Remember Vision 2020

As we bid good bye to the year 2020,it is sad that the Vision 2020 dream is yet to be fulfilled. We were confident and optimistic that Malaysia will become a developed industrial country by the year 2020.

The year 2020 has come and gone, and we are still very much the same old Malaysia, an agricultural country. In fact much worse than before because we are now facing stiff competition in palm oil export from our close neighbour, Indonesia.

The only industry which we were once proud of, the EON Proton car assembly is also now controlled by a foreign country.

Our national carrier, Malaysia Airlines System (MAS) is now on the brink of bankruptcy, and the government is not going to bail it out this time around. But any party wishing to inject fund to rescue the airline has to meet the condition that the identity and image could not be charged,it must maintain the image of a Malaysian airline. This is obviously not possible.

The main concern of the people in Malaysia right now is the stability of our government, we are now having the weakest government in the entire Malayalan history. It is toeing the tight rope, going to lose its balance any moment. When that happens, the political scene will be very chaotic again.

Right now it is clueless as to improve the economy. The covid-19 pandemic is getting worse. The governmentis helpless to contain its spread. Our neighbors Thailand, Indonesia plus India are having anti government protests going on. Their people are fleeing to Malaysia to seek cheaper and affordable medical cares. They should be stopped but the government is not been able to handle it.

They are busy politicking!

Our country is broken

When the National Front (BN) government under Najib was happily emptying our federal treasury,the Malaysian citizens were dreamily going about their daily life.

As the national thieves became bolder and bolder,and did not even bother to hide their tracks, the people suddenly woke up and threw them out, Pakatan Harapan under Mahathir was voted in. We were hoping for a new breath of life to our nation.

But the happiness was short lived, just 22 months later the new government was overthrown through back door politics tricks. The new Prime Minister brought back the same group of people (BN politicians) into the just formed government called Perikatan Nasional (PN). (BN) to (PN), umm...close enough!

The political scene now is like children playing sea-saw in the playground. The current government has 114 seats, just 2 seats more the minimum 112 required. The opposition has 108 seats, all they need is to lure 4 frogs to jump over, they can dip the balance again. Isn't it fun?! What will happen to the economy of our country? Will any foreign investors to be stupid enough to come in with this unstable political situation?

Moreover, the covid-19 pandemic is ripping the world apart, Malaysia is not spared either. I am praying hard for my country. Please join me to pray for Malaysia !

Malay younger generation is not moved by the Bumiputra special privileges

The New Economy Policy (NEP) which gives vast special privileges to the Bumuputra namely, the Malays, was used to be a very powerful tool for the UMNO to pull in Malay votes. But not any more, especially with the younger generation of Malays.
To them, NEP is no big deal. Given the strong control of UMNO over the Barisan Nasioal government,they can take whatever they wish. Then why harp about this NEP thing? The young Malays are getting tire to hear his.What is the "Malay Struggle"? Yes, immediately after Malaya gained independence from the colonial masters, the Malays,the Chinese and the Indians each struggle to wrestle the best deal for their own community.But there is no need for the Malays to struggle nowadays,the political powers of the Chinese and Indians are no match for the Malays'. The Chinese and Indians are the one who should struggle hard.

One group of the direct beneficiaries of the NEP are the students of government run universities in the country. A recent incidence in Universiti Malaya(UM) the oldest public university in Malaysia jolted the BN government. More than 90% of UM's students comprises of the bumiputras with a sprinkle of students from other communities who manage to squeeze through the tight entrance. Look at how they repay their appreciation to the government.

The University of Malaya Student Council (PMUM) organized a talk titled "40 Years: From Universiti Malaya to Jail" on 27 October 2014. They invited the opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, of all people, as the speaker. The university was of course dead against it and ordered the students to stop it, but the student council ignored the university's instruction and went ahead with it. Subsequently the president of the student council, Fahmi Zainol, together with 6 other council members were suspended ranging from 1 month to 2 months. The students of the university are staging a protest over the punishment handed down by the authority of the university. The protest is still on going. This goes to show how pro opposition the young Malays are nowadays.
Which will be the next public universities to follow suit? Universiti Putra Malaysia(DPM)? Universiti Sains Malaysia(USM)? Universiti Teknologi Malaysia(UTM)?
In the public sector,99% of the civil servants are bumiputras. Do you think these government servants support the government? No, the support from this sector dropped considerably, resulting in the BN losing a few major states to the opposition,Pakatan Rakyat(PR) on 308 during the 13th general election.

Why are the government servants not happy? Many disgruntled civil servants could not get promotions they thought are theirs for the taking, but the positions are awarded to someone else instead. They blamed the government for favourism, not based on religion or ethnic but on political affiliation. They are UMNO supporters, at least outwardly they are. Therefore the disgruntled ones align with PR, in the hope that when PR come into power they will benefit.

