The prostitution of national affairs

Part 1 - The flip flop on national unity

On 6 May 2013 after GE13, Najib called for national reconciliation (here). Anwar did not bother. He went on protesting the election and slam Najib of all sorts.

But of course, Anwar went to Parliament to take oath as MP of Permatang Pauh and Opposition Leader.



Just days ago, this "statesman" (according to Nik Nazmi) said "Let’s work towards a national consensus". Read it here

What the .....@!#?

 

Part 2 - religion

You may or may not agree with PM's 10 point solution. But I was reliably informed that the 10 point solution was thoroughly discussed with Attorney General, Home Ministry. It was a very good solution especially for those in Sabah and Sarawak.

The issue on Bible in BM before GE13 was in Sabah and Sarawak. The Federal Government acknowledged the fact that our brothers and sisters in Sabah and Sarawak use BM as their lingua franca. I can confirm this. I spoke to a Chinese lady in BM to order a bowl of pork noodles in Sarawak. I ordered coffee from Kadazan people in Sabah using BM. No joke. The people there are more patriotic than Malaysian Chinese in Peninsular, if you ask me, language wise.

The 10-point solution

1.    Bibles in all languages can be imported into the country, including Bahasa Malaysia/Indonesia.

2.    These Bibles can also be printed locally in Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak. This is a new development which should be welcomed by the Christian groups.

3.    Bibles in indigenous languages of Sabah and Sarawak such as Iban, Kadazan-Dusun and Lun Bawang can also be printed locally and imported.

4.    For Sabah and Sarawak, in recognition of the large Christian community in these states, there are no conditions attached to the importation and local printing of the Bible in all languages, including Bahasa Malaysia/Indonesia and indigenous languages. There is no requirement for any stamp or serial number.

5.    Taking into account the interest of the larger Muslim community, for Peninsular Malaysia, Bibles in Bahasa Malaysia/Indonesia, imported or printed, must have the words “Christian Publication” and the cross sign printed on the front covers.

6.    In the spirit of 1Malaysia and recognising that many people travel between Sabah and Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia, there should be no prohibitions and restrictions for people who bring along their Bible and Christian materials on such travels.

7.    A directive on the Bible has been issued by the Ketua Setiausaha (KSU) of the Home Ministry to ensure proper implementation of this Cabinet decision. Failure to comply will subject the officers to disciplinary action under the General Orders. A comprehensive briefing by top officials, including the Attorney-General (AG), will be given to all relevant civil servants to ensure good understanding and proper implementation of the directive.

8.    For the impounded Bibles in Kuching, Gideon, the importer can collect all the 30,000 Bibles free of charge. We undertake to ensure the parties involved are reimbursed. The same offer remains available for the importer of the 5,100 Bibles in Port Klang, which have already been collected by the Bible Society Malaysia (BSM) last week.

9.    Beyond the Bible issue, the Govern­ment wishes to reiterate its commitment to work with the Christian groups and all the different religious groups in order to address inter-religious issues and work towards the fulfilment of all religious aspirations in accordance with the Constitution, taking into account the other relevant laws of the country. In order to bring urgency to this work, the Prime Minister will meet the representatives of the Christian Federation of Malaysia (CFM) soon to discuss the way forward.

10.    The Christian ministers in the Cabinet will meet on a regular basis with representatives of the various Christian groups in order to discuss their issues and work with the relevant ministries and the PM in order to resolve them.

 

But let's look at recent events. After the BM Bible was seized by JAIS, a state level agency, three DAP reps proposed to amend the Selangor Non-Islamic Religions (Control of Propagation Among Muslims) Enactment 1988 in the next state assembly sitting.

Then, all three of them seemed to have lost their voice ever since Anwar said here "Three DAP assemblymen were premature in calling for changes to the Selangor enactment at the centre of the worsening “Allah” row in the state".

Just two days ago, Najib said that the use of the word 'Allah' is clearly spelt in the 10 point solution agreed on by the Federal Government in 2011. This was also endorsed by the Supreme Council of UMNO. Yes, UMNO.



PM has reiterated his stand in the 10 point solution. This is enforced in all Federal territories and in States where matters as such are governed by Federal laws.

In my opinion, the recent seizure of Bibles is an isolated case in Selangor. If you read THIS article, Bible Society Malaysia Chairman said "Organisations like the Bible Society of Malaysia are caught in the middle when state governments do not recognise or endorse federal agreements. We hope that the Selangor state government will consider endorsing the 10-point solution and resolve this issue. BSM will not pursue legal redress if the Selangor government endorses the 10-point solution as that is good enough for us."


