Wednesday, February 8, 2012

So! Who Is Going To Bankrupt Malaysia?

Hantu Laut

There are dime a dozen of them out there, churning out the crudest and most ill-conceived writing against the government and its leaders.

Malaysia Chronicle, Malaysian Insider and the mother of all gutters Malaysiakini have plenty of these fierce moles crawling out of the molehills and for the first time see the light of day.

Some sould have been taken to the cleaners for libel but Malaysian politicians either have too many skeletons in the closet or think it's just not worth the effort.For some it's money matters.

If pro-government bloggers are paid than the same must be said of bloggers and writers supporting the opposition.

As Ahiruddin says which I agree "It's a total crap"

We don't need to be paid for our political beliefs.We don't need to be paid for our conscience.

How to support a group of political misfits that are full of contradictions?

Their latest contradiction is the unsound opposition to the government proposal to use RM1.5 billion of EPF funds to provide housing loans to the low income earners that do not qualify for bank financing.

All over the world in developed and developing countries the government are obligated to help the low income and the needy by providing such facilities as cheap loans or cheap home rentals.

In Britain, if you are less fortunate you are entitled to stay in a council house.In 1979 Britain introduced a right to buy legislation which allow the tenant to purchase the property.In Singapore, the HDB has been the most successful in housing its low income citizens.The government later introduced the HUDC for the middle income.Today, these properties have appreciated 5 to 10 folds its original prices.

The EPF has over RM400 billion investment portfolio and any of these investments can go wrong.

Making a mountain out of a molehill. RM1.5 billion is much less than 1% of the total portfolio.A drop in the ocean to help the poor to put roofs over their heads, a place they proudly can call home.

To this, the Oxford moron in the opposition, a lad called Tony Pua, one that is too smart for his own good, indignantly objected and sent wrong messages to the people to oppose the scheme.He said the scheme is against the EPF Act but failed to mention the particular act. Having read the Act myself it is clear what he claimed is untrue, there was no such contravention.The BOD of EPF has wide ranging powers to decide on any type of investments.This scheme is probably a much safer investment for EPF than shares and stocks as the amount is guaranteed by DBKL. Stocks can appreciate and depreciate in value.

There is no substance in his claim, it's pure political propaganda and a crock of shit.

EPF would not be giving direct loan to individuals.I presumed it would be through a new entity set up for this purpose, either own by EPF or DBKL.

On one hand he pretends to fight for the poor and on the other hand whack the poor and deny them of their rightful place in society.

Those of you, who want to vote for these kind of political misfits, better think twice.

They (Pakatan) have promised:

1.To lower the price of fuel by giving greater subsidies.

2.Bring down the price of foods and other essentials by giving greater subsidies.

3.To increase oil loyalty to 20% to Sabah and Sarawak.

4.To abolish highway tolls.........not sure how they are going to do it.They, either have to pay billion of ringgits to the toll concessionaires or just nationalise the whole damn thing without any payment of compensation.

There are many more on record that I need not mention here.

So! Now you tell me who is going to bankrupt Malaysia?

Malaysia's Anti-Opposition Bloggers

Does Kuala Lumpur have a home-grown version of China’s ’50-centers?’

Is Malaysia getting its own version of China’s so-called 50-centers, the legions of Chinese bloggers who monitor websites and reply to criticism of the government for money?

Ahiruddin Attan, the Kuala Lumpur-based pro-government blogger who writes under the name “Rocky’s Bru” says last September he pulled together friends to set up what he calls a small news portal called The Mole with the idea “to give certain balance to the reports of Malaysiakini, Malaysian Insider, Malaysia Today.”

In Ahiruddin’s view, “there are too many anti-establishment, anti-government sites in Malaysia.”

The Malaysian Insider reported last year that the government had provided US$10 million for the project. Other reports circulating in Malaysian political circles say the bloggers have been provided with US$10 million by the United Malaysia National Organization, the country’s biggest political party, and another US$10 million from the Malaysian billionaire Syed Mokhtar al Bukhary to follow the proliferating anti-establishment news organizations that are thronging Malaysia and state the government’s viewpoint.

