The Man called KJ

Sakmongkol doesn’t know khairy personally. Has seen him and maybe exchanged a few words. That’s about it.

Sakmongkol is trying hard to understand, what is it with KJ that people find so despicable? Perhaps most people would fall into the category of the song- If I Had My Way, I’d Have Been A Killer by Nina Simone. Maybe many of you are too young to remember who the feisty Nina Simone is. But these are the feelings one may have of KJ.

What’s our beef with KJ?

He is young. Perhaps that assaults our own self esteem. We don’t have that pulsating energy. The rippling 6 pack on the abdomen. We are the ( to borrow the words of a famous blogger, Mat Bangkai,) boroi brigade. KJ can go to the Zouk!, while we have to be contented with the dangdut joints. Or KJ reminded us of what we could be, if we had the temerity of this young man.

He is clever. A PPE degree from Oxford- his name will say…so and so, oxon OK. Not so and so, University of Oxford as many UMNO Joes with passable SPM would like to put on their name cards. He then went on to LSE ( if not mistaken). He is smart. That puts many of the UMNO laggards off. That quality can be unnerving to many people. And he could easily be around for a long time.

He is articulate. That distinguishes him immediately from the dumb jock image of Hishamudin Hussein. He can fend for himself in debates or intellectual discussions.

He is rich. Bloody rich. His people rang up people in Maran asking, how many lorries of money do you people want? Of course there’s ECM Libra, Air Asia and many more deals that KJ has immersed his fingers in. hmm, that’s nothing new in UMNO right?

Perhaps this is the final straw. How can a person so young be so rich when we old geezers have to slug it out to make ends meet? He reminds us of our own failures and failed attempts.

Perhaps, KJ’s early successes evoke a massive collective envy in all of us that subconsciously wishes him to fail. That of course will give us some satisfaction and vindication.

Yes, he is brash and even insolent. He went to Permatang Pauh and declared he wanted to bury Caesar Anwar Ibrahim. But wasn’t our objective was to annihilate Anwar? He stormed the US embassy. He has been there and done that.

He has had a personal hand in selecting candidates in the recent GE. He wanted Ismail Sabri, another chap with a girlish name in Bera, another in Jengka, in Jerantut, in Paya Besar and many more. In doing that he has broken the monopoly held so long by ageing warlords. He is seen as the usurper and all usurpers in UMNO must be stopped.

KJ is a conspiratory character. He was responsible for bringing the OxBridge Mafia on Level 4 to advise the PM. Reminds one that in the 60s, Soekarno had his Berkeley Mafia. They lacked the finesse and wisdom to temper their hotheadedness. They forgot that being Oxbridge graduates are not everything.

KJ represents the destruction of life as many ageing warlords have come to know and enjoy. How can they allow, a young upstart destroy lifelong achievements? Such impetuosity.

Otherwise, we have no reason to despise KJ. Maybe, he is perhaps what Malaysia needs.

Or maybe, he is a person, Malaysia can ill afford.

You be the judge.

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The Folly of Debates

The main problem with UMNO, is its members do not know how to disagree. If one disagrees with the opinions or principles of another, one is viewed with intense animosity. Whereas, that anger and animosity must be directed to outsiders, not within the party. We are like a marauding cat on our own kind, but behave like a meek mouse facing outsiders.

One of the ways to disguise our contempt on our own kind, is to seek public debates. Our purpose is not to establish common grounds of our common struggle which could really reveal the principles we wish to advance. Our intention really, is to humiliate our opponent,. We want to have the chance to expose his smallness using our own pettiness.

Many years ago, Sakmongkol was watching the news on ITN. That was in the UK in the early 80s. The feuding political leaders of Israel then were Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin. Inside Israel, the two were at loggerheads. It would seemed that the two would rather be at each other’s throats.

When Peres visited the UK, he was asked by the ITN interviewer, to explain the political feuds between the two.

Shimon Peres explained: we Jews in Israel may disagree vehemently with each other, but we never pour out our quarrels so outsiders can hear.

