The 2010 Politics: Who Will Fall? According To Awang Selamat.

The 2010 politics: Who will fall?

In just a few days the closing curtain will fall on 2009 and we will be stepping into the new year of 2010. During the whole of this year, there are many events both sad and happy, that give colour to the life of the nation.
Awang is thankful that 2009 has seen the improvement in many fields especially under the administration of the Prime Minister, Mohd. Najib Tun Razak. The support to the government which was at one time considered as critical has changed for the better.
At the same time, the opposition is confronted with many internal problem and studies has shown that the support for the opposition including from youngsters has been dwindling. Political issues will continue to be the focus for next year.
Barisan Nasional (BN) is now facing accumulated issues that need to be overcome including the storm in MCA and PPP. The best formula for MCA is that its President, Ong Tee Keat should make an exit and there is a need a new lineup.
Awang also hopes that the stupor in Gerakan following the defeat of the party in the last general elections can be deal with. The sign for the party’s revival is not there yet. This brings the question, what has its President Koh Tsu Koon been doing? If he is not aggressive, it’s better for him to give way to the next echelon of leaders.
The most awaited event is the change in the MIC leadership from S. Samy Velly to his successor. Samy had helmed the MIC for far too long and there is no reason for BN to compromise in retaining him.
Awang believes that without Samy, the potential for MIC to attract the support of the Indian community is far more substantial. The party itself should feel embarrass if it failed to effect change as if they can’t do anything without Samy.
At a glance, UMNO seems to be strong but there is no guarantee that the party is in the comfort zone. This is because the effectiveness of many UMNO divisions in endearing themselves to the people is still questionable.
Speculations about minor cabinet reshuffle of ministerial and deputy ministerial posts involving some UMNO leadership is still creeping and might be a reality next year.
Among the name mention to be appointed is UMNO Youth Chief, Khairy Jamaluddin. His current position outside the government is giving him the edge to push forward the party’s mission. But if appointed, Awang feels it is the right an appropriate move. Either we like it or not, Khairy has the capacity and can be relied on.

To the opposition, 2009 is actually a very challenging year. The Anwar Ibrahim sodomy case on his former aide, Saiful Azlan Bukhari had made big headline.
Based on the latest indication, Anwar has not been receiving solid support from the opposition. Some of the Pas leaders are no longer keen in defending Anwar because it doesn’t want to be embroiled in his moral issue. His tactic in delaying the hearing of the court case has led many to ask, including the opposition – why is there a need to be afraid of?
Many have speculated that the disunity in Pas will “explode” next year. The position of Pas spiritual leader Nik Aziz Nik Mat, is getting shaky. The issue of his son-in-law, the haj sponsorship and his stance on the pro-Erdogan group and the DAP, has dragged him down the ebb never experienced before.

PKR is struggling to protect the party from falling due to various damaging issues especially the weakness and shortcoming of the Selangor State government under the leadership of Khalid Ibrahim.
The suspicion against the Vice President, Azmin Ali has reached the top and the friction in PKR has weakened the party.
Besides that, the DAP is being push to the corner in the defending the momentum of support from the Chinese by playing a lot on racial issues and matters related to the Constitution.
To Awang,the DAP continue to hold the record as the most racialist party not only in Malaysia, but also in the world.
But the most destructive issue besieging the opposition is its failure to build a solid opposition pact because of their fight for dominance.
With the myriad of shortfalls, the opposition pact needs to devise a strategy by manipulating certain issues against the government including on the missing RMAF fighter jet engines.
Awang is relieved that the government is committed to a full investigation to determine the culprits behind the scam.
Whatever it is, next year seems to be dominated by many political issues. Will the opposition especially the PKR continue to make a deep political dive is a matter for everyone to see?
The main focus will be, which politician will make a fall? What is the prayer and hope of Awang for the year 2010? Hopefully the country will be spared from politicians behaving like a fox in chicken feathers – with ill-intention, a tool to foreign elements and intends on destroying the national Constitution.

BAN PRESENTS. GIVE MONEY INSTEAD

Scroogenomics

Give gold, not myrrh

Dec 21st 2009
From Economist.com

DECEMBER dismays Joel Waldfogel, an economist at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and the author of a new book called “Scroogenomics”. Mr Waldfogel objects to the ritualised frenzy of shopping for gifts that precedes the enormous meals and awkward family reunions that are the other hallmarks of Christmas in the Western world.
Such complaints are hardly new. Harriet Beecher Stowe, an American abolitionist, grumbled in 1850 about “worlds of money wasted, at this time of year, in getting things that nobody wants and nobody cares for after they are got”. But unlike most criticisms of festive wastefulness, Mr Waldfogel’s objections are based on economic theory rather than morality or taste. When people buy something for themselves, they believe that their purchase is worth at least the price paid. But most gift-givers are only dimly aware of the desires and tastes of the beneficiaries of their largesse. As a result, they often give people presents that are worth far less to the person getting them than the gift-giver paid for them.

Presents? Humbug!

The result of all these inappropriate presents—ranging from the sweaters that people will never wear to games they will never play—is what Mr Waldfogel calls a “deadweight loss” from Yuletide generosity. This is the difference between the satisfaction a person gets when she spends a dollar on herself and when a well-meaning benefactor spends that dollar on a present for her. Over a period of time, a series of surveys have led him to conclude that the average deadweight loss from gift-giving is around 18%. Given his estimate that Americans spent $66 billion on Christmas presents in 2007, this amounts to a whopping $12 billion of lost value. Where others see generosity, Mr Waldfogel sees an orgy of value destruction.
Of course, not all presents are such bad value for money. What matters is how good people are at anticipating what others want. People who are in close contact with recipients usually do a very good job when it comes to choosing presents. Gifts from siblings, Mr Waldfogel’s research has found, create only a tiny deadweight loss, creating $0.99 in satisfaction for every dollar spent. Partners are excellent gift-givers; parents, reassuringly, do better than average. Unfortunately, aunts and uncles (like others who are only in occasional contact with the beneficiaries of their festive largesse) tend to give gifts that create only about 75-86 cents in satisfaction per dollar spent.
So what should people, especially those obliged to bestow holiday gifts on those whose tastes they do not know well, do? Since the best a gift-giver can do is give the recipient exactly what he wants, economic theory has a simple solution: give cold, hard cash. However, social norms make it a bit awkward to give money to all but a small subset of (usually much younger) relations in most societies.
But there may yet be hope. Gift vouchers are close to cash in that they leave the choice of exactly what to buy in the hands of the recipient, and have increased in popularity in recent years. Unfortunately (except for the retailer), human forgetfulness and the propensity to procrastinate mean that about 10% of such vouchers are never actually redeemed.
So is there no escape from the wanton wastefulness of Christmas spending? Mr Waldfogel offers a proposal of his own—gift vouchers that are designed to expire after a set period of time, with unused balances going to a charity of the giver’s choice. People would give more to charity if they could afford to and it were made easier, he argues. His proposal also chimes well with the spirit of Christmas. Whether Scrooge would have approved of it is less clear.

SEA Games - Malaysia Won Football Gold After 20 years - Congratulations Malaysia!!!

The taste of success is sweet indeed.  Congratulations to the Malaysian team for a job well done!!!  1Malaysia!!!

Latest

Malaysia Won  SEA Fooball Gold

17/12/09

VIENTIANE: Malaysia wins the SEA Games football final after an own-goal by Vietnam in the 84th minute. It is the first gold in 20 years.

