Perak

At such times of political and economical uncertainty, there is not much we can look forward to. This is indeed a very perilous time for us Malaysians.

Perak.

At this point of time, the Perak situation is very is disturbing. There are several points that I want to point out.

First and foremost, is it ethical to jump ship? The answer is no. Party hopping, in my humble opinion is a betrayal of trust on the voters. However, I find that under certain situations, such action can be accepted.

• If the votes during the previous election is very close, ie, below 500 votes, party hopping can be considered. Not when you win by over 10000 votes. (Hee Yit Foong, this means you) You might be wondering why I am making such a statement. When the majority is low, the votes are quite evenly split. Hence over a period of time, support for the party representing the constituency might decline. Therefore, there is a possibility, that a hop across the pond can be accepted by the voters, especially among the fence sitters.
• If the party hopping does not change the government of the day, I can accept. (DSAI, I honestly cannot accept your alleged attempts to coax BN parlimentarians to cross over)
• If the hoppers become indepents, without support of either side of the divide but vote based on the needs and wants of the voters, I can accept.

Secondly, here comes the ugly part. The role of Sultan Azlan Shah in this debacle.

• Call me naive, but I prefer to think that His Majesty acted on behalf of the people. I would rather believe that His Majesty feels in this economic downturn, a BN led state government will be able to persuade the federal government to release much needed funds to cushion the state againts a severe depression.
• However, if I may, point out that a state-wide snap election will have similar effects on the state economy. BN has a proven track record of using money to buy votes. This will have an instantaneous effect on the local economy. If the can spend over RM13m just for police presence in KT, imagine the amount they will spend to win Perak. Bear in mind, our development projects are hugely overpriced and a lot of the money released goes to cronies and their own pockets. Snap elections will funnel more money to the local economy directly.
• Who is the MB? Nizar or Zambry. Does the Sultan have the authority to dismiss the MB? Logically, no. UMNO's logic, yes. Common man's logic supercedes UMNO's logic. We don't need to see this professor or that professor coming out with their ideas of who is right and who is wrong. Intepretation Act my ass. Constitution supercedes whatever Act there is. Using this act is equalvalent to magistrates court over ruling the Federal Court. Get it yet?

The Speakers role in this whole mess. This can be sorted out very easily. Get a bunch of A-POLITICAL lawyers, get the state constitution, lay it out on a table and extract whatever you can find that relates to the Speakers powers. Analyse and interpret it. Case closed.

Solution.
Dissolve the state assembly and call for snap elections. Whatever result needs to be respected by both sides. His Majesty must ensure that this debacle doesn't happen again. By the way, didn't the three party-hoppers swore to the Sultan that they will support a PR government before choosing the MB? So they lied to His Majesty, isn't that derhaka as well?

The concept of Derhaka.
Let me tell you a story of 2 brothers, Nazar and Zambly (names are changed to protect the innocent). One day, their father ask them to find 59 marbles, whoever gets the most will get the only ice-cream in the fridge. Nazar found 31 of those marbles whereas Zambly found 28. So the father said Nazar won and gave him the ice-cream. (So far so good?)

Half way thru the ice-cream, Zambly noticed that Nazar left his marbles unattended and swiped 3 of them. He then went to his father and said, "I now have 31 marbles and Nazar only has 28, so I should get the ice-cream" His father thought for a while and agreed. Nazar complained that he Zambly stole his marbles so we should hunt again. His father said no because of the hassle and he never mentioned anything about how the marbles should be collected. So Zambly took the ice-cream.

But Nazar had 1 last plan. He proclaimed," It is already after 8 p.m. Mom said no ice-cream after 8 p.m." So this is the question, " Mom and Dad always work hand in hand to raise this family.They always work together and do not overrule each other. Has Nazar been disrespectful to his father when he made this proclamation?"

So you see, what is happening in a Perak is exactly the same as the story above. It is actually that simple. There has been no derhaka, no treason, no disrespect. Nazar is just playing by the rules.

At last.....

It has been over 2 months since I posted anything. Today I can start again. I just got my results for my 1st semester MBA. Passed both... wheeew.... All those weeks of stress and tension actually paid off.

There are a couple things on my mind currently.

1. Yim Pek Ha

Yim Pek Ha was sentenced to 18 years jail for causing grievous hurt to her maid Nirmala Bonat. The judge actually wanted her 3 sentences to run consecutively but being the compassionate judge that he is, he allowed her sentence to run concurently.

