Tunku Abdul Aziz: The Visionary of Wisdom

I read his article, "1Malaysia: Another Morning Glory?" and I liked it.I like the analogy and I liked  his hindsight views of the wherewithal of 1Malaysia. His analysis on what Najib can do with his clarion call of 1 Malaysia is spot on. We can do with more doyens like him.

Let us read and improve our mental horizon.

MAY 8 — An old English friend of mine, the late Humphrey Ball, the Malacca lawyer, once described Malaysia, his adopted country, as a morning glory — a reference to “a climbing plant with flowers shaped like trumpets that open in the morning and close in late afternoon.”

Having lived among us for so long, he was used to putting up with our little foibles, and if he was irritated by them, he kept his feelings very much to himself. Humphrey was the quintessential English gentleman.

We were having breakfast and it was a lovely morning and the city looked splendid. In between another cup of tea and a round of toast and marmalade, he surveyed the Kuala Lumpur skyline from the veranda of the Selangor Club and declared that from his experience, many of the state of the art concrete and stainless steel structures that were jostling for breathing space in the ever expanding concrete jungle of Malaysian towns and cities would go the way of all the other buildings he had seen in this country — in wreck and ruin within a few years.

“You know, Tunku, Malaysia is not unlike the morning glory,” he intoned.

Humphrey was, of course, right. We are good at building with the help of legions of exploited foreign labour. Maintenance is not part of the equation and we see this not only in the state of our buildings but also our suburban roads.

We neglect to repair a small hole as soon as it appears in the road until it becomes big enough to maim or kill a motorcyclist or damage a car. The Government, both Federal and State, is lucky that suing the authorities for negligence has not become a common feature of Malaysian life.

This is because the overwhelming majority of our people are ignorant of their rights. The time is not too far away when, as in the US and other developed countries, the authorities will be held legally accountable for their actions — in this instance, their lack of action.

Humphrey’s morning glory best describes our general attitude and approach to civic or public duty and responsibility. We undertake a government construction project with a lot of trumpeting and enthusiasm, but we seldom ever complete it successfully.

We see hundreds of such monuments to crony capitalism and entrenched, systemic corruption in every state of the nation. This is what happens when governance is driven by political rather than rational considerations. When meritocracy is on the backburner instead of in the driver’s seat, this is to be expected.
Datuk Seri Najib Razak may mean well in what he says about policy reforms, but will he be allowed the freedom to act effectively? Present indications are that he will be allowed to talk about his vision of a united and prosperous Malaysia ad infinitum.

His rival and other powerful political minders know that there is not much harm done to existing policies that benefit the party as long as they control and curtail his actions. He may not know it, but he has already caught the morning glory disease of beginning with a bang and ending with a deafening whimper.
Najib must wish he had not spent so much public money that is needed more urgently elsewhere to launch his 1 Malaysia, which looks destined for an early demise, like the morning glory of Humphrey’s evocative analogy. 1 Malaysia will forever remain a puerile offering of a confused mind that is best forgotten before the nation is subjected to further ridicule.
Please do not get me wrong. I have, all my life, promoted racial unity and integration, the acceptance instead of tolerance of cultural diversity, long before Najib even thought about these unifying elements.

But my version of 1 Malaysia is one that provides equal opportunity for all, based on the principles of justice and fair play.
My 1 Malaysia is a Malaysian Malaysia where all citizens are treated equally and discrimination in any shape or form is outlawed.
My 1 Malaysia is Middle Malaysia where extremism in economic, social, and political terms is totally expunged, and where the notion of racial supremacy is killed as soon as it rears its ugly head.

My 1 Malaysia will be free of the contradictions such as we see in our existing policies that favour a particular section of the Malaysian community to the detriment of sustainable overall development.

For the life of me I cannot see Najib delivering on my order. Can you, my fellow Malaysians? — mysinchew.com

Don't you agree that this is a gem of an article?

Indonesia:Fastest Q1 Growth

Indonesian economy probably expanded at fastest pace since 2008.

Indonesia’s  last quarter growth displayed data indicating the fastest growth ever for sometime as record-low interest rates boosted consumer spending in South East Asia’s largest economy and exports and investment recovered.

