Ah, Wong Chun Wai!

Wong Chun Wai, the former editor-in-chief of The Star, will be made this afternoon the new chairman of Bernama, the national  news agency, sources said. If I’m not mistaken, he’ll the first non-Malay to be appointed to the post. Wong has never served Bernama as a reporter but that has never been a pre-requisite; his predecessor Ras Adibah Radzi, who joined the Opposition a little too hastily (I thought) after the end of her tenure as Bernama chairman (and senator) earlier this year, was also never a Bernama employee. Chun Wai has been a journalist for about 40 years and the circumstances surrounding his appointment to Bernama had been much talked about. With his vast experience as editor and non-editorial executive of one of the most profitable newspapers in the country, Chun Wai is expected to turn Bernama into a financially self-sustainable entity, for once. 

The 62-year old was not the first choice, apparently. The post had been offered to Meor Kamarulbaid Mior Shahid, the former Berita Harian editor, but they discovered that Meor was past 70 and, therefore, overaged. 

The best analysis on the 3:3 outcome of the State Elections goes to …

Damansara, 14 Aug (a public holiday in Selangor): Of all the analyses on the outcome of the six-state elections, I like one dished out by Liyana Marzuki the most. The Scoop has the story: Mereka bukan menang besar, mereka hanya sembang besar [They didn’t win big, they only talked big]. 

The self-confessed Unity Government advocate didn’t mince her words in her analysis, reminding the people of how cocky Muhyiddin Yasin and Dr Mahathir Mohamad were in their prophecy of a landslide defeat for Anwar Ibrahim’s UG (the Bersatu president said Perikatan Nasional could win all 6 states if Malay voter turnout exceeded 90% while Dr M predicted a 1-5 defeat for Anwar). 

She even made fun of Muhyiddin’s call for Anwar to step down after the state elections results were announced. (Read her FB at the end of this posting)

Pakatan Harapan retained Selangor, Penang and Negri Sembilan in the state elections while Perikatan Nasional got to keep Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu. The outcome of the elections, one analyst told Bernama, “… will help clear up uncertainties in the local political scene, and will attract more foreign investors to the Malaysian stock market.” 

Additionally, we can expect the overall outlook in the midterm to be positive buoyed by improving economic conditions, the same analyst said. 

The outlook would have been grim if Mahathir or Muhyiddin’s prophecies had come true: the KLSE index and the Ringgit would have plumetted today and FDI would just go elsewhere (and not Kelantan, Kedah or Terengganu, for sure).

Liyana Marzuki’s analysis taken from her Facebook: 

MENANG BESAR?

TSMY punya bongkak sebelum PRN ini. Katanya dia cukup yakin PN akan tawan semua 6 negeri.

Tun M jangkakan mereka akan dapat skor 5-1. Selangor dan Negeri Sembilan akan jatuh.

TGHH juga kata, kalau ini berlaku mereka akan buat gerakan menebuk atap sekali lagi. Tiada siapa termasuk pihak Istana, boleh menghalang.

Hakikatnya, mereka jauh tersasar. Mereka bukan menang besar, mereka hanya SEMBANG BESAR.

Negeri Sembilan kononnya PN boleh rampas, kecundang pula. PHBN siap dapat 2/3.

Selangor lagi kan pula, siap PN kata boleh dapat 2/3, kalah juga! Walaupun pelbagai janji ditabur dan bulan bintang hendak diberi. Orang Selangor cerdik lagi.

Saya jangkakan Kelantan akan beri telur ayam. Still UMNO menang di sana. Dan di Kedah DAP dan PKR boleh menang kerusi.

Mana cerita MENANG BESAR itu tadi?

Sebenarnya Presiden PN ni sudah terciduk. Terkantoi over confident pada mulanya.

Tu sebab jangan bongkak dan sembang deras mula2.

Sembang deras itu hanya boleh makan Taksuber.

Untuk GAP dan fence sitters, we can see through you, your true colours.

Sekarang, dia buat statement, PMX kena resign dan retire. Sebab PN sudah “menang besar”. Yang saya nampak “sembang besar” saja.

Masa PH 1.0 22 bulan dan zaman 33 bulan, setiap PRK dan PRN , PPBM kalah. Ingat PRN Johor dan Melaka? Patut masa tu TSMY pun retire! Gagal banyak benda. Kalau bukan sebab PAS, PRU15 pun terciduk juga.

Not my kinda of PM. Kalau PN nak berjaya, elok lah ditukar lain pula. Ni dah level dinosaur. Tambah Kluster Mahkamah Jana Wibawa. Sudah basi jua.

Salam hormat,

Liyana Marzuki. 

 

 

Chief Tyrant Officer rules EPF and that’s not OK, say workers

Amir Hamzah

AMIR Hamzah Azizan has helmed nearly a dozen companies, including GLC giant Tenaga Nasional, and in all those years at the top has probably never been called a “tyrant” before. 

But now the generally timid trade unions of the Employee Provident Fund, where he has been CEO since March 2021 (when Muhyiddin Yasin was PM), are calling Amir Hamzah’s management zalim, which is Malay for tyrannical, a title accorded to Firaun in biblical times and, in more recent times, to Dr Mahathir. Surely, something any CEO can do without especially if he or she harbours any ambition to climb to the highest rung of the GLC ladder. 

The trade unions are sore with Amir’s administration for allowing a pay gap cancer to permeate and give birth to a “caste system” between EPF’s top managers earning fat pay checks and ordinary workers who take home crumbs. 

Worse, the workers seem to have closed the door for discussions with the management, tired of being ignored time and again by the management, they claimed. They are now demanding that the Prime Minister steps in to help resolve the dispute.

I don’t know how big the salary disparity in the EPF is or how much Amir Hamzah takes home compared with the salary he pays, say, Ahmad Hamzah the trade union leader. I’m sure Malaysians in general are not bothered how much Amir is paid or how generous he is with his top managers or how much the Minister of Finance (who is also the PMX) allows the directors of EPF to reward themselves. But so often we see low-income workers in this country getting poorer and poorer compared with their bosses and that is something we (ie the employers) need to consciously address if we truly aspire for a more just and equitable society. 

The EPF, which was the 4th largest pensions fund in Asia in 2020 and 7th in the world before the pandemic (its income in the first quarter of 2023 was RM16 billion, 3 per cent more than the corresponding quarter of 2022), is the body entrusted to safeguard the interests of 15 million workers in the private sector who mandatorily contribute 12 per cent of their income to it. 

As I see it, the EPF can’t be doing a great job (for the millions of contributing workers) if it can’t even rein in - or please - its own 5,700 workers.