Thursday, December 31, 2009

If you are visiting Taipan USJ for business or shopping, please take note

With effect from January 1st 2010, Subang Jaya Municipal Council (MPSJ) will implement a new parking system that has a one-hour only restriction on parking in USJ 10 (Taipan).

Shop owners, workers and residents who require longer parking are encouraged to apply for the monthly parking pass or use the multi-storey car park. The cost of the monthly pass has been reduced from RM150 to RM80, MPSJ president Datuk Adnan Md Ikshan said.

From January 1st, the machines would be tuned to accept an hour of parking fee only. Car owners, who wish to park for more than one hour, have to make payment again when the period runs out.

Subang Jaya ADUN Hannah Yeoh said that here more than 1,100 parking lots are available at Taipan USJ area, including the multi-storey car park.

This system will be on trial for three (3) months. MPSJ are welcoming feedback from residents. All feedback can be sent to the following email address: fadzil@mpsj.gov.my .

And the misdeeds continue ...

Chang Lih Kang (left), the Perak PKR Vice Chairman and Teja assemblyperson, had recently turned the spotlight on a land scam involving 40 lots of state land in Sungai Itek meant for the poor and landless. Instead, they were given to 10 committee members of the Umno Gopeng division. On Dec 16, Chang had lodged a report with the state Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) against menteri besar and state Umno chief Zambry Abdul Kadir and Umno Gopeng division chairman Hamzah Mohd Kassim over the scandal.

Later, Hamzah and senior BN state executive councillor Hamidah Osman in separate statements denied that they were at fault, blaming the Kampar district and land officer for the "blunder". Chang rapped Hamidah for defending Hamzah as she did not handle land matters which come under Zambry's portfolio. He also said there was clear conflict of interest, where Hamzah and Hamidah were both business partners in Projek Bitara Sdn Bhd. Hamidah is also Gopeng Umno wanita chief. Chang wants the 40 lots in dispute to be reallocated to poor deserving people and also legal action taken against Hamzah for abuse of power. "Otherwise, I will be forced to lodge an abuse of power report against the five members of the Kampar land committee members with the state MACC," he said.
[Source: Malaysiakini]
Geronimo's Take: These UMNO fellas have every opportunity of redeeming themselves after having staged a "coup" to take over the silver state early this year by being of service to the people of Perak, but no, they just have to find that opportunity of being self-serving instead. So sad!

Former Indonesian President, Gus Dur, dies


JAKARTA, Dec 30 — Indonesian media today reported the death of former president Abdurrahman Wahid, better known as Gus Dur.

According to Jakarta Globe he died in a hospital in the capital at 1945 Malaysian time today.

He was 69 years old.

According to Jakarta Globe the former president had been undergoing regular dialysis for some time and was hospitalized last week after traveling in East Java.

Gus Dur served as president from 1999-2001 during the turbulent years following the resignation of strongman Suharto in 1998.

He was the longtime head of the Islamic organization Nahdlatul Ulama, and the founder of the National Awakening Party (PKB)

He was listed as one of the world’s 500 most influential Muslim figures in a book published by Washington’s Georgetown University last month.

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

GST For Dummies

This is the motive of the UMNO/BN Government.

Our Rakyat do not fully understand the implication of GST, until it is implemented and prices of goods spiraling upwards. By then it is too late.

A rich country like Singapore introduced GST at 3%.

A poor Malaysia wants to implement GST at 4%

GST is a multi-stage tax system.

Everything the sellers sold, from manufacturer, wholesaler to retailers, collect GST for the government. Unlike the current sales and service tax (SST) is a single-stage tax. Only one party along the supply chain collect the SST for the government. If the manufacturer collects the tax, the rest are not allowed to collect.

Just imagine every seller add GST when they sell.

