A Smiling 2013.....

Look around after the announcement of the RM251.6 billion budget for 2013 by the Prime Minister cum Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak. Everyone from ministers to bus drivers, towkays to fishermen,professors to students, seems to be smiling.There's a bag of goodies held out for everybody.

The billions and millions of ringgit allocated to specific groups of people involved in different aspects of the national economy and social services, just boggled my mind.I look for summaries to get a holistic picture of where the money comes from and where it goes to but what I find more in the print media are details of the allocation to various sectors of the economy and groups of citizens. How much of the RM251.6 is allocated to operating expenditure and how much for development is not highlighted although there is a breakdown in terms of percentage - something like 80:20.

So much of details as to who gets hefty allocations and who gets RM100-500 one-off payment that I could't see the wood for the trees. Can't classify the "gifts" under proper programs to achieve certain targets, so that at the end of the year the degree of achievement can be ascertained. It's like take the gifts and enjoy yourself, in which case the gift is never enough. All will smile when the handouts are given but after spending them and they see the huge chunks of inducement packets others are getting, the smile will disappear. Moreover the inducement packages go on and on for years....

Yes, we all need the quick-cash-supplement, especially when prices of foodstuff, clothings, housing, reading materials etc keep shooting up. The top-up policy cannot be sustained when prices of goods, service charges and rentals keep going up. It's more important to control the prices by increasing production and lowering the cost. Even the 1 Malaysia shops which offer cheaper prices than the usual retailers can only offer competition to the latter, not a solution to the problem of increasing prices.

No, there is no need for me to repeat the allocations made in the 2013 budget, for the papers are full of them. To evaluate whether the amount allocated is magnanimous or ridiculous is meaningless when the cause of the problem requiring added allocation is not explained. It's a happy budget and let's be happy about it until something begins to prick us in the pocket or the butt. One thing that worries me. When the big tycoons, the fund managers, and the towkays are laughing, we the customers had better watch out.The more they take the more we have to pay.

Religious intolerance...

Religion is supposed to save humanity from destruction and hellfire. bring peace of mind and serenity of soul, teach humility, kindness and tolerance. But is religion doing that today? And don't tell me it's the religion - whatever religion and religious belief - that's wrong. It must be the followers- and that's all of us - and the preachers that had fouled up things, including the words of the Apostles and God Himself.

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If one wishes to take the best from all religions of the world, one will find many similarities in the definition of goodness, compassion, religiosity, and the straight path as prescribed by the sacred Book of the various Faiths. Only the name of the one God or Deity may differ, together with the names of the Messengers and Apostles. All the religions of the world preach brotherhood and compassion among human beings of whatever creed and belief, living in peace with each other and finding satisfaction and fulfillment in life through seeking endearment and the blessings of their Creator.

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But that seems to be the last thing which religion does to us today. We make it a battle cry, an excuse for creating havoc and killing each other, insulting each other, denouncing each other and trampling on each other's birthrights. We insult and denigrade the name of each other's Lord, the Prophets and Apostles revered by different followers, provoke each other by doing so and ended up destroying and killing each other. How can human beings, the most intelligent creation of the animal world and the most advanced in intellectual development, be that stupid.

Yes, the provocation and the insults could originate from the work of some twisted brains and convoluted minds, as claimed by some authorities, in the case of producing the film, the Innocence of the Muslims.But why must the media play it up rather than clamped it down? Surely some people wanted the film to do its damage - and the damage had been done. More it continues to cause havoc and international bitterness. If the cause of religion had thrown nations to war in the past it can still do so now.Unless human beings stopped their stupidity and begin to understand and appreciate religion as it should be.

As for the Muslims, they can take any amount of insults as had been imposed on them in the past by foreign powers. But don't insult their God, their beloved Prophet and their religion. Hellfire can descend on earth earlier than doomsday if such insult continues.

Role of the Civil Service in National Development

In a democratic government where the national leaders are elected through a direct or a collegiate election system, politicians fill in public posts in the Executive and Legislative branch of government. Only posts in the Civil Service and the Judiuciary will be held by professionals, although countries adopting the American system assigned top posts in the Civil Service and Judiciary to elected officials.

Thus, the Civil Service and Judiciary under the British system, being strictly manned by professionals, are mandated to be neutral or apolitical. However, the officials must necessarily be subject to the policies and official directives of their political bosses.But to what extent? How far can the political bosses exert their influence on the career officials in carrying out their duties according to the laws and regulations, before the latter can complain about "political interference." Can officers 'advise' their political bosses when certain directives and instructions go against explicit rules and regulations or even against the law? Who will protect the officers when they refuse to do anything against the regulation or the law until such regulation or law is amended?

Such matters form the basic dilemma of the career public officials in fast developing countries where the political bosses (as elected officials) have almost absolute power.
This can literally reduce the career officials to the position of a 'yes-man' vis-a-vis the political bosses, irrespective of their rank and seniority in the service.Thus, even the Chief Secretary to the Government,the Secretary Generals of Ministries, Heads of Department,Judges, the Police or Army Chiefs etc. would not be able to execute their duties and responsibilities according to the rules and regulations but according to the dictate of the political bosses.

