steadyaku47

Tuesday, 3 June 2014

In 2002 these were the most evil and corrupt Malaysian around....reprise.



This page was last updated in 2002 when Anwar Ibrahim was still in Sungai Buloh Prison. 

The Dirty Dozen
A Ranking of the 12 Most Evil Persons in Malaysia

Who are the most evil and corrupt men and women in Malaysia? Here is a listing of the Dirty Dozen, ranked in order of how evil the person is and his effect on society. The more evil the person and the more damaging his effect on society, the higher up the scale they go. Besides the top dog, the list includes his dark knights installed in every powerful institution that is meant to protect and uphold democracy in the land. From the Attorney-General to the Chief Justice, judges, the ACA, the Election Commission and the police force, there is no institution which has not been corrupted by Mahathir. As Tunku Abdul Rahman said after the sacking of the Lord President Tun Salleh Abas, we are all in grave danger.  

1. Mahathir Mohamed
The Father of Corruption

As the most dictatorial prime minister ever, this man certainly tops the list of most evil persons in Malaysia. He has practically destroyed all the institutions of democracy in Malaysia including the independence of the judiciary and there are no more checks and balances to his power. Concepts like justice, democracy and human rights mean little to him and he is comfortable hobnobbing with brutal regimes like Myanmar and Cuba. Corruption and cronyism flourish under his rule to an extent never before seen. Like a leader who corrupts all those under him, most of the people holding high office in the country are corrupt and beholden to him. The hallmark of Mahathir's rule is that corrupt men and women do not have to pay the price of their corruption as long as they remain loyal to him. An egomaniac who expounds large construction projects to cover his lack of spiritual values, he channeled the resources of the country into economically senseless mega projects to feed his ego and his cronies' pockets. Slowly but surely Mahathir's rule of corruption, cronyism and public-milking privatization is lowering the standard of living in Malaysia and making life harder for the ordinary citizen who must pay the ever increasing corruption tax. He will forever be remembered for his cruel and inhuman treatment of his deputy Anwar Ibrahim whom he jailed after Stalin and Hitler style show trials.
 

2. Daim Zainuddin
A rapacious robber baron whose greed is boundless

His low profile belie the immense power he wields in his hands and he has used his power to amass fabulous wealth. Never ever satisfied, this rapacious robber baron seems to want everything. A brazen attempt to force merge the country's banks to increase his share of banking assets to dangerous levels was aborted only because Umno needed Chinese votes win the elections. However billions of ringgit in frozen Clob shares fell prey to his greed when badly treated foreign investors had to pay him a cut to get their shares released. His economic plunder helps to keep the Mahathir regime in power and fuel the money politics that the party machinery runs on. Daim's lust for money is equal in intensity  to Mahathir's lust for power. With the number one man in the country power crazy and the number two man money mad, the country is in "good" hands.
 

3. Mohtar Abdullah
A legal thug best describes this totally repulsive man

For sheer gusto in carrying out Mahathir's nefarious designs, Mohtar Abdullah has no equal. In fact this most repulsive Attorney-General in Malaysia's history doesn't need orders from the top to go on a legal rampage, he sometimes pursue political opponents relentlessly on his own initiative. He turned the office of the A-G into a dictator's tool of oppression to drag to court perceived political critics and enemies. With the Chief Justice to select the proper judge to hear the case, he just can't lose. Lim Guan Eng felt brunt of his legal thuggery for merely criticizing his non-action over the statutory rape of a schoolgirl by powerful politician Rahim Thamby Chik. Datuk Nallakarupan was charged with mandatory death penalty for forgetting to renew his license for 100 lousy bullets because his life was to be used as a bargaining chip to fabricate evidence against Anwar. Mohtar's zeal in prosecuting politically unfavoured persons is matched by his stony inaction to go after really corrupt big shots. This evil man is not above fabricating evidence to secure convictions when real evidence is hard to come by in cases where innocent people are dragged to court.  Mohtar is evil without conscience, a perverter who turns good and bad on its head landing hammer blows on society's  moral shell with every politically motivated prosecution. Although Eusoff Chin's perversion of the rule of law is greater than Mohtar due to Eusoff's Chief Justice position, Mohtar has been ranked above him in evil due to his extraordinary enthusiasm in committing injustice and wickedness to serve the dictator and further his own worldly ambition.
 

