Please Send Me Stuff

If you have articles, information, thoughts you want to share just send it to me at ali.syedakbar@gmail.com. Please keep your articles brief, not more than 1000 words or just use bullet points. If you have pictures to go with the articles, that is even better. Towards an excellent Malaysia.

Monday, May 31, 2010

Israel Targetting Dr Mahathir's Ships


By Syed Akbar Ali


(Updated)


Tun Dr Mahathir gave a Press Conference at 4:30 pm today at the Perdana Leadership Foundation in Putrajaya. The Israelis had attacked the relief convoy of six ships that were headed for Gaza with medicines, wheel chairs and other supplies for the people of Gaza. The convoy had 600 people on board including volunteers over 80 years old.



None of them were armed with spears and Rambo knives as claimed by the Israelis. The Israelis fired on the ships from gunboats and helicopters. The attack took place 65 miles off the Gaza coast in international waters. Most seriously attacked was the Mavi Marmara.


9 people have been killed and over 30 injured. The ships have been towed by the Israelis to the Israeli port at Ashdod.



There was a two man tv crew from Astro Awani on board the ship that was fired upon by the Istraelis. We pray for their safety.



There were three other ships funded by the Malaysian Perdana Global Peace Organisation or PGPO. Mathias Chang, Syamsul Akmar, the Member of Parliament from Parit Buntar and a few other Malaysians are on board those vessels. These vessels are not in danger yet because they are still two days away from the Gaza coast. They were delayed because of engine trouble and are still in Cyprus waters.


However it is possible that they may be sailing towards Gaza n'theless. I think this is a dangerous thing to attempt considering that the Israelis do not seem to care about any law that does not suit them. I hope Mathias Chang who is the man in charge will not put himself or his charges in harm's way. We have tried our best and we have also made our point. 9 people killed is just one too many.



Four ships in the flotilla were flying Turkish flags. There have since been massive demonstrations in Turkey and their ambassador to Israel has been recalled. Well this is what the Turks have got in return after years of pally pally relations with Israel.


Read Dr Mahathir's Blog. You can link to it from the right side of this page.

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Senarai Menteri Yang Harus Di Gugurkan



By Syed Akbar Ali



Semoga para sahabat Blogger seperjuangan akan pamerkan senarai ini dan bangkitkan isu ini di Blog masing-masing.



Here is something put up by Blogger Parpukari :




Oleh Parpukari



"Ini adalah senarai nama-nama Menteri dan Timbalan Menteri yang harus digugurkan kerana prestasi mereka yang sangat buruk, mereka juga kelihatan tidak bermaya dalam porfolio masing-masing! What a waste! Diharap PM akan meletakkan orang-orang yang lebih berwibawa!



Ayuh kita mulakan kempen ini untuk menguatkan lagi Barisan Nasioanal dan UMNO pada amnya, elok kita tegur secara terus terang dari kita diam membisu, betul tak? Kalau tidak nanti, tau-tau je ,esok kerajaan dah hilang! Tegur menegur untuk kebaikan bersama!


Ini cuma pandangan aku, terserah pada korang kalau nak menambah atau memgurangkan nama-nama yang telah aku sebutkan diatas tadi!

Apa pendapat anda?" -
Ends




My comments: Ribuan terima kasih Sdra Parpukari.




Pendapat saya ialah Perdana Menteri membuang terlalu banyak masa untuk membuat Cabinet Reshuffle. Sudah 15 bulan sejak DS Najib menjadi PM tapi beliau masih kekalkan pelakon Jurassic Park (watak dinosaur) dalam Kabinetnya. Kita tersangat kesuntukan masa menghadapi Pilihanraya Umum yang bakal tiba (dalam tempoh tidak melebihi 24 bulan.)




Apakah segala jentera parti, penyokong dan pejuang akar umbi akan dikerah menghadapi Pilihanraya Umum yang amat kritikal untuk menentukan masa depan negara dengan barisan pemimpin Kabinet yang sebegini lembap dan tidak popular? Apakah kita mempunyai sejenis 'Deathwish' untuk menghancurkan masa depan kita?



Saya amat setuju dengan senarai yang telah dibuat oleh Parpukari ini. Bagi saya jika sesiapa hendak menambah nama pada senarai ini, sila tambahkan saja. Saya rasa tidak perlu dikurangkan.




