Taking the guess out of gas

Did Abdullah Badawi really have no choice but to increase the price of petrol? I think nobody will dispute it, not when India, Taiwan, Vietnam, and a whole host of countries recognise that subsidizing fuel prices is no longer tenable, given the skyrocketing price of this commodity. I suppose the only people who are laughing all the way to the bank are the oil producers and the speculators.

But increasingly the prices by about 41% for petrol and 67% for diesel with less than a week's notice? That's mighty strong medicine and obviously very difficult to swallow. In fact, there were long queues at gasoline stations the night before the price increase kicked in (5 June 2008). Motorists were just acting out of economic self-interest by lapping up that last litre of cheap petrol. I wonder if not more had brought along their jerry-cans to get even more savings.

It hadn't dawned on me that Singaporeans have been living off the largesse of the Malaysians, or their foolishness, these many years. You don't realise it until prices of vegetables, eggs, poultry, and even travel and tours into the Malay Peninsula, in Singapore start to rise. That's the inevitable trend and Singaporeans are bracing for another round of imported inflation. Think about it. For as long as the Malaysian government has been subsidizing the prices of petrol, they have been subsidizing the livelihood, and yes, even the pleasures, of the Singaporeans, both the rich and the poor. So its not just the Singapore motorists who fill up their tanks in Johor that has benefitted only.

So Singaporeans are now understandably very disappointed by the removal of the fuel subsidies. I think they will stand together with ordinary Malaysians in lobbying the M'sian government to reverse the drastic increases of gasoline, notwithstanding its obvious wisdom. But people don't like rude shocks and see their money reduced in value so fast.

This latest policy change will likely cost PM AB his premiership. The knives were already out prior to this latest uproar. It now remains for them to be plunged into the gut for the fatal blow. Will PM AB survived? Who will take over? Can he do a better job? The Malaysians are now not too optimistic about the incumbents. Will the Opposition do any better, or will they turn out to be just as disappointing?

Pull down the curtain

What? Dr Mahathir has quit UMNO? Well, I would imagine that Abdullah Badawi thinks its about time Dr M did so, except that Dr M still retains a lot of influence that his latest move may lead to the dissolution of UMNO and the government. Does he love himself more than he loves UMNO? That's the question on many a lip.

Some say Dr M's latest antic is to ward off attention to the government's decision to investigate him for alleged shenanigans in the appointment of judges during his time as PM of M'sia. That is really a blot on his PM'ship. He has left the country with a discredited judicial bench for which the present government is trying to make right (I hope). Dr M first made the challenge to have him investigated 'fully' - no stone unturned - as he says that there are some things that he can 'expose'. That must have sent some of his cronies and perhaps some other political foes into a state of panic. Now he announces his resignation from UMNO, and has put out a call for everyone to do the same. Its as if he is signaling to those that  do not want their ugly linen to be exposed to follow him. Its a distraction, but one that seem to have several layers of meaning.

Actually, Dr M should just leave things be. He need not have stirred the hornet's nest. Let the newer generation fight their own battles, tackle the country's problems and manage the political landscape. He seems to be implying that the party and the country is going down the drain without him. He's 82 and has suffered a few heart attacks. Why put himself into harm's way again and suffer another, which may be fatal?

I, for one, applaud Dr M's resignation from the party. Shocked? I don't see why anyone should be. He has been doing this sort of things from time to time. There can be no surprises, need be no surprises. At his age, he should have faded away gracefully. instead, he is trying to fight his way out of retirement, which is a pity. History would have remembered him better, but I suppose the ghosts of the past would not let him alone. Whoever wants to can follow him. These people are probably the excess baggage that Abdullah Badawi is only too glad to get rid of - in this case without lifting a finger.

Ironically, Anwar Ibrahim and the opposition parties are probably the beneficiaries of the ongoing spat in UMNO.

