Why 1MDB Parked Its Money In Singapore?

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Veteran Newsman Questions Rationale Of Parking 1MDB Funds In Singapore.


Again, I must qualify this is not a support for 1MDB (something is rotten in Denmark applies), but since they are keeping their inelegant silence, maybe, I can throw some lights on the controversy, why 1MDB keep parking the money outside the country. 

I don't believe in prolixity, so I'll make it short and breezy in layman's terms.

If you know the nitty-gritty of international banking and finance, it's not hard to understand why they keep parking the money outside Malaysia.

Why Singapore?

Singapore, being a financial centre allow non-residents to park their money in time-deposits in foreign currencies, where you can place your money in most major currencies and interest earned are not subject to Singapore tax (non-residents only)

Unlike Malaysia, many banks in Singapore have two departments, the DBU (Domestic Banking Unit) and ACU (Asian Currency Unit). 

Singapore is not short of banks that will gladly accept this kind of money as long as they are comfortable with where it came from.

Why 1MDB parked the money outside Malaysia?

If 1MDB remit the money back to Malaysia, they will have to convert it to local currency and they will no doubt collect more ringgit in exchange for the US$ funds, but should any of its foreign obligation matures anytime soon, they will have to incur massive foreign exchange losses, if they have to use ringgit to repay the foreign debts, so it makes sense to keep the money in the original currency, which, unfortunately, has to be placed in one of the financial centres as Malaysia do not have, or rather do not allow foreign currency deposit in the country.

The explanation given by PM Najib for keeping the money in Singapore because of BNM ruling requiring its approval for amount over RM50 million is wishy-washy, a terrible misguidance. Who would believe BNM can put a hurdle on a sovereign fund the brainchild of the PM? Why would BNM objected whatever the amount is for money coming into the country and allow billions to fly out of the country without a squeak?  

As a matter of fact if the US$1.1 billion had been remitted back to Malaysia, it would have strengthened the ringgit wee bit.

On the other hand, there is also strong possibility that the money is encumbered as collateral or part of collateral of other borrowings, thus the constraint of bringing it back home and the inelegant silence.

One can imagine one of two things of the opaqueness of 1MDB operations, either they are completely arrogant, or they are in such a big mess, they just don't know how to respond sensibly.

1MDB Bank Negara Approval:Are They Barking Up The Wrong Tree?

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Jho Low Claimed The “PM/ FM” Gave Approval To Keep Bank Negara In The Dark On 1MDB Loan

I 'll not doubt there is something rotten down in 1MDB and the goings-on, therein, may not be known to the PM.

As I have suggested earlier forensic audit of the account be carried out to detect any fraudulent transactions, such audit should be carried out by our Auditor-General together with a reputable international auditing firm, which has in-depth knowledge of the world of international banking and finance, the reason being our AG office may not be familiar with those complicated cobwebbed financial instruments.

What I am going to say here is not in support of Jho Low, 1MDB or the PM, it's purely my personal opinion.

I suggest you guys check out BN (Bank Negara) objectives and regulations before you freak out on this highly politicised issue.

Jho Low may be right about BN approval not required as it is an offshore to offshore loan in foreign denominated currency (no ringgit involved), which in all likelihood is outside BN jurisdiction, therefore, BN approval is not necessary. It also makes sense that only MOF (Ministry of Finance) approval is required as 1MDB is wholly owned by the Malaysian government under the jurisdiction and control of Ministry of Finance, therefore, the company's BOD approval is required and MOF being the sole shareholder of 1MDB, its consent is also required.

Being an entity under MOF, who else can give approval on the matter if not the Minister of Finance, who also happened to be the Prime Minister? Don't forget by virtue of being the PM, he automatically become the de facto CEO of all state-owned companies.

Bank Negara would be more concerned if there were going to be foreign exchange involvement, or if the loan originated or domiciled in Malaysia, or if proceeds of the loan remitted back to Malaysia, where there would be greater impact on the local currency, economy and financial well being of the country if things go wrong.

1MDB would only need to inform BN and gets its approval if it raised foreign loans or issued bonds and bring back the proceeds to Malaysia. Its borrowings from domestic banks must be reported to BN, who as regulator can block or vary the huge borrowings if it's worried of undue impact on the credit and monetary system. 

As it is, the ringgit had already gone deep down south due to comprehensive politicising of the issue that have created skepticism and distrust in the Malaysian economy. Today, the ringgit is 3.69 to US$1.00 due to highly speculative and effective rumoring rather than fact-based economic indicators. Malaysia, is now rated one of the most politically unstable countries among investors and fund managers and it will get worse if no effort is taken to stabilise the very fluid political situation.

Most of the blame should fall squarely on the shoulder of PM Najib Razak as he was more concerned in keeping his popularity and hold on to power within his own party rather than to revive and strengthen the party popularity among the populace.


If they are so sure of the BN regulation, why SR (Sarawak Report) not named the source in Bank Negara who says to them such approval is required?

I think, Sarawak Report, Rafizi and the rest of the gang are barking up the wrong tree on the issue of Bank Negara's approval.

Murder With Recourse:Why Western Media Blacked Out Sirul's Story ?

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It's like a nuclear fallout to many Malaysians, the biggest scoop of the century with politicians from the opposite camp having a field day drawing their knives going for an overkill.

