While former PM Mahathir was worried about nothing else but his UMNO’s lavish partying, the latest being the RM250 million NFC scandal, which is driving the party into self-destruction through internal sabotage, the opposition parties are equally worried about something else. Mahathir had left his “101 Smart Corruption for the Dummies” to his successors but none bother to read it, let alone practice it. Mahathir is really mad because his formula has gone into recycle bins. He’s not going to see UMNO “tapau” (taken-away or dies) before he’s “tapau” himself.
Nobody seems to take seriously his formula that says “If you wish to take 100 bucks from the piggy bank, you have to make sure the economic gravy train is generating at least 200 bucks or more”. Mahathir is not about to let the infamous R.A.H.M.A.N. prophecy comes to fruition, not with his remaining few years left, if you choose to believe feng-shui masters’ prediction that he may live up to the auspicious age of 88. Judging by the number of media news coverage being published – ranging from political statements to business transactions – there’re glowing finger prints that Mahathir is making a come back, for the last time.
Mahathir called for Shahrizat, the minister who is tainted with the quarter of a billion ringgit NFC scandal, to quit before being “chased out” by her party. That speaks volume when 99.99% of the recent UMNO general assembly delegates chose to zip their mouth about the scandal instead. Shahrizat can continues to play dumb and hides under PM Najib’s chair while licks deputy PM Muhyiddin’s boot but the fact that her husband’s company hijacked part of the RM250 million to purchaseluxury condos, overseas trips, plots of land, half a million ringgit Mercedes Benz CLS 350 CGI and naughty allegation of RM26,000 bra was enough to cost UMNO thousands of votes.
Mahathir also openly defended his buddy from Sarawak, Taib Mahmud, who had consistently delivered the “fixed-deposit votes” during the former PM’s 22-year-rule. It doesn’t matter thatSwitzerland-based Bruno Manser Fund said official documents show the Taib family stake in 14 Malaysian companies alone is worth US$1.46 billion. It definitely doesn’t matter that NGOs from six different countries issued a joint letter demanding that Malaysia’s authorities arrest and prosecute Mahmud Taib and 13 members of his family for massive fraud, theft, corruption, illegal appropriation of land and abuse of public office.
The reason why Mahathir is still defending the little dictator from Sarawak, despite the obvious corruption, is easily understandable. Mahathir badly needs Sarawak votes and he can count on Taib Mahmud to deliver, as long as the “peh-moh” (Taib Mahmud) is left to continue his plundering. Heck, birds of the same feather flock together so this is making Shahrizat scratching her head – why can’t she milked the RM250 million while Taib Mahmud is still milking the whole state of Sarawak to the tune of billions of ringgit? Obviously Taib is delivering the votes while Shahrizat’s costing UMNO thousands of votes.
Interestingly, Mahathir also decides who should get what in the latest Proton Holdings Berhad (KLSE: PROTON, stock-code 5304) acquisition deal, despite Khazanah being the major shareholder. Not only he made it known that DRB-Hicom, controlled by his buddy and crony Syed Mokhtar Al Bukhary, would win the bid for a controlling stake in Proton, one of his pet projects, he also said Khazanah Nasional should not sell its entire stake (currently at 42.7%) in Proton as this would trigger a mandatory general offer.
The most disturbing part was that Mahathir made it clear that he doesn’t care about others getting hurt as long as Proton is not hurt in the process of rejuvenating his pet Proton project. He talks as if he’s still the Prime Minister of the country. He doesn’t give opinions anymore but rather instructions of how things should work, to his favour. Like it or not, the trademark of Mahathirism is back and it’s written all over the wall. And the thought of Mahathir taking charge again is enough to send shivers down the opposition’s spine, particularly opposition de-facto leader Anwar Ibrahim. Let’s see when Daim Zainuddin is making his appearance, shall we?
It’s almost a certainty that Anwar will be handed a guilty verdict in the Sodomy Part 2 trial but Mahathir is not sweating about the after-effect. The unknown new batch of phantom voters would neutralize the fence-sitters who may decide to vote the opposition after Anwar’s verdict. That was why Mahathir confidently said the UMNO-led Barisan Nasional (BN) is in a good position to win the next 13th general election. As a matter of fact, if BN can survives the losses of 300,000 Malay votes in the 1999 general election, how many more Malay votes that haven’t crossed over to the opposition camp yet since Anwar’s Sodomy Part 1′s guilty verdict?
Mahathir is not going to let Anwar roaming freely just because PM Najib is dragging his feet. Mahathir will make sure UMNO-led Barisan Nasional continues to rule the country even by “un-democratic means”.And when Mahathir decides that the best defence is a good offence, it only means one thing – all hell will break loose. This indeed is worrying the opposition and whoever who thought that the coming 13th general election will see the demise of the corrupted UMNO.
To put in perspective, Mahathir doesn’t care about others getting hurt as long as UMNO is not hurt. Now, Mahathir has send the opposition back to the drawing board.
Few People realise that UiTM that takes in only Bumiputera including from Singapore!...has a current enrollment of something like 130,000 students, and it is expected to reach an enrollment of 200,000 by 2013!...
In comparison University Malaya has only an enrollment of 23,000 students, and there they are talking about ensuring that more than 60%+ are Bumiputeras in University of Malaya.
