Another Brick in the Wall

Our June posting on the "nasi kangkang" woman referred to as Sofia Jane became the talk of the agency under the Ministry of Communication and Multimedia (MCM). In conversations and online chat, she is being referred by the code, "#sj".

It has become known to us that Sofia Jane missed the opportunity to serve her marked prey, the Minister Dato Shabery Chik with the prepared incancated "nasi kangkang".

According to Malay folklore, a woman who feeds her husband or male friend or in this case, her prey with "nasi kangkang" can have absolute control over him.

To prepare a "nasi kangkang", all the female need to do is to squat (kang kang), without panties, over a pot of steaming hot rice (nasi) until the steam condenses at her muff and thighs.

The condensed sweat and virginal fluids are then allowed to drip into the pot of rice. The fluids are then mixed thoroughly with the rice and served to the clueless man together with his favorite dishes.

Whether "nasi kangkang" was prepared and served in that manner or it is merely a metaphor, Sofia Jane intend to do anything necessary to get the coveted CEO position that will be created upon the decoupling of the Executive Chairman position.

It makes no different to Sofia Jane that she is not qualified and incapable of fulfilling the role that comes with the position.

It has come to our attention that Sofia Jane was already close for the final kill on her marked prey at a typically wasteful PR event organised by herself guised as something useful for the agency.

She insisted that her accomodation was to be in the same hotel and at the same floor as the Minister. This instruction placed the Secratariat in a fix as protocol does not allow for anyone in the organisation to be in the same floor as the Minister. To refuse, they will incur the wrath of the man-eater.

Shabery's star must have not co-incided with Sofia Jane's moon at the intended opportunity. Lucky for him but not for her, the Minister's wife decided to come along for the event and share his room. Reluctantly Sofia Jane had to revert back to the original arrangement to be in the same floor as other staff should.

Otherwise, something as steamy as a "nasi kangkang" during preparation could happen.

Shabery escaped the overture of Sofia Jane this time. Maybe he will not be so lucky the next time.

And Shabery should be be careful. He and Sofia Jane are getting too close for comfort. They were snapping each other's picture on the smart-phones and playing around with novelty app to create fun cover of 'Playboy' magazine with their picture.

The earlier posting is not exagerating to portray her as a highly ambitious woman who seemed diligent in getting the Chairman and even the Minister to eat out of her paws. In many people's imagination, they were served "nasi kangkang" that was left to be 'steamed over', presumably together with a cast of spell.

Sofia Jane has limited regulatory, strategic, planning and industry development hands on experience to move further up. For the past 15 years, she was merely globe-trotting and looking prim and pretty being ambassadress to international conferences such as ITU or GSM in Barcelona every February.

Right from the unceremonious departure of the previous Chairman, she began crafting and charming her way for position upward.

Her "apple-polishing-on-silver-tray", which many in the agency could see, gained her the untimely and quick elevation to the Cluster Chief cohort, with specific new roles, functions and also authority. So they started to coin "#sj" to bitch or refer about her, which is becoming more rampant.

Soon after Sofia Jane charmed and elevated herself into the thought process of the Chairman, MCMC. She started to wiggle herself smack into the loop of all Chairman's "divide and rule" interpretation of policies and execution of programs.

It is unthinkable of her to do all that when she has he own deliverables.

But then, someone only capable of being a charming host and Guess Relation Officer for the past 15 years wouldn't know head or tail on what to do and how to roll out important work for the regulatory body.

One can expect her to not able to deliver and will naturally be quick to deflect or blame others.

If the role and function at the agency to be de-coupled between the Chairman of the Commission and a Chief Operating Officer, then there might be a serious problem should unqualified personalities are alleviated on the merits of charms, showmanship and superb apple polishing.

The industry is growing very fast. The consumer growth is exponential. The development of technology and availability of content is going towards Infiniti. Under a COO whose limited ability is only to be able to charm everyone with her sweet-talkibility, nothing will ever get accomplished.

Shabery must deliver Prime Minister Najib's transformation agenda. Creative industry and innovation, is very much up high on Prime Minister Najib's plan to create tracks of high income earning community amongst young professionals, those with creativity and talents.

Having only a GRO referred as "#sj" to lead his charge will not be of any help to Shabery. Not even if the Minister can show that novelty photo of "#sj" as the 'cover of Playboy magazine'.

As it is, the 'GST-on-top-ups' blunder already indicative of the incoherent between the Minister, Chairman and the "nasi kangkang" woman.

Najib maybe under political pressure. Some say his days can be counted by days and weeks but he intend to soldier on. He is tinkering with the possibility of a new cabinet line-up.

Should you be swayed the wrong way by her, then Shabery should drop her and stay focus!

Returned early to our hometown on Tuesday to escape the traffic jam. That enabled us to visit few elderly relatives. Mostly the old, the ill, the lost loved ones, or the less fortunate.

Interestingly, the same questions that kept propping up in conversation was the Low Yat Plaza fracas.

There have been many highly seditious statements made by oppositions, left wing activists and super-liberals against the Malay and Islam's status, rights and practices, but yet it is the racial fracas arising from the stolen handphone that got the Malay's attention.

The Raya festivities is a significant event in the Malaysian calender and an important occasion from the perspective of propaganda. If events in the last few days of Ramadhan could dominate the Raya conversation, then they managed to create the Hari Raya buzz.

Low Yat fracas

To the law enforcement official, the Low Yat incident was a clear cut case of theft. IGP Tan Sri Khalid blamed the accused of talking to the social media and spreading the version of cheating.

Khalid was trying to control the situation by not mentioning that groups of Malay got agitated when the kid was beaten up by a group of young Chinese salesmen. That resulted in Malay groups converging by the thousands at Low Yat. There were fracas that resulted in several Chinese media journalist was reported injured. Situation was only control in the wee hours of the morning.

To date, 24 were held and released.

Blogger Papagomo, an UMNO division chief and activist Ali Tinju were held by police and to be charged under the Sedition Act. This could lead to another discontent as Chinese politicians and media social players were equally guilty of the doing the same alleged seditious act.

The lawyer for the accused openly questioned Khalid's statement as judgemental and raised issues on the date of the CCTV video, non-availability of the alleged stolen Lenovo handphone as proof, denied the accused spoke to any social media, etc. [read here].

Despite being an issue of theft and racial incitation, there are segments in the Malay community that saw it in a positive light. They claimed it as a unifying factor for "oppressed" Malays. Many were impressed with the accused brevity to return to the scene of the crime and Malay gangs managed to drive out Chinese gangs in their own territory.

Already Low Yat's business had been affected by the incidents as police raided to capture those involved in beating up the accused and social media is calling for boycott till they are out of business.

The Chinese retribution could be the buzz for Hari Raya.

Plot to topple

The opposition anticipate the Low Yat incident to be the buzz for Hari Raya and was quick to lay blame on UMNO.

Bar Council activist, Eric Paulsen accused PM of using Low Yat to detract attention away from 1MDB [read MMO here]. In the joint press conference by the opposition and left wing NGOs, Rafizi warned that the 1MDB issue will not go away by this incident.

He is quite aware that PAC is due to meet in early August. The past and present CEOs, Dato Shahrol, Arul Kanda and Dato Hazem are due to appear on the 4th, 5th and 6th. After the sessions with Auditors, PAC have found few issues to raise to the CEOs.

The Auditor General have given their interim reports and MoF II, Dato Husni Hanazlah was quick to point out that it was concluded that the missing RM42 billion and the transfer of USD700 million to a certain individual, presumably Jho Loh's alleged company, Good Star Limited [read Rocky Bru's here].

1MDB have clarified and repeated several times in the blog with documents that Good Star is a subsidiary of Petrosaudi. Tony Pua claimed Husni did not mention of some questionable issue raised in the report.

Some bloggers like SatdD, Jebat Must Die and Freddie Kevin inferred the USD700 million is linked to the alleged campaign fund that was deposited into Dato Najib's three personal account with Ambank and is the diverted invested fund into Petrosaudi.

Their reaction generally arise from lose in trust with government for being late in clarifying the 1MDB issues and several statement by Ministers have been caught being wrong on several issues.

Thus far, Taskforce have frozen six accounts but said none belongs to Najib. There is no specific statement on the alleged Dato Najib's account except that it is closed. When was it closed? Does it tally with the dates of the transfers as alleged by Wall Street Journal?

As far as the documents revealed by WSJ, there have been discrepencies with the Swiftcode as pointed out by Badlisyah Abdul Gani, CEO of Islamic CIMB. Embarassed by Badlisyah's statement, WSJ-Sarawak report have divert attention on Datin Seri Rosmah.

Badlisyah has just submitted his resignation [read here] in the midst of rumours that Dato Nazir Tun Razak have approached the G18 PAS-offshoot group [read here]. It reaffirm Nazir's long believed political aspirations, biasness and undemocratic tendency to personal opinion by others' than himself.

Question is: Was there such sum of money being transfered allegedly into Najib personal accounts?

One source with linked to certain Minister claimed no such transfer and no such accounts existed. All will be eventually be revealed. While one source linked to a government outfit claimed of it's existence, but it's unthinkable for the source to be trusting of Sarawak Report, The Edge, and WSJ.

Last week, rumours broke out that opposition leaders - Tony Pua and Rafizi, The Edge's Dato Tong Kooi Ong and Ho Ko Tat, Sarawak Report's Clara Rewcastle and Xavier Justo met in a Singapore Hotel.

In the latest development, Dato Rahman Dahlan made a police report on the meeting and conspiracy to topple the government [Read Rocky Bru here and here]. An editor of Sarawak report, Lester Melanyi made a confessed to the conspiracy:

Rafizi's butt is burning, wrote Bujai [read here]. Clara is at her lying best [read MMO here].

Only few days back, an NGO, CAGM made a press statement of an unnamed SD of an ex-Ambank staff claimed to be force to effect the alleged transfer [read FMT here]. Yesterday, CAGM denied the SD and it is experiment to prove Malaysians are gullible to believe such an allegation [read here]. Will the conspiracy and experiment create enough buzz to take the heat of Dato Najib?

Lim Sian See see the walls are coming closing in on Najib's critics [read here].

However, the silent buzz in certain circles are seeing the resumption of onslaught by Tun Dr Mahathir after Raya and the new target deadline to bring down Najib has shifted to August. Already a new allegation surfaced in Australia by The Age on allegation of counterfeit money. Najib made a statement to sue.

At least, he is fast on this.

Tabung Haji

A certain blogger have been attempting to revive the Tabung Haji-1MDB issue through his blog and maybe other avenues too. [Read Apanama here and FMT here.]

His intention was to create a viral of distrust among gullible depositers of TH. This is an insidious intention to destroy an important Islamic institution through lies and deception. The blogger's posting is devoid of any decent facts on the subject matter and shows his lack of understanding on any non-political issues.

The fact as taken from Bigdog here is the land purchase was made at a discounted valuation, far cheaper than a nearby last done transaction. TH bought the KLFID land at RM 188.5 million as compared to international valuers figure of RM194 million.

The land is not sold yet despite receiving several any offers and there have been suggestions by MPs as to not sell the land. Consideration will be made based on long term return to depositors and not so myopic political play.

The choice for TH is between a one off RM5.5 million profit versus developing the land for potential estimated RM177.5 million profit over 3 years.

On the issue of halal or haram, someone unschooled in Islamic jurisprudence has no legitimacy to comment. Buying and selling of the said KLIFD land or any land transaction are halal in Islam.

TH has got decades of experience in property investment. They are far more conversant on halal or haram matter in protecting their 8.6 million depositors than politics-only blogger. In comparison to other institutions, they have the most stringent halaalan toyyiba criteria.

Certainly, depositors money cannot be simplistically assumed as bailing out 1MDB. Unknown to
many, the process to evaluate the KLIFD proposal begin since 2013 and had undergone several level of scrutiny.

The leakage of information has been detected and the information trail identified. Some member of the board of director and members of evaluation committee have been unprofessional in their conduct.

Nevertheless, TH issue is not likely to be a buzz for Hari Raya small talk. There is a bigger political story in the happenings in the now defunct Pakatan Rakyat. But, it could not outshine the attention and issues being championed by Tun M.

Looking forward for after Hari Raya.

In the meanwhile, to all readers:

Selamat Hari Raya dan Maaf Zahir Batin.

Drive safely.

The ancient greek Peloponnesian War of army versus navy

Ever since Dato Najib fought back Tun Dr Mahathir with his first salvo on his blog, there had been rapid development on 1MDB. It not only confuses the common observers but the keen ones too.

Nevertheless, there was something interesting emerging out of the many exposes on 1MDB, Thai arrest of Xavier Justo, WSJ revelation of alleged transfer of US$700 million into Dato Najib's account, RM2 million deposit into Datin Seri Rosmah's bank account and subsequent raids and developments on Task Force investigation.

Both sides of Tun M and Najib were avoiding from falling into the trap of playing in each other's "court". There are responses to each other's questions or allegations but not serious effort to pursue it through.

It took a military man to gave a definition to the current happenings and in anticipating the outcome.

Over Hari Raya, we met up a Navy captain friend. As a keen observer of politics himself, he has his own opinion of the situation albeit a different stance from us. Not that we bother to influence him. We only wanted to share our concerns.

On 1MDB, there could be possible slackening on corporate governance, bad investment made, Jho Loh's strange hands, etc. but to accuse of stealing and embezzling RM42 billion or RM2.3 billion or any amount, it is not fun political games. It is a bloody serious allegation that has to be substantiated and not be made fodders for perception play.

We shared with the Navy Captain the observation that Dato Najib is avoiding from giving a direct answer to Tun M and his other detractors' list of questions. Najib preferred to let the process of law to take it's due cause at the expense of politics and negative perception of himself.

Some speculated and accused Najib of hiding something on the basis that he could have denied any wrongdoing or sue the accuser. Quite an easy, simplistic and expected conclusion.

If Najib had done so, it could have serious implication to the due process by the authorities as he could be seen as influencing the outcome. It is similar to those making public statement that could influence due process.

A Prime Minister statement would have strong influence so he had to shut up till it is over. Many would be sceptical but he basically left his fate and those linked to the issue to the due process of law.

The usual due process of law means authorities should not make any statement or share finding with the public. It only get revealed in court should there be any charges. So those asking to be shown which information are tampered by Sarawak Report and The Edge are making political comments without any understanding on due process of law.

Putting aside the technicality and just looking from a tactic and strategy of war, Najib is drawing Tun M into a long drawn out war. He refuses to confront Tun M and even to apply power to flank Tun M since there are legitimate issue that is available.

While, Tun M was racing against time as he up from gear one to gear four in a short time to call for Najib's resignation. In the midst of talk of conspiracy, he deny involvement as he openly said he wants Najib down.

June was the speculated target date for Najib to fall. Now it is August. And a roadshow is heard to begin after Raya.

Why the need to bring Najib down and fast is a mystery? The publicly said reason is that the faster Najib is removed, the earlier effort to reignite the party could begin. The tactic and strategy reason could be something need to be addressed fast.

So what could that be? Economy? Currency? 1MDB? IPP?

1MDB seemed to feature prominently in Tun M's coup on Najib. Not so much GST or BR1M or Malay issue. YTL's IPP is heard to end in September. Could someone confirm?

As far as Najib's response, he is now on a counter attack mode since Xavier Justo's capture by Thai's military-run police and revelation by Singapore authorities. Assuming some of the effort to implicate Tun M's camp by certain "media" has links to Najib, one could observe the same reaction by Tun M.

Tun M is not playing ball and sticking to his side by demanding for Najib to answer the allegations. He is not even responding to the call for proofs to his long list of faulty accusations.

Najib is also sticking to the position to let the authorities and PAC investigate and the one to answer. Najib knows his denial may not be believeable now.

After describing the battle senario, our Navy Captain friend mentioned of one important case study in military school that is similar to the situation. It is an ancient greek war between the mighty city state of Sparta versus Athens called the Peloponnesian War.

It was a war in which the first stage was between 460 to 446 BC and the second stage was 431 to 404 BC. The interesting similarity is it is the first war that had no direct open field battle.

