35% Follow Their Leader's Footstep

While listening to the news on radio this morning, I heard the following:

"According to the latest finding ACA, 35% of the students from the local institutes of higher learning says that they will accept bribe when they are placed in high or powerful position in the future. ACA expressed their concern over such statistics."

I guess this speaks very well about "leadership by example" shown by our generation of corrupt leaders. I wonder what Mohd Isa and his gang have to say about this? Actually I wonder what will be the reaction from any of our top leadership in the country on this matter.

Are they going react with their routine of "such report is baseless and not transparent" or "we will have a meeting with ACA to discuss the findings" or "35% is a small portion of the community which cannot represent the whole"?

In my opinion, 35% is quite a humble figure considering corruption is deeply rooted in our daily lives ie. traffic police summons, AP(s), car towing, land purchase, government tender and projects, piracy etc.

Imagine this, if we were to bribe a traffic police with our whole family in the car, do you expect them to believe such act are wrong? When we take them with us shopping for pirated stuff, do you expect them to not to follow suit when they grow up?

I hope this can be a clear reminder to those who is currently in "high and powerful positions", there are millions of younger people looking up to your "fine example" other than your "blinded" conscience, if you can't lead by example, it is only best that you step down before you caused further damage to our young minds...

The young ones are telling us: "You did it... Why can't us?"

Dry Land in "Developed" State ??

According to news report, our one and only "developed" state (Selangor) will not be able to meet the water consumption of its people in 2007.

The Energy, Water And Communications Ministry's research shows that Selangor citizens will face a shortage of 10 million litres per day by 2007 and more than 800 million litres per day by 2010.

This is indeed shocking news to all citizens of a "developed" state especially to the Chief Minister who is about to throw in a RM1 million celebration in the coming month to celebrate the state's achievement in obtaining the status (God knows given by who).

Coming to think of it, is this another scare tactic employed by government so that they will be allowed a free hand in handing out candies (more research, consultation, meetings etc.) to their cronies in order to "overcome" the problem?

Given the "developed" status of the state, wouldn't the state's planning committee would have notice the issue well before hand? What were they thinking in their offices? Do they pray everyday that God will have mercy on Selangor citizens and pour in more rain in 2007 so that our water damps will never lack the crucial supply?

So much for RM1 million celebrations when everyone is worry about the most basic things in their daily living. If a state cannot supply the most basic need of its citizen, what is the benefit of "developed" status?

The ball is in your court Mr. Khir Toyo !!

Between Malaysian and "Potong"

Having read Jeff's post on Mahaleel in what looks like his final public outcry to defend his "Potong" management, I can't help but felt sorry for the guy (and his ex-boss) and the automobile industry of our country.

When "Potong" was set up more than two decades ago, the then PM wanted to use "Potong", HICOM, Perwaja Steel etc. as part of his grand strategy to jump-start the country towards heavy industry. I guess he must be miserably disappointed in the outcome that he is seeing today. Not only those that he hand-picked has betrayed his trust (in the case of Perwaja Steel and many other CBT scandals that involved GLCs), the people have also condemned his endless effort to bail out many of his "pet-projects" throughout his reign.

As for "Potong", I guess the nation has tolerated long enough after two decades of subsidising the so-called "national car" projects. We have been made to pay many times higher for some low-quality products for far too long. When the government can no longer afford the monopoly of "Potong" in the car industry, it began to let loose their grip. Hence, companies like Perodua, Inokom and Naza were the outcome.

In all fairness, I must say that Perodua is currently doing quite well in terms of their marketing in the lower-end vehicles (quality and safety aside). They have managed to grab a huge portion of the Malaysian market within a very short time. The new model "MyVi" from what I saw, won hands down over "Potong Savvy" in terms of design, beautiful interior finishing as well as marketing strategy.

