Reformis Bogel Atau Kezaliman PR Terhadap Penduduk Miskin Yang Patut Diwartakan?

Saya dilanda kecewa apabila melihat isu kezaliman kerajaan Pakatan Rakyat di Selangor terhadap penyewa Program Perumahan Rakyat (PPR) kini diremehkan oleh isu Reformis yang syok ingin membogelkan diri! Sehingga semua organisasi yang tersentuh isu ini, baik akhbar harian, pihak kerajaan negeri malah Jabatan Agama Islam Selangor (JAIS) sendiri rancak memperkatakan niat protes bogel pula!

Soalnya, kenapakah cadangan protes tak senonoh ini diketengahkan? Bukankah lebih penting bagi semua pihak memberi lebih perhatian terhadap kezaliman kerajaan PR Selangor yang bakal menaikkan sewa penduduk PPR, yang amnya dari golongan miskin, lebih dua kali ganda dari RM124 ke RM250? Dahlah tu, nak dinaikkan sewaktu kemelesetan ekonomi dan inflasi melanda rakyat tersebut pula!

• Bukankah pemimpin yang menzalimi rakyat, terutama golongan berkeperluan, lebih berat dosanya dari membogelkan diri wahai ilmuan JAIS?


• Bukankah peranan akhbar mewar-warkan berita dan memantau isu yang penting untuk rakyat, bukan sensasi sahaja wahai pemberita?


• Bukankah ini masa untuk pemimpin kita bersuara menentang kezaliman, dari membiar isu dicuri oleh 'Reformis' yang terlihat mengejar glamer sahaja?

Manalah tak ketinggalan masyarakat Malaysia amnya dan Melayu khususnya, kiranya begini lekehnya kita memantau dan menangani isu masyarakat...

Rasuah...

Saya tidak terkejut mendengar Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir (DMM) dituduh rasuah oleh segelintir pemimpin UMNO hasil kejayaannya mendapat pencalonan terbanyak, tetapi ini bukan kerana Mukhriz rasuah! Apa-apa kesangsian di hati saya, ia dileraikan apabila seorang Ketua Pemuda Bahagian menceritakan tempohari,"Saya sendiri calonkan Khairy, tetapi perwakilan nak Mukhriz, nak buat apa! Satu sen Mukhriz tak belanja, 200 lebih perwakilan mengundi pencalonannya!"

Mukhriz mendapat pencalonan terbanyak kerana sokongan padu dari bawah yang mahukan beliau sebagai Ketua Pemuda, dan kadangkala ini bercanggahan dengan pendapat atau kehendak para pemimpin Pemuda bahagian. Namun kenapakah beliau begitu tertuduh walau bukti satu habuk pun tak nampak? Ini kerana:

1. Mukhriz sendiri tidak menyangka para perwakilan begitu menginginkan beliau dicalonkan untuk bertanding. Beliau dan kemnya dari awal lagi menyatakan kelayakannya bertanding pasti dengan pencalonan 'cukup makan'. Kalau ini gambaran beliau akan kelemahannya, ada para pemimpin yang tertanya-tanya dari manakah datang kekuatannya secara tiba-tiba!


2. Ada pula pemimpin UMNO yang berpendapat rasuahlah cara termudah untuk mendapat sokongan dari ahli di mana-mana peringkat, baik Cawangan, Bahagian dan Kebangsaan. Kerana itulah apabila timbulnya fenomena sokongan 'dari bawah' seperti ini untuk Mukhriz, mereka kebingungan dan cukup bersedia buruk sangka, lalu menuduh. Sebenarnya mereka harus mencermin diri dan bertanya, kenapa saya hanya mampu main duit sahaja?


3. Kemungkinan besar kekuatan sokongan akar-umbi terhadap Mukhriz telah menggemparkan bukan sahaja saingannya untuk jawatan Ketua Pemuda, tetapi pemimpin segenerasi dengannya yang kini terasa 'terancam'. Yang merunsingkan adalah bagaimana pesaing-pesaing ini cukup sedia menggunakan fitnah sebagai senjata menangani sokongan popular Mukhriz.

