Pon-dancing in the dark

Hishamuddin used to say that his parliamentary Sembrong constituency is a fine example of multiracial cooperation.

But in private he is worried shit of the high Chinese voters in Sembrong. He view them as not giving him the votes to reelect.

DAP have been talking much of state seats of Kahang and Paloh in the Sembrong constituency and he is getting nervous.

Instead of making more trips to Sembrong and becoming more in touch with the heartbeat of common folks, his boys have been going around bitching about Mukhriz's appointment as UMNO Deputy Liaison Chief.

Pondan is heard to be pondaning ... opps pondering of changing constituency. It only shows he is in the dark of happening in Sembrong.

The problem with this UMNO Vice President and Sembrong UMNO Division chief is that he has been viewed by his constutuency as not making any significant impact on the lives of the people of Sembrong.

He has been too aristocratically distanced from the rural folks and bureaucratically slow and indecisive. Just look at how he heads the Ministry of Domestic Affair.

Now, not only is pondan scared of facing up bloggers and undeserving of a place at national leadership, he is unfit even to be a penghulu kampong.

Some of Hishamuddin's boys are bitching of Mukhriz being unfit to be Deputy Liaison Chief of Kedah.

True.

Mukhriz does not have a base in any UMNO Division in Kedah.

He lost out in the local UMNO Youth Division head race in 2004 and was only an appointed Committee Member of Kubang Pasu. Will not mince my word to say Mukhriz hardly attended any of the meeting.

They were bitching of Mukhriz being appointed Treasurer of UMNO Kedah but yet aspire to be Kedah Liaison Chief.

Some circles are rubbishing Mukhriz's only contribution to Jerlun was the kayak ecotourism race and some agro tourism effort.

His rather stiff, guarded, and formal ways is seen as too distanced for the common folks. He still yet to understand the way the common folks expresed their benevelonce, care and concern.

Some claimed he maintain arms length in friendship and have his Assistance as barrier. Many complains are levied towards his assistants.

Whatever weakness of Mukhriz, he is willing to listen and try hard to change. He is doing it "properly".

He will try to change, even if it take sometime for him to comprehend the Kedahan folks term of hemoi.

Mukhriz can drop his "aristocratic" ways and return back to his common folks family root. His wife is a commoner too.

However, what's the point of being able to laugh with such guffaw like Hishamuddin but is still actually distanced. Isn't that being pretensious?

Hishamuddin can't walk around without an entourage "around" him. If this blogger had complained of Rais insistance on his Ketua Pengarah tailing him wherever he goes, Hishamuddin is worst.

He cannot walk 10 feet within the confine and security of the Parliament without an entourage of 3 UTKs, Setpol, SUSKs, PH, and whatever abbreviation one wish. Hishamuddin probably maintain a record number of 30 Pegawai Khas to make sure he is not lonely.

Why the attitude when he is only married to a member of the Pahang royal family, unlikely to succeed any throne.

Hishamuddin is a far cry from his grandfather who was decisive as District Officer of Batu Pahat during the time Panglima Salleh Selempang Merah led vigilante fought back the terrorist Bintang Tiga.

He is no where near the brevity of his father, Tun Hussein who was a major in the army and his uncle, retired General Jaafar Onn.

A little musical intermission with this passage of Bruce Springsteen's Dancing in the Dark:

Message keeps getting clearer
radio's on and I'm moving 'round the place
I check my look in the mirror
I wanna change my clothes, my hair, my face
Man I ain't getting nowhere
I'm just living in a dump like this
There's something happening somewhere
baby I just know that there is

You can't start a fire
you can't start a fire without a spark
This gun's for hire
even if we're just dancing in the dark

You Tube here.

If his boys bitching represents Hishamuddin's jealousy and insecurity to Mukhriz, here is an inside story to share.

After nomination and before polling of the UMNO Youth Chief, Hishamuddin was manouvring to push for Mukhriz and get both Khir Toyo and Khairy disqualified on money politics charges.

It is heard that Khir Toyo was called in and requested to pull out. But he resisted.

Khir said if it is a straight fight between Khairy and Mukhriz, then Mukhriz will lose. He has always felt that Mukhriz cannot get the majority to beat Khairy. Khir Toyo was confident of settling old score against Khairy for his hand in damaging his image.

Hishamuddin decided that he rather have Khairy rather than Khir Toyo. So, Ali Rustam and Khairy was found guilty on money politics but Ali was not allowed to run but Khairy was allowed.

