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...