National Feedlot Failed

One of the national project to reduce the dependence on imported meat was the NFC or National Feedlot Center. We were not privy to the process of awarding the contract, however to cut the story short, the project was awarded to a company own by a family of Shahrizat, a minister who lost in the last general election.

The company was receiving the soft loan for RM250mil, according to Saifuddin. Despite the loan, the company was not able to perform, and last year was only provided 3489 heads of cattle or 415 of the target.

Under the mass cattle breeding plan, NFC was to develop satellite farms. So far, there were only 53 farms compared to teh target of 300. What make it worst, the company put 10mil to buy luxury condo in Bangsar.

People will continue to guess the role of MACC, I remember the the case when MACC was involve to raid the company related to the issues in Bukit Botak, we are still waiting for the report. The fact that the documents were taken away by MACC, devoid the ability of other parties to investigate. 23 Dec 2011.

TheStar Friday 12 Jul 2013

The Star on 12 Jul 2013, carried the news that the government had recovered RM79.9mil from the loan value of 250mil given to National Feedlot Corporation. That mean RM170.1mil  has yet to be recovered.

Lands had been seized including 2 plots in Putra Jaya, 3 lots in Gemas and 2 properties at Menerong. 

Debted Malaysia

In the star newspaper, AG commented that Malaysia debt had risen to 407billion and increase of 22% compared to 2010.

The trends are:

2006 national 217.22 Foreign 25.1
2007 247.12 19.6
2008 286.12 20.32
2009 348.6 13.79
2010 390.36 16.75

So the Malaysian public debts rose 12.3 to 407.11b. The figure are as follows:

Total debts growth 12. 3%%
National Debts grow 12%
Foreign Debts grow 21.5%

The national debts formed about 95.9% of total national debts

The ratio of debts to GDP is 53.1% and last year was 50%.

Malaysian Election Commission inconsistent acts

The Malaysian Election Commission is acting in inconsistent manner when he allow separate elections for Sabah and Sarawak but was against Selangor and Penang.

The gave all sort of excuses, where the workers have to be trained and engaged twice, rather 3 times when you include the Sabah and Sarawak elections. Schools for pooling had to be acquired twice.

The 2008 general election cost around rm200mil. and the Sabah and Sarawak was rm40mil.

Rightly EC is an implementer. Each have their own roles. The role of election commission is to conduct a fair and credible election the the houses has been dissolved. I dont think he is in position to provide a fair and impartial advice.

Mirzan Mahathir in The Case of Kakinada Port Case

Mirzan Mahathir was name in an Indian court affidavit in Andhra Pradesh high court.

Mirzan is the son of the former prime minister of Malaysia Tun Mahathir. He was quoted in the 2000 page document in the case where his company had obtained the project to expand the deep water port in 1999. Incidently Matahir was still the PM of Malaysia at that time.

The project awarded was on Develop- Operate and Transfer basis, where the company was given 18 months to build two more berths at Kakinada port, the second largest port at Andhra Pradesh.

The consortium did not fulfill his commitment and the berth construction started only in 2004. Due to the delay the state was quote to have loss considerable amount.

Pahang Budget 2012

Pahang is tabling the deficit budget for 2012. It was a deficit budget for last year when the state budget for 2011 was rm 68 million deficit.

The Pahang MB (chief minister) was quoted as saying, the budget for 2012 is expected to be between 600 to 700 million. He intended to table a deficit budget, meaning that the expenses will be more than income. He was comfortable with deficit as long as things are in control.

2011 corruption index malaysia ranked 60

Malaysia had dropped further in the international corruption index. In 2011, malaysia ranked 60th compared to 56 last year.

Among Asean nation, it ranks 3rd with Singapore 9.3 and Brunei 6.3. Malaysia scored 4.3. New Zealand scored the highest ranking scoring 9.5 followed by Denmark and Finland at 9.4.

The lowest are Somilia and North Korea at 1.0. The next worst are Afghanistan and Myanmar at 1.5

perak budget 2012

Perak is tabling the annual budget for 2012.

The expenses will be RM915 millions and the revenue is $865 million making it rm50 million deficit. About 30% or rm321 millions for development and 70% or rm594 millions of the expenses is for management.

In line with the 1malaysia, the main thrust of the state will be:

1. creating economic spinoff

2. human capital development

3. championing the poor and needies

4. completing the infrastructure.