Khairy now proves to be an incompetent leader and carrying Hishamuddin tradition of muting Pemuda into a timid bunch of youth.

Hishamuddin is solely responsible for the pathetic state of Pemuda UMNO today.

And that has always been Hishamuddin strange way of making up his mind. That is why he is giving warning after warning but NATO.

Another puzzling thing is Hishamuddin is considering to return back to safer seat at the Tenggara constituency he represented in 1995-2004. Dato Azalina is not likely to return.

It is odd that he will not represent Sembrong although he is Division Chief.

He should thank his aristocratic star that rural Sembrong can still be awed into accepting cucu Dato Onn Jaafar and anak Tun Hussein Onn.

One sometimes wonder how much of Johore is still left in Kuala Lumpur born and schooled Hishamuddin. He is more apt for Selangor Menteri Besar than being Minister from Johor.

Like Mukhriz, Hishamuddin has been hopping for a base for a while.

He entered politics through Gani Osman's Division of Ledang in Muar as Division Youth Chief. His father represented Seri Gading in the district of Batu Pahat.

Poor Mukhriz who is still juggling options between Langkawi, Kubang Pasu and Jerlun.

The crazy thing is there is talk that Hishamuddin is even looking at Dato Razali Ibrahim's seat in Muar Johor.

Apalah Hishamuddin ... If he can't make it with the Sembrong Chinese, he will not make it with the more urbane Chinese in Muar.

What is there to be pondan about when Sembrong PKR has crumbled recently?

Mukhriz acknowledged Hishamuddin for taking him in UMNO Youth. Razali is Hishamuddin groomed boy.

But he is no faction leader. How can he be insecure with his peers and indecisive all the time?

Furthermore, this pondan plays his politics dari belakang. Many are aware Hishamuddin is eyeing to knock Bang Din but telling others Zahid Hamidi is the one.

He is also mixing with unsavory characters to achieve his political ambition without considering the danger of his actions.

If this is how Hishamuddin play his politics, he is aimlessly pon-dancing in the dark.

Whispers along the Corridor

Whispers and rumours seldom turn out to be true. But in Malaysia, where transparency is not as see through as we wish it to be, many a time a rumour could turn out to be true later.

There are a couple of event happening lately. A couple of SMSes came in yesterday that gave an impression there is a major purge to clean-up UMNO and Government.

Amen. Hidup Dato Najib!

On the other hand, that same development could purge out the existing Government if wrong appointments are made.

No ... it is not another so-called Constitutional crisis.

Over the weekend, Khairy made a statement that he is standing down, going study leave and withdrawing from politics.

Yesterday, public relation firm, Fox Communication is reported closing shop.

This doesn't come as a surprise because this blogger have been getting words that Dato Kalimullah Masya Allah is cashing out from his business.

Will have to confirm that by scrouching through the Bursa data to know of his other divestments.

Is it cashing out time?

Well ... in one SMS exchange early yesterday, this former Member of Parliament said certain people were warned to get out of the national scene slowly so that the 13th General election is free from liabilities.

No need to repeat and enlist the liabilities, do we?

For all likelihood, Haji Khairy may have been told to do so. One of his former accomplice said his butt is burning from the Alcatel exposure.

Not only is his butt hot, he has been hot in his pants lately. But we will not go any further to upset an already delicate marital sensitivity.

The same former MP said he had just withdrawn some 10 million from his Singapore bank account. No currency mentioned and the Bank's definately not the POSB account from his UWC days.

It looks like he is really for an indefinate leave.

It will be pointless of Dato Mohamad Hasan trying to persuade him. Khairy have not had anything going for him as UMNO Youth Head.

Neither has he delivered anything meaningful.

He knows he will still be left out in a cabinet reshuffle. Two days back, a senior journalist text me to alert of an impending cabinet reshuffle.

This rumour have been repeating itself so often that no one take notice of it. Maybe the real McCoy will happen when everyone is not paying attention.

Now that Khairy is out of the equation and the liabilities will no more be political burden to be entertained, Najib may decide to reshuffle.

It is only expected that Nor Yakcop be removed. Someone must be in to replace him and his coterie of young incompetents in GLCs and new agencies.

Me and Bigdog was tipped that Khazanah CEO, Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar is eyeing to replace Nor Yakcop. His posting last night was filled with background information but it was too nice.

The source said Azman have been paying lobbyists to whisper sweet Azman into Najib's ears.

