The Ghost of Johor

Lim Kang Hoo: "de facto MB"?

Lim Kang Hoo. If you're not a Johorean, you might ask, "Lim Kang who?". That's ok. Even among business journalists in Kuala Lumpur, the name does not ring a bell instantly, recognition comes only after you throw in Danga Bay and Ekovest as broad hints. But within the circle of those in the know in Johor and Singapore, Dato' Lim's name inspires both awe and jealousy, even suspicion. Unlike Syed Mokhtar al-Bukhary, the man who has to manage at least two gateways into Johor (Port of Tanjung Pelepas and Senai International Airport), Lim is liked by the Istana. He does many business jointly with the state government, which is not a bad thing, of course, but with some people already labelling him as "the de facto MB of Johor", it can't be all that good, either.

Now, I see Lim's name all over the latest, detailed posting by Zakhir Mohamad, an anak Johor, about being subservient to Singapore in Serving the new-economic master. I have an affinity to both Singapore and Johor so I shall not comment on this alleged slave-master relationship at this juncture.What draws me is how cryptic Zakhir has become in this article. He writes about "..a major corporate play" in Johor "involving a certain public listed company on an land-bank acquisition roll". Parcels of land have or in the process to be lined up for acquisition or injected into this PLC, he said.

But throughout the article, Zakhir made mention of not a single corporate player. He wrote of Iskandar, Petroans, Kulim, JCorp, and the role of an ex-Fourth Floor boy in all this new economic slavery business, but no names. 

Quite unlike Big Dog. Why?

Is he afraid of the Ghost of Johor?

p.s. Lim is not the Ghost. The Ghost is said to be haunting a lot of businesses in the state, asking for 30 per cent here and 30 per cent there. If this ghost's hunger can't be satiated and things are not properly handled, we will have to exorcise this ghost soon.

+ Other Ghosts you may like ..

Police told of ABU event only after "disturbance"

Nalini: Was she talking rubbish?

Updated: In Canada, the police would sue you for defamatory libel, a criminal offense! Read h e r e.

Original posting:

The Malaysian Insider has the follow-up on  the disrupted ABU event (which I still think was self-inflicted). As expected, one of the organisers, who is a member of the political party PKR of Pakatan Rakyat, is accusing the police of working hand-in-hand with the Umno-BN "samsengs" in the incident. E. Nalini, an executive director of Suaram, now a so-called NGO in my book, claimed to be witness to several of these samsengs wearing t-shirts bearing Umno and BN logos, beating up an Indian boy that night. Turns out she was talking rubbish.

This is the kind of stuff that makes more and more Malaysians sick with the politics of this lot

Read the Insider's Cops deny aiding "school kids" to disrupt ABU event. Some nice quotes from Shah Alam police chief Zahedi Ayob: "We were not informed of the event. Why did they not tell us? Only they know".

Will the police bashing stop now?

Syabas, PDRM. I mean, that's the least I can I say, right? For all the bashing, the police went on doing their job, seemingly unfazed. But the cops are human like us, not heartless machines. Credit where it's due. Let's say a big THANK YOU to our men and women in blue. As NST's editorial put it, May the force be with you! 

 KL's crime rates down 40 per cent in 2011

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By Lee Shi-Ian
New Straits Times
Monday, Jan 23, 2012

KUALA LUMPUR - A greater police presence, especially in crime hotspots, and more joint operations with other enforcement agencies have yielded positive results - a 40 per cent reduction in street crimes last year.

This is the objective set under the National Key Result Area for crime prevention which has contributed to a drop in the national crime index by 11.1 per cent, the third year running that police have achieved a reduction in the number of criminal cases. 

The number of murder, rape, armed robbery, gang robbery and house break-in cases also decreased significantly last year. 

Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Ismail Omar said 157,891 cases were reported last year, down from 177,520 in 2010. 

Most of the reduced street crimes, including snatch thefts and robberies, were in hotspots identified in Penang, Johor, Selangor and Kuala Lumpur in 2009. 

Based on police analysis, more hotspots were added in 2010 and last year and police presence was further stepped up in these areas. 

In the past year, police held joint crime-prevention operations with Rela and the General Operations Force nationwide. 

Police also set up several dedicated task forces to focus on crimes that registered sharp increases in 2010, including house break-ins and sexual offences. 

