2萬6000名非公民獲高等教育基金貸學金

國家總稽查司報告揭露，高等教育基金（PTPTN）竟批准發出貸學金給超過2萬6000名非公民。共有2萬5871名無法被鑒定國籍的人士、118名永久居民及2名非永久居民獲得高教基金發出貸學金，違反只有公民才有資格申領的條例，高教基金的財務也陷入困境，流動資金繼續出現赤字。

高等教育基金在發放和追收貸學金、管理記錄方面的效率也不理想，弱點包括發放貸學金給不符合資格者、延遲為貸學金投保、延遲回應學生暫緩攤還貸學金的申請等。高教基金也以人手處理借貸者記錄，而申請、提款和攤還貸款資料有關的系統是不準確的，導致借貸系統不能與其他系統連線。

2008年财政预算案

《凸媒體》預測: 國阵政府为了应付即将在11月来临的大选所面临严峻的挑战，國阵政府为了笼络人心挽回选票将分发“大选糖果”，不过這些糖果效果都不會惠及国民。

预算案很大可能是空頭支票
因為國阵的2008年财政預算案，不會在大選舉行前由國會通過，如果國阵政府輸了大選，國阵的2008年财政预算案将是空頭支票。

先使未來錢
实际上國阵的2008年财政预算案是一个赤字预算案，這等於國阵政府“先使未來錢”國阵政府将會把稅收花費在天文數字的大型建筑工程，但這些工程只惠及國阵的承包商，这些工程也不會有高“扩散效应”（high multiply effect）只會有一次過效應（one off effect），事实上不會有助国家经济成长。

预算案重點

•推出了四大經濟特區 (依斯干达特區,北部經濟走廊,東海岸經濟走廊,東马經濟走廊）
•清真基金 - 吸引從中東國家外國直接投資
•繼續推動私人融資項目(KL – Singapore Bullet Tran & 2nd Penang Bridge)
•鼓勵公共支出推動經濟成長

政府部門

•花紅 兩個月 (最低RM1,500)
•加薪 8% (最低RM1,000)

私人資金項目

給進行私人融資項目(有資格的公司) 特別減稅

公共開支
•無薪休假(最多為)5年以鼓勵當地旅遊
•購買第二家
•增加扣稅RM150
•給獎勵 - 支持旅遊的業務
•給獎勵 - 以促進馬來食品的企業

幫助馬來人企業
•中小企業銀行特別撥款RM10億令吉幫助馬來人企業基金
•微型基金RM250,000令吉給合資的馬來人在國內和海外促進馬來食品

減少稅收

•公司所得税 - 1%
•个人所得税 - 1%

增加稅收

•煙草稅 + 20%
•酒精稅 + 40%
•賭博稅 + 80&
•娛樂稅 + 15%

2008年预算案 THE 2008 MALAYSIA BUDGET

Tune Media estimates that the 2008 Malaysia Budget will be a Deficits Budget and Candy Budget. The BN government will concentrate on the following areas

• Four Economic Corridors (Iskanda Development Region, Northern Corridor, East Coast Corridor and East Malaysia Corridor),
• Halal Funds – attract foreign direct investments from Middle-east countries,
• Continues to promote private sectors funding (KLIA-Singapore Bullet Tran and 2nd Penang
Bridge), and
• Encourage public spending to economic growth.

Government Sectors

• Bonus – 2 months (Minimum RM1,500)
• Incensement - 8% (Minimum RM1,000)

Promote Private Sectors Funding

• Special tax relief is given to eligible company which undertake private funding projects

Public Spending

• Unpaid mentality leave up to 5 years to encourage local traveling
• EPF Withdrawal - Purchase of 2nd home
• Tax rebate increase by RM150 to RM500
• Incentives given to business sectors support tourism industries
• Incentives given to business to promote Malay foods

Helping Bumiputra

• Special Entrepreneur Fund RM1 billion is allocated under SME Bank,
• Macro Fund up to RM250,000 is given to eligible persons to set-up businesses locally and
aboard.

Taxes Cuts

• Corporation – 1%reduction from 27% to 26%
• Special tax rate are given to eligible businesses involves with tourism industries
• Individual – 1% reduction from

Taxes Increases

• Alcohol – 20%
• Tobacco – 40%
• Gambling – 80%
• Entertainment – 15%

Malaysian Blogger Jeff Ooi Turns Politician

Blogger Jeff Ooi has launched a new Web site and has applied to join Malaysia's Democratic Action Party, an opposition party.

Speaking to the media here Tuesday, blogger Jeff Ooi launched a new Web site called Jeff 4 Malaysia, and officially submitted his application to join Malaysia's opposition party, the Democratic Action Party (DAP).

Ooi, 51, has been actively blogging about socio-economic-political issues since he began his blog in 2003. Adhering to the maxim "thinking aloud, thinking allowed", the e-business consultant said he believes blogging is an important tool in politics today.

