When It Hits Home

Being from UMNO, it is easy for one to feel invincible.

After all, any wrong-doing or crime can be explained away with the help of the right connections and elimination of the pesky elements (like Mongolian models and private investigators).

Somehow, I get the impression that Khairy isn't feeling just quite so invincible at this very moment.

He says as quoted by theStar:

Well. The high crime rate would NOT be a serious problem in our country if policemen focused on just doing their job instead of going out to bother and provoke patriotic Malaysians who want their voices to be heard on the streets.

If only policemen investigated criminals instead of sex tapes allegedly of Anwar Ibrahim.

If only policemen went out to get proper evidence instead of simply killing the suspects in custody.

Political Chameleon

The thing about these political types is that they are natural pots with an affinity for calling the kettle black.

Take Kera Jantan for example - he is a study in contradictions.

He is also capable of saying the most ludicrous things with a straight face:

Malaysians are now faced with the choice between two political fronts - Barisan Nasional, which has developed the country to its current heights, or Pakatan Rakyat which continues to divide the people.

It is our responsibility to expose the true colours of the opposition – that they are no true coalition and are not bound by any shared principle.

What exists is merely a casual relationship, void of any moral principle, genuine affinity or mutual respect. They are a coalition willing to be in cahoots merely to topple BN, dreaming of Putrajaya.

The Kera must have had a bout of high fever coupled with multiple concussions, which has obviously resulted in severe brain damage, loss of memory and comprehension skills.

He is describing everything that is wrong with Barisan Nasional, his own party, but instead claiming that those are Pakatan Rakyat's woes.

In other words, he is a pot calling the kettle black.

You'd think he'd be smart enough to stop there. Nope.

Just today, he called for Malays and Umno to "get rid of siege mentality". The Kera is actually referring to the ridiculous protection of the Malay special position and consequently the New Economic Policy (NEP).

This is coming from the guy who has whined about the Malays in Penang being marginalised in his bid to play up racial issues. This is the guy who has fiercely protected the NEP since he also benefits generously from it.

That is quite a U-turn. In fact, if he was a car, he'd need handbrakes to achieve that sort of sudden turn-about.

Looks like he is pandering to the crowds again, though at this point, I am confused as to whom he wishes to please.

Saying the Malays have siege mentality is frankly a chronic case of the pot calling the kettle black.

It's quite embarrassing for me to witness this sort of thing. The Kera however, seems to take it in his stride.

You may remember how he once referred to PKR as Projek Khinzir Raksasa (or Giant Pig Project).

He wasn't expecting the response he got.

Fortunately, people do point out the pot's blackness.

Al-Jazeera Covers The Protest And ISA Issue

Peeps, you might be interested in watching Al-Jazeera's interview with three Malaysians: Khairy Jamaluddin, Denison Jayasooria and Zaid Ibrahim.


This is covering the need and use of the Internal Security Act.

It was actually covered on Astro 513 last night, Aug 6 at 8.30pm. There will be repeats, but I don't subscribe to Astro.

If you're like me, fortunately, they are now available online at these youtube links:
Part 1
Part 2

Making Profit From Cash Rebates

A lot of people welcomed the fuel rebate of RM625 for cars below 2000cc and RM150 for motorcycles.

In fact, there were monstrous lines formed in a painstaking wait to collect the money from the nearest post office.

I did wonder, why withdraw the fuel subsidy and instead give out cash rebates to vehicle owners, some of whom may not even be using their cars and motorcycles?

Now I have my answer.

ECM Libra Financial Group Berhad has a stake in Pos Malaysia Berhad (PMB) through it's acquisition of Avenue Capital Resources in 2006 through some very dodgy bit of insider trading.

If the name ECM Libra rings a bell, you will be right to remember Kera Jantan, more commonly known as the Prime Minister's son-in-law. KJ was a Director of Investment in ECM Libra in 2004 before making a disappearing act when sh!t hit the fan.

But all is not ended. Kalimullah Hasan, of plagiarism and sue-you-for-speaking-the-truth fame, is now the Chairman and CEO of ECM Libra.

