Lailatul qadar

 
 "Lepas basuh pinggan, ikut Abah pergi masjid," kata Abah separuh memerintah.
 
 Aku memandang kepada Emak. Emak angguk sahaja. Maksudnya emak mahu aku
 ikut Abah solat subuh ke masjid. Jangan melawan.
 Nampaknya, aku kena batalkan niat untuk sambung tarik gebar selepas kenyang bersahur.
 
 Aku bonceng di belakang. Kami tidak pakai helmet. Kopiah sahaja.
 
 Ganjil. Dalam cahaya suram menjelang subuh, aku lihat kubah masjid berada di tanah. Bukan di bumbung masjid. Ajaib.
 
 Abah macam tidak nampak keganjilan itu. Aku cuit bahu dia dan tunjukkan ke arah kubah yang berada di tanah.
 
 Mungkin kubah itu tengah sujud fikir aku.
 
 "Kenapa?" tanya Abah.
 
 "Lailatuqadar, " kata aku dengan jari masih menunjuk kepada kubah.
 
 "Kepala otak engkau. Berapa lama engkau tak ke masjid? Diorang tengah renovate masjid la. Bumbung masjid bocor.. pasal tu kubah tu dorg angkat letak kat tanah." sambung Abah.
 
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ISA

I am ashamed and appaled by what had happened during the weekend

UMNO and Barisan must do better than this

God help us..

KOTA BARU: De facto Law Minister Datuk Zaid Ibrahim (pic) stuck his neck out against the Government by condemning the use of the Internal Security Act (ISA) against civilians.

He urged the Government to revert to the original purpose of the law, which was to curb communism.

“It is time for the Government to go back to the original spirit of the ISA and it should only be used on armed terrorists or those out to topple the Government by force.

“I am not calling for a repeal of the ISA but for it to be used only when there is a real threat to national security and not on civilians,” he told a press conference at his home in Pasir Hor here yesterday.

According to Zaid, he was prepared to accept any consequences from his apparent breaking of ranks from the Cabinet over the issue of the ISA.

He said he was also willing to step down as a minister if his actions were deemed to have undermined the Government and Cabinet.

“I do not want to cause any trouble for Pak Lah (Abdullah). I respect what he is trying to change but on the matter of the ISA, I am against imposing it on civilians. I joined his administration to make changes and everybody knows, I am also for a more open-form of press reporting.”

Zaid was commenting on the arrests of Sin Chew Daily reporter Tan Hoon Cheng, Selangor senior executive councillor Teresa Kok and Malaysia Today news portal editor Raja Petra Kamaruddin on Friday under the Act. Tan was released on Saturday.

By using the ISA randomly, Zaid said, the Government was sending a message that it did not trust the capabilities of its own enforcement agencies such as the police in maintaining peace.

“There were ample punitive law to act against lawbreakers without having to invoke the ISA,” Zaid said.

Zaid, who is a Minister in the Prime Minister’s department, said the use of the ISA also creates an impression of selective prosecution as the Government cannot seemingly incarcerate everybody but only a handful.

“In this latest episode of ISA, we (the Government) have generated an impression of selective prosecution since no action was taken against the person who allegedly uttered seditious remarks. We are saying that we are only acting against those who are disloyal to us.”

He said he was glad that Tan was released but was concerned over the continued detention of the other two

Kita semua adalah pendatang

This article is very refreshing

http://kudaranggi.blogspot.com/2008/09/antara-pendatang-dan-penumpang.html

Monday, September 08, 2008

Antara pendatang dan penumpang

Pada mulanya saya agak keberatan nak ulas kekecohan yang berpunca ekoran daripada kenyataan ketua UMNO bahagian Bukit Bendera, Pulau Pinang bernama Ahmad bin Ismail. Sama ada benar atau tidak apa yang didakwa dikatakan olehnya mengenai rakyat Malaysia keturunan Cina bukan persoalannya kerana isu tersebut sudahpun merebak dan mengapi-apikan keadaan.

Jika tidak ditangani dengan cermat, teliti dan bijak, isu itu boleh ditangguk dalam air yang keruh oleh anasir-anasir yang ingin melihat negara ini hancur serta mengundang campur tangan kuasa asing. Dalam zaman dunia tanpa sempadan dan liputan meluas dan segera oleh media elektronik antarabangsa, apa yang berlaku di sesebuah negara itu tidak dapat disembunyi atau dinafikan.

Isu pokok yang dibangkitkan oleh Ahmad Ismail membabitkan persoalan "menumpang" iaitu rakyat Malaysia keturunan Cina adalah penumpang di negara ini. Beliau menjelaskan bahawa ia merujuk kepada zaman pra-Merdeka. Bagaimanapun, sensitiviti rakyat Malaysia keturunan Cina telah terguris.

Saya tidak mengenali secara peribadi Ahmad Ismail, tetapi kenal agak rapat dengan Allahyarham abangnya, Abdul Rahim Ismail, pemilik Syarikat Pembinaan Rahim yang pada satu ketika dahulu agak terkenal sebagai sebuah firma pembinaan Bumiputera yang unggul di Pulau Pinang. Saya tidak tahu apa dah jadi dengan syarikat itu selepas Abdul Rahim meninggal dunia.

Secara peribadi, saya tidak setuju dengan apa yang didakwa dikata oleh Ahmad Ismail atas beberapa sebab.

Bagi saya, hampir 90 peratus rakyat Malaysia, khususnya di Semenanjung, adalah pendatang dan kita semua sebenarnya menumpang hidup di bumi Allah. Kita bukan pemilik kekal tetapi hanya menumpang.

Sebagai contoh, saya sendiri adalah keturunan pendatang yang menumpang hidup di bumi bertuah ini. Datuk nenek di sebelah bapa saya berhijrah dari Makkah dan dari Brunei ke sini manakala di sebelah ibu pula dari Hadhramut, Yaman. Kami adalah pendatang dan penumpang sama seperti hampir semua penduduk negara ini khususnya di Pulau Pinang.

Bagi Ahmad Ismail, dia juga datang dari keluarga pendatang dan menumpang hidup di negara ini. Ahmad Ismail tidak boleh menafikan hakikat bahawa datuk neneknya adalah pendatang dari India untuk menerokai penghidupan yang lebih baik dan selesa di bumi bertuah ini.

