Before everyone labels this blog as anti anwar (which I think most people had already done so), let me say this once and for all, this blog is not about anti anwar or anti pak lah or even anti karpal singh. This blog is actually a blog that highlights any form of non efficiency, non effectiveness and any form of idiocy perpetuated by the Malaysian government and politicians. If the politicians make any stupid comments, they get some bashing from this blog. If they say something which was not well researched, be sure that they’ll be at the receiving end of an entry here. That has been the main theme of this blog.
On that note, here are a few snippets that may differentiate between a weak, clueless government and the more able and driven one.
09/10/1997 Trade promotion missions help to boost ties: Dr M
PRIME Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad says trade promotion missions headed by him have helped to improve Malaysia’s economic and trade relations with Africa, West Asia and Central Asia. Exports to Africa rose to RM2.049 billion last year from RM1.219 billion in 1994, West Asia to RM3.8 billion from RM2.3 billion, South America to RM2.6 billion from RM2.1 billion, and Central Asia to RM352 million from RM178 million, the Prime Minister told the Dewan Rakyat yesterday. - NST
A government with good governance shows strong determination in any of its decision. No flip flopping over the slightest critic.
Kawalan mata wang kekal - PM
”Ia juga tidak menyakitkan kita, jadi kenapa perlu diubah? Semua (ahli) perniagaan gembira,” katanya dalam majlis dialog sempena seminar sehari Ramalan Perniagaan Malaysia anjuran Strategic Intelligence (M) Sdn. Bhd. yang dihadiri oleh ahli ekonomi terkemuka, Profesor Paul Krugman, di sini hari ini.
KUALA LUMPUR 27 Ogos - Kawalan tukaran mata wang Malaysia akan dikekalkan kerana sistem kewangan antarabangsa masih belum direformasi, kata Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad.
Beliau berkata, walaupun keadaan sudah nampak tenang, risiko serangan lanjut masih ada kerana pedagang mata wang masih tidak dapat dikawal.
A great leader should be able to shape and induce inspiration to not only his nation, but also capable of swaying and persuading other global leaders to move towards greatness as well.
Hadapi cabaran bersama — PM ajak China tentang kuasa luar eksploitasi Asia Timur
BEIJING 19 Ogos - Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad hari ini mengajak Republik Rakyat China bersama-sama bangkit menghadapi pelbagai cabaran dalam abad ke-21, terutamanya daripada kuasa-kuasa luar yang mahu mengeksploitasi kelemahan.
Oleh kerana itu, kata Dr. Mahathir, demi kepentingan bersama dan juga Asia Timur pada keseluruhannya, China dan Malaysia mesti bangkit menghadapi cabaran kerana kejayaannya akan membawa banyak faedah kepada rakyat kedua negara dan negara serantau.
”Kemakmuran masyarakat Asia Timur dalam alaf baru ini merupakan satu usaha mulia dan setimpal dengan apa yang kita usahakan,” tegasnya.
Beliau berkata demikian dalam ucaptama di Forum Malaysia-China ke-3 yang diadakan sempena menyambut ulang tahun ke-25 hubungan diplomatik kedua negara di sini hari ini.
Serentak itu Perdana Menteri mengajak China bekerjasama dengan Malaysia dan lain-lain negara jiran untuk memastikan pemulihan ekonomi yang terjamin bagi Asia Timur.
Untuk mengelak berulangnya kehancuran ekonomi, Perdana Menteri mencadangkan supaya China dan Malaysia bekerjasama menyuarakan pendapat dan bersama-sama dengan negara-negara Asia Timur mendesak negara-negara maju berusaha mewujudkan satu bentuk kewangan global yang baru.
…and another one;
Amanat PM untuk APEC
(Di Bangkok, Thailand) Mesej Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad pada anggota Kerjasama Ekonomi Asia Pasifik (APEC) ialah: Wujudkan satu peraturan perdagangan global yang bukan saja bebas tetapi adil dan saksama kepada negara membangun, miskin dan lemah; dan: APEC perlu kembali ke matlamat asal - bincang isu ekonomi daripada menjadi forum keselamatan.
