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Dr Mahathir: Yes I’m Behind ‘Crisis’ But Najib Can End It By Resigning

KUALA LUMPUR, June 11 — Undeterred by Datuk Seri Najib Razak blaming him for creating the current 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) “crisis”, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad lobbed the ball back in the former’s court by accepting the blame.

But Dr Mahathir also offered Najib a solution to end the “crisis”, saying the best option would be for the latter to resign as prime minister and return only when 1MDB is thoroughly investigated and cleared of any wrong.

Dr Mahathir added that although he admits to being the person behind the “crisis”, it was Najib who had caused it by “borrowing huge sums of money and losing billions of ringgit”.

“I will admit that I am behind the ‘crisis’. I am behind it because there is a climate of fear in this country.

“Lots of people know about the loss of billions of ringgit by 1MDB. These people are in a position to know because they have seen evidence of this loss.

“But they are afraid because of actions which the government can take against them. They may lose their jobs, or contracts or expectations of titles etc,” Dr Mahathir wrote in his latest blog post today.

He said these critics of 1MDB approached him for help but he desisted for a long time, knowing full well that any move on his part to reveal the alleged misdeeds of 1MDB would eventually lead to Najib being questioned.

Dr Mahathir said he first tried to resolve the matter quietly by telling him in private that he no longer supports his leadership.

“But there was no result,” he claimed. “So I had to go public. Najib has destroyed Umno and BN.

“I know he would lose the next election. And then the whole country will see turmoil as no party, would have the majority to run the country,” he said.

“So I decided to expose the wrong-doings of 1MDB of which the Prime Minister is effectively the head.

“Is there a crisis? There is. It is caused by the Prime Minister creating 1MDB borrowing huge sums of money and losing billions of Ringgit,” Dr Mahathir added.

He urged Najib to step down to allow a full investigation on 1MDB’s reported RM42 billion debt pile, insisting that with the prime minister still in power, the probe would not be carried out thoroughly.

“If no crimes can be detected and all the money is returned, Najib can come back as Prime Minister and lead BN in the next election,” Dr Mahathir said.

He said by accusing him of starting the so-called crisis, Najib was as good as saying the alleged disappearance of billions of ringgit should be accepted and ignored as though no wrong had been committed.

But from the public’s interest in the controversy, Dr Mahathir said the matter cannot be ignored and those guilty of any wrongdoing must be brought to book.

“A crisis may be the result but should we allow thieves to steal billions of ringgit in order to avoid a crisis,” he said.

On his blog on Monday, Najib accused Dr Mahathir of causing the “mess” in the country that he now has to bear the brunt of the blame for, amid the ongoing controversy surrounding 1MDB.

Najib also said in the Frequently Asked Questions section on his blog that the former prime minister did not have to face endless allegations during his time in office, from 1981 to 2003, as social media was not developed then.

“The ‘mess’ that Tun refers to, is largely of his own making as a result of his attacks and his echoing of Opposition lies and slander,” Najib wrote.

Dr Mahathir has been calling openly for Najib’s resignation, citing the controversy surrounding 1MDB that is currently being investigated by the Auditor-General and the Public Accounts Committee.

Source: www.themalaymailonline.com

July 10, 2015
A Guide To Being The PM’s Wife By Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali

KUALA LUMPUR, July 9 — A prime minister’s wife is there to support her husband in his duties and must resist competing with him for attention, according to Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali.

In words that epitomised her position as arguably the most recognisable wife to a Malaysian prime minister despite her low profile, the spouse to Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said such virtues were among those needed to perform the unofficial role, in an interview published by Malaysiakini today.

“As the prime minister’s wife, do not compare (yourself with anyone). Generally, you have to support your husband, you have to be knowledgeable, you have to know what is happening around you and you have to make sure that you are together with your husband to meet with the people,” she said in the interview.

“People like to know that this is the PM’s wife and that they are together, they are family-oriented. So you have to support your husband, definitely. But don’t compete with him,” she advised.

The soft-spoken medical doctor by training explained that the wife of the prime minister was often an unofficial intermediary between the public and the head of the government.

But despite the seeming power this conveyed, Dr Siti Hasmah said it was imperative that a prime minister’s wife avoid taking an active role in matters that are within her husband’s powers to decide.

“They (the people) cannot see the PM. So, they want to see the wife, and then for no reason, they will ask for anything. Never promise anything. Just say that you will convey the message to your husband to consider.

“You have no part in telling people that ‘yes, I will make sure you get this, you get that, you get the contract’,” she said further in the interview with the news portal.

As part of her general tips, which she insisted was not directed at any person in particular, Dr Siti Hasmah pressed on the need to be humble, regardless of one’s station in life.

She said she learned this lesson during her days as the first female Malay doctor in Kedah, where she treated the poor.

“You may be a doctor or you may be a minister’s wife but if you are arrogant, they (the people) won’t accept you,” she said.

Source: www.themalaymailonline.com

July 10, 2015
ST Correspondent: Government Should Help Beef Up SMRT Resources To Fix Problems

In an opinion piece in the Straits Times on Thursday, 09 July, the newspaper’s Senior Transport Correspondent, Christopher Tan, says “apologies from the operator, regulator or the Government” over Tuesday’s island-wide MRT shut-down “are beginning to sound glib and hollow.”

However, Mr Tan also suggested that “the Government should step in to help beef up resources required for SMRT to make things right quickly.”

