Here are comments from readers on the Ninth Malaysia Plan tabled in Parliament on Friday.

Billy Ong : So a sum will be set aside in the 9th Malaysia Plan to train unemployed graduates. To me this is merely curing the symptom but not the cause. Before such an allocation was made, did anyone query the Education Ministry for the national education plan, and make it public? As it is, there will be no end in such spending and we will continue to waste more money in the years to come.

Currently, the quality of our local grads is so bad that I would not touch them even with a 10-foot pole. I even have candidates who attended our company's job interviews who have a string of As but could not even string a simple sentence in English. In fact, I am prepared to pay more for overseas grads (be they Malay, Chinese, Indians, etc) as many of them can articulate well in English and carry themselves well during interviews with an air of confidence. Ever heard of the saying: "What is good is never cheap and what is cheap is never good."

YS Kum : Will like to know what is the split in the non-bumiputra holding between individuals and institutions and trust agencies.

Lee : This 9MP will not be any different from previous plans. People in authority who are not committed to nation building but will be looking for loopholes to enrich themselves using the proverbial saying 'looking after the poor rakyat'. Who are the rakyat? Though RM11.5 billion 'untuk hapus kemiskinan', is it really for these people or is it for the Umnoputeras who have that have not? Nothing can go right if IPCMC is not implemented.

HJ Angus : Someone said, "It is a sign of madness if one does the same thing and expects different results." After so many years of the NEP that has resulted in institutionalised cronyism and corruption, no thinking Malaysian can accept that the same policies will achieve the noble targets, not in a hundred years.

We will only see the gap widen more between the privileged few and the marginalised majority.

Helen Ang : The government again and again says the 30% target for bumiputera equity has not been met. But remember that statistics can be selective. Allow me to summarise from Edmund Terence Gomez's article Who owns corporate Malaysia?

1. Politicians and political parties, including Umno, have resorted to using nominee companies to conceal their ownership of corporate equity.

2. In 2000, the government had majority ownership of six of the Top 10 publicly-listed companies on the Bursa Malaysia - namely Telekom Malaysia, Tenaga Nasional, Malayan Banking, Petronas Gas, MISC and Sime Darby. Government equity is, of course not, counted as Malay equity.

3. The government had a stake in Bumiputra Commerce Bank (No 8 in the Top 10 list). Proton came in at No 19 on the same list.

4. Who are these men controlling major firms? Halim Saad, Rashid Hussain, Tajudin Ramli, Wan Azmi Wan Hamzah, Shamsuddin Kadir, Azman Hashim, Ahmad Sebi Abu Bakar, Ishak Ismail, Mirzan Mahathir, Mokhzani Mahathir, Amin Shah Omar Shah and the late Yahya Ahmad (or his heirs today). Or perhaps the questions should be who are/were they linked to?

5. Gomez makes some observations. Among them: a) 'What is clear is that the nexus of politics and business based on patronage and political loyalty had only served to undermine the development of Malay entrepreneurship.'

6) 'Malay capitalists were quickly created, within a decade, only to disappear even faster because selective patronage had engendered little independence or competence to deal with competition or crises. Government ownership of half of the top 20 companies was tangible evidence that privatisation had failed.'

Minority Blue-Collared Worker : Wow! Yet the gap (between rich and poor) is spoken only of one ethnic group. I am wondering if this is another plot to get more money into the politician's pocket in the name of bridging the poverty gap in this country.

Why is there no talk about the poor in the minority ethnic groups? What are S Samy Vellu and Ong Ka Ting doing in the cabinet?

Below are readers' response to Dodgy questions irk 'naked-pirouette' lady

MA : The Government will never learn. Just as mentioned by the "honorable" de facto Law Minister on the oil hike demonstrations that "Even if you demonstrate 100 times, the government won't reduce the price. You can demonstrate till the cows come home but the government won't revise the decision. We don't care what others say, we must enforce our laws"

Likewise in this latest saga, the government just does not care about the people at large whom they suppose to take care. It's all about power and money, period. And, we are to be blamed for such blatant misuse of power by the so called "wakil-rakyat" because we chose them through the election. And in return, this is what we get. However, I still feel that under the current system, the election serves the best avenue for the people to record our displeasure against these tyranny. I wonder if we should start calling them "wakil-diri" instead.

Perhaps, this is the very reason why the police are against the formation of the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC). So that they could do what they like. Who cares? Now it looks as though, even Pak Lah couldn't be bothered with the people's sentiment. So why care?

I dread to think, what the future holds for our children and the next generation. May God save us all. "Pak Lah kata ubah cara hidup, Rakyat kata ubah Kerajaan" A change of Government around the corner?

Sadirah K : This has been going on for so long that it will take leadership and strict enforcement before the police change their ways. The IPMC is critical to this effort to change the Police and to ensure that they respect human rights.

Years of indifference and abuse cannot be changed overnight and this is the status with the Police Force. A change in the leadership is also called for as there seems to be very little respect left within the Force.

The government must take action and implement the findings of the Royal Police Commission on an urgent basis if things are to change. We cannot continue to tolerate such nonsense.

Anon : Shame on Sgt Chan for his 'interrogation' with Mdm Cheng. One constantly reads incidents like this that are more common in Third World transparency-lacking backward nations. Yet Malaysian leaders spare no efforts in trying to promote its advanced nation status. I am sorry it may have to work a lot lot harder for a good many more years given proper capable leadership.

Lee : As mentioned in the malaysiakini report the IGP's speech which was delivered during the Police Day celebration where there was no mention of the IPCMC though the PM was in attendance. There was also another prepared speech read out by all state police chiefs which was different from what was read by the IGP. Actions should be taken for going against the PM's directive (insubordination).

If this happened in the corporate world, the person concerned will be issued a letter of explanation as to why disciplinary action should not be taken against him/her including terminating of service. Since this man, IGP is the top police officer, the PM should terminate his service with immediate effect, to show us Malaysians that he means business.

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