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Sakmongkol ak 47

ariff.sabri@gmail.com

Friday 18 November 2011

The Oracle on Economics and Business


Some economics lessons from Oracle.
These are some recent opinions from the Oracle of Syed Putera. He has been away for an extended period this time darting in and out of the country, traversing different climatic zones and all that. For that, he was still nursing flu when I met him last week.
He was already prepared with a small note on the topics he wanted to speak about and through experience, for me to write on.
Before he could share with me the contents of the note, I asked him about the listing of Felda Ventures.
Why is the issue about Felda listing evolving into a very hot topic? Isn’t it illogical and highly unreasonable for any right thinking individual to oppose the listing that would result in more cash in the hands of ordinary Felda settlers? To oppose the listing would be selfish and even envious on the part of the objector over the benefits that would go to settlers.
That would be a very reasonable argument indeed. Our objection to the proposed listing is based principally on our concern that businesswise, the listing isn’t aimed at actually giving Felda settlers long term benefits. IPOs are usually used as a means, by the underwriting banks to make money as well as the people in the listing company to reap sudden windfalls.  Two groups make big money. One, the underwriting bank or banks. Two, the people with large block of shares- those who got pink forms and have money to subscribe to the IPO.
After the initial euphoria, look at the long term price of stocks belonging to GLCs. They stay just above par value for the next 10 years. So, the stakeholders, namely Felda settlers maybe who own 5,000 to 10,000 worth of stocks cannot expect to make big money. Those who make money are those owning more than 250,000 shares. How many are of this type in the Kumpulan Permodalan Felda presently? Maybe 2.
The basic philosophy of our economics is wrong. The listing of Felda Global  Ventures for instance. Felda should stay close to its core business which is plantations and its related business. That’s where its business skills are. It can’t compete here except under a protective regime yet it wants to compete in global business. It has to be managed by a team which knows how to compete in global business in a variety of ways.
We are told, the new listed company will be managed by the team that is managing the present unlisted FGV. The record there is dismal having an accumulated loss of RM 500 million. This raises a cause of concern whether the new entity will be managed by capable team.  It does place KPF berhad( the cooperative arm representing the Felda settlers) which has been making money and declaring dividends, potentially at risk.
The problem with our economics managers here is they have flouted the first fundamental law. If the thing is unbroken don’t try to fix it. Improve on it yes, but not alter its entire character. Before something happen everyone is buoyant. We can write beautiful treatises and working papers in support of our business model. The man who helped Salleh Budu prepare his paper on the NFC project in order to get money from MOF/MOA must have given a detailed model to succeed getting RM 240 million. Did it also prescribe buying a high end condo at 1 Menerung to earn revenue? If it did, then NFC is also in the property business.
Because of that we get the funds we aim for. If it fails, how do we justify that? We can’t say we worked hard as hindsight. Prostitutes work hard. GRO in Karaoke joints do so. The touts asking for donations on 1001 religious orphanages and schools work hard with patrons at eateries and petrol stations. We can’t defend by saying we haven’t disbursed the money fully. Then the borrower can say we fail because we don’t have sufficient funds. It’s even more disingenuous saying its ok, we placed the money in escrow account. Show it then. If placing public funds in escrow account, we have to have a lawyer in charge of that account. Ask him or her to speak about the escrow account. If placing public fund in escrow accounts is good policy, then perhaps we will be better off placing the entire appropriated fund from our consolidated fund aka the budget in escrow accounts. By giving all those excuses we are skirting around the issue.
We seem to miss the point. The point is managing our assets and public money responsibly and accountably. These are the issues.
Back to Felda listing. There is the real question of managerial capabilities. You are going to place felda in a wide ranging business fields. If listing is an all-consuming obsession, then it would be rationally better to list the successful KPF rather than having it team up with FGV which has a bad record. You are putting the interests of the 220,000 settlers at risk by teaming up a poorly performing business arm and have it listed. FGV is then riding off KPF. Can FGV go listing on its own? It can’t right? It has to depend on KPF. If that is the case, KPF is the entity that should go for listing, not FGV.
IPO can’t be an excuse for Felda to get funds right? It has and can borrow from our EPF funds. In any case it says it has money and large reserves. Ahmad Maslan once threatned to sue people over allegations that Felda funds are so low. So why want to do an IPO? What is the typical spread between the issuing company and the public? The public is usually given 25% of the listed shares. Out of that maybe 5% is reserved for directors, Felda employees, selected persons. Those who can and are able to subscribe more than 250,000. For these people, a moratorium is a small price for waiting.
Ananda Krishan took his public company private because he reasoned out, the public isn’t appreciative of his business. We can’t argue with the owner if he feels it that way. Delisting his company and making it private allows him to control the business and gives him more freedom.
