I was not in raided hotel spa, says Noh
The Star, Kuala Lumpur
05 January 2006
I was not in raided hotel spa, says Noh
“Everybody knows that I was not there.”
Deputy Internal Security Minister Datuk Noh Omar said this in
dispelling rumours that he was the Datuk who was in a hotel spa
during a police raid.
Noh said initially he didn't see the need to respond to newspaper
reports and rumours connecting him to the unnamed politician.
“I was in Kluang. There were many people including Members of
Parliament from Johor who were with me that night.
“That is why I didn't see it as necessary to refute the report,” he
said after visiting the police air wing unit's training centre
yesterday.
Noh said he was not perturbed by the incident.
“I don’t know why people are ready to believe this about me but I
will continue with my work. This will not affect my concentration,”
he added.
Meanwhile, Noh’s private secretary Saiful Bahar Mohd Sahar admitted
he was at the spa after the raid.
“We arrived about an hour after the raid. We were never in the spa at
any time but had only walked to the area after we heard about the
raid,” he said, adding that Putera Umno chief Datuk Abdul Azeez Rahim
was with him.
Posts in various blog sites identified Abdul Azeez as the Datuk who
was mentioned in newspaper reports.
During the raid in Subang Jaya, police from Bukit Aman’s anti-vice
and gambling division arrested 30 foreign women aged between 18 and
30 for suspected vice activities.
Ends
Sunday, May 28, 2006
Doubts linger over nude squat video
The Straits Times, Singapore
05 January 2006
Doubts linger over nude squat video
Some still don't believe woman in China Press report is Malay due to distrust of the authorities
By Carolyn HongOpposition
MP Teresa Kok was one of the few Malaysians who had a clear look at the face of the Malay woman who identified herself as the detainee taped doing nude squats in police custody.'I saw her face clearly. Her eyes and other features were exactly as I saw on the video clip, and I am sure she is Malay from the way she spoke,' she said.Ms Kok was convinced that the Malay woman was telling the truth and that the media had got it wrong when it earlier reported that the detainee was a Chinese national.But to her surprise, not all Malaysians saw it the same way. Some sceptical ones refused to believe that the newspapers made a mistake. They insisted that it was a cover-up.And this was after the independent panel investigating the video clip recalled the Malay woman specifically to be identified by people like Ms Kok and representatives of the Bar Council.At her first appearance, the woman had kept her face covered and only showed it to the five panel members, immediately sparking rumours of a cover-up.The panel, which is due to issue its report on Jan 15, was set up to investigate the video clip after it sparked outrage when it became public in November. It was shot secretly in June on a mobile phone by a policeman in a lock-up.Given the prevailing scepticism, Ms Kok said the Internal Security Ministry was making things worse by going after the Chinese-language China Press newspaper for identifying the woman as a Chinese national.'It seems to be on a hunt for a scapegoat, either me or China Press,' she said.The New Straits Times reported that the Internal Security Ministry has asked China Press to explain its mistake, and warned that its night edition could be suspended for a certain period.Ms Kok said she is still being asked by voters from her Kuala Lumpur constituency and friends whether the woman was truly a Malay.'They even ask if police had found a Malay woman who looks like her. When I explain to them that I am convinced...I can see that they don't quite agree with me,' she said.This is also the experience of lawyer S.N. Nair, who had represented four Chinese women who were made to do nude squats in a separate incident in November last year. It was initially believed that the woman in the video clip could be one of them.Mr Nair said he, too, was being asked whether there was a cover-up.'I have told them that the Malay woman is really the one in the video but I would say that it is 50-50 on how far people accept this,' he said.Some have blamed this on excessive cynicism. But to him, it reflects the low confidence in the police force.He said the police had fed the people's suspicion by failing to correct the mistake for a good three weeks even after news reports had triggered a protest from China.'The press has to be accountable, but in this case, the government also failed to handle it well.'The newspaper was merely doing its duty, and any action other than a reprimand will be a setback to the principle of press freedom,' he said.
05 January 2006
Doubts linger over nude squat video
Some still don't believe woman in China Press report is Malay due to distrust of the authorities
By Carolyn HongOpposition
MP Teresa Kok was one of the few Malaysians who had a clear look at the face of the Malay woman who identified herself as the detainee taped doing nude squats in police custody.'I saw her face clearly. Her eyes and other features were exactly as I saw on the video clip, and I am sure she is Malay from the way she spoke,' she said.Ms Kok was convinced that the Malay woman was telling the truth and that the media had got it wrong when it earlier reported that the detainee was a Chinese national.But to her surprise, not all Malaysians saw it the same way. Some sceptical ones refused to believe that the newspapers made a mistake. They insisted that it was a cover-up.And this was after the independent panel investigating the video clip recalled the Malay woman specifically to be identified by people like Ms Kok and representatives of the Bar Council.At her first appearance, the woman had kept her face covered and only showed it to the five panel members, immediately sparking rumours of a cover-up.The panel, which is due to issue its report on Jan 15, was set up to investigate the video clip after it sparked outrage when it became public in November. It was shot secretly in June on a mobile phone by a policeman in a lock-up.Given the prevailing scepticism, Ms Kok said the Internal Security Ministry was making things worse by going after the Chinese-language China Press newspaper for identifying the woman as a Chinese national.'It seems to be on a hunt for a scapegoat, either me or China Press,' she said.The New Straits Times reported that the Internal Security Ministry has asked China Press to explain its mistake, and warned that its night edition could be suspended for a certain period.Ms Kok said she is still being asked by voters from her Kuala Lumpur constituency and friends whether the woman was truly a Malay.'They even ask if police had found a Malay woman who looks like her. When I explain to them that I am convinced...I can see that they don't quite agree with me,' she said.This is also the experience of lawyer S.N. Nair, who had represented four Chinese women who were made to do nude squats in a separate incident in November last year. It was initially believed that the woman in the video clip could be one of them.Mr Nair said he, too, was being asked whether there was a cover-up.'I have told them that the Malay woman is really the one in the video but I would say that it is 50-50 on how far people accept this,' he said.Some have blamed this on excessive cynicism. But to him, it reflects the low confidence in the police force.He said the police had fed the people's suspicion by failing to correct the mistake for a good three weeks even after news reports had triggered a protest from China.'The press has to be accountable, but in this case, the government also failed to handle it well.'The newspaper was merely doing its duty, and any action other than a reprimand will be a setback to the principle of press freedom,' he said.
Saturday, May 27, 2006
5,177 Hektar "Diserah" Kepada Singapura
5,177 Hektar "Diserah" Kepada Singapura
Kerajaan Johor diminta memberi penjelasan segera berhubung penyerahan tanah seluas 5,177 hektar kepada Singapura di awal tahun 80-an untuk dijadikan kawasan tadahan air bersih bagi disalurkan ke negara berkenaan.
Status pemberian kawasan dikenali sebagai tadahan air Sungai Linggiu di Bandar Tenggara, yang melibatkan tiga daerah iaitu Kluang, Mersing dan Kota Tinggi masih samar apakah ianya di atas kurniaan sebagai pajakan ataupun melalui perjanjian yang mengandungi terma-terma "istimewa".
Serentak itu juga, Kerajaan Johor hari ini diminta mewartakan segera kedudukan kawasan berkenaan untuk diketahui rakyat. Kelambatan Kerajaan Johor mewartakan status tanah berkenaan menyebabkan timbul tanda tanya apakah sebenarnya yang berlaku di sebalik penyerahan kawasan yang terletak kira-kira 100 km dari JB.
Apa yang menghairankan, pelan warta kawasan berkenaan yang ditandatangani oleh Pengarah Juruukur Johor telahpun dikeluarkan pada tahun 1990. Kawasan yang dikenali dengan "hamparan air jernih" itu mempunyai tujuh buah gunung dan 66 buah bukit yang menjadi benteng mengalirkan air ke kawasan berkenaan.
Rakyat Johor cuma mengetahui pemberian tanah berkenaan apabila Tan Sri Muhyiddin Mohd Yassin ketika menjadi MB Johor memaklumkan bahawa kerajaan mendapat RM 370 juta daripada Kerajaan Singapura sebagai pampasan. Jumlah sebanyak itu tidak memadai jika dibandingkan dengan kawasan berkenaan yang dikira strategik bagi pembangunan dan pertahanan Johor.
Kawasan berkenaan mencakupi 1/3 pulau Singapura kini sudah dibina tiga empangan konkrit setinggi 190 meter dari paras laut dan ia telah menyalurkan air ke Singapura sejak 15 tahun yang lalu.
Pembinaan empangan air seluas 20,000 hektar di kawasan berkenaan yang ditambak dengan ketinggian melebihi 20 meter dari paras ketinggian air biasa boleh mengancam penduduk sekitar sekiranya berlaku sesuatu yang tidak diingini kepada empangan berkenaan.
Sumber: Akhbar "SIASAH", 19 Mei 2006
Kerajaan Johor diminta memberi penjelasan segera berhubung penyerahan tanah seluas 5,177 hektar kepada Singapura di awal tahun 80-an untuk dijadikan kawasan tadahan air bersih bagi disalurkan ke negara berkenaan.
Status pemberian kawasan dikenali sebagai tadahan air Sungai Linggiu di Bandar Tenggara, yang melibatkan tiga daerah iaitu Kluang, Mersing dan Kota Tinggi masih samar apakah ianya di atas kurniaan sebagai pajakan ataupun melalui perjanjian yang mengandungi terma-terma "istimewa".
Serentak itu juga, Kerajaan Johor hari ini diminta mewartakan segera kedudukan kawasan berkenaan untuk diketahui rakyat. Kelambatan Kerajaan Johor mewartakan status tanah berkenaan menyebabkan timbul tanda tanya apakah sebenarnya yang berlaku di sebalik penyerahan kawasan yang terletak kira-kira 100 km dari JB.
Apa yang menghairankan, pelan warta kawasan berkenaan yang ditandatangani oleh Pengarah Juruukur Johor telahpun dikeluarkan pada tahun 1990. Kawasan yang dikenali dengan "hamparan air jernih" itu mempunyai tujuh buah gunung dan 66 buah bukit yang menjadi benteng mengalirkan air ke kawasan berkenaan.
Rakyat Johor cuma mengetahui pemberian tanah berkenaan apabila Tan Sri Muhyiddin Mohd Yassin ketika menjadi MB Johor memaklumkan bahawa kerajaan mendapat RM 370 juta daripada Kerajaan Singapura sebagai pampasan. Jumlah sebanyak itu tidak memadai jika dibandingkan dengan kawasan berkenaan yang dikira strategik bagi pembangunan dan pertahanan Johor.
Kawasan berkenaan mencakupi 1/3 pulau Singapura kini sudah dibina tiga empangan konkrit setinggi 190 meter dari paras laut dan ia telah menyalurkan air ke Singapura sejak 15 tahun yang lalu.
Pembinaan empangan air seluas 20,000 hektar di kawasan berkenaan yang ditambak dengan ketinggian melebihi 20 meter dari paras ketinggian air biasa boleh mengancam penduduk sekitar sekiranya berlaku sesuatu yang tidak diingini kepada empangan berkenaan.
Sumber: Akhbar "SIASAH", 19 Mei 2006
5,177 Hektar "Diserah" Kepada Singapura
5,177 Hektar "Diserah" Kepada Singapura
Kerajaan Johor diminta memberi penjelasan segera berhubung penyerahan tanah seluas 5,177 hektar kepada Singapura di awal tahun 80-an untuk dijadikan kawasan tadahan air bersih bagi disalurkan ke negara berkenaan.
Status pemberian kawasan dikenali sebagai tadahan air Sungai Linggiu di Bandar Tenggara, yang melibatkan tiga daerah iaitu Kluang, Mersing dan Kota Tinggi masih samar apakah ianya di atas kurniaan sebagai pajakan ataupun melalui perjanjian yang mengandungi terma-terma "istimewa".
Serentak itu juga, Kerajaan Johor hari ini diminta mewartakan segera kedudukan kawasan berkenaan untuk diketahui rakyat. Kelambatan Kerajaan Johor mewartakan status tanah berkenaan menyebabkan timbul tanda tanya apakah sebenarnya yang berlaku di sebalik penyerahan kawasan yang terletak kira-kira 100 km dari JB.
Apa yang menghairankan, pelan warta kawasan berkenaan yang ditandatangani oleh Pengarah Juruukur Johor telahpun dikeluarkan pada tahun 1990. Kawasan yang dikenali dengan "hamparan air jernih" itu mempunyai tujuh buah gunung dan 66 buah bukit yang menjadi benteng mengalirkan air ke kawasan berkenaan.
Rakyat Johor cuma mengetahui pemberian tanah berkenaan apabila Tan Sri Muhyiddin Mohd Yassin ketika menjadi MB Johor memaklumkan bahawa kerajaan mendapat RM 370 juta daripada Kerajaan Singapura sebagai pampasan. Jumlah sebanyak itu tidak memadai jika dibandingkan dengan kawasan berkenaan yang dikira strategik bagi pembangunan dan pertahanan Johor.
Kawasan berkenaan mencakupi 1/3 pulau Singapura kini sudah dibina tiga empangan konkrit setinggi 190 meter dari paras laut dan ia telah menyalurkan air ke Singapura sejak 15 tahun yang lalu.
Pembinaan empangan air seluas 20,000 hektar di kawasan berkenaan yang ditambak dengan ketinggian melebihi 20 meter dari paras ketinggian air biasa boleh mengancam penduduk sekitar sekiranya berlaku sesuatu yang tidak diingini kepada empangan berkenaan.
Sumber: Akhbar "SIASAH", 19 Mei 2006
Kerajaan Johor diminta memberi penjelasan segera berhubung penyerahan tanah seluas 5,177 hektar kepada Singapura di awal tahun 80-an untuk dijadikan kawasan tadahan air bersih bagi disalurkan ke negara berkenaan.
Status pemberian kawasan dikenali sebagai tadahan air Sungai Linggiu di Bandar Tenggara, yang melibatkan tiga daerah iaitu Kluang, Mersing dan Kota Tinggi masih samar apakah ianya di atas kurniaan sebagai pajakan ataupun melalui perjanjian yang mengandungi terma-terma "istimewa".
Serentak itu juga, Kerajaan Johor hari ini diminta mewartakan segera kedudukan kawasan berkenaan untuk diketahui rakyat. Kelambatan Kerajaan Johor mewartakan status tanah berkenaan menyebabkan timbul tanda tanya apakah sebenarnya yang berlaku di sebalik penyerahan kawasan yang terletak kira-kira 100 km dari JB.
Apa yang menghairankan, pelan warta kawasan berkenaan yang ditandatangani oleh Pengarah Juruukur Johor telahpun dikeluarkan pada tahun 1990. Kawasan yang dikenali dengan "hamparan air jernih" itu mempunyai tujuh buah gunung dan 66 buah bukit yang menjadi benteng mengalirkan air ke kawasan berkenaan.
Rakyat Johor cuma mengetahui pemberian tanah berkenaan apabila Tan Sri Muhyiddin Mohd Yassin ketika menjadi MB Johor memaklumkan bahawa kerajaan mendapat RM 370 juta daripada Kerajaan Singapura sebagai pampasan. Jumlah sebanyak itu tidak memadai jika dibandingkan dengan kawasan berkenaan yang dikira strategik bagi pembangunan dan pertahanan Johor.
Kawasan berkenaan mencakupi 1/3 pulau Singapura kini sudah dibina tiga empangan konkrit setinggi 190 meter dari paras laut dan ia telah menyalurkan air ke Singapura sejak 15 tahun yang lalu.
Pembinaan empangan air seluas 20,000 hektar di kawasan berkenaan yang ditambak dengan ketinggian melebihi 20 meter dari paras ketinggian air biasa boleh mengancam penduduk sekitar sekiranya berlaku sesuatu yang tidak diingini kepada empangan berkenaan.
Sumber: Akhbar "SIASAH", 19 Mei 2006
5,177 Hektar "Diserah" Kepada Singapura
5,177 Hektar "Diserah" Kepada Singapura
Kerajaan Johor diminta memberi penjelasan segera berhubung penyerahan tanah seluas 5,177 hektar kepada Singapura di awal tahun 80-an untuk dijadikan kawasan tadahan air bersih bagi disalurkan ke negara berkenaan.
Status pemberian kawasan dikenali sebagai tadahan air Sungai Linggiu di Bandar Tenggara, yang melibatkan tiga daerah iaitu Kluang, Mersing dan Kota Tinggi masih samar apakah ianya di atas kurniaan sebagai pajakan ataupun melalui perjanjian yang mengandungi terma-terma "istimewa".
Serentak itu juga, Kerajaan Johor hari ini diminta mewartakan segera kedudukan kawasan berkenaan untuk diketahui rakyat. Kelambatan Kerajaan Johor mewartakan status tanah berkenaan menyebabkan timbul tanda tanya apakah sebenarnya yang berlaku di sebalik penyerahan kawasan yang terletak kira-kira 100 km dari JB.
Apa yang menghairankan, pelan warta kawasan berkenaan yang ditandatangani oleh Pengarah Juruukur Johor telahpun dikeluarkan pada tahun 1990. Kawasan yang dikenali dengan "hamparan air jernih" itu mempunyai tujuh buah gunung dan 66 buah bukit yang menjadi benteng mengalirkan air ke kawasan berkenaan.
Rakyat Johor cuma mengetahui pemberian tanah berkenaan apabila Tan Sri Muhyiddin Mohd Yassin ketika menjadi MB Johor memaklumkan bahawa kerajaan mendapat RM 370 juta daripada Kerajaan Singapura sebagai pampasan. Jumlah sebanyak itu tidak memadai jika dibandingkan dengan kawasan berkenaan yang dikira strategik bagi pembangunan dan pertahanan Johor.
Kawasan berkenaan mencakupi 1/3 pulau Singapura kini sudah dibina tiga empangan konkrit setinggi 190 meter dari paras laut dan ia telah menyalurkan air ke Singapura sejak 15 tahun yang lalu.
Pembinaan empangan air seluas 20,000 hektar di kawasan berkenaan yang ditambak dengan ketinggian melebihi 20 meter dari paras ketinggian air biasa boleh mengancam penduduk sekitar sekiranya berlaku sesuatu yang tidak diingini kepada empangan berkenaan.
Sumber: Akhbar "SIASAH", 19 Mei 2006
Kerajaan Johor diminta memberi penjelasan segera berhubung penyerahan tanah seluas 5,177 hektar kepada Singapura di awal tahun 80-an untuk dijadikan kawasan tadahan air bersih bagi disalurkan ke negara berkenaan.
Status pemberian kawasan dikenali sebagai tadahan air Sungai Linggiu di Bandar Tenggara, yang melibatkan tiga daerah iaitu Kluang, Mersing dan Kota Tinggi masih samar apakah ianya di atas kurniaan sebagai pajakan ataupun melalui perjanjian yang mengandungi terma-terma "istimewa".
Serentak itu juga, Kerajaan Johor hari ini diminta mewartakan segera kedudukan kawasan berkenaan untuk diketahui rakyat. Kelambatan Kerajaan Johor mewartakan status tanah berkenaan menyebabkan timbul tanda tanya apakah sebenarnya yang berlaku di sebalik penyerahan kawasan yang terletak kira-kira 100 km dari JB.
Apa yang menghairankan, pelan warta kawasan berkenaan yang ditandatangani oleh Pengarah Juruukur Johor telahpun dikeluarkan pada tahun 1990. Kawasan yang dikenali dengan "hamparan air jernih" itu mempunyai tujuh buah gunung dan 66 buah bukit yang menjadi benteng mengalirkan air ke kawasan berkenaan.
Rakyat Johor cuma mengetahui pemberian tanah berkenaan apabila Tan Sri Muhyiddin Mohd Yassin ketika menjadi MB Johor memaklumkan bahawa kerajaan mendapat RM 370 juta daripada Kerajaan Singapura sebagai pampasan. Jumlah sebanyak itu tidak memadai jika dibandingkan dengan kawasan berkenaan yang dikira strategik bagi pembangunan dan pertahanan Johor.
Kawasan berkenaan mencakupi 1/3 pulau Singapura kini sudah dibina tiga empangan konkrit setinggi 190 meter dari paras laut dan ia telah menyalurkan air ke Singapura sejak 15 tahun yang lalu.
Pembinaan empangan air seluas 20,000 hektar di kawasan berkenaan yang ditambak dengan ketinggian melebihi 20 meter dari paras ketinggian air biasa boleh mengancam penduduk sekitar sekiranya berlaku sesuatu yang tidak diingini kepada empangan berkenaan.
Sumber: Akhbar "SIASAH", 19 Mei 2006
It's not always the fault of the Malays
Malaysia Today
23 January 2006
It's not always the fault of the Malays
Raja Petra Kamarudin
Motorcycles have always been in my blood. I got my first taste of a
motorcycle at a very tender age; in fact, before I was even
circumcised yet. My grandfather was then the Governor of Penang and I
was staying with him for the school holidays. One of the Residency
boys had a Honda Cub which I commandeered and rode around the
Residency grounds. Since then I have always been passionate about
motorcycles, with sex coming in a very close second. That was in the
early 1960s of course, so invariably since then my priorities have
reversed somewhat.
It was not until I was 16 was I allowed to own my first bike, the age
when I could legally ride a motorcycle. It was a Yamaha 90cc which I
upgraded to a Yamaha 100 Twin after my sixth crash. I crashed 13
times in two years; once during the Malaysian Grand Prix of 1968 (so
who says 13 is an unlucky number?). Other bikes I have owned are
Suzuki 250, Honda 350, Honda 450, Yamaha 650, Kawasaki 900, Kawasaki
1000, Yamaha 650 Turbo and Yamaha 535, in that order.
My dream bikes of the late 1960s-early 1970s were the Honda Four
(750cc) that hit the world like a Tsunami and the Kawasaki Mach 3
(500cc triple) that could burn off your tyres in no time at all. The
British Trident and Bonneville were also my favourites, but certainly
beyond my reach since they were not available in Malaysia.