This is not the first time that Azman expressed interest to replace Nor Yakcop. After the last general election, he lobbied to replace Nor Yakcop but he can't beat Nor Yakcop who was an elected MP.

The source claimed that this time Azman has the concurrent of Nor Yakcop. With all the robber barons from the Abdullah days fleeing away, Azman maybe entrusted to cover the large crater size hole in Khazanah and GLCs.

Najib will forever only know the one page summary with the consolidated figures. He will never know how much money sucked and disappear in the sands. The list of abuses will forever not be known.

Azman need to keep the Tingkat 4-linked boys parked in Khazanah, various GLCS, Corridor authorities, and agencies intact till their return.

One name that cropped up to replace Azman at Khazanah is SC Chairwomen, Tan Sri Zainah Anwar.

This means the link with Nor Yakcop, Khairy and Kalimullah will remain. These people added no economic value to the nation but were mere robber barons.

It will be a disaster if such appointment materialise.

In the meanwhile, Omar Ong had divorced his wife and is out of the radar with pretty new young thing.

He is still in Petronas, Pemandu and his coteries of Consulting firms fleecing the Government coffer and wrecking the economic infrastructure build over 50 years to close the gap between the Malays and the immigrant descendent Malaysins.

Off course, these are all rumours.

Trees will not shake when there is no wind. In the words Khairy, a berok must be shaking it. He should know about berok. Google berok and he is the first find.

In Malaysia, rumours have a tendency to tern out to be true. Depending on the right source ...

Rocky question MCMC for slow to investigate

Malaysiakini reported Rocky questioning the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) for being slow to act on allegations made against their Minister.

He said, MCMC was swift in their action when Dato Seri Rais Yatim made a police report against him.

"Why the double standard?" he asked.

Is Rocky being serious about this? Is he asking for MCMC to initiate investigation against Big Dog, who published the blackened name documents? Is he asking MCMC to investigate all bloggers who accused or revealed Rais as alleged Minister?

Whatever is Rocky's catch, he could be implying that MCMC's response time is dependent on the Minister's insistance. Maybe he is saying that MCMC's fast response is not the usual practise but made to be fast by the Minister.

Read the news report:

Dakwaan amah dirogol: Mana SKMM, tanya Rocky

Salhan K Ahmad
Malaysiakini, Jan 6, 11

Penulis blog, Datuk Ahirudin Atan mempersoalkan mengapa Suruhanjaya Komunikasi dan Multimedia Malaysia (SKMM) lambat bertindak berhubung dakwaan terhadap menterinya, Datuk Seri Rais Yatim berkaitan kes rogol membabitkan seorang amah Indonesia.

Sedangkan, katanya, SKMM tangkas bertindak ke atasnya apabila menteri yang bertanggjungjawab ke atas suruhanjaya itu membuat laporan polis ke atasnya sebelum ini.


"Dakwaan yang dibuat dalam blog itu di dalam bidang kuasa SKMM, jadi mereka mesti siasat," kata Ahiruddin ketika dihubungi Malaysiakini hari ini.

Tambahnya, SKMM perlu menjalankan siasatan memandangkan Rais ketika menafikan dakwaan tersebut semalam mendakwa, ia antaranya dicetuskan oleh "penulis liar blog di Internet."

Katanya, SKMM perlu segera menyiasat dakwaan berkenaan, sepertimana yang dilakukan suruhanjaya itu ke atasnya berhubung satu tulisannya pada Oktober tahun lalu di laman Rocky's Bru.

"Jika tidak, ia akan menunjukkan double standard kerana dakwaan itu melibatkan menteri yang bertanggungjawab ke atas SKMM," kata Ahirudin yang juga penasihat editorial kumpulan akhbar The Malay Mail, The Malaysian Reserve dan juga stesen Bernama TV.

Ahirudin disiasat oleh suruhanjaya itu berhubung tulisan di blognya itu yang mendakwa seorang anak lelaki Rais memperoleh geran RM1 bilion untuk menaik taraf akses jalur lebar di seluruh negara.

Manakala dalam tulisannya pada 23 Disember pula, Ahirudin mendakwa seorang pembantu rumah warga Indonesia telah diperkosa oleh seorang menteri kabinet pada 2007.

Mengulas lanjut, Ahirudin yang lebih dikenali sebagai Rocky, bagaimanapun membersoalkan mengapa Rais mengambil masa yang lama untuk tampil menafikan dakwaan itu.

