Archive for the ‘Reports’ Category
Monday, March 16th, 2009 4,346 views
Bala sida blogger baka cheremin, pia ku Masing
KUCHING: Penulis blog baka cheremin, ku Presiden Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) Dato Sri Dr James Masing.
Iya madah cheremin sigi beguna mantu siku-siku orang ngemanahka raban politik ke deka nyadi ketuai ngiring orang mayuh.
“Anang mechahka cheremin enti kitai meda diri enda sigat…tu pengawa ke salah.
“Blog tu baka cheremin kena kitai meda gamal kitai empu (nyadi raban politik enggau ketuai orang mayuh) anang enda beratika utai kritik orang,” ku iya madah ngagai pengarang berita udah abis aum Barisan Nasional (BN) ditu, kemari.
Masing ke mega Menteri Pemansang Tanah madah, iya nerima jaku kritik ke ngemansang enggau ke betul pasal iya empu.
Orang ke nyadi penulis blog enggau penyakal mansutka jaku lebuh ngasaika bisi utai enda kena ba orang nya.
Iya ke ditanya pasal sentimen sida ke nyadi penulis blog ke mayuh agi ngarika penyakal madah, bisi sekeda penulis blog mantaika runding ke manah.
“Bisi mega ngasuh bansa Dayak beserakup. Tang pekara ke beguna sida iya patut beratika pekara ke disebut sida iya,” ku iya.
The translation for the article above in English is attached below.
Bloggers only make noise, says Masing
By Samuel Aubrey
KUCHING: Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) president Dato Sri Dr James Masing says the emergence of many pro-opposition Dayak bloggers is not a true representation of the feeling of the majority of the Dayak community.
He said the blogs, most of which were in support of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), were only confined to bloggers with an anti-establishment sentiment.
“These bloggers tend to make a lot of noise, but I do not believe they represent the majority. Just because they are bloggers they make a lot of noise and incite the people.
“Yet, the majority of people in Sarawak are not inclined towards that kind of thinking. The community in general are more rational in their thinking,” he said.
Masing, who earlier attended the State BN supreme council meeting here, was asked by reporters the impact of blogs on the Batang Ai by-election.
Though the blogs might not side BN, he said he was not all against criticisms made by the bloggers against BN. He said some of the criticisms allowed BN to see its faults and shortcomings.
“Bloggers who are against BN are like mirror. You do not ignore the image you see in the mirror. If there is a pimple, cure it. If there is something wrong, erase it. Do not break the mirror if you do not like what you see. You’ve got to be positive,” he said.
He nonetheless expressed his disappointment with criticisms, which tend to be vindictive rather than contributing towards the development of the community.
Some bloggers, he added, must also ‘walk the talk’ rather than just making criticisms.
“I welcome positive criticism. If ignored, human civilisation will never move forward, that’s what I always think.
“But (to the bloggers), don’t criticise for the sake of criticising. That is being vindictive, and it gives a poor impression of the critic himself,” he said.
Notice how the title differs from the above one, totally changing the context of Masing’s speech? Even the way of the article is being presented is different. The 1st article refers to the comment by James Masing, welcoming positive criticisms by bloggers, especially against politicians as they are the leaders who are elected to lead and represent people’s interest and the word used is ‘nyadi raban politik enggau ketuai orang mayuh. (politicians and leaders of the community).
(more…)
Posted in Blogosphere, Current Affairs, Mainstream Media, Malaysia, News, Personalities, Politics, Reports, Sarawak | 42 Comments »
Friday, July 18th, 2008 1,042 views
Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) – The national oil company, which posted revenue growth of 40.9% The national oil company, which posted revenue growth of 14.9% with profits of US$18.1 billion is ranked the world’s 8th most profitable company in the recently published ranking by Fortune magazine. 
Top 10 most profitable companies- 2008 ranking (click to see larger image) (source: here)
Petronas is ranked among the big guns in the world namely – Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell, BP, HSBC, J.P Morgan, General Electric and so on. As you can see, the top 10 most profitable companies are dominated by oil operators – lead by Exxon Mobil (again) in first, followed by 5 others – Royal Dutch Shell, BP, Chevron, Total and Petronas. Notice that Petronas posted the highest profit growth of 40.9% among the top ten most profitable companies.
Most profitable companies – 2007 ranking (click to see larger image) (source: here)
Petronas also moved up ten places from the previous 18th place and now is standing proud as Asia’s most profitable company. Petronas is the only Malaysian company in the list of Fortune Global 500 list. Under the petroleum refining industry, ExxonMobil took the top spot in terms of profits (US$40.6bil) followed by Royal Dutch Shell in second place (US$31.3bil) and BP (US$20.8bil) third.