For example: The current Sales Tax for Toilet soap is 10%. With GST, the manufacturer pays 4% to the government when he sells it to the Wholesaler, the Wholesaler pays the government another 4% when he sells to a Retailer; and when the Retailer sells it to the Consumer, he pays another 4% to the govt. The Consumer actually ends up paying more than 12% in cumulative GSTs for the same piece of soap or > 20% more in taxes. (10% vs 12%+++)

If the supply chain is longer than 3 stages, the consumer ends up paying 4% more for each addition stage. Eg Manufacturer to Agent (4%) to Wholesaler (4%) to Retailer (4%) to Consumer (4%).. Total 16% ++++ (vs 10%) or 60% more in taxes!!!!

If the GST is not stopped, the Rakyat will ended up paying very very very high prices for everything.

'When you have a government that can't cut down on financial wastage and curb corruption, the next best thing is to tax the rakyat and squeeze them further.'

Last Sunday, 13 December 2009, the Cabinet booked the entire Ballroom of Oriental Mandarin at KLCC for cabinet meeting. Isn't this a waste of Rakyat's money? Is our Putrajaya complex so run down and bad that it is not good enough for the minister to have a "talk shop" ?

It ended up that the DPM and Rais Yatim rejected the PM's proposal for 1 Malaysia. [What have I been saying all along?]

Taking a bunch of racist to a five-star hotel for nothing. What an absolute waste.

If you still not in the know, GST is not Goods & Service Tax but "Go Squeeze Them"!

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

After all that have been said and done, believe it or not, it is happening again


It is really unbelievable that despite the recent debate on the way the BTN conduct it's so called patriotic courses, it has happened again. Now, you know why Najib's 1Malaysia will never work as much as he would like us to believe it would. This is a letter to The Sun -



[Picture from The NutGraph]
MY nephew, a doctor, is upset and disappointed after attending an induction course from Dec 19 to 24 at the Bayu Beach Resort in Port Dickson.

The first four days of the programme was conducted by officials from the Health Ministry who were professional in their approach and methodology.

However, the sessions during next two days conducted by National Civics Bureau (Biro Tata Negara) were downright racist. It was sickening and nothing more than an exercise to divide Malaysian society, create disunity, instil hatred and discord.

Although my nephew is a Muslim and a Malay and was not the target of the BTN instructors, he and his other Muslim friends were sick and tired that their non-Muslim brothers and sisters were constantly labelled as “pendatang”. Malaysian Indians were continuously hounded regarding the actions of the now outlawed Hindraf movement.

One BTN instructor even had the temerity to say “no need to attend the BTN course if you think we are racist” and “we warn you not to report what happens here to the press or to anyone else.”

No need to attend? Can the chief secretary to the government (to whom the BTN reports directly) please confirm that the attendance at the programme is voluntary and participants can indeed choose not to attend without fear of being reprimanded and blacklisted later?

And the BTN instructors warned and threatened these young and intelligent doctors. Can we make police reports against them for threatening our children?

So much has been said about the BTN programme over the last few months and many federal ministers have defended it. The truth is either the ministers are ignorant or they simply lied through their teeth.

The prime minister himself had issued a gag order and said he would personally look into the programme. Thus, by continuing with their racist and fascist agenda, have the BTN instructors committed insubordination? Are their actions in line with the noble spirit of 1Malaysia, people first, performance now?

I take this opportunity to congratulate the civics bureau for its kind deed in inducting the 80-odd doctors who attended the programme into the folds of Pakatan Rakyat.

DRHS
Alor Star

You are off your rockers, Dr Mohd Ridhuan Tee Abdullah

When I first read this Dr Mohd Ridhuan Tee Abdullah's article"Accused As Criminals Better than being evil" goes to show how shallow he is in the handling of race relations, especially to the understanding of religious and cultural practices of the other races. His view points are so skewed that the only races he knows are Malays, Chinese and Indians. He failed to mention our East Malaysian brethren such as the Kadazans, the Ibans, the Bidayus, the Muruts, etc. It is with deep regret that this Tee fella has to resort to writing such distasteful article just to please the Muslims, and especially, UMNO. Bear in mind, he is a Chinese, but a wannabe Malay Muslim. It is really unforgiving to run down your own race just because he is a Muslim. I am interested to know what is shown under "Bangsa" on his MyKad, "Chinese, Malay or Pariah"?