4. Eusoff Chin
He sat on the bench to ensure its subservience to Mahathir

When the country's Chief Justice is corrupt what can you expect of the judicial system? Eusoff Chin has been photographed holidaying in New Zealand with highly successful lawyer V.K. Lingam who has never lost a case in Eusoff Chin's court. But Eusoff's corruption goes has a far more sinister and damaging effect than mere personal enrichment. He is used by Mahathir to select suitable judges to hear important cases and to lean on judges to deliver the "correct" judgement. Any judge whose judgement displease Eusoff is bound to find himself packing for a posting in a backwater place and his career immediately stunted. Under this shady perverter of justice the judiciary has won a smelly reputation locally and abroad as being thoroughly compliant to the executive. With Eusoff at the helm the government has never lost an important case. But for Mahathir, having Mokhtar as Attorney-General and Eusoff Chin as Chief Justice is a dream come true and a combination not likely to be exceeded in future.
 

5. Kadir Jasin
His newspapers were the propaganda machine of the ruling party

Kadir Jasin does not hold any high office to directly corrupt the institutions of democracy but as Group Managing Director of the New Straits Times Press, his role in corrupting minds is far-reaching indeed. In the dung filled pages of the New Straits Times and Berita Harian, this sycophantic editor who once called for foreign journalist to be arrested under ISA for reporting the truth tried to mould public opinion by hiding the excesses of the ruling party and heaping undeserved praise on corrupt leaders to keep them in power. The strategies used includebiased opinion pieces, omission of all negative reporting of the establishment, public airing of unsubstantiated allegations against political opponents without right of reply, sycophantic adulation of the prime minister, reporting only the negative points of the opposition and playing them up, outright lying and filtering foreign viewpoints for the favourable comments only. By covering up abuses and protecting the guilty from public exposure the mass media helps to perpetuate and deepen abuses and corruption. Kadir Jasin was certainly at the forefront of this information web of deceit until he was sacked by his political masters for not being sycophantic enough and daring to lose market share by feeding intelligent readers with politically motivated rubbish.
 

6. Augustine Paul
A monster judge rode roughshod over all principles of jurisprudence to convict Anwar

Augustine Paul was handpicked to do a specific dirty job, that is to find Anwar Ibrahim guilty of some fanciful trumped-up charges. Anxious not to disappoint his political masters on his first important assignment, he proceed to trample truth and justice in his courtroom in the crudest possible manner in his overzealous mission to convict the fallen politician. He ran a banal kangaroo court which was so blatantly biased that it will forever shame the nation in the eyes of the world. His parody of justice evoked memories of the infamous show trials of Stalin and Hitler.
The evil of a man who is willing to send an innocent man to jail cannot be glossed over. One may argue that Augustine Paul was a puppet judge who had no choice. This is a false rationalization as he would never have been selected as a puppet judge if he wasn't rotten to the core and trusted to give the pre-determined judgement. He could have exercised his independence once on the case and there would be nothing that Mahathir can do to remove him without triggering world outrage. But why was Paul selected to grace this rogues' gallery instead of Lamin Yunus although he (Paul) has been known to betray justice in only one celebrated case while Lamin is an old government dog with a string of biased judgements to his name? And shouldn't Ariffin Jaka share the limelight? The fact is that the repercussion from Paul's evil deed was greater than Lamin's as he robbed the nation of a great leader who would have brought some morality, transparency and justice back into the government. Ariffin Jaka at least conducted the semblance of a real trial allowing all material evidence to be heard, even those highly embarrassing to his political masters. The way that Paul bulldozed the flimsy prosecution's case through while suppressing material evidence from being aired speaks of a pure unadulterated evil that makes the skin crawl. He held the future of the nation in his hands but he chose to sell his soul to the devil for a pittance.
 

7. Omar Mohammad
With a corrupt man at the helm, the last bastion of democracy fell to Mahathir

The name of Datuk Omar Mohammad does not ring a bell to most people and this is understandable as he is the Chairman of the Election Commission which comes to the fore to conduct the general elections every 5 years. But although  rarely in the news, this is one of the most important instrument of democracy. When all checks and balances have been removed in the administration of government, the general election is the last bastion of democracy and the final check and balance to a power hungry dictator. It is the time when power returns to the people who can theoretically kick out an unjust government in free and fair elections.
This is in theory but the sad reality is that even the Election Commission has been corrupted by Mahathir. Datuk Omar's declaration the Commission is independent rings hollow in the light of the 1999 general elections. In the first place gerry mandering of electoral boundaries to concentrate parliamentary seats in areas of greater support ensured that it would be very difficult to topple the ruling party. The 1999 elections was anything but free and fair. A massive 650,000 newly registered voters who were generally perceived as critical of the government were not allowed to vote on the shaky premise that it took the EC a mind boggling nine months to register them. The EC also failed to correct the total monopoly of the mass media by the ruling party, the unfair media blitz and the stirring of racial and religious fears by Barisan Nasional politicians to garner votes. The Election Commission failed the people and as its head, Omar Mohammad must be held responsible for the fall of the last bastion of democracy.
 

