Billion RM f*-up
Good bloke, our Tony Pua. He has put the spotlight on a couple of monumental (taxpayers funded) disasters.
Malaysiakini reported in Khazanah 'must explain' RM5bil loss that Tony wants some accountability from the Finance Ministry and government investment arm Khazanah Nasional regarding their involvement in Silterra Malaysia Sdd Bhd, a semiconductor wafer manufacturer.
Silterra posted a loss of RM1 billion last year. Did you guys get that?
It was 1 BILLION (not 'million') ringgit loss.
On top of that, Tony said that in the last 15 years or so (since 1994) Khazanah Nasional has dumped into Silterra an alleged Godzilla loss of RM5.17 billion – yes, BILLIONS.
And Pua went on to probe into the RM5 billion shoring up of Valuecap.
May I use a common expression of the African American to describe my astonishment at the magnitude of money gone to the winds?
Motherfucker!
Yes, which motherfucker has allowed the motherfucker loss to reach such Mount Meru* proportions?
* in Hindu mythology Mount Meru is 80,000 yojanas high, where 1 yojana is equal to approximately 13 km – where the hell is my Casio hand calculator!
Anwar Ibrahim
In the Star Online, my favourite pinup boy (some say kaytee indulges in sticking pins into voodoo dolls wakakaka) ;-) dear Anwar Ibrahim attacked the ketuanan Melayu ideology. He said that racial supremacy concept benefits and enriches only a small group of Malays, and was unacceptable.
Anwar went on to say that the larger community, Malays and Bumiputeras as well as Indians and Chinese should be helped, and not just a small elite group.
Good on you, Datuk Seri. You are on the right track as Opposition Leader - whether people agree with you or not is another story, but at least there's no more bullsh*tting 916.
Now there's still one small thing you can do to improve your image as a serious political reformer. I would like you to sort out that Kulim Wonder, A.S.A.P! Thank you.
When silence is golden
I refer to a letter to Malaysiakini titled Spinning around with the chopper deal submitted by Mr Vijay Kumar Murugavell.
He wrote about the Eurocopter deal where the following are extracts of his letter which I want to comment on:
Never mind that these helicopters were not workhorses but long range tactical copters.
Vijay, our elders have told us that sometimes it’s best to shut up and let people think you may be a fool rather than open your mouth and let them know you are one!
For a start, please explain what you mean by ‘workhorse’ and its difference with ‘long range tactical helicopters’?
Then he continued to enlighten us with his 'brilliance' on defence issues like:
Who knows, while transporting military personnel if war breaks out, there then would be no need to call for backup. After all, our country is vast and it would take forever for the Sukhoi jets to come to the rescue. So a copter can take on any threats head-on and independently.
I wonder what he meant by ‘when war breaks out, there would be no need to call for backup’?
And re ‘the vastness of our country’, did he mean that a Eurocopter can reach the troubled spot faster than a Sukhoi jet?
And what would the helicopter do then? Or, what can the helicopter do that a Sukhoi jet can't on reaching the troubled spot across the vastness of our country?
Wow, ‘so a copter can take on any threats head-on and independently’?
What was it that I said about our elders’ advice?
Then to ensure he bedazzled us with his grasp of international military affairs, he wrote:
We could also take advantage of its [he was talking about the Eurocopter EC725] long range capabilities and offer the Australians back-up support to patrol their coastline.
I hope the Australian Defence Minister or military brass don't read his recommendation, when Malaysiakini would then be guilty of murder for making them die from laughter ...
... However, one thing we may be sure about has been Vijay’s outlandish ability to tembak saja.
With such an appalling lack of knowledge about military aircraft and defence matters, I am amazed that Malaysiakini has allowed his letter to be published.
Malaysiakini ought to be carpet bombed for such a letter.
"May I use a common expression of the African American to describe my astonishment at the magnitude of money gone to the winds?
ReplyDeleteMotherfucker!"
How do you attribute that expletive to African Americans? Is it that the term originated historically from their usage?
Because I assure you, we ALL use that expression these days.
And I will pass up the opportunity to show off my "firebrand" hokkien oratorical skills here. In fact while we're on the subject, let me just say that, like kung bo chicken, some of the more fiery hokkien expressions are now naturalized elements of Indian Malaysian culture, due to our embrace and very common use of a limited subset of the honorable dialect's colorful vocabulary, probably far exceeding the frequency of use by the Chinese Malaysian community itself, but I digress (though not by much since this ties nicely into a recent post of yours)...
Vijay must be another relative of that moron NALLA, AND FIRST COUSIN OF PANDIT SMY VELLU. WHAT HOG-WASH, I couldn't stop laughing at the patroling the australian shoreline bit though, when our shoreline is bocor for all of khir toyol cousins to tumpang sekaki, over with sampans. and don't let me started about sabah and sarawak. somtimes I wonder where these worms crawl out from.
ReplyDeleteKT, before we summon B-52s to drop a load of 500lb bombs on Mkini's offices, shouldn't we turn on the Sarcastometer first?
ReplyDeleteReading it a second time, you'll get that he's actually slagging off the proposed purchase of those Eurocopters, somewhat sarcastically. But his knowledge in military matters are rather wanting. There are things that a military helicopter can do, that a fighter jet can't... and vice versa.
But the way the planned purchase is carried out... no tests & evaluations done by the MOD, Army, or Air Force. And the price tag? All these brings up questions about our spending habits.
BTW, am glad I didn't take up that job offer with Silterra 3 years ago.
no risk, no gain....