Same guy who spins faithfully for Pak Lah on the mainstream media, namely New Straits Times. The money trail isn't going too far off now, is it?

But back to the issue at hand, so why was PMB was given the job of giving out the cash rebates to replace of fuel subsidy? Some say it was out of convenience, as post offices are easily available and accessible.

Pak Lah and KJ would have you think so.

It is quite odd on why JPJ was not given this role but instead it was given to a postal service company. Heck, the JPJ is where I go to renew my road tax, not the post office.

Instead of the more efficient and more relevant job function of the JPJ, these cash handouts responsibility were thrusted into the already mountainous variety of services PMB had to handle.

But now, let's see how Pak Lah and his cronies get extra money out of this purportedly 'for the rakyat' act of selflessness.

For every transaction, PMB will get 10 sen commission on every RM10 of that RM625 and RM150 (for cars and motorcycles respectively). That means, for every transaction, PMB will get RM6.25 for cars and RM1.50 for motorcycles in the form of transaction fees.

From what I know, there are approximately 11 million cars and 8 million motorcycles in this country at the moment. Let's do the math:

RM6.25 x 11 millions = RM68.8 million (for cars)

RM1.50 x 8 millions = RM12 million (for motorcycles)

A cool total of RM81 million for the entire exercise per year.

With RM117 million already paid out during the first day, I wonder how much PMB will collect by March 2009. This role was given to PMB and not JPJ because PMB is a public listed company (read: profit oriented) while JPJ is a government-owned entity (read : no cost to public).

This nefariously cunning way of trying to 'help' the poor while at the same time enriching oneself is very much prevalent in Pak Lah's administration.

What's worse, they are emptying the nation's coffers (from the Treasury) in the form of cash rebates and transfer a significant percentage of it into their own pockets (through fees paid into PMB and ultimately into ECM's bank accounts).

Such selfless generosity is unprecedented.

The Animal Farm

You don't know how much you're missing if you don't read Harakah Daily.

This latest bit of action from our esteemed Members of Parliament is hysterical.

Parlimen riuh dengan ungkapan "Babi Negara"
Abdul Halim Mohd Rashid
Mon | May 12, 08 | 2:26:18 pm MYT

KUALA LUMPUR, 12 Mei (Hrkh) - Dewan Rakyat hari ini riuh dengan ungkapan "babi negara" apabila Ketua Penerangan PAS, Haji Mahfuz Omar menolak akronim yang diberikan oleh Ahli Parlimen Rembau, Khairy Jamaluddin bahawa PKR itu adalah singkatan kepada "projek khinzir raksasa".

"Bukan projek khinzir raksasa (PKR) tetapi projek 'babi negara' (BN)," Ahli Parlimen Pokok Sena itu meningkah.

Selepas itu dewan riuh dengan perkataan "BN, babi negara" sehingga menyebabkan timbul cabaran siapa yang menyebut perkataan itu termasuk dari Khairy sendiri yang kedengaran marah dengan perkataan "babi negara" itu.

Selepas keriuhan agak berkurangan, Mahfuz bangun lagi dan menjelaskan bahawa "bukan 'projek khinzir raksasa' (PKR) tetapi projek 'babi negara' (BN)".

Mahfuz juga meminta Khairy berucap di hadapan kanak-kanak tadika dan bukan di dalam Dewan Rakyat.

What is hilarious is not so much that they were casually flinging around the insults that are generally dreaded most by Muslims.

Nor that the Pakatan Rakyat man was witty enough to return Kera Jantan's insult with a better one of his own.

It's just that when one is hurling brickbats, one should consider one's unguarded territory. In this case, the initial 'B'.

If The Kera had only given due consideration to the potential implications, he might have saved himself a remarkable amount of embarrassment.

In other words, he should have thought first before calling someone else a "Giant Pig Project".

I suppose it's also lost on him that there is no point in getting angry at the newly-coined and rather catchy "Babi Negara" aka "National Pigs" when he was the one who started the pissing contest.

