Second Stimulus Plan + Cash rate cut = Saving the economy?

Australian Federal government executed their second stimulus package, so all working Australian earning below $AUD 80,000 per annum will receive a payment of $AUD 900 as part of the stimulus plan to reimburse tax payers as the Australian economy is riding through a recession period. The base for such a generous act is to put back the economy back to it's place by freeing cash for consumers to spent. As usual Federal Opposition leader, Malcom Turnbull hits back at the Rudd government for using the same method which doesn't spur any growth similar to the previous stimulus package. Mr. Turnbull stated 85% of the population whom had received the previous reimbursement from the first stimulus plan did not spent but rather save their money in the bank to earn interest. Conservatism and low confidence with the market performance, everyone is taking a defensive stand. "Cash is king" era, that's what it's called and it HAS to be spent and monitored under a very tight regime. Splurging unwisely comes with serious consequences which might force an individual running towards bankruptcy and a nation, fattening up their deficit.

7th April 2009

Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) announce a 25 basis point cut from the benchmark cash rate, bringing it to 3% for loans. The four major banks, namely The Commonwealth Bank, ANZ Bank, Westpac Bank and The National Australian Bank (NAB) is thinking what are the further impacts to their lending rate, "Is it too low?". Retailers welcome the Federal government's move.

The announcement of rate cut was to reinforce the effect of the first stimulus package. Hopefully consumer confidence would rebuilt back.

7th April 2009, 5.15pm Australian time
NAB refuse to follow suit the 0.25% cut on the cash rate. So now what happens? Die or adapt?





Out from all the hypes of activity in the trading house, my very own floor has a very happy floor mate, named Romain Tanti. Reason for his joy is because his girlfriend is coming to visit him and she's arriving tonight, direct flight from France I think. So he's out at the airport waiting for her tonight. Haha happy dude. Cheers my friend and have a good time!

I bet he's going to drink like hell tonight, haha. French-ies past time, sipping wine, or beer. Whichever they can find first. ahah

End of Badawi-ism

Special thanks to the 5th Prime Minster of Malaysia, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi for providing the avenue to the rakyat to have an open and independent sight of the word democracy. His failure at administrating/governing the nation has facilitated the ongrowing growth of awareness in relation to human rights and proper disclosure of government facts. It may be harsh, however to root out the rotten apples should be done swiftly to avoid a plague from getting out of control. Nevertheless, an antitode for one man, may be a posion for another.

General Election, so what? Back to same old' shit!

My physical body may be in Australia but from time to time on a daily basis I do browse through our local newspaper web page, The Star Online. Political hyped up again as the UMNO General Assembly Meeting commences on the 24th March 2009 till 26th March 2009. Well let me redefine the word 'everyone'. First and foremost I bet no one in their rightful mind cares about the upcoming UMNO internal general election, although in exact we're looking at the selection process of a future Prime Minister or to be more precise, the handing over of power between current Premier to his successor. There is no difference between now and after the handing of power. Nothing to be anticipated about. No revolution, no reformation, whatsoever compared to the previous handing of power ceremony between Mahathir Mohammad and Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. During that time, people in general as in the working classes are hoping for a new era of heavy reduction in corruption among the bureaucracy of our administration. Reduction of red tape, and so forth, but unfortunately Abdullah himself had landed his ass in the hotpot after the 12th General Election. According to some statistic which I can't really prove because I can't find it but I'd certainly read it couple of days ago, that 65% of the Malaysian population do not agree that Najib bin Razak would function as a good Premier. As they say, he may have excellent pedigree lineage or we call it 'blue blood", from having a father and an uncle both being former Prime Minister before and a younger cousin as the current Education Minister, yet he lacked the primary drive to further push his position upwards in the eyes of many rakyat and that is people's support. I placed my bet that the upcoming three by-elections would be swoop up by the oppositions, unless some hanky-panky happening. Which ever, I am never proud of my nation's caretaker (a.k.a. government). Speaking of that who does? Bruno, Marco, and Ellena from Italy hated their government, especially their Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi. Ellena once told me "We're never proud of our government, especially Berlusconi". And my reply "I'm also never proud of my government". Romain aspirant to be a future politician, currently studying Master of Political Science, stress that he never really bother the work of his President, Nicolas Sarkozy. Eddie Moore from Bendigo, Australia, hated their previous government under the leadership of John Howard. According to him, he's the worst Prime Minister Australia had ever had. Justifiable with the tremendous humiliation at the loss of a general election. The Australian government under the Rudd administration is just slightly better. Eddie stresses that, he doesn't agree with the remark and programmes of Kevin Rudd to curb global warming because it gives privilege to the industry players which ultimately means giving them opportunity to pollute the environment, which is back to square one again. Over the years, democracy may just be a form of government that is slightly better than Dictatorship or Monarchy rule. However the case, we can never satisfy everyone with one solution.

