Hantu Laut
Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin deriding PAS by saying that the BN had not only achieved but exceeded its benevolence as a welfare state is false and pure histrionic.
Either the DPM do not understand the definition of welfare state or he is trying to bluff his way thinking Malaysians would swallow his unfounded claim hook, line and sinker.
Giving across the board subsidies to the general population does not make you a welfare state if that what the DPM think welfare state is all about.You can't call your country a welfare state if there still exists abject poverty.Malaysia has pockets of abject poverty scattered all over the country.You read about them in the news quite regularly.Maybe, the DPM only read political news and missed this social scourge that still afflict the nation.
A welfare state has the responsibility for the well being of its citizens by ensuring minimum standard of living for everyone.Most Western nations are welfare states because they provide the minimum comfort and standard of living for its citizens.
A welfare state would make available universal free education and medical care, insurance against sickness, disability and unemployment, income supplement and old age pension.Malaysia, by any definition is not a welfare state.Its housing programme for the poor is pathetic resulting in squatter's colonies sprouting all over the country.
PAS proposal is good but can they actually implement it when they took power.It needs a lot of financial resources.The only way is to remove all subsidies for the general population and use part of the savings for welfare purposes.
The present system of subsidies practised by the current government is an unfair system.Its benefits the wealthy and the middle class much more than the lower income and the poor, particularly and food and fuel subsidy which should be scrapped all together and spent the money on providing welfare benefits for the poor, old age citizens and good public transportation system in every major cities.
The lower income do not wish to own a car but some are forced to buy one because of the poor public transport.The government's policy of putting a car in every household is wrong, it's a burden on the poor and lower income group, when they have to pay through their noses for a car that could have cost much less if the protectionist policy is removed.
Owning a car eats major part of your income if you are in the lower income bracket.Even some middle income living in the city find it hard to make ends meet.
It is common in Malaysia for someone earning RM700-800 a month to buy a car.After paying the monthly instalment and fuel they have no money left to maintain the car which is one of the reasons for the high road fatalities in this country.
Let's hear what Muhyiddin means by saying Malaysia is already a welfare state.I hope he can explain in details.
For PAS I hope it is not a political gimmick to fish for votes.
Nik Aziz here.
Friday, June 10, 2011
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Crowded Waters
BY ABRAHAM M. DENMARK
For the last two years, a quiet showdown has played out over the South China Sea, the body of water bordered by China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei, the Philippines, and Taiwan. This little-known body of water is of vast strategic importance: Fully one-third of the world's maritime trade traverses the South China Sea, and some optimistic estimates of its untapped stores of oil and natural gas would make it a second Persian Gulf. The South China Sea is also a major highway linking the oil fields of the Middle East and the factories of East Asia, with more than 80 percent of China's oil imports (and large percentages for Japan and South Korea as well) flowing over its waters. As influential Asia-watcher Robert D. Kaplan has put it, the South China Sea's importance to the region makes it the "Asian Mediterranean."
Due to these waters' importance, several countries -- Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam -- claim sovereignty over part of these waters. Yet China claims rights of sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea, as detailed in the "9-dash line" included in its submission to the United Nations. While tension in these waters has waxed and waned for several decades, recent years have seen an uptick in tensions. Starting in 2009, two discernable rounds of geopolitical intrigue can be identified, and last week likely marked the beginning of round three.
The first round began in March 2009, when Chinese fishing vessels harassed the U.S. surveillance ship Impeccable in international waters, 75 miles off the coast of China's Hainan Island. Three months later, a Chinese submarine collided (apparently accidentally) with the towed sonar array of the USS John S. McCain near Subic Bay off the coast of the Philippines. Other aggressive moves followed, including reports that Beijing had declared the South China Sea to be a "core interest," putting it on par with Taiwan and Xinjiang as fundamental strategic priorities. China's assertiveness was noted around the world and caused a strong reaction.
