Speculators and punters are at the crossroads now. Stock market has arrived at the traffic light – would it pause before continue its journey to the north or would it make a U-turn and go south? It’s freaking fun to see the look on the face of the speculators or punters now. If the so-called bear-rally has exhausted its fuel then it’s no brainer that you should start selling, prepare the cash and wait for the next low for entry. If the so-claimed bull was just teasing you by this temporarily pause before charging again, then you should buy more. So which is which? Nobody knows if the Dow Jones’ 2-month “rally” was the start of a genuine bull-run or merely a bear rally hence the sucker’s rally. We only know the 2-month “rally” has spiked about 30% from its’ low and such rally within a short-period of time is not healthy, not to mention dangerous.

But nobody cares because the crowds on the trading floor were shouting “Bull is running” and “Buy before you miss the boat”. It was enough to brainwash you to jump onto the bandwagon come rain or shine. Furthermore how could you be wrong when the daily transaction volume suddenly jumped to over 3 billion shares (KLSE)? You sweared on your grandma’s grave that you can see the bull showed you two thumbs up on the trading floor. You rubbished that the market-makers linked to the government were behind the manipulation to artificially create the feel-good atmosphere. Where did the money come from if it was true that the foreign investors did not come in, you argued? Many have forgotten that the so-called “hot money” came from the stimulus packages announced by almost all countries affected by the global economy crisis.

Without heavy selling by the foreign investors due to the fact that they did not hold huge local portfolio in the first place (as compared to 1997-1998 Asia Economic Crisis) the job of pushing up or down the composite index was extremely easy. In fact the local market-makers can artificially push up the index by 1-point everyday and you need less than 100-points to create 100-days of bull. Furthermore what the punters and gamblers would like to see is only positive closing. Just like honey the rest of the suckers would be flocking to the stock galleries and the market-makers can slowly by surely inload their holdings.

At the moment situation is quite tense at Dow Jones because the 8,000-level is being tested again. With yesterday’s closing at 8,284.89 after plunged 184.22 points or 2.2%, you’ve little buffer to play around and should the 8,000 level breached the next selling wave could be on the horizon. U.S. retail sales fell in April for second consecutive months, down 0.4%, worst than economists’ expectation. This is not surprising at all considering people are still licking their wounds from unemployment yet still have to pay their mortgages and credit cards debts. Do I have to remind you that the 8.9% jobless rate is still at 25-year high although some smart-suckers said it’s very far from 1929 Great Depression?

So, just because we may not hit the 1929’s Great Depression jobless rate, we’re on our way to recovery? Sometimes it’s amazing how these analysts got their job in the first place. One little thing I learn from investing stocks is not to count the chickens before they hatch, not to mention now you’ve actually many sick chickens that may not be able to mate and produce the eggs. As a matter of fact, KLSE has recover much faster compared to Dow Jones but when the Dow plunged to its’ lowest in Mar, KLSE didn’t follow through. Hence you can say that if the worst is not over for Dow Jones, KLSE has definitely not seen its worst yet.

Other Articles That May Interest You …

• Stress Test a Hoax? Another Wave of Banking Tsunami?
• Local Stocks are defying the Gravity, once again
• Interest Rate Hike on Non-National Cars – Why?
• Citigroup’s Accounting and Najib’s Political Creativity
• Beats Earnings – Blinded by Excessive Low Expectation
• Fishing for the bottom – 140 Years of Bull & Bear Hints
• PM Najib’s Cronies and their Related Companies
• Dow Jones Rally – is the Worst Really Over?
• Great Recession’s Scope is Deep and Broad

Would it be too cruel to say “I told you so” now that the Court of Appeal granted the so-called illegitimate Chief Minister Zambry a stay of execution on the High Court ruling yesterday that the so-called legitimate Chief Minister Nizar was the rightful Menteri Besar (Chief Minister) of Perak? From a state that fall into the hand of opposition after Mar 2008 general election to the magical creation of 2 (two) Chief Ministers, 2 (two) Speakers and now back to the unbelievable 0 (zero) Chief Minister it would take David Copperfield many more years to understand the trick. This Constitutional Crisis continuous tragedy has raised millions of eyebrows that other news such as the Altantuya murder case, PKFZ’s RM8 billion (someone said RM12 billion) scandal and the fuel hike of RON97 by 20 sen to RM2.00 a liter are taking the back seats.

Of course some of you claimed Nizar is still the rightful and legitimate Chief Minister but at the same time some would argue that Zambry is still the Chief Minister of the day thanks to three frogs, the Sultan of Perak and the single-instead-of-three Court of Appeal’s judge. In fact we should be proud that the country has her own version of Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela combined, at least that was what Zambry claimed he is, never mind the only similiarity is perhaps the skin colour. While Nizar was speechless about Court of Appeal’s verdict most of the average-Joes knew this stunt was about to happen. So it’s kind of funny that Nizar would be so naïve to believe the story ended the moment he was declared the winner by the High Court. It would be a miracle for the Ruler to grant Nizar the permission to dissolve the Assembly.

