TwoSen

I REFER to the commentary on bloggers, “Liars hiding behind the cyber curtain” (NST, July 13) by Tunku Abdul Aziz.

For a long time now, there has been a growing credibility gap between the government and the governed in Malaysia, with the latter thinking that they have not always been given the correct or complete information on matters in the public domain that affect their daily lives.

It is because of this credibility gap that most bloggers have received such a warm welcome from Malaysians, especially since the March 8 general election.

There are, of course, bloggers and bloggers. Not all are bad; some are pretty good and well-intentioned, but time will certainly expose what the rest are up to. These are what I term “fast and furious” bloggers. They seem to enjoy their empowerment as cyber activists, but they insist on and enjoy this right without bothering about the attendant responsibilities.

I think it is time the bloggers stopped hiding behind the cyber curtain. If any blogger has something to say, he or she should say it in their name, not behind a pen name or nom de plume, and do so fully aware of the liabilities and limits that go with this right to publish and disseminate information.

Secondly, it is time for government leaders to work towards closing the credibility gap that is widening between the government and the governed. Perhaps a Freedom of Information Act is in order.

STEPHEN TAN BAN CHENG, George Town

Source: NST – July 24, 2008

WE REFER to the letter “Don’t exempt IPPs from windfall tax” (July 18). It should be noted that the statements are in no way supported by facts. We would also like to voice our deep concern that an organisation that claims to represent the views of the public, such as the Consumers Association of Penang, has in this instance taken such a simplistic stance without consulting the industry or having undertaken sufficient research to substantiate the claims.

The letter alleges the following:

» “It should not be forgotten that IPPs have managed to rake in super profits year after year since they came into operation in the 1990s.”

We would point out that given the huge combined investments of RM24.6 billion put in by the 11 peninsula-based IPPs, the returns are commensurate with investments and risks involved, and are consistent with other major infrastructure industries in Malaysia and internationally.

Independent Power Producers have to manage significant operational, construction and financial risks such as price escalation during the construction of power plants, foreign exchange exposure to the cost of imported equipment, subsequent parts replacements to operate the plant during the contract period, and costs and penalties should IPPs fail to meet the commercial operation date and performance standards specified in the PPA (power purchase agreement).

» “Last year, 13 IPPs made a profit of RM3.37 billion.”

The figure quoted is inaccurate. The results of a recent survey conducted by the association of the 11 peninsula-based IPPs, which excludes TNB’s Janamanjung and Kapar power plants, showed that against a combined investment of RM24.6 billion, our combined profit before tax stands at RM2.01 billion, while combined profit after tax is RM1.53 billion.

» “This is because Tenaga Nasional was forced to agree to the overly generous terms given to IPPs in the contracts signed between them.”

The assumption that all PPAs were not negotiated on a level playing field is a gross exaggeration and misrepresentation undeserved of the sector. Industry observers frequently refer to PPAs under a three-tier or generation categorisation, the third generation of which is commonly known to include demand risk sharing with TNB.

Furthermore, TNB continues to be a member of the association and an active IPP through its Janamanjung and the majority-owned Kapar plants. Any suggestion that the company would negotiate against its own interests must therefore be viewed with some suspicion.

» “Since 1997, IPPs benefited from RM27.6 billion in gas subsidies from Petronas.

Petronas, TNB and the public have long been on the losing end because of the IPPs.”

It has been clarified in Parliament that IPPs do not benefit from any Petronas “subsidy” .

Any form of so-called “subsidy” is the res-ult of the government’s withdrawal from the Electricity Tariff Control Mechanism in 1997, due to the increased volatility in international oil pricing experienced at that time and with a view to protecting the people from this instability. TNB was instead compensated with an increase in electricity tariffs, which was further supported by fixing the gas price to the power generation sector at RM6.40 MMBTU.

Our members are contractually bound under the respective PPAs to ensure minimum wastage in the utilisation of fuels. Failure to comply will result in fiscal penalties.

As such, any “benefit” referred to is at no time a form of financial gain to IPPs. In fact, the RM27.6 billion represents the total subsidy given to the people who would otherwise have faced higher electricity tariffs.