Sparta had a superior land based army. It is a military-led government and a society systematically tuned for war. Boys with deformity not suitable for battle are left to die in the hills.

As a port and civilisation centre, Athens strength lies in the Navy and its financial strength as trading post. Their line of defense was an impenetrable wall around the city.

The advantage and disadvantage of the military tactic and strategy used could be found here.

The Peloponnesian War is significant as a case study for it is one of the early war fought on strategy rather than sheer military strength in which it is lop-sided on both sides. Innvovation was introduced as the Spartan tried it's infamous Phalanx formation, use of missionary soldiers and slaves, importance of logistics and tactical seiges.

Read of it and the history behind the war here.

The war rise out of resentment for the Athens grab for power and prestige, expanding naval empire, and Athens settlers moving into other city-state land. Athens had control on Delian League and their rival is Peloponesian League under Sparta.

Athens was keeping away the strong Spartan army from the sieges and counter with naval seiges into Spartan land. They still had supplies via the sea from the Delian Legues city-states but all begin to fail when disease caused the death of one third of the population.

Sparta had a new general that managed to cut off supply line and it led to Athen lost. However, in the end, it weakened all the Greek city-state. The lesson from the Peloponnesian Wars was that countries that wage war will lose power and prestige instead of losing it.

Read the summary in eduplace.com website here.

To use this example, who do one equate Sparta and Athens to? Tun M as Sparta and Najib as Athens?

Sparta was not a democratic state and was military run thus it could be resemble more closely to Tun M, the leader seldom labeled as dictator. If that is the case, the defensive Najib could end up losing the war.

On the other hand, the leverage of power and resources of a political fighting machinery lies with Najib. It is Tun M that is without any big name general in his army but left to himself to take undertake the attack and defense in collaboration with other alleged "Delian League city-states".

If that is the case, Najib is Sparta with its relentless attack using TV3, MyKMU and gang, BN leaders, Mps and ministers. Tun M will equate to the losing Athens and one must say that Tun M's premiership is now seen as Athenian golden era of Malaysia.

Whichever side is Sparta and Athens, a long drawn war only weakened the pillar of Malaysia's strength which is the stable politics that enabled the country to proper over the years.

The big story will be the dropping of Tan Sri Muhyiddin. There is already voices equating it with past dropping of Tun Musa Hitam and Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim. One such voice is Cilisos website here. One can read Muhyiddin's press conference yesterday in the Mole here.

By evening, there was a big hurrah in the social media over a viral video of Muhyiddin in conversation with Tan Sri Kadir Sheikh Fadzir and Dato Mukriz Mahathir. Frankly, what was said in the 53 second clipping was not anything new and consistent with myriad of sources but there is more than just that.

Those looking towards Muhyiddin as the end-game of to their struggle should have heeded our June posting, Muhyiddin is not an end-game. They have themselves to blame for setting him up.

Other than Muhyiddin's sacking, there were many interesting observations and chats on the new cabinet. Missing is the observation that the new cabinet is filled with Tun Abdullah's people. Was it to teach Tun Dr Mahathir a lesson?

With his people in, Pak Lah's voice could suddenly be heard. As MMO report here, "Act fast and sort out 1MDB mess, Pak Lah tells new cabinet."

One immediate accusation by the critical observer is that cabinet reshuffle was a 1MDB cover-up. Four members of PAC was appointed Deputy Ministers and together with new appointments for positions of Attorney General, it was presumed as interfering and delaying the investigation on 1MDB.

As of yesterday morning, viral in the social media were new blogs exposing wrongdoing of Tan Sri Zeti's husband and call for her resignation. Also mentioned were Dato Shukri of MACC.

There is a blog posting reporting on investigation on few personalities for alleged leakages by Special Branch. Since when do SB do criminal investigation?

Quite sure there will be those speculating that yesterday's fire at Bukit Aman was attempt to destroy evidence.

So much for rumours.

Nothing serious also, we would like to make passing comment on the new cabinet. Nothing in depth and serious, just comments over Nasi Lemak and Kopi O:

Finance Minister portfolio remained with Dato Najib. Been hoping he relinquish the MOF position to someone. It's quite a burdensome position.

Was thinking it would have been better to bring in Dato Wahid Omar as MOF II and Dato Husni Hanazlah do something more suitable to him like taking charge of EPU take.

But, it's Najib's call.

Good decision to bring in Dato Johari Gani as Deputy to replace Dato Ahmad Maslan.

The talk of Dato Ahmad Zahid to be appointed Deputy PM over Dato Hishamuddin have been making it's round but the timing is a surprise.

It would have been a better choice to have lawyer like Dato Wan Junaidi as Zahid's Deputy in the Home Ministry. Maybe the purpose is different this time.

With many police and security personnel around, Home Minister could be the right place to freeze Nurjazlan's loud mouth shut.

Just kidding. It's just not about 1MDB, ok?

At the PM's Office, one see the return of Dato Azalina Md Said.

Sure she is tainted but by next election, one can see the return of Ronnie Liew. Hopefully she has repented from her past ways.

Transport remain the same people. Distance nephew still there.

Heath also.

Tourism see the entry of Ketua Puteri UMNO, Datuk Mas Emieyati as Deputy.

She is one of the former PAC member. Heard to have strong views. Can share her view with Dato Nazri. Learn something from him. Puteri lifeless.

Defense still same people.

Dato Hishamuddin should be moved on to other strategic positions to prepare him for the future.

Only change is transfer of Datuk Johari Baharum from PMO as new Deputy. One of two Kedah MB Dato Mukhriz's political nightmare moved up.

MITI have two interesting additions.

The role of trade must be bigger that a Minister II position created for Datuk Ong Ka Chuan. His brother Dato Ong Ka Ting had a role as Special Ambassador to China. Maybe it is related.

Deputy Minister changed from Ledang's Datuk Hamim Samuri to Dato Ahmad Maslan.

Enough said of Mat Maslan but he used to be Tok Pa's political secretary. It's him returning to old boss. Some speculated him to go to Multimedia and Communication or Rural Ministry.

With Muhyiddin leaving, Education is split back into two - Education and Higher Learning.

Dato Mahadzir Khalid came in as new Education Minister.

The former Cikgu and former Kedah MB's promotion will be the bigger political headache for Dato Mukhriz. Viral last night is picture of Dato Ahmad Lebai Sudin with Najib. Is he new MB?

P Kamalanathan becomes Deputy, up one notch from Deputy 2.

Energy and Water same people.

Plantation & Commodities also.

Agriculture see Dato Ahmad Shabery Cheek taken away from his second stinct as Multimedia and Communication to Agriculture. Let see kampong boy from Kemaman do something for the rakyat.

He will get guidance from Dato Tajuddin Rahman. Will he?

Should have replaced this old school old timer but there is political requirement.

Rural and Regional Development goes to Dato Ismail Sabri. Carries with him experience from KPDNKK and Agriculture. Hope he repair the mess by Shafie. Having spent billions, believed RM7 billion, why are rural folks infrastructure still in a mess?

Could he keep Bera seat for next GE?

Dato Anifah Aman still at Foreign Affair.

New addition is MP for Kepala Batas, Dato Reezal Merican and the ex-PAC member.

MOSTI got a new Minister from Sabah. Dato Wilfred Madius Tangau rose to full Ministership from just a backbencher earlier. A member of the PAC.

Seriously need to beef up this Ministry. R&D funding needed to propel industries which create technology, improve competitiveness, and create jobs. Read back past posting on Proton here to know of promised R&D fund not disbursed.

Woman, Family and Community Ministry still same people.

Works also same people.

Federal Territories also same. Settle the housing problem please. Labuan is also Federal Terroritories.

Former MOE II, Dato Idris Jusoh takeover the other half of former MOE, Ministry for Higher Learning. Deputy Minister, Cikgu Mary Yapp joined Idris's side.

It's for the better. Higher education has different priorities than secondary schools.

Same people at Youth and Sports. Buck up KJ. The results are not impressive or some say hardly there.

KPDNKK gets new Minister in former Deputy Foreign Minister, Dato Hamzah Zainuddin. Tok ... beef up enforcement! Tax dollars lost by the billions and consumers duped everyday!

What happen to those raids on diesel smuggling? Are they being charged???!!!!

Minister for Natural Resources and Environment is Sarawak's veteran Dato Wan Junaidi.

Good man. Sacrifice much for PBB. Land for PBB office in Kuching was donated by him. Great debater in Parliamant for the front bench side.

Long long ... overdue for full Ministership.

His Deputy is Datuk Hamim Samuri. Transfered from MITI.

Communication and Multimedia gets a surprise new Minister in newly sweared in Senator, Dato Seri Salleh Said Keruak. Salleh resigned from his position as Speaker in Sabah. Used to be Sabah CM for a bit too short a time during the rotation era.

Anyone wants to be Minister, open up a blog. Anyyway, word of caution: Careful of Sofia Jane [read here and here] and Mohid [read here] in MCMC.

--------------------------

Heard this is only phase 1 in beefing up Najib's administration team. Some will say it is Najib's saving his arse. Everyone is entitled to an opinion - be it an intelligent one or simplistic conspirational one.

There will be more phases to come and quite radical moves. There is no stopping.

Remember when everybody was complaining of Najib as having no balls. You want balls, now you got it. Lots of it.

* Edited 31/7/2015 10:00 AM

Sarawak Report attempt to ride on the viral video of Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin at his home with a fake Charge Sheet backfired big time. It took someone having been charged in court to tell the blogger that it is not a genuine charge sheet. Any Tom, Dick and Harry can draft, type and photograph such fake.

Yet again, it exposes SR's another wicked lie, spin and fact manipulation. It affirm their compulsive tampering tendency. Hopefully there will be more to begin realising something this blogger realised from the long years of monitoring of SR.

The official line from the Attorney General's office is that there are no such draft. [read Rockybru here]. With new AG giving the official position, there is no need for a former AG to give a statement.

MMO reported here that investigation is still on-going thus the notion of a charge sheet being drafted is preposterous. The blog The Unspinners here highlighted that Ilham Perdana Sdn Bhd's Managing Director was remanded by police only on July 22nd, thus it is also preposterous that there is already a charge sheet.

So much for SR's yet another lie.

Leaked video

The SR's lie was to take advantage of Tan Sri Muhyiddin's viraled leaked video [see above] and the visit by David Cameron to Malaysia [read The Star here].

To say it is a leaked video and viraled by Muhyiddin's former Press Secretary was just non-sensical. There was just too many people and media people when Muhyiddin spoke to pinpoint anyone.

Maybe out of Johorean biasness and parochialism, this blogger believe that Muhyiddin's removal from cabinet is not by chance or ended in an adversarial tone but is by design.

Muhyiddin have long express interest to retire in many private occasions. Now is the right time and there is the "excuse" or reason to make way. Dato Najib have made up his mind to choose Dato Ahmad Zahid Hamidi as Deputy Prime Minister. And, there is a principle differences on 1MDB between Najib and Muhyiddin to justify his departure.

Muhyiddin insist on more transparency on 1MDB. However, there is a certain sensitivity and confidentiality in the various 1MDB deals with foreign partners that made it not practical to be absolutely transparent.

The attack by certain group of cytro and minor leaders of UMNO to vilify Muhyiddin as traitor and double talker is just political wayang. What was said in the video has the same content as the video of Muhyiddin speech at Janda Baik sometime ago.

The mentioned of political funding received from Arab had been privately made known to UMNO leaders and for a long while, it had remained kept within closed door. There was nothing new in Muhyiddin's comments.

Muhyiddin's concern on the political impact on the public and voters are genuine and something Najib would agree. So they part way amicably as gentleman on the principle issue of collective agreement and keeping differences under lid.

We believe also that Muhyiddin's team had known his removal from cabinet as early as after first day of raya. And, Muhyiddin could be telling half truth when he said of only knowing an hour before the announcement of being dropped.

One could notice that in the video, Dato Mukhriz was quiet as he made no effort to neither affirm nor comment.

Some political observer say his days are numbered but tonight he is hosting an UMNO thanksgiving dinner for the appointment of Dato Mahadzir Khalid to full Minister.

It was something UMNO Kedah had lobbied for.

Political funding

Muhyiddin's video raises an age old issue of political funding and it could have been a planned introduction for the issue to be discussed in the public sphere.

The subject of political funding in the context of corruption within the civil service, corporate and politics was discussed in this blog way back in 2009 [read here]. In a discussion on transformation in 2013 [read here], we ended with:

... PEMANDU is on course to look into Political Transformation with Omar Ong assigned to look into transforming BN into a single party.

Thought they would look into Social Transformation and political funding reform first then (allow it from) becoming a bigger political liability.

We've never come around to write on Transparency International Malaysia's proposal on political funding in which MACC's Commissioner Tan Sri Abu Kassim expressed agreement in closed door discussion.

It is our long held view that the distortion in the market place and government effectiveness came about due to intensive political fund raising by both BN and then Pakatan Rakyat state governments via public work and corporate business.

Maybe it is time political funding are capped and political campaign are subsidised by federal government to reduce unethical practises of political fund raising. Complimenting it will be equal access to media but with strict enforcement of media ethics.

It was BN's Director of Communication Dato Abdul Rahman Dahlan that picked up from Muhyiddin's viraled video to pre-empt issues opposition from raising it.

Political Funding: Addressing a reality

First, let’s talk facts. Political donation is legal in Malaysia.

If you have special preference for a political party and believe in their struggle, you can help them achieve their goals by donating your money and/or assets. Truth be told, you can donate any amount you like: 10 ringgit, 1000 ringgit or even a million – or a billion ringgit for that matter – if you have that kind of amount to spare.

Looking back, I used to be a member of the MACC's Special Committee on Corruption for a span of 5 years (2008-2013). I know for a fact that those fine men and women of the MACC have been trying to get political parties to agree to a more transparent procedure when it comes to political donations. MACC has said that they aspire to have all donations officially declared in the name of transparency and accountability.

When the MACC came up with the notion of political funding reforms, the first head of a political party who supported the idea, would probably surprise you. It was none other than Dato' Sri Najib Tun Razak, the Chairman of Barisan Nasional and UMNO President who publicly declared his support to the MACC's proposal and wanted it to be implemented and co-opted under the Government Transformation Program's initiative.

One of the first parties to object to the funding reform was DAP. The reason given by DAP was largely self-serving – and what a huge disappointment that had been. DAP's leaders said they feared that the reform would put DAP at a disadvantage.

On 1 December 2010, in a meeting with Transparency International – Malaysia (TI-M) with Pakatan Rakyat’s members of parliament, Tian Chua was reported in the minutes of the meeting to have said, “he feared that full disclosure would hurt their contributors and consequently the financing for the opposition, the fear is that the donors might be prosecuted by the winning coalition for supporting the losing coalition in any general election. This would result in a substantial decline of income source for the loosing coalition”. DAP’s Rasah MP Anthony Loke said essentially the same in a Bar Council Forum about political funding on 29 September 2011.

Going along the same argument, why couldn’t Pakatan Rakyat reveal since 2008 the donations they have received from businessmen and individuals in the two richest states they governed – Penang and Selangor – in Malaysia? Clearly the fear of backlash as cited by Tian Chua and Anthony Loke was just a lame excuse and not done in the best interest of transparency.

Everyone knows that the opposition parties are quite savvy in raising funds for their operations. It is also an open secret that they receive political funding from interested businesses and individuals, not to mention from the traditional but effective fund-raising dinners held almost weekly (if not nightly). While no one will be surprised if the funding comes from domestic sources, many people have been speculating that opposition parties also receive funding from foreign sources, too. Some seem to be disguised as NGO funding for the advancement of democratic ideals. Or so it would seem.

Coming back to matters at hand and with that strong objection from DAP, the political funding reform initiative was effectively shelved – it became a non-starter. It never took off. It stalled. Until now many people couldn’t believe why DAP – a political party that prides itself as reformist party – didn't accede to the idea. It seems to many people political contribution for DAP is very crucial. Thus any disruption to the free flow of political funding would be disastrous to DAP's grand plan of Malaysian Malaysia. Otherwise, an unequivocal rejection by DAP of a sure slam-dunk reform initiative like this seemed very odd indeed. No thanks to DAP, Malaysia has lost a great opportunity to address the growing concerns of secrecy regarding political funding in this country.