Gross domestic product grew 5.79% in the three months to March 31 from a year earlier, compared with 5.4% in the previous quarter, according to the median forecast of 20 economists in a Bloomberg News survey.

That would be the fastest pace since Sept 2008. Indonesia’s statistics bureau is due to release the data on May 10 in Jakarta.

Bank Indonesia has left its benchmark interest rate at 6.5% since August and urged lenders to expand credit That’s lifted earnings at companies including PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia.

So, this will be good for companies like Maybank and Axiata.

The Archilles Heel of Malaysian Economy

Lee Wei Lian's article in the Malaysian Insider dated today 7 May is noteworthy.

Let us read it together.

KUALA LUMPUR, May 7 — Malaysia’s surging export-led recovery masks the deeper issue of lacklustre domestic private investment, economists have said.

Despite forecasts of robust GDP growth of up to 11 per cent in the first quarter of this year, Malaysia’s private investment level is still only about half that of high income economies and one third the level of the pre-1997 Asian Financial Crisis, said Maybank Investment Bank’s chief economist Suhaimi Illias.

According to Suhaimi, the country needs to double the level of private investment, which currently stands at only about 10 per cent of GDP.

“That (20 per cent) would be consistent with the kind of ratios of high income economies,” he said.

The economist, however, believes resolving the issue of low domestic private investment would take time.

“It is not realistic to double the level of private investment in just one year.

“It is an ongoing process. You need to see local and private companies believe that they should invest in Malaysia and can make money in the country.”

He added that “throwing incentives” at private investors can only go so far and that the country needs a combination of reforms, incentives and economic restructuring.

“Throwing incentives, we’ve done that for so long and the private investment share of GDP is still languishing,” he said.

A report by Bank of America and Merrill Lynch released this week said private demand had yet to pick up amid falling government income and spending.

“Government revenues are picking up everywhere except in Malaysia and Taiwan where they are still falling,” said the report.

“Private demand has yet to show signs of taking over the growth baton from public demand.”

CIMB Investment Bank chief economist Lee Heng Guie said, however, that private investment is expected to show moderate growth this year as compared to last year.

“We expect private investment to pick up.

“Last year private investment collapsed. Given the prospect of economic recovery and better business sentiment we expect private investment to bounce back,” said Lee.

He said the country needs to re-energise the private sector by addressing cumbersome rules, rent-seeking activities and creating an environment that encourages competition and productivity.

Lee added that the New Economic Model (NEM) could help address some of the challenges faced by private investors.

AmResearch senior economist Manokaran Mottain also said the NEM would help solve the issue of private investment, which, he notes, has been dwindling.

He added that the growth of private investment could see potentially rapid growth this year as it was coming from a low base.

Manokaran said that to stimulate more private investment, the government needed to look at the ease of doing business, liberalisation of equity ownership, more attractive remuneration across the board to attract and retain talent, and more incentives given to companies to undertake research.

“We want to attract the best brains,” he said. “Private investment has to be strong and grow in double digits going forward to sustain economic growth.”

Malaysia’s March exports performed better than expected and surged 36.4 per cent year-on-year as compared with forecasts of about 22 per cent.

Economists have predicted Malaysia to grow between five and eight per cent this year due to improving external and domestic conditions.

Malaysia’s official first quarter GDP figures are expected to be released next week.

English Vocabulary Cluedo

Look at this 8 sets of words and through its form. try to guess out the meaning.

(1)

STAND
____________
I



(2)
_______

READING
______

(3)

SIDE/SIDE


(4)

FEET
FEET
FEET
FEET
FEET
FEET


(5)

NRUT


(6)

SI HE’S SIDE

(7)

OTHER/1


(8)

B lo O ok O ing K

Writing an Informal Letter-Format and Exercise

We had an exercise on how to go about writing a formal letter recently. We will now have an exercise to write an informal letter.

Let us review the format of both formal letters and informal letters again. We write informal letters to family members and friends but we write formal letters to organizations, societies, companies and clubs.

      Let us look at the format and content of a formal letter once again.

