Malaysia's Foreign Policy (East Asia)

In the first part of the topic of Malaysia's foreign policy, I've covered the links with fellow South East Asia nations. Now, it's time to look at fellow nations further north-eastern from SEA.

Let's start up with the big one.

1) China

The relation with the big nation has started centuries ago, one of the notable occasions being the delegate from Ming dynasty visited Melaka to further strengthen the commercial trades.

However, the darker side of the history would be the involvement of communist during and after the World War II. Influenced by the movement in the China mainland, the original purpose of the Chinese communist was to oppose the Japanese military's control, and soon after the Japanese left, the communist tried to take over the country. That idea of course, didn't went well with the others.

The bitter conflict between the Chinese communist and local Malaysians had caused frictions between the Chinese villagers and other local residents. Even today, some of the elders still have bitter stories to share what happened back in those days. The conflict eventually ended with a peace treaty in the 80's.

On the bigger picture, (if I'm not mistaken) the 2nd Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Razak decided to change the approach by embracing China. This move was welcomed by the chairman Mao Tzedong of China. Malaysia is said to be one of the earlier nations to re-establish a formal political tie with the People's Republic of China (another similar name, the Republic of China is actually Taiwan).

Today, both nations maintain strong relationship, creating a valuable partnership across the region.

2) Japan

When it comes to this nation, it is a bittersweet issue, due to the infamous past during the Japanese military rule over the country for 3 years and 8 months. Though it was just a rather short period of time, it was devastating nevertheless. The Japanese left Malaysia when they surrendered in the war.

Years later, Japan's rapid revitalization and modernization become the role model for other SEA nations to look upon in developing the nation. While Japan may have caused damage during the war, they did contributed and supported the development of the SEA nations. That could be the reason eventhough the nations had suffered during the war, but they chose to forgave the Japanese and moved on.
(Good read here explaining why China's general dislike towards Japan.)

Malaysia's 4th Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad's "Look East Policy" initiative of sending students to study in Japan & Korea also helped to cement a solid diplomatic relationship between the 2 nations. I for one, would say that I'm benefiting from this policy indirectly (as I wasn't sponsored by the government via the LEP).

It's not just Malaysia only, as Japan is also maintaining close ties with other SEA nations. I would say that Japan is much closer to the SEA nations than it's direct neighbours, ironically.

3) South Korea

Surprisingly, I don't really have in-depth knowledge the diplomatic relation between Malaysia and South Korea. But South Korea is making a huge impact in Malaysia in recent years, with the dominance of Samsung, LG & Hyundai lurching away the lucrative market shares of Japanese brands like Sony & Honda.

4) North Korea

OK, to mention this notorious North Korea nation here is rather odd perhaps, but Malaysia is one of the very few nations that has an official diplomatic tie with this misunderstood country.

One of my friend traveled to North Korea some time ago and was surprised to see this Proton Wira around. It seems that some of Malaysia's products has made into the country.

Photo credit: Wan KH

And I was being told that, it's rather easy for Malaysians to get into that country too.

On the next chapter, let's look into the Western nations, namely the UK, USA, Australia, and one country that Malaysian's passport are barred from entering.

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It's been almost 10 days since flight MH 370 went missing.
The current update says the plane may have headed to the west towards the Indian Ocean, and the communication was deliberately cut off. Further investigation and search operations are still underway....
Let's hope we'll have a brighter update when the next blogpost is published...

Malaysia's Foreign Policy (South East Asia)

Sombre & anxious are the words to describe the current atmosphere of Malaysia's public. The Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 went missing mysteriously between the east coast of Malaysia and southern Vietnam.

At this moment no official report of what exactly happened has been announced yet, while eventually it may not be a good news at all, given the current circumstances, there's still a slight hope for miracle.

Until the plane has been found, people can only speculate and guess.

Soon after the news broke out, neighbouring countries around the region has joined in for the search & rescue operation. Countries that may not see eye to eye with each others, are currently working together to figure out what had happened.

Malaysia is not alone in dealing this unexpected crisis.

From a different perspective of the incident, many nations are willing to help Malaysia in the times of trouble, could be credited to the good diplomatic relations Malaysia has maintained with other nations.

Here I'd like to focus on the closest nations surrounding Malaysia, starting of with the SEA region.

South East Asia

Malaysia plays a vital role in setting up the regional association of ASEAN back in the early days.

Geographically, Malaysia is located at the very center of SEA. That could explain why Malaysia is a popular flight transfer hub to other SEA nations (partially also thanks to AirAsia too).

Historically, Malaysia started formal diplomatic ties with most of the regional nations since hundreds of years ago. Though sometimes there may have been disagreements here and there, but generally speaking Malaysia is on friendly terms with the other nations. I would describe it like siblings, whom may argue from time to time, but nevertheless stand together at times of trouble.

Among the SEA nations, Malaysia is known for it's relatively stable politics & social, enjoying a pretty good economic growth, and the mediator for troubles around the region. Overall, Malaysia is a respective figure in the region.

However, things weren't that stable in the earlier days. Just to recap a few historical events of Malaysia with neighbourhood nations in the past century....

1) Singapore

The island nation at the southern tip of Malaysia was originally part of Malaya when we gained independence from the British in 1957. Singapore however, declared their own independence in 1965 due to certain circumstances. It was a mutual consent, and not a drop of blood was wasted. It was a peaceful transaction.

2) Indonesia 

In our school's history lesson, we learn that one of the founder of Malaysia, Parameswara, was originally a prince of an Indonesian empire from Sumatra.

Indonesia & Malaysia both shares similar culture and language, and being a larger nation, Indonesia exerts a great influence on Malaysia's affairs in the earlier days.

One of the notable clashes in the modern times would be the Confrontation of the formation of Malaysia in the 60's. Together with the Philippines, Indonesia strongly opposed the formation of Malaysia, claiming that part of Malaysia is rightfully Indonesia's. They even sent elite commando troops into Malaysia in order to sabotage the formation. Eventually, the nations agreed on the terms and peace was restored.

