This is what Ambiga has to say of Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj’s new book.
Whether one is a capitalist, socialist or just interested in good governance, there is real benefit in reading this collection of speeches and essays by Dr Jeyakumar, one of the most principled politicians I know.
True to form, every word in these writings is weighed and considered carefully and responsibly. The result is a collection that challenges us into rethinking the benefits of our current systems to bring them in line with a “people first” philosophy, in the true sense of those words.
The “vow of poverty” that you will read about, exhorts political lraders to live simply, declare their assets and to behave with dignity. How refreshing! But the true power of Dr Jeyakumar’s words lies in the fact that he does not just write or speak them. It is that he lives by them.
The book is available at gbgerakbudaya.com
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Do not forget certain families of dead civil servants have in the past continue to draw pensions of their deceased parents!
We have gotten used to the yoke. We are moving down the pen to the …
“…suppresses anything that may cause doubt or discontent about its wisdom including comparisons to the past, alternatives, and suggestions of incompetence or failures.” – Freidrich von Hayek (right-wing economist), Road to Serfdom, 1944
PM Najib’s approval rating dropped to 44% in January from 48% in October 2014 as more people felt his government was headed in the wrong direction in economic matters, according to the latest Merdeka Center poll. 1Malaysia failed as a vision as only 18% of chinese support Najib.
UMNO Baru-BN regime cannot fool Chinese-Malaysians anymore.
The only Chinese-Malaysians who continue to support the regime are those
who benefit from misrule, crony capitalism etc.
But 50% plus of Malay-Malaysians continue to support the regime.
Progressive Malay intellectuals, you have to do your job and open the
eyes of lower class Malay-Malaysians !
Phua : Support from Malaysian Chinese in the last GE dropped to about 30% during the last GE is due to the rhetoric language and deception of the opposition such as 40,000 bangla and so on.. In real current situation, the DAP & PKR is not enjoying any real support from the Chinese and Indian with the exception of some hardcore. The silent majorties that have been instrumental in helping DAP/PKR won many seat are now fast returning back to BN Gerakan & MCA. Last election saw many Indian returning back to MIC and I believed the next election will… Read more »
May I make a pitch for the Social Democratic vision of the good society :
http://phuakl.tripod.com/eTHOUGHT/sixteenone.html/
The JCP – resisting the new militarism :
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-12-14/japan-s-communist-party-seen-doubling-seats-in-abe-protest-vote
The good doctor stays faithful to his democratic Marxist ideals.
I’m not a Marxist myself but I note that democratic Marxists
have had a good record running city governments in Italy and
the government of Kerala state in India. Also, the
Japan Communist Party is one of the more honourable
political parties in that country.
Vision 2020 replaced by Vision Transformasi = now very doubtful with nation debts not helped by various scandals. The rakyat likely to voice disapproval next GE when the suffering impact of GST creeps in….
What is it that the Government and 1MDB is hiding from the public. It was reported that this company comes under the purview of the Finance Ministry. Besides ad-hoc vague unreliable statements from 1MDB that is rather confusing to the public, nothing tangible has come out from the government nor 1MDB on the actual status of this government linked company that has accumulated huge debts. The Finance Minister’s stoned silence on this burning issue gives the impression that something is seriously wrong with this company. The public ought to know the truth, failing which the Finance Minister should resign.
C4, the Centre to Combat Corruption & Cronyism, has called on the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) to immediately begin investigations into the financial scandal that the 1Malaysia Development Board (1MDB) has become.
An alternative vision is needed to arrest the fall of our Ringgit and to curb further rise of our national debt.
Our national debt can be easily reduced by the trimming of wasteful expenditures as well as checking of leakages with the introduction of good practice of governance and financial management. The practice of direct negotiation should be done away for good. The reduction of the national debt would in turn restore the confidence in the ringgit currency thus pushing up its value. The pre-1997 financial crisis value of RM2.50 per USD should be taken as the ideal strength our currency.
Simple solution indeed without having to waste money on foreign consultants. The bloated civil service need to be trimmed along with privatisation like MyEG for work permit renewal (in this case no open tender for outsourcing).
Why is there a need to engage consultants or outsource jobs that could rightfully be done internally (read: by civil servants)?. This expectation is quite reasonable taking into account the excessive number of civil servants available unless the civil servants are not competent for the job or the department heads do not know how to manage their workforce or, above all else, there are ulterior motives in the decisions to outsource the jobs. And btw, isn’t the job taken up by MyEG largely clerical; no much different from the processing for citizenship or passports?
Outsourced companies no need to go through open tender process as they are mostly owned by Umno cronies (ketua bahagian gets their reward this way). They are likely to be incompetent so can only undertake low value-added jobs but being paid with high value contract terms.
There are some exception where creativity is applied in the wrong sense for further pocket enrichment, think NFC.
The cover story of the latest issue of The Edge:
Emoluments, pension and gratuities cost the government RM81.5 billion in 2014, or 36.8% of opex. This is straining its already tight finances, which could force changes that have so far been held back due to political pressures.
The monthly emoluments for government servants should sensibly be lower than that of the private sector as there is a need to factor in the pensions to be paid over 20-30 years after retirement. However, the salaries of the government servants have gone up much faster than the private sectors during the last decade or so with many of the positions of the private sector being overtaken. The most probable cause for the massive increase in the salaries of the government servants was political expediency; which is the ruling party trying to gain the votes of the government servants and… Read more »