Hongkies, Singaporeans, Indonesians and Malaysians

Hongkies, Singaporeans, Indonesians and Malaysians

Being Hongkies is good because...

1. We are Hongkies and not Chinese.
2. We can talk and shout and nobody gives a damn.
3. Jackie Chan is our icon.
4. We can live in a 5' x 5' cubicle and call it luxury apartment. We even need to pay $10,000 a month for this cubicle.
5. Our children can speak Cantonese at a young age.
6. We get to blame everything on Feng Shui or Tung Chee Hwa or the mainland communists.
7. Gambling is more interesting than sex. Macau is the place to for thrills!
8. We produce a lot of Miss Hong Kong to the enjoyment of the rich and famous.

We love being Singaporean because...

1. We are not Malaysians.
2. Everyone (especially the Malaysian) hates us, except ourselves.
3. Famous for Orchard Road and we love Geylang. Geylang is the place to go for thrills!
4. We have our own island.
5. We will never ever have yucky chewing gum stuck under our shoes.
6. We know how to enjoy our vacation in Malaysia - keep a few RM50 notes before you enter the highway: You can throw anything, anytime, anywhere and always wash our cars at the resort.
7. We can speed up to 180 kilometers per hour and not ending up with a summon as long as we have RM50 with us to spare.
8. The men are always concerned, first question to ask a girl "Do you have CPF?"
9. Never fear of getting lost in our country - S$20 taxi ride will get you into the sea. Hahaha!
10. We'll never have to worry about finding Mr or Ms right because the government will find one for us.
11. 1 Singapore dollar = 2.5 Ringgit... nyek nyek nyek.
12. It's OK to be Kiasu. It's part of our culture.

Top reasons for being Indonesian are as follow...

1. We are not Australian.
2. We live in the biggest country in South East Asia .
3. No pirates in Indonesia water if you exclude the Navy and Coast guards.
4. Everything is cheap, even our salaries...
5. We can blame everything to Suharto or BJ Habibie or Gus Dur or Megawati or who's next?
6. Only in Indonesia you can get involved in real demonstrations daily for different causes and see no results.
7. Our Rupiah is like a Yo Yo, it can go up and down just because IMF say so...
8. We burn everything and nobody gives a damn. We cause haze all over the South East Asia and nobody can do a thing... nyek nyek nyek.
9. We don't need fire fighters as our neighbours will provide...

Being a Malaysian is the best because...

1. World tallest twin towers, Best F1 circuit, largest roti canai, most expensive toll rates, ...because Malaysia Boleh!
2. We can be driving, picking our nose, cursing another driver, talking on the handphone, adjusting the radio and bribing the traffic police at the same time.
3. We divorce by sending SMS.
4. Traffic summon can be settled on the spot with the traffic police.
5. We have Teh Tarik Roti Canai on the Russian space ship.
6. We can save a lot of electricity b'coz our TV shows are so crappy.
7. We can blame everything on the haze or George Soros or government or opposition parties or...
8. Resourceful City Council, one person to drive the van, one to carry the ladder, one to change a street's bulb and three others watching...
9. We make 2 lane trunk roads into 3 lane highway and back to 2 lane when polices are sighted
10. There's always something for the JKR to do. They dig, resurface the road, dig and resurface...
11. All main roads are designated highway because it gives Velooo a reason to collect toll.
12. Our government can never be wrong.
13. Our badminton players win already only need to pay them RM35,000 very cheap compare to David Beckham.
14. You can divorce for as little as RM 10 million ringgit and marry a young singer you like, how nice is life.
15. We can even used C4 bomb to bombard Gengkis Khan or Kublai Khan grandchildren
16. We have more water than Singapore ... nyek nyek nyek.
17. If you got no monies you can also snatch others people monies
18. If you are a policeman rider you can kick and bang people car like nobody business
19. If you drive a police car, you can speed cause speed limit only apply to citizen
20. all motor rider can join Mat Rempit club for free and can throw stones at the police station anytime they like.
21. if you got nothing to do join the rela and go to the kongsi gelap and extort monies from them.
22. You can rape people and blame them for wearing very little, what a joke man.

Lessons From Singapore Part II

During my last week trip in Singapore, I was staying at my family friend's house in Sengkang, a district somewhere near Woodlands. On the second night, while we were waiting for her son, Benjamin to come back home, I was surprised to find out that the TV station there is broadcasting feature movies in High Definition format.

Though blurred, I noticed the playback frame rate of Black Hawk Down, the movie that is played that night is much slower than a normal DVD. I asked Benjamin whether it is HD format and he said yes.