3) Philippines

As mentioned in the Indonesia's side, the Philippines was involved with the confrontation, but their claims are directed at East Malaysia, specifically the state of Sabah. Likewise, eventually it went on smoothly, but the shadow of the past continued to haunt Malaysia even in present days.

The southern part of the Philippines are consist of thousands of archipelago islands, which house the radical movements that continuing to claim that the Sabah is the land of the now-defunct Sulu sultanate.

Those radical groups carried out skirmish attacks on Sabah from time to time, namely the Sipadan island kidnap case and the most recent Lahad Datu assault last year. These however, do not represent the stance of the government in Manila, as the Pinoy government too, have trouble trying to deal with the radical groups.

4) Thailand

Perhaps the younger generation of Malaysians may not know that, the northern states of Perlis and Kedah were once under Thailand's control during the World War II. It was given as a gratitude for assisting the Japanese army during the war. After the war, the states are returned to Malaysia.

In recent days, Malaysia has been helping the Siamese to broker deal between the separatist group in southern Thailand and the Bangkok government.

5) Brunei

Similar to Singapore's case, Brunei was once part of Malaysia during the formation of the nation. However, there were strong protest lead by the Bruneian to force the then-Sultan of Brunei to reconsider and eventually declined the offer of joining Malaysia.

Today, Brunei still maintain a close relationship with Malaysia, as the Brunei's ruling royal family is closely linked to the various Sultan's families.

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Here I've covered almost half of the SEA nations around us. There are of course, other nations as well like Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar etc. However, as I don't have enough resources to write about it I'll just leave it here.

In Japan I'm getting involved with ASEAN Youth Network in Japan too. From this involvement I noticed that SEAsians can work pretty good together and the committee members are rather close to each others. It seems that we just "click" into each others naturally.

If you would like to add a word or two, feel free to comment.
Next time, I'd like to talk about Malaysia's relations with the East Asia nations...

Thoughts on Malaysia's 13th General Election

Well, looks like a lot of Malaysians were disappointed by the election's results.
BN continues to rule for another 5 years.
Except that this time, the damage done is albeit slightly more severe than the previous in 2008.

For the sake of future reference purpose, a few stats about the 2013 general election's results.

Total parliament seats: 222
Barisan Nasional: 133 (60%)
Pakatan Rakyat: 89 (40%)

Another glorious defeat for the opposition, Pakatan Rakyat.

The opposition has clearly worked hard trying to persuade a few more votes to their sides, and they did managed to gain more votes than the 2008 edition, but still not enough to take over the federal government from the half-century old Barisan Nasional.

I've seen people made their dissatisfaction more vocal and obvious since then, partially thanks to the exponential leap in the mobile & Internet access.

To give a better perpectives, back then in 2008 the 1st generation iPhone had barely landed in Malaysia, and Android meant humanoid robot instead of the Google mobile OS. Nokia & Sony Eriksson were the big brands in mobile, and Black Berry had just started to lurk into the local Malaysia market.

In 2008's social networks, Facebook were cluttered with random quiz apps and were overwhelmed by the then popular Friendster. People would just use it for simple status updates and occasionally a pic or two, haven't crossed their mind that eventually it will be used as a tool to spread the 'fire'.
Twitter on the other hand, still remain rather quiet then, not as active as they are today.

Fast-forward 5 years later, today most people got their info through mobile & social networks. Younger generations especially, prefer to digest the news from the Internet rather than spoon-fed by the state-controlled medias.

News shown on the TV and Internet contrasted greatly in terms of the transparency and fairness. Normally on the newspaper I can only read news lauding the ruling party and bashes the opposition. And we rarely seen any reports praising the opposition either.

The clear disadvantage placed upon the opposition did not stop them from wooing the people via the alternative methods, namely the Internet and the classic way of public speeches. Their efforts ought to be recognized in my opinion.

Switching the focus on the ruling party, I for one, already anticipated dramas to be unfolded when the general election is being announced in April.

The prologue of the drama started with one of the opposition party, DAP suddenly received an order saying that they are not allowed to use their party's logo (a rocket) to contest in the election.

Outraged by this action, the other 2 parties of Pakatan Rakyat, PAS & PKR agreed to let DAP contest the election under their logos.

When this was announced, cyber troopers of the opposition party had a quick play with creativity to create mascots for the opposition parties, the hornbill bird is named "Ubah", which means 'change' in Malay.

The original Ubah bird, mascot of DAP.

The PAS version of Ubah bird.

The PKR version of Ubah bird.

Sooner or later lots of people on Facebook changed their profile pics to these mascots. I think these images appeal to the younger generation for it's fresh and original approach. 

Then, just a week before the election there were rumours spreading saying that a bunch of foreign immigrants will be ferried in to the country to vote as phantom voters using the state-issued identity card. The rumours were strongly supported by photo evidences of the immigrants arriving at the airport and the fake ID cards being issued to them.

Of course, the only party with such resources and authority would be the current governing party. 

This naturally cause another wave of outrage among the citizens, as the citizenship of Malaysia is being giving out too easily and abusively for the sake of winning the election.

To rub salt on the wound, police and state personnel is seen escorting the immigrants, all the way into the voting station on the morning of the voting day, which is 5th of May.

Generally, Malaysians are passionate and sometimes too emotional that things can get ugly when the emotions run high. There were reports of people clashing with the immigrants to prevent them entering the polling station to vote, but thankfully no casualties recorded.

And when the voting concluded on 5pm local time, it's time to make the counts.

During the counting progress, I read from my friends lamenting that the TV shows result way slower than the Internet, and it only highlights the seats that BN had won. But on the other side on the Internet, people are raving for the seats that PR had won. 

