The Economist: Malaysia Plays Catch Up

Malaysia is good at starting something but lack the will and impetus to follow through, a management sickness faced by many GLCs.

January 23rd 2014| 

Malaysia's new automotive policy aims to prepare the market for trade liberalisation, while easing the pain for its local carmakers.

In the second half of January, Malaysia's government unveiled the long-awaited revisions to its National Automotive Policy (NAP). The changes are designed to prepare domestic automakers for the imminent creation of the ten-member Asian Economic Community (AEC) and to carve out a role for the country in the regional automotive industry. However, the NAP 2014 also extends some of the protectionist measures that shield Malaysia's two indigenous manufacturers, Proton and Perodua, from international competition.

The most positive aspects of the new NAP 2014 aim to boost inward foreign investment by promoting Malaysia as a future hub for energy-efficient vehicles in the AEC. The new document broadens the definition of a green car, which is no longer tied either to a specific technology, such as petrol-electric hybrids or plug-in electric vehicles, or to engine size. The government will now start issuing licences to foreign producers to make small, energy efficient vehicles in Malaysia, hoping that such vehicles will also be exported elsewhere in the region.

The policy includes incentives and direct financing measuring M$2bn (US$600m). The ultimate goal is to boost exports of green vehicles to at least 200,000 units by 2020, with exports of automotive components reaching M$10bn at the same time. Instead of trying to compete in the mass car market, therefore, the Malaysian government is aiming to develop a market niche that could become a key driver of the automotive industry in coming years.

Yet Malaysia will face stiff regional competition even within this niche. Indonesia also has its low-cost green car programme, which is helping to attract foreign investment into the sector. Thailand has an eco-car programme, which aims to turn the country's into the ASEAN region’s main production hub for small, fuel-efficient city cars. It is also targeting green-car exports to countries outside the ASEAN trade block.

These two countries already outgun Malaysia in terms of both auto production and car exports. Thailand's policy of market liberalization has attracted investment from Japanese manufacturers and parts suppliers, which have built factories there over the past decade and a half. Vehicle production in Thailand is now around 2.5m a year, while Indonesia's output has reached 1.2m. Both those countries have also emerged as major regional vehicle exporters. Malaysia, meanwhile, produces fewer than 600,000 vehicles a year, with exports low.

History lessons

Part of the blame for this lies with Malaysia’s comparatively small market size and lower population. But part of the problem lies with its government's ambivalent attitude towards international trade in the auto industry. Malaysia's car industry was the brainchild of long-serving Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, who established Proton in the early 1980s, producing vehicles designed by Mitsubishi (Japan). The second car company, Perodua, emerged a decade later. The original NAP was published in 2006 with a goal of tilting the playing field in favour of domestic carmakers within a framework of controlled industry liberalisation. The first revision to the NAP was effected in 2009.

Initially, protectionist policies benefited the country’s automakers, making Malaysia a regional automotive leader in the 1990s. Without competition and trade opportunities to push the companies' development, however, the quality and technological sophistication of their vehicles suffered. Proton saw its market share drop sharply once it shifted to making proprietary vehicles. Perodua, in which Japan's Daihatsu owns a 20% stake, has been the market leader for over a decade, even though its vehicles are not competitive in international markets either.

Read more.

Mutalib MD - The Unsung Hero

Hantu Laut

Though I don't know him personally and have never met the man I share the loss of this unsung hero, who for many years have been ridiculed by those in power for exposing the issuance of I/Cs to illegal immigrants from the Philippines and Indonesia.

He was the first to expose the "I/C Palsu" and letting illegal immigrants to votes using forged I/C. He also started the first widely read Sabah political blog "Sabahkini"

A true Sabahan who for years pursue the illegal I/C and illegal immigrants problems but to no avail as the power that be denied any involvement.

As the adage "truth will out" what he wrote and has been saying all these years came true at the RCI (Royal Commission of Enquiry) that had many recipients of illegal I/Cs coming forward to testify.

A true and fearless Sabahan, who tried to right the wrongs, but did not live long enough to see through what he has been fighting for all these years.

A champion for Sabahans, an unsung hero, we will be missing him.

My deepest condolence to his family and may Allah bless his soul.

Alfateha.

Susilo: There will be no apology for the Apology

Hantu Laut

The unschooled Indonesian media shit-stirring their President for apologising to Singapore and Malaysia, which was the right thing he did, unlike his minister who is equally unschooled in protocol and foreign relation, behaving like orang hutan.

From WSJ:

Indonesia’s president defended his decision to offer a rare mea culpa to Malaysia and Singapore for the haze that long-burning fires are sending into the neighboring countries, a move that sparked a small torrent of criticism in this country of 240 million people where the president’s image isn’t what it once was.

“Due to the fact the haze is from Indonesia, we take responsibility, and saying sorry in that context, to me, is not excessive,” a miffed-looking President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told reporters Wednesday, a day after apologizing to Jakarta’s closest neighbors over a particularly bad spell of an annual conflict dating back to the 1980s.

Asked whether he had felt pressure to apologize after weeks of media attention and statements from leaders overseas, he said “What I’ve done in the past two to three days…is fully my decision.”

He made a point of saying that he would continue to press both countries on issues close to home: fighting for domestic workers’ rights in Malaysia and pushing for an extradition treaty with Singapore, saying the latter remained the home of many assets moved illegally overseas during the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s.

Newspapers Wednesday and Thursday were filled with news of the apology, with many quick to criticize the president for a problem partly caused by the sizable Singaporean and Malaysian plantation companies operating in Indonesia, particularly in the fire-choked province of Riau.

Offering a contrarian voice, however, was the influential daily Kompas, which called the apology “noble.”

But in Dumai — a dusty, outpost town built on palm oil and timber where traffic lights are routinely ignored– the owner of a convenient store downtown offered the more common view across Riau.

“It’s embarrassing. Why does our president have to apologize to Malaysia and Singapore?” Read more http://blogs.wsj.com/searealtime/2013/06/27/indonesias-president-defends-apology-to-malaysia-and-singapore/

Susilo: Mark Of A True Statesman

Hantu Laut

That's it, a mark of a true statesman. Thank you Susilo for your apology.

If it has come earlier, there won't be many angry Malaysians and Singaporeans.

That's the way it should be, as responsible neighbour we apologise if the mistake is ours, not insult our innocent neighbours who have to bear the brunt of our mistake.

You need to teach your Minister for People Welfare Agung Laksono tact and diplomacy. He behaved like a village tyrant.

