A satire by Sin Chew's Tay Tian Yan. This is about Alias Ismail, the recent winner of the Tokoh Nilam award for outstanding teacher revealing his secret :
Translation by Dominic Lau :
I really had no clue how to give this article a proper title.
Should I just put it forthright: To be a good teacher, learn how to make love first?
Or: I'm a good teacher, and I make love every night?
If I did, I would have been smashed up by teachers and their spouses.
But what else could I say? This is the real thing! Kisah benar!
Two days ago, 41-year-old male teacher Alias Ismail, winner of the Tokoh Nilam award for outstanding teacher, revealed the secret recipe of his success. He said he derived his vitality and focus in teaching from, you guess, reading and sex!
Reading and making love every night, and the love-making always comes after the reading!
I have the slightest hint what these two things have got to do with each other.
For other people, the following might be the reality:
"Darling, what're you reading now?"
"I'm reading XXX. What about you, babe. Are you reading something?"
"Put that down, honey! Roll over quickly!"
So, to ordinary people, reading and love-making do not seem to get along so well with each other, unless you are holding a hard porn in your hands before going to bed.
But with the advent of CD, DVD and things like that, even this remaining possible linkage is now annulled.
It is not easy to emulate Mr and Mrs Alias for a number of reasons.
Firstly, people usually drift into dreamland having flipped a few pages, too exhausted for anything else including sex.
Secondly, if love-making is in the agenda, there is absolutely no place for reading mood.
As if that is not enough, these two things are physically and mentally exhausting, and the engagement in either of them could potentially kill the second day's vibrance.
But our Cikgu Alias accomplishes both these daunting tasks, and still stays physically and mentally active over time.
Wait a minute! It shouldn't go this way. Alias is a role model among teachers, someone the students should emulate and learn from.
But he is telling everyone that half his achievement has been attributed to his daily love-making routine.
Should other teachers and his pupils take cue from him?
As a teacher par excellence, a prominent figure in the education sector, he should have shared his teaching experience instead, for example, how to advance holistic education and how to prevent our schools from turning into "hell schools" like the one in Rawang, among many other things.
What he must not divulge to the public is the contribution of his daily night-time feats towards teaching excellence.
If he has some special liking in certain fields, that will constitute wholly his personal undertaking.
Common sense tells us that there is no correlation between these two things.
Alias' logic has been built upon the society's misconception about sex. Many people are only partially informed of regular sex, resulting in a lot of exaggeration, distortion and misinformation.
Ubiquitous love potion ads on lamp posts and road signs, the aphrodisiac effects emphasised by coffee drinks, the open sale of X-rated pornography and cheap and fanciful love that abounds in our midst. And to top it all, we now have a model teacher turned sex sales master.
Perhaps, Alias should take up an offer to speak for Tongkat Ali products, but where education is concerned, he has been talking nothing but trash. And from the medical perspectives, he should consult a physician, or a psychologist, to get his indulgence fixed up.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Hannah Yeoh's Prayer for Malaysia
Hannah Yeoh is the present State Assembly "man" of Subang Jaya. She won this seat in the last General Election 2008 under DAP ticket.
By Hannah Yeoh - Please read & circulate & pray.
So many people have been telling me just how frustrated they are with the current political situation in our country. Some have told me that they regretted voting for change because of the political instability now and would prefer returning to their old style of voting - vote for stability and forget about having a stronger opposition and greater check and balance. I shudder at the thought of this!
One needs to remember the reason why we are seeing such great resistance for change is simply because there is much to lose for those who have been in power for so long. For decades there has been so much abuse of power, unchecked misuse of public funds and plain dirty corruption. With a stronger opposition now, they stand to lose their illegal sources of income and some may even be charged and sent to prison if they are found guilty. With this in mind, they will fight at all costs to reclaim back power and to ensure they can continue to steal public funds from the people for their own enrichment. We are not just dealing with differences in politics; we are combating evil forces who will not rest till they secure back their powers and illegal sources of income.
Sometimes I feel equally frustrated and disillusioned about the political situation too. Sometimes I lie awake thinking of how to effect change in this land. Some days I cry while driving in between meetings thinking of what's left for the future generation in this land
if we give up now. I have endured much verbal attack from political enemies, accusation after accusation of me not doing anything for my constituents and etc. No one truly understands the resistance we face daily in discharging our duties except for my fellow PR assemblymen. Robert Kennedy once said *Progress is a nice word. But change is its motivator and change has its enemies.*
Our enemies are resisting change but we must stand firm and continue to push for a competent, accountable and transparent government. At the end of each day, as I lay myself to sleep, I ask God for strength, wisdom and protection to face the next. I look forward to the end of the term when I can tell the people of Subang Jaya that I have remained clean and have not stolen any of the taxpayers' funds.
As reminded by Raja Petra in his blog "*Please continue your struggle to make Malaysia a better place for our future generation. This country belongs to them and it is for them that we struggle."
All hope is not lost. Come the next election, vote out the corrupt once and for all. Hang in there supporters and friends, the best is yet to come!
Hannah Yeoh
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Arguments against Idris Jala's warning " Malaysia bankrupt by 2019 "
As expected Idris Jala recieved several brickbat remarks about his warning that Malaysia could go bankrupt by 2019 if the proposed subsidy rationalizations are not implemented. The most vocal voices are from the UMNO guys. I have review their reasoning and while the figures or statistics given seems sound, I feel all of them missed one important point.
It is not important whether Malaysia will be actually bankrupt by 2019 or whether Malaysia is likely to end up in a predicament as Greece. All of them exhort that Idris Jala was exaggerating ; similarly I feel they too are exaggerating their arguments. If you read through all their reasoning - they do agree that in principle subsidy rationalization is necessary and is only arguing about the word "bankrupt and Greece ".
The key here is , all of us NEED to know what is the country's present financial status and what is the future ahead ? It is pointless to argue over the words "bankrupt" or "Greece" - it is purely academic. Let's be realistic and be prepare to tighten our belts and face the difficult years ahead.
The arguments and reasoning by his detractors are typical "political" talk and is a temporary sweetener offered to the public to ease their pain of hearing that Malaysia could go bankrupt. It is simple economics - As long as one is living beyond our means , one will always be in debt. We are disillusioned and accept this way of life as acceptable. We do not foresee the possibility of a great economic depression ahead and all our assets threatened. Just look at the last 1-2 years at what is happening around the world - the numerous disasters and calamities had taken a big toll on the affected nation's capital and economy.
Jala is just sending everyone a strong message - if we keep our current levels of extravagant spending, we could end up like Greece. Idris Jala is well known for his efforts at Shell and resurrecting MAS into profitability. It will be wise of us to listen to a person who has practical experience managing country's resources rather than listening and accepting the politically inclined words of these "armchair" economists or politicians.
Naturally there are arguments from the public why is the government taxing the public especially the poor, the lower and middle income groups who would be most affected by any subsidy cuts. They will continually point to the various excessive and extravagant spending's by the government. The Auditor General's report on the government spending's for the last few years remain unanswered and to most is just a "storm in teapot" news release. It is equally important that continual efforts to get rid of wastages , leakages and corruption be strengthened and prosecution be brought forward against those culprits without fear or favor - a wishful thinking ??? Let all us see positive results of the Government Transformation Programs - we wish to see the truthful statistics not some make-up modified numbers.
Listed here some calls for changes and action from the public in the alternative media:
- Was subsidy alone the cause of the mega fiscal deficit (reportedly the highest in terms of percentage of Gross Domestic Product for umpteen years)? What about the public spending side of the equation? How did it grow to be so large? And why? What about the issues of productivity, efficiency, wastefulness, redundancies, and even questionable public spending which the Government’s Auditor-General had disclosed year after year? What became of the Auditor-General’s findings?
- Rm 10b is wasted on corruption annually, purchase of armaments at astronomical prices, wasteful construction projects and lots more are spent to enrich the rich. Now the Govt wants to take subsidies away from the poor. Give subsidies to the poor and money is recirculated back to the economy, give it to the rich and money is siphoned off. In this case say no to free market.
