Thursday, August 28, 2014

PROMOTING MALAYSIA

As posted by Dr. Mahathir Mohamad at Che Det on August 27, 2014

1.​ There was a time when Malaysia was unknown to the rest of the world.

2. ​When Malaysians went abroad and people ask where they came from, the reaction to their reply that they were from Malaysia, almost always evoke the comment, “Where is that?”

3. ​But today most foreign people would know where Malaysia is. They would even know that Malaysia succeeded in changing itself from an agricultural country to an industrial country. And today 24 million tourists visit Malaysia in one year.

4. ​All these did not just happen. The tourist industry has become a big contributor to the Malaysian economy because of action taken to make Malaysia well known.

5. ​When RM 280 million was spent to build the Sepang F1 race-track there was a lot of criticism. It seemed like a waste of money as the sport was not excelled by Malaysians.

6. ​One of the objectives was to promote Malaysia as a tourist destination and to showcase its attraction as a place to invest.

7. ​The race was watched by more than 100,000 people including almost 30,000 foreign spectators. But more importantly the race was broadcast live by more than 300 TV stations worldwide. It is estimated that more than 300 million people watch the F1 race all over the world. They not only see the car racing but also many aspects of Malaysia’s development and facilities. For three days the TV audience saw beautiful Malaysia and a lot of Malaysia’s development.

8. ​Advertising on Japanese TV is expensive, costing a million Ringgit for a three minute clip. But during F1 race Malaysia gets 2 hours a day for three days free TV coverage. Throughout the world 300 TV stations cover the race without our having to pay a single cent.

9. ​If we add up the advertising value for three days on 300 TV stations worldwide, the cost would be much more than the total cost of building the track. Multiply it with 15 years and the publicity value of that track will add up to billions.

10. ​If in addition we add the spending of some 30,000 tourists to see the race, the contribution to the national economy would justify the RM280 million we spent building the F1 race track.

11. ​These events, the F1 race, the Tour de Langkawi bicycle race, LIMA and a host of other events earn the nation a lot of money, far more than the cost of holding this events.

12. ​That is why I am saddened when the Government did not help out the organisers of the recently held Red Bull Air Race in Putrajaya. This race is held all over the world. Millions watch this race. The majority would be locals but many loyal followers travel to watch the race. The advertising value is very high, yet the cost of holding it is low.

13. ​The organisers cannot really make money from the event. But it is good advertising for the country.

14. ​The Government has contributed a small sum. But it should help more. And so should the big corporations.

Monday, August 18, 2014

MENEGUR

As posted by Dr. Mahathir Mohamad at Che Det on August 18, 2014

1. Ada orang yang memberitahu kepada Dato Seri Najib Tun Razak yang saya telah memburukkan pemerintahannya.

2. Saya tidak akan menyangkal kerana saya telah berkali-kali menegur dasar-dasar Kerajaan sekarang.

3. Saya menegur kerana saya berpendapat pemimpin yang tidak ditegur akan percaya segala-gala yang dilakukan oleh mereka baik-baik belaka. Hanya apabila ditegur sahaja barulah pemimpin akan sedar akan kesalahan dan mungkin akan memperbetulkannya.

4. Izinkan saya mencerita cerita dongeng berkenaan seorang raja Inggeris. Ia dikelilingi dengan ramai dato-dato yang mendakwa dia adalah seorang raja yang amat berkuasa keatas segala-galanya. Demikian pasang-surut air di laut pun akan patuh kepada perintahnya.

5. Alkesah, maka pada satu hari raja menitah untuk meletakkan takhtanya di pantai menghadapi laut.

6. Air sedang pasang dan raja bertanya kepada dato-datonya apakah baginda boleh hentikan air pasang supaya tidak basahkan kakinya.

7. Jawab mereka, “Ya, Tuanku. Air tidak akan sampai kaki Tuanku.”

8. Maka raja pun menitah supaya air laut itu tidak naik lagi.

9. Tetapi air laut itu terus pasang dan kena pada kaki baginda. Maka baginda pun murka kepada dato-datonya. Demikianlah sikap dato-dato kerana ingin menyenangkan hati raja mereka.

10. Satu lagi cerita dongeng juga ialah berkenaan dato-dato istana yang tidak pernah menegur raja. Mereka sepanjang masa mengiyakan saja apa juga yang dilakukan oleh raja.

11. Satu hari raja masuk dewan dalam keadaan bogel. Baginda bertanya cantikkah pakaiannya. Semua angguk kepala dan berkata “Ya Tuanku”.

12. Hanya seorang budak yang berkata, “Tuanku bogel.”

13. Maka raja pun murka akan dato-datonya yang tidak berkata yang benar apabila dia bogel.

14. Kita boleh dapat sedikit pelajaran dari cerita-cerita dongeng ini.

15. Orang Melayu mempunyai banyak pepatah yang boleh jadi panduan dalam kehidupan mereka. Antaranya ingin saya sebut disini:

“Sayangkan anak tangan-tangankan
Sayangkan isteri tinggal-tinggalkan”

Dengan izin saya ingin menambah sedikit kepada pepatah ini.

