Reflections: Melayu Lama

KFC Staff Racist?

2012-02-11T09:55:00.001-08:00

Ivana Trump once told Marla Maples to her face "pearls before swine".
Pigs are used as universal deragatory terms with no racial
connotations attached. Another example is "greedy pig", it's hardly
race-specific. So when someone tells you "kalau nak makan buat
sendirilah b*bi" it's hardly racial until the respondent replies
"cib*i punya Melayu". Kudos to the staff of Kfc i-City, not for being
Malay, but for beating up, not a Chinese, but a racist....

Ah well, KFC and NFC, which ones your pick? Chicken or Beef?

--
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Stick to your Kopi ya?

2012-01-19T08:52:00.001-08:00

Watching the Youtube of azhar idrus banning coke
and ribena I can't help but be reminded of Wayne
Newton's character in the Bond movie "License to
Kill". Like Newton in the movie, idrus is another
preacher who will most likely derail the common
sense of his followers in due time.

I guess idrus doesn't attend weddings at Felda Merak Kayangan and have
Tapai for dessert?

God gave us a brain for a purpose, to see/listen, evaluate then judge
what is right or wrong with the Quran as our guide and not some
Saturday Night Live standup comedy type preaching. Faith is serious
business, although a private affair between the humble being and Allah
Subhanahuwata'ala, it's still nonetheless serious business. When will
the sensational hungry audience of idrus realize that and go back to
the Quran?

Meanwhile, I suggest they don't drink Coke lah and stick to their
locally brewed Kopi whatever which was brewed in conditions possibly
much less hygienic than say the Coke or Ribena factories.

Isn't hygiene a requirement in Islam? Who's more Islamic then?

--
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Malay first or Malaysian first?

2011-08-16T03:00:00.001-07:00

So much hoo-hah this last week or so with church raids, apostacy and conversion claims alike. Let me keep this post short.

DPM Muhyiddin once said he is Malay first then Malaysian much to the pretense displeasure of the opposition people. I say pretense because that's the answer they wanted to hear to facilitate their constant spinning of facts and downplaying every BN government initiative through their exploitation and twisting of public sentiments. Without a doubt BN has many flaws but that does not entitle anyone to wrong all their rights. The loose coalition that is pakatan itself is equally if not more prone to wrongs than BN.

With all the happenings that have been occurring lately it is safe to assume that the power hungry and pakatan supporting non's are getting bolder and arrogant. No longer is pas the only one in the trio using religion as a political tool, dap has joined the fray with pkr nodding along obediently in a guard dog kind of fashion. pkr's sacking of Zulkifli Noordin is testament enough to pkr's stand on Islamic matters.

Honestly, if you asked me if I'm Malay or Malaysian first I'd say neither! My answer would be MUSLIM FIRST! That said, constitutionally, in Malaysia, Muslims are Malays. By definition any Muslim who views himself as Muslim first would, by default, be Malay first. So, Mr. DPM you answered correctly in my book! While the context of his answer was not so much in the spiritual sense, again by constitutional definition, Muslims are Malays and vice-versa which also means that DPM Muhyiddin is a Muslim first.

Let us put a stop to all these unconstitutional demands and show of arrogance by the power hungry and disruptive nons from pakatan. It is a pity that the ones fighting (non-Mulims) and defending (stupid pas Muslims) now are dumb enough not to see that neither Kit Siang, Guan Eng, Anwar or even Nik Aziz cares a hoot about their faiths and beliefs. They're just being used to incite hatred, create instability, divide the believers of different faiths into groups so that they can fish for votes.

So my dear level headed Muslims please stay true to your Muslim selves and defend our belief to our last breath. We are being challenged right now, do not doubt it for a minute.... and to my level headed non-Muslims who have lived with us in peace for more than half a century, please also stay true to yourselves regardless of your respective faiths. Observe and obey the constitution for what it says: which, in a nutshell, says Islam is the official religion of this country and is not to be challenged fullstop.

Salam Ramadhan....

--
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Using God's name....

2011-07-18T00:36:00.001-07:00

I have to be honest. Arguing with pakatan supporters is tiring, not in an intellectually stimulating way but in a long winded stupid kind of way.

You start with a point of argument highlighting pakatan's flaws. They first retaliate with the usual "they didn't do it". Once proven that they did the first twist is then put into action "they apologized". So I guess that makes it all good. Make a huge mistake and then just say sorry. I wonder why the Bukit Bendera Umno guy was judged so badly by pakatan when he brought up the 'pendatang' issue few years back? BN apologized didn't they? Yet the pakatan baffoons are still playing up the 'pendatang' thing till this very day. If pakatan did the same then apologized to their own people that makes it ok, but for others it's not. Has pakatan politicians ever owned up for slandering others with false accusations?

Next, they will move on from the "they apologized" argument to "their intentions were good" and the futher twist to it is that we can't highlight and god forbid judge or make it available for others to judge for themselves the actions of these so-called leaders of our community because judging is only for God to do. Fine. Then perhaps pakatan people should not judge others too. They should not accuse police of being cruel since they don't really know the intentions of the officers during the bersih demo clampdown. And they shouldn't judge either for it is up to god not us mere mortals. In a nutshell, we are not allowed to have an opinion if it goes against them.

Then, when all else fails, the focus is then shifted from the people who actually committed the wrongs and turned against the person who highlighted them. Taking personal shots, condemning the one who highlighted the incident and turning the messenger into the villain. Gone is the attention on the actual wrong doers. It now becomes an argument between the person who highlighted the incident and the one
defending pakatan rakyat.

Lastly, comes the holier-than-thou bullshit of "who are you to judge them? Only god can". God's name is the nuclear bomb of all arguments, intellectual or not, bring that into the picture and people will back off. Simply because God is holy, divine, sacred and not a name people want to drag into arguments, particularly involving certain low and loose moral politicians. Furthermore, for people like me my faith is my business. I don't drag God into petty discussions over the actions of cop-biting photoshop libeling politicians.

The details of the debate will be posted in the next posting.

Right now I'm just baffled at how people can view a certain group as being capable of governing. They're prone to errors mistakes, politicizing issues and even personal tragadies for their own benefit yet their die hard (but pretend to be neutral) supporters will find a thousand and one excuses to clear them. The "nuke" of all excuses being religon or in some cases God himself. Sounds very nik aziz
doesn't it?

Ah well.... No great loss really, except they've lost my potential vote. I will not put a bunch of baffoons into power when they can't even admit to small mistakes. How defensive will they be when they commit biggerones? You make a mistake you apologize. You capitalize on an issue and it backfires you own up to it. Don't drag God into this shit....

More to come....

--
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Why all this chaos is totally unnecessary....

2011-07-07T23:25:00.001-07:00

Back in 1990, the lead opposition party, Parti Melayu Semangat 46 (S46) led two pacts into the General Elections (GE) at the time. The first pact was made between S46 and Pas called Angkatan Perpaduan Ummah (APU) while the second pact consisted of S46, Dap and Pbs of Sabah called Gagasan Rakyat (GR). Given the dissatisfaction of the Malays and certain quarters of the Chinese population in the country, APU and GR made significant inroads into the federal and state legislatures with the number of parliamentary and state seats that they won.

Kelantan was won over from the BN while Sabah BN was defeated by GR. Penang, although still under BN control, was a heavy casualty with Gerakan taking a terrible beating from Dap. Even the Chief Minister at the time, Dr. Lim Chong Eu, was not spared.

The point is, Malaysia has had it's fair share of strong opposition parties before. But while politicking being what it is, the politicians of the time competed at the ballot boxes. And given Dr.M's stronghold over Malaysia at that time, losing two states was very much akin to a political tsunami.

My point is, why do we need street demos? It has well been proven time and time again that Malaysians, well the bulk of us at least, have the common decency to air our frustrations, dissapointments and whatnots come election time.

Bersih cannot claim that it's first demo was what brought about change in the 2008 GE. It was already a foregone conclusion that support for BN was dwindling with sleppy lethargic and lame pak lah at the helm of BN's leadership. Had bersih 2007 not taken place, the outcome of GE 2008 would still be the same.

Fast forward to the present, it is quite clear that the bersih organizers (read puppets of pakatan rakyat (PR)) are hoping that another show of protests would lead to great victory at the ballot boxes once again. That may not necessarily be the case. If their analysis of the level of support was done correctly, they would realize that whatever support they had during GE 2008 was nothing more than protest votes against pak lah. And the protests came in various forms. The outright angry kind, with no regard for future consequences, actually casted their votes for PR parties. While the more subtle but yet still angry ones decided not to vote, myself included.

Bersih 2007 had little or no impact whatsoever to the decisions made at the ballot boxes in GE 2008. And if claims that elections are so blatantly rigged, it is highly illogical that PR could've retained Kelantan and won four additional states while crippling Kuala Lumpur as well. Believe me, Malaysians are mature enough to decide what they want. All this talk about cleaning up elections is hogwash, the hidden agenda is their main concern. Which is to cause chaos and disruption. To push the authorities to the wall so that they will appear as the persecuted.

Given pakatan's various wins in the many by-elections held over the last three years how can they still claim that elections are rigged? To me, they appear power hungry. No amount of victory in any election is good enough unless they win. And to assume that they always have the support is arrogant and somewhat stupid. Sure plenty attend ceramahs but ceramahs do not equal votes. I myself attended pakatan ceramah's during the campaign period of GE 2008 yet me and those like me refused to cast our votes. Pakatan is just drowning itself in the sewerage of it's own dellusions of grandeur and media spinning.

With all that said. The King has granted pakatan via their proxy ambiga an audience. If they are anywhere near being sincere about handing over a memorandum to His Majesty citing the need for electoral reforms, they would have done so. Their main goal is chaos, chaos and more chaos. Don't be fooled and don't be mislead. It is not about electoral reforms anymore. It is about intolerance and tension that they themselves will fan to create chaos. From chaos comes disruption and with disruption comes weakness. That is their goal. Let us be level headed Malaysians as we have always been and take our dissatisfaction to the ballot boxes (or not if abstaining). No need to march the streets lah....

--
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Lynas Kuantan and the IAEA

2011-05-29T04:23:00.001-07:00

This just in:

IAEA expert panel will not be involved in policy discussions

Kuala Lumpur, Sunday: The IAEA expert panel investigating the health
and safety aspects of the Lynas plant began its work in Malaysia today
with a briefing on the project by Malaysian technical officials.

Panel leader, Dr. Tero Varjoranta, said the panel will review the
radiation safety aspects of the facility in relation to relevant
international radiation safety standards and good practices.

"The team will provide an independent expert opinion to the Malaysian
Government," he added.

"The mission is technical in nature and has no mandate to, and
therefore will not engage in policy type of discussions," Dr.
Varjoranta stressed.

He explained that the work of the panel will be focussed on gathering
information and receiving submissions from interested parties and
members of the public.

He said that it is the standard practice of IAEA missions such as this
to obtain its information in closed door sessions, and not in town
hall-type of meetings.

The team is in Malaysia at the invitation of the Malaysian Government.
Apart from Dr. Tero, the panel consists of nine professionals of
various disciplines from Canada, Finland, India, Italy, the
Netherlands, UK, and the Vienna-based IAEA. Four of them are from the
IAEA, and the other 5 are consultants from member countries.

While here, the panel will meet with government officials, Lynas
staff, residents and other members of the public. They will also visit
the project site.

The team will complete its work in Malaysia on June 3 and is expected
to submit its findings and recommendations to the Malaysian Government
by the end of June 2011.

####

Ministry of International Trade and Industry
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
29 May 2011

****

I think Fuziah Salleh should hold her horses, or will she work up
public sentiment a-la street protest pkr style? Don't be so
predictable lah. Forget about political milage for a change and let
experts do their jobs. Can?

--
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Arab = Pious? Really?

2011-05-28T07:54:00.001-07:00

Of late there seems to be a shift in the Malay trend of naming
children. The majority of which seem to be heading towards the Arabs.
Somehow, today's culture sees Arabization as a means to overcompensate
for a void in their lives they start naming their newborns with funny
sounding names that the letter "A" spelt with an apostrophe to stress
on the "'ain" sound a-la Arabs. Then some even go as far a as
translating Arabic words into Malay to get a so-called "'afdal"
meaning to their Kids' names....

Hello! Reality check please.... Names do not ensure or even remotely
determine the outcome of one's morals. I have personally met several
chaps with whose names have "Mohamed", "Ahmad", "Abdullah", as well as
those who are named after Muslim Prophets who are actually drunkards,
whore house regular customers, druggies and what nots. I'm not saying
that naming them that way is bad. It's just that I am of the opinion
that how Parents raise their Children, the environment they grow up
in, their peers, Schooling are all determinants in ensuring how and
what a person turns out to be.

My grouse is with some people. They have this overbearing sense of
kampungness that they constantly try to instill into my Children.
While I have no particular qualms with kampung people, I just do not
want my Children growing up into one. While my own ancestry, one that
I am proud of, originated from the very same rice fields as that of
some people, it does not mean that we must constantly be in some kind
of peasant state of mind to be a better Muslim.

As badly as Bahasa Melayu has evolved into some kind of English
dictionary rip-off with it's constant poaching of English and Arabic
words, so too has Malay culture, albeit by poaching, cultures and
traditions of the Arabs, namely the naming of Children.

While many find that it is somewhat of plus point to name one's Child
like an Arabic bedouine, I do not see the point. Does it make them
better? Smarter? Pious? NO! So what if I name my Children after some
Gaelcian name? What's wrong with that? Have they ever wondered that
maybe some of us have plans? Some of us intend to emmigrate to a better
place when time and resources permit? That the naming of one's
Children are in line with one's potential future plans of moving out of this country? Some of us do have plans and
goals in life.

While I have this sense of attachment to some Nordic, Gaelic and
whatever distant culture's names, thanks to my own exposure to
different cultures, places and whatnots growing up in different
countries, does that make my Children less Muslim? For example, my
Spouse's sibling is married to a foreigner. Their children all live in
some distant white man's fantasy heaven. They all have Malay names but
none of them have their genital organs circumsized. So names are but
mere facades. They may appear more Muslim in name, perhaps for the
benefit of the kampungfolk they meet once of twice a year but
otherwise they are, bar pork and alcohol, no more Muslim than the
white men in their home country.

To me, if you carry the Prophet's name, do not use it in shame. I have
decided to move away from the standard Malay naming scheme of things
simply because I think it is hypocritical. Names like "Danial" are
accepted as Malay names when it is clearly of some mat salleh origin.
Whereas some tounguetwister names like that of my Children's are
frowned upon simply because they cannot pronounce it. Well, too bad!
If you people cannot speak English, French, Spanish or
whatever that's your problem. Don't make it mine.

I have come to the conclusion that people will say and do whatever the
hell they want, you can't stop them. Fine. But do not impose your
values on me when I clearly do not impose mine on you. We can talk,
discuss, and whatever for the sake of intellectual discourse but at
the end of the day, values are what makes us. For example, lying about
your whereabouts may seem acceptable to some under the guise of "tipu
sunat" (a man made way to legitimize lying on the basis of a small lie
created to prevent a much bigger disaster), to others lying is lying.
There are no exceptions to it.

Well, I have virtually given up with a lot of people on this naming
issue simply because I feel that they are invading my personal space
when it comes to my Spouse & Children. To me that is a line no one
should cross, regardless of whatever favours one may have granted to
us before, that is a line that must never and should never be crossed.
Again, it is a matter of values. One's value system is highly
subjective. A culture that has a phrase like "jaga tepi kain orang" is
hardly one that can sit idly by and watch others be non-conformists.
To hell with that, don't like it? Don't watch it!

Second Guesses: How much longer do we need to feed an old man's ego?

2011-02-26T08:07:00.001-08:00

Just heard.... and it's bad.

The so called 'crown jewel' of the national car industry, the
overprotected child of the nation (or more like overprotected child of
an old man and his ego) has hit it bad this year.

Higher revenue but a big drop in net profits 58.15% drop in profits
from 2009 but revenue grew 39%.

Something is not right here. I don't care if they spent a lot in
Rebranding but I suspect their UK based 'offspring' is sucking up a
lot of money. That and also is not so efficient supply chain perhaps.

If I was on the board of directors, the CEO would go. Chairman too has
to be accountable.... But that's me and believe me accountability is
hard to come by these days.

If you asked me, time we moved on and dumped the failed company. Sell
it off, cut our losses and spend on something more productive like a
well linked and integrated rail based public transport network. Enough
is enough, people's pockets are being burnt just to fuel the man's
ego.

--
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Pas may need a cina buta for this one....

2011-02-20T01:15:00.001-08:00

Salam,

Like a couple (or in this case threesome) living 'in sin', pas and dap
have always been the rather odd pair to be in a relationship, much
less a long term relationship. Hence why they've never really
'married' in the proper sense by registering their union which they
affectionately dub as 'pakatan rakyat'.

Yesterday, amidst all the previous openness and blah, blah, blah,
blah.... that pas has shown since the enivitable political tsunami of
2008 caused by none other than sleepy pak lah & co, pas seems to be
making an bout u-turn by making a new 12-point promise just shortly
after losing the Tenang by-election.

Will they be 'breaking-up' with their totally opposite sleeping
partner yet again? They were in bed together in 1990 indirectly
through the now defunct s46. They were s46's first wife under the
marriage of 'angkatan perpaduan ummah' while dap was the second wife
of s46 via the union of 'gagasan rakyat'. They then parted ways. In
1999 they got together, this time directly via 'barisan alternative'
then broke up again in time for the 2004 elections. By the 2008
elections the reconciled like a recently divorced couple and got into
yet another polygamous relationship with pkr supposedly the 'man' in
the marriage but this time dubbing themselves 'pakatan rakyat'.

As was in the past, Islamization a-la pas did not sit comfortably with
dap. Who could forget karpal's infamous quote "over my dead body"
regarding pas' stand on an Islamic state and Hudud & Qisas?

Anyway, will we be seeing yet another break-up? A couple (or
threesome) that cannot set the same course of direction can never be
together for the long haul. Are we voters going to become the
illigitimate children of these two divorcees yet again?

Anyway, if pas sticks to Islamic principles on marriage they may need
to form a union with another political party as their "cina buta"
(look it up if you don't know) should they plan to reconcile again
with dap in the future. Because this will make divorce number 3 to the
same entity....

Anyway, for more insights on this matter look up:
1. Syed Akbar:
http://syedsoutsidethebox.blogspot.com/2011/02/abandoning-chinese.html
2. Ti Lian Ker:
http://tilianker.blogspot.com/2011/02/pas-going-back-to-race-and-religion.html

--
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When times are bad, it's not so bad...

2011-02-18T23:06:00.001-08:00

Greetings,

While the job hunt continues, I was fortunate to be in the company of
friends today.

We had a good meal, talked, laughed and it was then I realized that
life is not so bad. While material possesions and overheads boggles
the mind daily, it is light moments like these that make life worth
living.

The struggle continues but it doesn't hurt to take a step back and
enjoy the company of people who can make a difference.

Back to job hunting...

--
Sent from my mobile device

Losing it big time...

2011-02-17T23:18:00.001-08:00

Howdy!

It's been a long time. What can I say? The country doesn't seem
appealing to me right now. Why? Because my life seems to go nowhere
these days. Can't even land a decent job.

Not to complain but I have had some half-baked talk only kind of
assistance from Family members and In-Laws. The kind that say they
want to help but actually don't. It's ok, I know many take pleasure in
seeing others fall. That's just life.

While my Father's court cases with the bank as guarrantor have been
pretty much settled, the seizure and sale proclamation against a
defaulting and delinquent tenant remains hanging. But legal fees need
to be paid regarless of whether is was successful or not. More money
down the drain.

While many think I live a super duper easy life not many know that I've
also developed suicidal tendencies over the past year or so. Times
have been really bad, taking a toll on my health and whatever's left
of my wealth. I'll be basically starting life fresh out of the oven.
Penniless and facing an ever sadistic world.

As for politics and what I think of it? They can all do what they
want. They're reaping what they sow so it's their problem. I have
enough shit of my own to worry about.

Son number two is on the way mid-year while Son number one is growing
fast and turning two this year.

If God tests his subjects because he loves them then I would really,
really like to believe that God loves me very, very much right now.

Anyway, back to the job hunt...

--
Sent from my mobile device

Change of Address

2010-03-24T01:34:00.000-07:00

Howdy!

My, my it has been a long time. Anyway, present circumstances do not allow me to write as much as I did before.

But voila! BlackBerry now has a rather decent WordPress application so I've decided to write when I can and all from the confines of my mobile device.

We've now moved to: http://www.melayulama.wordpress.com

Cheers!

So what's new?

2009-11-06T02:07:00.001-08:00

Ah yes, it certainly has been a while hasn't it?

For starters, MCA looks like a big whole mess. People get removed then
reinstated (for the record, I do not agree with Dr. Chua being party
Deputy President). Then we have a "young" chap who was given the
Deputy Presidency then having it taken away. He is now challenging the
ROS over the decision. Meanwhile, the President, who himself is
literally walking on broken glass, decides to sack 4 CWC members for
being alligned to the "younger" chap.

What does the above tell you?....
It's quite clear that all the above personalities are trying their
level best to stay in power. But then isn't that what politics is all
about?

On the side, we have Pas who are also struggling from a leadership
crisis. That's what happens when a ship has two captains. Tell me, if
the spiritual adviser is numero uno, then what function does the
President have? As expected, eventually the two will be at
loggerheads. It was only a matter of time.

As for me, I don't really care. MCA and Pas can go screw their party
members to hell. It makes no difference to me and many like me.

What I care about are the basic things like:
1. The economy
2. Education
3. Safety
4. Justice

As long as these four basics are taken care of, the rest will fall
snuggly into place.

Alas, both sides have yet to show any marked improvement over the
other. It is akin to the old saying of jumping out of the lion's mouth
and into the frying pan. Which is the lesser of two evils? I don't
care! To me, I do want any evil fullstop. Accepting a lesser of two
evils is akin to ackowledging and accepting evil. Enough of that.

Ah well....

--
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If education is not a priority I don't know what is?

2009-09-14T02:28:00.001-07:00

I read with much disgust the suggestion by Higher Education Minister,
Mohamed Khaled Noordin, to have Public Universities source for their
own funding.

**************************************
KOTA KINABALU 14 Sept. (Utusan) - Kementerian Pengajian Tinggi akan
mengemukakan cadangan kepada Kabinet supaya institusi pengajian
tinggi awam (IPTA) di negara ini mencari sumber kewangannya sendiri
dan tidak terlalu bergantung dengan kerajaan.

http://www.utusan.com.my/utusan/info.asp?y=2009&dt=0914&pub=Utusan_Malaysia&sec=Terkini&pg=bt_03.htm
**************************************

Given that public universities are generally run by either
politically-inclined yes-men type Vice-Chancellors (who could forget
Rafiah Salim?) or career lecturers / professors with the typical civil
servant mentality, it is a rather far fetched idea to expect them to
be financially independant after generations of direct assistance.

I believe, as with everything else in this country, the burden will,
as always, be passed down to the consumer. These may come in the form
of full fees and what nots being charged to the students. As always
the Malays will be at the losing end. For one thing, with todays
appalling level of English proficiency, the kampung types have no
where else but local universities to go to. And for the less
fortunate, local institutions were also the institution of choice due
to the subsidized fees. Even if they were to attend on a PTPTN loan,
the repayment would not be as steep as compared to paying full fees.

Scholarships are a thing of the past. PTPTN loans are the norm these
days but at least fees were reasonable for the average kampung
aspiring graduate. Take thant away and they may end up taking 20 years
to pay up their PTPTN loan if Uni's take the easy way out in terms of
self sourced funding.

If Education is not a priority then what does our government spend on?
Crony-enriching projects like this:
http://www.nst.com.my/articles/11KSL2/Article/index_html
or proper funding for Education and Healthcare?

I'm sick of the over-privatization of everything from Highways to
Public Transportation to even Sewerage Services. If the government
let's loose all these entities, privatize them or even let them fend
for themselves, then why are we still paying taxes? What are the tax
dollars being spent on? Even the building of Putrajaya is done by a
GLC so what does the government actually do with our money?

Anyway, Khalid Noordin is an ass of the highest order and should be
sacked from his post for even thinking of a suggestion as ridiculous
as that.

My two cents....

Cheers!

--
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Once every two months?

2009-09-04T05:30:00.000-07:00

Oh dear! Here we go again.... Another by-election.

At the rate we're going, since the last general elections of March
2008 up till now, we have an average rate of one by-election every two
months. The latest death of a State Assemblyman makes this the ninth
by-election in a span of eighteen months.

***************************************************
News of the death below taken from today's Star Online:

Bagan Pinang rep Azman Mohd Noor dies (Update)
Friday, 4 September 2009, 17:34

SEREMBAN: Azman Mohd Noor, Barisan Nasional assemblyman of Bagan
Pinang in Negri Sembilan, died at 2.30pm Friday at the Seremban
Specialist Centre following a heart attack.

The first-term assemblyman was 55.

With his seat now vacant, the nation will have to brace itself for the
ninth by-election since the 12th general election in March last year.

In that election, Azman garnered 6,430 votes against Ramli Ismail of
PAS, who got 4,097 votes.

More to come
***************************************************

With that said, I really stand by what I said in an earlier posting
that aspiring candidates should be screened for health problems before
being allowed to contest. Perhaps make it a requirement by the
political parties before allowing one to contest under their ticket.

Anyway, I have a biopsy scheduled for next week and will probably not
bother about this (what else is new?). Like it makes a damn difference
who wins?

Selamat berbuka puasa and bon apetié!

--
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Ted Kennedy Dies

2009-08-26T01:52:00.001-07:00

US Senator Ted Kennedy, brother of assassinated US President John F. Kennedy and assassinated US Presidential Candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. died at the age of 77.

Below is an article from Time Magazine.

***************************************************
Senator Edward Kennedy Dead At 77
AP / GLEN JOHNSON
August 26, 2009: 12:00 PM
Susan Walsh / AP

Senator Edward M. Kennedy (HYANNIS PORT, Mass.) --
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the liberal lion of the Senate and haunted bearer of the Camelot torch after two of his brothers fell to assassins' bullets, has died at his home in Hyannis Port after battling a brain tumor. He was 77. For nearly a half-century in the Senate, Kennedy was a steadfast champion of the working class and the poor, a powerful voice on health care, civil rights, and war and peace. To the American public, though, he was best known as the last surviving son of America's most glamorous political family, the eulogist of a clan shattered again and again by tragedy. His family announced his death in a brief statement released early Wednesday.

"We've lost the irreplaceable center of our family and joyous light in our lives, but the inspiration of his faith, optimism, and perseverance will live on in our hearts forever", the statement said. "We thank everyone who gave him care and support over this last year, and everyone who stood with him for so many years in his tireless march for progress toward justice, fairness and opportunity for all".

Kennedy was elected to the Senate in 1962, when his brother John was president, and served longer than all but two senators in history. Over the decades, he put is imprint on every major piece of social legislation to clear the Congress.

His own hopes of reaching the White House were damaged -- perhaps doomed -- in 1969 by the scandal that came to be known as Chappaquiddick, an auto accident that left a young woman dead.

Ignorance is truly bliss....

2009-08-24T21:42:00.001-07:00

Ah yes, today is the "big" day for some. Honestly, I didn't even know that the by-election was slotted for today. I happened to hear about it from someone in passing this morning.

Since June this year I have refrained myself from watching the local Malaysian news on the tele. I do however read headlines pertaining to the idiotic politicians of ours through an RSS reader on my BlackBerry. Since I don't pay for or subscribe to newspapers anymore, it is less irritating when I do read some news that is totally stupid. After all I got the news for free!

As for Permatang Pasir: I don't really know or care who contests, who wins but I do know who loses! Yup, as usual: we are the losers.

So, do yourselves a favour tune-out and let these stupid idiot politicians (from both BN and Pakatan + the independents) not get our attention for a change. They exist only because we give them the time of day. They suffer from the delusion of grandeur only because we turn up at their events (if anything to gauge how stupid they are). Let us also remove them from being our "friends' on Facebook. They seem to have this perasan and syiok sendiri attitude when they think they have huge followers on social networking sites like Facebook.

And for those who keep coming back even though they were rejected, please send them off on diplomatic postings. I was extremely happy to hear of the sending-off of JJ to the US. Let's take it a step further shall we? I recommend Khir Toyo for Consul-General to Medan or Surabaya, Ali Rustam for High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea and KJ as prison inmate. Ok?

Anyway, happy fasting and may you enjoy bliss in ignorance....

Cheers!

Parliament and State Reps: The health factor!

2009-07-30T20:25:00.001-07:00

It's been what? Not even a year and a half and we already have loads
of MP's and State Reps literally dying on the job.
While some may argue that the job itself is their killer, it really
doesn't help anyones cause by having by-elections every now and then.
The amount of money being spent, the dirty campaigning, the country
being put on-hold are all factors we should consider before jumping up
and down shouting "Democracy!".

The latest to join the obituary list of YB's is Penang State
Assemblyman for Permatang Pauh who died early this morning. The story
is available here.

Perhaps apart from the screening process of ensuring a capable
candidate in elections, which cover the usual areas of experience,
seniority, capability, qualifications etc, parties should also screen
potentials for health problems.

This can't go on forever. We cannot be having by-elections every now
and then on account of reps dying off while in service.

Anyway, this seems to be the new Malaysia. Full of democracy and dead people.

Cheers!

Hello, hello....

2009-07-21T03:09:00.000-07:00

I'm back! It's been a while but I'm back. back from a frustrating month of endless pursuits in terms of career enhancement, better quality of life etc. Was it in vain? Depends but all I know is that Malaysia is not tapping into the right talents for the right fields.
Enough said.

This posting is more of a write-up in venting out anger. Recently, my disabled, paralyzed and immobile father was slapped with a demand letter from a bank for a loan he did not take. He was merely guarantor to the facility, taken by a friend (well, ex-friend now). The friend is rather famous, especially in local circles particularly among the old timers who enjoy the silver screen of yester years. This friend was honoured with a Dato'ship some years back but failed to live up to the expectations that come with such a prefix to his name. He has defaulted on his loan and left his disabled gurantor in the lurch. Left to fend for himself, I could not allow it. not for a single minute. He is my father and I am his son. his problems are mine. His ex-friend is also an ex-friend to me.

What has transpired has shown that people will take advantage of others regardless. Even in my father's condition, no mercy was shown by the bank and his ex-friend. Where is the decency? He could have at least informed us of his inability to pay his dues and that, in turn, would have prepared us for this. But no. He chose to disappear (but appeared on tv some days ago).