The political script which was reused again and again by BN for years appeared to be outdated judging from the feedback from the man on street. It’s so predictable. Now Nizar has applied to set aside the stay of execution order by the Court of Appeal and you don’t need to be a genius to guess where this whole thing is going to land – at Federal Court, the last court of hope. It was a fight that has already crippled Perak’s economy. It’s no longer about governing the state but more of face-saving – Najib and the Sultan of Perak’s face-saving to be exact. While Zambry and Nizar were busy entering and exiting the state secretariat building in a “now you’re Chief Minister, now you’re not Chief Minister” comical episode, their boss Najib and Anwar were nowhere to be seen. Both were strategizing and pulling strings from behind the curtain in their game to show who the best strategist is.

Today, 13th of May 2009, is also the 40th Anniversary of the bloody May 13th 1969 riot that had left hundreds of innocent lifes perished, thanks to politicians. PM Najib’s father was alleged to be the mastermind who architected the bloody riot 40 years ago, with the main objective in toppling Tunku Abdul Rahman, the first prime minister. Of course you won’t find such interesting history event printed in schools’ history books but you can find such books in bookstore and archives elsewhere. Many UMNO politicians especially the former premier Mahathir has used the riot as the basis to divide the Chinese, Malay and Indian for easier ethnic control. The scare, hatred and intimidate tactic worked well during Mahathir’s 22-year rule but people especially the internet-savvy younger generation now realized that it was not a riot due to racial differences but rather selfish ambition of politician(s) who was power-crazy. Of course it was academic about old-folks-tales that the architect of the riot died while in power because the God had summoned him for the many lost lifes.

Anyway the fact is both the Malay and Chinese, let alone the wealthy politicians, could not afford to have another round of similar riot simply because the stake is too high. Despite the many spins the economy cake was equally divided between both races although it is the cronies of the ruling government who controls the majority of the slice. In a nutshell everybody would be affected one way or another if some mad politicians were to push the button of riot destruction. Nevertheless May will probably be the month where we’ll see the climax in power-grabbing which involved not only the Chief Ministers, the Perakians, the police, the Speakers, the Monarchy, the judges and many more but also the Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. I’m not sure if Najib’s camp realizes this but as long as the Perak’s Crisis is not solved by returning the rights back to the people, he would do Anwar a big favor. Anwar would be delighted if Najib’s administration continues to prolong this crisis till the next general election because by then Anwar can leverage on this crisis to bash BN and therefore gain easy support from the voters.

Other Articles That May Interest You …

• High Court Decision – Smoke Screen or A New Battle Plan?
• Perak – it’s over in 2 hours, thanks to Mahathir’s plan?
• Cover-Up and Face-Saving – A Rush for the Chairs
• Perak Government – Now You See It, Now You Don’t
• What can Najib do to increase Rating and win Voters?
• Perak, PR, BN and Gamuda – It’s all about Business, Stupid

I’ve to admit I was rather surprised with the High Court decision that declared Nizar Jamaluddin as the rightful Perak Menteri Besar (Chief Minister) instead of ruling government’s choice, Zambry. Equally surprise was the Zambry’s application for a stay pending appeal which was immediately rejected by the High Court. People especially from the PR (Pakatan Rakyat or People’s Alliance) coalition started the celebration as if the country has just won the FIFA World cup. The victory was actually many times better than orgasm considering that the perception on the street was the judicial was long-dead, since the day former premier Mahathir chopped down the judiciary’s independence and made the judges at the mercy of the Executive pillar.

Make no mistake about it, PM Najib’s plan in capturing the Perak state was buggy as he was rushing to show the UMNO delegates what he can do in the blink of an eye in his final push for his successor, Abdullah Badawi, to throw in his towel. In the process he only managed to seduce the tainted trio to jump ship while it was freaking difficult to win over the Speaker Sivakumar. If only Najib could win the heart of Sivakumar the Perak’s political landscape may be different today. By the time Najib realized his mistake it was too late, nonetheless the assault for the Chief Minister post had to continue. His apprentice Zambry was hoping for a smooth sailing when the Perak Assembly opened last week but Speaker Sivakumar had proven to be a hard nut to crack so much so he basically chained himself to the Speaker’s chair without even the need to answer nature’s call *hats off to him*.

The problem compounded exponentially when Zambry engaged outsiders (till now nobody knows if they are policemen or thugs?) to practically dragged the stubborn Speaker Sivakumar out of the House before locked him inside a room for almost an hour. It was the most embarrassing episode in the history of the country’s democracy and almost immediately gained global’s attention. It was a slap to the face of Najib who was trying to project 1-Malaysia concept. Most importantly foreign investors were rather worried though they were equally amused. If the present government can literally threw the much respected Speaker out of the window, what assurance or guarantee is there that the foreign investors’ billions of dollars of investment would be protected? Najib’s administration can justify their actions until foaming at their mouth but foreign investors are not stupid and they have other option to park their money.

Najib’s mentor Mahathir may have warned him that despite winning the battle (Perak state) he may lose the war (next general election) judging from the soaring temperature not only from the Perakians but also nationwide. It was indeed a dangerous game to pursue hence repair or salvage the situation or else. Strangely enough the Hindraf trio and 10 others were released from the draconian ISA one day after Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, who is also the cousin of PM Najib Razak, was adamant that the Hindraf trio should be in the detention center. The release was obviously to prevent another by-election at Kota Alam Shah of which it’s impossible for Najib’s coalition to win. Also by doing so it was hope the people especially the Indian’s hatred towards the ruling government could be reduced. Already there’re rumors that the Hindraf may be registered as a political party and may join Najib’s coalition since MIC is fast losing its shine.

