Unite, and Johor will prevail

The most crucial thing for Umno now is for its members to be united.

Otherwise, it's the end of them. It's as simple as that.

With the general election certainly to be held next month, Umno need to avoid from being distracted.

Of course things are not 100 per cent perfect for Umno and its allies but if they could manage to hold everything together till polling day, I'm quite sure their target of winning back the two third majority in parliament could be achieved.

As it is, I need to put it on record again that I'm not an Umno member or that of any other political party. My motivation in supporting BN's election efforts is simply to see PM DS Najib Razak winning a convincing mandate from the rakyat so that he may make the necessary changes for the better in the government and Umno.

I'm not claiming to be "berjuang untuk agama, bangsa dan negara". That would be too cliche. Instead, I am just an ordinary Malaysian who want the country to continue along its path which has brought stability and prosperity over the past half a century since Merdeka,

I feel that Najib deserves the chance to affect those changes for the better, especially due to the fact that the alternative PM is either DS Anwar Ibrahim or DS Abdul Hadi Awang. I'm quite sure that Najib could do a better job at anything compared to those two.

From my conversation with friends who are strong supporters of Pakatan, I could sense that they were worried about their chances of defeating BN.

They are starting to talk about how Najib had failed to improve things and that the rakyat are suffering and against him. They also talked about Najib being saddled with alleged personal baggages. Then they started to talk about how Najib should let go off his post, so that his deputy TS Muhyiddin Yassin could takes over in leading Umno to "war".

Of course they know Najib is currently very popular. So, to make themselves feel better, they have to resort to these sorts of talks. And of course, we know that Muhyiddin is a very able deputy of Najib and he will stood by him. Muhyiddin is not the same as a former deputy prime minister who had wanted to stab his boss in the back and assume the PM post through deceit and treachery. Well, I think you all know who that is.

Then, there are all sorts of other weird moves they were making of late, such as fielding the DAP's 72-year-old supremo, Lim Kit Siang in Gelang Patah, Johor.

It was supposed to be the signal for the DAP's invasion of Johor. The irony was that, it was announced last night by Anwar, who was once an Umno deputy president. Johor being an Umno fortress has its gate being opened by a traitor.

Whether the Chinese community of Johor will vote in welcome of Lim's DAP army is yet to be known. What ever it is, a question mark should be, why did they send the old man to do battle in Johor? I'm sure there are other younger and more talented DAP leader who could lead the charge.

How about the genuinely talented and hardworking Johor DAP chief Dr Boo Cheng Hau? Well, just hours before the announcement that Lim is to contest the Gelang Patah seat, Dr Boo's vice chairman Ong Kow Ming, who is also the Senai assemblyman had a press conference where he runs down his boss, accusing him of practicing nepotism and trying to break up the Pakatan coalition with his very public quarrel with Johor PKR chief DS Chua Jui Meng.

The way I see it, Dr Boo was stabbed in the back by his fellow Johor DAP leader to ease the way for the Lim family to dominate Chinese community leadership all the way from Penang in the north to Johor in the south.

It's always the classic case of a traitor causing the collapse of the castle.

Johor Umno and it's allies need to be weary of this as it prepares for the oncoming assault.

They should not allow themselves being distracted from the defense of Johor by petty politickings of people with vested interest.

Any attempt to cause disunity and infighting at this juncture, especially among Johor Umno leaders must be immediately snuffed out and those who instigated them should be treated as traitors.

Notwithstanding the challenging nature of defending the State, I am confident that Johor Umno and it's allies will prevail.

One thing for sure, the Johor leadership has always managed to unite in the face of external threats. That is the Johor's trait which has made Umno strong in the State. In all likelihood, that will not change any time soon.

Crazy Ai

On Saturday night, I gave Ai, the former owner of the BigCat blog the pass word to this blog so that she may write a piece on what ever she wanted. I had done the intro to her post in the draft column. This whole idea, I thought would be good in providing a space for talented writers who wish to write but do not have the time to keep a blog due to other commitments such as in the case of my dear friend Ai.

