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2,843,744
By the time the evil barisan ends nothing will be left ‘Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times’, direct financial losses amounted to about The RM100 billion while his people are hungry
)Syed Mokhtar’s Tanjung Pelepas port began in 1999 but now handles more than six million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) a year, six times more than the one million TEUs in Penang.
Penang has complained that federal ownership of the port operator has worsened its financial position, with net debt rising from RM148 million in 2004 to RM832 million in 2009 — a 462 per cent increase in five years.
Apart from the debt, any company taking over PPSB will also have to find nearly RM400 million to dredge the port channel and attract larger vessels there.
PPSB is already carrying out dredging in the North Channel to ensure it goes from 11.5m to between 13.5m and 14.5m in the coming year.
PPSB has been planning to privatise and float its shares on Bursa Malaysia since 1996, but it 
was not able to do so because of the loss-making ferry service. A plan to hive off the ferry operation to Syarikat Prasarana Negara Bhd last year also fell through at the last minute.
was not able to do so because of the loss-making ferry service. A plan to hive off the ferry operation to Syarikat Prasarana Negara Bhd last year also fell through at the last minute.The ferry service has been a major hindrance to state-owned PPSB’s listing plans in the past due to the losses incurred, running into some RM13 million to RM15 million a year.
PPSB made RM77.74 million in after-tax profit in 2009, up from RM22.70 million the previous year despite revenues falling to RM268.54 million in 2009 against RM277.04 million in 2008.
State government sources said Lim could bring in enough businessmen and experts to run PPSB, which needed funds to deepen the port’s channel and also modernise its wharfs and berths.
“Lim has a few ideas to turn around the port and make it perform better,” a source said, pointing out that Penang owns the port’s land and waters and would have a say over who eventually owns PPSB.
Lim’s DAP colleagues had told Parliament on November 24 that Putrajaya should come clean on whether Syed Mokhtar had bought into the management of PPSB, which is led by Penang Umno leaders such as PPSB chairman Datuk Seri Dr Hilmi Yahya and its managing director, Datuk Ahmad Ibnuhajar.
A unit of Syed Mokhtar’s diverse infrastructure and logistics conglomerate was awarded a 4G network provider licence recently while another subsidiary is interested in acquiring the North-South Expressway (NSE).–www.themalaysianinsider.com
Deals and Last Minute Sting JobsSyed Mokhtar-linked com
I am not going to listen to the usual flippant answer- you don’t know? Why it’s all designed to fatten the war chest of UMNO and BN- that’s why we have all these deals. That is like saying every chicken road-killed is because UMNO is in power and every road-killed chicken in the kampong is the fault of the local assemblyman.
Buying Over Sunrise Bhd
Get a hold of yourself, people. So let’s go behind the reasons why for example these people in decision making positions decide to buy over Sunrise Bhd. What they will do perhaps is to create instant billionaires who will invest in China and Singapore. UEM which has its HQ in a very tall building at KL Sentral does not know how to build high rise condominiums? Those people in UEM land must be dullards or what.With RM 1.4 billion they can go get all the kwailos out there to 
come work in Malaysia and build all the tall buildings they desire that reach into the clouds. With the same amount of money, they can entice the whole property team at Sime Darby Properties to work for UEM. No, let’s go behind and ask more awkward questions.
RM43 billion, no longer RM36 billion MRT Deal: Why the rush?
come work in Malaysia and build all the tall buildings they desire that reach into the clouds. With the same amount of money, they can entice the whole property team at Sime Darby Properties to work for UEM. No, let’s go behind and ask more awkward questions.Let’s go behind, why there is a rush to award the RM43 billion job or part thereof to Gamuda-MMC. Obviously some people are getting fabulously wealthy by orchestrating this deal. Why is Putrajaya forming a SPV to finance this project when it was announced the last time, this was to be private sector project financed by private sector? Here is why. Make public the liability, make private the profitability.
UEM and EPF and Jelas Ulung: What’s that?
Or why now, UEM and EPF who together control almost 70% of the PLUS highways appear to balk at an 11th hour offer by a little kichimayung Jelas Ulung. Maybe there is some collusion and conspiracy to defraud. Or why people in MAS are buying a large number of airplanes without justifying the purchases to the volume of passengers? Because maybe, large amount of commissions exchange hands.Does the money go to UMNO and BN? Come on, they go to the finders-keepers people. UMNO, BN and the government can always be the bogey-man. In that spirit, let’s play around with the most recent drama unfolded at Khazanah’s doors with a little nudge from Jelas Ulung.