Perdana Menteri Abdullah bin Ahmad juga tergolong dalam kategori yang sama. Datuknya di sebelah ibu adalah pendatang dari wilayah Guandong, China. Pendek kata, datuk Pak Lah iaitu bapa Allahyarhamah Kailan bernama Hassan Salleh atau Hah Su Chiang adalah seorang pendatang. Beliau berhijrah ke Tanah Melayu dari wilayah Guandong (Kwantung) pada pertengahan abad ke-19 dan menetap di Bayan Lepas sebagai pekebun getah, pesawah padi dan kemudian saudagar intan berlian.

Najib Tun Razak, Timbalan PM juga berasal daripada keluarga pendatang iaitu dari Sulawesi, Indonesia atau lebih senang disebut orang Bugis manakala sepupunya Hishamudin Hussein tidak terlepas daripada darah keturunan Turki.

Datuk nenek mantan PM Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad juga pendatang dari Kerala, India manakala ibu Almarhum Tunku Abul Rahman berasal dari negeri Siam (Thailand).

Kesultanan Melayu Melaka pun dibuka oleh orang pendatang dari Sumatra bernama Parameswara, seorang anak raja atau bangsawan beragama Hindu.

Dalam sejarah kesultanan Melayu, kita dapati ada yang ditubuh oleh pendatang dari Bugis dan ada pula dari Hadhramut selain dari Minangkabau.

Hampir semua orang Melayu di sini berasal dari luar Tanah Melayu tetapi diiktiraf sebagai "bangsa Melayu" oleh Perlembagaan Persekutuan. Kita adalah "Melayu mengikut takrifan Perlembagaan" iaitu beragama Islam, mengamalkan adat resam Melayu dan bertutur dalam bahasa Melayu. Malangnya, bahasa Melayu nampaknya dimatikan oleh orang Melayu (UMNO) sendiri apabila dinamakan sebagai bahasa Malaysia.

Oleh itu, orang Arab seperti Syed Hamid Albar dan saya, orang Aceh seperti Sanusi Junid, orang India seperti Kader Sheikh Fadzir dan Nor Mohamed Yakcop, orang Bugis seperti Najib, orang Minang seperti Rais Yatim, orang Jawa seperti Mohamad Rahmat dan yang lain seperti dari Madura, Pulau Boyan, Siam, Burma, Yunnan (China) dan selatan Filipina dengan mudah boleh diiktirf sebagai "Melayu".

Mereka diterima sebagai orang Melayu tidak kira sama ada mereka bertutur bahasa Melayu atau tidak di rumah umpamanya si Arab berbahasa Arab, si Jawa berbahasa Jawa dan si Minang berbahasa Minang atupun si Mamak berbahasa Tamil.

Bahasa-bahasa yang disebut itu bukan bahasa Melayu dan jika dilihat dari sudut Perlembagaan Persekutuan, tidak boleh diterima atau diiktiraf sebagai bangsa Melayu. Walau bagaimanapun, atas kepentingan dan faktor politik, semuanya diterima sebagai Melayu dan Bumiputera.

Oleh itu, adalah tidak adil untuk menuding jari kepada orang Cina yang juga kaum pendatang sama seperti orang Arab, India, Aceh, Minang, Batak, Mandailing, Jawa, Madura mahupun Bugis, sebagai menumpang di negeri ini. Kita tidak boleh menafikan bahawa sebilangan besar datuk nenek orang Cina telah berhijrah ke negeri ini semasa Kesultanan Melayu Melaka, bahkan kesultanan-kesultanan terdahulu di Kedah mahupun Terengganu dan Kelantan serta semasa Francis Light berjaya menipu Sultan Kedah untuk menduduki Pulau Pinang pada 1786.

Kita adalah kaum pendatang yang menumpang hidup di negeri ini. Golongan yang boleh diiktiraf sebagai orang asal atau anak bumi tulen adalah mereka yang kita kenali sebagai Negrito, Jakun, Semang, Jahut, Orang Laut, Orang Darat, Senoi dan suku kaum masyarakat Asli lain yang masih menjadi penghuni belantara.

Kita tidak harus lupa akan sumbangan dan pengorbanan semua kaum dan suku kaum untuk membangunkan Malaysia sama ada dari sudut ekonomi, kemasyarakatan, keselamatan dan yang paling penting kesepakatan dan perpaduan. Semua orang yang kena dan seharusnya membayar cukai, berbuat demikian tanpa mengira kaum atau asal keturunan, sama ada pendatang atau penumpang.

Kita semua adalah rakyat Malaysia.

Posted by Syed Imran at Monday, September 08, 2008

About the writer

Syed Imran

Ampang, Selangor, Malaysia

Arab-Malaysian born in Penang, Malaysia. Ex-Bernama journalist (1971-1998) and former press secretary to Minister in PM's Department.

View my complete profile

Umno oh umno

Is this what we stand for?

What a bloody disgrace these lot.

And that includes that rascist up north in bukit bendera.

Should kick the whole lot out of the party!

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Kuittho

This is just ridiculous!

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Manglish

The follow are the other "non-sensical" translations which a friend of mine alerted me earlier.

1. Captain jack sparrow ( pirates of the caribbean )

Translated: kapitan jack pipit ?????

2. "I'm leaving u . Period." (From a movie)

Translated: "saya tinggal kan awak. Haid."

Malaysia oh malaysia..

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Tandas tidak bekerja

Recently, I had the pleasure of travelling down to jb on train.I have always loved travelling on trains, going back to my fosis days when after my morning law classes, I wud then take the train to travel up and down the country to train young budding muslims to be involved in uk student politics, only to return back to nottingham by late evening, and sometime in the wee hours of the winter mornings. Those were really the best of days (sigh..)



I took this picture in one of the carriages. Malaysians (translators) has always been known for either their bad english, or bad malay.



In this case, I'm betting that the translator must have been one of those pj boys/girls who had gone through a more anglophilic education, hence the notorious malay translation.



For the benefit of my british muslim friends who are reading this, the malay translation given on the picture for wc out of order is translated in malay as "wc is off work today".



There was this another joke in town, when u go to the movies to watch cowboy movies or a movie involving a shooting scene, the translation in malay wud sometime include words such as "itik!" Why? "itik" is the malay word for duck, as in the donald duck.



But instead of translating duck into "tunduk", which is the true meaning of take cover, so everytime the guy shoots at the villain, the word "itik" comes out.



I wonder sometimes whether those translator do even watch those movies that they are translating.



