Inter-Research And Studies (IRAS)

Sejak Pakatan Harapan (PH) mengambil-alih tampuk pemerintahan daripada Barisan Nasional (BN) pada 9 Mei 2018 yang lalu, ramai di kalangan rakyat jelata yang mula merungut mengenai ketidakadilan dan ketidakberkesanan dasar-dasar yang dilaksanakan oleh kerajaan baru sekarang kerana bebanan yang terpaksa ditanggung atau dikongsi oleh orang ramai. Mungkin kerana rakyat jelata telah lupa. Kemusnahan dan keadaan yang tidak menentu yang ditinggalkan oleh BN berikutan kekalahan mereka pada pilihanraya umum yang lalu, rasuah, salahguna kuasa dan pengurusan kerajaan yang penuh dengan ketidakcekapan sewaktu era pemerintahan BN yang lalu. Siapakah yang kini terpaksa mewarisi elemen-elemen negatif yang kini berleluasa di kementerian-kementerian, jabatan-jabatan, agensi-agensi kerajaan dan GLC-GLC yang ada? Adakah kita menyedari hakikat yang sebenarnya pada hari ini? Ya, ramai di antara kita telah lupa ataupun mudah lupa dengan apa yang telah dilakukan di masa yang lalu kini telah membuahkan akib...

Baru-baru ini timbul pula suatu kempen yang menggalakkan rakyat jelata agar merosakkan undi mereka di dalam pilihanraya umum yang akan datang dengan tidak mengundi mana-mana pihak, yakni merosakkan kertas-kertas undi mereka. Kempen undi rosak tersebut dipimpin oleh Maryam Lee, seorang ahli jawatankuasa Gabungan Kiri Malaysia (Left Coalition Malaysia) yang turut disertai oleh beberapa orang ahli gabungan tersebut yang bertujuan untuk menyampaikan mesej kepada rakyat jelata bertapa tidak tentu arahnya halatuju politik di dalam negara kita pada hari ini. Negara kita sudah pun lama “dibinasakan” oleh Barisan Nasional dan para pemimpinnya pada hari ini. Dan kita juga telah menyedari bahawa gabungan parti-parti pembangkang Pakatan Harapan juga telahpun mengumumkan barisan kepimpinannya yang bakal membawa gabungan parti-parti pembangkang itu menghadapi BN pada pilihanraya umum yang akan datang. Sewaktu kepimpinan PH diketengahkan di kalangan umum, ramai yang terkejut, gembira dan malah ada...

Oleh WH Cheng Baru-baru ini banyak pihak yang asyik menluahkan mengenai pelbagai masalah perancangan, pembangunan dan pengurusan rumah-rumah kos rendah untuk rakyat jelata yang kurang mampu yang kini semakin tidak dapat dicapai oleh golongan tersebut, walaupun usaha untuk menampung permintaan telahpun giat dilaksanakan di merata tempat di seluruh negara. Pelbagai masalah dan persoalan yang timbul, malah adakala Umno juga cuba menghubung kaitkan masalah tersebut dengan penindasan terhadap masyarakat Melayu, khususnya di negeri-negeri Selangor dan Pulau Pinang. Jika diteliti dengan lebih mendalam, masalah sebenarnya yang sering timbul di dalam perancangan, pembangunan dan pengurusan rumah-rumah kos rendah bukannya sengaja disasarkan terhadap masyarakat Melayu seperti yang sering didakwa oleh Umno tetapi ianya lebih kepada terlalu banyak pihak yang dipertanggungjawabkan di dalam peranan ini, yang mengakibatkan peranan yang bertindih, malah ada yang bertentangan antara satu sama...

Rang Undang-undang Skim Insurans Pekerja (RUU SIP) yang telah dibentangkan buat kali pertama di parlimen yang bertujuan untuk membantu para pekerja yang kehilangan pekerjaan akibat ditamatkan perkhidmatan dijangka tidak akan begitu membebankan para pekerja disektor swasta. Namun, ianya masih bergantung kepada bagaimana skim ini akan dilaksana dan diuruskan kelak. Ia merupakan satu perbelanjaan tambahan buat majikan dan para pekerja sepertimana caruman yang dibuat selama ini kepada PERKESO dan KWSP. Perniagaan dan industri kecil dan sederhana (SME) dijangka memerlukan lebih masa untuk menyesuaikan diri kerana kumpulan inilah yang merasai impaknya terhadap kos operasi mereka, sementara syarikat gergasi tidak akan merasai impak terhadap kos tersebut kerana kadar caruman yang masih kecil. RUU SIP yang belum selesai pembentangannya telahpun ditunda ke bulan Oktober ini akan mewajibkan majikan dan pekerja mencarum ke dalam SIP berdasarkan kadar yang bakal ditetapkan mengikut tangga ga...