What is most ludicrous is that he was able to come out with a formula which he wrote : "According to the year 2000 census, the percentages of Malaysians by religions were as follows: 60% Islam, 40% non-Malay (22% Buddhist-Taoism-Confucius, 9% Christian, 6% Hindu, 3% others). This formula can be applied in the context of the nationalization, including justification on the rights of religious festivals and celebrations of all races. This formula fulfills part of the meaning to justification in Islam which means to put things in its place although not completely." Is this guy for real or what? Will the UMNO government open up local universities to 40% non-Malay? Will all high ranking military officers be made up of 40% non-Malays, i.e. General 40%, Colonel 40%, Major 40%, etc. What about the civil service? 40% non-Malays? What about places of worship, say for Christians and Hindus? 40% allocation?

This type of writings by this Dr Tee has become very tiresome. I hope he is not one of the facilitators for any of the BTN modules. It will simply spell disaster by speeding up the cancerous growth of racism.

Fortunately, I came across a response by none other than blogger/lawyer Art Harun. You can read it here. You can also log in to MyAsylum blog for his comments.

With Dr Mohd Ridhuan Tee Abdullah, who needs 1Malaysia?

Monday, December 28, 2009

Why aren't they recognised?

It is very disturbing to note that whenever Malaysians, non-Malays that is, made the news, or received international acclaim, the UMNO government has a tendency of turning a blind eye in recognising the achievements of these Malaysians. Is it because they are non-Malays? These are the people who have put Malaysia on the world map for the right reason and made us proud. Certainly not some unworthy happenings like the murder of a Mongolian citizen, missing aircraft engines, FOREX loss, the PKFZ scandal, the cow head incident, committing sacrilege in a Catholic church and conducting coups of another state [just to name a few] which have made us t he world laughing stock instead. The silence from the government in not recognising the achievement of the non-Malays is most deafening. This is what meritocracy is all about. Competing among the best. Not the version expounded by UMNO. It is no mere wonder that such Malaysian achievers decided to stay abroad where their efforts continued to receive recognition. The brain drain has started years ago and now only, UMNO is showing concern. I believe it is too little too late to salvage the situation. These are the Malaysians that don't need land, prize money or titles as rewards. All they wanted was support and recognition (which cost very little) and yet UMNO could not afford these.

There have been cases of many achievements by non-Malays Malaysians but two stood out in recent times.

THE SECRETARY OF STATE AWARD FOR INTERNATIONAL WOMEN OF COURAGE
On March 12 2009, this is a prestigious award presented to our Ambiga Sreenevasan of the Malaysian BAR Council. The ceremony was held at the State Department in Washington DC in the presence of the Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton and the wife of the President, Michelle Obama. The question is, other than a small press release in The Sun, hidden somewhere in the inner pages, no other msm reported this event. The question is why? Oh, by the way, where is Sharizat. Did she say anything to commemorate this event since she is in charge of women affairs of the nation?


THE PEN DRIVE INNOVATION

By now, we all know that the founder of single chip USB flash pen drive( USB is universal serial bus) is from Malaysia.

He is a Malaysian Chinese from a small village in Sekinchan, and educated in an independent Chinese school, which is not the main stream education system in his country. He was a graduate with Master degree in electrical and control engineering, from National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan, a degree may not recognized by his country. The market reported that he designed the world first single chip USB flash pen-drive.

He is KS Pua (Pua Kian Seng ), the youngest CEO of Taiex darling stock, Phison Electronic, at 33 years old. Phison means 5 persons who found the company, which included two other Malaysians,
Aw Yong Chee Kong and KS Pua, both former students of Pin Hwa High School,Klang).

