Friday, February 21, 2014

PKNS: Intrigues of street-ruled government (Part 6)


Khalid, SELCAT and out-of-court settlement

Yesterday, news reported the Selangor legislative assembly's Select Committee of Competency, Accountability and Transparency (Selcat) will be holding a hearing on the removal of Azmin Ali as PKNS board member and the dismissal of the 23 staff of PKNS Holdings.

Mysteries surrounding the dismissals will be heard on the March 25 and 26 but that will be after polling of the Kajang by-election on March 23.

In the past, SELCAT was seldom used as a political manouvre to cover-up wrongdoings in Khalid-led government. It could be different this time because the suspicion is SELCAT will be used to serve the purpose of removing or justify the withdrawal of Tan Sri Khalid  Ibrahim as Menteri Besar.

Last week, the financial news reported a mysterious off-court-settlement involving Khalid's Guthrie related outstanding unpaid loan to Bank Islam.

The amount used to be reported as RM66.7 million. Since then, some report claimed the amount has  increased to RM80 million. It is probably accumulated interest but Bank Islam will call it by some Arab sounding term to pass it off as halal.

Now the principal of it. What is really going on? Will SELCAT look into it?

Thursday, February 20, 2014

PKNS: Intrigues of street-ruled government (Part 5)


Daylight robbery at De Palma

Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim makes it a political war cry to denounce UMNO's Selangor administration as corrupt, inefficient and poor governance.

When it comes to corruption, this blog is not racist or aligned with any party. It has to be addressed  without fear or favour. One would expect Khalid to address the low lying fruits first.

In PKNS, it is an open secret that there is openly a conflict of interest and major leakage in the operations of De Palma hotel. MACC have went in, Internal Auditor have went in and name it whose who inside and outside have went in to investigate but nothing happen.

Go ahead and blame the BN because De Palma exist since the time of Tan Sri Muhammad Muhammad Taib who happens be in PAS now. However, PKR and Pakatan Rakyat have taken over Selangor since 2008.

In 2008, Khalid claimed PKNS will be managed professionally and Selangor will ensure a corrupt free administration. Why things remain as usual - open and blatantly corrupt at De Palma Hotel?

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

PKNS: Intrigues of street-ruled government (Part 4)


RM40 million spent for PKNS FC?

Over the past two days, we were pondering over whether to continue the series or do it in a different posting. Since the Kajang bi-election is in March, we will just continue.

The widely held perception created by Pakatan Rakyat is that Selangorian felt enough is enough with UMNO and BN rule. However, there are reasons to believe that even Chinese media beginning to realise that Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim is not as he seemed to be.

If Khalid is such, Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim will be worse. Khalid's problem was that he applied corporate style management which is only bottom line focused to complex public administration with multiple stakeholders that could determine his political fortune.

Anwar can be impressive on stage, talking and persuading but he is inconsistent and a walking hypocrit. Apart from his political skill, he has no other technical set to claim as his competency. When put in charge, he is likely to falter.

Selangor is not an easy state to administer and the MB is a cursed political position. Although pro-UMNO bloggers and UMNO politicians are avoiding the PKNS issue, it represents everything wrong with the state administration.

Some problems like PKNS FC goes back a long way. If PR talks so much about the wastages and leakages of UMNO-BN ruled Selagor, why didn't they correct the wastages and leakages?

Sunday, February 16, 2014

PKNS home buyers to get land title after 45 years!


In 1969, more than 100 homes was built and sold by PKNS in Taman Keramat or usually called by local as Kg Datuk Keramat to mostly government employees.

However, things got complicated and messy when Selangor government gave away Kuala Lumpur to the federal government as federal territory in 1972.

As a result of Government bureaucracy, inefficiency, and indifferent attitude to KIV problems, some 30 homeowners had to wait 45 years before there was any hope for them to feel their long paid properties as their own.

Musical Interlude: Mozart and Mahler by MPO


Just returned from watching the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra under the conductor Claus Peter Flor at the Dewan Filharmonik Petronas.

