The assurance by the Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin that no Malaysian would be sidelined in the New Economic Model (NEM) is not convincing when from all indications, the NEM has been hijacked by Neo-NEP Umnoputras like Perkasa, forcing another delay in its announcement.

When Datuk Seri Najib Razak became Prime Minister last April, he announced that the government would introduce a new economic model for the country to ensure that Malaysia makes a quantum leap to escape the middle-income trap to become a high-income country through greater emphasis on innovation, creativity and competitiveness.In May last year, the Second Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah said the new economic model would be announced in the second half of the year.Time is clearly of the critical essence to launch a new economic model as Husni subsequently admitted in a very frank speech in December that the country had lost a decade in economic stagnation.

In actual fact, Malaysia had lost not only one decade in economic stagnation but four decades in failing to fully realize the economic potential of the rich natural and human resources of the country, resulting in Malaysia losing out not only to other countries including Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea but at risk of being overtaken by an increasing list of other countries like Vietnam, Thailand and even Indonesia.

However, the time-line for the announcement of the new economic model has been repeatedly deferred, from last year to the beginning of this year, then to this month to coincide with the completion of Najib as Prime Minister and now to June when the 10th Malaysia Plan will be presented to Parliament.

By Kee Thuan Chye

http://blog.limkitsiang.com/
2010/03/09/not-a-time-to-lose-
march-8-spirit/

There was a lot of optimism right after March 8, 2008. There was a sense that things would get better. But has there been much change two years since that day?

Instead of seeing multi-racialism being freely accepted and manifested in government policies, we find ourselves becoming more divided along racial lines. Right after March 8, Umno embarked on its campaign to warn the Malays that they were under threat and to rise up against this.

The government has assumed a schizophrenic personality – the prime minister talks about 1Malaysia while his deputy says things that are completely contradictory. The PM talks about multi-racial unity while his own party campaigns for Malay unity.

The inspection to the power supply mobile bank of generator sets by the Kota Kinabalu Member of Parliament to Sandakan BDC substation site, came with a shock to notice that the bank of 15 generator sets supposedly to be new sets turns out to be whole bunch of used (near condemn) units of power generators.

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Dr. Hiew was accompanied by the Sabah DAP Batu Sapi chairman George Hiew Vun Zin and members inspected the gen-sets and confirmed that these are used second-hand units. There are 15 units of gen-sets to bank up to produce a top power supply of 20MW to the Sandakan power consumers. It is sad to see on site that the units were “struggling” to produce power, and “screaming” away to produce enough “juice” for the consumers. The 15 units are of a combination of some 1.74MW unit to smaller units of 0.75 MW per unit capacity. This is supposed to produce a total of 20 MW power, but due to the limitation and efficiency drop of the old units, the power produced is much lower that expectation. During the time of visit, there were two units broken down already, and some four other units could face serious breakdown soon, and the output was down to only 17.15MW. If further units break down, the power supply will be reduced further. 

By Neville Spykerman |
The Malaysian Insider
http://www.themalaysian
insider.com/index.php/
malaysia/55550-kit-siang
-pakatan-to-win-big-
if-anwar-is-jailed

SHAH ALAM, March 7 — Veteran opposition leader Lim Kit Siang today predicted the Pakatan Rakyat will have an easier time at the next general election if the government jails Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim for sodomy.

“If he is jailed, our motto will be free Anwar, vote PR!” said the DAP stalwart during the Selangor Pakatan Rakyat (PR) Convention.

UPDATED

By Neville Spykerman

SHAH ALAM, March 7 — Selangor will write to the Election Commission on the possibility of restoring local government elections in the state, following the footsteps of fellow Pakatan Rakyat-ruled state, Penang.

“We have already announced that we will be writing to the EC to determine what is their response to Penang’s call to hold local government elections.” said Selangor mentri besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim , referring to the sole election body in the country.

Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said yesterday the state government had written to EC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof on March 4 to conduct local government elections for the Penang Municipal Council (MPPP) and the Seberang Prai Municipal Council (MPSP).

http://www.themalaysianinsider
.com/index.php /malaysia/
55518-now-selangor-
wants-local-council-vote-too