Heuristically hydrocarbon

Petroleum or hydrocarbon is the most precious natural commodity in the modern world today. It is the bloodline of many communities, economies, countries, regions and even trading/economical/political bloc. Wars have been fought for the sourcing and control of the ‘black gold’. In Malaysia, it has been a political tool and agenda, especially now. Access and control of it will determine the political standing and clout.

Recently, the announcement of dishing out ‘Compassionate Payment’ (wang ehsan) to PAS controlled Kelantan is the hottest political issue for the week. For years, PAS has been asking Federal Government to dish out what they perceived as ‘royalty’ from the proceeds from the oil and gas extracted from fields off the coast of Kelantan.

Why Prime Minister VI Dato’ Seri Mohd. Najib Tun Razak announce this and now, it is still not clear. The Federal Government is dishing out the ‘Compassionate Payment’ to Kelantan via the various Federal Government agencies and not directly to PAS controlled Kelantan Government and/or their agencies.

The fact is that, Federal Government is not compelled to give any part of the earnings from oil and gas to any of the states, including Kelantan. The Petroleum Development Act does not provide such provisions but instead named Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas) as the sole custodian to all matters pertaining oil and gas. As per reported, the agreement signed between the Petronas and Kelantan State Government dated 9 May 1975 still falls under the Petronas Development Act.

The state borders have been determined at lesser than three nautical miles from the shores. The international boundary is set at 12 nautical miles. The oil and gas fields of the Eastern Coast of Peninsular Malaysia is hundreds of kms from the shore. The drilling operations are actly carried out in Malaysian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), which is 200 nautical miles (370  km radius) from the shore. Legally, that area should not be regarded as any part of any state. Hence, the right of claims made by the PAS Kelantan Government is invalid.

How the RM 1 billion demand was derived is still elusively unclear. If the amount is 5% of the ‘royalty’ from oil and gas extracted from Kelantan, it means that the oil and gas fields must have produced RM 20 billion worth of raw commodities.

Nineteen years under Opposition PAS control, Federal Government had not neglected Kelantan as per claimed by PAS. Social and economic development had been ongoing. Example is education. Not only MARA built another 3 MRSMs more, Kelantan now has it own university on top of the Kelantan branch of the UiTM and two polytechnics. Even the USM medical school and teaching hospital had been developed in Kubang Kerian.  It is a known fact that Kelantanese lead the admisision entrance into heavily subsidized IPTAs  and sponsored into IPTS.

The strength of retail as a tool to increase aggregate demand of the local economy is duly appreciated. To facilitate economic growth, Kelantan is the only state where Islamic and syariah compliant gold pawn system has been promoted and practiced. The Sultan Ismail International Airport also saw a brand new terminal. The petrochemical hub project in Pantai Senok, Bachok and fisherman wharf in Tok Bali, Pasir Putih are examples on how specific districts are being developed based on the suitable industry.

If PAS Kelantan controlled State Government has high hopes banking on the ‘royalty’ of oil and gas exploration as their ‘easy way’ but seemingly desperate attempt to generate income for the state coffers, then they would not go far with this bet. The truth is that, the oil and gas depository within Malaysia is actually depleting. Petronas is now extracting a little over 500,000 barrels day as compared to 650,000 barrels per day 10 years ago. This had been calculated to only another 8 years of productive explorations within existing fields. New fields is expected to be in deep waters and costlty. Petronas income from exploration is now at a 50:50 ratio between within Malaysia and abroad. If it is determined that the cost of production from these deep water deposits is high and demand for consumption is increasing, then it would not be too long that Malaysia becomes a net importer of oil as opposed to now, a net exporter.

Kelantan State Government should be examining their laws of prohibiting the transfer of land to non Kelantanese first. The liberalisation of land ownership and development restriction would be a catalyst for economic growth to spur and be generated. Recent commercial development projects within Kota Bahru illustrated the market sustainability for retail business is strong. Selangor has the history of how the state government, via PKNS manage to promote growth in new townships such as Shah Alam, Bangi, Klang, Kelana Jaya, Selayang and Ampang-Keramat since mid seventies.

