Parliament: 100 000 jobless by end of year.

Above: Picture taken last year on a trip to the Parliament with the Taylor's Model United Nations.

Couple of days back, flashing below the screen of the local news was the exact words (in small prints) 'Parliament: 100 000 jobless by end of year'.

But I recalled our Finance Minister announcing that Malaysia would not be affected by the global recession, months back. Either there was an honest miscalculation or he did not take into account the concept of being prudent. Hello, this is not the time to be optimistic and making use of the people's imperfect knowledge.

People who believed in that statement and thus did not prepare for this recession had to face the aftermath.
So sad.


When your neighbour looses his job, it is called recession. When you loose your job, it is called depression. - 33rd President of the US.

Do not fret Eli. The people have your back.

Recently, the Sultan of Selangor expressed that he was upset with the way some of us are handling Elizabeth Wong's case. He said it was not to be of his personal interest and will leave it to the authorities to decide on her case.

Indeed, it is an issue of her personal affair. Who are you to judge her? According to the law, unless prohibited by a statute and otherwise immoral, any consensual sexual relations between adults would not constitute to an offense. Such conduct in personal life have absolutely no relevance to the ability of a person to perform her public duties, and perform it well.

People of her constitution have appealed and hoped that her letter of resignation would not be accepted as they still want her as their assemblywoman. They said she has an excellent track record and has carried out her duties well. This incident should not be a setback and should be overlooked. Her people are merely shouting out to her "no one can replace you, Eli".

I hope no one does.

(Source: Articles of Law, The Star)

Why Malaysia can never catch up with the economic efficiency of Singapore, etc.

Unlike the Singapore government and many other economically developed countries, Malaysia lacks a policy that should have been implemented by the government a long long time ago - whether its is to cure inflation or recession or unemployment, to stimulate growth in the economy, improve the Balance of Payment's deficit and stabilizing the currency.

Many would agree with me that inflation could never be cured without the side effects of rising unemployment. Theoratically speaking, when there is inflation, the government would adopt the Contractionary Fiscal Policy, deliberately reducing government spending (like subsidies) and increasing tax rates so aggregate demand and spending would reduce, together with the Contractionary Monetary Policy by increasing interest rates. Thus eliminating the seriousness of inflation in our country by the lowering of aggregate demand. However, when spending is reduced, businesses would in turn cut down their production and output thus leading to unemployment.

Inversely, when unemployment is to be cured the government would adopt the Expansionary Fiscal Policy by increasing government expenditure and reducing tax together with the Expansionary Monetary Policy by reducing interest rates to encourage spending in the economy. Yes, recession and unemployment will be curbed. But the problem of inflation now surfaces as demand exceeds supply.

What the government should be implementing is the Supply Side Policy, having the ratio of Supply Side Policy exceeding the Fiscal and Monetary Policy. The aim of the Supply Side Policy is to increase aggregate supply by increasing productivity in the economy, long term. That would simply mean, in layman's terms, a call to WORK HARDER. (Which Malaysia might have failed, not all, but in certain areas.)

Fortunately, in the labour market, this policy has been implemented via not allowing for unemployment benefits (like in the UK, where citizens choose to stay at home and feed on the unemployment benefits, thus reducing productivity in the economy).
Tun Dr Mahathir has also banned strikes to be carried out by trade unions. Yes, he was quite a dictator in allowing little or no freedom of speech. But I would have to admit this banning of strike is beneficial to our economy because strikes deter productivity, which is linked to the degree and quantity of investments in Malaysia.
Minimum wage is also not allowed as it would create unemployment and thus leading to the reduction in investments.

However, it is not likewise for the capital market. The government has failed in applying this Supply Side Policy here.
In the capital market, government red tape should be reduced. Did u know it takes approximately 3 months for an investor from abroad to get permission from the government department, just to invest? Whereas in Singapore, it only takes 3 hours.
The government should also encourage big firms to provide loans for Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs), which would allow for their growth and coherently contributing to our economy. (This is because banks would not be likely to provide loans for fresh and new businesses as they are aware it is a huge risk to take. Banks, being prudent, would rather borrow to households who buy assets. eg: cars, houses, shop lots. Whether it is for speculation or other personal interests, the banks would gladly lend their money because if the respective parties are not unable to pay interests or down payments, the banks can seize the property, sell it off and obtain their money back.)