Do you know that there is a University Science Islam?...that is also producing dentists and doctors as well?? This University is different from International Islamic University, which is also producing doctors and dentists.
Do you know that UiTM has more than 1,000 PhD. holders on their staff? UiTM now takes in 200 students for medicine every year!...all Bumiputeras of course! Selayang and Sg. Buloh Hospitals have become their teaching hospitals.
If you go to the PNB website and read the Annual report of Amanah Saham Bumiputera you will realise that that fund alone has about 80+ billion....and compare that with Public Mutual a subsidiary of Public Bank, the Largest Mutual Fund in this Country, which runs some 35 Funds or so with a total value of only less than 30 billion!
Although they say that there is cap of 200,000 units in ASB...Please read the Annual Report, carefully, and you will realise that there are several thousand Bumiputeras having an Average of about One Million Units in that Fund...Tax Free, Paying anything from 8+ to 11+ % per year!...and we are only talking about that one Fund!...ASNB manages Funds to the Total Value of about 130+ billion Educate yourself
All Older Malaysians have much to be accountable for what Malaysia is today…
Tolerances had been abused, and patience had been taken for granted… We are now what we had been—–By doing nothing. Right then, that is how we had ended up to what it is today!! If we choose to remain as what we had done, then we can expect nothing more than what we already had today!!
1Malay or 1Malaysia?
Malay, Chinese and Indian are all Malaysian brothers and sisters. But BN has screwed Malaysians and Malaysia up.
Malay 1st…. Malaysian 2nd
When a Malay, a Chinese and an Indian, all Malaysians, apply for:-
1) Scholarships, Malays will get it first irrespective of how bright other Malaysians are.
2) Entry to the local universities and best courses such medicine, dentistry, law; Malays will get it first irrespective of quality. Residential hostels, Matriculation courses, MARA Uni, Malays will get 90% to 100%. (By the way, matriculation exams are internally set by their own lecturers – about thousands of straight A students in Matriculation compared to the straight A’s in STPM which are few. This is “Malay meritocracy vs Malaysian meritocracy”!)
3) Social Welfare, Malays will get it first irrespective of how poor the Malaysian rakyat is and the Malays demand that it is their right, that the govt owe them!!!.Malay 1st.
4) Business Contracts, all GLCs Malays MUST get it first irrespective of who can offer the best value, quality and unblemished track record. Even when blacklisted, Malay associations have the right to complain because the rakyat owes them a living.
5) Sharing of wealth and equity, IPOs, ASB, Malays will get it first. Even with ASB for Malays give higher returns and principal guaranteed capped at RM200K instead of other bonds for Malaysians with lower yield capped at RM50K. This is ongoing. Why Malays cannot reach 30% equities? Statistics are manipulated so that valuation of shares are based on par value (Imagine valuing CIMB, Maybank, Sime Darby etc at par value of RM1.00 instead of market value of RM12 etc. Malaysians must accept these assumptions or make sure this is hidden or else priviledges are gone..!! )
6) Low cost houses, lands, houses even bungalows , Malays will get it first because they are the supreme race and the rest of Malaysians are immigrants. Quotas for Malays are 30% to 50% with steep discounts to be subsidized by the rest of the Malaysians.
7) Important Senior management jobs, CEO positions in government linked companies, Malays will get it first irrespective of the best qualified and most capable Malaysian candidates.
8) Government linked positions, civil positions, nurses and teachers training, Malay will get them first irrespective whether they are qualified.
9) Religious land for worship or terms of God , Malays own it and the rest must obey.
10) Demonstrations, freedom of expressions, racial blurs, Malays can have their say, others under ISA …
Now you know why it is Malay 1st, Malaysian 2nd Education, welfare, economic, business policies are to benefit Malay first then Malaysian 2nd. The rest of the rakyat, who works hard, contribute to nation building will continue to be Malaysians 2nd. So it is not so difficult to understand if a Malay Indonesian Badminton player is playing against a Chinese or Indian Malaysian, those who subscribe Malay 1st, Malaysians 2nd will cheer for the Malay badminton player.
When there is a citizenship application of a Malay Indonesian and a qualified non Malay, the Malay Indonesian will get it irrespective of merits.
That is why we have Malay is 1st class other Malaysians 2nd class. This is the only country that has racism and special rights enshrined in its Constitution because Malay is supreme. So if you have the opportunity to migrate to be treated fairly and justly, why stay? Malaysians 2nd means you will always be an immigrant. Why become an immigrant with 2nd class rights when other countries are willing to give you equal rights.
It’s been 50 years since a U.S. Secretary of State stepped foot in Myanmar, now shattered and isolated after decades of military rule. Hillary Clinton’s upcoming visit to the country, which was formerly known as Burma, is something many never expected to see especially after years of paranoid authoritarianism and Soviet-style economic management under military junta. However one can only do so much under international isolation and finally the new president, U Thein Sein, a former general, admitted he needs international legitimacy and recognition.
Surely the new president has to agree to a democratization process, though it could come at a snail-pace speed, and Clinton’s visit is all about that – to see and hear the commitment from the military government. But Myanmar, seen as a pariah-state by the West, immediately attracted comparison with another country, Malaysia, for the wrong reason. Suddenly, Malaysia, under Najib Razak administration, become the laughing stock because its citizens now have less freedom compared to Myanmar, thanks to the recently rushed Peaceful Assembly Law.