So, I find it rather perplexing that lately the likes of Tony Pua and Lim Kit Siang have been hypocrite enough in demanding Dato' Sri Najib to reveal the sources of political funding for BN and UMNO, when they have maliciously rejected the political funding reform initiative in the first place.

I recall in minute detail a debate I had in parliament after the 12th general election. I asked DAP MPs how did DAP get so much money to build their new spanking multi million state headquarters in Penang within a mere 2 years of Lim Guan Eng becoming the Chief Minister. After alI, I said it took Gerakan a long 12 years to build its state headquarters which happens to be just an ordinary premise. And I reminded DAP not to forget its socialist roots, which includes loathing anything that smacks of grandeur. As if on cue, several DAP MPs rose to their feet and started hackling me in the middle of my speech. One of them, Ngeh Koo Ham, DAP’s MP for Bruas, shouted across the divide, that DAP had plenty of supporters who were willing to donate their money for DAP’s cause.

On another occasion, during the Permatang Pauh election in 2008 (when Anwar Ibrahim stood as parliamentary candidate), for the first time in my whole political career, BN was absolutely out-spent in terms of logistics and election machinery e.g. posters, banners and campaign activities. I remember, every time BN party workers planted one BN flag, within 2 hours it would be drowned by hundreds of opposition flags. Whenever BN put up sizeable banners, the opposition would outdo us with twice the magnitude within half a day.

It is clear that without huge political donation, there is no way for the opposition parties to run their massive election machinery.

Based on this ethos of political funding, BN is familiar too to such pursuit. It is my hope that Tun Dr Mahathir does remember his blog posting, which was published on 13 June 2008, where he admitted that he handed over RM1.4 billion – in cash and assets – to the then newly minted UMNO president, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in 2003. That was the value of UMNO's cash and assets back then. Fast forward 12 years to the present day, taking into consideration inflation over the years and the greater challenges to fund UMNO and BN state liaison committees in the 4 states (namely Selangor, Penang, Kedah and Kelantan) which they lost since 2008, I won't be surprised if the leadership has to be more proactive to solicit more funding from its supporters and donors.

All said and done, there is now a louder demand to regulate political donations and the opposition especially DAP can't ignore it anymore. But until such monumental leap of faith becomes a reality within the opposition's coalition, one should never be deluded enough to hold the higher ground against another.

Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan
Director of Strategic Communication,
Barisan Nasional

31 July 2015

True enough, Tan Sri Abu Kassim did mentioned of DAP opposing regulating and introducing transparency in political funding. Abu Kassim's immediate objective was simply to ensure political contribution goes into the party's account and not placed in private accounts.

Seldom is the practise, party's money and assets are kept in trust by assigned nominees only known to few top officials. Quite often of the case, it is heard that nominees ran off with party entrusted assets.

Close to admitting?

In the case of the alleged transfer of money into Najib's personal account, slowly but surely, UMNO and BN party machinery is close to admitting the money was political contribution from Arabs.

Though not part of BN's political machinery, it was Raja Petra that first suspect that it was political fund and he has written few postings on UMNO political fund raising during Tun Mahathir's era.

Not the most effective of arguments to convince the public, Dato Azalina said the transfered RM2.6 billion into personal account is no big deal. And, Tun Faisal of JASA said Najib's rights and confidentiality of his personal account should be respected.

More direct, TMI reported Rahman Dahlan saying UMNO Constitution provide for trust account under President's name [read here].

Najib himself said at an UMNO Melaka event today that he is ready to disclose the identity of the funder if opposition do likewise [read here].

More effort needed to convince the fence-seaters and public but it is an interesting angle sufficient to retain his support within UMNO.

Opposition like PKR, and DAP have been known to receive money from foreign donor [read past posting here]. PAS office bearer is also known to use PLC as conduit to bring back money.

While it seemed fair as argument for political debate, it raises more questions. Najib's script writers still got their work cut out.

The amount of US$700 million is hardly anything to the oil sheikh and rulers of rich Middle East states with their tap generating billions a day.

While the Arabs are reknown philantropists, the other side of their character can be stingy and calculative.

Is there a trade-off or quid pro quo for the Arab's help? Maybe there are existing cooperation with certain Arabs that made such donation as possible.

As we see, one plausible explanation for the donation is Arab interest to see a moderate and stable government remain ruling this Muslim country of Malaysia.

Arab are looking less towards London as more Arabs are visiting and residing in "Kuala". The presence of Arab restaurants in Kuala Lumpur and major cities in the country are getting more noticeable.

In a matter of time, the Arabs will move their money away from the priving eyes of the West to this way.

All it needs is the right vehicle and investment product.

The 1MDB enquiry by PAC and investigation took a back seat as soon as the Xavier Justo arrest in Bangkok grab attention away.

Subsequently, more information related to the arrest surfaced like tampering of leaked documents, secret meeting at Fullerton Hotel, Singapore and many other meetings involving Xavier Justo and Clara Rewcastle.

This led to the suspicion of leaks within the enforcement agencies in the Special Taskforce and investigation into conspiracy to topple the government.

Before the weekend, three people linked to the Special Taskforce were arrested to assist investigation. It leaves deep suspicion that the administration is delaying the PAC enquiry and investigation. Dato Abdul Rahman Dahlan was reported by MMO to deny.

He said the enquiry and investigation would continue. However, the priority now is to address the leakage and misinformation arising from the slanderous allegations of Sarawak Report, The Edge, opposition personalities and media.

Obviously it is necessary for truth and justice to prevail in the light of confusion between the right and tampered information that has spread to the public.

Despite Dato Najib's support from within his party structure seemed unshaken, the challenge remain at reducing the trust deficit on Dato Najib arising from the 1MDB and political funding issues. Read Utusan Malaysia here to know PM is concern.

Rahman Dahlan's statement on Sunday as follows:

The Star
Sunday, August 2, 2015

Government has no power to stop PAC investigations into 1MDB, says Rahman Dahlan

PETALING JAYA: The Government has no power to stop any investigations by parliament into 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) said Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan.

“ Will the recent four appointments derail or stop the investigation altogether? The answer is absolutely not.

“Once it has started, it can only be stopped when the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has made a conclusion and presented the same to the members of Dewan Rakyat.

PAC doesn’t stop its function or investigation just because some of the MPs have ceased being members,” said the Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local government minister, in a statement on Sunday.

He however added that the investigations will be delayed for about two months because parliament will sit again for the third sitting in early October to decide the new chairman and replacement members of PAC.

“There is also justification in the delay as well. With new revelation of forged documents by Sarawak Report and confession of individuals of conspiracy theories, it will be wise for PAC to wait until the dust settles,” he said.

Abdul Rahman who is also Barisan Strategic Communication Director added that the appointment of the cabinet ministers into the PAC is not an attempt to delay investigations on 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

“The four appointees were appointed not because they were members of PAC, but in their capacity as Members of Parliament.

“They were chosen due to their abilities and position in their respective party,” he said.

He said that he was sure the new chairman will pick up where former chairman Datuk Nur Jazlan left off with ease.

“Above all, PAC should never be doubted as the kernel of truth in our parliament democracy,” he added.

Will the assurance that PAC will continue to function without interference and the current cabinet reshuffling "exercise" convince it is not linked to change the line-up of PAC?

One can argue that it makes no difference since the affected members are from Barisan Nasional and having eight out of 12 members, the consensus will be skew heavily on BN's decision. However, there is the believed that the three of the Deputy Minister appointed have formed a negative opinion of 1MDB.

Such perception will be difficult to address in the light of additional three arrest which include a Deputy Public Prosecutors and suspicion of Bank Negara Malaysia officials are being scrutinised for leakage.

Deputy Prime Minister, Dato Ahmad Zahid tried to provide assurance below:

The Star
Sunday, August 2nd, 2015

Trio only brought in to facilitate 1MDB investigations, says Zahid

BY NADIRAH H. RODZI

KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has said the trio detained in relation to leaked information on 1Malaysia Development Berhad's (1MDB) probe "were only brought in to facilitate the investigation."

The Deputy Prime Minister said the trio were needed to assist police on how the leaked information was shared to Sarawak Report and social media.

"The three were detained based on reports that were filed. The investigation is done to determine how the information was obtained…whether it was leaked by someone from the MACC, AGC or Bank Negara.

"Even the police are not spared from having their statements taken," he told reporters at the Kepong Wanita Umno Division Delegates Meeting on Sunday.

The three arrested were former Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) advisory board member Tan Sri Rashpal Singh, Attorney-General’s Chambers finance and anti-money laundering secretariat member Jessica Gurmeet Kaur and MACC deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Sazilee Abdul Khairi.

Ahmad Zahid added that the focus on the probe remains on whether the leaked information was sold or given to Sarawak Report and other portals.

"The investigation is in accordance to the law. Any information which comes from any department or task force should not be leaked with the intention of tarnishing the image of the PM. I applaud the police for being professional in handling this matter," said Zahid who is also Home Minister.

In sync with the effort to plug leakage and tampered stolen information, the administration has finally realised the need to take action on slander, spin and lies perpetrated by social media. Despite denial by Zahid and earlier former MCM Minister, Dato Ahmad Shaberry Cheek, Dato Najib instructed below:

The Star
Sunday August 2, 2015

Najib instructs MCMC to check slander on social media

KUALA KUBU BARU: The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission has been instructed to streamline laws and step up enforcement to check the dissemination of slander on social media.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak (pic) said Sunday that if slander on the social media was allowed to fester, it would alter the thinking paradigm of the people and create a state of "trial by social media".

"When faced with trial by social media, we, as members of the administration will be declared guilty before trial.

"But when it comes to the opposition, it is all considered defamation, not considered as the truth. Is this not weird?" he said when opening the Hulu Selangor Umno division delegates meeting here.

Also present at the meeting were Selangor Umno liaison committee chairman Datuk Seri Noh Omar and Hulu Selangor Umno division chief Mat Nadzari Ahmad Dahlan.

Najib said the Government could not obstruct the progress of technology but it also could not give absolute freedom to the extent that untruths were turned into truths.

He said Umno should also become an active social media practitioner and have a specific programme to change the perception of the people.

"Today, perception seems to overwhelm reality. We need to understand the situation when faced with attacks in cyberspace to better position our party," he said.

Najib said party members should come up with strategies to attract the support of the people and not revel in one's own self-satisfaction when implementing any programme.

On the recent Cabinet reshuffle, the prime minister said he would ensure that the Cabinet ministers delivered effective service to the people.

He added that Umno members in the three states he had so far visited, namely Malacca, Negeri Sembilan and Selangor, had expressed support for his leadership.

He expressed appreciation for the support and said it would drive him to strengthen the party and bring the nation greater success. – Bernama

Efforts to address the slander that came about from the cyber psychological warfare by the opposition and critics of Dato Najib have been undertaken.

But, isn't it too late?

By right, the immediate response to dispell any slander should have been done without much delay.

Such needs was demonstrated by postive impact of Arul Kanda's immediate response to any allegations made against 1MDB. Instead of keeping quiet and hope the slander will quiet down, Arul Kanda's immediate response quitened even Tun Dr Mahathir and his critics.

The critics were able to do so because 1MDB and public funding accusation was not an easy subject matter for party supporters to defend or debunk. Just like the public, they are not privy to information and the complexity of issues are not issue to understand.

In the land of the mute, the one speaking is king and holds court to public opinion.

To remind of another mistake written before, there was the problem of not addressing issues to the right target. There was an early attempt to response using political answer to what was a business issue. When it became hot and turned political, there was a brief moment in which the response was corporate communication style.

It is still better late than never to correct the wrong information already widely disseminated. However, after correcting it, there must be serious and all out effort to revive confidence and reduce trust deficit on public institution and political leadership.

The way to do it is to be truthful without any suspicion of cover-up and spinning.

As it is the investigation on slanders under the offense of conspiracy to topple the government, may not be convincing.

It is a legally serious offense but excessive use of the term by ruling party politicians in the past without any serious actions by authorities made public lose confidence in government's seriousness to punish treasonous offenses.

To regain confidence and trust, government must be honest and truthful. If there had been bad decision made, admit it. Any loophole in corporate governance must be corrected. Offenders rightfully punished.

The truth shall set you free.

... she's not about to give up. Salleh is being set-up as new nasi kangkang victim!

Continuing from where we left Sofia Jane here and here, it is heard that Dato Ahmad Shabery Cheek called several UMNO elected reps for closed door meetings to get their opinion and feedback on the proposed amendments to the 17 years old Communication and Multimedia Act.

In one of the meetings, legally-trained Dato Azalina Md Said attended. COO aspirant, lady Sofia Jane or as the gossip along the corridor in this agency's building would refer her as #sj was also in attendance.

Azalina raised matter on the provisions incepted in the CMA. Sofia Jane was blasted right in her face for the deficiency in the interpretation of the CMA and inadequacy in execution.

For someone aspiring to be COO as the next step to CEO upon the amendment of the CMA to decouple the executive role of Chairman to reassign the role to a CEO, it was a shameful moment indeed.

Despite trained as a lawyer and is overall head for adminstration which include the legal team responsible for CMA, her incompetence was glaring.

The Malay has a saying, "Sudah jatuh ditimpa tangga". It is Murphy's Law of when something wants to go wrong, everything will go wrong.

Sofia Jane had worked her way to the hearts of the Minister and agency Chairman by charming her way with the metaphorical nasi kangkang.

It is said she is already chummy-chummy with Shabery and by the look of things, she is destined to be allevated to COO after the amended CMA get passed in Parliament by the end of the year.

Suddenly, tukar Menteri!

Poor enforcement

Shabery was transfered to Ministry of Agriculture and in his place is a strong Dato Najib defender and blogger in former Sabah Speaker, former Chief Minister, and now Senator Dato Salleh Said Keruak.

Prime Minister Dato Najib wants tougher acts on the excessive abuse of the Internet. He has voice aloud against the utter abuse, misuse and slander that goes around social media which in many times already breached national interests such as threat to internal security. Now, it tantamounts to threat to the economy. [Read MMO here and also yesterday's posting here.]

Change in leadership at MCMC has yet to see any change in attitude [read past posting here]. Salleh has to deliver this time. As they say, new broom sweeps clean and he will find out why the well provided CMA was not strictly enforced.

If Salleh is made aware that the slack in the enforcement points to Sofia Jane's incompetence, it is like putting salt in her wound. The sky already fell on her and she fears she will not be in the running at all.

Salleh will have his own criteria for the new COO. The position comes with the power to regulate and have management recommendation powers on licenses to be issued.

It would have suited Sophia Jane's high taste lifestyle since it would be complemented with pandering treatment from the industry players as they would butter up to her for favours. Being an opportunist and capable manipulator, she could gladly 'create' avenues for such buttering up moments be made available as options for 'industry consultation'.

Sofia Jane knows she isn't suited for the responsibility. One, despite having legal training she never did put her nose to the grindstone when she spend nearly half of her time in the past 15 years globetrotting and jetsetting in the lifestyle with an expense account.

The enforcement should have been taken care of, especially when there are already sufficient existing laws to deal with these feats which deemed as anti-national.

This lack of competent performance in leadership and inadequate interpretation of policy which is translated in below average execution, especially in regulatory duties is probably the reason behind last week's Cabinet reshuffle.

Failed

Many could be said about Shabery's former Ministry.

The power invested through Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA) is enormous. One is not talking about licenses and permits that could be issued which itself are opportunities to litterally print money, considering the growth of all communication related industries and near exponential growth of paying consumers.

Take mobile connectivity. There are already a third more lines compared to the number of inhabitants of the land. The very steep growth of social media users and accounts is reflective of the money generated from connectivity and data uploads/downloads.

Naturally, this new available 'Democracy via ICT' is an enabler for various very sharp tools that could insult and antagonise the social, cultural, political, racial and even belief harmony and stability this nation of vast multiple background and decandency.