After Dubai : A Financial Sandstorm

The global consequences of Dubai's debt problems-ECONOMIST 30.11.2009

AFP

FOR years, Dubai strove to capture the imagination of the financial world, projecting its young financial centre as a “global gateway” for capital. Last week it succeeded in grabbing attention. Its announcement that it would delay repayment of the debts of Dubai World, a vast government-owned conglomerate, swept through global markets like one of the blinding sandstorms that occasionally afflict the emirate, obscuring the gleam of its skyscrapers.
Like those storms, Dubai’s announcement was so damaging because it reduced visibility. Investors had assumed that the Dubai government was willing to rescue the indebted conglomerates it sponsors, and that Abu Dhabi, its well-heeled neighbouring emirate, was willing, in turn, to rescue Dubai. In particular, they had looked forward to the full and timely repayment of a $3.5 billion Islamic bond issued by Nakheel, a Dubai World subsidiary, on December 14th.
Dubai’s failure re-awakened a number of dormant fears in investors. Some worried about banks that had lent heavily to the region. Others wondered if Dubai was carrying far more than the $80 billion or so in debt that it has owned up to. The announcement reminded investors that tacit sovereign guarantees may be worthless. Earlier in November, for example, Ukraine’s state railway firm, Ukrzaliznytsya, failed to repay part of a syndicated loan, and its energy firm, Naftogaz, restructured its debt.
More fundamentally, Dubai’s wobble raised the spectre of a sovereign default. Dubai’s government is not technically on the hook for Nakheel’s debts. But the government’s hesitation in saving its national champions nonetheless demonstrates its fiscal limits.
Elsewhere, governments have emerged from the crisis burdened by debt. Both Greece and Ireland are carrying heavy public liabilities denominated in a currency (the euro) that they cannot print. Doomsayers worry that the world has escaped from the financial frying pan into a fiscal fire.
These wider fears are easy to exaggerate. Despite its self-aggrandisement, Dubai is not yet important enough to bring down the global financial system. Its troubles moved markets last week partly because so many traders were on holiday. Other investors were looking for cues to sell after the long rally in markets since the spring. By Monday November 30th, the principal stock indices were shaking off the dust and venturing upwards again.
But the damage Dubai has done to itself is no passing storm. An emirate that has spent so much money and hired so many flaks to cultivate its image and inspire confidence saw much of that work undone in a single 200-word statement announcing the debt standstill.
Had it announced the restructuring a few months earlier, with the ground properly laid, investors might have taken it in their stride. Those who lent to Dubai World at a premium can have no complaints if the risks for which they were compensated turn out to be real. And a standstill may buy time for the deeper restructuring that Dubai World undoubtedly needs. It is better to weed out the bad businesses within the group rather than cross-subsidise them to save face.
But Dubai had led investors to expect that publicly traded instruments, such as sukuk, or Islamic bonds, would be honoured. And the government offered no satisfactory explanation for its sudden change of stance. Thus even as markets slumped, political speculation mounted. A week earlier, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, Dubai’s ruler, had sidelined three of the men who ran “Dubai Inc” in the boom years. Perhaps, then, the standstill was the result either of a power struggle within the ruling circles of Dubai, or between Dubai and its neighbour, Abu Dhabi.
Abu Dhabi’s conservative rulers have mixed feelings about their brash, go-getting neighbour. They may have asked why they should rescue Dubai from the consequences of its own prodigality. Or why they should resuscitate bankrupt Dubai firms that will compete with Abu Dhabi’s own national champions? At the weekend, a senior Abu Dhabi official told Reuters that it would “pick and choose” which of Dubai’s entities to help.
But many investors in Abu Dhabi bought into the Dubai boom. They will lose money if the bust turns into a protracted slump. And of the banks most exposed to Dubai, several have headquarters in Abu Dhabi. Thus the central bank of the United Arab Emirates has made it clear that it will provide liquidity to any bank, foreign or domestic, operating in the United Arab Emirates. Dubai is not yet a gateway to the financial world. But it can open the door to all sorts of trouble in its neighbourhood.

Pengganti Tok Guru: Hentikan berbalas kenyataan Dalam Media

Abdul Aziz Mustafa - HARAKAHDAILY

KUALA LUMPUR, 28 Nov: Mursyidul Am, Tuan Guru Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat tidak sepatutnya ditekan untuk menamakan penggantinya dan semua kenyataan pemimpin PAS mengenai perkara itu mesti dihentikan, kata Naib Presiden PAS Datuk Mahfuz Omar. "Jangan paksa Tuan Guru mencadangkan penggantinya. Beliau tentu mempunyai perkiraan, perhitungan dan kebijaksanaan sendiri untuk memilih masa yang sesuai untuk mencadangkan siapa penggantinya," kata beliau. Mahfuz menyifatkan tindakan berbalas-balas kenyataan mengenai perkara itu secara terbuka di dalam media memberi tekanan kepada Tuan Guru menamakan penggantinya sebagai Menteri Besar Kelantan. Walaupun tindakan menyuarakan pandangan mengenai perkara itu adalah hak demokratik masing-masing, kata beliau, tetapi berbalas-balas kenyataan sesama sendiri mengenai perkara itu secara terbuka di dalam media boleh mengakibatkan implikasi yang lain. "Lebih dari itu, semua pihak jangan membelakangi tertib organisasi di dalam PAS. "Dari segi peraturan berorganisasi di dalam PAS, Tuan Guru atas sifatnya sebagai Pesuruhjaya PAS Kelantan boleh mencadangkan nama penggantinya kepada dan di dalam mesyuarat Jawatankuasa PAS Pusat untuk dipertimbangkan. "Begitu juga, ahli-ahli mesyuarat yang lain di dalam mesyuarat Jawatankuasa PAS Pusat juga boleh mengemukakan cadangan untuk dipertimbangkan. "Tetapi, dari segi kaedah berjemaah di dalam PAS, keputusan mengenai perkara itu hanya boleh dibuat di dalam dan dengan persetujuan mesyuarat Ahli Jawatankuasa PAS Pusat sebagai badan eksekutif yang dipilih oleh muktamar," katanya. Bagaimanapun, kata Mahfuz, pandangan dan hasrat Tuan Guru sebagai pemegang jawatan itu kini dan lebih dari itu sebagai Mursyidul Am biasanya diberi keutamaan untuk dipertimbangkan oleh mesyuarat tersebut. Mahfuz juga menjelaskan, setiap kali PAS mendapat kerusi majoriti di mana-mana negeri selepas pilihan raya, nama orang yang mendapat kepercayaan parti untuk menjadi Menteri Besar di kemukakan oleh Presiden PAS kepada Sultan negeri yang berkenaan. "Presiden PAS pula mengemukakan nama tersebut kepada Sultan yang berkenaan setelah dipersetujui oleh mesyuarat Jawatankuasa PAS Pusat,"kata Ahli Parlimen Pokok Sena itu. Mahfuz meminta semua pihak agar memberikan kepercayaan kepada Tuan Guru untuk memilih masa yang sesuai bagi mencadangkan penggantinya sebagai Menteri Besar Kelantan dan juga kepada mesyuarat Ahli Jawatankuasa PAS Pusat untuk mempertimbangkan cadangan beliau dan membuat keputusan mengenainya. "Saya yakin semuanya akan berjalan dengan lancar mengikut tertib berjemaah dan berorganisasi di dalam PAS," kata Ahli Parlimen Pokok Sena itu.

As You Sow, So Will You Reap

Singapore used to be a Chinese educational bastion for Southeast Asia with the most comprehensive Chinese-language educational system. But the deviation of its educational policy had changed everything in just two to three decades. Nanyang University, a leading Chinese university in Southeast Asia for 25 years, became part of the history in 1980. As nearly 100% of students were enrolled in English stream primary schools, English became the first language for all primary and secondary schools in Singapore. Since then, Chinese education had basically disappeared from Singapore, leaving only Chinese language teaching.
Under such a circumstances, the Chinese language standard of the new generation of Chinese Singaporeans is low, it is not surprising even to hear some of them saying: “I hate Chinese.”
However, the Singapore government has carried out many reforms in Chinese language teaching over the past 40 years. A Chinese speaking campaign has also been carried out with the hope to change the habit of speaking dialects in Chinese families and make Chinese a common language for them.

"Standing on the opposite shore, we are watching the decline of Chinese education in Singapore."

However, just as Singaporean scholar Lee Guan Kin said: “The closures of Chinese primary and secondary schools, as well as the Nanyang University, together with the deviations of the bilingual educational system had rapidly deteriorated the soil quality of Chinese language and culture in Singapore, causing a significant cultural gap phenomenon.”
Therefore, a few decades after the Chinese speaking campaign was launched, even though the country is now having fewer Chinese Singaporeans who speak dialects, Chinese is still unable to replace dialects as the communication language in Chinese families. Instead, there is a rapid increase in the number of Chinese students speaking English at home. The latest data shows that the number of students who speak English at home has increased to the current 60% from 10% in 1980.
What are the far-reaching impact when Chinese families are no longer the mainstream? An editorial from Zaobao said that Singapore may someday become a single English society.
Singapore's Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew is aware of the seriousness of the crisis, he said that they should start from the actual situation of the students, including to teach Chinese in English and having more creative Chinese teaching methods to enhance student's interest in Chinese language.
Standing on the opposite shore, we are watching the decline of Chinese education in Singapore. We always think that the fundamental factor that causes the problem is the status of Chinese language in the country. Although the rapid rise of China has made the Singapore government to encourage its people to learn Chinese and improve their Chinese teaching methods, it is worth pondering whether it is correct to learn Chinese based on the motive of economic interests instead of emphasising the language's cultural value and meaning.
The Singapore government had neglected Chinese while the Malaysia government had neglected English over the past few decades and clearly, they had paid a heavy price for their educational policies. This is what we called “it is easy to damage but it is hard to build” and “as you sow, so will you reap”! (By LIM MUN FAH/Translated by SOONG PHUI JEE/Sin Chew Daily)

