Instead of Promoting Religious Harmony, Some Encourage Persecution

What is Malaysia turning into?

According to this NST report, these dancers were not allowed to perfom a prayer on stage as

"to respect the sensitivities of the audience, who also comprised Chinese and Malays."
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Wednesday/National/2257733/Article/index_html

This is utter rubbish from the Perak Unity, Culture, Arts and Heritage Department. Those who attend such performances will definitely be interested to know the reason why such a prayer is needed and who is the deity and that would enrich their experience.


Unless of course the prayers are rather long and boring and previous audience response had been negative. But most Malaysians are usually tolerant as we are exposed to prayer rituals at all official functions.


At first I was wondering why the NST was so bold to report such an incident. Now I realise while writing that Perak is under PR. So there you have it - politicians and BN-controlled MSM exploit anything and everything.

Photo: thanks to NST

A New Growth Industry for Malaysia?

According to a malaysiakini article entitled:

"Dr M's dare - set up three royal panels"
http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/83856

our ex-PM wants 3 royal panels to investigate alleged shenanigans of the current PM in response to the findings of the Lingam tape.

With a definite decline in foreign motorists wanting to drive in Malaysia, we need to counter this by getting tourists to fly in for some other interesting events.
We could make Malaysia the capital city for ongoing Royal Commissions of Inquiry. One of the indoor stadiums in KL would be suitable and there would definitely be a influx of Malaysians as well as foreigners.

So far we have had the following commissions:

Royal Malaysian Police - abuse of detainees
Lingam Tapes - the fixing of judges

TDM wants to do the following:

Oil for Food
Merger of ECM-Libra and Avenue Assets
wang ehsan (goodwill payment) in Terengganu

Some Sabahans want one on
Illegals Getting ICs and PRs

I am sure some people will also want the following:
May 13th Killings
Maminco Scandal
BMF Affair
Perwaja Failure
Proton Losses
Altantuuya Murder
Forex Speculation

RCIs are not cheap and take manpower and resources and so we could allow a promoter to handle the financial aspects. Probably do a schedule of 6 RCIs per year. The promoter will deposit a sum of say RM5m to RM10m to to the government for each RCI and the commission will be conducted as usual with the proper officials.
But those who attend will be charged RM10 per day or maybe RM300 for the whole RCI. Judgement will be as normal but there would also be a reality TV show on air where viewers get to cast votes on the cast.

This will create much interest in Malaysia and we will become the world-class center of legal opinion. Just think of the law students who will want to visit our show-piece.

"What Utter Rubbish!" Some of you are thinking. Let me check what funny medicine I took with my coffee this morning. Meanwhile have a nice day!

Maybe Sabahans Can Expect Overyears Changes?

Following yet another Cabinet committee formation, Committee Number 57(?) and counting - this time for the illegals problem in Sabah, malaysiakini has this article about the hopes of Sabahans:

"Don't expect overnight changes, Sabahans told"
http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/83858

One has the suspicion that UMNO leaders were involved in this illegals and it would not be appopriate to task them with solving the problem.
http://malaysiawatch3.blogspot.com/2008/06/sabah-conundrum-dont-expect-umno.html

An RCI could be the best method to solve the issues but only if there is the political will to follow through. The failed IPCMC is one outcome that reflects poorly on a distinct lack of will.

The SABAH Conundrum - Don't Expect UMNO Leaders to Solve an UMNO Problem

There is an interesting article in malaysiakini headed:

"Project IC: PM's cabinet committee not new, says PBS leader"
http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/83785

This is the response of some Sabahans after the PM's latest visit to solve(?) the problem of illegal immigrants in the state and also the dubious means by which many from the Philippines and Indonesia were fast-tracked to Malaysian citizenship.

The problem was created when immigrants were granted ICs that eventually granted them PR status; probably with the connivance of syndicates, politicians and local authorities so much so that the illegals now outnumber the original Malaysians.

Sabahans need to assert their rights more to protect the future for future generations - in fact Sabah can become a Trojan horse for Malaysia if that state becomes a hot-bed for political extremism.

You can read more about Sabah's problems in this Special Report from malaysiakini.
http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/53046

No wonder Sabah leaders are unhappy with the latest "no-action" proposal from the PM.
He proposes yet another Cabinet committee to look into the problem.

