Email Tapping?

"Pintasan E-mail" - or e-mail tapping in English.

On 18 March, The Malaysian Insider published a report originally sourced from the New York Times stating that the state uses spyware to tap to keep tabs on citizens via images off computer screens, recording video chats, turning on cameras and microphones, and logging keystrokes.

The software used is FinSpy or  the FinFisher suite, the report alleges.

Later of the day, the report drew the ire of the state's own Multimedia Commission.

While the original goal of FinFisher is mainly use to monitored known criminals, thieves, human / drug trafficking, and terrorism, it is also a double-edge sword and it can also being misused. Misused in the sense that the tool is being used to oppress dissenters / human rights and democracy activists, etc.. (those who fall in that group)

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The below photo appeared on the Radio Bangsa Utama Facebook page an hour ago at the time of writing..

For those who are not from Malaysia, the translated letter reads about the report on the Federal opposition strategy. On the second paragraph it says in translation: Attached herewith is the report about the PR Opposition strategy that has been obtained via "email tapping" for your (Najib Razak) attention.

Can anyone notice and explain why there's this covert e-mail tapping going on there? It's already an abuse to the system.

Who is that man (National Security Council secretary) who signed the letter? A mamak. Upon digging the name via Google, you get:

This picture was taken from last Sunday's Star titled: "NSC: Cyber War is a Crime."

E-mail tapping right?

The letter above says that the government e-mail tapped the opposition e-mails to document the report on the opposition strategy in the general election. So who's really lying? But the signature on the letter is genuine.

The context is abuse of system, with you know which organization is presently running the federal level show. This of course plays hand in hand with the likelihood of gerrymandering of the upcoming general elections no doubt. 

Don't believe everything, says MCMC in response to the report. But this?

 

If there was a talk that by certain people that BN would suffer a reversal like the result in 2008 if elections were to be hold in November last year, then it also implies that the intelligence report leading to this illegal activity that they have committed would be also true after all.

What is the inference with the Citizen lab report and the leaked letter? Up to you to decide.

Even With Reckoning Pack Origin Mass Effect Server Still Needs A Haul

Surely many people say that Mass Effect 3's multiplayer mode is quite an interesting and at times addictive play, especially with many people including myself participating in the weekend challenge without fail in order to gain weapons and additional upgrades to one of the 5 N7 promotional weapons. Since each of those weapons have 10 levels, so expect to play throughout the entire year minus Christmas period before you can fill up that portion, but that does not stop you from earning more credits to buy higher-level packs to get newer weapons and characters.

Many of us are aware that the final multiplayer DLC, Reckoning was released one week ago and adds few more new characters and weapons that will help improve the chances of whacking enemies to kingdom come, especially those from the Reaper / Collector class. But the bane of every player's multiplayer experience, the frequent disconnection from the EA server near to the end of a match knows no ends to the anger of a person who have worked hard to farm credits and utilizing special ammo / gear for that match itself.

Once after I installed Reckoning, to participate in the weekend challenge, I got very very pissed off.

I thought it was my Internet connection that screwed me up for it reminded me of the sudden surge of ping latency when I was playing Diablo III sometime back. Ping latency is higher on a non-fixed line compared to a industrial-grade fixed line as noticed in top countries or in organizations.

Bioware was generous to throw in a gift pack for installing at the start, but I wasn't lucky like other players - I only got an extra character for Reckoning - a Cabal Vanguard to play. Seeing that the week's challenge was only to complete one match at any difficulty using any Reckoning kit, I decided to finish up my other character that I was playing, the Vorcha Engineer hoping that by playing three more matches, I can farm enough credits to get a Spectre Pack or a Reserve / Arsenal / Premium Spectre pack to get some new stuff or so.

After playing four matches with Vorcha, I am getting nothing out of it as by the 10th wave, I got disconnected almost every time. While looking at similar topics online about this problem, I stumbled upon a small forum post on reducing lag at the Origin server. I thought this might help since, the fifth match got disconnected three seconds before extraction (on Cabal Vanguard) - can you imagine the anguish of being so closed to the finish line only to be stopped?

Team Fortress 2 has the ability to distinguish whether the player quits midway or gets disconnected against his will. 

The posting apparently suggested that the UPnP Device Host service should be turned off in the services window. (I also turned off other background applications that requires connection to the net as well). Frustrated that I spent 2 hours with nothing to gain from playing the earlier matches, I just turned it off, and went off for a 3 hour nap, hopefully to have some extra time in case things go sour again.

Just open the Services window (services.msc), then look for that UPnP service and turn it off (stop). 

I got lucky somehow as I managed to complete that match. But I wasn't sure whether the method is a stop-gap measure for now. In any case, EA and Bioware has to do something serious about it, especially if this game is played by PS3 and XBox users as well. If I have time back home at night, I might try again on testing that solution on leveling up my Vorcha at level 20.

The other thing was that the iPhone app for the game has outlived its usefulness. Apart from helping to improve your military rating, the credits earned from the match couldn't be transferred over, which is a disadvantage as to helping to get more packs for matches.

The Other Casino in Kuala Lumpur

Popular Islamic preacher Azhar Idrus has come out in defence of Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, saying the PAS spiritual leader had not called BR1M recipients animals but blamed the Barisan Nasional (BN) government was treating them as such.

Harakahdaily reported Azhar as saying at a lecture here today that Nik Aziz’s analogy comparing BR1M handouts to animal feed had been misunderstood, adding advice to the public to be careful with what they read or hear in the media.

Azhar, who anchors his own TV lecture programme on Astro Oasis called “Kemah Keming Ustaz Azhar Idrus”, clarified that Nik Aziz had only meant that the administrators of BR1M, a government initiative where the poor are given RM500 cash handouts, were treating the people like animals by giving them money.

“In truth, what we heard from the video clip of Tok Guru that likens BR1M recipientst animals, was actually Tok Guru saying that those who are administering the BR1M handouts are trying trying to turn people into animals.

“It is like feeding them, and then slaughtering them.

“Meaning it is evil that these people are only offering aid when they feel they need to... when the elections are far away, they don’t even give help,” he was quoted as saying in Harakahdaily during a lecture at Masjid Pengadang Baru near Kuala Terengganu.

Malaysia Chronicle, 22 February

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The metaphor / analogy that Nik Aziz said of is very identical to what I've been saying in the last few months or so. Because of BR1M, I often viewed UMNO as the other billion dollar casino in town apart from the only one in Malaysia, Casino Genting. My analogy of UMNO as a Casino is that they will give you some money out of gratitude and then, a few months after the general election, there would more things that could be imposed on the people including GST, the continuation of poorly executed AES summonses and future taxes / price increments including the global carbon tax (due in 2016 onwards).

If you are someone who have visited casinos before, playing there with real money bets can be addictive. As to keep you, the player happy, the casino are happy to offer you incentives, including free stays - usually in the form of memberships. Since they are casino, they are likely to win more money compared to the money they are likely to lose.

The same metaphor also applies to UMNO. One of the traits of the lazy native is that they want to make quick buck without shaking much of a sweat. Even this involves charging a high amount but with a lousy quality of a service that would be given. One of the examples is of course the Internet broadband service here, still at a yet to be satisfactory level, but at a high monthly fee.