"No man breath the same amount of air with another man at the same time" (THUM, 2009)


For a moment of thinking, I kind of thank Dr Santha for teaching and grilling us on citation and referencing when we're back doing SAM at Taylors. She will usually get so boiled up, when we can't cite correctly. The horror in her class, but then again we manage to pull through. S7 people can tahan punya from harsh treatments. HAHA!

Funny day.

Long day today. Many happenings occurred today, especially the political landscape in Perak. It was a dawn of a total new era for Malaysian politics again. The support is now directly shine towards Pakatan Rakyat. Without a doubt, the recent political turmoil or so-called master-minded strategy adopted by Barisan Nasional was a suicide mission. Three assemblyman quite PKR and insist of becoming independents, despite several calls for them to reconsider their ouster. Regardless, Barisan National now commands the majority of the State Assembly. Legitimately adhering to the Constitution, Barisan Nasional is indeed the ruling state government of Perak, however the forced resignation of Mr. Nizar as Mentri Besar wasn't included in the Constitution, therefore amount to illegitimacy by an objective view. Yet, it is of no reason for me to go against the royal decree, because Sultan Azlan Shah had made the move which he was bounded to make. Am I insulting the Sultan by addressing him, "he". Sorry, this is a democratic country, and we're just practicing Constitutional Monarchy which support the Westminster Parliament ways of administrating this country. What I meant was, even though the people of Perak (also known as Perakians) requested dissolution of the State Government to trigger a state election to re-elect Pakatan Rakyat with a much larger majority, it would be futile with the current condition. Obviously, Barisan Nasional commands the majority, therefore one of them must be the Mentri Besar. The State Assembly can't be dissolve without a proper and legitimate reason. The Sultan can't dissolve the State Assembly just because the people wants it. No where in the Constitution was stated anything about switching political parties while being elected, therefore amounted to void if simply accusing it to be illegal. There was precedence of this matter many years back and the Sultan was just taking the same equal steps. Pakatan Rakyat can't amend the Constitution unless it commands two-third of the majority of the Parliament. The only method to confront this problem is by hoping the two defected state assemblyman will be acquitted with corruption charges, therefore forcing them to resign instantaneously, ultimately requiring a by-election for the two places. No doubt Pakatan will win hands down. Making the numbers to rise to 30 against Barisan's 28 and one independent that supports Barisan. With that, the newly installed Mentri Besar, Mr Nizar (presumably) could request a dissolution of the State Government for a state election which guarantees a wholesome victory for the Pakatan Rakyat, thus finishing Barisan of from Perak.

Anyway, it was a great day today. Went to Adrian's house at 9.30 a.m. to gamble. Among those attend: Hsiao Yinn (for obvious reason), Ross, Ji Yung and Eve Lyn. Overall winner, Ji Yung reaping RM20 and Eve Lyn, not sure amount. I loss nearly RM12. I think Hsiao Yinn loss the most. After that we went to USJ9, Restaurant Nirvana to have some banana leaf rice. Here the picture is below:

After lunch, Hsiao Yinn headed to work, Eve back home, Ji Yung class, Ross didn't join us for lunch, while me and Adrian headed to Pyramid for a movie: The Pink Panther 2. Worth watching.

