It's The Karma Thing

I knew and anticipated that there will come a day that a non-Chinese person could approach me and either start asking questions of why like other Chinese people I went against convention, or voting for opposition; or an extremist right-winger will start a tirade of insults of being ungrateful to what the country has done if by chance seeing this. Of course you don't see much of this on a public area unless you invite the attention of other curious by-standers there. Any well open-minded layman who has a greater understanding of the current political scenario and the aftermath of last week's general elections would clearly know a few reasons why this would happen.

While the dust from the election has yet to settle down, Najib has more problems within his own turf rather than giving more insulting speeches on the outside. He had to sing to the tune of his own party's conservative members, extreme radicals and even to the tone set by his own party's mouthpiece. There's a big possibility that he'd end up like Pak Lah in 2009 by Mahathir because he had scored below the number that Pak Lah did in 2008 and he didn't get back Selangor as he had promised before. 

The voting trend has driven many of the extreme right-wingers into emotional frenzy that as characterized by the "myth of the lazy native" that as such they could not have the capability to think out of the box, open minded and often prone to the desires to commit acts that are considered violating their own religious creed. It makes sense that when the Islamic scholar, Dr. Asri said that they are committing an illegal act by committing racism. Another characterization of the "myth of the lazy native" is that rather than admitting their own faults, they would also blame their failures on other parties, such as calling DAP a racist whereas they, UMNO themselves are actually committing racism with their own concept of Malay Supremacy.

Judging by statements from various UMNO-aligned leaders and even their own newspapers, it seems that those statements confirmed those characteristics defined. The clear case of example is that of Ali Rustam who lost both state / parliament seats and instead starts blaming people voting for opposition for being ungrateful. That is why until today, they will have a hard time to understand why other people thinking patterns don't go in line with their own way of thinking and culture.

Everyone has his own limit, and there will be a point that the people would be force to go to the extreme for they would no longer defend themselves by doing nothing.

If you remember that every year, the Muslims and Indians usually have around 2-5 days break for their festivities, whereas the Chinese, from the start of the new year can have business breaks up to 15 days (those following the Chinese tradition very closely), resuming after the Chap Goh Mei day.

Do you remember that any naive people would have been told that the Chinese control the Malaysian economy? The percentage still remains at the high margin as of today.

Let's assume, that given of the current political scenario that the Chinese have absolutely enough of the tirades of the extremists who keeps blaming them for all their problems. Say during Chinese New Year 2014 or maybe anytime before / after, everyone decided not to do business for 15 days as a gesture of protest. Everyone, not just the Chinese will suffer and the daily Malaysian economy gear will come to a screeching halt. Everyone will definitely suffer just because of the big mouths but small brain of those people.

By the way, Nazri Aziz seems to do a "cakap tak serupa bikin" thing, indirectly singing to the tune of the UMNO grassroots. The Malaysiakini video had him saying that Mahathir is the father of racism, giving the impression that he too will not like racism, but the latest statement tends to paint the picture that everything has to be in the mould of UMNO Baru's ideals. A very clear-cut example of "Melayu mudah lupa" thing I'd say!

And let's say that if I say the same similar thing, will our Malay friends feel upset as well? Again it goes back to the different levels of thinking that each race has. However, Nazri's comment doesn't carry much weight unlike my thought that the nation cannot progress more if the majority (read Malays) do not have the necessary mindset to carry themselves up.

And in case if you have forgotten some eyewitness accounts have indicated that the prices of certain goods have gone up including bread, RON 97 petrol price without any announcement and even despite denials from the Domestic Consumer Affairs ministry. If some of you have voted to BN because of the 1Malaysia brand that Najib sells, get ready to dread for Najib might not survive by year's end - thus in the end you get cheated for your blind support.

