This is a long article. But it's worth your time, just as long as you keep an open mind.

Exorcising the ghosts of May 13
Beh Lih Yi
May 12, 07 12:30pm

The scene was still fresh - how Umno MP Badruddin Amiruldin waved a book on
the May 13 riots and warned that questioning Malay rights was akin to
stirring a hornet¡¯s nest at the Umno general assembly three years ago.

¡°Don¡¯t poke at this nest, for if it were disturbed, these hornets will
strike and destroy the country,¡± Badruddin, who was then newly elected as
the Umno permanent deputy chairperson had said to a thunderous applause
from delegates attending the annual meet.

More recently, similar remarks were also heard.

¡°Malay rights cannot be challenged, otherwise the Malays will run amok and
May 13 will happen all over again in Kuala Lumpur,¡± a Umno Youth Terengganu
delegate told the Umno annual meet held less than six months ago.

In fact, these ¡®ghosts¡¯ of the May 13 have never left us since the riots
broke out in 1969.

This is why Dr Kua Kia Soong, the author of a new book with an in-depth
analysis on the May 13 riots, strongly advocated the formation of a
commission of inquiry to let the nation attain the truth over the tragedy.

¡°Without that, some of these ghosts will linger on forever,¡± he said in a
recent interview.

¡°The inquiry is crucial for national reconciliation - the elusive national
unity we talk about, the elusive ethnic relation we want in this country
but unless we have that inquiry, we will not get that reconciliation,¡± the
academician and social activist added.

Wide-reaching impact

Kua, also ex-ISA detainee and now principal of New Era College in Selangor,
has argued in his new book that the May 13 incident was a plot to oust then
premier Tunku Abdul Rahman and not spontaneous clashes between Malay and
Chinese as official history trying to paint it.

The book was written based on newly declassified documents including
foreign dispatches and confidential reports at the time which are now made
available in the Public Records Office in London.

Among other findings from these documents that backed his argument was the
¡®sudden appearance¡¯ of a group of ¡®hoodlums¡¯ on the day of the riots, the
swift transfer of power from the Tunku to his deputy Tun Abdul Razak and
the role of the security forces.

His book is said to contain the first credible account of the incident as
no open inquiry has been held by the authority into the May 13 riots so
far, making the real causes behind the bloodshed and the exact number of
fatalities shrouded under secrecy.

Official figures claiming the loss of 196 lives with over 400 wounded is
widely seen as an underestimation.

What is more damaging as a result from the tragedy, said Kua, is that it
had set a ¡°dangerous trend of fascism¡± which continues to prevail up to
this day.

¡°It was fascism in a way how these hoodlums behaved like the fascist
movement with the help of the police. It is the worst thing that could
happen to Malaysian politics and society.

¡°We saw it not only in 1969, but in 1987, 1996 etc. It is the biggest
destruction of our society,¡± the author said in reference to Umno Youth¡¯s
role in the ¡®Operasi Lalang¡¯ clampdown in 1987 and the mob which stormed
into an international conference on East Timor in 1996.

He argued the May 13 riots also brought wide-reaching impact on the
position of Malay special privileges which has changed to the present
¡°disgusting usage of ketuanan melayu (Malay dominance)¡±.

High time for inquiry

It is not a new call for an open inquiry on the May 13 incident to be
conducted but with Kua¡¯s latest findings and account on the riots, it is
expected to spark a new round of debate over the worst riots in Malaysian
history.

Kua stressed efforts to unearth the truth will enable the nation to move on
with the episode.

¡°The commission is a way of exorcising those ghosts, (the incident) is just
full of ghosts. The government uses these ghosts every time there is a
challenge to the ruling party or the bumiputera policy, these ghosts will
be pulled out from the past, the May 13.

¡°But it is not these ghosts who are responsible, the responsible people
were those responsible for the coup d¡¯etat. We can even point one finger at
(ex-Selangor menteri besar) Harun Idris, he has to answer for a lot of
things. He had passed on but others who were with him, are still alive,¡±
Kua said.

For the author, it is still possible for the inquiry to be carried out even
after about four decades because it is considered 'recent history'.

¡°They could use hospital records to give an idea who were the victims,
those injured, (press releases) from the Malaysian Red Cross, pull up these
people and ask them. There are many ways of doing it but the further we go
in time, it will be more and more difficult,¡± Kua said.

RELATED STORY:-

Unveiling the ¡®May 13¡¯ riots
Beh Lih Yi
May 11, 07 12:52pm

¡°While people were still assembling for this parade, trouble broke out in
the nearby Malay section of Kampung Baru, where two Chinese lorries were
burnt...

By 7.15pm, I could see the mobs swarming like bees at the junction of Jalan
Raja Muda and Batu Road. More vehicles were smashed and Chinese shophouses
set on fire.

The Chinese and Indian shopkeepers of Batu Road formed themselves into a
¡®district defence force¡¯ armed with whatever they find - parangs, poles,
iron bars and bottles...

When the Malay invading force withdrew as quickly as it had arrived, the
residents took their revenge. Shop-fronts and cars suspected of being
Malay-owned were smashed or burnt...

The police arrived at about 9pm but did not remain in the area. Later,
truck-loads of Federal Reserve Units (riot squads) and the Royal Malay
Regiment drove past...¡±

(Excerpts taken from a dispatch by Far Eastern Economic Review
correspondent Bob Reece narrating his eyewitness account on May 13, 1969
after a group of young Malays gathered outside the Selangor Menteri Besar
Harun Idris¡¯ residence in late afternoon)

It has been almost four decades since the May 13 racial riots broke out.

What had prompted the worst riots in Malaysia¡¯s 50-year history that cost
the lives of 196 persons (according to official records) however remained
shrouded under a veil of secrecy, although there are several versions on
the matter so far.

The ¡®official version¡¯ of it has always been the violence was triggered off
by the Chinese-dominated opposition supporters¡¯ provocation in celebrating
their electoral victory which saw the ruling Alliance Party suffered a
major setback.

¡®Full of nonsense¡¯

This version, however was consistently rebutted by the opposition group who
claimed otherwise. Other theories also suggested that the riots was rather
a planned attack to oust then premier Tunku Abdul Rahman.

The lack of accessible information in the public domain has been a
stumbling block for those who intend to uncover the episode but a set of
newly-declassified documents in London gave sociologist Dr Kua Kia Soong a
thorough glimpse of the event.

Late last year, the principal of New Era College took a three-month
sabbatical leave to the Public Records Office in London to study records
and declassified documents on the May 13 incident after a 30-year secrecy
rule over these documents lapse.

His findings based on the declassified documents - which have been compiled
into a new book to be launched on Sunday - found the entire May 13 riots
were by no means a spontaneous outburst of racial violence, as it has been
portrayed to the Malaysian public.

¡°The (official) history of May 13 is full of nonsense, it doesn¡¯t reveal
anything. It pins the blame on the opposition party which was not true,
they were not the responsible party,¡± Kua told malaysiakini in a recent
interview.

¡°My book shows the responsible party were those ascendent state capitalist
class (in Umno), elements within that gave rise and implemented this plan.
There was a plan based on the people who assembled at the (Selangor)
menteri besar¡¯s house.

¡°There are correspondences and intelligence reports which showed that.
Official history has to reveal that truth and not to pin the blame on
everybody around who are not to be blamed,¡± the educationist and social
activist stressed.

Kua maintained the May 13 incident was a coup d¡¯etat against the Tunku by
the then emergent Malay state capitalists - backed by the police and army -
to seize control of the reign of power from the old aristocrats to
implement the new Malay agenda.

A plot to oust Tunku

He opined the riots were works of ¡°Malay thugs¡± orchestrated by politicians
behind the coup.

For instance, he said the ¡°group of hoodlums suddenly appeared from all
over the place¡± on the day of May 13 to gather at Harun¡¯s residence and the
questionable conduct of the police and army to just stood by and watch.

He added that documents showed less than a week after the riots, then
deputy premier Tun Abdul Razak who headed the National Operations Council
was already in full control of the country - an indication that there had
been a plot.

On top of that, discussions for future plans had already been carried out.

¡°For example the National Cultural Policy (announced in 1971) burst in the
80s, it was already been thought of one week after (the May 13 incident),¡±
Kua noted, referring to the controversial policy which placed emphasis on
the ¡®indigenous culture¡¯ and Islam.

A secret document from the British cabinet office featured in the book
showed that barely a week after the riots broke out, the Central
Intelligence Agency had figured out what Tun Razak was planning - ¡°to
formalise Malay dominance, sideline the Chinese and shelve the Tunku¡±.

The role of the security forces in the May 13 bloodshed was also questioned
in Kua¡¯s findings.

¡°Even at that time, people in the diplomatic core (were wondering) how come
the day the riot broke out, Razak met with the chiefs of the police and
army but they did not do anything,¡± he said.

Interestingly, Kua pointed out the Malaysian security forces had been
tested and tried during the war against the communist insurgency between
1948 and 1960 and earned their reputation.

¡°They are one of the most effective in putting down the communist
insurrection that is a far, far more difficult operation than putting down
riot, but they could not put down (such riot) in 1969 for days, for weeks,¡±
he questioned.

It thus brought to Kua¡¯s conclusion: ¡°The May 13 was a pretext for staging
that coup... I am not the first person who said it was a coup d¡¯etat but I
am providing the documents to show how it was a coup d¡¯etat.¡±

Exact fatality number unknown

The declassified documents have included reports fielded by foreign
correspondents who were in Kuala Lumpur at the time, dispatches by the
British High Commission personnel who closely followed the event and
various other confidential reports from the diplomat circle.

It is considerably the first time a complete recount of the tragedy is made
available to the Malaysian public, as many foreign correspondent reports
were previously banned while local documents are inaccessible.

However, what could not be established in the book is another secrecy, the
real number of deaths.

Official figures said the May 13 riots claimed 196 lives, 180 were wounded
by firearms and 259 by other weapons, 9,143 persons were arrested out of
whom 5,561 were charged in court, 6,000 persons rendered homeless, at least
211 vehicles and 753 buildings were destroyed or damaged.

The declassified documents and international correspondents at the time
nevertheless have calculated a much higher number of fatalities but an
exact number could not be ascertained, although it was common knowledge the
victims are majority ethnic Chinese.

Kua said it is his hope to smash two myths with the publication of the book.

¡°One is racial riot will occur when the Malays are not happy, that¡¯s why
you need the New Economic Policy, affirmative action policy et cetera,
otherwise the Malays will be unhappy and there will be riot.

¡°This is the first myth we should dismantle as documents showed some people
were involved in making it (the May 13) happened with the connivance of the
police and army,¡± he stressed.

The second myth, Kua said, is academicians and pluralist theorists who
uphold the views that riots and conflicts will occur naturally in
multi-racial country.

¡°I am questioning this. The role of the state is very important at a
particular historical conjuncture. Malays, Chinese and Indians don¡¯t
suddenly decide to fight in conflict, it doesn¡¯t happen like that,¡± he said.