Perdana Menteri tidak perlu khuatir tidak cukup hamba Allah untuk 'memanaskan' kerusi Menteri di Kabinet. Parti dan negara mempunyai ramai calon yang berkaliber, yang tidak dungu buat kerja, tidak korup dan tidak menjadi "kemaluan besar" bagi kita.

Friday, May 28, 2010

Azhar : “Sime Darby Must Grow 100% In Five Years”


By Syed Akbar Ali


Last nite we were able to meet the acting CEO of Sime Darby Berhad Dato Azhar Abdul Hamid again. This was after Sime Darby had announced its third quarter pre audited results yesterday evening – after the markets had closed. The markets wont open again until Monday. This is the one with the RM964 million cost overruns in Qatar and the Bakun Dam being factored in.


You can also read BigDog’s take on the meeting with Azhar at his Blog here. Plus Rocky’s mention of the same at his Blog here.




For a quick overview of Sime’s third quarter results this is from The Star:


  • Sime Darby’s E&U division has incurred cost overruns on four projects over the last few years, involving the building of oil and gas installations in Qatar, the Bakun hydro-electric project and a marine project involving the construction of vessels for use in the Qatari project.

  • (after) making provisions to the tune of RM964mil in the third quarter ended March 31, Sime Darby suffered its first quarterly loss since the 2007 mega merger.

  • the third quarter net loss totalled RM309mil

  • power and utilities division had registered an operating profit of RM149mil in the first nine months due to better operating results from the power plants in Thailand

  • core unit, its plantations division, recorded a 45% rise in operating profit to RM1.7bil for the nine months from a year before. Sime attributed this both to improvements in its Indonesian operations

  • Downstream operations for its palm oil division also performed well, registering a profit of RM141mil from a loss previously.

  • property division’s operati ng profit for the nine months increased by 69% to RM375mil

  • motors division posted a 71% rise in operating profit to RM233mil in the nine months driven by strong BMW sales in Singapore and China.


BigDog records that “the value of net assets per share dropped from RM 3.56 to RM 3.49.”


Well the deed has been done. Sime is trying its best to come clean on the matter. As an immediate action, Sime may change their reporting method where the CEO will also be assisted by the COO and the CFO to report to the Board. This ‘troika’ serve as a check and balance. Seeing that the CEO is actually the man in charge and accountable, it may be one way of keeping the CEO true to the path.


The MACC went to Sime yesterday and it is possible that wrongdoing may be punished. A couple of fish seem to be getting away. You can read Rocky’s again to get an indication.



Its water under the bridge now. At a time of crisis, tribulation, uncertainty and confusion, we need someone to reassure people, to calm things down, to reorganise and to move forward. We need leadership. Someone must step up confidentally and say ‘I know what to do. OK everyone just follow me’.


Tun Dr Mahathir did this brilliantly during the 1998 Asian Financial Crisis. Standing alone, against all odds, against the whole international financial community, against the IMF, the World Bank and against a severely psychologically disturbed ‘homo” sapien, Dr Mahathir was able to lead us out of some very difficult times, keeping the country and our economy quite intact.



Few people lost their jobs (not on the scale of Thailand) and no one jumped out the window (on the scale of Thailand).



I was pleasantly surprised to listen in quite some depth, to Dato Azhar Abdul Hamid, 49, the acting CEO of Sime Darby. An unassuming sort of person (tak ada ‘eksyen’ lah) he is very confident of Sime Darby’s future. He seems quite ready to step up to the plate and swing the bat. (This is a baseball phrase lah – he is ready to take the lead).



Dato Azhar Abdul Hamid, acting CEO of Sime Darby Bhd.

He has clear ideas about what Sime Darby can achieve.



It is not without reason that Azhar is the acting CEO. Sime folks say that Azhar was being groomed to take over from Zubir anyway. A British trained accountant, he has a long history in plantations, trading and industry and is an old Sime Darby hand. Folks sing praises when he handled heavy machinery at Tractors Malaysia Bhd and when he was ‘sent over’ to Pernas to turn the company around.



