Has Petronas’ free ride finally run out of gas?

YOURSAY | ‘It is the rampant corruption that has killed this once-promising land.’

Petronas looks into retrenching some of its 51,000 employees

MariKitaUbah: First Malaysia Airlines and now Petronas, soon it will be the BN government. But we reckon the BN government will not care at all, after all they are allegedly corrupt.

Pay rise for all MPs and state assemblypersons, but the rakyat suffer and get retrenched, and those politicians continue to enjoy their luxurious lifestyle.

RCZ: You mean the BN government did not have any back-up plan and thought oil prices would last forever? What kind of government is this? And people still want Umno and BN?

Fateh: It is the rampant corruption that has killed this once-promising land. If the crude oil revenue has been invested wisely, like Norway did, then this country would not have fallen to what it is today, a completely failed state.

The disenchanted are likely to fall prey to extremism.

LKY: It is surprising to see Petronas having 51,000 employees. Why do they need so many? This is similar to the government bloated civil service or Malaysia Airlines.

It is actually good that a crisis would flush out all those inefficient ones.

Mushiro: It takes the slump in oil prices for Petronas to realise they are not competitive in their pay structure. But the PM's Department is worse off than Petronas.

Caripasal: How much money will the retrenched staff get? I believe many of them will be made instant multi-millionaires.

Petronas should come clean on their voluntary separation scheme (VSS) programme, especially for those nearing retirement age.

It is common for our government-linked companies (GLCs) to pay huge amounts of compensation for those near-retiring staff, enough to last for a generation.

Over50ABU: It's about time. These employees have been living like kings and queens with their extra income compared with others.

Other countries have already laid off workers, but Petronas is still protecting these people.

Anonymous_1430119660: Some of the comments are unfair. I know personally of many Petronas juniors and seniors who work extra hard.

The Petronas of last 10 years had seen professionalism and meritocracy injected, in small dose but enough for this state-owned company.

Putrajaya blocks another news site critical of Najib

Vijay47: Unlike other Umno politicians, Salleh Said Keruak means what he says and acts on what he promises.

But in his quest to keep out negative comments against government leaders and especially PM Najib Abdul Razak, he should not resort to half-measures.

Next to be banned should be Malaysiakini, which we all know is not only funded by Jewish interests but is also a front for Mossad and possibly MI5 and the CIA.

In addition to that, the ownership of the portal does not reflect national aspirations - Steven Gan and Premesh Chandran are Chinese and Indian respectively with nary a bumiputera in sight.

If the public are still stubborn, the next course of action should be to ban the Internet itself. If we could survive for close to five centuries since the Parameswara days before the advent of this technological curse, we can do without it for the next 20.

Saya Pun Nak Cari Makan: Najib's blocking those social media is akin to King Canute commanding the incoming tide to stop. The world is now so well-connected and any news will circle the globe within seconds with just a click of the mouse.

Asia Sentinel or Sarawak Report can be blocked here, but it must not be forgotten almost everyone has some friends or relatives overseas. Any articles forbidden by the government can be copied or forwarded using SMS, WhatsApp or emails.

Blocking Asia Sentinel, Sarawak Report or Malaysia Chronicle in fact aroused the interest of the public on those said media, which otherwise were ignored under normal circumstances.

Instead of recommending that those websites being blocked, an act of utmost stupidity, it would be more reasonable to educate our leaders on how to behave and refrain from accepting bribe or mega donations.

Oxymoronictendencies: The mind-numbing stupidity of this block must surely demonstrate a level of ignorance of things IT and a startling new level of desperation.

Before this ‘block’ of Asia Sentinel, I had never heard of them or read anything from their site. Now they will be daily reading.

Much the same with Sarawak Report. I had never heard or read it before it was blocked. Now it's a daily source of reading. Their articles are worth a read. Who knows if it's true? We can but hope.

Nil: When you block a website, experienced users can still access it with little problems. It also gives the authorities concerned a bad name.

So, if those sites have wronged you, come down on them like a tonne of bricks and sue their pants off to regain and preserve your dignity. Otherwise, pursue your right of reply. ---Mkini