Archive for September, 2008

Lim Boo Chang, Diong Chong Mee and family wishing :

SELAMAT HARI RAYA AIDILFITRI DAN MAAF ZAHIR BATIN !

to all the visitors of blog www.limboochang.com

Lim Boo Chang, Diong Chong Mee dan keluarga mengucapkan

SELAMAT HARI RAYA AIDILFITRI DAN MAAF ZAHIR BATIN ! 

KEPADA SEMUA PELAWAT LAMAN WEB www.limboochang.com

According to the most recent poll by the Merdeka Center, it shows that the racial divide between Malays and non-Malays is wider and widening with more Malays backing Umno and Najib on one side and more Chinese and Indians backing Anwar and the Pakatan coalition on the other.

The poll based on 1,002 people showed that 39.3 per cent supported Anwar and 33.8 per cent backed Najib.

While about 40% of those polled supported Anwar but the remaining 60% were either not in favour, undecided or marked as “don’t know” – a rather high percentage compared to the 70% or more support from non-Malays he had received in the last general election.

These latest statistics are worrying. The worry is not so much the sliding non-Malay support for Anwar, but how is Parti KeADILan Rakyat (PKR)going to compete with UMNO which is using its traditional ‘Malay Protector’ approach to woo the Malay voters?

If PKR goes for short term gains, it will become another UMNO which makes no difference even if the federal government is alternated. But if the PKR persists to be fair, it must be able to persuate the bulk of the Malay voters to believe that it can offer good protection for Malay rights, whilst not negating the well-beings of other communities or going against its multi-racial principle.

But PKR is walking a tight rope here, with DAP’s Malaysian Malaysia on one side, and PAS’s religious centric approach on the other side. Many believe that it is only Anwar Ibrahim who can bring these two parties together and to have cemented a politics-of-moderation approach. Many also believe that it was precisely because of this so-called ’Anwar’s factor’ which culminated into a political Tsunami on 308.

Apparently there is now an established understanding in Pakatan Rakyat (PR) that even the DAP will have no problem to accept Malay language as an official language, so long as mother-tongue education of other communities could be allowed to continue in this country.

On the other hand, so long as its is consistent with the Islamic values of fighting for justice and freedom, there is no question for PAS to abandon PR and to favour UMNO/Barisan Nasional, and PAS is contented with its ‘welfare state’ platform but not so adamant with its ‘Islamic state’ objective, at least for the short term.

Lately, it is understood that PR have made a decision whereby regardless of whether there will be a change of federal government after 308, efforts have to be stepped up to show good performance of the 5 PR controlled states. There are teething problems such as that PAS representatives are not happy with the little consultation they enjoyed in Selangor, whereas PKR representatives are not fully consulted in the Penang state administration.

The general public is also not pleased by seeing as if it is a continuation of the policies of the previous BN governments in the 5 PR controlled states after all, with only an introduction of a new edge of transparency and accountability. What happened to creativity and ingenuity in policies? - many have asked lately.

In other words, PR must continue to search for the best answers and approaches to all the major questions at hand, be they structural, inter-party, state, national, local or even global, that is if it is not complacent with what it has achieved since 308 and is willing to become more forward-looking and ever-lasting.

One thing for sure, the utterances as ‘opposition leaders’ by state adminitrators have now become ‘out-of-tune’, and eyes and ears are focusing more on new achievements and progress reports of the 5 PR controlled-states now !

Speech by Anwar Ibrahim delivered at the CLSA Investor Forum in Hong Kong on Friday 26th September, 2008

What do you do when a financial behemoth implodes?

What can you say about free market capitalism when the world’s leading liberal democracy dumps nearly a trillion dollars in private debt onto taxpayers? Are Freddie Mac and Fannie May along with Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, and AIG totally unforeseen victims of systemic once in a lifetime financial meltdowns or are they not really victims of their own greed? When you allow the “mushrooming of weapons of financial mass destruction,” to borrow a phrase from Warren Buffet then isn’t it written that you shall reap what you sow?

