The Australia Diaries #3

Figaro was a roaring success last night.

I came back from watching the funny, comic 3 hour opera - The Marriage of Figaro featuring Mozart's signature overture and one of its arias, No More Gallivanting (end of act I or called orignally as Non Piu Andrai). At the end of the opera, the applause was continuous and the cast members performed a lap of honor three times. I must admit that everyone was doing well, but the only appearance that I was not comfortable was Cherubino the page - to my view.

Actually the food serving was big and I felt full after only having bread, cereal, and juice. While in afternoon, a slice of pizza 7up was good enough.

In the morning I went to cover Hyde Barracks and the state government house before spending 2 hours alone collecting my ticket booking at the opera house and doing its tour there. Circular Quay was full of street performers, even one guy did a 12-feet unicycling and there's a mime. Only problem is to get familiar with the train routes. I wanted to cover Botanical Gardens and a few places but the timing won't permit it :(

I took a long walk from Circular Quay / Pitt Street all the way back to the Town Hall, out of curiosity. The Pitt / Hunter Street intersection was interestingly the place where Smith and Neo brawled.

It's gonna be a full day at Hunter Valley tomorrow. In the meantime, I'm leaving you with a pic of me with the bridge.

"Hello Daddy, Hello Mum, I;m A Cherry Bonb" - The Runaways - Cherry Bomb

P.S: While visiting the opera house, the guide was telling us of Ms. Bryce's (Aus' Gov. General) official residence on the other side of the bridge. I just thought of changing that line to first names e.g Julia /Quentin as to say I got arrived in town. Nah, but I thought the Eagles song New Kid in Town fits better.

Shit. The post comes one day late. Credit is out.

The Australian Diaries #2

Hey family,

Man, if it's 6 pm in Sydney, it's like 8 pm back in KL. Once reaching airport, there was a strict quarantine check due to the HFM outbreak and true most shops are closed before 7 pm so I would go somewhere near Dixon Street Chinatown for a quick meal.

Sydney's at 16 Degrees Celcius, like in a room of air-cond set at the lowest. The guy who was to pick me up got held to a meeting so I had to pay $15 to go down Central. Well, the internet prepaid is chewing up the credit remaining so this will be my posting before late night.

Tonight it's Figaro in the Opera house and I am making sure that I ain't going to miss it.

For now, it's a bit tough to decide which place to visit. Maybe the gardens will do.

It's the credit that I've got to cut here.

The Australian Diaries #1

I'm just putting up a series of entries since I am on some a holiday, backpacker style, to Australia. Well, this is plainly just in case for some family members and friends to assure that I am alright all the time there.

Right now - at the airport for some breakfast.

It was fortunate though that the flight was delayed by 30 minutes due to some other passengers transiting to this flight as well. Man, I haven't been to the KLIA airport for more than 10 years. The last was being on a return holiday trip to Singapore.

I was bit nervous thinking that I would not be able to wake up and catch the cab which I booked a few days earlier. Weary, I was watching a late night movie, having a small bottle of Red Bull and on the computer to keep myself awake. I would lie in the bed or in the worst case scenario, I had an alarm clock set to 5 am to help out. 

I am likely to go incommunicado in the next 12 hours or so thus, this is me until here now, on a wireless network. If I am still able to keep myself awake after reaching Sydney, I hope to find time to update. 

Hishamuddin Rais: AA UU AA UU

Continuation over part 1 by Hisham Rais titled: Negara Ciplak.

You be the judge.

Malaysia Day

This is the first time ever in 47 years that Malaysia gets to celebrate its own day - in the proper fashion.

A few hours ago, I went to collect a package that I ordered from a shop near home. As I was waiting for the package, a girl asked the shopkeeper, what is Malaysia Day? And the assistant said, "1 Malaysia". The girl went to ask another shopkeeper next door to get the answer. No one was able to answer exactly.

That's the problem. People in the Peninsular can hardly know what is Malaysia Day, except those in Sabah and Sarawak. In fact, it is the day where these two states joined the peninsular to form Malaysia. If you remember history, the original date was supposedly to be on 31 August 1963 but was delayed pending ratification by the United Nations before its declaration today.

In fact it just come too late to have Malaysia Day declared as a national holiday. If you ask this question during Madey's time, he'd say there's too many public holidays already in the annual calendar!

