Congratulations PM Najib Razak and Tun Abdullah Badawi

The blogosphere was deadly silence as the critics of Najib Razak still hoped the King would reject the 55-year-old who is the eldest son of Malaysia’s second Prime Minister Abdul Razak Hussein. Now, the hope is over as the politician who was accused of being linked to the murder of Mongolian lady has officially sworn in as the country’s sixth Prime Minister. Today could be the darkest day in the country’s democracy and freedom of speech if the new Prime Minister decided to take revenge on all those who criticize him – politicians, bloggers or foreign newspaper such as French Liberation newspaper.

On the other flip of the coin, today could be the brightest moment if the new Prime Minister decided to continue the freedom of speech, legacy from former PM Abdullah Badawi, as well as to continue the economic prosperity, legacy from his mentor and former PM Mahathir Mohamad. If Najib were to combine all the positive notes and sincere about fighting corruption, promote transparency, ensure fair distribution of wealth regardless of race, enhance business-friendly climate to attract foreign investors and reduce cronyism and nepotism, he is certainly a prime minister to watch out considering his current young age. Interestingly his mentor Mahathir Mohamad was sworn in as the fourth Prime Minister at the age of 55 as well.

Mahathir managed to fly back from London to attend the swearing ceremony and he was seated behind outgoing PM Abdullah Badawi. His task of ensuring Badawi’s exit after 1-term and hand-over the baton to his preferred choice, Najib Razak, is finally over. It’s still too early to conclude which path of political direction Najib Razak will embrace although on paper he will be heavily influence by Mahathirism. Like it or not almost all the top guns within UMNO who wish to become the Prime Minister were somehow extremists before, one way or another. Mahathir Mohamad and Anwar Ibrahim were both extremists during their young age.

Mahathir was expelled (by first Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman) from UMNO after he lost his Parliamentary seat in 1969 general election and subsequently his criticism on Tunku’s leadership, not to mention his “The Malay Dilemma” controversial publication. Mahathir was later brought back into the party by Najib Razak’s father. Thus Mahathir was extremely grateful to Abdul Razak and his hatred towards Abdul Rahman. Anwar was known for his Islamic extremism during his ABIM period and Mahathir thought it would be better to recruit the ABIM President than to let him join PAS. Many have forgotten how Anwar forced non-Muslim students in universities to take courses in Islam and appointed non Chinese-educated teachers to Chinese primary schools in 1987 when he was the Education Minister.

In short, being extremist is part and parcel in climbing the political ladder since the country is still very much entrenched in race-based politics. So don’t be surprise should Najib Razak’s cousin, Hishammuddin Hussein becomes the next Prime Minister due to his “keris-waving” trademark. If Najib has what it takes to clone the leadership of Mahathir, never mind that his mentor practiced iron-fist rule, people may be willing to forgive his past extremism, logically speaking. But he has the extra baggage of the Mongolian case. If not for the powerful influence of UMNO that stretch deep into even the Monarch institution, he might not be able to become the sixth Prime Minister today. He has to work triply hard to impress upon the public in order to erase the dark episode of the mentioned baggage. His main focus is infighting corruption and revitalizes the ailing economic problem and not zipping bloggers or oppositions who criticize him. He should be smart enough to filter whatever advises came from Mahathir.

Meanwhile, as a token of appreciation former PM Abdullah Badawi and his wife were conferred Seri Maharaja Mangku Negara (SMN) and Seri Setia Mahkota (SSM) respectively by the King Tuanku Mizan. Both awards carry the title Tun. Many bloggers and opposition leaders were seen begging Badawi to continue his leadership as the PM despite not being the UMNO President but this is a man who is not a fighter, not that he has any more bullets left after his 5-year’s empty track-record. Badawi will most likely retire for good from politics and quietly tend to his orchard with his wife while learning the newly purchased Apple iPhone. Mahathir on the other hand will increase the momentum in the political participation and his first task is to test his influence in helping BN in the coming by-election. Then he has some issues to settle with Khairy, the son-in-law of Badawi.

“One Malaysia” – April Fool’s Slogan to Fool You Again?

