along racial lines. The Malays were largely concentrated in the traditional agricultural sector where per capita income was the lowest and poverty was the highest. The Chinese were concentrated in mining, manufacturing and construction where per capita income was recorded as much higher. The Indians were largely labourers in estates and mining.
          
The NEP was announced in June 1970 in the aftermath of the racial riots in 1969. Whatever is said about the immediate causes of the riots, the root cause for the unrest was socioeconomical imbalance. It was clear that the problem of poverty and the economic differences along racial lines were detrimental to social stability and national Unity and had to be addressed immediately. The NEP was formulated as a concerted effort to reduce poverty and restructure the economy.

Malaysian Government's Debt to Approach RM1 Trillion by 2020

Pak Sako

This is the second part of a three-part CPI series on Malaysian debt. The first part, entitled, 'Investigate Malaysia's debts now' , surveyed the overall debt situation.

This part examines the trend in government debt. The upcoming part will concern Malaysia's total debt.

Statistics reveal that in the last 15 years, the Malaysian government's debt increased at an unprecedented rate.

The graph below shows the statistics for the government's combined domestic and foreign debts from 1991 till the present. Forecasts are provided up to the year 2017.

The figure shows the government's borrowings from the savings of domestic citizens and from foreign creditors.

Here we ignore private debt, even though it adds to the government's debt burden, because a portion of private debt is publicly guaranteed. We also ignore other unrevealed debts.

What the statistics are saying

Investigate Malaysia's Debts Now

Pak Sako

Former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad claimed last week that Malaysia's current debt level is “healthy” compared with Greece's.

But the debt-to-GDP percentage Mahathir relied on tells next to nothing about the full extent of Malaysia's debts; the nature of these debts; or what can happen next.

The real devil lies in the details, namely:

(i) the trend in the debt level.

How has it changed in the recent past? Is there momentum in a certain direction? The federal government's debt had doubled in just four years from 2007 and 2012. Will it stop growing, or will the trend and absolute totals continue their upward rise?

In the last decade, our finance ministers have repeatedly pledged to reduce the budget deficits. This has not happened. Instead, deficits have ballooned and the federal government's debt has mounted.

(ii) the causes of debt.

For what are the borrowings and for whom? Are these borrowings for worthwhile investments that benefit the public? Are these liabilities being used to cover government operating costs or to prop up failing crony companies or the stock market? Is the use of costly loans for projects with low or no rates of return justified?

LIBOR

Tun Mahathir Mohamad

1. The world is Eurocentric. We trust Europe and Europeans almost unreservedly. The standards are set by them and we follow these standards unquestioningly.

2. Thus banking! The so-called conventional banking system was invented by the Europeans. Today the whole world accepts and practices this banking system.

3. Lately the Islamic banking (no interest) system has been introduced. But it is no match for the Western initiated “conventional” banking system.

4. But we now know that the current financial crisis affecting the West is due to the Western banking system or more precisely its abuse. That it can be abused means that it is not the perfect system it is made out to be.

5. We have heard about sub-prime lending, leveraging, derivatives, securitisation, bundling and insuring etc etc.

Don’t Sell Food to Malays, Restaurant told

B Nantha Kumar, FMT

A restaurant owner in Malacca has claimed that the state Islamic Religious Department (JAIM) has instructed him not to sell food to “Malay” customers.

P Segar, 52, who operates a restaurant in Jasin, wanted the Prime Minister’s Department to look into the matter.

Relating his ordeal to FMT, the businessman said on Jan 14, a group of six Jasin Town Council (MPJ) officers accompanied by three JAIM personnel and two Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry officers visited his restaurant.

“While MPJ enforcement officers inspected my business licence and checked on the cleanliness of the restaurant, the rest were sitting outside where we had placed chairs and tables.

Najib: I Hate People Who Break Promises

FZ.com

The prime minister said he was confident that BN will administer Selangor better than the current state government if voted back in the next general election.

“Our objective is to recapture Selangor but it not for sake of power only. It is because I am confident and believe that we can provide better service and administer better than the current government led by the federal opposition,” he said in a 15-minute radio interview during the launch of Selangor Radio BN at Umno headquarters here.

Najib added the the state government has also cheated the people of Selangor through its lies and deception.