We tend to forget the concept of karma, "what goes round comes around" and we are now seeing how UMNO is behaving in national scale compared to what happened in state scale 5-years ago. While the opposition has been constantly making tirades everywhere, even before 2008, because of their role as opposition in state-levels, BN has never been accustomed to that role before and the moment they became state-opposition, they make more complains than ever, even accusing the incumbent state government for their own mistakes committed before then. I am not very surprised of the reaction of some politicians would have said statements such as "I am closing down support centres, now your problem is not mine" or even in reference to Ahmad Said, "I am not going to send any development officers / build new houses in areas won by Pakatan" out of the grudge of no support." Any keen eye observer would notice that this kind of politicians should have been out rather than put them in like Johari Ghani in Titiwangsa.

If race is no longer part of the factor in the election, it is actually a horizontal divide between the ruled vs the ruling elite and the poor, middle-class combined vs the elite rich, as well as the rural vs urban. Unfortunately, since most seats are won from the rural areas, it shows that the rural class has yet to demonstrate their courage to change and sincerity. Recently, there have been several tweets that I stumbled on Anwar Ibrahim's tweet account from people who have finally admitted that they have been victims of misinformation / mislead that they have offered their profound apologies for their mistakes to the person.

So thus, if one is open minded enough, the real fight, the horizontal divide in Malaysia in the big picture is actually the ruled vs the UMNOputras, simply to say that even Malays also form the bottom 40% of the poor and marginalized of the 29 million Malaysians. However, Wednesday's Kelana Jaya stadium gathering has yet to show sufficient number of non-Chinese participants (still at 20%) 

In the end, it is the normal people like us that have to judge for yourselves and think bigger.

At What Real Cost?

The top brass of Barisan Nasional has been running around the country and giving all sorts of promises, splashing goodies around to the people in exchange for requesting them to give support in the next general elections. I was already certain that the general election would be somewhere around in November mainly because this takes into account of how the possible feel good hype that would be elicited from the people after the 2013 budget announcement, and the incentives that could be offered in conjunction with the Haji and Deepavali holidays. Analyzing on people sentiment, the ruling coalition is likely to count on the Malay votes (if you can understand their psyche, mindset as well) and the roller-coaster mindset of the Indians which can go up and down depending on the situation that arises that involves their society.

It is unlikely that they would wait until after Chinese New Year because the situation seems not well to them. It has already been established that most of Chinese are dead-set to vote for the opposition. The one thing that many in the top brass may find it hard to comprehend even including UMNO's partner, MCA is perhaps of the level of maturity, awareness and the mindset of the Chinese community in comparison with the other races of the Malaysian community. It is already noted that the level of support is very low that UMNO has already given up any big chance to regain support from the Chinese.

From the tone of what I am to present:

Sounds like I am talking race comparison.

Sounds like I am looking down at other people.

Sounds like I am talking race stuff. 

Sounds like I am screaming "I'm better than you." 

But out of here, there is a question that I wish to bring out especially at the naive and those who find it hard to believe in it. There's not much need for me to harp on the racial, royalty and religion thing as it is not my forte to talk about nor to those who are looking more bigger issues than those three that merely scratch the surface.

Recently there have been speeches from the big brass like (e.g Mahathir, Muhyiddin, Rais Yatim, Najib) calling for Malay unity, general unity, demands for gratitude to the ruling party, you help me I help you things in particular. They shout non-stop almost every day of "vote for us to keep the country stable." These leaders imply that the country would collapse if they do not hold on to their power on and on. And on prime time television, the party-owned private channels in particular are playing propaganda ads as to push for more support -no thanks to their infinite amount of resources, so as they perceived. But then again it's already almost 60 years they are in power, yet they are found to be caught with misconduct in almost every aspect of the country administration.

Some people have been asking why most of the Chinese community and the well-educated middle class have already no longer willing to stick to the convention and decide to go for something totally different and out of the box. The country's running old men have been calling and accusing some of them as creating a revolution and scream of instability if there's a change of guard in the country. Contrary to that, there's actually no such unusual effect happening since this scenario often happens in other countries. There's nothing to be excited about and to cheer about it. And as to allow me to answer that, it comes to one high probable reason: if you can understand the saying of "survival of the fittest" then perhaps it can answer that solution above. People have started to get past the "must feed me" thing and use other means to achieve success in live.

