A poster is going around ridiculing Rafizi as Raja Formula for his past smart alec remarks during campaigning as opposition to criticise then government's economic policies.
He is not wrong in his assessment. In fact, this blogger have taken the same position for quite a long time.
Its just his bad luck for sharing an unpopular view in the midst of social media getting back at "Minister Formula" for his GST statement to reintroduce the cancelled tax regime. Indirectly, he admitted wrong for his past criticism of Dato Najib for implementing the GST.
There is a situation of shortage and big jump in retail price of rice albeit imported rice. Itnis followed by price increases for premium sugar, and non-white bread.
Coming next in your bills to come will be tariff increase for electricity. Government will be bringing back a previous plan Najib's to introduce targeted subsidy.
Rafizi will have to ready himself to be criticised for copying again a plan prepared by the man he pursued to prison.
During the Johor state election, there were talk ehailing companies, particularly Grab, were struggling to meet profit forecast due to low margin and high cost of operations.
They had to cut cost by 30% within short number of years. It means slashing the driver's commission and increase charges to customer. Increase commission limit the viability of the second option.
Then caretaker MB of Johor, Dato Hasni campaigned to promise for a youth employment program. He commented that gig economy is not a permanent career.
Don't tell us he (Ganesan of GK TV) not know Anwar's first liwat case was an outright fix-up.
Perhaps he could be excused because this blogger too made the same mistake and realised upon confession by a party involved in the fixing up.
Ganesan did justified his presumptions (of Zahid's DNAA decision by DPP), but it crossed the helm of prejudice to brush off the RCI, which is an opportunity for Anwar's plan for judicial reform, as red herring.
Abdul Malik Dasthigeer or known as Dato Malik ... is widely believed to be the proxy and bag carrier for M Saravanan cum a man of various business exploits and wealth.
Anti-MACC and PDRM whistleblower and PN sympathiser, Edisi Siasat accused it is also hushed hushed.According to whistleblower portal gaining credibility, Corporate Secret, his asset forfeited by MACC includes RM38 million cash, 17 luxury cars and 200 kg of gold bars.
In a recent Thick as Brick article (read here), the former Director General of the Ministry of Health, Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah was exposed for holding back on the death side-effect of mRNA vaccine namely from Pfizer. A grave duty of care.
He admitted during cross examination on an MCMC case against one Dr Roland Victor. Making matter worse and it is widely known on social media, he collaborated with socmed media platform owners and one Dr Musa Nordin to suppress public discussion and fair professional views on the Covid handling.
There is another old doctor in Malaysia renown for his cruel and suppressive ways, but not doctors in general. They are generally individuals of intelligent, soft and caring character.
From hero in the fight against Covid 19, Noor Hisham is slowly disintegrating in his retirement to a zero and glorified only by PPBM leaders to justify their inhumane lockdown and raping of the public fund.
Perikatan Nasional (PN) performed very well in the Aug 12 state elections in Penang, Kedah, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Terengganu and Kelantan, winning 146 of the 245 seats contested.
It proved stronger than the Pakatan Harapan-Barisan Nasional combination despite a concerted attack by PH-BN against its leaders over corruption allegations.
Thick as Brick hoped for a 5-1 victory but it turned out to be the expected 3-3 status quo. The released bomb did not exploded as hoped to be, but then it is a ticking bomb. Taken from the pre-polling posting below:
Last minute bomb hardly could sway election result these days. It is post-election that could be devastating especially when PMX Anwar is expected to be more firm on "tatakelola urus" i.e. corruption and governance issues.
Eight years ago, DAP launched this song to instigate the public to hate GST and the then ruling government BN.
After the disaster to the national fiscal policy in 2018 following Lim Guan Eng's single handed abolishment of GST for the higher rate and difficult to collect SST, the PH-led multicoalition Unity Government have to face to the fact that Najib's introduction of GST was the needed initiative to reform the tax structure of Malaysia.
Five years down the road, the situation has not reached acute level but debt reached RM1.5 trillion, global economic condition challenging, inflation from the post pandemic effect and Russia Ukraine war, and government spending needed to stimulate the economy.
