Najib's off-tone extended syllable

Video of Pak Maun played during Najib's opening speech

When Dato Najib speaks with his normal tone, he sounded dignified and confident.

He has a good tone of voice, clear and well paced. Have heard him speak off the cuff in both Malay and English and his flow of thought is clear. Things go downhill the moment Najib tries to speak in casual Malay on a political platform like the UMNO General Assembly and at political rallies.

He thinks that it is a crowd puller and the audience enjoy it when he goes into an unnatural off-tone manner of speaking to raise his tone and extend syllables ending with "a". It is like reading Quran syllables meant for one harakat as three harakat.

More embarassing, Najib would start to lead cheers at the most awkward of time. He is President and Prime Minister. He does not need to play cheerleader.

Sedition Act relief

Dato Najib presented a White Paper on the threat of militancy and terrorism posed by the Islamic State (IS) group yesterday in Parliament.

He revealed Malaysians have been identified present in Syria and more would have joined if not arrested by authorities. The bigger threat to national security would be from those Malaysians returning from Iraq and Syria.

The White Paper contained a proposal to strengthen existing security laws, such as the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma), Prevention of Crime Act (Poca) and Penal Code, to counter threats by terrorists [read more in NST here].

This is timely relief in the wake of rising Bumiputera dissatisfaction towards Prime Minister Dato Najib.

Apart from getting blamed for the economic woes of Bumiputera that arise from his transformation plan, security issues arising from the amendment to the law saw a wide divergence in position between UMNO grassroot leaders and Najib's liberal advisers.

The much talked about speech today

From morning till late evening, from one water hole to another, from one meal to another, the conversation of the day had been none other than the speech by Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin yesterday.

He delivered a speech at the joint opening of the UMNO Wanita, Pemuda and Puteri wings that brought about many versions of interpretations.

Over breakfast, a young activist expressed the same reaction bloggers and social media activists expressed immediately after the speech in our Whats App groups. Bujai and House PK was most generous with their praises. [Read here and here]

Upon arriving home late evening, the first remark from our next door neighbour was the same heard all day. "Speech Muhyiddin malam tadi best lah!"

To this blogger, it was something that had been written many many many .... times since the disastrous 2008 general election.

More than meet the eyes II

The first EGM for Prostasco is tomorrow, November 26th.

The majority will determine the outcome. However, the equity held by Managing Director, Dato Chong Ket Peng versus Tey Por Yee and Ooi Kock Aun will not determine which party will oust which party.

It depend much on which way the institutional shareholders sway. Most institutions would rather stay out of the fight but the likelihood is they will stay with management.

Shareholders are only interested in continuity despite the good run on the share prices from the oil and gas play. The truth will be the least of their concern. Which side is right in their claim does not matter.

More than meet the eyes

For us mere mortals, we can only decide on what is available and visible. Nothing is what as it seemed. There is always the chance that there is more than meet the eyes.

What a person say maybe not what is intended to express. It could be a caution but accidently hinted clue of something bigger. There is something more than what was found and the real picture unknown to many is a bigger problem than what is perceived.

At times, what is being said is to hides the real reason. Action and expression on display may not be as it was meant to be but cryptic signals to mean something else.

The Cameron Highland incident and the Protasco boardroom tussle could be example of events that is more than meet the eyes.

Why spend RM97 million to cheat a company for RM50 million?

Still curious on Protasco Berhad.

The titled question still puzzles us. If Tey Poe Yee and Ooi Kock Aun cheated Prostasco for RM50 million, they run the risk of getting into trouble with the law and have their RM97 million investment in shares forfeited.

Supposed they manage to escape the law,  the company's value will reduce by RM50 million and could translate to a lower share price, thus netting off with much return or even losses. Why take such risk?

Since repeating that line several times in this blog, one blog emerged to try reply us by cooking up a story that the modus operandi of Tey and Ooi resembled what happened to the shareholder of a troubled property company.

Unfortunately it is a poor example to be credible.

Divine reminder for liberal Azran

A friend sent us a news report by Reuters today with regard to Air Asia X.

While reading the news on our smartphone at the Airport and waiting for our plane to go for a talk out of town, we were reminded of the above statement by the CEO sometime ago.

It had the malicious intention to shame Utusan Malaysia and was giving support to the critics of Utusan from among the oppositions and left wing liberals.

Supposedly liberals would respect the right and freedom of Utusan to express their views, even if they disagree with Utusan.

After all, they are not denied their space in the media.