SAPP’s Yong Teck Lee – Hero or Opportunist?

They finally did it! After all these months of political posturing…. 😉

This seemed to be the million dollar question in Sabah…Would Yong have the courage to quit the BN coalition OR was he still waiting to be kicked out from BN, so that he could pull the ‘wronged hero’ act for the Sabahans? Now, we have our answer…..he had the courage to quit a coalition that has failed the Sabahans time and again! A coalition that has made corruption its main policy while Sabah continues to get more impoverished day by day!

For some of us, Yong might appear as an Opportunist and this is quite understandable. He, after all is an ex Sabah CM. Why didn’t he try to institute some of the ‘reforms’ that he now talks about whilst he was in power? The answer to this would be….He was still part of BN and so his hands were effectively tied. Another more compelling reason would be, that there were no other viable alternatives to government at that time 😀 Yong is currently being demonized for having the courage to stand up and say Enough is Enough!!! Lots of questions abound at this time….Why wait until the BN government looks like its on its last legs before quitting the coalition? Was he hedging his bets? Was he waiting to see if PR had the credibility to form the new government? YES! He probably was!

So does this make Yong an Opportunist? Yes, it does…BUT is being an Opportunist such a bad thing? After all, Politics breeds no saints! 😉 He is looking out for the interests of the Sabahans….and yep, to a degree, he’s looking out for his own as well 😉

For me, I’d rather go with the Opportunist who does have the interest of his people at heart…than with one who has none at all!

As to being a Hero…..well, only time will tell 🙂

The Follies and Foibles of errrm….NO!

The events of the last few days have been shocking and..errrm…well, entertaining to say the least! Entertainment of the poorest quality, I hasten to add….courtesy of our very own star performers called errrm….NO!

First, there was the ‘wannabe’ Ahmad Ismail and his brutally racist comments against fellow Malaysians of Chinese Origin. The reporter who was at this infamous ceramah, Ms. Tan of Sin Chew, instead of playing it down a la normal Malaysian MSM style, chose to report what she had heard honestly and truthfully.

Result : Ms. Tan was detained under ISA, albeit for less than 24 hours….but all the same…DETAINED UNDER ISA!

Result : Ahmad Ismail was given a slap on his wrists and told off for being a naughty boy! As his reward, he was given only a 3yr SUSPENSION. He also gets to go on a nation-wide tour promoting his brand of racism! Needless to say, this tour would be ‘funded’ by the rakyat!

Syed Hamid Albar‘s explanations fall way short of any sound reason. Ms. Tan’s personal safety? The said article could further inflame racial tension? This one is the best of all…..Albar didn’t even sign the detention orders, our brave police force were acting at their own discretion 😀  Hmmmm….I honestly thought that the police needed Albar’s permission to even do something as mundane as scratching their own balls….😉

M2 Taib‘s explanation during his telephone interview with AlJazeera was even more comedic! You guys, should really watch the clip if you haven’t seen it already.

Just paraphrasing here….

News Anchor : Ahmad Ismail who committed the racial slur is free whilst the journalist, Ms. Tan who was only doing her job is being detained under ISA? Don’t you see the discrepancy here ?

M2 Taib : Yeesss….but she has to ‘face the music‘!

‘Face the music‘…seemed to be M2 Taib’s standard response to the news anchor 😀 He used this term not once….BUT twice!!! 😉 Imagine this stuttering and fumbling moron used to be the Selangor ex-CM!

Raja Petra Kamaruddin was the first one to be detained on that fateful day, 12th Sept 2008. For what, I ask? I read his article on ‘I promise to be a good and non-hypocritical Muslim‘ and I don’t see anything there that is remotely blasphemous. He was not poking fun at Islam at all! He does condemn, however, the so-called Malaysian Muslims who are making a mockery of the very basic fundamentals of Islam. Is this blasphemy? Shouldn’t a man like this be lauded and feted for his courage in pointing out where, erst-while Muslims have strayed? Hell…in some countries, he might even be recognised as a prophet! 😉 Re., his other article ‘Malays, the enemy of Islam’ which did attract some controversial commentary, should he be held responsible for the words of others? How we choose to think/speak/act rests squarely with us, individuals! Oooops….sorry, under UMNO individual freedom of thought and expression is an alien concept!