Anwar will need to make that difficult decision and it means a lost of face. An extract of Edge weekly interview with IRB CEO, Dato Nizam Sairi explains the need for GST below:
There are 4.5 million individual taxpayers in Malaysia, higher than the 2.5 million at end-2017, according to MoF data. However, Mohd Nizom acknowledges that the number is still low. The 4.5 million taxpayers are just slightly more than one quarter of the country’s labour force of 16 million, versus a total population of 33 million, the ministry’s data shows.
Mohd Nizom attributes the relatively small community paying personal income tax to the country’s high tax threshold, even though Malaysia’s income tax rates are relatively high compared with other countries in the region.
“Our highest [income tax] rate is 29%, so the rate is high. But in terms of threshold, I think this country is among the most generous [in the region]. [Even if you earn a salary of] RM3,200 a month, you are not required to pay income tax. Plus, there isn’t any consumption tax,” he says.
“If you have a family, there are deductions, so the threshold would be higher. Probably for the single breadwinner in a household with a monthly income of RM5,000 is still not subject to tax.”
Of the total personal income tax collected, 85% is contributed by the T20 (top 20% income group), who earn more than RM10,000 in monthly income, says Mohd Nizom, who sees this as an unsustainable trend. He understands the grouses of the high-income group as they feel they are being penalised for working hard to earn more. “That’s why the government has to think of other ways of raising revenue, rather than just targeting the T20,” he adds.
Mohd Nizom’s answer to the question of tax reform is the Goods and Services Tax. He describes GST as a low hanging fruit for tax reform. The consumption tax will effectively help widen the tax net and it is a fairer tax in his view. In addition, he believes Malaysians are more receptive to it now.
“I think [the government is] convinced that it needs the tax [GST]. Everyone in the country is [convinced]. Even the ones that took it away. Not only for revenue, but from an equitable perspective,” he says.
GST was implemented at 6% in April 2015 during Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s administration in the former premier’s bid to raise more revenue amid a rising national debt and falling oil prices. The consumption tax was abolished in 2018 by the Pakatan Harapan administration after various controversies in handling the GST refunds were brought to light following the downfall of the previous government.
Additionally, Mohd Nizom says the government should relook its existing tax incentives for multinational corporations (MNCs) amid the growing adoption of a minimum effective tax rate of 15% globally under the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Inclusive Framework on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting initiative.
Read further on tax reform in Thick as a Brick here.
The need is there and urgently required, but the timing is less than perfect.
The UMNO Veteran Secretary General, Dato Mustapha Yaacob begin to raise questions over it.
Question he should because both Mahathir and Daim insist to remain Trustee for UMNO's assets which include the party headquarter and adjoining convention centre. And, Halim's letter claimed he paid for the construction.
After 2018 BN lost, Mahathir and Daim almost succeeded to pressure UMNO to sell but pressure from few vocal MT members halted its transfer.
It is widely believed within the remain of the Team B faction of Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah that UMNO's assets in the form of Fleet Group were stolen by Mahathir and Daim.
This poster sprang up on the social media prior to GE14 following an anonymous video recording by a snooper. Subsequently a formal interview was conducted with Tan Sri Tajudin Ramli, the former Chairman of MAS and founder of Celcom.
Although Mahathir went on to win Langkawi and subsequently became Prime Minister again, the Malays and Malaysians yet again realised too late the disaster he is capable of doing.
Now he is at it again and the gullible Malay will likely mudah lupa. Nevertheless, lets put the political hantu raya and his self-serving motivation on hold first.
The recent Pandora Paper investigation on Tun Daim in which it is heard Halim Saad, Nor Mohamed Yakcop, Mokhzani Mahathir, Mukhriz Mahathir, most likely Mirzan Mahathir, and others were called in by MACC.
It is timely that Newswav portal made a call on MACC to investigate Tajudin.
Then IGP, Tan Sri Hamid Bador proudly announced police succeeded to foil a South American cartel to smuggle the drugs via Malaysia. Straits Times reported drugs was found in three containers filled with 60 sacks of coal at Butterworth port on September 10.
It was reported by another news source that the transportion was sophisticated and mixed with charcoal to mask from the drug sniffing dogs. Ops Eagle required an advance method for detection.