This article has earlier appeared in Beritadaily.com on 14/4/2017 Clarification from Putrajaya is urgently required! Is the Prime Minister’s Department (PMD) taking precedence over the education sector, to the extent that budgets for public universities and related sectors were slashed. Does Putrajaya now regard education as of lower priority for our younger generation today? Party politics and the politics of survival have apparently become an important task for Putrajaya, particularly the PMD itself. When we complain of low productivity and a bloated civil service of about 1.68 million employees, the leadership in Putrajaya decided to slash the budgets for public universities instead without considering the consequences to the coming generations. A source has been reported as saying that the budget cuts of public universities were some sort of “punishment” because many students and academics had been voicing out against policies and systems of the government. If this is the case, ...

This article has earlier appeared in Beritadaily.com on 25/11/2016 Of late, leaders from the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, particularly from Umno, and many Umno-linked NGOs have shifted their anti-Chinese chorus to that of George Soros. Sounds like Umno and its sponsored NGOs were deliberately making Soros a scapegoat for their political misadventure and to cover up various scandals linked to their leaders, in particular the 1MDB controversy and RM2.6 billion in the Umno president’s personal account. Well, Umno has just made Soros a well-known figure in Malaysia today by claiming his involvement in an “attempt to overthrow the BN government”. Every Malaysian would be interested to know if Soros has been laying a plan to become “Prime Minister of Malaysia”. It is all about foreign funding and the Jews when Umno and its associates are trying their best to discredit and bring down all the opposition parties and civil society groups. The momentum gained by opposition groups ha...

This article has earlier appeared in Beritadaily.com on 21/10/2016 Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders, particularly from Umno, and top officials of the Election Commission (EC) have always wondered why many still do not trust the EC. Why view the electoral body and its functions with much suspicion? The latest redelineation plan by the EC has heightened this atmosphere of mistrust, with both sides of the political divide voicing their concerns on the proposals. Opposition parties from Pakatan Harapan and PSM, and BN’s predominantly Chinese component parties — MCA, Gerakan, SUPP and LDP – have criticised the EC proposal for promoting racial polarisation. The complaints and objections range from proposing constituencies that are overly Malay and overly Chinese, widening disparity in number of voters between constituencies, reduction of mixed race composition, and confusion among voters on voting districts. The main grouse of the critics is that opposition parties and BN’s “Chinese-based co...

This article has earlier appeared in the Beritadaily.com on 11/10/2016 Recently, an opposition member of parliament uttered a remark on the passing of PAS spiritual leader Haron Din in the United States. The opposition MP tweeted “Adios Haron Din, may there be peace.” To the misfortune of the MP, his statement was quickly manipulated by many PAS leaders as “insulting Islam”. In response to the allegations of those PAS leaders and the police reports lodged against the MP, the police top brass was quick and overly eager in wanting to arrest the MP for questioning. This was despite the fact that he had already shown his commitment to cooperate with the police and come forward to give his statement. We are neither advocating the cause of the MP nor supporting the opposition party he represents, but the wisdom and characteristic of the police top brass should be questioned in this case. Why prejudge the opposition MP as “guilty as seen” by announcing that he would be arrested e...

This article has earlier appeared in Beritadaily.com on 22/09/2016 Recently, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), under the leadership of the newly appointed chief commissioner Dzulkifli Ahmad, has made a string of arrests of high-ranking civil servants ranging from Datuks to Datuks Seri and Tan Sris. Well, whenever MACC is helmed by a new chief, such enthusiasm seems to be bubbling. It begs the question of whether the new broom can sweep as well till the end. Yes, Dzulkifli has adopted the right approach, according to many. But so did all the previous MACC chiefs, who had started well with a spate of arrests and prosecutions of corrupt public figures. But they ended up being frowned upon by many powerful politicians and leaders because MACC was trying its best to go deeper into these corrupt elements, their source and associates. And let us not forget what had happened to MACC last year when it was subjected to actions that demoralised its staff and made a mockery of it...

This article has earlier appeared in Beritadaily.com on 21/7/2016 Are you all surprised or shocked when we say a hung parliament will be good for our nation today? Yes, we suppose so. Some politicians will also condemn such an idea as crazy because it would not benefit them, their political parties, or help in their quest for power. They would reason that such a situation would only bring chaos to our nation. Correctly said, because these politicians have been in power for decades and yet they are yet to show any maturity in matters of governing this nation. A hung parliament is a situation where no political party or coalition of political parties from both ruling and opposition blocs obtain any absolute majority in number of seats in the parliament after a general election. The ruling party or coalition may gain just a sufficient number of seats, or it may be called simple or narrow majority, while the opposition party or coalition may have increased its parliamentary ...

This article has earlier appeared in Beritadaily.com on 14/3/2016 The government has decided that the outcome of the 1MDB probe will be kept under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) to prevent leakages, at least until it is tabled in parliament. So, why is the government hiding 1MDB under the OSA? In the course of the investigation, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) had promised a thorough probe into every single detail in the 1MDB controversy to determine what went wrong in its asset acquisition activities which had resulted in debts of RM42 billion. When 1MDB’s RM42 billion scandal was first exposed, there were lots of speculations and guessing game as the government refused to reveal what had actually gone wrong in these deals. The government also took months to initiate its internal investigation, and the PAC’s probe too was abruptly put to a standstill on various occasions. In between, we saw the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) being raided, followed by the detention of...