In 1972, I decided to try my hand at dealing in motorcycles. Honda,
Yamaha and Suzuki were already represented in Malaysia but Kawasaki
was still absent from the market. I approached Choong Motors of
Petaling Jaya and suggested that Mr Choong consider importing
Kawasaki motorcycles into Malaysia. I offered to joint-venture with
him. He would finance the operation and I would help him run it; a
perfect partnership for someone without any start-up capital. Choong
did not think it was viable though and he shot the idea down. Later,
when Med-Bumikar-MARA took up the Kawasaki franchise and it proved a
roaring success, Choong told me he felt like kicking himself (Choong
Motors later became Med-Bumikar-MARA's dealer for Kawasaki).
“I did not take you seriously,” said Choong. “After all, you are a
hippie so I did not think you were cut out to be a businessman”. My
shoulder-length hair and black leather jacket probably did not give
Choong the right impression about me.
In 1976, I acquired the Terengganu agency for Kawasaki motorcycles
from Med-Bumikar-MARA. The best seller was the scrambler or off-road
(dirt) models and to promote it I organised dirt bike races on a
seven-acre plot of land I bought in Cendering on the outskirts of
Kuala Terengganu. Kawasaki soon gave Yamaha and Suzuki a run for
their money in Terengganu.
I suffered my first skirmish with the government soon after that. The
Kawasaki scramblers were CBU (completely built up) so they need to be
inspected by the RIMV (Registrar and Inspector of Motor Vehicles;
know called JPJ). CKD (completely knocked down) bikes do not need to
go through this hassle.
The RIMV inspectors however wanted ‘under the table’ money (bribes)
of RM50 per bike before they would approve the bikes. I refused to
pay so they rejected my bikes as ‘un-road worthy’. I was stuck. I
could not register the bikes I had sold.
I sent the registration documents to Kuantan and got the bikes
registered there instead. This involved obtaining a change of address
card for my buyers as most of them had Terengganu addresses on their
identity cards. RIMV soon found out about my scam and one day they
set up a road block and issued summonses to all those scrambler
owners with Pahang registration plates.
One of my customers, a teacher, came to see me to complain that he
had been issued a summons. I asked him to hand me the summons and
leave the whole thing to me to sort out. I was going to challenge
RIMV in court. I appointed Lawyer Lee as the solicitor to handle our
case and, on the day of the case, the teacher, Lawyer Lee, and I went
to court. The magistrate, Darshan Singh, went berserk when we said we
were going to fight the case. “You foolish fellow!” he shouted. “We
will hold the hearing now!”
But the RIMV officer who had issued the summons was not in court so
the case had to be postponed to another date. He had assumed we would
plead guilty and would pay the fine so he did not bother turning up.
I must say Lawyer Lee did a fine job indeed. By the time he finished
arguing our case, Darshan Singh did a complete U-turn and started
blasting the RIMV officer instead. Darshan Singh looked like he was
the defence lawyer rather than the judge. We won the case and it hit
the newspapers. RIMV was outraged. I was blacklisted for many years
thereafter until the Terengganu RIMV officers transferred out to
another state. But they never dared touch my bikes again and we
continued selling CBU bikes with Pahang registration plates.
Sadly, Med-Bumikar-MARA lost the Kawasaki agency soon after that when
they went into a cashflow crunch. I then approached Wing Ming (later
called Motorcycle Industries) and acquired the agency for Yamaha.
Wing Ming too went bust later, so I had to approach Guan Hoe to
become their Suzuki dealer. Not long after that Guan Hoe too went
bust. Sheesh! Am I a jinx or what? All these people had been in
business for years but no sooner I become their dealer they go bust.
Yamaha eventually transferred into the hands of Hong Leong. I
immediately approached Hong Leong and again took up the agency for
Yamaha, and prayed hard they too would not go bust. They did not off
course.
I bought two double-story shop lots in Kuala Terengganu and set one
up one as a showroom and the other as a service centre complete with
pneumatic tools, hoist and so on, at par with a Proton service centre
today. (That was how ‘up-to-date’ our service centre was 30 years
ago, the era when Proton was not even born yet).
I then set up a dirt bike racing team and brought in the latest
motocross racing bikes for the team that I named ‘The Terengganu Dirt
Rats’. I sent the racing team to the Shah Alam racing circuit for
training under the tutorship of one of Japan’s top dirt bike racers.
Our first motocross race in Cendering, Terengganu, attracted an
astonishing crowd of 10,000 spectators. The entire road, which was
the main Kelantan-Pahang link, was jammed up for three hours and no
one could move an inch either way. Unfortunately, one spectator was
killed by a bike that ploughed into the crowd and the ambulance could
not get through in time because of the massive jam, the first time
Terengganu had ever seen a traffic jam. Wan Mutallib Embong, the PAS
kingpin and lawyer who was acting for the family, wanted to sue my
pants off but they did not have a case against me. (I had invited the
police to help with traffic control but they did not bother turning up).
With all this effort at promoting dirt bikes, I soon became known as
the ‘Scrambler King’. My bike sales touched 200 to 300 units a month.
In time I became the third largest Yamaha dealer in Malaysia. The top
dealer was Fortune Motors of Ipoh and the second was Hock Eng Teck of
Kota Bharu. Yes, that’s right, number one was in Ipoh, number two in
Kota Bharu, and number three was in Kuala Terengganu; none in Kuala
Lumpur.
Hong Leong gave each dealer RM500,000 in hire purchase financing. I,
however, was given RM2 million, something none of the other dealers
were enjoying. Nevertheless, I was buying the bikes on Letters of
Credit (LC) while the other dealers paid by cheque, 60 days after the
bikes were delivered.
Not only was I the number three dealer in Malaysia, but I was the
only Malay dealer in the top 200 list. To find another Malay dealer
you would have to look at the top 300 dealers’ list where the next
Malay dealer was number 299. In the top 500 dealers’ list there were
only about six or seven Malays, mostly selling a couple of units a
month and who could hardly qualify as proper bike dealers.
Then Hong Leong started appointing other Yamaha dealers in
Terengganu, all Chinese of course. They set up shop for awhile but
gave up after they found they could not compete with me. I set up the
Terengganu Motorcycle Dealers Association to try and unite all the
bike dealers, with me, the only Malay, as association Chairman. Our
objective was to try to end price undercutting, especially between
the two Honda super-dealers, Hock Kee Seng and Tai Seng, who are
actually cousins but bitterly at war with each other. Of course, I
also had a hidden agenda. I wanted to use the association to counter
Hong Leong’s move of appointing more Yamaha dealers; sort of like a
cartel or bike dealers Mafia.
I asked Hong Leong why they were ‘disturbing the market’. I was
already their top Malay dealer in Malaysia and in their top ten list.
Why appoint new dealers in Kuala Terengganu? In fact, those dealers
they were appointing were actually my sub-dealers who they were
pinching. Their reply was because the sub-dealers had complained I
refuse to supply them the bikes they needed.
It is not that I was starving them of supplies. The sub-dealers owed
me a total of RM1.5 million and they were not paying me what they
owed (mostly in hire purchase facilities). I in turn had to buy the
bikes from Hong Leong on Letters of Credit. I was practically
financing the sub-dealers from my own pocket. Once Hong Leong
supplies them directly they will not pay me what they owe since they
no longer require me for supplies. I could no longer use the supply
of bikes as leverage to collect my debts and I would stand to lose
more than RM1 million if I was forced to write-off the outstanding
amount. I could sue them of course, but many had since changed the
names of their companies and they had no assets I could claim
against. (I eventually did have to write-off RM1.5 million, thanks to
Hong Leong).
To control or restrict my sales (for reasons still unknown), Hong
Leong starved me of supplies. They also forced me to buy models
(Passola) that could not sell before they would supply me models that
were saleable. I eventually had to just give away those un-saleable
stocks free to whoever wanted them. That was the price I had to pay
to get my hands on stocks of Yamaha.
One day, Hong Leong supplied me half a lorry-load of bikes. The lorry
driver told me that the other half lorry-load was for another Chinese
dealer. Half lorry? I needed five lorry-loads. I had orders backed up
for two months which I could not service. Then the lorry driver told
me that the Chinese dealer was also getting another full lorry-load
that was being unloaded even as he spoke.
I went berserk. I was getting half a lorry-load of bikes and the
Chinese dealer was getting one and a half lorry-loads. I had 200
outstanding orders and the Chinese dealer was just stocking the
bikes, and on credit on top of that. No wonder my customers were
cancelling their orders and asking for their deposits to be refunded.
They were walking over to the Chinese dealer who had surplus stocks
and were buying from him.
I screamed at my boys to rampas (seize) the entire lorry-load and
unload everything into our shop. The lorry driver panicked and begged
me not to do so. I shouted at him to sit down and shut up if he
wanted to leave Kuala Terengganu in one piece. He asked to use my
phone to call his head office which I agreed. He explained what was
happening to his bosses in KL and passed the phone over to me.
Hong Leong pleaded with me to release the lorry. I was adamant. I
told them I was taking the entire lorry-load of bikes whether they
agreed or not. Since the Chinese dealer was already getting one lorry-
load of bikes I wanted this full lorry-load. I would have been
prepared to share this lorry-load with the Chinese dealer if this one
lorry-load was all there was. But it is not fair to give him one and
a half lorry-loads and me only half a lorry-load when I had 200
outstanding orders; and he needed these bikes just for stocking
purposes, which he would use to steal my customers.
My wife, who was also my business partner, was equally outraged.
“Hong Leong is Chinese and they cannot stand to see a Malay succeed,”
said my wife.
I was surprised she said that. “You are Chinese,” I said. “How can
you say something as racial as that about your own race?”
“Because I am Chinese so I know,” she replied.
Hong Leong’s Kuantan manager visited me soon after that and we ended
up in a heated argument. “We cannot allow you to be the sole Yamaha
dealer in Terengganu,” he told me. “That would be too dangerous. You
can hold Hong Leong to ransom. What if one day you decide to give up
the agency? Yamaha in Terengganu will die. So we need to build up
other dealers so that you do not become too powerful.”
On hearing this, my wife blew her top. “Yamaha can fuck off! My
husband built up the Yamaha market in Terengganu. Before this Honda
was the top seller in Terengganu. Now Yamaha is the top brand. Before
this no one wanted to even sell Yamaha because it could not sell.”
My wife told the Hong Leong manager that we no longer wished to sell
Yamaha. We were going to give up the agency. It was indeed a sad day
for me. I loved bikes and I loved the motorcycle business. But my
wife is one determined person. Once she says something she means it.
As I said, we lost RM1.5 million once we wound down our motorcycle
business. And that hurt. I decided to focus on my Mercedes Benz
agency instead which I had acquired in the early 1980s and which had
grown in leaps and bounds.
Yes, we read a lot about how Malays can’t do business and how they do
not know how to succeed in the business world. Sometimes it could be
that the Malays are not being allowed to succeed. No doubt, one
swallow does not make a summer and my case may not be reflective of
norm, but that was my personal experience in a business that is
Chinese dominated.
One day, some time in the early-1990s, I met Trade and Industry
Minister Rafidah Aziz and asked her, “How many Malays are there in
the motorcycle business?” She did not know so I asked her to check.
She asked for the list of motorcycle dealers and was surprised when
she could not find ten names in the list of one thousand.
Oh, after I got out of the motorcycle business, Honda recaptured the
Terengganu market, and until today Yamaha has not been able to regain
the top notch in Terengganu. I suppose it needs a Malay dealer to
help Yamaha become the top seller in Terengganu again. Hey, don’t
look at me, I am retired!
23 January 2006
It's not always the fault of the Malays
Raja Petra Kamarudin
Motorcycles have always been in my blood. I got my first taste of a
motorcycle at a very tender age; in fact, before I was even
circumcised yet. My grandfather was then the Governor of Penang and I
was staying with him for the school holidays. One of the Residency
boys had a Honda Cub which I commandeered and rode around the
Residency grounds. Since then I have always been passionate about
motorcycles, with sex coming in a very close second. That was in the
early 1960s of course, so invariably since then my priorities have
reversed somewhat.
It was not until I was 16 was I allowed to own my first bike, the age
when I could legally ride a motorcycle. It was a Yamaha 90cc which I
upgraded to a Yamaha 100 Twin after my sixth crash. I crashed 13
times in two years; once during the Malaysian Grand Prix of 1968 (so
who says 13 is an unlucky number?). Other bikes I have owned are
Suzuki 250, Honda 350, Honda 450, Yamaha 650, Kawasaki 900, Kawasaki
1000, Yamaha 650 Turbo and Yamaha 535, in that order.
My dream bikes of the late 1960s-early 1970s were the Honda Four
(750cc) that hit the world like a Tsunami and the Kawasaki Mach 3
(500cc triple) that could burn off your tyres in no time at all. The
British Trident and Bonneville were also my favourites, but certainly
beyond my reach since they were not available in Malaysia.
In 1972, I decided to try my hand at dealing in motorcycles. Honda,
Yamaha and Suzuki were already represented in Malaysia but Kawasaki
was still absent from the market. I approached Choong Motors of
Petaling Jaya and suggested that Mr Choong consider importing
Kawasaki motorcycles into Malaysia. I offered to joint-venture with
him. He would finance the operation and I would help him run it; a
perfect partnership for someone without any start-up capital. Choong
did not think it was viable though and he shot the idea down. Later,
when Med-Bumikar-MARA took up the Kawasaki franchise and it proved a
roaring success, Choong told me he felt like kicking himself (Choong
Motors later became Med-Bumikar-MARA's dealer for Kawasaki).
“I did not take you seriously,” said Choong. “After all, you are a
hippie so I did not think you were cut out to be a businessman”. My
shoulder-length hair and black leather jacket probably did not give
Choong the right impression about me.
In 1976, I acquired the Terengganu agency for Kawasaki motorcycles
from Med-Bumikar-MARA. The best seller was the scrambler or off-road
(dirt) models and to promote it I organised dirt bike races on a
seven-acre plot of land I bought in Cendering on the outskirts of
Kuala Terengganu. Kawasaki soon gave Yamaha and Suzuki a run for
their money in Terengganu.
I suffered my first skirmish with the government soon after that. The
Kawasaki scramblers were CBU (completely built up) so they need to be
inspected by the RIMV (Registrar and Inspector of Motor Vehicles;
know called JPJ). CKD (completely knocked down) bikes do not need to
go through this hassle.
The RIMV inspectors however wanted ‘under the table’ money (bribes)
of RM50 per bike before they would approve the bikes. I refused to
pay so they rejected my bikes as ‘un-road worthy’. I was stuck. I
could not register the bikes I had sold.
I sent the registration documents to Kuantan and got the bikes
registered there instead. This involved obtaining a change of address
card for my buyers as most of them had Terengganu addresses on their
identity cards. RIMV soon found out about my scam and one day they
set up a road block and issued summonses to all those scrambler
owners with Pahang registration plates.
One of my customers, a teacher, came to see me to complain that he
had been issued a summons. I asked him to hand me the summons and
leave the whole thing to me to sort out. I was going to challenge
RIMV in court. I appointed Lawyer Lee as the solicitor to handle our
case and, on the day of the case, the teacher, Lawyer Lee, and I went
to court. The magistrate, Darshan Singh, went berserk when we said we
were going to fight the case. “You foolish fellow!” he shouted. “We
will hold the hearing now!”
But the RIMV officer who had issued the summons was not in court so
the case had to be postponed to another date. He had assumed we would
plead guilty and would pay the fine so he did not bother turning up.
I must say Lawyer Lee did a fine job indeed. By the time he finished
arguing our case, Darshan Singh did a complete U-turn and started
blasting the RIMV officer instead. Darshan Singh looked like he was
the defence lawyer rather than the judge. We won the case and it hit
the newspapers. RIMV was outraged. I was blacklisted for many years
thereafter until the Terengganu RIMV officers transferred out to
another state. But they never dared touch my bikes again and we
continued selling CBU bikes with Pahang registration plates.
Sadly, Med-Bumikar-MARA lost the Kawasaki agency soon after that when
they went into a cashflow crunch. I then approached Wing Ming (later
called Motorcycle Industries) and acquired the agency for Yamaha.
Wing Ming too went bust later, so I had to approach Guan Hoe to
become their Suzuki dealer. Not long after that Guan Hoe too went
bust. Sheesh! Am I a jinx or what? All these people had been in
business for years but no sooner I become their dealer they go bust.
Yamaha eventually transferred into the hands of Hong Leong. I
immediately approached Hong Leong and again took up the agency for
Yamaha, and prayed hard they too would not go bust. They did not off
course.
I bought two double-story shop lots in Kuala Terengganu and set one
up one as a showroom and the other as a service centre complete with
pneumatic tools, hoist and so on, at par with a Proton service centre
today. (That was how ‘up-to-date’ our service centre was 30 years
ago, the era when Proton was not even born yet).
I then set up a dirt bike racing team and brought in the latest
motocross racing bikes for the team that I named ‘The Terengganu Dirt
Rats’. I sent the racing team to the Shah Alam racing circuit for
training under the tutorship of one of Japan’s top dirt bike racers.
Our first motocross race in Cendering, Terengganu, attracted an
astonishing crowd of 10,000 spectators. The entire road, which was
the main Kelantan-Pahang link, was jammed up for three hours and no
one could move an inch either way. Unfortunately, one spectator was
killed by a bike that ploughed into the crowd and the ambulance could
not get through in time because of the massive jam, the first time
Terengganu had ever seen a traffic jam. Wan Mutallib Embong, the PAS
kingpin and lawyer who was acting for the family, wanted to sue my
pants off but they did not have a case against me. (I had invited the
police to help with traffic control but they did not bother turning up).
With all this effort at promoting dirt bikes, I soon became known as
the ‘Scrambler King’. My bike sales touched 200 to 300 units a month.
In time I became the third largest Yamaha dealer in Malaysia. The top
dealer was Fortune Motors of Ipoh and the second was Hock Eng Teck of
Kota Bharu. Yes, that’s right, number one was in Ipoh, number two in
Kota Bharu, and number three was in Kuala Terengganu; none in Kuala
Lumpur.
Hong Leong gave each dealer RM500,000 in hire purchase financing. I,
however, was given RM2 million, something none of the other dealers
were enjoying. Nevertheless, I was buying the bikes on Letters of
Credit (LC) while the other dealers paid by cheque, 60 days after the
bikes were delivered.
Not only was I the number three dealer in Malaysia, but I was the
only Malay dealer in the top 200 list. To find another Malay dealer
you would have to look at the top 300 dealers’ list where the next
Malay dealer was number 299. In the top 500 dealers’ list there were
only about six or seven Malays, mostly selling a couple of units a
month and who could hardly qualify as proper bike dealers.
Then Hong Leong started appointing other Yamaha dealers in
Terengganu, all Chinese of course. They set up shop for awhile but
gave up after they found they could not compete with me. I set up the
Terengganu Motorcycle Dealers Association to try and unite all the
bike dealers, with me, the only Malay, as association Chairman. Our
objective was to try to end price undercutting, especially between
the two Honda super-dealers, Hock Kee Seng and Tai Seng, who are
actually cousins but bitterly at war with each other. Of course, I
also had a hidden agenda. I wanted to use the association to counter
Hong Leong’s move of appointing more Yamaha dealers; sort of like a
cartel or bike dealers Mafia.
I asked Hong Leong why they were ‘disturbing the market’. I was
already their top Malay dealer in Malaysia and in their top ten list.
Why appoint new dealers in Kuala Terengganu? In fact, those dealers
they were appointing were actually my sub-dealers who they were
pinching. Their reply was because the sub-dealers had complained I
refuse to supply them the bikes they needed.
It is not that I was starving them of supplies. The sub-dealers owed
me a total of RM1.5 million and they were not paying me what they
owed (mostly in hire purchase facilities). I in turn had to buy the
bikes from Hong Leong on Letters of Credit. I was practically
financing the sub-dealers from my own pocket. Once Hong Leong
supplies them directly they will not pay me what they owe since they
no longer require me for supplies. I could no longer use the supply
of bikes as leverage to collect my debts and I would stand to lose
more than RM1 million if I was forced to write-off the outstanding
amount. I could sue them of course, but many had since changed the
names of their companies and they had no assets I could claim
against. (I eventually did have to write-off RM1.5 million, thanks to
Hong Leong).
To control or restrict my sales (for reasons still unknown), Hong
Leong starved me of supplies. They also forced me to buy models
(Passola) that could not sell before they would supply me models that
were saleable. I eventually had to just give away those un-saleable
stocks free to whoever wanted them. That was the price I had to pay
to get my hands on stocks of Yamaha.
One day, Hong Leong supplied me half a lorry-load of bikes. The lorry
driver told me that the other half lorry-load was for another Chinese
dealer. Half lorry? I needed five lorry-loads. I had orders backed up
for two months which I could not service. Then the lorry driver told
me that the Chinese dealer was also getting another full lorry-load
that was being unloaded even as he spoke.
I went berserk. I was getting half a lorry-load of bikes and the
Chinese dealer was getting one and a half lorry-loads. I had 200
outstanding orders and the Chinese dealer was just stocking the
bikes, and on credit on top of that. No wonder my customers were
cancelling their orders and asking for their deposits to be refunded.
They were walking over to the Chinese dealer who had surplus stocks
and were buying from him.
I screamed at my boys to rampas (seize) the entire lorry-load and
unload everything into our shop. The lorry driver panicked and begged
me not to do so. I shouted at him to sit down and shut up if he
wanted to leave Kuala Terengganu in one piece. He asked to use my
phone to call his head office which I agreed. He explained what was
happening to his bosses in KL and passed the phone over to me.
Hong Leong pleaded with me to release the lorry. I was adamant. I
told them I was taking the entire lorry-load of bikes whether they
agreed or not. Since the Chinese dealer was already getting one lorry-
load of bikes I wanted this full lorry-load. I would have been
prepared to share this lorry-load with the Chinese dealer if this one
lorry-load was all there was. But it is not fair to give him one and
a half lorry-loads and me only half a lorry-load when I had 200
outstanding orders; and he needed these bikes just for stocking
purposes, which he would use to steal my customers.