I could not link the article on Susilo's apology, the full text below

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono apologized Monday to Singapore andMalaysia for record-setting pollution caused by forest fires in his country.

"For what is happening, as the president, I apologize to our brothers in Singapore and Malaysia," Yudhoyono said. He asked for their understanding and said Indonesia is working hard to fight the fires, which are often set by farmers to clear fields.

Jakarta dispatched planes and helicopters last week to battle the blazes in peat swamp forests as well as plantations in Riau province on Sumatra island, where the smoke easily drifts across the sea to the two neighboring countries.

Speaking at a news conference after a Cabinet meeting to discuss the issue, Yudhoyono said he has ordered an investigation of the fires.

"There should be a thorough investigation. In my analysis, there are both natural and human factors," he said, adding that the wind direction has caused the smoke to concentrate in Singapore and Malaysia.

Malaysian declared a state of emergency on Sunday in a district where the haze triggered one of the country's worst pollution levels, while Singapore has urged people to remain indoors due to "hazardous" levels of pollution.

Last week, Indonesian Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Agung Laksono slammed critical comments by Singaporean officials about the haze, saying they should have been conveyed through diplomatic channels instead of publicly.

"Singapore should not act like children, making all that noise," he said. 

Also Monday, Minister of Transportation Evert Ernest Mangindaan warned all airlines about dangerous flying conditions in Jambi, Riau and Bengkulu because of the haze.

He said any aircraft flying in the areas must first obtain permission from Air Traffic Control. Yahoo.

The Indonesian Minister Is A Moron!

Hantu Laut

If you are born stupid there is little anyone can do to help you, but if you can rise to the level of a minister in a government people expect some level of intelligence in you.

"It is better to keep your mouth shut and let people think you are a fool than open it and remove all doubt" a popular quotation by Mark Twain

I have little time for this kind of stupidity.

This Indonesian Minister should commit "harakiri" because he has no sense of shame. He should come to Malaysia and Singapore and see first hand how dangerous the smog had become and hazardous to human lives. We live in constant fear that we may collapse anytime and die due to lack of oxygen in the air. 

The API reading in Muar, Johor yesterday spiked to 746, even a face mask is rendered useless with such dense pollutants in the air.

He lives in Jakarta, or on Java Island, which is not in the path of the deadly haze and he has no idea how terrible it is to breath such deadly air, which can kill the elderly and those with respiratory diseases.

After reading this my blood reached boiling point. What kind of lamentable excuse this moron is giving us?

It is your country, you have jurisdiction over the land, put out the fire and take action against those companies. 

You have your law, enforce it! What's the point of telling us they are Malaysian companies, the Malaysian government can't go there and enforce the law.

It's typical irresponsible Indonesian mentality, I am big, I am a moron, I don't care and I can bully you.

Additional reading:Fires In Indonesia

Indonesia, A Neighbour From Hell

Hantu Laut

I now consider Indonesia as bad neighbour.A government that talk a lot and do fuck all to clean up their dirty act.

This is not one off thing, it's happening almost every year and this time it is a catastrophe of the highest magnitude. The haze choked two neighbouring nations, Singapore and Malaysia.

I am here sitting in my lounge looking out of the window and can see how bad the haze here in Kota Kinabalu. Our Crocker Range and Mount Kinabalu, which I can see clearly every morning has disappeared, completely shrouded in haze. We are looking more like Beijing minus the concrete jungle.

I can imagine how worse it is in Singapore and Peninsula Malaysia. I understand the API went up to over 300 in Singapore today, which is hazardous to humans.

Indonesia, is certainly a neighbour from hell and should be made to pay for damages and losses incurred due to the haze.

From the Wall Street Journal:

Smoke from forest fires in Indonesia has choked neighboring Singapore and Malaysia, prompting Singaporean officials to press Jakarta for urgent action against the haze that has pushed the city-state's air pollution to the worst level in 16 years.
Read more.

Corruption's "Great White Shark"

Hantu Laut

Money the roots of all evil they say. 

Corruption in government is the scourge that besieged many countries that can lead to failure of the delivery system and hampers progress and development, the building of basic services and essential infrastructure. 

Can corruption makes a progressive country become regressive?

It can, depending on the degree and how widespread it is.

In some countries jobbery has become a way of life with politicians and high level officials actively and openly involved in corruptions.

You can't completely wipe out corruptions, at best even the best government can only help reduce it. 

Human greed is something difficult to control, not only greed for money, greed for power is equally contemptuous.

The opposition Pakatan Rakyat had won the popular votes riding on the waves of its anti-corruption battle cry.

Is Malaysia really that corrupted? 

Though, made to sound as evil and bad as could be by the opposition, corruptions in Malaysia are certainly not one of the worst in the world. We are no where near any of our neighbours, with the exception of the little dot south of the Peninsula.The squeaky clean city nation stood proudly tall in the corruption index, as clean as the Scandinavian countries.

Any form of corruption is bad and every government must adopt zero tolerance on corruption if it wants a progressive society.

The corruption  index by TI (Transparency International) of Asean countries is shown below.

Country                Ranking                 Score
____________________________________
Singapore                   4                           87
Malaysia                   54                           49
Thailand                   88                           37
Philippines              105                          34
Indonesia                118                           32
Vietnam                  123                           31
Burma                     172                           15  

Depending who you asked and from which perspective one look at it. The answers can be astonishingly divergent. 

Those in government and its supporters would not view it as corruption per se, but as part of the NEP to help the Malays/Bumiputras to raise their living standards and narrow the economic gap with the non-Malays. 

All said and done, this argument do not hold much water anymore as the system have been abused to enrich those in power, their families and their cronies. It has left a legacy of institutionalised corruptions.

We are looking forward to Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak's transformation policy and his promise of reducing  corruptions in government.

Read the "Great White Shark" corruption in Indonesia of a low ranking official, who has racked in hundreds of million in ill gotten gains.

Asia Sentinel

Low-ranking official running what appears to be a massive illegal conglomerate

Indonesia is so used to corruption that the steady parade of crooked lawmakers, policemen, generals, lawyers and others through the offices of the Corruption Eradication Commission and into jail hardly evokes a yawn.

But Adjutant First Inspector Labora Stores, a seemingly low-ranking cop in Papua, has pretty much stopped the country in its tracks. The Papua Police revealed that the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center, the government's anti-money laundering watchdog, had identified transactions amounting to Rp1.5 trillion (US$154 million) passing through Labora's bank accounts from 2007 to 2012.