Mukhriz's Marshall Dream

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Dark cloud looms over the sky of Kota Siputeh in Kedah. An election war is imminent.
On the one side, UMNO vows to keep its fortress intact, and consolidate its position to recapture the state.
On the other side, PAS is all set to take the enemy's bridgehead, and keep its prize safely in hand.
Both sides are rubbing their fists, ready to wage an all-out war against the other.
The UMNO camp has the advantages of unbeatable ammunition, supplies and manpower as well as superfluous confidence, but is unfortunately plagued by the presence of a multitude of minor warlords who have been fighting one another for so long without a competent general to lead the pack.
Mohd Shafie Apdal, the vice general of the UMNO camp, indeed has done an excellent job retaining Sabah and gets rewarded with the mandate to lead the troops in Kedah. But he does not seem to fit in so well in the state, and has problems giving out his commands.
The warlords in the state are going on their businesses separately, each having his own plans while trying to bog down on the rest of the pack.
The chief has run out of ideas, and does not have the least clue as to whom he should send to the battleground.
A lesser admiral comes out of the blue, yelling, "With the situation getting intensely critical, who else should you send if not me? Please let me go to the war front so that I can slay the enemy for the party!"
At a closer look, the lesser admiral is none other than Mukhriz himself. A member of the notable Mahathir clan, this young admiral is eyeing to parallel his father's achievements with the ambitious hope of subjugating the entire nation one day.
That said, in the battle for the Youth chair, he lost to another powerful admiral Khairy Jamaluddin.
But given his pre-eminent birth and his father's lofty status, the party has nonetheless offered him a deputy ministerial post in spite of his defeat.
That offering has not allowed him to play a more significant role, as he has a superior that makes all the key decisions while his subordinates are few and distanced. This, coupled with the absence of a party post, has slowly shut him out of the mainstream and obscured his future outlook.
The by-election in Kota Siputeh indeed provides a much awaited opportunity for him.
Even if he gets elected, he is nothing more than just a state assemblyman without much administrative authority. And to trade his deputy ministerial post for the new position is proven to be a sacrifice too large to make.
Looking from another perspective, his potentials are restricted in the central government, and to get promoted to a full-fledged minister remains a distant wish. Moreover, to get tied down to the central government may set him apart from the grassroots and quash his effort of flexing his muscles in his very own home ground.
If he turns to his home state of Kedah, he has all it takes to maximise his influences. Once the war in Kota Siputeh is won, he can look forward to a more sustainable operation despite the lowly prize he will bag.
Although Kedah has a fair share of warlords, it lacks a discernible general. This is where the young admiral can put his potentials into play.
As if that is not enough, if BN recaptures Kedah some day, with not many rivals of comparable strength around him, Mukhriz can very safely claim the state administrative helm.
Why not? Take a look at the current BN chief marshal Najib. He started with a minor post in the central government before returning to his home state and establishing his career just to pave the way for his ascension up the corporate ladder in the central government later.
Mukhriz has got his plan formulated, and is all the more eager to put it into implementation.
Deputy marshal Muhyiddin has seen through Mukhriz's desire. He has his own set of plans and has turned down Mukhriz's offer.
A bucket of cold water gets poured onto the head of Mukhriz, splattering all his fantasies of ascending to the throne. (By TAY TIAN YAN/Translated by DOMINIC LOH/Sin Chew Daily)

Barack Obama In Asia

The Pacific (and pussyfooting) president

Nov 19th 2009
From The Economist print edition

America’s president shows an alarming lack of self-confidence. So does China’s

AP

FOR some critics of Barack Obama, America’s dependence on China as the holder of some $800 billion of its government debt is to blame for what they see as a humiliating visit there this week. He preferred heaping praise on China’s achievements to hectoring its leaders about its shortcomings. Other critics went further and saw this emollient approach as in keeping with similar embarrassments elsewhere on his Asian tour. In Japan, he bowed deeply to Japan’s Emperor Akihito. In Singapore he attended a meeting with South-East Asian leaders including the prime minister of the repellent Burmese dictatorship.

Over Japan and Myanmar, the sniping was misplaced. Japan, an important ally, deserves present-day courtesy whatever its past crimes. Isolating Myanmar has benefited no one.

On China, too, Mr Obama is surely right to try to build a relationship whose premise is the need for co-operation and partnership rather than the inevitability of discord and rivalry. Rebalancing the global economy, stemming climate change and containing the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea all require China-America teamwork and are in the interests of both countries and the rest of the world.
 
Mr Obama’s critics, however, are right that he could and should have spoken out more loudly for America’s principles and resisted more strongly the choreography of a visit designed to shield China’s people from his persuasive powers (see article). The president said that, although America does not seek to impose its system on other countries, it believes fundamental human freedoms are universal. Yet he refrained from more than implicit criticism of China for its refusal to respect these. And, although he urged his hosts to talk to the Dalai Lama, his refusal to meet the Tibetan spiritual leader before his trip lest it sour the atmosphere sent a dangerous signal: that America’s support for Tibetans’ rights and for human rights more generally is, as China’s leaders have always suspected, just a bargaining counter.

In China, Mr Obama’s handlers connived at a programme which saw his “town-hall meeting” in Shanghai open only to handpicked young Communists and his joint “press conference” with Hu Jintao, his Chinese counterpart, confined to statements from the leaders with no questions allowed. For observers in China, as in America, this conformity with Chinese norms seemed to confirm the relative shift of power between the two countries. It was in glaring contrast to the comparative free-for-all of the visit in 1998 by Bill Clinton, who took on President Jiang Zemin on live television.

Fear of freedom

Yet perhaps the most surprising aspect of this is not Mr Obama’s attempt to charm a potential adversary. That is what he does, from Iran to Myanmar. Rather it is China’s nervousness that is baffling. In 1998 Mr Clinton’s visit was still in the long shadow of the 1989 Tiananmen killings. Since then, China has emerged as a great global power. Its political system, it claims, has been vindicated, and it likes to talk to America as an equal, or indeed as creditor to debtor. Yet its leaders seem more petrified than ever of what might happen if its people were given unfettered access to the thoughts of an American president. This may partly reflect the paranoid style of Mr Hu. But it also reflects how much the system as a whole fears those freedoms Mr Obama should have defended more boldly.

China Holds Firm on Major Issues in Obama's Visit

Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

President Obama toured the historic Forbidden City in Beijing on Tuesday during a break from meetings with Chinese leaders.

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By HELENE COOPER

Published: November 17, 2009

BEIJING — In six hours of meetings, at two dinners and during a stilted 30-minute news conference in which President Hu Jintao did not allow questions, President Obama was confronted, on his first visit, with a fast-rising China more willing to say no to the United States.

Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

President Obama signed a guest book during his tour of the Forbidden City in Beijing on Tuesday. He has taken a conciliatory tone on his first visit to China.

On topics like Iran (Mr. Hu did not publicly discuss the possibility of sanctions), China’s currency (he made no nod toward changing its value) and human rights (a joint statement bluntly acknowledged that the two countries “have differences”), China held firm against most American demands.
With China’s micro-management of Mr. Obama’s appearances in the country, the trip did more to showcase China’s ability to push back against outside pressure than it did to advance the main issues on Mr. Obama’s agenda, analysts said.

“China effectively stage-managed President Obama’s public appearances, got him to make statements endorsing Chinese positions of political importance to them and effectively squelched discussions of contentious issues such as human rights and China’s currency policy,” said Eswar S. Prasad, a China specialist at Cornell University. “In a masterstroke, they shifted the public discussion from the global risks posed by Chinese currency policy to the dangers of loose monetary policy and protectionist tendencies in the U.S.”

White House officials maintained they got what they came for — the beginning of a needed give-and-take with a surging economic giant. With a civilization as ancient as China’s, they argued, it would be counterproductive — and reminiscent of President George W. Bush’s style — for Mr. Obama to confront Beijing with loud chest-beating that might alienate the Chinese. Mr. Obama, the officials insisted, had made his points during private meetings and one-on-one sessions.

“I do not expect, and I can speak authoritatively for the president on this, that we thought the waters would part and everything would change over the course of our almost two-and-a-half-day trip to China,” said Robert Gibbs, the White House spokesman. “We understand there’s a lot of work to do and that we’ll continue to work hard at making more progress.”

Several China experts noted that Mr. Obama was not leaving Beijing empty-handed. The two countries put out a five-point joint statement pledging to work together on a variety of issues. The statement calls for regular exchanges between Mr. Obama and Mr. Hu, and asks that each side pay more attention to the strategic concerns of the other. The statement also pledges that they will work as partners on economic issues, Iran and climate change.

But despite a conciliatory tone that began weeks ago when Mr. Obama declined to meet the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, before visiting China to avoid offending China’s leaders, it remains unclear whether Mr. Obama made progress on the most pressing policy matters on the American agenda in China or elsewhere in Asia.

The president has had to fend off criticism from American conservatives that he appeared to soften the American stance on the positioning of troops on the Japanese island of Okinawa, and for bowing to Japan’s emperor.

At a regional conference in Singapore, Mr. Obama announced a setback on another top foreign policy priority, climate change, acknowledging that comprehensive agreement to fight global warming was no longer within reach this year.

Past American presidents have usually insisted in advance on some concrete achievements from their trips overseas. President Bush received vigorous endorsements of his top foreign policy priority, the global war on terrorism, during his visits to Beijing, and President Bill Clinton guided China toward joining the World Trade Organization after prolonged negotiations. When either of those presidents visited the country, China often made a modest concession on human rights as well.

This time, Mr. Hu declined to follow the lead of President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia, who, after months of massaging by the Obama administration, now says that he is open to tougher sanctions against Iran if negotiations fail to curb Iran’s nuclear program. The administration needs China’s support if tougher sanctions are to be approved by the United Nations Security Council. But during the joint appearance in Beijing on Tuesday, Mr. Hu made no mention of sanctions.

Rather, he said, it was “very important” to “appropriately resolve the Iranian nuclear regime through dialogue and negotiations.” And then, as if to drive home that point, Mr. Hu added, “During the talks, I underlined to President Obama that given our differences in national conditions, it is only normal that our two sides may disagree on some issues.”

