Can Badawi Weathers The Storm ?

Hantu Laut

Abdullah may not be the greatest prime minister this country ever had, at least he has given Malaysians more freedom to express themselves without fear of being incarcerated.Malaysians are now bolder than before to go on the streets and show their displeasure at the government.

How many people have Abdullah sent to ISA detention other than the Hindraf 5 ? How many have Mahathir detained under the ISA during his time? Incredible as it may sound, some of those  locked-up by Mahathir are still in prison, forgotten by society, because the families are just too poor and helpless to bring their appeal to the authority.Unless you are a famous political figure or someone known to the public, you would be forgotten and unforgiven.

The blogging fraternity is a stark example of the huge difference in freedom Malaysians have now than before to criticise the leadership and the government.

Abdullah has taken in his stride many of the unfair criticisms and slighting remarks on his personality.Just go to any of the popular political blog and you would find unsavoury language used by blog readers on the Prime Minister and his family.

I do agree there are certain weaknesses in his administration but these are not insurmountable problems and given time I believe he could mend those weaknesses. Mahathir's first term in office was also a period of trail and error.

Part of the problem leading to the unprecedented losses at the recent polls was Mahathir himself.His constant harping and attacks on Abdullah's personality have had great impact and influence on voters' mind.The demoralisation in UMNO was attributable to his unrelenting and malignant attacks on Abdullah.

Mahathir, although out of office, still wields significant influence in UMNO and part of the populace.This can be seen from the popularity of his blog.It is the fastest growing blog in term of readership with over 2 million hits since its inception a few months ago. If one cares to look closely at the readers' sycophantic comments in his blog, it is obvious most of those who came to his blog are readers who are in their early youth, those who knew only one prime minister from adolescence.They grew up under the golden years of Mahathir's rule and have not known any form of hardship and would assiduously oppose any fundamental change.

Many Malaysians have fallen victims to the mud-racking campaign of former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad.They forgot that Mahathir had 22 years whilst Abdullah had only less than 5 years so far and under very trying conditions.

Many of us have forgotten that when Mahathir first came to power he was also a green horn in the world of commerce and had experimented with all sorts of things.His 'Look East' policy and his dreams of building Malaysian version of the Japanese model of the 'sogo sosha' was a complete failure costing taxpayers millions of ringgits and his close friend Abdullah Ng in prison for criminal breach of trust.How many financial scandals and bank failures were there during his time? How many bail-out were there using Petronas money?The BMF scandal that ended up with the murder of a bank officer and the bail-out of Bank Bumiptra was during his time.The steel mill Perwaja which was losing huge amount under bumiputra management which he eventually handed over to his good friend Eric Chia whom he thinks is a wiz-kid and can do a better job, eventually lost even more money through corruption.Eric Chia was charged and brought to court for corruption.He was later acquitted of the charge.It was reported Chia died yesterday morning in his sleep at his own hotel.

The huge forex losses at Bank Negara was a mind-boggling financial adventure. The giving of huge projects to cronies that went down the tube would be hard to list out here.The building of the Petronas Twin Tower and Puterajaya are showcases of his extravagance and megalomania.

 

Some of the scandalous financial expeditions during his time are shown below:

1.Bank Bumiputra and BMF scandals in early 1980s costing the nation over RM2.5 billion in    losses and ended up in bail-out by Petronas and the murder of the bank's officer investigating  the case.

2.Attempt to corner the tin market in the 1980s costing the taxpayers in the region of RM1.6  billion.

3.Forex speculation in 1990s costing Bank Negara almost RM30 billion.

4.Perwaja losses of RM2.56 billion.

5.Billions paid to IPP(Independent Power Producer) for unused and overpriced power        generation.

6.About RM10 billion spent to shore up the stock market.

7.A ridiculous amount of RM2.2 billion spent on information and computer technology to teach   Maths and Science in English.

8.Billions spent in bail-out of MAS twice during his time.

9.Amount of RM3.2 billion spent to bail-out Star-LRT.

10.Scandalous losses of RM1.0 billion at Bank Islam.

11.Annual expenditure of RM500 million spend on so-called National Service which are merely     badly-run holiday camps some with high mortality rate.

The above list is not exhaustive, there were many more below the tip of the iceberg.

The awarding of huge government projects at highly inflated prices to cronies and party members to buy patronage is humongous.Some of the projects were sub-contracted so many times, there weren't enough profit left for the final contractor to make money, who had no choice but to cheat, using sub-standard materials and work to cut costs and what do you get, sub-standard and dangerously built buildings and highways and abandoned projects which incurred additional costs to rescue.