Save the ringgit

Malaysia's National Service is a joke, according to some. Yet others refer to it as an "Outward Bound Course" - fun and meaningful. At 3 months, it is 27 months short of what Singapore's more serious National Service is. However, Malaysia does not claim its National Service programme as anything other than social bonding stints. But some Malaysians think the bonding can be deadly - already 6 lives have been lost in its 4-year history. That is perhaps one death too many and some Malaysian want the NS abolished. The newly minted Opposition is carrying the flag for these people in Parliament, which is the only place where abolishing the NS programme can take place.

Predictably the government is not budging, but if the numbers in the abolitionist camp grow, then DPM Najib may not be able to hold out. Frankly, the current Malaysia NS is a waste of time. Social bonding? In 3 months? There is no quicky route to long term genuine bonding. It probably would take a lifetime to bond adequately. I say, save the ringgit for other more pressing national causes. But don't let the ringgit saved go into anybody's pockets.

Slippery slope

If nothing, there is one thing that is begging for an answer in the arrest of Raja Petra Kamarudin (RPK) - is Najib Tun Razak involved in the death and murder of Mongolian model Altantuya Shaaribuu? So far, Abdul Razak Baginda has been fingered together with two policemen, but there is fierce talk out there that Najib's hands are tainted too. The Rakyat's questions have not all been answered, and given the state of the judicial system in Malaysia today, it won't be answered any time soon either. And given the state of the justice system in Malaysia today (and this includes the police and their political masters behind them), it is not surprising that RPK is now being thrown into the slammer for even suggesting that Najib is involved in this sordid affair.

Not only is there vehement insistence among the Rakyat of Najib's complicity, I have heard similar sentiments expressed by Singaporeans with equal vehemence. No smoke if no fire, so instead of shutting up RPK, the Malaysian government - the elected representative of the Rakyat - must do what is right to silence idle talk, or admit to the truth. Sadly, since a top politician, the number 2 government official, is involved, the current loyalties in the government makes the telling of the truth impossible.

Malaysia has notched itself one rung lower in the eyes of its own people, if not the world.   

Dr M Speaks

One and a half years ago, some friends of Malaysia's former PM, Dr Mahathir (Dr M) reputedly set up a blog named UndurLAH in support of his call on PM Abdullah Badawi to step down as PM. That blog, UndurLAH was shortlived, or neverlived, because I managed to register the UndurLAH.blogspot.com (the blog that you are now reading) to blog about things Malaysia. A search for UndurLAH.com, UndurLAH.com.my, etc. returned nothing. So I wonder if ever that report was true in the first place.

Now, Dr M himself has taken to blogging, with his freshly minted www.chedet.com blogsite. It is surprising that he has done so only now. His daughter, Marina M, has been blogging for some time now. Better late than never, I suppose.

His one entry has so far has attracted more than 600 comments - not bad for a beginner - although some of those comments seem patronising to me. One thing I did notice about how Dr M blogged - very civil service like, numbering all his points. It is said that Singapore's George Yeo blogs (here and here) in this manner too. I suppose habits die hard for these government (and former government) officials. Once an officialese, always an officialese.

Whatever, it will be interesting to see more of Dr M in print rather than just hearing him shoot his mouth off.

Angkasawan technician

Yes, there is no more funds for Malaysia's space programme. So its second prospective Angkasawan, Major Dr Faiz Khaleed, will have to look at the moon and the universe from one side of a spyglass - the telescope, for now and in the future. Dr Faiz was brave about the decision by the state to stop at one. He reportedly said that the "space mission should no longer be about sending a Malaysian to space but for Malaysia to embark on the aerospace industry" - brave words, those. It this is so, then stop referring to it as the space mission. Its just like saying building the second Penang bridge is not about building a bridge... Ironically, this bridge project is also stalled by a lack of funds.

