Hantu Laut
Although, I think the Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak has the prerogative to appoint whom he is comfortable with to the Petronas Board, his choice of candidate may not be suitable this time.
Omar Mustapha may be smart in his own right but for someone who had reneged on his contractual obligations with the company before it is quite right that Petronas Board resisted his appointment.The PM should have checked this fact before he even contemplates this move.It is also a good sign that independence and good governance prevail in the company and the PM should not push his agenda to upset the management of Petronas which until today were free of any scandal.Even Abdullah during his time did not upset the status quo in Petronas probably due to the presence of Tun Mahathir there.
The job is better off given to reputable retired top civil servant, technocrats and top-notch executive from the private sector.
Najib should cast his net wider to fish for the right person based more on qualifications,trust and confidence rather than personal relation.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Who Has Brain Tumor, Musa Or Ronnie Klessen? Check It Out.
Hantu Laut
On Saturday 20 June 2009 a new blogger by the name of Ronnie Klessen wrote an article titled 'Musa inflicted with brain tumor?' Malaysia Today carried the story here. He claimed that Musa was on his way to the US seeking medical treatment and wrote:
"Coincidentally, Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre (pic) has both neurosurgery facilities and expertise. We reliably learnt that Musa is expected to leave for the United States of America (USA) for neurosurgery, at the Cleveland Clinic Brain Tumour and Neuro-Oncology Centre in Cleveland, Ohio. He's currently awaiting air space clearance from the Department of Civil Aviation of Japan and USA to fly over their air space, as well as for the landing rights. This is an international pre-requisite condition when passengers travel by their very own private jet".
The following day Sunday 21 June Musa was seen in Membakut, Sabah launching a new padi scheme on 200 hectares of idle land. The story here.
So! who has brain tumor, Musa or Ronnie Klessen?
I was told Ronnie is a PKR member.
Regurgitation without checking the fact and truth of the matter can only bring embarrassment to oneself.
Or was it dirty business as usual for those in the opposition?
On Saturday 20 June 2009 a new blogger by the name of Ronnie Klessen wrote an article titled 'Musa inflicted with brain tumor?' Malaysia Today carried the story here. He claimed that Musa was on his way to the US seeking medical treatment and wrote:
"Coincidentally, Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre (pic) has both neurosurgery facilities and expertise. We reliably learnt that Musa is expected to leave for the United States of America (USA) for neurosurgery, at the Cleveland Clinic Brain Tumour and Neuro-Oncology Centre in Cleveland, Ohio. He's currently awaiting air space clearance from the Department of Civil Aviation of Japan and USA to fly over their air space, as well as for the landing rights. This is an international pre-requisite condition when passengers travel by their very own private jet".
The following day Sunday 21 June Musa was seen in Membakut, Sabah launching a new padi scheme on 200 hectares of idle land. The story here.
So! who has brain tumor, Musa or Ronnie Klessen?
I was told Ronnie is a PKR member.
Regurgitation without checking the fact and truth of the matter can only bring embarrassment to oneself.
Or was it dirty business as usual for those in the opposition?
Monday, June 22, 2009
Petronas: If It Ain't Broken, Don't Fix It
Hantu Laut
Rumours abound that there will be changes at the top management of Petronas.Tun Dr Mahathir, adviser to Petronas when asked said he has heard so but have no idea who the person is that supposedly will replace Hassan Merican as chairman of Petronas.
News from the grapevine says Syed Hamid Albar is one such possible candidate.Is there a need to make changes when the present man had proven his capabilities and Petronas is probably the best run GLC in the whole country, free of scandal, and for a company coming from a third world is highly respected internationally.
In 2007 Financial Times identified Petronas as one of the 'new seven sisters'.These are accreditation given to the most influential and mainly state-owned national oil and gas companies from countries outside the OECD.Petronas is also on the Fortune 500 list of companies.
There is nothing wrong with Petronas.Nothing is broken.Putting a full-time politician at the top would be inviting disaster.There would be many creepy crawlies waiting at his door to enchant him and tempt him.
Before you do anything silly just think of Pertamina.
How politicians and businessmen run the company into the ground with mounting debts they were unable to pay. At each stage of the transaction chain somebody was getting a cut.The Indonesian government have to bail out the company. The bail-out doubled Indonesia's foreign debt overnight.The culprit Ibnu Sutowo, probably the most corrupted man on the face of this earth at that time was never punished and his family is now one of the richest in Indonesia.