DAP Lim Kit Siang was having the biggest thrill of his life poking murderous pun at PM Najib here.

When it rains, it pours in Malaysia, but it's all quiet on the Western Front........ 

Why?

Why did the Western media blacked out Sirul's story?

I have trolled the Internet numerous times hoping to hook onto some reputable media in the West reporting the story first hand, there was none. Every search I made took me to pages of either Malaysian Insider, Malaysiakini, or some other Malaysian news portal or blogs.

Western media hungry for story like this seemed to have avoided the convicted killer like a leper. Not a single reputable Western media have published the story. The Australian media known for its rapacity for this kind of news have not had a single mention of the story.

Why are the Western media giving Sirul a wide berth and our Malaysian news portals and opposition leaders were having agonising orgasms of Sirul's story. A story from a man whose life hang by the thread, a convicted murderer who now openly admitted to the crime and a crime committed with recourse, but he has not named the person that order the execution.

In the West, I believe they are more conscientious that a convicted killer not be allowed to profit by selling his/her story.


Who did Sirul speaks to? 

There is no guessing who needed this kind of story the most for political mileage.

Saril's interview was with Malaysia's most popular pro-opposition news portal...Malaysian Insider and Malaysiakini, the most partisan and lopsided newsmakers with irrefutable loyalty to the opposition's cause. The disclosure have generated a raging thunderstorm among opposition leaders and their supporters.

How do you reconcile the irony of this convicted felon's conflicting statements............ that he obeyed order from higher up to kill Altantuya, but on the other hand said he had not admitted to the murder. 

He questioned the method he was convicted making it sounds as if circumstantial evidence used by the court was wrong. Many murderers from all over the world had, in the absence of direct evidence, been convicted on circumstantial evidence.

That was his story, but more mystifying is......... who let the horse bolted?

How did Sirul get his passport? How did he manage to pass through the immigration's blacklist? Was his name on the black list in the first place, or someone removed it to make it easy for him to escape? All these are questions left unanswered. 

How could a convicted murderer like him escape detection by the Immigration Dept when bankrupts and people who can't pay up their income taxes are barred from leaving the country, but a convicted murderer can leave the country without hindrance?

Shouldn't the Director of Immigration be hauled up to explain how the horse bolted the stable?

In most cases you do need a motive to kill someone. Most of the time you kill to cover your crime leaving no witnesses behind.

Sometimes, rapists killed their victims if they are known to the victims to cover the crime, as they say "dead man tells no tales"

Why are many Malaysians in ecstatic overdrive?

Is it showing that PM Najib has become very unpopular with the people?

"Behind every great man there is a great woman"........she makes you, or destroy you!

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"Behind every great man there is a great woman"........she makes you, or destroy you!

Acrimonious Split Rattles Malaysian Premier’s Family

The announcement last week by top Malaysian banker Nazir Razak of his intention to file defamation charges against bloggers believed connected to a close friend of his brother, Prime Minister Najib Razak, has laid bare what has been whispered about for months in Kuala Lumpur.

There is a growing, acrimonious rift in the Razak family, much of it over the deeply indebted government-backed investment fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd, and Najib’s siblings’ relationship with the prime minister’s wife, Rosmah Mansor, partly because of her ostentatious flaunting of enormous wealth.  Rosmah, in addition to concerns about her behavior, is believed to have convinced her husband to initiate the 1MDB fund, which is backed by the Ministry of Finance.

One of the questions circulating in Malaysia’s business community is whether the family feud might result in problems for CIMB, the fast-growing Malaysia-headquartered bank that Nazir heads and which has become one of Southeast Asia’s leading financial institutions. Observers say CIMB owes at least some of its rapid growth to its connections to the family and hence to UMNO. “Its political connections are probably no longer a slam dunk asset for Nazir,” a business source with connections to the government told Asia Sentinel. 

“The brothers openly criticize Rosmah at dinner functions and family events,” a well-wired source told Asia Sentinel.  “I have heard them myself. Nazir’s family has moved to Oxford, where he spends 60 to 70 percent of his time. His elder brother Nizam spends time with his family in Boston. The two elder brothers Johari and Nazim also cannot get along with Rosmah.”

It was Nazim, according to two sworn declarations, one by a business associate of Rosmah and the other by the late private detective Perumal Balasubramaniam, who played a role in forcing Bala, as he was known, out of the country in 2008 after he issued an initial statement that Najib himself had been the lover of Altantuya Shaariibuu, a Mongolian woman murdered in 2006 in one of Malaysia’s most notorious killings and who was peripherally involved in a massive bribery case involving the sale of French submarines to Malaysia.  After Bala made the statement, he was told to get out of Malaysia and was given a hefty bribe to do so. Allegedly it was Nazim, a Kuala Lumpur architect, who took Balasubramaniam to the Hilton Hotel in Kuala Lumpur to write a statement recanting his version of the relationship between Altantuya and Najib. 

The acrimony is so bad that some of the family have spent their Hari Raya holiday – the celebration at the end of the fasting month – in Phuket and Singapore to avoid going to the prime minister’s obligatory open house, the source said.

Read more.

A truly great woman below:

One of the greatest woman of the 20th century, stood by her man, care for her poor people.

Putsch On Najib?: New York Times Dalam Bahasa Melayu

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This could be the first for the New York Times, an article in Bahasa Melayu.

