The politics thread :)

[ginfreely]

Re: Living in JB 3 (Johore)

From the series of major mis-steps, 2016 will be very interesting to watch:
http://www.tremeritus.com/2013/05/1...t-1-month-termination-clause-in-aim-contract/

It is not surprising that the residents' welfare is placed secondary to political interests, the 1 month termination is to create chaos when handover to new and inexperienced party to punish the citizens who chose the new party, it is the same logic why Potong pasir and opposition wards not upgraded for years mah..

 

[FHBH12]

Re: Living in JB 3 (Johore)

It is not surprising that the residents' welfare is placed secondary to political interests, the 1 month termination is to create chaos when handover to new and inexperienced party to punish the citizens who chose the new party, it is the same logic why Potong pasir and opposition wards not upgraded for years mah..

By doing this to screw up Punggol residents' well-being, I suppose Punggol is lost for good.

 

[kopikong99]

Re: Living in JB 3 (Johore)

It is not surprising that the residents' welfare is placed secondary to political interests, the 1 month termination is to create chaos when handover to new and inexperienced party to punish the citizens who chose the new party, it is the same logic why Potong pasir and opposition wards not upgraded for years mah..

They just siam the most important question on why a $2 paid up shell company can tender for million dollar contract. They treat all Singaporeans not in white all empty up there if we accept their report.

And for being asking all the tough questions, the cow starts a personal attack on the lady so no need to answer. No standard! Taxpayers really overpaid his salary.

 

[ginfreely]

Re: Living in JB 3 (Johore)

They just siam the most important question on why a $2 paid up shell company can tender for million dollar contract. They treat all Singaporeans not in white all empty up there if we accept their report.

And for being asking all the tough questions, the cow starts a personal attack on the lady so no need to answer. No standard! Taxpayers really overpaid his salary.

Yeah lor, really no class to start personal attack when faced with difficult questions haha...Last time Brompton bicycles case he also said no problem until some netizen digged up all the untold connections, so not surpisingly this time also no problem lor...

But WP also assigned contract without open tender is it? Looks like must have multi party in parliament to keep everyone on the toes all the time haha...

 

[oratedar]

Re: Living in JB 3 (Johore)

By doing this to screw up Punggol residents' well-being, I suppose Punggol is lost for good.

I hope so too. PAP will never admit their mistakes.

 

[ginfreely]

Re: Living in JB 3 (Johore)

Singapore authorities welcome all foreigners - poor or rich - but do not welcome own citizen who is poor.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2013/6/12/nation/13228622&sec=nation
"Wednesday June 12, 2013

Singaporean gets to go home at last

JOHOR BARU: An odd-job worker from Singapore who came here in 2000 and overstayed, can finally return home without any fear of being caught by the Immigration authorities there thanks to the MCA.

Chan Keng Mun, 58, came to take care of his sickly father and decided to stay on.

His stepmother lived with his father, who passed away in 2011.

Chan later got into an argument with his stepbrother, who threatened to report him to the Immigration department.

“I was scared of his threats and didn't know what to do,” he told a press conference called by former Stulang assemblyman Mok Chek Hou here yesterday.

Chan said he sought MCA's help to sort out his problem with the Singapore authorities, who were reluctant to allow him to re-enter the republic.

It is learned they were afraid Chan would not be able to sustain a living once he returns to the republic.

Mok said he sent several letters to the Immigration department here, which agreed to include Chan in the 6P legalisation and amnesty exercise for illegals.

“Chan was fined RM400 for overstaying and has finally been allowed to return to Singapore,” said Mok, adding that it was quite an extraordinary case and urged foreigners to refrain from taking chances with the law."

 

[TrulyAsia]

Re: Living in JB 3 (Johore)

Hmm...interesting revelations by Pak Lah...we shall see how Dr M and his ball lickers respond to this "awakening" call before UMNO party election

