THERE IS NO MERIT IN MERITOCRACY

The Heat Online
By Pauline Wong 
11/23/2014 9:02:46 AM

"A meritocratic system penalises the poor, the disadvantaged because opportunity is not the same. If everything is equal then yes, it is fine to have meritocracy. But how can a kid from rural Sabah compete with a kid from urban Damansara? This is the biggest obstacle in upward social mobility because education is key and we’ve closed that door".

Book Launch Photos

What he's reading...

Drafting of the Constitution

NST. 17 NOVEMBER 2014 @ 8:08 AM

Excerpt from the Attorney General of Malaysia  Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail's speech at the ILKAP National Law Conference 2014 on Nov 11, 2014 [read here ]

In The Colour of Inequality – Ethnicity, Class, Income and Wealth in Malaysia, at pages 7-8, Muhammed Abdul Khalid summarised the events leading up to the communal riots in 1969 as follows:

“The mutual resentment of Malays and Chinese on the disparity of economic and political representations reached its peak in 1969 after the third general election. The Malays felt that they were not enjoying the fruits of Independence, especially in terms of economic uplifting. The socio-economic status of the Malays had not changed; poverty among the Malays was still rampant …

TPPA: Perlu juga dapatkan pandangan pembangkang

12 November 2014 2:37 AM

KUALA LUMPUR 11 Nov. – Kerajaan diminta supaya turut mendapatkan pandangan daripada ahli-ahli parti politik pembangkang sebelum menerima Perjanjian Perkongsian Trans-Pasifik (TPPA) yang kini dalam usaha untuk dimuktamadkan.

Bekas Menteri Kewangan, Tun Daim Zainuddin berkata, panda­ngan tentang penerimaan terhadap TPPA itu perlu supaya isi kandungan dan kesan jangka panjang perjanjian tersebut dapat diperhalusi lebih awal sebelum ia dipersetujui kelak.

“Kita ada masa lagi untuk kaji tentang TPPA. Ramai lagi orang yang mungkin belum tahu atau kurang faham. Sebab itu, perkara itu masih boleh dibincangkan lagi tentang kesan positif atau negatif daripada pelaksanaannya nanti.

“Mungkin kita juga boleh dapatkan pandangan daripada ahli-ahli politik dari parti pembangkang. Setuju atau tidak itu perkara kedua,” katanya selepas melancarkan buku bertajuk The Colour of Inequality tulisan Dr. Muhammed Abdul Khalid, di sini hari ini.

High-income status meaningless if people stay poor, Daim says

By Syed Jaymal ZahiidNovember 11, 2014

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 11 — Achieving high-income nation status will be hollow if most Malaysians still cannot afford their own homes or put food on their table, former finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin said today. 

In an indictment of the government’s development plans, Daim said the apparent rise in income inequality in Malaysia showed Putrajaya lacked the right policies to grow household income despite boasting of steady growth.

“It is meaningless that in our drive towards a high-income country, many of our brothers and sisters, sons, and daughters, neighbours still earn less than the poverty level.

“It is meaningless to thump our chest and proclaim that we are becoming a high-income developed country, if many of our brothers and sisters cannot afford to own a decent home,” Daim said in his keynote address on the launch of the book “The Colours of Inequality” here.

Kerajaan perlu jujur, berani menanggani isu jurang kaya-miskin di M'sia - Tun Daim

Syafique Shuib,Astro Awani |Kemas kini:November 11, 2014

KUALA LUMPUR: Kerajaan perlu menanggani jurang kaya-miskin di Malaysia yang semakin melebar dan membimbangkan sebelum negara menjadi huru-hara.

"Kerajaan perlu jujur dan berani menanggani isu ini. Mereka perlu berhadapan dengan realiti untuk kebaikan semua. Campur tangan kerajaan masih diperlukan dah harus dilakukan dengan segera sebelum adanya ketegangan hubungan antara rakyat Malaysia.

Jika dasar-dasar tertentu tidak lagi berguna, ia harus dipinda," kata bekas Menteri Kewangan Tun Daim Zainuddin pada pelancaran buku "The Colour of Inequality" oleh ahli ekonomi Dr Muhammed Abdul Khalid.