Asked on whether there is any fear that the authorities might move to ban
the publication of the book, as in the case of a recent ban slapped on a
book about the Kampung Medan clashes, Kua responded:

¡°In the age of the internet, what does banning a book mean? We can put it
on the Web, you can¡¯t do anything.¡±

RELATED STORY:-

What actually happened during the 1969 tragedy
May 11, 07 1:11pm

The series of events surrounding the 'May 13' riot has been documented by
Dr Kua Kia Soong in his latest book May 13: Declassified Documents on the
Malaysian Riots of 1969 which will be launched on Sunday in conjunction
with the 38th anniversary of the tragedy.

This compilation, based on various sets of foreign dispatches and
confidential reports at the time - which were declassified recently and
made available at the Public Records Office in London - has been dubbed as
the first credible account on the incident.

¡°The real circumstances surrounding the worst racial riot in the history of
Malaysia have so far not been made available to the Malaysian public. The
official version is fraught with contradictions and inadequacies to which
few pay credence,¡± Kua wrote in the book.

Below are excerpts and summary of the chronology of events based on the
declassified documents taken from Kua¡¯s book:

May 10:

The ruling Alliance Party suffered a major setback in the general election
although it had managed to retain a simple parliamentary majority. They had
lost Penang to the Gerakan Party; Kelantan to the Pan-Malaysian Islamic
Party while Perak and Selangor were at the brink of falling into the
opposition¡¯s hands.

May 11 and May 12:

On both nights, the opposition celebrated their victory. A large Gerakan
procession was held to welcome the left-wing Gerakan leader V David back
from winning the federal seat in Penang.

May 13:

The MCA which had suffered badly at the polls, announced that it would
withdraw from the cabinet while remaining within the Alliance.

A dispatch from a foreign correspondent showed it is evident that there was
a plan for youths mobilised by Umno elements to assemble at then Selangor
menteri besar Harun Idris¡¯ residence in the late afternoon. A retaliatory
march had been planned although police permission was withheld.

When people were still assembling for the parade, trouble broke out in the
nearby Malay section of Kampung Baru, where two Chinese lorries were burnt.
The ensuing carnage at Kampung Baru and Batu Road quickly spread elsewhere
in Kuala Lumpur.

The foreign correspondent noted the curfew that was imposed was not fairly
applied to all.

¡°In the side streets off Jalan Hale, I could see bands of Malay youths
armed with parangs and sharpened bamboo spears assembled in full view of
troops posted at road junctions. Meanwhile, at Batu Road, a number of
foreign correspondents saw members of the Royal Malay Regiment firing into
Chinese shophouses for no apparent reason.¡±

Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman immediately attributed the violence as
triggered off by the behaviour of opposition supporters after the election
result announcement while his deputy Tun Abdul Razak pinned the blame on
the communists.

May 14:

The riots continued but on a smaller scale. The curfew was only lifted in
staggered hours in various districts to allow people to buy food. The
police called out all possible reserves and handed over the northern part
of the city to the army.

Police put casualties for the previous night incident at 44 killed and
about 150 injured. Another dispatch showed the casualties were mainly
Chinese as it stated that out of 77 corpses in the morgue of the General
Hospital on May 14, at least 60 were Chinese.

The government¡¯s attempts to blame the communists for the riots were
however not taken seriously by the officials at the British High Commission
(BHC) who could see that the Tunku was not prepared to blame his own people
for the riots, nor was he going to blame it on the Chinese ¡°as a whole¡±.

May 15:

The King proclaimed a state of emergency. The National Operations Council
headed by Tun Razak was formed. Tun Razak was still responsible to the
Tunku, but all the powers under Emergency Regulations were vested in him.

The curfew had been lifted temporarily in Kuala Lumpur that morning but the
situation had rapidly worsened and more sporadic fighting had broken out.
Curfews were re-imposed but food was very short.

The local press was suspended until censorship regulations could be drawn
up but no attempt was made to supervise reports sent out by foreign
correspondents.

May 16:

The situation was still tense in Selangor with cars and houses being burned
and fatalities rising. Death tolls had risen to 89 with over 300 injured.
24 hour curfew remained in force in Selangor and had also been imposed in
Malacca. In Penang and Perak, the situation had improved although the
curfew remained in force.

Tunku made a broadcast in which he announced the setting up of a National
Defence Force to be manned by volunteers. The new information minister
Hamzah Abu Samah and Tun Razak gave a press conference pinning the blame
for the riots on communist infiltration of the opposition parties.

There were reports of looting by the largely Malay military and their bias
against the Chinese Malaysians. Number of refugees were increasing.

May 17:

From a BHC telegram, it showed there were skepticism among British officers
toward the official figures for fatalities and the preponderance of Chinese
casualties among the dead. The police estimated the deaths at about 100 now
while British officers estimated the proportion of Chinese to Malay
casualties is about 85:15.

The press censorship invited criticism not only from the local press but
also in diplomatic circles especially when official statements lacked
clarity and credibility.

In a confidential BHC memorandum to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
(FCO), the coup d¡¯etat has been acknowledged and it has effected the
transfer of power not only to ¡°Malay hands¡± but also to the security
forces. The latter¡¯s professionalism is questioned.

The BHC also noted the Federal Reserve Unit, which at the time was
multiracial in composition, was the more impartial of the security forces
while the Malay troops were discriminatory in enforcing the curfew.

¡°Discriminatory takes the form, for example, of not, repeat not, enforcing
the curfew in one of the most violently disposed of the Malay areas in
Kuala Lumpur (Kampung Baru) where Malays armed with parangs, etc continue
to circulate freely; with the inevitable result that gangs slip through the
cordon round the area and attack Chinese outside it. In Chinese areas, the
curfew is strictly enforced.¡±

May 18:

The Tunku qualified his earlier assertion that the disturbances were caused
by communists, putting the blame instead on assorted ¡°bad elements¡±. He
also announced the deferment of the Sarawak elections and the continuance
of the restrictions on the movement of foreign journalists.

The situation was still unsettled in some parts of the capital city.

May 19:

Less than a week after the riots, the reins of power had effectively passed
to Tun Razak, indicating that there had been a plot to bring about the coup
d¡¯etat.

¡°The exact relationship between Tun Razak and the Tunku is not clear. In
public Tun Razak says he is directly responsible to the Tunku but he has
made it clear privately that he is completely in charge of the country.
This could mean the beginning of a process of withdrawal by the Tunku as an
effective PM¡±.

There are some 10,000 reported refugees. The local press was allowed to
publish under censorship while foreign journalists had their curfew passes
withdrawn. Some opposition politicians were arrested.

May 20:

In a meeting, an Australian High Commissioner had suggested the opposition
leaders should be given a role as peace maker but Tun Razak and Ghazali
Shafie were firmly against this. ¡°They considered opposition leaders would
simply use such an opportunity to promote their own political views.¡±

The Malaysian Red Cross Society is continuing its daily feeding programme
for refugees in various places and over 5,000 had received food supplies.

May 21:

The official statistics of casualties at this juncture were 137 killed (18
Malays), 342 injured, 109 vehicles burned, 118 buildings destroyed and
2,912 persons arrested who were mostly curfew breakers.

May 23:

The declassified documents reveal that Malay troops were not only
fraternising with the Malay thugs but were discharging their firearms
indiscriminately at Chinese shophouses as they went through the city.

¡°When confronted by foreign correspondents with reports of racial
discrimination, Tun Razak flatly denied them. Following this, curfew passes
issued to foreign journalists were withdrawn and reporters were ordered to
remain indoors ¡®for their own safety¡¯.¡±

A foreign correspondent¡¯s report showed the Malay hooligans were detested
by the law-abiding Malays of Kampung Baru.

Internal security and home minister Tun Dr Ismail indicated that the
Internal Security Act would be in future amended to ¡°counter changing
communist tactics¡±. It was disclosed that of the 3,699 arrested during the
crisis, 952 were members of secret societies.

May 24:

Law and order has been re-established in Kuala Lumpur and the atmosphere in
the town had improved. People were going back to work (in non-curfew hours)
and the government offices were limbering into action. The curfew remained
in force (from 3pm to 6.30am of the following day). The government was not
ready to admit that it was armed Malay youth who had caused the disturbances.

May 27:

The Tunku was under pressure to resign as he was clearly incensed by
foreign journalists¡¯ speculations about his weakening position and got his
private secretary to write a protest note to the BHC.

May 28:

A confidential report by the BHC to the FCO on this day observed the
government¡¯s attempts to blame the communists for the disturbances were an
attempt to justify their new authoritarian powers.

June:

The riots had been under control but they were still sporadic outbreaks of
civil disturbances. A BHC report noted violence erupted again in one part
of Kuala Lumpur on the night of June 28 and 29, a number of houses were
burnt and the casualties were officially given as five killed and 25
injured. Some disturbances toward the end of June also involved ethnic Indians.

July:

Renewed trouble in which one policeman was killed was quickly stopped from
spreading in Kuala Lumpur by positive police action.

Tun Ismail¡¯s firm stand in ordering the security forces to act firmly
¡®without favour or discrimination¡¯ to any communal group and the Tunku¡¯s
announcement of a National Goodwill Committee made up of politicians of all
parties went some way toward allaying the fears of the people.

Tun Ismail also revealed the total arrests since May now stood at 8,114,
comprising people ¡°from all the major racial groups¡±. Of these, 4,192 had
been charged in court, 675 released on bail, 1,552 unconditionally released
and 1,695 preventively detained.

Situation in the Peninsula had improved substantially but tension remains
high in sensitive areas of Malacca, Perak and Selangor.

Tension had begun to ease until Malay agitation connected with Tunku¡¯s
return to a position of influence and the removal of Dr Mahathir Mohamad
from Umno¡¯s general committee on July 12 had heightened it again. Malay
university students petitioned for Tunku¡¯s resignation and demonstrated on
the campus.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It has been some time since I post new entry to my blog. The reason is I am not good in writing, in any language for that matter. So I have always try to read more stuff from the web, for example, the opinions or viewpoints of many bloggers and forummers as well as some really good article for sharing which I do not come across very often. This time I found something which is worth reading for anyone who is interested in Malaysia's history. Again, this is not written by me, it's from a guy named "Loh" in LKS's blog here.

Loh posted:
I suppose all countries are concerned about huge income disparity, but it cannot be a noble objective to have income equality because society and economy will then stagnate. Pre-1979 days of China had achieved income equality, but the billion Chinese prefer the new era brought possible by Deng Xiao Ping.

The government is duty bound to care for the needy and the poor, to help them to meet basic needs such as food, clothing and housing. That could be done through social transfer, such as in paying subsidiaries to those who clear the means test, and it should not be a race test. To prevent having to continuously giving away fish, the government could teach them how to fish, as the saying goes. Malaysia is rich enough to carry out those noble functions of helping the poor irrespective of races.

But the leaders of rich Malaya were not concerned about metting the basic needs of the poor. The powers-that-be wanted the Malays to be the master race, either for the pride itself, or for trying to prove to Hitler, a born Austrian, that Malays are better that Austrian.