INFORMAL LETTER	FORMAL  LETTER
·     Sender’s address  on the top  right hand corner	·     Start with Sender’s name on the first line at  the top let hand corner Follow with the address of the sender
·      Date of letter directly below sender’s address	·     Draw a line across below the sender’s address ·     Write the recipient  post followed by the   address next ·     At the end of the address, on the right hand side, write the date
·         Friendly salutation,  “ Dear….“	Write the salutation-“Dear Sir/ Madam”
·         Friendly introduction	Write the title for the subject of the letter. Underline it.
·         Purpose of letter	Write purpose of the letter
·         Background information	Next is the body of the letter: Purpose should be briefly spelled out Details
·         Conclusion	·    Conclusion      ·    Giving thanks
·         Signing off- “Your loving……”	·    Signing off- “Yours faithfully/sincerely……”
·         Signature at the bottom right hand corner	·     Signature at bottom of left hand ·     Write designation below signature

Let us look at a sample of an informal letter.

Address of Sender Date	45,Jalan Kemboja 6, Taman Kaya Mewah, 733900 Petaling Jaya,    Selangor Darul Ehsan  3 May 2010
Salutation	Dear Penny,
Friendly Introduction	How have you been? I haven’t heard from you for ages since we said goodbye to each other at the Bayan Lepas International Airport last November. How are you? In the pink of health, I hope. How are your parents? I do hope you mother is doing well in her law practice.     I know this is an important year for you as you are taking the PMR examinations. Do study hard and you will get what you wish for.
Main Body: Purpose	.         I     I am writing to inform you that my family will be migrating to London in October this year.My elder brother who is a cardiologist in Manchester has completed all the documentation needed for our emigration and while we are eager to leave for this new exciting country, we are also sad to leave all our relatives and friends behind. Dad says it is for the better as education is better for me and my brother, Jerome in UK and he himself could find a job quite easily there with a renowned computer software company. I       So before I leave for London, I intend to pay you a visit soon. I am quite free during the month of August and if it is no trouble to you, I could fly in on Air Asia on any of the week-end so that we can spend some time together. We had so much fun the last time,remember?
Conclusion	II hope to receive a reply from you soon. Meanwhile do take care and send my regards to your parents and also to your sister, Sally.
Signing off	Yours sincerely,
Signature	Caithlin Jane

Now by following the format and example above, you too can do an assignment to test your skill in informal letter writing as well. 

ASSIGNMENT:

You would like to invite your good friend Corey Lee to come and stay at your house for the long school holidays after the PMR examinations. Francis is your good friend but he is no longer living in Petaling Jaya as his father was transferred to work as the Regional Manager of a Multinational company in Kulim in Kedah in February 2010. In your letter, describe what both of you could do together during the holidays if he should come and stay with you.

A Dividend Bond to Take over all Malaysian Toll Highways?

I do hope these people know what they are talking about.

A company called Asas Serba Sdn Bhd today revealed that they intend to finance a proposed RM50 billion takeover of all toll highways nationwide via the issuance of  dividend bonds through a new concession company. Is there a catch somewhere?

Company officials said shareholders could subscribe the required equity value of up to ten per cent of acquisition costs and dividend bonds would be issued with tenures based on projected cash flow statements of the existing toll concessionaires.

“The reason why we opted for dividend bonds is because we are looking at the possibility of allowing the bond holder also to share the upside of what we will gain from the whole operation of the new concession company,” said CEO Ibrahim Bidin.

“The existing lenders can also opt to stay. They may maintain whatever debt they hold against the toll road companies.”

He added that he would let the public decide if this proposed structured was attractive enough.

“We have the structure on how we’re going to finance, how we’re going to do it... let the public judge whether it is viable or not.”

“It’s a PFI (privately funded initiative). There’s no government [funding]... It’s quite straightforward.”,” he added.

Ibrahim, who was the former CEO of Plus Highways, explained that he plans to achieve the proposed 20 per cent reduction in toll rates by making concessionaires operate more efficiently and claims he can keep it frozen at that level until 2038.

“We will streamline the operation. We will make them more cost-effective in their operations,” he said.

“When you consolidate there are savings... I don’t need to have 10 departments, for example, to do the same thing.”

He added that aside from lowering costs he was also looking at options to increase non-toll revenues, which were not subject to government approval.

“We also have to increase the revenue, not only [reductions] on the cost side. We have to look at both.”
However, he declined to comment further on what these non-toll revenues were.

“I cannot tell you exactly where and how because then our ideas will not be our ideas anymore,” he said, but clarified that these revenue streams “will not be away from the business of the toll road operation”.

