Isnin, 28 Mei 2012

Philosophy Politics Economics

Philosophy Politics Economics

Deputy Election Commission Chairman An Ignoramus

Posted: 28 May 2012 08:42 PM PDT

Despite an overwhelming result where 92% of Malaysians survey by Merdeka Centre wants the electoral roll "cleaned" before the next general elections, EC Deputy Chairman Datuk Wan Ahmad Wan Omar has dismissed it as "trivial".

When contacted by Malaysiakini, he claimed that the survey respondents were essentially ignorant and hence "might not know what they are talking about".

He further insulted those who responded by saying that "it would be better if Merdeka Centre had surveyed voters who had just cast their ballots, rather than asking rempits from the side of the road", as reported on The Malaysian Insider.

The sheer arrogance of the Election Commission proves that it has not desire of implementing free and fair elections in Malaysia and public opinion, no matter how negative, does not move them.  Instead, the Deputy EC Chairman had alluded that the respondents were randomly picked from the streets or "rempits from the side of the road".

In fact, the comments from Datuk Wan Ahmad demonstrate that he is the ignoramous, and not the Malaysian public who participated in the Merdeka Center survey.  That is because he had made the scornful comments without first having read the actual survey itself!  And if he did, he obviously could not understand the survey or survey methodologies.

It was clear from the survey results that Merdeka Centre has taken pains to select voters "through random stratified sampling method along the lines of ethnicity, gender, age and state".  They were certainly not randomly picked from the streets.  The survey margin of error estimated at ±3.07%

Datuk Wan Ahmad's suggestion that these were mostly first time voters who did not know the law is also ignorant because only 22% of the sample is under the age of 30, which meant that the overwhelming majority of the sample respondents would have voted at least twice in their lives.

The fact that the EC is refusing to even investigate the survey results, as to why only 44% of Malaysians believed that our electoral system is free from irregularities also emphasizes the fact that the Commission is only interested in ensuring an unequal election system and campaign platform to rob Malaysians of their rightful choice.

It is clear that Malaysians have lost faith in the EC to carry out free and fair elections.  The Chairman and his Deputy of the EC, who are also members of Umno, have become biggest impediments to the transformation of our Malaysian electoral process.  It is also clear that they are in connivance with the Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Najib Razak to ensure that whatever "reforms" executed will not remove the ability of UMNO and Barisan Nasional to win through cheating and fraud.

As a result, DAP and the Pakatan Rakyat component parties will continue to support the demands by Bersih for free and fair elections, justified with very strong empirical evidence from the Merdeka Centre survey.  We also call upon the EC chairman and his deputy to resign from their current positions for failing in their constitutional duties to ensure a clean, free and fair election system for Malaysians, and for acting as stooges of the Barisan Nasional government.

Survey Proves Malaysians Have No Faith in Najib's Political Transformation

Posted: 27 May 2012 08:45 PM PDT

Merdeka Center's latest survey results gives damning evidence that the people has lost faith in the country's electoral system, despite the "best effort" by the Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Najib Razak to set a transformation agenda.

The results clearly showed that Malaysians have very little confidence in the half-hearted steps taken by the Prime Minister which was intended to give a better perception of our electoral process.

Only 44% of Malaysians surveyed were "confident" that the electoral process was free from irregularity despite the Election Commission's repeated insistence that our electoral roll is "the cleanest in the world".  Even so, only 5% of those surveyed did not think that an electoral roll clean-up before the next general election was necessary, while a whopping 92% thought a clean-up exercise is necessary.

Among the key reforms sought by Bersih was the abolishment of postal voting, and this was supported by the survey outcome where only 37% thought it was "transparent and free from political interference". The Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) on electoral reforms had in the last sitting agreed to amend the postal vote system for the army into an early-voting system, but at the same time added some 300,000 names to the postal voter list.

The distrust of the PSC can be seen from the results which showed that only 34% thought it was "a sincere effort" from the BN government "to reform" while 43% thought it was an "attempt to cover up or divert public attention".

Similarly 81% of Peninsula Malaysians support the call for a Royal Commission of Inquiry on the Sabah illegal immigrants issue, but the Prime Minister has chosen to ignore the demand from the people.

From the data which was collected before hundreds of thousands of Malaysians poured onto the streets of Kuala Lumpur to demonstrate and demand for free and fair elections, it proves beyond doubt that the "political transformation programme" commenced since Merdeka celebrations last year has failed to move Malaysians.

The result also fully justified why it was necessary for Bersih to take to streets despite being denied the opportunity to gather peacefully in Merdeka Square to demand free and fair elections for all Malaysians.

We call upon the Prime Minister to go the whole nine yards in real political and electoral reforms.  The people does not want to see Dato' Seri Najib put in place some pseudo-reforms which are in effect "1 step forward and 2 steps backward" type of new regulations.

