Perlantikan Anwar Ibrahim sebagai PPN Sabah dan Sarawak

Datuk Sri Anwar

Parti Keadilan Rakyat pada 18 Disember lalu telah memutuskan untuk merombak serta melantik barisan pimpinan Pengerusi Perhubungan Negeri yang baru. Keputusan tersebut dicapai oleh Ahli Majlis Pimpinan Tertinggi selepas bermesyuarat di Ibu Pejabat Parti Keadilan Rakyat. Rombakan serta lantikan ini bertujuan memacu serta memperhebatkan jentera parti bagi memastikan agenda perubahan dapat dilaksanakan.Majlis Pimpinan Tertinggi juga secara sebulat suara memutuskan untuk melantik Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim sebagai Pengerusi Perhubungan Negeri bagi negeri Sabah dan Sarawak.

Keputusan tersebut dicapai setelah mempertimbangkan sokongan serta sambutan rakyat kedua-dua negeri tersebut yang kini semakin nyata terhadap PKR, terutamanya selepas keputusan Pilihanraya Umum ke-12 dan pembentukan gagasan Pakatan Rakyat. Menyedari bahawa kebajikan rakyat negeri Sabah dan Sarawak telah lama diabaikan oleh kerajaan Barisan Nasional, pemilihan Dato' Seri Anwar sebagai Pengerusi Perhubungan Negeri adalah tepat bagi memastikan berlakunya perubahan mendasar serta menunjukkan komitmen tuntas PKR di dalam memperjuangkan agenda rakyat keseluruhannya;

Dari Perlis hingga ke Sabah dan Sarawak.Agenda untuk melakukan perubahan di Sabah dan Sarawak memerlukan dokongan dan sokongan dari segenap lapisan masyarakat. Manakala Sarawak dijangka akan mengadakan pilihanraya negerinya dalam masa terdekat, perlantikan Dato Seri Anwar sebagai Pengerusi Perhubungan kedua-dua negeri tersebut menjustifikasikan keprihatianan kami terhadap permasalahan di sana serta amat signifikan dalam transisi peralihan kuasa Pakatan Rakyat ke Putrajaya.

Kami percaya mereka yang terpilih untuk menjawat jawatan-jawatan tersebut akan memikul amanah sedaya mungkin dan seterusnya menjalankan tugas dengan rasa penuh tanggungjawab. Tahniah kami ucapkan di atas perlantikan saudara/i sekalian.Saya selaku Presiden Parti Keadilan Rakyat ingin mengambil kesempatan ini untuk mengucapkan terima kasih kepada mantan Pengerusi-Pengerusi Perhubungan Negeri yang telah pun menjalankan tugas dengan penuh dedikasi. Jasa mereka pasti dikenang dan tidak akan dilupakan. Bersama ini adalah nama-nama Pengerusi Perhubungan Negeri selepas Mesyuarat Majlis Pimpinan Tertinggi yang diadakan pada 18 Disember:

1. Pahang - Dato' Fauzi Abd Rahman

2. Pulau Pinang - YB Dato' Zahrain Mohamed Hashim

3. Negeri Sembilan - YB Dato' Kamarul Baharin Abbas

4. Selangor/Wilayah Persekutuan - YB Tan Sri Dato' Abd Khalid bin Ibrahim

5. Sabah/Sarawak - YB Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim

6. Kedah - YB Tuan Haji Ahmad bin Kassim

7. Kelantan - YB Ab Aziz Ab Kadir

8. Perlis - Johari bin Shafie

9. Melaka - Khalid Jaafar

10. Johor - Dr. Zaliha Mustaffa

11. Perak - Osman Abdul Rahman

12. Terengganu - Wan Rahim bin Wan Hamzah

DR. WAN AZIZAH WAN ISMAIL Presiden

Parti Keadilan Rakyat

Posted by admin
Thursday, 25 December 2008 23:27

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Rahim perlu satu lagi

Ahli Majlis Tertinggi UMNO, Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Thamby Chik yang menawarkan diri untuk bertanding jawatan Naib Presiden UMNO, perlu satu lagi pencalonan apabila UMNO Bahagian Tenom yang bersidang Ahad malam mencalonkan beliau bagi jawatan berkenaan. Dua lagi UMNO Bahagian yang belum mengadakan persidangan ialah Larut dan Seremban.

UMNO Bahagian Tenom turut mencalonkan Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Tun Hussein dan Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar bagi jawatan naib manakala Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin bagi jawatan Timbalan Presiden. Manakala Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Tun Razak mendapat pencalonan ke-158 bagi jawatan Presiden dari Bahagian berkenaan.