Ps: to my sime darby friends, I notice that those adverts that sd are putting up as translation to "sime darby- building sustainable futures" is also wrong. They are now put up as sime darby- membina masa depan yang "mampan", but this is incorrect, because sustainable should be translated as mapan without the m in the middle.



Mampan means kukuh or strong.unless of course u meant a strong future, which I don't think you do.



Selamat berpuasa everyone!







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Confidence crisis

This years merdeka celebration has come and go without much fanfare. Many feels that this has probably been one of the worst merdeka celebration in recent times. In contrast to last years extravagant and lavish celebration, this year has been really quiet.

It was almost as if that the whole malaysian nation has decided to cooperate in not putting up as many jalur gemilang as possible, and none of those ridiculous "kek jalur gemilang terpanjang didunia" attempts as well.

On the one hand, it is a positive thing that we encourage a less lavish merdeka celebration, for it is a after all a remembrance of those who has sacrificed for the indepence of this nation.

Nevertheless, it is almost a general consensus that there is a feeling amongst many malaysians, a feeling of despair, a feeling of uncertainty, and a feeling of dissatisfaction towards a many things which has happened and still happening in this country.

Politics, and the economy.

I think I'm tired of commenting on the political state of this country.

But it is a worrying concern to me though, that each day, the economic situation in this country seems to get worse.

I thought the budget was quite good.certainly more goodies than last year albeit the fact that borneo received a whole chunk of it, but really, they deserve it after being ignored for a long long time now.

It is a concern though that again, this is a deficit budget.that means we are spending more than what we are earning.

Its like using the american express lah, no money also can budget to spend.

The vistage-mier ceo confidence index showed that the confidence index in the country amongst its top corporate people are at the lowest ever. It is even 41 points lower than it was at the same time last year.

It has identified the following items as upcoming challenges:

1. Current and expected economic conditions to worsen

2.Lower revenue and lower growth expectations

3.Higher oil prices

4. Political uncertainty

5. Dissatisfaction with broadband service

6. Efficiency of public service

7. Rising living cost

I think we are now living in a very challenging period. interest rate being capped at the current level, will only leave us all guessing, at what point really is the inflation now. The official figure was something like 6 percent or something, but then again we are such a protected/subsidized economy that it is almost impossible to really identify how inflated the economy is at the moment.

A report by a foreign research house says that malaysia will face a recession by 3rd quarter next year, and it may be worse than 1997.

I guess the cycle is back at the bottom now.

Hang on to your seats.fasten the seatbelts!






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Imam Masjid klcc

The imam of the masjid was talking abt prophet yousuf

And how he had to go through the tribulations of being accused of committing adultery with another woman

At the end of his ceramah, the imam goes

" You see , prophet yousuf was accused of adultery at that time because he is not yet married (single)

Now imagine if he s a married man with a family, he ll probably be accused of sodomy instead . sekian assalamualaikum"

And then he stopped his ceramah on that note!

I , like many others, was left stumped by such surprising anecdotal remark!

I could hear murmurs and some small laughters echoing around the prayer hall

There and then I thought to myself, barisan has certainly got a long way to go vis a vis the anwar saga part 2.

I mean hey, if we can't convince the imam how do we convince the ma'mums?

And the real joke is, the bloody trial has not even started yet!

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Traffic jam at 11am

It took me almost 3 hours to travel to work when this happened

Who to blame?

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Lunch with Jim Rogers

Had the pleasure of having lunch with the man himself recently.

A true invesment guru!

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Pak lah in action

How I spent my saturday night

Hmmm...

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Boy bersanding dalam baju melanau

Kepada bebudak smapk yang gagal datang ke miri dan juga kepada yang terlepas kapal terbang :)

Muhd Firdaus dan Nurul Adha

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Selamat pengantin baru boy!

Contratulations bro!

Semoga berbahagia ke anak cucu :)

All the way from miri sarawak seh !

Hehe

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Letter to transport minister

To:
Menteri Pengangkutan
Kementerian Pengangkutan Malaysia
Putrajaya
Malaysia

Dear Mr Transport Minister

As much as I would like to express my worries over the current political situation in this country, I am actually writing to you to complain about the lrt system in kl specifically, and the public transport system in malaysia generally.

Although I now consider myself one of the lucky few who have been spared the agony and frustration of being called a public transport commuter in msia, today I had the privelege of experiencing at first hand, how it must have felt for the thousands ( if not tens of thousands) who rely on the lrt and komuter ktm daily especially, during the peak hours.

Yes I'm writing this now because, today I had to use the stupid lrt.lucky for me, unlike the thousands out there, I am complaining just because I had to use it sometimes.

Just look at the queue sir! (Please see attachment)

Imagine having to go through all this on a daily basis. Imagine further how all this people would find their way through the small double carriage lrt.

What your eye can imagine, your nose can certainly not smell sir.

Try having 7 people packed in ure perdana v6 and u will then have a similar 'live' experience of how the lrt and komuter is.

Then again I'm sure u don't get more than 2 people in the back of the car.how wonderful.

It is almost ludicrous to even consider that we the barisan nasional government is unable to solve this on going problem. I say on going sir simply because the kl people are tired of complaining as their complaints usually falls on deaf ears.or different ears, because I cannot recall how many times have the govt changed the management of the lrt system.maybe this can give u some idea why we lost kl to the pakatan party..

I am no genius but I always wonder how ludicrous it is that the platform of the lrt is way longer than the carriage itself.isn't it only logical that we could just buy new carriages since the platform seems to be able to fit at least another double carriage? I know for a fact that one double carriage costs around 25 million ringgit.

This is no where near expensive.we can spend to buy at least ten of them and people will not cry foul over wastage of public funds. What is 250 million if it is enjoyed by the hundreds of thousands every month?

On the contrary, we spent 4 billion or more (16 times more than the above request) on an empty now unused cargo space in a certain port in a certain city in selangor.and as minister in charge I'm sure u know full well of it as (although I must say ure handling the issue very well).

and why must we pay and use different tickets for the lrt, star, komuter, monorail, bus.. Its ridiculous! Don't tell me we don't have a solution to this? I say, u should just 'wrangle' the companies who owns this PUBLIC PROPERTIES to accept a common denominated card/ticket.
If they don't want to accept, kick them out of their contract and I'm sure any threat would be useful.why shud we care abt them lot when the people is suffering? More often than not, the people who actually owns and run public transport, don't even use public transport because they have their mercedes s class and porshe cayenne to ride on! this is why most of us have to pay more but no better service in return.how can this ppl fix things when they don't even use it at peak times?

