At least it works better than Pakatan government

A foreigner friend asked me yesterday about the current political situation in Malaysia.

His company has quite a lot of investments here.

Told him that I haven't been keeping myself updated on politics as I'm tired of it, but from what little that I knew, it's actually going nowhere.

Yeah, it's just going in the same merry-go-round as usual.

Shafie Apdal as PM candidate???....okay, out of respect for the elderly, I'm not going to say what I think of Dr Mahathir's state of mind when he proposed that.

Told my friend that it's just the handsome old man telling the world that he doesn't want Anwar as PM, ever. Anything but Anwar, that's what the world should know now about Dr Mahathir's thinking.

And Anwar himself should realise that he's now irrelevant. No way he could lead Pakatan to win the next general election. Even DAP and Amanah know that and rather follow Dr Mahathir.

They are so messed up over there. Some really need to retire from politics too.

Pakatan coming back to power in the immediate future....forget about it, okay.

Having said all that, I have to admit that I'm actually quite fed-up with a lot of people on this other side of the fence too.

Some stupid ministers starting to show their stupidity again, towkays seeking "appointments" with newly minted GLC politician bosses, lackeys trying to make their own deals using their bosses' position etc etc.

Same old sickness.

I think I should give up too on the hope of an early election to allow the people to get rid of the garbage.

That's not going to happen as most of them politicians seemed happy living in their own little ponds for now.

Even the Pakatan politicians are afraid to lose whatever little they still have now if Muhyiddin goes crazy and calls for GE15.

Well, never mind.

As long as the current government works and not screwed up too much, I don't mind.

If it could revive the economy the way it handles Covid-19, I think that would be great.

Yeah, I know, you all may argue that things will get rotten very soon, but till then I'm still okay with this government except for a bit of its stupidity here and there.

At least this government, for now, is still better than the Pakatan's one which was back then was purely driven by stupid politics.

Remember all the blaming they did on the previous BN government? That's about all that the Pakatan government really did during their 22 months rule.

If they come back to power (which I don't think they will for now), I wonder who they would blame for their own shortcomings later on as that's about all that they seemed capable of doing.

Eh, people are tired of their whining, okay.

I'm tired too.

And I have to get up for work now....enough with my rambling for this morning.

Have a good day guys.

Hopefully, they settle the nonsense quickly

Been almost a month since I last posted something here.

Was busy with personal issues.

And I was also quite fed up with what's been happening.

Not inspired at all to write.

Now they said there may be a general election as early as October.

Maybe it's because they want the tabling of the budget to be smoother.

Yeah, all the nonsense as we are just trying to recover from Covid-19.

However, it is not really a bad idea, I think.

A snap general election could settle the nonsense quickly so that we could move on.

I just  hope the people could be smarter this time and kick out the crooks from both sides.

And the stupid ones too.

I'm really tired of them.

People are struggling to survive and they are busy jostling for power.

Real bastards.

You all must have read all that in the news and don't need for me to tell those again here.

It's for you all to decide, okay.

See, I'm already losing my interest in all the nonsenses, even as I'm writing this.

I'm actually writing this short post just to make myself sleepy.

See lah how, maybe I'll write properly later.

For now, I will try to get some sleep.

Working tomorrow.

Good night.

The unfortunate political appointments - Sime Darby Plantation

I have so far been supportive of the Muhyiddin's administration as it leads the country in the Covid-19 war.

However, that does not mean that I support everything that the administration is doing right now.

I have been trying to hold back my criticisms as I don't want Muhyiddin and his people to get distracted from their main priority that is to contain the pandemic, which they are doing quite well so far.

But today, I have to write this one criticism of the current government which I feel necessary because if the problem is left unchecked, it will cost the country dearly.

It's about the increasing number of appointments of politicians aligned to the current government into the GLCs.

This is actually the one issue which I don't have a proper reply to when brought up by Pakatan people.

I'm honestly not sure what is Muhyiddin's actual motive for allowing such appointments.

To appoint politicians to GLCs is one thing but to appoint unqualified and proven failed politicians to important posts in GLCs is simply bad and there's no excuse for it.

Still, I have ignored this issue till now as I wanted the focus to be on the Covid-19 war.

I have to admit though that I cringed upon reading news of those appointments....such as Khaled Nordin as Boustead chairman and Tajuddin Rahman as Perasarana chairman.