Petroleum refinining industry companies ranking by revenues, profits. (Click to see larger image) source: here)
Malaysia’s Petronas is ranked 16th in terms of revenue but in terms of profits, it is ranked 5th, just behind Chevron. With the achievement, Petronas beats the likes of Toyota, Bank of America, Microsoft, Vodafone, Wal-Mart, Nokia, Barclays, Goldman Sachs and a host of other industry leaders.
Posted in Articles, Current Affairs, Malaysia, News, Petronas, Reports, Serious, Statistics | No Comments »
Thursday, June 26th, 2008 667 views
Malaysians are suffering not from the increase of oil price, but from the corruption, mismanagement and wastage by the government. We are paying a very high price for this, partly due to our ‘tidak apa’ attitude and indifference to the issues happening around us. For most Malaysians, ignorance is a bliss. They always have their ‘priorities’ and only when reality bites, they start to make noise.
Ever wonder why this country which is full or resources, geographically strategic, blessed with good weather, nice, smart, talented people and stability would end up like this? We have everything – petroleum, palm oil, rubber, timber, land, water, you name it… but yet we are poor ??
Looking at the list below, it looks like the BN government is more determined to help themselves rather than the citizens.
And this list below is hardly exhaustive as these are the ones uncovered so far – the tip of the ice-berg, if you will! What lies beneath could be much larger :-
1. The Bank Bumiputra twin scandals in the early 1980s saw US$1 billion (RM3.2 billion in 2008 ringgit) wasted;
2. The Maminco attempt to corner the world tin market in the 1980s is believed to have cost some US$500 million (RM1.6 billion);
3. Betting in foreign exchange futures cost Bank Negara Malaysia RM30 billion in the 1990s;
4. Perwaja Steel resulted in losses of US$800 million (RM2.56 billion). (Eric Chia was charged with corruption for allegedly steering US$20 million (RM64 million) to a Hong Kong-based company.);
5. Use of RM10 billion public funds in the Valuecap Sdn. Bhd. operation to shore up the stock market;
6. Banking scandal of RM700 million losses in Bank Islam;
7. The sale of M.V. Agusta by Proton for one Euro making a loss of €75.99 million (RM 348 million);
8. Wang Ehsan from oil royalty in Terengganu amounting to RM7.4 billion from 2004 – 2007;
9. For the past 10 years since the Philharmonic Orchestra was established, this orchestra has swallowed a total of RM500 million;
10. In Advisors Fees, Mahathir was paid RM180,000; Shahrizat Abdul Jalil (Women and Social Development Affairs) RM404,726; and Abdul Hamid Othman (Religious Affairs) RM549,675 per annum;
11. The government has spent a total of RM3.2 billion in teaching Maths and Science in English over the past five years. Out of the amount, the government paid a whopping RM2.21 billion for the purchase of information and computer technology (ICT) equipment of which the breakdown of costs is unknown;
12. The commission paid for the purchase of jets and submarines to two private companies, Perimeker Sdn Bhd and IMT Defence Sdn Bhd amounted to RM910 million;
13. RM300 million to compensate Gerbang Perdana for the RM1.1 billion “Crooked Scenic Half-Bridge”;
14. RM1.3 billion has been wasted building the white elephant Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) facilities on cancellation of the Malaysia-Singapore scenic bridge;
15. RM100 million spent on the Parliament building for renovations and to patch up leaks;
16. National Astronaut Programme – RM 40 million;
17. National Service Training Programme – yearly an estimate of RM 500 million;
18. Eye on Malaysia – RM30 million and another RM5.7 million of free tickets;
19. RM4.63 billion ’soft-loan’ to PKFZ;
20. RM2.4 million on indelible ink;
21. Samy announced in September 2006 that the government paid compensation amounting to RM38.5 billion to 20 highway companies. A RM380 million windfall for 9 toll concessionaires earned solely from the toll hikes in 2008 alone;
22. RM32 million timber export kickbacks involving companies connected to the Sarawak Chief Minister and his family;
Bailouts –
23. Two bailouts of Malaysia Airline System at RM7.9 billion. At a time when MAS incurred losses every year, RM1.55 million was used to buy three paintings to decorate its chairman’s (Munir) office;
24. Putra transport system bailout which cost RM4.486 billion;
25. STAR – LRT bailout costing RM3.256 billion;
26. National Sewerage System bailout costing RM192.54 million;
27. Seremban – Port Dickson Highway bailout costing RM142 million;
28. Kuching Prison bailout costing RM135 million;
29. Kajian Makanan dan Gunaan Orang Islam bailout costing RM8.3 million;
30. Le Tour de Langkawi bailout costing RM3.5 Million ;
31. Wholesale distribution of tens of millions of shares in Bursa Malaysia under the guise of NEP to cronies, children and relatives of BN leaders and Ministers worth billions of ringgits;
32. APs scandal that has been going on year-after-year going back for more than three decades, involving a mind-boggling sum of tens of billions of ringgit;
33. Alienation of tens of thousands of hectares of commercial land and forestry concessions to children and relatives of BN leaders and Ministers worth tens of billions of ringgit;
34. Travel around Malaysia and see for yourself how many white elephants like majestic arches, roads paved with fanciful bricks, designer lamp posts, clock towers, Municipal Council buildings that look more like Istanas, extravagant places of worship, refurbishment of residences of VIPs, abandoned or under-utilized government sports complexes and buildings, etc! Combined they could easily amount to hundreds of billions of ringgit!
