Mahathir advice to najib want to escape a scam? Create another one

 "Engines of growth shouldn't roll back, or be shunted around."

Even a cursory glance would bear out what I said. Different scams, different times and different key dramatis personae. It almost seems that one was done to extricate the earlier one from a spot of bother.  I may be over reacting or be at my pessimistic best, but such is the sorry state of affairs that even the current threat of TMC to pull out seems no different. 

But these politicians have taken people for a ride far too long. As I have often said in the past, our politicians seem to live in dark ages. They do not realise that the world has moved on and the way they fool the gullible Indians since ages is no longer effective. The media may move on chasing TRPs in a newer case, but the huge social media, with its constantly growing base that is fast reaching a critical mass that few can ignore, is not that fickle. 

Almost every scam is documented and available on open sources for anyone who wants to look into it. And that is not all. Just when one feels a particular scam is now destined for oblivion, someone points it out and it again becomes a talking point. Thank goodness for that. It is due to that alone that most of these scams may escape the prying media but not the vigilant citizen journalist. They serve as a constant reminder to all crooks that people are now more aware than ever and will not only not forget their misdeeds, but have the platform/s available to propagate their wrongdoings more than ever before. So all those who thought milking my nation and getting away with it was a breeze, THINK AGAIN!

Datuk Seri Najib Razak will host a Google Hangout on September 29, becoming the second Malaysian politician to connect with IT-savvy Malaysians especially youths who form a distinct demographic of the 13 million eligible to vote in the next general election.

The Malaysian Insider understands that the prime minister will answer questions in the hour-long session in the online forum from 4pm that Saturday, a day after he tables the Budget 2013 proposals in Parliament. The budget is the last one before elections that must be called by middle 2013.

“Datuk Seri Najib(picture) is having a Google Hangout on September 29 at 4pm and this will add to other efforts in cyberspace,” a source told The Malaysian Insider.

It is learnt that his communication team is working on the details of the Google Hangout and an advertising campaign to promote the event, which will centre on the government’s efforts to develop the country into a high-income developed nation by 2020. It is also understood that Najib, who is finance minister, will also answer questions about the Budget 2013 proposals.

 this is what votr think of NAJIB

 UMNO-Barisan is trying to manipulate numbers. However, the longer it wait, the bigger will the drubbing it will receive in G13,"  said Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad 

Former Prime Minister has left behind an amazing legacy. He is the true architect of Malaysia’s economic reforms People of our vintage know how good  Mahathir was at the game and the common refrain was, if there is this big controversy and there is a lot of heat on the government, there is bound to be another major controversy to take the heat off the current one. If not that, there would be a brilliant spin to the whole issue to divert attention. Am sure several can recall the  controversy where.. Tan Sri Abul Hassan, and found large sums of money in the latter's drawer. Despite all that,Abul Hassan went on to become the Governor of Bank Negara ...   the next day was over the size of suitcase and if one person can haul it and the denomination of currency. The real issue of corruption

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today predicted that Barisan Nasional (BN) was “likely” to continue its rule after the next polls with a weak government but said this would be an undesirable outcome as the pact would be preoccupied with its own survival instead of the country’s development.

The country’s former prime minister pointed out that without a strong two-thirds majority in Parliament, a government could easily be toppled from its perch through mass defections.So the government is more interested in trying to survive and not ensuring that this country grows and prospersWhen a leader is preoccupied with survival, then attention to businesses, the commercial industry, would be much less,a strong government is necessary if we are going to do unpleasant things. We cannot be pleasant all the time.A government has to annoy the people. If the government wants to be popular all the time, then it would be doing the wrong thing,”

I don’t believe the PM is a corrupt man But like most Malaysian I think he is past his expiry date. His critics were saying this. Now his defenders are saying the same thing. There’s nothing more, it seems, he can contribute to our political discourse. It’s best someone more capable steps in who can better handle the affairs of State and control quick-fingered ministers from dipping into public funds for personal gain.Of all the people I know,Najib suffers the most from Wilful Blindness. He sees what’s happening around him and yet he is detached, pretends he knows nothing. Point out a wrongdoing to him and however bad it may be for Malaysia, his first reaction is to look away. He is convinced that what he does not see, does not exist. It can be crime or corruption, injustice or human rights violation, he can will anything away just by shutting his eyes.While this may be wonderful for his conscience, I am not sure it’s good for Malaysia. As everyone knows, Mahathir said heis not a admirer of the Opposition. If it’s possible to find a more effete bunch of bickering idiots, you will find them sitting on that side. But I don’t grudge them that, as long as they sit there and scream their lungs out. What we really need in these difficult times are better people in Government to take Malaysia ahead. Tinkering around with minor policy changes can achieve nothing. What we need is more definitive action and zero tolerance towards crooks.