Ibrahim sidestepped the issue when asked to respond to DAP MP Tony Pua’s claims that Asas Serba represents a return to Mahathir-era cronyism given allegations that the company is linked to Tan Sri Halim Saad and Tun Daim Zainuddin.

“Number one, it’s not going to be owned by any individual. The shareholdings will be open to several entities,” he said.

“As I said earlier, we are talking to institutions. We don’t talk to individuals only. So it’s not [as though] one individual will own the expressway.

“And you have dividend bond holders who will dictate based on the terms and conditions of the bond. So I don’t see that return to cronyism is an issue.

“It’s not going to be Ibrahim Bidin owning the whole expressway. It’s not going to be... my highway.”

Asas Serba sent their proposal to the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Finance and Works Ministers last year but has yet to receive an official response from the government.

Khazanah managing director Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar poured cold water on sell down speculation in January when he said the state investment arm would keep Plus Highways as one of its core assets.

“The government has not said yes or no,” said Ibrahim.

Datuk Syed Amin Al-Jeffri, chairman and shareholder of Asas Serba, refused to speculate on why the government has not gotten back to them.

“I’m sure PM (Datuk Seri Najib Razak), he must have got his own timetable and how he wants to approach this,” he said.

He did, however, stress that Asas Serba could not proceed without government go-ahead as the highways were a matter of national interest.

“And naturally, when you talk of national interest, the government is the first area that you have got to clear. It is a hurdle. You must clear the hurdle.

“If the government were to tell us [this] has nothing to do with us, you go ahead and talk to operators, we will do so. But that’s not the case.”

So, what else is new with government?

China: Cash Mopping

China today raised the proportion of deposits that lenders must keep in reserve at the central bank, another step in its months-old campaign to mop up excess cash in the economy at a time when inflation is on the rise.
The People’s Bank of China said it was raising lenders’ reserve requirement ratio by 50 basis points, effective May 10, its third increase of that magnitude this year.

The move, which will drain about 300 billion yuan (RM140 billion) of cash from the banking system, is bound to fuel speculation that officials are preparing for an influx of capital in anticipation of a long-awaited decision to let the yuan resume its climb, stalled since July 2008.

However, the two increases earlier this year were not linked to any change in currency policy and many economists have stressed that the central bank needs to raise reserve requirements regularly purely to keep a cap on liquidity.

“Starting since March, quite serious price pressures have been flaring up again,” Dong Xian’an, chief economist at Industrial Securities in Shanghai, said.

“But because house prices have been falling in month-on-month terms, we think authorities will push back interest rate increases. Instead, it is very clear that the central bank prefers to use quantitative measures for its monetary controls,” he said.

Along with nudging up required reserves, which now stand at 17.0 per cent for big lenders, Beijing has ordered banks to rein in their credit issuance and the central bank has stepped up its drainage of cash via open market operations.

However, in contrast to regional neighbours such as India, Malaysia, Vietnam and Australia, China has not resorted to the blunter instrument of higher borrowing costs, not least because it harbours doubts about the solidity of the global recovery.

Underlining the technical nature of today’s move, Finance Minister Xie Xuren said just minutes after the announcement that China was committed to maintaining the “appropriately easy monetary policy” that it adopted in late 2008 when the international financial crisis was raging.

In practice, China has been gradually normalising its monetary stance after it pumped an extraordinary flood of cash into the economy last year to power it through the global slump.

In the recent words of deputy central bank governor Hu Xiaolian, the policy emphasis is now on “appropriately”, not “easy”.

As ginger as the central banks’ tightening steps have been, the impact on the stock market has been profound. The main Shanghai index has trended down in a tight range since August of last year.

The central bank announced the latest reserve ratio increase midway through a three-day holiday weekend, a move that may have been intended to help investors digest the news before Chinese markets reopen on Tuesday.

The statement, posted on the central bank’s website, www.pbc.gov.cn, came more than a week before China is scheduled to issue inflation data for April. It reported consumer inflation of 2.4 per cent in the year to March.

An official survey of the country’s manufacturing sector published yesterday pointed to surging input prices in April.

Weekly figures from the commerce ministry have also highlighted rising food prices, which in the past have been key drivers of headline inflation in China.