AirAsia - QZ8501 Don't Let Us Down.

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Mahathir Didn’t Mean Malaysians Are Stupid ~ AND WHAT ACTUALLY HE IS SAYING?

I think some of us may have misunderstood former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad’s intention in saying that Malaysians are stupid and can’t manage aviation when he responded to Khazanah Nasional’s hiring of Christoph Mueller as the CEO for Malaysia Airlines.

The meaning is not in the face value of the words; I think Mahathir was being typically sarcastic. I think he was actually saying, “Are we Malaysians so stupid and incapable of understanding aviation that we have to hire a foreigner to set things right?” He was being critical of the hiring. And well he would be too, judging by his current orientation.

The same thinking is reflected in the criticisms of others who have also hit out at Khazanah’s move. One of them is Umno Supreme Council member Reezal Merican Naina Merican, who questions whether Mueller would make decisions in line with the Bumiputera Agenda. He doesn’t think they should be based simply on profit and loss.

He wonders whether Mueller would understand the “national responsibility” of handling the RM6 billion that would be injected into the company to aid its recovery. Well, Mueller has had extensive experience within the aviation industry, having held a senior position in Daimler Benz Aerospace, been Executive Vice-President at Lufthansa AG and CEO of the Sabena Group. And as CEO of Aer Lingus since 2009, he reportedly turned the airline around within a year of coming on board. Would such a person take any kind of responsibility lightly?

You can be certain when people like Reezal say that there are Malaysians who would be qualified to do the job and uphold the “national interest”, they are not thinking uppermost of merit but of safeguarding the Bumiputera interest.

Would you seriously think, for instance, that if a non-Bumiputera Malaysian who was really the best person for the job were recommended for it, he or she would be accepted? And if he or she were, do you think there would be no criticism of the selection?

Umno would for certain go to town ringing alarm bells proclaiming that the Malays were under threat and that non-Malays were taking over everything. They would blow it up big enough for the simple-minded to believe that the job of MAS CEO was “everything”!

Reezal speaks volumes when he says MAS is “a symbol of our ability to manage the entity” (my italics). Let’s be brutally honest;  by this, he is of course referring to the ability of Malays (not Malaysians) to manage it. In a nutshell, he is claiming Melayu boleh, and that this ability must be displayed in the mission to turn MAS around.

I agree that many Malays are very capable. I have Malay friends who prove that to be so. But insisting on upholding the Bumiputera agenda in all situations and at all times is a syndrome that is badly affecting Malaysia. This is what holds us back from progressing. Almost everybody knows it, and some will not admit it, but this is the reality.

A Malay/Bumiputera must be the top man or woman in any field of endeavour, in any public institution, in any state-owned corporation. A Malay/Bumiputera must portray the frontline image of who’s in charge. Never mind if he or she is not the best person for the job. Find a Malay/Bumiputera no matter what, especially if it’s to head a high-profile national entity. Make sure Bumiputera interests are upheld above all else.

We haven’t learned from our neighbour Indonesia yet, I see. It is entering a new era of progressiveness that augurs well for its immediate future. But we are still lagging behind, stuck in the mud with our outdated concerns.

And yet by taking that kind of attitude and imposing constraints, we expect MAS to be turned around soon enough? Have we not thought of the longer-term effect – that if the turnaround doesn’t come about within a reasonable period, the national image, the national interest would suffer even more? That is not of greater concern than the worry over Bumiputera interests? And so we quibble over the hiring of a foreigner when he might save our national airline and, by extension, our national image and interest?

This is a globalised world, for goodness’ sake. To think in narrow ethnocentric terms is foolhardy. Mao Zedong said it doesn’t matter if the cat is black or white; as long as it catches mice, it’s a good cat. That’s something to take wisdom from.

More importantly, MAS is a business. The livelihood of its employees depends on its financial health and sustainability. Let it be run as a business – without political baggage.

And if we want a business to succeed, shouldn’t we get someone who is likely to make it happen? So what do we look for in the candidate first and foremost? Whether he is black or white, or whether he has the ability and the experience to pull it off?

It seems we haven’t learned from our neighbour Singapore either. We saw it becoming a first-world nation with none of the vast natural resources that we have, we now see it as “one of only 10 countries in the world with top ratings from all three major credit rating agencies: Moody’s, Fitch and Standard & Poor’s” (from the new book 50 Things to Love About Singapore, Straits Times Press, 2014), and we don’t want to see that it has gone so far forward because it’s not obsessed with whether the cats are black, white or even Singaporean.

Others have streaked ahead of us with progressive ideas and practices and yet we are still whining over our regressive concerns. We talk of becoming an advanced nation with a per capita income of US$15,000 by the year 2020. That’s only one-third of Singapore’s current per capita income of US$45,000. And the way we are going, I’m not sure we can even achieve that target.

We need to stop feeling insecure. The world has moved on and will continue to do so. Let Mr Mueller do his job and shut up. Don’t even try to interfere. Unless Khazanah has been irresponsible, which is unlikely, it must have done thorough research to find a man who “has a strong record of transformation and turnarounds in the aviation industry”. And now that they’ve found him, let him run it as he sees fit. If he fails, then we can roundly condemn him, but until then, we have to give him a chance.

Meanwhile, if his critics need a bright side to this, they might take heart that if he fails, at least it would be a Mat Salleh that failed. And nobody could say Melayu tak boleh. LOL!

copy paste from yahoo online dated 10/12/14

 * Kee Thuan Chye is the author of the current bestselling book Can We Save Malaysia, Please!