Anyway, back to BR1M, I am actually overqualified, hence I can't take that money. In the months after the 12th GE, Pak Lah announced of a RM625 fuel subsidy (one time) given to people, but collected from the post offices nationwide. If you divide it, the subsidy can help you for about one year, based on a medium size car and your way of managing monies.

Anyone who has some finance-related education would know that this BR1M is merely a short-term measure. It can maybe help between 1-3 months. Of course this was given to make people - especially those who react by emotionally to feel appreciated and giving support to the coalition. But the danger is that expect more money being milked out by the people back to them after six months or so. This is of course in contrast to the proper way of having extra disposable income and letting your money generate money.

You can sure understand the reason the casino in Kuala Lumpur called UMNO is doing so, because the intelligence reports from the Special Branch about losing badly compared to 2008 is far more grim for them. This would definitely being one of the biggest gambles Najib and co would do in order to recoup their investments later on. And breathing down on the necks of the board directors as well as the pit bosses is of course the casino owner, Mahathir Mohamad, (remember he registered the party after the original was de-registered in 1988 by court order). It's all of course of a destruction to his legacy and his plan of putting his three boys in key positions that forms the reason of why the boss would do various things including flipping his own statements made before.

The problem is that there are still many people who think emotionally. As RPK put literally in "Why are Malays so narrow minded":

The Malays have to learn to be like the non-Malay Malaysians and not rant and rave every time you do not like what someone says. And this was what Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammad lamented about when he said that the Malays are too emotional and feudalistic and should be more pragmatic like the Chinese. And Dr Mahathir is right. The Malays are too emotional, unlike the Chinese and Indians.

In this age, disasters and events shaping the nation no longer recognizes race, as with the common sayings of "Death knows no bounds" and many more. And yet, many still take religion into factors, a zero sum result that doesn't really affect all people, except the naive ones.

The only main difference between a normal casino and Casino UMNO is that the games played doesn't involve luck and people can choose to take their monies back or in a rather sarcastic way, spilling more of their own money unwillingly in future to an organization that is found to commit white-collar crimes but above the law. 

 

I am sure you can figure out the solution if you are honest with yourselves and put in a situation where you have to choose between life and death of self-esteem with no option to back out, with abstinence means also death as well. 

Keeping It Simple and Short

Quite a while, I have taken a backseat from blasting non-stop politically every day except on some cases where some people asked me questions about what's going to happen in Malaysia in the next 3-5 months or so. I had two things to consider writing as Chinese New Year is coming up in the next three days and given of the current scenario that is happening in Malaysia, I thought of bringing up the first matter, that is on being a voter perspective.

There have been politicians from both sides talking about good and bad about one another but the worst part is dragging their family members into the mess merely to get the brownie points. And also I have observed by listening to audio recordings of many ceramahs by the Opposition politicians and excerpts from what BN politicians to say,  I noticed that you don't even need to be confused on listening who is correct or not.

You only merely need to see what situation are in and your pocket. In fact it is a keep it simple and short thing that will help you decide whether you need rectification or not.

It's a sad thing that to this day, there are still people out there, especially the Malay community that are still looking at race and religion factors, disregarding the more important basic need factors such as living and standards of life. The four horses of Apocalypse does not know any skin and religion, and so does the economy.

In fact, many of us still are not sincere with ourselves. That is in fact a problem, a trait of a lazy native. Maybe you have to answer a few questions about yourself and if you are those who have kids, picture what happens if you fail them in the next 10-20 years or so. Empowerment would be needed then, but not to the point of making yourself confused and full of information to be swallowed in one single go.

Well, since there's at least another 50 days to go before the rumored date of elections, you need to think hard of the questions - non-political but your needs. From the way it goes, it looks like the casino owners in PWTC are unlikely to change, even if the claim to say so because of the need to feed their warlords and pitbosses.

If you are senior citizen, you may think of this as the last shot of a better future for your grandchildren. If you are someone like myself, having problems of livelihood also ask yourselves. And as my friend said, if you keep choosing a white-collar criminals in the elections, it you yourselves to be blamed for any disaster that is to happen in the future for your choice was proven wrong. I keep mentioning this in commenting to some people who lamented after by-elections in Bagan Pinang and Hulu Selangor.

In line of keeping it simple ask yourself this (you can add questions apart from that):

1. Which coalition is presently running the government? How long?

The first question is important because the subsequent questions will be that under that present government:

2. Are you having problems getting things that can improve quality of life?

3. Do you really mind paying exorbitant prices and owe monies to the banks just to get a place to stay in the city?

4. Are you angry but still will to pay twice of the actual price just to get a good car or changing one?

5. Have you look your children / grandchildren and notice how at times unhappy they are at times?

6. How you feel if white collared criminals getting away free in immunity whereas they actually did it?

7. Do you notice that the number of non-Malaysians coming in for low labor are out of control?

8. If you are being raped by the person whom you chose, would choose that person again? How about replace person with a party?

9. Are you happy with your present savings that can last you for the next 20 years or so?

10. Have you picture yourselves being in countries such as Greece?

This where you have to be very sincere with yourself. I am not going to push much but would give the breathing space for you people to think minus political mileage and factor. You have to decide. Sure, the brilliant minds are being put in violent persecution by the mediocre minds, as Einstein said.

Wanted: To ABU In Gopeng

I was in Ipoh for these few days over some personal matters including attending a schoolmate's wedding. Yesterday, I went to the car workshop in Maxwell Road (Jalan Tun Razak) for my usual car service. These people know me well there for most of car maintenance work was done there. 

Usually, the two men there, Hussain, the store manager and Zul, the workshop manager would greet me whenever I am there. This round, I was surprised when Zul greeted me with "Ubah". I immediately thought that he must have gone to a DAP ceramah or something there. He then told me about the possible parliament being dissolved on 22 February with polling date on 30th March

I said, "Ubah is DAP's", and suggested instead with "ABU - Anything But UMNO" reasoning that it could have more impact, considering some people who still may have a negative perception of DAP (being chauvinist, anti-Malay). I asked Zul whether he had went to a DAP ceramah where he must have got that slogan or so. But instead, Zul revealed that he also moonlights as a PAS member in Gopeng.

Just to refresh the memory, the MP for Gopeng is PKR's Dr. Lee Boon Chye (formerly the Ipoh Specialist Center cardiologist) and under the constituency would be three places: Sungai Rapat, Simpang Pulai and Teja. Of course Sungai Rapat's incumbent assemblywoman is of course Hamidah Osman.

Zul asked me whether if there are any materials that can be helped to inform voters abreast of the current issues, in all areas and especially to increase voter support for PAS in Sungai Rapat (remember that Hamidah won by less than 700 votes vs IR Radzi Zainon). 

I replied that materials from the ABU website would be sufficient to help his PR team more. I told him to print the leaflets including the Lao Tzu vs CSL comics, show and distribute those videos there to the public to keep them informed. Also, rather than people bashing, I asked him to try bringing out those bread and butter issues and asking the public about the present problems they are facing like buying a house or a car, or even get them to think rationally out of the box rather rather than on religion and race matters - an issue that can never escape from the Malay mindset.