My wife, who was also my business partner, was equally outraged.
“Hong Leong is Chinese and they cannot stand to see a Malay succeed,”
said my wife.
I was surprised she said that. “You are Chinese,” I said. “How can
you say something as racial as that about your own race?”
“Because I am Chinese so I know,” she replied.
Hong Leong’s Kuantan manager visited me soon after that and we ended
up in a heated argument. “We cannot allow you to be the sole Yamaha
dealer in Terengganu,” he told me. “That would be too dangerous. You
can hold Hong Leong to ransom. What if one day you decide to give up
the agency? Yamaha in Terengganu will die. So we need to build up
other dealers so that you do not become too powerful.”
On hearing this, my wife blew her top. “Yamaha can fuck off! My
husband built up the Yamaha market in Terengganu. Before this Honda
was the top seller in Terengganu. Now Yamaha is the top brand. Before
this no one wanted to even sell Yamaha because it could not sell.”
My wife told the Hong Leong manager that we no longer wished to sell
Yamaha. We were going to give up the agency. It was indeed a sad day
for me. I loved bikes and I loved the motorcycle business. But my
wife is one determined person. Once she says something she means it.
As I said, we lost RM1.5 million once we wound down our motorcycle
business. And that hurt. I decided to focus on my Mercedes Benz
agency instead which I had acquired in the early 1980s and which had
grown in leaps and bounds.
Yes, we read a lot about how Malays can’t do business and how they do
not know how to succeed in the business world. Sometimes it could be
that the Malays are not being allowed to succeed. No doubt, one
swallow does not make a summer and my case may not be reflective of
norm, but that was my personal experience in a business that is
Chinese dominated.
One day, some time in the early-1990s, I met Trade and Industry
Minister Rafidah Aziz and asked her, “How many Malays are there in
the motorcycle business?” She did not know so I asked her to check.
She asked for the list of motorcycle dealers and was surprised when
she could not find ten names in the list of one thousand.
Oh, after I got out of the motorcycle business, Honda recaptured the
Terengganu market, and until today Yamaha has not been able to regain
the top notch in Terengganu. I suppose it needs a Malay dealer to
help Yamaha become the top seller in Terengganu again. Hey, don’t
look at me, I am retired!
Heads I win, tails you lose
Malaysia Today
23 January 2006
Heads I win, tails you lose
Raja Petra Kamarudin
Congratulations! After so many years of trying, and failing, Umno has
finally succeeded in uniting the Malays. The Malays now speak as one,
regardless of political inclination. As usual, it needs an enemy, a
serious threat, for people to come together. People will stand
shoulder-to-shoulder in defence of something they really treasure if
that something faces danger, real or perceived.
One-time Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad tried many
times to unite the Malays, but failed miserably. And when I say
‘unite’ here, as far as Mahathir is concerned, he means under the
banner of Umno of course.
Mahathir tried everything. He declared that the Chinese are
Communists and asked them to go back to China if they prefer speaking
Mandarin to Malay. He cried during the Umno General Assembly and
accused the Malays of forgetting (Melayu mudah lupa). He got the MCA
Youth Leader, Lee Kim Sai, to raise ‘sensitive’ issues so that the
Umno Youth Leader, Najib Tun Razak, could retaliate by brandishing a
keris and threaten to bathe it in Chinese blood.
But nothing Mahathir tried worked. The Malays still remained divided;
between Umno and PAS, then Semangat 46 joined the fray, and when
Semangat 46 exited, in came keADILan.
Pak Lah realises it is not easy to unite the Malays. Mahathir’s
failure to do so has proven this. In the past it was easier. In the
past it was just about race. Today it is even harder. Today, there
are many other issues such as fundamental rights, democracy, freedom
of expression, transparency, independence of the media and judiciary,
corruption, police high-handedness, and many other ‘western’ issues
and values that educated and ‘modern’ Malays now hold dear.
But there is one thing that can unite the Malays, which Mahathir
failed to exploit. And this one thing overrides race, language, civil
rights, freedom, and every issue you can think of, even economic
issues. And this one thing is religion, meaning of course Islam.
Pak Lah started by introducing his brand of moderate or ‘civilised’
Islam called Islam Hadhari. Of course, some Umno leaders are still
confused about the concept and think that hadhari means had hari
(restricted at daytime) and tiada had malam (no restrictions at
night). That is why they are caught in vice raids in the middle of
the night and never in the daytime.
Islam Hadhari was not working out as well as they had hoped. It
became the target of ridicule and was not being taken seriously, even
by Umno members. Clearly Islam Hadhari was proving a failure and was
not uniting the Malays as anticipated. They needed to do more. And
the ‘more’ would be to create an impression that Islam is under
attack from the non-Muslims.
This tactic worked in 1969 when the ruling party almost received a
trouncing in the May 11 general election. Malays had united with non-
Malays to give the Alliance Party a run for its money. So they needed
an issue that would make the Malays come back together again. So the
13 May 1969 race riot was engineered to create an illusion that the
Malays were under attack. And it did bring the Malays together again.
In fact, it even resulted in PAS, Umno’s mortal enemy, joining the
new ruling coalition called Barisan Nasional that practically rose
from the ashes of the Alliance Party like the legendary Phoenix.
Today it is no longer about race of course, like in 1969. That is not
strong enough and cannot work anymore. Today it is about religion. It
is about Islam. And Islam, the religion of the Malays, is under
attack, just like the economy of the Malays was in 1969.
Is it seditious of me to say this? No, not seditious, but the truth.
And the Muslims and non-Muslims in Malaysia had better wake up to
this reality. May 13 was engineered. The racial tension between MCA
Youth and Umno Youth prior to Operasi Lalang was engineered. Do you
think all these happened by accident or were spontaneous? No way! It
was staged and well-planned.
May 13 was staged. Have no doubts about this. I am not saying this.
Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia’s First Prime Minister and Bapa Merdeka
(Father of Independence), said so. And would Tunku Abdul Rahman lie?
The prelude to Operasi Lalang was also staged. Lee Kim Sai set the
mood to enable Najib Razak to retaliate. After that Lee Kim Sai was
advised to leave the country and go hide in Australia for awhile
while the government cleaned up the country with the arrest and
detention of more than 100 political activists, dissidents within
Umno, and opposition leaders. Lee Kim Sai and Najib Razak, the
initiators of the crisis, were not amongst those more than 100 who
were detained.
Twenty years on and we are seeing a repeat of the days before Operasi
Lalang, except it is now more serious than the era of Operasi Lalang.
It started with the Moorthy case. Even Muslims feel that Moorthy’s
widow was shoddily treated by a high-handed religious department.
Moorthy’s widow tried seeking redress in a civil court and was asked
to go to the syariah court instead. The syariah court, in turn, told
her that as a non-Muslim she has no business in a syariah court. This
is not true. In the past, non-Muslims have appeared in syariah courts
to testify as expert witnesses. So, where does she go to then?
Nowhere! She has absolutely no recourse to legal redress.
In retaliation, the non-Muslims organised a month-long candlelight
vigil in front of the court as a mark of protest. This protest was
jointly supported by those from the opposition as well as the
government.
To demonstrate that the non-Muslims are united and that this unity
cuts across all political boundaries, nine non-Muslim Ministers in
Pak Lah’s government sent him a Memorandum last Thursday calling for
a review of laws that affect the rights of non-Muslims. The ministers
were Datuk Dr Leo Michael Toyad (Tourism Minister), Datuk Seri Ong Ka
Ting (Housing and Local Government), Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy
(Transport), Datuk Seri Dr Fong Chan Onn (Human Resources), Datuk Dr
Chua Soi Lek (Health), Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu (Works), Datuk Seri
Dr Lim Keng Yaik (Energy, Water and Communications), Datuk Peter Chin
(Plantation Industries and Commodities), Tan Sri Bernard Dompok and
Datuk Dr Maximus Ongkili (Ministers in the Prime Minister's
Department). The opposition Ministers too would have joined this
group of nine government Ministers if only there were opposition
Ministers.
Then, in retaliation, PAS organised a protest demonstration after
last Friday’s congregational prayers at the National Mosque (Masjid
Negara). Many in Umno, though they do not openly say so, support this
PAS effort. This is not about politics. It is about Islam. Did not
the DAP and those non-Muslims from opposition keADILan support and
participate in the candlelight vigil protesting Islam? And are not
the nine non-Muslim Ministers from the government?
The non-Muslims are united across political boundaries. So are the
Muslims. It is no longer government vs. opposition. It is Muslim vs.
non-Muslim. Yes, unity at last. The government and opposition non-
Muslims are united against Islam. So the government and opposition
Muslims must unite as well in defence of Islam.
Fantastic! The plan worked beautifully. If only Mahathir had tried
this, instead of crying at the Umno General Assembly, he would have
succeeded in uniting the Malays.
Today, many in Umno are saying that their differences with PAS need
to be brushed aside. PAS and Umno, plus those Muslims in keADILan,
need to come together. There is a bigger issue in hand than mere
politics. Islam is under attack. Just go into the Internet and see
for yourself. Islam is being ridiculed and challenged, even here in
Malaysia Today. The non-Muslims have demonstrated they can put
politics aside and unite when it comes to opposing Islam. The Muslims
from the government and opposition must also do the same in facing
this challenge from the non-Muslims.
Pak Lah has two options available to him. He can let the present
conflict escalate into something bigger, even at the risk of it
turning into something more serious -- whereby the Malays would
become united in the face of a common enemy -- or he can nip this
whole thing in the bud with another Operasi Lalang -- whereby things
would all go back to normal and the Malays would revert to disunity.
I wonder which option Pak Lah will choose. In the meantime,
Malaysians from both sides of the religious divide are playing right
into Umno’s hands. Even the Federal Territory Religious Department
(JAWI) tried defying Pak Lah’s government by ignoring the cabinet
decision that the Putrajaya Snoop Squad be disbanded. And the more
Muslims and non-Muslims fight with each other, the more Umno wins.
Finally, Malaysia will be divided along the lines of Muslims and non-
Muslims. But at least the Malays would once again be united.
Clever! Very clever indeed! You can certainly fool all the people
some of the time. If you ask me, Pak Lah is actually smarter than he
looks. Even Mahathir could not have come up with this brilliant idea
on how to unite the Malays. Would we see PAS eventually rejoining
Barisan Nasional in the interest of defending Islam against attack by
the non-Muslims? Would Malaysian politics revert to what it used to
be: opposition means non-Malay and government means Malay. Well, you
never know. If the non-Muslims keep this up, they could actually help
restore Malay unity. The ball is at the feet of the non-Muslims I
suppose. However, on the other hand, if the non-Muslims now decide to
back off, it would be a case of ‘heads I win, tails you lose’.
23 January 2006
Heads I win, tails you lose
Raja Petra Kamarudin
Congratulations! After so many years of trying, and failing, Umno has
finally succeeded in uniting the Malays. The Malays now speak as one,
regardless of political inclination. As usual, it needs an enemy, a
serious threat, for people to come together. People will stand
shoulder-to-shoulder in defence of something they really treasure if
that something faces danger, real or perceived.
One-time Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad tried many
times to unite the Malays, but failed miserably. And when I say
‘unite’ here, as far as Mahathir is concerned, he means under the
banner of Umno of course.
Mahathir tried everything. He declared that the Chinese are
Communists and asked them to go back to China if they prefer speaking
Mandarin to Malay. He cried during the Umno General Assembly and
accused the Malays of forgetting (Melayu mudah lupa). He got the MCA
Youth Leader, Lee Kim Sai, to raise ‘sensitive’ issues so that the
Umno Youth Leader, Najib Tun Razak, could retaliate by brandishing a
keris and threaten to bathe it in Chinese blood.
But nothing Mahathir tried worked. The Malays still remained divided;
between Umno and PAS, then Semangat 46 joined the fray, and when
Semangat 46 exited, in came keADILan.
Pak Lah realises it is not easy to unite the Malays. Mahathir’s
failure to do so has proven this. In the past it was easier. In the
past it was just about race. Today it is even harder. Today, there
are many other issues such as fundamental rights, democracy, freedom
of expression, transparency, independence of the media and judiciary,
corruption, police high-handedness, and many other ‘western’ issues
and values that educated and ‘modern’ Malays now hold dear.
But there is one thing that can unite the Malays, which Mahathir
failed to exploit. And this one thing overrides race, language, civil
rights, freedom, and every issue you can think of, even economic
issues. And this one thing is religion, meaning of course Islam.
Pak Lah started by introducing his brand of moderate or ‘civilised’
Islam called Islam Hadhari. Of course, some Umno leaders are still
confused about the concept and think that hadhari means had hari
(restricted at daytime) and tiada had malam (no restrictions at
night). That is why they are caught in vice raids in the middle of
the night and never in the daytime.
Islam Hadhari was not working out as well as they had hoped. It
became the target of ridicule and was not being taken seriously, even
by Umno members. Clearly Islam Hadhari was proving a failure and was
not uniting the Malays as anticipated. They needed to do more. And
the ‘more’ would be to create an impression that Islam is under
attack from the non-Muslims.
This tactic worked in 1969 when the ruling party almost received a
trouncing in the May 11 general election. Malays had united with non-
Malays to give the Alliance Party a run for its money. So they needed
an issue that would make the Malays come back together again. So the
13 May 1969 race riot was engineered to create an illusion that the
Malays were under attack. And it did bring the Malays together again.
In fact, it even resulted in PAS, Umno’s mortal enemy, joining the
new ruling coalition called Barisan Nasional that practically rose
from the ashes of the Alliance Party like the legendary Phoenix.
Today it is no longer about race of course, like in 1969. That is not
strong enough and cannot work anymore. Today it is about religion. It
is about Islam. And Islam, the religion of the Malays, is under
attack, just like the economy of the Malays was in 1969.
Is it seditious of me to say this? No, not seditious, but the truth.
And the Muslims and non-Muslims in Malaysia had better wake up to
this reality. May 13 was engineered. The racial tension between MCA
Youth and Umno Youth prior to Operasi Lalang was engineered. Do you
think all these happened by accident or were spontaneous? No way! It
was staged and well-planned.
May 13 was staged. Have no doubts about this. I am not saying this.
Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia’s First Prime Minister and Bapa Merdeka
(Father of Independence), said so. And would Tunku Abdul Rahman lie?
The prelude to Operasi Lalang was also staged. Lee Kim Sai set the
mood to enable Najib Razak to retaliate. After that Lee Kim Sai was
advised to leave the country and go hide in Australia for awhile
while the government cleaned up the country with the arrest and
detention of more than 100 political activists, dissidents within
Umno, and opposition leaders. Lee Kim Sai and Najib Razak, the
initiators of the crisis, were not amongst those more than 100 who
were detained.
Twenty years on and we are seeing a repeat of the days before Operasi
Lalang, except it is now more serious than the era of Operasi Lalang.
It started with the Moorthy case. Even Muslims feel that Moorthy’s
widow was shoddily treated by a high-handed religious department.
Moorthy’s widow tried seeking redress in a civil court and was asked
to go to the syariah court instead. The syariah court, in turn, told
her that as a non-Muslim she has no business in a syariah court. This
is not true. In the past, non-Muslims have appeared in syariah courts
to testify as expert witnesses. So, where does she go to then?
Nowhere! She has absolutely no recourse to legal redress.
In retaliation, the non-Muslims organised a month-long candlelight
vigil in front of the court as a mark of protest. This protest was
jointly supported by those from the opposition as well as the
government.
To demonstrate that the non-Muslims are united and that this unity
cuts across all political boundaries, nine non-Muslim Ministers in
Pak Lah’s government sent him a Memorandum last Thursday calling for
a review of laws that affect the rights of non-Muslims. The ministers
were Datuk Dr Leo Michael Toyad (Tourism Minister), Datuk Seri Ong Ka
Ting (Housing and Local Government), Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy
(Transport), Datuk Seri Dr Fong Chan Onn (Human Resources), Datuk Dr
Chua Soi Lek (Health), Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu (Works), Datuk Seri
Dr Lim Keng Yaik (Energy, Water and Communications), Datuk Peter Chin
(Plantation Industries and Commodities), Tan Sri Bernard Dompok and
Datuk Dr Maximus Ongkili (Ministers in the Prime Minister's
Department). The opposition Ministers too would have joined this
group of nine government Ministers if only there were opposition
Ministers.
Then, in retaliation, PAS organised a protest demonstration after
last Friday’s congregational prayers at the National Mosque (Masjid
Negara). Many in Umno, though they do not openly say so, support this
PAS effort. This is not about politics. It is about Islam. Did not
the DAP and those non-Muslims from opposition keADILan support and
participate in the candlelight vigil protesting Islam? And are not
the nine non-Muslim Ministers from the government?
The non-Muslims are united across political boundaries. So are the
Muslims. It is no longer government vs. opposition. It is Muslim vs.
non-Muslim. Yes, unity at last. The government and opposition non-
Muslims are united against Islam. So the government and opposition
Muslims must unite as well in defence of Islam.
Fantastic! The plan worked beautifully. If only Mahathir had tried
this, instead of crying at the Umno General Assembly, he would have
succeeded in uniting the Malays.
Today, many in Umno are saying that their differences with PAS need
to be brushed aside. PAS and Umno, plus those Muslims in keADILan,
need to come together. There is a bigger issue in hand than mere
politics. Islam is under attack. Just go into the Internet and see
for yourself. Islam is being ridiculed and challenged, even here in
Malaysia Today. The non-Muslims have demonstrated they can put
politics aside and unite when it comes to opposing Islam. The Muslims
from the government and opposition must also do the same in facing
this challenge from the non-Muslims.
Pak Lah has two options available to him. He can let the present
conflict escalate into something bigger, even at the risk of it
turning into something more serious -- whereby the Malays would
become united in the face of a common enemy -- or he can nip this
whole thing in the bud with another Operasi Lalang -- whereby things
would all go back to normal and the Malays would revert to disunity.
I wonder which option Pak Lah will choose. In the meantime,
Malaysians from both sides of the religious divide are playing right
into Umno’s hands. Even the Federal Territory Religious Department
(JAWI) tried defying Pak Lah’s government by ignoring the cabinet
decision that the Putrajaya Snoop Squad be disbanded. And the more
Muslims and non-Muslims fight with each other, the more Umno wins.
Finally, Malaysia will be divided along the lines of Muslims and non-
Muslims. But at least the Malays would once again be united.
Clever! Very clever indeed! You can certainly fool all the people
some of the time. If you ask me, Pak Lah is actually smarter than he
looks. Even Mahathir could not have come up with this brilliant idea
on how to unite the Malays. Would we see PAS eventually rejoining
Barisan Nasional in the interest of defending Islam against attack by
the non-Muslims? Would Malaysian politics revert to what it used to
be: opposition means non-Malay and government means Malay. Well, you
never know. If the non-Muslims keep this up, they could actually help
restore Malay unity. The ball is at the feet of the non-Muslims I
suppose. However, on the other hand, if the non-Muslims now decide to
back off, it would be a case of ‘heads I win, tails you lose’.
We were not forced to withdraw memo: Ong
The Sun, Kuala Lumpur
23 January 2006
We were not forced to withdraw memo: Ong
Giam Say Khoon
The Sun
The decision by non-Muslim cabinet ministers to retract a memorandum
they had given to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was
not done because of pressure but more for the sake of national interest.
"We did it in the national interest and our statement is good enough
to explain everything," MCA president Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting said on
Sunday.
The memorandum called for a review of laws affecting the rights of
non-Muslims.
Asked whether they were pressured to retract the memorandum, Ong said
the non-Muslim ministers had a very good understanding with Abdullah
and the solution found was "good enough".
On Friday, Abdullah had said it was not normal or proper for the
ministers to send the memorandum as the matter could have been
discussed in the weekly cabinet meeting.
He then said he had yet to read the memorandum as he was busy looking
at the 9th Malaysia Plan but would allow the ministers to present
their views at the next cabinet meeting.
But on Saturday, Abdullah summoned and met five of the nine non-
Muslim ministers at his official residence in Seri Perdana, leading
to their withdrawal of the memorandum.
He then said the issue was closed.
"Our statement says it clearly enough to explain why we retracted the
memorandum and I do not wish to further elaborate (on) it," Ong said
after opening the party's school of political studies.
He said the joint statement issued was in line with the prime
minister's statement and him openly stating that all important and
essential issues can be discussed at the cabinet as it is the best
place to discuss such issue.
"That's what we are trying to convey -- the same thing the PM said.
It's over now and there is no need to play up the issue again," Ong
said.
"The Barisan Nasional government under the leadership of Abdullah
will also know how and when to resolve the issue."
Asked how will he and the other non-Muslim ministers explain to the
public, especially their party members, he said: "Don't worry, the
public will understand."
The other non-Muslim ministers who signed the memorandum were
Transport Minister Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy, Health Minister Datuk
Dr Chua Soi Lek, Works Minister Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu, Energy,
Water and Communications Minister Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik, Human
Resources Minister Datuk Dr Fong Chan Onn, Plantation Enterprises and
Commodities Minister Datuk Peter Chin and Ministers in the Prime
Minister's Department Datuk Dr Maximus Ongkili and Tan Sri Bernard
Dompok.
23 January 2006
We were not forced to withdraw memo: Ong
Giam Say Khoon
The Sun
The decision by non-Muslim cabinet ministers to retract a memorandum
they had given to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was
not done because of pressure but more for the sake of national interest.
"We did it in the national interest and our statement is good enough
to explain everything," MCA president Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting said on
Sunday.
The memorandum called for a review of laws affecting the rights of
non-Muslims.
Asked whether they were pressured to retract the memorandum, Ong said
the non-Muslim ministers had a very good understanding with Abdullah
and the solution found was "good enough".
On Friday, Abdullah had said it was not normal or proper for the
ministers to send the memorandum as the matter could have been
discussed in the weekly cabinet meeting.
He then said he had yet to read the memorandum as he was busy looking
at the 9th Malaysia Plan but would allow the ministers to present
their views at the next cabinet meeting.
But on Saturday, Abdullah summoned and met five of the nine non-
Muslim ministers at his official residence in Seri Perdana, leading
to their withdrawal of the memorandum.
