Malaysia Independence Day

MERDEKA !

MERDEKA !

MERDEKA !

Countdown to merdeka (Malaysia Independence Day)!

For the benefits of readers from outside Malaysia,it falls on 31st August every year. Malaysia ceased to be a British colony and gained its independence on 31st August 1957. To those who are born after this date there is no emotions attached to it,what little emotions they may have could be quite different from their parents'. The younger generation may feel proud that we have our own identity,while the older generation feel the freedom from foreign suppression. My parents and uncles/aunts used to relate to me stories how the local people were made to feel inferior to the colonial masters. Many of the people living in the town where I grew up were rubber tappers in the large rubber estates nearby,naturally many of such stories happened in the estates. Those days if you saw a zeep passing by,you had to quickly jump off your bicycle,stand at attention and salute.Failing which you would be scolded or even slapped by the "Mat Salleh" driving that zeep. If you were collecting dried fallen branches from the rubber trees as firewood for cooking and a zeep zoomed pass,you really have to thank your lucky stars if that zeep did not stop. If the zeep stopped a "Mat Salleh" would come down and accused you of felling his rubber trees! You would be ordered to leave empty handed and banned from entering again! "Can't he tell the differnce between dreid dead branches from a live rubber tree?" I asked naively.Then my parents will look at me with sad eyes and did not reply. If any of you ask "why use firewood and not cooking gas?" then I will look at you with tears in my eyes and laugh.

Don't Compare Us,PM urges

Malaysia Prime Minister Datuk Sri Abd Badawi urged the rakyat not compare him with the ex PM Tun Mahatir,because the eras are not the same,and their personal traits are not the same. This is very true. We elected him so we should let him run the country he sees fit.

The New Economy Policy

I think the politicians in Malaysia are running out of ideas.Why is everybody talking about bringing back the New Economy Policy? And some wise guys suggested to call it by a new name--New National Agenda. Shakespere said,"a rose by any other name is as sweet." Giantkite says,"a NEP by any other name is as rotten." Looking closely at the orignal noble objective of the NEP is to improve the bumiputras' share in the country's economy,then it should not have being named as New Economy Policy in the first place.The name implies at changing the economy to suit the objective,which is wrong in logics.What should be changed is the ability,the mindset of the bumiputras,so the befitting name should be New Bumiputra Policy,New Bumi Outlook,New Mindset Agenda,etc,etc... The first person who proposed the NEP was a genius,it was so noble, all the Bumi loved it.The non-bumi could not object it because it is only fair that the idea be given a chance to prove itself.NOw there can be heard voices that the NEP did not achieve its objective(in plain words,it flops).The loudest ones are coming from the bumi,particularly the UMNO Youth.Now,if an idea fails,why stick to it still?If it has being quietly put a side to avoid embarassments why stir it up again? Unless that person has serious problems with his brain! The biggest failure of NEP being that while a handful of bumi are filthy rich,but the majarority of the bumi remain as before.The non-bumi has surrended more the 30% asked for,the sectors that command big bucks like Telecommunications,Petrolium & Gas,Finance,Automobiles are all in the hands of the bumi now.But are the bumi happy? You tell me. And there is a minister in the Prime Minister's ministry calling for a new system wherein bumi to be appointed as top executives in non-bumi owned corporations in order to learn the business skills from the non-bumi,can you beat that?! Apparently no one told him that you have to start from the bottom and rise slowly to top in order to fully understand how a business entity functions.At high positions all you learn is how to entertain,to feast,drink and golf with clients.Real business is more than that.

Malaysian Political Arena

The political arena in Malaysia is busy these days. The AP affairs. Former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim got his name cleared of the things he was accused of in a much published book.The author of the book was ordered by the court to pay Anwar RM 250 millions as damages. The UMNO Youth calling for the revival of the NEP. The party election for MCA Youth is completed. The new leadership of MCA is also born yesterday. The next to watch will be the contest for President's seat of Gerakan between Dr Lim Keng Yaik and his deputy Kerk Choo Teng. This one is a surprise,everyone is guessing whether Kerk is going to defend his seat as deputy president or not. No one expected he will go for the No 1 post! Too much for a simple Malaysian to disgest.