Given his position at the sixth-lowest rank on the force, Labora earns a monthly salary of Rp8.5 million (US$870), or did until he was arrested last Saturday. He claims his wife, brother-in-law and children run PT Rotua, a timber company, and PT Seno Aid Vijay, a mining and fuel company.

Brig. Gen. Arief Sulistyanto, the National Police director for special and economic crimes, told reporters police had been investigating Labora since mid-March after seizing a boat in Sorong, a West Papua coastal city, that was carrying 400,000 liters of government-subsidized diesel. Labora was later identified as the owner of the craft.

In addition to his suspected fuel smuggling operation, Labora's wood processing business appeared to be thriving, partly by allegedly selling rare woods into China. Senior Cmdr. Setyo Budi Setyanto, the Papua Police director for special crimes, told reporters the force was also investigating Labora's alleged ownership of 115 containers of timber now being held at Surabaya's Tanjung Perak port. Read more.

Global Wealth: Experts Not Worth Their Salt

Hantu Laut

Credit Suisse Global Wealth.........with such big name, nobody cares or dares to fault their reports. 

Rating agencies or whatever you want to call them are, sometimes,  more an abomination of indulgence rather than giving factual result.

I can understand evaluating the wealth of people who control large public listed companies, but how do you go about evaluating private wealth? 

While I do not doubt the Singapore figure of millionaires, I believe Malaysia has more than the 36,000 quoted by the agency. It is still a mystery to me what formula they used to measure the wealth of the 36,000 individuals in Malaysia. 

Many Malaysians are also tax evaders, cash rich and difficult to evaluate their true wealth. 

How do they do it? 

Do they send them questionnaires, check their tax returns, check their bank accounts, check their properties and so on, to arrive at a valuation? Because of bank Secrecy Act, no bank will divulge their customers particulars to anyone.

The report also say house prices have gone down by 40% in Malaysia. Ask any Malaysian if they agree with this ridiculous finding. 

I can't speak for other parts of Malaysia but Sabah property price has gone through the roof and heading for Cloud 9 for the developers and hell for young people to buy a home. The prices of land have also skyrocketed and profiteering by developers have made matters worse for home purchasers. 

A semi-detached house which used to cost around RM200,000 just ten years ago is now costing between RM800,000 to RM1.0 million. I presumed Peninsular Malaysia is no better than what's happening in Sabah. The prices of property in KL hasn't gone down that much either. So! where the figure came from ?

Comparing Singapore and Hongkong with Malaysia may be fair game but Indonesia is a completely different kettle of fish. Indonesia has a population of over 240 million, the 4th largest in the world, and have only 104,000 millionaires, that is horrendously worse than Malaysia.

The report also says "Malaysia was listed among “frontier” wealth countries along with Egypt, Indonesia, Tunisia and Vietnam."

That's probably the biggest gaffe or, maybe, a political fluff coming out of Credit Suisse. 

If you have visited all these countries and if you had opened your eyes wide enough, you would see, we certainly are not in the same league. Malaysia is way ahead of these countries in standard of living.

Tabled below is GDP per capita and GDP of the countries concerned:

Countries      Per capita GDP (2011)            GDP (2011) Bil

_____________________________________________

Malaysia          $15,800.-                               $453

Tunisia                9,600.-                                 102

Egypt                   6,600.-                                 303         

Indonesia             4,700.-                              1,139

Vietnam               3,400.-                                 304

On a productivity/population ratio,  Malaysia's productivity per unit economic output is still much higher than Indonesia and all the other countries with the exception of Tunisia, which has a smaller population than Malaysia.

Sometimes, the experts are not worth their salt, or is the survey correctly reported.

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 18 — Malaysia is projected to have 76,000 millionaires in five years time, but will still be ranked behind Singapore’s 249,000 and Indonesia’s 207,000 people who are expected to be on the rich list in 2017, according to a new global wealth report released this week.

The Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report forecast total global household wealth would increase by an average of 8 per cent annually over the next five years, driven by emerging markets likeChina, Brazil, Malaysia, Russia or India.

Mean wealth per adult is projected to rise to US$67,000 (RM 203,645) by 2017 from US$48,500 this year.

The report said China is expected to surpass Japan as the second-wealthiest country in the world by 2017 while the United States should maintain its leading position.

Credit Suisse said that Singapore was in the list of top ten countries in the wealth-per adult league table, along with  Switzerland, Norway, Luxembourg, and Sweden – as well as Australia and G7 members, Japan, France, the USA and the UK.

The report added that notable cases of emerging wealth were found in Chile, Columbia, the Czech Republic, Lebanon, Slovenia and Uruguay.

Malaysia was listed among “frontier” wealth countries along with Egypt, Indonesia, Tunisia and Vietnam.

Credit Suisse said that for 2012, Malaysia has 36,000 millionaires, while Singapore has 156,000 and Indonesia 104,000 in the bracket.

Hong Kong, with 92,000 millionaires this year, will see membership in the rich club grow to 180,000 in 2017. Read more.

Phnom Penh

Video:Borneo's Palm-Oil Dilemma

Hantu Laut



Sabah has the same very disturbing ecological problems.

A study by the Department of Environment found that twenty-nine oil palm mills on Sabah's Kinabatangan River were dumping pollution into the river. The river ecosystem is home to orangutans, Bornean pygmy elephants, proboscis monkeys, the storm's stork, and many other species. Fifty years ago the Kinabatangan River was clear. Today, after decades of clear-cut logging and then the palm oil industry, it is coffee-colored.

The entire industry showed no social responsibility maximising profits with dire consequence to the environment.

Since the industry are not willing to self-regulate it's about time the state government legislate laws to compel the industry to comply with environmental regulations and stop giving out land for palm oil cultivation.

AirAsia Moves Corporate HQ from KL to Jakarta

Hantu Laut

I envisaged this would happen and have written here the possibility of Air Asia moving its hub to Singapore.Never crossed my mind it would be Jakarta.

I have also warned that Air Asia has become too big to ignore and our stupid politicians in power and bureaucratic civil servants did exactly that.They even make life difficult for domestic investors let alone foreign investors.Bad policies over the years have driven away FDI and close to a trillion ringgit capital flight by both domestic and foreign investors.

If they have any sense of shame they should either close down MAS or give it to Tony Fernandez to manage.The airline is again losing money.

Big blow for Malaysia and bigger blow for Najib.

Maybe, this government deserves to lose.

Putting regional office in Indonesia is a blow for Prime Minister Najib.