The way forward for nation  alternative and renewable energy. Despite the quantum of oil and gas exploration has been reduced significantly, Federal Government is still subsidizing RM 15 billion worth of gas annually for domestic consumption. Power generation accounts 60% of this subsidy. It is time that a thorough and comprehensive review on oil and gas subsidy given for the domestic consumption, taking into consideration the hike of electricity tariff will affect the industry, cost of production and eventually household spending. The profitablity of TNB should also be considered.

It is doubtful that PAS could gain productive legal grounds on this ‘oil royalty’ demand even they take the matter to court. What it probably do is to capitalise the issue and earn political mileage, as a precursor to the 13th General Elections (13 GE), expected within the next 30 months. This will probably ensure PAS still manage to retain Kelantan despite UMNO’s ability to regenerate it under the helm of PM Dato’ Seri Najib with his ’1 Malaysia’ agenda.

Kelantanese should accept the ‘Compassionate Payment’ and move on with the Federal Government agenda to develop the state and rakyat. In the final analysis, PAS is at their best to play politics and manipulate the sentiments through endless polemics. The ‘Compassionate Payment’ is a good issue to ride, at least to sustain their  existience into power by the 13 GE.

Tun Dr. Mahathir: SSS untuk perpaduan dan selar pendidik chauvinis Cina

Perdana Menteri IV Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad hari ini menyatakan sokongan terhadap Sistem Satu Sekolah Untuk Semua (SSS) sebagai alat untuk merealisasikan agenda untuk menyemarakan perpaduan. Beliau juga menyelar golongan pendidik Cina yang disifatkan sebagai ‘chauvinis’ dan membelakangkan kepentingan negara dan usaha untuk menyatu padukan semua rakyat sebagai warga Malaysia.

Laporan Malaysiakini.com:

Dr M backs single-stream, slams Chinese educationists

 

Christine Chan
Nov 3, 09
6:24pm

Former premier Dr Mahathir today backed the proposal to introduce a single-stream school system in Malaysia, but lamented that the topic was still a taboo.

“You cannot even talk about it (merging the three school systems) in this country,” said the 84-year-old former premier, adding that the Chinese educationists were “vehemently” against the idea.

According to Mahathir at a press conference following the launch of an art exhibition by Raja Shahriman, he blamed the educationists for not wanting Chinese students to mix with Malay or Indian students.

“They must be Chinese first, not Malaysian,” he said.

Mahathir said that only Malaysia has the unique system of having different streams of education as other countries have only one stream despite having large migrant population. He cited United States, Canada and Australia as examples.

He also pointed out that even Switzerland, which has three official languages, has an education system which provides for students to learn all three languages in the same school.

“That is why I introduced the vision school (concept), which comprises three streams in one campus. That way, students of different races can at least meet each other,” he said.

However, he said that the system was rejected and that was the reason why Malaysians cannot achieve unity.

**********************

Apabila mengambil alih sebagai Perdana Menteri Malaysia VI Dato’ Seri Mohd. Najib Tun Razak telah melahirkan agenda ’1 Malaysia’, untuk menyatukan semua rakyat Malaysia berlandaskan Perlembagaan Persekutuan dan prinsip Rukunegara. SSS merupakan alat terbaik untuk merealisasikan agenda ’1 Malaysia’.

Pertubuhan Persatuan Sekolah Cina (Dong Jiao Zong) yang disifatkan setengah pihak sebagai Chauvinis Cina amat nyata dengan prinsip menolak SSS dan mengutamakan sekolah dalam bahasa ibunda. Ini jelas membelakangkan peruntukan Akta Perlajaran 1996 dalam Perlembagaan Persekutuan yang jelas menetapkan bahasa penghantar sekolah ialah Bahasa Melayu dan bahasa bahasa lain dibenarkan diajar sebagai subjek.

Ini juga selaras dalam Artikel 152, yang  memperuntukan:

Article 152

1. The national language shall be the Malay language and shall be in such script as Parliament may by law provide: Provided that-
   • (a) no person shall be prohibited or prevented from using (otherwise than for official purposes), or from teaching or learning, any other language; and
   • (b) nothing in this Clause shall prejudice the right of the Federal Government or of any State Government to preserve and sustain the use and study of the language of any other community in the Federation.