When the CEO of Khazanah pompously declared that PLUS highways are a critical national 
asset and the same sentiment was echoed by the choir boys at EPF and UEM, the issue should have come to an end. But when Jelas Ulung comes forward and offers more meat in the form of explicitly saying they now have firm source of financing and now they won’t ask for tax waivers and now they will also reduce or maintain the toll rates- all these sound and appear to be done as if in response to instructions from above.
asset and the same sentiment was echoed by the choir boys at EPF and UEM, the issue should have come to an end. But when Jelas Ulung comes forward and offers more meat in the form of explicitly saying they now have firm source of financing and now they won’t ask for tax waivers and now they will also reduce or maintain the toll rates- all these sound and appear to be done as if in response to instructions from above.It suggests, for example, people in Khazanah telling some people out there- hey you go back to the drawing board- come back to us with a new proposal at the last minute, with some novel adjustments to pluck the holes in the entire previous proposals.
That would allow those people in Khazanah and EPF and UEM to say in unison, this is a polished deal worth deliberating. We shall now recommend to the shareholders and to impute a disinterested sense of fair play on the whole thing, we shall abstain from voting.
Suddenly, those boys who previously pompously declared that PLUS highways must be retained at all cost because they are a critical national asset are passing the buck to other shareholders. Why the sudden pious retreat? It’s money, money always sunny in a rich man’s world.By the time the course ends the Malays would understand that the non-Malays are the enemy and that Umno is the only protection they have against the Chinese, Indians and ‘others’. This is what BTN is all about.
NO HOLDS BARRED
Raja Petra Kamarudin
BTN courses not politically motivated, says Muhyiddin
MUAR: Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin denied claims that courses run by the Biro Tatanegara (BTN) or National Civics Bureau were a form of political indoctrination, saying they were to inculcate nationalism and unity among the people in line with the 1Malaysia concept.
“BTN courses are not for ‘converting’ participants to Umno and Barisan Nasional (BN). There are no ulterior motives; these courses are well intended,” the Deputy Prime Minister told reporters after presenting cows for the Aidiladha in Pagoh, here Thursday.
He said members of the public and employees of private companies should not be stopped from attending courses organised by the government’s agency.
He added that the Selangor state government and Mentri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim were given a wrong impression on the courses run by the BTN.
Muyhiddin, who is Umno deputy president, was commenting on the decision by the Selangor government on Wednesday, barring state civil servants, students in state-run higher learning institutions and employees of state government linked companies from attending courses organised by the BTN, effective immediately.
State Education, Higher Education and Human Capital Development Committee chairman Halimah Ali was reported to have said that courses run by the BTN were an indoctrination process by the Barisan and that they created racist phenomenon.
Muhyiddin said the Selangor menteri besar had no right to stop federal civil servants, members of the public and staff of private companies from attending BTN courses.
He said that federal civil servants were not subject to the directive issued by the state government.
“Show me under what law the Selangor menteri besar can do that,” he said, adding that the BTN would continue holding such courses.
“If Selangor does not want to participate, it’s okay; but we cannot stop the people from learning about 1Malaysia, about nationalism and unity,” he said.
On the Aidiladha, which will be celebrated Friday, Muhyiddin said the spirit of sacrifice should be appreciated and internalised.
At the event, Muhyiddin presented 31 cows for tomorrow’s celebration.
He also wished all Muslims in the country, including those who are still performing the haj in Mecca, a happy Aidiladha. – Bernama
The real Mahathir laid bare for Malaysians and UMNO: Siti Hasmah says “he belongs to the people“ at a cost of RM100 billion
Malaysia has squandered an estimated RM100 billion on financial scandals under the 22-year rule of Dr Mahathir Mohamad, according to a new book about the former prime minister.
According to Barry Wain, author of the soon-to-be launched ‘Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times’, direct financial losses amounted to about RM50 billion.
This doubled once the invisible costs, such as unrecorded write-offs, were taken into account. The RM100 billion total loss was equivalent to US$40 billion at then prevailing exchange rates.
Barry, who is a former editor of the Asian Wall Street Journal, says most of the scams, which included a government attempt to manipulate the international tin price and gambling by Bank Negara on global currency markets, occurred in the 1980s.
‘Malaysian Maverick’ is the first independent, full-length study of Mahathir, who retired in 2003 after more than two decades as premier. The book will be published globally next week by Palgrave Macmillan.
Wain writes that the Mahathir administration, which took office in 1981 with the slogan, “clean, efficient, trustworthy”, was almost immediately embroiled in financial scandals that “exploded with startling regularity”.
By the early 1990s, he says, cynics remarked that it had been “a good decade for bad behaviour, or a bad decade for good behaviour”.