"I have experimented over the years with online media by starting the Subang Jaya online community Web portal in 2001, and later, with blogging in 2003. What I've discovered is that it does give me a new communications channel," he explained.

"When I first started blogging, [my blog] was just like a tiny drop in the ocean," he said. "But over time, I've gained the trust of the audience I wanted to reach out to and I think this has certainly created an impact."

Ooi said he started Jeff 4 Malaysia because he believes it can be used as a platform to foster collective intelligence, which he said is "recognized as the bedrock for a knowledge-based economy".

Asked if he thought blogs were effective in reaching out to the grassroots, Ooi said recent criticisms of the blogging community by incumbent politicians who do not understand the nature of the new media, made blogs and online publications to look more like mainstream media.
"I think that blogs have built quite a lot of power over the years. I'm very positive about how they are going to play a role [in politics] in the years to come," he said. Ooi is also a blogger for ZDNet Asia's sister site CNET Asia.

Malaysia has been dogged with several high-profile blogging controversies involving government officials and the blogger community, and some politicians have called for the need to register bloggers.

Just last week, the Information Chief of the country's largest political party United Malays National Organization (UMNO), lodged a police report against political blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin. The complaint stated that a Jul. 11 post on Raja's blog Malaysia Today carried several comments which allegedly insulted the country's monarchy and Islam, and also incited hatred between races.
A local media report quoted Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak as saying the government has not made any decision to clamp down on bloggers, but warned citizens to be aware that there are laws in the country that need to be observed.

STILL SOME WAY TO GO

Meanwhile, Ooi conceded that while blogs can play an important role in politics, opposition politicians will still have to resort to the traditional method of communication when campaigning in Malaysia's general elections in 2009.

"I think when it comes to the elections, we will still have to resort to traditional methods [such as] meeting people on the street, face-to-face communication, printing traditional flyers, to get our message through," he said.

"But the Internet can be used to mitigate issues that may occur at the last minute, and I'm counting on volunteers in blogsphere to spread the word if need be," Ooi added.
Tony Pua, economic advisor to the DAP and a blogger himself, said blogging can be effective to communicate alternative views which the mainstream press may choose not report.

"Urban citizens who have access to broadband and the Internet can be reached through new media tools, such as blogs and podcasting," Pua told ZDNet Asia, on the sidelines of the media briefing.

But he admitted that due to Malaysia's low broadband penetration rates--about 3 percent--not everyone is connected.

Pua noted: "While the country cannot be totally reached through the new media, it can energize those who have access to it so they in turn can reach others who do not.

"They can be a catalyst in spreading the word to those who cannot receive information," he said.

Source: BusinessWeek

A Talk with Anwar Ibrahim

The once-jailed economic reformer is readying a political comeback, and thinks Malaysia must wake up to the challenges ahead.

In July, Asia will mark the 10th anniversary of a region-wide financial crisis that started in Thailand. Back then, Anwar Ibrahim served as Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister and was considered one of the most promising and reform-minded leaders in Asia. A year later, Anwar challenged Malaysia's then-strong man, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed, to hasten reform—and was sacked, and then convicted on corruption and sodomy charges. (The sodomy charge was later overturned by Malaysia's Supreme Court.) He spent six years in jail for his efforts.

Since his release two years ago, Anwar has been on the global lecture circuit, but he intends to attempt a political comeback as an opposition leader in Malaysia's next general election, expected in 2009. At the moment, he has an uneasy but civil relationship with current Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Anwar recently spoke to BusinessWeek's Assif Shameen about the changing economic dynamics in the region, the rise of China and India, and his own political ambitions. Edited excerpts from their conversation follow:

What are the lessons learned from the Asia Financial Crisis?

What went wrong 10 years ago was that our economic fundamentals in the region were very weak. There were huge and rising current account deficits, balance of payment issues, huge foreign debts, low level of foreign reserves.

Financial institutions in Asia were weak and not properly regulated. Banks were lending money to cronies of the owners or cronies of those in power, or making all sorts of government-directed policy loans. There was no risk management or assessment whether borrowers had the ability to pay. So the symptoms were all there. The crisis was waiting to happen. It was a question of when, not if.

Then the blame game started: It was all because of the speculators, or foreign agents, conspirators, or the Jews. In Malaysia, Dr. Mahathir blamed [billionaire hedge-fund manager] George Soros. Now he embraces Soros, says he wasn't to blame for the crisis. So who was to blame? The government leaders who built the corrupt system or perpetuated it basically were.

What's the situation now?

A lot has changed in Asia since the crisis. In some of the [crisis-hit] countries, the system has been overhauled, new processes have been put in place, regulations have been tightened. But for the most part—and I'm including Malaysia—not much has changed, and it's still business as usual. Have we learnt anything? I don't think so. There's still nepotism, corruption, shady backroom deals with cronies who are amassing wealth.

