Thursday, April 14, 2016

YB Syefura Osman (Rara) performing her duties as a MPKj councillor

Checking with the resident on cleanliness in their surroundings

Reminding stall owners about the dengue menace
Identifying the source of the dengue problem

 Rara taking snapshots of the styrofoam box filled with water for further action by the MPKj enforcement officers.

Making sure that everyone is safe



Educating the residents on the dengue menace

Time to take a short break

Rubbish packed and bundled, ready to remove to a disposal area

Area cleared off rubbish

A day's work, well done!

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

YB Syefura Osman (Rara), our Councillor at MPKj.



Rara is from DAP and in February, she replaces Susann Chan as Councillor of Majlis Pembandaran Kajang (MPKj).

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

The Who's Who listed in the Panama Papers.

Some of the most notable names among the individuals and entities are Kamaluddin Abdullah, head of Feldspar Holdings and son of former Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi; Mirzan Mahathir, son of Mahathir Mohamad; and Mohamad Nazifuddin Mohamad Najib, son of the current prime minister, Najib Razak. Mahathir’s brother-in-law, Mohammed Hashim Mohammed Ali, the onetime head of Malaysia’s military.

Others include Sultan Ibrahim Ismail of Johor; Abdul Aziz bin Tawfiq Ayman, husband of Bank Negara Governor Zeti Akhatar Aziz; Muhammad Muhammad Taib, former Rural and Regional Development Minister and UMNO information chief, who since has joined the opposition Parti Keadilan Rakyat; and Lim Kok Thay, the current managing director of Genting Group; Abdul Halim Harun, former chief executive of UMW Holdings, one of Malaysia’s biggest conglomerates; Sharifuddin Hizan Zainal Abidin, former Group Managing Director of Felda Holdings Bhd; and Khoo Kay Peng, one of Malaysia’s richest tycoons and head of MUI Group.

The list also includes the late Hussain Najadi, the founder of what was first known as Arab Malaysian Bank, later Ambank, who was murdered under mysterious circumstances in 2013 after complaining, his son has charged, about corruption in the United Malays National Organization. Police said he had been killed in a land dispute. The late Tan Tiong Hock, the former Malaysian Chinese Association secretary general, who died in 1985, is also on the list, which can be found here.

The flow of currency into the Panama entities is hardly the only destination for money fleeing Malaysia. As Asia Sentinel reported in 2013, estate agency Jones Lang & Wootton reported that in 2012 Malaysians accounted for 17 percent of all buyers of new top-of-the-line central London dwellings.

In other words almost as many Malaysian are buying as Britons, who themselves accounted for only 19 percent of this market. Identifiable Malaysians figured as buyers of One Hyde Park, the most expensive new building in London overlooking Hyde Park and others probably lie behind the various anonymous offshore companies which figure as owners of most of the owners of apartments ranging in price from US$12 million to US$50 million.

Whether there will be political fallout from the list in Malaysia is another question. The country has been enduring what seems like an endless corruption scandal over the state-backed 1Malaysia Development Bhd. for almost two years, plus an unexplained US$681 million in Najib’s personal accounts that appeared in 2013 before most of it disappeared back out a few months later into the branch of a Swiss bank in Singapore, then vanished for good. So far, the prime minister appears bulletproof. He is likely to remain that way

Sunday, April 10, 2016

Too little, too late from Maxis?

Maxis thought it held monopoly in the broadband market until new kids like U Mobile and YES started offering 15Gb + unlimited calls for 70 and 16Gb for 88. Even Digi offer 9Gb + unlimited calls for 128. Maxis recently jacked up its freebies for the MaxisOne 128 package to 8Gb + unlimited calls. Even that doesn't come close to these newer players who have levelled up with their infrastructures. If Maxis users ported out under protest it is understandable.

Subscribers want value for money and Maxis packages are the priciest. Brand recognition means nothing when rivals begin to provide better coverage and shorter latencies. Unless Maxis react fast to lower the commitment fees, and take a huge loss, it will lose more in the coming years. Not only will porting out continue, new subscribers learning of better offers will subscribe elsewhere. 

Soon sales of discounted smartphones or giving the cheaper ones away free will no longer attract customers who hate to be tied down to a 24 months contract and a mandatory 500 opt out penalty. Price rules and the war of giving the better deals with no strings attached has begun.

Look out for 5Gb + unlimited free calls to all networks for just 50-60 in a year's time. Those with the largest subscriber base will survive.