"Tidak cukup sekiranya (Rais) sekadar berkata dia tidak buat. Laporan polis sudah dibuat dan sekarang polis ada tanggungjawab untuk siasat," tambahnya.

Jelasnya, walaupun menteri tersebut telah menafikan dakwaan itu, Migrant Care masih berdiam diri dengan dakwaan berkenaan.

"Itu juga perlu menjadi sebahagian daripada (aspek) yang polis perlu siasat," katanya lagi.

Tegasnya, Rais juga sepatutnya memfokuskan kepada dakwaan tersebut dan bukannya mempolitikkan isu berkenaan dengan menyifatkan dakwaan itu cubaan untuk menggagalkan usaha 1Malaysia perdana menteri Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Police should investigate MigrantCARE, the originator of the allegation against Rais.

The question many failed to raise is what is the motive of MigrantCARE making such allegations. One wonder whether MigrantCARE got Rais side of the story.

Rais denial, Rocky's response, and shallow reactions

Rais denied the charges yesterday. It's all over today's newspaper and yesterdays blogs.

Suddenly all knives are up against Rocky and presumably Big Dog. Suddenly the onus to provide proof is sent back to Rocky.

How shallow can some reactions be? It is as shallow as when the news broke and every other person accused Rais when it was just one side of a report.

Yo man! Chill out!

When did Rocky and Bigdog revealed Rais as the Minister?

Those who assumed it to be Rais in the first place should be the one laid with the burden of proof. The same burden should be on those who displayed picture of a young woman and claiming her as the amah.

No it is not her. She's middle aged.

Rocky, who had to be in Singapore to attend the funeral of his cousin yesterday, immediately responded to these shallow minds. Read here.

Why did Rais took 13 days to respond since Rocky's first posting here and 8 days from Bigdog's expose of MigrantCARE Report here?

There is one rumour heard for the reason behind his long silence but the point is Rais expressed willingness to be investigated. That was what Rocky and Bigdog raised on December 28th 2010.

If he is willing, he doesn't have to be spiteful to say:

"The opposition and those unhappy with the success and people's acceptance of the policy are resorting to stifle it through libel and cheap lies. They hope they can achieve their evil intention by killing the messenger," (Rais) said. -- Malaysiakini

This got nothing to do with whatever success or policy he meant. Who cares?

What an attitude. Hope Najib leave him out of the next cabinet reshuffle. Just a rumour heard.

No need to lobby and drama, Khairy. Aren't you quiting?

It looks like Rais have not learnt any lesson in humility and adamantly remain arrogant. This is the same attitude that got him in trouble with bloggers in the first place.

He went out with much vengence after Rocky and Bigdog for basically firing a warning shot with a subtle message to ask his son stop getting involved in telco deals.

But instead, he decided to clamp on the messenger of that message. He made a police report, directed MCMC to commence investigation not in accordance with procedure, and subject two bloggers with inconveniences.

Did Rais ever wonder who was the sender of those message?

If some bloggers claimed Rocky was being personal and vengeful, ask back: Who started it in the first place? At least Rocky is objective and not as emotional as a sotong like Rais.

To those bloggers defending Rais, they have not been thinking and shallow in their reactions. Before any bloggers jump, be thankful I didn't call anyone stupid.

All made factual mistake for jumping into conclusion without looking at the chronology of event properly. They resorted to presumptions and cheap name calling arguments.

Aiyeahh ... howla you people wanna defend the Government and be psywar strategist when you all only know how to wayang but poor on fact?

Did anyone bother to ask and delve into who is Alex Ong, the Country Director of MigrantCARE?

Anyone bother to research the international links of MigrantCARE. Are you'll to tell me that no one was curious when Tenaganita had this story way back in 2007/2008?

Who is Alex Ong associated to? Does he have link with any opposition political group?

How did Husam know of it as far back as in 2007? Was that how some PAS bloggers got wind of it back in 2007? Was that the same source that enable Chegu Bard to have access to the same information to make police report yesterday?

Don't expect me to lend a hand when the Minister did zalim on my innocent friends. But I did ask a blogger to give another side to the story.

Kau orang sepatut buat ini. Yang konon mahu sentiasa objektif tapi cepat tuduh fitnah macam blogger Azli Syukri, sepatutnya kaji ini semua. Fakta lebih kuat dari hujah retorik.

Their paymaster may not be getting their money worth helping them financially.

But can't blame them because Rais have not been doing his job. His many Ketua Pengarah have not or more accurately could not do their job since their job is tail Rais like an honourable warlords.

