Badawi's Wall Street Journal article

Badawi's Wall Street Journal article

Saturday, 15 March 2008,MT

By Little Bird

Folks, this is my take on Abdullah Badawi’s statement that came out in the Wall Street Journal.

He has done this to reassure the fund managers that its business as usual in Malaysia.

Well the KLSE is going south, at just over 1200 points. Patrick Badawi’s Equine Cap is down 50% in market value. Yesterday I met some of Scomi’s buddies who were biting their finger nails. The 2nd Bridge in Penang is wobbly. The PGCC is turfed over. The PORR is also potholed now. The Northern Corridor is effectively kaput. The other Corridors are also dead.

The PM is going to use all these reversals to ask for another four years to warm up before he can think up other ‘corridors’. My comments are preceded by ‘Bird’:

Although the size of our majority would be considered a landslide in most countries, the fact that it has significantly reduced and we have had setbacks in five of our 13 states indicates that we need to do more for those who feel disaffected.

By ABDULLAH AHMAD BADAWI

PM : While I am honored to have been re-elected as prime minister of Malaysia and to have received a 63% majority of the 222 seats in Parliament in our just-completed general election, I am also disappointed that we fell a few seats short of the two-thirds majority we were hoping for.

Bird : To be exact the BN fell seven seats short of a 2/3 majority. But the BN has lost five states to the Opposition and also lost 2/3 majority in Negeri Sembilan. More telling is the almost complete wipeout of the BN in the PM’s homestate of Penang.

The PM should have immediately announced his resignation. But the joke is when Tun Hanif Omar and Mubarak met him and asked him to ‘resign’ he thanked them and ‘re-signed’ the papers to become PM again. Maybe we should do what Bakri Musa has suggested, hit the donkey on the head with a piece of wood. He may realize his unwelcome then.

The PM has not appeared in public since the Polls debacle. It is likely (or rather it should be) that Malaysians will boo him wherever and whenever he is seen in public. This is a prospect the PM will have to face for every extra day he remains in power. May I suggest that all right thinking Malaysians start a booing campaign from today. Whenever the PM and his S-I-L appear in public people must boo. Other things that we can do are to turn our backs when they are present or just ignore them. Lets make them feel the unwelcome they are denying again.

PM : For those who have in the past questioned the legitimacy of Malaysia's electoral process, the results of Saturday's election are proof positive that our country does indeed enjoy a free, fair and highly competitive democracy.

Bird : People on the ground are also saying that the PM won in his constituency of Kepala Batas because of over 10,000 postal votes. Before the postal votes were counted he was trailing.

The same goes for his son in law who is believed to have won by over 5000 postal votes in Rembau. It is a fact that postal votes (from the security forces like Police, Army, Navy, Airforce etc) are almost 100% for the BN. There is an airbase and military installations in Kepala Batas but does Rembau have large army camps?

Minus the postal votes, it is unlikely that the PM and his S-I-L would have won.

The Constitutional Amendment to extend the tenure of the SPR Chairman Tan Sri Rashid by one year and the last minute cancellation of the use of indelible ink are highly dubious. They damage the credibility of our election process.

PM : As there has been much speculation about the implications of our election results, I wish to offer clarity on three critically important points:

First, we have heard the voice of our citizens, and I will dedicate myself, in this second term, to healing the divisions which became evident during the campaign. That will mean developing new and concrete initiatives, not just rhetoric, that bring our people together and ensure that no one is left behind as Malaysia prospers, whether they are ethnic Malays, Chinese or Indians.

Bird : This is typical of the PM. As Lim Keng Yaik has said he must immediately fire ALL his advisors. ALL the fourth floor boys, including those who prepared this statement to the Wall Street Journal, must be replaced. This is a belated admission by the PM that all this while it has only been rhetoric. Empty talk only. This situation is not likely to change over the next four years. The PM has to cancel all the unrealistic and pie in the sky ‘Corridors’. The Opposition went to town to tear down his foolish and FAKE pronouncements. But if he cancels them, his credibility is even more damaged. If he continues with them, it is just more proof he is a moron. He must resign and disappear into history.

PM : Second, we can achieve the above goal because our economy is indeed strong and stable, with a 7.3% GDP growth rate in the last quarter, nearly full employment, more than $100 billion in foreign exchange reserves, and a flood of foreign direct investment in manufacturing and services that last year reached a record $13.7 billion.

Bird : This is not fully correct. The macro numbers are being cooked up. Here is a summary of Bridget Welsh’s take on the economy, which I agree with:

· Malaysia is falling behind in maintaining competitiveness and the economic gains are not being effectively distributed to the population.