I also explained that the Christian state problem is a zero sum game, for it requires not 2/3rds but 3/4ths of the MP support (stage 1, being an extraordinary case) and the overall consent from the Council of Rulers (Majlis Raja-raja Melayu, stage 2) before it can happen, but chances of that happen is less than 5%.

With the permission to use their office computer, I showed the ABU website including the leaflets to the entire staff that can be downloaded, printed and distributed to the masses. The only problem for Zul's PR team was to have Chinese versions of the Mengapa Harga Barang Naik - considering that Simpang Pulai and Teja is Chinese majority area - which if possible to provide a Chinese version of the leaflet as well.

Lastly, I cautioned Zul and team to be very very careful of Ngeh, Nga and associates. Not because of prejudice, but sometimes their actions indirectly caused the fall of the PR state government in 2009. Lately, the two cousins were mentioned prominently in a scandal in MediaPerak ran by friend and fellow blogger Mat Saman Kati. Also, we got to remember the incident in Taman Kaya where old man Simon got harassed by a couple (I know who but won't mention here). 

If PR wants to recapture Perak and run a full 5-year term, then one of the things that must be done is that Ngeh-Nga people have to control their ego by not calling the shots, lest it will be the same mistake repeated over and over again.

The Fragile State of 1Malaysia

Let’s understand one important fact about Umno today – the party cannot be divided down the middle again, as what happened in the 1988 party crisis. The feud then between two warring factions had led to Umno being declared unlawful by the court.

The anti-Najib faction clearly understands this. This time around the anti-Najib forces plan to cut off Umno president and Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, with the party remaining intact.

Their first step is to isolate Najib, whereby the Umno warlords and leaders are now distancing themselves from the prime minister during his campaign trails.

The next step is to deploy the false flag strategy.

The anti-Najib team is using outsiders such as the likes of Deepak Jaikishan and ex-inspector general of police Musa Hassan to expose the prime minister and his wife Rosmah Mansor’s wrongdoings.

The team is also bent on showing up police power abuses under Najib’s cousin – Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussain – in its attempt to undermine Najib.

The duo – Deepak and Musa – will “link” themselves to PKR to create a make-believe story that Anwar Ibrahim and PKR are behind them.

This false flag strategy has a two-pronged agenda. First, it is to show that the two are under the directive of the PKR and if this plot fails, the blame is on Anwar and PKR.

But if it works, the beneficiary will be Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s team. The anti-Najib forces are using Musa and the carpet dealer to checkmate Najib.

Daring revelation

The daring revelation is a clear indication that his own party opponents want him to fail, or even step down before the general election.

If he chooses to do otherwise, they will come out in the open to challenge him – which could mean either a breakup of Umno or election sabotage against him and his closest aide Hishammuddin in the coming polls.

This will further threaten Umno’s chances of victory.

Both Deepak and Musa are the fall guys and have been given assurance of their safety by their backers who now have the upper hand in the internal Umno power game.

The Muhyiddin team will push for the final nail in the coffin by presenting its own list of candidates which Najib has to accept or face sabotage in the election.

Sabotage means Muhyiddin’s team will campaign for opposition candidates who stand against Najib and Hishammuddin in the constituencies they contest.

Hence Najib is compelled to resign gracefully to save Umno or he and the party are both goners.

Under such circumstances most Umno members will show no sympathy for Najib.

Umno, as such, is desperate to have a compromise and understanding with PAS in the run-up to the general election.

Muhyiddin’s Umno knows it cannot count on the other Barisan Nasional component parties which are also in the same boat, with their own internal strife, and public dissatisfaction against them running high.

Hence it has to work out an amicable formula with an opposition party in Pakatan Rakyat that shares some compatibility with Umno’s struggle.

Read further here.
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Author's note: This was originally intended to be written last week. However, with the piece by Free Malaysia Today columnist Awang Abdillah above written today, it has allowed me to freely add in my further thoughts to what he has written.

There are talks within the circles of UMNO that the "power broker" himself and various people who are sided in him thinks that Najib is carrying too much of baggage that could risk the party itself. There have been talks of asking him to step down before the election because they think he and Bik Mama are seen dragging the party, or the casino, to be exact to the mud and into the opposing side a few months down the road.

What is summarized above is that camp Mahathir is of course out in daggers at Najib because of his problems, private to be exact that whatever is doing, according to them, demonstrates his incapability to run the country. On the other hand those in Najib's faction are too out for Mahathir's team for they have been a thorn in Rosmah's ambitious and fat intentions.

A year ago, we have heard what Muhyiddin declared himself as Malay first before Malaysian. This of course is in the flipside of Najib's 1Malaysia campaign that was mean to appease to all races.

Even if Najib claims to say that his 1Malaysia thing is his own idea, but come to think again, there are some of the party's warlords are not taking it that well, for it was against their own agenda and the so called Malay Supremacy agenda. Some would think that whatever Najib is doing is too liberal to their liking. Of course, if you look at the Islamic history and trace all the way down to the present age, there is a very much limit in creative thinking and reasoning, that you are not allowed to do so.

Anyway, Awang is entirely right except for one part. Recently we have raised the question on why Deepak was spotted at Tun Mahathir's birthday party at the Hilton Kuala Lumpur (since we've seen a picture of him there). The latest talk on Deepak is that he could be doing a U-Turn, excluding himself from being part of Mahathir's plan to kick Najib out before elections and install Mukhriz as the number 2 man in Malaysia (as DPM of course). I think he might be sensing a sort of trap here from how the scenario is going.

If you have seen my previous posting about my field day at Himpunan Kebangkitan you'd notice that I've added a money photo shot of Deepak and Sam Haris. If Deepak expects immunity in exchange for spilling in the beans, he won't get one, but was told to see a third party who can help him to facilitate his spilling of the beans. From the way it goes, Deepak wants to do his thing on his own terms.

The main point here is that with the internal turmoil going on within UMNO, Najib not getting much of support from those who are associated in him, we can surmise that the 1Malaysia pet project that Najib has been screaming in and out will likely end in the same fate as with Pak Lah's Islam Hadhari, which lasted just short of a full term of 5 years.

Given of Muhyiddin's way of thinking and keeping his cards close to his chest, it is likely that 1Malaysia would be going off sooner than expected. Even if Khairy Jamaluddin's statement that "dasar transformasi Najib" was successful would only be short lived. So supposed if that scenario where Najib got kicked out, be it before or after the election, Muhyiddin would be replacing the 1Malaysia with something else. A lot of money poured into Najib's public relation exercise thing could end up with not much of effect and could not scratch deep into the Malaysian psyche.

 Except for the naive who knows nothing at all, 1Malaysia is in a very fragile state right now.

Ping Blog

#HKR112 - Who Says We Create Trouble?

Everyone is satisfied that the People's Uprising Rally, which finished 2 hours ago, ran smoothly without hitch with the police helping out to ensure safety of the people going in to the stadium. This has what the people had tried to prove to the world and the country that they were never intended to start the violence which occurred like in the three Bersih rallies there.

