Monday, July 21, 2014

MH 17-Najib's deal leaves Australia out on a limb: Abbott let down by DAFT,Bishop ,Peta & co?



NOTE
For the sake of efficiency , I am copying and pasting an email posted to recipients on my mailing list .


That Malaysian PM Najib concluded  a deal with the rebels/separatists/bastards even as 
 Julie Bishop was doing her thing at the UN, illustrates the point raised below, that while Tony Abbot rightly demanded that Russia cooperate in the matter of MH 17, he was likely to find himself out on a limb while the other parties involved approached the matter in the context of their own national interest. 

Australians ought to be concerned that an understanding of the competing priorities seemed to be lacking in Abbott's words and actions. Again, he seems to have been let down by his advisers. 
END

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ganesh Sahathevan <ganesh.sahathevan@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Jul 20, 2014 at 1:04 PM
Subject: Standing up to Putin-Europe needs Russia's energy, and Malaysia its fighter jets? Why Australia might be left out on a limb
To:


NOTE 
While Tony Abbott has rightly demanded that Russia take responsibility and cooperate with other interested countries in the 
the MH 17 investigation, it does look as if Malaysia and Europe may have other priorities to consider.
Europe's dependence on Russian gas has been well documented.
Malaysia's reliance on Russia for air defence is less clear, especially in context of this intriguing report:


MH17 Rosmah Mansor has sent word to Russian President Vladimir Putin to call her husband, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, over the MH17 tragedy.

According to a brief report in Sin Chew Daily website, Rosmah said she had asked someone, who is close to her as well as Putin, to convey the message.
However, there is no mention as to who this person is.
The report stated that Rosmah is hoping Putin would take the initiative to call Najib and explain the issue in order to calm down Malaysians, who are enraged over the incident.
Sin Chew also did not state where she had made the remarks.
Rosmah was present at a Wanita Umno function in Kuala Lumpur earlier butBernama, which reported on the event, made no mention of her commenting on the ill-fated plane.
Upon completing Maghrib prayers, Najib received a call from Putin.
However, the report was removed from Sin Chew website later in the day.

Meanwhile, Abbott and Julie Bishop have had no luck getting hold of their Russian counterparts-and are instead being publicly scolded  by the Russians:



 

