— PRESS STATEMENT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE —

May 29th, 2009

The administration’s lackadaisical approach to governance and accountability is deeply disturbing. At a time when Malaysian’s are forced to cut costs and worry if their hard earned money will cover the next month’s bills, our government continues to pour billions in taxpayer money down the drain.

The government’s neither-here-nor-there approach to the PKFZ scandal is a clear sign of UMNOs unwillingness to sacrifice its own delinquent members for the sake of the national good. The handling of the PKFZ affair amplifies the hypocrisy which was manifest in the investigations into money politics within UMNO and the selective persecution of foes of the new Najib administration.

The government has bragged that billions have been disbursed from the two fiscal stimulus packages. Yet there is virtually no information available to the public about the process of awarding tenders. We are left to assume that it is business as usual and have little confidence that the economy will benefit from the misappropriation of these funds that are being channeled to the same coterie of crony companies.

Inefficiency and largesse remain the prevailing traits of our bloated bureaucracy. Government monopolies preclude any significant change in the economic landscape of the nation and promises of liberalisation ring hollow when it comes to the lack of political will to implement change.

To date there is no plan in sight to resuscitate the economy and transform it as the Prime Minister has promised. We hear from him incoherent statements predicting a recovery by the end of the year while at the same time admitting that our economy is beholden to that of the US and Europe, which by their own account will remain weak into 2010.

Bank Negara has this week confirmed what most Malaysians have known already for eight months, save the Minister of Finance. The country is headed for recession. Thousands of jobs have already been lost and in the coming months we know that more factories will be shuttered and more will be laid off – by some estimates up to a half-million people. 2009 growth figures have been slashed to -5%, the worst economic scenario Malaysia has faced since the Financial Crisis.

These challenges require visionary leadership and the courage to act decisively against corruption and cronyism. Sadly both qualities are lacking in the current administration.

ANWAR IBRAHIM

— KENYATAAN MEDIA UNTUK EDARAN SEGERA —

29 Mei 2009

Sikap Kerajaan Malaysia yang mengabaikan prinsip tadbir urus dan pertanggungjawaban amatlah membimbangkan. Pada ketika rakyat Malaysia terpaksa berjimat cermat dan resah samada pendapatan mereka mampu menanggung sara hidup, kerajaan kita pula terus menerus mencurahkan ribuan juta dana awam secara culas.

Pendirian sambil lewa umno di dalam menangani skandal Zon Bebas Pelabuhan Klang memperlihatkan sikap sebenar mereka yang sanggup menggadaikan kepentingan negara terutama apabila kecurangan itu membabitkan ahli parti tersebut. Kaedah kes itu ditangani mendedahkan sikap hipokrit mereka yang bertanggungjawab menyiasat skandal tersebut dan juga kes politik wang yang berlaku dalam umno. Kita melihat wujudnya pendakwaan terpilih terhadap mereka yang dianggap sebagai musuh pentadbiran Dato’ Sri Najib Razak.

Kerajaan mendabik dada kononnya sudah ribuan juta diagihkan dari kantung dua Pakej Ransangan Ekonomi tersebut. Namun tidak ada maklumat yang disediakan buat tatapan serta penelitian umum berhubung proses pemberian tender kerajaan. Ini membuatkan rakyat beranggapan pakej tersebut tidak memberi kesan kepada mereka dan menimbulkan rasa sangsi kepada kita bagaimana ekonomi akan pulih sekiranya dana yang ada hanya untuk kepentingan syarikat milik kroni pemerintah.

Ketidakcekapan dan pembaziran merupakan ciri utama birokrasi kewangan kita. Monopoli pastinya menghambat sebarang hasrat untuk memulihkan kedudukan ekonomi Malaysia dan program liberalisasi akan hanya terbantut kerana tidak ada iltizam untuk melaksanakan perubahan.

Sehingga kini tidak ada sebarang perancangan jelas untuk melaksanakan perubahan serta memulihkan ekonomi negara sepertimana yang dijanjikan. Kenyataan oleh Perdana Menteri bahawa negara kita akan pulih menjelang akhir tahun menimbulkan persoalan dan tanda tanya. Ini adalah kerana Perdana Menteri pada ketika yang lain, menyatakan bahawa ekonomi negara kita bergantung kepada Amerika Syarikat dan Eropah; yang mengakui ekonomi mereka hanya akan pulih menjelang tahun 2010.

Minggu ini Bank Negara mengesahkan apa yang perkatakan oleh rakyat Malaysia-kecuali menteri kewangan- selama lapan bulan ini. Negara ini diambang kemelesetan. Kadar pengangguran akan mendadak naik dan kilang akan lebih banyak ditutup. Berkemungkinan setengah juta orang akan kehilangan kerja. Pertumbuhan untuk tahun 2009 diunjurkan kepada negatif 5%(-5%), kedudukan eknomi terburuk sejak krisis kewangan terbaru.

Cabaran yang mendatang memerlukan pemimpin yang mampu menangani krisis ini dengan berani dan bertindak menentang rasuah dan kronisme. Sayangnya kualiti tersebut tidak ada pada pentadbiran yang baru ini.

ANWAR IBRAHIM

Pembubaran 7 cawangan umno Kangar inshaallah bakal menjadi titik mula kebangkitan rakyat Perlis untuk bersama-sama dengan agenda Perubahan. Saya jelaskan semalam bahawa Pakatan Rakyat berjuang demi kemaslahatan rakyat seluruhnya ketimbang politik umno yang gagal menjadikan kepentingan rakyat sebagai keutamaan.

