NEM is against high wages for workers

http://www.neac.gov.my/sites/default/files/Chapter%206%20-%20How%20do%20we%20get%20there.pdf
Page 114.

Despite what the government says, NEM is not to increase wages of
workers. There is no minimum wage at all so the wage can be ZERO,
which is very common in Malaysia, disguised as Industrial Training.

This is enforced by the incessant statements in NEM that the most
important aspect is the training of workers, which is again working
with ZERO or subsidised(negatie) wages in Malaysia.
My daughter had undergone the Aircraft Maintainance Course, so called
pioneered by Najib when he was Defense Miniser but not a single hour
of the practical training,( at zero wage, under hazardous conditions,
without any worker protection rights at all, and yet supervised by MAS
Engineers, according to normal aviation safety standards,) recognised
by DCA.

Is there any hope for anybody to get training that is recognised by
world standards that are to be conducted by educational institutiions?
None whatsoever.
Only the employers can train their workers to the standard that it
wishes to adhere based on market conditions. If employers can get away
with cheap or zero wages, they will adjust their market to that level,
which means low quality products. There is no incentive at all for
employers to train their workers in order to produce high quality
products to compete in world markets.

If a government institution, Polytechnic Shah Alam, failed to produce
qualified aircraft technicians, despite instructions and lecturers
from MAS in a course that follow IASA standards, fail to produce a
single hour of certified training, what hope is there for other
courses that do not have such close contact with industry? This is
despite the costs incurred by the government. In fact, it is the most
expensive course in public educational institutions
probably due to the subsidised and yet useless(unrecognised) practical
training conducted at MAS.

My daughter and her other top students in Malaysia, had to work for
MAS with below poverty level wages(RM1200/ month), for 3.5 years more
in order to get a license. Even this is not sure because MAS cannot
afford to spend a lot of time training their workers.

Just ask any of the top corporations in the world. My example was
Telekom Malaysia when it was under Cable and Wireless. It had
educational institutions within the company to train techniicians for
2 years with a curriculum and equipment that will put diploma courses
in private and public universities to shame. Unfortunately this
educational institution is dismantled to the point that what is left
in current TM is only 2 weeks of training.

Just imagine. How can Boeing or Toyota companies roll out their
advanced models if they don't train their workers themselves? Is there
any educational institution that can train workers in the highly
secret models that Boeing and Toyota roll out every year?

Safety net is urgent but not in the way of the NEAC views which are
directionless anyway.
It is an alternative to minimum wage. If you can get paid RM1000 per
month doing nothing, do you still want to work for RM500/month?
This is the amount paid in Hong Kong if you are unemployed.

Minimum wage is only important if the safety net is not implemented
fully, such as in Malaysia.
Since it is impossible to provide a complete safety net, minimum
income is always desirable if you want high-income economy.

Alas, the Malaysian government is not interested in implementing a
high-income economy but likes to publicise it because of its political
impact.

The Malaysian government likes to go against history and real examples
such as Singapore and United Kingdom, in favour of their narrow minded
views of economy.
The only secret that Singapore applies is just to follow world
standards and norms, nothing so special about it. Just enforce
international standards in regulations and designs.

Malaysia has similar laws and standards, but never follow them.
Sometimes they may appear to follow standards but it only occurred
after a clear disaster has happened. That is why I call Malaysia as
never having followed any international standard. They only follow
when they deal with outsiders because they cannot hide, such as
Aviation Standards that have strict international audit and
investigations.

Building a stronger safety net is urgent
Malaysia's social protection system, as
in many Asian countries, is still evolving.
While it is relatively well-developed, there
are major gaps and inefficiencies. Poverty is
less widespread but there remain selective,
vulnerable groups and pockets of intractable
poverty. Inequality remains a pressing issue.
Despite substantial subsidies available to
the population, the disadvantaged are still
not getting access. Safeguards are needed
to protect individuals from catastrophic
outcomes and to soften income shocks for
the most vulnerable. Some have suggested
that a formal minimum wage might be helpful
to cushion workers against such shocks or
downturns. The NEAC strongly believes
this would be a wrong approach and in fact
could exacerbate the situation by reducing
competitiveness and reducing employment
opportunities.