With all the troubles he has had over the last two months, the confirmation Friday that AirAsia, arguably Malaysia’s most vibrant private company, is moving its headquarters out of the country to Indonesia is one more blow.

Tony Fernandes, AirAsia’s group chief executive, confirmed the decision in Tokyo Thursday, saying the move is an effort to upgrade his company’s image as a regional Southeast Asian airline rather than just a Malaysian carrier.

“I don't know whether Najib has been told or not,” said a business associate of Fernandes in Kuala Lumpur. “But why should Tony care? There are solid business reasons for moving to Jakarta.”

Najib has been on a whirlwind trip to foreign capitals to try and mend the country’s image in the wake of a violent police crackdown on peaceful marchers seeking to present a petition to the country’s king on July 9, asking for election reform. In a throwback to the 1980s, Malaysian censors blacked out details of a report about the march carried in The Economist.

That was followed on July 23 with the results of a royal commission of inquiry that concluded that a young aide to an opposition politician had been hounded so badly during a marathon interrogation over office spending that he threw himself out of a window and killed himself.

Then on Friday, immigration officials took William Bourdon, the leader of a team seeking to ferret out the details of a massive scandal involving defense procurement, off a plane in Kuala Lumpur, held him for several hours and ordered him deported via a flight back to Paris.

Fernandes characterized the move of the headquarters as a simple business decision to take advantage of Indonesia’s vastly larger economy and population, which is nearly 10 times that of Malaysia’s, although Malaysian annual per-capita gross domestic product of US$14,700 by purchasing power parity is much higher currently than Indonesia’s at US$4,200. The size of the country, however, meant that the Indonesian economy was estimated by the CIA Factbook for 2010 at US$1.03 trillion against Malaysia’s US$414.4 billion.

AirAsia’s decision to move the headquarters is a serious negative propaganda blow for Najib’s 1Malaysia Plan, an intensive effort to lure foreign direct investment to Malaysia. In September 2010, the Malaysian government announced ambitious plans to mobilize hundreds of billions of dollars in private investment in an effort to move the country out of the so-called middle income trap, and double per capita income to push Malaysia into the ranks of developed nations by 2020.

AirAsia may well be the only Malaysian company besides the state-owned energy giant Petronas to have made an international impact – and Petronas does it by advertising intensively during Formula 1 races and by sponsoring a car – which Fernandes does as well. Launched in 2002 as a regional no-frills carrier with just two planes, AirAsia now flies 93 planes all over Asia. In addition, a long-haul service, AirAsia X, flies to Europe, Japan and Korea. The company earlier ordered 300 Airbus A320neos.to expand its routes across Asia and beyond.

It isn’t just the publicity damage. In the past 10 years, according to a report by the news agency Reuters, private companies invested just RM535 billion (US$172.4 billion), according to official data. Malaysia’s private investment rate of about 10 percent of GDP is among the lowest in Asia and a third of what it was before the 1998 Asian financial crisis. The government, according to Reuters, contributes around half the investment in Malaysia.

In addition, Malaysia has long been plagued by capital flight, which has been generally regarded as an indication of lack of faith in the country on the part of its businessmen, although in Malaysia’s case the bulk may well be from stolen timber leaving the country from Sarawak and Sabah. Nonetheless, the US-based financial watchdog Global Financial Integrity estimated in a 2010 report that as much as RM888 billion (US$298.3 billion at current exchange rates) had left the country between 2000 and 2008. Illicit financial flows generally involve the transfer of money earned through illegal activities such as corruption, transactions involving contraband goods, criminal activities and efforts to shelter wealth from tax authorities.

AirAsia said the move is a bid to take advantage of access to the Asean secretariat, which is based in Jakarta, in advance of an open skies agreement expected to go into effect in 2015 and which is designed to lower barriers for air travel between the region’s capitals. Read more.

People Of The Coral Triangle

Video: People of the coral triangle

The Guardian

James Morgan of the WWF travels to the coral triangle – a 1.6bn acre stretch in south-east Asia that is the most biodiverse marine ecosystem in the world.

There he finds the Balau Laut, one of the last nomadic marine communities in the world, having their way of life threatened. This and depleting fish stocks is driving them to destructive fishing techniques, such as using dynamite and cyanide, maiming and killing Bajau fishermen and taking the world's epicentre of coral diversity to the point of almost irreversible damage




In pictures: the last Bajau sea nomads

More on Bajau Laut (Sea Gypsy) here.

Sabah Dilemma - Picking The Wrong Apple

Hantu Laut

It tells a lot how the bureaucrats work in this country.Political leaders and civil servants with the shortest memory span.Ad hoc decisions that can make or break you.

Read this distressing situation the Indonesian Consulate was put into by the sudden change of heart constituted by the Ministry of Home Affairs to send back Indonesian worker's dependants from Sabah.It's again the same usual style of this particular minister not seeking the advices of state leaders and those who knows the real situation.

From the very beginning I was against the idea of allowing foreign workers to bring their families here.Not only Indonesians but any other nationality as well.Bringing the families along would only make them want to stay here permanently rather than go back to joblessness in the home country.

Malaysia may be a hell hole for some Malaysians particularly those who supported the oppositions but is a haven for foreign workers.

Having lived in Singapore for over 10 years back in the eighties, the island nation was wise from the very beginning for not allowing those in the lower income group to bring their spouses or families.For maids, once pregnant, while still under employment would be sent back immediately.Malaysia, on the other hand has myopic policies that work like the erratic tropical weather.You don't know whether you are going or coming.

The bigger problem here are not the registered Indonesians but the illegal Filipinos. Most Indonesians eventually return to their homeland but the ruddy Filipinos not only stayed here permanently but multiplied like nobody's business.

The street children you see in the state are the products of the delinquent of the Federal government.If the problem had been arrested long before we would not have such problem.

If the Minister think he is going to make Sabahans happy with this decision than he is wrong, he picked the wrong apple.

We may be desperate to get rid of the immigrants but we are also able to discern between good and bad apple.

We can see through our squints clearly that the Federal government is trying to pull wools over our eyes just to show they are doing something, worried that they may lose the fixed deposit, intimidated by people like Bernard Dompok and Yong Teck Lee on the illegal immigrants issue.

When Dompok and Yong were chief ministers they did absolutely nothing on the illegal immigrants issue.They waltzed and tangoed with the Federal government and forgot that we have a problem.Suddenly, they become champions and care so much for the people of Sabah.

Sabah politicians have the habits of waking up from their lethargic state every time they did not get what they wanted.Like the dormant volcano they become active again and start spewing noxious lava at the leadership.