By comparison the incoming Prime Minister Najib Razak is luckier thanoutgoing PM Abdullah Badawi. It could be a blessing in disguise that former PM Mahathir selected the not-so-bright Abdullah Badawi as his successor in 2003. It could be a disastrous to have Najib took over instead of Badawi then because the public will make comparison between Mahathir and Najib administration. Now that Badawi screwed up big time people will make comparison between Abdullah Badawi and Najib Razak and you don’t have to be rocket scientist to know who the better leader is. And the public “may” throw their support behind Najib’s administration come next general election if he plays the right game at the right time.

It’s a known fact that the first 100-day is the most crucial period in every Prime Minister or President’s calendar of a country. This is also the time when international policy consultants and public relation specialists make good money as their expertise is in demand. It could range from how a new Prime Minister or President’s hairstyle should be changed to the mandatory ingredients needed in his speeches to the nation. In short, the 100-day is the period for extraordinary marketing bombardment. Outgoing PM Badawi is perhaps the only PM that went through the roller-coaster from a Hero (2004’s general election) to Zero (2008’s general election) and subsequently kicked out from the office. And this is invaluable case-study for Najib Razak so as not to repeat the same silly mistake.

Outgoing Badawi’s sloganeering during 2004’s general election was mind-boggling and worked seamlessly simply because he was perceived to be Mr. Clean, a rare commodity much sought after by the people after 22-year of dictatorship rule by his predecessor, Mahathir Mohamad. Heck, Badawi is perhaps the best person to win“Father of Sloganeering” and now that he’s going into retirement he should consider his participation in all those slogan contests. Unfortunately he stopped after the sloganeering phase and thereafter flew out of the county most of the time leaving the country in auto-pilot mode. People may argue that freedom of speech reaches its glory period during Badawi’s administration but you can argue that it could be due to his weaknesses and “don’t care” attitude as well.

Incoming Najib is likely to adopt his mentor Mahathir’s administration style: iron-fist with little space for criticism judging from the recent crackdown. But before that Najib has to perform the SOP (standard operating procedure) and has already started his marketing campaign as the sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia. He can’t brush away his association with Mongolian Altantuya’s murder so he practically add another item to the sensitive list – the mention of the word Altantuya is an offence *creative huh?*. Anyway Najib’s team has mooted the “One Malaysia”concept, a simple yet powerful slogan that sounds more like a stripped-down of Singapore’s “One People, One Nation, One Singapore”. It would be a miracle for a person who vowed to “bathe the keris in Chinese blood” in 1987 to suddenly make a 360-degrees turn and sincere about having “One Malaysia” concept.

But it is image-building time so basically politicians will do practically anything under the sun and that including washing your toilet bowls if that is what it needs to secure the seat. The time is perfect. Badawi’s weak image makes Najib like an angel especially within UMNO. However outside of UMNO the Chinese and Indian voters are still fuming mad especially the Perakians. He needs to create hopes and promises. His surprising visit to Sin Chew daily was part of the marketing campaign to tell the Chinese “I’m here for you China-man so give me the respect and write only good things about me or else …”. He also threw in RM80 million assistance-packages to Tamil schools and made the representatives from Tamil schools squatting with the mock-checks for a photo session to show the voters from the coming by-elections “See, I’m here for you Indian so respect me and don’t embarrass me again by voting for the opposition this time or else …”.

However compared to Indian, Chinese is harder to please so the time is ripe to pay a visit to China – a copy of what his father did in 1974, a great strategy to remind the Chinese how his father was “Chinese-friendly” 35 years ago and he’s (Najib) no racist and will always appreciate the Chinese-Malaysian contribution. Whether his “One Malaysia” concept is another marketing tool or slogan which will die the natural death the same way as Badawi’s initial approach remains to be seen. Najib holds the key to UMNO and BN’s survival and majority of the people are willing (hopefully) to forgive his past racist remarks if he has the political will to correct the wrongs to bring the country in achieving “One People, One Nation, One Malaysia”. But then when was the last time you managed to train old dog new tricks?

Britain, a Ticking Depression Time-Bomb?

Make no mistake about it. Rosmah Mansor, the wife of Najib Razak, has made the necessary preparations for his husband to be sworn in as Malaysia’s sixth Prime Minister scheduled on this Friday. There shouldn’t be any more surprises which could delay the celebration. Sure, outgoing lame-duck Abdullah Badawi said the transition of power will happen in due course but he said so out of frustration. The fact is he has no other choice but to obediently hand-over the throne almost immediately after his schedule meeting with the King this Thursday. No matter how hard you pray and hope that something will happen that will deny Najib’s swearing-in, the writing is on the wall that Najib will definitely take over by this week.