Walau bagaimanapun, Akikalawon; mendoakan agar Y.B Datuk Shafie Afdal berjaya menambat hati daripada warga perwakilan.

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Year of the ox, 2009

Economic woes and key anniversaries portend trouble.

FOR China’s leaders, a perfect storm is brewing. Economic growth, which has helped keep the Communist Party in power, is faltering. The new middle class, hitherto a pillar of the party’s support, is plunging into despondency. The coming months are studded with politically sensitive anniversaries that will focus disaffected minds on the party’s shortcomings. Having endured a year of natural disasters, riots and the organisational nightmare of hosting the Olympics, the party sees little salve ahead.

Of all the huge uncertainties that plague attempts to predict the progress of the global financial crisis, two in particular hang over China. One is the resilience of its political structure to stress of this kind. During the last several years of economic health, it has been hard to imagine anything that could dislodge the party. David Shambaugh of George Washington University, in a book published this year entitled “China’s Communist Party: Atrophy and Adaptation”, said the party had its problems and challenges, “but none present the real possibility of systemic collapse”.
APA better year behind than ahead?

Those challenges, however, are now mounting rapidly. The head of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, has predicted GDP growth could fall to as low as 5-6% next year, half the rate of 2007 and far lower than anyone would have thought possible just a few months ago.

The other big uncertainty is how Chinese consumers will respond to the crisis. Chinese journalists say the state-controlled media were at first instructed to avoid stories even suggesting China might be affected. Then as the impact became increasingly obvious, with exports in November falling 2.2% year-on-year (the first such drop in seven years) and growing reports of factory closures and worker unrest, the orders changed. Now the media can acknowledge the impact, but are not to play it up. Keeping the middle class happy and willing to spend is as vital now in China as it is in any economy. But given China’s rudimentary social-security system and strong tendency to save even at the best of times, this could be particularly difficult.

Among the most challenging periods for the leadership in 2009 will be a number of dates already ringed in their calendars. The Chinese new year on January 26th—but effectively spanning several days on either side of that date—is one of them. Migrant workers with nothing to do as their labour-intensive factories making products for Western markets turn idle are already beginning to drift back to their villages for the holiday. Growing numbers will find their pockets empty as cash-starved employers hold back wages. Some will likely stage angry protests. After the festival, millions will return to the cities and many will find no jobs waiting. Frustrations will mount.

Early March will see attention focused on opposite ends of the country: Tibet and Beijing. The resentment that exploded in Lhasa on March 14th 2008 and spread rapidly across the vast Himalayan plateau has by no means subsided. March 10th 2009 is the fiftieth anniversary of the Tibetan uprising that prompted the Dalai Lama to flee to India.

The significance of this date will make this period even more potentially unstable in 2009 than it was in 2008. The authorities will maintain intense security across Tibet and neighbouring areas. Any miscalculation could readily produce the same kind of disapproving Western reaction and Chinese nationalist counter-reaction that for a while this year cast a dark shadow over China’s diplomacy.

Also in March, China’s parliament will hold its annual session in Beijing. These two-week events are normally rubber-stamp affairs, but this year economic woes are likely to fuel lively debate inside and outside the meeting rooms of the Great Hall of the People.

Then comes June 4th, the 20th anniversary of the bloody suppression of the Tiananmen Square protests. Many younger Chinese express indifference to this episode, but older activists will still try to commemorate it. An inkling of their organisational ability was given this month with the release of Charter 08, a document signed by some 300 intellectuals calling for sweeping political reform.

July 22nd is the 10th anniversary of the banning of Falun Gong, a quasi-Buddhist sect. The government has crushed Falun Gong with more persistent and ruthless determination even than political opposition movements (before 1999 Falun Gong had no discernible political views, but its members abroad are now virulently anti-party). The clampdown makes it extremely difficult to gauge the sect’s continuing support in China, but the anniversary will be a test of it.

The authorities will try to put on a celebratory face for the 60th anniversary on October 1st of the communist nation’s founding. It might even stage a military parade through central Beijing (as it did for the 50th and 35th anniversaries). If so, expect more repression, particularly of Tibetans and Muslim Uighurs from the far west of China, whom the authorities see as the most likely groups to try to spoil the party.

Optimists see some hope for the government amid this relentless series of potential flashpoints. It will be spending massively on infrastructure projects, and cutting taxes and interest rates to keep growth up. The World Bank’s president, Robert Zoellick, says China’s response to the Asian financial crisis in 1998 “built the basis for future growth”. It spent lavishly on infrastructure (particularly expressways) and weathered the crisis without any regime-threatening instability (although the middle class was then far smaller).
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This time, says Mr Zoellick, China’s stimulus package also features measures to encourage consumers, including more spending on social services. The World Bank’s prediction is for 7.5% growth. Several others say it could be around 8%—the level that officials often say is needed to keep employment stable.