Makes you kind of wonder, 18 years for aggravated assault. Why not just "accidently" kill the maid and plead manslaughter, make be sentenced for less. 18 years is too harsh a punishment. 5-8 years seems fairer to the accused. Furthermore, the expert consulted by the defence was dismissed altogether. Apparently the judge is more familiar to the human body and mind better than the expert.

By sentencing her to such a harsh punishment will set tongues wagging. Is it because of the races of both parties? You be the judge.

2. The economy

The economy is facing a downturn at the moment. The government feels that we are well placed to weather this crisis. Well, I'm no expert but I feel our beloved BN government wouldn't know a downturn if it crawled up their bottoms and spew out of their mouth.

It is true that the 1st half of 2008 was great but when I assessed the situation from my company's and customer's records, most profits earned in the first 2 quarters were wiped of by losses in the 3rd quarter. Businesses drop between 40 - 75% overall. Come next year, when we declare our company taxes in July, most businesses across the board will record net losses, minimal net profit ( below 3%) or break even. This in turn will affect the revenue of the government in the form of taxes collected.

In addition, with such an economic climate, our government needs to implement an expansionary fiscal policy ( meaning spend, spend and spend). What will the government do then? No money = contractionary budget. My, my what a fine mess we are in. Will the government again dip its filthy hands into the cookie jar (EPF)? That's my retirement fund. By the way has the PTPTN repaid the RM 2 billion loan yet? Just checking.

3. EPF contributions will be lowered from 11% to 8%.

From the 1st of January 2009, the government will lower EPF contributions to 8%. This is in-line to the government's call to increase spending to prop up the economy. In theory this is correct. However in the real world, this is not a good idea. As contributors, there are 2 things we must realise.

• By reducing the contributions will in-effect increase our personal income tax. This is true when you earn more than RM2500 per annum. However, this arguement is flawed in a sense. The total you can deduct for your income tax is only so much. The figure deducted includes insurance purchases as well. Therefore the tax increase is actually minimal. This is especially true to high income earners.
  
• The second point is the clincher. When you reduce your contributions, the potential loss of dividend is substantial over the long term (accrued interest). Therefore the more you spend now, the less you have when you retire.
  

From another standpoint, if we do not reduce our contributions and the government keeps dipping its hands into the EPF ( read Valuecap), we are screwed. From where I stand, we are screwed either way.

Thanks for reading. If you thought the economy is still ok, scared now?

Lai Ying Xin

This bit of news really broke my heart.

Ying Xin strangled within 24 hours of her abduction

KULAI: Lai Ying Xin was strangled within 24 hours of her abduction, the post-mortem revealed. The killer had used his bare hands to strangle the 16-year-old.

And after she was dead, the kidnappers contacted her family to demand a ransom "for her release".

State police chief Datuk Mokhtar Shariff said the cause of death was manual strangulation.

He, however, did not reveal whether police had identified the killer among the four suspects currently in custody.
The four, aged between 16 and 22, were nabbed in connection with the kidnapping and murder of Ying Xin.

Exactly what is happening to our society? Canny Ong, Nurin, Ying Xin and many more have lost their lives to the scum of the earth. What is the police doing? The saddest and maddening thing is that justice might not be adequately served to the culprits. As noted in the snippet above, the suspects are aged between 16-22 years old. What if all of them point their fingers at the youngest one, knowing he cannot be handed the death penalty? Most the sixteen year old will face is being detained under His Majesty's pleasure.

Where is the justice in that? To the family of Ying Xin, our prayers are with you.

On a lighter note.

My most recent post deals mainly with politics. Writing all these postings has basically raised my blood pressure to an alarming level. So, I want to write something different. After much thought, I have compiled a list of things I want to do before I permanently check-out of Hotel Life.

1. Visit my ancestral home in Chow An, China
2. Visit ten major destinations in China

• Beijing (accomplished)
  
• Shanghai (accomplished)
• Guangzhou (accomplished)
• Harbin
• Hunan
• Xian
• Chaozhou
• Jiu Zai Gou
• Yunnan (accomplished)
• The Silk Road

3. Drive an Aston Martin
4. Travel in 4 countries in a day
5. Watched the sunrise in the Maldives
6. Write a book
7. Fall in Love
8. Get Married
9. Build furniture with my bare hands. ( a chest or a tv cabinet will do)
10. Make my parents proud of me
11. Bungee Jumping
12. Learn to play the Piano
13. Become a Masters Graduate
14. Hiking the Alps

Bear in mind the list above is not in any particular order. Hopefully, I can achieve all of the above before I kick the bucket. The list above will be adjusted from time to time as the world changes. Who knows someday we might be able to go to MARS, then I'll include it in.

916 has come and gone. What's next?