This article has earlier appeared in Beritadaily.com on 26/2/2016 Barisan Nasional leaders, particularly those from Umno, should wake up and accept the fact that arresting and imprisoning people will not stop criticisms from being levelled against the ruling party and the government. Instead, it will certainly increase public suspicion over what these government leaders are actually up to. Apart from that, such actions will also give the impression that the BN government is trying to cover up weaknesses in its administration. In politics, public perception, whether negative or positive, exists in every form, be it criticism, commentaries, discussions, condemnations, debates, exchange of ideas or just simply a chat in a coffee shop. Whatever the BN government is doing or if any of its top leaders is linked to controversies or scandals, it will inevitably attract public attention and generate public perceptions based on the information obtained. Perception is prevalent and unless th...

This article has earlier appeared in Beritadaily.com on 19/2/2016 If a leading politician or senior official from the Barisan Nasional (BN) government was caught or exposed for his corrupt practices, the people would make hell of a noise demanding that the person resign, be probed and charged for the crimes committed. However, today, the leading BN politician or senior official will fire back by claiming that those calling for action to be taken against him are threatening the existence of the Malay race in this nation. He will add that without Umno, there will be no more Malays in this land. Again, when people saw a leading figure from the BN government abusing his powers to award government contracts to members of his family, close relatives or cronies, calls for the person to be probed and demanding his resignation will be met with his response that it is un-Islamic to do so or it is not the way of Islam to call for action to be taken against the leader or official. In shor...

Public & Press Statement Recently, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has decided to block two influential websites which has been critical to the BN government. The blockade took place after these two websites published a kind of “warning” letter from the Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) to Tabung Haji over some kind of “fund mismanagement” in the said organization. The MCMC reasoned that the blockade to these two websites were because of the words and statements published are against the law and order. We would like to ask the BN government, is reporting or exposing a crime against the law? Why are the authorities apprehending the person who reported or exposed criminal elements within an organization or the government and not going after the culprits who abused their powers and took the public funds for their personal interests? Is the BN government giving an impression to the public that any persons reporting a misdeed, corruption or any criminal element w...

This article has earlier appeared in the Beritadaily.com on 21/1/2016 First of all, why must members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) be gagged and not allowed to issue any statements pertaining to the committee's ongoing investigations or hearings on the government’s financial irregularities? Is PAC functioning in secrecy or is it some sort of a secret society? Why all inquiries carried out by the PAC should not be made public and the people are being prevented from knowing its proceedings? If the leaders of the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition keep on insisting that PAC’s probes into the financial irregularities in the public service as well as government-linked-companies (GLCs) should not be disclosed to the people, then can only assume that they want to cover-up the misdeeds and wrongdoings within the government. No wonder the BN government’s budget deficit is increasing every year and they keep on losing billions of ringgit of public funds to power abuse, mismanag...

This article has earlier appeared in the Beritadaily.com on 13/1/2016 Loyalty to the nation means persons or citizens who demonstrate their loyalty first and utmost to the nation, its foundation and the Federal Constitution. The nation means everything to the person or citizen as his or her place of birth, where growth and development of oneself has taken place, where one has been residing and working, as well as the place where one is depending on in every aspect. To demonstrate one’s loyalty to the nation means to ensure its foundation and Federal Constitution is preserved, and preventing the nation from destruction. Loyalty to the leaders refers to one’s loyalty towards a person with a leadership position or someone who possesses power or rule over the nation. In many circumstances, the leader or the person who is in power can be good and bad, can be caring to the people and the leader can also be selfish and self-interested without any regard for the people and the entire nation. ...

This article has earlier appeared in Beritadaily.com on 6/1/2016 The negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, or better known by its acronym, TPPA, which includes Malaysia has taken place for about eight years. Prime Minister Najib Razak also announced in his Budget 2016 speech that Malaysia had agreed in principal to join the US-sponsored trade agreement because of its benefits to our people. The TPPA is expected to be tabled in parliament on Jan 26, following which a vote will take place in order to set the course for the government to officially endorse the trade agreement which is due to be officially sealed in February 2016. Much has been said by the government on the goodness of the TPPA but if there are so many goodies in this trade agreement, why hasn’t the government revealed details of them? Why weren't any of the details outlined to the general public if this pact could serve the interest of our people-at-large? Najib and his government has insisted ...

This article has earlier appeared in Beritadaily.com on 9/12/2015 WH Cheng The National Security Council (NSC) Bill was recently bulldozed to be passed in Dewan Rakyat with a simple majority after the Barisan Nasional (BN) made a mad rush to push the bill through by limiting the time for review and debates were shortened. It was a grave disappointment as elected representatives were disallowed a longer period to study and review the bill in detail before it was put to vote. What was the intention behind the BN government in making such a rush to push through this controversial bill? The passed NSC Bill will now have to go through the Dewan Negara (Senate) for another vote and later on, if voted in, will be forwarded to the King for His Majesty’s endorsement. There is no need for us to further elaborate on the details of the NSC Bill as many commentaries and opinions have been offered recently. The conclusion of the bill has been made known to all, simple as that, the prime ministe...