When "Potong" saw the inevitable defeat in their competition in the mid-sized vehicle, it began to focus on small-sized vehicle instead. Despite their poor effort, the "Savvy" came out as another mediocre product which not only failed in its marketing (it was launched later than "MyVi"), it also failed in its poor finishing as usual. Their theme of "Build Tougher Than You Think" was a poor choice in my opinion (as if Malaysian prefer to ram their own car towards a street of traffic blindfolded as shown in their radio commercial).

As for Mahaleel's complaint that Inokom and Naza does not live up to its "National Car" status, I have a piece of advise to him. Instead of criticizing others (which was unprovoked by the way), why don't he spend his time and effort in facing up to the problems that is plaguing "Potong" itself? After all these years at the helm, I am sure he is well aware of the unsatisfactory response of his customers which amounts to millions!

Mahaleel always hide behind the concept of "economy of scale" that "Potong" did not achieved at the expense of government and its people after two decades. I'd like to ask him this: If the company has failed to live up to its standards after 20 long years, not to mentioned all the protection that it has been given, do you seriously think it can do it in another 20 years? Do you think it is economically feasible that the whole nation continue to sacrifice for the benefit for one single company?

Inevitably, our government and our people will face AFTA and Globalization sooner or later, it's better to be prepared than sorry. All our industries which include those four "national" car might as well wake up now. All the rebates, tax relieve, AP system etc. will have to go someday. The sooner you get used to this reality, the sooner you will start to prepare to face it.

I was watching a sitcom on TV few weeks ago where a father actually wrote a cheque worth USD1,200 for his grown-up son so that he can go get himself a 2nd hand Japanese car from the shop.

Now... can you imagine the power of free trade and globalization?

All I can say is that:
"Potong"... suck up to reality or fold yourself while you can before taking everyone down with you !!

Something Light

Received an email from my colleague to lift my boring day:

Words women use!

Fine
This is the word women use to end an argument when they are right and you need to shut up.

Five Minutes
If she is getting dressed, this is half an hour. Five minutes is only five minutes if you have just been given 5 more minutes to watch the game before helping around the house.

Nothing
This is the calm before the storm. This means "something" and you should be on your toes. Arguments that begin with "nothing" usually end in "fine".

Go Ahead
This is a dare, not permission, DON'T DO IT!

Loud Sigh
Although not actually a word, the loud sigh is often misunderstood by men. A "Loud Sigh" means she thinks you are an idiot and wonders why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with you over "Nothing".

That's Okay
This is one of the most dangerous statements that woman can make to a man. "That's Okay" means that she wants to think long and hard before deciding how and when you will pay for your mistake.

Thanks
This is the least used of all words in the female vocabulary. If a woman is thanking you. Do not question it, just say you're welcome and back out of the room slowly.


To women out there... is there any truth in these??

"Mature" Dialogues Anyone?

Quote from NST:

• Gerakan president Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik said today that a "national dialogue initiative centre" would be beneficial to address pressing sensitive issues such as economic, racial and religious affairs.
• Because of their sensitive nature, these dialogues can be held behind closed doors
• participation of politicians, non-governmental organisations and academicians of various backgrounds and communities
• They can be carried out in a matured, intellectual manner, free of unnecessary emotion
• suggested inviting famous personalities such as Nobel Prize winners
• good intellectual exercise and it can promote inter-racial harmony

I post the following questions to the organizer of such event:

1. Who is to define what are sensitive issues and what are not?
2. Will FRU personnel be rushing into the said "dialogue" and arresting every participant under ISA?
3. Are the participants be liable for prosecution for what they said in the meeting or just like in the Parliament where MPs can shout anything without worry of being charged in court?
4. If such events are held behind closed-doors, what are the benefits of such event being held if at all? (those involved might just be having a high-tea behind those doors)
5. What if those Nobel Prize winners (assuming any of them are willing to come) were to be arrested under ISA?
6. Is the content of such meeting or discussion be a reference point for deciding national policy in the future?
7. Is anyone going cover the "dialogue" so that the public are made known of what is going on behind those "bullet and sound-proof doors"?
8. How are we going to achieve inter-racial harmony when only a few people are involved in the dialogue behind closed doors?