Tafsiran peruntukan ini bermaksud bahawa bahasa selain bahasa kebangsaan (Bahasa Melayu) dibenarkan diajar disekolah sekolah dan bukan dibenarkan pengunaan sebagai bahasa penghantar (dalam konteks ini, bahasa rasmi (otherwise than for official purposes), dimana bahasa penghantar dalam sekolah merupakan bahasa rasmi). Ini juga bermaksud, masyakarat Malaysia dibenarkan mengunakan bahasa ibunda mereka dalam masyakarat.

SSS sebenarnya telah berjaya dilaksanakan secara komprehensif dinegara lain, termasuk dimana penduduknya merupakan 75% etnik Cina. Oleh demikian, ianya tidak ada sebab kenapa SSS tidak boleh dijayakan secara komprehensif dalam negara ini juga. Cadangan asal SSS diutarakan Timbalan Menteri Perdagangan Antarabangsa dan Industri Dato’ Mukhriz Mahathir semasa menjadi backbencher dalam tahun 2008, dimana sistem sekolah vernakular wajar dihapuskan.

Cadangan ini disokong oleh tokoh akademik dan sejarah Prof. Emeritus Tan Dri Khoo Kay Kim yang menegaskan bahawa sistem SSS merupakan pendekatan paling baik dan sesuai untuk perpaduan.

Laporan Utusan Malaysia:

Laksanakan sekolah satu aliran

Oleh ABDUL MUIN SAPIDIN
muin.sapidin@utusan.com.my

 BUKIT MERTAJAM 22 Okt. – Sekolah satu aliran wajar dilaksanakan bagi merealisasikan matlamat 1Malaysia, kata tokoh akademik tanah air, Prof. Emeritus Tan Sri Dr. Khoo Kay Kim.

 Sehubungan itu, beliau berkata, sistem pendidikan negara perlu disusun semula agar matlamat itu dapat dilaksanakan.

 Menurutnya, sekolah pelbagai aliran sekarang merupakan sistem peninggalan penjajah yang tidak mampu mewujudkan sebuah negara bangsa yang benar- benar bersatu padu.

 ”Sistem pendidikan sekarang tidak memerlukan sekolah pelbagai aliran kerana bahasa ibunda setiap kaum boleh dimasukkan sebagai sebahagian daripada kurikulum di dalam bilik darjah,” katanya.

 Beliau berkata demikian kepada pemberita selepas menyampaikan ceramah umum bertajuk 1Malaysia: Cabaran dan Harapan sempena program Semarak Perpaduan dan Patriotisme Institut Pendidikan Guru Malaysia (IPGM) 2009 peringkat kebangsaan di sini hari ini.

 Beliau menjelaskan, sistem pendidikan sekarang menyebabkan rakyat sejak kecil lagi diasingkan mengikut aliran dan bahasa ibunda di sekolah masing-masing.

 Katanya, kesan daripada itu, golongan dewasa tidak dapat menghayati semangat perpaduan sejati serta persefahaman sukar dijalin kerana hidup dalam kelompok mengikut kaum selepas meninggalkan alam persekolahan.

 ”Isu bahasa ibunda sering dibangkitkan dalam sekolah satu aliran ini, tetapi itu bukan satu masalah kerana ia boleh diajar sebagai sebahagian daripada kurikulum di dalam bilik darjah,” katanya.

 Kay Kim juga berkata, pihak yang membantah kewujudan sekolah satu aliran perlu menilai semula sejauh mana sistem pendidikan ketika ini boleh membantu mengukuhkan pembentukan sebuah negara bangsa.

 Menurut beliau, sejarah menceritakan bagaimana penjajah British membenarkan penubuhan sekolah pelbagai bahasa di Tanah Melayu kerana kebanyakan pendatang pada ketika itu tidak mempunyai niat untuk menetap di negara ini.