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Sabah & Sarawak

State Reform Party (Sabah Star) has reminded Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak that Sabah and Sarawak did not join the Malaya as the 12th and 13th states, but as equals in the federation of Malaysia.

“Sabah and Sarawak never negotiated to join the 12th and 13th states of Malaya or Malaysia.

“If this was the basis and disclosed to Sabah and Sarawak, the founding fathers of Sabah would not have agreed and there would be no Malaysia in existence today,” said STAR Sabah Chief Jeffrey Kitingan when commenting on Najib’s statement at the Miri Malaysia Day celebration.

The premier had compared  Sabah and Sarawak ‘joining’ Malaysia as similar to the states of Wisconsin and Hawaii joining the original 13 states of the USA and the newer states other than the founding 13 states in USA celebrate July 4 as their independence day despite joining later.

According to Najib, Sabah and Sarawak should accept August 31, 1957 as the independence day of Malaysia.

Reacting to his statement, Jeffrey said: “The truth behind the takeover of Sabah and Sarawak appears to be revealed, intentionally or unintentionally by the comparison of Sabah and Sarawak ‘joining’ Malaysia similarly to Wisconsin and Hawaii joining the original 13 states of USA.

“We never negotiated to join as the 12th and 13th states of Malaya or Malaysia,” he said, pointing out that right from the outset, Malaysia was to be a new nation, a partnership and succinctly stated by Lord Cobbold, chairperson of the  Cobbold Commission.

M'sia  - association of partners

Cobbold had said that ‘it is a necessary condition that from the outset, Malaysia should be regarded by all concerned, as an association of partners, combining in common to create a new nation but retaining their own individualities’.

According to Jeffrey, Tuan Fuad Stephen, one of the founding fathers of Malaysia  had expressed fear when he said: ‘if we had been asked to join at the time Malaya achieved independence and Britain made it possible for us, the story would have been a different one.

‘Now that  ‘Merdeka’ has been Malaya’s for some years,  and we are still struggling towards it, Malaya’s proposal that we join the 12th and 13th states savours of imperialism, of a drive to turn us into Malayan colonies. To join Malaya, while we are still colonies… the implication is to hand (ourselves) over to your control’.

Jeffrey said that Sarawak Chief Minister Adenan Satem aptly put it that there was no Malaysia to join as it was not  in existence then.

He said Najib should consult Malaysia’s top judge, chief Justice Tun Arifin Zakaria who said in Kota Kinabalu several months ago when launching the book ‘The Constitutional rights of Sabah and Sarawak’ that the two states formed Malaysia and that they are key partners in the federation of Malaysia.

 “From the Sabah perspective, it is clearly spelt out in the Constitution of Sabah by Article 66(1) that the ‘federation’ means the federation to be known, on and after Malaysia Day, by the name Malaysia.

“It does not recognise and is not part of the federation of Malaya that existed between August 31, 1957 and September 15, 1963.

“The rumblings of discontentment and unhappiness among the people in Sabah and Sarawak are moving towards its tipping point with a slight majority wanting Sabah and Sarawak to opt out of Malaysia,” he said, adding that the prime minister needs to convene his advisers and historians to review Malaysia’s history.

“This is also to rectify the mistakes of past leaders including his late father.

"He needs to stop hoodwinking the people and distorting the facts of history and take the necessary steps  to restore Sabah and Sarawak as equal partners in the federation of Malaysia as promised by the first prime minister of Malaysia Tunku Abdul Rahman.

“It is the only way of saving Malaysia from tottering towards break-up,” he said.

lvbala Said:

Above article was copy paste from Malaysiakini. A good information to be shared among Malaysians. We live in a country which was brought together as one. We should stay and fight to be one.

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Vellupillai Prabhakaran - Part 1

Tamilanage piranthe,

Tamilanage vaalnthe,

Tamilanuku pooradi,

Tamilanuku uyir vithu,

Tamilanage iranthu poona,

En Tamil Annan....

MH370 & MH17

Rest In Peace

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Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri

Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri to all Muslim friends. Cheers

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Chop Off

The prime minister has been told to show leadership in tackling inflammatory statements by groups such as Perkasa, lest the country "goes to the dogs".

The government's silence in the face of "perilous and dangerous words" uttered by the Malay supremacist group is a sign of powerlessness, Angkatan Perubahan Sabah (APS) president Wilfred Bumburing said in a statement today.

Instead, remarks such as Perkasa information chief Ruslan Kassim's threatening call, claimed to have been said in error, to "chop off" the heads of those who ridicule Islam and the Selangor sultan "should have been taken very seriously by the government".

"Again, for the umpteenth time, l call upon the prime minister to provide us the kind of leadership the country needs.

"Otherwise the country will go to the dogs," said Bumburing (left).

The Sabah leader said it was ironic that Penang assembly person RSN Rayer could be charged in court for uttering the word "celaka", although it was spoken in the "constitutionally protected environment" of the state assembly.

In direct contrast, one who threatens to chop people's heads off are "let running around", the Tamparuli assemblyperson said.

"The government's continued silence and inaction in tackling these issues only go to show that Malaysia is moving towards 'mobocracy', where the government of the day is powerless to apply the rule of law," said the Sabah veteran.

Ruslan this week said he had mistakenly called for the chopping off the heads of four Selangor PAS parliamentarians who alling on the state to amend its laws to limit the powers of the Selangor Islamic Affairs Council (Mais) to be under the state's directive.

The Perkasa leader later explained he had meant to call for their political careers to be decapitated, not their heads.

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