Doggoned MP Bung Mokhtar, MAS Is Not Worth Crying For

Hantu Laut

Does he know anything about doing business? 

Can he interpret a "Balance Sheet" or read and make sense of "P&L" account statement, or understand what "PE" ratio is, or what is meant when a company is "highly geared" ? Has he any idea what is quick ratio/acid test or what are the negative aspects of "LBO" and what "insider trading" are?

I am sure this kampong bully who made it to the august house do not understand the intricacies of the corporate world.
Just because some smart sounding alecs and clueless opposition leaders and equally clueless bloggers criticised the share swap between the two companies, politically motivated and out of envy rather than concerned for financial probity. 

Envy, because that Indian(Sri Lankan, if you wish, a good Ceylonese friend of mine refused to be called Indian, preferring to be called Jaffnese, which he thinks is more exotic) wiz-kid can do what they can't even dream of, let alone doing it. 

Bung Mokhtar's grandstanding here.

Tony Fernandez is an icon of corporate Malaysia, a true entrepreneur, rag to riches story that one should emulate and be proud of. He has done more for this country than some of the asses in our august house.

From opposition leaders with politically motivated agenda, the dickhead leaders of MAS Union, to this hillbilly from Sabah, I suggest you know your subject first before you open your big mouth. MAS is a public listed company, anyone can buy into it.

Business is not run on emotion or sentiment, it's fuelled by money, the more the merrier.

Get it into your thick head, MAS is a very sick company, a cash guzzling monster ran by incompetent people. 

When it was wholly owned by the government the accounts were never published publicly, so we have no way to gauge its performance then, keeping the people in the dark and it was taxpayer's money that kept it going.

We only come to know the state of its health and the incompetence of its management after it went public. The government should wash its hand off this sick baby, either privatise the airline or close it down and let free enterprise takes over the airline business in this country.

Air Asia has done more for air travel in this country than MAS ever did.It has made air travel affordable to the poor and low income group.

Unfortunately, MAS has still not woken up to its mistakes, the management is still fast asleep and they still have the highest fare among airlines in this region.They are only interested in winning stupid awards like "finest 1st class cabin service" and so forth.

While other airlines reduced fares to get bigger business volume, MAS is only interested in maintaining its "haute couture" image, which it can hardly afford.The only way it can survive is to sack half the workforce. Tony Fernandez and the new board should do just that.

To give you an idea on how incompetent those running the airline, I would like to show some online fares of various airlines from Kuala Lumpur to London.

I booked for my family of 4 adults and 2 children lowest fare of no less a premier and much superior airline than MAS on exactly the same dates.The difference is shocking.

MAS fares are an airline death wish.

Below are fare comparisons:

Adults 4, children 2. (London/KL Return)

MAS:MYR62,990

SIA:MYR22,934

EMIRATES:MYR27,264

ETIHAD:MYR26,984

KLM:MYR23,814

All are full-frills airlines. SIA is using Airbus A380 and MAS using its ageing B747 -200 and 400.

Those who think so great of MAS better think again.Just look at the prices. 

All the other airlines fares are pretty close, which means, they understand competition, while MAS is still sitting on its laurel waiting for Santa Claus to save the airline.

Tony Fernandez has a track record of turning a loss making 2-plane airline formerly owned by the government, which he bought for a song and a huge debt and turned it into the pride of the nation. The biggest low cost carrier in Asia, making air travel a reality for the ordinary people.

What has Bung Mokhtar and all the bumiputras, who ran MAS have to show the world what good they have done for this country.

People who lives in glass houses should not throw stones.

He is a coward using parliamentary immunity to shield himself from libel action. 

He should repeat what he said outside Parliament.