I pity the Dr. I am sure he trained long and hard for the prospect of going to space. His government failed him because it persisted in wasting money sending its one and only Angkasawan to space on a Soviet Soyuz and giving him the impression that he will still be very involved in the space industry. Wake up Dr Faiz, your employer just admitted that it went bust. Do you still want to be around and stick with them? What aerospace industry are you talking about? The country cannot even sustain its own automobile industry - the national car project has been sick for a long long time - do you think the aerospace industry will go anywhere except perhaps into MRO? Then you will be a glorified Angkasawan technician repairing aeroplanes. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on your point of view, Malaysia did not buy that Soyuz spacecraft from the Russians. Otherwise there will be yet more space craft to do MRO on....

No UMNO

I find it nothing short of comical that Dr M is now taking the charge to pull down PM Abdullah Badawi through rescinding a rule that he put in place to protect himself. He has gone public to get his UMNO cronies to get AB replaced by changing this rule, which he originally put in place when he was first challenged by Tengku Razaleigh for the Presidency of UNMO back in 1987. This rule required the contestant to have at least 30% of the UMNO party's divisions backing. It was this very rule that kept Dr M. in power for as long as he was, until ill-health forced him to retire. I suppose his health has improved leaps and bounds since then.

Dr M was famously irked by AB for canceling the many programmes and projects he had put in place before he retired. I suppose that is akin to tearing to shreds any vestige of the prestige he could take away with him to the grave. Projects like the KLIA, Petronas Twin Towers, MSC, the Malaysia Car and Cyberjaya are examples of these projects that came to fruition, but many have not turned out to be the successes that he had hoped for. Fortunately, for Singapore, his crooked idea of a crooked bridge to replace the Singapore-Malaysia Causeway was never realised. Maybe that is why AB had to cancel the projects still on the drawing board - so that the country does not waste time and money putting up a veneer of grandeur - grandeur that Malaysia cannot really find meaningful in their lives and are often sources of cronyism, nepotism and corruption.

BN is now more broken that it was just after the losses it suffered in the last GE in March. I can see a gleeful Anwar Ibrahim, who has gone on to form a formal alliance of the 3 major opposition parties that took control of 5 states and denied the BN a 2/3 majority. If the state of turmoil continues in UMNO, and the people in UMNO do not band together instead of fighting one another, then the end may not be far off.

Say what?

Dr Mahathir is again not doing credit to himself and the Islamic world at large. In response to Geert Wilders' Fitna video, Dr M is calling on the entire Muslim world to boycott Dutch products. Can we hear something more original and more effective, please? As a long-serving PM of Malaysia, with geo-political experience, I expect him to have more than a certain level of understanding and knowledge of the world today compared to the common man/woman. Therefore he cannot not be aware of the fact that many people in the Netherlands are Muslims, his brothers and sisters in the faith he professes and claims to be defending in his latest 'call to arms'. His call for the boycott will probably hurt Geert Wilder, but it will also hurt his brothers and sisters in the faith too, many of whom live in the Netherlands today. The world is no longer a monolithic Dutch vs Malays vs Chinese, etc. in any one piece of land. And Dr M labeling every person who is Dutch anti-Islamic just because one of them acts in a certain way is surely immature and unbecoming of a former statesman and PM . I daresay that some 17 year olds can be more mature in thought compared to him. Is he getting senile, I wonder? On the other hand, the Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen has reportedly called on the Islamic world to be level-headed in its response to the film. "Let's keep a cool head and warm relations," Mr Verhagen was quoted as saying in Asharq Al Awsat, which is read in many Arab countries. He has "...distanced his government from the text of the film, which he said made generalisations and was polarising." (Today, 31 Apr 2008 "Dr M calls for Dutch boycott').

Dr. M will do well to keep his own counsel and not shoot off that mouth at every opportunity. It appears that the more he says, the more he chips away at the goodwill and legacy he has built up over so many years among his people and those of the world. Granted not many in the Western world are particularly enamored of this straight-talking man, but continuing to give offence in such as a manner discredits his thinking and makes even his friends cringe.