When you go for listing there are some many rules and regulations and protocols with which you now must adhere. Every 3 months, you prepare voluminous reports to the SC. Not that SC necessarily reads them, but that is the protocol by law. You have to submit quarterly reports. That means a lot of paper work for a long time. Then you have to maintain the reporting accounting firms. You retain them to monitor the public listed company on a fee costing a few million Ringgit a year. That means, you take up more costs not associated at all coming from business operations. These are additional administrative costs. But if the FGV thinks it can absorb all these costs, who are we to argue with them? We wait for them to publish escalating administrative costs in the next few years.
****
Why the speed rail to Singapore? The news that the government is re looking into the proposal to develop a speed rail to Singapore raises astonishment all around. If we had wanted to bolster trade and other things with Singapore then why did we abandon KTM land? Did We give up valuable KTM land in Singapore so that we can claim we are able to resolve what  Dr Mahathir wasn’t able to do in 22 years and we end up paying a gargantuan amount as development charges? (1) We gave up priceless land.(2) we shall pay more than SD20 billion as development charges. A long time ago, any PM of any country would have gotten the sack for doing a treacherous act.  
Why did we give it up so that we can justify building bullet train service to Singapore under the name of trade and other things. What are we going to do? Transport Chinese gamblers so that they gamble at the casinos in Singapore overnight and patronize massage joints and be back the next morning for bak kut teh?
The man who is now the chairman of MAS who started the WAU( wide asset unbundling) strategy or whatever that means, is now back into the saddle. What will he chair over? A skeleton of a company with no assets, no new planes and F1 type of accelerating costs?
Why does he want to come back? Oh I am taught discipline at the RMC so when I am given the marching orders I go- comes the answer. Please remind me to order him to jump from the PETRONAS twin tower should I have the power next time. Can he save MAS? He was non-committal about that except says he will try.
Wan Azmi joined the newly reconstituted MAS. What for? Why did he do it in the first place? Oh because Azman Mokhtar came by the house twice and asked me to help out. Remind me next time to go to Wan Azmi’s house 3 times to ask him do a favor. His house at Taman Melawati isn’t difficult to find. Otherwise I will go to KB to find him or asked Nik Nazmi to locate him for me.
How will you do that? We will clean up MAS. Sure- Idris Jala came and butchered everything- retrench many people, change and give up routes, sell everything except the stewardesses and did extensive fuel hedging and MAS is still reeling under. Let’s see how Wan Azmi will do it.
Idris Jala did just that at the cost of RM 1.2 billion. Still after the exercise, MAS is losing. When the book closes for this final quarter, we can expect MAS to lose another 1 over billion. It’s now losing RM 5 million daily. Yes sir, 350 days x 5 million (assume 15 days non-revenue days).
The first thing Wan Azmi should study is why is MAS operating on a business model resembling more of an inverted pyramid? Every level is skimming off the MAS name. The cekai factory in Sungai Buloh which does the attendants uniforms using cheap material. The towkay has become a multi-millionaire since. He’s no Ferragamo or Channel. The shoes they wear cost a few hundred Ringgit per pair and they are not leather. The inflight catering used to cost around RM 2 million a year now costs RM 7 million a year because MAS wanted to award the business to Pak Lah’s brother. The VPs are all given 5 series and a driver to drive around but earn no money. The SVPs probably use Porsches. The MAS designed uniform is now worn by the sea food restaurant waitresses in Kuala Lumpur with notable differences in having them worn tightly to the body as opposed to loosely as in MAS and with slits right to the thighs or to the armpits. That’s done probably for added appetizing effects.  The wau/kite design can be found on almost everything and sold in the open in Petaling Street.
Fernandes sits on the board of mas, but who sit on the board of Air Asia in exchange? He knows all the trade secrets of MAS and is now planning to set up an executive flight service so that from now everybody can fly to everybody now can sleep with me. MAS is being dismembered and vandalized precisely to help AiR Asia.
I have been asking this question- if everyone says they want to help MAS why don’t they study what Emirates did and how they did it. How come Singapore Airways can stay profitable? The sick man of the airline industry once, Garuda Airways is becoming profitable.
I don’t have to be quantifiable about this- you need to apply a little bit of Austrian Economics to apply some logic and common sense. MAS airplanes are old planes and are fuel guzzlers. Singapore buys new planes, Emirates buys new planes. Garuda buys new ones. They save fuel as they are more efficient. Ours drown fuel and no amount of oil hedging can overcome fuel consumption by old planes. Here is the thing- every decision to buy new planes has to go round the table on who’s getting commissions.
MAS’s problem is in marketing. How come they can’t sell their first class and business class seats? Because its country managers sitting in London, New York and Brussels and other places are NOT selling tickets. They are comfortable there ensuring their children complete school there and enter universities. They are not interested in selling rickets for MAS. Recall each and every one of them.