Here's one problem. In the past 47 years, Sabah and Sarawak are just starting to realize that Federal government is forgetting about honoring the 20 point agreement that was made prior to the joining of the federation. And where has both states grown from 1963 onwards? Not much really. Poverty level in both states are still in poor. Sarawak, despite having vast natural resources, remains poor because those were robbed by the wealthy barons including the state's first family. Sarcastically, I'd say that it's nice to see an anti-Taib or Taib Must Go campaign to tell the CM that 30 years plus is enough and the plundering has gone to the peak point already.

The one common myth that we're told is that the struggle to form Malaysia is done without bloodshed. That is not true. In fact, there are some left-wing parties, even including KMM, AWAS, API that started the struggle of forming Malaysia way earlier than United Malays National Organisation. In fact "Merdeka" slogan was first uttered by KMM (notable figure was Ibrahim Yaacob) Read more here.

Malaysia is already 47 years in formation, almost half of my age. And to commemorate this, read the join statement here.

Spat and Failure As From History

The heat between UMNO and Perkasa still goes on with both sides squabbling one another.

Once, in the 18th century, the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II (the Musical King) tried to implement various policies for the advancement of mankind. His philosophy was largely influenced by Enlightenment but he was ultimately failed by the subjects whom rejected most of his policies. In this context of history, it can be applied to Najib himself. Again, NEM, 1Malaysia and his various projects will never hit at the top because of pressure from the other face of UMNO: Perkasa and some of the NGOs. As the result, he has to roll back some of the things that are supposed to be implemented.

It is very interesting to note that UMNO and Perkasa will end up getting whacked one another with the more and more shouting matches going on and on. But in reality, they need one another for their own survival, so says Azmi Sharom:

“Umno needs Perkasa,” he said. “It is uprooted from the ground which makes it difficult to dismiss the fact that Perkasa is filling the void it has left. From this point of view, Ibrahim is absolutely spot on.

In the case of Mahathir, despite having a blog and a good amount of visitors, he still needs Perkasa which serves as a platform for him to speak out his stuff. Obviously, he can't do that in UMNO himself as previously when he criticized Pak Lah, he did not get to represent the Kubang Pas. If Mahathir tries to speak out as UMNO member, other people including those in the AJK level (e.g, Nazri) will whack him up and down. But sometimes you have to watch out of Mahathir particularly to the point where he might no longer need Perkasa.

It seems that Mahathir right now is trying to do the same thing he did with Pak Lah, that is to plan and take off Najib. Sure, Najib is split into doing the right way or keeping Mahathir's legacy of work and style intact after all the 22 years of work as PM. 

Being the head of BN is no easy job having to juggle with 22 other component parties. And there's the pain of treading the fine line of commuting for other people vs Ketuanan Melayu thing. If there's one thing that I can say about this that the surface of Perkasa is showing a side of people that merely wants fish but does not know how to fish.

Having read the first part of Malaysian Maverick book, it shows a prime example of a Malay man who unlike a typical normal heartland person who works very hard to achieve to the top of the society. There are certain Malay Malaysian icons that goes under the same category defined above. In turn, Mahathir tries to get his fellow Malays to emulate the model of a successful hardworking man but the attitudes including complacency and inability to pick up from what was taught would eventually be the greatest failure for him (evident in his poem, "Melayu Mudah Lupa").

Perkasa and those who would vouch for Ketuanan Melayu are akin to people who were taught to fish once but simply are not able to fish out themselves to feed themselves. That is why whenever people want to engage in healthy discussions, there are those who would wave cliche card (including warning of never questioning rights, threats of this and etc..) . It's more or less the expectation of spoon feeding to the end of time.

It's the history that mirrors what is happening. Same pattern of spat and failure but at a different time setting.

Dropping The Self-Dignity = Kow Tow

This is the classic case of kow tow: Pornstar Chua said that he has never heard of any leaders being racist.

On to Muhyiddin. In the days of him being the MB, from what I understand via history, Chua used to be his bagman back in Johor. Right now, in the spat between Perkasa and UMNO, we have notice the characters like Najib, KJ, Kunan, Nazri and a few people who have been opening their mouths in their opinions against Perkasa vs those from there like Ibrahim Ali and Mahathir himself.

