Much Ado About E-Hailing

The dust over the uncertainty of e-hailing services, i.e. UBER and Grab is now settled when tabled by Nancy Shukri, amendments allowing for it in the Land Public Transport Act 2010 and the Commercial Vehicles Licensing Board Act 1987 were passed by the Dewan Rakyat, last Thursday.

The amendments, will also have to be passed by the Dewan Negara, obtain Royal Assent and be gazetted before they come into force.

Despite protests by taxi drivers and associations, Najib Razak's adminstration has now legalize the services, following to the Budget 2017 in October 2016, allowing Bantuan Rakyat 1 Malaysia (BR1M) assistance as down payment for Proton Iriz to supplement the recipients income.

Najib may felt he has killed two birds with one stone, while Isa Samad was given the red carpet treatment as the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) Chairman soon after his exit from FELDA Global Ventures (FGV) debacle is far from over.

Isa Samad presence may set the tone on e-hailing service operators, to cushion his entry but not the present public transports player, i.e. the taxi operators, amid his tarnished image at FGV and the latest Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) findings of misconduct at FELDA Investment Corporation (FIC).

Read: http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/opinion/2017/07/27/govt-cannot-omit-taxi-and-e-hailing-drivers-tribunal/
http://www.thestar.com.my/tech/tech-news/2017/07/27/malaysia-legalises-e-hailing-services-as-grab-uber-compete/

Corruption: Malaysia ranks 55th

Corruption is the abuse of entrusted power for private gain. It hurts everyone whose life, livelihood or happiness depends on the integrity of people in a position of authority. Corruption holds back economic development, prevents a free market operating for businesses and consumers, and further exploits the already marginalised groups. 

Malaysia's global ranking in anti-graft watchdog survey on perceived corruption in the public sector; Transparency International's (TI) annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) has declined again for the second year, falling to 55th out of 176 countries surveyed last year. 

Malaysia had been improving in the annual rankings, moving from the 54th spot out of 176 countries in 2012 to the 53rd spot out of 177 countries in 2013, and the 50th spot out of 175 countries in 2014. Malaysia ranked 54th out of 168 countries in the 2015 edition. Malaysia's poorer rankings last year also come as its 2016 CPI score fell to 49, the same score that the country had achieved in 2012. Putrajaya aims to achieve a ranking of 30th place by 2020. 

Corruption in Malaysia is a growing threat as is often met with complacency, and that key institutions are refusing to or slow to address the problem. Any level of corruption in public institutions are too much. Furthermore, there is a big problem with public mistrust of government and politics in Malaysia. 

"It's not impossible, provided we have good leaders, support from the public and make sure MACC is not conducting selective investigation, but this is very important, we must make sure AG do not does selective prosecution, then I can assure we can achieve, if not it's a dream," TI-Malaysia president Datuk Akhbar Satar said when asked if such a goal was still achievable.

Add Salt To Taste

Yesterday, Free Malaysia Today carried a story of disappointment into the investigation into SRC International (SRC) that led to the early retirement of a senior Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officer, last week.

Datuk Bahri Mohamad Zain, who was the director of MACC’s Special Operations Division (SOD), said he felt as if he had “sinned against 30 million Malaysians when the SRC case could not be taken to court”.

That was the story that captivated most readers of his disappointment about the lack of action with regard to SRC International case, a subsidiary of 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB); most debated issue that extended to international waters.

Next came another story on Bahri’s retirement was due to the revelation of corrupt acts by the former prime minister; Tun Dr Mahathr and his children stakes in 488 companies, including government related entities, some even while Mahathir was in office.

While Malaysians are trying to relate and make sense of both conflicting stories of the truth, MACC then issued a press statement denying SRC is the root cause and that Bahri had denied making such statement to the media portal.

Many readers are more convinced of SRC being the true reasons and the MACC’s are crafted. The press statement is regarded a weak attempt on damage control and covering the real reasons why Bahri resigned.

Apparently the old strategy is put to play. If you cannot explain then, confuse them. Three different stories originated from Bahri’s decision to leave MACC in the span of one day. There could be more, on the way.