Forget about the pro-Government bloggers, even the mainstream media are left unguided without a solid communication strategy and tactic. This story will have a life of it's own and I bet these Ketua Pengarahs have no idea how to stem the spread.

Pity them.

If they do not ekor Rais ke sana sini, they are deemed as not showing reverance to him. Rais is so hypersenstive that he will blast them for the mistake of not walking immediately behind him or surpassed him in the entourage or not being there to receive him out of his car.

Or that was how hypersensitive, vindictive and feudal he was in his younger days as Menteri Besar of Negeri Sembilan.

Don't worry Rais, your stories from that era is safe. It is as good as buried in the grave of Dato Taha and silently peaceful as the Felda plantations in Negeri Sembilan.

But it is not deep enough as the oil field off Limbang.

No to study leave to escape prosecution!

The blog Pejuang Bangsa is one of a coterie of Khairy's salaried Setiakawan blogs and operated by one or two person at RM7-8,000 a month salary. Nama saja macam real. They posted this morning a sympathy spin using comments by PAS Youth Chief, Nasruddin Tantawi on Khairy's "stand down" from politics.

Typical of Setiakawan bloggers. Even at their last drawn salary from Khairy, they are still pathetic bloggers - ill-informed and shallow. They should know that Nasruddin is not seen within PAS circle as bright and capable youth leader. Most of the time he talks rubbish. The choice of person to say those words only weakens the credibility of his spin.

Pejuang Bangsa seemed ignorant to a reality that when a public personality is off away to further study, it means there is something brewing. Khairy does not need another degree or a doctoral degree. What happen is, he got his knickers in a twist.

In the past, study leave or offer for ambassadorial position or migrating abroad are meant to tide a hot local situation down. In the case of Khairy, it looks to be a permanent one and Pejuang Bangsa will have to look for a new master.

But if it is to escape prosecution for any wrongdoing, then that is wrong!

Pejuang Bangsa should be following Sakmongkol's writing with regard to Alcatel. Read here, here and here.

If Sakmongkol inference was not clear enough, read this from Bigdogdotcom here.

Still not clear enough?

Here are rearranged excerpt from The Star report:

Documents made public by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the US Department of Justice on Monday alleged that French equipment supplier Alcatel paid bribes to employees of Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) in exchange for non-public information.

The SEC alleged that Alcatel Malaysia’s management consented to these payments and those who got the kickbacks were two consultants who received payments of US$200,000 and US$500,000 through US bank accounts purportedly for market research.

Because of the bribes, it claimed, Alcatel won a US$85mil contract. The contract is said to be for the deployment of equipment for Celcom’s 3G rollout under phase 2 in 2006.

Source informed that Alcatel sold to Celcom an unworkable solution from a bad solution provider. Didn't quite pick up the name but it sounded like Nortel. TM has a lawsuit against Alcatel.

Sakmongkol had disclosed that the consultant paid for USD200,000, refered as Consultant A was Dato Dr Norraesah, Chairman of Alcatel Malaysia, French trained economist and appointed member of UMNO Supreme Counsel.

Isn't it odd that a Chairman be paid Consultancy fee?

However, Sakmongkol did not disclose that the Consultant B being paid USD500,000 was wunderboy Khairy Jamaluddin.

A source claimed that Consultant A and B did not submitted any report and written submission of work to justify being paid the Consultancy fee. How could could they put in a report for stealing information from within Celcom and get someone inside to push for Alcatel.

Sakmongkol revealed one of the Celcom insiders was Celcom CEO, Dato Shazally Ramly, someone socially closed with Khairy during Pak Lah's time but now have distanced himself away.

This case is undergoing investigation by MACC. The fact that the American SEC picked it up could means it is as good as in the bag.

One can imagine Khairy being approached by someone of authority and told to go away to avoid the heat. He was advised to tell the press he is continuing his education or undergoing medical or whatever. Khairy should try enrollment into Al Azhar and take up Usuluddin. Hopefully he become a better human.

Khairy would usually claim there is no proof or evidence to pin him down as per his usual boast. This should not be the first time Khairy is approached by such person.

In past private four eye discussion with those he can't outsmart, Khairy never try to deny he has been dipping his hand in the cookie jar.

He claimed he has got himself covered and there is no proof. He usually say he sold of ECM Libra but not discuss the long list of Securities offenses broken by the merger deal.

He confessed he only took a little and not as much his brother in law Dato Kamaluddin Tun Abdullah. And he would justify to say that he is only a son in law and must earn his keep too for his pride and honour.