"Tak ada orang lain ke?" I asked in my heart.

Then came this story at The Edge;

Please click on image to read

The story is that TS Abdul Ghani Othman is to be replaced at Sime Darby Plantation by Pribumi Bersatu disciplinary board chief Tan Sri Megat Najmuddin Megat Khas.

Regular readers of this blog should know that I'm very fond of Ghani since my days in Johor till even after he had retired from politics in 2013.

The guy is one of the few confirmed good men that I know.

I was saddened that they are removing him from Sime Darby but decided not to make noise about it as maybe Muhyiddin has his good reasons to let his former Muar High School classmate being replaced like that.

I was also told by someone close to Ghani that he doesn't mind being removed from the post as he has been helming the company for almost eight years.

Ghani has been doing well in his post, so much so, that he was the only BN political appointee and an Umno personality at GLCs who was not removed by the Pakatan government after GE14.

As far as I know, being a non-executive chairman at Sime Darby, Ghani has never interfered with the actual running of the company and instead acted more as an advisor to the professional executives.

He is not at all like those usual political appointees who screwed up things for the professionals who are supposed to run the GLCs.

For the record, Sime Darby Plantation is doing relatively well, considering the circumstances.

This is the last story I read about the company,

Sime Darby Plantation’s net profit 

up to RM394 million in Q1 2020

That was among the just few good local business news since Covid-19 hit our country.

Then this morning I received a call from a close friend who knows what is happening in Sime Darby.

I asked about the removal of the former Johor MB from Sime Darby and it turned out that he knows quite a bit about it.

According to him, this was how it happened;

- On May 15, just before a Sime Darby Plantation board meeting, Ghani received a letter signed by PNB chief executive Jalil Rasheed informing him that Megat Najmuddin has been appointed as Sime Darby Plantation chairman with immediate effect from the date of the letter.

- Ghani was required to inform the board about the appointment. The letter however did not mention anything about Ghani's removal from the post. Ghani's contract as Sime Darby chairman was supposed to expire in June next year.

- Ghani had then dutifully informed the board about the content of the letter.

- The board members were however very unhappy about it and protested, saying that was not how a chairman of the company was supposed to be replaced. They said Sime Darby Plantation is a public listed company and that the way the irregular appointment was made will have a negative impact on the company as a whole.

- The board members were also most upset because Sime Darby Plantation was supposed to hold its AGM next month and preparations for it was at its final stage. To replace Ghani with Megat now will upset the whole process.

- The Sime Darby Plantation board members had then sent a letter to PNB chairman Zeti Akhtar Aziz to voice their unhappiness over the matter but so far have not receive any reply.

Well, that's the story so far.

I'm not writing this in an attempt to persuade Muhyiddin to keep Ghani as Sime Darby Plantation chairman.

I'm more into letting him know that people are watching and if these sort of nonsense continues, it will affect the people's perception of his administration.

If Ghani, or any of the other GLC heads really need to be replaced, then at least do so properly.

And please don't put useless politicians as their replacements.

I hope, some how, Muhyiddin will get this message and he will do something about it.

My request to him is that, please do things properly and don't squander the people's support given for the Covid-19 war just to satisfy the greed of some quarters for political expediency.

Farewell Tok Mat

Received the sad news that Datuk Ahmad A Talib passed away late this afternoon.

Ex-NST GE Ahmad A Talib dies

Innalillahiwainailaihirojiun.

I know arwah for more than two decades.

He was a good and kind man.

Anyone who knows him will agree with me on that.

Some may even say that he was sometimes too good and kind for his own good.

As some people like to say, nice guys never win wars.

But that's just Tok Mat.

"Ahmad is the quintessential nice-guys-don't-win-wars type. He hasn't got a mean bone in his body," said a friend when we discussed his illness two weeks ago.

Whatever it is, for me, life is not war. It's not about winning or losing.

Life is a journey.

And Allah judges us based on how we conduct ourselves on this journey.

I believe Tok Mat conducted himself well throughout his journey.

Ya, as a human being he, as do all of us have faults, but as far as I'm concerned Tok Mat's good deeds, especially his kindness to others far outweigh his faults.

I pray that Allah placed him among those that He favored.

My condolences to his family and loved ones.

Covid19 Raya: Putting loved ones at risk

I hope I'm wrong but I think there will be a new wave of Covid19 infections within the next few days..

