THE HUMBUG

Hantu Laut


There are many mercenary writers like this guy who indulged in idiotic spin. He may sound smart to many below average IQ Malaysians, but sorry to say, I am not buying. 

He pathetically compared 'apples and oranges' with complete disregard of proper technical analysis.

It's not rocket science to conclude that Mr Ng is nothing but a humbug.

Let's get down to the nitty-gritty of his pat and contrived comparison. I wouldn't bore you with the prolixity of a lengthy debate but get to finishing line as quickly as possible.

First and foremost, Norway is a much bigger producer of crude oil on much smaller population.

At its peak Norway produced 3.2 million bbl/per day, but now production has petered to about 2.0 million bbl/per day on a population of 5 million people. It is also the world's 3rd largest exporter of natural gas.

Simple arithmetic will tell you the amount of massive surpluses in oil revenue going into government coffers, hence, the massive sovereign funds and multiplier effect of more oil surpluses and dividends from sovereign funds. Norway needs not tap into the funds as yet and until such time it has exhausted its oil wells.

Malaysia, on the other hand, currently produce around 670,000 bbl/per day and export only about 270,000 bbl/per day and import another 160,500 bbl/per day of crude to supplement its domestic consumption. Of its natural gas production of 61.73 billion cu m, only 33.1 cu.m were exported. Latest census shows that Malaysia's population is now almost 30 million and has bigger land mass.

It's again not rocket science to tell you that Malaysia is not exactly net exporter of oil and to think that there are plenty of leftovers is wishful thinking and sheer foolishness.

Major portion of the recurring national budget and the huge unproductive subsidies are financed by profits from oil revenues.

Again, it is people like Mr Ng who benefitted from these subsidies.

By the way, non-oil producing Singapore is one notch higher than Norway in per capita income.

So, Mr Humbug Ng, if you can't tell the difference between the skin of an apple and that of an orange, .......please, don't ever try to sell something you have absolutely no clue about.

Is Time Running Out For Najib? Yes!

Hantu Laut

I personally think so, YES, time to leave the scene.  

Najib has failed miserably to bring about transformations as promised and his policies had gone from the subliminal to the ridiculous, the latest being RON 95 only for the poor. 

How do you implement and police such ludicrous idea?

I like him, but I made a mistake about this man.

From the Asia Sentinel:

Forces aligned with former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad appear to be attempting push embattled Malaysian Premier Najib Tun Razak into giving a time frame for his eventual departure from office and naming a successor, sources in Kuala Lumpur say.

The sources say that successor could be hard-line Home Affairs Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, 61, who was once an ally of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim when Anwar was still in Mahathir’s government. Zahid is third in line for succession and his rise would bypass Muhyiddin Yassin, the current deputy president of UMNO and deputy prime minister, who is 66. Muhyiddin has said he will retire soon.

The scenario, the sources say, is similar to that forced upon Najib’s immediate predecessor, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who was pushed to name Najib and come up with a timeline in 2008 after the Barisan’s disastrous political showing in general elections. At that time, the ruling coalition lost its two-thirds majority in parliament for the first time in history. The campaign to push out Badawi lasted from the May 2008 election until April 2009, when Najib took office.

Although Mahathir left office as prime minister in 2003, he has kept up a constant barrage of criticism about the way the country has been run, quitting UMNO near the end of Badawi’s reign in supposed outrage over party politics. He reawakened with force after the 2013 general election, charging that Najib’s election strategy of reaching out to the country’s 40 percent of minority voters was a mistake.

Najib is also under growing public pressure because of rising prices due to the withdrawal of subsidies and other reasons, not least of which is dissatisfaction with the ostentatious behavior of his wife, Rosmah Mansor. He has also been widely criticized for being out of touch with the rakyat, or citizenry. He was ridiculed for saying that while some prices had gone up, the price of “kangkong [water spinach] has fallen but why don’t they praise the government?”

The drumbeat of anger over corruption in UMNO also continues, with the Mahathir forces alleging that vote-buying was used to deny Mahathir’s politician son Mukhriz Mahathir a top position in last September’s UMNO party elections.

An increasing number of Mahathir’s long-time allies, including former New Straits Times editor in chief A. Kadir Jasin and Zainuddin Maidin, the former information minister, have called for the prime minister to take the 88-year-old Mahathir back into government as a “minister mentor” akin to what Lee Kuan Yew did in Singapore from 2004 to 2011 before ostensibly retiring from politics. Former Finance Minister Daim Zainuddin, another Mahathir ally, has also made public statements disparaging Najib’s premiership.

Mukhriz on Sunday gave an interview to the Malay-language newspaper Berita Harian, saying that “Defeat [in the next general election] is a real possibility if Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak continues with his present policy of correct but unpopular decisions, especially on issues concerning the rising cost of living,"

Read more.