Dompok is drumming up supports for himself and his party and may leave the BN just before the next GE because he thinks the BN will lose the next general elections.He is keeping his option open.On the same wagon is LDP, walking the political tightrope.

They may be in for a surprise that although the situation looks fluid for a change it may not be so.As I have mentioned before Pakatan may break up before the next GE.This unholy alliance is built on mere vehicle of convenience. Poor leadership and completely different ideology will be the killer.DAP, says no hudud law when they come to power, PAS insisted there will be hudud. The only party that will come out strongest and relevant among the three would be DAP.

The Minister of Home Affairs Hishammudin Onn should, if he does not already know, which I doubted, that we Sabahans want him to remove the illegal Filipinos and Indonesians first. They are the bigger problems not the dependents of legal Indonesian workers.

This unpopular move would also have a dire consequence on the plantation sector which are already facing labour shortage as more and more Indonesians return home to work in their homegrown plantations.

This problem may cost the BN to lose some of the Kadazan and Chinese seats in both state and parliament in the next GE.

This decision has also caused embarrassment to the Malaysian government and will add to the already rocky relationship with Indonesia.

Maybe, it is not too late to review that decision and start doing the right thing.

MP Kota Belud Call For Greater Autonomy Should Be Lauded

Hantu Laut

This article was published in the South China Morning Post in February 2002.

To day, the scenario has changed.Sabah, is facing acute labour shortage in its oil palm plantations.The Indonesians have returned home voluntarily to work in their own country's plantations that is paying them the same or better wages.

Since the fall of Suharto's autocratic rule and the beginning of the 1999 decentralization and wider autonomy of the provinces given by the central government things have changed drastically at the provincial level.This otonomi daerah (regional autonomy) have given the local government better leverage to manage their own affairs and transformed the provinces and achieved far greater economic development than under Suharto.His stranglehold on the nation exerting political and economic control over the nation and its people to feed his insatiable appetite for corruption and abuse of power slowed Indonesia's economic progress in the provinces.

Indonesia hasn't looked back ever since.

The key to Indonesia's success in decentralization are the key features in Law 22/1999, the devolution of wide range of public service delivery functions to the regions and the strengthening of the elected regional councils (Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Daerah -DPRD) which received wide-ranging powers to supervise and control regional administration.

Kalimantan, our neighbour is divided into four provinces,East,West,Central and South. East Kalimantan is the most prosperous among the four provinces with total GDP of US28 billion mainly for its gas and oil.

In his Ceritalah, Karim Raslan, a notable writer suggested that Sabah should open it doors to visitors and business from East Kalimantan.While I agree to most of his suggestions, I believe that isn't exactly Sabah woes.

The per capita income of Kalimantan is still lower compared to Sabah.The transient population placed heavy strain on the economic well-being of the state.Without their heavy presence Sabahans would have fared much better.It is more than obvious that the Federal government is not interested to resolve this needling issue.It is an open secret that some of these illegal immigrants have obtained Malaysian identity cards, dubious or otherwise.

Sabah and Sarawak should be given greater autonomy to manage their own affairs. Decentralisation has proven to have worked in some parts of Indonesia and Kalimantan is a model of the success story of doing away with autocracy which the Malaysia government is still deeply embroiled in due to its sense of insecurity.

The call by Kota Belud MP Abdul Rahman Dahlan for decentralization and wider autonomy for Sabah should be lauded. Sabah MPs should join hands with their Sarawak counterparts to seek better treatment and direct state supervision of state affairs including planning and supervision of federal funded projects.

Sabah has seen many federal funded projects like building of hospitals,schools and other public amenities either over or under specified, placed in the wrong locality, poorly designed and badly built. Some eventually ends up as white elephants.

Many of the problems were the result of poor planning by people who sit either in Kuala Lumpur or Putrajaya who know nuts about the actual conditions on the ground.Schools and hospitals have been known to not having enough teachers and doctors after being commissioned.Sub-standard construction of buildings and highways have rendered some of the structures to be unsafe or of wrong design.The one way flyover near the city centre of Kota Kinabalu is glaring example of such damning practice and waste of taxpayers money.

Kota Kinabalu has now joined other dysfunctional cities in Peninsula Malaysia.Such planning and construction should be left to Sabahans who probably can do better job.

I was in Kuala Lumpur 3 days ago and have to take one and a half hour agonising journey from my hotel in Raja Chulan to Bangsar at peak hours.Give KL another five years and it would be a nightmare to live in that city.Jalan Bukit Bintang is perpetually jammed and the cab drivers still haven't changed their cheating habits.So much for progress and a city of cultured people.

My apology for the diversion.

The central power should loosen its stranglehold on wanting to control the states by controlling the flow of the tap.It should concentrate what most central governments are doing... should be responsible only for foreign affairs,defence, security,justice, monetary and fiscal affairs, religion and not forgetting the collection of all federal taxes.All other affairs should be left to the states.

It's about time Prime Minister Najib gives it a serious thought if he wants to keep his "fixed deposit"

Yes,Rustam's Bridge Is A Bridge Too Far

Hantu Laut

I agree with Nuraina Samad we don't need that goddamn bridge here.With that kind of money Ali Rustam should consider building a tunnel(metaphorically) from Malacca direct to Singapore where the benefits could be far greater than building a bridge to Sumatra.

Do you build a bridge just for prestige or build it for economic reasons?

Lesson should be learned from the 'Channel Tunnel" which linked Britain with mainland Europe.This tunnel makes far greater sense than that of Ali Rustam's bridge because it links highly economically developed areas in Europe.Yet, it has not served the purpose it was built for. It was bogged down with monumental problems during construction and after completion.Construction started in 1988 that incurred a mind-boggling cost overrun of 80%.

Since its opening it has been operating at a loss.In 1995, it has to stop its loan repayment to avoid bankruptcy.The debts have to be restructured and the French and British government extended its operating concession by 34 years, which will only end in 2086.

A cost benefit analysis indicated that it has no wider economic impact on Britain and that the British economy would have been better off if the tunnel had not been built.It reported its first annual net profit of $1.57 million only in 2007.

You can see what a risky venture this kind of project is.I have to agree with the DAP member that the project should be scrapped.

Ali Rustam should come down to earth and be realistic about the whole idea.Just because some businessmen proposed and got the backing of a bank from China to finance the project it doesn't mean the project is viable. He must not forget that loans have to be paid back.Things are not as simple as it looks from a layman's point of view.

I have done business with China before and they are not the easiest people to deal with.Worse, if you take loans from any country, China included, they will be many strings attached.