Malaysia Invests In Sukhoi Fighter Readiness

PARIS AIR SHOW » 2013
Malaysia has allocated RM300 million to increase the combat readiness of the Royal Malaysian Air Force’s fleet of Sukhoi Su-30MKMs.
Malaysia has allocated RM300 million to increase the combat readiness of the Royal Malaysian Air Force’s fleet of Sukhoi Su-30MKMs.
June 17, 2013, 4:10 AM
The events in Sabah, Malaysia, this past March, when local forces conducted Operation Daulat used combat jets to quell the resistance of the Filipino gunmen on the island of Borneo, may have prompted a spate of arms sales to that country and her closest neighbors. The armed forces do have a big wish list for weapons, but procurement processes for the most expensive and longest-lead items are likely to be launched properly only after the general elections in Malaysia later this year. In the meantime, the ministry of finance and the royal treasury–the two main watchdogs–are loosening their grips somewhat so as to give the air force the means to improve its fleet readiness.
In late March, Sukhoi won a three-year contract called “The supply of articles, services and technical assistance for Su-30MKM aircraft” worth RM300 million (more than U.S.$100 million), three times the allocation over the previous three-year period. Respective documents were signed by MOD secretary general Datuk Dr. Haji Ismail Haji Ahmad, with Sukhoi deputy general director for marketing Alexander Klementiev and director for after-sales support Vyacheslav Lozan. The increased spending is meant to boost combat readiness of the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) Su-30MKM fleet from the current level of 65 to 70 percent to 85 percent in the “near term” and eventually increase this to 100 percent. TheRMAF’s 11th Squadron stationed at Gong Kedak has 18 heavyweight twin-engine vectored-thrust fighters received new from Irkut’s IAZ factory in 2007-2011. After the manufacturer’s guarantee period expired, most of the Russian support team departed Gong Kedak AFB, leaving only three of their number–and they then left this past January following expiration of the previous service contract.
“The notable increase in spending on our services will allow our specialists to more closely monitor the aircraft operations and shorten the reaction time to RMAF requests for spares and repair services. Importantly, the new contract calls for a permanent presence of Sukhoi advisors and technicians at Gong Kedak,” Klementiev told AIN. The contract calls for deliveries of additional aerodrome equipment, increase of spares and expendables stocks, carrying out on-site repairs of onboard equipment, consultancy and training forRMAF maintainers.
As part of the aircraft delivery contract, Russia built the Sukhoi Technical Center (STC) at Gong Kedak. It was completed and handed over to the Malaysian government, which appointed Aerospace Technology Systems Corp. (ATSC) to be the operator. To work at full capacity, STC’s warehouses need to be filled with spares, expendables and maintenance tools, as necessary, which will be done under the new contract. The facility has several workshops and will permit RMAF and ATSC to perform maintenance, except major overhaul of airframes, engines and the most complex parts of onboard systems. Sukhoi assessed ATSCstaff members as “well educated” but indicated they need more training in performing manufacturer-prescribed work on Russian-made jets.
RMAF crews have mastered aerobatics and use of vectored thrust, attracting praise from the Russian air force commander Gen. Victor Bondarev, while he was attending the LIMA 2013 show. Following training of the initial group of Malaysian fighter pilots, Sukhoi and Irkut ceased such services four years ago. They hoped the customer would award them a new contract for pilot training “sometime in the future to ensure that the RMAF 11th Squadron crews are able to use the Su-30MKM capabilities to full extent,” including application of precision-guided munitions. “This would require us to send a group of highly skilled engineers and pilots there who have the complete knowledge of the type’s functional capabilities,” said Klementiev.
ATSC was founded in 1994 as a joint venture with a 70-percent stake held by National Aerospace and Defense Industries, and the rest by Russian partners, and runs the MiG Technical Center at Kuantan AFB and MiG Component Repair Center at MEC City. The company claims to have mastered checks on the Su-30MKM after each 200 flight hours and servicing procedures on the airplane’s OEPrNK optronic aiming and navigation complex system, OLS optical locator, N011M “Bars” fire control radar and fly-by-wire systems, as well as AL-31FP engine module changes.
Despite the increase in funding for RMAF, salesmen remain cautious about prospects of replacement for 18 MiG-29N/NUBs delivered in 1995. “We know about the plans of the military, but we also hear about the economy slowdown and the respective position of the ministry of finance. Cost-effective upgrade solutions may win over,” Victor Komardin, deputy head of Russia’s Rosoboronexport arms sales agency, told AIN.
Guided by this knowledge, Rosoboronexport is offering an upgrade package to the RMAF’s 18-year-old MiGs, which will boost their capability and extend their lifetime to 40 years. Should the customer decide to replace the MiGs with newer aircraft, Russia is ready to supply additional quantities of advanced Su-30MKMs or even consider a request for a fifth-generation fighter. “We are keen to take part in any competition in Malaysia that is officially opened,” Komardin said. Other candidates to replace RMAF MiG-29s are the Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet, EF-2000 Eurofighter Typhoon, Dassault Rafale and Saab Gripen.
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Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Duncan Lewis could not uncover what ABC 4 Corners did with less resources, and he is now to head ASIO?

NOTE

The appointment of Ducan Lewis as head of ASIO seems to underscore why form will always win over substance. 
While Lewis is highly credentialed and has experience as a field commander, that , as I have said before,does not make him a competent spy master.
His incompetence was described in an article on my blog published on  WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2012

People Smuggling: Did Australia's National Security Adviser learn anything in Malaysia?


The Sydney Morning Herald reported on April 25,2009:
WAVES of Australia-bound asylum seekers crossing from Malaysia to Indonesia have prompted the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, to send the national security adviser, Duncan Lewis, to talk with Malaysian officials about counter measures.
Mr Lewis was accompanied by the head of Customs, Michael Carmody, and senior immigration and Australian Federal Police officers. Before leaving Kuala Lumpur yesterday, members of the delegation said the meetings with Malaysian officials were "positive".
"There has been agreement at a conceptual level for increased co-operation and engagement to combat people smuggling," one member said.


On February 1 2012 a boat capsized of the east coast of Malaysia.The wording of reports regarding that incident by Malaysian media, which are essentially state controlled, is instructive:

EIGHT foreigners drowned in Malaysian waters early yesterday while attempting to sneak into Australia to seek greener pastures.
District police chief Superintendent Che Mahazan Che Aik said when police reached Telok Semayong about 8am, they saw eight bodies washed ashore while further off, the 12 survivors were spotted in a group.
“We believe the foreigners were trying to leave the country illegally. They were using Malaysia as a spring-board,” he said.
Initial investigations also revealed that the passengers had paid US$8,000 (RM24,000) each for the journey from their country to Australia.
The 12 who were rescued were sent to the district police station to assist investigations while the bodies were sent to the district hospital for post-mortem.
(by Sam Bak Heng, 8 drown off Johor;New Straits Times,02 February 201)



