Umno claims to be the largest Islamic party in the world. Soon, about 100 ulama, the ex-Perlis Mufti included, are expected to join Umno, which will make the party more Islamic than PAS. Below is The Starreport on the matter.
cari makan ‘ulama’ made to pay for BN's profligacy –
For those cari makan ‘ulamas’ who are about to take a big leap into the UMNO regime of vices, mission intention is to swim along with the sharks, and be part of the cursed creatures, by all means, may all you be condemned till eternity!
Dr. Mohd Asri, If you think you can change the zionist baptised UMNO from within truly disappointed with you. the wisdom and a moderate outlook of the Malaysian life but if you ever join UMNO thinking that you can change their corrupt culture I believe you are just a dreamer. UMNO have been using the NEP for the past 52 years to enrich themselves and their cronies so do you think they will EVER change? Look at the present contracts that are worth Billions of ringgit being awarded to their cronies without open tender and the Palace contract that can escalate cost to more than one hundred per cent in less than two years so what do you see in this Government but that they are CORRUPTED TO THE VERY CORE.
'What about the billions stolen from Petronas, power contracts, inflated project costs, and the bailouts of cronies?'
BEFORE the likes of Perkasa accuse me of questioning the monarchy, let me categorically state that I have no issue with our rulers and I maintain that this institution is the fine thread that holds us t
ogether in the wake of the political renaissance that this country is experiencing.
OK. My beef is with the guardians of our coffers and their brand of "kira-kira".
First, we spend RM70 million to upgrade Istana Negara, but 11 years on we deem it fit to fork out over RM1 billion for a new palace. At the same time the RM50 million Istana Malawati in Putrajaya which had undergone a RM30 million refurbishment is underused.
Then we spend RM90 million to upgrade Parliament House and less than a decade later think of turning it into a heritage building and move the Dewan Rakyat and Dewan Negara to Putrajaya, with the RM100 million underused Putrajaya International Convention Centre (PICC) as a possible venue. The excuse? It will take another RM150 million to expand Parliament. But wait! What did we spend the RM90 million on then? You know, for the upgrade before the roof started leaking?
Anyway, where the old istana is concerned, there is already talk of redeveloping the site. It makes sense as neighbouring Sungai Besi Airport is already earmarked for a massive commercial project, so why would one make an exception of this national heritage?
The present Parliament House is also supposed to be gazetted as a national heritage. This comes as a surprise as one would think that Parliament is already a national heritage, conceptualised by Bapa Malaysia as a gift to the people and a symbol of our democratic constitution.
So what exactly do we do with all that space and real estate – all 16ha of it? Is it going to end up as a white elephant replacing the other white elephant called the PICC?
One can painstakingly try to come to a rationale over this sudden urge to move house, especially when we are told to tighten our belts or face bankruptcy in nine years – one year shy of us achieving developed nation status. But it is impossible to come to an acceptable explanation.
Yes, unfortunately, the reasoning that these symbolic structures are old or it makes it easier for MPs from the ruling party to multi-task between their governmental and constituent obligations does not hold water. Half the time they are cutting some ribbon in the city anyway, so the present Parliament venue is ideal.
So let’s cut to the chase. Kuala Lumpur is prime real estate and there are hundreds of millions of ringgit to be made from developing the sites of these two national heritages. Latest figures show that land in Bukit Tunku sells for at least RM200 a sq ft. But I could be wrong. After all, the 96ha that the new Istana Negara sits on in Jalan Duta is also high-end real estate commanding the same value.
What I am trying to get at is let’s stop spending money on a whim. RM1 billion for a new palace when there are two others which are just as opulent and befit a king, is not prudent spending.
RM1 billion can equip all government hospitals with life-saving scanners and cancer drugs, where the waiting list for limited MRI machines is up to three months at some hospitals. It can provide breakfast for all schoolchildren five times a week for over two years. It can put an end to housing issues, providing a roof over the heads of many needy Malaysians.
It can give our policemen the equipment they so badly need and the salary revision that they deserve.
It can build roads in rural areas in Sabah and Sarawak where children have to dice with danger to get to school – be it plying timber tracks or ravaging rivers.
So, unless it’s your grandfather’s money, stop being cavalier with our limited resources. Put our hard earned money to good use.