Just take a look at the divisional heads of UMNO branches.See how filthy rich they are.They fought tooth and nail to be divisional head, it's a shortcut to the bounty and instant wealth.

After the President and Supreme Council this is the third most powerful position in the party, even ministers have to kowtow to them during elections time.The politic of patronage and money politics started during Mahathir's time.He closed his eyes and pretended not to see the goings-on. 

I wouldn't doubt Mahathir's contributions to the building of this nation and successfully brought it to what it is today.It could have been better if he had been less autocratic and more frugal in financial management.As much good that he has done he has also rendered some very unpleasant flavouring to the politics of this nation.

Since he handed over power to Abdullah and the shelving of his pet projects he has gone on a rampaging war path against the Prime Minister.His fulmination of Abdullah is expression of his deep-rooted anger of his feeling of being played out and decided that Abdullah must be punished  severely for the broken promise.If Abdullah had built the crooked bridge and not cancelled the double-tracking railway , we would see different 'wayang'(shadow play) being played out by him.Mahathir's criticism of Abdullah can be likened to the 'pot calling the kettle black'.

Other than being awkwardly inconsistent, dozing off at parliamentary sittings and flip-flop if you like, many of the fashions of the government being used today were inherited from Mahathir.The only big mistake Abdullah made was to open the flood-gate and let Malaysians speak out more freely.

Dozing off at parliamentary sessions is a natural phenomenon in many countries, but many Malaysians  made a big play out of it to ridicule Abdullah.

Because of public perception created by Mahathir's relentless attacks that Abdullah is incapable, flip-flop and not fit to be a prime minister, some segment of our society had become judge and jury and have passed sentence on the Prime Minister. Journalists who has agenda against him were quick to snap pictures of his slumber.

Winston Churchill was known to have taken cat-naps  during meetings of his War Cabinet and had, for all the cat-napping he took, turned out to be one of the greatest prime ministers Britain ever had. During the same period Theodore Roosevelt, a paraplegic, was President of United States and ran the nation from a wheelchair.These two men and to some degree Stalin of Russia had saved the world from total hegemonic control of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.So cat-napping may not be so bad after all.For some people it may be the only way they can re-charge their batteries.

Beleaguered Abdullah's attacks came from all fronts, from Mahathir and disenchanted UMNO members,Anwar Ibrahim and his oppositions partners and from some segment of the population who have bought Mahathir's and Anwar's story.

Most people would have thrown in the towel.Abdullah has steadfastly stood his ground against all odds.The many predictions that he would fall sooner than later have not materialised.

Anwar Ibrahim's perennial claims that he would be taking over the government had so far come to naught.Lot of talk but didn't have the guts to start the ball rolling by using his own PKR MPs to bring a motion of no confidence against Abdullah. He had instead approached Yong Teck Lee for help to demolish Abdullah, which have back-fired badly.His next dateline is not later than September 16, if he failed, he has to put his foot where his mouth is.

So far Badawi has managed to temper the would be rebels in his own party and calls for him to resign has quieten down and it looks like the other components in the BN are heading the same way.  

Will Badawi survives the full term?

To be continued

The Petronas Mythbuster

Hantu Laut

Received in my email the letter below from a friend.

The letter was authored by an employee of Petronas who took it on himself to clarify the actual position and the inner workings of the organisation to counter the myth about the company.

I leave it to my readers to decide the veracity or mendacity of the story.

Dear all,

After reading all the chain mails and blogs, I feel called to reply, because of the relentless attacks and allegations -- most of which are inaccurate or baseless -- against PETRONAS.


PETRONAS' STAFF SALARY & BONUS
1) The salaries paid to PETRONAS' employees are not as high as people think. At best, they are just industry average. And these are not attractive enough for some who left PETRONAS to find work at other companies (mainly from the Middle East) which are willing to pay more. Why do they pay more? The oil and gas industry worldwide has been facing acute shortage of qualified or experienced personnel, so most companies are willing to pay lots of money to entice and pinch staff from their competitors.

Bonus? There has NEVER been a bonus amounting to 6 months or 12 months throughout the 33 years. On average, it is 2 months. But don't ever think we don't deserve it. We more than deserve it. A lot of us work really hard, some in the most extreme of conditions. Those who have been to and worked in northern Sudan, for example, would testify that it's like working in a huge blower oven. Southern Sudan, on the other hand, is almost all swamps and mud. Imagine having to go through that kind of heat, or waddling in muddy swamps, day in and day out.