His biodata:
Birth date: 1974 in Sekinchan,Malaysia
Primary School:
(1981 ~ 1986)
Secondary School: (1987 ~ 1992)
Tertiary education:
Bachelor of NCTU, Taiwan (1993 ~ 1997), Master of Electrical & Control Engineering, NCTU, Taiwan (1998-1999)

Awards received:

  • ”The President Award of National Management Excellence Award 2006”
  • “Outstanding Young Manager Award” of HsinChu, Taiwan, 2005
  • “Outstanding Young Entrepreneur Award” of TAIWAN BUSINESS AWARDS, 2005
He has changed the world in data storage...he is the technology idol that Taiwan has produced for Malaysia. If he is still in Malaysia, the world may be still using floppy disk.

Taiwan education give him the opportunity, just like what his father said to him, when he was 9 years old. "People are not unlucky in their entire lives.if you work hard you will naturally be rewarded". Is it possible if he was not given the opportunity in education? Taiwan's liberal education has produced many successful people for Malaysian Chinese education students, but yet their degrees are not recognized by their own country (except recently dental and medical degrees have been accorded recognition). The justification was not clear, their standard (Taiwan universities rank among top in the global list), their language (Japanese and Korean universities, and western foreign language universities are recognized e.g. France, Germany, Russia).

This is global era, if you don't provide the reward after their hard work (many going to Taiwan with their own finance, some borrowed monies), they will stay in Taiwan. With our discriminating education recognization system, the country lost the talents. The consequence : Malaysia's loss, Taiwan's gain.

If our education is as good as claimed by UMNO, how come it has not generated world beaters?



Monday Humour


THREE NUNS AT A RUGBY MATCH
Because their habits were partially blocking the view, the men decided to badger the nuns hoping that they'd get annoyed enough to move to another area.

In a very loud voice, the first guy said, "I think I'm going to move to Sydney ... there are only 100 nuns there."

Then the second guy spoke up and said, "I want to go to Tasmania ... there are only 50 nuns living there."

The third guy said, "I want to go to New Zealand ... there are only 25 nuns living there."

One of the nuns turned around, looked at the men, and in a very sweet and calm voice said, "Why don't you go to hell ... there aren't any nuns there!"

Don't mess around with those girls.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
PERFORMANCE Vs POSITION
A priest dies and is awaiting his turn in line at the Heaven's Gates. Ahead of him is a guy, fashionably dressed, in dark sun glasses, a loud shirt, leather jacket and jeans.

God asks him, "Please tell me who are you, so that I may know whether to admit you into the kingdom of Heaven or not."

The guy replies, "I am Pandi, mini cab driver from Chennai."

God consults his ledger, smiles and says to Pandi, "Please take this silken robe and gold scarf and enter the Kingdom of Heaven."

Now it is the priest's turn. He stands erect and speaks out in a booming voice, "I am Pope's assistant so and so, Head Priest of the so and so Church for the last 40 years."

God consults his ledger and says to the priest, "Please take this cotton robe and enter the Kingdom of Heaven."

"Just a minute," says the agonised priest. "How is it that a foul mouthed, rash driving min cab driver is given a silken robe and a golden scarf and me, a priest, who spent his whole life preaching Your Name and goodness has to made do with a cotton robe?"

"Results, my friend, results" shrugs God. "While you preached, people SLEPT, but when he drove his mini cab, people really PRAYED."

It's PERFORMANCE and not POSITION that ultimately counts, meanting the KPI lah!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
COINCIDENCE?
Year 1981
1. Prince Charles got married
2. Liverpool crowned soccer Champions of Europe
3. Australia lost the Ashes tournament.
4. Pope Died

Year 2005
1. Prince Charles got married
2. Liverpool crowned soccer Champions of Europe
3. Australia lost the Ashes tournament
4. Pope Died
Lesson Learned? - the next time Charles gets married, someone please warn the
Pope.


Sunday, December 27, 2009

The power of Ean Yong Hian Wah

When I read the following article that appeared in the Malaysiakini, I thought it must be the portal's joke to round up the current year. You know what, it looks serious and it sounded serious but is it serious enough to warrant an investigation by the police on ADUN Ean Yong Hian Wah when they should be busy curbing crimes in the state.

