MITI Open Day ploy for TPPA

Sometimes our politicians and government officials will meet certain groups for dialogues but content of the discussion is not made known. At times, it is requested to be kept a secret using the guise of closed door meeting.

When public pressure mounts on the Government, the Minister will say we have been engaging people. Most likely he or she will throw names to say we have talked with so and so NGOs. Even so and so have been deliberated to.

It is an old trick of governing that one can see it repeatedly happening in the British TV comedy doing a satire on government in "Yes Minister" and "Yes Prime Minister."

Continuing where we left off yesterday on "TPPA's shroud of secrecy", MITI Open Day on Thursday tomorrow looks to be such repeated ploy. The session is scheduled from 9 AM to 1 PM at Martrade building.

From what we gathered, the Minister will be speaking for about 30 minutes and then split to 9 different sessions.

TPPA's shroud of secrecy

MITI Minister, Dato Mustapha Mohamed denied MITI is keeping secrets. He said we cannot reveal to details of the negotiation and negotiating plans. .

And, he gave assurance that we will hold on to three principles to uphold constitution and law, maintain the distinction between federal and state power, and no change in our policies.

There is no basis to keep secrets at least from the stakeholders because allow it for public scrutiny and willing to be rejected at state level.

Our worry is the someone knowledgeable and eloquent on this subject told us that the Chief Negotiator, Dato Dr Rebecca Fatima Sta Maria told them that after going through 17 rounds of negotiation, "It has been a good learning experience for them."

This affect the nation and it is merely a learning experience?

Dubious BN campaign procurement

On June 1st, 2013, about a month after the general election in the midst of fuming UMNO members and bloggers with the management and campaign for the general election, The Unspinners provoke his readers with a posting on a rumour of campaign fund being swindled involving the War Room, NCT, and UMNO headquarter. [read here].

An anonymous commentator by the name of HAMBA ALLAH YANG PRIHATIN DAN ANTI RASUAH verified and disclosed more details on the alleged swindling by high level people in Dato Najib's circle of trust in the party and also his Prime Minister's Department outfit.

Subsequently, The Unspinners made the comment into a dedicated posting [read here]. Bigdog and Sabahkini published it too. [read here and here.]

Since then, nothing is heard until a document surface yesterday.

Sinking Suaram to the ocean abyss

The question is why now when the submarine issue has already been debunked and Suaram has lost their momentum despite attempt to resurrect the submarine purchase issue.

Better late than never, the New Straits Times released today an exclusive on Jasbir Singh Chahl. His name was being bandied about by SUARAM in their biggest lie to claim that the French court had subpoena him.

There was no such subpoena. Investigation is still on-going. And, there is no charges filed against anyone yet.

SUARAM needed to make that lie to deceive the public into thinking there is progress in court and it is not a lie as accused by government. It was a ploy for public support and donation.  

Read our last year's posting here, here and here.

TPPA: Problems of trust and delusion

Ah ... body still aching from the late night to morning return trip by road from Kuala Besut to Kuala Lumpur.

So our prediction was wrong but we are not the only one. The lower voter turnout should result in lower majority. In fact, there was a bit of a scare in the late afternoon. Voters from the white areas are not coming out as much as we wanted. 

This "good to be wrong" larger majority indicate that the local based voters are still supporting BN. Perhaps, it indicate that the fenceseaters shifted from PAS to BN. Another possibility is that outside voters could not return to buffer PAS's loss.

BN may have won handsomely but it does not mean the ground is fine. If only they know what transpired in the meeting between Perkasa and PM yesterday. We should have been there but couldn't. It would have been "fun" to add more to the already explosive expression of feedbacks.

TPPA was also touched.

PAS's Black Ops to awake lethargic Kuala Besut

As usual, UMNO's campaign is boring, predictable and tame.

UMNO's pre-election psywar was on the right note when they managed to get PAS to appoint Dato Husam Musa as Election Director for PAS. By doing so, it brings out the local rivalry of being a Kelantanist district inside Terengganu.

Then, they slowed the pace down. Hardly much flag, no posters till last few days, and not much ceramah.With Ramadan and local constituency is mostly farmers and fisherman, who would like to stay after Terawih prayers for a ceramah?

PAS played it slow too. After all, there is hardly much local issues to play on for PAS.

Emir Mavani not out of the woods on his doctorate

So, it is not a British doctorate but Irish. On Irish universities, we could easily check-up with our counterparts abroad. We have an Irish paper from University College of Dublic.

But, a news report in Rocky's blog HERE revealed something that does not bring Emir Mavani out of the wood yet on his alleged fake doctorate. No need to check-up then.

The real story yesterday is Bigdog's revelation HERE.

Minority shares for RM200,000 an acre? Or was it for a hectare?

Dr Chen Man Hin as partner? Non controlling and troubled Board of Directors? High PE acquisition for matured plantation? Lumping RM1.2 billion out of RM4 billion publicly raised?

Wonder, who brought the deal to them?

Besut bound [up-dated]

Supposed to pen down our view on the Alvin Tan and Vivian Chong affair but just too busy today .... sleeping.