However, one of the most mysterious event of the day would be the sudden blackout happened at the vote-counting station. By that time the opposition candidate is leading, but when the electricity is back online, suddenly there are a few extra boxes of votes waiting to be counted. Eventually the BN candidate won by slight margin.

So much dramas happened, and I got the feeling that this isn't over yet. But I'd like to suggest the strategist of BN to seriously considering applying for the scenario writer job in the Hollywood!

I remember back in the 2008's general election there were some "tricks" happening as well, so this time I'm not totally surprised by the anomalies, just wondering what kind of tricks hidden in their sleeves.

There must be reasons why, for a party who'd been governing the nation for 50 years+, suddenly suffer from a stiff competition from the opposition. Clearly, something must have gone wrong to caused such big changes. It's like, if you haven't done anything wrong or guilty, why be afraid of it? 

This time I didn't register for vote. Not that I'm not patriotic, but knowing my circumstances of being overseas, although I do have the option for postal vote, but I chose to gave up this time as I prefer to be present at the polling station to vote with fellow folks. Another reason being to prevent the manipulation of postal vote, which we've heard so much about it since previous general elections.

Luckily, the result for my constitution went according to my wish.

People used to vote based on the individual candidate's performance or influence, but now many voted for the party regardless of the candidates, so that's why some cases of 1st-time candidate managed to defeat veteran candidates happened during the election.  

Personally I'm on neutral stance, although ironically from the general tone of this post suggested that I'm inclined towards the leftist. 

To be fair to BN, they did contributed greatly towards the development of the nation for the past few decades, especially during Tun Mahathir's reign. Many things that people enjoyed in downtown Kuala Lumpur today, is directly or indirectly involved by Mahathir. 

But ever since he stepped down as Prime Minister 10 years ago, things went downhill. The improvements over the nation's capital still stuck in 90's level. We see seldom improvements over the 2000's and that could be one of the reasons why people are getting frustrated with the government.

And the skyrocketing crime rate doesn't help to ease the people either. One can find lots of different types of crimes being committed in the capital itself on the newspapers everyday, with petty crimes unreported at all due to how common it happened. I remain extra vigilance when wondering in downtown KL when I'm back there for holidays, as you'll never know if someone with ill agenda is targeting you anywhere, anytime.

Ideally, I'd like to see a 50-50 government instead of the current 60-40. 

Ideally, both governing and opposition parties work up together for the sake of building up the nation, instead of focusing their time and energy abusing each others. 

And last but not least, cut off the dramas and bullocks which has been the same old tactics for the past years, that people are already getting bored of it already.

Now what we can do is hope that the next young generation to vote on the next general election due in 2018. And hopefully some of the old veterans has quit before they got the chance to wreck another havoc again. 

Have faith in the younger generations to wipe off the ugly stains left by the older generation.

People VS Authority

Valentine's Day VS Malaysia Politics

If you're a fellow Malaysian, I believe that you should've heard of the recent media reports on certain party condemning the celebration of Valentine's Day which eventually made it to BBC News' Top 10 list. How "proud" we Malaysians can be, once again making the headlines on the international scene.
[link]

Can't help but find it not amusing the fact that they made such remarks without really going through the details about the celebration. The name does sound like a figure from another believe, but ultimately, modern times celebration of Valentine's day is indeed based on a religion, that is MONEY.

Isn't it obvious that Valentine's day celebration is carried out as a commercial gimmick to encourage people to spend money and time on their love ones? Inevitably, so-called inducing vice activities might occur at some places, as people getting hanky panky but I don't see the point condemning the practise on that particular day whereas it can be carried out anytime 365 days a year.

Lame attempt trying to accuse the others for the responsibility that themselves should have bear, especially educating people to take responsibility of their own action instead of putting the blame on the others. Blaming others is one of the trait of Malaysian, apparently.

Well, that's just one of the many problems happening now in Malaysia.

Ignorance on religious knowledge and understanding, I find it disturbing. As much as most of us tried to live peacefully in this country, some people have too much of free time trying to figure out ways to disturb the harmony.

It seems that there're some backstage parties trying to manipulate things supporting the argument. I've no ill feeling but respect to each religions in the country, but certainly not towards those who didn't do their homework well to understand not just themselves but others as well.
People's interpretation on religion may not be accurate nor correct, all the time.

It's an open secret that most Malaysians are aware of, just that we aren't allowed to speak publicly about it without the threats and wraths from the trouble-maker parties. To make things worse, those parties seem to be immune from judiciary judgement, to the people's dismay.

Try to imagine being insulted and abused by others, but multiply the scale close to the entire nation. As what I believe, that those trouble-make parties consist of minority of the general population but unfortunately they're also the minorities that hold most power for the time being.

Well it's just a matter of time when the people speaks. We have already demonstrated it in year 2008 and judging from the current trend, future looks bleak for the "minorities". But of course, they won't bow to their defeat without causing further havocs in this beloved nation.

There are a lot of great talents and professionals among Malaysians, but many chose to "leave" Malaysia instead of "live" here in Malaysia. Why is this outflowing happening? Obviously, we aren't treated fairly and the grass look greener on the other side. Many countries utilized Malaysians to achieve success and further developing the country into a stronger nation. It's a real waste of talent.

I still love the country, but the country may think differently. Malaysia is a great country, minus the politics.
And yes, I'm fully aware that this entire post is political-motivated, just like some Malaysians love to turn petty matters into political issue, pouring oil on the spark.
I'm also aware that the content of this post may share similarities with other Malaysians out there. Maybe there's no sense of "freshness" but the volume of the point speaks for itself.

I do have to admit that the stereotype and racism issue in Malaysia has deeply spread it's root inside the Malaysian society and surely it ain't easy task to de-root it.

There're still some stories to be written but to conclude things for now, the ending of this post would be written in Malay....