Tahap Kebimbangan Usahawan Menurun

Berita Harian

Kebimbangan terhadap kegagalan di kalangan usahawan Malaysia turun dengan ketara sejak empat tahun lalu kepada hanya 36 peratus pada tahun lalu daripada 65 peratus pada 2009.

Menteri Kewangan Kedua, Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah, berkata ini berdasarkan kaji selidik di kalangan 2,000 rakyat dewasa di negara ini seperti yang dilaporkan dalam Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2012.
Beliau berkata, berdasarkan laporan itu, usahawan Malaysia pernah menjadi antara yang memiliki tahap kebimbangan terhadap kegagalan paling tinggi, tetapi ia menurun dengan ketara dibantu oleh kegiatan keusahawanan yang dibentuk dengan lebih baik serta memberi fokus kepada peluang yang ada.

“Sejajar perubahan itu, perniagaan di Malaysia juga kini lebih berdaya saing berbanding empat tahun lalu,” katanya ketika melancarkan Laporan GEM 2012 itu di Kuala Lumpur, semalam.

Aset Khazanah Melonjak

Berita Harian


Nilai portfolio pelaburan meningkat ke paras tertinggi baru

Khazanah Nasional Bhd mencatatkan prestasi kewangan cemerlang tahun lalu dengan nilai portfolio pelaburannya terus melonjak ke paras tertinggi baru.

Setakat 31 Disember lalu, Nilai Aset Direalisasikan (RAV) syarikat pelaburan kerajaan itu melonjak kepada RM121.6 bilion.

Ia adalah RM13.4 bilion atau 12.4 peratus lebih tinggi berbanding RM108.2 bilion pada 2011 dan pertumbuhan 138.9 peratus daripada hanya RM50.9 bilion ketika penubuhannya pada Mei 2004.

Nilai Aset Diselaraskannya (NWA) pula menokok RM16.9 bilion atau 24.3 peratus kepada RM86.9 bilion daripada RM70 bilion pada 2011.

Pengarah Urusannya, Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar, berkata prestasi cemerlang yang dicatatkan pada tahun lalu itu mencerminkan kejayaan strategi pelaburan yang dibuat kumpulan berkenaan.

“Kami percaya portfolio (pelaburan) yang dibuat sepanjang tahun lalu amat seimbang, sementara pecahan kedudukannya juga baik.

Pakatan May Cut Petronas’ Yearly RM30b Dividend to Putrajaya

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 24 – Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim will push Petronas to cut its annual RM30 billion dividend to Putrajaya if the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) that he leads win in the coming general elections, business newswire Bloomberg.com reported today.

PR will instead set Petronas’ dividends to the country at a fixed percentage of the firm’s profits, allowing the state oil firm to spend more on investments overseas that will give better profits, PKR strategic director Rafizi Ramli said.

“Petronas should be left to run on a purely commercial basis,” he told Bloomberg when explaining Anwar’s plans.

According to Bloomberg, a PR administration is likely set up a parliamentary committee in Malaysia’s Dewan Negara to improve transparency over Petronas, which currently reports to the prime minister.

Petronas is widely-regarded as the country’s piggy bank, with Reuters reporting this July that it is Malaysia’s largest taxpayer and biggest revenue source, funding 45 per cent of the government’s budget even as the country’s continues its run of huge budget debts.

Sabah’s Economy on ‘Death Row’

Vidal Yudin Weil 

Upon this coming Chinese Lunar New Year in 2013, the zodiac snake will once again dawn the world. With so many political and fiscal uncertainties staring Sabah in the face, will she ever survive the python squeeze or will asphyxia be her final fate?

Or will the worst be reserved instead for the ruling coalition which has hogged the nation’s seat of power for more than half a century of dividing the people and rule, when the celestial serpent finally devour the entire Barisan Nasional in an election tipped to be held in or around February?

Will Malaysians in the country and the diaspora around the world watch and scream their lungs out with roaring ecstasy of colossal joy when past corrupt and vicious leaders and all their greedy cohorts are hunted down like fallen tyrants in the likes of Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi, Chen Shui Bian, Joseph Estrada, or Gloria Arroyo and put behind bars for crimes committed against citizens and looting the nation when Anwar Ibrahim does become the new Prime Minister of Malaysia?

