Change In 2019

It's well into 2019 now; some things have changed and some haven't.

We have very recently had a new Agong installed, the one from Pahang replacing the one from Kelantan, who was the subject of some salacious gossip as photos abounded of his wedding but no one in authority would confirm it.

Malaysia is also trying to change the world's perception of it as being corrupt.

After having lived abroad for years on end, I have come to recognise that just about every country on this planet, no matter how well they cultivate their reputation for integrity, has some form of systemic corruption.

But it would really help, if Malaysia did not take kick-backs from defence projects, if the cops did not take 'duit kopi' from the people they pulled over for speeding, and if the people in positions of authority like judges and law enforcement did not align themselves with political parties.

Of course, it would be much easier to convince the world of our integrity if we had never had the 1MDB scandal in the first place.

On another note, Malaysia appears to be looking into some form of collaboration with Qatar for its third national car.

Most Malaysians think that this is an exercise is flogging a dead horse and really have no desire to see yet another failed project with protectionist tariffs which needlessly hike up car prices.

I blogged about it back in July last year, and my opinion of the situation hasn't changed since.

Another protectionist policy that is being reviewed is the expatriate wage threshold where the number of foreigners earning between RM3000 to RM5000 are going to be reduced, as this range is deemed to be for locals.

I am, of course, puzzled, as to why highly-paid jobs are reserved for the foreigners. Of course, there is a bit of backpedalling and some waffling too.

Meanwhile, Kulasegaran said that last year, a total of 480 Malaysian professionals returned to Malaysia last year under the Returning Expert Programme (REP), which he attributed to the change in government.

He said applications for REP - facilitates the return of Malaysian professionals from abroad to overcome the shortage of professional and technical talent - saw a 20 per cent increase in 2018.

“There are about one million Malaysians living abroad and we are working on ways to encourage them to come back home,” he added.

Factors that encouraged Malaysians to stay or work abroad, he said, were exposure, connections and a substantially better income.

“According to the World Bank, many Malaysians living abroad are highly skilled. About 150,000 Malaysians who are living in European, the United States and Canada (OECD) countries completed their higher education studies.

The downside of living in the country in which one was born, especially Malaysia, is that people take you for granted.

I have lost count of the number of disappointed Malaysians who came back from abroad only to be taken lightly by Malaysian employers. These were people who were highly respected abroad, and their skills and opinions highly sought after.

It's not just government policies that are important, but a change to the biased and discriminatory mindset of Malaysians as well.

This new government may have some plans for change, but most Malaysians are neither holding our collective breaths, nor are we putting our lives on the line. If change does come, it will not merely be for the good of the select few, but for the many.

Those who are serious about improving their country from top down will see the gravity of the situation and make those much-needed changes. If they are serious about improving.

What We Knew Then And Now

It's curiously funny when you go back in time and read about things that are crystal clear today, but were murky and uncorroborated back then.

Kee Thuan Chye's opinion piece about Arul Kanda is seemingly prescient for back in 2016: Will it be checkmate for Arul Kanda?

An excerpt here:

What was it that Arul allegedly lied about?

In February 2015, he said in an interview with the Singapore Business Times that 1MDB had redeemed US$1.103 billion from its offshore account in the Cayman Islands and parked it in a Singapore-based branch of Swiss bank BSI Bank.

“The cash is in our accounts … I can assure you … I have seen the statements,” he attested. Note his confident tone.

But it turned out there was no cash. In May, the Government admitted that the redeemed US$1.103 billion was actually in the form of “units”.

In June, 1MDB laughably sought to get Arul off the hook by stating that he “never said he ‘saw the cash’” and that he was “on the record as saying he had ‘seen the statements’.”

That was stupid. Anybody could see that Arul and 1MDB were trying to twist words. After all, he also was on record saying “the cash is in our accounts”, so how could he wriggle out of that?

Anyway, in October, Sarawak Report published on its website minutes of a 1MDB board meeting that took place in January 2015 at which Arul gave “detailed assurances to board members that there was indeed cash in the so-called Brazen Sky company account at BSI Bank”.

This cash-but-no-cash episode is very telling of what Arul’s mission amounts to. Even more telling is the refusal of 1MDB under Arul’s watch to provide details of the company’s foreign banking transactions to the PAC and the Auditor-General. Such information is crucial in determining, for example, whether a US$700 million transfer made by 1MDB to an account belonging to Good Star Ltd was legitimate.

More significant than that are the billions of dollars of unexplained payments – totalling at least US$3.51 billion – made to Aabar Investments PJS Limited registered in the British Virgin Islands.

According to the PAC report, 1MDB has not clarified whether this company was linked to the Abu Dhabi-registered Aabar Investments PJS that is a subsidiary of International Petroleum Investment Corp (IPIC), which actually declared to the London Stock Exchange this month that the Virgin Islands Aabar “was not an entity” within IPIC or Aabar Investments PJS.

If the Virgin Islands Aabar is not a company that 1MDB had legitimate business dealings with, then it is incumbent on Arul to provide the essential information to set the record straight.

Why hasn’t he done it? Why did he not furnish the PAC with the required foreign banking information? What is he trying to hide?

We now know what he was trying to hide.

Today we have made the connection to Goldman Sachs, and the ridiculously poor business practices they had with dubiously corrupted leaders in Asia.

Most recently, Malaysia is seeking US$7.5bil in reparations from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. I hardly think this is enough considering we were defrauded since 2013 and the funds, well-invested, would have greatly enriched our nation.

