February 4, 2009
Around 5pm, after constantly pressing F5 at the Malaysiakini, TheStar, and Malaysian Insider websites, it was confirmed that BN, with the support of 3 newly ‘independent’ candidates, has the majority in the Perak State Assembly. To say that I am saddened by the latest events unfolding in my home state would be an understatement.
I think it is fair to say that this is BN giving the PR (especially Anwar Ibrahim) a taste of their own medicine. The only difference would be that BN took us all by surprise, while Anwar chose to announce his grand plans to the world and even set a date for his supposed defections.
I also believe it to be a moot point to argue about the ethics of whether it was right or wrong for the PKR and DAP reps to jump over to the other side. After all, this blog writer, and most of its readers were clamoring for Anwar to parade his BN frogs on September 16th 2008.
However, some questions which beg to be answered:
1) How can the Bota assemblyman jump from one party into another, then back again, all in the space of one week? I will be very very surprised if this man would still win an election under any party banner, after taking his constituents for a roller coaster ride.
2) Did the Behrang (Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi) and Changkat Jering (Osman Jailu) assemblymen declare their independence because they were promised that their pending corruption cases would be thrown out of court? Or did they really feel ostracized by their own party? If their cases were to be thrown out by court, would BN be suspected of influencing the case? Does BN even care what people think of them?
3) The Jelapang (Hee Yit Foong) assemblywoman has been a DAP member for 22 years. Her story on why she jumped would be the most intriguing, as I cannot imagine how a long-time party member would choose to now leave the party, after declaring in the newspapers just a few days ago that “I have never had any intention of leaving the party and would feel very heavy-hearted if I did”. Was it her disagreements with the Perak DAP leadership that did her in? Or was she threatened in any way by BN? Or was it pure greed over maybe financial reasons or was she promised more power? I would like to know what her story is.
4) Was money involved? Well, with BN, you never know, since there is never any concrete proof (except for vote-buying during elections, of which there has been ample proof, but no action taken by the Election Commission).
I think with those questions hanging in the air, it would be wise for our Sultan of Perak, Sultan Azlan Shah to consider them before making a decision. Would he tolerate the people of Bota being represented by a man with absolutely NO principles? Would he allow the people of Behrang and Changkat Jering to be represented by men with dubious records (even if the courts found them innocent, their innocence would unfortunately be disputed till kingdom come for their alignment to BN). The Sultan should also be curious on why a loyal DAP party member of 22 years can just jump ship without any clear reason given.
With such uncertainty surrounding these assemblypersons, especially when these assemblypersons are the one providing BN with a majority, I believe the best decision that the Sultan can make for the people of Perak is to accede to the request of current Perak MB, Nizar Jamaluddin, to dissolve the state assembly and let the people decide once and for all who they want leading the state.
I await his Highness’ decision with bated breath.
Daulat Tuanku.
P.S. Najib must be smelling like a bed of roses now.
December 2, 2008
Hmm, economic crisis. People losing jobs. High inflation rate. Prices of food still remain high even though the petrol is now RM1.80 per liter. Crime. Racial polarization.
And this is what our government is proposing:
PUTRAJAYA: Those living in multilevel residences will no longer be allowed to dry their clothes in the open “where the whole world can see,” effective next year.
This follows a government decision to tackle the eye-sore problem once and for all, and to clean up the image of Malaysian cities by coming up with a guideline for both developers and residents of such buildings.
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said a guideline should be in place so that developers would be made responsible for preparing a special area or the proper facilities in its properties for drying clothes.
“We can see today that most people living in multilevel residences like flats, apartments and condominiums dry their clothes in the open. It is unsystematic and affects our efforts to portray a modern image for Malaysian cities.
“For the moment, we will have a guideline so that necessary action can be taken by parties concerned, including residents to have proper equipment and facilities so they need not expose their laundry,” he said after chairing the National Council on Local Government meeting on Tuesday.
The Deputy Prime Minister however said there was nothing punitive about the guideline as the aim was to encourage the public to be more sensitive about the issue.
“For the time being, it is more on making the moral switch. It it does not work, then we have to consider amending existing laws,” he said, adding a circular would be issued by the ministry next year to inform local authorities of the decision.
Najib said it would be the duty of local authorities and the Commissioner of Buildings to inform developers and managements of flats, apartments and condominiums to see to it that the guideline was followed.
– TheStar.com.my
If I stay in Gombak, or Puchong, I really couldn’t give a rat’s ass what kind of modern image we want to portray. Get your priorities right, Prime Minister in waiting. Or perhaps Mr. Najib would like me to purchase a dryer, and foot my electricity costs.
December 1, 2008
While the public was increasingly worried by the rise in crime, statistics however showed that the crime rate in Malaysia was far lower than Japan and Hong Kong, said Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak today.
“Based on the statistics given by the police, it indicates that the crime rate in Malaysia is lower than Japan and Hong Kong.
“It is also just slightly higher than Singapore to the basis of per hundred thousand of population… but the perception of the public is not the case,” said Najib at a press conference in Parliament after the economic council meeting.
– Malaysiakini
May I remind DPM Najib, our soon to be 6th Prime Minister of Malaysia that changing of perception does not change reality.