Tetapi tidak mengapa. Unsur-unsur negatif politik memang harus diharungi mana-mana pemimpin dalam perjuangan, namun yang penting adalah "Qulil haq walau ka nal muran" yakni ”Berkata benar walaupun pahit”. Dan di sini ingin saya lakarkan kisah rasuah yang lebih penting diperkatakan oleh perwakilan langsung ditangani oleh setiap ahli demi mengembalikan UMNO ke perjuangan asalnya.

1993: Seorang Ketua Bahagian ditanya anak buahnya bagaimana politik dibiaya. Dibawa anak buahnya dalam Perdana sekeliling desa. Ditunjuk titi baru merentas sungai. "Komisyen 5%," katanya. Kemudian ditunjuk pula bumbung baru sekolah. "Lagi 5%". Sambil menunaikan tanggungjawab sama-sama membiayai ongkos perjuangan.

2008: Anak buah kini kaya-raya walau sekadar Naib Ketua Pemuda sahaja. Dibawa Ketua Bahagian lamanya tadi dengan helikopter berlegar di udara kota. Ditunjuknya,"Tengok Dato', Jambatan, Wisma dan Asrama baru tu?" "Mana Dato'?",tanya Ketua Bahagian kembali kerana hanya terlihat tanah merah merata-rata. "Ha, Ha, Ha! 95%! 95%! 95%!,"gelak sang Dato' muda megah tak bertempat. Geleng kepala Ketua Bahagian lama...

Kita kalah kerana rakusnya pemimpin hingga terlupa tanggungjawab kepada rakyat rupanya. Bukankah sudah tiba masa untuk BERANI BERUBAH!?

Apologies To Tun Salleh & The Other SACKED Judges, I Was Wrong...

I had made the error some time ago of accepting a number indicated by a sitting MP of the amount of ex-gratia payment given to Malaysia's most famous group of SACKED judges. I was actually inaccurate. They did not get paid RM1.5 Mill each resulting in a sum of RM9 Mill of extra tax-payers' money going their way, they were collectively paid more!

Actually, sorry also to three of the judges in particular, as they actually got 1 Mill less than I reported. A couple of them got more than was reported, whilst one ex-judge got A LOT MORE! How JUST! Well what else can you expect from Pak Lah's inspired choice of an ex-minister, Dato' Zaid Ibrahim, who's now struggling to answer some interesting questions... was he trying to please the Bar Council?

Perhaps Dato' Zaid would take some solace from the fact that his 'successor' isn't doing too well on this issue either...

Are We Over-Celebrating Obama?

There is much celebration, it seems worldwide, of Obama's victory in the US Presidential Elections. And indeed there is much to celebrate. At least Obama presents some hope for change, unlike his rival McCain, who looked like an older, less accident-prone but outwardly more conservative version of George W. Bush, who's probably internationally the most hated US President since Nixon (who's also probably more popular if you exclude American sentiments).

But whilst we celebrate the victory for change in the US, with perhaps some legitimate hope that things will be different in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine whilst diplomacy with North Korea, Iran, Russia and others, including ourselves, improves, lets not forget that Obama, self declared 'citizen of the world', will be first and foremost, President of the United States of America, and charged with defending the interests of that country with extreme prejudice.

What does this mean? It means that the priorities in his first term in office should be very US-centric; especially if he wishes to deliver the US from its present crisis thus guaranteeing his second term as President. Does this mean that he will not deliver his promises on Iraq et al? Not necessarily, but President-designate Obama would only be too aware that the last legs of his campaign focussed on the American economy, allowing him to pull away from McCain.