Sure, I was in the second rally, the most brutal of all the three. It's just the demented thinking of the government leaders including their machais who think that the rally is a piece of shit and going against their own ideal norms is what got them to start the police brutality that got people really-really upset over the beatings and the mass arrests on that day.

And today? People have shown that they can grow up. It is not a pissing contest. People come in because they have several issues that they are angry at the government. They are not pro-opposition party fans, but they come because of some things they share (mutual sharing) in common.

You can say that the same amount of people at Bersih 3 (more than 250K people) came for the rally. But it is difiicult to ascertain it for we do not have aerial pictures to examine at and estimate. For Rais Yatim, he can forget about making small numbers to please themselves. It's already a warning to the big casino called UMNO.

The rally is a double-edge sword. First it proves to the world that there are serious issues to be considered and worth looking by the fence-sitters in the upcoming election. Secondly, it proves to the world, that as I said taht threats and troubles were not solicited and started by those who came, but instead by agent provocateurs and those from BN who would not take well on the people's society grievances and coming in to the streets. However, it also puts the picture that the police have started to recover from the bad image felt by the past three Bersih rallies and coupled with the notion that Najib's slogan is beginning to hit the right notes, if not entirely.

The pics show what happened a few hours ago. It tells the message and theme. And there's a side story I would like to put in the next posting. And yes, Rais Yatim is having a hard time to count.

And oh yes, as a nice measure, here's a money shot here:

Monopoly, Allah Version

The Allah in the bible issue has been reignited again and the edict from the Sultan of Selangor over banning non-Muslims over the usage of the word has drew the ire of many other people whom, many based on historical facts that the word can be used by Christians in the Arab nation as well as the the word being used in the past 4 centuries without a hitch or two. 

Dr. Asri, has raised a very critical point. If by not allowing the non-Muslims to use Allah, state anthems will have to be replaced with another version to cater for the others. There are six states that has anthems containing the word Allah. 

The Perak state anthem, Allah Lanjutkan Usia Sultan (1888) also has it - not to mention the tune is also based on the Memula Moon tune. Allah appears in the first and the last half of the song:

1 - Dilanjutkan Allah usianya Sultan

5 - Iman yang soleh Allah kurniakan

6 - Allah berkati Perak Ridzuan

7 - Allah selamatkan negeri dan sultan

Doing on blanket ban on other people except their own kind is totally impossible, considering that there are cases like that above that has to be considered. Bishop Paul Tan was quoted saying, "If the Malaysian government forbids people of faiths other than those who profess Islam from using the word ‘Allah’, we would be the laughing stock of more enlightened people in other countries.” What he said is correct. Malaysia is run by people who claimed to be themselves holier than thou but actually not practising by what they preach.

If you remember what Harrussani Zakaria said about convert to Islam then Allah can be used, this is somewhat not very logical. Along the way, the episode of the edict brought up by the Sultan of Selangor also raises another interesting point of debate: revelation vs reasoning. In this current age of technology and education, young and well educated people will definitely would look for a reason in understanding why a revelation is there on stone. However, the old guard's perspective is that what is revealed cannot be challenged without question.

The Sultan is the head of the religion. Behind the head would be a group of religious advisers. If they want the Sultan to follow it, then the calling of shots comes from them. But here, the problem would be that there is a person who claims to be pious, holier than thou but yet the ideas and principles he had in mind do not match with the current period of time. The other problem with them is there may be some of these people who don't practice what they preach.

The bible and Quran are silent on people's daily activities. Most of the daily activities are mostly taken from the narratives of the people who in association and close proximity with either Jesus or the Prophet. Between a narrative and the one that came directly (written from the words of God), which takes the precedence most?

The argument that Allah is superior and can be used by one group  (between Muslims and Christians) is wrong and can imply that they do not accept prominent figures in religion like Abraham, Ishmael, Moses, Adam and Eve, Jesus and even his mother Mary which are acknowledge in the Quran or in the inscriptions on locales such as the Dome of the Rock.

That is one main argument to say that whoever thinks that is no doubt incorrect and misled.

In this case of people who talks so much while claiming to be holier than thou, may I suggest that if anyone of these people fall in that category, might as well migrate to Saudi Arabia? I've seen people in that category but yet come to places in big cars and carrying prestigious titles - but isn't that going against the modesty that most of the well known religious people would carry?

In anyway, the battle between reasoning vs revelation without questioning remains ongoing now.

Welcome to 2013!

At first I thought 2013 is the same atmosphere as with Snake Pliskeen's world in Escape from L.A but eventually, that universe, alongside with Demolition Man became an alternate reality already since there's nothing happened as it is in both movies.

Anyhow, it's a late greeting but welcome to 2013.

New Year's Eve is always a day to celebrate, so I was having a round of drinks with a group of ex-schoolmates, whom we've gone back for the last 15 years.

What I want for 2013 for the nation? To be continued later.

Sometimes You Need To Learn to Be Quiet

There was saying - discretion is a better part of valor - meaning that sometimes, it is better not to do anything lest your usual valor will invite more trouble from the opposition. In the political arena, sometimes it is necessary to maintain silence lest you give ammunition for the opposition to hit left and right for nothing.

There's still the need for the opposition parties to grow up, be more mature in and playing smart, not charging into battle with the assumption that a win is guaranteed. Didn't Sun Tzu mentioned emphasized about playing smart lest you fall into the hands of the old man who is well versed in our Malaysian politics? 

Winning the war is not about winning every battle. Sometimes, losing a battle is deliberate way and decision taken before heading for the win. Likewise if the present opposition wants to take over Putrajaya.

With many people, mostly from DAP and PAS talking all sorts of things here and there, they conveniently placed themselves and providing the opposition hands ammunition to attack them with their lies and manipulation. Why do you think Utusan and those UMNO-associated media people keep saying things that the opposition say that they are lying about?

Even doing this discretion means being silent of who and where would you place until at the very last minute. Do you ever wonder why I have not been writing things lately, or why I see the same bunch of people commenting often at Malaysia Today? True, I may have write once a while there, but it's merely to say yes or drop by a greeting or two, but the saying goes that a real smart person don't always talk much but goes to the point, keeping it plain and simple. Talk is cheap right? 

When I read about the ANAK-led Felda demo today in Semarak, I mused that there are a few number in Felda that has started to realize that it would be disastrous to do the listing at the stock market (FGVH in this case). At least it's a little footstep towards mental revolution. Everyone should have the freedom of thought and reasoning, not to follow things so blindly.

Maxis Iphone 5 Launch

A little just a week ago, the Malaysian launch of Iphone 5 happened at Capsquare KL. By the time the weekend was over, there were thousands of people lining up to get the phone. Maybe it was the last minute lucrative offers by Maxis for existing customers that actually got more people interested to get their hands on even a single set of the phone. This of course was the reason I happened to take the advantage of getting one. It's much lighter anyways.

People who had booked their sets and plans ahead before the launch are able to get their hands first. I was informed that there were 45 people who have been lining up like mad since the afternoon all the way until midnight there. But foregoing dinner at the usual time in exchange for donuts and cups of hot beverages surely made the 5 hours waiting time worth it. I thought it was putting my name and coming on Sunday to collect initially, until I came across the barricade.

