Australia’s farmers scared of losing market to Philippine bananas

“The idea that importing Philippine bananas will infect their Australian banana plantations with sigatoka and moko is the most stupid thing they ever heard from any Australian.”

                                        by Aurelio A. Pena

DAVAO CITY, PHILIPPINES —-  Australia isn’t the kind of place where you’d like to ship your fresh bananas if you’re a Philippine banana grower and exporter.

          Know why? Because all banana growers in Australia banded together these past several years on a long war-footing against all banana growers and exporters here in the Philippines.

            They’ll think of anything that will stop Philippine bananas from invading the shores of Australia. To block their entry, they’ll throw a lot of obstacles, even inventing some of them, including things they call “Import Risk Analysis” that focuses like a laser beam on banana diseases like sigatoka, moko, etc—- which were already controlled and contained by Philippine banana growers since the 1970’s.

              Simply put, Australia doesn’t want any Philippine bananas to reach their home markets in Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and all other cities Down Under that matters— especially those with voracious appetite for tropical bananas.

             Yet, huge banana markets like Japan and the Middle East had been buying and eating millions of metric tons of fresh Philippine bananas for more than three decades. These countries have the most stringent health safety standards in the world, probably even more stringent than Australia, yet they keep importing fresh bananas from the Philippines all these years.      

          The Australian banana market is estimated to be worth 50 million US dollars a year. But production in that country Down Under is only about 270,000 metric tons of fresh Australian bananas grown and harvested from only about 14,000 hectares.

           The Philippines in comparison, churns out around 7.5 million metric tons of fresh bananas grown and harvested from about 32,000 hectares of banana plantations in the southern island of Mindanao.

            Many Filipino banana growers think Australia is scared of losing their home fruit markets of Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to Philippine bananas which carry such global brands like Dole, Del Monte and Chiquita.

             The idea that importing Philippine bananas will infect their Australian banana plantations with sigatoka and moko is the most stupid thing they ever heard from any Australian. “They’re too scared right now to lose their home markets to Philippine bananas as Australian consumers are seeking desperately for them and willing to pay a much higher price,” says Norman Quinola, a spokesman working for a Davao Norte banana grower.

         Since  Ausssie consumers are willing to pay a much higher price for Philippine bananas (and lower prices for Australian bananas), Rene Dalayon, president of the Federation of Banana Growers Cooperatives in Davao (FEDCO) says he’s just waiting in the wings for the opportunity to export his fresh Cavendish bananas to Australia anytime the ban on Philippine bananas is lifted. “

           Australian buyers are paying a higher price for Philippine bananas than other countries we ship our fruit, so we’re waiting for the time when they’ll open up their market,” Dalayon told this writer.

          But Australian banana growers on the other hand, says they’ll continue their strong lobby against allowing the entry of Philippine bananas into their country. “We are fighting for our rights to protect our industry from diseases and pest outbreaks coming from exporting countries,” one Australian banana farmer said.   (PHILPRESS FEATURES)

Worldwide fear to spur longer global financial crisis !

       The biggest problem causing this global recession is FEAR of banks to lend money to re-start business again, FEAR of businessmen to borrow money to invest in business and FEAR of investors to start investing in shares of stocks in companies—- fearing there might be no recovery for a long, long time.

                                                 by Aurelio A. Pena

       GLOBAL RECESSIONS recessions and country-wide depressions since the early 1900’s to the present, usually run for around four years, seeing some form of recovery on the third year and back to normal in the fifth year.

       It’s bound to happen again—that’s the US historical trend .

      The great stock market crash of Wall Street in 1929 brought the entire economy of the United States crashing down with it. And like what’s happening today in the US and Europe, big banks went bankrupt and factories across the country of milk and honey closed down, forcing MILLIONS of Americans out of work.

        Just a few months ago, during the closing months of last year, we saw big investment houses like Merryl Linch, Goldman Sachs, big banks like Citibank, Bank of America buckling to their knees, giant insurer American Insurance Group (AIG), all collapsing like a deck of cards.