8. Ahmad Zaki Husin
An agency to flush out corruption or to clean the corrupt?

Ahmad Zaki is the Director-General of the Anti-Corruption Agency. Under Mahathir this body has become severely degraded in the eyes of the public as a blindfold toothless tiger when it comes to going after the big fish. Instead of fearlessly pursuing and exposing corruption without fear or favour this agency seems to drag its feet when big shots are involved. Worse, the ACA has frequently been abused as a weapon to investigate and pull down political opponents of the ruling party. To add insult to injury, we now have corrupt slimy politicians using the ACA to claim themselves pristine after a "cleansing investigation" by the agency.
The ACA's most celebrated failure is its inability to conclude investigations into the Perwaja Steel case and bring charges against Tan Sri Eric Chia who lost frightening billions for the steel giant under suspicious circumstances. This is despite a devastating auditor's report which detailed fraudulent financial transactions with dummy companies. After four years of "investigation", one should not hold one's breath that Eric Chia will be brought to justice anytime soon. It also sank into a listless stupor over Anwar's four police reports with documented evidence against political bigwigs. On the other hand the ACA suddenly sprang to life over Datuk Murad's wild and unsubstantiated allegationsof billions in Anwar's "master accounts" although to date it has managed to dig up nothing. Other high profile cases of corruption such as Eusoff Chin's well-known holiday with lawyer V.K. Lingam never saw the light of day although pictures of their fond relationship have been on the internet for years.
Why is Ahmad Zaki ranked one step below Omar Muhammad on the scale of evil? Corruption is after all an insidious cancer which affects everybody and happens far more frequently than general elections. The ordinary citizen pays the price of big time corruption in higher prices of utilities and goods and the wastage of public funds. But one must remember that the ACA reports to the Attorney-General and the Prime Minister now, not directly to parliament. This means that it derives the corruption of the overlords it is subservient to. When the PM wants to sit on a case of prima facie corruption, there is nothing much that the Director-General can do while other entities such as the Election Commission, the A-G , the Chief Justice and the judges can exercise their independence but choose to sell their souls to the devil. Still, one cannot be too lenient on Ahmad Zaki. Anyone who is contend to sit in a post and willingly play along inflicting harm onto society must himself be a member of the dark domain.
 

9. Ling Liong Sik
He is the epitome of village headman bought over with money and whisky to keep the natives in line

As the most useless leader ever to do nothing for the people he represents, Ling Liong Sik has no equal. This political hack is only interested in maintaining the status quo while he goes about the serious business of gathering wealth. And what an embarrassment of riches it has been with his son coming from nowhere to be an instant billionaire at the age of 27. On issues affecting the Chinese, you will not find this timorous leader speaking out whether it is the Nipah virus devastating the pig industry, non-acceptance of Chinese High School Certificates or criticism of too many Chinese movies in Astro. In fact he is ready and willing to accept erosion in Chinese rights and mortgaging of Chinese future to maintain his personal position, a fine example being his declaration that TAR college will not be upgraded to university status. Ling is the towering epitome of the village headman who has been bought over by outside colonizers to keep the natives in line. Besides a genius at doing nothing, his other skills include the fine art of carrying the Prime Minister's balls on whom he depends to protect his position and keep a lid on his corruption. It must be a bitter irony to the Chinese that this bogus leader who claims to represent them is elected from a Malay dominated electorate. To Mahathir he is the perfect running dog in the so-called partnership of the Barisan Nasional - a convenient eyewash for power sharing and an apologist for Umno, never asking for anything for the Chinese and never critical of any government policies against Chinese interests. A more putrid, self-serving politician you could not find.
 