And the bank, what about them? They chose not to pursue the borrower simply because he is a "celebrity" and a Dato'. I am of the opinion that all avenues should first be exhausted with the borrower before targeting the guarantor. In all fairness, it is the borrower who took up the loan and should be the first to be made a bankrupt (if he so choses). Only after all avenues are exhausted should the bank go after the guarantor.

Anyway, that is just my opinion. The bank however, have chosen to draw their swords at me. And believe me, that is their biggest mistake. I care not for Dato's, celebrities, politicians or the likes. I eat them up and spit them out in my line of work.

So, bring it on.....

SSUS for a better understanding....

2009-05-24T12:38:00.001-07:00

I've been extremely busy this last week, in fact I still am so I'll make this short.

The One School for All (SSUS) campaign has attracted a lot of publicity, either in cyber space or in the real space. Why? Because the proponents that attack this noble cause of unification are spinning it the other way around.

Instead of seeing the SSUS campaign for it's value: forging unity and better understanding among the young, these racists have turned around and called the campaign an attack against vernecular schools.

They have even gone so far as to quote the constitution. Saying that it is their right to maintain vernecular schools. These rights, in their view, must not and cannot be challenged as if it were carved in stone.

That being the case, I suggest that they too shut the hell up when think they need to question Bumiputra rights and privilages. Our special rights were carved in stone too. What makes you so special and us not?

Enough of bending over and taking it up our behinds. If certain leaders or their kind (meaning racist) wish to lodge police reports against the organizers of this initiative, I say do it and face the consequences of the same. Since the so-called victory of our "guests" in this land last March, the racists have come out in droves requesting this and that be changed, reduced, wiped-out in the name of equality and fairness. Meritocracy, kononnya, should be the order of the day. A level playing field is harped and barked each chance they get.

Isn't having a "One School for All" levelling the playing field? Isn't it meritocracy when they are all judged on merit when they sit for the SAME exams in the SAME schools teaching the SAME syllabus? Isn't putting them under the SAME care of the SAME teachers equal and fair?

If you want to keep your SJK's, by all means do so but please don't ever you dare question the rights of others when you don't allow others the same benefit. And they have the cheek to harp and bark about equality. Pegidah!!!! I've heard so much of these types using the phrase "walk the talk". A rhetoric of theirs that they themselves cannot practice.

And what's up with the police report? Didn't they all say that they wanted freedom of speech, the right to discuss, agreeing to disagree blah, blah, blah, blah.... Tong kosong. Cakap tak serupa bikin. With freedom of speech comes freedom of expressing views, thoughts and ideas. If the proposers are asked to shut up with threats of legal action and police investigations then they are no more open about freedom of speech as say Myanmar then. Lock us all up for having ideas will you?

This is not about BN vs Pakatan anymore. This is about the betterment of society. Improving race-relations. I personally hate the word "tolerant". Why do we say racial "tolerance"? To tolerate something is to put up with it even though we hate it. That's tolerance. We should instead be promoting better "understanding". Through better "understanding" comes respect and knowing one's boundaries and that's what the One School for All aims to achieve, among other National agendas, a better "understanding".

As an example, I have a neighbour who has an irritating dog whom my neighbour let's loose out of his compund every now and then. The dog ocassionally comes near me and I avoid it, in the process I get annoyed. Simply because the animal is Najis Mughallazah. The owner then comes to me and tries to tell me that his dog does not bite. Who the hell cares if it bites or not? I don't want it near because to me my religion has guidelines regarding contact with such animals. Had my neighbour had a better "understanding" of Malays' do's and don'ts (and vice-versa), that stupid, repeatative situation would not have occured. But because of the lack of "understanding", we instead have "tolerance". I "tolarate" his ignorance and my neighbour "tolarates" my annoyance. Is this how we want our society to evolve?

For the betterment of multi-racial race-relations look at the bigger picture please. Unifying us together as Malaysians does not make me less Malay or less Muslim and certainly does not make my neighbour any less Chinese. Instead it promotes a better understanding of our different-raced Malaysian brothers and sisters. When they are schooled together, they'll study together, play together, eat together and more importantly "understand" each other, respect and be aware of the do's and don'ts of their colleagues' race and/or religion. It will work both ways, trust me. Is creating that awarenes through better undertsanding too much to ask?

This is bigger than politics so stop being manipulated by wanna-be populist politicians like Wee Ka Siong and look at the bigger picture please....

Cheers!

Of Legacy and Continuity....

2009-05-17T20:58:00.000-07:00

Having attended Bloggers Universe Malaysia (BUM) 2009 recently, although only for an hour, I had the pleasure to listen to blogging supremo and former PM Dr.M give his speech on blogging as well as other issues pertaining to Malaysian politics. For that I must thank Saudara Rocky of Rocky's Bru and 84, Jalan Tangsi for extending the invitation.

Dr.M touched on many issues, which were preceded by some 'adult' jokes to loosen up the crowd. Among the issues raised were the crooked bridge, Malaysia-Singapore relations, the Bakun hydroelectric dam project as well as the electrified double-tracked rail project from JB to Padang Besar. There was no continuity when the immediate past administration took over from Dr.M. Anyway, you may read up on that at Another Brick in the Wall by Saudara A Voice.

What caught my attention the most was Dr.M's explanation to one of the bloggers who posed a question to our great statesman. The answer ended with Dr.M asking the blogger (sorry, can't remember his name) a question in return. Dr.M asked: "what legacy has Pak Lah left behind?".

A good question indeed! What has he left behind? Someone in the crowd mentioned Hadhari. Well, I tend to disagree. A legacy is something that is left behind and but continues. Pak Lah's Hadhari is slowly but surely fading away. What he did leave behind was a plague. A plague called KJ or son-in-law that is still infecting Umno. That is Pak Lah's true legacy if you can call it that.

This legacy is not a legacy in the landmark sense. It is a living breathing organism that has the ability to destroy it's host in due time.

My guess is as good as any other bloke out there. How long does this 'legacy' of Pak Lah's have until it is wiped out? It looks like it's taking too long.

While efforts, on the part of the new leadership, are on the way to supposedly clean up the party, it's image and it's acceptance by the general public. The new leadership must bear in mind that the only way they can win again is by winning over the fence-sitters. The one's that voted Pakatan out of frustration or the one's (like me) who decided not to cast a vote at all in the last General Elections. And believe me there are plenty of us fence-sitters out there.

Win us over but first remove Pak Lah's legacy. For with the remnants of the previous administration so alive and kicking in the new party leadership, I fear the fence-sitters will never be won over.

Ponder on it....

Cheers!

Dr.M speaks at BUM 2009

2009-05-16T10:13:00.001-07:00

Having returned, ahead of scheduled, from my trip. I managed to squeeze in an hour to hear Dr.M speak at the Bloggers Universe Malaysia 2009 (did I get that right?).

Will elaborate more on the Dr.M speech when time and circumstances permits.

Anyway, due to a Family emergency involving my In-Laws, I had to rush out of the BUM 2009 event and head North. My Wife's Grandfather is not well. He's 85, has breathing difficulties and is currently warded at a Medical Centre in Kedah.

Coincidentally, he and my very own late Grandfather go waaaay back. They were close friends, schoolmates in fact. For me, it's not just my Grandfather-in-Law in hospital, it's also my Grandpa's good friend in there as well. Hence, the attachment.

Hoping for the best....

Cheers!

Personal Rantings: Tuning Out....

2009-05-13T03:13:00.001-07:00

I've just successfully planned my next holiday. Bought the plane tickets, booked the hotels and cars to rent as well.

It'll be a break loooong overdue. While I do take the ocassional weekends off, I am seriously sick of the on-goings in the country. Particularly when it involves politicians. Doesn't matter which side they're on, they're still politicians. They have successfully turned everything into being about THEM!

What are we? Mere spectators? They work for us. They should respect us. Be affraid of us. But noooo.... they have to make it a circus that is all about them. A drama written, produced, directed and starring them. The script is all about them. Sickening!

Stress levels are high. High because as citizens and taxpayers we expect something of value from them in terms of service. Till today none of them have shown their worth.

So, with that in mind, I'm going away. This time for a lot longer than the ocassional weekend escapade. Going to tune out and enjoy what scenery and tranquility the world has left to offer.

Most of my work's done but things being as they are, schedules moved up and deadlines changed but no matter. I'm so sick of the political happenings that I've decided to take my work with me, and more importantly my Family, with me.

It's all good. With a Netbook PC, BlackBerry (for emails and modem connection) and the Nokia Communicator (for faxes), I'm good to go. Technology has it's benefits.

Me being me, I will ocassionally, out of curiosity, check out the news knowing full well that it'll ruin my trip. What to do?

Auf wiedersehen for now and see you when I see you....

Salam.

ALTE MALAIISCH

One School for All....

2009-05-12T20:19:00.000-07:00

Following the cue of esteemed bloggers SatD (of Pure Shiite), Piggy Singh (of The Darker Side), Mantra (of In Deep Tots), Jebat Must Die, Tam Dalyell, On Da Street and of course KijangMas (of Demi Negara), I too am giving my two thumbs up for the setting up of a single school system.

For decades and perhaps generations our schooling system has been one of segregation. While it cannot be denied that Sekolah Kebangsaan's (SK) are the main stream of schools, the question remains why it is the main stream and not the only stream?

Politicians use these schools as their divide and conquer tool. Keeping the Malays in one corner, the Chinese in another with the Indians in yet another corner. To add to SK's we have SJKC's (Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina), SJKT's (Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Tamil) and the quickly overlooked, by Malays, SBP's (Sekolah Berasrama Penuh). These sub-branches in the education system have been called by many as the cause of racial polarization among the young.

Why focus on the young? Because it is during these impressionable years that certain characteristics can be inculcated in them. Being racist, prejudicial and other negative qualities can be implanted into their young and unblemished minds.

To be honest, my personal experience in SK's was for only 3 and 1/2 years. Even that was at only the secondary level. My Father's attachment to an Anglo-Dutch Fortune 500 ranked Multinational placed my Family in various countries. We lived in all 5 continents. I had the experience of attending British curriculum-based International Schools, with the exception of Canada and New Zealand where I attended the local schools, throughout my stay in over 10 countries. All I can say is that even though the location changed, the syllabus didn't. There was continuity.

Sadly, even in the SK's, the continuity cannot be maintained in even one of the many schooling systems we have here. As examples, take Bahasa Baku and PPSMI. With each new Minister or leadership there seems to be an agenda for the politicians. Enough of that please! Are our children so worthless that they may be used to serve the purpose of some politicians?

The Chinese so-called educationists like the Dong Jiao Zhong are also equally at fault, as are the politicians. Their insistance on defending one of the greatest contributors to racial polarization is indeed baffling.

It is time the talk-only so-called 'Saya Anak Bangsa Malaysia' types (read the racially chauvinist but pretending to be 'open' and 'fair' who are in reality championing Chinese supremacy through Malaysian Malaysia bertopengkan Ketuanan Rakyat) talked some sense into these Dong Jiao Zhong types if they are indeed sincere about achieving a Bangsa Malaysia, a real Bangsa Malaysia and not the Malaysian Malaysia Chinaman-supremacy nonsense. After all, they do speak the same lingo don't they?

Whatever it is, the single school structure is a must if we are to soldier on as a nation. A united one at that. The lacking qualities in the SK's can be improved but only if we put our heads together. The good qualities in SK's should be maintained and the good qualities of SJK's should be absorbed into the new unifed SK's.

Personally, I feel that Malay-only SBP's must go too. While it was a noble idea, originally, to assist the not-so-able but potential Malays, the system has been abused. Furthermore, it also plays a huge role in the polarization of our young. Segregating them into a Malay-only community for 5 years, during the impressionable years, is no way to create upcoming Malay leaders. Malays, especialy the rural ones, still need assistance to play catch up but the formula should be revised.

I remember attending my Father's Centennial School dinner last year. We met up with his school, class and hostel mates. They were not all Malays. There were Malays, Chinese, Indians, Sikhs and any other you can think of. They have been friends for over 40 years. No sense of suspicion among them and no sense of distrust. In a nutshell thay are true Malaysians!

Hopefully, we can be that again. But we must take the first steps. As always, sacrifice is needed. Look at the bigger picture before being prejudicial and perhaps we can tell the bloody politicians to put a sock in it. Like Britain, for example, the PM's can come and go, so too their opposition, but GCSE's and 'A' Levels still maintain a standard that is globally accepted. They have continuity because political interference in the schooling system in minimal.

Time has come for our politicians to stay out of our education system for political gains.

Ponder on it....

Cheers!

To abide or not? (Updated)

2009-05-11T08:31:00.000-07:00

[UPDATE MAY 12 2:45 PM]

BN GETS A STAY OF EXECUTION

According to the Star online Dr. Zambry has gotten a stay of execution against yesterday's High Court judgement. He will resume duties as Perak MB.

As his first order of business, he has lifted the suspension imposed upon the State Secretary and State Legal Advisor made by grudge-bearing Nizar.

Nizar, who showed no mercy, singled out the State Secretary and State Legal Advisor and suspended them both almost immediately upon winning his court case yesterday.

Politics aside, can MB Zambry please get down to work? The court battles can go on but it should never be at the expense of administering and managing the state.

Cheers!

[ORIGINAL POST]

The verdict's in and Dr. Zambry's out, for now. While the High Court has given Pakatan their victory in legitimizing their man's position as the head of government for Perak, it must not be forgotten that not too long ago the courts ruled against Pakatan concerning the supposed resignation of the 3 ex-Pakatan State Assemblymen.

Things being as they are. The alternative that lies ahead for Pakatan is to chicken out of a floor test and request for a dissolution of the State Assembly to pave the way for fresh elections thus returning the mandate back to the rakyat to choose whom they want to lead them.

Among the rumored reasons for the refusal to grant permission to dissolve the assembly were the numbers in question. As it were, after last year's General Elections, the majority of seats was nothing to shout about. 31:28 is hardly a 'solid' margin. Similarly, when the 3 ex-Pakatan's jumped ship, it became 28+3:28 favouring the other way around. Still being nothing to shout about. But at least it was not a situation of complete impasse.

Even if elections are held, what guarantees are there that BN or Pakatan will win with a comfortable margin? What if 28+3:28 becomes 30:29? Will that solve the problem? While millions will definitely be spent either above board or not, the outcome is highly unpredictable. Given the rotten streak this country's been having with regards to politics, a situation of impasse is highly likely.

So what next? Well, just do a floor test. Determine who has the confidence of the majority of the house. And if Nizar fails to command the confidence of the majority of the members of the house, through the proper procedures of tabling the motion to do so, then BN will have satisfied the court's requirement for removing Nizar from the office of the MB.

While Nizar, Ngeh, Nga, Siva and the Pakatan bunch feel that justice was served with today's judgement, they must also be mature enough to accept the earlier ruling on the legitimacy of the 3 ex-Pakatan's turned Independants as State Assemblymen. Equal in standing to the other members with a right to be present in Assembly sittings and be counted when a motion is being voted.

Will Pakatan be mature enough? or will they be predictable and only abide by court rulings that are Pakatan-friendly? Thus living up to their reputation of being sore losers who are good at blaming, name calling, making baseless accusations, being biased and selective in adherence and so on when things don't go their way.

I believe their natural characteristics will prevail. Immature characters don't grow up overnight. Some never grow up at all.

Anyway, let's wait and see shall we....

Cheers!

Reaching out to both sides....

2009-05-10T21:06:00.000-07:00

I have noticed, through Facebook, the extensive dialogue efforts of current Deputy Higher Education Minister Saifuddin Abdullah. I must admit that I have been following his progress rather regularly.

According to his Facebook Status Messages, he has been rigorously interacting with students attending local institutions of higher learning. A good effort indeed. However, I tend to feel that it can and should be improved further.

Among Saifuddin's activities, according to his Facebook status message, are as follows:

"Pagi tadi, saya berdialog dengan lebih 100 orang mahasiswa UTM, Jalan Semarak. I had a good time with them.
10 May at 14:01 "

"Hari ini saya bertemu dan berdialog dengan mahasiswa Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM) di kampus utama mereka di Nilai.
07 May at 18:18"

"terima kasih join FB Hr malam ni. Pagi esok i jawab beberapa komen yang tak sempat jawab malam ni. salam politik baru.
07 May at 00:30"

"Saya mengelak isu politik kepartian apabila bincang tentang kemahasiswaan. Tetapi, politik juga melibatkan gerakan mahasiswa... Saya juga setuju dgn pandangan bahawa pembangunan mahasiswa perlu holistik dan tdak hanya terhad pada akademik.
06 May at 23:51"

"Salam. Saya sedang sembang dgn 3 pelajar Pengajian Media dari M'sia Inst of Intercreative Media (dulu: Akademi TV3). Mereka nak organise Perkampungan Pesta Warisan KL 2009 (PESAN KL).Main highlight ialah Pesta Pantu Paling Ramai & Paling Lama. Kalau nak join, pls contact Helmy Zulfadli 013-2664223... Malam ni FB Hr 4, lambat sikit, 11-12 pm, and i akan di Pelita Restaurant Jln Ampang, dekat Bngn MCA.
06 May at 16:37"

"Semalam, saya bertemu dgn pelajar Politeknik Kota Melaka. Rata-rata kerisauan mereka adlh ttg peluang pekerjaan yg ada slps tamat belajar.
05 May at 10:33"

"Thank you for the overwhelming responses to the topic concerning our higher education system. Saya hargai pandangan dan idea saudara-saudari dan akan menelitinya untuk di bawa ke peringkat kementerian. Btw, My FB hour will be held this Wednesday at 10-11pm.Nanti i umum di mana.
04 May at 13:50"

It seems that the bulk of his initiatives are with the students. While that is all good. I personally feel that an equal amount of time, or perhaps more, be allocated to meeting up with potential employers.

A common assumption prevails that most local graduates are not being hired by multinationals. This issue must be addressed pronto. With a dwindling economy, the graduates, particularly the Malay ones who are being churned out by the thousands each year, should look at multinationals as a viable workplace, not just local owned companies.

English proficiency is another major setback for these local Malay graduates.

The Ministry of Higher Education should, or rather must, look into this problem of multinationals not hiring enough Malay local graduates. I'm not saying that multinationals are better, although in reality most of them are compared to our local breed of business concerns, but the fact remains that multinationals have so much more to offer. With a focused global operation (for most), they have at their disposal the opportunity of placing our local Malays abroad for purposes of training, technology transfer and many more. All at their expense and not our government's (read Malaysian tax payers') expense.

Hope the Ministry can look into it.

Cheers!

Perak, die saga weiter....

2009-05-07T03:38:00.001-07:00

Was wir gehört haben, so weit ist, dass:

1. Der Staat hatte es Legislative Sitzung heute.
2. 'Alten' Speaker V. Sivakumar verloren das vertrauen des hauses.
3. Die 'alten' Lautsprecher wurde dann aus seiner Position.
4. In zwischen Sivakumar die streichung von mehreren Mitgliedern des Hauses, aber nicht erfolgreich war.
5. Inzwischen, so genannte demokratische aktivisten von der opposition politcians, bloggern und pak sibuks verhaftet wurden entweder als vorbeugende bewegen, um die situation oder verhaftet, da sie über oder hatte probleme.

Während die opposition may cry foul und werfen der BN von 'missbräuchlich' der maschine zur verfügung, die opposition muss bedenken, dass die landesregierung von Perak nicht in der lage, die funktion der Exekutive und Legislative sind in konstanten kriegsfuß.

Was gibt's gemacht wird. Um BN, sich Perakians, dass das, was man tat, war für sie. Um Pakatan, wenn BN nicht zu liefern, haben Sie dieses drama hinzugefügt, um auf Ihre ursache in der nächsten Parlamentswahlen.

Aber für jetzt, können wir auf die unterhaltung der Staat und Nation wenden sie sich bitte....

Syiok sendiri....

2009-05-06T00:37:00.000-07:00

This is funny maaaan!

I just received this notification on my Facebook Mobile:

"Azalina became a fan of Azalina Othman on Facebook and suggested you become a fan too.

To see more details and confirm this invitation, follow the link below:
http://www.facebook.com/n/?pages/Azalina-Othman/36136457050&mid=6b3a1eG3c9ca9faG736850G4c

Thanks,
The Facebook Team"

Let's see, she became a fan of herself and then asked her Facebook friends to be her fans.

Aiyo! at least get someone else to promote you lah. Not you promote yourself. Looks so syiok sendiri....

Cheers!

What about GLC's?

2009-05-05T10:37:00.001-07:00

It's been almost a month since the new Cabinet took office, yet we do not see anything of significance changing for the better.

While the heated topic was the dismantling of the 'Bumiputra' centric Ministry of Entrepreneur & Cooperative Development, we have yet to see or even hear of anything positive in terms of GLC management.

I for one have been very sceptical of the way GLC's have been run. Most are not focused and seem to have their feet deep into everything under the sun. When delving further, we will be told that their non-core-business activities are part of some nation building process. Really?

For example, why on earth is the national petroleum giant involved in the development of the new Federal Administrative Capital, through their ownership of a property holding company? Should they not be focused on their area of expertise? Why build cities? Is it because the government needs their profits to do so?

Can't these GLC's stick to what they're supposed to do best? If oil & gas is their expertise then by all means focus on that. Maximize whatever revenue and profits they can make from their core business. The work of nation building is the government's job, not the GLC's. GLC's are supposed to make money and pay taxes. From the taxation income will the government be able to fund whatever plans and programs they have.

If the government needs more than what has been paid for in taxes, then shouldn't the government, as the major shareholder of these GLC's, request for special/additional dividend payouts to shareholders? Why, instead, get the GLC's to spend their money and go into areas of business which are not in their scope of expertise?

If the government segregates the nation building part out of GLC's then they may even perform better. Who knows? And by requesting for additional/special dividend payouts, then won't the minority shareholders of listed GLC's like you and me enjoy some extra incentive as shareholders apart from the measley 5 sen per share dividend of the annual dividend payout?

The way things are run is much like a local dish called rojak. No focus at all. We have oil companies going into property development, private universities, general trading etc. We have a plantation company which owns a bank as well as fuel station retail outlets. We have another plantation company holding automotive dealership franchises and operating power plants. Maaaan where's the focus?

It's time the new PM cum Finance Minister retionalize the GLC's to operate in a more focused way. Reorganize where necessary. Perhaps the plantation company with retail fuel stations relinquish that portion of their business to the oil company that also has the same fuel station retail business. Why should they compete amongst themselves? They should consolidate their business to overcome increased competition from more efficient foreign giants. As it is, our own oil so-called 'giant' loses out in terms of number of fuel retail outlets to a foreign oil company. Why? We're number two in our own country, what nonsense is that?

The other initiative, apart from rationalizing and adding more focus, is for the government to leave these key companies alone! Let them work and churn out the best possible profits and pay the highest possible taxes, all while not squeezing and burdening the population. Profit yes, but with a conscience please.

Government should do what they're supposed to and not just tell GLC's to do their work for them.

Just something to consider....

Cheers!

Will NSTP be in good hands?

2009-05-02T23:58:00.000-07:00

I read with much amusement about the rumored appointment of former NST Group Editor Ahmad A. Talib (also of Pahit Manis blog) as NSTP's new head honcho. Read about it at Rocky's new blog here.

Since the entry of Kali into NSTP, Mat Talib was pretty much cold storaged and given downgraded jobs like being GM of Communications or something to that effect. After leaving NSTP, he joined Maxis as Advisor to the (then) CEO Jamaluddin Ibrahim and then later as Executive Director at a private hospital near Subang Airport.

Having known him, I feel rather sceptical of the optimism and expectations given to him. Rejuvenating the NSTP is a task for no mere mortal journalist, given how dismally Kali and gang have performed, virtually running NSTP into the ground.

Mat Talib, for a former senior journo, does not exude the persona of one who can bring about such change in NSTP. For one, he has a thing for turning up late, unfitting for a member of the press. He also seems to lack focus and direction as well. He spreads himself thin with other responsibilities like Yayasan Salam and Red Crescent, which is all good by the way, but only if one manages one's time well. Sadly, I do not see that leadership quality in him.

While hopes are high and so the level of scepticism, I would like to recommend Mat Talib (should he be brave enough to take on the job) initiate the following as a true gesture of reforming, rebranding and rejuvenating the NSTP.

If he is to take his new role seriously, he must focus on it and charge full steam ahead. To do that he must make some changes, although I doubt at his age people change.

My recommendations are as follows:

1. Relinquish (if not already done so) all positions in ANCC and whatever other companies. We do not need another GEiC/Editorial Advisor who doubles as a corporate figure / businessman, enough of that.

2. He should consider letting go of 'distractions' like Yayasan Salam and Red Crescent as he does not seem to appear to be one who is able to multitask.

3. Please drop the ongoing law suits against bloggers Rocky and Jeff Ooi. This gesture would be a real clincher as it acknowledges NSTP's acceptance of the new media as well as undoing the wrongs of the previous administration of NSTP.

4. Right the wrongs of the NSTP against former journos and editors such as the refusal to allow a former Group Editor-in-Chief's publishing house to advertise in the NSTP papers, that sort of thing. The enforced exclusion of a former Editor from being close to anything that resembles the Malay Mail is childish and should be lifted.

5. CONDEMN plagiarism! Journos must maintain a high level of integrity and credibility.

6. Give himself a 6 month deadline. If he fails to initiate any reforms in NSTP, he should be man enough to type out his resignation letter and hand it in personally to Johan Jaaffar.

The last thing the NSTP needs at such dire times is a head that does not act as one. Enough of being doorman to ex-PM's in hospital and playing party planner and organizer for ex-PM's birthday parties. If he intends to occupy the head honcho's office then he should be prepared to behave like a head honcho and not like some politician's runner.

Cheers!

Muhyiddin was the real casualty....

2009-04-30T09:42:00.001-07:00

Yet another turbulent week. This time involving yet more in-fighting among Umno supporters.

The latest spat revolved around the appointment of someone assumed to be a KJ operative as Press Secretary to the new DPM Muhyiddin Yassin.

While the pro-KJ groups lauded the appointment, the anti-KJ groups dismissed the appointee for being once aligned to KJ. The casualty was, as always, Umno, the leadership and the party image.

This time Pakatan probably just took a back seat and enjoyed the show. Laughing at the stupidity of Umno supporters making yet another public spectacle of themselves, to the detriment of their own party.

Thing is, Muhyiddin had already appointed Rashid as his Press Secretary. Then came the anti-KJ bloggers belittling Muhyiddin's choice. Then came the pro-KJ bloggers defending Muhyiddin's choice. In the end, it was an embarassing incident which involved the stupidity of a pro-KJ blogger exposing the identity of an anti-KJ blogger in the blogsphere.

The victim: Muhyiddin Yassin!

While these two stupid groups fought amongst themselves in public, Muhyiddin reacted by not going through with the appointment of Rashid as his Press Secretary. The anti-KJ and pro-KJ bloggers have probably failed to realize that their internal spat has resulted in making Muhyiddin look like a flip-flop in only his first month in office as DPM.

It is ok to have differing views and discuss them. But to turn it into a public spectacle is outright dumb! And the act of the pro-KJ blogger in exposing the identity of the anti-KJ blogger was purely unsportsman like and was an obvious below-the-belt hit at a camp with an opposing view.

Differences should be debated intelligently and not fought in the manner displayed by these bloggers. Don't talk about 1Malaysia if there isn't even a 1Umno.

I guess for the pro-KJ blogger, when all else had failed then the politician in him took over from his blogger self and went on with the personal attack against the anti-KJ blogger by ridiculing the latter's size and weight. Clearly an argument that lacked substance and was waaaay off point.

Anyway, what's done is done and the casualty is Muhyiddin and Umno. Do they even realize it?

Reaching the layman....

2009-04-26T09:56:00.001-07:00

These last few weeks have been rocky for new PM Najib. While the prospect of a change of leadership from Pak Lah to Najib was welcomed by many in the BN front, that prospect had, attached to it, a fair degree of expectations.

His initial spot-check visits to the Kerinchi, Brickfields and Petaling Street areas was a welcomed act, however, the act itself was viewed with some scepticism.

Who could forget Pak Lah's 'show' spot-check at the Immigration department, the first and probably the last by Pak Lah, when he first took over in 2003. Umno being Umno, the regular wannabe's would then emulate in a much obvious copy-cat fashion in praise of the new (then) PM. Malacca CM, Ali Rustam, was the first to follow suit then in staging spot-checks right after Pak Lah did his. In the end, once that trend died down, the whole spot-checking practice turned into a ball of hot air and nothing more. Much pom-pom with zero effect in improving efficiency.

Back to Najib. While Najib has gone further than his predecessor by making yet another spot-check a mere few days ago, this time to more problematic areas like the always-congested Masjid India and Pudu areas, I find that he may get an actual layman's view if he made it a REAL surprise.

I am going to give him the benefit of assuming that it was a real surprise spot-check visit on all occassions, at least to him. While we will criticize the bad, we will and should acknowledge the good. However, I think suggestions to improve should also be made.

Regarding the recent spot-check visits, I find that turning up with a whole load of people (entourage) won't help in his cause. While the presence of the Minister of Federal Territories, Raja Nong Chik, does help in the Minister's understanding of the problems faced by the affected areas within his own jurisdiction of authority, the rest of the 'crew' should just take a hike. Please visit but reduce the fanfare and pom-pom.

I recall an incident sometime in the 1980's where a group of convicts led by a convicted Singapore policemen named Chua Chak Ling @ Jimmy took a magistrate and the prison doctor hostage for days. Media coverage of the incident was intense. The then Director-General of Prisons, Ibrahim Mohamed, lead in the negotiations to free the hostages.

It was during that incident that Dr.M, then PM, turned up in front of Pudu Jail (as I remember) in an old yellow Toyota Corona with only his driver and personal security officer, Mohamad Ali, to see for himself how bad the hostage situation was. No frills, no fanfare, no pom-pom and no entourage. Not even a single police outrider. That's a spot-check! It gave Dr.M a real 'ground' view of the situation, as it happened. From there he saw the efficiency (or the lack of it) of his government's machinery.

I find it rather odd that the hostage situation was not archived in any online archive of the NST or the Star. I would have a better chance of describing the situation then if they had. I'm sure those who recall the hostage incident in Pudu would remember.