Ruichi Sakamoto's composition for the 1983 movie, Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence became a Christmas music in the US, Britain and Japan.
The movie title is pun using the coming Hari Raya celebration to dedicate to the man in pursuit, Victor Chin.
Set during World War II, the movie depicted a British colonel who "tries to bridge the cultural divides between a British P.O.W. and the Japanese camp commander in order to avoid blood-shed."
The current Malaysian setting is the head of Corporate Mafia attempting to avoid financial blood-shed.
He is already facing dissension within his fold, Banks pulling back credit lines, and dam bursting that could lead him and his syndicate of criminal involving network into law enforcement rounded up and charged for crimes.
The sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has sent shock waves and ripples from the US outwards. Two other American banks have also closed, one voluntarily (Silvergate Bank) and the other (Signature Bank) was taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), causing even Japanese bank shares to tumble for a few days.
Credit Suisse is now embroiled in the contagion. Even as the US Treasury, Federal Reserve and FDIC raced over the weekend to stop contagion by guaranteeing all deposits exceeding the US$250,000 (RM1.1 million) deposit guarantee limit, serious questions were being asked.
Where did SVB slip up? Was this a regulatory failure? Is this systemic with worldwide implications?
If Malaysia doesn't get serious, it may turn into a can-do-anything country. Not just for Malaysians, but for foreigners, too. Yes, the Wild Wild East.
Take rare earth mining in Bukit Enggang, Sik, Kedah. Here is how to go "wild wild" there. Just fly in as a tourist from China, take a few excavators to Bukit Enggang and mine the rare earth elements (REE) away. And if it is a forest reserve, all the better for you get logs as a bonus.
When asked about approval, just say the government has given the go-ahead. No one will know given the secrecy shrouding the project.
That's exactly what a Chinese national did until he was arrested on Sept 26 with a lorry-load of REE. He paid a compound of RM630,000 and walked away a free man when he should have been jailed and banned from entering Malaysia again.
Without anyone to carry the can, Bursa Malaysia should seize control of Revenue Group Berhad.
Subsequently, Bursa should appoint an auditor to manage the company's accounts to safeguard the company and shareholders from criminal vultures.
Failing which, the almost RM70 million cash in the company could be squandered by the group dubbed by The Corporate Secret as Corporate Mafia.
On Monday, the estranged founders of Revenue submitted their resignation. Extract of The Edge report below:
Two and a half months after their executive functions were suspended, Revenue Group Bhd executive directors Brian Ng Shih Chiow and Dino Ng Shih Fang have resigned from the board of the e-payments service provider. Brian and Dino’s departure from the board effective Monday (March 20) was “due to [them] not [wanting] to be on the same board of directors with the current directors”. While the brothers have vacated their executive director post, Dino remains as the group’s largest shareholder with 85.38 million shares or a 17.71% stake.
FMT headlined the resignation as a surprise, but since the former MD cum Chairman, Eddie Ng resigned and off-loaded all his shares (and at the same time, committed insider trading), it is not so.
The Ng brothers pre-empted from being the "last man standing" in the Board of Directors and end up holding the baby left by the Corporate Mafia.
According to blog nuclearbursaman, more than RM20 million cash faded from the company books and more at risk under the cloak of receivables and bank borrowings.
For the relatively petty and technical-in-nature offense, the MACC Investigating Officer froze the personal Bank accounts and shares belonging to Brian and Dino Ng.
However, the staff and management seemed unconvinced by the charges. In protest to the seemingly obvious fix up job by the Corporate Mafia group exposed by The Corporate Secret , the key staff running the payment gateway system at Revenue have apparently resigned enbloc.
Among them are three Senior Managers, Subsidiary Managing Director, and technical Team Leaders.
Despite having an armed guard to protect the server, the payment gateway system is deemed not secured and safe for use as payment without the technical personnel.
The new management attempted to entice the staff to stay with offer to raise pay by as much as three times but to no avail.
Without the presence of the Founders in the company, the Banks, Credit Card Companies and Bank Negara Malaysia will lose confidence on the system and likely to pullout.
Without the technical personnel to running the system, the asset will be deemed useless to the company.