The question is why did NYT go to such extent with its story on Malaysia's current PM and his family involvement in some very questionable deals.

Are there invisible hands behind this putsch on Najib? 

Was it mere incident that the article was published a day before the judgement day of Anwar's sodomy case? The Federal Court decision is expected out today.

Below is a an abridged version in Bahasa Melayu.

You can read the unabridged English version here.

You can also read the full length article  "Towers Of Secrecy" here. 

Urusan pelaburan di AS oleh seorang rakyat Malaysia yang rapat dengan ramai orang ternama menimbulkan tanda tanya

Taek Jho Low mulai mendapat perhatian umum semasa beliau masih lagi dalam usia 20-an, apabila beliau mulai menghabiskan ribuan dollar bersama rakan-rakannya di kelab-kelab malam sekitar Manhattan. “Spekulasi mulai timbul tentang dari manakah sumber kewangan Jho datang,” lapor The New York Post.

Namun, sejak itu, persoalan yang berlegar-legar tidak lagi hanya tertumpu kepada kehidupan malam beliau. Low memperlihatkan dirinya kepada umum sebagai seorang pelabur yang besar dalam bidang perniagaan dan hartanah di Amerika Syarikat. (Read in English.)

Walaupun Low mempunyai hubungan rapat dengan beberapa orang kenamaan, namun begitu, terdapat sebuah keluarga yang terus-terusan dikaitkan dengan Low, iaitu keluarga perdana menteri Malaysia sendiri, Dato’ Seri Najib Razak. Low mulai berkawan rapat dengan keluarga Najib semasa Low masih belajar di sebuah sekolah tinggi swasta terkemuka berhampiran kota London. Baru-baru ini, Low turut terlibat dalam pembelian sebuah unit kondo mewah bernilai RM 117 juta di tengah-tengah bandar New York oleh anak tiri perdana menteri tersebut, di samping membantunya dengan syarikat perfileman yang telah menerbitkan filem “The Wolf of Wall Street” dan “Dumb and Dumber To.” (Teruskan membaca di sini dalam Bahasa Inggeris.)

Photo

Jho Low CreditIllustration by Michael Hoeweler 

Unit kondo mewah dan syarikat perfileman tersebut kini dipaparkan di dalam sebuah siri projek siasatan global oleh New York Times yang meneliti aliran wang asing yang masuk ke Amerika Syarikat, dengan menjadikan unit-unit kondominium di dalam bangunan “Time Warner Center” sebagai titik fokus.

New York Times mendapati bahawa walaupun sebahagian besar wang asing ini datangnya daripada sumber kekayaan yang sah, namun beberapa rakyat asing yang memiliki unit kondo di Time Warner Center telah menjadi subjek dalam beberapa penyiasatan kerajaan. (Teruskan membaca di sini dalam Bahasa Inggeris.)

Projek ini turut memaparkan artikel-artikel tentang ahli-ahli politik dari Mexico (akan datang minggu ini) dan Rusia (akan datang minggu ini), dan juga tentang seorang ahli perniagaan kontroversi dari India (akan datang minggu ini). New York Times juga mendapati bahawa kini, lebih setengah daripada pembeli-pembeli unit kediaman mewah di bandar New York memilih untuk melakukan pembelian secara rahsia dengan menggunakan tabung amanah atau jenis syarikat yang lain, daripada memilih untuk menggunakan nama mereka sendiri.

Pada tahun 2011, Low telah membeli sebuah penthouse di Time Warner Center bernilai RM 109 juta dengan menggunakan sebuah syarikat yang rahsia. Pada masa yang sama juga, Low mulai dikritik oleh umum di Malaysia. Kritikan tersebut mempersoalkan peranan Low dalam pembentukan 1MDB, yang merupakan syarikat pembangunan strategik milik kerajaan. Sejak itu, parti pembangkang dan juga beberapa ahli UMNO terus mempersoalkan 1MDB, di mana lembaga penasihatnya juga dipengerusikan oleh Najib sendiri. 

Baca seterusnya.

Is Najib And UMNO in Self-Destruct Mode ?

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Read.....UMNO bloggers defend 'FRIENDLY FIRE' after NAJIB'S BANGANG label.

I wonder who are the UMNO paid bloggers? 

Was the PM grossly misinformed by people who was supposed to pay but didn't, thus, making those bloggers reneged and turned the guns on UMNO.

Do you have to be paid for your political belief and the party you support? I suppose for some it's money talk, no money no talk.

Are these mercenary bloggers worth their salt? 

I can see more dedicated, passionate and aggressive pro-Pakatan Rakyat bloggers than pro-UMNO bloggers and one can safely assume they are not all paid bloggers, majority are self-affirmation and voluntary and they firmly believe in their mission for change for the greater good.Running a blog cost nothing if it's done in one's spare time. 

Setting up a blog is free, you only have to  set aside some of your spare time and pay for the Internet connection, which is next to nothing.

Najib needs to polish his PR, calling his own soldiers stupid is a big mistake he will live to regret. Don't underestimate the power of blogs, social media and the Internet, Pakatan's popularity has been achieved through the outspread power of the Internet, which UMNO has failed to embrace.