The management expenses will be:

1. salaries 321 millions

2. supplies and services 211

3. fix charges rm109 million

Mahathir Attacked UNMO

It was reported in the star that the former Malaysia PM Dr Mahathir is back to his favorite pastime hobby which is to attack UMNO in his interview with a local Malay weekly. It was quoted as..." UNMO currently lacked good credible leaders and was a pale shadow to its former self"

It was not clear whether it former self meant to his time or the time before him under the former Razak or Tunku. A simple research will come out to the issues under his time when he was challenged by another member Tengku Razali. Umno was made illegal and need to be registered under new name. The chief justice was removed under his time and more than four deputies PM for his long premiership.

His biggest controversy was the sacking of Annuar where he was sacked before the case was proven in court. Of course his case was thrown out.

Poor Muhyiddin had to defense UMNO, it is not known who Mahathir intend to promote as credible leader. Can it be his own son, the person who was made a deputy minister eventhough he lost the election.

Kuching Prison smaller but Costlier

The Federal Government under the ruling Barisan National had paid RM56million more for a smaller prison complex in Kuching Malaysia.

The original plan was for the complex to house 2665 inmates and staff. The completed project can only accommodate 1366, about half of the tender document. The excuse given was, the prison department does not have the qualified personnel to review the claims. The excuse sound odd and a bit childish because:

a. It does not an expert to tell if the complex is half of the planned size.

b. No personnel cannot be a reason as the prison department would have hired consultant to take care of the interest of the government. Moreover the PWD public work department can always be called to assist.

The Developer WMM Holdings was reported to have made the claim of 83% completed.

simply voting

I like the article in the star about simple vote in Malaysia. He was commented on the remark made by attorney general where the AG was mentioned as saying that the use of indelible ink during the election requires amendment to the constitution.

The writer, being a law teacher, searched and opened the page on the constitution relating to the issue of voting and he could not find any reference made to indelible ink. That puzzled him and many are wondering what actually was meant by the AG.

The issue of indelible ink is not new. In one of the election, the Malaysia Election Body had bought the indelible ink and stop the use last minute. I cannot remember what was the reasons or may be the excuses used to change the decision.

The purpose is simple, this is to avoid people voting more than one. One can smear the ink before going to the booth and can claim that he was denied the right to vote. I do not think people will do this purposely, unless they want to discredit the system.

Many issues were raised with regard to our election commission. In one election, the voting in Selangor was extended by a few hours for reasons known only to the election commission. The electoral role still contains names of people who has passed away, as claimed by some newspaper reports. Now they want to work with police to clear the inconsistency. Many cannot understand why this is considered too difficult to do??.

BN was sued for not paying election merchandise

BN was sued for not paying election merchandise in 2004 general election. The company Elegant Advisory was involved in supplying election merchandise like transports and publication for BN. It is likely that BN will win the battle of the court for whatever reasons to be quoted, but the moral values and judgement is of importance. If you contract people to provide a service or product, you have to make good you promise.

The 218m suit was thrown out as ' it should have been filed within 6 years of the date'.

The BN treasurer Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni and the secretary general Tengku Adnan were name as defendant in the suit.

On March 2011, Elegant Advisory obtained a judgement in default.

Audit findings

It is a customs that the auditor general will do his annual audits and presents the findings in the parliament. Nobody pay too much attention as it is normal for him to find shortcomings and no actions seem to have been taken.

On 30 Oct, the paper reported some of the shocking discoveries...

No respect for rules at all Oct 30, 2011 ... Similarly, when they call for direct flights toSingapore from Miri and Sibu, the reason given is to make it convenient for Sarawakians, especially ... thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?sec=sarawak&file=/2011/10/...

1. RM1,940 binoculars sold for RM56,350 to Malaysian Marine Parks Department.

The cost is 29 times.

2. A RM2,800 Bushnell binoculars (night vision) sold at RM56,350.

3. A RM195 Philips DVD player was purchased at RM16,100

4. A bag transfer system costing RM186 millions at KL Sentral was completed in 2008 and has never been used.

5. Malaysian National Sports Council had bought 23 horses via direct negotiations for RM5.7mil without approval and what made matter worst, 18 of the 23 horses were not even qualified to enter the races.

6. The RM160.7mil Education Ministry project to build 300 computer labs in Sabah to be completed by April 2008. Only two were completed.

Many Malaysian have their hearts bleeding when they read about the news that the present government allows these sort of things to happen. That explain why we are well behind compared to our southern neighbor.

Doubtful Excellence by Auditor General

The paper on 25 Oct 2011 brought the news of the 'excellent" rating given to many government departments.

However there weakness and the A-G was rather "clever" to be able to identify the root cause of the problems. The quoted reasons as listed in the paper were: monitoring, training and supervision. I was nice to know that no ill intention or profiteering and malpractices were quoted.

I was waiting for any report on the scale of the Port Klang Free Trade zone, the failure of the aerospace project the Eagle aircraft and purchase of the locomotive from China.