Sources claimed the MACC officers and DPP privately claimed they were under instruction from MACC Chief Commissioner, Tan Sri Azam Baki to charge.
However, it does not make sense for the top boss to indulge in petty offense in the midst of the Jana Wibawa debacle. More so it is demeaning for a corruption enforcement agency to be pursuing non-corruption case such as alleged car theft.
There has to be a powerful hand calling the shots for officials to be blatantly daring to act for the interest of an allegedly underworld-linked group.
Edge reported on Tuesday:
Revenue Group co-founders charged with disposing of a company vehicle illegally
KUALA LUMPUR (March 14): Revenue Group Bhd co-founders Brian Ng Shih Chiow and Dino Ng Shih Fang were charged in the Sessions Court here on Tuesday (March 14) with fraudulently causing a bank employer to dispose of a vehicle belonging to the company without a resolution from its board of directors.
Brian Ng
The brothers had claimed trial by pleading not guilty to the charge before judge Rozina Ayob.
In the charge which was read out to them in court, the brothers had, in order to achieve common intention, allegedly misled and fraudulently caused an officer of CIMB Bank Bhd to dispose of company property, which was a Toyota Vellfire, on Oct 3, 2018.
The charge further stated that the brothers had allegedly registered the car under Dino’s name without the resolution of the board.;
The charge was framed under Section 403 of the Penal Code and is punishable under the same Act.
Dino Ng
If found guilty, the duo could face imprisonment of between six months and five years, with whipping, and are also liable to a fine.
Deputy public prosecutor Raya Low Chin How prosecuted, while the duo were represented by former Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief commissioners Tan Sri Dzulkifli Ahmad and Amer Hamzah Arshad.
The DPP asked for a bail amount of RM20,000 per accused in one surety and for their passports to be surrendered by the court.
However, Hamzah objected to the amount and asked that they be released on a personal bond.
“This is because this isn’t an offence; what is actually happening is an ongoing corporate dispute between members of the board which are split in two separate camps,” he said.
He also alluded to this group called the “corporate mafia” which is allegedly planning a hostile takeover of the company, which is the reason the brothers were charged.
“Even the media carried out news report known as ‘corporate mafia’ to do a hostile takeover; now they’re (the brothers are) under attack,” Hamzah said.
Hamzah alleged that the “corporate mafia” had made the report against the brothers at the MACC.
However, the judge said that these are mere allegations, as there were no affidavits or police reports about it.
The court then set a bail amount of RM10,000 each in one surety.
She then set a case mention on April 14.
The fact that the bail amount is set at a mere RM10,000 and passport not withdrawn for a prisonable offense indicate the judge is not convince on the gravity of the case. A source claim the freezing of the Bank account and shares have yet to receive endorsement by the court.
In addition, the conduct of the investigation is marred with inappropriate practices that will likely be responded by police reports and civil lawsuits against various parties.
In a lucky draw, the Revenue Group won a lucky draw conducted by CIMB. In view of the tax implication on the company, the two Ng brothers and then Managing Director Eddie Ng agreed and requested on CIMB to transfer the ownership to Dino Ng. The car had always been used for company purpose.
Victor Chin is known in the underworld for his car business thus the familiarity with car registeration process to pick up on such misdeamenour offenses is only expected. He may have conveniently picked on this petty issue as facade to justifiy the permanent remove of the Ng brothers.
The Corporate Mafia expect the Ng brothers to fight back to buy control of Revenue. However, they went the other way to sell and they are stuck with diminishing value in the view of the latest quarterly losses and the bearish market.
It explains for the poorly concocted and executed hostile takeover plan aided by some invisible hands dictating MACC.
"ONE blog, which seems to be ahead of the rest, when it comes to the real underworld's involvement in the corporate world"?
That's too much compliment for a blog still not fully unblock by MCMC and short of hits. Ran out of handphones and laptops to give investigators whenever any complain arise. Just got one back yesterday.
With a background in financial market, stocks & shares and observing corporate, its just natural instinct to put two and two together.
The same method applies in politics. Unfortunate that political watchers lack the corporate background, thus unable to "follow the money" to anticipate the politics.