Mahathir Mohamad, former premier who ruled with iron-fist, immediately voiced his support for the controversial law, as expected. However there’re other interesting yet mind-boggling opinions from Mahathir that you should pay attention. In fact, this is good news to the opposition and to a certain extent, Najib’s camp. Mahathir, together with his 3M members are actually panic. Mahathir is a master in mind games and he likes to play reverse psychology with his enemies. He claimed he was confident Arab Spring, in referring to Middle East style revolts, was unlikely to spread to Malaysia – but in actual fact he was deadly worriedthat such uprising could happen anytime.
If it’s easier for the world to end in 2012 than for such revolts to happen in Malaysia, why on earth would the old man waste his time and breath on such minor topic? He knew it could happen, what more with the blatant super-corruption scandals, one after another being exposed with very little interest from the government to combat it. The latest RM250 million NFC Cowgate scandal was awarded to Shahrizat’s family, led by her husband and three children, all of whom know nuts about cattle-rearing except eating beef-satay. It’s amusing that Shahrizat shamelessly, proudly and arrogantly declare that her family deserves it because they were hard-working.
There’s no doubt that Mahathir started the engine of corruption but he has definitely underestimate how the corruption spread like wildfire since he left office. Worse still, almost 99.99% of UMNO members think there’s nothing wrong with the RM250 million scandal which saw the taxpayers money were used instead to purchase luxury condo, overseas trips, plots of land, half a million ringgit Mercedes Benz CLS 350 CGI and whatnot. Envy of Shahrizat’s new found fortune, the delegates from UMNO Wanita openly urged Najib administration to allocate (more like giveaway) projects to the women wing as well.
And this is sending shivers down Mahathir’s spine simply because it confirms the next problem – internal sabotage. Corruption, giveaway projects, easy money otherwise no votes, inflated contractors have become Mahathir’s (new) UMNO’s new nightmare. Heck, the whole system has become so polluted and messy that AirAsia Berhad’s (KLSE: AIRASIA, stock-code 5099) boss, Tony Fernandes, has declares war with “Say No to Airport Tax Increase” campaign today against government-linked company, MAHB, simply because Malaysia Airports wants to get easy revenue instead of being innovative and efficient.
The joke going around – do you know how “well-fed” UMNO delegates who blindly threw their support to their leaders are? Well, look at how obese they are, of course. While the average-Joes are struggling with escalating cost of living, UMNO leaders are munching away the nation’s fortune, at an alarming speed. Hence, the plan to fill only “winnable” candidates in the next general election is tantamount to invite internal sabotage and back-stabbing since all the (“un-winnable”) warlords have been practically milking riches doing nothing.
That was the reason Mahathir was not in favour of Najib’s winnable-candidates-only strategy.
Shahrizat’s Cowgate scandal was a good example why winnable-candidate strategy won’t work. The scandal is also a good litmus test to see how serious Najib was with the plan because obviously Shahrizat is not a winnable candidate. But Najib can’t boot Shahrizat out of the list because she’s the leader of the women wing, not to mention she a very close ally of Muhyiddin, the deputy PM and PM wannabe. Muhyiddin has openly defended Shahrizat in the Cowgate scandal and that speaks volume and the reason why warlord Shahrizat was so arrogant and cocky.
Najib is expected to call a snap election early 2012, probably after the Chinese New Year. That was the reason 28-year-old Nazifuddin, Najib’s son, resigned in lightning speed as director of Harvest Court Industries Berhad after his controversial appointment. Mahathir has every reason to worry since the opposition is expected to play to the fullest UMNO’s scandals – Shahrizat’s RM250 million Cowgate, Auntie Rosy’s RM24 million diamond ring and the latest naughty jokes of Shahrizat’s RM26,000 bra (*grin*).
This also means the government can kiss the Chinese votes goodbye.
Mahathir also tried to joke that smarter voters are giving the present government headaches especially with the advancement in information technology, not to mention the popular social networking. You can bet that he was relieved in a way that such technology did not flourish during his 22-year-rule. Indirectly he hinted he was lucky to have stupid or fools who voted and worship him as if he was the Egyptian’s Greatest Pharaoh. But that doesn’t hide his worry that UMNO may not be able to win a comfortable victory in the coming 13th general election even with the tens of thousands of cheating illegal workers’ votes behind them.
Mahathir can’t do much about the young voters who worship internet and despise government controlled media. The government cannot brainwash the Facebook and Twitter generation and this is worrying Mahathir. You can’t fool that the RM1.8 million spent on Facebook was a freaking good idea. From the global support for the previous Bersih 2.0, Mahathir knows the Middle East style uprising is real and could explode anytime if the right ingredients are put in place. And that was why the Peaceful Assembly Law was rushed before the general election. Mahathir is praying hard there won’t be any hung Parliament – it could spark the peoples’ revolt if Najib administration blatantly bulldoze against the result and claim the government, never mind without international legitimacy and recognition.