10. Samy Vellu
Architect of the MAIKA Telecom shares scandal, Samy Vellu proves that corruption pays in Malaysia

Samy Vellu is to the Indians what Ling Liong Sik is to Chinese. After 21 years of Samy Vellu at the helm of the MIC, Indians remain economically backward and left behind in Malaysia's economic growth. Trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty, they have no financial, commercial or industrialized structure, marginalised in every economic field and in danger of becoming an underclass. Despite the burden on the low income, Samy Vellu goes round the country opening and justifying road tolls, a super-apologist for the rich cronies set on milking the public and derisively berating those who criticize the proliferation of toll booths. His shinning achievement is the extension of Kamunting Berhad's concession to collect toll at Jalan Kuching in exchange for nothing despite the concession period having expired and company having recouped many times its original investment. An let's not forget Samy Vellu's role in hijacking MAIKA's Telecom shares to three unknown companies controlled by his proxy in 1990 thus depriving the agency entrusted with uplifting Indians of an estimated RM70 million in profits.
Although Samy Vellu has done nothing for his race and got rich in the process just like Ling, he is a little more outspoken than the timorous Ling who would never stick an inch of his political neck out for the people he represents. Ling must certainly be ranked above Samy in evil as he betrays a larger group of people (30% of the population as against 10%) and he has enriched himself far more than Samy.
 

11. Rahim Noor
The Chief of Police turned out to be a lawless thug but he beat one prisoner too many

Rahim Noor was the Inspector-General of Police serving Mahathir faithfully by misusing the police force until he was forced to resign after beating up a deputy prime minister in prison. After shaming the police force and the nation he did not resign until his repulsive action was about to be exposed by a Royal Commission of Inquiry. And let's have no illusion that this Royal Commission was convened voluntarily by Mahathir to find out the truth. In true Mahathiran fashion he tried to protect the guilty and the corrupt until the insistent demands by the opposition and international critics were so great that there was no choice but to sacrifice Rahim Noor. But to this day the shame of the nation is not redeemed as Rahim Noor istreated with kid's glove by the corrupt judicial system and will no doubt escape with a wrist slap.
Rahim Noor is certainly a willing evil minion of Mahathir. Under him the police were cruel and oppressive, sometimes summarily executing criminals and beating up people in detention to the point of death. The Special Branch was in charge of fabricating evidence from the dungeon of their confession factory with Muslim intellectual Munawar Anees as their most famous guest. Through Munawar's affidavit we are given a horrifying glimpse of torture Malaysian style. Rahim is not ranked higher on the evil scale because he is no longer in a position to influence matters. Also the behaviour of the police does not seem to have improved with his resignation which means that his influence wasn't that great.
 

12. Ummi Hafilda Ali
She plays a virgin in the light but needs no urging in the night

"Youthful feminine face hiding rotten starving soul" best describes Ummi Hafilda Ali. When she declared brazenly in a press statement that she was still a virgin in denial of media gossip about her, headlines ricocheted from that bold declaration and the nation gasped in disbelief. But subsequent testimony in court during Anwar's trial by a man who was intimate with her in London show the deeply deceitful nature of Ummi and the manner in which she can shamelessly lie through her teeth in public.
Disowned by her family and revealed as a scheming, manipulative, evil woman who would stop at nothing to lie and cheat her way through life, she was the ideal person to be used by corrupt politicians in their conspiracy to destroy Anwar. They found in her the raw evil with the stomach to make vile accusations against an innocent man and even to draw the hapless Azizan Abu Bakar into her web of deceit. Totally without conscience and thinking nothing of shamelessly promoting her wicked lies in public, she was a cesspool of depravity and immorality which made her the darling of like-minded Umno politicians. Her declaration that she was motivated by religion and loyalty rings hollowly in the recesses of her empty soul.
Whatever her motivation for taking part in the conspiracy to destroy a deputy prime minister who was fallen for standing in the way of corruption and cronyism, history has assured Ummi a place in the dark halls of shame after her brief moment of notoriety in a Malaysia made morally hollow by corrupt and evil men.
 

So here we have a rogue's gallery of the worse that Malaysia can produce. It comes as no surprise that most of the corruption has stemmed from the font of evil, Mahathir himself. Evil men are useful and necessary to Mahathir. They will willingly do his bidding no matter how odious and they can be blackmailed on their past if they ever have a change of heart. So it is evil, corrupt men who fluorish under his rule and advance to positions of power and wealth. Working in co-operation with each other under the tyrant, they ensure that Mahathir, his family and his cronies continue the feast of corruption, cronyism and nepotism at the expense of ordinary Malaysians.
  


steadyaku47 note: To the best of my knowledge, I believe the above list were complied by M.G.G.G. Pillai.