“Sayangkan pemimpin tegur-tegurkan”

16. Saya lihat bagaimana orang Melayu tidak mudah menegur pemimpin. Walaupun pemimpin jelas bersalah, tidak ada siapa yang sanggup menegur secara terbuka. Tetapi di belakang pemimpin mereka akan keluarkan kata-kata yang kesat terhadapnya.

17. Mungkin saya berbeza sedikit dari Melayu lain. Apabila YTM Tunku membuat beberapa dasar dan tindakan yang tidak disenangi oleh ramai orang Melayu, saya menulis surat menegur Tunku.

18. Walaupun kerananya saya dipecat, tetapi YTM Tunku meletak jawatan sebagai Perdana Menteri. Mungkin bukan kerana teguran saya, tetapi hakikatnya Tunku mengundur diri.

19. Demikian juga dengan Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Mungkin kerana teguran, mungkin kerana prestasi buruk Pilihanraya ke 12. Tetapi hakikatnya Tun Abdullah juga letak jawatan.

20. Saya sendiri pun letak jawatan. Sebahagian dari sebabnya ialah kerana saya dengar bisik-bisik yang menyoal “Bila lagi orang tua ini akan pergi.” Saya percaya jika saya tidak letak jawatan, bisik akan jadi jeritan.

21. Pilihan saya bagi mengganti Tun Abdullah ialah Dato Seri Najib. Setelah beberapa lama dilihat bahawa dasar dan tindakan Dato Seri Najib tidak lebih berkesan dari Tun Abdullah.

22. Saya tidak sangka yang pencapaiannya dalam Pilihanraya Umum ke13 lebih buruk dari Tun Abdullah.

23. Harapan saya Dato Seri Najib akan mengambil ikhtibar dari prestasinya yang buruk dalam Pilihanraya Umum ke 13. Malangnya sehingga kini tidak ternampak apa-apa perubahan dari segi dasar atau pendekatan walaupun saya cuba menyampaikan pendapat saya, (yang juga pendapat ramai yang datang bertemu saya) secara langsung kepada Dato Seri Najib.

24. Saya tidak ada pilihan selain dari menarik balik sokongan saya. Ini pun tidak berkesan. Oleh itu terpaksalah saya menegur.

25. Apakah dianya yang saya fikir salah. Ia bermula dengan pendirian melayani semua tuntutan musuh. ISA dan undang-undang buang daerah dimansuh. Tindakan ini tidak sedikit pun mengurangkan tentangan oleh parti lawan. Sebaliknya jenayah bertambah dengan banyaknya kerana pembebasan ketua-ketua geng.

26. Demikian juga dengan sikap merendah diri kepada negara jiran sehingga urusan dalam negeri pun tertakluk kepada pendapat Kerajaan negara jiran.

27. Tetapi pendapat kaum dan parti yang kuat menyokong untuk menyelamatkan kedudukan Kerajaan tidak diberi layanan yang saksama.

28. Wang Kerajaan diguna untuk mempengaruhi sokongan rakyat apabila sahaja pilihanraya umum diadakan. Ini menjadikan rakyat terlalu bergantung kepada Kerajaan untuk segala-galanya. Bagi yang betul-betul miskin, bantuan seperti ini memanglah wajar. Tetapi beribu rakyat yang ditawar menolak bantuan wang seperti ini. Semangat rakyat untuk bekerja menjadi luntur apabila mereka diberi ganjaran tanpa apa-apa usaha oleh mereka. Semangat ini tidak akan menolong pembangunan Negara.

29. Dasar ekonomi mengutamakan tuntutan pengguna. Impot barangan digalakan dan industri tempatan diabaikan, bahkan dihalang oleh dasar Kerajaan.

30. Cuti ditambah sehingga adakalanya pekerja bercuti lebih satu minggu. Sebaliknya gaji minimum dinaikkan tanpa mengambilkira kenaikan kos yang boleh menjadi perniagaan dan perusahaan tidak bedayasaing dengan barangan impot.

31. Sesungguhnya banyaklah dasar, pendekatan dan perbuatan Kerajaan pimpinan Dato Seri Najib yang merosakkan hubungan antara kaum, merosakkan ekonomi dan kewangan negara.

32. Semua ini disebabkan penyokong Kerajaan tidak pernah menegur pemimpin.

33. Jikalau tiada siapa yang sanggup menegur, biarlah saya menegur. Saya pernah dipecat oleh Tunku Abdul Rahman, dipulau oleh Datuk Seri Abdullah dan difitnah oleh ramai. Jika kerana menegur saya akan didera, terpaksalah saya terima.