I would also strongly suggest he sacks all the ass-lickers surrounding him. These badasses are adding more tension to an already cindery situation of racial and religious conflicts.


Najib and UMNO is already in self-destruct mode.You don't need Pakatan Rakyat to topple the government, it will self-destroy itself. 


(this blog is independent)

English Idioms: Malaysians Banana Skin

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Hair-splitting, nitpicking and quibbling over nothing has become a remarkable feature of Malaysian society, some worthy of scorn.

The guy who tweeted "the disappearance of Flight MH370 was a blessing in disguise" did so because he noticed one or two things.............. either the incident has brought Malaysians close together, or a revelation of the division between patriotic and unpatriotic Malaysians.

There is nothing wrong in saying "blessing in disguise" if one means something positive came out of it. 

Journalist Ismail Amsyer, who tweeted his thought on the positive outcome of the tragic disappearance of Flight MH370 and agreed empathically by Minister Hishammuddin Hussein in his tweeted response should not have apologised, should have explained and stood by their tweets.

Here, a British tabloid, which has from day one maligned Malaysia on the tragedy, is stirring shit on the journalist and the minister. Shit sells shitty media, I suppose.

Most Malaysians do not understand the versatility of the English language, its idioms, or its "banana skin".The sensitivity arose because most of the younger generation Malaysians are products of an education system not based on English and not intensely schooled in the language. So, don't use it if you don't understand its actual meaning.

Idiom is a phrase where the words put together have meaning that is different from the dictionary definitions of the individual words, which can make idioms hard for the uninitiated person to understand. Even if you know the meaning of every word in the sentence, you may not understand the idiom because you don't understand the culture behind it.

Idioms are often metaphorical and make the language more colourful.

"My father's death was a blessing in disguise, it has brought the family closer together." Does it literally mean I am happy that my father is dead? 

For the less discerning it may be so and carry a negative connotation. It should not be, the imperative was on the positive outcome.

The lost of Flight MH370 has cast shocking revelation of unpatriotic behaviour among Malaysians living a false-hearted life of perfidious loyalty. People with highly suspect allegiance.

This is the type of Malaysian I am talking about helping foreign media to lambaste leaders of the country.

As I have said before, we can always criticise our government's shortcomings, but when it comes to external aggression, we should rally behind our government no matter how much dislike we harbour against them.

Without any qualm whatsoever, these ingrates furiously condemned their own country for an incident completely beyond the control of the country's leaders. 

It is not often that a plane disappear into thin air without a trace. The incident has baffled the whole world. The mystic and the intellect are still out there looking for answers, which they may never found.

The Malaysian government is saddled with the greatest aviation mystery unprecedented in the history of civil aviation.Even the best of technology from the most powerful nation in the world has not been able to find the plane, or its debris. Looking for "needle in a haystack" seems must easier.

As "time is of the essence" Prime Minister Najib did not allow "the grass to grow under his feet" and after getting confirmation from Inmarsat satellite pings of the flight path of the plane, he announced that Flight MH370 has ended in the Southern Indian Ocean.

One should never "put one's foot in one's mouth"

The disappearance of Flight MH370 did expose the ugly side of Malaysians. 

Is PM Najib In A Limbo And National Disaster In The Offing?

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The United Nations defines a disaster as a serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society. Disasters involve widespread human, material, economic or environmental impacts, which exceed the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources.

Well, that's for natural disaster espoused by the UN. 

In the case of Malaysia, we have a man-made disaster in the making. We are heading for inter-racial, inter-religious conflicts, which may reach a flash point anytime now and serious economic melt-down if nothing concrete is done to salvage the worsening situation. 

When people have no confidence in government, frustration and discontent can and will disrupt peace and the economy.


It is time for him to get rid of his highly useless paid con -sultants and starts using his government servants as advisers, which should have been the case in the first place.

His 1Malaysia sale-pitch had become the butt of jokes.

He should stop wasting public funds to buy favours because it ain't working.His BRIM has more negative outflow than positive inflow.

His so-called sovereign vehicle 1MDB is going to be the biggest liability on the national economy.

Post-election support had dropped steeply amid growing calls for him to take action or make for the door and let a new leader takes over.

Is PM Najib in a limbo ?

From the Asia Sentinel:

One of Malaysia’s most respected polling organizations is expected to release figures over the next few days showing that support for the ruling Barisan Nasional from all three of the country’s major ethnic groups is dropping steeply, to the point where if an election were held today,  the national coalition would be buried in a landslide.

Read more.

Enter...... Rafizi The Moron, Mahathir The Bogeyman

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"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt"

A saying either by Abraham Lincoln or Mark Twain, or one copied the other, I am not sure who is the originator.

Nevertheless, Pakatan's Minister of Propaganda Rafizi Ramli has admitted responsibility for the debacle and is taking the fall for Anwar Ibrahim, or what he thinks he could get away with..........an apology on a rotten red herring ........because he thinks Malaysians are stupid.

He said "In all honesty, as the strongest proponent of the scheme, I bear most responsibility for the decision"

Let me take an excerpt from PKR Geobbels apology, who has now become the biggest moron in the Pakatan's outfit.

It is an open secret that the move to remove Datuk Seri Najib Razak has begun. As a party strategist, I cannot rule out the possibility that Najib is removed and Umno falls to the ultras led by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s faction.

