Pudding is no proof, eating pudding is

MM Online - Proof is in the pudding, Pakatan leaders say about ‘unsustainable ‘manifesto (extracts):

PETALING JAYA, March 23 — Pakatan Harapan (PH) leaders called today for a chance to win federal government to show that their manifesto works.

Batu MP and PKR vice president Chua Tian Chang said the current administration’s spending habits were unsustainable, in response to comments that PH’s election manifesto for the 14th general election would harm the economy.

“The proof will come if we are in power,” Chua told Malay Mail.

The saying is incorrect, about 'The proof is in the pudding'.

Where is the proof?

The correct saying is "The proof of the pudding is in the eating".

Yes, proof is in the eating, not just in the pudding. Isn't that basic logic?

As for Tian Chua boast in his “The proof will come if we are in power” I'd say that's an EMPTY boast.

By then (after the election), it'll be far too late to check Tian Chua's promise.

And that is further explained by:

isn't that too late? 

If it is just "The proof is in the pudding" then that's as good as saying "Wanna buy a pig in a poke" (poke being medieval English for bag or sack - saying derives from "Don't buy a pig in a poke" as explained by following image, wakakaka).

Manifesto Magic - Non-Core Promise

From FMT - Don’t abolish GST and don’t reintroduce SST (extracts):

by TK Chua

GST is bad because poor implementation has caused prices to escalate beyond the 6% GST rate. To maintain stability, just keep the GST but with a reduced rate, and for goodness’ sake don’t reintroduce the SST. It is going to be ugly if SST is reintroduced.

I understand abolishing GST is already a part of PH’s manifesto. Don’t worry; it can rethink this manifesto if it wins the election.

I love such lateral belakang pusing thinking, that a political party manifesto can be "re-thought" as required after that party has won the election.

Does that mean Mahathir can "rethink" his promise to get a pardon for Anwar, which BTW may take two to three years, while the pardon he obtained for ex-MB Selangor Harun Idris took only a fraction of that time?

What else in the manifesto can be "re-thought"?

Frightening manifesto magic.

Also read about:

Australian non-core promise

An election promise that you have gone back on after the election is over. It is important not to define what promises are core and what are non-core before the election itself.

After winning the 1996 Australian Federal election John Howard slashed spending on Education, Health, Social Welfare blaming a budget deficit left by the previous government.

When it was pointed out that he had promised not to cut spending on these areas as part of his election platform and that he had lied, he claimed that these were "non-core promises".

From Australian News.com.au (extracts):

HARDCORE NON-CORE PROMISES

This one’s a doozy: core and non-core promises. It’s the get-out-of-jail-free card that has now become part of the political lexicon.

Here’s how it worked. When Liberal Prime Minister John Howard won office in 1996 he promised to retain many of the social policies of the Keating Government that he had vanquished.

Howard’s first horror budget — which analysts say Treasurer Joe Hockey will emulate when he hands down his first budget next week — cut funding to higher education, labour market programs and the ABC, despite a promise not to.

Howard justified this by saying he would keep his “core” promises, sidestepping criticism by implying that the rest of his commitments were “non-core” and didn’t count.

Pardon for Anwar?

Extracts from Ubah My A** by Karamjit Singh:

Tun Hussein Onn 

Harun Idris 

In the mid-70’s, when the late Tun Hussein Onn was the deputy prime minister, he insisted that the then Menteri Besar (of Selangor) Harun Idris was charged for bribery and corruption.

Harun was charged, convicted, and sentenced for the same.

A few years later when Hussein Onn was the prime minister, he went to England for a medical check-up. Mahathir was the then acting PM. In that little window, Mahathir wrote to the king and secured a royal pardon for Harun.

Today, he says he will remain for 2-3 years while waiting for a royal pardon for Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. Why? so he could place his son in a better footing to become the PM.

Or the pardon may not even materialise, wakakaka.

Yes, but why is there the humongous difference in the time required to get a pardon for Harun Idris and that promised for Anwar Ibrahim?

Gangster?

TMI -Apologise for ‘table-flipping speech’, ex-servicemen tell Negri MB (extracts):

A GROUP of retired police and military servicemen want Negri Sembilan Menteri Besar Mohamed Hassan to apologise over a speech they allege was inciting youth to “take physical action” against those who slander the government.

The National Patriots Association (Patriot) president Brig Gen (rtd) Mohd Arshad Raji said that if politicians continue to make inflamatory speeches, then the next election will not be free of violence.

"Regardless of whether there is a police report made against Hassan, the association urges the police to investigate the speech and to take whatever action permissible within the law," he said in a statement today.

