PAS will remain intact despite two camps

PAS will not allow the two schools of thoughts to split the party as it firmly upholds a common ideology, according to observers.

PETALING JAYA: PAS may have two prominent schools of thoughts but their opposing stand is unlikely to split the party, an academician said today.

Mohammad Agus Yusoff said that PAS subscribed to one common ideology althouth it has two different approaches or methods.

“On the one hand, the ulamas believe that some compromise can be made with Umno for the unity of Muslims.

“On the other, the Erdogans are seen to be more liberal as they are more willing to compromise with the non-Muslims. This group is seen to be more pro-Anwar (Ibrahim),” said Mohammad Agus, an associate professor in the political science department at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM).

He was commenting on news reports on the upcoming PAS annual general meeting or muktamar where most candidates who are contesting for the party polls are either with the ulama or Erdogan faction.

The term “Erdogan” is loosely used to describe professionals or intelectuals in the party. It refers to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan who is seen to be a moderate Muslim.

Said Mohammad Agus: “PAS has a firm grip over its ideology compared to, say, Umno. Its main concern is to see that Islam is upheld. The special thing about PAS is that the leaders will accept whatever the delegates decide without making much noise as they respect the party’s common ideology.”

He added that as a result of the leaders’ united stand on their ideology, their different methods would not cause a split in the party.

Mohammad Agus also said that Umno, which is governed by material gains, was often prone to bickering unlike PAS whose members are united under a common belief.

Committed to change

He dismissed the suggestion that the two camps – ulamas and Erdogan – could be a major stumbling block to party unity as the former is said to be willing to compromise with Umno while latter is seen to be more pro-Anwar.

“PAS right now is committed to change. I can see that PAS is serious about it. Even though Islam is always brought up to show the differences between the parties in Pakatan, they still share similar views on issues such as economic equality and social justice,” he said.

Another PAS analyst, Farish Noor, sees the existence of the two schools of thoughts as merely “artificial”.

“Since the time of PAS president Yusof Rawa (1982-1988), more and more intellectuals and professionals are attracted to PAS, and the trend remains the same today,” said Farish, a senior fellow at Singapore’s S Rajaratnam School of International Studies.

“This reflects the demographic changes in Malaysia and the emergence of a new urban conservative middle-class elite, who are more likely to turn to PAS than Umno,” he added.

On the muktamar this weekend, Mohammad Agus said that the focus would be on the 13th general election.

“There won’t be any open clashes between the candidates. They would most likely amicably accept the decision of the delegates and discuss matters related to the coming general election. Of course, there will be the standard government bashing,” he said

Interesting contests

Mohammad Agus said that the contests between the candidates would be interesting as the party does not vote according to their aligned blocks.

“Say, you are with the ulama in Block A. This doesn’t mean the whole block A will vote for the ‘ulama’ candidate. Delegates have always voted based on the merits of the candidates. So it interesting to see what will happen,” he said.

The 57th muktamar will be held from June 3 to 5 in Taman Melewar, Gombak, where delegates will choose the top leaders in the party.

Party elections committee chief, Abdul Halim Abd Rahman, had said that the contest this year was the “hottest”.

Party president Abdul Hadi Awang had retained his position uncontested. His deputy, Nasharudin Mat Isa, will defend his post against popular grassroots leader Mohamad Sabu and Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man.

Six candidates are vying for the three vice-president posts. They are Kelantan executive council members Husam Musa and Mohd Amar Abdullah, party information chief Idris Ahmad, former Perak menteri besar Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin, Pokok Sena MP Mahfuz Omar (incumbent) and Kubang Kerian MP Salahuddin Ayub (incumbent). The olther incumbent is Tuan Ibrahim who is not defending his post.

A total of 53 other candidates will be contesting for 18 positions in the central working committee.

DAP calls for new TNB-IPP deal

The current agreement is lopsided to guarantee huge profits to Barisan Nasional cronies, says MP Charles Santiago.

PETALING JAYA: DAP today urged the government to review the agreement that Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) has with independent power producers (IPP), saying it was lopsided in favour of the latter and causing suffering to consumers.

Under the agreement, the IPPs are guaranteed 20% to 22% in returns on investments, according to DAP’s Charles Santiago, the MP for Klang.

“For every RM1,000 they invest, they are assured of profits between RM200-RM220,” he said.

He accused the government of victimising the public in order to maintain subsidies for its rich cronies.

Starting tomorrow, electricity tariffs will be raised by an average of 7.12% or 2.23 sen per kilowatt hour (kWh). Natural gas will rise to RM13.70 per British thermal unit (mmBtu) from RM10.70 and go up by RM3 every month until December 2015, after which market rates will apply.

Santiago said the current agreement between TNB and IPPs compelled TNB to purchase all electricity produced by the latter even if it is beyond its needs.

