Najib doesn't understand economics or tak tau ilmu hisab..

Does Najib really understand economics? — Kim Quek

NOV 10 — I bet not a few among the participants at the 21st Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) Malaysia Implementation Council meeting were aghast when Prime Minister and Finance Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced that Malaysia was aiming for a nine per cent annual GDP growth until 2020.

In an opening speech at the meeting held in the morning of Nov 9, Najib said:

“We aim to be a developed nation by the year 2020 and we are looking to more than double our per capita gross national income from US$7,000 (RM24,500) to at least US$17,000 by then in order to qualify as a high-income nation according to World Bank classifications.

“This would also mean that Malaysia has to grow its GDP by over nine per cent annually until the year 2020.” (The Malaysian Insider, Nov 9.)

Playing with the totally unrealistic growth figure of nine per cent at a time when Malaysia and the world are still going through one of the worst recessions in memory with no definite light at the end of tunnel yet did sound surreal indeed. More so when Malaysia’s growth record in recent years have been anything but robust.

Obviously advised by his aides that his gung-ho expectation was way overboard, Najib scrambled to control damage via a press conference several hours later when he denied having said nine per cent He said: “I did not say nine per cent, I said around six per cent as nine is not realistic.”

But of course, Najib’s denial came too late, as several news media including Bernama and the Star had already quoted him at nine per cent. Though these media dutifully replaced the figure of nine per cent by six per cent in their updated versions in the afternoon, some betrayed their clumsy amendment by retaining the incongruous per capita GDP growth from the current US$7,000 to US$17,000 in 2020.

If indeed Najib had quoted six per cent, then compounding US$7,000 at the increase of six per cent per annum can only bring us to US$13,000 by 2020. Only when we compound it by nine per cent can we reach the figure of US$17,000. Figures tell no lies. It was clearly a deliberate statement, not a typing or reading error.

So the big puzzle: How could a finance minister, who is supposed to be the economic czar of a country, make such an unforgivable blunder?

Granted that a man of Najib’s position is expected to have his speech writers to lighten his work, but he should remain the master as policy formulator and decision maker, not a robot reading out speeches he could not fully comprehend.

Chairing over such an important meeting which deliberates the agenda of MSC Malaysia, which in Najib’s words, serves as “a foundation to build a world-class technology sector to kick start a vibrant Malaysian ICT industry”, I would expect Najib to be in full possession of a macro view of the nation’s economy, the direction it is going, and the specific role the budding ICT industry is playing in relation thereto. And central to all these is, of course, a realistic assessment of the current and potential strength of our economy.

As finance minister, Najib is sitting at the apex commanding a vast bureaucracy of economic and financial experts and planners, and he should therefore be the best judge of our economic realities.

In fact, he should be the first one to spot any gross irregularity in major economic figures. If he is a competent finance minister, he should be the final arbiter as to what growth figure to adapt for policy making purpose. Even allowing the fact that he is new to the job, he should at least be able to discern when a wildly unrealistic target is presented to him. Not to be able to sense that nine per cent growth is way out of the reasonable realm is a horrible admission of ineptitude.

Under the circumstances, it is not unreasonable to surmise that this could be a case of an economic novice writing out a speech which was read out by an equally ignorant financial boss.

That may not be a far-fetched assumption, given that Najib’s premiership so far seems to have been one gigantic public relation exercise and void of substance, to create the impression of change when in fact nothing has been changed. Not in our hopelessly decadent institutions nor in our utter lack of rule of law.

Source: Malaysian Insider

RM22mio. allocated for study on GST

RM22 mio. apparently has been set aside by our generous Government to study the impact of Goods and Services Tax. Very good la I tell you.

You want a cheaper way, call me la. I can google 1,000 different impact from the implementation of GST in less time than it takes for you to spell CORRUPTION (even with the slow Streamyx speed).

Plus, have any of these fools tried looking for such studies or reports being churned out by economic analysts, rating agencies, accounting firms etc? You need not allocate more than RM2.00 for an hour in the cybercafe retrieving all these la!

These so called committee members will most likely be paid handsomely to carry out their study on the impact of how GST will affect the Rakyat and how our national coffers will be boosted, blablabla...

It's bewildering how blatantly the money is bleeding out of the system when the same money can be put to better use such as helping the poor, helping the less fortunate, the sick, the single parent, the abandoned children, the orphans, the elderly, etc. etc.

RM22.0 mio. give to me la. Me and my buddies can come up with something similar to what you normally expect from such "studies". I promise I will employ the money for the greater benefit of all Malaysians.

Court decision postponed to December

My boy, my boy... court decision regarding the Paramount View Condominium case has been postponed to December.

Lanciaou.

Why I hate the newspapers!

