Malaysia Money Matters

Admittedly, I love the place. I know it's not perfect but once I step foot in Thailand, I always feel so free and happy. The people are nice, even though you don't understand what they say but it sounds so nice! LOL and the food, the shopping and everything! I find the current situation there quite sad - as a neighbour, one hopes that they will resolve it ... so that I can go visit again soon! Although, it is still quite safe for tourist even now in Bangkok.. maybe not the southern provinces with the latest bomb blast. Sigh... A few years ago, my sympathies were more towards the Yellow Shirts - in fact some of my Thai friends are Yellow shirt supporters. But reading more into the situation, I am not supporting them now - they are agitating for a regressive form of government! A council, indeed?! Chosen by whom? It is almost like the ancient Roman system of choosing senators from the bonii (good men) who had to be rich enough not to require a salary from the state - hence...

A strategic view, if you will: Lots of Fire element, hence it is an aggressive year. Very creative but also very confrontational. Economies will be vibrant in the 1st half of the year then cool down again in the 2nd half. So make hay while the sun shines. I think a lot of the worry is actually caused by the media (who need to have something to report! And doom & gloom make for sensational news) and by everyone else who have this mistaken notion that economies must *always* grow. No, they are cyclical. If you don't grasp that fact and put into your business forecasts, then you will *always* be wrong and miss targets. Banking looks set to do well (phew!) - I hope the worst of the compliance issues everywhere have been resolved after some major fines being meted out in 2013. Looking at the 24 Mountains chart and compared to the political stage here in Malaysia, we're in for ANOTHER dramatic year. This time, both the Snake (PM Najib) and the Rabbit (Opp Leader Anw...

A little bird told me that Bank Negara is adamant about pushing down the merchant interchange fee by as much as 60% i.e. from 1.2% down to 0.5%! The banks are obviously not happy about it because it is going to be an immediate hit on revenues. However, for those banks who are big on merchant acquisition, the impact may not be as bad IF this drop in rates brings about a large growth in volume due to wider acceptance. So the volume growth off-sets the drop in earnings per transaction. To me, this is a good thing because one of the resistant points towards more cash-less transactions is the merchant rate. Retailer don't want to accept cards for small transactions because they contend (which I think is bullshit) that they don't make money off these. Please, bitch, you shouldn't be in business if that is the case. Unfortunately, this move is one-sided in that it is only about the MDR but the majority of people out there don't even have a credit card (like 70% of the ...

It was bound to happen eventually - the lax way the government wastes money, leakages everywhere and so on. In the long run, this downgrade is probably a good thing. It is a wake up call that we have to DO SOMETHING concrete to move our economy to the next step! Off the top of my head, with but a stroke of a pen, the government should: Impose GST - not just to broaden the tax base but to create more oversight into businesses; lets face it, there's way too much cooking of the books. How can business tax be almost equal to personal income tax? (Govt tax revenue sources by petroleum: business: personal is roughly 33:35:32) Shut down / tightly control the money changers and remittance houses - they are the key channel for fund leaving the country under the radar. Banks have to monitor and report to Bank Negara on fund flows but these organisations don't have to. Why? And it's already proven that funds from corruption by politicians have left the country this way. So ...

As it happens, I was in Melaka over the weekend - 'twas a most pleasant trip despite the hazy conditions. Not to mention a wee bout of stomach upset... my own fault, think I shouldn't have eaten the rice ball that fell on the table. :P yeah, extreme cheapskate, me. Don't want to waste food! Anyway, it's in the news that the new Chief Minister of Melaka wants to stop the weekend night market at Jonker St. where the road (and by lanes) are closed to traffic on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. He says it's a trial for 1 month to help alleviate traffic... Of course, both sides of the political divide have gone to town on this - DAP saying that this is typical UMNO petty style to punish the Chinese while pro-BN blogs are crowing "serve you right" or to that effect - it was a lot ruder, of course, I've toned it down 'cos I'm classy that way, you see? hehe Ok, so my take on the Jonker Walk market is that it's pretty ok.. nothing great, really...