He then said the issue was closed.
"Our statement says it clearly enough to explain why we retracted the
memorandum and I do not wish to further elaborate (on) it," Ong said
after opening the party's school of political studies.
He said the joint statement issued was in line with the prime
minister's statement and him openly stating that all important and
essential issues can be discussed at the cabinet as it is the best
place to discuss such issue.
"That's what we are trying to convey -- the same thing the PM said.
It's over now and there is no need to play up the issue again," Ong
said.
"The Barisan Nasional government under the leadership of Abdullah
will also know how and when to resolve the issue."
Asked how will he and the other non-Muslim ministers explain to the
public, especially their party members, he said: "Don't worry, the
public will understand."
The other non-Muslim ministers who signed the memorandum were
Transport Minister Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy, Health Minister Datuk
Dr Chua Soi Lek, Works Minister Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu, Energy,
Water and Communications Minister Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik, Human
Resources Minister Datuk Dr Fong Chan Onn, Plantation Enterprises and
Commodities Minister Datuk Peter Chin and Ministers in the Prime
Minister's Department Datuk Dr Maximus Ongkili and Tan Sri Bernard
Dompok.
Malaysia's debate on religious freedoms tests reputation
Associated Press news agency
23 January 2006
Malaysia's debate on religious freedoms tests reputation
(AP)--Malaysia was caught Friday in a debate over religious freedom
for Muslims and minorities alike in two separate controversies that
could stain its reputation as a progressive Islamic country.
In one dispute, the government forbade a state-backed Islamic group
from sending volunteer squads to thwart public cuddling, and in the
other a group of Cabinet ministers asked the prime minister to rein
in a powerful Islamic court whose rulings cannot be appealed by non-
Muslims.
Analysts say the controversies must be put to rest quickly by Prime
Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi so that all religious communities are
satisfied.
"The nation wants him to act," said Chandra Muzaffar, a well known
Muslim social commentator of Indian descent. "We cannot sweep these
things under the carpet. These issues are complex and they seem to be
the consequence of a certain mind-set prevalent within the religious
bureaucracy."
The bigger predicament facing Abdullah is the rare show of force by
the 10 non-Muslim ministers in his Cabinet.
Nine of them gave him a memorandum Wednesday - the 10th minister is
out of the country - calling for a review of religion-related laws to
protect the rights of minorities, especially concerning rules on
religious conversions, which appear to favor Muslims.
The nine Hindu, Buddhist and Christian ministers also asked him to
review a provision in the constitution that says civil courts have no
jurisdiction over the Islamic Sharia Court, the New Straits Times
newspaper and national news agency Bernama reported Friday.
Meanwhile, a state-backed Islamic group was forced Friday by the
government to disband a newly created volunteer patrol squad tasked
with preventing Muslims from committing vice, after the plan drew
criticism from Muslims worried about invasion of privacy.
The 75-member volunteer group was supposed to monitor Muslim couples
in public and report them if found to be holding hands, kissing in
public or showing affection in an "indecent" manner.
Abdullah's government said no such group would be allowed anywhere in
the country.
Chandra, the commentator, said the two controversies do not so far
not seem to have seriously hurt Malaysia's moderate image, because
religious communities still had their fundamental liberties intact.
Religion, race and ethnicity are extremely sensitive issues in
Malaysia, where the Malay Muslims form 60% of the country's 26
million people. Chinese and Indians, who are mostly Buddhists,
Christians and Hindus, form the rest.
The government is a coalition led by Abdullah's Malay party, known by
its acronym UMNO, which has the support of Indian and Chinese parties.
The minority parties rarely question UMNO. But the ministers' plea
for a review of the constitution reflects mounting frustration among
minorities following a number of religion-related disputes where the
Muslim point of view prevailed.
The ministers' memorandum was triggered by the burial last month of a
Hindu-born soldier, Maniam Moorthy, by Islamic authorities, who took
custody of his body saying he had secretly converted to Islam in 2004
without telling his family.
His conversion was confirmed by the Sharia Court. Moorthy's widow
could not appeal in the Sharia Court because she is not a Muslim, and
the Civil High Court rejected her plea, saying it has no jurisdiction
over a Sharia decision.
The constitution guarantees freedom of religion, and Islamic laws are
applied only on Muslims through the Sharia Court. But the ministers
and civil rights groups say such legal loopholes that left Moorthy's
widow without justice need to be plugged.
Separately, on Thursday, the Sharia Court fined a senator who
divorced his wife through a mobile phone text message.
Delivering his sentence, Judge Zainor Rashid Hassin said when senator
Kamaruddin Ambok, 52, married he went through several Islamic
rituals, as mandated by law. "Now, why can't you divorce someone
properly as well?" asked the judge.
23 January 2006
Malaysia's debate on religious freedoms tests reputation
(AP)--Malaysia was caught Friday in a debate over religious freedom
for Muslims and minorities alike in two separate controversies that
could stain its reputation as a progressive Islamic country.
In one dispute, the government forbade a state-backed Islamic group
from sending volunteer squads to thwart public cuddling, and in the
other a group of Cabinet ministers asked the prime minister to rein
in a powerful Islamic court whose rulings cannot be appealed by non-
Muslims.
Analysts say the controversies must be put to rest quickly by Prime
Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi so that all religious communities are
satisfied.
"The nation wants him to act," said Chandra Muzaffar, a well known
Muslim social commentator of Indian descent. "We cannot sweep these
things under the carpet. These issues are complex and they seem to be
the consequence of a certain mind-set prevalent within the religious
bureaucracy."
The bigger predicament facing Abdullah is the rare show of force by
the 10 non-Muslim ministers in his Cabinet.
Nine of them gave him a memorandum Wednesday - the 10th minister is
out of the country - calling for a review of religion-related laws to
protect the rights of minorities, especially concerning rules on
religious conversions, which appear to favor Muslims.
The nine Hindu, Buddhist and Christian ministers also asked him to
review a provision in the constitution that says civil courts have no
jurisdiction over the Islamic Sharia Court, the New Straits Times
newspaper and national news agency Bernama reported Friday.
Meanwhile, a state-backed Islamic group was forced Friday by the
government to disband a newly created volunteer patrol squad tasked
with preventing Muslims from committing vice, after the plan drew
criticism from Muslims worried about invasion of privacy.
The 75-member volunteer group was supposed to monitor Muslim couples
in public and report them if found to be holding hands, kissing in
public or showing affection in an "indecent" manner.
Abdullah's government said no such group would be allowed anywhere in
the country.
Chandra, the commentator, said the two controversies do not so far
not seem to have seriously hurt Malaysia's moderate image, because
religious communities still had their fundamental liberties intact.
Religion, race and ethnicity are extremely sensitive issues in
Malaysia, where the Malay Muslims form 60% of the country's 26
million people. Chinese and Indians, who are mostly Buddhists,
Christians and Hindus, form the rest.
The government is a coalition led by Abdullah's Malay party, known by
its acronym UMNO, which has the support of Indian and Chinese parties.
The minority parties rarely question UMNO. But the ministers' plea
for a review of the constitution reflects mounting frustration among
minorities following a number of religion-related disputes where the
Muslim point of view prevailed.
The ministers' memorandum was triggered by the burial last month of a
Hindu-born soldier, Maniam Moorthy, by Islamic authorities, who took
custody of his body saying he had secretly converted to Islam in 2004
without telling his family.
His conversion was confirmed by the Sharia Court. Moorthy's widow
could not appeal in the Sharia Court because she is not a Muslim, and
the Civil High Court rejected her plea, saying it has no jurisdiction
over a Sharia decision.
The constitution guarantees freedom of religion, and Islamic laws are
applied only on Muslims through the Sharia Court. But the ministers
and civil rights groups say such legal loopholes that left Moorthy's
widow without justice need to be plugged.
Separately, on Thursday, the Sharia Court fined a senator who
divorced his wife through a mobile phone text message.
Delivering his sentence, Judge Zainor Rashid Hassin said when senator
Kamaruddin Ambok, 52, married he went through several Islamic
rituals, as mandated by law. "Now, why can't you divorce someone
properly as well?" asked the judge.
Vincent Tan incurs RM800 m paper loss
The Business Times, Singapore
05 January 2006
Vincent Tan incurs RM800 m paper loss
Overhang contributed to Berjaya Corp's price dive
By PAULINE NG
Business Times
MALAYSIAN tycoon Vincent Tan is sitting on a paper loss of nearly
RM800 million, arising mainly from the massive overhang of loan
stocks issued by his conglomerate Berjaya Corporation.
But yesterday he played down the sell-down in the loan stocks on
concerns that the restructured company would not perform. He even
said that as others were selling, he was buying - having purchased an
additional 60 million of BCorp loan stock on the open market on Tuesday.
As part of the corporate restructuring of the conglomerate, Mr Tan
invested RM203.5 million cash for BCorp's rights issue to subscribe
for 407 million BCorp irredeemable convertible unsecured loan stocks
(Iculs).
He had also injected his 85 per cent-controlled company Bukit Tinggi
Resort into BCorp for 684.7 million BCorp shares.
Following the restructuring, Mr Tan owns 68 per cent of BCorp's 1.23
billion shares.
BCorp and its subsidiaries own 47 per cent of the 9.8 billion Iculs
that were issued by BCorp in the restructuring exercise, while Mr Tan
also holds a direct 8 per cent of the Iculs.
In a statement yesterday, the company said the public portion of 2.97
billion BCorp Iculs mainly arose from the capital repayment, special
dividend-in-specie exercises by its units Berjaya Land and Berjaya
Capital.
'It is to be expected that a great number of these 54,000 Iculs
holders will take the opportunity to realise their BCorp Iculs (which
they received free of charge) upon listing, and this has thus created
an 'overhang' situation which contributed to the sharp decline in the
market prices of the BCorp securities upon its maiden listing on
Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad on Jan 3,' the statement said.
Upon its listing, BCorp opened at 20 sen, 80 sen lower than its
reference price.
Its 50 sen nominal amount Iculs were massively traded and ended the
day at six sen. There was little change to the share price of the
securities yesterday.
The company said that, based on yesterday's closing prices of BCorp
shares and Iculs of 18.5 sen per and six sen respectively, Mr Tan
would have a total book loss of close to RM800 million.
Mr Tan himself said: 'I am confident that given the stronger footing
and the future growth prospects of the BCorp Group, my investment
will do well in the future. I'm not overly concerned about the
current prices of the shares and Iculs. As a matter of fact, I have
purchased additional 60 million BCorp Iculs from the open market
yesterday to reiterate my confidence and firm commitment in the
company and the group.'
05 January 2006
Vincent Tan incurs RM800 m paper loss
Overhang contributed to Berjaya Corp's price dive
By PAULINE NG
Business Times
MALAYSIAN tycoon Vincent Tan is sitting on a paper loss of nearly
RM800 million, arising mainly from the massive overhang of loan
stocks issued by his conglomerate Berjaya Corporation.
But yesterday he played down the sell-down in the loan stocks on
concerns that the restructured company would not perform. He even
said that as others were selling, he was buying - having purchased an
additional 60 million of BCorp loan stock on the open market on Tuesday.
As part of the corporate restructuring of the conglomerate, Mr Tan
invested RM203.5 million cash for BCorp's rights issue to subscribe
for 407 million BCorp irredeemable convertible unsecured loan stocks
(Iculs).
He had also injected his 85 per cent-controlled company Bukit Tinggi
Resort into BCorp for 684.7 million BCorp shares.
Following the restructuring, Mr Tan owns 68 per cent of BCorp's 1.23
billion shares.
BCorp and its subsidiaries own 47 per cent of the 9.8 billion Iculs
that were issued by BCorp in the restructuring exercise, while Mr Tan
also holds a direct 8 per cent of the Iculs.
In a statement yesterday, the company said the public portion of 2.97
billion BCorp Iculs mainly arose from the capital repayment, special
dividend-in-specie exercises by its units Berjaya Land and Berjaya
Capital.
'It is to be expected that a great number of these 54,000 Iculs
holders will take the opportunity to realise their BCorp Iculs (which
they received free of charge) upon listing, and this has thus created
an 'overhang' situation which contributed to the sharp decline in the
market prices of the BCorp securities upon its maiden listing on
Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad on Jan 3,' the statement said.
Upon its listing, BCorp opened at 20 sen, 80 sen lower than its
reference price.
Its 50 sen nominal amount Iculs were massively traded and ended the
day at six sen. There was little change to the share price of the
securities yesterday.
The company said that, based on yesterday's closing prices of BCorp
shares and Iculs of 18.5 sen per and six sen respectively, Mr Tan
would have a total book loss of close to RM800 million.
Mr Tan himself said: 'I am confident that given the stronger footing
and the future growth prospects of the BCorp Group, my investment
will do well in the future. I'm not overly concerned about the
current prices of the shares and Iculs. As a matter of fact, I have
purchased additional 60 million BCorp Iculs from the open market
yesterday to reiterate my confidence and firm commitment in the
company and the group.'
Man proposes, God disposes
Man proposes, God disposes
5 Jan 2006
THE FORMER PRIME MINISTER, Tun Mahathir Mohamed, 79, is rushed to the
United States after doctors at the Institiut Jantung Negara
(National Heart Institute) ruled out a bypass for the second time. He
had a heart attack about Christmas and left, according to sources,
"at the end of 2005 or early 2006". Given his age, and his inclement
health, the doctors here ruled out a second bypass; he had his first
done in 1988. This would effectively rule him out from active
politics for at least three months. This would affect the fate of the
prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, his son-in-law and
the deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak. If he comes
back, it is a bonus for Dato' Seri Najib; if he does not, for Pak Lah
and his son-in-law, Mr Khairy Jamaluddin. Tun Mahathir coming into
active politics in 2005 has forced Pak Lah to cancel his plans for a
cabinet reshuffle; all Tun Mahathir's men still in Pak Lah's cabinet
were going to be axed. But Tun Mahathir met these men for his own
post-Cabinet meeting at the KLCC every Wednesday.
Pak Lah did not want want those dropped from his cabinet go to Tun
Mahathir; so, he could not reshuffle the cabinet yet. He should have
reshuffled his cabinet immediately after his swept into power earlier
this year. It does not matter now when he reshuffles his Cabinet; he
loses lustre when he does it. He took the line of least resistance,
and adopted his predecessor's cabinet as his own. But with UMNO
divided, that was not wise. Pak Lah took over with much goodwill, but
frittered it away by making statements he did not mean, barking at
policy lapses instead of correcting them, taking no action on Malay
head of government companies who had brought the companies to be
rescued. No head of Bank Bumiputra has been punished for bankrupting
Bank Bumiputra, but the government rescuing it four times from
bankruptcy. More than 90 per cent of government guarantees of about
$20 billion was to keep its companies afloat.
But he has had a rough year. He had to watch over his shoulder to see
what Tun Mahathir is dong, whether he likes it or not what his son-in-
law, Mr Khairy Jamaluddin, is doing at a time when his wife was dying
of cancer. Malaysian Prime Ministers assume the world owes them a
living, particularly in Malaysia, and the newspapers, which the
National Front controls, carry official statements long after the
public knows otherwise. This secrecy also makes him look foolish and
stupid which and when he is not. He does not, it is believed by all
and sundry, rule the country, but is driven by his son-in-law to do
so. Many in politics believe this. Tun Mahathir returned to the
political fray early in 2005 because of this. He thinks he made a bad
choice in making Pak Lah as his successor, after he had his deputy
prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, arrested and had him beaten
to a pulp. Some police promotions were made, before his retirement.
who would stalk him but he cannot now expect that.
His 22 years a prime minister should be remembers for putting
Malaysia on the map economically, but he will do down in history as
the man who arrested Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim. The rumour that Dato'
Seri Anwar would be brought back into UMNO frightened him. But it
appears it was not Pak Lah's suggestion but his son-in-law's. UMNO
General Assembly last year decided on a resolution, brought by Tun
Mahathir's men, that would have anyone who left UMNO, for whatever
reason, would be a traitor and could not ever rejoin. It was meant
for Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, but three of the six presidents – Dato'
Sir Onn bin Jaffar, Tengku Abdul Rahman, Tun Hussein Onn – had
resigned from UMNO in their lifetime, with the Tengku and Tun Hussein
actively working against it and died outside it.
The UMNO they were presidents of is not the UMNO ot today. The UMNO
of old was a nationalist movement, the UMNO of today was formed a
political party after the high courts banned the UMNO of old, through
UMNO's lawyer making a suggestion in court – and the judge warned
him of it – that it be declared illegal. UMNO could be now defeated,
as India's Congress Party was in 1976 after it transformed into a
political party in 1967. The Malay opposition and that many young
Malays consider joining a political party other than UMNO will have
no qualms about criticising UMNO. Besides, UMNO itself is divided.
When newspapers go on a witchhunt on the deputy prime minister, he is
never given space in the newspapers to argue his side of the case,
but whatever is reported , to the reader is an UMNO divided.
The New Straits Times seems to have realised this, and take to
criticising the deputy prime minister obliquely. The other papers,
owned mostly by other parties in the National Front, are not so
subtle. And they would not be. The Star was suspended in 1987 for a
breach of the rules, and two senior editors of the Chinese Press had
been suspended yesterday for their resourcefulness which conflicted
the official position. But no one talks now of a minister going to
China to apologise for nude squat by a Chinese national, when the
spin now is that it is a Malay girl after all. Even the DAP MP, Ms
Teresa Kok, who brought the video tape of the nude squat to
Parliament, now says it was a Malay girl after all.
No one believes it of course. Why was not the Home Minister, Dato'
Azmi Khalid, told that the girl was Malay before he left for China to
apologise? He made Malaysia look stupid. Similarly, why has not the
chairman of Putera UMNO, Dato' Azeez Abdul Rahman, said he was not
caught in the vice raid at the Holiday Villa? We have everyone in
authority saying he was not involved, not he. But it is probably too
late. No one would believe him, as no one believes Pak Lah about his
proposed cabinet changes. Those holding offices in the government and
UMNO will not talk to the press unless they want to. Given the manner
in which they are given prominence in Malaysian newspapers – the
prime minister will be headlined in all newspapers if he should say
that black is white; and the newspaper that does not publish the news
would be suspended – that those in power say what they like, even
stupid statements, knowing that they would not be contradicted.
But this is a disability now. Malaysia is top of the world because
there is no opposition. If there is, as China did, it goes into a
tailspin. The officials look for scapegoats, at least to prove them
right, and get it wrong. Several public commissions on the police
have been conducted so far, but the only result about these
commissions is a pay rise for the police. And the message that a nude
squat is all right, so long as you get a Malaysian women to do it.
But if the policeman can do as he likes, the police proudly says that
nude squats are the norm for minor police offences, no matter what
the law says, this lawlessness spreads to other departments and
divisions in the public service. UMNO will find that it cannot hold
its own, if everything else it controls is going haywire.
M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@streamyx.com
5 Jan 2006
THE FORMER PRIME MINISTER, Tun Mahathir Mohamed, 79, is rushed to the
United States after doctors at the Institiut Jantung Negara
(National Heart Institute) ruled out a bypass for the second time. He
had a heart attack about Christmas and left, according to sources,
"at the end of 2005 or early 2006". Given his age, and his inclement
health, the doctors here ruled out a second bypass; he had his first
done in 1988. This would effectively rule him out from active
politics for at least three months. This would affect the fate of the
prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, his son-in-law and
the deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak. If he comes
back, it is a bonus for Dato' Seri Najib; if he does not, for Pak Lah
and his son-in-law, Mr Khairy Jamaluddin. Tun Mahathir coming into
active politics in 2005 has forced Pak Lah to cancel his plans for a
cabinet reshuffle; all Tun Mahathir's men still in Pak Lah's cabinet
were going to be axed. But Tun Mahathir met these men for his own
post-Cabinet meeting at the KLCC every Wednesday.
Pak Lah did not want want those dropped from his cabinet go to Tun
Mahathir; so, he could not reshuffle the cabinet yet. He should have
reshuffled his cabinet immediately after his swept into power earlier
this year. It does not matter now when he reshuffles his Cabinet; he
loses lustre when he does it. He took the line of least resistance,
and adopted his predecessor's cabinet as his own. But with UMNO
divided, that was not wise. Pak Lah took over with much goodwill, but
frittered it away by making statements he did not mean, barking at
policy lapses instead of correcting them, taking no action on Malay
head of government companies who had brought the companies to be
rescued. No head of Bank Bumiputra has been punished for bankrupting
Bank Bumiputra, but the government rescuing it four times from
bankruptcy. More than 90 per cent of government guarantees of about
$20 billion was to keep its companies afloat.
But he has had a rough year. He had to watch over his shoulder to see
what Tun Mahathir is dong, whether he likes it or not what his son-in-
law, Mr Khairy Jamaluddin, is doing at a time when his wife was dying
of cancer. Malaysian Prime Ministers assume the world owes them a
living, particularly in Malaysia, and the newspapers, which the
National Front controls, carry official statements long after the
public knows otherwise. This secrecy also makes him look foolish and
stupid which and when he is not. He does not, it is believed by all
and sundry, rule the country, but is driven by his son-in-law to do
so. Many in politics believe this. Tun Mahathir returned to the
political fray early in 2005 because of this. He thinks he made a bad
choice in making Pak Lah as his successor, after he had his deputy
prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, arrested and had him beaten
to a pulp. Some police promotions were made, before his retirement.
who would stalk him but he cannot now expect that.
His 22 years a prime minister should be remembers for putting
Malaysia on the map economically, but he will do down in history as
the man who arrested Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim. The rumour that Dato'
Seri Anwar would be brought back into UMNO frightened him. But it
appears it was not Pak Lah's suggestion but his son-in-law's. UMNO
General Assembly last year decided on a resolution, brought by Tun
Mahathir's men, that would have anyone who left UMNO, for whatever
reason, would be a traitor and could not ever rejoin. It was meant
for Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, but three of the six presidents – Dato'
Sir Onn bin Jaffar, Tengku Abdul Rahman, Tun Hussein Onn – had
resigned from UMNO in their lifetime, with the Tengku and Tun Hussein
actively working against it and died outside it.