So why does the mainstream media seem to glorify the government although they are clearly have committed some gross misconduct? One thing is for sure, they are now lagging in support and are trying to drum up support way to the finishing line sometime around next year at most.

I appreciate some of the writings written by some of my friends that when being conveyed their own people which describes of how people are being mislead over the promises made by the present government of the day only to see what was promised being denied claiming of no such claim. Note that the present opposition has not at once run as the government of the day so it is not right to compare their track record because we didn't give them the chance to demonstrate their capabilities.

I also appreciate that through their writings that their people have started to acknowledge their mistakes and have started to wake up. However my only question to them would be on what about those who are still unwilling to correct their mistakes and stand for the coalition that has committed many misdeeds and gross misconduct? And what about those who are going to be ultimately mislead?

Here's one example of a person being ultimately mislead: Recently the man who accused Mat Sabu on the Mat Indera case has already admitted to the court that he made a police report based on the Utusan newspaper report. It was already proven that Mat Sabu did not utter or say anything that is referred to Communism in his series of public speeches. The man has then admitted to this and has asked the Sessions court in Penang to drop the case. This means that the man was a victim of misleading by the spin by the media - the spin that the government of the day, the present ruling coalition wishes to show it to the mass people.

Sure, it is still their right to decide. You can't obstruct them from making their choice. At what cost in exchange for your vote for them?


Okay, you would accuse me as another person dead set on going against the coalition party. I have my own set of reasons behind it. Any well educated, matured person can think of it. And if people ask me whether I am taking the risk to go and do something unconventional, the answer is yes. It's like making an unusual bet of (e.g a Double 0 in roulette, Snake Eyes for dice craps, etc..). Let's face it that the fate and future of the country is not decided by the handful of people nor just the minority of the Malaysians but the majority of people that forms the big part of the Malaysian society - but the problem is of being too simple-minded.

And allow me to fill in the blanks for you, o'naive and unbeliever ones for the question above:

1. You are actually acknowledging that flocks of sheep fly in the sky and monies fall from the trees.
2. You are condemning your future generations and your country to remain mundane until the point we're all gone and after say another 100 years of independence.
3. You show yourself that you're chickening out with no guts to think out of the box and vs convention.
4. You are actually saying that up becomes down, black is white - what is illegal is legal and vice versa.
5. You are saying that you don't really believe the real warnings - not by those who claim to say it's okay for now -  until it is too late to go back because you got complacent subsequently. The Greece scenario is a case in point.

They Could Have Approve It

Saturday afternoon:

I went for a Citizen Think Tank session that discussed about the problem with having public assemblies. The problem right now is you need a *POLICE* permit for a gathering of more than 5 people. Even if you are to hold press conferences, *weddings*. Can you imagine how ridiculous it is to have one for weddings or if you are to perform school plays? Whoever came out with this Police Act Section 27 1967 is either a person who doesn't trust everything or has a low foresight or intelligence of the society.

It was stressed by the people there that the Section 27 of the Police Act 1967 is contradicting with Article 10 of Federal Constitution. So far a guideline to a peaceful demonstration was not outlined at all. And it is a high probability that an assembly of political nature or something that is deemed to voice their frustrations against the government will be rejected in a blink of an eye.

And that's where it contradicts with what a person is entitled to according to the primary articles of the Constitution.

The motive behind an assembly of such nature is basically as "a last resort thing" and you can sum up with the rest. The are flaws right now in having one that includes:

• 1. Unclear definition of rallies, demo and assembly.
• 2. What are the protocols, requirements, and handling procedures as well as assistance in handling those assemblies?
• 3. How is law enforced on those matters? Civil way or the brutal way?
  

