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Wonder what your portfolio if u were a Minister? Maybe International Trade?

fuyooo,..a teaser from Jeff is always worth the wait..[rubbing hands]

The new cabinet is all about new beginnings. However, step on the wrong foot, you will have the whole picture with dramas and disasters waiting to happen.

Why is it that M2 Taib is in the cabinet and so are other non-performing ministers of the past..? Yes, the old lackeys has gone but the new ones are to be given a 100 day probation. Not performing, out you go!

Another thing to add about MCA, hows it that the MoH portfolio is given to the head of MCA Youth, who is a career politician from the get go, instead of Ng Yen Yen, who among her credentials is a Degree in Surgery and a Diploma from John Hopkins?

Further, isn't it an insult to Dr. Ng that Sharizat, defeated in the last election, is appointed "Special Adviser with Status of Minister" to the PM under the same portfolio?

"Obviously it's a confession that he had been wearing one hat too many."

Yes, I'd say so as well. He suddenly realised he had only two heads.

My 2 cents,

Zaid Ibrahim is a proven lawyer who have previously spoken up for all Malaysians. He was not selected to stand in Kelantan because of Kelantan UMNO politics, not because of any defeciencies on his part. I'm sure many Malaysians are supportive of his election to the Dewan Negara.

As for Cabinet, since when do ministers need to be professionals in their portfolios?

A minister is ultimately a manager, he/she does not need to be 110% familiar on his/her portfolio (we have Director-Generals for that)

What I hope for is professional management on the part of the ministers i.e. giving full resources to the respective DG's, stressing on need for competence and transparency and implementing KPIs that will measure the ministry's performance

As a Malaysian who are away for 15 years, I am so glad to see some changes happening in Malaysia, cos HOME is still HOME, and I still hope that we will move ahead and improve !!

As a start, I have never voted over these years, but were having a very strong desire to cast my vote in the recent GE, but were not given a chance, though we have consulate in HK, thus I wonder why ??

Anyway, the general public have given their trust and hope to DAP (which is also my choice if I were to vote ^-^) , I really hope that your team is dedicated for the development of PENANG and our country as a whole, as we are really so lag behind in the region !

My best of luck to you, my HOME and my country !

Hi All, I hv no passion for AAB & his administration. That said, my cursory observation is that, after his appointement by Mahathir I think he just gingerly walked into office without having a clear plan of how to lead & manage into a new era that is backdropped against a long 22 year reign of Mahathir. Although I do not intend to deduce that he should stay any longer, a four year stay is not enough to strengthen the goods and dismantle the bads that hv entrenched into our political life over that 22 year period.

That lacking of a plan and the lack of communication of such a plan (if it so exists) have proven to be a disaster on his credibility. His lack of interest in the political on-goings in Malaysia is quite telling. Even an apolitical rakyat is quite aware of his general apathy. I hv talked to many people of all walks of life and the general opinion is not so favorable for this old man. It's certainly baffling to me why a CEO bother to be in office if he neither hv a strategic plan nor the motivation to make changes for the country.

That said I am for the proposal of a two-term tenure for any government post with the possibility to return after the interval lapse. This way there are checks and balances in the system. Nobody is indispensable. Nobody is a superman/woman unless we ourselves create such a situation and further impose longevity on these positions which they do not necessarily deserve.

now that date sounds familiar...hmmm..something to do with DSAI's recent visit to the east and vice-versa? Pray tell.

What is After Half-past Six...?

Why, The Other Side of Midnight, of course!

Midnight is also called The Witching Hour.

And after midnight, the ghosts of past misdeed come back to haunt those who brought them into being. From a bag of big money to defending police foul play to all sorts of skeletons both on land, on water, below water and in the air, even up in space!. Rattling their bones in some almari somewhere, waiting to surface at the worst possible time.

Joined by the phantoms of little pieces of paper, boxes without forms and regiments of obedient souls. With swaggering ghouls burning posters and noisy ibis on wheels terrorising the lawful foes of their masters. Truly the putrid smell - far more nauseating than a blown up corpse crawling with maggots - reeks to the high angkasa!

The Other Side of Midnight...

Where mere mortals who prostituted themselves to get to the top meet their inevitable fates.