Last week, I saw the story of Malacca Monorail, millions was spent for the stationary display of the monorail and the track. So project speaks louder of the capability of the people in charge.

Some of the quoted abnormalities:

a. RM5.66 million of unapproved purchased of horses by nation sport institute.

b. RM 56 million cost overrun for the prison complex in Kuching with 11 years delay.

c. Buying a generic equipments are double the market price.

There do seem to be any improvements over the years.

The Change in Practice of Audit Report

Malaysian Parliament is having another unusual change in the way things are being done.

It has been the practice that the audit report is tabled on the same day as the budget. It would give the MPs the points of reference in commenting and discussing the proposed budgets.

However, this year the report was delayed, when this article was published on sunday 23 oct 2011, the auditor-general has not been given the opportunity to table the report. It mentioned that it will be tabled tomorrow.

It is not known what was the reasons or excuses used by the government to the delay the report. This can be the possible reasons:

a. The Bernama was quoting Ambrin as saying that this will enable both of the report to have equal coverage.

b. May be time was need to "correct" the error found in the report. There may be thing need to be adjusted.

The opposition has been harping in the issues and called is as a delay of 'unusual' proportion.

malaysian rice

Malaysian is going is cycle for its rice. In the news in Oct 2011, there was a great concern on the supply from vietnam due to the flood. Malaysia is an importer of rice mainly from Thailand and as the price of Thai rice has increased, Vietnam had becomes the new source.

Currently Malaysia imports about 1 million tons, Half from Vietnam, Thailand 30% Pakistan 16% and other country 4%. The present stock pile is about 1 million tons. The stock should last us for 5 months.

This is a known fact that there is the shelf life for rice. The humid temperature will encourage the development of fungus that produces toxins harmful.

Malaysia should be able to produce his own rice. That was the comment made by one local businessmen. There is always the big gap between should be and would be. Having sufficient land alone is not the main criteria of success. There was time when almost everyone in the rural areas were planting rice, but that was more for own consumption. There is no effort to plan it in the commercial way like the methods we are planting rubber or oil palm.

Without the drive from the government, malaysian rice will not be able to support the needs of the people. Without increasing its price, the jobs of planting rice may not be an attractive propositions.

electoral rolls

There were 800,000 new voters registered last year.

A question was raised on the duration to register a voter. Let say it 20 minutes each, then the number of minutes required is:

Minutes to register 800,000 voters = 20 x 800,000

hours required = 16,000,000 /60

= 2666, 666 hours

with 10,000

each worker will work 266 hours

There are many unconfirmed report of automatic registration. This further raise the fear of phantom voters.

EC gives another excuse

The star newspaper reported on friday 14 oct 2011 that the election commission does not have the time to conduct the checking on the authenticity of the voters. The excuse given was that there are 40,000 name to check and it will take two years to do.

It look like the EC chairman has just wake up from his sleep. The issue of phantom voters are not new. The last election the EC chairman cancelled the use of the ink, I forgot what was the excuse used. There was a newspaper report that the ink can be erased using a normal kitchen solvent. That was another attempt to justify the excuse used.

The June roll has 12,268,906 and the latest has 15,975,278, an increase of 3,706,372.

Many of the citizen wish we have a unbiased EC, like other developed nation

EC needs to verify 40000 names 1 day ago ... SHAH ALAM: Some 40000 unverified names on the electoral roll will be published by the Election Commission to weed out phantom voters. thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/10/14/nation/...sec...

Malaysia city Index

The European Green City Index was launched in 2009. It is method used to measure and compare the cities in term of environmental performance.

Siemens had just published the Green index for Asian Cities.

The result shows are expected. Siemens group the cities to:

1. well below average

2.below average

3. average

4. Above average

5. well above average

The cities well above average is Singapore and the one well below average is Karachi. Kuala Lumpur is positioned as average and Malaysia, especially those in power like Najib, have a lot of catching up to do.

The Measures

There are 8 elements used and each is rated on the 5 scales as above (average,above average..). The measures for Kuala Lumpur are as follows:

a. Energy and Co below average

b. Land Use average

c. Transport above avrage

d. Waste management well below averge

e. water well below average

f. Sanitation average

g. air quality average

h. Environmental governance average

By 2020, more than have of Malaysia are living in Greater KL, are we ready?

shariff jajang to enter defense

The former UMNO exco was asked to enter defense against a corruption case in 1997. This is the second case with the, previously we had seen the former Menteri Besar from the previous ruling Barisan National was also facing similar charges.

