To kenhor,
It is very interesting to note the trouble you have taken to
research for your posts, and it certainly provide some new angles
to be considered. My response and clarifications are as
follows:
"And one that is insignificant to you may be significant to
others. Who is to say that USA is not dangling the carrot and
brandishing the stick in the 9-11 affair to silence the
Saudis.
It is doubtful if the USA will ever carry the stick over the
Saudis, there is too much antagonism towards the USA to risk having
a major Arab ally being alienated. The US Citizens will be at
liberty to pursue private litigation efforts against the Saudis or
the Bin Laden Family, but it will be doubtful if the US Government
will pursue a line of toughness with the Saudis.
Now now, no need to be so nasty .. since when did they do
that?
They try to upstage even the ASEAN Secretariat, by attempting to
form an independent Secretariat that reflects the agreed ASEAN+3
concept(?). It was only a result of the strong objections from
Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand that this Malaysian idea was
dropped.
PM Mahatirs attempts to take the lead role is well known for his
efforts to lead the Muslim World to withstand competition and
degrading attitude from the First World.
His effort (and that of his FM Syed Hamid Albar) to out-do the
Arabs is hardly disguised by forming a separate conference of
Islamic Countries - to condemn USA in their efforts to attack
Saddam or Iraq within the NAM meeting in Kuala Lumpur in late
2002.
The protests from the Arabs put a stop to this matter, as the O.I.C
Meeting was to be held ten days later in Doha, after NAM in Kuala
Lumpur.
No need for sour grapes here. Just because we don't do the
things they do, we don't have to put them down or call them
names.
Unfortunately, it is no skin off my nose if Malaysias PM Mahatir
or the FM Syed Hamid Albar does what they intend to do to elevate
the position of Malaysia.
In any case, why bother with sour grapes if Malaysia decides NOT to
measure their system against the Best of the Best; but is quite
satisfied with the levels which they envision for themselves.
And what did Thabo do wrong? After all, he is inheriting a
nation that has great social, racial and economic divide. He is as
great (or even greater) than GCT.
After inheriting the legacy from Nelson Mandela, Thabo had shown
his idiocy by declaring that no Government Funds will be given to
any hospitals who dare contradict his finding that Aids or HIV is
not caused by Virus.
He certainly inherited a Nation, but while Nelson Mandela continued
to move his South African Bumis to excel themselves, Thabo was
more interested to create his own legacy after his term.
With violent crimes rising to the point of lawlessness, affecting
almost every level of society, the place is no longer safe even in
the up market neighborhood. Car jacking, rape, murder, daylight
shooting, assaults, and what other violent crimes you can think of,
all these are happening in South Africa under Thabo.
In your opinion, could he be doing better than GCT ?
Why would the Chinese only cheer this? Won't the Malays
also be affected? The chinese cheered because they know Dr M is
tolerant than Anwar.
While the Malays or Bumiputras had access to soft loans, based on
Islamic Banking system, the other ethnic groups have only access to
commercial loans based on commercial terms and conditions.
It was largely the Malays or Bumi that fought for Anwar, who as
Finance Minister had created and implemented the policies that
benefited the Bumis. They did not applaud nor approve of the
methods used; and were largely sceptical of their PM's effort to
discredit his Deputry.
Certainly, It will be the Chinese and the other ethnic groups in
Malaysia - that have no safety net from the Government during the
cash crunch of 1997 - who will be applauding.
Of course he will have changed his stripes, until he
becomes the PM, then, the truth will be known.
Of course anything can happen for the future, but given the fine
balance of racial harmony that exist in Malaysia, would a savvy
politicians dare put his career at risks ?
YES .. I agree with you .. Its always about KICKBACKS. But
then again, politics all around the world is like that. Guess that
we should buy Haliburton Shares now. After Iraq is taken over,
their stock will soar.
Dont count on the stock market recovery after Iraq is taken
over.
If the war can be successfully concluded in 90 days (from H-Hour of
Day 1), it will require at least another 90 days of establishing a
new Law and Order Structure, Civil Service, and continued mopping
up operations for armed dissidents that refuse to accept
defeat.