It annoys me that a greedy fool like Najib was allowed to remain in position for so long before finally getting removed. Even today, he still has ardent supporters who claim that he is being framed "for political reasons".

It also makes sense that Attorney General Tommy Thomas, when confronted about reports of him filing a suit in New York claiming US$5.1 billion from Goldman, said that those reports were “premature”; simply because it wasn't the full sum that they were claiming at all.

I don't agree with everything that Pakatan Harapan stands for, but when it comes to the 1MDB case, I am glad that they are on the ball.

Related: Malaysia seeks $7.5bn damages from Goldman over 1MDB scandal

Goldman Sachs' Criminal Charges

Goldman Sachs gets massively sucker-punched (though I suspect they were actually bracing themselves for it) as they get criminal charges filed against them.

It wasn't just Goldman Sachs International (UK) that took the hit, Goldman Sachs (Singapore) Pte and Goldman Sachs (Asia) LLC were also charged with omission of material information and the publishing of untrue statement in the offering circulars for the bonds.

Individuals charged were: Jho Low, ex-1MDB general counsel Jasmine Loo Ai Swan and former Goldman executive Timothy Leissner.

It's amazing. Timothy Leissner has already pleaded guilty in the US to charges of misappropriating 1MDB money and bribing officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi and is awaiting sentencing.

Finance Twitter doesn't seem to think that any of the Goldman Sachs bankers would actually go to jail. I think it has a point.

The US has cultivated a reputation for saying one thing and doing another. Barack Obama has, in the past, criticised bankers for their part in the recession - and then gone on to appoint them to his administration!

Trump, at least, is not a hypocrite. His administration is full of ex-bankers who have done nothing for the country but enriched themselves. In other words, a mirror of Trump himself.

Given that Trump has made a business of bankrupting himself to avoid paying his debts, and is not above paying bribes (and not just to strippers that he has had affairs with) to get his way, I cannot believe that his administration would take this seriously.

Still, I don't think Leissner was expecting another load of bricks to be thrown in his direction. I look forward to discovering what his sentence would be.

Roger Ng (Leissner's deputy) is fighting extradition to the US to face the same charges as Leissner, and will be charged later this week. It's not looking pretty for him either. As Finance Twitter says, he is not a US citizen and he is likely to be thrown to the dogs.

These are criminal charges. I expect that a civil suit would follow, where I hope that the $5.1bil rumoured to affect Goldman Sachs would be claimed.

We do have Goldman Sachs to thank, though. Because I personally believe that if this fiasco had never happened, BN/UMNO would still be ruling the country today.

NOTHING could be worse than that.

Related: Wall Street Bankers Need To Understand What Corruption Does To The People Of Our Planet

Goldman Sachs And 1MDB

It is difficult to have any sympathy for a financial company like Goldman Sachs as they frequently screw up and get bailed by their governments/banks, but this time it looks like Goldman Sachs has bitten off more than it can chew.

Aseef Shameen rightly sets the tone on Goldman's impending doom in the Edge Singapore piece, Goldman Sachs' 1MDB cover-up is bigger than the scandal:

Malaysia wants all of the US$600 million in fees 1MDB paid to Goldman and restitution of a big chunk of the US$3.5 billion it lost. Attorney General Tommy Thomas said recently that reports of him filing a suit in New York claiming US$5.1 billion from Goldman were “premature”.

Of course, it may be premature to be discussing this as investigations are still underway but one does suspect that this Pakatan Harapan government had this task in mind when it appointed Tommy Thomas to the role of AG. Tommy Thomas works extremely quietly and efficiently. Given his very recent track record with securing the yacht Equanimity and his progress with Abu Dhabi's IPIC, this man will save Malaysia millions, if not a billion.

You may be wondering how Goldman has a hand in this 1MDB scandal. This is why it's in trouble:

It raised US$6.5 billion for 1MDB. The DOJ alleges that over US$3.5 billion was misappropriated from those funds by Jho Low, a close confidant of Najib. In pleading guilty to money laundering and bribery charges, Leissner blamed the 1MDB shenanigans on Goldman’s “culture” of working around internal legal and compliance controls, as it was highly focused on consummating deals. Jho Low has been charged in absentia with money laundering and violation of bribery laws by the DOJ. He remains on the run and is reportedly in hiding in China.

A lot of people are dying to get their hands on the Whale.

Given the excesses detailed in the book and judging by the calls to BFM over the issue, Malaysians are livid.

Predictably, Goldman Sachs have denied knowing Jho Low.

They're not the only ones.

Najib Razak now claims that he was cheated by Jho Low, and more ludicrously, claimed he was not aware that anything was wrong because he was not told about it.

Tong Kooi Ong of the Edge Media spills the beans and sets the story straight on what really happened in You didn’t know Jho Low cheated us? I showed you evidence and you showed me the door:

He put the blame solely on Goldman Sachs and 1MDB’s lawyers and auditors for allowing wrongdoings to take place.

“They should have informed me if something was not right,” Najib said. “They clearly failed in carrying out their responsibilities.”

While Najib plays the victim for the peanut gallery, it's rather intriguing how he appears to have such a close relationship with Jho Low.

Tong Kooi Ong describes it:

I then proceeded to tell Najib that Jho Low must be held accountable and be prosecuted. This upset him. He immediately stood up, walked to the door and asked me to leave.