But if the optimists are wrong, China could be in for a bumpy ride. History suggests that periods of social turbulence in China are often accompanied by tensions with the West. Trade friction could exacerbate such problems if countries engage in tit-for-tat protectionism in misguided efforts to protect their industries. Chinese officials repeatedly stress the need to keep markets open, but some officials might still be tempted to devalue the currency in the hope of boosting exports (America wants China’s currency to move in the opposite direction). China’s President Hu Jintao and the prime minister Wen Jiabao are experiencing their most trying times since they came to power more than five years ago. More than ever, stability will be their top priority.

Dec 22nd 2008From Economist.com

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Kerajaan prihatin Sabah, Sarawak

Tan Sri Muhd. Taib.

Kecilkan jurang dengan Semenanjung PORT DICKSON:

Kesediaan kerajaan memperuntukkan belanjawan besar bagi membina kemudahan dan infrastruktur di luar bandar, termasuk Sabah dan Sarawak dalam pembentangan Bajet 2009, kelmarin membuktikan keprihatinan kerajaan dalam mensejahterakan penduduk di kawasan berkenaan. Menteri Kemajuan Luar Bandar dan Wilayah, Tan Sri Muhammad Muhd Taib, berkata walaupun sesetengah kawasan terutama di Sabah dan Sarawak didapati tidak begitu praktikal bagi membina kemudahan jalan raya, membekalkan bekalan elektrik dan air bersih kerana bilangan penduduknya tidak ramai tetapi kerajaan tetap menyediakannya bagi memastikan mereka turut menikmati kemudahan itu.

"Kementerian memberi jaminan akan memastikan peruntukan RM8.1 bilion itu digunakan sebaik mungkin terutama dalam usaha kita mengecilkan jurang kemudahan yang diterima penduduk Sabah dan Sarawak dengan Semenanjung," katanya. Beliau berkata demikian selepas Merasmikan Seminar Pemaju Masyarakat Pekebun Kecil (PMPK) dan Pelancaran Tahun Produktiviti 2008 di Glory Beach Resort, dekat sini semalam. Dalam pembentangan Bajet 2009 kelmarin, Kementerian Kemajuan Luar Bandar dan Wilayah menjadi antara kementerian yang menerima peruntukan terbesar iaitu sebanyak RM8.1 bilion, membabitkan RM3 bilion kepada Sabah, RM3.3 bilion (Sarawak) dan RM1.8 bilion (Semenanjung).

Peruntukan besar itu akan digunakan bagi menyediakan kemudahan asas terutama membina jalan raya lebih baik, membekalkan bekalan elektrik dan air bersih kepada penduduk luar bandar yang masih belum menikmati kemudahan asas itu. Sementara itu, Muhammad berkata, kerajaan di bawah kajian semula Rancangan Malaysia Kesembilan (RMK-9), bersetuju supaya Risda melaksanakan program tanaman semula sawit ke sawit (TSSS) mulai 1 Januari 2009 bagi kebun sawit kurang daripada 2.5 hektar.

Petikan Berita Harian;

Oleh Hussain Said

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Berita gembira buat 77,600 pesara

Pak Lah

KUALA LUMPUR: Pemberian pencen tidak kurang daripada RM720 sebulan pada 1 Januari depan kepada pesara kerajaan yang telah berkhidmat sekurang-kurangnya 25 tahun, disambut gembira 77,600 pesara kerajaan di seluruh negara. Presiden Persatuan Pesara Kerajaan Malaysia, Datuk Paduka Raja Wan Mahmood Pawanteh, berkata keprihatinan Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi mengenai nasib pesara walaupun tidak lagi berkhidmat dengan kerajaan, amat dihargai. “Sebelum ini, ramai pesara hidup di bawah paras kemiskinan. Yang lebih teruk, kita ada seramai 1,125 orang pesara yang mendapat pencen di bawah RM285 sebulan. Jadi, bayangkan apa yang boleh dilakukan dengan jumlah pencen sebanyak itu, nak bayar rumah pun tak lepas,” katanya ketika dihubungi bagi mengulas Bajet 2009 yang dibentangkan Abdullah di Parlimen hari ini.