Due to huge nature of the project and substantial exposure to the bank, in all probably, the bank would ask for the state government to guarantee the loan and a state in Malaysia can only guarantee foreign loan with approval of the Federal government.Giving such approval means the Federal government would eventually become a party to that guarantee and in the even of a default it would eventually involve the Federal paying up the debt.

This is a sovereign credit risk that Malaysia can do without. Besides, the loan, China being the main financier would insist that majority of the expertise, labour and materials would have to come from China. How would Malaysia benefit from such project when most of the money would eventually return to China?

The other aspect that needs to be looked into this egoistic project is safety.The Malacca Straits is the busiest shipping lane in the world.Accident, can and do occur no matter what safety precautions one puts in.

I lived in Singapore in the eighties, two things came to my mind, things that you don't expect to happen in Singapore, but it happened.The Sentosa cable car tragedy and the collapse of the New World Hotel.Who would believe that a ship passing under the cable car can pull the whole cable system down, killing a number of people.The same with the collapse of the New World, with the stringent building codes in Singapore, no building is supposed to collapse, but it did.

The Channel Tunnel,with all it safety precautions, had three serious incident of fires and one was bad enough to close the tunnel for six months.

Sure, accident should not be a criteria in assessing the viability of a normal project but than this is not a normal project, it has high risk elements to be considered, economically,physically and geographically.The Malacca Strait's risk factor of maritime collision is pretty high and the Indonesian sides are prone to earthquakes and tremors.

What economic benefits would Malaysia get if the bridge were to be built? Sumatra has very low per capita income and it is not likely that hordes of Indonesians with bulging wallets would be coming over here to spend their hard-earned money, it would be the other way round, Malaysians would be going over there for holidays. It is also a low economic output area. With the exception of oil palm and crude oil which are shipped directly from the country, Sumatra has little to offer.

If Ali thinks of economic spin-offs that will benefit Malacca in particular and Malaysia in general or a booming two-way trade, he can forget it.There wouldn't be any.At least none that I can think of.

If he thinks the volume of traffic can make the project viable than that would even be a bigger risk.Shouldn't Indonesia be asked to pay for half of the cost of the bridge?

An efficient and fast ferry service between the two countries would be a cheaper alternative.

With the bridge in place, the only possible scenario that I can see is more migrant workers and illegal immigrants coming over to Malaysia using the bridge.

Petty Indonesians

Hantu Laut

Whether you are Malaysian Malays or Indonesian Malays, you are the same, you came from the same roots, as far as ethnicity is concerned and you speak the same language.The culture itself is not far divided. Many Malays in Malaysia inherited a big part of themselves and their culture from Indonesia.

Malays were largely Hindus before the 15th century, before they were converted to Islam.That's why there were still remnants of Hindu cultural practices in the Malay culture.Peninsular Malaysia was the confluence of the merging of the Malay race from all parts of Indonesia.

The difference is, in Indonesia the world 'Bangsa Melayu' or 'Malay race is rarely used. Indonesians prefer to use 'Bangsa Indonesia' and 'Bahasa Indonesia' to reflect nationality rather than race.In Malaysia it is 'Bangsa Melayu' for Malays and the rest according to their ethnicity.There is no 'Bangsa Malaysia' here. Anwar and Pakatan were trying to peddle the term to make the non-Malays happy knowing it wouldn't last the 100 meter race, the Chinese and Indians wouldn't want to give up their origins and be called by any other names.

Many Malaysian Malays are of Indonesian origin, whether it be Bugis,Achenes,Minangkabaus or Javanese there is no escaping the links with the lands of Nusantara.

The recent rash action taken by some Indonesians against Malaysians in what they say was the hijacking of their culture, a Balinese dance used for a promotional campaign on Malaysia, not sanctioned or approved by the Malaysian government but was an erroneous part of a documentary production by a private company shown on Discovery Channel was most appalling.The rumpus goes to show the pettiness of the Indonesian minds.The same way they have reacted to the isolated cases of abuse of Indonesian maids in Malaysia which, unfortunately, has, by the misdeeds of a few bad apples, thrown Malaysia and Malaysians in a bad light.

Not unlike Malaysia, some of the cultural heritage of Indonesia had come from the same oldest living religion, Hinduism and needless to say, the Malays animistic past.Can Indonesia claim propriety rights to such endemic cultural practices?

Although the Balinese dance is not part of Malaysian culture per se, should Indonesians be so emotional,irrational and uptight over such trivial issue and resort to calls of 'crush Malaysia' and deploying overzealous vigilantes to prowl the streets of Jakarta and other cities looking for Malaysians to be kicked out of the country?

I believe not all Indonesians share this irrational behaviour.

There are probably close to a million Indonesians in Malaysia seeking better lives that their home country could not provide.Malaysians have been robbed, raped and murdered by some of these bad hats from Indonesia but we have kept our cool and did not generalise that all Indonesians are thieves,rapists or murderers.

Malaysians did not resort to uncivilised manner to vent their anger.

To err is human.Let's hope the Indonesians would err on the side of caution.

Justice Indonesian Style

Hantu Laut

This is justice Indonesian style.This could be a classic example of travesty of justice.A woman who complained about poor treatment she received at a hospital was sent to prison by a court in Indonesia. This is pale in comparison to Raja Petra's Statutory Declaration and Susan Loone's smuts. Read the story below.

Ex-patient to stand trial, wins support from Net users

Multa Fidrus , The Jakarta Post , Tangerang | Wed, 06/03/2009 9:17 AM | Headlines

Prita Mulyasari, a housewife who has been detained for defamation allegations after complaining over the Internet about receiving allegedly substandard hospital treatment, will stand a criminal case trial at the Tangerang District Court on Thursday.

In a September 2008 civil lawsuit, the court ordered her to pay Rp 50 million (US$4,761) of the Rp 400 million compensation demanded by the hospital, as well as make a public apology in two printed media.

Prita has spent three weeks at Tangerang Women Penitentiary after being accused of defamation by Omni International Hospital in Serpong, Tangerang. She was separated from her two children, Khairan Ananta, 3, and Ranariya, 15 months old, and therefore unable to breast feed the latter.

Her story has created a buzz over the Internet with support pouring in through blogs and a Facebook cause titled Dukungan Bagi Ibu Prita Mulyasari, Penulis Surat Keluhan Melalui Internet yang Dipenjara (Support for Ibu Prita Mulyasari, Arrested Internet Complaint Author). About 14,000 people have joined the cause.