I was taken aback that he was so sensitive about Jho Low.

While The Edge’s reporting was focused on 1MDB and Jho Low, [Paul] Stadlen [(Najib's media adviser)] made it very clear that any attack on Jho Low was an attack on Najib, and that he was conveying this message from his boss.

If you choose to read just one article this coming week, I urge you to make it Tong Kooi Ong's expose. If this piece does not go viral, Malaysians are not worth their salt.

Najib wants you think that he was cheated and that he is innocent, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Do not be fooled.

Billion Dollar Whale

The book has become a bestseller amongst Malaysians and even the rest of the world.

BFM went stark, raving crazy and had one of the authors on while spending other moments just gushing about it. Yes, perhaps in this time and age (censorless!) people just want to get it out of their system.

Unauthorised, pirated PDF copies of the book also went viral, which was ironic, because the book is about the kleptomanic tendencies of an insecure, but very privileged fat boy.

Of course, the authors of the book were no choir boys either; they were supposed to credit their sources, but very conveniently avoided doing so.

Rewcastle-Brown said that Tom Wright said: “Let’s leave out Sarawak Report, you are talking to the big boys now,” when speaking to the intermediary between the source and WSJ writers.

Very naughty. In the interviews, one could get a sense of raw ambition and desire to achieve fame through this book.

You can get it straight from the horse's mouth HERE.

China And 1MDB

That ah pek fella, Tony Pua, has been going around calling the 1MDB scandal the great-grandmother of all scandals, and now it appears to have caught on -- even with the BBC. The bugger is now a special officer to the finance minister -- job scope: to look through the mountains of documentation related to 1MDB.

Not bad eh?

Though everyone with a minimum of two brain cells knew, even back then, that what Tony Pua was banging on about was, of course, a legitimate issue. I think what shocks people is the scale of the problem, the sheer magnitude of the actual problem.

It has spread to, and now involves a force that most Malaysians would prefer not to bother: China.

The Mahathir administration has suspended three major construction projects with Chinese firms. The mind-blowing bit is that 88% of the cost had been paid to China, even though only 13% of the work had been completed.

How can that happen, I hear you ask. Two words: Money Laundering.

Two of the contracts were pipelines. I know right, what better way to channel money away than by using a pipeline? #Ironic

Anyway, the companies involved were contacted for *ahem* comment. According to the BBC:

Emails to China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau about Mr Pua's allegations went unanswered, but the Chinese embassy in London gave its response.

"We have noted the relevant report. China has all along conducted economic, trade and investment cooperation with Malaysia, as well as other countries, with the principle of mutual benefit and win-win outcomes," said a spokesman.

Pooh. These people, with their capacity for sanctimonious waffle, really do talk like the North Koreans.

According to the Malay Mail, Putrajaya is investigating whether part of a loan from a Chinese state-owned bank for projects worth US$2.3 billion (RM9.3 billion) was used to help repay dues of scandal-ridden state fund 1MDB.

What's the significance of this?

About three years ago, to quote the Business Insider, Xi Jinping Just Took His War On Corruption To A Whole New Level.

Even high level officials, like Zhou Yongkang, the former security chief and retired Politburo Standing Committee member and Communist Party General Secretary and Politburo member Sun Zhengcai, have been indicted.

Most of the people who have been rooted out have been caught plundering state resources. Clearly, personal and private enrichment hurts China.

The question is, what happens to those who have been plundering other nations? Is that acceptable by Xi's standards?

It's all about perception, at the end of the day. In China, local governments, often collude with businesses to enrich themselves at the expense of the people, evoking backlash in the form of mass protest and social unrest, and threatening the party’s power.

Corruption in foreign places like Malaysia is unlikely to solicit backlash in China.

Nevertheless, ball's in your court, China. Remember, the world is watching.

Related: Jho Low And The China Issue

The Police

In a previous post, I complained about the police investigating a non-issue.

Perhaps another sector of society and the administration of it that needs to be overhauled to build this new Malaysia is: the police.

Not heard of Jason Lim and his run-ins with the police? Clare Rewcastle Brown is taking journalism in her birthplace very seriously and Sarawak Report has all the details.

Time To Clear Out The Police Force To Create The New Malaysia

The "Evils" Of Palm Oil

Let's skip the preamble because I have grown increasingly frustrated with the gullible people of the world, who protest issues without actually knowing the facts. Palm oil usually makes it quite on the list.

Frequently, the production of oil palm is conflated with deforestation that harms wildlife and in particular, orangutans.

Europe has decided to launch an anti-palm-oil campaign. Malaysia and Indonesia are trying to counter it.

Now, I have no qualms about stating my absolute dislike for the practice of widespread logging and deforestation. If I weren't an engineer, I would make a stellar Luddite. Maybe.

But the point is, while it is possible to replant the trees that have been cut down, it is less easy to repopulate the micro flora and fauna that live within the ecosystem that very old trees host. We really shouldn't be cutting down our trees, especially as trees help prevent the climate from heating up to ridiculous levels. And God knows Malaysian temperatures are skyrocketing.

George Monbiot bangs on about the decline of wildlife, particularly where he lives. Unfortunately, we have a similar situation over here. In fact, Malaysia's issues involve even the exotic animals like tigers, orangutan and rhinoceros -- and not just the garden variety, easily overlooked species that tend to quietly disappear without a bang.