After 180 days, of continued stock decline, it will be surprising
if the bottom of the stock exchange does not open up and drop its
load.
And 90% of the Malaysian Chinese business are like that as
well. So what's your point?
The original view from my post was:
How else do
poor "kampung boys", with no historical connections to wealth and
fame, can succeed in one generation to have their sons owning and
operating corporations that are involved in mega-million dollar
enterprises ?
Lee Kah Shing built his own empire through ingenuity, foresight,
and keen business sense.
How could the Malaysian Politicians - who are mainly kampung boys -
manage to find their million dollar funds to form mega-corporations
for their children to operate, and all in one generation, with the
dads entering politics mostly coming from poor family
background.
Are you talking about Malaysia? I thought you were talking
about Singtel.
The well endowed First Family can hardly be seen as Kampung
Boys.
In any case, SingTel is NOT a Private Company owned by Private
Capital.
The effort in privatization by the SGP Government is only skin
deep; as it try to disguise the GLCs into private companies by
selling out to "approved" private public personalities that seems
to be acting as "proxies in trust for the Government"(?).
Which is worse as that meas that MY TAX DOLLARS are being
used. Which there is no accountability, and NO share of the
dividends if there is any profit.
Have you forgotten the Singapore Shares ? At least Singaporeans get
back something from the Government, despite the losses. What has
the Malaysian politicians done with their National Reserves ?
But the point is that the money will benefit the third
world countries in which it is badly needed FDI as well as
Malaysians who manufacture goods for export.
They could not even pay for their military hardware purchase in
Cash, and have to barter with their Palm Oil, nor do they allocate
any funds to handle their problems with the Drug Addicts, and other
social welfare, educational, and infrastructural problems; and yet
they make a big thing about investing overseas - which serves as
"conduits for leakages".
One would expect that at least they put their house in order,
before attempting to play the Guardian Angel to help the Third
World Countries.
Building homes in North Korea would that be a North Korean State
Funded Project, or will it be another Malaysian Politician's
daylight robbery on their National Reserves ?
Altruism or foolishness ?
No .. my statement tells me that the Malaysian government
is doing what it thinks is best to benefit its citizens, by
creating opportunities in new markets.
It should read more accurately if you had written that the
Malaysian Government is doing what it thinks is best to benefit its
cronies, as the Citizens are hardly aware that such investments
exist.
Whatever new opportunities from new emerging markets will benefit
the crony operated corporations, and seldom the Malaysian
citizens.
"It is interesting to note that as a developing country,
Malaysia ranks quite nicely when it comes to Foreign Reserves.
Indeed, EU candidate countries (Czech, Poland, HUngary) seem to
have less reserves than Malaysia. Not to mention the best
performing South American (Chile) country has half the FR as
Malaysia. This goes to prove that FR does not equate to economic
success.
Of course, all the NICs (S Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and HK) beat
Malaysia, but among the developing countries, Malaysia is among the
leaders. (and they have 17 more years to go before 2020)
Do not forget that Czech, Poland, Hungary had only until recently
emerged from a Stalinist economy, with the collapse of the Soviet
Union through Perestoika and Glasnost.
Malaysias exposure to the worlds free and open economy stretches
back since it independence from Colonial Rule - a period of more
then Forty Years.
Surely Malaysia could have done better if measured against those
ex-Soviet style economy - instead of only a marginal
difference.
"Indeed, one will question why with FR of 83.6 billion,
Singapore's unemployment rate is nearly 1% higher than
Malaysia's?
Singapores economy has reached a level of maturity much like
that seen in Japan, and other First World economy.
With Singapores dependence on ever higher technology to be
utilized, and which require lesser manpower, this can only result
in a strong shake-up, restructuring exercises leading to a higher
rate of unemployment in times of crisis.
No economy can ever continue its relentless growth, and maintain
continued full employment.
A dead end will be met sooner or later, unless new niche areas and
leading technologies are continuously discovered and owned by
Singapore Companies.