I had after that went on an a trip to a place somewhere outside KL and stayed there throughout Sunday. I had not taken a look at what happened to this blog or others as I was having a rather splendid day at that place. It was only when I reached home later late last night that I found out the havoc caused by Ai's posting. The stat counter had gone crazy with the page view hits for her posting at that moment at 1,815, and the overall page view of the day at 3,873. The past two weeks since I set up the blog, my daily average overall page view hits was only around 150. I did some check and later on found out that the main sources of the traffic came from Ah, Annie! , Why the BN cyberwar machinery can’t match Komtar and  Easy Weekend. 

Thanks to Datuk Rocky, Helen and Tinsel for the links.

Nonetheless, I was not happy with Ai's posting as I suspected that she had made up the story. I sense that she was just trying to mock someone due to the highly sarcastic tone she adopted in the posting CONFIRMED! Hishammuddin to replace Ghani as Johor MB. By the way, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein as Johor MB? Come on la. It will be the death of him, I think. I think he should remain at the Federal level. 

I called up Ai in Taiwan this morning and caught her as she was about to leave home for her classes.  

She just laughed at my indignation and admitted that she wrote the posting just for the heck of it. 

"Well, I know there is a move by some people to change the Johor MB even before the GE13 and Hisham's name had been bandied in the blogs. So, I thought it's a good idea to give them a bit of a push to make them happy," Ai said before cracking into another fit of laughter.

I have to admit that my friend Ai is a bit of a crazy girl. 

I also would like to apologize (for myself and her behalf) to those who actually thought that Ai's posting was for real and failed to see that she was being sarcastic over the whole thing. Hope you all will forgive us.

Now, I need to go to work. Have a pleasant day everyone.

CONFIRMED! Hishammuddin to replace Ghani as Johor MB

Ai, formerly of the BIGCAT blog has agreed to contribute a weekly posting to this blog. She will be writing every Saturday or Sunday starting this week.


By Ai

Hi guys, hope you all are fine.

For those who don't know me, I used to run my own blog but has given it up due to other commitments. For those who know me, just want you all to know that I'm ok where I am. A bit busy and tired, but ok.

I'm actually writing this just to stop Annie from continuously bugging me to write in her blog. I must also caution you all that I'm far away from home and far removed from what is happening back in Malaysia. So, don't believe 100 per cent what I write here.

Ok, cutting the nonsense short, here is what I want to tell you all,
I had just been reliably informed that Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman will be replaced as Johor Menteri Besar by Umno vice-president Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein before the GE13. Yes, it's been CONFIRMED!

It was learned that Ghani will be removed from his post within the next few days following allegations that he was selling off a portion of Johor to some nefarious local and overseas Chinese, among other things. Oh, he was also alleged of inappropriately selling some fried chicken wings to a balding Chinese boy. Even though the allegations were yet to be proven, the Umno leadership had decided that they can't risk to lose  the support of the rakyat in Johor. The Umno leadership had also decided to show the Johoreans that the party does not tolerate treasonous leader like Ghani, that is if he is really treasonous la.

Hishammuddin, who is currently the Home Minister was said to have been selected as the ideal replacement of Ghani due to the strong and undivided support he enjoys among Umno leaders in Johor. He is expected to contest one of the state constituencies in Semberong in the GE13, where he has an unshakable grassroots support. This will pave the way for his appointment as Johor Menteri Besar. It was also believed that the Umno leadership had decided for Hishammuddin to replace the dastardly Ghani due to his dazzling smile and the solid support he receives from ALL Johor-born bloggers, including myself (former blogger, in my case, I think).

Back to Ghani, the most incriminating evidence of his evilness was said to be contained in the following NST article published on July 15, last year. Well, that's it for Datuk Ghani, I guess. Cheers everyone!