A perfect storm! The rakyat have spoken. They have shown their immense displeasure. All their frustrations and anger at the arrogance, injustice, double standards, hypocrisy, stupidity and greed of umno and its barisan members have burst out. The rakyat are finally awakened that they have been taken for a ride for too long. Enough was enough. Now they have turned the tables. The rakyat are now the masters. The govt has become the servant. This subtle change is going to grow bigger, majority or no majority.

And just as blogsphere provided the alternative to the main media and contributed so much to raising the rakyats' awareness of the underhandedness of umno and its cronies, the tripartite coalition of Barisan Rakyat now emerges to provide the alternative to barisan nasional. The term 'Barisan Rakyat' should be propagated. Together with it, meat must be put into things like the Merdeka manifesto to lay a new path ahead that will sweep away the cobwebs of old and usher the waves of change that the rakyat want.

Badawi's administration is in tatters. It's now under multiple pressures. Within itself, we see how their former leaders have had their smugness wiped from their faces even as they recalibrate their personal alliances, exposures and future prospects.

Today we hear Badawi telling his new cabinet to stay away from corruption. Why didn't he say that when he was made PM years ago? Declaration of assets should also have been made public long ago. Will it be done now? Let someone ask - if not, why not? And if yes, when, and will it include the assets hat have been made to the names of family members and relatives? Let transparency be the arrow of getting to the full truth. Umno has been given too much leeway to play word tricks on the rakyat in the past. That era is now bye-bye and gone. Bygone.

Another dilemma that Badawi's machinery will be facing relates to development. They have said what was decided will be continued despite some of the projects running into the five states now with the Opposition. The question remains - how will the new EPU be finetuning the rate of those developments? Will KJ and his people be influencing to slow-down the size and speed of allocations to those states so as to load pressure on the rakyat for the next election, just as we have seen the method used in Kelantan, Terengganu, and even in places like old klang road and kepong?

Yet another problem relates to the states lost. Not to have won Kelantan must have ired them as much as the fracas over the appointments of two MBs. To also lose Kedah and Perak must have rankled them. But to lose Penang, the former pearl of the orient, and Selangor, Umno's strongest stronghold, was the last straw which broke the junta unta's back. Badawi and his umno cohorts will feel this strongly everyday as they drive to work in Putrajaya, as much as when he visits his own constituency.

As they face this new reality, another problem will arise. BN's lifelines were Johor and the states in East Malaysia. If Badawi now prioritises the corridor project in Johor over and above those in the other states, that will only reinforce the perception of personal agenda and double standards which in turn will degrade the meaning of 'national' in barisan nasional. Furthermore, the rakyat in Sabah and Sarawak are going to question how come their states are still under-represented in the cabinet at the full ministerial level. Doesn't that say something that Umno has never changed its stand on how it defines 'power sharing' to suit itself? In addition, no one will rest easy until it is confirmed once and for all that voters in those two states were genuinely Malaysians born and bred, not foreigners given mykads in exchange for their votes. Why else would BN's officials purposely not turn up to present the data,a move repeated in nasty spirit by the sheer bravura of removing state project documents from the Kedah's MB personal office. In fact, when you think of it, who can have the nerve to take initiative to do such a thing, and one can as well ask the next question: who in the country has the authority to command the UTK, a wing of the military, to assassinate someone?

The perennial problem with an Umno-loaded administration has always been the lack of earnest rakyat-concerned focus on legacy. They never gave a thought to the portfolio. Remember how one EPU head was thrown to be bank governor and he lamented he knew nothing about national fiscal matters? Now when we look at the new cabinet lineup, it again shows this country has been run for 51 years on a constant downslide of no foresight about legacy issues.

Wouldn't an Anwar be anytime having stronger international standing and stature to articulate and attract international investment than a Muhyiddin?

And what will MMTaib be able to do in rural and regional development of all states if his special purpose is to regain one state only - Selangor? One also asks does he really not know english, as was used as defense in an australian court.

Soon enough, all the legacy issues will return to bite them inasmuch as their ignoring the plight and grievances of the rakyat. They thought that by spinning about development the rakyat will be taken in for another day. They thought that by ignoring the youths and their mobility to-and-fro the heartlands, the urban dispossessed will be kept at bay away from influencing the votes from the kampungs. Today they learn both are interconnected - because both have suffered from the same warped policies that provided only morsels while the big cakes are parceled out elsewhere in sweet deals only for a selected few.