If it ain't broken, don't fix it.
Rumours abound that there will be changes at the top management of Petronas.Tun Dr Mahathir, adviser to Petronas when asked said he has heard so but have no idea who the person is that supposedly will replace Hassan Merican as chairman of Petronas.
News from the grapevine says Syed Hamid Albar is one such possible candidate.Is there a need to make changes when the present man had proven his capabilities and Petronas is probably the best run GLC in the whole country, free of scandal, and for a company coming from a third world is highly respected internationally.
In 2007 Financial Times identified Petronas as one of the 'new seven sisters'.These are accreditation given to the most influential and mainly state-owned national oil and gas companies from countries outside the OECD.Petronas is also on the Fortune 500 list of companies.
There is nothing wrong with Petronas.Nothing is broken.Putting a full-time politician at the top would be inviting disaster.There would be many creepy crawlies waiting at his door to enchant him and tempt him.
Before you do anything silly just think of Pertamina.
How politicians and businessmen run the company into the ground with mounting debts they were unable to pay. At each stage of the transaction chain somebody was getting a cut.The Indonesian government have to bail out the company. The bail-out doubled Indonesia's foreign debt overnight.The culprit Ibnu Sutowo, probably the most corrupted man on the face of this earth at that time was never punished and his family is now one of the richest in Indonesia.
If it ain't broken, don't fix it.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Will PAS Snuggles Up To UMNO's duvet ?
Hantu Laut
Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad is opposed to the third bridge linking Johor and Singapore and unity talk between UMNO and PAS.
He has, in no uncertain term, made his feeling known that a unity government comprising only Malays is not good for the nation and he should be lauded for it.
However, looking at the position that UMNO is in now, and the lame and ineffectual MCA, MIC and Gerakan, do they have a choice?
Majority of Chinese and Indians voted for Pakatan's candidates in the 12th General Elections and needless to say the support from these two communities have faltered even further and the outcome of the 13th General Elections would be a forgone conclusion that Gerakan, MCA and MIC would be as dead as the dodo.These three parties are goners if they don't shape up now.
Instead of going out to the field to woo back their supporters the three beleaguered components of the BN are mired with infighting and leadership tussles.The excessive desire for their over-staying leaders to hang on to power, no matter what the consequence, is most appalling.
People like MIC President Samy Velu has been there longest, longer than the longest serving prime minister but still refuses to let go despite having been rejected by the people.His continued presence as President of MIC actually kills the party chance of recovering from its massive loss of support and shocking defeat.
The Indian community have rejected him and deserted the party in droves. What left of the party are losers and political stragglers hoping for miracles. In fact, the BN should have pronounced MIC and Gerakan dead.What's the point of flogging two dead horses when you know you can't depend on them to win the race.Between the two there are only 5 parliamentary seats at stake, MIC 3 and Gerakan 2.
MCA is also mired in leadership crisis and some of its leaders were implicated in the PKFZ(Port Klang Free Zone) scandal.The leaders in MCA should consider merging with Gerakan to form a bigger Chinese party if they want to take on DAP at the next general elections.It will be tough going for MCA to lure back the Chinese but miracles can and do happen sometimes.At the moment MCA has 15 parliamentary seats against DAP 28.
I agree with Mahathir that a Malay unity government is not good for the nation but politics has no hard and fast rules, it's about survival.The end justify the means.Its a case of Hobson's choice, you have many options but there is only one that can guarantee your survival.
Najib is in a dillema, his first priority is how to win the next elections.To stick to the present formula where the other partners are on their death throes or take a gamble on a new formula?
Can the Malays achieve political homogeneity ? It's a scary idea but not beyond comprehension. If you go by population and demarcation of the electoral boundaries, it is not impossible for Malays to have homogeneous political power.There are about 136-140 predominantly Malay seats throughout the nation and with some marginal seats the number could increase even more.
The non-Malay seats in the March 2008 Election are shown below:
Peninsula Malaysia
------------------------
DAP 28
MCA 15
MIC 2
Gerakan 3
PKR(non-Malay) 11
---------------------------
Total 59
Sabah
(non-Malays) 11
Sarawak
(non-Malays) 16
---------------------------
Total 86
UMNO biggest problem is in Peninsula Malaysia where the Malays are divided between PAS and UMNO with majority still in favour of UMNO.
If Sabah and Sarawak delivered the same performance as they did in March 2008 and the Malays are re-united in Peninsula than the Malays can even have two-third majority.