      Now after the G20 Summit in London the other week where the world’s richest economies like US, Germany, France, Japan, and other countries faced the real danger of going under—dragging the whole world with them—- they’ve finally come up with some do-able solutions just to make sure we all survive this global crisis.

       These include contributing trillions of dollars and euros into the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to make money available to poor and developing countries to promote more trade and consumption which will boost overall market demand and stimulate the economies of these countries.

        While they admit we’re now entering into a global recession, what they feared most is having a long drawn global recession running up to five years before we see any recovery in sight.

        The Great US Depression period run from 1930 to 1934, that’s five years. Global leaders don’t want this to happen again. What they want is— to get out of this recession as FAST AS POSSIBLE.

        Meaning, countries hit hard by recession, must be able to recover by the first quarter NEXT YEAR, 2010.

      The biggest problem causing this global recession is FEAR of banks to lend money to re-start business again, FEAR of businessmen to borrow money to invest in business and FEAR of investors to start investing in shares of stocks in companies—- fearing there might be no recovery for a long, long time.

       On top of this, there’s also FEAR of consumers to spend money on new cars, new appliances, new clothes, new luxuries— and buying only food to survive.

      As long as FEAR is still there, as long as the LOSS OF CONFIDENCE is still there, the whole world will remain in recession for four to five years like in the Great Depression.

      There are now some signs that this fear is slowly diminishing and investors are starting to return to the world’s stock markets— the barometer of a country’s economic health.

      The Dow Jones stock index and Japan’s Nikkei averages are beginning to stir up from the doldrums— which means confidence is back..

      This early ? As US President Barack Obama said: “We see signs of recovery, but we’re not out of the woods yet.”

                                           PHILPRESS FEATURES

How to fight and win vs. Somali pirates

Every ship crew of all the ocean vessels that ply this dangerous route regularly must be trained by the navy’s special forces of each country how best to fight off any kind of attack by Somali pirates

SEBANG ISLAND, INDONESIA —– An old retired former pirate here has suggested some ways to lick the worsening problem of pirates off the coast of Somalia who are wreaking havoc against cargo and container ships plying the sea lanes of East Africa:

Mamood Faladi. 68, now back to fishing in the Malacca Strait where piracy took a toll on hundreds of ocean vessels in the early 70’s, said poverty and hopelessness have driven many young men in their villages to piracy during his heydays.

“It’s easy to understand how these Somalis feel about the ships with millions of dollars worth of goods passing by their country while their countrymen starve”, says Faladi.

However, Faladi said he no longer approves nor symphatize with what these pirates are doing to ships passing near their coast and suggested a number of ways to fight and lick this problem in Somali :

 

1. Since piracy in the high seas has become a global problem, countries directly affected by this problem should come together ( US, Italy, Germany, France, China, Japan, etc) and put up a task force to be called “Operation Somali Storm”.

2. The most critical ocean area where all these piracies take place must be divided into separate areas of responsibility for each country. These countries should contribute their own naval forces to this effort and each country’s navy should be responsible of taking care of their “area of responsibility”

3. Every ship crew of all the ocean vessels that ply this dangerous route regularly must be trained by the navy’s special forces of each country how best to fight off any kind of attack by Somali pirates. Since ships’ crews are always in danger of being kidnapped and killed, they must be free to KILL pirates in any way without violating any law.

4. Each country must set up “special operations” to pinpoint the locations of every pirate group in Somalia and neutralize these groups. Remember the movie “Black Hawk Down” which shows the complete stupidity of US Delta Forces and Scout Rangers—and never to repeat that mistake again, according to Faladi. “ That incident has given the world a deep impression that Somali militias, rebels, terrorists and pirates are the world’s most ferocious and dangerous— even US marines cannot lick them,” he said

5. One global satellite should be assigned to detect and pinpoint pirates in the high seas of Somalia and the rest of east Africa on daily basis, day and night, and information shared with the countries involved in “Operation Somalia” so that they can act on any pirate’s threats against any commercial vessel.