Untuk negara Malaysia menjadi sebuah negara yang maju dan disanjungi dunia, bukan saja usaha satu parti, tetapi usaha semua rakyat Malaysia untuk meraikan, membanggakan negara yang tersayang.
Persefahaman antara rakyat Malaysia adalah sangat penting, bukanlah sekadar kutuk-mengutuk orang lain tanpa memberi pandangan atau tindakan yang sewajarnya.
Kalau kita boleh ketepikan prasangka dan masalah dahulu, bolehlah kita mencatat sejarah Malaysia yang gemilang, bersatu ke alaf yang baru.

Sebagai anak Malaysia, saya masih mementingkan Bahasa Malaysia setakat mampu berbahasa dan menulis, tidaklah saya melupakan bahasa ini walaupun sepanjang tahun berada di luar negeri.
Malaysia tetap negara yang saya sayangi. Inginku tinggal kat tanah air dengan orang yang tersayang, semacam kehendak kebanyakan warga Malaysia.

Crapped Up Politics

WARNING
This post is dosed with large quantity of gasoline and a spark of fire would set it all ablazed. Please proceed at your own risk.

So many things had happened lately.....

Obviously, the woman is the victim and yet why treat her as if she's the criminal? I think she had done nothing wrong and do not need to resign from her post, but it's up to her to decide whether she would continue the job or not.

She need support from the public, but unfortunately some would still love to stab at the victim, mainly because she's from the opposition and she's a lady. Those so called "pros" would better STFU for good, really, especially the white-haired guy, which do no contribution other than speak poos and craps. I find his statement very stupid and crazy. He would not lash out such comment on his on comrades, wouldn't he?

Perak is a nice state and I do not want to let those idiotic political antics to ruin the place and the people. They're all fighting for personal's greed and glory, how disgusting. Whether it's Z or K, it doesn't matter as I don't see them as good leaders.

You may say that I had a shallow view, but that's what we ordinary folks thought of at the current state of politics. Newspapers are publishing bull dungs and horse craps stories everyday to feed us commoners, and we do not know what's behind all these "bizzare" stories. Likewise, there're are those masterminds whom like to introduce a little anarchy into this country.

As one chapter is closing in, another new chapter would pop up, just like those serial comics going on and on for years. The different is, I would not look forward to check out "what's new" like those comics.

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Damn it! Why can't those morons just stop all these dramas and acts? You guys really fucked up this country's credibility! You sucked!

I dunno when the political stability would be achieved again, but surely not in such a short amount of time. That's one of the many reasons why talented young Malaysians are driven out from the country to go abroad, thanks to this fucked up state.

Oh by the way, what those politicians said DO NOT ACTUALLY REFLECT what we commoners THINK OF! There're those minorities who really served the commoners, but mostly the rest are those fame-seekers and limelight-stealer, bunch of sore losers that is.

Like many said, if this phenomena continues, the dooms day are getting closer. Do not waste all the efforts of those pioneers & ancestors to construct this country to be such a wonderful place it used to be.

Malaysia politics sucks big time. PERIOD.

Messed Up State

I've been busy lately, but that doesn't stop me from writing this blog post....

Yeah, seems like there're lots of frogs hopping around the country these days. From party to party, for the sake of personal gains and glories, they're shameless greedy person who betray the people's trust and hope whom faithfully voted for them in the previous General Election 2008.
Shame on you, so called people's representatives!

So now the monarch had asked the current state government to resign. As what a Malay tradition goes, the subject cannot defy the King's order as it is given out. The current government refuses to obey the order and insist that they're still ruling the state.

On the other hand, the other party played a trick that's frequently used by the state government's party to turn people from human to frogs, hop and hop. I'm disgusted by this doings. It's not just me, but many of other Malaysians do as well. We simply hate those childish political dramas being "aired" since 8th of March 2008. Bunch of pathetically failed actors and actresses doing a failure act.

For now I do not sided with any of the parties. I reckon that previously I might sound a little more leftist-biased, but now I realised that they're also another bunch of hungry wolves wanted to get a piece of the meat, power and money that is. 

I don't see any capable leaders to rule this country. Not Najib, not Anwar, and definitely not Abdullah. Even if the former PM Tun Mahathir ever wanted to restore his position as PM again (a wild guess), the situation may be much complicated for him to handle compared to that time before his handover to Abdullah. 

Although Tun M has a sharp and intelligent mind, but I doubt he can get the country sailed to the correct course in just a short period of time.

Again, I personally don't think Abdullah is a strong leader, maybe it's just that his luck is such obnoxious that many bad things happened during his tenure, while his predecessor Tun M survived many of the conflict and crisis for more than 20 years and still standing strong today.

This is the problem when the country is tussled between 2 dominant group of parties. For many years it has been a one-sided competition, but in recent years now there's another outspoken party that would go head-to-head with them to argue some points but mostly are irrelevant.

This country is a good country, but it's ruined by the chaotic political state. However there're still hopes for the country though, is just that some dummies keep holding the position but do nothing but destructions to the organisation, party and the country.

I know that many Malaysians living abroad wanted to come back to the homeland to settle down again after spending so many years overseas, as the best would still be the place of their origin. They still prefer to stay elsewhere though because of the uncertain political picture, shunning them from returning to the country. Waste of talents. Many Malaysians had succeeded in other regions but why hardly in Malaysia?

If we did not sort out this terrible mess soon, Vision 2020 would be just a dream, an imaginary country our previous leaders dream of. 

Malaysia, would no longer be as influential and relevant as it used to be in those early grlorious years..... 

Think about the future generations, say we want to make it a better place for them so that they know it's a better world for them.
God Bless Malaysia....

President Obama

The world is very happy with this new change.

Goodbye Republican.
Goodbye Mr white hair guy.
Goodbye Mr George "Warmonger" Bush.

Actually I didn't really take notice bout US election since it started months ago. Not really interest in it's politics.

From my casual observation, seems like McCain portrays himself as another war-hunger American, a good pal of Bush, of course. Boasted his experience in Vietnam War, yadda yadda.... But he didn't realised that the world is sick of WAR!