In the goods market, the government should also encourage privatization. This would increase competitiveness and thus improving the quality of their services. Yes, companies like TMnet are privatized already. Sadly, I can't brag about their efficiency here.
The government should also remove artificial legal barriers to entry, for investors to come in and plant their businesses. This is called deregulation. Lets take an example of Citibank and Maybank Berhad. Did you know, up till 2007, there were only 3 Citibanks allowed in Malaysia? Its just recently the government has allowed for another 3 branches to be opened. Well, simply because the turnover for 30 Maybanks is no match for the turnover of 3 Citibanks. Talk about being kiasu by eliminating the degree of competitiveness here. (Ps: Many Maybanks are owned by politicians in Malaysia.) Overseas branches of law firms are also not allowed to have their franchises here. The result, documents for sales and purchases of houses are inefficiently produced, as there is lack of competition. Fortunately, low cost airlines like the Air Asia are increasing competitions, forcing our local airline, MAS to reduce airfare tickets too. So now everyone can fly.

Lets all hope the government would stop their squabble over parliamentary seats, racial issues and look into matters like improving the growth of our economy. Things that actually matter.

(Source: Words of wisdom by an Economics lecturer)

Will money cloud your judgement and sensibility?

Yes, you've guessed it. I'll be addressing the Rm 20M scandal.

So, back to the question. Will you, allow for the issue of money to cloud your principles?

Certainly not, for DAP's Malim Nawar and PKR's Kuala Kurau righteous assemblymen who lodged a report to the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commissioners (MACC) yesterday (which I absolutely salute). UMNO who allegedly said to have offered the undertable money of RM 20M for them to quit their respective parties and be independant was defensive and strongly disagreed to their claims.

But that's another issue. If it is true, its between them and God. Lets focus on the bright side. Its indeed encouraging to hear about people doing what is right and practice what they preach. Especially people of power. People who have the opportunity, or rather, like having juicy piece of meat dangling in front of you, luring and tempting you to sapu it without, a single detriment to be considered. In addition, reporting it to the MACC that would only cause brewing of anger at the other side of the 'pond', thus adding to the frictions that are already there.

So, putting yourself in their shoes; will you forgo 20 million ringgit to stand up for justice and the principals you believe in?

(Ps: In Singapore, anyone who is found involved in corruption, especially in governmental issues, that person will be hanged. Imagine if it was implemented in Malaysia. Hanging people would be an everyday thing.)

Analogy : Putting out fire by pouring gasoline?

So Bank Negara has decided to reduce the interest rate for savings to a benchmark of 2% and interest rates for borrowings to 4.5% to cure the recession in our country. (Mind you, decisions of the Central Bank often are greatly influenced by our Finance Minister)

Ah, yes. Low interest rates. Like the resounding chorus of Hallelujah to ears of the investors, households and many who speculate.

Low interest rates would cause savings to decrease. Thus consumption increases, leading to rise in aggregate demand. When aggregate demand (demand for goods and services) increases, there would be more job opportunities. Hence, income increases. Therefore, curbing recession in Malaysia.
Also, low interest rates would allow for increase in investments, as entrepreneurs can borrow at a low cost to invest. Thus stimulating the economy and bringing growth to our country in technology and productivity. Aggregate demand increases, unemployment decreases and income increases, curing the looming recession.


So then you ask, what flaw could there possibly be in reducing the interest rate?
Do allow me to enlighten you with what I have learn.

When interest rates are low, it might not encourage investors to loan from banks because they might speculate that they would not meet their break even point as profits would not be as high in times of recession.

Also, when the interest rates are reduced, savings might not reduce as household save in banks abroad which offers high interest rates. Thus, money for transactionary purposes would not increase as it is kept in the banks. So, the whole theory of consumption increasing, pushing up aggregate demand and increasing income will fail.

A good example of the failure of reduction of interest rates, hoping to cure recession would be the Japan government's intervention of reducing interest rates to 0%. You are sorely mistaken if you think that would have stimulated the economy. No, investors did not borrow to invest. Households still kept their money in banks even when there would be zero returns. The economy continues to stagnate even when the cost of borrowing is zero. Why then, you might ask. Well, simply because the people of Japan figured there was something seriously wrong that the interest rates dropped to 0%, thus start feeding their savings account, afraid what they would be facing in the future, that interest rates dropped so severely.