The Jackass of The Century

Simple strategy to trick complex minds, unfortunately, flawed by numerous angles. I had a good laugh at the future Prime Minister. In fact, I believe he had let go the urge to even be the 6th Prime Minister of Malaysia, but that's not the only thing he will loose, more to come. He knew this move is a suicide mission, however it will still grant him sufficient time to turn the nation upside down. Continuing raping the country's wealth. Everyone is able to read his moves, no point writing it here. It's understood by all who speaks Bahasa Melayu. We're not dumb for the fact. Just remember the Trojan Horse strategy applied by the Greeks to bring down the Trojan Wall.

"Employees are their best asset". Sure anot?

The Chinese New Year celebration is coming to an end. To be precise it's exactly after the fifteenth (15) day, where the thread withholding the world's economy lies hanging, snap or no snap is depending on the magnitude of the consumers' reaction overall since the sub-prime mortgage crisis that mushroomed crisis everywhere across the globe. China's demand for products would shrink further into the abysmally at higher pace as the biggest celebration for them comes to an end. Unfortunately, ill news begins to spread even before the Chinese New Year celebration ended, companies laying off thousands of their employees, and we're talking about huge companies, such as Caterpillar Inc (22, 110 jobs) , Macy Inc (7000 jobs that were equivalent to 4% of their workforce) , etc. It was a massive execution of working employee, literally speaking. In fact is this how these companies treat their employees after admitting that "employees are their best asset"? Short-term solution for the long-term effects to curb expenses in a "cash is king" competitive business environment. True, but only for the current particular moment. Decisions are valid and only looked right at the moment it was decided and not after it. The war on Iraq, decision by former US President, George W. Bush was right only at that moment he signed the declaration of war against terrorism. It was essential to protect the sovereignty of the United States at that time, but unfortunately the war dragged for too long and that was the mistake of the war people identified and criticised. It would be the very same situation that we would be facing in the foreseeable future. Employees are trained to function the way they are, specifically looking at the front line employees (i.e. welders, factory workers, salesman, etc.). It took years to train this people up and laying off them would come a price. If the company is lucky, the dismissed employees could be relocated again and rehired but what are the chances of rehiring them if the period of retrenchment are undefined in this trouble economic conditions. As I say short-term positive solution for a long-term negative effect. Considering that we have not take into account on the social cost it would bring. The Malaysia economic growth is mainly spurred by the manufacturing industry for electrical and electronic products that are also run by a high percentage of foreign workers. Unfortunately the US consumer are our biggest, in fact the world biggest consumer, and further worsen by their slashing on product consumption in light of their sub-prime mortgage crisis which generated massive foreclosure continuing to trigger a lower demand for our electrical and electronic products. You definitely can't expect them to continue supporting our economy when their domestic economy is facing extinction. This ultimately manifest into a halt in production due to overbuilding figures of inventories held in the producers accounts. Nothing goes out, therefore nothing is build in. With no production, employees are not hooked up with their jobs, and employers are facing a hard time to pay their salaries due to the severe amount of incoming revenues resulted from the drop of sales and also deferred payment by debtors. Employers are forced into either liquidation/ receivership or retrench their employees to save cash for the future since no production is on at the moment. And that was how it begins. The next part of the cycle would be social cost (i.e. thieving). Most companies do not self-hire workers into their comradeship. They would prefer to sub-contract out to other contractors that hire workers. In these way, it would be easier for them to control their accounts because requirements such as EPF, SOCSO and Income Tax would not be a hassle for them. So the company would not need to retrench workers and pay for compensation as required by our Malaysian Employment Law, for they need only to terminate the contract. But it would be another question whether the contractors would search for other clients to employ their workers or return them, foreign workers to their homeland (i.e. Indonesia) or worse leave them here. The third choice would be a jeopardy to us because this is where social cost would rise. Our federal government purpose is to safe guard the well being of domestic workers with distribution of EPF, SOCSO, retraining programme, etc. Therefore lay off foreign workers are left with nothing especially if their contractors that brought them here does not pay them compensation or return them back to their homeland. Double jeopardy for our country. In the end everyone looses. How can corporate figures declare that employees are their best asset if they could be dismissed with such ease. Hypocritical!