Eight people drowned, 11 others were rescued while six more are still missing, all foreigners, after their boat capsized off Teluk Semayong waters, Sedili Besar, near Kota Tinggi Wednesday morning. Kota Tinggi Police Chief Supt Che Mahazan Che Aik said the boat was believed to be illegally ferrying men from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq to a neigbouring country when the boat capsized.
(Report in the Borneo Post, 2 February 2012, quoting the national wire news service, Bernama)


Clearly, what Australia regards as "asylum seekers" Malaysia regards as opportunists.
As far as Malaysian police are concerned the main issue here is "illegal ferrying".
The persons being ferried are not being treated as asylum seekers, refugees, or anything of that sort but rather suspects or accomplices in a crime.


How then did Duncan Lewis and party come to the conclusion that "there has been agreement at a conceptual level"?
Lewis is now Secretary , Department of Defence, and the post of National Security Adviser has yet to be filled. Nevertheless, as NSA he was , in essence, the country's chief spy.
As Sally Neighbour put it:
The most recent initiative is the appointment by the former Rudd government of a National Security Adviser (NSA), who works out of the prime minister’s office and chairs a new National Intelligence Coordination Committee, to ensure the agencies are “closely aligned [and] effectively integrated”. Australia’s first NSA, the former SAS commander Brigadier Duncan Lewis.....
(the post) centralises control in the prime minister’s office ... the position is entirely outside the accountability umbrella of IGIS.
(Sally Neighbour, Hidden Agendas,The Monthly, 2010-11-04)

Despite these advantages, it does appear that the NSA learnt nothing in Malaysia, or of Malaysian attitudes to what Australia considers asylum seekers. Judging from the SMH report, and from the Gillard government's handling of the the "asylum seeker" issue it does appear that the present administration is light years away from understanding the problem of illegal migrants.Pretending that this simply another aspect of the white man's burden is an idea that has long passed its due date.
The full extent of Lewis's incompetence was laid bare by Sarah Ferguson's Captain Emad story, where she detailed the operations of a people smuggling ring headquartered just 15 minutes from the Australian High Commission in Kuala Lumpur:
 
The ABC has revealed that people smugglers connected with a deadly disaster at sea are now residing in Australia under refugee visas. 
According to passengers on Emad's boat, in detention in Australia, Abdullah al Sharifi talked openly about his work as a smuggler with Captain Emad in Malaysia and Indonesia. 
"He said, 'I was with Captain Emad in Malaysia. He brought me here for free and we work together at this smuggling business'," passenger Rahim said.

A different life

It is not clear what Captain Emad told Australian immigration officials to convince them he was a genuine refugee in need of protection.
What is known is that before he set up shop in Indonesia, he had spent a large portion of his life in downtown Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.
His legitimate business in Malaysia was perfume. By 2005 he owned four perfume shops in Kuala Lumpur and he still owns at least one

END 
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Sunday, April 27, 2014

Andrew Constance Could Not Be Trusted With Fines, Should Not Be Trusted With Treasury

by Ganesh Sahathevan

The new NSW Treasurer Andrew Constance's  methods of improving NSW  state revenue at all costs,  disregarding even the law,  while  in his former finance and services portfolio, makes him unsuitable to be put in charge of the more senior Treasury portfolio.

As Minister For Finance Mr Constance sought to increase state revenue by enforcing parking fines. In 2012 alone he added $ 177 million to state revenues by imposing parking fines on apparent over-stayers at parks and hospitals, hitting the sick, elderly , and students.
When questioned on that strategy  Mr Constance said:

"If a driver believes they have been fined incorrectly, they can seek a review from the Office of State Revenue (OSR)."

However, there is evidence that the OSR , led by the Commissioner For Fines, Tony Newbury, and Mr Constance, appear to have in place a scheme where reviews are routinely rejected and the appellants told instead to seek redress via the legal system , in the expectation that the costs of legal challenge will discourage doing so, and the fine paid without challenge.

In a recent incident where this writer was involved, an attempt was successfully made to make Mr Constance and Mr Newbury reveal  their methods when  justifying  a fine.Email queries were sent Mr Newbury , Mr Constance , and then Premier, O'Farrell.