This is really sad. We used to be rich in flora and fauna. Inexplicably, most of these conservation organisations prefer to blame the plantations for the loss of flora and fauna rather than the illegal (and purportedly legal; there is no limit to corruption in some places) loggers who plunder the forests.

It is, indeed, lucrative. Cilisos claims that we have an excellent forest management system, but I am less inclined to agree. The truth is, there has been significant deforestation due to logging and it did not involve palm plantations.

Tons of timber go to India, as there is massive demand there. You can't blame the Indians for buying them, but you can blame whoever has approved the ridiculous scale of logging: Taib Mahmud.

Now if there was a termite, an absolute pest, that could get away with anything, it's him. Sarawak Report has over 490 articles on him, so you can read for yourselves his shenanigans. It's not just about logging, it's about land appropriation as well. He doesn't just make wildlife homeless, he also destroys the homes of Sarawak's indigenous populations.

I particularly loathe the guy. He knows how to use all the resources at his fingertips to get away with his crimes. This includes getting the FBI of Seattle to become snivelling little puppy dogs and protect his domain. The FBI are the absolute sh!t.

Where now are the self-righteous protesters from Europe and America who want to "make a difference" and "take the moral high ground"? The truth is, it's just mere bullying; they think they can more easily take on less powerful South East Asian countries rather than the FBI. And then you wonder why it's so difficult to respect these people.

There is a nuance to this anti-palm-oil campaign though. Europe has voted to limit the amount of palm oil, soy, maize and other food crops to be used in biofuels. The problem is, policies to promote biofuels from crops – whether in Indonesia or Europe – are perverse and will continue to boost global carbon emissions.

We need to stop burning stuff to generate energy. We really do. There are other forms of renewable energy available like wind, water and sun. It's just a matter of developing the technology.

However, there is nothing wrong with growing and consuming palm oil. On a per hectare basis, oil palm trees are 6-10 times more efficient at producing oil than temperate oilseed crops such as rapeseed, soybean, olive and sunflower. The land management of palm plantations just needs to be improved, and thugs (particularly those in suits and ties) who (mis)appropriate land need to be jailed.

In the past, there were studies that claimed that palm oil was unhealthy for consumption, and that better alternatives were soy, almond and rapeseed. The truth is, palm oil is high in vitamins and good for cholesterol. Once the truth was made clear, the opponents of palm oil decided to go after the production of it instead of the content of the oil.

Clearly, this is an economic issue rather than a health or moral one.

I, for one, am not going to be suckered into this fear campaign over palm oil, but perhaps we should advocate more caution over biofuels and deforestation.

Accidental Whistle-Blower

What began in 2010 as a blog about an environmental crisis in the Malaysian state of Sarawak is now the most comprehensive portrait of a diseased body politic and its attendant scandals.

Rewcastle Brown has benefited from the fact that many involved in Malaysian politics are increasingly jaded with it. Her biggest scoops have depended on documents and information leaked by quietly disgruntled government and financial officials. Anonymous tips continue to clog her inbox.

At the bottom of every Sarawak Report webpage, above the site’s teal logo, there’s a link with instructions for how to send her an encrypted email. “I’m fairly practiced at squirreling out stories and sources — I talk to people; I ask people if they know anyone worth talking to,” Rewcastle Brown says. “But now people have started finding me, because they know I’m the only guy on the block who does this.”

Read the rest of it on TIME's The Accidental Whistle-Blower: How a Retired London Journalist Uncovered Massive Corruption Half a World Away.

The Guardian On 1MDB

There were two articles in the Guardian recently, dedicated to the 1MDB fiasco:

Malaysia’s new security law, due to come into force on Monday, would be alarming at any time. Its sweeping powers permit authorities to declare national security areas which are off-limits to protests, where individuals and premises can be searched without a warrant, and where killings by security forces need not result in formal inquests.

Changes to the country’s criminal code, undermining the rights of suspects, are similarly concerning. Human rights groups warn that existing laws, including the colonial-era Sedition Act – which Prime Minister Najib Razak once vowed to repeal – have been used to detain and muzzle critics. The country’s police chief recently warned that protests by electoral reform group Bersih would be permitted only if participants avoided calling for Mr Najib’s resignation.

Read the rest here: The Guardian view on Malaysian politics: a scandal meriting the world’s attention

On another note, Sarawak Report ran a story on Xavier Justo just over a year ago that predominantly made the mainstream media headlines because of his tattoos and purported "hedonistic living". I read it and filed away in memory that it involved PetroSaudi and the 1MDB fiasco.

Now the whole story has appeared in its entirety on the Guardian. It actually sounds like it should belong in a Hollywood script (maybe it might, some day), and contains details of the brazen transactions conducted by the crooks affiliated with the slimeball called Malaysian Official 1.

Excerpts:

In January 2015, Tong, Rewcastle Brown and Justo met in a five-star Singapore hotel, the Fullerton. Tong booked a conference room, and brought a number of IT experts, as well as the editor of the Edge, Kay Tat. At the meeting, Justo laid out the 1MDB joint venture, making the same claims that the US Department of Justice would set out 18 months later: namely that hundreds of millions of dollars that were intended for economic development in Malaysia had instead been diverted into a Seychelles-based company. The man at the centre of the transaction was alleged to be Najib’s adviser and family friend, Jho Low.