Arshad was responding to a video that has gone viral showing Mohamad telling Barisan Nasional Youth members in the Rembau parliamentary constituency to take physical action against business outlets that defame the government.

Hassan in the video had said: "If there is a coffee shop disseminating slanderous statements against the government, you storm the coffeeshop, overturn their tables. If you're picked up by the police, I will bail you out."

Arshad said the video showed how uncultured and uncivilised Hassan could be, of wanting to remain in power, not by peaceful, democratically acceptable means but by inciting and propagating violence against those who criticised the government.

"His conduct is unbecoming of a politician and a state leader.

"Such gangster-like conduct is totally wrong and unacceptable in our Malaysian culture.

"His speech wasn’t well received by the public at large and many who viewed the video had expressed scorn and disgust."

Unbelievable. Methinks Hassan is even worse than Perkasa or Jamal Yunos, wakakaka.

I was told that in Negeri Sembilan. the most active gangster group (now dominated by Indians) is 18, and followed by 36, 21, 08 and 24.

Gang 18 in Penang was once called (in Penang Hokkien) Chap Peh Lohan (18 Lohans or Arhats).

18 Arhats 

Chinese like to name their gang(s) after Chinese gods like:

18 Lohans,

8 Immortals (Pat Sian)

4 Heavenly Kings (See Tai Kim Kong)

etc

8 Immortals 

4 Heavenly Kings 

Wakakaka.

But Hassan belongs to UMNO, which if translated into Penang Hokkien (Am Nor) would come out as "Dark Two", wakakaka again.

WTF, who switch on the f**king lights when we ...?

wakakaka

Both lie like sh*t

Malaysiakini - Is GST responsible for rising prices? by Guansegaram (in full):

A QUESTION OF BUSINESS

Is the Goods and Services Tax (GST) responsible for higher prices now? Can one reverse the price increases by scrapping the GST or zero-rating items in the GST? Will the poor see a significant drop in living costs if we removed the GST?

Unfortunately, the answer to all three questions above, as we shall see, is a resounding “no!” Which begs the question why the opposition is using these old, false assertion to whip the rakyat into a frenzy.

That’s probably because their surveys show that the rise in living costs is a major election issue. So, their spin doctors - yes, the opposition has theirs too - probably decided that demonising GST will resonate with the rakyat. Never mind-lah that it is not quite accurate! Easy to message, ma.

That GST ploy appeared to backfire some when Penang Chief Minister and DAP supremo Lim Guan Eng was criticised heavily for encouraging, singing and dancing to a heavily political GST singalong with children.

Lim’s defence was rather pathetic, saying that BN was practising double standards when the Federal Territory minister and Umno secretary-general did worse at a government school. Does that imply that it is okay for Lim to descend to the kind of behaviour that BN politicians practise? By now he should know that the public wants a higher standard of behaviour from him than that.

But the truth may actually resonate better with the rakyat in this case. There is a good story to tell. In any case, should anyone who wants to be more moral and honest than BN try and win the election by putting up half-truths? No.



What is closer to the truth is that the cycle of price increases is more related to the depreciated currency - now around RM3.9 to the US dollar, which has come down steadily from around RM3 around post the 2009 world financial crisis when money flowed into developed countries. And the other problem is that incomes have not risen sufficiently to keep up with rising prices.

But first, is the GST responsible for higher prices now? No. Because it was implemented on April 1, 2015. In fact, the full-year effect on prices as a result of GST was 2016. Most of the price increase would have occurred in 2015 because GST was already in place for nine months. It is an indisputable fact that GST is no longer responsible for rising prices.

For 2017, therefore, price increases and the rising relative cost of living - incomes staying stagnant while prices increased - that people are experiencing is not at all due to the GST. On top of that, a long list of goods and services are exempt from GST, which means price increases for these cannot be attributed to GST. This includes almost all food consumed by most people, transports costs, many services, education and so on.

Why set the clock back?

In fact, GST is a good tax in the sense that it taxes consumption - those who consume pay more, with essential goods and services exempted. It catches too those who evade income tax by taxing consumption because it is the rich who consume more and therefore spares the poor for whom many essential items are exempted anyway.

Not only are the opposition’s assertions false, it appears that they don’t even want to help the poor by raising taxes from those who can afford it to help the development process. Who are the opposition helping by cutting GST? The poor? Certainly not.



Will abolishing GST bring down prices for the poor? Highly unlikely because the poor consume essential goods more which will not move even a little bit down because there is no GST on them. What will happen is that although the price of consumer goods may, I repeat may, go down prices are more likely to be slow to adjust and will not drop by as much - sticky downwards.

