Forked tongue Najib sure to lose G13 is On the road with faith as wheels

Forked tongue Najib sure to loose G13 is On the road with faith as wheels
many parliamentarians are dead set against Anwar and his team and their anti-corruption crusade. they will do anything to discredit his movement." platform aims to create sustainable local economies and reduce corporate power in politics.
And in this task they have found witting and unwitting abettors in sections of the media and the intelligentsia. All have one trait: they mock Anwar but have no alternative to offer in Malaysia’s battle against corruption. Some are so witless they don’t even realise how wrong they’ve got it
Anwaris not the problem. The system is. anwar’s prescription may not be perfect. But it’s every citizen’s job to help improve it. The government, as a beneficiary of institutionalised corruption, isn’t going to go out of its way to do so.
Take just one example to illustrate the serious nature of the court-framed charges  Former Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) advisory panel member Tan Sri Robert Phang (pic) has challenged the Attorney General (AG) Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail to disprove allegations made against the latter in a new book on the country’s top legal mind.The book, titled ‘Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail Pemalsu, Penipu, Penjenayah’ (Fraud, Liar and Criminal), authored by Zainal Abidin Ahmad, was made available to Phang, who claimed it detailed abuses, corruption and criminal acts allegedly committed by the AG.
“I challenge the AG to investigate, arrest and charge the author if the contents aren’t true, and also sue him for defamation. Otherwise, I challenge the MACC and police to investigate these allegations against the AG,” he told reporters at a Press conference in a hotel here today.This is not the first time that Phang had launched an attack on Abdul Gani. In October 2011, Phang was probed by MACC over allegations of having accepted bribes. Phang later raised allegations that Gani had gone for a haj trip, which was sponsored by certain individuals. related articlehttp://lawmattersjournalmalaysia.blogspot.com/2012/07/can-elusive-abdul-gan-patail-beat.html
How corrective in enunciation, were only a duplication, and were likely to  come at loggerheads with existing articles of governance, leading to a " locked-in state" for further functioning of the government, even the judiciary. Without ample give and take, and humility and patience to understand and put a point across, it was to end up in a stalemate, and a stalemate it was. An enlightened polity, a just  government,  a strong judiciary, and an opposition  on its toes is the only way to carry out the day. Some biases and controversies may still remain. Assurances on these fronts are less likely to be set aside by any government.was tottering under unprecedented serial scams, and there was little check within the Parliamentary mechanism of thwarting such deviations the Supreme Court that had to step in and take punitive action that at some or the other time pointed accusation at almost all those in power, though those found on the wrong side of the law got incarceration as per legal decision. The common man suffered and most certainly, from what we may retrospectively term as the small window of opportunity for the economy to double up.While all this was going on, there was a need to set in place,   a transparent set of rules,  that  would ensure equitable public- private partnerships. As we move more towards the right, there is need of an  un-dethering leadership that does not privatize the nation's resources cheap, at the same time gives the necessary fillip to the private sector to add to the growth of the economy. Much was talked about the trillions of currency parked overseas. The argument to get it back is one aspect. The real job is to ask for such reforms and transparency that such activities are checked. The economic wing of discussions could have spelt out its reforms and made it public.
The so-called elite – intellectual, media, business – disparageAnwar because he is not “people like us”. This wannabe-elite is comfortable with the status quo with its cosy nepotism, clubbiness and rich pickings.A red herring is meanwhile used by the government: “Team Anwar members are themselves corrupt – people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones”. That unthinking logic would disqualify 90% of the police force from arresting criminals because the police themselves take bribes. Only the corrupt use this spurious argument to deflect the accusations they have no real answers for.Those who castigate  Anwar  for denigrating our institutions are falling into the trap set by politicians: discredit the largely honest whistleblower and therefore by default exonerate the largely dishonest politician.MPs are lawmakers. They are elected to uphold standards of public life not lower them. As public servants, they exist to serve citizens. “In a democracy,” as US Supreme Court declared, “the highest office is the office of the citizen.”
It is such politicians who threaten our democracy and our institutions – not Anwar's team members with their inflated travel vouchers and income-tax arrears due to a technical interpretation of paid study leave for a then- Malaysian-IRS officer.
Then there are those, in the government and the media, who insouciantly challenge Anwar’s team members to stand for election. But if fighting an election were a criterion for fighting corruption, every activist and – yes – every journalist who exposed corruption would need to first get elected. Such is the thoughtlessness – deliberate and inadvertent – that has lowered the standard of argument over the anti-corruption movement.