Not even 9 pm, and the crowd is building all the way to the end!

There's paperwork to be done and that's part 1.

You've got paperwork to attend to and there's Maxis staff crew helping you out in filling the particulars and giving you the SIM card that you hold until you collect your handset. The cool thing is that you can carry your settings that you've backup for your previous phone and just carry over to your new unit once you've got your thing.

If you look at the pic above, you'd see that it's a mad queue at the barricade while some people would bring donuts and tea over.  At least, this helps to put my cold down for a moment, for I was sneezing at times. Plus, there's a recharging station on the other side. But the crowd control still remains mediocre.

One more hour to go!!!!!

There's crew from TV3 and 8TV covering the event, coupled with a few online TV content and radio stations like ERA, HITz.FM and even MyFM covering the event as well. People in the crowd were randomly questioned about waiting time and their feelings towards getting their new iPhone 5. Emceeing the event was NTV7's Will Quah ad 8TV's Julie Woon (Quickie TV). 

Will Quah and Julie Woon

And yes, I was randomly interviewed by her at around 10+ pm. Next thing I never knew that just after midnight, my mum called me asking, "Son, were you on TV?". 

"Am I?"

Then I realized that I was on air for a moment when asked the question on how long I've been waiting.

Seconds to launch!!!

At the stroke of midnight, there's the customary launch pleasantries and there's a queue number that you need to take. Including the first 45 people who have been given the privilege to line up first, I guess that I must be around the first 200 to get the phones. Can you imagine yourself being among the red carpet while you are being filmed by the TV crew when you're attending a gala premiere? Except that you are dressing lavishly like a Hollywood celebrity...lol.

Smile, you're on candid camera!

You got to wait for the number. And when it came to my turn, there's some confusion over the paperwork. Apparently there are some who are not aware of the last minute offer that Maxis throws out their special offer for their existing customers. There's a 10 minute delay for me before grabbing it. They do have an counter where they help to setup the set for you and some accessories where you should get a screen protector before leaving.

And when I was done with the whole thing...you can still see plenty of people lining up there. And there's of course sneaking for some free dinner provided by Modestos for the corporate clientele in an another lounge - more comfy and it's air conditioned there.

The crowd lining up even after I'm done there.

Pondering Why Our Politicians Won't Quit

1. I felt that after reading reports about the Singapore Parliament Speaker resigning over infidelity (read here), a senior citizen Lynas activist who was arrested for calling for Adnan Yaakob to resign (read Malaysiakini report here), how most Japanese politicians would resign over admission of improper conduct as well as how our own Home Minister refuses to quit after it is proven to have be in improper conduct over handling his duties, it might worth to comment and make inferences over why most Malaysian politicians simply won't quit if there is sufficient evidence and substantial, corroborated  witness testimony implying of that politician.

2. My reasoning over that subject is mainly due to three main factors. 

a) Fear fall of dignity and capitulation

b) Cut off from lucrative monies

c) Society / people perception over the person

The first two are inter-connected for sure.

3. I had always wanted to answer this question by my own words and view that I often tried asking some of my Malay friends about "dignity", or why people are unwilling to quit. I get a mixed bag of answers usually. But the starting point about the this question would be that we need to go back to the origins of the race (root Austronesian) and the culture that you've to understand that well. If we examine the political scenario of our present running coalition government (BN) over the last 30 years or so, we have noticed that as with the Cold War mentality, they do not take dissidence quite well and  it's worse than it was before the Mahathir years (1981-2003). 

Note: The Tun Razak years (1970-1976) were less severe as it with the Hussein Onn years (notable instances during that time including where "King Ghaz" as Home Minister signing quite a number of detention orders against dissidents)

The book "Mental Revolution" (Revolusi Mental) written by 14 intellectuals within the UMNO organization, in 1971 summarizes that the Malay society is characterized in general as not honest with themselves; blaming others except their own faults; being fatalists, which makes them less keen on making efforts; lack the courage to fight truth. This has been largely resulted from exploitation from other communities and the prolonged effect of the English colonization of Malaya. The characteristics mentioned there also similar to our present trait of some of the politicians, not just BN but some of them within the present federal opposition. (some of the excerpts / descriptions were from the book The Myth of The Lazy Native by the late Syed Hussein AlAtas)

4. I often look at the question above in analogy with the Provisional IRA wing in Ireland in the years prior to the Good Friday agreement in 1998. Like them, many of them believe that should something that goes against their stance, or a setback, (their way of showing their stance is like forcing it on your throat) many think of it as capitulation to the enemy.

In our local context, ask ourselves why the Home Ministry that simply seizes books / magazines that do not conform to their defined way standards (read here) or simply summons editors of newspapers that publishes articles that reveals a chink in their armor. But look at what it has gotten them into in the long run? Complacency.

5. On the individual level, I surmise that it is their fear and paranoia over self-dignity that will be gone, the moment if they caught with their pants down. How can we explain based on the famous unpublished stories that: 

a) A famous politician was caught for proximity in Port Dickson in 2006 with a famous local artiste.

b) A minister famously assaulted a man for his affair with the minister's daughter who was or on the verge of divorce. Police report was made but no action taken.

c) The Jamaluddin Jarjis case in April 2008 at Havana Club, Hotel Meridien? (Read here, Malay version)

6. Yes everyone fears of their dignity stripped completely if caught. But having observed the similar cases of politicians found to be in misconduct in Japan, China and in much more matured thinking nations, there is no need to fear, for every person still has a small ounce of dignity having hitting the rock bottom moment. When reaching that moment, there is an ample time for a person to step away and the plenty of opportunities to rebuild his image, but outside of the circle of influence they used to be.

7. Haven't we noticed that in most religion books that humans are taught of mercy, compassion, love thyself and thy neighbor? Indirectly it also means that every human being should at least have a small ounce of dignity in themselves no matter what really happened to them, good or bad.

8. In related to the first factor, the money factor also plays part of it. Being a politician, a Parliamentarian earns around RM 10K per month (including extra benefits). It goes higher if you are a minister and so forth. If you are also part of the board of directors in a company, you earn more. On rock bottom moment, you lose everything, for you are pushed to resign. From that on, it's back to square one, but the problem would be where to start over again and doing outside your usual circle.

This is arguably the two main reason on the individual level why our politicians are unlikely to quit, except if going for retirement of course.

9. The last factor is also attributed to our current society structure. I once recalled what Raja Petra said about the Malays usually indulge with gossip more than their non-Malay counterparts whereas non-Malays can take insults on religion or others in a pinch of salt. How can we explain why when Chua Soi Lek resigned as the minister or when he came back as the MCA president in the party elections that the number of Malaysians would question that matter is less? On the contrary, when any thing comes to Malay politicans e.g like Anwar alleged to have commit infidelity, Mat Sabu talks about Mat Indera, Nazri's son in misconduct this and there, people from both sides start hitting that person as if flogging a dead horse. Although I hate to delve into this point, but it is necessary to say that this external factor also plays part on the problem above.

