A tale of two turf clubs

Anil Netto
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turf club By now, most of you would probably have received an email (perhaps more than once) pointing out the uncanny parallels between the assassinations of US presidents Lincoln and Kennedy.

I thought I would do a similar exercise for the Selangor Turf Club and the Penang Turf Club, which I think is quite revealing in showing their common modus operandi. So here goes:

The Penang Turf Club land in Batu Gantung measures around 250 acres.

The Selangor Turf Club land at Sungai Besi measures around 250 acres.

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Kedah govt’s disregard of environment alarms groups

Anil Netto
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Environmental activist Nizam stressing a point during a press conference

Grassroots groups in Kedah have expressed alarm at several projects that they say are threatening the environment in the state. They have released a Kedah People’s Declaration listing several projects they say are degrading the environment. In recent days, even the Penang government has expressed concern that water catchment areas in Kedah could be affected. While the Kedah state government may need to raise funds to compensate for a slowing down of federal funding for the opposition-ruled state, it should not resort to undertaking projects that could compromise the environment. Several groups have criticised a string of projects and proposals including the Kedah Hydrocarbon Hub, a granite quarry in the Gunung Jerai water catchment area and permanent forest reserve, and logging near water catchment forests.
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State government officials must declare assets now

Anil Netto
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Yesterday, a factory owner in Penang alerted me to the Penang Chief Minister’s response to a reader’s question in The Star.
(Reader) Your exco members are required to declare their assets but this has yet to be done. (Chief Minister) We wanted to but the Prime Minister’s department communicated to my state secretary that they wanted uniformity. And since we want to maintain good federal relations, we are waiting for them to send us the new forms because we also want to declare openly. If they do not give us the forms, we have to do this on our own but we do not want to use this issue to score political points.
The businessman told me he was not satisfied with the reason given for not yet undertaking the asset declarations to the public.
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Causeway toll bonanza for MRCB in the offing (updated)

Anil Netto
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UPDATED While the rakyat suffer from Barang Semua Naik, another well-connected company has hit the jackpot with this get-rich-quick scheme. How do they come up with these “brainwaves”… Well, as they say, make hay while the sun shines – for it may not be shining much longer for the BN. Instead of investing in public transport at a time of rising fuel costs, they can only think of tolls, tolls and more tolls for more and more highways and bridges serving more and more private motor vehicles. (Think also of the second Penang bridge, which will now cost at least RM5 billion, following the fuel price hike, from RM2.7 billion a year ago.) This report from the Singapore Straits Times. Great work, Leslie, for exposing this:
June 19, 2008 S’pore cars using Causeway may have to help fund new JB road Contract says toll will be levied on vehicles entering Malaysia to pay for new link to North-South highway By Leslie Lopez, South-east Asia Correspondent KUALA LUMPUR – THE Malaysian government has awarded a RM1.2 billion (S$500 million) contract for a road on the fringes of Johor Baru to a conglomerate linked to the ruling Umno party, a project analysts say will surely attract close scrutiny because it will be funded by sharply taxing vehicles using the Causeway linking Malaysia and Singapore.
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Australian health care consultant shown the door

Anil Netto
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Chalk up another victory for civil society groups. The Health Ministry has terminated the services of Australian health care financing consultant Karl Karol, it was revealed on Sunday in Penang. A senior Health Ministry official, Dr Lim Kuan Joo, told a ‘Malaysian Health Care Financing Scheme’ seminar organised by the Penang Medical Practitioners’ Society that Karol’s services were no longer needed because the Health Ministry felt that his proposals to fund health care were not appropriate for the country.
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Penang govt must probe PGCC/Batu Kawan deals

Anil Netto
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Reading theSun’s interview with the Penang Chief Minister, I was puzzled about one thing: why can’t the state government initiate its own comprehensive probe of the PGCC or call for an independent inquiry – and make public the outcome? Can’t they see for themselves what happened? Must they wait for evidence of mala fide to be supplied by the public, who do not have access to all the key players and documents in the deals? In the case of the PGCC, there are clearly many serious questions about how Abad Naluri, which has strong political connections, managed to get hold of over 1,000 acres of prime land in Batu Kawan on the mainland, just next to the site of the proposed second Penang bridge.
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Tenaga’s high employees’ benefits poser (updated)

