It’s a business as usual budget

There's no major shift to lead to a stronger economy and the redress of income and social disparities.

The 2015 Budget tabled yesterday represents a business-as-usual approach with no major strategic shifts that will lead to strong industrial performance, a more sustainable economy, and the redress of disparities in incomes and social positions.

Instead the government has embraced regressive taxation, cut subsidies and increased handouts without tackling sustainable wage increases, and adopted some questionable development economics.

Najib spoke of countries such as South Korea starting with farming then moving to innovation and expertise-driven development. Unfortunately for Malaysian workers, he is failing to follow South Korea’s example. He also seems to think that our manufacturing sector matured before we shifted into services.

In fact, the growth of our manufacturing was stunted by dependence on foreign-direct investment (FDI), and the sector failed to promote widespread innovation, technology development and high wages.

Najib is focusing on gearing our services sector for export with a Services Sector Blueprint. However he has failed to realise that it was the export of manufactured goods that really drove South Korea’s wealth and standard of living.

Services are harder to export than goods because it is far harder to multiply the service capacity of an individual with technology than it is to multiply the production capacity of manufacturing with technology. You will be limited by the quality of human resources, and the problems in our education system and graduate employability have been all too apparent. We will have a tougher time generating value-added with services, and therefore struggle to produce strong wage increases that can cope with the rising cost of living.

Focusing on exporting benefits the economy because export firms invest more in research and development of technology, pursue productivity, and can generate higher wages. Exporting manufactured goods ends up stimulating the growth of services to complement manufacturing. In fact, selling competitive goods abroad allows services to piggyback on those strengths and tap into export markets.

Room to grow

At 55% of GDP in 2013, the services sector is already the largest sector in the Malaysian economy, more than double the size of manufacturing (24.5%). There is room to grow but it requires tougher policies than the government has been willing to adopt.

Budget 2015 is littered with more of the usual entry-level incentive schemes that often lead to questionable spending and little performance discipline on recipients.

Without a strong industrial policy to drive the economy forward we may just barely achieve Najib’s modest aim of entering the lowest end of the World Bank’s “high income” definition. However, most Malaysian families will not enjoy strong wage increases from the existing policies. For that to happen, we need to foster stronger export industries with better value-added prospects.

Families will also be burdened by the government’s tax policy.

Cutting the income tax rate for high earners whilst imposing GST on all income classes continues the regressive direction of BN’s fiscal policies. It will please economic elites because the lower and middle class will bear more of the tax burden.

In contrast, the Pakatan Rakyat budget called for progressive taxation measures such as a Capital Gains Tax and Inheritance Tax to replace GST. Regressive taxation in a context of weak wage improvements will only drag out the problems of inequality Malaysia faces.

The Barisan Nasional may be happy to keep lower income and rural groups in a situation of economic dependency on cash handouts, but this is neither just nor sustainable.

Cutting subsidies whilst increasing the amount and frequency of BR1M payments to three times a year will not provide much relief to very poor families that will have to tighten their belts in the months between BR1M payouts.

Budget 2015 continues the trend of uneven regional development. It offers infrastructure spending on toll highways and mass rail in Klang Valley and other parts of Peninsular Malaysia, but the large, mostly rural regions of Sabah and Sarawak, bigger than the Peninsula, only get a repeat mention of the Pan-Borneo Highway. The cost of the highway appears to have risen from RM22 billion to RM27 billion in Najib’s speech today. What accounts for the extra RM5 billion?

Missed opportunities

While projects such as the Klang Valley toll highways and the Pan-Borneo Highway have been recycled from previous years, the environment and green technology were entirely absent from the budget.

Public transport is one of the great missed opportunities in Budget 2015. With its massive support for toll highways the government is still more committed to private transport than public transport. Despite some measures for inter-city bus services, improvements in crucial inner-city bus linkages were bypassed. MRTs and LRTs need extensive bus networks to really help commuters shift from private vehicles to public transport.

A strong holistic public transport infrastructure would relieve many families from taking on the burden of servicing vehicle loans in order to get to work.

While measures to improve the lot of Sabah and Sarawak are long overdue, the timing of these initiatives appear cynical in light of the Sarawak state elections next year. Despite the massive flooding that occurred in Penampang this week, there were no measures to improve drainage in the region.