So, is the High Court decision to award Nizar was actually a smoke screen? OK, I may have watch too much television series such as 24 but it could be also due to that fact that I basically read all the “Famous Five” by Enid Blyton during my primary school days. Najib and his boy, Zambry, are mooting the idea of appealing against the High Court decision and there’re already political analysts who believed Najib would most probably win the appeal. It’s another way for Najib to tell the world that the democracy is still alive. Nizar won the first round and Najib wins the next round. It would be a good strategy to divide the people’s perception that the Judicial is under absolute government’s control. So the PR cannot sulk if the appeal goes the other way. Even if Nizar won this round, the Sultan of Perak can still refuse to dissolve the State Assembly and if a vote of confidence were to be tabled, the BN may win the game considering they have the majority (remember the three frogs?). But what about the status of Speaker Sivakumar?

Now what if Najib-Mahathir’s plan was to actually give back the Perak’s state to the PR in an attempt to win back the tightly squeezed peoples’ support for the next general election? The clock is ticking and Najib does not have much time to play this guerilla warfare with PR, not to mention the Sultan of Perak has invited much criticism over his handling of the state’s constitution crisis. Knowing the mentality of Malaysian, the Ruler’s mistake may be forgiven almost instantly should he grants Nizar request to dissolve the State Assembly. Anyway Nizar and his team-mates should not be over excited that the Ruler will play the game as to reverse His Highness’s recent decision indirectly means the Sultan has erred. It’s all about face-saving. But the Sultan’s son, Nazrin, could be the right person to undo the damages if he decides to grant Nizar’s request, provided a ground could be established that Sultan Azlan Shah is unavailable for 30-days. Najib can also claim victory that his administration respects the court’s decision so he’s not a monster people perceived him to be.

Other Articles That May Interest You …

• Perak – it’s over in 2 hours, thanks to Mahathir’s plan?
• Stock Split and Zambry Pamela Anderson
• Cover-Up and Face-Saving – A Rush for the Chairs
• Perak Government – Now You See It, Now You Don’t
• UMNO is big Bully but that’s because PKR-DAP are Babies
• What can Najib do to increase Rating and win Voters?
• We don’t live on trees. We conduct Assembly under the tree
• Perak, PR, BN and Gamuda – It’s all about Business, Stupid

Something is not right here although I hope I’m wrong. Not many months ago the stock market happily plunged with a single bad news although there were dozen of good news accompanied it. Now a single good news plus dozens of bad news is enough to send the stock market to the moon. Everything was upside down literally. Maybe it’s the sentiment of the investors who chose to ignore or pretend the worst is over (although I hope the worst is really over). But we have to analyse logically and not jump onto the bandwagon. Sure, if you’ve already jumped and made good money then congratulation but still you need to ask youself – what’s next?

At this moment there are more analysts who think that the worst is over than analysts who think the current rally is a sucker’s rally. And who can blame them when the bullish graph is there in front of their trading terminal. It doesn’t matter if the current rally could be just another sucker’s rally with stamina booster at the end of the day because their job is to go along the tide. And the tide now says the bull is in charge of the trading floor. You would need to have a dragon-heart to defy the tide but how many can resist the temptation seeing the stock price skyrocket. What if the rally is real and you’re actually the sucker missing the boat watching the stocks movement without any actions? This is why stock trading is such an exciting game teasing your emotion again and again.

The job losses registered in the month of April was 539,000 when the expectation was 610,000 hence the rally on Friday. But it’s still 539,000 jobs lost nevertheless and the unemployment rate is at 8.9%. What’s wrong with the people here? Has the “denial syndrome” pandemic spread from Malaysia to U.S.? OK, maybe the jobless figure was not that bad compared to the estimation but that’s because the expectation was set too low, not to mention the “special help” from government in creating 60,000 vacancies to help the situation. It was the same like what the Malaysia government did – creating artificial positions although the new recruits may have nothing to do. Where were these vacancies when the economy was in good condition? Get the picture?

U.S. banks’ stress test results were release and in total the banks need $74 billion more – Citigroup needs $5.5 billion, Wells Fargo needs $15 billion and Bank of America needs $33.9 billion amongst others. Ironically the stock market perceived the result as good because it was, well, better than expected although they played down the risk of credit cards. But we’re talking about $74 billion here which in another word means the banks are still in the risky zone, not to mention the banks’ better than expected earnings result was due to creative accounting. Of course everyone seems to bulldoze this fact and prefers or rather pretend that the banks are out of the woods already. Maybe they’re right considering the Obama’s administration would most likely bail them out if there’re still worms not out from the can.

Anyway, William Black, an Associate Professor of Economics and Law at the University of Missouri believed the stress test was purely a propaganda or rather a smoke screen to give an impression that everything is well with the banks when in fact it is not. What better way than to tell the public that the banks are well capitalized and the crisis is over? William Black’s simple argument was that Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and AIG had passed much more stringent government stress test but still fails ultimately. In fact William Black predicted another wave of banking tsunami with losses of more than $2.5 trillion compared to U.S. government’s $599 billion estimate. Also the issue is – if the government foresees $599 billion in additional bank losses, why on earth the government was requiring the banks to raise $74 billion only? Where’s the remaining $525 billion?