Limit Corruption to National Delegates?

A Menteri Besar from the southern state was quoted that if divisional representative were to be allowed to participate in the electing of UMNO top leadership, he is worried that UMNO will stink of money politics "from head to toe".

So I guess what he is saying is that if anyone who is allowed to vote in any kind of democratic election, he/she is a potential threat to the democratic process. The less the people to vote, the less corruption will take place in the election.

If that is true, we might as well have a "family inheritance style" system in UMNO where all post are to be inherited by someone who is chosen by the incumbent.

But why UMNO only? Is it true that UMNO members are more inclined towards "money politics" if given more democratic rights in selecting their leadership? or maybe the MB (and many who supported him this time) are dependent on "money politics" to hold on to their position?

I wonder this would go down well with UMNO openly declaring to get rid of this dirty culture once and for all...

Never Ending Revamp...

Klang Valley transport system seems to be forever going through revamping, privatisation, corporatisation, bailing-out and government take-over.

The latest news is that a major "revamp" is about to take place to attract more passengers. The recently (November'04) set-up government owned Rapid KL, which took over the operations of Putra-LRT, Star-LRT, IntraKota. CityLiner and other bus routes (almost 70%) is proposing a system that will involve the transformation of the 273km rail-based network into the backbone of public transport system.

It is the "hope" if the company that the new system will be efficient and attractive enough to bring in twice the current 470,000 passengers to its LRTs and busses carried daily.

It seems to me that the whole "revamping" exercise carried out so far only results in repainting of all the buses to accommodate the new Rapid KL logo and nothing more. We are still seeing buses being stuck in the middle of the road (not to mention heave traffic) almost daily.

Apart from that, I wonder whose idea was it to change the bus gear transmission system to automatic instead of manual. Seems to me that the automatic transmission system emits higher amount of black smoke and contribute more towards the noise pollution within the city. Furthermore, these buses often break down when going up a slope or hilly area.

I have been taking bus as a means of transport for work for almost one and a half years. During that time, I have to walk almost 1km to the nearest bus-stop from my house also almost 1km from my work place. The situation gets worse during rainy season where I am all soaked up in my feet and yet have to cramped inside a bus that is overloaded with angry people inside (as you might know, there are less buses traveling on the road during rainy season for unknown reason).

After living through that ordeal, I have decided to give up on public transport and get a car. Although a new problem arises with being stuck in traffic jam, I guess it is much better to know that I can adjust to the problem by timing my travel to and back from work. With public transport, sometimes I will reach home at around 8-9pm although I finish work at 5pm!

Based on historical events, I would say that the current "revamping" exercise is nothing but a smoke screen to fool the public into believing that the government is doing something. I guess the biggest winner would be the company(s) that was issued the contract to repaint all the 550 buses each time a routine exercise like this took place.

Cronies at work??

ISA for Mamak Stall Owners?

I was reading on international news on CNN and BBC when I came across the one and only article that is related to our country.

Guess what?

Malaysian MP Mohamad Said Yusof accused mamak restaurants of serving food that is laced with opium poppy seeds!! He believe frequent mamak stall patrons have become addicted to the food.

BBC also pointed that the MP stopped short of demanding that offending restaurant to face the book through the use of the infamous ISA law.

As I quote (Read the full article here):

• "Most saw it as a patriotic if eccentric gesture"
• "That is normally the first cry of any government supporter who spots even the smallest potential threat to national security."
• "The controversial law allows suspects to be locked away indefinitely without charge or trial. And in Malaysia, most would agree that few things threaten the country's well-being as much as tampering with its favourite food"

I also noticed that the last article related to our country was title "Malaysians plan Asian space food".

So I guess this is the international recognition that our country received after 4 decades of nation building...

What say you? (This is a tough question addressed to our so-called leaders)

Oxford and Cambridge Graduates to Rescue SK?