Above that, could the Prime Minister in waiting, Najib Tun Razak, accelerate the introduction of the second stimulus plan or better known as second pump-priming exercise and also fully utilise the first stimulus plan. At the moment only 70% of the first stimulus plan is executed. We're running in a fiscal deficit, every move MUST be scrutinise. Perhaps he didn't notice the impact of the impending recession for the Asian market. China can't hold on long by providing a buffer zone for us, sooner or later China and even India's economy will be destroyed if no other Asian countries reinforces their buying power. HURRY UP, bring out the big guns!!

IJN survives from another stupid government proposal.

07-01-2009: Sime Darby drops bid for IJN


by Surin Murugiah
Email us your feedback at fd@bizedge.com

KUALA LUMPUR: Plantation giant Sime Darby Bhd has withdrawn its bid to privatise the National Heart Institute (IJN), a move that effectively relieves the cabinet from reversing its earlier approval of the proposal.

In an announcement to Bursa Malaysia yesterday, the conglomerate said it decided not to pursue the plan after taking into consideration the public sentiment and feedback received since its proposal was made public on Dec 18.

“Sime Darby would nevertheless continue to look for opportunities for expansion in the healthcare sector,” the company said.

Last Dec 17, The Edge Financial Daily had reported that Sime Darby had expressed its interest to privatise IJN. The following day, the company announced that the government had, in principle, approved its plan to acquire a 51% stake in IJN.

The announcement was greeted with a huge public outcry, drawing criticism from various quarters, despite Sime Darby coming out to assure the public that the social obligations of IJN would not be affected in any way by the proposed privatisation.

Even Sime Darby’s chairman Tun Musa Hitam, who rarely comments on the business proposals of the company, came out to state that the privatisation of IJN would not burden poor patients and pensioners as those requiring medical attention were always given priority. Musa said Sime Darby spent about RM3 million annually at its Subang Jaya Medical Centre for needy patients, including heart cases.

But public sentiment against the proposal was overwhelming, forcing the government to relook at the proposal, just two days after the cabinet had given its green light.

On Dec 19, Finance Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced that the government had decided to defer the decision on the matter pending further study. He said that the finance and health ministries, and the Economic Planning Unit would conduct an in-depth study before the government decides on its privatisation.

The finance ministry owns IJN via its 99.99% stake in IJN Holdings.
Najib had then dismissed suggestions that the cabinet decision had something to do with the Kuala Terengganu by-election.

Critics of the privatisation were primarily concerned that a privatised IJN would deprive civil servants of the almost-free medical treatment they enjoy now while non-civil servants would end up paying higher charges.

Civil servants pay a nominal fee of RM1 not just at IJN but also at all government hospitals for treatment.

There were also issues raised as to why a profitably run heart centre needs to be privatised.
IJN posted a revenue of RM287.3 million last year, up 11.7% from RM257.5 million in 2006, according to filings with the Companies Commission of Malaysia. However, net profit was lower at RM13.6 million against RM22 million previously.

Since its establishment, IJN has earned a reputation as a leading centre for cardiac care in the region. It has treated well over a million patients, including former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

(Extract from :THE EDGE DAILY )

Institute Jantung Negara (IJN)