The House of Cards in KL

Some people within UMNO think that Najib is weak and incapable of running the election war room. As the result, they had to bring in the casino owner by the name of Mahathir Mohamad to run the show. The election intelligence reports sounds grim that they need to use tricks to shore more Malay votes for the party to remain running the government.

The billion dollar casino in downtown KL had to invest at least $730 million up to the maximum of $1.7 billion as I was told a year ago in the upcoming general elections and handout monies to appease people - ranging from fence sitters to old rural folks and those first-time voters. From my observation of the recent UM survey about BN still having a 5% advantage, it looks likely that the ruling party is taking advantage of the fence and first timers naivetivity over the present and masked developments in this nation to shore up support.

Many are still not aware that the short term measures will not last that long and many are still unaware of more dangers lying ahead from the so called white collar thirds that have been running the state for the last 55 years and counting. The survey from UM points out that most of the Malays surveyed still are concerned over the race and religion issues that has been embedded in their minds compared to their other Malaysian counterparts who are worried over corruption and lack of economical progress.

Running along the race and religion cards that the casino and it's subsidiary agency Perkasa, the owner is concerned that if they lose a lot of money in their card game in the next two to three months, the casino would go bust as well as it's junkies who are associated with that turf. Plus the owner's plan to put his young son on the road to replace him would end in tatters. Sadly many do not know of the real plan apart from constantly fingering and cussing Anwar Ibrahim all day long.

I have read some negative commentary about changing government by mostly the naive and the conservative Malay folks everywhere and even if I decided not to reply to anything, they have shown to me the exact traits of a lazy native - complacent, slack, always faulting others sans themselves and admitting defeat before the start of a match / battle. Seems to me that they never bothered about the real costs apart from being busy bodies. Maybe I would write a sales letter style post next round.

The worst case scenario for that casino is to lose as high as 1.1 billion dollars in bets if the results style is the complete reverse of what happened in 2008. The base scenario would be that would lose half of the investment money but yet see a chance to make trouble in a thin majority PR led govt.

Some people said that the owner had gone senile lately based on the comments at the RCI Sabah... could it be that the signs of death are knocking on his door then?

The Chinese have already made it clear that they are going to make the casino bleed. Indian take is still fluid while the Malay cash still at 50/50. In anyways, the house of cards in KL is going to be a place whether people want to cash out or cash in at the price of their dignity.

Again, Bernama Should Reveal Reporter Names!

I do not how Bernama reporters or people from government count the numbers of people who were in the anti-Lynas walk to Merdeka Square last night. They claim to say only 2000.

But apparently, the numbers speak for themselves. At first it was around 5000, but around the evening, the numbers swelled to around 10 times Bernama claims to be.

Maybe one picture alone seems to say that the news agency lied.

To cover the shade of the government who is getting embarrassed by this demonstration, complaints by those who disagreed have been amplified and exaggerated.

In the last few months, I have been proposing that we should push for the agency to start revealing names of reporters who have been writing the material. The main reason is to also put them to show responsibility of their writings just as what these other ministers and political rats have been hounding at us to take responsibly on our writings.

Associated Press have already done so by putting (for example): Reporting by..."reporter A, reporter B..." Additional editing by "editor A, editor B". Why can't they be doing it? Are they doing it in secrecy?

Yes, Keep on Slugging Tony and Tee Yong!

A week ago, the DAP's UBAH truck made its appearance in the PJ Civic Hall, with Tony Pua being the last speaker. The reason I went there was to see how many times Tony would whack that boy by the name of Chua Tee Yong.

To ensure that I can accurately reproduce what Tony tried to say on that night, I recorded the entire 43 minute speech onto my phone. Later on, a video recorded by Mediarakyat also matched my recording as well. At that time, the announcement by the state government to reveal the white paper on Talam seems to increased my enthusiasm on seeing a throwing tantrum kind of reaction by the spoiled kid by the name of Chua Tee Yong.

Here are the instances where the spoiled kid was referred to in Tony Pua's talk in Petaling Jaya last week.

1. This has been verified after that boy keep making noise (13:40)

2. So there is no need for that Tan Sri....err Datuk Chua Tee Yong to debate (14:09)

3. (14:17) I want to ask in return, comparing to Barisan Nasional, Datuk Chua Tee Yong himself. He's the deputy minister of agriculture. Agriculture look after what? Look after cows everyone know.

4. (14.33) I want to ask this deputy minister who took so much time visiting hills and lakes of Selangor to criticize this transaction with Talam. Has he ever been to the NFC farm to count the cows there int that farm? He never responded because I know he has never been into that farm.

5. (15:07) I want to ask Datuk Chua Tee Yong who has been critical in that debt collection in Selangor whether he is able to give the people of Malaysia the assurance that he would be able to collect every single cents of the 250 million soft loan extended to Sharizat's family so that the people will not lose a single cents. Can he? Up to today satu suara pun tak ada.

Of course I am not surprised by it. Selangor chief minister Khalid Ibrahim disclosed the details of the white paper at the state assembly yesterday, and declared the issue not closed. And then Free Malaysia Today, like I predicted, reported that Tee Yong refused to accept the entire case is closed and still wants to keep slugging on with the Talam case.

Quoting from Free Malaysia Today:

“But I will first wait for him [Khalid] to finish what he says. It’s not fair that I criticise now, because then he will suddenly add additional information to the White Paper to rebut my points,” he said.

“If the White Paper is for all the people to understand the Talam Corp issue, then it would be complete with all the points.

“Yet there are still questions, so let him reveal all the remaining information on Talam Corp before I make further criticism,” he added.

“This MB is always flip-flopping. Before, he said he would respond in the Dewan Rakyat, but he never did.

“He also once said he would never entertain or respond to MCA. But then they had a roadshow to explain Talam.

“So considering he always changes his mind, I will allow him to finish what he says first before I raise more questions,” said Chua.

Over to you Tony, I would really like you to keep slugging out with that "boy who make noise" as you called. 

It's Just Between Yourself and God

The religion issue is a topic and subject that I often refused to talk as it made me feel uncomfortable. However, the recent apostasy matter that was brought up following Nurul Izzah's comments has got me wanted to say this for the last time, and hopefully I would not want to talk about it down the road again ever.

Until today, my observation is that many of those who scream apostasy never even bothered to answer the two main questions:

1. What really make people decide to leave their faiths behind? 

2. What is the desired punishment that these people want if a person is found to leaving their faith?

Ibrahim, Zul, Hasan and even the clerics in the UMNO organization has never even bothered to answer Question 2 but simply waving threats all around. 

As for Question 1, there answers are mostly found through self-discovery and emotional perception. It cannot be answered by others except themselves. It is somewhat a cliche to by some people to accuse Western influence as the reason behind it. That, I do not think so.

There are some people who may realized or witnessed how a religion is being misused for the purposes of a select few that many repeated deny that it is a lie whereas there are tons of evidence to support that. There are some who have felt that the limitation of tenets imposed (though irrelevant at the modern age) has given the restriction for them to think and act, but want to do things while still remain in the boundaries of what is defined as good conduct and behavior that each religion would demand of. There are also some people who claimed to say that they have experienced a calling and epiphany to move from one faith to another for a better good.