White House officials acknowledged that they did not get what they wanted from Mr. Hu on Iran but said that Mr. Obama’s method would yield more in the long term. “We’re not looking for them to lead or change course, we’re looking for them to not be obstructionist,” one administration official said.

In a meeting in Beijing with a senior Chinese official on Wednesday morning, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton again pressed China on Iran. She told the official, Dai Bingguo, that even if China had not decided what sanctions on Iran it would accept, “you need to send a signal,” said a senior American official, who spoke on condition of anonymity so he could describe the exchange.

Mr. Obama did not appear to move the Chinese on currency issues, either. China has come under heavy pressure, not only from the United States but also from Europe and several Asian countries, to revise its policy of keeping its currency, the renminbi, pegged at an artificially low value against the dollar to help promote its exports. Some economists say China must take that step to prevent the return of large trade and financial imbalances that may have contributed to the recent financial crisis.

Mr. Obama on Tuesday could only cite China’s “past statements” in support of shifting toward market-oriented exchange rates, implying that he had not extracted a fresh commitment from Beijing to move in that direction soon.

There are many reasons the White House may have heeded China’s clear desire for a visit free of the polemics that often accompany meetings between leaders of the two countries. Mr. Obama’s foreign policy is rooted in recasting the United States as a thoughtful listener to friends and rivals alike. “No we haven’t made China a democracy in three days — maybe if we pounded our chest a lot that would work,” Mr. Gibbs said in an e-mail message on Tuesday night. “But it hasn’t in the last 16 years.”

Kenneth Lieberthal, a Brookings Institution scholar who oversaw China issues in President Clinton’s White House, agreed. “The United States actually has enormous influence on popular thinking in China, but it is primarily by example,” he said. “If you go to the next step and say, ‘You guys ought to be like us,’ you lose the impact of who you are.”

The National Security Council’s spokesman, Michael A. Hammer, added, “What we did come to do is speak bluntly about the issues which are important to us, not in an unnecessarily offensive manner, but rather in the Obama style of showing respect.”

Mr. Obama, even as he projected a softer image, did nudge the Chinese on some delicate issues.
On Tuesday, standing next to Mr. Hu, Mr. Obama brought up Tibet, where Beijing-backed authorities have clamped down on religious freedom. “While we recognize that Tibet is part of the People’s Republic of China, the United States supports the early resumption of dialogue between the Chinese government and representatives of the Dalai Lama to resolve any concerns and differences that the two sides may have,” he said.

Congratulations Mr Ambassador

My cousin Dato Paduka Yusof Abdul Hamid after presenting his credentials as Ambassador of Negara Brunei Darussalam to the President of the United States of America. In the photo above he is with President Barrack Obama.

Bukti Pemilikan Saham Dan Wang Azmin-isteri : Bekas Setiausaha Sulit Anwar "pecah lubang"

Jika selama ini ia hanya cakap-cakap, pagi Selasa bekas Setiausaha Sulit (SUS) Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim di Kementerian Kewangan (1996-1998), Anuar Shaari tampil mengemukakan salinan asal dokumen pemilikan saham dan penyata akaun bank Azmin Ali dan isterinya Shamsidar Tahrin.

Dengan dokumen itu, beliau kemudiannya membuat laporan polis kepada Bahagian Jenayah Perdagangan PDRM di Bukit Persekutuan, Kuala Lumpur.

Pada sidang media sebelum membuat laporan polis, Anuar berkata, dokumen yang mengandungi bukti pemilikan saham sebanyak RM2 juta milik Azmin dan Shamsidar serta penyata akaun bank Shamsidar sebanyak RM8 juta akan diserahkan kepada polis untuk menentukan kesahihan dokumen terseut dan seterusnya melakukan siasatan.

“Saya datang pada hari ini untuk mencari kebenaran bukannya hendak menghukum. Masyarakat hendak tahu kebenaran isu yang kini hangat diperkatakan termasuk para penyokong Anwar, Datin Seri Dr Wan Azizah dan Azmin.

“Wan Azizah sendiri mesti hendak tahu kenapa Shamsidar boleh mempunyai saham dan wang sebanyak itu,” katanya.

Anuar tampil membuat laporan polis berkenaan ekoran isu pemilikan saham yang didakwa melibatkan Azmin dan Shamsidar heboh diperkatakan kebelakangan ini. Anwar dan Azmin sebelum ini telah tampil menafikan ada memiliki saham seperti yang didakwa.

Anuar selain pernah menjadi SUS bagi tempoh 1996 hingga 1998, juga pernah menjadi Setiausaha Politik kepada Presiden PKR, Wan Azizah dan Ketua Bahagian PKR Permatang Pauh sebelum keluar meninggalkan parti itu pada tahun 2007.

Menurut Anuar beliau membuat pendedahan ini kerana ia juga ada kaitan dengan Anwar memandangkan semasa perolehan saham dan wang tersebut yang berlaku pada tahun 1992 hingga 1994, Azmin bertugas sebagai Setiausaha Sulit Kanan kepada Anwar yang pada ketika itu Menteri Kewangan dan Timbalan Perdana Menteri.

“Saya minta kepada nama-nama yang disebut ini jangan panik kerana kita hendak mencari kebenaran. Jangan nanti timbul pula dakwaan wujudnya konspirasi atau saya dibayar untuk membuat pendedahan ini,” ujar beliau.

Mengenai pendedahan itu, Anuar berkata, jumlah yang dinyatakannya itu adalah selari dengan apa yang diperkatakan sekarang.

Ditanya kenapa setelah sekian lama baru pendedahan ini hendak dibuat, Anuar berkata, beliau hanya akan membuat penjelasan itu kepada pihak polis. –  Agendadaily (17/11/2009)

Sifat Kasih Sayang Dan Saling Menghormati Sesama Insan

Didalam kehidupan kita sehari-hari kita harus mempunyai sifat sayang menyayangi dan hormat menghormati sesama kita.

Sifat kasih sayang ini termasuklah menghormati sesama insan. Kita hormati orang-orang yang lebih tua dari kita. Kita muliakan orang yang berilmu dan kita hendaklah menyayangi kanak-kanak.

Segala keperluan sahabat dan rakan, kita cuba penuhi yang termampu oleh kita. Apa-apa pertolongan yang mereka minta yang munasabah dan terdaya kita cubalah beri bantuan.

Kalau ada saudara-mara atau rakan taulan yang sakit kita hendaklah cepat-cepat menziarahi mereka. Bawalah hadiah atau buah tangan untuk diberikan supaya mereka merasa terhibur denganan kedatangan kita menziarahi mereka yang tidak sihat itu.

Adalah dikatakan bahawa rahmat Allah akan turun kepada orang-orang yang menziarahi orang sakit.

Begitu juga jika kita bersama-sama menjaga orang yang sakit itu, rahmat Allah akan menyelubungi kehidupan kita. Alangkah bertuahnya orang yang bersifat kasih sayang yang diselubongi oleh rahmat Allah seperti ini.

Jiwa kita akan tenang. Tidak ada kerisauan. Kerisauan inilah punca 'stress' dan tekanan kehidupan dunia moden ini.

Stress adalah punca banyak penyakit seperti penyakit jantung, angin akmar dan barah.

Bila seseorang itu mengasihi dan senantiasa memaafkan kesilapan saudara mara dan rakan taulannya tentulah hidupnya akan jadi tenang dan tiada apa-apa yang menggangu fikirannya.

Ia bersangka baik kepada semua orang. Ia merasa dia yang bersalah bukan orang lain. Ia merasa dialah yang penuh kekurangan bukan orang lain. Orang lain semuanya baik-baik dan sempurna. Dia yang perlu memperbaiki akhlaknya yang masih serba kekurangan.

Dia banyak diam dari bercakap. Dia senantiasa cuba mengislah dirinya. Memperbetulkan dirinya.

The dilemmas of PAS and DAP and the problems in PKR

The dilemma of PAS is that there are two factions in the party. Kelantan PAS leaders want Anwar Ibrahim to be Prime Minister if Pakatan were to win the next General Elections schedule for year 2013.

Whereas PAS leaders from outside Kelantan want their own President, Hadi Awang ,and not Anwar, to be the PM of the Pakatan Rakyat government.

So the talks on unity government between PAS and UMNO was not really the issue. The real issue is whether Anwar Ibrahim or Hadi Awang should be the PM if Pakatan wins majority in Parliament.

In the case DAP it is more than willing, for obvious reasons, to accept Anwar as PM. But Anwar is facing charges of homosexuality in the courts and the case is coming up. If Anwar is convicted there will be serious political implications to Pakatan. There is no other leader as charismatic in PKR like Anwar. Wan Azizah is known to be a weak leader. Azmin is still considered too young unless tomorrow suddenly Anwar makes him the MB of Selangor. Then he will have some track record to speak of.

The big question facing DAP is that will they accept Hadi Awang as PM? Logically they should because any goverment in Malaysia should be Malay based in order to be legitimate and stable. This is because Malays make up 60% of the population.