31 comments:

Anonymous,  18 November 2011 at 08:56  

Dato',

I only have 2 words to describe the Felda and AA-MAS saga: MALAYSIA BOLEH.

bruno,  18 November 2011 at 09:13  

Dato,the listing of FGV is to fill the pockets of some privileged people.It is not about the well being of Felda settlers and never has been.And sooner or later FGV will be run to the ground,as the best person that they could find in Malaysia to run the company is off all people,the master of all foxes,Isa Samad.

bruno,  18 November 2011 at 09:59  

Dato,like all GLC's it is only the top few privileged people who got the lion's share of the loot.Just look at the NFC.The family of a lady minister got the project to produce 8,000 cows by 2010,that is 40% self sufficiency.In return they received a soft loan of 280 million ringgit and 5,000 acres of land.

Instead of importing 10,000 quality cows and a few hundred steers of CSL's stud calibre,to breed and mass produce,they imported around 4,000 cows to feed and be slaughtered.That is window dressing and outright cheating,and not done according to the agreement signed with the Ministry of Agriculture.

And look at what happened to the rest of the money.The rest of the money has been siphoned to other companies owned by the minister's family.And when they were caught with their pants off,they and their parters in crime came out with all types of stupid excuses.Like condos with special elevators for NFC cows only.Whisky and brandy included.And with the perks came personnal masseurs for the Kobe lembus too.

Nobody is being held accountable for these losses,as 280 million ringgit,by Umno standards are loose change.

FGV in its short life has lost more than 500 million ringgit.And that is speculating in foreign real estate,not dealing in agriculture of any sort.Some rumours has that it has lost billions.Billions should be more appropriate by Umno standards.But then it is only the rakyat's money,courtesy of loans by the EPF.Something like to the tune of 6billion ringgit.

not_a_nfc,  18 November 2011 at 10:20  

"..inflight catering used to cost around RM 2 million a year now costs RM 7 million a year because MAS wanted to award the business to Pak Lah’s brother."
Dato', catering is RM200 million a year, not RM7 million.Public facts state that catering costs have not risen since after the sale.But can't be denied that some cronyism was involved.

Anonymous,  18 November 2011 at 11:34  

Dato,

‘The basic philosophy of our economics is wrong.’ sums up VERY nicely, from u/Oracle about the state of economic (mis)management within the GLCs.

The true operand of the GLCs is protectionism. & yet under this misguided theme - there is an oxymoronic operative. ‘It can’t compete here except under a protective regime yet it wants to compete in global business. It has to be managed by a team which knows how to compete in global business in a variety of ways.’ Under the current circumstances can the 1st coexist with the 2nd?

Sadly, the true home-grown global business takers r all operating within private enterprises/overseas. Hassan Merican, is a glaring example from among the Malay M’sian. What about The Other Malaysians?