Yes, Najib’s administration will most likely win the next general election but Mahathir is deadly worry about the result of the election as well. If Najib win too big, Mahathir-Muhyiddin’s plan to unseat Najib would be affected. If the status quo remains, there’s a possibility of the opposition taking over the government. Anwar has learnt the lesson from his previous Sept 16 takeover plan, and he’s not going to repeat his mistake twice. He’s well prepared for the eventuality of a hung parliament. In actual fact, as we speak, Anwar has pretty much secured a latest list of possible frogs from Najib’s administration. In order to form the next government, these frogs would get whatever they demand to jump over to Anwar’s camp.
Nevertheless between the two, Muhyiddin is more desperate than Mahathir and this can be seen by how the deputy PM played the Malay sentiments to the tip of mount Everest, using DAP as the punching bag. Poor DAP was accused of being anti-Malay, anti-Islam, insults civil servants, disrespect royal institution, wanted to turn Malaysia into a republic and whatnot. Heck, if possible Muhyiddin would like to even accuse DAP of having a role in Andy Lau’s wife, Carol Chu’s pregnancy. This is understandable because Muhyiddin is the next in line to become the Prime Minister.
Next year, 2012, will indeed be an extraordinary year. Times will tell if Najib’s latest formula of “extraordinary work to get extraordinary victory” will work or not. It could turn out to be an extraordinary defeat or victory for either the present government or the hungry opposition. It could also trigger an extraordinary uprising due to extraordinary cheating by Najib’s administration. It could also bring about an extraordinary internal sabotage within UMNO that even the opposition couldn’t believe it themselves. But for Shahrizat, she has already made his extraordinary moolah and enjoys her extraordinary luxury condo, extraordinary huge plots of land, extraordinary comfortable Mercedes Benz and extraordinary piece of bra.
KUCHING: There are only13,882 Ibans and7,108 Bidayuhsin the Federal departments and ministries out of601,862 Malaysand57,578 Chinese. These figures were released by the Prime Minister Department in reply to a question raised by the MP for Bandar Kuching Chong Chieng Jen.
During the recent sitting of Parliament, Chong had asked the Prime Minister to give the total number of civil servants in all the ministries and the racial breakdown of Malays, Chinese, Iban and Bidayuh up to 31 March 2011.
“Based on the reply given to my question in Parliament there is a big discrepancy between the Malays and Chinese, Iban and Bidayuh civil servants,”he said.
Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak should improve the racial composition of the civil service if he is really serious about implementing 1Malaysia concept.
“He has been shouting about the concept for the past two years, and yet the racial composition between the Malays and Chinese in government departments has not improved,”said Chong who is Sarawak DASP Secretary and state assemblyman for Kota Sentosa.
Quoting the reply, Chong who is the MP for Bandar Kuching said:“In the Prime Minister Department, there are about 31,297 Malays to 797 Chinese or 39.27:1. This is about two percent.
“And there are only 412 Ibans and 279 Bidayuhs in the PM department.
“The worst is in the Rural and Regional Development Ministry where there are 2,442 Malays to 18 Chinese or 135.67:1 or less than one percent of the Chinese, and 26 Ibans and 18 Bidayuhs,” he said.
Among the ministries mentioned by Chong included the following:
~ Ministry of Youth and Sports2,980 Malays to 32 Chinese, 27 Ibans and 21 Bidayuhs;
~ Ministry of Home Affairs40,263 (Malays) to 614 (Chinese), 823 (Iban) and 476 (Bidayuh);
~ Ministry of Works6,221 (Malays) to 156 (Chinese), 21(Iban), and 9(Bidayuh);
~ Ministry of Health130,106 (Malays) to 9,500 (Chinese), 3,657(Iban) and 1,894 (Bidayuh);
~ Ministry of Finance15,835 (Malays) to 508 (Chinese), 247 (Iban) and 155 (Bidayuh);
~ Ministry of Foreign Affairs1,215 (Malays) to 53 (Chinese), 7 (Iban) and 6 (Bidayuh);
~ Ministry of Education273,791(Malays) to 43,669 (Chinese), 7,379 (Iban) and 3,434 (Bidayuh);
~ Ministry of Tourism455 (Malays) to 19 (Chinese), 6 (Iban) and 6 (Bidayuh);
~ Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development5,461 (Malays) to 75 (Chinese), 75 (Iban) and 42(Bidayuh);
~ Ministry of Information, Communication and Culture8,839 (Malays) to 402 (Chinese), 231 (Iban) and 134 (Bidayuh);
~ Ministry of Higher Education15,012 (Malays) to 334 (Chinese), 84(Iban) and 54 (Bidayuh);
~ Ministry of Transport9,028 (Malays) to 205 (Chinese), 198(Iban) and 168 (Bidayuh);
~ Ministry of Defence12,078 (Malays) to 113 (Chinese), 123 (Iban) and 76 (Bidayuh);
~ Ministry of Housing and Local Government11,363 (Malays) to 173 (Chinese), 201 (Iban) and 88 (Bidayuh);
~ Ministry of International Trade and Industry785(Malays) to 29 (Chinese), 7(Iban) and 4(Bidayuh);
~ Ministry of Domestic Trade, and Consumer Affairs2,645 (Malays) to 47 (Chinese), 43 (Iban) and 23 (Bidayuh);
~ Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry8,826 (Malays) to 206 (Chinese), 54 (Iban) and 45(Bidayuh);
~ Ministry of Entrepreneur and Commodity195 (Malays) to 5 (Chinese), 0 (Iban) and 0 (Bidayuh);
~ Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation3,596 (Malays) to 240 (Chinese), 48 (Iban) and 48(Bidayuh);
~ Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment11,849 (Malays) to 227(Chinese), 108(Iban) and 67(Bidayuh);
~ Ministry of Human Resources6,457 (Malays) to 129(Chinese), 98 (Iban) and 60 (Bidayuh);
~ Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water553 (Malays) to 19(Chinese), 5(Iban) and 0(Bidayuh);
~ Ministry of Federal Territory570 (Malays) to 8 (Chinese), 2(Iban) and 1(Bidayuh).