And Najib didn’t give a damn if the sudden appearance of former dictator Mahathir who is also his mentor during the UMNO assembly closing ceremony was actually the greatest insult to Abdullah Badawi. The timing was perfect and immediately Najib scored some crucial points with influential Mahathir behind him. Badawi was supposed to deliver his last speech and given the face-saving farewell exit but suddenly Hulk Hogan appeared out of nowhere *minus the music* and all the cheers and thunders were stolen by the old man (Mahathir). If this is not the greatest insult to the outgoing PM, I do not know what else is. The tainted Najib needed all the points he could possibly get to lift his image. So the orchestra to inject feel-good atmosphere to the delegates and the public.

Like it or not Abdullah Badawi was a disastrous and historians are still having tough time figuring what was his greatest contribution(s) else future history books could end up with question marks on the past Prime Ministers’ achievements. Given the option businessmen would prefer (and hope) the new PM (Najib Razak) as the perception is that Najib would be a better leader than Abdullah Badawi. Sure, Najib’s academic major was in economic although his star shines in defence / military instead but businessmen was hoping at least Mahathir, rumored to become UMNO’s special advisor, could guide the Razak Jr. in putting the economy back on track after 6-years on auto-pilot.

Najib Razak’s brother, Nazir Razak, the CEO of CIMB Group (second largest lender after Maybank) has started the so-called no-pay leave offer to his 36,000 employees. Nazir claimed his "Staff Rejuvenation Programme" is a win-win scheme for both staff and company because staffs that opted for the scheme are assured of a job with the company – when the good time returns. But the employees returning from their “long leave” could be redeployed or transferred to other department. Everyone knows that when you’re being transferred to foreign department it’s actually a polite way of telling you to get lost soonest possible else. It’s not clear the next action plan if the recession worsen and refuse to go away after the programme expired in six months.

As much as CIMB would like to perform the clear cut of retrenchment or VSS, the political climate is simply too sensitive for the execution especially when his brother Najib Razak is about to take over the premiership very soon. After President Obama threw the spanner on the automobile players General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC that there would be no easy bail-out money for them despite the threat of bankruptcy, all the eyes are now on G20 summit in London.Obama was cool about the prospect that GM or Chrysler could go bust as that could be the long-term solution for the automakers. The last thing that Obama administration wants is to have another AIG who keep asking for easy money but paid hundreds of millions of dollars in bonus to its staffs instead.

The legendary currency speculator George Soros said the recession will last forever, a statement to mean that the world could face a depression worse than the 1929’s Great Depression if the 20 governments scheduled to meet in London still could not decide on a common consensus to fix the economic problem. George Soros could be betting great amount of money speculating currencies again but this man who broke the Bank of England and made $1 billion on Black Wednesday by shorting the pound is set to make billions again, if his bet is correct. In fact Soros thinks the current global recession is a much bigger problem than in the 1930s and Britain’s economic problem is actually worse than in America and Germany. Soros claimed he’s not shorting the pound now although he did so last year and made another cool $1 billion. He also refuses to give tips if the current plunging pound sterling has hit the bottom but then why should he tell you?

If Soros is right and the next economic chaoses were to explode from Britainthis time the scale of global depression would be intangible. Of course along the process Soros would be richer by many more billions of dollars. So, could the recent rights issue by Maybank and TMI was due to reasons only known by the insiders? Will the NPLs, if revealed would create an economic disastrous huge enough that require Mahathir-Daim tag-team to come back for the rescue? If the recession is a minor one, why CIMB boss is scrambling to cut cost creating unnecessary panic? Mahathir should have started advising Najib on his next step on how to revive the economy problem. As I’ve wrote before Najib should spend more time learning and combating the economic issues and leave the political challenges to his deputy and new knights.

Hail the new King – Najib the Great and his Knights

UMNO’s political landscape is more or less stabilized. Now that the 59th UMNO general assembly is ending, never mind the current UMNO was actually registered (and should be known) as UMNO Baru (new UMNO) in 1988 after the original UMNO was declared an unlawful society, the new teams comprising mostly Najib Razak’s men are ready to take orders from their new commander. Former PM Mahathir, whose Team-A was fighting tooth and nail with Team-B led by Razaleigh Hamzah back in 1987 for the then UMNO Presidency was the actual founder of this UMNO-Baru. It was a sad moment that Mahathir did a U-Turn to give this round of UMNO opening another skip after promised to turn up, most likely because his son Mukhriz secured the last place behind Khairi (Mahathir most-hated new kid on the block) and Khir Toyo.