The UMNO they were presidents of is not the UMNO ot today. The UMNO
of old was a nationalist movement, the UMNO of today was formed a
political party after the high courts banned the UMNO of old, through
UMNO's lawyer making a suggestion in court – and the judge warned
him of it – that it be declared illegal. UMNO could be now defeated,
as India's Congress Party was in 1976 after it transformed into a
political party in 1967. The Malay opposition and that many young
Malays consider joining a political party other than UMNO will have
no qualms about criticising UMNO. Besides, UMNO itself is divided.
When newspapers go on a witchhunt on the deputy prime minister, he is
never given space in the newspapers to argue his side of the case,
but whatever is reported , to the reader is an UMNO divided.
The New Straits Times seems to have realised this, and take to
criticising the deputy prime minister obliquely. The other papers,
owned mostly by other parties in the National Front, are not so
subtle. And they would not be. The Star was suspended in 1987 for a
breach of the rules, and two senior editors of the Chinese Press had
been suspended yesterday for their resourcefulness which conflicted
the official position. But no one talks now of a minister going to
China to apologise for nude squat by a Chinese national, when the
spin now is that it is a Malay girl after all. Even the DAP MP, Ms
Teresa Kok, who brought the video tape of the nude squat to
Parliament, now says it was a Malay girl after all.
No one believes it of course. Why was not the Home Minister, Dato'
Azmi Khalid, told that the girl was Malay before he left for China to
apologise? He made Malaysia look stupid. Similarly, why has not the
chairman of Putera UMNO, Dato' Azeez Abdul Rahman, said he was not
caught in the vice raid at the Holiday Villa? We have everyone in
authority saying he was not involved, not he. But it is probably too
late. No one would believe him, as no one believes Pak Lah about his
proposed cabinet changes. Those holding offices in the government and
UMNO will not talk to the press unless they want to. Given the manner
in which they are given prominence in Malaysian newspapers – the
prime minister will be headlined in all newspapers if he should say
that black is white; and the newspaper that does not publish the news
would be suspended – that those in power say what they like, even
stupid statements, knowing that they would not be contradicted.
But this is a disability now. Malaysia is top of the world because
there is no opposition. If there is, as China did, it goes into a
tailspin. The officials look for scapegoats, at least to prove them
right, and get it wrong. Several public commissions on the police
have been conducted so far, but the only result about these
commissions is a pay rise for the police. And the message that a nude
squat is all right, so long as you get a Malaysian women to do it.
But if the policeman can do as he likes, the police proudly says that
nude squats are the norm for minor police offences, no matter what
the law says, this lawlessness spreads to other departments and
divisions in the public service. UMNO will find that it cannot hold
its own, if everything else it controls is going haywire.
M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@streamyx.com
Let constitutional court have final say
The New Straits Times, Kuala Lumpur
03 January 2006
COMMENT: Let constitutional court have final say
Zaid Ibrahim
M. MOORTHY alias Mohamad Abdullah has been buried, but not the issues
raised by his family and many Malaysians still living.
The paramount question that many feel in their hearts but fear to ask
is whether there is justice when dealing with issues of faith in this
country.
The case brings to the fore not just the issues of jurisdiction of
the civil courts over Islamic matters but, more importantly, the
fundamental nature of the Constitution itself. Rather than censor
ourselves on yet another subject that underpins the way we Malaysians
perceive ourselves and each other, it is time to seriously and openly
investigate solutions that go beyond feel-good campaigns and rhetoric.
Our Constitution guarantees many fundamental liberties essential in a
free and democratic country. It grants freedom of religion and faith.
But over the years, the courts have declared themselves impotent and
powerless to do anything to address matters that may affect those
rights. Without the power of judicial review, civil courts are able
to conveniently wash their hands of any responsibility over cases
that may bear a whiff of religious controversy.
In 1988, the Government, in its effort to uphold the sanctity of the
Syariah court system, amended the Constitution by inserting article
121A, which precludes the High Court hearing any cases involving
Islamic matters. By a stroke of the pen, we inadvertently created a
parallel legal system with no final arbiter.
At least before 1988, the High Courts did possess the general
constitutional power of judicial review that empowered them to
intervene where decisions of the Government and even the Syariah
courts may be at odds with the rule of law. Judges were more prepared
to do so then. Not anymore.
What is urgently needed now is an express power of judicial review to
be granted to the High Courts to ensure that the acts of government
and other authorities be subject to that power. Some would argue that
there is no need for judicial review because the Government is
answerable to Parliament for its policies and actions. This is a
superficial argument because Parliament is not wholly competent to
determine if an action of any department or authority is lawful.
The constitutional power to review must be vested in the judges.
Otherwise, all the provisions of fundamental liberties, whether
contained in our Constitution or in legislation, are meaningless.
In so far as the Syariah courts are concerned, they too are entities
created out of the Constitution, and all Islamic laws are statutory
laws enacted by the respective State Assemblies, just like other laws
in this country. Why they need to be excluded from review of High
Court judges escapes me.
We must not forget that in a plural society we cannot separate and
segregate the lives of the people by legal means. People interact,
their lives intertwine with one another in the community, in private
and in public life, regardless of faith, race or ideology.
Naturally, there would be conflicts and issues to be resolved between
them. It could be a failed marriage and one of the parties has
renounced the faith. It could be about custody of children or
property. Many times, we have seen conflicting decisions that
different systems inevitably produce, particularly in cases affecting
both Muslims and non- Muslims.
Moorthy’s case illustrates the dilemma clearly. Justice may have been
done, but it certainly was not seen to be done. Muslims may feel
relieved that a fellow Muslim (if indeed he was a Muslim) was buried
in accordance with Islamic rites, but the family was in grief for
they believed that he died a Hindu.
Only God knows. Lesser mortals must not play God with peoples’ lives.
They must devise a legal system that seeks to do what is right and
fair to all.
Without a solution, similar cases are likely to happen again and will
continue to fester in the hearts and minds of the aggrieved. This
will exacerbate polarisation of the society due to resentment that a
matter may not have been impartially resolved, and fear of being
subjected to potential entanglements. I realise that what I am saying
may be controversial and may prick the ultra-sensitive skin of
conservatives but I also know that many Malaysians — Muslims and non-
Muslims alike — fundamentally agree with me.
The continuance of this situation will contribute to a Malaysia of
parallel systems and communities — legal, economic and social — that
rarely intersect. We will lack the genuine cohesion that is needed
for our collective survival and prosperity.
We need to rebuild our confidence in a system that all of us can
accept as impartial, regardless of race or creed.
This is why we need a constitutional court to deal with the
enforcement of fundamental rights and judicial review. Many countries
have it and even Afghanistan will have one soon.
By adjudicating constitutional questions and enforcing constitutional
provisions, a constitutional court would make our Federal
Constitution a living document that shapes and directs the exercise
of power.
Today, our Constitution is merely a collection of phrases that
symbolises our limited aspirations. A constitutional court would be
the final arbiter we desperately need to resolve the diverse
conflicts faced by our communities.
This court should not be perceived as neither Muslim court nor a
kaffir court. It will be a court of justice, simple as that. Capable
retired judges with utmost integrity can form the quorum. To ensure
that Islamic principles of justice are not compromised, the court
should include the expertise of internationally respected Muslim
jurists.
This is a way forward to unite all citizens under a living
Constitution, in mutual respect and justice. Let’s give it a try. All
we have to gain is justice and fairness to all.
* Datuk Zaid Ibrahim is MP for Kota Baru. He is also senior partner
and chairman of Zaid Ibrahim & Co.
03 January 2006
COMMENT: Let constitutional court have final say
Zaid Ibrahim
M. MOORTHY alias Mohamad Abdullah has been buried, but not the issues
raised by his family and many Malaysians still living.
The paramount question that many feel in their hearts but fear to ask
is whether there is justice when dealing with issues of faith in this
country.
The case brings to the fore not just the issues of jurisdiction of
the civil courts over Islamic matters but, more importantly, the
fundamental nature of the Constitution itself. Rather than censor
ourselves on yet another subject that underpins the way we Malaysians
perceive ourselves and each other, it is time to seriously and openly
investigate solutions that go beyond feel-good campaigns and rhetoric.
Our Constitution guarantees many fundamental liberties essential in a
free and democratic country. It grants freedom of religion and faith.
But over the years, the courts have declared themselves impotent and
powerless to do anything to address matters that may affect those
rights. Without the power of judicial review, civil courts are able
to conveniently wash their hands of any responsibility over cases
that may bear a whiff of religious controversy.
In 1988, the Government, in its effort to uphold the sanctity of the
Syariah court system, amended the Constitution by inserting article
121A, which precludes the High Court hearing any cases involving
Islamic matters. By a stroke of the pen, we inadvertently created a
parallel legal system with no final arbiter.
At least before 1988, the High Courts did possess the general
constitutional power of judicial review that empowered them to
intervene where decisions of the Government and even the Syariah
courts may be at odds with the rule of law. Judges were more prepared
to do so then. Not anymore.
What is urgently needed now is an express power of judicial review to
be granted to the High Courts to ensure that the acts of government
and other authorities be subject to that power. Some would argue that
there is no need for judicial review because the Government is
answerable to Parliament for its policies and actions. This is a
superficial argument because Parliament is not wholly competent to
determine if an action of any department or authority is lawful.
The constitutional power to review must be vested in the judges.
Otherwise, all the provisions of fundamental liberties, whether
contained in our Constitution or in legislation, are meaningless.
In so far as the Syariah courts are concerned, they too are entities
created out of the Constitution, and all Islamic laws are statutory
laws enacted by the respective State Assemblies, just like other laws
in this country. Why they need to be excluded from review of High
Court judges escapes me.
We must not forget that in a plural society we cannot separate and
segregate the lives of the people by legal means. People interact,
their lives intertwine with one another in the community, in private
and in public life, regardless of faith, race or ideology.
Naturally, there would be conflicts and issues to be resolved between
them. It could be a failed marriage and one of the parties has
renounced the faith. It could be about custody of children or
property. Many times, we have seen conflicting decisions that
different systems inevitably produce, particularly in cases affecting
both Muslims and non- Muslims.
Moorthy’s case illustrates the dilemma clearly. Justice may have been
done, but it certainly was not seen to be done. Muslims may feel
relieved that a fellow Muslim (if indeed he was a Muslim) was buried
in accordance with Islamic rites, but the family was in grief for
they believed that he died a Hindu.
Only God knows. Lesser mortals must not play God with peoples’ lives.
They must devise a legal system that seeks to do what is right and
fair to all.
Without a solution, similar cases are likely to happen again and will
continue to fester in the hearts and minds of the aggrieved. This
will exacerbate polarisation of the society due to resentment that a
matter may not have been impartially resolved, and fear of being
subjected to potential entanglements. I realise that what I am saying
may be controversial and may prick the ultra-sensitive skin of
conservatives but I also know that many Malaysians — Muslims and non-
Muslims alike — fundamentally agree with me.
The continuance of this situation will contribute to a Malaysia of
parallel systems and communities — legal, economic and social — that
rarely intersect. We will lack the genuine cohesion that is needed
for our collective survival and prosperity.
We need to rebuild our confidence in a system that all of us can
accept as impartial, regardless of race or creed.
This is why we need a constitutional court to deal with the
enforcement of fundamental rights and judicial review. Many countries
have it and even Afghanistan will have one soon.
By adjudicating constitutional questions and enforcing constitutional
provisions, a constitutional court would make our Federal
Constitution a living document that shapes and directs the exercise
of power.
Today, our Constitution is merely a collection of phrases that
symbolises our limited aspirations. A constitutional court would be
the final arbiter we desperately need to resolve the diverse
conflicts faced by our communities.
This court should not be perceived as neither Muslim court nor a
kaffir court. It will be a court of justice, simple as that. Capable
retired judges with utmost integrity can form the quorum. To ensure
that Islamic principles of justice are not compromised, the court
should include the expertise of internationally respected Muslim
jurists.
This is a way forward to unite all citizens under a living
Constitution, in mutual respect and justice. Let’s give it a try. All
we have to gain is justice and fairness to all.
* Datuk Zaid Ibrahim is MP for Kota Baru. He is also senior partner
and chairman of Zaid Ibrahim & Co.
Oil, gas and imperialism
Oil, gas and imperialism
The Russia-Ukraine crisis is a reminder that politics, not the
market, is driving global energy policies
Daniel Litvin
Wednesday January 4, 2006
The Guardian
You may have thought the age of empires was over, that in today's
globalising world relations between states were governed by
economics, market forces and free trade, rather than battles for
political influence between the great powers. When it comes to the
quest for, and control of, energy supplies, however, we still live in
a partly 19th-century world.
Compared with the situation earlier this week, Russia's attempt to
more than quadruple the price of the gas it charges to Ukraine is no
longer affecting other European countries as severely as it was. None
the less Russia continues to seek to withhold gas from Ukraine,
exerting a stranglehold on the nation that would appear to be
motivated as much by politics as economics. Smarting from Ukraine's
recent turn to the west, including Nato and the EU, Russia wishes to
bring its once vassal state back into its sphere of influence. Russia
has long offered subsidised energy to such states to help keep them
within its fold. Threatening to hike Ukrainian gas prices to free
market levels is in this respect the modern equivalent of a warning
shot fired from the Russian imperial gunboat.
But Russia is not alone in treating energy security as the means of,
or motive for, imperial-style endeavours. The quest for influence
over oil and gas reserves underlies much recent western intervention
in the Middle East and has driven high-profile political developments
in Latin America, central Asia and elsewhere. We need to recognise
this energy imperialism as a fact of the modern world. For only by
recognising it can we find ways to soften its nastier elements.
There are two forms of modern energy imperialism. The first, typified
by Russia, involves producers using their leverage over supplies or
energy transport systems to influence political outcomes. Most
memorably, Opec, the Middle East-dominated oil producers' cartel,
tried this by restricting oil supplies in the 1970s, aimed partly at
shifting western policy towards the region.
Today two Latin American producer states are using energy as a tool
in standing up to the "imperial" west. Venezuela's Hugo Chavez has
threatened to interrupt oil shipments to the US and is tapping the
state's burgeoning oil revenues to win political support. In Bolivia,
Evo Morales recently swept to power on promises to take back control
of gas reserves from multinationals.
The second form of this imperialism involves consumer states
launching political or military manoeuvres to secure supplies.
Whether or not the US and Britain invaded Iraq with a sincere belief
in weapons of mass destruction, no one doubts that fears over oil
security played a part in strategic calculations - particularly after
September 11 had so shaken the west's trust in Saudi Arabia.
Now, with oil prices so high, and many western oilfields in decline,
western firms and governments are working together (peacefully this
time) to stake out new territories to reduce dependence on the Middle
East. Around the Caspian, western political interests have again
conflicted with Russia's: the path of a new BP-operated pipeline from
Azerbaijan to Turkey, for example, was the subject of a major
geopolitical tussle between west and east. Japan and China are also
arguing over pipeline routes from Russia's far-east energy reserves,
while China's oil corporations are busy seeking alliances with Middle
East and African governments.
If Britain opts to build more nuclear power stations this will be
partly due to fears of reliance on foreign (Russian) energy. With our
transport system still dependent on oil, however, reviving nuclear
will hardly remove this problem.
One reason energy helps to revive the imperial urge for consumer
nations is that, for all the growth of free markets and trade, energy
security is paradoxically too important to the smooth running of
capitalist economies to leave entirely to market forces. Our economic
systems comprise a huge investment in infrastructure (including
roads, cars, buildings and power stations) dependent on fossil fuels.
The imperial temptation for producers is related: the political
levers it creates can be too powerful to resist. The issue here is
not just geographic concentration of fossil-fuel supplies but the
fixed and monopolistic nature of energy infrastructure: pipelines
supplying entire nations can be flicked on or off on a political whim.
The inevitability of modern energy imperialism needs to be
recognised. For consuming countries, securing energy supplies must be
achieved in a way that better serves the long term interests of
producing countries, rather than taking the form of western support
for compliant but corrupt regimes or ill-conceived invasions that
provoke further violence.
And producing countries should be encouraged to understand that their
long term interest is often better served by working with consumer
states, rather than imposing ultimatums upon them. Russia's hard-ball
tactics with Ukraine have damaged its credibility as a secure
supplier with big European customers.
Eventually oil and gas may be replaced by renewables but, for the
time being, energy imperialism is here to stay, and efforts should
focus on making it a more benign force. Daniel Litvin is author of
Empires of Profit: Commerce, Conquest and Corporate Responsibility
daniel.litvin@btinternet.com
The Russia-Ukraine crisis is a reminder that politics, not the
market, is driving global energy policies
Daniel Litvin
Wednesday January 4, 2006
The Guardian
You may have thought the age of empires was over, that in today's
globalising world relations between states were governed by
economics, market forces and free trade, rather than battles for
political influence between the great powers. When it comes to the
quest for, and control of, energy supplies, however, we still live in
a partly 19th-century world.
Compared with the situation earlier this week, Russia's attempt to
more than quadruple the price of the gas it charges to Ukraine is no
longer affecting other European countries as severely as it was. None
the less Russia continues to seek to withhold gas from Ukraine,
exerting a stranglehold on the nation that would appear to be
motivated as much by politics as economics. Smarting from Ukraine's
recent turn to the west, including Nato and the EU, Russia wishes to
bring its once vassal state back into its sphere of influence. Russia
has long offered subsidised energy to such states to help keep them
within its fold. Threatening to hike Ukrainian gas prices to free
market levels is in this respect the modern equivalent of a warning
shot fired from the Russian imperial gunboat.
But Russia is not alone in treating energy security as the means of,
or motive for, imperial-style endeavours. The quest for influence
over oil and gas reserves underlies much recent western intervention
in the Middle East and has driven high-profile political developments
in Latin America, central Asia and elsewhere. We need to recognise
this energy imperialism as a fact of the modern world. For only by
recognising it can we find ways to soften its nastier elements.
There are two forms of modern energy imperialism. The first, typified
by Russia, involves producers using their leverage over supplies or
energy transport systems to influence political outcomes. Most
memorably, Opec, the Middle East-dominated oil producers' cartel,
tried this by restricting oil supplies in the 1970s, aimed partly at
shifting western policy towards the region.
Today two Latin American producer states are using energy as a tool
in standing up to the "imperial" west. Venezuela's Hugo Chavez has
threatened to interrupt oil shipments to the US and is tapping the
state's burgeoning oil revenues to win political support. In Bolivia,
Evo Morales recently swept to power on promises to take back control
of gas reserves from multinationals.
The second form of this imperialism involves consumer states
launching political or military manoeuvres to secure supplies.
Whether or not the US and Britain invaded Iraq with a sincere belief
in weapons of mass destruction, no one doubts that fears over oil
security played a part in strategic calculations - particularly after
September 11 had so shaken the west's trust in Saudi Arabia.
Now, with oil prices so high, and many western oilfields in decline,
western firms and governments are working together (peacefully this
time) to stake out new territories to reduce dependence on the Middle
East. Around the Caspian, western political interests have again
conflicted with Russia's: the path of a new BP-operated pipeline from
Azerbaijan to Turkey, for example, was the subject of a major
geopolitical tussle between west and east. Japan and China are also
arguing over pipeline routes from Russia's far-east energy reserves,
while China's oil corporations are busy seeking alliances with Middle
East and African governments.
If Britain opts to build more nuclear power stations this will be
partly due to fears of reliance on foreign (Russian) energy. With our
transport system still dependent on oil, however, reviving nuclear
will hardly remove this problem.
One reason energy helps to revive the imperial urge for consumer
nations is that, for all the growth of free markets and trade, energy
security is paradoxically too important to the smooth running of
capitalist economies to leave entirely to market forces. Our economic
systems comprise a huge investment in infrastructure (including
roads, cars, buildings and power stations) dependent on fossil fuels.
The imperial temptation for producers is related: the political
levers it creates can be too powerful to resist. The issue here is
not just geographic concentration of fossil-fuel supplies but the
fixed and monopolistic nature of energy infrastructure: pipelines
supplying entire nations can be flicked on or off on a political whim.
The inevitability of modern energy imperialism needs to be
recognised. For consuming countries, securing energy supplies must be
achieved in a way that better serves the long term interests of
producing countries, rather than taking the form of western support
for compliant but corrupt regimes or ill-conceived invasions that
provoke further violence.
And producing countries should be encouraged to understand that their
long term interest is often better served by working with consumer
states, rather than imposing ultimatums upon them. Russia's hard-ball
tactics with Ukraine have damaged its credibility as a secure
supplier with big European customers.
Eventually oil and gas may be replaced by renewables but, for the
time being, energy imperialism is here to stay, and efforts should
focus on making it a more benign force. Daniel Litvin is author of
Empires of Profit: Commerce, Conquest and Corporate Responsibility
daniel.litvin@btinternet.com
The National Front is in trouble always, but it had better watch out
The National Front is in trouble always, but it had better watch out
4 Jan 2006
THE NATIONAL FRONT IS caught in a cleft stick. It idoes not know how to solve the problems within. The political scene has changed, what measures it takes would be known. And it needs the secrecy if it is remain a viable political party. No one in the party, from the Prime Minister, who is its president as of its major party, UMNO, down, would talk about the crisis within or outside. It has always ruled by stealth, creeping on the people often against their will. The latest crisis – that of Corporal Moorthy and of Muslim women – grips Malaysians at the moment, but Malaysians had always woken up to be shortchanged, often by the National Front government. But it has always had a solid majority, usually two-thirds, in Parliament; it now has about 90 per cent of the house.
The May 1969 racial riots is a good starting point. That was, contrary to the spin, an UMNO coup to remain in power for all time. The New Economic Policy and Malay Dominance followed. It could not stomach the fact that in Selangor and Perak, it had the same seats in the state assembly as the oppposition. In Penang, an opposition coalition led by Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia has captured the state. Parliament was suspended after the riots, and the NOC, of which the secretary was the present prime minister, ruled. and PAS had ruled Kelantan since 1959.. Before Parliament was restored, the NEP and Malay Dominance was in place. The National Front was formed, its early members included PAS and Gerakan, and replaced the Alliance that brought the country indepedence in 1957.