It’s good to have celebrations once in a while but before you get too carried away with it, ask yourself if the U.S. banks’ problems are really over or it was another political lies hoping the scheme will work and the losses would disappear overnight. Either way you would have to make a decision and boy, isn’t this fun, challenging your emotion – to buy or not to buy? Or maybe it’s the opportunity for you to sell? Scratching, scratching head.

Other Articles That May Interest You …

• Stock Split and Zambry Pamela Anderson
• Local Stocks are defying the Gravity, once again
• Citigroup’s Accounting and Najib’s Political Creativity
• Beats Earnings – Blinded by Excessive Low Expectation

Five thousand years of Chinese Civilization have transformed the Chinese into a unique race which possessed all the necessary ingredients to survive in a harsh environment. But they are still the same homo-sapiens that are clever yet selfish and cowards. Although the Chinese are complex they’re relatively easy to understand once you mix with them. And they don’t call Singaporean “Kiasu” (fear of losing) and “Kiasi” (afraid of death) without any good reason. As usual there’re two sides of the coin and hence the Chinese are known to be rich (or rather economical capable) yet they need to be led and controlled under communism regime for obvious reason.

Generally the Chinese (in China) are weak in politics thanks to thousands of years under autocratic dynasties’ rule. From the first emperor Qin Shi Huang to the last emperor Pu Yi, the Chinese never tasted real politics let alone democracy. So when the Taiwan’s lawmakers started throwing punches and chairs, spraying water at each other, pulling hairs and literally transformed the House into a wrestling hall, it was understandable as they were just infants learning the rope of democracy. However the Chinese are very good in business so much so that they “may be” the first race that invented corruption (whether they realize it or not) in order to speed up the business deals.

Because of the “Kiasu” characteristic, the Chinese are always in front of the queue when come to the business of making money regardless whether it is legitimate or illegitimate. They can naturally smell the aroma of money miles away and they are willing to enter the ring of no-holds-barred for the sake of making money. There’s not a single business which can make money without the presence of Chinese. From stock market speculators to drug smuggling you will see the Chinese have some parts in it. Yes, the Chinese are brilliant and can make huge amount of money quite easily but that’s because they’re a great spender as well. They can create an efficient economy mill within a small town with ease and you wonder how the hell the community can prosper. As a comparison, go to a kampong dominated by ethnic-Malay and your jaw will drop to the floor.

Unfortunately the Chinese are “Kiasi” at the same time. They have extremely high level of tolerance and as long as they can bring food to the table for their family, they can accept intimidation, inefficient and even a very corrupted government. That was the reason why they never strike back even though their husbands and sons were brutally killed and their wives and daughters were gang-raped during the riot in Indonesia of which many said was engineered by General Wiranto and endorsed by President Suharto. The Chinese have done a calculated risk and knew it wasn’t a battle for them thus they migrated leaving behind the debris but not before transferred billions of dollars out of Indonesia (mostly to Singapore). They understand the concept of live another day and you will still be alive to avenge your losses. Fight a losing battle and you’ll lose your life cheaply.

Having said that the Chinese would not tolerate if their country is at stake as can be seen when the China was invaded many times by outsiders. In fact historically the Chinese never invaded other countries (if my old memory serves me right) but was enjoying many civil wars within the current modern China territory. The Chinese had the greatest opportunity to expand their empire during the height of their naval power under Admiral Zheng He when the China generally ruled the seas but they didn’t. They’re happy to show off their power and as long as you do not poke their nose, they’ll leave you alone. And for this simple reason former PM Mahathir once said Malaysia (and other countries) has everything to gain and nothing to lose if China continues to prosper although the other superpower U.S. didn’t think so, out of jealousy I supposed.

Unlike the Chinese, the ethnic-Malays are specialists when come to the topic of politics. They’re willing to risk everything for their political beliefs including their lives and for this reason the UMNO supporters were easily intimidated and demoralized with the presence of a bigger crowds from PAS, both consists of Malays. There’re reasons why the “Bersih” rally was a huge success but the supposedly “Perak” rally yesterday was, well, a failure. Unlike the “Bersih” rally, there was no serious organizer for the “Perak” rally and everyone “thought” people will show-up naturally as if it was a “Michael Jackson” concert. But sadly the urge for the rally never reach the Perakians. Furthermore the “Kiasi” Chinese will only turn up if they see scores of Malays turn up. It was like a 100:1 ratio – if there’re 100 Malays then you’ll probably see 1 Chinese *grin*. They need PAS-Malays to lead them, period.

Seriously most of the Chinese in Ipoh consists of middle-age or retiree who do not have the stamina to run should they greeted by tear-gas. Also, they do not read blogs but still subscribe to the government-controlled newspaper, mind you. In addition, many of these Chinese are still haunted by the 13th May 1969 bloody incident. The youngsters who are “relatively brave” have mostly migrated to towns such as Kuala Lumpur, Johore Bharu or Singapore. They have yet to see that should they be whacked by UMNO-Malays, the PAS-Malays will come to their rescue and can you blame the Chinese considering they’re one bunch of “Kiasi” cowards?