While a few thousand people showed up, it was far below the expectations of 20,000 to 30,000 attendees. However, was it very surprising? I would say No, Not at all. Here's why: Rally fatigue : there's only so much emotion one can expend - I think most of the earlier attendees have more or less "moved on" and need to get on with their normal lives. It's very tiring to maintain the level of anger at the BN government. Partisan takeover : For those who attended Bersih, the main intention was to demand for electoral reform and to let the ruling party that the unbalanced odds in their favour is simply not fair. BUT that does not translate into automatic support to PR either. The current rallies are PR-related. I see myself as more pro-Malaysia than anything else, hence I wouldn't attend. Life takes over : Well, sooner or later, responsibilities at work and family take over. Holidays that were postponed now can be taken. Life goes on. But to the pro-BN...

You gotta laugh, isn't it? If it was all so tragic to begin with, that is... Needless to say, the fallout of the 13th General Election continues in many permutations - ironically, many pro-BNers are very bitter about "winning" while PR has been rather politically astute in quickly catching on the mood to continue drumming up support through rallies and such - which I think is a waste of time but you know, it's all just political drama.... I was quite taken aback by the very acrimonious racial rants by those aligned to the BN government, so much so that I had to unfriend an old schoolmate (was never close to him anyway) when he was spouting a lot, really a lot, of very offensive anti-Chinese things on his Facebook. I'd rather not have to see that, thank you - I have very close Malay friends and I am not what he paints all Chinese to be in his postings. But no point in confronting, why exacerbate matters? Dia nak bodoh macam tu, biarlah - maybe he needs to get i...

I want to approach this in a fair and unemotional (as much as possible) manner: On BN - I think it is time you had a short spell on the Opposition Bench. Maybe 5 years, max 10 years. You need a shake-up to get rid of the opportunists, leeches and sycophants hanging around you. The only way to do that is to cut off the money supply. Fix yourselves, show your true passion for serving the people and I am sure you can get back your position to govern within the next couple of elections. On PR - I think it is time to give you a chance in government, it is a leap of faith I must say as there are many, MANY reservations I have about you - PAS likely to try imposing moral policing and other no-value-add type of policies, PKR not being able to keep it together with internal factions and their UMNO-culture baggage and DAP, oh DAP... if it is true about the Christian evangelists being in the top leadership then it is going to be like South Korea's Lee Myeongbak's admnistration of a mi...

So after a long 5 years of intense politicking that we have never seen the like of - Parliament has finally been dissolved to make way for the Elections. The date is not finalised, many are speculating but it looks most likely to be at the end of April. Some rumours have been circulating that it may be held on 13 May to "scare people" (re: the May 13 tragedy of 1969). The outcome is very hard to predict - it is down to the wire. Personally, I am not too convinced on either side, although am more inclined towards change but I'm wary of certain elements within the opposition. Weighing the pros and cons, I think eventually it can only boil down to what are the choices available for my constituency ie who are the candidates contesting for the MP and state seats - after all, that's all one can choose. May have to split it - one side for Federal, another for State. Keep them on their toes. Can't have concentration of power all on one side - we've had that ...

As we get closer to the date (who knows when it will ever materialise .... talk about dragging it out), a new article on Malaysia Today links to a so-called campaign by Anas Zubedy  called "No Free Rides" calls for Malaysians to write a letter to their MPs articulating what you would want and then based on their responses, vote for the one who agrees to your wishes (!). Now, I'm rather conflicted about this guy - am not quite sure if he is naive, idealistic, has a hidden agenda, just doing this for attention (for his business) or all of the above. He always comes across, to me anyway, as a mix of smarmy and sincere. Not a good combination, believe me. Anyway, what he's calling for is not wrong - in an ideal world, that really should be how we decide on which politician to vote for.. but practically? Hmm.. Nonetheless, 'tis a good exercise to think through what each of us finds important. Ultimately, what we want is the best for our country, right? So to ...