6. Another suggestion is to for each country to hire mercenary “special forces” and use guerilla tactics to penetrate deep into Somalia territory and take out each pirate group one by one, according to Faladi.

 

The former pirate who operated in the seas off Malaysia and Thailand in the early seventies regretted his actions saying that pirates can paralyzed global trade in any part of the world where ocean vessels carrying commodities in export-import trade are hampered, delayed and even lost if countries are too timid to lift a hand to fight back pirates.

 

EAST ASIAN PRESS

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Outdated US Dollar must be replaced by a Global Currency — China

“The existing international monetary system is out-of-date,” said Wang Jianye, chief economist of the Export-Import Bank of China and former IMF economist. “It does not reflect the profound changes in the world economy and hence no longer workable.”

BEIJING, CHINA —–   US President Barack Obama may have dismissed the need to replace the greenback with a global currency, but economists said yesterday that he should take more steps to restore confidence in the dollar, especially in the near term.

Obama said at a White House press conference on Tuesday evening (yesterday morning, Beijing time) that confidence in the US economy and the dollar was “extraordinarily strong”, and that he did not believe there was a need for a global currency.

Obama’s comments came after China’s central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan wrote in an article that it was necessary to create a “super-sovereign reserve currency” to overhaul the existing international monetary system of using the currency of one nation as the global reserve currency.

Zhou suggested that the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), a currency basket comprising the dollar, the euro, the pound and the yen, had the potential to serve as a super-sovereign reserve currency. The SDRs have been used as a unit of account among IMF members and other international organizations since introduction in 1969.

Even before Zhou’s remarks, a UN panel of financial experts had suggested that the world ditch the dollar in favor of a shared basket of currencies, Reuters reported. That was followed by Russia saying it would pitch for a new reserve currency at the G20 summit to be held in London on April 2.

Related readings:  Treasury’s toxic asset plan could cost $1t  Premier ‘worried’ about safety of China assets in US  Top banker proposes setting new global reserve currency  Purchase of Treasuries to continue  Allure of Treasuries set to fade

“Despite all the talk of ‘confidence’, investors are still deeply concerned about their holdings of the US dollar and Treasuries, not only in China, but around the world,” said Erh-Cheng Hwa, chief economist of the Bank of Communications and a former IMF economist.

“Zhou’s proposal, along with others’, could add more pressure on the US government to take real responsibility to clear up the mess it has created.”

The US currency and Treasuries dominate the holdings of central bank reserves around the world. It is estimated that 70 percent of China’s $1.95 trillion in foreign exchange reserves is invested in US dollar-denominated assets; and a depreciation of the greenback would hurt the central bank’s balance sheet.

The US has run up budget and external deficits over the years to fuel its consumption spree, thanks to the dollar’s status as the reserve currency. But this has also weakened the currency during the process.

Some analysts estimate that the Obama administration’s massive bailout plan, with an even higher budget deficit, is likely to further weaken the dollar and give rise to global inflation.

Hwa said the proposals by Zhou and others could help bring about a perfect storm that would reshape the international monetary system in the long run. But it could take years to persuade private companies to use SDRs for international trade and commodity pricing; and opposition from the US is a major obstacle.

“The existing international monetary system is out-of-date,” said Wang Jianye, chief economist of the Export-Import Bank of China and former IMF economist. “It does not reflect the profound changes in the world econom and hence is no longer workable.”

Wang said the essence of Zhou’s article was to “find appropriate mechanisms” to ensure that the US takes into account the global effect of its monetary policy in the short term and help move toward a new global monetary system conducive to sustainable growth in the long run.

