Utusan tells Malays to blow themselves up like terrorists

Read this article from the journalistic equivalent of a noisy retard that won't shut up... yes, Utusan Malaysia. I'll add some comments tomorrow. It's late and I won't sacrifice sleep for the sake of racist morons who somehow think they are the 'tuans' when they are no more than beggars and thieves.

Orang Melayu perlu berani pertahankan hak
Saturday, 28 June 2008 06:26am
Utusan Malaysia (as reproduced by The Bar Council)
Oleh Azmi Md Deros

AGENDA pembangunan Melayu tetap relevan sampai bila-bila. Selagi wujudnya bangsa Melayu, selagi itulah semangat ini harus didukung sepenuhnya oleh parti politik yang dianggotai orang Melayu.

Dalam hal ini, Melayu sendiri yang perlu memperjuangkan nasib dan masa depan bangsanya. Mereka tidak boleh menyerahkannya kepada orang lain kerana mereka juga mempunyai agenda sendiri yang harus diperjuangkan.

Ketika terlalu ghairah berpolitik, semua parti siasah umat Melayu tidak harus lupa tanggungjawab mereka mempertahankan hak bangsa, budaya, agama dan tanah airnya, selaras dengan tuntutan Islam.

Bagi orang Melayu di Malaysia, kita masih bernasib baik kerana kuasa politik yang menjadi penentu utama perjuangan memartabatkan bangsa Melayu dan agama Islam masih berada di tangan kita, walaupun sudah ada tanda ia sedikit terhakis.

Orang Melayu tidak perlu segan silu atau takut untuk membicarakan hal ini kerana mereka adalah tuan di tanah airnya sendiri. Pada masa sama, bangsa lain pula tidak perlu berasa takut kerana sejarah di negara ini menunjukkan hak mereka tidak pernah dirampas begitu saja dalam usaha kumpulan Melayu cuba memperkukuhkan kedudukan peribumi.

Dasar perjuangan kerajaan, khususnya Barisan Nasional (BN) sejak dulu lagi ialah perkongsian yang melahirkan situasi ‘menang-menang’. Jaminan yang diberikan Ketua Pemuda Umno, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein bahawa Umno akan terus berpegang kepada perjuangan asas parti, iaitu membela nasib orang Melayu dan pada masa sama, mengambil kira sokongan semua parti komponen BN yang lain, perlu menjadi sandaran.

Tidak dapat dinafikan, Umno sebagai parti yang bercorak kebangsaan sudah banyak membawa kejayaan dalam memperjuangkan hak bangsa Melayu dan umat Islam di negara ini, termasuk menerusi Dasar Ekonomi Baru (DEB) yang diperkenalkan sejak 1970-an yang menyaksikan kedudukan orang Melayu dalam pelbagai bidang bertambah baik.

Dasar itu menggariskan hala tuju yang jelas dalam memperkasakan kedudukan bangsa Melayu dalam pelbagai sektor.

Namun, apa yang dibimbangi ialah kekuasaan untuk memperkasakan kedudukan orang Melayu pasca Pilihan Raya Umum Ke-12 pada Mac lalu, menjadikan usaha itu sedikit terganggu apabila Umno yang selama ini amat dominan dalam memperjuangkan nasib dan masa depan Melayu tergugat apabila mereka tidak dapat membentuk kerajaan di lima negeri.

Biar pun pada peringkat pusat BN yang diterajui Umno masih membentuk kerajaan, apabila wujud ketidakseragaman pada peringkat negeri akan menjejaskan sedikit sebanyak agenda pembangunan Melayu yang dirangka pada peringkat pusat.

Bagi tokoh akademik yang juga pensyarah Kolej Kerajaan, Undang-undang dan Pengajian Antarabangsa Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM), Prof Dr Ahmad Atory Hussain, konsep kesamarataan yang diperjuangkan kerajaan Pakatan Rakyat dikhuatiri boleh menyebabkan orang Melayu akan terus tertinggal daripada arus persaingan kerana kaum berkenaan masih belum mampu bersaing sepenuhnya tanpa diberikan perhatian khusus.

Beliau berkata, di Kedah misalnya negeri yang majoriti orang Melayu, taraf ekonomi bangsa berkenaan masih jauh ketinggalan, berbanding kaum lain, terutama Cina yang menguasai pelbagai sektor perniagaan dan perkhidmatan.

“Sebagai tuan di bumi sendiri, orang Melayu mesti lebih, tidak boleh sama rata. Orang Melayu perlu mencapai tahap gemilang dalam semua aspek, sama ada ekonomi, politik dan pendidikan. Islam juga menuntut umatnya supaya berada pada tahap paling atas supaya dihormati,” katanya.

Apa yang menarik ialah beliau mengumpamakan konsep sama rata sama seperti keadaan tanah yang rata, iaitu ia mudah dipijak sesiapa saja dan itulah akan dialami bangsa Melayu jika prinsip itu didukungi.