BTW, wondering whether ‘The man who helped Salleh Budu prepare his paper on the NFC project in order to get money from MOF/MOA must have given a detailed model to succeed getting RM 240 million.’ has anything to do with the latest 12.9% annual rental return from each of the cow condo! Genius or moron? & better still all other M'sians who don't read Chines/Tamil newspapers r troglodytes who r born just yesterday!

Dato, this is a good Muay Thai punch, – ‘If placing public fund in escrow accounts is good policy, then perhaps we will be better off placing the entire appropriated fund from our consolidated fund aka the budget in escrow accounts. By giving all those excuses we are skirting around the issue.’

This should gold-framed for the BN wunderkid, KJ, for remembrance.

Talk about managing the country’s economic wealth, perhaps u should kindly remind some of the ‘economists(?)’ about this –

‘We seem to miss the point. The point is managing our assets and public money responsibly and accountably. These are the issues.’

Charts, spurious data & disingenuous interpretation of fiscal/economic infos, would not do wonders to the state of REAL economy. Except, perhaps to the ego of a close-minded syok-sendiri.

cont2

Anonymous,  18 November 2011 at 11:34  

2of2

I was dumb-founded when I read about some pseudo-economists talking about how the Government should exercise its fiscal responsibility, by twisting the governance procedure of that the government must use the money to finance it’s operating expenditure (subsidies included) through government revenue while development expenditure must only use borrowings.

It’s true that ‘Money from borrowings is channeled for development expenditure as investment in development will create more money to finance the debt while expenditure such as subsidies and emoluments is financed by revenues since these kind of expenditure normally do not create more income.’ But in our case, where 78% of 2011 overall budget goes into operating expenditure, while the remaining 22% is spent on development.

A damning indicator is that salaries and allowances for our bloated civil servants are budgeted at RM52billion, much greater than development expenditure and more than double the total amount of personnel income tax collected at RM21billion.

The fact that the largest and fastest rising component of the expenditure is the allocation for “Emoluments, Pensions and Gratuities”. This put a huge constraint on the fiscal balancing act. The govt is mindful of the debts, especially the foreign ones, meanwhile the local debt has grown to a colossal proportion of 81.9% of the national debt. Raising more debts would be VERY difficult, based on the current international fear about Greece/Italy financial contagious effect.

Sandwiched between these two monsters, the only way out is to cut development expenditure. Now, prey tell, without any decent investment into development expenditure, how does the govt going to be competitive globally?

Isn’t this the biggest problem facing Malaysia now?

The decent thing to do is to channel more fund from expenditure account into development account. & the only quick fit is to cut govt remuneration. Does Rosmajib have the ball to do just that?

& yet those tempurung economists just pretending NOT seeing the big pink elephant in the china shop.

Any more wonder how we get to where we r today?

Anonymous,  18 November 2011 at 11:44  

datuk, your writing is factual and a good read.by the way wan azmi could not manage Land & General Bhd.when it was given on golden plate.so what is his relevance to MAS turn around.failed tycoon may be.

CYC,  18 November 2011 at 13:57  

MAS is a hopeless GLC, no wonder Tony Fernandez is laughing all the way to the bank.

What transformation are they talking about? Look at those old guards that were retained and entrusted for new portfolio :Syed Hamid for SPAD, Samy & Ong Ka Ting as special business ambassador to china & India, Fong Chan On for ???? , Rahim Thamby Chik for Risda, Isa for Felda......and the list goes on ....What can these failed politicians achieve?

Anonymous,  18 November 2011 at 16:32  

Good article, next time me fly SIA, cheaper and better service. MAS is a coffer, to the day the cash is there, this is how it will be run, to change, change everyone on top, not only those failed salesman in Europe and America, everyone here also, but it will never happen.....too much pride and financial sustainablity need to be taken care, therefore MAS will continue to rot at the expense of this group....Cheers

Anonymous,  18 November 2011 at 17:12  

Must gamblers b Chinese? R U sure non of ur Muslim brothers/sisters gamble? U sounded yourselves to b so CLEVER, Y r u not selected to helm MAS or any GLCs' dying companies.