The Jewish people believe that the world will end when every Jew scattered around the globe return to their homeland in Israel.

I personally believe that our motherland will eventually become a paradise when all her people can finally live together without hate, segregation, and persecution.

Many people in Sabah including Malaysians from Peninsular and Sarawak who have settled down here know very well why the BN federal government is issuing MyKads to immigrants and allowing them to flood Sabah.

97% Owned - Monetary Reform documentary

97% owned present serious research and verifiable evidence on our economic and financial system. This is the first documentary to tackle this issue from a UK-perspective and explains the inner workings of Central Banks and the Money creation process.

When money drives almost all activity on the planet, it’s essential that we understand it. Yet simple questions often get overlooked, questions like; where does money come from? Who creates it? Who decides how it gets used? And what does this mean for the millions of ordinary people who suffer when the monetary, and financial system, breaks down?

 Political philosopher John Gray, commented, “We’re not moving to a world in which crises will never happen or will happen less and less. We are in a world in which they happen several times during a given human lifetime and I think that will continue to be the case.”

If you have decided that crisis as a result of the monetary system is not an event you want to keep revisiting in your life-time then this documentary will equip you with the knowledge you need, what you do with it is up to you.

Majikan Swasta Utamakan Cina

Baru-baru ini Kunta Kinte makan tengah hari dengan seorang usahawan Cina yang sangat berjaya. Dia mula berniaga pada zaman penjajah dan jadi kawan baik Perdana Menteri pertama, Almarhum Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra.

Mula-mula dia berniaga beras dan gula. Lepas itu dapat kontrak bina rumah murah untuk kerajaan yang masa itu orang ramai panggil rumah Khaw Kai Boh. Khaw adalah Menteri Perumahan zaman itu.
Masa itulah kerajaan mula bina rumah murah secara besar-besaran untuk dijual kepada rakyat miskin. Kemudian, macam-macamlah nama dibagi – ada yang kata rumah murah, ada yang kata rumah mampu milik dan paling baru projek perumahan rakyat.

Kalau betullah kita komited kepada 1Malaysia, satu negara dan satu hala, Kunta Kinte rasa kita wajib dedah dan pecahkan hipokrasi politik dan ekonomi ini. Kalau kita tak dedah dan pecahkan hipokrasi yang berkaitan bangsa, bahasa, politik dan ekonomi, selama itulah kita akan hidup dalam khayalan dan tertipu oleh hujah-hujah yang memesongkan"

Usahawan Cina itu kata, sekarang orang Melayu sudah berjaya dan sudah ada dalam semua bidang ekonomi. Jadi dia hairan pasal apa ada orang Melayu terus cakap berkenaan Dasar Ekonomi Baru.

Speech at The Rafik Hariri UN-Habitat Memorial Award

Tun Mahathir Mohamad

1. I would like to thank the Rafik Hariri Foundation and the UN Habitat for conferring on me this prestigious Rafik Hariri UN-Habitat Memorial Award.

2. I deem it a great honour especially as this award is named after a remarkable man whose leadership qualities and contribution toward the rehabilitation of the war-ravaged city of Beirut and Lebanon is incomparable.

3. I knew Rafik Hariri when he first visited Malaysia. We immediately became close friends and I visited Lebanon at his invitation to see the damage wrought by the fratricidal war. Rafik promised he would rebuild Beirut as it was before the war. And he delivered on his promise. I visited Beirut after the restoration and I felt sure that a great future awaits Lebanon under his leadership.

4. In many ways I was like him. I wanted to develop Malaysia just as he wished to develop Lebanon. But he was less fortunate because he did not have the stability of Malaysia. Nor was he given the time.

5. Here I would like to pay tribute to my predecessors who devised a formula for Malaysia’s multi-ethnic, multi-religious people to work together. My predecessors also set the stage for Malaysia’s conversion from an agricultural country to an industrial country.

Entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia

Murray Hunter, Asia Sentinel

Throughout Southeast Asia, attempts by governments to promote the creation of entrepreneurs have almost unquestionably been regarded as a policy instrument for promoting economic growth. But reality doesn’t support the image. Creating new entrepreneurs may actually be dampening economic growth, a far sight from the creative economies many governments aspire to develop.