In fact, it happened to many times of late. Access to information via social-media-enabled mobile devices made near lightning speed of information being passed around. In the lingo of the day, viralised.

Usually its information in the nature of dubitable, equivocable, sensational, controversial and even contentional which made its way through a process of addendum, which not only distort the story further but worsens the situation.

This peril of the powerful double-edge sword in mobile and broadband connectivity could be dealt with sufficient and significant examples of enforcement since total enforcement is near impossible.

However, despite having the powerful provisions enacted by Parliament, Shabery's former Ministry agencies failed to make the CMA a productive tool for progressive use of communication and connectivity.

He had given indication from his re-appointments to the Ministry that he is not focus on his mission [read past posting here].

Concocting

This shameful defect of enforcement did not go unnoticed, especially by UMNO leaders. Thus for the meetings with UMNO elected reps.

Salleh knows he needs to get tough by getting the right man on the job.

Rumours has it the Chairman who should have been a retired civil servant ten years ago wants to throw in the towel. He should get someone who can balance between industry competency, technology driven and CMA literacy to fit into the CEO/COO post.

Sofia Jane could kiss that COO post goodbye. That is unless she could stop Salleh from knowing what is going on.

For the time being, the typical Melayu in the agency will be too afraid to stand up and tell for fear that in the event she do move up to COO post, they may end up being send to freeze in the cold CPU room.

In the meanwhile, Sofia will be testing out and researching on Salleh's character, his likes and dislikes, his weakness, and she will be on the look out for any peculiar behaviour. The usual formula with Semenanjung boss will not apply. Sabah could be different. There are many tall tale stories of Sabahan and their mystic abilities.

But Sofia Jane will neither be disheartened nor give up. It is not in her vocabulary. She will get the right potion and try a new concoction of nasi kangkang on Salleh.

Since giving his frank view on political funding which basically shut DAP up from attacking Dato Najib on issue of the RM2.6 billion transfer into Dato Najib's personal account [read here], Dato Abdul Rahman Dahlan have been in the news ever so often.

Over the weekend, he said UMNO constitution provided for account under President's name [read The Star here]. Tuesday yesterday he said fund is safer in President's account [read The Star here]. It could wrongly imply Treasurer, Sec-Gen and Executive Secretary of UMNO cannot be relied on.

In the program Landskap on RTM 1 last night, Rahman Dahlan brush off PAS's Deputy President, Tuan Ibrahim series of questions as posing trivial questions [read Rakyat Post here].

He said opposition and critics including Netizens were changing goal post as they stop accusation of missing and stolen 1MDB fund and raise new issues by posing new sets of questions without apologising for earlier wrongful accusation.

Actually, he had mentioned the same points few days earlier [read The Star here].

Original goal post

Rahman Dahlan repeated the denial that was confirmed by MACC. He stressed that the money transfered into Najib's personal account was not rechanneled from 1MDB.

His frankness to expand on that he may have hit home the simplistic answer for both the cynical urban and simple rural folks to explain for the non existent missing 1MDB fund invested in Petrosaudi.

As he explained it, he highlighted that there were US$1.9 billion were invested in Petrosaudi.

Upon maturity, 1MDB will get back US$2.38 billion. If money is lost as claims of faked oil field in Turkemenistan and squandered JV money is heard, the money returned will be less than RM1.9 billion and the gain of US$480 million will not be seen at all.

Off course, Petrosaudi issue need to be expanded. All the exposed money trail published by Sarawak Report, The Edge, etc. were based on the wrong assumption that Good Star Limited was a Jho Loh-owned company. Good Star is a Petrosaudi subsidiary.

For the time being, hear below the video of the program last night:

The Sun highlighted Rahman Dahlan saying political donation existed in all countries [read Sundaily here].

Peril of ignoring

While answers could be provided, the sheer size of RM2.6 billion and the use of personal accounts could not convincingly assure both grassroot UMNO members and public. Dato Najib realise this as he said there is sufficient time to explain further for the next election.

Nettizens could be gullible in changing goalpost. Discussion is shifting to issue of tax, jokes on what constitute corruptions and donation, inclusion of donation in the definition of "suapan" in the MACC Act 2009, and various law perceived to have been broken by the transfer.

In the meanwhile, Johor UMNO seemed vocal to the sacking of Tan Sri Muhyiddin. After his audience with the Sultan on Saturday, Menteri Besar Dato Khaled Nordin and his son, Akmal Saufi sounded like a rebel, as Annie said here.

It cannot be assumed that their attitude came from his highness's decree. Earlier, Johor Speaker Tan Sri Mohamed Aziz already warned that the new cabinet reshuffle could split the party. And, Muhyiddin said he will continue to speak on 1MDB [read ST here].

There is also a rumour that the resistance to Najib is not just limited from Johor. There is rumored royal resistance to planned changes for Kedah, Pahang, and Perak Menteri Besar. Rumour on Negeri Sembilan have subsided after MB's denial of viraled audio of himself.

Latest investigation by police on a MACC Director seemed not to be taken well. Yesterday at the MACC in Putrajaya, there was a special solat hajat perdana held to pray for the nation. It could be a silent protest for the arrest of DPP Suzaili which was handling MACC cases.

On the ground, it is more than the issue of moving goal post. The perception on the changes to the PAC members and top officials of organisations in the Special Task Force does not prevail well.

Dato Najib should be made aware. He could not assume Melayu mudah lupa and time will be the healer. Lesson to be learned again from 1MDB is not to response too late. The peril of ignoring happenings on the ground could be disastrous.

More so, when there is the feel of an impending clampdown on social media.

Oh I tried and I tried but I can't say goodbye

Feel so bad baby, oh it hurts me
When I think of how you love and desert me
I'm the broken-hearted toy you play with

You got me going, I need you baby
I can't let go and I want you baby
I gotta have all your love
I can't let go

Though I'm just one of your lovers
And I know there are so many others
You do something strange to me baby

You got me going, I need you baby
I can't let go and I want you baby
I gotta have all your love
I can't let go

Oh I tried and I tried but I can't say goodbye
I know that it's wrong and I should be so strong
But the thought of you gone makes me want to hold on

You got me going, I need you baby
I can't let go and I want you baby
I gotta have all your love
I can't let go

You got me going, I need you baby
I can't let go and I want you baby
I gotta have all your love
I can't let go

I can't let go
I can't let go
I can't let go
...

Linda Ronstadt (1980)

There was endless calls coming from Johoreans commenting on the political happenings in Johor arising from the sacking of Tan Sri Muhyiddin. So we decided to meet some at a halfway place out of town after prayers yesterday. This posting expressed those views.

Muhyiddin was in Johor last weekend and was invited as audience of His Highness the Sultan of Johor. There was no communique from the meeting and effort to nose around had been futile. nevertheless, there have been many developments from Johore since then.

Most interesting was RTM1 news coverage yesterday to Muhyiddin speech at Pagoh's UMNO Division meeting of the wings. He replied resignation calls by a certain division head of an opposition party within the state of Selangor by saying he will not resign.

There is no reason to do as he has never betrayed the party. However, there is every reasons of political and economic survival and expediency by the person calling his resignation.

The indication from the posting by RPK and certain players is that it is leading towards Muhyiddin's sacking based on the excuse of the conspiracy to topple the government. If that is the psywar game being payed, they may have misread the happening on the ground in Johor.

The Johoreans are not interested to seek seccesion or disagree with Muhyiddin sacking from his position as Deputy Minister. Bangsa Johor, the latest buzzword in Johor after the earlier buzz of "luaskan kuasa" as taken from the state anthem, understand the prerogative of Prime Minister to select his team.

As one party activist from Tenggara who claimed to have spoken to quite a number for Divisional Heads, they are only asking not to disgrace him. He is still a legitimately elected party Deputy President.

Allow him to help and give him a role in reviving the party.

As one UMNO political operator from Muar was saying, Muhyiddin's concern was on the party and never did he tried to pry into the 1MDB affair. If he had done so, it was because he was expressing the heat Divisional Head was getting from UMNO grassroot and public.

The information in the cabinet fact book are too short to answer for the many issues raised by The Edge, which Muhyiddin took the effort to study. The UMNO grassroot leaders had no answer to the viral Whas App and Twitter messages of viraled blog and FB links.

Frankly, hardly 10% of the public understand the 1MDB fairly and objectively. If they had been honest enough, they would have given both sides of the issue and would qualify themselves as not knowing the full story.

Only last night, we told one NGO activist who has an active FB of his organisation making statements and taking positions on 1MDB purely because they follow and believe two person.

Since his sacking from the position of Deputy President post, many seemed to forget that Muhyiddin first word on 1MDB was towards solving the problem from being blamed at Dato Najib.

After consultation with Dato Najib, he asked for the sacking of the members of the Board of Directors. In any organisation, the buck would stop at the Board of Directors. It was only after that statement came the incident of the viral video of his speech at Janda Baik.

There are those that prepared a sack script Muhyiddin to now say he was not sacked because of 1MDB. They may have realised that the Muhyiddin had not said something any different from the closed door explanation by Najib to UMNO Divisional head.

However, they had not done their part to explain to the ground for fear of being queried by the increasingly powerful branch chief and difficult to control grassroot at branches level.

Those up there in the UMNO hierarchy do not seem to understand Johorean well.

They will not rebel and no such thing as seccesion. The proud royals and people of Johor are not overly sensitive to a Johorean being thrown out of political office but it must be done with proper decorum and honourably done.

While Johoreans will not rebel and realise the need for unity to keep power in Johor within UMNO, one must not forget that Johoreans are capable at sending protest signals. Johor registered the highest number of undi rosak in 2008.

Thus the reason for MB Dato Khaled Nordin's and his son's statement. He may have tried hard to contain the resentment by keeping it within the family. And the one to reply his son was Khaled's former mentor, Tan Sri Shahrir Samad.

The reaction in UMNO towards Muhyiddin has been less than mature. During the so-called dictatorship of Tun Dr Mahathir, his political opponents were still opening Divisional meetings. Why the need to cancel his invitations?

For that matter, it was equally immature of Dato Shafie Apdal to cancel his invitation to Dato Najib to open the Semporna Division. Allow Najib to explain.

Khairy showed much maturity, brevity and honesty to make the statement that the attack on Muhyiddin could split UMNO. Only thing is we do not believe Muhyiddin will ever want to split the party with the challenge on leadership and hope fully we are not wrong.

Certainly we believe we are unlikely to be wrong because Muhyiddin have been tested and proven over decades of political existence to give priority for the party over his personal ambition. The track record speaks for itself.

Muhyiddin has expressed his wishes that he be allowed to help strengthen the party. Najib needs someone out of his own faction to attract support to himself. To regain back the trust deficit, he needs every help and the next election will be a close one where every inches counts.

As it is, there are people around Najib that seemed to be making new enemies by the day. That is no way to bring back confidence and trust.

There is a distinct differences between Muhyddin and the other critics of Najib. Unlike the opposition or Tun Dr Mahathir, Muhyiddin did not raise the issue of 1MDB to bring Najib down but for the sheer concern of the party's declining trust deficit.

Someone is needed to think and focus on the party. And someone need to be reminded of guiding principle of order in the condition of the ruled over the ruler in the cultural social contract between Sang Sapurba and Demang Lebar Daun.

1MDB is on course to reduce their borrowing to a more manageable level with their latest announcement to sell 54,250 sq ft of TRX land for Affin Bank Berhad's future headquarter in the Kuala Lumpur Financial District.

Despite recycled accusation, it is understood that 1MDB intend to keep borrowing at the more manageable level of RM10-15 billion.

Just like Tabung Haji, there is a common Director between 1MDB and Affin Bank. 1MDB's Chairman, Tan Sri Lodin Wok Kamaruddin is a non-executive Director of Affin Bank and Cheif Executive of LTAT.

Hopefully there is no more headline chasing blog posting to accuse the deal as a bailout using the armed forces pension fund. Political oversimplification were made with inadequate understanding of property market.

The bad publicity created on Tabung Haji had scared local corporations and funds away while foreigners gobbled up land parcels for Stage 1 of the TRX. [Read Property Lifestyle here.]

The New Straits Times below:

Affin Bank buys TRX land for new HQ

10 August 2015 @ 6:53 PM

KUALA LUMPUR: 1Malaysia Development Bhd Real Estate (1MDB RE) has inked a deal with Affin Bank Bhd today to acquire a plot of land measuring 823,439 sq ft in the Tun Razak Exchange (TRX) to develop its new headquarters (HQ) for RM255 million.

The plot, earmarked for a 35-storey Prime Grade A office block, will bring the Affin Group’s financial services entities to co-locate under one roof and cater for the Group’s future expansion plans.

Affin Bank’s new head office would be part of TRX’s financial quarter, essentially the Central Business District of TRX that occupies the most visible corner of the site, fronting both Jalan Tun Razak and Jalan Sultan Ismail.

“We are pleased with the progress we are making in our negotiations with local and international parties, and we are happy to have Affin Bank with us as we continue to realise our aspirations to create a world-class financial district," said 1MDB RE CEO Datuk Azmar Talib in a statement.

The Sale and Purchase agreement was signed following extensive negotiations that began in 2012, and it covers the development rights to build a commercial tower for a consideration of RM255 million.

The development will have a Gross Floor Area (GFA) of 823,439 sq ft, with the price per sq ft GFA of approximately RM310.

Affin Bank’s new head office has an attractive plot ratio of 15.2, while the entire TRX district – which will boast an urban central park and amenities such as on-site water treatment system and district cooling plant – has a plot ratio of 6.8.

At a separate press conference, meanwhile, Affin Bank managing director and chief executive officer (CEO) Kamarul Ariffin Mohd Jamil said: “We have been sourcing for a suitable location that meets our requirement, with the right price. There was a need as the bank, together with other entities within Affin Group, has been growing and we need more space for everyone under one roof.”

He added that the land has been independently valued at RM261 million. Kamarul Ariffin said Affin will pay 10 per cent deposit for the acquisition and the remaining 90 per cent upon presentation of the registration title.

Noticeable is the payment terms are similar to that of Tabung Haji but was psyched as a bad deal and bailout.

The claim of bailout is unfair because Affin Bank have been in negotiations with TRX since 2012. So it is not a rushed deal that would be typical of any bailout.

Affin is one of the many local financial institution thus is a suitable occupant for KLFD.

As explained in the case of Tabung Haji, the same practises applies. Lodin had abstained from taking part in the decision making process and the consideration to buy were professionally done.

The land deal of RM255 million is a small discount to the valuation made by CH Williams Talhar and Wong. With a plot ration of 15.2, the GFA is of 823,439 or RM310 per sq ft.

Other nearby lands are getting only plot ratios of between 8-10.

TRX land are better deals despite the impression of TRX land are commanding higher price than the surrounding site. That is not quite true. The German embassy land was purchased by MRCB at RM3,100 psf.

The Master builder will be responsible to provide site-wide infrastructure including transport connectivity, water management, district cooling and a sizeable public realm.

More in 1MDB press release here.

Buyers will be getting fully serviced plots on net land with high plot ratios, with different plots having different plot ratios.

One of TRX’s USP is the ease of doing business as it aims to create a business ecosystem within TRX for ease and convenience, access to larger pool of talents, close proximity to customers and suppliers, and opportunities for peer networking

The point is this is a business deal and it should be seen strictly from a business perspective. There are places and time for politics elsewhere.

In the meanwhile, 1MDB is responding to recycled allegations againt them:

Issued on 10 August 2015

1MDB remains focused on rationalisation plan despite recycled allegations

Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad in his latest blog posting today recycled old and unproven allegations, which have been addressed by 1MDB in various statements shared with the media.

On 30 June 2015, in our response to one of Tun Mahathir’s postings, 1MDB have provided a detailed explanation on the flow of funds from our investment in the joint venture with PetroSaudi International.

We have also explained, on several occasions, our rationale for the price we paid in the acquisition of our energy assets. As we had explained in our statement dated 30 June 2015, 1MDB believe that the value we paid for these assets - which may have involved a premium in certain instances, as is common when acquiring another business - is commensurate with their existing and future potential.

