The Bull Stops Here

If you've noticed my absence on the blog and internet forums during the past week, well... it was due to the mini stock market crash last week.

Like our dear PM, I was delirious with the unrelenting gains that virtually all the stock markets have been making since the latter half of last year.

At a very late stage, I went in for a long position. And after last week... I'm now stuck up shit creek without a paddle.

And for his Chinese New Year comment about the KLCI reaching 1,350 points "soon", our PM Abdullah Badawi is getting an earful from the opposition parties and bloggers as well. He has been accused of everything from lying, to misleading the public and financial mismanagement. DAP even says that he should be accountable for the losses on Bursa Malaysia during the past week.

I don't know about you, but I just find all that a little bit over the top. Seriously, the PM simply made the wrong punt. He guessed wrongly... but he didn't do anything wrong. Greater men have made worse mistakes. Columbus was a much bigger idiot when he beached his boat on the coasts of America. Firstly, he thought he discovered India (which is actually in the opposite direction from America - relative to Europe... you'd think a sea captain would know such things) and secondly, America had already been discovered by Cheng Ho (Zhang He) much earlier. But that doesn't stop 300 million Americans celebrating Columbus Day each year. Another goofball is George Dubya Bush who thought it'd be a good idea to liberate 'dem Ai-raqis. He's in his 2nd term as the most powerful man on earth.

So, what I find more distressing about the PM's 1,350pts statement is not the fact that it turned out wrong... very wrong (about RM80 billion worth of wrong, apparently). What's more worrying is the fact that he lacked the better judgement to refrain himself from blurting out a prediction like that, and risk the bull run turning his words into bullshit.

I agree with DAP here. A man in his position should have known better that Malaysians will take his 'prediction' as a tip, a CNY ang pow from the top man himself. Top it off with all the "Good News" spun on the mass media (the RM1 trillion trade, record FDI etc) - what did you expect the auntie-auntie and uncle-uncle to do, if not dive headfirst into the share market?

The PM of Malaysia doesn't have to be the smartest, richest or most educated man in the country. But he damn well needs to be the one with the best judgement.