The RM1b Bumi property fund has a noble aim to increase Bumiputera ownership of prime commercial properties. The sell point is you buy some units of unit trusts and you are on the road to high income society and wealth? This will also ultimately create equity now for ownership of retail property and reduce the wealth gap between the bumiputera and the non bumis? Some may argue that it hardly scratches the wealth of non bumis owning real property or real property equities. Though there are no statistics to show non bumis hold billions in real property, 1Malaysia gives the impression that there is inequality in wealth ownership in the property sector. There seem this great need to equate equity in terms of wealth measurement, owning tangible things, from property to flashy cars one suppose or how expensive stuff are in non bumis home compared to bumis home or where non bumis go on holiday and perhaps how many pets they own or how frequent they eat out as well as where they sent their chi...

November 30, 2010 www.nst.com.my Zaid Ibrahim would be delighted at Syed Nazris Theatrics of PKRs Ketua Umum FOR a person who goes around talking so much about democracy and human rights, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is a walking, talking contradiction. How else could you describe it when he is now actually stepping into another term as unconstitutional, non-elected ketua umum the supremo, great leader, the mighty chief of Parti Keadilan Rakyat? To many, the declaration of support by delegates at the weekend party congress legitimising his position would remain just that a show. A rerun of 2007, in fact. He is de facto leader definitely because his powers seem to exceed and override those of party president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, his wife which makes it bad enough that it has to be a family-run party. But wasnt it just two weeks ago that the parliamentary opposition leader was in Australia spinning a yarn about Malaysian democracy? He was telling his audience ...

November 30, 2010 Malaysia Airlines Multi-Billion Ringgit Losses: Social Care Foundations Robert Phang urges the Attorney-General to explain by Leven Woon Zheng Yang@ www.malaysiakini.com Attorney-general (AG) Abdul Gani Patail has been called to explain allegations implicating him for the lack of action over Malaysia Airlines (MAS) multi-billion ringgit losses. Social Care Foundation chairperson Robert Phang Miow Sin (left) said records and pictures from a whistleblower website of Abdul Gani together with an individual said to be close to former MAS chairperson Tajuddin Ramli have added a different dimension to the controversy. Phang, who is also a member of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commissions (MACC) consultative and advisory panel, said Abdul Gani may see adverse public speculation over his connection to the issue if he ignored the allegations. Phang was responding to the emergence of photographs on news portal Malaysia Today, showing Abdul Gani together with one Shahi...

By Brendan Navin Siva Our LoyarBorak #2 , Part 1 and Part 2 , prompted a fierce exchange of views, both in the comments on the article and on Twitter. The perceived negativity of all the comments led to this spirited defence of the Bar Council by one of its members through a series of Tweets, posing pertinent questions to the naysayers. Those tweets are now repackaged, and presented as a riposte to the LoyarBurokkers! Let us have your reactions as well. Brendan Navin Siva I have no problem accepting criticism that we do not do enough and can do much more. But I have a problem with those who say we do nothing and are useless. That would be a gross misstatement of the facts. Who helped members of the Bar avert the proposed BNM motor vehicle insurance scheme ? Who ensures a minimum level of competence for all law students entering the profession from many different avenues? Who has to pick up the slack when UUM and MMU do not have a goo...

from Malaysia For All by Richard Loh My apology for not posting any new 13th GE online campaign blasting you know who but just copy and paste from other sources. Being sick for the past week and resting to gather strength while waiting to see how PR settle their internal party problems and embarking on a new campaign for the coming 13th GE. One thing that is very clear for all Malaysians that love and wanted to see a bright future for Malaysia is: "Umno Controlled BN" MUST GO Malaysians can forget about the failed 1Malaysia or "People First, Performance Now" rhetoric, work together for change and bring back our lovely Original Malaysia recipe. We still need Pakatan Rakyat as our platform for change but would like to remind Pakatan leaders that they must work together with the rakyat as well as other groups or third force that also wanted to see change. Do not simply throw them on the side-walk without engaging and working out a win win solution. PR leaders must not ...

From Paul Shelton, via e-mail I'm surprised why Ibrahim Ali has not yet told our Chinese sportsmen enough of their gold medals for Malaysia in the Commonwealth and Asian games - give Malay sportsmen a chance! If not all, most Malay of the vocabulary originated from Indian (Tamil) words. Maha, raja, wira, putra, sri, iswara, etc. Names of roads now have not just English letters, but also Arabic. Is it for the benefit of the Arabs or just to show Muslim supremacy? Why not it be in the other languages, be in Tamil or Mandarin - which will benefit the non-Malays who cannot read Englis. Surprised why this group has not been banished yet. Read: Banish 'political whores' Wan Azizah, Azmin

NOV 30 — The year 2008 saw a surprising turn in the political landscape of Malaysia. For the second time in the country’s history, the ruling party that has remained in power since our independence (albeit in different guises) lost its two-thirds majority in Parliament and would in fact have lost an overall majority if not for Sabah and Sarawak. Why did this happen? Disgruntlement, plain and simple. By a nation of peoples that had long suffered abuses of power, corruption on a scale that is nothing short of obscene, and total mismanagement of our country that has led us into a long slide into an abyss. Falling standards in our judiciary, our education system and the alarming loss of our personal security with rising crime from a police that do not just seem ineffectual but show no will in wanting to stem the tide have all caused us to sit back and wonder, is this the best our elected government can do? Is this the best that we can empower to administrate us? Whither their conscience? B...

