Sunday, September 30, 2012

Empowering Resident Associations

The RA at my place in Puchong had a mooncake party in the common park last night. The conversation, inevitably zooms in on Najib Razak's proposal :to empower RAs and get them to promote patrolling activities in residential areas.

Did anyone of us expect this? To be honest, I didn't and (like Anwar Ibrahim) I was floored by the consideration that must have gone into this Bajet (except, unlike Anwar, I didn't denounce this Budget as not people-friendly). The people in my RA, who happen to be mostly Chinese, said they were utterly surprised and were full of praise of the unprecedented initiative.

Certainly, they too did not expect the government to give such a big recognition to RAs. If they had, they would have quickly registered our RA with the ROS before last Friday!

So, we agreed to start the process of registering the RA this week. RM10,000 will go a long way in helping RAs get the ball rolling. There are about 80 homes under our RA and we're paying RM130 a month for this and that, and we all think that the sum is about right and we shouldn't be paying more.

Thank you, Ajib Gor, on behalf of my RA. The money you have set aside for us will help us get that park bench we need well before our RA Christmas party. We had to make do without one last night ...

Here's to safe homes and empowered RAs!

Saturday, September 29, 2012

A big, big budget for the small people

Anwar Ibrahim says the 2013 Budget is not people-friendly.

I think he was just dumbstruck. The Budget is undeniably rakyat-friendly. We are talking about the real Rakyat here, not Pakatan Rakyat. Ask the lower-income people, the government servants, pensioners, our soldiers, the cops, the old and the young, and anyone who is interested in the Belanjawan and I think everyone will say there's something for them. It's THEIR budget.

What I like about the Budget is the long list of stuff and goodies for the small people: Malaysians who earn less than RM3k a month (which is a continuation of the focus since Najib's New Economic Model back in 2008) and even specifics for those earning RM2k!

Maybe these guys are too small to be Anwar's people.

Touch points of Budget 2013:











Friday, September 28, 2012

Past cronies, our air space and Bajet 13

As a former editor, headlines continue to intrigue, haunt, affect me. This morning, for example, I could not help but mess about with a headline in pro-Anwar independent news portal Malaysiakini, Bersih to Government: A Rock Concert Reminder. Certainly a more independent, and accurate, headline would be, Bersih opts for concert, abandons street protest to win back waning support after Bersih 3.0 violence. It's longer (shorter headlines are supposed to be punchier) but necessarily so: we need to tell the story of how Bersih has to shake off the images of violence captured during their "peaceful" street protest last April and at the same time, as in the run-up to the 2008 general elections, it needs to win some points for Anwar and Co in Pakatan Rakyat against the ruling government, and that is why it is going for a safer option: a rock concert, which will probably be held in a stadium (a no-no venue for previous Bersihs).

This morning's headline in the Mole Fighting for Papa's Friend is intriguing and makes you smile, but it can be a tad misleading, too. For this is not a story about a gallant child but of a young, ambitious, angry politician who is being exposed for misleading the people. It is possible that Nurul Izzah does not know that xxx is a close associate of his papa, Anwar Ibrahim but the point of the story is she is not actually fighting for a better ATS, that she does not even understand the issue... Read Rabid Spinning for Past Cronyism, the original piece by Big Dog, an expert among bloggers in this kind of stuff.

As his story goes, Nurul Izzah's campaign against the existing operators of our civil air transport system would unearth a bitter rivalry and jealousy between rival companies.
It was learnt that the main player of AMCOP Dato’ Mustaffa Abdul Rahman is an associate of Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim, when the latter was Finance Minister and calling the shots for all Federal Government contracts and awards. They have established the relationship a while back and now, the Princess of PKR ‘Politics of Hatred’ is taking up the fight for ‘an old Papa friend’.
The third headline that got my attention this morning is Rumah Lebih Murah on the front page of Utusan Malaysia. Other newspapers go with the usual GDP figures, etc. as a teaser for this afternoon's Belanjawan Negara 2013 to be tabled by the PM, but I like the Utusan editors' focus. Cheaper homes - not cars - are what Malaysia desperately needs to improve the quality of life. But can Najib Razak resist the housing cartels and their evil agents who have been pushing up prices of properties to the detriment of the people? Samy Velly tried and failed (through his 4P initiattive in the 80s) and Anwar Ibrahin tried and failed in the 90s! Daim Zainuddin (who was a developer himself) had warned us of escalating home prices but nothing was done. 

