October 2016 – SeaDemon Says

October 28, 2016

Selangor Water Crisis: Politicising Water

Today is DAY SIX that taps have run dry for about 360,000 account holders or 1.6 million residents in the most developed state of Selangor. DAP supporters have gone quiet in residents’ WhatsApp groups while those who will be celebrating Deepavali are screaming for vengeance. Some are already asking “Mana Hannah Yeoh?” while Azmin Ali who, under his tutelage Selangor has seen the most of water disruptions, has reneged on the usual promise of announcing the biggest exposé on those he blamed this current water crisis on.

The MP for Kelana Jaya, Wong Chen, has since appeared on WhatsApp groups trying to appease voters. The following is his message:

Message from MP Wong Chen this morning 27 Oct.

Good morning from Parliament. We have been sitting the last few days up to 9.30 pm every night. The budget session is the most important session of the year but this year the government slashed some 8 days of sitting and as such we are forced to go beyond our 5.30 pm sitting by four extra hours a day to 9.30 pm every day.

This morning I want to talk about the water crisis affecting 1 million residents in Selangor. I have been following closely the water crisis in Selangor, affecting a large part of my constituents in Subang Jaya. YB Hannah Yeoh has been updating regularly, she is on the ground distributing water and engaging residents. Residents are going into their 5th day without water. And we had a water crisis barely a month before.

In Parliament, I bumped into Minister Wan Junaidi and also separately the Deputy Minister Hamim on several occassions. I keep asking for their quicker action. They keep saying that Selangor must also do their bit. I have also relayed some of my ideas to YB Zuraida to pass on to the MB.

Wan Junaidi do not believe the current pollution crisis to be an act of deliberate political sabotage. Deputy Minister Hamim, who is an engineer and someone I enjoyed working with on the TPPA (when he was Deputy Minister of MITI), will not speculate but says that the problem is not new. The federal government has resources but water is a state matter.

I am of the view that with the economy slowing, more and more companies will try to cut costs by dumping pollution straight into the river.

Enforcement in Malaysia has always been a challenge. A widely held view is the enforcement officers are either stretched thin, overworked or at the other end of the spectrum, just plain corrupt being paid by polluters to turn a blind eye.

If enforcement officers are not effective then we have to bring in the accountants.

The obvious solution is to track historical records of industrial waste output of each factory and counter check with their disposal costs. If a factory is found to have slashed spending substantially on disposal of industrial waste in the last year, then we can assume that they are engaging in illegal dumping. A major discrepency in the accounts should be a basis for a full investigation and raid by enforcement officers.

The state should also set up a benchmark of waste output for each industry to red flag any unusual data volatility. Setting up patrol units along the rivers is not going to help as much as sending in the accountants.

Bottomline is this. If the economy deteriorates, we can expect more and more water cuts stemming from increased pollution activity.

Irate residents will not listen to excuses or causes. Understandably, they just want water and they want this crisis to not repeat. As such Selangor must dramatically improve its emergency water delivery system. We need more water tanks and we need delivery to be on schedule and to be regular.

We need to also beef up security monitoring at our rivers. We need night time road blocks to monitor all suspicious trucking activities. More importantly is we need new people to lead such enforcement. A fresh start with new officers.

We need to bring in the accountants. We need all factories in Selangor to disclose their waste inventory. And we need to catch the culprits, severely punish them to end this cycle of water cuts.

Lastly, I beg the residents to also empathise with the authorities. You will not find a harder working ADUN in Malaysia than YB Hannah Yeoh. If you see her on your streets at midnight distributing water, give her a pat on the back.

Wong Chen may be the sanest of the PKR lot probably due to being an idealist more than a politician. But he is saying nothing new, not a lot, and has nothing much to offer.

Firstly, it is obvious that as an MP he is not aware that all matters pertaining to land and water belongs to the respective states. Had he known this he would not have approached Wan Junaidi or his deputy Hamim.

As advised by industry players as early as 2011, the Selangor State government should gazette water catchment areas and implement the Langat2 Water Treatment Plant project. The State government did not do the first and delayed the second suggestion until it was too late.

Secondly, the economy is not slowing. Slowing down means that there will be negative growth. Wong Chen is probably not aware that even the World Bank says that the Malaysian economy is growing at a slower rate in 2016 but will pick up in 2017 and 2018.

Even in the 1990s when the economy was vibrant and our growth rate exceeded eight percent, business owners were dumping industrial scheduled wastes into rivers. It has nothing to do with our economy. It has all to do with our mentality and screw-all attitude.

Enforcement is lacking, no doubt, but stretched thin is the more than likely case. They can’t all be corrupted just as not all bungalows without swimming pools are cheap. So we just do not have the numbers needed to police based on a personnel to area ratio. And it doesn’t help when motormouth Tony Pua wants to trim down the civil service if he comes into power!

Even tracking of industrial waste output needs the manpower to do it. You can’t just sit in the office, tap on some keys and expect the numbers on the screen to tally with what is being produced in the real world.

Security monitoring of our rivers would go back to two things: manpower and gazetting water catchment areas! Why is there a need to repeat this over and over again? Everything points back to those two!

Hannah Yeoh the hardest working ADUN in Malaysia? I have seen better-working ones even from the DAP back in the 1970s. Distributing bottled water can be sub-contracted out to Bangladeshi workers. A hardworking ADUN would be screaming in the Dewan for more manpower to enforce gazetted water catchment areas. Not seek political mileage and benefitting from the misery of others!

October 27, 2016October 27, 2016

Investigating The Hospital Sultanah Aminah Tragedy – Part 2

There is a huge possibility that the culprit of the tragedy is electrical fire. In a previous article I discovered that out of the five fire incidents prior to the tragedy, three were electrical fires, the last incident bekng on the 15th October 2016. What I discovered next is alarming:

A Harian Metro headline of a scoop that was first exposed by TV9’s daring and no-nonsense senior broadcast journalist Zulhazri Abu Bakar

We wonder if fire prevention and electrical safety audits took place at the Hospital Sultanah Aminah (HSA) at all. The Minister of Health, in a briefing to the members of the Dewan Rakyat assured us that it has been done.

Impressive! Electrical maintenance is being done every quarter, half yearly and annually.

But look at how messy the wiring is, and this photo was taken after the second electrical fire incident that occurred in the Operating Theatre on the First Level. Let us take a closer look:

The above does not resemble The quality of electrical work done by a person certified by the Energy Commission to carry out such works. And by the look of it, this has definitely gone through several annual electrical inspection and maintenance schedules but obviously no corrective action has been taken. My question is, were the scheduled audits and maintenance mere paper exercises? Or in the words of safety practitioners – tick the boxes exercise?

According to the JBPM statistics collected between 1990 and 2002, electrical fire is the largest contributor of fire incidents. Regulation 67 of the Electricity Supply (Regulation) Act, 1990 requires a minimum of one inspection per month by a competent person of electrical installations not exceeding 600 Volts!

For larger voltage installations it is obvious that the frequency has to be increased! All these regulations are in place to provide the guidelines for building owners to perform routine inspections and maintenance to minimise incidents of electrical fires!

Obviously the concessionaire tasked with ensuring that everything is in good order, Medivest Sdn Bhd (formerly known as both Tongkah Medivest and then Pantai Medivest) had not done its job as required! The Energy Commission’s Regional Director Idris Jamaludin was spotted heading a nine-men team of electrical and gas experts into the HSA and we anxiously await their findings.

The Minister continues:

The HSA had requested last month for a fire drill to be conducted. This request I was told, was turned down by the Fire and Rescue Services Department (JBPM) because the HSA was not equipped with a fire-fighting systems control panel and nor were there the respective floor plans included in its fire safety plan!

How could fire drills be conducted if the fire safety plan is not complete? Which begs a question from me – when was the last Fire Certificate issued to the HSA?

Word has it that between 2014 and 2016, no fire and evacuation drill nor fire-fighting training was ever conducted. The last drill and training that was recorded was in 2009! Therefore it is safe to say that the last Fire Certificate was obtained then! How is it possible that Medivest Sdn Bhd, a company that was given the 30-year concession to maintain the operational safety of our hospitals be allowed to do things against whatever safety laws and regulations that are there to protect lives and government properties? Are they not suppose to conduct at least one training per annum as briefed to the Dewan by the Minister?

This is by no means a witch hunt. This is borne out of frustration and the utter disbelief that such complacency and incompetence are allowed to flourishby especially the state health department and the top management of Medivest Sdn Bhd.

Lives have been lost! Dozens more affected by their loss and injury! Millions of Ringgits worth of government properties have been lost because some people do not do their job as expected!

Heads therefore must roll!

October 26, 2016

Si Bedal Kurang Semporna

Artikel asal telah ditulis oleh Saudara Hafizi Harris di laman Facebooknya semalam (Selasa 25hb Oktober 2016):

_____________________________

Hari ini Shafie Apdal, Ahli Parlimen Semporna telah membuat pembohongan di Parlimen. Di antaranya ialah:

1) Shafie mendakwa 60% daripada Bandar Malaysia telah dijual kepada China.

Ini tidak benar. 60% daripada Bandar Malaysia telah dijual kepada 60% konsortium Iskandar Waterfront Holdings (IWH) dan 40% kumpulan China Railway.

Pegangan saham IWH ialah 40% Kumpulan Prasarana Rakyat Johor (KPRJ – Johor State Govt) dan 60% Sumber Kepercayaan (Tan Sri Dato ‘Lim Kang Hoo).

A. 40% 1MDB atau MOF Inc (sekiranya saham dipindahkan), 36% IWH dan 24% CREC. Oleh itu, pemilikan projek utama adalah 76% Malaysia dan 24% China.

2. Shafie mendakwa 1MDB sahaja menggunakan Arul Kanda dan tidak mewujudkan peluang pekerjaan manakala bail-out untuk Proton dan MAS menyelamatkan pekerjaan.

Pertama, tidak seperti Proton dan MAS, 1MDB tidak pernah diselamatkan oleh kerajaan.

Mungkin Shafie Apdal tidak pernah pergi ke Sendayan untuk melihat pangkalan udara baru sedang dibina atau 7 kemudahan tentera di seluruh negara yang sedang dibina sekarang dibiayai oleh 1MDB sebagai sebahagian daripada perjanjian pertukaran mereka dengan MINDEF?

Atau beribu-ribu pekerja di TRX sekarang ini yang sedang berusaha menyiapkannya atau puluhan ribu pekerjaan yang akan diwujudkan apabila TRX mula beroperasi, dalam suasana pelaburan asing telah diterima daripada Australia, Indonesia dan Hong Kong?

Ia sudah pasti bukan hanya Arul Kanda sahja bekerja di sana😃

3. Shafie mendakwa bahawa Sabah dan Sarawak adalah negeri-negeri yang paling miskin dan mereka sedang disalah urus😂

Sabah mencatatkan pertumbuhan gaji kedua tertinggi 37.5% dan Sarawak mencatatkan 26% pertumbuhan gaji sejak 2010 – berbanding dengan hanya 17.2% bagi Pulau Pinang dan 20.8% bagi Selangor.

Berasaskan pendapatan isi rumah, Sabah sekali lagi mencatat pertumbuhan pendapatan isi rumah kedua tertinggi 81.3% manakala Sarawak mencapai 57.8% – kedua-dua outreached Selangor dan Pulau Pinang.

Pada KDNK asas per kapita, Sarawak dan Sabah bukanlah negeri-negeri yang paling miskin. Sarawak sebenarnya negeri ke-4 terkaya dan mempunyai KDNK per kapita sebanyak RM44k – bersamaan dengan Pulau Pinang. Walaupun Sabah mencatatkan RM19,700 – lebih tinggi daripada Kedah dan Kelantan.

Kadar kemiskinan tegar di Sabah juga menurun daripada 19.2% pada tahun 2009 kepada hanya 3.9% pada tahun 2014.

Manakala di Sarawak, kadar kemiskinan tegar juga berkurangan daripada 5.3% kepada 0.6%.

Malah, Sabah mempunyai rizab negeri RM2.33 bilion pada 2014 – hampir dua kali ganda daripada Pulau Pinang manakala Sarawak mempunyai rizab sebanyak RM27 bilion pada tahun 2014 – atau kira-kira 8 kali lebih tinggi daripada Selangor.

Malah Sabah dan Sarawak telah menerima bantuan dan pembangunan yang lebih besar daripada Kerajaan Persekutuan sejak 2009.

Jadi, bagaimana Shafie Apdal mewajarkan bahawa Sabah dan Sarawak adalah negeri termiskin dan sedang disalah urus?

Hanya kerana Shafie mempunyai imuniti parlimen maka dengan sewenang – wenangnya bercakap berdasarkan fakta media tanpa fakta sebenar?😂

October 26, 2016

Investigating The Hospital Sultanah Aminah Tragedy

The ICU Ward on the 2nd floor of the HSA on fire. Six people lost their lives in the tragedy

A fire broke out at the Intensive Care Unit on the Second Floor of the Sultanah Aminah Hospital in Johor Bahru on the morning of the 25th October 2016 that killed six patients and injured one hospital staff. It was said that the hospital staff was one of the nurses who refused to leave the doomed patients undergoing intensive care inside the ward. They had to be pulled away to safety. One of the dead was a man who had had a brain surgery two days earlier. Taking the patients off their life-support system to safety was definitely a Catch-22 situation for the hospital staff and this would be a tragedy they would carry with them for the rest of their lives. The Fire Forensics team of the Fire and Rescue Services Department will now have to secure the fire scene, protect the trace and transient evidences, identify fire patterns and try determine the cause of the fire.

A Board of Inquiry will be held and with all the evidences and statements from witnesses to be made available to them once the investigation has been completed, they would have to determine the root causes of the incident, what went wrong, why they went wrong, what barriers or control measures that have failed, and what barriers or control measures that were not adhered to.

This was not the first fire incident that has occured at the Hospital Sultanah Aminah (HSA). There had been at least five other incidents, three of which occured in the Intensive Care Unit ward itself. On the 30th July 2008, a fire broke out at the ICU ward where the latest tragedy had occured destroying properties inside the store room. Then on the 20th October 2009, a fire broke out at the Ground Floor of the Main Block at the Phase IV Development Site Office. In early January 2010 a fire broke out at the Southern ICU Ward. This was caused by a damaged electrical fuse. On the 17th April 2010, an overloaded power supply switch caused a fire inside the Main Block’s Air Handling Unit’s room. And finally I was told that about three weeks ago, sparks were spotted coming out from the panel inside the ICU ward where the latest incident took place.

Given that fire is not uncommon at the HSA, I am sure that the hospital does have a Fire Response Plan as prepared according to the Arahan Perkhidmatan 1986, Bab Lapan Peraturan Am. This Arahan Perkhidmatan would require the HSA to hold fire drills and fire-fighting training as well as the inspection by the Fire and Rescue Services Department of fire-fighting equipments AT LEAST ONCE A YEAR. I used to hold one each week for the Drilling Rigs under my charge, fortnightly on board the offshore support vessels and once a quarter for each of the Mass Rapid Transit project package.

The Fire Safety Policy of the HSA would also require for a Fire Safety Team (PAKKHSA) to be formed and a Fire Security Officer to be appointed. The Fire Security Officer would be tasked among others would be to conduct scheduled fire-fighting equipment inspections together with the entity that is responsible for the maintenance of these equipment – Pantai Medivest Sdn Bhd. Pantai Medivest I am sure would in turn appoint local contractors to sub-contract the inspection and maintenance works out.

My questions would be:

When was the last time a fire drill held?
When was the last time an evacuation drill held?
When was the last time the PAKKHSA underwent a fire-fighting training?
When was the last time hospital staff trained on how to handle portable fire-fighting equipment?
When was the last time that fire and fire fighting equipment inspections were conducted?
What were the findings made during the post-mortem of each of the drills and whether they had been addressed?
What measures were taken to ensure that the electrical sparks that appeared in the ICU ward three weeks ago do not recur?
Did Pantai Medivest physically verify the corrective actions taken to prevent the recurrence of the sparks?
When was the last time Pantai Medivest audited its contractors as part of its contractors anagement plan?
When was the last time that the State Health Department audited Pantai Medivest’s performance as well as its adherence to the HSA’s and MOHs fire safety policies?

The above would be the basic question that I would be asking but of course my questions would not limited to just those. The more we find out during the investigation the more questions that would be raised. My only hope is that a truly thorough investigation would be conducted especially that Pantai Medivest is the common denominator at all Government Hospitals in the country, and any weakness not identified would be another costly tragedy waiting to happen, and by learning nothing from this tragedy the six would have died in vain.

October 25, 2016

Atlet Lebih Berharga Dari Veteran Tentera?

Semasa diumumkan atlet Olimpik dan Paralimpik yang menyerlah mendapat imbuhan dan elaun bulanan RM5,000 (pingat Emas), RM3,000 (pingat Perak) dan RM2,000 (pingat Gangsa) seorang maka ramai bekas tentera yang telah lama pencen menyuarakan rasa tidak puas hati seolah-olah dianaktirikan.
Ahli sukan sukar untuk mendapat pekerjaan tetap melainkan mereka diberi pekerjaan oleh negeri yang beliau wakili kerana sering perlu tidak bekerja untuk mewakili negeri atau negara.

Allahyarham Mokhtar Dahari sebagai contoh bekerja di Cold Storage sebelum menjadi seorang kerani di MARA dan kemudiannya di PKNS juga sebagai seorang kerani.
Mungkin seorang anggota berpangkat Pegawai Waran yang pencen sekitar tahun 1980an dan 1990an menerima kurang dari RM2,000 sebulan. Tetapi, berbanding dengan berapa kerat yang menerima elaun tersebut, ramai bekas tentera lupa yang kos perubatan mereka, isteri mereka serta anak yang masih ditanggung yang lahir semasa mereka masih di dalam perkhidmatan adalah ditanggung sepenuhnya oleh kerajaan dan jumlah bekas tentera yang berdaftar dengan Jabatan Hal Ehwal Veteran adalah sekitar 85,000 orang! Mungkin lebih.

Veteran tentera juga masih menikmati kemudahan pembelian dari kedai-kedai PERNAMA yang mana kebanyakan barangan dikecualikan dari cukai eksais, cukai kastam dan cukai jualan yang dapat membantu mengurangkan kos sara hidup, walaupun sudah lama menamatkan perkhidmatan.

Begitu juga dengan latihan-latihan serta kursus-kursus kemahiran yang diadakan secara percuma di PERHEBAT bagi membantu para veteran mendapat ilmu dalam bidang-bidang khusus di mana orang awam perlu membayar sekitar empat angka untuk mendapat sijil yang sama. Malah khairat kematian dan bantuan sara hidup bagi balu dan anak-anak veteran ATM yang telah meninggal dunia yang memenuhi kriteria juga diberikan oleh kerajaan dan setakat ini lebih 5,000 keluarga telah menerima kemudahan ini.
Itu hanya sebahagian dari keistimewaan yang diterima oleh bekas pegawai dan anggota Angkatan Tentera Malaysia dan jumlah yang tidak boleh dilihat dengan mata kasar ini melebihi jumlah yang diterima setiap bulan oleh para atlet tersebut. Apa yang perlu kita sebagai veteran tentera lakukan hanyalah untuk berusaha menambahkan pendapatan bulanan seperti orang lain yang tidak mendapat sebarang keistimewaan seperti kita.

Tak ada sesiapa pun yang paksa kita sertai perkhidmatan Angkatan Tentera Malaysia berdekad yang lalu. Kita yang telah membuat pilihan itu sendiri. Namun keistimewaan tetap diberikan kepada kita walaupun tiada sesiapa pun lagi yang masih dalam perkhidmatan yang mengenali kita.

Maka, nikmat apa lagi yang hendak kita dustakan?

October 24, 2016October 24, 2016

Water: Time For Azmin To Sue BN

There is no water in most parts of Selangor…again. And this is due to the Semenyih river being polluted…again. And The administratively-impotent Menteri Besar, Azmin Ali, has blamed everyone else but the weakness of his administration…again.

I cannot remember how many water cuts has it been since August but this time Azmin has taken the idiot-level a step up by blaming the Barisan Nasional.

Giving him the benefit of the doubt one can only blame the Pakatan-led Selangor government for its failure to gazette water catchment areas, continuing to allow industries to encroach river buffer zones despite having an enactment to enforce a ban, and failure to haul the culprits in previous episodes of water cuts to court. Barisan Nasional is not in charge of administering Selangor so start pointing your finger at yourself!

This is typical of Pakatan Haprak (Harapan + Rakyat). They shout out rhetorics about bringing prices down and only Lim Guan Eng gets a discount for his bungalow. Is Pakatan Haprak really concerned about the welfare of the rakyat? Are they even democratic as claimed? I doubt. The walkout done by them from the tabling of the budget session last Friday is a poignant reminder of that.

This edited photo of Pakatan Harapan leaders after the staged walkout has made its way around in the Internet

Blaming provocation Azmin said that the budget delivered by Najib Razak did not address the fundamental issues. If the Pakatan leaders cannot stand mere provocation then how is it going to find the patience to even listen to the rakyat? I got blocked by the various Pakatan leaders on Twitter for asking a simple question that they have refused to answer! I am sure there are many more whom have been treated in the same manner by Pakatan leaders!

Walking out of Parliament like spoilt little girls isn’t the only thing that Pakatan Haprak MPs are famous for; they also did not attend Parliament to vote against the Peaceful Assembly Bill and the Prevention of Terrorism Bill that have now been enacted. Then, they label the laws passed as draconian and restrictive but what have they done to ensure that these Acts never got passed in the first place? At the hint of a struggle, they collapse like jelly.

And I am sure they had to suddenly squeeze those placards out from their rear orifice because they claim that the walkout was not planned.

You can read for yourselves the disappointment that the Pakatan Haprak is:

Is Azmin Ali interested in doing work as a Menteri Besar? No.

Is Pakatan Haprak interested in democracy? No.

They are only interested in using the rakyat‘s money to finance their campaign and lifestyle. And Pakatan Haprak will cling on to power so that they can continue this financed lifestyle while you and I will have to endure endless water cuts!

If Azmin Ali feels he is right about Barisan Nasional sabotaging the water supply, provide evidence to the police and arrest the culprits. Or shut up and continue to remain the screwed-up little girl he is!

October 21, 2016October 21, 2016

Laughter Is The Best Medicine

My late brother underwent a brain surgery in Sydney four years ago this month because the congenital condition called arteriovenous malformation was the largest any neurosurgeon had ever seen here. I was there for about two weeks to encourage his post-surgery progress.

One morning as I walked from the hotel across the street to the hospital I saw a man, evidently recovering from a keyhole prostate surgery standing outside the hospital building smoking a cigarette. He was from Ireland and was in Sydney for a holiday when he had to undergo an immediate surgery.

He asked me what I was doing there and where am I from. When he heard the name Malaysia his eyes widened and said, “Good God! I would have gone to Malaysia for this surgery if I could. It costs a bomb here. My sister met an accident in Malaysia and was in a government hospital to undergo corrective surgeries and it was dirt cheap and good too!”

It costs RM1.00 for a person seeking outpatient treatment to see a doctor, and RM5.00 to see a specialist. The medicines are given for free. Surgeries would cost a bit more. My daughter underwent an appendectomy and that cost me less than RM100.00. No doubt she had to be in an open Class 3 ward but the pre and post surgery care was better than in most of the private hospitals I have been admitted to.

A foreigner would have to pay a lot more. Even then it would still be cheaper than seeking treatment at a private hospital in Malaysia. My former maid fell and broke her forearm and I was forewarned that it would cost me a lot to send her for treatment at a government hospital. It cost me about RM1,200 if my memory serves me right to have her undergo surgery to have her broken bone screwed into place.

The Full Paying Patient is a program that allows someone who could afford such luxury, or has a good medical insurance scheme, to obtain virtually personal medical care at a government hospital at a very competitive price. Not only that, if you or those close to you suffer from cancer, there is a National Cancer Institute that provides treatment at very affordable price.

Among other initiatives that have been taken by the government is providing Human Papillomavirus (HPv) vaccination to 13-year old schoolgirls and young women nationwide for free. Mind you, each injection costs RM600.00! And Malaysia is among the first countries in this region to implement such a program.

I am also baffled by complaints by fellow veteran servicemen about the lifetime allowances given to athletes who excelled during the Olympics and Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro recently. What the veterans never realise is that apart from the monthly pension that they receive (for those who served until pensionable age) the 85,000 veterans receive free medical care for the rest of their life and that definitely costs more than the RM3,000 that is given to less than twenty athletes. Imagine the cost the government has to fork out as a token of appreciation for services rendered.

In the latest 2017 Budget announced by Prime Minister Najib Razak today the government continues to put importance to health of the veteran servicemen and the rakyat‘s. RM55 million have also been allocated to help veterans handicapped during the counter-insurgency periods. RM25 billion have been allocated for the upgrading of hospitals and government clinics, provision of equipment for cardiology treatment, and the operation of Klinik 1Malaysia, mobile Klinik 1Malaysia, government clinics and also rural government clinics.

On top of that RM110 million have been allocated to open up private haemodialysis centres and to assist almost 10,000 people who cannot afford medical care.

Now who says that the government does not care for the well-being of the rakyat? A certain nonagenaric has-been politician even said the government has no money to help the rakyat. Probably due to his age he has forgotten that his medical bills for the repeated treatments at the National Heart Institute is all paid for by the government of Malaysia led by Najib Razak.

As the Malay saying goes: “Kufur Nikmat.” Which is why I often laugh at him nowadays.

October 19, 2016October 19, 2016

Sinking the Mamak’s Tongkang

mamaktongkang — Indian seamen being rescued from a sinking vessel. This has nothing to do with this article but it shows the desperation

Every time I read Mahathir’s postings on his blog, I would imagine him writing it himself and then pass it to probably his trusted aide, Sufi, to do some research and fill in the blanks before passing it back to him for the final touch before the article is posted at chedet.cc. The URL used to be chedet.com if I am not mistaken but due to some dispute with the previous administrators the URL is now the current one. The administrators, while working for him, displayed their support for another contender for the Ketua Pemuda UMNO post instead of for Mahathir’s son, Mukhriz. Anyhow, the contender they supported lost the race, and so did Mukhriz. Mahathir was furious when he found out that they did not support his son and as the story goes, the two quit without ever disclosing the password for chedet.com.

I have never worked for Mahathir or for any other politician for that matter. I just write whatever I feel like writing. But I don’t have the same privilege that is someone to do the research for me. So when I read his latest post The 2017 Budget I felt disappointed that the research done was just as good as mine if not worse.

Mahathir wrote:

5. Why will the Government not have the money? It is because Government money is not used for good governance, for the development of the country and the well-being of the people.

This is like shooting blanks. The East Coast Highway began construction in 2001. The project was first announced in 1994 for a new highway that would stretch from Karak to Kuala Terengganu but construction was delayed due to the Asian Financial Crisis. When construction commenced, the highway was shortened to only Kuantan as a lesson by Mahathir to the people of Terengganu whom had voted PAS instead in 1999. You should remember what I wrote in a previous article on how vindictive Mahathir was towards the people of Kelantan and Terengganu for their support for PAS then. So, Mahathir too never spent money for the well-being of the people. Only his cronies prospered whenever projects are implemented.

The 11th Malaysia Plan has lined up many projects that would benefit the youth, the handicapped, the minorities and those who live in traditional villages. Three pilot projects will be implemented for the youths under the 1Malaysia Youth City program in the Peninsular, Sabah and Sarawak. For children between the age of 13 and 18 residing in welfare institutions they would be given the opportunity to undergo the Technical Vocational Education Training (TVET) to provide them with skill sets for them to face the world when they become independent. A micro-credit scheme would be introduced to the Chinese community under the Chinese New Villages Special Loan Scheme program while a blueprint for the betterment of the Indian community will be prepared.

Six new hospitals will be built while three hospitals namely the Tawau, Kota Marudu and Miri Hospitals would be upgraded. As it is, the Sri Aman Hospital would be completed as soon as possible. On top of that, 165 new Klinik 1Malaysia will be built nationwide to provide basic medical care for those in the rural areas.

Unlike under Mahathir, the Pan-Borneo highway that has begun construction will be toll free. Mahathir had had to make the people pay for the construction of highways despite claiming that the government had much more money under his administration and we in KL especially are still paying for the sins of Mahathir in the form of extended toll concessions to his cronies. And for 22 years the people of Sabah and Sarawak had to endure endless ferry rides to get from one place to another while bridges have been and are being built under Najib’s administration despite not having any money as claimed by Mahathir. AND NO TOLL EITHER!

More Mass Rail Transit and proper extension of the Light Rail Transit to benefit the people in the Klang Valley have and are being constructed as compared to the time under Mahathir’s 22 years when the government seemingly had more money. Double-tracking rail project, High-Speed Rail project and most recent was the announcement on the new East Coast Rail Link that would benefit the people of the very region Mahathir hated very much.

So where was your good governance or your concern for the well-being of the people back then?

Mahathir Wrote:

7. For this the Prime Minister has created sinecure jobs for a lot of loyalists. There are now nine Ministers, three Deputy Ministers in the Prime Minister’s Department.

8. There are now 51 divisions in the Prime Minister’s Department. The budget allocation for the Prime Minister’s Department has risen from RM5.2 billion in 2000 to RM20 billion in 2016, a four folds rise. It is 13 per cent of the 2016 budget of RM267 billion. It was less than four per cent between 2000 and 2008.

The Prime Minister’s Department is being run by the Chief Secretary to the Government. It now includes agencies that were not there during Mahathir’s time such as the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA/APMM) whose jurisdiction goes beyond the 12-nautical mile statutory limit of most of our Acts, enforces the EEZ but is not under the Ministry of Defence as it is not a military force. So who is to look after the development and the legislative requirements of the agency if not a Minister? The same goes for the Eastern Sabah Security Command (ESSCOM) which looks after the security of Sabah’s east coast from intrusion by foreign paramilitary units. The Malaysian Islamic Development Department (JAKIM) also falls under the purview of the Prime Minister’s Department and that has to be headed by a Minister as given by the Act. The Istana Negara, the Parliament, the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission, the Elections Commission, the Economic Planing Unit, they all come under the purview of the Prime Minister’s Department. Not forgetting Mahathir’s own Secretariat Office for the Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad which did not exist prior to his resignation as the Prime Minister. So is he complaining about the budget that the Prime Minister’s Department is giving his people so they can write lies and bite the hand that feeds them? Maybe Mahathir’s cook needs to be pulled out. I don’t know what has the cook been feeding the old man that his mind has gone from that of a statesman to that of an estate’s man.

Mahathir Wrote:

10. Under BR1M, 7 million people got initially RM500 each. Now they are promised RM1,000. There will be more increases next year.

11. At RM500 it will cost the Government RM3.5 billion. At RM1,000 it will cost RM7 billion.

12. Perhaps the very poor would benefit but for most of the recipients RM500 for a year is meaningless. The better thing to do is to give the really needy, the hard core poor sufficient monthly allowances to support their lives. For the rest create jobs and train them. But the Government is not encouraging job creation. Local industries are not supported. But imports are encouraged.

RM7 billion it would cost the government to give out BR1M.

BR1M would be chicken-feed for Mahathir. His cronies spend RM1,000 at Chawan in front of Bangsar Village or at the Bangsar Shopping Centre to feed his bloggers.

It may be a one-off thing but that means a staggering amount of RM7 billion gets circulated in the economy. Being a layman my understanding of that would be that when there is more money in circulation, jobs are being created as people have more spending power. At RM500 or RM1,000 per person it may not seem much, but by having that extra money to spend encourages spending. Purchases will be made, demand is created, production needs to be increased, more business opportunities for new industrial players, and therefore more jobs are created.

It may not matter to Mahathir that it increases the disposable income of the lower income groups; it boosts consumer sentiments as it increases domestic consumption – the higher the amount of BR1M, the higher the domestic spending. With subsidy cuts and spending more on BR1M Malaysia’s deficit has been reduced with a much larger chunk of the economic wealth going to those who need it the most.

And under the 11th Malaysia Plan the government is committed towards having 11,000 physically-challenged individuals to work for the government while in the five economic corridors in the Peninsular, Sabah and Sarawak alone 470,000 jobs will be created.

Mahathir Wrote:

19. The level of borrowings by the Government has reached record levels. Future generations will have to pay these loans.

20. All these will not show up in the budget. But the people will know as they struggle to make ends meet.

Singapore has a US$1.76 Trillion external debt with a Debt to GDP ratio of 106%. Our debt stands at RM630.5 billion (US$150.6 billion) while our GDP is at RM1.157 Trillion (US$276 billion) making our Debt to GDP ration 54.5%. If Singapore is not panicking then why should we?

In fact, if we compare the first seven years of Mahathir’s administration against Najib’s we can see that we should have gone bankrupt (in the words of Mahathir’s lackey Kadir Jasin) when our Debt to GDP ratio was well over 100% for two years in a row!

screen-shot-2016-10-19-at-17-04-44 — Mahathir’s First Seven Years (1981-1987) with Hussein Onn’s Debt to GDP ratio in 1980 at 44% only

We could see that not only debt had increased during Mahathir’s first seven years, GDP also fluctuated and was at its highest point in 1987 yet debt was much higher!

Compare that to Najib’s first seven years and we can see

Screen Shot 2016-10-19 at 17.05.42.png — Najib’s First Seven Years despite the slump in oil prices in 2014 has seen an increase in GDP

As a matter of fact, the bad performance of Debt to GDP ratio during the 1986-1987 period under Mahathir was not the only time when the economy was in a critical situation going by Kadir Jasin’s definition, the country’s GDP was at negative 7% when Mahathir carried the country through the Asian Financial Crisis in 1998 – which was worse than when Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi ran the country during the Global Financial Crisis in 2008 which was at negative 1.5%!

So is Malaysia on the verge of bankruptcy? “Although we were faced with the drastic fall in global crude oil prices in 2015/2016, which caused the government to lose more than RM30 billion in revenue, the country still recorded a positive economic growth which was 6% in 2014, 5% in 2015 and 4.1% in 2016 (6 months),” said Second Finance Minister Datuk Johari Abdul Ghani.

And despite losing that much revenue, the government could still finance its projects – thank you in large to the implementation of the GST which has allowed the government to have an alternative source of income and reduce the dependency on the the price of oil. To add the strawberry on top of that cake is that the inflation rate of 3.43% upon the implementation of the GST program has been reduced to less than 2% this year.

Perhaps Mahathir ought to fire whoever it was who helped research for that article of his. Such a waste of allocation from the Prime Minister’s Department. Seriously!

Oh! Why such a title for this posting? Let me quote this rather amusing blog post:

Melayu Celup

Small in numbers, about 5% of the total Mamak population but rather loud and “glaring”. Though mostly from the 3rd Graded colony, they have graduated well and have an ability of a Chameleon (or think they can) with the Malays. Some examples of these low dignity Melayu Celups are Ahmad Rizal Naina Merican, Sheik Hussein Mydin and Zambry Kadir carrying the Mamak trade mark glaringly. But if they are lucky they will look like the controversial Sharifah Zobra or Mahathir Mohamed. Let me give you a secret, any names that ends with Naina, Kadir, Mydin, Merican, Pakir, Jabeen, Shaik, Mubarakh, Mohammad (no reference to the Prophet Mohamed S.A.W.) are downright, flat out, no doubt, true blue Mamak Tongkang or the immediate descendant’s.

I think the Mamak’s tongkang has just been sunk.

October 18, 2016October 18, 2016

The Johor Conundrum

Has Khaled Nordin lost control over Johor?

Blogger Life of Annie wrote on the 24th May 2013:

Five years from now, Johor will not even be an Umno stronghold if those in control of the party are “beraja di mata, bersultan dihati” even among their fellow Umno people.

Do mark my word on this.

It took merely almost three and a half years before that actually happened following the departure of Jorak assemblyman Datuk Dr Shahruddin Md Salleh from UMNO to join Mahathir’s Pribumi. For the first time in 61 years, the Barisan Nasional/Alliance holds its two-thirds majority in its Peninsular safe deposit, Johor, by a single thread.

Losing two-thirds majority in UMNO’s bastion used to be unthinkable right until the 13th General Elections when the Chinese Tsunami swept many state and parliamentary seats. It lost 12 seats in the last general elections compared to GE12 in 1998, and this time around the biggest gainer was the DAP with nine extra seats. Barisan Nasional ended up initially with 38 out of the 56 seats. With the departure of Jorak, it now holds the two-third majority with the bare minimum number of seats.

Despite the progress and development that are taking place in Johor, Ghani was trounced not because he did not do his job, but because of blatant racial sentiment. As with the previous three general elections, Ghani would not be seen sitting comfortably in his office at least two years prior to the elections. He would be on the ground making sure that the machinery is ready to face the next battle, and there would be elections simulations held at various levels of the state’s BN. Ghani would also make sure that his relationship with the Johor Civil Service (JCS) remain at the highest level.

Life of Annie also pointed out that when Ghani pointed out to Khaled that his Pasir Gudang division was in danger of falling into the Opposition’s hands, Khaled did not take that rather well and rubbished the findings. The simulation was almost correct – Barisan Nasional held on to Pasir Gudang with less than 1,000 votes ahead.

With Ghani ousted, Khaled wanted to make his own mark as the Menteri Besar. The job as the Menteri Besar of Johor is not exactly an easy one. With a Sultan who can be somewhat overbearing and often puts his hands into the affairs of the state administration, the Menteri Besar would have to know how to manage both the Sultan and the state administration without upsetting either one. Ghani was an old hand at this and knew exactly how to handle the Sultan, having had to also manage the unconventional behaviour of the Almarhum Sultan Iskandar previously. He had a good relationship with both Sultans, knowing when exactly to pull the strings and when to let it slack. Khaled is said to let the Sultan have things his way so much so that even the promotion of JCS officers is left for the Sultan to decide. While Ghani was often seen patting the back of JCS officers for the good job that they do, Khaled lets the Sultan do the Menteri Besar’s job for him. While the Sultan might like it, this doesn’t augur well for the state Barisan Nasional. Any administration would want to have some form of control over its civil service and a good rapport to go with.

The number of gatekeepers one needs to go through to get to Khaled is another common complaint by the common people. Journalists covering Khaled also complain that at almost every event, Khaled is being surrounded by his posse of young lieutenants, even to the extent of having the nearest table to the VIP table occupied solely by this group of people. This makes Khaled look like the overgrown hipster. It only makes the Menteri Besar less approachable even to the Ketua Bahagians. It is said that he was advised by UMNO veterans to go down and meet the grassroot leaders. His response was, “Aku tak kenal orang Johor (I don’t know the Johor leaders).”

It is already less than two years to the next general elections. Unlike Ghani before him, Khaled is still mostly seen in Johor Bahru. Ghani and his executive councillors would have been scouring the state to see what else that have been missed. Speaking to a Puteri UMNO division head recently she expressed her worry that none of the division heads have actually begun to activate their election machineries in a concerted manner. This particular Puteri UMNO head has had to conduct her own voters and membership registration drive; an effort which is puny compared to the ones that have and are being done by the DAP in Johor alone. If you were to ask the UMNO division chiefs in Johor, they would tell you that all is rosy, and that is until you speak to them on a one-on-one basis. However, Khaled has told reporters that the Johor Barisan Nasional still holds a comfortable majority despite it being razor thin after the departure of Jorak. To the UMNO grassroots, Khaled’s confidence is extremely worrying.