I have a few questions:

1. What else do you want PM to say? 
2. What else do you want PM to do? 
3. Why don't we ask the question on how many BM Bibles were printed and/or imported into Malaysia especially in Sabah and Sarawak?
4. What happened to the DAP trio's proposal?

I have not heard a single word from them since Anwar gagged them. Ask Anwar to give us his 10-point solutions then!




Part 3 - Mockery of a democratic election process



The privatisation of PKR and our election system began in Jul 2008 when Wan Azizah (the God sent wife) resigned as MP of Permatang Pauh to allow Anwar Ibrahim to contest the seat. Anwar Ibrahim won the by election.

Today, 27 Jan 2014, Kajang assemblyman Lee Chin Cheh submitted his resignation as elected representative of Kajang to Selangor Speaker YB Hannah Yeoh.

Anyone knows why?

I was surprised when I read news in the past week that Anwar could end up being the new MB of Selangor soon. He would rather takeover the post as MB than throw his weight behind Azmin Ali, his loyal General since Anwar's days in UMNO and Ministry of Finance.

If Anwar is the new candidate for the Kajang by election, should we not ask what is the deal with Lee Chin Cheh? How was he "compensated"? The people deserve to know!

This is political prostitution!

By-elections are not meant to satisfy political ambitions and greed. A great amount of resources - labor, financial and time - are involved in every single election and by-elections.

Sudahlah. I am getting tired of Anwar Ibrahim. I have had enough. The next person who tells me that Anwar is a hero and a Statesman, will get a tight slap from me.

Donald Duck and his Uncle Scrooge

I refer to the article by my senior in the blogosphere: Another Brick in The Wall - No Intention to Cut Wasteful Consultancy Fee

I am a big fan of this blog and others such as Rockybru, BigDog, Apanama2020, and not forgetting Syed Akbar Ali's Outsyed The Box. Since my university and college days slightly less than 10 years ago.

I really like the creative writing, the juicy stories especially. But this was another one on PEMANDU and the Government that went wrong.


The extract from ABITW:

For one, PEMANDU had went beyond their term of reference as highlighted by Goh when Dato Idris was assigned to solve the kalimah Allah issue with East Malaysian. There is more on that issue but let's leave it at that. Secondly, PEMANDU are doing work beyond their area of expertise and term of reference. No need to elaborate further. TST ... tahu sama tahu. Lastly, even how Goh tried to explain, PEMANDU is an "outside consultant" incorporated into the government structure. Using Goh's Opex figures, it is still an additional RM139.3 million of wasteful spending on consultancy when there are EPU and other existing Ministries and agencies already in place and with in-house expertise in their areas of specialisation. PEMANDU are being paid exorbitant salaries and yet money is spend on consultants and Government insist in keeping the allegedly bloated civil service. Goh claimed the RM139.3 million include consulting fee but in a The Sun report, Idris revealed that the budget for PEMANDU was RM729 million. "Kementeriaan Idris Jala" has a budget allocation of RM12 billion.

Let's talk about this Kementerian Idris Jala first and their multi billion budget. I hope it is not the Uncle Scrooge effect after a cartoon night with the kids. Billions here, billions there. I dare say Idris Jala is no Uncle Scrooge.


Anyway, straight to the point. Idris Jala likes to talk about his 8 Steps to Transformation but I will claim full rights on this new theory called the 8 Steps to Information. If Idris Jala copies me, please let me know. I will see him in Court.


Step 1: Double click on your preferred browser icon - eg Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox

Step 2: Go to www.treasury.gov.my

Step 3: In the menu bar, move your mouse cursor to the word Bajet.

Step 4: In the drop down menu list, click Maklumat Bajet Kerajaan Persekutuan.

Step 5: Click on the Anggaran Perbelanjaan Persekutuan link (eg Anggaran Perbelanjaan Persekutuan 2010)

Step 6: Once the PDF file has been download, hit the keys Control + F

Step 7: Type the  keywords "Unit Pelaksanaan dan Pengurusan Prestasi" or keyword "PEMANDU"

Step 8: Press enter again to go to next search result on keywords "Unit Pelaksanaan dan Pengurusan Prestasi" or keyword "PEMANDU"


Just to save your time, I did the dirty job for you guys. See below:


Anggaran Perbelanjaan Persekutuan 2014
Butiran 330000 - Unit Pengurusan Prestasi dan Pelaksanaan (PEMANDU)
Kod (objek am) 40000
RM39.2 juta


Anggaran Perbelanjaan Persekutuan 2013
Butiran 330000 - Unit Pengurusan Prestasi dan Pelaksanaan (PEMANDU)
Kod (objek am) 40000
RM40 juta