FACT CHECK : Fact Check determines the accuracy of claims by politicians, public figures, advocacy groups and institutions engaged in public debate.

steadyaku47 comment: Politicians and many others in the public domain from time to time, makes claims that need to be checked - whether they are the truth or lies. 

When Najib says his government has done all it can to look for MH370 - is he telling the truth? When Najib says that the GST will not hurt low income earners...is this the truth? Is Mahathir telling us the truth when he says his son's have never profited from his time in Government and that Proton has been good for Malaysia?

In Australia we have FACT CHECK. Maybe it is time we have FACT Check in Malaysia too. Who will take the initiative? 












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Here are some of the results of work done by Fact Checks: 
  • The claim: Joe Hockey (Treasurer) says within six years Australia will have "the biggest medical research endowment fund in the world".
  • The verdict: There is at least one bigger medical research fund in the world, and some governments spend more money each year on medical research than the new Australian fund will distribute.


  • The claim: Chris Bowen (Former Government Minister now in opposition) says the Government's changes to financial advice laws will bring back the type of commissions that encouraged financial advisers to recommend risky investments.
  • The verdict: The proposed changes will only apply to some forms of general advice. They do not bring back old-style commissions.


  • The claim: Christopher Pyne (Education Minister) says university students have a less than 1 per cent unemployment rate and over a lifetime earn 75 per cent more than someone who doesn't go to university.
  • The verdict: Of all university graduates, 3.3 per cent are unemployed. Some reports say university graduates earn about 75 per cent more than year 12 finishers, but others put the figure as low as 30 per cent. Mr Pyne's claim is overblown.

The writtings of the late M.G.G. Pillai - The Million Ringgit Wedding and other stuff.....

steadyaku47 comment:
Before many of us started blogging there was MGGG Pillai. I have been reading what he wrote many years ago and I feel that I can best give him his dues by sharing what he wrote then, with the present generation. Read and know that this man tried to do something for his
beloved Malaysia long before any of us did. Rest in Peace Sir.








Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1998

Subject: The million ringgit wedding
When Malaysians struggle to deal with the economic recession the government tells us does not exist, one cabinet minister marries his son off at a conservatively estimated cost of RM1,000,000. Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu's son, Dato' Paari Vellu, married in style at a five-star hotel, before 8,000 guests amidst the garish opulence we have come to expect at such chintzy gatherings; with another dinner for 1,000 at another five-star hotel. There is no suggestion, of course, that the works minister cannot afford it. He can. After all, he informed the Anti-Corruption Agency sometime ago that he is worth at least US$200 million, a figure that went up from US$120 million after two interviews with their officers. How he got them in 25 years in the government after a lacklustre career as a draftsman-turned-Grade Two-architect is one of Bolehland's enduring mysteries. But spending a million ringgit on a wedding does make one want to vomit. The happy couple should not be faulted for this garish display of wealth, but his father certainly has lost touch with the ground. The Amma of Indian politics, the film actress turned politician, Madam Jayalalitha, was not there -- she ignored the minister rather too blatantly to merit an invitation -- but her predecessor's thespian rival, Sivaji Ganesan, was among the Indian personalities down from India for the wedding.

The minister's conspicious consumption is one of several recently, with one senior civil servant explaining to ACA officers the source of the RM100,000 found in his desk drawer was "small change" for his son's wedding reception at a local hotel. (These days, it seems, you are not really someone until the Anti-Corruption boys have come acalling; longevity as a cabinet minister is possible only if you have ...) Corruption happens only when you bribe a police man RM2; ministerial and civil servant wealth is safe from public scrutiny, as are shareholdings of ministerial cronies and newspaper editors even if the ACA does inquire into how they came by it. The ACA, of course, does not have independent powers of prosecution; that is the Attorney General's prerogative. His fearsome independence is well known, especially when cases that would redound on the government often get shortshrift at the political electronic shredder in his office.

When Tun Razak had to be rushed to London for specialist treatment in 1976 for what turned out to be his last illness, the country's, and his finances, were in such parlous state that his wife, Tun Rahah, went herself without her children, but only after his condition turned for the worse. The explosion of wealth in ministerial bank accounts were still in the future, with his successor holding on to a frugal existence. Indeed, Dato' (later Tun) Hussein, as prime minister, got the UMNO bigwigs -- ministers and chief ministers -- to reveal their political funds, a move he had to take after the Selangor mentri besar, Dato' Harun Idris, went to jail for seeking a donation from the Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank. The figure was so large, he once told me, that just the interest for one year was sufficient to meet the National Front expenses in the 1978 general elections. The funds, he said then, had to be deposited elsewhere to prevent internal inflation. The expansion of Bank Bumiputra into the Middle East and elsewhere, and the BMF deposit taking office in Hongkong, was a direct result of that action. That Bank Bumiputra could not handle that is now a well known footnote in Malaysian history.

