Give and Take

PM Najib’s maiden budget got mixed reviews, (pro establishment) newspapers hailed it as a rakyat-friendly budget while Anwar (of the Reformasi fame) says it’s nothing but a short term policy.

My 2 cents;
Slashing the top income tax rate from 27 to 26% will only benefit the higher income bracket, those earning more than RM100,000. The aim was to spur consumer spending but then, this group tend to shop overseas (at least in Singapore, Thailand, Bandung if not London or Paris), so how will that help the domestic economy?

To increase disposable income, personal tax relief, tax relief for EPF contribution and life insurance premium will be increased by RM1K to RM9,000 and RM7,000 respectively. On the average, people will have RM166 extra to spend every month. Instead of tax reliefs, why can’t the government do something to increase the people’s wages? For someone earning RM3,000, RM166 is only a 5.5% increment. What can RM166 buy anyway? What about reducing the tax rate across the board?

Almost everyone owns a credit card. The government gives us RM166 and take back RM50, per card. If you have four cards, you’ll be RM34 worse off. Sigh.

Actually I don’t mind paying slightly higher taxes, for as long as I get something back in return. I want to see my hard earned tax money being spent to upgrade Federal Route 54 (Jalan Kuala Selangor), improve the conditions of the schools. I don’t want my tax money being wasted on sending men to space or compensating tolled road operators. I wouldn’t mind seeing my tax money being used to pay the doctors and teachers better, to improve our medical and teaching quality.

I will be very pissed if my hard earned tax money is used to fund politicians’ (and their cronies’) gallivanting trips overseas.

You can’t please everyone can you?

Box of Chocolates or a Lottery?

Forrest Gump made some of us believe that life is like a box of chocolates, you’ll never know what you’re going to get.

Oscar Wilde once said, “There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it”.

We can look into the box and choose the types we want but life does not offer that luxury, we have to take whatever comes and deal with them. Most of the time we tend to ignore what comes, hide it under the carpet and move on.

Unless of course the box contains only one type of chocolates, which is also true, life can be monotonous, plain and mundane; everyday is the same thing, same routine.

I tend to think that life is like a lottery. We assess, calculate, assume, consult the stars, moon and planets and make our choices, hoping for the best. Sometimes we just pick whatever (number) that comes along and hope for the best. Sometimes we pick the same (number) as the next guy (the previous winner) and hope we will find similar success, which never happens.

If life is such a gamble, why bother trying, one could ask. Well, a lottery it may be, it is in our hands to make or break our lives. We and only we have the power to decide where we go, what we do, how we do it, with whom and when. All it takes is guts to take charge of our lives.

Another thing Mr. Wilde said was; “Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not”.

Statistically ...

Rafa Benitez has achieved more success than Sir Alex and Arsene Wenger in his first 200 games.

If the numbers are used as a yardstick, Sir Alex is the worst performing manager of the trio. In their first 200 games;

• Sir Alex won 87;
• Wenger won 110; and
• Rafa won 114.
  
  No doubt past performance is not an indication of future perfomance but having seen the statistics, calling Benitez a bad manager could be slightly unfair.
  
  

Light at the End of the Tunnel?

I'm a coward. I dared not watch last nite's game and I missed watching my team beating (an underperforming) Man United.

It is a morale boosting victory but the top the BPL is still very tight, five points separating the top 6 and a few teams with games in hand, coupled with Chelsea looking quite strong, it is still a massive task for Liverpool to win the BPL.

Am I still pessimistic? Quite. Man City is looking good. I don't expect the challenge from Villa and Spurs to last the whole season, I suspect they will falter somewhere around March.

I'm hoping this will be a turning point to our season, a strong showing could surprise and upset the pundits. And yes, I'm still secretly hoping for title #19 to come next May ...

What is Justice? (Part 2)

Selangor
Teoh Beng Hock died in mysterious circumstances after being “interviewed” by the official Malaysian moral police, the MACC. He was questioned about how his boss (Ean Yong, ADUN Seri Kembangan) spent RM2,400.

Selcat exposed how government officials were asked to approve hundreds of thousands of Ringgit to the former Selangor government’s BN ADUNs (assemblymen) prior to the 2008 election. None of them (or their special assistants) are under questioning, let alone investigation.

Perak
Star witness in the Perak Party hopper CBT case, a certain Mohd Imran Abdullah changed his statement in court. He said Jamaludin Mohd Radzi (ADUN Behrang) did not solicit or receive any money from him as an inducement to approve a development project.