Jika ini dapat direalisasikan, APEC yang diwujudkan pada November 1989 atas sebab ekonomi akan dapat bertahan dan terus menjadi relevan bagi menjaga kepentingan negara-negara kecil daripada terus dijajah dan ditekan oleh negara maju serta kaya.
Negara maju melihat globalisasi merupakan ubat yang baik untuk pertumbuhan ekonomi negara-negara Dunia Ketiga khususnya.
Sebab itu, Dr. Mahathir ketika membincangkan isu globalisasi, cabaran dan ketidakadilan pada mesyuarat APEC-CEO, mahu agenda perdagangan turut datang dari negara membangun.
Menurut Dr. Mahathir: “Perdagangan yang adil tentunya bebas, tapi perdagangan yang bebas belum tentu adil.” Pembuat agenda WTO lupa agaknya, 70 daripada 146 anggota pertubuhan itu mewakili negara-negara membangun.
Barang diingat, apa yang ditekankan oleh Dr. Mahathir bukan untuk kepentingan Malaysia semata-mata. Perdagangan yang adil adalah untuk semua negara daripada negara kaya dan maju sehinggalah ke negara yang paling miskin dan lemah.
Sidang kemuncak di Bangkok ini juga penting sebab ia memastikan rundingan perdagangan WTO dapat disambung semula. Selama perbincangan dua hari ini, pemimpin APEC yang diketuai oleh AS mahu melihat rundingan perdagangan itu diteruskan.
Bagi Malaysia yang biasanya menjadi jurucakap negara membangun, rundingan itu bukan sahaja perlu diteruskan tetapi agendanya perlu baru yang mengambil kira kepentingan semua negara. Lebih daripada itu, perdagangan global yang dicadangkan itu perlu adil dan saksama.
Confidence in the economy is vital in attracting investments from overseas. Prosperous economy is achieved from high purchasing power, coupled with the feel-good feeling generated from the public as they are confident that the government knows what they are doing. A strong government needs the people’s trust in order move forward effectively.
27/10/2000 Unjuran pertumbuhan ekonomi 7% adalah wajar
KUALA LUMPUR 27 Okt. - Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad berkata, unjuran pertumbuhan ekonomi tujuh peratus bagi tahun depan adalah wajar kerana ekonomi negara masih berkembang pada kadar yang pantas.
”Tahun ini kita jangka pertumbuhan 7.8 peratus (walaupun) pada asalnya kita membuat anggaran 5.8 peratus, jadi untuk capai pertumbuhan 7 peratus pada tahun depan bukanlah keterlaluan,” katanya kepada pemberita selepas pembentangan Belanjawan 2001 di Dewan Rakyat hari ini.
Menurut Dr. Mahathir, ekonomi Malaysia masih dalam keadaan baik dan berkembang pada kadar yang pantas.
”Dulu kita capai lapan peratus lebih, bahkan sembilan peratus selama 10 tahun berturut-turut.
”Berdasarkan prestasi tahun ini yang lebih tinggi, tentunya agak sukar untuk kita mencapainya (tahun depan) tetapi saya rasa ia boleh dicapai, melainkan jika ekonomi dunia runtuh,” katanya.
Media was free to say just about anything except for those that touches race and religion;
CYBERJAYA 19 Jan. - Perdana Menteri berkata kebebasan diberikan kepada media massa dalam membuat laporan, sekalipun ia menonjolkan aspek negatif seperti yang sering diamalkan media asing.
Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad berkata, media asing misalnya kerap menonjolkan aspek negatif apabila melaporkan sesuatu ucapannya.
”Mereka sering menonjolkan aspek negatif daripada ucapan saya. Kita beri kebebasan…,” katanya ketika menjawab satu soalan wakil media asing, selepas mempengerusi mesyuarat Majlis Pelaksanaan Koridor Raya Multimedia (MSC) di sini.
Perdana Menteri juga berkata kerajaan membenarkan media membuat spekulasi mengenai sesuatu perkara, jika itulah yang akan meningkatkan jualan serta menambahkan pembaca akhbar mereka.
