A Great Stateman Has Passed Away

Tun Abdul Ghafar Baba, the former Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, died of heart, lung and kidney complications at 7.34am yesterday at the Gleneagles Intan Medical Centre in Jalan Ampang. He was 81 years old. Tun Abd Ghafar Baba was no ordinary politician, he was a great statemen, who was from the grassroot, for the grassroot and with the grassroot till the day he died. He worked evry hard for national unity, eradication of poverty and corruptions all his life. Tun Ghafar was not a slew and cunning politician, he was one who "shoots straight", otherwise he would have become the Prime Minister of Malaysia. Unfortunately he was betrayed by those who pretended to be loyal to him but quietly manupilated to unseat him in the party election in 1993. During the peak of his political life Tun Ghafar refused to accept any titles bestowed upon him, he preferred to be addressed as "Encik Ghafar" officially. He only accepted any title when he was no longer in the manistream of politics. What a simple but great man! Tun Ghafar's passing away will be missed by everyone who believes in good and straight ways.

The Scenic Bridge Plan is Scrapped

Malaysia Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced that the construction of the controversal "Scenic Bridge" which were to replace the 82 year-old Johor Causeway linking Malaysia to Singapore will be stopped permanently, to everyone's surprise. The idea of building this bridge was mooted in 2003 by the former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Dr Mahathir who reasoned that the Causeway was built without giving due environmental considerations to the Strait of Johor. He claimed that the Causeway was blocking the free flow of the water of Johor Strait and eventually turning it into a pond of dead water. Whereas a bridge will allow the sea water to flow freely below it. But his proposal was met with strong protests from the Singapore government, whatever for, I really don't understand. Maybe Singaporeans love dead waters. When Tun Dr Mahathir retired and Datuk Abd Badawi took over as PM, he continued to pursue the idea of replacing the old causeway with a new bridge, he even went as far as designing a curved bridge calling it the "Scenic Bridge" on the Malaysian half of the bridge. His idea was to build our portion of the bridge first while the negotiation between Malaysia and Singapore was underway. When the two countries come to an agreement finally, we would have completed our part already. And this is also to beat the ever rising costs of construction materials. On seeing this, the Singaporean government demanded unreasonable bargains like allowing their fighter jets to fly over Malaysian air space freely and allow them to dig the Johor Strait for sand, an action which will erode the Johor shore lines as well as poluting the sea water. This brought about outcries from Malaysian public, demanding the government to scrap the idea of building that new bridge. Being an elected government of a democratic country, Datuk Badawi has to listen to the people and stopped the project. The effects and implications of this decision is yet to be seen, but it is done for the best of the people's interests. I can not understand the rationale of Singapore's objections to building the bridge because I did not follow this issue over the years. I did not bother myself about this issue because I won't be using it often, I go to Singapore maybe once in 5 years. I thought there is much to be gained on both sides if the conggestion at the causeway is eased as a result of the building of this new bridge, not only Malaysia will benefit, right? From the commercial angle, it is better for Johor Port and Port Kelang's business if the conggestions situations at the causeway worsen bacause the lorries delayed there will caused great loss to the businessmen who prefered using Singaporean port instead of our own ports. When they realised this, they will switch to using Port Kelang or Johor Port. Why should the Malaysian government be so eager to improve the traffic conditions at the causeway since both Malaysians and Singaporeans are using the same causeway? Maybe the Malaysian public dare to criticise the government while the Singaporeans dare not, and also they are dumb as pointed out by the renownTaiwan author, Lee Au（李敖) recently. Therefore the Malaysian government will feel the pressure of public criticism while the Singaporean government will relax and watch because there will be no critism from Sinpagore public against their own government.

Ombudsman panel to check public services

Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz, Minister in Prime Minister Department, disclosed that a body to watch over the enforcement agencies is being drafted. The body will be named Ombudsman, any complaints from the public against the enforcement agencies like police, custom, immigration, road transport, land and survey and others even the ministers can be directed to it. He said the government will push hard to make it pass through the parliament. The idea is very good in theory, but will it wotk in practice? I doubt it very much. The reason is very simple, who dare to face the consequences by stepping forward to lodge a complaint against one of the above mentioned enforcement agencies? Will they be protected from being harassed after doing so? please be real .