Since the explosive revelation by The Corporate Secret (TCS) website on Victor Chin and its link to going-ons at Revenue, Green Packet, Caely and other PLCs, the mysterious, detailed, and revealing blog gave updates on Victor Chin's plan to restructure Revenue in the March 13 AGM.
They plan to bring in corroborating former BNM and SC officials and their rep from their previously acquired PLCs into Revenue.
If the speed Victor Chin is being apprehended, asset frozen and Investigation Paper forwarded to AG, is anything to go by, will the same be expected of Chong Loong?
It answered this blog's curiosity on the happenings at Revenue Group Berhad here and here. At the same time, it explained the exploratory link between Hong Seng Consolidated Berhad to the happenings in Revenue and Ooi Chieng Sim, the ex Chairman who quit a BOD of a PLC amid a drug bust in 2019.
In the previous postings, the group involved in the hostile and illegal takeover of Revenue is believed to use the same modus operandi of the collusion of law enforcement at Green Packet and former Caely Holdings Berhad (now Classita Holdings).
The same website's latest exposure here revealed Khairy Jamaluddin link to Green Packet through his man and current Chairman, Dato Firmanshah Ang bin Muhammad @ Dax, which indirectly linked them to the underworld syndicate.
Apparently, there was a police report made by Caelygirl and police have move in on the report following the weekend expose. The Edge reported below:
In this blog's February 13th posting here, there were 13 why (including how, what and did they) posed but no answers found in the media or online.
There was a created dispute among the founders of Revenue Group Berhad ("Revenue"). The "salesman" Managing Director, Eddie Ng Chee Siong ousted the Company "brains" in the Ng brothers of Brian and Dino with help from outside.
Coincidentally, MACC freeze the accounts and CDS of the brothers worth tens of millions based on alleged wrongdoing over company car and thermal paper orders worth RM400,000.
A serious oversight or gross abuse on the part of the Director of Investigation or AMLA at MACC. The allegation has no corruption in nature for them to act and originated from MACC own report.
In midst of the company turmoil, Bursa suddenly reported Eddie blatantly selling his shares a day prior to announcing a poor quarterly financial results.
That is outright insider tradingoutright insider trading. And, it would be strange for SC to not investigate and charge. The alleged insider trading could certainly shed a new light on the company.
Is something insidious happening behind the payment gateway company?
Following his dismissal as Deputy PM and UMNO member, Anwar Ibrahim started the reformasi movement as his political platform.
After 25 years, he finally managed to step into the Prime Minister's Office he was involved in the development of Putrajaya. Over time, he has articulated on the repeated over many elections of the corrective programs he wish to undertake.
The social media is now regurgitating the promises and manifesto items he made under the then Pakatan Rakyat at GE 12 and 13 and later the Pakatan Harapan's for GE14.
However, Anwar is not expected to deliver in abolishing PTPTN student loan, 20% royalty for Sabah and Sarawak, change the Wang Ehsan for certain states in Peninsular to royalty, immediate cut in the retail oil prices by 50 sen and the list can be longer.
Understandably, the government is in a slippery situation constrained by debt and revenue shortfall. Many of the promises have rightly been pointed out by then BN government of the day as ridiculous.
To be more rational and mature in our politics, lets ignore the usually mindless and deceptive campaign sloganeering. Election promises are sensational but seldom delivered.
But the 25 years of chanting, "Reformasi!" is ideological and cannot be put at bay.
Rafizi gave a sarcastic and patronising reply to Opposition Leader, Hamzah Zainuddin attempt to give a political spin to the growth statistic data in Parliament.
Economic growth will be the issue opposition intend to dwell on to gain political points despite knowing well there is an impending global recession and current inflationary concern.
It is expecting too much to pursue high growth now.
The idiom "throw down the gauntlet" means to invite someone to fight or compete with you.
Tan Sri Shahrizat Jalil is not the incumbent to invite, but where she submitted her application form to run for Wanita UMNO Chief, the incumbent Dato Noraini Ahmad have yet to do so.
Defend Aini will. Her supporters are already exuberant with their campaign. It is not Aini to condone, but the whispering campaign is accusing Shahrizat as a Muhyiddin proxy. Its no secret that her son works with Hishamuddin.