Perhaps, we can learn some lessons here. What is the purpose of debates among ourselves? We all live by the same principles inside the party. We don’t demand respect but earned it through the quiet confident ways.

Rather than verbal jostling, why not publish your thoughts? So that we can analyse them under more congenial atmosphere as compared to the emotionally charged atmosphere that usually accompany debates?

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The Power of the Loo

The future leaders of UMNO are decided in the toilets of PWTC.

Sakmongkol would like to begin this short essay, by quoting what has been erroneously attributed to the Duke of Wellington. Many of us will remember, that he was supposed to have said:-

"The Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing-fields of Eton"

He of course never said it because when this quotation first appeared he was already dead. He attended Eton for a very brief period and never liked Eton. But the saying is too juicy to dispute and so it remains till today.

As to the leadership in UMNO, sakmongkol is borrowing what the Duke said. Sakmongkol says this;

The future leaders of UMNO and to a large extent, leaders of Malaysia are determined in the toilets of PWTC.

The reasons why, will be clear in a short while.

The present party elections from Pemuda to Bahagian, perhaps Wanita too and later Puteri, are already infested with money politics. In Kelantan you have branch heads driving around in brand new kancils as rewards and inducements for campaigning for certain personalities. In Maran, youth delegates were openly asked, how many lorries of money do you want. In Pekan, sakmongkol’s friends were openly told by youth delegates, no grease, no nomination. its simple as that.

Nominations are up for grabs if the price is right. Youth delegates to divisional meetings have a lower price threshold at the moment. Those 4 delegates to the national youth general assembly will have a higher price threshold. They are already counting money. It’s a rich man’s world out there.

By all reckoning, this year’s battle for supremacy for the youth head’s post will be the most expensive. Large sums of money will be flowing to grease delegates. Everyone are guilty of this gangrenous culture.

The most protracted battle will take place between the three contenders in the youth wing. They are Mukhriz Mahathir, Khairy Jamaluddin and Khir Toyo.

Yesterday, there was an interview over tv. It was a mini forum, moderated by a university kebangsaan lecturer, Agus Salim. The two guests invited were Saifudin Nasution of PKR and Khir Toyo. The theme of the discussion was deciding the future leadership of the Malays.

Saifudin offered the now commonly heard tirade against money politics. He urged the Malays to choose leaders based on meritorious qualities, competency, character and so forth.

Khir was able to meekly counter and unconvincingly at that too, by saying, in the final analysis, notwithstanding the prevalence of money flow, delegates will ultimately choose leaders based on what Saifudin opined. In other words, khir was admitting that, money politics have reached epidemic levels. No point of dignifying the accusation by denying it.

But given that, all other things being equal, where everybody plays the same game, delegates will choose leaders based on merits.

What twisted logic. That will only mean, that in future, UMNO is a club for deep pocketed candidates. And club rules apply.

And so on to march 2009. delegates will converge at PWTC. Operatives and the storm troopers will scour the rooms of the hotels in Kuala Lumpur sizing up delegates. Come the final day, each will receive their sedekah, the UMNO way. At the 11^th hour, in the toilets of PWTC, large sums of money exchanged hands, in return for the promise to vote for certain candidates. The victorious candidates will then declare piously, that UMNO must re-invent itself.

Eton has been referred to as "the chief nurse of England's statesmen" and is often described as the most famous public school in the world. UMNO is the largest political party and can also claim to be the chief nurse of Malaysia’s leaders.

But while the Duke of Wellington is often quoted as saying that "The Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing-fields of Eton, sakmomgkol is rephrasing the duke by saying, The future leaders of UMNO and to a large extent, leaders of Malaysia are determined in the toilets of PWTC.

ILLIUS ME PAENITET, DUX, SORRY ABOUT THAT CHIEF!

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Mukhriz, Khairy or KT- its your choice

Sakmongkol hopes many people are aware of the Bradley effect. The blogger Akramsyah Sanusi, has written on this matter. He uses this phenomenon to caution Mukhriz Mahathir against being overconfident in the current contest of Ketua Pemuda UMNO.