Total 601,862 (Malays) to 57,578 (Chinese), 13,882(Ibans) and 7,108(Bidayuh). Pointing out that these are some of the examples, Chong said:“This clearly shows such unbalanced racial composition in the various government departments and ministries.
“It also clearly shows Najib’s1Malaysia slogan is a mere slogan. There is no concrete policy to implement the concept,”he said, adding that he had been shouting about it for the last two years.
He said:“There is no improvement in the racial composition based on the racial breakdown in the government departments. Even in his department it is worse than the average.
“It shows that Najib is not the prime minister for all, but the prime minister for one single race,”Chong said.
It should be interesting to know how many Ibans and Bidayuhs in the State Civil Service. Can any Dayak state assemblyman ask such a question?
With less than 100 hours (Aug 2) before the world’s largest economic powerhouse, United States of America, is set to default on its debt obligations or otherwise, the global stock markets are trembling with fear. It’s very unlikely but should it happens, the U.S. economy may tumble by 5% and the stock market may drop by 30%, according to Credit Suisse. But even if U.S. lawmakers strike a deal to raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling on time, the U.S. government would still lose its rating from one of the three major rating agencies – Moody’s Investors Service, Standard & Poor’s Financial Services and Fitch Ratings.
Standard & Poor’s has warned that anything less than $4 trillion in budget cuts will likely mean the U.S. loses its top AAA rating. So the lawmakers better do something good about this long overdue debt problem, not only in preventing a default but also how to rescue the forever escalating debt. Let’s see what could happen if U.S. is downgraded.
1) A Downgrade
Currently, the long-term debt of the U.S. is rated triple-A (AAA) by Moody’s and S&P (Standard & Poor). In the event of a default, the U.S. rating will be downgraded by a notch or even up to three notch, still far from “junk” status (*Phew*). Still, the baseline expectation from many analysts and economists is that the Congress will strike a last-minute deal to raise the debt ceiling. Even if this happens, it does not take a downgrade away simply because U.S. debt stays and will continue to skyrocket.
2) Interestingly, Investors Will Not Dump Treasury Securities
Will financial markets rush to sell U.S. Treasuries in the wake of a downgrade? Not likely although economists have been debating on this issue for many moons. It’s quite simple – this Treasury Monster is “Too Big to Fail”, not to mention the fact that foreign holdings make up the largest share of outstanding Treasury security holdings. Of all foreign Treasury holdings, more than three quarters is held by foreign official institutions which include foreign sovereign wealth funds and central banks.
These institutions hold U.S. Treasury bonds because they are the most stable and the most liquid financial asset in the world so even if they would dump it after a downgrade, they would have difficulties finding replacement(s). One option would be for these institutions to park their money in European debt but the Eurozone itself has been rocked by its own credit worthiness from the sovereign debt crisis. Another option would be Asian debt as a replacement. But Asian countries’ capital markets are still developing and not yet mature, not to mention it’s too small to replace the giant U.S. Treasury market. The foreign funds holding about 46% of U.S. Treasury will have no where to go but to stay put.
3) Money Market Funds will Stay As It Is
Besides putting their money into savings accounts at commercial banks, Americans put their money into money market accounts namely money market funds. A money market fund is a type of mutual fund that is required by U.S. law to invest in low-risk securities such as government securities, certificates of deposit, commercial paper of companies, or other highly liquid and low-risk securities. Thus, these funds have relatively low risks compared to other mutual funds and pay dividends that generally reflect short-term interest rates.
U.S. regulations allow for the securities held in money market funds to include a broad band of ratings – from triple-A (AAA) to single-A (A). The U.S. would have to be downgraded several notches, far beyond what either S&P or Moody’s were expected to do before money market funds are affected in a serious way. Nevertheless as the Aug 2 deadline approaches, the Investment Company Institute just revealed that total U.S. money market mutual fund assets fell $37.53 billion to $2.634 trillion for the week that ended Wednesday.
4) Pension Funds, Too Small to Create Impact
A downgrade of U.S. debt will not automatically trigger a fire sale by pension funds because the federal, state and local retirement funds hold only 3% of the outstanding U.S. government debt. A study by Wells Fargo concluded in the event of forced selling, the impact would be minimal. Furthermore, pension funds specialists argued that the pension funds will not necessary sell if prices are pushed too low due to panic selling.
5) Germany Bonds Rally
German 10-year bonds rose a fifth day before an Italian debt sale and after Standard & Poor’s said Greece risks further defaults after the restructuring agreed upon at a summit last week. Also, triple-A rated paper like German Bunds and UK Gilts outperformed U.S. Treasuries, with the U.S./German 10-year yield spread 13 bps wider on the day at 35 bps. Using the same analogy, the German bonds would rally in the event of a downgrade.