NEM is just mumbo jumbo

http://www.neac.gov.my/sites/default/files/Chapter%206%20-%20How%20do%20we%20get%20there.pdf

If it were just mumbo jumbo, there is no way for us to implement it.
For guidance NEAC should refer to BEM via its EAC. EAC has the
guidance of the international Washington Accord defining standards for
Engineering Professions.

The principle applied by EAC is simple: you must be able to measure
objectively your targets or plans.

NEM fails to do this.

As one NUS professor from Ipoh, advised me as well as my colleagues;
keep it simple so that we can implement and measure it. I myself was
guilty in trying to be correct in implementing complicated targets.

One clear target of the Singapore Government policy is simple:
Increase per capita income of Singapore in world currency. So
Singapore government implements strategies of defending Singapore
dollar's value while increasing salaries of government servants,
which by the way, include salaries of all University Lecturers.

In just 20 years, Singapore has the second highest per capita income
in Asia.

6.1.1
Restoring market prices for goods and
services will improve economic efficiency
but may initially raise consumer prices
and costs of doing business

Remove subsidies but with such high prices, it will increase poverty
and reduce market for products for local consumption as people have
less salaries.

Cannot remove subsidies unless the poor are given cash handouts from
the gain made by governments in reducing subsidies, already done by
the cash handout when petrol subsides were reduced.

The political repercussions is from the rich and huge consumer of
material subsidies, such as distributors.

n Practices that promote fair and equal
opportunity will inspire market confidence
and create a competitive economy but
may lead to political repercussions

This report may appear to sound as though it removes Affirmative
Action, but affirmative action is designed to promote fair and equal
opportunity for every citizen by reducing rampant and obvious results
of racial discrimination.

Even China practises affirmative action by giving favour to their own
citizens of the special economic zones over that from other states
within china.

n Reduced dependence on foreign labour
encourages firms to move up the value
chain or embrace automation while those
that cannot will exit, costing some local
jobs

Singapore relies a lot on foreign labour but the difference is in the
salaries of these foreign labour.
While Malaysia favour low salaried foreign workers, Singapore and
other developed nations favour high salaries foreign workers.

n Flexible hiring and firing reduces entry
and exit costs for businesses while wage
levels will better reflect skills; but the
perception of less job security will irk
unions

Flexible hiring and firing means that employers can disregard
principles of justice in employment contracts but ALL DEVELOPED
nations have strong UNIONS that can defend the rights of their
workers.

This is unlike Malaysia and ALL UNDEVELOPED nations that DO NOT ALLOW
UNIONS to be strong.

NEM is just perpetuating a critical policy that has made Malaysia so
UNDEVELOPED and with the continuation of this backward policy, will
never achieve DEVELOPED status in the forseeable future.

Singapore may appear to restrict union activities, but NTUC is very
powerful and prominent in Singapore.

Faster connectivity will facilitate further
integration into global markets but requires
greater openness in the telecommunication
market

There is already great openness in Malaysian telecom market with so
many small players entering the market but most of these have gone
bankrupt.
Despite giving concessions to competitiveness in order to allow them
to grow. Wimax is a good example. TM was not allowed to operate Wimax
and yet these small players refused to provide infrastructure for
their networks, relying a lot on TM networks.

n Greater decentralisation in decision making
will achieve speedier implementation and
effectiveness but may result in diluting
federal government power

The advantage of decentralisation is only apparent if geograhical and
monitoring efficiencies are achieved.
It does not have to be dilution of Federal powers, only centralised
Federal powers where decisions are only made at KL.