Now, we are Besut bound to catch the pulse of the Ramadhan by-election. Heard it is a rather eerie feeling by-election. Hardly any posters, low turnout for ceramah and requires lots of personal touch and visits.

While there are those that feels that Barisan Nasional can maintain a healthy majority of at least 2,000 and even more, rumours spread by PAS that there could be sabotage just to teach Dato Najib a lesson.

What is the lesson the 'kampong' people of Kuala Besut wish to teach? Most of the allegation by PAS have been explained and it was alleged that they are a bigger culprit. Its Anwar's favourite game of  accuse your enemy for one's own sin.

So happen Anwar's protege in PAS, Dato Husam Musa is the Campaign Director and his protege is the candidate.

Bringing back Emir Mavani is the pride of Talent Corp

New Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Dato Abdul Wahid Omar (AWO to us but DAWO to those not his senior in MRSM) was in parliament yesterday to reply a question on Talent Corporation.

He defended a policy developed by his mentor, Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop. In his effort to answer, he gave quite few details. Hurrah for a transparent government. But it opened a can of worm which we were going to wait for a latter part of our ongoing series on Nor Yakcop to reveal.

Sorry to say AWO buddy, the pinnacle of Talent Corp success is to bring back the doctorate lying and alleged kickback taking Emir Mavani from Qatar.

In their over zealousness to bring back so-called talents abroad, the Government have placed a fraud in a policy making position in PEMANDU, seconded him as FGV Director with four other organisation wrecking PEMANDU into the FGC hierarchy, put him as CEO-in- waiting and when exposed, insist on appointing him CEO of FGV.

Even school dropout, Mazlan Aliman can digest that and have his field days. It is no more about Tan Sri Isa Samad issue but Dato Najib's.

The problem of Talent Corp has been raised by bloggers before but Najib refused to listen. And he used to say it is no more the time of Government knows everything. Now it is clear that it is to enrich Omar Ong with consultancy fee that Parliament is not allowed to know but rumours has placed it at RM300 million.

Khazanah should not be made to pay for Nor Yakcop's fraudulent acts!

The Star's BK Siddhu has the latest scoop on the lawsuit of Tan Sri Halim Saad against Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop as the first party.

First read back our mid-June postings, Covering up Nor Yakcop's fraud and Truth is Nor Yakcop is a fraud. Rocky Bru put a posting of Halim's summon here. And, Nor Yakcop's affidavit can be found here.

There seemed to be an out-of-court settlement in the making. But, who will be paying for the liabilities arising from the fraudulent act of the first party? Some say it is still alleged fraud, but let's be honest to call a fraud as fraud. 

There is such a thing as insurance coverage for professional indemnity. However, it does not and should not apply for actions taken with a clear intention to commit fraud and default on a signed agreement.

For someone whose lost RM16 billion of the nation's money under Bank Negara Malaysia's managed reserve in the past, don't tell us that Khazanah Nasional has to be the insurance company to pay Nor Yakcop's liabilities?

The rakyat will not gives a duck to any excuse in saving a crook even if he is soft spoken, seemed "knowledgeable", and knows a lot of people.

After the Pope, Obama ....

The visit to the Pope that culminated into Vatican City establishing diplomatic relation didn't start on the right foot.

Apostolic Nancio to Malaysia, Archbishop Joseph Salvador Marino expressed support to the Malaysian Catholic Church for their position on the "Allah" issue. That created uproar for it is  tantamount to interfering in the domestic affair of Malaysia a country.

Foreign Minister, Dato Anifah Aman issued a strong statement and  the Archbishop met Anifah yesterday to express apology. That should be the end of it but one Tan Sri text us to wonder why must Anifah be the one to issue the statement?

Shouldn't the Archbishop himself be issuing his apology? Why must the leadership kept looking like a fool ....

'Lembik' responses to Vatican Envoy

On July 11th, The Malaysian Insider reported Apostolic Nuncio to Malaysia, Archbishop Joseph Marino made a statement in an interview to support the Catholic Church of Malaysia on the use of "Allah" for God in churches.

This attracted several other Muslim organisations and leaders, notably Perkasa and Jati to demand for apology or expulsion of the Archbishop and closing the Embassy.

President of the Council of Churches, Bishop Phillip Lok responded with a call on Prime Minister, Dato Najib to take a stand against Perkasa and Jati.

In the midst of the exchanges, Minister in the PM's Department for Religious Affair, Dato Dr Jamil Khir's was reported to merely complain on the Archbishop for creating anxiety.

He failed to address the right issue. The issue is not about the use of "Allah" in churches that is still being appealed at the Court of Appeal but interference in our domestic affair and suspicion of dabbling in local politics.

A great talent leaves (Part 7): Aides charged for corruption

The one characteristic of Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop is that he is soft spoken and polite. The man has a sense of humour despite being a man of serious disposition. Many are impressed with his firmness and perceived honesty.

The fact that he resigned from his comfortable position in Bank Negara in 1994, he left with the impression of being accountable and although he broke the rule and was imprudent, the market see him with a certain amount of respect.

Another factor that endears him with his superior is his sense of loyalty and service. Come what may, he had been lucky to get support and protection. 