Meanwhile in PKR there are many problems facing the party. A lot of peoples who have contributed one way or another since during the Reformasi days were sidelined. People Ezam, Nallakarupan, Zainab in Penang , Christina Liew in Sabah were pushed aside in favour of certain Anwar's blue-eyed boys.

During reformasi days Ezam and Nallakaruppan had been arrested under ISA and had to suffer a lot both physically and pychologically due to their association and loyalty to Anwar. But once Anwar was released they felt the indignity of being pushed away from centre positions. Only certain people are being taken care of by Anwar and remain in his inner circles.

The latest bombshells were the resignation of Jeffrey Kitingan as Vice President of PKR and Christina Liew as PKR Supreme Council member. Christina was quoted as saying that her past contributions to PKR were not appreciated by current leaders in PKR. This was also the contention of Ezam, Nallakaruppan and Zainab from Penang.

This says much about the Machiavellian nature of the top leadership in PKR.

Then Badrul Hisham left PKR and becomes a BN friendly State Assemblyman of Pelabuhan Kelang in the Selangor State Assembly. What more is to come? Wait and see. The drama is not over yet.

Should the Malays be given more scholarships under 1Malaysia?

I would be writing more details on this later but at this stage I want to state this. My understanding of Article 153 of The Federal Constitution is that when a Malay student gets admitted to a university he is automatically entitle to a scholarship.

The Constitution clearly enshrine this under its Article 153.

My humble opinion is that under the 1Malaysia this is the best time for the Government to reintroduce back to the Malays the educational facilities that are provided to them under the Federal Constitution.

Malaysia's chameleon

The Economist in its issue dated 30 July 2009 described Anwar as a chameleon. There are many implications facing him and his party with the upcoming homosexual court charges that he faced.


BANYAN

Malaysia's chameleon

The rise, fall and rise of Anwar Ibrahim, South-East Asia’s most extraordinary politician

ONE evening in mid-July Anwar Ibrahim was deep in the rubber-tapping state of Kelantan in northern Malaysia, urging a crowd of rural folk to vote for a devout fishmonger. The candidate was from the conservative Islamic Party (PAS). A tiny by-election for the state assembly PAS already dominates is ordinarily small beer (or would be, if PAS allowed such a beverage, which it does not). But Mr Anwar needs PAS. For the paradox is that without the Islamists, the alliance he leads of Malay modernisers, Indians and secular Chinese has little chance of driving the ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) from power. The coalition that UMNO dominates has ruled Malaysia since independence in 1957. Mr Anwar longs for UMNO’s destruction. The feeling is mutual.

That morning, Mr Anwar had been in Perth where he had met Australia’s foreign minister. What had he been doing with Stephen Smith? “Plotting,” replies Mr Anwar, with a conspiratorial wink. Mr Anwar spends a lot of time abroad with national and religious leaders whose names he drops slightly too easily into an engaging conversational style. He moves like quicksilver from one intriguing subject to the next, but you get the uncanny sense that he is speaking to what interests you.

Mr Anwar thinks he will soon need international support. Two days after stumping in Kelantan, pre-trial hearings began in a case in which Mr Anwar stands accused of sodomising a political aide “against the order of nature”. Mr Anwar vigorously denies the charges. He says he is the victim of a political stitch-up. International outrage might help him. Much is fishy about the case. Photographs of the former aide who brought the accusations show him with UMNO members, including people close to the current prime minister, Najib Razak. The charge has been changed from sexual assault to “consensual sex”, yet his accuser has not been charged. (All homosexuality is illegal in Malaysia.)

Mr Anwar has been here before. In 1998 he was charged with corruption and homosexual acts. In custody, he was beaten up by the chief of police. He spent six years in jail, mostly in solitary confinement, until his conviction was overturned. Upon release, his political career seemed over.

It is easy to forget now but for many years Mr Anwar led a charmed life. He made his name as an Islamist student leader in the 1970s and was even jailed under the draconian Internal Security Act. Then he shocked his former colleagues by joining UMNO, where his rise was spectacular. By 1993 he was deputy prime minister and heir to Mahathir Mohamad, the country’s long-serving leader. Malaysia seemed about to fall into his lap. “Ah,” says Mr Anwar, “the good old days.”

But during the Asian financial crisis of 1997-98, Mr Anwar moved too soon against his mentor, who after 16 years in power was not ready to bow out. Mr Anwar railed against the UMNO cronyism from which he had benefited. Livid, Dr Mahathir threw him out of the cabinet and launched Mr Anwar’s persecution. Mr Anwar’s reformasi movement sputtered out with his jailing.

Yet the hopes which that movement represented surged again after the general election of March 2008, and especially after August 2008 when Mr Anwar won a seat in Penang. In the election the ruling coalition lost its precious two-thirds majority which gave it power to change the constitution. It has since lost five out of six by-elections to Mr Anwar’s forces, which also control four of 13 states. In getting out its message, the opposition has been helped by an explosion of internet opinion that has undermined the influence of the UMNO-controlled mainstream media.

UMNO’s back is against the wall. Even its own officials admit to its arrogance, with corruption bound into the fabric of its power. The New Economic Policy (NEP, introduced in 1971) instituted racial preferences for majority Malays, when ethnic Chinese and Indians owned much of business. But instead of helping the poor, the NEP has enriched rent-seekers around the ruling party, while dragging down economic growth. Resentment has spread from Chinese and Indians to poor or pious Malays.

This has made possible Mr Anwar’s strange alliance. In calling for the end to the NEP, he says poor Chinese and Indians need help as much as Malays—but because there are more poor Malays than other races, they will still get the lion’s share of government help. It is a possible way out from the baneful influence of race on Malaysian politics. But the real strength of this alliance is that Mr Anwar’s charisma and political nous holds it together. Alas, that it is potential weakness, too.

Trials and tribulations

The challenges for Mr Anwar and his alliance will now multiply. For a start, Mr Najib, prime minister since April, has said the NEP must adapt, stealing some of his opponent’s thunder.

Then there is the time-consuming trial. Mr Anwar says he will win whatever the verdict. If he is acquitted, the government which brought the case will be discredited. If found guilty, tens of thousands of supporters will take to the streets. Mr Anwar hints tantalisingly at new information in a murder case that has gripped the country partly because of its links to Mr Najib. This, he suggests, gives him ammunition to fight back.

Intriguing, but it is unlikely to be enough. If Mr Anwar does go to jail, the alliance may not survive the loss of its leader. If he calls out his supporters—for something of the martyr lurks in him—he may be blamed for the ensuing chaos. And if he appeals to international opinion, his local supporters may question that.

This points to a trap waiting to catch the silver-tongued Mr Anwar, who deftly tells different audiences—religious or secular—what they like to hear. The same blogosphere that helped his meteoric rise may one day pay more attention to his chameleon qualities. Malaysians would then come to ask more closely: who and what exactly does Anwar stand for?

DATO HASSAN ALI DAN POLITIK PAS DAN DAP

AGAK mengherankan dalam Dato Hassan Ali diserang bertubi-tubi oleh pemimpin-pemimpin DAP, pemimpin-pemimpin PAS menyepi seribu bahasa.

Hassan Ali memperjuangkan isu utama penjualan arak di kawasan Melayu. Bukankah ini yang dilakukan di Kelantan dan Trengganu?

Kebisuan PAS adalah membingungkan.

Adakah Hassan mahu dibakar macam sate demi politik. Ini tidak betul dan politik yang tidak berprinsip. Akhirnya PAS yang rugi bila satu-satu pemimpinnya dijadikan kambing hitam oleh DAP yang ternyata lebih licik dan teratur kepimpinanya.

The Press And Politics in Japan (Lihat Komen Saya Diakhir Atikel Ini)

Let the rising sunlight in

Sep 24th 2009 | TOKYO ,The Economist

A change of government threatens the cosy ties between media and mandarins

Illustration by David Simonds

EVERY night the Yomiuri Shimbun building in Tokyo begins to shake. From The Economist’s office on the eighth floor it feels, for a moment, like an earthquake. But it is just the world’s biggest-selling newspaper cranking up the printing presses in the bowels of the building for tomorrow morning’s edition. A different sort of tremor has rattled the Yomiuri in the past week. The government of Yukio Hatoyama came into office on September 16th, vowing that it wanted to shake up some of the power structures in Japan that had helped its defeated rival, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), hold sway for half a century.

The main target is the bureaucracy, which has wielded extraordinary power from its bunker-like compound in Tokyo. But one of the bureaucracy’s levers of control has been the press, which critics say has too often enjoyed a relationship of mutual back-scratching with the mandarins.

So when Mr Hatoyama took office, threatening to ban regular press conferences by bureaucrats in a bid to lessen their sway, the battle lines were drawn. It took just a day for the Yomiuri to hit back. In an editorial, it acknowledged that Mr Hatoyama had a right to wrestle power back from civil servants—but not, it said, at the cost of the media’s access to information. “We want the Hatoyama administration to reconsider its decision to muzzle bureaucrats,” the newspaper said.

The skirmish may appear small, but it has important ramifications. As Takashi Uesugi, a campaigning freelance journalist puts it, Japan’s equivalent of America’s military-industrial complex is the “bureaucracy-media complex”. But taking on both the bureaucracy and the media at the same time could expose the new government to a war on two fronts.