The Education Ministry must be quite desperate in their quest to save the image of Sekolah Kebangsaan to the extend of asking help from Oxford and Cambridge graduates.

The question is: Why them only?

No doubt both are distinguished and outstanding institutes of higher learning in various fields. However, that does not mean students who studied there for a few years will be able to provide input that will be useful in overcoming the mess that the ministry has cultivated over the last 20 years or so.

The most important thing to do now is to understand the weakness in our entire education system, not just the primary level. Our education system was more or less inherited from our previous colonial masters (UK). Since its implementation began in the 1960s, the system was working fine main because we were following exactly what was practised in UK. Since then, a lot of changes were made to the system under the banner of "localization and national unity". The teaching medium has been changed, education syllabus modified to suit "local interest" and most important of all - cater to the need of NEP.

The latest modification to the system was the implementation of so-called "Meritocracy" in university intake which was implemented nearly 4 years ago to replace the "quota" system.

If we look back, we will see that there was no proper planning since our government began to "tweak" our education system. New policies are implemented on a test-run basis, where young and innocent students are made guinea-pigs out of these experiments. Now, we ended up with a half-baked system where the "final products" are facing huge obstacles in terms of marketing themselves in the "real-world"

Coming back to the subject... Why aren't the views of local educationist being sought after in the road to revamp our entire education system? Are they so inferior to even fresh graduates of renowned universities? Instead of hearing from the people who is directly involved in the profession, our government will use all kinds of ways including UUCA, ISA, Aku Janji etc. to suppress their ideas and suggestions.

Is this the best way to go forward?

Footnote:
I have a son who will be entering the education system in less than 5 years time, I wonder what will the scenario be like given all the uncertainties that is going now...

Most Efficient "Court"

Mohd Isa Abdul Samad (UMNO VP and FT Minister) is sentenced to 6 years of suspension from UMNO !!

Less than 24 hours to pass judgment on nine charges, that should go down into "Malaysian Books of Records"... No wonder UMNO did not want their corruption problems to be hauled before the Malaysian court knowing the long list of back log they have...

Following that, Isa's political secretary Mohd Salim Sharif was also served with 3 years of suspension for acting as chairman and campaign lobbyist for Isa (basically acting as Isa's accomplice and doing his dirty work).

It will be interesting to see what will happen on the appeal process that follows... next UMNO VP line-up... as well as FT Minister post...

Guess that will be one down...

Who will be the next "big-fish" to be nabbed??

Food for thought: If Isa is found guilty... what about those delegates that accepted bribes and subsequently voted Isa into VP post? Wouldn't they be investigated as well?

"The taker is as guilty as the giver"

Dog Owning = Chinese Culture ??

Excerpts from Bernama:

• The Malaysians-Against-the-Neighbour's Dog-Disturbance Ad hoc Action Committee has dismissed claims that keeping dogs as pets is a Chinese tradition
• "If it were a Chinese tradition (culture), why does the Republic of China have laws that prohibit dog ownership in Beijing, and for dogs in Shanghai it is compulsory for them to have an operation on their vocal cords," said the committee chairman, who wants only to be known as "Low"
• he once again reasserted his plea to all state governments to strictly enforce the Dog Ownership Act to stop the nuisance and disturbance to human beings, at the same time increasing integration, unity and harmony between the races
• Low considers dogs a nuisance because of the barking and howling at all times of the day and night, especially in the mating season, and this bothers the neighbours and disrupts students' concentration, as when a child is trying to do his or her homework for school the next day
• Low salutes Prophet Muhammad because he forbade his followers from touching dogs, and with good reason too; there is a disease spread by lice that carry a virus which is terribly hard to get rid of, and these lice live on dogs
• he urged all dogs, of all breeds - pure-breds, cross-breeds, and non-breeds - to be carefully registered and kept in control via the Act, and any dogs not taken into this process must be caught and put down, whilst owners should face severe charges
• The fees for dog permits must also be given a hike to ensure the prospective owners are responsible enough to be given the duty of keeping a dog
• dogs should be kept in a sound proof dog house and most certainly should not be allowed to roam around the neighbourhood and public places where they are not only a nuisance but a danger and a threat to the well being of humans in the area

Let me relate my experience in having dogs as pet. Throughout my life, I have had the opportunity of having 4 dogs as my family's pet.