In this fictitous encounter, Khairy would spontaneously deny. The person of authority would reveal case after case and file after file which Khairy thought is not known to others.

If blog Anak Omak can list Khairy's little plunges in the cookie jar. Even this blog could reveal of a video evidence of Khairy harrassing delegates for votes that concealed on Pak Lah's request. Let alone someone else more "informed."

One can imagine Khairy's surprise when he thought he had covered everything but left many trails of evidence.

At first he curse his boys, including the Tingkat 4 boys, but then he realised A Voice was right to ignore his inteligence and called him as green. Anifah Aman was spot on when he described Khairy as clever but not wise.

Finally, Khairy relented from his repeated denials to admit. He was asked to disappear immediately but managed to negotiate to kasi face. Thus the "stand down" to quit politics after the general election.

But it is not over. A Voice still have an issue.

Why should Khairy be allowed to go on study leave to escape corruption charges. So what he is the son in law of a former Prime Minister? Wrong is wrong!

UPDATE 12:30 PM 7/1/2010: Sakmongkol made a reply to this blog here. All due respect, ABITW also have our sources.

Rising to the level of predictability

This is just a food for thought on politics.

With the mainstream media getting more liberal and online media anarchic-ly free, the competitive advantage in information and dissemination of information is reduced.

Information is basically available, free flowing, and traceable with use of right keywords. It is transparency at it's near perfection. The rest is about the ability to disseminate, communicate and convince.

A new politics of Malaysia is emerging from this technological breakthrough. Those with access to information will have a different opinion and not easily manipulated by political propaganda than those without access. This has increased the political bargaining power of the technology savvy, non-compliant, and headstrong young voters.

There will emerge non-conventional trends never seen before in Malaysia before like independent candidate and NGO derived political agenda.

All this because the political battlefield is moving surely from the battle of physical infrastructure into the battle of ideas, arguments and proprietary information. In this new environment, propagandas and campaign messages need to be innovative, out-of-the box and unique.

Sadly, despite this technology driven change in the local political landscape, most UMNO activists and bloggers seem to be stuck in old ways, tactics and cliche arguments.

For instance, the stance of party apologists to hide dark party secrets for fear of it's negative impact is a near obsolete an idea as yearning for unstapled pulut panggang.

Other than Malaysia winning the Suzuki Cup, the hot story pervading the nation the past week must be Rocky's newsbreaker about a senior minister being investigated by a foreign NGO group for allegedly raping his maid.

It took off further when Bigdogdotcom released a set of papers with names blackened. Bigdog could be fearing of lawsuits and cumbersome investigations by authorities.

However, Rocky and Bigdog did not disclose names and only seek from the authorities to investigate. But some blogs speculated it was Dato Seri Dr Rais Yatim and by the time, the later blogs picked it up, they assumed as him.

The predictable reaction that fits the normal Melayu and UMNO cliche was to conclude Rocky and Bigdog had an axe-to grind towards Rais and the wrongdoings seems to be ignored or perhaps forgiven.

Words and labels like pembelot, perosak, fitnah, and many four-lettered words became handy use. More proof are demanded and immediately.

It is a surprise to see bloggers who dramatise the release of their own revelation would demand others to be immediate. In the first place, the postings were never a total revelation of the identity of the perpatrator but a call for investigation.

Underlying such reaction is an obsolete political behaviour still prevailing within the ruling party and opposition. That is not to expose our weakness and wrongdoings but expose only others' weakness and wrongdoings.

That can work in the olden days but not today. If one consider the revelation by Kickdefella and our own expose that PAS people knew of it, then what Rocky and Bigdog had done was to defuse a potential explosive issue that could make one lose election.

By an pro-UMNO bloggers exposing it, PAS loses ownership. If used at political campaign, the reply is UMNO also do not condone such act.

Add with a little bit of spice, one can claim that pro-UMNO bloggers themselves exposed it. This is unlike PAS bloggers who are paid to hide and defend the wrongdoing of their leaders and politicians.

This same strategy should have been used when addressing the water issue raised by the Selangor Government.

On this issue, the Government and pro-UMNO bloggers stance generally defended the privatisation policy and Syabas. That is the conventional approach and expected response that can be predicted by the Selangor Pakatan Government.

In fact, Syabas approached some pro-UMNO bloggers to brief them of the issue and guide them with political styled answers such to create an issue of the Tabung Budi.