He dropped quite a bombshell when he said that ‘Sime Darby must grow 100% in five years’. It was not a ‘should grow’, ‘can grow’ or ‘try our best to grow’. A very clear ‘must grow 100% in five years’. Sime is presently doing annual sales of about RM45 Billion. That means a sales level of RM90.0 Billion in five years.



Firstly this is not an impossible idea. Look at the Star report above. The plantation division saw a 45% jump in operating profit, the property division went up 69% while the motor division saw a whopping 71% increase in operating profit.



To achieve 100% growth in five years, sales and profits need only grow a steady 15% - 16% per annum. Azhar believes it can be done. He has done it once before when he was running Tractors Malaysia.



He says that there are many things going for Sime. One of them is funds or money. Sime has vast resources to funds, be it their own reserves, capital, inter-company or debt. Sime is still an excellent credit.



Azhar also talks of leveraging on ‘negative working capital’. This simply means venturing into “cash businesses” that can pivot off supplier credits. Other peoples’ money. It will certainly improve Sime’s returns on investments.



With so much resources at their disposal, Azhar feels that Sime can generate a higher rate of growth. “Sime can be a much bigger company than it is today”, he says. He says the recent cost overrun fiasco was a case of “glaring incompetence”. “Lets not repeat this again”.



If he gets his wish, it will also rest on the shoulders of the five Division Heads too. Can they do it? Here is the answer : ‘If they dont do it, there will be a new guy there”. Oh Oh !



Being a little specific, he says that the Property Division is now the largest seller of homes in Malaysia (by volume). Sime has access to cheap land. So the profit margins can be better (its about 20% now). Sime is big in township development. This requires massive infusion of funds, often up front. He is pondering new product lines including investment in malls and complexes that can generate higher margins.



For the Plantation Division, Sime owns almost 1 million hectares including land in Indonesia and Africa. However organic growth from greenfield projects will take time.


He says that Sime’s downstream refining capacity (beyond extracting crude palm oil) could exceed their own supply of CPO. This may make Sime a buyer of CPO to feed its refineries (of which three new ones are being planned at about RM300 million a pop). So Azhar is pondering ‘brownfield’ projects – buying up more plantation acreage to expedite growth.



Sime also sells cars. Azhar says the margins in just selling cars is low. The real money is in the after sales service. He has a point here. But in Malaysia, the car dealers often cannot match the lower pricing of your round-the-corner mechanic for regular tune ups and servicing of cars. It always costs a bundle to service my Ford Ranger with Sime. My regular mechanic does the same job and charges much less.



N’theless, Sime’s car division has to do more than just sell cars. The word is go. 100% growth in revenue and profit in five years.



Do they have the people? Human capital is another resource that Sime appears to have in some quantity. Azhar says we should all get fed up with “losing good people to jobs overseas because they are not given opportunities to prove themselves.” So if he has his way, Sime’s acting CEO will be making available some of those opportunities.



I asked Dato Azhar if I could write all this. He said, ‘Yes you can’. This means he is making a statement. This is stepping up to the plate, bat in hand and ready to swing. He seems quite ready and willing to lead. This is what we need in huge quantities – folks who can lead. I say lets give him a shot. And lets watch him closely too.



150% Increase In Passenger Volume At Airports!



By Syed Akbar Ali





So says the Minister of Transport, recently deposed MCA Head Ong Tee Keat. Here be the news:





PUTRAJAYA: ..(direct) air links between Singapore and Malaysian cities has resulted in a sharp increase in the number of passengers, said Transport Minister Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat. . . . .. for a six-month period showed that nine airports with direct flights to Singapore registered a 150% increase (or 262,066) . . . . .. 19 airports in Malaysia are allowed to operate direct links to Singapore . . . only nine airports – KLIA, Kota Kinabalu, Kuching, Penang, Langkawi, Ipoh, Kuantan, Terengganu and Subang – are doing so. . . . . ‘.. the Government had taken initiatives to improve passenger load and to enable more flights to Singapore by upgrading three airports, improving the radar systems at three others as well as offering incentives to airlines in landing and parking charges..’





The numbers seem too few. Only 262,000 people flew between Malaysia and Singapore over six months? Or 524,000 in a year?





Well there is more to this story than the Minister is revealing. The growth at the smaller airports is 150% but the growth at the KLIA itself is about 10% only. (This comes from a KLIA source). And the growth at the KLIA is mostly from Arabs coming in from the Middle East (seasonal traffic to avoid their summers).




Singapore Airlines and low cost carriers Tiger Airways and Silk Air can now fly to our smaller airports. Of course Air Asia benefits from the direct flights to Singapore too. This also means that the KLIA is losing out to Singapore because folks from Kota Kinabalu, Kuching, Terengganu can now fly direct to Singapore to make conncetions overseas.





Well MAS and the KLIA do have their work cut out for them now.





MAS and KLIA must also bear in mind the Minister’s statement : the Government had taken initiatives to improve passenger load and to enable more flights to Singapore by upgrading three airports, improving the radar systems at three others as well as offering incentives to airlines in landing and parking charges”




It may appear that our Government is working for the benefit of Singapore again but at the end of the day our travellers have easier connections to overseas flights. The open skies policy is an Asean thing and we are keeping to the schedule of allowing Asean carriers to operate inside our country.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

If Its Not Cheaper How Is It Islamic Banking




By Syed Akbar Ali



I thought I would just raise the Islamic banking matter one more time. I see plenty of confusion among the proponents of 'Islamic' banking. They do not realise that as far as the consumer is concerned (even those who opt for Islamic banking on the premise that it is a a good thing) there is really no difference between conventional banking and islamic banking.



It is just putting arabic names on financing instruments, calling it 'buy & sellback' etc. Just pulling the wool over people's eyes. The end product is the same.


People have to pay the same or more for islamic banking than conventional banking. And from what we have heard from the comments, people end up paying more for IB.


Some of the comments have even spoken about the source of "halal" funds and use of funds. Those are not real points. Any conventional bank can also avoid sourcing funds from 'non halal' businesses (gambling, alchohol etc). When I was in banking I knew conventional bankers who have shunned these industries. But this is a non starter. It is not an issue.



The main issue is

i. if bank interest is riba. It is not.

ii. the other issue is what is the difference between IB and conventional banking? There does not seem to be any.



To back up no. ii above here are some comments I have compiled from some proponents of IB. I have stacked them up.



i. ‘want (IB) to be the same as the market’



ii. Coming back to conventional and Islamic banking, the pricing and operational issues can be the same



iii. The profit is calculated at a benchmark rate which is quite similar to a benchmark rate in conventional banking.



iv. The selling price is calculated at a higher rate, and it is normally at BFR + 4% pa



v. it is up to the market forces to determine whether the rates offered is competetive compared to other islamic banks as well as those of conventional banks. What's wrong and unislamic with that?



vi. a rebate or ibra' is therefore given to the customer if there is an eary settlement, the method of which is again quite similar to how a conventional loan is calculated. What is unislamic about that?




vii. islamic banks that do not give rebate will soon be out of business as its islamic competitors are practising it, not only to compete with other islamic banks but also with other conventional banks


I think this one phrase catches the confusion perfectly : What is unislamic about that?


The proponents of IB are saying what is so unislamic about islamic banks being the same as the conventional banks or matching the conventional banks?



I agree with you fully here. There is nothing unislamic here. Let me congratulate you for keeping up with the conventional banks. It is quite islamic to keep up with the conventional banks. But ya habibi, by the same measure or logic used by you, how then are the conventional banks unislamic? Boleh faham ke ?




To me these verses from the Quran have a great significance to the entirety of a just economic system (I am tired of calling everything islamic. Tak payahlah. If it is good, then it must be good lah).


[11:84] To Midyan we sent their brother Shu`aib. He said, "O my people, serve GOD; you have no other god beside Him. Do not cheat when you measure or weigh. I see that you are prosperous, and I fear for you the retribution of an overwhelming day.



[11:85] "O my people, you shall give full measure and full weight, equitably. Do not cheat the people out of their rights, and do not roam the earth corruptingly.


[26:181] "You shall give full measure when you trade; do not cheat.


This was the message of the Prophet Shuaibin the Quran. When we weigh we must weigh accurately. I am in the gold jewellery business. I can tell you long stories about how customers can be shortchanged in this business. This verse in the Quran is so relevant.