Hussin 18 November 2011 at 18:16  

Why is MAS not selling first and business class tickets?
Because no right thinking man want to pay full price for first and business class tickets but having to sit next to someone who paid for economy class tickets but got upgraded because he knows somebody in MAS or the government.

Anonymous,  18 November 2011 at 19:04  

Wow! This sounds like bizness of Cows!

MAS is slaughter house-eventually salting up every citizen for display as in dried skulls in Museum Negara.

As you put it, there is no iota of decency in MAS' management or the Cabinet. When all is done or overdone, Malaysia will be an expo of every humanly possible bizarre trick on earth!

There maybe some blessings - good examples for future economist and Malaysians of what misgovernance in bizness or government is really all about.

Can sell good books, too - descriptive or bizness studies texts. Cases galore!!!

jokersland,  18 November 2011 at 20:04  

All oil palm plantations are making good money since 2004. I wonder why FELDA still have to borrow RM6b from EPF and now is desperate for the IPO.

"A prostitute who open her to make a living out of abject poverty has more dignity than those plunderers"

bruno,  18 November 2011 at 20:48  

Dato,all these VP's and SVP's of MAS have to do is act stupid like everything is fine and mind their own business and go play golf or skirt chasing.In return for playing blind while the looting is going on,they get to keep their 'buta gaji' and chaffeured driven BMW's and Porshe's.

Anonymous,  18 November 2011 at 20:56  

Well articulated, Sir. On MAS, the main issue is bcos the decision makers put plumbers to do bricklaying, plumbers to do wiring and accountant to do plumbing. So instead of a house, you got a sinking ship. Tak percayake ? Proof below : http://mastroubleshooters.blogspot.com/2011/11/key-observations-and-recommendations-by.html

yoko ono 18 November 2011 at 21:02  

bro,
you should c how PKNS is run.is a clearcut sabotage.the GM is nothing short of an UMNO guy.his job is to make sure everything fails.

affordable homes project never took off,tender meant for contractors are given job scope of a developer,joint
venture offers to tier 1 developers like mahsing,bolton,lowyat,metrokajang are made sure to fail.

horrible mb pkr.

flyer168 19 November 2011 at 04:33  

Dato',

Very well explained...

Sadly, the Ketuanan UMNOputra/BN and their cronies, all have this same trait & mentality vs the Rayaat (Sheeple)...

"Competition is a sin….

"Own nothing. Control everything" - Rockefella.

"Give me the control of the credit of a nation, and I care not who makes the laws" - Nathaniel Meyer Rothschild

"The few who could understand the system (cheque, money, credits) will either be so interested in its profits,
or so dependent on its favours, that there will be no opposition from that class,
while on the other hand, the great body of people, mentally incapable of comprehending the tremendous advantage that capital derives from the system,
will bear its burdens without complaint, and perhaps without even suspecting that the system is inimical to their interests" - Nathaniel Meyer Rothschild

The Ketuanan UMNOputra/BN and their cronies all sing the same "Songlap" tune...

So the Rayaat (Sheeple) kena “Songlap” kau-kau again & they will never learn !

Vote UMNO/BN, 1Malaysia, Malaysia Boleh & enjoy this “Present”…

Either the Sheeple Wake up & do something about it, or else continue suffering in silence!

Shalom.

walla 19 November 2011 at 08:59  

Anon 11.34,

Bravo!

The public sector wage bill will balloon, increase the load on taxpayers and the young, and sunder the future of this country.

Each time public sector wages are increased to eclipse relevant productivity, knock-on effects will inflate the final bill compounded by higher non-productive pension allocations and scale-pegged employment incentives.

With every three taxpayers paying the salaries of every two civil servants, it will only be a matter of time before the country gets hit with a trillion ringgit debt. Some have tried to pooh-pooh all this by saying it is alright for countries to have such large debts. They should be immediately loaned to Greece and Italy with a one-way ticket to try and solve their mess.

When a government is seen as a company, it flies in the face of credulity to allow its operating expenditure to outsize development allocations. That is cannibalizing capability just to sustain the people who are supposed to progress capability. And by the looks of things, they haven't so far - only create more problems, issues and costs.

