Malaysia not prepared to face crisis

The Qur’an was handed down to mankind by Allah to serve as a guide. It contains the very truest accounts, bringing glad tidings to man, warning us and instilling fear in us. It is a great mercy and the sole Divine Book. For that reason, it is the Qur'an that people must read and study above all else.

Prophet Yusuf (known in the Bible as Joseph), is one of those prophets about whose life the Qur’an has most to say. Almost all of Surah Yusuf, one of the longest in the Qur'an, is devoted to his life and that of his family. Early on in this Surah, Allah reveals that his life story contains important indications, proofs and wisdom:

Prophet Yusuf indicated that there are seven (7) years of peace and prosperity followed by seven (7) years of chaos and turmoil. Basically, his teaching advises us to always prepare for the worst and to overcome the crisis by preparing before the crisis happens.

Malaysia, an Islamic country have not learnt from Prophet Yusuf’s teaching and apply his wisdom in preparing Malaysia to face the recent number of crisis faced namely floods in Johor, shortage of rice and recently the hike in oil prices.

After 50 years of independence, Malaysia is still not prepared. We have a Master Plan but the plan is not far-sighted and is very myopic (short-sighted). The government had not done a proper planning resulting in the Rakyat suffering most of the time when the crisis happens.

The government needs to buck up and do better in their planning so that the Rakyat will continue to live peacefully, progressively and prosperously. Not only the government, we as Rakyat Malaysia must also plan to ensure that we are ready for any crisis situation ... the property slump, stock market crash and global recession which will hit us soon?

Datuk Nik Sapeia bin Nik Yusof

Future of PPP in BN

The future of PPP, whether inside or outside BN, is going to be the same: the party will continue to be popular and gain in popularity. It will be the party of the future.

Because in all developed countries, a two-party system will eventually emerge. Either you work, or I vote in the next party.

I think after Tun Mahathir’s time, BN has become too comfortable. You make every decision, then you come to the meeting, it’s all done. Then we hold press conferences to say it’s all set, everything’s okay, we have agreed. Now I realize that that’s what’s been happening. We can’t talk, don’t talk. We zip our mouths. Why? Respect. We give respect. We want peace. We want to progress. We want to prosper. So, we make friends and we be there. But if you’re constantly being left out …..

Some people have asked me, ‘Why are you talking about seats only now and not when you became president of PPP? I became president in ’93, [general] elections were held in ’95. There was only one new Parliamentary seat available then. I asked for the seat.Originally, I think Tun Mahathir had in mind to give the seat to us. Then I think something happened and it went to MIC. I thought okay, and the PM advised me to hold on. In the ’99 [general elections], because of the Anwar issue and Keadilan, Tun Mahathir wanted to maintain status quo [to ensure a] Barisan win. It was also my paramount interest, so I said okay. And, of course, he later made me a Senator, brought me into the Cabinet.

Then he retired, and came [the general elections of] 2004. There were 25 Parliamentary seats and 63 state seats. I didn’t know when, how it was divided or where it all went. All I was told was that PPP had no seat – of course, I was willing to work – and then came the Taiping Parliamentary seat and one state seat. I began to realise …

When I was new as the President, we were building the party. Now, we’ve got half a million voters. I think that’s a big strength. We’re a political party; if you don't get your seat, that’s a problem. And this one seat they’ve given us …

This MP who has another seat, YB Tan (Lian Hoe), in Bukit Gantang, instead of working in her constituency, is attending to functions in Taiping and holding open houses there. She went to the by-elections in Batu Talam, posted up a letter that apparently said BN have made her in charge of Taiping. Where is Barisan ethics?

Barisan component leaders should have dignity – look, the PPP is now back; we are strong. We should talk about allocation seats.

When [Dato Seri] SP Seenivasagam, the [party] leader, died (in 1975), there was no leadership and there was crisis. Our 4 seats in Parliament, 12 state seats and 16 council seats in Ipoh municipal council were held in trust for PPP by the BN. So now, let’s see the honour, the true picture of Barisan integrity, Barisan transparency and Barisan Unity.

Datuk Dr. M Kayveas

Kayveas, the Fortune Teller of BN

Extracted from Off The Edge magazine: April, 2007

"Presently, we usually talk about unity on the surface level, as eyewash, to keep people quiet. In short, I don’t think any of them (BN leaders) are sincere when they talk about unity and multiracialism. So since I became President (of the People’s Progressive Party, or PPP) in 1993, I’ve been taking the opportunity to speak in political forums about it, [such as] at the PPP’s annual general meeting.