You shall measure things out fairly and accurately. Same comments apply. You shall NOT deny the people even a little bit of their rights.



Having said this, let us recap what the proponents of IB have said. They are saying that their IB has to be the same as the conventional banking system. In practise, the conventional banking system (so far in Malaysia) is too often cheaper than the IB.



There is a remark by someone about price not being fixed etc. This is more confusion.



Go to people who have finished paying their car loans or housing loans say over the past 10 years. Ask them how much they have paid : more often than not it is higher for IB than conventional banking. Please base your arguments on actual figures or facts or historical data. Jangan tipu, ustaz.




Dont use pie in the sky 'insha allah' type arguments. Islamic banking is now over 20 years old in our country. So go and compare real historical figures. Please dont play the ustaz game of beating around the bush. We have enough historical data to make a proper judgement.




So who is weighing and measuring in accordance with the Quran?



The wrong (and evil) accusation by the IB is that conventional banking is RIBA because it sucks the money from the people. They accuse conventional banking as zalim or oppressive. Yet it is IB that charges more money than the conventional banks. This is hypocrisy.



61:2 “O you who believe, why do you say what you do not do?”


61:3 “Most abominable in the sight of GOD is that you say what you do not do.”



So please do not be hypocrites. The arabic for hypocrite is munafiq.



If you want to accuse the conventional banks of sucking the people's money, then make sure that IB is cheaper than conventional banking at all times. Otherwise it is you who are sucking the people's money.





The only way that you can say you are less oppressive is if you are cheaper than the conventional banks. Otherwise just call yourself a conventional bank in arabic disguise.




Riba in the Quran refers to profiteering. Not interest calculation (bank interest or any other interest).



Having said that profiteering can include any type of profiteering that is multiplied many fold. Including 'ah long' type interest rates.



Anything that oppresses the consumer and unjustly takes wealth (not just money ok) away from him is also RIBA.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010


This is an article I received in the mail. My comments are at the bottom.



Why Are Jews Persecuted?

Commentary

By Jayne Gardener



I always used to wonder what it was about Jews that made people throughout history despise them. If they were indeed "God's chosen" I thought, they had to be the unluckiest people in the history of the world.



Why were they persecuted throughout history?



Why had the Nazis herded them into cattle cars and taken them to "extermination camps" to dispose once and for all of the "Jewish problem?"



I suddenly recognized that if Hitler had developed a "Final Solution" to theJewish question, that there had to have been a "Jewish Problem." Could the Jews have in any way behaved in such a manner that would make the countries in which they resided turn against them, or were they just unfortunate, innocent victims?



I set out to find answers for my questions, mainly turning to the Internet, but also reading various books on the subject. What I found became increasingly disturbing to me.
I had not known that throughout history, the Jews had been expelled from 79 countries, some countries more than once.



I had not known that many of the claims they made about the Holocaust that I had believed unquestioningly for so long were in fact fraudulent.



The books I had read and the movies I had seen about the "Holocaust" and wept over were nothing but thinly veiled attempts to garner unwavering sympathy for the state of Israel and an excuse to extort billions of dollars from Germany and 1.25 billion dollars from the Swiss banks.



I discovered that a book I had read many times as a teenager and cried about, Anne Frank's Diary, had been at least partially written by someone other than Anne Frank.



I learned that the confessions at the Nuremburg Trials and the executions of so many German "war criminals" were extracted under torture and the defendants were being tried, judged and condemned by their very accusers.



I learned about the "false flag" operations, especially the Lavon affair and the tragedy of the USS Liberty, an American ship that was attacked by the Israelis during the 1967 war. 34 young American men were killed and many more wounded.



To add insult to injury, the Israelis claimed that it was simply an unfortunate case of mistaken identity, something the survivors of the Liberty have always vehemently denied. They, however, were threatened with court martial if they were ever to tell their stories. I learned about the Jonathan Pollard spy case and other incidents of Israeli Jews spying against their supposed "closest ally."



I became shocked and horrified as I learned about the treatment of thePalestinian people in the occupied territories at the hands of the Israeli Defense Forces and the Jewish settlers. Israel purports to be the onlydemocracy in the middle east, but it's only a democracy for Jews. Non-Jews are not considered equal.