Imran had previously told the MACC Jamaluddin demanded RM5,000 to approve a project in Seri Iskandar. This statement was the basis for the CBT charge on the two party hoppers.

"Saya setuju, kenyataan saya kepada SPRM tidak benar," Imran calmly told the Sessions Court after being questioned by Jamaludin’s lawyer, Roni Rahman. Imran also refuse to divulge how much he was paid by MACC to set those people up.

My money is on Messrs. Jamaludin and Osman (Jailu) being freed from the charge and free to continue being ADUNs.

I feel sorry for Imran’s mother.

What is Justice?

Batu MP Tian Chua (PKR) was found guilty by the KL Magistrates Court of voluntarily causing hurt to a police constable and stopping the latter from discharging his duty about two years ago. He was sentenced to six months’ jail and a fine of RM3,000, which might see him disqualified from his seat. He was granted a stay pending an appeal (The Star online 22 Oct 09).

The case against Datuk V.K. Lingam in connection with the alleged brokering of judges, which was featured in a video clip, has been closed with no further action. Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Abd Aziz said in a written reply to Lim Guan Eng (DAP-Bagan) on Monday that the investigation showed no criminal offence had been committed in the appointment of judges.
“After ACA officers investigated those involved in the video clip, it was concluded that there is no abuse of power. “The Attorney-General (A-G) has decided that no further action is needed,” he said (The Star online 22 Oct 09).

I’m not saying VK Lingam is guilty, I mean, if the learned and wise AG says there is no case; that means there is no case-lah. End of story.

But I cannot help being cynical about Tian Chua’s conviction, especially when the penalty could force him to vacate his parliamentary seat. Given the circumstances of his “removal” from the seat, I would expect a bigger win for PR in the by-election. It would be an embarrassment BN cannot afford after bragging about their Bagan Pinang win.

It is probably not worth, not wise to have principles in this country. Sigh

End of the Road

I hate to admit this but it is probably the end of the road for Liverpool’s title dreams, regardless of the result of this weekend's “do or die” clash with Man U.

Someone has to take the blame.

Some would point to the squabbling American owners, George Gillett and Tom Hicks. Others would say Benitez is a bad coach. Players often get the blame for playing badly. In the game against Sunderland last weekend, a beach ball was blamed for the loss.

Professional football is all about money. And money has been made available in abundance to Benitez since he came aboard five years ago. In total, he has spent £230million and the only good buys in my opinion are Fernando Torres, Glen Johnson, Pepe Reina, Xabi Alonso and Javier Mascherano. The rest are good byes. Ryan Babel came with a lot of promise but the promises have not been kept.

Tactics. I’m not a football coach so my views are probably as good as Victoria Beckham’s but I find it extremely strange that Dirk Kuyt, a proven striker (he was a 20-goal a season striker in the Dutch league) is being played as a winger/midfielder, even in the absence of Torres. Many have pointed out the shortcomings of Lucas but yet his name appears in the first team sheet, every week. I smell a hint of favouritism here.

Why did Benitez give up on his pursuit of Gareth Barry? Man City got him for only £12million. Why didn’t he replace Crouch and Keane with a world class striker, or at least play Kuyt up front with Torres? Why is the team still depending solely on Gerrard and Torres? Hyypia needs to be replaced preferably with someone with more quality than an unknown Greek defender (Sotiris, please prove me wrong). Why did he give up on Michael Turner?

What happened to the youth system? Why aren’t there any notable names emerging from the ranks? Apart from Emilio Insua there isn’t any young player Liverpool can claim to have successfully nurtured. Hopefully with King Kenny back in the fold, we can see more Owens, Gerrards, Fowlers and Carraghers coming through the ranks.

With the present resources, this would be my team:
GK – Reina
RB – Johnson
LB – Insua
CB – Carragher
CB – Skrtel / Agger
CM – Mascherano
CM – Gerrard
CM - Aquilani (?)
AM – Benayoun

CF – Kuyt
CF – Torres

Road Royals

Malaysia has 9 kings. No, we have millions of kings actually. However, they are not addressed as DYMM nor do they have Tengku/Tunku as their common family name. The only common thing they (at least some of them) have is the “B” licence.

Like the 9 kings, these kings of the road also do not pay taxes, or at least road taxes (or tolls for that matter and yet they are allowed on tolled highways).

These kings of the road do not abide by traffic rules. When there is a no entry sign, they can still go in*. They can even travel in the opposite direction on a one way street. They can park anywhere, even on pavements, depriving pedestrians of a proper walkway. The law requires them to adorn a certain headgear but if they decide not to, nobody dares say anything (even some traffic policemen). The law says the “throne” is for two people but they sometimes pile 3-4 people on the machine.