Barack Obama, what's so great about him? I didn't listen to his speech or follow his campaign, but from my point of view, he may be a suitable candidate to bridge the gap between the West and the East. You know, the West doesn't goes very well with the Middle-Eastern, that's why everyday there'll be terrorist bombing here and there.

Obama had been raised in an Islamic environment before, more or less, so that'll provide him a different point of view compare to ordinary Americans who doesn't step foot onto other cultures before.

We'll just see what he can deliver to the world in this 4 years term. Everyone has high expectations on him, as he's the de facto leader of the world.

God bless Democrats!
God bless Barack Obama!!
God bless America!!!

51st Independence, Malaysia

Happy Independence Malaysia!! MERDEKA!!!!

Proud to fly the Jalur Gemilang!

Seriously, this year's celebration is nothing compared to last year's, half century of glory, or is it?

2008 is a turbulence year for many people around the world, we've seen China struck by a few natural disasters (eg: snowstorm in the first 2 months, monstrous earthquake in mid May), but yet they still managed to came up with the spectacular display for the Beijing Olympics 2008 just recently, talk about fast recovery huh....

Let's take a peek in Malaysia. During the first few days of the new year a political scandal struck a prominent minister, forcing him to resign from his post. I wouldn't need to mention the name, it is not something that should be proud of mentioning it.

Then it comes with the 12th General Election in 8th March, 2 days after my birthday. Oh boy, everything in Malaysia seems to be turning up-side-down since then.

The ruling political party although still holds the majority of seats in the Parliament, but they've lost quite a number of seats to the opposition, a collation of 3 parties. Things seem to turn from bad to worse from that moment onwards.

Everyday the politicians making the headline in newspapers, attacking their political enemies, or bodek the party leaders. The people commented those politicians are living in denial, they insist they've won the election but the fact is, they've gave away a lots of seats to the opposition parties.

Seems like Malaysians are thinking that the opposition parties are more relevant than the ruling party, who've been controlling the government since the 1st general election in the 20th century's 50's. It is important for the ruling party to realise and analyse the main factor for the terrible results in the election, but no, this is not in the plan of the government.

   

Many people blamed the current PM for all the failures shown here and there. Some blasted him badly, while some still insist to support him no matter what. I say, is he so unlucky to be landed in this job at the wrong timing? Seems like things just go from bad to worse during his tenure as the PM. Did he mess up the projects, schemes and plans? Did he missed out some crucial information while he's snoring during the meeting? Did he took the wrong advice from certain people and landed himself in the unfavourable condition he's experiencing today? Anyhow, I'd say he's just not up to the personality to run the job.

He is capable of doing things, only if he's stripped off with all the freaks surrounding him, and had his mind clear all of corruption and sleepy thoughts, he might just turn the tide around. External influences had made him the character he do not used to be. He would only succeed if he finally realised that he's serving for the country and the people, not just for the group of people of his clan.

Nevertheless, like many people, I'm one of them would like him to step down gracefully, instead of being thrown out of the office by the people. He'll scored another history in the country by then, being the first PM to be sacked from the office. Previous PMs either retire due to age, or resign due to health conditions.

The achievements of previous PMs are clearly stated within the history books, but what has he contributed since he took over in late 2003? Some say with him around, the freedom of speech is slightly improved as people would be more vocal and dare to voice out their objections & opinions, but what his minions had done lately has undone all his reputation on building up a free country of voices. Censorship is bad, and it is even worse if you think you wanna control the Internet!

Patriotic outfit

Sigh, I shall not elaborate further bout the ugly political scenes, it is depressing. You may think that I might be biased to certain sides, but I'm not. I don't see anything can be improved drastically in a short period of time even if the opposition parties really took over the government seats. It will do no good to our country if they decided to came up with a political revolution then. Everything will be mess up, and worse of all, riots would broke up between the supporters of the current-ruling party and the opposition parties. It's unavoidable, so says a certain people, whom maybe planning to hit Malaysia with another May 13? I sincerely hope that nothing will happen, let we people live a normal life like how we used to be.

Malaysia is actually a beautiful, friendly, and charming country, minus out the crazy politics. I'd say, most countries in the world would be a far better place if there's no interference of politicians. Politics are bad, but we cannot build up a country without it, oh well. Contradictions.....

Among my social networking circle (on & offline), it's not uncommon to hear some people decided to migrate to other country because they're fed up and disappointed with the country. Some say they will not be coming back after they finish their studies abroad, some's family are planning to migrate in a few years of time?

The nation's hero, Datuk Lee Chong Wei, Olympic silver medalist.

I do not deny that I have thoughts of studying abroad, it is a really good experience to learn things from other countries, I guess no one can deny this fact because it's proven to be beneficial. But still, no matter what, I felt that the best is to stay in Malaysia.

I've been through a few countries, namely China (Beijing, Hainan) , Taiwan & Australia (Perth) so far for now. I've observed the cities there and learn the difference between there and Malaysia. There might be things that we should emulate them, well, the fact is, I still think that Malaysia is a lot better than that in some ways.

You can say that it's just a few countries I've been, and those cities I went may not be significant in some ways, yeah I do see things in that matter. If you would like you can sponsor me to travel abroad to see the real cities for myself, I would love to do so.  :)

A view of KL skyline, from another angle.

Malaysia is a passionate country. For some tourists, they keep on visiting Malaysia again and again as there's some sort of attraction to keep 'em coming over and over again. Let's take a look a those European travel hotspots, people might just went there for once in their life time and never again (don't count afterlife). Those are the premium travel spots of the whole world, but why we seldom see people going back there again?

I jokingly thought that is it because those tourists are attracted by the durian fruit? Heh, not many would dare to try this fruit, this fruit even found itself in the 2nd challenge of Fear Factor, which I laughed hardly whenever I see the contestants throw up or felt disgusted just by looking at the fruit. It is far better than eating live animals, which I think is barbaric. You should be pleased if you're asked to eat durian, because it's the king of fruits over here!