In the month in which Germany made all university education free, the BN can only offer a payment discount on PTPTN.

We must be fair and say that it is not all bad news in the budget.

The proposal to supply water and electricity to rural Malaysia is long overdue and welcome. We have concerns about whether this will be done cost effectively and not exclude remote highland communities.

We also hope that the positive sounding measures for women in the workforce will take off.

However, both rural communities and women really need a bold industrial policy that will boost wages. If not, then come 2020, they and the majority of workers may still be struggling to make ends meet.

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Who are the bullies and who are the bullied?

Only an independent study will put the issue of Malays bullied by non-Malays or vice-versa to rest for good.

Not satisfied with labelling the non-Malays, especially Chinese, as “intruders” brought over by the British to oppress the Malays, Isma is now putting forward the argument that Malays have been subjected to bullying by non-Malays since the colonial period and that the bullying continues today.

“Who are the bullied and who are the bullies” is a question asked by Mohd Zul Fahmi, a self annointed analyst of the country’s history and constitution who, just like his Isma colleague, Abdullah Zaik Abd. Rahman, is blaming all the ills of the country and the problems of the Malay/Muslim community on the non-Malays.

Many Malaysians, whilst disagreeing with Isma’s view of the Malays as the oppressed in Malaysia today, will agree that the question of who are the bullies in Malaysia and who are to be blamed for all the problems of the Malays and other communities is a reasonable and pertinent question to examine in depth.

But instead of answering this question based on Isma’s potted and racist interpretation of Malaysian history and the biased opinions of Isma and its members, I would like to suggest that a proper survey and study of the topic be conducted by a reputable and independent survey research or academic organization.

Coverage of Proposed Survey and Study

The survey can cover feedback from all the communities, Malay and non-Malay. Besides posing the question to the public on whether the phenomenon of racial bullying exists as Isma has described it and who is bullying whom if racial bullying is indeed taking place. The survey can also cover other charges made by Isma, such as alleged non-Malay and non-Muslim responsibility for the problems of the Malay community as they are to be found today.

The survey can also cover the claim made in a blog article by former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad that the Chinese (and Indians) are the real masters of the country. He wrote: “Because they (the Malays) are willing to share their country with other races, the race from the older civilisation of more than 4,000 years and who are more successful, as such today whatever they have now is also being taken away from them.”

This allegation and similar comments made by Mahathir are an important source of inspiration to ultra-nationalist and extremist forces and are partly responsible for many of the unfounded opinions circulated by Isma and similar groups and individuals on how the rights and privileges of the Malay community have been usurped by the immigrant communities and how badly they are presently doing.

Our former national leader has since modified his position by emphasising that, despite the surfeit of policies and opportunities provided to Malays, they still remain retarded in their socio-economic standing due to laziness, lack of honesty and other bad habits. This hard hitting view has only reinforced racial stereotypes on both sides of the racial divide and should not go unchallenged. The study should ask respondents whether they are in agreement or otherwise with this damning analysis of the Malay community and what policies are necessary to change such a mindset, if it indeed exists and is peculiar to the community.

Meanwhile the allegation that the non-Malays are the real owners and master of the country and that the Malays have been bullied and persecuted to the extent that they need more special protection has also been taken to a new level with religion being brought into the picture. New groups such as proxies of Jewish Zionist evangelists and other agents of foreign powers are alleged to be interfering in the country’s domestic affairs.

It is possible that Isma’s witch hunt aimed at rallying the Malay and Muslim community to stand firm against those intent on burying Islam and “want the Malay race to be in their control, want to see us insulted as our religion is raped, the dignity of our race trampled on and our country pawned to the point we cannot do anything” may end in tragic violence if nothing is done to refute them or persuade them otherwise.

Hopefully the results of the study can address the fears and concerns of Isma, Perkasa, Mahathir and other paranoid Malays and assure them that they have nothing to fear from the other communities, as well as convince them that Malay dominance in the country’s polity is unshakable and that alarm over a non-Malay takeover is totally unjustified.

Funding for the Study

To ensure that this proposal for a scientific and objective survey and study of present race and religious hot button issues now dominating the country’s discourse and media can be carried out, I am willing to fund the work in its entirety.