UMNO has 37 years now to plan how to make use of the monopoly of political power to make Malays the master race. When the power of Selangor state assembly hanged on the balance after May 10 1969, the MB at that time needed a coup, to gamble for his return to power. Having recovered from the shock, Tun Razak and gang seized the opportunity to oust Tunku from power though Tunku retained the title of PM until 1972. When Tunku came on TV soon after May 13 riots, he announced that Tun Razak was appointed the Director of National Operation, and the Director reports to him. Two days later, Tun Razak came on the TV to announce that he, as Director of Operation, reported to the King.
So, Tun Razak was the PM except in name.

The Chinese at that time considered Razak a racist. He proved it with the FELDA scheme. The main issue at the 1969 election campaign was article 153, where the non-Malays who were discriminated against by that article hoped that the government would repeal it after it has run the course of 15 years, in 1972. Obviously, the non-Malays were suffering at the hands of Alliance government. They were looking for a relief through the election.

Tun Razak having benefited from the race riots were happy to put the blame of the riots on the story that the Malays were economically backward. That served him well. It blamed Tunku for Malays¡¦ ¡¥economic problems¡¦ when that did not exist. That ¡¥excuse¡¦ allowed him to continue his racist¡¦s policies. To hurt Tunku further, Razak brought into government TDM whom Tunku considered the most dangerous character which would cause grave harm to the nation. (His 22 Years has created third class mentality with less than first class infrasturcture, and Bolehlanders are going to suffer for many generations to come.) To the non-Malays, the victims suddenly became the perpetrators. The Razak wisdom reads : when some Malays are poor, all the Malays needed help; and when some Chinese and Indians are not poor, all non-Malays are rich. So the government declared NEP and divided the society into Bumi and non-Bumi. Since then, through gerrymandering, UMNO was able to retain control, and at the same time sponsor some non-Malays to be MPs and State assemblymen to project the image of political muhibah.

NEP is an excuse to achieve UMNO¡¦s racist objective. Since UMNO is concerned about being the most developed Islamic nation, taking care only to compare with muslim nations, UMNO leaders are happy to allow ordinary Malays and non-Malays pay all prices of the NEP so that they continue to rule and plunder the state.

The non-Malays do not have the votes to push out UMNO, apart from those practical voters who voted for BN anyway. The Malays are at least a class above non-Malays, even though they are second class compared to UMNOputras. That is a comfortable position to be in, and I guess that is being practical to maintain status quo. So, NEP will stay, and developed nations will thank Malaysia for supplying to them labours and brains that have been trained through manmade adverse conditions. Some Ah Qs were happy to say that they were well trained because of NEP. Ah Q lives on.

The riots started in Selangor when the position of the MB was on balance. The procession came out from the residence of the MB. People from as far away as Tanjong karang came to Gombak, and along the road at Sepatak burnt the cars on road side on the evening of May 13. These ¡¦spontaneity¡¦ did not happen outside Selangor, at that time. To believe that the riots was a results of Malays having been wronged by the Chinese, there must be prrof that the Chinese caused Malays harms. How could that happen when Malays were in control of the government? And would any ¡¥poor familiies¡¦ anywhere in the world decide to choose one day to act out the ¡§aggrieved feelings¡¨ that there are rich people in other communities, and that was enough hatred to cause trouble. Yes, there were two lamborghini cars in 1969, so I was made to understand, there were also rolls royce in Selangor too.

The Razak government certainly did not want to take the MB of Selangor to task. He was an UMNO member. The easiest blame would be at Chinese, and since Chinese did not have political power, so blame them on economy. The foreigners were fewer in numbers but had collectively as much equity share capital as the Chinese and Indians. So, the blame should be on foreigners if that was what the ordinary Malays were up against. Obviously, they were not against the chinese. Indeed, it is the people in power that insist that Malays should be materialistic.

UMNO quoted that Malays had 1.43% of equity share of limited companies in 1970. Foreigners had 40+%. The total plantation acreage owned by foreigners were not higher that what Razak had used government funds to develop the FELDA scheme for the exclusively benefit of Malays. I am repeating the statement, the million plus acres of plantation at 1969 prices would have made Malays coprorate share exceed 20%. Yet, 37 years later, EPU figure still say that they had 18.9(?)%. That shows the sincerity of the government, and that itself should suggest that the issue is not economic, but ketuanan Melayu with economic as an excuse. I want people to see facts, and when I hear objection to opinion without cold statistics, I cannot help but believe that there is some ulterior motive behind.

The government has not been sincere in implementing NEP to dissociate job function with race since day one. The government services was heavily populated with Malays. That was the result of article 153. With NEP, promotion started to be based on race. The percentage of Malays in government service gets larger. That alone shows that NEP is a ¡§Instead of affirmative action based on poverty it was exclusively based on a policy of helping just one race irrespective of the wealth of that person.¡¨ LKS

People can write essays on NEP, and can sing praises on the preambles to the policies. But the true intention were not in the preambles. The non-Malays government officials who had a hand in the preambles might have been thinking that the government services might have a chance to change for the better. There officers had created a good advertisement, for UMNO government, and no more.

-----end------

 

Great piece of article. It is a pretty long article, have you got your coffee ready on the table?

Forum "NEP vs VISION 2020: WHERE HAS ALL THE MONEY GONE?" In The

Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall On 26.9.2006

Let me first address the question that perhaps persuaded some of you to
come here tonight, 'WHERE HAS ALL OUR MONEY GONE?"

Remember the phrase, "gaya mesti ada, mati tidak apa"

The Malaysian government is proud that there will be a Malaysian
astronaut next year in conjunction with our country's 50th Merdeka
celebrations. For this trip Malaysian taxpayers are paying RM 95 million.
Pretty expensive to have the ' gaya' to try some teh tarik or roti canai
in space. I am sure some of you are saying let's have teh tarik here and
use the RM 95 million to solve our perennial flood problems.

Do Malaysians get any technological transfer or benefits except for PR
and publicity and feel good factor for BN? Even PR is limited as going to
space is not that unique anymore and does not attract that much
international attention as there are even millionaires who can become
space tourists.

But the real cost may be higher as this was supposed to be sweetener to
get Malaysia to purchase 18 Russian-made Sukhoi SU-30 MKM fighter jets in
May 2003 for US$ 900 million(RM 3.42 billion then). Is US $ 50 million
for an untested fighter jet too high? That is why Malaysian Air Force is
unique in that pilots must understand English and Russian with two types
of planes in service - American and Russian. The logistics
and incompatibility has only added on to our maintenance costs.

So throw in the astronaut for RM 95 million which works out a total cost
of RM 3.5 billion - that's where our money has gone. For wasteful white
elephants projects and corruption that makes many of us worse off and
some people very rich - the money it's all gone.

We still have some left because we have been blessed with oil. But even
that would not last long as oil resources will be depleted in 19 years.
But the oil crunch will come earlier in 2011 when Malaysia becomes a net
importer and not a net exporter of oil. Will wiping out corruption and
waste the solution. That is only part of the solution. The real problem
is getting rid of New Economic Policy (NEP), the father of all waste,
corruption, inefficiencies and mediocrity.

Introduction
--------------

Malaysia's (NEP) was first announced in 1970 as the principal policy
response to the post-election race riots of May 1969, which also saw
Malaysia's first Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman being forced to step
down to make way for Tun Abdul Razak. The NEP had two prongs,
namely "poverty eradication regardless of race" and "restructuring
society to eliminate the identification of race with economic function".

The NEP was supposed to create the conditions for national unity by
reducing inter-ethnic resentment due to socio-economic disparities
between ethnic groups. However, we all know that in essence and in
reality, UMNO has made the NEP policies pro-bumiputera, or more
specifically, UMNO- putra. Over time, the NEP became less about poverty
eradication and more about "restructuring society", especially the
achievement of th 30% corporate equity target.

With a life-span of 20 years, the NEP was the most ambitious social
engineering plan to overhaul the corporate equity ownership of 2.4% bumi,
Chinese 27.2, Indian 1.1, foreigners 63.4% and nominees 6% in 1970 to 30%
bumi, 30% foreigners and 40% for other Malaysians by 1990.

So what exactly has the NEP achieved?
---------------------------------------------

UMNO Youth Deputy Chief and re-born Malay ultra, Khairy Jamaluddin
recently accused the Penang Government of marginalising Penang Malays.
We'd like to remind him once again, with charts and tables, with numbers
and facts that Penang has one of the most successful track record in
eliminating poverty, from 52.7% in 1970 to 0.3% in 2004. In fact, despite
having a higher poverty ratio in 1970 compared to Selangor , Johor,
Melaka, Negeri Sembilan and even Perak, today, Penang poverty is lower
than these states with 1.0%, 2.0% , 1.8%, 1.4% and 4.9% respectively. For
that matter, there are more instances of hardcore
poverty in the states of Sabah (6.5%), Terengganu (4.4%), Kedah (1.3%),
Perlis (1.7%), Perak (1.1%) and Pahang (1.0%) than there are poverty in
Penang .

Hence it clearly goes to prove that despite being a minority in a non-
bumiputera led Penang government, the livelihood of the bumiputeras have
improved tremendously over the past 34 years. And despite being led by
UMNO with the NEP implemented to the letter, states like Sabah,
Terengganu, Kedah, Perlis , Perak and Pahang continues to have high
incidence of poverty - 23, 15.4, 7.0, 6.3, 4.9 and 4.0% respectively.

Does this not clearly demonstrate that NEP has failed to achieve the
objectives of alleviating poverty, particularly in the Malay dominated
states ruled by UMNO?

So who benefited? Has the NEP benefited the bumiputeras?

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Deputy UMNO Youth President Khairy Jamaluddin talks of the failure of the
New Economic Policy(NEP) to fulfill its objective of 30% bumi equity
compared with the 18.9% in 2004 and that the Ninth Malaysian
Plan(9MP) is the final chance to achieve it. This is untrue because the
18.9% bumi equity is based on par value of share capital of limited
companies. The 9MP claims that in 2004, the Chinese owns 39%, Indians
1=2E2%, nominee companies 8%, others 0.4% and foreigners 32.5%.

Par value of share capital is a false reflection of the real or true
worth of the company. A more accurate assessment, though not the most
comprehensive and objective test, would be to take the market value of
bumi equity of all listed companies in Bursa Malaysia (BM). As a
millionaire from his previous RM 9.2 million shareholdings in ECM-Libra,
which he has since sold, Khairy should know that his worth is not based
on par value but market value.

How can the wealth of bumiputeras in the corporate sector be measured by
par value? Would the Government like exchange its RM1 par value share in
Tenaga Nasional with a market value of RM10 for a RM1 par
value share in Hwa Tai with a market value of 66 sen?