Shadow Krising

For Abdullah Badawi (AB), it isn't going to rain. It is pouring. First, he led his BN alliance to its worst showing in a General Election, though it did help him shed some major deadwood from the government. Then Mukhriz Mahathir fired off a letter urging AB to step down. AB is now facing a constitutional crisis in the State of Trengganu (Terengganu) when the state's royalty (whose sultan is also the King) rejected the government's nominee for Menteri Besar (Chief Minister). Tungku Razaleigh Hamzah added oil to the burning house of UMNO by challenging AB for the Presidency of UMNO, which is the same as challenging AB to move aside and let him be the PM. Now, there are poison-pen letters swirling around Malaysia that is seeking to pull down AB, Anwar Ibrahim-style.

Gosh, these politicians in Malaysia sure have a thousand and one Keris' up their sleeves. Strike while the keris is hot, I suppose, and pull down the incumbent. When the Opposition party claims they can save Malaysia, that is to be expected. But when the untried (Mukhriz), the also-run (Tengku Razaleigh) within the same party, and the silver-spooners (the King) want a piece of the action, you begin to wonder if Malaysia is going to the dogs (who let the dogs out, woof, woof), if you would pardon the expression. If Mukhriz and Razaleigh had any wonder formula, they should have shown it already. As it is, Razaleigh didn't even contest the last elections and Mukkriz's margin of victory is nothing to shout about. Sure, you might say that AB is a failure, but people who failed the first time around should be given a chance to make amends. If half way through and he doesn't show results, then people can boot him out, no questions asked.

Would a change in leadership bring about any good at this time anyway? I think not. And even if a change is necessary, UMNO should support Najib Tun Razak instead, not an also-ran uncle of a royalty.

Do the job

Hey, where did this Tengku come from? Razaleigh Hamzah I mean. Yes, I have heard of him. He was a in very public spat with Dr M when he tried to wrest fro him the UMNO presidency in 1987, some 20 years ago. Now, as the Chinese saying goes the "East Mountain has risen again" and he wants to challenge Dr M's successor, Abdullah Badawi for the UMNO presidency (again) and become Prime Minister. Apparently his backers are the rejects in Abdullah Badawi's new Cabinet. Come on, many of these rejects have served for long periods of time in Cabinet, and if they are not wanted this time around, they should just 'fade away'. Some period of reflection may be in order why they were dropped.

Instead, I heard that they are trying the back door through the old man, Tengku Razaleigh. He is 71 this year. The last thing that Malaysia needs now is a disunited BN - not after it fared so poorly in the last elections. So not only does AB have to contend with Anwar Ibrahim,who is threatening to further reduce the BN's majority through enticements to defect, he also has to watch his back for would-be assassins from within his own people. How the political situation has deteriorated. It is perhaps at such times that people's true colours are revealed. Never mind that you have been working with a person for years, and have been 'pal-ly' all this while, even to the extent of shedding tears in public. Some people cannot see beyond their own interests at the interests of the people and the nation. Is it any wonder that the people have rejected the status quo and demanded change? Yet there are some who are living in self-denial, and I am not surprised because that has been the case for too long. AB shouldn't be too nice a guy. He must remember that he was put there to do a job. And this being his last term as PM (he wouldn't want to continue this - its just not worth it, really), he should do what needs to be done and then hand the hot potato to his deputy, Najib Tun Razak. Then history would remember him more favourably.

UMNO should close ranks and give their leader the support that he needs, not hack him down at the next opportunity. 

Imitation Kings

Is there a conspiracy between father and son? We know that Dr Mahathir has long wanted Ahmad Badawi (AB) to hand over the PM'ship to his deputy, Najib Tun Razak. He said that he had wanted Ahmad Badawi to just serve one term, hinting of such a private 'gentlemen's' agreement when he first chose Ahmad Badawi to succeed him. This sounds awfully like what actually happened in Britain, where Tony Blair, the former PM, reportedly made a pack with the current PM, Mr Gordon Brown, to hand over the premiership after an agreed period. Well, how original of Dr. M, to borrow the story from his former colonial masters and make it his own!

