Two letters published in the online malaysiakini.com tell what is wrong with Malayia: racism, lack of transparency in public administration and an enfeebling cronyism.  

  MPs should stop ECM Libra-Avenue deal
Locus Standi
Apr 27, 06 4:10pm

I am writing to challenge MP Shahrir Samad who is chairman of the Public Accounts Committee and the Backbenchers Club (BBC) and the rest of Umno MPs and senators to stop something that is going to happen soon, which makes a mockery of Pak Lah’s government policy of transparency, ethics, etc.

It is the proposed merger between ECM Libra and Ministry of Finance-linked financial services company, Avenue Capital, to form a new investment bank. The two entities signed an agreement on Jan 19, and ECM Libra executive chairman Kalimullah Hassan has already announced that his company expects the merger to create a complete investment bank with capital of more than RM500 million by July this year.

I hope former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad will also take notice of this, check the facts and raise hell with his successor. Also, what say the Securities Commission and the Bank Negara about this?

I hope nobody or no agency will act as midwives to this nasty affair which, I am sure, will erode further Pak Lah’s credibility as a sincere man. This is a clear case of conflict of interest or even nepotism and cronyism. The prime minister is also the finance minister and the second finance minister Nor Mohamad Yaakob is also a friend of Kalimullah.

And that is not all. The clincher is Khairy Jamaluddin, who was granted a loan by ECM Libra a couple of months ago to buy a three-per cent stake in the company, is also the son-in-law of the prime minister. Khairy who now has a regular column in the New Straits Times describes himself as an investment banker. Kalimullah who recently stepped down as NST’s group editor in chief, remains its deputy chairman.

As a Malaysian citizen who is still giving a lot of the benefit of the doubt to this new prime minister, I am quite amazed to see that he could not see the immoral side of this deal, and perhaps would even personally allow it to go through.

I don’t wish to dwell on whether Avenue, being a government company, is being given proper market value. Ideally, if Avenue is to be disposed off, it should go to outfits not connected with the PM and his son-in-law.

I can’t help comparing this to George W Bush and Dick Cheney dishing all the lucrative contracts in Iraq to their friends and cronies. So what else is new?

I would urge Shahrir and other MPs to table a private member’s bill to stop this deal from going through. Over time, Pak Lah himself will thank them for taking such action, or else his name will go down as a prime minister worse than his predecessors.

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  The enemy is not the ‘other’
Jesslingen
Apr 28, 06 4:07pm

  I refer to the comments by Baki Minuddin in his letter Malays still in third place and by Dr Jacob George in Uncertain new year for Indians.
  It's a pity that after half a century of independence we still frame our socio-economic and political questions and judgements in ethnic terms. There seems to be a competition to determine which is the most underprivileged ethnic group in order to justify government assistance.

That's an exercise in futility. We can see that in the so-called ‘unemployed Malay graduates’ problem which Baki refers to. If truth be told, they are indeed unemployed. But by no means of the imagination can they be described as ‘graduates’.

The system that produced them has lowered the bar so much in order to make up the numbers that they cannot be compared to the quality of graduates of the past or to graduates from other countries today. No wonder they cannot get jobs.

They should not have been in universities and colleges in the first place. They would have been better off under vocational or apprenticeship programmes. The Malay leadership of this country has failed them.

Yes, there are underprivileged groups but they span across all ethnic and religious lines. We can identify these groups by income and asset-testing and they exist in every ethnic group - Malay, Chinese, Indian, Pribumi, etc.

The enemy is not the ‘other’ ethnic group. It is the glass ceiling that prevents the best and brightest in our communities from contributing to Malaysia in their chosen area of expertise. As far as the rest of the world is concerned, it’s not Malays competing with Chinese or Indians. It's Malaysia competing against the best and brightest from China, India, Singapore, Hong Kong and the tigers of Eastern Europe.

It does not matter if the Chinese are No 1 in business or Malays are No 1 in politics and civil service or Indians are No 1 in English journalism. Ultimately, what matters is that there are no glass ceilings for any individual who has the talent and ability to excel in the area of his or her choosing.

This means leveling the playing field and ensuring it is not based on ethnic criteria but on socio -economic disadvantages. We need to frame our policies based on merit and need, and not ethnic lines. However, this will never happen until we move our political system away from parties drawn along the old ethnic and religious lines.

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It is precisely these kind of self-serving business maneuverings that galled the Thais enough to demonstrate against Thaksin and call for him to resign.

  Abdullah Badawi is now truly caught in a web of cronyism, nepotism and outright corruption, putting the lie to the declarations of his government.

  Khairy maybe full of glee now writing from his column as if he is "out of the cage". Kalimullah wants perhaps to rule the roost and both prostitute the New Straits Times for their own ends. Corruption ? Perhaps the idea is to secure the money for the bruising battle ahead so as to really be able to fight corruption ?