The Vigil

I was driving along Jalan Tun Perak, going for my favorite beef noodles. The road at Jalan Raja was closed off because of the vigil gathering for the Hindraf 5 ISA. There are trucks and police cars barricading the road on Merdeka Square I was following the updates on papers as to get some analysis out of it.

At 9.35 p.m. another two trucks arrived. Those FRU ones. I thought they would be facing the side of the DBKL, but instead the faced the site of Market Street or perhaps the road along the Bar Council office there. I think I came too late. Various accounts said that they dispersed at 8.35 p.m with the arrival of water trucks and tear gas. I indeed saw a FRU guy with a gas grenade strapped to his bandoleer walking along Market Street. Somehow, I think it's sensible for the police to give them 20 minutes before dispersing. But it was anti-climatic.

I thought that problem would be solved if the police simply approves it and as to help things running smoothly, they should at least send say 100 of their officers to help it out. After all, it's only at one location. And it's just only 200 people gathering for less than one hour or so. Also, they are just carrying candles, not weapons. It's just like bloggers gather out there when Nat Tan was held under the OSA. Why make the fuss out of it? When they rejected the permit, the excuses that they listed there was kind of unconvincing. The Star's report on the permit reject contrasts differently from Malaysiakini. Based on the comparison of notes, The Star intends to make people believe that GMI didn't file appeals or permit. Malaysiakini's one is different: after an appeal has been submitted, the appeal was deliberately ignored by the police.

Looking at 'Pak Zul' (Asst Comm Zulkarnain Abdul Rahman, the man responsible for the permit matter) I can sum three possibilities:

1. Either he can't think that long term and instead rejects request by request for permit.
2. He was itching for action and doing one act like sending FRUs is kind on the way for promotion or
3. He had some conscience on this matter but feared of reprimand and job if he goes against the order that is kind of incorrect from superiors above.

I remembered that Pak Zul was responsible for refusing the BERSIH permit. And there are watchdogs and observers who did warn of the government facing the possibility of high-amount lawsuits and possibly be prepared to fork out damages. And now it just started - Uthayakumar has filed a $100 million lawsuit and Musa Hassan was directly responsible for the accusation that sets off everything. Now that's something that is born out of ignorance!

Mamak! Second Calling....

Seems like Mr. Maidin never learned from the criticism that most people conveyed to him.

On Sunday, the Mamak of Merbok criticized the Bar Council for planning to hold a march to commemorate the World Human Rights day. Today, as in Bernama, he said that HINDRAF is not qualified to meet Abdullah Badawi. This was indeed based on the Star article that HINDRAF would like to meet PM in person. Read this words carefully: IN PERSON.

A mamak is easy to be defined as (part Muslim and part Hindu) Anyone being on the group should be able to look from the perspective of an Hindu. It is a privilege to see the heritages of both sides, shouldn't it be?

The statement contrasts what Abdullah Badawi said on Sunday: "I listen. The PM has big ears."

Well, if Bedol wants to listen, yes, that will not be a problem. But with the kind of information gatekeeper at helm of the Malaysian media, Malaysia can never recover from the drop in the RFS rankings.

Do you want the RFS rankings to plunge again?

I once said of an article entitled "Why Muslims are So Powerless" whereby the main reason is because of the level of education between them and the non-Muslims. With the kind of government that tends to use favoritism and Malay flavor preference (called as Affirmative Action) not Reward-On-Meritocracy, we can never try to reach a GDP of 8 percent or even have a fair treatment for 10 million of Malaysians.

So as for this man, the antics and his half-past six views is pissing many people off and counting more. Fight fire with fire? Try ticking him off with Malaysiakini? I don't think that repeating the magic word would be enough. If I am a commissar, I would be shooting that man ON SIGHT because he is walking one step backwards.

Discrimination Is Still There?

