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POLITICKLENEWZ4U
Malaysia is unlikely to achieve a firm recovery in growth until 2011, Najib Razak, the country’s finance minister, said on Wednesday. But he said the country would use the downturn to form a “new economic model” focused on services rather than manufacturing.

• Mr Najib said he favoured gradual reform of the government’s policy of preferential treatment of the ethnic Malay majority population to help support economic restructuring. He said: “We must accept policies that are attuned to the changing times”. But he added: “We cannot have too drastic a move until people are ready for it”.

• As part of the easing of the pro-Malay policy, Mr Najib suggested that rules on foreign investment in the services sector would be relaxed. Foreign investors are required at present to have ethnic Malay shareholders in such industries as financial services.

• Mr Najib said the pro-Malay policy had successfully raised living standards for the majority population but he acknowledged that some mistakes had been made in implementation. He said he favoured a return to his father’s original vision of improving conditions for the poor of all ethnic groups, not only Malays.

Should the Umno polls be opened to every Malaysian, vocal Umno veteran, Muhyiddin Yassin will be the man of choice for the party's deputy presidency according to a survey conducted by the Merdeka Center. The survey, conducted on 1031 registered voters throughout Peninsula Malaysia, found that 52% of them thought that Muhyiddin was the best man for the job.

• His counterparts didn't do so well in the popularity contest as the survey found that only 11% thought that Melaka Menteri Besar, Ali Rustam would be suitable for the post while only 7% thought it should belong to Selangor Umno chief Muhammad Muhd Taib.

• As for the vice-president's post, former youth leader and Education Minister Hishamuddin Hussein emerged as the most preferred candidate with a 17% approval. This was followed by Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Ahmad Zahid Hamidi with 13% and Unity, Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister Shafie Apdal with 8%.

• In the party's youth chief race, the son of former president and prime minister Mukhriz Mahathir emerged as the favoured candidate for the post. He bagged 52% of the survey votes. His rivals, Khairy Jamaluddin and former Selangor menteri besar Mohd Khir Toyo both shared 11% support for the post.

• In the contest for the Wanita Umno chief's post, 51% favoured Shahrizat over incumbent Rafidah Aziz, who only received 26% of support.

Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said met with PM Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi yesterday afternoon over investigations by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission into money politics and her ministry's activities. Azalina arrived at Abdullah's official residence about 5pm accompanied by her father Datuk Othman Said. She left at 8.30pm and according to sources the PM advised her to be patient and to let the law take its course and that she has nothing to fear if she did not do anything wrong.

Six people who allegedly insulted the Sultan of Perak via their blogs or by posting of comments are likely to be the first of many people to be charged today under the Communications and Multimedia Act. The six are expected to be charged in the Kuala Lumpur, Petaling Jaya, Kota Kinabalu and Butterworth lower courts for unwise use of network or network services for making comments, demands, suggestions or communication which are vulgar, false, threatening or disturbing.

Federal Territory Umno Youth chief Datuk Norza Zakaria is expected to be charged today with alleged money politics by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission. The former political secretary to Second Finance Minister Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yaacop is expected to appear before the Temerloh magistrate's court. He will be answering charges that he allegedly paid money to several people to ensure victory in the Umno elections following his qualification to contest a supreme council seat.

Changkat Jering assemblyman Mohd Osman Mohd Jailu broke his month-long silence yesterday by blaming the downfall of the Pakatan Rakyat state government in Perak on former menteri besar Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin and Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham. The former PKR politician said both he and Behrang assemblyman Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi had expressed their frank views and dissatisfaction over the running of the state
government at the last exco meeting held in December last year. "Only the DAP and Pas seemed to rule the state while we were sidelined. Decisions made were influenced by Ngeh and Nga Kor Ming," he said. "We were shocked at how the DAP and Pas were competing with one another for personal gain and wealth," he said.

The overseas air travel costs for former Selangor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Mohamad Khir Toyo from September 2001 till January 2008 amounted to RM349,134 and involved 21 trips. Among destinations visited by Khir were London, Bangkok, Beijing, Los Angeles, Dubai, Osaka, Tokyo, Seoul, Taipei, Paris, Perth, Milan, Venice and Amsterdam. Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim said the statistics were from air travel warrants obtained from the Office of the Selangor Menteri Besar.

Two Mercedes Benz cars bought by Kumpulan Darul Ehsan Bhd (KDEB) prior to the 12th general election were never delivered while a Range Rover bought for site visits by the company's subsidiary, was used by the KDEB chairman's wife. These were among the matters raised at the Selangor State Assembly by Saari Sungib (Pas-Hulu Kelang). He said the state should check on the purchase of the Mercedes S500 worth RM1.5m for the then KDEB chairman, and a Mercedes S350 worth almost RM1m for its executive president. Saari said the total purchase was about RM2.5m and a 40% downpayment or about RM1m was paid to Cycle and Carriage. "Then after the election, the scenario changed; Now we do not know where the RM1m downpayment has gone and both cars were never delivered," he said.