NEM abandons Affirmative Action

USA under Bush dismantled the Affirmative Action policies created by
Clinton and the result is a disaster for the world to see. The
greatest nation on earth suffering under the worst economic disasters
that the world has ever seen, only to be saved by Affirmative Action
policies.

If USA had opted for the dogs eat cats policies favored by Bush and
now the Malaysian NEM, The world will suffer from a bad economic
disaster.

Now the NEM claimed to apply Afifrmative Action based on needs. This
is nonsense and misleading. Affirmative Action as practised in USA is
never based on needs but based on ethnic lines or strategic needs.
Just because you are poor, you deserve government aid, just as the
rich Banks do not deserve any help; only charity is based on this
principle, not affirmative action.

Affirmative action was introduced in USA in order to reduce racial
discrimination and not to reduce poverty. It was applied to elite
university entrance based on racial quota to the point of lowering
slightly, entrance requirements for certain races that have a
disproportionately low representation in top universities.

In USA it is the white dominance of the economy despite the presence
of large pockets of poverty among white people.
In Malaysia it the chinese dominance of the economy despite the
presence of large pockets of poverty among chinese people.

This is interpreted as clear proof of racial discrimination practised
by these dominant people in perpetuating their dominance in the
economy especially those that practise open unregulated economy that
had led to the economic disaster in 2006 in the first place, such as
USA in 2006 and now Malaysia.

Sunday April 4, 2010

Knock the NEM at your own peril
The Star Says . . .

TO conceive of something like the New Economic Model requires honesty
and realism. To implement it in the way it is intended requires
responsibility and courage, undaunted by attempts to distort or
subvert it.

For example, there is the carping complaint that the NEM does not
possess an ethnic agenda, which really should be a compliment in multi-
ethnic Malaysia.

Those who still need the crutch of an ethnic agenda should look for it
under corporate restructuring or genetic engineering, not 21st-century
national policy.

Much the same goes for complaints that the NEM contains no ethnic
stake in economic distribution. The reason is simple: it's about the
inclusive provision of opportunities based on need, not an exclusive
divvying up of the goods based on presumed favouritism.

Those who set "fairness" against "equity" only trip themselves up, as
if inequities can be fair. These crass voices typically emanate from
that netherworld of partisan NGOs angling for political leverage,
reeking of political opportunism and delinquency.

To argue that any particular community cannot compete in an open
tender system after more than half a century of independence is a
gross insult to that community, unless one is referring to those
spoonfed into a state of passive incapacity.

To compete, people must first feel competitive, not complacent.

The malcontents who oppose the NEM also reject the proposed Equal
Opportunities Commission.

The EOC functions to sustain the laudable purposes of the NEM, akin to
the central pillars of the erstwhile New Economic Policy: economic
restructuring and national unity, by decoupling economic function from
ethnicity.

True, the EOC's decisions should not contravene the Federal
Constitution. But neither should thoughts, sentiments and actions
against the EOC and its work.

Those who say the NEM and Article 153 of the Constitution are
incompatible understand neither. Article 153 gives broad powers to the
Yang di-Pertuan Agong, not intemperate rabble-rousers, in deeming what
is "reasonable" on bumiputra rights.

Those who denigrate the NEM on clearly racial grounds flirt with
sedition and are playing with fire.

Sultan has no right to appoint or fire his Regent?

According to the secretary of the Royal Succession Council.,Encik
Aseri, only the Royal Succession Council has the authority to appoint
the Regent, not even the Sultan, according to the constitution.
Is this true?

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/3/27/nation/5943762&sec=nation

Saturday March 27, 2010

Another twist to royal rumble

KOTA BARU: The Kelantan royalty crisis took another twist yesterday
with acting Sultan Tengku Muhammad Faris Petra ordering the removal of
his uncle Tengku Abdul Aziz Tengku Hamzah as chairman of the Kelantan
Royal Succession Council.

Tengku Abdul Aziz, who is the elder brother of Gua Musang MP Tengku
Razaleigh Hamzah, was involved in a botched effort to oust the acting
Sultan on Thursday.