35. Since 1997, Petronas has handed out a staggering RM30 billion in natural gas subsidies to IPPs who were making huge profits. In addition, there was much wastage and forward trading of Petronas oil in the 1990s based on the low price of oil then. Since the accounts of Petronas are for the eyes of the Prime Minister only, we have absolutely no idea what the amount is.
Whatever amount it is, you can bet it is COLLOSSAL! In the Time Asia magazine issue on March 15 2004, a South East Asian economist at Morgan Stanley in Singapore, Daniel Lian, figures “that the country may have lost as much as U$$100 billion (RM320 billion) since the early 1980s to corruption.” Mind you, this is only corruption and it does not include wastages and mismanagement which would increase the amount!
If the above list (which could have been money saved) is added to the nation’s coffers and together with Petronas’ profits; palm oil profits; and profits from rubber, tin, agriculture produce, aquaculture produce, electronic and hardware exports etc, for the past 5 decades, we can all agree on one thing – our country would be wealthier than Venezuela who has little resources except for oil. The petrol in Venezuela is RM0.16 per litre!
(Source: http://www.malaysiawaves.com/2008/06/summary-of-bns-wastages-that-rakyat.html)
So farked up!
Posted in BN-ism, Blogosphere, Boleh-ism, Bolehland, Current Affairs, Reports, Serious, Social Issues | 8 Comments »
Tuesday, June 24th, 2008 482 views
I translated a great piece of essay by Kickdefella on “The Truth About Fuel Subsidy” here last Thursday. In that essay, Kickdefella explained his finding how the government actually never include fuel subsidy in the government budget/expenditure and we had been blinded all this while thinking there is such allocation for it and yet we were told this country is ’suffering’ or would go bankrupt because of the fuel subsidy.
On Monday, Shahrir Samad, Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs confirmed this finding. There is NO FUEL SUBSIDY (AND FOOD TOO) in the treasury reports and also not included in the budget!!! Here is the latest post by Kickdefella.
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Update:
129 Ahli Parlimen BN menghalalkan tindakan menderitakan rakyat kesan dari kenaikan harga bahan bakar.
78 Ahli Parlimen Pembangkang menentang.
Ahli-Ahli Parlimen PAS berpandangan Petronas bersalah, harus disalahkan dan harus dihukum kerana kenaikan harga runcit bahan bakar tempatan.
Ahli Parlimen PAS Shah Alam menuduh rakyat yang memberi subsidi kepada Petronas. dengan erti kata lain, gaji perkerja petronas pun rakyat yang bayar.
Tak tahu apa lagi nak kata.
It is true; fuel subsidy was never in the government budget. It is not just that, even the food subsidy was also never in the budget. As a result, it is an expenditure ‘unaccounted for’ or, an expenditure that never being paid by the government. As a result, fuel and (today we knew that) food subsidy too are not something that government had to pay for from either taxpayer money or from any other government income.
In page 8 in today (Monday, June 23, 2008) New Straits Times, Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister, Shahrir Abdul Samad was reported as saying, “…last year the subsidy bill, excluding food and fuel was RM9.2 B”.
With that Shahrir confirmed Kickdefella’s finding that fuel subsidy (and food too) is not in the treasury reports and also not included in the budget.
Shahrir however contradict himself when he points out that, “Add food and fuel and it (the subsidy spent) came to over RM30 B”.
There seems Shahrir himself is getting dumber and dumber each day.
• How can government spent RM30B extra without reporting it to Parliament.
• How can government used extra RM30B and it goes unrecorded in the Treasury records.
• Why did the government did not reveal the real amount she spend or planning to spend it in the budget when they presented it to the Parliament each year.
• The Second Finance Minister, Nor Yakcob claimed the government spent RM35B alone for fuel subsidy but Shahrir claimed RM30B and that already included food subsidy too.
• What is the actual amount the government spent on subsidy?
• Is there other subsidy too that the government spent such as “Subsidy for Abdullah’s daily usage of diapers” or “Rosmah’s C4 allocation” which goes unrecorded?
• Do the government actually spend money for subsidy?
My fellow Malaysian, does the government actually spend money on subsidy?
