Bala-Cleva and The Economists.

Bala-clava, so very cleva.

Mr P. Bala is the author of two statutory declarations that achieved extraordinary infamy. They cost only RM 5 each. The ramifications are far reaching. In the future, you will say, the SDs that rocked Malaysia on an indeterminate Richter scale.

Where are you Mr P. Bala? Why are you hiding? Your actions can only suggest that you are extremely intimidated. The public has a legitimate interest to know who intimidated you. Surely before you made SD1 and SD2, you could have foreseen the consequences.

But we are sure the police knows where you are. If you are in Singapore, you can assume you will be safe. If you are in Thailand, any Thai army personnel can mistake you for a Muslim separatist you know. I hope you are safe.

We need you in this country where you can have your day in court. But the offended parties do not seem interested to bring you before the courts. That makes people ask more questions than they can get answers. We want you to tell the world, under oath and under pain of perjury, which of the SDs is the true one? SD1 or SD2. Or both are wrong and both are correct. Which one is correct? Correct? Correct?

We want you to tell us honestly that when you implicated our future prime minister, it was all conjured up. Maybe, the person who prodded you on from behind of course is the one accused of sodomising. Or anal rape without consent. If they had consented, it’s called by a different name? The victim alleged that he was sodomised 8 times. Only on the 8^th time, he rejected the advances. During those seven times, was he a willing partner?

A person’s sexual inclination is nobody else’s business. What you do with your partner inside locked rooms, is your bloody business. In your SD1 and which you negated in SD2, you reported to have heard that the DPM is also a sodomite. If Anwar Ibrahim did it with a man- he is a homosexual sodomite. If the DPM does with it with a woman, he is a straight sodomite?

Mr Boombastik, you have brought shame and public contempt on the person of our next PM. Shame on you Mr Bala. You are very cleva. For indeed you are Bala-clava. After the SDs you adorned your ski masks and vanished into the sunset.

In any case, the current rumours going around in Pekan, which is the parliamentary area of the DPM, is that his political secretary is seeing you Mr Bala in Thailand. The DPM has two polsecs and we won’t speculate which one. If those rumours have substance, they will lend credence to public perception of some involvement by the DPM in the Alatantuya saga. All the more reason, Mr. Bala-Cleva, you must come back my good fella.

The economics of the Malaysian oil debate.

The two fellows debating the oil crisis in Malaysia were not economists. Perhaps they were wise enough to do their own reading. They were much better off by ignoring economists.

Bill and Boris are taking a break from a long summit. Boris says to Bill, "Bill, you know, I have a big problem. I don't know what to do about it. I have a hundred bodyguards and one of them is a traitor. I don't know which one."

"Not a big deal Boris, I'm stuck with a hundred economists I have to listen to all the time before any policy decision, and only one tells the truth but it's never the same one."

So you do not know which economist gives the correct prescription. I heard one economist commenting that Anwar’s proposed financing the reduction in revenue of 5 billion is not practical. Why because the economist says reducing the excess or standby capacity of the IPPs will scare away investors. Hmm, that so Mr Econ?

When investors come into Pahang for example, they did not inquire whether we have standby capacity or not before deciding to invest. They were more interested to know whether we are going to implement best management practices. Zero corruption, ease of doing business, professional management etc. They want to know whether they can get tax incentives and other facilities. But never once the Foreign investors asked whether you have excess capacity. All they need to know, whether you have any capacity at all. Whether you have trained workers or not. These were more relevant questions than nit picking on the effects of reduced standby capacity.

Some economists say we will incur more expenses if we were to reduce price by 50sen. How so? Because the government will have to pay compensation to the IPPs for cutting back capacity. In the first place was setting excess capacity at 40% a defensible position. Probably, if compensations were to be paid, they will be a one off expenditure. But lower fuel prices will create incentives in the longer run. Don’t be a scrooge on people’s welfare, Mr. econ.