I was saddened to see pictures of innocent Palestinian children burned beyond recognition or suffering from serious gunshot wounds after being targeted by the IDF for no other reason than that they are Palestinian.



I found out about the Jewish history of avariciousness, larceny, lying, manipulation and their questionable and usurious business practices.



I discovered their role in organized crime, in the slave trade, in the civil rights movement and in Communism, an ideology that is responsible for the deaths of untold millions and the repression of many millions more.



I learned that it was Jewish supremacists behind the war against Christianity and Christmas. It is they who want God out of the Pledge of Allegiance and all symbols of Christianity removed from public life.



They have driven Christianity from the public schools despite Christianity being the majority religion.



They have taken Christmas out of the public school calendar despite the fact that it is a statutory holiday and it is named Christmas.



I read about the anti-Gentilism and hatefulness of the Babylonian Talmud and their utter disrespect for, and hostility towards Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary and Christianity and Christians in general.



I learned about their "chutzpah" in claiming that Gentile lives were worth no more than the lives of barnyard animals but that they considered Jewish lives to be akin to God Himself. It's okay to steal from a Gentile or to kill a Gentile, but Jewish lives are sacred.



I learned of their control of the majority of wealth, the media and academia despite them making up less than 2% of the population (even lower in Canada).



They are behind the ridiculous political correctness movement and hate crime legislation that was drafted so as to silence anyone who might figure out their agenda and attempt to shed light on it.



Men like German Rudolf, David Irving and many more, previously recognized as great historians, were arrested, charged with hate crimes and incarcerated simply for having made academic inquiry into a specific period of history.



Other so called "revisionists" or "holocaust deniers" have been intimidated, harassed, assaulted and smeared simply for trying to get at the truth.



I found out that the Jews are responsible for our wide open immigration policies that have created the nightmare we call "multiculturalism," "diversity," inclusiveness" and "pluralism."



It is patently clear that the war in Iraq is due solely to Israel wanting to hobble her enemies by destabilizing their governments in order to achieve hegemony in the middle east.



It would be unthinkable for Israeli Jews to die for this cause, so they manipulated the US into the war with the help of the Jewish Zionist "Israel firsters" in the Bush administration in order that the blood of way too many young American men and women is shed instead.



It is they who control the middle eastern foreign policy of the most powerful country in the world, the USA. It is they who control congress, the senate and the puppet president, George W. Bush.



They have such control in movies and television that we are now subjected to endless programs and Hollywood movies that mock Christianity, Christian values and degrade the traditional family.



After sober reflection on what I had discovered about Jewish supremacy andZionism, I had to abandon all my previously held notions as to the history of Jewish persecution.



What I have trouble understanding is why they continue this behavior in whichever society they live, knowing that eventually they will overplay their hand and their perfidy will be exposed yet again.Has history taught them nothing?



As more and more people become aware of what is going on and who is responsible for it, anger is going to rise as it already has in the former Soviet Union and eastern European countries.



They may control television, movies and the print media, but they don't control the internet. At least not yet. Blogs and websites devoted to "outing" the Jewish supremacists will ultimately be their downfall.



Posted by Jayne Gardener




My comments : Well a lot of what is said in this article by Jayne Gardener is quite true. I believe the diary of Anne Frank has been strectched quite a lot. Has anyone realised how many times they have found more chapters from her diary, new letters she wrote never before known to anyone, her fathers notes about her etc etc.

This line caught my attention : "..the Jews had been expelled from 79 countries, some countries more than once."

Somehow I feel this is going to happen again. The writer Jayne Gardener is American and Christian. So I am not referring to Palestine.

The Jews make themselves 'different' and 'distinct' from other people. They are extremely intelligent and capable and cannot help feeling a sense of superiority about themselves.


The undoing of the Jews has and will always be their religion - which teaches them strange things about themselves and about others.


Having said that, the world owes too much to the Jewish people. Millions would have died if not for Dr Jonas Salk's polio vaccine. Their contributions to the advancement of modern civilisation is maybe innumerable - it cannot be counted.


It is beneath their capabilities to be so disliked by other people. They should work towards erasing this negative perception against them. Relooking their religion will be an important first step. Maybe the only step. Without a doubt satanic religion shall be the undoing of the human race.