"We must not rest on our laurels. 2011 was a good year but we want to make 2012 better," Ismail told the New Straits Times. 

It is learnt that police will focus on three main aspects this year as they attempt to keep a lid on crime. 

"Police omnipresence, community policing and communication with the public via various media channels are the three aspects we are looking at. 

"The deployment of 40,000 personnel from the police, Rela and Civil Defence Department this month to fight crime in major towns is a good example. 

"This will give us additional presence on the streets and assist in crime prevention operation. The increased public participation in voluntary patrol schemes in their neighbourhoods points to greater confidence in the force." 

On community policing, police will work closely with the National Unity and Integration Department under the Prime Minister's Department. 

The department promotes the voluntary patrol scheme by supplying equipment and building Rukun Tetangga centres nationwide. 

"We want to establish a smart partnership with residents associations and further enhance the existing relationship," Ismail said. 

Police, he added, also aimed to build closer ties with the media to create awareness among the public on their activities.

What's going on, Suaram?

 Updated: ABU serang ABU?
 

The Unspinners say the hiring of "friendly" thugs is a cheap political stunt used before in the Bagan Pinang by-election. The cops are checking out this angle, I'm sure.




 Original Posting, 23 Jan 2012:

A non-governmental organization (NGO) is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government ... The term is usually applied only to organizations that pursue some wider social aim that has political aspects, but that are not overtly political organizations such as political parties. - WIkipidea

Have our NGOs become too political? This is not the first time that our NGOs have forced me to wonder if they are not becoming more political than some of our political parties. Or have some of them have become just a cover story for some of our political partie?

Today's question popped up in my head after reading Helen Ang's Samseng serang ABU, seorang cedera dibelasah. As I read her story, several questions popped up. 

Did the organizers of ABU hire those gangsters to make something out of nothing? I'm sorry I have to repeat the question here; as I see it, ABU definitely needs the kind of publicity that such drama could generate and, also, there are a lot of idle samsengs these days. The anak2 ABU won't be happy but I assure them I'm not the only one with this theory.

Of course, in all fairness, I also considered that the report Helen Ang quoted was true, that there was his group of Malays who were not happy and they decided to show their unhappiness that night. After all, even Anas Zubedy had warned the anak2 ABU that an "unthinking" iniative like ABU would lead to bad consequences. Will there be worse ones ahead?

Then I read the bit about an Indian witness' account of these Malay samsengs beating up an Indian boy. You know what's the best thing about it: the samsengs were wearing t-shirts bearing "BN and Umno logos". Haha. Imagine a picture of masked bank robbers wearing t-shirts printed with their Facebook profile pics! LOL!  I mean, if you want to insult the intelligence of the 3.3 million Umno members and 7 million BN cronies, you'd have to do better than that lah.

Now, that's when the NGO bit struck me ... The witness quoted in the story, she is E. Nalini, the Executive Director of Suaram, a Malaysian NGO. Now, what was an NGO representative doing at a political forum? Is Suaram part of ABU? Is Suaram now openly against Umno?

As I understand it, NGOs are above partisan politics,.Suaram cannot, for example, be openly cooperating with PAS, a political party, to try and kill the party's opponent, in this case Umno. Seriously, man, that is so wrong.

Perhaps, Suaram would like to explain what's going on ..

Enter the Dragon

Gong Xi Fa Cai. The neighbours have just given us a free 5-minute fireworks display. Awesome. That's thousands of ringgit burnt in the Puchong skies but we can handle it. Yes, we can. Malaysians celebrate another Chinese New Year, in peace and prosperity. While much of the rest of the world expects the economy to slow down quite a bit in the Year of the Dragon, here in Malaysia we appear to be confident about being well-insulated and resilient. We have good reasons to be.

So dear Readers, here's to your wealth and, more importantly, health.

What Guan Eng didn't tell us (or didn't know) about his asset declaration

... Lim said the MACC could not be trusted, and urged the federal government to follow in the footsteps of Penang by appointing an independent audit firm to oversee the asset declarations.

“I feel the MACC is a tool of the BN. That’s why we (Penang government) never asked the MACC... our assets are verified by KPMG, an international independent audit firm... because I think they have more standing that MACC,” said Lim. - Guan Eng: Ministers, not kin, must declare assets, Malaysian Insider, Jan 19

If the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission  is a tool of the Barisan Nasional, as alleged by the Penang Chief Minister, shouldn't many of the Opposition leaders have been behind bars for alleged corruption. Especially since the judiciary is believed to be under the control of the BN, too. Oh, and the police, also, don't forget.