The unscrupulous attack and schemes to take Selangor by hook or by crook will begin the moment a weak Najib is removed.

Even as we speak, Umno’s cards are all too obvious in the latest round of racial and religious controversies stirred up in Selangor in the last few months.

Should Najib fall, expect a full-blown manipulation of racial and religious issues to create mistrust and frustration with the Selangor government. Read more here.

Haha!, now you know why Anwar did what he did. It is because of the soon to be ousted Najib and his tormentor Tun Mahathir, who supposedly is on the war path to remove Najib from his premiership. 

He said "The job is not done and we are about to face another round of onslaught from Umno"

Beware! Mahathir and UMNO, his army of marauders is coming to re-invade Selangor.

Of course, if you are Pakatan supporters you would swallow his lies hook,line and sinker, but for those who still have their brains intact in the right place ......my apology Mr Geobbels Rafizi, you are the biggest bullshitter and if I may say a moron in the making. 

A pathetic lie even a child can see through.


A VERY HAPPY GONG XI FA CAI TO ALL MY READERS

THE HUMBUG

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There are many mercenary writers like this guy who indulged in idiotic spin. He may sound smart to many below average IQ Malaysians, but sorry to say, I am not buying. 

He pathetically compared 'apples and oranges' with complete disregard of proper technical analysis.

It's not rocket science to conclude that Mr Ng is nothing but a humbug.

Let's get down to the nitty-gritty of his pat and contrived comparison. I wouldn't bore you with the prolixity of a lengthy debate but get to finishing line as quickly as possible.

First and foremost, Norway is a much bigger producer of crude oil on much smaller population.

At its peak Norway produced 3.2 million bbl/per day, but now production has petered to about 2.0 million bbl/per day on a population of 5 million people. It is also the world's 3rd largest exporter of natural gas.

Simple arithmetic will tell you the amount of massive surpluses in oil revenue going into government coffers, hence, the massive sovereign funds and multiplier effect of more oil surpluses and dividends from sovereign funds. Norway needs not tap into the funds as yet and until such time it has exhausted its oil wells.

Malaysia, on the other hand, currently produce around 670,000 bbl/per day and export only about 270,000 bbl/per day and import another 160,500 bbl/per day of crude to supplement its domestic consumption. Of its natural gas production of 61.73 billion cu m, only 33.1 cu.m were exported. Latest census shows that Malaysia's population is now almost 30 million and has bigger land mass.

It's again not rocket science to tell you that Malaysia is not exactly net exporter of oil and to think that there are plenty of leftovers is wishful thinking and sheer foolishness.

Major portion of the recurring national budget and the huge unproductive subsidies are financed by profits from oil revenues.

Again, it is people like Mr Ng who benefitted from these subsidies.

By the way, non-oil producing Singapore is one notch higher than Norway in per capita income.

So, Mr Humbug Ng, if you can't tell the difference between the skin of an apple and that of an orange, .......please, don't ever try to sell something you have absolutely no clue about.

Is Time Running Out For Najib? Yes!

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I personally think so, YES, time to leave the scene.  

Najib has failed miserably to bring about transformations as promised and his policies had gone from the subliminal to the ridiculous, the latest being RON 95 only for the poor. 

How do you implement and police such ludicrous idea?

I like him, but I made a mistake about this man.

From the Asia Sentinel:

Forces aligned with former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad appear to be attempting push embattled Malaysian Premier Najib Tun Razak into giving a time frame for his eventual departure from office and naming a successor, sources in Kuala Lumpur say.

The sources say that successor could be hard-line Home Affairs Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, 61, who was once an ally of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim when Anwar was still in Mahathir’s government. Zahid is third in line for succession and his rise would bypass Muhyiddin Yassin, the current deputy president of UMNO and deputy prime minister, who is 66. Muhyiddin has said he will retire soon.

The scenario, the sources say, is similar to that forced upon Najib’s immediate predecessor, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who was pushed to name Najib and come up with a timeline in 2008 after the Barisan’s disastrous political showing in general elections. At that time, the ruling coalition lost its two-thirds majority in parliament for the first time in history. The campaign to push out Badawi lasted from the May 2008 election until April 2009, when Najib took office.

Although Mahathir left office as prime minister in 2003, he has kept up a constant barrage of criticism about the way the country has been run, quitting UMNO near the end of Badawi’s reign in supposed outrage over party politics. He reawakened with force after the 2013 general election, charging that Najib’s election strategy of reaching out to the country’s 40 percent of minority voters was a mistake.

Najib is also under growing public pressure because of rising prices due to the withdrawal of subsidies and other reasons, not least of which is dissatisfaction with the ostentatious behavior of his wife, Rosmah Mansor. He has also been widely criticized for being out of touch with the rakyat, or citizenry. He was ridiculed for saying that while some prices had gone up, the price of “kangkong [water spinach] has fallen but why don’t they praise the government?”

The drumbeat of anger over corruption in UMNO also continues, with the Mahathir forces alleging that vote-buying was used to deny Mahathir’s politician son Mukhriz Mahathir a top position in last September’s UMNO party elections.