Tengku Muhammad Faris has appointed Tengku Laksamana Kelantan Tengku
Abdul Halim ibni Almarhum Sultan Ibrahim as the new council chairman,
council secretary Datuk Aisery Alias said.

Aisery, who is also state secretary, told a press conference here
yesterday that Tengku Abdul Halim's appointment took effect from
Thursday.

Also present at the press conference were Kelantan Royal Palace
comptroller Datuk Abdul Halim Hamad and Deputy State Secretary Shafei
Ismail.

On Thursday, Tengku Abdul Aziz was declared the acting Sultan
replacing Tengku Muhammad Faris in an attempt to takeover the state's
sovereignty.

The move, which was purportedly ordered by the Sultan of Kelantan
Sultan Ismail Petra, was announced by Datuk Wan Hashim Wan Daud who
claimed to be the Sultan's private secretary.

Wan Hashim claimed that the Sultan had ordered that Tengku Muhammad
Faris be stripped of his powers as the Regent for rescinding his order
to cancel the Sultan's birthday celebrations and investiture ceremony.

Following his announcement, Wan Hashim was arrested by the police at
his house in Kubang Kerian at 9pm on Thursday for inciting unrest.

At the press conference, Aisery and Deputy Mentri Besar Datuk Ahmad
Yaakob also announced that the removal of Tengku Muhammad Faris was
illegal as it was not sanctioned by the state Royal Succession
Council.

They said the announcement by Wan Hashim was constitutionally illegal
and that Tengku Muhammad Faris, who was appointed on May 29 last year,
was the legitimate acting Sultan.

Under the Kelantan Constitution, a removal of a duly appointed acting
Sultan can only be done with the consent of at least two-thirds of the
council's 17 members.

Tengku Abdul Aziz, they said, did not convene a meeting of the council
before the announcement was made.

Who has authority, the Sultan or the Regent?

It appears that it is the regent that has the authority, not the
Sultan.

It is like the acting Prime Minister who has authority over the Prime
Minister who is ill or sick or overseas.

It also happened in Sabah when Haris Salleh, as the unconfirmed Acting
Chief MInister of Sabah had signed away all Sabah's rights for
nothing, i.e. not more than 10% royalty, which means the royalty can
be zero, all by himself, witnessed by Pairin Kitingan.

I pity the Sultan's Secretary who had to carry out the Sultan's verbal
orders. He is now imprisoned even longer by now.

March 25, 2010 19:04 PM
Tengku Aziz's Appointment Unconstitutional, Tengku Faris Still Regent
KOTA BAHARU, March 25 (Bernama) -- The appointment of the chairman of
the State Council of Regency, Tengku Abdul Aziz Hamzah, 76, as the new
Regent of Kelantan was unconstitutional, Comptroller of the Kelantan
Royal Household Datuk Abdul Halim Hamad said Thursday.

With this, he said, the Kelantan Sultan's eldest son, Tengku Muhammad
Faris Petra Sultan Ismail Petra, the Crown Prince, was still the
Regent.

"The appointment (of Tengku Abdul Aziz) was not in accordance with the
State Constitution because any appointment or dismissal requires the
approval of two-thirds of the members of the State Council of Regency
and not from one person."

Abdul Halim was commenting on the report that the Sultan of Kelantan,
Sultan Ismail Petra Yahya Petra, had stripped the post of Regent from
Tengku Muhammad Faris with immediate effect.

The decision was said to have been conveyed by Tuanku Ismail Petra to
Tengku Abdul Aziz and the announcement read out by the Sultan's
private secretary, Datuk Wan Hashim Wan Daud, at Istana Mahkota.

According to Wan Hashim, the Sultan was said to have ordered that the
post of Regent be handed over to Tengku Abdul Aziz, the brother of Gua
Musang member of parliament Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah.