I dare to say, that most Malaysians living abroad would miss the local food badly, really. Malaysia is a food paradise with fusion of different variety of food, derived from the different culture backgrounds we had here. Asian cuisine is the main course here, but we do have quite a handful of Western food as well, I've seen more and more Western restaurant outlets opening here. I'd say, we had almost all the food except those from Latin America, a region which still remains a mystery to me. Luckily I had an Argentine net friend who can give me a better picture of how's life over there.

Talk about the racial backgrounds we had here, all the sayings that racial tension among the people is whole lotta crap. It is just a psychology weapon those freaks used to stir up the unease here. If this statement is true, we would hardly live peacefully together for so many years. We do not have problem to live with each other, so it's proven that those claims are false. I hate to see those who're fanning the racial tensions, those mindless, idiotic freaks. They are the destroyers of the nation, the Backward key which we do not want to press by any means, as we prefer to hit the Play or Forward button, to get things move on.

We all owe gratitude for the nation's forefathers, those who driven the country from the British colonial era to achieve independence in a non-violent manner. We're proud that our nation's independence do not involved in a single drop of blood. Tears are inevitable, but that's the tears of joy, of happiness, that we're no longer chained up by another nation. If it wasn't those policy-makers and charismatic leaders back then, the stance of us non-Bumiputra would be very different today. We would be taken as secondary race now, but no, we're all equal in some terms.

The concept of Bumiputra has been making quite an issue since long long ago. I think that a certain privileges for a certain group of people is still acceptable if it wasn't being abused like it did today. By some means I think it's far for them to have such benefits. They setup this rule last time as they wanted to bridge the gap between the races. Unfortunately, this privilege rule do not apply on non-Bumiputra residents. I for one, have no complains here.

Just like in a golf game, newbie would be given handicap when playing against better players so that the match would be fairer in some extent, so as the policy lingering here in Malaysia. It is supposedly to help them to be able to live up the standard and capable of engaging a healthy competition with other people, but nowadays some people seems to abuse it for personal gain and greed, which tarnished the reputation of the people and nation.

I like to befriend with any kind of people, regardless of the racial & religious background. It's important that we  learn some good values from them, as well as a deeper level of understanding of their culture. With sufficient knowledge of our friends, we would develop mutual respect between each others and forge a strong bond within us to make this nation a better place for everyone to live.

For instance, I've learnt that the Malays are actually very polite, there's no doubt bout it. Whenever they receive something, someone did something for them or anything, they would not hesitate to thank them for the service or offerings. As for Chinese, I noticed that not all of 'em would thank others in such manner, some would just simply ignore it, which is rude. I was one of them back then, but now I've learn to thank and appreciate others for what they did for me. Never be stingy to say "thank you", "terima kasih" or 谢谢.

The staff at the receptionist thought that the tourist was saying 'thank you' as in, 'terima kasih' in Malay despite of him saying his own name 'Terry McCarthy', it still sounds more or less as 'terima kasih', so to be polite he says 'you're welcome' (as in, 'sama-sama'). Another classic Lat's caricature!

Malaysia is really a great nation, there's no doubt about it. I'm proud to be a Malaysia, and eventhough I might be travelling to overseas in few years time, I will still look forward to come back here, to the homeland where I grew up. I hope youngsters out there like me, think twice before deciding to move out from this nation. Yea, the politics may be bad, but set it aside, you'll see Malaysia is actually a beautiful country to live in.

Finally, I wish the great nation happy 51st independence again, and let us hope for a better tomorrow for our people and our nation!  MALAYSIA BOLEH!!

[photos are taken from The Star Gallery & Flickr.]

Internet Censorship

In case you haven't follow the news in Malaysia lately, the Malaysian Communication & Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has ordered all the local Internet Service Providers (ISP) to ban the news portal Malaysia Today, run by the controversial figure Raja Petra Kamarudin.
[news link]

So why the commission, which is administrated by the government, want to ban Malaysia Today? It's simple to understand the reason because Malaysia Today posted a lot of articles bashing the governing party, whether the facts are baseless or reality. The gov did such move to shut the news portal up for good.

It is stupid & a step backward in building up the freedom of speech. I think who decide to take this kind of action is just plain idiot who's too afraid of the power of the Internet. I wonder whether they'll soon ban the Internet as well?

Besides, it's not the end of the day though, desperate Malaysians will still find their way to browse the site through various channels, you can read it here if you would like to know how to do it.

Stupid, idiot, crap, goon, ignorant, etc.... these should be the appropriate words to describe the MCMC, as well as the morons running everything behind the scene.

A word to BN dudes there, if you keep on doing such stupid things again & again, you can kiss your political ass goodbye soon, very soon.

They're coming, don't say the people didn't warn you.

Stories Bout Racism

Got this mail from mail. It's interesting....

Oprah Winfrey Show

I'm sure many of you watched the recent taping of the Oprah Winfrey Show where her guest was Tommy Hilfiger. On the show, she asked him if
the statements about race he was accused of saying were true.
Statements like'...'If I'd known African-Americans, Hispanics, Jewish
and Asians would buy my clothes, I WOULD NOT have made them so nice. I
wish these people would *NOT* buy my clothes, as they are made for upper
class white people.'

His answer to Oprah was a simple 'YES'.
Where after she immediately asked him to leave her show.


Scene took place on a British Airways flight between Johannesburg and London .

A White woman, about 50 years old, was seated next to a black man.
Obviously disturbed by this, she called the air Hostess. 'Madam, what is
the matter,' the hostess asked. 'You obviously do not see it then?' she
responded. 'You placed me next to a black man. I do not agree to sit next to
someone from such a repugnant group. Give me an alternative seat.'
'Be calm please,' the hostess replied. 'Almost all the places on this
Flight are taken.