Challenge Rembau Result

PKR may challenge Khairy's Rembau win

Syed Jaymal Zahiid | Mar 11, 08 2:54pm

On Saturday night, the initial count for the Rembau parliament constituency in Negri Sembilan showed that PKR had taken the seat by a razor-thin majority of 141 votes.

A recount however saw a complete reversal - Khairy Jamaluddin, son-in-law of premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, won by a staggering difference of 5,000 votes.

For opposition party PKR, this stark gap came in as a shock and consequentially became a solid basis for suspicion.

Rembau’s PKR candidate Badrul Hisham Shaharin is today considering a legal challenge against the result.

Speaking at a press conference held at the Chinese Assembly Hall in Kuala Lumpur today, Badrul (photo) said he was far from satisfied with the final outcome.

In the final results, Khairy bagged 26,525 votes against Badrul's 20,779, with a majority of 5,746.

In the 2004 elections, BN had retained its Rembau stronghold with a whopping 18,656 majority.

Had Badrul won the seat, it would have been considered one of the major upsets in Saturday's elections.

“There were (also) irregularities in the vote counting procedure. The Election Commission (EC) did not issue the ‘Form 14' to us when it was compulsory to do so,” said Badrul, a former teacher and member of PKR supreme council.

Elaborating, Badrul said that Form 14 was an extremely important procedure as the document was one of the many measures that was in place to prevent vote-rigging.

Form 14 contains the number of total voters for a particular polling station and once the vote counting has been finalised, the form will be the official indicator of the number of votes designated for each candidate.

If the form was not issued, the results could not be considered as an official one but most importantly, it gave way for manipulation as the number of votes may be added in favour of a particular candidate.

It is compulsory for the form to be issued from each polling stations to each of the candidates’ polling agents stationed there.

BN’s acts of hooliganism

“We will talk to our lawyers and will consider issuing a petition to challenge the results and call for a re-election,” said Badrul.

One of Badrul supporters then added that the matter of Form 14 not being issued itself was enough to nullify the Rembau election results and they will definitely be looking into the possibility of doing so.

Besides allegations of electoral fraud, Badrul also took a shot at Khairy and BN by claiming that the constituency’s campaigning period was marred with BN hooliganism.

“There were various instances where our posters, banners and supporters were harassed by Khairy’s supporters,” he said, adding that there were more than 20 police reports lodged by him and his supporters as a result of alleged BN aggression.

He also alleged that Khairy’s campaigning cost had exceeded the quota allowed by the EC and also accused the latter of using government machineries like schools to campaign.

Chegubard Spills The Dirt

If you have been following the Blogger For Public Office campaign that we Malaysian bloggers collectively launched, you may notice that Chegubard or more formally known as Badrul Hisham Shaharin was the only candidate that did not win his seat - in Rembau.

A crying shame, because he had his heart in the right place. And while I did not manage to be acquainted with him personally, I have friends of sound judgement who will vouch for his integrity and capability anyday.

It was not because he didn't have what it took to win the election. Oh no.

The playing field was not level, something we suspected from the start.

This morning at 11.30am, Chegubard held his press conference to expose the underhanded tactics of his Barisan Nasional opponent, more commonly referred to in the blogosphere as Kera Jantan (among others - Chicken Shit being KL Confidential's preferred choice of monicker).

Dirty Tactic #1:

Refusal to issue a permit to Chegubard so he could campaign freely in fields and community halls. Questioning the decision yielded a simple answer, "Because I have the power to do so."

Worse, Chegubard was even prevented from entering certain villages to campaign.

Dirty Tactic #2:

Importing gangsters to vandalise, burn and steal Chegubard's campaign equipment, posters, buntings, banners, and flags. In a somewhat rural location like Rembau, a physical presence is necessary - having merely the internet as a tool does not work.

Dirty Tactic #3:

A tainted electoral roll. Nothing surprising there. We all know it exists. Phantom voters abounded. There were more ghosts in those ballot rooms than there are in a cemetery. Or in an entire season of 'Ghost Whisperer'.