The Economist: Malaysia Plays Catch Up

Malaysia is good at starting something but lack the will and impetus to follow through, a management sickness faced by many GLCs.

January 23rd 2014| 

Malaysia's new automotive policy aims to prepare the market for trade liberalisation, while easing the pain for its local carmakers.

In the second half of January, Malaysia's government unveiled the long-awaited revisions to its National Automotive Policy (NAP). The changes are designed to prepare domestic automakers for the imminent creation of the ten-member Asian Economic Community (AEC) and to carve out a role for the country in the regional automotive industry. However, the NAP 2014 also extends some of the protectionist measures that shield Malaysia's two indigenous manufacturers, Proton and Perodua, from international competition.

The most positive aspects of the new NAP 2014 aim to boost inward foreign investment by promoting Malaysia as a future hub for energy-efficient vehicles in the AEC. The new document broadens the definition of a green car, which is no longer tied either to a specific technology, such as petrol-electric hybrids or plug-in electric vehicles, or to engine size. The government will now start issuing licences to foreign producers to make small, energy efficient vehicles in Malaysia, hoping that such vehicles will also be exported elsewhere in the region.

The policy includes incentives and direct financing measuring M$2bn (US$600m). The ultimate goal is to boost exports of green vehicles to at least 200,000 units by 2020, with exports of automotive components reaching M$10bn at the same time. Instead of trying to compete in the mass car market, therefore, the Malaysian government is aiming to develop a market niche that could become a key driver of the automotive industry in coming years.

Yet Malaysia will face stiff regional competition even within this niche. Indonesia also has its low-cost green car programme, which is helping to attract foreign investment into the sector. Thailand has an eco-car programme, which aims to turn the country's into the ASEAN region’s main production hub for small, fuel-efficient city cars. It is also targeting green-car exports to countries outside the ASEAN trade block.

These two countries already outgun Malaysia in terms of both auto production and car exports. Thailand's policy of market liberalization has attracted investment from Japanese manufacturers and parts suppliers, which have built factories there over the past decade and a half. Vehicle production in Thailand is now around 2.5m a year, while Indonesia's output has reached 1.2m. Both those countries have also emerged as major regional vehicle exporters. Malaysia, meanwhile, produces fewer than 600,000 vehicles a year, with exports low.

History lessons

Part of the blame for this lies with Malaysia’s comparatively small market size and lower population. But part of the problem lies with its government's ambivalent attitude towards international trade in the auto industry. Malaysia's car industry was the brainchild of long-serving Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, who established Proton in the early 1980s, producing vehicles designed by Mitsubishi (Japan). The second car company, Perodua, emerged a decade later. The original NAP was published in 2006 with a goal of tilting the playing field in favour of domestic carmakers within a framework of controlled industry liberalisation. The first revision to the NAP was effected in 2009.

Initially, protectionist policies benefited the country’s automakers, making Malaysia a regional automotive leader in the 1990s. Without competition and trade opportunities to push the companies' development, however, the quality and technological sophistication of their vehicles suffered. Proton saw its market share drop sharply once it shifted to making proprietary vehicles. Perodua, in which Japan's Daihatsu owns a 20% stake, has been the market leader for over a decade, even though its vehicles are not competitive in international markets either.

Read more.

NAJIB NOT A CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK

Hantu Laut

Former Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak died exactly 38 years ago, today. A man highly regarded and respected by Malaysians from all walks of life. 

Razak understood that power lies in the Malay community and for this power to be able to rule the nation effectively and equitably, the elite among the Malays must have the ability, aptitude and commitment to the nation as a whole. Class and money was not in his calculations.

Today, the whole picture of responsibility and guardianship of a nation as a whole has broken down to sectarian politics where the nation is heading all in a dither of religious and racial upheaval.

Class, birth and money is much in the calculations of the current regime, by hook or by crook, it will be have and the ill wind continued to blow vigorously.

Blatant political partisanship has become the key ingredient in running the economy of the nation, which have drained the best of brains out of the country. 

We are still a nation low in wages and high in cost of living that continue to escalate to the detriment of the people and a government still in complete state of denial. 

A government run by a retinue of dull-witted plodders with remarkable dexterity for the bizarre, an astounding affirmation of their vapidity and foolhardiness in the running of a nation.

Malaysians have been humiliated by disparaging remarks such as. .........if you don't like this country,  migrate to another country...............if chicken meat is expensive eat beef and fish, (alas, these nincompoops do not know beef and fish can be even more expensive than chicken, unless you want to eat basung and kangkung every day)

Lately, the PM has encouraged people to eat kangkung as the price has come down he says. 

(In the old days kangkung is considered as weed as it grows around drains and waterways and only the poorest of the poor eat the vegetable. Today, it has gained some respectability and is common dish in many restaurants, but still the cheapest vegetable you can find)

Read HERE his brother's well written article in remembrance of his father, the late Tun Razak Hussein

Obviously, our PM Najib is not '' A CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK"