06.05.13 - Post GE13

It was a sad sad day for us in Malaysia.

We had high hopes.  It seemed possible.  May be the unofficial results mislead us?  May be the opposition were being too ambitious...and we got overly excited.

But..how could this be merely our imagination?

Final Rally on the eve of GE13

(Source: Facebook Page of "1,000,000 Chinese don't want MCA to represent Chinese")

At around midnight everyone were still in high hopes.  About 15 mins past midnight, a friend whatsapp-ed to say that it wasn't looking good at all, based on sources she had on the ground.  Within a few messages exchange the official numbers suddenly moved and jumped by double digits.

It couldn't be...everyone was stunned.

Darkness invaded my facebook within minutes. Malaysia mourns...

Thousands of Malaysia Facebookers changed their profile picture to BLACK

I didn't expect myself to be affected so badly.  Retweeted my last tweet (reluctantly) for the night as follows :

Retweeted FMT News (@fmtoday):

GE13: Official: BN has 95 parliamentary seats as at 12.20am. Needs 17 more for a simple majority

I logged off and turned to Candy Crush to calm myself down.

I think I finally dozed off around 2am..after several rounds of switching between Candy Crush, Twitter and Facebook.

Facebook was even more gloomy in the morning when more friends changed their profile picture.  So touching and yet saddening.  We should be celebrating if not for.....damn it..

I learnt a new acronym though - P.K.H.K.C from my cousin's status - a nice guy who is normally composed and quiet both in person and in Facebook.

It's a series of chinese vulgar words...go figure :D


Then..a friend shared this:



I cried.

Read the unbias report from BBC News - HERE

Ceramah

I've voted in at least 3 or 4 elections so far. (Right, now you know my age!)

In the first two experience, I, and I guess same as everyone else, was very much indifferent.  The opposition wasn't strong and everyone didn't think there's a need or rather chance to change things.

Internet access was limited.  There were no smart phones.  There were no you tubes.  No twitter.  No Facebook.

I believe the whole social media and internet landscape erupted in 2006-7.  Twitter, Facebook, Blogs became one of the main information sources for various matters, politics inclusive.

Still, during the 2008 elections, I didn't pay much attention to political news.  There wasn't much sharing back then.  I wasn't into you tube viewing either.
Mainstream media was still pretty much the main exposure, for me at least.  I didn't bother about attending talks (ceramah) either.

BUT. I did change my choice of vote.  Not much discussion about it, I decided to 'try'to vote for a change.  And apparently, everyone else (many) did the same.  Hence, in 2008 a political tsunami happened in Malaysia.

Only after the elections, a friend told me that throughout the campaign season people were very supportive in attending ceramahs (talks/ diagous) by the opposition.  Youtube was flooded with video clips of huge crowd rallying for the speakers, I was told.

The opposition took full advantage of the momentum created in 2008 and continued to ride on the internet and social media platform for the next five years.  Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Live stream became a very important source of information.

More and more people were exposed to issues that we've never pay attention to before ..simply because no one was given access to share in mainstream media.


This time around, almost everyone I know had attended at least one live ceramah.  Our facebook feed is of course flooded with video clipsof ceramahs around the country and many other information.

So, as mentioned in previous post..me too was caught up watching ceramah via you tube videos.

And thanks to technology..we can even watch direct from the TV.

So, being a 'blogger' I've gotta have at least one post with live ceramah pictures, kan?

This is considered the smaller version relative to those with bigger names attending.
Still...look at the crowd!  This is just a portion of them.
Many more sitting at bus stops.  By the side walks. etc.

Hawkers taking advantage of the crowd.  It was like a carnival.

Traffic jam in a residential road at 9pm.

So..okay la..I think I've watched enough you tubes. "Attended" a ceramah.  

Let's pray for a safe and smooth  election on 05.05.13

Join us at : https://www.facebook.com/JomDoa

05.05.13

This coming Sunday, is a very very important and exciting day for Malaysia.  Probably the most exciting ever since independence.

A gym-mate at the regular Sunday class that I go to said.."ok..I won't be coming next week, hope it will be a new M'sia when we meet the following Sunday"

Just realised I've not posted much about political issues here despite all the hype.  Well, there's been so much, I didn't think I'd need to say anything.

In case you think I don't care, I do.  Hence, I'm taking time-off from my work to do this post.

