Crony – SeaDemon Says

October 13, 2016

Mahathir’s Cuckoo Administration

I was in stitches when I read Mahathir’s latest posting ‘Pentadbiran Kuku Besi‘. He wrote as if he had never oppress the people during his 22 years as the Premier. He is fortunate that the Internet was still in its infancy and was only introduced to the masses in the mid 1990s, and Google only came online using its own domain on the 4th September 1998, two days after Anwar Ibrahim was sacked from all government posts as well as from UMNO. Prior to that Google was hosted under stanford.edu. Not many of those below the age of 35 could remember the oppression Malaysians were subjected to.

And what has Mahathir written this time?

1. When receiving the membership form to join Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia, some say that they have been threatened by UMNO dan Najib’s government.

2. Various threats were made including not being able to receive BR1M, expulsion from UMNO, removal from Government and government agencies posts, not being given contracts, scholarships would be withdrawn or not given, banks will demand for earlier payments or not give loans.

3. But they prefer to be oppressed knowing, that with their participation in PPBM and vote for it in GE14, the country would enjoy better benefits.

“Rasa Utara” a restaurant chain serving, in my opinion, less-than-delicious food, now has taken up advertising spaces on Mahathir’s blog

4. They say that despite the pressure they would still join PPBM. And they would attempt to get more Bumiputeras including UMNO members to join PPBM.

5. The struggle to them means the willingness to face hurdles. The struggle is meaningless if it is just a walk in the park.

I am quite perplexed by this statement. Do people who want to join Pribumi actually make prior announcement to UMNO that they would be joining Pribumi? Or would they just fill in the membership form and submit to Pribumi without bothering to inform UMNO?

As far as my memory serves me, not one person has ever announced his or her joining another political party unless it is arranged by the receiving party for publicity. And likewise when the situation is reversed. So, why would there be threats and so on if no one knows of their intention?

Not Being Given BR1M

In my opinion, it is the Pribumis who should not complain about not receiving BR1M. The reason for this is that according to another Pribumi named Mahathir, the rakyat should not rely too much on handouts from the government. Mahathir also said it would be a big mistake for the government to assume that it would get the support of the BR1M recipients just by giving the the handouts. Therefore, the Pribumis should not complain to Mahathir about the possibility of being removed from the BR1M recipients list.

In reality, millions of Opposition supporters continue to form lines just to collect BR1M handouts. Students continue to enjoy their scholarships despite going on the street to demonstrate against the oppressive government that continues to give them monthly scholarship money. And perhaps about 50 percent of civil servants who support the Opposition still continue to go to work and none have lost their job or got demoted for doing so.

And many merit-less Bumiputera contractors still get government contracts despite supporting the Opposition.

Expulsion From UMNO

This is the other reason for me to laugh out loud. If you are already a Pribumi, why bother about being expelled from UMNO? You cannot have the cake and eat it too!

6. Verily Najib is also desperate to break my spirit. Not only have my police escorts been withdrawn but now even my officers and cooks are being transferred. All my associates are being harrassed and threatened by the Inland Revenue Board especially those who have businesses. If all taxes have been paid there will be additional taxes imposed on them.

For those uninformed, the Office of Tun Dr Mahathir is under the purview of the Prime Minister’s Department. This means, the administration, staffing, budget and others come under the administration of the Prime Minister’s Department. In short, the salaries of the staff of the Office of Tun Dr Mahathir come from the Prime Minister’s Department.

Who is the Prime Minister? (CLUE: HE IS NOT A KUTTY)

Antara agensi-agensi di bawah Jabatan Perdana Menteri — Among the agencies under the Prime Minister’s Department (see No.49)

Isn’t it the prerogative of the Prime Minister’s Department to transfer in or out, any personnel from any of the agencies under its purview, also accord, reduce or withdraw any privileges given using the budget of the Prime Minister’s Department?

There is an old adage: don’t bite the hand that feeds you.

