Politik, Legislatif, Dasar dan Tadbir Urus

Recently the rebel government of Muhyiddin Yassin had agreed to allow depositors to withdraw their savings in the Account 1 partially from the Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) after much pressure from both side of the political divide during the ongoing parliamentary sitting which is now debating on the allocations for the Budget 2021. However, what came to a grave surprise is, the EPF made a public statement informing the public that they need to liquidate much of its assets and rebalance their investment portfolios in order to obtain cash upfront to facilitate withdrawals from depositors. Unfortunately it comes into a big question mark here, why does EPF need to dispose off its assets in order to obtain the much needed cash in order to fund the depositors' withdrawal? Where has the EPF's cash reserves or reserve funds gone to? How does EPF actually manage the entire portfolios in the group which serves as a retirement fund for majority of the workers in this country? Liqui...

Perikatan Nasional yang kini sedang menerajui kerajaan pemberontak telah membentangkan Belanjawan 2021 di dalam sidang parlimen baru-baru ini.  Peranan parlimen dan ahli-ahli Yang Berhormat yang sedang bersidang dalam beberapa hari ini adalah jelas, iaitu meneliti dan memantau setiap butir-butir cadangan Belanjawan 2021 tersebut agar unsur-unsurnya dapat disemak dan ditegur menteri kewangan yang membentangkannya sekiranya terdapat apa-apa keraguan yang timbul. Jangan sekadar membentangkan sahaja Belanjawan 2021 tersebut dan seterusnya tidak hadir di dalam persidangan parlimen seterusnya, dan selepas itu lari meninggalkannya apabila soalan-soalan yang dikemukakan bertambah rumit atau tidak dapat menjawabnya. Menteri kewangan, dan kedua-dua timbalan menteri kewangannya haruslah menunjukkan sifat tanggungjawab dan proaktif mereka dengan menghadiri sepenuhnya sesi perbahasan Belanjawan 2021 tersebut bagi menjawab apajua keraguan dan persoalan yang timbul, serta memberikan penjelasan ya...

Tidak ada sebarang peruntukan di dalam Perlembagaan Persekutuan yang memberi kuasa kepada satu-satu kerajaan untuk menghentikan pembayaran gaji kepada semua kakitangan awam sekiranya Belanjawan 2021 kali ini tidak diluluskan oleh parlimen. Kenyataan yang telah dikeluarkan oleh menteri kewangan baru-baru ini seolah-olah suatu bentuk ancaman yang terancang seperti mahu menyalahkan ahli-ahli parlimen yang mempersoalkan beberapa cadangan peruntukan di dalam Belanjawan 2021 tersebut. Barangkali menteri kewangan ini, oleh kerana bukan ahli politik, jadi memberikan kenyataan beliau samalah seperti mengugut proses demokrasi berparlimen. Proses demokrasi berparlimen harus dihormati sepenuhnya peranannya menjalankan semak imbang, memantau dan menegur kerajaan dalam pelbagai aspek perlaksanaan termasuk Belanjawan negara. Kami menyeru menteri kewangan ini agar merujuk kepada perdana menteri terlebih dahulu di masa yang terdekat apabila ingin mengeluarkan kenyataan-kenyataan sedemikian.

The Budget 2021, not only this, the state government annual budgets, all kinds of budgets need to be thoroughly checked, undergo a detailed scrutiny and ensure that everyone undertaking the roles in the budget are accountable in carrying out its implementations and authorising its handouts. Of course, the parliament and the respective state legislative assemblies are all responsible in ensuring that they play the most effective roles in check and balance to ensure these budgets benefit everyone, not just the few or the elites. The budgets are also not mean for only those elites nor reserved for those feudalistic and symbolic figures. We are in opinion that it is not for those in the feudalistic and symbolic positions to decide on whether this budget should or should not be approved. It is up to the members of parliament and state legislative assemblies to check on these budget when they are being tabled by the finance minister and the respective state menteris besar, chief ministers or...