Anyway, Najib must learn to ditch the accessive security and pom-pom to get a better view of things. With the pom-pom and fanfare, knowledge of such visits could be 'leaked' and authorities might prepare for his arrival to cover-up their own inefficiencies. Try not to turn up in a streached limo for a change? It's a sure sign of someone important coming to visit. Najib should keep his arrival at targeted areas as low-key as possible to add to the reality of his findings and to be a real surprise to the authorities concerned. Only then will he see a true picture of what happens on the ground. Only then will he reach, and possibly understand, the grouses of the average layman.

Do that a few times and most government departments will be on their toes all the time, as they should be.

Possible?

Just some suggestions....

Cheers!

Intermission: Mindraf

2009-04-24T11:25:00.000-07:00

I caught a story on the 8pm news tonight and couldn't believe what I saw and heard....

The planned formation of another Indian party to be called Mindraf (short for Malaysian Indian Democratic Action Front). Read about it here.

Funny thing is.... I actually suggested, in a loyar-buruk and sarcastic way, for the formation of a party with that very acronym, Mindraf, when I started blogging as a guest blogger at KL Confidential last year. Read here.

Although my suggested Mindraf had a different name to it.

Soon to be registered Mindraf's founder, former journo, Manuel Lopez.

Anyway, like Hindraf, I don't think Mindraf should be taken seriously. It is but another joke in our political landscape otherwise politics will be bland.

What they should really be doing is to find some courage and kick Samy Vellu out!

Ah well, cheers!

Enough of 'Kaki Bodeks'....

2009-04-23T21:47:00.000-07:00

I had dinner at my Golf Club in PJ last night. To cut a long story short, on the way out to the car park I saw these pictures prominently hung on the wall of the Club foyer:

While I have no problems with the prominent display of the three pictures on the right, it is the left most picture I find most disturbing.

The King and Queen should be rightfully respected as the King is the Constitutional Monarch of this land whilst the Queen is our First Lady. Yes, the Queen is the First Lady. Contrary to popular belief, it is the Queen not the PM's wife that is our First Lady.

First Lady's are defined as being the wife of the head of state. In countries where the President is both head of government and head of state then his wife would be termed as the 'First Lady'. In the case of Malaysia, the powers and roles of the head of government and head of state are distinct and separated.

While the King and Queen assume their positions by coronation, the PM takes an Oath of Office. However, the PM's wife is not involved in the oath taking process except perhaps to attend as a spectator to the oath taking event.

Anyway, I must question the need to display Rosmah's picture on the walls of premises. If anything, it should be DPM Muhyiddin's picture there not Rosmah's.

Enough of this anak-bini come first nonsense from the previous administration. That attitude during the Pak Lah administration played a role in conjuring up the hatred many felt for the BN leaders. Najib must be firm enough to exclude his wife and kids from anything resembling an official display. Like it or not, hanging up his wife's picture on premises' walls is a show of his wife's prominence.

While I doubt Najib or Rosmah asked for it, they should be firm with the kaki bodeks and be very adamant about not having Rosmah's picture displayed so prominently. I, for the life of me, do not recall the late Tunku, the late Abdul Razak Hussin, the late Hussein Onn or even Dr.M ever having their wives' pictures displayed in such a manner. It was only during the lame, lembik, lackluster, family-first and family oriented Pak Lah administration did the wives suddenly turn up so prominently.

Public perception of BN leaders is BAD. It is unlikely to change anytime soon. BN leaders must work hard to restore public confidence in them. Displays of one's spouse's 'greatness' like the photo above just calls for criticism.

Najib must be firm in telling his wife where her place is and also telling the ass-kissers what not to do.

Cheers!

Equality beyond race, really?

2009-04-20T19:13:00.000-07:00

Much of Pakatan's so-called struggle lies in the common misconception that they are a cooperation that operates beyond racial boundaries, particularly so for Pkr. At least that's what they claim.

The recent by-elections and the filling up of state exco positions in Pakatan controlled states seem to suggest otherwise. And again it is evident more than ever in Pkr.

In Bukit Selambau, the independent turned Pkr state assemblyman V. Arumugam was conveniently replaced by Pkr's own S. Manikumar. It was even more evident when Manikumar was recently appointed Kedah State Executive Councilor filling in the vacancy left by Arumugam. Read here.

Now, we have Penanti with a vacancy and word has it that if Pkr wins in Penanti then the new State Assemblyman will fill in the vacancy left by Mohd. Fairuz Khairuddin as Deputy Chief Minister of Penang.

My query is: if Pkr claims to look beyond racial boundaries and blah, blah, blah, blah.... then why was Arumugam replaced by another Indian? and why was the State Exco post left vacant by Arumugam was also filled up by an Indian as well?

Similarly, Penanti will most likely than not be contested by a Malay Pkr candidate and that candidate will fill up the supposed Malay quota in the Penang State Executive Council.

So where is the so-called meritocracy crap Pakatan and Pkr preach about? Isn't what they are practicing also considered race-based politics? Where a specific race gets allocated a seat to contest and a specific race gets to fill up the quota in the State Executive Council.

Pakatan is revealing more and more of it's true colours by the day. Unfortunately, their racist Dap supporters and the taksub holier-than-thou Pas supporters plus the ever-so-thick-headed Anwaristas will never acknowledge it as being racial politics.

The hard core Pakatan followers are a lost cause. Truly. But the consolation is that their ideologies, in principal, remain the same without official change. However, the ideologies, goals, so-called struggle are now taking secondary priority.

The clear winner in the pact is Dap and the Pakatan Chinese who seem to get the good exco portfolios leaving the leftovers to everyone else. Go and look at the portfolios in Selangor, Penang and what was once their Perak government and see for yourselves.

When will the Malays of Pakatan wake up? They are practicing race-based politics too but with the Dap Chinese hogging the lot.

What can I say? That is Malaysian Malaysia bertopengkan ketuanan rakyat!

Where's the moral high ground now?

2009-04-15T05:18:00.000-07:00

Selangor Menteri Besar (MB) Abdul Khalid Ibrahim announced the offer to reinstate Exco-on-Leave and Bukit Lanjan Assemblyperson Elizabeth Wong.

According the news report on the Star Online, here, Wong has agreed to stay on as both State Executive Councilor and State Assemblyperson.

On another note, Pkr MP for Kulim, Zulkifli Noordin, issued a media statement in his blog which described him as taking a stand to distance himself from the decision to reinstate Wong. Zulkifli went on to say:

"Saya mengambil pendirian tidak bersetuju dengan keputusan YAB & Kerajaan Negeri Selangor dan mengambil keputusan memufaraqah dan memisahkan diri saya daripada keputusan tersebut."

He also highlighted the Selangor MB's excuse for the slow police investigations, which was one of the major contributing factors to Wong's reinstatement, as inaccurate. Zulkifli added to that effect by saying:

"Apatah lagi untuk YAB MB & Kerajaan Negeri memutuskan isu ini dengan menyalahkan pasukan polis. Kita semua tahu dan sedar bahawa siasatan polis dilengahkan kerana tiada kerjasama orang yang disyaki yang memilih untuk tidak bekerjasama sehingga ke hari ini."

Read Zulkifli's media statement at his blog here. Also included in Zulkifli's write-up is the press statement by the Selangor MB. Read the whole thing for yourselves to get a better picture, don't just take my word for it, then judge for yourselves.

I'm wondering.... where is the holier-than-thou party Pas? Where do they stand on this matter? Pkr too is looking pretty hypocritical at this point. Weren't they the one's always claiming the moral high ground?

While I don't condone invasion of privacy of any sort, the invasion of privacy bit of this incident has sailed ages ago. Being a public servant, Wong is answerable for her actions, regardless of whether it was performed in private or otherwise. A public figure has no private life. That's the reality of public service, everything's under scrutiny and I think I'm being fair here to both sides of the political divide. If not, then I wouldn't have written this other article here. If Wong can't stand the heat then she should get out of the kitchen, as the old saying goes.

While the worse-than-childish Pakatan supporters will cry and try to debunk this whole moral issue by accusing this politician and that politician from BN of doing this and that, it does not help their cause. It was Pakatan that chose the moral high ground and with Wong's reinstatement they have failed to deliver!

I have seen the responses of the pro-Pakatan types in other blogs. They have even accused the PM of having connections to a certain Mongolian. Until today, I have not seen any concrete evidence proving the PM to having links of any kind to any Mongolian. Even the courts have found the two accused former policemen guity and sentenced them to hang. Where is Anwar and RPK? Where are their bags full of evidence?

Wong has been proven to be in a compromising position. The photographic evidence speaks for itself. To me, it is not a question of whether she was a willing participant or not. it is more an issue of her being soooo damn stupid to allow herself to be caught in a very compromising position. Imagine if the photos did not hit the blogsphere but instead fell into the hands of blackmailers? They could squeeze Wong and Selangor, the richest state in Malaysia, for as much as they can, hypothetically speaking of course.

So, please look at the bigger picture. Wong has to go! No buts, if or maybe's about it.

BN should now take the higher moral ground. Suspend all those found guilty of money politics at the recent Umno General Assembly. Strip all those guilty of their government positions. And for those found guilty by the courts, revoke their party membership.

Step one has been completed: the exclusion of KJ and Dr. Chua Soi Lek from the Cabinet. The next steps should be executed without hesitation pronto.

BN should make their stand on wrong-doings now. Make it clear and move on with a clearer conscience. The time has come to walk the talk! Do it and regain public confidence.

PS: Where is Pas? and what have they got to say? Really eager to hear their 'Fatwa' on this one....

Cheers!

Terengganu doing a Perlis?

2009-04-14T03:59:00.000-07:00

I must admit that I've been staying away from the newspapers since yesterday. Something at the back of my mind told me to sit back and enjoy my vacation. But me being me, I couldn't help but take a peek at the news and saw the dreadful story of the Terengganu Assemblymen and their public display of disunity amongst themselves. Quite the fiasco, but it is something easily contained. Read about it in today's Star here.

This public show of disagreement is, for the lack of a better word, stupid! The opposition trio must be laughing their heads off at this supposed in-fighting. Some of the opposition bloggers are already calling this another state crisis.

From where I stand, it seems that the situation in Terengganu is similar to that of Perlis right after last year's General Elections. Many, particularly from the Pakatan side, are not aware of the differences between the two scenarios last year.

Early last month, I was fortunate enough to be invited to a talk at the National Press Club regarding the ongoing Perak crisis. For that I have to thank esteemed blogger and friend Saudara Syed Akbar Ali of OutSyed the Box fame and journalist turned so-po blogger, whom I have always considered a friend, Saudara Rocky of Rocky's Bru for extending the invitation. The talk was the initiative of Syed Akbar and present to explain matters in detail was lawyer Mohd. Shafee Abdullah.

As the discussion took place I was made aware of a matter I previously was not aware of. The issue of the Menteri's Besar of Perlis and Terengganu were different in nature. While most of us are aware that the MB of Terengganu, Ahmad Said, was the MB of choice of HRH the Sultan of Terengganu, while the immediate past MB, Idris Jusoh, was the choice of former Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (Pak Lah). To cut a long story short, given HRH Sultan's prerogative to appoint an MB, HRH the Sultan chose Ahmad Said over Idris Jusoh.

In Perlis, a situation also occurred where the current (then) MB was not reappointed by HRH the Raja. While many thought it to be the same circumstances as that of Terengganu, it was a totally different matter all together.

As Shafee went on with the discussion, he further elaborated that the situation with the Perlis MB was such that it was the State Assemblymen that approached HRH the Raja requesting that the then MB, Shahidan Kassim, not be reappointed. The BN Assemblymen then concluded that their confidence was with Dr. Mat Isa Sabu. The Raja, upon listening to the issues brought up by the Assemblymen, then used the authority vested in him to appoint Dr. Mat Isa as the new MB of Perlis. No fuss, no foul. Not many knew of this since they kept it literally behind closed doors.

The thing now is that if the Assemblymen of Terengganu have 'lost confidence' in Ahmad Said as their MB, it would have been better for them to discuss it with HRH the Sultan instead of making a public spectacle about it. Although, in my own speculation, if they had done so it would have still brought about heresay and negative speculation against the BN in Terengganu anyways since Pakatan is dying for scandals.

At a time when party rebuilding is crucial and essential to Umno and BN's survival, this sort of public spectacle is uncalled for. It is something that could have been handled amongst the Assemblymen and the state Monarchy.

If Ahmad Said is indeed non-performing, then by all means have him removed from office but do so in a manner that does not embarrass the party.

Seems like remnants of the past administration still creeps in to show it's ugly face. Read Syed Akbar's take on it here, Terengganu matter included.

Ah well, off to dinner now....

Cheers!

Decentralization: An Introduction

2009-04-13T19:00:00.001-07:00

Being away from the city I sometimes wonder why this country is so KL-centered. Everything seems to be in KL. From banking, finance, government agencies, agricultural authorities, all and every type of business headquarters are all in KL. It makes for a very crowded living space.

During my stay and travels abroad, many countries adopted the decentralized approach. It helps to limit congestion for one and also even spread of population around the country. While decentralized regions still are city-centered at least having different hubs do help in dispersing the people to other regions.

In Switzerland, Australia, the US, Canada and many more developed countries decentralization is popular. I often wonder why Malaysia has to cramp everything into KL. Not to say that other cities and towns have no activities, but if towns only rely on two or three biscuit manufacturers it hardly makes up for an industry specific location.

Take the US for example, if they did what we do, i.e cramp everything into their major city: New York City, I think the cost of living will be more exorbitant than it already is. Crime rate in NYC will also be through the roof as compared to now. Imagine density as well, it'll be nuts.

I wonder why Malaysia won't go the route of decentralizing. Government agencies related to specific industries can be placed at hub cities and prosper the regions associated to the cities.

While some may argue that Pak Lah's crazy corridor idea was decentralization, I beg to differ. While he had only planned to spend money in certain areas (for the benefit of the select few close to him), there was no blueprint of an actual migration of KL populance out to those areas.

Look at Proton for example. While their full fledged manufacturing plant is in Behrang, Perak, it's headquarters remains in the Klang Valley. In comparison, look at automakers like Daimler, BMW Group, General Motors, Ford etc. they not only have their plants in smaller cities (compared to their national capital or largest city) like in Stuttgart, Munich, Detroit etc. they even operate their headquarters from there as well. Imagine the prosperity their industry brings to those smaller cities? The standard of living will better with the purchasing power of the large number of employees residing there. Better infrastructure, better schools, better healthcare. Imagine if they did a Proton, they would render Stuttgart, Munich and Detroit as mere blue collar cities with factory workers while the high paying executives live and spend in cities like Berlin, Frankfurt or NYC. Similarly, the oil giants in the US are not headquartered in NYC. They are based in Houston, Texas.

While Malaysia has embarked on the idea of industry specific cities, I find the dedication to it appaling. Look at Cyberjaya for example, it is supposedly the Multimedia capital of the nation. Multimedia encompasses telecomunications as well. And where is TM's headquaters? In Bangsar! Why are they not in Cyberjaya? How will Cyberjaya ever expect to flourish and attract players in the multimedia business if Malaysia's own telco giant refuses to move there?

As an example, let's take agriculture as a hypothetical industry to relocate. While the Ministry of Agriculture & Agro Based Inductries operates from Putrajaya (as it should, being a government Ministry) so should it's departments, such as the Agriculture Department, Fisheries Department etc. but, for this exercise, let's say that Kedah be the national Agro Hub. So, effectively all Ministry of Agriculture & Agro Based Industries agencies be headquarted in Sungai Petani and Alor Setar. Agencies like Agro Bank, Fama, Mardi and the likes. Similarly, agro-centered GLC's like Bernas too move and operate from there. Imagine the number of people that will move out of KL? Huge! Factor in other variables like spouse and children, we'll be talking of a migration of tens of thousands out of KL.

And if the same exercise be applied to say, Johor Bahru as the transport hub. Imagine Mas, Misc, KTM all moving to JB. Picture the Mas HQ from Munir Majid, Idris Jala to the office coffee lady all moving to JB or some other Johor city marked as the transport hub. Another few thousand dispersed out of KL.

Then life in KL won't be so expensive anymore. Less demand means property developers can no longer put us at their mercy. Similarly, rental and other costs should, by logic, reduce since demand is less.

Some may have doubts as the cost of living in other cities will rise but I do not see that as a problem. We are not moving the entire KL population to one place. It will be spread evenly throughout the country, Sabah & Sarawak included. So the rise in living costs in other places will not be so drastic.

Anyway, I've just finished my breakfast. Going for a walk now.

More on this subject later and the public trasnport issues that come with decetralization.

Cheers!

Besuch von verwandten

2009-04-12T18:58:00.001-07:00

Meine schwester in-law und familie sowie ihrer eigenen in-gesetze sind in der stadt zu einem besuch ein.

Also, bin ich weg für ein paar tage, um sie zu meiner Lieblings-Insel ein paar stunden fahrt von der stadt entfernt.

Ich bin in einer verzweifelten notwendigkeit eines urlaubs trotzdem, obwohl große mengen sind nicht wirklich meine szene. Ich hoffe, ich kann mich. Sie kommen hierher, nur zweimal im jahr auf.

Meine ohren wird sich die auf dem laufenden in dem land, über TV, radio und internet.

Was soll ich sagen? Diese sind interessant und die nachrichten nie aufhört.

Prost!

ALTE MALAIISCH

How will they share their prosperity cake?

2009-04-11T22:08:00.000-07:00

Following hot on the heels of Prime Minister Mohd. Najib Abdul Razak's newly formed Cabinet, opposition leader cum national trouble maker Anwar Ibrahim has announced plans to set up a shadow cabinet as reported by pro-KJ and Pakatan sympathizer online news portal The Malaysian Insider, read here.

Honestly, I am curios as to how the responsibilities will be handed out. Who gets the key portfolios? As often as Pakatan has claimed BN to be working along racial lines, I would love to see how Anwar will prove his 'cabinet' to be otherwise.

The voters should view Anwar's shadow cabinet as a replica of what they will likely get if Pakatan forms a Federal Government. Voters will then get to see who from which party gets the 'good' portfolios and who gets the leftovers.

Will Dap, in achieving their long term goal of Malaysian Malaysia bertopengkan Ketuanan Rakyat, sit in with 'little' portfolios to gain the mass Malay Pkr and Pas supporters' trust. Portraying themselves as the follower rather than the leader thus giving the illusion that they will not boss the Malays around for now. It will be a different picture if they get what they want. And if they decide to do so (submit as a mere 'show' for now), will it incur the wrath of the chauvinist typical Dap supporters who will assume that the Dap has softened up to the Malays?

Similarly, what will Pas' role be in the shadow cabinet? Mere shadow ministers for religious affairs or will they seek a more important role from the shadow 'prime minister' seeing that they have the most number of Malays in Pakatan. Will Pas push forth their intent of forming an Islamic state in the shadow cabinet? or sing to the same old twisted tune of bowing down to Dap?

The role of a shadow cabinet is to double as the alternative view point on how Ministries should be run. A shadow minister is not one who merely opposes to everything the actual REAL Minister does. They should also offer alternative views and policies. The excuse of a lack of media coverage is no longer an issue for a shadow cabinet to propose alternative policies or alternative views to REAL Cabinet policies.

The blogsphere is now common place for many shadow cabinets around the world to present their views and stand on matters. It will be interesting to see IF Pakatan can grow out of their measly opposition mindset. That's a big IF. From what we've seen so far, with their 82 Parliament seats, they have yet to show any form of productive opposition.

But the grand question remains: will national trouble maker Anwar actually form a shadow cabinet with all the above issues at hand? He spoke of it once after the General Elections of 2008 but chickened out. Perhaps he too saw the implications a shadow cabinet has on Pakatan's so-called power sharing arrangement. In the end, it is a power sharing arrangement and will most likely be with set quotas and what not. What difference is it then from the BN?

In fact, with the number of Pakatan MP's being 82, they could actually form a one-for-one shadow cabinet to trail BN's, which has 68 members. 82 is more than enough to do that.

Anyway, waiting for Anwar's so-called shadow cabinet line-up and that's IF he doesn't chicken out of it again.

Cheers!

Truth or dare?

2009-04-11T20:46:00.000-07:00

I laughed reading today's newspaper carrying the story of BN component party MIC threatening to pull out it's members now serving in the Federal Government, read here.

Among the reasons for their pull out threat is their claim that there is lack of importance given to the Indian community. What does this all mean? Does it mean that MIC is unsatisfied with the one full Minister and two Deputy Ministers they have in the Cabinet? This threat can translate to the assumption that MIC equates the importance to the Indian community with the number of Federal Government positions or is there something else that is really the issue and this whole statement is to merely camouflage the real intent?

As far as I remember, MIC has always had one full Minister and two Deputy Ministers. Their list of Deputy Ministers ranged from names like (former party Deputy President for 27 years up to 2006) S. Subramaniam, the late K. Pathmanaban, M. Mahalingam, K. Kumaran, (current party Deputy President) G. Palanivel, S. Sothinathan and many more who all served in the Federal Government as Deputy Ministers with two serving at any one time. From that one full Minister's post, it has always been that of a Senior Minister, meaning that the MIC representative has always been given an important Ministry to run. From 1979-2008, that single full Ministership was hogged by S. Samy Vellu and no one else. During the Cabinet reshuffle of 1989-1995, he was placed at the (then) Ministry of Energy, Communications and Post. While there, Samy was even in a position to better the Indian community with the BIG IPO's on offer during his tenure at the Ministry such as TNB and (the then) Telekom. Did he?

Not forgetting his extremely loooong stint as Works Minister from 1979-1989 and 1995-2008. The resourceful Ministry could have been Samy's key to initiating better hand outs to the Indian Community but he didn't. The results of Samy's dismal performance as Cabinet member for 29 years was more than evident in last year's General Elections. Coupled with a weak BN under Pak Lah then, MIC's humiliation was inevitable.

Now the question comes to mind is this: Is this supposed planned pull out due to the lack of Samy (the party President)'s participation in the Cabinet or is it genuinely an Indian community matter? If it is because of the number of MIC people serving then I don't see why the MIC must make a grand fuss about it now. In fact they should have made a lot of noise when Samy was in the Cabinet for he was not only a mere MIC representative, he was the MIC President itself who had a seat in the Cabinet.

MIC must ask itself if it truly deserves to have more seats given it's dismal performance in the last General Elections. If it were truly a merit based system, one where performance in General Elections be the yardstick of measurement, can MIC truly justify any demands for more positions in the Federal Government?

This looks more like a drama staged by Samy to get himself a Senatorship and Cabinet position. It's like a game of truth or dare? will MIC tell the truth or play out their dare?

And to Samy, 30 years is a loooong time to be party President. During which time, many were purged. The likes of S. Subramaniam, G. Vadiveloo, the late M.G. Pandithan, V. Govindaraj and most likely, recent challenger, M. Muthupalaniappan all fell victim to Samy's strong foothold on the MIC.

The party will not likely change with Samy at the helm. Time for him to go and soon. The BN will be initiating change to recapture the lost confidence brought about during the weak, lame, lackluster and family centered Pak Lah leadership. Does MIC want to follow or call it a day? With reforms planned for Umno and the BN, MIC will be left behind if it does not embrace the change. The party members must decide. Perhaps a party Presidential coup is in order. Who has the guts to do it though?

Perhaps Najib can follow Dr.M's lead when the latter took over as PM. Dr.M solved the issue with Lee San Choon by asking Lee to step down. Maybe Najib can do the same too with Samy.

Ah well....

Cheers!

Forgotten about humility so quickly?

2009-04-09T09:22:00.001-07:00

PLACE: Kayu Nasi Kandar, Aman Suria
DATE: Thursday April 9 2009
TIME: 10:30 PM onwards

Just got back from Kayu Nasi Kandar in Aman Suria, PJ. Went to chill out with some friends and having the usual coffee shop talk about the new Cabinet line-up of PM Najib.

My buddy and I were talking about how Najib mentioned humility in accepting and performing their jobs.

I quite agree! It is time the politicians got off their high horses and be a bit more humble.

Then, as my buddy and I were having our conversation, a silver Mercedes ML-Class (WPV 1818) just pulled up right in front of the outdoor table where we were seated and just parked there, literally by the side of the road and it was not a parking lot. Then walked out the new Works Minister Shaziman Abu Mansor with 3 others.

Where's the humility? At a time when rakyat are getting retrenched, some even have problems putting food on the table and come these people, parking tengah-tengah jalan with their expensive cars and entourage. Don't they know that the rakyat can see them?

Later came Johari Baharom, the new Deputy Agriculture Minister, in a black Perdana (WGY 9779) chauffeur driven and then Dr. Awang Adek, the new Deputy Finance Minister, in another black Perdana (WNU 979) chauffeur driven as well.

Thing is, all 3 of them live in Tropicana about 5 minutes from where they met. Do they really need to be excessive with chauffeurs (obviously paid overtime using tax payers' money) for a drive so near to their homes and to a non-official 'meeting' where there's even an abundance of ample parking spaces?

Where is the humility?

Humility and humbleness even includes how they portray themselves in public.

Like I said, people are being laid-off from their jobs in these dire times, some even have problems getting the most basic of necessities and then come these politicians who just flaunt their greatness in public.

Did they not hear Najib's speech before announcing their names a mere few hours earlier? Or did they not listen to the speech and only paid attention to the part that mentioned their names and positions?

Najib, please tell your people that humility and being humble must start now. Even I, who am willing to give you, Umno and the BN a chance, pun meluat tengok excessive-ness like the ones displayed by these public servants, imagine the fence-sitters and anti-Umno's? They despise this show of excessive-ness even more. How can BN win back these people if it's party leaders, like these 3, turn people away from BN? More often than not, it's little things like these that count.

Apart from performance, their 6-month 'report cards' should also include how they behave and portray themselves in public. Their behaviour reflects back on the party, it's leadership and it's members. It is ok to drive around in big expensive cars but don't be so arrogant about it. Parking is plenty, just park and follow the law like everyone else.

Is that too much to ask?

Najib's Cabinet

2009-04-09T01:46:00.000-07:00

I must first apologize for my earlier, albeit emotional outburst in an earlier posting here. While I asked readers to "brace for the worse and hope for the best" here, I'm afraid I did not brace myself hard enough. Emotions do get the best of us sometimes. For that I am truly sorry!

My expectations were too high given the current situation and after careful thought, have concluded that the high expectations could be met in due time and in due course but not too long a time please.

In fact high expectations should be what we expect, only then will they strive harder to meet our goals. Keep them high but keep them realistic.

Now then, onto the new Cabinet and my analysis of the whole thing. But first here's the list:

Najib making the announcement of his new Cabinet

PRIME MINISTER
Mohd. Najib Abdul Razak

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER
Muhyiddin Yassin

PRIME MINISTER'S DEPARTMENT
Ministers:
1.Unity & Performance Management
Dr. Koh Tsu Koon
2. Law and Parliament
Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz
3. Religious Affairs
Brig. Gen. (Rtd.) Jamil Khir Baharum
4. Economic Planning Unit
Nor Mohamed Yakcop
Deputy Ministers:
1. Dr. Mashitah Ibrahim
2. Ahmad Maslan
3. Liew Vui Keong
4. S.K. Devamany
5. T. Murugiah

MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE & AGRO-BASED INDUSTRIES
Minister
Noh Omar
Deputy Ministers:
1. Mohd. Johari Baharum
2. Rohani Abdul Karim

MINISTRY OF DEFENCE
Minister
Dr. Ahmad Zahid Hamidi
Deputy Minister
Dr. Abdul Latiff Ahmad

MINISTRY OF DOMESTIC TRADE & CONSUMER AFFAIRS
Minister
Ismail Sabri Yaakob
Deputy Minister
Tan Lian Hoe

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION
Minister
Muhyiddin Yassin
Deputy Ministers:
1. Dr. Mohd. Puad Zarkashi
2. Dr. Wee Ka Seong

MINISTRY OF ENERGY, GREEN TECHNOLOGY & WATER
Minister
Peter Chin Fah Kui
Deputy Minister
Noriah Kasnon

MINISTRY OF FEDERAL TERRITORIES
Minister
Raja Nong Chik Raja Zainal Abidin
Deputy Minister
M. Saravanan

MINISTRY OF FINANCE
Ministers:
1. Mohd. Najib Abdul Razak
2. Ahmad Husni Mohamad Hanadzlah
Deputy Ministers:
1. Dr. Awang Adek Hussein
2. Chor Chee Heung

MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Minister
Anifah Aman
Deputy Ministers:
1. Lee Chee Hong
2. A. Kohilan Pillai

MINISTRY OF HEALTH
Minister
Liow Tiong Lai
Deputy Minister
Rosnah Abdul Rashid Sirlin

MINISTRY OF HIGHER EDUCATION
Minister
Mohamed Khaled Nordin
Deputy Ministers:
1. Saifuddin Abdullah
2. Dr. Hou Kok Chung

MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS
Minister
Hishammuddin Hussein
Deputy Minister
Abu Seman Yusop

MINISTRY OF HOUSING & LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Minister
Kong Cho Ha
Deputy Minister
Lajim Ukin

MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCES
Minister
Dr. S. Subramaniam
Deputy Minister
Maznah Mazlan

MINISTRY OF INFORMATION, CULTURE AND ARTS
Minister
Dr. Mohd. Rais Yatim
Deputy Ministers:
1. Joseph Salang anak Gandum
2. Heng Sai Kee

MINISTRY OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE & INDUSTRY
Minister
Mustapa Mohamed
Deputy Ministers:
1. Muhkriz Mahathir
2. Jacob Dungau Sagan

MINISTRY OF NATURAL RESOURCES & ENVIRONMENT
Minister
Douglas Unggah Embas
Deputy Minister
Joseph Kurup

MINISTRY OF PLANTATION INDUSTRIES & COMMODITIES
Minister
Bernard Giluk Dompok
Deputy Minister
Hamzah Zainuddin

MINISTRY OF RURAL & REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Minister
Mohd. Shafie Apdal
Deputy Ministers:
1. Hassan Malek
2. Joseph Entulu anak Belaun

MINISTRY OF SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION
Minister
Dr. Maximus Johnity Ongkili
Deputy Minister
Fadillah Yusof

MINISTRY OF TOURISM
Minister
Dr. Ng Yen Yen
Deputy Minister
Sulaiman Abdul Rahman Abdul Taib

MINISTRY OF TRANSPORT
Minister
Ir. Ong Tee Keat
Deputy Ministers:
1. Abdul Rahim Bakri
2. Robert Lau Hoi Chew

MINISTRY OF WOMEN, FAMILY & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
Minister
Shahrizat Abdul Jalil
Deputy Minister
Chew Mei Fun

MINISTRY OF WORKS
Minister
Shaziman Abu Mansor
Deputy Minister
Yong Khoon Seng

MINISTRY OF YOUTH & SPORTS
Minister
Ahmad Shabbery Cheek
Deputy Ministers:
1. Razali Ibrahim
2. Wee Jeck Seng

PM and DPM after announcement of the new Cabinet line-up. Our hopes are in their hands, deliver to us please....