I am very convince, very, very convinced that we need to turn into a multiracial society. We must, we should. The question is whether it is possible. I think we can keep asking questions, but it must happen in order for Malaysia’s survival and to be a successful country.

Now, we have a brand – it seems to be, to visit Malaysia is to visit Asia. The whole of Asia is in Malaysia; if you visit, we are there. And if we are not a multiracial society, if we are still segregated into this race-based thing, then we are bluffing the whole world.

So let’s get real; let’s put our brand into practice. We can’t portray one brand [to the rest of the world] and here, be something else. The real problem is, there is no sincerity, especially among politicians. Outside of their party, they talk about multiracialism. But when they hold their [general assemblies], they continue shouting ‘Hidup Melayu’, ‘Hidup Cina’, Hidup India’. At these [political gatherings], they feel like they are in their own cave or in their own castle, and they talk only about their tribe, their clan, to promote themselves. But they don’t realize they’re just a small castle in the whole country.

The BN is a loose coalition; we say we are of all races, we give opportunities to everybody. But when it comes to policy decisions and many other things, you go back into your own cocoon; you only talk about your own religion and your own race. And you forgot about Malaysia. Right ? I go to London and I am Malaysian; I go to China and I’m Malaysian; I go to India and I’m Malaysian; I go all over the world, I’m Malaysian. But why is it when I come back to Malaysia. I am an Indian? That’s still the general feeling.

We must shed this shelf-image. We have no choice. If Malaysia is not going to become a truly multiracial country, we cannot use the phrase ‘Malaysia, truly Asia’, and neither can we succeed in the future because the more everybody talks just about their own race, we can never be a united cause.

If BN doesn’t become one party, it will be a failure in the future. It is the beginning to be a failure.

But for PPP, there is an opportunity. Of course, the trend seems to be that if you’re an Indian leader, okay, the Indians will fall behind you; if you’re a Chinese leader, Chinese behind you; Malay leader, Malays behind you. We must look for good leaders.

But who’s a good leader who can head all of us? It doesn’t matter if it is Chinese, Indian or Malay. We need a leader who can lead this country into the future. And I think we should consider the statements made by [HRH] Raja Nazrin (the Regent of Perak) in an interview in 2006. He said, ‘We need mature and responsible leaders and role models who are serious about bridging the divide of race and religion.’ Fantastic! We need a million leaders who can think like him, speak like him. Then we can progress." Datuk Dr. M Kayveas

Now is the right time ……

The above article from OFF The Edge magazine dated April 2007, only shows the accuracy of Datuk Kayveas' foresight about BN, one year before our 8 March, 2008 general election. Today, BN has weaken so much that a lot of the top leaders and members in component parties have lost faith and resigned from the party like Tun Dr. Mahathir and others from Gerakan, MCA, MIC. Surprisingly so far we do not have any leaders in PPP who had jumped ship. This only shows PPP, a truly multiracial party is still relevant.

Dr. Tan Kim Sai

Where have all our smart Economist gone to?

Malaysia is an oil producing country too. A brief info below shows our petrol price is the highest among other OIL PRODUCING countries

MALAYSIA- RM2.70/litre
UAE– RM1.19/litre
Eygpt– RM1.03/litre
Bahrain– RM0.87/litre
Qatar– RM0.68/litre
Kuwait– RM0.67/litre
Saudi Arabia– RM0.38/litre
Iran– RM0.35/litre
Nigeria– RM0.32/litre
Turkmenistan– RM0.25/litre
Venezuela– RM0.16/litre

A simple explanation from Tun Dr. Mahathir, extracted from his http://www.chedet.com/ blog ....

"Can the Government subsidise? I am the “adviser” to Petronas but I know very little about it beyond what is published in its accounts. What I do know may not be very accurate but should be sufficient for me to draw certain conclusions.

Roughly Malaysia produces 650,000 barrels of crude per day. We consume 400,000 barrels leaving 250,000 barrels to be exported.

Three years ago the selling price of crude was about USD30 per barrel. Today it is USD130 – an increase of USD100. There is hardly any increase in the production cost so that the extra USD100 can be considered as pure profit.

Our 250,000 barrels of export should earn us 250,000 x 100 x 365 x 3 = RM27,375,000,000 (twenty seven billion Ringgit).

But Petronas made a profit of well over RM70 billion, all of which belong to the Government.