I will be very interested to listen to his Budget if only for his proposals on how to address the housing issue. Borrowing his own favourite word, it could be the game-changer for PRU13.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Belanjawan Pakatan [against Belanjawan Negara]

None of the above understands economic or public finance
says A Voice in ... Turned on by a meaningless budget

Updated:  I didn't call it a stupid budget ..


Bukan Belanjawan Negara ...

Original Article:
I was hoping that Anwar Ibrahim & Co will have more to offer in their "shadow" 2013 than just entertainment value. So far, it has inspired some OK jokes on Twitter. But like I pointed out to YB Nazmi, it should be Belanjawan Negara and NOT Belanjawan Pakatan. If you think I'm trying to be petty, just imagine if the Umno guys decide to call it Belanjawan Umno, gelak tak?

On Twitter, someone feigned surprise that Anwar did not propose the setting up of a Pakatan Airways. I didn't catch the joke at first, until someone had to thrown in the  broad hint: private jet, lah! Ah, so ... My bad. That private jet business is going to hurt like the Sept 16 failed takeover of Putrajaya back in 2008.

Underlying the jokes, the bantering and the outright quarrels over the "alternative" budget Pakatan Rakyat is trying to use to score points over Najib and the real Belanjawan Negara he will be tabling tomorrow is a simple fact: the lack of credibility. There's also a dire lack of experience. Anwar was Finance Minister and Dr Mahathir got him to table some Budgets as a preparation to make him his successor during the mid 1990s, but apart from the appendix of tough Malay words that he had made a feature in "his" Bajets, he has not made a major impact. Nowhere near what Daim Zainuddin suceeded in pulling off each time.

In the 2013 Budget, Anwar will be seen as desperately trying to dismantle, abolish and undo whatever achievements made by the ruling Government. In doing so, he even overlooks the fact that some of those policies were agreed upon or devised when he was in the Government, when he was in a hurry to become the PM. The GST, for example, was already talked about when he was Finance Minister. Strangely, now Rafizi, his strategic thinker, says GST is a "ploy" to conceal the ills of the economy, an economy that has many in the developed West green with envy!

What's most disturbing is Belanjawan Pakatan's appetite for abolishing successful schemes (such as PPPTN, which has benefited thousands of students from poor families) and demolishing growth agents (such as 1MDB, which is undertaking the Tun Razak Exchange which will rival Singapore's financial centre). I could not help to tweet that perhaps Anwar is out to destroy everything that starts with "1" because of its association with the Prime Minister's 1Malaysia concept. But then his wife is 1Azizah, no? Hehe.

In any case, 1MDB must be doing all the right things for Anwar Ibrahim to fear and want so much to kill. Perhaps Pakatan Rakyat should think again: some 1.5 million people benefit directly or indirectly from 1MDB's CSR programs alone. Must these people be collateral damage for one man's political survival?

Of course, the answer is no, they shouldn't. But then, this is Belanjawan Pakatan Rakyat, not Belanjawan Negara or Belanjawan Rakyat after all ...

May be continued ...

Sunday, September 23, 2012

The hottest Legoland Park in the world


Legoland Malaysia 
The problem with Legoland Malaysia, as you will find out soon, is the lack of shades. The place is a sauna. When they built it, obviously they forgot to plant trees. And then someone probably thought our weather was like Denmark or England, so no need for shades. At the opening last night, everyone complained about the heat. Can you imagine the kids enjoying their rides under the blazing Johor sun?