A few hours ago, I read the second half of the FMT interview with Ong Tee Keat, since his post-MCA president fallout there. What Tee Keat foresaw should he get bumped out is that instead of MCA bouncing back, MCA ends up digging the grave deeper and deeper into the ground. And whatever happens after Ong left the presidency hit true like PKFZ swept under the carpet. There was a joke on OTK, with a friend calling him Superman Grounded in conjunction with the current Superman story called Grounded.

I also used to meet one of my friends. He was in fact a close neighbor of Chua during the Batu Pahat days and he told me of the many things that allude to such personality that Chua embodies. Despite decent qualifications and rank including the holding of a ministerial post previously, what Chua did recently is enough to spell that people aren't keen to look at MCA anymore because of what they doing. I too share the opinion of some people who see MCA in newspapers everyday as something that people are getting fed up off.

I mean, for Chua to say that he has never heard of any of UMNO leaders being racist is somewhat something absolutely wrong and stupid. Recently, Mahathir made a confession that if there are no bumi quotas in public institutions of higher learning, the number of Malays with degrees will be much lower. And this was against the common principle of giving opportunity by merit. First thing that came across my mind of having Chua said such thing is one word: "useless". 

MCA is still in the muck. There is still no race relations yet. An act would do good. There are bigots and people out there who call non-Malays as immigrants. Why not Chua go and whack this Ridhuan Tee fellow? Why not show everyone that MCA also has the par footing / strength as UMNO? Why not Chua show people that MCA should be a class A party whereas right now, they are being branded by UMNO as class B?

Read this part from Kuan Yew:

“Malaysians saw it as a Malay country, all others are lodgers, “orang tumpangan”, and they the Bumiputras, sons of the soil, run the show. So the Sultans, the Chief Justice and judges, generals, police commissioner, the whole hierarchy is Malay," Kuan Yew had said in an interview earlier this month..

"All the big contracts for Malays. Malay is the language of the schools although it does not get them into modern knowledge. So the Chinese build and find their own independent schools to teach Chinese, the Tamils create their own Tamil schools, which do not get them jobs. It’s a most unhappy situation."

Isn't this Ketuanan Melayu in front of our own eyes? And Chua Soi Lek chooses to defend it? It's puke!

Looks like we all have to invent another name for the pornstar.

Hari Raya Eid Murbarak

Could have been done earlier but the Internet line here was down.

Wishing my Muslim friends, colleagues and fellow readers of this blog a brand new Eid Murbarak and may God that we, the humankind share in common bless us all.

Pete: We're Under Severe Attack

Free Malaysia Today and Malaysia Today including Anwar Ibrahim's blog was constantly blocked by DDOS (Distribute Denial of Service attacks) - a technical jargon where anonymous, huge amount of requests go into the website as to block and slowdown traffic coming from other places. In other words, we simplified this as hogging.

"We are under severe attack," Raja Petra said in an email from London, where he now lives. "We've been down for the last 12 hours and a day before that for 24 hours. Looks like someone is spending a lot of money to keep us off the air." The website's technology personnel restored access, only to have it disappear again.

The definite association to why the site is being attacked by this DOS is that Malaysia Today published two articles, one that links to United Malays National Organisation in a deal brokered to cover up the wrong doings of former MAS chairman Tajudin Ramli, and another in which a tycoon involved for the Gemas / Johor Bahru that said that of the RM 500 million cost of that was balked by the Chinese government, 40 percent goes to Najib / Rosmah (Read the rest here at Asia Sentinel)

Out of here, I can see that it is a mischief that is caused by a cell within UMNO. Remember the cybertroopers division thing that Pete used to talk? Whatever happens above shows one thing that UMNO is pinned in the butt or if I am to see from Pete's point of view - spot on. From there, all the delusions of losing power and so forth began to emerge from the demented and warped mind of the mob group called UMNO. 

And consider this: suppose if I am someone that absolutely hates Raja Petra Kamaruddin and could not touch him physically, the next thing I would do is to get someone to spoil his thing, in other words I would pay someone to spoil the website like doing this DDOS attack thing. Let's say that I don't even know about technical computing, I would pay someone to do the dirty work. Makes my hands clean...and a gives a good excuse to say that I didn't do it. 

