Today, we celebrate Malaysia Day!

Forty Eight years on, we still get to hear these memorable tunes commemorating the coming together as one nation.

Pakatan leaders in the crosshair of UMNO politics

Ever since Pakatan made substantial gains in the 2008 GE, there was no let up on UMNO's part in their unrelentless pursuit in bringing down the opposition especially in states administered by the latter. Out of the five states, UMNO successfully regained Perak through dubious means. Lim Guan Eng was next in the firing line with one attack after another but the attempt so far has been futile. Now they are gunning for Selangor, the cash cow for UMNO, in the DUMC issue in which Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim has been accused of Chritianisation of the state. Simultaneously, they launched a broadside attack on Mat Sabu of PAS on branding him of being a communist "sympathiser". More attacks are expected in the days to come and the Opposition must weather these onslaughts till the coming GE, and so far so good despite the loss of Perak state. UMNO must send its sniper teams for more shooting lessons as the results are certainly less than satisfactory.

AirAsia, you are flying the wrong direction

The following was posted by one Richard Teo :

Once upon a time , AirAsia's slogan was 'Now everyone can fly.' But nowadays this no longer holds true. In the beginning, AirAsia was really making a serious effort to enable everyone to fly on the no frills airline. Fares were not only cheap for those who purchased their tickets in advance. Also there were no hidden costs and the total fares after taxes were cheap and really affordable to the man in the street. In fact if you were lucky enough the tickets you bought could even be cheaper than the cost of the ticket for a long haul bus. Not only were there cheap tickets but there were a lot of extras that normal airlines did not provide.

Senior citizens above 60 were given priority of boarding, you could select any seats of your choice, there was no such thing as fuel surcharge added to the cost of the ticket. In short, there were no hidden costs. But AirAsia , nowadays cannot boast of its 'now everyone can fly' slogan because its concept has been totally altered. Now, its policy is to charge for everything. Senior citizens no longer have the privilege of boarding first. If you want to board first you have to pay for priority boarding. If you want to select your favourite seats you have to pay for it. Just you think that is the end of it, you are hit with another cost. It's call processing fees for using a credit card for your online booking.

It seems that the credit card company commission is even passed to the passenger in the guise of processing fees. The moral of the story is that we should no longer be deceived by the AirAsia slogan of 'Everyone can fly'. Maybe its time travellers should revert back to our national carrier MAS. At least there are no hidden costs and what you pay is transparent. And if you are a golfer the more reason why you should travel MAS because they don't charge you for your golf bags whereas AirAsia charges RM50 for that extra luggage. And if you are a handicapped person, please be aware that AirAsia charges RM15 for using their wheel chair. Lastly, MAS provides you the luxury of boarding and landing using an air bridge whereas with AirAsia, you have to be content with climbing up and down a gangway to board and disembark your flights.

The reason? Because AirAsia can save paying the airport authorities for using the facility at the expense of discomfort to the paying customers.

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I guess you can say that when one becomes successful, one tends to forget his own humble beginnings. Although we can accept this no-frill concept, the impression given is that, what they can't get from you in the air, they squeeze you on the ground.

Monday Humour

DAD'S REPLY ......

I took my dad to the mall the other day to buy some new shoes (he is 76).

We decided to grab a bite at the food court.

I noticed he was watching a teenager sitting next to him.

The teenager had spiked hair in all different colors - green, red,

orange, and blue.

My dad kept staring at her.

The teenager kept looking and would find my dad staring every time.

When the teenager had had enough, she sarcastically asked:

"What's the matter old man, never done anything wild in your life?"

Knowing my Dad, I quickly swallowed my food so that I would not

choke on his response; I knew he would have a good one!

In classic style he responded without batting an eyelid .....

"Got stoned once and had sex with a parrot. I was just wondering if

you might be my kid."

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NEW COUNCIL RATES FOR 2011/2012

YOUR HOUSE

As seen by yourself

As seen by your buyer

As seen by your lender

As seen by the bank's valuer

As seen by your Council Rate Assessor:

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What is a Financial Bail-Out ?

It is a slow day in a damp little Irish town. The rain is beating down harshly, and all the streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt and everybody lives on credit.

On this particular day a rich German tourist is driving through the town, stops at the local hotel and lays a 100 note on the desk, telling the hotel owner he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one to spend the night.

The owner gives him some room-keys and, as soon as the visitor has walked upstairs, the hotelier grabs the 100 note and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher.

The butcher takes the 100 note and rushes down the street to repay his debt to the pig farmer. The pig farmer takes the 100 note and heads off to pay his bill at the supplier of animal feed and fuel.

The guy at the Farmers' Co-op takes the 100 note and runs to pay his drinks bill at the friendly neighborhood pub. The pub owner slips the money along to the local prostitute drinking at the bar - who, in spite of facing hard times, has always gladly offered him her services on credit.

The hooker then rushes over to the hotel and pays off her room bill to the hotel owner with the 100 note.

The hotel proprietor quietly replaces the 100 note back on the counter, so that the rich traveler will not suspect anything.

At that moment the traveler comes down the stairs, states that none of the rooms are satisfactory, picks up the 100 note, pockets it and leaves town.

...No one has produced anything. No one has earned anything. However, the whole town is now out of debt and looking to the future with a lot more optimism.

And that, dear ladies and gentlemen, is how a basic financial bailout package works !

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SOUTH AFRICAN HANDSHAKE

PDRM, why have you forsaken us?