I've been following posts and tweets of selected parties and politicians.  For several nights, I was very close to falling asleep, and ended up watching ceramah (talks) online.

I have short attention span on these kind of serious matters, I'm quite surprise myself that I could actually stay awake in the middle of the night listening to these talks.




Tony Pua at Taman Megah




Hannah Yeoh at Gasing





And this .. I don't understand Mandarin very well, but this is so hilarious yet informative.




A friend forwarded this to me...source unknown.

I'm still trying to get my head around this..

The Opposition stated that they need a comfortable 125 parliament seats to be able to take over.

Found another article from Malaysia Chronicle that had this analysis of possible outcome of GE13:

1.     Popular Vote Tie – If an equal number of voters vote for both sides, the popular vote will be tied at 50%-50%. A BN victory, because they will capture 133 seats versus 89 for PR. (How does this happen? GERRYMANDERING.)

2.     5% PR win – If PR has 5% more voters than BN, they irrationally will still lose the election. (Isn’t democracy about getting more votes than the other guy? Nope, not in the cheat-prone and antiquated British FPTP democracy.) BN will get 118 seats versus 104 for PR.

3.     10% PR win – But if PR gets 10% more voters, then there will be a reversal. The opposition will capture Parliament for the first time in history. PR will now get 119 seats vs 103 for BN.

Bersih and Me

How can I not write about BERSIH 2.0 when the whole country is talking about it, right?

Honestly, I didn't give a damn initially. I only had a very vague idea about it... it is some initiative from some lady called Ambiga..and somewhat related to the opposition and the government is very against it.  That's all I knew...

Sometime in May/ June, I noticed, some friends 'liking' the Bersih page in Facebook, then , many started to have a Bersih logo on their profile pictures, but I didn't dwell further.

Occasionally, I'd glanced through updates from Malaysia Insider via Facebook news feed but didn't really click into them to find out more.  Basically, the word Bersih appeared often enough in my news feed..so indirectly I was  forced to 'know' about it existence.

Tony Pua, the only politician that I 'follow' in Facebook stated something that somehow got stuck in my wandering mind, it went something like this .."Thanks to the BN goons, Bersih 2.0 is becoming more well known than ever" .

How true!

The final trigger (for me) was when I read Patrick Teoh's simple yet informative blog post - What's it all about? on June 28th, where he listed out the 8 simple points about Bersih 2.0.   I read and understood immediately. From then on, I kept track on the developments.


The analysts were right to say that the cyber space played a huge role in making Bersih 2.0 such a phenomenon.  Bersih 2.0, July 9th, 2011, should will appear in Malaysia's modern history...I hope to see the children (or grand children) of our children reading about this meaningful day in their history books 20-30 years from now.

A Malaysiakini article on July 10th, (a day after) , described the crowd as such:

"Notably, the crowd was made up of many Malaysians in their 20s who were first-time demonstrators.
Ibrahim Suffian, director of independent research house Merdeka Centre, dubbed this group as the Facebook generation."

Even the traffic to my little blog here was affected by all the hype.  Just because of an entry about Ambiga (here) posted in 2009.  Every other day, at least 10 new visitors landed on the page.  Some 14 person clicked the 'like' facebook button hence attracted even more visitors via Facebook.  It is now the most read entry in the past 4 weeks at 227 pageviews, that's 40% of total pageviews in the same period!

Below is the visitors overview chart from Google Analytics.

Check out the orange trend line (new visitors) which is now way above the green line (returning visitors i.e. loyal readers supposedly).  Total visitors per day increased by at least 50% as of today.

How can I not pay attention to Bersih 2.0 when it keeps popping into my everyday life..even though I'm almost totally un-exposed to the mainstream media.

On the night of July 8th, everyone chose to skip the usual Friday night out because of the road closures.  
Many were caught in unnecessary traffic jams because of the closures.  Frustrations built up even more.  Since there was nothing much to do at home, we turned to the cyber space for entertainment....Facebook in particular.  "They can shut down the city but not Facebook, let's paint Facebook YELLOW" - one of my friend initiated.  Good idea ..so I changed my pretty profile pic to a plain YELLOW background.  By the next day, my sis' profile became a Sunflower while my bro's became a Yellow Elephant (cartoon). Lol.

By Saturday noon, me and my sis were glued to our Iphones (while watching over our nephew in the park) getting latest updates via blogs, Facebook and tweets.  I finally had to Like the Bersih page to get the latest updates.

By evening, I was all over Malaysia Insider, Malaysiakini, #Bersihstories on Twitter reading all I can find about the rally.  I told my father to quit waiting for the TV news..they won't report the real scenario !.  I showed him some of the videos instead.

I'm still so awed by Aunty Bersih.  I still wish I will be like her one day.  MCA claimed that Aunty Bersih is an actress paid by the Opposition to cheat us.  How can it be??

Read so many good stories from those who participated.  It was really moving and inspiring.

My friend, Fel did ask me if I am supporting it.  Not sure what she meant by 'supporting' but my stand then was quite simple..I said .."well, I have no intention to join the rally, the only way or move I can make is during the real elections, for now there is nothing I can do"

So..I was really really surprise to see so many people, people like me, who are not aligned to any political party, normal citizens like me, working executives like me, retirees, students, some came as far as from other states came to support the rally regardless of race, income class, gender.....despite the inconveniences.

I'm ashamed.  But..I still can't give a definite Yes, if I'm asked to join Bersih 3.0.

That's why I truly admire people like Aunty Bersih.  My salute you all of you.

I read quite a few entries via Malaysia Insider, they were all very touching.  I don't even know which one to highlight now.  Here's one..that I chose conveniently cos I recommended in Facebook (yes..Facebook, again):

I went to the rally as a spectator. I returned a believer. And I had ice cream with the FRU.

By Charis Ding 

....About twenty minutes later, I was in the middle in front of the Maybank Tower with the throngs of people on my right and the FRU line on the left. The crowd had just gathered, they weren’t even moving forward yet. The FRU shot water cannons. It was unprovoked. Then the gas came. When it hit, I couldn’t see, I couldn’t breathe. And it hurt. I grabbed some water from my bag and washed my face with it. I covered my face with my baju. In the chaos, one, two people offered me salt. "Makan", they told me. It really helped. I crumbled and sat on the corridors for a minute, eyes and nose watering.....


....I ended up in Pudu, watching the marchers and listening to their shouts of "Hidup Rakyat!". When we had to run later, at one point it was tricky to escape and we had to climb a railing at Pudu station. In the huru-hara, the man beside me, instead of just climbing up himself, was yelling to his friend  – "Tolong amoi ini dulu!" He seemed more anxious for me than he was for himself, or even I was for myself.   

(Read more..HERE)

Truly touching..all of them.  I wish I had the courage to be part of it.

Here's an amazing video to summarise it all.

Rocket United Cafe

PIC TAKEN FROM http://blogs.straitstimes.com/2009/8/31/political-munchies-in-malaysia

Fuyohh...DAP has a cafe!!!

How cool is that. I couldn't wait till tonight to blog about this.

First read about it HERE at Patrick Teoh's blog. As usual..the way Patrick blogs about things..damn funny ~ lol.

It's located at SS2 a few lots away from the Maybank branch. Actually..don't know what I want to say about the cafe as I have not even been there. Just thought it deserves an entry in my lil blog here.

Did a quck search at the DAP site but there were no mentions about the place. Quite a few blog entries about it though..but I think this one <HERE> from Straits Times all the way from SG is a good one. The write up starts with this paragraph :

WARNING - Eat here only if you are a fan of, or at the very least, are indifferent to opposition politics. Because if you do, you'll have a giant poster of the Democratic Action Party secretary-general Lim Guan Eng watching over you.

Haha.

More pictures of the place from another blog HERE

See you there?

Why am I not surprise??

Why am I not surprise by the sudden turn of events?
If only ..they are so efficient in other court cases ..

Why do I have a feeling that the world is laughing at these clowns?

sigh...

READ ON -- Perak has no one who can legitimately occupy the MB’s office if you are wondering what I am rambling about.

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Nude Pics

Yet another scandal involving nude pictures. This time involving an up and coming young female politician from the opposition party in Malaysia. No need for me to mention name and background..the news is widely covered by the national and regional media scene. Needless to say the pics should have been widely distributed by now.

I am not a close follower of politics..but I did find it welcoming to see fresh young faces who appear to be much more educated and more in-sync with the current world. I find this latest scandal very sad. I won't take any sides but I do have points to make:

...in de 1st place..why on earth is there a need to take nude pics when you are in a relationship..especially when you are a prominent public figure?? Haven't they learn from Edison's case or the previous Health Minister's case?

...secondly..the ex boyfriend ought to be SHOT..left, right, centre, front and back..if it is true that he released those pics to public

...thirdly, every single person who had a hand in forwarding or posting those pics ..don't you think it is so vicious to do so? What if someone do the same to you, your mom, your daughter...? Some time back, I received an email supposedly with nude pictures of the daughter of the Education Minister, I do not like him...but I didn't see any need to even forward the mail on.

...are all these happening in the name of power and politics? Please lar...this reflects the type of leaders that we have to choose from!

Slightly Idling

Ehmm...I have some idle time now but unfortunately I don't have anything interesting to talk about *frown*. My desk is still in a Aftermath mess and I still have problems loading that photo of it from the phone *mad*. I'm not a very organised person, in my first few years working as a junior executive, my bosses used to complain that they can't find files from my desk. I still get that comment once in a while many years later :) My colleagues in the A company used to debate in the evening about whether I had left or still in the office..cos my desk (without me) will have work documents and diary (wide open) lying around. Not a very good habit..I've improved over the years. It does feel good to have a clear desk - unclutter your mind. So..I shall clear it after this.

What else???

The world has been ecstatic about Obama's victory. I personally don't think the victory will have any effect on M'sia although some quarters claimed that he has distant relatives in the East M'sia - big deal! It is possible for anyone from a minority group to be a nation’s leader, even in Malaysia, says Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi - YA RITE!!!

I've been ignoring the current local political scene...actually haven't been paying attention to alot of things happening around the world - very ignorant. UMNO, MCA, MIC, GERAKAN, PKR, RPK, ANWAR, the world's financial crisis, the stock markets..etc etc. The local political matters...is a waste of time to keep track..everyone is just beating around the bush - no substance. The financial crisis should be a worry. I have some investments in UT but I haven't been keeping track for months. In denial o_O

Personal matters...nothing much happening. Been busy..as noted in many of my previous entries..will be busy again soon. Hoping to have a short holiday sometime somewhere...but where / when?? Am also toying with the idea of challenging myself to get at least the kitchen of my abandoned new house done up - so that I can have a small 'do' to warm up the place on NY's eve? Still toying.

Oh ya..it's year end! Things to do?

• Medical check up due
• Christmas is coming...! Time to scout around for presents for the kids. Argh! Headache!

That's about it for today..unless I think of something else...signing off! Ciao.

UPDATE @12.29pm
Just did a check on my so called investment portfolio. The last time I checked was September before the major downfall. Not looking good. Very bad! bad! bad! Totally depressing!

...

Gosh...I feel like I just came out of a tornado. I even think I am trembling slightly right now. Firstly, I woke up not feeling very good this morning. When the morning stretches and shower did not help...I thought some coffee will do good. Obviously that was a bad call.

And..I also thought I could settle down a bit in the office..expecting today to be a relatively quiet day - both work and personal matters. Wrong again. Almost at the same time...I had to deal with unpleasant news from all angles.

My bro updated me that Danial's baby sitter is seriously ill with multiple health problems. As if that is not bad enough, she also had to deal with hefty medical bills cos her original insurance lapsed all because she thought she had signed up with another friend who was suppose to have enrolled her new policy and DID NOT DO SO. Damn...double damn...

At the same time..SY finally found time to update that her dad has been in the hospital last few days. Although, everything's under control but it still took me a while to sink it in. Will try to pay a visit later this evening since I am nearby.


Work wise...as usual....same old issues. Issues that are beyond me but hovering around me like a huge pieces of dark clouds. I am pretty convinced that they will not ever go away, in fact I will be damn lucky if they don't get thicker and heavier and eventually fall onto me! so..what do i do! Move away from the clouds obviously. Though, there will be clouds no matter where i work...but different types of clouds. It's better to work with clouds that are within my reach ...clouds that I can clear pretty easily within my own capacity.

I think I am feeling better now..blogging helps :) I will survive. Just like any other day. May be I will go to the gym in the evening to shake off the lousy thoughts. I found a new love at the gym. Gotcha! If you are thinking I met de man I love - wrong again! Heee....heee ..it's just that I discovered that I actually like going to the Body Combat classes. Kind of tough for my aging joints...but loving every bit of it.

UPDATE: Just when I was begining to find my rhythm again..got another bad news. A friend has been diagnosed with cancer. Damn!

2008 Budget Highlights

I don't know about you..BUT..I really don't see anything beneficial to me here *sulking again*

Source NST Online

• Some 100,000 tax payers to be out of the tax net as rebate for taxable income of RM35,000 and below will be increased to RM400 from RM350 - BIG DEAL..

• Tax exemption for all interest income for individuals - DON'T SEE THE SIGNIFICANCE
  
• Reduction of import duties for consumer durables (examples: blender, rice cooker, microwave oven and electric kettle- HUH!!!!) to between 5 percent and 30 percent from 10 percent and 60 percent
  
• Import duty exemption on several food items including vermicelli, biscuits, fruit juices and canned sweet corn - DOUBLE HUH!!!!
  
• Road tax for passenger vehicles with diesel engines to be similar with petrol engines effective Sept 1, 2008 - DIESEL ONLY??
  
• Tax exemption for employees on staff benefits such as subsidised interest on housing, motor vehicles and education loans - MUST CHECK ON THIS
  
• Bills of mobile and fixed line phones as well as internet paid by employers to be tax-exempted - HOW TO MAKE SURE MY BOSS ADHERES??
  
• Government to provide RM3 billion soft loan facility under public transportation to finance acquisition of buses and rail assets to be administered by bank pembangunan malaysia bhd - WAIT N SEE LAR

• 50 percent reduction in toll charges for all buses, except at border entry points, for two years effective Sept 15, 2008 - NOTHING TO DO WITH ME
  
• Efficiency of public transportation to be improved via rm35 billion expenditure from 2009 to 2014 - DITTO
  
• Farmers to benefit from proposal to abolish import duty on fertilizers and pesticides - CHEAPER FRUITS/ VEGE??
  
• Home ownership among civil servants to be boosted by extension of housing loans tenure to 30 years from 25 years - NOTHNG TO DO WITH ME
  
• Government housing loan insurance panel to be expanded to all eligible insurance companies from only five insurance companies now - DITTO
  
• Excise duties on cigarattes up three sen to 18 sen per stick. Duty for 20-stick pack now up 60 sen - 3 CENTS??? HE MUST BE JOKING..
  
• Highest marginal tax rate for individuals to be cut to 27 percent from 28 percent effective year of assessment 2009 - DON'T UNDERSTAND FULLY..BUT 1 % POINT?? GOT DIFF MEH?
  
• Middle income group to benefit from cut in marginal tax rate to 12 percent from 13 percent - AGAIN..1%??
  
• Accelerated capital allowance for purchase of ICT equipment can be claimed over one year instead of two years (86) - APPLICABLE TO ME ?
  
• Import prohibition on cranes used at ports to be removed. Import duty for the cranes cut to 5 percent from 20 percent (88) - NOT RELEVANT TO ME
  
• New investments by operators of four-star & five-star hotels in sabah and Sarawak to enjoy pioneer status with 100 percent income tax exemption or investment tax allowance of 100 percent for five years. - DITTO
  
• Venture capital companies to enjoy five-year tax exemption for investing at least 30 percent of their funds in start-up, early stage financing or seed capital - DITTO
  
• Local shipping industry to be promoted via a new rm2 billion fund to finance the purchase of ships and upgrading of shipyards. - DITTO
  
• Plants and machinery acquired by SMEs in the years of assessment 2009 and 2010 to be accorded accelarated capital allowance to be claimed within one year. - DITTO

On Sodomy and Driving

Since it's such a mundane Monday for me I shall just write soemthing just for the sake of writing. Personally, I am at That stage again..where I feel I need to be doing more in life..but what? A friend just told me that he/she is thinking about quitting her current lucrative job - this piece of expected and yet still surprising news triggered my emotions even more. Anyway..in the midst of yet another round of political turmoil ..my flip flop emotions is nothing to worry about.

SO..what do you think about the latest hoo haa about yet another sodomy accusation on the country's ex-DPM turned hottest opposition leader? Do you really think he is a dirty homosexual maniac? Or do you think this is just a form of political fabrication to sustain his arising power and influence? You are welcome to Place A Vote on the right hand column. For more juicy news ..click on to Limkitsiang's blog or any of the alternative media sites on malaysia kini and malaysia today.