Americans will now see the fixing of their economy to be a key priority, well ahead of Iraq, and so will their President. If withdrawal from Iraq helps, then all the better. But as fiscal stimuli is the economic flavour of the day to tackle the present crisis, don't be too surprised to find Obama trying to balance things a little dangerously. For instance, his strategy in Iraq may be a fire-sale of US weapons left behind as troops withdraw to Iraq's pro-US government.

This article penned by Obama during his nomination campaign is controversial when put against his image as it begins with disturbingly familiar post 9/11 rhetoric. It does nevertheless evolve into a presentation of ideas that are more in line with Obama's mass-market image, where even the US Military's expansion may be geared to good works internationally. But even then, Obama emphasised that for all its foreign aspirations the US had to get its house in order first.

The above may well be a little unjust to Obama's image, but his image remains untested in the muddy waters of a global economic crisis. Previous economic crises have ended in wars as a form of resolution. We hope Obama lives up to his image and steers away from that. But for him to do so, the focus may well be for him to focus on getting the American economic ship back in order. So lets temper our euphoria a little for what Obama will do for us in the rest of the world...

For Malaysia, I see this as the perfect time for us to disengage from the US-Malaysia Free Trade (USFTA) talks... but that's another story...

Exhausted...

I am exhausted. I must share here what I have been saying to everyone who asks me how I find working in Malaysia, having worked overseas for so long. My response,"Malaysians work too hard!"

And if I may add, for a pittance. Malaysian pay still ranks among the lowest in Asia on Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) basis and probably the lowest among executives of equivalent economies. I had read somewhere that despite this, KL was seen as one of the hardest working cities in the world. I could only witness it more plainly and indeed experience it over the last 7 months since I've been back. Certainly our pay to work ratio is too small...

I expressed a belief before that this low pay, which I suspect is due to the low benchmark due to relatively low exec pay rates at GLCs and of course the public sectors, is one of the key reasons for our country's 'brain drain', especially of mid-level execs between 5-15 years of experience. Well, the economic crisis has come around, so perhaps companies, especially GLCs, should consider boosting pay with a Cost Of Living Allowance (COLA) in leu of actual pay hikes?

Certainly GLC deposits in GLC banks aren't getting interesting returns and are probably placing added risks to said banks due to shortage of good borrowers these days! And why should GLCs pay staff higher now, when even the global job market is awash with newly jobless high-quality recruits? Well, how else are you going to get these high quality people back, let alone stem an exodus of our best brains especially when their local pay is too low!

I risk repeating myself... I'm too exhausted...

Tahniah Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, Presiden Baru Kita...

Tahniah diucapkan kepada Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak atas kejayaannya sebagai satu-satunya calon yang layak bertanding jawatan Presiden UMNO, sekaligus 'menang tanpa bertanding' ke kedudukan tersebut. Diharap kepimpinan baru DS Najib dapat membawa UMNO ke zaman kegemilangan sebenar apabila rakyat kebanyakan menikmati hasil perjuangan parti kita.

Terlihat sejak beliau mengambil alih Kementerian Kewangan, salah-laku dalam pemberian kontrek semakin jelas dipantau. Contohnya, projek Eurocopter yang hanya menguntungkan segelintir individu 'berkabel', seperti para pemegang saham terbesar syarikat SCOMI, dibatalkan oleh DS Najib demi menyalurkan wang untuk program menangani krisis ekonomi.

Cuma yang kini menjadi tanda-tanya, memandangkan Datuk Seri Najib insya'Allah akan mengambil alih kepimpinan UMNO kelak, bilakah akan Pak Lah menyerahkan jawatan Perdana Menteri kepada Datuk Seri? Tunku Abdul Rahman pun menyerahkan jawatan Perdana Menteri kepada Tun Razak berbulan-bulan sebelum penyerahan jawatan Presiden UMNO. Tun Mahathir pun begitu apabila menyerahkan kuasa kepada Pak Lah. Mungkinkah menjelang tahun baru?