A friend sent me this news commentary and I thought I would share it with you. Does it ring a bell by any chance?
Under sweeping privatisation policies, they appropriated profitable public enterprises and vast areas of state-owned lands. A small group of businessmen seized public assets and acquired monopoly positions in strategic commodity markets … While crony capitalism flourished, local industries that were once the backbone of the economy were left to decline. At the same time, private sector industries making environmentally hazardous products … have expanded without effective regulation at a great cost to the health of the population.
A tiny economic elite controlling consumption-geared production and imports has accumulated great wealth. This elite includes representatives of foreign companies with exclusive import rights in … automobiles. It also includes real estate developers who created a construction boom in gated communities and resorts for the super-rich. Much of this development is on public land acquired at very low prices, with no proper tendering or bidding.
It is estimated that around a thousand families maintain control of vast areas of the economy. This business class sought to consolidate itself and protect its wealth through political office. The … party was their primary vehicle for doing so. This alliance of money and politics became flagrant in recent years when a number of businessmen became government ministers with portfolios that clearly overlapped with their private interests.
(The leader) presided over a process in which the national wealth passed into a few private hands while the majority of the population was impoverished, with 40% living below the poverty line…. In the last few months of 2010, (citizens) protested for an increase of the minimum monthly wage… This, at a time when the prices of food staples and utilities tariffs increased at very high rates. Indeed, as one local economist asserted, every single commodity and service cost significantly more…
The legitimate social and economic demands of the people were repressed and denied, and the regime used the police to control the population. Under emergency laws, the police acquired extensive powers and engaged in surveillance and monitoring of the population. Torture and abuse in police stations became routine…
(The country) was governed as a private estate… These beneficiaries do not want to leave their palaces, beaches and resorts, lucrative businesses and extreme riches. These are fixed assets that could not be transferred outside the country – although it should be noted that the ruling elites have siphoned off much capital to foreign banks. Nonetheless, it is the country-turned-private-estate they do not wish to abandon – that’s why they deployed the thugs … to terrorise the population. This is a tactic that the … party has used on many previous occasions…. Thugs have become an arm of the police and they have been used as informants in popular quarters of the city.
Those are excerpts from a Guardian report ‘A private estate called Egypt‘. I just dropped the names and the specifics.
So what were you thinking?
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Sounds like we are all born we greed and selfishness. The good ones will learn to discard all the bad traits as they grow and the bad ones will gather even more wickedness along their way.
Sometimes i do wonder is the world meant it to be that way???
Anil, you may have some answers or maybe some wise readers can shed some light.
The method is to suborn public education and maintain grinding poverty. All adults in the family work 12 to 16 hours a day for a pittance. There is no time to think, hope or grieve. They are grateful for any handouts from the benevolent overlords.
For the last 2 weeks, the police have not dared to show themselves in public throughout Egypt. Earlier reports said every police station had been burnt down.
And so began the French Revolution. The common folk railed against the bourgeois and the gluttonous King.
Like Egypt, the most inane thing about Mahathirism and UMNO/BN govt is one basic simple tenet: YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSE TO BECOME RICH FROM POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT..No system like that can be sustainable, its just simply unproductive. When you say such things to any politician in this country, they stare at you like a blank face idiot…What is obvious to most people, to them is simply just alien to them. It just speaks volume how foreign the BN politicians are to the people of Malaysia. They, the BN politicians, are the foreigners who have taken everyone’s share and everyone’s right,… Read more »
These people have amassed so much wealth through wrong doings it is impossible for them to leave their positions, parties to continue to finance their luxury life. Big Cars, trophy wifes, trophy mistresses, bottomless pit of Money every where. If some one else came in and took over the government these are the guys that will get burnt off. Which so much of money concentrated in the hands of a few, there is no major problem playing some old uneducated person RM50 in the jungle. What is RM50 to them? Not even pocket change.
Kleptocracies operate in the same way all over the world.
For the reading pleasures of all visitors to anil’s blog.
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052748704422204576129663620557634-lMyQjAxMTAxMDAwODEwNDgyWj.html
I thought it was a commentary about our country. Only when Egypt was mentioned did I realze otherwise.
It sounded Malaysia, it looked Malaysia. It could well be Malaysia.
Dear Anil,
Sorry to bring out this irrelevant topic here…
Have you heard about the new through flow traffic system (no traffic lights but come with 3 U turns and 2 underpasses) that is going to be introduced in Jalan Mesjid Negeri in the next 2 years in anticipation of increased traffic as a result of the opening of the 2nd link?
Changes will also be made to Batu Lancang Lane and Lebuhraya Thean Teik junction.
At least one Chinese paper reported this today.
If I am thinking what you are thinking, let’s pray for the bubble to burst…
Who cares about social justice? Can we just have some more articles about food?
If there ever is “justice” in the world God wouldn’t have made Lions which hunts down and kills the poor antelopes.
Perhaps three or four years ago I would have agreed with these comments but we are turning the corner.
While a couple of billion ringgit projects do still get dished out to cronies, there is enough for anyone who wants to do an honest days work to make a good living as well.
Count our blessings and try to change the things we know should be changed but exaggerated comparisions do not serve any purpose.
“exaggerated comparison” is mahathir’s forte. When tiny singapore’s GDP outpace that of malaysia, he still compare LKY to a mayor. Thats called exaggerated comparison. With 100 times more resources, he has done worse than a mayor. And yes, we are turning to a corner. A corner where you get to hear the nem, the etp, the nkra, the castle in the air, when the last time, it was gemilang terbilang, then terhilang. Worse, now you get to hear guideline/bylaw for the internet, deaths in custody, GST in the pipeline, multiple subsidies cut in one year and many more blessings that… Read more »
the media…. the similarities between our MSM and Egypt MSM is so glaring…
You and I know this. All those of half educated know this.
Problem is their policy is geared towards misinforming the bottom 40% of the lowest denominator in the society, which make up of 2/3 of the power seats.
Just take note of the propaganda or even the budget. It’s like throwing some leftover to the target audience, they would think it’s god-send.
Shout all you might, after everything was subtly striped bare, you wont even have a full stomach to shout.
…We must fight against forgetfulness. That we must do.
What goes around must eventually comes around.
it was all started by the shenanigan Mahathir and there is now no going back. All the subsequent P.Ms. or the Presidents of Umno have learnt this very trick from the shenanigan Mahathir. Until then where on earth can the morons in Umno know the many tricks the shenanigan taught them… It is now part of them and there is no way these … be rid of, sorry to say you will have to wait until the nation’s coffer is empty and is bankrupt.
Let’s see…where do we start for the private families….M…, Daim, Halim Saad, Anin Shah, YTL, Vincent Correct, then …then M2, White haired Taib, Isa Samad, Toyol….
In Malaysia it may just be slightly less then a 1000 families…
For a moment there….. You can refile this article with just a change in the name of the country from Egypt to Malaysia and it’s totally relevant.
… or you can change the name from Koh Tsu Koon to Lim Guan Eng / Penang Turf Club land to PISA land / BN to DAP …
And it still rings so true.