Seng Giaw: DAP's BN tool in MACC?

But why did the MACC go after Khir Toyo so relentlessly, and how come its predecessor, the Anti-Corruption Agency or ACA, went after so many BN leaders, including at least two other MBs? Why is a Tun from MCA, a BN component party, in court defending himself against MACC charges? 

Guan Eng praises the KPMG sky-high and runs down this fellow Malaysians on the MACC but didn't he know that the MACC and KPMG work closely together, including jointly organizing training for graft fighting? 

And does not he know that two former KPMG experts, including this dude responsible for setting up the KPMG's forensic audit unit in Malaysia, are sitting on the MACC's advisory panels?

Salahudin: Another BN tool in MACC?

I happen to know that the staff of the KPMG Guan Eng  is bragging about were all trained by this ex-KPMG dude, who is now overseeing the MACC's forensic audit operations.

I also happen to know that the so-called asset declarations the KPMG did for Guan Eng's Penang were NOT done via Statutory Declaration. In other words, dear Readers, Guan Eng's asset declaration is just a piece of paper and not a legal document.

See, this is what happens when a politician talks cock all the time: he makes an asset of himself.

 

p.s. Ah, I almost forgot, respected professionals sit on MACC panels, including people who are very critical of the BN even if they don't think much of Pakatan Rakyat. I'm sure Guan Eng is well aware that Tan Seng Giaw and Salahudin Ayub are advising the MACC. By his own logic,  the seasoned DAP campaigner and and PAS strongman are "tools" of the BN as well and can't be trusted? 

Senai, not a royal airport anymore

Since it opened in 1974, Johor's airport has been known as Sultan Ismail International Airport. Not anymore. A week or so ago, the airport's authorities were told to stop using the name and to use Senai International Airport for all intents and purposes. They claimed to have been given 24 hours to do that. The orders came from the Menteri Besar's office but the real orders came from elsewhere, or so it seems.

Senai, named one of the region's best emerging airports last year, is run by a group within Syed Mokhtar al-Bukhary's empire in Johor, which includes the Port of Tanjung Pelepas. Almarhum Sultan Ismail was the grandfather of the reigning Sultan of Johor.

Strangely, you won't find any statement about the hurried name-change in the local papers or the Internet ...

Wikipedia on strike

Went to Wikipedia because I needed to research some basic background info for a posting I'm doing on Senai Airport but got this instead. Find out why Wiki is on a 24-hour strike h e r e.

I am a Moderate (blogger)

"The real divide is not between Muslims and non-Muslims, or between the developed and developing worlds, it is between moderates and extremists." - Malaysian PM Najib Razak, keynote speech at Global Movement of Moderates Conference, KL

There are rhetoric and then there's Najib Razak's Global Movement of Moderates. Since he mooted the idea at the UN General Assembly in 2010, the idea has slowly caught on. The ignorant West said there was no moderate voice in Islam; well, here is one. Yesterday, Najib launched the inaugural conference on Global Movement of Moderates. Ironically, international spectators are more enthusiastic. Local dailies that have been quick to accuse the government of treating other religions as second to Islam buried the message in the inside pages of their editions today. Given Malaysia's on-and-off miscues between certain faiths, a fairly recent phenomenon fired up by some political shitheads, you'd think that the local opinion makers would show greater interest in the call against any form of religious extremism that the Global Movement of Moderates carries. Alas, nope.

Perhaps Malaysia needs its own Local Movement of Moderates.

Anas Zubedy v ABU

His latest posting Why I Disagree with ABU will get Anas Ibrahiim in trouble with both sides of the political divide. For saying ABU (Anything But Umno) is an "irresponsible, unthinking way of choosing our people's representatives, Anas is rubbing the anti-Umno faction the wrong way. On the other hand, for supporting the ideals ABU is promoting, he will get an earful from the other side, too. But life is such, eh? Well done, always, for having the guts to say it bro.

[Please leave comments at Anas' h e r e]

p.s. Tahun 70an dulu, ABU ni pendek untuk Angkatan Bawah Umur. Gelaran "anak ABU" tu macam minah resen (ration) tahun 80an dan bohsia di tahun2 90an. ABU tahun 2012 macam tu jugak lah gua rasa ..