My findings show that the amount of subsidy which government claimed totalling from RM30B to RM50B depending on whose big mouth you want to believe is not recorded anywhere. If the government actually spend those amounts, it should be listed in their reports.
Whose money does the government actually spend?
My findings lead us to only one outcome in regards of the fuel subsidy. The ‘subsidy’ actually came from the exchange of crude oil by Petronas. And as nobody shoots me down on this, I tend to say that I am almost correct about it. Maybe 99% correct and if I was wrong, it is only on the details of the exchange.
This will mean,
• Whenever the crude oil price increase, our crude oil price too increase.
• Let put it this way, X is the market price for crude oil that we import.
• Y is the market price for crude oil that we export. The reason our price is Y because ours are Sweet and Light and it is called the ‘Tapis Blend’ which is the most expensive grade in the market.
When the price in the market increase, it will mean that,
• X prices increase.
• Y prices increase.
So why do we spend more money to meet local demand when the market price increase?
The answer is we do not. Yes, we do not spend extra money to get the crude oil we need for local market.
(Petronas has done a wonderful job. It is undeniably that we owe this to those hardworking yet underpaid Petronas staff.)
As a result I do not understand why certain politician from the opposition are blaming Petronas and wants to demonstrate in front of the Twin Tower. They should indeed demonstrate (if they know nothing better to do) in front of the Treasury or in front of Abdullah’s Seri Perdana.
But if I am them, I would just get my facts right and pursue the matter in more civilise manner.
• Try to take some sort of court order to try to stop the government from doing what they are doing. Don’t ask me on what ground they should do it. They are the one who is getting paid for being the ‘Wakil Rakyat’.
• Our judiciary system is much more independent now, right?
• We just paid those ‘rebel’ judges undisclosed amount as ex gratia payment so all the judges should not be worried, because if they go against the government, one day, they will get extra earnings for it.
• File police report if you trust the police.
• File report with the human rights commission because Malaysian has lost certain expect of their rights by the increase in fuel prices.
Last but not least, organise a road show all over the country and explain the truth to the people. They are best at ‘ceramah’ right?
And after that road show, lets gathered 1 million or more Malaysian to peacefully walk to Seri Perdana and all the Minister’s house and demand they reduce back the price of fuel.
I shall be there. I know my readers will be there too.
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Now may I add to the well written post by Kickdefella. I quote Mr. Shahrir Samad:
He said since the 9th Malaysia Plan was a development plan, and not about operational expenses, spending on subsidies was treated as an ad-hoc expense instead of a planned one.
“But now it will definitely become a big part of the budget in terms of government spending,” he said, adding that money was also spent to harmonise prices between East and West Malaysia.
What? You mean before this.. all this while spending on subsidies was NEVER treated as A BIG PART of the government spending?? Just as ad-hoc expense instead of a planned one? That is very very shocking! 
Let me pull out the numbers for you. I quote Foong Wai Fong (he is the director of Megatrends Asia, best-selling author of ‘Megatrends Asia’ (with John Naistbitt), ‘The New Asian Way’, ‘Mr Prime Minister We Have to Talk’, and ‘Culture Is Good Business’.) in his article “Economy in Jeopardy”:
……the fuel subsidy of RM43 billion is three times the revenue derived from personal income tax of RM13.4 billion and over 20 percent more than the forecast corporate tax of RM34.8 billion. In total, the fuel subsidy is almost 50 percent of the estimated federal government revenue of RM102 billion.
As Foong has shockingly quantified for us above, the government’s current fuel expenditure (subsidy) is RM43 billion whilst the corresponding income is only RM 13.4 billion. I am a bit too confused over the figure of fuel subsidy, at one time it is RM40B, then RM35B then RM30B thanks to the government brilliant tai-chi masters, but let me just use the least figure quoted from the horse’s mouth – RM30B. Still, this is a very big figure if you take into account of government revenue as highlighted above.
Let’s assume the estimated federal government revenue of RM102B is acceptable, this RM30B is almost 30 percent of it!!! Yet, the government is treating spending on subsidies as ad-hoc spending and not treated as a big part of the government spending?????!! Got it? To quote Foong again:
The populist approach in Malaysia is to give out candy. It is easier for bureaucrats to do this than to think out real solutions. Unlike in business, bureaucrats spend money without demanding a return, businesses ask for a return before they disburse funds.
This view is best summed up by a foreign diplomat: “Malaysia manages its economy in the political way – talking and making slogans about things, dishing out money so all are relieved, but not asking tough questions and working hard to find solutions.”
I rest my case. 
ps: Whoever comes in and writes useless comments like “Wah so long… ” you better think before you do it. 
Save it for yourself, before you need to be saved…
Posted in BN-ism, Blogosphere, Boleh-ism, Bolehland, Current Affairs, Malaysiakini, News, Reports, Serious, Social Issues | 9 Comments »