Even if there are Mahathir’s associates who are being harrassed by the Inland Revenue Board it could mean that previously they were only paying so much in the form of sales and services tax (SST) when under Mahathir and could no longer under-declare their earnings and have to pay higher taxes under the Goods and Services tax (GST) scheme introduced under Najib. All those who used to cheat the government and the rakyat of their earnings previously are now caught with their pants down!

7. Proton people are not allowed to speak to me, and my business associates are not allowed to approach Proton. It is Najib’s intention that Proton goes bankrupt and can be sold to foreigners for cheap.

8. My name can no longer be associated with Proton. Proton will be sold 100% to foreigners so the nationa car industry would be decimated. Only imported cars will be allowed to be sold in Malaysia. Nothing that I started will be allowed to exist. Let the local industries fail as long as Najib is satisfied.

Proton. A company that was set up in 1983 to start the national automobile industry.

After 33 years and 2.8 jmillion cars sold, Proton is still a non-government-linked company that still needs the assistance of the government even with the protectionist policy that the government had set. For 33 years the government has given Proton RM13.9 billion assistance in the form of grants and forgone taxes just to assist Proton to become independent . Yet, due to porr management decisions, the sale of Proton-made cars dropped from approximately 215,000 in 2011 to 102,175 in 2015 – an average sale of 8,514 units per month. At the end of March 2016 Proton still had about 30,000 units of cars lying idle and unsold!

With that, Proton once again asked for assistance from the government led by Najib Razak so that 12,000 Proton employees and 50,000 employees of the various Proton vendor companies do not lose their job. In your opinion, is it right for the government to use taxpayers’ money (using the favourite Opposition catchphrase) to assist a handicapped company?

Well, in the end Najib Razak’s oppressive government agreed to help Proton for the sake of the 62,000 odd direct and indirect employees by giving a RM1.5 billion soft loan.

And who is the owner amongst owners of this severely handicapped company that has no shame asking for help from Najib Razak’s oppressive government?

Senarai para pemilik Proton Holdings Berhad — List of owners of Proton Holdings Berhad

Which Bangladeshi is that whose name is at the top of the list who said that his name can no longer be associated with Proton but got the RM1.5 billion injection from Najib Razak’s oppressive government? Does it make sense for the government to pump in more money into Proton just to kill it? Why bother spend even a single Sen if you do not want it to work out? And how can he say that Proton people are not allowed to speak to him? Isn’t he one of the owners?

…and businessmen associated with me can no longer do business with Proton…

By this statement, is this a form of admission that Mahathir has been giving his cronies contracts from Proton? Does this have any role in making this company severely handicapped?

9. Verily, many Malaysian are afraid of trouncing by Najib’s government. This is Najib’s democracy.

10. I will not give up and I believe Malaysians have the will to topple Najib’s iron fist government. They are not afraid. The more the pressure the more the hatred they have for Najib and his government. All are ashamed of the P.M. who has been accused and believed by the whole world to have siphoned billions of the rakyat’s money.

11. The rakyat and I are aware of the intention of the new security law. It is not about foreign terrorism because we have adequate laws for that. Its intention is to break the struggle against Najib.

12. This law that was never assented to by the Yang DiPertuan Agong and the Malay Rulers accords Najib the power to declare security areas and with that anyone could be held in detention without trial. This is worse than the ISA.

13. If anyone is killed, be it a member of the security forces or the civilian, there will not be any inquest (a magistrate’s examination into the cause of death) held. And family of the deceased will not be able to bring the matter to the courts to seek justice.

14. Actually laws like this cannot be passed without the signature of the SPB Yang diPertuan Agong. But Najib is not one who cares for the law or its regulations. He is the PM and believes that he has immunity from prosecution. His pet the Attorney-General will make sure of that.