The Prime Minister will have the opportunity to pass new laws seeking a full transformation of the electoral process when the Parliament commences its sitting on 11 June before dissolving it for the next General Election. Without true and thorough reforms from Dato' Seri Najib, he will fail to win legitimacy even if he were to win the vote count in the 13th General Election as he will be seen as having won the elections through cheating and fraud, instead of via the support of the people.

Kong Cho Ha More Interested in Car Number Plates

Posted: 26 May 2012 08:47 AM PDT

Dato' Seri Kong Cho Ha might very well be the most incompetent Transport Minister ever for failing to protect and defend public interest over multi-billion ringgit scandals happening right under his nose.   Instead, he chooses to hold multiple press conferences to announce record-breaking bids made for auctioned "WWW" car number plates which raised RM11.3 million in revenue for the Government, as reported by Bernama yesterday.

The Transport Minister has not provided answers nor has he reigned in the scandals which are happening right under his nose.  Instead, he has chosen to place the blame on others and claimed the scandals were not his responsibility.

For example, the cost of the new "low cost terminal" KLIA2 had increased drastically from the originally estimated RM1.7 billion in 2007 to RM3.9 billion last year.  The change in the site of KLIA2 has caused the cost of construction to bloat because the new spot was already identified as unsuitable for the construction of an airport due to it being a peat swamp.  Despite the RM2.2 billion cost overrun to date, Dato' Seri Kong had the cheek to tell the media that "I don't have much to answer because the decision was not made by MOT".

In the case of the burgeoning Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal, Dato' Seri Kong, who is also MCA Secretary-General had directed that payments be continued to be made to the bondholders of Kuala Dimensi Sdn Bhd (KDSB).  This is despite the fact that the Port Klang Authority has sued KDSB, owned by Barisan Nasional Backbencher Chairman (BNBBC) Dato' Seri Tiong King Sing for the amount of RM1.6 billion for excessive and fraudulent claims.

Despite clearly being the Minister responsible to protect the rakyat's interest, he pointed fingers at the PKA, saying that "…if PKA says that we pay although they have asked to stop the payments, but every time the figure to be paid is on advice from the PKA… The PKA actually advises us on what is the amount outstanding."

More recently, the Business Times has earlier this week reported that MMC-Gamuda is due to submit a RM1.5 billion variation order to the government for cost overruns in the Ipoh-Padang Besar Electrified Double Track (EDTP).  Despite a subsequent denial from MMC-Gamuda, they admitted that it will be seeking claims for "expenses and losses" caused by the government.

The value of the EDTP is worth RM12.49 billion and an increase of RM1.5 billion will mean a significant 12% increase in the cost of the project.  These additional claims has raised fears and concerns that the Ipoh-Padang Besar stretch of the EDTP will suffer the same fate as the Ipoh-Rawang segment where the cost of the project increased from RM4.2 billion to RM6.6 billion, or by more than 50%.

However, the Transport Minister has remained irresponsibly silent on the above matter, asking instead for the contract to provide clarification to the public.

Malaysians want their Transport Minister to take control of the situation and demonstrate leadership to ensure that billions of ringgit of tax-payers' monies are not abused and wasted.  We do not want a Transport Minister who takes the very first opportunity to shift responsibility and blame, especially by asking an interested party like the EDTP contractor to answer to the public instead.

Malaysians do not need a Transport Minister who is only interested in reporting to us how much the WWW1 number plate was auctioned for RM520,000; instead of resolving and bringing to book the people responsible for the RM3.9 billion KLIA2 scandal, RM12.5 Port Klang Free Zone fiasco or the impending cost overrun for the RM12.5 billion EDTP project.

It is high time for Datuk Seri Najib to demonstrate his seriousness about transformation by disposing of incompetent Ministers and appointing only those who are not only able, but has the interest of the people at heart.

Khairy Claims Tajuddin Paid Up Outstanding Debt to Government

Posted: 25 May 2012 08:49 AM PDT

Rembau MP Khairy Jamaluddin has claimed in his debate with PKR Director fo Strategy Rafizi Ramli 2 days ago that he is "certain that Danaharta didn't incur losses in the Tan Sri Tajudin Ramli case".

In fact, the Umno Youth chief cited "sources" claimed that Tajudin may have even paid more than the amount owing, as a result of the undisclosed out-of-court settlement.

"We don't know the outcome as it was done out of court. (The opposition) says Tajuddin need not pay, but they don't say that maybe the settlement involved paying part of the debt or maybe more than the RM500 million owed."

Khairy's claim is completely unbelievable and lacks all credibility given the clandestine manner in which the Government has sought to cover up the entire episode and the refusal of any Minister to confirm or deny the claim that Danaharta had in fact written off all Tajuddin's debt.

Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, Minister in the Prime Minister's Office had in November last year directed all Government-Linked Companies (GLCs) to withdraw all civil suits against former MAS owner and chairman, Tan Sri Tajuddin Ramli.  He wrote that "the government of Malaysia and the Finance Ministry has agreed to settle all civil claims against Tan Sri Tajuddin Ramli and others to be withdrawn immediately in view of the fact that the government and the Finance Ministry have agreed that the said cases will be settled out of court."

The High Court had in December 2009 rule in favour of Danaharta and its two subsidiaries on the on the full amount outstanding – RM589.15 million – and had ordered Tajudin to pay an interest of 2% above the base lending rate of Malayan Banking Bhd until the date of full realisation.  The Court had also dismissed Tajudin's counterclaim to the tune of over RM14 billion excluding damages and cost.

Danaharta's claims are based on the claims that Tajudin had defaulted on a syndicated loan of RM1.792 billion, which he took in 1994 to acquire the Government's 32% stake in Malaysian Airlines System (MAS).

Rafizi has rightly sniped that Khairy seems to be answering "as if he is Tajudin's lawyer" when even Cabinet Ministers were unable and unwilling to provide straight answers.

The Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak must immediately confirm if indeed his UMNO Youth Chief is telling the truth or is lying to the public over the above scandal.  This is especially since it is the first time a BN politician has claimed that Tan Sri Tajuddin paid part or all of his outstanding debt as part of the settlement exercise.

If not, it will only prove that there is a conspiracy to cover up the fact that Danaharta has in effect written off the debt in order to protect BN's long-time cronies.  It will be clear that under Najib's administration, the cronies' interests will be protected at all cost, at the expense of ordinary Malaysians.

Transport Minister Must Clarify Increase in RM12.5 billion Double Tracking Project Cost

Posted: 23 May 2012 09:02 AM PDT

The Business Times has reported yesterday that MMC-Gamuda is due to submit a RM1.5 billion variation order to the government for cost overruns in the Ipoh-Padang Besar Electrified Double Track (EDTP).

The report quoted an unnamed source claiming that "the civil works are 70 per cent completed, and the systems side, only 30 per cent. There are still land issues and other unresolved matters on MMC-Gamuda JV's part."

However, MMC-Gamuda has subsequently refuted the report, but admitted that it will be seeking claims for "expenses and losses" caused by the government.

Its Project Director, Datuk Paul Ha said that "MMC-Gamuda's claim will be in accordance with the terms as stated in our contract, but it is too early at this point to even determine the amount and it will be nowhere near RM1.5 billion as stated in the New Straits Times."

The value of the EDTP is worth RM12.49 billion and an increase of RM1.5 billion will mean a significant 12% increase in the cost of the project.  These additional claims has raised fears and concerns that the Ipoh-Padang Besar stretch of the EDTP will suffer the same fate as the Ipoh-Rawang segment where the cost of the project increased from RM4.2 billion to RM6.6 billion, or by more than 50%.

The Auditor-General has also in its 2009 report criticised the management of the project which involved a mid-term change of contractors – from DRB-Hicom which could not complete the works to MMC-Gamuda.  Despite failing to complete works agreed in the contractual terms, the Government had paid the DRB-Hicom consortium RM425 million as compensation or settlement for the termination of the agreement.  The Auditor-General had queried as to why the Government had not claimed liquidated and ascertained damages (LAD) from DRB-Hicom for failing to carry out its obligations in a time fashion.  The fiasco also resulted in a delay of the Ipoh-Rawang project by more than 5 years.

Therefore to prevent another repeat of the Ipoh-Rawang scandal, the Minister of Transport must explain the truth behind the above contradictory claims to ensure that the contractor, MMC-Gamuda is not attempting to conceal a possible variation order as an excessive "expenses and losses" claim against the Government.

Datuk Seri Kong Cho Ha must view the matter seriously to prevent it from becoming the second big cost-overrun scandal under his watch after the new low-cost airport, KLIA2 saw its construction cost balloon from an initial RM1.7 billion to a whopping RM3.9 billion.  He must not become MCA's most famous "don't know anything" minister who knows nothing about the projects under his watch.

In fact, to ensure all matters are above board, and to demonstrate the transparency preached by the Prime Minister's Government Transformation Programme (GTP), the Transport Minister should take the initiative to call upon the Auditor-General's office to conduct an audit on the project.  Weaknesses identified could then be rectified and the recommendations could be implemented immediately.

We should not wait until the projects are completed at substantially higher costs and delays, before the Auditor-General starts his audit.  By then, like the case of the Ipoh-Rawang EDTP or the RM12.5 billion PKFZ mega-project scandal, it will be too late to prevent the abuse of the tax-payers' funds.
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