Such misrepresentations are detrimental to the industry and its investors. It is our hope that in the future, CAP will contact the association directly for information on the industry or its members.

Dr Philip Tan
President
Association of IPPs in Malaysia

Source: The Sun – July 23, 2008

WHILE there has been a public uproar over the Terengganu state government’s decision to buy 14 Mercedes Benzes for its state executive councillors and other officials, one can forgive it for changing the officials’ cars from Proton Perdanas.

Motorists who have used any national car model will be familiar with the litany of complaints heard or read about in the mainstream media on how the vehicles have many shortcomings which affect their performance.

Windows which malfunction after some time, door knobs which break if pulled too hard, gearboxes which give trouble after a few years – the list goes on.

If a survey was conducted of people not satisfied with the national car, I am sure a majority would regret having chosen the vehicle as a symbol of national pride over a foreign car.

Although it is morally wrong for the state government to switch from the national car to a foreign product in view of the government’s austerity drive, it does call into question the quality of our national cars.

Proton’s top management needs to seriously look at this matter as surely after more than two decades, the quality control of our national cars should be on par with that of imported vehicles.

The Terengganu state government should follow the example of other states which don’t change vehicles at their whim and fancy as taxpayers’ money is involved here.

After all, if the prime minister and his cabinet colleagues can use the Perdana Executive as their official cars, why should state exco members be exempted from using national cars?

Hamdan Ibrahim
Kuala Lumpur

Source: The Sun – July 23, 2008

I REFER to the article by Chan Kheng Hoe (Freespace, July 21) who had aptly and in a subtle way described the state of the mentality of our police force in arresting Anwar Ibrahim. It’s how you interpret his story. I look at it as subtle criticism of the police force.

I liked it most when he spoke of the fear of US marines coming in to rescue Anwar. The deployment of 1,600 police personnel to stop one man going to Parliament to listen to a vote of no-confidence against the prime minister showed the state of fear which the police and government are in. Police priority is to fight Anwar rather than crimes like robberies, rapes and snatch thefts!

May I propose to Chan that he next give us his out-of-the box view on the brutal murder of Altantuya Shaariibuu.

Koh TG
Subang Jaya

Source: The Sun – July 23, 2008

AS A Touch ‘n Go card user, as are many other Malaysians, I use it whenever I can, including on RapidKL buses.

However I have been refused entry into buses on many occasions when the card reader was not working, even though I had paid the one-day ticket fare earlier on another bus using my card.

The driver would advise me to take the next bus, which hopefully had a card reader in working order. Is this the right way in which to treat a paying customer?

I don’t think waiting for the bus is enjoyable. One should consider oneself lucky if one manages to board a bus since RapidKL buses are known for their irregularity.

The Touch ‘n Go card is supposed to make payment faster and convenient, save cost and conserve the environment by doing away with the need to use tickets, but I have now stopped using the card owing to RapidKL’s attitude.

May I suggest that the buses have a back-up or portable card reader, or just allow Touch ‘n Go card users to enter the bus?

