Author: Hafiz Noor Shams

For more about me, please read this.

Categories
Politics & government

[1861] Mengenai kerajaan pembangkang

Membaca Utusan Malaysia bukanlah satu perkara yang lazim saya lakukan. Surat khabar itu hanya dibelek apabila hidup mula terasa bosan kerana tiada apa mahu dilakukan lagi, seolah-olah sudah tiba masanya hayat ini dihentikan. Duduk di atas kerusi sambil merenung ke peti televisyen yang tidak terpasang, akhbar Utusan berada di atas meja. Lalu diangkat untuk dibaca.

Apabila terbaca muka hadapannya, teringat mengapa hanya melihat akhbar itu bukanlah satu perkara yang menyenangkan. Tekanan darah yang berada di tahap sihat tiba-tiba memuncak dengan nafsu amarah. Perlahan-lahan, kemahuan untuk ke dapur untuk menyiatkan akhbar propaganda ini dengan sebilah pisau tajam beribu kali berulangan bagai tidak mampu ditampung lagi.

Sebelum bersedia untuk memberhentikan pengalaman yang tidak berguna ini, itu dia; di dalam tulisan tebal dan besar, “Kerajaan pembangkang diminta sedia tapak PPRT“.

Kerajaan pembangkang?

Kerajaan pembangkang?

Binatang apa itu?

Sebenarnya, maksud dan konteksnya jelas. Akan tetapi, istilah itu menampakkan betapa Utusan masih lagi tidak menerima kenyataan yang apa mereka terbiasa kenal sebagai pembangkang dahulu kini adalah kerajaan. Bagi yang mampu menempuh realiti, kerajaan Pulau Pinang, Kedah, Perak, Selangor dan Kelantan adalah kerajaan negeri Pakatan Rakyat.

Perbuatan memanggil kerajaan-kerajaan negeri ini sebagai kerajaan pembangkang adalah satu usaha untuk memutar-belitkan keadaan. Perkara inilah yang membuatkan akhbar-akhbar seperti Utusan hilang kredibiliti.

George Orwell menulis di dalam Nineteen Eighty-Four, slogan The Party adalah peperangan itu keamanan, kebebasan itu perhambaan, kejalilan itu kekuatan. Bagi Utusan, mungkin slogan yang sama sedang diguna pakai, dengan tambahan: kerajaan itu pembangkang (caveat: di tempat-tempat tertentu sahaja).

The Party tidak boleh dipercayai. Begitu juga dengan Utusan Malaysia.

Categories
Politics & government Society

[1860] Of we are all for hudud goddamnit

Deputy President of Barisan Nasional and UMNO Najib Razak verbally attacked PAS after Husam Musa declared that PAS would continue to fight for the implementation of hudud in this country:

“In the last election, PAS used the slogan welfare state. They did not bring up the issue of hudud but before that they did. Now it seems like the party leaders want to implement hudud,”

“This is a matter of credibility. Hudud is used as a political slogan only but nothing is implemented by them,” said Najib. [Najib: Pas using hudud as a political slogan. Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani. The Malaysian Insider. December 22 2008]

Okay. Regardless, all the more reason to make sure PAS is always the junior partner of any coalition. But with UMNO supporting hudud, keeping advocates of hudud as a junior partner might be tough.

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 22 – Kelantan Umno will lobby the federal government to allow the Islamist party Pas to introduce hudud law, which prescribes stoning, whipping and amputation as punishment for criminal offences, in what will certainly spark intense debate and rouse opposition from non-Muslims.

The Malaysian Insider understands the Kelantan state Umno leadership is planning to declare their support, which comes on the heels of Pas vice president Datuk Husam Musa’s admission on Saturday that his party would introduce hudud if it wins federal power. [Kelantan Umno backs hudud. Leslie Lau. The Malaysian Insider. December 22 2008]

Oh, the shock. But could this be a slogan too?

Categories
Politics & government

[1859] Of Wan Hamidi Hamid the economic liberal in DAP

It is so refreshing to discover that Wan Hamidi Hamid embraces the idea of economic liberalism so passionately. For a person working so deeply in the DAP, I had expected him to stand on the other side of the divide. My expectation missed its target slightly less by a mile.