The first two dogs was given to my mother by her friend. They have nice blonde hair and very smart looks. One of them (the junior one) went out and did not came back one day. Our whole family went out looking for them for a whole evening to no avail. Finally we gave up as someone might have taken custody of it (it was a nice breed).

The other dog ("Lassie") was with us for almost 6-7 years. Throughout the time it was with us, it met with accidents, chased thieves away and kept our family at peace during the night. It did not barked non-stop or bitten anyone that comes to our house. Only one fine morning came, when we discovered that it went missing for almost an hour (which it normally don't). We went out to search for it and found it at our neighbour's place (who was good enough to let it into his corner house with a small green area with soft grass). However, we only discovered that it has already passed on. My family grieved (my mother actually cried for almost a day) for our dog for almost a week after we buried it in the garden area of our house.

It is true then, "Dogs do not wanna die at their owner's home".

We never had dogs as our pet for almost another 15 years until a cute little black puppy (should be less than 1 week old) came wandering in front of our front gate looking hungry and cold. I took out some left-over food to feed it and later decide to keep it as our new pet ("Lucky"). Two years has passed since we had lucky. I must admit that Lucky has a hard time adjusting to being a pet where it barked a bit at night and to strangers walking by. However, it finally settled down after a week or so.

Recently, another puppy was lying below my car (almost as old as Lucky when I found him). I decided to take it in again as our pet and named it "Lovely". "Lovely" also go through the same adjustment period as "Lucky" and finally settled down.

Contrary to what "Low" mentioned about disease that dogs bring. My son (who is few months old) has been around our 2 pets all the time and he is fine with them. I must also mention that we do not keep pets in our house per se but at the porch area. Any time my son goes crying for no reason, pointing him to our pet dogs will stop his crying instantly and start laughing as he watches the dogs chase over one another for fun.

Hence, from my experience, you might be able to see that having a dog as pet does not necessary has something to do with religion or culture. To my family, having pets (whatever they may be) is another way of showing compassion towards all living beings. Our neighbourhood is much safer because quite a number of people have dogs as their pet. No one has been bitten as a result of that for the past 20 years. We all hold legal dog permits but we don't think we can afford any sound-proof dog house if there is one (our dogs just sleep under the car).

For the authorities who are making the rules, please do not make any hasty decision based on the arguments of a single group. Do gather all the facts and listen to all sides of the story before you decide what to do.

Sad Day for Klang Citizens

Despite huge support and long list of signatories in her appeal, Dr Tan Yee Kew (Klang MP and Deputy Chief of Wanita MCA) only managed to reduce her suspension to six months as opposed to one year.

Obviously, this would mean that she will no longer be eligible to contest in the upcoming MCA election, not to mention defend her post. The biggest winner out of this will definitely goes to another rising star of MCA, Chew Mei Fun (PJ Utara MP and Women, Family and Community Development parliamentary secretary).

Dr Tan was accused for allegedly breached the party’s code of ethics by making available her recording of a purported scuffle at an MCA branch in Klang on April 17 to the media. The incident was aired over Astro the same night. MCA disciplinary board handed down a one year suspension after finding Dr Tan guilty as charged.

Public support has been high for Dr Tan who has been serving tirelessly for the people of Klang for as long as they can remember. Leaders of various organizations and NGO have submitted signed petitions to top MCA leadership in support of Dr Tan's appeal in the past week.

Dr Tan has mentioned that she will not quit her post in the government as well as her post as MP no matter how the appeal turns out to be. However, the decision to stay on as parliamentary secretary or not may well be out of her hands as this is at the discretion of the PM and top MCA leadership.

