Caught on Camera- UMNO's Rapacious Greed.

When people say that those who forget history are condemned to repeat it, they must have an idea what the statement means. I hope I share their interpretation. It’s not what has happened before, replicating itself. It must mean that those who forget the process that led to the occurrence of the event in question are likely to repeat it. We must learn from the past to avoid the repetition of the same process.

Take for example the recent lecture-down by Mahathir. We all know the process by which Mahathir Mohamed arrives at a certain station in which Malaysia finds itself. Centralization of power, emasculation of the judiciary, arrogance, rampant corruption, feigning inclusiveness while actually fanning divisiveness. It’s a Malaysia founded on the principle of natural selection turned on its head. Instead of free competition, Mahathir carries out selective breeding.

If we are now blinded to that process which is now taking place, surely we will arrive at the same conclusion. If we for instance are persuaded to follow his pleadings for Malaysians to retain UMNO and BN, we are definitely going to be con-demned to suffer the excesses of his rule.

Economic privation of the majority is UMNO’s agenda. Wealth and power for the selected few, economic injustice for the majority.  Bread for the political aristocrats and crumbs for the masses.

The economics practised by UMNO leaders display the characteristics of economic crimes. The recent listing of FGV for example will go down in history as a willful conspiracy to shortchange the Felda settlers. What do common Felda folks know about the stock market because now all the physical assets that constitute the basis of Felda’s business are converted into paper assets. The assets traded over the counter do not reflect the integrity and soundness of the physical assets, but reflect the manipulations and agility of stock market players. Why place a known corrupt person as chairman and replacing conscientious felda officers with obliging conspirators? The only reason why Najib agrees to all these reflect his complicity in the suckering the felda settlers. It’s a premeditated plan to plunder Felda.

Every business and economic project undertaken by UMNO is a means by which a small powerful group enrich themselves at the expense of the majority. That’s the idea behind Mahathir’s economics.

Najib, the political invertebrate is a poor copycat of Mahathir. His New Economic Model is but a continuation of Mahathirnomics- the use of absolute and discretionary power to create winners from a selected field of friends and cronies.

It’s the application of the same rapacious greed by politicians that is behind the decision to award the AES business to 2 private companies. If this revenue source earns the country RM50billion a year, why outsource it? What do you do with the over 3000 cameras already installed by the police at so many places in the country?

Why is the government so lazy? We have a government that is lazy, driven by rapacious greed, eager to surrender revenue earning assets in order to support the leisurely life of the rich and powerful political aristocrats.  Every thinking Malaysia should object to the continuing plunder of this country by voting out the corrupt BN government. Let’s kick out the narratophiliac Mahathirs, the phallophiliac Najibs and the Imeldaismic Rosmahs.

Today’s issue is the AES- Automatic Enforcement System. The government has contracted out the income generating resource to 2 companies- Beta Tegap Sdn Bhd and Commercial Circle Sdn Bhd.

Whoever the government gives the business to doesn’t seem to surprise us anymore. Its Najib’s market driven affirmative action in operation- another euphemism for just about any discretionary justification to enrich friends and cronies. Najib’s NEM is just an extension of Mahathirnomics- the same selective life-giving patronage for friends and cronies in business. Should these friends fail, there are always the contingent funds to bail them out.

So, you call up any PhD holders to justify the technology and all they are able to say- is they believe the system will help reduce accidents. With all the technological advances supporting them, all they could come out with, is a weak subjective feeling. Not very scientific is it? Because they know it’s all politics there.

The real fact and motive behind the award of the traffic summons business is just that- another sorry excuse to farm out revenue generating resources to friends. The police have over 3000 cameras installed at strategic places all over the country. They must have been installed at great cost to the government too. The police have gone out on several PR blitzes extolling the virtues of their traffic monitoring system. Is the government now telling us, that these have not been useful?

Why the need to supplant the existing traffic monitoring system with 2 new systems offered by the 2 companies? Will the police now say, their purchase has been useless and now they are auctioning off their instruments at below market prices? Maybe those who can afford to buy the police system can install the then state of the arts vehicle detecting camera system at their expensive homes.

They need to. The crime rate is going up by quantum leaps.  We have millions of immigrants coming into the country whose background we don’t know and who now constitute health hazards. TB which has long been banished from our shores is now making a comeback through immigrants who were given permission to enter our country.

The two systems will cost the government RM700million. Nowadays, any projects thought off by the government or accepted by them, will near the RM 1 billion mark. The government isn’t paying for these systems. But that doesn’t excuse them from doing due diligence and a proper auditing. How do we know, the system actually cost RM 700 million? The two different systems, cost RM350 million each?

We know the drill. No project cost that the government approves has succeeded without being UMNOnised. We all remember the PLUS which cost only RM3billion was pushed up to be RM6 billion. The TOL companies have thus far collected more than RM20 billion, the government is still giving them license to plunder and pillage us.

So what’s to prevent the same being done on the actual cost of the AES?  It’s easy to come to that figure. Just appoint a broker firm to act on behalf of the companies. Maybe even approved the choice of language interpreters from Mongolia who can speak German and Australian English. Have them deal with the sellers of the technology, accompanied always by representatives of the government appointed brokers. Then these brokers come back to the ministers- in-charge to say, the system costs RM 700 million Boss- and there are fringe benefits too, provide by the interpreters. Later, if we are scared about the beans being spilled, we can always expedite their journey to the heavens by C4-ing them!

The point is the government share in fines collected only after the RM700million is collected. So, the project cost of RM700 million should have triggered out due diligence and proper auditing.  How do we know the RM700 million isn’t a sting figure?