These recycled allegations not only cast aspersions on 1MDB but also impacts the day-to-day operations of the company. 1MDB have repeatedly responded to these unfounded allegations by Tun Mahathir as evidenced in our statements on 10, 16, 18 and 30 June 2015.

1MDB would now like to remain focused on the successful implementation of our rationalisation plan, which was presented to the Cabinet on 29 May 2015.

Since then, 1MDB has been making good progress, beginning with the repayment of a US$975 million (approx. RM3.6 billion) loan and execution of a binding term sheet with International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) that will ultimately result in the reduction of approximately RM16 billion of the company’s debt.

We have also appointed an independent real estate consultant for monetisation of the company’s land parcels in Bandar Malaysia, Air Itam and Pulau Indah.

With regards to Bandar Malaysia, 1MDB have received expressions of interest from 40 local and international parties to be development partners for our 486-acre Bandar Malaysia project, who are now in a detailed due diligence process.

1MDB is also now in due diligence with shortlisted local and international parties in relation to a sale of our investment in Edra Global Energy Berhad.

Collectively, these tangible actions by 1MDB will significantly reduce debt and ensure the long term sustainability of our three core assets, namely TRX, Bandar Malaysia and Edra Global Energy.

This indecision's buggin' me
If you don't want me, set me free
Exactly whom I'm supposed to be

From Should I stay or should I go
The Clash (1982)

Unless new fact arise, one should never change course on a decision made. Sometimes it is better to make a wrong decision than the more crippling indecision. This is the lesson from the events involving MACC recently.

The 1MDB was not answered and explained with sufficient clarity and due process was only to begin in early August but someone diverted away from the low lying fruit.

While events after Hari Raya may have taken away public attention away, there will always be the likes of Tun Dr Mahathir to remind of 1MDB as he did in his latest posting here. Luckily, Arul Kanda did his part and is due to appear on TV3's Soal Jawab tonight at 11 PM.

The diversion by someone up there was to focus on Xavier Justo blackmail and leakage but indecision and overkill on MACC only made the public to focus on the RM2.6 billion fund allegedly deposited into Dato Najib's personal account.

The flip flop to stop the investigation on MACC and reverse the transfer in haste of two MACC Directors only put Najib in a bad light.

Pursuing leakage

In a moment of indecision, act quickly and try to make the first step, even if it seems unnecessary.

- Leo Tolstoy

Days before Hari Raya, mainstream media was focused on the arrest of Xavier Justo.

Subsequently, it led to the allegation of information tampering and leakage of confidential information, probably investigation material to Sarawak Report, The Edge and Wall Street Journal [read past posting here].

It was SR's response to leak Datin Seri Rosmah's personal bank account transactions that was a dead giveaway. It was an investigation paper and not fake bank account as spinned by pro-UMNO cybertroopers. SR was not protecting their source.

The RM2 million deposited into Rosmah's bank account was made close to the date of her daughter's wedding and it led many to believe it was wedding expenses. The amount is a non-issue to urbanites used to see million dollar wedding splash but it created a buzz over Raya in the rural constituents.

That error by SR was the basis to halt due process and investigate the leakage first. Otherwise, public accessibility to wrong information will negate any investigation finding.

Illegally obtained information are not admissable in court and the Whistleblower Act provides no protection. The use of Xavier Justo provided information could be thrown out of court. Some of the critics and opposition have not been thinking thoroughly.

There is a Penal Code 204 for the offense of giving false information. It means the problem of leakage must be taken seriously. What could be seen is that the illegally obtained information is only useful in the court of public opinion to bring down governments.

So it was seen as necessary to preserve democrasy and public institutions. Actions were taken to block SR, suspend The Edge publication, and pursue suspects of leakage.

The natural suspect for leakage of investigation material was Bank Negara Malaysia and MACC. However, thus far only MACC was investigated by police. But the timing to rollout the leakage investigation was bad. Take a look at the chronology below:

March 6: The special taskforce of police, MACC, Central Bank and Attorney General Office to investigate the allegations of improprietary of 1MDB formed.

July 1: Deputy Commissioner of MACC, Datuk Seri Shukri Abdul left for the US.

July 3: The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and Sarawak Report (SR) published report accusing 1MDB fund was transferred to the personal accounts of Dato Najib.

July 4: Then Attorney General, Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail issued statement that three companies linked to the transfer; namely SRC International Sdn Bhd, Gandingan Mentari Sdn Bhd dan Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd were raided and documents related to 1MDB and transfer obtained by Taskforce.

July 28: Chief Secretary, Tan Sri Dr Ali Hamsa announced Gani Patail termination with effect from July 27 on health reasons and replaced by Federal Court judge, Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali.

Najib announced cabinet reshuffle.

July 29: The 5-member independent panel to monitor MACC made joint statement requesting the Special Taskforce given space to carry out investigation without fear of intervention by interested party. The integrity of MACC as an independent body should be defended and no compromise to interested parties.

The panel members are the chairmen of the 5 commitee in MACC, namely Tan Sri Abu Zahar Ujang, Tunku Abdul Aziz Tunku Ibrahim, Tan Sri Hamid Bugo, Tan Sri Wilson Baya Dandot and Tan Sri Johan Jaaffar.

July 30: MACC denied it's senior officers are involved in a conspiracy to topple the government. Their actions are made as officers of MACC.

August 1: Police upheld Tan Sri Rashpal Singh, Jessica Kaur and DPP for MACC, Ahmad Sazilee Abdul Khairi. Sazilee's office raided and documents related to 1MDB seized together with a laptop.

August 3: In a media statement, MACC informed that the RM2.6 bilion allegedly deposited into Dato Najib's personal account was from donation and not from 1MDB.

Police took statement from MACC Director for Special Operation, Datuk Bahri Mohamad Zin. After giving his statement, he made the "ini perkara gila" remark to the press dan stated he had no involvement in any leakage.

August 4: More than 100 MACC staff and officers held a solat hajat at the MACC Administrative Building in Putrajaya.

Director for Strategic Communication, Dato Rohaizad Yaakob received visit of opposition leaders at the MACC office at Kompleks D, Putrajaya.

August 5: MACC Chief Commissioner, Tan Sri Abu Kassim was to go on sick leave.

MACC gave a statement that they will be seeking explanation from Dato Najib with regard to the RM2.6 billion transfer from Middle East donors. However, no name was mentioned.

MACC explained AG allowed them to make statement on August 3 without involving Special Taskforce because it was agreed that each agency will be undertaking investigation separately in accordance to the assigned areas.

Deputy Director Special Operation, Datuk Tan Kang Sai and two MACC officers were called up by police for investigation and the Special Operation Office at Presinct 3 was raided.

August 7: Abu Kassim undergone surgery in the morning at a Kuala Lumpur hospital.

Two senior MACC officers were transfered out; namely Bahri and Rohaizad were transfered out and to report to the PM Department on August 10.

Deputy Commissioner Datuk Seri Shukri Abdull made statement that he should replace them as they acted under his order.

August 8: MACC Panel on Consultative and Prevention demanded the two officer returned.

August 9: MACC Deputy Commissioner (Prevention), Datuk Haji Mustafar Ali gave statement on leave status of Abu Kassim. He expressed appreciation for the support and IGP's willingness to delay leakage investigation.

Shukri arrived at KLIA after 10 days in the US.

August 10: Two transfered MACC officers met the Chief Secretary and PSD Director General and the transfer was cancelled.

The decision made on MACC may not involved Najib but ultimately, he gets the blame.

That got one pro-Najib blog, Gelagat Anwar [read here] furious as he blamed the Chief Secretary and Principal Private Secretary to the PM for being excessive to please Najib. The blogger may have sense that public was building up suspicion to the decision to reshuffle cabinet and surprise appointment of new Attorney General and Director of Special Branch.

By the time, a Director and seven officers were apprehended by police for investigation and subsequently two Directors transferred out, the leakage play was already an overkill.

Rumour from the overkill

“Things can harden meaningfully in the moment of indecision.”

John Ashbery, Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror

The overkill was someone up there's own doing.

There were rumours being spread of Tan Sri Muhyiddin behind a conspiracy to gather BN MPs votes to support opposition's initiative for a vote of no confidence against PM. History of Muhyiddin's political career does not make such conspiracy sensible.

Perhaps, murmurs of Muhyiddin's lower level operators working to gather support for leadership challenge was heard. However, not only there was no confirmation, there was no inkling from his inner circle. Since UMNO party election is delayed for 18 months, it is water under the bridge. A non-issue!

There was also suspicious allegations made by newly established blogs that had sponsor to promote on Facebook accusing Tan Sri Zeti of several side deals. At about the time, Gani Patail was terminated, the rumour was Zeti had tendered resignation.

There was basis to take disciplinary action against the two Directors but any disciplinary action on a civil servant must undergo due process. If someone up there decided so, then they should stick with it.

The reversal by Chief Secretary shows indecision and such indecision bring out the suspicion of fear. IGP decision also flip flop to postphone investigation on the leakage to another date. So it is Najib that end up getting blamed for the flip flop and it made the public more suspicious of him.

The indecision encouraged speculations and rumours, even within the UMNO circle. One such rumour that is widely heard was that Najib was due to be arrested and SR's fake warrant of arrest was said to be real. It is also rumoured that the RM2.6 billion had a money trail to 1MDB.

IGP or some member in the briefed 5-member independent panel was said to have leaked the planned arrest to Najib and he had to decide swiftly and drastically to save himself. The planned arrest was to be done within a matter of days if not for AG's sudden termination.

The rumour made no sense because it was MACC that made a police report on August 3 to deny the allegation of leakage. This was the argument by pro-UMNO bloggers to defend the police to raid and MACC should not be above the law too.

SR revealed warrant of arrest was debunked in a past posting here. The format of the fake document does not look like a warrant of arrest. INvestigation was still ongoing. In fact, it i sheard that MACC will question Najib next week.

But public tend to be believe there is always a cover-up happening thus such rumours are believed instantly without pondering whether it is logical or not.

Is it logical for any government enforcement agencies in the world to arrest current national leader still in power and office? Out of office is seldom heard of but not when still in office. If it is true, the then AG and MACC must be really lacking in creativity.

The official line is MACC is in charge of SRC investigation, so why would they be the one to prepare the warrant of arrest of PM on charges of money laundering?

By the way, one online reporter claimed PM will not be arrested for money laundering but offense related to SRC. Then again, MACC has yet to get Najib's statement.

Talk of leakage by enforcement agencies had been making it's rounds since the day WSJ made their allegation on Najib.

Before MACC, the first to get blamed was Bank Negara investigators. Only Bank Negara could draw up such money trail and complete account information. So it is no surprise that three BNM officials was the earliest to be accused.

Police poor timing should not be the basis to wrongfully accuse them of abusing power. Not unlike certain other enforcement agencies, police are fairly spot-on in their arrest of suspects. They have a more than 100-year of system in place and an effective intelligence.

Other enforcement agencies are handicap by the law. They had to do extra effort in squeezing out information from suspect and this sometime backfire. Public common complain is that their arrest seldom stick but the publicity is detrimental.

Such agency had to resort to to such method since they are limited in their effectiveness due to requirement of the law place a heavy burden of proof on enforcement.

Reveal time

While police were doing the raids, the images of tic-for-tac MACC raid on police officers viraled. It gives the impression of a PDRM vs MACC agency war.

On that, one former Director at Bukit Aman, one Dato Ayub Haji Yaacob view it positively. It shows check and balance with one enforcement agency checking on another enforcement agency. [Read The Star here].

Former AG, Tan Sri Abu Talib Osman was more serious his comment [read The Star here]. The Chief Secretary and DG for PSD as obstructed the MACC at work as per the Penal Code 186.

With much attention drawn towards the RM2.6 billion transfer controversy and the rumour being conjured up, Najib should not hold out on the identity of the donor any longer.

Diverting political pressure to DAP and PKR to reveal their source of funding serve only to buy time. But it only worsen public confidence.

Najib should respond fast and not allow SR to set the rumour machine in motion with their guesses which already include Khadem Al Qubaisi, Mohamed Badawy Al Husseiny and who else. According to a former Malaysian banker in the Middle Easy, their guesses are doubtful.

Unless Najib does so, the public is not likely to believe an Arab could be so generous to donate US$700 million and into a personal account. MACC denial or repeating clarification that Good Star Limited status as Petrosaudi subsidiary could not gain much ground top deny the money came from 1MDB. The ball is on Najib's court.

With public confidence at a low ebb and trust deficit, Najib and his propaganda machinery should avoid making factual error, spinning and being in-denial in their assessment.

Even an honest effort then by 1MDB to correct factual error in the Unit in a sovereign fund in the BSI Singapore account attracted repeated accusation of lying, what more now?

* Edited and up-dated 10 AM 13/8

Central Bank Governor, Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz appeared at a press conference yesterday to give a statement on many issues.

Most important was Bank Negara position to not peg the ringgit or institute capital control in the light of weakening Malaysian ringgit [read MMO here].

Since returning to the old peg level of 3.80, there had been much attention to the declining ringgit that the public may not be concerned on 1MDB anymore. This week alone many articles generated in the mainstream and circulating in the social media [read The Star's Currency War on Wednesday].

The public is talking a lot on the currency market that suddenly everyone is an expert. With many Malaysian blaming the government, Goh Wei Liang wrote a posting with the cynical title Malaysians are now currency experts? in defense.

Goh is still polite because as a former currency trader, we would have told off these instant experts to stop bullshit-ing. And we have seen many.

Nobody can claim expert because no one can say with absolute confidence on what are the determinants of a currency value, let alone a "third currency" or minor currency like ringgit. Having lost RM16 billion, Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop would be the last to claim as expert.

Presumptous

Malaysians are making a lot of presumptions on the ringgit decline, complaining of higher import affecting business, and claiming the reason being the decline in confidence with the leadership. We will not argue against the last claim.

With Malaysians getting more closed minded and myopic with the growing freedom, it is pointless to tell them that there are two or three more significant variables are in play. Thus the political reasoning could not be single out as THE reason.

The usual factors cited as affecting the conversion of one currency against another currency are differentials in inflation, differentials in interest rate, current account deficit, terms of trade, public debt, and political stability and economic performance [read Investopedia here].

For us, it is still mere indicators or proxies and not factors with direct impact on the value.

Currency value is determined by an open informal market of electronic links between banks and brokers, which trades non-stop from the moment it opens Monday morning in New Zealand till it close for the weekend on Friday evening in San Francisco.

In the world of currency trading, 90% of trades are speculative in nature and 5-10% are based on genuine commerce and trade. It is the decision making process of traders that determine currency conversion value and not so much economic data.

Economic data are lagged, usually one to three months behind. It is not current.

The traders in front of computer screen and in the pit wants to know the future economic trend not prehistoric ones. They need to make the decision to buy or sell dollar within the allowable exposure limit given to make money for the bank and themselves. Lose money they get the boot and do nothing no need to wait for the month-end P&L to get boot out.

Most currency traders trade on very short term to seize on the market natural vibrations. They could be using charts, wave theory, genetic algorithm, stars and horoscope and even fung shui to determine trend and overbought/oversold condition. These are jobbers that provide liquidity in the market.

They are in and out on the mere profit or stop loss of few pips (1 pip is 0.0001). One moment they bullish and long on dollar, but in a moment they could go short to a market seen as overbought. Economic numbers are meaningless because they trade based on sentiment and market trend of the day.

Their presence explains the reason our Masters adviser could only achieve a low 65% correlation coefficient in his attempt to make an econometric model of US/Ringgit back then. We did warn him to not waste time with the attempt.

Nevertheless, on the other end of the scale, there are traders or investors that trade on major structural economic trends. However, they are only an elite few. Most of time, management could not stomach the unrealised lost as they stick it through the market ups and downs.

Ultimately, the basic and direct reason that determine currency value is the order flow.

As our Irish Professor in Treasury Management, who was a former trader at Barclays Bank, London described it is the real supply and demand of currency. However, a glimpse of the information (still indicative) is only available with major trading banks who could see the direction of the flow.

Read this 1992 article here in the The Independent of UK on the Inside Story: Money Trade for a background story on the life of currency traders.