Like selling off airplanes to pay wages, it is a vicious circle of eating away the very means of making profits to pay wages. That's an unsustainable situation. And the young of today will be slammed with the bill tomorrow. I take no pleasure in saying i will not live that long to see it happening.

As for the Felda listing, it won't be an index-mover. More a corporate spin to pull wool over the Felda settlers.

Exposures of late with incredible excuses knee-jerked one after another reminds one of mice scurrying in the kitchen corner when the lights are turned on.

See for yourself how vultures of the same feather have come together to try and defend their own kind. Have they forgotten the oath they had taken when they took office? Have they forgotten for who they are holding office?

Now we see for ourselves the full bloom of that hypocritical umnoputras-versus-rakyat posturing.

The tragedy of Malaysia is that its future is decided by our Malay voters easily swung by seedy bearers of trivial gifts. As has been said, beware of Greeks bearing gifts. They never want to see what really happens after.

Anon 11.34, OneMalaysian, Bruno, Melayu Baru and many others...carry on, please.

Tinta Hitam 19 November 2011 at 19:25  

Datuk,

UMNO and its followers doesnt favor a man like you.They said you are a foul-mouthed bugger.Any critical

ordinary malaysian 20 November 2011 at 03:13  

Datuk, if you are the Oracle, you should know that skirting and sliding is a lot of work - hard work. And you should also know that when you work hard, you ought to be richly rewarded. No? And please, be kind to the Chinese. Don't always demonise them - not all Chinese like bak kut teh and not all Chinese frequent the casinos. And that our Malay brothers or sisters don't eat bak kut teh or frequent the casinos is because they are prohibited. You can make a point, but there is no need to score. It is not nice when you bring the race factor in, even if not meant to be racist. But how can anything not be racist if race is highlighted when there is no need to, to make a point. Still, who can take issue with what the Oracle has said here. Even cows need condos. And Felda needs to roost? No? Aiyah, if you and I can make some fast dough, don't be dour lah. Now anybody can fly.

OneMalaysian,  20 November 2011 at 13:55  

Dear Sakmongkol

“The basic philosophy of our economics is wrong.”

You can say that again. There are two big obvious flaws. The first is that in this day and age of cutthroat, globalised competition we still have companies owned by government (GLCs) trying to compete with out-and-out efficient private enterprises. Do they have a chance without tariff barriers and special concessions and special deals from government – all of which are bad for the consuming public because those are nothing but subsidies to inefficient companies that have no right to exist. If Proton didn’t exist we would all have cheaper cars and more model choices as well. The extra duties to support Proton have cost Malaysians tens of billions of Ringgit in extra cost of cars. What’s great about that misadventure when after 27 years Proton is out-sold by Perodua, and it can’t hold a candle to the Korean cars companies that got started about the same time as Proton?

Second, all GLCs have a race-based employment policy as part of their social-economic programme. There is nothing wrong per se with the government pursuing such policies if wisely done, and within a time frame. However, to require business enterprises to employ them is to hobble their capacity to compete. Do we really want to compare MAS’s performance against SIA and Emirates? Let’s start with employment policy. Those two competitors use the best talents available, and whether they are Singaporeans or Arabs don’t matter. In fact you will find many foreigners in their senior management ranks. The same with the big Singapore banks. OCBC had an American CEO, and DBS has an Indian national as CEO. RHB tried to appoint an Indian national as their CEO, but had to make do with a Malay-Malaysian instead. If we don’t value talent, and are only motivated to recruit from one race, we restrict our access to the vast talent pool. People, not machines, run businesses. It is good that we always remember this. Next time we ask why our companies, especially GLCs, are not doing well, think about our self-handicapping employment policies.

Melayu Baru,  20 November 2011 at 22:52  

Assalamualaikum Dato' Sak,

Oh, now we have FGV Piratization. Hot off the press is NFC. Not long ago it was the MAS-Air Asia. Before that FRIM land. Sungai Besi airport. Many others before that... In my earlier memory is BMF...SSDN. Same s*** different name.

