Budget 2016 Recalibration

The fact that Budget 2016 has to be recalibrated is itself an acknowledgment that Malaysia is finally facing up to the global headwinds and the prolonged oil price slump. Not to mention, slowing domestic economic growth.

 

The country is still stubbornly holding onto its 2016 fiscal deficit target at 3.1 percent of gross domestic product and it reckons government debt is still manageable at 55 percent of GDP.

 

Anyway, PM Najib Razak on Thursday unveiled a series of revisions expected to save the government RM9 billion.

 

That of course, is based on the price of Brent crude oil staying within the $30 to $35 per barrel. (Note: At the time of Budget 2016’s earlier announcement, oil price was then just hovering around $40 a barrel. and unrealistic Putrajaya had based its projections on $48 per barrel price).

 

This means that the GDP growth outlook for 2016 has to be trimmed to 4%-4.5% from 4%-5%. The Goods and Services Tax however will remain – after all, it is a massive revenue earner for the beleaguered government. The GST imposed in April 2015 has helped to narrow Malaysia's fiscal deficit even as Malaysians suffer from a higher cost of living.

 

Still, the government are keenly aware of a growing public disaffection over rising costs. And the 2016 budget revisions are supposedly supportive for consumption although I don't think that is going to happen.

 

EPF contributions for employees are reduced by 3% from March 2016 to December 2017 although contributions from employers are unchanged. And a special tax relief of RM2,000 to individual tax payers earning RM8,000 a month for year of assessment 2015. Najib forgets that ordinary Malaysians are hurting.

 

Other measures, in my opinion, are just not noteworthy enough. The odds of fiscal slippage remain high with little maneuvering space, especially if oil remains on a significantly lower glide path and tax revenue is crimped by lower corporate profits and weaker growth.

 

This is the second year in a row that Najib had been forced to revise the Budget, after oil price fell from $110 to below $50 last year and made it necessary to reduce Budget 2015 last January. 

 

We seem to have a government caught up in a time warp.

 

On Thursday, I was in Avenue 7, The Horizon in KL’s Bangsar South for the BP Asia BSC-Air Products Toastmasters Clubs joint-meeting.

 

I was fortunate to be given a speaking slot and I delivered CC#8 titled “Being Normal”.

 

Good attendance from both clubs and even a good meeting – in spite of the fact that Air Products’ Eddie Lai was absent because he’s in the US of A. His effusiveness may have been missed but that did not prevent us from having an enjoyable time.

 

 

Bloody Attack on Bacha Khan University

Image credit: http://www.india.com/news/world/terror-strike-in-pakistan-bacha-khan-university-stormed-4-terrorists-killed-tehreek-e-taliban-pakistan-claims-responsibility-of-attack-876678/

Image credit: http://s2.dmcdn.net/STXGE/x240-aie.jpg

Photo: Caren Firouz/Reuters

Photo: Aamir Quereshi/AFP/Getty Images

INP Photo by Sikandar Shah

Image credit: http://static.abplive.in/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/20053436/Bacha-hospital-AFP-compressed-580x395.jpg

Photo: N Takar /VOA Deewa

Photo: AP

Four heavily-armed gunmen stormed the Bacha Khan University in Charsadda, which is located 29km from Peshawar, the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan, randomly spraying bullets on students and staff on the morning of January 20, 2016. The brazen attack killed 21 people and left 50 others injured. 

Pakistani Taliban commander Umar Mansoor, the mastermind of the student massacre in December 2014 at a military-run school in nearby Peshawar – you may read this tragedy of a story at this link http://helpvictor.blogspot.my/2014/12/peshawar-school-massacre.html – claimed responsibility for the assault.

It yet again raised questions about whether security forces are able to protect the country’s educational institutions from extremists.

 

On Wednesday, I was at the Scope Toastmasters meeting in Petaling Jaya – at the request of D’Utama Advanced’s Lim Lay Kun – to evaluate her Advanced speech that she was presenting there.

One of Scope's rare evening meetings.

 

 

Lady Pink

Yesterday, I blogged about Lady Pink. Not Mary Kay Ash, the founder of the American cosmetics’ company involved in skin care, makeup and body care – which, by the way, is also associated with the color pink.

 

Remember the pink Cadillac? The only people who get to drive in pink Cadillac splendor are sales superstars whose multilevel sales teams have sold at least $100,000 in Mary Kay products in six months. It’s one of the most easily recognized sales incentive in the world. 

And she chose pink just so to match the color of her cosmetics compact, if you must know.

Image credit: http://www.liladeweber.com/about-lila.html

Anyway, I'm referring to the other lady entrepreneur behind a beauty company that’s closer to home. Vida Beauty. 

This flamboyant person, this brains behind the beauty enterprise is Hasmiza Othman (or more popularly referred to as Dato' Dr. Vida). 

I prefer to call her Lady Pink!

 

She's made her fortune in the beauty business. Meaning, Vida's wealth is built upon a human weakness: insecurity. 