She also received support from the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM).

“I miss my children. I just want to see them. All I did was spill the beans to my friends in an email. I did not mean to defame the hospital at all,” said Prita, who lost five kilograms in detention.

Prita said her Aug. 27, 2008 email — titled Penipuan (Fraud by) Omni International Hospital Alam Sutera Tangerang — revealed her disappointment over the hospital's poor service, its management's arrogance and its doctors’ inability to diagnose her illness during her treatment at the hospital from Aug. 7 to 12.

“I sent an email to 10 friends, hoping they would not suffer the same mistreatment at the hospital,” she said. But her email was then forwarded to mailing lists and blogs.

Prita's husband, Andre Nugroho, said he had filed a request for Prita's release but to no avail.

Tangerang Prosecutor's Office's head of general crimes, Irfan Jaya, said prosecutors charged Prita for violating Articles 27 of the Electronic Information Transaction Law and Article 310 and 311 of the Criminal Code. The articles carry a maximum sentence of six years in jail.

The case began when Prita came to the hospital for a health check on Aug. 7. The doctors who examined her — Hengky Gosal and Grace Herza Yarlen Nela — diagnosed her with dengue fever and ordered her to be treated at the hospital.

Laboratory tests and medical records showed her thrombocyte count dropped to 27,000, far from the minimum thrombocyte count of 100,000 platelets per cubic millimeter of blood. Prita was advised to be hospitalized for treatment. The next day, medical records showed her thrombocyte count reached 181,000.

Baffled, Prita then asked for a copy of her initial medical records but the hospital management refused to give it to her. As her condition worsened during the treatment, she decided to move to another hospital where she was later diagnosed with mumps.Read more.........

Part II: British Foreign Office/CIA/MI6 and 'The Fall Of Sukarno'

Hantu Laut

The birth of Malaysia was not without intrigue, espionage, psychological war, military intelligence and counter-intelligence. Sukarno had suddenly become the most dangerous man in the region. A crazy expansionist that needed to be checked, removed or liquidated.

Sukarno withdrew Indonesia from the United Nations as protest to the UN Security Council's recognition of Malaysia and threatened to form an alternative world body, the Conference of New Emerging Forces (CONEFO)

On 10 March 1965 Indonesian saboteurs bombed the MacDonald House in Singapore, killing 3 and injuring 33.

In the early stage of confrontation British and Commonwealth forces were not allowed to cross the border to pursue the enemy.Prior to the Singapore bombing in April 1964, the British government gave permission for its troops to cross the border into Kalimantan up to 3000 yards. In January 1965 the order was extended to attack up to 10,000 yards.British and Malaysian military intelligence also secretly gave aid to rebel groups in Indonesia, in Sulawesi and the restive province of Aceh in Sumatra, as way to weaken Sukarno's military confrontation campaign and destabilised his government.

The British were alarmed by Sukarno incorrigibility and possibility of a full-blown military adventurism.Something had to be done to get him out of the way.

Earlier, in 1962, it has been claimed that a CIA memo indicated that British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and US President John F.Kennedy alarmed by Sukarno's confrontation and the possibility of it spreading elsewhere in the region have agreed to 'liquidate' Sukarno.The plan was never carried out.John F.Kennedy was assassinated on 22 November 1963.

In a series of exposes by Paul Lashmar and Oliver James of the Independent newspaper of the involvement of the Foreign Office's IRD (Information Research Department) and Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) exposed that the decision to unseat Sukarno was decided by Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and then executed under Prime Minister Harold Wilson.

To weaken the Sukarno regime the Foreign Office coordinated what it called 'psyops' (psychological operations) together with the military to spread 'black propaganda' casting bad light on the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI), Chinese Indonesians and Sukarno.

Coordinated by the British High Commission in Singapore the propaganda machinery brought in the mass media, the BBC, Associated Press (AP) and the New York Times all filed sexed-up and embellished reports on the crisis in Indonesia.The manipulations by the Foreign Office's IRD included a report by BBC of the communists plan to slaughter the citizens of Jakarta.The false report was based solely on forgery planted by Norman Reddaway, a propaganda expert with the IRD.

Sukarno who fought the Dutch for independence of his country succeeded in declaring independence in 1945 and was appointed president.Although, outwardly he appeared a strong leader, Sukarno were actually weak and inexperience, easily influenced by people around him and lacked the administrative skill to run a nation.His management of the nation's economy was a total disaster. Bad economic planning resulted in failure to lift its citizens out of severe poverty and brought widespread famine and starvation.

Sukarno knowledge and understanding of economic problems was minimal and apparently below the level expected of a moderately intelligent high school student.He, himself, had admitted and said "I am not an economist, I am a revolutionary".

As far as Sukarno cared, his ministers were there to provide the President with funds for both his public and private use.A special budget was set aside for his expenditure on his overseas trips, his mistresses, his wives, girl friends and his other worldly pleasures.Sukarno also had a weakness for beautiful women and sought them out everywhere he went.To take advantage of him, some world leaders pandered to his licentiousness and provided him with what he desired.







Dewi Sukarno



When she was younger.













Sukarno officially married eight wives and the youngest was Dewi Sukarno, formerly Noko Nemoto, a young and beautiful Japanese girl he met on his visit to Japan.She met Sukarno when she was only 19 and was an art student and an entertainer.She had one daughter with Sukarno.

The Western powers, particularly the US increased their aid to Indonesia hoping the country would recover from its economic woes.The American only came to realise later how large sum of the money was squandered on Sukarno's project of "Crush Malaysia" campaign.When the US condemned his anti-Malaysia stance Sukarno blew his top and told the American to keep their money and told the US Ambassador "Go to hell with your aid".A month later he coined a new slogan "Banting Stir Untuk Berdiri Diatas Kaki Sendiri"(Turn the wheel around and stand on your own feet). By then the economy was in shambles.

The country was in default of foreign debt estimated at $2.4 billion.Foreign exchange earnings were unlikely to cover one month of import, tax collection was declining and uncontrolled government expenditure added to the already precarious economic situation.The greatest beneficiary of this economic disintegration was the Communists party.

The PKI (Parti Komunis Indonesia) which had a moderate support in 1950 had grown to almost 3 million members by 1965 and with its other auxiliary organisations the party have added another 20 million supporters.Its leader Ahmad Aidit said that if elections were held there and then the PKI would have captured more than 50% of the votes.The PKI had become the largest political party in Indonesia and the third largest communist party in the world after China and the Soviet Union and Sukarno's open patronage was well known and one that would eventually lead to his downfall.