By Fahri Azzat Reminiscing about the days of legal research before the legal search engine took over despite being one of the very first to adopt such technology. Quite honestly, I don’t quite like how I go about doing legal research these days. That’s because I use the search engines a fair bit these days, CLJ Online (which has a search engine I have never liked), Legal Workbench, AustLII, and BailII, which was recently introduced to me. I used to use LexisNexis too. There is a cold, calculating and metallic feel to researching this way. I feel like a robot mechanically clinically homing in on my target. Once identified, I come swooping down from on high, grasping it in my digital talons and then swoosh back up to the mothership. Whilst all the while my butt is seated in the chair. Welcome to researching in the post-modern age. It didn’t always used to be this way. In those moments when time is available for indulging, I prefer to carry out research like how...

Dr M: I won't be here in 2020, don't blame me if things go wrong Pundits say it's not about wit, Dr M put in policies to block unity KUALA LUMPUR - Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has still a lot to show for when it comes to demonstrating his wit, sarcasm and wry humour when speaking in public these says. Today, the former prime minister was again in his element when he was invited to speak on “Revisiting Vision 2020” by the Institute of Marketing Malaysia. Saying that by and large, Malaysians supported Vision 2020, a 30-year plan which he crafted in 1991 to lay the foundations for Malaysia to be a developed nation by 2020, he also said that he would not be around by then to see what happens in 2020. “To look ahead 30 years is beyond the span of my life… I would not be around to see what happens in 2020 and that’s a good thing because nobody can blame me (if things failed)... I won’t be around for you to blame,” he said amidst laughter from the audience. When Dr Mahath...

A big black and ferocious dog was about to devour a small squirrel. The end was near for the poor squirrel. Who would stand up against that dog? The squirrel's mother/friend/relative? Wouldn't the one trying to help be also devoured by the black dog? What chance does the small squiggly squirrel have against the might of the ferocious black dog? But the small one was not about to yield to the badness of the dog. He was not about to squirm on the tree in safety while looking at his friend/relative/baby being chewed up as dinner by the black dog. No. The small one was not wrapped in apathy, fear and total self-pity like some cry babies who whine and whine and whine but do nothing to protect their rights from being eroded. The small one was going to stand up and be counted. The small one was going to use whatever it has to fight. It was not going to sit idle looking at the dog devouring one of its own. The small one was going to fight. With one small leap ...

By Ask Lord Bobo Yes! LoyarBurok has gone hard print, with the debut of its first ever print column “Ask Lord Bobo” in a new weekly community newspaper with a circulation of 100,000, the Selangor Times (which you can read more about here ). Check out the first Ask Lord Bobo, reproduced below, and send in your questions! ASK LORD BOBO “Ask Lord Bobo” will be a regular column by LoyarBurok , where all your questions about everything from law to lawlessness, politics to semantics, relationships to overpriced underwater ships, high-fashion to powerful women with big hair, and other profound, abstruse, erudite, hermetic, recondite, sagacious, and other thesaurus-described queries are answered! And what better way to kick off this god-damned series than by answering Lord Bobo’s own questions about ourselves? What is LoyarBurok TM ? The Emergence. Simple. As any self-respecting, sexual Malaysian would know, “loyarburok” = noun, colloquialism: so...

» The Guardian’s full cables website » State’s Secrets: the New York Times » Cablegate: full texts at Wikileaks Two companies in Malaysia have been named by the United States as being front companies for an Iranian-controlled network buying up missile technology from around the world. A secret US diplomatic cable in February to the US embassy in Beijing sought China’s help to block a Chinese company from selling missile guidance gyroscopes to the Malaysian-based companies. The contents of the cable were published on Sunday at the Wikileaks whistleblower website together with 261 other secret cables, in a massive leak of US diplomatic secrets which has ruffled feathers in governments all over the world. It is the second time in recent years that a Malaysian company has cropped up in the worldwide US-led campaign to contain Iran’s nuclear and missile ambitions. Six years ago the US named a unit of the Scomi group of industrial companies controlled by Kamaluddin Abdulla...

Make use of Bank Negara reserves Make use of high reserves, says Malaysias self appointed Economic Advisor Malaysias high international reserves can be mobilised, says former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad. Our reserves today are too high. We have over US$100 billion as reserves, which can sustain eight months of retained imports, he said. The country only needs to have reserves up to three or four months of retained imports, he said in his address at the Revisiting Vision 2020 organised by the Institute of Marketing Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur today. Out of the US$100 billion, you can actually mobilise US$50 billion, which will help the government. It is saying it does not have the money to do this and that, no money to subsidise. So, why not use this money, he said. During the 1997/98 Asian financial crisis, Malaysias foreign reserves was only US$17 billion and during recovery it was US$30 billion, he said. Dr Mahathir however said he was not sure if the higher reserves w...