It is the same tune, with slightly different lyrics. Kemajuan. Kesejahteraan. Ekonomi. Rakyat. Plus other words, and you pick the different permutations of the same word. You'd think people have figured this out already - but no..

The underlying benefit to the elites is the same - They got richer every time this supposedly projeck mensejahterakan rakyat happened.

The plot get better for them - the project will undoubtedly fail. The government will step in and guarantee the bondholders that they will get paid.

The elites creamed the riches of this blessed land, and leave the debt to the future generations.

Once in a while there will be noise created by - you name it. Whistle blowers, conscious objectors, blogs etc. Many with documents. Then depending on perceived public anger, there will be 'actions'. I think the malay word is more appropriate - eksyen. Wayang saja.

As I said, what is there to be afraid off? The same band of thieves are controlling all the instruments of the state.

There will be no further action. Then we move on to new 'discovery'. We act surprised.. Continue ad infinitum... At every round, they got richer, the country's debt grew and the future is screwed.

I am just sick and tired of all these. I felt helpless - that my kids and yours are all going to bear the cost of these mistakes.

The only way to stop this is to ensure the thieves are out of power. It will be good - heck, even Indonesia is way better than us now. Manila is checking out of the sick Man of Asia Ward. We are the next patient.

These thieves, though, know that they hold the heartstring of the voters. Buatla jalan ala kadar. Gula sekilo dua. Kain pelikat sikit sikit. Janji la buat jambatan, bagi peruntukan etc etc. Same playbook. Same result. The thieves are returned to power each and everytime.

2008 result will not be repeated in the next election. Or the next.

What we need to know that the episodes of stealing will continue. It is only when the masses are aware of this, or when the economy is too sick (re Greece/Italy/Spain et al) then only we will have change.

So, now I use all I can to spread the words. That these elites, who have never worked hard, never knew hardships and never have to undergo what Malaysians do are parasites that the country can do better without.

Until the day these people are out of power, I will not stop. Even if they are, I will be watching those who replace them and ensure that they do not do the same.

And you, readers, who made it to this line - go out and do the same.

Melayu Baru

Anonymous,  20 November 2011 at 23:13  

poor article sak.....lcts of criticism and superficial solutions

one thing is for sure - you will never be the boss so you will not be in a position to say ... go jump off the twin towers....

Red Alfa 21 November 2011 at 11:59  

Salam Dato'

Just so much you can say. We must be really wanting to stop the low down stealing!

We must be more than enough of a Malay wanting all these thievery and robbery in our name to stop. Malays must be in the huge numbers and determination to get UMNO voted out at GE 13.

Shall we start by being with them in wanting those thieving hands to be cut off?

Anonymous,  21 November 2011 at 13:21  

Dato

All I can say is that you and your oracle of syed putra are a pair of damn good jokers. You all know what is the root of the problem and you are spending time entertaining us readers with your philosophy. You and your oracle are more like a couple of old people sitting in armchairs talking about what's wrong with Malaysia and how it should have been.

Well, Dato. Allow a young ciku like me to be insolent and summarise all that you have written in your blog in 2 sentences:

1. Your comrades in UMNO and their cronies are never interested in running Malaysia like any responsible government. They are only interested in enriching themselves, legally and illegally.

2. The only way for a better Malaysia tomorrow is to change the federal government in the next general election. In plain words, vote Barisan Nasional out of the government.

But of course, you and your oracle would not agree with these 2 points because it is very difficult to accept that the UMNO that you have given most of your life to serve is corrupted to the core. I would feel the same way too, if I am as old as you two.

Question for you and your oracle ... are you happy to continue to sit in your armchairs and entertain us with your stories OR would you like to actively make a difference for your family and for Malaysia by proactively work to vote out Barisan Nasional? If you and your oracle are as wise as you claim to be in your writings, you can still influence people, particularly the folks who have little access to internet news or are much more fluent in Malay.

And of course you would not publish this comment because I'm not praising you and your oracle.