The star reported on 9 Feb 2011, that the Former Selangor exco member Datuk Mohd Shariff Jajang has been ordered to enter his defence on a corruption charge as the Sessions judge, Yong Zarida Sazali said that there are prima facie case against Mohd Shariff, the former Barisan Exco.

The case involve the approval of aplot of land to Institut Kemahiran Memandu Sepang Sdn Bhd (Ikmas), a subsidiary of Konsortium Sepang Berhad (KSB) and Mohd Shariff had the interest in it.

The case if convicted, will carry a jail sentence of 14 years or fine of RM20,000, or both.

Malaysian Anti-Corruption Co­mmission deputy public prosecutors Zulqarnain Hassan and Mohd Baharuddin Ahmad Kassim called 32 witnesses during the pro­secution stage which began in ­2004. The defense was fixed for hearing in early Apr 2011.

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High Income Nation

Malaysia needs rm600bil investments to achieve high income status and 90% of the investment must be from the private sectors.

The government had launched 131 projects to generate rm1.3 trillion in GNP and 1.3 millions jobs.

That is the message campaigned by Muhyiddin in Brunei. It sound too simplistic and ambitious. It is logical, in economic sense, a developed nations produced certain amount of per capita income.

Looking at the wikipedia chart of per capital, Malaysia is at number 65 with usd7,700 per capita. Other countries in the region are Brunei 28,340 nbr 26, Singapore

15

Singapore

42,653

26

Brunei

28,340

65

Malaysia

7,775

89

Thailand

4,620

109

Indonesia

2,963

I think the per capita is a useful indicator, it should not be the aim of development. The development should focus on the people and not the ranking.

This is where Malaysia had failed, and the leaders had mislead the mass population. The Deputy PM had done this, either intentional or out of ignorance. I think it is intentionally, as it is easier to chase the number than the develop the Malaysian.

Changing Focus
If you were reading the history of early Malaysia, the approach was different. Razak wanted to develop the people, when the people generate the extra income it will be counted as the additional to the per capital.

NEW APPROACH is different, do not be mislead, what Najib wanted (and Mahathir too), we want to be a developed nation, the per capital need to be this level. That will require 600bil investment. The investments will generate the income and part of the GDP and divide that by the population, you get the per capital... What is so difficult about it?.

Issues
1. Malaysia is unique, as the majority population, the Malays are not strong in economy. You bring the idea of targeting per capita, you can have islands of factories and development with a large desserts of poverty. It will unstabilize the nation.

2. Look at Brunei, at number 26 with 28,000 usd per capital, does it make it a developed nation. Hardly so.

3. The issues of corruption is a rampant. The more MACC you have does not seem to reduce, it is ingrained in the very fabric of the certain group of people. It is the easiest mean to get rich in Malaysia.

Conclusion

Targeting to be a high income nation is made in a grave error. We should target development, and income will come a the result of development.

Human Trafficking or Smuggling

Malaysian Parliament had recently made amendment to the act on human trafficking. This is the follow up action from the visit by US secretary of state, Ms Clinton. To my mind, I imagine a picture of Clinton opening up her big book, like a teacher in a classroom full of standard 1 students, and Hishamuddin, was one of the willing student taking notes of what Ms Clinton want him to do.

Suhakam is not happy with the ammendment, as it is too focused to make the distinction between the human trafficking and human smuggling.

Lat Sunday, I was shocked by the news from Mstar on the stories of the foreigners being forced to prostitution by sheer torture. Hundreds were taken to the rehibitation centers and thousands more are suffering in the dark rooms in the back street.

Malaysia is unfortunate for not making a stand on this issues. This reflect on the ministers mindset. May be he was too busy sharpening his keris reading to draw it on the next congress of the powers.

It is so unfortunate, that external power such as the US, who are not clean themselves, has to be the big daddy telling the Malaysian what to do. Hishammuddin knew about the problems. Almost every week, we had the raid and the capture of foreigners caught with immoral activities. The were fined due to "doing something against the visa restriction". This is becoming a joke of the day. Has anybody are able to think beyond. I wonder why Singapore can come up with the sort of comment of the Malaysian leadership.

Pulau Jerejak failed development

The Penang Barisan Rakyat Chief Minister is asking for explanation on loss of 30 millions incurred by the previous state government under Barisan National under the project to develop Pulau Jerejak.

Lim said the people have the right to know and the loss and why the project did not take off.

The previous Chief Minister of Penang from BN was Dr Koh. It seem that the project was handed to UDA Holding and after the hand over it incurred the loss.

The project was developed by UDA, and a holiday resort called Tropical Island Resort was in the making.

The PAC deputy chairman Tan Seng Giaw said that the project will be brought up in the Public Accounts Committee meeting.