QUALITY OF CRUDE & REFINED PRODUCTS
2) Malaysia produces about 600,000 barrels of crude oil per day (and about 100,000 barrels condensate). Of this crude volume, 339,000 barrels are refined locally for local consumption. The rest is exported (and yes, because it has lower sulphur content it fetches higher prices).

Malaysia also imports about 230,000 barrels of crude oil per day, mainly from the Middle East, to be refined here. This crude oil contains higher sulphur and is less expensive (so the country gains more by exporting our crudes). In Malaysia, this crude is processed by PETRONAS at its second refinery in Melaka, and also by Shell at its Port Dickson refinery.

Different refineries are built and configurated to refine different types of crude. And each crude type yields different percentage of products (diesel, gasoline, kerosene, cooking gas etc) per barrel.

But most importantly, products that come out at the end of the refining process have the same good quality regardless of the crude types. That's why PETRONAS, Shell and Exxon Mobil share the same pipeline to transport the finished products from their refineries to a distribution centre in the Klang Valley. The three companies collect the products at this centre accordingly to be distributed to their respective distribution networks. What makes PETRONAS' petrol different from Shell's, for example, is the additive that each company adds.


PETRONAS' ROLE, FUNCTION & CONTRIBUTION
3) A lot of people also do not understand the role and function of PETRONAS, which is essentially a company, a business entity, which operates on a commercial manner, to mainly generate income and value for its shareholder. In this case, PETRONAS' shareholder is the Government.

In 1974, when PETRONAS was set up, the Government gave PETRONAS RM10 million (peanuts, right?) as seed capital. From 1974 to 2007, PETRONAS made RM570 billion in accumulated profits, and returned to the Government a total of RM335.7 billion. That is about 65% of the profits. That means for every RM1 that PETRONAS makes, 65 sen goes back to the Government.

Last year, PETRONAS made a pre-tax profit of RM86.8 billion. The amount given back to the Government (in royalty, dividends, corporate income tax, petroleum products income tax and export duty) was RM52.3 billion. The rest of the profit was used to pay off minority interests and taxes in foreign countries (about RM7.8 billion - PETRONAS now operates in more than 30 countries), and the remaining RM26.7 billion was reinvested. The amount reinvested seems a lot, but the oil and gas industry is technology- and capital-intensive. Costs have gone up exponentially in the last couple of years. Previously, to drill a well, it cost about US$3 million; now it costs US$7 million. The use of rigs was US$200,000 a day a couple of years ago; now it costs US$600,000 a day.

A lot of people also do not realise that the amount returned by PETRONAS to the Government makes up 35% of the Government's total annual income, to be used by the Government for expenditures, development, operations, and yes, for the various subsidies. That means for every RM1 the Government makes, 35 sen is contributed by PETRONAS.

So, instead of asking what happens to PETRIONAS' money or profits, people should be questioning how the money paid by PETRONAS to the Government is allocated.


CRUDE EXPORTS & FUEL PRICES
4) A lot of people also ask, why Malaysia exports its crude oil. Shouldn't we just stop exporting and sell at cheaper prices to local refiners? If Malaysia is an oil exporting country, why can't we sell petrol or diesel at cheaper prices like other oil producing countries in the Middle East?

I guess I don't have to answer the first couple of questions. It's simple economics, and crude oil is a global commodity.

Why can't we sell petrol and diesel at lower prices like in the Middle East? Well, comparing Saudi Arabia and other big producers to Malaysia is like comparing kurma to durian, because these Middle Eastern countries have much, much, much bigger oil and gas reserves.

Malaysia has only 5.4 billion barrels of oil reserves, and about 89 trillion cubic feet of gas. Compare that to Saudi Arabia's 260 billion barrels of oil and 240 trillion cubic feet of gas.

Malaysia only produces 600,000 barrels per day of oil. Saudi Arabia produces 9 million barrels per day. At this rate, Saudi Arabia's crude oil sales revenue could amount to US$1.2 billion per day! At this rate, it can practically afford almost everything -- free education, healthcare, etc, and subsidies -- for its people.

But if we look at these countries closely, they have in the past few years started to come up with policies and strategies designed to prolong their reserves and diversify their income bases. In this sense, Malaysia (and PETRONAS) has had a good head start, as we have been doing this a long time.

Fuel prices in Malaysia is controlled by the Government based on a formula under the Automatic Pricing Mechanism introduced more than a couple of decades ago. It is under this mechanism that the complex calculation of prices is made, based on the actual cost of petrol or diesel, the operating costs, margin for dealers, margin for retail oil companies (including PETRONAS Dagangan Bhd) and the balancing number of duty or subsidy. No retail oil companies or dealers actually make money from the hike of the fuel prices. Oil companies pay for the products at market prices, but have to sell low, so the Government reimburses the difference -- thus subsidy.

Subsidy as a concept is OK as long as it benefits the really deserving segment of the population. But there has to be a limit to how much and how long the Government should bear and sustain subsidy. An environment where prices are kept artificially low indefinitely will not do anyone any good. That's why countries like Indonesia are more pro-active in removing subsidies. Even Vietnam (which is a socialist country, by the way) is selling fuel at market prices.


PETRONAS & TRANSPARENCY
5) I feel I also need to say something on the allegation that PETRONAS is not transparent in terms of its accounts, business transactions etc.

PETRONAS is first and foremost a company, operating under the rules and regulations of the authorities including the Registrar of Companies, and the Securities Commission and Bursa Malaysia for its listed four subsidiaries (PETRONAS Dagangan Bhd, PETRONAS Gas Bhd, MISC Bhd and KLCC Property Holdings Bhd.

PETRONAS the holding company produces annual reports which are made to whomever wants them, and are distributed to many parties and places; including to the library at the Parliament House for perusal and reading pleasure of all Yang Berhormat MPs (if they care to read). PETRONAS also makes the annual report available on its website, for those who bother to look. The accounts are duly audited.

The website also contains a lot of useful information, if people really care to find out. Although PETRONAS is not listed on Bursa Malaysia, for all intents and purposes, it could be considered a listed entity as its bonds and financial papers are traded overseas. This requires scrutiny from investors, and from rating agencies such as Standard & Poor and Moody's.


BOYCOTT PETRONAS?
6) The last time I checked, this is still a democratic country, where people are free to spend their money wherever they like.

For those who like to see more of the money that they spend go back to the local economy and benefiting their fellow Malaysians, perhaps they should consider sticking to local products or companies.

For those who like to see that the money they spend go back to foreign shareholders of the foreign companies overseas, they should continue buying foreign products.


FINAL WORD (FOR TODAY)
I'm sorry this is rather long, but I just have to convey it. I hope this would help some of you out there understand something. The oil and gas industry, apart from being very capital intensive, is also very complex and volatile. I'm learning new things almost every single day.


Appreciate if you could help to forward this response to as many contacts as possible to counter the subversive proposal out there.

Thank you.

Tan, Boon Hua
Geoscientist
Peninsular Malaysia Gas Fields Development Project
PETRONAS Carigali Sdn Bhd
Level 17, Tower 2
PETRONAS Twin Towers,
KLCC 50088 Kuala Lumpur
__________________________________________
Tel : +603 - 2331 9307
Fax : +603 - 2331 5633
E-mail : tan_boonhua@petronas.com.my

Yong:The Scientism Of Politics

Hantu Laut

It is now confirmed that the President of SAPP Yong Teck Lee is going for broke.It is now a matter of make it or break it.

He said it was the Supreme Council decision to support a vote of no confidence against Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to be tabled on Monday and Anwar Ibrahim has acknowledged that he has now 2 more MPs in his pocket.

However, SAPP Deputy President Raymond Tan said it was totally wrong for Yong to say it was an unanimous decision, not all Supreme Council members agree, there were opposing views.

Tan who is Deputy Chief Minister and Au Kam Wah, the Assemblyman for Elopura walked out of the conference room and said he wouldn't have walked out if he was in agreement with Yong.He said Yong just wanted everybody to agree with him without giving others a chance to express their views.

Some sources say Yong has planned this and is doing it partly to gain sympathy from the Chinese community as he had earlier been informed by those in the SLDB corruption case that one of the accused would mention his name in court as one of the recipients of commissions from the illicit sales of SLDB shares, making it looks like he is being victimised by Abdullah. The timing was perfect and it was a very clever move on his part as most Malaysians would believe him rather than Abdullah,whose popularity is at the lower end of the scale at the moment.

Yong's scintillating performance includes waiting to be sacked which will get him more sympathy from the people. In Malaysians politics and more often than not sympathy always go to the underdogs.