Most of the cities in the world uses single ticket system. Why can't we just do the same?

And finally that stupid ticket machine at those lrt and ktm stations.most of them don't accept notes, and most of it are broken or out of service all the time! So not only do you have to queue to board the train, u even have a long queue to buy tickets manually! What kind of nonsense is that? Had we only have one ticket system for a day trip, it will solve the problem in one go!

A governments job is to make its people happy.the people don't just want long nice roads and nice lrt, but at the end, they want to be happy.how can the people be happy when after a day s experience of using the public transport, u end up getting to office with an unhappy mood (thus resulting in lower productivity) and u also end up reaching home in an angry feeling (hence the unhappy family dinner session resulting in more family and social problems)

Yes it may seem remote how a stupid ticket machine experience and a packed lrt may affect national gdp and national divorce rate etc, but if u really think abt it, u will realise it is not that so remote after all.

As the great jeremy bentham once said, "the greatest happiness of the greatest quantity is the only right purpose, of a good government"

Due to my limited iQ it took me a while to understand this ,but really the writing is already on the wall for us ( jbr in ucl anyone? )

I can go on and on about this topic but my hands are already tired as I struggle to write this in this packed
Lrt.yes I am writing to you, live from the lrt, courtesy of maxis blackberry service.all minister shud have one of this berry s so that we the people can email them and complain to them in emails all the time.ministers are suppose to be at the disposal of rakyats, not the other way round sir.

Personally I think ure a good minister.hence why I have some hope u can solve this problem.forget abt mas and airasia (for a while).solve the lrt and komuter problem and u will have done great service not just for the rakyat, but certainly for barisan nasional wannabe mp s in wilayah persekutuan.

Sir I hope that u will not take my suggestion and constructive criticism lightly, as the fate of barisan nasional depends on it. Similarly as you, I would want to see barisan nasional winning the next general election, with a higher and thumping majority.

Thank you sir for reading this letter.

Good night, good bye and good luck!
(for your upcoming 'possible' mca election- I think u ll make a brilliant president, probably the first to be able to write and read in jawi)

Yours sincerely
Wan mohd firdaus wan mohd fuaad
25 yrs old lrt rider
Seksyen 3 Shah alam
Selangor

Ps. If u recall, me and my father once met you during the 1996 general elections, ampang jaya constituency.you did well sir.(Note my surname)

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Anwar di tuduh lagi ?!

Oh my goodness! What a way to start our sunday morning ..

This will be one hell of a ride for us all malaysians :(

God help us all ..

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What is our reaction to the zimbabwean crisis?!

As I write this, the people in zimbabwe has probaly woken up to the reality of another day of tyranny under the zanu pf robert mugabe

Last friday's unopposed election of mugabe in the presidential election run off is certainly the final nail in the coffin of the many zimbabweans who have died, struggling for a better future for zimbabwe. The leader for the movement for democrat change (mdc) morgan tsangirai (pronounced chang-gi-rai) whom, despite having a lead in the first round of election 2 months ago, refused to contest in the run off vote last friday, citing threats to the voters.

In harare now, voters of mdc and tsangirai in the last presidential election, are being tortured, hounded, some are raped, and a large number are being killed.one might asks how do these thugs of mugabe finds this voters , when surely the votes are suppose to be secret ballot? Apparently every area where the votes for mdc were high, its occupants are now subjected to daily torture and humiliation.

To put it simply, the situation is probably short of the civil war scenario that we must have all seen in that move, hotel rwanda. I watched that movie many times over and I could not but imagine the same thing to happen again. I might be proven wrong with what we re reading now about zimbabwe.

World over, this zimbabwean crisis are receiving front page material attention, that prime ministers and presidents are made to comment on it. Surely many were quick to condemn the situation.

But I am rather perturbed and annoyed that in malaysia this situation seemed to have missed public attention, what more the politicians. Of course, most malaysians would struggle to find where in the world is zimbabwe (somehwere in africa maybe?) , what more to care of the "political" situation there (although political here means people dying and slaughtered/raped/burned on a daily basis). Sure we malaysians have better issues to care about? (Minyak naik, hmm minyak naik, hmm sept 16th ..hmm) . Oh well, it must be my idealistic surreal side that makes me thing that we ought to do something about this zimbabwe crisis too (although my friend ask me why must we really care abt everything else out there, aren't malaysia enough already?)

At least, I think we as a country shud make it clear that we condemn the killings and the way things are in zimbabwe at the moment. Yes some may argue, look at myanmar, but I don't think being hypocritical here would make us lose any face, plus zimbabwe is no asean country and really, the people there are now being slaughtered (literaly) on a daily basis that certainly this is one level above of what we probably know of myanmar ( okay okay I ll correct myself, its burma not myanmar, and yes yangon not rangoon).

There are a few things we malaysia could do in order to 'help' the situation in zimbabwe:

First we should as malaysians , make public condemnation of the situation in zimbabwe. This can be done by our leaders through the mass media, and also by the people through writings/blogs. Even better, why don't u people who likes to demonstrate, make a public demonstration at the zimbabwe embassy in kl? And by u people I mean by the ones in red/blue, green , or even pemuda umno t shirts. Is it because there are no muslims in zimbabwe that we don't care?(Are u sure there are no muslims?) Is it because there are no budhist/hindus there that we don't care? Sometimes I do think that the mat saleh has a less prejudicial view of the world then us asians who are supposedly "multicultural and live in harmony". Oh by the way, the address for the embassy is :

Zimbabwe high commission in malaysia
124 jalan 9
Taman ampang utama
68000 Ampang

so apa lagi, pergi lah buat demo tuh!

Ok even if u don't like this demo demo thing, you can even write a letter stating your displeasure at what is happening in zimbabwe.

Remember, all it takes for evil to succeed is for good people to do nothing

(unless of course ure comfortable being the not so good people who enjoys reading this blog and swip swaping it with facebook and continue doing your work,hoping that guilt feeling will be gone by lunchtime)

Seconly, we malaysia should make a statement that if there is proof that there is genocide and killings in zimbabwe, the perpetrators must and will be judged by the world courts on genocide.