34. Bukanlah saya tidak sayang pemimpin. Tetapi saya lebih sayang bangsa dan negara saya.

Thursday, August 14, 2014

MAS PRIVATISATION

As posted by Dr. Mahathir Mohamad at Che Det on August 12, 2014

1. I am a bit mystified by the privatisation of MAS. Khazanah, I believe, is a Government company, or at least a Government controlled company. The CEO reports to the Prime Minister and usually acts on the direction of the Prime Minister.

2. The Prime Minister personifies the Government. If a company is fully acquired by a Government company, is it privatisation or nationalisation?

3. Yes, a company that is owned 100% by one entity, is not a public company. It is a private company. But if that person or entity is the Government, can it be said to be private?

4. I believe prior to this privatisation, Khazanah owned 70% of MAS shares. Its control over MAS must be almost absolute. None of the minority shareholders can really say ‘No’ to MAS even if they all act together. So Khazanah has been in full control of MAS all this time. And all this time MAS has been bleeding profusely. In 10 years it has lost 10 billion Ringgit in terms of capital injection.

5. So why should anyone believe that with 100% control Khazanah will not keep on losing.

6. In fact with no one to check and give concerned criticism as when there were minority shareholders, MAS can go very wrong indeed.

7. In true privatisation, fear of losing money on the part of a private owner would force him to scrutinise the management and check the balance sheets frequently. The Government as the owner would be less concerned. The Government is about spending money. Any shortages (or losses) can be overcome by increasing taxes or borrowing money. The way money is being spent nowadays doesn’t indicate the kind of careful financial management and scrutiny that MAS would require in order to turn around.

8. Once when a new CEO was appointed MAS registered some profit. But that was through selling assets. How much more assets can MAS sell?

9. Catering was given to a company with very long term contract and even as MAS loses money the contractors seems to be doing well. A Government company will not be able to terminate this unusual contract. It is too sensitive. Someone might advice against it.

10. People in glass houses should not throw stones. Right. I shouldn’t say all these. I had such a bad record as Prime Minister. But I was ready to resign. And I did. I did because I failed. But no one wants to follow my example.

11. I may be wrong but I think Khazanah’s 100% ownership of MAS will not be much different from its 70% ownership. We are going to see a lot of new people who will receive huge salaries, allowances and bonuses and not much else. That I believe is how Khazanah operates.

Monday, August 4, 2014

CENSORING THE INTERNET

As posted by Dr. Mahathir Mohamad at Che Det on August 01, 2014

1. Not knowing the power of the Internet, I promised that we (speaking as the Prime Minister of Malaysia) would not censor it. But today I have changed my mind.

2. I have done so because the players, including those controlling the servers have been applying their own censorship of what can appear in this alternative media. I myself have suffered from such censorship.

3. When I put on my blog, an article on the Jews, without any explanation, my article was prevented from being linked to Facebook.

4. But that is not all. I first used the internationally available platform to host my blog. When hundreds of thousands visited my blog, suddenly the platform rejected hosting my blog site.

5. I changed the platform but again it was blocked. I have now changed servers and platforms three times. Still there have been attempts to block my blog. Not to mention the numerous spam and virus attacks against my blog.

6. Blocking is of course a form of censorship. The internet is not the free alternative to the state-controlled print and electronic media it is touted to be. It is subject to even more censorship than Governments could exercise. The people who hosts these platforms and servers can censor. And various other means are available to the powerful controllers of the new media for them to censor in the interest of their politics.

7. There is no freedom of the alternative media. Governments and the owners of servers and platforms and assorted others can censor the alternative media. It is actually less free than print and electronic media operating under Government licences.

8. I think it is time we stop talking of the freedom of the press. Let us admit that the press needs to be censored. It needs to be censored because freedom, any kind of freedom will always be open to abuse. The worst abuses are in the field of morality.

9. The internet has played a major role in undermining public morality. Our children are not safe from the kind of filth that the print and electronic media promote. Today any child can access pornography of the worse kind. Children are no longer safe from sexual assault. So are young girls and boys as the internet arouses the kind of base feelings that we curbed before.

10. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender or LGBT is openly touted as a part of human rights. We accept that some people are born with indeterminate sex. They were forced to hide their unusual proclivities. But now that LGBT is accepted, normal people have also taken up the practices of those who were born handicapped. And worse still certain religions have abrogated the injunctions of their religion against abnormal sex so as to be seen to be keeping up with the times.

11. Incest, child sex, sex with animals, sexual parties, sex in public and many other practices which we still feel are wrong will soon be a part of the expression of freedom and equality. All these will promoted on the internet.

12. I don’t care how sacred is freedom but I think the time has come for Governments, at least the Malaysian Government to censor the internet.