The Malaysian attempt to corner the tin market, which Tun Daim Zainuddin orchestrated through a little known RM2 company known as Maminco, and its subsequent debacle, had to do with the arrogance of that wealth. The march to the 2020 Valhalla was another expression of that. No particular brilliance is needed to spend money like a drunk in a pub, building irrelevant structures and ego-strutting "National" monuments. A side product of that is expanding corruption, which only the government insists is not there. The corruption in Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim's trial refers to subborning officers to do his bidding. Cabinet ministers, politicians, civil servants succumb to it just as the next man, and become richer than Croessus. Few show it. Dato' Seri Samy Vellu does. His is a
symptom of the cancer that threatens us all. He would not, of course, see it that way. Nor would his camp followers. His son gets married, and the proud father ensures that no expense is spared to make that a grand occasion. One trusts the wedding went off
well, and the couple would settle down to domesticated happiness. But he is also leader of a community badly in need of direction, which he does not provide. If he had backed this wedding with a massive personal donation for the betterment of his community, much
of this carping would not be there. But then in Bolehland, he who controls the purse can do what he likes. Or so he thinks.

M.G.G. Pillai


Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1998 

The difference between what is "News" in Malaysia and what is "News" in Australia!

steadyaku47 comment: The difference between what is considered news in Malaysia and what is considered news in Australia can be seen below....and if anyone of you tells me that this is the "Malaysian way" then I will say "bulldust!". The purpose of "news" is to inform the rakyat what is happening around them and in the world...not what politicians do, not what our Prime Minister is doing or what he intends to do or will do. God help our country, our people and our future...if there is one!  

MALAYSIA NATIONAL NEWS:

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Monday, 2 June 2014

FMT


Editor and journos quit FreeMalaysiaToday

MON 2014-JUN-2 @ MYT 14:51:02 PM
MEDIA GRAPEVINE
Free Malaysia TodayOnline newspaper Free Malaysia Today is losing its editors and up to 15 journalists as a result of internal management problems and a pending shake-up in the way the site is run and its future editorial direction.
Word is that the site is to be more Barisan Nasional-friendly, in a departure from its current position. However this could not be confirmed.
Free Malaysia Today was set up four years ago, more or less a sister site to Raja Petra Kamaruddin’s Malaysia Today, and is widely believed to have been under the financial patronage of businessman John Soh Chee Wen, once an ally of Anwar Ibrahim.
The site had a shaky start until Soh’s right-hand man Nelson Fernandez, a former New Straits Times journalist turned ad man and businessman, brought in MalaysiaKini’s news editor K Kabilan as editor and his team of experienced former NST and Star journalists.
Kabilan in Mkini days
Kabilan in Mkini days
Kabilan left at the end of last week after building up the site over the past four years. He was not available for comment; it is not known as yet where he would be headed.
Three other editorial executives — the chief sub-editor, regional editor and news editor — are also believed to be handing in their resignations shortly.
Up to a dozen more journalists, most of them reporters, are expected to follow suit — possibly leaving FMT a mere shell.
It is believed they will seek positions at other online news sites such as Malaysian Insider,FZ.com, the Rakyat Post or the Malay Mail.(Rakyat Post’s managing editor Nelson Fernandez [Ridhuan Abdullah] is a younger namesake to FMT’s chief but no relation.)
It was not immediately known what prompted their leaving. For several months there had been speculation about the site’s financial situation and its future direction and friction between company and editorial management.
It is believed that FMT’s chief executive Nelson Fernandez will be having discussions in the next few days on the fate of the site: to decide whether the site will continue, in what form, and how it will be run.

1MDB is struggling under burden of $11 billion in borrowed money. Critics questioned its investment choices, the size of its debt, $2.25 billion parked in a Cayman Island fund, hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue earned by Goldman Sachs for handling its bond issues, delays in its accounts, changes of auditors, and lack of transparency. A $1.9 billion bridging loan that fell due in November has been rolled over twice, most recently two weeks ago.