I will go & see if another place is available.' The Hostess went
away and t hen came back a few minutes later. 'Madam, Just as I thought,
there are no other available seats in the economy class. I spoke to the
captain and he informed me that there is a seat in the business class.
All the same, we still have one place in the first class.' Before the woman
could say anything, the hostess continued: 'It is not Usual for our
company to permit someone from the economy class to sit in the first
class. However, given the circumstances, the captain feels that it would be
scandalous to make someone sit next to someone so disgusting.' She
turned to the black guy, and said, 'Therefore, Sir, if you would like to,
please collect your hand luggage, a seat awaits you in first class.'
At that moment, the other passengers who were shocked by what they had
Just witnessed stood up and applauded.

If You are against racism, please send this message to all your friends.

* Note that the Tommy Hilfiger story above cannot be verified whether it's true or false, but anyway it's just another story you may came across the net.

Effects of Raising Fuel Price

Ole!

The most obvious effect when the gov announced the price hike, everyone jammed the nearest petrol station.





Heh, these pics are not the worst yet!

I heard a few friends lamented their plan of getting their own car are forced to be shelfed because of the extra cost for the petrol. Some says they would not be driving that frequently unless seriously needed. Some may take public transports, while some will revert back to the good old days, walk.

Before I got my car license, I'm quite used to walk to places around, to the nearby commercial area, to the closest LRT station, and to college.

Walk to Carrefour, work-place or to get my meal.... ~1km (~10 mins).


Walk to Wangsa Maju LRT station. 1.75km. (~20 mins)


Walk to college, 3.3km. (~45 mins)


These 3 diagrams are mapped according to my usual route I walk. I guess I can do it for the first 2, but for no.3.... I have to sacrifice quite some time getting up early in the morning and walk to college.
Also, those routes I walk usually are adjacent to the main roads, so inhaling those exhaust gases will do no good to my health.

Another alternative could be hybrid, or green car? Many car manufacturers are eying on this trend, a greener car which uses less fuel, less gas emission, alternative fuel and alternative engines.
Too bad Malaysians doesn't really aware the future of these cars, so far I only saw Honda Civic Hybrid on sale, but none on the road.

Honda Civic Hybrid (it's wheel rims are different than normal Civics)


Toyota Prius (one of the pioneer of hybrid car)


BMW Hydrogen 7


Lexus LS 600h


Ultimately, the most ecology & economic-friendly car, brought to you by a familiar cartoon character!

Needless to say more? Flintstone! LOL!




Increasing the petrol price is just the beginning of further headaches and nightmares to the people.

The electricity tariff also made changes in order to cope with the fuel price hike. Although it's stated only less than 50% of the people will have to pay more for the electric bill, unfortunately my side will have to pay more for upcoming electricity bills because the monthly usage surpasses the rate, which is lower than 200kWh.

Too bad most Malaysia's power plants are fossil fuel power plants, so the generation of electricity will have to spend more on the fuels too. So in order to cope with the increase, the electricity price will go up as well. Ultimately, the people are the victim.

We do have hydroplants but the power generated is not enough for general use.


No, we haven't got any nuke power plants here yet. I doubt we'll will ever build one. The locals are afraid of nuclear meltdown, "miscarriage" of nuclear waste, etc. Well actually nuke power plant can supply the most efficient electricity with just a little amount of resources. Anyhow people are still skeptical because it is known for it's risk.


Aside of the domino effect on the electricity, soon the people will be paying more for daily expenses, such as food, necessities, transportation etc.

The chain effect starts off with the logistic and goods transportation part. Obviously these sectors rely on petrol a lot as running the lorries across the country aren't cheap nowadays! So there will be another price hike in the sectors, which will further "attack" sectors closer to the end-consumer such as the merchants, businessman, and entrepreneurs.

Everyone will be raising the price again, which makes life for people more difficult. All the goods are getting more and more expensive, and yet the salary, wages and income still remain constant.
The government promised the money from reducing the subsidy will be use for the good of the people, and I tell you, 50% this will be a "blank cheque" 空头支票.
They previously used the same reason again and again during previous price hikes, and so far the transportation system has improved or met up to the people's standard.

Talk about public transport, do compare KL's public transport commuter map, to the London Tube and Tokyo Metro....







Compare to those labyrinth links, KL's transit is just a fragment of those transit systems.
I heard there's plan on extending the KL's transit, it is said a few years ago, but until now none of the projects are carried out actually. Everything remains status quo.

The proposed KL's new transit map.


If this mega-project is done, and the gov raises the petrol price, at least the people still got alternative for commuting. I guess people would rather squeeze in the commuter train, rather than wasting the petrol money caught in a terrible traffic jam.
But then, this is just an ideal KL, unfortunately currently the government is too busy to bother bout this plan. As they said, their main priority is the party's interest (which is personal interest), rather than the people and the nation's interest.

Sigh..... this is not the end yet. Rumours are circulating, there may be another price hike very soon in August, and that time the price of the petrol could hit RM4/L from the current RM2.7/L.

If that really happens, Abdullah and the government should be THROWN OUT FROM THEIR OFFICE BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!!

Petrol Price Hike

Today: RM 1.92/litre
Tomorrow: RM 2.70/litre

Father called back to ask me fill up the car petrol ASAP because there's an increase of 78 cent.

" KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on Wednesday announced the new price for petrol is RM2.70 a litre, effective midnight tonight.
He announced that the price of petrol would be increased by 78sen and diesel by RM1. "

[The Star news]

Pics taken from here.


Pumped total of 24.51 L just now, which cost RM 47.06. If the new price is used, then I'll have to pay RM 66.18! I've saved RM 19.11, quite a lot!

A Proton Wira's fuel capacity is 50 litre. Full tank petrol will cost RM 96. So if the new price takes into effect..... bloody RM 135!!