Although he is perceived as honest then, he has not been so since becoming Minister of Finance 2.

We are skipping the time he was Special Adviser to the Prime Minister first to highlight a point. Nor Yakcop was no more clean and honest as soon as he held that powerful Ministerial position.

A great talent leaves (Part 6): Cover-up and Rising Up

We return to the original mamak in pursuit.

Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop was seen by a friend having high tea at Chef & Brew, a posh eatery at Plaza Damansara with a group of his kaki. Coincidently, it is also a favoured joint of Khairy and his kaki. All of a sudden, the usually soft spoken Nor Yakcop was heard from far saying, “I am in a lot of trouble already. Don’t you read the blogs?”

It could be an excuse to turn down a request from his friend but maybe he is feeling the heat from discussions on the business dealing of Tabung Haji by his boy, Dato Ismee, the purchase of Vision City by his boy, Dato Sharil Redza at EPF, and many more by the English blogs.

We are far from reaching those current issues but still on his days making losses gambling government’s money in the highly speculative foreign exchange market and committing criminal breach of trusts at Abrar Corporation, Abrar International and Mun Loong.

Interestingly, the mainstream media has been covering up his early disasters during Pak Lah’s days to justify his appointment as Minister. We look into it as we stroll through his days with Pak Lah.

The Mamak Dilemma

It's our birthday today and it will be celebrated with a quiet dinner with our other half. At the ripe old age of "35" ... sorry for the switch-up, 53, we do not need noisy parties.

However, we can't have our dinner till we get this off our chest. It's a real dilemma occupying the cavity in our ears and head. The dilemma hardly compares with Tun Dr Mahathir's observation in The Malay Dilemma but it is irritating.

It does not matter what many pengampu academician said, but The Malay Dilemma was not a scholarly work. However, we've heard our American professors complimenting Tun's astute observations. It was the premise for his policies for 22 years as Prime Minister. 

Our dilemma is The Mamak Dilemma variant. And, it relates to the appointment of Dato Azeez Abdul Rahim as Chairman of Lembaga Tabung Haji (LTH).

Many would comment that it is a clear cut issue, thus there is no dilemma.

No more about Malays

In a previous posting here, we wrote about a quote from Prime Minister Dato Najib's speech at last month's Invest Malaysia conference. The quote below:

"In the medium term, we must make our affirmative action programmes more market-friendly and meritocratic."

We are reminded of this quote and posting because it is conflicting. Affirmative action can never be market-friendly and meritocratic because in the context of Malaysia, it has a certain nation-building objective to do social engineering to narrow some ethnic-based gaps.

Affirmative action (or known as positive discrimination in the United Kingdom) refers to policies that take factors including "race, color, religion, sex, or national origin" into consideration in order to benefit an under-represented group "in areas of employment, education, and business".

We know in our days back in the US, blacks from the hood were given many form of assistance to get them college degrees. It is not just financial but goes to the point of creating courses to enable them to catch-up with the rest. Some courses meant for them seemed like Form 4 or 5 materials to us.

So there is nothing sinful about affirmative actions. But it made us ponder what does market friendly and meritocratic affirmative action means.

Musical Prelude: Thick as a Brick

The "A Great Talent Leaves" series will take a short break. Only covered was the talented Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop's days in Bank Negara and Abrar.

In Part 1, Nor Yakcop ended his days supposedly as a knowledgeable financial man but acknowledged as only mere talent by PEMANDU and TERAJU.

However, he is not leaving. In Part 2: Continued presence, the concern expressed is his continued presence to be able to wield power at Khazanah. There is speculation that he will be the next PNB Chairman.

Part 3: Bounty to Hunt dispel views that the series have ulterior motive related to recent developments. It's not true because he has been on the "hit list" for a long time. Like a bounty hunter, we never give-up.

It does not matter that many do not appreciate the destruction caused by Nor Yakcop. So we start the revelation on the foreign exchange loss and Abrar to enable others to understand the psyche of this dangerously reckless man who has turned from gentleman to a conniving man.

A great talent leaves (Part 5): Forgiven sins

Abrar Corporation is under receivership. That is the notice found on the Internet. It is a tombstone to remind of the failure of Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop's first "legitimate" attempt in business in 1994 to 1998. Despite his strings of failure, he still rose up to high position.

Abrar was started by two Malaysian student Islamicsts activist in the US back in the late 80s. Both of them were doing their Phd - Ex Malay College, Dr Wan Hasni and ex MRSM Pengkalan Chepa Dr Rahim Ghouse. It was believed then that they were managing Arab funds in Connecticut before returning to Malaysia. 

Nor Yakcop was with Abrar and was cordial with Anwar. When Anwar won the 2010 by-election, a former staff said he called Anwar's office to congratulate. Nor Yakcop may have been identified with Anwar for letting him go. 

Some felt Nor Yakcop may have got away because charging him would have would have implicated a lot of big names, especially Anwar.

There was some element of collective decision that would have saved Nor Yakcop from prison like other rouge traders. But, the curious part is who saved and forgiven Nor Yakcop for his bigger sin at Abrar?