The new cabinet has in total 28 Ministers, reduced from the previous 37 under Pak Lah. The new Cabinet members will be assisted by 40 Deputies. Prime Minister Mohd. Najib Abdul Razak has promised a 6-monthly review of each serving member and has also asked for close cooperation with the Civil Service to ensure better delivery of policies and it's implementation.

Although not significant, the number of people involved are somewhat reduced. Although we expect a leaner Cabinet, perhaps Najib could trim it down further in due time. Nothing should be done without proper planning and the last thing we need is for the Pakatan to look for faults in implementation during the trim-down process.

With the reduction of members in the Cabinet, we also saw the dismantling of two ministries to accommodate the change.

Najib also talked of a National Economic Adviser, with Minister status, to assist and advise him on Economic matters in a council, which is to consist also of professionals in the field.

Given the lack of available candidates in the Federal Legislature, a prerequisite to Cabinet appointment, I would give Najib the benefit of assuming that he has done his best in the selection process.

My other concern is the selection of Mukhriz Mahathir as Deputy Minister for MITI. Given the ongoing problems in the Youth Wing, I personally feel it be best if Mukhriz was appointed at a later time, perhaps during the next Cabinet reshuffle say in 2 years' time. Mukhriz could've meanwhile been appointed to head one of the many government agencies as a stepping stone to prove his capabilities and worth.

Also, I find that the component parties that have failed to deliver should have their quotas reduced or wiped out. Since component parties from Sabah and Sarawak delivered, they should have been rewarded at the expense of MCA, MIC and Gerakan.

The exclusion of Khairy Jamaluddin is also testament to Najib's awareness of the grassroots and general public feeling towards what can be considered the Rasputin of Umno. KJ is truly a liability to Umno and BN. Similarly, tainted MCA Deputy President, Dr. Chua Soi Lek, was also not included.

What I find most crucial is the 'report card' system Najib is introducing. I believe it will work well if he walks the talk. It is up to people like us to constantly remind our Premier of that need to ensure efficiency. With threats just around the corner, they must work even harder and we must keep our eyes and ears on them all the time to ensure our race, religion and nation are defended.

Additionally, he has done away with the Minister at the PM' Department in-charge of the Civil Service, previously held by Bernard Dompok. It is assumed that Najib himself will take charge of the Civil Service. I welcome that very much for the Civil Service is part of the problem with this country, not entirely but they do play a large role in the delivery system. I hope to see positive changes with the Civil Service. Change should not only be expected from the Ministers but also pressured on the Civil Service.

Let us give him room to work and prove himself. Also, on the menu is the cleaning-up of Umno. Hope to see Najib's action on that as well.

More on this later....

Cheers!

A recycled Cabinet?

2009-04-09T00:25:00.001-07:00

INITIAL THOUGHTS

My heart fell out of my chest and onto the floor when I heard the list announced by Najib. I had such high hopes....

Re-evaluation is needed, seriously! too many recycled faces. Why?
While the tainted KJ is not in the line-up, Mukhriz is. I hold to the belief that Mukhriz is not yet ready for a government position. He still needs fine tuning.

With all attacks coming to say that Najib is being commandeered by Dr.M in the background, Najib should have been wise enough to exclude Mukhriz for now and perhaps bring him in during a mid-term cabinet reshuffle should that perception of 'remote-control' go away.

Many agree that the downfall of Umno was evident more than ever during Pak Lah's reign. Why bring back Pak Lah loyalists? Even if they have made it to the party Supreme Council, people's perception of them is not the same as the party's.

More on this later, I'm just too shaken by what I've just heard....

New Cabinet line-up on Thursday

2009-04-08T04:12:00.001-07:00

PM, Mohd. Najib Abdul Razak, through his office informed the media that he will be announcing his new cabinet members on Thursday, April 9 at 3pm.

While I was earlier contemplating on giving my views on how the Ministries should be organized, I think it is a little late for that. My only suggestion is to drop the post of 2nd Finance Minister. It is totally redundant. A ship cannot have two Captains. If ever the Finance Minister needed guidance, he can always refer to his superiors in the Cabinet being either the PM or DPM.

Anyway, I'm glad that he will be reviving the positions of Parliamentary Secretaries for they are cheaper to hire than Deputy Ministers and require less perks and officers as his or her staff. I don't know why Pak Lah scrapped that position. Parliamentary Secretaries could assist Ministers in much smaller capacities and at such dire economic times, it does not hurt to be frugal.

All said and done, let us wait and see how well our new PM's team will be and if any undesirables make it then it definitely hampers Umno and BN's rejuvenation process.

Brace for the worse and hope for the best.

Cheers!

The brand that sells and the ones that lose out....

2009-04-07T22:04:00.001-07:00

Let us dissect what is the opposition trio of Pkr-Dap-Pas, more commonly known as Pakatan Rakyat. From there let us see who gains or loses the most shall we?

To begin with, look at the branding aspect of Pakatan. Their tag lines include "Harpan Baru untuk Malaysia", "Reformasi", "Malaysian Malaysia", "Ketuanan Rakyat", "Kepimpinan melalui Ulamak", "Say no to ISA", "Islamic State" and many more rhetoric's which are pleasing to the ears of their supporters and political fence-sitters.

It is now common knowledge that almost all three of the Pakatan parties subscribe to the beliefs, either for show or for real, except one conflicting agenda being the Islamic State.

The Islamic State issue is the loggerhead between Pas, the promoter, and Dap, the opposer, with Pkr playing middleman and moderator. So far, only this issue that is really the stumbling block towards complete unity among the three.

While Pas now sings to the same tune harped by Pkr and Dap on the issue of equality, Bumiputra status and the question of the special privileges accorded to Malays in the constitution, it has effectively persuaded it's followers to accept Dap's brand of the Malaysian Malaysia but in a repackaged form. That new brand is called Ketuanan Rakyat.

Ketuanan Rakyat is nothing more that Malaysian Malaysia rebranded and Pas has gone the extra mile to ensure that this new brand is accepted by their followers. They have even made decrees that Islam does not recognize colour and so on. In effect, not only have they agreed to a Malaysian Malaysia at the party level but have effectively managed to get what were previously hard-core Malays to subscribe to this new philosophy of theirs.

In the same instance, their own agenda of forming an Islamic State is repeatedly objected by their comrade in Pakatan, the Dap. An Islamic State would, in effect, require Islamic leadership. Dap would be forever unaccommodating on agreeing to that. Logically, an Islamic State would be lead by Muslims and Dap is hardly a party with Malays let alone Muslims in it.

While the Dap may, for the sake of popularity, occasionally come out and say that an Islamic State is good for the Malays, it does come with conditions. They will not want an Islamic State in complete control a-la Saudi Arabia. They even say that Islamic Laws are good but only for Muslims. So, while they supposedly champion a cause that fights for equality and the removal of double-standards, as they claim, they are absolutely alright with double standards separating Muslims from non-Muslims.

Constitutionally, Muslims are Malays and effectively Bumiputras. So, if it is ok to practice discrimination in terms of laws applicable to Muslims and non-Muslims, what big difference is that from what is being practiced now?

For now the argument centres around business opportunities, education scholarships and placement, job opportunities and such. Those are their grouses. But to say no to this and ok to that shows a rather flip-flop stance on their part. Human nature is such that people never get enough. They'll eventually want more. While today they may say ok to double standards in laws of Syariah, with respect to Pas' demands, tomorrow they may bring out the meritocracy nonsense again should they want to, for example, go into industries that are Muslim in nature. Pas must see beyond their hypocrisy.

In the end, giving in to Dap, as Pas is doing now, will only be to the detriment of the Malays, the kampong Malays. The one's that really need the assistance and protectionist policies in place to ensure their share of the prosperity cake. Pas looks like it is more than willing to give that up and sell their Malay supporters for some extra seats and a dream of running the country.

While Dap succeeded in garnering traditional Malay support through Pas' constant religious decrees supporting Dap's struggle, they should ask themselves do the real hard-core Chinese and Indians really want to live under Islamic laws like in Saudi? With no pork, 4D shops, pubs and casinos? They may praise Nik Aziz today for it adds mileage towards their bigger goal but eventually they will stand their ground and say no to an Islamic State.

What benefit has Pas gained in it's cause then? The answer is NONE! They have shown themselves to be puppets used and, most likely, discarded later when the time comes. They are now indirectly promoters of Malaysian Malaysia. If they don't know it, then they're obviously stupid. If they do then they must be really greedy for power by selling off their cause and supporters only for a mere few seats, states and short term positions in power.

The blind support by Pas supporters towards their leaders' promotion of the non-Islamic agenda shows how shallow the are in terms of religion by taking the word of their leaders in totality as being a holy decree of sorts. That was where Pas' branding succeeded. They have elevated the status of Nik Aziz to that of spiritual and divine. Their supporters are very much ignorant to the bigger picture ahead.

While Pas condemns Ketuanan Melayu, which in essence is much like the relationship of Host and Guest with none of the Master Slave nonsense propagated by Pakatan, it must bear in mind that Ketuanan Rakyat is the true Master-Slave relationship. Don't believe me? Look at Singapore. In fact, closer to home, look at Malay empoyees at typical Chinese companies. Like slave and master they are. Unfortunately, the Malay employers are nice enough to give some senior positions to the non-Malays. Don't believe me? Go browse through GLC websites and see for yourself. Call it quota or whatever but at least opportunities are given. In most typically Chinese companies, Malay perticipation is limited to the non-Executive Directors who are merely puppets, much like the Nizar-Ngeh-Nga working relationship.

Ketuanan Melayu, as I have mentioned in other blog comments, is a relationship akin to a Host and a Guest. The Host should be reapected at all times. His status as head of his home should never be questioned. His practices in his own home should never be questioned. The host too must provide the best possible treatment and hospitality to his guests. Not question their beliefs. Give them room while not infringing on the hosts own beliefs and space. Hospitality should also have it's limits. The guest should not be so demanding as to insist on demands that will cause the host to lose his home. There is none of the slave-master nonsense as propegated by Pakatan. That is a cheap gimmick. A political stunt made to deceive the weak minded. Unfortunately, it is the Malays of Pas who now subscribe to that ill-portrayed gimmick.

As for ketuanan rakyat, what is it? People power? Really? Don't you have that now? Don't you decide what you want and who leads you? Is that not power? Does power mean kicking Malays out of their own homes? Does ketuanan rakyat mean doing away with the Malay Monarchy? Remember though that the Ruler and Malay people are one and the same.

In the end, which brand sells? Islamic State or Malaysian Malaysia (rebranded as Ketuanan Rakyat)? Which brand does Pas seem to be pushing forward? Who gains and who loses most?

Ponder on it please....

Status Quo?

2009-04-07T08:11:00.000-07:00

After following the 3 by-elections closely here, it can be said that nothing much has changed. Both sides, BN and Pakatan have retained their seats. None gained more seats and none lost any seats.

While many, more obvious from the Pakatan side, may claim their victories in the two Bukits as being phenomenal, they may be over excited and getting carried away with the spirit of winning. The number of seats for both sides remains the same.

I have said before in an earlier posting here, nothing much will really change after the 3 by-elections. There is no referendum in Perak nor is there an approval or rejection of BN's new leadership. The reality is:

THE STATUS QUO REMAINS!

To both sides, what's done is done. Can we now move on and get down to work please?

By-Election Results

2009-04-07T04:53:00.000-07:00

[UPDATE 10:50 PM]
PKR WINS BUKIT SELAMBAU

The results are in. Pkr wins Bukit Selambau collecting 12,632 votes defeating BN which trailed second behind with 10,229 votes.

The other 13 Independent Candidates all performed dismally and may well lose their deposits.

S. Manikumar, seated in the centre, flanked by his Pkr party members after the announcement of his win in Bukit Selambau

Final score Pakatan 2 : BN 1.

***************************************************************************************

[UPDATE 10:35 PM]
PKR LEADING WITH 4 BOXES TO GO

At at present, Pkr leads in Bukit Selambau with 11856 votes while BN trails with 9708 votes giving Pkr a lead of 2,848 votes up from their 8:50 pm lead of 2,621 votes.

***************************************************************************************

[UPDATE 10:10 PM]
INTERMISSION

While waiting for the many more ballot boxes in Bukit Selambau to be counted, I flipped through the channels and saw this bunch sitting down together and giving their two cents worth....

And as usual, this guy was there....

I'm reminded of Husin Lempoyang's write up on the 'Scuba Goggle'd' (as Tuan Husin calls him) political analyst, read here and here for a good laugh while waiting for the results.

According to the moderator of Analisis Awani, only 9 more ballot boxes to go in Bukit Selambau before the official results can be announced.

***************************************************************************************

[UPDATE 10:00 PM]
PKR LEADS IN BUKIT SELAMBAU WITH MANY MORE BALLOT BOXES TO GO

At present, according to Bernama TV, Pkr's S. Manikumar leads by 1,170 votes against BN's S. Ganesan with another 23 more ballot boxes still uncounted.

***************************************************************************************

[UPDATE 9:40 PM]
NIZAR WINS BUKIT GANTANG

Pas wins Bukit Gantang with Nizar receiving 21,860 votes defeating BN's Ismail who received 19,071 by 2,789 votes. The Independent Candidate received only 62 votes and will lose his deposit.

A close fight given that Nizar's 21,860 out of the total 40,993 votes counted make up for 53.3% of the votes while BN's Ismail's vote count of 19,071 amounting to 46.5% of the total votes counted. This gives Nizar a majority of around 6.8%.

Nizar delivering his speech after the announcement of his victory.

Present score 1 all with Bukit Selambau up next....

***************************************************************************************

[UPDATE 9:00 PM]
PLENTY OF BUKIT SELAMBAU VOTES STILL UNCOUNTED

According to TV1 news, even though Pkr is leading, the number of ballot boxes thus far counted has only been 23 with another 43 boxes still waiting to be counted.

***************************************************************************************

[UPDATE 8:50 PM]
PKR LEADS BUKIT SELAMBAU POLLS, STILL COUNTING BALLOTS

As at 8:50pm, the up-to-present count shows Pkr's S. Manikumar leads with 2,621 votes ahead of BN's S. Ganesan who has, up to now, grabbed 2,034 votes.

More on this later....

***************************************************************************************

[UPDATE 8:25 PM]
BUKIT GANTANG'S STILL COUNTING VOTES

According to TV3 news, as at 8:25pm Pas' Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin leads the other two candidates Ismail Saffian of BN and Independent Candidtate Kamarul Ramizu Idris with another 31 ballot boxes still uncounted.

The night is still young....

***************************************************************************************

[ORIGINAL POSTING]
BN WINS BATANG AI

As at 7:45pm tonight, BN has won the first of the 3 by-elections with BN's Malcolm Mussen anak Lamoh defeating PKR's Jawah anak Gerang.

Election Commission Officer making the announcement of Mussen's victory for BN.

The results

Out of the counted 5960 votes, BN secured a comfortable 1,854 votes majority translating to 65.6% of the voters voting BN.

More on the other two seats to come....

Why religion and politics should not mix....

2009-04-05T02:33:00.001-07:00

Call me secular, call me whatever, I don't care. Blogs are, in fact, a channel for one to air and share one's views. Some may agree, some may not. That's life. That's why we have choices in life. That's why we have options in life. In fact life itself is a road filled with choices. So which choice do we choose?

With each choice comes consequences. Much like the Third Law of Isaac Newton's Three Laws of Motion: "For every action, there will be an equal and opposite reaction". So, for whatever choices we make be prepared for the consequences and reaction that comes with it.

I believe readers who have followed this blog know that I am not fond of Pas. Never have been, never will be. Why? Why do I hate them so much? It is simple for me, I stand by this simple rule of mine that religion and politics should not and should never mix.

Why? Because religion is Divine, pure, holy, unquestionable. Politicians on the other hand are dirty, tricky, manipulative and highly questionable.

Religion forms the basis of our existence and, for most, the very essence of our daily lives. When we allow people to manipulate what is holy and pure with an interpretation that will most likely suit their needs and purposes we need to question them, their motives especially. Why must they drag religion into politics?

Religious decrees in politics normally come from politicians who are dry, out of ideas and plain manipulative. If they had been smart, they need not drag religion into such a dirty game as politics.

Take this analogy as an example:

1. We have two buckets, the first is filled with crystal pure water, so pure that we could consume it. The contents of this bucket represents religion.

2. In the second bucket is filth, dirt, urine, feces, crap, shit and whatever else that is filthy all mixed into one. The contents of this bucket represents politics.

3. Now mix the contents of both buckets.

4. What do you get after mixing the two? The answer is: a bucket of diluted filth!

5. Have mixing the two cleaned up politics? Nope. It merely dilutes the filth a little but it remains what it is: FILTH!

6. Not only have mixing the two together not cleaned up the filth (politics), it has now tarnished the crystal pure water (religion).

7. What was earlier pure and consumable have now become toxic, harmful and even deadly. The product of which are the deadly religious decrees, more often than not by Pas leaders.

8. Examples of their irresponsible abuse of religion:
i. One so-called Ulamak claimed that God curses/swears, back in 2003. Read here.
ii. The same so-called Ulamak has also claimed that God is a gangster. Read here.
iii. Another so-called Ulamak made a decree in 1981 stating that those who support Umno specifically are infidels. Read here.
iv. A so-called Ulamak claimed the use of the term 'Allah' is of no offense and
v. Not forgetting the ever popular Ulamak endorsed tag lines that give the impression that if:
a. one is a Muslim one MUST vote for Pas
b. if one votes for them it's a ticket to heaven or something along those lines.

When did political Ulamaks become keepers to the gates of heaven? Are they empowered to do so? What if the one's voting for them are murderers, rapists, infidels, apostates and the likes, will they still be able to use their politically purchased 'ticket' to heaven?

Don't these self proclaimed Tok Gurus and Ulamaks see the route they are going with their whole manipulation of religion? This goes out to both sides being the ruling Federal government through it's government machinery such as JAKIM, IKIM, JAWI, Schools etc. as well as the more obvious opposition party Pas that clearly violates any sanctity and sacred value religion has through their more often issued Fatwas and decrees. Not forgetting Pas' constant abuse of religion in their own sponsored schools and 'pondoks'.

As it is, the Malay population of today (the younger set especially) are oblivious. Easily manipulated by those who sport a fancy 'kopiah' or 'serban'. If not, then the infamous Ayah Pin would not have had his many, and fanatic, supporters.

It is stupid to believe self proclaimed political Ulamaks but unfortunately in Malaysia, the land of serba boleh, anything's possible. It just goes to show how ignorant the mass Malay population are when it comes to their own religion.

But these are not issues that cannot be countered or addressed.

MY SUGGESTIONS TO THE NEW PRIME MINISTER:

1. JAWI
While not everyone can interpret the Holy Quran in parts let alone in totality, it is even sad to see that many among the younger set aren't even able to recite the Quran. I believe the usage of Jawi should once again be absorbed into the National Education Agenda. If they recognize the characters from a young age, they will most likely remember it for life. It is the process of implanting the knowledge and recognition of these Arabic/Jawi characters that is important at the earlier stages. Once they know how to recite/read the Holy Quran, it will be much easier for them to translate and understand the Quran and consequently the beauty of Islam itself as not only being just a religion but a way of life.

2. BAN OF RELIGIOUS NAMES IN POLITICAL PARTIES AND POLITICALLY ALLIGNED NGO'S
There should be a blanket ban on the exploitation of the names of religions in political organizations. Enough is enough. Too much abuse by irresponsible politicians for their own selfish gains.
Parties may choose to have an Islamic cause, struggle or whatever. That is fine, just don't exploit the name of Islam for political gain.
For example, a party may call itself the Pan-Malaysian Ultra Conservative Party and have religion as it's core agenda. Make the agenda known, no beef with that.
By allowing them to continue with their exploitation of the name Islam, they are now manipulating ignorant Muslims by staking claims to religion as being exclusively their right. This must stop.

If they are true champions of Islam, they do not need the name. They can soldier on with a more honest cause of bringing Islam into the forefront of government administration by showing it in their cause and agenda instead of capitalizing on their party name.

3. SEPARATION OF POLITICIANS AND ULAMAKS/RELIGIOUS SCHOLARS
It should be made a law of some kind that when one enters politics, one should not be permitted to portray oneself as a Tok Guru, Imam, Ulamak, Ustaz and the likes. It can and will confuse people.
If one wants to go into politics, then please do so without disgracing one's religion. All formal and informal titles of Tok Guru, Ulamak, Imam and Ustaz should be dropped.
If one wishes to enter politics then be professional about it. In that aspect I would have to show my respects to Taib Azemuddin of Pas and Firdaus Ismail of Umno. I hardly hear either of them being introduced as Tok Guru this or Imam that.... get the picture?

4. PROPER RELIGIOUS STUDIES CURRICULUM IN SCHOOLS
The heading speaks for itself. Do it and keep politics out of it.

There I said what I wanted to say.

Cheers!

Rakyat this, rakyat that.... which rakyat, Malaysian?

2009-04-02T18:21:00.001-07:00

[UPDATE]

It's done, Najib is our new PM.

I was watching it live on tv at my favourite Banana Leaf shop over breakfast. As I arrived I requested that the Captain of the waiters turn on the tele and so he did.

Everyone in the shop, Malays, Chinese, Indians, foreign expats and even the Indian Nationals working there were all with me watching the oath taking ceremony and giving their undivided attention to the tv screen.

Hopes are high so let's get down to work shall we and address the growing public concerns like the dwindling economy, an education system that lacks direction nor the proper integration qualities, social problems like crime and the issue of public order that need immediate attention. Also on the menu, the restoring of public confidence in Umno itself which can be achieved with a hard hand. Clamp down where necessary.

Enough of street demos!

*************************************************************************************

[ORIGINAL POSTING]

Once again the so-called voice of the rakyat, the unregistered unholy alliance calling themselves Pakatan Rakyat, have proven me right. Out of the so-called many, many lah as they claim that do not want Najib as PM only a measly 5673 people + 81 desperate and power hungry MP's signed the "we do not want Najib online petition". Read about it at Rocky's Bru here.

While you're at it, read Anwar's pathetic letter begging the YDP Agong to stop the swearing-in of Najib as PM today. His letter was sent on Mar 28 and can be read here.

The whole petition online was promoted by Pakatan types particularly the kononnya-intellectual bloggers the likes of Haris Ibrahim, read here.

I've said it before, here, Pakatan doesn't have the numbers to speak for the 'Rakyat' as a whole so please stop selling our names for your own selfish reasons. Try saying 'Our Supporters' or 'Our Constituents' for a change as it will depict the real picture instead of creating this false illusion to your misguided and big-headed supporters of your supposed and fictitious strength in numbers lah konon.

Anyway, it just goes to show that they don't have ' the numbers' as big-mouthed Anwar has claimed. From September 16 to boxes full of files to supposed evidence linking Najib to a murder victim to supposed evidence linking Najib to military purchase commissions to the so-called dodgy coincidental meeting with Pak Lah to this ridiculous attempt at stopping Najib's swearing-in ceremony, many have not seen any 'real work' being done by what can possibly be Malaysia's worst opposition leader. Perhaps a no-confidence vote on Anwar as Opposition Leader? His own 4 states are in disarray, what more can I say?

A desperate attempt by a man, obviously chased by his financial sponsors to show results, Anwar looks more and more desperate by the day. The pledge of Dr.M to return to Umno and BN must be getting the compulsive liar, Anwar, shaking in his knickers.

All said and done, time to move on. Enough politicking, get down to work please....

How will Umno rid itself of this bloody fool?

2009-04-02T03:09:00.001-07:00

It's been a week since the dramatic and pulse raising Umno General Assembly. An event that could've caused or could well have caused some heart attacks to party loyalist or even in-the-closet Umno supporters and loyalists.

While we thought that show was over and the new faces emerged to claim their place in the party's hierarchy for the next three years, many were disappointed, to say the least, at most of the results. Particularly for the Youth Chief position.

Moving forward, we can now breathe a breath of fresh air as the former party President calls it a day as PM today. Phew! What a sigh of relief. It was five and a half loooong years under the lackluster and under performing Pak Lah who will most likely be remembered for sleeping on the job and never being punctual for anything. The winds of change are set to go into motion with the swearing-in of Najib as the new PM, read here and here.

With the Umno elections past us, many were glad to see unwanted faces thrown into defeat. One such name would be former party Information Chief: Muhammad Muhd. Taib. With his defeat at the party polls for the number two spot, one would generally assume that his departure from mainstream politics to be eminent if not immediate as common practice dictates that as one contests for a party post then whatever current post held is considered relinquished. Right? So I thought.

It has been common practice that way. Otherwise, people with aspirations can always fall back to their lower posts in the food chain. Then why is this person still making statements as Umno's Information Chief here?

Wasn't he aware that when he offered himself to the delegates for the Deputy President elections, he had automatically relinquished his position in other capacities? Is he soooo stupid that he does not know that? or is he pretending to be stupid by falling back to his party post with the hopes of retaining his Cabinet position?

Whatever it is, he is a liability to Umno, BN and the government. Najib has to appoint a new Information Chief which is coincidentally the prerogative of the party President as are the appointments of the Secretary-General and Treasurer-General. Hopes are high for Najib to clean up the mess in Umno, BN component parties and the government. It's no walk in the park. The mess left by Pak Lah is too much work and Najib must prove that he and his Deputy Muhyiddin can pull it off. The fate of the BN relies on it.

Meanwhile, I am still speechless at the thicked-skinned-ness of Mat Taib in comfortably snuggling back to his old party post hoping that no one will do anything about it.

How do we rid ourselves of this liability and bloody fool?

Löschen eines gebuchten artikel....

2009-03-31T08:06:00.000-07:00

Ich habe einen artikel über frühere bezeichnung: "Befugnisse der Wahrnehmung" (in Englisch) zwei beiträge vor diesem. Nach viel überzeugungsarbeit von meiner anderen hälfte, entschloss ich mich zu entfernen, die früher buchung. Meine Frau Dachte, es war ein bisschen zu beschreibenden für eine verschwörungstheorie.

Nach dem lesen wieder, musste ich stimme ihr zu. Es war ein bisschen mehr beschreibend und kann sogar schritt auf einige zehen. Wie auch immer, das ist nicht wirklich ein guter zeitpunkt, um sich mit rechtlichen maßnahmen.

Während wir im kampf gegen die guten kampf, um diese nation ein wenig besser, es ist sicherlich nicht wert, meine marmor, um probleme für sie, nicht für die menge der clowns für politiker.

Was auch immer es ist, dass die entsendung ist weg und wir müssen mit ihr leben, ya?

Prost!

ALTE MALAIISCH

Election Idol Season 1

2009-03-30T18:30:00.000-07:00

The upcoming by-elections have so much hype to it. Why? A test of popularity say some. While for others it is testament to the voters' acceptance of them. That lies with the outcome and expectations. Even if BN or the opposition trio win or loose it makes a very little impact on the overall picture.

Let's look at the federal legislature. It has something like 222 seats and people are making a biiiig fuss over Bukit Gantang. Some claim it to be an approval stamp on the new incoming PM while on the other side they claim the outcome to be the legitimate voice of the people of Perak. I hardly think so. Each seat cannot be the voice of THE people as a whole. hardly even the voice of the state population.

On a national scale 1 out of 222 isn't even 1%. Similarly, with Perak having something in the region of 24 Parliamentary seats, 1 out of 24 is hardly an indicator of 'the people's choice'.

The ones under enormous pressure are not the candidates, the parties or even the supporters. It's the voters that are being pressured. They are now being used as a barometer of sorts. A barometer of popularity.

It must be noted that each constituency have different needs, different ways of life, different inclinations, different composition of voters and more importantly different mindsets.

Why put all the pressure on these 3 seats? Save the load of bullshit and concentrate on running your respective governments. Is that not fair? Using up huge resources for these three seats seems like a waste. The people who went to the nomination centers in droves from other states could be better off going to work and being a productive member of society. This applies to both sides. The huge turnout of supporters more evident in Bukit Gantang, mostly from the opposition trio's side.

This is why I find the opposition trio an unacceptable 'alternative'. They are not interested in governing but are instead more interested in popularity and support. The states they run are also full of problems yet they persist with this popularity contest. Why? Is it to divert attention from the lame job they are doing? Is it to camouflage their acts of cakap tak serupa bikin?

Anwar, a man so full of himself, has turned every possible by-election into a replica of American Idol. Where viewers vote in their favourite contestants.

So what if BN loses any or all of the 3 seats? Does he think Najib will make an appointment to hand over the PMship if the opposition trio wins all the 3 seats? No way Jose!

Similarly, if BN triumphs in all 3 seats, will that mean Anwar will repent, change his ways and come clean about his preferred sexual orientation? Unlikely.

So, the drama continues. While the nation as a whole suffers from auto-pilot syndrome with regards to the running of the country and states by BOTH SIDES, BN and the Pkr-Dap-Pas trio.

Who gains? the people? really? HOW?

Transition in motion....

2009-03-28T02:30:00.001-07:00

The rather lame result of the recent Umno elections withstanding, there remains room for rebuilding, reorganizing and rejuvenating Umno.

While the 15 or so shady characters in the supreme council plus the even so tainted and very dependent Umno Youth Chief remain a liability to the party, the top two leaders in the hierarchy can play their crucial role in rebuilding the party.

It was a good closing speech by newly anointed President Mohd. Najib Abdul Razak and the presence of former President, turned major Umno critic, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad certainly added confidence to what will most likely be a challenging leadership for Najib.

I must say, the Pakatan types are already going bonkers by now. Their constant wish for Najib to come-clean or to make a statement denying his involvement in the Altaantuya Sharibu case has already been fulfilled. Najib, in his closing speech, finally touched on the matter without naming names.

For the benefit of the in-coming Prime Minister, I as well as others like me, are willing to give Najib a chance. This country is sick, really sick of over politicking, insensitive non-Malay sentiments (mostly disgruntled loser Pakatan supporters), a slumping economy and, most importantly, the need to address the issue of the lack of public order. Najib and his Deputy Muhyiddin Yassin have indeed a tough time ahead.

