Odysseys of George

This article was written by RONALD MCCOY who was the former president of Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) and International Physicians for the Prevention of the Nuclear War (IPPNW)

My right to wear clean yellow T-shirt

Human rights and fundamental freedoms have become dominant issues of the day, since the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.

The Preamble states that recognition of the inherent dignity and equal and inalienable rights of all individuals is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.

1966, the General Assembly adopted two binding Covenants, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which together with the Declaration form the International Bill of Human Rights.

However, the Malaysian government has not signed or ratified both Covenants. continue reading…

I thought I should put this in as I agree totally with him. The public should take up a more proactive role to ensure that Malaysia stays alive. The government and media continue to paint a different story afraid of losing popularity and votes.

JUNE 10 – What financial crisis?’

Readers following the great national debate initiated by Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jala in the Prime Minister’s Department on the possibility of the country going bankrupt must be thoroughly confused with the mixed messages from government. On the one hand, we are told that the country is more prosperous than ever before and that absolute poverty in the country, for example, is almost completely eradicated. We are also told that the country’s economy is in good hands and that the finances of the country are well-managed.

Every few days or so, we are reminded of how fortunate we are to be living in Malaysia and how much foreign investors love us. Just a short while ago, it was trumpeted that our competitiveness had shot up this past year so that we are now ranked number 10 in the world — ahead of many advanced economies.

We regularly receive a barrage of statistics and data on not only how well the economy is performing but also how, thanks to the outstanding economic management of the government, we will soon reach dizzier heights of prosperity and affluence.

The New Economic Model, it is claimed, will transform the Malaysian economy to become one with a high income and high quality growth.

Presently, per capita annual income in Malaysia stands at RM23,100; under the NEM plan, that figure would more than double to RM49,500 by the year 2020.

Lucky Malaysians — according to the government’s plan — to be able to live in a land of milk and honey with fistfuls of ringgit to throw around and to be standing side by side with the developed countries in the foreseeable future.

We have been fed with this optimistic and glowing picture of the country’s economic prospects for so long that many of us can be forgiven for believing that we stand on the threshold of unprecedented economic prosperity if not greatness. Never mind that doubt — in the way of the impoverished in our slums, squatter and ulu areas — is often just around the corner, many Malaysians prefer to close their eyes to this reality.

Idris Jala’s wake-up call

Fortunately or unfortunately, thanks to Minister Idris, we have now received a dose of reality that our economic situation is more complicated and a lot worse than what earlier leaders and the government-controlled media would like us to believe.

Although a few recalcitrant leaders are still living in denial and claiming that the minister has misled Malaysians on the true state of the country’s financial health, a closer look at Idris’s speech during the open house on ‘subsidy reduction’ shows that his concern and warning on the country becoming bankrupt (in the same way as Greece is) was absolutely correct and spot on.

Idris’s warning is based on a number of economic projections including:

* the country’s GDP would grow at 3 per cent annually

* government debt continues to grow at 12 per cent annually

Both assumptions are not unreasonable.

Average GDP growth has been slowing down in the past two decades. Prior to the Asian financial crisis of 1997-98, the country’s growth rate averaged 9 per cent from 1990-1997. Between 2000 and 2008, growth rates fell to an average of 5.5 per cent. If the trend of slowing growth continues, then the assumption of 3 per cent GDP annual growth for 2011-2020 may well prove correct.

If there is no quick recovery in the global economy and we have a prolonged double-dip recession which seems more likely now following the ongoing financial crisis in the Euro zone, then even 3 per cent annual growth in the GDP may seem optimistic.

As for the country’s debt, government debt in 1997 was RM90 billion. This has grown at a rate of 12 per cent per annum to RM362 billion today. Based on a similar annual increase of 12 per cent over the next nine years, the country’s debt will balloon to RM1.16 trillion by 2019.

The government’s own Performance Management and Delivery Unit’s calculations show that by the year 2019, the following economic scenario will be faced by the Malaysian government:

* The country’s projected debt will be 103 per cent of GDP

* The fiscal deficit will reach RM449 billion or 38 per cent of GDP

At that point, what will happen is that government revenue will not be enough to service its debt and to operate the hospitals, schools and other government services. In other words, the country will go into sovereign debt crisis, which is a polite way of saying that the country will become bankrupt.

The bigger subsidies are …

Where Idris went wrong is not in his assumptions and projections but in his focus on subsidies as the main culprit in the country’s perilous financial state. Addressing a public audience and as a member of the Barisan Nasional government, however, he was not in a position to finger the colossal wastage, inefficiency and corruption that has characterised Barisan rule and economic management of the country.

Yes, subsidies are part of the cause of our potential financial downfall but it is not subsidies to the poor that are to be blamed — in fact, the entire food subsidy bill in 2009 was only RM3.4 billion or less than the cost of the two recently purchased low-quality diesel submarines that cannot even dive properly! What is being spent on tolls, sugar, flour, cooking oil, school books, etc. is only a tiny fraction of what goes into the country’s black hole of defence expenditure.