Investors seeking diversification and shelter will most likely park some of their money in Germany. Sure, the Germany bonds are still small relatively to U.S. but this also means a possible squeeze, pushing German bonds further north.
6) Some Banks Get Downgraded
Banks that currently enjoy higher ratings because they’re backed by the government and should there be problem they would get bailed. But now their “guarantor”, the U.S. government, is downgraded so naturally these banks would get downgraded as well simply because the U.S. debt is riskier. These banks may need to raise their borrowing costs. Debt of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the ‘AAA’ rated Federal Home Loan Banks and the ‘AAA’ rated Federal Farm Credit System Banks may be affected.
Heck, these banks may need to raise hundreds of billions in new capital should things get ugly as they aren’t required to hold any capital at all against U.S. Treasurys at this moment but a downgrade means their assets are now not risk-free.
7) Junk Stocks Sell Off, Quality Stocks Bargain
Investors would need to rebalance their portfolio in the event of a U.S. debt downgrade and the most feasible thing to do is to sell off junk stocks, if they have any. A decline of 2% – 5% (some say 10%) in the S&P 500 across the board is also anticipated with stocks such as Coca-Cola to Apple Inc. to be affected, one way or another. Already, many are chasing out just in case as can be seen when the Dow is down by 441 points this week alone.
When rating agencies downgrade countries — as we’ve seen with Spain, Greece and Japan – their stocks tumble. Having said that, FinanceTwitter still think this is a golden opportunity to scope the quality stocks during the sell-off. Reason – 80% of the 190 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported second-quarter results have beaten Wall Street’s estimates. Earnings from Microsoft Corp., Coca-Cola Co. and IBM Corp. had the Dow above 12,700 just a week ago.
Like it or not, a downgrade in the U.S. wouldn’t have the same effect on its stock market as downgrades do in other countries. The companies in the Dow are giant-multinationals that rely less on the U.S. for profits as compared to companies from Spain or Greece. For example, Apple’s iPhone sales actually quadrupled from a year ago in the Asia market particularly China. Therefore, assuming investors already take into consideration of a one-notch credit downgrade of U.S. debt, the stock market may celebrate upon an agreement to lift the debt ceiling, and you won’t want to miss this chance, would you?
Interestingly, according to U.S. Treasury, U.S. Government had an operating cash balance of only $73.8 billion at the end of the day yesterday. On the other hand, Apple’s last earnings report showed that the company had $76.2 billion in cash and marketable securities at the end of June. This is amazing but it’s a joke the world’s largest and (perhaps) the most admired technology company has more cash than the world’s largest sovereign government – United States of America. Maybe Steve Jobs can organize a short course on how Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL, stock) earns more money than it spends to the U.S. government, which does the opposite.
Mydriver was anxiously telling me how he evaded the road block on his way to pick me up at the airport, on the eve of Bersih 2.0′s July 9 rally. Before I can start telling him about my trip to Hong Kong and the wonderful foods that I had, he told me not to worry because he would use another route to send me home. Obviously he wasn’t listening and didn’t care about my Hong Kong trip and who could blame him when almost every Tom, Dick and his dog were affected (and excited) about the Bersih 2.0 rally, one way or another.
It seems the Malaysian police received tips that thousands of stubborn supporters would somehow invade the capital city Kuala Lumpur from the country’s international airport, hence the road-block – how stupid can that be. I told my driver I was thinking about staying put in Hong Kong to help the number (of Bersih 2.0 Hong Kong version) since Kuala Lumpur was literally paralysed due to the police lockdown as if the city was infected by some sort of virus. But my driver said the most electrifying moment only happen in the city so I should come back to experience it, whatever that means.
I didn’t give much hope that the Bersih 2.0 would be any success compared to the first version although I did write about the unexpected turn-out due to PM Najib Razak’s own stupidity - repeating the history and in the process giving free but valuable publicity to the Bersih 2.0 rally. And the most terrifying moment in the entire political life of PM Najib emerges – a united estimated 50,000 Malaysians regardless of ethnic, religion, age, wealth and whatnot took to the streets of Kuala Lumpur in defiance of the government ban, hand-in-hand. If I were Najib Razak, I would be constipating, knowing my throne is slipping away.
If there’s one army that you can’t defeat, that army would be these 50,000 united citizens who came out arming with nothing more than their determination and spirit in demanding for a simple request – a fair election. For once, they’re united for a single cause. You can’t help but shed tears watching how peaceful and the close comradeship demonstrated by these people in helping each other – against the brutality of the police. Unlike Bersih 1.0, this round of rally triggered international attention when Malaysians from around the world; from Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, Taiwan to as far as United States, Canada, France and Switzerland joined forces in the rally.