“TNB always ends paying too much to the IPPs, prompting it to hike up rates from time to time,” he said. “The consumers are footing the bill for the excess power it purchases and the IPPs take home millions in profit.”

On the gas rate increase, Santiago said the cost of production of per mmBTU was between RM15 and RM16 but that for the past two years, the IPPs had been paying only RM10.70 per mmBTU to Petronas.

“As of June 1, the IPPs must pay RM13.70 per mmBTU, but that also means Petronas is still subsidising about RM2 per mmBTU for IPPs,” he said.

“In the end, the rich companies still get government subsidies while the poor get their subsidies removed.”

Early polls unlikely as Najib tackles subsidy cuts

KUALA LUMPUR, May 31 — Increase in power tariffs and the possibility of a similar move on fuel as global oil prices surge make any chance of an early general election extremely slim as Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak will have to first tackle apublic backlash.

The government yesterday announced a rise in electricity prices by an average of 7.1 per cent as the country’s subsidy bill doubled to nearly US$6.9 billion (RM20.83 billion) this year, but, as yet, there is no move to tinker with fuel subsidies which are much more sensitive but have a bigger impact on the fiscal deficit.

Analysts, however, said a fuel price increase was on the cards.

“The electricity tariff hike is a political trial balloon for Najib to gauge public unhappiness before he decides on a fuel price hike,” said Bridget Welsh, a Malaysia specialist at Singapore Management University.

Najib (picture) in a recent speech likened Malaysia’s fuel subsidies to opium but he has been wary of upsetting voters with steep fuel price increases as he tries to rebuild support for his ruling coalition which was hit by record losses in the last general election in 2008.

The next general election is not due until mid-2013 but many observers were expecting Najib to call for one as early as late this year on the back of strong gross domestic product (GDP) growth which hit a decade-high of 7.2 per cent in 2010.

But HwangDBS and J.P.Morgan said in research notes that timetable is now unlikely.

“Monday’s announcement shows that the government is willing to make some politically unpopular but economically positive moves in the near term, which probably means elections will be postponed until 2012,” HwangDBS said.

A delay in the elections gives more space to the opposition to gather strength. The opposition is not likely to win the next election but it could chip away at the ruling party’s margin of victory, making reform more difficult.

Najib is seeking a strong election win to consolidate his own position within the ruling coalition, and a delay puts that off.

But delaying rationalising subsidies could imperil government finances and further disillusion investors already impatient with the slow pace of reform.

COALITION SETBACK

Since taking office in 2009, Najib has pledged to cut subsidies and widen the tax base to trim a fiscal deficit which hit a 20-year high of 7 per cent of GDP in 2009.

The deficit was at 5.6 per cent in 2010 and is officially targeted to be 5.4 per cent this year, which analysts say will be easily met target if prices for fuel and electricity are raised, even incrementally.

The government estimates that the electricity tariff increase will raise inflation by 0.27 percentage point. That signals average inflation through 2011 will be within the government’s 2.5-3.5 per cent target, with annual inflation in April coming in at 3.2 percent.

A US 6 cents increase in the price of the popularly used RON95 gasoline blend which is now priced at US 63 cents a litre, on the other hand, will increase inflation by an additional 0.5 percentage point, said Kit Wei Zheng, an economist with Citigroup.

“From a fiscal perspective, if the government chooses to do nothing other than raise electricity tariffs, then it would just be a hedge and a poor substitute to a fuel price hike,” said Kit.

Analysts say that while cutting subsidies further ahead of the general election is risky for the government, it could try to offset anger by increasing spending next year on social safety net programmes for the poor.

Analysts say it will be a choice that the government will have to make soon.

A deputy minister was quoted on Thursday last week saying Malaysia would review fuel prices if the price of oil hit US$110-US$120 per barrel. Crude oil was trading 0.5 per cent higher at US$101.05 per barrel as of 0414 GMT.

The opposition, led by former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, has promised to lower fuel prices if it is voted into power.

The opposition scored historic wins in the last general election, in 2008, winning five of the country’s 13 states and denying the ruling coalition a two-thirds control of parliament.

But the opposition coalition has since been marred by infighting, with Anwar tied up in court on a charge of sodomising a male aide in a case which he says is a political conspiracy.

While Najib has seen support from the country’s majority ethnic Malays rise since he took power, his coalition suffered a setback in elections in April in the state of Sarawak, where it won a majority but got the fewest number of seats in 24 years.

That would make a decision to raise the fuel price more difficult.

“With elections at least six months away or longer, the effect of inflation could yet shift the political terrain away from him,” said Welsh. — Reuters

Power tariff hike akin to 'daylight robbery'...

PKR has termed the hike in electricity tariff announced yesterday as "daylight robbery" as it benefits capitalists at the expense of the people.