Why does Dr M want Ahmad Badawi to be gone? It is said that Dr M was immensely displeased that AB cancelled many of the mega-projects, including the fantastic crooked bridge that was planned to replace the Singapore-Malaysia Causeway, that he, Dr M, had put in place while he was PM. This is probably true. I do not know if this also includes AB successfully repairing the sour relationship between Singapore and Malaysia during Dr M's time. If so, then Dr M is being very mean, to both AB and Singapore.

But it appears that this pattern of imitation runs in the family. Freshly minted MP, Mukhriz Mahathir (MM Jr) is echoing his father's long-standing call for AB to step aside as PM. He has gone to the extent of circulating a letter to the top people in UMNO calling for AB's resignation. Hmmm...sounds awfully familiar when one recalls the flurry of letters before Anwar Ibrahim was sacked and thrown in jail. The reason given now is not the mega-projects or Singapore. MM Jr is so freshly minted that he has no other credibility except that he is Dr. M's son. But he is nevertheless imitating some nations where, when the election result is less than ideal for the sitting government party, the leader - the PM - resigns to take responsibility. An example will be Japan, which has serial examples of PM's resigning due to unfavourable election results. It is their symbolic version of hara-kiri. MM Jr must be fascinated by this ancient Japanese practice to want to have it imitated in UMNO politics. Or is it opportunistic plagiarism? Whatever it is, it appears that MM Jr has become Dr M's surrogate. We had hoped that MM Jr would establish his own credentials and come into his own as a politician and leader. If his approach today is representative of his thinking - one of imitation and duplicity - then he has lost the people and allied himself with the cronies of Dr M's time, which is not surprising.

What a waste for a young and freshly-minted MP!

See also: UMNO Youth mulling action against MM Jr

Chance to change

Come to think of it, PM Abdullah Badawi should shake Anwar Ibrahim's hands as a gesture of gratitude for having 'humiliated' him in the last General Elections. For without him and the loose opposition coalition's success in wresting 4 states from the BN, Abdullah Badawi would not have been able to get rid of some dead wood in his old Cabinet and given him a chance today to reform his government, particularly those at the highest levels. I can imagine that all components parties in the BN will now be less quarelsome when it comes to the allocation of cabinet posts. Abdullah Badawi has a great opportunity to put good people in the proper places so that it would be easier for him to forward his agenda of fighting corruption and nepotism. He should stay put with the old gang left by his predecessor, Dr Mahathir.

The question is, would he do it? Or is his weakened authority and credibility going to force him to accept Tom, Dick and Harry that his stronger 'colleagues' in the BN, like Najib Tun Razak, and conceivably Mukhriz Mahathir, have in mind? If he cannot exert his authority, or what is left of it, in gathering a good team around himself - people who are interested in serving the country rather than themselves - then he may as well retire from politics today.

For clearly the next 5 years cannot be more of the same. Yes, he has articulated his position through the Wall Street Journal partly to calm the financial markets, but talk is still talk. Would he walk the talk, for example, in fighting corruption, which he listed as his third objective in the statement to the WSJ? We know he said that 5 years ago, but didn't follow up with enough concrete action to fulfill that promise. What gives anyone any confidence that he can do better in the next 5 years? Hopefully the factor will be the absence of imcompetent former ministers and leaders who may be more interested in building themselves palatial homes in an exclusive suburb in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur or fattening their Swiss bank accounts, if any exists. With a chastened BN, there is opportunity to do the right thing and not the old thing.

Hopefully, Ahmad Badawi will not fail his people this time. Or are the knives already out for his head?

Humble pie around the table

The writing was already on the wall. Riots, running inflation, perceived injustice suffered by the Indians, corruption at the highest places, religious bias in favour of the state religion, Islam, in a supposedly multi-racial multi-religious country - the results of the Malaysian Election are hardly unexpected, except the scale of the upset. Upset is perhaps too tame a word to use. Some called it a tsunami that knocked the incumbent BN off their pedestal, forcing them to eat humble pie this time around. The Barisan Nasional (BN), the ruling coalition led by PM Abdullah, lost a total of 5 states - Kedah (the home state of former PM Mahathir), Penang (the home state of sitting PM Abdullah Badawi), Selangor, Perak and Kelantan (retained by PAS). The BN even lost to lawyer Manoharan, a candidate who is still incarcerated in Malaysia's prisons under the Internal Security Act. Can it be any more humiliating than this? And for the first time perhaps, a blogger, Jeff Ooi, won against seasoned politicians.  