Like it or not Khairi, the son-in-law of outgoing PM Abdullah Badawi, is perhapsthe best man compared to Mukhriz Mahathir and Khir Toyo. Mukhriz is still raw who’s living under his father’s shadow. He’s still an infant, politically speaking. Without the powerful “Mahathir” word attached to his name Mukhriz may not even qualified for the final round of the competition, let alone securing the 232-votes. Khir Toyo was tainted with corruption allegations so it would be equally disastrous if this man were to win the UMNO Youth Chief post. Khairi may not be an angel and was known for his monkey-remarks and his link to Mat-Rempits, not to mention his rebellious and bad-boy image, but he’s flexible (or rather snaky) enough to adapt to political climate in order to survive. And this guy will survive post-Badawi’s exit. Furthermore it makes perfect sense to have a new chief who does not belong to Najib’s camp otherwise it won’t be fun to have another yes-man who always yell Najib’s fart smells as good as Kentucky Fried Chicken and it’s finger lickin’ good too.

Okay, since it is Friday today let’s get serious and don’t take this with a pinch of salt. Contrary to what many think and perceive, Najib Razak is actually the best person to walk the corridors of power. Get real, who else is fit enough to be the captain of UMNO if not Najib? Even the so-called Father of Modernization, Mahathir Mohamad, acknowledged his preferred choice was Najib and not Abdullah Badawi. Mahathir admitted his mistake and he’s still kicking himself till today for such a silly mistake but then it could be because Abdullah Badawi used voodoo on Mahathir. The premiership is long overdue and Najib has wasted 6-golden year under Abdullah Badawi’s incompetency, not to mention the embarrassment having to explain to VVIP why the PM dozed off 99% of the time during official functions. Can you imagine the wonders Najib could bring to the country in all those 6 years?

Heck, if not because of Badawi’s voodoo Najib would have transformed Malaysia into a military powerhouse by now if he was the Prime Minister. Malaysia would not need to buy the Eurocopter Cougar, Scorpene Submarines and Sukhoi Fighter jets, amongst others, because the country would have the capability to produce and even export such military toys. Najib possessed the DNA in the military field. Altantuya would not have known and become his close aide Abdul Razak Baginda’s mistress and this whole C4-murder issue would not have happen. However we cannot reverse the history and indeed the pregnant Mongolian beauty was blown to pieces and the commission of 114 Million Euro was paid to Razak Baginda’s company. But the money was well-kept as part of the war-chest for the nation (or rather UMNO’s political) survivability. During current economy crisis many people become jobless and this includes UMNO delegates. You can bet your last dollar that a portion of the commission was used to “help” these poor delegates who have nowhere to turn to but UMNO. So can you see the noble use of such money? *grin grin*

It was definitely not Najib’s fault that those two useless (or rather scumbags) Corporal Azhar Umar and Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri, both from Special Action Unit misunderstood the instruction to take care of Altantuya. The actual instruction was to ensure Altantuya did not get lost in this foreign country as the Mongolian beauty and her companions do not read Bahasa Malaysia. When even Einstein wouldn’t be able to navigate back to his hotel with such foreign sign-boards what more with these Mongolians? Furthermore snatch thieves are abundance and it would be impolite to the citizens from the land of once Great Mongol Conqueror Genghis Khan if somehow these Mongolians fall prey to these thieves. Unfortunately both Azhar and Azilah received very little education and it’s only natural for such low-educated people to misunderstand top-level instruction. If only tour-guides were sent instead of Special Action Unit, Altantuya could be happily attached as mistress to Razak Baginda till today without anyone knowing about their relationship.

Sure, people talked about Rosmah, Najib’s wife, of being the person behind the murder but there’s no proof as of today. Rosmah’s only mistake was perhaps her attempt to save the chicken-feed $500,000 commission supposedly paid to Altantuya. If only she had let those amount of money into Altantuya’s purse. In reality Rosmah was trying to preserve cash as much as possible in anticipation of global Great Recession. She’s such a far-sighted person and perfectly fit into Najib’s team, isn’t she? I suppose the saying that behind every successful man there is a woman is true after all. She even begged people for donations for the Gaza’s fund, something that Abdullah Badawi’s new wife didn’t even bother to do so it’s really cruel to say nasty things to such a charming and caring person, no *grin*?