We will continue to monitor this saga as it continues...

Spurs are NBA Champions

Finally... San Antonio Spurs came back from a sluggish 1st half, made 7 out of 11 behind the 3-point line to pull off an 81 to 74 win over Detroit Pistons in a classic action-packed NBA Final Game 7 to claim the World Champions title.

Tim Duncan, although started the game with missing eight straight attempts to the basket, managed to come to his form and dominated the last quarter in order to secure his third MVP of the finals.

Congratulations to the Spurs and I look forward to the rerun at 9pm on Astro tonight.

New "Education" Episode Set to Unveil

Finally, the "seasonal" episode of scholarship appeals is coming to a close with PSD providing additional scholarships to all students with 11 A1 and above. However, the public are still left in doubt as to whether the same episode of the incident will continue in the future. The lack of transparency in PSD selection process is still up in limbo.

Today will be the "D-DAY" for STPM (or matriculation) students where they will know the outcome of their application to local institutes of higher learning. Judging from previous history, the Malaysian public can expect another episode similar to the scholarship fiasco.

I foresee many upset students will be complaining through local media about the outcome of their application. Some political spin-doctors will be out to steal some "limelight". The Higher Education Ministry will be out again with the same old excuse "We limited places in the public universities, hence, we cannot accommodate everyone". At the end of the day, the PM will have to step up to the centre-stage to calm everyone down as he did in previous year, calling for more places to be allocated next year, more universities to be built in the future etc.

Following the announcement, we will see political parties such as MCA, UMNO and MIC will be making their way into the local media to be seen as helping disappointed candidates in their appeal process (I wonder any of the Democrats or Republicans in the US is doing this).

Prior to this university admission episode, we already seen UMNO Youth trying to influence the Higher Education Ministry in order to review the current admission standards which is purported based on "meritocracy" instead of the old quota system. Excuse such as the lack of bumi students in "critical" courses are used to support their appeal.

It's pretty ironic to come to think of it. On one hand, we see a big number of graduates failing to secure employment (majority of the are of bumi as well as graduates from local public universities). On the other hand, we have an influential political group trying to get their way in order to create higher admission rate for bumi students. How are we ever going to solve the unemployment issues among local graduates? How do you convince employers that these graduates are of good quality and not been given the scrolls just to satisfy some political agenda?

Like it or not, our country is going to face the big tide of globalization. It is inevitable. When the time come, we will be facing hell a lot more competition compared to what we are facing now. If we aimed to achieve a developed nation around 2020, it is important that we recognize our own weaknesses now and try hard to correct them. No point trying to impose political will on employers to hire unqualified candidates for the job. No point in shouting slogans that Malaysia will become a regional education hub when rating on our university has been declining year by year. No point in coughing up sheer numbers of university graduates when a big number of them can hardly secure a job.

In short, no point trying to prevent the inevitable.

As the Borg species in Star Trek will say, "Resistance is futile !!"

US F1 Fiasco

I was about to wait until Monday evening to watch the replay on Astro as the Live broadcast was at 2am (cannot afford to come to work with just 3 hours of sleep). However, a colleague of mine told me to save my time for better activities as it is "very funny" and not worth the time.

I finally gave up and opened my usual F1 site to check out what is the "funny thing" behind the Indy F1 race. It was then I realized that it was indeed funny that only 6 out of 20 cars started and finished the race as the rest did not participate due to safety concerns of their Michelin tyres. Fans, organizers, broadcasters and betting companies were fuming at the teams that pulled out last minute without giving them any reason for the fiasco (not to mention refund for the tickets which cost about USD100).

Reading further, it seems that it started when Ralf Schumacher crashed his Toyota during a practice session due to a tyre failure. The incident lead to a further investigation by Michelin's engineers and found out that their tyres were not capable of running a full race on the Indy's track surface. Hence, they have go through all the trouble of complaining to the FIA (including installing a chicane to slow down cars at turn 13), or else Michelin will advise the teams that they supplied (7 out of 10 that is) not to participate in the GP as they could not guarantee their safety.