The question is who should pay the price of Wall Street’s excesses. I learned in Economics 101 that those who live by the market must also die by the market. But with this gargantuan bailout it looks like the only thing that is dead is raw capitalism. Not that I’m complaining or that I ever subscribed to this thing called a totally free market. Some will recall that in my address in Bangkok last year I repeated my mantra that the free market is well and good but Adam Smith’s invisible hand may sometimes continue to be invisible if not altogether paralysed when the time for action draws nigh. Sometimes as it is in times like these, Uncle Sam’s hand may prove to be far quicker on the draw. Otherwise spontaneous order may well turn out to be spontaneous chaos.

Hayek, if I may say so, is history.

Speaking of history, it would appear that the powers that be have learned some lessons. We know what happened in the 1930s when, adhering strictly to free market principles, the Federal Reserve folded its arms and did absolutely nothing even as the financial system was cracking under the weight of massive defaults that eventually caused the collapse of the American economy and the contagion spread to Europe. There would have been lessons learned too from the October 87 crash, and the savings and loans scandal. Then of course, there was the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

As for the latter, Asian countries having experienced the pains of the financial meltdown which saw their currencies plunging to the depths, are now having generally stronger balance sheets. Regardless whether or not they swallowed the bitter pill of IMF prescriptions, they now have better current accounts than they had ten years ago. But what exactly were the lessons learnt? Is it that we can snicker at the U.S. and tell ourselves that we don’t need to listen to you, because we are far better off now? Is it that we don’t need market economy and the related principles?

Why talk about the sanctity of free markets and the importance of non-interference by governments when the bastion of free market itself is now engaged in the biggest bail out exercise?

Some leaders are now gloating over their so called successes in resorting to bailouts even much earlier and retrospectively sanitising their remedies of capital controls and the policy of currency. This is a false premise. Bailouts cannot be used as a veneer for crony capitalism. It appears rather foolhardy for certain leaders in the region to start thumping their chests over their relatively wealthier positions and that they have strong fundamentals.

Are the fundamentals that strong?

To get the analogy of true strength let me relate some lines from Tu Fu (Du Foo) one of the greatest Chinese poets and contemporary of Confucius; also a well known sage of the Tang Dynasty:

And so firm is the deep root,

So established underground,

That its lone lofty boughs

Can dare the weight of winds,

Its only protection the Heavenly Power,

Its only endurance the art of its Creator

The convulsions that began the last summer arising from the subprime crisis have morphed into a full blown seizure the implications of which have left us still groping in the dark. Aggravated no doubt by record breaking inflationary pressure, the current crisis has reached such a level that the threat of a worldwide recession looms. The hysteria, irrational as it is, is real. We saw the run on the U.S. financial institutions and the consequences unleashed. And as we all know, even Hong Kong hasn’t been spared—this week two typhoons scored near misses on the city, one a torrent of rain that passed to the south, and the other entailed a long line of depositors lined up outside the Bank of East Asia. With emotions running tense, we could certainly benefit from a return to sanity.

Even though the locus of the slaughter is the United States, the bastion of free ‘market’ democracy, yet, in many ways the current upheaval bears some similarities to the Asian crisis. We would think that the lessons learnt from the Asian crisis, in particular the Asean region, could help us navigate the treacherous waters that we may be heading towards.

At the end of the day, we are looking at a credit fiasco gone haywire. Both concern loan defaults which trigger a chain of consequences ending in massive losses for financial institutions. Like the crisis in the Asean region, there are without a doubt serious issues of governance, transparency and accountability at stake.

As I said back in 1998 at a forum in New York chaired by Maurice Greenberg, who was the AIG chief, I had likened the Asian crisis to the sinking of the Titanic. (I am talking about the AIG then, the financial Rock of Gibraltar, solid and unshakable, not the fallen giant of today.) Prior to the meltdown, there was the euphoria among the Asian leaders about the so-called East Asian miracle and all skeptics were dismissed as naysayers and those calling for fiscal restraint, including myself, were branded as doomsday prophets. Then the crash came. But the question is who the real victims were. Undoubtedly they were the ordinary people while cronies and family members of political leaders were given the life boats and the first to be bailed out.

In this regard, social justice must remain one of the main purposes of government. The proponents of free market may not want to admit it let alone utter the dirty word because the mantra is that state intervention should be avoided like the plague. But it is once again all too apparent that, left unchecked and unregulated, the consequence of markets running amok is not just gross inequalities of income distribution but systemic failure altogether.