By all accounts the Government is flushed with money.

But besides petrol the prices of palm oil, rubber and tin have also increased by about 400 per cent. Plantation companies and banks now earn as much as RM3 billion in profits each. Taxes paid by them must have also increased greatly.

I feel sure that maintaining the subsidy and gradually decreasing it would not hurt the Government finances.

In the medium term ways and means must be found to reduce wasteful consumption and increase income. We may not be able to fix the minimum wage at a high level but certainly we can improve the minimum wage."

What Tun said makes sense. He is more practical and really cares. I am certain that if he is still PM, he would have done what he had mentioned earlier.

I feel, the Government should have adopted a more prudent approach, that is, "if the Government have to increase the price, a little price increase is not out of order or step by step (or stagger) increase the price which was done a few years ago" based on Tun's analysis of the number of barrels of crude oil per day produced and consumed.

The Government should have given sufficient notice to inform the Rakyat early and indicate the time frame to move to the equilibrium market price. This way, the Rakyat can prepare to face the reality by finding a solution to overcome and lessen the burden, example buying a smaller cc or litre car, plan out their journey using the public transport or even fit their cars with gas cylinder as an alternative to overcome the high petrol price which had jump to RM2.70/litre from RM1.92/litre effective today.

Seriously, where have all our smart Economist gone to? I really would like to know who is our Prime Minister's advisers who had given him this radical approach - the sudden quantum leap of the fuel price. I am sure the Rakyat are truly disappointed today with this move. What Tun said here is right too,

"I believe the people expect the increase of petrol price. But what they are angry about is the quantum and the suddenness. The Prime Minister was hinting at August but suddenly it came two months earlier, just after the ban on sale of petrol to foreigners. If the increase had been more gradual, the people would not feel it so much. But of course this means that the Government would have to subsidise, though to a decreasing extent".

This is not an advertisement column for Tun's blog, anyway feel free to visit his blog http://www.chedet.com/ for more positive comments from our Rakyat who had written in to thank him for his rational thinking and approach to the oil price. This is what the Rakyat wants.

Dr. Tan Kim Sai

Satu Bangsa Malaysia, Satu Negara

The New Strait Times : May 26 2008

Bangsa Malaysia will become a reality when Malaysians relate to each other on the basis of nationality rather than race or religion, said Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak. Who was speaking at the launch of National Unity Month 2008.

It is SAD to say after we have been independent for 51 years we still cannot identify ourself as Bangsa Malaysia! It takes too long to accept the facts and realise the importance of it to be recognised. And it takes time to materialise. The mind set of politician got to change and upgrade themselves. No more politiking in order to gain their political mileage in the detrimental of Rakyat Malaysia.

When we are in overseas, we say we are Malaysian proudly. But when we are back home we will identify ourselves as Chinese, Indian, Malay and etc. The worst scenario in Malaysia is we have double standard. We have first class citizen i.e Bumiputra, as long as is Muslim irrespective of where she or he is born and come from. That's why many Indonesian become first class citizen in Malaysia because of name sake as a Muslim. And second class citizen are those non muslim without a muslim name. These are open secret.

Sdri Jospehine Pang

Don't start this mockery again !

Dato’ Seri Samy Vellu said recently Dr S Subramaniam, the human resources minister and MIC secretary-general, is "the sole minister representing the Indian community".

http://malaysiakini.com/news/83547

It is shame to know after 50 years of independent only 10% of the PSD scholarship was allocated to the non-bumiputra student’s. So what MIC, MCA and Gerakan have been doing all this while in the cabinet? Good question, just imagine 10% of these scholarship have to be distributed among the Chinese, Indian and others students so what is the ratio breakdown, did anyone ever talked about this or even raised this for the benefits of doubts? It is perplexing to know this after so many years and this would have deprived many good and deserving students their chances of getting these scholarships. After sitting in the cabinet for so many years the so called who is representing certain ethnic group did not even raise this matter but today have the gut to say we are the sole representative of this group in the cabinet. I think all this should stop and they should start working.

YB Senator T. Murugiah is doing a fine job by going down to the grassroots, well the premier have endorsed and said that everyone should move down to the grassroots and meet the people to solve their problems. This should not be turned into a political gambit for self-interest. Look at it on a brighter sight and stop making unnecessary comments and work together in solving the community problems. Please do not forget that the people in the last general election have discard race-based parties, we should move towards the nation’s objective to achieve ‘Bangsa Malaysia’

Sdra A. Chandrakumanan