Pakatan's Phantasm

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The Pakatan rumour mills are working overtime.Here's something that the Pakatan people have that the people in UMNO don't have. They are either busy insulting the non-Malays or busy fighting among themselves to jockey for positions in the upcoming party elections.They have forgotten they have a nation to run.Apology always come too late.The PM say one thing, the DPM try to do damage control.

Fact or fiction, doesn't matter,some people would well believe it.

Here's something from Malaysian Insider that I would leave to your wild imagination.

Swirling rumours as September 16 looms

By Shannon Teoh and Adib Zalkapli

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 3 - An anonymous text message purporting to highlight key dates leading up to the plans by the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) alliance to take power by Sept 16 , has begun making the rounds, but opposition leaders have denied being responsible for the message.

Ending with the words "from pkr", the message claims that some Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties from Sabah and Sarawak will begin an exodus from the ruling coalition by Friday.

And by Saturday, BN parties from Peninsular Malaysia , with the exception of MCA and MIC, will also signal their exit from the coalition, the message alleges.

The text message goes on to state that 10 unnamed BN MPs will then join PR parties by Sept 7.

By Sept 10, which is next Wednesday, the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi will have resigned, paving the way for Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to fulfil his pledge to take over the Federal Government by Sept 16.

PKR vice-president R. Sivarasa disclaimed responsibility for the message, pointing out that "anonymous SMSes shouldn't be taken seriously," and that the details and the sort of ideas listed in the message did not give it any credibility.

"People have been enthusiastic about Sept 16, so maybe this is born out of someone's exuberance, but I wouldn't treat it with any credence. It's not like there's been an avalanche of such messages," he added.

Influential Sabah Umno MP Datuk Anifah Aman, who has been continuously mentioned in crossover speculation, called the text message "fictitious" and said that "anybody can have a dream but they are dreaming too far."

He said that among East Malaysian MPs, "nobody really cares about Sept 16 because we are busy visiting our respective constituencies during the fasting month and preparing our debates for the budget."

Anifah also poured scorn on the takeover plans.

"They are always crying out for democracy, transparency and justice, but is this the way? What will people think of them going through the backdoor? That's not democratic anymore."

Anwar, PKR's presumptive candidate for prime minister, has continuously asserted his plans to form the federal government by Sept 16 and there has been recent talk of entire BN component parties crossing over.

There has also been speculation that Anwar is seeking an audience with the King, although he has responded to this by saying "not yet.Read more.......

Anwar's Cheap Offering To The Froggies

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Anwar Ibrahim is all out to lure lawmakers from Sabah and Sarawak with cheap offerings of sentiment and psychology.

Who would have thought he can come up with such an idea of making 16th Sept a holiday in Pakatan-held states to show Sabahans and Sarawakians that he truly cares about the two states, which have in the past asked the Federal government to make Sept 16 as Merdeka day and a national holiday.Sabah used Sept 16 as the birthday of the Yang Di Pertuan Negeri to make it a public holiday.

The Merdeka day on 31st August is fallacious.Sabah,Sarawak,Singapore and the then
Federation of Malaya got together and formed a new nation called Malaysia on 16th Sept 1963.Singapore was kicked out in 1965 because of Lee Kuan Yew 's insistence of Malaysian Malaysia, a demand the Malays could not accept.

In all probability he may have problem getting those MPs from MCA,Gerakan and UMNO in Peninsula to join him and are putting all his bets on Sabah and Sarawak, an established and well-known 'katak' states.

His procurer Jefferey Kitingan ( the king of frogs)

has promised him 13 kataks from the 'land below the wind' where the paddy fields are awash with these tailless leaping amphibians.In the deep jungle they have many other species that perched on lower branches of trees and ready to leapfrog at the slightest disturbance.

The real danger to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi are not the frogs in the paddy fields or those on the trees, they are in Parliament, where only honourable men should sit---the 'yang berhormat'.

Anwar Ibrahim is a specialist in demolition of government, an art he acquired during his heyday in UMNO.The making of UMNO government in Sabah was partly his handiwork.


In 1994 he and his conspirators in PBS demolished democratically elected PBS government and established UMNO in Sabah in coalition with the conspirators' new parties and formed BN in Sabah with a new formula, the rotation of the chief minister among the major races, a perfect formula of divide and rule mooted by the then Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad.

As in 1994, the first renegade was the equally charismatic and charming Yong Tat Lee, who, through his 2 MPs would be joining Anwar to remove the Prime Minister through a vote of no confidence.

Will Anwar succeed in getting the frogs to jump over for him to take over the government and wreck vengeance on those who did him harm before ?

Let's wait for D-Day - 16th Sept.

Is Pak Lah Overspending Our Money ?

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The 2009 Budget saw a total allocation of RM207.9 billion. A sum of RM154.2 for operating expenditure and RM53.7 for development expenditure.Although it is normal for budget to increase as the economy grow with higher GDP, excessively high increase in expenditure reflects imprudent fiscal policy.

In 2004, Mahathir's last budget before he stepped down, the operating expenditure was RM80.5 billion and development expenditure of RM31.9 billion.Since handing over to Pak Lah there was a whopping increase of 92% of operating expenditure over period of 5 years, an annualised increase of 18.4%.In comparison the increase in development expenditure was only 68.3% for the same period.

The excessively high increase in the operating expenditure is a worrying sign that there are still high inefficiency,indiscriminate spending, corruption and grossly overstaffed civil service.

In 2006 Malaysia had 1.1 million civil servants, the highest in the region.It would not be wrong to guess that this figure would have increased even more by now.

The total manpower in the civil service shown here doesn't include those employed under government linked companies(GLC) and those employed by states government departments.

We have the highest number of civil servants per population as compared with other countries in the region.

The government have not made any effort to cut down on unnecessary employment and expenditure.All talks but nothing concrete had been done on the ground to bring about the desired reforms.Efficiency and financial probity is still lacking in this homogeneous and overstocked civil service.

Go to any government department and see for yourself how busy our civil servants are and if you need to see any senior officers or chief of department, more often than not, you are told they are either very busy or have gone out for meetings.Ironically, some of those meetings are held on golf courses.

It is also appalling to note the lack of officious determination to correct the ignominious act of cronyism and nepotism in awarding contracts.Many projects had fallen by the waysides or rooted in problems due to this method of giving out contracts.

A perfect example of Murphy's law,where "if anything can go wrong,it will" and not only once but repetitively, is the sad state of affair of the Parliament house, where the roof which has a perpetual leaky bladder has the habit of pissing down on the 'yang berhormats' every now and then.

The total lack of accountability is appalling.There is no semblance of shame from those that have benefited from this most shameful fiasco and no one have been hauled up to take full responsibility.

The cost of refurbishment have been astronomical with initial allocation of RM41.8 million in 2001.Three years later, after completion, the costs had double.In April 2005 parliamentary proceedings were brought to a halt when leak in the roof disrupted power and communications system in the august House.A month later the PWD informed the House Standing Committee the total cost had ballooned to RM99 million.To add salt to the wound and a disgrace to the government another round of leaks occurred in May 2007. Then in May this year water dripped from the air-conditioning vent after a downpour.

Whether we should be amused or angry with what follows after the last episode is food for thought.

Works Minister Datuk Mohd Zin Mohamed said he would present a Cabinet paper to Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Abdul Aziz for a total rehabilitation of Parliament’s mechanical and electrical systems.

He said it was not a leak but water seepage caused by back flow from the rainwater down-pipe. “As far as the roof slab is concerned, there is no leakage,” he said.

Even more laughable is Public Works Department deputy director-general N. Selvanayagam who said the 45-year-old rainwater down-pipe could not cope with the downpour as its bore was smaller than its original size due to sedimentation.

You mean they didn't change the 45-year old rainwater down pipe and renew the mechanical and electrical systems.Where have the RM99 million gone to? Would a brand new Parliament house cost more than that ?It seems the RM99 million was not spent to refurbish the building but to buy a host of problems and send someone laughing all the way to the bank.

The Parliament house is just one of the many financial blunders that have made mockery of the government.

In Sabah,a couple of years ago a federal project for RM200 million to build the GOF(General Operation Forces) headquarters was abandoned before it even got started.It was given to an UMNO man rumoured to be a legalised illegal immigrant from the southern Philippines.The project collapsed but the man have collected enough money to buy 2 new Ferrari and a few more wives.One of the Ferrari was rumoured to be given to Siti Nurhaliza for her hand in marriage but the pretty lass was smart enough to reject the offer.

There are many other equally distasteful stories that would take too many pages to bring out of the twilight zones.

I think I'll save it for another day.

Don’t knock the economy — it’s fine

Hantu Laut

Malaysian Insider is getting popular as an alternative and independent news portal.I have followed this news blog from its inception to its growing popularity. A news portal with balanced and non-partisan reporting.

The left-wing Malaysia Today (unfortunately blocked by the government but you still can be accessed at http://mt.m2day.org/2008/) and Malaysiakini(by subscription only) which have been around for much longer are more popular due to the increasing unpopularity of the government and the people desire for political and social changes.

Below is an article on the state of the economy:

Don’t knock the economy — it’s fine

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 1 — Contrary to all the pessimism, the Malaysian economy is far better than most people give it credit for. The reasons for pessimism are understandable. Global oil prices are surging, inflation is persistently high, the stock market is torpid, the sub-prime problem continues to bedevil Western financial systems, there is political uncertainty and Malaysians generally do not feel good about the country’s economic health.

The concerns could be misplaced. For the first half of 2008, Malaysia’s gross domestic product grew at a very reasonable 6.7 per cent. The second quarter’s trade surplus clocked in at a whopping RM40.8 billion compared to the first quarter’s RM27 billion. Gross exports grew at a healthy 21 per cent although it was admittedly due to the high prices of commodities like oil and palm oil. Even so, manufacturing exports grew 12 per cent, which isn’t half bad. And domestic demand grew 8 per cent, slightly lower than the 10 per cent growth experienced during the first half.

Fundamentally, the Malaysian economy remains resilient. In the past, Malaysian GDP growth used to track the leading indicator of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries; in effect, when the OECD leading indicator plunged, Malaysian GDP growth followed suit. That is no longer the case with Malaysian growth rates remaining at between 5 and 6 per cent even as the OECD leading indicator fell, as evinced in recent years. This is, in part, due to the country’s luck and the high prices of its natural resources like rubber, palm oil and petroleum. Another factor is the emergence of tourism as a significant growth sector: last year, visitor arrivals hit 21 million, a new record high.Read more.....

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