My only condition for the work is that a reputable and independent group of scholars from the nation’s universities and abroad should be responsible for drafting the survey questionnaire and determining the methodology; and that the findings of this study will be widely disseminated, including to the government and the National Unity Council so that quick and effective action can be taken to stop the rot in the deterioration of the country’s race and religious relations.

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MH370 may not be in the Indian Ocean

Leading airlines chief says MH370 was under control probably until the very end.

PETALING JAYA: Conspiracy theories abound about what happened to missing jet MH370 but now the respected head of one of the world’s leading airlines said he believed the plane was not on autopilot at the end and may not even be in the Indian Ocean.

Emirates Airlines chief Tim Clark told a German magazine that the failure to find any debris from MH370 raised a “degree of suspicion”.

Clark made the controversial comments in an interview with German magazine Der Spiegel.

“MH370 was, in my opinion, under control, probably until the very end,” he said.

His theory goes against current thinking that the aircraft was on autopilot until it ran out of fuel and crashed into the southern Indian Ocean.

He added, “Our experience tells us that in water incidents, where the aircraft has gone down, there is always something.

“We have not seen a single thing that suggests categorically that this aircraft is where they say it is, apart from this so-called electronic satellite ‘handshake’, which I question as well.”

The plane that disappeared was a Boeing 777 and Emirates operates 127 such aircraft, more than any other airline.

Clark said he was suspicious of the fact that no-one seemed to know where the plane ended up.

“There hasn’t been one over-water incident in the history of civil aviation – apart from Amelia Earhart in 1939 – that has not been at least 5 or 10% trackable.

“But MH370 has simply disappeared. For me, that raises a degree of suspicion. I’m totally dissatisfied with what has been coming out of all of this,” he told the magazine.

Sky News reported Tim calling for more transparency in the investigation.

He said, “There is plenty of information out there, which we need to be far more forthright, transparent and candid about.

“Every single second of that flight needs to be examined up until it, theoretically, ended up in the Indian Ocean – for which they still haven’t found a trace, not even a seat cushion.”

Australian Danica Weeks lost her husband Paul on the flight.

In response to comments from Clark, she told Channel 9 news: “He’s the man in the know, so why aren’t they talking to us? And what is all the silence about?”

Earlier this week the Australian Transportation Safety Bureau (ATSB) said latest analysis suggested the Malaysia Airlines flight went into a slow left turn and spiralled into the Indian Ocean when its fuel ran out.

An interim report pointed investigators towards the southern section of the current search zone.

“MH370 remains one of the great aviation mysteries. Personally, I have the concern that we will treat it as such and move on,” the airline chief told Der Spiegel.

“At the most, it might then make an appearance on National Geographic as one of aviation’s great mysteries,” he said.

“We mustn’t allow this to happen. We must know what caused that airplane to disappear.”

The next phase of the operation to locate the plane began following an extensive mapping process of the ocean floor.

It is seven months since the aircraft went missing with 239 people on board.

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Why PAS wants Dr M to shut up

The party is at a loss to explain its cooperation with “infidels”.

PAS is upset that former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad has criticised its Tahaluf Siyasi (political consensus) with non-Muslim parties and told him to shut his mouth.

First of all, is this the Islamic thing to do? Since PAS is an Islamic party, should not Islam be the basis of all its policies? Didn’t the Caliph Umar invite the people to criticise him if he did something wrong? Being vocal and critical—and tolerating criticism—are attitudes that are supposed to represent Islamic values.

PAS, being a member of Pakatan Rakyat, talks about freedom of speech. In fact, it even wants the Sedition Act to be abolished because this law is an obstacle to freedom of speech and freedom to criticise. Yet PAS wants to deny Mahathir his freedom to speak and to criticise.

Secondly, was it not PAS that 30 years ago called Umno a kafir or infidel party for cooperating or forming a political alliance with non-Muslims?

This was what Mahathir said in January 2013:

From its inception the leaders of the Pan Malayan Islamic Party (PMIP) now known as PAS (Parti Islam SeMalaysia), in their quest for support condemned Umno members as infidels (kafir) for cooperating with non-Muslims. This was followed in April 1981 by Hadi Awang’s statement that Umno members were infidels because Umno perpetuates the constitution of the colonialist, perpetuates the rules and regulations of the infidels, perpetuates the rules of the pre-Islamic Arabs, the Jahiliah.