So I guessed that the television sets there is much cheaper than here.

When I came back, I received a mail from my dad of an article by Ahmad Mustapha, an old friend of Harry Lee, which serves as a good idea of how ideas from the south can be emulated by Bolehland, who is in the rotting status thanks to the idiots.

Singapore practices corrupt-free meritocracy and Malaysia affirmative action. The former attracted all the best brains and the latter chased out all the brains. The Singapore cabinet consists of dedicated and intelligent technocrats whereas Malaysia has one the most unwieldy cabinets. Not only that, brain wise it was below par not even good for the kampong.

With that kind of composition, one that is very brainy, naturally Singapore , with no natural resources could outstrip Malaysia in every aspect of development. Malaysia, on the other hand, was too much preoccupied with its Malayness and the illusory 'Ketuanan Melayu' and was also more interested in useless mega iconic development rather than real social and economic development.

Whenever Kuan Yew utters anything that deemed to be a slight on Malaysia , voices were raised admonishing him. Malaysia would never dare to face reality. That Singapore had shown that it could survive was a slap on those who believed that Singapore would fold up once it left Malaysia . Therefore it was natural that these doomsayers would try to rationalise their utterances to be in their favour to combat on whatever Kuan Yew commented. Its political jealousy.

Singapore achieved its development status without any fanfare. But here in Malaysia , a development that was deceptive was proclaimed as having achieved development status. It was trumpeted as an achievement that befits first world status. This was self delusion. Malaysians are led to believe into a make believe world, a dream world. The leaders who themselves tend to believe in their own fabricated world did not realise the people were not taken in by this kind of illusion.

Lee Kuan Yew believed in calling a spade a spade. I was there in Singapore when the People's Action Party won the elections in 1959. He was forthright in his briefing to party members as to what was expected of them and what Singapore would face in the future. Ideologically, I did not agree with him. We in the University of Malaya Socialist Club had a different interpretation of socialist reconstruction. But he was a pragmatist and wanted to bring development and welfare to the Singaporeans. Well! He succeeded.

Malaysia was so much embroiled in racial politics and due to the fear of losing political power, all actions taken by the main party in power was never targeted towards bringing wealth to all. Wealth was distributed to the chosen few only. They were the cronies and the backers of the party leadership to perpetuate their own selfish ends.
Seeing the efficiency and the progress achieved by Singapore caused the Malaysian leadership to suffer from an inferiority complex. That Malaysia should suffer from this complex was of its own making.

In a recent interview, Kuan Yew said that Malaysia could have done better if only it treated its minority Chinese and Indian population fairly. Instead they were completely marginalised and many of the best brains left the country in drove. He added that Singapore was a standing indictment to what Malaysia could have done differently. He just hit the nail right there on the head.

Malaysia recently celebrated its 50th year of independence with a bagful of uncertainties. The racial divide has become more acute. The number of Malay graduates unemployed is on the increase. And this aspect can be very explosive. But sad to see that no positive actions have been taken to address these social ills. Various excuses were given by Malaysian leaders why Singapore had far outstripped Malaysia in all aspects of social and economic advancement. Singapore was small, they rationalised and therefore easy to manage. Singapore was not a state but merely an island.

There was one other aspect that Malaysia practises and that is to politicise all aspects of life. All government organs and machinery were 'UMNO-ised'. This was to ensure that the party will remain in power. Thus there was this misconception by the instruments of government as to what national interest is and what UMNO vested interest is.

UMNO vested interest only benefited a few and not the whole nation . But due to the UMNO-isation of the various instruments of government, the country under the present administration had equated UMNO vested interest as being that of national interest. Thus development became an avenue of making money and not for the benefit of the people. The fight against corruption took a back seat. Transparency was put on hold. And the instruments of government took it to be of national interest to cater to the vested interest of UMNO. Enforcement of various enactments and laws was selective. Thus a 'palace' in Kelang, APs cronies and close-one-eye umno MPs could exist without proper procedure. Corruption infested all govt departments, the worse is the police and lately even in the judiciary.

Singapore did not politicise its instruments of government. If ever policisation took place, it is guided by national interest. To be efficient and to be the best in the region was of paramount importance. Thus all the elements like corruption, lackadaisical attitude towards work and other black elements, which would retard such an aim, were eliminated. Singapore naturally had placed the right priority in it's pursuit to achieve what is best for its people. This is the major difference between these two independent countries.