No frills, no fuss but Johor BN delivers

ON THE GROUND: As far as the state BN is concerned, plain hard work is all that's needed for the 13th general election

IT has been 11/2 years since the Tenang by-election and if anyone would care to remember it, they would probably recall the floods which hit the constituency on polling day.

As for political observers, especially those from outside Johor, the most peculiar thing about the by-election would probably be the way Johor Barisan Nasional won it -- it did so with style despite perhaps the most low-profile campaigning ever conducted by the coalition.

Umno's Mohd Azahar Ibrahim, who was the BN candidate, won by an increased majority of 3,707 votes in a constituency comprising 49 per cent Malays, 41 per cent Chinese and 10 per cent Indians and other races.

There were no attempts to create a fun-fair or carnival-like atmosphere by the BN camp during the campaign period while the victory celebrations were replaced by flood relief work.

Iit can be concluded that that is the way of Johor BN -- no frills, just plain hard work.

As the 13th general election looms, Johor BN is once again going about its business in an almost stealthy manner.

Except for the occasional visits by party bigwigs from the federal level, there has been almost no media coverage of the coalition's preparations for the general election.

Those unfamiliar with Johor politics cannot be faulted if they wonder about BN's chances in the southern state as recent reports, especially by pro-opposition news portals, seem to indicate that the ruling coalition is set to lose more electoral seats or even control of the state altogether.

Opposition leaders, especially those from the Chinese-based DAP, had also unabashedly proclaimed that Johor would be theirs this time around.

Their optimism apparently stems from the fact that Johor has a relatively large Chinese community, which is perceived as being hostile towards BN.

Johor BN holds all 26 parliamentary seats except for Bakri, as well as 50 of the 56 state seats.

Unknown to many, Johor BN's preparations for the general election had started in earnest back in 2010 with its chairman, Johor Menteri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman, visiting each parliamentary area to check on issues which needed to be settled.

The "big issues" involved the people's need for basic infrastructure, such as bridges, roads, religious schools, mosques and community halls.

When the Tenang by-election was held in late January last year, Ghani and his small team of assistants formulated a strategy of utilising grassroots leadership at the "ballot-box level" to spearhead campaigning.

The rationale was that these grassroots leaders know the voters better and therefore, would know how best to win their support for the BN candidate.

The strategy worked brilliantly and when Ghani completed his visits to the parliamentary areas in the middle of last year, he took the cue from that success and went on a second round of visits, this time to the almost 1,000 "ballot-box areas".

These visits, which started in September, were for Ghani to meet grassroots leaders and help them tackle the smaller issues affecting the respective localities, such as land applications, clogged drains, widening of village roads and organising of communal activities.

Ballot-box area committees, comprising grassroots leaders from all BN component parties, were given direct access to the menteri besar's office to improve coordination in their preparations for the general election.

Feedback from these grassroots leaders has so far been encouraging.

Pekan Mersing Kecil ballot-box committee chairman Samsi Sapan said the menteri besar's visits have helped spur party members to work harder.

"If the menteri besar himself can come here and sit down with ordinary people for hours, listening to their smallest problems, such as unkempt grass at the roadside, then we as ordinary party members should work even harder to ensure a bigger BN victory," he said.

Samsi said his committee members were now in the process of engaging all voters in their area and are organising communal activities such as futsal tournaments, karaoke competitions and gotong-royong.

"We are also going around identifying poor residents who need help and arranging their appointments with the relevant agencies such as the Welfare Department."

The opposition in Johor is resorting to their usual ceramah with big names such as Parti Keadilan Rakyat's Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and DAP's Lim Kit Siang as the main attractions.

The issues brought up include the usual -- accusations of BN's alleged corrupt practices and promises of a better administration once they are in power.

Several attempts to stir local issues, however, have not been so successful -- the latest being the mammoth petroleum hub project in Pengerang, which Johor opposition leaders such as Johor PKR chief Datuk Chua Jui Meng had tried to equate with the Lynas rare earth plant project.

The overall scenario as both sides of the political divide in Johor prepare for the general election is similar to the run-up to the Tenang by-election, except that now it is on a larger scale.