To begin with, Najib believes (unlike earlier PMs) that his job is to take only economic decisions. He sees himself as a Super Finance Minister; that’s all. He is neither interested in Science nor Technology. Arts and Culture do not exist for him. He has never involved himself in Education or Medicare. Justice and Human Rights don’t matter to him. Nor do issues of Environment or Public Health. He occasionally concerns himself with Foreign Policy but only to the extent that touches upon Trade and Commerce. In short, none of the real issues matter to him. So people with actual problems have stopped approaching him. The joke is that the one area where Najib is focused is where everything’s going wrong. One stupid decision after another has killed the economy. Reforms are stalled. Foreign investors have fled because of a series of incredibly foolish steps taken within a short span that have driven the FDI down

The economic costs are staggering compared to the tax amount the Government is pursuing. Not only have foreign investors fled, even Malaysian businessmen are relocating since no one feels secure in an environment where the Government and its agencies can harass anyone they want on the flimsiest grounds. By raping the Jstice system, they have also destroyed ourPDRM, reduced our wages, and raised inflation to scary heights.

And what is being done to correct this? Fuel prices are raised every few months. There are talks about more taxes. We who were once claiming to be a economy Power are on the verge of becoming Super Poor. But what’s worse is the retaining of Raist Yatim , harbinger of the dreaded . The minister who killed our economy have not been replaced. Instead, efforts are being made to bludgeon public protest. By trying to control social media and ban everything in sight, from cartoons in textbooks to films, music, art, books, public performance, internet sites the Government is damaging Malaysia’s credibility every day.

Is this the legacy Najib wants to leave behind? An economy in coma, a harassed citizenry, the media under siege, our savings gone, and Malaysia’s fabulous growth story now a distant memory.One scam follows the other, taking the heat off the earlier scam. Of course, the hyper-active media moves on even as the earlier ‘huge scandal’ is consigned to the backburner, till it resurfaces.

This arrangement works beautifully for the perpetrators of scams. Gives them the breathing space and with the number of scams being exposed going up significantly, the person who has already been exposed knows once a new scam is unearthed, the focus would now be on others for quite a while and he/she can roam about as if nothing happened.

Just take a look at some of the scams unearthed in recent years. Cash for Vote and Tan Sri Dato' Seri Ali Abul Hassan bin Sulaiman’s money laundering scams 

The Google Hangout comes at a time when the Malaysian authorities lodged an official complaint to Google and its video-sharing site YouTube about the anti-Islam film clip “Innocence of Muslims” which is seen as denigrating Prophet Muhammad and the faith, which is the country’s official religion.

YouTube has blocked access to the video clip from Malaysian Internet Protocol (IP) addresses but other services remain. The video-sharing site is popular in Malaysia and is mainly used by opposition politicians who want to bypass local free-to-air television stations which are either run by the state or by pro-government owners.

Just as election time makes us choose between the relative importance of issues and personalities, we can ask which of these two decisive forces lends itself better to creative similes. These days, issues seem to go on forever, just like politicians. But since there are many more netas around, they provide a bigger pool in our search for updated figures of speech

Najib’s main political foe, Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, was the first politician in the country to hold a Google Hangout, which allows virtual meetings of up to 10 people or a broadcast to an online audience of millions. Anwar’s event drew thousands when it was held on August 17, two days before the Eid festival when Malaysian Muslims return home to celebrate the end of the holy Ramadan fasting month.

We should all learn to avoid cliches, not 'like the plague' but, perhaps 'like a tainted politician'. The headlines may make you throw up, but they also throw up great opportunities for creative and contemporary similes. For example, discounted oven-toaster-grills could sell not 'like hot cakes', which are alien to our great Malay culture anyway, but 'like subsidised petrol'. For us in the media, they'd sell 'like hot scams'.

US President Barack Obama hosted a Google Hangout last January as part of his re-election campaign. The forum comes in the form of live video connections and video YouTube questions.

Najib, who will seek his own mandate in the next polls, is one of the country’s most popular politicians online through his blog www.1malaysia.com.my, his two Facebook accounts and his Twitter microblogging account.

His main Facebook page has 1,181,087 likes against Anwar’s 388,219 likes in a country which has some 12.9 million Facebook accounts.

On Twitter, Najib has 883,418 followers while the PKR de facto leader has about a sixth of that at 192,530 followers. But Anwar is active on Twitter with nearly nine times more tweets than Najib. Both have also organised tweet-ups or meetings with their followers in Kuala Lumpur in what is seen as an attempt to reach out and engage those who shun the mainstream media.

Putrajaya’s push for greater Internet coverage has seen the broadband penetration rate for households rising to 62.9 per cent in the first quarter of this year from 62.3 per cent in 2011, said the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) last month. Malaysia has about 6.69 million households.

The Pakatan Rakyat (PR) opposition pact has always been seen as having the upper hand in cyberspace presence over Barisan Nasional (BN), but in recent months the ruling coalition has expanded its online presence with several pro-BN news portals and a rising number of supporters taking to Twitter.

Despite the increased presence, a pro-BN campaign called “I Choose Malaysia” has been dominating the airwaves and prime advertising space in state and private television stations as well as newspapers controlled by Umno and the MCA. The campaign features quotes from government companies’ chief executives and pro-government bloggers and aims for those who do not have access to cyberspace.