Malaysia's Top Ten

One Malaysia
Two sets of laws

Three major races

Four losses in by-elections by BN

Five Prime Ministers

Sixth is on the way

Seven Habits mantra of good governance

Eight out of ten do not give a damn

Ninety percent will vote against the politically corrupt evils

Ten and more abuses will continue to be committed

America, Oh America

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The jubilant return of the two American journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling who were arrested five months ago and sentenced to 12 years of hard labor in North Korea has touched the hearts of many.

The release, which has been made possible through the diplomatic efforts of former president Bill Clinton, is not only significant in terms of forging greater relationship among the two countries but also as a unifying factor of the American people. Just like the government has vowed to bring each and every American soldier back from war whether dead or alive, every ordinary American citizen, whether black or white, will be given equal attention and assistance.

In the words of Al Gore, former vice-president: "It speaks well of our country that when two American citizens are in harm’s way, that so many people will just put things aside and just go to work to make sure that this has had a happy ending".

Wouldn’t these words make every American proud?

Ok, I know what someone will say: If you think the other side is better, then migrate over there. Well, let me give you some of my national pride. I am a true blooded Malaysian as I am born here and will most probably die here. This is a land of plenty for all to make a living. And with the peace and harmony currently still intact, it makes me proud to be a Malaysian. In fact, our cultural diversities should make all of us proud.

However, the current trend of excessive racial politicking is truly a test to one’s patience which I am afraid can be explosive. When racial hatreds are allowed to be stirred in a local media by the racists with impunity, then it simply makes a mockery of the One Malaysia concept advocated by the PM which calls for fairness, respect and equality for all. The racists are getting bolder now and with the backing of those in power, they do not fear and give a damn about the feelings of the other races. They simply act supreme above all else.

If you are in my shoes now, will you still be a proud Malaysian?

We have made a costly mistake

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The headline in today’s Star paper which claimed that millions of businesses have been lost and further add that investors may shy away due to the recent anti-ISA protest on Saturday has made me and many right thinking Malaysians of the real truths in the report.

Instead of allowing the protesters to march peacefully, the police used tear gas and water cannon blatantly to disperse the crowd. Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang of the DAP, in his blog, has rightfully accused the police as the aggressor rather than the protector. Had the government allowed the protesters to march peacefully, it could have scored a major political point.

The PM had asked: Why march?

To answer this question, I would like to direct all right thinking Malaysians to read this article by Yeo Yang Poh, a former Bar Council President.

To add on, the used of ISA to arrest Teresa Kok and the reporter in Penang during the height of PR's popularity has clearly demonstrated the urgency to remove this draconian law of threatening and silencing the minority by those in power.

If the estimated loss of RM100 to RM 200 million in businesses by the FT Minister is indeed true, then the economy of Malaysia must be performing extremely well in this current worldwide economic slowdown, taking into consideration that the protest was held on a Saturday, when banks and the stock exchange were closed. The truth is, many businesses are been badly affected by this financial meltdown and God knows when it is going to recover.

To the investors, such a seemingly peaceful protest is only a fraction of concern for them. The investors are more concern of the CAT concept of good governance above all else. Instead of asking why march, the PM should have asked: Why are the investors shying away from Malaysia?

How can the investors have confidence here when the anti-corruption agency is playing the political game of the government? When the warlords and those in the corridor of power are involved in scandalous projects, such cases are either not pursue with earnest or are pursued with no conclusion. The PKFZ fiasco and the Lingam tape are just two examples.

Who would like to invest in a country when bureaucratic red tapes are such a hindrance to business friendliness? With those Little Napoleons in almost every government department, the real pain in the arse of doing business begins here.

Who would dare to invest in the GLCs of Malaysia when such investments can cause so much of brouhaha from the people of a political party? Remember the purchased of Pantai Hospitals by Parkway of Singapore? When so many concerns have been expressed by the political elites, the government had to buy back the shares from Parkway, at a much higher price of course.

