1.   Corruption becoming more rampant until Transparency International ranking for, Malaysia has declined from No. 37 in 2003 to No. 44 in 2006 shown by the:-

1.1. The RM 900 million commission paid by the suppliers of war submarines and Sukhoi fighter jets to Abdul Razak Baginda and a former Melaka Chief Minister;

1.2. The ACA Director-General is himself investigated for corruption and sexual crimes or the Deputy Internal Security Minister Datuk Mohamad Johari Baharom is investigated for the RM 5.5 million “freedom for sale” scandal involving the release of 3 kingpins of black society triads, one of the three allegedly the younger brother of a MCA Deputy Minister.

1.3. The refusal of Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak to sue Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim for his alleged involvement in the murder of a Mongolian model by his close aide Datuk Abdul Razak Baginda;

2.   Malaysians suffer the worst income inequality between the rich and poor in South-East Asia with the share of income of the bottom 40% of the population declining from 14.5% in 1990 to 13.5% in 2004 whilst the share of the top 20% of the population increased from 50% in 1990 to 51.2% in 2004.

3.   Stubbornly persisting with an outdated New Economic Policy(NEP) based on mediocrity, quotas and crony capitalism when globalization stresses on competitiveness, merit, accountability and transparency.

4.   Allowing the brain-drain to worsen with quota policies causing a sharp decline in educational standards;

5.   Discriminating Chinese and Tamil primary schools in terms of development funds and refusing to take action against contractors responsible for charging RM30,000 for RM3,000 repair work.

6.   Unfair contracts against national interest given to highway concessionaires where total amount of toll collections and government compensation paid of RM 62 billion far exceeds the RM 27 billion construction and maintenance cost.

7.   The failure of the police to reduce crime which increased by 10.7% for the first three months of the year to ensure that Malaysian can live, work and study safely;

8.   The failure to share Petronas’ profits of RM 70 billion in 2005 with the people as compared to Singapore government’s distributing cash to the people despite not having a single drop of oil. Such injustice is even more severe with the refusal of the government to reduce petrol prices even though the average price of oil this year is less than US61 per barrel, which was the international price of oil when the government increased fuel prices by 30 cents on 28.2.2006.

9.   EPF spending RM 11.9 billion of our cash cash to take over RHB Bank. Including the RM 2.3 billion already spent earlier on RHB Bank, total investment of RM 14.2 billion represents nearly 22% of total equity investments of RM 65 billion. EPF’s poor track record in financial institutions as witnessed by its subsidiary company, Malaysia Building Society Berhad (MBSB), with the highest non-performing loans in the banking industry ranging from a high of 62% in 2002 to 34% in 2005 when the industry average is 4-5%;

10. Poor governance and lack of democracy, especially local government services, resulting in abuses of power and poor service of basic facilities.

(1/5/2007)