Politically-directed Town Planners

Constant political inferences are stopping the execution of well executed townships and its surroundings, claimed a town planner and consultant.

"There is always potential interference as a town planner when I was a civil servant and even now as a consultant," said Khairiah Talha at a forum last night.

"I'm always caught. I can tell you, I don't like it. I am not pleased with such interferences because I'm a religious person and I want to be answerable to God one day.

"There are political interferences whether they are from the outside or inside. We can have a perfect plan drawn up but someone with personal interest will call someone with political backing to make us change it," Khairiah said.

Khairiah is also a consultant with the Kuala Lumpur Draft City Plan 2020 (KLDCP).

According to Khairiah, town-planning was difficult in Malaysia because there were too many ministries involved in dealing with similar matters.

"It's all political because historically, we have so many ministries, because they were awarded to different parties.

At the forum, Khairiah was speaking alongside Centre for Environment, Technology and Development, Malaysia (Cetdem) chairperson Gurmit Singh, town planner Goh Bok Yen and Bukit Bandaraya Residents' vice president Mumtaz Ali.

Meanwhile, Gurmit opined that the public transport system in the country has failed because of former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad and the national car policy which promoted Proton.

According to him, policies passed by the government has prioritised the national car over proper town planning and public transportation system. "The government always go for the expensive solutions and options first."

Source: Political meddling spoiling good town planning

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It's all about politicians personal interest. "I am not pleased with such interferences because I'm a religious person and I want to be answerable to God one day," Khairiah said. Did she had to pay some kind of fees too? Kau-tim???

Investment Initiatives & Kautim Initiatives

INVESTMENT promotion policies by non-Barisan Nasional (BN) state governments must not run against federal government rules and laws or policies which are adopted at federal level, International Trade and Industry Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin warned yesterday.

"I have directed Miti Secretary-General to inform the state government officials that these initiatives should be parallel in policy guidelines," he said

Muhyiddin said the federal government will continue to support the five non-Barisan Nasional state governments as long as they adhere to a pro-business policy requirement as practiced by BN government.

"We have informed foreign investors that there is no change in investment policies."

"If these states want to outdo the other BN states like Johor or Pahang with better incentives to attract investments, well and good. We hope to see healthy competition with the purpose of bringing business and investments to the country," he added.

Muhyiddin warned, however, that moves by any of these states to have "upmanship" investor-friendly policies to outdo the federal government will hurt Malaysia.

For example, any decision to open up the government procurement policy, with tenders opened to foreigners to come in, will only send the wrong signals since it is one of the contentious issues under the ongoing free trade agreement.

Source: Non-Barisan states warned over investment policies

The warning issued by the ministry of trade clearly brings to light two main challenges: firstly, the BN government is seen to suffer from a phobia for the probable fact that the PR States may be able to draw more investors than the other BN controlled states on the assumption that PR States officials may be more business friendly and the PR State govt may change or modify its state business policies which makes them more business friendly, less red-tapes, better and far efficient and effective management and having visionary political leadership; secondly, it would most likely cost less for investors as PR promised to be open, transparent and with zero under-table and over-the-table cost. Investors may discover that they do not need special political connections, need not give bonus shares, and need not pay upfront special contributions, fees, subscriptions which are usually part and parcel of the culture and tradition.

Observing the statement made, investors may still have to pass through various channels before they could get the necessary approvals; and they would still need to prepare some grease and oil the system at the federal level which include the journey through Mititi, Mimmi, Missi and Muyinini.

The only consolation is that the upfront down-payment, subscriptions, commissions, fees, contributions and all other ancillaries may be lesser amount as they may not need to subscribe and pay for State gatekeepers.

In conclusion, Kautim and Kopi are still necessary; it's part and parcel of the culture and tradition; it's in the NEP bloodstream and the ideological system and the little napoleons cannot survive without it due to the high cost of living long established.

Building Materials: The Truth of Price Controlled Items

The Secretary-general of the Master Builders Association Malaysia, Yap Yoke Keong revealed that local steel millers were requesting “under-table” money of RM800 to RM1,000 per tonne on top of the controlled price of RM2,225 to RM2,419 price for steel bars, and the actual transaction prices of cement were RM2 to RM3 above the RM10.95 ceiling price.

MBAM members were facing steep price increases and acute shortage of steel bars and cement and had been unable to obtain the items at government-controlled prices, he said.

Source: TheStar Online: Builders all for scrapping price controls

Price Control; but Control what?

Below are Excerpts of Datuk Shahrir Abdul Samad's interview by NSTP Sheridan Mahavera on how the government has to review price controls and subsidies in an honest way, even doing away with policies which may be popular but are unrealistic.

Source: Shahrir: It's a quality-of-life issue
By : Sheridan Mahavera

"We have price controls on rice, on the standard and premium varieties. I have checked and these varieties are not even in the market. We are controlling something that is not even in the market."

"If we say that there are things that we can control that we can't, then (in the end) it goes out of control."

We have been told there is a national price monitoring commission, but who are its members?

If the market says there is no demand for premium and standard rice, then why are we controlling it? It's something that does not make the government look good.

Another example is steel bars. The price has been set at between RM600 and RM700, below the (international) market price.

But contractors can't buy them at these prices. So what they do is inflate the price with other costs. It becomes a joke and the government gets laughed at.

The whole price control mechanism is a joke. If you have price controls just for PR purposes, it does not make the government look good, especially when you have price controls but can't control the price.

You can control the price of whole chicken, but traders overcome it by selling cut chicken.

There is no point in setting prices which are unrealistic. The situation becomes untenable, you do not achieve anything but bad publicity for the government.

The government must be fair when it talks about price controls. If you cannot control prices, then you have to say so. At the very least, ensure that there is supply.

If the increasing price of feedstock is driving up the price of chicken, then we have to ask: "Can we reduce the price of that component in the supply chain?"

We cannot go to retailers and penalise them for something they are not responsible for. So we have to have a more comprehensive view of things.

You have to have a more reasonable list of essential food items. The impression I get is that everything seems to go on the list.

Then there is the question of subsidies. Do you give them to the consumer or to the producer?

Now we are subsidising the producer so that he comes out with the item at a determined price.

What happens if you give it (the subsidy) to the poor consumer and allow him to buy what he wants? Say you give a poor guy RM600 to feed his family of three. He can decide what he wants to do with it.

We have to know what the market price is first. I don't think we know this. We give producers a subsidy now in the hope that we can influence the final price of the item.

Prices go up and yet Malaysian wages don't. So these are all issues the government has to settle. Then there are tolls. That is the result of the privatisation policy we started.

If you want private companies to build roads, you must let them make private profits. So we have to look at issues of the past that were detrimental to Malaysians. We have to be brave enough to change them.

Ultimately, it is the consumer who has to suffer a reduction in the quality of life. This is essentially what managing inflation is.

Datuk Shahrir Abdul Samad is now the new Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister. We now have hope for a truthful minister, not a sandiwara minister.

Photo of their first day

Subramanian and his deputy Puteri Noraini Ahmad congratulating each other on their first day.


Human Resources Ministry

source