Mana Boleh - Where Can??

I read in dismay today that the Malaysian government (read BN government), instead of tackling the issue of fuel subsidy has decided to close part of the fuel market to foreigners.

And how much stupider can they get?

Their ruling is that the gas stations sited within 50 km of the border of Thailand and Singapore will not be allowed to sell gas to foreigners.

Now I am deeply troubled because I am planning to head north to Penang for the holidays, to be with my in-laws. While going up is not the issue, my beef is with the journey back.

When will I need to fill up before I get into the 50 km ruling? And how is it counted? 50 km radius or via the roads? Technically, it seems quite impossible to monitor this and worst of all the only people to suffer from this is the gas stations adjacent to the highway both in JB (Woodlands and Second Link) and also in the north of Kedah, Kelantan, Perak and Perlis.

I recall in the Second Link, direction towards Singapore, there was a Shell gas station that just opened perhaps a year ago. I pity them because they will most likely take a long time to recoup their investment because hardly any Malaysian cars use the Second Link (mostly Singapore based cars).

It would be interesting to see how long this effort will last before they figure out money speaks louder than words.

The best solution to this is to remove the subsidies, or find a way to channel the subsidies back into the pockets of the poor. The middle and upper class can surely "tahan" the raise in fuel prices.

In the mean time, all I can say is..... THIS SUCKS!

Racial politics and roadblocks to reality in malaysia

I read in the papers about Mahathir's latest outburst about IDR (or whatever its called now) and Singapore's investment there and how the Malays will loose their birth right if all this noise made by non-Malays continue.

frankly I am getting a bit sick of all this paranoia pandering. So far i have not heard of any one or party asking for the malay special privileges to be removed. What the PR states and officials are asking for is for a transparent way of doing things, which can still abide with the NEP.

right now, so many things are done with no transparency that the rakyat does not know how much exactly of the nations coffers have leaked out to areas where it is not supposed to.

like how can state assemblymen use up 2 million of their allocation in 2 months. I find it had to fathom such things.

BN for all intent and purpose has made Malaysia into their own cash cow, using up its resources for their own benefit. I'd say that they are only slightly better than the British colonials as the colonials took the money back to the UK, whereas, there are actual work being done here, but as we have seen in szechuan this past week, if a malapetaka were to happen, how many of these buildings are built to standard?

but i guess things are getting desperate for certain quarters who have made it their life work to harp of the racial divide, unfortunately i think their efforts would have been put to more use if they had used all that energy to heal the racial divide rather to make it more jarring.


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In memorium

Over the past 2 days, I have had bad news delivered to me about close friends passing on.

Lee Hertzberg

I got to know Lee, or Pops, as we all fondly called him about 15 or so years back when I was a student in the US. He was my foster-dad's dad, so in essence my Grandpa when I was in the US.

He was an electrical engineer and was on the forefront of many things. He also belonged to what is termed at the "Greatest Generation". His contribution to the Great War (WWII) was his expertise in radar technology, which was in its infancy then.

He and his late wife, Viola or Lala told us how they had to study under armed guard because all the textbooks and reading material was then classified as top secret.

I also fondly recall that he told us the story about Christmas or Thanksgiving during the Korean War when he was deployed at a radar station. There was a storm, and there was supposed to be a delivery of turkey for the troops, except with the storm, the plane could not land. So the flight crew just chucked the turkey out of the planes, determined that the men on the ground would not have to spend the holidays without their traditional turkey. Except that one turkey crashed through the roof of the radar station, and luckily no one was injured.

After many years (and Lala's death) I finally got a chance to go to San Francisco about 2 years back and made a trip to see my foster Dad and mom, Lanny and Jane. Together we journeyed to see Pops, who was still fit as a fiddle at 91. Driving himself around town and to the air force base where he got his medical treatment.

2 days ago I received a sad email from Lanny saying that Pops had passed away from a major stroke. I was in shock, but upon reflection, I do know I have that last photo I took of us from 2 years back and the stories he told. 

Cheryl,

An ex-colleague from my workplace just passed away from Cancer. She was younger than me, lived life to the fullest and had so much potential still to be fulfilled.

Even though she was sick, she didn't kick up a fuss about it. She did her job and she did well, and more importantly, she took my jokes and character in her stride, which many of a good people couldn't.

I guess there's so much more to write, but we only worked together for a short while, and didn't get much more time to interact outside of the office.

To Lee and Cheryl, Rest in Peace!

