Rabu, 9 Januari 2013

Philosophy Politics Economics

Philosophy Politics Economics

UMNO Is Shameless Despite Being Caught for Land Grab

Posted: 27 Nov 2012 07:40 AM PST

It has been a week since DAP State Assemblyman for Sekinchan, Ng Swee Lim exposed that Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties secured at least 24 pieces of valuable land from the state government while they were in power between 2000 to 2008.  These pieces of land which are mostly in commercial areas, amounting to 34.5 acres were "sold" to UMNO, MCA, MIC and Gerakan for a pitiful RM1 per square feet.  These pieces of land are estimated to be worth as much as RM200 million.

Selangor Barisan Nasional component parties have been quick to defend the land-grab despite the obvious corruption, abuse of power and conflict of interests involved.  Selangor UMNO Information Chief Abdul Shukor Idrus, who is also the state assemblyman for Kuang who argued that "what's wrong with giving the land to UMNO" as reward for the "contributions by UMNO in fighting for indepedence and developing this country".

MCA Selangor Secretary and ADUN for Kuala Kubu Baru, Datuk Wong Koon Mun agreed with is UMNO colleague, claiming that there's nothing wrong with alienating land to MCA, by comparing the political party to "temples and schools" which were also given land on the cheap.  He also insinuated that such land grab is justified by the effort of the party to register Chinese Malaysians to obtain their citizenship and "fighting for their rights".

Such responses are the clearest proof that BN leaders not only do not understand what is corruption and abuse of power,  they are completely shameless even after being caught red-handed by the authorities.  Ordinary Malaysians know that political parties have no right to benefit themselves, at the expense of the rakyat when they are in power, or it will be a clear breach of trust.

Wong had the cheek to say that all the properties "…belong to the party. All MCA land in the new villages belong to party headquarters, not personal. Nothing wrong (with that)."

However, the Prime Minister who is also the UMNO Selangor Chief, Datuk Seri Najib Razak had continued to plead to Malaysians to give BN a chance because "…BN is not a party that is inflexible. We are ready to change."

"Change can happen in our country and we have proven that not necessarily we change government, but we can bring big change with the same government," Najib said at the Barisan 1 Malaysia gathering at the Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC) on Saturday 24 November 2012.

Najib had asked Malaysians, "why fix it when it is not broken?"

The very fact that BN leaders continue to defend their corrupt actions of the past proves that BN is not only "broken" but is umable to "change".  What is worse is, the Prime Minister himself has refused to comment on the above corrupt practice, much less condemn his Selangor state assemblymen for their complete lack of integrity, despite arguing that "we can bring big change with the same government".

Hence if the BN gets re-elected as the state government of Selangor as Najib predicted, then Malaysians will be assured that state government assets will continue to be raped and pillaged by UMNO, MCA, Gerakan and MIC under his leadership, at the expense of the ordinary man on the street.

Najib Must State Stand On BN Land Grab

Posted: 23 Nov 2012 07:36 AM PST

It did not come as a shock to anybody when DAP State Assemblyman for Sekinchan, Ng Swee Lim exposed on Tuesday that Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties secured at least 24 pieces of valuable land from the state government while they were in power between 2000 to 2008.  These pieces of land which are mostly in commercial areas, amounting to 34.5 acres were "sold" to UMNO, MCA, MIC and Gerakan for a pitiful RM1 per square feet.

What is perhaps more surprising is that such information was somehow kept under wraps for such a long time after they lost their hold on power.

But what is most shocking is the response by Selangor UMNO Information Chief Abdul Shukor Idrus, who is also the state assemblyman for Kuang who argued that "what's wrong with giving the land to UMNO" as reward for the "contributions by UMNO in fighting for indepedence and developing this country".

His response to Ng during the sitting as recorded in the Hansard was "…Kalau dipandangkan jasa UMNO menuntut kemerdekaan dan akhirnya Sekinchan (Ng) boleh jadi lawa macam ni, kalau tak kerana UMNO menuntut kemerdekaan dan memajukan negari ini, saya ingat Sekinchan (Ng) pakai baju daun sekarang ini… apa halnya kalau diberi kepada UMNO"

Abdul Shukor attempted to control the fallout with a press conference yesterday (Wednesday), only to dig a deeper hole for UMNO and himself.  He tried to justify that "UMNO is rakyat" and hence there's absolutely nothing wrong in giving state land to an "organisation that represents 400,000 people".

The above proves that despite all attempts at "transforming" UMNO and Barisan Nasional to be "people first", and all the rhetoric on accountability and integrity under the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak's Government Transformation Programme, UMNO leaders still regard the tax-payers' monies as their own.  After all "UMNO is rakyat" and hence there is nothing wrong with UMNO robbing what belongs to the rakyat.

