UMNO TELAH BINCANG LEBAR MENGENAI MODEL EKONOMI BARU (MEB)

Malaysian Insider telah melaporkan bahawa UMNO telah menbincangkan MEB ( sila baca) seperti berikut

KUALA LUMPUR, 27 Mac — Datuk Seri Najib Razak berkata Model Ekonomi Baru (MEB) yang bakal dilancarkan Selasa ini telah dibincangkan dengan panjang lebar oleh Majlis Tertinggi (MT) Umno malam tadi dengan harapan segala pendekatan dan kaedah pelaksanaan akan mendapat sokongan semua pihak.

“Kita sedar apapun kita buat, ia perlu mesra pasaran dan mendapat sokongan rakyat,” kata Perdana Menteri selepas mesyuarat Majlis Tertinggi (MT) Umno di sini malam tadi.

Butiran MEB akan diumumkan dalam dua peringkat — fasa awal minggu depan dengan disusuli dengan fasa kedua ketika pembentangan Rancangan Malaysia Ke-10.
Mesyuarat itu berlangsung kira-kira tiga jam.

Najib yang juga Menteri Kewangan berkata MEB perlu dipastikan untuk mencapai matlamat dan objektif transformasi negara sebagai negara maju dan berpendapatan tinggi.

Sehubungan itu, MEB yang akan dibentangkan oleh kerajaan pada minggu depan dibincangkan dengan panjang lebar pada mesyuarat itu.

MT telah membincangkan tentang kaedah dan pendekatan yang sesuai untuk mendapat sokongan dan keyakinan golongan Bumiputera, bukan Bumiputera, pelabur asing dan pasaran global, kata Presiden Umno.

Beliau juga berkata mesyuarat MT Umno malam tadi telah diberikan penjelasan mengenai keadaan ekonomi semasa.

Mengenai pelantikan Ketua Umno Gua Musang Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah oleh kerajaan negeri Kelantan untuk mewakili negeri itu dalam perbincangan royalti minyak dengan kerajaan Persekutuan, Najib berkata itu adalah “keputusan kerajaan negeri (Kelantan)”.

Beliau berkata wang ihsan dan sumbangan dari kerajaan pusat akan dibuat berdasarkan perlembagaan negara dan demi kebaikkan rakyat Kelantan.

MyKad for Petrol : Usaha Halus Untuk Menyingkirkan UMNO dalam PRU 13

Pada PRU 12 yang lepas, kerajaan BN Pak Lah telah dihukum hingga kehilangan majorIti dua pertiga kerana menaikan harga minyak secara mendadak tanpa kajian mendalam. Kini Dato Sri Najib berhadapan dengan desakan agar susbsidi petrol dihapuskan oleh berbagai pihak. Sila baca analisa berikut yang dipetik dari blog ini

On Thursday, the Star reported that the new Government’s proposed fuel subsidy scheme based on the engine capacity of vehicles and using MyKad "has apparently been shelved." This blogger heard the same and it shows the PM is listening to the people.

The Star quoted some source expressing frustation for the shelving because it seems they have done a loty of work. The manner The Star wrote the report is such the country desperately need a no subsidy and market driven retail oil price. One can only feel these commentators have ulterior political motive to see BN lose the next General Election.

But what boggles the mind is why these dumb asses can't see the MyKad for Petrol smells of a scam from far away. Before answering that, read the posting by Paul Tan here for information on the new subsidy scheme. The Malaysian Instinct viewed it as impractical. The article reproduced below:

The Malaysian Instinct viewed it as impractical. The article reproduced below:
MyKad For Petrol:Painless But Practical-lessBy Loan Shark, Malaysia Instinct.

Recently, government has announced a new fuel subsidy mechanism set to be implemented on May 1 which will see the amount of subsidised fuel based on the engine capacity of a vehicle.

The revamp is being done to lessen financial burden on the Government, which spends billions ringgit each year to make petrol and diesel affordable to rakyat. However, the initiative to entail the use of MyKad for fuel purchases, seems to be not a good idea. Malaysia’s concern that the new subsidy scheme which depends on MyKad for verification and transaction, could be troublesome for consumers and petrol station's operators.

This could possibly create hassle and congestion as people need to go through many verification processes and extra devices to identify their vehicle capacity, economic status, and the fuel price they entitled to. Even though, MyKad will be functioned as a debit card where people can reload it upfront and use it later, but still people facing a messy time consuming to verify the MyKad and the process will even take longer if payment is made using a credit card or in peak time.One more thing, it is envisaged that the scheme will be based on consumer's nationality.

