THE DESTRUCTION OF MALAYSIA

blogtunm.blogspot.com Tun M 

1. No one can deny that the Malaysia of today is not the country that the world acclaimed as the Asian Tiger. It is not even a shadow of its former self. It is now a kleptocracy – a country of thieves led by thieves.

2. How did this come about? How did a tiger descend so low as to be a failed country? The answer lies in the corruption of the country by specifically a corrupt leader.

3. When a person says “cash is king” he means that “corruption is king”. That was what Najib Razak said when he became Prime Minister of Malaysia. It is shocking but he meant it. His actions before and after his declaration proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that he believed in corruption as a way to achieve anything that he wishes. And among these was his ambition to continue to be Prime Minister of Malaysia for as long as he lived.

4. He apparently believed that in order to be effective corruption must be big. The size must be such that the recipient would find it difficult to reject. Just imagine a man who had never seen a thousand Ringgit is given a million Ringgit to do something wrong or immoral. Few would be able to resist.

5. And so when everyone is aware that he has stolen huge sums of Government money, none of the UMNO leaders or members would criticise him, not even to ask him to explain. They continued to support him.

6. As mentioned above Najib believed that to be effective the bribes must be very substantial. He needed to have billions of Ringgits for the schemes he had in mind. He was not thinking only about the money to be given as bribes. He wanted a lot of the money for himself and his wife.

7. He therefore conceived of very big projects which cost billions of Ringgits. Among the projects were the East Coast Railway and the high-speed train between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. He also decided to buy power plants.

8. For these projects money that he borrowed run into billions of Ringgits. By overpricing some of the money could be hived off and disappear.

9. But Najib found a way to exceed the ceiling the Government was allowed to borrow. He set up a Government – owned company ostensibly to invest. Normally such a fund would come from excess revenue earned by the Government. But this fund is to be borrowed.

10. Although 100% owned by the Government, the company, 1MDB (1 Malaysia Development Berhad) was not subject to the Government ceiling for borrowing. At that time the ceiling was 53% of the GDP. He borrowed 42 billion Ringgit, the biggest loan ever raised by the country.

11. Part of this money was used to buy power plants at above the market prices. Much of the rest of the fund just disappeared after having invested in dubious oil and gas projects in the Middle East. Some money was moved through banks in the Caribbean, in the Seychelles and Singapore. Somehow a substantial sum ended in Najib’s account in the AmBank.

12. Later Najib claimed that billion plus in his bank account was gifts from Saudi royalty.

13. This claim can be verified. But little attempt was made to trace the movements of the money. Large sums of money are not easily moved. Cash would be so huge that it is not practical to move it around. It has to be in the form of documents; cheques for example or electronic transfers.

14. There must be records held by the banks issuing the documents or receiving the documents. There will be records both at the issuing banks and the receiving banks.

15. Then the banks must record how the money came to be in the banks, the depositor or depositors, the way the money was earned. If the investigators cared, they would be able to trace the movements of the money and prove whether the claim that it was a gift is true.

16. But there is no evidence that a thorough investigation was carried out. And so the claim that it was a gift was accepted.

17. The sum is very big. The Saudis may be rich and generous but even they would not reward a foreign leader such a huge sum of money for his role in helping the Palestinians.

18. Then there is the money and expensive articles found in the Pavilion. Initially the police claimed that the money and the articles were bought with money from 1MDB.

19. Later it was claimed that the Government could not prove that the money and the purchase of luxury articles were with money stolen from the Government – principally from 1MDB.

20. And so it was decided to give the money and the gifts back to Najib as they were the gifts to him. As pointed out above, tracing the source of the money was not thorough. It is more likely that they were not gifts. Imagine the Saudi king giving so many luxury handbags to Rosmah. There are no documents to prove this. But jewellers in New York claims they sold jewellery to Rosmah. Has the Malaysian authority investigated this.

21. If Najib cannot prove that the gifts were gifts, they should not give the money and the gifts to Najib. Like the Government the proof that these were gifts were not adequate. The Government should retain the money and gifts until the sources are proven.

22. At this moment no one knows where the rest of the 42 billion Ringgit has gone to. It was suggested that Jho Low had taken the money. I suspect that blaming Jho Low is because he could not be reached. It is not possible to investigate him.

MALAYSIA TODAY

blogtunm.blogspot.com Tun M 

1. I am prepared to accept that, in terms of development, Malaysia has fallen behind Indonesia and Vietnam lately. Of course we have always been behind Singapore.