64bit
Kuala Lumpur

Source: The Sun – July 23, 2008

THE terengganu state government has come up with an excellent idea for creating female employment – exclusive waterfalls for women run by feminine managers and female security guards threatening enough to scare Heinrich Himmler. the state’s chief minister Ahmad said, who announced the stellar plan last thursday, said that “no man would be allowed” on the site. Mr Ahmad knew that men only went to waterfalls to ogle women because he was certain that a woman’s history was chiefly determined by her geography. It just showed the tortured terrain of his thinking but he was a practical man who knew that, as a leader, only one man in a thousand was a leader, the other 999 simply followed women. that was why women had to be kept separate and away from the males. “His” and “Hers” waterfalls were the way of the future and he advised tourists not to go “chasing waterfalls.” Now there was a chief minister who knew his thin Layer Chromatography. Moreover, separating the sexes at the falls was a good way to prevent divorce because Mr Ahmad had finally figured out that marriage was the leading cause of divorce. Bank Negara Malaysia thought that not spending enough was the leading cause of divorce and fretted that Malaysians who put a little away for a rainy century were not shopping hard enough which was why the economy was in terrible shape. People had become too demanding and that was why demand had dropped and it was absolutely hammering the economy “We know money can’t buy everything,” said the central bank reasonably. “that’s why there are credit cards.” Bank Negara wanted everyone to live within their budgets and beyond their means because it was the least any loyal, patriotic Malaysian could do. the central bank knew that it had to think positive but feared that wouldn’t work. It was being criticised unfairly for galloping inflation but they thought prices were merely cantering and counselled their critics to be patient. “Everything comes to a person who merely waits,” it said, quoting Disraeli. But its critics knew that the things that came to a person who waited may have been those left behind by those who got there first. there was no doubt about it. Prices were rising and money still talked but only to say goodbye. In fact, a plate of duck rice was so expensive that people were beginning to duck rice in favour of noodles. Actually, the cheapest way to go was to eschew meat altogether which sort of completed the picture, evolution-wise. Malaysians had finally fought their way to the top of the food chain to become vegetarians. Mr Ahmad shuddered at the thought because his favourite animal was steak but even he realised that a new accountability had crept over the nation. Many people now wished that the buck stopped here because they could use it. And death had taken on a new meaning: if there was a will, people now wanted to be in it. terengganu’s Mr Ahmad thought that people were panicking unnecessarily and advised them to grow their own vegetables because he’d heard somewhere that the leeks would inherit the earth. “time will tell,” he said sagaciously, “because time is the great teacher.” But no one believed him because they knew that, sooner or later, time killed off all its students.
• S. Jayasankaran is the bureau chief of Singapore’s Business Times and can be contacted at sankaranjaya@yahoo.com

Source: Malay Mail – July 23, 2008

Rudra Avatara: Kumpulan Cerpen Bahasa Malaysia by Uthaya Sankar SB
(Uthaya Sankar SB, 2008, 120 pages)

Just as politics is too important to be left to politicians, the Malay language too should stop being identified as the preserve of Malays. that’s the only way for the language to grow. And it’s embarrassing that some citizens still get ‘complimented’ on their national language skills when we all should know better. uthaya sankar sB can tell you all about it. He has been one of our most prolific and consistent creative writers for over a decade. In fact, his story Yang Aneh- Aneh (1997) remains one of the best things I have ever read: a twitchy, surrealistic odyssey of detachable body parts and pollution scandals. this book is his third for this decade and like the other two, it is selfpublished. There are even four pictures of the author in case you want to see how he looks like. uthaya is enough of a name to be published by an august body like Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka but, you see, there was a bit of a tiff. He is a strong advocate of the term Bahasa Malaysia and was appalled when DBP changed all instances of it, in a manuscript he submitted in the 1990s, to Bahasa Melayu. He thinks that the decision to revert back to Bahasa Melayu (when Anwar Ibrahim was Education Minister) is ethnocentric. And so he doesn’t want his books to be published by anyone that insists on that term. (Although I can’t help noticing that National Laureate A. samad said, that crafty old fellow, here uses the term ‘bahasa tanah air’ (language of the land) in his handwritten I Introduction, and so sidesteps the controversy altogether). the title story speaks of reincarnation and Hanuman. It’s amazing to read about Hindu beliefs and iconography –narrated, as it were, from the inside – in the national language. It makes you realise how free of iconoclasm, and therefore how neutered and ‘circumcised’, the language has been over the decades. If Uthaya were merely a spokesman for his race, this would not make him an interesting writer. What counts for more: His supple and surprising uses of plot and perspective, his sense of irony and the absurd, his occasionally breathtaking endings. All the stories have been published earlier, but they have been carefully selected, because several of them have ‘doubles’ or ‘sequels’ in the same volume. the stories tend to be in the first person, and often addressed to a second (kau). the dynamic between these two characters often provides a kind of tension; it can veer from the vindictive to placatory. Although he has won the requisite sastera (literary) awards, uthaya has an almost potboiler sense of pace and momentum; not surprising when you consider John Grisham is one of his favourite writers. Another favourite would be RK Narayan, and, like him, Uthaya creates fictional locales (siru Kambam rather than Malgudi) peopled with lightly eccentric and talkative folks. It’s a fictional world that keeps playfully replicating and commenting on itself, as when a character visits the place after reading a book called Unknown Facts about Little Known Siru Kamban. Fail Merah: Konspirasi Membunuh Sasterawan Pulau Cinta is a lightly fictionalised work in which uthaya takes on the people who want to kena (sabotage) him over the whole Bahasa Malaysia issue. Abrasive and self-aggrandising, this succeeds if you treat it like a parody of a paranoid thriller, right down to its twist ending. Otherwise it falls victim to the unfortunate tendency of much local fiction to preach too much. When the satire is applied with a lighter touch, as in the reformasi-era Cat, the results linger longer. the ambitious cat aside, the most memorable character here is the boy who wants to get into The Malaysia Book of Records by staying underwater for 22 hours. the best piece might be the very last one, which asks a simple question: What happened to the moon? It has somehow disappeared! A wondrous family tale with striking imagery (I can see the movie right now!) Cerita Paurnami achieves homespun magic. A satisfying way to end a collection that’s already more than some of its parts. For details on how to order this book, surf on over to www.uthayasb.cjb.net
• Amir Muhammad’s kinky horror movie Susuk (codirected with Naeim Ghalili) opens nationwide on 7 August.