People have actually mistaken the real purpose behind Najib’s assurance that the country will not enter the recession come rains or shines. Despite over 50-years of independence Malaysians are still like a baby – they never mature else why they keep on voting BN even though they were being taken for rides. Even when they were being told to pack and go back to China or India or wherever their father or grandpa came from, these bunches of stupid people stubbornly voted for BN into the government. And can you imagine what will happen if Najib were to tell the truth – the truth that the country is actually in bad shape? All hell will break loose and people will take to the streets crying as if it was a judgment day. Najib was trying his best to maintain the de-facto positive atmosphere so that everybody remains happy thinking the country is insulated from global recession. People owe Najib an apology for misunderstood his noble intention.

Najib’s new knights of cousin Hishammuddin Hussein, Zahid Hamidi and Shafie Apdal are perhaps the best three musketeers who can help the new President drive the country to the next level. His deputy Muhyiddin Yassin completed the tag-team puzzle and is the best man as Najib’s deputy. Hell, even the independent Joseline Tan wrote today that Muhyiddin and Hishammuddin didn’t practice money-politics a single bit *grin*. Najib’s current team is perhaps the cleanest in the history of the country’s politics and Mahathir should be proud that his assembly-line has produced such quality people after he left office. Sure, maybe Najib will get tough and continue Mahathirism’s practice of dictatorship but that’s necessary for your own good. Even Singaporean Lee Kuan Yew is still practicing dictatorship till today from behind the curtain. Such iron-fist is absolutely needed for as long as the people (or rather voters) are immature. Najib Razak is indeed Malaysia’s Obama. So now we know why Mahathir didn’t turn up for the UMNO opening. The emotional veteran may just cried again looking at the dynamic team that his UMNO-Baru has produced. And this old man cannot stand the sight of Khairi, Ali Rustam, Abdullah Badawi and Rosmah Mansor rushing to hug him and offer him a pacifier. Holy Cow, I need to get myself some beers to think straight.

AP Queen and Daddy’s Son Lost – Wait, All is Not Lost Yet

American new home sales rose 4.7% in Feb but were still the second-worst on records dating back to 1963. Compared to Thomson Reuters expectation of sales fall of 300,000 units this little news was enough to push the Dow Jones into the green territory – up 160-points at the time of writing. However noting that the Dow is fast approaching the resistance of 8,000-pointsit’s wise to take whatever profits you’ve gained over the last couple of trading days when the Dow breached the 7,000 from 12-year-low level. As much as I would like to believe the Dow could shoot 7,000 and then 8,000 from 6,000-plus without taking a rest, the probability isn’t there.

Hence, I’m taking some money off the table from my AAPL Apr 105 Call Option of which I was thinking of scalping but decided to let it run after the trading pattern pointed to a sustainable bull-run. But the current level is fast approaching resistance and the trend could reverse anytime now so I’m chicken out *grin*. Remember the saying that Bull and Bear make money but Pig gets slaughtered? There’s no harm to put your money into the casino again should the Dow could miraculously go above 8,000 and stays thereafter. So for the time being only the braves would place their money betting a continuous rally. Furthermore it seems $110 is the immediate resistance for Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL, stock) for the time being.

It seems the Iron Lady Rafidah Aziz, better known as the AP (Approved Permits) Queen, is out when her younger deputy Shahrizat Jalil successfully kicked her out with a stunning 507 votes against Rafidah’s 280 votes. Compared to Rafidah who was seen as one of the untouchable warlords who commanded the powerful Ministry of International Trade and Industry, Shahrizat was seen as someone who could not make important decision and needs to consult many bosses. There were many incidents when her male-colleagues made fun (or rather sexy remarks) of women but surprisingly Shahrizat went into hiding and emerged only after the dusts have settled. Ever since Rafidah’s portfolio was given to Muhyddin Yassin, it was as good as gone for the Wanita UMNO movement.