In February 2006, Professor Dr Lim Teck Ghee of the Centre for Public
Policy Studies(CPPS), submitted a report that showed as at 30 September
2005, bumi ownership of shares in Bursa Malaysia amounted to 45% or RM
325.08 billion out of the market capitalization of RM 715 billion. And he
has further indicated that if the bumiputeras had not sold off their
shares, their equity stake would have easily been higher than the 45%.

An estimated 40% of the preferential shares given to bumiputeras were
sold for immediate profit. But is the magical "30%" figure even relevant?
When we talk about ownership of shares in Bursa Malaysia, we are
effectively discussing only the interest of a very very small elite. For
example, the Amanah Saham Nasional (ASN) and Amanah Saham Bumiputera
(ASB) are the government's exclusive bumiputera schemes to promote share
ownership in Bursa Malaysia. They were extremely successful in attracting
over two million bumiputeras participating by 1990. However, the vast
majority invested less than RM500. Only 1.3% of all eligible bumiputeras
owned 75% of all ASN shares!

It should also be noted that Bumiputera shareholdings via Trust Agencies
such as state government declined dramatically from 11.7% in 1983 to 1.7%
in 1999 in favour of individual holdings from 7.6% to 17.4%. Clearly,
wealth accumulation by the state on behalf of the entire bumiputera
community has been abandoned in favour of private accumulation by
individual bumiputeras, which is heavily reliant on government
dispensation. Hence, capital accumulation by bumiputeras has increasingly
been determined by "know who", rather than "know how".

What this means is that the well-intended NEP affirmative action has
morphed into clear cut cronyism. The government transferred wealth to a
small pool of politically well-connected businessmen. To quote Datuk
Shahrir Samad, former BN's backbencher's chairman: "=2E .. it was a
deliberate creation of an oligarchy. There was this idea that the
economic success of the country depended on entrepreneurial giants. The
entrepreneurs were supposed to handle the creation of Malay wealth [when]
in fact, it's been a subversion of
Malay wealth."

All Malaysians Face Marginalization
-----------------------------------------

The United Nations Human Development Report consistently list Malaysians
as suffering the worst income inequality between the rich and poor in
South-East Asia. This is conceded by the 9MP which showed
the share of income of the bottom 40% of the population declined from
14.5% in 1990 to 13.5% in 2004 whilst the share of the top 20% of the
population increased from 50% in 1990 to 51.2% in 2004.

The income inequality within the Chinese community worsened in the period
1999 to 2004 from 0.434 to 0.446 whilst for Indians from 0.413 to 0.425.
The income inequality amongst bumis was even worse from 0.433 in 1999 to
0.452 in 2004. Marginalisation of Malaysians generally can be seen with
the Ninth Malaysian Plan(9MP) showing the Gini Coefficient nationally
worsening from 0.452 in 1999 to 0.462 in 2004.

How come UMNO does not talk of reducing the widening income disparity
between rich Malay millionaires like him and poor Malays but continue to
hit out at Chinese as if there are no poor Chinese and all Chinese
are millionaires like him? If UMNO is sincere about helping poor Malays
and Malaysians who are marginalized he should be asking the government to
abolish the 5% bumi housing discounts given to million ringgit homes (as
if Malay millionaires need a discount) and distribute Petronas RM 70
billion ringgit profits to the people.

Distribute Petronas Oil Earnings To All

--------------------------------------------

What the poor and marginalized Malaysians need now is increase in
disposable income to deal with rising inflation and living costs, whether
in the form of pay rise or government grants, which the 2007 Budget has
miserably failed to provide. Since Petronas was formed in 1974, its
earnings have exceeded RM 500 billion as compared to Singapore which does
not have a drop of oil. If a non-oil exporter like Singapore can give
S$2.6 billion (RM 6 billion) cash under the 2006

Budget to all Singaporeans, especially the poor, why can't the Malaysian
government do so when Petronas has earned nearly RM 500 billion. Oil
importer Singapore has given $10.675 billion (RM 24 billion) directly to
its people since 2000 as compared to Petronas which has not given a
single cent.

This year its pre-tax profits hitting RM70.2 billion jumped 21 per cent
compared to RM58 billion in the previous financial year ending 31 March
2006. Net profit rose to RM43.6 billion from RM35.6 billion. To get an
idea of Petronas' size, the net profit of Malaysia's largest listed
company, Malayan Banking, was just RM2.5 billion. This year alone, the
oil company has paid the government a total of RM41.7 billion -
equivalent to what it would take to build 23 Kuala Lumpur City Centre
(KLCC) complexes, including the Petronas Twin Towers.

Instead of taxing Petronas , DAP suggests that the pre-tax profits be
distributed to every Malaysian to a maximum of RM 2,000 each with the
remainder given to Petronas for capital investment purposes. If an oil
importer Singapore can give tens of billions to its citizens why can't an
oil exporter like Malaysia do so.

Is UMNO Afraid Of Answering The Question Who Amongst The Malays Own 45%
Or RM 325 Billion Of The RM 715 Billion Market Capitalization of Bursa
Malaysia?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
-=

Are UMNO and Khairy afraid of answering the question who amongst the
Malays own the 45% or RM 325 billion out of the total RM 715 billion
market capitalization of Bursa Malaysia? Malaysians, especially Malays
who do not possess millions of shares or imported vehicles APs, should
focus on the important question who the rich Malays are who have
benefited. And not be distracted by false lies of such rich or
millionaire UMNO leaders who do not wish to answer this question and try
to distract attention with lies that the 30% bumi equity of the NEP has
not been achieved.

How many poor Malays or Malaysians can afford to buy RM 9.2 million worth
of shares like Khairy Jamaluddin? Or so powerful until Mukhriz Mahathir,
former Prime Minister Tun Mahathir's Mohamad son, had to beg him to
reinstate a RM 214.3 million contract for Opcom Sdn Bhd to supply fiber
optics to Telecom Malaysia in 2003. Only after Mukhriz begged Khairy was
the contract reinstated although the value was
slashed by 15%.

Or can be like MCA Youth Deputy President Ling Hee Liong who can borrow
RM 1.2 billion to control 3 publicly listed companies.

How many can spend RM 3.5 million on a wedding by Datuk Roslan Hashim ?
Malacca-born businessman Roslan said his wedding gifts to his bride
included RM444,444.44 in cash and a further RM22, 222.22 in dowry. Other
gifts include a BMW 320i worth RM250,000, a RM150,000 jewellery set, a
diamond ring worth RM20,000, a RM25,000 Rolex watch and other designer
items.

Or other rich Malays who have benefited from the NEP such as Minister in
the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Effendi Norwawi. In court
documents on the divorce settlement with his former wife Zariah Hashim @
Farida Effendi revealed that he had generously given her assets worth
more than RM20 million, exclusive use of two houses in Kuala Lumpur and
Kuching worth RM10 million and RM2.5 million, respectively. Since the
divorce, Effendi claimed that he provided monetary assistance amounting
to almost RM1 million, costs of
maintaining the house, maids, drivers, security and cash.

 

Tajudin Ramli and Malaysia Airlines
----------------------------------------

Tajudin, an accountant and the son of a farmer, was entrusted with the
management of Malaysia Airlines in 1994. Mahathir had spoke glowingly of
how a man from such humble beginnings could rise to become the
chairman of an important regional airline, and how Malays should be proud
of his "achievements".

However, this prot=E9g=E9 of the country's then finance minister, Tun
Daim Zainuddin, had no previous experience running an airline came very
close to bankrupting the airline, and that was when fuel prices were
still at record lows. MAS faced 5 consecutive years of losses and was
plunged deep into debt before Tajudin was kicked out. But how was he "
kicked out"? The government paid an exorbitant RM1.79 billion to buy out
Tajudin's shares at RM8 each when the market price was less than half
that at RM3.68!

MAS today is clearly still suffering from the after effects of major
abuse and mismanagement today.

Halim Saad and Renong
----------------------------

If the Tajudin's bail-out was considered incredible, then you have not
met Halim Saad. In the midst of the Asian fnancial Crisis, cash rich
United Engineers Malaysia (UEM) was forced to purchase his 32.6% worth
of shares in Renong without triggering a mandatory general offer. Halim
committed to a put option to buy back his shares from UEM for RM3.2
billion within 3 years. And guess what? UEM never saw the return of their
money and Halim today is relieved of all his financial obligations.

The entire episode saw the share prices of UEM and Renong plunged within
3 months from RM8.75 and RM3.16 to RM1.60 and RM0.66 respectively wiping
off hundreds of millions off the wealth of thousands of minority
shareholders, many of whom were bumiputeras as well as bumiputera funds.

And RM3.2 billion will work out to almost RM 40,000 for every household
living below the poverty line, many of whom are the bumiputeras the
Government and UMNO claim they were seeking to help. And yet every single
sen of that money went to a single individual, probably representing the
interest of the rich and powerful in the country.

Vision 2020 Of A Developed Nation Has Failed.

------------------------------------------------------

Prime Minister's Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's announcement of the
3rd Indsutrial Masterplan (IMP3) target of 6.3 % average economic growth
in the next 15 years is an admission of failure of achieving Vision 2020
of turning Malaysia into a developed nation. Clearly Malaysia would not
be a developed state by 2020 with only 6.3% average economic growth when
the target for the next 15 years to achieve developed nation status is
8.8%

When former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahahtir Mohamad presented Vision 2020
on 28th February 1991, he required an average annual growth of 7% during
the three decades to 2020 so that our GDP in 2020 can be RM 920 billion
in real (1990 Ringgit ) terms. Malaysia is capable of reaching its gross
domestic product (GDP) growth target of RM920 billion in 2020 only if it
achieves an average growth of 8.8 percent in the next 15
years from 2006-2005.

Malay Research & Strategy Foundation fellow consultant Datuk Dr Mohd
Dahan Abd Latiff said the projection was based along the calculation of
the GDP of RM262 billion in 2005. He said with the 6% GDP growth
already set for 9MP, or RM351 billion target in 2010, growth for the
remaining 10 years -- 2011 to 2020 has to be at about 10.2 percent. The
target of 10.2% for 2011-2020 is clearly impossible as the National
Mission had set a growth rate of only 6.5% for this period. Even this
6=2E5% growth rate is doubtful as Malaysia is expected to be an oil
importer from 2011-2020.

 

What we want
----------------

Just as the 2007 Budget has not benefited lower-income groups, we should
adopt the correct macroeconomic policy and discard nationally divisive
and outdated policies of quotas and subsidies. Such racial policies like
the NEP must be replaced by those which forges national unity and
encourages competition, value creation and meritocracy.

Malaysian must abandon the racial premise of the NEP and its false
pursuit of 30% bumi equity to pursue the real UMNO Malay owners who
possess the 45% market capitalization of Bursa Malaysia. Malaysia must
learn from developing countries that has successfully made the transition
to developed country status how they strengthened competitiveness.
Experience from these countries such as South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong
and Taiwan have shown that quotas and discriminatory type policies were
rejected. Emphasis was always on developing human resources to ensure the
best and brightest are chosen.

For this reason even though these countries lacked natural resources,
they progressed more rapidly than countries blessed with abundant natural
resources.