On a lighter note...a little bit of observations on driving habits after the fuel price hike. Do you ever wonder how the traffic volume can reduce so substantially recently? Where did all the cars go? I kind of concluded that it's contributed by little changes in our habits. For example....... I always prefer driving out for lunch...spending less on cheaper and yet nicer food at coffee shops or even slightly expensive but nicer food IS always better than having miserable expensive but lousy food in the mall here. Despite that..I found myself refraining from driving too far away..on Friday, I blocked out my inner cravings to drive down town for that yummy curry laksa. In the evening, chris refused to meet me in ikea cos it's jus too costly for in fuel terms :D

On Sunday, my sister offered to drive to dinner although my car was just at her doorstep because she needed to de-tour to get some fish food. She probably felt bad that I was driving most of the early part of the day..picking up my aunt from KL and sending her back to KL. A few weeks ago, I made her drive to setapak cos I thought she has full petrol sunsidies from the office...she doesn't have..I was made to know :p

SO..it's probably these little adjustments that we subconsciously make to save a little bit to compensate the costlier cost of living. My father had also opted to have simple dinner at home instead of going out for dinner where we will normally spend at least 40-50 bucks a meal.

Still Bumming in Cyber

When I logged off at 6pm yesterday (with loads of incomplete work) I promised myself that I will not be surfing today. But..as you can see..I am still blogging and surfing away. It's become a daily habit for me to have a quick look into Malaysia Today and Malaysia Kini to check on latest Post Elections developments. The Star online and NST online are as good as redundant these days. And do you know that almost all our new MPs are bloggers? I've discovered a few and they are pretty impressive. I've changed my blog elements a little bit to include their links here. Notice any changes?

Well, I doubt they will have time blogging now..as they have to dive into their new responsibilities and new challenges to prove and re-assure voters that we have made the right choices.

I had an argument with a friend..who thought that we have probably voted too emotionally without thinking of the consequences. As a result, the government has lost quite a few good ministers (Chinese in particular). In other words, we have sacrificed 'a few good men/ women' who had contributed alot to the society. Well, I do agree to some extend BUT...that's the micro picture. For obvious reasons, the rakyat has almost unanimously decided to forego the micro benefits and opted to take a macro stand instead.

Well, to be honest none (from any sides) expected such a huge impact though. Well..instead of dwelling on...we just gotta move forward and see what the future has for us.

And..I've to get back to work..before I lose my job too!

Exciting Weekend

Well..with all said and reported..there really isn't much more to say. The results had very clearly indicated the Malaysians' SAY. However, this is just the beginning..it will be a long learning process from now on..whether or not things will improve..only time will tell.

Since this is such a memorable season..I guess it is only right that I pen down at least something relevant to mark this historical event :D

The day March 8th 2008 started very late for me. I was in bed until 11.25am because I only went to bed at 2am that morning. My father came home in the afternoon and told me that he voted for 'Anwar's daughter. He went back to Titiwangsa(constituency of our old house)..so I was wondering how come Nurul Izzah ended in Titiwangsa? So I asked..which logo he ticked..rocket, 2 moons or 1 moon. He said.."Green color la..1 moon only..ai yaa...as long as not the Dacing la"

Later..I went with my brother to cast our vote. We were out within 30 mins..very fast no queue at all.

By dinner time..we received rumours saying that the ruling party is losing quite badly. That's when the excitment begins. We were advised not to stay out late and stock up some food - just in case! After dinner..we stopped by a grocery store to to see what we can buy. All the bread were almost gone! One of my friend reacted - "ok..i will go and count my maggie mee" :D

There were live coverage on 8 TV stations and some radio stations. The situation became a little bit worrisome when reports confirmed the defeat of several key ministers in their respective constituency followed by the falling of Penang to the Opposition. With so many channels to choose from..I had a difficult time..choosing the best channel to stay tune to. On top of that I was also keeping track on the All Englan Badminton Open - I missed watching Lee Ching Wei bite dust wor.

Things got out of hand for me when my Astro remote control konked out. I had to get up and about to mannualy switch channels..how frustrating can that be..can you imagine?

I gave up at about 2am. Went to bed..but left my tiny alarm clock radio on. Not that I was awake to keep track of the results. BUt..I did somehow wake up around dawn..when I heard that the Opppsition captured FIVE states in the Peninsular..Selangor inclusive! I exclaimed in my sleeep..and drifted back to sleep.

By 9am..I realised that it is impossible to sleep on. I had to get up to verify the results...to confirm that..it is true ...that the Malaysians especially those in the cities...had unanimously decided to act!