Wan Mahmood berkata mengikut statistik, jumlah pendapatan yang kurang daripada RM569 di Semenanjung Malaysia dikategorikan sebagai di bawah paras kemiskinan manakala bagi Sarawak pula, kurang daripada RM650 dan Sabah, RM680. Berdasarkan perangkaan itu, jumlah pesara yang termasuk dalam kategori di bawah paras kemiskinan ialah 70,000 orang. “Oleh itu, dengan kenaikan jumlah pencen itu, ia diharap dapat memberikan sedikit kelegaan kepada pesara. Kita ucap terima kasihlah kepada Perdana Menteri kerana mendengar rintihan kami yang pernah mencurah bakti untuk membangunkan negara suatu masa dulu,” katanya.

Sementara itu, Yang Dipertua Persatuan Pesara Kerajaan Malaysia Bahagian Kelantan, Hashim Bani Abdul Hamid berkata kenaikan itu adalah berita gembira kepada kira-kira 10,000 pesara kerajaan yang hidup di bawah paras kemiskinan di seluruh Kelantan. “Syukurlah, saya merasa amat bangga dan gembira kerana kita mempunyai seorang Perdana Menteri yang prihatin terhadap nasib semua golongan, sekurang-kurangnya terlepaslah mereka daripada garis kemiskinan,” katanya. Timbalan Yang Dipertua Persatuan Pesara Kerajaan Malaysia Bahagian Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Nik Mohd Kamil Nik Daud berkata di ibu negara juga sebelum ini terdapat pesara menerima jumlah pencen terlalu rendah dan menghadapi kesukaran menampung perbelanjaan seharian. “Mereka ini ada yang terima pencen antara RM200 dan RM300. Dengan jumlah yang sedikit itu tentu tidak mampu menampung kos sara hidup di bandar raya, kita sangat hargai pemberian ini,” katanya. - Bernama

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Next year will be little better than this one for investment bankers. Their long-term future is none too bright either

Investment banking
Wall Street's annus horribilis

IT IS scant consolation to the thousands who have lost their jobs in finance, but the next generation wants to be better prepared. Some 200,000 students have signed up to play “Wall Street Survivor”, an online stockmarket-simulation game.

Investment bankers are also focused on survival, but in the real world. Of Wall Street’s five big securities firms, only Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley remain. After an infusion of government capital they have become banks and are now trying to work out how—even whether—they will make money again.

Since Lehman Brothers went bust three months ago, almost every asset class has been hammered. Even Goldman, once considered invincible, is likely to report a heavy fourth-quarter loss on December 16th. Underlining the depth of the malaise, Lehman is hawking its French investment-banking unit for a princely €1 ($1.30).

Many of those left on Wall Street are underemployed. In the worst global economic slowdown for a generation, capital-market activity has contracted sharply (see chart). The volume of initial public offerings has fallen by more than half since last year. Debt markets would be moribund, were it not for government-guaranteed issuance. The net revenues of the 12 firms in the Boston Consulting Group’s investment-banking index tumbled to $6.2 billion in the third quarter, from $27.1 billion a year earlier. There is still money to be made trading currencies, interest-rate products, equity derivatives (popular when markets are volatile) and corporate restructuring. But this is relatively thin gruel compared with the recent past.

No wonder market greybeards, including Alan “Ace” Greenberg, a former boss of Bear Stearns, have been queuing up to pronounce the old Wall Street dead. But what will take its place? Morgan and Goldman appear to disagree about the answer.

Convinced that the era of big, highly geared bets is over, Morgan has shrunk its balance-sheet from $1.3 trillion to a shade over $750 billion. It expects to earn a return on equity of three to five percentage points less as a result of lower leverage. Retail banking, once mocked as deathly dull at the white-shoe firm, will become its “fourth leg”. Having come so close to failing, Morgan is going all out to win back clients who fled. It says most have returned.

This marks a stunning about-turn for John Mack, Morgan’s chief executive, who must feel a bit like the Grand Old Duke of York. On returning to run the firm in 2005, after the ejection of the risk-averse Philip Purcell, he declared that it was under-leveraged and needed to push into mortgages, proprietary trading and private equity. These businesses are now being dramatically “reshaped”, ie, shrunk.

Goldman, in contrast, seems determined to hold on to its risk-taking culture. Lloyd Blankfein, its chief executive, insisted recently that this year’s trauma need not alter Goldman’s “core”, a key part of which is trading with its own capital. Unlike Morgan, Goldman is not rushing into high-street banking, though it plans to set up an internet bank to help gather deposits. Goldman believes it can continue to punt its own money as long as its risk management remains strong.

Mr Blankfein rejects the idea that lower leverage will reduce profits, arguing that other factors, such as market share, are more important. Goldman has not changed its goal of a 20% return on equity over the cycle. But Brad Hintz, of Alliance Bernstein, thinks the bank may have to make do with eight to nine percentage points less as bets with borrowed money become less acceptable. “Gravity affects everyone, even Goldman,” he says.