The non-Malay ministers lost their policy-making powers, helped by the MCA pulling out of the Alliance after the election, believing it had failed the Chinese. As then, the MCA defers to UMNO, which is why the National Front government gets its pledges the way UMNO wants it. After the 1969 riots, it therefore put in place a government in which the Chinese, Indian and other non-Malay races did not have a policy making role. It was left to individuals to make that change. Over the years, UMNO got more arrogant, and got laws passed because it thought them necessary. It did not care what the non-Malays in National Front thought. It took decisions unilaterally. The non-Malay parties put their tail behind their tails and joined the Natioanal Front as irrelevant junior partners.
It is in trouble now because it takes a generation, about 30 years, for policies to fruit. The NEP and Malay Dominance of those days is only now being tested. It was made clear then non-Malays would be looked upon with disfavour in the government and uniformed services. In 1973, only two Chinese and one Indian inspectors were taken in. They have retired, but no one has a higher rank than assistant superintendent of police. A non-Malay chief inspector is studying law, because he does not want to, as he put it, salute those he had helped train. Today, there are hardly non-Malays in either service, when they are needed the most.
There is a glass ceiling for the non-Malays. The Malay would not take orders from a non-Malay. So, even at the lower ranks, the non-Malay is shut out for promotion. No non-Malay becomes chief clerks or matrons. Those seen had held the jobs before it was decided the non-Malay could not be. But there are due to retire. And none of the non-Malays can expect promotion on the same basis as the Malay. The inspector-general of police, Tun Haniff Omar, repeats the canard of the government: that the non-Malay is more interested in the private sector because he would be paid more. It is not true. He has no choice.
The non-Malay knows he cannot get help from the National Front government, His representatives in the government will not fight his case because he prefers to be in the government and would not open his mouth. He will be vocal about extraneous items, but not what concerns his people. There has been no rebuttal to Tun Haniff's statement, and Dato' M. Kayveas is more interested in fighting corruption in local councils. He does not say lthat the Nataional Front controls all local councils. When things are done in secret, corruption festers. The National Front does not allow the local councils to be open.
But the National Front is caught: the women senators brought the denigration of their sex to their notice at the last possible moment. The Lower House of Parliament had passed the Islamic Laws bill in September, so it thought it would bee too in the Senate. As it happened, three cabinet ministers were called in to sort the matter out. Finally the bill was passed after a promise was extracted to have it amended soon. All it needs to shake up an organisation like the National Front is an individual. It blinked when the former deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, raised the banner of revolt after he was beaten to a pulp by the Inspector-General of Police. It has been downhill ever since.
UMNO said, as usual without discussion or debate, it was not a Malay but an Islamic party, changing its core values to follow the smaller but more focussed Parti Se islam or PAS. It has become used by then to watching over its shoulders before it does anything. And the list grows. First, it was Dato' Seri Anwar, then the party formed to get him out of jail, Keadilan Rakyat Malaysia, PAS, women, and now Islamicists. The National Front, of which UMNO is the main partner, will not discuss important legislation in Parliament or the state assemblies it controls, so it has to assume what the opposition would do. It wants to remain a Malay and Islamic party, but it needs the support of the non-Malays to be that.
But the non-Malays, fed up their political leaders, start groups against them. This is on a small scale at the moment, but pockets of them are being formed throughout the country. In Johore, the Johore Indian Business Association (JIBA) has virtually replaced the MCA in representing the Indians. It has started small, concentrates on the petty traders, but it has got the MIC leaders in the state being more active. The Malays, especially the young, join PAS if they want a political future, and UMNO if they want to be billionaires. But those who want to be in either party join hands with the non-Malays to form an effective political grouping. They may or may not succeed, but it keeps the National Front on its toes.
The National Front hopes it can survive, but keeping its structure intact. But it will have to open up. It wants to reduce the powers of the rulers, the Indians, the Chinese and other non-Malays. Unless there is open discussion within, and without, it cannot hope to. It thinks it is the UMNO view that prevails. The others keep quiet. That is not how it can survive. Nor passing laws with promises of amendments afterwards. It has been in power since 1955, when it first came into power, but it can continue only if it addresses its faults.
[This was my column , but under a different title, in the Harakah, the official organ of PAS, and appears today]
M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@streamyx.com
4 Jan 2006
THE NATIONAL FRONT IS caught in a cleft stick. It idoes not know how to solve the problems within. The political scene has changed, what measures it takes would be known. And it needs the secrecy if it is remain a viable political party. No one in the party, from the Prime Minister, who is its president as of its major party, UMNO, down, would talk about the crisis within or outside. It has always ruled by stealth, creeping on the people often against their will. The latest crisis – that of Corporal Moorthy and of Muslim women – grips Malaysians at the moment, but Malaysians had always woken up to be shortchanged, often by the National Front government. But it has always had a solid majority, usually two-thirds, in Parliament; it now has about 90 per cent of the house.
The May 1969 racial riots is a good starting point. That was, contrary to the spin, an UMNO coup to remain in power for all time. The New Economic Policy and Malay Dominance followed. It could not stomach the fact that in Selangor and Perak, it had the same seats in the state assembly as the oppposition. In Penang, an opposition coalition led by Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia has captured the state. Parliament was suspended after the riots, and the NOC, of which the secretary was the present prime minister, ruled. and PAS had ruled Kelantan since 1959.. Before Parliament was restored, the NEP and Malay Dominance was in place. The National Front was formed, its early members included PAS and Gerakan, and replaced the Alliance that brought the country indepedence in 1957.
The non-Malay ministers lost their policy-making powers, helped by the MCA pulling out of the Alliance after the election, believing it had failed the Chinese. As then, the MCA defers to UMNO, which is why the National Front government gets its pledges the way UMNO wants it. After the 1969 riots, it therefore put in place a government in which the Chinese, Indian and other non-Malay races did not have a policy making role. It was left to individuals to make that change. Over the years, UMNO got more arrogant, and got laws passed because it thought them necessary. It did not care what the non-Malays in National Front thought. It took decisions unilaterally. The non-Malay parties put their tail behind their tails and joined the Natioanal Front as irrelevant junior partners.
It is in trouble now because it takes a generation, about 30 years, for policies to fruit. The NEP and Malay Dominance of those days is only now being tested. It was made clear then non-Malays would be looked upon with disfavour in the government and uniformed services. In 1973, only two Chinese and one Indian inspectors were taken in. They have retired, but no one has a higher rank than assistant superintendent of police. A non-Malay chief inspector is studying law, because he does not want to, as he put it, salute those he had helped train. Today, there are hardly non-Malays in either service, when they are needed the most.
There is a glass ceiling for the non-Malays. The Malay would not take orders from a non-Malay. So, even at the lower ranks, the non-Malay is shut out for promotion. No non-Malay becomes chief clerks or matrons. Those seen had held the jobs before it was decided the non-Malay could not be. But there are due to retire. And none of the non-Malays can expect promotion on the same basis as the Malay. The inspector-general of police, Tun Haniff Omar, repeats the canard of the government: that the non-Malay is more interested in the private sector because he would be paid more. It is not true. He has no choice.
The non-Malay knows he cannot get help from the National Front government, His representatives in the government will not fight his case because he prefers to be in the government and would not open his mouth. He will be vocal about extraneous items, but not what concerns his people. There has been no rebuttal to Tun Haniff's statement, and Dato' M. Kayveas is more interested in fighting corruption in local councils. He does not say lthat the Nataional Front controls all local councils. When things are done in secret, corruption festers. The National Front does not allow the local councils to be open.
But the National Front is caught: the women senators brought the denigration of their sex to their notice at the last possible moment. The Lower House of Parliament had passed the Islamic Laws bill in September, so it thought it would bee too in the Senate. As it happened, three cabinet ministers were called in to sort the matter out. Finally the bill was passed after a promise was extracted to have it amended soon. All it needs to shake up an organisation like the National Front is an individual. It blinked when the former deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, raised the banner of revolt after he was beaten to a pulp by the Inspector-General of Police. It has been downhill ever since.
UMNO said, as usual without discussion or debate, it was not a Malay but an Islamic party, changing its core values to follow the smaller but more focussed Parti Se islam or PAS. It has become used by then to watching over its shoulders before it does anything. And the list grows. First, it was Dato' Seri Anwar, then the party formed to get him out of jail, Keadilan Rakyat Malaysia, PAS, women, and now Islamicists. The National Front, of which UMNO is the main partner, will not discuss important legislation in Parliament or the state assemblies it controls, so it has to assume what the opposition would do. It wants to remain a Malay and Islamic party, but it needs the support of the non-Malays to be that.
But the non-Malays, fed up their political leaders, start groups against them. This is on a small scale at the moment, but pockets of them are being formed throughout the country. In Johore, the Johore Indian Business Association (JIBA) has virtually replaced the MCA in representing the Indians. It has started small, concentrates on the petty traders, but it has got the MIC leaders in the state being more active. The Malays, especially the young, join PAS if they want a political future, and UMNO if they want to be billionaires. But those who want to be in either party join hands with the non-Malays to form an effective political grouping. They may or may not succeed, but it keeps the National Front on its toes.
The National Front hopes it can survive, but keeping its structure intact. But it will have to open up. It wants to reduce the powers of the rulers, the Indians, the Chinese and other non-Malays. Unless there is open discussion within, and without, it cannot hope to. It thinks it is the UMNO view that prevails. The others keep quiet. That is not how it can survive. Nor passing laws with promises of amendments afterwards. It has been in power since 1955, when it first came into power, but it can continue only if it addresses its faults.
[This was my column , but under a different title, in the Harakah, the official organ of PAS, and appears today]
M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@streamyx.com
The Cabinet, unusually, meets on a death
The Cabinet, unusually, meets on a death
3 Jan 2006
THE MALAYSIAN CABINET WILL discuss tomorrow (04 January 2006) the sudden and freak death of Dr Liew Boon-Horng of Ethos Consulting, whose work in the Ministry of Defence took away from the defence minister, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak, his powers to buy weapons. Purchases of arms are given to UMNO go-betweens, and Ethos Consulting made sure that it went to the prime minister's son-in-law Mr Khairy Jamaluddin's friends. Divine intervention has stalked Mr Khairy's every recent move. He used Ethos Consulting to make the defence minister have no control over arms purchases. With Dr Liew dead, Mr Khairy has to start again in the defence ministry. But Dato' Seri Najib, like his cousin, UMNO Youth chief and fellow cabinet minister, did not see through Mr Khairy's intentions at first, but now does. Dato' Seri Najib is unlikely to allow this to happen again.
But Dr Liew's freak death has shaken the Malaysian establishment. Dato' Seri Najib says the government is taking it 'very seriously'. Two reports would be presented to the Cabinet tomorrow. He says that 'if we find the contractor responsible, based on these reports, "stern action will be taken". He goes on, giving the impression of seriousness: "There is also the question of criminal liability" but that would be for the authorities to follow up. Dr Liew died because a two tonne concrete block fell on his car. It should have dropped. The contractor is guilty. What the authorities should be doing is to charge him in court. Instead of the machinery department getting involved, or of a report from them. the Cabinet is discussing it.
Two cabinet ministers – the MCA president and the minister for local government and housing, Dato' Seri Ong Ka Ting; the human resources minister, Dato' Fong Chan Onn – and the Kuala Lumpur mayor, Dato' Ruslan Hasan were at Dr Liew's house after the death. Other people have died from the contractor's mishap, but they went to their graves unmourned or visited by cabinet ministers. But Dr Liew is an important cog in the wheel of Mr Khairy reducing Dato' Seri Najib a cipher. Dato' Ruslan has said the contractor did not breach the regulations, that dropping a two tonne concrete on anyone on the road is alright. But he is not sure. He said more information is needed, and this would be detailed in his report.
So why is the cabinet meeting in a hurry over the death of a man. The reports are not ready. But this death is important in making sure the next prime minister is not the deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak. With the man's death – whoever is responsible – Mr Khairy has to start from afresh to bring down. The former Prime Minister Tun Mahathir's heart attack at Christmas has slowed down the deputy prime minister. If he decides not to be involved in Malaysian politics as a result, Dato' Seri Najib, who depended on him, would have a difficult fight in 2006 but it he decides to come back, he becomes an intractible enemy of Mr Khairy.. Since Mr Khairy decides the important decisions in the government, the death is discussed in the Cabinet.
People Mr Khairy depended on has died or got into activities they should not. Tan Sri Noordin Sopiee who introduced Pak Lah's daughter, Nori, to Mr Khairy, and looked upon himself as a father figure to the young man, died of thyroid cancer last week. Making use of Putera UMNO has caused a setback after its president, Dato' Azeez Abdul Rahman, was caught in a vice raid at Holiday Villa. The deputy interior minister, Dato' Noh Omar, has said he was in Klang at that time, but no one believes him. It is he who told the Chinese tourists not to come to Malaysia if they are not prepared to obey the laws. But his minister is Dato' Seri Abdullah Badawi, who is also father-in-law of Mr Khairy. Could he say anything else?
Mr Khairy has made himself a rich man – he bought RM9.2 million worth of ECM Libra shares. ECM Libra is a boutique investment firm that roped in Pak Lah's men to be successful; in other words an Ali Baba firm. Until then, he was only an employee. No one in government, from secretaries general down, will go against Pak Lah's son-in-law. He had played his cards well as long as he was not involved in any company. And he was not as close to Singapore. He is blamed, rightly or wrongly, for selling Malaysian government assets to Singapore. He has thrown his weight around, and many believe the governmet is run by him. He made an early enemy of Tun Mahathir as a result. His heart attack can cause one of two things: he might try his best to unseat Pak Lah's government, because he does not want Malaysia to be ruled by one as close to Singapore as Mr Khairy; or he might retire. His decision will affect Mr Khairy and Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak.
So, the cabinet meeting tomorrow on Dr Liew's death, when the reports and investigations are not complete, is to be expected. The deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Najib, does not, in Malay fashion, oppose Mr Khairy in public. But Mr Khairy does, and has gone far. But he has to start all over again. But he would not get the support of those who backed him in the past. He is now in a high profile bind. His father-in-law must take the lead, not his son-in-law. Otherwise, he will face opposition this year too.
M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@streamyx.com
3 Jan 2006
THE MALAYSIAN CABINET WILL discuss tomorrow (04 January 2006) the sudden and freak death of Dr Liew Boon-Horng of Ethos Consulting, whose work in the Ministry of Defence took away from the defence minister, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak, his powers to buy weapons. Purchases of arms are given to UMNO go-betweens, and Ethos Consulting made sure that it went to the prime minister's son-in-law Mr Khairy Jamaluddin's friends. Divine intervention has stalked Mr Khairy's every recent move. He used Ethos Consulting to make the defence minister have no control over arms purchases. With Dr Liew dead, Mr Khairy has to start again in the defence ministry. But Dato' Seri Najib, like his cousin, UMNO Youth chief and fellow cabinet minister, did not see through Mr Khairy's intentions at first, but now does. Dato' Seri Najib is unlikely to allow this to happen again.
But Dr Liew's freak death has shaken the Malaysian establishment. Dato' Seri Najib says the government is taking it 'very seriously'. Two reports would be presented to the Cabinet tomorrow. He says that 'if we find the contractor responsible, based on these reports, "stern action will be taken". He goes on, giving the impression of seriousness: "There is also the question of criminal liability" but that would be for the authorities to follow up. Dr Liew died because a two tonne concrete block fell on his car. It should have dropped. The contractor is guilty. What the authorities should be doing is to charge him in court. Instead of the machinery department getting involved, or of a report from them. the Cabinet is discussing it.
Two cabinet ministers – the MCA president and the minister for local government and housing, Dato' Seri Ong Ka Ting; the human resources minister, Dato' Fong Chan Onn – and the Kuala Lumpur mayor, Dato' Ruslan Hasan were at Dr Liew's house after the death. Other people have died from the contractor's mishap, but they went to their graves unmourned or visited by cabinet ministers. But Dr Liew is an important cog in the wheel of Mr Khairy reducing Dato' Seri Najib a cipher. Dato' Ruslan has said the contractor did not breach the regulations, that dropping a two tonne concrete on anyone on the road is alright. But he is not sure. He said more information is needed, and this would be detailed in his report.
So why is the cabinet meeting in a hurry over the death of a man. The reports are not ready. But this death is important in making sure the next prime minister is not the deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak. With the man's death – whoever is responsible – Mr Khairy has to start from afresh to bring down. The former Prime Minister Tun Mahathir's heart attack at Christmas has slowed down the deputy prime minister. If he decides not to be involved in Malaysian politics as a result, Dato' Seri Najib, who depended on him, would have a difficult fight in 2006 but it he decides to come back, he becomes an intractible enemy of Mr Khairy.. Since Mr Khairy decides the important decisions in the government, the death is discussed in the Cabinet.
People Mr Khairy depended on has died or got into activities they should not. Tan Sri Noordin Sopiee who introduced Pak Lah's daughter, Nori, to Mr Khairy, and looked upon himself as a father figure to the young man, died of thyroid cancer last week. Making use of Putera UMNO has caused a setback after its president, Dato' Azeez Abdul Rahman, was caught in a vice raid at Holiday Villa. The deputy interior minister, Dato' Noh Omar, has said he was in Klang at that time, but no one believes him. It is he who told the Chinese tourists not to come to Malaysia if they are not prepared to obey the laws. But his minister is Dato' Seri Abdullah Badawi, who is also father-in-law of Mr Khairy. Could he say anything else?
Mr Khairy has made himself a rich man – he bought RM9.2 million worth of ECM Libra shares. ECM Libra is a boutique investment firm that roped in Pak Lah's men to be successful; in other words an Ali Baba firm. Until then, he was only an employee. No one in government, from secretaries general down, will go against Pak Lah's son-in-law. He had played his cards well as long as he was not involved in any company. And he was not as close to Singapore. He is blamed, rightly or wrongly, for selling Malaysian government assets to Singapore. He has thrown his weight around, and many believe the governmet is run by him. He made an early enemy of Tun Mahathir as a result. His heart attack can cause one of two things: he might try his best to unseat Pak Lah's government, because he does not want Malaysia to be ruled by one as close to Singapore as Mr Khairy; or he might retire. His decision will affect Mr Khairy and Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak.
So, the cabinet meeting tomorrow on Dr Liew's death, when the reports and investigations are not complete, is to be expected. The deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Najib, does not, in Malay fashion, oppose Mr Khairy in public. But Mr Khairy does, and has gone far. But he has to start all over again. But he would not get the support of those who backed him in the past. He is now in a high profile bind. His father-in-law must take the lead, not his son-in-law. Otherwise, he will face opposition this year too.
M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@streamyx.com
Vatican Warns Italian Women Against Muslim Marriages
Vatican Warns Italian Women Against Muslim Marriages
http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2005-12/27/article09.shtml
"The experience of recent years leads us as a general rule to advise against or in any case to discourage these marriages," Ruini said (Reuters)
Additional Reporting By Ahmed Fathy, IOL Correspondent
CAIRO, December 27, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Vatican cardinals have warned Italian women against tying the knot with the rising numbers of Muslims in Italy, citing what they say cultural and religious diversities.
Church officials say that Italy has seen 20,000 marriages in 2005 between Catholic women and Muslims, whose population touches the one million mark, the BBC News Online reported Monday, December 26.
Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the Vicar General of Rome, had said that cultural differences over issues such as the role of women and education of children make it difficult for Catholic women to marry Muslims.
"The experience of recent years leads us as a general rule to advise against or in any case to discourage these marriages," he wrote in a document released last month.
"Mixed Catholic and Muslim couples who intend to have a family have other difficulties above and beyond those experienced by other couples, when one considers cultural and religious diversity," wrote cardinal Ruini, a conservative thinker close to late Pope John Paul II.
Late Pope John Paul II was the first pope in history to pray in a mosque, when he visited Damascus.
His successor, Benedict XVI, has insisted that he is also keen to promote religious and cultural dialogue with the Islamic world.
Cardinal Ruini also expressed concern at the growing number of Catholic-Muslim marriages, calling it "intrinsically fragile".
"According to the Italian statistics office ISTAT, there were more than 19,000 such marriages in Italy last year," he added.
Ruini's warning echoed a similar one last year by Vatican cardinal Stephen Hamao, who wrote about what he called the "bitter experiences" that European women have had in marrying Muslims.
Fears
Commenting on the warning of Catholic-Muslim marriages, an Egyptian Catholic priest said the move comes in response to concerns over the growing numbers of Muslims in Italy.
"The warning expresses fears of the Catholic cardinals that Italian women who marry Muslims would later revert to Islam," priest Kristian Van Spen, professor of philosophy, Cairo University, told IslamOnline.net Tuesday, December 27.
"In addition, they are also concerned that children born to this marriage will also embrace Islam."
"This, consequently, will lead to an increase of the number of Muslims in Italy," he stressed.
There are an estimated 1.5 million Muslims in Italy, a country of about 58 million people.
Many European voices have been warning of the increasing number of Muslims in Europe.
Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci warned in her book "La forza della ragione," which translates as The Force of Reason, that Europe is turning into “an Islamic province, an Islamic colony” and that “to believe that a good Islam and a bad Islam exist goes against all reason.”
The Egyptian priest cited a number of motives leading to the marriage of the Italian Catholic woman from a Muslim
"In addition to the social pressures, the Catholic woman who marries a Muslim does not have the right to inheritance unless she reverts to Islam," he said.
He ruled out any dialogue on marriage between Catholics and Muslims as part of the interfaith dialogue.
Observers who monitor Europe's Muslim population estimate that several thousands of men and women revert to Islam each year, according to a report by the Christian Science Monitor Tuesday.
http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2005-12/27/article09.shtml
"The experience of recent years leads us as a general rule to advise against or in any case to discourage these marriages," Ruini said (Reuters)
Additional Reporting By Ahmed Fathy, IOL Correspondent
CAIRO, December 27, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Vatican cardinals have warned Italian women against tying the knot with the rising numbers of Muslims in Italy, citing what they say cultural and religious diversities.