We are looking at foundational weaknesses. Apart from the obvious issue of risks management, I believe that the global financial architecture and the institutions need structural reform. Make no mistake. We are not here to advocate command economies of the Orwellian kind but we can no longer be in a state of denial as to efficacy of a common sense approach to managing the economy. This is also very much in line with the demands of social cohesion and political stability.

Though we believe in a well-regulated market, where contracts should be honoured and the principles of fair dealing applied, we also know that a heavily-regulated market, coupled with highly opaque government operations cripples the economy and discourages investment. And it would be a grave error to think that governments have a duty to bail out badly run institutions and companies. Moral hazard cannot be simply dismissed as just another Bretton Woods construct. Among the most important lessons appears to be if you keep on spending money which is not yours, sooner or later it will take its toll.

In this regard, we view with great consternation the path that Malaysia has been taking in the last five years. Public-sector spending rose to RM200 billion annually from RM160 billion in 2004. That of course doesn’t include the slush funds in excess of RM30 billion used at the discretion of the Prime Minister. The national debt has gone up by another RM100 billion and as more money is being spent, the fiscal deficit has risen to 4.8% of GDP this year.

With capital flight at a record high since the 1997 crisis, RM125 million in 2008 already, Malaysian investment abroad now exceeds inward foreign investment. We are facing a double barrel onslaught of our own doing with the Ringgit hitting all time lows since 2005 and inflation a record high of 8.5%, the worst in 27 years.

Issues of governance and corruption are yet unresolved. The latest corruption perception index from Transparency International speaks for itself. In almost a decade Malaysia has hardly improved its position in the ranking while our would-be peers are making substantial improvements.

Our agenda for Malaysia is clear. Revive the lagging economy by adopting market friendly policies and take decisive action to cure the festering sore of corruption and cronyism that has decimated the judiciary, rendered the anti-corruption impotent and leeched billions of dollars from the state coffers – by Morgan Stanley’s account in the amount of at least $10 billion per year. Restore faith in the institutions of governance both domestically and internationally so that investors will once again find the country an attractive destination for their long-term investments. Among other things, this means strict adherence to the rule of law and an immediate end to draconian statutes that would allow the powers that be to detain their adversaries willy-nilly and without due process.

The issue of regime change is central to the current political scenario. The ability to handle a transition is a measure of the strength of the country’s democratic institutions. It can, and ought to be done, peacefully and orderly. Stability cannot be sacrificed on the altar of freedom no matter how intense the desire for change has become.

Weathering the storm of its own internal strife, it is apparent that populist spending is the easy way out for governments hell bent on clinging to power. On the contrary we would introduce structural reforms in public procurement programmes and the management of State companies while ensuring that adequate social safety nets are in place.

With the political will to combat corruption, wastage and mismanagement an 8% per annum growth rate is not unrealistic. Petronas should be made accountable to Parliament and not remain the private piggy-bank of the Executive Branch. We will remove restrictions on foreign capital inflows and outflows and revamp government protection of monopolies in industries like telecommunications and banking.

If our markets are strong and unfettered, and if our laws are transparent and enforced by impartial judges, we will not need special development corridors or regions to attract investment. A stable and clean business environment is far more important than special tax breaks and quotas handed out by a corrupt and opaque government.

With compassionate policies in place, the rifts caused by unequal development will finally begin to heal. Just as importantly, poor bumiputeras will finally be able to access economic aid that trickles all the way down instead of disappearing long before it reaches them.

The central principle of these economic policies is that the right opportunities must be made available to every single Malaysian –to learn, to earn an honest living, and to realise their dreams.

Ladies and gentlemen,

When the Asian Crisis struck ten years ago, the decisions I made as Finance Minister were not populist nor were they popular. On principle, I felt they were the right moves even though it was at the expense of my personal freedom. Yet in my darkest hours of solitary confinement I had never given up hope that something good was to come of the ordeal. And now after more than a decade of struggle and profound challenges we are on the threshold of a new beginning.

Thank you

The Malaysian People’s Movement Party (’Gerakan’), which was set up in 1968 and took over the Penang state government in 1969, is now facing a dilemma being a component of Barisan Nasional(BN).

Gerakan was set up with the aim as a Malaysian party with multi-racial participation and reformist social democratic programmes. It was once looked-up by the intellectuals as a viable alternative to the then Alliance government.