*******************

Ramai pengkaji sejarah pendidikan berpendapat sistem sekolah vernakular kini sudah lapuk dan tidak menepati kerangka sistem fabrik sosial masyarakat Malaysia moden. Ini kerana sistem sekolah vernakular diujudkan penjajah British dalam abad ke 19 dan awal abad ke 20 bagi melengkapkan keperluan sistem sosial buruh immigran yang dibawa dari China dan India khusus untuk memenuhi keperluan pembangunan ekonomi semata mata. Berkemungkinan besar  sistem sekolah vernakular ini ialah sebagai dasar jangka serdehana. Prinsip asal sistem sekolah vernakular ialah agar buruh immigran ini mendapat pendidikan yang sama seperti tanah tumpah darah mereka agar satu hari nanti, anak keturunan mereka dapat kembali dan menyesuaikan diri dan assimilasi dengan mudah kepada tanah tumpah darah dan budaya asal mereka. Ini kerana penjajah British memberikan tumpuan kepada sistem pendidikan Inggeris dan mubaligh, yang lebih menepati keperluan mereka. Ini jelas dari dasar yang diterapkan oleh Richard O. Winstedt, yang lebih berminat untuk memberikan tumpuan sistem pendidikan yang mernagkumi masyarakat Melayu, majoriti penduduk Tanah Melayu awal abad ke 20.

Sekiranya Kepimpinan dan masyarakat Cina serious untuk menjayakan elemen perpaduan dalam agenda ’1 Malaysia’, maka ianya wajar dimulaksan dari peringkat sekolah dan semua keturunan dan etnik  perlu melalui alam persekolahan satu sukatan. Agenda ’1 Malaysia’ memerlukan pengorbanan dan sekiranya ada pihak amat tegar mempertahankan budaya tanah asal mereka melampaui kepentingan negara mereka sekarang, maka polemik bahasa penghantar sebagai modal politik akan sentiasa menjadi bahan untuk tidak menyatu padukan rakyat Malaysia sebagai proses pembinaan negara-bangsa.

Kesungguhan politik (political will) merupakan pendekatan paling berkesan untuk benar benarkan melaksanakan SSS bagi merealisasikan agenda perpaduan ’1 Malaysia’, berlandaskan keperluan melaksanakan peruntukan Perlembagaan Persekutuan Malaysia dan prinsip Rukunegara.

*Notakaki

Kami diBigDogDotCom menjangkakan Chauvinis Cina Dong Jiao Ziong atau wakil mereka akan mengeluarkan kenyataan membidas Tun Dr Mahathir dan memajukan memorandum kepada Perdana Menteri VI Dato’ Seri Mohd. Najib Tun Razak mengenai isu ini sebagai menunjukan masyarakat Cna menolak cadangan ini, terutama setelah kenyataan “pendapat rakyat perlu diselidik untuk laksana SSS”.

 

The ‘Anwar Affair’ and PKR gambit

More and more former close confidante of Anwar “Mat King Leather” Ibrahim making calls asking PKR President Wan Azizah to expel the ‘Drama King’ from the multiracial party. This time, it is Dato’ S. Nalla Karupan.

The Star has the story:

Tuesday November 3, 2009

Listen to Ezam and sack Anwar, Nalla tells Wan Azizah

KUALA LUMPUR: A former friend of PKR leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has called on Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail to stop covering up her husband’s weaknesses.

Malaysian Indian United Party president Datuk K.S. Nallakarupan said the PKR president should take up former PKR Youth chief Ezam Mohd Nor’s challenge to sack her husband on moral grounds.

“She should put a stop to it,” he said.

“I agree with Ezam. Ezam knows Wan Azizah well. Other­wise, he would not be challenging her.”

Ezam had said that Wan Azizah was willing to cover up Anwar’s weaknesses for her family’s sake but at the expense of the party and the rakyat.

He reminded her that she had a responsibility to PKR.

He had also called on her to resign from the party if there was a conflict of interest and told Anwar to “stop hiding behind Wan Azizah’s skirt”.

“Wan Azizah should be given the best actress award for being able to play the same script for the past 12 years and people still believe her,” said Nallakarupan, adding that she knew everything that Anwar did.