Absolutely for Malaysians and totally dismissed subsidized petrol or diesel for foreigners.As such, the need for MyKad to purchase petrol is mandatory. The question arises as to whether it is eligible to those having foreign spouses could use their MyKad to buy fuel for their husbands or wives.Other considerations for the new scheme will be the engine capacity as the amount of subsidised fuel based on the engine capacity of a vehicle.

The subsidy would be capped and limited to cars below 2.0cc which mostly owned by low and middle class citizens, whereas owners of cars with engine capacities bigger than 2.0cc would not enjoy it. Some automobile experts have decried a new structure which merely based on engine capacity, does not solve any problem.

They claimed, fuel consumption is not just about engine capacity but also engine technology by the manufacturer. They are also suggesting the government to explores alternative means of reducing the overall cost of driving because, as the oil crisis in previous years have demonstrated, there are times when sustaining the petrol subsidy is simply economically unviable.On the other hand, luxury car dealers believed the new subsidy system based on engine capacity is flawed and likely unfair.

The luxury car owner is already more expensive petrol. Hope the government will consider the scheme very carefully before implementing it.It may backfire and cause more frustration to the rakyat. The main objective of the government is to remove petrol subsidies and yet ensure that those in need of assistance would receive it correctly.

But the worrying factor is not so much the price but rather the mechanism to be adopted. Should this new fuel Mykad-based mechanism takes place coming May simultaneously with fuel price hike, it's indeed adding fuel to a flame.

Masih boleh kemuka usul MEB - Mukhriz

KANGAR 20 Feb. - Pertubuhan bukan kerajaan (NGO) Melayu masih boleh mengemukakan usul dan cadangan kepada kerajaan berhubung Model Ekonomi Baru (MEB).
Timbalan Menteri Perdagangan Antarabangsa dan Industri (MITI), Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir berkata, belum terlambat untuk pihak NGO berbuat demikian kerana masih ada ruang bagi kerajaan mempertimbangkan cadangan mereka.
"Saya harap NGO Melayu seperti Dewan Perniagaan Melayu Malaysia (DPMM) di seluruh negara dapat kemukakan cadangan dan usul mengenai MEB sekarang," katanya.
Beliau berkata demikian kepada para pemberita selepas merasmikan Forum Ekonomi Melayu anjuran DPMM Perlis di sini hari ini.
Menurut Mukhriz, usul dan cadangan tersebut perlu dikemukakan kepada Perdana Menteri, MITI, Unit Perancang Ekonomi (EPU) dan Kementerian Kewangan untuk diberi pertimbangan sebelum MEB diumumkan oleh Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak bulan depan.
"Kerajaan sedar kebimbangan dan tekanan yang dialami oleh NGO Melayu daripada pelbagai sektor dan industri mengenai MEB yang disifatkan akan menjejas kepentingan bumiputera di negara ini," katanya.
Mukhriz mengakui, sebarang tekanan yang dihadapi oleh NGO Melayu akan turut memberi kesan terhadap keputusan pilihan raya akan datang.
"Saya sedar sebagai wakil rakyat, jika kerajaan tidak memberi pertimbangan sewajarnya, padahnya akan diterima menjelang pilihan raya nanti.
''Saya sendiri telah menyaksikan perubahan intonasi NGO Melayu mengenai kerajaan dalam pertemuan yang diadakan sejak kebelakangan ini," ujarnya.
Menurut Mukhriz, antara perkara utama yang diminta oleh NGO Melayu ialah sebarang dasar baru kerajaan mestilah berlandaskan Perlembagaan.
"Saya fikir itu adalah alasan yang logik kerana sebarang keputusan yang terkeluar daripada Perlembagaan akan menimbulkan banyak masalah," jelasnya.
Namun, beliau menegaskan, kerajaan tidak sekali-kali mengabaikan tanggungjawabnya kepada bumiputera malah sentiasa berlaku adil kepada semua pihak. UTUSAN MALAYSIA