  We had a profligate Prime Minister in Mahathir who wanted to build Malay confidence from outside in at great cost to the nation. Now we have a hapless Badawi who has
  "noble intentions" but barely the steel to see them through.

  We have the bumbling "we must change our lifestyle" Najib whose ascent to the Premiership will epitomise the Peter Principle "In a Hierarchy Every Employee Tends to Rise to His Level of Incompetence" where his incompetence was demonstrable at every level.

  He owes his present position to Mahathir who can be expected to exploit this very incompetence to the hilt.

  We wont write off Badawi yet but as the man in the middle in the Mahathir-Abdullah-Najib succession of Prime Ministers, he can still make a difference if he stands on principle.

  People will still support principle, if the leader makes it clear that he stands for principle. Badawi's delimma is that the party he represents has no principle.

  Uriah Ang

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Dear Uriah Ang Moh Khow,

  Greetings!
  As usual your take is quite insightful. But is it also possible that Pa' Lah realising that he would be decisively clobbered in the next UMNO party elections and left out in the cold wants to make all the hay he can when the sun is shining? Najib's reluctance to come to his defence is an indicator?

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Ravi

  Pak Lah is surely playing to win. And to do that, as usual with UMNO politics, he has to muster all the resources he can through whatever means. Read into this all the cronyism, nepotism and corruption you can see in the coming months. This is what money politics has wrought on the Malaysian situation.

  Gone are the days where politics is fought on principle. Pak Lah can try that but that is no guarantee. Money politics is, sadly, right now the only guarantee.

  Uriah Ang

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below is a copyright article from malaysiakini.com which is self explanatory. Emphasis mine.

  Mahathir on offensive against government

May 1, 06 1:14pm

  Former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad's ferocious attacks on Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's government are undermining the administration and could be aimed at forcing Abdullah's early departure, observers say.

Since stepping down in 2003, Mahathir has launched a number of broadsides against the government, which has been gradually unravelling his vision for the country, particularly megaprojects like the national car.

But his criticisms have become more bitter since Abdullah earlier this month dropped his predecessor's long-cherished plans for a new bridge to Singapore, saying that the city-state was asking for too many concessions.

In a sign of growing impatience over Mahathir's barbs, Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar has called on the veteran leader to stop the public bickering with the government, warning it would affect the country's image.

"The disagreements should not be escalated to the extent of creating a situation that gives rise to a perception of a political crisis," said Syed Hamid.

"We have to accept the fact that when there is a change in leadership, the current leadership may act or make a decision different from that of the previous leadership," he added.
  Sharp-tongued remarks

Mahathir handed over the reins to his hand-picked successor Abdullah in October 2003 after more than two decades in power, ending his stint as one of Southeast Asia's political strongmen.

Initially accused of pulling the strings behind Abdullah's administration after his retirement, the former premier has since become a vocal critic of its decisions.

While some analysts say dissension from the former leader - especially one so intricately involved in the nation's affairs for so long - is to be expected, Mahathir's sharp-tongued remarks are starting to raise eyebrows.

Changes at troubled car maker Proton, which he nurtured from its inception, and a possible free trade agreement with the United States have provided targets.

At his most acidic, Mahathir has accused Abdullah of being unpatriotic by mulling the sale of sea sand to Singapore as part of now-defunct negotiations for the new bridge.

"That there should be any Malaysian leader willing to entertain this idea, to destroy Malaysian seas to satisfy Singapore, speaks badly of his love for his country," Mahathir said last week.

Opposition leader Lim Guan Eng from the Democratic Action Party said Syed Hamid's comments signalled the "beginning of a new crisis" in Abdullah's ruling Umno.

The bridge plans "may have collapsed, but more damaging is the collapse of the relationship" between the two men, Lim said in a statement.

"The wrangling is feeding the perception that Abdullah is a one-term premier who will merely fill the gap in a transition between Mahathir and his reputed ally Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak.
  One-term prime minister

While mainstream newspapers, many of which are owned by ruling parties, have shied away from the issue, the influential website malaysiakini said Mahathir was actively trying to unseat Abdullah."

"It's all about preserving his vision of economic nationalism," the website's editor-in-chief Steven Gan wrote in a weekend editorial.

"With Mahathir rallying his troops within the party, Abdullah is likely to be a one-term prime minister," he said, adding he expected a leadership challenge after the general election, which could be as early as the end of 2007.

However Shahrir Samad, Parliament's backbench leader and a prominent Umno politician, has denied there are any party splits.

"It is to Abdullah's credit that he has refrained from answering directly to the comments that were made by Mahathir," he told AFP.

If Mahathir is plotting to curtail Abdullah's political career, analysts say they do not expect open defiance from Najib, who would be viewed negatively for undermining Abdullah.

"What can actually lead to problems is the people around those two leaders. They can try to raise the temperature," said political commentator Chandra Muzaffar.

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