2. But I was shocked when I discovered that we are also behind some African countries. We are not prepared to use the latest technology to achieve efficiency and limit corruption. We reject this technology because it may expose the wrong doings of our Members of Parliament.

3. I am told that if we adopt this new technology there would be loud protests from members of Parliament. It would seem that many of them are involved in the export and import business.

4. And so the country continues to lose lots of money because we reject better ways of management.

5. But African countries are saving billions because their management, using the new equipment is more efficient. They are already drawing ahead of us.

6. Of course we need not feel ashamed about our being overtaken by African countries. Haven’t we been told that stealing Government money is not something we should feel ashamed about. If our boss does it, it is okay.

7. After all the boss throws a few crumbs to us. That is how generous the boss is. We have shown our appreciation by supporting the party of the boss. They may shamelessly steal more money and give us some in appreciation. That’s okay.

8. Don’t adopt the new technology because if may cause our law makers to lose money. Reject it. Let the country go bankrupt. Its only the country losing money. You don’t lose. It’s okay.

THE WAR AGAINST CORRUPTION

blogtunm.blogspot.com Tun M 

1. For a long time now Malaysians have expressed disgust with the corruption of the politicians.

2. It is one thing to be against corruption but it is another thing to act against corruption.

3. Many would say that there is no opportunity to act against corruption. But really there is.

4. The state election and elections in general will provide opportunities to act effectively against corrupt practices.

5. In the Johor State Elections we should see the corrupt parties being challenged and defeated by the anti-corruption people.

6. Most of the parties fielding candidates for the Johor Election are from parties tainted by corruption in the past. They were so corrupt that the electorate rejected them in the fourteenth Election.

7. But now they are back. Maybe they will field new candidates. But the parties and the leadership are still the same. They may talk about wanting to do away with corruption. But their campaign would depend much on bribing the voters in one way or another.

8. Against these corrupt parties will be newer parties, led by politicians who had refused to be bribed into overthrowing the Government elected by the people in the 14th General Elections. They uphold democracy even if they had to make costly sacrifice.

9. For the corrupt the choice will be very simple. They will vote for the candidates from the corrupt parties. But for those voters who are against corruption their votes will reflect their strength in their stand against corruption.

10. It will be difficult. For numerous elections they had remained loyal to their chosen party. They had overlooked some deviations by their party, gave them the benefit of their doubt and supported the party. But now the corruption, the deviations have become very serious. They have affected the good reputations of the past. In fact the good name won by the party has been reversed not only in Malaysia but also in the world. Corruption has actually overthrown a Government chosen by the people, a democratic Government.

11. Some loyalists may choose not to vote. If they do that, the diehard loyalists would still vote. And the corrupt candidates would win. The Government would be corrupt and continue to be corrupt.

12. But if they, the anti-corruption voters are still truly against corruption they would come out in great numbers and vote for the anti-corruption candidates. The result would be a clean Government.

13. But will there be enough votes for those against corruption to win. If the 14th General Election is any indicator, they can win.

14. The 14th General Election showed the determination of the free voters. i.e the voters who were tied to no party, exercising their right to support candidates of their choice. Thus the opposition won.

15. This time around the anti-corruption voters would be more because of their disgust with the two governments which had seized power through party hopping – through non-democratic means.

16. But will the anti-corruption party win enough seats. It is possible that it will not. There would be a need to form some kind of coalition with partners who are not involved with corruption.

17. Remember UMNO by itself could not form a Government. Although UMNO is also a Malay party it accepted the need to work with non-Malay parties.

18. Pejuang too would be a leader in a coalition with multiracial parties which subscribe to its anti-corruption principles and is aware that disparities between people and states need to be corrected in a fair and equitable way.

WAR IS A CRIME

blogtunm.blogspot.com Tun M 

1. War is about killing people. And killing people is a crime. Yet so-called civilised people choose war in order to settle conflicts between them.

2. I had tried to criminalise war. But I was unsuccessful. Today wars are being fought. They are terrible because everyone is regarded as legitimate targets, not just the soldiers but all the non-combatants, men, women, the old, the sick, children and the babies. No one is spared.

3. And now the weapons. They are more powerful. They destroy whole cities and the people living in them. Buildings, old and new are pulverised and levelled to the ground.

4. The destruction is beyond imagination. The wounded are left unattended, crying and screaming with pain. The dead, sprawled and decomposing on streets, twisted, without limbs or heads, being eaten by dogs and other animals.

5. And all these are done by men, so-called civilised men. And they do it on the instruction of older men. Now they are committing genocide.

6. I would like to appeal to the leaders of powerful countries to stop this carnage. War does not solve anything. But the cost is horrible.