Bersih 2 - Portland, USA
Bersih 2 - Portland, USA
Bersih 2 - Paris, France
Bersih 2 - Paris, France
Bersih 2 - London, Britain
Bersih 2 - London, Britain
Bersih 2 - London, Britain
Bersih 2 - Ottawa, Canada
Bersih 2 - Ottawa, Canada
Bersih 2 - Hong Kong
Bersih 2 - Hong Kong
Bersih 2 - Taipei, Taiwan
Bersih 2 - Taipei, Taiwan
Bersih 2 - Perth, Australia
Bersih 2 - Adelaide, Australia
Bersih 2 - Adelaide, Australia
Bersih 2 - Melbourne, Australia
Bersih 2 - Melbourne, Australia
Bersih 2 - Melbourne, Australia
Bersih 2 - Canberra, Australia
Bersih 2 - Osaka, Japan
Bersih 2 - Geneva, Switzerland
Bersih 2 - Washington, USA
Bersih 2 - Washington, USA
Arrogance is addictive, so I suppose PM Najib felt how his predecessor, former PM Abdullah Badawi, was feeling when Badawi thought he was invincible when confronted with peoples rally back in 2007. If only Najib took the different route and allows these people to march peacefully and hand-over whatever their petitions to the King, he would not have to worry about the post-rally effects now. With a record-breaking 1,667 people arrested, including 151 women and 16 children, 1 death due to tear-gas paid by taxpayers money and international coverage from CNN to Al-Jazeera on police’s brutality, Najib administration should be shivering in fears instead of still boasting about his ability to mobilize so-called 3 million UMNO members for a similar rally.
Now that the rally is over and the government-controlled media started spinning stories in an attempt for damage-control, who’re the winners and losers post Bersih 2.0 rally? As expected both Malaysian Government and Bersih claim victories. Maybe it’s true that there’re no losers and everyone is a winner.
First Winner – Bersih 2.0
Obviously Bersih (Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections) is now a well-known household brand name synonym with “Fair and Clean”. You can bet your money that if you register this name as a political party and put a donkey as the candidate, you will win the seat with handsome majority (*grin*). Forget about Najib’s pea-size brain cousin, Home Minister Hishammuddin, who declared Bersih as an illegal organization. The fact that the King agreed for an audience with Bersih representatives means Bersih is recognized as a coalition of 62 NGOs whose interest was purely in promoting democracy and free and fair elections in Malaysia.
Bersih 2.0 chairperson, Ambiga, was right when she said Bersih was not about her or any other political parties. Bersih was about the people, the voice of rakyat for a fair election.
Second Winner – Ambiga Sreenevasan, Bersih chairperson
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and first lady Michelle Obama present give away Secretary of State’s Award for International Women of Courage to Malaysia ‘s Ambiga Sreenevasan (Malaysian Bar Council) at the State Department in Washington
Ambiga, a Malaysian lawyer who served is the President of the Malaysian Bar Council from 2007 – 2009, became one of the eight recipients of the 2009 Secretary of State’s International Women of Courage Award in 2009. She is perhaps widely known as the lawyer who stood in the controversial religious case for Lina Joy in her apostasy case. From being attacked in a racial slur by Perkasa as a dangerous Hindu woman to SMS death threat and the call to revoke her citizenship, this woman gains the respect of many for her perseverance.
However she was taking a huge risk when she said she will cancel the rally should she be ordered to do so by the King as it was public knowledge that King’s scripts were normally drafted by Najib administration beforehand. The event sent many in the Bersih committee in disarray and divided over the next course of action should the King were to be on Najib’s side. It was a brilliant tactical move by Najib (or rather Mahathir?) nevertheless in trapping Ambiga who is a political novice. Fortunately, the King granted her an audience, indirectly recognized Bersih as a coalition despite Najib’s cousin declaring it as an illegal movement.
The King neither asked Ambiga to cancel nor endorse the rally but advised both Bersih and Najib administration to negotiate. Needless to say, the arrogant Najib refuse to entertain the King’s advise as it would be seen as losing face to Bersih. Now, Ambiga is an asset whom opposition party (and Najib? Nah!) can recruit as a credible candidate for the next general election.
Third Winner – Opposition parties
As I’ve blogged earlier, when the opposition parties were searching for the next weapon to keep the momentum alive ahead of a snap election speculated to be called anytime soon, Najib foolishly presented them with one. The opposition parties would not have the best platform to swing the fence-sitting voters over to their camp if Najib didn’t show his arrogance by threatening Bersih with the silliest accusation – working with communists and arresting people who wear yellow shirts. He should have engaged Bersih with the objective of locking out opposition parties from riding on the wave of Bersih’s rally.
Thanks to police’s brutality in firing tear-gas directly at innocent crowds, the opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim was himself injured while another was dead and you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to find election campaign bullets. If opposition parties were to probably lose Selangor and Kedah while maintaining Perak states if a snap election were to call this year, the same cannot be said now post Bersih rally. Should Najib allows the rally to proceed, his administration may be able to regain its two-third majority.
Fourth Winner – Mahathir Mohamad
Despite low-profile, this former dictator was the person pulling strings from behind in his attempt to dislodge Najib in favor of deputy PM Muhyiddin. It was not a surprise that Mahathir was the person who almost checkmate Bersih Ambiga when the King was dragged into the crisis. How Mahathir wished the King was the Sultan of Pahang, Perak or Johor. Nevertheless damage has been done and if history were to repeat itself, Najib will most unlikely able to reclaim two-thirds majority in the next general election hence Mahathir’s ambitious plan to install his son as the deputy Prime Minister looks bright.