An increasing number of Mahathir’s long-time allies, including former New Straits Times editor in chief A. Kadir Jasin and Zainuddin Maidin, the former information minister, have called for the prime minister to take the 88-year-old Mahathir back into government as a “minister mentor” akin to what Lee Kuan Yew did in Singapore from 2004 to 2011 before ostensibly retiring from politics. Former Finance Minister Daim Zainuddin, another Mahathir ally, has also made public statements disparaging Najib’s premiership.

Mukhriz on Sunday gave an interview to the Malay-language newspaper Berita Harian, saying that “Defeat [in the next general election] is a real possibility if Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak continues with his present policy of correct but unpopular decisions, especially on issues concerning the rising cost of living,"

Read more.

NAJIB NOT A CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK

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Former Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak died exactly 38 years ago, today. A man highly regarded and respected by Malaysians from all walks of life. 

Razak understood that power lies in the Malay community and for this power to be able to rule the nation effectively and equitably, the elite among the Malays must have the ability, aptitude and commitment to the nation as a whole. Class and money was not in his calculations.

Today, the whole picture of responsibility and guardianship of a nation as a whole has broken down to sectarian politics where the nation is heading all in a dither of religious and racial upheaval.

Class, birth and money is much in the calculations of the current regime, by hook or by crook, it will be have and the ill wind continued to blow vigorously.

Blatant political partisanship has become the key ingredient in running the economy of the nation, which have drained the best of brains out of the country. 

We are still a nation low in wages and high in cost of living that continue to escalate to the detriment of the people and a government still in complete state of denial. 

A government run by a retinue of dull-witted plodders with remarkable dexterity for the bizarre, an astounding affirmation of their vapidity and foolhardiness in the running of a nation.

Malaysians have been humiliated by disparaging remarks such as. .........if you don't like this country,  migrate to another country...............if chicken meat is expensive eat beef and fish, (alas, these nincompoops do not know beef and fish can be even more expensive than chicken, unless you want to eat basung and kangkung every day)

Lately, the PM has encouraged people to eat kangkung as the price has come down he says. 

(In the old days kangkung is considered as weed as it grows around drains and waterways and only the poorest of the poor eat the vegetable. Today, it has gained some respectability and is common dish in many restaurants, but still the cheapest vegetable you can find)

Read HERE his brother's well written article in remembrance of his father, the late Tun Razak Hussein

Obviously, our PM Najib is not '' A CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK"

The Devil You Know....Better Najib Than Muhyiddin?

Hantu Laut

Better the devil you know.....better Najib than Muhyiddin. This comment have appeared in my blog a number of times by pro-Pakatan supporters. 

Below is a recent one from a regular commentator.

Purple Haze said...

What you have written was already quite evident BEFORE GE13. The bloggers closed ranks because of the elections and trained their guns on the PR personalities instead.

This is quite unfortunate as we should be electing governments based on ideas and strategies instead of based on character assignation. But perhaps, this is the means to sway the rural voters - so-and-so are "bad", so don't vote for them.

When you have the mainstream media in you pocket, the message gets hammered through.

But you are quite right that the new media is where the battles will be fought as the internet doesn't forget.

If you want to read Rais Yatim's doctoral thesis about the evils of the ISA, you can get it on the internet, as an example. And of course, plenty of idiotic statements made by various little Napoleans.

The pro-UMNO bloggers seem to want him out or take some action. I would rather he stay in the job as the present No 2 (IMO)is not a statesman that Malaysians can trust. Be careful - the people of Sabah and Sarawak might be even more marginalized.

Many seemed to prefer Najib over Muhyiddin, whom they consider  a worse hardliner than Najib and whom many pro-oppositions supporters suspect to be working closely with Mahathir to bring down Najib. To what extent this is true, I 'll leave to it to your imagination. 

To make matters worse for Najib there are also rumours floating around that alleged Najib to have given strict instruction to UMNO divisional heads to ensure Mukhriz do not get enough votes to win as one of the vice-presidents in the recently concluded UMNO's elections and the supposedly esoteric information have been leaked to Mahathir and the old man is not happy with Najib. 

Some say Mahathir is grinding his axe and waiting for the right time to go for the kill. Again, these are rumours circulating around the coffee shops, which I have misgivings about. 

If true, it is a reflection of Mahathir's poor judgement of people's character. Both Pak Lah and Najib's  rise to the helm was orchestrated by him. Mahathir also had a bad record of choosing wrong deputies during his tenure as prime minister, none have fitted the bill.

A win would automatically give Mukhriz a seat on the Supreme Council and high probability of him clawing his way to greater influence in the party hierarchy.

They say Najib is worried more about Mukhriz being the threat than Muhyiddin.

I personally think Najib is not a bad person but a weak leadership surrounded by bad people with selfish agenda, whom he can't resist.A sure sign of weakness on the part of a leader. 

Would Muhyiddin be worse than Najib as PM and why?

Let's have some feed back.

The Beginning Of The End.....Najib Worse Than Pak Lah

Hantu Laut

It seems Najib is continuing to lose support of many pro-UMNO/BN bloggers, who supported him in the 13th GE. 

Disheartened by Najib's total failure to do what he had promised these bloggers have turned against him.

These are genuine unpaid bloggers, paid only by the belief that Najib can bring about feasible political changes for the benefits of all Malaysians. The man didn't make the cut, he fared worse than Pak Lah. 