Anil Netto
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UPDATED Tenaga’s employees’ benefits have increased by 81 per cent over the last two years, compared with only a 14 per cent rise in wages and salaries. That’s what a quick look at its financial statements reveals. The Khazanah head honcho had earlier defended the high salaries paid to the top officials in GLCs in this excerpt from a report in The Star today:
His comments, as reported by Bernama, were in response to comments in blogs that Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) CEO Datuk Seri Che Khalib Mohamad Noh and CFO Datuk Izzadin Idris were getting a huge (an unconfirmed 100%) salary increase.
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Sign up here for press freedom

Anil Netto
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benar memoSupport the cause for press freedom. This is an announcement from a string of civil society groups. I must say it is refreshing to see more new groups joining in the struggle for media freedom in Malaysia. What we need now is to achieve a critical mass of Malaysians demanding press freedom, whose voices cannot be ignored or suppressed any longer. The organisers are hoping for at least 5,000 signatures. So far, they have received just over 200. I hope readers of this blog can help them achieve their target.
Concerned Malaysians are working hard to collect as many signatures as possible for the 2008 Memorandum on Media Freedom – sponsored by Benar for Free and Fair Media (Benar), Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ), National Alliance of Bloggers (All-Blogs) and Writers Alliance for Media Independence (WAMI). The Memorandum, together with the signatures collected until 30 August, 2008 shall be presented to the national leaders on August 31, 2008 and to state leaders on September 16, 2008 to demand for reforms in media laws. This project will be weaker without your support. We hope you will place this image link on your blog to help promote the cause. There can be no free nation without free media. Let us come together to demand media freedom as the birthday present for our beloved nation. Thank you very much for your support and attention. In our love of the nation and freedom, All-Blogs, Benar, CIJ and WAMI

Be careful of FDI-driven growth

Anil Netto
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As we mark 100 days of the Pakatan governments in office, it has become fashionable to measure their success by the amount of foreign direct investment (FDI) they have succeeded in drawing in. Everything seems to revolve around FDI. So that even the decision to build a RM5 billion second road bridge in Penang hinges on what the almighty foreign investor thinks and not what sustainable transport planners consider appropriate. In short, state governments are rapidly becoming servants of Big Capital and Big Business, mere tools to serve and facilitate their interests.  FDI is seen as the prime mover of the economy. In the process, sustainable development especially environmental concerns, local businesses and workers’ rights take a back seat.  What has been the level of technology transfer after some four decades of promoting the electronics industry? As the experience of Latin America suggests, we would do well to proceed with extreme caution in dealing with FDI.
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Petronas accounts: Let’s see the detailed Profit and Loss A/c

Anil Netto
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Petronas is saying its financial statements are available to the public. True, they have the annual reports published on their website. But these provide only brief summary figures e.g. revenue, profit before tax, etc – not detailed breakdowns. As mentioned earlier, I would like to see the detailed accounts, not summary figures for revenue and profit before tax. I want to see the administrative and operating expenses, the other misc expenses. Let’s have a look at the detailed profit and loss acount.
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Subdued encore at City Stadium

Anil Netto
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I just dropped by for a few minutes to check out what was happening at the City Stadium last night. Around 15,000 people turned up at the stadium. I could say it was the first time in memory that the stadium has been used for an “opposition” event. But then I would be wrong – for these parties are no longer in the opposition at least in Penang. At least there was no sign of a police presence or FRU personnel at the side entrance facing busy Dato Keramat Road.
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Cheers! Have a rent-seeking beer label…

Anil Netto
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Making your way in the world today Takes everything you’ve got; Taking a break from all your worries Sure would help a lot. Wouldn’t you like to get away? (Extract of lyrics from the “Cheers” theme song)
Times are bad and everyone wants to get ahead in the world…. Today, while Malaysians were protesting in the heart of Kuala Lumpur against the sharp and painful oil price hike, comes news about what sounds like another rent-seeking operation. Beer makers Carlsberg and Guinness-Anchor are locked in a standoff over controversial security labels with a little-known firm Kod Efisien, which was awarded the concession. Kod Efisien later passed this concession to another firm, Lembah Sari. And guess who is a director in Lembah Sari…
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“Tak habis-habis dengan cerita ini”