From a situation where Malaysia was almost thrice more prosperous than
Korea in 1966, Korea is now more than 3 times more prosperous than
Malaysia. In 1966 annual per capita Gross Domestic Product(GDP) was less
than US$ 130 as compared to Malaysia's US$350. By 1980, barely 10 years
after the NEP, South Korea had caught up with a per capita GNP of US$1900
as compared to Malyaysia's US$ 1,830. By 2005 according to the
International Monetary Fund., GDP per capita in Korea had far exceeded
Malaysia at US$16,421 as compared to Malaysia's US$5,040. From a position
where Malaysia was almost 3 times better than South Korea, NEP has made
us three times worse.

The New Economic Policy(NEP) and the 30% bumi equity requirement are the
principal reasons why Malaysia performed worse than South Korea. Instead
of promoting transparency, we promote corruption. Instead of merit, we
have quotas. Instead of technical "know-how" we have political "know-
who". Lack of competitiveness, inefficiency and poor productivity is the
price we pay for the government's continued
reliance on the NEP.

Malaysia hopes to attract some RM2 ,894 billion in investment - both
private and public - during the 15-year period to 2020. But do these
investments benefit the country when we do not even have sufficient
workers until we have to import them from foreign countries?

The government such be encouraging capital intensive and high-value
investments centred on knowledge and ICT, not on labour intensive
investment. Such dependence on foreign workers is unhealthy and as of
December last year, there were 1.8 million foreign workers of which 32
percent were in the manufacturing sector and 8.8 percent in the services
sector.

Malaysia should learn from South Korea and Taiwan whose commitment
towards excellence and cost competitiveness has created world-class
companies like ACER, Hyndai and Samsung. Hyundai and Posco Steel Corp of
South Korea has succeeded where Proton and the corrupt-ridden Perwaja has
failed.

We do not have much time to lose if we want to stay in touch with
globalisation. As Thomas Friedman famously said in his book "The World Is
Flat", 'When I was growing up, my parents used to say to me, ''Tom,
finish your dinner -- people in China are starving.'' Now we should be
telling our kids, 'finish your homework -- people in China and India are
starving for your jobs.' Where is Malaysia?

First Class Mentality That Is Colour-Blind Vital

----------------------------------------------------

One cringes when the government talks of low bumi representation in the
private sector without explaining the dominance by one ethnic group in
the public sector or in government procurement.

How can Malaysians attain first class mentality if the government is
still gripped by racial considerations? Canada appointed a first ethnic
Chinese, Adrienne Louise Clarkson who is a Hakka born in Hong Kong
(Chinese: =8C=DE=99u=8E}), as the 26th Governor General from October 7,
1999 to September 27, 2005 even though Chinese formed 3.2% of the
population . Judge Anand Satyanand of Indian and Fiji-Indian background
will be the first New Zealand Governor-General of Asian ethnicity in
August this year. A Chinese and Indian can be appointed as head of state
for Canada and New Zealand despite the fact that they do not
comprise one third of the population like in Malaysia.

As of June 2005, there were 899,250 public servants, of whom 77.04 per
cent or 692,736 were Malays. The rest were: 84,295 Chinese (9.37 per
cent), 46,054 Indians ( 5.12 per cent), 69,828 other Bumiputeras (7.77
per cent) and 6,337 of other races ( 0.70 per cent). Before the launch of
the New Economic Policy in 1971, the racial breakdown of the Malaysian
civil service comprised 60.8 per cent Malay, 20.2 per cent Chinese, 17.4
per cent Indian and 1.6 per cent others.

Some 35 years after the NEP, the already under-represented Chinese
percentage in the Malaysian civil service had fallen further from 20.2
per cent to 9.37 per cent, while Indians who were somewhat over-
represented with 17.4 per cent before the NEP are now under-represented
with 5.12 per cent. The government must be serious in finding out why the
Chinese and Indians have become so under-represented in the civil service
35 years after the New Economic Policy, with the Chinese falling by 10.8
percentage points and the
Indian by 12.3 percentage points from 1971 to 2006.

Giving Disadvantaged Communities The Net And The Fishes To Be Self-
Sufficient.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
-=

But we empathise with disadvantaged communities. Unlike UMNO, we fully
understand the concept of being marginalised and therefore it is our
policy stand that no specific community, whether Malay, Dayaks,
Kadazans , Indians or Chinese for that matter will be "left behind".

We will call for the NEP or its modern incarnates, National Development
Policy (NDP) or National Vision Policy (NVP), be abolished in favour of
significantly strengthened policies to alleviate the living standards the
rural and urban poor in Malaysia. And if the bumiputeras form the largest
community in this group, then our policies will benefit them the most -
the bumiputeras in need, not the Halim Saads or the Tajudin Ramlis.

Opium was used by the British colonialists during the 1800s to subjugate
the Chinese to impose its imperialism and control over the Chinese
subjects in China. It resulted in China losing 2 humiliating Opium Wars
over a period of 20 years. The NEP is like opium which is synonymous with
corruption. It is an addiction exploited by the Malay political elite in
UMNO to subjugate and control the bumiputera masses
for the purposes of consolidating and perpetuating political and economic
control over the country. It is a corrupt tool used the UMNO elite to
harness power and wealth at the expense of all Malaysians, the
bumiputeras, the Kadazandusuns , the Ibans, the Dayaks, the Indians and
the Chinese.

The Prime Minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, must go beyond mere rhetoric
in claiming that the Government does not "marginalise anyone in the
implementation of [its] programmes". He must go beyond just
preaching the principles of Islam Hadhari which calls for "a just and
trustworthy government", "free and liberated people", " protection of the
rights of minority groups and women" as well as"cultural and moral
integrity". He must be seen to act for the man in the street and abolish
the NEP and be a real "Prime Minister for All Malaysians".

Instead, ethnically-biased policies should be replaced with those
focusing on alleviating the plight of the poor and the needy. Successful
implementation of this policy will automatically naturally ensure that
the inter-ethnic disparities are eliminated over time.

With this, I thank you.

- Lim Guan Eng

Imagine our future lies in the hand of these people. Simply unthinkable.

3,800 mat rempit to join Umno, says Putera chief

PETALING JAYA: Putera Umno claims it has roped in 3,800 mat rempit under 25 years of age to sign up as Umno members.

Movement chief Datuk Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim said these young street racers were among 10,000 in the Klang Valley who were courted by the wing.

Nationwide, the movement had wooed between 30,000 and 40,000 mat rempit, he told reporters at a gotong royong to spruce up a Muslim cemetery at Bukit Tandang here yesterday.

¡§We will collect their particulars and absorb them as members. So far, 3,800 have filled up forms to join Umno,¡¨ he said.

Azeez reiterated that only a small percentage of these mat rempit were involved in social ills and the movement will not tolerate the hardcore ones who are involved in gangsterism and drug abuse.

The movement received flak in September when some convoy members of a motorcycle expedition to Teluk Batik, Perak, became unruly.

The organisers could not control the estimated 8,000 mat rempit involved in that expedition, and this led Umno Youth chief Datuk Hishammuddin Tun Hussein to tell the Putera wing to defer the motorcycle carnival, which was due to be held from next month.

Over the past seven months, the movement had organised various welfare activities involving the mat rempit. These included the cleaning up of a mosque, a kindergarten and a school in Teluk Batik, and another gotong royong at an orphanage in Kajang. 

¡§Next week, there will be a programme on mandi dan sembahyang jenazah (cleansing and prayer rituals before a funeral) and a kacau dodol (dodol making) programme to prepare the delicacy for Malaysia¡¦s peacekeeping forces in Lebanon and Afghanistan,¡¨ he said.

Azeez said that in a general election, the mat rempit could help to put up posters and banners for the party.

He said the movement hoped to turn the mat rempit into more responsible individuals and bring them into the mainstream society.

Azeez said that Putera Umno hopes to help 15,000 dropouts get training on various skills in private colleges by 2008.

He said, 1,400 school leavers had enrolled in colleges to take up skills in the automotive and hospitality industry. 

Another 400 school leavers, added Azeez, would be enrolled in colleges to undergo paramedics, IT and tourism courses. 

It finally makes sense now, as i have always wonder why some of our leaders behaving like an a***** in the parliament, hm....finally....so sometimes we just cant say gov-control local news is no good, actually these funny news has got its value too, you just need to know how to process them, in order to solve some of the "mysteries", like this one, LOL, and besides, it cheers up your day!! so......CHEERS!!

What more can i say? news of the day......

By NIK KHUSAIRI IBRAHIM

PENANG: Questions about which Malay leader first initiated settlement in Penang is immaterial as long as an amendment is made in the history books that Sir Francis Light was not the founder of the island, said a Malay scholar.

Kassim Ahmad, who taught Malay studies at the University of London in the 1960s, said it was high time the mistakes made in the history books were corrected so that the historical texts were not riddled ¡§with lies, prejudice and twisted facts¡¨.

¡§We need to document the truth,¡¨ said Kassim, who was also a researcher with Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka in the early 1960s.

He added that the Education Ministry and the Higher Education Ministry should carry out large-scale studies to unveil historical facts that had been erased and amend errors made in history textbooks.

¡§Only those who do not know history will argue that Francis Light is the founder of the island,¡¨ he said when contacted at his home in Kulim yesterday.

Kassim said this in response to a report in a Malay tabloid that quoted Universiti Sains Malaysia senior history lecturer Dr Mahani Musa as saying that Datuk Keramat could have initiated settlement on the island in 1705.

Dr Mahani had said this in response to Universiti Teknologi Mara lecturer Dr Ahmad Murad Merican¡¦s claim that Datuk Jannaton had founded the island in 1749.

¡§Arguments over who was the Malay leader who first initiated settlement on the island is important but we need to carry out a thorough study to avoid confusion,¡¨ said Kassim, who was also the editor of Hikayat Hang Tuah, which was previously used as a literature textbook. 

¡§The real Malay history started in the 6th century during the Srivijaya era. It expanded to Palembang, and Malacca. 

¡§Malay history existed hundreds of years before Francis Light stepped on Penang island, and before (Sir Stamford) Raffles arrived in Temasek (now Singapore).

¡§The confusion in Malay history occurred because of internal fights and disunity among the Malays in the past. That is why Britons like Francis Light claimed they had founded Penang,¡¨ he said. 

Depending on how you choose to view it, in my opinion, i think there are two ways to look at it. One is you consider the very first person (lucky huh) who got to stay in that particular place as the founder of that place, in this case, it is the Penang island. From another perspective, you would consider the first person who started developing the place and ulitising the local recources as the founder of the place. In a land where they named it after theirs before gaining independence, it is not surprising that the former is chosen. And i'm not disagreeing! But my question is : How can they be so sure that the very first person who stepped into Penang Island is a Malay guy? and frankly speaking, history is meant to be distorted anyway, why raise this matter only? Others are not as important and are not part of the history? It can get really funny reading these news. The views voiced are so full of bias and prejudice that i cant believe they have the cheek to say it. When we are talking about events that happened when we are not even in this world yet, we need prove, and lots of it. Just because he put forth a statement like this, it becomes the fact of history and expect everyone to believe it and go unquestioned? Ohh, stop insulting the intelligence of Malaysians please, this is a country where the ppl's brain cells grow more than most the politicians. In a true democracy country, its premier and ministers must be able to answer every question thrown at them in whichever direction. Here, you can expect them to drown your questions with monkey's shoutings or something which you normally would not expect from a human. Time to put a full stop here, because more are coming up, just as long as i still read local newspaper.