CRAP, I tell you…pure undiluted CRAP!!!! Errrm….NO have been waiting for an excuse to put him away and in effect, silence ‘The Social Conscience of Malaysia’.

The last person to be detained that day was MP Teresa Kok. Again…may I ask why? I need a sound and infalliable reason here, please. Instead of detaining Ms. Kok, shouldn’t the Selangor ex-CM, Khir Toyo who perpetuated this slander against Ms. Kok be detained? Isn’t he the one who should be held responsible for trying to incite racial disharmony? Isn’t he the one who goes around threatening everyone with ‘May 13th‘?

Something stinks here and it sure ain’t from the detainees. The stench emanating from Syed Hamid Albar, Najib Tun Razak and Khir Toyo is over-powering, sickening and puke-inducing!!!!

Pakatan Rakyat, please hear our heart-felt plea and form the government asap….before, you inherit a Malaysia, where all its people have gone comatose from the stench!!! 😉

Sept 16 Pakatan Rakyat Government… Will Anwar deliver?

We all await the next 11 days in anticipation of the truly new era of governance; here’s some intel I got off Parlimen Ampang in the comments section;

16 Sept. DSAI Angkat Sumpah Sebagai PM Malaysia – 10 pagi
15 Sept. DSAI mohon restu Agong. 9:20 mlm
15 Sept. DSAI mengadap DYMM AGONG. 6:15 ptg
15 Sept. DSAI mengisytiharkan pembentukan PAKATAN sebagai
Kerajaan baru di TV1,TV2,TV3,Bernama TV,Awani Astro
secara siaran langsung – 8:00 mlm
12 Sept. Sidang Tergempar mengusulkan DSAI membentuk ‘Caretaker
Government”
10 Sept. PM mengumumkan perletakan jawatan.
9 Sept. Sidang Tergempar Parlimen di panggil.
8 Sept. 5 Menteri & Timbalan BN Letak Jawatan
7 Sept. 10 Ahli Parlimen BN umum pindah kerusi Parlimen ke PAKATAN
6 Sept. Semua komponen BN dari Semenanjung keluar BN kecuali MCA
& MIC
5 Sept. Semua Parti Komponen BN dari Sabah & Sarawak isytihar keluar
BN

So far, with the help of the rakyat DSAI has delivered. Some of my peers in the university has expressed their extreme dislike of DSAI for his actions during the times he was in UMNO. To those like them, I say look at it this way, he was ‘kena’ over twice by people whom he formerly worked for, which in any reasonable man’s view, would make him pretty darn determined to jump back on his feet, and make him honest working for the PKR instead. 6 years in jail changes a man. Heck, a couple of months in jail compelled RPK to continue his work with fervor. Applied to DSAI, it makes him a very, very determined man, and all is now going for him despite the smear campaign against him.

Personally though, I know of none other relatively competent BN MP who can take the mantel of governance, and the general sentiment in Malaysia is that people dislike the idea of having an alleged co-conspirator to a murder in the office of PM (key being public perception over the known-to-be corruptible courts), which basically leaves no one else that we know have the experience and knows what he’s doing other than DSAI.  Knowing Barisan Nasional people, they’ve probably taken steps, transfered some ‘insurance’ in Swiss banks by now and planning to move overseas with the spoils.

But that’s that, though anything could and probably happen within the next 11 days, let’s get one thing straight. Love him, or hate him, DSAI’s face is going to be hung next to Dato’ Sri Abdullah Badawi’s portrait in a row of Malaysian PMs sometime in the near future.

I wonder what DSAI would do once in office.

Forget reduction in petrol prices. Let’s get real. Will he end our thrice announced Emergency status (which for the past 50 years had afforded Federal Control to override States Control, allowing for draconian laws such as ISA to continuously be on force)? Would he redraft the 2009 Budget and RMK9? Will he continue the legacy of executive interference (thanks to Mahathir, which led to Tun Salleh Abbas J’s termination of service in the 1980’s) or respect and re-establish judiciary independence? Will he introduce policies that might not necessarily eradicate corruption 100% (after 50 years, he can only do so much), but reduce it?