In response, Mr Newbury, in a letter sent on behalf of Constance and O'Farrell, admitted that:

a) they could not detail the actual facts of the offence upon which their penalty was premised.
They had earlier determined to justify the penalty on a fabricated story which involved  a child that was supposed to be the driver's , the child climbing out of the car,and  child walking then walking towards the car ; all of which was false.

b)  there was disagreement between the time of offence stated in the penalty notice, and their own photographs which they furnished as evidence of the crime. In fact , the times were clearly transposed, raising the issue of whether the time of offence had been deliberately misstated to justify the offence.
Nevertheless, this was explained away as a failure to adjust their cameras for daylight saving, but then;

c) could not say  how the time of offence was actually determined

Given that most fines, including the one described above, are for a few hundred dollars and given that legal fees are usually upward of a thousand, most fines are paid without any legal challenge, regardless of the facts.Indeed judges are angered by litigants who disregard  "commercial realities".
However, Mr Constance does not seem to have realized that being a politician, the court of public opinion is what really matters to his future. If the best he can do is cheat to raise public revenue, it is unlikely that he possesses the skills necessary to balance the state's books.
END


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Thursday, January 9, 2014

An example of the debate among Malays illustrates why MGG Pillai was heard, and today's non-Malay commentators are not

NOTE 

While many would be aware that MGG Pillai and I had , shall we say, a major difference of opinion in the last few years of his life, I must say that he was not afraid to participate in debates, private and public , like the ones described below by Rocky Atan. 
He did take sides, and that did become an issue, but he was at least brave enough to do so.
True, he started out as a journalist when the races were less divided,and the leadership more inclusive, but then , he continued to speak and write as he did despite the changing environment.Doing so, he   remained  relevant till the day he died.
On the other hand, today's non-Malay commentators seem more interested in making a play of having "controversial" views,and then of hiding, or remaining quiet, for fear that "they" are listening, thus giving themselves a degree of importance they simply do not have. Put in another way, the irrelevant are made even more irrelevant by their ego. 


Thursday, January 09, 2014


The photograph that spooked Annie and some others

Got a few calls to ask me if "you bloggers" are revolting against the PM. Even prominent businessman TF was concerned enough to call me for the first time in over a year: "Why are the bloggers whacking Najib ... except you?" The latest caller, a little lady called Annie, said she became particularly worried after reading Apanama's Najib Worse Than Pak Lah? People familiar with the Malaysian blogosphere would equate Apanama with critical-but-polite postings, a cool head among today's very temperamental and crazily critical English-driven bloggers. But Apanama's latest posting was so hard-hitting it seems that even the punching machine Syed Akbar Ali was quoting him line for line.  
"And, aiyooo,  my dear Rocky did you see the photograph published by OutSyed The Box's!?" I promised her I'd check out the two blogs as soon as I get back to my den from a dinner with some consultants. 
And, ah, no wonder Annie was spooked! Here's the picture Syed Akbar published in his posting Apanama makan Roti Teloq - Ampat Biji!! 
Superstitious people avoid threesome shots
People would read all kinds of things upon seeing this photograph and you can't blame them if they do. But I'd tell Annie that things are not always what they appear to be. Tun Daim Zainuddin, the man flanked by OutSyed The Box and Apanama in the picture, engages bloggers every now and then over breakfast. He would even invite some of the mainstream editors from time to time. But no, Daim's not the "unseen hand" some people think is behind recent incessant attacks on Najib, his wife, and family and friends. Or on Syed Mokhtar al-Bukhary, for that matter (see Syed Akbar's posting on the former nemesis h e r e).
I have had the privilege of joining the Tun for roti canai in some very public places where we exchanged stories and gossips. Daim is an excellent story teller. The last time I was invited to breakfast with Tun Daim, I was late by a few minutes. After I had taken my allocated seat next to the former Finance Minister, my ex boss AKJ asked those who were pro-Najib to move over to Daim's side, with me and Syed Akbar (who was seated to Daim's left), while those who were not for the PM would sit opposite Daim, with AKJ. Just like a school debate. A lof of things were said in jest like that but we did talk about the serious stuff too. 
When we're not meeting Daim, we bloggers would be meeting anyone who wants to engage us. But not everyone wants to engage us. 
As for Apanama's hard-hitting posting, it is indeed a reflection of what a lot of people feel. Tan Sri Zainal Rampak, the trade union leader, thinks Najib is not getting a true picture of what's happening on the ground and has asked me to "please tell Datuk Seri Najib to go down to the people."  
Apanama wants Najib to stop talking about transformation plans and start transforming. The PM can sack some aides and reshuffle his Cabinet, for a start.
"We need men and women of character, capability and common sense to steer this nation forward ... some of your cabinet members have become laughing stocks. Quite a number of the better cabinet members are finding it hard to hold their heads up in public because of the clowns among them."  
But please do read what Apanama has to say right to the end of his posting so that you won't miss the message:
But time is running out, Mr Prime Minister
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