First, we have....

 
PETALING JAYA: Rela arrested a total of 17,700 people believed to be illegal immigrants and screened 94,010 people up to Sept 26 this year. 

In a statement issued here yesterday, Rela said that out of the figure, Indonesians comprised the highest number of those arrested at 12,076, followed by those from Myanmar (2,089), Indians (963), Bangladeshis (923), Thais (402), Chinese (43) and others (1,200). 

In addition to that, four employers were also arrested. 

The statement added that Rela would intensify operations to help reduce the number of illegal immigrants during the Ramadan month up to Hari Raya. 

The statement also said that state Rela directors and district Rela officers had been ordered to proceed with the usual operations. 

Employers were also warned not to employ illegal immigrants or harbour them because it was against the law. 

Then we have......

BY CHRISTINA KOH

IPOH: Three Thais were sentenced to six months' jail for overstaying in Malaysia. 

Magistrate Syamsul Rezal Md Ariff ordered them to serve their sentence from the date of arrest on Aug 30. 

Kritsana Chumsaen, 29, Pattanalak Cherpudee, 31, and Padiphat Plappatong, 20, had pleaded guilty to committing the offence at the New Caspian Hotel here on Aug 30 at about 1.45pm. 

Earlier, Kritsana pleaded for leniency as he did not know the laws of the country and so was unaware if he had committed a crime. 

"I ask to be sent back to my country," he told the court in mitigation.

To make it more ironic, these news actually came out from the same newspaper and on the same day! Some people just have no shame, ptuiiii

 

I found this when i was looking for news/articles which are totally different from local/Gov's newspaper. I could still remember we used to study a history chapter on the integrity of judiciary, the executive, that they are indepedent and bla..bla..bla, they should have included this man, Salleh Abas, into the history book.

"Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad had summoned then Lord President Salleh Abas to his office 18 years ago and told him to either quit or face a tribunal.

Salleh answered that he would not resigned and added that the prime minister ¡§could do what he pleased¡¨.

¡§I told him I would not resign because if I did, I could not show my face to anyone and I might as well die,¡¨ wrote Salleh in his private notes right after the meeting on May 27, 1988.

The notes narrating the meeting was reproduced by the latest edition of Aliran.

Also present at the meeting were then deputy prime minister Ghafar Baba and then chief secretary to the government, Sallehuddin Mohamed.

According to Salleh, Mahathir told him that he was asked to step down because of a letter which he had written to the King regarding the state of relationship between the judiciary and the executive.

¡§I told him that I wrote the letter simply because judges had informed me that they were concerned about the present situation and asked to express their views through me,¡¨ wrote Salleh.

¡§Mahathir then said that I made speeches indicating that I am biased and I am not qualified to sit in the Umno case.¡¨

At that time, Umno was facing internal turmoil and a legal suit by party members resulted in the High Court declaring the party illegal.

Salleh had then decided to set up a nine-member Supreme Court to hear the appeal against the disbarring of the party. Meanwhile, Mahathir had also set up another party under the name Umno Baru to assume the role and functions of the illegal Umno.

Salleh said he denied the charges at the meeting with Mahathir.

While Mahathir was levelling these accusations against him, both Ghafar and Sallehuddin sat at the same table without saying a word.

¡§The prime minister himself, from the beginning to the end, did not even look me in the eyes. He was looking down his table all the time.¡¨

¡§I could detect Ghafar was strangely silent and Sallehuddin only caught me by the side of his eyes but he too appeared to be subdued. Ghafar kept his head down while Sallehuddin was writing in a notebook.¡¨

No desire to quit

Salleh added that Mahathir promised him all retirement entitlements should he decide to accept his offer to resign.

¡§I told him that I was entitled to nothing as I was not yet 60. Obviously he was surprised when told I was not 60 yet. Finally, he said that if I did not step down he would institute a judicial tribunal to remove me.

¡§He said that I could see the Agong if I wanted to and he would not stop me from doing so. I told him I would not be resigning and he could do what he pleased.¡¨

Salleh said that since there were nothing else te be said, he left after shaking the hands of Mahathir, Ghafar and Sallehuddin.

¡§None of the three looked me straight in my face.¡¨

He said that he was not even accompanied out of the prime minister¡¦s office by his aides and that he had to look for his driver on his own.

At the end of his note, Salleh wrote that he had no desire to quit until he had reached the age of 65.

He had also written a Quranic verse which says:

¡§No misfortune will fall on us expect what has been decreed by Allah. He is our protector and in whom the believers should place their trust.¡¨

He ended his note: ¡§This passage from the Quran struck my heart as I entered the door of the Prime Minister¡¦s Office and it remained with me during the course of our discussion till the end, and to my exit from his room.¡¨

Calls for judicial review

Mahathir stuck true to his words and set up a special tribunal which tried Salleh on charges of misconduct and for questioning constitutional amendments that seriously eroded the powers of the judiciary.

Salleh was then sacked.

Two of five supreme court judges - George Seah and Wan Sulaiman Pawanteh - who had ruled that the tribunal was convened unconstitutionally were sacked along with Salleh after being found guilty of misconduct by another tribunal.

Some have described the dismissal of the top judges from the Supreme Court - then the country's highest court, now renamed as Federal Court - as Malaysia¡¦s darkest hours in its judicial history.

A month ago, Salleh broke his silence and supported the Bar Council¡¦s call in reviewing the 1988 judicial crisis.

Last week, government backbencher Zaid Ibrahim also called for a review of the issue, adding that ¡§he (Salleh) was not sacked because he wrote a letter to the King or because of his speech delivered in Universiti Malaya. It was because he wanted a nine-judge panel to hear the Umno case.¡¨
" end of article