Where the prices will go down is for items where the prices are clearly marked - such as cars or restaurant food prices. But even then, what many of them would do is to simply increase their prices and say that costs have gone up. Thus, GST removal is likely to have an extremely limited impact in terms of prices coming down, and certainly not for the ordinary man.

So will the poor see a significant reduction in the costs of living if GST is removed? Of course not. The opposition is campaigning strongly on an issue which is not – yes, rising costs are an issue but not GST because that is not what is causing costs to rise anymore.

The groundwork has been set and the GST is being collected. Difficulties have already been ironed out. Some 160 countries around the world implement it. Why set the clock back and abolish it? There is so much more the opposition could be doing.

If GST is not the cause of rising prices now, what is then? Now we come to the real story. Currency depreciation is the main one. When BN under Najib Razak was re-elected in May 2013, the ringgit was RM3 to one US dollar. Today it is RM3.90 - in effect a depreciation by about nearly a quarter or some 25%. That exerts a lot of cost pressures because on average prices of imports are going up by an average of 5% a year, adding up over the years.

Yes, some money is moving back to the US but the Malaysian currency depreciated more than most despite the economy showing good relative growth and performance. Why? Most probably because of reduced confidence in Malaysia caused by 1MDB, the biggest case of kleptocracy in the world. Investors and speculators, and many Malaysians have imputed a negative premium on the ringgit.

The other reason is that successive BN governments, including Najib’s have not done enough to increase the incomes of ordinary people, which means price increases exceed income increases. These are the two main reasons why people are suffering from the higher cost of living.

Is that not a sexy enough story to tell voters instead of resorting to half-truths, economically unsound measures like abolishing GST and asking children to participate in misleading singalongs? Imagine what will happen if GST is removed and prices remained high and increased anyway as it is most likely to. Then what? How does the opposition fill that hole in revenue?

For me, the main reason this government should go is that it has allowed kleptocracy - theft of unimaginable proportions, circa RM40 billion - to go uninvestigated and unpunished. That’s good enough reason instead of conjecturing falsehoods and descending to the low level of the incumbents.

When your hands are clean, truth is the best defence - and offence. Keep the dirt off your hands and fight, then you stand a better chance of converting people to your side to win the war.

BEST political statement 2018 (8)

FMT - DAP: We won’t play race game in Raub (extracts):

Ariff Sabri better known as Sakmongkol AK47 

Mohd Ariff Sabri Abdul Aziz captured the seat for DAP in 2013. He got 23,415 votes against BN candidate Hoh Khai Mun’s 20,601.
Between 1978 and 2013, Raub was represented in Parliament by BN MPs from MCA. They included former MCA president Tan Koon Swan and former MCA Wanita chief Ng Yen Yen.

Mohd Ariff suffered a stroke in May last year and is not expected to defend the seat in GE14.

A well placed source in Pahang DAP recently said the party would be fielding a Chinese candidate in Raub although it is a Malay-majority area.

The source told FMT the choice was between DAP vice-chairman Teresa Kok, former Selangor exco Ronnie Liu and Leong.

Sweetie Teresa Kok 

Salt-of-the-Earth Ronnie Liu 

Asked whether DAP would consider fielding a Malay candidate instead if BN were to field one, Leong said it was unlikely.

“We will not waste time or resources worrying about race,” he said. “It is the preoccupation with race that has made our country backward.”

Another BEST political statement for this year, to wit, what has been said by DAP's Leong Ngah Ngah, that:

Leong Ngah Ngah

“We will not waste time or resources worrying about race. It is the preoccupation with race that has made our country backward.”

Related:

(1) BEST political statement 2018.
(2) BEST political statement 2018 (2).
(3) BEST political statement 2018 (3).
(4) BEST political statement 2018 (4)
(5) BEST political statement 2018 (5)
(6) BEST political statement 2018 (6)
(7) BEST political statement 2018 (7)

"Hang Tuah" exposed?

MM Online - Ex-aide: Mukhriz a liar, Cambridge Analytica advised him personally for GE13 (extracts):

KUALA LUMPUR, March 21 ― SCL Group Southeast Asia chief Azrin Zizal today accused his former boss Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir of lying about not using the services of Cambridge Analytica (CA) in the 2013 general election.

Azrin said that he was ready to provide evidence to rebut the former Kedah mentri besar’s claim that he was only employed by the latter until 2013.

“Mukhriz says I was only his media officer until 2013 and that I was no longer with him when he became Chief Minister of Kedah. But this is absolutely false.

“I worked for Mukhriz personally and provided communications and strategy advice for him until 2015, including during the 2013 general election, and afterwards when he became Chief Minister. I will provide proof if he continues to falsify the truth,'' he said.