While many were always curious about the alleged involvement of Najib and his wife Rosmah Mansor in the above mentioned murder case, none of these so-called allegations have ever been proven. it has always been empty talk. Given the opposition's failure to produce any concrete evidence, what has instead happened was coverage of the matter by foreign journalist and foreign media, known to be associates of national trouble maker Anwar Ibrahim. That my friends is not evidence. Many will need to see solid evidence before finding the new PM guilty in our perception. RM4 statutory declarations and Raja Petra type sensational exposes are not evidence but trash tabloid news at best. Equal in standing to newspapers dedicated to the sighting of UFO's.

As always, Pakatan and their so-called fearless leader Anwar will stop at nothing at their attempts to stop the weakling of an outgoing Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (Pak Lah) from stepping down from his post. Their real aim is see the country slip into deeper oblivion under Pak Lah. They realize that Pakatan's strength comes in the form of Umno and BN's weakness. No doubt Pak Lah's weakness.

If there was ever a single cause we can blame for the ineffective BN rule and, subsequently, it's declining popularity, the single attributing factor would be none other than Pak Lah himself. Many gave their votes to Pakatan (while many also refrained from voting) as forms of protest against Pak Lah's lame, lethargic, weak, indecisive, family oriented and family centered leadership.

Pakatan is looking more and more like the lame racist ducks that they are, now more than ever. Calls are being made by their front line bloggers, the likes of Harris Ibrahim and such, to have HM The King not consent to Najib's appointment as our sixth Prime Minister, here. These are the types of Pakatan's so-called intellectuals who go from saying:

1. The rulers should not interfere in the formation of governments, as in the case of Perak.

and then go on to say:

2. HM The King should get involved in the appointment of the Prime Minister.

So which is it then? Should they participate or not?

While they cry foul and accuse the BN lead government of abusing the other 3 organs of government each time their cause is not favoured, they find it absolutely all right if the said 3 organs, either individually or collectively, agree with Pakatan. Why? Is it because they have this delusion in their minds that it is what the Rakyat wants? Who made them the sole voice of the Rakyat's wishes?

Another thing, I am utterly sick of this constant shouting and illegal assembly in the name of the so-called Rakyat. Last I checked, Pakatan did not get more than 50% of the Parliament votes nor did they get at least 7 of the 14 states and Federal Territory. If they had at least held 7 states, they could be right in proclaiming themselves as the voice of the Rakyat. They have less than half of state representation and less than half of Federal representation. So, I hardly think they qualify in proclaiming themselves as the so-called voice of the Rakyat. Without winning at least half of the seats and representation that comes with it, they should stop using the Rakyat's name in order to chase their own selfish, twisted and racist (of the totok type) dreams!

There's even talk, again on the Pakatan side of the 'media', of a unity government. A government that comprises of both sides of the political divide, coming together to form one single governement. United for the sake of, again, the so-called Rakyat. This ridiculous idea is again promoted by the Harris Ibrahim types in Pakatan Rakyat, the story here. Last I checked, weren't they the ones who stated that a strong opposition is needed to ensure checks and balances in the administration of our nation?

Today, with the smell of power nearing their nostrils they now look another way and say that a unity government is best. Would that not debunk their earlier call for the need for an opposition? What happened to checks and balances? I see, as long as you and your kind get to hitch a ride and benefit from it then there's no need for opposition? Effectively, a unity government has no opposition since all political parties become part of the ruling cooperation. Sickening bunch of power hungry people they are. Can't even stick to their own story.

Anyway, my advice to Najib and Muhyiddin is be very careful with the selection of not only Ministers and Deputy Ministers but also the selection of Governement Linked Company (GLC) Chairmen and Directors. GLC's are the people's property and with the recent Khir Toyo condo and abuse fiasco, the last thing BN needs is to see more shots fired at them during their rejuvenation process. If anything, the role of politics in business should be lessened in these trying times. Get real professionals to run the GLC'c and not mere 'yes men'.

Also, I would like to suggest the reinstatement of the Parliamentary Secretary positions in the government. That was one mistake Pak Lah made for reasons only he would know. For ministries that require less attention, it would be better for the Minister to be assisted by a Parliamentary Secretary instead of a Deputy Minister. They are cheaper to hire and require less perks compared to a Deputy Minister. There have been past examples of Ministries comprising of only a Minister and a Parliamentary Secretary. Among them the Ministry of Entrepreneur Development from 1999-2001 where it had a Minister: Nazri Abdul Aziz and a Parliamentary Secrerary: Sumen @ Rizalman Abdullah, while the Women and Family Development Ministry 2002-2004 comprised also of just a Minister: Sharizat Abdul Jalil and a Parliamentary Secretary: Mastikah Junaidah Husin. Perhaps the manpower of politicians in the cabinet can be reviewed given the current economic conditions.

As for the selection of people, I guess if even we, the observers, could tell which are the assets and which are the liabilities then I am sure Najib and Muhyiddin could figure that one out too. If they cannot see the difference or refuse to see the difference between worthy appointees and liabilities then they are no different from the outgoing PM and aren't fit to lead. Prove your detractors wrong!

Cheers!

The Motley Crew....

2009-03-26T07:57:00.001-07:00

And there we have it. The motley crew of mismatched, mish mashed group of questionable characters determining the course and heading of the nation, for now.

A let down of characters that comprise of the quintessential lackluster performers and people of questionable characters.

So much for the "need for change". Personally, I'm not impressed by the line-up. Same old tired faces. Most of which were rejected by the voters.

My only consolation was that big-mouthed "sure winner" Muhammad Muhd. Taib was stopped dead in his tracks. A win for him would've sent Umno to the grave for sure.

In any case, Umno went into a coma the minute KJ won the Youth Chief's post. Having Mat Taib win the Deputy Presidency would've been akin to turning off life support on a patient in a coma. Read mat Taib's boastful "sure win" proclamation here.

Alas, although not completely dead, Umno is still without a doubt in a coma. No more functional than a living, breathing, brain-dead vegetable.

The full list below:

GENERAL ASSEMBLY
Permanent Chairman
Badruddin Amiruldin
Deputy Permanent Chairman
Mohamad Aziz

PRESIDENT
Mohd. Najib Abdul Razak

DEPUTY PRESIDENT
Muhyiddin Yassin

VICE-PRESIDENTS
1. Dr. Ahmad Zahid Hamidi
2. Hishamuddin Hussein
3. Mohd. Shafie Apdal

SECRETARY-GENERAL
Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor

TREASURER-GENERAL
Abdul Azim Mohd. Zabidi

WANITA
Chief
Sharizat Abdul Jalil
Vice-Chief
Kamilia Ibrahim

YOUTH
Chief
Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar
Vice-Chief
Razali Ibrahim

PUTERI
Chief
Rosnah Abdul Rashid Sirlin
Vice-Chief
Shahanim Mohamad Yusof

SUPREME COUNCIL MEMBERS
1. Mustapha Mohamed
2. Noh Omar
3. Musa Aman
4. Azian Osman
5. Zainal Abidin Osman
6. Ir. Mohd. Zin Mohamed
7. Ismail Sabri Yaakob
8. Lajim Ukin
9. Shaziman Abu Mansor
10. Dr. Mohd. Puad Zarkashi
11. Tajuddin Abdul Rahman
12. Idris Haron
13. Dr. Abdul Latiff Ahmad
14. Dr. Jamaluddin Mohd. Jarjis
15. Saifuddin Abdullah
16. Dr. Norraesah Mohamad
17. Mahadzir Khalid
18. Ahmad Husni Mohamad Hanadzlah
19. Hamzah Zainuddin
20. Bung Mukhtar Radin
21. Dr. Awang Adek Hussin
22. Zulhasnan Rafique
23. Ahmad Shabbery Cheek
24. Idris Jusoh
25. Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim

The beginning of the end....

2009-03-25T08:56:00.001-07:00

What started in 1946, though almost died in 1987, being Umno has set itself on the path of destruction. It was a good 57 years while it lasted.

With every beginning there must be an end. While some go out in a blaze of glory. Umno goes out at the next general elections in shame.

While it's own members not realizing their own demise, these new post 1970 educated Melayu bodohs have put Umno in it' casket, dug a whole and burried the party the minute KJ won the Youth Chief post.

Congratulations! What took years to build was virtually destroyed in such a short time. The efforts of our forefathers have now been destroyed by the delegates of the Umno Youth Assembly. Hope you're all proud.

Looks like Rembau all over again doesn't it? Recount after recount.... Ah well, I'm migrating. No shit about it. Why wait for the inevitable? I'm not planning to stay in a country where Malays will be treated like the Malays in Singapore. No way josé! I'm nobody's doormat.

In the meantime, there will be severe looting of our coffers, trust me. Since they know that they'll be kicked flat out in the next general elections in 3 to 4 years' time. By the time they're gone, the country'll be dead broke and lead by chauvinist totoks of the Lim Kit Siang / Lim Guan Eng type who will perform selective revival of the country for the benefit of others while sidelining the Malays.

Enough blogging! Like it makes a damn difference....

Melayu Pemuda Umno Bodoh!!!!

Crunch time.... who do we pick?

2009-03-24T05:46:00.000-07:00

Much has been said about, promoting and deposing, the aspiring Umno candidates.

After much debating, here as well as in other blogs, I should not be a hypocrite and just say who I think would be good leaders for the party.

Without sounding too specific, some were selected for their intelligence, some for their potential of showing or have the potential of developing even the slightest hint of intelligence. Some for their show of selflessness (really?) and some.... well, for some their rivals were either so tainted or just non-performing that my choice of them were clearly by default.

My choice:

TOP TIER
The crucial 5, as I see it, that paint the 'face' and perception of the party. Their acceptance by the general public is extremely crucial and vital to Umno's survival and future direction.

President
Mohd. Najib Abdul Razak

Deputy President
Muhyiddin Yassin

Vice-Presidents
1. Dr. Mohd. Rais Yatim
2. ?
3. ?
* I am only able to recommend only one candidate as the rest of the contenders are, to me, candidates who are just a waste of time.

SECOND TIER
The future of Umno. The so-called policy makers, as it were, who in reality are today powerless due to power hogging by the top tier. May the winners aspire to restore democracy and power back to the supreme council and not merely be a rubber stamp as is evident in the present outgoing leadership.

Supreme Council
Doesn't really matter to me. So long as the top 5 are clean, seen to be clean, known to be clean, clean themselves up and perform their duties with a clear conscience and, most importantly, intelligence, the rest of the 'second tier' people will behave. With a solid top tier, the second tier can shape itself accordingly.

Youth Wing Chief
Mukhriz Mahathir

Women's Wing Chief
Rafidah Aziz

Puteri Chief
As per Supreme Council
* To be taken seriously, this wing of Umno's must shed itself of it's image as the party's 'bimbo' wing. May the new leader start the ball rolling.

There! I said my piece. Hope for the best and brace for the worst.

Best of luck....

Cheers!

Die stunde der wahrheit ....

2009-03-23T17:22:00.001-07:00

Heute ist der tag. Der beginn der viel erwartete und viel erwartet UMNO Generalversammlung. Werden die finge für die besseren oder zum schlechteren? Nur die delegierten haben die macht, für die jetzt, um zu bestimmen, die richtung und die position der partei.

Inzwischen, alles, was wir tun können, ist warten und sehen, wer als sieger hervor. Werden die delegierten bei der abstimmung sind am besten geeignet zu führen oder die mit den tiefsten taschen? Genug gesagt worden ist. Emotionen freien lauf haben in vielen blogs, aber es lohnt sich am ende?

Alles, was wir tun können, ist abwarten und sehen.

Father-in-Law to the Rescue?

2009-03-23T02:55:00.000-07:00

How many times have we seen slow responses from the PM? Countless....

When it came to regional issues like the slaughtering of Malay Muslims in Southern Thailand, he was slow in responding. When it came to the Tsunami too his response was slow. The massive floods in Johor some years back was another example of slow responses from Pak Lah.

On more current issues, the recent Perak fiasco received slow if not no response from the PM. Similarly, the recent Umno disciplinary board decisions too received a lagged response from him. The Mini Budget was another where he choose to keep mum.

Apparently, this country, it's citizens, residents and neighbors are of little or no significance to the man at the top. But touch his family and you'll get an immediate response from as far as thousands of miles away.

The Star Online carried this story today:

NO DIRTY TACTICS PLEASE: PM

By Audrey Edwards

KUWAIT CITY: Employing dirty tactics against candidates contesting in the Umno elections should be stopped as it is not the way to gain votes.

Prime Minister and Umno party president Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who made the stern call during a press conference at the end of his official visit to Kuwait late Sunday, said that bad mouthing and spreading lies was not the way to get votes.

"It is not the way to beat a friend, a candidate who is in the running for a position," he said.

"Umno members will make their choice based on their feelings, how much they know about a candidate, the extent that they can evaluate them and the role that they have played before this."

He added members would also evaluate a candidate based on their contributions and ability to lead when it came to voting time.

"I am sure things which are related to uproars, name calling, defaming each other or whatever is being done with SMS with absurd talk does not matter anymore," he said when asked to comment on a statement by Wanita Umno chief Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz that she was disappointed with the abundance of defamatory SMSes during the run-up to the party elections.

When asked on whether action could be taken against those responsible, Abdullah said police reports could be lodged for action to be taken against them.

"If there is a complaint by people and they know who did it, they can complain. When they do, the authorities will take action if there is a case," he added.

Abdullah also agreed with a statement by deputy Umno president Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak that the party needed to undergo a major reform.

"There are lots of things that needs to be done for Umno. Let's hear what action is to be taken. As long as what will be done is good for the party, I am sure everyone will give their cooperation," he added.

The story can be viewed at the Star Online's news portal here

This smells of obvious protection for his son-in-law in the wake of yesterday's incident involving son-in-law KJ and an old friend of Pak Lah's: Yahya Ismail or Pak Ya, as I call him. Read that story in an earlier posting here

Pak Lah's call for the immediate stop to using dirty tactics sounds almost like a word-for-word copy of KJ's statement in last night's prime time news on TV.

The obvious is more clearer than ever. Pak Lah cares not for this nation other than his family members residing in it. Alas, he's on his way out anyway so why should we care?

We should care. Not because it is Pak Lah making the statement but rather the fact that KJ needs good 'ol pak mentua to come rescue him each time he's in a fix. Is this the character of a future PM? Fight your own battles please!

What can we expect of this sort of character becoming PM? If he does become PM some day and we have a crisis with other nations, will he get pak mentua to come out of retirement to make favourable statements?

It is time for Umno to come out of their political patronage cocoons and do the right thing. An imbecile like KJ is weak and unfit to lead. This is just against a measly local writer like Pak Ya (no offense Pak Ya) and he's already bringing out the 'best' artillery he's got. Just imagine if he leads a nation or even a Ministry. The outcome would be disaster! He will not be able to handle his duties.

Think long term, say no to KJ!

KJ made a report?

2009-03-22T03:03:00.001-07:00

Bernama reported that KJ made a police report against writer Yahya Ismail today. Read the Bernama story here

It was also reported by pro-KJ news portal, the Malaysian Insider, that KJ claimed to have been extorted for RM 100k concerning the publishing of a book entitled "Tuah dan Sial Khairy Jamaluddin". The Malaysian Insider's story can be read here

All I can say is that having known Yahya Ismail, whom I address as Pak Ya, for sometime now I find it hard to believe KJ's claims to be true.

Pak Ya is an old friend of Pak Lah's but their relationship has not been so rosy of late following some books published by Pak Ya over the last few years. This book is definitely not the first one Pak Ya has written on KJ.

KJ also claimed that he had never met Pak Ya prior to Feb 17 this year, the date the alleged extortion took place. It has come to my understanding that, some years back, Pak Lah had arranged to meet Pak Ya to urge the writer to stop criticizing him and his family. The meeting bore no fruit for Pak Lah and family. Whether or not KJ was ever present at that meeting I do not know. The effort to hold that meet was made by Pak Lah.

Pak Ya's book on KJ isn't the first. He has published many books on KJ with KJ's name specifically on the title from as far back as 2005. Why only lodge a report now? Does it mean that the contents of Pak Ya's earlier books were true and not defamatory?

The huge time lag between Feb 17, the date of the alledged extortion took place, and Mar 22, the day the report was made, is more than a month. Why the lag in time? Does it have anything to do with the fact that the Umno General Assembly is but a mere two days away?

Does this Umno Youth Chief candidate have this sudden urge to play 'victim' in the 11th hour to gain sympathy? I'd have given him between the same day to a week, at the most, to lodge a police report. Doing it so late smells of political strategizing.

RM 100k extortion does not sound logical. For starters, Pak Ya has little use for RM 100k. If the amount supposedly asked for was RM 10 million, that would've made more sense but 100k is something that Pak Ya can easily obtain from the sale of his highly controversial books on KJ. After all Malaysian readers love sensationalism.

The real reason KJ is shaking now is because the books are readily available, as he claims, to delegates of the coming Umno General Assembly. A repeat of the "50 dalil...." book incident some 10 odd years ago is something KJ must be fearing right now.

After communicating news of the police report to two ex-journo sopo bloggers, one said the book will now be an instant hit with the Umno delegates curious to know it's contents while the other said that the tables may turn in KJ's favour in the form of sympathy votes.

In the mean time, I have to get me a copy of Pak Ya's latest book. Must be good since KJ had never lodged reports over the last few books Pak Ya wrote specifically about him before.

So, it's Oxford grad versus Monash grad in the case of the one lodging the report and the one being accused. Let's see which top uni grad wins ya?

Hope this is true....

2009-03-16T09:33:00.001-07:00

It is learnt that an authority higher than the PM has set Friday, April 3rd as the swearing-in date of our 6th PM. If that be true, that is certainly welcomed news!

On another note, it is also learnt that outgoing PM did not arrange for the swearing-in date of his successor. The date was set by the higher authority to the PM since the higher authority saw no effort from Pak Lah or his office to set a date for the proposed swearing-in ceremony.

Also, it is learnt from this writer's source that the meeting between Pak Lah and national street demonstration organizer Anwar was for the latter to persuade the former to stay in office just until after the 3 scheduled by-elections in Bukit Gantang, Bukit Selambau and Batang Ai. The late departure of the outgoing PM, if it were to happen, would facilitate Anwar and his misguaded band of Pakatan Rakyat politicians to claim a huge victory in the 3 seats as voter sentiment will be against the BN should Pak Lah delay his departure.

If the above be true, hats-off to the higher authority to the PM as he has ensured that Pak Lah doesn't flip-flop on his expected departure at the end of this month. The higher authority had earlier 'thanked' Pak Lah for his service as PM as a hint that the planned power transition must go through.

Never before in the past has the higher authority to the PM made arrangements for a swearing-in date. Normally, the outgoing and incoming PM's would humbly request for such a date. And with the end of the month nearing soon, the higher authority to the PM decided to fix the date himself seeing that no effort was made by the outgoing PM to make such arrangements, as if he does not intend to leave his position.

Once again, my hats-off to the higher authority to the PM! This is what this country needs, someone to take charge and put Pak Lah in his place.

Hope the news is true. Really hope so. While I'm technically on a self proclaimed break, thought I'd share the news and optimism that comes with it. Certainly brightened up my day, if only just the hope of it being a reality.

In the mean time, I'm tuning out and getting back to my break for reasons mentioned in an earlier posting here.

Cheers!

Eine dringend benötigte pause....

2009-03-15T02:28:00.001-07:00

Ich bin krank und müde. Sick der dramatisch oppositionsparteien von pakatan eine verschwörung von alles zu legitimieren unmoral ihre taten. Sick der UMNO nicht auf die teilnahme an der spitze der nation. Sick of Tengku Razaleigh versuchen, eine koalition mit undurchführbar pas. Sick von abgeordneten des parlaments als mit einem Ort zu machen (unbewiesenen) vorwürfe. Wenn sie beweise haben, dann wenden sie sich bitte zeigen Sie sie! Sick of Anwar drehen der Malaien in einen boxsack für nicht-Malaiischen rassisten zu treffen ist. Sick der Malaien, die nicht wollen, dass die beherrschung der Englischen sprache aus angst. Unsere großväter nicht protestieren, wenn unsere eltern gingen ins Englischen sprache schulen. Widerlich! Sick von 60 Milliarden Ringgit paket zur stimulierung der wirtschaft in der Belanjawan Kecil für sie zu sein scheint ein dachte nach. Und es ist Belanjawan Kecil, nein Mini Bajet! Sick of dumm Malaien, die Anspruch auf so-called champion meine sprache, sondern auch tatsächlich bastardizing es. Die liste geht weiter .... Malas nak ausarbeitung im detail.

Die debatte über die politisch richtig oder falsch ist sinnlos. Beide seiten sind nutzlos. Wenn dies auch nach der übergabe an Ministerpräsident nummer 6, werde ich nur wiederholen, was ich in der 12, allgemeinen wahlen: an der abstimmung nicht teil! Aber ehrlich gesagt, UMNO sieht, wie die, dass die fähigkeit zur veränderung. Pakatan ist genau das, was sie sind: unorganisierten, unterschiedliche Ideologien, Macht hungrig, rücksichtslos. Sie verdienen, was sie bekommen. UMNO aber noch ein langer weg, ändern. Die übergabe ist von entscheidender bedeutung. Lassen sie uns abwarten und sehen. Obwohl, ich werde sehen, nur von der seitenlinie dieser zeit, weil ich bin krank und müde von der dummheit. Je länger wir zeigen Interesse, mit diesen politikern dummheit desto mehr werden wir zu dumm.

Wie dem auch sei, ich werde auf das konzentrieren, was am wichtigsten ist: Familie. Und auf das leben besser für meine Familie.

Alles, was sie können sich die politiker für alles, was ich verloren versorgung. Es wird nicht eine verdammt unterschied....

Fakt oder fiktion?

2009-03-13T10:57:00.001-07:00

Wie wir am ende des monats, der zeitpunkt der angeblichen Pak Lah abgang aus dem büro des Premierministers wir hören alle arten von geschichten.

Unter ihnen:

1. Der geheimnisvolle noch coincedental treffen zwischen Pak Lah und die nationen chief aufruhr veranstalter Anwar.

2. Die lange erwartete sanierung der UMNO beginnend mit der verhaftung von KJ affiliate Norza Zakaria, und die untersuchung der treue anhänger Pak Lah, Azalina Othman Said. Beide, die in geld politik. Gerücht hat es, dass mehr tiere werden auf dem hacken-block, auch die kandidaten für die die viel höher partei positionen.

3. Und schließlich, die tatsächlichen fangmengen-22! Will Pak Lah gehen oder flip-flop wieder und machen genau das gegenteil? Was auch immer es ist, es ist ein weiterer zwei wochen zu lang.

4. In Pak Lah hat alles gesagt und getan in den letzten fünf jahren war für den politischen nutzen der KJ. Frage: wo bleibt dieses kleine baboon fit in allen der oben genannten verschwörungstheorien.

Lassen sie uns abwarten und sehen, was passiert, den nächsten zwei wochen sind wir?

Weitere updates später. Für heute möchte ich meine Ali Baba Bujang Lapok, um meinen geist von der angst dumm und natur unserer Malaysischen politik.

Prost!

ALTE MALAIISCH

It's about bloody time!

2009-03-12T08:35:00.000-07:00

I read on Rocky's Bru that 8 bloggers are to be charged in various courts in the country for insulting the Royal House of Perak and it's Sultan. Read Rocky's write-up on it here.

It is without a doubt that things are getting out of hand. Apart from the name calling by supporters of the loose-coalition of Pakatan Rakyat (they have yet to legally register themselves as a single entity), they have gone on to challenge, question and mock certain acts and provisions provided for under the constitution. Among them the issue concerning our Rulers and their scope of duties such as appointing and dismissing Executive office holders in their respective state governments.

Pakatan supporters live in a constant state of denial. Some how their cries for free press and freedom of speech tends to be acceptable to them if it is in their favour. Well, that's old news. It's been a year since the last general elections and we have seen how cocky and self-righteous they've become. Their holier-than-thou persona is indeed sickening when they themselves are also embroiled in a myriad of controversies.

A pro-Pakatan/anti-BN commenter made a remark on Rocky's Bru:

"Anonymous said...

if they made a mistake, then they must suffer. but are they really insult sultan perak. again i find it is funny - what happen to the terengganu case? they also insult DYMM Seri Paduka Baginda, not action????

zamri
9:38 PM"

Let us compare the two scenarios, Terengganu and Perak.

1. In Terengganu the Ruler rejected the candidate for Menteri Besar nominated by party that commands the majority support of the state legislative assembly. The Ruler instead appointed another member from the same party to helm the state's executive branch of government.

2. How did the ruling party in Terengganu insult the Ruler?
i) Did they stop the Ruler appointed MB from carrying out his duties?
ii) Did they attempt legal action against the Ruler for not choosing the initial candidate?
iii)Did they go around claiming that the rejected candidate is the "lawfull" MB?

Pakatan supporters do not see the magnitude of their insolence.

While supposed BN supporters carried banners with derogatory remarks towards the Ruler in Terengganu, they eventually accepted the Ruler's decision (knowing full well that it was well in HRH's powers to do so) and moved on with their lives.

3. In Perak, they now challenge and criticize HRH the Sultan simply because HRH did not support their way of doing things.
i) If we look at aspects of technicality, HRH the Sultan of Perak had given Nizar, Ngeh-Nga, Sivakumar and that band of ungreatfuls a chance to form a state government even though as a proper entity they did not have a majority. BN as a party had the largest maority followed by dap and the other two pakatan parties simply because there is no such entity as pakatan rakyat legally formed or registered. HRH was fair and allowed them to form a government in his state even though they "unofficially" had the majority of members in the house. And a thin majority it was.
ii) When the numbers turned against them in a similar fashion, being BN having the majority number of member in the house through an "unofficial" pact between the BN and 3 independent assemblymen they cry foul.
So, if they form a government through unofficial pacts can but others cannot? Don't be sore losers lah!
iii) The aspect of insult is not about throwing stones at the Perak Regent's car or lying down on the road to form a blockade or about banners with profanities written on them insulting Sultans, it is about the unwillingness to accept HRH's decision. A decision made given the circumstances at the time.
iv) The insult comes in the form of claiming one to be the so-called "lawful" MB, holding so-called state exco meetings in the MB's residence. Convening a meeting of the state assembly, which was done without consent from HRH the Sultan, under a tree. These are the insults towards the ruler.

Don't these pakatan people see it. It's about insulting the system. The constitutional monarchy system that we practice here in Malaysia.

This kind of stupid comment by blog reader/commenter Zamri in Rocky's Bru is but one of many out there that. They seem to love look at trivial things. Although I believe stern action should be taken against the rioters in Perak and Terengganu regardless of which party they are affiliated to.

I welcome the arrests of these eight instigators. They should be made an example of. In fact any deliberate twisting of ruler's statements should be taken seriously and acted upon. There seems to be so many sudden experts in royal addresses. These so-called overnight mind readers make their own translations and assumptions whenever a ruler makes a statement. Try reading some pro-pakatan blogs if you don't believe me.

An example: when HRH the Sultan of Selangor made the statement about him being above politics, many of these delussional Pakatan types started making assumptions that HRH was supporting Eli Wong, the cheap slut exco who was literally caught with her sarong down. Not only are they delussional, they are irresponsible enough to put it down in blogs for people to read. That is misleading and they sould be responsible for what they write.

Another commenter in Rocky's Bru, here, made this comment:

"donplaypuks said...

I frankly do not trust all the UMNO appointed Secretaries to the Rulers. We know what agenda they have and where their real loyalties lie!

Let's hear directly from the horse's mouth. Let HRH Sultan of Perlis come out and tell it like it is!

And Brunt Council, FO to you too! There's no need to indulge in abusive language about Zorro. Just state your views objectively and keep it civil!
http://donplaypuks.blogspot.com
6:01 PM"

These delussional pakatan types are again stating their own opinions as facts. Since when does Umno appoint the Ruler's staff? Do you know that for a fact? You have supporting evidence? Suddenly this "puk" is an expert on palace personnel pulak.

My Uncle was a senior ranking Istana Negara staff from 1990-2003. He and his colleagues were not umno appintees, nor were they Umno nominees. They were employed on contract basis by HM the King. In my Uncle's case, his contract was renewed by each incoming Agong.

Does "puk" know that the Dato' Pengelola BiJaya DiRaja of the late Sultan of Selangor Sultan Salehuddin Abdul Aziz Shah was a Chinese? That one also Umno appoint kah? Apa kejadah Umno nak appoint Cina jadi Grand Chamberlain Istana? Don't believe me? go browse through a 1990's Selangor phone directory and see the listing.

I can talk because a close relative was in the employment of not one but four Agongs. And then we have people like "puk" here who suddenly think they know the inner workings of the palaces.

While the pro-so-called-freedom-of speech/expression pakatan supporters scream at the forthcoming arrests and charge against irresponsible bloggers as being a repression of sorts, they must bear in mind that with freedom comes responsibility. And if you're willing to play then you must always be ready to pay!

Cheers!

PS: Waiting for the SinghKing master of insolence to pay the price....

A whopping 60 B!!!!

2009-03-10T03:37:00.001-07:00

Just watched the tabling of the Economic Stimulus Package.

A whopping 60 billion was tabled to be injected into our economy.

While details are rather sketchy for now, I will not elaborate on a detailed basis until I know what the money will be spent on.

On the surface, the proposed 60 B will be utilized in two years: 2009 & 2010. With a proportion going to giving out tax reliefs.

Among my concerns here are:

1. It is an obscene amount of money.

2. Can we afford to spend so much?

3. What are the contingencies should something go haywire or downhill along the way?

4. If it does not work out as planned, can we recover after spending such a ridiculously huge amount of money after 2010?

I hope the delivery system is well organized and efficient. The downfall of such a huge policy is failed implementation.

Hope this stimulus package will benefit everyone from your average Mat down the street to saving national assets.

Talking about OKU's

2009-03-05T23:31:00.000-08:00

Lets take a break from politics for a while shall we? It's stale, repetitive and, honestly, lame. Today, I want to talk about the disabled, or OKU's as they are fondly referred to here.

My Father falls into that category, OKU, due to a stroke he suffered some 10 years ago which had since rendered him disabled, paralyzed on his left side. The term used in medical and insurance practices is "Total Permanent Disability".

Anyway, last week a sibling of my Father's also had a stroke, although a mild one as compared to what my Father had. Being good relatives, we rushed on over to Penang to visit her and to offer our support. We decided to take the car this time and left early last Saturday morning (Feb 28 2009) and proceeded to take the NSE heading north.

The infrastructure and facilities along the highways are indeed better than when the highways first started operations more than 15 years ago. R&R's are a plenty and serve various purposes such as providing rest rooms, food outlets, prayer rooms, fueling stations and many more.