This is not to blame the Syabas people because these bloggers may not understand the complex issue and intricate corporate history.

Unfortunately, that was where they went wrong. It was a wrong strategy adopted out of mediocrity and predictability. The last thing one should do in a political campaign is to defend a corporation.

No one, and not even famous political consultants can convincingly make the public believe profit driven corporation are good citizen. They will forever be seen as the big bad wolf ever hungry for profit at the public expense. That is an imbedded image. More so towards politically linked businessmen.

In any such campaign, there should be good guys and bad guys. Pakatan Government wants to paint Barisan Federal Government as villain. Why should we allow that? And by defending and associating with a corporation, we fell into their trap!

The campaign should have been to make Tan Sri Razali Ismail, his Puncak Niaga and Syabas the bad guy, BN Government the good guy with the right policy but screwed by the Corporation awarded the privatisation, and make Khalid and Pakatan Rakyat Government the idiot.

After all, it is not wrong and we are not lying to the public. Razali was behind the request to raise water rates by 37% one go. Reliable industry insider claimed Razali used his political influence to get Tan Sri Nor Mohamad Yakcop to sign something.

When he forced it against the Selangor Government, it created an outburst on their side and they made an issue out of it. Water rates can only be raised by consensus involving the Selangor state Government, Federal government and Syabas.

The same industry insider revealed that in the Puncak Niaga privitisation deal, there was corruption or forced kickback insisted on their contractors . The State Government was being overcharged for capital expenditure to as high as 500%. MACC are you reading?!

Make someone a 100 millionaire and he becomes a frustrated billionaire. Razali's greed did not end there.

After all the money made, he is still insistent on a drastic increase in water tariff to the point of suing the Selangor State Government.

The problem in making him is that he is powerful. To gain support, he is a regular donor to the Selangor UMNO coffer. He was formerly Selangor UMNO treasurer.

Recently, he established BAPAK on the pretext to counter ANAK. It is a sthough he is helping out Dato Najib on Felda but in actual fact, he did nothing. His BAPAK only complicate what was already established in Felda.

BAPAK claim to solve problems of settlers and their second and third generation but the real burden was passed over to Felda.

Razali should sacrifice himself and lie low for a while.

Having established the good guy and bad villain, the counter attack was to ridicule Khalid's non cooperative ways, taking risk with future water supply, etc.

One lunny attempt by Khalid was to have the state buy back all the four water assets. The state cannot afford it.

The reason to have privatisation was to enable the private sector take up the financial burden of expanding and improving water service and quality. The state financial burden is reduced tremendously. Can the state afford RM20 billion capital expenditure for the next 10 years?

Another stupid act by Khalid was the price and the financing scheme to buy the asset. It involves below market price and federal government funding or guarantee. Hello ... how to help when you are uncooperative and hostile?

Khalid was in negotiations and the negotations was going to tank anyway. Industry insider said Nor Yakcop came in with a counter offer two day before expiry date of Khalid's offer. His offer was not going to be taken up but Nor Yakcop gave PKR political bullets.

With BN remain looking as good guy, Razali as fall guy and PR looking stupid, the issue is defused and no collateral damage politically. No a need for a television station to fake a disappointing survey result.

But alas ... no one was willing to do it this way. Razali's money sure do made a lot of brains stopped functioning.

The only one with the brain and intelligence to see and approached the issue this way was Dato Dr Khir Toyo. [Read his explanation in his blog.] He should know what a greedy asshole Razali was and still is.

That will be all for now. And there is a lot more where it came from.

Happy New Year 2011: And a word from our Prime Minister

Wishing all readers of Another Brick in the Wall a happy new year. May the year 2011 be a year better than the previous.

Before a word from our Prime Minister, here is a word for our Prime Minister ...

When we first expressed to you the need to address the problem of corruption, it took you a whole year before serious charges are being taken to court.

It took too long.

By the time it is done today, some segment of the public are not convince and believed the recent charges as mere show. They accused it as politicking to prepare for the general election. They are not yet convince we are serious in combating corruption.

True, they are merely a segment. But to win the next general election, we must regain every inch lost and gain new inches of ground.

It is commonly known that you calculate your decisions and by the time you decide it is well thought out.

But to combat corruption does not require any deep thinking. That delay is a lost opportunity to show you are serious about corruption in the party and government. You are seen as procrastinating and wild association and accusation arise from the delay.

Within one year, many could be achieved and sceptics could be turned around. One year later and we hardly gain any ground on this.