This comes after Mukhriz denied using the Britain-based data analytics firm’s services for the 2013 general election to win Kedah.

“Perhaps ― while Mukhriz continues to deny my work for him and deny the benefits he gained from the advice I provided to him from Cambridge Analytica/SCL Group for Kedah during the 2013 general election ― he will also deny Kedah winning an extra six parliament seats, winning over the State and him becoming Chief Minister?” Azrin said.

Azrin also said that Cambridge Analytica was not employed by Barisan Nasional (BN), but claimed the firm had provided 2013 election advice to Mukhriz “personally”.

Did and does it matter whether Mukhriz used the services of Cambridge Analytica or not? What has been far more devastating is the current stoush (quarrel) between Mukhriz and his former aide Azrin Zizal.

Once again it proves the much vaunted 'Malay loyalty' is only a syiok-sendiri myth. Thus Hang Tuah was probably just a myth.

Ustaz who prayed for death given 'chop' by MAIS

From Malaysiakini:

The Selangor Islamic Council (Mais) has suspended the preaching tauliah (credentials) for Selangor PAS committee member Ahmad Dusuki Abd Rani.

Ustaz Ahmad Dusuki 

As mentioned in my previous post Ever pray for death to happen? I have been astonished by such a "prayer of death" and felt that Allah swt must have been disappointed by such Ustaz Dusuki's evil doa.

It's simply by any standard a very wicked act. Really, what sort of preacher was that? What sort of political party would condone let alone support such a wicked act?

One would have expected a doa praying for the 'other side', namely, Pakatan Harapan, to repent and return to the 'ways' as espoused by PAS.

And if Ustaz Dusuki has been a wee tolerant, kindhearted and compassionate enough in the mode of Nelson Mandela, he would even have blessed Pakatan and hope for the coalition's repentance a.s.a.p.

But instead Ustaz Dusuki prayed to Allah swt: “We plead that every pact that is planned by them (PH) is destroyed. Make the evil PH not have the strength to soldier on.”

Really, Ustaz Dusuki should ask himself who has been the evil side to wish ill on anyone?

Well, he has gone too far and MAIS has now given him the chop.

Rest assured

TMI - China’s aircraft carrier sails by Taiwan, tensions rise (extracts):

Tsai has warned against what she called China's military expansion – the increase in air and naval drills around the island since she took office in May 2016.

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen 

The aircraft carrier – a second-hand Soviet-built ship – caused a stir in Taiwan when it first entered the strait in January last year in what was seen as a show of strength by Beijing.

It returned in January this year.

"We are monitoring the whole process of the Liaoning's cross-region drill," Defence Minister Yeh De-fa told Parliament today when asked to comment on its latest moves.

The defence ministry said in a statement that it sent aircraft and vessels to conduct surveillance. "No unusual activities have been spotted and we urge the public to rest assured," it said. – AFP, March 21, 2018.

Before our two China "experts" (CK and HY) start yelling at each other (while looes74 fellates each of them, wakakaka), this post is NOT about the two China's.

Please note again what Taiwan's Defence Ministry said, to wit: "No unusual activities have been spotted and we urge the public to rest assured."

Rest assured - such a nice relief from the usual Malaysian exhortation for the public to "remain calm".

Yes, believe it or not, the word 'calm' as in 'remain calm' or 'keep calm' or 'WhateverTF calm' really annoys me.

It's my lexicon bêtes noire (bugbear). I get highly riled whenever I read of the word within a certain context - no, not as in 'a calm sea' or 'the calm before the storm' etc.

The annoying 'certain' context would be when (and regrettably just too often) we have politicians or so-called national leaders (from both sides of the political fence) advising us to 'remain calm', even in situations which didn't trouble us in the least.

And if we were to be in situations which trouble us greatly, just how the hell would we be able to 'remain calm' when we would in all probability be anxious, worried and perhaps even sh*t-scared?

Thus such advice would be useless and worse, rather patronising, as if we are budak-budak kecil to be calmed ... f**k, I mean ... soothed.

Promoting popularity but grossly irresponsible

MM Online - BMI Research gives Pakatan manifesto the thumbs down (in full):

KUALA LUMPUR, March 21 — Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) election pledges would harm ongoing efforts to cut Malaysia’s chronic overspending and weaken the country’s business environment, said BMI Research today.

In a note critical of the Opposition pact’s promises due within 100 days of winning the general election, the Fitch Group unit also questioned the deliverability of the pledges.

Among pledges in the pact’s manifesto announced this month include removing the Goods and Service Tax (GST), abolishing toll concessions, and writing off outstanding study loans under the National Higher Education Corporation (PTPTN).