As self-consolation, the dickheads in UMNO claimed they have increased winning in Malay areas and as dickheads should be forgot that victory was handed over by Sabah and Sarawak. There weren't enough Malay seats in Peninsula Malaysia for BN/UMNO to win on Malay votes exclusively. In urban areas the Malays have abandoned them.

The nation is now like a ship foundering in heavy seas with a captain unable to steer the ship to a safe harbour. Najib had failed miserably to deliver on his promises.The nation is lingering on the edge of a dangerous racial and religious turmoil.

It is obvious that Najib lent too much of his ears to swashbuckling buccaneers and political prostitutes and ignored the groundswell of public opinion.

I was not wrong when I gave up on the man much earlier than some of these bloggers.

Two of his most avid supporters "Outsyed The Box" and "APANAMA" have started to question his political integrity and performance and I predict more pro-bloggers will follow soon.

Read APANAMA's article on "Najib Worse Than Pak Lah"

If Najib thinks blogs and social media are not pivotal in changing public opinion, he is mighty wrong. The erosion of support for BN/UMNO and its current dilemma are brought about by the new stingers.

Can't Agree More With Kadir Jasin, Najib Not Beyond Stricture

Hantu Laut

I was once his ardent supporter but now filled with utter disgust with the kind of ineptitude, playing with religious fire and an economy that self-prophesying for imminent decline.

I have, on many instances, in my past postings wrote on the need to abolish subsidies and dismantle all monopolies and let prices find its own level. 

A government interference in a free market economy is a sure recipe for disaster, it's only a matter of time before the roof came down on us Malaysians. 

It makes one wonder why a cuppa in a Singapore hawker's stall is cheaper than a cuppa in a Malaysian hawker's stall when our neighbour has the highest per capita income in the world and higher standard of living and we still caught in the middle income trap and in all probability going down further south.

Najib must not forgets, the ball is in his court.

Najib is not beyond criticism for his inaction, only he can make the changes and take full blame for any undoing of his government.

I couldn't agree more with Kadir Jasin in his article reproduced below.

Najib is not above criticism, says former NST chief editor

Pro-government supporters should realise that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is not above criticism for Putrajaya’s cost-cutting measures which had resulted in price hikes, says a former editor of an Umno-linked newspaper.

Veteran journalist Datuk A. Kadir Jasin (pic) wrote that Najib and his advisers were not above criticism when the public react to Putrajaya's way of managing the national economy.

"It was Najib and his advisers during the general election who promised the people that prices will not be raised. So, who is going back on their word?" he asked in a posting in his The Scribe blog yesterday.

He also questioned whether the prime minister was an absolute monarch who could not be criticised or questioned.

"Or is he a living saint who is free from any kind of slip-ups?” asked Kadir, who was the group editor-in-chief of the New Straits Times when Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was the prime minister.

Since September, Putrajaya has introduced a series of cost-cutting measures to rein in a chronic budget deficit which includes a reduction of fuel subsidies, removal of subsidy for sugar, allowed an increase in power tariffs and confirmed the introduction of the goods and services tax (GST).

Putrajaya is also mulling a revision of toll rates while the 20% rebate offered to frequent users of tolled roads in the Klang Valley is being scrapped.

The increasing cost of goods and services had also triggered a protest on New Year's Eve by an undergraduate non-governmental organisation, Turun, which attracted more than 10,000 people.

In defending his strident criticism of Najib, the veteran journalist also rebuked his critics who had claimed that he only lambasted the prime minister on “economic management but did not offer advice and pointers”. Read more.

Times They Are A Changin: Change Or Sink Like A Stone

Hantu Laut

Read Outsyed The Box "PM Confirms Malaysia Will Go Bankrupt Under Him !!"

As they say "The road to hell is paved with good intentions" 

Good intention is meaningless unless followed through.

I am not a trained economist, a bloody accountant, or a wiz-kid of some kind, but my business sense, which I hardly use nowadays had grown sharper over the years for not being overused.

I am not against the GST as I do believe it is high time such effective tax mechanism be introduced in this country to compensate for the leakages through cheating and tax manipulation. However, such exercise would be futile and of no use if the government continued with its extravagant and corrupt ways. 

Show me a wise government that foolishly spent RM7.2 billion in consulting fees, has 1.4 million civil servants, almost half doing next to nothing and spending over 80% of its recurring budget for operating expenditure leaving less than 20% for development expenditure. 

No where in the world you can find such caring government.....where there is 1 civil servant for every 20 people.

In the 2014 Budget of RM264.2 billion, a sum of RM217.7 goes to operating expenditure and RM46 billion for development expenditure, a meagre sum by comparison. Malaysians have been had, we give our money to people who had no money sense.

This government is spending beyond its means, good money chasing bad money, indiscriminate and unconscionable spending that's going to bankrupt the country.

Najib's 1MDB is full of big talking men in dark suits that's going to screw the country big time   They proudly say that many of their bonds are not backed by government guarantees, but these bunch of shitheads forget that 1MDB is wholly owned by the Malaysian government and if 1MDB goes down the Malaysian government goes down with it and Malaysia's credit rating goes down the sewer and no one would want to touch Malaysia with a ten-foot pole.

Najib Cut Fuel Subsidy Now,Better Late Than Never.

Hantu Laut

In spite of the oppositions pouring scorn on Prime Minister Najib's capability of running the country he did make significant transformation in some key areas crucial to the economic well-being of the country.