Saya menyorot pembaharuan yang dilakukan di negeri-negeri Pakatan Rakyat terutamanya Selangor. Dasar yang digarap dan dilaksanakan seumpama pemberian air percuma, bantuan pendidikan, tabung anak Selangor serta khairat kematian sewajarnya menjadi iktibar kepada pemerintahan umno-bn. Apatah lagi pelaksanaan dasar tersebut tidak mengambil kira batas kaum. Kita yakin sesungguhnya keadilan adalah untuk semua. Sekian lama dasar pecah dan perintah dimanipulasi penguasa demi untuk terus kekal memerintah. Kini ia sudah tiba di penghujungnya.

Kemelesetan ekonomi sudah menjenguk hampir di jendela namun pentadbiran baru masih terkial-terkial mencari formula bernas. Kegusaran rakyat sudah tentu berasas. Apa tidaknya kadar pengangguran melonjak tinggi manakala kilang akan mulai menutup operasinya. Dijangkakan sehingga 500 000 ribu orang akan kehilangan pekerjaan. Mungkin isteri bapak menteri perlu muhasabah diri dan berhenti dari membeli belah di gedung-gedung mewah sekitar New York, Paris dan London.

Saya tegaskan dana awam wajib diurus dengan penuh ketelusan. Wang rakyat hendaklah dibelanjakan untuk projek pembangunan rakyat dan bukannya mengisi kantung para kroni. Ekonomi semakin menguncup,manakala pakej ransangan masih tidak merangsang.

ANWAR IBRAHIM

1) Kenyataan media Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim pada 19 Disember 2007 berhubung skandal Zon Bebas Pelabuhan Klang

2) Kenyataan Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim pada 30 Ogos 2007.

3) Laporan Lembaga Pelabuhan Klang

Pejabat Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim

From The Wall Street Journal
By Elffie Chew

KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysia’s economy shrank a worse-than-expected 6.2% in the first quarter from a year earlier because of a steep fall in exports and manufacturing, data released Wednesday showed.

Central bank Gov. Zeti Akhtar Aziz said economic conditions remain tough, and the economy is likely to register a similar performance in the current quarter.

The first-quarter contraction is the country’s first in nearly eight years and the worst since the fourth quarter of 1998 when GDP fell 11.2% from the previous year. It was more severe than the median 4% forecast by 18 economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires, and reverses the 0.1% growth eked out in the fourth quarter of 2008.

“We are now going into the third month of the second quarter; from what we have seen, export demand continues to be weak and economic conditions are still challenging despite early signs of an improvement,” Ms. Zeti said. Second-quarter gross domestic product “will be similar to the first quarter.”

Economic conditions, however, are expected to improve in the second half of 2009, supported by the government’s fiscal-stimulus measures and Bank Negara Malaysia’s efforts to increase financing for the private sector, Ms. Zeti said.

“Though Malaysia’s first-quarter GDP was worse than expected, it is not out of line with patterns in the region,” said David Cohen, an economist at Action Economics in Singapore.

For 2009, the current GDP forecast is a range of between a 1% contraction and a 1% expansion, but Second Finance Minister Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah said Tuesday that it “will definitely be below minus 1%.”

Prime Minister Najib Razak will announce a revision to the full-year GDP forecast on Thursday. Economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires predict a median contraction of 1.6% for 2009.

From The Guardian
By Loh Li Lian and Soo Ai Peng

* Biggest annual fall in GDP since Asian financial crisis
* HSBC says GDP dropped s/adj 5.1 pct from previous quarter
* Short-term, economy relies on global recovery
* Longer term, Malaysia looking at economic reform (Adds quotes from central bank, analysts)

KUALA LUMPUR, May 27 (Reuters) – Malaysia’s economy shrank by 6.2 percent in the first quarter from a year ago, the central bank said, the largest fall since the fourth quarter of 1998, and it will likely contract by the same amount in the second quarter.

The fall was more than the 4 percent drop predicted in a Reuters poll although it was smaller than declines seen in neighbouring Singapore, where the economy contracted 10.1 percent in the same period, and Thailand’s 7.1 percent fall.

“Despite early signs of improvement… (the second-quarter will be) very similar to the first quarter,” Bank Negara Governor Akhtar Aziz told a press conference on Wednesday.

The government has already said it will revise down its forecast that Asia’s third-most export-dependent country would shrink by 1 percent at most this year.

Malaysia’s short-term growth hopes rest on a global recovery boosting demand for its electronics, oil and commodities exports and on Chinese demand holding up, thanks to that country’s huge budget stimulus.

But after a prolonged period of not hitting its economic growth targets, which had envisioned the country joining the club of rich nations like fellow Asian tiger South Korea, Malaysia is now looking at big reforms to its economic model.

(more…)

By Leslie Lau | The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, May 29 — Datuk Mat Zain Ibrahim, the police officer who investigated Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s black-eye beating in 1998, has accused the country’s top lawyer and police chief of fabricating evidence in the assault but cleared Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad of any wrong-doing.

He claimed he was told by the then prime minister to ensure there was no cover-up in the investigations, according to a statement of claim made by him in a suit filed against the opposition leader.

But the former investigator now implicates Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail and Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan in what he claims was an attempt to introduce a medical report which he found suspicious.

According to his statement of claims which was obtained by The Malaysian Insider, the medical report prepared by a Dr Abdul Rahman Yusof from Hospital Kuala Lumpur had suggested Anwar’s injuries were self-inflicted.

Instead, Mat Zain asserts in his statement of claim that he had taken all possible steps to prevent the medical report prepared by Dr Abdul Rahman from being included in his investigation papers.

(more…)