Fast forward into Pak Lah’s administration, we were initially surprised by his lack of apparent deliberation in certain issues. At first is was mistakenly recognised as his mild and soft character trait. But as 4 years went by in a blistering snail pace, we saw more and more inefficiency coming from his governing style. Take this issue for example. It could be handled easily if it was thought through carefully.
Naked woman incident a blow to country’s image
VALLETTA (Malta): The video clip showing a naked woman doing ear squats while watched by another woman in uniform has shamed the country, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
He said the incident had dealt a blow to the country’s image and pledged a thorough investigation into the issue.
No party should attempt to conceal any facts that might be uncovered as a result of the investigations, said a visibly-upset Abdullah, who called Malaysian journalists here to give his comments before rushing off to attend the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting yesterday.
Malaysian newspapers had front-paged the incident after Seputeh MP Teresa Kok showed the video clip at Parliament House on Thursday.
The 70-second video clip, said to have been taken with a cellphone-camera, had been circulated through the multimedia messaging service (MMS) over the past few days.
As the result of this debacle, 2 editors of chinese dailies were sacked, a minister had to apologise to China over nothing, and a redundant and meaningless independent commission were establish just to determine what really happened.
Take another example of a mind boggling stupidity;
Proton disposes MV Agusta for 1 Euro
Proton Holdings has sold it’s 57.57 percent stake in MV Agusta Spa to an Italian company Gevi Spa. Gevi Spa will assume MV Agusta’s debts and working capital requirements totalling 139.44 million euros, as announced today to Bursa Malaysia by Proton Holdings as part of it’s non-core asset divesting exercise.
Interesting to note that Proton originally acquired MV Agusta Spa last year on July 7 2004 for 70 million Euro, and finally sold it for a token sum of 1 Euro (RM4.48).
The sale was approved by Pak Lah, much to the chagrin of the Malaysian public. What more with the revelation from other sources a couple of months later.
Pak Lah’s inability to answer simple questions like the issues of awarding government projects to his son was quite phenomenal. As everyone remembered, he lied about his son receiving projects from the government. Next, he lied that he actually did not know about the projects that his son ever received. Then, he covered it up by misdirecting the issue altogether;
“The projects awarded to Dr Mahathir’s children were far bigger than what Scomi received,” he told reporters at his Hari Raya open house in Penang just now.
Abdullah said it’s also not true that his son’s company, Scomi Group, had no ship but won a contract from TNB to transport coal. Kamaluddin, he added, “has 180 ships owned by another company which was acquired by Scomi… (Dr Mahathir’s) children also received contracts, only it’s not highlighted.”
His inability to do simple financial equations like the cost/benefit ratio which was portrayed through the scraping of the ’Scenic Bridge’ was another fine example of his non efficiency and money wasting tendency. His reasoning? The country has no money, therefore we need to be more stringent. Later on, the public soon found out that the cost of scraping the bridge was much more expensive than to actually build it.
On the other hand, media was stifled and made to toe the line. Criticism and opinions not agreed with were severely dealt with like what happened here;
KUALA LUMPUR: Blogger Raja Petra Raja Kamarudin is expected to be charged with sedition at the Kuala Lumpur Court in Jalan Duta today.
The 58-year-old confirmed he received a telephone call from a police officer last night informing him to be at the court at 9.30am.
“I was told by an officer to appear in court to be charged with sedition with regard to an article posted on my website.”
…and here;
Dalam mesyuarat BN Negeri Selangor, Pengerusi BN Selangor baru Senator Tan Sri Muhammad “Mike Tyson” Muhammad Taib memutuskan ahli UMNO dilarang sama sekali untuk menyertai Forum UMNO Pasca PRU12 anjuran portal politik MyKMU.net Selasa 1 April 2008 ini di Petaling Jaya.