The Bradley effect is also known as the Wilder effect. The Bradley effect is used to explain the discrepancy between what opinion polls say and the actual outcome in an election.

Suppose a white candidate contests against a black candidate. Opinion polls say, the black candidate is favoured. But come election time, the voters actually choose the white candidate over the black.

This was what actually took place in the gubernatorial race between a black and a white candidate.

In 1982, Tom Bradley, the long-time mayor of Los Angeles, California, ran as the Democratic Party's candidate for Governor of California against Republican candidate George Deukmejian, who is white. Tom Bradley is a Black American.

Most polls in the final days before the election showed Bradley with a significant lead. Based on exit polls, a number of media outlets projected Bradley as the winner. Indeed early editions of the next day's San Francisco Chronicle featured a headline proclaiming "Bradley Win Projected." However, despite winning a majority of the votes cast on election day, Bradley narrowly lost the overall race once absentee ballots were included

Americans are very sensitive when it comes to issues of racism. White Americans will try hard as possible to hide their KKK deep-seated prejudices. So when asked, they will say they are indifferent as to race or even don’t mind a black candidate. You know the Americans are generally pretentious people; they like to be held in high esteem by others. In private of course they will denigrate the poor black man and when voting day comes, they will vote for the white candidate, their comfort candidate.

Sakmongkol prefers to apply two other theories to caution Mukhriz Mahathir.

In England, a similar phenomenon as the Bradley effect is known as the Shy Tory effect. When openly interviewed, respondents will say they are very displeased about the conservative party( the Tories). When polls were conducted based on the responses of interviewees, the conservatives trailed behind the Labour party. When voting day comes, the conservatives actually surpassed the labour party.

The German political scientist, Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann propounded a theory known in political science and mass communication as the spiral of silence. The theory asserts that a person is less likely to voice an opinion on a topic if one feels that one is in the minority for fear of reprisal or isolation from the majority.

In the present contest for the post of Ketua Pemuda, delegates may be shy of declaring their true intentions. The universal politically correct stance is to accept Mukhriz Mahathir. He was the underdog. Pleasant and respectful. He is the son of the great Tun Mahathir. He is seen as more acceptable by Dato Seri Najib. To not nominate him may place one in the minority group.

On the other hand, KJ is seen as brash and arrogant. He is the ogre with the mean money machine. The UMNO delegates may actually prefer him but withhold their true preference for fear of being labeled as money pinchers.

The other candidate, Khir Toyo is also seen in the same light as KJ. But perhaps with less intense revulsion. Khir too has deep pockets and in a world where everyone has a price, outward preference can be easily extinguished with the flame- torch of money.

So sakmongkol hopes the following will not happen:-

Bulan 11 berani berubah

Bulan 12 mula berubah

Bulan 1 tengah berubah

Bulan 2 hampir berubah

Bulan 3 sudah berubah.

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Readings from Pekan

Rahimi Abdul Samad is the now previous UMNO youth head of Pekan division. Yesterday, Sunday the 26^th of October, Rahimi ceases to become the ketua Pemuda UMNO Bahagian Pekan. The new man is Encik Jefri Abdul Kadir. Jefri Abdul Kadir will bring in a new work ethics into UMNO youth. Hopefully, he will be able to inculcate progressive values in pergerakan pemuda UMNO Pekan.

As for Rahimi, he will now be a marked man. He has shown himself to be a partisan youth head insisting on nominating KJ. A few days ago, while the pemudas wanted to invite Mukhriz, Rahimi went behind their backs and brought KJ at the 11^th hour. And so KJ managed to get a hastily arranged meeting with youth delegates at a restaurant called Bamboo, in Pekan. That last minute trick so incensed the majority of Pemudas, that they went to a another function. As for Rahimi himself, it is anyone’s guess what benefits he got from KJ.

This morning, Rahimi tried to do another sleight of hand trick. He nominated KJ for the youth head’s post and arranged for another supporter to have the nomination closed. Big mistake. It was rousingly condemned and rejected. KJ got 18 votes to Khir’s 40 and Mukhriz 204.