Church officials say that Italy has seen 20,000 marriages in 2005 between Catholic women and Muslims, whose population touches the one million mark, the BBC News Online reported Monday, December 26.
Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the Vicar General of Rome, had said that cultural differences over issues such as the role of women and education of children make it difficult for Catholic women to marry Muslims.
"The experience of recent years leads us as a general rule to advise against or in any case to discourage these marriages," he wrote in a document released last month.
"Mixed Catholic and Muslim couples who intend to have a family have other difficulties above and beyond those experienced by other couples, when one considers cultural and religious diversity," wrote cardinal Ruini, a conservative thinker close to late Pope John Paul II.
Late Pope John Paul II was the first pope in history to pray in a mosque, when he visited Damascus.
His successor, Benedict XVI, has insisted that he is also keen to promote religious and cultural dialogue with the Islamic world.
Cardinal Ruini also expressed concern at the growing number of Catholic-Muslim marriages, calling it "intrinsically fragile".
"According to the Italian statistics office ISTAT, there were more than 19,000 such marriages in Italy last year," he added.
Ruini's warning echoed a similar one last year by Vatican cardinal Stephen Hamao, who wrote about what he called the "bitter experiences" that European women have had in marrying Muslims.
Fears
Commenting on the warning of Catholic-Muslim marriages, an Egyptian Catholic priest said the move comes in response to concerns over the growing numbers of Muslims in Italy.
"The warning expresses fears of the Catholic cardinals that Italian women who marry Muslims would later revert to Islam," priest Kristian Van Spen, professor of philosophy, Cairo University, told IslamOnline.net Tuesday, December 27.
"In addition, they are also concerned that children born to this marriage will also embrace Islam."
"This, consequently, will lead to an increase of the number of Muslims in Italy," he stressed.
There are an estimated 1.5 million Muslims in Italy, a country of about 58 million people.
Many European voices have been warning of the increasing number of Muslims in Europe.
Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci warned in her book "La forza della ragione," which translates as The Force of Reason, that Europe is turning into “an Islamic province, an Islamic colony” and that “to believe that a good Islam and a bad Islam exist goes against all reason.”
The Egyptian priest cited a number of motives leading to the marriage of the Italian Catholic woman from a Muslim
"In addition to the social pressures, the Catholic woman who marries a Muslim does not have the right to inheritance unless she reverts to Islam," he said.
He ruled out any dialogue on marriage between Catholics and Muslims as part of the interfaith dialogue.
Observers who monitor Europe's Muslim population estimate that several thousands of men and women revert to Islam each year, according to a report by the Christian Science Monitor Tuesday.
tukar nama pejabat PAS dari markas kepada nama lain
Husam cadang tukar nama pejabat PAS dari markas kepada nama lain
Tuesday, January 03
Oleh EKMAL YUSOF
TAIPING, 3 Jan (Hrkh)-Naib Presiden PAS, Husam Musa mencadangkan agar PAS menukar nama pejabatnya dari markas kepada nama-nama lain yang lebih sesuai kerana anggapan pihak luar terhadap markas sangat mengelirukan.
"Kepada ahli-ahli PAS, perkataan markas bermaksud tempat bangunan pejabat PAS, ianya sememangnya tidak menggambarkan sebarang yang ganjil.
"Tetapi, kepada orang ramai di luar sana atau pun orang-orang tentera, 'markas' itu menggambarkan sebuah tempat tentera termasuk sepertimana yang terdapat lazimnya di markas tentera.
"Seben! arnya, di markas PAS, semua yang bersangkutan dengan tentera tidak ada. Yang ada hanya kopiah atau ketayap putih, tasbih dan sejadah atau tikar sembahyang sahaja.
"Tetapi itulah persepsi setengah daripada mereka di luar sana, markas PAS dianggap lain," kata Husam ketika membentangkan kertas kerjanya bertajuk 'Kepentingan Isu Semasa Dalam Mengubah Minda Rakyat' di Markaz Tarbiyah Air Kuning, di sini.
Sehubungan dengan itu, beliau mencadangkan secara perlahan-lahan nama pejabat PAS itu ditukar kepada nama lain.
"Kalau bolih, moleklah kita gunakan perkataan lebih lojik yang dapat menguntungkan parti juga, seperti kepada balai kuliah misalnya secara perlahan-lahan," cadang beliau.
Lemah lembut dalam kenyataan
Beliau juga meminta semua pimpinan PAS berhati-hati dan lemah lembut ketika bercakap atau membuat sesuatu kenyataan.
"Ketika menangani isu-isu yang serius dan kritikal, haruslah kitamenggunakan cara ketrampilan yang bersopan dan lembu! t.
"Seperti pendapat para cendiakawan, walau pun di dalam perut kita ada harimau, tapi di luar, lembut seperti sekor kambing," katanya.
Bagi memastikan semua ahli PAS sensitif dengan isu semasa, beliau meminta supaya mereka sentiasa mengikuti isu semasa dengan sempurna.
"Para ahli parti perlu baca, wajib kena kaji, fikir dan ikuti dengan teliti isu-isu dan berita-berita semasa.
"Kita tidak mahu satu dua tiga orang sahaja ada habit yang penting sedemikian itu, tapi semua orang harus mengamalkannya setiap hari dan masa," kata Husam.
Tuesday, January 03
Oleh EKMAL YUSOF
TAIPING, 3 Jan (Hrkh)-Naib Presiden PAS, Husam Musa mencadangkan agar PAS menukar nama pejabatnya dari markas kepada nama-nama lain yang lebih sesuai kerana anggapan pihak luar terhadap markas sangat mengelirukan.
"Kepada ahli-ahli PAS, perkataan markas bermaksud tempat bangunan pejabat PAS, ianya sememangnya tidak menggambarkan sebarang yang ganjil.
"Tetapi, kepada orang ramai di luar sana atau pun orang-orang tentera, 'markas' itu menggambarkan sebuah tempat tentera termasuk sepertimana yang terdapat lazimnya di markas tentera.
"Seben! arnya, di markas PAS, semua yang bersangkutan dengan tentera tidak ada. Yang ada hanya kopiah atau ketayap putih, tasbih dan sejadah atau tikar sembahyang sahaja.
"Tetapi itulah persepsi setengah daripada mereka di luar sana, markas PAS dianggap lain," kata Husam ketika membentangkan kertas kerjanya bertajuk 'Kepentingan Isu Semasa Dalam Mengubah Minda Rakyat' di Markaz Tarbiyah Air Kuning, di sini.
Sehubungan dengan itu, beliau mencadangkan secara perlahan-lahan nama pejabat PAS itu ditukar kepada nama lain.
"Kalau bolih, moleklah kita gunakan perkataan lebih lojik yang dapat menguntungkan parti juga, seperti kepada balai kuliah misalnya secara perlahan-lahan," cadang beliau.
Lemah lembut dalam kenyataan
Beliau juga meminta semua pimpinan PAS berhati-hati dan lemah lembut ketika bercakap atau membuat sesuatu kenyataan.
"Ketika menangani isu-isu yang serius dan kritikal, haruslah kitamenggunakan cara ketrampilan yang bersopan dan lembu! t.
"Seperti pendapat para cendiakawan, walau pun di dalam perut kita ada harimau, tapi di luar, lembut seperti sekor kambing," katanya.
Bagi memastikan semua ahli PAS sensitif dengan isu semasa, beliau meminta supaya mereka sentiasa mengikuti isu semasa dengan sempurna.
"Para ahli parti perlu baca, wajib kena kaji, fikir dan ikuti dengan teliti isu-isu dan berita-berita semasa.
"Kita tidak mahu satu dua tiga orang sahaja ada habit yang penting sedemikian itu, tapi semua orang harus mengamalkannya setiap hari dan masa," kata Husam.
Getting to the top without an election
[MGG] Getting to the top without an election
3 Jan 2006
THE PUTERA UMNO CHIEF, Dato' Azeez Abdul Rahman, is caught in a vice
raid at the Holiday Villa. He frequents the hotel, but he would not
have been caught if his enemies, or that of his protector, Mr Khairy
Jamaluddin, had tipped the police, who went there in full force, with
a complement of journalists. Whatever the UMNO spin, what makes the
rounds at the Holiday Villa is not what is reported. The story is,
or has become, confused. The English language newspapers talked of a
datuk being arrested, sticking to their time-honoured view of
protecting those close to the top. The internet identified the man,
as the Malay papers. The more you read what happened, which includes
the spin, the more unbelieving the story becomes. But it is seen as a
setback for Mr Khairy Jamaluddin to unseat the UMNO Youth leader,
Dato' Hishamuddin Hussein, without a fight.
He has had setbacks recently. His associates and friends have died.
The Ethos Consulting chief, Dr Liew Boon-Horng, who threatened to sue
if his links with Mr Khairy is ever mentioned, but an old friend and
possibly business partner, died in a freak accident last Friday when
a two-tonne piece of concrete fell on his car. Tan Sri Noordin Sopee
had introduced Pak Lah's daughter Nori to Mr Khairy when he was the
boss of the Institute of Strategic and International Studies, and the
two were working for him but he died of thyroid cancer last week. He
has threatened those who write critically of him with law suits, but
continues giving interviews, and allows articles about him, in
friendly newspapers. Pengakalen Pasir is said to be "Khairy;s
Election". UMNO won that, but it disaffecting the local leaders, for
one.
But he faces his big crisis with the arrest of Dato' Azeez. He had
formed Putera UMNO officially as a vehicle for those who did not want
to join UMNO Youth. It was only later that even Dato' Hishamuddin
Hussein knew it was Mr Khairy's vehicle to get UMNO Youth leadership
without a fight. Mr Khairy has been using the UMNO Youth network to
form his Putera UMNO around the country. He had got to be UMNO Youth
deputy chief without a contest, and he hopes to dislodge Dato'
Hishamuddin similarly. He appointed Dato' Azeez to head Putera UMNO.
He has to sort the mess he has landed himself over the arrest in a
vice den.
Since UMNO and its leaders, especially those close to its president,
Pak Lah, do their activities in secret, Malaysians often know of
their arrival, in their past, only when they do. Now these secret
meetings are on the Internet shortly after they are finished. There
is a huge split within UMNO, the activities of the other side is
reported assiduously on the Internet while the official spin is
reported in the newspapers. But the Internet is more believed. The
UMNO is a leader-down party, and the spin it produces is often
disbelieved. Middling leaders will not stick their neck out putting
the news across if the leadership eventually disagrees. So they play
safe. The Malaysian newspapers will only report the official version,
although they might report critically on issues that affect the
people. The Holiday Villa incident is a case in point.
UMNO was founded in 1946 for a different purpose than the official
spin has it. So its women's and youth wing. Dato' Onn, the founder of
UMNO and grandfather of Hishamuddin, had got the women to protest the
British plans to reduce Malay sultans to a cipher, which is how they
came into politics. The first UMNO youth president was Tun Hussein,
Hishamuddin's father and Malaysian prime minister. The formation of
Putera UMNO for reasons other than the progress of Malaysia, or even
of the Malays, is a distorition, The only innovation it has made to
its membership is Puteri UMNO; the other political parties,
particularly PAS, have formed their own version of Puteri UMNO.
But Putera UMNO was formed as an alter ego to Puteri UMNO. But with a
diferent aim. Puteri UMNO was formed because young Malay women was
not joining Kaum Ibu. It is responsible for bringing in professional
women who otherwise would not have joined, and for making those women
a political force. They would not join Kaum Ibu because of its older
members and of its elderly leaders. Putera UMNO is formed to ensure
the political progress of one man who has reached into the inner
sanctum of government by being the son-in-law of the prime minister.
That alone is not enough. The days when he could catapault into the
prime minister's chair is long past. Tun Hussein Onn got into high
office because he was married to the elder sister of Tun Razak's
wife. He entered the cabinet after 1969, and had become prime
minister in 1976. The foreign minister was catapaulted into the
cabinet, from his banking career, because UMNO leaders felt they had
treated his father, Syed Jaffair Albar, "the Lion of UMNO", badly.
Any one who feels he has a prior claim to the top will have to ward
off UMNO leaders who have been in the party longer. In fact, UMNO has
leaders who joined the party before Mr Khairy was born.
Mr Khairy has to make sure his aides can deliver. Whether Dato' Azeez
can remain as Putera UMNO chairman remains to be seen, irrespective
whether he can spin his way out of what happened in Holiday Villa. He
would have to find a new chairman of Putera UMNO. The people in the
rural areas have begun to ignore what they read in the newspapers,
but get news from the Internet, usually from sons, daughters or
relatives working in the towns, will be hard to convince. He must
first ensure his assistants are clean, and he and his aides can deal
with any eventuality. Threating critics with law suits is not how to
do that. But Malaysian officials and politicians, and their
sidekicks, threaten law suits at the drop of a hat. The net result is
they have lost whether they carries out threats or not.
M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@streamyx.com
3 Jan 2006
THE PUTERA UMNO CHIEF, Dato' Azeez Abdul Rahman, is caught in a vice
raid at the Holiday Villa. He frequents the hotel, but he would not
have been caught if his enemies, or that of his protector, Mr Khairy
Jamaluddin, had tipped the police, who went there in full force, with
a complement of journalists. Whatever the UMNO spin, what makes the
rounds at the Holiday Villa is not what is reported. The story is,
or has become, confused. The English language newspapers talked of a
datuk being arrested, sticking to their time-honoured view of
protecting those close to the top. The internet identified the man,
as the Malay papers. The more you read what happened, which includes
the spin, the more unbelieving the story becomes. But it is seen as a
setback for Mr Khairy Jamaluddin to unseat the UMNO Youth leader,
Dato' Hishamuddin Hussein, without a fight.
He has had setbacks recently. His associates and friends have died.
The Ethos Consulting chief, Dr Liew Boon-Horng, who threatened to sue
if his links with Mr Khairy is ever mentioned, but an old friend and
possibly business partner, died in a freak accident last Friday when
a two-tonne piece of concrete fell on his car. Tan Sri Noordin Sopee
had introduced Pak Lah's daughter Nori to Mr Khairy when he was the
boss of the Institute of Strategic and International Studies, and the
two were working for him but he died of thyroid cancer last week. He
has threatened those who write critically of him with law suits, but
continues giving interviews, and allows articles about him, in
friendly newspapers. Pengakalen Pasir is said to be "Khairy;s
Election". UMNO won that, but it disaffecting the local leaders, for
one.
But he faces his big crisis with the arrest of Dato' Azeez. He had
formed Putera UMNO officially as a vehicle for those who did not want
to join UMNO Youth. It was only later that even Dato' Hishamuddin
Hussein knew it was Mr Khairy's vehicle to get UMNO Youth leadership
without a fight. Mr Khairy has been using the UMNO Youth network to
form his Putera UMNO around the country. He had got to be UMNO Youth
deputy chief without a contest, and he hopes to dislodge Dato'
Hishamuddin similarly. He appointed Dato' Azeez to head Putera UMNO.
He has to sort the mess he has landed himself over the arrest in a
vice den.
Since UMNO and its leaders, especially those close to its president,
Pak Lah, do their activities in secret, Malaysians often know of
their arrival, in their past, only when they do. Now these secret
meetings are on the Internet shortly after they are finished. There
is a huge split within UMNO, the activities of the other side is
reported assiduously on the Internet while the official spin is
reported in the newspapers. But the Internet is more believed. The
UMNO is a leader-down party, and the spin it produces is often
disbelieved. Middling leaders will not stick their neck out putting
the news across if the leadership eventually disagrees. So they play
safe. The Malaysian newspapers will only report the official version,
although they might report critically on issues that affect the
people. The Holiday Villa incident is a case in point.
UMNO was founded in 1946 for a different purpose than the official
spin has it. So its women's and youth wing. Dato' Onn, the founder of
UMNO and grandfather of Hishamuddin, had got the women to protest the
British plans to reduce Malay sultans to a cipher, which is how they
came into politics. The first UMNO youth president was Tun Hussein,
Hishamuddin's father and Malaysian prime minister. The formation of
Putera UMNO for reasons other than the progress of Malaysia, or even
of the Malays, is a distorition, The only innovation it has made to
its membership is Puteri UMNO; the other political parties,
particularly PAS, have formed their own version of Puteri UMNO.
But Putera UMNO was formed as an alter ego to Puteri UMNO. But with a
diferent aim. Puteri UMNO was formed because young Malay women was
not joining Kaum Ibu. It is responsible for bringing in professional
women who otherwise would not have joined, and for making those women
a political force. They would not join Kaum Ibu because of its older
members and of its elderly leaders. Putera UMNO is formed to ensure
the political progress of one man who has reached into the inner
sanctum of government by being the son-in-law of the prime minister.
That alone is not enough. The days when he could catapault into the
prime minister's chair is long past. Tun Hussein Onn got into high
office because he was married to the elder sister of Tun Razak's
wife. He entered the cabinet after 1969, and had become prime
minister in 1976. The foreign minister was catapaulted into the
cabinet, from his banking career, because UMNO leaders felt they had
treated his father, Syed Jaffair Albar, "the Lion of UMNO", badly.
Any one who feels he has a prior claim to the top will have to ward
off UMNO leaders who have been in the party longer. In fact, UMNO has
leaders who joined the party before Mr Khairy was born.
Mr Khairy has to make sure his aides can deliver. Whether Dato' Azeez
can remain as Putera UMNO chairman remains to be seen, irrespective
whether he can spin his way out of what happened in Holiday Villa. He
would have to find a new chairman of Putera UMNO. The people in the
rural areas have begun to ignore what they read in the newspapers,
but get news from the Internet, usually from sons, daughters or
relatives working in the towns, will be hard to convince. He must
first ensure his assistants are clean, and he and his aides can deal
with any eventuality. Threating critics with law suits is not how to
do that. But Malaysian officials and politicians, and their
sidekicks, threaten law suits at the drop of a hat. The net result is
they have lost whether they carries out threats or not.
M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@streamyx.com
Folly of government's involvement in commerce
The Sun, Kuala Lumpur
30 December 2005
Folly of government's involvement in commerce
M. Bakri Musa
Consider these isolated headlines of 2005; the pattern is obvious
even if we refuse to recognize it.
Senior UMNO politicians guilty of money politics; Proton and Malaysia
Airlines reporting colossal losses; and Bank Islam weighed down with
massive dud loans. Then there was Tun Mahathir's very public tiff
with his erstwhile ardent supporter, Trade Minister Rafidah Aziz,
over the AP issue. Meanwhile, nine Government-linked companies (GLCs)
hogged 90 percent of the RM47.5B of Treasury's guaranteed loans.
These are the predictable consequences when the government dabbles in
commerce. Ibn Khaldun said it best over 600 years ago in his
Muqaddimah (An Introduction [to the Study of History]), "Commercial
activity on the part of the ruler is harmful to his subjects and
ruinous to the tax revenue." Substitute "ruling party" for "ruler,"
and we have the current mess.
Those UMNO politicians could not afford to indulge in money politics
if all they had was their official pay. UMNO's involvement in
business created this class of rich, corrupt politicians. That is but
one aspect of the "harmful" part referred to by Ibn Khaldun.
As for being ruinous to the tax revenue, the total cost of bailing
out these GLCs easily exceeded the country's current budget. That was
a simple exercise of just adding the figures, meaning, only the
nominal cost. The real costs are considerably higher. One billion
ringgit spent in 1995 would be equivalent to over 1.5B today, after
factoring for inflation and devaluation.
The opportunity costs are even greater. Had those billions been spent
on schools and villages, our citizens would definitely be better
educated and much healthier. They would then contribute even more to
the economy, not to mention the Treasury in the form of their
enhanced income and other taxes. As a bonus, they would have fewer
opportunities to become corrupt.
This bleeding of the public purse is not slowing. Recent corporate
reorganizations are merely cosmetic; they do not address the
underlying flawed assumptions. Besides, those exercises distract the
management; they benefit only investment bankers and corporate lawyers.
There is a place for the government in business. America's Tennessee
Valley Authority (TVA) was responsible for the massive rural
electrification that uplifted the lives of millions of Americans. It
also spawned many new industries. The Federal Housing Authority (FHA)
brought affordable homes to the American middle class.
America has not done everything right. Its Amtrak rivals our Malaysia
Airlines in sucking up public funds.
It was the genius of the late Tun Razak to set up these GLCs. He
recognized that only the government had the resources to take on the
then entrenched economic powers. They had already carved the
marketplace unto themselves, erecting formidable barriers to new
entrants.
Establishing entities like UDA, Pernas, and Petronas was the only way
to break those barriers. GLCs were to spearhead the entry of
Bumiputra into the marketplace. Through GLCs, Tun Razak used the
might of government to push the economy towards free enterprise and
away from the monopolization by colonial corporations.
Those early GLCs nurtured young Bumiputra managers and entrepreneurs.
Many later joined multinational corporations (MNCs) or started their
own ventures, exactly the objectives of the late Tun.
The situation today could not be more different. In searching for a
new Chief Executive for Malaysia Airlines, one stated criterion was
that the individual have extensive experience in an MNC, a tacit
admission that these GLCs have failed in grooming future executives.
Instead of spawning new entrepreneurs, these GLCs snuffed them out.
Hundreds of minibus operators - the most elemental form of free
enterprise system - had their livelihood snatched away when a GLC
took over their routes. Not only was the commuting public not well
served, it destroyed an entire class of budding entrepreneurs. With
them went the self-employed mechanics, frame builders, and others.
Now Malaysia Airlines is using its clout with the government to snuff
out its local competitor, Air Asia. The latter contributes to the
Treasury; the former bleeds it.
Another rationale for GLCs is that "strategic" industries be under
local control. I prefer an efficient, revenue-producing local
enterprise regardless of who owns it to one that that is locally
owned but heavily subsidized and highly inefficient.
It would have been far more productive to use the funds wasted on
GLCs to subsidize and encourage MNCs to employ and nurture Bumiputra
managers and suppliers.
Many see the failure of GLCs as reflecting Bumiputra aptitude and
competence for commerce, conveniently forgetting the similar dismal
fate of such corporations in China and India. Nonetheless, those ugly
racist perceptions persist. I would have thought that should have
motivated those currently running GLCs to excel.