Instead of being fixated on subsidies to the poor, let us open the books on the subsidies that have gone to the ruling political elite and its business allies — the cronies, middlemen, consultants, and agents that are key to the massive binge of irresponsible government procurement in all sectors, especially defence.

Finally, it is also the subsidy of a huge, bloated and unsustainable civil service that is swallowing much of public revenue and helping to pile up our debt. Subsidies that have kept the cost of living down for the average Malaysian are only a small part of the larger subsidy equation.

Consequences of mismanagement

So what happens when the country becomes bankrupt?

When ordinary citizens or businesses become bankrupt, they can hide behind a court order and return to some kind of normal life thereafter. Those who have borrowed from Ah Longs, of course, cannot throw themselves at the mercy of the courts. They are more likely to be forced to rely on family members or friends to help them reach some kind of settlement or have to flee their aggressive creditors by changing their residence or even identity.

Countries that are in default do not have the luxury of changing their identity or getting a court to provide some measure of protection. In Argentina which defaulted on sovereign borrowings and debt repayment in 2001, the consequences were horrendous. The country experienced a brutal spiral of inflation followed by hyperinflation, soaring unemployment soared and a collapse in the currency.

The economy imploded, shrinking by 13 per cent in a year and the government was forced to cut public sector wages, slash the state pension and other social benefits. Unable to pay for goods with cash and with banks rationing withdrawals, citizens had to resort to bartering. Imported goods became unattainable.

Economic shock was followed by social trauma and political crisis. The quality of life of the average Argentinian was lowered drastically and many businesses closed or went bankrupt. Argentinian society has still to recover fully from the mismanagement of the country’s economy during the late 90s.

Let us pray – but prayer is not enough — let us make sure that the government never mismanages the Malaysian economy to the stage when we have to go through what the people of Argentina have had to suffer. — cpiasia.net

* Dr Lim Teck Ghee is Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Initiatives.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or the newspaper.

I have been silent. I have had my ups and downs. But this morning, I was saddened! Lost for words – I decided to start blogging again! Narrow-mindedness, greed for politics supremacy, what — what could compel people to do such shameful things? Is your faith so fragile that you truly believe that such issues will harm the religion in a large scale? Perhaps, one should think that the actions of such poor demeanor would be more harmful for the religion in a larger picture? It is 2010 and we have proved to the world that we are so much more backwards in comparison to the other financially poorer countries just by the way we think and behave. Modernization and development of a country is not just perceived by how tall is your tallest building or how enormous and modern is your new federal territory but most importantly by the way your nation think and behave.

Malaysian churches fire-bombed ahead of demonstrations

The group that has been propagating such intense anger and acts have been doing so for many months – i believe it has always been political – to scare the public in whatever way possible to make them vote for one and only one party. I suppose there would be more to come as fear is the biggest enemy of mankind. One can be coerced into a decision or become a rebel. The choice again befalls the public and hopefully a right choice for a better Malaysia will be the main intention of all.

Happy New Year Malaysian and friends all over the world

Updated readings:

PM, you have failed me – Stephanie Sta Maria

I was thinking twice as to whether I should blog about a such a person – whether he deserves this spot on the blog. Looking at the recent events, I think I believe “what goes around, comes around”.

So, a brief recap. Dato Z became national news around late October when the press revealed his questionable mansion which has 21 bathrooms and 16 bedrooms, including 11 that occupied by each of his children, as well as a VIP room, three living rooms, a dining hall and a prayer room. The mansion also has a swimming pool, several gazebos, an orchard, a two-hole golf lawn, an office, a storeroom, two rooms for maids as well as a wet kitchen and a dry kitchen. This particular mansion despite being illegal is still very much grounded.

I wrote about this in October 2007 namely “Of Arrogance and Tolerance” and ” Of Sultan Selangor, PM and Rakyat Power“.

So with the loss of Selangor state to the opposition and the loss of his daughter who stood for election, worsened by the fact that all hell would break open revealing more juicy bits, Dato Z probably got too stressed and died from heart attack early Tuesday morning.

For the very least, I know God is watching and the Rakyat has shown its power.

So our 12th Election came and went pass.

As like said by many, it was a tsunami of sorts.
Being warned many times to be resting on their laurels, the National Front or better known as Barisan Nasional never seemed to learn. This was evident even after their major defeat when many of them were asked as to why they lost. Simply, the RAKYAT wants a CHANGE! Is it so difficult to understand!

However, my reason for writing is about MIC ( Malaysian Indian Congress). For the first time in the history of Malaysia Independence, only 3 of the 9 candidates for the Parliament seat won and none of the candidates for the state seat won. But, there are however more Indians in the Parliament but under the Opposition banner also for the first time in the history of Malaysia. The Indian community should be congratulated for having once being able to stand together and show their utter disgust with the President of MIC, Samy Vellu and the whole of the MIC leaders who do nothing else but kiss up to the president. So, Samy Vellu lost! Hell Great! But wait a minute! Rather than taking defeat and responsibility for the crumble of MIC and walk away at 72 years old, he decides to make a comeback! He says, ” Every new thing has an end, but this is a new beginning!” Oh! How blatantly blurr can he be and as usual the other leaders in the organization seem to agree to have this senile old man back.