The statement Mahathir referred to is what is known as Amanat Hadi Awang. The word “amanat” is Arabic. In Malay, it denotes a legacy in the form of advice or counsel from an elder.

Hadi Awang’s “amanat” is probably the albatross around PAS’s neck. It explains, in part, why Umno members are infidels for working with MCA, MIC, Gerakan, etc. Today, that same declaration is being used against PAS for working with PKR and DAP. And PAS is at a loss to explain its actions. Hence it wants Mahathir to shut his mouth.

Even if the former prime minister does shut his mouth, the Amamat is not going to go away. What PAS needs to do is explain to Malaysians why when Umno works with non-Muslims its members are infidels but when PAS does the same its members are still Muslims.

This would be the only way to resolve this issue and fend off allegations that PAS is no different from Umno.

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Social contract, form of compromise among races

The Malays have their privileges, but other races have reasonable rights too

KUALA LUMPUR: Several matters mentioned in the social contract are indeed a form of compromise among all races in the country and not at all biased towards the Malays as claimed by certain quarters, former Court of Appeal judge Datuk Mohd Noor Abdullah said.

“For example, Islam is the official religion of the federation, but other religions can be freely practised. The Malays may have their privileges, but other races also have reasonable rights.

However, some people will only ‘read’ half of it and do not even know how the contract was agreed to by the representatives of the three main races in the country,” he said as the panelist in a forum titled ‘Social Contract and the Future of Racial Relations in Malaysia’ here last night.

He said the boldness of certain quarters in questioning and challenging the national social contract was mainly due to the lack of understanding of its history and meaning.

The forum, attended by students, teachers, representatives of non-governmental organisations and community leaders, was aimed at providing greater understanding on the elements of the social contract enshrined in the Federal Constitution.

Another panelist, Prof Madya Dr Shamrahayu Ab Aziz said certain quarters had even used the social contract issue to push their political agendas.

Meanwhile, Associate Professor Dr Sarjit Singh Gill said the act to challenge the social contract was also due to the people’s lack of understanding about the other races’ cultures and religions.

“Don’t be extreme and ethnocentric in thinking that our cultures are better than others. We need to look at our similarities, rather than our differences.

“For example, some may think that the Subuh ‘azan’ (call for Subuh prayer) is disturbing, but for me, it is also a wake up call to perform my religious obligation. From there, we can see the existing similarities,” he said

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Police, immigration get tough on followers of terrorist

Police, immigration department to bar Abu Bakar Bashir's followers from entering Malaysia.

KUCHING: The Police and the Immigration Department have been instructed to cooperate with the Indonesian authorities to prevent followers of Jemaah Anshorut Tauhid (JAT) leader Abu Bakar Bashir from entering Malaysia.

Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamid said the directive was issued as 350 followers of the leader who are currently serving their prison sentence in Indonesia are due to be released next year.

“I have requested the Police and the Immigration Department to work on this with the Indonesian prison, police and immigration authorities because we will not allow former prisoners who are Abu Bakar Bashir’s followers to enter Malaysia or use Malaysia as a base to expand their militancy.

“This is because Islam has never taught militancy but Islam teaches moderation,” he said when closing the Public Order and Security 2014 seminar here Saturday.

Also present were Deputy Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar, the Ministry’s secretary-general Datuk Seri Mohamed Khalid Shariff and Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar.

Meanwhile, Ahmad Zahid said he had yesterday instructed the Immigration Department to bar the head of the Indonesian Liberal Islam Network (JIL), Dr Ulil Abshar Abdalla from entering the country.

“The police have received several reports that when he delivers lectures or attends programmes organised by non-governmental organisations, he would not only damage the faith of Muslims but he also deviates from the teachings of Sunni the Wajama’ah (Shafie sect),” he said.

Ahmad Zahid said the ban would be enforced until he is found to be no longer a danger to Islam.

Dr Ulil is scheduled to arrive in Malaysia on Oct 18 to attend a roundtable discussion in Bukit Damansara here organised by a think tank.

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