Minority report: Chinese road signs and freebies

Can't read road signs in Malay?

You think the Malays like to live on crutches and handouts? Going by what Sinchew Daily is unabashedly asking the BN Government to do, the Malays are not the only ones. All BN needs to do to win the non-Malay votes, according to its chief reporter, is provide free water (eg PKR's Selangor), free internet (eg DAP's Penang), free electricity and use Chinese on road signs (again, Penang). Easy peasy.

Read "Freebies and Chinese road signs, that's all we're asking"?

Why pardon the so-called small fry?

Macamana nak bersih korupsi?

At the third Pakatan Rakyat's convention in Kedah over the weekend, Ambiga Sreenevesan delivered a speech on behalf of the NGOs. Many saw it as a thinly-veiled cover, a prelude to her entry into the political arena just ahead of the 13th General Election. That may or may not be true and is one of the things to watch, but what let some of us down was the easy way out she's promoting in the nation's fight against graft.

Excerpts from the Star's Tell us How You'll get money back, Ambiga to Pakatan:

Ambiga said Pakatan should also consider setting up an independent body similar to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa, to implement a policy to par- don the “small fry” involved in corruption cases. 

The former Bar Council chairman said: “We must punish the big fishes, but we can forgive the ‘small fry’ so that we can move forward without any obstacles.” 

The Mole spoke to several people concerned with corruption and came up with Big or Small, It's A Crime. Nobody, not even the people from DAP or PAS, agreed with Ambiga.  

"No one should dismiss or condone corrupt practices simply because it is deemed to be small.” - Tan Sri Ismail Adam, MACC Advisory Board member 

“In any set up, if the top officer is strongly against corruption then the junior ones would not dare dabble in corrupt practices." - Prof Khoo Kay Khim 

“It does not matter it was done by whom. We must prosecute all who practice corruption without fear or favour." - DAP's Tan Seng Ghiaw 

“Maybe what Ambiga meant was we need to focus on big cases because usually the people behind it were protected but I believe she did not mean small cases must be dismissed totally."  - PKR's Zuraida Kamaruddin

Maybe Ambiga should explain what she really meant. 

And when she gets to it,  does, let us know what inspired her to think of the Truth and Reconcilliation Commission of South Africa, which Steven Bko's family had described as  "a vehicle for political expediency" which "robbed" them of their right to justice.

Proton, a final chance

Updated, lunchtime: Khazanah's Official Statement on why it is DRB-Hicom

Original posting
So DRB-Hicom, the group that brings in VW, among other models, will be taking over national car Proton Holdings. Their shares have been suspended from this morning. Expect the announcement at the end of today to place the price of acquisition at anywhere between RM3 billion and RM3.4 billion. 

Eyes on Khamil now

With this, Khazanah Nasional gets to walk away from something it has said it didn't want to meddle with in the first place and DRB-Hicom gets to expand its automotive empire. Proton? The national car gets another chance it deserves. The bad news is, this will be its final chance. If DRB-Hicom fails to do whatever it says it can for the national car in its proposal, Proton is forever doomed. So will Malaysia's 30-year dream of becoming an auto powerhouse of the region.

Personally, I was not in favor of the thought of any of the bidders getting a shot at Proton. The other bidders, especially Naza, are capable of taking over Proton as well. I had long chats with Big Dog [read his Driving the Industry Forward, Jan 15] about this. I felt we should commission a comprehensive national study to establish the way forward for the national car before anyone gets a chance to take over, IF anyone gets that chance at all.

We should learn from Malaysia Airlines. From a world-class airline that was being compared with SIA at one time, MAS has declined to a class even lower than Air Asia. Why? For years, business was conducted without proper study or even discussion with stakeholders, and things happened as if MAS was just another company and not a national airline.

But now that it's done, a national burden lies squarely on the shoulders of Mohd Khamil Jami, the managing director of DRB-Hicom, the man credited to have turned around the company into the giant that it is today. A lot of people will be watching closely now ... 