The data in most developing Southeast Asian countries just doesn't seem to support this. The truth of the matter may be very different. While lightning strikes people figuratively about as often as it strikes literally, entrepreneurship can be more aptly described as a narrative about survival and subsistence than growth and glory. Are Asian policy-makers fooled by the hype that entrepreneur development creates economic growth?

Entrepreneurship: Open a Kedai Kopi
On the ground across Southeast Asia, very little innovation can actually be seen. The majority of new SMEs do not create any new innovation and as a consequence do not contribute to economic growth. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), a body founded by Babson College and the London Business School, has found that the majority of new enterprise start-ups occur within the service and retail industries.

It appears that very few people actually formally scan the environment for opportunities. If people did, they would not start up in industries with high competition and low profit margins, as the majority do. In fact most people have a natural inclination to imitate others, employing no innovation whatsoever – witness for instance entire streets made up of shops selling exactly the same things side by side, an odd phenomenon in Asian cities. Witness any beach in Asia where an entrepreneur opens a string of tourist huts, only to see a half-dozen just like it sprout up, driving down the price for beach goers and cluttering the landscape.

Time for Change

Meet the new revolutionaries of the Do-It-Yourself cultures in Barcelona, Tallin and Jakarta. They are modern day heroes.

They do not wait for political parties or institutions to change their world; they simply do it themselves, by creating new local currencies, by working in social networks or by simply robbing the banks and redistributing their money.

The world economy is in crisis and public trust in financial institutions has hit rock bottom. As commercial banks were bailed out with billions of taxpayers money and continued to practice their old vices, many people lost faith in bank managers and politicians.

They got angry at the speculative financial system that brings extreme wealth to a few and instability and unemployment to many.

Could this dissatisfaction lead to social change? Can we imagine viable alternatives? Backlight goes on a worldwide search, with sociologist Manuel Castells and philosopher Peter Sloterdijk.

Abuse of Toll Road Privatisation in Malaysia

Guan Eng Teaches Najib How to Fight Graft

Athi Shankar, FMT

DAP has proposed six crucial steps for Putrajaya to fight graft and rescue the country from bankruptcy.

Party secretary-general Lim Guan Eng proposed making public declaration of assets, implementing open competitive tenders, barring family members from government contracts, protecting genuine whistleblowers, removing Barisan Nasional leaders with extravagant lifestyles and coming clean on political donations.

“Will BN leaders walk their talk by applying the six steps?” asked the Penang chief minister.

He called on the federal government to first emulate his Pakatan Rakyat state government by institutionalising public declaration of assets.

Lim and his state executive councillors had already publicly declared their assets so he could not see any reason for Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and the federal Cabinet doing so as well.

National Debt Soars to RM456.12 Billion

Patrick Lee, FMT 

Malaysia’s national debt is at its highest yet: at a whopping RM456.12 billion, according to the 2011 Auditor-General’s report.

It is a RM49.02 billion (12%) increase from 2010′s figure (RM407.1b) and 51.77% of the country’s RM881.08 billion Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

In comparison, 2011′s debt percentage of the national GDP was lower (2010 recorded 53.15%).
This might be due to the RM115.1 billion increase in GDP, of which a total of RM765.9 billion was recorded in 2010.

According to the report, about RM438.02 billion of Malaysia’s national debt was local while the remaining RM18.1 billion was foreign.

The country also appeared to be spending more this year due to its rising debt. The report said that 2011′s expenditure due to the debt was RM17.72 billion, from 2010′s RM15.62 billion.
At the same time, the country’s deficit was shown to have reduced to 2008 levels, recorded at RM42.5 billion of the GDP, or 4.82%.

Budget 2013 – Only Good From The Outside

James Lim, FMT

All the anticipation building up over Budget 2013 has finally ended when Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak unveiled it last Friday.

Young, first-time voters will be treated to cash handouts, book vouchers (for university students) and even a discount on smartphone purchases.

Homebuyers will supposedly see a reduction in speculative activity in the housing market with the hike in the Real Property Gains Tax (RPGT).

There was no news on the goods and services tax (GST) which is meant to broaden the tax base in Malaysia as only a minority of Malaysians pay income tax. However, taxpayers below the RM50,000 bracket were entitled to a one percent reduction in payable tax.