Tonight's show started out with Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 22 featuring Till Fellner on piano. There is no recording allowed in the MPO however there is You Tube of another performance of Mozart's concerto:

Friday, February 14, 2014

PKNS: Intrigues of street-ruled government (Part 3)


Slaughtering of Azmin

Leaving the last Part 2 for two days allowed for further development on the PKNS issue.

Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim continued with his cost saving bullshit to say he is tightening PKNS control. He already tightened control when PKNS was under a barrage of attack prior to GE13. Any blame of losing control is no more just Othman but more him.

How successful will Khalid attempt to cover-up by appointing three exco members; Datok Teng Chang Kim, Iskandar Abdul Samad and Roziah Ismail to listen to briefings and explanations of senior PKNS staff? [Read The Star here]

They will be listening to PKNS staff and not PKNS Holdings staff side of the story. Expected issues raised would be duplication of work, high pay but outsource work, and suspicions of cronyism.

However they should hear from the former PKNS Holding staff of PKNS staff's own sordid stories too.

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

PKNS: Intrigues of street-ruled government (Part 2)


PKNS and Kajang Move

The popular interpretation is that it is the culmination of 5 years of never ending quarrel between PKR’s Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim an PKR Deputy President, Azmin Ali.

Some felt it is an act to justify Khalid to make way for Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim to assume the Menteri Besar position. It also serves to address the “Azmin problem” and will be Anwar’s stepping stone to Premiership.

In this second Part, we shall continue with the info from conversation with an old piers from those Bangsar partying days. It promises more intrigues together with endless back stabbing and revenge within the fold of PKR seeking for Anwar's favour.

At the end, it is all about Anwar and his pursuit for premiership.  Those seeking Anwar's favour will be left by the wayside.

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

PKNS: Intrigues of street-ruled government (Part 1)


The recent sacking of 30 PKNS Holding staff is being interpreted differently by different groups for various reasons. To correct that, it actually only involved 19 Managers and executive staff.

Upon hearing from an old pier inside PKNS from our Bangsar partying days, who is outside our common circle with former GM, Dato Othman Omar, the problem is indeed more complex than the popular perception formed from the news reports.

With PKR  at the helm, there is so much intrigues. On reflection, one can only expect such from a street-rule government. Despite his lack of experience and expertise in public administration, even corporate personality like Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim ended up behaving like vengeful street hoodlums.

Great rhetoric, and lofty ideals but unrealistic dreams. PKNS is indication of their ignorance and incompetence in governance.

Saturday, February 08, 2014

No sex please.... We are PKR


"No Sex Please ... We are British" was a 1970s play about a Bank Manager with a young wife. He sent for a mail order of Scandanavian glassware.

However, he ended up getting a stream of pornography, photographs, books, films and eventually girls. The hilarious part of the play, which was later made into a film, was the attempt to get rid of the embarassing paraphenalia.

Before making any guess that this posting is more sexual expose on the sexual escapade of Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim, please read on because your guess could be wrong.

Thursday, February 06, 2014

Omar Ong link to AES established!


Over dinner sometime last year, one former mainstream media editor shared an information on the controversial AES. He said someone related told him that Dato Omar Ong has interest in the privatisation of AES.

The editor told a lot of what he heard on the grapevine but shared no details or explanation. Only "someone said this" and "someone said that", thus giving an impression of him as someone loves delving in petty gossip.

We did not consider his word as reliable and most of the rumour mentioned by the old timer is out there in the blogs and social media. However, we did not totally put it aside. And, we got someone to check and got only an affirmative yes. Still no details was given.

Ever since, few other sources, in which few are consistently reliable, confirmed the same. Syed Akbar's posting here on The Star's report confirmed the link to Omar Ong.

Wednesday, February 05, 2014

Reflect MCA feuding history


Grassroot MCA, particularly Wanita had a problem with having Dato Dr Chua Soi Lek as President. However, we have a certain respect and admiration to ours fellow Batu Pahat man. Not so much of his ability to sustain erection, but for several reasons.