However, the joining of Gerakan as a component of a bigger Alliance i.e. the Barisan Nasional in 1974, has renderred it to accept the status as at best the second MCA (Malaysian Chinese Association).

The Party amended its constitution to become more liberal-inclined and is now a member of the Asian Liberal parties alliance. 

The seats allocated to Gerakan were basically carved out from the domain of MCA, and for the last few general elections, none of their candidates, either at the state or parliamentary level, was a non-Chinese.

Gerakan has been using the supply of a ‘Chinese Chief Minister’ as its triumph card, but it failed miserably during the last general election by losing all its state and parliamentary seats in Penang to Pakatan Rakyat.

It had also done badly nationally by only managed to hold on to 2 parliamentary and 4 state seats. 2 of its MP’s (1 of which is a Senator) are appointed deputy ministers in the federal government.

Khoo Kay Peng, the former head of its think-thank, together with Neil Khor, published a book on ‘Non-Sectarian Politics in Malaysia – The Case of Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia’ which discloses much inside stories of the Party. The authors are now facing a law suit initiated by a Gerakan member who attempted earlier but failed to obtain a court injunction to stop the launching and circulation of the book.  

Dr. Toh Kin Woon, the Party’s strategist and speech-writter to Tun Dr. Lim Keng Yaik, the former Party President, left the Party in the mid-stream of Permatang Pauh by-election. His reason is one of not to embarass Gerakan as he was campaigning for Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. He also claimed that what he did was not a betrayal to Gerakan as the aims and objectives of Parti KeADILan Rakyat (PKR) are actually similar to those embraced by Gerakan in its inception, i.e. to fight for multi-racialism and social justice.

Dr. Ron Tan Kee Kwong, son of the late Mr. Opposition Dr. Tan Chee Khoon, also left Gerakan to have joined PKR. Datuk Lee Kar Choon, one of the 3 prospective candidates as the Chief Minister in Penang as announced by the Party in the midst of the last general election, resigned from the Party soon after 308.

Datuk Tan Lean Hwa, the Party’s Wanita Chief, revealed the grassroots members’ popular wish for Gerakan to pull out from BN. The statement was confirmed by many other party leaders including the Party Vice-President and Perak state chairman Datuk Chang Ko Youn.

Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon, the acting Party President, said lately that Gerakan could leave BN at any time, though he did not say when is the best time.

As Gerakan’s Nastional Delegates’ Conference will be held on October 10 and 11 this year, members are aiming at putting up a resolution for the Party to pull out from the BN. Being a democratic party as what it claims to be, would Gerakan’s BN die-hards suppress the under-current?

The key question lies in the answer as to whether Gerakan, as a passive component of BN, could survive the  onslaught of the next general election ?

Time seems to work against its wish.

Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, the prospective candidate for UMNO President in December this year, issued a statement which was carried on the Malaysian Insider http://www.themalaysianinsider.com.my/ :

SEPT 24 – I write this as a Malaysian, as someone who, over 47 years of political life, has had the privilege of playing some small part in the formation our country, the building of its institutions, and our achievement of a degree of economic sufficiency. I write out of deep concern about the present state of our country.

In the lives of nations as of individuals, there come moments of profound possibility, when the potential for self-transcendence and for self-destruction are simultaneously present.

As before some critical examination in our youth, we come to the daunting realisation that we hold our future in our hands, when how we will fare many years hence, and whether we shall flourish or languish, will depend on how we conduct ourselves now, in this small window of time.

We are in a political impasse that threatens to metastasise into a Constitutional crisis. Political crises come and go, but the present crisis might well be the beginning of a cascade of failures leading to long-term instability and destruction.

1) Our impasse occurs at a time of heightened economic, political and security challenges. The global economy faces the prospect of a meltdown on a scale last seen in the Great Depression of the last century. As a trading nation, we are strongly exposed to its effects.

Meanwhile, while we seem to have slept, the global economy is undergoing an epic transformation that we must either adapt to or are marginalised by.

2) This year’s ground-shifting General Election result signaled a public sentiment that cannot be ignored. Malaysians want fundamental change, and they want it now, whether from within the ruling coalition or from outside it. The Malaysian demographic has changed dramatically over the last 50 years. We have seen the birth of a more sophisticated, demanding electorate that has rightly lost patience with incompetence and dishonesty.