Secret military deal with US
The book also reveals that:
Mahathir, despite his nationalistic rants, signed a secret security agreement with the United States in 1984 that gave the Americans access to a jungle warfare training school in Johor and allowed them to set up a small-ship repair facility at Lumut and a plant in Kuala Lumpur to repair C-130 Hercules transport aircraft.
Mahathir used a secret fund of his ruling UMNO to turn the party into a vast conglomerate with investments that spanned almost the entire economy.
Mahathir’s UMNO financed its new Putra World Trade Centre headquarters in Kuala Lumpur partly with taxpayers money, by forcing state-owned banks to write off at least RM140 million in interest on UMNO loans.
Wain, who is now a writer-in-residence at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, however credits Mahathir with engineering the country’s economic transformation, deepening industrialisation and expanding Malaysia’s middle class.
But Mahathir had undermined state institutions, permitted the spread of corruption and failed to provide for Malaysia’s future leadership, he says.
The real Mahathir laid bare for Malaysians and UMNO: Siti Hasmah says “he belongs to the people“ at a cost of RM100 billion
Malaysia has squandered an estimated RM100 billion on financial scandals under the 22-year rule of Dr Mahathir Mohamad, according to a new book about the former prime minister.
According to Barry Wain, author of the soon-to-be launched ‘Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times’, direct financial losses amounted to about RM50 billion.
This doubled once the invisible costs, such as unrecorded write-offs, were taken into account. The RM100 billion total loss was equivalent to US$40 billion at then prevailing exchange rates.
Barry, who is a former editor of the Asian Wall Street Journal, says most of the scams, which included a government attempt to manipulate the international tin price and gambling by Bank Negara on global currency markets, occurred in the 1980s.
‘Malaysian Maverick’ is the first independent, full-length study of Mahathir, who retired in 2003 after more than two decades as premier. The book will be published globally next week by Palgrave Macmillan.
Wain writes that the Mahathir administration, which took office in 1981 with the slogan, “clean, efficient, trustworthy”, was almost immediately embroiled in financial scandals that “exploded with startling regularity”.
By the early 1990s, he says, cynics remarked that it had been “a good decade for bad behaviour, or a bad decade for good behaviour”.
Secret military deal with US
The book also reveals that:
Mahathir, despite his nationalistic rants, signed a secret security agreement with the United States in 1984 that gave the Americans access to a jungle warfare training school in Johor and allowed them to set up a small-ship repair facility at Lumut and a plant in Kuala Lumpur to repair C-130 Hercules transport aircraft.Mahathir used a secret fund of his ruling UMNO to turn the party into a vast conglomerate with investments that spanned almost the entire economy.Mahathir’s UMNO financed its new Putra World Trade Centre headquarters in Kuala Lumpur partly with taxpayers money, by forcing state-owned banks to write off at least RM140 million in interest on UMNO loans.Wain, who is now a writer-in-residence at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, however credits Mahathir with engineering the country’s economic transformation, deepening industrialisation and expanding Malaysia’s middle class.
But Mahathir had undermined state institutions, permitted the spread of corruption and failed to provide for Malaysia’s future leadership, he says.
Malaysia has squandered an estimated RM100 billion on financial scandals under the 22-year rule of Dr Mahathir Mohamad, according to a new book about the former prime minister.
According to Barry Wain, author of the soon-to-be launched ‘Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times’, direct financial losses amounted to about RM50 billion.
This doubled once the invisible costs, such as unrecorded write-offs, were taken into account. The RM100 billion total loss was equivalent to US$40 billion at then prevailing exchange rates.
Barry, who is a former editor of the Asian Wall Street Journal, says most of the scams, which included a government attempt to manipulate the international tin price and gambling by Bank Negara on global currency markets, occurred in the 1980s.
‘Malaysian Maverick’ is the first independent, full-length study of Mahathir, who retired in 2003 after more than two decades as premier. The book will be published globally next week by Palgrave Macmillan.
Wain writes that the Mahathir administration, which took office in 1981 with the slogan, “clean, efficient, trustworthy”, was almost immediately embroiled in financial scandals that “exploded with startling regularity”.
By the early 1990s, he says, cynics remarked that it had been “a good decade for bad behaviour, or a bad decade for good behaviour”.
Secret military deal with US
The book also reveals that:
Mahathir, despite his nationalistic rants, signed a secret security agreement with the United States in 1984 that gave the Americans access to a jungle warfare training school in Johor and allowed them to set up a small-ship repair facility at Lumut and a plant in Kuala Lumpur to repair C-130 Hercules transport aircraft.Mahathir used a secret fund of his ruling UMNO to turn the party into a vast conglomerate with investments that spanned almost the entire economy.Mahathir’s UMNO financed its new Putra World Trade Centre headquarters in Kuala Lumpur partly with taxpayers money, by forcing state-owned banks to write off at least RM140 million in interest on UMNO loans.Wain, who is now a writer-in-residence at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, however credits Mahathir with engineering the country’s economic transformation, deepening industrialisation and expanding Malaysia’s middle class.