Although, I personally do not subscribe to such an idea and believe political power should be shared among the races, I wouldn't remotely rule out the possibility of it happening if PAS decide to abandon Pakatan Rakyat.
If PAS stays with Pakatan until the next general elections and insisted on contesting majority of Malay seats there is a likelihood it would become the dominant partner in Pakatan easing out PKR and Anwar Ibrahim chance at the premiership.
Being the leading partner PAS will take the prime spot and play the same role as UMNO now.PKR only has 20 Malays MP seats at present and 11 non-Malay seats and due to it multi-racial nature the Malays are not likely to give it more seats than PAS.
Will PAS snuggles up to UMNO's duvet?
Much depend on PAS.
Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad is opposed to the third bridge linking Johor and Singapore and unity talk between UMNO and PAS.
He has, in no uncertain term, made his feeling known that a unity government comprising only Malays is not good for the nation and he should be lauded for it.
However, looking at the position that UMNO is in now, and the lame and ineffectual MCA, MIC and Gerakan, do they have a choice?
Majority of Chinese and Indians voted for Pakatan's candidates in the 12th General Elections and needless to say the support from these two communities have faltered even further and the outcome of the 13th General Elections would be a forgone conclusion that Gerakan, MCA and MIC would be as dead as the dodo.These three parties are goners if they don't shape up now.
Instead of going out to the field to woo back their supporters the three beleaguered components of the BN are mired with infighting and leadership tussles.The excessive desire for their over-staying leaders to hang on to power, no matter what the consequence, is most appalling.
People like MIC President Samy Velu has been there longest, longer than the longest serving prime minister but still refuses to let go despite having been rejected by the people.His continued presence as President of MIC actually kills the party chance of recovering from its massive loss of support and shocking defeat.
The Indian community have rejected him and deserted the party in droves. What left of the party are losers and political stragglers hoping for miracles. In fact, the BN should have pronounced MIC and Gerakan dead.What's the point of flogging two dead horses when you know you can't depend on them to win the race.Between the two there are only 5 parliamentary seats at stake, MIC 3 and Gerakan 2.
MCA is also mired in leadership crisis and some of its leaders were implicated in the PKFZ(Port Klang Free Zone) scandal.The leaders in MCA should consider merging with Gerakan to form a bigger Chinese party if they want to take on DAP at the next general elections.It will be tough going for MCA to lure back the Chinese but miracles can and do happen sometimes.At the moment MCA has 15 parliamentary seats against DAP 28.
I agree with Mahathir that a Malay unity government is not good for the nation but politics has no hard and fast rules, it's about survival.The end justify the means.Its a case of Hobson's choice, you have many options but there is only one that can guarantee your survival.
Najib is in a dillema, his first priority is how to win the next elections.To stick to the present formula where the other partners are on their death throes or take a gamble on a new formula?
Can the Malays achieve political homogeneity ? It's a scary idea but not beyond comprehension. If you go by population and demarcation of the electoral boundaries, it is not impossible for Malays to have homogeneous political power.There are about 136-140 predominantly Malay seats throughout the nation and with some marginal seats the number could increase even more.
The non-Malay seats in the March 2008 Election are shown below:
Peninsula Malaysia
------------------------
DAP 28
MCA 15
MIC 2
Gerakan 3
PKR(non-Malay) 11
---------------------------
Total 59
Sabah
(non-Malays) 11
Sarawak
(non-Malays) 16
---------------------------
Total 86
UMNO biggest problem is in Peninsula Malaysia where the Malays are divided between PAS and UMNO with majority still in favour of UMNO.
If Sabah and Sarawak delivered the same performance as they did in March 2008 and the Malays are re-united in Peninsula than the Malays can even have two-third majority.
Although, I personally do not subscribe to such an idea and believe political power should be shared among the races, I wouldn't remotely rule out the possibility of it happening if PAS decide to abandon Pakatan Rakyat.
If PAS stays with Pakatan until the next general elections and insisted on contesting majority of Malay seats there is a likelihood it would become the dominant partner in Pakatan easing out PKR and Anwar Ibrahim chance at the premiership.
Being the leading partner PAS will take the prime spot and play the same role as UMNO now.PKR only has 20 Malays MP seats at present and 11 non-Malay seats and due to it multi-racial nature the Malays are not likely to give it more seats than PAS.
Will PAS snuggles up to UMNO's duvet?
Much depend on PAS.
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