Anil Netto
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Abdullah Badawi doesn’t see the need for a royal commission on the judiciary in the light of Justice Ian Chin’s revelations of Mahathir’s threats to remove judges. Such a commission is badly needed to comprehensively investigate the 1988 judicial crisis and the undermining of judicial independence and integrity since then. From The Star today:
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said this was because the Government had decided to reform the judiciary. “Tak habis-habis dengan cerita ini (The matter seems to be dragging on). I don’t see a reason for another commission. We are going to implement the reforms,” he told reporters at his office yesterday.
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Mahathir and the judges… again

Anil Netto
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Somehow, even after his retirement, Mahathir is still involved in controversy involving the judges. The Lingam tape, Salleh Abas, Ian Chin… ? What else is coming out of the judicial closet? So what do you make of Mahathir’s response (to Ian Chin’s revelations)? Maybe his memory needs refreshing…
Both the New Straits Times and the Star today chose to splash Justice Dato Ian Chin’s “stunning” claims of my alleged interference in the judiciary, providing brief respite from the current issues of oil price hike etc etc I will refrain from commenting for now and will do so in due time. However, I am quite curious about what Ian Chin considers as “veiled threat”. Perhaps he could be more specific as his allegations are very serious.
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Mouth-watering seafood, anyone?

Anil Netto
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By now, you would have heard that Malaysian seafood exports could be slapped with a EU ban. What’s gone wrong? From reports, we hear that:
“… there are infrastructure and facilities such as fishing vessels, fish landing ports, and fish and prawn farms, which are lagging behind the standards set by EU,”…
Random checks conducted on nine seafood companies exporting to Europe found six of them lagging behind in health standards and practices set by the EU… (The Star)
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Corporate doublespeak: subsidies vs “incentives”

Anil Netto
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I walked into a petrol station along a busy road in Penang last night and engaged in some small talk with the cashier. I asked him what kind of impact the petrol price hike has had on his collection. “In ringgit terms, it has gone up,” he replied. “But in terms of litres sold, there has been a drop.” Hmm, so there has been a drop in consumption, at least at this station, I thought to myself.
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From People Power to Pedal Power

Anil Netto
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There has been a lot of talk about people boycotting the petrol pumps – you can see this being circulated via email. Only snag is how long can people sustain this? So it’s time for pedal power! Hey, if Paris can do it, why not KL, Penang, Ipoh, Johor Bharu, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu? It will do wonders to turn our cities greener and quieter. We need not follow the business model in Paris. All we need to do is press our state governments to come up with dedicated cycle lanes, shaded by trees to keep off the blazing sun. 
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Why the generous subsidies for IPPs?

Anil Netto
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Oil price hike protest in Ipoh (Source: Unknown; forwarded via email)

So Petronas and the Malaysian government says subsidies distort the market. Of course, the withdrawal of subsidies will encourage conservation of a scarce resource – which is a good thing. It might even reduce pollution and congestion. Roads were noticeablly less congested in parts of Penang and KL today. Traffic on the Penang Bridge heading to the island at 5.20pm – peak time – was smooth; the usual bottleneck after the toll plazas, as the mutiple lanes narrow down to two lanes, was gone. But has the government given much thought to the impact of the removal of oil subsidies on the poor – and even large segments of the middle-class, who are rapidly moving down to the ranks of the poor in terms of real purchasing power? One key question has not been answered: why a sudden complete removal and not a gradual phasing out? Come on, tell us how much profit Petronas made for the year ended 31 March 2008. The figures should be available by now, even if the annual report isn’t ready.
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Would you like to see this in your city?

Anil Netto
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trams

A modern tram in Grenoble, France – Photo credit: Wikipedia (copyleft)

The tram initiative is building up momentum. So far, 25 29 30 31 bloggers and websites have signed on to the campaign. Civil society activists have articulated their views too. Here’s what some people are saying: Heritage writer Khoo Salma Nasution:
Heritage writer Khoo Salma Nasution noted that the Penang Island Municipal Council was the first local government to introduce electric trams in the inner city in the early part of the last century. “People think the tram is a thing of the past, but they are wrong because it is actually the thing of the future,” she said. “It is clean, energy saving and user-friendly not to mention fast, efficient and also cheap.”
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More on the mysterious oil subsidies

Anil Netto
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Some more light on this mysterious subsidy thing: Most of the country’s oil fields contain low-sulfur, high quality “sweet” crude. Malaysia exports the majority of its oil to Japan, Thailand, Singapore and South Korea.
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