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THINKING ALLOWED
AP, APs and API
On to APs, on which we do have quite a few additional remarks to make. To our mind, the MITI (meaty?) minister has committed a faux pas which Malays call lawan towkay (opposing the boss) and although she followed it up by a sandiwara (melodrama) with tears and all, it has landed her into deeper soup. How long can the now not-too-savvy minister last? The calls for her resignation are beginning to hit a crescendo. The maverick MP and backbencher chair Shahrir Samad, as reported in Malaysiakini, puts it rather well suggesting that she not only lawan a previous towkay but that she�s doing the same to her present boss: �The Prime Minister says to work with him. And if Rafidah cannot work with Pak Lah and the Cabinet, she should do the honourable thing. Resign.� Shahrir opined that �she had her say but the Cabinet has decided the other way�. Shahrir said Rafidah�s statement that Approved Permits should be abolished showed disrespect to the Cabinet, which recently decided to form a special committee headed by the Prime Minister to review and decide on the AP issue and the national automotive policy. If rumours are correct that there will be an October cabinet reshuffle, then Shahrir may find another colleague on the backbench. No wonder he�s rooting for it! Our Internet papparazzi, a.k.a bloggers, have been going to town literally exposing �AP Kings�. According to one blog, the former MITI employee, Syed Azman Syed Ibrahim, is the king of kings, with a total of 32,062 APs (The Malay Mail, July 28) � as the Chinese say, chia bay leow (�eat also cannot finish�)! One blog posted a picture of the AP King�s second home, allegedly a 28 million ringgit house at Ampang complete with a helipad, which is still under construction. The first home, also with a helipad, is said to be in Bukit Antarabangsa. The man is said to possess three helicopters but they didn�t say how many Ferraris or Massaratis. When, it comes to API (Air Pollution Index), the current Malaysian benchmark is 500, like Fortune�s top 500. In recent history we have hit 500 at least twice, in 1997 and in 2005. Perhaps maybe we should go for a higher benchmark, like the Bursa KL � 1000? If we do hit 1000 in the next eight years � notice the haze happens in cycles of eight years (very ��ng� (auspicious), as the Chinese say) � we will certainly be a world-class country and we would have joined the ranks of the highly developed world. But there�s a catch � not too many Malaysians will be alive! Quotable Quirks - from who else? No prizes for guessing but here are some true gems (posted by blogger Jeff Ooi) from a man we are beginning to miss more and more; our comments are in brackets: Do you see a foreigner running Proton? Actually, Malaysians are not capable, therefore, we should get foreigners including running our country also... We can have a foreigner as a Prime Minister... why not if he has the brains...? (The government is doing just that; recently, it invited a panel of foreign experts to re-study and reengineer the economy. Not a single local academic or expert was invited!) Did the board seek your advice before removing Tengku Mahaleel? No, I was not consulted. My views were nothing. As an adviser, you advise only. People like your advice, they follow; if they don� t like your advice, they don�t follow. We are not like the British advisers... where a decision will be made after an adviser gives his advice. As Malay advisers, you are told after the decision is made. (Padan muka!) Do you still feel relevant to Proton as an adviser and how do you feel now that Tengku Mahaleel has left? What I feel does not make any difference to anybody. Of course what happens to Proton, Proton is a national industry, it should be the concern of the whole nation. I am just an insignificant retired person. I don�t get paid anything, please remember this, I don�t get paid one sen by Proton. Once in a while they buy me lunch when I attend the meetings. I am just an adviser to Proton, Petronas, Langkawi Development Authority and Tioman Development Authority. Only Petronas pays me RM15,000 a month and they deduct RM5,000 for tax and I only get RM10,000. (Hello! You�ve got your pension and gratuity on top of the 10K) Will the board consult you on the next CEO? All depends, of course, it is possible that the choice will be made first, and the adviser will know afterwards. (Resign! Resign!) The inferior terms being offered to him, do you think it was purposely done so that Tengku Mahaleel would not take up the offer? I would not say that. But the fact is that such were the terms that he could not accept. That�s all. I am not saying it was deliberately done; I feel that since he thinks he has done a good job in Proton, he should have been paid more. But for me of course, look at the mess I left behind when I stopped becoming the Prime Minister... now the government has no money... I spent everything. (How true, remember BMF, Perwaja, Bakun, etcetera, etcetera) You said that there are powerful hands behind, are you suggesting that is happening now? That is up to the