Ooh, this is so good to wait and watch.

Happy Ramadhan fellow readers, and an advanced Selamat Hari Malaysia!

Battle of the sexes!

I’m sure we’ve all heard and read of this growing up.

“What are little boys made of?
Snips and snails, and puppy dogs tails
That’s what little boys are made of !”
What are little girls made of?
“Sugar and spice and all things nice
That’s what little girls are made of!”

The origin of this Mother Goose nursery rhyme can be traced to the early 19th century. Evidently, the battle of the sexes was already raging then!

In a Malaysian survey recently, statistics show that the fairer sex continues to dominate admissions into public universities. This is causing great concern to the ‘patriachs’ of our male dominated government. Their brows are all furrowed now because soon the fairer sex will be removing their aprons and leaving the kitchens for top positions in the country.

On the other hand, it could be viewed as a rather kinky experience if the scenario (woman being on top) was played out behind closed doors in the bedroom. Nevertheless, in the education and corporate world, the mere notion of a woman being in a top position is not a readily accepted praxis especially in Malaysian culture.

Women in top positions? What next? A woman prime minister? What does this mean? Females are smarter? More diligent and focused? I’d like to rejoice in a resounding Yes! but I also do not wish to receive hate mail from the gender that’s not as fair, figuratively speaking 😛 So I’ll go with … there must be some valid reason for this considerable difference in numbers.

This is not a phenomenon exclusive to our backyard mind you. In fact in China, extensive ongoing research have gone into this subject as well. A series of statistics in China also show that girls fare better than boys when it comes to schooling.

There is a phrase in China “female prosperity and male decline”, which refers to this phenomenon after a report came out detailing the differences, especially in education where girls on the whole are doing better than boys. As a matter of fact, this phenomenon has a long history, but previously people thought it only existed in early education. In recent years, it has extended to higher and tertiary levels as well.

Back to Malaysia, our Deputy of higher education, Datuk Idris Haron even held a press conference to raise his concern. This is what he intends to do. He wants to embark on a study to look into the effects on the career market should this phenomenon continue.

“There are some critical positions that can only be filled by men because the facilities on hand for the job are only suitable for men. We need to look at this now and the government is getting prepared to face a flood of women in the (job) market” he said. What does he mean by critical positions that can only be filled by men because facilities on hand for the job are suitable for men. What, there are only urinals in the toilet?
No more space for squats?

Malaysia should take some cues from China in this respect. Sexism has been successfully eradicated thanks to the late Chairman Mao’s communist revolution. Chairman Mao knew what he was saying when he quoted this “Women hold up half of the sky”. And I’m not endorsing communism when I say this. Just that the society needs to view the roles of women differently in this day and age.

Chinese women take up 45.4 percent of their country’s workforce, the book Facts and Figures on Women and Men in China published by the National Bureau of Statistics bureau showed. About 64 percent of 347 million working women are in the agricultural industry, which is about 10 percent higher than that of men in the sector. Did we ever wonder if this contributed to the fact why China progressed at such a fast pace? Gender equality is necessary to achieve sustainable development of a country and Malaysia
certainly needs that to progress further.

According to Idris, females took up 67.3% of places in Malaysian universities. “We have taken a proactive step to encourage male students who failed to gain places in public institutions to continue tertiary education …” He also added that the males must “buck up” so as to gain more places in public universities and institutions of higher learning. If only this nugget of advice could also be applied to our long standing discriminatory policy of allocating a quota of university entries reserved to be filled by the bumiputeras when it should be based on meritocracy. (That’s another story for another day…)

Statistics of students in local universities by gender

RM2bil deal to maintain government’s vehicles. Good huh?

RM12,000 annually = RM1,000 per month maintenance for each of the ‘locally-made luxury-line Proton Perdana leased from Spanco.