Now, after seeing how an Indian-Hindu Speaker Sivakumar was humiliated and dragged away as if he was a stray-dog by, God knows if they’re real police, do you think the already “Kiasi” Chinese will not think thrice to come out, if there’s another rally in the future? If the so-called police can treat a Speaker in such manner, what guarantees are there that an average-Joes will not ended up like toasted-bread with several broken bones? Yes, in this case the Malays are well-built wrestlers such as Hulk Hogan, Batista, Triple-H or Goldberg but the Chinese are just novice with body no better than Tian Chua. So it’s not a level playing field with Tian Chua holding a poster while Hulk Hogan holding a steel-bar thirsty for blood. Oh yeah! Do you want to know the court’s decision on Monday to decide who the rightful Chief Minister of Perak is? I’ve the crystal ball for this *grin*.

Other Articles That May Interest You …

• Perak – it’s over in 2 hours, thanks to Mahathir’s plan?
• Stock Split and Zambry Pamela Anderson
• Cover-Up and Face-Saving – A Rush for the Chairs
• Perak Government – Now You See It, Now You Don’t
• UMNO is big Bully but that’s because PKR-DAP are Babies
• What can Najib do to increase Rating and win Voters?
• We don’t live on trees. We conduct Assembly under the tree
• Perak, PR, BN and Gamuda – It’s all about Business, Stupid

What would PM Najib do without his mentor Mahathir? In a nutshell Najib is clueless and screwed without Mahathir’s intelligence especially on the matter of Perak State’s power-grab controversy. It was a huge mess as a result of a coup without a proper plan and Mahathir openly admitted that Najib’s plan to forcefully take over Perak state was done with huge loophole – another way to say Najib should take care (kautim) of the Speaker (Sivakumar) instead of the Camry-crazy Deputy Speaker (Hee Yit Fong). Anyway all is not lost as Mahathir (and his advisors) might just have the workaround to solve Najib’s problem although it’s not perfect. At least Najib can hold on to the Perak state until the next general election and in the process will not lose his face by losing back the Perak state.

Of course the first thing Mahathir need to do is to declare (which he already did yesterday) that the Sultan of Perak does not have the power to remove or sack a Chief Minister to whom he appointed. This makes Mahathir a temporary angel and the oppositions sing the songs of praise. But on the other hand Mahathir secretly deviced a strategy so that the BN coalition led by Najib can retain the Perak state. It’s pathetic to read that IGP (Inspector-General of Police) Musa Hassan has the cheek to say that literally it was not the fault of the police if pregnant women were to die as a result of tragic (fell off from motorcycle or ran over by car) snatch theft. Ironically the IGP has excessive reserve of policemen that hundreds of them could be sent to Perak to intimidate and harass the average-Joes wearing black.

As part of Mahathir’s evil plan, the first thing the police need to do is to arrest basically anyone within the 500-meter exclusive zone around the state secretariat building, that’s provided the person(s) could even come so near to that zone considering road-blocks were deployed much further away from the 500-meter zone. Not a single mosquito was supposed to fly into the American-style “No-Fly-Zone” in the Iraq’s war. Maybe the policemen were bored without much retaliation so they somehow went berserk and arrested most of the average-Joes who were enjoying their breakfast at a coffee-shop. At the last count, more than 60 people were arrested and dumped into police trucks incuding people elected representatives from the oppositions. Boy, Mahathir must be delighted to see the re-occurance of his favorite Operasi Lallang though the scale is smaller this time.

While the PR was so focus in grabbing their seats the BN led by Zambry was instructed to focus on the microphone. Yes, it’s a simple strategy but it works seamlessly in removing the PR’s Speaker. In fact it was like a child-game. Those who hold the microphone speaks louder and become the captain. Zambry was to move a motion to remove the Speaker who is expected to scream at top of his voice asking Zambry and his boys to go out. Zambry and his team should not move an inch because basically the Speaker will be paralyze without the co-operation of the sergeant-at-arms to remove Zambry. Didn’t I tell you money and power can move mountains *yawn*? Thank God this is not Taiwan otherwise we would be watching assemblymen throwing punches and assemblywomen pulling each other’s hair.

The turning point was when the Speaker Sivakumar left the House to escort Raja Muda (window of diversion) the microphones belong to the Speaker and PR assemblymen were quietly switched off. And the traitor deputy Speaker Hee Yit Fong was to announce that BN has the majority and successfully removed Speaker Sivakumar. PR (Pakatan Rakyat) may have the chairs but the BN has the microphones and they quickly appointed BN’s Ganesan as the new Speaker, never mind that PR’s Speaker refused to budge from the official Speaker chair. In fact during the recess all the PR’s assemblymen including its Speaker refuse to leave their seats but frankly the PR seems to have lost the battle. It’s a matter of time before Speaker Sivakumar needs to answer nature’s call right *grin*? So while the PR was adamant about not leaving their seats, the BN brought in a table for their new Speaker to continue with their agendas.

However it would be interesting to see if what transpired in the House is legitimate and legal considering that Raja Muda of Perak Raja Nazrin Shah has not officially deliver his speech and declared the state assembly open. Anyway BN has the upperhand with the latest twist, not to mention the support from the police and sergeant-at-arms. It doesn’t matter if the PR assemblymen decided to glue themselves to their chairs till midnight today because come the next asembly, the sergeant-at-arms will be super-efficient in removing anyone from PR should they try to grab the official “government seats” in the House. Furthermore do I have to repeat that democracy is dead since Mahathir took over the country more than 28 years ago?