So once again, Malaysia's Pauline Hanson / Fred Phelps Ibrahim Ali, whom I refer to as the bastion of brown supremacy has, in his latest speech, called for the burning of Malay-language bibles that happen to use the word "Allah" for God. Frankly, all I have to say is that I dare him to do it. Why don't you take the first torch and burn one instead of 'calling on Muslims' to do so, Mister? You are a Coward and Instigator.  This kind of people are the real treasonous types who are going to bring this country crashing down on us, by instigating the .. well.. not too bright, emo, layan perasaan, ting-tong, lots of time on their hands but not enough braincells to figure out what to do-types to cause havoc . Shame, shame, shame on you. Bet he's all talk anyway. Try and burn one and see la. Bet you don't dare, Ibrahim Ali.

I didn't go this time around. I did go for Bersih and got teargassed (thanks, at least I got back some of my tax dollars back). The pro-UMNO blogs are, of course, belittling this latest public protest - not surprised, if I were in their shoes, I'd probably do the same. Nonetheless, the crowd looked substantial enough and after the speeches, it ended peacefully. I'm expecting the mainstream media to downplay this again and emphasise that it was a "small" turnout, implying that support for the opposition has waned. Also they are pointing out that there are lesser Chinese out this time.. Well, in the face of the recent news about PAS's heavy handed ways in Kelantan, one may think so. However, surprisingly, the head economist of Bank Islam went on record at a conference in Singapore a few days ago saying that he expects BN to lose (well, he said PR would win but potato potatoe, you know) by a small margin. So does a relatively small turnout mean lesser s...

2 seemingly small issues on the news about PAS in recent days: The fines issued by the PAS controlled municipal council to a Chinese-owned hair salon in Kelantan for allegedly having lady hairdressers cut men's hair Wanting to protest (via memo, yawns) and shut down the upcoming Elton John concert in Genting on account that he's gay. Now if I may quote this very old poem: For want of a nail, the shoe was lost For want of a shoe, the horse was lost For want of a horse, the rider was lost For want of a rider, the battle was lost For want of a battle, the kingdom was lost. For right or wrong, I understand that they have their principles and their right to try to enforce them but this cannot fly in a multi-ethnic, multi-religious country like ours.  Give and take, yes.  But imposing your values by force of majority, no. By these two incidences, it seems to me that PAS is not ready to rule because they always get caught up in issues like this, alway...

This is post no. 44, 4+4 = 8 = prosperity. Yes, essentially, this is what I want from our government. Because once we become a richer country, life would be better all around - although granted that not all problems will go away but hopefully there will be lesser and replaced by such 'happy' problems of having to decide what to eat! Instead of the problem of 'is there enough to eat'? Firstly, let's be fair to the existing government and civil servants - we are developing to be sure and it is helped a lot by petroleum revenues as well as private enterprise, but at the same time because the pace of growth has been quite high for a while - a lot of fundamental things are not done well and in the long run it will come back to haunt us. In fact the problems are already here: But lets start with one issue first: Education I think there is too much emphasis on tertiary education whereby it has become a matter of quantity over quality, we have failed in the lower le...

Came across a rather shocking piece of news that was in a vernacular paper; seems that Malay teenagers were willing to subscribe to regular porn stories sent to their phones from an Indonesian service for RM17 a month (or was that a week? Think it was a month...). Like, what the hell? They're kids! Go read a Jackie Collins novel and flip to the dirty bits and fap away at that, my son. Can you imagine that if they have 1,000 subscribers, that's a cool RM17,000 a month. I'm sure they have a lot more than that. I tell you, gotta get me some of that ACTION! hehe but how? LOL Just kidding! (maybe) Which brings me to the situation here, in our oh-so very 'moralistic' country where even the word "Beer" can be censored out of Beyonce's 'If I were a boy' single. Imagine, if you will, that censorship were not as hidebound as it is now and that instead of people accessing porn illegally, it was taxed - goodness, it would exceed the revenue from th...