There have been fictional material that illustrates a man's transition as the result of experience and epiphany. As an example, one of literature's famous swords and sorcery fictional characters, Drizzt Do'urden's decision to leave a faith and religion was the result of the emotional trauma experienced first hand and self-realization that the religion that he was in his formative years was more or less of committing atrocities for lust and chaos. As the result, he pursued - the Melikki - and in the centuries after the events, he admitted that he has felt the unusual peace and enlightenment that has never felt otherwise - without compulsion, but with curiosity and the desire to get out of the evil that could consume him.

The European history of how religion has been successfully been separated out of secular law is the reason why I would write to answer this problem in Malaysia. You've got to acknowledge that when England's Act of Supremacy was introduced in 1534, England has already successfully kept the religion factor out whenever laws are implemented. Europe will only wake up in another 265-270 years later during the Napoleonic Wars. In short, socially speaking we are 200 years behind Europe in society progress that even Pak Lah admitted before, first world facilities third world mentality.

I often held high regard to people like Henry II and Kemal Ataturk simply because they are in believe that religious interference into the administration of law of their respective countries would make the national progress (economical and social aspect) mundane just because mixing that odd aspect into it. The U.S law doesn't contain any religious aspects included in its laws. Some viewed that Ataturk, branded an apostate by many narrow-minded Muslims, eventually succeeded to the point that those who screamed suddenly went quiet over it. Ultimately, who's in the wrong anyway?

Say if I am asked to become the interim Prime Minister of Malaysia due to some unusual circumstance, I would definitely would put a stop on religious interference once and for all with a stroke of the pen. Of course, there are people including those right-wingers would definitely say, "Ini orang cina ini tak hormat Islam...bla bla bla.." I mean come on, you are impeding people's potential to progress, you are walking one step backwards, you don't want people to be smart, but then despite religious interference, there's still plenty of untackled social problems. Hey...the constitution is silent on who can be PM, right? Perlembagaan tak ada kata siapa mesti jadi PM kan - only who commands the confidence of the majority of the MPs, betul? Everyday we see those who scream all this murtad thing riding on a big limo like a rich man - isn't this contrasting to your own statement indicating that the person is holier than thou? If that is the case, may I suggest that you migrate to those countries like Saudi Arabia if you think you are great? Didn't someone said before that Western countries though they are not Muslim majority but yet do things that are Islamic? If a man steals bread to feed his daughter and both of them are poor shouldn't we be helping them?

In this topic, my main argument is from the perspective of secular view and being a person who doesn't put stock into religion like other people do. Who knows, I might do better than Najib or Pak Lah combined supposed if I am PM. The gist of what I am saying is, too much inteference tends to make things very very messy and as a person who thinks that religious freedom is for all, a person's self-identity and his / her believes is between themselves and God with nobody having the right to force or interfere, Hotel California style.

Happy Diwali

Just to wish all my Indian friends and mostly ex-colleagues a Happy Diwali day.

Bites From Obama vs Romney, Murphy vs McMahon

I always wanted and was certain from the beginning that Barack Obama would win the recently concluded elections simply because of a few main reasons: he fights for the middle-class Americans and even pushes for the healthcare reform bill. There's a certain understanding from the people that a Democrat party-originated president will have a hard time to reverse the policies undertaken by the Republican Bush administration. Secondly, with the narrow aversion of the Senate and House's deadlock over the national debt matter last year, many people would not want to have someone like Romney that would make people suffer while reducing the tax for the wealthy.

Some people, even Warren Buffett thinks that people amass too much wealth but yet don't contribute much back to the nation in the period where things are so tough economically is somewhat greedy - an opinion that Obama doesn't hide by pointing to the elite at Wall Street as "the fat cat bankers". Many don't take kindly to him because he signed the Dodd-Frank Act. Add in the Massachusetts' Elizabeth Warren (who pushed for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) - the rich end of the people layer will be very much angry, while those in the lower and middle would say at least it's better.

Many including overseas partners rather prefer Obama in dealing the foreign policy. In the final round of debate between Romney and him, Obama's way of addressing the matter was very much more careful -  even if there's rivalry with other nations compared to what Romney would do - more hawkish stance, given of his Mormon background. This of course is what Netahanyu would want - given of Israel itching to start a war with Iran over oil and nukes. The kind of thought by Romney nerved a lot of people. Any person would imagine how Romney would deal with the Chinese in a slam bang manner.

Facing the fiscal cliff due in January, there is a necessity of the U.S to cut expenditure on defense and the timetable of withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan needs to be accelerated, for a daily upkeep is around to the tune of $1 billion. Romney is not very keen on upscale cuts on that matter and this would put more trouble in addition to the $600 billion automatic cuts in January 2013. The contest is also seen as perceiving who is digging the bigger hole and sinking faster.

Wall Street on Wednesday took a big dip, and then it continued on Thursday only to parred its losses on Friday. The real pain is that Wall Street bet on the wrong horse - obviously as part of the extreme capitalist agenda and lost painfully - the Dow and S&P 500 drop between 300-400 points respectively.

The other interesting thing about that day was the Senate seat contest in Connecticut between Democrat's Chris Murphy against former WWE chairman Linda McMahon (Republic). Linda spent about $50 million of her fortune to campaign and win a ticket to the Senate - 5 times more than the amount of Murphy's expenditure. $100 million in two campaigns for McMahon but yet lost on both occasions. Arguably, the main reason why Murphy won against her was because of insights of those who worked under her describing her behavior in running the company. This senatorial seat contest was interesting because it points out that not even the amount of money can guarantee a politician a ticket to the Senate.

The closing speech by Murphy was also a turning point:

"I've spent my life running to people to help them and Linda McMahon has spent her life running over people to help herself, that's the contrast in this election. And so, whether it is the difference on taxes or Medicare or social security, whether it is the difference on fighting for manufacturers, standing up for women's health, whether it's the difference in terms of how Linda McMahon and I have prioritised the time we've spent on this Earth, we've got a story to tell over the next day.... We will prove over the course of the next thirty hours that Connecticut is not for sale."

Many have expressed contempt and disappointment over McMahon's answers and statements.

The re-election campaign would definitely provide some allegories to the Malaysian political context. Just like Obama's win, when Barisan lost more than they thought, the KLSE plunged 10% and trading got suspended on 9 March 2008. Quite similar of betting that the customary 2/3rds are there, but this time round, it didn't happen. Many are uncertain whether a change or government or a setback would affect the 5-year term policy making which they are used to.

As an allegory to the Murphy vs McMahon campaign, Barisan's war chest is estimated to amount to approximately RM 1.7 billion - no doubt from collective contributions by top national conglomerates and GLCs. If you visit a place where ceramahs by the non-Barisan parties, people would give donations with amounts more or less a fragment of the total money.

Let's say we use the maximum tune of RM 1.7 billion:

222 Parliament Seats X $200K campaign per seat = $44.4 million

505 State Seats X $100K campaign per seat = $50.5 million

The actual cost of campaigning for each coalition in total for any GE is actually close to $100 million. By spending $1.7 billion in total, even Barisan can't even stand and abide by their own election terms and regulations set by their unofficial component party, the Election Commission. So the remaining $1.6 billion is more or less used as "instant noodle" projects such as the road-tarring to Kuala Sepetang during the Bukit Gantang by-election (yes, I went ahead before the Special Bunch camped there in 2009.)