Now we have a similar issue with Bernas. The ownership of 31% by Wang Tak Co. of Hong Kong has been played up as a concern to the bumiputras. The government has assured that with the ‘golden share’, it has the absolute power to run Bernas. I believe Malaysia is the only country in the world which has this so called ‘golden share’ rule when dealing with foreign investors. It has been reported that Wang Tak Co, has agreed to sell its shares to a bumiputra company, at a higher price of course.

So, who is ‘chasing’ the investors away?

Who is making the country losing millions?

It is indeed very costly for us to have the same government ruling this country.

When death has its meaning

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First and foremost, like all right thinking Malaysians, I would like to express my condolences to the family of Teoh Beng Hock who died in mysterious

circumstances while under detention as a witness at the MACC office.

Although we have been cautioned not to speculate on the death of Teoh Beng Hock, all right thinking Malaysians believe that the writings are on the wall.

What does the death of Teoh Beng Hock means to all of us?

To the people: It is time for us all to unite to fight against the evils of politics. When innocent lives can be taken away in the name of political survival, what else can the people hope for? It is pure bunkum to see true justice when the rule of laws can be amended and broken at the whims and fancies of those in power. By now the people must have realized which party brings nothing but misery and who are the ones that champion justice and fairness for all. For the apolitical and the fence-sitters, your decision is now. Let us not allow Teoh Beng Hock die in vain and just as he will fight for justice when alive, his soul will be a shining star to guide us to this path.

To Pakatan Rakyat: It is time for PR to wake-up and stay focus on the ultimate objective of forming the next government. It should realize by now the reasons behind all these questionings of the political secretaries of the DAP in Selangor by the MACC. Can PR survive the onslaught of the enemy? The clarion call for solidarity and unity among the PR parties is getting stronger now. As such PR must seize this opportunity to built a stronger foundation that is strong enough to withstand the onslaughts of the enemies. Th ability to smash the racial barriers among the people will be the strongest pylon of foundation for PR to build on.

To Barisan Nasional: The current sentiment of the people is full of anger and distrust now. The people have seen a lot of shits and heard a lot of bulls. Unfortunately for the people, this is not an election year. A call for an early election would have triggered a mother of all tsunamis that would have swept the pillars of power of BN away, paving a new hope for the people.

To all politicians: If they can conspire to frame in order to remove political enemies, no matter which side you are on, one can equally be removed with an iota of opportunity as long as you are not with them. Hence, these politicians must be brave enough to speak-up and fight the evils by joining forces with all right thinking Malaysians.

A picture paints a thousand words

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1) Look carefully and analyze the above picture of the Home Minister at his office.

Can you deduce the level of efficiency which we all dreaded when visiting a government department?

2) It is certainly a mountain of problems which are caused by some inept officials whose duties seem perfunctory that the applications are piled so high. While some managed to get their applications for citizenship and PR approved without much hazels, others who are more qualified are made to wait and run around in circles.

3) Inefficiency breeds inefficiency.

With the mountain of boxes, it will be extremely difficult for the official to identify and extract the file of an applicant. In the event an applicant was to ask for the status of the application, the most probable answer will be: file sudah hilang. So, the frustrating cycle of application continues.

4) The storage of the documents seemed so haphazardly organized and devoid of a good storage system. Unless, the applicants’ information are stored in the computer data system, the mountain of problems will continue to escalate.

5) Why must it take a new PM and Minister to expedite the application process?

Does it mean the previous Minister has been sleeping on the job all this while?

It clearly shows that it is the political will of the government that drives the efficiency of the system, but only if they want to. What a pitiful and stupid way to progress.

6) The engagement of agents to deal with government officials to hasten and smoothen one’s job is already a culture. While the above picture explains part of the reason, the rest is up to the relevant authorities to identify the causes.

A wake-up call

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As the world watched in horror at the deadly unrest in the capital of China’s Xinjiang region which left more than 150 people dead, it has brought back the memories of the nightmarish nights of the May 13^th 1969 racial riots which we all prayed that it will never happen again here in Malaysia.