                                                                           CHINA DAILY

Global collapse : too late to save the U.S. Dollar

By Thanong Khanthong

BANGKOK, THAILAND ——  Amid calls from China for a new international reserve currency, the US dollar may already be heading for a crisis

 Ahead of the G-20 Summit in London on April 1 and 2, China has played its card. It is calling for a new global currency to replace the dominant US dollar. China has let its central bank governor do the loud talking first. Governor Zhou Xiaochuan wrote in an economic essay, published on Monday, that the world financial and economic crisis shows the “inherent vulnerabilities and systemic risks in the existing international monetary system.”

Thus, he called for nations to come together to create a currency made up of a basket of global currencies and controlled by the International Monetary Fund. This would help restore global financial and economic stability.
Why is China making this move now? The Chinese have been feeling uneasy about their vast holdings of US dollar assets, currently standing at about US$1 trillion (Bt35.5 trillion) worth. Recently, Premier Wen Jiabao urged the US to honour Chinese investment in US assets by guaranteeing or protecting its safety.
US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton earlier called for China to continue to support the US by refraining from dumping dollars and continuing to buy the US treasuries. The Chinese listened attentively but would not give any promises. If the US is to face a dollar crisis, then everybody else needs to seek his or her own protection.
Since opening up its economy over the past three decades, China has accumulated new wealth. It produces cheap goods for the US domestic market to consume. In return, it gets US debt. Japan and some emerging-market economies also participate in this export-led game to the US in order to build up reserves. This arrangement has created a global imbalance. Economists have recognised this imbalance as a problem, but none would dare to break away from the mould. In the meantime, China’s wealth has been reinvested in the US in all kinds of assets. These assets are now at risk of a meltdown if the US fails to fix its financial crisis.
The point is whether China will continue to reinvest in US dollar assets or whether it will diversify away from the dollar by cutting its losses. There is no middle ground at this point.
By parting with the dollar as the world’s reserve currency, China is effectively calling for a new international financial system, with a new currency similar to the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights as the anchor. China also wants to steal the show from the UK, which is hosting the G-20 Summit. Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, would like to use the G-20 Summit as a showpiece to launch a new Bretton Woods system that would replace the existing order, which is crumbling.
Obviously, the US is not happy with what is going on. It has enjoyed the privilege of spearheading the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency. President Barack Obama described China’s proposal for a new reserve currency as unnecessary during a prime time news conference on Tuesday.
“I don’t believe that there’s a need for a global currency,” Obama said. “The reason the dollar is strong right now is because investors consider the United States the strongest economy in the world with the most stable political system in the world.”
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke took similar positions at a congressional hearing. They were asked by Republican congressman Michele Bachmann of Minnesota if they would “categorically renounce the United States moving away from the dollar and going to a global currency”. Both said they would.
The US will resort to every means to prevent a move away from the dollar as the reserve currency. But can it stop the trend?
Already the world is wondering, especially after the admission by Geithner earlier this week that US authorities have no power to take over weak banks that pose a systemic threat to the US economic system as a whole. He also admitted that the US financial system is fragile and that it needs an urgent overhaul.
If the US can’t safeguard the soundness of its financial system, how can it assure the rest of the world that it can guard the stability of the dollar?
A currency collapse normally comes after a failure of the financial system. At this point, all the big US banks are in trouble, with a growing risk of widespread insolvency. They are being put on a life support system by the Federal Reserve Board. Most of the big names will be wiped out. The Fed is also going to print massive sums of money, to the tune of more than $1.2 trillion ,to prevent a collapse in the payment system.
Geithner’s plan may buy out toxic assets from the banks and keep them afloat for a while, but the fundamental question is how big the losses of the financial system are – losses from the off balance sheets that have yet to be quantified.
Insofar as this big black hole has not been addressed or dealt with decisively, there is no way that the US financial system can be fixed. If the fixing of the US financial system is delayed further, coupled with the continuing severe recession, the dollar will soon face a full-blown crisis. By that time, it will be too late. And it might already have been too late anyway.