Parking bays too have increased in number given the increase in the number of highway users. Although the number of parking bays have increased, the number of bays for vehicles driven by or carrying the disabled or OKU's are still limited to two, I think (although I may be mistaken).

Anyway, my beef isn't really the number of bays but rather the people who park in such bays. On our trip up to Penang, we stopped over at Tapah R&R for breakfast. I was happy to see two parking bays for the disabled at the R&R but was quickly annoyed the minute I saw two cars without the "Disabled Driver / Disabled Passenger On Board" stickers happily parked on the two allocated bays.

The signboard in front is quite big, tak nampak ke?

While they happily park at the spot meant for people like my Father, I had to circle around, park on the other side then push my Father over some grass and gravel since that being the closest way to the food court because the drivers of those two cars in the picture above were either oblivious to the huge green coloured disabled parking sign or just couldn't be bothered about it.

My car with my Father's wheelchair

Meanwhile people carrying real disabled and wheelchair bound passengers with proper identification, being an "OKU identification card" and "Disabled Passenger On Board" car sticker (which I didn't see on both the cars in the pic above), like me, have to park far away. I wonder, why do they even bother making such parking bays if it is inaccessible to those intended? Where is the enforcement? If I had my way I'd have those two cars clamped.

Ah well, Welcome to Malaysia! a country where enforcement is non-existent....

Circus Sideshow

2009-02-26T06:51:00.001-08:00

I'm sure we all read the about the incident in Parliament today. The Star's report on it here: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/2/26/nation/20090226192647&sec=nation.

I'm sure the pro-Pakatan types have started labelling Umno Youth as this and that blah, blah, blah, blah.... But have they forgotten about the incident involving Ibrahim Ali being blocked by a group of wheelchair bound people? Maybe this'll refresh their memories: http://www.nst.com.my/Misc/Parliament/news/stories/20080509122442/Article/index_html

Or perhaps the incident involving Hindraf supporters at the Cabinet Hari Raya Open House? http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/10/1/nation/20081001195625&sec=nation

While I do not condone any of these types of actions. I find it absurd that people with a good sense of decency can think it's ok for some people to challenge others to fist fights in Parliament. Reducing our Federal Legislature into something resembling a pub brawl.

Think about it....

If only our new PM is Dave....

2009-02-26T04:30:00.001-08:00

Toll hikes means more woes. Everyone has their view on it but the reality is, it's killing most of us. What I see on the news is not justification for hiking rates but rather the Minister of Works telling us that if they don't hike up the rates, the compensation paid to concessionaires will be in the tune of hundreds of millions.

When some propose to study these concession agreements they talk of the Official Secrets Acts (OSA) blah, blah, blah, blah....

Ah well.... I remember watching this movie called "Dave" starring Kevin Kline as Dave where the main character Dave, who is the US President's look-alike, plays stand-in to the President who fell into a coma after humping his secretary.

Anyway, as the story goes, Dave, who initially only acts as the White House Chief of Staff's puppet, uncovers more and more indiscrepencies in the administration of the current President and his band of advisors. Eventually, Dave takes control and begins to put things in order.

Among them, was him calling in the Cabinet and making adjustments to their budgets which were extravagant and huge for things as petty as advertising and so on. Dave shaves-off their excess budget and manages to get 650 million to be used for children's healthcare.

BN has definitely chased away many fence sitters by hiking up the toll rates now. Don't shouldn't look shocked when they loose the upcoming by-elections. Toll rates are as sensative as fuel prices. It effects virtually everyone, directly or indirectly.

If only we have a Dave in our government who could call in the Cabinet. Tell them to shut-up and look at their books. If only....

Check out the movie if you haven't seen it. The plot write-up is available on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_(film)

Cheers!

This is just wrong!

2009-02-24T22:52:00.000-08:00

I was reading in the Star Online news portal of the story of has-been former Selangor MB turned Umno Youth Chief candidate Dr. Mohd. Khir Toyo and the latest fiasco involving a Selangor state government investment arm, Permodalan Negeri Selangor Bhd., and several apartment units in Saudi Arabia.

The Star's report can be read here: http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/2/25/nation/20090225090827&sec=nation

What I gathered from the news report was that an appoved number of apartment units were to be purchased by Permodalan Negeri Selangor Bhd. But what instead happened was that apartment units were bought but somehow, bought in the name of the company Chairman instead of the Company.

What later followed were transactions involving changes inownership between the Company Chairman and the Company ifself. It was also reported that the board had approved a fixed budget of 8 million for the purchase of 5 units. But what actually took place was a purchase of a lot more units exceeding the board's approved amount.

My beef is: why the hell did the Chairman (who was also the MB of the state) buy the apartments in his name? How can it be justified? If it is a company owned property then it should be in the company's name should it not? Buying under his own name would make it a personal purchase and a personal purchase should be done using personal funds not company funds.

Why lah so BODOH? Even an uneducated man can tell you that. As a former Auditor with one of the "Big Four" firms, I can tell you that if I was the one auditing the company, I could smell the stink of this transaction a mile away. What possible logic or rationale could Dr. Khir have used to decide in purchasing PNSB's properties that way?

The problem with our politicians, both BN and Pakatan alike, is that they're too bloody impressed with themselves. They obviously thought that they were untouchable and that we are all stupid.

Buying a property for a company using compay funds should be bought under the company's name, fullstop. No buts, if of maybes about it. It's just the general rule of ownership. It the company occupies a space not belonging to them, then it is already a lease. The Chairman doesn't know that kah?

It is idiots like these that make it hard to revive Umno back into a party that supposedly struggles for Malays and the Malaysian cause. And if idiots like these really cared for anyone other than their own stupid selves, they would retire gracefully (after being kicked out by the voters in Selangor) instead of putting on a thick skinned face and trying so hard to make a comeback.

Umno would do itself well, in it's rehabilitation process, to weed out characters like these. It will be their own undoing if these idiots are left to tarnish the already tainte party image even more. This is where a good and strong party leadership is needed. To identify the problems and act on it. Honestly, sorry to say, I don't that in either the outgoing or incoming party leadership.

And as for the current MB, don't be so quick in pointing fingers. A diversionary tactic to say the least. You and your 46 cows are another joke. Regardless of wheater you asked PKNS or it's agencies to fund your 46 cow korban donation, it is, in principal, wrong to use resources from Selangor to donate to your own constituency in Wilayah. Had you half a brain, you should have contested in Selangor as MP and it would not have looked this stupid. Another BODOH case.

The current MB may say that PKNS willingly donated the cows but as MB and PKNS Chairman, he could always decline or, to be more blunt, insist (order them) not use state resources for his constituency which coincedently is located outside of PKNS's state of Selangor.

Macam ni they want to tell us that Malaysia is moving towards better governance through a two-party system? Please, don't make me puke! If this is how both sides are, then as a registered Selangor voter, neither will get my votes (Parliament and State) again for the second time.

BN and PR, please take a good look at yourselves before doing anything else in future. Dua-dua tak boleh pakai!

Beware of the King Makers and Power Brokers. Another Kali in the making?

2009-02-23T22:18:00.001-08:00

As we approach the end of February and into March, many will be looking forward to the eventful, god-willing, departure of our current lame, weak and lackluster Prime Minister at the end of March. Some blogs even have countdown timers that show how much more time we have to put up with Mr. Sleepyhead.

No doubt it has been a messy five and a half years of governing by Mr. Sleepyhead and his sidekick advisers. The nation's interests have taken a back seat compared to the needs of his clan, friends, advisers and in-laws. Malay rights, Islam and the fundamentals of our democracy have been made a mockery of under this joker of a Prime Minister. But it will finally be over, god-willing.

But as one saga ends, we hope a new one won't start. While there have been write-ups in the blogsphere on the incoming PM's willingness to obey a certain family member, I will not touch on it for now. What I am focusing on here today is the emergence of so-called King Makers and Power Brokers in the next administration.

A Kali and forth floor replica is trying to shape itself into being well before the sixth PM takes his oath of office. Among these aspiring King Makers stands a veteran of sorts. A veteran who, during his active years in the administration of our forth and fifth Prime Ministers has been well identified as being a dubious character.

This dubious character held Ministerial positions in the federal cabinets of Dr.M and Pak Lah prior to which he Chaired a company which was a key national asset. It has been told that this ex-Minister is trying very hard to portray himself as the new King Maker in the upcoming administration. Already this ex-Minister is going around brokering positions for aspiring cabinet members as well as GLCs and government agencies.

He recently managed to convince two main stream media newspapers (English and Malay) to give him coverage. This was achieved by convincing a weakling of an Editor-in-Chief that he is indeed the power broker that will play the same role as the Editor-in-Chief's current Deputy Chairman and master.

This dubious character of an ex-Minister was also recently alleged to have been a little frisky with a young lady. But well, that's not the issue here since morality and good behaviour should not be questioned, according to Pakatan Rakyat, if he does it on his own time. So, we will not touch on it for now. After all, we shouldn't pose double standards right? If Pakatan feels that their reps' privacy should not be intruded then it only be fair that the same courtesy be accorded to those on the other side of the fence.

Excuse the side track, back to the ex-Minister. This person hails from the future PM's home state. Be that as it may, I find it uneasy that, if true, Najib is leaving the Power Brokering and King Making to this dubious character.

If there's anything we've learnt from these last five and a half years of hell under Mr. Sleepyhead is that a leader must lead and not be lead. If Najib, on the onset, has already, if it be true, displayed the same leadership traits, then this will further bury Umno and BN into the dark bottomless pit from which there is no return.

Najib isn't the best of Malay leaders, honestly. He just happens to be there with no other brighter and more credible people to choose from within the existing hierarchy. Regardless, our fate will be in his hands. For how long we do not know. For better or for worse, we do not know either. But what is clear is that if this ex-Minister, who hails from his own state, is his head advisor then we are as good as screwed.

Dear Mr. Future PM, you may not read this blog. This blog is puny and insignificant but I hope you get the message some way or another. You must learn from the past mistakes of your predecessors. You must know the difference between an advisor and an opportunist. It will do you well to quash this ex-Minister in his tracks well before you take your oath as our sixth PM.

Do we need a Senior Minister?

2009-02-23T07:05:00.001-08:00

I was watching Hello Malaysia on Bernama TV and as usual at the bottom of the screen there'll be quick news flashes. One of them carried the news "Call for Abdullah to be appointed Senior Minister".

This is the most absurd piece of news that I've seen in weeks. It even tops my list for the most despicable news, it is more despicable than the Perak fiasco, the insult on the monarchy, the Elizabeth Wong issue, and the story of Selangor MB and his cows.

Pak Lah has ruined this country for the last 5 years. His input is no longer required. He should go and go gracefully. This may be a sad attempt by certain parties to keep their foothold on power. Perhaps the K's or maybe the forth floor boys?

Whatever it is, Mohamad Aziz, the MP for Sri Gading who suggested the appointment, must either be a stooge of the K's or forth floor boys. What a dumba**!!!!

His excuse for appointing Pak Lah was the seating arrangement in Parliament post-Abdullah's retirement. Who cares where he sits. He doesn't even turn up for most Parliament sittings and other important events as PM, do you think he'll turn up for Parliament sittings after retiring?

What a joke. Anyway, check out the story here.

Clash of the aspiring titans

2009-02-17T06:55:00.001-08:00

I had just finished watching the live forum comprising the 3 aspiring Umno Youth Chiefs: Dr. Mohd. Khir Toyo, Mukhriz Mahathir and Khairy Jamaluddin.

I have to say that Dr. Muhamad Agus makes a good moderator and held back little if not no stops in his line of questioning. Touching on sensitive yet crucial areas of fuel prices, the internal security act, the constitutional monarchy as well as education among others.

It would seem that Dr. Khir is trying very hard put forward an image of a man who has learnt his mistakes and supposedly working from the ground up this time around. His replies on issues mentioned above reflected his new stand as it were.

Interestingly, Dr. Agus asked him a question and in the question implying that he was the MB that brought Selangor down. Hahahaha... It was hilarious but Dr. Khir answered in a manner that reflected his new stance on things. Was it sincere? Who knows....

KJ was nothing to shout about. His responses made him sound like a little Anwar in the making. Calling for a kajian semula of almost everything in question. Perhaps he be best suited on the other side with Pakatan instead. Since they are supposedly the agents for drastic change in this country.

Almost every issue requires kajian semula in his opinion. One could even see that as a ploy to not answer the questions given. Sounds like the present government. Forming Commissions to kaji semula almost every issue brought forward. So, maybe the rumour of Pak Lah listening to KJ is true judging from the response.

KJ also mentioned earlier in the program that Umno is strong. Really? So, now we know who's been misleading Pak Lah to make statements like "kita masih ada majority yang kuat" (if you remember) shortly after the general elections last year.

Dr. Agus also posed the question to KJ of him being a liability to the party. KJ reacted by saying that he has gone to met the delegates (just meet? no "gifts" for them kah?) to show them who he is. He claims that he is humble, who started his career from down below the ranks. Really? Didn't this guy catapult from nowhere straight to the Umno Youth no. 2 spot? When did he start from below?

KJ also said that as youth chief he will tackle the issue of rising cost of living. It was then that Dr. Agus asked why he couldn't do that now as Umno Youth Vice-Chief. Hahahaha.... I tell you this moderator was having a field day lah.

Finally there was Mukhriz. Honestly, among the three I must be honest and say that I'm rooting for Mukhriz. His response to education related questions like the teaching of Maths & Science in English brought about a bigger question: the single school system where all Malaysians should enroll in. I am all for that. At a time like what we are experiencing today, racial polarization is probably at it's worst. It is things like these that will help make, not this generation, but perhaps the next, or maybe the one after it, a more Malaysianized generation.

Well, that's my two cents on the forum. I'm sure most of you watched it. If not you can catch the news (or spin) on it tomorrow.

Cheers!

So where do we draw the line?

2009-02-16T19:37:00.001-08:00

[UPDATE]

SINCERITY OR MERE DAMAGE CONTROL?

I was just following the story in today's Star Online news portal. It first showed the story of Bukit Lanjan Assemblyperson and Selangor State Executive Councilor Elizabeth Wong offering her resignation from her elected and appointed posts for the sake of the PKR party and the unofficial Pakatan Rakyat coalition. Read the Star's story here

What boggles the mind is why sudden decision to resign? I support any and all forms of accepting responsibility for one's actions but this reaction is not expected for someone who adamantly claims to being a "victim".

If she is truly a victim, as she claims here as well as in other press statements, then she should not give in and stand up to clear her name. A principled victim would not resign.

If anything, resigning is an admission of guilt. At the most, she should just go on leave pending the investigation outcome.

Now suspicion lingers in the mind. Is this a sincere resignation? and if so, she should be well aware that resigning before investigations are concluded will be as good as admitting guilt.

Or is this resignation an attempt to cover an even bigger expose waiting to unveil itself? It was mentioned earlier, here, that apart from photos there is also a video of her.
Could the resignation be some sort of pre-emptive attempt at covering up an even bigger expose in waiting?

Well, this is after all politics and in politics it's all about strategy. I'm not saying that there is a much worse picture or video of her but her actions have made me ask why she needs to resign and if so, is it sincere or mere damage control?

Well, let's just wait and see shall we.

[ORIGINAL POST]

There has been much traffic in the blogsphere over the last few days or so. This being caused by the exposé of sorts regarding nude photos of an elected state assemblyperson.

Over these past few days too, there have been arguments from both sides (for and against) on how the YB Adun should react i.e to resign or to stay on in office. It makes it even worse of a scenario since the YB Adun is also an office bearer in the Selangor state government.

Suddenly, overnight, so many Malaysians (politicians, bloggers and even the average joe on the street) are now experts in morality, decency and fair play.

Some of my concerns on the issue are:

1. She (the YB Adun) admitted that the photos were of her and that the photos were taken without her permission, possibly by an ex-boyfriend. What was she doing sleeping naked with the door unlocked? and with a male in her home? If she was indeed sleeping alone.

2. Some have argued that she is not a Muslim so it's ok. Well, Muslim or not, there are certain moral guidelines in this country. Although unwritten, these guidelines are what forms the fabric of society here in Malaysia.

3. Even though she isn't a Muslim, sensitivity towards Islam, being the official religion of this country and the official religion of the majority of the Malaysian population should be observed at all times. Things like bringing boyriends home and sleeping naked without locking one's door with a boyfriend present on the premises is just trouble waiting to happen.

4. Being a person of her stature, she should be well aware that a person in public life has no private life. Everything is under scrutiny. Not just here but everywhere else in the world. Please name me a country where a public office bearer's life isn't subject to public scrutiny.

5. If her privacy was well and truly invaded, why did she not make a police report to say that her home fell prey to a breaking and entering incident?

6. Some have even argued since she's single, she can do pretty much anything she wants. And that the issue of morality only concerns married people as in the case of MCA Deputy President Dr. Chua Soi Lek and his fiasco some time back. Really? So if you're single then you can bring home anyone you like is it? Wow!

7. The police are investigating the incident. No doubt it will take time. I'm not saying that she should resign as Selangor Exco but am instead asking that she go on some kind of Administrative Leave until the case is solved and the guilty party named.

8. Her supporters should just stick with facts and not rumours and heresay. Many have gone as far as claiming this BN politician also did this and that etc. That sounds just like their election campaigns. Accusing this person of corruption and that person of graft and yet none have been brought to justice. Pakatan has taken over 4 new States since March last year and there have yet to be any charges of corruption filed against any of the MB's of the states they took over. Was is all just empty talk? Stick with the facts please.

These are just some of my concerns. There are plenty more but blogging from my BlackBerry is a little tiring so I just highlighted what I can for now.

When Dr. Chua was implicated in the sex video, many said he was a good worker, a good minister and that his actions then were in a personal capacity thus not affecting his work. The same has also been argued in support of the YB Adun in the present nude photo scandal. But let me ask you this:
When is it not ok? When does one cross the line? Certain moral boundaries should never be crossed. Never, fullstop!

If we let this slide by, are we opening the floodgates to more eye-closing when moral issues prop up? Will we say it's ok for an Exco or Minister to be a homosexual in future just because he or she does it in private?

For the record, I was one of those people who was all for the removal/resignation of Dr. Chua as Health Minister and now I am all for the resignation or removal of Elizabeth Wong from public office. But to give her the benefit of the doubt, she should at least go on leave whilst her name is being cleared (or tarnished) and show us that she understands what it means and what it takes to be a public servant.

When hopping suits them best....

2009-02-05T19:09:00.000-08:00

[UPDATE 7pm]

THE SPINNING NEVER STOPS

All this while we thought Kali-NST were the spin masters of the news. But then if we read today's Harakah we can see that the disease has not spared the federal opposition parties media as well.

In today's Harakah online news portal, obvious spinning was present. In the article Pakatan Rakyat boleh bentuk kerajaan - Mahathir the irresponsible so-called pious people of Pas have spun words from Dr.M's blog.

In the above mentioned article, the people of Harakah highlighted only parts of Dr.M's write up (parts that clearly favour them and their lost cause). if read thoroughly, one can find that the blog article by Dr.M did not outrightly support a Pakatan state government.

While Pas' Harakah only highlighted the following:

"Pakatan boleh adakan Kerajaan minoriti. Demokrasi mengizinkan," tegas Mahathir.
This would roughly translate to meaning that Pakatan could well stay on as a minoroty government as democracy allows it. They however conveniently left out the next point:

"Tetapi kerajaan minoriti lemah. Dia boleh ditumbang dengan undi tidak percaya oleh majoriti ahli Dewan Undangan Negeri, kalau Dewan bersidang. Mungkin Pakatan tak mahu ada persidangan."
This translates to meaning that a minority government will be a weak one. It can be outsted with a vote of no confidence by the majority members of the house, if they convene for a sitting. Maybe Pakatan does not want to hold a sitting.

Now a rough elaboration of the translation would mean that Pakatan can form a minority government, a weak one that can be easily overthrown through a vote of no confidence and that the weak government in power will be less likely to hold a legislative assembly sitting in fear of a vote of no confidence.

That is just one of the many spins by Pas' media. Read Dr.M's article for yourself and compare it with what was interpreted in Harakah online. You be the judge.

Cheers!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I remember not too long ago, last year to be exact, that Pakatan leader Anwar Ibrahim spoke of wooing over several MP's from Barisan Nasional to supposedly form a federal government on September 16 2008. Why weren't there any voices of protests so loudly as the protest against BN forming a state government in Perak by virtue of party-hoppers?

It is so easy for people to look at things from only one perspective, the perspective that suits them best. Why did the people of Pakatan not go in droves to Sarawak to stop Anwar from trying to poach BN MP's and shouting cries of a dead democracy? So, if Pakatan does it it's ok and for the people's best interests but if BN does it then it's a disgrace to democracy is it? The reality is: Pakatan ain't that great in administration either. Their power sharing (yes! power sharing, doesn't that make them a "racist" coalition too?) formula ain't that great. Only difference is that in Perak the power skewed towards two Chinamen who only had the interests of Dap's agenda at heart.

I really don't give a damn about why the Sultan did not dissolve the state assembly. For me, I am just happy that the power is now back in Malay hands. No doubt Nizar was a Malay too but his strings were pulled by the Ngeh & Nga cousins. So damn you Nizar! BN, you have control for now and I stress on the phrase "FOR NOW" so please do a good job else you'll be kicked back into being the opposition that you were in Perak since March last year.

Anyway, I'll keep this post short. Been busy with the Kids's schooling and after school activities since January to be actively blogging. the Perak incident is just too much for me to just sit and watch.

Until then....

Is there such a thing as dedication to work these days?

2009-01-10T22:44:00.001-08:00

It's been a hectic one week. My youngest loved one has just enrolled into Primary School and I was practically there on a daily basis. Although my youngest has managed to fit in quite well, I was just being my usual me attending to my youngest every need during the first week of school.

While the school is one of the better ones, perhaps the best Sekolah Kebangsaan, in Kuala Lumpur, I couldn't help but notice that problems have already surfaced at the beginning of the school year.

For a start, the class teacher was on maternity leave and is scheduled to only return in February. The replacement teacher slotted to fill in was also out due to chicken pox. What was then available to the Pupils were inexperienced new recruits who seem to not know head or tail of what's expected of them as teachers. I know because I, along with other concerned Parents, were sitting at the gazebo outside the class for most of my time at the Primary School. What we saw was chaos.

I can't really completely blame the school Principal. She had a headache as it is with not only those two teachers being unavailable for work but a further five teachers reporting in sick and taking out MC's. So, early in the morning Madam Guru Besar had to do some adjustments to her schedule to redeploy some teachers to the class.

The replacement teacher's replacement finally turned up looking lethargic, uninspired, unfriendly, unapproachable and 20 minutes late! This prompted one of the Parents to have a word with Madam Guru Besar about punctuality. Leaving a bunch of 6 to 7 year olds by themselves without supervision is dangerous. Some of the Parents and myself have taken it upon ourselves to ensure safety in the class in the absence of a teacher. Already there have been scenes of little boys playing with sharp pencils and pointing it at the face of a classmate. We want to avoid unwanted incidences.

While I am all for letting teachers do their jobs, I believe Parents should also participate in ensuring that students are taken care of. We only want the best for our loved ones. The absence of a regular full-time teacher and her replacement have prompted Parents to seek transfers for their Children to move to other classes under different teachers. It proved to be not such a simple thing to do.

What was apparent was that the Madam Guru Besar had this "pilih bulu" attitude. Apparently, if you're not "somebody" she'll opt for the easy way out and just tell you that whatever action you require of her and her administration is out of her hands. But if you are kononnya a "somebody" then a transfer is almost instantaneous.

We saw two such examples of that happening in the first week of school. The first being the transfer of a Cabinet Minister's Grandson to a class of his (the Pupil) Grandmother's choice. The other being the transfer of a Malaysian fashion designer (recently opening boutiques in London and more recently receiving a Datukship)'s child also moving to a class of the Pupil's Father's choice.

How lah like that? It's bad enough to have to use "cables", which I have had to resort to on countless occasions, at government departments like the Immigration, National Registration Department etc (something I don't like doing unless it's totally necessary and that being the last resort), must I start dropping names in school as well? This "who you know rather than what you know" culture should be left outside the gates of schools. It's not something we should be teaching and inculcating into our kids so early in life.

Where is the dedication of Madam Guru Besar? Is it to her students and her job or is it to the bigwigs in society? And what about the replacement teacher's replacement, where is her dedication to her work if she comes in half way through a class with no show of dedication in her attitude? If "cables" and "connections" are all that counts, don't be surprised later. Many have the means but don't want to flaunt it. Will their attitudes change when one after another start calling in favors from bigwig friends and relatives?

Do your work and don't make us use our "cables". All of us eventually know someone somewhere who will be able to get things done and it may be too late for Madam Guru Besar to put things right by then, and it will be at the expense of her career. Do the right thing, be a teacher to all of them. that's your job. That's what you chose to do in life. Do it with dedication.

Of Mat Rempits and Traffic Policemen....

2009-01-04T02:32:00.000-08:00

It's been a good break. Time spent away from the city is trully an unwinding experience in it's own right. As I return to the monotony of everyday life with the beginning of the new year, I took the opportunity to reconnect with some old friends. Among them Selva and Sham. Good friends of mine for a long time.

As Selva and I sat down for tea at one of our favorite Banana Leaf shops in PJ, I couldn't help but notice a big dent on the front of his new Peugeot. And so Selva told me how the unsightly dent got there. It was made by a Policeman on new year's eve.

You see, Selva and Sham aren't really party goers. If anything they are the homely type who much prefer to enjoy each other's company rather than going to crowded places. Being quite pious Christians (or are they Catholics?), they decided to attend a service at their church on new year's eve to usher in the new year.

The untimely accident to their car occurred during one of the expected traffic jams. There was a roadblock on their way home with the cops doing their usual rounds of apprehending drunk drivers and the likes. Also pulled aside were motorcyclists or Mat Rempits (as they are commonly called). As Selva and Sham were queuing and waiting for their turn to pass the roadblock, a few Mat Rempits charged through the roadblock without stopping. It then prompted our Traffic Policemen to give chase using their big bikes.

As the chase heated, one of the Mat Rempits lost control of his bike and fell. That, in turn, caused the Policeman on his big bike to jam his brakes in order to avoid running over the Mat Rempit. Unfortunately, Selva's car was the direction the cop chose to point his bike and ended up putting a huge dent in my friend's car, apart from spraining his own ankle.

The problem that's emerged is: who bears the cost of repairs for poor Selva and his beloved Peugeot? The cop was obviously doing his job to ensure our streets are safer. What Selva discovered was that the claims procedure against a government vehicle is a loooong winded process which includes bouncing from the PDRM, JPJ, Puspakom and JKR.

He did try to claim from the Mat Rempit, if possible, but it turns out the biker had no valid road tax hence no valid insurance. The events have truly made a big mess for my friend who was nothing but a mere innocent bystander. He now has the headache of dealing with slow government agencies and the hassle of not being able to use his car for a while during repairs. Who'll compensate Selva for that?

Mat Rempits are a menace to society and a disgrace to my race. And Khairy Jamaluddin wants to call them "Mat Cemerlang"?

Umno Youth delegates, please think long and hard before casting your votes this March. We do not need people helming the youth wing with aspirations to legalize Mat Rempits.

Merry Christmas....

2008-12-22T20:31:00.000-08:00

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! Let's all take a while to sit back and enjoy (or frustrate over) whatever's left of 2008. For some it was a fulfilling year, for others it was disappointing.

In the meantime, I'd like to share my favorite Christmas song, which has seen many versions since it was first composed in 1945. Among them, the Vaughn Monroe version sang at the ending credits of two Die Hard movies. This is the jazzy version by Jamie Cullum. Hope you like it.

Cheers!
MELAYU LAMA

Sime Darby, didn't you know that you can build your own hospital?

2008-12-22T03:25:00.000-08:00

Pic taken from ANCC website.

Well lookie here.... The Asian Neuro & Cardiac Centre (ANCC), a privately owned and privately operated Cardiac Care hospital built from scratch. Now why couldn't Sime Darby have done that,
instead of trying to take over IJN?

In fact this private healthcare facility is scheduled to operate in 2009. And, ironically, is built not far from one of Sime's very own housing developments: Ara Damansara. This ANCC hospital is located on the old Subang Airport Highway, just after Saujana and the BHP fuel station, before the roundabout where Terminal 1 used to be. Go see for yourselves.

While the more hospitals we have the merrier, it's initiatives like these (ANCC) that I don't mind. They're privately owned, privately operated and will perhaps give more choices to prospective patients. And best of all.... they left IJN alone!

Maybe Sime can learn a thing or two from the people who are starting up this place about what it takes to run a heart facility and at the same time not disturbing the public's interest.

Privatisation & IJN

2008-12-20T17:04:00.000-08:00

I remember the days when Dr. Mahathir Mohamad first embarked on the privatisation of key government assets. In a way, it somewhat mirrored the efforts of the Thatcher administration of the UK at the time.

While privatisation itself, in principle, was to bring about efficiency, productivity etc, over-privatisation would also not be healthy either. As with everything in life, it should be done in moderation.

While privatisation of key national utilities like TNB and Telekom (I think the name "TM" is lame) were first done to improve efficiency and productivity as well as the sharing of it's profits and what not, it has since been used as a tool for some unscrupulous people to make money from. Looks like the main agenda are more of corporate restructuring, outsourcing, mergers, de-mergers etc rather than focusing on the real reason for it's privatisation: improvement of service.

I've seen enough stupidity come out privatising government entities that should've been left alone in the first place. Indah Water is an example of that. Why are sewerage services chargeable? Should it not be the responsibility of the state to provide basic sanitation services? How does one justify the amount quantified on the bill? Anyway, I personally think that was one of the dumbest privatisation exercises ever. If we are a country short of water resources then yes, by all means charge for sewerage services. But we have an abundance of water resources, so much so that we even sell raw water to Singapore. So, to me that exercise was just to rip us off.

Anyway, to the privatisation of the day: IJN. Now, while I hold Dr.M somewhat responsible for letting loose Daim Zainuddin and the latter's over zealous privatisation initiatives, Indah Water included, I do believe Dr.M has a heart. In fact, a bigger heart than Pak Lah or Musa Hitam. For one thing, the grand old man drew the line somewhere. Healthcare facilities like IJN were to be left alone. That I agree with 100%.