Heck, looking back it seems the Perak State now has not only 2 (two) Chief Ministers but also 2 (two) Speakers. Aren’t you proud to be Malaysian? Maybe those assemblymen currently aligned to either PR or BN can have a coffee-talk and form their own alliance and appoint their own Chief Minister and Speaker as well, especially those who would not get to be appointed executive councillors. OK, the above may not be the plan hatched by Mahathir but if it was, it’s plain stupid although hilarious. BN is guaranteed to lose the Perak state in the next general election and it could be another Kelantan in the making. As of writing time, the assembly is not over yet so let’s continue watching, shall we?

Other Articles That May Interest You …

• Stock Split and Zambry Pamela Anderson
• Former Dictator Suharto Dies leaving huge Wealth
• UMNO begging QC’s help in London – a Mistake Coup?
• Perak Government – Now You See It, Now You Don’t
• Mahathir-Najib Cabinet, Losers but Cronies are Welcome
• We don’t live on trees. We conduct Assembly under the tree
• Perak, PR, BN and Gamuda – It’s all about Business, Stupid

Update: Speaker Sivakumar was forcefully taken away by a group of men in jackets (Special Branch or Thugs?) after the first attempt by sergeant-at-arms to do so failed. Ganesan who is not an assemblymen proudly taken over the Speaker Chair. He tried to restore order with his newly found power but PR’s assemblymen are drowing him. It’s possible that all the PR’s assemblymen may be ejected out from the House the same way as their Speaker.

General Motors Corp. has notified its shareholders – a reverse stock split of 1 share for 100 shares held. What it meant is shareholders will basically hold only 1 share for every 100 shares they currently own. It’s a huge loss but then it’s better to have 1% of something than 1% of nothing. Shareholders who are currently holding 610.5 million shares floating in the stock market have no choice but to accept it as part of the agreement with the Treasury Department in order for the government to assume half of GM’s debt in exchange for the company’s shares.

So far GM has received $15.4 billion in U.S. government loans and the government is to own 50% equity stake in GM in exchange to write-off $10 billion of the loan taken, unless GM would like to go into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. After the shares restructuring (1 for 100 shares split) General Motors’s floating shares are expected to balloon to a whopping 62 billion shares, roughly 100 times more than current shares. Frankly this is perhaps the best option to ensure the company’s continuous listing in the stock market. At least there’s a chance the shareholders could recover their investment losses when the bull rides again, no matter how distance that is.

When the stock market was doing well, we heard of stock split (or rather bonus issue for that matter) hence naturally the reverse stock split now that the company is in deep trouble *yawn*. Thursday will be another interesting day – the official release of U.S. government stress-test result on major U.S. banks. Thursday is also the day a tiny town, Ipoh, will gains worldwide recognition when assemblymen from both PR (Pakatan Rakyat of People’s Alliance) and BN (Barisan Nasional or National Front) coalitions set to dash for their seats, thanks to the already confusing yet amusing political fight for the state government.

At this moment it’s purely speculation as to what strategies both sides will adopt to ensure they win the control of the assembly. For all you know they may wear Nike sports shoes (no high heels for ladies) since a difference of a split second could determine who gets the seats especially the Chief Minister chairs. It would be hard for PR to prevent the barred illegitimate (as claimed by many Perakians) Zambry and his six executive council members from entering the state secretariat building, let alone preventing them from taking their seats, as the police and other enforcement officers will be there to assists the BN’s assemblymen. On the contrary PR’s Speaker Sivakumar may face difficulties getting to his throne.

Heck, for all you know the scenario could turn out to be a peaceful assembly with Zambry and his boys plus the three traitors (who would most probably sneak in via backdoor) together with the Sultan of Perak allowed into the building while the PR assemblymen forced by the police to have “their” own assembly under another “rain tree” again. A new Speaker would be nominated without much hassle and the BN win the battle. The PR assemblymen, the thousands of their supporters and bloggers would cry and curse till the cow comes home but who cares. Nevertheless it would be interesting to hear what the Ruler has to say in his speech prepared by the BN.

Of course it would be better than orgasm if all the PR’s assemblymen somehow supported the removal of their own Speaker with the Speaker himself admitted defeat and presented the throne to Zambry. This could happen, mind you, since Zambry was accused to have engaged top bomoh (sorcerer?) to cast charming spells in the state secretariat building. Known to be more powerful than Harry Potter, the bomoh could have applied some love portions on PR’s assemblymen seats already so that they would fantasized Zambry was actually Pamela Anderson with the swimsuit on. That would be fun, wouldn’t it? But seriously there’s only one way to save the kingdom of Perak – go back to the people.

Other Articles That May Interest You …

• Cover-Up and Face-Saving – A Rush for the Chairs
• Perak Government – Now You See It, Now You Don’t
• UMNO is big Bully but that’s because PKR-DAP are Babies
• What can Najib do to increase Rating and win Voters?
• We don’t live on trees. We conduct Assembly under the tree
• Perak, PR, BN and Gamuda – It’s all about Business, Stupid

Money was not the main driver to people who are already filthy rich. People such as Bill Gates do not have to worry about money so much so that his “real job” now is running the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Politicians especially from certain countries in Asia are also filthy rich but don’t expect them to do charity, not because they do not want to but they simply can’t. It was an open secret that former Indonesia President Suharto was so rich due to corruption that his personal wealth was estimated at no less than $45 billion and the late Suharto was once the world’s sixth richest men on planet Earth. On the contrary corrupt politicians usually use charitable body to mask their “activities”.