The power of the bureaucracy dates back centuries, when it comprised members of the samurai elite who were encouraged to administer, rather than fight. In the past 50 years, bureaucrats helped develop the industrial policies that turned Japan from post-war collapse to the second-biggest economy in the world.

The mandarins’ reputation has faded during the economic hardship of the past 20 years. But Takashi Inoguchi, a political scientist, believes the samurai strain has persisted. He likens the bureaucracy to a Roman legion that will protect itself in tortoise-like formation. “Its spirit and mental framework remains that of the warrior,” he says. “It is very determined, very patient and organisationally very strong.”

The media, meanwhile, give the civil servants an unusually direct line of communication with the outside world. Newspapers have a circulation of 68m copies a day, the highest in the rich world, and in each ministry they are part of a system known as the “kisha club”, or press club, which dates back to the 19th century and encourages intimate contact between the mainstream media and the bureaucracy.

In the past the clubs, whose members are self-selecting, have been criticised for closing ministerial press conferences to foreign correspondents, internet reporters and freelancers (whom they often disparage as “gossip-mongers”). The system breeds information-sharing and discourages scoops. Critics say it stifles the sort of investigative reporting badly needed after Japan’s incestuous politics under the LDP.

Even some leading lights of the mass media acknowledge that change may be overdue. Yoichi Funabashi, editor-in-chief of the Asahi Shimbun, and one of Japan’s most respected journalists, welcomed Mr Hatoyama’s unprecedented decision to allow a handful of magazine and internet journalists to his inaugural news conference: “Now the dam has broken.”

Less understanding members of the media, however, may turn against Mr Hatoyama. Papers such as the Yomiuri, with a circulation of 10m, have longstanding ties to the LDP; its boss, Tsuneo Watanabe, was considered one of the party’s kingmakers. The press also has its eye on a scandal in which Mr Hatoyama admitted that his fund-raising organisation listed fictitious individual donations, including from dead people. This may return to trouble him.

Yet he would surely be foolish to leave the kisha club alone. His party won the election in August by a landslide partly because it promised more open government. The Japanese are keen to see an end to the murky back-room compromises in which elected officials took office, but bureaucrats were in power. If the press remains complicit with that system, Mr Hatoyama’s promise to end the status quo in Japan will be all the harder to achieve.

PENDAPAT SAYA:

Memang berat tanggungjawab seorang pemimpin. Kadang-kadang berhadapan dengan situasi ditelan mati emak, diluah mati bapak. Seorang pemimpin perlu adil dan tegas dalam menangani sesuatu masalah. Apa yang perlu dibuat jalankanlah dengan bijaksana. Rakyat masih mahu parti yang memerintah sekarang meneruskan khidmatnya. Rakyat tidak mahu seorang pemimpin alternatif yang bersikap petualang yang mahu jadi PM dengan apa cara pun dan berkiblatkan kepada suatu kuasa asing yang dikuasai oleh kaum Yahudi berjaya dalam agenda jahatnya berjaya mendapat kuasa. Cuma ia yang mencapai cita-cita jahatnya, rakyat tidak semestinya mendapat apa-apa munafaat dan kebaikan.

Singapore's Armed Forces Buildup - The Need to Avoid Confrontation Within ASEAN

IKIM VIEWS

By Suzalie Mohamad, Fellow, Centre of Syariah, Law and Political Science, IKIM -The Star

Singapore’s armed forces buildup suggests it could be an outpost in the security chain the US is building around China, and this is contrary to the spirit of Asean, of which it is a member.

A LEADING US international intelligence agency recently published a significant report defining US-Singapore military cooperation and highlighting Singapore as one of the US’ prime regional strategic alliances and recipients of military assistance.

It also highlighted the objective of this cooperation.

Singapore owns the most modern armed forces in this region. With US military cooperation, support and guarantee, Singapore is equipped with the most advanced military equipment in the world.

According to military experts, Singapore’s military buildup is the best in terms of tactical-technological advancement in South East Asia.

The article Singapore’s Military Buildup: US Assists City-State to Improve Defences to Deter China specifically mentions that the continuous modernisation of Singapore’s armed forces is meant to become the key link in the security chain that the US is building around China.

The cooperation is viewed as a move to deter China.

Mark Helprin, an analyst from the Claremont Institute asserts that China is more dangerous than the Soviet Union(Russia?).

The weakening of the US economically and militarily is giving rise to a new centre of power.

The US economy, mismanaged and drained by its global wars on terrorism, is increasingly dependent on Chinese trade imports and on Chinese holdings of US treasury securities.

China is the biggest preserver of the US dollar with US$825bil (RM3tril) worth.

Princeton University Professor Chris Hedges said if Beijing decided to abandon the US bond market, even in part, it would have a serious effect on the value of the US currency.

Consequently, it would lead to the collapse of the US$7tril (RM25tril) US real estate market, and there would be a wave of US bank failures and huge unemployment.

This psychological threat creates fear in the White House. Thus the buildup of security chains around China is deemed necessary. Japan, Australia, Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia have already taken their place in the anti-China security chain.

Singapore being an advanced and developed country within South East Asian is deemed important in the US deterrence policy towards China.

Singapore’s military spending doubled to US$8bil (RM28bil) in 2008. With such an allocation, its armed force is well positioned to acquire the sophisticated weapons and technologies it needs.

Many strategic analysts believe that with such an arsenal, Singapore is able to destroy enemies on the ground, pre-emptively seize strategic territory and intervene quickly and effectively in Indonesia, Malaysia and other likely trouble spots in the contested South China Sea.

Like Israel, which lacks strategic depth and is outnumbered by potentially hostile neighbours, Singapore’s defence strategy is two-fold: build an offensive-minded security force that can strike at potential enemies before they harm it, and seek the support and protection of the US.

Besides Singapore, the US is also continuously seeking other potential strategic allies in the region like Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

It is also raising the prospect of a return to Subic Bay in the Philippines.

At present, Singapore allows the US Pacific Naval Command to use its port for repair, replacing the role of Subic Bay which was closed in the 1990s.

Australia and Japan have already entered strong agreement with the US in the anti-China security chain.

US involvement in Singapore’s armed forces has led Singapore to become a big power partner of the US anti-China security policy in the Asia Pacific.

Undeniably, this kind of relationship sidesteps the Asean spirit to remain neutral and free from geo-political intimidation and interference.

Singapore’s effort to modernise its fighting forces, working to better integrate its force with that of the US and Australia and other regional militaries, and being located at one of the world’s most strategic checkpoints – both economically and militarily – will likely see it emerge later as a front-line outpost in the escalating military confrontation between the US and China.

It is time now, for peace loving countries in this region to reject this kind of engagement.

Any process towards war must be blocked by any means. Malaysia should take the lead to mobilise member states of Asean to realise the spirit of non-confrontation and mutual cooperation.

The military policy and strategy that encourage arms race and suspicion must be avoided at all means.

My personal view on the Singapore Armed Forces buildup is that it is targeted at Muslim countries in ASEAN, namely, Indonesia and Malaysia for obvious reasons. Singapore needs more land for its bursting population. The China factor given by the US intelligence agencies are red hearing to divert our attention from the truth.

Bangladesh -Negara Yang Kuat Islamnya Tapi Mempunyai Ekonomi Yang Dhaif - UPDATED 20.09.2009

Saya sekarang ini berada di Chittagong , bandar pelabuhan Bangladesh yang terbesar dan bandar kedua besar selepas Dhaka.

Penduduk Bangladesh berjumlah 140 juta orang. Dhaka, ibu negerinya mempunyai 15 juta orang penghuni sementara Chittagong pula 10 juta.

Pada tanggapan saya negara ini amat kuat berpegang kepada agama Islam tapi keadaan ekonomi agak dhaif. Dari nama-nama orang yang kita jumpa kekuatan Islam nyata kedapatan. Umpanya pada nama-nama mereka. Banyak yang mempunyai nama yang baik-baik seperti Abu Bakar Siddique, Umar Al Khatab, Haqqul Islam, Hidayyatul Islam Nur Yakin, Nur Islam, Suhail, dan nama sahabat seperti Bilal, Abu Hurairah, Annas ibn Malik dan sebagainya.

Pegangan kepada agama Islam yang kuat kuat dan kental dikalangan masyarakat di sini teryata begitu sekali. Boleh dikatakan semua peringkat umur samada remaja, umur pertengahan(middle age) dan orang tua-tua beriktikaf di mesjid-mesjid dengan bersungguh sepanjang bulan Ramadan lebih-lebih lagi pada sepuluh hari Ramadan yang terakhirakhir. Malam tadi misalnya merupakan malam ke duapuluh tujuh Ramadan mesjid adalah penuh dengan maknusia yang tidak tidur semalaman sampai pagi untuk mendapatkan Lailatul Qadar (Malam Seribu Bulan). Mereka yang dapat malam tersebut amalan 1,000 bulan atau amalan 83 tahun. Bayangkanlah mereka disini telah melakukan amalan ini tiap-tiap Ramadan sepanjang hayat mereka. Betapa bertuahnya kehidupan mereka. Walaupun miskin tapi iman mereka kuat.