When these kings are on the road, we, the other road users have to make way for them.

These kings have no regard for other road users; they weave in and out of traffic as they please.

When involved in an accident with these kings, we, the other road users are always at fault. Worse still, their comrades will bash you and your vehicle up regardless of whether you caused the accident or not.

And then there’s this rempit thing …

*The underpass at the intersection of Tun Razak/Ampang is out of bounds for motorcyclists but they still use it as if their fathers own the road.

Battle of the Bans

What’s with this country? First PAS Youth called for concerts to be banned then came Hassan Ali with his liquor sale ban, Zulkifli Nordin wants condom sales to be banned and now Puteri UMNO wants horror movies to be banned. It’s like they are engaged in some kind of “Battle of the Bans”.

We are living in a multiracial, multicultural, multi-religion country where everyone has different ideas on different things. Some enjoy watching horror movies, some belief that pre-marital sex is fine, some feel its okay to waste “duit rakyat”, some belief enjoying a bit of alcohol is harmless, heck some even feel it’s their right to get drunk every night. So everyone has to be tolerant to each others’ preference and respect each other choices.

Like I said in my previous posting, if we don’t agree with liquor sales, don’t patronise shops that sell alcoholic beverages. If we disagree with condom use, don’t stand in the way of others who want to use condoms. If we disagree with horror movies, don’t watch and if we don’t agree with concerts, don’t listen to music.

But we should not impose our dislikes on others.

Having said that, the Islamic religious authorities have the responsibility of ensuring Muslims stay on the right track. I have no qualms with that but I feel they should revise their modus operandi. Instead of raids why can’t they take the “educating” and public relations approach? Continuously educate and remind the Muslims of their responsibilities using kind, persuasive means. No threats. Increase religious classes at school, start educating them from a young age. Parents too must play their part and show a good example.

Moral policing doesn’t work, not even in a Fascist state.

She’s Not Coming

“The postponement is solely the decision of the Artiste and has nothing to do with other external reasons” according to the organisers.
Beyonce Knowles may not be coming to Malaysia, the second time (the first was in 2007) her concert is derailed due to pressure from Islamist groups (read - PAS Youth). Their main contention was her choice of attire, which apparently does not cover very much of her body.

View 1 – We do not need moral policing; it is her right to wear whatever she likes, wherever she wants. People are not going to go raping every girl they see just because they went to Beyonce’s concert. Some KL girls dress even more scantily in public places, so why pick on Beyonce? In any case, the public is already exposed to such culture via the television and the web so it’s not totally alien. Freedom of choice, it’s a basic human right.

View 2 – Her dressing is indecent. It is a bad example for the young women. Would we allow our wives, sisters or daughters (or mothers, aunties, grandmothers) to dress like that? So, why do we condone her dressing? Is it because as long as she’s not our wives, sisters or daughters (or mothers, aunties, grandmothers), she can dress however she wants, even if it’s indecent? So, it’s okay for men to ogle at Beyonce’s curves but not okay for the same men to ogle at a sexy pretty young lass sitting across the room, especially if that sexy pretty young lass is our wives, sisters or daughters? Why the double standards?

My view – Just let the concert go on; if you disagree, don’t go, don’t allow your family to go. Don’t look at the posters or advertisements. If you’re a Muslim, ask yourself if you’re fine with dancing around while your eyes are transfixed on Beyonce’s curvy lines. If the thought does not affect your conscience, by all means go and have a blast.

It’s the same with the beer issue in Selangor, Hassan Ali (and Zulkifli Nordin) should not call for a ban in their sales. Just remind the Muslims – thou shall not consume alcohol, in any quantity, if you do, thou shall face the wrath of Allah. If they still want to be a beer consumer, that’s their problem, you have done your job of educating them. All is left for you to do is pray that God will lead us on the right path.

To be or not to be …

… that is the question, asked Hamlet.

I’m sure many of us have heard the quote and a lot of us know where it came from. Some even know when and by whom it was written. But does that group of people in the know include our current batch of youngsters?

I’m not saying knowing about William Shakespeare is crucial in ensuring a better life, all I’m saying is English as a communication tool is crucial if we want to continue to develop ourselves, as individuals as well as a nation.

Why is English (the language, not the people) so important? It is the second most spoken language in the world, after Mandarin. The fact that Mandarin is number one has nothing to do with its importance; it is up there solely due to the huge number of Chinese people on this planet, whereas English is spoken even by the Chinese!