First and foremost, he is fearless and not afraid to shoot from the hip. He is not someone to mince his words. For a politician, he is the nearest thing to a WYSIWYG.

Yesterday, we came across a Malaysiakini tweet in which he accused Tun Dr Mahathir for making UMNO strong and BN weak. Read here.

Tuesday, February 04, 2014

Bullets for the Opposition


A typical UMNO totok (fanatics) would scorn at those that raise issues that later be made viral by the opposition against leaders, government and the party. Their usual argument is why give bullets to the oppositions and who the hell are you tell so and so.

Dato Abdul Kadir Jasin, Outsyed The Box, Din Turtle and many others are being attacked by other UMNO totok bloggers or probably directed to attack by certain people for their critical concern on the leadership's weakness that could be detrimental to the party.

Kadir hardly gave away any information but merely giving cynical commentaries of event that has it's weight of truth. His personal and business affair is being dissected but his message not rebutted.  

For two cautionary postings and a photo with Tun Daim Zainuddin and Syed Akbar in Outsyed the Box, Firdaus Abdullah @ Apanama is being brushed in the same stroke by some left out bloggers. His short posting seemed to attract supporters with interesting rebuttals.

Someone alerted us that blogs Helen Ang, Rockybru and The Unspinners is having problem of access. Being long in this game, it is not too difficult for us to guess the probable players and paymasters indulging in such dirty tricks of firing your own.  

For us, to each his or her own.

Monday, February 03, 2014

The unanswered question: Were they abused?


On December 18th last year, a Malaysian Tourism official in Stockholm, Azizul Raheem Awaluddin and his wife, a teacher on unpaid leave, Salwati Nurshall were arrested by police for allegedly abusing their children. [Read Swedish news in English in The Local here.]

It became news in Malaysia in the middle of January when mainstream media headlined it as parents arrested for spanking children refusing to pray. It is a practise in traditional Malay households to judiciously punish kids above 9 years old for refusing to do their five times a day.

The public was concerned for the children welfare. The Malay Muslims were not happy to see the children placed with a non-Muslim Swedish foster family. It reminded them of the horrifying end to Mathematical child prodigy, Sufiah Yusoof to the Pakistani-Malay couple in Britain. [Read back here]

There is rumour going around of the existence of syndicate in Sweden taking away children of Muslim families by detaining the parents for investigation under child abuse.

The children are back here and media reported government giving all necessary support but a question remained unanswered from the day the news broke. Was it merely a spanking or real abuse done on the four children; Aishah, 14, Ammar, 12, Adam, 11 and Arif, 7.

Royal Encounter of the Third Kind


Thursday's posting, Close Encounter of the Royal Kind predicts the motive behind Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim's move to run for the Kajang state seat was to do a showdown with the Selangor monarchy.

PKR's failed spinmaster, Rafizi claimed it is to save Selangor from the return of BN under the clutch of Tun Dr Mahathir's faction in view of Najib's gullible political situation. Subsequently, Anwar admit it was to save Selangor.

In a press conference  to announce his candidacy, Anwar said he does not wish to deal with the issue of MB appointment. One theory claims Anwar will not assume Menteri  Besar position but dual role to "check and balance" and "protect" Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim. Faekah hinted that Sultan has the power to appoint the Menteri Besar and tradition shows only Selangor born will assume the position.

Thus the showdown theory. Then in yesterday's press conference in Permatang Pauh, he said [as quoted from MM here], “We will not complicate the role of the Ruler.”

However, there are two differing theories to offer a royal encounter of the third kind.   

Sunday, February 02, 2014

Boycott Astro, not Bantah


Wrote about Astro sometime ago here.

So lending these pro-PKR unregistered NGO a hand. But why Bantah Astro or protest against Astro? It is not a strong message and hints of dependency.

Commercial entities only understand money and bottom line. If it affects their bottom line, only then they will heed and listen.

My Say