MODEL EKONOMI BARU :NGO Melayu jangan bimbang

ALOR SETAR 20 Feb. - Model Ekonomi Baru yang akan diumumkan oleh Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak bulan hadapan akan memberi pertimbangan yang sewajarnya kepada kaum bumiputera, kata Timbalan Menteri Perdagangan Antarabangsa dan Industri, Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir.
Mukhriz berkata, pertimbangan itu sejajar dengan dasar yang telah digunakan sebelum ini khususnya Dasar Ekonomi Baru (DEB).
"Saya telah menerima banyak kunjungan daripada Badan Bukan Kerajaan (NGO) Melayu yang mewakili pelbagai sektor dan industri yang telah menyampaikan rasa bimbang bahawa model ekonomi baru itu nanti begitu terbuka sehingga mengurangkan peluang kepada pengusaha bumiputera," katanya kepada pemberita selepas merasmikan Forum Perdana Pembangunan Insan di Dewan Sekolah Kebangsaan Langgar, dekat sini hari ini.
Beliau berkata, dalam mana-mana dasar, kerajaan pasti akan memberikan pertimbangan yang sewajarnya kepada semua pihak.
"Kerajaan tidak akan melancarkan sebuah dasar baru yang bertentangan dengan perlembagaan dan perkara ini perlu dinyatakan dengan jelas supaya rakyat khususnya kaum bumiputera tidak bimbang dengan apa yang bakal dilancarkan oleh Perdana Menteri kelak," tambahnya lagi.
Mengulas tentang DEB, Mukhriz berkata, masyarakat perlu sedar walaupun terdapat beberapa kelemahan dalam pelaksanaannya, DEB telah terbukti berjaya membasmi kemiskinan, mengimbangi dan menyamaratakan peluang untuk setiap lapisan masyarakat tidak mengira kaum.
"Masalah ekonomi yang kita hadapi berpunca daripada faktor-faktor luaran seperti krisis kewangan dan krisis ekonomi global," katanya.
"Jadi, saya fikir tidak wajar sesetengah pihak menyatakan bahawa masalah ekonomi yang kita hadapi sekarang disebabkan oleh DEB," katanya. — Bernama

MEB perlu ambil kira hak kaum majoriti, penduduk asal - Perkasa

PUTRAJAYA 17 Feb. - Kerajaan perlu mempertahankan hak istimewa orang Melayu dan bumiputera dalam Model Ekonomi Baru (MEB) yang akan diumumkan pada akhir bulan depan.
Presiden Pertubuhan Pribumi Perkasa Malaysia (Perkasa), Datuk Ibrahim Ali berkata, MEB perlu mengambil kira hak kaum majoriti dan penduduk asal seperti yang digariskan Dasar Ekonomi Baru (DEB) yang tamat pada 1990. Menurutnya, maklumat yang betul mengenai pencapaian orang Melayu dan bumiputera sekarang dalam pembahagian kekayaan ekonomi negara di era daya saing ini perlu diambil kira. "Mengikut statistik yang ada sekarang peratus bumiputera yang disasarkan DEB tidak pun mencapai sasaran 30 peratus seperti diharapkan, iaitu hanya sekitar 18 peratus. "Itu pun tidak dikira pegangan yang dimiliki syarikat milik kerajaan (GLC), mungkin hanya sekitar tiga atau empat peratus," katanya.

Beliau bercakap pada sidang akhbar selepas menyerahkan memorandum Perkasa mengenai hak keistimewaan Melayu dan kaum bumiputera dalam MEB kepada Pengerusi Majlis Penasihat Ekonomi Negara (MPEN), Tan Sri Amirsham A. Aziz. Beliau yang mengadakan pertemuan selama dua jam dengan Amirsham turut mendapat penjelasan mengenai pelaksanaan MEB untuk menjana ekonomi berpendapatan tinggi kepada negara.Menurut Ibrahim, kerajaan perlu mengetepikan pandangan usahawan bukan Melayu dan usahawan Melayu berfahaman liberal yang mahukan ekonomi negara mengamalkan sistem pasaran bebas.

Tegasnya, ada antara mereka mahu persaingan perniagaan dalam negara sepatutnya dibiarkan berlaku secara brutal iaitu bersikap kejam. Selain itu, katanya, mereka juga mahu kerajaan membuang segala keistimewaan melalui subsidi yang telah diberikan serta mengamalkan sikap tidak terlalu melindungi. "MPEN perlu menekankan aspek ruang lingkup pengukuhan tindakan DEB sedia ada sebelum melaksanakan MEB. "Tindakan ini untuk memastikan semua komposisi kaum mempunyai pecahan ekonomi yang seimbang bagi mengelakkan berlakunya penindasan terhadap yang lemah," katanya.