Won't that makes sense in this situation?

Although the DDOS has impacted a lot of people visiting Malaysia Today, this doesn't stop RPK from releasing an article via an anonymous blog called: "Why is BN buying pistol, grenades from underground sources"

Having read that, I certainly believe that it is similar to the conspiracy stories that I've read. Conspirators, some in and out, attempt to stop the rightful from becoming the government by throwing everything, including instigating a.l.a. Black Ops to make the one doing it. Consider as if framing the CCID chief or some people with false charges as to cover up but in the bigger scale.

My hypothesis is simple: it takes one national emergency to do the master plan. It is a repeat of 1969. They instigate it, the other side falls for it by retaliation and finally it gives an excuse to suspend the Constitution. Najib's father was the head of the National Security Council so it is a familiarity and ease to slip into the shoes that is the NSA. 

That's right..where's Kit Siang, Anwar and the gang when this problem comes out? Anyone there?

Hisham Rais: Bonsai

The above Malaysiakini video is from the KLCAH talk featuring Hisham Rais yesterday that refers to this article: "UMNO has shrunk the Malay mind"

See What Happens If You Don't Read!

If there's one thing I can see why these people particularly those from the Malay NGOs would criticize, it's plainly because of one simple thing: they don't even read that much. Or they tend to misunderstand or could not distinguish the difference between one word and another.

In Free Malaysia Today, Syed Husin Ali stated in defense of Nurul Izzah that UMNO leaders are already narrow-minded despite promoting the 1Malaysia concept. Of course, the key statement by Syed Husin is in regards to the affirmation that in the Constituition, there is no such thing as "special rights", but instead "special position". When you compare between rights and position, there is a significant meaning between the two words. Rights means "a claim to a title, by means", while position means "situation / condition". In other words, if you re-read the line of Article 153 in two languages, you will notice that it is really spells out as "special position" meaning, condition - not entitlement.

It is very simple to see the difference by going to an online dictionary site and see the meaning of the two words.

Since this is in reference to the Federal Constitution, I too concur with the Bar council that it is silly for this Malay NGO to 1 Malaysia Youth Graduands Club to say that the campaign of knowing the Federal Constitution is seditious. Look, the campaign has been ratified by certain people including the Parliament Speaker, a Federal Court Judge and a minister. From what I've read after the Bar Council responded to the police report saying it is baseless, this guy, Ezaruddin Abdul Rahman is a perfect person that doesn't read a book to get the facts, mostly actions are from heresays and false facts.

Unfortunately, when I came to know that why people act like those two moreons above, I came to attribute such examples to what Hisham Rais was talking about. Yesterday, at the KLCAH, Malaysiakini and a few other online dailies reported of Hisham saying: the Malay mind has been "bonsified" (shrunk and distorted, like a bonsai plant) by Umno's political agenda in order to perpetuate the culture of fear against non-Malays. Sadly, I must concur with Hisham's opinion because there are still many of us who have no clue of what is actually happening and still kept in the blue by inaccurate and spinning reporting by pro-mob dailies.

Quote from Malaysiakini:

"This process that 'bonsifies', nullifies and stupefies (Malays) goes back to the British time. (Malays) are led by lazy leaders and lazy thinkers," Hishamuddin (middle in photo) said at the 'Malays are muted too!' forum at the KL and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall last night.

The controversial activist noted that Malays have been indoctrinated to fear new ideas and 'ghosts' of Chinese supremacy, to the point that the Malay public believe that the 'ghosts' are real threats to their existence.

Taking the example of bomoh or witchdoctors, Hishamuddin claimed that Umno employs the same tactics to convince the Malays that they are constantly battling against hantu (ghosts).

"In Malaysia it is very simple. The hantu for the Malays are the Chinese. The Malays are made to believe that there are all sorts of hantu, to encourage the public to be thankful for Umno (to save them).

"It's just like (the tactics of) the bomoh in the kampung, where kampung folk will be told that there are all sorts of hantu to deal with... Umno uses the same modus operandi," he said.

Playing up fears

Hishamuddin claimed that just like the colonial British in Malaya, Umno realises that a liberated Malay mind is a threat to their existence, hence the ruling party's efforts to stop the liberalisation of the Malay mindset.