Rahimi is now offering himself for a place as a delegate to the UMNO general assembly. With the shenanigans and tricks that he wanted to hoist upon the pemuda UMNO Pekan, they all should decide to ditch him into oblivion. Let’s give a clear message. Otherwise he will always remain a thorn in the flesh.

On Saturday, the Javanese from Selangor came. Yes, the Javanese mampir to ask the UMNO boys, wis mangan? He has come for a courtesy call to ask our boys in Pekan, have they eaten?

Khir Toyo is of course no stranger to Pekan too. He has been here several times. Last year he officiated the wanita UMNO bahagian meet.

But the Khir Toyo that came isn’t the Khir Toyo many students studying dentistry at UM would know. That time, his features would be like the Herman Tino type- you know the typical Javanese ‘wak khir’ look.

Today, the changes which had taken place on the person of wak Khir Toyo are massive. His skin looks fairer and silky smooth, the benefits of taking in a specially formulated and fortified vitamin C. His nose appears Caucasian, perhaps the benefit of a nose job. He looks youthful and has gone down in weight.

But Khir Toyo is a politician with impeachable controversies. One must never forget the whole brouhaha and agitated responses that took place when the Bukit Cahaya in Shah Alam was laid bald and bare, the courtesy of rapacious and greedy businessmen, associated with wak Khir.

Khir Toyo has not extricated himself fully from being accused of monumental insensitivity for demolishing temples in his state. Sakmongkol has defended his action over this issue, but the person himself has not defended his actions clearly. Instead, there were allegations that because the temples were constructed on prime sites and locations, they were demolished not because of legal reasons but because of business reasons.

Because of his alleged links with big business in Selangor, Khir Toyo is seen as a very wealthy man. Indeed, his personal life journey would be a classic description of a rags to riches story.

And we could expand the list of litany that Khir Toyo has accumulated. He lost the richest state in the country to the opposition. Theresa Kok is too much for him. He diverted funds from Balkis to somewhere in the netherworld of UMNO slash funds.

Sakmongkol knows that many of us are romantic people at heart. We very much identify and want the people whom we identify as the common man, the marhaen, the proletariat to win. That romanticism now appears to find a repository in Khir Toyo. And so we wax lyrical about Khir Toyo’s down to earth qualities, plaintively pleading for a victory for Khir Toyo.

But in the final analysis can our romanticism alone give us the guidance to secure good leadership?

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Who will be the next Ketua Pemuda?

Today, Pergerakan Pemuda UMNO bahagian Pekan will hold its mesyuarat perwakilan bahagian pemuda. The youth delegates in Pekan are focussed on two things:-

1. To elect their own ketua pemuda as the current one has passed the 40 year age limit.

2. And to nominate the contenders for the UMNO youth post a national levels.

Pekan is the seat of the current DPM and the incoming PM. To secure nomination from here is a victory of great strategic and psycholical value. It can be interpreted as an endorsement and support from the future PM.

When it comes to interpreting who Dato Najib wants, that’s a difficult one. His typical response will be, all these contenders are ‘his’ people in the sense that all are UMNO members. you will never get a clear indication from him. You cant get anything from his unflappable demeanour unless of course you bombard him with issues that rankle him- such as submarines, or sukhoi or Mongolia. Otherwise, the man is cool as a cucumber.

What must the delegates in Pekan and later, the UMNO youth delegates in PWTC in March 2009 consider? They must consider the most important thing. Dato Najib’s comfort level with the contenders.

In the end, all other objective considerations are thrown out. Take intelligence for example. Khairi is a an Oxon graduate where he read PPE. Mukhriz is a graduate from Japan. Khir Toyo is a dentistry graduate. Realy there’s nothing to differentiate in terms of brain quality.

Sakmongkol has purposely written KJ’s degree as being an Oxon product to reject all those pretenders telling all and sundry, they have degrees from Oxford or Cambridge universities. If you graduate from these institutions, your degree will never mention University of Cambridge et etc. There’s a joker in Pekan, who styles himself as a PhD but with and MBA written on his card. How low can you be?