                                                         BANGKOK POST

Iran buyers trying to get cheap bananas from desperate Filipino exporters

DAVAO. PHILIPPINES —- Exports of fresh commodities like fresh tuna and fresh fruits like pineapples and bananas are still in high demand especially in new emerging markets despite the economic crisis of the world’s most powerful economies like US, Europe and Japan.

      But Iranian fruit buyers are offering ridiculously low prices for each carton box of fruit, hoping to get bigger profit margins from Filipino banana exporters desperate to close a deal with the importers in Iran.

          Just this month, a big Iranian fruit importer, the Moslem Isfahani Group of Companies, is meeting with several banana suppliers here in this southern city in an effort to buy and ship some 3 million carton boxes of fresh Cavendish bananas from Davao port to the port of Bandar Abbas in Iran.

           Davao suppliers, cooperatives and consolidators of bananas here are complaining that these Iranians are trying to force them into accepting a much cheaper FOB (free on board) price for the fruit.

          “We can’t accept their buying prices—they’re too low, not enough even to pay for the farmer’s gate price,” said Rene Dalayon of the Federation of Banana Farmers Coioperatives (FEDCO)

           Most small exporters like FEDCO here could only manage to offer around 5.50 US dollars per carton box for a 13.5 kg Class A Cavendish bananas—- which to foreign buyers these days are rather “too high” .

       Dalayon however thinks that many Iranian buyers are bluffing with most of their target buying prices, hoping local growers and exporters in this Philippine southern city will take the bait.

           That’s why most of the big fruit multinational firms like Dole, Del Monte, Chiquita and Sumitomo are getting the biggest bulk of all banana supply contracts these days because their offer prices are lower than the offers of small exporters here.

          Some buyers from Turkey, Kuwait, Jordan and Ukraine are setting target buying prices of 3.50 to 4.20 US dollars which most Davao exporters here find ” ridiculouslytoo low.”

        “We would be losing money if we agree to their target buying price!” banana exporter Prudente Valverde said..

         This is a far cry from the days of the “banana war” at the beginning of last year when Arab-led buyers were not worried about prices to buy but how much volumes were available in Davao that can be shipped to China and Arab buyers.

         These buyers were so desperate to get bananas from this city— at any price, which drove the prices sky-high, even as high as 15 US dollars a box and threatened banana markets worldwide.

         Iranian buyer Ali Alian of Isfahani Group said they are ready to sign a one year contract with any Davao banana exporter who is “serious, honest and rich” and has the capability of shipping around 15 to 20 full 40’ container loads of fresh bananas weekly for 52 weeks this year all the way to Iran. This adds up to about one million boxes yearly.

          Since many Davao banana small exporters had proven to be so unreliable with their commitments to foreign buyers, this Iranian is ready to deposit 500,000 US dollars into the account of the local exporter as a “guarantee” to make sure the exporter here can really follow his contract and deliver the fruit on schedule, as agreed.

          Besides this Iranian buyer, another importer from Ukraine, Shyshkin Tymofey who runs a firm called Flockhart Inc in that eastern European country, is also looking to buy Class B bananas in 13.5 kg carton boxes from Davao banana growers.

         But the target price for Class B bananas is 3.50 US dollars per 13.5 kg carton.. This Ukrainian firm is ready to pay a deposit of 50% by telegraphic transfer 15 days prior to the first shipment of bananas to any Davao banana exporter who is “reliable and honest” enough in dealing with this foreign buyer

          Another foreign buyer, this time from Turkey, is looking for Davao growers who can supply fresh bananas packed in 18 kg carton boxes. They will buy any quantity depending on the offer price and the quality, according to Ms Emel Altay Dincer of Izmir, Turkey who contacted the local export broker Goldelyonn Export Import —-

                                                PHILPRESS FEATURES

Pinoy lotto jackpot winner reveals “winning system” from a small booklet!

 

         “The lotto jackpot winner who pleaded not to be named, said that he bought the small red booklet in this southern city from a bookstore and just kept reading it until he understood how a lotto “winning system” works.”