It was a potentially huge scoop. Tong agreed to pay Justo $2m. Tong and Rewcastle Brown were immediately handed disk drives with the data. But the payment was never made. Justo did not want the money in cash, and he worried that a large transfer of funds into his account would look suspicious. Tong offered Justo one of his Monets as collateral – but Justo declined, and said “no, I trust you”. Rewcastle Brown finally had the documents she had been chasing for more than six months.

On 28 February 2015, Rewcastle Brown posted the first big story online – under a typically unrestrained headline: “HEIST OF THE CENTURY!” The article claimed to show how $700m had disappeared from the 1MDB joint venture and found its way into various offshore companies and Swiss bank accounts.

The impact of the article was felt around the world. In the US, law enforcement officials who had been alerted to reports that Low was spending huge amounts on New York apartments now had a fix on the possible source of his wealth.

For a thrilling mini-series-type read: 1MDB: The inside story of the world’s biggest financial scandal

We Need To Change

A Vietnamese co-worker, who, as a child had migrated to Australia, once said rather patronisingly, "It's always these silly little Asian countries that are corrupted." I must add that he did make an exception for Japan and Singapore.

This was at least a year ago. I said nothing in defence of Malaysia or any other Asian country. I merely pointed out that the United States is very corrupt as well.

For those of you who couldn't care less about the USA, it is currently election season, and the Republicans and Democrats have been slugging it out. They have had the primaries, which allows party members to elect the candidate of their choice.

Despite Bernie Sanders being the more popular candidate for the Democrats, Hillary Clinton was nominated.

A ridiculously high amount of money gets splashed around, and particularly flung at candidates, so that they would take up policies friendly to the donor. These donors are usually big corporations who want permits and tax reliefs.

I particularly find it offensive, because I volunteer with Homeless Shelters and I know how many poor, penurious people there are, who live in the same metropolitan area that I do.

The injustice makes me think about what the world has become and wonder how it is that a bigger number of people don't find it all as revolting as I do.

But I am not going to talk about the USA, despite the fact that the 1MDB fiasco has emerged again because of the actions by the US Department of Justice. Or that the Wall Street Journal was one of the first to report on the scandal.

The WSJ, despite its current ownership by News Corp (Rupert Murdoch, by any other name, is still as filthy), has always been reporting about Malaysian corruption, even back in 2012.

The point I am trying to make, my dear fellow Malaysians, is that we are not going to be able to rely on the US Department of Justice to deliver us from our evil, heartless, avaricious and profligate politicians. From what it sounds, they are going to confiscate the money and assets and then "return it to the rightful owners", the government of Malaysia.

Seriously? That's going back to square one. Besides, it would be like the blind leading the blind. The Americans need to sort out their problems and we need to sort out ours.

The Wall Street Journal, exposing our Prime Minister's embezzlement, isn't going to make everything alright.

It just exposes our politics for what it is, and brings shame to the nation.

It diminishes our reputation.

It does our world-class Malaysian professionals a disservice.

Our media is mostly owned by the government and it reports false news to us. They make us think that everything is fine and dandy when it is clearly not.

The irony of this situation at the moment, is that most nations have reported on Malaysia's 1MDB scandal, while it barely makes any news back home. This means that the masses who don't bother to read international news on the internet have no clue what is going on under their very noses.

No clue at all.

And then you wonder why BN keeps getting voted in time in and time out. Their list of sins are numerous, and not exhaustive. But people either don't know or don't care.

And that surprises me, because it's not like the average joe on the street isn't being affected by the government's overt and blatant embezzlement. I mentioned GST in a previous post, but I hadn't mentioned property taxes, especially in KL, where most urban citizens are well-read, and did NOT vote for BN.

How about the new two hour parking limit? The increase in public transportation costs?

We pay a lot less in income tax than the rest of the world does, but is it going to the right channels? Is it truly improving our lives, or just the lives of a select few?

Why are we putting up with that? Why would you think that these select few are entitled to a much better life than we are?

Why haven't things changed for so long? Back in 2007, I listed the top 3 on my Corruption Hall Of Fame. Some of those people have since died, but someone else just shows up and does exactly the same thing. In fact, Najib's scale of embezzlement has dwarfed all other attempts.

And no one objects. Not outwardly, at least.

People, we need to change.

Corruption, Embezzlement And Fear

If you haven't read Haris Ibrahim's piece on the deplorable waste of money via the massive 1MDB scam, I suggest you do now, because he puts things very succinctly.

Even the title was a punch in the gut for me. We pay so much toll, so much tax in way of GST, and so much in terms of effort to overcome the obstacles.

While the average joe is struggling to make ends meet, one elite group of people blow $41 million at the casino. It is sheer insanity.

Haris says:

Go to your houses of worship and pray for 3 revolutions.

First, that your heart be filled with so much love for our downtrodden, that your heart be filled with so much determination to ensure that this travesty never ever happens to our people again, and that, by this, we may overcome all fears that may come our way.

Second, that our minds be steeled enough to face whatever adversity may be thrown our way.

Third, that we will bring a tsunami of change to our land such as has never been seen before.

I couldn't agree more. On this blog alone, I have lost count of the number of protests/rallies I have covered. I have tag-teamed with fellow bloggers and reported from the ground while they uploaded photos and typed out my reports.

I have been tear-gassed. Sprayed with acid-laced water from intimidating water cannons. Pretty much done it all.

And yet, even I fear. I don't want to be arrested. But after having travelled around the world and lived in multiple countries, I see the flaws in them and grudgingly admit that I am best suited to living in Malaysia.

