Politik, Legislatif, Dasar dan Tadbir Urus

The Malaysian 1MDB scandal sparked the largest investigation in the history of the U.S. Department of Justice Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative and has revealed serious problems with Malaysia’s anticorruption infrastructure. The DOJ has filed civil forfeiture claims for $1.7 billion in assets obtained with funds diverted from 1MDB, a sovereign wealth fund ostensibly intended to promote economic development in Malaysia. The money ended up in a stunning variety of locations around the globe. Nearly $700 million found its way into the Malaysian Prime Minister’s personal bank accounts . His stepson’s production company suddenly had the funds needed to back the Hollywood movie The Wolf of Wall Street. A financier with close ties to the government bought an Australian model jewels worth $8.1 million . Meanwhile, the Malaysian government insists there is nothing to see here. The newly-installed Malaysian Attorney General cleared Prime Minister Najib Razak of all wrongdoing and put a s...

By Thomas Iwing, GAB Since China’s anticorruption drive kicked off five years ago, it has had a tremendous impact on the country’s politics. The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), until recently led by President Xi Jinping’s close ally Wang Qishan, has targeted officials both high and low—so-called tigers and flies. According to the CCDI’s own data, more than 70,000 officials at or above the level of county head have been investigated, and close to two million officials have been punished in some way. The drive has also ensnared a few senior figures who, during their days of freedom, where among the most powerful men in China, including Zhou Yongkang and Bo Xilai . The CCDI’s power does not stop even at China’s borders: According to official statistics , by the end of August 2017, over three thousand fugitives had been repatriated from more than 90 countries. But the drive is now shifting gears. Last October, in his speech opening the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP...

There’s an image that has come to be associated with millennials – that they are changing jobs every couple of years. This is said to look bad on a resume. It portrays a prospective employee as someone who can’t hold down a job or is unable to get along with colleagues; worst still, lacks loyalty and commitment. However, that stigma is changing, especially as millennials constantly rise in their workplaces and, in the process, learn and advance their careers. In fact, it has been seen that those who stay with the same company for several years tend to see lower pay growth than others who don’t. If we are to go by a Forbes report, staying employed at the same company for over two years on average is going to make you earn less over your lifetime by about 50% or more – an estimate that they claim is conservative. There are more studies to prove the same. A recent analysis from financial services company Nomura confirms what you’ve probably always suspected: Switching jobs will probably ...

Apa yang sudah terjadi pada kemudahan perumahan di negara kita? Harga rumah kini telah melambung dengan begitu tinggi sekali sehinggakan rakyat yang berpendapatan sederhana dan ke bawah sudah tidak mampu lagi untuk memiliki sesebuah rumah untuk keluarga mereka. Ada pelbagai jabatan kerajaan, syarikat milik kerajaan (GLC) dan pemaju swasta yang menguruskan perumahan. Di sebelah kerajaan, ada Kementerian Kesejahteraan Bandar, Perumahan dan Kerajaan Tempatan; Jabatan Perumahan Negara; Syarikat Perumahan Negara; Perbadanan Kemajuan Negeri-negeri; Lembaga-lembaga kemajuan wilayah dan kini timbul pula Perbadanan PR1MA Malaysia. Jadi, apakah kesudahannya dengan kewujudan kesemua badan-badan kerajaan dan separa kerajaan yang menguruskan pelbagai bentuk skim perumahan agar ianya “mampu dimiliki” rakyat? Adakah kerajaan pusat berjaya mengawal harga rumah agar ianya tidak melambung begitu tinggi? Hakikatnya adalah kebanyakan langkah-langkah yang diambil kerajaan pusat khususnya PR1MA ternyata g...

Malaysia’s Household Income and Basic Amenities Survey 2016 revealed some interesting facts. First and foremost, the country’s median and mean household incomes continued to increase steadily, benefiting from the relatively resilient domestic economy, although the pace of growth during the period under review slowed from that in the previous survey. Second, income distribution improved as reflected by a fall in the Gini coefficient, a measure of statistical dispersion that economists use to assess income disparity between the rich and the poor. So far, so good. But what would the scenario be like in, say, 5 to 10 years? Indeed, though our labour market fundamentals remain respectable, the number of unemployed graduates has kept rising over the years. If this trend continues, the income gap may widen. Certainly, worries about the income levels of young people will persist, especially in view of the rising cost of living. There has been widespread debate on the possible reasons for grad...

Suruhanjaya Pencegahan Rasuah Malaysia (SPRM) dan ketua persuruhjayanya baru-baru ini telah mengeluarkan amaran terhadap ketua menteri Pulau Pinang menuntut agar beliau memohon maaf di atas dakwaannya bahawa SPRM telah melalukan tangkapan yang tidak sah terhadap seorang ahli majlis mesyuarat kerajaan negeri Pulau Pinang baru-baru ini. Setelah itu, ketua persuruhjaya SPRM turut memberi amaran kepada orang ramai agar tidak mengkritik ataupun mengecam agensi tersebut lagi atau berhadapan dengan tindakan dan tangkapan serta pendakwaan. Peruntukan manakah di bawah Akta SPRM 2009 yang membolehkan SPRM menangkap dan mendakwa orang yang mengkritik agensi tersebut? Persoalannya adalah, kenapa perlu ketua persuruhjaya SPRM itu mengeluarkan kenyataan demi kenyataan seakan-akan mendendami para pengkritik agensi tersebut? Kami bukannya penyokong tegar ketua menteri Pulau Pinang itu, tetapi kami hairan kenapa SPRM perlu menghabiskan begitu banyak masa, tenaga dan sumber-sumber yang ada untuk ...