To kick start with the continuation of the previous post, I would like to extend my greetings of Merry Christmas to everyone, young and old, sick and healthy, staunch believer of religion and non-believers. Christmas was never an isolated celebration catered only to one religion but a moment of celebration of happiness and joyfulness and certainly togetherness as well. It's the year 2008's Christmas and 2007's Christmas theme of 1 Utama's decorations are still fresh in my mind especially with it's previous toy soldier theme. Nevertheless time passes, even though we are still feeling stuck in a particular time frame. Before the Penang trip goes for a full wave of explanations, I would like to touch on the issue of the government's interest on privatising IJN (Institute Jantung Negara/ National Heart Institution) by selling 51% of it's equity stake in IJN to Sime Darby Berhad. Better or for worse, this is easily summarised as an attempt of pure corruptions by our 'elected' government law makers.
A brief history of IJN. IJN was initially a unit under the wing of the government hospital. It was a unit that was dedicated to heart complication matters. In the year 1989, when former Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohammad succumbed to a heart complication disease and was warded into the heart unit under the general hospital's wing for a heart bypass. He then realised that this country is lack of a specialised hospital that provides cardiology and cardiothoracic surgery services for Malaysians. After that onwards he begin a plan to institutionalise the heart unit under the government hospital's wing into a full fledged institution that is now called IJN. IJN comprises specialised cardiologist, from cardiac surgeon to cardiologist that are well trained to meet the rising demand of heart medication throughout the nation. The first chairman of IJN was Dr Yahya. Dr Yahya was the doctor that had conducted Mahathir's bypass surgery in the year 1989. Therefore IJN was institutionalised officially in the year 1992 and later incorporated in the year 2005. It is now own by the government under the purview of the Ministry of Finance led by Najib Tun Razak, Prime Minister-in-waiting.
The above context are the ''stories'' that are circulated around. How genuine? May the readers decide for themselves, especially with the appointment of Dr Yahya as the first chairman of IJN.
IJN was constructed through the use of public funds that are derived from tax collection. Therefore it would be counter productive to sell it off to Sime Darby Berhad as this moment. The moment when people and I meant rakyat are going through a very hard time to acclimatised the bearish market, the fallout economy, the financial meltdown and everything that America had done which gives and delivered a negative and a horrible outlook to so many average Joes' that are working 10 hours a day, 5 days a week. Like it or not, Najib is compromising with the welfare of the general population. And bloody hell, Najib is capitalising this issue when everyone is having a hard time to make ends meet. We have a whole general population of low-class, low-earning rakyat and he wants to send IJN off. Fuck it, Sime Darby won't give a shit of capitalising their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility). What the hell would Sime Darby Berhad wants to buy out IJN if not for the profits. Yes, IJN is a very extremely successful institution that is earning big bucks. IJN doesn't only provide services for the local but also overseas patients. For your information IJN is one of the most advance heart institution in the South East Region. It would be immaterial if IJN do take into consideration the welfare of the low-earning rakyat when the fact is they bloody hell don't. Is Najib hoping to commit suicide because if this privatisation exercise do take off, I swear he'll be out in no time from the government office; from the premier's chair right after the 13th general election. I am harping on this issue is for a particular reason. Non of you people know that I, THUM CHUN HON, was one of the very first young infant heart patient of the IJN unit under the government hospital wing. I did my first operation in the year 1989 (49 das old) and had my picture taken as a commemoration of the successful operation. My parents paid RM5 for both of the operations. Imagine if IJN was a privatised institution during that time, then the heart operation would have cost between RM10,000 - Rm15, 000 each. Imagine now if its privatised, then it would be around RM50,000, and that's for an operation equal to my case. What about the complicated ones? This is not an isolated case, as the welfare of the rakyat must never be compromised at all cost. We paid taxes for it's establishment and we will enjoy the services of it freely. Penang trip postpone to next post. Promise.

Recession came knocking at the door.

Based on my last post, so the USD$700 billion injection bill was passed after observing a near total collapse of the global financial system, but there was a catch there; the remedy did not HALT THE MOMENTUM of the crisis! Great so the "man made disaster" was so terrible that stocks and indices across the globe felt to their knees at the lowest benchmark they could be in over a decade or so. Eight (8) national central banks made a coordinated rate cut (50bps = 0.5%) that was spurred by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA). An unprecedented move I would say in this context. However the market did not felt comfortable with the move and it went on a free fall continuously. Spurring the first Japanese insurance company to go bust, Yamato Life Insurance Co. This is so serious. As of the time of writing, the market seems to be reacting positively now with Dow Jones scoring up a couple of hundred points (*Figure unsure*), hopefully it will sooner or later subside the invasion of one of the worst financial crisis since The Great Depression of 1929.