Barring the anathema that is BN politicians, this is the best country to live in. Do we want to sacrifice that just to live in some foreign country "for the sake of the children"?

The talented and courageous cartoonist, Zunar, says:

“We need to cross the line. This is the line of fear we call it. It is not a normal line. It is a line of fear. If you don’t cross it, we are trapped in there forever. The system will be very happy. The government will be very happy if you don’t want to cross the line.

"I hope more and more people will cross it (the line). We must break the system. If not, they (the government) will be very happy. Now Malaysia has been governed by the same party for more than 60 years. If we don’t cross the line, we will give mandate for another 60 years to them. I don’t know if I will win or lose, but if I don’t fight, I’ll definitely lose."

We need to wake up. There are so many injustices happening in our nation. Lim Guan Eng is facing legal action over something so trivial (and conjured), while Najib goes scot-free over such a ridiculously gargantuan embezzlement.

Our legal system is frayed. We have draconian laws in place, the worst of them being the National Security Act.

Sarawak Report says:

To give just a single example of the evil intent of this National Security Act, consider the clause that cancels the formal inquest into the death of anyone killed by army or police in any crackdown under its provisions.

Someone must have thought closely to insert such a sinister detail in advance. That someone must have decided that they are tired of being inconvenienced by all the paraphernalia of the law when it comes to murder cases. That person wants to be freed from questioning and investigation, when someone who gets in his way is ordered dead.

Does Malaysia want to place such a dangerous law in the hands of a desperate thief and liar like Najib, who is furthermore himself personally associated with a string of murky, half-solved murders?

And yet, the mainstream press in Malaysia has been almost as silent on this deadly law, as over the shocking revelations by America’s Department of Justice about their Prime Minister’s thefts from 1MDB. The story which has been headlines for the past two days in every other country in the world has remained virtually unreported where it is most relevant – Malaysia.

We need to lose this fear of the government. The fear of rocking the boat.

But there is also one more thing that we need. Co-operation from all facets of society. Most of the Malaysian minorities have some cohesive bond going for us. Especially those of us middle-class, educated ones. We need to rally the support of our Malay brethren.

They need to stand next to us as well, to say, "Enough is enough!"

I am not suggesting that you strike up some fake friendship with random Malay people just so that you can convert them to your cause.

I am saying that you need to find common ground, something that can overpower the indoctrination that our government has so successfully implemented. In the words borrowed from some book written a few thousand years ago, we all need to love our neighbours.

Other countries have, and are still making that same mistake. Brexit happened because poor people were sidelined, and they felt they had so little to lose, that they were willing to cut their nose to spite their face.

Donald Trump is making waves in the USA for the same reason. He talks so much crap; he contradicts himself on a regular basis, and in no way does he practise what he preaches.

But people deliberately refuse to see that.

Just like the racist and uneducated Malays will refuse to see that Riza, who is officially Muslim, should not have been gambling the money away because it is haram, to begin with.

The good news is, not all Malays are racist and uneducated. There are respectful, dignified ones out there who dislike the politics being played out, but who find no common ground with DAP stalwarts and gung-ho opposition die-hards.

We are too polarised. Really, we are.

What we need to do is come together and fight against common evil.

Come together and cast aside our fear.

Trumped Up Charges That No One Really Believes

Okay. I confess that sometimes I have issues with DAP. You have to confess that sometimes they get a bit ethnocentric. That doesn't earn any brownie points with me.

But when the BN government suddenly decides to pin some obscure sounding charge of corruption on Lim Guan Eng, then it ignites my sympathy for the man.

I can tell it's a conspiracy. Not just because the government has suddenly become ultra efficient.

Not just because they imitate the clown-effect that Fahmi Reza perpetuated rather successfully on Najib. Fahmi has come out to deny that the clown was his work.

This is the same thing that happened to Anwar Ibrahim.

The BN government is pathetic.

For what it's worth, here is some LGE for you, taken from Malaysiakini:

I will not submit to such dirty and vicious political plays to destroy my reputation or Penang’s image as the cleanest and best-run state in Malaysia.

We are proud of our open competitive tenders and proud of our accolades from Transparency International and the annual Auditor-General’s Reports.

We will not allow BN to throw mud to hide its own corruption scandals. We will prove our innocence in court.

We will fight to prove that the Pakatan Harapan government is a people-centric government that upholds its principles of integrity, justice, freedom and democracy.

There is still hope for a Malaysia that is clean and free from corruption, abuse of power and oppression. We must not allow BN to steal our children’s future as they have stolen ours.

What type of country do we want our children to grow up when those who gained benefits and donations amounting to billions of ringgit are not charged with corruption while those who gained no benefit are prosecuted for corruption?

BN can prosecute me but it will not kill my passion to free Malaysia from corruption.

BN can victimise me but will not crush my spirit to free Malaysia from those who steal our children's future.
BN can even humiliate me by unnecessarily detaining me overnight but will not succeed in changing white to black and black to white. Right cannot become wrong and wrong cannot become right.

BN will not break my party's unity – we stand together as leaders and members to battle for reforms towards a better Malaysia with freedom, justice and democracy.

If BN feels that they can bend or break me by arresting me, they are wrong! I will die standing (rather) than live on bended knees. A free Malaysia, a fair Malaysia, a prosperous Malaysia for all is worth fighting for!

The Disgusting Land-Grabbers

One of the most depressing stories of Malaysia that still haven't been resolved, is the story of Taib Mahmud and his powers around the world.