This house where Im now is packed with beraya people.

Im sitting in a corner trying to keep my distance.

I don't know why they are not following the advice to celebrate raya in the safe confines of their own homes.

It seems that people are forgetting there's a pandemic at the moment.

The main road outside is also busy with traffic of people going berhari raya.

Don't know lah.

Hopefully not too many will die after this raya.

Sometimes I don't understand why people can be so reckless and thoughtless, putting the lives of their loved ones at risk.

Maybe it got something to do with our education system.

Honestly, I'm very dissapointed.

Well, what to do....just have to live with it and try to survive the best that we could.

I'm writing this using my phone, so I can't write longer.

Hopefully you all have a more pleasant and safer raya than me.

Cheers.

Raya eve blues, let us have fresh GE

Received this after Subuh prayers early this morning;

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/22/world/asia/malaysia-politics-najib.html

This is my reply,

EC ready for snap general election 

amidst Covid-19 crisis

excerpts;

EC chairman Datuk Azhar Azizan Harun said managing a large-scale general election while the country is dealing with the pandemic would be challenging but not impossible.

He said the commission began preparing for this eventuality when the Dewan Rakyat recently accepted a motion of no confidence against Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, which was filed by his predecessor Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Ya, I don't mind having a snap general election now....even amidst this Covid-19 crisis, so just to shut them up.

That nice guy Art Harun said his EC outfit is ready, so let's have it.

Hopefully Muhyiddin see this post some how and when they go after him again on July 13, he can just dissolves parliament and let us have a fresh general election.

If there's a new Covid-19 outbreak afterwards because of that, we can blame it on Pakatan for being crazy for power.

And for all you know, BN, Pas and their allies will win the election on their own....just like they did in the last five by-elections.

Baru padan muka orang Pakatan, especially those DAP ones.

Eh, enough lah. I need to help in the kitchen now. 

We are making lontong daun pisang for Raya tomorrow. 

Can't do ketupat because hard to get young coconut leaves under this MCO.

Banana leaves can just take from behind the house.

Okay, that's all.

Selamat Hari Raya, maaf zahir batin.

Covid-19 Raya: Let us not be selfish like those politicians

This is a very good advice,

Covid-19: Best to just stay at home during Raya

excerpts;

“Better yet, this is only an advice and not a policy, don’t leave home at all. Don’t go visiting and just celebrate Hari Raya at home with your immediate family members,” said Dr Noor Hisham.

That's exactly what I'm going to do this weekend.

I hope others will do too.

We really can't afford a second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

It's really not worth celebrating Raya if only to later on being totally confined again and the economy takes even longer to be revived.

I also totally support this,

Covid-19: Zero tolerance for those 

attempting interstate travel for Raya

excerpts;

Those attempting to cross state borders will from now on be issued compounds instead of just being asked to turn back.

We really need to let go of everything for now so that we could quickly overcome this Covid-19 crisis.

Let's not be like those politicians who insisted on having their drama while we, the common people are struggling to survive the pandemic.

They wanted to topple and replace the current government, if possible right at this very moment, despite it having performed very well so far in containing the virus.

As if they could have done or will do better with their infighting and power crazy leaders.

If we look back at the way they conducted themselves during their 22 months in power, and if we are honest with ourselves, we have to admit that it would be a complete disaster if they were the ones running the government when Covid-19 hit our country.

And now, after kicking their own butt out of power, they want to create trouble again.

Selfish bastards.

Those who know me or read this blog since its early days should know that I hardly criticise Dr Mahathir. In fact, I defended him on many occasions to a point that I was accused by some pro-BN bloggers of actually being pro-Pakatan.

But for this Reuters' story, I have to say I totally oppose Dr Mahathir,

Mahathir promises 'very big trouble' for Malaysia's ruling coalition

excerpts;

“(Muhyiddin) is going to be in very great trouble. Because whatever chance we have to prove that it is not legitimate for him to be the prime minister, we will do that.”

What's the need to make things difficult for Muhyiddin and his administration while they are leading us in the battle against Covid-19 pandemic?

Is this what the rakyat really want?

Or is it just the Pakatan people who want to be back in power?

I actually felt sad when I read that.

Dr Mahathir is now 94 and he still has to continue doing that.

Honestly, I wish him to just rest and be at peace.

I really hope we don't have to go through another political battle before we could really overcome the Covid-19 crisis.