7. Please stop it.

8. Please go back to negotiations, to arbitrations, to courts of law.

9. The result may not be satisfactory. But wars also produce no satisfactory results.

10. But at least no one gets wounded, no one dies, no devastations of whole countries when we do not war.

11. I would like to appeal to the leaders of great powers to stop resorting to wars as a means of settling conflicts.

12. Stop inventing new and more destructive weapons.

13. Stop selling arms.

14. Strengthen international institutions for peace.

A NEW ECONOMIC POLICY

blogtunm.blogspot.com Tun M 

1. It is well-known that Malaysia became industrialised through foreign direct investment or FDI. Malaysia was actually among the first to do this. Prior to this the newly independent countries were unwilling to give a role to foreigners in the development of their countries.

2. But the Malaysian policy showed that FDI did not result in the foreigners controlling the economy. Instead the country became industrialised quickly.

3. Seeing this many other countries followed suit. Today there is a struggle to attract FDI. And Malaysia is unable to attract FDI as well as before when we were able to offer relatively cheap labour and tax incentives. Other countries now offer cheaper labour and better incentives. It is time Malaysia find other ways to develop its economy.

4. It is noted that some of the most successful development has taken place in Japan, Korea and China. These countries do promote foreign direct investment. But they are less dependent on FDI. Instead we see them going into industries that were monopolised by the developed countries.

5. They dared to do this because they felt that the advantage they had should be exploited by themselves.

6. The first advantage they had was a big domestic market. By controlling imports their domestic industries would be protected. They could sell even the early, low quality products in the domestic market. Over time their products improved and they could enter the international market to compete with foreign products.

7. They went into the manufacture of “white” goods for the kitchen. Today they have ousted European and American products in this field.

8. But the domestic market was not the only advantage they had. They had abundance of low cost labour. Their products were cheaper and were able to compete with costly imports and later in the international markets.

9. Their Governments were supportive, legislating needed laws to protect local products. Additionally, cheap loans were made available. Even land was made available.

10. Technology was a problem. Nationals were sent abroad to work in foreign countries and to study in foreign universities. Gradually technology was acquired. Most of these foreign – trained workers, scientists, and top executives were foreign trained.

11. The most important area is manufacturing. It is important to know how things are made. Automation and robotics were acquired and installed in local production lines. Very quickly local industries were able to mass produce sophisticated products for the world market.

12. Support from banks and the Government enabled the industries to grow. The Korean car for example was not of international standards. But supported by the local market the industry grew and became able to be mass produced. With the advantage of cheap labour, the cars achieved good quality acceptable to the international market.

13. Malaysians seemed not to have noticed that very early Malaysia had gone into industries to serve the world market.

14. Perhaps the first was the pineapple canning industry. Under the British the empire’s market was reserved for the products of the Empire. It was called imperial preference.

15. Then came rubber and oil palm. Large tracts of Malaysia’s forest were sold or leased to largely British companies. Very quickly the Malaysian rubber and oil palm estates dominated the world market.

16. But the large estates were mainly British owned. The locals could not copy as they were not given enough land to go big and dominate the market. The locals were small players. It was only after independence that the locals could acquire the big estates. Had they realised the importance of size, Malaysian companies would probably be big like the Japanese Zaibatsu or the Korean Chaebols.

17. Still Malaysians have shown that they have the capacity to be big and dominate the world market. This happened by accident with the glove industry.

18. Taking advantage of the supply of rubber, glove making industries were started. Then came COVID-19 pandemic. The demand for gloves grew by leaps and bounds. The local glove-makers responded.

19. Today Malaysia is the biggest supplier of gloves in the world.

20. We missed the opportunity to become the biggest producer of other rubber products in the world. We made tyres for motor vehicles. But we supply only a small number. Perhaps the quality does not meet the special need of tyres for different use. But we can set up big research laboratories.

21. But besides tyres there are hundreds of rubber products which sell by the millions. We need to go into them in a big way.

22. We also produce palm oil, but largely we export the oil raw. It is time that we add value to our palm oil exports.

23. However, it is not necessary that we go big only when we have the raw materials. We can import the raw materials or the parts and components and re-export them as finished products.

24. The most important thing is to go big. The corporation must be locally owned or majority locally owned.

25. We need to master electronics. We have a microchip producer – Silterra. Investments in microchip is big. But the Government can help. Today Korea and Taiwan monopolise this industry. And the returns are very big.

26. If we go into big industries and dominate the market, much of the returns will accrue to Malaysia. We can still cater for foreign direct investments but we will not be dependent on them for the growth of our industries and economy.