I learned of his philosophical position during a small discussion at the Middle Eastern Graduate Centre on Jalan Telawi on a Friday’s evening. It was an unscheduled attendance for me because I had not planned to visit Bangsar on that day. The discussion was about attacks on the idea of economic liberty by the left movement in Malaysia. Wan Hamidi wrote an essay a couple of pages long refuting the attack. A good part of the essay could be succinctly summarized by the very idiom he used in the final paragraph of his essay: the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

In my mind, Madonna burst out to sing the song 4 Minutes. That probably helped digressing the discussion from focusing on the attack to describe economic liberty at large.

I wrote slightly less by a mile because he is a convert from socialism to liberalism. Pardon the pigoenhole but those labels are convenient to use. Regardless of convenience, as he admitted during he discussion, he used to sympathize with the left movement. As a young journalist, he did substantial reporting on the local labor movement.

How did he finally, as he said cheekily, “bertaubat” (repent) is unknown to me but he is undoubtedly a liberal in the classical sense now. Actually, he is down the road farther than me. If anybody out there was to describe me as an extremist, he would ran out of superlative to describe Wan Hamidi.

That conversion made me thinking. A person jumping off the left boat to board the liberal one is not an unusual news to hear. How about a person doing the reverse?

The latter is something I have yet to stumble upon.

This also made me thinking about how left the DAP is these days on the political spectrum. Increasingly, DAP may look like PKR in its political diversity, as far as the red-blue spectrum is concerned. Tony Pua seems like more like a liberal than a left sympathizer. Wan Hamidi Hamid is unambiguously a liberal. I also know several more individuals in their 20s within DAP holding liberal ideas.

It would be interesting to know how big the divide is in DAP.

Big or small, all this makes Wan Hamidi Hamid an amusing rare instance of stark contrast. Here is a Malay with economic liberal ideas in a political party dominated by the Chinese which traditionally sides itself with the left. He just stands out from the crowd.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved
nota bene — a certain blog claims I followed “enlightenment” discussions organized by Middle Eastern Graduate Centre. In its exact words, “Hafiz Noor Shams turut mendedahkan bahawa beliau pernah mengikuti perbincangan-perbincangan pencerahan di MEGC (Middle Eastern Graduate Centre), Jalan Telawi, iaitu anak syarikat kepada IKD.” The wordings are disingenuous. I attended only one discussion and that was unplanned. I did not attend any other event organized by that organization. Yet, with that chanced attendance, the website makes it as if I was a supporter or a follower of MEGC, which I am not. Furthermore, that website took a religious context in describing me, while that particular discussion that I attended was purely about the economy. I will not take this matter further other than to say the accusatory blog entry was written in bad faith.

Categories
Economics

[1858] Of price, liberated

Behind every crisis, there is an opportunity as the cliché goes and the opportunity presented by the period of high energy prices has been satisfyingly utilized. Whatever goals scored by economic liberalism in this country, it is definitely one point up:

PUTRAJAYA, Dec 19 – Fuel prices in the country will be determined by the flotation mechanism.

[…]

Consumers, he said, should brace themselves for a managed flotation mechanism for oil prices based on market rates.

Shahrir said that many factors had to be examined before finalising the mechanism which includes generating revenue for the Government and providing stronger purchasing power to consumers. [Shahrir: Fuel prices to be determined by flotation mechanism. The Malaysian Insider. December 19 2008]

It may not be ideal but at least, the direction taken deserves endorsement. Gradual improvement is something I can appreciate.

With fuel subsidy and control over fuel prices have been significantly eroded to incorporate greater liberty and less government intervention, it is time to target other supply and price control mechanism.

Categories
Economics

[1857] Of IJN privatization may create monopoly

Sime Darby is interested to acquire the National Heart Institute (Institut Jantung Negara; IJN) on Jalan Tun Razak from the government.[1] My default position has always been that the government should do what it does best and that is governance. With this, privatization is a natural path to take. However, it is unclear if the deal is desirable.