The old story about the nation's economy is controlled by the Chinese is already out dated, everybody knows it. Yet the UMNO leaders are still harping on it, which make them look very stupid. All the major financial institutions are in the hands of the bumiputras, all mega projects are awarded to bumiputras,all large corporations with lucrative concessions from government are owned by bumiputras, and the list goes on...The only trouble is that this small elite group of bumiputras does not share their wealth with ordinary bumiputras. This is where the resentment comes from. No matter how hard the government try to divert the heat to the Chinese, the rakyat know better, especially the young and educated ones.
BN,better buckle up, Else...

Nothing in particular

I have not written any post here for quite a while already.First of all, I must confess that I am lazy, but really I can't find any thing positive to write about Malaysia lately. Those events which caught my attention are mostly negative ones. Just to name a few,refer to the list below:

• Fresh trained Chinese medium teachers are not posted to Chinese medium secondary schools where they should be
• Jalan Imbi-Jalan Pudu intersection sink hole
• Frequent kidnapping at Semporna despite of the setting up of ESSCOM
• DBKL ordered the soup kitchens to stop operation or move out of city
• Arrest of the leaders for the anti Lynas greenies group
• Disappearance of MAS MH370 flight aircraft

	MCA deputy president Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong taking the Assistant Minister of Education to task for posting 51 freshly graduated Chinese language teachers to non Chinese medium schools. It is rare in Malaysian political scene that a senior leader of a BN component party hitting out at a government Minister.
A cave-in (sink hole) appeared at the Jalan Imbi-Jalan Pudu intersection, the busiest spot in the capital of the Nation. Construction works for an under ground tunnel is in progress where the cave-in occurred. It is easy to put two and two together, needless for the writer to explain.
	Soldiers of the East Sabah security Command(ESSCOM) standing guard at water village at Semporna Island off Tawau.Kidnappers from southern Philippines come and go as they like treating the ESSCOM as non existent.
Volunteers of non profitable organizations (commonly called soup kitchens) distributing food to the homeless and disabled.	DBKL announced that these activities have to stop or move out of the city. Does the government have a heart?
The leaders of the anti Lynas Corp,the Australian company which operates a rare-earth refinery in Kuantan, were arrested for protesting against such operations.
	Where is it now? What actually happened?

Every single one of the above events is enough to make Malaysia a laughing stock in the international arena.
If I write on the above topics, I will definitely look like an anti government activist, which I am not. Therefore I let my pen take a rest.

Fishermen to sell directly to consumers?

The agriculture and agro-based industry minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob urged fishermen in Malaysia to sell thier catch directly to the consumers and stop depending on middlemen. He stressed that the ministry will wipe out the role played by the middlemen who have been exploiting the fishermen for years.

Bravo,YB! But did you know that what you proposed had already been tried some 28 years ago, and failed miserably?

At that time the middlemen(majority of them are Chinese,incidentally) had been harshly accused as "blood suckers". Co-operatives were set up in every state with the help of the government.Fishermen rushed to join these co-operatives as members. They believed that they will be free from the iron grip of the Chinese middlemen. Little did they realized it was just the beginning of their nightmares.

Although these co-operatives were housed in big offices, with complex refrigeration system and manned by personnel with high qualifications,but the efficiency was extremely low.When the fishermen returned from the sea there was no one at the jetty to wait for them.They had to find their own transportation to ferry their catch to the office of the co-operatives.Worse still, when arrived at the office, it was closed.When the officers were confronted later, they gave tons of excuses.What could the poor fishermen do? They were officers!

The consumers were not happy either. The price remained high,, but the freshness of the fishes were not maintained. On top of that, the supply was also erratic.

Mean while the middlemen suddenly found themselves out of job.They had to eat, right? So they bought their own boats and employed workers to go to sea for them. Their big regular customers like restaurants still preferred to buy from them due to long standing good-will rather than the arrogant co-operative officers.

In the good old days the fishermen could easily get a loan from the middlemen by signing a simple IOU,for emergency like someone in the family suddenly fallen sick, or paying for children books or other expenditures incurred in extra curriculum activities.
But now to obtain a loan from the co-operatives,they had to fill in many forms and wait for days,or weeks,or months to know the result of the application.

In the end, the fishermen went back to "blood suckers" willingly. It was not clear what were the functions of the co-operatives all these years after the fishermen abandoned them. If they were doing their job, the minister would not have hit out at the middlemen the way he did. He was obviously not happy with the situation.

If the minister is thinking of asking the fishermen to man their stalls after returning from the sea, then he should leave his air-contioned office and go down to the field and get his feet wet.

The fishermen have a lot of chores to attend to, cleaning up their boats so that they do not stint; remove tiny fishes and sea-shells which are stuck to the nets, wash and mend the holes in the nets. They have not much time left for the stalls.

If the selling of the fisherman's catch are left to the officers in government owned agencies, it will surely fail. The officers would not care to do a good job, they will say, "Kerja tak kerja, gaji jalan juga."

As regards to the suggestion for the fishermen to get involved with fishing related business like ice factories, fishing boat servicing and value added fish products, the same applied. They do not have time, these business need a lot of attention, even experienced businessmen also shun away from these businesses. Moreover, from where do they get the capital? Provide them with easy loans? Come on, don't lead them into heavy debts as a result if these ventures fail.