Who is Najib comfortable with? Sakmongkol tells you from his personal observation. On a ranking of 1 to 3, where 3 is the highest, the ranking would be as follows:-

Mukhriz Mahathir 3

Khir Toyo 2

Khairy Jamaluddin 1

Sakmongkol has no beef with any of these contenders. KJ is a brain-box anytime better than the current UMNO youth head. Mukhriz is a refined fellow not politically brutal like the father. He is the Malaysian Hsien Loong to Singapore’s combative and politically thuggish LKY. Mukhriz is a Mahathir with a humane face. Khir Toyo represents the common man, making good. From humble beginnings to sky high achievements. They are all good.

But Mukhriz has certain advantages that the others don’t have. It will be important for people in Pekan and later, the country to allow Najib to secure the most important political legitimacy and endorsement-from the Malaysian François Leclerc du Tremblay (1577-1638 otherwise known to us as L’eminence grise of Malaysian politics. The larger than life Tun Mahathir.

That and Najib’s comfort level will secure Mukhriz the Pekan nomination and victory at national levels.

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Is our Money in EPF Safe?

Let’s move on from depressing topics full of racist undertones. Let us focus on issues that affect all of us. Many have written on this topic. It is regarding the government’s decision to lend RM5 billion to a company called Valuecap Sdn Bhd.

The money comes from EPF where we pay our salary deductions as a set aside for our retirement. Obviously we are an interested party in the application of the EPF money. So what’s the story?

This much we can get from The Edge’s assessment of Valuecap Sdn Bhd. It is an asset management company owned by Khazanah Nasional Bhd, Permodalan Nasional Bhd and the Pensions Trust Fund Council. As announced by MOF1, it will receive an injection of RM5 billion to invest in undervalued companies on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange.

The money, which doubles the size of Valuecap’s capital, is on loan from the Employees Provident Fund (EPF). Valuecap, which was set up in 2002 to add liquidity and volume to the market, has met these objectives. What do liquidity and volume mean?

Where do they invest currently? From the data we can gleaned, they invested in:-

Looking at past records, it is clear from the above Table, that EPF is investing in the same companies as does Valuecap SB. They differ in the value of investments only.

What is the point here? The point is the analysts at EPF are as good as those in Valuecap which strongly suggests, that they can invest directly into the stocks without going through an intermediary.

This in turn suggests the argument that the analysts in VSB are of superior quality than those in EPF put forward by the MOF2 is indefensible. If so, then the actual reason or reasons for lending money to Valuecap must be other than skillful performance.

Suppose now, the EPF wants to function like a first class investment body like Temasek. It would then be better for EPF analysts to study and evaluate a whole spectrum of investment portfolios. Temasek for example does not limit its investments on local stocks only. It scours the world market to invest in.

If really, EPF wants to make money, give better returns to depositors and make them happy, perhaps they may want to park the RM5 billion in their own equity trust fund vehicle. Sakmongkol is not sure whether EPF has an equity trust fund vehicle or not.

If it does, then better to park the RM5 billion there and then have it listed on separate bourses in the world.

But suppose, the EFF is still adamant in wanting to inject into Valuecap. Then let us examine valuecap and EPF’s performances in their investment record. Sakmongkol has summarized the following figures;

Company	At Oct 08 (in RM billion)	2007 (RM bil)	Abs.diff	% change
Value Cap	2.931	4.013	(1.08)	(27)
EPF	15.59	21.69	(6.10)	(28)

Sakmongkol just wants to know, where is the proof which can be shown by MOF2 that Valuecap has superior investment team. Look at the above numbers.

The value of valuecap’s investment fell from 4.013 billion in 2007 to RM2.9billion in 2008 which is 27%. The value of EPF’s investment fell from RM21.69 to RM15.159billion in 2008. that is 28%. The almost similar drop in their respective investment values does not support the MOF2’s confidence in Valuecap’s superiority as an investment team.

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