Whose side are we on? An imperfect Anwar fighting our battle? Or a corruption-riddled political system? If Anwar is not doing the job of fighting corruption well enough, help him do it better. Don’t help the corrupt by denigrating a movement’s methods when the end is just.

Despite widespread crime of various types across all classes of society, most Americans polled were comfortable trusting their own "moral compass." Let's see how we did with that in July.

July 3 Bob Diamond, the American CEO of Barclays Bank in Britain, resigned -- or, if you prefer, as one Member of Parliament was happy to emphasize in Diamond's July 4 hearing, he was "sacked" -- after it was revealed that a cabal of banks manipulated LIBOR, the London Interbank Offered Rate set by a poll of leading banks to determine the benchmark global interest rate. LIBOR is the reference rate used by many home mortgage loans, commercial loans, floating rate notes, collateralized debt obligations and many other financial instruments.

LIBOR fixing is a global issue and U.S. banks have also been implicated in manipulating LIBOR to their ultimate advantage at the expense of global investors.

Bob Diamond didn't volunteer to give back any of his deferred compensation at the hearing:

Mr. Andrew Love: On the deferred bonus scheme for senior executives in Barclays bank, anyone who does harm to Barclays' reputation may be asked to forgo some of those deferred bonuses. Do you think that that is appropriate in your circumstances in that you agree that Barclays' reputation has been harmed?

Bob Diamond: That's certainly a question for the board.

July 4

While Bob Diamond testified in front of Britain's Members of Parliament, American urban flash mobs engaged in Independence Day mayhem.

July 10

The board of Barclays Bank answered Bob Diamond's question. Diamond "voluntarily decided" to forgo up to $31 million (20 million British pounds) in deferred bonus, but he gets a year's salary, pension and benefits and tens of millions collected in prior years.

July 11

Peregrine Financial Group's (PFG Best) CEO Russell Wasendorf Sr. was arrested after the United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa filed a criminal fraud complaint against him. Wasendorf had apparently attempted suicide earlier in the week, although skeptics say it may have been staged to throw investigators off the scent of where he may have stashed ill-gotten gains.

His suicide note stated:

I have committed fraud. For this this I feel constant and intense guilt. I am very remorseful that my greatest transgressions have been to my fellow man. Through a scheme of using false bank statements I have been able to embezzle millions of dollars from customer accounts.

The alleged fraud went on over a period of 20 years, but Wasendorf's remorse was only revealed after an NFA audit revealed false statements and it was clear that he would be charged.

July 13

Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank by assets in the United States, admitted the bank had "material weakness" in the chief investment office (CIO), a unit that reported directly to Dimon.

In the previous four years the unit had reported $2 billion in profits, but in the first half of 2012 alone, it lost $5.8 billion on trades that Dimon at first claimed were hedges and thenlater admitted: "It morphed into something that I can't justify. It was just too risky for our company." Moreover, these trading losses didn't morph on their own; the trades required human intervention, and losses continue to mount.

In contrast to Bob Diamond's hearing before parliament, Dimon's June 13, 2012 Senate hearing sounded like a cordial celebrity roast. Dimon has not been held accountable for potential Sarbanes-Oxley violations related to his signing corporate documents asserting controls at JPMorgan were adequate when -- by any reasonable professional standard -- they were not.

The news for Jamie Dimon got even worse after Michael J. Moore and Dawn Kopecki atBloomberg questioned the veracity of Dimon's April 13, 2012 disclosures in response to an analyst's question about media reports that JPMorgan Chase had engaged in enormous derivatives trades and that huge trading losses were imminent.