According to party chief of strategy Rafizi Ramli (left), the fine print in the government's announcement shows that the increase in cost borne by the independent power providers will in effect be passed to TNB, which will in turn pass it to end users in the form of tariff hikes.

Worse still, the new mechanism will mean that consumers will face electricity tariff hikes twice a year, since under the new "fuel cost pass through" mechanism, the cost of coal and gas used in power generation will be reviewed on a six-monthly basis.

"TNB achieves a status quo financially, the people bear the burden from the tariff hikes and the IPPs are not affected at all from this exercise because of the fuel cost pass through mechanism.

"This is really robbing the rakyat to feed the crony-capitalists,"Rafizi told reporters today. He added that the tariff hike is likely to bring inflation levels to 2006 rates - the second highest in the past decade after the major spike in 2008.

"BN is repeating the same prescription in 2006 to 2011 - a combination of price increases for basic goods that include sugar, petrol, diesel and now electricity.

"The combined effect of this will see the inflation for 2011 surpassing that of 2006 and inflict difficulties to millions of households whose meager disposable income will be reduced further," he said.

Economists have warned that while 75 percent of households will escape the direct effect of the tariff hike, they will be burdened by a rise in inflation as industries pass on increased costs.

Wage hike not catching up with inflation

Food prices, which already recorded among the highest rate in April's inflation figures, is expected to be among the most severely hit.

Rafizi added that while Malaysian inflation rates have been lower than regional figures, its rise in wages have been dismal in comparison.

"In Indonesia the inflation rate may be in the region of 5 percent, which is higher than our 3.2 percent but their wage rise is about 10 percent on average. Ours have been 2.6 percent for the past ten years, which means our incomes are growing smaller every year," he said.

He also noted that low to middle income earners may also see higher tariffs as many users in this income bracket live in shared houses, and share the same electricity meter which would record usage higher than 300kWh.

"Ten people can be sharing the same electricity meter, which could record more than RM77 worth of electricity usage, but this does not mean there has been overconsumption," he said.

Felda must explain RM6 billion loan

Meanwhile, PKR central leadership council member and former deputy minister for land and cooperative development Dr Tan Kee Kwong questioned why the Federal Land Agency has reportedly taken a RM6 billion loan from the Employee Provident Fund.

"I want Felda to explain why they have had to borrow RM6 billion from the EPF. Is it true? It has been a week since the news broke out and there has only been silence so we can only assume it is true," he said.

Tan, who was in charge of Felda from 1999 to 2004 added that with crude oil palm prices at a high of RM2800 to RM3000 per tonne, Felda should in fact be reaping RM2 billion in profits per year and should not be taking loans. He also questioned Felda's business sense, as taking a whopping loan of RM6 billion would mean that the agency should have cash reserves of at least the same amount.

However, Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Ahmad Maslan last year said that Felda's reserves were at RM4.08 billion in 2004 but dropped to RM1.35 billion in 2009. But Ahmad clarified that the agency's reserve is stable with assets amounting to RM12.2 billion.

The revelation of the RM6 billion loan by Felda was made by PAS-linked NGO Persatuan Anak Peneroka Felda Kebangsaan (Anak) who produced meeting minutes by one of the agency's 300 settlements, Felda Nitar 02, referring to the loan.

source:malaysiakini

Indonesia, Malaysia clinch maid deal

The two countries have settled for a 'win-win solution' in the recruitment of Indonesian domestic helpers.

JAKARTA: Indonesian domestic helpers will enjoy better working conditions in Malaysia under a new agreement between Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur designed to end abuse and torture, a minister said today.

Indonesian Manpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar said the agreement signed in Bandung late yesterday meant the lifting of a two-year freeze on Indonesian maids working in Malaysia.

“After going through a long negotiation process, we have eventually reached an agreement that is a ‘win-win solution’, with a number of improvements for the Indonesian worker,” he said in a statement.

“All this while, Indonesia and Malaysia continue to conduct research, evaluation and improvement in worker-placement mechanisms to protect the rights of both workers and employers.”

The agreement seeks to remove common areas of dispute between maids and their employers, as well as some of the ways the women, who often have little or no education, have been intimidated and blackmailed.

They will be allowed to retain their passports instead of giving them to their employers, and will be guaranteed the right to communicate with relatives and Indonesian authorities, Iskandar said.

Rather than working seven days a week as was common in the past, the women would be entitled to one day off or cash compensation in lieu.

Both governments will now determine the recruitment fee, including flight and accommodation costs usually borne by employers and maids and fixed by recruitment agencies.

But the agreement made no mention of a minimum wage, which was understood to be one of Indonesia’s negotiating points.

Malaysia is one of Asia’s largest importers of labour such as domestic workers, mainly from Indonesia. The women often work for as little as RM400 (US$130) a month, and have no laws governing their conditions.

Indonesia froze the market in June 2009 after a series of incidents of shocking mistreatment of Indonesian citizens at the hands of their Malaysian employers.