I personally classify this invasion into three (3) waves of attack. The first wave was the fallout of the sub-prime mortgage crisis. The greed of banks to stimulate quick revenue had overlooked the potential disastrous risk looming around the corner since early of 2000s. Alan Greenspan, former president of the Federal Reserve like it or not, did contribute to this disaster. His continuous ambitious plan of cutting rates to stimulate growth, and by hedging those risk by derivatives is uplifting the whole disaster into the reality region. George Soros and Warren Buffet had once stated the destructive nature of derivatives to the financial market long before but this was strongly opposed by Greenspan even till today. The cooperation between banks, mortgage institution and rating agency (Standard & Poor's and Moody's) contributed to the overall downfall.

Second wave, hit the financial institutions across the European continent and starting to infest into the Asian markets with the first casualty of the Japanese Yamato Life Insurance Co. At the current moment although central banks and governments had injected billions of USD$ into the money market to reliquidify it after weeks of being frozen up due to the loss of confidence, the scenario remains the same (free fall). Therefore I would have to agree with other commentators that this is not a financial crisis because even though funds are injected, the financial landscape remain motionless to the injection and it can be conclude it is a confidence crisis. Whereby investors, depositors, policyholder, and et cetera are all loosing confidence to the financial system. They've been fooled once and not wanting twice. The continuous distrust would halt the entire economy form correcting itself. That's what the fearful scenario is happening.

The third wave is when it starts to hit the non-financial institution, such as the manufacturing, agriculture, servicing , etc industries. Giant corporation such as GM, GE, Toyota, Honda and etc are already expecting the deep cut in their yearly revenue. Which would ultimately slash the employment rate, creating unrest, social problems and the lists goes on and on.

Malaysia is still pretty much safe as a result of de-coupling from the US's economy, well maybe at the moment but definitely not for long. Singapore, our very own neighbour had fallen to a recession mid of last week. Should we strike the panic button? I really think we should.

Act of stupidity

Raja Petra Kamarudin being detained under ISA. I can understand due to his outspoken attitude. But to detain an innocent journalist who is just doing her job is totally absurd to the highest order. How can you expect others to do their job properly if they are constantly harass by the draconian law; moreover this revolves around the exertion of freedom of press that was constantly highlighted by the Prime Minister and Information Minister prior the the 12th General Election. The thing that boggles my mind or even everyones' mind is that having known the popularity level of the Barisan regime is at all time low, why are they continuing to poke the hornets nest. They are directly accelerating the coming of the 16th September take-over by Anwar Ibrahim. What are they thinking? Has all resources been outsource to regain the popularity of the rakyat or they are just plain stupid. A reasonable person or in this case; a reasonable government would certainly take precaution steps to not increase the hatred flame of the rakyat. I've read the MalaysiaToday's website and one particular sentence in one article stole my attention. RPK stated that "...ask the Malays in the opposition to come out in defence of their non-Malay brothers and sisters and warn the Umno Malays, in no uncertain terms, that they take to the streets at the risk of facing fellow Malays from the opposition who will defend their non-Malay brethren to the last drop of their blood. I, for one, am ready to stand by my Chinese and Indian comrades. So let Umno be warned" (Hari Reformasi, The Day Of A New Dawn, MalaysiaToday). I respect him for that. At first, after the 12th General Election result, I was sceptical whether Anwar Ibrahim have the capacity to take-over the government by 16th September 2008 as he had constantly claimed even to the internation reporting medias. Since the arrest of Ms. Teresa Kok, MP of Seputeh for been alleged to have commented on the azan prayers around Seputeh and the abrupt arrest of Ms. Tan Hoon Cheng, the journalist who covered the story of Ahmad's racial slurs during the Permatang Pauh by-election ceramah, I am now convince certainly that Anwar Ibrahim would have to mount a take-over action at all cost necessary. Its no longer the government of the people, the tipping point had been reached. Whether Prime Minister Badawi was aware of such action being taken out without proper documentation from the Home Ministry, the issue had been made into an issue. Another thing which I've read from MalaysiaToday website not long ago, that UMNO doesn't really have the three (3) million supporters it claimed to have, which ultimately prove to be an expected situation looking at the current political landscape. Let me be honest here, at times when I watch the news regarding an UMNO member being accused of something (i.e. Ahmad) and it was reported that supporters of his are requesting the issue to be closed, it immediately strike my mind that "those supporters must have been his cronies or not who the hell would support such obvious issue". To me, its not the matter of being a decedent of immigrants or receiving equal rights, but it is the method he portrayed his belief in such demonising manner, especially those coming out from a politician. If he wants to belief in such thoughts, then be my guess but provided he is not a politician because being a politician requires some certain protocol being practiced and he had definitely violated it. Taking for example former premier, Mahathir who loudly from time to time criticises the Malays for loosing out to the other races; well I don't mind if that is his thought because he is just a normal rakyat of Malaysia just like you and me. There are no protocols for him to follow. Having said that, in my opinion and perhaps the opinion of my fellow Malaysians; Ahmad should have been sacked and not merely suspended for three (3) years and be shoved into the Kamunting detention centre under Section 73(1) of the ISA for being a real treat to the nation as a whole. I sympathises the Barisan National regime for constant failure to put out the flaming hatred of the rakyat. What ever had the Prime Minister tried to do; including eliminating corruption within the regime and awarding independence to the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) from the intervention of the Prime Minister himself all the way to suggesting judiciary reforms are now what I believe to be invalid due to some irresponsible and stupid politicians causing uproar here and there. What a pity.