Selangor police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said today Ean Yong Hian Wah's statement in the media directing the police to cease their investigation of Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng seemed like an attempt to intimidate the police.

WOW!!!! This is certainly news to me and I am sure, to many Malaysians too, that an ordinary ADUN like Ean Yong could possess such powers to intimidate the police, our police, you know - Polis Di Raja Malaysia? Now let's see what the 20th Century Chambers Dictioonary has to say about the word "Intimidate" : to strike fear into; to influence by threats or violence; compel the consent of another.

Now if we were to look again at the definition, it would appear that it aptly applies to the police than to an ordinary ADUN like YB Ean Yong. The feeling of being intimidated must have been so overpowering that Khalid had to resort to releasing such a ridiculous press statement to make himself look even more silly. There is a saying: "It is better to shut your mouth and appear like a fool than to open it and remove all doubts."

If Ean Yong could possess such powers enough to intimidate the police, I can imagine the powers of Lim Kit Siang and Karpal Singh.

Seri Kembangan state assemblyman Ean Yong Hian Wah is to be called up by the police over a statement he had made which allegedly intimidated the police.

NONESelangor police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said today Hian Wah's statement in the media directing the police to cease their investigation of Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng seemed like an attempt to intimidate the police.

"I wish to stress that the honourable member should not try to intimidate us by directing us to cease the investigation of Guan Eng," he told reporters at a gathering between the people and the police in Kuala Lumpur.

He said Hian Wah would be called up soon to have a statement recorded to help in an investigation under Section 506 of the Penal Code and the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998.

Khalid had said earlier that the Penang chief minister would be questioned for claiming, at the Pakatan Rakyat convention in Shah Alam on Dec 19, that Selangor political aide Teoh Beng Hock, who died after a fall at the Plaza Masalam in Shah Alam, was murdered.

-
Bernama

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

WHAT???? A second engine missing too????

The late Tunku once jokingly remarked that should our shores be invaded by foreign forces, we might as well just surrender as we did not then have the means to defend ourselves against nations with far more superior manpower and weapons. Now we have in our arsenal fighter jets which are supposed to protect us from the skies, have their engines gone missing. Earlier, it was reported that it was only one engine, but now a second one has also gone missing with many spare parts to boot. The person who did this is a traitor to the nation as by such an act, we have now become partly incapacitated to engage in any air defence of our country. Our national security to say the least, has been neutralised and compromised, and the person who did this must be shot. RM100m, not including the cost of the spare parts, are gone, sayonara, vaya con dios, aufweidesein. The loss of the engines happened a year ago but was only brought to light recently. The PM said that there would be no cover up, but who was covering it up all this time? Quite frankly, I just don't feel safe anymore with this government.

This is what blogger Art Harun has to say on the current state of affairs of our nation:. Will the submarines be next to suffer such fate?
The theft of not one, but TWO F5-E fighter jet engines from the Royal Malaysian Air Farce, eh sorry, Air Force, perhaps aptly defines the year 2009 as far as Malaysia (1 or otherwise) is concerned.

The absurdity of it all. And not to mention the audacity of it all. And as if to further add sodium chloride to the wide gaping wounds that all of us, Malaysians, suffer every time our so called leaders forget to take their medications, we are told that so and so have been sacked or told to leave their job, some even earning pensions and whatever.

First it was some plastic explosives being taken out from the storage to blow to smithereens some poor woman from far away lands, whose entry into Malaysia was erased from record. Just like that. As if C4 explosives from the people who are supposed to protect our country are just some cheap chewing gum which could be taken by anybody, at any time, for whatever reason. As if Immigration records are notations made on some scrap book which could be altered, amended or erased by anybody, at any time and for whatever reason.

And nobody even shake their butt to do anything. No report. No investigation. No blinking nothing. Just like that.