Imagine the increased number of snatch thefts if people started taking the security of their bags for granted, due to an altered perception that Malaysia is safe. Or the increase in the number of rapes and assault if women had the perception that the country was safe and did not arm themselves with some knowledge of self-defense.
Look into my eyes and believe me. Statistics do not lie.
Also, it is easy for the police to claim that officially, crime is higher in Hong Kong and Japan per 100,000 people. That’s because they are telling the truth.
# of crimes per 1000 people
#34 Japan: 19.177 per 1,000 people
#43 Hong Kong: 11.6817 per 1,000 people
#50 Malaysia: 6.97921 per 1,000 people
The untold story is of course, the rankings do not mention what crimes are tabulated into the statistics (crimes that do not affect a person’s personal safety like white collar crime are probably included, thus the higher rates in HK or Japan). We could also argue on the effectiveness of enforcement, but let’s just put that aside. So let’s be slightly more objective and look at some of the crimes that cause us to have a negative perception on crime in this country:
# of murders per 1000 people
#34 Malaysia: 0.0230034 per 1,000 people
#59 Hong Kong: 0.00550804 per 1,000 people
#60 Japan: 0.00499933 per 1,000 people
# of rapes per 1000 people
#38 Malaysia: 0.0505156 per 1,000 people
#54 Japan: 0.017737 per 1,000 people
#55 Hong Kong: 0.0150746 per 1,000 people
When compared that way, the statistics given by the police and comparisons given by the DPM don’t seem too credible anymore does it?
All I can say is, even if the public changes their perception, it does not mean that violent crime, which has been on the rise in this country the past few years will magically disappear. The public cannot just wink their eyes, nod, and wish away all the crime.
I would certainly advise my loved ones to ignore Najib, for he really says some of the darndest things!
November 30, 2008
Because of the recent fatwa against yoga, the chances of Malaysia producing a world warrior like Dhalsim has been significantly diminished. With crime in Malaysia being as it is at the moment, it is important for our country to produce superheroes that can save the citizens from potential crime as our local cops are more intent on charging anti-ISA gatherings.
Although the fatwa has not been endorsed by the state religious authorities yet, I get the feeling that we will be deprived of a Malaysian who can do the following:
(Image sources: Here, Here, and Here)
It is unclear if the religious authorities will start issuing fatwas against bomohs due to the supernatural nature of the practices. Maybe there will be a fatwa against susuk berlian as well.
(Sorry for the fluff posts. I am really busy at work, and I am not able to articulate my thoughts very well on the latest going ons)
November 7, 2008
From TheStar.com.my:
SHAH ALAM: Malaysia Today editor Raja Petra Kamaruddin is to be freed Friday.
He succeeded Friday in his bid to obtain a release order from detention under the Internal Security Act (ISA) via his habeas corpus application.
The High Court here also allowed Raja Petra to be brought to court to be released today.
He was detained for a second time under the ISA on Sept 12.
October 26, 2008
Happy Deepavali to everyone! May you have an enjoyable holiday with friends and family and spare a quick thought to those that are not able to be with their family for certain reasons (work, foreign country, exile, ISA, etc).
Since I had tons of time on my hands, I decided to try making gulab jamun, which is my favorite Indian sweet dessert. So after some consultation with Togo’s mum, I went off to Giant to get the ingredients. I bought milk powder, self-raising flour, butter, and full-cream milk to make the dough.
For the syrup itself, I was looking for this particular spice called cardamom, and I had no freaking idea what it was and what it looked like. After searching high and low for cardamom and not finding any (also because I had no idea what the Malay name was), I drove to the wet market to and consulted the spice lady, and found out that cardamom in Malay is pelaga. So now you know what to look for if you want cardamom.
Happily, home I went with the ingredients, and making the syrup was awfully simple. Just 2 cups of sugar, plus 1 cup of water, crush the pelaga slightly, and boil until all sugar dissolved. I had a quick taste, and found the taste pretty similar to what I had outside. I was pretty happy that everything had started so well. Unfortunately, it was all downhill from then on.
I mixed 2 cups of milk powder (btw, milk powder is f-ing expensive! I had no idea! Poor parents!), 1 cup of self-raising flour, some butter, and slowly added the full cream milk while mixing it to make the dough. Unfortunately, I added too much milk and ended up with a liquidy paste instead of dough. I decided to throw that away and start again, this time, added milk tablespoon by tablespoon to make sure I didn’t overdo it again.
Once I had the dough and rolled it into balls, I dropped it into the oil for deep frying. After half an hour of experimenting the right temperature and right ball size (I burnt a few balls due to excessive temperature), I finally came up with a few nicely fried balls. Off it went from the wok into the syrup.
So anyway, here is what gulab jamun is supposed to look like:
Pic taken from Wikipedia
Here is the result of my experimentation:
Pic taken from my cellphone, so blur a bit
So how would I rate my creation? Appearance-wise, let’s just say if I get served this in a restaurant, I would throw it back to the waiter. Taste-wise, well, the sugar syrup was pretty overpowering. And I realize I should really keep my day job.
So anyway, I ate 4 biji, and now, I feel sick to the stomach because of the syrup (ugh). Ah well, cooking is fun. And if someone asks what I did during Deepavali, I could tell them I made gulab jamun, instead of telling them I did nothing.
Oh, and by the way, I’m looking forward to the Miss Universe 2008 broadcast on TV tonight, for this reason alone.