It is no secret that the DAP will be working with Pribumi to wrestle control of Johor from the Barisan Nasional come GE14. It is hardly an impossible task too! Muhyiddin might be a figure to be reckoned with both in Pagoh and Muar, but outside those two areas, he is still remembered as the person who sold Johor Malays’ rights to the Chinese. Mahathir knows this very well as he was the one who rescued Muhyiddin when the latter became a persona non grata in Johor in the early 1990s. Mahathir knows that Muhyiddin carries a lot of baggage with him and would not be the correct person to lead the country if the Opposition wins. There is already an attempt to kill Muhyiddin politically. You hardly hear of any statement being made by Muhyiddin while Mukhriz is seen going around in Johor conducting membership registration drives. No clues needed for the question on who is Mahathir’s choice for PM.

DAP on the other hand, wants to conquer the western Johor belt, where there is a significant number of Chinese population as compared to the eastern belt. During a dinner at the Landmark Hotel with Batu Pahat DAP members, DAP’s MP for Kluang Liew Chin Tong and ADUN for Senai Wong Shu Qi related the plan to wrestle Parit Sulong, Pulai and Pasir Gudang. With Batu Pahat already in PKR’s hands, all that is needed is for Muar to fall, and it is most likely that Muhyiddin would contest there, if not the often-clueless Syed Saddiq, a Muarian himself.

Even Azmin Ali does not want to be left out by the Mahathir and Pribumi bandwagon. He was seen recently in Muar together with Mahathir at a Pribumi event. It is no secret that he is heading the drive for PKR to work together with Mahathir – a sentiment not shared by the pro-Wan Azizah camp that includes Wan Azizah loyalists Rafizi Ramli and Wong Chen. There is even talk that Azmin might work towards dissolving PKR and jump en masse into Pribumi. While that is not totally impossible, the departure of Ezam from UMNO to Pribumi has certainly strengthen that theory.

The Johor conundrum is something that the Barisan Nasional (read UMNO) cannot take lightly if it were to gain more seats in the next general elections. If Khaled is not moving, then someone should take the lead and face the Opposition head on. There are two FELDA regions that need to be handled with care. Khaled should realise that there is more to Johor than just Johor Bahru. He has to go down on the ground and get the feel himself instead of relying on reports from the UMNO divisions and the various sugar-coated reports from agencies. If you do not know the terrain and its people, you will lose the war. Don’t be like Hamid Karzai who was dubbed the ‘Mayor of Kabul‘ despite being the President of Afghanistan!

And in the words of Life of Annie opus citatum:

If this is how Khaled’s people want to behave, then I dare say that he will be just a one term MB and Johor will fall five years from now.

October 15, 2016

Kelantan: Mahathir Berjanji Untuk Tabur Dosa

“Melayu Mudah Lupa.“

Demikianlah ungkapan pada suatu ketika dahulu oleh seorang insan yang kini berduka cita akibat kehilangan kuasa memerintah secara proksi. Ungkapan ini amat sesuai dengan seorang Melayu Kelantan yang mudah lupa mengenai pemerintahan kuku besi penuh kronisme dan nepotisme yang pernah beliau sendiri kutuk pada suatu masa dahulu. Bukan lama pun, enam tahun yang lepas sahaja.

Melayu Kelantan Mudah Lupa ini baru-baru ini telah memberi kata-kata manis mengenai Insan Kecewa yang telah menjanjikan pemulangan royalti minyak kepada negeri Kelantan sekiranya Parti Pribumi dapat menguasai negeri Kelantan dan Kerajaan Pusat.

Ini merupakan suatu janji berupa pembohongan yang pernah ditaburkan oleh Anwar Ibrahim sebelum pilihanraya yang lepas. Apa dikisahkan dosa dan pahala? Asalkan hajat dicapai.

Janji! Jangan tak janji asalkan belakang boleh ditikam!

Kepada yang tidak mudah lupa, atau separuh lupa, atau akil baligh semasa Pilihanraya 1990, Mahathir lah anasir yang telah menghentikan royalti minyak kepada negeri Kelantan sebagai hukuman buat para pengundi Kelantan kerana memberi sokongan kepada PAS hinggakan kerajaan negeri Kelantan pimpinan Barisan Nasional tewas kepada PAS yang disokong oleh Semangat 46, parti pimpinan seteru kuat Mahathir, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah.

Hukuman yang sama telah dikenakan terhadap negeri Terengganu setelah Barisan Nasional pimpinan Mahathir tewas kepada PAS di negeri tersebut pada tahun 1999.

Adakah Mahathir dan Zaid beranggapan bahawa orang Kelantan adalah bodoh dan mudah lupa seperti mereka? Atau sengaja ingin mengucar-ngacirkan pemikiran rakyat Kelantan kerana khuatir akan kerjasama di antara PAS dan UMNO?

Mahathir akan lakukan apa jua untuk berkuasa, termasuk menjadikan lain-lain orang sebagai proksi beliau untuk terus mempunyai kuasa menindas rakyat demi kepentingan diri sendiri dan keluarga beliau. Mahathir juga sanggup mengaku bahawa beliau seorang yang pelupa apabila disoal di dalam mahkamah mengenai perkara-perkara korup yang melibatkan beliau seperti skandal rasuah PKFZ dan lain-lain.

Rakyat Kelantan khususnya dan Malaysia amnya wajib menolak makhluk perosak yang mengaku Melayu ini yang mahu merosakkan wadah perjuangan orang Melayu dengan memecah-belahkan perpaduan demi nafsu serakahnya.

Sesungguhnya Mahathir telah lupa dosa-dosa beliau terhadap negara. Sama-samalah kita ingatkan beliau semula.