Amaran dikeluarkan sekiranya ada ahli UMNO yang akan menghadiri forum tersebut, yang akan dirasmikan oleh Mantan Presiden UMNO Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad dan panel perbincangan pula terdiri dari Mantan Menteri Besar Selangor Dato’ Seri Dr. Mohamad Khir Toyo, Exco Pemuda UMNO Dato’ Mukhriz Mahathir dan Ketua Penerangan UMNO Johor Dr. Mohd. Fuad Zarkashi, tindakan akan diambil keatas mereka.
In the aspect of the economy, we have this to show for the past 4 years;
Foreign direct investment into Malaysia down
KUALA LUMPUR: Foreign direct investment (FDI) into Malaysia dipped to US$3.97bil (RM14.69bil) last year, compared to 2004 when US$4.62 bil (RM17.09bil) in FDIs was recorded.
For the first time since 1990, Indonesia managed to overtake Malaysia in drawing in FDIs.
Inflows to Indonesia surged by 177% to US$5.26bil (RM19.46bil) last year.
As a whole, FDIs to South, East and South-East Asia reached a new high of US$165bil (RM610.5bil) last year, which was a 19% increase over 2004.
China, Hong Kong and Singapore were the largest recipients of FDIs in 2005.
The figures were released by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) in its World Investment Report 2006 on Monday.
There was no denying that Malaysia was a real success story from the late 80’s all the way to the new millenium. The main recipe for Malaysia’s success was through the approach of its leadership. If I may, Dr Mahathir led the nation as its CEO. He believed that as the CEO of the nation, it was his job to maximise the wealth of its shareholders (the people). Hence, we saw a nation being propelled to become one of the fastest growing nation in Asia in the 80’s and the 90’s. Prospering the shareholders was critical in order to gain respect from foreigners and instilling pride within the nation. The economy ‘pie’ was enhanced and it grew big.
On the other hand, Pak Lah’s style is somewhat akin to an administrator. Perhaps due to his career background as a government officer, he approaches leadership with much hesitation and indecisiveness. This maybe due to the fact that he finally found himself in the topmost seat of power without anyone to report to, or to turn to in the face of a problem. He finds himself accountable and responsible in all of the government’s actions and in-actions. We sometimes may see him overwhelmed with fatigue and exhaustion caused by having to think continuously.
What Dr Mahathir saw as a challenge to further improve his self-actualization, Pak Lah instead saw it as a chore and would hastenly establish a committee to delegate the problem. As the result of this flip flopping and weak leadership, the economy ‘pie’ shrunk. And worse, most of the wealth in this shrunken pie benefitted only a few cronies.
In the end, one has to know one’s limits when trusted with a certain responsibility. One need to honestly take stock of his capabilities and then humbly pronounce your course of action. My advice to Pak Lah is to step down and let other capable leaders manage the country. Maybe then, we will remember him fondly as the selfless PM whom had recognised his own weakness and had stepped aside for the good of the nation.
At this moment, we are reminded of a ’pantun’ by an ex prime minister whom some of us love demonize;
“Tiap permulaan ada akhirnya,
Menjadi peringatan kepada hamba,
Kuasa dan jawatan bukan segalanya,
Berkhidmat kepada bangsa dan negara.”
- Dr Mahathir, closing speech Umno General Assembly 2003, few months before he retired gracefully.
Now if that wasn’t a clear case of humility, I wouldn’t know what humble means.
For other related article, please read here.
Tun Salleh had conveniently excluded the most important figure of all. The one who started all that. The 
By the way, Matthias Chang answered Tun Salleh’s call in 
One has to question his intention in recording the incident. Was it just because he was bored, or did he have some other sinister, ulterior motive? Reading between the lines in his latest statement above, it seems that it was all along his intention to snare VK Lingam.
Hence, the blackmailing MP and his blackmailing mentor got their way in blackmailing the government and the public. Now I am not saying that what VK Lingam did was right. Pending the Commission’s findings made public, any act of trying to broker the appointment of judges and influencing the top leaders decisions in appointing judges is a huge offence by anyone’s standards. But the act of blackmailing nonetheless, is wrong. You do not make two wrongs to make a right. An evil deed is still evil regardless whether it’s a lesser or greater evil.