If we take a hard look at the mayhem in the Xinjiang unrest, we will notice that there are some similarities to the 1969 riots: it is an ethnic clash, many innocent people were killed, properties were damaged and people lived in fear. While the unrest in Xinjiang is apparently due to oppression of the Uighurs by the Chinese government, the 1969 riots here is due to the highly charged political environment caused by the politicians.

Even today, the peace and harmony of our diversified society lie in the hands of the politicians. I sincerely hope the current turmoil in the world will make our politicians realize that no matter what political differences there are, it will be a folly for them to stir racial hatreds among the people, for we cannot afford to have a repeat of the 1969 incident. We need to let this diversity in ethnicity of our country be a major strength and not a hindrance to peace and prosperity for all.

Today, the world is bombarded with so many protests and unrest, political or otherwise, that one can only quivers and shivers if this ‘trend’ is spread worldwide and which we have already started to witness: from Iran to Thailand and from Honduras to Philippines. It will be most destructive to the country’s economy if this is allowed to continue and not quelled. The protests in Thailand by the red and yellow shirted supporters recently which have caused a huge lost in tourism revenue demonstrated the economic destructive nature of a political unrest.

Although we live in a multi-racial society and more often than not, while some dimwit politicians seemed to be keen on destroying our harmony, the bondage among the people still remains strong. It is the fervent wish of every Malaysians (except the dimwit politicians) that we must remain united to propel this country forward. This country is blessed with richness in natural resources and human capital which make the economic pie big enough for all.

Whether we can make this pie bigger will depends on all of us.

Life of a parent

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Every Saturday is a day that I normally look forward to with earnest like a child waiting to be taken out for an outing. My plan is to make every Saturday a family day, a day where all the family members can sit together over food to chit-chat and discuss matters of family interests.

One Saturday my eldest daughter called, “Papa, I am going for a movie with my boyfriend and will not be joining you for dinner.”

“But today is a Saturday which is supposed to be a family day,” I answered with a slightly raised voice.

“Aiya, I have been working and working. Got to enjoy a bit, you know,” she reasoned out and having said that hung-up, knowing very well that I will relent to her dating.

Hardly an hour later, I received another call, this time from my second daughter.

“Hi, papa I am attending a friend’s birthday party tonight and will be home late,” she sounded so excited and bubbly which she normally do.

“Ok, make sure you try to come back early and be careful when you friends fetch you back. The security is not good you know. Tell your friends to beware of mat rempits. Be careful. Just be careful,” my voice sounded with full of worries.

“When our daughters were schooling, you worried over their education. Now that they have grown-up and have graduated, you are worried over them mixing with the wrong friends,” complained my wife.

Well, maybe in the eyes of the parents, the children can never grow-up and hence, the worries will continue even when they are married.

When my two daughters called, I can either scold them or command them to come back by disallowing them their outings or to understand and allow them to enjoy their time with their friends.

I chose the later because I have come to realize that the children of today are very different from that of yesterday, especially the mentality and outlook in life. On the other hand, if I chose the former and ‘rule’ them under the clutches of my hands, then the children will be rebellious which will ultimately developed into a strained relationship between father and children that can cause great unhappiness in the family. Having said this, I would like to stressed that there must be a balance of what can and cannot be allowed for the children lest they become spoilt, ill-mannered and arrogant.

I have two grown-up daughters who have just graduated and started working and a son who is in Form Two and whom I worried a great deal over his future education. Like any parents, we love our children very much and always try to make them happy. In fact my wife and I have struggled to bring them up from the early parts of their childhood. It is certainly not easy when you are not born with a silver spoon and financially strong. We just ‘ploughed’ our way through this journey of bringing up our children to provide them a sound education and hopefully, happiness in them.

Whether my children are able to give me the kind of love that I have showered them is not important. As long as there is happiness in them, there will be happiness in the hearts of their parents.