 

 

DAVAO, PHILIPPINES ——   A Filipino jackpot winner who won one of the country’s biggest lotto jackpot prizes last year has revealed in an exclusive interview with the East Asia Trading Post that a small red booklet titled “How To Win Lotto” helped him come up with the winning numbers that won him 145 million pesos ( around US$3,000,000).

            The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) which runs the largely popular lotto daily around this Asian archipelago, has no comment on the matter and reiterated its strict policy of not revealing the names of all lotto winners for security reasons.

            “We don’t know how he did it and we don’t care to know— all we do here is to sell lotto tickets,” one PCSO staff here said.

            The winner who pleaded not to be named, said that he bought the small red booklet in this southern city from a bookstore and just kept reading it until he understood how a lotto “winning system” works.

            The system, according to this jackpot winner, helps him produce all the “high frequency” numbers to narrow down his final number combinations that led him to win one of last year’s biggest lotto jackpot here.

            To make sure it works, he said he bought the “system bet” of the PCSO to reinforce the winning chances of his carefully-selected six set of number combination. “To be frank with you, I just did it for the fun of it— I had some doubts that it would work, that it’s just all nonsense”

            He said he found the small red booklet at a bookstore called Velasco beside the city hall in this southern city after noticing a small sign “How to win the lotto” in front of the store.

          Velasco bookstore staff confirmed that several customers went to their store for several weeks looking for the small red booklet the past several months. Customers who called up (6382) 221-1226) found out that the booklet was written by an anonymous author who turned out to be one of the country’s jackpot winners.

            Most of his friends, according to this lotto jackpot winner, laughed at him when he bought the booklet and told him that winning the lotto was just “all a matter of luck”.

            This is the third time this southern city had lotto jackpot winners, however the last two winners from Davao were reported only last year.   

                                     —-  PHILPRESS FEATURES

Moslem rebels getting fed up, frustrated with Philippine gov’t on failed peace pact

MANILA. PHILIPPINNES —- The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) based in the jungles of southern Philippines island of Mindanao said recently they are now “fed up” with the way the Philippine government has been treating them in the failed peace talks.

       In a recent MILF editorial published in their website, this frustrated Islamic rebel group is scoffing at the newly-appointed government peace panel and expressed pessimism for any chance of reviving the peace talks in the coming months.

      Moro rebel commanders in the field are getting more frustrated and restless as the Philippine government sought to find ways to change some provisions in its Constitution to accomodate the agreements made in the failed peace pact.

        The MILF also accused President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for lacking the “political will” to make the peace efforts in Mindanao succeed and gave up hopes of any peace agreement before her term ends next year.

      The complete Editorial is as follows :

            “We respect Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process  Avelino I. Razon Jr as a person and for his personal commitment to make the peace process with the MILF succeed.  

            ”When we say the government is ready to resume talks with the MILF, we mean it will [sic] all sincerity,” he said. We do not question this; in fact, we know his background as a good person though he was with the Philippine National Police for most of his life.

            “But other than this, nothing is new when he assumed his new post and the same obstacles leading to the Malaysian fiasco on August 5 are still in place. President Arroyo lacks political will, has no political capital, and has few more months left in her term of office.

          “What he called “3Rs – reassert, review and redirect – are nothing but repackaged counter-insurgency tools at the expense of problem-solving peace talks.

         “All these words are mere symbols: They are non-starter, especially rendered meaningless during his trip to North Cotabato recently, he was shown on television – note: not just quoted but speaking – that if the peace talks to resume the Constitution of the Philippines will be used as framework and the botched Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) will be merely a term of reference.

            ” These are already in the nature of preconditions, which are no-no in real negotiations. We presumed Razon knows the nitty-gritty of negotiations and by making this pronouncement or preconditions, he was not unaware of the impact; it was not made in the vacuum. It was calculated to have the best effects possible. What were those effects, heads will continue to swing, because the message is blurred: To move the peace forward or a menu for ‘fooling around’.

