Politik, Legislatif, Dasar dan Tadbir Urus

By Wan Saiful Jan The philosophy guiding how a government relates with the people is something that not many Malaysians talk about. But if we go back to the early days of this country, ideology used to matter. In a speech delivered at IDEAS Annual Dinner on 20 February 2016, Tun Musa Hitam, Malaysia's former Deputy Prime Minister who started his political career under Tunku Abdul Rahman, said, "In those early days of our history, politics was more ideological than material. There were indeed, yes, indeed, two camps in Umno: the Tunku camp and the Razak camp. "The Tunku camp was clearly and unapologetically right wing, pro-west and pro-business. The Razak camp was allegedly socialist-communist inclined, a brand enough to scare and scuttle people away all the way in those days when communist terrorists were the biggest threat to our independence." This was a telling statement, because Musa was suggesting that the liberal administration of the Tunku was event...

By Syauqi Jamil, Beritadaily.com While Prime Minister Najib Razak’s Budget 2017 had plenty of goodies and petty benefits, it however missed out on addressing the structural weaknesses of Malaysian economy, said an opposition lawmaker today. PKR vice president Tian Chua said Najib’s budget announcements were merely used as a disguise to blanket the real problems that the nation’s economy was facing. “We are waiting for a direction from a very stagnant economy, coming from the losing of confidence by domestic and international investors. “We are facing increasing constricted expenditure for development because we do not have revenues. Our exports are down and we did not develop new methods to collect government revenues, besides GST,” he told Berita Daily. He said the increment of the 1Malaysia People’s Aide (BR1M) was merely an act of “using more band aid to cover more leakages”. The Batu MP also urged the government to have the courage to face the reality of Malaysia lag...

By Kit Blatt, Accountability International On the heels of a global economic meltdown and the glacial pace of economic recovery, restructuring by employment downsizing has become commonplace often at the expense of social conditions and regional development. As companies rethink their operating models, having a more sustainable mindset is in order. One question that needs to be considered is whether or not businesses should take a more active role in minimizing the impact of business decisions on local economies and communities. Mitigating the risk of restructuring by downsizing even before a decision has been reached to cut jobs is an integral part of responsible business behaviour. Retraining, redeploying, and seeking alternative opportunities for those affected can minimise the social and personal impact of structural transformation. Global banking giant HSBC found that being transparent in uncertain times helped build trust with employees and reduced the risks associated with lower...

The Juche idea is a new philosophical thought which centres on man. As the leader said, the Juche idea is based on the philosophical principle that man is the master of everything and decides everything. The Juche idea raised the fundamental question of philosophy by regarding man as the main factor, and elucidated the philosophical principle that man is the master of everything and decides everything. That man is the master of everything means that he is the master of the world and of his own destiny; that man decides everything means that he plays the decisive role in transforming the world and in shaping his destiny. The philosophical principle of the Juche idea is the principle of man-centred philosophy which explains man's position and role in the world. The leader made it clear that man is a social being with Chajusong, creativity and consciousness. Man, though material existence, is not a simple material being. He is the most developed material being, a special product of th...

The economy is the material basis of social life. Economic self-sufficiency enables one to consolidate the independence of one's country and live independently, provides a sure guarantee for Juche in ideology, independence in politics, and self-reliance in defense and ensures rich material and cultural lives for the people. In order to implement the principle of economic self-sufficiency, one must build an independent national economy. Building an independent national economy means building an economy which is free from dependence on others and which stands on its own feet, an economy which serves one's own people and develops on the strength of the resources of one's own country and by the efforts of one's own people. Such an economy makes it possible to develop the productive forces quickly by utilizing the nation's natural resources in a rational and integrated way, improve the people's living standard continuously, strengthen the material and technical found...

The Juche idea is a new philosophical thought which centres on man. As the leader said, the Juche idea is based on the philosophical principle that man is the master of everything and decides everything. The Juche idea raised the fundamental question of philosophy by regarding man as the main factor, and elucidated the philosophical principle that man is the master of everything and decides everything. That man is the master of everything means that he is the master of the world and of his own destiny; that man decides everything means that he plays the decisive role in transforming the world and in shaping his destiny. The philosophical principle of the Juche idea is the principle of man-centred philosophy which explains man's position and role in the world. The leader made it clear that man is a social being with Chajusong, creativity and consciousness. Man, though material existence, is not a simple material being. He is the most developed material being, a special product of th...

Manufacturing activity around the world fell sharply in December, suggesting that the recession hitting the US and many other countries will extend well into 2009, if not longer, and that unemployment will rise globally. Data and surveys published at the start of the new year – including from China – add to the gloom about the world economic outlook. A broad index of change in US manufacturing activity fell to its lowest level since June 1980, when the American economy was on the verge of a severe double-dip recession, according to the Institute for Supply Management. Not one of the 18 industries surveyed reported growth, and some, such as wood products, have been in decline for more than two years. New orders, a gauge of future activity, sank to the lowest index level since US records began 60 years ago. Exports and production also sank, and employment levels declined. The downturn in demand for manufactured goods is prompting US companies of all sizes to lay off workers, shut down pl...