Amat menakjubkan amalan dan ibadat mereka ini. Perkara ini mungkin ada berlaku di setengah mesjid dan surau di Malaysia. Tetapi tidak meluas seperti disini.

Ini adalah pengalaman baru kepada saya. Ia amat meninggalkan kesan yang mendalam kepada hati sanubari saya yang tidak akan dapat saya lupakan sehingga ke akhir hayat saya.

Walaubagimanapun Bangladesh adalah negara yang dhaif. Pendapatannya adalah dari pengeluaran pakaian yang di jahit dan diekspot ke Amerika dan Eropah. Kedua adalah pendapatan dari tenaga maknusianya yang bekerja di negara seperti Malaysia dan Singapura. Mereka ini akan menghantar duit balik ke negara mereka. Tentera Bangladesh juga kerap bertugas dengan Pasukan Pengaman Bangsa-bangsa Bersatu. Ini turut membiayai perbelanjaan negara.

Pada umumnya jumlah penduduk yang menjadikan kota-kotanya sesak dengan maknusia. Perbandingan yang boleh saya berikan ialah kawasan Chow Kit Road yang penuh sesak dengan maknusia. Cuba gambarkan seluruh Kuala Lumpur penuh sesak seperti keadaan Chow Kit Road. Penuh sesak dengan dengan maknusia. Dhaka ada 15 juta orang sementara Chittagong pula 10 juta.

Sebaliknya Kuala Lumpur penduduknya baru sebanyak 3 juta maknusia. Itu pun banyak aduan mengenai infrastrukturnya seperti jalan yang sesak dan banjir kilat. Kita kena bersyukur dengan keadaan negara yang kaya dengan sumber alam dan jumlah penduduk yang kecil.

Sebagai bandingan Indonesia ada 250 juta penduduk, Filipina lebih kurang 80 juta, India 1.2 billion dan Bangladesh 140 juta. Di negara-negara ini kalau diambil 10% dari penduduknya yang teratas memang elit, mewah dan kaya raya. Anak-anak mereka belajar di Amerika dan Eropah. Bersekolah di Sekolah Antarabangsa(International Schools) . Kemudiannya pergi ke universiti luar negeri dengan perbelanjaan sendiri. Boelh bertutur berbagai bahasa.

Jumlah kelas menengah dalam masyarakat negara-negara ini adalah kecil. Mungkin kelas menengah adalah antara 10 hingga 20%. Kelas menengah terdiri dari para profesional seperti doktor, jurutera arkitek, pegawai tinggi kerajaan dan general tentera dan ketua polis.

Yang lainnya sebanyak antara 50 hingga 60% adalah golongan miskin yang kais pagi makan pagi dan kais petang makan petang petang. Mereka terpaksa membuat dua atau tiga kerja untuk menampung kehidupan mereka.

Diperingkat bawah sekali ialah miskin tegar yang mungkin anak-anak mereka tidak cukup makan yang secukupnya dan tidak pula bersekolah. Jadi mereka tidak akan dapat keluar dalam kepompong kemiskinan mereka (forever caught in the vicious circle of their poverty). Mereka ini adalah sumber kepada masalah sosial seperti kemurtadan, gangterisme, penagihan dadah dan sebagainya.

Kebelakangan ini makin bertambah banyak unsur-unsur dan masalah sosial. Banyak orang Islam yang telah menjadi murtad oleh sebab kemiskian. Saya mendapat tahu gerakan mengkristiankan orang Islam telah pun mula menular di negara ini. Gereja memang diketahui mempunyai banyak dana dan ada perancangan yang rapi dalam gerakan mereka. Mereka sedang memberi fokus kepada negara-negara Islam terutama yang banyak penduduknya miskin.

Apakah tindakan kita mengatasi masalah ini? Ia satu masalah yang besar kepada umat Islam sedunia. Alim ulama, pakar ekonomi dan ahli bijak pandai yang sayangkan sesama Muslim perlu duduk berbincang. Ada banyak negara Islam yang kaya raya. Mereka mempunyai tanggungjawab dan amanah keatas kekayaan negara mereka. Pemimpin-pemimpin ini perlu merancang untuk memberi bantuan sistematik kepada saudara seagama dengan mereka. Kekayaan yang diberikan oleh Allah adalah amanah kepada mereka. Adalah kehendak dan tuntutan Allah supaya mereka membantu saudara mereka yang miskin dan dhaif.

Kegagalan berbuat begitu akan mengakibat ramai lagi umat Islam yang akan murtad.

Mereka ini(pemimpin-pemimpin negara Islam yang kaya) akan ditanya dan berhadapan dengan Allah di Padang Mahsar mengenai apa yang mereka lakukan keatas amanah dan kekayaan yang diberikan kepada mereka didunia ini.

Akhir sekali saya sekeluarga mengambil kesempatan untuk mengucapkan SELAMAT HARI RAYA AIDIL FITRI DAN MAAF ZAHIR DAN BATHIN kepada semua para pembaca setia yang beragama Islam yang mengikuti blog ini. Salam hormat dari saya hamba Allah yang kerdil.

Negara India Yang Tidak Menjaga Masyarakat Islamnya

Saya sekarang ini berada di New Delhi. Baru sahaja sampai dari Mumbai. Saya mula sampai di India pada 26 hb Jun yang lalu. Masa itu suhu Delhi mencecah 46 % celsius. Rasa seperti dalam 'oven' bahangnya. Di Mumbai musim hujan dan sejuk. Bila balik ke Delhi hari ini cuaca Delhi telah menurun ke 35 % celcius. Lebih kurang macam Malaysia.

Hari ini baru dapat buka internet. Banyak lihat dan baca cerita menarik di Malaysia. Keadaan selsema babi yang telah banyak memakan nyawa. 'Boss' lama saya semasa di Bank Bumi, Dato Seri Syed Hamid Albar telah mula menulis blognya sendiri Syed Hamid Albar dotnet. Selamat datang boss, ke dunia cyber.

Yang menarik ialah Anwar Ibrahim yang telah dilabel oleh Tan Sri Muhyiddin sebagai pengkhianat bangsa Melayu. Anwar saman Muhyiddin RM100 juta. Umno Johor Baru laungkan label yang sama dan minta Anwar saman mereka. Umum telah telah mengetahui hakikat ini. Cuma beliau licik. Tapi sepandai-pandai tumpai melompat satu hari ia akan terjatuh juga. Hari tersebut akan tiba tidak lama lagi.


Juga turut menarik adalah makin kurang ajar dan celuparnya DAP sekarang ini. Sudah berani mencarutkan Agama Islam. Tidak kah mereka ini tahu bahwa Agama Islam adalah Agama Resmi Malaysia. Kerajaan mesti mengambil tindakan tegas sebelum kemarahan orang Islam makin memuncak. DAP dan orang Cina yang chauvanis ini harus di ambil tindakan tegas supaya mereka tidak berlumba-lumba cuba menjadi 'hero' kampung kepada masyarakat Cina. Masyarakat Cina harus diberi tahu orang Melayu tidak suka tindak tanduk pemimpin cina yang chauvanis ini.

Cuba kita bandingkan keadaan di India. Sebelum ia merdeka dahulu orang Islam merupakan pekerja kakitangan awam sebanyak kira-kira 33%. Sekarang selepas India merdeka selama 62 tahun kakitangan kerajaan yang beragama Islam hanya tinggal 3%.

India mengamalkan demokrasi. Malaysia juga demokrasi. Cuma Kerajaan Malaysia terlampau toleran. Kerajaan India tidak kisah pun. Apa dia mahu dia jalankan. Sampai bila kita mesti toleran. Mula-mulanya kita haru perlemahkan mereka yang dilabel Muhyiddin sebagai pengkhianat.

Itu langkah pertama.

The Modern Middle Kingdom

By

Dr. Mahathir Mohamad

on June 15, 2009 3:10 PM |

1. Ancient China considered itself the centre of the world and called itself the Middle Kingdom. And well it should. It was far more advanced in every way than Europe of the Dark Ages. Maybe China is thinking of making a comeback.

2. But we already have a new Middle Kingdom now. During Lee Kuan Yew's triumphant visit to Malaysia he made it known to the Malaysian supplicants that Singapore regards the lands within 6000 miles radius of Singapore as its hinterland. This includes Beijing and Tokyo and of course Malaysia.

3. Of course this self-deluding perception places Singapore at the centre of a vast region. It is therefore the latter day Middle Kingdom. The rest are peripheral and are there to serve the interest of this somewhat tiny Middle Kingdom.

4. Kuan Yew also explained that the fear Singapore Chinese would control Iskandar whatever is not justified. Malays can also work there. It is good to know that Malays can also work in their own country. I wonder as what? Maybe someone should make a study of the Malays of Singapore just to know what it is like to be a Malay minority in their own country.

5. As for the 3 sen per 1000 gallons of raw water supplied to Singapore Lee says it was absurd for the former Prime Minister of hinterland Malaysia to ask to increase it to RM8 per 1000 gallons. I don't know where he got this. Some Malaysian officers did suggest this figure but we were ready to bargain and maybe settle for RM3. And why not? Johore sells raw water to Melaka for 30 sen, 1000% higher than to Singapore. And Melaka is, I believe, a part of Malaysia! Some Malaysians may see the irony of this.