While Sime Darby Chairman Musa may see it fit to dismantle every possible legacy Dr.M has left behind due to a personal vendetta he has with the grand old man, it is Pak Lah's logic of saying that it is ok to privatise IJN that boggles the mind. You see when a healthcare facility like IJN is privatised, it has to make profits to operate as a business. And in the Malaysian fashion of privatisation, not only will it have to make profits to stay afloat, it'll have to make obscene profits (for the benefit of the select few), all of which will once again be at the expense of the consumer, as with any other illogical privatisation exercise this country has done.

I once thought HDC (Halal Development Corp) was a terrible idea, which this administration went ahead with, but to privatise a medical facility? In particular one that has benefited so many underprivileged Malaysians who could've otherwise died due to the excessive cost of heart operation procedures in private hospitals. That is just too much. Before IJN's existance, affordable public run heart treatments facilities in this country were either scarce or non-existant.

When Pak Lah's administration is of the idea that medical facilities for the needy (IJN) and the functions of Islamic regulatory authorities like Jakim can be privatised (HDC) then you can already tell that the PM doesn't think with his brains anymore. Time to boot him out.

Najib, while doing the right thing in putting the privatisation of IJN on hold, should've outrightly objected to it. As I've reiterated over and over again, we need strong leadership and we need it now. Najib has got a long way to go to prove his worth of holding the number one post. Although at least it looks like he's a bit more aware of things than his immediate boss.

Personal Rantings: Indecisive coward....

2008-12-20T08:49:00.000-08:00

It pisses me off when people can't be honest and upfront about things. Sometimes what is needed is some good old dose of honesty. It's bad enough that my time is wasted, my efforts wasted but to lie about it? Hmmmm.... and this is coming from Muslims.

While it is painfully annoying to have been used in terms of efforts, it is even more frustrating to not be told the truth. I guess if I never learn from this then I'll never learn fullstop. Oh well, you can't trust anyone these days. Even people you've known for a decade or longer.

Wonder what makes them that way? Lack of a spine, inability to focus, plain stupidity? I don't know. But for now, I really hate being Malay. It takes just one bad apple to spoil the bunch. Takes just one moron to change people's perception of things.

To be asked: "I can't commit to the work now so if you have something else then go for it but when the time comes for this to happen, I'll need your help". That is very self assuming. For one thing, how the bloody hell do you expect "help" from me when I've abandoned this shit? Do you think I'm as unfocused as you obviously are? Some people give focus and dedication to what they're doing, I'm one such person. If I'm doing something, I will not divert my attention to something else. That deprives the present task from getting my best input into it.

Din, you're a real asshole. While I've known you for more than 15 years, you're a dickhead and a lousy one at that.

Hope Mael and Isa fires your ass soon. That's what you truly deserve. Wasted my bloody time you have. Whatever bad shit that floats your way, you deserve it. What goes around comes around.

Anyways, I'll return to political commentaries as soon as my head clears of this incident.

Din, you'll get what you deserve. If not by nature's own course, then by my intervention. But you will get what you deserve. The picture of V in my blogger profile isn't just for show, I can be very vindictive when crossed. So watch your back!

Personal Rantings: "Professional Services".... really?

2008-12-19T05:49:00.000-08:00

It's been quite an interval since the last posting. What can I say? I've been busy and have also been under the weather.

I have also been busy working. While my frustrations have been earlier vented out here, it is the pace of things that really drive me up the wall.

Let's disclose a bit more this time shall we? This government agency have the words "Professional" and "International" in it's moniker but the standard of service is far from it.... far, far, far, far, from it. Time somehow stands still at their office. While the people there, led by CEO Mael and Chairman Isa, move at the pace of what is much slower than a snail, they have been operating with an agenda of pushing Malaysian services abroad. How do they achieve this with such incompetence is mind boggling. If these are the people promoting Malaysian professional services abroad then all those professionals are in for a tough time. They will now not only been seen as inefficient and incompetent by local non-Malays, the whole world will now see them that way through no fault of their own thanks to an incompetent and inefficient government promoting body.

While on my end of things, I'm just supposed to provide a service for one of their middle eastern counterparts. One of the basic documents I needed to sign was done very unprofessionally. It was lopsided at best. Among the ridiculous clauses incorporated in it were:

1. Confidentiality on my part regarding their activities of which I am not to disclose for a period of 3 years even though the job I was supposed to do was only for 6 months at the most.
2. No mutual termination clause. Now how will things go if, for some stupid reason, we develop irreconcilable differences during my 6 months of service?
3. Infinite liability on my part should I breach the service contract. Now, in the interest of fairness, I don't mind being liable as should the agency but infinite liability? I think it is only fair that the damages be up to the value of the job that I'm supposed to do.

Oh! And before I forget, they first wanted me to sign the service contract without even reading it. Their legal people, headed by a woman called Suzy, did not allow me to view the contract. While the old saying goes that there's a sucker born every minute, I'm sorry I'm just not one of them. I don't sign stuff that I haven't read and understood. And when she finally forwarded it to me a few days ago, I suggested amendments and emailed her the very same day, in fact about a few hours after I got it. Till this day, I have yet to receive any word from them. Apparently, all things goes to the Chairman (who is never around anyway) for approval. That's what they say. I wonder how a bumbling idiot like her can qualify as the establishment's head of legal department when she can't even decide on simple amendments? With position, there should be responsibilities and decision making authority. What kind of head refers to the Chairman for the simplest of amendments? Perhaps all she is good at is probably giving head.

Anyway, I'm fed up and have given up working with them. I've heard of inefficient government agencies and glc's before but this place lives up to all the negative stereotypes about goverrment agencies out there. It confirms whatever stereotypes people have of government departments, agencies and glc's.

Before I end, let me just say that I personally think Mael, Isa, Suzy and all those imbeciles that work there are a disgrace to my race and to the tax payers' money that are spent on their establishment. They are truly bumbling buffoons that will even baffle the baboons in Botswana *. It's a pity that while many wish to offer their services to this beloved country of ours, we just don't get a chance to. Ah well....

* Borrowed from Knights Templar. Hope you don't mind. Cheers!

Testing the waters yet again

2008-12-10T17:29:00.001-08:00

Another Hari Raya Haji passes, long weekends were taken. Some even longer than usual given other state holidays coming our way. Regardless of festivities or time-off, the struggle continues. The struggle never ends.

While the subject of leadership transition plays in the air, the real subject of racism continues in various forms and guises. The latest to join in the fray is the expected rantings of the Jiao Zhong (United Chinese School Teachers' Association). Extensive write ups of their grumbles can be read at The Scribe and Rocky's Bru.

It seems that with the current weak leadership as well as the, now obvious, weak leader in-waiting, all groups are lining up to capitalize on Umno's and the government's weakness. The Jiao Zhong has made threats of holding large scale demonstrations should the subjects of Mathematics and Science be continued to be taught in English.

It is bad enough to not have a unified and single schooling system for National Schools. It is bad enough that Bahasa Malaysia is rejected as the sole medium of instruction for local education. But to reject English? The universal language as it stands.

I remember a comment left by a commentator not too long ago. The commentator spoke of English being the alternative medium of unifying Malaysian students. With Bahasa Malaysia rejected by the hardcore chauvinist Chinamen types, English could've been the bridging gap for all students, regardless of which type of National School they attended. The students would've found a common ground and medium that they could use to communicate with one another. Perhaps that was what Dr. Mahathir Mohamad envisioned with the implementation of the policy? I won't know for sure what makes the grand old man tick but I'm sure that he had more than one objective in mind, other than bettering students' English proficiency.

While the reaction of the policy is much expected from the everyday chauvinist Chinamen types as well as the typical rural Malays, it is the timing that stinks of political play. While the policy was implemented more than 5 years ago (the product of which had recently sat for the UPSR and collected their results), it is absolutely mind boggling that such protests and rejection is only aired public now. It stinks of certain groups trying to arm twist a weakling and a weakling in-waiting to get the upper hand. With Pak Lah's really bad way of handling issues as well as the "preview" by his Deputy waiting to take over the helm, groups like the Jiao Zhong know that with a little bit of childish cries their demands will be met by an over compensating PM in-waiting. The prequel to it can be found here and here.

For me, it just boils down to leadership skills. People will make all kinds of demands if and when they know they stand at least half a chance of getting what they want. Capitalizing on weakness is the real key here. Who knows, if this demand is met then they have successfully tested the waters and will make bigger demands at the expense of the Malays. Already there have been talks of scrapping Bumiputra participation quotas in business. Will they charge on full steam with that next? Should this demand be met.

The present weakling is already rushing to bend over for the Judicial Appointments Commission, something I believe will undermine Malays yet again, it is expected from the present weak leadership. However, people expect change in the next leadership. If the demands of the Jiao Zhong are not handled firmly, then nothing really changes. What's to differentiate Najib's leadership from Pak Lah's then, if both are weak?

Selamat Menyambut Aidil Adha

2008-12-07T04:49:00.000-08:00

Salam Aidil Adha to all readers of this blog.

As with each celebration, we reflect back on the hardships we face, particularly, that of the less fortunate here as well as abroad. We take this time to also think of sacrifices that we've made and need to make in order to make this country of ours and the world, at large, a better place.

Safe journey to those traveling and may this Raya Korban be an enlightening and rewarding one for you.

Salam,

MELAYU LAMA

Spoilt my appetite

2008-12-03T04:46:00.000-08:00

This blog post is a bit out of the ordinary for me. It's not about politics but about politicians.

I've always held some feeling or contempt or rather for self-serving politicians. But tonight that feeling of contempt turned into near vomit.

My Wife and I are at this moment at Victoria Station in Medan Damansara. We've had this craving for Rib Eye and Spare Ribs today. As usual, I'd have my starter of Crispy Potato Skins before having my Salad.

As I was about to take my first bite on my salad, in walked KJ with his son in his arms. I tell you, I lost my appetite, literally. I have in my days viewed some other politicians with such dismay but never to a point of near vomit. The man truly does bring out the worst in people. Had it not been for his little boy in his arms, I had a good mind to stand up and tell him what a wreck he's making this country be.

He is definitely NOT popular. As he walked in, none of the restaurant patrons acknowledged him. No one shook his hand or even gave him a wave gesture. The man is truly unpopular.

My Father-in-Law is somewhat of a famous person as well (sometimes for the wrong reasons). He, like any other Malaysian public figure, has admirers and despisers. But without fail, he at least gets a wave in an unfriendly place.

This KJ fella is still oblivious to his unpopularity?

Maaaan.... Macam ni nak jadi Ketua Pemuda and later PM? Even now people don't like you, how do you plan to achieve your dream?

You've made your money. Please leave politics and possibly the country too. Maybe to Perth perhaps? Cos judging from the "crowd"'s look towards you, when you go you won't be missed.

Aaaah, my main course has arrived. It looks like too big a meal to finish for a man who just lost his appetite. Ah well, bon a petité!

Ever assuring and apologetic

2008-12-02T12:26:00.000-08:00

It was only but a few days ago I did my previous blog post on future PM to-be Najib Abdul Razak and his overly, and unintelligent, apologetic stance each time something considered racial towards the non-Malays, particularly the Chinese, are made public.

Najib has once again proven to be so hadap for the PM's post by taking a short-sighted view regarding vernacular schools in this country. Najib, as quoted in the Star, said:

"For as long as the Indian and Chinese communities need to have vernacular schools, they will continue to be a part of the national education system."

and further reiterated:

"It has been the principle of the Government to give all individuals the freedom to adopt a school or education system of their choice."

Has it ever occurred to Najib that one of the reasons why there's so much disunity in this country is partly due to the fact that social integration is somewhat limited to those who actually attend Sekolah Kebangsaans? While the ungrateful Chinese and Indians send their kids to schools that teaches in languages of other countries, China and India to be specific. These are the real culprits contributing to the ongoing racial polarization problems this country is facing. The result of which is the disunity we see today.

The defenders of vernacular schools should just shut up about Bangsa Malaysia, Malaysian Malaysia or NEP. I dare them to try asking the Lee dynasty of Singapore for leniency in running and expanding or defending vernacular schools in their favourite country, Singapore. They'll all probably end up in the tiny island's equivalent to ISA for trying to create disunity.

These ungrateful Malaysians claim to have lived here for more than the 51 years this country has been independent but somehow still look towards China and India for their kids' medium of instruction in school. They cry for a Bangsa Malaysia but get defensive about using Bahasa Malaysia. So what Bangsa Malaysia is there without a Bahasa of its own?

As for Najib's ever accommodating demeanor towards these ungratefuls, I wonder.... should the day ever come when the supporters and fanatics of organizations like (the now illegal and very much racist) Hindraf, as an example, demand that their community needs an organization as such to represent them, will Najib say that for as long as the Chinese and Indian community need to have groups, they will continue to be a part of the political system?, in the same context as his press stamement above.

Najib please wake up! Pakatan is not as strong as it was in March for not knowing what the people want (and by people I mean everyone not just the Pakatan supporters who always think they speak for "everyone") but if you, my so-called PM in-waiting, are equally if not more oblivious then you shall possibly have the opportunity to challenge Pak Lah for the title "Worst Party Leader & PM Ever" and with it too comes the dubious "honour" of being "Bapak Pelingkup Bangsa Melayu".

If unity is what this country needs then work towards it please. In any effort or struggle, there will always be resistant groups. That's the challenge a true leader will face. A coward will just please his audience. At the very least, a smart coward will please the majority. Najib, at the moment, is so far from resembling anything like a true leader. Worse still, he is not even like a smart coward!

So Mr. Future PM, you have a few more months. Think long and hard, what kind of leader and who's leader you'd like to be?

Is this how a future PM handles issues?

2008-11-30T22:20:00.000-08:00

Not too long ago, Bukit Bendera Umno Division Chief Ahmad Ismail made the very unforgettable statement describing Malaysian Chinese Citizens as "Pendatangs". The very statement was then turned into an overly controversial issue. While Ahmad's stand on the issue may be the unplanned sequel to the idiotic and ever smiling dumb-ass Education Minister Hishamuddin Hussein's stupid speech on Ketuanan Melayu some years back, it was how Prime minister to be Najib Abdul Razak handled it that I find most disturbing.

Najib, upon receiving criticisms of Ahmad's statement, quickly made a public apology which in my opinion was a very stupid thing to do. By apologizing, he has somewhat "confirmed" to the already racist crowd out there (don't deny it lah you bloody racists, you know who you are) that Umno is a racist party. Hence, playing right into a web like trap which will be very difficult to free from.

In comparison, the Chinese based, and lately chauvinist, MCA has made similar statements too, through the words of it's Deputy President Dr. Chua Soi Lek. So have Gerakan, through their Wanita Chief Tan Lian Hoe who called Malays "Pendatangs" too. But it was how MCA President Ir. Ong Tee Keat handled the matter which I found to be an expected response. Tee Keat said:

"Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek's remarks that the concept of Malay supremacy was no longer relevant, is not the party's stand"

"It is his personal view."

Therefore, I found it absolutely stupid and unnecessary of Najib to have made his apology which made not only Ahmad Ismail but Umno, and generally the Malays seem like bloody racists.

Could Najib have not answered as Tee Keat did? Doesn't take a genius to figure out a statement like that.

Perhaps Najib's "forth floor boys" are as stupid as Pak Lah's if the apology was their solution to their boss' problems. Politics is all about plausible deniability especially if it is in the name of survival which i believe is exactly what Ong Tee Keat did.

Najib has not only made Umno appear racist by apologizing, hence affirming Ahmad's statement as that being of the party's, he has made Malays appear weak. If this apologetic type attitude is the benchmark of the future PM, then Malays and even Malaysians may be in for some bullying by foreign governments. First to queue up will be none other than Dap's ideal country: Singapore waiting to squeeze Najib for everything the Malays have.

With statements by Chua Soi Lek, Lim Kit Siang and even PM-desperado Anwar Ibrahim are we to just sit around and take it? We need strong leadership and we need it now. Pak Lah has proven to be the weakling who has caused this problem but we do not need his successor to be as accommodating as Pak Lah is.

Is Najib the kind of PM the Malays and Malaysians want?

What will Najib do? Apologize for not giving more preference to Chinese? Let's see how he reacts and his subsequent action. Though, don't get your hopes up!

Personal Rantings: Time is not of the essence

2008-11-27T05:23:00.000-08:00

I've been working with, for the past 2 months, a semi-government agency. It's really simple. They need services and I provide them, clear cut as that. What amazes me is that the working culture these days seem to be lacking in more ways than I can explain.

This agency I'm supposedly dealing with is owned by one ministry but falls under the purview of another ministry. Sounds stupid doesn't it? While the day-to-day operations of this agency is under the supervision and control of the ministry it falls under, on occasion the shareholders will somewhat intervene. Now even though the shareholding ministry does not supervise the running of this agency, it feels the need to meddle and consequently slow things down to a ridiculous pace every now and then.

Apart from that, the management of this agency itself is dodgy. Dodgy in the sense that it loves to have meetings. It has meetings on virtually anything or any subject matter. Meeting, meeting, meeting, meeting.... that sort of thing.

The President & CEO (I hate that terminology, what ever happened to Managing Director?) is your typical NEP-bred Malay so-called professional boss. Comes in at noon, has in-office meeting(s) then hops out to have more meetings. Sometimes he never even goes back to the office after the first "meeting". The staff won't see him again until noon the next day.

What frustrates me is the pace of things and the stupidity of the management. With an overhead of close to a quarter of a million per month, the management of this agency seems to take it's own god damn time to make up their minds about anything. Forget the fact that they're unorganized, they seem to not have targets, goals or even ambitions.

While their staff are required to multitask due to the inefficiency and unorganized way the CEO runs the place, they are not given authority to decide on even the most trivial of matters. For something as simple as process and operating procedures, the staff are required to refer to him through his Vice-Presidents. When and where do they refer to the bosses: in meetings of course! Where else?

I am who I am this day from my own hard work and experience. At the same time I admire my Father, who was Executive Chairman of national subsidiaries of a foreign owned Fortune 500 multinational here in Malaysia and many other countries around the world. This was NO thanks in any way to NEP. My Father was appointed and promoted solely on merit, and perhaps some clever (and unavoidable) office politics, by the head office in another country that has never heard of, much less even care about the NEP. My Father headed various divisions and country operations of foreign countries in the 1970's and early 80's before returning to head the Malaysian subsidiary's operation for the most of the remainder of the 1980's and early 1990's before he opted for early retirement after being unable to decline yet another foreign posting (which came with a promotion to head a region) and did not want to leave the country since my Sister was in University Malaya at the time.
After 24 fruitful years of service, he ventured into business and is doing quite well.

As a child, I remember my Father going to work in the morning and coming home around 7 or 8 every night. He drew a paycheck of more than 30k per month, that's 1980's and 90's currency (I kid you not), and was very good in his work. So his pay, perks, S-Class Mercedes company car, cheauffer and whatever else were all well deserved. He worked hard, and I mean really hard. I never, in my days growing up saw or heard of my Father going for only meetings. In comparison, what kind of work culture do we have here today? Perhaps comparing Fortune 500 multinationals with government linked companies / agencies will be like comparing apples with oranges.

Nevertheless, I am sick and tired of this stupid government agency CEO and his lust for constant meetings. To date a lot of the agency's dealings have YET TO materialize while still running on an obscenely high overhead. My role was to complete a task which was required by their client but alas, the CEO can not yet decide on the matter since he has too many "meetings" to go to.

In fact to facilitate the ease of him comprehending the work process, I even spelled out everything for him as a kindergarten teacher would to an infant. To this day, he has not read what I have prepared (which took me less than 10 minutes to do with my BlackBerry). Why? Because he's too busy with meetings.

It's ok to have one or two meetings before getting things done, but constant meetings? What a waste of time. Progress reports should be what he should be looking at and not dragging everyone into pointless meetings everyday. Time is really not of the essence for these CEO's who only know how to go to meetings.

I think Parliament should scrutinize all government agencies, big or small, for the lack of work by so-called CEO's are truly a waste of tax payers' money. This particular CEO is a disgrace to Malays and the NEP. He represents everything negative about Malays and the NEP.

It is people like these that give the impression that Malays progress in their careers through the mismanagement of policies like the NEP. They taint the image of every hard working Malay out there. A true disgrace to his race and country and if many more agencies are helmed by idiots like these then god help us all....

Taking a stand on Royal Immunity

2008-11-27T00:05:00.000-08:00

I was tempted to do a write up on the recent Fatwa issue which was made about a week ago but after seeing that many of my view points, thoughts and stand on the issue had been similar, in principle, to what had been posted by bloggers such as Saudara Rocky, Saudara Hard-T, etc as well as the commentators in various blogs. It's safe to say that my thoughts on the issue have been spoken for.

Today I did the unexpected, I read a blog which I stopped reading months ago. I was alerted by a friend in Sudan to check out Screenshots and Jeff (the writer)'s post entitled "Post-Mahathirism... The Case of Royal Families". That eventually lead me to the Star's article on the subject matter of our Royals.

It is indeed interesting times we live in today. We have in one corner, a group of disgruntled Chinese and Indians of Pakatan Rakyat asking for, what they claim to be, equal rights in the name of their so-called Bangsa Malaysia, Malaysian Malaysia or any other catchy phrase they'd like to call it. In nutshell, they want Malaysia to be another Singapore.

While it may start out as a fight for (under the pretense of) equality, it will then turn into suppression of anything that is Malay. A blatant example of this arrogant need for so-called equality is, the Pakatan's main bitch, Dap's stand on continuing with multilingual signages in their ruling state of Penang. Clearly making a mockery of the National Language and it's status as such. Those who wish to view my stand on that matter, a stand which I have made crystal clear can go here.

Now on the other hand, we have a select group of (not all) Royals who now feel the need to have the Ruler's immunity restored so as to (as quoted from Star):

"enable the constitutional monarchy to play a more fitting role in the 21st century as guardian of the Federal Constitution."

The member of the Royal family further stated that:

"This full immunity from civil and criminal proceedings should be reconsidered so that he is on par with other constitutional monarchs around the world."

Now while I am all for the Royals playing their part in safeguarding Malay rights, as embedded in our constitution, I am at the same time very wary of members of Royal houses running foul with banks and international film stars. All I'm saying is that the statement should have come from another Royal family. Perhaps one that has not been highlighted in such a controversial manner of late.

Obviously, this opens up room for political mileage. Somewhere, somehow, someone will want to capitalize on this and in the process incur the wrath of, once again, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad who so gallantly stood up for us, the people, back in 1993 when amendments were made to the constitution to enable Royals to be held accountable for their actions. I am of the opinion that what Dr.M did was not all that bad. While he limited their immunity to some great extent, the Royals still enjoyed the privileges they had. Only thing is that, post-constitutional amendment, they had to consider the implications of their actions and, consequently, be responsible for them. Not really a bad thing is it?

Saudara A. Kadir Jasin, through his blog The Scribe, has even elaborated that the immunity of the Royals were never taken away. They were merely made responsible for the:

"conducts of their private affairs or non-state matters like cheating their business partners and beating up people."

So, technically, there isn't really anything to restore is there? Unless, they would want to be free from responsibility in business and personal doings? A bit too much of a request lah don't you think?

Who will want to capitalize on this issue? Will it be Umno? I hardly think so as they have now enjoyed a status similar or worse than the Royals (pre-constitutional amendment) which has now gone completely out of control. Perhaps constitutional amendments too be done to curb Umno/BN politicians or even Pakatan politicians from behaving the way they do now. They too behave without considering the implications their actions have on the people.

Then will it be Pkr? or even Pas? who would capitalize on this. Certainly not the Dap as their stand has always been and will always be for a so-called Malaysian Malaysia (read Chinamen controlled Malaysia) which, in their minds, rids themselves of the Royals. They will have in place a President and Prime Minister style government a-la Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore. For the Dap, the ideal would be to have an Indian puppet as President with the Lim Kit Siang clan running the whole damn show.

So once again I ask, who would want to capitalize on this? What is clear is that this request by the a member of the Negri Royalty could be made today due to weak leadership. Pak Lah has certainly been put into a position where all groups are now making requests and some even making demands (like the now illegal Hindraf).

When will Pak Lah leave? It feels like four long and grueling months more before we might even see some light at the end of the tunnel. It is bad enough to see him bend over for the Bar Council in the setting up of the Judicial Appointments Commission and of course the constant bending over to Singapore on various issues. Will he bend over some more in the months coming to March 2009? Enough is enough!

I certainly hope that whatever transition of power be done sooner than March next year. Even with only a few months to go, incidences like these are popping up to challenge the government. Najib and Muhyiddin must make a stand now to ensure the survival of the Malays, the people and party.

Let's get down to work shall we?

2008-11-21T20:34:00.000-08:00

As the end of the year draws closer, some are dreading the coming of the new year simply because the sentiment seems to point to a recession of sorts coming about. Malaysians seem to be really taken about by rumors and public sentiments.

I remember back in the late 1990's, particularly 1997, when the last recession dawned upon us. Many a times we heard stories of people back then charging into the stock market based on rumors and sentiments. The stock market back then, and perhaps even to this day, was sentiment driven. Full of rumors and stock tips passed around from coffee shop talks. Not to say that all rumors are unreliable. I have to admit that I myself made some money back in 2004 with the listing of Air Asia back then. Was that a calculated investment or based on rumors and stock tips? Maybe a little bit of both.

Although the general public have stayed clear of stock tips and so-called stock market rumors, Malaysians are still unable to shed this rumor based sourcing of what they consider to be facts. While they may have steered clear of the the stock markets, their thirst for rumor based, supposedly, facts is something they can't seem to rid themselves of.

While stock market is no longer the flavor of the times, political rumors are now the new substance that quenches the thirst of these rumor hungry mobs.

Take for instance the recent Razak Baginda press statement (refer to Rocky's Bru). Many out there in the blogsphere are adamant that Prime Minister to-be Najib Abdul Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor are involved in the murder. While I am no fan of Najib and even less of a fan of Rosmah, these rumor hungry people should base whatever assumptions they have on facts.

The reality of it is that it is so much easier to prove someone met another than proving that they didn't. How does one produce evidence that they didn't meet? Logically, to prove that some people had met could be in the form of photos, videos, voice recordings (like in the V.K. Lingam case) etc. That is somewhat easier to do then to prove that some people had never met. How does one go around proving so?

With that in mind, I find it utterly ridiculous that the Malaysia Today (MT) junkie types have now come out, in various blog comments sections, demanding that Razak Baginda prove Najib and Rosmah had never met the deceased Mongolian woman. Once again I ask, how does one do that? How does one prove they've never met?

In that aspect I find Dr. Mahathir's claim to be more realistic. He claims to be able to publish the names of those involved in money politics. Logically, it would be easier to prove that someone took or gave bribes rather than proving they didn't.

While I do not rule out MT junkies as being completely stupid, their request seem to reflect that they are. Since they believe word-for-word the preachings of their bringer-of-truths, Raja Petra (RPK), who supposedly has evidence of such meeting encounters then why do they not turn on this bringer-of-truths to show the facts?

It would be easier for everyone if RPK came out with whatever evidence to claim his accusations as being true. But the RPK worshiping types have let emotions and hatred get the better of them. Similarly, they will never turn on their Pakatan Rakyat state governments even if they have failed to deliver. It is ok to turn on Barisan Nasional (BN) but not ok to turn on Pakatan Rakyat and god-forbid, RPK.

I am personally sick and tired of this whole he-said, she-said nonsense. If these evidence holders do have what they say they have then please come out and say so. It is bad enough having to see this country run on auto-pilot for the last five years under Pak Lah's BN, it is even more frustrating to see the so-called options to BN, the Pakatan Rakyat doing the same. Their states too have no cohesion in governing. Their states too seem to run on auto-pilot while their so-called fearless leader runs around trying to form a government by poaching their opponents' MP's.

How on earth can we support another round of Pakatan rule in these states if they still behave like they're the opposition in states they rule? How can we support a supposed Prime Minister in waiting who is not interested in governing the five states he has won but instead is looking for ways to hold a much bigger position?

While the sentiment towards BN was bad in the March 2008 general elections, that does not give Anwar the right to claim that everyone wants him to be PM. His methods of acquiring power are, to me, unacceptable. To get MP's to hop is to disrespect the voters' choice. And even though five states fell and Parliament majority was less than 2/3's for the BN, that was what the people wanted. Does he have no respect for the people's decision?

Please put this Altantuya thing to rest and start working on governing the country. This goes to both BN and Pakatan.

Najib and Muhyiddin should start working now and do whatever it takes to restore confidence back into Umno and the BN. The corruption issues that everyone knows about, be it at the government or party levels, as well as the ongoing internal bickering for party posts, should be looked into seriously and rectified.

And Anwar should take charge of his Pakatan state governments. It's all going haywire with their opposition minded ruling loose-coalition. As de facto leader, it is his duty to ensure that the states run by his people do a good job. Enough of this MP poaching business.

The people have spoken in the elections and BN was still voted in the Federal Government. For someone who claims to be fighting for the rakyat, Anwar doesn't seem to want to accept or respect the people's decision. Stop talking about political tsunamis. The tsunami came and went. It came in March and left on September 16. He has certainly, now, been ruled out by many as being PM material.

In the end, what choices do we have left? Both sides must prove their worth.

Between mindset and birthright

2008-11-20T01:55:00.000-08:00

I remember a time not too long ago, I was at Pantai Medical Centre waiting next to my Wife who had just undergone a minor Laproscopic procedure. It took a while for her come around given that the whole procedure was done under general anesthetic. So I switched on my laptop and started looking for friends to chat with using the instant messenger. It was then that I chatted with an old friend Kay online.

Kay is the wife of a school friend, Leigh. While Kay is the daughter of a class "F" contractor, Leigh is the son of a retired police Assistant Commissioner. Kay attended a Mara run boarding school for the entire duration of her secondary education and Leigh attended a "normal" missionary founded school in Kuala Lumpur with me.

Anyway, the gist of the conversation started with the usual "how's work?" and later delved into flashbacks of our Uni days. Kay attended, after her SPM, a Mara run preparatory ('A' Levels and twinning program) college and later a University in the United Kingdom. Leigh on the other hand, attended ITM, upon completion of our SPM, and later a University in Australia. Both spouses benefited from Mara higher education funding. While Kay converted her initial study loan to a full scholarship, given her good grades, Leigh is, until today, making monthly payments at the nearest post office to pay back part of his study loan. The percentage of the study loan to be repaid was in accordance to the grades he achieved in his Bachelor's degree.

Today, Kay works as a Manager with a Government Linked Company, while Leigh works as a Senior Executive at a foreign owned Multinational Corporation. Being in their mid-30's, their careers are climbing. They are the proud parents of 3 children: 2 girls and a boy. They own a house in the urban part of Selangor as well as two Proton cars.