I was dreaming yesterday night. I was back in the Ipoh house one morning. Outside the room
sitting at the round dining table was my dear granny. She didn't say anything at all and I just told her that there was a 50kg Garoupa fish caught at Port Klang and for a damn good dinner at one restaurant at Mid Valley. I really wanted to go for that. She was smiling at me but yet she didn't say anything.

And then I started to cry. This was the first time that I saw her in my dreams after her demise 5 months ago. That cry woke me up in the morning.

The article of the fish is here.

Claustrophobic?

The next four days, I will be in Cyberjaya for a care-taking job. At least a staff in my department gets a chance to go there and spend the week there. It may sound a little illogical of why going there but in my opinion, it's just as to make use the facility there and perhaps make a little extra money here. Perhaps in the month where you will be assigned there, you can earn perhaps up to $200 and as bonus to your existing salary.

The floor which I belong too is a little claustrophobic. Some companies that are there are no longer operating, despite having the company logos there. So, it's just a little quiet there. Remember the scene in Brazil where Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) was taken to on his first day? That's what I felt like when I was there previously in January.

Discrimination?

Maybank and another bank (being a government-linked banks) introduced a new ruling with effective from July 1 2007 that all lawyer firms that intend to do business with the two banks are required to have at least three partners with one of them being a Bumiputra and the person must hold 50 percent stake of the firm.

This practice is deemed a racial discrimination policy by the BAR council and this has brought attention to the Dewan Rakyat and the Central Bank. It is contrary to the meritocracy that is wanted by the PM. There are no Central Bank policies that matches the policy introduced by the two banks. This, as according to the BAR is deemed as an insult to the law profession.

Unfortunately, Maybank were a little less too late to clarify and comment on the issue. When word reached the Finance Ministry, the ministry clarified that there is a possible chance of intervention. The policy is the internal bank policy but what was spoken was contrary to the Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Ramli Ngah Talib that there would be no intervention.

On the side note from the Finance Ministry: the government has confirmed that there will be no off-shore trading of the Malaysian Ringgit as to curb repeat of currency speculation.

Discrimination Cut

Singapore's TAFEP - Tripartite Alliance for Fair Employment Practices on Monday issued a guide called the Fair Employment Practices which details the guides and tools for employers on hiring employees of all races and age. It is hope by the TAFEP that this will change the mindset of employers and perhaps increase the number of jobs by another 450,000.

The biggest recommendation in the guideline would be the outlaw of gender, age, race, and photograph fields in job application forms. Those fields will be deemed a taboo in Singapore sooner. This is to ensure that the priority of hiring people would be on the skills and the contributions a person can contribute to an organization.

This was following last year where a 180 cases of employment discrimination from the top three reasons:

1) Those jobseekers who are older of age are rejected.
2) Those who are discriminated because of race and looks.
3) Pregnant women are also victims as some employers are not willing to pay for their maternity benefits.

This is still evident in Malaysia and there has been a renewing urge to extend the maternity leave to 84 days or 12 weeks minimum than the current 60 days.

The complete article in regarding to employment practices is at this URL.

Malaysia Tax Cuts Please!

Currently, Malaysia's corporate tax is at 28 percent and the government tax of 5 percent is still there. But this does not include the services tax bundled together. This means that the government stands to earn at least 33% of an organization's turnover from these taxes.

When it comes to competing between their neighbors, big companies intend to ply their trade in South-East Asia would definitely set up shop in Singapore. Currently, the country's annual earnings is 25% from taxes. The corporate tax is to be lowered at 18 percent and to compensate that, the GST - Goods and Services Tax will be increased to 7% with effective from July 1.

The comparison intended here is that the GST that was meant to combine service and government tax together in Malaysia never came to fruition or any significant progress noted. This means that Malaysia will have to do more to get more FDI to come here. The IDR was a good thing, but it is not enough. To compete, you need to either - lower the corporate tax rate more or combine the 15% tax we pay to a 5% GST or we pay 3% of GST and make corporate tax to 22%.