While JPMorgan booked a $718 million loss on the positions held by its chief investment office in the first quarter, it didn't publicly specify the loss when releasing the results April 13. When an analyst asked Dimon that day about media coverage of the trades, he dismissed them as a ["tempest in a teapot."].

("Dimon Saw $1 Billion Potential Loss When He Made 'Teapot' Remark," July 13, 2012.)

On July 13, 2012, JPMorgan Chase revealed that there are questions that the books may have been mismarked by the traders. In other words, it has raised a question of fraud. ("JPMorgan Disclosed Possible Misconduct to Feds Ahead of Earnings," Reuters, July 16, 2012.) As for Jamie Dimon, it raised the question of an utter failure of corporate governance and telling the truth too slowly. The bank also materially restated its first quarter 2012 earnings.

July 13

Also on July 13, Ocala Florida's 71 year-old Samuel Williams fought back and saved customers from thugs in Internet cafe. Williams has a concealed weapons permit. After two thugs, one armed with a gun and the other armed with a bat, entered an Internet café to rob and terrorize 30 customers, Williams opened fire. He stopped pursuing and firing after the wounded thugs ran out the door, which Williams then locked behind them.

July 16

A flash mob of around 300 teenagers vandalized a Walmart store in Jacksonville, Florida. They robbed the store of around $1,500 of merchandise and threw food at each other. Then one of the group uploaded video of the crime to YouTube.

"You've got a large number of people going and coming at the same time they are throwing produce," Jefferson said. "They are stealing items, they are all over the store. You can imagine how fearful the customers were who were in there at that particular time." -- Ken Jefferson, Crime Analyst, Channel 4.

July 16

Also on July 16, a flash mob of around 40 teens ages 13 to 15 invaded an Albertson's in Troutdale, Oregon to steal.

Security officers chased the thieves out, but no one was captured. They also left employees pretty shaken up, including one woman who was in tears after getting terrorized by the robbers. "They [thieves] were bragging and laughing about how much stuff they stole and what they did in the store," one witness told KGW.

July 20

A heavily armed gunman later alleged to be James Holmes killed at least 12 people and wounded 58 more during an early Friday morning screening of The Dark Knight Rises, the new Batman movie, in Aurora, Colorado. Holmes was later charged with 24 counts of murder -- two separate charges for each killing -- among other charges. Charges cited his "attitude of universal malice manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life generally." July 30

No criminal indictments have yet been issued in connection with the alleged looting of more than $1.2 billion from the customer accounts prior to the October 31, 2011 bankruptcy of MF Global. But Bloomberg News's Silla Brush reported that a Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) review found that Jon Corzine, MF Global's former CEO, wasn't too close to Gary Gensler, chairman of the CFTC, because (among other things) they didn't attend each other's weddings, and Corzine didn't attend the bat mitzvahs of Gensler's daughters. Both men worked together at Goldman Sachs for many years, but they apparently hadn't socialized for around 14 years. Gensler recused himself from the post-bankruptcy investigation into MF Global. Jon Corzine is also a former Senator and former Governor of New Jersey and a top campaign bundler for President Obama.

July 30

Also on July 30, Vanity Fair and 60 Minutes released the results of a joint poll. Americans seem to feel their parenting is just fine. When asked if they were as good or better at parenting than their own parents, 59 percent said they were the same, 36 percent said they were better parent, (95 percent said they were the same or better) 3 percent said they were worse. The remaining 2 percent apparently took the Fifth:

Nearly 6 out of 10 parents feel that, as parents, they measure up to their own parents; more than a third think they're even better than that. And 70 percent of us say we're comfortable trusting our own moral compass, as opposed to the law or religion or anything/anyone else, to keep us from behaving badly.

The poll also revealed that only 14 percent of Americans correctly identified Jamie Dimon as a New York banker, despite the fact that he's been all over the news in recent months and is the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, the largest U.S. bank by assets.