- with subsidies, some people is still suffering and could not buy much food.
without subsidies, these people will suffer more. i agree, subsidies is given to everyone regardless of income level, but how should this situation be tackle. how to measure which income level should receive subsidies, which should not..
- The BN government spends more to subsidise gas for IPPs, who have fat contracts with TNB (Tenaga Nasional), than for subsidising petrol. Yet the first subsidy to be cut is petrol not gas for IPPs, who use the gas subsidy to make obscene profits.
- This is a government which robs the poor to give to the rich. Big corporations cannot be touched while the man in the street is a soft target to be clobbered again and again. Why ask the public to accept subsidy removal while the big corporations laugh all the way to the bank?
- Putrajaya must admit that its leaders are not good enough to manage the economy well. Why are the rakyat held resposible for all the mess and damages committed by the BN? What happened to all the billions of ringgit that was wasted in unnecessary 'gaya' projects?
- Abdullah Badawi can write off oil fields worth hundreds of billions to a neighbouring country. Yet the rakyat must tighten their belts. Time and again, the same mistakes and no sense of remorse.
- We are already suffering with low wages and rising inflation. Any removal of the subsidies and GST implementation will burden us further. Every individual and every NGO must reach out to as many citizens as possible so that all of us will reject the implementation of subsidy removal and GST.
- Idris Jala needs to do his part by telling us the leakages and corruption that have taken place over the last 30 years and bring those responsible to task. Idris, can you explain Perwaja Steel, BMF (Bank Bumiputra Malaysia), currency speculation by BNM (Bank Negara), over-inflated mega-projects, etc, etc?
- To begin with, we could recover the RM500 million paid to a crony company as commission for the purchase of submarines which we don't need in the first place. That's a lot of money. Then we could go after the about-to-retire S Samy Vellu and recover millions in the form of Tenaga shares and Maika assets as well as the MIED property. The list could go on and on.
Just compare Malaysia to our nearest neighbor Singapore who in the last 40 years after separation from the peninsular has achieved. Singapore is a country with practically no natural resources - what it has is a strong prudent government which knows how to manage its finances well. In Singapore - we rarely hear of corruption and extravagant projects ending up as "white elephants". Our politicians should compare Malaysia with Singapore not Greece. In management talk - we can only improve when we compare with the 20 % who is better than us rather than the 80 % who is who is worse than us. So let's all get our priorities right.
The Malaysian Auditor General reports are only the tip of the iceberg on the wastefulness and leakages in government spending. Accusations of cronyism and mega-projects benefiting only a few who are politically linked is abound. The common folk do not realized such benefits from these mega-projects.
In principle I do agree that we need to accept some subsidy cuts which should be implemented progressively say in 3-6 months period over a 5 year plan. This will reduce the rakyat's pain in their daily expenditure. The truth is we have been "spoilt" and had been customized to accept such "low prices". Price controls and subsidies not only distort price signals, but they also result in over-consumption and waste. Indirectly these subsidies had created a "crutch" that we always need to lean on especially on industrial and manufacturing costs ; competitiveness has been affected as the need to improve efficiency and productivity is not seriously attended to by management. With the reduction in subsidies all industrial concerns is now forced to reduce costs through productivity initiatives which ultimately is good for the industries. Subsidy cuts do not always need to be follow by a price increase of goods - this is the quick and easy way out by manufacturers. For the working man, savings and expenses control will become a more important aspect in one's monthly budget.
Below posted are excerpts of the detractors opinion on Idris Jala presentation on subsidy rationalization:
http://www.theborneopost.com/?p=33467
The conjecture that “Malaysia will- go-bankrupt by 2019 like Greece if subsidies are not withdrawn”, while terribly dramatic, overlooks the country’s key pre-emptive strengths to prevent such financial catastrophe — Malaysia’s economic outlook, prudent financial management and tight monetary policies, said Umno supreme council member Dr Norraesah Mohamad, a Sorbonne University-trained economist.
Norraesah supported her contention that :
• Malaysia’s most important saving grace is its economic outlook: Positive two-digit growth was registered for the first quarter of this year;
• Malaysia’s budget situation will substantially improve over the next couple of years because the economy is growing;
• Malaysia’s very prudent financial management and tight monetary policies do not allow for dubious cross country swaps like what happened in Greece that further aggravated its debt situation;
• Malaysia is not caught in the euro capsule like Greece.
“We have our own money and therefore can deal and manage our costs and prices,” said Dr Norraesah in analysing the declaration
last week by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Idris Jala that Malaysia would go bankrupt in 2019 if subsidies are not reduced across-theboard over five years, a move which Idris described as the “most unpopular decision that the government has to make since independence”.
In addition, Dr Norraesah said:
• Malaysia enjoys a high saving rate, another saving grace (The Employees’ Provident Fund has accumulated savings of RM360 billion as at Dec 31, 2009);
• Malaysia’s abundant resources and diversified economy are reinforcing factors that guarantees the country will not plunge into bankruptcy.
Dr Norraesah agreed that phasing out subsidies was a “pragmatic move and a sound economic decision” that must be made because it eats into Malaysia’s fiscal position, misallocate resources and distort more effective use of available development funds.
“Besides, the one-size-fits-all subsidy policy is unsustainable and socially unacceptable,” she said.
Nevertheless, Dr Norraesah described the prospect that Malaysia will be bankrupt in 2019 if subsidies are not withdrawn as a “terribly dramatic, albeit inappropriate way” to justify the burial of subsidies.
“Once we get beyond the crude look at budget deficits, a favourite attacking weapon of certain quarters, we immediately see that the parallel between Greece and Malaysia is not even close,” she said.
Greece, Dr Norraesah pointed out, has all sorts of problems that are not found in Malaysia. Her reasoning was based on the fact that:
• While Greece’s budget deficit is an unacceptable 13.6 per cent in 2009, Malaysia’s budget deficit has been brought down from 7.0 per cent to 5.6 per cent in last year’s budget;
• Compared to Greece, Malaysia’s deficit is respectable and is expected to shrink further in the 2011 budget; and,
• Greece’s total national debt is 113 per cent of its GDP, a level unimaginable in Malaysia.
“We have a strong current account surplus and big financial reserves,” she said.
http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/133397
Some government backbenchers have labelled a bankruptcy forecast for Malaysia as a “bit far-fetched”.
They have dismissed the notion that “Malaysia-will-go-bankrupt-in-2019-like-Greece” if the RM74 billion annual subsidies are not slashed as more of a “scare tactic”.
They felt that the comparison with Greece by some quarters in the opposition was “way off the mark” with little analytical basis.
Sharir, the former domestic trade and consumer affairs minister presented a comparative study of the two countries.
He said Malaysia had, more importantly, the ability to pay its interest payments, unlike the Greek government which had defaulted on interest payments, thus lending credence that Greece can be said as bankrupt.
He also said that Greek civil servants had a permanent bonus of two months, and they made up 10 per cent of the population and were also perceived as not that productive.
Shahrir said Greece was also overly reliant on tourism, and was resource-scarce and had no commodities.
On the other hand, tourism was just one of many economic activities in Malaysia while its other economic activities were well-diversified, he said.
Shahrir said Greece had to borrow just to pay interest while Malaysia has never defaulted on its interest payments.
He also stressed that Malaysia had built a strong financial system stemming from the consolidation of banks, cleansing of non-performing loans out of the system after the 1997 financial crisis through institutions like Danamodal and Danaharta.
Shahrir also said that the government had also reduced wastage and leakages by progressing to e-procurement to save money.
“In the 2010 Budget, the government had agreed to a 10 per cent across-the-board expenditure cut in all ministries,” he said.
“We have already spent on big ticket items like the North-South Expressway and Penang Bridge. So now the biggest government expenditure is the subsidies.
“The ongoing effort now is to improve the economy by promoting greater efficiency and productivity through the New Economic Model,” he said.
Greece is much worse shape
In analysing Idris Jala's pronouncement on a technically economic view, Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin asked for an understanding of bankruptcy.
“In a nutshell, it's a situation when you are no longer able to pay your debts and the next question will be, is that the (actual) reading of our economy?”
He contended that if the Malaysian economy was scrutinised from the point of national debt, savings rate, deficit level and trade performance, it was fundamentally stronger than Greece .
A further analysis, Khairy pointed out, would reveal that:
Malaysia's national debt was 54 percent of GDP, less than half of Greece's 113 per cent debt. Malaysians enjoy a high savings rate of 35 percent of GDP, which is seven times higher than Greece's five percent. Greece's 2009 budget deficit of 13.6 percent of GDP was 2.4 times higher than Malaysia. Malaysia gained a RM118.4 billion trade surplus in 2009 while Greece recorded a RM105.7 billion deficit in the same period; and In March 2010, Malaysia's international reserves stood at US$95.3 billion, 17.3 times higher than Greece's US$5.5 billion.
It is not important whether Malaysia will be actually bankrupt by 2019 or whether Malaysia is likely to end up in a predicament as Greece. All of them exhort that Idris Jala was exaggerating ; similarly I feel they too are exaggerating their arguments. If you read through all their reasoning - they do agree that in principle subsidy rationalization is necessary and is only arguing about the word "bankrupt and Greece ".
The key here is , all of us NEED to know what is the country's present financial status and what is the future ahead ? It is pointless to argue over the words "bankrupt" or "Greece" - it is purely academic. Let's be realistic and be prepare to tighten our belts and face the difficult years ahead.
The arguments and reasoning by his detractors are typical "political" talk and is a temporary sweetener offered to the public to ease their pain of hearing that Malaysia could go bankrupt. It is simple economics - As long as one is living beyond our means , one will always be in debt. We are disillusioned and accept this way of life as acceptable. We do not foresee the possibility of a great economic depression ahead and all our assets threatened. Just look at the last 1-2 years at what is happening around the world - the numerous disasters and calamities had taken a big toll on the affected nation's capital and economy.
Jala is just sending everyone a strong message - if we keep our current levels of extravagant spending, we could end up like Greece. Idris Jala is well known for his efforts at Shell and resurrecting MAS into profitability. It will be wise of us to listen to a person who has practical experience managing country's resources rather than listening and accepting the politically inclined words of these "armchair" economists or politicians.
Naturally there are arguments from the public why is the government taxing the public especially the poor, the lower and middle income groups who would be most affected by any subsidy cuts. They will continually point to the various excessive and extravagant spending's by the government. The Auditor General's report on the government spending's for the last few years remain unanswered and to most is just a "storm in teapot" news release. It is equally important that continual efforts to get rid of wastages , leakages and corruption be strengthened and prosecution be brought forward against those culprits without fear or favor - a wishful thinking ??? Let all us see positive results of the Government Transformation Programs - we wish to see the truthful statistics not some make-up modified numbers.
Listed here some calls for changes and action from the public in the alternative media:
- Was subsidy alone the cause of the mega fiscal deficit (reportedly the highest in terms of percentage of Gross Domestic Product for umpteen years)? What about the public spending side of the equation? How did it grow to be so large? And why? What about the issues of productivity, efficiency, wastefulness, redundancies, and even questionable public spending which the Government’s Auditor-General had disclosed year after year? What became of the Auditor-General’s findings?
- Rm 10b is wasted on corruption annually, purchase of armaments at astronomical prices, wasteful construction projects and lots more are spent to enrich the rich. Now the Govt wants to take subsidies away from the poor. Give subsidies to the poor and money is recirculated back to the economy, give it to the rich and money is siphoned off. In this case say no to free market.
- with subsidies, some people is still suffering and could not buy much food.
without subsidies, these people will suffer more. i agree, subsidies is given to everyone regardless of income level, but how should this situation be tackle. how to measure which income level should receive subsidies, which should not..
- What is the point of comparing Greece and Malaysia on current basis? What Idris Jala is saying is that in 9 years, Malaysia will be like what Greece is now. Please don't compare apple and pears ok? We can use simple logic. It does not matter how many income streams you have. If you spend more than you earn, then you go into debts. Idirs has projected this debts accumulation and by 2019 we will not have enough income to manage the debts. Unless we have miracles such as sudden discovery of oil or gold. Wake up! UMNO !
- Why don't you take some thought to mention why subsidies came about in the first place, and that has to do with your UMNO's NEP leeches la? What about the RM100b Mahathir allowed to go to waste? And Khairy , no need to pull terra punya stats out of your poket la, ha. If the Msian economy is so good, then why is our RM weaker than Spore's? Why is an original DVD here costs around RM70 while in Spore it costs S$25 only? Compare dollar to dollar fren. In other words, the executive who earns S$3.5k is better of than a similar exec who earns RM3.5k. And you wonder why so many Msian leave for Spore.
- While I do agree that bankruptcy is imminent for Malaysia if our BN gov't and leadership continues in leading this country down the road of financial mismanagement, approved corruption for the ruling elite and alienating both local and foreign investors. Yes subsidies are bleeding the country dry made worse by dwindling petroleum reserves, our main source of income. While the rakyat are asked to bear the burden of the abolishment of subsides, the ruling elite are still going on plundering the country. Bankruptcy is not blessing in disguise for Malaysians although it may eliminate these scoundrels. The burden of supporting a bankrupt nation will fall on the rakyat's as severe austerity measures be will imposed by creditors (e.g world bank, IMF) who will bail Malaysia out. The rakyat will be forced to repay the debt plus interest. Income tax will increase, price of goods and services will sore, pencen payments will be slashed coupled with massive inflation.
- If we stop paying to Apco, if we cancel the purchase of the armoured vehicles, if we recover part of the PKFZ wastage, if we cut the subsidies to the IPPs and toll operators, if the commissions paid out for the submarine purchase can be consficated ....etc, etc....so many ifs but if such leakages can be plugged, the subsidies for fuel, cooking oil, education, healthcare, and other necessities for the masses are really "chicken feed"
- please cut the subsidy to the toll operators and the gas used by the IPPs (independent power producers) before you cut the subsidy to the rakyat. Can you do that? I think not - the IPPs and toll operators will be the last to be cut, if ever, while the rakyat will be the first.- The BN government spends more to subsidise gas for IPPs, who have fat contracts with TNB (Tenaga Nasional), than for subsidising petrol. Yet the first subsidy to be cut is petrol not gas for IPPs, who use the gas subsidy to make obscene profits.
- This is a government which robs the poor to give to the rich. Big corporations cannot be touched while the man in the street is a soft target to be clobbered again and again. Why ask the public to accept subsidy removal while the big corporations laugh all the way to the bank?
- Putrajaya must admit that its leaders are not good enough to manage the economy well. Why are the rakyat held resposible for all the mess and damages committed by the BN? What happened to all the billions of ringgit that was wasted in unnecessary 'gaya' projects?
- Abdullah Badawi can write off oil fields worth hundreds of billions to a neighbouring country. Yet the rakyat must tighten their belts. Time and again, the same mistakes and no sense of remorse.
- We are already suffering with low wages and rising inflation. Any removal of the subsidies and GST implementation will burden us further. Every individual and every NGO must reach out to as many citizens as possible so that all of us will reject the implementation of subsidy removal and GST.
- Idris Jala needs to do his part by telling us the leakages and corruption that have taken place over the last 30 years and bring those responsible to task. Idris, can you explain Perwaja Steel, BMF (Bank Bumiputra Malaysia), currency speculation by BNM (Bank Negara), over-inflated mega-projects, etc, etc?
- To begin with, we could recover the RM500 million paid to a crony company as commission for the purchase of submarines which we don't need in the first place. That's a lot of money. Then we could go after the about-to-retire S Samy Vellu and recover millions in the form of Tenaga shares and Maika assets as well as the MIED property. The list could go on and on.
Just compare Malaysia to our nearest neighbor Singapore who in the last 40 years after separation from the peninsular has achieved. Singapore is a country with practically no natural resources - what it has is a strong prudent government which knows how to manage its finances well. In Singapore - we rarely hear of corruption and extravagant projects ending up as "white elephants". Our politicians should compare Malaysia with Singapore not Greece. In management talk - we can only improve when we compare with the 20 % who is better than us rather than the 80 % who is who is worse than us. So let's all get our priorities right.
The Malaysian Auditor General reports are only the tip of the iceberg on the wastefulness and leakages in government spending. Accusations of cronyism and mega-projects benefiting only a few who are politically linked is abound. The common folk do not realized such benefits from these mega-projects.
The subsidy cuts were postponed several times due to fear of losing votes from the electorate. Subsidy costs of RM 40 billion in 2007 increased to a massive RM 79 billion in 2009. This has led to the country’s biggest budget deficit in more than 20 years. The national subsidy bill on petrol and essential goods amounts to a frightening 22 percent of government expenditure.
Below posted are excerpts of the detractors opinion on Idris Jala presentation on subsidy rationalization:
http://www.theborneopost.com/?p=33467
The conjecture that “Malaysia will- go-bankrupt by 2019 like Greece if subsidies are not withdrawn”, while terribly dramatic, overlooks the country’s key pre-emptive strengths to prevent such financial catastrophe — Malaysia’s economic outlook, prudent financial management and tight monetary policies, said Umno supreme council member Dr Norraesah Mohamad, a Sorbonne University-trained economist.
Norraesah supported her contention that :
• Malaysia’s most important saving grace is its economic outlook: Positive two-digit growth was registered for the first quarter of this year;
• Malaysia’s budget situation will substantially improve over the next couple of years because the economy is growing;
• Malaysia’s very prudent financial management and tight monetary policies do not allow for dubious cross country swaps like what happened in Greece that further aggravated its debt situation;
• Malaysia is not caught in the euro capsule like Greece.
“We have our own money and therefore can deal and manage our costs and prices,” said Dr Norraesah in analysing the declaration
last week by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Idris Jala that Malaysia would go bankrupt in 2019 if subsidies are not reduced across-theboard over five years, a move which Idris described as the “most unpopular decision that the government has to make since independence”.
In addition, Dr Norraesah said:
• Malaysia enjoys a high saving rate, another saving grace (The Employees’ Provident Fund has accumulated savings of RM360 billion as at Dec 31, 2009);
• Malaysia’s abundant resources and diversified economy are reinforcing factors that guarantees the country will not plunge into bankruptcy.
Dr Norraesah agreed that phasing out subsidies was a “pragmatic move and a sound economic decision” that must be made because it eats into Malaysia’s fiscal position, misallocate resources and distort more effective use of available development funds.
“Besides, the one-size-fits-all subsidy policy is unsustainable and socially unacceptable,” she said.
Nevertheless, Dr Norraesah described the prospect that Malaysia will be bankrupt in 2019 if subsidies are not withdrawn as a “terribly dramatic, albeit inappropriate way” to justify the burial of subsidies.
“Once we get beyond the crude look at budget deficits, a favourite attacking weapon of certain quarters, we immediately see that the parallel between Greece and Malaysia is not even close,” she said.
Greece, Dr Norraesah pointed out, has all sorts of problems that are not found in Malaysia. Her reasoning was based on the fact that:
• While Greece’s budget deficit is an unacceptable 13.6 per cent in 2009, Malaysia’s budget deficit has been brought down from 7.0 per cent to 5.6 per cent in last year’s budget;
• Compared to Greece, Malaysia’s deficit is respectable and is expected to shrink further in the 2011 budget; and,
• Greece’s total national debt is 113 per cent of its GDP, a level unimaginable in Malaysia.
“We have a strong current account surplus and big financial reserves,” she said.
http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/133397
Some government backbenchers have labelled a bankruptcy forecast for Malaysia as a “bit far-fetched”.
They have dismissed the notion that “Malaysia-will-go-bankrupt-in-2019-like-Greece” if the RM74 billion annual subsidies are not slashed as more of a “scare tactic”.
They felt that the comparison with Greece by some quarters in the opposition was “way off the mark” with little analytical basis.
Sharir, the former domestic trade and consumer affairs minister presented a comparative study of the two countries.
He said Malaysia had, more importantly, the ability to pay its interest payments, unlike the Greek government which had defaulted on interest payments, thus lending credence that Greece can be said as bankrupt.
He also said that Greek civil servants had a permanent bonus of two months, and they made up 10 per cent of the population and were also perceived as not that productive.
Shahrir said Greece was also overly reliant on tourism, and was resource-scarce and had no commodities.
On the other hand, tourism was just one of many economic activities in Malaysia while its other economic activities were well-diversified, he said.
Shahrir said Greece had to borrow just to pay interest while Malaysia has never defaulted on its interest payments.
He also stressed that Malaysia had built a strong financial system stemming from the consolidation of banks, cleansing of non-performing loans out of the system after the 1997 financial crisis through institutions like Danamodal and Danaharta.
Shahrir also said that the government had also reduced wastage and leakages by progressing to e-procurement to save money.
“In the 2010 Budget, the government had agreed to a 10 per cent across-the-board expenditure cut in all ministries,” he said.
“We have already spent on big ticket items like the North-South Expressway and Penang Bridge. So now the biggest government expenditure is the subsidies.
“The ongoing effort now is to improve the economy by promoting greater efficiency and productivity through the New Economic Model,” he said.
Greece is much worse shape
In analysing Idris Jala's pronouncement on a technically economic view, Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin asked for an understanding of bankruptcy.
“In a nutshell, it's a situation when you are no longer able to pay your debts and the next question will be, is that the (actual) reading of our economy?”
He contended that if the Malaysian economy was scrutinised from the point of national debt, savings rate, deficit level and trade performance, it was fundamentally stronger than Greece .
A further analysis, Khairy pointed out, would reveal that:
Malaysia's national debt was 54 percent of GDP, less than half of Greece's 113 per cent debt. Malaysians enjoy a high savings rate of 35 percent of GDP, which is seven times higher than Greece's five percent. Greece's 2009 budget deficit of 13.6 percent of GDP was 2.4 times higher than Malaysia. Malaysia gained a RM118.4 billion trade surplus in 2009 while Greece recorded a RM105.7 billion deficit in the same period; and In March 2010, Malaysia's international reserves stood at US$95.3 billion, 17.3 times higher than Greece's US$5.5 billion.
Idris Jala clarify on subsidy rationalisation
3 June The Star : PUTRAJAYA: Datuk Seri Idris Jala, who has been entrusted to shepherd the Government’s plan to transform the country, has pointed out that his recent statement about the country facing bankruptcy had been taken out of context.
The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Depart ment and CEO of Pemandu pointed out that he had made certain assumptions in making the statement but “unfortunately, some of the reports about our bankruptcy projections did not state these assumptions”.
After the Subsidy Rationalisation Open Day, the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) and the Subsidy Rationalisation Lab received a lot of feedback either through emails, SMS, alternative media seeking clarification and challenging the facts and analysis of the subsidy lab which they presented.
The two parties thought it would be useful to provide a public response so that those who were not in attendance and were unable to ask questions would benefit from their response.
These are the views and recommendations solely of Pemandu and the Subsidy Rationalisation Lab, and not necessarily that of the Government.
This is the full interview which was not reported fully by the Star :
Below are the frequently asked questions that were channelled to the two parties, with a response from Pemandu chief executive officer Datuk Seri Idris Jala.
1. Why did you say that Malaysia will go bankrupt in 2019? Have you misled us?
During the Open Day, I presented some salient facts about the economy. For the last 10 years, we have been running a fiscal deficit which has been growing progressively from RM5 billion in 1998, to a record high of RM47 billion in 2009.
This was due to the fact that Government expenditure including subsidies has been escalating, whereas Government revenue has not kept pace as our economy/ GDP (gross domestic product) grew at only 3% per annum. Consequently, the Government has to borrow a lot of money to cover for the short fall.
Our Government debt in 1997 was RM90 billion and has grown at a rate of 12% per annum to reach a record of RM362 billion in 2009. In addition, as a proportion to GDP, Malaysia is one of the world's highest subsidised countries with 4.7% of GDP compared to Indonesia 2.7%, Philippines 0.2% and OECD countries at 1.5% on average.
To be clear, I said we could go bankrupt IF, and I repeat the word IF we continue with the same trends as in the past 10 over years; based on an annual increase of 12%, our debt will reach 100% of GDP in 2019 (a staggering RM1.158 trillion) and we could potentially go bankrupt then.
Together with escalating fiscal deficit exceeding 10%, we could end up in a similar economic situation like Greece and other similar countries.
All economists make assumptions and I did not say Malaysia will go bankrupt without qualifying it with certain assumptions. These assumptions are based on Malaysia'a historical trends in the last 10 over years:
The economy/ GDP continues at a rate of 3% per annum
Our deficit continues at a rate of 23% per annum
Our Government debt continues to increase at rate of 12% per annum
The outcome of this projection is that by the year 2019, our debt will be 103% of GDP and our fiscal deficit will reach RM449 billion (38% of GDP).
According to studies conducted by Boston Consulting Group (BCG), counties get into sovereign crisis (bankruptcy) when:
Government debt is > 100% of the GDP
Fiscal deficit > 10% of GDP
This is because:
Government revenue is not enough to service its debt
Government does not have any money to operate
Unfortunately, some of the reports about Pemandu's bankruptcy projections did not state these assumptions and therefore can be taken out of context. Some people question whether our assumptions are realistic. I think it is fair to make projections into the future based on our historical trends over the last 10 years. It is on this basis that Pemandu made its assumptions and therefore its projections.
There assumptions are used by Pemandu to make forecast about the future. In reality, as a country, we will have to do everything we can to avoid this from happening. The Prime Minister has laid out four strategic pillars which make up the country's roadmap to achieving Vision 2020; i.e.
1 Malaysia, People First, Performance Now
Government Transformation Programme
New Economic Model
10th Malaysia Plan
The future is clearly in our hands. And if all of us Malaysians work together, we can achieve Vision 2020. This involves concerted effort to grow our economy and be prudent in our spending.
2. Surely there must be some positive things that are happening in our economy? Why are you not highlighting them?
I actually highlighted those positive aspects of the economy. Firstly, I said that our economy is rebounding in the first quarter of this year by 10.1%. This is the highest quarterly result in a decade. Our international competitiveness ranking has improved from 18th to 10th position. This is a phenomenal jump of 8th place in one year. This should give us, as Malaysians, the comfort that we can shape a better future for our country. (Slides)
3. The Government should focus on growing the economy (thereby increasing Government revenue/ GDP) rather than cutting the subsidies.
As I explained during the presentation, the Government will conduct 12 laboratories on National Key Economic Areas (NKEAs) to recommend ways for us increase the our economic growth (GNI per capita) from USD7,000 to USD15,000 by the year 2020. This will help to potentially increase Government revenue in the next 10 years.
These laboratories, which run from June 1 until end of July, comprise more than 400 representatives from the private and public sector, facilitated by Pemandu. I mentioned that once these laboratories are completed, we will conduct Open Days to exhibit the labs recommendations to the public.
The Subsidy Lab's view is that growing the economy is necessary, but not sufficient. We have to take a holistic approach by addressing both economic growth as well as expenditure/ subsidy reduction. At the Open Day, I showed the following slides to demonstrate this holistic approach.
4. The Government should cut its expenditure rather than focus on subsidy reduction.
As part of the measures to reduce Government expenditure in the 2010 budget, the Prime Minister has announced an RM24 billion reduction in Government expenditure and a projected reduction in fiscal deficit from 7.6% to 5.5% of GDP. The Prime Minister has also emphasised that all Government projects deliver "value for money". Going forward, the Government will continue to adopt a prudent approach in terms of its spending and this will be apparent in the 10th Malaysia Plan.
5. Why didn't the Government conduct independent polls from the rakyat to gauge public feedback on the subsidy rationalisation?
That was exactly what we did. Before the Open Day, we asked Maxis to send SMS blast to their phone subscribers, asking whether Malaysia needs to reduce its subsidy bills. 190,152 people responded and Maxis counted the responses which showed that 115,246 people (61%) agreed for Malaysia to reduce subsidies and 123,557 people (67.5%) suggested to reduce subsidies gradually over 3 to 5 years.
During the Open Day, 1,899 people who attended the Open Day responded. Of which, 1712 people (90%) agreed that we should reduce subsidies and only a small minority (187) opposed the subsidy reduction.
6. Why are we not protecting the poor and the low income in this Subsidy Rationalisation proposal?
For every subsidy reduction proposal, the lab has recommended mitigation measures to protect the rakyat, particularly the poor.
For example, in the case of increases in the electricity tariff, the mitigation measures are as follows. For those whose electricity consumption is less than 100 kWh per month, the Government will continue with the current practice of giving it free of charge. For those who consume between 101-200 kwH per month, the existing tariff apply (no change). Based on our statistics, these two categories constitute 56% of all consumers.
In the case of fuel price increase, the mitigation measures include cash rebate of RM126 per year for car owner less than 1,000cc and RM54 per year for owner of motorbikes less than 250cc. Car and bike capacity is used as a proxy to determine the low income and the poor category.
In the case of flour, sugar and cooking oil & LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) cooking gas, the mitigation measure will include a cash rebate of RM20 per person per year. For a family of five, they will receive RM100 cash per year.
7. We should not remove subsidy on Education, Health and Agriculture.
The lab agrees. Education is indeed an investment on Human Capital. We will continue to spend to provide subsidies on education such as scholarships, text book assistance, food, etc. However, we will remove wastages and abuse - we abolish the subsidised fee for foreign students.
For Health, we will continue to provide subsidies but with nominal outpatient fee of RM3, which incidentally is one of the lowest outpatient fee in the world. For Agriculture & Fisheries, we continue the subsidies but we will improve implementation so that the subsidies will receive to target audience.
8. Instead of subsidy reduction, the Government should focus on fighting corruption, removing wastage and improving efficiencies.
Under the Government Transformation Programme (GTP), one of the six NKRAs (National Key Result Areas) is fighting corruption. To date, we have implemented several key initiatives to address this. For example, since January this year, we have passed the Whistleblower Protection Act in the Parliament, we have convicted and published 97 offenders in the MACC website, in the spirit of transparency, we have published 2,665 Government contract awards in the procurement portal and we have issued clear guidelines to prevent supporting letters from being abused. In addition, we are implementing the Integrity Pact as recommended by Transparency International (TI) in Government procurement contracts. The Government is following up on the findings and recommendations of the Auditor-General's report.
9. The Government should appoint a high-powered team to renegotiate the existing contracts with the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and Highway Toll Concessionaires.
This is a fair suggestion. The lab will recommend this to the cabinet.
10. Do you realise that this is a very unpopular action by the Government that will cause Barisan Nasional to lose votes, and people are also very angry?
During the Open Day, we acknowledged that this is the most unpopular action that the Malaysian Government would have to take since independence and understandably, people will be shock and angry. The lab is of the opinion that we should not be partisan in addressing the issue of subsidy rationalisation. Indeed, in our panel discussion during the Open Day, we also invited DAP representative (YB Tony Pua) as a panellist.
However, we have to face realities and now we have to make the sacrifice for our future and for future generation. If we ask all the Malaysians who are not yet born to participate in a public vote, we are sure that all of them would ask all of us to implement subsidy rationalisation now and they will condemn us for not having the courage and foresight to take this bold step. The lab's view is that we must take into account the views of both the existing and future generation of Malaysians.
Credits to The Malay Mail for above interview details:
http://www.mmail.com.my/content/38482-qa-pemandus-clarification-subsidy-rationalisation
The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Depart ment and CEO of Pemandu pointed out that he had made certain assumptions in making the statement but “unfortunately, some of the reports about our bankruptcy projections did not state these assumptions”.
After the Subsidy Rationalisation Open Day, the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) and the Subsidy Rationalisation Lab received a lot of feedback either through emails, SMS, alternative media seeking clarification and challenging the facts and analysis of the subsidy lab which they presented.
The two parties thought it would be useful to provide a public response so that those who were not in attendance and were unable to ask questions would benefit from their response.
These are the views and recommendations solely of Pemandu and the Subsidy Rationalisation Lab, and not necessarily that of the Government.
This is the full interview which was not reported fully by the Star :
Below are the frequently asked questions that were channelled to the two parties, with a response from Pemandu chief executive officer Datuk Seri Idris Jala.
1. Why did you say that Malaysia will go bankrupt in 2019? Have you misled us?
During the Open Day, I presented some salient facts about the economy. For the last 10 years, we have been running a fiscal deficit which has been growing progressively from RM5 billion in 1998, to a record high of RM47 billion in 2009.
This was due to the fact that Government expenditure including subsidies has been escalating, whereas Government revenue has not kept pace as our economy/ GDP (gross domestic product) grew at only 3% per annum. Consequently, the Government has to borrow a lot of money to cover for the short fall.
Our Government debt in 1997 was RM90 billion and has grown at a rate of 12% per annum to reach a record of RM362 billion in 2009. In addition, as a proportion to GDP, Malaysia is one of the world's highest subsidised countries with 4.7% of GDP compared to Indonesia 2.7%, Philippines 0.2% and OECD countries at 1.5% on average.
To be clear, I said we could go bankrupt IF, and I repeat the word IF we continue with the same trends as in the past 10 over years; based on an annual increase of 12%, our debt will reach 100% of GDP in 2019 (a staggering RM1.158 trillion) and we could potentially go bankrupt then.
Together with escalating fiscal deficit exceeding 10%, we could end up in a similar economic situation like Greece and other similar countries.
The economy/ GDP continues at a rate of 3% per annum
Our deficit continues at a rate of 23% per annum
Our Government debt continues to increase at rate of 12% per annum
The outcome of this projection is that by the year 2019, our debt will be 103% of GDP and our fiscal deficit will reach RM449 billion (38% of GDP).
According to studies conducted by Boston Consulting Group (BCG), counties get into sovereign crisis (bankruptcy) when:
Government debt is > 100% of the GDP
Fiscal deficit > 10% of GDP
This is because:
Government revenue is not enough to service its debt
Government does not have any money to operate
Unfortunately, some of the reports about Pemandu's bankruptcy projections did not state these assumptions and therefore can be taken out of context. Some people question whether our assumptions are realistic. I think it is fair to make projections into the future based on our historical trends over the last 10 years. It is on this basis that Pemandu made its assumptions and therefore its projections.
There assumptions are used by Pemandu to make forecast about the future. In reality, as a country, we will have to do everything we can to avoid this from happening. The Prime Minister has laid out four strategic pillars which make up the country's roadmap to achieving Vision 2020; i.e.
1 Malaysia, People First, Performance Now
Government Transformation Programme
New Economic Model
10th Malaysia Plan
The future is clearly in our hands. And if all of us Malaysians work together, we can achieve Vision 2020. This involves concerted effort to grow our economy and be prudent in our spending.
2. Surely there must be some positive things that are happening in our economy? Why are you not highlighting them?
I actually highlighted those positive aspects of the economy. Firstly, I said that our economy is rebounding in the first quarter of this year by 10.1%. This is the highest quarterly result in a decade. Our international competitiveness ranking has improved from 18th to 10th position. This is a phenomenal jump of 8th place in one year. This should give us, as Malaysians, the comfort that we can shape a better future for our country. (Slides)
3. The Government should focus on growing the economy (thereby increasing Government revenue/ GDP) rather than cutting the subsidies.
As I explained during the presentation, the Government will conduct 12 laboratories on National Key Economic Areas (NKEAs) to recommend ways for us increase the our economic growth (GNI per capita) from USD7,000 to USD15,000 by the year 2020. This will help to potentially increase Government revenue in the next 10 years.
These laboratories, which run from June 1 until end of July, comprise more than 400 representatives from the private and public sector, facilitated by Pemandu. I mentioned that once these laboratories are completed, we will conduct Open Days to exhibit the labs recommendations to the public.
The Subsidy Lab's view is that growing the economy is necessary, but not sufficient. We have to take a holistic approach by addressing both economic growth as well as expenditure/ subsidy reduction. At the Open Day, I showed the following slides to demonstrate this holistic approach.
As part of the measures to reduce Government expenditure in the 2010 budget, the Prime Minister has announced an RM24 billion reduction in Government expenditure and a projected reduction in fiscal deficit from 7.6% to 5.5% of GDP. The Prime Minister has also emphasised that all Government projects deliver "value for money". Going forward, the Government will continue to adopt a prudent approach in terms of its spending and this will be apparent in the 10th Malaysia Plan.
5. Why didn't the Government conduct independent polls from the rakyat to gauge public feedback on the subsidy rationalisation?
That was exactly what we did. Before the Open Day, we asked Maxis to send SMS blast to their phone subscribers, asking whether Malaysia needs to reduce its subsidy bills. 190,152 people responded and Maxis counted the responses which showed that 115,246 people (61%) agreed for Malaysia to reduce subsidies and 123,557 people (67.5%) suggested to reduce subsidies gradually over 3 to 5 years.
During the Open Day, 1,899 people who attended the Open Day responded. Of which, 1712 people (90%) agreed that we should reduce subsidies and only a small minority (187) opposed the subsidy reduction.
6. Why are we not protecting the poor and the low income in this Subsidy Rationalisation proposal?
For every subsidy reduction proposal, the lab has recommended mitigation measures to protect the rakyat, particularly the poor.
For example, in the case of increases in the electricity tariff, the mitigation measures are as follows. For those whose electricity consumption is less than 100 kWh per month, the Government will continue with the current practice of giving it free of charge. For those who consume between 101-200 kwH per month, the existing tariff apply (no change). Based on our statistics, these two categories constitute 56% of all consumers.
In the case of fuel price increase, the mitigation measures include cash rebate of RM126 per year for car owner less than 1,000cc and RM54 per year for owner of motorbikes less than 250cc. Car and bike capacity is used as a proxy to determine the low income and the poor category.
In the case of flour, sugar and cooking oil & LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) cooking gas, the mitigation measure will include a cash rebate of RM20 per person per year. For a family of five, they will receive RM100 cash per year.
7. We should not remove subsidy on Education, Health and Agriculture.
The lab agrees. Education is indeed an investment on Human Capital. We will continue to spend to provide subsidies on education such as scholarships, text book assistance, food, etc. However, we will remove wastages and abuse - we abolish the subsidised fee for foreign students.
For Health, we will continue to provide subsidies but with nominal outpatient fee of RM3, which incidentally is one of the lowest outpatient fee in the world. For Agriculture & Fisheries, we continue the subsidies but we will improve implementation so that the subsidies will receive to target audience.
8. Instead of subsidy reduction, the Government should focus on fighting corruption, removing wastage and improving efficiencies.
Under the Government Transformation Programme (GTP), one of the six NKRAs (National Key Result Areas) is fighting corruption. To date, we have implemented several key initiatives to address this. For example, since January this year, we have passed the Whistleblower Protection Act in the Parliament, we have convicted and published 97 offenders in the MACC website, in the spirit of transparency, we have published 2,665 Government contract awards in the procurement portal and we have issued clear guidelines to prevent supporting letters from being abused. In addition, we are implementing the Integrity Pact as recommended by Transparency International (TI) in Government procurement contracts. The Government is following up on the findings and recommendations of the Auditor-General's report.
9. The Government should appoint a high-powered team to renegotiate the existing contracts with the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and Highway Toll Concessionaires.
This is a fair suggestion. The lab will recommend this to the cabinet.
10. Do you realise that this is a very unpopular action by the Government that will cause Barisan Nasional to lose votes, and people are also very angry?
During the Open Day, we acknowledged that this is the most unpopular action that the Malaysian Government would have to take since independence and understandably, people will be shock and angry. The lab is of the opinion that we should not be partisan in addressing the issue of subsidy rationalisation. Indeed, in our panel discussion during the Open Day, we also invited DAP representative (YB Tony Pua) as a panellist.