Pak Lah's warning to all heads of departments

Malaysia prime minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi warned all heads of government departments to buckle up and see that the implementation of the 9th Malaysia Plan is smooth and on target. They should ensure that everyone under their charge to perform, if anyone is found not complying with the 9th Malaysia Plan should be suspended or even terminated permanently. This also applies to the departmental heads themselves. There will be no room for sympathy for individuals in this case, because the inept performance of one person can affect the welfare of many. The PM sounds very serious this time, hope it will not fall on deal ears.

The 9th Malaysia Plan

The prime minister of Malaysia, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had unveiled the much aniticipated 5-year 9th Malaysia Plan (9MP) yesterday. Here's the Ninth Malaysia Plan at a glance :

• 9MP to cost RM220 billions
• ECONOMY to expand by 6.0 % per annum
• RURAL Dvelopment RM10.9 billions, Finance RM9.8 billions, Transport RM9.5 billions
• POPULATION to grow to to 28.96 millions
• BUMI corporate equity share to reach 30%
• INDIAN share of corporate equity to attain 3.0%
• RM9.1 billions for agriculture
• PRIVATE FINANCE initiative for RM20 billions of projects
• PM's DEPT gets lion's share of RM29.68 billions or 13.5%
• EDUCATION RM23.19 billions or 10.5%, works Ministry RM18.9 billions
• HIGHER education RM17.6 billions, Defence RM15.75 billions
• ENERGY, Water & Communications RM12.12, Health 11.00 billions
• BUMI CONTRACTS to make up 60% of all works in civil works.

Although the proposed allocation for 9MP is quite handsome, but the plan is an anti climax. There is nothing new in the content of the plan, it still harps on old tune like 30% share for Bumi, bridging the income disparity between the Bumi and non Bumi, eradicate poverty,the 2020 Vision, etc etc. The PM even coins the new phrase for this plan - THE FIVE KEY THRUSTS OF THE 9TH MALAYSIA PLAN.

The wording part of the 9MP is excellent, only thing is that the implementation part is not. I will give it a 20%-30% success rate.

I predict more than 80% of the allocated RM220 billions will be sucked up by the small group of elite rich Malays (Cronies as the opposition called them) like a huge sponge, maybe a trickle will filter through to the hardcore poor Malays at the rural areas. The remainder will be divided among the middle-class Malays, the Chinese, The Indians and foreign investors. How to close the gap between the urban and rural areas this way? The Malays already own more 70% of the economy in monetary terms but falls far behind the 30% mark in head-count terms, because the distribution of wealth is too concentrated in a handful of elite Malays.

The Malays youths will be ushered into local universities or other institutes of higher learning, and then to a good secured job in the civil service. But over the years the giant civil service's oversized body can take in all of them no more. Some of the Malays graduates are unemployed in the end. This is a pitiful lot, much worse off than the Chinese and Indian youths.

The non Bumi youths kowing very well that getting a place in the local universities and then onto a secured job in the civil service is next to impossible for them, they will either go overseas (depending on family ability) to further their studies and do not return to Malaysia, or will take the plunge into the working place as non-graduates and learn a vocational skill. They will work and gain enough experience after some time and start their own business, so the non Bumi business community will grow bigger and bigger. Surprised, aren't you? Well, you should not be, this is a vicious circle, and the Malaysian government is not trying to put in a sincere effort to correct it.

At the mean while what happen to the unemployed Malays graduates? Well, they stay at home, grumbling, whinning and waiting for openings like the 9MP to come along. They loathe the idea of learning up the skills to do business. How do you expect them to take over the business control of the country?

Slotting 60% of all civil works to Bumi contractors will help to produce more Bumi entrepreneurs? You can allocate 100% of the contracts to them, all the contracts will be carried out by the non Bumi contractors in the end, the Bumi contractors will just sit back and enjoy the commissions. The legend of "Ali Bapa" will live on! Will they ever learn any thing? Of course they will, they will learn to drive expensive cars, learn to search out the most expensive holidays spots, learn to politics with money and eventually learn to file for bankrupcy.

The award of tenders of civil works are always seen as the pay off by political leaders to their supporters. We should not expect any different this time around. We live in a real world.

Penang, home state of the PM and Sabah which is lagging behind other Malaysian states economically are the two happiest states this time. They will both receive larger allocation of funds during the 9MP.