Mallot, ambik kau/Mallot the Macaw

ma·caw/məˈkô/

Noun:

A large long-tailed parrot (Ara and related genera) with brightly colored plumage, native to Central and South America.

mal-lot  /məˈluat/ 

Bujai's thesaurus:

                  Political drop-out, a diplomat who spent most of his time at the dining

                  table and brothels, a marmot, a laggard, shallow and small brain, pig 

                  brain, septuagenarian, an America sycophant

Few Malaysian journalists from back then would remember John R. Malott but fewer still would know the ex-US envoy to KL better than Bujai, a journalist for more than 30 years. To his peers and to the diplomatic circles in Kuala Lumpur during the 1980s and 1990s, Bujai was acknowledged as a foreign affairs "specialist". Still, it shocked me to read his latest posting blasting the busybody ex-envoy kow-kow in Mallot the Macaw. I think the article represents the sentiments of most Malaysians. We have had enough of this kind of Mat Salehs.

I don't know if Mallot can take as well as he gives. The last time some newspapers printed a response from back home in the US to his article condemning Malaysia, he was babbling about suing somebody or something like that. 

Excerpts from Bujai's response to Mallot's article in WSJ entitled Testing Malaysia's Promises:

SATURDAY, JANUARY 14, 2012

Mallot The Macaw

The diplomatic macaw is at it again. When Anwar Ibrahim said Pakatan Rakyat will make it through in the next 'just and clean' general election, former US envoy and political drop out John Mallot added to such a malodorous remark that the coming poll will be the most 'dirtiest' ever.

No surprise. This diplomat who spent most of his time at the dining table and brothels when he was US ambassador to Malaysia (1995-1998) and now joins Barack Obama in a fascist America, is nothing but a dissolute manipulator.

His latest jottings in the Wall Street Journal on January 12 proves how a marmot and laggard he is.

When he accused the 'Malaysian's corrupt' are expected to exhaust all avenues to cling on to power, he was actually trying to get the Americans into believing that what being practiced in the US is far off better than that in Malaysia.

Anwar's acquittal, which he deemed as a proof of innocent, reflected how shallow his small brain is in law. READ MORE

Amnesty says Anwar's acquittal shows why Msia must scrap sodomy law

And did any of you see this statement? Amnesty International is actually saying that Anwar Ibrahim's acquittal last Monday shows why  consensual anal sex between Malaysian men should not be criminalized!  Whoa! Was it consensual, in the first place? And here we are arguing about the independence of the judiciary! - Rocky Bru

Amnesty says India has done it, so why not Malaysia?

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
PRESS RELEASE

9 January 2012

Malaysia: Anwar case shows why sodomy law must be scrapped

The Malaysian government must repeal the criminal sodomy law used in a politically motivated attempt to bar Anwar Ibrahim from politics, Amnesty International said today after the opposition leader was acquitted by the country's High Court.

“Anwar's acquittal is a welcome move. Fortunately, the Malaysian authorities have refrained from turning the country’s opposition leader into a prisoner of conscience,” said Donna Guest, deputy Asia-Pacific director at Amnesty International.

“The government must now repeal the sodomy law, a repressive statute that enabled this politically motivated persecution.”

The High Court verdict comes in the run-up to national elections, widely expected to take place in early 2012.

If Anwar had been convicted and sentenced to prison for a year or more, he would have been barred from politics for five years.

This case was the second time Anwar was prosecuted for criminal sodomy.

After he was sacked as deputy prime minister in 1998, he was arrested on sodomy charges and imprisoned for six years. The sodomy conviction was later overturned and he was freed in 2004.

As a result of that conviction, Anwar was barred from politics until 2008.

In July 2008, a month before he returned to parliament in a by-election, the opposition leader was again arrested on sodomy charges. A 26-year-old former aide told police that he and Anwar had had a sexual encounter in a Kuala Lumpur apartment.

Laws criminalizing consensual sexual activity between adults are contrary to international human rights standards.

In December 2011, the UN Human Rights Commissioner published a report calling on states to repeal provisions that criminalize same-sex relations between consenting adults.

In the case of Toonen v Australia, the UN Human Rights Commission in 1994 found that laws punishing same-sex sexual behaviour infringe on the right to privacy.

Malaysia’s criminal sodomy law, Section 377, was drawn from the Indian Penal Code of 1860 and imposed under British colonial rule. In 2009, India repealed its sodomy law.

“The sodomy law violates the rights of gay Malaysians. Moreover, it was used as a tool of political repression against Anwar,” said Donna Guest.