            The 3Rs are nothing but DDR (demilitarization, demobilization, and reintegration) in sheepskin. What to reassert? The MOA-AD as “no deal” and “unconstitutional”; what to review and what to redirect?

         “It is time we must be truthful to ourselves; the government is still very much embroiled with the paikut (fooling around) scheme in the peace talks engineered by Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita.

        “We are already fed up with this monkey business in the talks.When the government peace team went to Kuala Lumpur to express their willingness to resume talks, they again breached protocol. They went to the Foreign Ministry of Malaysia, which is not the department tasked to facilitate the GRP-MILF Peace Talks. They bypassed the Research Department in the Prime Minister’s Department.

             Whether this was an honest omission or not, we do not know. But Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs Rafael Seguis, the new government chief peace negotiator, naturally feels comfortable in talking with diplomats. “

                                                         —— PHILPRESS ASIA          

Malaysia’s Elizabeth Wong wants to join a rock band and wear high heels! Wow!

 

         (The East Asian Trading Post is running this Malaysian Star story of March last year to recall how Elizabeth Wong, the famous assembly woman whose “nude pictures” caused an uproar and scandal in Malaysia joined the political fray in that Asian country)

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA—-   This country’s new assemblymen were virtual unknowns one day and before you can catch your breath, you find them elected representatives of this Asian country.

          Some of these young turks were raised in political families,  while others  found and developed their political convictions at the university while one was literally thrown into the elections at the eleventh hour.

            All greenhorns, they will go down in history as the young and inexperienced ones who won against the odds and, in some cases surprisingly, beat long-established incumbents.

          One thing these MPs and assemblymen have in common – they are all passionate about what they believe in, totally inspired and raring to change the political culture. Malaysian Star spoke to some of these political novices who can’t wait to etch their mark on the local political scene.

        One of them was Elizabeth Wong.

          It seemed like just yesterday when a friend quipped during a concert that this lady who calls herself Elizabeth Wong would not be able to enjoy them any more if she was elected to Parliament.

          “I will have to think about it (going to concerts). But if either Muse or Depeche Mode come, I will have to make exceptions,” says Elizabeth Wong.

            “I have always wanted to join a rock band but it looks like I have to KIV that for now,” adds Elizabeth, who plays the piano, violin and the guitar.

            She contested under PKR and defeated one-term assemblyman Datin Paduka Yong Dai Ying for the Bukit Lanjan, Selangor, seat with a 5,155 majority in the recent elections.

          “I didn’t expect to win by such a huge majority. I have been waiting for this for a long time. But it is one thing to have good proposals and another to make it work,” says the 38-year-old from Ipoh, Perak.

          The eldest of three siblings also says that she will have to start wearing more sneakers from now, as she will have to walk around her constituency.    

         “I like heels, they make me look taller. But I guess I will have to run around a lot more from now,” says Elizabeth who studied fine arts.

          She has also been told that dressing up is a must now with suits being on the agenda although she is still unsure about it. “They might be just exaggerating but I will have to find out.”

          A social activist who was also a parliament aide for Permatang Pauh MP Dr Wan Azizah, Elizabeth is planning on being a fulltime Adun (state assemblyman).

        “I just want to do my work. I have a simple and private life and I would like to keep it that way. I shop at Carrefour and compare the prices of stuff. I am also affected by high prices, just like everyone else,” says Elizabeth, who enjoys photography in danger spots such as South Thailand, Acheh and Mindanao.

          She also mows her own lawn, reads, does gardening and plays with her kitten Hong Mao (Red Cat). “I hope I can continue doing all these things which keep me sane,” she says.

          Having lived and having been involved in social activism in Australia and United Kingdom, she has met a lot of their MPs.

        “They are very regular people. They take the bus or train to work and don’t live in fancy houses. I would like to model myself after that,” she says.

                                                                                    THE MALAYSIAN STAR

Philippine corruption: Getting things done “under the table” (to hell with World Bank!)