If I listened to Mahathir, Malaysia would be bankrupt, says Abdullah

If Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had succumbed to the pressure applied by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to spend without a care and continue with some of his pet mega-projects, Malaysia would be bankrupt by now.
This frank assessment was offered by Abdullah in a book covering his years as the prime minister of Malaysia.
Titled, "Awakening: The Abdullah Badawi Years In Malaysia", it was scheduled to come out earlier but there were some concerns in Putrajaya that the fifth prime minister’s comments and observations could spark a war of words between Abdullah and Mahathir and split Umno before the May 5 general election.
Putrajaya need not have worried. Abdullah lobbed a few barbs here and there, and threw a few zingers in the direction of his chief critic but did not reveal state secrets or offer juicy and humiliating anecdotes about the country’s longest-serving PM.
And he could have, he said. Referring to the constant attacks against him by Mahathir and other critics when he was in office, he recalled that some people asked why he did not clarify in detail the role of his young advisers, his son’s involvement in business and the influence of son-in-law Khairy Jamaluddin.
“Perhaps I should have been more vehement in defending and explaining these issues. I could have retaliated by exposing Mahathir. But what good would have come out of this for the government and party?” he said.
He noted that Mahathir is very set in his ways and believed that his is the only way. And this fact is why Abdullah believes he has been on the receiving end of vitriol from mid-2006 till today.
After all the layers of biting comments from Mahathir are peeled away, it boiled down to just one thing: Mahathir’s inability to accept any other view except his own.
For example, Abdullah remembered that he went to see Mahathir and explain that he had to postpone several projects, including the double-tracking rail system that the latter had initiated because of the bulging budget deficit.
“He, however, disagreed with me as he felt the government should continue to spend. But how do we do it when the deficit was at such critical levels? It would be highly irresponsible for me to continue spending.
“So we had no choice but to reduce the deficit by postponing some of the mega-projects like double tracking and this made Mahathir furious. I suppose he viewed them as his pet projects.
“Can you imagine, if I had succumbed to Mahathir’s continued pressure to spend when the deficit was already so high, how could Malaysia have weathered the oil and financial crisis which subsequently came in 2008?
“The deficit which we brought down to 3.2 percent crept up again due to subsidies for oil and essentials and hovered again at the 5 percent level. If we had not been prudent then, continued to spend, I can tell you we would be bankrupt by now."
In the book, edited by Bridget Welsh and James Chin, Abdullah also said that when he left office in 2009, he was determined not to be like Mahathir. He wanted Datuk Seri Najib Razak to establish himself as the prime minister.
“That is why I have remained silent all this time. I believe that once you retire, you are retired. You should not interfere with your successor. If there is anything you are unhappy with, you can always offer your views privately. Why bring it up in public and make life difficult for him?
Abdullah earned the biggest mandate from the electorate in 2004 but squandered the historic opportunity to reform the country and carry through many of his election pledges. As a result, in 2008 he led Barisan Nasional to a poor showing, losing its customary two-thirds control of Parliament.
In the book, he accepted blame for not meeting the expectations of the voters but said that Mahathir could not walk away from the 2008 results unscathed.
“When we did well in 2004, he said such a strong mandate was not good for the country. When we did not do so well in 2008, he heaped all the blame on me.
"He is doing it even today… Mahathir cannot deny that he contributed to the erosion of Barisan Nasional’s support in the 2008 elections through his open and unwarranted criticisms and attacks, calling my administration, which included a majority of people from his own Cabinet, as a ‘half-past six government’ and accusing us of corruption and all sorts of things,” said Abdullah. – August 6, 2013.

 

[whoami]

Re: Living in JB 3 (Johore)

Luckily Pak Lah is not the PM of Msia today.

Hes a preacher. Not a politician, imo.

 

[TrulyAsia]

A time when Utusan Malaysia didn’t get away with everything . .

