Khalid Ibrahim to be sworn in as Selangor MB
Very soon, former CEO and educated economist Khalid Ibrahim will be sworn in as the Mentri Besar of the people's government of Selangor. Khalid has also won the contest in the parliamentary constituency of Bandar Tun Razak ( P.124 ) in the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur.Enjoying a multiethnic Malay marriage dinner
posted by James Wong Wing-On at 1:23 PM
3 Comments:
I hope power does not go to his ahead. Learn to share. He had made his first big mistake by excluding DAP and PAS when he was granted an audience by the Sultan.
Anyway, I am a born again pessimist after seeing the Perak debacle.
Yeah, Power corrupts - and that can happen to anyone.
The unseemly maneuvers in Perak and Selangor are really giving me a yukky feeling (still going on as of right now)
Get down to work folks - don't forget you are all Yang Berkhidmat, to serve the people.
Hello Anil ! You have written a very insightful article arising from the Sub-prime mortgage problem, of which I was not too clear about. After reading your article I can see that it looks very much the 1997 problem that got Asia undone by the same people from the US and I suppose from EU.
I believe in one wise and ancient saying that nothing comes from nothing; and no matter how clever you are you just cannot pump up hot air and expect it to remain the same all the time, what goes up must eventually come down. The BN government have for the last 50 years been about shaving off a percentage of all government generated contracts and franchises for their own selfish benefit; I would go as far as to say that about 25% of all government contracts have been shaved off and pass on as waste due to corruption. Grandiose projects are thought up that are not of any urgency or requirement are implemented merely because the bigger they are the more the politicians can shave off for themselves. Looking at the second bridge project for Penang I can only say that this is another white elephant that will costs the state several billion ringgit and the shave off will make another crony very rich.
I have been back to KL and the huge highway that runs through KL to Penang must have costs several billions, and from my observation there is no urgency for such a huge project, Penang is a sea port and Penang could have a first class air-port to improve much needed infrastructure, but instead you plan to put in a billion dollar second bridge project; where is the need for such a project ?
In KL the hugely expensive FREEWAY does not merit the expenditure because it has not loosened up traffic at all, there are still very long traffic chock points that were there before the highway was put in use as it is now when it is in use. These projects were built merely to benefit those in power. To give them the opportunity to collect toll and to shave off a percentage of the contract sum. The BN government has wasted billions upon billions over the past 50 years. Compare the returns on investment between Singapore and Malaysia and you can see what they have and how they have put their investment dollars to good use. Malaysia wasted their billions upon billions of their ringgit merely to profit a few in the government. While Singapore has invested billions of dollars towards building up one of the world’s finest educational system and a world renown R & D facilities, Malaysia is still “clomping” along at bullock-cart speed; there is just no comparison, a case of cheese and chalk. Singapore has catapulted into the front ranks of a 21st century economy, while Malaysia is still chugging along at a leisurely “kampong” pace.
I have forever said that Malaysia had the good fortune to discover oil at the time that I left Malaysia, and that discovery of oil saved Malaysia from becoming a case of a SUDAN OR AFGHANISTAN. Malaysia has no manufacturing to speak off. What is passed off as manufacturing in Malaysia is nothing more than mere assembly of discarded Japanese technology as eg. The assembly of the Mitsubishi that passes for the Proton. Yes Malaysia bought the British Lotus and what profitability has it generated ? Look at the Malaysian icon of cheap flights, like Asia Airlines a success story, but it was bought by Fernandes for 1 ringgit and turned around. The Malaysian government lost billions in that project only to be turned around by a non Malay. There are hundreds of other similar examples, that proves the rule that AFFIRMATIVE ACTION IS A WASTE OF SCARCE RESOURCES; it did not really benefit the Malays because all the projects that were supported by Affirmative action went into huge losses and they did not benefit Malaysia in any meaningful way.
The Malays ought to by now at least by trial and error, realize that it takes a certain type of individual to become an entrepreneur and one can say by a rule of thump that a Malay is not likely to be one.
Penang is an excellent test bed for Malaysia (and by that I mean the BN government) to find a more effective model for development than just sticking to a failed model that is hooked on affirmative action that has gone on for the last 50 years. I agree with DAP that the NEP needs to be scraped because Penang is mainly Chinese, may I guess about 75% Chinese ? Therefore, 75% of the population will not need affirmative action (are there 25% Malays in Penang ? ) In the case of Penang therefore, may I suggest that CM Lim Guan Eng need not take any step back from what he has declared, that he will scrap the NEP(I think he will scrap it too ). My suggestion is for the CM to implement a public announcement of all the good stuff eg. Government contracts up for tender and scholarships and jobs in government.
My suggestion is that if qualified Malays win any government contracts by fair tender then government assistance may be available to the successful Malay contractor to complete the project. This model is built on the foundation that merit is the basis of success and that if the Malay candidate has merit but not sufficient means to complete his project, the government will render assistance to him. This system will therefore remove the “Malay Sultan syndrome”; the Chinese dubbed this the Malai Wong system, whereby the China-man enlist a Malay as the chairman and under his name takes on a government contract and pays off the Malay chairman a percentage of the contract but the whole project is managed by the Chinese. This system has gone on ever since the first days of Merdeka and it is the greatest indictment of the failure of Malaysia’s failed affirmative action. Let us be blunt about it, if the Malay is not able or qualified to take the job then where is the common sense for taking him on ? His inadequacy only blow up the costs of the project and this has gone on forever.
I can say that I speak for most Chinese that we do not object and for that matter we had never ever objected to a fair and equitably administered affirmative action, meaning that this assistance are given justly to deserving cases of Malays who need assistances to progress. We Chinese only object to the wastage brought on by nepotism and corruption. If affirmative action only benefits an elite then the Malays will never progress to the point when they will not need any assistance. This is our objection. That being the case CM Lim can experiment with a system that will ultimately create a class of Malay entrepreneurs that will draw level with the other races. What CM Lim has said is just common sense and good thinking. We Chinese do not need any affirmative action.
On the issue of the award of scholarships and government jobs, if I remember rightly, there is provision in the original Malaysian Constitution that mandates a ratio of 3 : 1 in other words, a 25% places reserved for non-Malays; but this provision had been perverted by those administer the government to give ALL THE PLACES to the Malays. All we need do is to revert to the original Malaysian Constitution and enforce that provision according to the law. We need to name the successful candidates in the press, like the publication of the HSC results. Who are the Malays and who are the non-Malays to show transparency and just administration of the required affirmative action. I believe that transparency is the key and it applies even in the case of the Malays.
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