UMNO and Barisan Nasional leaders clearly has no moral sense of right and wrong, and are completely uneducated in the ability to differentiate between what belongs to the government/people as opposed to what belongs to the political parties.

The response by UMNO leaders tells Selangorians that if UMNO were to be elected back into power in the coming general election, then they will continue to rape the state by carving out valuable pieces of state land to be alienated to UMNO, MCA, MIC and Gerakan at dirt cheap prices.

Datuk Seri Najib Razak, as the Selangor UMNO Chief who had declared that Selangor must be "returned" to BN "at all costs" must state his stand on the land grab by the coalition he leads.  Does the Prime Minister also condone the land grab exercises and agree with his Selangor UMNO Information Chief?  Or does Datuk Seri Najib hold the "transformed" belief that such blatant land grab by BN is corrupt, an abuse of power and a serious breach of the people's trust?

If Datuk Seri Najib wants Malaysians to believe that BN has really "transformed" and can be trusted, then he must declare that such land grab exercises by BN component parties must not only be banned, all land that has previously been alienated to them on the cheap, must be returned to the state.

Otherwise, Datuk Seri Najib Razak will be exposed as a "transformation" fraud – where it talks about integrity, transparency and accountability on the one hand but continues to allow his party and coalition to rob the rakyat blind on the other.

Fitch Warned of Weak Public Finances

Posted: 22 Nov 2012 07:34 AM PST

The Malaysian Government must heed the warning call by Fitch Ratings on our debt levels or face the risk of a slowly but surely route to a Greek-style financial crisis

In a statement issued yesterday (19 November 2012) in London, global ratings agency, Fitch Ratings warned that "Malaysia's public finances are a weakness relative to rating peers and offer limited scope for counter-cyclical fiscal stimulus at the current rating level of 'A-'/Stable."

Fitch added that "while this has not hindered the public sector's capacity to contribute to GDP, which grew 5.2% yoy in the third quarter according to Bank Negara Malaysia Friday, the growing provision of guarantees to government-linked borrowers is concerning."

The report expressed the view that much of the growth was a direct result of higher than desired levels of government consumption and investment.  More specifically, the government's expenditure is funded by "greater drawdown of existing federal government guarantees of debt issued by public sector enterprises suggests increasing use of quasi-fiscal policy to support economic activity and may apply further pressure on the sovereign credit profile."

Hence despite the official government statistics that Federal Government debt is "only" at 53.7% of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the number does not include the sky-rocketing quasi-government debt or our contingent liabilities.

As at December 2011, our contingent liabilities have increased by 20.5% to RM116.8 billion from RM96.9 billion the previous year.  However, as reported by Fitch Ratings, this figure has increased by another RM23.4 billion or 20% to RM140.2 billion as at September 2012.  Such debt is now equivalent to 15% of GDP compared with just 9% at end-2008.

The rate of increase is also much higher than the 10% – 12% rate of increase of the official Federal Government debt over the past 5 years, signalling a clear attempt by the Government to hide its debts off the official balance sheet.

In fact, Fitch Ratings stated the obvious when it said "the increasing reliance on off-balance sheet funding could potentially call into question the meaningfulness of the 55% of GDP federal debt ceiling."

CIMB Investment Bank economist Lee Heng Guie has also recently wrote that the computation of public debt should also include outstanding borrowings guaranteed by the federal government to give a clearer picture of policymakers' debt dynamics.

We call upon the Government to follow the reform its outdated accounting practice of "off-balance sheet financing" and recognise fully these hidden debts as the Federal Government debt commitments.  This is especially since much of these debts are not financing projects which are commercially viable and hence will ultimately require Government repayment at some point in the future, such as the RM24 billion and RM11 billion of debt owed by PTPTN and Syarikat Prasarana Negara respectively.

Furthermore, the market is anticipating additional hikes in our contingent liabilities as the Government embarks on many mega-projects off its balance sheet – such as the RM50 billion MRT project which has yet to raise the necessary financing, and the RM25 billion Tun Razak Exchange spearheaded by 1MDB.
Without proper accountability, the apparent abuse by the current government in circumventing the legislated 55% limit of Federal Government debt by recklessly issuing debt guarantees to wholly-owned government agencies or GLCs, will only lead to Malaysia finding itself trapped in financial quicksand sooner or later.

Fitch had already in August 2012 warned that "fiscal trends may eventually lead to some form of negative rating action" and the BN administration must pay heed to its advice to prevent Malaysians from enduring another Greek tragedy.
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