3) The grievances of Sabah and Sarawak, which found only partial expression in the General Elections, remain unaddressed. This risks the very integrity of our Federation.

4) Misunderstandings over race and religion are ripe for political exploitation, with potentially disastrous consequences.

Post election promises notwithstanding however, the government now commands even less confidence than it did post March 8.

The public is in near despair over the prospects for change from within the ruling party. Rather than share the public’s sense of urgency, our present office-holders have redoubled efforts to frustrate renewal, cut off reform, and silence criticism. These efforts only underscore the weakness of the administration and its will to change.

We can no longer deny that in its present form, and under present leadership, the government, led by the party to which I have given my life, is now structurally and inherently incapable of providing the direction and confidence that the country needs, whether over the long or short term. The indications are there for all to see:

1) The government has been unable to respond to the economic crisis with even a basic plan of action. Business confidence has plummeted as capital flees the country. Our economic policy remains as uncoordinated and directionless as it has been in since the beginning of this administration.

2) The recommendations of two Royal Commissions of Inquiry have been ignored or watered down into insignificance.

3) In this context, Umno’s constitutional provision for the renewal of its leadership by triennial elections might have been expected to provide some hope of renewal. Instead of embracing this opportunity, however, the leadership of the party has retreated into the fantasy world of a “transition plan” which rides roughshod over the party’s constitution and the rights of its members. This risible attempt to treat public office and party trust as a private bequest between two individuals, one of whom wishes to hold office beyond his democratic mandate and the other to ascend without one, and the continuing effort to force feed the country with this notion, fools no one. Instead, and against background of rampant money politics, it kills the public’s hope of national renewal via Umno. Behind the babble about a “transition plan” the Prime Minister continues to be subverted by members of his own cabinet and subjected to thinly cloaked power plays to force his resignation.

This resort to a “transition plan” betrays a disturbing failure to grasp the meaning and purpose of public office. In the more mature society into which we aspire to grow, persons who demonstrate and moreover propagate such disregard for constitutional and democratic process would long ago have been disqualified from public life, let alone from national leadership. The news appears not to have sunk in that the public rejects leaders who shun the open light of democratic contest in favour of staged plays and backroom plots.

Given Umno’s core role in national politics, this is a dangerous state of affairs. Meanwhile the Opposition has made undeniable gains in the number of parliamentarians it commands. Beyond the hype and inflation, and regardless of whether Pakatan Rakyat now has “the numbers” to command a majority, what we cannot doubt is that support for the governing majority continues to erode, and that this erosion continues so long as there is no hope of real change in the type of leadership Umno provides. There is now a credible threat that the present government may at some time fall by a vote of no confidence, or by some otherwise constitutionally legitimate demonstration of parliamentary majority. After 51 years of rule by a single party, this is not a possibility that is well understood. It is justifiably viewed with trepidation. Neither sheer denial on the one and, or inflated claims on the other, help the situation.

To all appearances, we are beginning to lose grip of the rule of law. The use of the Internal Security Act and of Sedition Laws to target particular individuals further erodes the credibility of the government. Our actions exacerbate rather than calm the fear that stokes civil and racial strife. In the present context of a leadership struggle within Umno and against a strong Opposition it is impossible to dispel the notion that these extreme measures are calculated to maintain certain individuals in power rather than to address verifiable threats to national security. Nothing does more to undermine the legitimacy of a government than plainly unjust acts. The ridiculous justifications given for some of these detentions has further undermined public confidence that the awesome powers of state are in safe hands.

We cannot afford to allow these disturbing trends to play out their destructive course while we suffer a de facto leadership vacuum, and while the rule of law is uncertain and the Constitution not upheld.

Against this background, I appeal to all parties to come together in humility, beyond party politics, to hold an honest discussion, in the spirit of shared citizenship and with the gravest attitude of common responsibility towards a long-suffering rakyat, about what is happening to our country and how we might agree together on a peaceful way beyond our impasse. We need to come together to find unity and direction out of this dangerous situation. In doing so, we might turn our crisis into an opportunity and renew our unity and sense of direction as Malaysia.