But Mahathir had undermined state institutions, permitted the spread of corruption and failed to provide for Malaysia’s future leadership, he says.
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The Deputy Prime Minister says that the BTN courses are not politically motivated. Actually, he is not quite wrong here because the BTN courses are more than just politically motivated. As for his statement that there are no ulterior motives behind the BTN courses, this is of course a lie. There is nothing but ulterior motives behind the entire BTN setup.
The purpose of BTN is to brainwash the Malays and ensure that they understand and subscribe to the concept of Ketuanan Melayu or Malay Supremacy. The government gets very angry when we equate Ketuanan Melayu to Apartheid. If it is not called Apartheid then what do we call it? Would not women who sell their bodies for money be said to be involved in prostitution? If it is not called prostitution then what is it called?
So, Ketuanan Melayu is as much Apartheid as the oldest profession in the world is prostitution. There are no other ways of describing it.
BTN is an extension of Umno. Its job is to ensure that the Malays continue supporting Umno and not get swayed by the opposition. The Malays are told that DAP is a Chinese chauvinist party whose sole objective is to rob the Malays of their rights while Anwar Ibrahim is an American agent and a tool of the Jews. This, therefore, makes Anwar dangerous to the Malay cause. Anwar, in fact, is a traitor to the Malay race and is selling out the Malays to the Chinese and the Americans.
There are those, the Malays are told, who would like to abolish the Monarchy in favour of a Republic. Malaysia needs to remain a Monarchy. It can’t be turned into a Republic. This is because the Monarchy is a symbol ofKetuanan Melayu and that is why the Rulers are called Raja-raja Melayu, the Malay Rulers. They are not calledRaja-raja Malaysia or Malaysian Rulers.
To remove the Rulers means Malay Supremacy would end. Then the Malays would no longer be ‘special people’. They would be just one more of the many citizens in Malaysia and at par with the Chinese, Indians and ‘others’.
So Umno will defend the institution of the Monarchy and this is what the Malays must do as well. The future of the Malays depends on this. It is because of the Raja-raja Melayu that the Malays have this ‘special position’. Without the Rulers, the Malays would be ‘nothing’; a second class race in their own country.
The British, in their wisdom, realised that if the Chinese and Indians are not kept in check then they would eventually take over the country and the Malays would become slaves in their own country. Today’s slavery is no longer the slavery of olden days. Today’s slavery is economic domination and the Malays would become economic slaves because the Chinese and Indians would control the economy of Malaysia.
So the British, in their wisdom, wrote into the Federal Constitution of Malaya (now Malaysia) some ‘special clauses’. And these special clauses can’t be challenged. To challenge them would mean you are committing a crime under the Sedition Act. And if there is not enough evidence to charge you in court they can always classify you as a threat to national security and detain you without trial under the Internal Security Act.
In what way are you a threat to national security? Well, if you challenge the position of the Rulers or the special position of the Malays this may anger the Malays and it could trigger a race riot. The Malays may run amok and take to the streets like they once did in May 1969. So you must not make the Malays angry by questioning theRaja-raja Melayu or the special position of the Malays. If you do, then you are a threat to national security and therefore you can be detained without trial under the ISA.
The Malays accept this argument. And it is the job of BTN to make sure that the Malays not only understand this and accept this but also defend this with blood if necessary. And that makes BTN more than just political in objective.
Another thing the Malays are told is that Malaysia can’t be turned into a Republic because the Rulers are crucial to the survival of the Malays. Article 41 of the Constitution says: The Yang di-Pertuan Agong shall be the Supreme Commander of the armed forces of the Federation. Further to that, the various state Rulers are Commanders-in-Chief of the navy, air force, infantry, artillery, calvary, Malay Regiment, commandos, and so on. This means the armed forces comes under the command of the Raja-raja Melayu.
Now, this is very important. The Chinese and Indians may control the economy. But the Malays control the military. And in the event the Chinese and Indians need to be put in their places then the Malays would have the means to do so. So it is crucial that the Raja-raja Melayu be retained and defended. That is the last line of defence for the Malays in the event they need to take back the country from the non-Malays.