Anggaran Perbelanjaan Persekutuan 2012
Butiran 330000 - Unit Pengurusan Prestasi dan Pelaksanaan (PEMANDU)
Kod (objek am) 10000-40000
RM40 juta


Anggaran Perbelanjaan Persekutuan 2011
Butiran 310000 - Unit Pengurusan Prestasi dan Pelaksanaan (PEMANDU)
Kod (objek am) 10000-30000
RM20.672 juta

Butiran 320800 - Unit Pengurusan Prestasi dan Pelaksanaan (PEMANDU)
Kod (objek am) 10000
RM0.8978 juta

Butiran 331800 - Unit Pengurusan Prestasi dan Pelaksanaan (PEMANDU)
Kod (objek am) 20000
RM18.4302 juta


Anggaran Perbelanjaan Persekutuan 2010
Butiran 290700 - Unit Pengurusan Prestasi dan Pelaksanaan (PEMANDU)
Kod (objek am) 40000
RM18.71 juta

Butiran 300900 - Unit Pengurusan Prestasi dan Pelaksanaan (PEMANDU)
Kod (objek am) 40000
RM40.6 juta



Now, that is PEMANDU's budget. I don't want to repeat and repeat again on what are the detailed line items of PEMANDU's opex. Please read my older blog posts.

What about the billions quoted in The Sun Daily? That was in 2010 - Idris Jala sheds light on PEMANDU. But please read the text lah .....

Out of the total budget of RM729 million, RM334 million is parked under Jabatan Perdana Menteri (JPM) because this expenditure covers initiatives that cut across various ministries and agencies. For example, RM265 million is for financial support for the hardcore poor of about 22,000 households under the NKRA for Low Income Households for the entire 12 months in 2011. None of this money is paid to consultants as alleged. In terms of process, this money will be paid as financial support directly to hardcore poor families, only after taking into account the full impact of the efforts by the participating ministries e.g. implementation of Azam Tani by Ministry of Agriculture, implementation of Azam Kerja by Ministry of Human Resource, etc. Release of money must be done for each hardcore poor family based on the e-kasih report by the Internal Coordination Unit (ICU) and verification by the Ministry of Welfare and Pemandu. Actual distribution of this financial support is made via Pos Malaysia. Due to the complex process and the many parties involved, it makes sense to centralise these budgets under JPM to ensure effective coordination and delivery of benefits to the hardcore families. It must be stated clearly that final decisions for spending the money is done collectively by the NKRA Steering Committee, which includes all involved parties, and this is chaired by the deputy prime minister.


It is true. This started during the time when Datuk Noriyah Ahmad was the Director General of EPU. If I am not mistaken, this was because GTP and ETP initiatives were newborns and budget requirements were concluded too close to the new Budget announcements. The Government including EPU agreed to park the budget under Jabatan Perdana Menteri. There was no time to waste on which Ministry should lead other Ministries in initiatives that cut across multiple Ministries and agencies. There was definitely no time for politics between Ministers or senior Government officers especially in the infancy stage.

Just to sidetrack a little, I had the privilege to be in meetings which Datuk Noriyah Ahmad chaired. I must say she is a very capable, humble and easily approachable lady. I know many Director Generals whose officers will scramble to prepare talking points for their bosses but in the meetings I had with Datuk Noriyah, she walked in with just her Blackberry and a file. I have never seen her holding any prepared text or talking points. She was able to capture the points discussed, identify issues, critically evaluate proposals and presentations easily. The same cannot be said for all Director Generals in other Federal and State agencies, to be honest.

As we progressed further on from the year 2009, more and more of the Budget items are wired directly from EPU/Treasury/Akauntan Negara Malaysia straight to the implementing agencies (some at State level). The responsibilities to monitor and the mechanism to implement and deliver results as well as to decide on the finances were clearer. These were tracked closely by members of the Steering Committees of the respective NKEA and NKRA. The quantum of disbursement were strictly based on cash flow requirements and more importantly KPI achievements monthly.

The money was definitely not in Uncle Scrooge's Idris Jala's room.

Let's not forget that the hundreds of millions or billions of Ringgit were allocated for targeted segments of the population such as the low income households and farm families. A majority of them are in Sabah, Sarawak and the rural areas of Peninsular Malaysia. (I DON'T NEED TO STATE THE REASONS, RIGHT?)