He alleged that Umno would never agree to free the Malay mind as it is all about maintaining the ruling party's power and control over Malaysia's wealth.

In order to get out of the "shrunk and distort" syndrome, the act on hearsays has to be toned down and more reading must be encouraged. In addition to that, there is a need to do the lab-work style of investigating factual elements. Until the syndrome is reduced significantly, don't expect Malaysia to reach vision 2020, NEM to achieve and whatever things that the leaders come out would eventually become mere lip-service and things failed because of the syndrome.

DO you also see that if you do not read, this is what is happening?

There must be some drastic action by ourselves that at times we cannot depend on others.

Say Sorry Day

Today marks the Say Sorry Day where everyone forgives one another and move on.

Yesterday there was an event to commemorate that in form of art.

Music, recitals and comedy skits you name it.

Here are some pics from yesterday's show:

Hisham Rais's comedy skit

Amir Muhammad

The Brand New Malaysian Classic Comedy Uncensored!

So it's proven that our education system is creating so many zombies and people who can't even think beyond the box. Even with Muhyiddin as the minister, it still doesn't do much to change the product mould of people out from our education system.

And here's a perfect case of somebody who gets mocked by everyone. The MACC lawyer himself.

The series of videos can be a double-edge sword..a classic Malaysian comedy uncensored or a subject of ridicule in the eyes of the world. This time, Hishamuddin Hussein is not able to say bad mouth to the country, because MACC has already been shooting their own feet over this.

And this is C-Span video style dude! And it should be a online blockbuster!

One phrase: KAH KAH KAH KAH KAH KAH KAH KAH KAH KAH KAH!

More from here (part 1 is below, you can see the rest at youtube):

If We Don't Have Freer Media, Can We Trust MSM?

KUALA LUMPUR: The public should trust the mainstream media as it is fact-based, compared to the opinion-based alternative media, said Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

The Prime Minister said some of the articles published on the alternative media, such as websites and blogs, were "half truths and inaccurate".

"The mainstream media has one strength which cannot be found in the alternative media, and that is the mainstream media can be considered fact-based.

"If we read the mainstream media, we intuitively regard it as an authoritative report, where its facts cannot be questioned," he said at a breaking of fast ceremony at the New Straits Times Press headquarters here Thursday.

"There must be a discerning public who can see the strength of the mainstream media," he added. - The Star

By law, if you are to print a daily newspaper, you have to acquire a permit under the PPPA. Look at Nurul Izzah, see how she has to submit her application to get the annual printing permit and wait until the application is passed. Chances are that while Barisan Nasional remains in power, the act is unlikely to be abolished, lest it faces the wrath of Madey himself.

Ask ourselves whether whatever Najib says that MSM tells the truth, despite being authoritative and facts that cannot be questioned.

Wrong. Utusan, for example has been playing and fanning racial sentiment with its distorted inaccurate.

And what happens if you try to put the truth out to the rest of the world press?

No prize for guessing: editors get persecuted, like today where the editors getting persecuted by the newspaper owned by Taib Mahmud's family. Or perhaps look at how Nurul Izzah was blindly accused  and branded by hardcore nationalists and UMNO men like Hishamuddin and Zahid Hamidi as traitors and bad-mouthing Malaysia.

If the MSM here is not free, where else can people reveal the truth? No brain..this mob group!

The part where the ruling regime screaming of bad-mouth is proving that the truth really hurts and in fact what they said as lies is actually truth. That is their achilles heel.

And for that reason, as to appease the regime, is why people, particularly those in the rural land are still kept in the blue out of the real thing. I had a friend who tried asking her fellow nurses about the Teoh Beng Hock case, and nobody except her knows about the TBH case.

Is this the stupidity project that goes around Malaysians?

And you're saying that the MSM is trustworthy, Jibby?

That's pretty ridiculous, Mat Mongol!

How Many More People Must They Be Conned and Lied To?

Picture work of vicious serial liars - Guan Eng

According to Malaysiakini, PAS has filed a police report against an apparent UMNO cybertrooper called "PAS Beruk" over a doctored picture that featured Guan Eng. However, it is not real. The real picture was actually Nizar participating in the ceremony.

Which leads to one conclusion: How many more Malays must UMNO cheat and lie?

