Minimum Wage At RM1,000

Finally after years of to and fro, we have come to some form of minimum wage standard. Naturally the associations such as SMI Association would say things like some 80% of small medium employers may have to fold because of that.


Point 1) Are we not trying to move to get out of the middle income trap? The country has been a boom town for foreign workers, many being paid below that level. While that makes us competitive in some industries, safe to say, those industries seriously should not be around our country if we are going to keep developing. Being a magnet for cheap labour will only further erode the overall labour wage scale for the rest.


Point 2) To the SMis, if you can only operate profitably with wages below RM1,000 ... methinks you should shift your business to Cambodia or Laos. If you so choose to rely on such low wages as part of your business model, safe to say, your business is so sunset, you cannot even see the sun, in fact you probably see the moon rising. What future you think you have, the country would have if we operate predominantly in those industries?


Point 3) A fair wage. Seriously, can anyone who is at management level think properly about a person living under RM1,000 a month. Even if they can scrape by, ....  a caring society, a maturing society, a balanced society would not be able to accept a huge grouping living under those conditions. The wage gap cannot be so unrealistic and oppressive. Just because some "disadvantaged" people may have to accept whatever wages the employers may set, does not make it right. Some may not have the ability to fight for their rights to a better life or a fairer treatment, does not mean they do not deserve a fair go.


Point 4) I am not advocating a socialistic type of society, but there has to be a redressing of balance. If not, what we call capitalism is another word for exploitation. So, suck it up and move on. Seriously folks, our country has NEAR ZERO safety net ... no unemployment benefits, no dole, no unemployment insurance, a so-so free healthcare / education system ... wages have to be fairer. We need a liveable wage for all.

Be Careful When You Are At The Airport/Customs

Be careful !!!! At the airport or close to any custom service, never accept or help somebody to hold his/her bottle of water or other objects , even for elderly person or pregnant women, ... you could be arrested for cocaine or illegal drugs possession ? a

The Market Was Tired ... Key Word "Was"

The local market for the past week and a half was tired. You can see it in the prices and the volume. After a torrid run following CNY, the market really needed a breather to recollect. Thankfully, nothing really tanked. In fact, if you examine last Friday's market, there are reasons to be optimistic.



Probably an effort by certain powers to be, the volume picked up in selected GLC lined, government projects linked counters. Could this be a tell tale sign that we are switching from penny stocks? We have KHSB with 76m shares traded, Tebrau with nearly 30m ... Puncak Niaga and DRB look to be joining in the party as well. The others trying to ride the wave include Jaks, UEM Land, KUB and Dialog.


Amidst the torrid run up, the designation of Harvest, the ooops! at Silverbird, really did not do much to wobble the market. This would indicate that the market is still not over with this run up. Pick your trading targets people.

Remembering Bukit Merah In Pictures

Yes, its been many years, maybe the technology and safety measures have improved, but there is no 100% certainty that "accidents" will not happen. Some of the things to think about:


1) Do we need to have Lynas? Apparently the number of jobs created will be less than 500. Even if its 1,500 jobs, you mean we do not have other FDIs to replace that? 
2) Are we big end users of the stuff they 'make'? Will we suffer economically if they are not here?
3) Why won't their own country allow this so called very safe factory to operate? Is it that much cheaper? Is it that much cheaper to ship the fucking stuff all the way to Gerbang?
4) How can they build the factory when the powers to be apparently "have not" yet decided where to dispose the waste? Certainly Lynas would not be so silly as to start building the factory if they did not already have all the permits.
5) I would love it if the waste is shipped back to Australia, but you and I know THAT IS NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN. You talk about a country the size of Malaysia, and then compare to the land mass of Australia which is 20,30,40... times larger with huge desert lands to speak of, you mean they cannot even find a way way off location to dump the shit?
6) Of all the surrounding countries, why don't Lynas go to Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Burma, Laos ... why wonderful Malaysia? How about New Zealand? Or  Samoa or PNG?
7) Can't we get another MNC to set up in Gerbang, I am sure there will be many takers with the many years of tax free status?
8) Money politics some may keep quiet, institutionalised corruption some may keep quiet, blatant manipulation of the courts and police some may still keep quiet ... but we are talking of our health, livelihood and right to exist in a clean environment. 
9) If the waste is so safe, then I would like the top management to build a luxury housing facility for all senior management (Australians) and their families to stay there located no more than 1km from the dump site, for as long as Lynas is operating. We will gladly get volunteers to transport waters from the nearby rivers to water their plants and their daily use.