Elections 2008 in Malaysia

Malaysia is being hit by the election fever bug. Malaysians will be casting their votes for the 12th term this Saturday, 8th March. Only a few more days to go as candidates race against time campaigning walking the streets, giving talks, handing out souveniers, etc etc

While all these are happening, certain businesses like the advertising agencies, printing agencies, hawker centres , etc are cashing in additional revenue.

Some voters enjoy going ceramah hopping instead of pub hopping even though the weather has been pretty wet...but I was told that these people come prepared with umbrellas!

3/4 of the newspaper pages are filled with election related news and articles ..mostly about what the ruling party has to say about the opposition.

At the same time, the opposition makes full use of the internet and electronic mails to reach their target audience.

I receive an average of 5 emails a day on anti government issues. I only read selectively when it's really interesting....like this >> COMEDY COURT - you must click into this...it's hilarious. Especially the one about elections - ENJOY!

For some reasons, this election seems to be getting into everyone, everywhere and everything. Now..I have to decide what to vote for dinner ('eat' I mean):

What a start

First working day of the year! Guesss what - I forgot my password to the email. New Year Amnesia...it is.

And we Malaysians are greeted by the a grand news of the decade - our very own Health Minister was caught in a sex video scandal! Hmm..as he had rightly pointed out - all was planned & done by someone with a motive, whatever & whoever it is, is not important, he has apologised and regret his mistakes.

Well, I agree 100% that it doesn't matter the political agenda behind the episode. What matters is...can we accept such behaviour from a Health Minister?

Privatising

Heard over the radio this morning about the government's plan to privatised ambulance services. Apparently, we have never had professionally qualified paramedics for the last 50 years - this is what I heard on the radio very clearly. The governement sees the need to improve services and is thinking about privatising. What say you? On my journey to work..I heard feedback from a few callers. A few common issues to consider..which is (well..) common sense:

• All agreed that it's TIME to improve the services
• Privatising will definitely improve services BUT the consumers will end up bearing the incremented cost. Can all of us afford expensive private fees?
• Based on current / previous privatising projects i.e. LRT, Public buses....none of them are really successful. In most cases, the goverment ended up picking up bits and pieces eventually. Will the same happen again?
• Privatising is a good idea BUT who/ which / what organisation gets the tender is another very critical issue (???) In other words, the process of the tender HAS to be done fairly and correctly.

Meanwhile, make sure you don't get yourself into an emergency (?)

I thought I saw a catchy campaign awareness ad in the papers last night. It has a dual lingo catchy logo which says ‘I-WATCH” and “AWAS-I” (couldn’t find it in the online paper). The tagline says something about ‘I see’, “I report’ and “I something” ,…can’t remember exactly – either my memory power is failing or the campaign cut thru is not working well.

Anyway..the campaign encourages us to CALL 999 when we see ‘something’….I excitedly thought – “finally we can be the eyes of the Police!” BUT..it is peculiar to me why was the campaign launched by the Minister of Telecommunications, Eergy & Water??? I couldn’t figure out why until I see a related news in the main page which says the following..:

….Call '999' if you spot someone stealing metal parts or electric cables belonging to public utility firms as it affects your safety and comfort. ...This message comes as part of a three-month public awareness campaign jointly launched by the country’s utility companies and the authorities to fight the metal theft menace. …..

It’s actually a campaign initiated by the said ministry to fight thefts of metal parts or electric cables. While I applaud the initiative by my favourite minister…I personally feel that the campaign could have been designed to cover a broader scope like ALL OTHERS i.e. robberies, burglaries, illegal parking, illegal racing, etc etc. Why just ONE form of theft? Can I call 999 when I see a snatch thief?

Secondly, I also doubt the 999 call centre’s ability on handling these calls based on my personal experience and countless complaints that I have read about.

I see two issues here…sometimes it’s just a matter of choice:

• Whether we choose to ‘tackle’ at the bigger problem or just be ‘smart’ or ‘sensible’ by just taking care of our own ‘territory’.
• Whether we choose to unearth and revamp the basics and rebuild or just ‘touch up’ what is obviuos and visible to bare eyes

I am not targeting mainly at this campaign per say , it’s just a general observation of attitude towards life (work, family, personal) issues. I am also very guilty myself …most times. It’s just so much easier to close an eye or BOTH ……….