Written by Dikesempatan ini, saya ingin mengucapkan Selamat Menyambut Hari Kemerdekaan yang ke 54 kepada semua rakyat Malaysia. Semoga kemerdekaan yang telah kita kecapi selama ini akan terus kekal.
Monthly archives for August, 2011
SELAMAT HARI RAYA AIDILFITRI
Saya dan isteri saya ingin mengucapkan Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Maaf Zahir Batin kepada semua rakyat Malaysia khususnya kepada muslimin dan muslimat. Kepada yang pulang beraya dikampung halaman, pandulah kenderaan dengan cermat dan kami berdoa agar sampai ke pangkuan keluarga tersayang dengan selamat.
POLITICS AND THE NEW ECONOMIC POLICY
1. The New Economic Policy has been denigrated by opposition politicians including Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim until it seems to be the worse policy ever conceived and implemented in Malaysia.
2. While Ramon Navaratnam blames the NEP as being the cause of foreign investors not coming to Malaysia, Anwar has condemned it for the abuses and corruption involved in its implementation.
3. Anwar loudly proclaims that the NEP benefits only the cronies of the Government and that the contracts, Approval Permits and licenses given out under the NEP involve corruption. He makes it sound as if the NEP did not benefit the Malays and other Bumiputera at all.
The Arab Spring II
1. The Western Press has decided to label the upheavals in the Arab countries as the Arab Spring. But it is no spring as the attempts to overthrow authoritarian Governments in these countries have resulted in bloodshed and serious damage to property and to the economy.
2. While in Tunisia and Egypt the uprising of the people has been successful, the fighting in the other countries is still going on. There is no doubt that one way or another there will be changes political, economic and social before the uprisings come to an end.
3. But overthrowing the Government is not the end of the struggle. A greater struggle lies ahead – that of setting up new Governments; the true purpose of the uprisings.
THE NEP
1. Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam is vehement that the New Economic Policy is the cause of poor inflow of Foreign Direct Investments here.
2. One can fault the NEP for a lot of things but to blame it for the current slowdown in Foreign Direct Investments is not quite correct.
3. There are of course some investors who were and are put off by the NEP and the abuses involving it. But FDI actually contributed much to Malaysia’s industrialisation. And this happened when the NEP was in full swing, in fact picked up during the time when the NEP was being implemented.
ARAB SPRING I
1. There is much gloating in the West over what is happening in the Arab countries. They, the West, have been peddling democracy to the world and at times they would assassinate leaders or invade countries so as to impose their democracy. Now the Arabs are doing this work for them. The Arabs themselves are overthrowing their authoritarian Governments so as to, presumably, install democratic Governments in their places.
2. Overthrowing Governments is serious business. It normally involves violence and killings. Fortunately the people in Tunisia and Egypt have achieved their objectives without too much bloodshed. But the Libyan Government is not ready to go. So are the Governments of Syria, Yemen and Bahrain.
3. The situation in these four countries is not to the liking of the western democrats. They want to make sure that the despotic rulers surrender and the forces of democracy take over. If the people cannot overthrow their Governments by themselves, than the West must take a hand in ensuring that the authoritarian rulers are deposed.
MENGHANCURKAN UMNO
1. Usaha sedang dibuat untuk melemahkan lagi UMNO supaya ia dapat dikalahkan dalam Pilihanraya Umum ke-13, bahkan jika boleh untuk menghancurkan UMNO sekarang ini juga.
2. Laporan dalam portal berita, oleh Muda Mohd Noor, mencerita berkenaan Penawar, sebuah badan bukan Kerajaan yang disertai oleh beberapa bekas ahli Parlimen UMNO yang kononnya tidak puas hati dengan Dato Seri Najib sebagai Perdana Menteri.
3. Kononnya saya dibelakang gerakan untuk menaikkan Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin mengganti Najib.
ONE TRILLION
1. Obama, according to their own news reports, is trying to raise the ceiling for borrowing by the US Government.
2. The US Government is in debt to the tune of US$14 trillion. He wants to borrow more in order to repay the loans. If he cannot repay he will be in default. When a country fails to repay loans, it will be declared bankrupt just like anyone else.
3. What is one trillion dollars? We write it down as one billion with three additional zeros after it. Thus 1,000,000,000,000. It is not such a big figure. You add three zeros or three nothings and the figure increases by 1,000 times. But if we write down one billion as 1,000,000,000 one thousand times, we will have a better idea of what one trillion means. We would be horrified at the size of one trillion if we write the figure 1, one trillion times, which really is what one trillion means.
THE TELEPHONE HACKING SCANDAL II
1. We are used to the high moral ground taken by the Western Press. We almost cringe mentally when they criticise us for our poor record on human rights, our alleged failure to respect the rule of law, our corruption and the injustices that we perpetrate against others etc. etc.
2. We feel they are right, that they, unlike us, have and they obey high ethical codes, that they are honest and straightforward.
3. It is shocking to find that they are really no better than us, that given half a chance they would cheat and abuse their positions, that they would forget human rights.