Finally, and certainly most effectively, we must freeze the assets of known culprits in zimbabwe who I think, must have at least some of their gazillion worth of personal assets, hidden somewhere in our country. As some of you in the inner circles are aware, robert mugabe and his clansmen are known to make visits to malaysia for holidays.they like malaysia because we don't know abt them and their 'hobbies' back home, plus the people who do not about them, don't care or already given big contracts in zimbabwe (read- blood money)

So certainly they would probably discover that keeping money in malaysia is probably not a bad idea after all.

On top of that, I am sure some of these hench men's of mugabe also send their children to study here in malaysia thanks to the openness of malaysia's capitalistic private education in accepting anybody with abundance of dollars and cents.

We should kindly inform them (the children/students) that what is happening in zimbabwe, is unacceptable.

No harm however, should be directed at the personnels of the staff and officers of the zimbabwe high commission in taman ampang as per address above.they , are protected by the geneva convention (whatever that is).

On a more different albeit constructive note..

Of course, we the islamist, should also do some solat hajat to pray that the innocent people in zimbabwe will be protected from the evils roaming the land.

why not? We have done solat hajat for a great many things including the various ones on palestine, so why is zimbabwe any different? Just because u have never heard of it? Or just because they are not muslims? Are u sure there are no muslims there? Even the most conventional estimate puts the number of muslims there at 120 000 muslims, what more a wopping 1.2 million estimated by others.

The point is, are they any different that they don't deserve our attention?

Go figure!

The western media calls the place, a living hell.I think it is about time that we malaysians, go above local issues, and resonates our distaste and anger towards what is happening in zimbabwe.

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Sanusi junid

I didn't know he was that smart! :)

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Jokers!

During the medieval times, only court the jesters aka the jokers are allowed to speak of the truth, or well at least, they get away with doing so most of the time..

The logic I guess was very simple. The king wouldn't take seriously whatever was said by the court jesters, simply because they are supposedly characters of unsound reasoning (or so the king would have been led to believe)

And I think in the modern world as well, we also have our very own court jesters in the form of cartoonist who fills the pages of our newspapers daily with their own take of our daily lives ( and how to solve some of the problems- see picture).

I think more often than not, prominent cartoonist such as reggiee lee, lat, and zunar especially, are one of the many modern court jesters who sometimes, uses their cartoon to tell us what they think of our malaysian life, sometimes making mockery our of particular political leaders.

Like the king, these political leaders would certainly have no qualms being 'criticised' in art form by these jokers (literal meaning connoted) as they the cartoonist couldn't have meant any harm apart from getting people to have a laugh at it. Well at least these is how the political leaders would like to have believed, or being led to believe so ! :)

Ps: yes maybe we should have atm machines in our police stations after all! Maybe all the 7 elevens should be at the police stations ! :)


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Former finance minister/dpm?

Do you remember who said these words?

:p

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Disco part 2

Dato abd hamid - by kam raslan

"Perhaps you should go home, maybe your wife can tell you why you're not suppose have fun.obviously she s the bos

Nizam had been needling me all day about how I obey The Wife as if she is my boss.What he failed to understand was that although she might be the boss, she worked very hard to make it seem as if I am the boss,which in a way ultimately does make me the bos.I think that's how my driver Megat explained it to me"

Haha what a philosphy by kam.good stuff though :)

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The class divide between Wakil and Rakyat

By rani rasiah - central committee member parti sosialis malaysia

"A wakil rakyat is offered a salary of rm6500, and an extra 'allowance' of rm7000.

They can ALSO make claims for travelling, attendance, a computer and for mobile phone and calls made

They are ALSO offered a house loan of rm 300 000 and a car loan of 100 000 with very low interest attached

And yes, they also get a free AP to buy a 4 wheel drive or less

The system also provides for a gratuity payment and a monthly pension upon retirement (as long as as they served for minimum of 3 years)"

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A looming economic crisis

This 16th june newsweek frontpage just says it all

While we malaysians squabble on local politics, the world at large are jittering with a possible global recession looming at large

Will the global recession affect us all?

Or more importantly, will a decline of the us economy, our biggest trade partner over the last many years, hit us hard where it hurt most? (Read the tummy and pocket)

I remember a mckinsey s partner from china whom I met almost 3 4 months ago saying that the old saying that when "america sneezes, asia catches cold" , may not apply anymore. Why? Because we asians now have our very own protection in the form of the great vitamin "C".

Yes, u guessed it right. C for CHINA.

Notwithstanding the fact that he was talking way back 3 to 4 months ago when relatively the "atmosphere " of the situation was not that bad (and I stress atmosphere because really, apart from the increase in petrol inflation, we have yet to see a real economic crash), I do personally feel that we malaysians must now realise that a more macro economic challenge is up ahead. And we thought petrol price going up was bad..

Will china help us (asia/asean) deter a crashing domino effect from the already faltering us economy? Personaly I doubt it very much.

George wehfritz calls china the black hole of our financial universe, a vacuum of supposed financial opportunity gobbling as much liquidity unimaginable before.but will all this flush of funds stay amids the current change of status quo of global economy, and more importantly, is a heated china do well after all as our very own vitamin c?

I'm a believer of micro managing the economy. The national leaders have a strong duty in the cming troubled times to show strong leadership to steer our domestic economy, because no matter what happens to our neighbours, it is how we manage ours that will matter for our people.
By strong leadership I mean in the understanding of what it takes to re ignite the local economic activities and making sure the effects are trickling down.

Strong leadership also means that leaders do not blame it easy on the so called ' global situation '. Yes the global situation is bad, but hey, tough luck, you re the leader, solve the problem. No body pushed you for the job, not most of us at least.

Incompetencies in micromanaging the economy in the upcoming difficult times will almost certainly be considered a crime to the rakyat, not least of the fact that supposedly we would have learnt from our mistakes/successes in the 1998 crisis.

I do not believe that just because we have an ever increasing national reserves (gold, foreign currencies and trade surpluses) , that we would have a more resilient economy.

In times of recession, I think that it is not so much about how much money you have, but how much of those are spent wisely ( and wisely encapsulates the micro activity of making sure our ahmads, ah chong and arumugam gets a feel of them).

I understand recession as a stage when money "stops travelling", or maybe a bit more less than it used to. Less people gets to feel that one ringgit as it is not moving from one hand to another, hence creating less value, and another less numerical digit for that national statistic on the gdp.