In many ways, the privatization of the 1980s and 1990s in Malaysia was a baby step into refocusing the government.

As time progresses unfortunately, it is unclear if privatization has continued or ceased with the introduction of powerful government-linked companies in Malaysia. What were privatized long ago are now partly owned by the government indirectly, mostly as the majority or the main shareholder. This is done through Khazanah, PNB, EPF, Tabung Haji and other investment arms of the state.

GLCs notwithstanding, one of the few things that mar many privatization efforts was the creation of monopoly. Monopoly is not necessarily a bad thing but better privatization method could have been employed to encourage competition in the market. Nevertheless, the creation of monopoly through privatization could be defended by resorting to the natural monopoly argument.

Yet, healthcare does not fit the definition of natural monopoly. Competition can exist in the industry. This makes that argument irrelevant to this case.

The proposed privatization of IJN risks of the creation of a monopoly. Not just monopoly but state-induced monopoly. That has to be a double-whammy.

Casual research indicates that the increasingly conglomerate Sime Darby’s existing business does involve healthcare and it does offer services with respect to heart treatments through its Heart Centre.[2] Information provided by The Star does show that IJN and Heart Centre do compete with each other by the virtue of offering the same services.[2a] Without further research, it is unclear how extensive the competition between the two institutions or whether there are other competitors out there; I suspect there is. What is certain is that the merging of the two under Sime Darby Healthcare will undoubtedly grant Sime Darby with market power. Sime Darby, on its own, is already a formidable player in the industry.

In responding to request for comment on the matter, both Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi and his deputy, Najib Razak said that Sime Darby must ensure IJN is accessible to the poor if the deal is to go through.[3][4] How creating a commercial monopoly would do just that would require extensive debate which the PM and the DPM might find it hard to win.

If IJN is to be privatized and if the government really care about making treatments at the IJN affordable, competition is the answer, not monopoly.

There are of course other means to make the treatment affordable even with privatized IJN. Among the methods are government subsidy for those deserving of it or even the creation of a national health system which provides health insurance. I do not endorse these alternatives. By stating the alternatives, I am merely showing there are ways to make IJN private and affordable to the poor. Creating a national health insurance just to address the issues surrounding the privatization of IJN is absurd.

Those alternatives however still do not address the concern for the unnecessary creation monopoly.

In any case, with the proposal in its current form — that is, I assume, a simple acquisition of IJN by Sime Darby — I am not too warm to it. There is no concrete information to show that deal is larger than a simple transfer of ownership from the Ministry of Finance (IJN is owned by that Ministry) to the GLC Sime Darby (in turn owned by the quasi-government PNB).

If IJN is to be privatized, I would prefer for it to be sold to another entity to encourage competition in the market. There are better option out there and the one taken at the moment is not it.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

[1] — KUALA LUMPUR: Sime Darby Bhd has expressed interest in taking over the National Heart Institute, or Institut Jantung Negara (IJN), a move that has met with objections from the ministry of health, sources said. [Sime Darby eyes IJN. Lim Shie-Lynn. The Edge Daily. December 18 2008]

[2] — A superior one-stop centre comprising a fully equipped coronary care unit (CCU), cardiac ward and cardiovascular catheterization laboratory. [Heart Centre. Sime Darby Healthcare. Accessed December 18 2008]

[2a] — Fair use. Copyrights by The Star.

Some rights reserved. By Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams

[Sime Darby seeks stake in IJN. K.C. Law. The Star. December 18 2008]

[3] — KUALA LUMPUR Dec 18 – The government will allow Sime Darby to take over the National Heart Institute (IJN) if it can guarantee that the low-income group can still afford treatment there. [PM wants Sime Darby to guarantee treatment for poor if it takes over IJN. Shannon Teoh. The Malaysian Insider. December 18 2008]

[4] — Najib, who is also the Finance Minister, said Sime Darby must pledge its commitment that the poor would not be marginalised if IJN is to be transferred to it. [Najib: No objection to Sime buying IJN stake. Shannon Teoh. Business Times. December 18 2008]