If the government's role in the private sector were along the lines
of TVA and not Amtrak, it would more likely achieve the objectives of
the original New Economic Policy.
30 December 2005
Folly of government's involvement in commerce
M. Bakri Musa
Consider these isolated headlines of 2005; the pattern is obvious
even if we refuse to recognize it.
Senior UMNO politicians guilty of money politics; Proton and Malaysia
Airlines reporting colossal losses; and Bank Islam weighed down with
massive dud loans. Then there was Tun Mahathir's very public tiff
with his erstwhile ardent supporter, Trade Minister Rafidah Aziz,
over the AP issue. Meanwhile, nine Government-linked companies (GLCs)
hogged 90 percent of the RM47.5B of Treasury's guaranteed loans.
These are the predictable consequences when the government dabbles in
commerce. Ibn Khaldun said it best over 600 years ago in his
Muqaddimah (An Introduction [to the Study of History]), "Commercial
activity on the part of the ruler is harmful to his subjects and
ruinous to the tax revenue." Substitute "ruling party" for "ruler,"
and we have the current mess.
Those UMNO politicians could not afford to indulge in money politics
if all they had was their official pay. UMNO's involvement in
business created this class of rich, corrupt politicians. That is but
one aspect of the "harmful" part referred to by Ibn Khaldun.
As for being ruinous to the tax revenue, the total cost of bailing
out these GLCs easily exceeded the country's current budget. That was
a simple exercise of just adding the figures, meaning, only the
nominal cost. The real costs are considerably higher. One billion
ringgit spent in 1995 would be equivalent to over 1.5B today, after
factoring for inflation and devaluation.
The opportunity costs are even greater. Had those billions been spent
on schools and villages, our citizens would definitely be better
educated and much healthier. They would then contribute even more to
the economy, not to mention the Treasury in the form of their
enhanced income and other taxes. As a bonus, they would have fewer
opportunities to become corrupt.
This bleeding of the public purse is not slowing. Recent corporate
reorganizations are merely cosmetic; they do not address the
underlying flawed assumptions. Besides, those exercises distract the
management; they benefit only investment bankers and corporate lawyers.
There is a place for the government in business. America's Tennessee
Valley Authority (TVA) was responsible for the massive rural
electrification that uplifted the lives of millions of Americans. It
also spawned many new industries. The Federal Housing Authority (FHA)
brought affordable homes to the American middle class.
America has not done everything right. Its Amtrak rivals our Malaysia
Airlines in sucking up public funds.
It was the genius of the late Tun Razak to set up these GLCs. He
recognized that only the government had the resources to take on the
then entrenched economic powers. They had already carved the
marketplace unto themselves, erecting formidable barriers to new
entrants.
Establishing entities like UDA, Pernas, and Petronas was the only way
to break those barriers. GLCs were to spearhead the entry of
Bumiputra into the marketplace. Through GLCs, Tun Razak used the
might of government to push the economy towards free enterprise and
away from the monopolization by colonial corporations.
Those early GLCs nurtured young Bumiputra managers and entrepreneurs.
Many later joined multinational corporations (MNCs) or started their
own ventures, exactly the objectives of the late Tun.
The situation today could not be more different. In searching for a
new Chief Executive for Malaysia Airlines, one stated criterion was
that the individual have extensive experience in an MNC, a tacit
admission that these GLCs have failed in grooming future executives.
Instead of spawning new entrepreneurs, these GLCs snuffed them out.
Hundreds of minibus operators - the most elemental form of free
enterprise system - had their livelihood snatched away when a GLC
took over their routes. Not only was the commuting public not well
served, it destroyed an entire class of budding entrepreneurs. With
them went the self-employed mechanics, frame builders, and others.
Now Malaysia Airlines is using its clout with the government to snuff
out its local competitor, Air Asia. The latter contributes to the
Treasury; the former bleeds it.
Another rationale for GLCs is that "strategic" industries be under
local control. I prefer an efficient, revenue-producing local
enterprise regardless of who owns it to one that that is locally
owned but heavily subsidized and highly inefficient.
It would have been far more productive to use the funds wasted on
GLCs to subsidize and encourage MNCs to employ and nurture Bumiputra
managers and suppliers.
Many see the failure of GLCs as reflecting Bumiputra aptitude and
competence for commerce, conveniently forgetting the similar dismal
fate of such corporations in China and India. Nonetheless, those ugly
racist perceptions persist. I would have thought that should have
motivated those currently running GLCs to excel.
If the government's role in the private sector were along the lines
of TVA and not Amtrak, it would more likely achieve the objectives of
the original New Economic Policy.
The power of witchcraft
Malaysia Today
02 January 2006
The power of witchcraft
Raja Petra Kamarudin
Up to early 2000, Terengganu State used to earn about RM800 million
to RM900 million a year in Royalty. The money was Terengganu’s 5%
share of all the oil and gas extracted from the state. Terengganu
contributes to half of Malaysia’s petroleum wealth; the other half
coming from East Malaysia.
Under the Petroleum Development Act passed by Parliament about 30
years ago, by a stroke of the pen, all the states in Malaysia lost
their right to their oil and gas resources -- which should actually
be entirely state-owned under the terms of the Federation in 1957.
You could say the Federal Government ‘robbed’ the states of their
rights to 100% of the oil and gas income and reduced them to a share
of only 5%, which was then called ‘Royalty’ as stated in the
Agreement the Federal Government signed with all the states.
But in 2000, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad denied that any such
Agreement existed and denied that the states were entitled to this 5%
Royalty as stated in the Agreement plus the Petroleum Development
Act. The fact that the Act itself violated the Federation Agreement
was of no consequence. Now, even the Agreement signed between the
Federal Government and the states plus the Act of Parliament were
ignored.
Dr Mahathir then withdrew the 5% Royalty that Terengganu was entitled
to. But only Terengganu, the state that fell to the opposition in
1999, suffered this fate. Other states still under the ruling party
continued to enjoy their 5% Royalty. In justifying his actions, Dr
Mahathir argued that so such arrangement exists and the states are
not entitled to any 5% Royalty. What Terengganu was enjoying all
those years from the mid-1970s until early 2000 was ‘goodwill
money’ (wang ehsan), not Royalty, said Dr Mahathir.
Even Parliament is beneath Dr Mahathir and legally signed agreements
need not be honoured, though they may have been signed between
governments.
Then, in 2004, the ruling party won back Terengganu State. But Dr
Mahathir had argued all along that no such arrangement exists. The
state is not entitled to a 5% Royalty on its oil and gas resources
and what the Federal Government had been paying for about 25 years
was goodwill money. So how to now reinstate the Royalty payments?
Then they came out with a very ingenious plan in how they can give
Terengganu back its 5% Royalty, yet not admit that they are doing so
-- and at the same time make sure that the money goes to certain
individuals and not into the state coffers.
And the way they did it can only happen in Loony Malaysia.
The Federal Government will not pay Terengganu State a fixed 5%.
Instead, it will finance certain projects that the state proposes and
subject, of course, to the approval of the Prime Minister’s
Department. The projects, however, would not be state projects but
projects mooted by its Chief Minister, Idris Jusoh. In fact, Idris
Jusoh had been managing this petroleum Royalty now called ‘goodwill
money’ all the while the state was under opposition control. It was a
sort of shadow government, parallel to the duly elected government of
Terengganu.
Needless to say, those managing the RM800 million to RM900 million a
year became extremely rich over those four years just by virtue of
the fact that the money by-passed the state coffers and went straight
into the hands of those managing the money. Ever wonder why when the
JE epidemic hit the country the Terengganu folks joked that
Terengganu too has its own version of the ‘JE’ scourge? What they
meant of course was Jusoh Enterprise, the private company owned by
Idris Jusoh’s family that has its tentacles in almost anything you
can think of.
Recently, they were at a loss as to how to siphon out more money. The
year was about to come to an end and they needed to get their hands
on the money before the accounts closed for the year. So they came
out with a very clever plan.
On 26 June 2005, they set up an events management company called
Premium Project Management Sdn Bhd (company number 692728-M). Then,
on 9 September 2005, the name was changed to T-Best Events Sdn Bhd.
The company’s paid-up capital is only RM2.00.
The company is supposed to be a Terengganu based company but its
registered address is at no. 23A, Jalan SS 21/60, Damansara Utama,
Petaling Jaya, Selangor.
The two shareholders of the company who hold one share each of RM1.00
are Saharuddin bin Abdullah and Suhami binti Kiman. The directors of
the company are Wan Hisham bin Wan Salleh (Terengganu), Mohamed bin
Awang Tera (Terengganu), Chew Kok Foo (Petaling Jaya), Peter William
Gilmour (Australia), Chua Hooi Sian (Petaling Jaya) and Lim Poh Tiang
(Petaling Jaya).
The name to note here is Wan Hisham bin Wan Salleh, a (EXCO) member
of the Terengganu State Government, and the man behind the entire
operation. Wan Hisham’s brother, Wan Mohd Farid, is the political
secretary to the Minister of Home Affairs, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi,
who, coincidentally, is also the Prime Minister of Malaysia. But Wan
Hisham is only there to give the company political weight. The man
running the company is Patrick Lim. And Patrick Lim’s job is to
conjure up events that the state can embark upon -- which, of course,
would require a couple of hundred million Ringgit to finance.
One very ingenious project they came up with was to hold a sailboat
race from 29 November to 4 December 2005 called the Monsoon Cup.
Instead of everyone running for the hills in fear of a Tsunami
hitting this country like it did around Christmas of 2004, they would
congregate on the beach to watch sailboats race against each other in
the monsoon winds.
And the Monsoon Cup was given a budget of RM250 million, more than
enough money to go around. Only in Loony Malaysia can a RM2 company,
hardly a couple months in operation, get its hands on a RM250 million
government job.
The plan was to invite sailboat champions from all over the world to
participate in the race. This would give the Monsoon Cup credibility
and prestige that would rival the Langkawi powerboat race. But these
world champions would need to be given suitable accommodations and
the only five-star hotel in Kuala Terengganu was certainly not
suitable enough.
So they built 50 new houses on Mermaid Island, known locally as Pulau
Duyung. Each house was priced at RM1 million, so RM50 million would
be needed to build these houses. Of course, you and I can build these
same houses for around RM250,000 each. But that is not the issue
here. The issue is: the foreigners need to be made to believe that
they are living in a million dollar house (though it would only be
for a few days). Pricing the houses at four times what they actually
cost to build was not for purposes of siphoning out any money. (And
if you believe this then you will believe that pigs can fly).
Everything was plain sailing -- pun intended -- until race day
arrived. Then, on race day, the monsoon winds suddenly died down and
the sailboats ended up dead in the water.
Sheesh! The Pengkalan Pasir by-election was being held in
neighbouring Kelantan State at that same time and the monsoon was
threatening to dampen the election campaign. They were also worried
that the flood would prevent the voters from coming out to vote. So
someone had engaged a team of bomohs (witch doctors) to cast a spell
to keep the monsoon away. But they forgot to tell the bomohs to keep
the monsoon away from just Kelantan, not from Terengganu that needed
the monsoon.
Just to digress a bit for the benefit of those who do not know what
Malaysian bomohs are capable of. Malaysians of all persuasions
normally engage a bomoh to cast a spell if they want to keep the rain
away in the event they are having a garden party, to make a girl or
boy you have taken a fancy to fall in love with you, to destroy a
competitor’s business, to break up someone’s marriage, to ensure that
your football team wins the match, to win an election, and so on. If
you want to get rich then bomohs are also able to give you the
winning numbers of the lottery -- but why bomohs themselves are never
rich and remain poor though they can ‘see’ winning numbers in a
lottery has remained a mystery till today.
Anyway, back to the Terengganu story. The Monsoon Cup was proving to
be a disaster. Without a monsoon, how to have a Monsoon Cup? So
Terengganu, in a panic, also engaged its own team of bomohs to cast a
spell to bring back the monsoon. But then there is a one week lead
time for spells to work. When you cast a spell it does not take
affect immediately. It may need anything up to a week to work -- sort
of like clearing an outstation cheque.
Eventually, they had to call an end to the RM250 million Monsoon Cup
and everyone went home extremely disappointed. Then the monsoon hit.
Terengganu was now facing a threat of being washed into the South
China Sea.
To help save the state from total destruction, the Terengganu
Religious Department sent out circulars to all the mosques throughout
the state asking the mosque congregation to pray for deliverance
(sembahyang tolak bala). No doubt they needed the monsoon to ensure
that the Monsoon Cup would meet with success and the bomohs engaged
to cast the spell had done a fine job. But the monsoon came too late
and now they did not need the monsoon anymore. Furthermore, the spell
cast by the bomohs was too powerful and the monsoon was going to
drown the entire state. (You can’t blame the bomohs though. They are
experts at casting spells to keep the rain away but this is the first
time they had been asked to cast a spell to create a monsoon).
Well, never mind, the bomohs may have failed and the Monsoon Cup may
have been a disaster, but the objective of siphoning out RM250
million had been met; and that is all that matters.
Hmm...I wonder how much the bomohs were paid to create the monsoon. I
suspect they were paid with post-dated cheques so that is why they
made sure the monsoon came only after the cheques had cleared. Next
year, Terengganu State should pay the bomohs in cash and maybe hold
back 50% of the payment, to be paid only when the monsoon comes.
Ends
02 January 2006
The power of witchcraft
Raja Petra Kamarudin
Up to early 2000, Terengganu State used to earn about RM800 million
to RM900 million a year in Royalty. The money was Terengganu’s 5%
share of all the oil and gas extracted from the state. Terengganu
contributes to half of Malaysia’s petroleum wealth; the other half
coming from East Malaysia.
Under the Petroleum Development Act passed by Parliament about 30
years ago, by a stroke of the pen, all the states in Malaysia lost
their right to their oil and gas resources -- which should actually
be entirely state-owned under the terms of the Federation in 1957.
You could say the Federal Government ‘robbed’ the states of their
rights to 100% of the oil and gas income and reduced them to a share
of only 5%, which was then called ‘Royalty’ as stated in the
Agreement the Federal Government signed with all the states.
But in 2000, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad denied that any such
Agreement existed and denied that the states were entitled to this 5%
Royalty as stated in the Agreement plus the Petroleum Development
Act. The fact that the Act itself violated the Federation Agreement
was of no consequence. Now, even the Agreement signed between the
Federal Government and the states plus the Act of Parliament were
ignored.
Dr Mahathir then withdrew the 5% Royalty that Terengganu was entitled
to. But only Terengganu, the state that fell to the opposition in
1999, suffered this fate. Other states still under the ruling party
continued to enjoy their 5% Royalty. In justifying his actions, Dr
Mahathir argued that so such arrangement exists and the states are
not entitled to any 5% Royalty. What Terengganu was enjoying all
those years from the mid-1970s until early 2000 was ‘goodwill
money’ (wang ehsan), not Royalty, said Dr Mahathir.
Even Parliament is beneath Dr Mahathir and legally signed agreements
need not be honoured, though they may have been signed between
governments.
Then, in 2004, the ruling party won back Terengganu State. But Dr
Mahathir had argued all along that no such arrangement exists. The
state is not entitled to a 5% Royalty on its oil and gas resources
and what the Federal Government had been paying for about 25 years
was goodwill money. So how to now reinstate the Royalty payments?
Then they came out with a very ingenious plan in how they can give
Terengganu back its 5% Royalty, yet not admit that they are doing so
-- and at the same time make sure that the money goes to certain
individuals and not into the state coffers.
And the way they did it can only happen in Loony Malaysia.
The Federal Government will not pay Terengganu State a fixed 5%.
Instead, it will finance certain projects that the state proposes and
subject, of course, to the approval of the Prime Minister’s
Department. The projects, however, would not be state projects but
projects mooted by its Chief Minister, Idris Jusoh. In fact, Idris
Jusoh had been managing this petroleum Royalty now called ‘goodwill
money’ all the while the state was under opposition control. It was a
sort of shadow government, parallel to the duly elected government of
Terengganu.
Needless to say, those managing the RM800 million to RM900 million a
year became extremely rich over those four years just by virtue of
the fact that the money by-passed the state coffers and went straight
into the hands of those managing the money. Ever wonder why when the
JE epidemic hit the country the Terengganu folks joked that
Terengganu too has its own version of the ‘JE’ scourge? What they
meant of course was Jusoh Enterprise, the private company owned by
Idris Jusoh’s family that has its tentacles in almost anything you
can think of.
Recently, they were at a loss as to how to siphon out more money. The
year was about to come to an end and they needed to get their hands
on the money before the accounts closed for the year. So they came
out with a very clever plan.
On 26 June 2005, they set up an events management company called
Premium Project Management Sdn Bhd (company number 692728-M). Then,
on 9 September 2005, the name was changed to T-Best Events Sdn Bhd.
The company’s paid-up capital is only RM2.00.
The company is supposed to be a Terengganu based company but its
registered address is at no. 23A, Jalan SS 21/60, Damansara Utama,
Petaling Jaya, Selangor.
The two shareholders of the company who hold one share each of RM1.00
are Saharuddin bin Abdullah and Suhami binti Kiman. The directors of
the company are Wan Hisham bin Wan Salleh (Terengganu), Mohamed bin
Awang Tera (Terengganu), Chew Kok Foo (Petaling Jaya), Peter William
Gilmour (Australia), Chua Hooi Sian (Petaling Jaya) and Lim Poh Tiang
(Petaling Jaya).
The name to note here is Wan Hisham bin Wan Salleh, a (EXCO) member
of the Terengganu State Government, and the man behind the entire
operation. Wan Hisham’s brother, Wan Mohd Farid, is the political
secretary to the Minister of Home Affairs, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi,
who, coincidentally, is also the Prime Minister of Malaysia. But Wan
Hisham is only there to give the company political weight. The man
running the company is Patrick Lim. And Patrick Lim’s job is to
conjure up events that the state can embark upon -- which, of course,
would require a couple of hundred million Ringgit to finance.
One very ingenious project they came up with was to hold a sailboat
race from 29 November to 4 December 2005 called the Monsoon Cup.
Instead of everyone running for the hills in fear of a Tsunami
hitting this country like it did around Christmas of 2004, they would
congregate on the beach to watch sailboats race against each other in
the monsoon winds.
And the Monsoon Cup was given a budget of RM250 million, more than
enough money to go around. Only in Loony Malaysia can a RM2 company,
hardly a couple months in operation, get its hands on a RM250 million
government job.
The plan was to invite sailboat champions from all over the world to
participate in the race. This would give the Monsoon Cup credibility
and prestige that would rival the Langkawi powerboat race. But these
world champions would need to be given suitable accommodations and
the only five-star hotel in Kuala Terengganu was certainly not
suitable enough.
So they built 50 new houses on Mermaid Island, known locally as Pulau
Duyung. Each house was priced at RM1 million, so RM50 million would
be needed to build these houses. Of course, you and I can build these
same houses for around RM250,000 each. But that is not the issue
here. The issue is: the foreigners need to be made to believe that
they are living in a million dollar house (though it would only be
for a few days). Pricing the houses at four times what they actually
cost to build was not for purposes of siphoning out any money. (And
if you believe this then you will believe that pigs can fly).
Everything was plain sailing -- pun intended -- until race day
arrived. Then, on race day, the monsoon winds suddenly died down and
the sailboats ended up dead in the water.
Sheesh! The Pengkalan Pasir by-election was being held in
neighbouring Kelantan State at that same time and the monsoon was
threatening to dampen the election campaign. They were also worried
that the flood would prevent the voters from coming out to vote. So
someone had engaged a team of bomohs (witch doctors) to cast a spell
to keep the monsoon away. But they forgot to tell the bomohs to keep
the monsoon away from just Kelantan, not from Terengganu that needed
the monsoon.
Just to digress a bit for the benefit of those who do not know what
Malaysian bomohs are capable of. Malaysians of all persuasions
normally engage a bomoh to cast a spell if they want to keep the rain
away in the event they are having a garden party, to make a girl or
boy you have taken a fancy to fall in love with you, to destroy a
competitor’s business, to break up someone’s marriage, to ensure that
your football team wins the match, to win an election, and so on. If
you want to get rich then bomohs are also able to give you the
winning numbers of the lottery -- but why bomohs themselves are never
rich and remain poor though they can ‘see’ winning numbers in a
lottery has remained a mystery till today.
Anyway, back to the Terengganu story. The Monsoon Cup was proving to
be a disaster. Without a monsoon, how to have a Monsoon Cup? So
Terengganu, in a panic, also engaged its own team of bomohs to cast a
spell to bring back the monsoon. But then there is a one week lead
time for spells to work. When you cast a spell it does not take
affect immediately. It may need anything up to a week to work -- sort
of like clearing an outstation cheque.
Eventually, they had to call an end to the RM250 million Monsoon Cup
and everyone went home extremely disappointed. Then the monsoon hit.
Terengganu was now facing a threat of being washed into the South
China Sea.
To help save the state from total destruction, the Terengganu
Religious Department sent out circulars to all the mosques throughout
the state asking the mosque congregation to pray for deliverance
(sembahyang tolak bala). No doubt they needed the monsoon to ensure
that the Monsoon Cup would meet with success and the bomohs engaged
to cast the spell had done a fine job. But the monsoon came too late
and now they did not need the monsoon anymore. Furthermore, the spell
cast by the bomohs was too powerful and the monsoon was going to
drown the entire state. (You can’t blame the bomohs though. They are
experts at casting spells to keep the rain away but this is the first
time they had been asked to cast a spell to create a monsoon).
Well, never mind, the bomohs may have failed and the Monsoon Cup may
have been a disaster, but the objective of siphoning out RM250
million had been met; and that is all that matters.
Hmm...I wonder how much the bomohs were paid to create the monsoon. I
suspect they were paid with post-dated cheques so that is why they
made sure the monsoon came only after the cheques had cleared. Next
year, Terengganu State should pay the bomohs in cash and maybe hold
back 50% of the payment, to be paid only when the monsoon comes.
Ends
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