“Oleh itu, kita perlu menjadi bangsa yang berada lebih tinggi daripada orang lain supaya kita tidak mudah dipijak. Bila kita berada di atas, akan lebih mudah untuk kita menentukan keadilan kepada orang lain. Selama ini pun kita tidak pernah menindas bangsa lain,” katanya.

Beliau juga mengingatkan bangsa lain supaya tidak mudah melatah dengan perjuangan memartabatkan orang Melayu kerana selama ini belum pernah berlaku hak bangsa lain diambil untuk diserahkan kepada orang Melayu kerana kerajaan sentiasa mengambil berat terhadap semua kaum.

Sehubungan itu, beliau mahu kerajaan Pas Kedah lebih serius dalam menjaga kepentingan bangsa Melayu di negeri itu dan tidak terlalu terikut-ikut dengan slogan atau konsep sama rata dilaungkan rakan mereka, seperti Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) dan DAP.

Dr Ahmad Atory berkata, Pas yang ahlinya terdiri daripada orang Melayu dan beragama Islam perlu lebih fokus terhadap usaha membangunkan bangsa Melayu selepas mereka mengambil alih tampuk pemerintahan kerajaan negeri kerana jika tidak, masa depan orang Melayu akan terbiar.

Sementara itu, Yang Dipertua Dewan Perhimpunan Melayu Kedah (DPMK), Tan Sri Khalid Abdullah, berkata dalam keghairahan orang Melayu mengejar kemewahan melalui apa juga parti politik yang diwakili, mereka perlu mengelak daripada menjadi apa yang kini dialami bangsa Arab.

“Orang Arab amat kaya dari segi ekonomi kerana negara mereka dianugerahkan minyak, tetapi mereka tiada kuasa sehingga terpaksa bergantung kepada pihak lain. Kita harus meminjam semangat pengebom berani mati yang sanggup mempertaruhkan nyawa mereka demi memastikan tanah air dan agama mereka terbela,” katanya.

Beliau berkata, orang Melayu perlu membuang tabiat hanya mementingkan diri sendiri kerana ia hanya akan menyebabkan bangsa berkenaan tidak dapat bangkit secara total dalam memperjuangkan hak mereka secara menyeluruh.

Penulis ialah Ketua Biro Berita Harian, Kedah

Women can be verbal bastards, just like men

I don't know about this one...

Physical abuse, I concede that there are many more women victims than men - simply due to the inherent physical differences between men and women. Having said that, I've seen small-built men with some pretty big women sporting all sorts of bruises, scratches and pinch marks.

Verbal abuse...

I need a whole lot more convincing that verbal abuse is a predominantly male-perpetrated crime as this ad would have you believe.

If never ending nagging, put-downs, criticism, snide remarks and sarcasm can be classified as verbal abuse, I reckon the fist could just as likely be coming from the woman's mouth.

Cabinet don't pay for their own damn holidays?!

I'm sure you all have read about how Najib says the "Government is sharing the burden". He is of course referring to the much publicised (and much lauded... by chronic ball-lickers NST) exercise to cut costs and expenses in the govt.

According to Star and Malaysiakini, the gist of the cuts are:

1. The entertainment allowances of ministers and deputy ministers will be slashed by 10%.

The Prime Minister currently enjoys a monthly entertainment allowance of RM18,865 while his deputy gets RM15,015. Other ministers and deputy ministers are given RM12,320 and RM6,000 respectively.

First question: Does a mere 10% reduction qualify as 'slashed'?

Aisehman has a hilarious hypothetical question on how a cabinet member like... say, Najib, would classify his entertainment expenses as public/govt if he entertains the DPM of Mongolia, or private if he entertains a beautiful young model from Mongolia.

End of the day, why would cabinet members need entertainment allowances? If the entertainment is for official purposes, the ministry would have already picked up the tab. If it's for his own private pleasure, why should the taxpayer pay for it?

2. The paid holidays of Cabinet members and their families holidays will now be limited to local and Asean destinations and will not be allowed to claim for more than a week’s holiday.

Wow! I didn't know that cabinet members AND their families get paid holidays to anywhere in the world, at the expense of taxpayers. With their salaries, entertainment allowances, travel allowances, housing allowances, MP's allowance and god knows what other allowances and perks - can't these bastards pay for their own farking holidays?

Can they really go anywhere in the world? US and Europe? Disneyland, Las Vegas?

For how long? (However long, it's definitely more than a week).

And how many people constitutes a family? Does it include the in-laws, brothers, sisters, parents etc? And is there a maximum number of family members? All 4 wives? All 20 kids?

Here's a hypothetical holiday bill (in US$) for a minister with 1 wife and 3 kids, to London for 2 weeks:

With 71 cabinet members (ref: wiki), this translates into an annual bill of RM8.7 million (71 x 123K).

And remember, the assumption is 1 holiday per cabinet member per year, 5 people in a family and a duration of 2 weeks.

Also, we're assuming that the cabinet member's family does not do a 'Rosmah'. ie. go shopping at Harrod's, and then walk out with armloads of stuff, leaving the foreign ministry to settle the bill.