Malaysia in its various attempts to cover up its failures embarked on several diversions. It wanted its citizens to be proud that the country had the tallest twin-tower in the world, although the structure was designed and built by foreigners. Its now a white-elephant wasting away. It achieved in sending a man into space at an exorbitant price. What's the purpose? These are what the Malays of old would say "menang sorak" (hollow victories).

It should be realised that administering a country can be likened to managing a corporate entity. If the management is efficient and dedicated and know what they are doing, the company will prosper. The reverse will be if the management is poor and bad. The company will go bust.

There are five countries around this region. There is Malaysia, and then Indonesia . To the east there is the Philippines and then there is that small enclave called the Sultanate of Brunei . All these four countries have abundance of natural resources but none can lay claim to have used all these resources to benefit the people. Poverty was rampant and independence had not brought in any significant benefits to the people.

But tiny Singapore without any natural resources at all managed to bring development to its citizens. It had one of the best public MRT transport systems and airlines in the world and it is a very clean city state. Their universities, health care, ports are among the best in the world.

It is impossible to compare what Singapore has achieved to what all these four countries had so far achieved. It was actually poor management and corruption, and nothing more. Everything is done for the vested interest of the few. Malaysia , Indonesia and the Philippines and the Sultanate of Brunei need good management teams. They would not be able to do this on their own steam. I would advise that they call on Kuan Yew to show them what good governance is. Why look East to Japan when it is just next door across the causeway.

The number one reason why Malaysia is lagging behind now in all aspects post-Mahathir and Anwar Ibrahim is due to semi-literate leaders. Prime examples of that would include, Village Idiot Nazri Aziz, Grand Imam of Islam Hadhari Abdullah Badawi and the Dis-Information Minister, The Mamak of Merbok Zainuddin Maidin.

Sometime ago, Anwar Ibrahim in a Malaysiakini article said that most of BN leaders, that comprises of UMNO fools are semi-literate. Today's posting by Zorro shows how stupidity leads them to say such remarks that can be deemed offensive to Christianity and those who are educated in missionary schools like myself. Now, Mahathir has bellowed a challenge for the current administration of Bedol Napoleon to disprove his thesis that the government is now one-step backwards.

An article by columnist Dr. Farrukh Saleem entitled "Why are Muslims so Powerless?" is also another living proof to back up the fact that we are ruled by idiots who do not accept the best brains of being the contribution to the country.

Excerpts of it:

1. A Muslim-majority state has an average of 40 percent literacy with a non-Muslim majority state has a higher literacy rate, close to 100 percent, with 98 percent of its people completed at least primary school education.

2. There are only 230 scientists and 50 technicians out of 1 million Muslims in Arab nations. This contrasts to 5000 scientists and 1000 technicians out of 1 million Japanese people.

3. A non-Muslim majority nation uses 5 percent of its annual GDP on RnD, whereas a Muslim-majority nation uses only 0.2 percent.

The bottom line? Well, it's a grim fact that the Malaysia-minority community are better educated than the majority.

This complete posting is shown here.

Lessons from Singapore Part I

That's me in Singapore on Friday night, at the new Expo center near Changi airport on the first day of a convention conducted by the legendary Harv Eker, the author of Secrets of the Millionaire Mind.

I carried some cash in Sing dollars, which gave me a good return when I changed back a single $50 dollar bill which carries the value of $117 when I came back to Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

I won't be talking about the seminar for now, but what I've learned during my first day was mainly about how prosperous those people are down south.

Economy

First thing was about selling. The people have great ideas to sell things. There, as Harv said, you start by selling low but offering much value to entice people. Then as the demand goes above the roof, you increased your selling price bit by bit, with the knowledge that there's a high demand for it.


These guys there are not afraid to give extra for a low value. Forget about currency conversion rate, I had a set meal from Burger King as a quick lunch on the second day, and the burger bun I had is 1.5 times bigger than the burger bun size here. And it costs only $6.40. One thing is that the prices is counted together with a 7 percent GST, (effective July), and rounded up to the nearest value. But Malaysia just followed suit of making 1 cents an invalid value by April 2008, which I can say that Malaysia is far behind in mentality despite having first-world facilities.

More than half of the 5000 people in attendance here have great spending power in Singapore. You can get a Sony phone at just $445 dollars compared to paying $1199 here in KL. A friend of mine told me that the government is encouraging every people to get a television set for their homes. That is why getting a TV there is cheap, even if that means getting a brand new Sony Bravia X HD television set!