Although the motion of no confidence has little chance of getting through, Yong's MPs must introduce it to make sure they are sacked from the BN, to enable them to switch side to Anwar's Pakatan Rakyat.Since the failure of the motion is imminent there is no need to speculate on how DAP and PAS going to vote, as both parties have stated their principle against party hopping.

It is not known yet how many SAPP elected representatives will ditch the party as a show of protest against the decision.

Politic is not a scientism that has hard-and-fast rules, anything can happen.

Yong:The Monkey King

Hantu Laut

The President of SAPP, Yong Teck Lee has announced that either one of his two MPs would initiate a vote of no confidence against Abdullah when Parliament re-convene on Monday but said SAPP will remain in the BN and would let the BN decides on its fate.

This will be the first time in Malaysian history an attempt to remove a Prime Minister and a sitting government through vote of no confidence in Parliament.

Is Yong going for broke ? It appears so.

It may be a foregone conclusion that most of the opposition MPs,if not all, will support the motion.Without the support of additional MPs from BN the motion may not go through.Yong needs the support of at least 30 MPs from BN to throw Abdullah our if he already has 100% support of the oppositions.It is rumoured that PAS MPs may not participate in it.

It is common knowledge in Sabah that Yong was angry with the PM for not giving him the Sandakan parliamentary seat to contest under SAPP in the recent General Elections.The seat was given to LDP, a rival party once headed by his archrival Chong Kah Kiat, whom Yong has long standing feud with.Both were vying to be the accepted Chinese leader when Chong was still the President of LDP.

All the hullabaloo about illegal immigrants issues are just excuses.This problem has been there since Mustapha's time.Mahathir has been there for 22 years and Yong was thick in the government with him and was Chief Minister under him.Why didn't he fight tooth and nail with Mahathir to resolve the problem then?

He could have done what he accused Abdullah of not doing now when he was Chief Minister and the more powerful Mahathir was Prime Minister, who had no qualms about sending political opponents to prisons but are not prepared to send illegal immigrants away from this country.It showed that when he was in that chair Yong forgot there was a serious illegal immigrants problem in the state.

Yong also forgot there were allegations of a Project M, whatever that meant, where illegal immigrants were issued with Malaysian identity cards and allowed to vote.Some of those voters voted for him when he stood for election in the constituency that covers Likas and Pulau Gaya where thousands of this kind of voters are found.Did he complain?

Every chief minister of Sabah has failed the people on this issue but at least most of them don't go around pretending to champion the cause after they were no more in office and used it as an excuse to challenge the leadership.Leaders like him should have the guts and do the honourable thing, ask his MPs to resign and challenge the government to a by-election and prove it that he and his party have the people's support.

The illegal immigrants problem started with former Chief Minister Mustapha, with the blessings of the Federal govenment then, allowing Filipinos from the southern Philippines to enter Sabah as refugees.

During Mustapha's time no Malaysian identity cards were ever issued to them, they were given UN approved status as refugees and issued with documents known as IMM 13. The issuance of Malaysians identity cards,geniune or otherwise, can be traced to the days of Berjaya and has now exploded to unimaginable proportion.

After the fall of Berjaya, Yong played active part in politics in Sabah from being a deputy chief minister during PBS time to a chief minister under the BN and he had every chance to pursue his very noble cause of getting rid of illegal immigrants from Sabah.Former Chief Minister Chong Kah Kiat tried and failed miserably because the Federal government didn't play ball with him and at that time the all-powerful Mahathir was Prime Minister.

All previous prime ministers and chief ministers had failed the people of Sabah to provide them security and protection from the 'enemy in the midst'.None have been sincere to tackle the problem once and for all.Sabahans are now refugees in their own land because of greedy politicians like Yong and the rest of them.

What makes Yong thinks if all the previous prime ministers couldn't do what he wanted them to do, Badwai can do miracles and resolve the problem instantaneously.

I am sick to the bone listening to such pathetic and shameless talk of politicians who are rotten to the core with personal greed and pretend to champion the rights of Sabahans.

Yong is a political animal, he truly believes Anwar Ibrahim would be the next prime minister and he is preparing himself to jump on the next bandwagon and on to the next gravy train.

It's nothing but a sham and political blackmail.

"The Monkey King" is a renowned classical Chinese novel written by Wu Cheng-en .The Chinese name for the novel is "Jouney To The West".