My parents, my peers and people in general ask me why I don’t read the newspapers. “Your general knowledge is terrible,” my father tells me. He enjoys quizzing me on things like who is the minister of this and that. I look at him with a blank face and make a silly guess or I don’t answer him for he is right. I don’t know. “How are you going to know what’s going on in your own country if you don’t read the papers,” my well meaning colleagues ask me. “Didn’t you read the papers about the girl/boy who….” or “did you read what so and so said in the papers…” type questions are hurled my way frequently and I repeat the blank stare or mumble something in response or on occasion provide a stupid excuse as to why I have not read the papers.

I am sure reading the papers for my own knowledge or more like “to be in the know” is vital especially in the field of communications that I am in. It’s oh so important to know about that merger, that acquisition, that new launch, that new regulation passed, the new budget, the state of the economy the person who… and blablabla.

Yet each morning when the pile of newspapers land on my desk I feel sick to my stomach and I dread flipping its dirty gritty pages. Why this sick feeling you wonder? Why is she being such a drama queen? It’s after all just a paper which provides you information about the world and the country you live in and everything else in between right?

Wrong. The newspaper I believe is full of crap! Yes crap! The kind that you can find at the bottom of the dustbin. The kind that you can find growing in your drain. The kind of things you can find collecting underneath your shoes. Now if you take some time and flip through the grimy papers, you will note that every other page has columns or full pages or shudder, even creative buys like blurbs, stickers or callouts offering you to purchase something or other. Ads ads ads! The very things that drives the newspapers to its mammoth growth. *Note: I admire the creativity of certain ads but really, who needs so many ads in their face each day?

Now besides this sickening ads that yell at you to purchase a product that will make you look slim and beautiful with a whole head of hair in 10 sessions so that you become the object of everyone’s desire, or the dream driving machine with some super duper technology that will instantly alleviate your status amongst your peers and make you the envy of your neighbors and nosy competitive relatives or the latest mobile phone plan for your favourite people which could save you heaps of cash monthly, you would expect to at least get some brilliant piece of journalism right? The kind of article so well written you would sit up and take notice. The kind of article with a call to action so strong you automatically feel that you should do something that can change the world or make a difference. The kind of article that informs you and makes you more knowledgeable, that increases your intellect. The kind of article that makes you take a step back to think. Well, sorry to disappoint folks. You will be hard pressed to find an article of such caliber or perhaps it is me again with my high lofty expectations.

Before I continue my tirade about the deplorable state of the newspaper sans the advisements which are merely marketing tools sadly driven by our own needs and insecurities which are also needed to bring down the costs of the printing of the grubby papers, there are a handful of decent articles in the papers albeit more often then not, syndicated articles or weekly columns which do pique my interest and who entertains me to a certain extent. Perhaps I am being too harsh and judgmental about this, viewing things through my own narrow viewpoint, but really when was the last time you read an article which has changed your life or propelled you to greater heights? More often then not, you will find articles that are just what I would like to call “so what?” articles. The kind that you just read so that you are “in the know” or which you can make a half baked comment about but which generally adds no value to your life.

Moving along to the deplorable bit of print called the newspaper. With each page that I turn, starting with the cover story with its big bold headlines that scream something new and “wow”, to the next few bits of news about the country, government, latest collaborations, politics, business, world, sports and features about the latest it girls/guys, hit movies, singing sensations, over exaggerated fashion from Europe and the states which no one can even wear let alone afford and blablabla, I feel like ripping the pages to wrap the vegetables my mother bought from the market or to line the cages of some pet or to just toss it in the bin. It’s just so full of crap!

Have you read the kinds of things our people in power say? It will make you laugh and then cry because you realize that these are the people who hold your very welfare in their hands. Who holds the fate of the country in their hands. The half truths, the stupidity, the twisted words, the promises made and then forgotten, the pretty photo op pictures, the beautifully crafted words inserted with the proper key messages by PR people are all there for the world to see in glorious neat columns of black print. So many campaigns are launched with pomp and glamour whilst fueling and lining the pockets of others. I can hear the applause as the speeches are made as these people stand up and deliver speeches crafted by minds and hands of people you will never know. The promises made and the words said will be forgotten, swept away and discarded – the only evidence is the rows of print that will be thrown away and hopefully recycled.

Very few brave people have voiced out and even challenged the things that have been said while most seethe in silence afraid of repercussions. Try writing a letter to the Editor about something which is controversial and you can be sure that the letter will never be printed or if printed, edited to something that is unrecognizable. Oh of course it is edited, they need your article to fit into the “X” amount of space (usually 2 pages) allocated for the ‘readers say’ however, in the process they just might take out the important bits which are usually the crux of the issue. No surprise there really.