Source: Malay Mail – July 23, 2008

SO much has been said and written about the bad behaviour of some of our parliamentarians that I just wonder how on earth they were elected as people’s representatives. Using coarse language, passing obscene remarks, thumping their tables and exhibiting lewd gestures are the norm when these MPs take to the floor in the Dewan Rakyat.

Time and again the Speaker or his deputy has tried to bring order to the House, but apparently failed to contain the rowdy behaviour of these MPs, irrespective of whether they are in Barisan Nasional or in the opposition.

Those who attend parliamentary sessions, including students, pensioners, government servants, the public and foreigners, expecting a sombre and educated discussion on government policies, will be aghast and disenchanted at the vulgarities, racial slurs and the airing of personal vendettas.

Obviously, those who are soft-spoken, polite, courteous and non-aggressive have no place in our Dewan Rakyat.

One thing that perplexes me is that if the same MP, with all the negative characteristics, is appointed to a cabinet post, his behaviour and mentality would change dramatically.

Polished arguments, articulate expressions and gestures and the ability to carry himself with dignity and finesse shall then be his hallmark for holding a high position in society.

Such traits can be achieved if our MPs make a concerted effort to acquire them. Leaders such as Gandhi, Nehru, Harold Wilson, John F. Kennedy and many other top politicians were fine examples who, to my knowledge, did not resort to name-calling and were absolutely gracious in speech and mannerism. They might not accept the other person’s view but they were never rude.

I believe it is high time that our prime minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, called a special parliamentary session involving all MPs of both sides to find ways of bringing back dignity to the Dewan Rakyat and implore those MPs who had resorted to profanities and vulgarities not to repeat them.

The saying “give instructions to a wise man and he may be yet wiser” holds true in this instance.

SYED OMAR MOHAMED, Kluang

Source: NST – July 23, 2008

MALAYSIA has advanced to such an extent that we have sent an astronaut into space. But here in Taman Kota Jaya, Kota Tinggi, we have a traffic light which has been breaking down every other day for the past four months.

The authorities do not seem to take this matter seriously. It appears that Kota Tinggi does not have any expertise in maintaining its traffic lights.

This frequent breakdown is causing problems to motorists, which could result in serious accidents.

To make matters worse, irresponsible motorists park their vehicles alongside the traffic light beside the double yellow line. This obstructs the free flow of traffic. At times, the traffic police ignore the vehicles parked illegally.

It looks like the authorities concerned will act only after a disaster occurs.

K.N. DAMODARAN, Kota Tinggi

Source: NST – July 23, 2008

THE government has given Tenaga Nasional Bhd the green light to increase electricity tariffs effective this month in view of rising operational costs. While the need for increase cannot be denied, it should be noted that 75 per cent of our consumption is in the month of June and the balance (25 per cent) in July.

TNB has taken the short way out of this situation by considering everything to be July consumption, which is actually only 25 per cent. If this is indeed the case, then it has acted unfairly and I would appeal for the necessary adjustments to lighten the financial burden of consumers.

MURUGAN NAIR, Johor Baru

Source: NST – July 23, 2008