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak previously said these pledges would cause federal debt to climb to RM416 billion.

“We believe that PH will struggle to implement its ambitious 10 promises in 100 days, with all of its promises being populist and aimed largely at addressing the population’s complaints against the ruling government,” it said in the note.

BMI Research felt that while the pact’s pledges would be popular, their delivery would be detrimental to the Malaysian economy.

Among others, it noted that the pledges did not come with clear descriptions on how a PH administration would pay for any of the measures, many of which would remove existing and vital sources of federal revenue.

“Considering that GST accounts for 17.9 per cent of the government’s revenues and has been growing steadily since the share of 13.7 per cent in Q215, the abolishment of GST would place downside pressures on the government’s revenues.

“The increasing of subsidy payouts would also present additional pressures, with the share of subsidies falling to 5.3 per cent of the total in Q317 from 16.8 per cent in Q210 as part of the Najib Razak administration’s subsidy rationalisation efforts (which started in July 2010),” BMI Research continued.

The unrealistic nature of the manifesto, despite the popularity of the pledges, also made its credibility among voters questionable, the research unit added.

Businesses, in particular, were unlikely to be receptive of the pact’s pledges, especially with existing reports of smaller firms struggling to cope with the current minimum wage, which PH vowed to increase further.

Promises to review existing contracts for large infrastructure projects could also jeopardise the country’s currently balmy relations with China, it said.

China is one of Malaysia’s largest investors and trade partners, and is involved in several key projects that are ongoing or being planned.

“The detailed probe into foreign-funded mega projects could also strain ties with China and potentially alienate the Chinese-majority Democratic Action Party (DAP)’s support base, with many Chinese supporters having a favourable view of Beijing,” it said.

BMI Research suggested that PH would have done better to focus its manifesto on institutional reforms, which it said had served the defunct Pakatan Rakyat pact well in the previous two elections.

“However, we believe that the implementation of many of these reforms will be extremely challenging, especially since many of these systems were implemented under Mahathir,” it said.

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was prime minister from 1981 to 2003, but is now the chairman of PH.

Pakatan might have bought a lemon

MM Online - Pakatan seen struggling with youths, fence-sitters:

KUALA LUMPUR, March 21 — The Opposition pact’s ambition to win federal power could stumble on Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) difficulty in convincing young and undecided voters, according to BMI Research.

The Fitch Group unit noted growing discontent among these two voter segments towards the PH pact that is hoping to defeat the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition for the first time in history.

Despite the pact’s attempts to woo young voters in its election manifesto, BMI Research believed that their disillusionment with politics may already be entrenched.

Youth voters are traditionally anti-establishment and more likely to be sympathetic to PH, whereas BN customarily depends on older, more conservative support.

“We are seeing signs that the younger population could choose to sit out or spoil their votes, with neither coalition seeming like a viable alternative.

“The UndiRosak (spoilt vote) campaign has been gaining traction online, where voters are urged to spoil their votes to signal their displeasure with both coalitions,” it said.

Similar problems await the pact with undecided voters, which it is counting on to provide the crucial swing vote needed to unseat BN from battleground states as well as Putrajaya.

BMI Research projected that undecided voters may abstain in the 14th general elections and lower the turnout.

Much of PH’s chances will ride on Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) that is tasked with winning over the Malay vote, particularly in rural areas.

However, BMI Research said the prospects of PPBM’s success are vague as the party’s strength and support are not clearly established.

“With DAP having almost cornered the urban Chinese vote (especially in strongholds Penang and Selangor), it is likely that the battle for votes will be waged among the Malays and Indians, making it difficult to determine if PH’s election bid will be successful.”

Pakatan (DAP, PKR and Amanah) erroneously assumed that with Mahathir in their camp they will be able to strike deep into the Heartland and secure more Malay votes. But that's still iffy.

But the man they thought would be their greatest asset has turned into a humongous liability, especially (and strangely) with the young and undecided voters. Maybe the young aren't so gullible as the old-timers in Pakatan have been desperate to recruit their old enemy. They have learned their political history well.

#UndiRosak has been initially dismissed as a joke and then subsequently treated with hostility and abuses, which makes one wonder what kind of democracy, freedom of speech and free association are Pakatan (except for a few DAP principled politicians) propagating. But we aren't going to take shit from any bullies.

We are prepared to wait. Afterall we have waited for almost half a century. You go ahead and do what you wish but don't rope us, gang-press us, bully us into supporting a man who we have despised, abhor and detest for nearly 40 years.

All we can do for you is to wish you good luck, both in the elections and with him as your leader/PM-in-waiting.