MACC told: Probe Shafie's projects

MACC told: Probe Shafie's projects Daily Express:Published on: Sunday, November 13, 2011 Kota Kinabalu: The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has been urged to investigate alleged irregularities in the rural development projects in Sabah awarded through the Federal Ministry of Rural and Regional Development. DAP Member of Parliament Dr Hiew King Cheu claimed the irregularities involved 49 projects, which were part of the 209 rural development projects awarded by the Ministry for implementation between the period of 2011 and 2012. The lowest contract sum was RM7.7 million and the highest sum was RM41.7 million. Speaking to reporters, Saturday, Hiew said a bulk of these contracts involved rural water and power supply projects covering various parts of Sabah, from Pulau Banggi to Sipitang. Hiew claimed that all the 49 rural development projects totaling RM1.3 billion were 1,500 per cent or 15 times higher than the normal contract price. "It is ridiculously overpriced," he exclaimed. Only 129 of the 209 rural development projects awarded had been announced. On top of that, most of these projects, which were either invited tenders, negotiated tenders, or directly awarded, which he claimed were not properly done through the Tender Board. "Most of the companies awarded these projects are RM2 companies and some of the contractors involved are found to be directly linked to certain senior BN/Umno politicians from Sabah," he alleged. Hiew said a careful study of the detailed tender documents provided by an insider indicated that the lowest tender did not get the job, but someone with a higher tender price of almost 1,500 per cent from the lowest bidder gets the job. For example, he said the "Rural Power Supply Project for the Connection of Power Grid No.1" (for 2011 - 2012) was awarded with a price of RM41,736,809.77 and the lowest tender price was only RM7,775,000.00, with a difference of RM33,961,809.77. While the "Hybrid Solar Power System" for the Semporna islands was awarded at a tender price of RM95,282,322 which many deemed too high a price. "With that amount of money, I can always get someone to build a power station," he said. Similar project was awarded to another company for a whopping sum of RM81,475,281.42 to supply power to Pulau Banggi, off Kudat. Another project involved the installation of a 4km long undersea power cable to generate power supply for Pulau Gaya at the cost of RM42 million. "A random survey conducted with several qualified local contractors revealed that this can be done at just RM5 million," he said. He said what the Pulau Gaya folks urgently needed was clean water supply, and not power supply, citing that there's already a "power station" on the island. He said it may cost another RM100 million if the water supply project is to be implemented by the Ministry after this. To substantiate his claims, Hiew also distributed copies of the detailed tender documents containing the list of projects and names of contractors to the reporters. He said the documents were earlier sent to the DAP Member of Parliament for Beruas, Ngeh Koo Han, who later extended some copies to him since they also involved projects implemented in Sabah. Hiew also noted that when queried by Ngeh during the Budget debate session at the Committee Stage in the Parliament last week, the Minister concerned Datuk Shafie Apdal, refused to answer him. Describing what transpired as blatant corrupt practice by those in power, Hiew urged the MACC to immediately swing into action to conduct a thorough investigation into the matter. "We call on the MACC to immediately step in to conduct a thorough investigation into this matter as we cannot tolerate the manner the taxpayers' money being misused. We strongly believe there is a strong element of corrupt practice and abuse of power," he said. Also at the press conference were Sabah DAP deputy chairman Frederick Fung, vice chairman Edward Mujie, Medical Bureau Chief Dr Felix Chong and Publicity Chief Chan Fong Hing.

Living A Life With No Regrets

Hantu Laut

The man that I have always admired.No world leaders of this century can match this man's love for his country and sheer determination to build up a tiny island nation into one of the most modern and prosperous nations in the world.

The article below is a tribute from his daughter.

Living a life with no regrets - Lee Wei Ling

When all is said and done, my father has led a meaningful and purposeful life

About 20 years ago, when I was still of marriageable age, my father Lee Kuan Yew had a serious conversation with me one day. He told me that he and my mother would benefit if I remained single and took care of them in their old age. But I would be lonely if I remained unmarried.

I replied: 'Better lonely than be trapped in a loveless marriage.'

I have never regretted my decision.

Twenty years later, I am still single. I still live with my father in my family home. But my priorities in life have changed somewhat.

Instead of frequent trips overseas by myself, to attend medical conferences or to go on hikes, I only travel with my father nowadays.

Like my mother did when she was alive, I accompany him so that I can keep an eye on him and also keep him company. After my mother became too ill to travel, he missed having a family member with whom he could speak frankly after a long tiring day of meetings.

At the age of 88, and recently widowed, he is less vigorous now than he was before May 2008 when my mother suffered a stroke. Since then I have watched him getting more frail as he watched my mother suffer. After my mother passed away, his health deteriorated further before recovering about three months ago.

He is aware that he can no longer function at the pace he could just four years ago. But he still insists on travelling to all corners of the Earth if he thinks his trips might benefit Singapore.