Reeducating Children and Youths Via New Routine

I find what Ibrahim "Katak" Ali said about things that cannot be debated as somewhat reminded me of how teachers would teach kids in school right now, leaning more to the shut up and listen routine. The shut up and listen routine is somewhat making children somewhat stupid, incapable of creativity, improvisation, making choices of their own. If they are to ask something to the teacher of something that attracts their curiosity or something that do not understand, whatever they ask are immediately shot down.

AUKU / UUCA act is the "shut up and listen" law that makes Malaysian students - becoming more or less incapable of thinking of themselves - something that should not happen in the modern society that requires working people to have a proper amount of creativity, thinking and soft skills.

By refusing to debate against Nurul Izzah, Katak Ali has stated indirectly of still adopting the shut up and listen mentality in the teaching perspective. Or in an another way, we put it like shoving something that is questionable, disputable into a person's mind disregarding of the consequences. Do you have the slightest idea that by saying that it means you are not showing fairness to the rest?

For instance, like we study Malaysian history (say in Form 3 or in Form 5), we came to realize that whatever that is written in the history text books only shows one side of the Malaysian history (pre-independence period). There are indeed missing pieces of information that forms part of the complete picture of Merdeka.

Need to say more? You just watch this video by Hishamuddin Rais and you judge for yourself.

Then Why Do You Start It First, Siti?

Namewee made a video that clearly shows hate against racism.

However, the video was pulled out due to the fuss made by Puteri UMNO.Chief Rosnah Rashid Shirlin saying that the video can cause tensions. Debunking the common myth, "can cause tensions" phrase is a cliche and a excuse of making noises and grumble.

As the result, Ayah Dino, Rais Yatim warned of action for slur videos.

Namewee made a statement in his blog making it clear on the video.

Of course, it is clear that Rosnah didn't see the entire video and understand it. She just simply says it based on hearsays and not from the real hard source information. Wee has called out for a debate with Rosnah. Chances are Rosnah will say no. Meaning no testicles to answer it or got red-faced.

On the other hand, the real fault lies on that principal in Kulai. Why did she started it?

Against The Prophet's Tenet

Who would start the ruckus of Serdang MP Teo Nie Ching going to mosque as a sacrilege? The extreme-UMNO mouthpiece Utusan, some of its members and of course people from Perkasa. United Malays National Organisation is seeing themselves staring at the death's door that they had to pull all the stops to call for Malay unity. The actual answer is that it is just a ploy to regain what was lost due to punishment in the last GE.

Teo already testified and stated clearly that she was decently dressed. She was invited by mosque committee. The mosque committee sought her assistance in the capacity of the MP. She waited until being called in to invited the go say a few words. And of course according to the Prophet, there is no such thing as barring non-Muslims into mosques / suraus. That is of course, under the condition that no sacrilege is committed in the place of worship. This has been ratified by top Islamic scholars, including Dr. Mohd Asri, Nik Aziz, and even the Selangor state mufti himself.

Teo said: “Because I was invited to say a few words, I explained a little about the state’s education programme that has benefited the Selangor residents. I regret that this matter has created unrest among Muslims and for being blown out of proportion by certain people for political reasons."

This means to one cause: His Highness was wrongly advised by MAIS. Or there are some radical minded people who have no idea of such thing allowed in Islamic teachings reported of an infidel coming in to make a ruckus or so..which causes the issue to blown out of proportion.

When Katak Ali says that non-Muslims should be banned from mosques and suraus, do you notice that he goes and violates the Prophet's creed? A creed that was established close to 1500 years ago. Does Katak Ali say that all non-Muslims are infidels? (kafir). If there are people who say that fellow humans that non-Muslim cannot go in, then there is something wrong: you only listen to what a person preaches but you never read the book.

If you call yourself a person pious to God but do not read and understand the holy books, but merely listening to what the preacher says, do you think that you are right by what the man says or checking back with books? That's the problem with the Malaysian society. Not many read, but most are hearsays!

It is her job as an MP to provide help and address grouses of her constituency. It is the people of Serdang that put her into reprsenting Serdang in Parliament. If Perkasa, BN and UMNO complaints about her, then what is the purpose of an MP which is unable to do her job if they keep blocking her here and there? Are you saying that it is meant to provoke people's anger over her instead of the instigators?