Below is a statment by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim issued today :

On Tuesday I met with Pakatan Rakyat leadership from PAS in Kota Bharu, Kelantan and from DAP in Kuala Lumpur. Kelantan Mentri Besar Nik Aziz Nik Mat and PAS President Hajji Hadi Awang reaffirmed their commitment to the spirit and the goals of the coalition and Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng expressed his satisfaction in the progress being made to strengthen and broaden the consensus among the Pakatan Rakyat parties and supporters from BN.

We also discussed the next steps that Pakatan Rakyat should take towards forming a government that reflects the support of the majority of Members of Parliament. Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi’s failure to accede to our request for an emergency session of Parliament represents another attempt by the UMNO-led BN government to sabotage and scuttle the democratic process.

Nevertheless I along with my colleagues in Pakatan remain confident that the people’s desire for change shall soon be attained. We will proceed cautiously towards our goals and we agreed neither to be provoked into hasty action nor to take an irresponsible approach that would lead to instability and greater uncertainty in country. I am not aware of any negotiations taking place between Pakatan Rakyat and the Prime Minister—statements made yesterday suggesting that a line of communication was open were misinformed.

There is a crisis of confidence in the current leadership of the nation at a time when the Malaysian people are demanding solutions for the highest increases in prices in two decades, increasing joblessness and the dramatic decline in investor confidence.

While the newly appointed Finance Minister boasts that the country is in sound economic standing, the facts tell a different story. In 2008 already over RM 125 billion has been withdrawn from the country by investors weary of a government that has failed to implement a single reform to ensure judicial independence and that continues to use draconian laws such as the ISA to detain its citizens without due process of law.

These basic reforms are cornerstones of Pakatan Rakyat’s vision to revive the economy, to create more growth and good jobs for Malaysian people, to attract foreign investment, and to ensure adherence to constitutional guarantees including the position of Islam as the religion of the federation, the freedom to practice other religions, Bahasa Melayu as the national language and the freedom to practice mother tongue languages, and the status of the Malay kings and the special position of the Malays and bumiputera.

 M C begins the event

Datuk Zahrain, PKR Penang State Chairman, delivers his speech

Datuk Seri Dr.  Wan Azizah, PKR National President, hands over goodies to local residents

Datuk Zahrain hands over goodies to local residents whilst Pak Mus, PKR Pg Election Director, looks on

PKR Kedah State Chairman Senator Zamri delivers the goodies

Datuk Seri Dr. Wan Azizah receives new membership forms

Another stack of new appilcation forms

Wau ! Some more new applicants to be PKR members

Multi-racial participation !

Endless recruitment drives

What ? Some more new members? Make sure there is no end to this…

With the blessings of the Mufti

‘Buka puasa’ begins

 Surely everyone enjoys the meal when they ask who cooked the food !

Like a big family !

See you again, but In Kedah or in Penang ? Puzzled the two state chairmen ….

(Photos published with the courtesy of  Sdr.  Zamil Mohamed Noor, AJK PKR PP)

Reuters reported that Malaysia’s opposition said on Tuesday it has opened talks with the government over the current political impasse but added it was still early to talk about a power transfer.

“We managed to break through in some discussions through a third party and soon a direct negotiation will happen between Abdullah and Anwar,” said Tian Chua, information chief of Anwar Ibrahim’s Parti Keadilan Rakyat, said.

One of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s political secretaries said there were no such talks as far as he was aware.

Administrator :

If what Tien Chua claimed is true, then the next question is whether Pak Lah is acting on behalf of himself, UMNO or Barisan Nasional ?

Under the Malaysian Federal Constitution, Pak Lah could advise the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to dissolve the Parliament and to call for a fresh general election if he no longer commands the majority support of the MP’s. But such decision, if so arises, lies absolutely with the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.

On the other hand, in the event that the Yang di-Pertuan Agong is satisfied that in his judgement, a new leader emerged to have commanded the majority support of MP’s in the Dewan Rakyat, he could constitutionally appoint him as a new leader of the House as the next Prime Minister.

And if it does not happen in either of the two ways above-mentioned, then by October 13 when the next Parliamentary session resumes, MP’s could vote in respect of their confidence in the Prime Minister, provided proper notice and procedure is adhered to according to the Standing Order.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that the Yang di-Pertuan Agong will be overseas from today until the eve of Hari Raya Aidilfitri.