Rewcastle-Brown has this piece about the empty promises of reform with regards to land appropriation. I confess that I am unable to believe that anyone in Sarawak has the power to stop this revoltingly profligate family.

It needs to be a collective effort by the whole of Malaysia (not just the activists), and we really need to start taking an interest.

Forget about the fact that our natural resources need to be protected, and logging does just the opposite by destroying our beautiful forests.

Forget about the fact that the most vulnerable people in our nation are being exploited because they do not have a voice.

These thugs should never be allowed to bully their way around like this.

In 2011, I wrote a piece in support of a petition to the FBI in Seattle. This is because the FBI rents office space in the Abraham Lincoln building in Seattle.

You probably have guessed where I am going with this: Yes, Taib Mahmud family owns the Abraham Lincoln building in Seattle through this inconspicuous company called Wallyson's Inc.

If I didn't hate them as much as I did, I would applaud them for their ingenuity.

Think about it: they constantly need to move the money obtained from the illegal land-grabs, so they buy an entire building. But they administer it from a distance, so they hire a small staff of 3 full time employees, purportedly generating an estimated $270,000 in annual revenue.

Knowing that there would be pesky Malaysians in Seattle who would protest outside its office, what do they do? They rent it out as cheap as possible to a government agency (where budgets are always minimal); in this case the FBI.

Now they've got the FBI protecting their property, while still paying them for office space.

After travelling as much as I have, it is clear to me that crooks will thrive all over the world, because people have their own priorities.

For the FBI, renting office space from a bunch of Malaysian thugs is not a matter of high consequence.

We Malaysians have to put right what is wrong, not expect someone else to do it for us.

Malaysia - Corrupted Or Not?

The co-founder of the corruption watchdog, Transparency International, very recently found himself the object of Malaysian ire.

Michael Hershman invoked the wrath of indignant Malaysians by saying that corruption is under control in Malaysia.

Now, if you're not Malaysian, and particularly if you have not had the pleasure of acquaintance with a Malaysian, you may be unaware that Malaysians are a very cynical bunch.

But we were not always like that.

Once upon a time, we were naive, gullible and would happily hold hands and sing kumbayah under a raintree.

And then, we woke up to the government that we had. One that blatantly and nonchalantly lied to us. We awoke to the discovery that some people got a bigger slice of the pie than others. And others did not even get any pie. Not even a crumb.

Malaysians generally believe that corruption is truly well and alive in Malaysia. Which, in my humble opinion, is true.

It is very annoying when 1MDB manages to lose millions of ringgit and the citizens are taxed with GST to recover that amount.

Heck, it's absolutely galling.

But when Hershman says corruption is "under control" he is comparing it to countries like the United States of America that appear that be clean and free of corruption, when it is ludicrously rife.

Ironically, the Malaysian style of corruption is most identical to the American style.

The Scorpene submarines which saw the Defence Ministry get massive kickbacks from the French DCNS group, is a prime example. The US equivalent is roughly the Iraq war, where a select bunch of arms dealers had squirreled some money into the pockets of Bush and cohorts.

However, what is worse, is that thousands of innocent civilians and military personnel were killed, both in America and Iraq, whereas the Scorpene submarine only resulted in the death of a Mongolian model.

For information on America's shenanigans for the past few years, read what the American academic Juan Cole says about the Top 10 Ways the US is the Most Corrupt Country in the World.

Bear in mind that the average Malaysian pays far less tax than the average American, who pays both federal and state taxes. Where there is no state income tax, they pay retail tax which is similar to the dratted GST that Malaysians are now forced to pay.

The cost of living is also much higher in America because retailers just charge so much more than what it would cost for exactly the same product.

The utility companies, like internet service providers (like Comcast, Frontier and Century Link) are in cahoots with each other, and so charge approximately the same exorbitant price.

So am I saying that Malaysians should lie back and just take it?

HELL, NO!!

The world is changing. It has been constantly changing for the past few million years, in case you hadn't noticed.

The once dominant leaders are no longer in power (except for Mahathir; we can't get rid of him); the once powerful countries are no longer dominant economically or socially.

For once, Malaysia has the opportunity to be one of the best places to live in.

But this is only if we rid ourselves of the apathy and fear that the government tries to instill by its sedition and public assembly laws.

It is important to make a home for one's family, but for the family to thrive, the nation needs to be secure and stable.

That can only happen by constantly monitoring our representatives and leaders. By making sure they do what we tell them to, instead of being their slaves and servants.

National Farm

Sadly, that poster is relevant to almost every country on this planet.

You stand up and make that difference.

Be proud to be Malaysian.

I know I am.

No Free Lunch

No free lunch; we've gotta pay either toll or tax, Najib says.

Which is really ironic because we're also paying for him (and also his wife's diamonds and step-son's fancy apartment in New York) to drive around in his fancy new ride.

And of course, he's been jetting around in a luxurious new plane. An airplane!!

An Airbus ACJ320 leased from Comlux Aviation. That, my good Malaysian friends is not a cheap thing. Bearing in mind that it has been refurbished for a very luxurious flying experience, not what you experience on your AirAsia flight.

While you sit in your cattle class seat with your legs cramping from lack of space, you're paying for good ole Najib to flex his legs about and have a very pleasant flight. And I haven't gotten started on the fuel yet.

No free lunch, Najib says. For you and me, that is.

For him, it's all free.

