Scomi and the “gift” to Penang commuters

 Accountability, Malaysian finance/business, Public transport  1 Response »
May 052007
 

In February, newspapers reported that government-owned RapidKL would take over the management of the bus system in Penang, putting an end to Penangites’ public transport woes after years of shoddy bus service. Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said it was the government’s “Chinese New Year gift” to Penang commuters. The government’s “quick” move rendered obsolete the Penang state government’s move to set up its own firm, Penang State Bus Service (BNPP). At that time, I wondered why the federal government was preempting the BNPP, which had been in the midst of applying for permits from the Commercial Vehicle Licensing Board. The Penang state government for its part had already obtained a RM50 million (US$14.2 million) soft loan to buy new buses. Fast forward to the present. The Edge (30 April) reports that government-owned Syarikat Prasana Negara Bhd, which owns public transport infrastructure, recently awarded a RM31 million contract to supply [Read more]

Ijok: Is there more than Najib vs Anwar at stake?

 Corporate agenda, Development issues, Malaysian finance/business, Neo-liberal economics, United States, Workers' rights  No Responses »
Apr 212007
 

So I gather some see this by-election as a proxy battle between Najib and Anwar. Others see it as a mini-referendum on the Barisan Nasional’s performance. Then again, there are many who are totally put off by the way the BN announces millions of ringgit in development allocations in the run-up to polling day. They call it a “buy election”. Where is the morality; does anybody care about ethics? In the heat of the by-election campaign, there has been much discussion about the ethnicity of the candidates and whether Keadilan did the right thing in appointing Khalid to counter the BN’s candidate from the MIC. To me, the candidates’ ethnicity is completely irrelevant. What I want to know – and this is what voters should ask – is their stand on the issues that really matter. Of course, it is also important to have a significant opposition presence in Parliament [Read more]

Watch what’s happening to your EPF money

 Accountability, Malaysian finance/business  2 Responses »
Mar 162007
 

So now the EPF is set to take over RHB. The first question that comes to mind is, isn’t the EPF biting off more than it can chew? What does it know about managing a bank – or even supervising the management of a bank? It already has plenty on its plate just managing its own funds – or rather, the public funds of EPF contributors – and ensuring that Malaysians get a decent rate of return on their pension savings. If the EPF is so confident about managing a bank, perhaps it can tell us how and why it ended up holding a stake in a banking group which is now saddled with RM3.6 billion in debt. That’s not all. I say, watch your EPF money closely. The EPF could also end up financing infrastructure projects under the so-called Private Finance Initiatives, which will finance RM20 billion worth of [Read more]

Dam-it, what’s going on here?

 Development issues, Environment, Malaysian finance/business  No Responses »
Mar 132007
 

It looks like some of our planners are on a dam-building spree, even though the Bakun Dam is expected to produce electricity that the country does not really need for now. For one thing, Malaysia has a 40 per cent reserve capacity now – even without including the expected excess electricity from Bakun. Even by 2010, we would still have 30 per cent excess capacity. It is only by 2012 that the excess capacity would drop to around 20 per cent. With all this surplus electricity floating around, it is surprising that they are even thinking of building more dams – and in Sarawak of all places. Imagine, they haven’t figured out what to do with all that electricity from Bakun, and they are talking of newer bigger dams. Will Tenaga be forced to buy some of that excess electricity – and at what price? 12 sen per unit (the [Read more]

How the NEP equity targets miss the point

 Corporate agenda, Malaysian finance/business, Neo-liberal economics, Poverty  No Responses »
Mar 112007
 

So is the bumi share of corporate equity 18.9 per cent? Or 45 per cent? Here’s something to think about this weekend. In many ways, the NEP 30 per cent target has become almost sacrosanct. On it hinges much of the political legitimacy of a party like Umno – for persistent underachievement can be used as a clarion call to mobilise support along racial lines But is share ownership a really meaningful indicator of economic well-being for most ordinary Malaysians? This is an extract from a piece I wrote for the Malaysian Herald last October. To measure economic justice by looking merely at equity ownership – i.e. the ownership of shares – among the various communities is misleading Whether we use the par (nominal) value or market value of shares in our calculations, whether we use only listed firms or all firms, whether we include government-linked companies in the bumiputra [Read more]

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