There were many projects under the financial code of NKEA and NKRA. But these are merely labels for the projects that were brainstormed and agreed by the Cabinet, EPU, Treasury, all Ministries and agencies in the lab. For example, the replanting and new planting of oil palm. In 2010 - 2013, based on discussions with the Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities, the Godfathers - EPU and Treasury - and Step Son PEMANDU agreed to provide slightly less than RM1.0 billion. Never has this Government provided so much grants for the smallholders in Sabah, Sarawak and rural areas of Peninsular Malaysia in such a short time frame. Should I go on to rubber? Other food agriculture projects?

Maybe I should highlight a press statement by Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal in April 2012. He said that under the NKRA Rural Basic Infrastructure project in 2011, a total of 1,013km of rural roads were completed, creating a positive spin-off to 425,377 people; the 73,227 of rural houses connected to clean water supply which touched 366,135 lives; the 27,004 rural houses supplied with electricity, brightening the lives of 135,020; and the 14,365 houses for rural poor that were built and restored, positively impacting 71,825 people.

Again, these projects are registered in Treasury and EPU under NKEA and NKRA codes. Now what are the sins, the damages or the wasteful expenditures of PEMANDU projects in these cases or all of them if you like?

I know a lot more juicy stories on how these budget benefited the rakyat especially before the year 2013 but I can't list them here. Nanti dia marah:

Of course, I can see the cannons are also out and aiming at PEMANDU on salaries. "PEMANDU are being paid exorbitant salaries". I am tired of explaining and talking about this already. I do urge all of you who want to "get rich fast" to apply to PEMANDU. Please send your CV to PEMANDU.

Just to set your expectations, here are two image files - PEMANDU recruitment ad (if I am not mistaken a year or two ago but definitely available if you Google the keywords "recruitment pemandu analyst").









In addition to the "big pay package", this job in PEMANDU also comes with the following benefits:

• performance review every 6 months (ie perform or get out)
• a 2 + 1 years contract (ie you may lose your job at the end of every 2 years if not renewed due to budget, performance reasons)
• work on weekends and public holidays
• carry your laptop and phone wherever you go to (even when you are on annual leave / family holiday)
• criticisms from Government leaders and staff who do not like KPIs and prefer a free hand
• hugs and punches from bloggers, politicians all the time

That is all I have to say. If you would like juicy stories to write, get the cangkul and start digging up dirt in the backyard of the Ministries and agencies that have been very quiet in the past 5 - 10 years.

So, gentlemen, when are we having nasi kandar in Pelita?

By the way, Datuk Seri Najib .... or if your team is reading this, I sent you a tweet but you didn't reply.

Can I watch Newcastle vs Man Utd with you Sir on 5 Apr 2014 if you are free? PM dulu tengok bola sebelum PRU 13 tak ajak saya.

Looking forward to this Sir. But if you don't have much time that day, let's have roti canai together. Eat out la yeah, maybe in PJ? I can drive. Surely Seri Perdana's roti canai won't taste as good.


*Note: I am serious about fetching the PM to go out to have roti canai together one day.

Get back to work lah

On 6th January, the PEMANDU ETP official twitter handle @etp_roadmap tweeted this - “Former Prime Minister Najib Razak: Energy & food subsidies are “no longer sustainable”

Yes your eyes are fine. Here's a picture of it.

I was surprised when I saw this, to be honest. Then I realized that this might be an honest error and wanted to see if it has happened elsewhere. Why don't we try google and see the top blunders in social media? Here's what I found – The Worst Social Media Blunders of 2013. Pictures below are from this link.

Blunder One

Impact: Well, this was interpreted as a racist tweet.

Blunder Two

Impact: Families of American military who served during Pearl Harbour were offended, Americans were angry.

Blunder Three

This was by David Cameron. If you can’t see the image, let me extract the paragraphs from Belfast Telegraph (not sure if this is a credible site, but this came up on google and many other sites carried it too) :

Prime Minister David Cameron appears to have blundered again on Twitter, marking a highly offensive tweet as a "favourite" on his official account on the social networking site. The error occurred after the account, run by the Prime Minister and Tory aides, posted a message saying he had given his condolences to Kenya's president Uhuru Kenyatta after the attack and added that Foreign Secretary William Hague would make a statement.The reply, which was mistakenly marked as a favourite, said: "@David_Cameron please call off @WilliamHague, hasn't Kenya suffered enough today?"

The Mail Online website said the error was made overnight by one of the aides running the Tory leader's Twitter account. 

A spokesman said: "This is a deeply offensive account that the Prime Minister would never want to be associated with. Clearly the Tweet was favourited by mistake and was removed as soon as it was realised."

In July Mr Cameron posted a message in support of Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith's welfare reforms but blundered by including the name of a spoof account for the Cabinet minister.

Wah, David Cameron's office made social media errors too. I doubt the chap was incinerated or fed to wolves. Actually, I am quite sure of that.