15. These are all signs that there is no more democracy in Malaysia. There is only an iron-fisted rule, a dictatorship.

16. The rakyat will protest the destruction of democracy in this beloved nation through a legal process. InsyaAllah the rakyat’s determination will see to the end of Najib’s wrong-doings.

The National Security Council Act that was recently passed was drafted to enable all assets under the various government agencies to be unified under one command that is the National Security Council. It is not just for use in response to terrorist acts but also in times of disasters. We have seen how poor the inter-agencies coordination was during the floods of Kelantan, Pahang and Terengganu. The main reason for this weakness was the absence of a unified command to coordinate efforts using assets of the various government agencies.

The power to declare security areas is not something new. Under Section 31 of the Police Act, 1967, designated police officers have the power to instruct any person to stay indoors while Section 3(1) Public Order (Preservation) Act, 1958, gives the power to the Minister of Home Affairs to declare whichever area that in the view of the Minister should be declared as a security area. However, Section 18 of the National Security Council Act, 2016 gives this power to the Prime Minister and no longer the Minister of Home Affairs to declare security areas AS ADVISED BY THE COUNCIL. This means that the Prime Minister CANNOT declare any security area unilaterally. Is this not better than ONE person making all the decisions without weighing all the inputs from practitioners who are more well-versed in the matters of national security?

Do not equate the power to declare security areas to the power to declare an emergency which remains the power of the Yang DiPertuan Agong, not the Prime Minister’s, nor is it the power of the National Security Council.

And Mahathir should not pay dumb – he is the person who destroyed democracy; even the powers of the Yang DiPertuan Agong to pass or not a bill of law was removed by him and caused the bills that affect other than the power to declare an emergency, the Institution of the Rulers, the position of the Bumiputera and Bahasa Malaysia, to pass without having been assented by the Yang DiPertuan Agong.

Mahathir should realise, he is living in sunset. Enough of lies.

(This post is a translation of a previous post – Pentadbiran Cuckoo Mahathir)

October 16, 2015

Friday Fools

The recent hike in toll prices have riled users up, including those who have no qualms about spending RM13.80 on a packet of Dunhill cigarettes daily; queued 30 hours for an iPhone 6s rose/gold version; and spend a ridiculous amount of money for Starbucks’s Macchiato Frap.

And they blame Najib for the increase on toll rates.

Virtually all the concessions agreement were signed during Mahathir’s time, and for some like the Maju Expressway, built by Abu Sahid, a good friend of Muhyiddin and crony of Mahathir, and the Senai Desaru Highway built by Ranhill’s Hamdan Mihamad were built in 2004. Both had their concession agreement signed before Mahathir stepped down. The Senai Desaru Highway had its Development Order signed in the late 1990s.

PLUS’s North South highway was built initialy by the government via Lembaga Lebuhraya Malaysia. Planned during Tun Hussein Onn’s time in 1977, it began construction in 1980, a year before Mahathir became the PM.

Between 1980 and 1985, the LLM built 366km or 41% of the proposed 823km of the highway at a cost of RM3.2 billion borne by the government.

In 1986, the whole project was transferred to UMNO-crony, Halim Saad’s UEM, despite being the most expensive bidder and having had no experience whatsoever in constructing highways.

In the end the highway was delivered two years late and the government then had to finance half of the RM3.5 billion budget.

Yes, our money for half of that RM3.5 billion budget. In fact, it was RM1.65 billion.

If you think that that was a bad deal, try swallowing this: we also now have to pay 30 years of toll, and also pay 10% of the bill every three years if tolls are not allowed to be increased. This is reminiscent of the rip-off IPP deal that Mahathir gave YTL that agreement has ended and not renewed by the Najib administration.

In 2011, Najib’s administration took over PLUS from private hands, restructured the deal and avoided future toll hikes. The government owns 51% of PLUS while 49% is owned by the EPF.

All the concession agreements are now no longer being subjected to the Official Secrets Act. I am sure there is a link somewhere where we can view these agreements and the terms given to the concessionaires. However, MEX has this far declined to open up its concession agreement and we must all call for the agreement to be made public as it affects us all.