“If she chooses to ignore Ezam’s challenge, the public can draw their own conclusion at the game the 3As (Anwar, Azizah and Azmin Ali, PKR vice-president) are playing,” he said, stressing that if she remained silent, he would eventually come forward and tell all.

Meanwhile, the father of Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, who Anwar is accused of sodomising, has challenged him to face the charge without looking for excuses to delay the case.

Azlan Mohd Lazim said Anwar had been making statements, claiming that the case against him should be dropped because there was no evidence.

“If there was no evidence, why is he going up and down the court appealing and re-appealing for documents and DNA samples?” he asked.

The trial proper was to have begun on July 1 but it had been repeatedly postponed to dispose of, among others, applications to strike out the sodomy trial and to disqualify the entire prosecuting team.

The Court of Appeal will rule on Nov 6 if Anwar gets the documents and DNA samples that he claimed was crucial for his defence.

The sodomy trial and Anwar’s application to strike out the charge will be mentioned in the High Court today.

Azlan said he would not be surprised if Anwar pulled “more stunts” to delay the case.

He pointed out that even his lead counsel Sulaiman Abdullah had pulled out, citing health reasons, despite being seen attending to other cases in court.

******************

Last week, former Anwar political secretary Ezam Md. Noor made the call. Ezam who went to jail for his conviction of supporting Anwar, recently described the latter’s relationship with PKR Vice President Azmin Ali as “bedroom community”, which now has escalated into a ‘Ketuanan Rakyat conspiracy’.

This serious internal infighting within PKR is already adversely affecting Pakatan Rakyat as a whole, particularly in Selangor where is the only state PKR is the Menteri Besar. Anwar, who is known to prefer Azmin Ali as the PKR MB for Selangor is thought to be in ‘collision’ with wife PKR President Wan Azizah, who appointed Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim instead. As is, MB Khalid is having a tough time in Selangor  with Azmin imminently clear ‘throwing spanner to the works’.

If this infighting within PKR escalating and his own personal problem of the second time sodomy trial crystalizing, one would expect Anwar “Anarchists Agent” Ibrahim would turn into the anarchy again (with the deployment of the Anwarista cyber-anarchists), as a tool to divert the rakyat’s attention to the real problem. He has successfully managed to stir up emotions of the rakyat over and over again in the past and anarchy has been the underlying premise of his carefully conceived ‘bizarre’ politics. Rakyat should be reminded of Anwar “Compulsive Liar” Ibrahim’s inability ‘to put to the money where his mouth is’, particularly with his promise that “31 BN MPs ready to ‘cross over’ and thus Pakatan Rakyat will form the Federal Government by 16 September 2008″.

For all intent and purpose, PKR’s only glimmer of hope to survive even this general election term is for partyless Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim to be out of the multiracial party and life up to its prophecy to champion the rakyat’s cause for justice and equality. Obviously, Pakatan Rakyat (PR) would have to look up to another Leader, acceptable to Chinese Chauvinist party DAP and now what seemed to be ‘Pandemonic PAS’ and gell between the anti Malay/Islam, conservative ulamas, traditional Malay heartlanders and professional and pseudo-liberalist ‘Erdogans’. So far, PR has demonstrated little but ‘strange bedfellows backstabbing each other’ in a ‘marriage of (in)convenience’.

So far not much could be desired from PR’s controlled states. In fact, Anwar as the PR defacto leader did not manage to convince the rakyat thoroughly these ‘strange bedfellows’ could actually bring about much aspired changes and making the lives of rakyat being improved as compared to when they were under BN. What former abuse-of-power-convict Anwar Ibrahim’s leadership has demonstrated so far is ‘pandemonic primates’ and corrupt practices in exercising power in ‘new found wealth’ and abuse of power and positions. Of course, it is not without a series of PR elected assemblymen, namely Osman Jailu, Jamaluddin Radzi,  Hee Yit Fong, Fairus Khairuddin, Arumugam, Radzi Salleh and Badrul Hisham Abdullah leaving their struggle. PKR itself lost strong personalities such as Ezam Md. Noor, Nalla Karupan, Zaid Ibrahim, Jefrrey Kitingan and Christina Liew within the last 18 months.

