By Paul Chong        Tuesday, 1 September 2015

Mahathir capitalised on his “Malay Dilemma” & professing to be true blue Bumiputra with his wiry ways to establish himself as the virtual king in the Malaysian political arena & ruled ultimately for 22 years, a record reign of standing up to now.

Significantly, Mahathir’s reign was all M’s . . . his name itself Mahathir Mohamed . . . “Malay Dilemma’ (his book) . . . it’s all Money, Money, Money. He initiated & established the M 9Money) culture.

Najib’s time is all A’s . . . He distinguished himself as the only the Prime Minister in this whole wide world who could get away with alleged murder of Mongolian beauty queen Altantuya. . Added to that great score, he committed Anuar Ibrahim, the former DPM under Mahathir, to a life of sodomy. He even staged all the obstacles to prevent Azizah, wife of Anuar, from almost not succeeding as Selangor’s Chief Minister. Two Aircrafts (MH370 & MH17) hitting the world’s headlines in their controversial disappearance & crash . . . a mystery till today unsolved. Najib ruled that the word “Allah” (referring to God) could only be used by the Muslims.

With all the follies of A’s he furthered himself to changing the famous catch phrase of CCN (Corruption, Cronyism Nepotism) to CNN, the last N being Najibism . . . more famous than the American media CNN. The crux of Malaysia’s political quagmire is the 1MDB (1 Malaysia Development Berhad) – the national financial investment front of which he is the chairman, is the misappropriation of US$700 million or MR2.6 billion revealed by WSJ to have found its way to the personal account of Najib. He claimed it to be a political donation from a Middle East donor. The end is near at hand with the global BERSIH 4 protests. He has been given enough rope to hang himself!

The Malaysian political quagmire as seen in the crisis thus created . . . the glaring loss of confidence & credibility, the fall of commodity prices & contending with the weakening ringgit. Capitalism is dying or dead according to the INCEIF emeritus professor Datuk Mohamed Ariff.

Mohamed Ariff said : “It appears that the country is in denial mode … The sharp fall in commodity prices, rapidly shrinking ringgit, ballooning external debt, ailing stock market and falling central bank reserves are all taking a heavy toll on the Malaysian economy. And yet, we keep hearing that the fundamentals are still strong.”
“Such talk only serves to dampen investor sentiment further, as these give rise to the impression that the government cannot even recognise or understand that there is a problem in the first place, let alone fix it,” he said.
According to Mohamed Ariff, the country’s confidence and credibility crisis stemmed mainly from domestic factors.
He said these factors included the absence of checks and balances besides a lack of transparency, disclosure and accountability.

“The crisis the country currently faces is largely homegrown. It smacks of poor governance and mismanagement. The ongoing financial scandals speak volumes. The poor handling of the issues with no straight answers and the absence of checks and balances have affected the country’s image in the global arena … The economy is bogged down in a crisis of confidence and credibility. To put the economy back on track, we must restore confidence and credibility, which can only come with increased transparency, disclosures and accountability,” Mohamed Ariff said
Last Wednesday (Aug 26), the ringgit weakened to a new point against the US dollar at 4.2995. Compared to the Singapre dollar, the ringgit depreciated to a fresh level at 3.0563.

Yesterday (Aug 28), the ringgit changed hands against the US dollar at 4.1990. Compared to the Singapore currency, the ringgit was traded at 2.9903.