THE JEWS

As posted by Dr. Mahathir Mohamad at Che Det on July 24, 2014

1.​The Jews claim they are the “chosen” people of God. Despite being persecuted by the European Christians who accused them of the crucifixion of Christ; despite being forced to live in ghettoes in Europe, despite having to endure periodical massacres (pogroms) by Europeans, the Jews never ceased to believe that they are superior beings who are the chosen people of God.

2.​The Jews are Semitic people. So are the Arabs. But today the Jews behave as if they are the only Semitic people. They accused everyone of being anti-Semitic if they criticised the Jews or accuses them of wrong doings. For whatever they do, however criminal it may be they would accuse their detractors as being anti-Semitic.

3.​In this free world we can accuse anyone of anything and it is tolerated because it is part of freedom of speech. But the Jews may not be a criticised in any way without the critic being labelled “anti-Semitic”. And many European countries support this view to the extent of jailing anyone accused of being anti-Semitic.

4.​Clearly the Jews think of themselves as special beings who are privileged to the point of being above condemnation or even criticism.

5.​Their present behaviour confirms this arrogance. They do what they wish even when the world considers their deeds as criminal, inhuman even. Currently they are engaged in killing hundreds of the people in Gaza and razing their cities to the ground. Hospitals, schools and private dwellings have been bombed and rocketed.

6. The world may condemn this inhuman acts but the Jews don’t care. They announce their intention to kill more people and devastate the Gaza strip.

7.​When the Europeans took Palestinian land to create the state of Israel, they clearly stated that the rights of the Arab people within the new state must be respected.

8.​The Jews just ignored this injunction and simply seized all Arab land and properties in Israel including houses and farms. Through violent attacks and massacres e.g. at Deir Yassin, they forced the Palestinian Arabs to flee their land. They then claim the Arabs left freely.

9.​For more than 60 years these refugees have been forced to live in refugee settlements. No compensations have been paid for the expropriation of their property. They are not allowed to return and live in the Jewish State. This is racism at its worse.

10.​Not satisfied with the seized Palestinian land which the UN made into the state of Israel, the Israelis occupied Palestinian land outside Israel. They built fortified settlements exclusively for themselves; another act unprecedented in the history of the nations of the world.

11.​They built roads through Palestinian lands which no Palestinian may use. They built high walls through Palestinians villages, breaking them up so that the Palestinians cannot visit their own friends and relatives living on the other side of the wall. They did not allow the Palestinians to have a Palestinian nation. They can only be a Palestinian Authority. And the Europeans endorse this overbearing arrogance.

12.​They laid siege to the Gaza strip so that food and medicines and building materials cannot be sent to the aid of the Gaza people after the bombings and rocketing by the Israel military forces. Ships trying to supply Gaza with their needs are seized in International waters and forced to sail to Israel where their cargo is confiscated. Frequently the ships are attacked by the Israelis navy outside Israeli waters and aid workers are shot and killed.

13.​Israel has more than ten thousand Palestinians in custody at any time for alleged anti-Israel activities. No charges and no trial have been instituted. The length of the detention is not stated.

14.​Periodically should the Palestinians capture an Israel soldier, Israel would offer to release a few hundred of these detainees in exchange for the Israel soldier. But very quickly new Palestinians are arrested so that they can be used in exchange for captured soldiers.

15.​If in frustration the Palestinian send in suicide bombers or fire rockets to retaliate against Israeli atrocities, they would ensure the Palestinians pay a high price. They would send in their military forces to destroy Palestinian villagers and kill hundreds of innocent Palestinians, men, women, children the old and the sick.

16.​Currently after the alleged killing of three Israeli students by unknown persons, Israel bombarded the Gaza strip with aerial bombs and rockets. Hospitals, schools and private houses are destroyed. More than 500 people have been killed and thousands injured. The hospitals where the injured are taken to are rocketed by Israel without any consideration for the sick who cannot flee.

17.​The message for the world seems to be that Israel and Israelis are sacred and anyone touching them would have to pay a price a hundred times more than that inflicted on Israelis.

18.​All these things the Israeli are doing are against International law, against morality, against human rights. They are criminals in every law of the civilised world.

19.​But the Israeli Jews do this with impunity. They have the whole of America and Europe behind them. They are the chosen people of God and they are above any laws, any moral code, any human values.

20.​When Jews were persecuted by the Nazis in Germany they seek the sympathy and support of the world. But their sufferings have taught them nothing, have not made them understand the pain of suffering. Instead they are now behaving worse than Nazis, not caring at all for the sufferings and deaths they inflict upon others.

21.​The Europeans and the Americans created this monster and they care not for the atrocities committed by it. They will continue to support Israel even if the Israelis commit genocide, kill all the Arabs. This is their way to atone for all their treatment of the Jews in the past. The Jews should really be venting their spite on the Germans and other Europeans. But they are too smart. Killing Arabs is easier and more fun.