By P Gunasegaram Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is only in his third year as Prime Minister but his predecessor Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad already has four questions for his administration to answer. They relate to Proton’s sale of MV Agusta; the exit of the former Proton chief executive officer; approved permits for cars; and scrapping of the bridge project. While we would like to hear a better explanation from the government than what has been given so far, Abdullah should not be the only one answeringquestions. I am sure we all have questions for Mahathir too — on how he ran the country for 22 years. Here’s a list of 22 questions or rather 22 groups of questions we would like to ask Mahathir, one for each of his 22 years in power: On clean government. You came to power in 1981 and introduced the slogan “bersih, cekap dan amanah” (clean, efficient and trustworthy). What did you do to further that? Did you make the Anti-Corruption Agency more independent and effective? Did you ensure that the police and judiciary did their job properly and reduce corruption in their ranks? Did you ensure that ministers and chief ministers not have income beyond their legal means? How many big guns were prosecuted for corruption offences during your long tenure? What happened to “bersih, cekap dan amanah”? Press freedom. Your criticism of the government got plenty of coverage in the local media whereas during your time, criticisms against you by two former prime ministers were muted in the mainstream newspapers. Editors in Umno-linked newspapers too were removed during your time for not toeing the line. What did you do to advance the cause of responsible press freedom? Proton. You went ahead with the national car project in 1983 despite a number of experts disagreeing with you, especially with respect to lack of economies of scale. Isn’t it true that Proton’s profits over the last 20 years came out of vastly higher prices that the Malaysian public has to pay to subsidise Proton, resulting in considerable hardship for Malaysians who need cars because of the poor public transport system? More lately, why was it necessary for Proton to buy a stake in a failed Italian motorcycle manufacturer when it could not even produce cars competitively? Heavy industries. Why did you push into heavy industries such as steel and cement in the 1980s, ignoring studies which suggested developing natural resource-based industries instead? They caused major problems and billions of ringgit in losses. Population. Why did you encourage a population of 70 million for Malaysia and change the name of the National Family Planning Board to the National Population Development Board? How do you expect poor people to take care of five, six or more children? What kind of quality of life can they provide their children? Immigration. Why did you allow hordes of people to immigrate, mainly from Indonesia, in such an unregulated way that there are as many or more illegal immigrants than legal ones now, accounting for some two million or more people? Did you not realise that this would cause serious social problems? On his first deputy. Some five years after you came to power, there were serious rifts between you and your deputy Datuk (now Tun) Musa Hitam. What was the cause of these problems and was it because you were heavy- handed and did not consult your ministers? On the first serious Umno split. When Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and Musa took on Tun Ghafar Baba and you at the Umno general assembly of 1987, it caused a serious split in Umno, with you winning by a very narrow margin (761 to 718). Why did you not seek to heal the rift in Umno post the elections? Instead, you purged Umno and its successor Umno Baru of those who opposed you, causing an unprecedented split in Malay unity. Operasi Lalang. Why did you have to resort to this move in October 1987, when you used wide powers of detention under the Internal Security Act to detain over 100 people, close down four newspapers and cause a wave of fear throughout the country? Was it to consolidate your tenuous hold on power then by using an oppressive law? Judiciary. What was your motive to take action in 1988 to remove the then Lord President and several Supreme Court judges from their positions under allegations of judicial misconduct, a move which was heavily criticised by the Bar Council and other bodies? Was it because you needed more compliant judges whose rulings would not threaten your position of power in a number of cases in court? Was this the first step in dismantling the judiciary’s role as a system of checks and balances against the legislature and the executive? What have you to say to repeated assertions by many, including prominent ex-chief justices, who maintain that this led to the erosion of judicial independence? Education. You presided over the education system at an important part of its transformation first as Education Minister in the 1970s, then as Prime Minister. Would it be correct to surmise therefore that you were also responsible for its decline during those years? Why did you not spend more money and resources to ensure that our education system was excellent and continued to improve but instead spent billions on other showpiece projects? Why did you allow our national school system, which is the ideal place to develop ties among young Malaysians, to become so divisive that today, 90% of those who attend national schools come from only one race while the rest have opted out? Former finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin. Why did you give this one man so much power? And you have not given a satisfactory explanation why he left government the second time round. Did it have anything to do with the forced consolidation of banks? Why did the government buy back Malaysian Airline System (MAS) at RM8 a share in 2000 from Tan Sri Tajudin Ramli when the market price was less than half that? Cronyism and patronage. Did you not encourage cronyism and patronage by dishing out major projects to a few within the inner circle? People such as Tan Sri Halim Saad (the Renong group — toll roads, telecommunications and so on), Tajudin (mobile telephone group TRI and MAS), Tan Sri Amin Shah Omar (the failed PSC Industries — multi-billion ringgit naval dockyard contracts) and Tan Sri Ting Pek Khiing (Ekran — the Bakun Dam), to mention just a few? Privatisation. Why did you allow privatisation to take place in such a manner that the most profitable parts of government operations were given away? Toll roads had guaranteed toll increases and compensation in the event traffic projections were not met. Independent power producers had contracts that guaranteed them profits at the expense of Tenaga Nasional. Tun Ghafar Baba. Although Ghafar had the highest number of votes among Umno vice-presidents when Tun Hussein Onn became Prime Minister in 1976, you, who got the lowest number of votes, were chosen as Hussein’s deputy. Yet, when you called upon Ghafar to be your deputy in 1986 when you fell out with Musa, he obliged, helping you to win the Umno presidency. Yet, you and your supporters did little to back him up when he was challenged for the deputy presidency in 1993 by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. Can we say that you stabbed him in the back? And what about Hussein, the man who picked you as his successor? He died not as a member of Umno as he had refused to join your Umno Baru. Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. Did you move against him because he was a threat to your position in 1998? Did you use the entire government machinery at your disposal to get him sentenced? Do you think he got a fair trial? Don’t you think the country suffered terribly because of nothing more than a power struggle involving the two of you? Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Was it really necessary to spend RM10 billion on a showpiece airport at Sepang when Subang airport could have been so easily expanded? Putrajaya. What is the justification for spending RM20 billion on a grandiose government city at a time when office space was available in Kuala Lumpur? Could the money not have been put to better use, such as improving educational resources? Government-linked companies. Why did you not make efforts to improve the performance of GLCs? Why did you allow funds such as the Employees Provident Fund and Kumpulan Wang Amanah Pencen to take up dubious investments? These have led to hundreds, if not billions, of ringgit in losses to these funds. Islamisation. At the end of your tenure after your falling out with Anwar, you criticised the extreme elements in Islam of taking control of government institutions and doing things that divided Muslims from non- Muslims. But isn’t it true you started it all with your “Menyerap Nilai- Nilai Islam Dalam Pentadbiran Negara” policy of 1981 when you lured Anwar into Umno to help you promote it? And why did you declare that Malaysia was an Islamic state when it is clearly enshrined in our Federal Constitution as the wishes of our founding fathers that Malaysia should be a secular country given our multi-racial and multi-religious composition? Were you trying to reverse the policy of the nation’s founding leaders? Approved permits. You blamed International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz for the AP fiasco. As we recall, you appointed her and kept her at the ministry since 1986 until you stepped down in 2003 and never once complained or took action over the issuance of APs by the ministry. Indeed, she was embroiled in some controversy over bumiputera share allotment but you stood by her. So why make it an issue now? If you say you were not aware back then, what does that tell us? Money politics. Why did money politics (vote buying) in Umno become such a big issue during your tenure as Umno president? Why were you so powerless to do anything about it when the solutions were so simple? There are other questions, of course, but this is our list of 22. In the same way that Mahathir hopes the government will answer his questions, we hope that Mahathir will answer ours. Actually someone did actually answer these questions in another forum, but i must say that his answer is just as naive as any new born baby. Let's read his "brilliant answers" to his so called stupid questions. 22 Answers for F****** (well, sorry for the bad word, but a "genius" is always different :P)Idiot The Edge, KJ & Gunalingam Questions. 1. ACA and Police have their own rules and regulations. As a matter of principle every organisation should improve their performance. ACA and Police did that. The ministers have taken an oath to serve the country and they shall do that. In relation to living beyond their means, you should ask ACA and Police about it. Prosecution of big guns cannot be used to justify that what you have said. Dr M choose education path. Why Dollah now dont want to take action action those corrupted man?? if he's clean enough, just do it since he's the PM with absolute power. 2. Now under Dollah, this issues getting more serious. Even chinese dont have any rights to speak out for their religioun. 3. Proton is not just an ordinary company. Proton is created to enable Malaysia to have engineering capability. In order to grow, we have to protect our market, can Guna Car Company sell a car in South Korea? Poor public transport have nothing to do with Proton. Rapid KL is currently addresing the issues. You must be joking to say that Augusta is a failed company. Why dont you do a research first? Just take a look at the MVA capability, malaysian are materialistic & will only look at money aspet other than capability. Look at Boeing, once was owned by German until WW2.. Boeing under German also dont make any cents, but US bought it because of the technology. take a look at Nissan, why Renault took-over it, because of the Nissan capability. 4. Heavy industry is the way to go. Do US / Japan depends on natural resources based industries? If TDM dont push our country to be an industry-based economy, dont dream our "income per capita" to increase 300% befor 1990. plus, without heavy-industry, its hard for us to compete with foreign country. even Thailand, Indonesia now push their economy into it. 5. The govt never force you to furk your wife & then give birth to 5,6 or 7 babies. It's up to you to have how many children you want. So, you happy if we implement the China policy on population?? 6. During those time, the economic environment is conducive, thus more business, more worker. As Malaysian are lazy to work under the sun, immigrants came and work. Without the labour business will stall. This is exactly what happen now, construction of residential property stalled. even if u dont allow migrations, dont think malaysian society will be the best and good. malaysian society suck big time, their mentality & attitude is a piece of crap. just take a look at malay, observe their mentality. 7. Deputy Prime Minister must follow the Prime Minister. Only 1 agenda. If the DPM dont like it, please feel free to walk out. Do you think Najib agree about everything with Dollah? if Najib show his true believe, Dollah will also kick Najib out of office. 8. UMNO was deregistered by the Court. The opponents do not want to join the new UMNO. So is it fair to say Dr M purged them ? 9. It is about inciting racial hatred. 10. The judges were removed by their peers. Even now Dollah removed judges that he disagree with and judges that refused to follow his style. most of the judge in Malaysia (especially high court) are pro-KJ. The judiciary system will always be the same even under Lim Kit Siang, no freedom in judiciary system. 11. The policy was not implemented correctly (with regards to decline in quality). In relation, to national school, there is a sekolah wawasan. That should help. 12. Didn't he resigned from the cabinet? yes, Daim has too much power, even DSAI also the same. DSAI approach TDM to give him the Finance Minister post, then he use his position for his political career, he also did a lot of mistake when he was the Finance Minister etc. corruption & misconduct. 13. At that point of time they are qualified. The problem is after the awarding of the contract. There is a weaknesses in the check and balance at the implementing unit. Point taken. 14. Privatisation suppose to increase efficiency of the privatised entity. Government will make money on the cost saving on the labour and overhead + 30% of the profit. On IPP, at that point of time, no entrepreneur will want to commit themselves if the rate of return is not like what it is as the interest rate at that point of time is high. 15. Tun Ghafar was stabbed by Anwar Ibrahim not Dr M. Anwar Ibrahim was the man behind the 1987 UMNO split. Anwar Ibrahim is no different than zionist, see how he reach top level in UMNO so fast. Pak Lah, Musa, Ghafar & Razaleigh against TDM because of Anwar but TDM give DSAI chances to stay in UMNO and he appointed DSAI as DPM but again, TDM was stabbed by Anwar. 16. Anwar Ibrahim was never a threat to Dr Mahathir. Anwar was convicted by a Court and during his trial he has so many lawyers defending him. Plus, why he refused to swear to God that he did it during a protest at Masjid Negara??? 17. KLIA is for the future. Only dumd idiot bast@rd with argue about KLIA project. Please look at the big picture. Even Heathrow will be replace with new airport in future. If you hope govt expand Subang, how long can Subang handle million passengers?? Its better to build KLIA now while the cost still lower than in future, dumb a$s will ask furking question. 18. Putrajaya also is for the future. Maybe Guna's granchildren will one day become President of MIC. Plus, even without govt agencies in KL, KL's traffic jam getting worst. So, TDM plan to leave KL to private firm and create new city that with help other areas in southern Selangor to developed. 19. GLC strive to improve their performance. For example Proton, used to have a lot of cash. Maybank, higher profits, Petronas, Fortune 500 Company. Of course in the course of business they will be some failure. But if it is a calculated risk, so be it, if we fail we have to learn from the lesson. That is how we progress. 20. Implement Islam's values is not to make / create extremist. Every citizen can practice what ever religion that the prefer, however, Islam is the official religion. 21. If you really study the facts, increase in AP is after Dr M step down not before. Plus, blame Dollah, why he dont take any action if he know that AP system is a shiit. 22. The King of Money Politics (you know who) used to reside in Sg Buloh jail. Plus, Dollah now THE KING OF MONEY POLITICS. if he's clean enough, he should bring those corrupted leaders to court. but he failed becoz he's the godfather of Money Politics. The 22 questions are nothing. " WOw, wow, u didnt miss his last words, did u? At first i thought that only the former PM could answer these questions, I think I was wrong. Because there are many ppl like him living in *ahem* who help someone *ahem* to hold on to his position for so long. Food for thought, "There is no stupid question, only stupid answer"

Here we go

Proton selling MV Augusta for 1 euro (Updated)
By Jimmy Yeow & Doreen Leong

Proton Holdings Bhd is selling its 57.75% stake in motorcycle maker MV
Augusta Motor SpA to an Italian company GEVI SpA for €1 (RM4.48) ¡ª a year
after injecting €70 million into the ailing company.

Under a share purchase and investment agreement, GEVI will assume the
restructured frozen debts amounting to €106.94 million and working
capital requirement of €32.5 million, Proton said on Dec 27.

¡°The proposed disposal is consistent with Proton¡¯s direction of divesting
non-core assets,¡± it said, adding that the disposal involves 57.75
million Class A shares.

The stake in MV Augusta was bought when Tengku Tan Sri Mahaleel Ariff,
whose contract with Proton was not renewed last September, was chief
executive officer.

The proposed disposal came not long after Proton announced a net loss of
RM154.33 million for its second quarter ended Sept 30, 2005 after making
provisions totalling RM160.7 million.

Of the provisions, RM90 million was from MV Augusta while RM41 million
was from inventories and RM36 million from international warranty claims.

Trading of Proton shares was suspended on Dec 27.

MV Augusta is a leading motorcycle manufacturer based in Schiranna
(Varese), Italy, with global operations. It is the producer of MV Agusta,
Cagiva and Husqvarna motorcycles.

Analysts viewed Proton¡¯s move to divest MV Augusta as positive as it
needed to focus on car making and to return to the black.

¡°Selling MV Augusta is taken positively as Proton is divesting a non-core
asset. It is a clean-up process for Proton and it should focus on making
better cars,¡± ECM Libra analyst Lucius Chong told FinancialDaily.

He said the disposal would not have an impact on Proton¡¯s books as it had
made the necessary provisions.

On whether Proton could be selling Lotus, Chong said it was still
sensible for Proton to keep Lotus, which contributed to the national
carmaker in terms of technology.

An analyst from a local research house said Proton would be better off if
it concentrated on the car business and tried to ¡°tie up loose ends¡±.

Many analysts have said that it is pertinent for Proton to quickly team
up with another global carmaker in the likes of Volkswagen (VW) if it is
to make any headway in its business direction.