Anonymous,  21 November 2011 at 15:05  

Dato, I believed its the vendor system that is dictating the companies. With the exception of Petronas, MAS and Proton management are held to ransom by the long term contract entered during the inception of these GLCs. The system is based on not what you have but rather who you know, resulting in substandard service or inferior products being delivered.The turnover remains stagnant but your cost is constantly on the increase. Vendors would insist these GLCs to take up their supplies inspite of declining sales. We need to cut these ties by ensuring that services or product rendered are competitively priced basing on demand and not on long term lopsided supply contract.

Anonymous,  23 November 2011 at 11:30  

Dato'
Semua cerita2 GLC kerajaan ini ada dalam prosa Dead Souls karya Nikolai Gogol tetapi dalam versi Bahasa UMNO!

-Haji Salah JPJ

Malaysian 24 November 2011 at 10:15  

Dato

Based on your article, I am curious if there is hope for Malaysia. UMNO preach about saving Melayu yet they are the folks that's stealing our money. Have Melayu realize how UMNO is destroying them? I was watching Discovery channel about Singapore and I can't help to envy this country. Why can't we be better than Singapore? Race is not the answer for Malaysia failure but UMNO. UMNO is a corrupted organization that only seek to enrich their own group. They are not interested to help Melayu or Malaysia. They are not the real Melayu that I know. All the care is duit!

Salam
An Angry Malaysian

flyer168 25 November 2011 at 09:33  

Angry Malaysian,

Just to share this...

â€ÂªLee Kuan Yew - Interview with Fareed Zakaria‬‏ - YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...re=related

CNN's Fareed Zakaria talks with Lee Kuan Yew about his life as prime minister of Singapore, the revival of China, War on terror, Freedom Agenda and even the recent Georgian conflict. This is a two part series.

I am a “Social Darwinist”
The Survival requires you to Change…
If you don’t Change, you will be “Marginalised”
Then you will become Extinct”…

Singapore: Lee Kwan Yew: At 85, The Fire Still Burns By Ahmad Mustapha « Blog yOur Mind - http://all4one4all.wordpress.com/2009/12/07/singapore-lee-kwan-yew-at-85-the-fire-still-burns-by-ahmad-mustapha/

â€ÂªLee Kuan Yew Ketawakan Malaysia‬‏ - YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUMwWs44zvg

You be the judge.

Shalom.

Malaysian 25 November 2011 at 19:55  

Flyer

I think it's because of UMNO that Melayu and Malaysia will extinct.

We used to have good leader from Tun Dr. Ismail, Tengku Razaleigh, etc. what happen to UMNO? Sadly, I start to realized that none of current UMNO leaders have the ability to lead this country.

Hence, I am not optimistic about the future. Our leaders are still talking about race or religion. Why can't we focus on improving the life of regular Malaysia by providing quality education, better public transportation, developing more quality public housing, etc. What happen to PKFZ, NFC? Why is Nazist BTN still exist?

Please excuse me ... Malaysia is Fu#K!If UMNO doesn't reform. I hope PKR is not another UMNO. Fortunately, we can still have hope from DAP and PAS....

Salam

flyer168 26 November 2011 at 14:35  

Malaysian,

Like everything else...

Malaysia and its citizens Had everything going great...

Under UMNO/Alliance with Tunku & his 1st cabinet then...

Political Leaders then were Statesmen of Honour & Integrity...

It is the "Leaders, their Cronies & Macais who destroyed the Party...

Yes, ever since our Bapak Merdeka Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra was betrayed by the Elites of UMNO in 1969...

The seeds of the "Ketuanan UMNOputra" was implanted by his successor growing into the "Monster" that we now have in Bolehland...

Bolehland has been "Misguided" by the Ketuanan UMNOputra/BN Leaders into the Global Elites' Trap of "Bankrupcy, Debts & Chaos" with its eyes wide open, through their Ketuanan UMNOputra "Enablers"...

Just to share this...

Our Bapak Merdeka Tunku Abdul Rahman's advise to the Ketuanan UMNOputra/BN Leaders and the rayaat then (1988) & now...

â€ÂªTunku Abdul Rahman 1988 - "Biarlah Saya Mati Dalam Perjuangan"‬†- YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...re=related

So step 1 should be vote "ABU"...

You be the judge.

Shalom.

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