Sementara itu, Ibrahim berkata, Perkasa akan menganjurkan sidang meja bulat mengumpulkan pelbagai pertubuhan bukan kerajaan (NGO) Melayu pada 7 Mac ini bagi membincangkan nasib ekonomi Melayu dalam MEB. "Perbincangan ini perlu dilakukan bagi mencari cadangan dan langkah baru untuk diutarakan kepada MPEN mengenai kepentingan Melayu dan kaum bumiputera," jelasnya. Beliau berkata, tindakan itu juga untuk mengelakkan berlaku ketidakpuasan hati di kalangan NGO berkenaan setelah MEB diperkenalkan nanti.

World on Fire : Perlu di baca oleh seluruh rakyat Malaysia

World on Fire

Amy L. Chua (Chinese: born 1962 in Champaign, Illinois) is the John M. Duff, Jr. Professor of Law at Yale Law School. She joined the Yale faculty in 2001 after teaching at Duke Law School. Prior to starting her teaching career, she was a corporate law associate at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton. She specializes in the study of international business transactions, law and development, ethnic conflict, and globalization and the law. Chua has also written two books, Day of Empire: How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance - and Why They Fall (2007) - which examines seven major empires and posits that their success depended on their tolerance of minorities - and the New York Times bestseller, World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability (2003), which explores the ethnic conflict caused in many societies by disproportionate economic and political influence of "market dominant minorities" and the resulting resentment in the less affluent majority. World on Fire examines how globalization and democratization since 1989 have affected the relationship between market dominant minorities and the wider population.

World on Fire

In the Philippines, Chua explains, the ethnic-Chinese minority has far greater wealth than the indigenous majority, with the result being envy and bitterness on the part of the majority against the Chinese minority -- in other words, an ethnic conflict. She believes that democratization can increase ethnic conflicts when an ethnic minority is disproportionately wealthy. "When free market democracy is pursued in the presence of a market-dominant minority, the almost invariable result is backlash. This backlash typically takes one of three forms. The first is a backlash against markets, targeting the market-dominant minority's wealth. The second is a backlash against democracy by forces favorable to the market-dominant minority. The third is violence, sometimes genocidal, directed against the market-dominant minority itself."[1]. Also, "overnight democracy will empower the poor, indigenous majority. What happens is that under those circumstances, democracy doesn't do what we expect it to do -- that is, reinforce markets. [Instead,] democracy leads to the emergence of manipulative politicians and demagogues who find that the best way to get votes is by scapegoating the minorities." [1]

According to Chua, other examples of ethnic market-dominant minorities include Chinese people in Southeast Asia; "whites" in Latin America; Jews in Russia; Croats in the former Yugoslavia; and Ibos, Kikuyus, Tutsis, Indians and Lebanese, among others, in Africa [2]. In her book, Chua discusses different reasons for the market dominance of different groups. Some groups achieve market dominance because of colonial oppression or apartheid. In other cases, it may be due to the culture and family networks of these groups. For many groups there is no clear single explanation. [3]

Americans can also be seen as a global market-dominant minority, which particularly when combined with using military might and flaunting political domination, cause resentment. [4]Chua states that she is a "big fan of trying to promote markets and democracy globally," but that it should be accompanied by attempts to "redistribute the wealth, whether it's property title and giving poor people property, land reform .... Redistributive mechanisms are tough to have if you have so much corruption." [5]

A professor at Yale Law School, Chua eloquently fuses expert analysis with personal recollections to assert that globalization has created a volatile concoction of free markets and democracy that has incited economic devastation, ethnic hatred and genocidal violence throughout the developing world. Chua illustrates the disastrous consequences arising when an accumulation of wealth by "market dominant minorities" combines with an increase of political power by a disenfranchised majority. Chua refutes the "powerful assumption that markets and democracy go hand in hand" by citing specific examples of the turbulent conditions within countries such as Indonesia, Russia, Sierra Leone, Bolivia and in the Middle East.

In Indonesia, Chua contends, market liberalization policies favoring wealthy Chinese elites instigated a vicious wave of anti-Chinese violence from the suppressed indigenous majority. Chua describes how "terrified Chinese shop owners huddled behind locked doors while screaming Muslim mobs smashed windows, looted shops and gang-raped over 150 women, almost all of them ethnic Chinese." Chua blames the West for promoting a version of capitalism and democracy that Westerners have never adopted themselves. Western capitalism wisely implemented redistributive mechanisms to offset potential ethnic hostilities, a practice that has not accompanied the political and economic transitions in the developing world. As a result, Chua explains, we will continue to witness violence and bloodshed within the developing nations struggling to adopt the free markets and democratic policies exported by the West.