Well, I can’t imagine how the community will react if not only he remains as the party president but if Abdollah Badawi decides to retain him in the parliament as a Senator or something and then give him a ministerial post! This is ultimate disgrace and a total disrespect to what the general public has shown through the elections.

Anyway, this was sent to me. Enjoy!

For those who cannot view can go the site:
Goodbye Sam by Comedy Court

I got this in my email – I thought I should share it.

Do Malaysian Muslims understand what ‘Allah’ means?
The Other Malaysia
Written by Farish A. Noor
Tuesday, 25 December 2007

At the time of writing this, I am in Cairo in the company of my Egyptian friends who are Muslims, Catholics and Copts. Eid has passed and I attended several dinners and celebrations where Muslims and Copts celebrated together, visiting each others’ homes and ate til we could not eat any further. What is worse, Christmas is upon us and so once again Muslims, Catholics and Copts will be heading for the communal table for the communal feast and there will be much licking of chops, munching of bread, gobbling of sweet deserts and drinking for everyone. It is all simply too pleasant to believe, yet it is real and this is what life is like for many in Cairo, the ‘Mother of civilization’ and home to more than twenty million Egyptians from all walks of life.

What is most striking to the outside observer like me – though rather banal for the Egyptians themselves – is the fact that in all these celebrations ranging from Eid for the Muslims to Christmas for the Catholics and Copts the word ‘Allah’ is used to denote that supreme and singular divinity, God. Catholics and Copts alike exclaim ‘Masha-allah’, ‘Wallahi’, ‘ya-Rabbi’, ‘Wallah-u allam’, and of course ‘Allahuakbar’ day in, day out, everywhere they go. The coptic taxi driver blares out ‘By Allah, cant you see where you are parking??” as he dodges the obstable ahead. The Catholic shopkeeper bemoans “Ya Allah, ya Allah! You can only offer me two pounds for the scarf? Wallahi, my mother would die if she heard that! Ya-Rabbi, ya-Rabbi!”

Yet in Malaysia at the moment yet another non-issue has been brewed to a scandal for no reason: The Malaysian Catholic Herald, a publication by and for Catholics in the country, has been told that it can no longer publish its Malaysian language edition if it continues to use the word “Allah” to mean God. Worse still, the country’s Deputy Internal Security Minister Johari Baharum recently stated that “Only Muslims can use the word Allah” ostensibly on the grounds that “Allah” is a Muslim word. The mind boggles at the confounding logic of such a non-argument, which speaks volumes about the individual’s own ignorance of Muslim culture, history and the fundamental tenets of Islam itself.

For a start, the word ‘Allah’ predates the revelation to the Prophet Muhammad and goes way back to the pre-Islamic era. Christians had been using the word long before there were any Muslims, in fact. Furthermore the word is Arabic, and is thus common to all the peoples, cultures and societies where Arabic – in all its dialects – is spoken, and is understood by millions of Arabic speakers to mean God, and little else. One could also add that as “Allah” is an Arabic word it therefore has more to do with the development and evolution of Arabic language and culture, and less to do with Islam. It is hard to understand how any religion can have a language to call its own, for languages emerge from a societal context and not a belief system. If one were to abide by the skewered logic of the Minister concerned, then presumably the language of Christianity (if it had one) would be Aramaic, or perhaps Latin.

The Minister’s remark not only demonstrated his shallow understanding of Muslim culture and the clear distinction between Arab culture and Muslim theology, but it also demonstrated his own lack of understanding of the history of the Malays, who, like many non-Arabs, only converted to Islam much later from the 13th century onwards. Among the earliest pieces of evidence to indicate Islam’s arrival to the Malay archipelago are the stone inscriptions found in Malay states like Pahang where the idea of God is described in the sanskrit words ‘Dewata Mulia Raya’. As no Malay spoke or even understood Arabic then, it was natural for the earliest Malay-Muslims to continue using the Sanskrit-inspired language they spoke then. Surely this does not make them lesser Muslims as a result?

The ruckus that has resulted thanks to the threat not to allow the publication of the Malaysian language edition of the Christian Herald therefore forces observers to ask the simple question: Why has this issue erupted all of a sudden, when the word Allah was used for so long with narry a protest in sight? At a time when the Malaysian government is already getting flak as a result of the protests by Malaysian Hindus who insist that they remain at the bottom of the economic ladder despite fifty years of independence, now it would appear as if the Malaysian government cannot get enough bad publicity.

The administration of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi came to power on the promise that it would promote its own brand of moderate Islam that was pluralist and respectful of other cultures and religions. But time and again the Malaysian public – first Hindus and now Christians – have felt necessary to protest over what they regard as unfair, biased treatment and the furthering of an exclusive brand of Islam that is communitarian and divisive. The latest fiasco over the non-issue that is the name of God would suggest that Prime Minister’s Badawi’s grand vision of a moderate Islam has hit the rocks, and is now floundering. Just how the ministers and elite of this government is to regain their course is open to question, but what is clear is that some Ministers should get their basic knowledge of their own religion in order first.

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