Malaysian woman Hau Yuan Tyng, a 45-year-old mother of two, is serving 11 years in jail for inflicting horrific wounds on her Indonesian maid, Siti Hajar, using a hammer, scissors and scalding water.

Siti, 35, escaped from her employer’s upmarket condo last year and made her way to the Indonesian embassy. Pictures of her injuries were splashed in newspapers in both countries.

- AFP

Hata quits as NUJ chief

KUALA LUMPUR, May 31 — Mohamed Hata Wahari quit today as National Union of Journalists Malaysia (NUJ) president after a tumultuous year in charge.

In a brief statement today, the NUJ said the union's executive council had elected as Chin Sung Chew as his replacement.

The decision takes effect immediately, secretary-general V. Anbalagan said on behalf of the union’s executive council.

Mohamed Hata won his two-year term at their annual general meeting last year.

He was a reporter with Utusan Malaysia from 1995 until his April 21 sacking for criticising the Umno-owned Malay daily’s editorial slant.

Mohamed Hata (picture) had said earlier this month that he would remain the NUJ president until his brainchild, Utusan Rakyat, gets a publishing permit and he assumed the editor-in-chief position.

Hata was sacked from Utusan Malaysia for making remarks critical of the Umno-owned newspaper’s editorial slant.

But he had vowed to continue leading the union for greater media freedom.

Hata was terminated from his senior journalist post on April 21, a week after the Umno-owned paper’s disciplinary inquiry said he was guilty of breaching the terms of his contract.

Tan Sri Robert Phang have been cleared by MACC

This blogger was just alerted that Tan Sri Robert Phang have been cleared by MACC with regard to allegation in this blog of him trying to bribe a Ministry's Secretary General. Read back postinghere.

Robert Phang was making ruckus demanding MACC to investigate a case already openned by police's commercial crime division against Tan Sri Tajuddin Ramli with regards to losses at MAS during his Chairmanship and allegations of graft against Tan Sri Gani Patail involving Haj pilgrimmage.

The revelation by this blogger against Phang serve the purpose to get the attention to reveal the ridiculous allegations vociferously made by Phang.

So he is released, but it is only because of insufficient evidence to charge him. It does not mean it didn't happen. God knows and this blogger stand by the story and his source.

However, there is many more from were it came from.

Together cleared is Attorney General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail from allegation of graft over his Haj pilgrimage also by Robert Phang and the gang.

Read The Star latest below:

MACC clears AG and Robert Phang of graft

By FLORENCE A. SAMY

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) cleared Attorney General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail of graft allegations over his Haj pilgrimage to Mecca with his family.

MACC also cleared former MACC Consultation and Corruption Prevention Panel member Tan Sri Robert Phang of having tried to bribe a ministry's secretary-general.

There was not enough evidence to prove graft, according to the MACC on Tuesday.

Malaysian online news portals and bloggers had been playing pictures of Abdul Gani seen together with Shahidan Shafie, who was said to be close to former Malaysia Airlines chairman Tan Sri Tajuddin Ramli in the recent haj pilgrimage in Mecca.

They had claimed that Shahidan had convinced Abdul Gani not to press charges against Tajuddin, who was chairman of MAS from 1994 to 2001, over the national carrier's loses which ran into billions.

MAS was reported to have filed several reports against Tajuddin with the MACC, citing Tajuddin's move to relocate MAS' cargo operations in Amsterdam and Frankfurt to a single hub in Hahn, Germany, as the single biggest loss suffered under him.

The new hub operation reportedly incurred monthly losses of between RM10 million to RM16mil before it was terminated and the government took over control of MAS in 2001.

Meanwhile, the allegation against Phang was that sometime before Hari Raya of 2010, the secretary-general of a ministry, which was awarding a contract worth RM900mil, had to tell Phang to leave his office because Phang had tried to bribe him.

The Star stop short of mentioning that Phang could not substantiate his demand and was merely based on allegations and spin doctoring by bloggers Raja Petra Kamaruddin and Din Merican.

Both wrote and made their allegations based on information believed to be leaked by MAS lawyer, Rosli Dahalan and the investigation by former CCID and friend to Rosli, Dato Ramli Yusof.

Instead of investigating MAS, MACC had investigated and charged Dato Ramli and Rosli for money laundering related offenses. Both was found innocent and this made them vindictive towards MACC, Gani Patail and Tajuddin Ramli.

Phang was happy to join the crowd. Our investigation found that there is no substantive issue against Tajuddin Ramli and all this is more out of a intricate web of political opportunism and revenge by the participants.

How will Phang react from hereon?

His innnocence is well anticipated and prepared for. In case, there is a need for another expose, he may need to do an Anwar Ibrahim.

Go ahead, make my day.

- Another Brick in the Wall