Of course Malaysian politicians are much cleaner and it would be absurd to even think that they would do such thing (corruption). Former Prime Minister Mahathir and his buddy (former finance minister) Daim Zainuddin were accused to have amassed great amount of wealth themselves but definitely that can’t be true *grin*. It was always said that politicians’ goal are money and power while successful businessmen are obsessed with money and women. Either way money is the main menu on the table; for this same reason a well-known model from Sabah was willing to become “sugar-honey” of one of the biggest bankers in town. But I suppose with money you would automatically gain power and women (or gigolo for that matter).

But there’s another thing that sometimes rank higher on politicians’ radar – face. The higher you are on the hierarchy chart the more you value your face or your honour (if they ever have one in the first place) than money. Perhaps that was the reason why former Works Minister Samy Vellu always threaten to sue the hell out of anybody who say something “not so nice” about him, regardless of how silly the subject was. For some strange reasons the new PM did not initiate any lawsuit against the author of Malaysia-Today even though the author wrote many disastrous articles about him, and his wife. If U.S. had Majestic 12 (twelve) or better known as MJ12 (nope, that’s not MetroJaya) that sparked public distrust to their government, the Mongolian beauty’s gruesome murder or better known as Altantuya may be Malaysian’s equivalent version.

MJ12 was derived from the secret committee of top military officers, scientists and government officials formed in 1947 by an executive order by President Harry S. Truman to investigate the UFO activity after the Roswell incident – crash of an alien spaceship near Roswell, New Mexico, in July 1947. At least four aliens were killed and thus the U.S. military launched the initiative to cover the infamous UFO conspiracy theory; at least that was what the public perceive of their government till today. In short the American would rather believe former President Bill Clinton did not receive the “special job” from Monica Lewinsky than to believe the U.S. military did not involve in any of the UFO cover-ups.

But unlike the Majestic Twelve which involved the terristerial from outer space, the Altantuya case involved an individual whose life was “destined or fated” to become the sixth PM. The public perception now is that the PM has something to do with the Mongolian, one way or another. And the poor PM is hoping this scandal would go away so that he could concentrate building his “One Malaysia” concept *grin*. However the immediate attraction is definitely the coming 7th May Perak’s Assembly which could see the repeat of a childish game – the musical chair. The legitimate and illegitimate teams of PR and BN respectively would run for the chairs the moment the whistle is blown. The fun part is there are now 2 (two) Chief Ministers and by this Thursday the state could have another pair of Speakers.

The Constitutional Crisis is expected to worsen and it’s not about power struggle anymore. It was obvious the backdoor coup d’état by BN government was the worst plan ever architected but there was no turning back since and the plan did not provide any exit face-saving hence the current situation. Given choices, the architect would rather pay $500,000 to the Mongolian lady and never launch the power grab on Perak but it is too late now. The BN government might has the advantage that it controls all the pillars namely the executive, judicial, legislative and the monarchy plus the police, Election Commission, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and perhaps the military but the present government could be digging its own grave come next general election. Let’s hope the current Speaker Sivakumar would not disappear on 7th May else his former deputy Hee Yit Fong would be laughing all her way to the bank – millions of dollars, new Mercedes Benz and a temporary position as the most powerful person in the Assembly (deputy Speaker)

Other Articles That May Interest You …

• Former Dictator Suharto Dies leaving huge Wealth
• UMNO begging QC’s help in London – a Mistake Coup?
• Perak Government – Now You See It, Now You Don’t
• Mahathir-Najib Cabinet, Losers but Cronies are Welcome
• We don’t live on trees. We conduct Assembly under the tree
• Perak, PR, BN and Gamuda – It’s all about Business, Stupid

Swine flu epidemic is spreading like wildfire from Mexico to Asia and Europe without mercy with Mexico leading the score with 473 cases including 19 deaths. Call it influenza A (H1N1) virus or whatever name you like but the worst effect is still the same – death. The scary part was the virus could mutate (brings back the sweet memory of Ninja Turtle) and overall global cases touched 800 figures and growing. Nevertheless just like SARS it’s a matter of time before this swine flu brought down. Thanks to medical technology today, the Europe’s Black Death in 1340s which saw an estimated global 75 million deaths will not happen again. Hence there should not be public panic over the swine flu.

But it seemed the stock markets reacted almost instantly to the flu as if millions of people are about to lose their lifes. The single news of swine flu was sufficient to spook investors although there were many more negative economic news which failed to remind investors that the worst may not be over. Maybe investors were finding excuse to unload their stocks literally. Local stock market also saw an instant pullback. That particular temporary pullback actually tells quite a lot about the recent bullish market. It confirmed that the “bullish” sentiment was due to local funds and has little to do with foreign investors. Foreign investors do not or rarely play the game of swing trading, not ever since the 1997-1998 Asia Economic Crisis.

