YOURSAY | ‘What is the big deal about PAS safeguarding the sanctity of this and that?’

PAS veep: We don’t want any pact among bandits

Res Ipsa: Frankly, I think it would be a very good idea for both Umno and PAS to merge. For the suffering rakyat, it would be like killing two birds with one stone.

Both parties are currently carrying a whole baggage of issues individually, and the merger can only spell doom for Umno.

It would be akin to Umno engaging into self-destruct mode and causing a mega fallout in the BN coalition. And of course, we would be silently cheering in the background.

Iiiizzzziiii: Finally, the truth is out. Every backroom manoeuvre by PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang has been all along to achieve his one true ambition: unite with Umno with the aim to implement hudud.

And PAS is willing to pay any price to make this happen.

Just a point to note here, the radical elements found in Islam do not bring development or progress at all. Look around the world and you can find a pattern to it. The minute the radicals seize control, the country begins to regress.

RR: This collaboration between Umno and PAS is to fight the enlightened Malays in Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) and PKR who are bent on changing the mindsets of Malays against corruption, injustices, abuse of power, self-enrichment, etc.

Race and religion are the weapons of PAS and Umno. Pakatan Harapan wants to lead the change along with DAP, which also has many sincere enlightened Malays.

I hope that the Malays at large - especially the rural folk - will understand this.

RCZ: These religious bigots and so-called “holy men” don't get it, do they?

Politics is man-made, with man-made policies for the actual governing of the country as a whole - i.e. improving the lives of all Malaysians irrespective of colour, religion or status.

How can religion, which is a concept, be mixed with politics? How can one religion and a concept which differs from man to man, govern a country?

Stop mixing the two, it will not work.

Doc: It looks like Hadi Awang and PAS vice-president Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah are playing "good cop, bad cop" with regard to Umno's proposed merger with PAS.

Phee Boon Jin: Hadi Awang is so naive; if Umno was strong today they would have been finding ways to kill off PAS, but now that it is very weak, it seeks PAS’ strength. Poor PAS members are being led by one idiot.

Ericomc: PAS is playing ‘sandiwara’ to the hilt. Knowing very well their influence is fast waning after the last muktamar, the idea of wanting to team up with their political rival is to ensure their political relevancy is not discounted.

Gunnerrun: Birds of a feather flock together. Like attracts like... nothing more. Umno and PAS policies are based on colour and religion, but both are grounded in totally opposite directions. Can this last?

How 1MDB overpaid Goldman Sachs

Telestai!: Having spoken to people close to the bond deal (and they are my close friends), I can say that Goldman Sachs is no more than a shrewd dealmaker.

Fair or not, there is no real answer considering the speed at which the deal must be closed. There was an opportunity for them to make a ton of money, but it came with a lot of risks, given the circumstances imposed by the issuer.

When you create opaqueness and uncertainties and you want speed of execution, it will be costly.

I've personally been involved in many bond issues and I've found that timing (being the most important) and transparency will guarantee you the sharpest pricing.

When you have neither of these two factors working for you, the bond sale basically becomes a fire sale.

Oh Ya?: Has Goldman Sachs overcharged, aided and abetted Malaysian politicians in money laundering and engaged in unethical business practices?

Oppositionists and dissidents should lodge a complaint to its shareholders, the US Security Commission and even the Congress.

Dont Just Talk: When you pay monkeys to run the banana plantations, sooner or later what is left are the banana tree stumps – all at the taxpayers’ expense.

Unless the start-up capital comes from their grandfathers’ pockets, they would use the unlimited paid capital like their ATM dispensing machine.

Mosquitobrain: Goldman Sachs take one, I take two, you take three and he takes four. Simple arithmetic.

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