DAP irrelevant in Pakatan Rakyat

During the peak of the Sports Betting License issue, the Opposition leaders were the most vocal ones against gambling. The justified their opposition to the issuing of the license by outlining the negative implications that comes along with it.

Nothing was mentioned about the positive implications. The intellectuals in DAP and PKR disappoint me.

Then, PAS scholars made headlines when they said they will call end gambling outlets in Pakatan led states - PAS wants end to gaming premises permit (the same shout-out-loud-for-nothing they did in year 2008).

Till today, may I ask, what has been done ? Did Pakatan Rakyat ban the number forecast outlets in Kedah, Penang, Selangor and Kelantan ?

After claiming that betting and gambling will only bring bad effects to the society and after the fiery speeches, everything is business as usual.

Habis cerita. Pakatan Rakyat oh Pakatan Rakyat. Politics First, Putrajaya Now.

So, sports gambling is bad, gambling is bad and must oppose the efforts of BN. But Pakatan Rakyat will continue to issue number forecast outlet permits even though they can ban them?

What sort of justifications by DAP and Pakatan Rakyat, I don't know. I see only contradiction by a bunch of hypocrites.

Also, the Ministry of Finance should reconsider this issue. The file should not be closed just like that. The longer we wait, the longer will be our efforts to eradicate gambling habits or provide social services and advices to gambling addicts.

Just awhile ago, Tony Pua made a call for the abortion of the Bumiputera discount on luxury property sales. This of course rang a lot of bells and made many politicians sit straight up from their half asleep positions.

In what I call an immediate response, PAS Selangor has called for a careful review of this matter which in laymen's words will probably mean "forget it and don't bring it up anymore".

Khalid Ibrahim then stressed that it will only be for properties worth RM 500,000 and above. I wonder if Khalid has the political will to do it, given his weak position.

If we can recall the year 2008-2009, in Kedah, PAS increased the Bumiputera ownership quota for any property development projects from the standard 30% to 50% (no idea what their policies are at the moment)

And during that time, Malaysia was among those affected by the economic crisis. Dr Zambry (the legitimate Perak MB) knew he had to introduce people friendly and investor friendly policies. As a result, this is what Dr Zambry relaxed the Bumiputera land quota.

DAP looks more like what they used to criticise MCA to be - a barking dog with no bite.

Dulu bukan main hebat kutuk MCA sedangkan MCA mengamalkan semangat berpasukan bersama-sama dengan UMNO, MIC dan Gerakan.

MCA stands firm that they work closely with UMNO, MIC, Gerakan and other component parties in BN together instead of barking pointlessly and act like heroes with no brains.

Time for DAP to live up to their billing as a principled and just party? The marriage of the three parties seem like a nightmare after all. All 3 different ideologies living under one roof will only mean that a divorce is on the papers soon/someday.

Tan Sri KSN defends Nik Ali

Excerpts from The Malaysian Insider:

Mohd Sidek, who is also the Cabinet Secretary, said the Cabinet at its meeting today took a serious view on Lim’’s statement against Nik Ali particularly on the issue over illegal sand mining in Balik Pulau, demolition of the arches at the Penang Botanical Garden and the allegation that no seat was provided for the Penang Chief Minister during the launch of the Penang Hill Railway. “These three issues, for which Nik Ali was blamed by the Penang Chief Minister, were not under the jurisdiction of the officer as the State Development Officer,” Mohd Sidek said in his brief statement, here today.

Read more: Chief Secretary says Penang CM’s accusations excessive

Well said, Tan Sri KSN.

Government officers have a set of strict rules to adhere to. Except for the Ministerial team which include SETPOL, SUSK, SUS, SUA, and PTTK, the rest of the Government officers are not allowed in any way to be involved in politics.

This of course covers civil servants right from the top - KSU/KSP/KP - down to the support staff group.

Civil servants are frequently reminded to be non political and serve the Government of the day - be it at Federal or State level.

The officers and support staff have all been vetted for being non political and they get trained to stay focus on their work as a Malaysian Government officer without any personal interests or agenda.

Such is the system of the Government. Otherwise, you would have seen Guan Eng and Khalid Ibrahim asking Jobstreet right after the 2008 elections to advertise that all jobs in their State Government are up for grabs.

We didn't see that, right ?

Many times, people who are not familiar with the Government system communicates with the wrong Ministry/Department/Agency.

Then, more often than not, people tend to throw a blanket blame on civil servants when some grouses are not attended to or queries were returned with "I don't know".

Little does the majority know, even NGOs and the private sector make mistakes when inviting the wrong Ministries for functions.

So yes. Guan Eng should not blast the Nik Ali for this matter.

Nik Ali gets nothing out of this mess. Every civil servant knows that it is best to avoid being a chess piece be it for BN or PR. They know they are better off doing their job, grab their salary, and go out to to enjoy some nasi lemak with friends.

Perhaps, Tan Sri KSN should write a firm formal letter to the Penang State Government to end this once and for all.

Malaysia's "Economists"

I have to say, last week's statements on the economy were the most disastrous and contradicting ones I have ever read since Pak Lah's administration.

1. Malaysia may slip into a double-dip recession if European countries face a similar slowdown, said Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. (TDM, Bernama)


2. The Malaysian economy is on the right track towards achieving the projected annual six per cent growth, according to Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop (TSNMY. Bernama)


3. Malaysia’s recovery may slow in the second half of this year, Prime Minister Najib Razak said, as risks to global growth increase ahead of this week’s central bank decision on interest rates. (Najib Razak, Bloomberg)


4. "Along with the better manufacturing data in May, we reckon it would likely support a reasonably high GDP growth in the second quarter. Our estimates are that GDP could grow at least eight per cent to nine per cent in the second quarter," it added. (Kenanga Research, Bernama)

Seems to me TS Nor Mohamed Yakcop and the PM have different views of the economy. But never mind. That's not the issue and the PM can always lecture his own Minister if he made any mistakes.

Now let us go back to basics. When an economy is expected to slow down, the agencies which deal with the economy should consider appropriate actions and policies.

Though we understand that Central Banks revise the monetary policy based on reported data, Bank Negara Malaysia's decision to increase the OP rates in Malaysia could put a strain to Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak's economic transformation efforts.

First year's achievements are always the decider of whether to believe the ambitious programmes and efforts or not laid by national leaders in any country.

And there is no point to be Number One ahead of our regional Central Banks to push the rates up in view of high growth in Quarter One when we are looking at gloomy days in the 2nd half of the year.

Well, this is the problem when independence is accorded to the Central Bank by law. It was also one of the contributing reasons why John Howard lost the election and thus his position as Prime Minister of Australia back in 2007.

In future, I hope that the "bright, young, talented" Economists in the Government can be more proactive and engage all Government related agencies that handle our economy.

Together we transform and develop the nation.