Though I am supporting the coming of a new age in Malaysian politics but nevertheless I am not fully supporting Anwar; due to his current stand of championing reforms that is of my type that I'm lending my support to his cause and not to him. My loyalty is to my country, and the loyalty of politicians are to me and the rakyat of Malaysia. Never shall we be swayed again by their smooth talking methodology as we had done it in the past before the coming of the new age. Politics remain something to be check from time to time. Lifting up our defenses would only cause the crumbling the new awaited age and revert ourselves back into the dark ages of Malaysian politics.

However as we are now awaiting the moment of truth in three (3) days times, the other side of the world is facing a tremendous financial crisis. The troubled financial institution of Lehman Brothers. Would it be a repeated scene of the Bears Stern last March where the United States Treasury and Federal Reserve would spend another couple of billions (tax payers monies) to bail this institution out just like it had done previously on Freddie Mac and Fannie May? Or would the Bank of America, Barclays-United Kingdoms bank or the Chinese bank would send the immediate help necessary to avoid Moody's and S&P rating agency to downgrade Lehman Brothers to a triple-B rating, limiting certain action allowed to be taken by the Lehman Brothers. Financial news at times are as interesting as Malaysian politics, full of speculation and guessing games of scandals and stuff.

They felt the pinch

HA! So now the people are getting fed-up with the political turmoil infested in our society. Lies, deceive and prejudice. That's just the very few of what is and had happened since 8th March 2008. Well I had to admit, it was pretty entertaining hearing hearsay about how politicians react to allegations flung at them. But somewhere in the middle, things need to stop like what others had been saying for the past two (2) days and I don't have to repeat them. Its too much at stake to stall the economy, furthermore we are at the brink of facing a recession at a global scale anytime amid the United States subprime mortgage crisis still looming around. Danger is just by a stone throw away.

Since the liberalisation of the price ceiling for steel and other building materials, beginning of the year by the Economic Planning Unit (EPU), the price has fluctuated to historical high figures. Another gigantic atomic bomb released on the construction industries (First was the petrol & diesel price). Everyone wants a free market, to be able to play at a pace without the intervention of government policies. But that had cause a stall in the construction industries. Contractors and sub-contractors are now facing a tough time trying to adapt to the change of price climate. Some had even abandoned their projects because the cost is just unbearable. Their economies of scale had been threaten. Moreover with the recent mid-term review of the 9th Malaysian Plan by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Mohammad Nor Yakcop, Second Finance Minister, more government projects are bound to be put on hold or scrap, besides those listed by the Finance Ministry. If so, with the shocking increase in petrol & diesel price (by 40% and 63% respectively), scraping of government mega projects and increase in electricity tarrif (up by 30%), our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the year 2008 will definitely experience a fall out from our current position (38th) with an amount of 186,482 million of $USD (186,482,000,000), not to mention our purchasing power is now already cranked up. Politics are based on perception but economics are based on numbers that do not lie. Therefore, we are in for a deep shit!