Goldman could make up for some of this lost revenue in less capital-intensive businesses, such as asset management. There are fresh opportunities, too, such as distressed debt—a field in which Goldman excelled after the last bust. But it is more crowded this time.

Moreover, regulators and politicians are likely to impose restrictions. The investment banks’ new overseer, the Federal Reserve, has so far imposed few extra shackles. Barack Obama’s economic team understands the dangers of over-regulation. But members such as Paul Volcker, a former Fed chairman, want to see a balance struck between financial innovation and economic stability.

Congressional views are less nuanced. This week Morgan and Merrill Lynch, sensing the political winds, said their senior executives would forgo bonuses for 2008; John Thain, Merrill’s boss, had asked for up to $10m after steering the bank to safety in a merger with Bank of America (BofA). Banks are also tightening “clawback” provisions, which require those whose trades cause subsequent losses to pay back all or part of their bonuses. This robs Wall Street of one of its biggest attractions. Traders may head for less well-known boutiques in order to avoid scrutiny.
Another turn-off is the legal trouble that the big firms will face next year. The wave of litigation over dodgy debt instruments is still swelling. In collateralised-debt obligations alone, Merrill and BofA face estimated settlement costs of up to $5 billion. Dealing with such cases can prove a huge distraction, as Citigroup discovered after the dotcom collapse.

There are a few grounds for optimism. The loss of Lehman and Bear, and the retrenchment of wannabes such as UBS, has cut out a lot of competition (though new rivals are emerging, such as Barclays Capital). And since they mark all their assets to market, Morgan and Goldman may have felt the worst of their pain. For commercial banks, by contrast, the deepening recession will bring more credit losses. Meanwhile, those that have bought investment banks are not all finding it easy to meld the cultures. “Let’s wait until 2010 before declaring the universal-bank model victorious,” says a Wall Street executive.

It is, indeed, hard to look ahead anywhere with much optimism. When business does come back it will be only at the level of five years ago, believes another senior investment banker. Revenue from credit derivatives will fall as they gravitate towards exchanges, eroding spreads for dealers. Large parts of structured finance are dead. America’s government is working hard to revive markets for securitised debt, aware that banks lack the balance-sheet capacity to absorb all of those credit-card receivables and auto loans. But a return to past glories looks far-fetched.

The biggest fear on Wall Street is that finance, which accounted for a staggering 40% of corporate profits at the height of the credit bubble, faces decades of relative decline. The survivors will get the spoils, but the booty looks unappealing. It could be a long time before online-game developers start work on “Wall Street Thriver”.

Dec 11th 2008 NEW YORK From The Economist print edition

Illustration by; S. Kambayashi.

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Rizalman lodges report over possible assault

Tenom: Umno Tenom chief Datuk Rizalman Abdullah has lodged a police report alleging that one of his political enemies had hired someone to beat him up.

According to him, he was having a drink with friends at a hotel in Kota Kinabalu when he saw an acquaintance from Libaran, Sandakan, entering the premise at 2.30pm on the said day. He said just as he was leaving the hotel, his friend from Libaran came over and told him that a certain "Datuk" had allegedly requested him to look for thugs to beat him up. At this juncture, Rizalman said he asked whether he was willing to make a police report, to which his friend readily agreed.

He then brought him to the police station in Karamunsing to make the report.
"I made the police report so that police can carry out an investigation and take action," he said. His friend, in his statement, said a Datuk stopped him in front of a hotel at Jalan Gaya at 8.45pm on Dec. 6.

He claimed that the Datuk offered him RM5,000 if he agreed to beat up Rizalman. He further claimed that the Datuk gave him an "advance payment" of RM300. However, he did not carry out the instruction by the Datuk but informed Rizalman of the alleged plan when he met the latter at the hotel the following day. "I made the report as a reminder that should Rizalman be beaten up by people I do not want to be blamed," he said.

Meanwhile, Rizalman said he lodged a report with the Anti Corruption Agency (ACA) on Dec. 5 that a party leader had allegedly prevented more than 100 delegates from attending the Tenom Umno delegates meeting scheduled for Dec. 6 by bringing them to Kota Kinabalu and Tuaran, instead. He claimed he has proof that the delegates were coerced and sweet-talked to abandon the party meeting.

Tenom Umno had yet to convene its annual delegates meeting due to some glitches. On the eve of Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Rizalman had announced that there would be no contest for the posts of division chief, deputy chief and vice chief. However, contrary to Rizalman's claim, division leaders said they had received nominations to contest.

Daily Express: 09/12/2008.

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