Fifth Winner – deputy PM Muhyiddin
Compare to Najib, Muhyiddin is more cruel, decisive and dirty (politically) – something that former dictator PM Mahathir possess. Mahathir can almost swear Muhyiddin looks like him when he was his age. The only thing Mahathir need to do now is to assure Muhyiddin will keep to his promise to warm up the premier seat for his own son after a single term. What Muhyiddin needs to do now is to keep low profile and pour more kerosene into the fire in the hate-Najib campaign, quietly. As long as he can proves that he’s as loyal as a dog to Mahathir, his key to the premier throne is assured.
Sixth Winner – Police
That’s right, the police force is the winner and is proven during the rally. The police succeeded in doing all the dirty works commissioned by Najib administration through his cousin, Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein. And as a reward, top guns such as IGP (Inspector General of Police) Ismail Omar, deputy IGP Khalid Abu Bakar, City acting police chief Amar Singh, Selangor police chief Tun Hisan and others who carried their duties “faithfully as instructed” are assured of their next promotion (or contract extension).
As a bonus, the police has also done the Najib administration proud by firing and attacking Tung Shin Hospital, a clear breach of Geneva Convention.When not even the United Nations dare to attack hospitals in compliance with Geneva Convention, which was used by dictator Colonel Gaddafi to cowardly hide in Libyan hospitals, Malaysia police under the instruction from Najib administration were happily spreading rounds of tear gas into the civilian hospital. How difficult for the police to deny this – just blame it on the wind and the science of physics that carried the bullets and tear gas into the hospital compound (*grin*).
Malaysian police was so successful in their crackdown against the rally that the whole capital of Kuala Lumpur was literally turned into a ghost town. Intimidation, bullying, threats, roadblocks and brutality against their own citizens were carried out flawlessly and systematically. Police’s dedication would literally make you cry as they comb almost each and every hotel in the city, looking for prospect demonstrators. If only they’re as hardworking in looking for criminals.
But above all, the Malaysia police should be congratulated for striking a very high success rate of arrest when 1,667 people were arrested during the “illegal rally” – that’s a whopping 27.78% success rate out of 6,000 demonstrators as claimed by the IGP. Malaysia now has another commodity for export. Bet Colonel Gaddafi would pay top money to engage Malaysian police services.
Seventh Winner – Brave-heart Shop Owners
Just like Warren Buffett’s stock investing quote – Be Fearful When Others Are Greedy and Be Greedy When Others Are Fearful, only a handful of shop owners opened their business during the rally and as a reward, they enjoyed fantastic business and profit. Others who blindly believed the government’s fear propaganda shutdown their businesses. Strangely despite all the chaos and havoc projected by government-controlled media, not a single shop owner complained of looting or property damages.
In actual fact, if the people were to allow rally peacefully, the tens or probably hundreds of thousands of these “visitors” would bring roaring businesses to all the shop owners. It would be a carnival-like party or festival.
Eighth Winner – Najib Razak
Despite criticisms, Najib is one of the biggest winners here. Maybe it was true that he cowardly tried to fly out of the country before the Bersih 2.0 rally but fortunately his wife Rosmah Mansor stopped him from doing so. Now that the rally was over and with an estimated 50,000 people took to the street, he can spin the story that Bersih 2.0 was a failure as it couldn’t get the promise 100,000 or 500,000 people. In contrast, he can easily mobilize 3 million UMNO members, if he wanted to. He can also be assured of undivided police support should he decide to declare emergency in order to stay in power, in case the opposition managed to win with simple majority in the next general election.
He was particularly proud on how he skillfully cheated Ambiga’s Bersih 2.0 that the government would provide a stadium for them to shout and scream from day to night, only to flop and claim he didn’t promise the Merdeka Stadium but other stadium elsewhere. Ambiga and his team were given the run around and that was so funny. This whole rally also presented Najib with a very important platform - survivability stress test; in the event of an internal power struggle within his own UMNO party. He may be stupid but not his Imelda-Marcos wannabe wife, Rosmah Mansor.
The police backing, army support under his buddy Defence Minister, ability to defy King’s instruction and whatnot would guarantee his premiership. Heck, so what if it’s the King who can only declare emergency, constitutionally speaking? In this case study, obviously Najib administration asked the King to fly kite, literally, when it defied the Highess instruction to negotiate with Bersih. Najib can declare one (state of emergency) himself even if the King refuses to, and will literally get away with it. That was what the Royal Malay Regiment, Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) and the police Army Unit and Air Wing joint-exercise right before the rally was all about.
In reality, Prime Minister of Malaysia is the most powerful person in the country, provided you’ve the right backing from the police and army forces, which Najib has at the moment. That was why his most trusted lieutenants were entrusted with the portfolio of Home Minister and Defence Minister. Together with his Finance Minister post, Najib is almost invincible. If I were Najib, I would dissolve the Parliament and call a snap election this week. With only 50,000 against you but more than 28,000,000 people supporting you, what are there to worry about, Mr. Najib Razak?
That’s right, the police force is the winner and is proven during the rally. The police succeeded in doing all the dirty works commissioned by Najib administration through his cousin, Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein. And as a reward, top guns such as IGP (Inspector General of Police) Ismail Omar, deputy IGP Khalid Abu Bakar, City acting police chief Amar Singh, Selangor police chief Tun Hisan and others who carried their duties “faithfully as instructed” are assured of their next promotion (or contract extension).