Dalam tahun 2008, parti-parti pembangkang utama yang selama ini tidak dapat mencapai kata sepakat akhirnya begabung di bawah payung Pakatan Rakyat (PR) pimpinan Datuk Seri Anwar setelah kejayaan mereka di dalam menafikan sekaligus majoriti dua pertiga Barisan Nasional (BN) pada PRU12 tersebut. Namun, apabila Datuk Seri Anwar dipenjara semula politik di dalam PR sekali bergolak apabila PAS mengambil keputusan bersama Umno di dalam usaha mereka untuk menjayakan perlaksanaan hukum-hukum hudud melalui pemindaan undang-undang Syariah yang sedia ada. Setelah perpecahan PR akibat daripada keputusan PAS untuk meninggalkan gabungan tersebut, dan pada masa yang sama Datuk Seri Anwar masih berada di dalam penjara, kini giliran Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammad pula mengambil-ahli peranan sebagai “peneraju” bagi membantu membina semula gabungan parti-parti pembangkang terkini, Pakatan Harapan (PH) agar ia diperkukuhkan lagi menjadi satu gabungan yang kekal. Di dalam kepimpinan PH yang baru, ianya telah ...

By Eva Yeong Human resource (HR) practices in Malaysia must change and accept the fact that the average turnover for any individual in this day and age is two-and-a-half years, according to one panellist at the Global Business Services Forum 2017 yesterday. “In a HR organisation, have we evolved to the point that we really understand what talent management really means in the current day and age, and what it means five years down the road? It is not so much about how much you are going to pay, what great office painting you have on the wall, how big the CEO’s office is,” BAE Systems head of Malaysia engineering centre Rishesingar Ramasamy said during a panel discussion at the forum yesterday. He said the industry has a huge part to play in adapting to changes in talent management and it is unfair to put the onus on the government to enable job creation opportunities. “The average turnover for any individual is two to two-and-a-half years in any organisation here. That is the k...

By Bill Van Auken The two-day G20 summit convenes in Hamburg, Germany today, dominated by global economic and political crises, threats of military confrontation and multisided geostrategic conflicts. The atmosphere resembles nothing so much as a meeting between greater and lesser mobsters in which no one knows who will be the first to shoot. First held in 2009 in London, the G20 Summit was supposed to serve as a forum for a collective effort by the major powers to rescue world capitalism from the financial meltdown begun on Wall Street in 2008 and to ward off the danger of protectionism. Today, under the impact of the ever-deepening and insoluble capitalist economic crisis, the conflicts between these powers have become so advanced, severe and unconcealed that there is every reason to believe that this could be the last of these world gatherings. US President Donald Trump set the tone for a summit of bitter and open confrontation by preceding his arrival in Germany with a trip to P...

By Bulbir Singh I REFER to the report “Stand united and prosper” and Wong Chun Wai’s article “See the beauty in all religions” (Sunday Star, June 25). I share Wong’s sentiments as I too come from a Catholic school, St Paul’s Institution in Seremban. I went there in the 1950s and I would say this school made me a good Sikh. And thank you, Star Media Group, for your efforts in running a patriotic campaign that aims to bring Malaysians together. I applaud your efforts. You are a caring media group and as a consumer advocate, I like your attempts in striving for moderation. I say that we must do everything we can to replace hate with moderation and end extremism in any form and be serious about removing it from the root. With mutual respect, we can create a harmonious nation as we celebrate the coming National Day. The spirit of moderation will be the source of success for our country. Moderation is the way for a multiracical nation. This is how we should live. Let us strive...

Somewhere off the Bahamas in early August 2014 one of the world’s best known super-models was presented with a fabulously expensive and specially commissioned set of diamonds – a matching 18k white gold diamond necklace, earings, bracelet and ring, designed by top jeweller Lorraine Schwartz and costing $1,980,000. The presentation of the gift had been “meticulously planned” by her enthusiastic beau through a “high-end conciearge servce” on board the brand new super-yacht, which he had just taken delivery of, according to a 251 page court document issued yesterday by the US Department of Justice. The super-model was the Australian Miranda Kerr, famous for her own popular jewellery collection (prices starting at $69) at Swarovski; her pudgy admirer was the Malaysian super-thief Jho Low and the super-yacht was the $250 million, 300 foot Equanimity: “capable of carrying up to twenty-six guests and up to thirty-three crew members and includes a helicopter landing pad, an on-board gymnasi...