Today, the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) celebrates its 53rd anniversary with a remark from the chief commissioner Datuk Seri Azam Baki that corruption with in the government has been getting rampant today despite all its efforts to combat the corrupt practices nationwide. Yes, MACC has been initiating all its efforts to go all out to get rid of such negative element from the public sector ever since, such as education, training, awareness and all other sorts of programs in order to educate and make civil servants aware of the circumstances, penalties, fines and blacklisting. However, none of these efforts are seem to be effective despite going all out. Instead, more and more civil servants are making such practice as the way of earning some lucrative incomes in order to finance their inflated and luxurious expenditures. First of all, why do these civil servants continuing their corrupt practice and worst of all, even many newly recruited civil servants had went into the ...

Selagi rakyat jelata masih tersangkut di dalam alam pengasingan antara kaum dan agama, maka budaya pemikiran perkauman dan agama yang sesat akan terus menghantui kita sehinggalah ke generasi yang seterusnya. Akibatnya, politik perkauman dan agama yang sesat akan terus menguasai arena politik negara kita tanpa henti. Negara kita ini sudahpun mencapai kemerdekaan selama 63 tahun. Itu pun sudah lama dan apabila kita berpaling ke beberapa buah negara yang juga berada dalam tempoh dan tahap tersebut, negara-negara tersebut telah pun membangun dengan pesat dan maju ke hadapan dengan lebih makmur dan berdaya saing. Akan tetapi, adalah amat berdukacita sekali kerana negara kita ini, Malaysia yang berpeluang untuk mengecapi kemakmuran tersebut masih tersangkut di dalam alam purba yang asyik menggunakan isu perkauman dan agama untuk mencapai sesuatu matlamat dalam jangka pendek. Apakah faedahnya amalan kuno ini terus dimanfaatkan oleh ahli-ahli politik dalam negara ini? Ya, betul, yang mendapat ...

Just before the Sabah state election, the premier of the rebel government Muhyiddin Yassin has announced the second batch of the Prihatin package which will focus mainly on B40 and M40 groups. They are the Prihatin special grant amounting to RM600 million, employment subsidy grant totalled about RM2.4 billion and the Prihatin national assistance which is about RM7 billion in total. Initially, when the first batch of the Prihatin package was announced to assist the majority who are affected by the movement control order following the widespread of the coronavirus in the population, almost everyone who are affected, be it workers, businessmen, self-employed or even freelancers applied for all those grants which was available online. However, majority of the applicants were later informed that they are not qualified just because there were this and that, and many more other reasons or excuses were given. Do we all remember that Muhyiddin had "promised" a number of times that ...

The Sabah state elections last week is over. The people had given their "mandates" to the political parties who won to represent them in the state legislative assembly. Perikatan Nasional (PN) has until today claimed they had 17 assemblymen on their side while Barisan Nasional (BN) has declare 14 assemblymen under their representation. Prior to the state election, both PN and BN had alleged to have established "Gabungan Rakyat Sabah" coalition (which is still unregistered until today) in order to cooperate in the state election which ended last weekend. The results of the state elections shows Warisan Plus (Warisan +) secured a total of 32 seats (Warisan, DAP, PKR, UPKO) while PN got 17 seats and BN obtained 14 seats, while PBS scored 7 seats and the independents gained 3 seats. The the few meetings which was only attended by both PN and BN leaders in the Sutra Habour Golf & Country Resort, the question of who should be the next chief minister remains unclear as...

Today, we received with cautious the news this afternoon from the parliamentary leader of the opposition who is also the Parti Keadilan Rakyat president, Anwar Ibrahim giving his affirmative that he already has the numbers to form the next government. But when asked by the press on who is who in his numbers or which parties had agreed to side with him, his only answer was, wait and see, wait for the parties to let known of their support themselves and later on informed us that he will be seeking an audience with the King to present his justification to propose a new administration in the next couple of weeks. Immediately after that, the King's office announced that they had received the application for audience from Anwar but the audience has been postponed due to the King's unwell condition which had brought him to seek treatment at the Institut Jantung Negara (IJN) in the early of this week. We were wondering what was the actual fact that leads to this announcement. Was this ...