Shahrizat may have won the new Wanita head post but it’s almost definite she won’t be able to get back the powerful Ministry of International Trade and Industry portfolio, not that she is capable of such an important post in the first place. She won’t be the next AP Queen so Rafidah can claim the consolidation prize. Rafidah can also scream that she was the only (former) and the last Wanita head capable of taming the ministry portfolio. But then Shahrizat is an obedient follower (of UMNO President) so it doesn’t really matter. As long as there’s a minister-ship for her, she is happy and contented. Maybe there’s good side to Rafidah’s losing. Her political career has almost reaches the ending which means she now can spend more precious time at London shopping, not to mention more time collecting rental from her property empire.

It was indeed the saddest moment when the keris player, Hishammuddin Hussein, decided to quit playing the game altogether. He merely kissed the keris. This is no fun at all since thousands of delegates have travelled hundreds of miles to the capital just watch him wave the weapon hysterically. It was one of the climax shows on earth and for the 59th UMNO General Assembly to not have such antics is like travel to Beijing without trying the Peking Duck. It simply doesn’t make sense at all since it was a traditional recipe in every UMNO General Assembly menu. And now this great actor is telling everyone he’s taking the keris back home so that nobody can imitate him. That’s absurd because such “tourists-attraction” event should be continued and encouraged. Already the delegates are not as joyful as before since UMNO-led coalition lost the two-third majority so a little entertainment should be allowed. Hishammudin should not monopolize the game and throw in the towel whenever he wishes. He’s simply selfish.

The UMNO Youth fight was initially between outgoing PM’s son-in-law Khairi and former PM’s son Mukhriz with the tainted former Selangor Chief Minister Khir Toyo out of the race. The latest news was that Khairi has managed to snatch the throne from daddy’s son Mukhriz when he polled 304 votes although the early unofficial counts showed Mukhriz won by razor-thin majority of 12-votes. This could send the former dictator Mahathir’s heart beat twice the speed should the news reaches his ears. Mahathir was played out by Abdullah Badawi once and he doesn’t have much time to wait for the next opportunity should his son fails to sit on the throne (UMNO Youth Chief). At least that’s something a good daddy can do for his beloved son before he “retires” peacefully. But it seems everything is so gloomy now that Khairi has stolen the thunder from his son. However with some phone-calls the UMNO discipline body could declare Khairi is corrupt and the championship switches to *drum please* Mukhriz Mahathir. Najib has lots of explanation to do.

Dow Jones Rally – is the Worst Really Over?

Going by the rate of how Dow Jones going up the roof lately the job of UMNO leaders has been made easier. The local stock market which is talking the cue from the largest stock market in the world will definitely register positive gains and hence the delegates could say economy is getting better (Hey! They’re economic illiterate so what do you expect them to say?) due to UMNO’s leadership *grin*. The Dow registered 497.48 (6.8%) gain to close at 7,775.86 – the fifth biggest points gain in the Dow’s history. Thank to rising in home sales statistic it seem the worst is over and the bottom is history; at least that was some optimistic investors would like to think.

Wall Street cheered on Monday when the Obama administration revealed the plan to take over up to a staggering $1 trillion in toxic mortgage securities with the help of private investors. That’s half of the estimated $2 trillion of toxic assets the banks are sitting on now. But will the cheers sustainable or it was just another one of those bear-rally-trap again? It seems the Obama’s administration particularly Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is still unable to understand the real issue of the U.S. economic problem when he said it was just a temporary liquidity problem. Thus the massive injection into the banks hoping the economic problem will heal itself. 

So, was it really that simple that the problem was the banks are not lending thus choking the lending pipes? It can’t be that the banks stop lending in totality overnight. The truth is the banks are still lending but not as much as they used to pre-crisis. On the same note both the American consumers and businesses have collected too much debts that it has reach the tipping point. And this is precisely what triggered the banks to “re-evaluate” their lending practice – instead of loan-blindly they have to stop giving money to these trouble kids. It would be foolish to close one-eye and keep loaning knowing they can’t pay. And if you ever hear politicians were to say that the banks should not stop lending their money, you know you’re dealing with another sucker politician.

Although Obama administration latest plan to get rid of banks’ toxic assets the express-way is commendable, there’s no guarantee that the bank will start lending again as if the current problem never exist in the first place. It was natural forbanks to be cautious about approving loans even after the bad debts were taken out from their books. In another words cleaning the banks does not necessarily means solving the economy problem. You’re just shifting or rather sweeping the shits under the carpet, the same practices adopted by UMNO. TheAmerican consumers still have debt that may require many more years to clear. The debts will not disappear and you don’t think these consumers can spend the same way they did before the recession, do you?