Anyway, back to the conversation with Kay. As we chatted further, the issue of scholarships came to be the topic. I remember telling dear Kay that it has, perhaps, come the time when Malays who have made it in life start fending for themselves. Perhaps the benefits of Mara Scholarships be given to the needy, with reference of course given to her, Leigh and their 3 children. Kay suddenly became defensive and said "no way! apahal pulak I nak forgo my right...."

What upset me was that Kay and Leigh, both being financially able Malays, have this idea in the back of their mind that when the time comes for their kids to further their education, they will turn to the government and expect their kids to be taken care of as they were.

They seem to think that self-funding tertiary education among the Malays are reserved purely for those who own 5 cars, live in 2.5 million ringgit detached houses and are Directors of some public listed company. I tried to bring in the rationale that she herself was a product of Mara schooling and higher education funding while Leigh was a product of only higher education funding. As it was, NEP had succeeded in creating two able and professional Malays who would later fend for themselves and give the opportunity of scholarships and study loans to the more needy. She begged to differ.

After around 10 minutes of what was a dead-end conversation, I decided to change the topic as I find friendships to be extremely valuable. Although Kay and Leigh (whom I later found out shared his wife's sentiments on the same issue) have differing opinions to me, I was not about to break a bond forged over two decades just to make a stand on a particular issue. Be that as it may, they are good friends of mine till this very day.

What is disappointing to note was the hand out mentality the couple, Kay and Leigh, possessed. If the government agencies like Mara and JPA were to continue to fund every possible Malay with "good" (highly debatable these days) grades, then when will the buck stop?

Kay and Leigh have reached a level of comfort and security in their incomes. While they may not be rich, they do enjoy a middle class if not upper middle class lifestyle. So what's so wrong about making way for another "Kay" of the next generation to make something of herself? Perhaps the son or daughter of a farmer or another class "F" contractor can benefit from the taxpayers contribution to society?

Although there have been calls by Pakatan Rakyat parties such as the ever irritating Dap to wipe out NEP in favour of their so-called meritocracy, I am against it for I do not believe NEP should be wiped out. If anything, NEP is mismanaged. If the children of Kay and Leigh get scholarships, then it is surely an abuse of the system.

What we need is better management of NEP. One too many times have we heard of people of decently high incomes sending their kids off to Uni on a government scholarship simply because they know someone at these scholarship awarding bodies. That is not right. Scholarships should be given on merit and financial standing. Similarly, I despise the skim anak kakitangan Petronas scholarships. When I was in Uni for my Bachelor's degree in Australia, I had come accross offsprings of their Senior Management happily having their studies paid for by Petronas when in fact they have parents who could afford to send them. Shouldn't the scholarship be given to the needy?

Somehow, somewhere along the way, we have become an ungreatful and forgetful hand out seeking race. How true was Dr. Mahathir when he said Melayu mudah lupa. These able Malays have quickly forgotten the purpose of these benefits which were to help the needy Malays and others to better themselves.

The goal should be to assist one generation so that for the next generation, others can enjoy the same assistance. I once again state that I am against the wiping out of NEP but am all for the better management of it. The problems we see today are the product of mismanagement, nothing more nothing less. There should be better checks to ensure that the system is not abused as it is today. When did assistance for the needy turn into a birthright? Somewhere along the way, what was intended as an assistance for the underprivileged turned into a birthright for the established.

Change needs to be implemented. Not a change in the Policy but a change in the mindset. Can the government of the next Prime Minister do it? I'd be, and so will many Malaysians, impressed if he does. Can Najib initiate the better management of NEP? That would certainly put Umno and BN back on track.

Islam Hadhari sudah sampai hadnya dan sudah sampai harinya?

2008-11-19T19:30:00.001-08:00

Akhbar The Star hari ini telah memaparkan berita mengenai pandangan bekas Perdana Menteri (PM) Dr. Mahathir Mohamad (Dr.M) tentang kesanggupan bakal Perdana Menteri Najib Abdul Razak untuk meneruskan dasar-dasar kerajaan pimpinan Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (Pak Lah), terutamanya dasar Islam Hadhari.

Dr.M juga telah mengulas demikian di blognya sendiri. Pada pendapat bekas PM, tiada gunanya peralihan kuasa diadakan jika ianya hanya sekadar peralihan menggantikan pemimpin dan bukannya pemimpin bersama dasar-dasarnya sekali. Jika diteliti, memang benar pendapat itu kerana tidak masuk akal juga jika dasar-dasar yang telah ditolak oleh ahli Umno, ahli Barisan Nasional, para pengundi serta rakyat jelata diguna pakai oleh pengganti Pak Lah.

Didalam sesuatu peralihan kuasa, ciri-ciri penyambungan (continuity) sepatutnya ada. Namun begitu, itu tidak bermakna dasar-dasar yang ditolak ramai perlu disambungkan oleh pemimpin yang akan datang.

Apakah sebenarnya masalah Najib? Dari dulu lagi Najib menunjukkan watak seorang pak sanggup. Sanggup menunggu di belakang dan menyokong Pak Lah yang terang-terang membawa BN, Umno, orang Melayu dan rakyat Malaysia merudum ke arah yang tidak menentu. Apakah Najib begitu yakin dengan kepimpinan Pak Lah sehingga sanggup membawa dasar-dasar Pak Lah ke era kepimpinannya sendiri? Tidakkah Najib sedar bahawa penolakan Pak Lah oleh rakyat, pengundi dan ahli Umno cukup sebagai bukti yang mereka ini menolak bukan sahaja Pak Lah malah dasar-dasarnya?

Bulan Mac tidak jauh dari sekarang dan jika Najib ingin dilihat sebagai pemimpin yang mantap, pemimpin yang berwibawa dan pemimpin yang dapat mengembalikan semula Umno dan BN kepada sebuah parti yang memperjuangkan orang-orang Melayu dan rakyat Malaysia secara kesuluruhannya, maka Najib perlu berfikir secara waras tentang dasar-dasar dan program-program Pak Lah yang akan dibawa bersamanya ke pimpinannya sendiri nanti.

Secara terbuka, saya mengaku saya dan ramai lagi warga Malaysia tidaklah begitu gemar kepada Islam Hadhari sepertimana saya tidak begitu gemar kepada orang yang mempropagandakannya iaitu Pak Lah. Bagi saya, Islam itu Islam. Sudah cukup teruk sebelum ini adanya Islam-bukan-Pas dan Islam-Pas, perlukah kita mewujudkan segolongan lagi penyokong Islam politik bertemakan Islam Hadhari?

Sudahlah tu, cukuplah dengan Islam Hadhari. Kepimpinan Umno yang akan datang lebih baik berusaha ke arah menyatupadukan umat Islam dinegara ini. Tidak mengapa jika masing-masing punyai pendapat politik sendiri, tapi janganlah sampai kerana politik Islam diperalatkan, dipergunakan oleh parti sendiri dan parti-parti komponen. Seumpama itu, jangan juga dibiarkan Islam diperkecil-kecilkan, diperkotak-katikkan dan dipersendakan oleh parti-parti lawan dan persatuan-persatuan bukan Islam.

Islam Hadhari, sudahkah sampai masanya ianya dikuburkan? Sudahkah sampai hadnya dan sudahkah sampai harinya?

Taksubness

2008-11-18T23:55:00.001-08:00

Of late, there's been a lot of blogger bashing going on. To be more accurate, Rocky bashing.

Saudara Rocky has always enjoyed a good following of his blog due to, what I perceive as, unbiased reporting on his part. The blood thirsty Malay bashing Pakatan Rakyat types enjoyed reading his writings and leaving comments as well. True enough, most of us were pissed off with the Barisan Nasional: Pre-Pak Lah's resignation announcement, as many saw Pak Lah and family as the cause for this country's downfall and Umno's and BN's as well.

But after Pak Lah announced his pending departure next March, many saw an opportunity to give Umno and the BN the time of day once again, albeit not as accomodating as before. Fair enough. With all the screw ups that has happened in the last 5 years, it's only fair to us that Umno and BN be treated with suspicion. If anything, to get Umno and BN back to reality.

After Raja Petra (RPK) was detained, things got out of hand. His ardent Malaysia Today followers searched high and low for other blogs that they could go to to express their typical anti-government, anti-BN, anti-Umno, anti-Malay and anti-Islam/Muslim feelings. They were like drug addicts looking for their next fix. Be that as it may, Rocky's Bru was one such place they thought they could go to to get their daily "high" on racism.

You see Malaysia Today (MT) fans are real junkies. They are truly addicted to being racists on a daily basis. As blogger KijangMas pointed out in his blog, Demi Negara, these MT junkies will loose the reason for living should MT close down.

Anyway, back to the junkies and Rocky. When they visited Rocky's Bru and discovered that Rocky did not share all their negative sentiments towards the government, BN, Umno, Malays, Islam and Muslims, they went on a rampage. They started calling Rocky all kinds of unpleasant names and branding him a sellout and such.

These people so vehemently call for free press, justice, equality blah, blah, blah, blah.... but the minute someone disagrees with them they throw a tantrum. Is it really a free society when one is slammed for not adhering to the mobs philosophy of things? Is it really a free press when one must always and only condemn the government? Is it really equality when one is expected to always share the views of the disgruntled?

Somehow, winning 5 state governments have made these idiots big headed. They now think that they are the majority. Well, they're not! The majority has spoken. It spoke during the March 2008 general elections and they continued to speak after that. So much so that their voices paved the way to Pak Lah's eventual announcement of his resignation.

While they perceive BN to be a racist party, there are others out there who also think that their loose coalition is racist as well. They may not practice the multiple race based parties under one roof formula but they may still be racist in a myriad of other ways.

I think what bloggers like Saudara Rocky criticize, at times, is about the way they govern their controlled states. Their policies, their implementation of policies etc. Are they so perfect that they can do no wrong? So taksub?

If they cannot even accept constructive criticism, how on earth do they expect us to give them control of the Federal Government and more state governments if they continue to behave this way?

At least Saudara Rocky is dignified in the way he comments or criticizes the Pakatan Rakyat people, parties and state governments. He does not stoop so low as to have fart chambers in his blog like some bloggers do. Perhaps some pro-Pakatan bloggers may feel that fart chambers are hilarious to them but if the chamber were occupied by members of Pakatan Rakyat instead of the usual BN people, civil servants and enforcement officers would they still think of it as being funny? Would they still find it acceptable? I wonder.... IF the day were to ever come when Zorro (the owner of the above mentioned fart chamber) decides to throw in Lim Kit Siang, Lim Guan Eng, Karpal Singh, Teresa Kok, Anwar Ibrahim and the likes of them into his infamous fart chamber, will they, the Pakatan fanatics, accord him the same cordial treatment they gave Rocky?

Apart from condemning Saudara Rocky for his non-pro-Pakatan stand on certain issues, these pro-Pakatan MT junkies have lately showed this obsessive need for Rocky to "come out" or "come clean" as a pro-BN blogger. Hey! It's a free country. Rocky can do whatever he wants, so long as it's within the law of course. When has it been a crime to not reveal one's political inclinations?

While many pro-Pakatan MT junkies feel the need to be obnoxious and boastful about which side they're on, there are also others out there who, although not outright Pakatan supporters, despise the ISA. There are many out there who share the frustrations with Pakatan Rakyat supporters on certain issues. But it does not mean that if they are anti-ISA they must all "come out" and admit the fact. And if they feel RPK's incarceration was worngful, need they wear "I'm with RPK" t-shirts? The same applies to bloggers, should they all display "I'm a Barisan Rakyat Blogger" on their blog each time they disagree with the BN government of the day? Not everyone is loud and obnoxious.

Pakatan supporters please grow up! If these show of arm twisting lynch mob type attitudes of Pakatan supporters, who now ONLY control five states, are a sneak preview to what's in store for us if they come into power, then many will be more than reluctant to put characters like these in control of the federal government.

Unprincipled Principal

2008-11-18T17:02:00.001-08:00

Following her outburst, in Malaysiakini, concerning her employment and it's ceasation, former University Malaya Vice-Chancellor Rafiah Salim tried to do an exposé of the obvious. Read about it at Malaysiakini.

She claims:

"Things like who can we bring in to speak to the students, who we can't - even among the Barisan Nasional people"

and further states:

"It has become a very sensitive job to carry out but as I was focused on what I wanted to do for UM, I had to swallow these nonsense, otherwise I will not be able to do what I want to do for UM."

She also stated that the University and University Colleges Act (UUCA) was among the factors attributing to what was clearly political interference in the running of universities and of the prohibitions she mentioned above.

When asked by Malaysiakini why she remained quiet all this while, particularly regarding the UUCA, and is only highlighting such information after her departure from UM, Rafiah said:

"Can I undo the UUCA? No way-lah, a lot of weight? Come on, don't joke. If the opposition and their bigwigs in Parliament can't change the UUCA, I orang makan gaji (a wage earner), you think they want to listen to me?"

In a nutshell, she is of the belief that it is not ok to make noise while serving as VC (then), but it is ok to make noise after being shown the exit (now)?

If she thinks they won't listen to an orang makan gaji, would she think they will take seriously an orang tak ada kerja? Sounds like she's trying to say that her principles during her service and after serving as principal of our most premier university changes according to her position.

For someone who's trying to show that she's principled, she has now ended up looking like a sour-grape that's disgruntled about not being extended in service.

Definitely not a principled principal.

Is it goodbye or good riddance?

2008-11-17T08:30:00.001-08:00

I recently read on Din Merican's blog the story of immediate past Vice-Chancellor of University Malaya, Rafiah Salim's outburst to Malaysiakini regarding her tenure as the country's oldest university's VC.

The grouses highlighted, among others, was that her tenure was for only two years. Although she was extended on contract basis for another six months, she claimed that men are given three year contracts and cites gender discrimination among the factors for the non-extension of her service contract beyond two years and six months. She further claimed that:

"Just because we are women and we don't have that thing between the legs so we are not good"

A VC actually made reference to genitals, in a non-scientific way, in an interview? Aisayman.... malulah!

To be fair, let's have a closer look....

Under her stewardship, University Malaya's publications rose from 3,300 three years ago to 5,882 as of June this year. However, UM's Times Higher Education Supplement rankings only climbed from ranking 246 to 230. Wow, that's really great! We still haven't gotten out of the below-200 mark. But which is more important, publications or rankings? I doubt students would want to attend University Malaya based on how many books they published in a year. Students, Parents and sponsors usually look for "good" Universities and good Universities are normally placed quite favourably in rankings. Below 200 doesn't really cut it.

Now unless she's the modest type who doesn't like to flaunt her doctorates, I believe this woman doesn't have one nor has she ever been a Professor. She was merely a law lecturer maaaany years ago.

I've always been of the opinion that Universities are the pinnacle of higher education. In particular, research based education. How on earth could this half-past-six Pak Lah government appoint a person who is not even a Professor, let alone a doctorate holder, to head our research degree awarding "premier" University?

Furthermore, how on earth could anyone lacking in the right credentials accept such an offer to head a university? That makes the appointee as equally ridiculous as the people who appointed her in the first place.

Anyway, she says she has booked herself tickets to visit her grandchildren (possibly the ones in Bahrain) and is no longer interested in the job. Well, good for you! Happy holidays and farewell Madam Vice-Chancellor....

Should we say good bye or good riddance?

Is Racial Politics still relevant?

2008-11-16T21:16:00.000-08:00

I refer to Dr. Mahathir's blog Che Det for inspiring this short, intermission like, article of mine.

Since the March 2008 general elections, the Pakatan Rakyat people, politicians and supporters alike, have claimed so confidently that the Malaysian general public, being the voters, have rejected race-based politics in favour of the so-called meritocracy that they, Pakatan Rakyat, claim to be championing.

If that be so, then I challenge the Pakatan Rakyat trio of Pkr, Pas and Dap to prove themselves right. Why don't they field non-Malay candidates in Malay dominant constituencies and Malay candidates in non-Malay infested constituencies? ada berani ke?

For example, let's put Lim Kit Siang in Parit Buntar for parliament and perhaps Kg. Medan for the state seat. Field Teresa Kok in Shah Alam, Hadi Awang in Seputeh, Khalid Ibrahim or even Nik Aziz in Balakong among others. If Malaysians have well and truly rejected race-based politics in favour of Pakatan Rakyat's so-called brand of equality, justice, meritocracy blah, blah, blah, blah.... then they should not have a problem winning seats in what is basically a race dominated constituency. And by coming from a race that is not the majority race of the constituency, they will have all the chance in the world to prove themselves right or shamelessly wrong.

I'm not talking about fielding these people in mixed constituencies. I'm talking about fielding them in Malay-ultra, Chinese-ultra and Indian-ultra areas. Only then can this supposed assumption that Malaysians have well and truly rejected race-based politics be proven. Ada berani?

Talk is cheap! Walk the talk lah....

A matter of choice

2008-11-16T06:08:00.001-08:00

With Umno divisional meetings having ended last week, the large number of those eligible to contest for the much coveted party posts are clear of their first hurdle. Campaigning either being a "soft" campaign or an obvious all-out campaign are well under way.

From last week until March next year, there is so much room to improve or to worsen one's chances of being elected to a party post. Aspiring candidates will have to make the best out of whatever time (and obviously money) for them to secure votes in the run up to the March party polls.

I would like to remind Umno members that their party is THE backbone of the Barisan Nasional. Whatever transpires in March and it's subsequent outcome will have a significant impact on the direction of the party and subsequently it's survival in the long run.

Before we even touch on campaigning for votes, we have been given news of characters the likes of Muhammad Muhd Taib, Ali Rustam, Hishamuddin Hussein, Zahid Hamidi, Khaled Noordin, Shafie Apdal and many more like them having made the cut to run in March. That is alarming indeed.

The delegates must be aware that their choices may make or break the party. They must take into account, apart from the short-term, the long-term implications of voting for particular candidates. Factors like continuity must be taken into account.

Even though the post of Vice-President is not a guarantee of future Prime Ministership, delegates must take into account the people they choose. As we've seen in our history deaths take place without warning. In 1973, Dr. Ismail Abdul Rahman passed away and the Prime Minister then had to choose a new deputy. Similarly in 1976, when Abdul Razak Hussin passed away, his successor had to make a choice for a deputy from among the 3 Umno VP's. These VP's will eventually (but not a guarantee) take over the helm of the country's leadership should the Prime Minister resign or even die in office.

With that short history brief above, I hope the delegates will look beyond "who's willing to pay more for votes" and think of what is best for Malaysians (first and foremost), the Malays and then the party. The choice of candidates they choose must be a person capable enough to lead amidst a country so full of contempt towards Umno and the BN.

Money politics has been an obvious problem here, since very many unqualified and questionable characters have somehow made it as candidates. It will continue to be a problem in March and later on through the years unless something is done about it.

Should Najib Abdul Razak be outsted or dies six months in office (you never know), and the deputy takes over, the new PM may most likely choose a deputy from among the three VP's the delegates chose. Umno delegates must choose capable VP's to fill the void as a contingency plan. That is why the VP post is a crucial one. Too much hype is given to the Deputy President's post without considering the eventual effects the VP's have on Umno in the long run.

Umno members should ask themselves this.... Based on nominations for the VP post, the top contenders seem to be Hishamuddin, Zahid and Shafie. Are they worthy to lead our nation? Is it a mere popularity contest? Have they as Ministers been effective? What kind of policies have they churned out since holding Ministerships? and are they acceptable by the general public (i.e: the voters).

Hisham will never, I believe, be able to shed himself of that stupid keris wielding episode he made a few years ago. He has somehow branded himself as a Malay extremist. And a not so bright one at that. His credibility as a leader for all Malaysians is highly questionable. His policies on Education? can't say that we've seen anything outstanding from him.

Does he think that just because his father was our third PM it makes it his birth right to be PM? His cousin (Najib) seems to be inclined that way. Hence, Najib's "faithful" following of a failed Prime Minister (Abdullah) playing the waiting game to take over. If that is the future PM, I'd be afraid for the party.

Zahid Hamidi? Hmmmm.... Let's just say that the new Minister for Islamic Affairs, to me, is not a suitable choice for VP either. How on earth can a former Chairman of a conventional bank be made Minister of Islamic Affairs? It would not be so bad if he Chaired an Islamic bank or any bank that didn't derive it's income from riba' and interest. As bad as Dr.M was in the eyes of many, he had always brought in people from Islamic institutions like Pusat Islam. Examples of which are: Yusof Noor, Hamid Othman and Hamid Zainal Abidin. Whether or not these Pusat Islam people turned corrupt or not was an issue related to politics after their appointments as Minister. The point is, when they were brought in, they were technically scholars of the Islamic faith. Zahid should have, in my opinion, turned down the Islamic Affairs portfolio. He should have known for himself if he is suitable of not. The fact that he took up the post have made him somewhat "questionable" to people like me.

What about Shafie?.... as Domestic Trade & Consumer Affairs Minister prices of rice, sugar and flour, as I remember, were not well controlled. No doubt global factors attribute to such rises but as Minister, certains policies could've been implemented to curb such increases in daily necessities. All I can say that his performance in that capacity was lackluster at best.

So, back to my earlier hypothesis: if the new PM is outsted (by his party) or dies in office, how on earth can the new PM choose a new deputy from among these three?

I ask Umno delegates to think long and hard before casting their votes this coming March. No doubt money will be splashed their way but please think of the future.

If it is so hard to not accept bribes from the candidates, then I suggest they take the money but not vote the lousy one's into office. After all, undi itu rahsia.

I'm remembering a phrase quoted to me by my Kelantanese friend back in the 1999 general elections when asked about Umno-Pas campaign strategies. It was quite obvious back then that some parties were giving "goodies" to lure support. My friend said: "bagi pitih ambik, bagi kain ambik. Bila pangkah, pangkah bulé".

If it is soooo hard for them to not accept bribes from candidates then at least do what my Kelantanese friend said, albeit in the Umno elections context. So, please think long and hard about the future of Malaysians, the future of Malays and the future of the coming generations.

Cheers!

Mobile Number Portability

2008-11-15T00:56:00.001-08:00

Competition is great!

At the end of it all, the consumer will get the best out of these huge corporations and their marketing strategies.

I ported my number from a "private" telco to a GLC telco recently. Reason for doing so was due to the pricing of packages offered by the competing telco's.

Also, given that I'm a BlackBerry user, the GLC telco, at the time, had a rate for unlimited data usage which was 2/3's the rate of the private telco. On top of which they offered a "family package" which included free calls, sms, mms and video calls to numbers within the subscribed package, wonderful!

Even better, today I received a cheque from the private telco for the International Roaming deposit I paid for three phone lines in year 2000. The amount almost touched a thousand Ringgit. My new GLC telco did not require any such deposit when I ported to them so today I have almost a thousand ringgit more in my bank account thanks to Mobile Number Portability.

The catch, however, is to call up the private telco and inform them of the port. It was only after I called that arrangements were made to have my International Roaming deposit refunded back to me. Otherwise they would have conveniently forgotten about it and the whole process would've taken ages.

So, for those who have ported out to new telcos don't forget to check for deposits paid to the previous telco when you signed up ages ago. It may not be much but it's still our money. Go take back what's rightfully yours.

Cheers!

Multiple languages in a multiracial Malaysia. Is it feasible?

2008-11-13T02:53:00.000-08:00

This week has certainly been an exciting one. The ball started rolling when blogger KijangMas, through his blog Demi Negara, posted an article that touched on the usage of Bahasa Malaysia as the unifying factor in the quest to create Bangsa Malaysia.

I am inclined to agree that one language is the key to forging one nationality and one race, albeit the Malaysian race. KijangMas raised points of the Perak state government creating or trying to create multiple service counters in government departments to cater to the different languages spoken by the Perak state population. Ultimately, these service counters will too cater to different races and subsequently creating a big, if not bigger, racial divide among the already loosely united ethnic groups within this country of ours.

And who can forget that cockamamey, idiotic suggestion by Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng? The suggestion of having multilingual road signs in Penang? I find it absolutely absurd that this is happening here.

As an example, lets take a good look at a country that has language differences within it's own boundaries.

Switzerland is one such country that has practiced the usage of different languages in different parts of the country. In detail, Switzerland has officially four languages. Much like our country that has Bahasa Malaysia, Cantonese/Mandarin and Tamil. The Swiss have in place of Bahasa Malaysia, Cantonese/Mandarin and Tamil: German, French and Italian where the demographics show that 64% of the population speak a Swiss variation of German commonly known as Swiss German, 19% of the population speaking French and another 8% speaks Italian. English, although not being an "official" language, is now a highly sought after language with Swiss nationals slowly but surely embracing the use of the English language particularly in the German and French speaking regions.

Their forth official language known as Romansch, a Rhaeto-Romanic language, is a variation of Latin brought about by the Romans during the era of the Roman occupation of Switzerland. Approximately 0.9% of Swiss nationals are well versed in Romansch, particularly those in the South Eastern canton (the Swiss equivalent to a state or province) of Graubunden.

Back to the comparison with Malaysia. If one travels to Switzerland, one can't help but notice that each region uses just one language: the official language of the canton. For example, sign boards to Geneva will read "Geneve" if one is traveling in the French speaking cantons, "Genf" if driving from a German speaking canton and "Ginvera" if traveling from an Italian speaking canton. No where will you find a "multilingual" sign displaying the direction to Geneva in 3 or 4 languages. It will not only be confusing but also an eye sore. How big a road sign will they need to do that?

Similarly, the idiotic idea of having road signs in 3 languages here in Malaysia will prove to be idiotic as well. Are we catering to a crowd of Malaysians that do not understand Bahasa Malaysia?

Furthermore, I find remarks and statements by senior members of the Barisan Nasional in support of this to be an absolute pathetic attempt of being more Chinese than the DAP. Take newly elected MCA Deputy President Dr. Chua Soi Lek. The now returned political has-been has been trying extra hard to be extra Chinese. Perhaps to be more Chinese than Lim Guan Eng by defending the usage of multiple languages in road signs. His ridiculous reasoning for his stand on the issue can be read in today's Star.

Soi Lek reasons that:

“Bahasa Malaysia should be an agent of unity and all Malaysians have accepted it. But do not deprive others of learning other languages,”

Is the good doctor implying that in order to learn another language, we should put up road signs in those languages? and if the purpose of such road signs is for the ease of tourists, why do we not see road signs in Mandarin displayed in Australia (a favourite country of the Chinese, particularly Malaysian Chinese)? and why do we not see road signs in Chinese or Tagalok in San Francisco? or for that matter, road signs in Bahasa Malaysia or Cantonese in Southern Thailand, where many Malaysians go to entertain themselves? Let's not forget Singapore (a favourite comparison to Malaysia). As Chinese as Singapore is, you'll be hard pressed to find road signs or street names in Cantonese/Mandarin.

Perhaps we are a real far cry away from being a nation with one language for all, that is more than obvious. And the Swiss formula is not workable here either. For the Swiss, using one language as the official medium results in total usage of such languages in the canton. Meaning a French speaking canton will not use at all German or Italian in their official business, road signs included. Furthermore, the Swiss' different languages has geography as a factor rather than race. For them a particular region denotes the language used. For us, it's based on race and our different races aren't region specific, they're practically everywhere. So, in the end we need one language to bridge all gaps and divides.

If DAP and/or Chua Soi Lek, either separately or collectively, feel that there is a need to have official signs in Cantonese/Mandarin or any other mainland China dialect they like, then they should officially announce Penang as being a state within the Federation of Malaysia that uses Cantonese/Mandarin as the official language. That will inevitably mean DAP and subsequently Pakatan Rakyat losing out Malay votes in the next general elections, not only from Penang but most likely from other states as well. They will be perceived (if not already seen to be so) as super-duper-ultra-Chinese and losing out on Malay votes will be a definite yes. So, if they really want Cantonese/Mandarin printed on road signs, please declare Penang's official language as Cantonese/Mandarin. Ada berani ke?

Before I end, there is no way Penang can change to a non-Malay speaking state even if they wanted to since the Bahasa Malaysia is somewhat embedded in the constitution. And by changing languages, it will make it unconstitutional. In fact adding Cantonese/Mandarin, Tamil or even Arabic languages to road signs is unconstitutional. The only way that Lim Guan Eng can add Cantonese/Mandarin to signs in Penang is for Penang to declare themselves independent and draft a new constituion of their own stating the usage of multiple languages thereby creating rojak like road signs in his new country. Once again I ask, ada berani ke saudara Lim Guan Eng?

Anyway, let's just leave it at that for now.

Filing an appeal is now "abuse of power"....

2008-11-10T23:24:00.000-08:00

It is the same old tired faces we see on tv (and more hilariously on YouTube) each time a segment of Parliament is shown. As always, the likes of Lim Kit Siang and Karpal Singh along with the so-called pseudo-liberal-intellectual Malays of PKR and PIS-M (Parti Islam Se-Malaysia). They will debate or try to debate on issues. Without being biased some issues raised are of concern to most if not all Malaysians, some are just a biiiig theatrical performance in the name of so-called justice.

In today's Star there was an article that described opposition dinosaur Kit Siang trying to put on yet another show by calling for the house to debate upon the Home Minister's decision to file an appeal against the release of Malaysia Today editor Raja Petra Kamarudin. Kit Siang claims that:

"Syed Hamid’s decision to appeal against the High Court decision was a form of abuse of power by the Executive against the Judiciary."

How the hell did he come up with that conclusion?

Basically, Kit Siang is of the belief that ONLY pro-opposition people have a right to make an appeal and that any appeal made by the government is an “abuse of power”.

Biased? Or is it the prequel to his subordinate's civil suit against certain parties? Does Kit Siang hope that if the house mellows down on the Raja Petra appeal issue then the house (and possibly the government) will back down from any forms of appeal should Kit Siang's subordinate win her civil suit on the first round?

As usual, the theatrical performance is dramatic at best and leaves the viewer much to be desired from such an actor. This certainly won't qualify Kit Siang for any award as the performance is as see-through as a transparent underwear.

Logically, an abuse of power can be termed as such if the Home Minister disobeys the Shah Alam High Court's orders and continues to detain or re-detains Petra on the same grounds.

On what grounds is he making such a claim of abuse of power? I am no fan of Syed Hamid, he too is a dinosaur waiting to be put to pasture but stopping him from making an appeal? Alas, too much drama by a veteran actor trying helplessly to look relevant.

Jeez.... get a life dude! And while you're at it, polish up on your Bahasa Malaysia. There can't be a "Bangsa Malaysia" or "Malaysian Malaysia" if two thirds of the population speak Bahasa Malaysia while the remainder speak some dialect of a language that belongs to a country thousands of miles away.

Can or not? think about it.