ReplyDeleteheck, temasek invested on harddisk business and at the end it was flop. it's just a technology investment, and unfortunately it failed - that's all....
int, though most of us have at one time or other used that word, I have always associated it with African Americans ;-) I believe they coined it, or perhaps I see too many American (comedy) movies
ReplyDeleteSome of you don't have a freaking idea what a satire is eh? Kudos to some 'military experts' here, you guys actually discussing meris of facts pertaining to sarcasm! HAHAHAHAHA!
ReplyDeletetypo
ReplyDelete*merits of facts.
I agree with Tony Pua that the government has to explain what happened at Silterra and what it intends to do with its investment there. However, I must add that the Rm 5.1 Billion accumulated loss may be arithmetically correct, but the context is lacking. Without the context you might be thinking all the wrong things....
ReplyDeleteOne of the nice things about being retired is I no longer have a vested interest in any organisation, but I do have a lot of knowledge from over 30 years in engineering operations and finance. I'm definitely no government apologist, but this Silterra thing needs to have the background context explained.
Silterra is a wafer foundry, a type of factory which lies at the heart of the IC and Microprocessor business. It transforms an inert piece of silicon dioxide into thousands of pieces of active functioning Microchips, building it layer by layer. Apart from the very biggest companies, most electronic firms do not own their own foundry, due to the very high capital investment and the highly complex, specialised operations.
So there is a big market out there for independent wafer foundries, producing microchips on contract for a wide range of customers. The Key reality is MASSIVE CAPITAL INVESTMENT, and, of course, very complex technology.
The original decision to invest government funds in such joint venture was made when Dr. Mahathir was the PM, and Anwar Ibrahim was Finance Minister. Was it a wise decision originally ? Yes, I think so - the potential market was, and is, very large, though it is a very competitive business worldwide. The global economic slowdown will make things worse.
As far as I know, Silterra's manufacturing operations is run competently and professionally. However, it has not been able to generate enough business volume to fill its capacity.
The financial depreciation on the factory equipment and facilities is huge - its probably more than RM 1 Million PER DAY. I believe this is the source of most of the accumulated losses, not operational losses.
The government should make public the difference of the losses between depreciation/write down of equipment, and losses from operations - i.e. the day to day Sales Income, Cost of Manufacturing, Cost of Labour.
If it is making huge losses from operations, I'm afraid the factory probably has no future. If its book depreciation, there are ways to turn it around.
Cicero would have turned in his grave if he were compared to that gadfly of irony Socrates.
ReplyDeleteThanks guys ,your reaction to my satire drew far more guffaws than I could have hoped for from the piece itself.
Perhaps my friend Vincent summed it up best when he said
"probs after this the sale of webster's will increase 10 fold...they need to check up wat satire means"
The following link is a repository of some of my writings,some are satires some are not, be my gueSS (pun intended)
http://www.facebook.com/board.php?uid=6778953884
Cheers
Vijay Kumar Murugavell
;-) if you say so, Vijay, but I didn't find it satirical - anyway, thanks for your clarification
ReplyDeleteQuote:"Then something happened and we found out that Brazil was buying the same machine at a much lower price.
ReplyDeleteThe opposition brought this up in parliament, ah, but did they not realise that ours were fitted with additional accessories like rear-view mirrors, air ionizers and flat screen TV's not to mention radar warning receivers, 20mm cannons, rocket launchers and machine-guns.:"
-Which part of SATIRE do you guys not understand?-
Oh and yes "Workhorse" and "Long range tactical copters" are taken in context from Our Brilliant then Defense Minister, Thank you. And Quoting them in this passage was Satirical.
ReplyDeleteKtemoc, I'm disappointed you lambasted a person's article without really going through it. Its either you're careless or your mental faculty's not as good as I first thought.
adios. oh yes and buy a Webster's Dicky by d way
;-) thanks - I use Oxford and Macquarie wakakaka
ReplyDeleteReading it for the first time, Vijay, I didn't realize that it was satire, and was in the process of writing something critical.
ReplyDeleteThen I noticed the rear-view mirrors and the 'pass the buck game', which I didn't notice and skimmed right through because I was focused on Ktemoc's initial verdict of the letter, which was that you were a random BN nutcase.
Maybe it's also because we, as Malaysians are not used to the likes of Colbert, and are more familiar with commentators who froth at the mouth of Malaysia Today (sorry guys, but I perceive it as such).
Guess that means I have to read more of the genre. ;)
ha ha no offense taken guys.
ReplyDeleteI am considering very much what unladen swallow said.
I guess we perceive things trough the lenses we are looking.
I had an inkling that I may have been mistaken for a random BN nutcase after Artic Turban started likening me to "relative of that moron NALLA, AND FIRST COUSIN OF PANDIT SMY VELLU."
This also underscores the point that there are a lot of BN nutcases out there who may write something totally moronic and think they actually have a point.
I dont blame KTmoc really because it is not beyond a BN diehards supporter to spout such drivel.
A couple of months ago I wrote a sardonic tongue in cheek letter purportedly in support of Pak Lah,
it was anything but supportive of him
My letter in support of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=6778953884&topic=5590
One pro UMNO website actually carried it and offered it as proof that the Indian community supported Pak Lah, then anti UMNO cybertroopers arrived and lambasted them for their stupidity,
embarrased they deleted my article and the entire topic.
All this is a lesson to me as well to be more discerning and read between the lines.
Regards
Vijay Kumar Murugavell
I dont blame KTmoc really because it is not beyond a BN diehards supporter to spout such drivel.
ReplyDeletewakakakakakaakakakkaaaa
the unladen swallow,
ReplyDeleteyou should just say 'Malaysians are dumb a lot', opposition and government supporters alike. that would make more sense. ehe!
I don't blame KTmoc really because it is not beyond a BN diehards supporter to spout such drivel.
ReplyDeleteSETUJU...