RM2 bil to foreign consultants for 12MP report: Anwar, Tok Pa must clarify

I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet - Ghandi

RIDICULOUS. That's how Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim's claim - that the Government had spent RM2 billion on foreign consultants to help it draw up the 12th Malaysia Plan - sounded at first. 

But is it, really? We just witnessed a failed Prime Minister returned casually to the corridors of power as it nothing had happened, chaired the all-important National Recovery Council as if it was his birthright. That's insane and indecent but it happened, right in front of all of us. We saw an ongoing corruption case against a DAP stalwart and former Finance Minister withdrawn not too long ago and just yesterday an Umno strongman paid RM1.1 million in compounds that got money laundering charges against him dropped.

What's ridiculous is the way Tok Pa responded to Anwar's allegations h e r e. The fact that the Minister in PM's Department made no attempt at all to let us know how much exactly was the "minor cost" involved in preparing the 12MP report. And since he did not deny that foreign consultants were involved, how much (if it wasn't RM2 billion) did we taxpayers pay these consultants for their work?

Anwar, too, must start backing up his claim. Otherwise, it will be another case of crying wolf and that will be ridiculous. No, worse than ridiculous.

Women's rights: Look Rwanda for a change

KL, 27 Sept 2021: When talking about equal rights, try looking elsewhere other than the West next time. For the answers to the question may be found in 'backward' countries like Rwanda (where 61 per cent of this African country's parliamentarians are women), Cuba (53 per cent), Nicaragua (51 per cent), and Mexico and the United Arab Emirates (50 per cent). In developed Europe, none of the countries have ever reached 50 per cent. 

I read an article in The Vibes (h e r e) this morning about Iceland nearly becoming the first in Europe to have a women-majority Parliament. A miss is a good as a mile but congratulations to them, all the same. We Malaysians shouldn't talk: last year female reps in our Dewans was only 14.41 per cent. But if the likes of Zuraida Kamaruddin, the Ampang Member of Parliament, insist on talking, just know our place and the fact that we need to learn, not teach or guide others.

p..s  Btw, whatever happened to Zuraida's trip to Afghanistan to teach the Talibans about women's rigths, anyone? The latest article on Google is this 24 Aug piece by The Star: Zuraida to meet Afghan ambassador after offer to guide Taliban on women's rights 

 

Azmin Ali to be DPM, according to Malaysiakini

 

The PM with his future deputy? Pic by Bernama

Bangsar, 24 Aug: This choker by Malaysiakini interrupted our lunch today:

Azmin poised to become DPM, according to Bersatu, Umno sources

Malaysiakini Team

Published 24 Aug 2021, 1:05 pm

Modified 1:14 pm

Gombak MP Azmin Ali is poised to become the country's next deputy prime minister, according to sources in Bersatu and Umno.

A Bersatu source, who is aligned to Azmin, told Malaysiakini there was a "strong likelihood" that the Gombak MP was going to become the deputy prime minister.

Three Umno sources, who are on the supreme council including two who are MP...

This is not the first time someone's betting on Azmin to be DPM. In April 2019, the former trusted aide of Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim who later became Mahathir Mohamad's blue-eyed boy, was said to be in line for the No 2 job when Mahathir was PM7. Read the Malaysiakini report Azmin clueless about becoming DPM during Hari Raya celebration.  Well, we all know Azmin did not become DPM and that less than a year after that report, he helped mastermind the so-called Sheraton Move that swept aside Mahathir and led to Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin becoming PM8. Azmin was made one of the four senior ministers under Muhyiddin's Perikatan Nasional government, with reports saying he even moved into the official DPM residence in Putrajaya (which was taken to strongly imply that he was the "chosen one"). In a twist of fate, though, Azmin was pipped by another senior minister, Ismail Sabri, to the DPM post. Ismail Sabri, with Azmin's support, is now PM9.