At the same time, the public has to endure living in fear of crimes. We have to keep even our rubbish bins in locks and chains. Our drainage cover has to be welded lest it will be stolen in bright day light. Our roads and lanes have instant holes as the sewage covers are stolen. The women can't even walk on the side of our roads for fear of being dragged to their death by handbag snatchers.

Nowhere is safe. Not even in the police lock-ups, as Kugan found out the hard way. Not at the MACC office either, if reports of torture and even death are to be believed.

Meanwhile, those upon whom are entrusted the duty to protect us are busy tracing individuals like Raja Petra Kamarudin, who apparently had so insulted Islam that he was, and still is, deemed to be a threat to national security. Even then, with all the might and powers of the State behind them, they are not able to trace him!

If RPK had insulted Islam, what about those who had walked after Friday prayers with bloodied and severed cow head with the policemen standing by the side doing nothing for fear of "making the situation worse"? Haven't they insulted Islam? What about those who said non-Malays are second class citizens? And those who wrote that the Kelings are so lucky to be in Malaysia that they should just shut up and count their blessings? Oh well, they are given a pat on their shoulder because the newspaper they wrote for is the "voice of the people".

And at the same time, billions are squandered, pillaged and stolen. PKFZ have become really dirty alphabets. And what do we all get? Yes. We get engineers, architects and some minions charged for falsifying claims and the likes. Now, the questions are, were all those false claims paid? If so, why? And who are the beneficiaries of those payments? Who authorised those payments? Aren't they guilty of something too?

Elsewhere we are the masters of sloganeering and self-glorification. We shout and scream 1 Malaysia at every possible instant and opportunity. Why? Even our mandatory "salam" has been reviewed to "Salam Satu Malaysia".

We have become, or been reduced to, a society which is shallow. Which is no deeper than our skin and the colour of it. We are obsessed with some drama actress becoming the second wife of a Member of Parliament who ironically declared that women "leaked" once a month. Never mind the FDIs. Never mind the proposed GST. Never mind the Copenhagen Conference failing to reach any kind of tangible consensus on climate control.

Never mind. Because we are a society who love celebrities and their weddings. And divorce too.

An old Professor of mine remarked something profound to me over tea some months ago. After leaving Malaysia for Japan for so many years, he observed that Japan had gone through a period of extreme physical and material transformations. Coming back to Malaysia briefly after some years, he also noted that Malaysia had achieved so much physical and material transformations, just like Japan.

But there is one marked difference. Japan and her people have not seen their values and honour change. Their values and old aged honour are still part of their society. They still know their responsibilities. Their duty to account. They still possess a deep sense of honour. And all that despite their physical and material achievements.

Malaysia and her people, according to him, have lost their sense of honour. We have changed our values. We are now measured not by our honesty, honour and sense of responsibility. We are now measured by the location of our house and mansions; by the Cayennes, X6 and whatever road going behemoth that we drive; by how much power we could wield to bend the rules and laws in our favour; by how much favour we could call our friends in high places to do us. And of course by the trophy wives and girl friends (and vice versa) who are seen beside us with the obligatory gold and diamond crusted watch, LV handbag and Blahnik shoes.

Because that is what we are now. How we acquire those material possessions is not important. The question is what we do possess.

We are a society which is almost bereft of any spiritual and moral guidance. As if whatever is fair is foul and foul is fair. As if the very fabric of our existent has changed. And for worse, that is.

It is little wonder that two whole jet engines could be stolen from our royal air force. It is a right royal embarrassment, by any count. But what do we care? They are old engines. We could buy thousands more. We have the money. We have oils and gas which we plunder from some states without compensation. And the persons whom we think are responsible for this shameful, dastardly and treasonous act have left.

Never mind any criminal offence which have quite obviously been committed by these people. They have after all been punished by being told to quietly leave. That was what we did to Ahmad Ismail, remember? And Isa Samad, remember? We dealt with them internally. They have served their sentence. And they, as everybody else, deserve a second, or even a third, chance. Why? Even Anwar Ibrahim, a convicted criminal, is now a Member of Parliament.