Sure, the housing sales are rising but that’s because house prices are fallingand naturally there’re some smart people who starts buying although they form the minority group. It would be wonderful if the current rally marks the end of the American economic problem but let’s not make a fool out of ourselves that we’ve found the medicine. The $1 trillion plan could be the booster for now but there’re still many problems yet to be cured. The illness was too serious to be solved by one injection.

Mahathir’s Racist Agenda - Dynasty’s Survival Series

Mahathirism is set to come back and it will be back with vengeance. The old former dictator has enough of the so-called retirement. There’s much work to be done to ensure his dynasty continues to prosper and take over the throne after Najib Razak completed his premiership as to the R.A.H.M.A.N political prophecy. For the first time ever the country’s economy has to take the back seat despite the recession sweeping the country with thousands more to lose their jobs in months to come. But who cares about this low-class of people? The survival of a handful of powerful warlords and their descendants are the top priorities. The stock market won’t go any worst than the 1997-1998 Economic Crisis because most of the blue-chips are in controlled. Heck, the foreign investors have already dumped their holdings or maybe they’ve not actually return the same way pre-1997 crisis.

The coming UMNO general assembly will probably goes down the history as thefiercest and racist of all. And if you think the previous assemblies where the cousin of PM-coming-to-town Najib Razak, Education Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, was the most disgusted of all with all those keris-waving asking for bloods then you have not seen the ugliest side of UMNO. To debate on economic challenges during such trying time in UMNO general assembly is like asking them why Proton cars still have power-window problem after more than two decades in automobile production. They’re simply clueless on this topic so be prepare for more temperature-rising racial cards to be played throughout the assembly.

And former PM Mahathir has just set the tone on what to expect from the delegates and leaders from UMNO. At a gathering organized by Malay group Perkasa, Mahathir started the ball-rolling by warning the ethnic-Malays that they could lose their political power *yawn* because of threat from “various parties”. Although the writing was on the wall that Mahathir was the architect that adopted the “divide and rule” policy that successfully separated the ethnic-Malay, Chinese and Indian so that they are suspicious of each other for as long as it takes, Mahathir is a person who seldom admits his past mistake. His policy was liken to apartheid but the old man who was labeled as senile once denied but instead diverted the blame on others such as the Chinese educationist group Dong Jiao Zong (DJZ) as racist instead. But what do you expect from a person who only thinks highly of himself (not even his own sons) as if he was the Great Pharaoh of Malaysia?

Mahathir, under which the cronyism, corruption and nepotism flourished under his 22-year iron-fist administration and are still very much alive and kicking till today is playing his infamous racial card again for obvious reason. His UMNO Baru (current UMNO party) is dying a natural death since Mar 2008 General Election. For the first time, the ethnic-Malay, Chinese and Indians have all voted in favor of opposition parties in the last general election in retaliation to the worsening corruption practiced by UMNO and their component parties. Outgoing PM Abdullah Badawi might be one of the reasons voters voted out the arrogant BN coalition but he was the direct production of Mahathir’s assembly-line in churning out low quality leaders. His preferred choice of Najib Razak was met with oppositions from all walks of life, some in silence and some openly because this PM-in-waiting is tainted with not only corruptions but also murder – in reference to Mongolian Altantuya.

It’s puzzling that Mahathir never talk about Altantuya’s case in relation to Najib in public as if he was trying very hard avoiding the disastrous topic. Mahathir does not have much time to waste and his primary focus now is to ensure Abdullah vacates his seat for Najib who in return have to make sure Mahathir’s own son, Mukhriz Mahathir, secured the UMNO Youth Chief position in order to springboard the junior to probably the premiership in not so distance future. In a “You Scratch my Back and I Scratch your Back” agreement, the people may see Mahathir dynasty after the Razak dynasty completed the cycle. But that can only happen if the voters think UMNO has changed for the betterment of the people instead of their own cronies. The coming UMNO assembly also may witness the return of former finance minister Daim Zainuddin besides Mahathir as special advisors who would influence the country’s policies. It would be fun to see Mukhriz wave the keris (dagger) in imitation to the previous actor, Hishammuddin Hussein. The question is whether Abdullah Badawi’s son-in-law, Khairi, will allow his competitor to do that first.