·
Abdullah's administration corresponded to high inflation. Even though commodity prices have brought more wealth to the rural areas, it is not keeping up with rising costs.

· The recent Hari Raya, Chinese New Year and Deepavali holidays were noticeably less plush than before, a real sign of fiscal difficulties.

· Wages have comparatively dropped and those working in the service sector make barely enough to survive. The starting take-home salary at 7-Eleven is RM700 a month. Unemployment among younger people remains too high, and not all of them can be absorbed into the civil service.

· Difficult conditions are compared sharply to the wealth of the political elite, including Abdullah and his family with a reported new home in Perth .

· The conspicuous display of consumption of the elite is on display from the rural areas of Perak to the Kuala Lumpur shopping malls.

· No confidence in promoting long-term economic development, increasing Malaysia 's economic competitiveness. In particular, Malaysia faces the difficult task of making is domestic business entrepreneurs more competitive. This involves weaning them off a dependence on contracts. This is true for both the Malay and Chinese business communities alike.

· Abdullah's administration strengthened its use of patronage, and did not send a clear message to end wasteful big projects. The new economic corridors have yet to be shown to be effective allocations of resources, rather than avenues for elite economic gain.

· Abdullah's decision-making style has yet to yield the results his 2004 mandate should have given him. The ideas were developed, but not implemented. The talent in Malaysia is there, but Abdullah was not able to effectively harness it.

I attribute the above weaknesses to the total lack of economic planning and strategic thinking in the country. The PM is a non brainer. His Oxford educated S-I-L is a non starter. The 2nd Finance Minister was a non starter too. The idea of the Economic Corridors’ were picked up from a book that the 2nd Finance Minister picked up

PM : For the benefit of all of our citizens, I intend Malaysia to remain a business-friendly and free market economy with powerful attractions for international investors, who over the past 12 months have included General Electric of the United States, Britain's Virgin Group, and important groups from the Middle East and China.

Bird : For the benefit of the foreign investors and our citizens please leave and berhenti kerja as PM.

PM : Third, I intend to protect the stability and security of our nation. For all of our citizens to share in the prosperity and opportunities our economy is generating, we must also continue our work to eradicate crime and corruption. The people's desire for law and order is as important in Malaysia as it is everywhere. The same is true of the need to make additional progress in battling corruption, which is both immoral and distorts competition in free markets.

Bird: When the poor and downtrodden Indians protested you doused them with tear gas and chemical laced water then locked them up in jail under ISA. 60,000 Bersih people protested. In Terengganu your Police shot innocent Malay people protesting your incompetence. Your S-I-L is patron of the Mat Rempits and the Pekida Tiga Line gangsters. The use of thugs and gangsters has reached a new high in the country. Altantuya was blown up with C4 explosives. Your thugs beat up people who support Dr Mahathir in Kubang Pasu, Kedah. You are the threat to our national security.

PM : Although the size of our majority would be considered a landslide in most countries, the fact that it has significantly reduced and we have had setbacks in five of our 13 states indicates that we need to do more for those who feel disaffected. Although some quarters have called for me to step aside, my party has given me solid support to carry on our nation-building agenda, something for which I am grateful.

Bird : Its time for you to leave now. Either go in peace or you will be kicked out bouncing on your head. The people will soon start booing you everywhere you go. Worse your wife will also get booed. Soon you must lock yourself up inside your house and office and cannot venture out at all.

PM : As with any election in any democratic country, there is debate, sometimes heated; there can be divisions, sometimes fierce; then people make their own choices and democratic politicians have to live with the outcome. What matters most is that governments listen as well as lead, and so I will work hard to create more of a national consensus following our national democratic conversation.

Bird: How can you work at all let alone work hard when half the time you are physically not even awake ? And there is now greater risk : the next time you are caught sleeping in public, people will make even more fun of you and your Gomen. Leave now. Get out. Be gone.

PM : We are listening. I know there is discontent among some parts of our community. I accept it is our responsibility, as the newly reelected government of all Malaysians, to find practical solutions to ease that discontent, to listen to grievances and to seek to remedy them.

I have tried throughout my period in office to bring our country and our communities closer together. I have stood in firm opposition to those who have sought to divide us along racial, religious and ethnic lines. We are all Malaysians and we all must have a stake in building a progressive, united and cohesive country. This has always been my approach to government and politics. It is even more important now.

Bird : Release the 5 Hindraf ISA detainees now.