Are Southeast Asia and Malaysia losing critical foreign investment to China and India?

Singapore is still attracting foreign investments, and it's even smaller than Malaysia. The real reason we aren't attracting foreign investments is the lack of transparency, openness, corporate governance, [as well as the] inefficiencies and rampant corruption. Sure, there are investors who want to go to China and India because of their market size, but there are others who are still setting up in Singapore or Vietnam.

Really, whatever investments we're getting in Malaysia are because Southeast Asia is still viewed generally very positively by investors from Europe, North America, and Japan. The key is new investments in new areas that will allow us to move up the value chain. Unfortunately, we aren't getting those. What we need to do is to look at our policies and ask ourselves: What can we do better to make ourselves a better investment destination?

You have called for an end to Malaysia's affirmative-action policies. Isn't that political suicide in a country like yours?

I'm not against helping the poor, the marginalized, or the disadvantaged. But what we need to see is if 37 years later, the policy today is really helping the Malays (bumiputras) or indigenous ethinc groups or has become a license to rob most of the people in the name of affirmative action.

Source: BusinessWeek

Malaysia at 50th - Tall buildings but Narrow Minds

After 50 years, Malaysia should stop treating a third of its people as not-quite-citizens. The government of Malaysia has laid on all sorts of grand pageantry this weekend, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Malay peninsula's independence from Britain. There is much to celebrate. Living standards and access to education, health services, sanitation and electricity have soared during those five decades of sovereignty. The country's remarkable modernisation drive was symbolised, nine years ago, by the completion of the Petronas twin towers, in Kuala Lumpur, then the world's tallest buildings.

Yet there will be a hollow ring to the festivities. Malaysia's 50th birthday comes at a time of rising resentment by ethnic Chinese and Indians, together over one-third of the population, at the continuing, systematic discrimination they suffer in favour of the majority bumiputra, or sons of the soil, as Malays and other indigenous groups are called. There are also worries about creeping “Islamisation” among the Malay Muslim majority of what has been a largely secular country, and about the increasingly separate lives that Malay, Chinese and Indian Malaysians are leading. More so than at independence, it is lamented, the different races learn in separate schools, eat separately, work separately and socialise separately. Some are asking: is there really such a thing as a Malaysian?

The pro-bumiputra discrimination was laid down in the country's first constitution, in 1957, to ease Malays' fears of being marginalised by the Chinese and Indian migrants. These had come, supposedly temporarily, to work in the tin mines and plantations but were settling permanently and increasingly dominating business and the professions. The perks were extended greatly after race riots in 1969. Malays get privileged access to public-sector jobs, university places, stockmarket flotations and, above all, government contracts. The most notable result, as with South Africa's similar policy of “black economic empowerment”, has been “encronyment”—the enrichment of those well connected to the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the party that has led all governments since independence. Malays as a whole, like other races, have got richer but the gap between the Malay haves and have-nots has widened. The corruption and waste these policies engender seem to have got worse in recent years.

As criticism has grown, UMNO's leaders have resorted ever more frequently to growling that nobody should question the “social contract”. This is a reference to the metaphorical deal struck between the races at independence, in which the Malays got recognition that the country was basically theirs, while the Chinese and Indians were granted citizenship. The veiled threat of violence lurking behind calls to uphold the social contract was made explicit during last year's UMNO conference, at which one delegate talked of being ready to “bathe in blood” to defend Malay privileges and the education minister, no less, brandished a traditional Malay dagger.

The hypocritical Malay dilemma: The social contract may once have seemed necessary to keep the peace but now it and the official racism that it is used to justify look indefensible: it is absurd and unjust to tell the children of families that have lived in Malaysia for generations that, in effect, they are lucky not to be deported and will have to put up with second-class treatment for the rest of their lives, in the name of “racial harmony”. When the mild-mannered Abdullah Badawi took over as prime minister from the fire-breathing Mahathir Mohamad in 2003, there were hopes of change for the better. Mr Badawi preached a moderate, “civilisational” Islam and pledged to crack down on corruption.

Four years on, corruption, facilitated by the pro-Malay policies, is unchecked. The state continues to use draconian internal-security laws, dating back to the colonial era, to silence and threaten critics. UMNO continues to portray itself to Malays as the defender of their privileges yet tries to convince everyone else that it is the guarantor of racial harmony. One commentator this week gently described this as a “paradox”. Hypocrisy would be a better word.

The damage caused by this state racism is ever more evident. Malaysia's once sparkling growth rate has slipped. Racial quotas and protectionism are scaring away some foreign investors. While Malaysians celebrate having done rather better than former British colonies in Africa, they must also notice that South Korea, Taiwan and their estranged ex-spouse Singapore have done much better still. The economic consequences alone justify ending Malaysia's official racism. Even without them, it would still be just plain wrong.

Source: The Economist