Reuters
Surging debt at Malaysia's shadowy fund emerges as new sovereign risk
Sun Jun 01 21:00:00 UTC 2014
By Saeed Azhar and Umesh Desai
SINGAPORE/HONG KONG, June 2 (Reuters) - Lurking beneath Malaysia's solid investment-grade sovereign rating is a risk posed by a $14 billion investment fund that is not even generating enough cash from operations to cover interest costs.
Regarded as a cross between a sovereign wealth fund and a private investment vehicle, with Prime Minister Najib Razak chairing its advisory board, 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) is struggling under the burden of $11 billion in borrowed money.
The government says it only guarantees around 14 percent of the debt. The investment community assumes it would provide more if needed, and it is the potential strain on Malaysia's debt position from these contingent liabilities that raises concern.
"We don't know how well 1MDB is doing," said Christian de Guzman, senior analyst of sovereign risk group at ratings agency Moody's Investors Service. "It does pose a risk in terms of the amount of borrowing they have made over the past few years."
Controversy has dogged 1MDB almost since it was first set up months after Najib came to power in 2009, and used for funding projects that form part of his Economic Transformation Program.
Critics have questioned its investment choices, the size of its debt, $2.25 billion parked in a Cayman Island fund, hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue earned by Goldman Sachs for handling its bond issues, delays in its accounts, changes of auditors, and a perceived lack of transparency.
A $1.9 billion bridging loan that fell due in November has been rolled over twice, most recently two weeks ago, in order to give 1MDB more time to launch a $2 billion initial public offering that would reduce debt incurred buying 15 power plants. In a statement published on May 23, 1MDB said the IPO for its power division will take place in the second half of this year.
In 2013, 1MDB, with liabilities of more than $13 billion, generated cash flow of 860 million Malaysian ringgit ($267.75 million) from operations, far below the annual interest outgo of 1.62 billion. It would have made a 1.85 billion ringgit loss, but for a 2.7 billion ringgit revaluation of its property portfolio. (link.reuters.com/vuc59v)
Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim was quoted at a news conference in late April warning; "If we continue with this culture of accumulating debts, Najib's 1MDB will fail and become a liability that should be called 1Malaysia's Debt of Billions."
The Prime Minister's Office and 1MDB did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment.
1MDB defended itself in a statement released in February, saying that its power assets had strong growth potential.
"All this points to a high value proposition that can be expected to stimulate markets and bring significant FDI and cash profits to the shareholder - the Government of Malaysia," it said.
TRIGGERS
But independent analysts also have voiced concern that 1MDB's debts could be pushing Malaysia into risky territory.
"1MDB remains somewhat of an enigma," Bank of America Merrill Lynch economist Chua Hak Bin said in a note. "What stands out, however, is 1MDB's high leverage, which has raised concerns that 1MDB could emerge as a serious contingent liability for the government."
Malaysia's debt-to-GDP ratio stood at 53.8 percent at the end of 2013, central bank data shows, up sharply from 43 percent in 2008 and close to an official debt ceiling of 55 percent, beyond which the government must seek parliamentary approval.
Contingent liabilities, however, stood at 15.9 percent of GDP, up from 9 percent in 2008, bringing total government and government-backed debt to 69.7 percent of the economy, and the off-budget character of 1MDB raises questions.
"It can be viewed as a way to circumvent the 55 percent ceiling on government debt to GDP, while shielding this spending from parliamentary scrutiny," said Prashant Singh, a fund manager at Neuberger Berman in Singapore.
Holding a slim parliamentary majority after a controversial election victory last year, Najib, who also runs the finance ministry, can get approval to bust the debt ceiling, but it could hurt his credibility.
Economists said a further delay to 1MDB's IPO, weaker financial results and prospect of a further rollover of debt could put the government on the spot.
"The trigger points which could force investors to price 1MDB risk more seriously into the sovereign could come in various forms," said Leong Lin-Jing, assistant investment manager at Aberdeen Asset Management Asia, based in Singapore.
Further explicit guarantees by the government for 1MDB projects that are regarded as not necessarily beneficial to the country would send a bad signal, Leong said.
Fitch Ratings cut the outlook on Malaysia's A- rating to negative from stable last July. Only India and Sri Lanka, in Asia ex-Japan, have higher debt ratios, according to Fitch.
"Malaysia's negative outlook is driven by factors such as the rise in guaranteed and contingent liabilities like 1MDB, due to its sovereign ownership linkage, and the sharp erosion in current account surplus," said Andrew Colquhoun, Fitch sovereign analyst for Malaysia told Reuters.
WATCH CDS MARKET
For now, investors remain cautiously optimistic over fiscal consolidation plans. The government will introduce a new consumption tax next year at a surprisingly high rate, and has abolished sugar subsidies and raised property taxes in steps that were welcomed by ratings agencies.
The government expects its fiscal deficit to fall to 3.5 percent of GDP this year from 3.9 percent last year, helped by those measures and a robust economy that expanded 6.2 percent in the first three months of 2014.
"If you look at other A- rated countries, Malaysia does have in general a faster growth rate, generally lower and more stable inflation rate and more robust balance of payments," said Aberdeen's Leong.
Whereas foreign investors hold about 44 percent of Malaysian bonds, one of the highest concentrations in a domestic government bond market in the region, offshore trading in Malaysian sovereign bonds is illiquid.
Any worries over Malaysia's debt would most likely show in the market for credit default swaps (CDS), which acts as an early barometer of stress in sovereign credit metrics. So far, the CDS market appears relaxed over issues surrounding 1MDB.
In the year to date the 5-year CDS contract has narrowed by 20 bps to 87/92 bps, slightly outperforming the regional benchmark iTraxx index, which has narrowed 17 bps to 109.75/112.25. ($1=3.21 ringgit) (additional reporting by Yantoultra Ngui and Stuart Grudgings in KUALA LUMPUR; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