English is the international language for diplomacy, business, education, science, technology, tourism, the list goes on. Most academic text can be found in English and as a result the English language has the most diversified vocabulary of any language.

English is the global lingua franca; have English, will travel,* never leave home without it.**

There are two parts in English proficiency, written and spoken. I have met a lot of people who can write excellent English but couldn’t string a simple sentence. I know of a few brilliant students who despite their string of A’s in their SPM, failed to get into good UK universities because they failed to obtain the minimum English standards in the IELTS.

I recently read some employment application cover letters, the quality of English was quite sad, it made me shudder to think that it was written by university graduates, from both local and foreign universities.

Some of us seem to think English is about the accent. It is so nauseating to hear somebody speak with a fake American/English/Scottish/Australian accent filled with elementary grammatical errors!

Being good in English doesn’t mean we will neglect our mother tongue. Speaking English doesn’t mean we are showing off. I’m not saying my English is great; I’m still learning and trying to improve my English everyday. If I can, everyone can too (and should).

So, please-lah, let improves our English, can-or-not? So difficult ah to do that? Sure can one. Malaysia Boleh!


*please don’t tell me you haven’t heard the “have [insert word], will travel” maxim!
**never leave home without it – American Express’ ad campaign coined by O&M in the 70’s

If I had RM308 million

“If” is a powerful word. When “if” is in a sentence, everything is possible.

According to reports, the team will have a start up capital of RM168 million and an annual budget of RM308 million. If I have the kind of money they are planning to spend on the 1Malaysia F1 Team, this is what I would do;

RM308 million could:

• Fund 35,000 students at local universities every year (assuming RM5,000 and RM300 for fees and monthly allowance respectively) or
• Provide nutritious meal everyday for all school children or
• Convert a lot of, if not all diesel powered commercial vehicles to NGV or
• Build at least one hospital (maybe two or more if the cost does not include “commissions”) or
• Fund many kinds of medical research or
• Provide free transport to and from school for the whole year for 342,000 students (assuming bus fare of RM90 per month) or
• Fund 600 PhD students at overseas universities (assuming the total cost for a PhD is RM500,000) or
• Build and furnish 5,100 houses for the hardcore poor (assuming RM60,000 for each house and its contents) or
• Fund research on recycling and other environment saving projects
  
  or
• Provide 42,000 people 3 meals a day, everyday (assuming RM20 for 3 meals per day) or
• Fund my auto museum (http://sam-bicara.blogspot.com/2009/03/can-i-have-auto-museum.html)
  

I can go on and on, the possibilities are endless. But then again, ex-PM Tun M said the benefit of an F1 team to Malaysia is worth 100 times more than the cost incurred. We better listen to him before he throws a tantrum.

Violation of Privacy

A human X-ray machine which produces "naked" images of passengers has been introduced at Manchester airport. The scanner, made by the firm RapiScan Systems, makes the check-in process much quicker for passengers, who will not have to remove their coats, shoes or belts.

It enables staff to instantly spot any hidden weapons or explosives.

The full body scanner which is being trialled will also show up any breast enlargements, false limbs, piercings, and a clear outline of passengers' private parts. The black and white image will only be seen by one officer in a remote location before it is deleted.

Airport bosses admit some travellers might not want to be scanned because of the graphic nature of the images. They can refuse to undergo the virtual strip search at Terminal 2, opting for the traditional "pat down" search instead.

I will not subject myself to this humiliating procedure. I doubt many will but I won’t be surprised if some good looking women find it difficult to get away from going through the scanner.

(ITN)

Monopolistic Championships

Apart from the Spanish and Italian leagues, the other major European leagues seem to be monopolised by only one team.

Manchester United and Bayern Munich have been champions of England and Germany respectively for 11 of the last 21 years. Olympique Lyon won 7 consecutive French titles in the past 15 years. In Spain, Barcelona and Real Madrid won 6 championships each out of the last 16. Juventus (7), AC Milan (6) and Inter Milan (4) dominated the Serie A for the past 21 years.

Once in a while, teams like VfL Wolfsburg, AS Roma or Bordeaux springs a surprise by winning the league. But such occurrences will be very rare; the monetary resources of the big team(s) cannot be matched and they have the ability to attract the best talents of all ages, for two reasons; monetary and success track record.

Maybe the recent phenomenon of wealthy businessmen (mostly from the Middle East) buying football clubs is a good way to break the monopoly of the traditional champions. It sort of proves that money could buy success which may be true for a commercial enterprise; it may not be the best thing for sports.