However, we have to face realities and now we have to make the sacrifice for our future and for future generation. If we ask all the Malaysians who are not yet born to participate in a public vote, we are sure that all of them would ask all of us to implement subsidy rationalisation now and they will condemn us for not having the courage and foresight to take this bold step. The lab's view is that we must take into account the views of both the existing and future generation of Malaysians.
Credits to The Malay Mail for above interview details:
http://www.mmail.com.my/content/38482-qa-pemandus-clarification-subsidy-rationalisation
Steve Jobs at D8 Conference
http://d8.allthingsd.com/speakers/steve-jobs/
Since its debut in 2003, The Wall Street Journal’s D: All Things Digital conference has been breaking news, highlighting innovation, and arranging straight-up conversations with the most influential figures in media and technology.
This is an excerpt of Steve Jobs comments :
About Apple's market capitalization ahead of Microsoft :
It's sort of surreal. It's a little surreal. But it doesn't really mean anything
About his return to head Apple :
Oh it was on the rocks. We were 90 days from going bankrupt. I thought all the good people had left -- but I found these amazing people. I said, why are you still here? They said, because I believe in Apple. I love what this place stands for.
About his rejection of Adobe Flash :
Apple is a company that doesn't have the resources that everyone else has. We choose what tech horses to ride, we look for tech that has a future and is headed up. Different pieces of tech go in cycles... they have summer and then they go to the grave.....If you choose wisely, you save yourself an enormous amount of work...Our goal is really easy -- we just made a tech decision. We aren't going to make an effort to put this on our platform. We told Adobe to show us something better, and they never did. It wasn't until we shipped the iPad that Adobe started to raise a stink about it. We were trying to have a fight, we just decided to not use one of their products. They made a big deal of it -- that's why I wrote that letter. I said enough is enough, we're tired of these guys trashing us......Well things are packages. Some things are good in a product, some things are bad. If the market tells us we're making bad choices, we'll make changes. We're just trying to make great products. We don't think this is great and we're going to leave it out. We're going to take the heat because we want to make the best product in the world for customers!....We have a history of doing this. The 3 1/2 floppy. We made that popular. We got ride of the floppy altogether in the first iMac. We got rid of serial and parallel ports. You saw USB first in iMacs. We were one of the first to get rid of optical drives, with the MacBook Air. And when we do this, sometimes people call us crazy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7J9U2xVSmos
About HTML5 :
Sometimes you have to pick the right horses. Flash looks like it had its day but it's waning, and HTML5 looks like it's coming up.....We're trying to make great products for people. We at least have the courage of our convictions....We're going to take the heat because we want to make the best product in the world for customers...they are paying us to make those choices....We have two platforms we support. One is completely open and uncontrolled and that is HTML 5. We support HTML 5. We have the best support for HTML 5 of anyone in the world. We then support a curated platform, which is the App Store.
About Foxconn :
We are on top of this. We look at everything at these companies. I can tell you a few things that we know. And we are all over this. Foxconn is not a sweatshop....It's a factory -- but my gosh, they have restaurants and movie theaters... but it's a factory. But they've had some suicides and attempted suicides -- and they have 400,000 people there. The rate is under what the US rate is, but it's still troubling....We're trying to understand this. We have people over there.
About losing the iPhone prototype:
There's an ongoing investigation. I can tell you what I do know, though. To make a product you need to test it. You have to carry them outside. One of our employees was carrying one. There's a debate about whether he left it in a bar, or it was stolen out of his bag. The person who found it tried to sell it, they called Engadget, they called Gizmodo.....The person who took the phone plugged it into his roommates computer. And this guy was trying to destroy evidence... and his roommate called the police. So this is a story that's amazing -- it's got theft, it's got buying stolen property, it's got extortion, I'm sure there's some sex in there... the whole thing is very colorful.....Somebody should make a movie out of this..... The DA is looking into it, and to my knowledge they have someone making sure they only see stuff that relates to this case. I don't know how it will end up....When this whole thing with Gizmodo happened, I got a lot of advice from people that said you've got to just let it slide. You shouldn't go after a journalist because they bought stolen property and tried to extort you.....You go back 5 or 10 years, what would you do... we're not going into that... we have the same values that we had back then. The core values are the same. .....And I thought deeply about this, and I concluded the worst thing that could happen is if we change our core values and let it slide. I can't do that. I'd rather quit......We come into work wanting to do the same thing that we did back then -- build the best products. Nothing makes my day more than getting a random email from someone talking about how cool the iPad is. That's what keeps me going. That's what kept me going back then, and now, and will keep me going in the future.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wF5bB9wBE2Q
About the Ads business :
We're going into the ad business because we want to help our developers make some money. We're not going to make much money in the ad business. We are doing it for our developers......We discovered something -- people are going into apps. They're not just going onto to websites. And people love apps. This is an entirely new thing -- they aren't using search, they're using apps like Yelp.
About piracy :
We take privacy really seriously. Take location on phones -- we take this really seriously. Before any app can get location data, they can't just put up a panel asking if it can use location -- they call OUR panel and it asks you if it's okay. That's one of the reasons we have the curated app store. A lot of the people in the Valley think we're old fashioned about this. But we take it seriously.
About apps:
Well let first say we have two platforms we support. One is open and uncontrolled -- that's HTML5. We support HTML5. We have the best support for it of anyone in the world. We then support a curated platform which is the app store. It is the most vital app community on any platform. How do we curate this? It's a bunch of people, and they come into work every day. We have a few rules: has to do what it's advertised to do, it has to not crash, it can't use private APIs. And those are the three biggest reasons we reject apps. But we approve 95% of all the apps that are submitted every week.
Yes... and political cartoons got caught in that. We didn't think of that. So this guy submits his app and he gets rejected. We didn't see that coming. So we changed the rule, but this guy never resubmitted... then he wins a Pulitzer Prize, and he says we rejected him. So, we are guilty of making mistakes. We're doing the best we can, we're learning as fast as we can -- but we thought this rule made sense.
95% are approved within 7 days...9PM Steve: We're doing the best we can, we're fixing mistakes. But what happens is -- people lie. And then they run to the press and tell people about this oppression, and they get their 15 minutes of fame. We don't run to the press and say "this guy is a son of a bitch liar!" -- we don't do that...We had a rule that said you can't defame other people.
About tablet :
I remember telling you I thought handwriting was the slowest input method ever. We reimagined the tablet, we didn't do what MSFT did. They had a totally different idea than us. And that drove everything. There tablet was based on a PC. It had the battery life, the weight, it needed a cursor like a PC. But the minute you throw a stylus out, you have the precision of a finger, you can't use a PC OS. You have to create it from scratch.
I had this idea about having a glass display, a multitouch display you could type on. I asked our people about it. And six months later they came back with this amazing display. And I gave it to one of our really brilliant UI guys. He then got inertial scrolling working and some other things, and I thought, 'my god, we can build a phone with this' and we put the tablet aside, and we went to work on the phone.
I'm trying to think of a good analogy. When we were an agrarian nation, all cars were trucks. But as people moved more towards urban centers, people started to get into cars. I think PCs are going to be like trucks. Less people will need them. And this is going to make some people uneasy.
The PC has taken us a long way. They were amazing. But it's changes, vested interests are going to change. And I think we've embarked on that change. Is it the iPad? Who knows? Will it be next year or five years...
About iPAD :
If we succeed they''ll buy them, and if we don't, they won't. So far, I have to say that people seem to be liking iPads. We've sold one every three seconds since we launched it
About the Press :
Well I think the foundation of a free society is a free press. And we've seen what's happening to papers in the US right now. I think they're really important. I don't want to see us descend into a nation of bloggers...... I think we need editors now more than ever......I can tell you as one of the largest sellers of content on the internet to date -- price it aggressively and go for volume. That has worked for us. I'm trying to get the press to do the same thing. They need to do it differently than they do it for print.....I think people are willing to pay for content. I believe it for music and video, and I believe it for the media.