Sunday, 1 June 2014

Sunday's time out!






Ask not why Mah won by only 238 votes...ask why 20,157 voted for Mah!


It is early Sunday morning here in Melbourne. My physical self is still fighting the sleepiness of a restful six hours sleep but already my thoughts are of what happened in Teluk Intan last night.

When all is said and done, no matter where you stand politically, you and I know that the people of Teluk Intan did the sensible thing in voting for the Gerakan president Mah Siew Keong.

He is the better candidate who has the means to deliver what he has promised and he has conducted his campaign with grace and with honor. So let us give him his dues.

For those of you who will quibble about the 238 vote majority….. cease and desists … the people of Teluk Intan are as divided as the rest of us in trying to decide what they want for their future and the results reflect their sentiments.

It may be a step backward for those who want change but it augers well for the future of change because BN and PR now understands that to win in any future election, they must have credible candidates who are capable of convincing the electorates that they are better than their opponents. One step backward for PR but certainly two steps forward for common sense - that should be the lesson learnt in Teluk Intan. The better candidate won and the people can be persuaded to vote for the better candidate – be they from BN or PR.

The post mortem by DAP can blame Lim Kit Siang for his choice of youth and beauty over experience and guile.

It can blame RSN Rayner for his “Celaka , celaka, celaka” comments in the Penang State assemble recently – a reminder to all that loose talk does have its consequence.

It can blame DAP for being what the Malays call “Syiok Sendidri”  - that feeling of misplaced confidence and smugness that the hare had over the tortoise in their race to the finished line.

Or you can go down the easy path and insists that the Chinese will vote only for the Chinese…..but if you do you will insult the people of Teluk Intan and Malaysia by saying so!

What is happening in Perkasa, the continuing membership of Dyana’s mother in Perkasa, the stand by ISMA, the manner in which the party elections are conducted in PKR and DAP, that ill thought move in Kajang by PKR, the happenings in Selangor under a PKR government, the abuse and corruption of the BN government…all these 
are reflected in the result in Teluk Intan. The wafer thin majority of victory by the BN candidate tells BN and PR what to expect in the coming years as we go towards the 14th General Election. The electorate comes first!

Pakatan Rakat must not harp about the wafer thin majority. They must first ask themselves why 20,157 voted for the BN candidate! Why indeed!

BN too must ask why 19,919 voted for a first time PR candidate who had nothing much more than youth, education, beauty and guts going for her!

Pakatan Rakyat must ask themselves why many thousands go to PR ceramah and only a few hundreds go to BN ceramah and yet their votes go to BN! Why?

The same people who voted DAP in the last election now have voted BN in…simple as that. What changed their mind?

For Dyana and Mah…...It was a honorable fight.  

For BN and PR…...it's now back to the drawing board and ensure that in all your future planning, the people and their needs will be the first, last and only consideration that matters. 

In the end it was a victory for common sense, a victory for the better candidate and certainly it is a victory for all Malaysian to hope that the future holds more than what our politicians are prepared to concede amongst themselves : and that is....the people of Malaysia will choose their own destiny. 

When not to think outside the Box!