I applaud all who continue to protest (even when the factory is up). Yes, they will lose votes, they know they are losing that state already but the more they persist, the better the chance to make our votes count. They also know if they back pedal now they will still lose votes. People power comes in many factions and thanks to their 'brilliant minds' they have put themselves in a beautiful corner with a rope just long enough to hang themselves. Yes, please keep Lynas going by all means, ...

RBS signs MOU with CIMB to sell part of Asia-Pacific business

CIMB continues to make the right moves to expand across the region. 

FINANCE ASIA:

The potential sale will include the UK bank's cash equities, ECM, M&A and corporate finance divisions in Asia and Australia.

After six weeks of trying to find a buyer for parts of its Asia-Pacific business, Royal Bank of Scotland yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding with Malaysia’s CIMB Group. The aim is to finalise a sale and purchase agreement during the next few weeks that will cover the cash equities, equity capital markets, M&A and corporate finance divisions in Asia-Pacific, including Australia, a source said.

The MOU was confirmed by CIMB and RBS in separate statements, but neither party provided any further details. CIMB said the MOU will allow it to negotiate exclusively with RBS to finalise the scope and terms of a sale.

There has been no information about what price CIMB may be paying or what kind of arrangement it is prepared to offer for the existing employees in these businesses, but the MOU suggests that RBS feels there is more value in selling these businesses than to close them down — which is what it has decided to do with these same divisions in Europe.

The main reason for the restructuring of RBS’s wholesale business and the decision to exit the cash equities, ECM and corporate finance businesses globally is clearly a need to cut costs and the management is believed to have come under a lot of pressure from the UK government, which owns 82% of the bank, to get this done quickly.

However, for the people negotiating a potential sale in Asia-Pacific, a key driver has been to enable a large portion of its employees to continue their work under a new roof. One source said that the businesses covered by the MOU employ about 600 people and at the moment the intention is for CIMB to buy the business with the employees. However, it is unlikely that it will end up keeping them all.

For CIMB, the most interesting part of RBS will be its businesses in North Asia and Australia, where the Malaysian bank has a limited presence but is keen to expand as it pushes ahead with its plans to become a regional investment bank. On the other hand, there is bound to be quite a bit of overlap with CIMB’s existing businesses in Southeast Asia and one can expect more job losses among the current RBS staff there.

Overall though, sources argue that the RBS business is a good fit for CIMB and one person noted that the two businesses combined would have ranked in the top 10 in ECM activity across Asia-Pacific last year and close to, if not inside, the top 10 in the brokerage of cash equities.

As with any merger, CIMB will have to work to realise the value of the business, but, assuming it does happen, the acquisition will give it the building blocks to become a competitive force in an Asia-Pacific context.

The MOU comes after RBS announced in mid-January that it would reorganise its wholesale business and close or sell its cash equities, mergers advisory, corporate broking and ECM operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia-Pacific as part of a plan to cut 3,500 investment banking jobs across the globe in the next three years.

Initially, the bank was hoping to find one buyer for the entire business across the three regions and sources said there were some potential buyers looking at that. However, quite quickly it became clear that the best option to find interested buyers would be to sell different regions separately.

On February 1, the bank announced that it had agreed to sell its RBS Hoare Govett corporate broking operations in the UK to Jefferies for a nominal cash consideration. The agreement also includes the transfer of “certain other cash equities professionals” to Jefferies. The sale is expected to complete by the end of the first quarter.

However, on February 11 — less than one month after the initial exit announcement — it told staff that it had decided to wind down parts of its ECM and cash equities business focusing on Europe, the Middle East and Africa (Emea) after failing to find a buyer. The closures will affect 200 to 300 employees and, if nothing else, they show the pressure the bank is under to get out of these businesses.