The other problem with the first Legoland park in Asia is that people don't seem to care. Yesterday, the park opened to some 10,000 visitors. It had more or less that number of soft-opening day last Sept 15 and about 11k on the second day. On the third, the number almost touched the 15,000-people capacity!

I didn't grow up with Lego but my youngest is a big fan and I suppose many Malaysians must have grown up with Lego. PM Najib Razak, who accompanied the Johor Sultan and Raja Zarith to the opening last night, seems to be one of them. And since none of his political opponents have raised any objection about the ambitiousness of "bring the world to Malaysia through Legoland", I suppose they, too, must love Lego! 

This school holidays, general election or no, we plan to come to Legoland for the rides with our big fan. It's going to be hot but since when did that stop us from having fun when we were kids, right?

Legoland Water Park ... coming in 2013

Friday, September 21, 2012

Big Dog takes on AK47 over Felda



Big Dog with his master
Sakmongkol (R) and his ...

Umno vs Ex-Umno. For years, Zakhir Mohamad aka blogger Big Dog and Datuk Ariff Sabri aka Sakmongkol AK47 were strong Umno members. Ariff even became an Assemblyman on Umno's ticket. But since the party leaders dropped him during the 2008 GE, he started to turned against them. A few months back, he left for DAP. He has been trying to fill the big vacuum left by Tunku Aziz, the ex Transparency International dude who quit DAP under stressful circumstances. Of course he can't do that by just being a Malay in a party that's predominantly Chinese, partly because there are other Malays and other ex-Umno members like him, such as Aspan Alias. To be the fighter he portrays himself on his blog, Ariff has made Felda his "punching bag".

Big Dog, in turn, has turned "Sang Mangkok" into his punching bag. Read Losing Sense over Politics of Hatred.

p.s. I view Ariff as one of Najib's "failures" to deal with "orang2 kecewa" in his party. Those times when the ex-Adun was seeing him in Putrajaya, the PM should have offered him a post. CEO of the listed FGV, for example, is still vacant ...

USAid, Russia and the elements in Malaysia


USAid covertly influencing political processes, says Russia 
Russian foreign ministry explains decision to expel the US agency for international development 
Miriam Elder in Moscow
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 19 September 2012 12.58 BST
Vladimir Putin has accused the US state department of orchestrating the mass protests that have swept Moscow since he announced his intention to run for the presidency again. Photograph: Alexey Druzhinin/AFP/Getty Images
Russia has accused the US of using its aid agency in Moscow to covertly influence the country's politics and elections, explaining its decision to expel the mission amid a wider crackdown on the opposition movement. ... READ MORE

As A Voice argues in his latest posting SUARAM, and USAid expulsion from Russia, Moscow didn't just blow the USAid's cover, it seems to have opened up our minds to the elements working in our midst. The mainstream media seem to have picked up on the Suaram case in earnest these past few days, something they have ignored for months despite the exposes and deliberations on blogs.  If you think those exposes were a pre-occupation of some paid cybertroopers, think again. Some of us remember how YL Chong aka Desiderata, the veteran journo and consummate truth-seeker, blew the cover of Malaysiakini and established its links with Soros way back then. The now-defunct FEER did that, too.

In fact, it was this time last year when Desi reminded us about the foreign funding for Malaysiakini and how its boss had denied it at first! Desi was a news editor with Malaysiakini in 2000 and resigned (or was he forced to?) in protest over the funding "mystery".
I was then News Editor, and hence privy to information raised at Mkini's meetings, and I had learned that indeed Mkini had received an initial 10percent down payment of RM188,000 for a 10percent interest in Mkini. At a weekend meeting I told the top two guns--Steven Gan and Premesh Chandran-- they had better come clean by telling the "full story" and not half-truths. I saidf how the investment money came through from George Soros -- direct or indirect -- was not important. The truth was indeed that RM188,000 came as initial investment from MDLF, a Soros unit. 
I told them since Mkini flagged itself as promoting transparency and openness, it was not right to hide the fact. I said I had no problem with funding from Soros into the news portal -- as long as we practised ethical journalism. Since the top two guns did not agree with me -- in fact Steven Gan said it would be the death of Malaysiakini if they admitted to receiving this Soros funding! -- I was given Hobson's choice but told them I would hand in my resignation the following Monday (two days later) ... Read More  H E R E
-------------------------------------------------

Back to Suaram, I rotfl when I read about the police report they lodged here saying,
 "The minister [Ismail Sabri] has misused his power, trying to influence the prosecution process, underestimating the country's legal process and disrupting the ongoing investigation by the CCM." 
Dear Theva the Suaram coordinator, Ismail Sabri is the Minister in charge lah, so he is just doing his job. The question is, are you at Suaram allowing yourselves to be used by foreign money and interests to underestimate and disrupt (to borrow your words) the peace and democratic political process of this country?

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Why Movement of Moderate Muslims



"The real issue is not between Muslims and non-Muslims but between moderates and extremists in all religions ..." - Anifah Aman, Malaysian Foreign Minister, in promoting the Global Movement of Moderates at the United Nations last year. Isn't the same message - and movement - even more relevant today?

Original posting:


It's a shame that the youth wings of Umno and Pas won't be walking together for the same Muslim "innocence" cause after the Friday prayers tomorrow. They had wanted to but could not agree on a common approach. The Islamic party's youth wing wants a massive protest outside the US Embassy. They want to march by the thousands from KLCC to Jalan Tun Razak, where the US Embassy is. The Umno youths think this could be messy.  They have seen enough violent outcomes in other Muslim cities. 
Angry Muslims in London ...

In India ..
So, after the Friday prayers tomorrow Khairy Jamaluddin and his boys will gather at Kampung Baru or Masjid Jamek instead to express Malaysian Muslims' displeasure and anger over the provocative Innocence of Muslims (read AsH's post here to understand the issue). 


Jakarta
On Sunday, Ummo's Wanita wing plans to gather outside DAP's ngeh's residence as a response to his disparaging remarks about The way Muslims' respond to provocation. That one, too, will not be violent.

Egypt

Monday, September 17, 2012

They wanted an Arab Spring, now they get the Mother of all Springs


Yes, they spent millions of dollars to train activists to topple their own governments. And one of the main tools Washington has been promoting to force change in the Muslim world through violent uprisings - change tailored to benefit the White House, of course - is the Internet.  
Suddenly, however, the same tool is backfiring against the Obama administration. Now the real uprising, the Mother of all Springs, is backfiring against the US. Sit back and watch their First World hypocrisy ... p.s. Do wonder as well if the "activists" trained by  the US dollars aren't in our country, too!

Have beens, Could Have Beens, Might Have Beens: The Making of APolitical Dustbin




Orang Kecewa. I feel sorry for my friends in PKR, but like I told @fahmifadzil, I think his party has been bringing in too many have-beens lately and bringing them in with great pomp and fanfare, as if they were great coups. Not much different from DAP's "victory" of getting Aspan Alias and Sakmongkol, but at least those two have never benefited as much when they were deep in the BN "system" nor are they as old and tired as the recent "kataks" in Sabah, although they may be as worthless.

Fahmi said "They are fleeing a sinking ship". I really don't think so. I think they saw a garbage truck and went for it!

The Choice put it eloquently:
This trickle of has-been politicians signing up to Pakatan is deeply embarrassing for Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who has thrown his personal weight behind the defection strategy. He probably thought he could bribe BN representatives to switch allegiance, but so far very few have taken the bait. And the ones he is snaring are hardly worth the effort.
It is very clear that Anwar Ibrahim's influence in Sabah, once a favorite playground of his when he was Dr Mahathir's deputy in the government and in Umno, has waned. Anwar is today a magnet for "orang2 kecewa".