As you may already know the foreign portfolios in the local stock market is quite limited and those who are holding are for long-term investment. So you’re betting against the local government-linked funds (do I need to tell who they are?). It’s the same old game – push up the Composite Index and naturally the second and third liners will follow soon, hence the escalating volume. There’s nothing wrong with this but you’ve to be on your guard because this market-makers are controlling the stocks movement. When you’re buying they’re actually selling and vice-versa. Thus there’s nothing to shout about even if the Composite Index breach the 1,000-points sometime next week.

Last week, U.S. Fed officials said all 19 banks that underwent the stress tests will need to keep extra capital on hand beyond what’s now required in case losses on loans and other assets continue to climb – a signal some banks would have to raise more cash, including Citigroup and Bank of America. Already received $45 billion in taxpayer funds, Citigroup may need additional $10 billion to meet the government’s increased capital standards for banks outlined in its stress tests. In fact, the U.S. regulators may force as many as 14 of the nation’s 19 largest banks to raise money based on the stress tests’ result. So what does this tell you?

The worst is over? Maybe, at least that’s what most of the investors would like to believe simply because they do not want to miss the boat. Maybe not, if the financial institutions are hiding another set of accounting figures especially on the credit-card’s health. Investors are betting heavily that Obama’s administration would not let institution such as Citigroup, Bank of America and AIG go bust and will do anything to save them. It’s true that people have high hope on Obama but there’s so much you can do to contain the fire. If the worst is over then that’s good but if the second tsunami is about to hit then you’d better prepare yourself for it. Maybe the extremely low expectation from the quarterly earnings was giving excessive false alarms.

Other Articles That May Interest You …

• Local Stocks are defying the Gravity, once again
• Citigroup’s Accounting and Najib’s Political Creativity
• Beats Earnings – Blinded by Excessive Low Expectation

Isn’t it both funny and laughable to read how the prime minister opted the cheap-skate method of doing their PR stunt? The sleepy former PM may have left us for good to enjoy his forever honey-moon period but I bet everyone can still recall how he took a ride on LRT in an attempt to score some political and PR points. Now you’ve the new PM who did the same thing and it would be foolish to think such a stunt would do him any good. The next question that comes to your mind – doesn’t the PM has a better PR team to rebuild his public approval rating? The fact remains that no matter how many times the PM took the ride on public transportation systems and how hard the government-controlled media spinned the story as if the PM was a superhero Superman, the people are simply too sick and tired of the silliness of the whole stunt.

People still remember how the PM (was deputy PM then) took the easy way out by telling the average-Joes to bite the bullet and change their lifestyle when the government increased the fuel hike not many moons ago. Frankly do you really need to show how silly you are by taking public transport just to conclude that the system sucks? Didn’t the new PM promised to deliver a better public transportation from billions of ringgit of savings resulting from the fuel hike back then? Stop beating around the bush and put the right people to study and improve the public transportation once and for all.

Sure, the new PM’s latest attempt to bring back the lost confidence in the business sector by abolishing the 30% bumiputra equity policy from 27 sub-sector were on the right path but why stop there? What’s holding back from abolishing the controversial and obsolete NEP (New Economic Policy)? Of course people are still wondering if this is another short-term political ploy as the present government is known for flip-flop in its policies. There’s no guarantee that one fine day they would suddenly reinstate the 30% bumiputra equity again and you can’t do a single damn thing about it, not with the judicial pillar totally under executive’s control.

It’s too early to say if the new administration’s intention is genuine but besides giving away the carrot in the form of increasing foreign ownership, the government should probably look into the cancerous corruption at its backyard. You can only do so much for so long by sweeping all the corruptions accusations under the carpet. And why did the Transport Minister Ong Tee Keat suddenly burst into anger that TheEdge Weekly published the infamous PKFZ (Port Klang Free Zone) scandal revealing that the cost has just ballooned to RM8 billion from its original RM2.3 billion. People were puzzling why a person (Ong Tee Keat) who was seen as a clean politician is trying to prolong the release of the audit findings by independent auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) on the scandal.

Like it or not the perception is that the PKFZ scandal was tainted with corruption from the very beginning – from former MCA President Ling Liong Sik to Ong’s predecessor Chan Kong Choy. Ong may have thought that the PKFZ was quite a straight-forward project without much hanky-panky elements and hence his big promise to reveal all but soon after he became the President of MCA he began to realize how huge the scandal is. He must be kicking himself for opened his big mouth with the promise to tell all about the PKFZ scandal. And since Ong Tee Keat refused to acknowledge or deny that the scandal is now costing RM8 billion, people would think what was reported by TheEdge is correct. Unless Ong is serious about suing the weekly publisher the MCA President would be seen as tainted as well. It seems Ong is buying time hoping the PKFZ could attract more investment and as such could neutralize the irregularities in the scandal.

Other Articles That May Interest You …

• In time of Cheap Lobster, Peoples Money are Robbed
• Hooray! Another Fuel Reduction but it’s a Little Too Late
• Watch out BN, you don’t want to wake up Dirty Harry
• No further fuel hike for 2008 yet nobody rejoicing?
• Fuel Price Hike of 90 cents to RM2.82 a liter next year?
• Oil price hike – Badawi’s greatest Economic Challenge
• Malaysia’s Biggest Scandal – Business as Usual