press to presume, because the press is a free press, they report everything I say verbatim. (Look who�s complaining!) Did Tengku Mahaleel get a golden handshake? That is another matter. The chairman says what happened before his time is none of his business. I believe when Datuk Nadzmi Salleh left Proton after being CEO for three years he was given a golden handshake of RM1 million. Tengku Mahaleel has served for more than three years, I think seven years, and he deserves something better. (Let us see, 1 million divided by 3 times 7, plus gratuity, plus bonus, plus EPF, plus� we lose count!) Did the chairman say who is going to replace Tengku Mahaleel? He said something about headhunting, maybe he�s from Sarawak, no name was mentioned. (Tsk, tsk, tsk, what would our Iban friends say?) How do you think Proton will be run now? I am quite sure the people who are running Proton know it better than I do. I think the removal of Tengku Mahaleel must result in improvement; I am sure now sales will pick up, and no more cars are too small for people to get in. (Are we talking savvy? This one is beyond us) Are you against VW taking the majority share in Proton? I am against the national car being owned by a non-national, but if the country wants the national car sold over to other people... I am not the PM... I am not in the government... I have no say. (For once he�s got it right!) The AP list was only for 2005, not for 2004 as you requested earlier? We should know the whole truth and nothing but the truth. The list was not fully given, if you have the names, give it fully. When I was the Prime Minister, I was accused of giving contracts to my cronies, I took out the whole list unamended and you can see who got it. (Hmm� does a longer list mean that there are no cronies or more cronies??) Rafidah considers you as a father, do you consider her as your daughter? I regard all the ladies in this country as my daughters. I am old enough to be their father. I would not be discriminatory and say you are not my daughter and I would like to do something for them. Many people come to me and say �you are like a father to me�. I also have a lot of people who say very nice things to me, and then decide to fight against me, and then they lost against me but I bear no grudge. I brought many back into the Cabinet, pushed them up as well. (His magnanimity knows no bounds � but tell that to Anwar Ibrahim!) Also Rans It was with great interest that we recently read the exclusive interview given by former Malacca CM Rahim Tamby Chik to Malaysiakini (15 August 2005). Rahim who has edged back into the limelight with an unexpected UMNO Supreme Council seat, alleged that Anwar Ibrahim was the cause of his fall from grace in 1995. In point of fact, we still remember well that Lim Guan Eng featured most prominently and suffered for it. Rahim was alleged to have committed statutory rape in early 1995 on a 15-year old schoolgirl, with the scandal eventually leading to his resignation as Malacca chief minister and Umno Youth chief. He was incredibly cleared of any wrongdoing later and now he�s making a comeback into UMNO politics! This has naturally led him to compare himself with Anwar. Rahim avers that Anwar Ibrahim stands no chance of making a comeback despite Anwar being cleared of alleged misdemeanours recently. Rahim suggests that his own �extraordinary� return to his current level of prominence has occurred despite attempts by certain elements to block it in his own state, Malacca. But here comes the punch line; on perceptions that he was womaniser, he retorted: �Womaniser, how? You never see me in the public, in the disco, in the karaoke lounge, nothing. Have you ever seen me (in these places)?� As for Anwar Ibrahim, he has been making the circuit again and local pundits are suggesting that he�s strategising to make a political comeback in 2008. Some go so far as to suggest he will go for the Numero Uno post. Whatever�.but local universities are certainly reacting to the supposed Anwar comeback in a rather mindless and paranoid fashion. UM barred students from attending an Anwar function in Kuala Lumpur recently. We are told that Anwar is currently a fellow at the Advanced School of International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University and has been invited to speak at the revered halls of Oxford and Cambridge. Would Anwar be better off staying at Oxford and Cambridge, where minds are more open, than venturing into our �world class� universities? D.L. Daun Please support our work by buying a copy of our print publication, Aliran Monthly, from your nearest news-stand. Better still take out a subscription now. If you prefer to read our web-based edition, please support our work and make a donation. Now tell us what you think in fewer than 250 words. Your comments may be published in the Letters section of our print magazine, Aliran Monthly. | |||||||||||||||
To our mind, the MITI (meaty?) minister has committed a faux pas which Malays call lawan towkay (opposing the boss) and although she followed it up by a sandiwara (melodrama) with tears and all, it has landed her into deeper soup.