Effectively, all of these issues have to be resolved within the next 24 to 30 months as Prime Minister VI Dato’ Seri Mohd. Najib Tun Razak slowly regaining the confidence, eventually the support of majority of Malaysians with his ’1 Malaysia’ reforms and the rejuvenation and strengthening UMNO which inadvertently will positively affect the other BN component parties.

 

Pinochet was a friend to Malaysia

Recently, some of the world renown leading anti war and anti war criminal experts and activists met in Kuala Lumpur for the four day Kuala Lumpur Conference to Criminalise War Conference and Exhibition, which was followed by the Kuala Lumpur Criminalise War Commission meeting and Kuala Lumpur War Crime Tribunal presiding.

So much grounds gained from this event. Testimonies of people being taken by force against their will in a foreign country and then tortured by the Americans and British, which include in secret locations in another continent were presented. It was heart wrenching. Then event saw so many leading anti war ciminal activists acknowledged Former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad’s work under the Perdana Global Peace Organisation to make war illegal and a crime and reprimand leaders who started war.

Then a pro-PM Dato’ Seri Najib Tun Razak blogger raised that Malaysia under Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad (then Fourth Prime Minister) and PM ‘Flip-Flop’ Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (then Minister of Foreign Affairs) gave a nation’s award to Chilean Military Leader General Augusto Ramon Pinonchet, back in 1995. For the record, General Pinochet was the President of Chile from 1973-1990.

The argument put forth is that General Pinochet staged a coup d’etat in 1973 and arrested and tortured thousands of Chilean in their own prison.

The fact is that, General Pinochet was a Leader of Chile, who was a friend to Malaysia. Chile has had a continuous good diplomatic and economic relationship with Malaysia and an important friend in South America. In fact in 1992, Tun Dr. Mahathir then as the Prime Minister made a state visit Chile in a tour of South America. Chile, under General Pinochet did not wage an illegal war against another country. Nor did they they illegally extracted non Chileans in another country and prison and torture them in Chilean prisons or any prisons outside Chile manned by Chilean soldiers and military intelligence.

As far as Malaysia is concerned, Chile handled her own domestic issues. Malaysia has had a policy on non intervention into other country’s domestic issues. Same reason why Malaysia abstained entirely from the issue when Chinese military closed in on the Tiananmen Square protesters  and more than 2,600 non combatants were killed on the fatefully June 1989  Beijing incident. It is also reflected in the Tamil separatists insurgence against Sri Lanka.

It was a vast difference from what US Presiden George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair did. Bush and Blair waged an illegal war against Afghanistan and later Iraq and merciless extracted non Americans and British out of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq and take them to Guantanamo Bay and torture them. This has been going on for years and even a boy of 12 was subjected to this inhumanity. Until today, US and British troops are still carrying military operations that kill non combatant Afghans, including women, children, physically challenged and old people. Worse of all, they use weapons such as depleted uranium shell and chemical warfare in the military operations.

That is an act of an illegal war!

On that note, Chile never got around reprimanding General Pinochet for his crimes against the Chilean people (when they had all the opportunities). General Pinochet was even made a Senator and the Chilean Congress ammended their Consititution to acknowledge ‘ex-presidents’. He eventually died in a military hospital. Even Chilean military gave him a Commander in Chief’s funeral in full military honours (usually accorded to either a Statesman or War Hero), drapped in the Chilean flag and flags flew half mast across the nation. Hundred of thousand Chileans mourned his passing.

Most probably if had the Chileans reprimanded General Pinochet as a criminal before 1995, one would not  think that Malaysia would accord him with any awards. In 1995, Chile, Chileans and General Pinochet are friends to Malaysia. They still are. Same as China, Chinese and Chinese Leaders such as Deng Xiaopeng, Li Peng, Jiao Zemin, Zhao Ziyang, Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao.

*Updated Monday 2 November 2009 330pm

As of noon today, blogger Barking Magpie took out his posting “Under Mahathir, Malaysia gave the highest military award to a mass murdered?! So how!”, almost 17 hours after BigDogDotCom came out with this posting. Unfortunately, the reference of this article has now become invalid.