THE MALAYSIAN SOCIETY, which includes you and me.
Clearly the historic debate over several TV channles was a welcome development which warmed most viewers' hearts for a vhange from the mundane fare normally available on local networks.
I congratulate Information Minister Ahmad Shabery Cheek and PKR de facto eader Anwar Ibrahim, Agenda Daily and the TV netowrks which telecast the hour-long debate live, and for a well-and-professionally-moderated session by veteran writer Johan Jaafar.
Here's Cut&Paste from cpiasia.net -- is is theft if Desi helped himself by transferring out of right pocket to the left(its) in keeping wit' his socialist tendencies?-- YL
Fuel Duel: Both delievered well but Anwar spoke more to topic
Media Monitor
Written by Editor, CPI
Wednesday, 16 July 2008 08:16
By YL Chong, Editor, CPI
July 16, 2008
History was indeed created at the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka when Information Minister Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek faced off former Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in an hour-long debate telecast live last night. The much publicised American-style debate was definitely a "first" in the country, and it is to both the Government and Opposition representatives' credit the debate went on smoothly. It was ably chaired by established writer Datuk Johan Jaafar before a responsive audience, and the event was carried live by Astro Awani channel, TV9 and Bernama TV.
De facto PKR leader Anwar maximised the several segments of time slots by the chair sticking to the subject "Form the Government today, Reduce the Fuel Price Tomorrow", conducted i Bahasa Malaysia. Speaking first, he said should he head a new government now, he would immediately bring down the price of petrol by 50sen (recently raised by the present Government from RM1.92 per litre to RM2.70/l). This could be achieved by cutting down on government wastages and seepages due to corruption and maladministration. He cited the case of Independent Power Producers (IPPs) being paid prices at exorbitant prices by Tenaga Nasional Bhd, resulting in huge profits made by the IPPs at the expense of the public utilities company and Petronas.
The curent IPPs now hold excess power capacities at 40% which is a burden carried mainly by the Government, and it is from the savings of several billion ringgit by halving the excess reserve capacities of the IPPs to 20%. Other savings would be made by cutinng down on corruption, bailouts such as was done by the Government on Bank Bumputra, Perwaja (RM13-billion!) and others big ticket projects that failed.
Shabery said his opponent had promised to reduce the price at part of his manisfesto for the March general elections, so it should be brought down to lower than RM1.92/l, and not just by 50sen. He defended the government's raising of the local oil price as it was kept in tandem with world oil prices which was on an uptrend, and he said the government could not keep on maintaining or increasing the subsidies. He stressed that the Government could not keep on using more Petronas' funds as it had to re-invest for the future, as projections had indicated the country could become a net oil importer by 2013, and that the present oil wells would dry up in a decade or so.
Because of the Government's well planned allocation of development funds, he said local inflation thus far has been kept low (at 2-3%), compared with super-high inflation rates in oil-producing countries which kept its oil price low such as Venezuela. Shabery said the government had a proud record of achieving consistent gross domestic product (GDP) growth of some 6% annually, which he said is considerably better off than many countries. And it was under the BN government dating back to PM (the late) Tun Abdul Razak that Petronas was formed, and then developed and had made the country proud by becoming one of the top 50 performing companies in the world
Anwar countered that the drastic fuel price hikes (40% for petrol and 60% for diesel) had already pushed inflation up to 6% in the first month, and soon would touch 8%, and the people have to suffer with rising prices of food and other essentials, and the hardest hit are the farmers and the villagers and small businesses and traders. It is the duty of the government of the day that their livelihood be well looked after. In fact, Malaysia with its own oil resources, there is no necessity to raise the local fuel price at all as Malaysia is an oil producer and net exporter. Presently, the country would gain more revenues from its oil exports as seen by the latest Petronas' financials just announced (FYE March 2008) when it reported nett profits of RM61billion, and was able to give out a special dividend of RM6billion to the Government. A portion of this special dividend could be used to help reduce the burden of the common folks, Anwar added.
Shabery stated that Anwar was the Finance Minister when the contracts between Tenaga Nasional and the IPPs were signed, so he should answer for the problem and take responsibility. He said Anwar did not complain when he was in government then, and now out of government, was engaging in street demonstartions and rabble rousing. (Later, Anwar clarified that as Finance Minister, he did in fact reject the contract terms favourable to the IPPs, supported by the then CEO Ani Arope who had to resign soon after over the incidents -- as the Finance Ministry was over-ruled by the Economic Planning Unit in the PM's Department.) Shabery ventured into scoring "political points" with personal references on his opponent, and it was to Anwar's credit, that he did not waste time in similar rebuttal, but stayed mainly to the topic.
To the final question asked by the Chair Johan what Anwar could do to help the nation even while he was not leading the government, Anwar said he was prepared to state the problems facing Malaysia clearly if only the government would care to listen. "If the government continues to be in a state of inaction and not act quickly on the economic challenges besieging the country, Malaysia in two months' time would be sunk into a more serious economic state," he warned.
Shabery said it was easy for the oppositon to condemn the government but Anwar is more interested to creating trouble by taking to the streets and engaging in rabble rousing. To his credit, the Information Minister delivered his points eloquently enough, and he had supporters in good numbers among the audience to wave him on, and a home viewer like me could see both Barisan Nasional and the Pakatan Rakyat supporters in the audience could appreciate such a civil engagement without any heckling -- unlike the case of the 220 odd parliamentarians.
Maybe a live telecast would motivate the speakers to put on their most civilised behaviour. May such civil and rational discourse blossom and continue; it's healthy for Malaysia's democratic maturing. -- YL Chong, Editor, CPI
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