The fateful day came on 30 September 1965.

At around 3:15 A.M. on October 1, seven groups of troops in trucks and buses comprising soldiers from the Tjakrabirawa (Presidential Guard) the Diponegoro (Central Java) and Brawijaya (East Java) Divisions, left the movement's base at Lubang Buaya, just south of Jakarta to kidnap seven generals, all members of the Army General Staff. Three of the intended victims, (Lieutenant General Ahmad Yani, Major General M.T.Haryono and Brigadier General D.I.Panjaitan) were killed at their homes, while three more (Major General Soeprapto, Major General S.Perman and Brigadier General Sutoyo) were taken alive. Meanwhile, the main target, Armed Forces Chief of Staff, General Abdul Harris Nasution managed to escape the kidnap attempt by jumping over a wall into the Iraqi embassy garden, but his Aide-de-camp, First Lieutenant Pierre Tendean, was captured by mistake after being mistaken for Nasution in the dark. Nasution's five-year old daughter, Ade Irma Suryani Nasution, was shot and died on 6 October. The generals and the bodies of their dead colleagues were taken to a place known as Lubang Buaya near the Halim Perdanakusumah Air Force Base where those still alive were shot, and the bodies of all the victims were thrown down a disused well.

At 5.30AM, General Suharto was woken up by his neighbor and told of the disappearances of the generals and the shootings at their homes. He went to KOSTRAD HQ and tried to contact other senior officers. He managed to contact the Naval and Police commanders, but was unable to contact the Air Force Commander. He then took command of the Army and issued orders confining all troops to barracks.

Due to poor planning, the coup leaders had failed to provide provisions for the troops on Lapangan Merdeka, who were becoming hot and thirsty. They were under the impression that they were guarding the president in the palace. Over the course of the afternoon, Suharto persuaded both battalions to give up without a fight, first the Brawijaya troops, who came to Kostrad HQ, then the Diponegoro troops, who withdrew to Halim. His troops gave Untung's forces inside the radio station an ultimatum and they also withdrew. By 7PM Suharto was in control of all the installations previously held by the 30 September Movement's forces. At 9PM he announced over the radio that he was now in command of the Army and that he would destroy the counter-revolutionary forces and save Sukarno. He then issued another ultimatum, this time to the troops at Halim. Later that evening, Sukarno left Halim and arrived in Bogor, where there was another presidential palace. Most of the rebel troops fled, and after a minor battle in the early hours of October 2, the Army regained control of Hali, Aidit flew to Yogyakarta and Dani to Madiun before the soldiers arrived (Wikipedia)

Aidit was shot in Yogyakarta by pro-government forces led by General Suharto. General Omar Dani and Foreign Minister Subandrio, both communist sympathisers, were jailed and eventually sentence to death for treason.

Below is an extract from Times magazine:

Friday, Jan. 06, 1967
..................................

When Indonesia's Communists attempted a coup in September of 1965, General Omar Dani was commander of his country's MIG-equipped air force. As a Communist sympathizer, he allowed Halim Airbase near Djakarta to be used as headquarters and staging area for the plot; in turn, he was promised that he would eventually become chief of state. But the plot was smashed by the Indonesian army, and Dani, along with Foreign Minister Subandrio and other top government officials, was put in jail on charges of treason. Subandrio was tried by a military court and sentenced to death in October. On the day before Christmas, Dani got his: after three weeks of testimony before another military court, he too was sentenced to death.

As in the Subandrio trial, much of the evidence against Dani suggested that President Sukarno himself had known about, condoned, and even taken part in the attempted coup. Dani's trial, like Subandrio's, brought renewed demands from Indonesia's anti-Communist professional and student associations that Sukarno himself be removed from his position as President and brought to court. The father of his country, however, seemed unfazed.

Last week, in a brief ceremony at his summer palace in the mountain resort of Bogor, Sukarno calmly swore in one of his old leftist cronies, Suwito Kusumowidagdo, as Ambassador to the U.S. The appointment hardly pleased the military regime, which now claims most of the power in Indonesia, and it raised eyebrows in Washington. The Bung's only answer was a sentence of advice to his new ambassador: "Tell them that Sukarno is still President of Indonesia and that he is the man who sent you there."

Suharto immediately blamed the PKI as the masterminds of the attempted coup.The army with the help of the locals went on a rampage to kill suspected communist.There were widespread purging of communists and their sympathisers.It was reported that almost a million suspected communists had been killed.

Sukarno was stripped of his presidential title on 12 March 1967 and remained under house arrest until his death at age 69 in 1970. Suharto was appointed President.

The American and British propaganda machines had, somehow, helped to destabilise Sukarno and the PKI.Although, such clandestine operations were seldom admitted by the US administration, the CIA had been active in many parts of the world to bring down leaders not favoured by the US or deemed as threat to world peace.

The confrontation stopped under Suharto.

Amnesty International:Buzz-Off

Hantu Laut

An AFP news wire reported that Amnesty International, the human rights watchdog,has through its Malaysian branch expressed concern over Malaysia's plans to deport tens of thousands of illegal immigrants that could lead to serious human rights violations.

An unnamed spokesman says  "We are of the opinion that the Federal Government's unilateral action may result in serious human rights violations".It also says many of those targeted were asylum seekers and refugees from the southern Philippines.

Who ever the spokesman was he needs to have his dumb head examined.If he is a Malaysian then my sympathy is with him for sheer ignorance and stupidity.Some people just shoot their mouth without checking the facts.

There are no asylum seekers or refugees in Sabah, all of them were economic refugees who left their completely screwed-up country because life is hard and even harder to find a job to survive.Among the many that came there were thieves,murderers,rapists and crooks who ran away from crimes they committed back in their home country.Sabah is land of milk and honey for them. For some it is an asylum from crime they have committed.

UNHCR left Sabah over three decades ago as it felt those who came after the initial 30,000 officially recognised as refugees were no longer refugees.

Amnesty should come to Sabah and see for itself  how well these so-called refugees were treated and how patient Sabahans have been to accommodate these aliens who were not exactly well-behaved guests.They took more than what we got in return.They overwhelmed our hospitals and schools, broke into our homes, sell drugs to our children and squat on our land as if it belongs to their forefathers.

Amnesty International since you are very concern and think unilateral action is wrong in this case why don't you negotiate on our behalf with the Philippines and Indonesian governments to take back their citizens and ask them to pay for the cost of repatriations.

If you can't get your facts right, buzz-off and let us do our work in peace.