Round two. In July 2010, the United States and much of Southeast Asia pushed back. At a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum in Hanoi, 12 Southeast Asian countries complained of Chinese assertiveness in the South China Sea, and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared freedom of navigation within the South China Sea to be a national interest of the United States. China initially reacted harshly to this pushback, with Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi reportedly declaring Clinton's remarks in Hanoi to be "an attack on China" and not so subtly reminding his Singaporean counterpart that "China is a big country and other countries are small countries and that is just a fact." A subsequent statement by the Chinese military reiterated China's "indisputable sovereignty" over 1.3 million square miles of the South China Sea -- which much of Southeast Asia naturally disputed.Read more.
Would You Want Them To Lead The Nation?
Hantu Laut
Would you want the party and its leaders to lead the nation? They can't even get their act together and try to hide their failure to pay rents on the premises they rented.
Something so trivial and yet too big to handle.They don't even know who is the actual landlord.
Read!
PETALING JAYA: In the latest twist to the PKR headquarters saga, the building located in Tropicana here will not go under the hammer tomorrow.
Would you want the party and its leaders to lead the nation? They can't even get their act together and try to hide their failure to pay rents on the premises they rented.
Something so trivial and yet too big to handle.They don't even know who is the actual landlord.
Read!
PETALING JAYA: In the latest twist to the PKR headquarters saga, the building located in Tropicana here will not go under the hammer tomorrow.
FMT learnt that on June 6, the building’s “real” landlord and beneficial owner Butiran Nyata Sdn Bhd obtained an ex-parte injunction against Ainb Tech Malaysia Sdn Bhd and Affin Bank from carrying out the auction until the inter-parte hearing is disposed of on June 27.
Previously, party leaders named Ainb-Tech as the building’s landlord, who they said failed to service the bank loan.
“PKR leaders, including treasurer William Leong, secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution Ismail and vice-president Tian Chua, got their facts wrong,” said a source.
“The lease agreement is between Butiran Nyata and PKR. The bank is taking action against Ainb-Tech and not Butiran Nyata,” he added.
Ainb Tech was the original owner of the building and sold it to Butiran Nyata in 2008.
The latest information confirmed an earlier FMT report where a party insider claimed that PKR leaders named a different landlord from the one on the lease agreement.
“They don’t seem to have a clue about the lease details of the premises they are occupying. I don’t think they know who they are renting the building from and even how much money they have to pay for rental,” he had said.
The party’s five-storey headquarters in Merchant Square was scheduled to be auctioned off at the auctioneer’s office in Brickfields tomorrow afternoon.
PKR entered into a five-year lease with the landlord beginning July 2008 for RM20,000 per month. However, the party only paid rental until November 2008 resulting in arrears of RM600,000. Read more.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Rebranding of PAS, Who Is The Biggest Loser?
Hantu Laut
The results of the recent PAS party elections showed that PAS has discarded its Islamic tag kicking out the ulamas from its top leadership in order to better spread its influence among non-Muslims and other bumiputras.
DAP's rising popularity and unprecedented success in the recent Sarawak elections has given PAS members the inspiration and realization that using the Islamic robe may not go down well with non-Muslims, urbanised Malays and bumiputras of Sabah and Sarawak.It is time to exchange the Islamic robe for a more secular attire.
PAS learned very fast from the recent Sarawak state elections.Its Islamic credentials struck fear in the hearts of East Malaysians.The two states has strong Christian population.Its performance in the Sarawak elections was disastrous. With its new image it can now cast a wider net in the two East Malaysian states using the Erdogen ( Oxford Dictionary should include this noun in its next edition) name tag.
Who would be the biggest loser with PAS new cosmetic makeup?
Why cosmetic? Because behind the new image lurks the leopard with the same spot, the influential syura council is still dominated by the ulamas.The ulamas can still make a come back when time is ripe for them to do so.
If PAS came out the biggest winner collecting the most number of parliamentary seats in the 13th General Elections than the biggest loser would be Anwar Ibrahim who would lose his chance of becoming prime minister.The premiership would either go to Hadi Awang or DAP's favourite horse, the liberal minded Mohammad Sabu also popularly known as Mat Sabu.