And so we are told that we do have a full-proof system which would ensure these kind of things do not happen. But is this system fool-proof? Because if it is not, then there will always be some fools who can't even operate within a full-proof system. That is quite obvious.

And so we are told that there will not be a cover up. Yes, we, the people expect that there will be no cover up. But of course what constitute a "cover-up" is subject to interpretation, isn't it? Like "we will not discuss it ever ever because the matter concerns national security". Is that a cover up? Or "we cannot charge them because matters concerning national security should not be discussed in open Courts". Is that a cover-up? Or "we can only charge them behind closed doors because the matter concerns national security". Is that a cover-up?

And we are left to wonder how it all happen. And why did it take a full year before the whole magical act was discovered by our ever vigilant military who is supposed to protect our nation from rogues countries, evil terrorists, Islam-insulting individuals scum of the Earth and hell and Ketuanan Melayu evil objectors who really should just go back to wherever they came from (never mind the fact that these people were born in this country). And quite why it takes another full year before this event is made known to all of us, the stupid, gullible and irrelevant stakeholders of the military? Well, never mind. We will tell you what we think is relevant. And at the most opportune moment as deemed by us.

Would it be a severe case of paranoia if we, the people, start to wonder what else has been stolen from our military? Like our defence strategy? Or tactical blueprint? After all, these are sensitive and highly protected secrets (or supposed to be). Remember what they said in Parliament when questions were raised as to why there was no open tender for the submarines that we bought? It was said that open tenders should not be called because that will expose our national security matters unnecessarily.

Oh well, why must we worry. We still have our submarines.

Monday, December 21, 2009

OMG, a F-5E engine went missing!!!

After reading the Malaysiakini's report on the missing fighter jet engine worth RM50m, I just find the whole incident bewildering as to how such a thing could have taken place. Of all the things, it happened during Najib's watch as the Defence Minister. By convention he should have taken responsibility for such negligence and resign from his post, but he didn't. Instead he stayed on to later become the prime minister of our country. Amazing isn't it? My thought at the moment, what if we had short range missiles in our arsenal and they went missing under our noses. That would have caused alarm in the region to warrant every country to be on red alert. Not possible? In fact, this is the second time it has happened. The first time was on July 2 2000 when the Al Maunah group walked away from a military camp with cache of arms. Although they were finally caught, but the fact remains that nation's security has been compromised. Did we learn anything from this incident? Apparently not

The Al-Maunah heist is something the Crime & Investigation Network (ASTRO channel 732, for those who don't know) is exploring under its new CI Asia programme. Launched in November and featuring stories from Hong Kong and Singapore, the crime-fixated channel is turning its gaze to Malaysia for December. Since it will be seen throughout Asia, it certainly has put our military in a very awkward position on their shortcomings.

The Prime Minister said that there will be no cover up. Does this imply that there were cover ups before this?

Now, will there be a third time?

Monday Humour

An old Italian Mafia Don is dying and he calls for his grandson to approach the bed.

'Lissin' a me. I wanna for you to taka my chrome-plated 38-caliber revolver, so you will always remember me.'

The grandson smiles weakly and replies; 'But grandpa, I really donna alika guns. Howzabout you leava me you ROLEX watch instead?'

Gasping for air the old man answers with a snarl in his voice; 'Shuddupan lissin'. Somma day, you gonna runnada business. You gonna have a beautiful a wife, lotsa money, a biga home,and maybe a couple
of bambinos.'

After a slight pause to catch his breath he continues, 'Somma day, you gonna comma home, and maybe find you wife inna bed with another.
Whadda you gonna do .... pointa to you watch and say 'Times up?'

-------------------------------------------------------------------

This is hilarious - no wonder some people were offended! This is the message that the Maroochydore High School in Queensland , staff voted unanimously to record on their school telephone answering machine. This is the actual answering machine message for the school. This came about because they implemented a policy requiring students and parents to be responsible for their children's absences and missing homework. The school and teachers are being sued by parents who want their children's failing grades changed to passing grades - even though those children were absent 15-30 times during the semester and did not complete enough school work to pass their classes.