FIA (the regulatory body of motor racing) reject the proposal of changing the layout of the Indy circuit just because it would be unfair to other teams who have brought the right equipment to the race. Michelin throws the blame back to FIA for refusing to adhere to their proposals although 9 out of 10 teams agreed to it (Ferrari did not agree as their tyres were supplied by Bridgestone).

Now, many of the angry parties are planning law suits against the F1 organizers pertaining to the fiasco.

In my view, FIA is correct to uphold the rules and regulations governing F1. Rules are not supposed to be bent just because some teams failed to bring the necessary equipments to the race. I did not see Bridgestone-based team requesting for any of the rules be bent when they fail to win anything prior to the US-GP. I wonder if the affirmative action phenomena are spreading to the international arena.

I also wonder: What if a Malaysian sponsored team were to enter F1 now? Will they be asking for a 2-lap handicap for all the races?

Game 7 in NBA !!!

Finally, a Game 7 for NBA Final since 1994.

Can only watch the replay on Friday evening :(

Have to avoid reading any sports related news and avoid anyone who is into NBA as well for the whole day...

I am a Pistons supporter... so hopefully they will take the series and make it into the books as the first team who win the championship on the road after trailing 0-2 in the first of the series.

Keeping my fingers crossed... GO PISTONS !!!

Daily Excerpts (23/6/2005)

Few excerpts from local newspaper:

1. After MPKK (Kuala Kangsar Municipal Council) applied for some RM51.6 million for landscaping projects, the Perak Menteri Besar provided details that RM18 million from the sum will be allocated for "projek Sayong River Front atau Dataran Sungai Sayong" without mentioning what is the project about. He went on to say that probably RM6-7 million will be approved for the said project.
   (So I guess is common practice to jack-up many times the cost in the any proposed government project so that the government will look good in safeguarding the people's interest in lowering the cost of any projects while approving them.)
   
2. "Pejabat Jurutera Daerah" will continue their lucky-draw method when awarding non-urban projects to Class-F contractors as they considered it the be the fair and just way.
   (Class-F contractors must be praying hard at home for the Lady of Fortune to smile at them, otherwise, they will end up broked. And also good luck to the people who will be benefiting from those lucky-drawn projects, hopefully no fungus, roof leaks, building cracks will come out of it. So much for safeguarding quality...)
   
3. Following the CSMU fiasco, PM provided the final jab when he announced that PSD will no longer provide scholarship or loan to "private" students who are planning or currently studying in Russian and Ukraine because of the "level of security" in both countries.
   (Malaysia's "CIA" must be working hard to get this intelligence from the said two countries. Funny enough why these "level of security" issue was only brought up now... long after the Ukraine Presidential Election. I guess students who are caught there will have to survive on their own. What a knock-out!!)
   
4. Some ex-VCs, deans of faculty, local academics, even UMNO Youth have hit out at the recent decision by PTPTN to give out loans only to students undertaking "critical" courses, accusing PTPTN of discriminating students of other courses as well as students who comes from poor background.
   (Well... more discrimination in our education policy I guess. I thought PTPTN was set-up to help the poor and needy. I foresee our country will only have engineers, doctors, lawyers, IT professionals, managers while other professions will soon extinct.)
   
5. There was a near 2-hour blackout in Bukit Bintang area due to fire and a series of explotion at a nearby power relay station. The incident also caused chaos to the already-heavy traffic condition. The incident caused a damage up to RM5 million (why is it always a nice number? and I wonder who is going to pay for it.) according to TNB official. Bukit Bintang MP plans to take it to the Parliament as well.
   (I think TNB should go through some rebranding exercise like TM and hope that it will reset their PR image)

Food for thought...

All Because of a University in Ukraine

Well... is official... and is on the front page of every major or minor newspaper in the country.