In UMNO, you have yet to make corruption cost. The video evidence against Khairy remains hidden permanently.

There is an urgent need for you to be more decisive, swift and equally stern in matters of critical and strategic importance. We - we is emphasised because we are one team - can't afford to lose precious time and ground like in the corruption issues.

Your decisiveness, swiftness and seriousness is also needed to address the problem of declining competence in Cabinet, and top echelon in Government, Government-linked Companies and UMNO.

The various institutions suffer image problem because of personality at the top is of questionable integrity and competence.

There is also a general lack of sensitivity to the plight and woes of the common people and the Bumiputera majority by your policy makers, implementers and trustees.

If not address, these problems will erode further confidence in you and the party.

The Merdeka Survey reported a 72% public confidence for you but our advise to you is to never believe their easily manipulated survey.

Remember that Tun Abdullah failed miserably when he is at 68% rating in 2008. During the reformasi era, the confidence level for Tun Dr Mahathir was in the high 90 percentile, yet BN was dented. At 72% or more by 4% than Pak Lah, you are not in comfortable territory.

Once voters begin to try to vote opposition, that is a permanent lost of support for BN. It means they stop being a loyal voter of BN and no more blindly support BN. It is difficult to regain them back to the fold. If they do vote back, they are more critical and less tolerable to mistakes, inefficiencies, and indiscretions.

Do not procrastinate any further, you need to address the problem of incompetence by reshuffling your cabinet YESTERDAY and HAD removed almost half of the expired goods.

Some are incompetent, some have attitude of arrogance, some are trojan horses from past administration and in collusion with opposition, and some are liabilities to the party re-election effort.

Rid of them or otherwise, the voters will rid you.

And a word from our Prime Minister ...

PM Najib urges Malaysians to build a better future

New Straits Times
December 31, 2010

KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak today urged all Malaysians to fulfil their responsibility in building a better future for the coming generations and place the country in its rightful position.

Najib, in his 2011 New Year message, said the government's plans and programmes would not be successful without the support and cooperation of the people.

"Let's not be satisfied and just sit back to be mere critics. Let's mould a better future for the coming generations.

"The power to build lies in the hands of the people. Fulfil this responsibility as best as you can," he said.

Najib reminded the present generation not to gamble away the future of the coming generations by making wrong decisions.

"This is not the time to experiment, but a time to renew and strengthen the trust in what has been proven to be effective," he said.

The prime minister said the government always adopted full responsibility in the management of the country, in particular the economy.

"As a government sensitive to the pulse of the people, we will not at all neglect the people's interests by making a promise or a decision which seems to be popular but is actually to the detriment of the interests of everyone," he said.

He said any government which promised or formulated popular but irresponsible policies would gain recognition or support in the short term, but in the long term it would be the people who would suffer.

"Learning from mistakes, throughout 2010, we built a strong foundation to ensure that the nation's potentials and resources can be stimulated and mobilised towards achieving the national vision," he said.

He identified the Government Transformation Programme (GTP) along with the six National Key Result Areas (NKRA) and the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) with the 12 National Key Economic Areas (NKEA) as the basis of the New Economic Model, the 10th Malaysia Plan and Budget 2011, which served as a comprehensive roadmap to raise the living standard and quality of life of the people to a higher level.

"All this while, the government, which was given the mandate, has striven with sincerity to meet the people's needs and national progress to the best of its ability.

"Unfortunately, some quarters have arbitrarily accused the government of being inclined to implement specific projects, particularly mega projects. Such accusations are not true at all," he said.

Some people, especially the opposition, had criticised the construction of several projects including the North-South Expressway, the Petronas Twin Towers and the Penang Bridge, he said, adding that they were now too embarrassed to admit their mistake because these projects had brought much benefit to the people.

"The question is if their opinions have proven to be wrong in such major matters, how can the people possibly trust any of their promises?" he said, adding that the opposition's proposed 100-day reform announced recently would only raise expenditure as it did not consider the realities of the national revenue and sources of funds.

Saying he hoped that the people would be able to make their own evaluation, Najib said the government had all along focused on the objective of ensuring sustainable economic growth.

This was because a boost in national wealth would provide for a rise in expenditure and enable the implementation of social justice, he said.

"It is directly proportional, meaning an increase in government revenue will result in a rise in expenditure for the people's well-being," he said and urged the people regardless of race and religion to heed the call to strive for the pinnacle of success. - BERNAMA

Happy new year to you sir, Dato Najib.