Our landscape is dotted with mega projects and underused million-ringgit structures which are testimony to the greed and arrogance of a few. We certainly do not need more. And by approving the construction of yet another palace, the government is inadvertently drawing negative focus onto the monarchy, through no fault of the rulers.
One must realise that the king or his brother rulers did not request for a new or bigger palace. What would their highnesses need all those rooms for anyway?
Hence the intention of this project in Jalan Duta – which was not via tender – becomes suspect. For whom really is this palace for?
Jadilah pengguna bijak. The authorities will be wise to adopt their own consumer campaign slogan each time they decide to spend our money. Terence is reachable at terence@thesundaily.com
S A Aiyar, 20 June 2010,
Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee is smiling. He had hoped to get Rs 35,000 crore from auctions of spectrum to telecom companies for 3G and broadband wireless access. In fact, the auctions fetched a whopping Rs 106,000 crore.
Thanks to this bonanza, government sources claim that the fiscal deficit will now be only 4.5% of GDP, against the budget estimate of 5.5%. At a time when fiscal deficits in other countries (notably Greece) constantly exceed budget estimates, the government claims that India is moving, virtuously, in the opposite direction.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have greeted the news by pouring fresh millions into Indian stock markets. In May, FIIs pulled a whopping $2 billion out of the stock markets, sending the sensex crashing. But they are now flooding back, buying more than half-a-billion dollars of stock last week. They feel that the fall in the fiscal deficit will release additional bank funds for borrowing by the private sector, help lower interest rates, and thus boost the economy.
Alas, this apparent improvement in government finances is largely illusory. The fiscal deficit is the difference between the government’s tax revenue and spending. This gap can be met in two ways — by borrowing more, or by selling more of its assets. The net worth of the government — assets minus borrowings --- will be exactly the same whether it borrows more or sells more. So, selling more is not superior to borrowing more, as the government — and the stock markets —seem to think.
Seen in this light, the spectrum sales have not really improved the government’s finances. It remains profligate, spending far more than it gets. The fact that a greater share of this overspending will now be financed by selling assets rather than borrowing does not change the underlying reality of overspending.
Spectrum sales are being counted as revenue by the government. In fact, revenues are income streams like taxes that yield money year after year, on a sustainable basis. Selling spectrum provides a one-time gain that cannot be sustained.
So, the spectrum sales of Rs 106,000 crore must not be viewed as a great success. Rather, they represent a big upfront levy on telecom companies — and through them on telecom users — to finance government overspending.
Some readers might think that, with the government borrowing less from banks to fund its deficit, more bank money will be available for productive investment, spurring the economy. Alas, this is not so. Telecom companies have to borrow enormous sums from banks to pay for the spectrum. So, after the spectrum sale, the lower government borrowing requirement will be fully offset by the higher borrowing requirement of telecom companies. No bank funds will be freed for productive uses by the private sector.
Hence there is really no case for celebration or for stock markets to boom. The government has simply sold some family silver to finance its overspending, and its underlying financial situation remains unchanged.
Readers will ask, isn’t it a good thing to auction spectrum rather than gift it to favoured telecom companies, as happened in the case of 2G spectrum? Aren’t auctions necessary to check crony capitalism and corruption?
Yes indeed, we must have auctions to ensure transparency and check crony capitalism. But this auction was wrongly designed. Telecom companies should have been asked to bid not for a one-time purchase of spectrum, but for the percentage of revenue they were willing to share with the government indefinitely. This would have been transparent and fair. It would not fetch an instant bonanza of Rs 106,000 crore, but it would have produced a sustainable stream of revenue in the years to come. The government’s share of telecom revenue would have risen over time with increased telecom use. That was the way to go.
The government also plans to sell equity stakes of up to 10% in several government companies. These sales too are being counted as revenue, and so will appear to reduce the fiscal deficit. In fact, these too will represent a sale of family silver that simply finances overspending rather than reduce it.
Now, if the government sold a majority stake in public sector units, allowing new private sector management to take over, that would hugely improve efficiency. But only minority stakes will be sold.
In sum, asset sales must not mislead readers to think government finances are improving. On the contrary, the government’s unwillingness to decontrol petroleum product prices, and its seeming commitment to ever-rising subsidies, spell danger. We need a more honest presentation of government finances, not the smoke and mirrors that have become standard practice.
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