Ringgit decline

Goh Wei Liang highlighted something the public had wrongly made simplistic presumption.

All currency in the world are traded as the currency against US dollar. Conversion to other currencies will involve a two trade mechanism of buying US dollar against the original currency and sell that US dollar to get the desired currency.

There is a certain degree of panic among the public as US/dollar ringgit reached the previous peg level of 3.8000 and now as surpass the 4.0000 mark. That is against US dollar but what should matter most is ringgit against other major trading partner. So Goh pointed out that ringgit weakened against US dollar but strengthened against other currencies.

For the public to be unnecessary panic, he pointed out that unless one is dependent to the US dollar in our life then the panic is unnecessary.

Quite a number of Malaysians are panicking to the point of calling for ringgit to be peg and a capital control policy put in place. Rocky quoted Dato Abdul Wahid Omar here to highlight that the situation now is far different than in 1998 [read here] to warrant such measures.

The ringgit decline is not catastrophic in nature and there is no concerted currency attack in play. Ringgit is declining against US dollar simply because the US dollar is bullish and US interest rate is expected to rise. There will come a point the interest rise is counter productive to the US dollar, so why panic?

The ringgit decline is also compounded further by the devaluation on the Yuan. That is unexpected and catastrophic in nature but still part and parcel of market.

Ringgit decline will affect importers and maybe many Malaysians are complaining because they are too dependent on foreign goods and parts. Is that the government's fault?

The decline in ringgit is not a new phenomenon. It has been happening for more than a year. Sometime last year there was complain that ringgit is too strong and making our exports out-priced. Market talk was the decline was started by capital flights by Malaysian billionaires.

Public only realised when The Edge's Dato Tong Kooi Ong was accused of plotting to weaken the ringgit as part of a grandplan to topple the government. A story line which emulate the reformasi days of 1998-2000.

In Goh's latest posting here, he explores the relationship between commodity prices with ringgit as he claim ringgit begin to weaken as far back as 2010/11 when commodity begin to decline.

It is a good read but as we said earlier, it is an explanation of the past to soothe the panicking Malaysians. Again, it is not government fault and no need to intervene since the movement is not a panic run.

For traders who are the one having direct hand in determining the ringgit value, it mean nothing to them. As we did in our trading days, economic is just useful material to ya ya and bullshit the Business reporters. It don't mean a thing anymore in the market place.

That is unless it is some unexpected numbers not known yet.

It was quite an eventful week for the last week of Syawal.

There was 1MDB's Arul Kanda giving an interview on Thursday August 13th, after the sales of another plot of TRX land to Affin. His first TV interview was to give assurance that it's over-leveraged situation could be addressed within 6 months [Transcript here and here. Video here].

There was a bit of attempt to revive 1MDB as an issue but public attention is very much on the RM2.6 billion donation, and conspiracy to topple government.

Raja Petra Kamaruddin, who seemed to be having a good run these days, revealed some details of the conspiracy. He hinted of something big about to happen next week.

One guess could be MACC's plan to meet PM in their investigation of SRC as mentioned their press release [read TMI here]. This would attract attention since three key people in the SRC investigation have fled.

Another would be the case of Xavier Justo. There have not been much development and stories lately.

1MDB

1MDB have been overshadowed by other events. Tun Dr Mahathir's latest posting tried to revive previously raised questions but still no answer on the "missing" RM42 billion. Arul replied by saying it is recycled questions to answers given in 48 press releases.

Tony Pua stepped up to the plate and was given the same reply. He replied to say the press releases have not fully answered the issues. Arul slam Tony Pua for conveniently forgetting a June 10 answer to the miscommunication on the issue of fund unit redemption.

He seem to ignore the fact 1MDB is under investigations and the most investigated organisations. Thus, it is not for Arul to make public comment. Tony Pua is trying to be "judge, jury and executioner", wrote a letter to Rakyat Post [read here].

If that is not enough politicking, Lim Guan Eng blamed the decline in ringgit to 1MDB. So is Guan Eng another instant expert on currency?

One reason confidence for 1MDB could not get restored yet was the delay in the appointment of new PAC members and disbandment of the Special Task.

It had to wait for the next session of Parliament on October 19. Only parliament could endorse the selection of a new Parlimentary Select Committee (PSC), which is responsible to choose members of various commitees including the PAC.

The reason the new AG announced disbanding the Special Task was that it is not appropriate for prosecutor to lead any investigation. Each enforcement agencies operate under their respective law and will continue investigation. These agencies have cooperate and work together before [read TRP here].

Zeti's PC

The big story last week must be the press conference by Bank Negara Governor, Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz.

Zeti said there had been a red flag on 1MDB for few years and Bank Negara had done their probe and submitted report and recommended to AG for "enforcement action" [read TMI here].

Some yoko was still asking whether it was submitted to PM.

As happened to MACC, she said seven Bank Negara staff were questioned by police with regard to 1MDB leak [read TMI here].

Off late, Zeti had been smeared by some anonymous blog [read The Recounter here]. The intention looks to pressure her into resignation. She responded to say she will finish her controversially long five year extention and threaten to sue the slanderer. [Read FMT here]

Asked about the US$700 million being transfered into Dato Najib's personal account, she said she could not comment on individual account [read The Star here]. Malaysiakini report twisted her words to emphasise she could be caught.

RM2.6 billion

The public attention is now focused on the RM2.6 billion transfer into PM's account in Ambank.

Since revealed and confirmed by MACC as political donation from Arab donors and not linked to 1MDB, one name regularly mentioned but not confirmed yet as donor was Prince Alwaleed Tallal.

Raja Petra was one of the first to claim the transfered money was a political donation. In one of his recent posting, Was the RM2.6 billion part of war against terror?, he believed the money is more than just funding the last general election.

It is also believed that the money was also to assist troubled Muslim communities around the world. This was explained in one UMNO Divisional meeting in Pahang.

Tan Sri Muhyiddin enquired on the balance of the RM2.6 billion. Before any answer was given, Sarawak Report responded to reveal that out of US$681 million credited into Najib's account, US$650 million was returned to the original sender.

It should tally with the possibility that it is not meant for only political funding. SR spin to question why would donation meant for UMNO be returned. In the first place, didn't they accused it was 1MDB money from day one?

Secretary General, Tengku Dato Adnan Mansor was reported that he and UMNO Treasurer are aware of the RM2.6 billion donation.

It is understood that the account was a trust account under the name of Dato Najib. The question he has to ponder is whether to reveal the beneficiary and donor after MACC cleared it is not diverted 1MDB money?

Sentiment

Usual opposition game

The answers given to issues are generally sensible but trust deficit and late reply made it unconvincing to the public and UMNO grassroot. Najib's gameplan to let enforcement agencies ascertain his innocence may have backfired after police raided MACC and Bank Negara.

In a Twitter survey done by Politweet, Twitter users surveyed did not believe the donation explanation and still insist it came from 1MDB [read MMO here].

Even questions posed to Dato Abdul Rahman Dahlan in a mainstream paper interview [read The Star here] had a a tone of distrust.

IGP denied acting on any directive to investigate MACC. Last week, he also denied any interference with investigation and targeting any institution, particularly the MACC. He gave assurance investigation into the leakage of investigation papers will be put on hold.

Pressure is coming from opposition and left wing NGO as they called for Najib's resignation. Bersih 4.0 is organised aand will be the build-up to GE14.

As mentioned in last week's posting, the argument to ask for opposition to also reveal does not seem to stop DAP from politicising the issue. Tony Pua claimed foreign funding is detrimental to democrasy. These articles here and here should be useful reminders to DAP's past.

Earlier, DAP denied and claimed they raised money through public donation.

Conspiracy?

Khairy defended Najib to say receiving political donation is not a crime. The same argument many left-wing NGO and PKR used before when exposed of their foreign funding.

However Khairy changed his tone and express disapproval to the MACC raid. He said he is not afraid of being sacked from the cabinet.

That set the tone for the UMNO Youth divisional meetings. Yesterday UMNO Youth Tampin call for Najib to withdraw in order to clean up party image.

Muhyiddin's voice on 1MDB have become stronger in his speeches in Semporna and Kemaman [read TMI here and here, and The Star here].

RPK seemed to defend the police raid on MACC and Bank Negara with his conspiracy theory.

In his posting, "Muhyiddin was not sacked because of 1MDB", RPK alleged that Muhyiddin has a role in plotting to oust Najib. Extract of the allegation below:

Muhyiddin Yassin, too, made a move to oust Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak. He met Azmin Ali and Lim Guan Eng and plotted to pass a vote of no confidence against Najib.

The only problem was Hadi would not join the conspiracy so they could not get enough votes. They need all the votes from Pakatan Rakyat and another 30-40 from Barisan Nasional, which Muhyiddin would deliver. Without the PAS votes they would be dead in the water.

And that was why Najib had to remove Muhyiddin. It had nothing to do with 1MDB. It was because of the vote of no confidence that Muhyiddin was planning. The 1MDB issue was going to be the excuse for the vote of no confidence.

Problem with vote of no confidence Plan A is that Muhyiddin has no history of working or collaborating with opposition. Azmin Ali and Guan Eng have thus far denied meeting him.

According to RPK, Plan A failed because of PAS strained relation with DAP. Subsequently, he predicted plan B in "Najib's last day as PM was supposed to be July 29th", below:

Plan B was supposed to have been executed on Wednesday, 29 July 2015, during the Cabinet meeting.

On that day, Muhyiddin would inform Najib that he has to resign with immediate affect (which was why the rumours were flying around that time that Najib was resigning). The Attorney General would be waiting outside with the media representatives and Najib would be told if he refuses to resign then the AG would hold a press conference and read out the charges against him.

Najib would then immediately face arrest and no bail would be granted due to flight risk. Once Najib was under arrest he would be slapped with more charges to keep him busy in court for the next decade so that even if he beats all those charges there was no way he could come back as Prime Minister.

Plan B failed and in his posting, "Is plan C still on or do we move to plan X", he described a Plan C similar to rumours that reached this blogger's ear:

Plan C is for the MACC to arrest Najib under Section 23 of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act, which is punishable under Section 24 of the same Act and, upon conviction, carries the same jail term as Section 124 of the Penal Code, which is 20 years.

But then, just like in the case of Plans A and B, Najib pre-empted this move and removed certain key MACC officers and transferred them to the Prime Minister’s Department.

And. came Plan D as written in "Najib appears to have more than 9 lives" is below:

Three of the masterminds of the Gerakan Anti-Najib or GAN — Rafizi Ramli, Johari Abdul and Ariff Sabri Abdul Aziz — arranged for a certain Indian lawyer who used to be a legal adviser of Umno to prepare 120 Statutory Declarations.

About 85 of these SDs were meant for the Pakatan Rakyat Members of Parliament and the other 35 for the Barisan Nasional Members of Parliament. And these 120 Members of Parliament from both sides of the political divide would sign these SDs to prove to His Majesty the Agong that Najib has lost his majority support in Parliament.

Though appealing, Plan D is bizarre as it is unlikely for royalty to interfere in common rakyat politics.

Nevertheless, Deputy Prime Minister Dato Ahmad Zahid played up RPK's story on attempts by UMNO and BN leaders to oust government. The intention may have been to create the buzz at the UMNO Divisional meetings.

His tease brought out denial from Muhyiddin as he said it would be stupid of him to wreck a government he helped built. Zahid has since denied Muhyiddin as the person. He hinted the conspirator will be meeting PM to own up yesterday.

Whether there was a meeting or not, that leaves only Tengku Razaleigh. He has been described by Dato Abdul Kadir Jasin as the front runner.

Although he admitted meeting Tun Mahathir, Ku Li denied involvement in attempt to topple the Najib. He claimed himself as a Najib man.

Ku Li explained it need military involvement to topple a government. The constitutional way to topple a government must be via a vote of no confidence in Parliament. Will that mean the October Parliament session will be more about a vote of no confidence than the new PAC?

Unexpected?

Reuters analysis here viewed that any attempt to bring government down will have to be from within UMNO. Najib is expected to ride out the storm and should survive.

However, there is a widely held belief that BN could not survive the next general election. It is indicative of the public sentiment against Najib but interestingly, the question of replacement could not be answered convincingly.

It means Najib may still have a fighting chances but PMO, Najib's communication team and political machinery have a tall order to step up and be fast thinking. UMNO's cyber operation failed, says a opposition friendly critic on TMI here.

Critics blamed former opposition operators in UMNO for the failure as one claimed PM would not have used a personal account for the political donation. Generally the cyber operation need a General which is conversant and have well thought out cyber strategy respected by the troops.

There it is quite still much to be revealed to the public. Any new development and delayed released of certain information must be made to swing public sentiment.

Xavier Justo is expected to be charged in the Thai court soon. Usually court proceeding would reveal some interesting details. Maybe it is as interesting as the reported meeting at Fullerton Hotel, Singapore.

While the priority now would be to tighten the UMNO ship, it is a predictable move and they will be those attempting to foil the move. With 1MDB and RM2.6 billion political donation are homerun issues for opposition and internal critics, UMNO must buck up.

There is no time to waste for both UMNO and certain opposition parties or as RPK forecasted here, Selangor will come under the control of DAP.

Few months back, we came to the realisation that most Malay NGOs are in dire need of a re-think.

Most NGOs are basically platform for have been or wannabee politicians. Politics is necessary and part and parcel of activism, so some NGOs position themselves as pressure group.

If the view and stance taken are well thought out and sincere, it is fine.

The problem is most such NGO are not independent and in-depth in their position on issues. It is skewed to serve the interest of certain partisanship or political faction or even individual agenda.

Self interest

During an internal UMNO fight like the current one, such NGO will rear their ugly head as merely a platform for the pursuit of power.

It is fine for a while, if the team they rooted for win. If they lose, the implication could be on the organisation and at the expense of members' aspirations. Members will feel being used for self interest.

Certain Malay NGO are nothing more than a platform for individuals to get close to the leadership and receive accolades of positions or decorations.

A small group of people without an organisation and members positioned themselves as the umbrella for other Malay NGOs. They sell themselves as the acceptable NGO and ride on the good names of distinguish personalities.

Then there are those trade NGOs that exist for some well written noble and progressive agenda for their industry. In practise, it serves nothing more that platform to seek contracts or subsidy or assistance from government.

Many a times, they secure contract for their NGO but hijacked by one or two position holder. Members got to know and the NGO goes into an internal squabble and fell apart.

Typical in all these NGOs is to hold frequent and regular seminars, forums, and all sort of "majlis ilmu" (knowledge events), they say.

Come event time, the attendance by members itself could not fill up the halls. So they invite other NGOs and seminar groupies to attend. For the opening and only important agenda, university students are invited or forced to come to fill up the halls.

Sometimes it is not the numbers that matter but the quality. Even that is suspect. The events are pre-empted with their already drawn up resolution irrespective of the discussion. Obviously not much in-depth discussion since it is merely brief presentation by paper writers and the moderators kept giving the excuse "masa tak cukup".

Typically, these well written resolutions are mostly about "mendesak", "menuntut" and "mencadang" on "kerajaan" to do this and that.

Ironically, the preamble of most of these resolutions will highlight problems in government implementation but yet their resolution ask the political leadership and the often described as weak government machinery to implement.

It just defeat the purpose. However, failing which the leadership and political establishment get blamed and even calls for their removal.

And we have just had enough.

Self help

As we see it, a true blue NGO should be focus in their pursuit. It should be made up of volunteering like-minded activists, independent in attitude, and self sustainable with the support of it's own community.

Instead of existing to ask the government to do this and that or seeking this and that, a Malay NGO should be progressive to undertake their own effort and create it's own self-help program.

The members are there to contribute, play a role of their own and support the organisation instead of depending on President and wait for the NGO leadership to instruct or approve initiative. Members exist not to fill up halls and be VIP audience for the President or Chairman speeches and media presence.

The program they develop is like a baby that grew bigger and over time, is self-sustainable.

Malay NGO should look down south and emulate the independent attitude of the Singaporean Malay NGO, Yayasan Mendaki.