Mahathir understood this very well.maybe a bit too obsessed with it sometimes.

I remember rather well that when we were in 1998, a lot of money was pumped into national projects, albeit at a much smaller scale.

Recently, a jkr director who is now working for a private construction company said to me that during those years, instead of starting work only when the project drawings are submitted and approved, it was the other way round.

" the instruction from the top was simple. Give the contractors the money and make sure work continues. When the bridge is built, hand in the drawings later"

This build first, money first, drawing et al coming in later is what I mean by mahathir's supposed obsession in the understanding that as long as we ensure that the ringgit's travelling path are not hindered with unnecessary bureaucracy, then maybe , just maybe we would be able to withstand global recession with crude yet effective micro economic money pumping and trickling it down to the three ah's - ahmad, ah chong and arumugam.

I don't usually agree with the grand old man of malaysia, but sometimes you cannot deny his sheer brilliance in managing a 100billion company called malaysia ( yes that was our worth by the mid 90's or so).

1 ringgit transferring from ahmad, to ah chong, and then to arumugam (no racial/prejudicial connotation intended) would mean that at the end, the value of 3 ringgit is generated through the most basic assumption of micro economy.

This monees that they receive will go through the tills at the local mydin's, which then goes to the local farmer, who uses it to give to his child as daily pocket money, who spends it at the school canteen, who s owner using it to buy more local groceries.. And the money keeps on travelling..

Do this at the largest scale, with careful monetary policy to avoid stagflation, would most probaby bring resilience, if not development to our 24 million people based economy.

Why keep 45 billion or so in the reserve when u should spend some of it to spur the local econimic activity?

But then the question is : are the public works being contracted to the lowest 'denomination' of the people?

Or are we still obsessed in awarding the contracts to a few who might just end up buying a house in london that means more malaysian ringgit flowing out of this country?

I have always believed that it is so much better that public economic projects are denominated to lowest and widest possible group of people.

Yes they may not be as competent as the big ones, but what's the point of giving a 1 billion projects to one particular joker when he ends up spending that money buying yet another apartment along hyde park, while using parts of if to pay for the wife's (or wives) shopping spree at selfridges and the 2 kid's 25 thousand pounds a term tuition fees at Oundel or Concorde?

This is the very failure of public expenditure that has to be avoided.

As a matter of fact, I don't mind if that 1 billion man is given the project, albeit him spending it for a grand house in puchong setia (built by local contractors using local stuff), makes sure the wife spends only at midvalley or the local sundry shop and sending the school to sk puchong jaya (ok maybe we can make an exception to them being sent to sri cempaka).

Understandably enough, I have yet to hear any of these jokers doing this. Well who could resist London?definitely not me.

I'm going off tangent...

Anyways.

Point is the future will be worse than you think ( yes don't believe those propaganda that everything will be fine) and really, the lower and the bleaker the expectation that you have of the future, the better it is for you, personally. A soft landing is always better than a crash.either way we are heading down.

good night, good bye and good luck !

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What hyperinflation?

I was in the uk recently.

Like malaysia, the newspapers were all talks abt inflation/hyperinflation and the sudden surge in energy prices (read oil)..

PM gordon brown has even outlined a plan to urge saudi and opec to increase production, although the saudis, like all the rest of them lots, blame it on the bloody speculators (sounds familiar?) Brown even went further to suggest that a more sustainable energy source (read nuclear) is now inevitably the imminent solution to the looming problem (what abt the ever increasing industrial and consumer wants?is that not a problem, or the problem ?)

Anyways, I am always amazed by how critical the british ppl are of everything, their govt, their country, and more often than not, of their own royalties.it is one of those peculiarities which describes, their so called, britishness.

In particular over my recent trip, was the increasing criticism thrown at mervyn king the governor of boe and alastair darling the chancellor of the exchequer in their supposed failure in controling inflation ( or hyperinflation- as how the tabloids likes to word it)

But I was left wondering to myself as I stroll down oxford street, because contrary to the so called popular local belief that the average spending power of the average middle class britons have been cut back, the shops were still jam packed with people, and the summer sales arrived on time, like it always do.

I even managed to buy myself, another pair of my favourite airwalk snickers, for a mind boggling price of 1 pound!! (See picture)

So why the hype of hyperinflation?

this is the classic example of british people being over critically british (is that gram correct?) and in my opinion , rightly so.

Britons usually spend only 10 to 15 percent of their income towards food and bills.and now they have to fork out almost 20 percent for their food and bills (cars and transport included).

for them, that is a huge amount since they still have allocation for other 'essentials' such as mortgage (20 percent) entertainment (10 percent) holidays (15percent) and so on and so forth.

We malaysians spend more than 50percent of our income on food and home bills (and sometimes this doesn't include our car installment and petrol).

Mortgage? Most malaysians are renting until almost through their early thirties.

Holiday? What holiday? Cuti cuti malaysia also we cannot afford. Maybe boleh jalan europa or jalan jalan subang jaya (hitz fm advert)

My point is this.

The british people are screaming like mad to their government,to their mps and and to their financial institutions, over an inflation that has affected a mere 5 to 10 percent of their monthly wages.

While we malaysians, are being affected many folds than that by looming inflation, and yet , we ... ? (Sila isi tempat kosong)

Public transport in uk is brilliant, and yet they complain that petrol price is at 1.30 of their currencies unit. And they are not even a bloody net exporter.

The university system is top of the world league, and they still complain that across the atlantic the ivy league are collecting billions in endowments allowing making it more affordable for less privileged to enter them.

Their mp s and cabinet ministers are scrutinised more than britney spears, and yet they still complain abt them..

The result is, their whole system gets better and better, all the time.when u think there is no more room for improvement (or criticism) u ll always be dumbfounded that the british will find one.

So what about us?

Are we content with yes its ok lah..

Sometimes maybe the standard of what is good, is not really good enough.

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My uninvited passenger

found myself a teddy that was finding his way home.how could I leave him on the streets?

And yes the tummy was too big so I had to strap the seat belt over his neck!

:)

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Pak lah reach agreement with najib on leadership change

Breaking news!

Read all about it in bernama, malaysiakini, and utusan.

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Patronising friday khutbahs'

Every friday we muslims in malaysia go in droves to the masjid to listen to the friday sermons (khutbahs) and perform the friday prayers

And every friday when I listen to the khutbahs , I can't help but feel annoyed at the level of 'maturity' and 'intelligence' the content of the khutbahs and the way the khatib/imam delivers it. To put it simpley, it is outright patronising.