Read Anwar's Sabah katak are has beens 
and The Choice's Anwar's Defection Strategy in Borneo not very convincing

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Malaysia Day and Anwar Ibrahim's Sabah

 
Anwar says Sabahans will get the RM2 billion Labuan bridge if ...


To all Malaysians wherever you are, it's 16/9, Selamat Hari Malaysia!!!

It's 16/9 and Anwar has done it again, too! Four years ago, as Azmi Anshar recalled for all of us, the de facto Opposition leader announced that he had gotten enough number of MPs from BN to jump over to Pakatan Rakyat that would enable him to move into Seri Perdana on 16.9.2008. Many of those BN leaders were supposed to be from Sabah (see Anwar's Greatest Bluff Stigma).

Now he's promised Sabahans that he will order the RM2 billion Labuan bridge built if PR wins PRU13, ie if he gets to Putrajaya. Read Pakatan Rakyat akan bina jambatan Labuan.

Really, what does Anwar take Sabahans for?

And who was it again who was so against Dr Mahathir's so-called mega projects?

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Kit Siang's pee wee



Fighting Shumi. Award-winning Shuhaimi Baba, fondly known as Shumi (but not to Rais Yatim, I guess, and, hell no, not to Kit Siang, I am certain) is having to fight both the Information Minister and the Opposition leader. Rais Yatim is being difficult about the release of the movie while Kit Siang has got Kua Kia Soong to bark at Shumi. Unfortunately for Kua, Shumi isn't afraid of him. In Feisty Shumi fought back Kua, but where's Tandaputera promo? by the blogger A Voice, Shuhaimi Baba barks back at Kit Siang's machai, and by golly, I think she makes a better, smarter fighter than many of the politicians out there! Shumi, however, has a stronger adversary in Rais ...


Original article
I read about this "ex-Mara student" coming out to say that YB Lim Kit Siang could not have urinated on a flag pole in front of the Selangor MB's house during the May 13, 1969 racial riots. Aside from the fact that the article was published by The Edge, a financial daily, the thing that struck me as funny is that the ex-Mara student is a 64 year old man!

Ahmad Habib was 21 years old when the racial riots erupted. When the clashes happened, he boarded the wrong bus and later went into hiding for 8 hours in a house in Lorong Raja Uda and later went over to the MB's house to seek help. The young man must have been scared shit and confused but he was certain Kit Siang didn't pee there that day. His eye-witness account in Ex-Mara Student Refutes May 13 allegation against Kit Siang h e r e.

First thing first, the article should NOT have described Ahmad Habib as an ex-Mara student. Ahmad Habib should be quoted as a DAP supporter  or a pensioner or an ex-civil servant or whatever it was that he did after he had graduated, not as "ex-Mara student". 

Why then did the article quote him as an "ex-Mara student"? Obviously, someone at The Edge saw the need to show that a Malay (Mara is associated with Malay/Bumiputera) is throwing his support for Kit Siang and the DAP. If Ahmad Habib has always been one of the few non-Chinese DAP supporters, his eye-witness account count for much, would it? Hence, the use of "Mara" in the story.

Other than the obvious spin on Mara, what also struck me is the fact that Kit does go to great lengths to clear his name on the May 13 racial riots. We know that his party, the DAP, has always seem uncomfortable - and defensive, even - when discussions on May 13 zoom in to the question of "Who Started It?". But did the movie suggest that it was Kit Siang who did the "funny business" in front of the MB's residence 43 years ago?

I had the privilege of previewing Shuhaimi Baba's Tanda Putera sometime back and came away impressed with an effective and moving portrayal two great Malaysian leaders - Tun Razak and Tun Dr Ismail - in one movie. I came away feeling I knew both men better now. I came away appreciating the struggles and sacrifices our forefathers had to go through and had to make for us.

In the movie, there may have been a scene of a man peeing at a flagpole or a tree or on his own shoes but if it isn't for Kit Siang who has so incessantly insisted he did not such thing - and now this ex-Mara student coming out of hiding to tell us not what he saw but what he did not see! -  I would have totally forgotten it!