Economic planning there is well thought out. It's like laying things and revising things on the drawing board. Housing and television is the main priority for their citizens. Each person gets their own apartment given of the limited land size there, which is about 700 square miles. The most favorite part of this section is about money...Just imagine paying $3 for a plate of fried prawn noodles. $3 compared to $4++ at K.L? Hey...I would pay there..it's cheap. I thought of the currency as of in 1993.

Social

Of course, the social order in Singapore is quite strict, with emphasis on cleaning. When I was at the LRT station, it was smelly beneath. Why can't DBKL be kind of active in handling the cleaning. This is what is Bolehland is all about...hahaha

Every person there is quite good in English. I thought many would speak as what people in Penang do, but then the exception here is that every person knows English well. After going along the expressways to the Expo center, I thought it would be sensible for Malaysia to put English language signs here first or dual-languages instead of putting just Bahasa Malaysia first.

The logic behind it is that you are catering for investors to come in to Malaysia to ply their trade in future. If you just simply put BM only ads / billboards, the first impression these guys will ask is...what the heck does that say?

I Put No Stock In Religion

When I arrived at the Woodlands checkpoint at 1 a.m. in the morning, I tend to notice that people, especially the Muslim women do not wear the headdress unlike their counterparts here in Malaysia.

I came to understand because of one reason: the clear establishment of the line between of professionalism and religion. In this case, as together citizens of Singapore, they are encouraged not to show, even a thin establishment of religion in appearance. That's to give the impression to the people coming there that they are neither Chinese, Malays or whatsoever, but as Singaporeans working together for a common goal. We can indeed do this hear, and through emulating that, we can actually show the rest of the world that we are Bangsa Malaysia.

But why can't we do it here? Fear? Backlash? The International Trade Ministry is setting an example of this, but why can't others? That's to say that there is a leaning of religion instead of the correct path professionalism. Or, we can say that religion is added together in the working ethics.

I only came to know of the aftermath of the Hindraf rally via Malaysiakini or my friend Haris' blog. As what the Cameron Highlands MP was saying, the rally happens for a reason. Harv was saying, everything in this world happens for a reason. Jonathan Kent said to his son Clark, he was here for a reason. The theme about the rally was more about the racial treatment of the Indians in Malaysia. I have to concur though that the MIC, whose purpose is to safeguard the interests of the Indians, as part of a multi-racial society objective in Malaysia has failed in its purpose.

Seeing this and the NEP, which tends to discriminates people in favor of Malay priority serves as the reason why Malaysia is still lagging behind top Asia nations like Singapore, Hong Kong, and even the upcoming nations like China and India. The actual way of working is reward by performance, or judging by the capabilities of a person irregardless of race. I would somehow agree with Mahathir's half-past-six statement on the current Bedol Napoleon administration, if things get worse later on.

Back From Singapore

Whew....what a trip!


I left Singapore from Beach Street at around 10.30 p.m with a bus reaching Kuala Lumpur at around 3.15 a.m. But I didn't feel anything throughout the ride except for stopping by Immigration checkpoints at Tuas (Second Link) and at a rest house before Yong Peng.

Something woke me up at around and I was back at Sungai Besi heading towards the bus stop in Pudu. Back there, numerous taxi drivers are there, waiting to greet passengers coming from the south. But I refused to take a cab because of one reason: they don't use meters round the clock. I must say that those cab guys in Singapore are showing more professionalism than those guys around here.


So I had to take a short nap at a nearby McDonald's shop while waiting for the LRT station to open its terminals at 6 a.m. Boy, I had to waste about 3 hours before being allowed to go back. I am not prepared to pay extra money for a taxi man who is inclined to pick people but wanted extra in the process.


I think I am the first guy on board of a train in the morning....

From the station, I took a long 15 minute walk all the way back home. Needed a good rest, so I slept the whole morning.....and blogging everything that I didn't fill up last week.

Watch the other spaces later on about my period in Singapore...

Behold...Low Light Photography!

I was in Singapore for the last 4 days and during dinner on the first night at Singapore, my friend took a picture of me. When she saw the picture after taking it, she got shocked.


She told me that the picture was able to capture natural colors and interestingly, I did not use any flash for the picture. Unconvinced, I showed her another picture by taking another picture of her, with the same settings.

I basically used ISO 800, with lighting set as florescent high levels. The most important thing about the picture is that there is sufficient amount of back lights in order for me to take the picture. But then, while I examined some of the pictures which I took during the nighttime dinner at the Lake House, I noticed there is evidence of grain. Someone told me that higher ISOs may result in picking up of grain.


Maybe I might have to try shooting it at 400 ISO.