The racial card was being used with great success in the past and basically every UMNO leaders you see today has play that game in one way or another. But that was before the explosion of internet and blogging. It cannot be denied that the majority of Malay voters who voted against UMNO in the general election were the educated youngsters who read the “truth” from the net. Mahathir is playing a losing racial game if he thinks he can rally this important group of Malay youngsters to back UMNO as the ultimate party in ruling the government forever. Nevertheless if you believe what some fortune-tellers are saying about Mahathir to live till the ripe age of 88-years-old, Mukhriz Mahathir has to secure the Youth Chief comes rain or shine else without his grand old daddy the junior may just ended up as another UMNO ordinary member.

With police force, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), Election Commission, Judiciary and to some extent even the Royalty deeply entrenched in the “UMNO Culture”, chances are higher for Mahathir dynasty to become a reality than to have opposition coalition (PR) taking over the federal government. If you think a sleepy and mumbling Badawi government is bad enough, wait till you experience once again the dictator government of Razak (Najib) and Mahathirism. The combination of the Three Musketeers Najib-Mahathir-Daim would blow all aspects of democracy to pieces. The opposition parties that control the states of Selangor, Kedah, Kelantan, Penang have better enjoy what they’re doing now to the fullest because they may not to see their administration lasts till the next general election. But the part that we will miss the most is the Master of Keris-Waving episode of which former Youth Chief Hishammuddin Hussein has repeatitively used in barbaric way as if asking for bloods. He's retiring from UMNO Youth and is expected to tone down his act of playing with the weapon.

IBM’s $7 billion for SUN – A Happy Marriage

Sun Microsystems used to be the darling stock during the dot-com boom. The company was the “dot” that connects everybody in the internet, so goes the saying. And IBM used to make jokes about this marketing statement – Sun was just a little dot, so why bother? But IBM can afford to be arrogant because their bread and butter were not on their AIX (IBM’s version of UNIX) but rather their mainframes. In fact IBM Corp. can prosper without its UNIX division, the same way Hewlett-Packard Co. can do without its HP-UX division. HP’s bread and butter were in printer business. But it won’t be fun to let Sun Microsystems monopolize the UNIX market and so the three UNIX players – SUN’s Solaris, IBM’s AIX and HP’s HP-UX.

Sun Microsystems engineers used to be proud owners of their share options and most of them didn’t exercise during the technology bull and they were watching in disbelieve how their stocks value tumbled. After the dot-com crash Sun Microsystems tried numerous ways to find their killer-apps to rise above the horizon again but never succeed. However unlike other IT giants that perished after a tsunami, Sun did one thing right – it continues to expand its R&D. Even after the technology crash it still command loyalty amongst its customers in corporate data centers. It’s strength in software, system design and research enable it to survive until today.

And now IBM, the company that used to ridicule Sun is toying with the idea of acquiring the latter for nearly $7 billion or roughly $10 a share – 100% more than Sun Microsystems’s closing price prior to the announcement. Everyone Tom, Dick and his dog in the I.T. industry knows that hardware business is the worst with razor-thin margin. IBM knew about this and it did the right thing by disposing its hard-disk drive division to Hitachi of Japan in 2003 and subsequently personal computer business to Lenovo of China in 2005. So the news about Sun’s acquisition raised some eyebrows but the fact is IBM is targeting Sun Microsystems’s Java and Solaris.

Sun’s most innovative and daring creation was perhaps Java, and internet programming language that is the de-facto computer science’s teaching language in most of the learning institutions. Programs written in Java are widely used in data centers and gadgets such as cell-phones. Both IBM and Sun Microsystems support open-source operating system Linux. Sun even bought MySQL, open-source database used in web commerce, for $1 billion in 2008. Despite its leading engineering in software the profitability was not promising and hence talks of Sun becoming the target of acquisition by other technology companies, amongst them Cisco and even EMC. Too bad it’s free StarOffice which was design to rival Microsoft Corp’s Microsoft Office didn’t take off. Sun’s dependence on its Solaris operating system is history although the respect for Solaris remains.

With DELL declaring VSS for its 5,000 staffs in Malaysia alone, the technology companies are seeking partners in the name of consolidation. IBM and Sun Microsystems should have a happy marriage although the merger would see some staffs’ job functions overlapping. It would be interesting to see how the merged IBM and Sun facing one-to-one fight with Hewlett-Packard especially in the UNIX market segment.