This brings me to remember what Miss Lim Sian See wrote a few months ago:

Dear Siti Nurhaliza (always wanted to write to her), the PEMUDA UMNO, Pakatan leaders, Tan Sri Muhyiddin, Khairy Jamaluddin dan yang lain lan penyokong Tun Dr M,

If I may seek your passion again, sirs and madams,

The last few days, you people have demanded to seek the truth about the Tabung Haji land purchase from 1MDB as you say it is shameful, putting Haji money at risk, against Agama, etc – with a vengeance and with a vigor thus far unseen.

Now, Malaysia Insider (not always correct nor 100% truthful, I must admit) has bongkar certain Lembaga Tabung Haji deals that seems to be clear bail-outs of the Maju group that has actually caused losses of depositor money. http://tinyurl.com/lmuaz45

These are the allegations by Malaysia Insider (citing Wall Street Journal) regarding Tun M’s govt bailing out private companies using Tabung Haji Money.

1) 1996,- LTH invested RM67m with Maju Holdings project in Johor – only for the project to immediately run into trouble:

Total loss to Tabung Haji: RM67m

2) 1998 – LTH paid RM436.38 million to Maju Group for two then uncomplete properties valued at RM267.92 million.

Total loss to Tabung Haji: RM168.46m

Other allegations include:
-The chairman of Tabung Haji then was Tun M’s brother in law, the late Tan Sri Ahmad Razali Mohamed Ali – a clear case of nepotism.

– Immediate upfront payment RM220 million for a building yet to start construction even though Treasury guidelines only allow maximum of RM5 million – which was 15% value of the construction work.

—-

Let me highlight the differences between the deals then and now for you:

1) MAJU HOLDINGS deals of he 1990s – Tabung Haji paid RM504 million to a PRIVATE INDIVIDUAL COMPANY for assets professionally valued at RM267.92m – causing REAL LOSSES to TH of RM235.5m

2) 1MDB TRX deal of the 2015 – Tabung Haji paid RM188.5 million to a 100% GOVT-OWNED COMPANY for assets professionally valued at RM195 million (and secured further with another asset worth RM370m) . But will soon sell off at a PROFIT to TH for a few million.

See the difference?

Tun M time:

One is LOSSES to TH and payment by TH to a private company- money never to be recovered for assets worth less than half of what was paid.

Najib time:

One is PROFIT to TH and payment by TH to a 100% GOVT company – money – money that will immediately be recovered within a week for assets worth more than was paid.

`

I am just asking you all to be fair and use the same enthusiasm, venom and vigor to seek the kebenaran on the Tun M era deals.

You have asked MACC, AG, PDRM to investigate 1MDB and TH and Najib.

Just to be fair, can you please also ask MACC, AG (actually already investigated and found wrong-doing), PDRM to investigate Maju and TH and Tun M?

And if Tun M is guilty as accused (or refuses to answer) then please condemn him as much as you have condemned others and please never again side with him.

Also find out who is responsible but make sure you ask about the case where Tabung Haji lost money and not the one where it made money.

Please be fair and act fairly – or be considered hypocrite.

Have no fear.

I rest my case.

October 24, 2012October 24, 2012

Proportionally Worse In Four Years

The anger towards the AES system (pic by Fella Firdaus)

I cannot understand the negative reception by certain quarters from both sides of the political fence towards the Automatic Enforcement System (AES). While short-sighted members of the Barisan Nasional say that the installation of the AES will cause middle-income supporters to switch allegiance to the Pakatan Rakyat, the Pakatan Rakyat supporters played its usual game of saying the AES was awarded to enrich cronies.

Maybe, a memory-jogger is appropriate for both.

According to the WHO’s Global Status Report on Road Safety (2009), road traffic injuries is the leading cause of death for people between 15-19 years of age. It is the second leading cause of death for those between 5-14 years of age; third for those between 30-44. 90 percent of road fatalities happen in low and middle-income countries.