Then there is the news about the crime and the evil in this world – the sections that depresses me the most. I read about the horror of gang rapes while people pass by and watch without doing anything to help the victim. I read about fathers, brothers, uncles, grandfathers, neighbors and strangers who rape young children who should be innocently watching Spongebob on TV, who rape unassuming young women or even old women who go about their own lives, who are just there are the wrong place at the wrong time - Keep it in your freaking pants or sarongs man! I read about many women who are raped by people in the villages. I also read about males who are raped. The cases are never reported because, shudder men’s egos are at stake here and whowever heard of this preposterous thing… but it happens.

I read about wars. The numerous people that are displaced, who have no food and who have died. The numbers of the dead or missing printed in huge bold numbers. I read about the starving people in Africa. I read about HIV, H1N1, AIDS and cancer. I read about famine. I read about natural disasters. I read about the extinction of certain species of animals and plant life. I read about global warming. I read about racism or perhaps the fact “that there is no such thing as racism”. I read about murders. I read about injustice. I read about terrorism. I read about kidnappings and ransoms. I read about bribery. I read about school shootings. I read them all.

Why do I torture myself with such news when my life is already filled with its own share of drama and misery? Who needs this kind of news really? Sure it makes you reflect and thank your lucky stars that you aren’t them but then really, reading the papers in the morning is so freakingly depressing. How is anyone going to have a good start to the morning with this load of crap in your hands?

Here’s another thing. All the news that you read may not be newsworthy and your wonder… hmmm… “Why is this bit of news included in the line-up of riveting articles today?” Easy! It is paid for or has been paid for with advertising. In my line, I beg for coverage for my organization but it’s hard when your organization seldom has the budgets to buy all that ad space necessary to get the best coverage in the papers. So what if your organization rocks or has achieved something really great, you will just get a small column measuring half a slice of bread for all your troubles. Lo and behold if you should a series of full page full coloured ads… you have prominent coverage with coloured pictures thrown in for extra effectiveness all because your news is “newsworthy”.

Maybe I am jaded, or again overacting. Maybe its just who you know that gets you prominent coverage… oh no… perhaps that’s not it. Maybe just maybe I suck at my job and the news that I generate are just utter nonsense. However, I honestly doubt that is the case simply because of several calls and blatant emails that I have received informing me that the said newspaper would not come to my event or cover my event simply because it has been 6 months since we placed an ad with them. Another newspaper, one of the country’s pioneer paper’s even told me that they had boycotted another organization in my industry several months earlier because they did not advertise and did I want the same fate as them. Besides that, don’t forget that so and so is friends with the big boss at the newspaper… a phone call can easily ensure your news will never see the light of day! Talk about newsworthiness. Don’t give me that feces!

So what’s there to like about the papers? Perhaps the occasional weekend pullouts with feature stories and of course the funnies, the classifieds and the cinema listings page. Other than that, I hate the papers. In the ideal world of which I idealistic hope for and dream about, there will be real feats of journalism that will win awards. There will be justice, there will be hope, there will be truth laced in all articles. There will be no fear in the written word. There will be no hidden agendas. The articles will be featured based on newsworthiness not on dollars spent. It will be about the wants of the everyday people. Reviews will be frank and honest and brutal if necessary regardless if you get a free meal or if they are advertising with that publication or if you know the person who owns the company that you tasked with reviewing. The ads will be minimal and not splashed on every other page.

Yes I am ever hopeful. Yes, I am a dreamer.

I wait for that day with baited breath.

Case closed, ah? Correct, correct, correct..

Source: theStar online

KUALA LUMPUR: The case against Datuk V.K. Lingam in connection with the alleged brokering of judges, which was featured in a video clip, has been closed with no further action.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Abd Aziz said in a written reply to Lim Guan Eng (DAP-Bagan) on Monday that the investigation showed no criminal offence had been committed in the appointment of judges.

“After ACA officers investigated those involved in the video clip, it was concluded that there is no abuse of power.

“The Attorney-General (A-G) has decided that no further action is needed,” he said.

It was reported that four investigation papers were opened in connection with the Lingam video clip.

Three were sent to the A-G’s Chambers while one remained with the then Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA), now Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.

Of the three with the A-G’s Chambers, two were closed due to insufficient evidence while the remaining one was awaiting further investigation.

Nazri said the remaining paper was later classified by the A-G as “no further action” as there were no suspects who could confirm the handling of documents in the appointment of High Court judges.

A Royal Commission of Inquiry was conducted in the Lingam video case which showed the prominent lawyer purportedly involved in brokering a deal that manipulated the appointment of judges.

The video implicated five people, including Lingam, former chief justices Tun Eusoff Chin and Tun Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim, tycoon Tan Sri Vincent Tan and the then Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor who was in charge of legal affairs.