Baru-baru ini, untuk memperbesarkan sesuatu isu bagi menentang parti-parti lawan, Umno lebih gemar menggunakan perkataan "menghina" apabila mereka tidak setuju dengan pendapat, kritikan, teguran ataupun sebarang komentar yang tidak sedap bagi mereka. Yang terbaru adalah kenyataan yang dikeluarkan oleh bekas presiden Umno dan bekas perdana menteri Najib Razak yang baru disabitkan kesalahan oleh mahkamah kerana menyalahgunakan kuasa dan amalan rasuah sewaktu memimpin kerajaan dahulu. Kata Najib seorang pemimpin Parti Warisan "menghina" pasukan keselamatan negara dengan mendakwa pemimpin Warisan tersebut mempersendakan pasukan tersebut dalam krisis Lahad Datu yang lalu. Cukup senang Najib Razak memutarbelitkan keadaan dan dengan itu mengambil kesempatan mendakwa ada penghinaan dilakukan oleh parti lawannya untuk mempersendakan pasukan keselamatan, selepas itu akan mempergunakan pula pihak polis untuk bertindak ke atas parti lawan tersebut dengan membuat seberapa banyak...

Politicians seeking to enact laws to ban liquors or any alchoholic drinks are not thinking twice before they open their mouths to say such things. Think carefully on what the consequences will be when you say something that others will brand you stupid or idiot. Just like some politicians who claimed to be so pious by putting blames on women when it comes to increasing rapes that took place. Blaming women for their dress, not covering up or whatsoever caused men to continue raping women. This is indeed words came from fools or idiots. By banning liquors, but not designing hasher punishments onto those who abuse it is not a solution. The liquors did not ask anyone to "drink them" or "to use them". It was men who wanted enjoyment or leisure by seeking liquors for drinking, not those bottlers who lure men to take up the drinking. Those religiously aclaimed politicians, please think rationally and practically. If you want to ban liquor, call for the ban on ketum as well...

Setelah seminggu bekas menteri belia dan sukan yang juga bekas ketua Armada Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM), Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman mengumumkan pembentukan parti Ikatan Demokratik Malaysia atau Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (MUDA), penubuhan  parti tersebut mendapat pelbagai reaksi spontan daripada pelbagai pihak. Ada yang mengalu-alukan pembentukan Parti MUDA manakala ada yang memandang serong terhadap rancangan Syed Saddiq berbuat demikian, manakala daripada kalangan ahli-ahli politik kanan masa kini, ramai yang mengejek, memberikan gambaran negatif dan yang lebih teruk lagi memanggil beliau dengan pelbagai nama seperti "cucu", "budak mentah", "kecik" dan berbagai-bagai panggilan yang tidak masuk akal. Ya, Syed Saddiq dan kumpulan ahli-ahli jawatankuasa penaja Parti MUDA itu semuanya muda-muda belaka, daripada pelbagai kaum, agama dan latar belakang masyarakat yang pelbagai. Selain daripada itu, barisan kepimpinan Parti MUDA yang diketeng...

The finance minister of the rebel government, Senator Tengku Datuk Zafrul Abdul Aziz had alleged in a parliamentary response that the appointment of MPs from Umno, MCA and MIC to head the government-linked-companies (GLCs) is the way to provide check and balance onto these organisations. Please, Tengku Zafrul, government MPs appointed to helm GLCs cannot provide check and balance, given the fact that they are MPs who are on the government bench, not the opposition bench. History and track records has proven that government MPs appointed to head GLCs will end-up public funds being swindled, mismanaged and corruption became rampant. Have you not seen what happened prior to May 2018? Billions of ringgit has been swindled, abused and corruption became a nobody's business. It was business as usual then. One Umno MP even said that stealing and robbing are not offence unless the thief or robber is being caught. The fact that is, no government MPs can help check on GLCs. If Tengku Zafrul i...

The Parti Pejuang Tanah Air or better known as Pejuang has its formation officially announced by its founder Dr Mahathir Mohamad recently, that is on the same night their by-election candidate for Slim state constituency in Perak was revealed. On the very following day, BN secretary-general Annuar Musa of Umno jokingly spoke of the Pejuang party founded by Mahathir and his group of Bersatu breakaway group. Annuar called Pejuang with a new acronym "Papet" which he was referring to Puppet because of the father-and-son nature of the Pejuang party leadership. We would like to ask Annuar Musa, is it fun to laugh at others when your own parties also failed in their commitment to upbring the community that you claimed to fight for all this while? The political party you are with now, Umno has been in power for the past 61 years, but despite being the most powerful and dominant party in the then Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, Umno has failed to bring up the socio-economic status of...