Johor BN, without fuss, is working hard while the opposition is trying to shock and awe Johoreans into supporting them by employing their "big guns".

The outcome would be anyone's guess.

ends

Chinese school students are also patriotic

I don't know why NST didn't put this story on its website, as I think it's a good story. It was published on the newspaper's page 21 of the central edition today.

I'm taking the pain of writing it down here from the NST copy in front of me to prove to the ultras out there that Chinese school students are also patriotic.

Students donate to show support

Seremban

Touched by the sacrifices of security personnel in Sabah, Chong Jin Hui, a Year Six pupil of Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan (C) Chung Hua here, donated RM180 she had saved for a class trip planned before the year end.

The youngest of four siblings, Chong was moved by news reports of policemen and soldiers who had died while in battle with Sulu terrorists in the east of Sabah.

Together with 900 of her schoolmates, teachers and school staff, they managed to collect RM5,448.50 for the Tabung Wira Lahad Datu Media Prima.

"I will forever feel grateful to our security personnel there.
"I want to help the families of those who had died protecting our country.
"Now is the time for us as citizens, to give our support," said Chong, whose parents own a sundry shop in Rawang.

She added that her father also told her that she could donate the money she received during the Chinese New Year festival.

"My father said it is our duty to help the families of security personnel who died in the clashes there."

The school's board of governors chairman Chong Khin Sang said there was also a similar donation drive at Chung Hua High School.

A total of RM12,000 was collected from the students, school staff, teachers, and parents yesterday.

Chung Hua High School assistant head prefect Christopher Lim, 18  said the students had gone all out to collect the donations.

"The Sulu terrorists do not respect our country's sovereignty.
"What they did is despicable and irresponsible," said Lim, adding that he was inspired by the incident and wanted to become a soldier.

Note: I can't find a photo of Chong Jin Hui or Christopher Lim in the net to go with this story. The best I could find is this photo of a Chung Hua Seremban teacher with her students, and what she wrote about her experience at http://www.ch2013.com/articles/teachers/adibah-musa/

Fighting the DAP cyber bullies

It's a good thing to know that more of those being bullied in this country are standing up to confront their tormentors.

Here is one of those stories Pakatan Supporters Who Threatened Girl With Rape, Death In Serious Trouble

This was a good move by SYA and friends.

Just lodge a police report if those  DAP cyber bullies try to take away your freedom to choose whatever you want. They need to be stopped. They are using all the dirty tactics known to men to intimidate, threaten, insult and degrade those who disagree with them.

Their main targets are Chinese who oppose DAP. Chinese ladies are particularly susceptible to their attacks. You can read about all these in Helen Ang blog. She got plenty of those stories.

Seriously, why do they resort to such tactics?

Well, the only logical answer I could think of is that they think that the Chinese community has and will always be dominated by a strong central authority. That the community is still subjected to the triad mentality and has to be disciplined by force. Those who went out of line must be disciplined in such a manner.

In the present scheme of things, they want to make DAP as the central authority of the Chinese community with its leaders being the taikors.

Chinese who oppose the party will be considered as traitors to the Chinese race and they are therefore legitimate targets for whatever abuse deemed necessary.

Here is an example of how the DAP cyber bullies were conditioned to view fellow Chinese who do not support their course - traitors to the race. They themselves were trained to believe they are Bruce Lees out to exterminate those traitors to the Chinese community.

In the Komtar's crosshair

Just opened this blog and was greeted by six new entries in the comments box.