Pity those fellas with big cars, those with more than 2.0L engine displacement vehicles will have to suffer more because those cars need more fuel, which means have to burn a bigger hole in the pocket. I take a Mercedes E class for example, total fuel capacity is 65L, let's say the owner filled 60L..... RM 162.... (-__-")

Also, diesel price also increased by RM 1, to RM 2.58. Now that the lorry drivers and diesel-vehicle owners will no longer enjoying the low price of diesel. The drivers had protested in a few European countries, and I know those local drivers wouldn't be too happy as well.

Then again, we shall be considering what the heck Abdullah's government is doing? This isn't the first time they increase the petrol price already.... I guess with this price hike, lol 13th GE, bye bye to BN!

I'm doubtful what will they be using the money after reducing the fuel subsidy. They say the money will be spent on something useful to the people (their usual blank promise), but then previous records clearly shows that the fund will be used for something only benefits a certain party, so after all, we people will have to suffer all the consequences.

And yea, this will be another reason why Abdullah should step down as the PM.....

The notorious sleeping PM of Malaysia, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.


[UPDATE]

Jason send me few pics he just took from a petrol station nearby his place in Melaka.
LOL those people are Q'ing up to fill in petrol. This is just the beginning, later at night sure jam crazily!







Here's a diagram regarding fuel price in Malaysia since 2004.


Source

Updates ahoy!

Sorry people, was totally hooked with the game.... it's just like a drug, I've to depend on it to continue "survive" lol. I'm going to write a review for that game when I've time, probably sometime after next Friday since I will be having a whole week holiday before continuing the last few papers.

Yes, I'm still having exam now, AS exam to be specific, supposedly I should be digging myself with notes & books, but no.... I'm studying history in the world of Civilization IV lol!

Meanwhile, there's this topic stirred up online discussions among Malaysians. Funny.... here's the news:

School uniform sexy, says group

KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian group condemned the uniform worn by girls at government schools, saying it encouraged rape and pre-marital sex.

“The white blouse is too transparent for girls and it becomes a source of attraction,” National Islamic Students Association of Malaysia vice-president Munirah Bahari said in a statement.

[Link]

A statement made by an ultra-conservative group.... other organizations and groups condemn this silly statement. Saying that the uniform attributed indecency among students, doing some nasty stuffs and so forth. It is foolish and stupid to had such idea, because those people  worn the same uniform when they're still studying in school. They may have mention it long time ago, but why now? They're making a fool of themselves here, even the Minister of Education voiced out his objection too.

Enough of those silly news. Nowadays the local media are reporting lots of political stuffs, which are getting more and more boring. When there's more argument between those political figures, the more hopeless we people think of our future, especially with this kiasu (fear of losing) government running around. Even veteran member got so disappointed until quitting the party because of the failure in the leadership.

I say, if Abdullah insist he wanna continue to run the office 'til next term, he's very unlikely to win the next election. Unless, he changed himself up for good, better to get himself brainwashed from all those useless ideas running in his brain as suggested by his cronies and corrupt advisors. He doesn't admit that he's the actual reason behind all the failures. If a leader does not take the responsibility of his party's defeat, he can't be a great leader.

It's not just in a political arena, even in a team also the same applies. If a team doesn't perform well, the first who'll get punished is the leader, not the members. Well, this ideology is being taught while I was in NS. If they can implant it in that programme, why not in the country leaders' mindset?

Talk about bad government administration, I'm enraged by the actions of KL City Council, the notorious DBKL locals referred. They went on to DEMOLISH my FOOD PARADISE in Desa Setapak!! WHAT THE CRAP!!

 

What the...... 真有够他妈的王八蛋！！

Now that I dunno where should I get my lunch after college. Those familiar stalls are no longer there, I dunno where can I get the delicious and cheap food anymore. With the destruction of those food stalls I patron more than a decade.... it's very sad and yet disappointing to see everything is wiped off in just a matter of hours! Right now I dunno where those stalls will be relocated. I hope they'll back into business somewhere around the old area huh.

I heard that there's foul play in the City Council, saying that they went on to destruct those "illegal" stalls as an excuse of them losing in the general election. Weird huh..... the City Council, is headed by the nearly-defeated party. They aren't happy with it, so now they are dragging us people into the trouble.

The authority however, left out a spot they didn't destruct. A few stalls lying just across the road, selling kuih-muih, pisang goreng, nasi lemak etc stall. No reason why the stalls aren't being demolished as well, these stalls are ILLEGAL like the other food stalls around. Pic:

Apparently, it's all about the skin colour. Those stalls above, are run by the Malays. Compare to the other food stalls run by the Chinese, these stalls are obviously more obstructive as it blocks 3/4 of the pathway to the LRT station. Amazingly, those DBKL officers must be blind to miss that spot, or they're colour-blind?

The conspiracy behind the demolition of the food paradise is questionable. It's hard to get those culprits being "sentenced to justice", as they're sided by the government.

Fuck off! Sorry dont really like to curse but to have disturbing event happened which affects me, really piss me off. I curse those who neglected the orders and take action based on racial judgement, will not be living comfortably.

Until now I haven't recover from the trauma of my favourite food stalls are being ruined by stupid faggots. In the grief of losing wonder food.  :(

Destruction of Desa Setapak food stalls

Sigh.... I'm still really mad with the piglet authorities. Anyway, I guess my situation is far better than those who're suffering from cyclone in Irrawady and the quake in SiChuan.... May God bless their souls. Myanmar gov, you better start opening up your nation borders, let those rescue workers in. They're there to help, not to sabotage your gov. Myanmar Junta is such an example of a failure gov who doesn't take care of their people's well-being. Have a look at your ally China, who did really well in the rescue efforts, no delays and open up every channel for international aids.

Sigh, the world is pretty much messed up for this moment. I hope there won't be anymore tragedies or shocking news in this few months to go. Either way, I don't think there'll be any much good news for the time being.  :\

DAMN YOU DBKL!!