---------------------------------


Niner

9QUESTIONS. TV Nine has a program every Thursday in which a subject will be asked a set of nine questions on a single topic. Tonight's subject is a vocal Independent MP who will answer questions from nine personalities on the recent flag controversy. I get to ask one of the questions. Do tune in at 1030 tonight.


Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Move aside, Air Asia ...

New budget airline. Tony Fernandez/Air Asia's honeymoon ends today with the launch of a new budget carrier by no less than the Malaysian PM himself. According to blogger Apanama in his latest posting Bravo to new born-in-Malaysia airlines, the partnership between Lion Air and Nadi will give birth to an airline that offers low fares (like Air Asia) but with full service (like MAS and Garuda)!

Ironically, after the MAS-Air Asia share swap fiasco early this year, Tony F announced his move to Air Asia's "regional office" in Jakarta, a move seen as a slap in Najib Razak's face.

Immediately, the new airline is good on two counts: 
1. Promote healthy competition and ends the monopoly by Air Asia now that it is big and strong 
2. Strengthen Indonesia-Malaysian ties






Monday, September 10, 2012

What makes a Journalist of the Year?



Event: National Press Club Awards Nite 2012Date: 12 September 12Venue: Mariott, KL
To view latest news updates and last year's photographs, and to find if you could get a last-minute invite (which is quite unlikely), go H E R E.

Followers of the annual NPC awards, now only in its third year, know that we're rather unconventional. Candidates for the various awards are nominated by their peers rather than by submitting their own articles. There have been cases, therefore, when winners turned down the awards because it was politically incorrect for them! Not our loss. And that is why our previous Journalist of the Year winners were rather unconventional - sometimes controversial - journos.

This year is no different ... (to be cont'd). 

Sunday, September 09, 2012

Zimbo, the big Bodyguard who drew his big gun



Ah, nearly missed this video clip of allegedly the same Anwar Ibrahim big Bodyguard .. Courtesy of Jiwa Paradox, with thanks to Ready, Aim ... by Bigdox.


Original Posting:

The Bodyguard: Zimbo; former bodybuilder

The Client: Anwar Ibrahim

The Arrest: Zimbo meet plainclothes 

Zimbo, a former bodybuilder and Mr KL contestant, was arrested for drawing his gun on a "mob" in Melaka. The crowd was said to have blocked a double-decker bus carrying Anwar and other PKR leaders from entering a kampung. Zimbo was questioned by police for an hour and later released. Am not sure if he got to keep his gun.

This incident should scare the shit of all of us. Things could have gone very wrong. Someone could have been seriously hurt. Anwar Ibrahim can try and politicize this issue and tell his vanishing ceramah crowds that police should have arrested the "Umno mob" that blocked his bus from entering the kampung. Maybe the police should have. Or maybe Anwar should have waited for PRU13 before he starts campaigning. We can argue and play the blame game till the cows come home. 

One thing for sure, a gun is no plaything. I have been around bodyguards all my journalism life and known a few of them but never have I witnessed any of them having to draw their weapons. A bodyguard draws his gun when his client's life is in danger. Was Anwar's life in imminent danger?

That's what Anwar wants everyone to think. And that's how he and his media will try and spin this ...

Friday, September 07, 2012

In Sabah. some very clumsy politicians shoot themselves in the foot

Orang utans in Sabah are not clumsy
Did you know that a decision by the Sabah government at the end of 2007 to totally halt logging near Danum Valley to protect 3,000 orang utans has cost it RM4 billion in loss of potential revenue?

Bet you also didn't know that the area of TPAS (Totally protected areas) reserves in Sabah is reaching 1.3 million ha or about 20% of Sabah’s total land area, even exceeding the IUCN standard of 10%. The latest addition is about 180,000 ha — the 55,000 ha. wildlife corridor linking Maliau Basin, lmbak Canyon to Danum/Ulu Segama and the re-classification of Ulu Segama (130,000 ha) to total protected status.