Her Qu Puteh line of products bases itself on the premise that only fair women are attractive. The latest marketing for that line promotes slimness, bustiness and even nubility as qualities that her customers should strive for.

 

Her pomegranate and gamat-based Pamoga elixir is an even more dubious exercise in what I can only term as pseudo-science. Priced at RM145 per 500ml bottle, Vida makes the preposterous claim that it is able to “cure” 30 illnesses, ranging from diabetes and Alzheimer’s, to low IQ and paralysis. It gives you the impression that her customers are an easy mark.

Of course, Vida Beauty are not the sole offender of this kind of exploitation. 

Other companies hawking similar type products also make equally ridiculous claims. Take, for example, Aliff Syukri’s D’Herbs that sell everything from raisins that promise to make you clever, to goat’s milk that claims to help with pregnancy, to superfood elixir Arjuna Maxx that supposedly increases virility, to Payu Up Collagen that claims to increase bust size, and even cock rings, which he spectacularly named “Cincin Pacak Arjuna”.

 

I am told these kind of products are popular among Malay women – okay, maybe not the cock rings (unless they are buying them for their partners)!

 

Vida is using her purported PhD in Biology, to carry the title and name  “Dr Vida”, to lend credibility to her products. It is said that she had previously claimed her PhD was from one Charles Molnar University from Hungary – coincidentally among the five universities linked to a 2012 bust against a Subang Jaya company which issued fake degrees.

 

By the time Vida was interviewed by Utusan Malaysia last year, she had changed her tune and avowed that her PhD was from Monash University instead. That is, if you believe her.

 

Of course, you would have known by now that five days ago, Malaysia's MOH have issued a ban on one of her Qu Puteh’s products – the Qu Puteh Whitening Pro 9 cream which was found to contain “high levels” of mercury.

Already, the Brunei Health Ministry had banned two Qu Puteh products for supposedly containing harmful products. They must mean 'mercury' and mercury is definitely harmful.

You may or may not know this but many skin creams, beauty and antiseptic soaps or lotions do contain mercury and these products are marketed as skin lighteners and anti-aging treatments that remove age spots, freckles, blemishes and wrinkles. Also, adolescents may use them as acne treatments. FYI, the FDA do not permit mercury in cosmetics or in drugs except under very specific conditions.
 

Even as she pulled the problematic products from the market, she insisted she had never encountered any product-related problems before. Nonetheless, she promised a detailed, in-depth analysis on the said products. Did she mean that prior to this, she had been blissfully unaware that her products were harmful? Hmmmm...

Anyway, she has a product range that is mind-boggling – here's a small sample:

Lady Pink is really raking it in!

The Red Warriors Turn Pink

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hasmiza Othman (or Datuk Seri Vida) and members of the Kelantan Football Association (Kafa) striking the trademark Qu Puteh pose at the signing of the RM16 million sponsorship deal. Picture by Bernama

 

Malaysian football is in the doldrums. In this unhappy situation, there’s not much money around. Football clubs are in dire financial straits and anybody who comes along with some money would be hailed as a savior.

 

And so the astonishing story of a 44-year old wealthy woman, the fabulously bling bling Hasmizah Othman – also known as Datuk Seri Vida – made a sponsorship proposal that the Kelantan Football Association (Kafa) simply could not dismiss.

 

It was not a paltry sum. It was a 2-year sponsorship deal with her company Vida Beauty Sdn Bhd that was worth RM16 million. But there were conditions attached.

 

The Kelantan players will wear pink jerseys. Their home venue – Sultan Mohd IV Stadium in Kota Baru – will also be painted in the same color. The team’s nickname The Red Warriors will append names of her products, the Pamoga health drink, and the Qu Puteh whitening product – they would be referred officially as Pamoga Qu Puteh The Red Warriors. 

It's too much of a mouthful and so, netizens have taken to calling them the Pink Warriors!

 

Kafa were desperate for funds to mount a challenge in the new season so this deal was pretty much a foregone conclusion.

 

And during the January 15, 2016 media conference, Vida even managed to get the Kafa men to wear pink! Not only that – but they also gamely put on her trademark Qu Puteh pose for the photographers: a V-sign over their lips.

The macho men of Kelantan football have finally found their match. Not only that but it looks like Lady Pink is going to call the shots. LOL, I pity these men.

 

Kelantan finished a dismal ninth in the Super League and failed to get past the group stage in the Malaysia Cup competition. But with their finances now in the pink of health, things are brightening up for Kelantan football.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Celtic are still sitting steady at the top of the Scottish Premiership. Their January 23, 2016 match against St Johnstone saw them emerging victorious with a 3-1 score. The defending champions were efficient as they took control with goals from Gary Mackay-Steven (9, 55) and Stuart Armstrong (43).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then, the wild Saturday game that was a nine-goal thriller between Liverpool and Norwich and which was decided only when Adam Lallana’s injury-time strike gave the Reds’ a 5-4 victory that pushed the Reds into seventh place in the EPL table.