Recently, the premier of the rebel government Muhyiddin Yassin has announced yet another new council to address Bumiputra socio-economic concerns in this country. It is expected to be simply known as Bumiputra Prosperity Council or in the local language, Majlis Kemakmuran Bumiputra.  We are not questioning the status of Bumiputras nor its status in the constitutions but we were given to understand that such "council of empowerment" of many kinds or brands has been in place since from the beginning. From Umno, to Barisan Nasional, till Pakatan Harapan and today the Perikatan Nasional's rebel government, the efforts are of the same old story, certainly but in a different brand of course, under different ruling coalitions. For over 61 years of BN's rule which was dominated by Umno who notoriously claimed to champion the plights of the Malays and Bumiputras, for 61 years, we only saw only a small group of Bangsawan who has managed to craft a successful venture in their bu...

Recently, we were informed that the rebel government’s minister in the prime minister’s department in charge of parliamentary affairs Takiyuddin Hassan had stated that the rebel government is planning to table a motion in the parliament to seek for the abolishment of all the current parliamentary select committees which are tasked to oversee and check on the government’s various activities, policies, implementations, budgets and GLCs. After all these parliamentary select committees are abolished, the role of overseeing and checking on the government’s state of affairs will be replaced by a sole ineffective parliamentary select committee which will oversee the portfolios of all the government ministries. Currently, the parliamentary select committees in place since 2018 are the Special Select Committee For Consideration Of Bills; Special Select Committee On Budget, Special Select Committee On Defence And Home Affairs; Special Select Committee On Gender Equality And Family Develop...

Kepimpinan Pakatan Harapan (PH) perlu mempelajari dan mengambil segala iktibar daripada apa yang gabungan itu telah terlepas pandang sewaktu menjadi kerajaan selama 22 bulan yang lalu sehinggalah pentadbiran mereka terguling akibat dari pemberontakan yang dicetuskan oleh Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) dan 11 ahli parlimen Azmin Ali di dalam gabungan tersebut yang seterusnya menjurus kepada perletakan jawatan perdana menteri pada masa ini, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. Sewaktu pemerintahan kerajaan PH dahulu, sebab utama PH sering dilihat “lemah” dan “tidak berdaya tahan” adalah kerana dasar kebebasan bersuara yang kuat dipeloporinya dan tidak ada tindakan drastik untuk menanganinya penyebaran berita palsu, dakyah dan pelbagai tohmahan berbisa yang sering dilempar oleh Umno dan PAS sebelum ini. Justeru dari itu, Umno dan PAS terus menggunakan kesempatan daripada kebebasan bersuara itu untuk menyebarkan idea-idea lapuk perkauman dan keagamaan mereka tanpa perlu bimbang sebarang...

Setelah rampasan kuasa Perikatan Nasional (PN) yang berjaya menggulingkan Pakatan Harapan (PH) daripada tampuk pemerintahannya pada Februari 2020 yang lalu, kerajaan pemberontak yang dibentuk oleh PN telah memutuskan agar majlis mesyuarat pertama, penggal ketiga, parlimen ke-14 yang pada asalnya dijadual bermula pada 9 Mac 2020 ditunda ke 18 Mei 2020. Kerajaan pemberontak PN telah mengambil kesempatan daripada penularan wabak coronavirus yang tidak dapat dikawal pada masa itu dan berikutan perlaksanaan perintah kawalan pergerakan (PKP), kerana pimpinan PN juga masih kurang yakin dengan kestabilan jumlah angka sokongan ahli-ahli parlimen yang ada sekarang dan PN dilihat memerlukan suatu masa yang lebih lama bagi memperkukuhkan lagi bilangan angka sokongannya di parlimen. Selain daripada itu, penundaan sidang parlimen tersebut juga dilihat mempunyai kaitan rapat dengan perhimpunan agung dan pemilihan parti Bersatu yang pada mulanya dijadual pada bulan April ini telah ditunda ke bulan ...