On the Sultan's condition, he said the Sultan was able to speak and
still had a good memory.

He said Tengku Abdul Aziz was of the opinion that there was no need
for members of the State Council of Regency to meet over the dismissal
of Tengku Muhammad Faris as Regent because the Sultan was able to
speak and make a royal command while the action was also not wrong.

Wan Hashim said Tengku Muhammad Faris and the state government would
be informed of the said announcement.

Yesterday, Tengku Muhammad Faris said his father, the Kelantan Sultan,
was still unwell while he remained as Regent since his appointment on
May 29 last year following the Sultan's admission into Mount Elizabeth
Hospital in Singapore after falling ill.

Tengku Muhammad Faris said all reports on his father's state of health
other than that came from the appointed medical specialists, were
inaccurate.

Meanwhile, State Secretary Datuk Mohd Aiseri Alias confirmed at a
press conference later today that Tengku Muhammad Faris was still the
Regent, while the earlier announcement made by Wan Hashim on his
removal from the post was of no effect as it did not represent the
State Council of Regency.

Mohd Aiseri, who is also the secretary of the Council, said Tengku
Abdul Aziz had acted on his own without calling for a meeting of the
Council. Hence, his action was wrong and unconstitutional.

At the same press conference, Deputy Menteri Besar Datuk Ahmad Yakub
said the state government's stand on the matter was in accordance with
the State Constitution.

"Tengku Muhammad Faris is still the Regent although others have
announced that he has been dismissed.

"This matter needs no further discussion nor require a constitutional
amendment or an emergency sitting of the State Legislative Assembly,"
he said.

Ahmad said in a bid to end the palace crisis, Deputy State Secretary
Shafie Ismail had lodged a police report on today's incident.

He also advised the people in the state to respect the law and the
State Constitution.

-- BERNAMA

BN is now led by Sex maniacs

One is proven on video. The other has so many evidences that it is
surprising it didn't come out. NOt surprising because anyone caught
uttering a few words will end up disappearing for ever.

We should not blame politicians. Only those who vote for them.
Malaysians may be sex maniacs themselves or at least most of them.

Najib intend to pullute Sabah completely

http://www.policyinnovations.org/ideas/innovations/data/000162

Najib already promised to cut pullution in Malaysian by 20% but still
build coal power plant using imported coal, while Sabah huge gas
reserves, so huge that it is economical to build a more than 200km RM
2billion pipeline to Bintulu to be exported to West Malaysia.

So West Malaysia will be clean why Sabah will be absolutely dirty.

Borneo Can Say "No" to Coal Power
By Jeremy Hance

Mongabay.com, March 22, 2010

CREDIT: Jeremy Hance © 2010.
Plans for a coal power plant in the Malaysian state of Sabah in
northern Borneo have run into stiff opposition. Environmentalists say
the coal plant could damage extensive coral reef systems, pollute
water supplies, open rain forests to mining, and contribute to global
climate change, undercutting Sabah's image as a "green" destination.
The federal government contends that the coal plant is necessary to
fix Sabah's energy problems, yet a recent energy audit by the
Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory (RAEL) at the University
of California, Berkeley shows that pollution-intensive coal doesn't
have to be in Sabah's future.

"We found that energy efficiency, biofuels, hydropower, and geothermal
provide immediate advantages for the region over fossil fuels, and
that in time both solar and ocean energy could provide even more
energy than coal, while building jobs and a clean environment,"
Professor Daniel Kammen, director of RAEL, told mongabay.com.

Commissioned by Green SURF (Sabah Unite to Re-Power the Future), a
coalition of NGOs that oppose the planned 300 MW coal plant, Kammen
examined Sabah's energy options, including traditional fossil fuels,
biomass waste, hydropower, solar, wind, and geothermal. The analysis
also looked at the cost of each of these options to consumers, taking
into consideration that an independent energy producer would require a
certain return on their investment.