Aside from CIMB, there were a number of other interested parties for the Asia-Pacific businesses, including China International Capital Corp (CICC), but the Malaysian bank appears to have gained the advantage because of its ability to move quickly. Lazard is advising RBS on the sale.

As reported earlier, RBS is creating a new wholesale banking division out of its remaining businesses, called markets and international banking. The new division will incorporate debt capital markets and the financial institutions group, as well as the banking business that is currently part of global banking and markets (GBM) and the international arm of global transaction services (GTS), and will be led by John Hourican.

Can Malaysia’s leaders emulate the Myanmar political reform?

by Koon Yew Yin


One of the leading papers in the region, The Nation recently conducted an interview with Burmese President Thein Sein’s chief political adviser, Ko Ko Hlaing. In that exclusive interview, Ko Ko Hlaing told the Bangkok paper that Myanmar’s political reform is “irreversible” because of the president’s strong will.



He stressed that the specific constitutional provision towards democracy, the Burmese people’s taste of new found freedom, and the need for the country to follow the international trend ensured that the reforms would have to proceed.
In the interview, he also gave an insider’s glimpse into the thinking and philosophy of the former strongman who ran of Myanmar for close to 20 years. According to him, senior General Than Shwe, following his resignation as head of state in 2011, was not running the country from behind the scenes as commonly alleged and would not be making a comeback.


“As a Buddhist, you can understand the mentality of an elderly Buddhist. You should understand also the mind of an old soldier – which is always the desire to accomplish his mission. After the mission is accomplished, he can take a rest. 


“[Than Shwe] had undertaken the responsibilities of the state for a long time, and there were many hardships, pressures and difficulties… He also laid down the conditions of democratic reform – the seven-step roadmap. He is now enjoying his retirement with his grand children.”


What was also striking to me was the way that Ko Ko Hlaing responded to the question of whether the military strongman was afraid to be taken to trial by a civilian government.



Ko Ko Hlaing said: “This is a Buddhist country. Forgiveness is our principle. Also, Aung San Suu Kyi and the other opposition leaders, young and old have talked about forgiving, and forgetting the past and trying to do the best for the nation.”  


It may be necessary for me to explain why I am focusing on the subject of Myanmar’s political reform road map.  In a few weeks on April 1, my own road map for Malaysia contained in my book ‘Malaysia: Road Map for Achieving Vision 2020’ will be launched in Ipoh. The book details can be viewed at the publisher’s website shortly.


At the time that I wrote my book I did not refer to it as the Burmese reform process was still evolving. I also did not understand the situation in Myanmar as I was an outsider with little contact with its system of government.
During the last few months, that situation has changed dramatically for me. 


Arising from several visits to the country and my involvement in a development-cum-philanthropic undertaking I am pursuing there, I have been in personal contact with some of Myanmar’s top leaders and have been impressed by the remarkable progress of their political reform process as compared with Malaysia’s.


Now that I also have the benefit of this remarkable interview to draw upon in addition to my own personal experience in interacting with Myanmar’s leaders, I would encourage all Malaysians – especially our political leaders, including Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the Prime Minister Najib Razak and the opposition leaders to read carefully the interview and distil from it the lessons that are necessary for our own political reform process to have any chance of success.
To sum up, some of the lessons from Myanmar for us to follow are:

·         Reform must come from both a top down as well as a bottom up process.

·         Old leaders should give up trying to retain power or maintain influence after leaving office.

·         The ruling party must abide by and not undermine the constitutional provisions to a democracy

·         Media freedom and the end to censorship need to be placed in the forefront of the political reform agenda.

·         Lastly and most importantly, the nation’s interests should come ahead of individual or group interest.

In the Buddhist philosophy, the feeling of a separate ‘I’ which we call ego consciousness is directly related to the strength of ignorance, greed, and hatred.

The deepest meaning of ignorance is the believing in, identifying with and clinging to the ego, which is nothing but an illusionary mental phenomenon. But because of this strong clinging to ego-consciousness, attachment/desire, anger/hatred arise and repeatedly gain strength. 

This ego and self-interest manifested in the material greed and weakness of leaders needs to be conquered if our country is to survive well. 

Tickets Moving Well (Updated)

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