Muhyiddin's Goldman scheme of things

MACC have been on the prowl of public spending guise for emergency but suspiciously diverted into the war chest of PPBM and PN.

At the time rakyat were "imprisoned", financially in strait jacket, and ones couldn't bear the pressure resorted to suicide, the impression is Muhyiddin-led government were amassing a political warchest at the rakyat expense.

It is despicable, but more despicable is when the country is in a dire financial state, and there is an attempt to recoup the dissipated money of the 1MDB scam, but those in power may have diverted the Goldman Sach's settlement ala Low Taek Jho.

The loss due to Goldman's indiscretion is US$9.5 billion. The Lim Guan Eng seek a claim against Goldman at US$7.5 billion. Back then, Lim Sian See may have argued for a ballpark of US6 billion cash. 

When PH fell, Tengku Zafrul and a coterie of officials and Muhyiddin advisers quickly agreed to a settlement of US$3.9 billion. 

Zahid, UMNO's surgeon from Ponorogo

Be out with it. Zahid Hamidi is a Malaysian with Javanese root to Ponogoro. Yours truly to Kendal and Ceribon.

Despite established as a major Malay sub-ethnic group in Malaysia, Javanese remained stereotyped as that obedient, and hard-working immigrant labourers. 

Javanese are non-confrontational, tolerant and patience thus easy prey for ridicule. More so, they refrain from slighting others and expressed their disagreement, and anger in mild and cryptic manner that they tend to be misunderstood. 

However, their rural good natured character should not be underestimated and taken for granted. 

Last Friday was an occasion whereby the tolerance of a Javanese reached its limit and he turned decisive when it warrants one. 

Grant fraud

Grant fraud typically occurs when award recipients attempt to deceive the government about their spending of award money.

According to the Department of Justice, using federal grant dollars for unjust enrichment, personal gain, or other than their intended use is a form of theft, subject to criminal and civil prosecution under the laws of the United States.

Such misappropriation have been occuring in Malaysia but remain petty such as research grant abuse to share allowances with unrelated academic colleagues. 

There have been more attention to this fraud since. Few years ago there was a call for recipient of FINAS grant be revealed publicly. 

Its likely MACC uncovered serious findings on the current priority one investigation into Covid-19 pandemic spending and stimulus package for Deputy Chief Commissioner of MACC, Dato Seri Khusairi Yahya to issue a statement today. 

Widely reported by media is Penjana Kerjaya. There are murmurs on misappropriation of the so-called economic recovery initiative involving Penjana Kapital and earlier written, drone company, Aerodyne.

Khusairi wrote in The Vibe today:

BNM Board member is CEO of Aerodyne

Sister blog, Thick as a Brick put up a posting prior to CNY holiday on Malaysia's supposedly "kereta terbang" company's planned listing with the question: "Is Aerodyne a scam?"

No person accused but since Aerodyne's CEO is a member of the Board of Directors of BNM, the questionable issues and rumours  are best addressed.

Not only the good name of Government department, and agencies involved should be upheld, the related industry players too.

The country's central bank is already tarnished by the alleged bribe and conflict of interest of former Governor Dr Zeti in the 1MDB debacle.

UMNO will continue to remain relevant

The night before the Vote of Confidence in Parliament, there was a Sinar LIVE session last December 15th. 

Lecturer for the Centre for Communication and Media Studies, Ts Nurul Aishah Ab Raman expressed the opinion UMNO's brand remain relevant but need changes. 

She is right to say so. Branding is important in politics. Golkar is not as dominant as in the days of Sukarno and Suharto, but the known brand remain the party to watch in Indonesia. 

So does Kuomintang of Taiwan, Congress of India and LDP of Japan. 

Rail-volution: Move over private transportation

The next day after his appointment as Transport Minister, viral on social media are photos of Anthony Loke unassumingly riding the public train. He has since been seen riding and inspecting the rail facilities on few more occasions. 

His regularity invited nasty social media comments calling a political show. Putting aside the snide remarks, Loke is sending the message that his main concern is public transportation specifically the Klang Valley. 

Had they known that Prasarana operation lost RM13 billion and building the MRT3 will cost up to RM80 billion, the commentators would have been more judicious. 

Scary as it maybe, the Klang Valley population is about RM8 million (2020), which is 24.5% of Malaysia's 32.7 million (2021) population. 

To understand the Greater Klang Valley, one need to look beyond Sepang, Rawang, Putrajaya and nearby areas to include as far away as Bentong, Seremban and Ipoh. 

Not another effing Sheraton-like move!

This blog's Monday posting to reproduce Edge Weekly article entitled "Will Malaysia avert a recession in 2023?", was meant to highlight that the economy was the priority for new Prime Minister, Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim. 

High on his list of priority is to avert a cost-of-living crisis for the low- and medium-income voters, and the fear of stagflation. 

Political stability is a key factor in addressing these economic issues. Thus there should not be frequent changes of government, be it at state or federal level. 

Agong impressed on this, thus the reason his Majesty insisted on a Unity Government as solution to the political impasse from the absence of any party holding a majority. 

This message some how did not jive with certain Sabah politicians, which sadly involved certain factions of the ruling parties in the Unity Government.