Surely this is a most undesirable state of affairs in a developing country where many experiments in development are being undertaken. Political leaders will be persuaded by the pressure and arguments exerted by their supporters but career officials must study facts, figures,the regulations and the law before recommending any course of action to their bosses, their reputation and trustworthiness being dependent on the merit of their recommendation. The easiest thing to do is to say 'yes-Sir' to the political bosses and that can cause untold damage and incur all the undesirable consequences of a bad decision made by the political bosses. Who then will take the blame?

In Malaysia there is no doubt that the political leaders have outclassed the career officials in pushing through development efforts, career officials often being too cautious and wary about making mistakes. They have been known to drag their feet until the late Tun Abdul Razak at one time and later Tun Dr Mahathir shook them up and instilled in them the frontiersmen spirit. They spearheaded new development programs like Felda, Felcra, Mardi, Pernas, Petronas, Proton, etc and all the privatized development programs.

When the initial jobs were all done, a new generation of civil servants who did not go through the Tun Razak's and Tun Mahathir's attitude transformation program, took over as leaders in the Civil Service. We don't hear them anymore talking as loud in support of their bosses, filling in the details of work to be done, and directing their staff like the old hands. INTAN tries to toughen up the new batches of civil servants through a rigorous six-months DPA course but let them go through paramilitary training without proper and adequate conditioning. That has resulted in two fatal casualties that will shake up the entire training concept formulated by INTAN and PSD.I wonder if that is another indication of the lack of pragmatic and cognitive shake-up which Tun Razak and Tun Mahathir gave the top civil servants in their time.

The Cycle of Goodness (the COG)

Give away more money to the people, that boosts up domestic demand, enhances trade and business, government collects more tax, and therefore has more money to give away to the people. That seems to be the long and short of the Cycle of Godness, the COG, that can spin faster to make the country a high income nation.

Sounds good and simple. Yet, many poor and developing countries could not initiate that cycle. Why?

The common answer is: government has no money to give to the people. Yet, the government as we often observe has money to aggrandize itself, supports and is supported by wealthy people living in western-style luxury and comfort, establishes grand embassies with opulent residence and transport facilities..etc..etc..Foreign assistance and aid often flow in enormous quantity, yet fail to reach the needy...
The rich become richer, the poor poorer, was and is still the buzzword. Many development thinkers think that it's not so mush a question of whether there is money to give to the people as the question of HOW government distributes the goodies. Do they reach the rock-bottom, ground level, where the poor scrounge for a living? Giving cash directly to the poor was considered a bad policy. It must be given through appropriate and formal agencies and government organizations. What happened is that the agencies and organizations become rich and colossal monsters devouring the massive allocations (trust funds) they receive. ( Some say even international organizations designed to help the unfortunate people of the world had become such monsters!)

Nonetheless, the COG concept supports giving funds directly to the poor and unfortunate. Malaysia's BRIM 1, 2 and 3 illustrates the point. So do many other "durian runtuhs" programs. Earlier leaders had been very reluctant to give direct handouts including hefty pay rise for the public servants. Result: healthy growth but minimal. Now, PM Najib had reversed the order. The economy seems to be responding in a very positive way.

But, prices of things and the cost of living are also shooting up. Cost of building materials and residential homes and business premises had skyrocketed. Has the government machinery controlling these items been streamlined and charged with new obligations to see that housing developers and real estate dealers are not squeezing consumers and clients to death? Look at the number of "Bank Lelong" notices plastered all around the country. Low cost houses ( link houses and terrace homes)are now crossing the half million ringgit mark. What's the government doing about this or is the policy now: buy if you can afford, otherwise go back to the village?

55 Yrs of Independence....

After 55 years of Independence or Merdeka, I see that people become more and more insensitive or lukewarm to the anniversary celebration. I don't see flags flying around on cars and busses, fluttering atop building, and the whole city being lighted up. The centers of activity for the celebration are few and numbered. It's not like the whole nation rises up in pride and jubilation.

I keep thinking that this is probably due to the fact that government is handling everything. The Merdeka celebration is fully orchestrated by government, from arranging the parade, the processions, the music, the dances, etc. We pick the schoolchildren to do most of the stage-filling jobs, the acrobatics (if you can call it so) but more like becoming the pom-pom dancers. Actual participation by the people and the crowd is practically nill. You only go to the Merdeka Square to watch, almost the same same thing every time, sometimes tolerating the sun or the rain. So, it's not surprising if people chose to stay at home and watch everything on TV.

How to allow people to participate actively in the processions and all the shows? The organizers need to think about that, inviting every form of participation that people want. Musical performances along the street by professional or amateur bands with dance group to invite participation from the crowd could be a draw. Street dancing in fancy dresses could be another crowd puller with free participation from the crowd, moving along determined routes around the Square. Even opposition groups could be allowed to participate by mounting their own shows, with participation from the crowd and no 'ceramah' or politicking. ( Who wants to listen anyway when dancing and singing is the order of the day or night.}

Whatever it is we have to break away from the old tradition of presenting cut-n-dry performances, exploiting the schoolchildren under the rubric of participation, and limiting the participation of companies and agencies to a semi-fancy dress march through probably accompanied by a float. Why don't we allow them to perform in whatever way they want to entertain the crowd. Such entertainment could even start on the eve of the anniversary.