A lot of Malaysians waited with baited breathe, waiting and hoping for any news regarding Anwar Ibrahim's declaration of a change in government. Truth to be told, I was not one of them. Don't get me wrong, I am a strong proponent in changing the current government. I felt the current government has lost its way and honestly, it feels as though there is no government at the moment. Everyone is just playing politics.

So 916 has come and gone. So what's next? One thing we shouldn't do is sit around and do nothing. Here are some reasons why:-

1. Hindraf 5, Teresa Kok and Raja Petra is still detained under the ISA.
2. Racist and divisive behaviour is still condoned by the PM.
3. Narrow-minded and immoral ministers such as Syed Hamid and Ahmad Zaid Hamidi are still in power. ( Ahmad Zaid Hamidi was a former ISA detainee, now he is a strong proponent of ISA)
4. Mahathir is still allowed to make racist and divisive comments on his blog. So former Prime Ministers can play up racial issues but RPK is arrested.
5. Towing the party line is more important than the countries well-being. (Zaid Ibrahim, I salute you!)
   

The BN led government practices hiprocracy to the highest order. So should we just forget about changing the government? You be the judge.....

It is my fault there is no MALAYSIAN UNITY??

I was browsing around the various blogs today. When I reached the old codger Dr. M's blog, something caught my eye. It was entitled "Malay Unity and Malaysian Unity". So like a fool I read the article thinking (more like hoping) it was an article on how to achieve Malaysian Unity. What a fool I was..... Some of the points mentioned in the article were:-


1. The British are only partly responsible for the separation of the races in Malaysia, for keeping the Malays in the rural areas, the Chinese in the urban areas and the Indians in the estates. The different races are also responsible. They made no attempt to mix together as a matter of preference.

2. The hope at independence was that the non-Malays would accept a single national language and a single national identity. But it became clear very quickly that the Chinese and the Indians wanted to retain their identities, their mother tongue and their culture. They did not want to be solely Malaysians, certainly not Malays.


3. Politically it was a good formula and it worked. But when English schools were abolished and the Malay, Chinese and Indians children went to their own schools rather than to the national schools where the teaching was in the National Language. The hope for true national integration faded. After this even the attempt to put the schools from the three language streams in one campus was rejected by the Chinese.

4. Malay unity, if it becomes stronger will make it more difficult to bring about Malaysian unity. But it must be remembered that the Chinese and Indian are also keen to retain their identities more and more. The Hindraf memorandum is very telling. And the Chinese educationists want even stronger role for Chinese language.


So essentially, our dear old Dr. M believes that integration and unity was not achieved due to the unwillingness of the Chinese and Indians to conform to the Malay standards. So it is partly my fault. But 1 comment caught my eye. It basically sums up why the 'pendatangs' were not willing to integrate:-

By winkie on September 15, 2008 8:49 AM

Dear Tun

I believe that it is not the non-Malays'choice to retain their root identities; they were force to do so because they have been kept reminded by the government's actions all these years through the NEP where almost every opportunities ie government jobs, bumi rights, business assistance, education, etc are accorded to the Malays. The non-Malays have been reminded constantly that they do not have equal rights. Now, how can they be blamed now for being accused of retaining their roots? Besides, isn't this what the government has been promoting overseas that Malaysia is a multi-cultural country to attract tourism? Selamat berpuasa Tun and family.

That my friends are my exact sentiments. 2020 my ass.

The Silliness of Our Home Minister.......

To the relief of the nation, Sin Chew Jit Poh reporter, Tan Hoon Cheng has been released from ISA today. Theresa Kok and RPK however will be detained for the full 60 days period.

The best of it is Syed Hamid Albar, the son of Syed Albar ( alleged Malay extremist who planned racial riots in Singapore back in the 60's : according Lee Kuan Yew) claims that the order to detain the 3 did not come from him. The police supposedly took these actions on their own. Since when are we a police state? Police detaining individuals on their own perogative...... sounds a bit like the Gestapo, don't you think?

Furthermore, Tan was detained under the ISA because the police feared that her life is in danger...... doesn't make much sense. IF someone is in danger and the police have such information, why can't the police detain those who wish to inflict danger to Tan? Why not send some officers to protect her. Maybe these are the asian values we talk about. Arrest the victim and ignore the threat. Imagine if someone want to assasinate the American president, the FBI arrests the president under the Patriots Act and ignore the threats made againts him. Make sense? Sure does according to our dearly beloved Home Minister.

Free RPK and Theresa Kok now and we will let you pack your bags full of illegally gotten gains and flee the country. We will have a new government. It is the Rakyats' will.

FIGHT THE POWER