Champions League Draw

Currently the group draw for this seasons' European Champions League:


Group of Death: Real Madrid with Ajax, Milan and Auxerre.
Last year's runners-up Bayern Munich has an easier draw with Roma, Basel and CFR Cluj.
Tottenham, one of the three English teams will face champions Inter Milan, Werder Bremen and FC Twente.

(are you up to that, Haris?)

while Man Utd has an easier draw with Valencia, Rangers and Bursapor.

2009 winners Barcelona will face Rubin Kazan again with Greece's Panathinaikos and Copenhagen.

Rest of Draw:

Chelsea, MSK Zallina, Marseille, Spartak Moscow
Arsenal, Braga, Partizan Belgrade, Shakhtar Donentsk
Lyon, Schalke, Benfica, Hapoel Tel Aviv

NKRA = National Key Result Area = Najib Kerja Rosmah Arah

Isn't it obvious that you must listen to Bik Mama?

Takut. Kena dengar cakap Bik...

(Reuters) Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak says he has embarked on a series of radical economic reforms. In reality it feels as if he has unleashed a barrage of incomprehensible acronyms on the unsuspecting public of this Southeast Asian nation.

The charge for economic reform is being led by the snappily named PEMANDU. As well as being the Malay word for “driver” it stands for the government’s Performance Management and Delivery Unit.

PEMANDU is in charge of formulating and implementing NKRAs (National Key Result Areas), MKRAs (Ministerial Key Result Areas) and getting “Big Results Fast”, according to its website, although it singularly failed to win political backing for a radical revamp of Malaysia’s costly subsidy regime. 

It is also helping to formulate the 10th Malaysia Plan, 10MP for those in the know, a communist-era sounding 5-year plan that aims to help lift this middle income country to developed nation status by 2020.

PEMANDU is part of the GTP, the Government Transformation Programme, which also involves the SITF (Special Implementation Task Force). Throw in the NKEAs (National Key Economic Areas), another thinktank known as the EPU (Economic Planning Unit) and you haven’t reached the end of the alphabet spaghetti dreamed up by Malaysia’s civil servants…. There’s still the ETP. the NEP (sometimes good, sometimes bad) and the NEM (New Economic Model).  

To be fair to Malaysia, it is not the only country in the world that is wallowing in economic acronyms, the U.S. gave the world TARP, a $700 billion bank bailout programme, and the even more mind-numbing ABCP MMMFLF   (don’t ask), but it is fair to ask what Malaysians have got from all of this.

While it is true that Malaysia has had a “good” global downturn with economic growth of 10.1 percent in the first quarter of 2010 and 8.9 percent in the second quarter, it is also true that Najib hasn’t quite managed to transform Malaysia in the way he promised.

Najib told a conference run by investment bank Credit Suisse earlier this year that he “must execute or be executed”. He has also spoken of Malaysia’s economy being a “burning platform” based on low skill and low cost labour that is increasingly losing out to the likes of China, Indonesia and Vietnam in the race for investment and growth.

For all the rhetoric and the welcome mat being laid out for foreign banks and insurers by Najib, Malaysia still looks sickly compared with its peers.

Private investment is 12 percent of gross domestic product compared with 30 percent prior to the Asian crisis and is among the lowest in Asia, according to the World Bank. Productivity growth has halved to 3 percent since the 1998 Asian crisis and the World Bank says Malaysian firms innovate less than those in Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam.

Foreign direct investment has fallen off a cliff since the glory days of the early 1990s when Malaysia accounted for 39.8 percent of Southeast Asia’s total, in part reflecting Malaysian companies investing overseas in faster growing economies like Indonesia. In 2009, according to UN data, Malaysia accounted for just 3.8 percent of the region’s total.

Najib’s reform momentum appears to be stalled, with liberalisation being attacked by conservative Malay groups who fear their special economic, social and political privileges are under threat.

Malaysians and the global investment community are now waiting for another stir of the acronym soup when the final details of the NEM and 10MP are unveiled in September as well as a public consultation run by PEMANDU.

Worryingly for the prime minister and his reform drive, local wags have started to mock his acronyms, dubbing NKRA “Najib Kerja, Rosmah Arah” (Najib works, Rosmah directs) in a pointed reference to Najib’s highly visible wife Rosmah Mansor.