Car being a money burner than a transport!

A little late, I noe, was busy with exam, neither i am free now yet, but just curi tulang abit. RM2.70 /litre. Crazy. I just went and pump up the MyVi at home when it still have 2 bar left before getting dry, and guess the price?? RM79.73 compare to previously was RM50 plus (holding the situation that the petrol bar still remain at 2 before getting dry) The car is being more like a money burner than a transport!. Haha lucky the car is small, but certainly not fuel efficient, but still better compare to those holding big cars la. Anyway the government is speaking foolish language. Why compare petrol prices with other non-petrol-producing countries. Take a look at the pic below.

Malaysia RM2.70/ litre ; Winner for the most expensive/ highly charge petrol for an oil-producing country/ and being ridiculously fool by the government. Tax here tax there, then telling us not enough money to subsidies. What the crap! Badawi (Finance Minister) and Yackop (Second Finance Minister) why are you both being such a bafoon in the cabinet, taking us for a ride? Syed Sharir how could you torture us like that? By far you are the most uncorrupted cabinet minister there is.

Badawi, table lah the account of Petronas collosal profits in the Parliament. I bet its more then what was recorded in Wikipedia 14.4 billion USD as per 2007. I believe is was an underdeclared profit. Hassan Marican doesn't care whether the money show up is important for the country's imej, cause all he cares is the siphoning of it into the cronies pockets.

Bloordy Bastards!

Touching on another issue that is somehow related...

Anyhow, if Badawi really wants to compare Malaysia with other countries , then lets put forth Singapore, the dragon and elephant of the world (China and India), mini giant of south east asia (Vietnam). Our Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) had been downsizing since the early 2000s. On the other hand Singapore, China, Vietnam and India is experienceing a boom of FDIs. I mean come'on! Singapore have no such thing as earthern materials for extraction and still champion up in term of FDIs and even their GDP is rising tremenodously. Failure of an unequitable distributing administration of scarce of resources to the people.

A brief history...

During the early 90s we were the most visited foreign land for investment by the Westerners, cause during that time other SEA countries are still experiencing political instability, unlike our country, but now China has gone through a new level, Vietnam does't experience the shock of the post-Vietnam War anymore, India is just like her counter-part China continuing to encourage international trade. So now they can offer what we can't offer and that is cheap labour. Seriously China's labour market is going through some change whereby the term 'cheap labour' is going to be eliminated since the Chinese are getting more aware of their surroundings and resist from being exploited, so the next target would be Vietnam and if Burma really manage to enjoy the fruit of democracy, then that would be the second mini giant of South East Asia.

Continuing...

Another thing, is about, the somehow strengthening of the Ringgit IN TERMS OF USD. Great news cause the greenbacks are now depreciating amid the speculation of a US recession. Great!!! comparing ourselves to a looser wannabee. We may see ourselves to be rising by comparing the greenbacks but the currency of other nations is rising too, wooping up our asses! Australia is experienceing a Boom especially the Western Australia (Perth for example) in their mininng industries. Therefore their FDis are in no question to be rising, GDP skyrocketing and other numerical digits will be increasing in fast pace, they are even experiencing a shortage in the labour market. Therefore they need people like you and me to contribute. Lets just hope it remains like that until a couple of years after i've graduated so that I would have time to not only find job easily but also change job till I find a suitable one. But hell! gotta dream on la and if that really happens, I'll be in wonderland. Woohoo.

People are fighting for survival eventhough this is not a World War 3 but its becoming more of a world war minus the guns and tanks and replace it by oil and food. What a sad world we're living in.