Alternatives

The study found that using biomass waste from Sabah's extensive oil-
palm plantations could provide a significant boost in energy to the
state while being cost-competitive with coal. This solution would also
deal with a waste-disposal problem for the oil-palm plantations.

"The large scale of palm oil, and other biomasses means that this
'waste' is a huge resource," says Kammen, though he also stresses that
oil-palm plantations are not without their own environmental problems.
"The challenge is not the technology, but in managing a wider issue,
the growth in palm oil estates that have their own significant
negative impacts on the region, despite their economic benefits."

Using 2008 data from the palm oil industry, Kammen's report found that
by 2020 oil-palm waste could provide a staggering 700 MW. 400 MW (one
hundred more than the planned coal plant) would be achievable under a
proposed 4-year program.

Hydropower was also found to be cost-competitive with coal and more
environmentally friendly, while geothermal was found to be only
slightly more expensive than coal. A location has already been
identified on the east coast of Sabah for a 67 MW geothermal power
plant.

Kammen adds that Sabah shouldn't rule out solar energy. "Solar energy
is a far better but a bit longer-term resource than is widely
appreciated today," he says.

The cheapest way forward overall is to pursue reduction in energy
demand, according to the analysis.

Coal Fears

Despite the many environmental problems known to accompany coal power,
the coal plant is being pushed by both the federal Tenaga Nasional
Berhad and the state energy company, Sabah Electricity Sdn. Bhd.

Opposition from locals has forced the coal plant to move its location—
twice. Now the plan is to build it on Sabah's east coast, within the
Coral Triangle, an area known for astounding marine biodiversity. In
addition, conservationists fear the coal plant's transmissions will
cut through some of the region's last intact rain forest in Tabin
Wildlife Reserve, home to a number of endangered species including the
Bornean orangutan and the Sumatran rhino.

Environmentalists also warn that sulfur dioxide emissions from burning
the coal could trigger acid rain that would impact nearby rain forests
and agriculture. In addition, discharge of chlorine sulfates into the
ocean would boost the likelihood of regional eutrophication and algal
blooms, resulting in massive marine die-off. Currently, the area is
home to many fishermen who depend on the oceans for their livelihood.

Locals have said that they fear the coal plant will turn the east
coast of Sabah into America's coal states, where water pollution, air
pollution, coal ash dumps, deforestation, and destructive mining have
devastated the local environment and wildlife. They point to the coal
ash spill in Tennessee in 2008 as an example of what they don't want
to become.

"The environmental problems of [the planned coal project] are only the
beginning," says Kammen. "The renewable energy resources in Sabah
could lead to a path that invests in the people and sustaining the
land, and not in expanding the dependence of the region on imported,
dirty, coal."

Moving Forward

At Copenhagen last December, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Datuk
Seri Najib Razak, pledged a 40 percent cut in carbon dioxide intensity
by 2020. By moving forward on coal energy, Malaysia would make meeting
this goal even more difficult, since coal is the most carbon intensive
of the fossil fuels.

Kammen says that the choice between coal and renewable energy doesn't
have to be an either-or choice: either cheap or expensive, either job
creation or job loss.

"The people of Sabah are keenly aware of the need for jobs, and of
their incredible natural resource base. Renewable energy supports that
positive development, and a coal project in the region fights that
positive, clean, growth," he says.

Sabah, its people, and its policymakers are facing a decision similar
to many places of the world: How do we move ahead on energy? Kammen
says that if Sabah chooses renewable energy over traditional fossil
fuels it could help spark a clean-energy revolution.

"Economies in all parts of the world can look carefully at their
resources, develop partnerships, and build a clean-energy, job-
creating path that protects the natural legacy of each state and
province, and our shared global legacy to leave the world a better
place for our children," said Kammen. "So far, our society, globally,
has not lived up to that charge," he explains, adding that "Sabah can
take a stand, profit from the choice, and chart a new path."

© 2010 Mongabay.com. Republished with kind permission.

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