Pouring too much money into sports is also a resource misallocation. Paying a rival club RM100 million for the services of a football player is not only ridiculous but also very obscene. No doubt it has positive economic implications; it does stimulate economic activity via consumer spending and infrastructure (stadiums etc) building but it is still resource misallocation none the less. It will also create a spiral effect when more clubs revalue their star players upwards and the players themselves demand better financial terms. The virtual monopoly of the big teams will continue and the strength and success of the clubs will positively correlate with the fortunes of their owners. It would be good for the clubs and players but would it be good for the game?

I’m a traditionalist, old fashioned maybe. While I believe money is important and making as much as possible is crucial especially for their relative short sporting careers, I am of the opinion that sports should be motivated primarily by passion and love for the game and in the case of club based football, maybe a little bit of loyalty.

Asterix is 50!

The cunning Asterix and his jovial friend Obelix was introduced to the world by Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo on Oct 29, 1959 in the French comic strip magazine Pilote.

Two years later, the first hardback volume of their adventures was published, with an initial print run of 6,000 copies and since then, a total of 325 million copies of 33 Asterix books in 107 languages, have been sold around the world, making the co-creators France’s bestselling authors abroad.

Goscinny, who wrote the texts, died suddenly in 1977 and Uderzo, who did the drawings, continued the series alone.

I’m a big fan of Asterix. I have a collection of their comics and I’ve read some of their stories many times, laughing every time. I particulary like how the characters are named, like Unhygenix the fishmonger, Getafix (get-a-fix, geddit?) the druid and some of the Roman names are hilarious. Sadly, it’s quite difficult to find the comics in KL bookstores nowadays, (maybe Kinokuniya has them) and the price is quite prohibitive.

http://www.asterix.com

Mendukung Biawak Hidup?

At the rate I’m going, this blog is slowly turning into an Indon-centric political webzine. That’s not good for business so this shall be the last posting of such nature.

The Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) will investigate the incident where a RMAF C-130 Hercules plane was hit by stones allegedly thrown by some Padang residents when it was there to carry out a relief and rescue mission, reported Berita Harian.
RMAF chief General Datuk Rodzali Daud said the act could be seen as a sign that the presence of Malaysian planes was not welcomed by certain residents there.
“We do not want to create any more problems in an area which was just hit by a disaster.
“We will investigate and take action to prevent such incidents in the future,” he said.
Meanwhile, Defence Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said that the ties between Malaysia and Indonesia would still be cherished despite the incident.

Peribahasa Melayu ada mengatakan “bagai mendukung biawak hidup”. Apakah mungkin usaha rakyat Malaysia yang perihatin dalam membantu mangsa gempa bumi di Sumatera bagai mendukung biawak hidup; yakni perbuatan yang menyusahkan diri sendiri?

Ingrates

More on BENDERA

I can’t seem to stop talking about this BENDERA nonsense. Apparently, another leader, a 38-year-old Batak named Adian Napitupulu outlined his “battle plans” to a Malaysian journalist; confidently saying Malaysia will be burnt to the ground on October 8 by the 1.45 or so million Indonesian workers here.

This Batak man is so full of s**t. While he’s planning to ganyang Malaysia, his fellow Sumaterans (no, not the Rhinos) are suffering from another devastating earthquake. In case Batakboy doesn’t know who came (are coming) to help, let me tell him the rescuers/humanitarian teams include SMART (Malaysian) & MERCY (Malaysian).

By the way, if the Malaysian economy shuts down after the “great fire”, who is going to feed the hundreds of millions of Indonesians who depend on income from Malaysia?

Morons

Maaf Dzahir Batin

I have nothing against Indonesia or Indonesians. I have something against Muchtar (Mustar) Bonaventura. I think he is a bloody idiot.

My posting on Indonesia have nothing to do with hatred, they are merely comments on current issues, from my perspective, attempting to highlight the Malaysian view of things. For the record, I do have close Indonesian buddies, I enjoy going to Indonesia and I enjoy their food.

I’m a critic. Isn’t everyone a critic too? My views are based on my worldview, which is limited to the stuff I read, the people I talk to and the environment I live in. I may not see the views from the other side of the coin and therefore I stand corrected.

I may have been emotional, brash and maybe even rude in expressing my thoughts. For that, I apologise. To err is human but to say “err” too many times shows you don’t know anything!

So in the spirit of Syawal, Maaf Dzahir & Batin.