Left to right: Eddie Ng (MD), Brian Ng (COO) and Dino Ng (CTO)
Revenue Group Berhad (Revenue) is not a major company to keep a watch on. Its nature of business in IT deals with systems, proprietary knowledge and involved security and confidentiality.
The happenings in the company seemed to raise many questions, and strange links surfaced.
Since late last year 2022, Revenue was embroiled in controversy following the suspension of two founder-Directors, Brian and Dino Ng, from its Board of Directors.
The payment gateway company brought in MACC into the picture for some claims made against them. One can expect it will complicate the situation and even be more destructive than preventive. The detailed story will be dealt with in later posting,
If it is a case of abuse of power, why must MACC got involve?
Their primary concern should be corruption. Complain over company vehicle or procurement could be dealt by Securities Commission and perhaps, police.
Expectedly no response from Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin on the 1MDB settlement from Goldman allegation. Its customary for politician to not response to allegations to avoid from being misconstrued. Better remain silent and hope it will go away.
Give time Muhyiddin will eventually respond as it could be a significant contribution to his GE15 war chest. He will on the 5G contract to Ericson and continuing the SPANCO privatisation to Robert Tan.
If they could, MACC should comb the historical shareholding structure of 5S, trace the present and past shareholders, and association of Nexbis Soluions and S5 Systems. Who decided on the technical prequalification on Bestari.net?
Muhyiddin is known for the consistency of his narratives but to the familiar, it is a convenient camouflage to lie and habit of "what he say is not what he do".
Muhyiddin was caught lying incessantly on the RM600 billion stimulus package. He was reluctant to response and had Dr Marzuki to do so only to expose him lying in his capacity as Prime Minister.
The conversation on the concern for food security have long been heard. Since the days of yours truly's early career in banking and later in the capital market, concern over food security due to high food import have long been the talk.
However, a serious government policy was not forthcoming. Availability of land for agriculture was increasing in scarcity and losing to the more lucrative sectors such as property development, tourism and leisure industries, manufacturing, etc.
Financiers were saying why reinvent the wheels as it is more efficient to import. They prefer to invest into food retailing, high-end agri-product, or easy cash crop in which planting is once for every 15 years but harvesting every quarterly.
The attitude then and in fact still remain so. When there was a shortage of chicken prior to GE15, the former PM Ismail Sabri's natural affinity was to import chicken.
This is strange because Malaysia is one of the world's cheapest and efficient broiler producer. So efficient that CP Pokhphand could not enter the highly competitive Teo Chew clan dominated industry. The first sight of problem and government open the local market for foreign entry.
The early part of the shortage in certain food items was blamed at global supply chain problem during the C19 pandemic and later, the war in Ukraine. It rightly is but as time goes by and more realisation creeped in, the age old conversation on food security began to emerge.
In a 2021 article on NST, Muhammad Hisyam Mohamed highlighted the need to deal with issues of availability, access, utilisation and stability in food security. By December 2022, Dr Goh Chun Seng in Borneo Times shifted the food security discussion to food sovereignty.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The prognosis for global economic growth is grim as 2022 draws to a close. Talk of the world being on the brink of a global recession and economic stagnation has gathered voice in recent months.
That’s not to say recession is certain, even though major central banks in December signaled a willingness to risk growth and forge ahead in raising interest rates further to bring down inflation.
Whether the glass is seen as half full or half empty, at this time last year, no one foresaw Russia’s attack on Ukraine and the impact it would have on commodity and food prices globally, or that US interest rates would rise so much and so fast in the effort to reign in runaway inflation. Back then, inflation was “transitory” and rates were supposed to stay for longer, remember?
At this juncture, what’s certain is that government and policymakers around the world have to be able to whip up practical solutions fast to ensure their people and economy can weather whatever is coming. And what is practical is closely tied to a country’s fiscal and monetary space.
The rest of the world is catching on to the easy monetary policy of the West. The BRICS nations are developing a new reserve currency that is likely to be backed by commodities and possibly gold. If this BRICS currency emerges, this is bad news for the West and the U.S. dollar, says Alasdair Macleod, head of research at Gold Money.
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