In Parliament in February, the Government revealed that in total, S$40 billion would have been spent on the PTOs over the next 10 years, that is S$4b a year. (See here: “Parliament: Government spends $4b a year on transport infrastructure and subsidies“.)

Do you think it is prudent for the Government to pour in even more resources into SMRT, resources which ultimately will have to come from commuters and taxpayers?

Source: www.theonlinecitizen.com

July 9, 2015
Singaporeans Shoud Stop Complaining And Spare A Thought For SMRT Workers And Their Families!

We were having family dinner when my dad received notification that he is activated. Without further ado, he put down his dinner and report within 30 minutes to the assigned station. He did not grumble about how he had to work again. The previous time when he was activated, he came back to us and shared with us how he could understand the feelings of the passengers who were shouting and pushing him and his coworkers. He stood and said sorry at least 100 times to everyone who was trapped. He is just a maintenance guy in SMRT.

But, there was no negativity in him despite being shouted at, at the efficiency of the company, at the long standing hours or at anything. He came back to announce that he was glad that it’s settled.

So, before we throw our frustrations and ill mannerism to any of the ground staff, please remember that they are just doing their best to get lives moving. They apologized on behalf of SMRT, not themselves. And most importantly, they have families waiting for them back home, or the unfinished dinner to eat too. A little empathy goes a long way to consider the various stakeholders invoked in this whole process. And I am sure we can do this!

And for now, my family and I are waiting for my dad to come home safely.

Source: Iris Lee

July 9, 2015
SMRT Fiasco – Time For Heads To Roll

To call it a disaster may be an understatement for the quarter of a million people stranded by the train breakdowns last evening. Yes, we do see breakdown pretty often but what happened last night was unprecedented. 250,000 commuters were affected when no less than 57 train stations were rendered obsolete.

Some scenes of the fiasco last night

The scenes around the red dot last night were befitting of an apocalyptic blockbuster. Bus stops became obsolete, queues formed were so long that it gave the queues at Lee Kuan Yew’s funeral a good run for its money and people were lost, angry and unsatisfied, to say the least.

Bus stops became a thing of the past (Source: Renald Loh)

On social media, many Singaporeans lamented about how, in the face of constant breakdowns and now the nationwide disaster, unjustified the increases in the salaries of CEOs and fares were. In the past 5 years alone, commuters have seen fares increased 3 times.

To add salt to the wound, just last week SMRT CEO’s Desmond Kuek’s salary increased yet again. His salary has increased mulitfold in just a span of three years and he is now paid at least 2.2 million annually. With increases in salaries of the men in-charge and fare hikes, it is only natural that commuters expect a parallel increase in service standards, or at the very least, the maintenance of current standards.

However, that was not to be. The lack of satisfaction amongst millions of Singaporeans is justified, definitely more justified than the fare hikes and Desmond Kuek’s remuneration package.

SMRT CEO Desmond Kuek

Instead of taking responsibility and being seen on the ground to ensure commuters affected by the countless breakdowns get home safely, there was little else other than statements of ‘concern.’ from Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew. From a layman’s perspective, stranded at bus stops and faced with the never ending queue in the hot, humid and sweltering crowd, reflecting on the astronomical salaries the people behind the trains and the fare hikes is a real kick in the face.

Even if we can accept occasional breakdown, or even systemic infrastructural faults, complete lack of accountability should not be tolerated. And we saw a decent dose of that last night.

But things weren’t always like that, were they? There was once a time where the MRT was the pride of all Singaporeans alike and breakdowns were as alien as curry puff syndicates . So much so, in fact, that the PAP itself incorporated the MRT in it’s election posters.

A PAP campaign poster from 1998.

Now, that is one poster we’ll probably never see revived. Not with the way things are going. This poster surfaced in 1988, when the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew was our Prime Minister. Reflecting on last night’s fiasco, I can’t help but wonder, what would he have done?

I for one feel that, if the man was still around, such an incident wouldn’t even have happened. In fact, he would have tackled the problem at its core before it snowballed to the constant breakdowns Singaporean commuters face today. See, if there were one thing that separated PAP’s Lee Kuan Yew from the PAP of today, it would boil down to this – he never hesitated to make heads roll.

Let us cast our minds back to Mr Lee’s National Day Rally in 1984,

“Everything works, whether its water, electricity, gas, telephone, telexes, it just has to work. If it doesn’t work, I want to know why, and if I am not satisfied, and I often was not, the chief goes, and I have to find another chief. Firing the chief is very simple.”

Mr Lee and Mdm Kwa entering the train station

To cut the long story short, if Mr Lee was in charge, heads will roll. Mr Kuek and Mr Lui would be lucky to even stay in their positions, let alone collect millions of dollars. The PAP of the past sure is a far cry from what it is today.

As then Chief District Judge Tan Siong Thye during the Committee of Inquiry on the slate of breakdowns concluded:

That the incidents were preventable and that there was a “a gaping disconnect between what was formally on record and what was happening on the ground”.

And that gap is ever-widening. The PAP of today is great for soundbites, but when it actually comes to acting on their words – well, I’ll leave you to decide for yourself.

It’s about time that Singaporeans started voicing out for, as Mr Lee said, heads to roll. And the ballot box is a pretty good place to start.

Source: www.theonlinecitizen.com

July 9, 2015