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]

Will Asean follow the EU model?

 Asean, Corporate agenda, Human rights, Neo-liberal economics  No Responses »
Apr 032007
 

Few people are aware that Asean’s ‘Vision 2020’ of economic integration and competitiveness is to be further developed into the concept of an ‘‘Asean Economic Community (AEC)’’. The AEC is seen as the end-goal of economic integration in Asean and it could become a reality by 2015. So will Asean follow the European Union route? Not quite. The EU provides for the free movement of goods, services, capital (including investment) and people across the borders of member nations. Aseans seeks to do the same for goods, services, investment, capital and skilled labour. There is no freedom of movement for the poor, including the migrant workers, who have hardly any rights in Asean member countries. There will be no freedom of movement for refugees, either. In other words, economic integration is to benefit the corporations and its managers and knowledge workers under a regime of neo-liberal policies. Not the lower-income group [Read more]

Dabbling with the dark side

 Human rights, Iraq, Militarism, Neo-liberal economics, United States  No Responses »
Mar 132007
 

It is something of a joke these days to see the US State Department’s Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. Talk about the pot calling the kettle(s) black. Since the 11 September 2001 attacks, the human rights struggle has suffered a beating at the hands of the United States. In particular, the obnoxious practice of detention without trial has been given a new lease of life. The United States is holding close to 14,000 prisoners in Iraq, another 500 in Afghanistan and nearly 500 more in Guantanamo Bay. That’s not counting the unknown number of ‘suspected terrorists’ held by the CIA in secret “renditions” at various locations around the world. God knows how many of them have been tortured. That’s not counting the hundreds of others held without trial by other countries in their own regional ‘wars on terror’. For instance, in Malaysia, there are close to 100 people being [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]

Makeover for predatory IMF and World Bank

 Corporate agenda, Global justice movement, IMF/World Bank, Latin America, Neo-liberal economics, United States  No Responses »
Mar 092007
 

While attending the Annual Meetings of the Boards of Governors of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Singapore, I soon realised that a slick makeover job, a real PR job, was underway. In recent years, these two global financial institutions have received some bad press for the tremendous damage their policies have had on developing nations. The PR job required a range of sweeping cosmetic measures. But could such measures really save the Bank and the IMF from their serious image and credibility crisis? No way. This is the review I wrote for Inter Press Service after the Annual Meetings were over. ‘There’s no doubt in my mind that the Fund and Bank cannot be reconstructed,” said Glasgow-based political scientist and author John Hilley, who has written about neo-liberal militarism, the Fund and the Bank, in e-mailed comments to IPS. ‘‘Both need to be replaced by bodies [Read more]

Page 20 of 21« First...10...1718192021