But, Ahiruddin said in a telephone interview: “That US$10 million is totally crap. There is no truth at all in it. We are really small.” A former editor of a variety of UMNO publications including the Business Times, The Malay Mail and The Sunday Mail, he says he derives his current income from his continuing directorship at the Mail, a Kuala Lumpur-based daily tabloid. To reports that he had bought a Harley-Davidson motorcycle with his new-found wealth, he snorted. The Harley, he said, is 12 years old.

Despite Ahiruddin’s denials, other sources insist that at least 10 to 15 people are involved in the effort, with government support.

Because all of Malaysia’s mainstream media, including newspapers and television, are owned by its ruling political parties the country has generated perhaps the most vociferous opposition Internet news portals in the region, with some, including Malaysiakini and the Malaysian Insider, providing professional coverage of the government.

Although government officials grit their teeth over what the news portals publish, they have adhered to a pledge made by former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad to leave the Internet censorship-free. Mahathir made the pledge in 1995 to promote the international development of his multi-media Super Corridor, which was designed to attract high-tech industry across the globe. In 1998, the government allowed Malaysiakini to begin operations.

The result, along with the proliferation of news sites, most of them anti-government, has been an explosion of readers who gather their news from the Internet. According to Freedom House, a whopping 55 percent of Malaysians had access to the Internet in 2011. And, the NGO said: “In the watershed elections of March 2008, the ruling National Front coalition lost its two-thirds majority for the first time since 1969. In addition, opposition parties won control of five of the country’s 13 states, including those with relatively high Internet penetration rates…Together with the growing popularity of independent online news outlets, the use of the Internet for political mobilization was widely perceived as contributing to the opposition’s electoral gains.” Read more.


5 comments:

SM said...

Bro HL,

Unsound Opposition? Ya right!
My hard-earned savings are in the EPF!
If the Government is not bankrupt (we all know that they have no more money), then provide funds for the housing scheme from it's own coffers (which are our hard earned Tax Money anyway).
Since EPF is the people's savings, then ask us first before using our money to buy votes!
In this last few months all we see is the Government's push to give money to the Rakyat in an attempt to buy votes before the next GE!
Stay away from my hard-earned savings!

gram.kong said...

Bro SM,
There is no provision in the EPF Act for the BOD to get contributors' consent how the money should be invested.

You have become victim of the opposition's smear campaign.This is more secure than most other investments.First, the loans given to the borrower is secured by the property and the whole amount will also be guaranteed by DBKL, which if not good enough, EPF should ask for the Federal government.
guarantee.

I don't buy the opposition reasoning it just an attempt to instill fear in the people's mind to inflict as much collateral damage as possible on the government.

The opposition is

Purple Haze said...

HL

You need to differentiate between govt and a nationally administered provident fund. You are right when you say that there are many countries in the world that provide "cheap loans and cheap rentals"

Be miindful that it is the govt that provides this and not a provident fund. The last time I checked, the EPF is a body set up by statute BUT it is not a govt body.

The proper way for the govt to tap into EPF's funds is to issue Malaysian Govt Securites (MGS) or more popularly known as govt bonds OR borrow from the EPF as a govt guaranteed loan, using say, DBKL as the borrower (since this particular "funding" was targetted for KL city dwellers) or some properly constituted entity.

The EPF Act does not give the board a free hand in investments as you allege. To my recollection, all loans have to be secured.

The problem I see in this scheme is that the EPF's money is derived from the contributors who are the rakyat (generally). If this proposal sees the light of day wherein the govt of Malaysia guarantees the repayment to EPF (either as MGS or govt guaranteed loan), it is the taxpayers who will bear the brunt of repayment.

Hold on ... taxpayers are the rakyat also.

Either way, we are going to get reamed.

So, to answer your question posed in the title of this article, the current govt of the day is going to bankrupt Malaysia.

SM said...

Bro HL,

By the way, another reason why I think Malaysia is already Bankrupt.....
The "1Care Health Scheme"! Tell me please how this is going to help us? From what I see, our health institutes are already pretty good (one of the few things I can say that this Government has been good at!).
The fact that they are now looking at this new scheme where it is supposedly said that we will have to make mandatory payments (no one wants to confirm this yet!) shows the dire straits (nothing to do with that excellent band!) we are in. Unless of course Najib comes out next & says they will scrap this "1care" thingy because the BN doesn't that to burden the Rakyat further!

Purple Haze said...

SM already has the ecript written out. Must be his years of observation of this BN lot.