As you travel round the country and take in what you can see from dawn to dusk, there is a creeping feeling that Malaysia has stalled. For an economy that proclaims over five percent growth, factories don't run three shifts; KLIA continues to be a white elephant,and that full of inefficiences for the tired air passenger coming in, and the surest barometer of stagnation - the lack of growth in starting salaries for the past three decades. Wages have become totally non-commensurate with the rising cost of living. In fact everything that has been argued in blogs formerly thought to be too grim have turned out to be the truth and nothing but the truth. And as we grasp these harsh realities, who do we see who will be leading the charge for Education - our only bastion of being relevant to the globalized world where human capital is the first and last attractor of investments and creator of growth and wealth?

They still don't know that they don't know.

Yet there is a glimmer of hope for old Malaysia. The Opposition has been revived simply because the rakyat have awakened and they want changes made. In the coming months, there will fresh debate and response to what Badawi's machinery is now trying to 'review'.

The Opposition parties must stay together to make sure Barisan Rakyat becomes enough a constant reality to gain mindshare in the rakyat - for the next election. Don't knee-jerk remarks that reflect the same mistakes made by those of the other barisan. The communication channels and networks between all opposition parties must remain open, candid, frank and consensual for the overriding purpose of maintaining opposition unity, even when the opposition is already running a state government. To not have this is to be open to snipering by the other barisan. And with the mainstream media at their disposal, they will turn the knife in. In fact, there should also be integrated coordination between the state governments of those five states. Assuredly there will be difference of opinion and disagreements to agree, but cross the bridge together, for what is at stake are the rakyats' total interest today and in the future. The problems of today will grow to be the problems of the future and both now and future must be given equal measure of focus. Therefore develop a common worldview - how the world will change and what can be done now so that future generations will continue to thrive, prosper and still have good values.

Secondly, the rakyat must leaven its expectations of what the Opposition can deliver - because the critical issue here is who still holds the purse-strings. Be assured that Umno et al will try to capitalize on this to their own advantage. Therefore be ready to expose them as and when they do so. If you ask, and are not given, tape-record the reply and play it back to the rakyat/voters so that they will know. The first wave change posited here is this: all communication must henceforth be frank and open. After all, one merely represents the rakyats' interest, and no amount of 'sensitive issues' can again be used as a reason to hide truths from the people again. Therefore, if BN with-holds funds or interposes conditions, let them be made known to your constituents; the bloggers will debate the matter. The rakyat must also allow time for the new opposition administrators to learn the ropes; rome was not built in a day although a nero can burn it down in half the time. Winning seats must lead to using them and that takes time which is about setting up a professional legacy base for future generations.

Thirdly, help each other independent of race, religion or political party. That was what had happened at the elections. A voted for B and C; B voted for A and C; C voted for A and B. In finding common ground in the grievances, in sharing common ideals, and in shouldering common aspirations for the future, Malays, Chinese and Indians all became in one pristine moment just Malaysians. And therefore we had that one singularity - what makes this nation really unique and great. Please don't lose that.

Therefore, the socialist in me alloyed to my monarchist sentiments (and that includes the indomitable RPK)asks that the Penang Malays be helped without any consideration for such former artifacts as NEP or what not. Everyone - just jump in and help them, and help anyone else who is dispossessed, marginalized and in need of help, so that they can get over difficult times, earn a better living, recover from the travesties of modern-day pressures, and regain their honour as common brothers and sisters of this land.

We must also constantly remind ourselves that our Indian brethrens have been marginalized for too long. Like the great elephants of India, they have actually shifted the centre of gravity of our political landscape. Just jump in and help them wherever and whenever.

Use the heart, not a policy.

There is more to write but i have taken up too much of your time.

Thanks, Jeff and everyone. All of you have made Malaysia great again.

to me, the cabinet is not important cos it will be another boring years ahead.

to me, the only things i would like to know and my wishlist for this yr is to know the truth for all the 'x-files' in malaysia.

1) who actually killed the mongolian lady? issit.....u know who..

2) did our council really did make a lot of profit? if yes, will they get prosecuted instead of 'tak apa' again?

3) we got so much money for multibillion project which goes to waste but there isnt any to subsidise us, why?

this is my wish list for this yr, hope it is fulfilled.

thanks jeff

Checking through the Penang state website www.penang.gov.my, I found an email address allocated for each excos... is this going to be the so called "official open address" for the penang government?