[seosoftseo]

Tengku Razaleigh says the country has squandered its oil wealth.

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 12 — Petronas founder and former Finance Minister Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah said today that Malaysia had squandered its oil wealth and had become an “oil cursed” country dependent on it like a narcotic for quick fixes.

In his most scathing remarks yet about the management of the country's oil reserves and the economy, Tengku Razaleigh said oil money had been used as "a giant slush fund that has propped up authoritarian rule, eroded constitutional democracy and corrupted our entire political and business elite."

"Our oil receipts, instead of being applied in the manner we planned upon the formation of Petronas, that is, according to its original developmental purpose, became a fund for the whims and fancy of whoever ran the country, without any accountability.

"The oil that was meant to spur our transition to a more humane, educated society has instead become a narcotic that provides economic quick fixes and hollow symbols such as the Petronas Towers. Our oil wealth was meant to help us foster Malaysians capable of building the Twin Towers than hire foreigners to build them, a practice in which we preceded Dubai. I would rather have good government than grand government buildings filled with a demoralised civil service," he said in his speech at the Young Corporate Malaysians Summit here today.

He said that when he started the national oil company in 1974, he did not foresee that he would one day wish that the country had not discovered oil.

The Umno veteran said that Malaysians were no longer productive and no longer used their ingenuity to improve themselves to take the leap forward.

This he blamed on the mismanagement and abuse of the country's oil reserves.

"Our nation is blessed with a modest quantity of oil reserves. As a young nation coming to terms with this natural bounty in the early 1970s, our primary thought was to conserve that oil. That is why, when Petronas was formed, we instituted the Petroleum Development Council. Its function was to advise the PM on how to conserve that oil and use it judicially for national development. We knew our reserves would not last long.

"We saw our oil reserves as an unearned bounty that would provide the money for modernisation and technology. We saw our oil within a developmental perspective. Our struggle then, was to make the leap from an economy based on commodities and low-cost assembly and manufacture to a more diverse, economy based on high-income jobs."

He said the government then had planned to apply oil royalties to strategic investments in human capital.

The government, he said, was to have used whatever money was left after making cash payments and allocations for development funds, and place it in a Heritage Fund for the future. The Heritage Fund was for education and social enrichment.

"Instead of being our ace up the sleeve, however, our oil wealth became in effect a swag of money used to fund the government’s operational expenditure, to bail out failing companies, buy arms, build grandiose cities amidst cleared oil palm estates. Instead of helping eradicate poverty in the poorest states, our oil wealth came to be channelled into the overseas bank accounts of our political and politically-linked class. Instead of being the patrimony of all Malaysians, and for our children, it is used as a giant slush fund that has propped up authoritarian rule, eroded constitutional democracy and corrupted our entire political and business elite.

"Malaysia is now an ‘oil cursed’ country. We managed to arrive at this despite not having a lot of oil.”

Tengku Razaleigh said that his generation's failure had been both "political and moral."

"We have allowed greed and resentment to drive our politics and looked the other way or even gone along while public assets have been stolen in broad daylight.

"I encourage you to take up the cause of national development with the ingenuity that earlier generations of Malaysians brought to this task, but the beginning of our journey must be a return to the basics of public life: the rule of law, honesty, truth-telling and the keeping of promises," he told the young corporate leaders in his speech.

“So before we can reinvent ourselves we need to recover our nation. That larger community, bound by laws, democratic and constitutional, is the context of economic progress, it is the context in which young people find hope, think generous thoughts and create tomorrow."



http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/i...-cursed-by-oil

[seosoftseo]

Putrajaya: Good move or a waste of money?


Putrajaya was Dr Mahathir’s brainchild.


KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 12 — By day, the administrative capital of Putrajaya is a place of majestic buildings bustling with thousands of civil servants and visitors.

But by night, the area is virtually a ghost town as nearly everything grinds to a halt.

“Putrajaya is often perceived as a boring spot — too far away and just an administrative city,” said marketing executive Puteri Yasrina Yusoff, who works for the city's only shopping mall, the Alamanda.

With that, she summed up one major problem faced by a city that critics condemn as a waste of money.

Putrajaya is the brainchild of former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. In 1995, he decided to move the government ministries to what was then a palm oil plantation, so as to ease congestion in Kuala Lumpur.

Housing all the ministries in one area was also intended to improve communications. At the time, some were spread across different buildings in KL because of the rapid expansion of the civil service, which now employs around a million workers.

Located 25km south of KL, Putrajaya takes its name from Malaysia's first prime minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra, and the word “jaya”, which means success in Malay.

The 5ha city boasts scenic lakes, ornate landscaping, pristine parks, well-planned office buildings and housing, its own hospital, a train station and plenty of space. There are no traffic jams, and civil servants living there can travel between their offices and homes within minutes.

Indeed, while critics say there is not much to do in Putrajaya and that it is too far from KL, many of its 60,000 residents love living in the self-contained city.

Puteri Yasrina said the mall — which has two supermarkets, retail outlets, a cinema, a bowling alley and a karaoke centre — sees about 40,000 visitors a day.

Of course, residents have few other choices since Putrajaya has only a handful of small grocers and eateries. Puteri Yasrina, however, noted that the city offers a water sports complex and a rock climbing facility as well.

Former resident Wan Esuriyanti Wan Ahmad, 37, who lived in government housing there for four years while working for former premier Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, said she enjoyed the convenience.

“It took me less than five minutes to get to work. I could go home any time in case of emergencies,” she said. “And I've never stayed in a city so clean.”

The recreational facilities are top-notch, she added. Her family regularly used the cycling and jogging tracks, as well as the public swimming pools.

However, detractors say building Putrajaya has cost too much. According to Tun, as of last year, the price tag had swelled to about RM12 billion.

The city's grandiose buildings are also expensive to keep picture perfect. Just maintaining the Prime Minister's official residence there cost RM158,051 a month, Abdullah told Parliament last year, while his deputy's house required another RM94,166.

Meanwhile, the diplomatic community has resisted moving to the designated diplomatic enclave in Putrajaya.

“Most of our work is in KL,” said a diplomat who declined to be named. “KL is also much more liveable in terms of amenities and entertainment.”

Wan Esuriyanti pointed out another problem. She decided to move out of Putrajaya and buy a property in a nearby suburb because she wanted her children to grow up in a racially balanced neighbourhood.

“Putrajaya is almost 100 per cent Malay,” she said. “I don't want my children to grow up not knowing about other races and cultures.” Shitty Times


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