6. The great 5th Prime Minister has decided that since the people of Johore did not want to sell sand to Singapore, Malaysia would not build any bridge, straight or crooked, or negotiate and settle the other issues like the Central Provident Fund, the Railway land. Maybe the 5th Prime Minister thinks he is punishing Singapore. Actually he is giving Singapore what its wants including the 3 sen per 1000 gallons water until 2061. Think of how many grains of nasi lemak we can buy with 3 sen in 2061. Imagine what 1000 gallons will earn for Singapore at that time. Can't think of a more astute PM for Malaysia.

7. All those who met the great man from the little country were lectured on how Malaysia should be run. We should not have anymore problems now. We have been told the direction to take. MCA must help UMNO to win because Singapore does not want an Islamic Party like PAS to win. We must ensure this. Sorry PAS. Working with the DAP, the offspring of PAP has not endeared you to Mr Lee.

8. I have a lot more to say about this little Emperor but I will reserve it for later.

Memperlekehkan perjuangan UMNO

Oleh Dr. Mahathir Mohamad

on June 4, 2009 12:25 PM |

1. Terdapat usaha berterusan untuk memperlekeh perjuangan UMNO dan orang Melayu untuk kemerdekaan.

2. Kononnya orang yang pertama memperjuangkan kemerdekaan ialah Chin Peng, pemimpin Parti Komunis Malaya. Chin Peng lah yang cuba membebaskan Malaya daripada penjajah British sebelum mana-mana orang Melayu mencuba melakukannya.

3. Perjuangan UMNO adalah kemudian dari itu.

4. Chin Peng bukanlah orang yang pertama yang memberontak melawan British. Sebelum Parti Komunis Malaya (PKM atau MCP - Malayan Communist Party), sudah ada Kesatuan Melayu Muda (KMM) yang bergerak sebelum Perang Dunia II. Mereka tidak mendapat sokongan penuh daripada orang Melayu Semenanjung kerana mereka cenderung ke kiri. Dengan itu perjuangan mereka tidak begitu berhasil. Namun terdapat beberapa pertubuhan yang secara tidak langsung mewarisi perjuangan mereka. Malay Nationalist Party atau Party Kebangsaan Melayu, Angkatan Belia Insaf dan Putera adalah di antara pertubuhan yang meneruskan perjuangan KMM. Mereka juga tidak mendapat sokongan daripada majoriti orang Melayu kerana disyaki dipengaruhi oleh Komunis.

5. Selepas KMM barulah datang Chin Peng dan PKM. Chin Peng berjuang untuk mendirikan sebuah Communist Dictatorship di mana dia akan menjadi diktator. Bagi orang yang bukan Komunis, terutama bagi orang Malayu kejayaan Chin Peng bukan akan membawa kemerdekaan tetapi mengganti penjajahan British dengan penjajahan Komunis pimpinan Chin Peng dengan majoriti daripada pemerintahan terdiri daripada kaum Cina. Melayu yang akan ada dalam pemerintahan Komunis ini hanyalah hiasan, seperti juga kita lihat keadaan di Singapura sekarang.

6. Bangsa Melayu dan Bahasa Melayu lambat laun akan terhapus.

7. Sebab itu Melayu yang sedikit yang mirip ke kiri pun tidak ingin menyertai MCP. Keadaan dalam MCP sepanjang ia mencuba rebut kuasa, mulanya daripada British dan kemudian daripada Kerajaan Campuran Perikatan dan Barisan Nasional, memberi gambaran akan pemerintahan Chin Peng jika ia berjaya. Orang Cina Komunis akan menjadi pemerintah tetapi Komunis Melayu dengan orang Melayu dan India akan diberi peranan yang kecil dan tidak bermakna sama sekali.

8. Inilah sebabnya yang orang Melayu tidak menyertai pemberontakan MCP melawan British, dan tidak anggapnya sebagai perjuangan untuk kemerdekaan Malaya.

9. Dengan kesedaran dan kepercayaan ini maka orang Melayu telah tubuh badan yang tersendiri untuk betul-betul memperjuangkan kemerdekaan daripada penjajahan British. Badan yang ditubuh ialah UMNO.

10. Orang Melayu tidak percaya yang pemberontakan bersenjata akan berkesan. Ini adalah kerana negara yang akan di warisi jika menang sekalipun sudah tentu akan rosak teruk kerana peperangan.

11. Pendekatan orang Melayu dan UMNO mengambilkira kemampuan mereka. Mungkin perjuangan UMNO tidak gah seperti perjuangan kemerdekaan bersenjata di negara-negara lain, tetapi kemerdekaan yang dicapai oleh UMNO lebih bermakna kerana Malaysia dapat menegak pendirian sendiri dan mengecam kuasa besar di dunia apabila mereka membuat kesalahan.

12. Sesungguhnya UMNO lah yang perjuangkan kemerdekaan sehingga berjaya mencapai kemerdekaan yang bermakna. Chin Peng berjuang untuk mendirikan pemerintahan diktator Komunis yang akan menjajah orang Melayu dan kaum-kaum lain juga.

Integrity, Trustworthiness and the Islamic Vision for Malaysia

In Islam there are a few basic principles which are often forgotten by the Muslims. An example is the concept of amanah or trustworthiness.

Trustworthiness is a very important concept in Islam. Trustworthiness, as prescribed in the Quran and Sunnah denotes performing all obligations and responsibilities. Allah said in the Quran in Surah An Nisa , verse 58 which means:

“Verily Allah commands that you should render back the trusts to those , to whom they are due, and that when you judge between men, you judge them with justice. Verily how excellent is the teaching which Allah gives you. Trully Allah is Ever All-Hearer, All-Seer.”

And the Prophet, peace be upon him , said in a hadith by Ahmad: “And there is no faith in him (somebody) who is not trustworthy.”

This means that somebody who are not amanah is not a faithful Muslim.Why is trustworthiness so important in Islam ? This because if there is no trustworthiness how can there be any justice in the society.

A model ruler that really held to justice and trustworthiness is not utopian in Islamic civilization. We have a role model in the Caliphate Umar Abdul Aziz.

During his rule integrity and trustworthiness reigned supreme. Thus the level of poverty among the Muslims was greatly reduced to the point of there being no poor people in the land . The Baitul Mal (common wealth of the society) was bountiful.

The fundamental principles of the administration under Omar Abdul Aziz emphasized that the government were just and trustworthy from the top to the lowest bottom in the administrative hierarchy of his Caliphate.

The Caliph himself was very trustworthy. The Wazir was trustworthy. The teachers were trustworthy. The military Generals were trustworthy.

The writers were trustworthy. There were no such thing as mercenary writers. These mercenary writers like their counterparts the mercenary soldiers were writers/soldiers paid to write/fight for any parties that hired them and to kill off whoever the enemies of those who hire them.

These writers would then write venomous and malicious stories on their paymasters’s opponents even though these were lies while singing praises on their paymasters even though what they wrote were not the truth.

As true Muslims these writers must be honourable and write with integrity. If they do not have integrity, they do not deserve to be respected and being given the honour to be called writers.

Writers deal with qalam or the pen or knowledge and if they write lies they would be responsible for their writtings in this and the after world.

Talking of a writers’s integity reminded me of the life of Sir Thomas Moore who was at one time the Prime Minister to King Henry VIII of England.

This was the King who created the Church of Enland after severing any relationship with the Roman Catholic Church at Rome because the Vatican prohibited him from divorcing his first and Spanish borned and Catholic Queen in order to marry Anne Boleyn which subsequently became his second wife. He fathered Queen Mary of Scots from his first wife and Queen Elizabeth I from his second wife respectively.

In the course of his career Sir Thomas Moore on one occasion antagonized the King when he refused to follow the King’s instructions as they were against his principles. He was subsequently charged with treason and sent to the London Tower to be beheaded.

His wife and children appealed to King to spare Sir Thomas Moore’s life to which the King agreed on condition that he seeked for the King’s foregiveness.

The family beseach him to seek the King’s forgiveness to which Sir Thomas Moore adamently refused. He told his family especially his children that how can he sacrificed his principles in order to live and what kind of life it would be for him without his principles . He would rather die than give up his principles.

Thus he refused to seek forgiveness from Henry VII and was subsequently executed. Later Sir Thomas Moore was immortalised and became one of England’s best known Prime Minister.

Likewise justice and trustworthiness were the cornerstones of Caliph Omar Abdul Aziz’s rule. Whether this idealist administration is possible in contemporary Malaysia remains to be seen. But it is worthwhile to quote here Martin Luther King Jr’s most famous phrase “ We have a dream”.

Both UMNO and PAS are Islam-based parties. The Muslims formed the majority religious group making up 60 % of Malaysia's population. The competition between both of them should be healthy and constructive.

Its end results should be positive for the Muslim’s future whether for this world and the after world as both are in symbiosis .

A moderate Muslim Malaysia that is in tune with the times and on the march towards modernization in our own mold should be our Vision . As the English proverb goes “ Strike when the iron is hot". May Allah bless and protect our beloved Malaysia.