The image of our men in blue has certainly taken a good bashing following the bashing they gave to Bersih 2.0 protesters on July 9 2011. Even long before this event, things were not going right with the PDRM especially with the increase of custodial deaths as well the increase in crime rate which they look so helpless to contain. The excuse given was, it was only due to a few 'rotten apples' that are giving the force a bad name. Then by logic, isn't it easier then to remove these 'few rotten apples' before it tarnishes the entire force? Why was it not done? The public faith is almost down to zero and unless something is drastically done, the PDRM will end up to be nothing more than a bunch of uniformed thugs.

Perhaps we could take a leaf out of the 'Robocop' movies and have our police personnel all re-program to think like our titanium armored hero. In view of their limited education [some of them], we can give them three simple directives to enable them to carry out their duties efficiently ...

1. Serve the public trust.

2. Protect the innocent.

3. Uphold the law [certainly not UMNO's law].

I believe this should solve the problem. If this doesn't work, God help us all.

Chinese Representation in Government Is About Accountability

This article is written by Tan Sri Robert Phang who is the Chairman of Social Care Foundation and a former MACC panel member.

I am amused by the statement made by Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz, the so-called de facto Minister for Law, who declared that he would fight tooth and nail to ensure Chinese representation in a Barisan Nasional (BN) government even if the Chinese component party, namely MCA fails to secure a single parliamentary seat in the coming polls.

That seems to be a truly “Jantan” statement in championing the Chinese cause. If that statement is supposed to elevate Nazri Aziz in the eyes of the Chinese community, then he is mistaken. That statement would in fact constitute an insult to the Chinese electorates.

Who is Nazri to make such offers if the Chinese voters have rejected this Chinese-centric component party? Who appointed Nazri to be the Chinese champion on this issue? Since it is a historical fact that the BN political parties are race-based parties, it is best that Nazri look into his own backyard. I am sure my Malay brothers and sisters would appreciate to have their welfare being continuously taken care of by a vocal Malay Minister like Nazri, and not only during election time.

There is more than meets the eye to Nazri’s statement. I have said it before that the statement by MCA President Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek is nothing more than a cheap political gimmick. Soi Lek loses nothing by making that statement. He knew that his “pornographic” background makes him unsuitable to be a government Minister. Thus, Soi Lek is actually sacrificing the government posts of other MCA leaders who could pose a threat to his MCA presidency. The Chinese community is not stupid to not see Soi Lek’s objectives.

It was only recently that Nazri Aziz was seen interfering with GLCs by instructing them to appoint a favored legal firm in order to cause a withdrawal of the cases that these GLCS have against former MAS Chairman, Tan Sri Tajuddin Ramli. The public uproar showed that Nazri had miscalculated the public’s intelligence and reaction.

But more than that, I am told that it showed Nazri’s failure to comprehend basic principles of corporate law. I am also told that Nazri’s directive offends the Rule of Law because a government Minister cannot suborn the Board of Directors of a GLC which is a public listed company in that manner. I believe that Nazri should know these things better as he is a lawyer, while I am not.

By the same reasoning, Nazri’s statement on Chinese representation in the government offends basic logic on the purpose and objective of elections. A general election is part of the democratic process to allow the electorates to select the leaders whom they would want to govern over them and the country. If the Chinese electorates have rejected the Chinese leaders from MCA, who is Nazri to force upon us to accept such leaders as our representatives in government?

It is more alarming to note the second part of Nazri’s statement that “The system allows us to appoint senators and we need to have representatives of the non-Malay community.” This confirms the public skepticism that appointments to the Senate have been abused as a backdoor entry into government. This is preposterous. More than that, this statement coming from a senior Minister who is a lawyer, displays sheer arrogance which will be deservedly punished in the coming GE 13.

Let us be reminded that the being elected to form the government is part of the democratic process. It erodes the fundamentals of democracy when a government is formed not from elected representatives but by backdoor appointments from politicians who have failed. A government post is not a trophy for political gratification.

I hope that as a person trained in the law, Nazri would recant his statement as it demeans the democracy that we hope to nurture as we mature as a nation. Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka!

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I certainly agree with Tan Sri Robert Phang's comment about the Chinese representation in the government. Had the Chinese community seen it fit to have Chinese representation, they would have voted for MCA or Gerakan instead of going along with Nazri's proposal of the backdoor approach of senatorship. Even if Nazri meant well, what is the point of having such a representation? To look after the interests of the Chinese community or merely acts a window dressing to show the world that the government is multi-racial in composition. On the first count, MCA could have done the job but failed miserably not because of their lackluster manner in taking care of the community but because they are being restrained by UMNO's strong armed tactics. Even with the appointment of Chinese representations via senatorships, the person/s would still end up being the punching bag of UMNO and more subservient because of the appointment itself. On the second count, the Chinese do not need the charade of window dressing as it is another ploy by UMNO using the Chinese for their own benefit.

Selangor Records RM5.2 Billion Investments In First Six Months Of 2011

Are we going to hand this over to certain corrupt politicians at the 13GE for it to be pocketed and abused? We must make sure that this does not happen.

Selangor recorded investments of RM5.2 billion in the first six months of this year.

In a statement on Friday, the Selangor Menteri Besar's office said the state received foreign investments of RM3.1 billion with local investments at RM2.1 billion.

"A total of 135 projects were approved from January to June this year and this opened up 9,847 job opportunities.

"Of the 135 projects, 89 were new investments and the remaining 46, existing ones being expanded," the statement said.

According to the breakdown by sector, the electronics manufacturing industry posted the highest investments at RM1.3 billion.

Japan was the biggest investor in Selangor with 13 projects involving an investment value of RM1.136 billion, followed by South Korea at RM652 million with three projects and Singapore with RM510 million (eight projects).

Menteri Besar, Abdul Khalid Ibrahim, said the amount showed a high level of confidence among foreign and local investors towards the state government.

[Source: MM]