Let us first look at the topics of the khutbah delivered.

More often than not, the content of the khutbah itself are an insult to our intelligence because it usually concerns of issues so minute and insignificant, that members of the audience couldn't be bothered with.

Take this week. Bapa mithali. I assume this is because father s day is not many days away from now.

But what is so significant about bapa mithali??

How many of the audience are interested to listen to a lecture abt bapa mithali??

Islamist has to be real and updated to world challenges, and so does the khutbah s delivered every week.

Shouldn't we be talking abt the challenges of a world facing with energy crisis? Shoudlt we be questioning why is the muslim world, who owns almost 60percent of the known oil reserves, are the worst affected by the current energy crisis? And shouldn't we be talking abt how islam itself is a religion which speaks of a world that is too consumed by worldly matters, that it is a reminder for us all that there is a limit to everything?

And we want to talk abt bapa mithali?

How stupid we malaysian islamist are sometimes.

The problem is, how can we have a khutbah speech which is more updated to the current issues, when the very people who writes those khutbah's are the very islamist who are katak di bawah tempurung that even though they studied overseas (read al azhar) they only mix with malaysians, and they don't even have friends, who are not malaysians. Pi mai pi mai, tang tu jugak.

To make it even worse, more often than not we get really old imams, who reads the sermon, word by word.no intonation whatsoever. Well not that our national leader don't do the same.

We should send this imams to the toastmasters club or something!!

At least, have some energy lah in delivering the khutbah.khutbah are suppose to be fiery and motivating, not a sleeping pill!

With this kind of topics and this kind of imams, they expect us, the mamums not to fall asleep during the khutbahs?

I think I'm gonna fall asleep now..

ZzzzZzzz.....

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Rm 70 and u don't even get 26 litres!

Last time everyone knows that the benchmark is that when u fill in rm50 at petronas, u get at least 26 litres of petrol.

Now for rm 70, which for the many people out there is a staggering 5 percent of their monthly income, or even less, u don't even get 26 litres! How crazy is that?

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Government servants told to change lifestyle

I think this is a total joke!

Government servants are sick of this patronising advices

How dare the very people who live in damansara heights and driven to work 45km s away daily to putrajaya on a government paid car, tell the government servants to change lifestyle

What lifestyle?

Most govt servants are just lucky to be alive!

And u want to talk abt having lifestyle

Kuman seberang laut nampak, vip sebelah rumah di jalan setia whatever buat buat tak nampak?

Don't u dare tell the already poor and middle class people to tell lifestyle, when u don't even dare to cut ure own big fat salary!

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Meg munn mp

Today, I had the privelege of attending a dialogue with the uk's foreign and commonwealth's office parliamentary under secretary ms meg munn, mp for sheffield hailey.

Not as well attended as it shud be, I thought the speaker spoke quite well.

Bar my anglophilic biasness, surprisingly enough for a lady who s experience before becoming an mp was in social community work (albeit having a degree from nottingham), I think she did extremely well talking abt uk s foreign policy. Not an enviable nor popular subject/position to talk abt!

Anyways, I was just wondering if more malaysian mp s who makes it into cabinet cud have been as eloquent/convincing.

not to forget that she was so informal minus the entourage that usually follow a malaysian cabinet member (Or deputy ministers for that matter)

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Tan tin tun?

The tun ship, my verdict:

Tun hamid omar - chief justice of malaysia, he deserves it lah, hope he can reform judiciary.

Tun ahmad sarji - former ksn, chairmans of like a zillion companies in malaysia, inc the malay mentality pnb. Does he merit a tun ship? Contribution to malaysia?

Tun lim kheng yaik - gerakan maestro, malaysia for malaysia man, one of the best ministers malaysia has ever seen, totally deserve it.

Why no tun ship for one of the grand old man of malaysia, tengki razaleigh? He founded bank bumi for the malays (albeit it being destroyed by others later), he created pernas for the malay sme s (albeit it being bought by others later), and he, almost singlehandedly, under the instruction of tun razak, created the biggest cash cow of malaysia, PETRONAS (albeit those who were victors, denied him in petronas history? ) Then again, maybe I'm biased because I'm kelantanese (in the words of brother anwar)

Tan sri ships , my verdict

Tan sri azman mokhtar - ceo of khazanah nasional malaysia, totally merits the tan sri ship, done job well in khazanah, albeit some sour grapes might say he is still young (below 50). Lest we forget, we had industrialist like tan sri halim saad,tan sri tajudin ramli, and tan sri yahya ahmad, who was way younger than him when they were conferred tan sri ship. Read tan sri azman s reply to tan sri adam kadir in this week s the edge page 60. Classic stuff! :)

Other tan sris..

Tan sri chan kong choy - retirement scheme plan?

Tan sri mohamed jawhar hassan isis chairman - deserve it

Tan sri sulaiman mahbob - dg of economic planning unit, top guy, totally deserves it

Tan sri amirsham aziz - he s a good man, prudent, so ok lah he also merits it, done an ok job building up maybank

Tan sri prof khoo khay khim - this one he totally deserves it! Nasib baik it was not a post humous thing! Govt shud have recognised the old master a long time ago, only last year they gave him datuk ship, now tan sri ship, ok lah better late than never kan? Prof khoo rocks!

Tan sri chua ma yu ? The property cum financial master, does he deserve it? maybe or maybe not?

Finally, the biggest joke of the first half of the year, I present to you...

Tan sri anuar musa!

The former kelantanese minister, mb wannabe,many in umno kelantan claim that he is the culprit behind umno kelantan's demise..managed to bamboozled/trick datuk awang adek to think he can be mb (pity datuk awang) and has a history of being tainted with a scandal involving pprt money when he was minister (pprt is the projek perumahan rakyat termiskin). Dismisses corruption claim, but the ksu of his ministry now meringkup in jail, the businessman involve now apparently hiding in hadyai. Also sent his possible challenger in the coming bahagian election to "political holiday" in putrajaya? U judge yourself.

Contribution of "tan sri" anuar musa to malaysia or malaysian people (or even kelantan for that matter) to merit him receiving the tan sri ship?

Go figure!

This ladies and gentleman, is the cracker riddle of this month!

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Tuanku titah lain, dia buat lain

Ampun tuanku!