Here they are,

When opposition ask UMNO for debate on policies, where is the government and what is the response? You only knows and feel hate. You equate opposition to haters. Ask yourself and what you think the role of opposition? If no answer, you know NUTS. onRemembering how Pakatan treated our police Anonymous at 17:02

Annie you can clearly see Kutty's daughter is very pro-Pakatan. Then we must be very disappointed with kutty. He talk and do too much that he turn his daughter to pro-pakatan. Man, his daughter so close to him can see the true color of her father. onRemembering how Pakatan treated our police Anonymous at 16:58

We are waiting to see commit suicide and who are the liars. May Almightwho y see to that liars. on Environmental bullshit turned to racial bullshit Anonymous at 16:46

Annie. Why it is not happening in Selangor, Penang and Perakand destroy the state especially Selangor. why Jibby had to tell other UMNO off and make himself commander in cheap? on Environmental bullshit turned to racial bullshit Anonymous at 16:43

If doing well, why still BR1 to rakyat. To cronies well but not rakyat. So rich become richer. on Securities Commission's annual report indicates Malaysia doing very well Anonymous at 16:38

So another guess work by Annie about those men in black in Komtar. Why not Annie go and prove it. Easy, in Komtar just follow anyone in black. Ask the jaga how many men in black. Of course, who will tell the truth especially UMNO is so rich to dish out $$$ and MCA can give free dinner. So giving $$$ by UMNO and MCA to bloggers is kacang putih. on Focusing on the all important GE13 Anonymous at 16:35

I believe anyone can guess correctly where these comments came from. Just look at the time when the comments were posted. They were most likely by the same person.

I'm not trying to flatter myself, but I believe I'm now under the Komtar's radar.

Probably the Komtar gang had assigned a low level cybertrooper to troll this blog. I conclude that it's a low level operative because of the low quality of the comments. That's probably because I'm a new blogger.

Nonetheless, in all sense of fair play, I'm letting those comments through. That particular cybertrooper probably need the extra few ringgit as payment if those comments went through anyway. Better let him/her have it. I'm not a cheapskate.

Notwithstanding the quality, I have to applaud these Komtar cybertroopers. They are indeed very efficient. Notice how they immediately latched on a target once they identified a potential threat. The BN cyberwar machinery, could never match that. Well, not with the present way of how they are doing things.

Why I concluded that it's the Komtar gang? Well, because these six comments came just after Helen posted this

DAP’s biggest social media network is The Star

Helen, arguably the Komtar's gang's number one nemesis had done it again. She must had irritated them to no end with that posting. Being linked by Helen is, for me, an honor.

Now, I believe I have to live up to the expectation.

I'm neither Ai nor Tinsel, but I'll try :-)

Securities Commission's annual report indicates Malaysia doing very well

This is a good news indeed -

Kuala Lumpur, 14 March 2013

A record year for Malaysia's RM2.5 trillion capital market

The Malaysian capital market registered a record performance in 2012 with the overall size reaching RM2.5 trillion, a 16.4% increase from RM2.1 trillion in 2011. All market segments saw double digit growth between the range of 14.1% to 22.6%.

2012 was also a year of strong assessment outcomes. The Malaysian capital market regulatory framework emerged from this extensive assessment with a score of 92%, with ratings of "fully implemented" for 34 out of 37 principles assessed. This achievement is the highest among countries that recently underwent the assessment.

Strong market performance; bond market hits RM1 trillion threshold

"The Malaysian capital market has performed strongly in 2012 despite challenging global market conditions. The SC's focus in 2012 was to ensure that our market remained resilient and that it continued to play its role in capital formation and the mobilisation of savings," said Datuk Ranjit Ajit Singh, Chairman of the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC).

The large amount of funds raised through the issuance of corporate bonds and initial public offerings (IPOs) in 2012 sealed Malaysia's ranking as the world's biggest sukuk market, the fifth largest IPO destination globally and the fourth most active in Asia for corporate bond issuances.

The corporate bond and sukuk market exceeded the RM1 trillion mark for the first time and positioned Malaysia as the third largest bond market in Asia. It was
also a record year for IPOs; with issuers raising a total of RM22.1 billion, increasing the equity market capitalisation by 14.1% to RM1.5 trillion while the bellwether FBM KLCI ended the year at a record high of 1,688.95 on 31 December 2012.