Socialist Economics or Socialist Theories are one of the most controversial theories for the economic development of a nation with the concomitant growth in social welfare. Originally perceived as an idea for the upliftment of the working class who seemed to be destined to be driven down to subsistence wages by the “capitalists” who owned capital and rented land, Socialist Economics has undergone many changes in the course of time. Socialist economy is a structure of the economy which aims at providing greater equality and giving the “proletariat” or working class greater ownership over the means of production. In a normative sense, a socialist economy or a socialist state believes that socialism is the most equitable and socially serviceable form of an economic arrangement designed to achieve human potentialities. Unlike “capitalism” where the means of production are owned by the capitalists, Socialist economies are characterized by the means of production owned by the state or by the...

The finance crisis is now spreading into a full-blown economic crisis all over the globe. The US, the EU and Japan are all in recession, while economic growth is rapidly slowing down in the rest of the world. Worse hit are the poorest countries and the poorest sections of society. The bungy-jumping of the stock markets continues, as does the banking crisis. The Bank of England estimates global bank losses so far at 2,800 billion US dollars. Thousands of billions of dollars in different ”rescue packages” have stopped bank bankruptcies, but not the credit crunch. Everyone with debts – from households to companies and states – are facing worsening conditions. At the same time, the financial crisis has 'shed its skin' growing into an economic crisis for world capitalism. Jobs and living standards are threatened for hundreds of millions, as are the economies of entire states. According to Oxfam, 200 million people have dropped below the poverty line this year. Global recession The U...

The Bush Administration has announced that a rescue package of almost US$700 billion is required to save some of the prominent banks from following the footsteps of Lehman Brothers two weeks ago. JP Morgan, Merril Lynch and a host of investment banks in New York and other cities are already crying foul. Some of us already know that the world’s economy is worth US$60.2 trillion and the American economy about US$12.5 trillion. Just imagine about 6.5 percent of the total American economy is now being used to save the ailing investment banks including one of the world’s largest insurers, AIG, which itself needs about US$85 billion to be resuscitated from receivership. Money has four uses: used as a standard, used as a saving, used as an exchange for buying and selling and used for speculation. Investment is speculation. Almost US$100 billion is traded everyday in the European money market. Some currencies go up and some currencies go down. Some currencies are not even accepted for tra...

THE ATTRACTIVE POWER of socialist ideas, for reasons outlined, has undoubtedly been weakened in recent years. But this will be the transitory effect of a passing conjuncture. Consciousness, especially of the newer generation of workers and youth, will be determined by current conditions and the events which will unfold. As struggles develop, the more active workers and youth will be impelled to search for an anti-capitalist programme -which can only be formulated in socialist terms. Paradoxically, today there is a level of social tension, political protest, and youth rebellion unprecedented in the post-war period. The fragmented character of the movements to which this gives rise is primarily due to the political bankruptcy of the traditional mass organisations. But the struggles of different layers of workers, together with the phenomena of 'new social movements', are a response to the various symptoms of capitalist decline. It is impossible to defend living standards and demo...

By : James Chin Isn't life strange? In 1989, Francis Fukuyama, wrote "The End of History?", published in the national Interest. In this famous essay, Fukuyama argues that the march of Western liberal democracy may signal the end point of mankind's ideological evolution and thus, liberal democracy (American's kind) has won against the ideas of Karl Marx. He wrote: "What we may be witnessing is not just the end of the Cold War, or the passing of a particular period of post-war history, but the end of history as such: that is, the end point of mankind's ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government." Now, nearly 20 years later, we are seeing the most serious crisis facing capitalism, or to be exact, the credit crunch caused by unregulated, free, cowboy capitalism that the Americans have been promoting around the world.Now suddenly, people are asking -- maybe we were too soon to judge th...

Central to the meaning of socialism is common ownership. This means the resources of the world being owned in common by the entire global population. But does it really make sense for everybody to own everything in common? Of course, some goods tend to be for personal consumption, rather than to share – clothes, for example. People ‘owning’ certain personal possessions does not contradict the principle of a society based upon common ownership. In practice, common ownership will mean everybody having the right to participate in decisions on how global resources will be used. It means nobody being able to take personal control of resources, beyond their own personal possessions. Democratic control is therefore also essential to the meaning of socialism. Socialism will be a society in which everybody will have the right to participate in the social decisions that affect them. These decisions could be on a wide range of issues – one of the most important kinds of decision, for example, wou...