The World Bank Report below shows that Malaysia is among the economies that improved the most across three or more doing business areas

So, Najib did nor rest on his laurels as perceived and deplored by the opposition Pakatan Rakyat leaders.

For starter, the introduction of the GST is a welcome sign that Malaysia is moving forward.

The next big thing Najib should do to is trim the budget deficit by removing fuel subsidy completely. It is the most wasteful and unproductive subsidy that have eroded the nation's coffers. The subsidy have led to smuggling of our resources to neighbouring countries, where fuel costs are higher and sold at market price. 

Najib should not wait too long to remove the subsidy, he must do it  soonish, preferably before the end of 2014, on the premise that "time is a good healer" hence if the premise is true, then the conclusion must be true. Time heals the grieving heart, people tend to forget the bad times as time goes by.

The government spent almost RM24 billion a year on this wasteful and unproductive spending, which most Malaysians are unaware of and failed to appreciate. 

Just imagine how much developments beneficial to the people, or reduction of our fiscal deficit can come from this money, instead, of turning it into wasteful and toxic carbon monoxide.

He can do wonders with the saving.

Read the World Bank Report here.

Ease of Doing Business in

Malaysia

This page summarizes Doing Business 2014 data for Malaysia. The first table lists the overall "Ease of Doing Business" rank (out of 189 economies) and the rankings by each topic. It also lists the economy's distance to frontier (DTF)** measure. The rest of the tables summarize the key indicators for each topic and benchmark against regional and high-income economy (OECD) averages.

ECONOMY OVERVIEW

• EXCEL
• PRINT

REGION	East Asia & Pacific
INCOME CATEGORY	Upper middle income
POPULATION	29,239,927
GNI PER CAPITA (US$)	9,800
CITY COVERED	Kuala Lumpur

DOING BUSINESS 2014 RANK	DOING BUSINESS 2013 RANK***	CHANGE IN RANK
6	8	2

DOING BUSINESS 2014 DTF** (% POINTS)	DOING BUSINESS 2013 DTF** (% POINTS)	IMPROVEMENT IN DTF** (% POINTS)
81.87	80.06	1.81

• Rankings
• Distance to Frontier

• TOPICS	DB 2014 Rank	DB 2013 Rank	Change in Rank
  Starting a Business	16	19	3
  Dealing with Construction Permits	43	99	56
  Getting Electricity	21	28	7
  Registering Property	35	33	-2
  Getting Credit	1	1	No change
  Protecting Investors	4	4	No change
  Paying Taxes	36	15	-21
  Trading Across Borders	5	5	No change
  Enforcing Contracts	30	29	-1
  Resolving Insolvency	42	42	No change

=Doing Business reform making it easier to do business. =Doing Business reform making it more difficult to do business.Click here to see all reforms made by Malaysia.

DOING BUSINESS RESOURCES

Economy Profile

Download economy profile for Malaysia

1508.5KB pdf file

 Get all Data

See historical data sets and trends

 Law Library

Search for business laws and regulations in Malaysia

 Contributors

See who contributed to Doing Business 2014

ADDITIONAL TOPIC

• » Employing Workers

ADDITIONAL DATA

• » Distance to frontier
• » Entrepreneurship
• » Good practices
• » Transparency

RELATED WEBSITES

• » Enterprise Surveys
• » Women, Business & the Law

• Starting a Business16
• Dealing with Construction Permits43
• Getting Electricity21
• Registering Property35
• Getting Credit1
• Protecting Investors4
• Paying Taxes36
• Trading Across Borders5
• Enforcing Contracts30
• Resolving Insolvency42

Starting a Business

Info

•  View reform »    
• View details »
• View methodology »
• Compare all economies »

DB 2014 RANK	16	DB 2013 RANK***	19	CHANGE IN RANK	3

DB 2014 DTF** (% POINTS)	94.31	DB 2013 DTF** (% POINTS)	93.41	IMPROVEMENT IN DTF** (% POINTS)	0.90

Information on new business density and number of newly created firms with limited liability can be found at Entrepreneurship Database.

Indicator	Malaysia	East Asia & Pacific	OECD
Procedures (number)	3	7	5
Time (days)	6.0	37.8	11.1
Cost (% of income per capita)	7.6	29.8	3.6
Paid-in Min. Capital (% of income per capita)	0.0	293.3	10.4

No.	Procedure	Time to Complete	Associated Costs
1	Apply to the Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM) on the prescribed form (13A) to ensure the availability of the proposed company name	1 day	MYR 30 per name search application
2	Company Secretary prepares the company incorporation documents	3 days	MYR 1,000
3	File necessary documents with the Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM) one-stop shop and obtain company incorporation, tax registration, registration with the Employment Provident Fund (EPF), Social Security Organization and the Inland Revenue Board, a	1-2 days	MYR 1,000 (registration fee)+ MYR 220 (stamp) + MYR 100 (post-incorporation package)

** The distance to frontier (DTF) measure shows the distance of each economy to the "frontier," which represents the highest performance observed on each of the topics including Getting Electricity across all economies included in Doing Business. An economy’s distance to frontier is indicated on a scale from 0 to 100, where 0 represents the lowest performance and 100 the frontier. Read more...

***Last year's rankings are adjusted: they are based on 10 topics and reflect data corrections.