And heck, we have some really old relics voting in Rembau, some spanning two whole centuries in age, damn them. There were probably a couple of infants casting ballots for good measure.

Dirty Tactic #4:

This particular one is funky. Reserve ballot boxes were brought in with no legal documentation. Chegubard was leading by quite a number initially, much to the delight of his supporters.

And then the Election Commission brought in a new box with additional votes. For it to be legal, every ballot box that is to be counted MUST be accompanied by a Form 14. Not these ones.

Questioning it also yielded a simple answer, "We ran out of forms".

******

The filthy tricks that the Kera Jantan is capable of.

Kiss my a$$, you snivelling, self-serving, suck hole with a snout in the trough!!!

At this point, I'm ready to go ballistic! Kera Jantan should be removed from his seat and given a room as a guest in Kamunting with the HINDRAF 5. I'm sure he could expect some fine treatment there from the other inmates.

Our NGO for Human Rights, SUARAM acknowledges that this elections were still quite dirty.

Amidst the euphoria and optimism of a new era in Malaysian politics and society, however, SUARAM would like to remind that the election was still far from a clean and fair one. SUARAM strongly refutes the claims that the result of this election demonstrates that the electoral system in the country is free and fair.

The fundamental principle of ‘one person one vote’ still needs to be restored. Election watchdogs have also documented various electoral frauds and irregularities, ranging from allegations of rigged electoral roll and phantom voters to unfair media access and outright vote-buying during the elections.

It would therefore not be too far-fetched to say that had the election been conducted in a clean, free and fair manner, even bigger changes would have been possible.

I reckon without the rigging of elections, we could have even swung a two-thirds majority in favour of the Opposition...

I demand a re-election for the constituency of Rembau with the entire nation watching intently!

The Issue Of Civil Service

For once it is Oxford vs. Oxford. From Philosophy Politics Economics by Tony Pua.

Finally, I'm getting to the press conference which I conducted this morning ;). It was well attended by the print media, and Malaysiakini has got their reports up in English and in Chinese already. So there should be some coverage in the Chinese papers tonight, as well as possibly the English and Malay press tomorrow.

Below is my 2-page statement in full, so that you can understand the overall context of my response. Understandably, most newspapers won't give you all the space and will only take quotes, which may inadvertently slant the reports. ;)

No Apology For Stating The Facts - Challenge Khairy Jamaluddin To A Public Debate Seeking Truth From Fact Towards "Civil Service Excellence: Quality Vs Quantity" In The Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall On Wednesday 8 pm 30 May 2007.

In my statement dated 22nd May 2007 entitled “Record Pay Rise Solves Only Part of the Civil Service Problem”, I called on the Government to take the “painful but very important step of trimming the civil service sector into a leaner and more efficient 'machine'”.

UMNO Youth Deputy Chief, Khairy Jamaluddin issued a statement published in the Star, Utusan Malaysia and Berita Harian yesterday took issue with my comment that the bulging and unwieldy civil service was partly caused by the Government's policy to absorb unemployed graduates. This has resulted in the civil service becoming a “dumping ground” for unemployed graduates. These graduates are also a “politically sensitive constituency” as an large majority of them are Malays.

Khairy claimed that my comments “were totally unacceptable and without basis” and hence sought an apology from the Party and myself.

However, as my previous statement was completely based on facts and figures provided by the government, we see absolutely no necessity to make any apology to the UMNO Deputy Youth Chief. This position is concurred by DAP Secretary-General Sdr Lim Guan Eng based on the following facts:-

On 12 July 2006, the Star reported that “The Public Services Department (PSD) and Public Services Commission have been urged to speed up the recruitment of graduates to fill some 30,000 vacancies in the civil service. Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said that this would overcome the problem of unemployed graduates.”

An EPU study on graduate unemployment conducted in September 2005 estimated that out of the unemployed pool of some 60,000 graduates then, some 70% or more were bumiputeras. This was also confirmed in the same Star article above, by the Deputy Prime Minister himself.