In a book about his years in power, former prime minister Tun Abdullah Badawi makes a startling revelation about how he dealt with Utusan Malaysia, in stark contrast to how the strident newspaper is managed by its Umno backers now.
Abdullah was known for liberalising news media in an attempt to restore their credibility after the severe damage that mainstream media took under the Mahathir years, but Abdullah still kept a firm line on racial and religious issues.
Referring to his appointees, he said, “I did not interfere with their work as I believed that they had a professional job to do and I allowed them the space to do it. But when they abused the openness by playing up racial and religious issues, like when Utusan Malaysia did, then I would call them and warn them."
He revealed that he made a phone call to the editor-in-chief of Utusan Malaysia and left him with a stark warning: the newspaper had crossed the boundary with an editorial that smacked of racism and he should expect no favours from Putrajaya if charged with sedition.
As it turned out, the police did not come a-calling and the editor escaped any sanction. But Abdullah said that phone call put the fear of God into the newspaperman and, after that, there were no more offensive articles from the Umno-owned paper.
Such control apparently no longer exists over the newspaper that has since lost a bunch of defamation cases to opposition members and has even been ticked off in the courtroom for not following journalistic standards.
In reply to a question from the editors of the book on how much control Umno has over Utusan Malaysia now, the former leader replied, “Now, I don’t think there’s any control anymore."
Malaysian academic Professor James Chin – who edited the book with Dr Bridget Welsh – followed up, noting that these days it appears the Umno president says one thing and Utusan publishes something else the next day.
Abdullah responded, “That’s why I said I don’t think there’s any control anymore."
When he was the PM, he gave the media more space, noting that he appointed Datuk Seri Kalimullah Hassan as the editor-in-chief of New Straits Times. With Kalimullah at the helm, the newspaper was critical of Umno and at times, of Abdullah’s leadership itself.
“Some of my Supreme Council members were unhappy with him and wanted me to remove him. But during his time, the newspapers within the group became profitable and sales increased. They had credibility,” said Abdullah, noting that sales at the NST had since dropped significantly.
It was the same situation at TV3, where the viewership of the primetime news programme grew under the stewardship of Datuk Kamarulzaman Zainal, Abdullah’s former press secretary.
Still, he noted that many in Umno were not pleased with the era of openness and blamed BN’s poor results in 2008 on Abdullah’s decision to allow more discourse on issues.
“The openness did not happen by chance. I wanted it that way. Unfortunately, my detractors – particularly those seeking to keep the old ways and who resisted the change – interpreted it as a sign of weakness,” he said in the book titled, "Awakening: The Abdullah Badawi Years in Malaysia". – August 7, 2013.

 

[TrulyAsia]

Perkasa not the model for Malay cause, says Pak Lah

There is nothing wrong in championing the cause of race or community but it should not be done in the belligerent manner of Perkasa, former prime minister Tun Abdullah Badawi said in a book about his years in power.
In the volume titled, "Awakening: The Abdullah Badawi Years In Malaysia", he added that it was wrong to champion the cause by demonising other races.
The group led by Datuk Ibrahim Ali and Datuk Zulkifli Noordin has been pushing the right-wing agenda, especially the concept of Ketuanan Melayu, and has taken a confrontational approach against those it deems enemies of the Malay race and Islam.
In the run-up to the elections, Perkasa was engulfed in controversy after Ibrahim threatened to burn the Al-Kitab, the Malay-language bible, while video clips surfaced showing Zulkifli demeaning Hindus.
Touching on the concept of Ketuanan Melayu, Abdullah said that it should not be taken to mean Malay supremacy.
“What does Tuan mean? Master. How do you become a master? By excelling at what you do – whether it is in your studies, your profession, your business…
“Just because you are a bumiputera, you cannot expect everybody to just hand everything over to you and call you Tuan. Ketuanan is not an entitlement or a right. It is something you have to work for and to earn,” he said.
He acknowledged that there was genuine concern among some Malays over the plight of their race as many are still underprivileged.
“However, these concerns could have been better expressed through proper channels, and not in the offensive and belligerent manner that Perkasa does,” said Abdullah.
“I believe that you must always be reasonable and rational when you’re talking about people,” said Abdullah, who was forced to step down as the PM in 2009 after he led the Barisan Nasional (BN) to a limp performance in the general election the year before.
Abdullah’s comments about Perkasa will provoke a response from Ibrahim and possibly from its patron, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Few Umno leaders have ventured to criticise the right-wing movement publicly, worried about the gush of vitriol it would provoke from the sharp-tongued Ibrahim and Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia, another promoter of the right-wing agenda.
But privately, they point out that Perkasa’s existence diminishes Umno’s role as the protector of Malays. – August 7, 2013.

 

[TrulyAsia]

Singapore (Man in White) wants status quo in Malaysia, likewise Malaysia (Man in Blue) also wants status quo in Singapore.
Abang Adik