The outgoing message:


Hello! You have reached the automated answering service of your school. In order to assist you in connecting to the right staff member, please listen to all the options before making a selection:


To lie about why your child is absent - Press 1


To make excuses for why your child did not do his work - Press 2


To complain about what we do - Press 3


To swear at staff members - Press 4


To ask why you didn't get information that was already enclosed in your newsletter and

Several flyers mailed to you - Press 5


If you want us to raise your child - Press 6


If you want to reach out and touch, slap or hit someone - Press 7


To request another teacher, for the third time this year - Press 8


To complain about bus transportation - Press 9


To complain about school lunches - Press 0


If you realize this is the real world and your child must be Accountable and responsible for his/her own Behaviour, class work, homework and that it's not the teachers' fault for your child's lack of effort: Hang up and have a nice day!


If you want this in another language, move to a country that speaks it.


Saturday, December 19, 2009

At the 1st Pakatan Rakyat Convention

Political speech-making can impose a heavy weight on multicultural politicians in Malaysia but the principal leaders of Pakatan Rakyat at its historic inaugural convention in Shah Alam today bore theirs as easily as hand luggage.

With a 1,500-strong audience drawn from all fragments of the Malaysian racial mosaic assembled in the plush auditorium of the Majlis Perbandaran Shah Alam, PKR's Anwar Ibrahim, DAP's Lim Guan Eng and PAS' Abdul Hadi Awang made an admirable effort to convey their coalition's embrace of the universal ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity in multicultural accents that immediately endeared them to their listeners.

No doubt, years of practice has helped Anwar switch with suppleness from Bahasa Malaysia to English and back, sprinkling some Mandarin and a modicum of Tamil along the way.

pakatan convention 191209 anwar guan eng hadiBut Lim's use of Islamic tropes is a fairly recent – and an Umno frowned upon – practice which, judging from the laudatory reaction of PAS members of the audience who consider themselves better judges of things Islamic, the DAP secretary-general brings off with increasing dexterity.

His use of “amar maaruf nahi mungkar” (Arabic for enjoining the good and forbidding the bad) was deftly threaded into the text of his largely Bahasa excoriation of the Barisan Nasional that he topped with a 'pantun' which reached a climax with the Islamic admonition nicely woven in as motif. It brought down the house.

Not to be outdone was Tuan Guru Abdul Hadi, the third speaker after Anwar. He had framed the day's discourse in characteristically free-ranging intellectual tones, with Lim weighing in with an adrenaline-boosting speech.

Hadi's valiant effort in Mandarin, Tamil

Showing slight, residual effects of the stroke he suffered some time ago, the PAS president took his time warming up to his theme – true Islamic rule is rule of the blessed – before reaching an expertly calibrated climax in which his trotting out of parables culled from Islamic history depicted caliphate rule as quintessentially non-sectarian.

Thus when he implored the audience not to equate Islamic rule with inferences they are wont to draw from Umno's example of it, the ripple of laughter that ran through the crowd boded willing assent.

Usually, Anwar Ibrahim's blend of high-flown intellectual speculation with street-level vernacular makes his speeches on occasions like today's the standout performance.

But Abdul Hadi's deceptively mundane warm-up where he made a valiant effort at miming a Mandarin greeting and the Tamil word for welcome was followed with a subtly worked finale, representing the morning's best effort.

pakatan convention 191209 anwar 02If Hadi's speech was magisterial, Anwar's was cautionary.

He warned that Pakatan's determination at ridding the Malaysian polity of BN's race-based politics would always be in danger from reactionary tendencies among its cohort. As such, he pronounced watchfulness against this potential for regression a cardinal plank of his leadership.

It was a transformative leader's salutary call that his side should not replicate the faults it abhors in its opponents.

Dec 19, 2009, may well go down as the day in history when a substantial part of Malaysian political society decided that race-based politics is horribly passé.
[Source: Malaysiakini]