SEBUT NAMA

blogtunm.blogspot.com Tun M 

1. Jangan sebut nama Najib kerap. Dia akan jadi lebih popular.

2. Lupakan sahaja nama Najib. Lupakan dia curi duit. Lupakan dia dibicara dan didapati salah. Dia dihukum 12 tahun penjara dan denda dua ratus dua puluh million Ringgit.

3. Jangan sebut. Kalau sebut nama Najib dia akan lebih disukai ramai. Orang yang popular dalam negara demokratik akan jadi pemimpin, jadi Perdana Menteri pun.

4. Perdana Menteri boleh curi berbilion Ringgit. Jangan sebut nama pencuri ini. Ia akan jadi popular, jadi Perdana Menteri dan curi duit lagi.

5. Jangan sebut nama dia. Di mahkamah jangan sebut nama dia. Maka keadilan akan berlaku. Kena hukum. Tetapi tak payah jalan hukum. Diam sahaja. Jangan sebut nama dia.

6. Kalau tak sebut nama orang yang salah, nak sebut nama siapa.

7. Sebutlah nama siapa pun. Tak mengapa. Itu keadilan di Malaysia.

8. Boleh tarik balik kes. Ada Peguam Negara (AG) untuk ini. Jika tak ada, tukar AG sahaja. Jangan sebut nama. Akan kena sue kerana menghina.

9. Tak ada duit nak bayar peguam. Itu masalah awak. Undang-undang tentang tidak sebut nama masih berkuasa. Tak dapat bayar peguam masuk dalam sahaja. Itu undang-undang. Negara utama the Rule of Law, pemerintahan mengikut undang-undang. Kelentong sedikit dari undang-undang tak mengapa.

10. Jangan tegur. Itu contempt of court, menghina mahkamah. Itu salah. Lebih baik lari ke negara lain. Jika tidak. Masuk dalam.

11. Itu keadilan.

KEADILAN MALAYSIA

blogtunm.blogspot.com Tun M 

1. Tiap-tiap hari dunia dapat membaca laporan berkenaan perbicaraan kes 1MDB yang diadakan di Amerika Syarikat.

2. Dalam perbicaraan ini ramai nama tokoh-tokoh di Malaysia yang terlibat dengan jenayah mencuri duit 1MDB dilapor. Kesalahan yang dilakukan oleh mereka disebut. Di antara orang yang disebut berkali-kali sebagai terlibat dengan menipu 1MDB ialah Najib dan Rosmah.

3. Laporan-laporan ini boleh dibaca dalam akhbar Malaysia. Tetapi yang peliknya ramai orang Malaysia tidak sedikit pun marah terhadap Najib dan Rosmah, jauh sekali merasa malu.

4. Di PRN Johor parti Najib di sokong sehingga menang 2/3 kerusi Dewan Undangan Negeri (DUN).

5. Dalam satu rakaman video Perdana Menteri (PM) ditolak ke belakang oleh Presiden UMNO, yang tarik Najib ke depan di tempat Perdana Menteri. Dari peristiwa ini adalah jelas Najib lebih dihormati oleh UMNO daripada Perdana Menteri.

6. Apakah jenis Kerajaan yang didirikan oleh Ismail Sabri jikalau ia boleh dihina di hadapan dunia.

7. Ramai ahli UMNO hendak supaya PRU 15 diadakan segera. Apakah Ismail Sabri akan jadi Perdana Menteri jika UMNO menang. Tentu tidak.

8. Yang akan jadi PM tentulah penyokong kuat Najib. Bagi Kerajaan yang akan didirikan, yang utama ialah membebas Najib dari hukuman 12 tahun penjara.

9. Contoh sudah ada. Anak tiri Najib terlepas dari penjara kerana bagi balik separuh dari duit yang dicuri.

10. Najib boleh bagi balik banyak mana yang dikehendaki oleh Kerajaan Barisan Nasional (BN). Ia akan diampun.

11. Setelah mencuri berbillion Ringgit Najib yang didapati salah, tidak dipenjara barang sehari pun.

12. Ini keadilan di Malaysia. Curi seekor ayam masuk penjara serta merta. Oleh itu curi berbillion. Didapati salah oleh mahkamah. Bagi balik setengah billion. Bebas.

13. Belum jadi. Tetapi boleh jadi. Saya agak-agak sahaja.

14. Ya. Saya akan dipanggil untuk soal siasat.

15. Di Malaysia ini satu tekanan yang menakutkan.

16. Tutup mulut. Tutup telinga. Awak okay.