As former Prime Minister Tun Mahathir Mohammad wrote in his blog posting that the biggest winner is not PAS but DAP and Karpal Singh who managed to convert PAS to drop its Islamic tag and take the secular road.Karpal Singh has won the day and he needs not die to allow PAS to govern the nation.
DAP, as the second biggest party emerging from the 13th GE (General Elections) would have undue influence on who would be prime minister from the PAS stable.PKR would be the most junior partner in the coalition if Pakatan could muster enough seats to form the government. Anwar would not be able to demand the premiership to be given to him.
How do conservative Malays view PAS new image?
Do not rule out the possibility that PAS new image may actually works against it and works in favour of UMNO.
PAS may gain from some non-Muslims votes but may lose greater part of its Malay votes if conservative Malays deem supporting PAS is supporting DAP to greater height and political power and weakening of the Malay political power.Ardent DAP supporters would vote for PAS candidates in the hope of strengthening DAP grip in the coalition government if it materialised.
The March 2008 General Elections and the recent Sarawak polls are testimonies of how powerful the Chinese can be if they took a united stand.In its entire existence DAP has not seen its political fortunes rising to a dizzying height, capturing Penang for itself and powerful coalition partner in Selangor and Perak when Perak was under Pakatan. It grabbed almost all seats under the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur.In Sarawak elections it won 12 out of 15 seats contested.It's due to get solid block of the Chinese votes in the 13th GE decimating MCA and Gerakan.
I would not speculate on the judgement of Anwar's sodomy trail.It can go both ways.I expect the trail would drag on until after the 13th GE.The BN would be in imminent danger of losing the elections if Anwar is incarcerated before the general elections.As it is Anwar's influence has diminished somehow but sending him to prison would make him a hero and precipitates the people's anger.
If UMNO leaders think sending Anwar to prison would lessen Pakatan's chance of winning the elections they are mighty wrong.Anwar may be the devil he is but majority of Malaysians and even the holier than thou PAS leaders and supporters believed in his innocence.Anwar is also the link between PAS and DAP. Without his political manoeuvring the partners deep-seated differences could derail the coalition.
PAS has yet to be accepted in the East Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak which would rather stay with the devil they know.Sabahans and Sarawakians biggest fear, particularly the Christians, is if PAS become the biggest partner in Pakatan taking over UMNO's role.The recent re-branding of PAS failed to excite the East Malaysians.The results of the 12th GE was a telling sign why Pakatan did not do well in Sabah and Sarawak.
Except for the DAP which will gain grounds in Sabah and Sarawak in the 13th GE, the other partners, PKR and PAS will not do well.I expect the KDM in Sabah and the Dayaks in Sarawak would stay put in BN.
The cold war in UMNO Sabah would also have a bearing on how the KDM would vote. If Najib's nominee Shafie Apdal stands in a state seat in the 13th GE than he is destined to be the chief minister replacing Musa Aman.There are talks that the KDM leaders are not in favour of Shafie after what happened during Mustapha's time and that there would be a new influx of immigrants using the back door.The story may have no bearing at all but the fear against illegal immigrants is real and more entranced in the KDM people.Najib needs to chose his candidates very carefully.
UMNO should not fear PAS new image, they could use it to their advantage if they know how.
The results of the recent PAS party elections showed that PAS has discarded its Islamic tag kicking out the ulamas from its top leadership in order to better spread its influence among non-Muslims and other bumiputras.
DAP's rising popularity and unprecedented success in the recent Sarawak elections has given PAS members the inspiration and realization that using the Islamic robe may not go down well with non-Muslims, urbanised Malays and bumiputras of Sabah and Sarawak.It is time to exchange the Islamic robe for a more secular attire.