I was unable to reach the parents of Bob Diamond (former CEO of Barclays Bank who "resigned" in the wake of the LIBOR fixing scandal), Jamie Dimon (current CEO of JPMorgan Chase, whose CIO unit lost $5.8 billion in risky trades for the first half of 2012 alone -- losses that continue to mount -- while the bank materially restated first quarter earnings and raised questions of potential fraud), Russell Wasendorf Sr. (former CEO of PFG Best now in custody), and Jon Corzine (former CEO of bankrupt MF Global)

The Huffington Post for the opportunity to share the story of my city, Lafayette, Louisiana, a city of 125,000 people, with a trade area of close to 700,000 people. I strongly believe that as state and federal governments grow and become less manageable, people need to look to local government for real solutions and real answers. Obviously, local government is closer to the people, able to be more attentive and respond more quickly.

Lafayette is the hub of the oil and gas industry in South Louisiana. CNN Money recently reported that according to a new report from IHS Global Insight, Lafayette is expected to have the nation's largest gain in jobs among metropolitan areas. Employment is expected to soar 8.8% (number one in the nation) this year, while the area's economy should jump 7.5%. This is due mostly to a healthy energy sector, but also to an ongoing effort to diversify our economy. We are centrally located in south Louisiana, home of the second to largest university in the state (the University of Louisiana). Lafayette's location protects us from some of the extreme weather we have seen along the coast. Our inland location and our relatively high elevation have made us a safe harbor for businesses and for families, while still conveniently located on one of America's most-important highways, Interstate 10, at the intersection of I-49. We are the home of a uniquely authentic Cajun and Creole culture that has resulted in Lafayette being named the Best Food City in America (Rand McNally) and Tastiest City in the South (Southern Living).

Our city has its own citizen-owned utility company, the Lafayette Utility System (LUS) that began in 1896 when the people voted to take control of their own destiny by voting to provide electricity. Again, in 2005, our citizens voted for Lafayette to expand LUS's offerings to include a Fiber Optic system -- now called LUS Fiber. The $125,000,000 investment provides Fiber Optics up and down every street in Lafayette, and the Fiber provides television, telephone and internet service.

This project was done entrepreneurially, without taxes or grants. It must survive strictly by competing with a good (better) product for our citizens. Today, we have the fastest, most affordable Internet speeds in America. We can deliver a true, symmetrical gigabit for less than $1000! We also provide a free symmetrical 100mbs for Intranet to any subscriber to our service. This is local government owned and managed, but paid for only by the people that subscribe to the service. We are providing much higher speeds for much less money than is otherwise available. This will mean opportunities for companies to use Lafayette as a laboratory for what the next generation internet will do for the world. It will help provide good, clean, high-paying jobs for our citizens.

Another important initiative is that the city has just purchased 100 acres of pristine land, located in the middle of the city, from our university to preserve it as a "passive" park, with biking and walking trails, full of gardens and a place to house our police horses. This will give kids a great opportunity to meet policemen in a pleasant environment that is not intimidating -- great PR for the police and a great first impression for children. Most impressive (in my opinion) is that our council voted to buy and fund the purchase in a year that our sales taxes were actually declining. That decision is indicative of the courage of our community. We deal with the issues we have to deal with today, without ignoring the future. The property will then be turned over to our community foundation to fund the build-out and maintenance of the property, taking it out of government's hands and off of the back of the taxpayers. Buying it with taxes insures that it remains accessible to the public. Turning it over to the private sector will increase our chances of bringing it from good to great.

Lafayette is a high tech city, leading America into the future, while preserving great green space in its center. We are growing and thriving, and we are working just as hard to preserve our quality of life and our small-town feel. Being the fastest growing major city in the state, we are currently developing a comprehensive plan to set goals for Lafayette 20 years from now. We are optimistic about our future and know we are going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars over the next few decades. A plan will help us spend those dollars more efficiently.

Local governments cannot wait for state or federal governments to make them great (but keep begging), they have to take control of their own destiny. As a mayor, I am fortunate to live in a very forward thinking community that never takes its eye off of the future. We have a first-class university and people wanting and willing to work together. The president of our university, our superintendent of schools, the community and technical college chancellor, and I have lunch together once a month, just to keep the lines of communication open. We have a community where the government, education, and the private sector work well together for the common good. That is what makes it great to be the mayor of Lafayette; that is what makes me so optimistic about our future!