                                      By J.A. Romualdez

DAVAO, PHILIPPINES —-  Corruption is a very tired topic to talk about specially in a country like the Philippines where nothing gets done without something “under the table”.

            Whether in business, in government, in a university, in a church or even within a rebel organization, no one can escape the terrible reality of corruption here in the Philippines.

           Right here in Davao, you’ll hear of Davao chamber of comerce officials complaining that some of their members in the export sector are given a hard time by some government agencies servicing that ‘One Stop Shop” for exporters for not releasing required export documents unless there’s the usual S.O.P ( standard operating procedure) that must be slipped into the drawer under the table in the form of application forms with attached thick wad of blue peso bills (P1000) in between the papers—-well, you know. Bribes could run from as low as P10,000 to as high as P100,000.

           Of course, exporters are too scared to come out in the open to make formal complaints because the next time around when they show up with their application papers for another export permit, they’ll never be able to make any export shipment.

         This is the harsh reality that Philippine exporters have to learn to live with in a country where corruption is so ingrained, it has become part of its culture.

           As such, it’s a practical reality that they have to factor into their export operations— an additional cost of doing business in Davao or anywhere in this country for that matter

         And it’s the same thing with getting permits to import rice.

          If you’re someone who represents a Vietnamese exporter, you’re required to cough up 10,000 pesos just to get the required bidding forms to make a tender bid with the national government agency dealing with rice imports. And you’re not even sure whether or not you’re qualified to participate in the bidding—- but you have to pay up first.

         And its not a secret when you make the lowest bid, you don’t necessarily get the contract to supply the commodity. Fact is, if they’re able to “arrange” with you the “final price” the government is willing to pay, you’ll find yourself the highest bidder — and the winner of the contract.  So it’s not surprising that an original quote of US$400 a metric ton from a Vietnamese exporter will turn up US700 as the final price the Philippine government is willing to pay.  (So you ask: where will the $300/mt go?)

No wonder the Philippines had been accused by world commodity traders for pushing up the price of rice to its highest levels in history.

        The final agreed price is the “padded price”, perhaps higher by 40% to 60%. Some prices are even padded by as much as 200% because there are so many guys down the line whose signatures you need to finalize all your documents to get paid.

         Most of the “Invitations to Bid” that you see in local and national newspapers aren’t looking for the “lowest bidder” . That’s the biggest bullshit in government biddings.

         Most of them are already cooked and rigged to show the winning bidder as the “lowest bidder” by inventing faked bids from other supposed “bidders”.

       The good news is, the Philippines isn’t the only country in the world with transactions requiring the usual “S.O.P.”   Corruption is also a normal thing in China, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, etc—- in various degrees of severity, as the World Bank reveals in its annual report on corruption in various parts of the world.

          In that recent squabble in the Senate, Senator Miriam Santiago demanded that First Gentleman Miguel “Mike” Arroyo be given a chance to respond to accusations by Japanese and Korean contractors that he’s allegedly behind the overpricing of several multi-million dollar construction projects of the government.

          We get the impression that the good lady senator (who eats threats for breakfast) was planning to do a good “demolition job” because she’s really very good at it.

            And rightly, or wrongly, she’s doing it for Malacanang, not only to protect Mike but also the President of the Philippines. Although she had been scrapped out of the senate committee handling the case, we were all bracing for what she’ll do next. But one thing she made very clear:  she was willing to die to protect the integrity of the Philippine president, no matter what it’ll cost.

           One thing we’re sure of—– once she gets her hands on the World Bank corruption report, she’ll look for all the legal loopholes she could find and demolish its credibility. In the Philippines, media calls it a “demolition job” usually carried out by government officials to protect themselves.

     But the Filipino people. no matter what kind of excuses, alibis or tough face you put on —- are more inclined to believe in the credibility of the World Bank  and anyone in the Philippine government

                                                       —–  PHILPRESS ASIA