Dengan izin tuanku, patik ingin mengadu kepada duli yang maha mulia tuanku, tentang adanya marhain marhain hina tuanku, yang telah ingkar titah tuanku.

Sesungguh tuanku telah bertitah supaya marhain marhain sekalian " exercise prudence in face of high prices".titah ini tuanku, sangat lah bertepatan, sesungguh tuanku berjiwa rakyat. Hidup tuanku!

Namun ada juga marhain marhain tuanku, yang masih ingkar! Mereka ini telah membazir kan beratus ratus ribu ringgit, membayar iklan iklan muka penuh di semua surat khabar malaysia hari ini. Kononnya, atas dasar memberi tahniah kepada duli tuanku.

Ampuan tuanku,

Patik rasakan sudah tentu tuanku sendiri yang tentunya sangat arif dan bijaksana, mengetahui iklan iklan ini tiada apa guna nya, malah tidak ada marhain lain yang sudi membacanya pun. Biasanya jadi kertas goreng pisang tuanku.

Ampun tuanku!

Patik yang hina ini mohon kepada tuanku untuk mengingatkan marhain marhain berupa syarikat syarikat besar ini, betapa kami rakyat yang hina ini sedang sengsara kerna kenaikan harga barang dan petrol.

Masih ramai pacar hina yang tidak berumah dan tidak dapat makan, maka bukan kah lebih baik wang itu disumbangkan kepada rakyat miskin ini, atas nama duli tuanku?

Pastinya duli tuanku lebih gembira sebegitu, tentunya.

Satu muka surat penuh iklan harganya lebih rm 100,000 tuanku. Cukup untuk makan 1000 keluarga miskin sebulan.

Ampun tuanku!


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Perbandingan harga petrol kereta

Sekarang naik myvi ker, proton ker, sama jugak mahalnya

Yang vvip still naik mercedes dan bmw dan volvo dan jaguar dan porche

Lepas tuh nak suruh kita berjimat?

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And the bus service providers wants to boycott too?

Apa nak jadi malaysia nih?

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The after effect!

Semua pun nak naik ker?

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The kambing says desak kaji semula!

I don't usually agree with the kambings..
:)

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Rakyat desak kaji semula!

Of all the papers, I am surprised that utusan was the most vocal in expressing their distaste towards the increase of petrol price

I guess we malays, are ok if we are bamboozled by the powers that be on most things, but when it comes to bread and butter ( read petrol and nasi) no rational argument could convince the malays otherwise, should we be deprive of it!

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Thank you barisan nasional

Amongst my friends, I am one of the few who still supports and voted for barisan nasional ( read umno)

As a matter of fact, during the last general election, I did not find a single person amongst my immediate peers who voted for barisan .

Even some of my loyal umnoristas voted for the pakatan rakyat, simply because the bn candidates in their constituencies were deemed as useless, incompetent or just not good looking enough (read old). The last one is in particular to the area of dun subang jaya and parlimen pantai dalam (where many young voters/gen y people voted for the more pretty yet charismatic dap hannah yeoh and pkr's nurul izzah, who for the past 2 months was on the front page of almost all the malay magazines in town)

I think the so called 49 percent of the voters in semenanjung malaysia, inc myself, who still and maybe , will always do support barisan nasional, must have felt a bit betrayed by the reality that we have all woken up to today.

Is this what we voted for?

I hope the govt realise, that yes we do the people do realise that the hike in petrol price was inevitable.

We also do realise, that even at rm 2 70 per litter, we are still the cheapest in the region (thailand is at rm 4).oh how lucky we malaysians..

But I wonder whether the govt realises that we the people are actually angry not only at the surprise of this announcement, but also by the most patronising way we were led into this?

Only 2 days ago, the govt said, no we are not going to increase petrol price. It will be in august.

Mentally, I think we malaysians were prepared for august.

And suddenly, in the most literal way possible, u just dropped the bombshell on us just like that!

We had barely less than 7 hours after the announcement to be informed that price will hike by more than 40percent!

how are we the people expected to except this with an open mind?? Even the most educated of malaysians would demand a gradual increase, simply because we the people need time to adjust to our supposedly 'lavish living' ! ( Well not that we travel around in private jets and have houses in london, sydney or perth)

I would have backed the govt if last night, it was up by even 30cents.

But 80 cents ?? That's just midnight robbery (literrally!)

We the people, must stand united to scrutinise where this money 'saved' will go to.

4 billion, at least, will go to dasar jaminan bekalan makanan negara.

I have never trusted my ringgit on govt expenditure, simply because many usually goes to exhorbitant over priced project, that usually goes to the same ahmad or abu.

But since I am a barisan nasional supporter, I will give them the last benefit of doubt.

6 months time from now, we will revisit.

As a parting shot, I ask also for us the rakyat to think (hint hint to the govt), well since we are now paying higher petrol price and more expensive food in subsequence, why the hell are we the rakyat,especially the people in the cities, still paying sky rocketing toll prices??

Don't all the toll money go to the govt anyways, especially through companies like plus? We already have increased income through less petrol subsidy and soaring petrol prices (less we forget we are net oil exporter), so why is the rakyat still be made to burden it all?

I think now, more than ever, we the people has the right to say

REDUCE TOLL PRICES!

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this is just unacceptable

80 cents in one night?? This is bloody day light robbery!

Come on lah, 3 days ago the govt said it will only be increased in august

And now this??

I wud have vouched for the govt if this SUDDEN increase was just like 30 cents

But 80 cents ???? !!

What were they thinking? That we are stupid lemmings that will not do anything?

The least that they cud do is to give us 3 or 4 months heads up, at least we can prepare for this.

Or naik sket sket jer ket

I don't know how can I defend bn now

Worse still,

I cannot imagine what the poor and middle class people will cope with us

The question now is, how is the govt going to spend the subsidy that they took away from us?

I say we watch how it is spent, every penny of it!

Oh and before I forget,

The electricity tariff will also increase by 25 percent!

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Biggest drawing in the world or just a hoax?

I got this on my berry daily update
Apparently, some rich genius sent a box containing a gps receiver all over the world, with specific instructions of the route, using dhl
And then the laptop charted the movement of the box, hence the drawing
Although its logical, but its rather dubious if u look at the supposed 'route' taken by the ship, plane, or van that carried the box.
Nevertheless, eventhough this may be a hoax, I think one can still give credit to the supposed idea of drawing the biggest drawing in the world :)

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