Kawan saya, Basri seorang bekas tentera pernah cakap dengan saya...
"Hei sheikh! Saya sejak dalam servis lagi tak pernah sekalipun pangkah BN. Masa tu saya declare pendirian saya. La ni dah kat luaq....lagilah!!"
Patut sangatlah kawan saya tu dapat PGB. You rock bro....!!
Jadi kepada rakan2 beliau semua...tok sah larrr dok pusin2 buat statement macam2. PRU13 ni pangkah Pakatan Rakyat. Full stop!!
Ex-serviceman: BN losing military votes
Contrary to the claim by the deputy defence minister, the RMAF Veterans Association president says the more controversies that crop up concerning military procurement, the worse it is for BN.
PETALING JAYA: It is Barisan Nasional and not the opposition which is witnessing a decline in support from those serving the military, said the Royal Malaysian Air Force Veterans Association.
Its president Shahrin Osman said the government’s silence over the controversies surrounding military procurement could result in an electoral backlash.
“The more the opposition tells these stories, the more army men and ex-army men will vote for the opposition,” said the former flight sergeant.
“The government should counter these claims by proving to the public what they are doing is right. But the problem is there is no approach from the government at all to address this,” he told FMT.
He was responding to Deputy Defence Minister Abdul Latiff Ahmad who told Parliament yesterday that politicising the issue of military procurement would hurt the feelings of servicemen and result in them supporting BN.
Shahrin also said that most of the ex-armed forces personnel do not trust the mainstream media, especially the Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia.
“I just spoke to some of them, and they are saying they don’t read Utusan now. It only carries ‘sweet stories’ (about the government),” he said.
Opposition blows things up
On the same note, Shahrin also pointed out that the opposition had a tendency for blowing things out of proportion.
“Not all their allegations are totally false but the opposition tends to exaggerate. If the story is 10% real, usually they’ll add another 30% of fiction.
“But it is not wrong for them to raise questions. When we were in the armed forces, we knew the prices and we knew the prices become higher when it comes to buying,” he said.
Shahrin said the government should go down to the ground to explain to the people the truth.
“This is what my association is doing. We organise programmes asking ministers to clarify their actions and what benefit it does for the people,” he added.
Shahrin said that the government’s treatment of retired armed forces personnel was also not helping the situation.
“Many things are not fulfilled. Many of us feel cheated by the government. The pensions are also too little for these men, who find it hard to adapt to civilian life and normal jobs,” he said.
Vote an individual right
Commenting on the same issue, Malaysia ex-Army Association (PBTM) president Muhammad Abdul Ghani said that a vote was an individual right.
“I believe that a vote is a personal right. Military men should think properly on whether an issue is true or not, differentiate between lies and truth. If it is just baseless allegations, we should not take them into account,” he said.
“I’m sure that many of the ex-servicemen are smart enough to evaluate. The more they mention about these issues, the better,” he said.
However, Sarawak Veteran Armed Forces Association president Thomas Ling said that he fully supported the deputy minister on this matter.
“We cannot accept politicians, especially those from the opposition, simply releasing statements to accuse our people of misconduct. I believe all ex-servicemen are loyal to our leaders under the prime minister who leads us,” he added.
In recent years, Pakatan Rakyat had questioned the government’s procurement of defence equipment.
These included salvos against the Scorpene submarines, RM9 billion for six Littoral Combat Ships (LCS), an estimated RM2 billion for a Mindef IT project, RM7.55 billion for armoured carriers and other matters.
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MARCH 2 — For two decades, we listened to Dr Mahathir Mohamad because he was the prime minister and he gave his version of everything, from privatisation to NEP and crony capitalism.
But now we know better. Now we see the all the excesses seeping out and the double talk. His so-called economic policies depended on oil revenue, not any superb thinking.
The cheap labour model he gave us worked for a while but now Malaysia is stuck in the low income trap. His government officials accuse Malaysians of being dependent on subsidies but what they don’t tell us is that MITI and MIDA can’t sell the country as an investment destination without giving 10- to 15-year tax holidays, subsidised gas and cheap foreign labour.
This is Dr Mahathir’s legacy so we should be cynical when he warns that minimum wage may lead Malaysia to bankruptcy.
So what’s his option, import more Indonesians and Bangladeshis?
I dare say these are the things that will lead us to bankruptcy, and not minimum wage:
1) The culture of allowing those responsible for billions in losses to get away without having to pay any price for their wrongdoing or excesses.
The Lebanese chap behind the massive failure that is InventQjaya is enjoying his life while the government picked up RM1.2 billion tab; Tajudin Ramli does not have to pay RM800 billion (including interest) to Danaharta after a confidential settlement brokered by government.
2) GLCs losing tons of money despite government protection and bailouts. MAS just announced RM2.5 billion in losses and Dr Mahathir’s favourite toy, Proton, is in the red. Again.
3) The strange award of contracts such as the National Feedlot Corporation (RM250 million), the RM2.2 billion Kinrara Damansara Exchange (to an Umno lawyer and former chief justice) and the multibillion ringgit West Coast Highway (allegedly to a friend of Najib’s).
4) The bloated civil service. Malaysia has a workforce of 12 million and 1.2 million are civil servants, the highest proportion in the region. Every time the civil service is given a bonus, it costs the government some RM8 billion.
5) Corruption by politicians and their nominees.
6) Funds and projects approved for vote-buying in the run-up to elections.
Minimum wage will increase the cost of doing business but the paltry increase will not bankrupt Malaysia.
Business as usual, Umno-style, is already bankrupting Malaysia.
* Ali Kadir reads The Malaysian Insider.
Celebrating his birthday again on a leap year yesterday, Ramli said in a speech that it all began when his officers were entrusted with taking action against a syndicate member who was sent to Jeli, in Kelantan to serve restricted residence (RR) order.
“They falsely accused Rosli (right) of failure to declare his assets. Their objective was to implicate him for representing me, after they found that all the sensational stories spread by them through the mainstream media about me being the