It’s Malay rule, so no difference if BN or Pakatan in power, argues Lee Kuan Yew

Singapore’s first prime minister Lee Kuan Yew has a sober message for those counting on Pakatan Rakyat (PR) to usher in a new era of race relations in Malaysia: get real.
And the chance of Malay special privileges dismantled by PR in the event that the pact captures Putrajaya? Next to nothing.
To begin with, he said, the chance of the opposition coming to power in the near future was a very long shot. And then there were also the structural problems with the coalition of PAS, DAP and PKR.
He labelled the Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim-led coalition as “an opportunistic ad-hoc group not held together by even a vaguely coherent set of ideas but by a common desire to unseat the government’’.
His cutting description of PR and its shortcomings will not surprise political pundits or even seasoned opposition politicians such as Lim Kit Siang and Anwar.
The general view in Kuala Lumpur is that despite the sometimes very public run-ins with the Barisan Nasional-led government (BN) here, the PAP government in Singapore still prefers the status quo in Malaysia.
It is more comfortable dealing with BN, having invested more than four decades building up links at different levels.
So it may be little surprise that Lee is dismissive of PR. He said in his new book launched yesterday, One Man’s View Of The World, that as long as PR does not actually occupy Putrajaya and does not have to implement multiracial policies, some semblance of unity can be maintained within the pact.
“When it comes to the crunch, however, PR will not be able to do away with Malay supremacy. The moment the bluff is called and it is handed full power to push ahead, it will either be torn apart from within or be paralysed by indecision.
“If it attempts to move in any meaningful way, PAS, a Malay-Muslim party that will hold if not a majority of seats within the coalition, then at least a significant enough share to give it veto power, would block action in an instant.
“In doing so, PAS would be responding to the same electoral pressures that Umno faces from the Malay ground,” said Lee.
PR won 89 parliamentary seats, denying BN two-thirds control of parliament for the second consecutive election. It also retained control of the two economic powerhouses of Selangor and Penang and obtained 51 per cent of the popular vote.
One of the main planks of the PR manifesto was a more equitable distribution of wealth. Anwar and other opposition leaders have slammed the BN’s affirmative action programme as a policy that has been hijacked by the Umno elite to enrich themselves and family members.- August 7, 2013.

 

[TrulyAsia]

Once a Malaysian, always a Malaysian..........................I refer to myself hor

Malaysia sacrifices talent to keep one race on top, says Lee Kuan Yew

Malaysia is prepared to lose its talent through its race-based policies in order to maintain the dominance of one race, said Lee Kuan Yew in his new book which was launched tonight in Singapore.
And although Malaysia has acknowledged the fact that they are losing these talents and is making an attempt to lure Malaysians back from overseas, such efforts may be too little too late, he said.
"This is putting the country at a disadvantage. It is voluntarily shrinking the talent pool needed to build the kind of society that makes use of talent from all races.
"They are prepared to lose that talent in order to maintain the dominance of one race," he said in the 400-page book called "One Man's View of the World" (pic).
It features conversations between Lee and his long-time admirer, Helmut Schmidt, former leader of West Germany. They discussed world affairs when Schmidt visited Singapore last year.
In the book, Lee pointed out that Malaysia is losing ground and giving other countries a head start in the external competition.
About 400,000 of some one million Malaysians overseas are in Singapore, according to the World Bank.
When announcing the five-year plan for Malaysia, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said in Parliament in 2011, the government would set up a talent corporation to lure some 700,000 Malaysians working abroad back to the country.
But in his book, Lee said the demographic changes in Malaysia will lead to a further entrenchment of Malay privileges.
He noted that in the last 10 years, since the enactment of the New Economic Policy, the proportion of Malaysian Chinese and Indians of the total population has fallen dramatically.
"The Chinese made up 35.6 percent of the population in 1970. They were down to 24.6 percent at the last census in 2010. Over that same period, the Indian numbers fell from 10.8 percent to 7.3 percent," he said.
He added, "40 percent of our migrants are from Malaysia.
"Those with the means to do so leave for countries farther afield. In the early days, Taiwan was a popular destination among the Chinese-educated.
"In recent years, Malaysian Chinese and Indians have been settling in Europe, America and Australia. Some have done very well for themselves, such as Penny Wong, Australia’s current finance minister.
"Among those who have chosen to remain in Malaysia, some lack the means to leave and others are making a good living through business despite the discriminatory policies. Many in this latter class partner with Malays who have connections."
World Bank data for 2012 showed that the island republic has raced ahead of its neighbour, with gross domestic product per capita of US$51,709 compared with Malaysia’s US$10,381.
Najib had said Malaysia is set to become a high income developed nation as early as 2018, two years earlier than the targeted 2020.
Lee said in his book the separation of Singapore and Malaysia in 1965 marked "the end of a different vision in Malaysia on the race issue".
He added, "Much of what has been achieved in Singapore could have been replicated throughout Malaysia. Both countries would have been better off." - August 6, 2013.

 

[RedsYNWA]

What LKY said is v true. The best Malaysian talent (except for businessmen) are currently overseas in SG, Australia, Taiwan, UK, USA etc. Immigration itself is not wrong and makes the country stronger. However, Dragon Prince's main downfall is he overdid the immigration, in his haste to do things too soon.