About his work style :
I have one of the best jobs in the world. I get to come in and work with some of the most brilliant people in the world. We play in the best sandbox... One of the keys to Apple is that Apple is an incredibly collaborative company. You know how many committees we have at Apple? Zero. We're organized like a startup.... We meet for 3 hours every morning and talk about all the business, about what's going on everywhere. We're great at figuring out how to divide things up into great teams, and we talk to each other. So what I do all day is meet with teams of people.......We have wonderful arguments.... The best ideas should win
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_162-20006519-501465.html
http://d8.allthingsd.com/20100601/d8-video-steve-jobs-on-flash-adobe-and-other-technology-apple-doesnt-use-anymore/
http://www.businessinsider.com/steve-jobs-d8-2010-6#theres-zero-committees-at-apple-its-organized-like-the-worlds-biggest-startup-says-steve-5
http://www.businessinsider.com/video-steve-jobs-at-d8-conference-2010-6
Full length video ( 1.35 hours ) :
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
China iPED a clone of Apple's iPAD now on sale
According to TBS news report ( see video below ) , the iPed is on sale in Shenzhen, China and comes packaged in a box that looks like the iPad.
iPed is slightly heavier and is powered by an Intel chip and runs on Google Android. The instruction manual says “APad, Entertainment and Internet Device”.
iPed is currently priced at US$105 versus Apple iPAD ( ranges from US $ 4599 to US$699 for the WiFi model and US$ 629 to US$ 829 for the 3G/WiFi models )
The iPed looks very similar to the Apple iPAD and the touch screen seems very smooth and slick. More icons are displayed on screen compared to the iPed.
Shenzhen City is well known for producing clones and knock-Offs of Apple products. There are about 400 counterfeit electronics product companies in Shenzhen manufacturing a wide variety of electronic products one can find 100 % look alike Apple iPods, iPhones, Nokias, Motorola and Sony Ericcsson phones which sells for approximately 30-50 % of the original unit prices.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q599sQ41_cI
iPed is slightly heavier and is powered by an Intel chip and runs on Google Android. The instruction manual says “APad, Entertainment and Internet Device”.
iPed is currently priced at US$105 versus Apple iPAD ( ranges from US $ 4599 to US$699 for the WiFi model and US$ 629 to US$ 829 for the 3G/WiFi models )
The iPed looks very similar to the Apple iPAD and the touch screen seems very smooth and slick. More icons are displayed on screen compared to the iPed.
Shenzhen City is well known for producing clones and knock-Offs of Apple products. There are about 400 counterfeit electronics product companies in Shenzhen manufacturing a wide variety of electronic products one can find 100 % look alike Apple iPods, iPhones, Nokias, Motorola and Sony Ericcsson phones which sells for approximately 30-50 % of the original unit prices.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q599sQ41_cI
MCA's reappointments in the cabinet
2 Jun The Star :
PUTRAJAYA: Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat has been dropped from the Cabinet in a minor reshuffle with Datuk Chor Chee Heung being promoted to Housing and Local Government Minister.
Chor’s predecessor, Datuk Seri Kong Cho Ha, will take over Ong’s portfolio as Transport Minister in the reshuffle that takes effect on Friday.
I was very disappointed to hear that Najib had dropped Ong Tee Keat as Transport Minister. I feel Ong TK had done a good job unraveling the mismanagement of the Port Klang Free Zone scandal and if Najib is sincere in weeding out corrution, Ong should be allowed to carry on until the investigations are complete and all the affected corporate personalities and politicians ( both UMNO and MCA ) are being charged accordingly.
Or Najib just wants to keep the affair "low key " and not to disturb those UMNO/MCA guys who are still very influential and commands many "votes" to keep him in power ?
Poor Kong Cho Ha - he has got himself a sensitive pot of ingredients, spices and meat and he is now expected to cook it through to make up a delicious meal to please his masters the BN's leadership ? My kudos and respect to him if he can stand up against BN and show us an independent leadership in the follow-up investigations of this PKFZ scandal. Kong's job is now even more difficult with Chor Chee Heung now being appointed a full minister despite his alleged connections and influence within the PKFZ .
Do I see a potential cover-up of this PKFZ scandal ? If so, Najib - please STOP talking about transparency and accountability.
Dr Chua Soi Lek is a politician which I respect greatly - he is indeed a man of actions, one who walks his talks. I could see this during his tenure as state assembly man of Batu Pahat ( where my home is ) . When his sexual escapades were revealed , he took prompt action quitting his minister post and all his posts in MCA. His political career resurfaced after he was re-elected as Deputy President and subsequently in March after a hard fought battle, he was elected as MCA president , a news which I was happy to hear. I was looking forward to some great changes in MCA which is supposedly a representative body of the Chinese in Malaysia.
I was sad when he appointed his son Chua Tee Yong to his presidential council . His son was a green horn in politics with only a year experience. Then I was thinking maybe he wants a greater exposure for his son. Today I hear his son is appointed a Deputy Minister - this is clear NEPOTISM.
Dr Chua - where are your beliefs and righteousness you have so long being expounding ??? Your son though he maybe capable, one just cannot justify his appointment as a Deputy Minister - what has he achieved in his 1 year of as MP ? I rarely hear him speak up for MCA - he is just one of the silent majority MP's. This shortcut you have engineered to get your son's political career up is not the Chinese way of working hard to achieve one's ambition. I am now completely loss for words and I believe many Chinese feel the same way as I do.
Will the new MCA faces in the cabinet contribute to a better 1Malaysia - your guess is as good as mine - " NO " as they will still be "puppets" swing and sway by their master the UMNO's Barisan Nasional.
PUTRAJAYA: Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat has been dropped from the Cabinet in a minor reshuffle with Datuk Chor Chee Heung being promoted to Housing and Local Government Minister.
Chor’s predecessor, Datuk Seri Kong Cho Ha, will take over Ong’s portfolio as Transport Minister in the reshuffle that takes effect on Friday.
I was very disappointed to hear that Najib had dropped Ong Tee Keat as Transport Minister. I feel Ong TK had done a good job unraveling the mismanagement of the Port Klang Free Zone scandal and if Najib is sincere in weeding out corrution, Ong should be allowed to carry on until the investigations are complete and all the affected corporate personalities and politicians ( both UMNO and MCA ) are being charged accordingly.
Or Najib just wants to keep the affair "low key " and not to disturb those UMNO/MCA guys who are still very influential and commands many "votes" to keep him in power ?
Poor Kong Cho Ha - he has got himself a sensitive pot of ingredients, spices and meat and he is now expected to cook it through to make up a delicious meal to please his masters the BN's leadership ? My kudos and respect to him if he can stand up against BN and show us an independent leadership in the follow-up investigations of this PKFZ scandal. Kong's job is now even more difficult with Chor Chee Heung now being appointed a full minister despite his alleged connections and influence within the PKFZ .
Do I see a potential cover-up of this PKFZ scandal ? If so, Najib - please STOP talking about transparency and accountability.
Dr Chua Soi Lek is a politician which I respect greatly - he is indeed a man of actions, one who walks his talks. I could see this during his tenure as state assembly man of Batu Pahat ( where my home is ) . When his sexual escapades were revealed , he took prompt action quitting his minister post and all his posts in MCA. His political career resurfaced after he was re-elected as Deputy President and subsequently in March after a hard fought battle, he was elected as MCA president , a news which I was happy to hear. I was looking forward to some great changes in MCA which is supposedly a representative body of the Chinese in Malaysia.
I was sad when he appointed his son Chua Tee Yong to his presidential council . His son was a green horn in politics with only a year experience. Then I was thinking maybe he wants a greater exposure for his son. Today I hear his son is appointed a Deputy Minister - this is clear NEPOTISM.
Dr Chua - where are your beliefs and righteousness you have so long being expounding ??? Your son though he maybe capable, one just cannot justify his appointment as a Deputy Minister - what has he achieved in his 1 year of as MP ? I rarely hear him speak up for MCA - he is just one of the silent majority MP's. This shortcut you have engineered to get your son's political career up is not the Chinese way of working hard to achieve one's ambition. I am now completely loss for words and I believe many Chinese feel the same way as I do.
Will the new MCA faces in the cabinet contribute to a better 1Malaysia - your guess is as good as mine - " NO " as they will still be "puppets" swing and sway by their master the UMNO's Barisan Nasional.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