However, an analyst said he did not expect Proton to finalise any deal
with VW any time soon, as the latter had had to deal with its own
problems in China and North America.

END-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Let N = number of tax payers in Malaysia.
Average return to N = RM4.48/N

I hope i didnt make the calculation looks too complicated for Malaysians :P

Just for the record,

28 November 2005
MAS the flying buffet

MAS will soon be reporting 2nd quarter losses of RM260.0 million. The losses are actually closer to RM300.0 million but MAS has been doing some creative accounting to make the Chairman Munir Majid look like he is doing his job. Certain 'write backs', 'overprovisions' etc are being used to make the red ink less.

Will this stop the rot at MAS ? Not likely. The company is in deep *****.

The new incoming MD Idris Jala is supposed to arrive on Dec 1st after the second qtr losses have been announced. That was the deal. But Munir is trying to delay announcing the 2 nd qtr losses and leave it to Idris Jala. This is not good feng shui for a new
incoming MD to start the day by announcing losses.

MAS is actually a flying buffet for the big guns. The company is owned by the Government. So it is not their own money. It is the Government's money. The big guns are ripping off MAS. The big guns are in just for the joyride.

The Chairman Munir Majid appointed sometime September last year is ripping off MAS. Almost every weekend now Munir flies first class on MAS to London for free of course. This is an abuse of his position as Chairman. He has a Mat Salleh wife in London who he is divorcing and maybe in the process of replacing so the free air rides to London come in
handy.

Munir even has the dubious honour of making a day trip to London. He took the night flight from KLIA which arrives a.m. in London. Then he had a limousine with a orang putih chauffeur pick him up in London airport and drive him to some condo. He kept the chauffeur
waiting seven hours while he finished his 'business' in the condo. Then the chauffeur drove him back to the airport where Munir caught the evening flight back to KL. All this is paid using the taxpayers money. Anybody cares?

MAS has its own company cars in London but obviously that is not good enough for Munir the top performing Chairman of the most successful airline company in Asia now entering into its second quarter of multi hundred million Ringgit losses. Nothing less than a Rolls Royce or Bentley with orang putih chauffeur.

After he became Chairman, Munir ordered office renovations totalling RM 841,000.00 for his office on the 34th floor of the MAS building in Jln Sultan Islamil. This was at a time when MAS management already knew that MAS was going to report 1st qtr losses of RM280.0 million in 2005.

Included in this RM841, 000.00 renovation is kitchen equipment worth RM 33,515.00.

Here are the details as per contractor's invoice :

1. KITCHEN EQUIPMENT:

Contractor : SI Corporation Sdn Bhd.
12 Jln Kenari 8, Bandar Puchong Jaya.
Batu 10, 47100 Puchong, Selangor DE.
Tel : 8075 7788

INVOICE NO 6809
3 MARCH 2005.
RM 33,515.00

2. INTERIOR RENOVATIONS :

Contractor : Design Practice Consultants
3A, 48 & 50, 4th Floor, Block A,
Kelana Centre Point,
No 3 Jln SS 7/19,
47301 Kelana Jaya,
Selangor Darul Ehsan.
Tel : 7803 4328

Cert of Progress Payment No 3
24th March 2005
Contract Sum
RM 760,000.00

Cert of Payment No 02
4th April 2005
Contract Sum
RM 48,000.00

---------------------
Total
RM 841,515.00

Well once you renovate your office for RM841,000 certainly you need some art works to grace the office. So Munir spent RM1,557, 000.00 (yes that is RM1.6 Million of taxpayers money ok) buying art works.

First here are the details :

ART SUPPLIER :

RUMAH SENI NUSANTARA SDN BHD
1st Floor, 17 Jln Telawi 3, Bangsar Baru,
59100 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel : 2284 2348

INVOICE FOR SOPHIA VARI / FERNANDO BOTERO
1st April 2005.

i. Sophia Vari (Coeur de L'Impenetrable ) RM
75,000.00

ii. Fernando Botero (Still Life With Violin) RM
1,140,000.00

iii. Fernando Botero (Still Life With Lobster) RM
342,000.00

----------------------
Total
RM 1,557,000.00

Fernando Botero is a Colombian artist. All his paintings are a little gross because he 'blows up' or p aints oversized depictions of his subjects especially humans. Here is an example :

Reproductions of his works can be bought for US25.00 (RM100.00) from barewalls.com an Internet based art retailer.

Surprisingly 'Still Life With Violin' is not listed anywhere in Botero's collection. There is however a 'Still Life With Mandolin'. Have they got the name wrong? Did they pay for the correct painting? Here is a picture of 'Still Life With Mandolin'

One would assume that considering MAS' RM 540.0 million losses over two quarters, the new Chairman would at least try to balance his aesthetic tastes with a cheaper reproduction than buying the originals at over RM1.4 million.

But MAS is a flying buffet. Everyone wants to feed off taxpayers money while the wool is still pulled over people's eyes.

Not only the big guns but Senior Executives (AGM and above) have also been given an RM10.0 million car deal that will knock your socks off. Despite making such huge losses, MAS rewarded Senior Execs and implemented a scheme where it pays outright in cash for 75% of the purchase price of any car of their choice for Senior Execs. And the remaining 25 % ? You guessed it. MAS gives a soft loan for the 25%. This is 100%.

And this is to reward Senior Execs for racking up losses of RM540.0 million for two consecutive quarters.

Then MAS is also getting ripped off by poorly negotiated contracts especially with ticket agents. General Sales Agents hold monopoly franchises in certain countries to sell MAS tickets.

But they often get unduly large discounts from MAS HQ in KL. Then because of these large discounts they are able to sell the tickets at two or three times mark up and make all the profit for themselves.

Why does MAS Sales give them such large discounts ?
Some of the GSAs are also very friendly with MAS' Sales people. One of them has reputedly bought a condominium in KL for his buddy in MAS. Maybe this
is one way of getting discounts. MAS is a flying buffet.

Then of course there is the famous food catering ripoff. Food is catered by Sky Chef, a company owned by the PM's brother. Needless to say, while MAS is making huge losses, Sky Chef is making good profits. Is this strange or is it not strange ?

MAS has won some international award for Best Cabin Crew three years in a row. Someone has decided that MAS should also win the award for Best Airline Food!!

So they launched 'Project Relish'. This is just another ripoff project. Lettuce from Cameron Highlands has been replaced with expensive, airflown lettuce from Australia. (No one stopped to think if Qantas has ever won Best Airline Food award serving Aussie lettuce).

Included in Project Relish is the redesign of their serving trays. Special design consultants have been engaged to redesign MAS serving trays. They would do better to ask their own air hostesses and stewards to design the plastic trays. But MAS is a flying buffet. Next we come to the 'con sultans' ripoff. Thus begins the story of Mazidah and Chris Andrews.

Chris Andrews is a British consultant who was paid RM7,250 per day by MAS. Yes kawan kawan, this fellow was being paid more than the PM of Malaysia or more than the CEO of Sime, Maybank or anyone else.

In 5 days of work, Chris Andrews would earn from MAS RM36,250 which is about twice the annual salary of a graduate starting work in Malaysia. In slightly over one year, Chris Andrews has been paid over RM1.3 million in "con sultan" fees by MAS. These are the sultans of con.

Who appointed Chris Andrews and what does he do ? Chris Andrews was pulled into MAS by one woman called Mazidah who is the head of Admin Support Services. For reasons that are becoming more clearer, she convinced MAS to hire Chris Andrews for RM7,250 per day to handle MAS' IT outsourcing.

What did Chris Andrews do ? He got MAS to outsource all their IT support to IBM. Since this outsourcing of IT support to IBM about 2 years ago, MAS' IT costs have spiralled about three fold. Here is how it happens. Now when a computer breaks down, MAS staffers can call a Help Desk. The Help Desk is manned by guess who? Why IBM of course - the IT outsource!

IBM will then advise what to do - say call in a software guy (IBM of course), service the hardware (by IBM of course) or change hardware (by IBM of course).

The IT outsourcing to IBM is so complete that IBM also issues and signs the Purchase Orders on behalf of MAS to ITSELF for replacement parts!!

As MAS' IT Outsource 'ConSultant' as well as being the major IT supplier to MAS, IBM is in the enviable position of being able to decide what and how much MAS should buy from itself. Ini bukan 'mesin niaga' tapi ini sudah jadi lagi satu kes 'melayu tak tahu niaga'.

While MAS is making losses, no one has bothered to check how much money IBM is making this year from MAS?

When queried by the Board why IT costs have spiraled up, Mazidah convinced them that MAS was paying the cost of catching up with the latest IT technologies.

This is what Mazidah and her boyfriend Chris Andrews have been doing at MAS. Did I say 'boyfriend'? Talk is other than slowing takeoffs at MAS, Chris Andrews and Mazidah have been 'taxiing down the runway' for a while. Mazidah who has three children, has separated from her husband to become Chris Andrews 'girlfriend'. After about two years of taxiing, she has either married Chris Andrews or is still in a take off mode.

Lately Chris Andrews has been given a permanent position at MAS. He is now Senior GM in charge of 'Strategy'. People are wondering how a RM7,250 a day IT consultant can become Head of Strategy Group ? Chris Andrews (Strategy) and Mazidah (Admin Support) are also the middle aged couple who sit in at MAS Management Committee meetings - this is the ruling elite in MAS - which is more influential than the MAS Board of Directors inhabited by clowns representing Khazanah, the MOF and other such outfits.

About two months ago, Chris Andrews (IT 'con sultan' turned Strategy Head) convinced MAS to raise their 1st Class and Business Class fares by almost three times. From having the cheapest 1st Class Fares, MAS is now among the most expensive 1st Class airlines in the world. Understandably bookings have dropped with some flights having almost zero 1st Class passengers. More red ink for MAS. This company is not going to turn around soon.

Chris and Mazidah are also savvy at PR. On Friday 25th November 2005 they threw a lavish and exclusive welcome party for Idris Jala. Only the selected and the few from among the ruling elite in MAS were invited. Those outside the ruling elite were left out. But the party was held at company premises, using more of company funds.

Idris Jala is said to have asked the Govt's blessing to undertake a VSS scheme in MAS. This is a good move considering that the airline is overstaffed with over 23,000 employees when it only needs about 13,000 people to run. But paying off about 8,000 people is going to be expensive. But not to worry. The Second Minister of Finance has agreed to pour in more money for MAS. A sizeable soft loan from the Govt to MAS is in the works. Many experienced staff who have slogged faithfully in the rank and file in MAS for the past decades are getting fed up and just waiting for the VSS to make their exit.

This will leave MAS with even less experienced staff and more at the mercy of the 'con sultans'. Stay tuned for more MAS news.

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So wut's the point of appointing someone capable at the top when he/she does not even have the power to work out his plan?! and when he/she has to follow (mandatory) what a former MAS staff and senator say?! and for crying out loud, stop meddling with it already. Imagine all our former PMs insist that our current PM follows their ideas of running the country, havoc? Normal.....lar. It's certainly not good when one got too much pride in his head.