Fuel subsidies must go, but so must cronies, corruption and wastage

Thanks for all the comments encouraging me to continue blogging. I mentioned that I might blog again if the shit hit the fan. And hit the fan the shit did.., in the form of increased fuel prices in Malaysia.

I think there's something intrinsically wrong when a litre of petrol or diesel costs the same as lunch (outside KL lah). But I think it's more wrong if Malaysians are charged market prices for oil, when the govt forces us buy cars and houses at tax-inflated and bumiputra discount-inflated market prices (respectively). I think it's wrong if we are charged market prices for petrol when development funds meant to improve our educational and business infrastructure (which increases our income and hence, our ability to pay market prices) are squandered in favour of enriching BN cronies and faulty bumiputra & ketuanan melayu policies.

Here's a post I made in a local forum on this topic:

Personally, I think fuel prices in Malaysia need to be UNsubsidised. Subsidies are a downward spiral and is nothing less than switching of the burden of higher cost from consumers to taxpayers.

However, subsidies cannot be looked at in isolation. All national budgets are simple creatures. What is the cash inflow, and how is it matched by the cash outflow. Cash inflows are few, mainly taxes and returns from govt investments. Cash outflows are more complex, from govt spending, to govt investment, to these fuel subsidies.

I think the issue here is not the fuel subsidies. It is unrealistic for the public to expect the govt to 'PREVENT' the increase in fuel prices. Malaysia is insignificant to the overall crude oil dynamics as a producer, or a consumer. Trying to hang on to the subsidies in the face of current oil price trends is like trying to hold back a tidal wave with your bare hands. Everybody still gets drenched, and we'll also drown in the process - because we stubbornly stood on the beach staring down the incoming tsunami instead of running for higher ground.

In my mind, there are 3 connected issues:

1. Since Malaysia is a net oil exporter, the net profit from oil will always increase as oil prices increase. Because we produce more than we consume, the increased profit from selling oil that we produce, will always be more than the increased costs of paying for (including subsidies) the oil we consume.

The matter is whether the govt (via Petronas) should spend their oil production profits to 'subsidise' the consumption of oil. For me, that's a matter for the public to decide. BN and PR have made their intentions know (albeit after the elections) in that BN wants to eliminate the subsidies while PR (via Anwar's statements) promises to use Petronas profits to subsidise consumption. So vote wisely.

Me, I prefer that the govt spend the money on improved public transport, better schools and better infrastructure so that the public can increase their earning power in order to cope with the additional cost of living, rather than trying to subsidise living costs. There is no benefit in subsidies (other than delaying the inevitable doom). Additionally, subsidies are so easily and rapaciously abused as I'll show in point 2 below (only one example of many).

2. The consumption of oil itself is fraught with problems. Namely, which consumers do you subsidise? Right now, everyone is subsidised. From the kapcai riders earning RM800/mth to the biggest towkays and royalty driving Mercedes S-classes and Aston Martins. But my thinking is that individual consumption of fuel for private transportation is actually a small proportion of oil consumption.

It's the transportation industry, power generation industry and the smugglers to Thailand (by road) and Indonesia (by boat) who are the biggest users of these subsidies. Should they be entitled to it?

Smugglers... definitely not. But subsidies are like banning liquor and gambling. The more you do it, the more illicit and illegal activities will occur.

And take the power generation industry. Tenaga buys fuel feedstocks from Petronas at subsidised prices. That is justified as electricity prices to the public are also controlled. And electricity tariffs are staggered in that smaller consumers pay less, and larger, commercial & industrial consumers pay more - which is somewhat fair.

But the IPPs (independent power producers) like YTL and Tanjung also pay ridiculously subsidised prices for their fuel feedstocks. If they were selling the power back to Tenaga at Tenaga's cost of production (maybe with a small premium of for the IPP's smaller scale vs Tenaga), that would be okay. However, IPPs sell power to Tenaga at cost+ (ie. guaranteed profits), and the most ridiculous thing is that Tenaga has to buy everything the IPPs produce, even if it is in excess of Tenaga's needs. This means that the IPPs will produce as much as they possibly can to maximise profits, and therefore they are consuming the maximum amount of oil as well... at subsidised prices.

And because IPPs are currently producing excess power that Tenaga doesn't need, the excess power is wasted because it can't be stored, translating into higher costs for Tenaga and higher tariffs for the public. That also means that billions in fuel subsidies are being spent to subsidise IPP production of wasted power. Everyone loses, much is wasted and the only party gaining from this arrangement are the IPPs... and of course, their politician sponsors from BN in the background.

3. Lastly, is govt spending itself. What's the alternative spending if public funds are not spent on subsidies?

How can the govt justify such drastic moves to reduce overspending on subsidies, when we don't seem to be doing anything to reduce overspending on guaranteeing profits for IPPs, highway toll operators, GLCs like Proton, Bernas, Class F contractors, AP permit holders, govt dept waste etc?

In fact, how do we know that the billions saved from these subsidy reductions will not be spent on guaranteeing more profits for cronies and wastage?