S. Sothinathan is suspended for 3 months from his government post (he is currently the Natural Resources and Environment Deputy Minister, the Secretary-General for MIC and MP for Teluk Kemang).

I guess this is the first time an actual member of the cabinet is suspended from his position. All because he "citicized his own government and thus breached party discipline".

After reading through the Hansard dated 21/6/2005 posted by Jeff on his blog, I think I will be quite happy if I were to be given a dollar for every uttering of the word "racist" in the parliamentary sitting on that day.

Ironically, the particular "numbskull" who only have a single vocabulary in his English dictionary throughout his entire outburst got off scot-free while the poor Sothinathan was to serve his "sentence" just for doing his duty as a member of MIC as well as an MP for his constituency.

Quoting some prominent local daily:

• "Sebagai anggota kerajaan, beliau tidak sepatutnya mengambil pendirian untuk mengkritik kerajaan. Ia melanggar disiplin parti"
• "Ini telah jelas melanggar disiplin sebagai seorang ahli kerajaan"
• "He's a member of the front bench, he should not have taken a stand like he did, criticizing his own government. It is certainly a breach of party discipline"

So I guess this should serve as a lesson to other members of the government, maybe to all BN MPs. I think they should publish a guideline of some sort to all current and aspiring BN MPs which enshrine the first law "DO NOT CRITICIZE THE GOVERNMENT" as oppose to the first amendment of the US Constitution. Otherwise, more unfortunate and innocent victims might be suspended.

Another thing they should include in their guideline would be "If you want to shout racial slurs at someone, do it in the Parliament, or else... ISA". This is very much condoned by the government of the day as exemplified by Nazri in his showcase piece.

Is a pity too that no one (including Samy) came to defend Sothinathan for speaking up his mind on the issue which is greatly affecting his community. Quality of education aside, PSD and MMC should have given due consideration about the plights of the students who are currently studying medicine at Crimea State Medical University (CSMU), Ukraine. The de-recognition is at the worst possible timing as quite a number of students had already been accepted into the said university for the current academic intake.

Understandably, MMC has their own standards about evaluating medicine courses offered by various university. However, basing on increased university intake and lecturer-to-student ratio as the only excuse to de-recognize the said university is hardly convincing that MMC is safeguarding the quality of doctors in the country. What about the state of medical faculties in local universities? Did MMC evaluate local medical faculties in an on-going basis to safeguard local medical graduates? or do MMC just recognize them as the de-facto standards when comparing to other universities in the world?

What next? IEM to recognize institutes that offer engineering courses? MIA to recognize accountancy courses? etc.....

Regulatory bodies like MMC should conduct their evaluation on a fair and just manner on all universities or institutions alike. Factors such as intake criteria, quality of lecturers, number of research papers published, international recognition etc. should be given due consideration instead of giving so much thoughts only to intake numbers or lecturer-to-student ratio.

What if MARA University were to come up with a medical degree? Will MMC evaluate them based on the above mentioned criterias? or it will be based on a different set of criterias since MARA University are reserved on for a certain portion of the country citizens.

Food for thought...

Day One on the Job

After reading day-in and day-out postings at Jeff's and Raja Petra's blog spot. I have decided to try on the same.

Brief intro on myself...

I am a typical "Made in Malaysia" product. Graduating from a private uni (after being advised to forget about public uni due to some "genetic" problems that do not conform to national standards). Working now as IT professional in a small-time IT company, I dedicate almost an hour a day reading through local and international news, interesting blogs before I start my everyday routine.

Reading through local news (in all 3 languages) is getting more and more tedious as signs of our country heading the wrong directions are showing up more often than ever recently. Hence, instead of keeping my thoughts to myself, I've decided to blog them out online in the hope that more people will share their thoughts as well.

Occasionally I will also do some blogging for happenings in F1, Tennis, NBA, MLB etc.

Everyone are welcomed to contribute to my blogs as long as you don't get me into some special interviews with the Special Branch people.

Egghead out...