As described in their website, "Yayasan Mendaki (Council for the Development of Singapore Malay/Muslim Community) is a pioneer self-help group formed in 1982 dedicated to empower the community through excellence in education, in the context of a multi-racial and multi-religious Singapore."

Mendaki streamlined its focus along four key areas of education, youth, family and employability. They target their programmes for the bottom 30% of the Malay/Muslim population, thus are highly subsidised from community collection.

Just about the time we are about to give up on Malay NGOs, we got invited to a launch by Malay Alumni of North American Universities or ALMA.

Duty calls so we could not attend the dinner. However, as a founding member and Protem committee member, we are proud that the initial fact finding effort done years ago had been taken up.

Slowly and surely, but not giving up, the aspired Education Fund is coming to fruit.

After the end of Pak Lah administration, ALMA suddenly quiet down. On August 11th recently, ALMA launched it's Education Foundation that comes complete with Board of Trustee, Board of Advisory and De Loitte as Auditor.

From the ALMA's website here, they have re-positioned itself as "a national education think tank with a mission to prepare the Bumiputra communities for the fast changing global landscape to consciously act and chart the destiny of the future generation".

It is a good move. Education is always a worthy effort to pursue and doable cause to be taken all the way.

The NST has the news:

Alma Education Foundation to assist Bumiputera students

By Nuradzimmah Daim - 11 August 2015 @ 10:16 PM

KUALA LUMPUR: Alma Education Foundation was launched to help deserving Bumiputera students, graduates and individuals.

Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister Datuk Razali Ibrahim, who represented and read Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's speech, said the foundation was aimed at assisting deserving students attend renowned universities abroad.

"The fund will be sourced from individuals, private companies, public-listed and government-owned companies, to ensure that none of our most talented young men and women are deprived of the opportunity to broaden their minds and develop their expertise at the world's greatest educational institutions.

"Today, we have succeeded in setting up 20 public universities, a host of tertiary colleges and hundreds of private institutes of higher education, including branch campuses of renowned world-class universities. Malaysia has not only become an importer but and important exporter in world education. Last year, we had over 135,000 international students from 160 nations studying in public and private higher education institutions as well as international schools."

Last year, he said, some 90,000 students were studying abroad with about 30 per cent of them were sponsored by various government-linked agencies and corporations including Mara, JPA, Petronas, Bank Negara Malaysia, PNB, Khazanah and Sime Darby.

"In September 2011, I was invited to officiate at the launch of Community Chest Foundation, which was founded by a group of wealthy philantropists in order to improve the quality of Chinese and Indian schools.

"I believe that with similar tenacity and seriousness, the Alma Education Foundation can do just as well for Bumiputeras who make up 63 per cent of the country's population.

"I am going to propose that each of Umno's 3.5 million members do what they can to assist in the noble effort.

"Although we face certain constraints due to low oil prices and the strong US dollar, my government will never falter in its commitment to serve all races - and that includes ensuring the well-being and advancement of the Malays and Bumiputeras."

He added that the foundation had set a target of RM300 million fund per year with the aim of sponsoring 200 to 300 students annually.

It is certainly a step forward and a change in attitude.

Despite our absence, we will gladly donate for the cause.

Hopefully Malay individuals and organisation will come forward to donate and build-up this Malay educational war chest.

ALMA is not just a platform of former Malay students of North American Universities to meet up, socialise and catch-up on old times.

Foremost, it should be a platform for former beneficiaries of NEP with the sense of gratitude to give back to the society that had assisted them before. Since almost all members are beneficiaries, ALMA members and all former beneficiaries should take this up as their raison d-etre to donate regularly and support this effort.

It is high time for the Malays to think, act and strive as a united community with an independent attitude. The time to totally depend on government has passed. The same NEP style policy may not be financially viable to emulate today. Government role should be left to help the poor and helpless.

For the Malay community to progress and compete, it must learn to be independent, work together as a viable economic community and develop many self-help initiatives of it's own. Malay need a rethink on their understanding of Malay leadership.

Should the government have spare change to help, at least an organisation is in place to receive it. And it means there is a lot of work for ALMA to do.

ALMA Education Fund must operate professionally and ethically without self interest and political interference. The fund should be managed prudently and be careful of quick rich investment schemes like some private equity scams.

It is important because it serves to gain the confidence of ALMA members. The members' confidence brings along a sense of belonging that will ensure it's sustainability and the trust of the Malay community.

Hmmm ... what happen to that other Alumni's Education Fund which we contributed also? Sudahkah habis syok sendiri?

After a short hiatus, Tony Pua emerged after Arul Kanda's TV3 interview to revive a past issue on 1MDB. He had previously accused Arul as lying. Now he seek explanation on the redeemed US$1.1 billion Cayman Fund and challenged him for a debate.

His intention is not to seek explanation but to accuse the Cayman Island fund has disappeared. And, the challenge for a debate is typical politician ploy, in which a corporate man with a task to do like Arul should not waste his time.

Arul replied to tell Tony Pua that he is recycling issues already answered. Tony Pua said it was not and resorted to a name calling "chicken challenge". Arul duly replied to indirectly described him as "monkey" living in a jungle without rules and order.

Essentially, Tony Pua antic is what Transparency Initiative website here described as "accountability politics" which is "the arena of conflict over whether and how those in power are held publicly responsible for their decisions."

Accountability means ensuring that officials in public, private and voluntary sector organisations are answerable for their actions and that there is redress when duties and commitments are not met.

Part of accountability is the practise of transparency. It means "public officials, civil servants, managers and directors of companies and organisations and board trustees have a duty to act visibly, predictably and understandably to promote participation and accountability".

The bigger question to issues raised by Tony Pua is what is the limit of transparency or how much disclosure is allowable?

In the midst of the much hurrah over Jullian Assange and Wikileaks, there were groups that cherish the leak as necessary to combat corruption.

But when posed with the question as to should government reveal all it's information, there is an agreement to oppose full transparency in order to prevent abuse and from being falliable to anarchy. [Read discussion in Ted.com here]

In areas such as securities, the public right to know come together with public right to not know. As one US conservative think tank in an interview in US News said, "The public has a right, through electing a government, to have some information kept from them and from our enemies."

That is quite clear cut but before our GE 13, DAP and NGO like SUARAM were raising issue on defense spending in which the correct answer would essentially be giving away security information and militaru capability.

Something of more direct public interest would the demand for more disclosure on management of the state pension fund in Kentucky last year.

The public demanded for more information on the way investment proposals are solicited from fund managers, management fee charged, and banning of third party placement agents.

The argument against such proposal was fund manager would shy away than to disclose their fee and allow proprietary knowledge be made known to the public. Also, those getting state pension would not want their financial details be made known to the public. [Read Kentucky.com here]

The view that the inner mechanics of government is none of the public business was shared by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) in hiring consultants to undertake the consolidatation of 11 state agencies into five. [Read here].

If every other government decisions and operational matter need to get public approval or need prior feedback, there is no need to have elected representatives, civil service and various structure of government.

Since public has entrusted that responsibility to their elected officials, government and the various institution so there is not need to divulge details.

Tony Pua's expectation on Arul to give away the valuation of the unit of sovereign fund held at BSI could be seen as a similar situation. There is a structure in place and it should be left to the structure to deal with the various issues.

In the private sector, the public right to know has it's limit. The level of disclosure and transparency ends at the point it involves company's confidential proprietary knowledge and when the interest of the company is at stake.

Under the Company Act, the only public disclosure requirement is the Audited Accounts. For publicly listed companies, there will be the Annual Report, Quarterly Report, and a bit more disclosure requirement by the Bursa to announced any market sensitive information.

There could be demand for transparency in the company to be more open to the staff in order to help them understand the company direction, and promote inclusiveness. The limit lies in getting the right balance between confidentiality and the challenge to keep information internal especially in this leaky digital information. era [Read FP here].

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2014/11/28/3564011_question-for-legislators-how-much.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

In the event of some wrongdoing, it is the company's responsibility to report to the authorities and cooperate in an investigation. It is the enforcement authorities that will have access and ability to investigate, so it will be them to prosecute or not and the court to make the final decision.

The public should neither have access to the investigation nor comment for fear it will interrupt or influence investigation. The big publicity on SRC was an example. Three officials seek by investigator disappeared.

It is understandable to expect criticism and doubt with the public institution arising from the removal of certain high officials, investigation on leakage and Special Task Force being disbanded. Taken also that there is mistrust with the structure of government and public institution.

However, there are reasons for the existing limitation in transparency. Till there are amendment to the law and policy, that is the exprcted conduct.

In the meanwhile, the ruling party need to convince the public that there exist the collusion by politicians and public officials to topple the government. Otherwise, the argument that there is a limit to public transparency will fall on deaf ears.

As for the doubting public, they should not "mudah lupa" (easily forget) but back their doubt by pursuing an agenda for more disclosure. Otherwise their concern is only politically motivated.

The important point is transparency, accountability and disclosure is pursued with genuine concern and not due to partisan political manipulation.

The political motivation behind Tony Pua's statements is only expected as politician. However, he should appreciate that the current management of 1MDB headed by Arul is tasked to solve the problem of over gearing and mismatch cashflow than to get into political cat fight.

Tony Pua has raised much issues but at this point, making the allegation that the Cayman fund is missing is as close to openly doubting MACC's conclusion that the RM2.6 billion transfered into Dato Najib's private account is not linked to 1MDB.

As a member of PAC, he should not continue to do so as he has the PAC platform to do so already. In the PAC session, he could pose the hard questions and enquire for the informations as no information could be withheld.

Such questions and answer are usually not shared with public as it is not the right short easy soundbytes for political mileage.

Tony Pua has the advantage of access to reports like the Interim Auditor General report and the PAC sessions. Since the reports could not be made public, is he trying to disclose without being caught breaking the PAC rule?

Tony Pua's questioning may have the intention to make other accusations against 1MDB but are too afraid to do so.

For one, he fear he does not have the proof to back his allegations. His name turned up in a report of a Fullerton Hotel, Singapore meeting which was attended by Xavier Justo, Clara rewcastle, and other conspirators on the 1MDB issue.

On.Monday, Xavier Justo admitted guilty to charges of blackmailing and extortion. Say the wrong thing and Tony Pua may leave a clue that he has in possession illegally obtained information.

Tony Pua latest antics serbe to cast doubt on the explanation given by Dato Rahman Dahlan on Petrosaudi. The argument is even if the investment was a bad decision, 1MDB got back their investment. No money disappeared but it eas in fact profitable.

Tony Pua may want to accuse that the BSI account transfered to IPIC has no money in it. He will have to prove it or run the risk of being sued. He cannot keep posing recycled questions with the hope Arul will erred.

There is a system of law and order in Malaysia. It is does not adhere to the law of a jungle filled with monkeys and other wild animals.

Dato Najib was reported by Bernama as saying Malays will become "bangsat" (destitute) if UMNO loses power. TMI translated the "b" word as outcast.

The 1977 published Kamus Lengkap by Pustaka Zaman translate as crook; poor, destitute (person); bed-bugs; travel, roam". In the light of Penang's demolishing more Malay villages, the translation outcast has similar meaning to the word pariah if that is the message from the Edge group.

Big Dog pun a common motto into "Bersatu teguh, bercerai bangsat" to mean disunity will lead to disaster for the Malays. Life of Annie discuss her earlier posting which refers to crooks that lead other Malays to destitute.

The other part of Najib's statement on power is interesting to explore. It refers to power from the perspective of political power.

In the midst of conspiracy to topple the Prime Minister, the arguments evolved around legitimacy.

According to the Westminister system, the leader of the winning party or coalition leads the nation. He will no more be legitimate should majority of the member of Parliament vote nay in a vote of no confidence.

Politics is not the only source of power. So it is legitimate to ponder whether UMNO do has control and applies power well.

Physics defined power as the rate of doing work. The simplest definition of work is force multiplied by distance.

From the political or social science definition, it also means the ability to get work done but via others.

Power is the ability to influence or control the behavior of people. It is a means to a certain action, usually social action and it could be positive or negative action.

An earlier work by social psychologists John R. P. French and Bertram Raven in 1959, divide power into five distinct forms - coercive, reward, legitimate, referent, and expert.

Referent power refers power based on charisma or interpersonal skill to attract others and build loyalty.

Expert power are the power to get others to listen and respect from the knowledge and skills to understand situation, suggest solutions, and make good judgment.

Subsequently, informational power was added as the sixth source of power.

The reknown Harvard Economist, John Kenneth Galbraith classified power in his 1983 book, The Anatomy of Power [read Wikipedia here].

"It sought to classify three types of power: compensatory power in which submission is bought, condign power in which submission is won by making the alternative sufficiently painful, and conditioned power in which submission is gained by persuasion."

"It further divided power by source: power either stems from personality or leadership, property or wealth, or organisation."

Power has many interesting dimensions.

For instance, some people may have the knowledge and skills but have trouble influencing others. Some applies power and be seen as powerful. Some could influence but without applying power.

Power could be associated with the struggle over resources. The more scarce and valued resources are the more intense and protracted are power struggles.

The process of power involves a variety of power tactics to push or prompt people into particular action.

There are plenty of examples of power tactics that are quite common and employed every day. The power tactics can soft or hard, rational or non rational, and unilateral or bilateral.

These tactics would include criticising, demanding, complaining, negotiating, collaboration, inspiring, socialising, humor, bullying, disengaging, evading, manipulating, and supplicating.

Something to ponder over what constitute UMNO power. There is legitimacy power but was it built or on that referent or expert power? Maybe it could be rephrase as is it still standing on referent or expert power?

These are positive types of power.

UMNO power have much to do with Malay feudelism. Part of feudelism is negative as in coercive power and positive as in reward power.

In Galbraith clasification, Najib's statement is the application of condignpower. If UMNO is no more powerful, the argument goes that Malays will face a life like what is happening in Singapore and Penang.

Tun Mahathir claimed Najib failed in his application of compensatory power approach.

Looking at the coercive power elements at work, has the conditioned power through persuasion and openness been exhausted?

By Raghan Nair (e-Mail)

After months of bitter and rough rides, the tornado that hit the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) has finally subsided. The lies, misleads, U-turns and chaos has hit an abrupt halt.

Datuk Seri Dr. S. Subramaniam has won the presidential seat uncontested and is the 9th President of MIC.

At last, a professional will run the party and it’s the end of an era of gangsters and hooligan politics that have ruled Malaysia’s largest based Indian party previously under the leadership of Datuk Seri G. Palanivel.

Team Palani left no card unturned to allow this turn of events.

They dragged the Registrar of Societies (ROS) to court, filed numerous court appeals against decisions made, performed pseudo-hunger strikes, created ruckus and threatened the office bearers of ROS and tried sabotaging the presidential nominations violently.

Tears rolled and blood was shed but the sweet taste of victory is far more rewarding than pain endured.

Ultimately, good triumphed over evil and the truth prevailed. More than 90 percent of branch chairmen held their hearts in their mouth, faced the wrath of gangsterism and physically presented themselves to show their support for Dr. Subra.

Despite all hardship, the march towards getting what they wanted is an inspiration by itself.

Now that the dust is settled, where does this leave Team Palani?

Those who dragged the ROS to court have already lost their membership in MIC by virtue of the constitution.

More importantly, Palani has lost it all. He was stripped off his ministership and is alleged to be one of those who is trying to oust Prime Minister Najib. Presently, the only post his holds is an independent member of parliament for Cameron Highlands.

Previously, Palani threatened the PM that if he is removed from the cabinet, he would resign as the MP of Cameron Highlands. However being a U-turn king, it is unlikely that Palani will walk the talk.

Initially, there were talks of Team Palani forming another Indian-based party that is BarisanNasional (BN) friendly. However since facing the sack from cabinet, this notion has very much died off.

There is a new rumour that has surfaced from within the camps of the Opposition. Palani along with Datuk S. Sothinathan, Tan Sri S. Balakrishnan and AnbumaniBalan have met up with Prof Ramasamy and discussions are ongoing for the foursome to join the Democratic Action Party (DAP). The close camaraderie between Ramasamy and Palani may facilitate this action.