We are at present on a 16-day trip around the world. The first stop was Istanbul for the JPMorgan International Advisory Council meeting. We then spent two days in the countryside near Paris to relax. Then it was on to Washington DC, where, in addition to meetings at the White House, he received the Ford's Theatre Lincoln Medal.

As I am writing this on Thursday, we are in New York City where he has a dinner and a dialogue session with the Capital Group tonight, and Government of Singapore Investment Corporation meetings tomorrow. After that, we will spend the weekend at former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger's country home in Connecticut. Influential Americans will be driving or flying in to meet my father over dinner on Saturday and lunch on Sunday.

Even for a healthy and fit man of 88, the above would be a formidable programme. For a recently widowed man who is still adjusting to the loss of his wife, and whose level of energy has been lowered, it is even more challenging.

But my father believes that we must carry on with life despite whatever personal setbacks we might suffer. If he can do something that might benefit Singapore, he will do so no matter what his age or the state of his health. For my part, I keep him company when he is not preoccupied with work, and I make sure he has enough rest.

Though I encourage him to exercise, I also dissuade him from over exerting himself. I remind him how he felt in May last year when, after returning from Tokyo, he delivered the eulogy at Dr Goh Keng Swee's funeral the next day.

He had exercised too much in the two days preceding the funeral, against my advice. So naturally, he felt tired, and certainly looked tired on stage, as he delivered his tribute to an old and treasured comrade-in-arms. A few of my friends were worried by how he looked and messaged me to ask if my father was OK. Now when I advise him not to push himself too hard, he listens.

The irony is I did not take my own advice at one time and it was he who stopped me from over-exercising. Once, in 2001, while I was recovering from a fracture of my femur, he limited my swimming. He went as far as to ask a security officer to time how long I swam. If I exceeded the time my physician had prescribed, even if it was just by a minute, he would give me a ticking off that evening.

Now the situation is reversed. But rather than finding it humorous, I feel sad about it.

Whether or not I am in the pink of health is of no consequence. I have no dependants, and Singapore will not suffer if I am gone. Perhaps my patients may miss me, but my fellow doctors at the National Neuroscience Institute can take over their care. But no one can fill my father's role for Singapore.

We have an extremely competent Cabinet headed by an exceptionally intelligent and able prime minister who also happens to be my brother. But the life experience that my father has accumulated enables him to analyse and offer solutions to Singapore's problems that no one else can.

But I am getting maudlin. Both my father and I have had our fair share of luck, and fate has not been unfair to us. My father found a lifelong partner who was his best friend and his wife. Together with a small group of like-minded comrades, he created a Singapore that by any standards would be considered a miracle. He has led a rich, meaningful and purposeful life.

Growing old and dying occurs to all mortals, even those who once seemed like titanium. When all is said and done, my father - and I too, despite my bouts of ill health - have lived lives that we can look back on with no regrets. As he faces whatever remains of his life, my father's attitude can be summed up by these lines in Robert Frost's poem Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening:

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

This article appeared in the Sunday Times on 23 Oct 2011.

Insulting The Police, I Can Only Blame Anwar And Pakatan Leaders

Hantu Laut

Now Malaysians "sudah naik kepala" can threaten policeman with bodily harm or mock at them when you are caught breaking the law.

Even if he is auxiliary policeman he is the long arm of the law and have the same rights as regular policeman.In most jurisdictions they are empowered to make arrests for crimes that occur in their presence.

Watch the two videos and judge for yourself how rude and insulting Malaysians have become toward our police since Anwar Ibrahim and leaders of Pakatan Rakyat keep demonising the police force and other enforcement agencies of the government.

See how patient our policemen were. If they had been in America or even Britain, they would have been handcuffed, bundled into the police car and dragged to the police station and charge for hampering the police from discharging their duties.

If I were a policeman, I would do exactly that, arrest the girl and take her to the police station and charge her.

For that Hindraf arsehole (sorry if it sounds racist), he is an arsehole of the highest order, the policemen should have arrested him, beat him up if they had to, because he is violent and that's the only way to restrain him, handcuffed him, take him to the police station and charge him for insulting a police officer and attempted assault on a police officer.

The policeman should not have argued with the arsehole, they should just have arrested him.

Now you see why the police have to beat up this kind of thug.