 

[TrulyAsia]

Dun mind that I ask a personal question, anyone who is Singaporean & ex-Malaysian here in this forum?

 

[RedsYNWA]

Dun mind that I ask a personal question, anyone who is Singaporean & ex-Malaysian here in this forum?

I think the question should be: how many ex-Malaysians and Singapore PRs are in this forum? These are the ones contributing to SG GDP in their prime years....

 

[TrulyAsia]

Ex-Malaysians + SPRs from m'sia, the number is significant in term of Singapore population today.
Thats why LKY is saying "terima kasih" to Malaysia.

I think the question should be: how many ex-Malaysians and Singapore PRs are in this forum? These are the ones contributing to SG GDP in their prime years....

 

[potter]

when young, mama always tells me i was pick out from e rubbish bin. tat' y i luv her even more..

 

[Jetstream]

Re: Living in JB 3 (Johore)

Luckily Pak Lah is not the PM of Msia today.

Hes a preacher. Not a politician, imo.

I'm not a fan of Pak Lah when he was PM, but whatever people say about him, at least no one has been able to accuse him of being corrupt or of playing dirty in politics. He's a classic Malay gentleman.

 

[gooddebt]

Singapore's founding father Lee Kuan Yew, who will turn 90 next month, said in a new book published Tuesday that he feels weaker by the day and wants a quick death.

"Some time back, I had an Advanced Medical Directive (AMD) done which says that if I have to be fed by a tube, and it is unlikely that I would ever be able to recover and walk about, my doctors are to remove the tube and allow me to make a quick exit," he wrote in the book "One Man's View of the World".

The book is dedicated to the Asian statesman's views on international affairs but an entire chapter contains his musings on death, religion and other personal issues. The 400-page work is dedicated to his late wife Kwa Geok Choo, whose death in 2010 shattered the normally stoic veteran politician.

Lee has visibly weakened since then and revealed in the book that despite daily exercise and a disciplined lifestyle, "with every passing day I am physically less energetic and less active."

"There is an end to everything and I want mine to come as quickly and painlessly as possible, not with me incapacitated, half in coma in bed and with a tube going into my nostrils and down to my stomach," he wrote.

Lee, a British-trained lawyer who served as Singapore's prime minister for three decades and turned it into a high-tech industrial and financial centre, expressed his blunt views on religion in the book.

"I wouldn't call myself an atheist. I neither deny nor accept that there is a God," he said.

"So I do not laugh at people who believe in God. But I do not necessarily believe in God -- nor deny that there could be one."

Asked where he drew comfort from if not from religion, he said: "It is the end of any aches and pains and suffering. So I hope the end will come quickly."

Elsewhere in the book, Lee addressed what he considers the biggest long-term threat to Singapore -- its low birth rate -- and rejected as "absurd" suggestions that his population programme in the 1970s urging couple to stop at two children contributed to the current situation.

Despite a slew of so-called "baby bonuses" to encourage couples to have children, Singapore's total fertility rate last year stood at 1.20 children per woman, far below the 2.1 needed to maintain the native-born population.

Lee, who retired from politics in 2011, blamed Singaporeans' changing lifestyles for the problem and said monetary incentives would only have a "marginal effect" on it.

"I have given the job to another generation of leaders. Hopefully, they or their successors will eventually find a way out," said Lee, who handed power to his deputy Goh Chok Tong in 1990 after 31 years in office.

Lee's son, Lee Hsien Loong, is now prime minister after succeeding Goh in 2004.

Singapore's low birth rate has forced the government to open the country to foreigners, who now comprise a third of the population.

The influx, however, has sparked protests from citizens and prompted the government to tighten immigration flows in recent years.

Lee pointed to the example of Japan, which he said is on a "stroll into mediocrity" as the ranks of its elderly swell due to young couples not producing enough babies.

Japan's reluctance to open up to immigrants will further lead to its decline, he said.

"If I were a young Japanese and I could speak English, I would probably choose to emigrate," said Lee.
More about the story

 

[gooddebt]

Re: Living in JB 3 (Johore)

For that I respect him as it's not easy to be honest in the face of temptations.

I'm not a fan of Pak Lah when he was PM, but whatever people say about him, at least no one has been able to accuse him of being corrupt or of playing dirty in politics. He's a classic Malay gentleman.