There is a different feeling when forking out the money vs big corporation contribution in donating to the election fund for a coalition to contest in an election. 

If we look at the map indicating states where Obama and Romney won, the parts that Romney win (in the early run of the count) would be those in the almost middle part of America including Alaska. When examining each of the state that are under the Romney count, you would notice that the pattern is somewhat similar to our rural area count (e.g Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma). However it is important to note that the voter mindset of the voter there is not the same as Malaysia and the voting system is not the same, so it can't be taken entirely to say what happens in America is the same as in Malaysia. The gist from the two things above is that

a) those who are savvy will not want to have a government that keeps spending bottomless.
b) if you are a tax payer person, you feel the real pinch compared to those who are excluded (i.e those earning under RM 2500, the elderly, the retirees)
c) no matter how much you splash out to people, it doesn't guarantee you to be a MP or an ADUN.

In spite of those things many say that the GE 13 is the proper contest atmosphere it would be - a very tense thing on the national scale that is equivalent to a final of a football contest. The exception is that one side will attempt to rig the game to the favor, while the other tries to show that they can do the job in a very proper manner - if they are given the mandate to do so.

The Half-Baked Cake of AES

Sometime back, I figured that I would say "I told you so" over the AES (Automated Enforcement System) issue that most Barisan Nasional MPs would certainly scream about then making a U-turn later on. When it was mooted in about 1-2 years ago many of them, without thinking deep further except from the nutshell  / surface would scream yes and gave the one common answer of why the need of having AES. And then when the negative buzz over the system goes over and over the top, those politicians, whose mouth is faster than the brain would then say - stop the press / hold the implementation. When Khairy Jamaluddin and Bung Mokhtar started coming out - from their own turf to say that AES should be put on hold, I knew that these bunch of people have already eaten a half-baked cake and made a bad mistake.

Many have said that the system was too rushed, and there's a perception of how hidden costs or the timetable of implementation as well as how the government brushes (bulldozes) through the system without a thorough check and stakeholder consultation has given to the fact that not many people are well receptive to the system. I am actually fine to the system, particularly for the red light camera part but the major parts of the system that I am not very well receptive of and this brought a interesting thought - something that it was well ignored around 2002.

Unrealistic Speed Limits

Recently, the KASE (Kempen Saman Anti-Ekor) highlighted a case where a speed camera is placed on a road with the limit of 30 km/h. Many believed that having an absurd and illogical limit there is what will irked a lot of road users. The present road limits on the road is more or less outdated. Contrary to what many people generally think about speed limits, this short FAQ seems to speak otherwise than what MIROS said. For example:

"Inappropriately established speed limits cause drivers to take all traffic signals less seriously. The brochure also points out that unrealistic speed limits create two groups of drivers. Those that try to obey the limit and those that drive at a speed they feel is safe and reasonable. This causes dangerous differences in speed. "

The subsequent questions actually depict the scenario and on the road emotions of many road users:

(note: taken from National Motorist Association, U.S.A)

Q. Isn't slower always safer?
A. No, federal and state studies have consistently shown that the drivers most likely to get into accidents in traffic are those traveling significantly below the average speed. According to research, those driving 10 mph slower than the prevailing speed are more likely to be involved in an accident. That means that if the average speed on an interstate is 70 mph, the person traveling at 60 mph is more likely to be involved in an accident than someone going 70 or even 80 mph.

Q. Wouldn't everyone drive faster if the speed limit was raised?
A. No, the majority of drivers will not go faster than what they feel is comfortable and safe regardless of the speed limit. For example, an 18-month study following an increase in the speed limit along the New York Thruway from 55 to 65 mph, determined that the average speed of traffic, 68 mph, remained the same. Even a national study conducted by Federal Highway Administration also concluded that raising or lowering the speed limit had practically no effect on actual travel speeds.

Q. Don't higher speed limits cause more accidents and traffic fatalities?
A. No, if a speed limit is raised to actually reflect real travel speeds, the new higher limit will make the roads safer. When the majority of traffic is traveling at the same speed, traffic flow improves, and there are fewer accidents. Speed alone is rarely the cause of accidents. Differences in speed are the main problem. Reasonable speed limits help traffic to flow at a safer, more uniform pace.

Q. Aren't most traffic accidents caused by speeding?
A. No, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) claims that 30 percent of all fatal accidents are "speed related," but even this is misleading. This means that in less than a third of the cases, one of the drivers involved in the accident was "assumed" to be exceeding the posted limit. It does not mean that speeding caused the accident. Research conducted by the Florida Department of Transportation showed that the percentage of accidents actually caused by speeding is very low, 2.2 percent.

Q. Aren't our roads more dangerous than ever before?
A. No, our nation's fatality rate (deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled) is the lowest it has ever been. The total number of fatalities has also stayed relatively stable for several years. They do occasionally increase, but given that our population and the distance the average person drives are also increasing, this is not surprising, nor is it cause for alarm.

Q. If nobody follows the speed limit, why does it matter that they are underposted?
A. According to a speed-limit brochure published in conjunction with the Michigan State Patrol, inappropriately established speed limits cause drivers to take all traffic signals less seriously. The brochure also points out that unrealistic speed limits create two groups of drivers. Those that try to obey the limit and those that drive at a speed they feel is safe and reasonable. This causes dangerous differences in speed.

In actual truth, because of the improved car technology over the last 25 years, the car performance of newer vehicles are far better and has better safety standards than the models made prior to that period. This doesn't match with the present speed limits on most roads which are still using the outdated vehicle count percentile data as in the early 90s. Highways for example in France is now allowed up to 130 km/h while in Germany, each lane is designated a minimum limit that has to be followed in each lane, so as to give those who in fast the priority.

Use of the 85th percentile speed concept is based on the fact that:

• the large majority of drivers:
  • are reasonable and prudent
  • do not want to have a crash
  • desire to reach their destination in the shortest possible time
• a speed at or below which 85 percent of people drive at any given location under good weather and visibility conditions may be considered as the maximum safe speed for that location. 
•  

Sometime in 2002, the timing of raising speed limits was ignored, and even until today with the calculation not up to date. In fact most ministers are wrong in determining it because the driving is not experienced first hand by themselves but instead their chauffeurs do the driving instead. The perception of being a passenger vs being a driver behind the wheel differs much. For example, the passenger may say that the driver is veering too much on the left, even touching the boundary line of the emergency lane whereas in contrary the driver says otherwise.

A gist in that measurement is that it has be done on a very frequent basis.

I came across a document on the 85th percentile measurement. However, I am unsure if MIROS would bother looking at this as to match the claim or so. 

The other part is about how the system would affect the existing equipment being used. As examples, there's still the existing red light camera that uses film to capture images and the mobile speed detection devise that is being used by traffic police (not JPJ) people that it creates confusion over who is actually doing the system or shall we say that the usage is being overlapped by the two parties. 

However, the attitude of those politicians whose haste to have things bulldozed for nothing should be blasted on stage.