Is malaysia regressing

I read with great interest (and with incredule) the proposa put forward by dr ras yatim where women traveller, if travelling alone, would require a letter from their respective families or company attesting to the natureof ter travel overseas.

i really find it hard to believe a seasoned politician and respected member of the community could put forwad such a proposal. His proposal was based on some statistics where malaysian ladies were caught smuggling drugs into other countries, ie used a drug mules. If i recall the news article, he said, no insinuated that a large percentage of ladies were being used as mules.

i used stats can be used to argue both sides of the same arguement, and this the perfect case. If you had wanted to push for the legislature, of course, you'd dig up some silly stats. But the reality is that those who got caught or even engaged in illegal stuff is a small small percentage over the larger number of legitimate women travellers.

also it reeks of chauvinistic values, ie the women are dumb and like frog in the well. Chances are, those who engage in this illegal activity know full well what they are doing, and this include males as well. They do it because of some reason that they only know. Feigning ignorance is a sure way of claiming innocence.

who knows, perhaps the next step would be to disqualify single female malaysians from holding a passport, or better yet, why not stop them from going to school altogether.

i always malaysian politics is interesting, unfortunately for all the wrong reasons.

out!


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Testing from mobile

Testing.

let's see what mobile blogging looks like, and with my mobilem@il subscription


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A new life

I am experiencing a second wind as a freeagent (short for being unemployed)

I must admit its a bit scary, with 3 kids to feed and no regular income. But it sure as heck beat what I have been doing for the past 4 months in my previous job where I took a regular pay, but did nothing at work.

Some may say this was the ideal job, but for me, I fear that any longer and it would dull my "edge" and make me into a complacent chap.

But now, it's quite exhilarating and yet scary. I am more busy than ever (so I will keep this short) because I know if my projects do not move I will not get paid. So in a funny way, I am unemployed and yet stressed out for tight timelines that I have put myself on.

As compared to no stress and regular pay.

You may think I'm a sado-masochist, but I would prefer to think of myself as driven.

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Political Baggage

As one who likes to watch Malaysian politics from afar, I was pleasantly surprised the government in Penang is coming together, and more importantly, one member (or rather ex-member) of the BN component party has decided to cross the unsaid line to work with the DAP government.

What is wrong with that, I ask. If the guy believes he can contribute the well being of the state of Penang, then all the more better. I would like to commend the CM of Penang for putting politics aside and welcoming Lee Kah Choon into the state government to head up the InvestPenang team.

What should matter more is:
1) He is the right man for the job
2) He is willing to work for the people
3) He does not mind working for people, who just weeks ago were considered his opponents.

Like a good lawyer I know likes to say: Let's call a spade a spade. If he's the right man for the job, then no one else should say anything to the contrary.

But his motivations must be sincere for I believe Penang will be in for a hard time getting assistance from the federal government until the next election.

And I say to the people in BN. GROW UP! Don't bite the hand that feeds it. Penang needs all the help it can get to continue to attract high tech jobs into the country, it is still a state of Malaysia and has not annexed itself out of Malaysia.

But with the childish approach that the BN government has done so far, I would not be surprised if the PR states will hold a referendum to annex itself out as independent states since it will not be getting any help from Putrajaya.

But back to Kah Choon. I can sincerely emphatize with him, for I have just also experienced a similar situation. But I laud Kah Choon for bravely taking on the position, for I took the opposite direction and declined to take the job.

But perhaps that is what that sets me apart from Kah Choon. He aspires to help all Penangites on his shoulders, whereas I just want to go on making a living and hopefully provide my family with an above average lifestyle.

No backbone.

I am most amused recently by the news of the BN (Barisan Nasional to non Malaysians) big wigs jumping on the blog bandwagon, after it was announced that BN lost the cyberwar.

It's like the MasterCard ad, where the tagline is priceless, as prior to the election, the bloggers were heaped with insults. Now, everyone in the government is on it, and I am really curious what they have to say, or perhaps there isn't much to say anyways.

Then even more amusing is how the knifes are finally out in the UMNO circles asking Pak Lah to step aside. THis is politics to the max. Before its all for one and one for all, and now with a wee bit of encouragement, it's everyman for himself!

With this kind of leadership, I am glad that 60% of Malaysia's GDP is now in the hands of people not accustomed to such idiocy. Or is it?

We'll have to wait 5 years to see if my Philosophy prof was right in saying, absolute power corrupts absolutely. I certainly know it be true for the BN government.     

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The new wave - part deux

After I wrote the piece, I keep seeing the current effort to re-engineer the food chain for the future.

But unfortunately, not many investors have caught on.

Is biofuels to blame for the recent price increase in food commodities.

Yes and No

Yes because the world has only such a defined amount of feedstock available. It is not an ever-growing pie. So when it becomes more lucrative for the middle mens and farmers to sell to biofuel customers than to food customers, you bet they will do that. That is the beauty and the horror of the free market.

No because if companies wayyy back had come to realize the even oil is a limited commodity, they should have pushed harder to develop technologies such as the hybrid, fuel-cells etc etc.

Yes, it is a bit simplistic, but I do try to keep it short and simple.

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