The Malays are taught this. And it is the job of BTN to educate the Malays about this. Umno’s survival depends on the Malays understanding this, accepting this, and defending this. So BTN is basically Umno’s ‘survival kit’. It ensures that the Malays become very worried about their future and become aware of the threat the non-Malays pose to the future of the Malays. And it ensures that the Malays see that only Umno can guarantee the future of the Malays. Without Umno the Malays are dead. And BTN will explain during these courses how and why this is so.
By the time the course ends the Malays would understand that the non-Malays are the enemy and that Umno is the only protection they have against the Chinese, Indians and ‘others’. This is what BTN is all about.
But it does not stop there. BTN not only brings civil servants and students to the courses. BTN also infiltrates the universities. Is it any wonder that Nordin Kardi who heads UUM is from BTN? And speak to any student of UITM and hear what he or she has to say about the non-Malays. BTN and Umno have bred an entire generation of racists who view this country as a Malay country and the non-Malays as enemies and traitors who should be treated with great suspicion.
Was a big umno fan – but you are so right – I don’t want to hear about divisive politics and mahatirism and MALAY and CHINESE bashing does not bring food on the table. I would rather vote for a party that brings people together and gives us a chance to focus on real issues at hand that is facing our country – such as infrastructure and unemployment – I think two party system is good because we have all seen how an unchecked BARISAN can misuse power I think other than the NRI(s) that are surprisingly so disconnected with real MALAYSIAN problems I doubt if Umno has real support at the grass root levels at this point.It shows once again that the UMNO are very much behind the times when it comes to secularism and still dwells in 1947 . Times have moved on and like MALAYSIA , the UMNO must move on and move into the 21st Century . The Human species cannot survive on conflict alone. UMNO remains the party which refers to scaremonger to create division within society and ANWAR expulsion proves exactly that . The UMNO party , like any extremist party is stuck in
its old party dogma of propaganda and division . All MALAYSIAN people matter regardless of race, religion , or caste . A Patriotic MALAYSIAN is a an MALAYSIAN regardless of Race Religion , or Caste . UMNO sadly do not want people to recognise this fact .A modern, youthful MALAYSIA dismissive of “divisiveness”” – While agree with what the problems the party is facing within and some of the external problems, where do you get the notion that India is getting dismissive of divisiveness? If anything the country is getting even more divisiveness? Look around you, ignore for the moment that you and me are a minority, educated, franchised, middle class and uban. The rest of the country is not and as long as they are not they will only turn to divisiveness or worse. You think the UMNO is getting their act together??? It dynastic politics and that’s all there is to it, with such an uneducated eloctorate all they USEDknow if the word UMNO. They knew MAHATHIR but without him they know nobody elseNOW THINGS HAS CHANGE has rightly raised a few points. The most pertinent of them, of course, is the fact that UMNO is devoid of any unique ideology. It is amazing how the party continues to patronize a mass murderer and looks towards him in times of crisis. The ageing head of UMNO is more interested in clinging on to non-issues and, more importantly, to his chair. He refuses to lead the party and is content with doing what his dim-witted cohorts have to say. Another issue with the UMNO is that it does not have any politician with a mass base. MAHTIR,NAJIB,KJ MAHAYUDDIN ZAID HAMIDI,KRISMUDDIN of the world are essentially loud mouths who are in love with their own voices. Mr. Mass Murderer has a small following of businessmen who are ready to fund his campaigns (in lieu for sops for them). ketuanan Malayuis paraded whenever UMNO wants to show-off its secular credentials.
The party survived on a hate campaign for long – first it was the CHINESE community, now it is the ANWAR’S family. But it has conveniently forgotten that hate alone will not fetch them votes. Their track record has been abysmal. When push came to shove, . The same person who gave the go-ahead wants to be perceived as Loh Purush (Iron Man) !! The votes that they managed to get in the general elections this time will evaporate for good if they don’t pull up their socks and deliver good governance in the states that they are ruling. Not that we are dying to have them back but any party that takes the country towards the path of prosperity deserves a chance. For all its shortcomings, (that too, midway through the elections !!). For all their chicanery (cash for votes scam), their evil designs fell flat. Crime rate up? Economy down? Environment dying? Corruption thriving? Yes, Malaysia needs a superhero.
— If the Permatang Pasir by-election was to gauge the effectiveness of Umno’s communal politicking, the results point to only one conclusion: failure.
Mohd Salleh Man, PAS Penang commissioner, beat Rohaizat Othman, the scandal-hit Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate, with a majority of 4,551. The former garnered 9,618 votes against the latter’s 5,067.
PAS won in all Chinese dominated areas throughout the state constituency. From the suburbs of Sama Gagah and Cross Street to the semi-rural town of Permatang Pauh, the Islamist party thumped their Umno rivals with big majorities.
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