Najib’s task..

Najib as the new Finance Minister should be more forthcoming on our economy and how the Government proposes to insulate us against the tidal wave of economic bad news. the Malaysian economy is an open one and we need to take immediate remedial measures. The recent move to cut the helicopter deal does not fall into the category of fiscal action that will help. It merely postpones the development/capital expenditure to a later date!

This points out that commecial paper creation and trading, the life blood of trade and commerce, is shrinking. The same is true for bonds and other forms of credit creation. Our interest rates, though low enough, may need to be adjusted down as has happened with nearly all our neighbours.

Given the current situation where the private sector is not going to take the initiative, and with banks not giving the full credit support that the private sector needs to operate optimally, that leaves only fiscal policy measures to safeguard and insulate our economy.

All unnecessary expenditure must be immediately put on the backburner while the Govt embarks on direct pump priming that will not only have immediate impact but will result in longer term value adding to growth. This means public works and infrastructure.

Agriculture, especially food production, needs to be prioritised; SMEs need further tax incentives while the services sector also needs to be pushed. Fiscal policy measures do not just mean tax measures. I am sure the FM knows the range of tools under his direct control. That means he should not wait until next year to review the budget that was just revealed in Parliament. That Budget was premised on conditions that do not exist any more and are unlikely to return.

Boosting the stock market may be confidence building but it would be of more value if the brokers margin call are mitigated with bank support so that the market freefall can he slowed down. Secondly, revenues were premised on prices of commodities before the financial and economic breakdown of the West. We have to adjust our cloth to fit the new cut.

Monetary policy measures including direct intervention by BNM, like the Fed Reserve in new credit creation, may be necessary if the banks are afraid to lend money. as mentioned earlier, institutional investors are not accepting or renewing commercial paper take up nor bond issues. Banks may be holding back on loan drawdowns. BNM need to monitor this and ensure the economy's lifeblood, that is credit, does not suffer from blockage or seizure.

Malaysiakini grovels like a teenager in trouble

It will be difficult but Malaysiakini's sloppy gaffe in publishing a report expounding a putrid manifesto by a "support group" purportedly attributed to the Deputy Prime Minister in preparation for his ascension to the Prime Ministership must be regarded as simply that: a gaffe that the highly political web portal editors were unable to detect or prevent, given the high confidence it confers to its copy editors to take the initiative.

It must have been galling then for the Malaysiakini senior editors that a seemingly trusted copy editor published the report while ignoring its highly explosive nature and without having to check its source and veracity, or, if she had an iota of scepticism, referred it to her more senior and experienced editors for careful deliberation.

She didn't and when she pressed the OK button on the publishing software, it was not so much a case of publish and be damned as it was a routine that was all in a day's work. That copy editor practically lit a literary bomb that blew embarrassingly in her face and her outfit. It could easily have been circumvented had she abided by certain basic journalistic tenets.

While it's all nice and well now that the said copy editor took it upon herself to assume blame for her journalistic sins and immediately put in her walking papers, the affair affirms a measure of zealotry that Malaysiakini has assumed as its journalistic credo – to err towards gung-ho recklessness that only a young media outfit, like teenagers without a care in the world, can only flaunt.

However, Malaysiakini was, metaphorically, still a teenager lacking in the social graces and still short in maturity, while trying to live in an adult world where responsibility, sobriety and caution are bored principles. The entry to a night spot and drinking age is 21 and cigarettes cannot be sold to teenagers below 18. Balderdash! Malaysiakini would dismiss these rules as superfluous to their growing process, until their shit hit the fan.

Whether they deserve it or not, Malaysiakini has built a brutal reputation as a web news portal whose raison d'être is to gleefully criticise, lambast and condemn the Barisan Nasional Government, its machinery and its machinations, its systems, its policies, its weaknesses, its credibility to the point that it can't report in any other way or it will lose the legion of supplicants it calls its base audience. Its all politics all the time and mostly from the view of the firing seat.

To be sure, Malaysiakini can do just that because it does not have to temper an annual Government licence like its print rivals and being on the web, weighed in on the Government's pledge of non-cyber censorship, cheaper overheads and non-existent logistical woes.

Just as the mainstream newspapers been perceived as being pro-Government, Malaysiakini is trenchantly looked as pro-Opposition, whether it likes it or not, but its behaviour, mannerism and attitude strongly suggest that it lives and dies by that anti-Establishment moniker.