In PEMANDU's case, I am not sure if it was an error or planned move. You know lah, I am one of those bloggers who really love conspiracy theories.

How do you know it was not one of those 'Jose Mourinho' diversion tactics? Do you know why he always come up with controversial statements or topics? Could it be because he wants to keep the media attention on him so that the tabloids stay away from his key players and their private lives?

Someone very high up in Malaysia was getting a lot of heat, stick, cannon balls, bazooka etc you know? #justsaying

Not long after that "tweet", PEMANDU removed it and apologized. PEMANDU said "We would like to apologize for the error in one of our previous tweets, quoting PM Dato' Sri Najib Razak. This error has been rectified."

Okaaaaaay. So, PEMANDU Communications didn't try the Malindo Air twitter trick. (Read THIS). PEMANDU didn't say their twitter was hacked like Anwar Ibrahim and that Belieber picture. PEMANDU just said they are sorry. I think I know why. Whether the account was hacked, was a joke or was an error, PEMANDU probably felt that it was their fault be it cyber security, standard operating procedure or poor eyesight.

Let's look at this check list on what happened after the "tweet" :

Ok lah, orang dah mohon maaf. Kerajaan tak rugi duit, kapal masih berlayar, kapal terbang masih terbang, tak ada tsunami, yang bersalah telah dirotan, tak ada yang mati atau cedera parah (kecuali yang kena jerit tu, muka kena air liur banyak).

Saya rasa boleh terima kot. Takkan lah kita nak gantung sampai mati orang yang jaga akaun Twitter tu?

Nak 'merusuh' dan 'memberontak' kat dalam rumah tu pun kena fikir lah sedikit. Setakat mana yang patut komen, komen setakat itu saja. Jangan sampai ada yang tertekan dan hilang punca pendapatan, hilang masa depan, hilang nyawa kerana tersilap sepatah dua. Adakah ada yang akan gembira dan bertepuk tangan melihat perkara ini berlaku?

Of course, there were calls from bloggers like Life of Annie (Datuk Najib, it is now or never) and some folks on Twitter to shut down PEMANDU because many out there thinks that PEMANDU is giving the wrong advice to PM and there are Opposition moles in PEMANDU, thus that "tweet".

I know many out there are angry with the Government recently but please take note of the following:

1. PEMANDU’s plans and work have always been made public, including Subsidy Rationalization Plan 2010 (with soft landing for rakyat)


2. The recent subsidy rationalization has nothing to do with PEMANDU (100%)


3. The Allah issue was not PEMANDU’s job.


4. PEMANDU don’t own any toll roads


5. Government spent a lot of money in Sabah and Sarawak through NKEA and NKRA projects for the people in 2009-2013 (rakyat touch point, if you know what I mean. What, you thought PEMANDU folks are bastards who will sabotage the Government, the Prime Minister and sideline the rakyat?)


6. PEMANDU’s manpower and expertise can manage labs now with no consultants help while many who have been in existence since 1957 continue to ... Never mind.

Please don’t get me started on which Ministries or Units have been and will be hiring people for branding, communications as well as strategy roadmap development work. And I'm not even talking about PEMANDU here.

I know two ... and they handle a lot of money. A lot. Believe me, many more. It is the easy way out, tak perlu susah payah buat Lab dengan staff PEMANDU yang dah tak guna strategy consultant. Mengapa? Sebab tak perlu KPI mah.

Ni saya nak tanya juga lah. Kalau tweet itu Goh Wei Liang yang taip, Goh Wei Liang ni Opposition mole ke? Ada seekor lagi kat Putrajaya yang bernama Izhar Moslim. Kalau tweet itu Izhar Moslim yang taip, Izhar Moslim ni Opposition mole ke?

Please check first. Don't jump into assumptions.

Try knocking on the doors in Prime Minister's Office, Deputy Prime Minister's Office, KSN's office, PWTC, Tun Dr Mahathir's office, Special Branch, PDRM, Obama's office, CIA, NSA, FBI, Secret Service, MI6 or you can try Google, which is the easiest thing to do by the way.

The last I check both Izhar and I were still standing on the "scale" though it is unbalanced and lower on his side (he's fatter than me). We have not and I am sure we will not take the rocket to the Moon. Too far, too dusty, I hate floating around like a devil (or angel to some) and ... it is really, really dark there.

And what both Izhar and I have done in the past 3-4 years in Malaysia, it is for us to know and for you to find out. If it helps, we clock in, shake our legs and scratch balls everyday.

Now can we move on to get some work done?


*The above blog post is the personal opinion of GWL who is having a flu, diarrhea and headache. Stay away from me. I bite.