Geo-global politics behind Najib's US visit

Donald Trump's tweet is just common courtesy. So does the one by Dato Najib. Hope pro-government supporters not make too much out of it.

However, the statements made during the meeting and subsequent statements after the meeting should not be looked at too simplistically.

Malaysians have a tendency to be too political, or more precisely, low level political practises that tend to be simplistic, arguing based on good soundbyte one liner, and over induging in perception play meant to appeal to common folks' logic.

Applying that thinking to international relations and geoglobal politics is plain dumb.

Off course, there are more intelligent Malaysians that look into core issues of politics - facts, figures and discourse in public policies, but then geoglobal politics is a different ball of wax.

The passing of my favourite royalty, a true Malay gentleman

Marissa Mohamed couldn't have described it more appropriately.

The late Sultan of Kedah, Almarhum Tuanku Abdul Halim Mu'adzam Shah is a true gentleman. The Malay Mail Online described Almarhum as "Kedah Sultan - The ultimate Malay gentleman".

Almarhum was truly a great man. 

Although there was never the opportunity to meet Almarhum in person and the impression made is from afar, there was hardly any bad rumours circulating of Almarhum in carrying out his duty as the twice Seri Paduka Baginda Yang di Pertuan Agong.

In private, we often expressed our disgust to the actions and behaviours of certain members of the royalties. However, none could be said of the late Sultan.

As expressed before in our December 13, 2011 blog posting Daulat Tuanku!, his majesty was my favourite royalty:

Al Fatihah

KDYMM Tuanku Sultan Kedah mangkat sebentar tadi lebih kurang 3:15pm di Istana Anak Bukit.

In Malaysia, only Mat Salleh are expert

Not intended to be sarcastic to yet another foreigner taken in as CEO of a major Malaysian company. When a major change in the way of doing business is needed, maybe that is what is needed to break out of the social and cultural barriers for change.


Found this piece on Facebook which is a humourous observation of one attitude of Malaysian. We tend to be to lavish with claims of expert that it can be rather embarassing to those being praised as one but know they have not quite reach the level.

It can be appalling to those who appreciate the criteria for anyone to be considered as expert. For one, it needs many number of years.

Read the Facebook posting below:

AN IDIOTS GUIDE ON HOW TO BE AN EXPERT IN MALAYSIA

Will Mahathir's corruption and financial recklessness reach tipping point?

Wikipedia described tipping point as:

In sociology, a tipping point is a point in time when a group—or a large number of group members—rapidly and dramatically changes its behavior by widely adopting a previously rare practice.

When Jeff Ooi was still blogging, he introduced this term to mean similar to pounding on a wall till it finally crumble. It was mean to be the BN wall.

Since Dato Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi re-introduced the name Kutty as Tun Dr Mahathir's last name from his father side of the family, there was widespread condemnation of him from the opposition who dismissed his argument that Mahathir lied of his family background.

But it did started critics of Mahathir's stereotype character as a "mamak". Unfortunately for Malays of Indian descent, they became a collateral damage of verbal abuses on social media.  

The more relevant revelation on Mahathir is allegations of corruption, nepotism and cronyism that result in massive losses, leakages and bailouts to the national coffer, which ran in the hundreds of billions.

Should that not led to a tipping point to not return to the days of Mahathirism again?

Mahathir, eat your heart out

Najibnomics has been good for Malaysia's economy

Bruce Gale For The Straits Times

Published Sep 1, 2017, 5:00 am SGT

Under PM Najib, Malaysia's macroeconomic policies have been broadly appropriate

One striking aspect of what has been written about the Malaysian economy in recent years is the extent to which assessments have been coloured by a small number of (admittedly major) controversies. But is it really correct to assume that the only issues worth mentioning, when it comes to the way the government in Kuala Lumpur has been handling the economy, involve allegations of financial mismanagement or fraud?

For some observers, it is almost as if nothing else mattered except the latest revelations involving organisations such as 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), Felda Global Ventures (FGV) and, of course, that controversial US$681 million (S$929 million) gift from Saudi Arabia. One result of this approach has been a tendency to see every policy pursued by the government of Prime Minister Najib Razak in negative terms.

Of murdered M'sian honorary counsel and Mahathir-linked SR failure to proof

On August 24th recently, the Malaysian honorary council, Housseinaly Zahid Redza to Republic of Madagascar was murdered at the the capital, Antananarivo. Investigation is still being carried.

Wisma Putera was only informed by his wife and a press release issued few days ago.

However, Davis Gibson, the amateur investigator that found debris of the MH370 in Madagascar speculated that the death is linked to the plane crash investigation. Such conspiracy theory attract readers and it received wide coverage from both foreign and local media yesterday.

The reason could be coincidental or relevant, but it is too early to tell.

So is the case with the two civil forfeiture of US DOJ against those alleged to have laundered money from transactions linked but outside of 1MDB jurisdiction.