That is why the so-called Najib manifesto was published all too casually, on the account that the copy editor was living up to the Malaysiakini's doctrine. It's too soon to tell if they will have to pay the price in terms of punitive action or something worse but given that its presence is much needed in the pursuit of a free Press, Malaysiakini must learn to get away from its belligerent adolescence.

Nevertheless, Najib could have sued the socks off Malaysiakini for false reporting, which among others quoted the DPM as "eager to defend till the last drop of his blood the supremacy of the Malay race", or at the very least demand a police probe into the portal's ill-advised transgression. But he didn't, perhaps out of magnanimity or perhaps out of the fact that he cannot afford the distraction, seeing that he will soon inherit the management of a country roiling in the perfect political storm and need to muster all his energy and effort.

In a media conference outside the House, Najib accepted Malaysiakini's apology. "The reporter showed a high level of professionalism and took responsibility for the untrue story," he told the media at the Parliament lobby today. However, Najib rightly pointed out that the culprits who released the fake manifesto was still in hiding.

Najib is leaving it to the relevant authorities to unmask the perpetrators of the fake manifesto, agreeing that he may have to face all this until March, when Umno holds its general assembly and its delayed but high-octane party elections.

Cub reporters were taught from small to respect facts and triple check them when they conclude their reports, just before they submit their masterpieces to their copy editor for editing or tasting. It's a time-honoured concept practiced by most media outfits, whether they are of left or right leaning persuasions or whether they newspapers, magazines or the electronic media. Some old school journalism editors would also insist that their underlings their parents say they love you, check their claims too.

No conscientious editor or reporter would knowingly publish or write reports that are factually dodgy or just plain wrong but if the unimaginable happens, the blame is always an oversight or simple human error. Already, Wong's action has been spun as a "rare day when a Malaysian journalist resigns to take responsibility for an erroneous report."

That said, Malaysiakini is truly fortunate that Wong was conscientious enough to take the rap and save further grief for the portal. It could have been ugly.

 

By Azmi Anshar, NST

Teresa Kok: Bukan apa yg dibuatnya, tetapi apa yg tidak dibuat...

Tindakan Teresa Kok mengemukakan saman ke atas seorang wartawan Utusan Malaysia dan akhbar itu sendiri berhubung rencana "Azan, jawi, JAIS, UiTM dan ba-alif-ba-ya" yang disiarkan tidak lama dulu menarik perhatian.

Sememangnya hak Teresa untuk mengambil tindakan itu dan lantaran menuntut ganti-rugi jutaan ringgit.    

Tetapi pada pendapat saya, yang menjadi persoalan di sini bukanlah sekadar apa yang didakwa dilakukan oleh ahli parlimen itu. Lebih penting ialah apa yang TIDAK dilakukan olehnya sebagai seorang wakil rakyat yang telah dilantik sah secara demokratik dan telah mengangkat sumpah untuk menjaga kesejahteraan negara.

Jika dia melakukan sesuatu yang melanggar peradaban keharmonian kaum, itu kes yang nyata. Bagaimanapun, persoalannya di sini apakah yang sebenarnya mencetuskan reaksi hingga membawa kepada keadaan sekarang ini?

Di pihak wakil rakyat itu saya bertanya sama ada dia sedar yang tanggung-jawab bukan sekadar berlandaskan apa yang dia lakukan, tetapi juga apa yang di TIDAK lakukan (omission).

Sebagai wakil rakyat dan ahli parlimen, dia seharusnya lebih berhati-hati menangani isu-isu yang boleh menyebabkan rasa kurang senang di antara kaum. Walaupun pada perspektif pemikiran liberalnya, tindakan, gesaan atau insiatifnya mungkin tidak berbahaya, tetapi persepsi masyarakat mungkin berbeza dan kebarangkalian membawa kepada masalah.

Dalam konteks ini Teresa perlu bertanya pada diri sendiri apa sepatutnya dia TIDAK lakukan...

Religious rights: Practice what you preach

With so much rantings and accusations by people who see themselves as champions of every mode of freedom, one question begs to be answered.

Do we realise how in many instances the change must first be done right in our own homes?

Although many of us Malaysians hold high respect for the rights and freedom of others, sadly there are still those who do not practice what they preach.

One stark instance is the denial by some unscrupulous people who employ maids of different religious belief. How many times have we seen or heard complaints by these unfortunate maids that they were often denied the right to practice their religion?