I feel that the Merdeka celebration should also allow Malaysians to show their artistic talents, express their joy and pride in whatever way they want under the light and within the premise of the Merdeka Square. People don't want to be mere spectators anymore, they want a piece of the action. Isn't that what merdeka is all about?

Shawal...Are the Camels pregnant?

In the tenth month of the Islamic calendar, the camels are supposed to be carrying a fetus, since shawwal means to lift or carry (according to wikipedia although the arabic word for carry is raffa'a). We are now one week into the month of Shawwal, and Muslims especially in Malaysia are still celebrating aidilfitri. It's the month of open houses, especially for political leaders and the the rich businessmen, out to reward their supporters or clients as the case may be.

The open-house can really be a huge occasion for feasting and tightening up the relationship or promoting a leader's public relations. An elderly Auntie of mine was so happy when she attended the aidilfitri open-house reception at a Menteri Besar's home and had the opportunity to shake hand with the leader, "which had never happened before in my life" she announced with pride and joy. We can see huge smiles and appreciation expressed by those who attended the leader's open-house, captured in color photographs and splashed as headline news in the media.

There certainly are more of such pictures than that of a leader visiting an impoverished home and giving some new clothes or household furniture to the occupants. What you can see more often are pictures of richly dressed leaders handing over angpows to visitors to their homes.

The OIC extraordinary summit meeting is over and the killing goes on in Syria and elsewhere in the Muslim counties. I try to follow the news coverage as much as possible since the first day of aidilfitri but I don't see much of Muslim leaders in the Arab world spreading the spirit and joy of aidilfitri to their countrymen. Maybe our coverage of events on those countries was inadequate but what we could hear was more of political talks than efforts to spread the joy of aidilfitri. Is there no injunction by Allah SWT or examples set by the Prophet SAW for Muslim leaders to do just that during the month of Shawwal?

The main purpose of zakat fitrah is to enable the poor to join in the celebration of aidilfitri. Perhaps that objective would be achieved if the material and financial help to be given to is given before the end of Ramadhan itself. If given later how could they celebrate the aidlfitri itself on the 1st of Shawwal? Such matters, I'm sure, are too small and petty for OIC to deal with. But there are thousands upon thousands of Muslims out there devoid of any means to celebrate aidilfitri and some are facing starvation, even while other Muslims are having parties and open-houses.

Allah has ordained that the rich be the protectors of the poor. Are they fulfilling that obligation?

OIC Extraordinary Summit on the Eve of Aidilfitri..

Well, Ramadhan al-mubarak is coming to a close. In this holy month, the "syaitan" (satan), according to Islam, are imprisoned or locked in. It follows then that they will be back or the prowl, leading Muslims away from the rightful path, to do mischiefs and other destructive acts once Ramadhan is over.

Very appropriately KING ABDULLAH BIN ABDUL-AZIZ,the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques in Saudi Arabia had called for the fourth Extraordinary Summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), to examine the situation of the Muslims in many countries of the Islamic world, intensify efforts to confront the situation, address the sources of discord and division, reunify the Islamic ummah, and promote Islamic solidarity.

We all know that many Islamic countries have just undergone some traumatic uprising in what is called the "Arab Spring" or a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests against the government which began on December 18,2010. Thousands have been killed in bloody clashes between voluntary and government forces, more than 20,000 in the case of Syria. It really appears that satans had been let loose and the month of Ramadhan had not been able to restrain them. If the killings and the massacre of innocent women and children could happen during the month of Ramadhan when satans are supposed to be shackled, one can imagine what will happen when they are let loose again.

The Aidilfitri would be a good reason to stop the fightings and the massacres in the Muslim countries.It's a day of celebration to mark the end of the fasting month and a month of intensified prayers and submission to Allah.It is a day that should be respected by non-Muslim just as the Muslims respected Christmas, the New Year and other festive days of the non-Muslims.

It would be wonderful if the OIC could stop bloodshed in the warring Muslim countries with the advent of Aidilfitri, as a first order of priorities..Help the traumatized and impoverished people to be able to celebrate the occasion with some food and financial assistance.Addressing the sources of discord and division, would be a very complicated and long-term task. So is reunifying the Islamic ummah and promoting Islamic solidarity. OIC had been at it for many years without achieving any observable success.
Why not try to reduce the sufferings of those at war first. Only a good result in that area will lend support to the other long term goals mentioned.

Muslim all over the world on the other hand should be ready to help their brothers and sisters in accordance with the principle " kullu muslimina ikhwatun". This is a duty which a good Muslim is obliged to undertake. If that cannot be done, then the whole "training" which Ramadhan was supposed to give then, has failed. Muslims all over the world must first uphold the full spirit of Ramadhan to be able to pacify the deeply troubled Islamic world after the "syaitans" are let loose again.