The fund management industry continued to play a key role in savings mobilisation, recording a significant expansion of 19.2% in assets under management (AUM), valued at RM505.1 billion. Net asset value (NAV) of the unit trust industry increased to RM294.9 billion, with NAV as a percentage of market capitalisation at 20.1%. Islamic assets under management accounted for approximately 16% of the industry total AUM or RM79.6 billion.

The size of the Islamic capital market increased by 22.6% to RM1.4 trillion with Malaysia maintaining its position as the leading sukuk market, capturing 76.9% of global sukuk issuances and 69.2% of global sukuk outstanding. Islamic capital market also enjoyed greater internationalisation through wider participation of foreign sukuk issuers from Singapore, UAE, Bahrain and Kazakhstan.

Resilient market underscored by robust supervisory and enforcement efforts

In 2012, the SC continued to supervise intermediaries closely, through a 30% rise in on-site examinations on stockbroking and asset management companies, as well as expanded coverage to credit rating agencies. To further strengthen client asset protection, fund management companies are required to conduct independent review of its controls on an annual basis. Regarding audit quality, the Audit Oversight Board has intensified its supervisory efforts through a risk-based approach by completing inspections of 19 audit firms involving 40 individual auditors.

A wide range of significant enforcement actions were taken in 2012, along with continuous investigation efforts to curb misconduct, market abuse, and insider trading. The SC filed a total of seven criminal charges for insider trading while a company director was convicted on four charges for furnishing false information relating to a company's unaudited financial results. In addition, eight administrative sanctions were imposed against licensed intermediaries for misconduct and improper business practices while an investment bank was reprimanded for failure to carry out proper due diligence in a corporate exercise.

In order to encourage a culture of ethics and good governance, the SC introduced the Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance 2012 focusing on enhancing board effectiveness and independence of directors.

Regulatory reform to promote capital market inclusiveness; maintain strong investor protection

Extensive amendments to the Capital Markets and Services Act (CMSA) paved the way for the establishment of a legal framework to expand retirement savings options for Malaysians. The Private Pension Administrator (PPA) was established to facilitate an efficient process for contributions and record keeping. Eight PRS providers were approved in July 2012 and as at February 2013, the total NAV stood at RM 72 million with close to 24,000 contributors registered with PPA.

Amendments to the CMSA also introduced a framework for the introduction of business trust. This new framework will provide an opportunity for investors to participate in the yields generated by the assets bundled in the trust structure when they purchase the units in the business trust listed on the exchange. It also widens fund raising options for issuers and strengthens Malaysia's appeal as a regional listing destination.

The introduction of retail bonds provides an opportunity for retail investors to access and participate in the bond and sukuk markets. The framework allows issuers to reach out to a bigger pool of potential investors.

The initiative in broadening market access for retail investors was complemented with an enhanced investor protection framework. The Guidelines on Sales Practices of Unlisted Capital Market Products was issued to ensure that investors are treated fairly and disclosures are made simple and clear. The guidelines also mandates suitability assessments to be conducted to ensure that the product sold to investors matched their risk profiles.

The Capital Market Compensation Fund was established in 2012 to further complement improvements in market infrastructure by providing another independent avenue for investor redress.

Global assessment affirms high standards of capital market regulation

In 2012, Malaysia undertook the Financial Sector Assessment Programme (FSAP), a comprehensive assessment of all aspects of a country's financial system by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The assessment evaluates the comprehensiveness and quality of the Malaysian capital market's regulatory and supervisory framework relative to IOSCO's Objectives and Principles for Securities Regulation, the internationally-accepted set of standards for capital market regulators.

"The independent assessments acknowledge the strong regulatory regime in Malaysia, which has validated the SC's approach to regulation that is appropriately benchmarked to global standards," said Datuk Ranjit.

"It is imperative for us to swiftly capitalise on opportunities to ensure that the Malaysian capital market continues to be positioned competitively with market structures and practices which promote vibrancy and innovation," he said.

SECURITIES COMMISSION MALAYSIA