Greed In Malaysia And America

Unlike what most of Malaysia thinks, this is old news.

Najib Razak's step-son had bought this apartment at least a year ago. Obviously, like his dear mother, he had saved up all his life and bought it. That family ought to give financial tips on how to save money.

Or maybe not.

They could certainly give tips on how to spend it.

Interestingly, I suspect the news got out because of the film that was released in the US on Christmas Day. "The Wolf of Wall Street".

Yes, it was produced by Najib's step-son's company.

Interestingly, it bears a striking resemblance to the issue at hand. Of stealing. Of spending money that doesn't belong to you.

Because that is precisely what this movie glorifies, and exactly what the main character in this movie does. Jordan Belfort is his name and his greed and lack of integrity is part of the reason why America was brought down to its knees.

This is a very interesting open letter to the director and main star of the film by Christina, the daughter of one of Jordan Belfort's accomplices/associates named Tom Prousalis.

It is very apt and describes what greed could do to men, be they American or Malaysian.

Read The Sarawak Report for more information on this topic.

KL Property Assessment Rates

I heard the first rumblings of dissatisfaction on Facebook about a month ago. Friends were aghast that their assessments had suddenly spiked with no warning at all.

It is natural that property prices would go up, especially at the prime areas of Kuala Lumpur, which is a vibrant and attractive city.

But there is no legitimate reason why it should have increased by such a high percentage -- more than 100% in some cases! Also, not all KL property is posh and new.

No bones about it, the federal government is out to tax the citizens of Kuala Lumpur for what it's worth. Bear in mind, the majority of KL voted for the Opposition, and not for BN, knowing how corrupted and worthless BN is.

This is the best way that BN can punish the urban voters -- by hitting at their pockets.

Apart from stupid remarks from ministers like, "Take it positively that your property value is higher", little else has been done. Boring, insignificant and irrelevant anecdotes like a minister's wife owning a penthouse and other properties in and around KL and having to pay for it has been bandied about.

I couldn't care less about a BN minister (or his wife), and neither can most KL citizens.

So 11 MPs were tasked with sorting out the issue with the federal government.

But this is how sneaky the government is: they made the MPs sign into the official secrets act, which means divulging any information regarding this fiasco to the public would make it a criminal offence.

So we're back to square one here.

The question is: will people submit to the bullying tactics of the BN government and choose to vote them in at the next General Elections (like East Malaysians perpetually do), or will people stand up and fight back?

What are the people of KL really like?

What Is Progress? Or Even Regression ....

Iran wasn't always a backwater that persecuted its women and made them cover up.

After all, they are the nation that gave us Aladdin (of Arabian Nights) and the computer game Prince of Persia is based on that very nation.

Sure, they were different to most Arabs, in that they were Shi'ite Muslims, as opposed to Sunnis. And they also had another religion called Baha'i (lesser known, and apparently illegitimised in Iran -- but that is a different story altogether).

For the most part, the Iranians were very Westernised, having a ruler who had been educated in a Swiss boarding school and installed by the Americans (yes, the Yanks had to have their finger in that, too) and British.

The pictures below show young Iranians going about their daily life; perhaps some a throwback from the hippies of the 60s, but for the most part, a reflection of their times and their ruler the Shah, who was eventually deposed during the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

Iranians having a picnic in the 1970s

The students from Sharif University could easily be mistaken for students from Britain or America. Iran was a developing nation; which some say was on par with South Korea and Singapore.

Students at Sharif University, Teheran in the 1970s

But things took a turn for the worse. When the Shah (Mohammed Reza Pahlavi) was deposed, the mass support went behind a religious leader called Ayatollah Khomeini.

Voters at the June 2013 elections

Today, the women of Iran look very different to those in the 1970s.

Some say it's progression, others say regression.

I think it's a cycle that afflicts nations that have corrupt rulers. The Shah came from a dynasty of rulers, his father was the Shah too before he was replaced by his son under the watchful eye of the Americans.

The new Shah was no better: he didn't understand the hearts and minds of his citizens. His father forbade traditional Islamic clothing, separation of the sexes and veiling of women in Iran.

That was not a good move for a nation that was prominently religious in nature. In fact, it is as equally invasive and oppressive as forcing women to veil or wear a burkha.

When the revolution came, the Shah was ousted by about 3 million Iranians who took to the streets. This was a rejection of poverty (not everyone in Iran was fabulously wealthy), of corruption, and of extravagance.

If you're wondering what extravagance is, the Shah's third wife (he divorced the first two because he had no male heirs) had a Yves St Laurent gown and Noor-ul-Ain Diamond tiara for her wedding.

I suppose that pales in comparison to what UMNO and their minions do to Malaysia by plundering its coffers, but then again, we are peace-loving Malaysians and not as hot-headed as the Iranians.

Shah Reza Pahlavi also grew increasingly brutal and autocratic when he realised that there was discontent among the Iranians. Freedom of expression was stifled.

The Iranians, on their part, had had enough of corruption and what they deemed as Western afflictions. They wanted someone noble and pious, someone who wouldn't rob them of their wealth or blindly do the bidding of the Americans.

Ayatollah Khomeini was their answer.

But like Afghanistan and their Taliban, when there is no "separation of church and state" or perhaps separation of religion and state, there is abuse of power and religious leaders impose their own wills.

And so, Iran is what it is today.

How about Afghanistan? Next up.

Related: Open Letter to Reza Pahlavi
Watch: Argo trailer