1. The cars are leased, not owned. How much the government paid to lease the cars? Then again, it was reported before June 2003, “.. the Government paid Spanco RM100 mil a year to lease and maintain its entire fleet”. So after June 2003, the RM80 mil a year is to maintain only or to lease and maintain?

2. You still need RM1,000 per month maintenance each month? That’s damn lot! It is not like you need to charge many parts of the car each and every month.

3. The contract was inked for a duration of 25 years??!! RM2 billion easy money for Spanco. No competitors.

4. It is mind boggling, the contract was awarded to a company that only has the Government as its customer.

5. Under the deal, the Government gets new Proton Perdanas every fourth year. How much a new Proton Perdanas priced for the Government? Since the Government was reported willingly forking out RM5,700 a car jack worth RM50 before, I wonder how much the new Proton Perdana cost. Perhaps the move by the Terengganu government was not that bad at all. They got discounted price for buying Mercedes than probably paying more when you buy locally made Proton Perdana.

6. But, the logic for the purchase is too clever for an idiot like me to understand. It definitely make no sense, when you need to pay higher maintenance for a cheaper car and lower maintenance for a more expensive car. How is that possible?

7. Terengganu excos showed middle finger to Pak Lah by not following his directive – the cars are only for foreign dignitaries. Read here.

8. Pak Lah said ‘he is in control?’ but obviously nobody listens to him and his cabinet. I am anxiously waiting for actions to be taken against these naughty excos. Pak Lah, bukankah awak pantang dicabar??

My letter to The Star (which they never published)

I refer to the article, “No certs – and no school” (The Star, July 18).

The report on the five children from the Arutperum Jothi Children’s Welfare Home not being able to enroll in school because they do not have birth certificates is appalling, to say the least.

K. Tharsini is already 10 years old, and should be in Standard 5 this year. She has already missed 5-long years of education because of the lack of a piece of paper. Her loss opportunity is irreversible and her future is beyond reproach due to our authorities’ unconcerned stance and blind adherence to procedural red-tape regularities.

In the country’s quest for developed status, plights, like that of K. Tharsini, should never arise. How are we going to progress as a nation when our children are still being deprived of basic education? Forget about the economic and infrastructural growth, all would be nothing if we continue to deny our children the right to knowledge. And there is no leeway in this issue, even if one child is being left out; we would be failing in our duties as caregiver.

The right to education is recognized as a human right in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. This basic human right is practiced in almost all countries in the world by way of compulsory education, which children are required by law to receive education, of which it is the responsibility of the government to so provide. Many countries have compulsory education through at least the primary stages, often extending to the secondary level.

The right to education is also a right entrenched in our Federal Constitution. Article 12 of our Constitution provides that there shall be no discrimination against any citizen on the right of education on the grounds of religion, race, descent or place of birth. Clearly, this means, to me, that education is to be made available to all our young without prejudice, bias or segregation. And that includes not having a birth certificate. It makes no sense for such an important right to be so sacredly protected by law only to be defeated by a flimsy reason of paper requirement.

It is even more shocking to read the school authorities explanation – that there had been no circular by the Education Ministry. This is incredulous. Are we saying that it is excusable to turn away a child from school because there was no circular on the matter? Is this the kind of governmental-relation that we can expect from schools and its’ ministry? A public announcement made several months before cannot be carried out because someone, somewhere, has not yet typed out an effecting circular. Meanwhile, many more children’s future is being thrown away nonchalantly.

In this digital day and age, I find it extremely disconcerting that none of the school officials can take the time and simple effort to write, call, or even drop an email to their superiors in the Federal level for clarification and green light. Instead we see the usual sit-and-wait culture so inherently ingrained in our civil service.

In fact, I secretly hope that the guardians of K. Tharsini take out a legal suit against the authorities for failing in their duty of care. Her future has been somewhat destroyed through no fault of her, and she should be adequately compensated for this. Perhaps, this will ensure such incidences do not ever occur again.

Malaysia, the land of impossible possibilities!