The AP Affair

The AP issue seems to stir up more dust than it was originally intended. It all started as a lame excuse of the Chairman of EON Mahali for the poor performance of the group during an interview with a local Chinese magazine.He claimed that the poor showing was due to the unfair competations coming from imported vehicles from South Korea,bacause the import tax imposed on these vehicles were unreasonably low,blah blah blah...Then Datuk Rafidah,the Minister of International Trade and Industry jumped to the defence of her ministry's practice,the way it was issuing the Approved Permits(AP).To that up came our esteemed ex PM Tun Mahatir who is now the Adivisor to EON,giving support to Mahali's words. This stirred the current PM,Datuk Abd Badawi who ordered Rafidah to explain the whole thing to Tun Mahatir and put a stop to all these immediately.But the exchange of words goes on,with the UMNO youth and the Parliament back-benchers jumping onto the band wagon. Finally the Anti Corruption Agency(ACA) also wants a piece of the action,oh boy!!! By the way,the naming of AP is puzzling me.Approved Permit......isn't a permit by default alreafy approved? Is there such a thing as Unapproved Permit? I thought AP refers to Aotu Permit or Automobile Permit all this while!

Get Ready For Merdeka

Merdeka! Malaysia's national day is approaching,have you fly the Jalur Gemilang yet? Be proud of being a Malaysian,I'm proud,are you not? So fly the national flag now! Car owners should mount the flag on top of their cars on the front left hand side.Do not mount multiple set of flags on a single car,one flag per car is the correct way. If you intend to mount too many flags,naturally you have to mount some at the rear of your car.Please don't! This is regarded as disrespect to the national flag! If you are a business owner,fly the national flag at the front of you premises.Majority of shop owners are Chinese.The Chinese is a conservative lot,not good at expressing their feelings like their counter parts,the Malays and Indians do.Show it now by flying the national flag,don't let people say you are not patroitic.Imagine if only the Malays and Indians are hanging their flags high and out,while the rows and rows of shop lots without flag,won't it be a discouraging sight? I know Chinese shop owners rarely surf the internet let alone reading my blog! But you do,I'm urging you to tell your friend,your father,your uncle who happens to be a businessman,FLY THE JALUR GEMILANG!

The Haze

It's the time of the year again.You know what I'm talking about! The haze is creating havoc to Malaysians' everyday life again,thanks to our good neighbours,the Indonesians. Flights are cancelled,schools are closed,office workers stay at home.It is repeated year after year,can't we do some thing about it? The Indonesian government says, "No,nothing we can do." Jail the culcprits (the farmers).If they play hide and seek,the Indon government police/troops should wait for them to return at the burnt site. If they are real farmers they will definitely come back to start seed sowing after the ashes cooled down. Destroy their crops if somehow they managed to grow them without being noticed by the police. (The Human Rights organisations will interfer...These guys care about the interests of a handful people more than the millions and millions affected.....##Sigh!!!!!##). Then help the farmers clear the land instead of letting them to carry on with this harmful pratice. I know the real reason why the Indon government is not taking any action.The wind is blowing the haze towards Malaysia's sky not towards their's!

The Chinese Parties in Malaysia fighting it out

Two major Chinese-dorminant parties (MCA,Gerakan) in the nation will be holding their party elections very soon. The election for MCA will be quite different from those of the past 6 years,where all the senior positions in the party will see keen contests to take place.These posts used to be pre-arranged,negotiated and uncontested for the past 6 years as a result of the damaging Team-A/Team-B contest which almost split the party into two,and both sides agreed to stop the conflict in order to save the party.The structure of Team A/B is still faintly visible,but no open conflicts as before this year.Many people are fishing in the muddy water. One interesting aspect is that there emerged a third faction, the Team-C,which is headed by the son of ex-captain of Team-A,Ling Liong Sik.The junior Ling is eyeing the Deputy Chairman post in the MCA youth wing.What is interesting is that Ling was the mentor of incumbent party president,Ong Ka Ting,and now he is sending a blood hound after his own disciple! President of Gerakan ,Dr Lim Keng Yaik, is encouraging his preferred candidate Koh Su Koon (Chief Minister of Penang) to unseat his deputy Kerk.Maybe Dr Lim no longer fears the threat from DAP which used to portraited itself as the champions of the Chineses,particuparly in area of education,because Kerk was brought into the fold of Gerakan purely on his stregth as a Chinese educationsit activist.Apparently he has overstayed his welcome in the party.(He has been used). I had long detested Kerk for he has since sheded his original colours of a Chinese educationist activist,and seems to get along quite well with the establishment he used to confront.But the current contest brings out the scholar in him,I begin to like him again!

Aging New Economy Policy

What "new" economy policy? It's already 30+ years old,almost as old as most of the UMNO Youth leaders!