This guy does not mince his words:

"Isn't this committee is the same as the one announced in 2000, chaired by him when he was the then deputy PM?"And then announced again in 2006 and chaired by the present deputy PM?" he questioned.He also recalled that there wasn't any meeting held by the committee since its formation in 2000, except in 2006 when it decided to form ‘a special court' to deal with the illegal immigrants.

Maybe it is part of the government's energy-saving campaign. Now they are re-cycling committees!

Some Crazy Ideas about the Fuel Subsidies.....

You would have read by now that the anti-inflation committee will be deciding on how best to reduce the leakage on fuel subsidies on Tuesday.

Guess they have plenty of work on their hands as your fried kueh-tiao went up from RM3.00 to RM3.50 during the past 3 months.
You can read the article in malaysiakini here.
http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/83777

There are a few letters in the MSM about the fuel ban, mostly from those who will be affected.
There is one letter I wish to highlight, from the Education and Research Association for Consumers Malaysia Petaling Jaya.
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Monday/Letters/2255453/Article/index_html

He/she proposes that vehicles be banned from leaving Malaysia with more than a quarter-tank of fuel!
While the idea is interesting, it needs to be tweaked a bit more. We all know that Singapore already has the 3/4 tank ruling so Singapore vehicles may fill up with perhaps RM40 for a day trip. The government has not provided any figures on the border traffic for Thailand and Singapore and the petrol sales so it is not possible to compare the "loss" at the borders.

I suggest this 3/4 tank rule can be imposed within a week at the Thai border and all foreign vehicles entering must have 3/4 tank on entering Malaysia. The Customs can install a fuel tank at the check-point where all those who fail inspection will be topped up at prices double that of the prices sold in Malaysia.

This will provide more breathing space for the authorities to come up with a better plan for reducing the fuel subsidies.

NATIONAL SERVICE Woes - Twin Dangers of Food Poisoning and Heat Stroke?

Today there is yet another report of an NS incident that involved dozens of NS trainees who were hospitalised after a jungle training exercise.

NS has been in the news regularly for the wrong reasons and about a week ago there was another report of food poisoning in another camp that had the name "Resort" in its description.
You can also read a response from a malaysiakini reader here.
http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/83705

In the latest incident, the trainees fell sick after a 2-day jungle trekking course and in the report, the doctor was reported to have told a trainee:
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/6/2/nation/21426321&sec=nation
"The doctor said we had high fever and nothing else" and the report also quoted

"Johor Women, Family, Community Development and Health Committee chairman Dr Robia Kosai said the high fever affecting the trainees was not serious.
“The virus could have spread among the trainees,” "

It seems so convenient to blame any incident of high fever, vomiting and nausea on unknown viruses.

Now if you care to read up and analyse their activities before the incident, it appears that these trainees could be suffering from heat exhaustion and possibly they were not able to recover from the jungle-trekking but carried out normal activities on returning to camp.
http://www.medicinenet.com/heat_stroke/article.htm

It is possible that some earlier trainees may have died from heat stroke as they were not given the proper treatment until it was too late.

If you look at the dark uniforms and berets used by the trainees, it is not a good design to reduce the chances of heat exhaustion.

Unless parents can lobby their MPs to get an independent review of the NS Scheme that sucks up RM600m each year and causes on average 4 deaths a year, each parent should warn their children about eating stale food and the symptoms of heat stress. If you have heat stress, you may not be coherent enough to recognise your own problem but you may save someone else's life.

Why Do We Always Fly Kites instead of Coming Up with Properly Thought-up Plans?

Oops Malaysia has done it again.
I am referring to the hastily announced plan to ban fuel sales to foreign vehicles in border areas.

Maybe it is a good way to get the best ideas from the public and it seems the Cabinet does not have enough capacity to think through a problem beyond the first week of implementation.

There is no serious analysis of how a ban will impact business and the local economy in the border areas.
You can read the latest non-decision in this malaysiakini article.
http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/83777

As far as the Thailand visitors ar concerned, they can actually ban the sales of fuels in extra containers and also limit the sale of petrol to maybe RM30 per vehicle per day. Issue each vehicle with a petrol card at the border and the driver has to produce this card to the petrol station which will punch a hole on the date before selling the petrol.

In the longer term, the idea of increasing fuel prices closer to market rates is good but we really need to examine the method and mechanism by which the poor will be assisted. It should be a special bill that will be debated in Parliament.