The fall in interest rate might be one of the ways to curb recession. But it is not the best way. It might just be like pouring gasoline, thinking it would put out the fire.

So, lets wait and see if the pros outweighs the cons. Or vice versa. Hopefully it doesn't.


(Source : Words of wisdom by an Economics lecturer.)

Nets to prevent frogs leaping over to the other side of the pond?

Yes, its time to address the highly debated issue on the Anti-Hopping Law - whether it should be implemented, or not.


When I first heard of this Anti-Hopping Law idea, I immediately decided I would not be one of the supporters of it. My logic would be, why prevent an easily bribed assemblyman that wants to cross over? Why prevent someone who has been entrusted with powers as voted by the people to run the coalition, finally deciding not to serve the people anymore due to personal interests? Its like insisting on using a rotten egg to bake a cake. It defeats the quality of the cake.


Then, I realized, if this Anti-Hopping Law is implemented, There won't be anymore bribing or luring assemblymen or women to cross over as they, legally are unable to do so when the Law is implemented.


But, how if that politician is genuinely not happy with the party he is currently serving in? How if he wants to cross over not because the grass is greener on the other side, but because he's sick of all the scandals and dirty tricks his team members are playing? He is trapped unless he resigns, and that would be loosing his job. That would be a devastating impact on his family if he is the sole bread winner.

Conclusively speaking, I would say there are pros and cons to the implementation of this Anti-Hopping Law; vice versa if it is not implemented.


Well, at least that's what I think. What are your views on this?

Once upon a time there were three little frogs. So to speak.

So the controversy about the Perak crisis goes on. It all started from the three allegedly called 'frogs' jumped from the opposition coalition to supporting the government. I'm sure they had thought about it, once, maybe twice. But maybe not trice. I'm sure they did not foresee; in fact, no one did anticipate that three 'jumps' could cause the many fundamental changes that has spread like cancer.

Suddenly, like poisonous mushrooms popping out after a rainy day, problems start to emerge for the highly respected and looked up upon opposition coalition.

First, it was about the issue that whether they should dissolve and have a fresh by-election altogether to elect a new government and Menteri Besar or the Sultan decides on who would take over this political tsunami hit state. If you ask me, I think having an election would be recognising Malaysia, as a democratic country.

Then, it was the controversy about which MB should be in power when the PKR assemblyman loyally hung on to serve his people when simultaneously the new BN Menteri Besar was sworn in by the Sultan.

Later, Elizabeth Wong fled the country to be away from the press and pressure caused by the circulation of her nude photos, after stepping down with integrity from her party. (For goodness sake, leave her alone. Its her personal life. She did not contribute to anything rotten behind her people's back anyway. You have no right to judge her.)

Then, it was the MB of Selangor that made the first page of the papers, that allegedly misused funds for his personal interest. Was it a little over 10k or so? Then let me ask you, what about the millions that suddenly was available to lure frogs over to the other side? How did that money come about? Its funny how Khalid's issue of 10k got detected and little or no investigations was made how the millions appeared suddenly in thin air.

Whether Khalid did really misuse his funds, its really his responsibility. If he did, he's in the wrong, regardless 10 thousand or 10 million.

Whether if its true that they say UMNO was behind the circulation of Elizabeth Wong's photos, we do not know.

But its queer how things like these starts unfolding, shocking both our ears and eyes because we have looked at the opposition for hope and upholding justice since the election last year in March. Its queer how things unfold after the story of the three little frogs. Yes, the opposition are humans too. And humans are not perfect.

Its great though, that our country finally has a strong opposition(hopefully they remain strong through all this), minimising the chances the government misusing their powers under our noses. As the opposition have their eyes on the government's actions and plans, the government too have their eyes fixed on the opposition, not letting a flaw they find pass their way.

So what happens to the three little frogs story? Lets wait and see. But I have a hunch it would not be a happy ending story.

Perhaps the ending or conclusion of the story of our country's fate is up to us, ours to tell, to carve. So, how do you want it to end?