In 2009, a report from MIROS (Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research) states that we had 3.7 deaths per 10,000 vehicles when the global benchmark is two. We had 23.5 deaths per 100,000 population when the global benchmark is 10.

Fatalities by mode of transport shows that in 2008, motorcycles contributed to 60 percent of the fatalities followed by cars at 20 percent, while the age groups of 16-20 and 21-25 contributed 977 and 937 deaths respectively. That is 1,914 voters and potential voters gone in just one year.

Those from the Barisan Nasional should recognise that when a family member dies, very seldom do we see family members accepting the blame for the deceased’s recklessness. The blame will normally fall on the opposite party involved in the accident, or the government for not doing anything to mitigate or lessen the probability of accidents occurring.

For Pakatan Rakyat, it is very easy for them to point at Barisan Nasional saying that the AEs is nothing but a means to enrich cronies. Lest we forget in the four years that they have been in power in certain states, we hear of corruption in those states. Kedah has been awarding contracts to five unregistered contractors to undertake projects involving Taman Seri Gemilang, Seberamg Terus flats, Taman Wira, Alor Malai flats, Simpang Kuala flats, Tongkang Yard flats and Taman Kota Nelayan.

To make matters worse, the directors of the five companies are all relatives.

In Penang, we hear of the Bayan Mutiara and PPRT land sale issues. In Perak, during the short two years Pakatan Rakyat was in power, cousins Nga Kor Ming and Ngeh Koo Ham ruled Perak by proxy, and we all know of the ceremonial dress or suit tailoring contract involving a relative of at least one of the two. The conduct of the two was to the point of being ad nauseam that delegates at the recent Perak DAP Convention lambasted the two for their undemocratic ways.

The anger towards Teresa Kok (pic courtesy of Mynewshub)

In Selangor where DAP also rules by proxy, we should never forget why the late Teoh Beng Hock was called in by the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC). We should not forget what case was being investigated by the MACC, and who benefits the most from Beng Hock’s permanent silence. Just because Beng Hock was a Chinese, and BN has a Malay-majority party in it, don’t turn it into a Malay versus Chinese thing. It could have been a Chinese whacking a Chinese thing too!

Little Napoleons from DAP also rule Selangor. Kinrara voters, who voted for Teresa Kok in GE12, are now angry with her for being greedy, holding seven posts, thus neglecting her voters. Others that are being targeted include Ronnie Liu and Tony Pua.

The anger towards cronyism and nepotism practised by the office-holders of DAP has prompted some DAP grassroots to form a movement called the Liberos. This movement consists of DAP loyalists who had hoped for a DAP government that would make a difference, instead got disenfranchised when those elected did not become people-oriented, egotistic, selfish and greedy, so much so that DAP now stands for Daddy-Anak-Party or Developers Association of Penang. DAP leaders are quick to punish critiques while cronies are spared. The above are among the reasons for DAP’s Orang Asli rep, Bah Tony, to quit the so-called socialist democratic party recently.

So, for those who claim the AES only benefits BN cronies, be aware that cronyism and nepotism is rife and alive within Pakatan Rakyat itself, and I think what goes within PKR is academic. There was not even a proper party election to begin with, and its supremo was not even elected.

The idea of having the AES was mooted 10 years ago, while studies were conducted in 2003. And unlike the tender process (if any) in the Pakatan Rakyat-held states, the tender-selection committee involved members from the MACC, the Treasury and the Attorney-General’s Office.

If you think there is hanky-panky involving the AES, report to the MACC instead of whining. We have the machinery in place, use it. If you don’t use it, then you are just whining because you are a habitual traffic offender.

For Barisan Nasional members who are against the AES, grow up and wise up. Stop looking at your pockets and start protecting the lives of the Rakyat.

Shame on you all for objecting to the AES!