PAS learned very fast from the recent Sarawak state elections.Its Islamic credentials struck fear in the hearts of East Malaysians.The two states has strong Christian population.Its performance in the Sarawak elections was disastrous. With its new image it can now cast a wider net in the two East Malaysian states using the Erdogen ( Oxford Dictionary should include this noun in its next edition) name tag.
Who would be the biggest loser with PAS new cosmetic makeup?
Why cosmetic? Because behind the new image lurks the leopard with the same spot, the influential syura council is still dominated by the ulamas.The ulamas can still make a come back when time is ripe for them to do so.
If PAS came out the biggest winner collecting the most number of parliamentary seats in the 13th General Elections than the biggest loser would be Anwar Ibrahim who would lose his chance of becoming prime minister.The premiership would either go to Hadi Awang or DAP's favourite horse, the liberal minded Mohammad Sabu also popularly known as Mat Sabu.
As former Prime Minister Tun Mahathir Mohammad wrote in his blog posting that the biggest winner is not PAS but DAP and Karpal Singh who managed to convert PAS to drop its Islamic tag and take the secular road.Karpal Singh has won the day and he needs not die to allow PAS to govern the nation.
DAP, as the second biggest party emerging from the 13th GE (General Elections) would have undue influence on who would be prime minister from the PAS stable.PKR would be the most junior partner in the coalition if Pakatan could muster enough seats to form the government. Anwar would not be able to demand the premiership to be given to him.
How do conservative Malays view PAS new image?
Do not rule out the possibility that PAS new image may actually works against it and works in favour of UMNO.
PAS may gain from some non-Muslims votes but may lose greater part of its Malay votes if conservative Malays deem supporting PAS is supporting DAP to greater height and political power and weakening of the Malay political power.Ardent DAP supporters would vote for PAS candidates in the hope of strengthening DAP grip in the coalition government if it materialised.
The March 2008 General Elections and the recent Sarawak polls are testimonies of how powerful the Chinese can be if they took a united stand.In its entire existence DAP has not seen its political fortunes rising to a dizzying height, capturing Penang for itself and powerful coalition partner in Selangor and Perak when Perak was under Pakatan. It grabbed almost all seats under the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur.In Sarawak elections it won 12 out of 15 seats contested.It's due to get solid block of the Chinese votes in the 13th GE decimating MCA and Gerakan.
I would not speculate on the judgement of Anwar's sodomy trail.It can go both ways.I expect the trail would drag on until after the 13th GE.The BN would be in imminent danger of losing the elections if Anwar is incarcerated before the general elections.As it is Anwar's influence has diminished somehow but sending him to prison would make him a hero and precipitates the people's anger.
If UMNO leaders think sending Anwar to prison would lessen Pakatan's chance of winning the elections they are mighty wrong.Anwar may be the devil he is but majority of Malaysians and even the holier than thou PAS leaders and supporters believed in his innocence.Anwar is also the link between PAS and DAP. Without his political manoeuvring the partners deep-seated differences could derail the coalition.
PAS has yet to be accepted in the East Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak which would rather stay with the devil they know.Sabahans and Sarawakians biggest fear, particularly the Christians, is if PAS become the biggest partner in Pakatan taking over UMNO's role.The recent re-branding of PAS failed to excite the East Malaysians.The results of the 12th GE was a telling sign why Pakatan did not do well in Sabah and Sarawak.
Except for the DAP which will gain grounds in Sabah and Sarawak in the 13th GE, the other partners, PKR and PAS will not do well.I expect the KDM in Sabah and the Dayaks in Sarawak would stay put in BN.
The cold war in UMNO Sabah would also have a bearing on how the KDM would vote. If Najib's nominee Shafie Apdal stands in a state seat in the 13th GE than he is destined to be the chief minister replacing Musa Aman.There are talks that the KDM leaders are not in favour of Shafie after what happened during Mustapha's time and that there would be a new influx of immigrants using the back door.The story may have no bearing at all but the fear against illegal immigrants is real and more entranced in the KDM people.Najib needs to chose his candidates very carefully.
UMNO should not fear PAS new image, they could use it to their advantage if they know how.
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