And they failed to retain their two-thirds majority. I don't understand why the two-thirds is a factor in the first place. Sure it allows the government to change the Constitution, but does anyone want to change the Constitution? Two-thirds is an important and indicative target because it shows the total confidence that the electorate has in the ruling party - confident enough to allow them to change the Constitution at will. But that confidence is no more.

Many of the bigwigs in BN either lost their seats or were returned with reduced majorities. For all the hype surrounding Khairy Jamaluddin, UMNO's Dpy Youth Chief, he won by a slim majority of 5,746 votes. The previous BN candidate had won by a margin of 18,656 in 2004. People just aren't comfortable with this young man. His work is cut out for him once his father-in-law exits the political stage sooner rather than later. 

Probably the only consolation the BN got was DPM Najib Razak's overwhelming victory in Pekan, Pahang - polling an increased 26,464-vote majority - in a constituency that he has held since he was 22 and before that, his father, Malaysia's second PM, Tun Abdul Razak. What can be said perhaps is that the electorate has kept faith with its favourite political family. Now, there is more reason for PM Najib to claim the Premiership from Abdullah Badawi, notwithstanding questions over his alleged involvement in the murder of Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu. This case will now probably never see the light of day.

And of course, Malaysian's heeded their former PM Mahathir's instructions - dump Samy Vellu. Ironically, Mahathir is probably now a very happy person. First, he isn't the PM that suffered such as stunning loss. People apparently still listen to him. He will probably see PM Abdullah Badawi stand aside in favour of DPM Najib - something he has been very vocal about. His son, Mukhriz Mahathir won in Jerlun, Kedah, which used to be part of Kubang Pasu where his father was MP for 3 decades.

Anwar Ibrahim is probably also a very happy man. Both his wife and daughter won their Permatang Pauh and Lembah Pantai parliamentary seats respectively. Wan Azizah Ismail polled a vastly improved majority over her last election. Although Nurul's majority margin was only 2,895, she was up against a formidable and proven opponent. She wasn't even expected to win.

In hindsight, Mahathir should also take responsibility for this huge setback. He said Samy Vellu had overstayed his welcome, but he had kept him as a government Minister for all those many years he was the PM. The corruption, the rot, did not start with Abdullah Badawi. Mahathir may or may not be corrupt, but as the PM, he didn't have a hoot of an idea how to resolve the problem. History will have many negative things to say about the Mahathir years which may have contributed to today's sorry state of affairs.   

Truly, the political landscape has changed drastically with this latest elections. One only hopes that the BN will pay more attention and gain a greater urgency in resolving problems that have been festering for years.

Get this guy

Yes, the Malaysia elections campaigning are in full swing now. But Singaporeans, unfortunately, cannot care any more. It has greater problems in its back yard - looking for a dangerous terrorist which it inexplicably allowed to escape.

So till we find the *sob*, I'll have to give the electioneering a miss. Just don't keep your guard down during this time, my dear neighbours. Malaysia is nearer than any other country to Singapore. And it'll be a good place to run to because everybody is engrossed in the elections to care about an escaped convict from the island of Singapore - those incompetent, err, better not say.

Keep an eye out for Mas Selamat Kastari, will ya? He looks like this. Well, no, don't vote for him! When you see him, send him to the Singapore Prison Island, yah? Tolong, not to the Malaysia Parliament, ok? And pronto, please. Reward? Here's the reward.

Mat Selamat Kastari

p.s. Of course, if Malaysia wants him, it can keep him for good. Just down mix him up with those Hindraf political detainees. This guy is a real criminal.