And you were most probably ignorant of the fact that under current Chief Minister Musa Aman, Sabah has seen the greatest extent of TPAS expansion in the history of Sabah, despite enormous opportunity cost of conservation!

These are FACTS that most of us didn't know and weren't really thinking about. But thanks to some daft politicians in Sabah who, on orders from their orang Malaya masters, were trying to take Musa Aman down with wild allegations of timber/logging kickbacks, we are now drawn to the good things the Sabah government has done - but has not been shouting about - to protect the state's forests.

Read more about a winning battle against illegal and excessive logging H E R E.

Wednesday, September 05, 2012

Global Competitiveness: Malaysia in Top 25

6/9/12, 12pm: In his posting Malaysia Still Among The Best World Economies, Bujai expresses concern with our broadband ineffectiveness, one of the reasons affecting Malaysia's overall competitiveness. Bujai may disagree with me on the need to take the fast-paced telco industry out of our slow-mo Information Ministry. Otherwise, we'll forever be doing the catching up.
The Star has more details from the WEF survey, including the fact that Malaysians now trust their politicians more (?) and government policies in terms of transparency has improved markedly, h e r e.

Original piece
Crime and Competitiveness. Malaysia fell four notches to 25th place in the latest world competitiveness ranking but remains well, well ahead of Zimbabwe, which maintained its 132nd position.

Hehe. Sorry bros and sis, could not help it. That was for the benefit of Anwar Ibrahim, Ambiga S and others who are so fond of comparing Malaysia to Zimbabwe. Myanmar, another country they love us to emulate, is not even included in the 144 countries monitored and rated annually by the World Economic Forum.

Back to the Global Competitiveness Report 2012-2013, launched worldwide at 2pm our time minutes ago, Malaysia's overall score dropped slightly to 5.06 points. Last year, Malaysia was 21st most competitive with a score of 5.08 

Factors that brought us down include poorer (relatively) international internet bandwidth, lower broadband internet subscriptions per 100 population, and poorer mobile broadband subscriptions. (All these come under the same ministry, which strengthens my case that we should break up the Information Ministry).

Two factors related to crime brought our scores down: 
1. Perception on business costs or crime and violence and 
2. Perception on organized crime 

This is most interesting because crime is not just about your safety and my security, it affects our competitiveness as a nation! So all the reasons we need to equip our police force and the other relevant authorities fighting crime. 

The bit of organized crime is so true. Professional hits, gangsters killing gangsters, etc. We have been reading more and more about them in the papers lately. I believe all these are happening because the bad people are less afraid - there is no more Emergency Ordinance (note that a lot of crimes in the past months are related to former EO detainees) and the ISA has been repealed. Even the Seditions Act is no more.

We need a potent preventive act to deter the crooks and restore confidence in business and the people. And help us become more competitive.

I will provide links to the Global Competitiveness Report 2012-2013 once they are out. In the meantime, here's how we fare in the Asia Pacific and Asean:




Sunday, September 02, 2012

Monkey see Monkey Do

LeadershiT by Example. We were wondering who or what had inspired those monkeys. Thanks to this tweet, now we know ...

Monkey see ...
... Monkey do

Original article
BN has its weaknesses, Pakatan has nothing ... Nothing good, that is. I voted for the first time in 2008 to help bring down a bad, bad regime. Today, as my country celebrated its 55th Independence (31 Aug) and as we celebrate the formation of Malaysia with Sabah & Sarawak (16 Sept), I thank God that my vote was NOT enough the so-called Pakatan Rakyat to rule. Look at the schemes this pact has allowed to come up - all of which undoubtedly very detrimental to this nation - so they can be in power.

Today we see their true colors and they aren't pretty.

From Apanama (which includes an open letter to the PM to take preventive measures to safeguard the interests of the majority):

Monkey making an ass of himself
Monkeys for change