It is true. There are employers who would not hesitate to force their maid to handle pork and forbid them from performing their prayers.

Our hearts bleed to hear all these, for here we are, beyond the confines of our private castles we would not hesitate to hit out at any perceived attempts to restrict free religious practice, although our observations have often been skewed and distorted by narrow perspectives.

While some may gladly allow their maids to practice their religious duties, there are still many others who, aware of the fact that the maids under their employment are Muslims but nevertheless take advantage of their youthful ignorance and abet in the degeneration of their religious duties.

So, employers...have a heart...dont do this to others if you do not want others to do the same unto you.

Shah Rukh Khan dapat datuk jugak...adoi!

Ketua Menteri Melaka, Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam mengesahkan kedatangan aktor Bollywood Shah Rukh Khan untuk menerima anugerah Datuk pada November ini.

Ini jelas bertentangan dengan reaksi negatif ramai rakyat Malaysia yang mempersoalakan rasional di sebalik tindakan tersebut.

Sebelum ini, Mohd Ali berkata Penganugerahan Darjah Mulia Seri Melaka (DMSM) yang membawa gelaran Datuk kepada pelakon Bollywood, Shah Rukh Khan adalah berdasarkan sumbangannya mempromosi negeri ini melalui filem lakonannya yang ditonton jutaan peminat seluruh dunia.

Beliau berkata Shah Rukh Khan pernah datang ke Melaka membuat penggambaran filemnya bertajuk "One Two Ka Four" di A Famosa Resort, Alor Gajah beberapa tahun lepas.

Shah Rukh Khan yang dilahirkan di New Delhi pada November 1965, adalah antara 758 penerima anugerah darjah, tauliah, bintang dan pingat kebesaran negeri Melaka tahun ini.

Pengumuman penganugerahan gelaran datuk kepada pelakon hindi itu baru-baru ini dikecam dan dikritik kuat oleh rakyat Malaysia.

Nampaknya suara hati rakyat tidak perlu dalam hal ini...

 

UMNO dominant or component parties weak?

Think again!

BN component parties should to appreciate Umno's strength that had enabled the coalition to form a government at the federal level and that they must use Umno's strength to strengthen themselves.

The idea that Umno is being too dominant in Barisan Nasional (BN) is ridiculous, says Johor Baru Umno division chief Datuk Shahrir Abdul Samad.

He said that if BN component parties thought that Umno was dominant, they must understand why it was so.

"Is it because the component parties themselves are weak, and what would be the solution to it? he asked, adding that the matter should not be used by the component parties to cover their weaknesses following the last general election results.

Shahrir, who is also Domestic Trade and Consumers Affairs Minister, said Umno could not reduce its power for the sake of providing a so-called "level playing field" for the component parties.

"By doing so, it would lead to BN losing everything to the opposition," he said.

Shahrir said the perception that UMNO was too dominant was created by the opposition parties as part of their efforts to weaken the support, especially among the non-Malays, for BN.

The Johor Baru member of parliament did not rule out the possibility that communication problems among BN component party leaders had contributed to the perception problem and suggested that this situation be rectified.

Kontrak Sosial diterima?

Kolumnis Malaysian Insider, Wan Hamidi Hamid berkata tidak sesiapa pun mempertikaikan kontrak sosial antara kaum yang telah mewujudkan Malaysia merdeka lebih 50 tahun lalu.

Tanpa mengulangi segala perdebatan yang berlangsung sejak sekian lama berhubung perkara ini sama ada di media arus perdana ataupun media alternatif, apa yang diperhatikan oleh Hamidi jelas sekadar perspektif luaran.

Setelah menyorot hampir kesemua komen dan kritikan yang tersiar dalam Internet dan media arus perdana, rata-rata saya melihat ada golongan yang secara terang-terangan mempersoalkan kesahihan kontrak tersebut.

Kebanyakan mereka menafikan kewujudan kontrak itu sementara yang akur dengannya pula cuba mengikut arus dengan rasional beralas demi kepentingan sendiri.

Tidak...tidak benar sama sekali golongan bukan Melayu menerima kontrak sosial. Yang pasti dan nyata mereka bergerak menafikan kewujudan perjanjian tersebut.

Berdasarkan ini maka tidak timbul isu samada mereka menerima quid pro quo berkenaan seperti yang ditegaskan semula oleh Majlis Raja-Raja kelmarin.