It's already mid-October. A lot of predictions have been made that once summer is over, there is going to be an economic collapse. A lot of signs seem to be pointing towards it, to wit:  - countries unable to service their sovereign debt, coming close to running out of money  - cost of borrowing increasing, e.g. Spain's rating dropping to BBB+  - the people in countries like Greece protesting against the austerity measures (which is not effective to my mind, the austerities that is, not the protesting) Lets look at it in simple terms: I believe this crisis is brought about by human failings, not because of fancy economic terms. Firstly - lack of integrity :  - Did Greece fudge their numbers to get into the Eurozone? They did, didn't they? So from the get-go, they got in based on lying. So there is no basis for them to be in there.  - Going way back, reneging on the gold standard is what goes us all here in the first place. Secondly - intellectual l...

Using the analogy of food, the newly announced budget is like cake. Sweet, nothing but carbohydrates and fat but no nutritional value at all. In other words, hardly any substance. No macro economic reforms, no innovative measures, no tough / disciplined measures to fix problems. Nothing at all. So to call it an election budget is really the understatement of the year. Well, when you eat cake, you'll  feel happy for a while, the sugar buzz is great but after a while, you will be hungry again and your body hasn't gotten any protein or vitamins at all! This budget is like a short term sugar high. One clear example, the RM200 smartphone subsidy. Those young kids who get the subsidy are still going to fork out more just to buy the phone AND have to pay for the monthly data plan. So how is that helping them? Sigh.. expect more sexting and dumb comments on twitter, facebook et al and definitely more hook ups and booty calls when they get onto the hookup apps! Is the 200 buck...

Many people, including those in the government, think that credit cards are bad, bad, bad. So is fire, doesn't stop you from using it, does it? I would argue that if the rules are set properly (not arbitrarily as they are now), AND taking into account lessons learnt from Taiwan and South Korea on how to jump start your domestic economy but without most of the dire problems that can come with a consumption-led boom, then listen up: But first, some background. There are about 11-12 million working adults in this country. Only about 4 million actually hold credit cards. What about the rest, you ask? Based on the Bank Negara guidelines, they don't qualify due to their lower income or lack of income documentation, say hawkers etc who deal in cash and don't keep proper records. The consequence of that is that these individuals are essentially LOCKED OUT of the formal banking system, so who do they turn to when there is a need for cash - you got it, the loan sharks. Why do...

The 2013 Budget has been tabled. A lot of funding in bits and pieces to a diverse range of stuff ranging from legal aid, insurance for hawkers & fishermen, residents associations, smartphone rebate for youths (like they deserve it? wth!) and so on. Being the typical cynical Malaysian (it's almost a default setting, seriously, given the stories on corruption one hears so often), I went through the budget speech to look for any big projects that are possible cash cows (pun intended) and I guess there are a few - especially the TRX (Tun Razak Exchange) which even pro-establishment blogs are questioning. Do we need another financial district, purely for Islamic banking? Well, pity most of the local banks who will be arm twisted into setting up office there. This country is not rich enough to need so many banks AND running on 2 platforms - conventional and Islamic. Anyway, topic for another day. Back to the Budget - I would rate it as pump priming via direct handouts and disco...

Can't help but think that the current problem rests on two basic things: 1. That Greece fudged its numbers to be eligible to enter the Eurozone 2. That the Euro members don't want to let Greece out for fear of losing face So the crux of the matter is that their membership is based on a lie and for the sake of ego, the other countries are expecting Germany to continue lending money to Greece to service its loans. It doesn't make sense to do so! Face the facts, the due diligence was not done properly and structurally, the Greek economy was not prepared for the influx of cheap money coming in on the back of strong credit ratings which are not theirs. Of course, if we are pointing fingers, then part of the blame also lies in the intellectual laziness of the analysts who conveniently combined the credit ratings and averaged them out, thus making it seem that Greece was more credit worthy than it actually was. [The reverse also happened in the Asian Financial Crisis whe...