If this rumour is indeed true, BN would be celebrating the exit of Team Palani.

Palani and Co are nothing but trouble-makers and their entry into DAP will ultimately spell trouble for the Opposition.

Sothi has been eyeing the Teluk Kemang seat for some time now. His only shot at it presently is if the Opposition gives him the candidature. Hence, Sothi joining DAP makes sense to him.

More importantly, will Lim Kit Siang and Lim Guan Eng second these jumping jacks joining DAP?

Palani and Co are no asset. They are a liability to any organisation and it is interesting to see how Guan Eng reacts to the proposal of them joining DAP.

Whatever the outcome, the demise of Team Palani is inevitable. They have reached a dead-end in all attempts. Let’s see if the cursed will be allowed into DAP in the near future.

One thing is for sure, MIC will emerge stronger following the recent catastrophe.

... but Kit Siang resorted to take it to the streets.

Raja Petra put up a posting early yesterday morning with a theory that Dato Najib have prepered himself for a vote of no confidence for the coming October parliamentary session.

According to his argument, RPK believed Najib is ready to face that possibility. After sacking Tan Sri Muhyiddin, Najib seems to be getting things his way in facing up Tun Dr Mahathir. He foresee Najib would have preferred it and may turn it to his advantage. [Read him here.]

Two days ago, Lim Kit Siang said in a press conference to reiterate DAP's stand for a no confidence vote and remind of IGP Tan Sri Khalid's statement that such a move is not a police security concern. [Read in TMI here].

Surprisingly this morning, quite a few notable pro-UMNO bloggers are supporting RPK's yet another conspiracy theory and DAP's call. Their motive is basically to challenge critics and opposition claim that Najib has lost support as a result of alleged scandals involving 1MDB and RM2.6 billion political donation.

It could also be calling on the opposition bluff but argued as better that than hitting the streets. But why is Kit Siang still insistence in resorting to the streets?

DAP-led Bersih?

Last night, a planned pre-Bersih rally held in Kit Siang's hometown of Batu Pahat managed to surprisingly gather some 800 people.

It must be an insult to UMNO because the Dataran the gathering was held is near the first gathering of Malays in front of the Kelab Melayu Batu Pahat to form UMO which later led to UMNO.

By the look of things, DAP has gone all out to get members and Chinese to come out for Bersih 4.0 which will be a 34 hours gathering on 29-30th August to be held in Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Kota Kinabalu and Kuching.

Former Deputy Chairman of DAP Johor, Norman Fernandez must be one of the earliest to notice the more than usual Chinese presence this time around. However, he is disturbed that the Chinese presence this time is more out of anger on Najib than the intention of Bersih.

Unlike in previous Bersih, it is only Chinese youth and individuals than turn up. This time it is heard DAP members will be coming out in full force and together with PKR are getting Chinese to come out. He see it as giving the wrong message.

The statement was put up on Outsyed the Box yesterday but he seemed to take it off his posting as fast as he post it. So a copy of the posting is still available on Malaysia Reserve here. Why blog if too afraid to leave it up?

With PAS not expected to participate except for a segment of the renegade Gerakan Harapan Baru and past trend of declining attendance at public political demonstrations, there maybe concern that the numbers will not be as much.

Picking on where Bersih 3, there will be Bersih gathering at all major cities around the world. [See Fuziah Salleh's Facebook here].

Though the number at Kuala Lumpur's Bersih 3 was hardly to shout about compared to the uncontrollable and violent Bersih 2, having it global justify them to claim the participants were 300,000.

With support growing for the vote of no confidence, Kit Siang had to make the hard decision of contradicting himself hit the streets and DAP has to play the torchbearer role in the absence of PAS. One can read his blog here as he goes on his rhetorical ranting on democrasy, right to gather, and it's legality on the police.

It cannot be discounted that Kit Siang could be taken in by RPK's theory that Najib will survive the vote of no confidence and exploit the threat against him. He wrote:

If that vote of no confidence does come in October, Najib will exploit it and use it to his advantage.

Once the vote of no confidence is passed Najib will ask His Majesty the Agong to dissolve Parliament to make way for snap federal elections. Umno will contest the seats it can be assured of winning and increase its seats from 88 to 100-110.

Najib will then give Sabah and Sarawak what they are asking for and win at least 45 of the 57 seats there, maybe even 48. That will give Barisan Nasional roughly 150 seats with at best 72 going to the opposition if MCA, MIC, Gerakan and PPP do not win a single seat.

Aren't you a big mouth, RPK?

No less than his long time detractor, Dato Abdul Kadir Jasin was reported to agree. TMI reported here that Kadir said in forum "Protes Rakyat or Dewan Rakyat" forum that no street demonstration and vote of no confidence can shake Najib.

Others speaking at the forum organised by Malaysiakini in Petaling Jaya are former deputy minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah, Centre for a Better Tomorrow chief Gan Ping Sieu, and Bersih 4 rally organiser Maria Chin Abdullah.

Deja Vu

The Bersih 4.0 and the surround events seemed like a deja vu. Kadir speaking at an opposition organised political forum seemed like the time thee fight was to topple Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

All the Bersih demonstration with it's pre- and post-events, demands, arguments and counter arguments, actions and reactions by authority, organisers and supporters, and even down to the gathering points can only be expected to be a repetition of the past.

As Hafidz Haharom wrote in MMO here, Bersih is repeating itself that after 10 years, they themselves had not developed into anything significant. Same old, same old rhetorics.

With Malaysian ringgit plunging and Najib forming a Special Economic Committee to address an impending global economic recession, it has a similarity to the reformasi era. [read Rocky Bru here].

Though the core members should be different to fit with the different era and challenges. Still Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop ... zzzzz except the absence of Central Bank Governor, Tan Sri Dr Zeti Aziz is a surprise. Is there a new Governor to come on board?

Only different is the domestic economy then went into a bad spin. There was rising bad loans and business failures due to high interest rate to cushion the ringgit fall and tight credit prescribed by IMF willingly adhered by Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

The young demonstrators at Bersih 4.0 will vehemently disagree out of their own ignorance.

This time Monetarist Zeti refuse to tamper with the bullish trend on the US dollar in the foreign exchange market. She is staying away from the peg and avoid raising interest rate on the money market that will have detrimental impact on the economy.

In a strange turn of faith, it was Anwar that was attempting to topple Tun M then. But now it is Tun M attempting to topple Najib. Back then, it was Anwar and his supporters were leveling the corruption and high handed allegations against Tun M.

It is telling when one of his backbone Minister is now viraling John Mallot's article and the article published on Malaysiakini. [Read here].

Anwar was dismissed from the position of Deputy Prime Minister and Deputy President. This time Tan Sri Muhyiddin was dismissed from Deputy Prime Minister post and by the politics developing in UMNO, it looks dismissal from Deputy President UMNO seemed possible.

Back then, Pemuda UMNO was split and Dato Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was the Youth Chief backing Anwar. Now he is Deputy Prime Minister and a step away from Deputy President of UMNO. Similarly Youth Chief Khairy took a stand to defend Muhyiddin to stay on as Deputy President.

Tun M did a snap election in 1999 and won with support from the Chinese. The Chinese feared a repeat the Indonesian reformasi will repeat itself here. The reformasi in Indonesia turned violent against Chinese.

Obviously, the senario is different in that department.

RPK wrote further:

That will also give Barisan Nasional two-thirds control of Parliament. If MCA, MIC, Gerakan and PPP can pull in 10 seats combined then Barisan Nasional will get 160 seats versus 62 for the opposition.

The Boffin Boys in Najib’s office have done their arithmetic and they are of the opinion that a snap election can actually work in Barisan Nasional’s favour.

Wikipedia here described Boffin as "armed-forces slang for a technician or research scientist." They are supposed to be genius. RPK referred to HR as leading the Boffins Boys.

The rest of the Boffins Boys is heard to be a lawyer, an international PR man, a developer, and a caretaker.Different war requires a different general to lead.

This time around the game are different. The UMNO terrain is different. The law is different. Sentiment different. Quite sure these geniuses do not need empiricals for verification. They are usuallyinstinctively smart and confident.

Won't expect them to be predictable and repetitous, will they?

The circus should begin tomorrow 29th till 30th. On Monday, it is supposed to be the Merdeka celebration.

As per our posting yesterday here, this Bersih 4.0 is boring-ly the same ole cowdung. Maybe there is a slight difference with DAP taking a lead and Chinese are not mere spectators as indicative of the pre-Bersih 4.0 rally in Batu Pahat. However, there are still lots of predictable happenings and reactions.

Predictably, there are attempts to turn it into a spectre of May 13, 1969. There was that silat demonstration outside Sogo by an anti Bersih group. They threatened to gather a crowd of 30,000 for an anti-Bersih 4.0 rally to begin at Low Yat tomorrow.

All the silat and threat, but the latest heard they were advised by police to do it at a latter date. It is all quite predictable wayang similar to that by Pemuda UMNO and Perkasa in one past Bersih.

As expected, DAP jumped in to the retreating "threat" with their own reverse psychology circus act. DAP MPs was reported by TMI as claiming threatening flyers were found outside their headquarter.

Can't help but see all these politically motivated circus as almost typical of Malay NGO.

BERSIH circus

In yesterday's posting, we wrote:

All the Bersih demonstration with it's pre- and post-events, demands, arguments and counter arguments, actions and reactions by authority, organisers and supporters, and even down to the gathering points can only be expected to be a repetition of the past.

As Hafidz Haharom wrote in MMO here, Bersih is repeating itself that after 10 years, they themselves had not developed into anything significant. Same old, same old rhetorics.

True enough, Bersih started out on the premise of seeking electoral reform.

The first Bersih demanded for clean up of the electoral roll, use of indelible ink, abolition of postal voting for military and police personnel, and free and fair access to mass media for all parties.

Bersih 4.0 seek for:

Free and fair elections
A transparent government
The right to demonstrate
Strengthening the parliamentary democracy system
Saving the national economy

Many electoral reforms is abbreviated into free and fair elections as they are seeking more political objectives. The underlying demand is for Dato Najib to resign.

Maybe the pro-Tun should be marching together in the tear gas and water spray than comfortably in a hall in Pasir Gudang for a talk.

Bersih kept claiming it is apolitical and a civil society movement. From the first Bersih till the 3rd, political parties play a major role with Anwar appearing late on a motorbike at the first Bersih to deliver the memorandum at the palace gate.

Bersih 4.0 could be a circus or ruckus but it be will be no different!

Typical Malay NGO

Now to another circus act. In a past posting two weeks ago here, we wrote about Malay NGOs who does nothing but talk and demand.

Most NGOs are basically platform for have been or wannabee politicians. Politics is necessary and part and parcel of activism, so some NGOs position themselves as pressure group.

If the view and stance taken are well thought out and sincere, it is fine.

The problem is most such NGO are not independent and in-depth in their position on issues. It is skewed to serve the interest of certain partisanship or political faction or even individual agenda.

The charactertistic of such NGO is to hold seminar and discussion regularly.

Typical in all these NGOs is to hold frequent and regular seminars, forums, and all sort of "majlis ilmu" (knowledge events), they say.

Come event time, the attendance by members itself could not fill up the halls. So they invite other NGOs and seminar groupies to attend. For the opening and only important agenda, university students are invited or forced to come to fill up the halls.

Sometimes it is not the numbers that matter but the quality. Even that is suspect. The events are pre-empted with their already drawn up resolution irrespective of the discussion. Obviously not much in-depth discussion since it is merely brief presentation by paper writers and the moderators kept giving the excuse "masa tak cukup".

Typically, these well written resolutions are mostly about "mendesak", "menuntut" and "mencadang" on "kerajaan" to do this and that.

Lately, it is heard one of the NGO the posting was meant for got a contract. What contract, under what company, for what is not known and how in heavens could an NGO get a contract, beats me. That is that.

So no blame of racism for ridiculing Bersih 4.0.

Khairuddin's 1MDB wayang

Singapore's Online Citizen in our bloglist reported of Dato Khairuddin Hasan making a police report against 1MDB in Singapore.

Why need to make one when Singapore authorities made a statement many weeks ago that the bank accounts linked to 1MDB were frozen for investigation?

After Arul Kanda appeared on TV, this yoko re-appeared in Switzerland to make a report to the Attorney General Office there to investigate 1MDB. It seemed there was documents provided.

It is quite understandable for them to investigate Swiss Banks operations. On what jurisdiction do the Switzerland authorities have to investigate a Malaysian-based company, 1MDB?

Khairuddin was one the first person to grab the public attention when he came forward to make a police report against 1MDB in Penang.

It seemed he made a police report in France. The latest Sarawak Report posting (they e-mail those in their mailing list these days) is working hard to explain the rational for the police report made in France.

Hopefully there is no wayang coming up like that by SUARAM on Scorpene. They claimed Najib is already to be put on the stand on a trail but in turned out it is just a court for investigation.

Na ... it is still a wayang to gain attention.

Demanding proofs

In Tun M's latest blog posting, he still believed that the RM2.6 billion "donation" is linked to 1MDB. It was reported that he demanded Dato Ahmad Zahid Hamidi to prove his claim that he has met the "Arab" donor.

For that matter, everyone should prove their allegations i.e. show proof and not just making opinions.

One thing for sure is that The Edge, SR, and other copy cats often make their claims of link between the supposed "donation" and 1MDB using the following diagram:

Click image for a clearer view

Jho Loh is said to be responsible to flow the US$700 million money back Najib's account.

The diagram claimed Good Star Limited belongs to Jho Loh, thus it is the so-called proof that Jho Loh had rechanneled the money into Najib's Private Banking personal account at Ambank. In the diagram that money flow is drawn in green line.

The claim on Good Star is based on a leaked e-mail in which some part had been conveniently omitted out by SR. Every publication used SR as source. But, Good Star is DOES NOT belong to Jho Loh but a SUBSIDARY of Petrosaudi.

Maybe Tun M has other proofs. He must begin to share his proofs as much as he demanded proof on Zahid. Everyone making any allegations must be replied with a "Proof it!" demand.

Quite sure a commentator whose not read this blog's past posting should be delighted with this repetition.

Petrosaudi could be a bad investment decision and maybe there is truth that the Turkmenistan oil field is a conjob. The fact is 1MDB got their money back and with some profit.

There could be bad decisions, issues of corporate governance, bad management of financial affair, and other possible mismanagement issues but to accuse of the crime of swindling money, one has to prove it.

The burden of proof is on toi.

So far, Tun M has not proven that RM42 billion had disappeared from 1MDB. Arul highlighted 13 factual errors made in his allegations.

So for Saturday, he should share his proofs on all his past allegations rather than making new ones. It is time the public demand for proofs on everyone making any allegations.

There are those that build their opinions purely by blindly trusting what Tun M and another statesman said without bothering to study the facts, look into the details, and understand the financials.

And without any shame, these clowns made public statements to give opinions and offered suggestions. That is why the country is looking like a circus these days.

Rationality is a scarce commodity and every other person is spinning endlessly in the social media according to their suspicion and preferences.

Every other things are not making sense.

The latest act is a lawsuit by UMNO as filed by a member against the President but the Executive Secretary's name is mentioned.

That could be tantamount to suing the party. Doesn't the party constitution means automatic expulsion?

She said something about a Sinetron.

Shabery escaped #sj's steamy as "nasi kangkang" overture

Hari Raya buzz

Tun M-Najib's Peloponnesian War

Nasi Lemak & Kopi O comment on new cabinet

Of fake charge sheet, leaked video, and political funding

Correcting misinformation to reduce trust deficit

Sky may have fell on Sofia Jane BUT ...

Netizens' moving goal post and peril of ignoring

MUSICAL INTERLUDE: I can't let go

Sack him you could but not disgrace him

1MDB on course to reduce debt to manageable level

Indecision and overkill of MACC

Anyone claiming to be currency experts are bullshiting!

What to expect this week?

A Malay NGO rethink it's direction

Arul vs Tony Pua: What is the limit to transparency?

Understanding power

It's time Indians return to revive MIC

RPK's call for vote of no confidence getting support ...

BERSIH 4.0, typical Malay NGO and other circus acts