For my first blog post. I would like to write a little something dedicated to our beautiful prosperous country Malaysia which I’m so proud to call home. I love this country and I cannot imagine anywhere else I’d rather be at this moment. For those who know little about this Shangrila of a paradise…

blessed with natural resources and free from natural disasters..

This is the place where ‘Truly Asia’ exists. Where people of all races come and live in this melting pot of perfect harmony. Where everyone is treated equal and by equal we mean we do not question the rights.

Pay your taxes and shut the hell up. You should be lucky we took you in.

We are proud to have the most effecient, transparent and clean government ever to exist. These people are slaving their backsides off for the better of our country. Surviving on only 5 hours of sleep a day. You can evidently see this as they ever so often doze off to dreamland whilst in Parliament. This doesn’t mean they are lazy, no they have been overworked.

Do you not see the beauty of being a Malaysian? The beauty is that the larger population of Malaysia is full of trust. We are a trusting nation. We have faith. You do not question faith. As religion has taught you. You do as you are told and leave it in the hands of God (so to speak) and our government and everything will be all right.

A developing third world like us can manage to send one of our very own best Malaysian citizen (a genius of sorts he seems, not only is he a model but a doctor) into space orbit. No, he wasn’t merely a passenger. He provided much eye candy entertainment during the space flight. Let’s be honest, we’d rather have someone easy on the eye than say Frankenstein right? Malaysian government always thinks ahead of the rest.

Malaysia stood in first place for having the tallest buildings from 1998 – 2004, the Petronas Twin Towers! Without these two phallic looking structures, who would’ve known Malaysia even existed? So of course, it was rightly justified to be built! Forget education, better healthcare, hospitals, police personell…

While I’m on the topic of all things that symbolise Malaysia, here’s another one that will surely make us proud! Who needs a hard, heavy and sturdy european made car when we have our very own national car, Proton. Soft it may be but it has its advantages. Thank god for the ingeniouty of our engineers it is mostly constructed from recycled Milo/Ovaltine tin cans. So soft, you can fold it up and keep it in your handbag. You don’t have to worry about parking and people stealing it. It’s that handy! Safety standards? It may not pass the European car safety standards, but HELLO, we’re not driving this car in the EU are we? As long as it passes the Malaysian safety standards, we’ll be fine. Malaysian made cars are for Malaysia roads. Plus, it’s HALAL…

I understand there have been several grouses re our government’s handling of the oil price hike and general inflation of 20-30%. Let me explain why this had to happen. Our governement has fore sight and knew they had to do this to counter the emerging problems related specifically to; environmental pollution, massive traffic jams and to make the other countries feel good about themselves. Otherwise they mayl feel threatened by us due to the fact that we are progressing at such a fast pace economically speaking. This tactic is stated in the teachings of Sun Tzu’s Art Of War.

Do not show off your dumplings to your friend at the dinner table or he will come back and steal it when you lay alseep.

The petrol hike also had to happen to prevent the Mat Rempits from roaming the streets at night. No one saw this but this was yet another smart move by the government to counter our safety issues of late. I’m sure those Mat Rempits will think twice now when they decide to go out and pump a full tank of petrol to harass and rob people?! Previously they could afford a full tank to roam the whole of Klang Valley. Now they can only afford enough gas to get them TO Klang Valley but not back home! What a brilliant idea. The list goes on and I don’t have the time to write it all up for you. I have to ride my bicycle to Shah Alam later this evening to collect free water from a friend who has been promised free water for eternity.

As for the murder of the Mongolian hooker cum model by a high profile someone in the government…she really deserved what she got. In fact if you asked me, those involved were too kind on her. She should have died a slow and painful death. They should have tied all four limbs to four separate horses and cracked the whip…but where can we find horses in the dead of the night?! C4s are obviously much easier to get your hands on!

We Indeed Need Be Proud. I shall sign off now….I forgot to take my medication this morning and they had to keep me in the padded cell again. Thank god I’m so flexible and blessed with agile limbs, I managed to type with my toes (as both arms are strapped in a straight jacket) on the laptop I stole from one of the wardens. Oh wait, they are letting me out into the garden for a walk now. Yay.