Hence, I'm unable to understand how the comment I made was without basis. He claimed that my “comments about the civil service can cause considerable damage to the morale and image of the public sector.”

Instead, I'd like to put forth instead that the Government's policy of absorbing these unemployed graduates, by acting as an employer of the last resort, is one of the reasons for considerable damage to the morale of the existing and senior civil servants, as well as the image of the public sector.

Criticising such a short-sighted policy of taking in unemployed graduates is also not akin to rubbishing the entire civil service as unemployable or of poor quality.

Therefore no apology shall be forthcoming for stating the facts and challenge Khairy to seek truth from facts with a public debate on "Civil Service Excellence - Quality Vs Quantity" on Wednesday 8pm 30 May in the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall or at any place and time of his choosing.

Constructive criticism of Government policy towards the Civil Service is neither a racial issue nor an insult to civil servants.

In addition, Khairy should also read the entire statement to put my comments into context.

We fully support the pay increment for the civil service. In fact, the DAP leaders have made our stand known repeatedly in the past the it was an absolute travesty that the basic wage our lowest ranking civil servants of RM481 are well below the Malaysian poverty line of RM691. Even the lowest ranking constable in our Royal Malaysian Police Force was only RM690 previously.

At the same time, I lamented on the fact that despite the massive and many privatisation exercises conducted throughout the past 2 decades, of which a leaner and more efficient civil service of approximately 500,000 personnel was one of its key objectives, today the number of personnel exceeds more than double that target. This is one of the major failure of the Malaysian privatisation campaign for not reducing the heaving burden of the Government.

At the same time, we emphasised the fact that the record increase in pay will be “a waste of public funds, if the move is not accompanied by a corresponding increase in civil service productivity”. The weaknesses in the civil service can be seen on a daily basis, and certainly needs no lengthy elaboration.

The unacceptable large building cracks in brand new government buildings as well as highways, the embarrassing leakages on the newly and expensively renovated Parliament as well as the Jalan Duta mega-court complex as well as the poorly negotiated highway contracts are just the tip of the iceberg of an faltering Public Works Department (PWD).

Complaints made by foreign investors on the bureaucratic investment climate in Malaysia is one of the key causes for a foreign direct investment decline of 45.6% from US$7.3 billion in 1996 to US$3.97 billion 10 years later in 2005. As put forward by Vince Leusner, the president of the American Malaysian Chamber of Commerce, "the Malaysian government can do a better job in making regulations less imposing to businesses.” An example of the red tape, foreign investors claim that it can take half a year to get a work permit, compared with less than a week in Singapore.

Singapore, on the other hand, more than doubled their foreign direct investment from US$9.7 billion to US$20.1 billion over the same period. To quote Asian Strategy Leadership Institute director Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam said Malaysia cannot be too protective in the world of rapid globalisation. "The world does not owe us a living and we have to struggle to improve at a faster pace or be left behind."

Instead of challenging the Party and myself for an apology and for the benefit of the future of Malays and all other Malaysians, Khairy should do away with emotive arguments as well as semantics, and focus on the issues at hand, that is:

How to prevent our education system from churning out graduates who are unable to gain employment which befit their qualifications despite the large number of advertised vacancies in the market;

How to improve our civil service delivery system to substantially increase the satisfaction of the rakyat and the successful completion of government projects; as well as

How to streamline a bloated civil service, disproportionate to the size of the Malaysian population to reduce the tremendous economic burden of the Government, where all things equal, the budget deficit is expected to increase from the projected 3.4% to a much higher 4.1% caused by the pay increase.

In line with the above, I'd like to issue an open challenge and invitation to the UMNO Deputy Youth Chief to a reasoned, collected and rational debate next Wednesday, 30th May 2007, 8 pm at the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall. At the same time, we'll be inviting a panel of distinguished speakers who will share their views on the above questions.

In conclusion, I'd like to reiterate that my earlier statement was issued on the basis of facts and statistics provided by the Government itself. Hence, Khairy's call for an apology fails the address the issues highlighted by my statement, is totally unacceptable and without basis.