A big blunder by USM

I didn’t know that USM was given the Apex status and thus allowing it to directly take in students instead of going through the UPU (University Admission Unit) and better still, USM issued SMSes to some 1600 students informing them that they have been accepted for the new academic year. Upon checking, these students noticed that their names were not on USM on-line admission list. I didn’t know that there are so many pools as described by the DG of Higher Education Department, Apex pool, main pool and what else? Swimming pools? 

It seems that those applied for USM but failed to be taken will automatically go into the main pool where UPU will assign the qualified applicants to the various universities. Only USM with the Apex status is granted the autonomy to directly take in new students. That’s fine. But informing students by SMSes without proper documentation or letters of acceptance is totally unwarranted. There are some many vague SMSes flying around, who the hell know whether these SMSes are genuine or not. Many months ago I received an SMS saying that I have won a million dollars for some unheard contest; do you expect me to believe it? There are so many SMS scam going on and our smart USM with so-called Apex status informing students via SMSes. Typical Malaysia Boleh, a new system that created a lot of confusion and unnecessary worries to the students. Wise up USM, student admission is a serious matter that warrants a formal mean of communication, SMS is only good for casual communication and not official business.

Tangkap...Tangkap...WTF?

Crime rates are high, life casualties due to snatch thieves, robbers are high, and drug addicts are aplenty preying on their victims on the streets. And the police are wasting their time, mobilizing 20 FRU and 70 plainclothes policemen to crack down a hunger strike put up by PKR and DAP supporters at DAP Perak head office in Ipoh. Seeing CID chief Deputy Superintendent Glenn Anthony shouting at the protesters over the 8.00 pm news, and a few of protesters were dragged by policemen when arrested, I shake my head in disbelief. It was totally unnecessary and in fact wasting the energy of the police force and taxpayers' money. These people just want to stage a hunger strike, just let them have it. They are not going to harm anyone anyway. Why wasting so much time and energy to worsen the situation? Even the onlookers were so upset and pissed off with the police and resulting in some scolding the police. And that also causes these onlookers to get arrested.

When I saw one of the high ranked police office shouted “tangkap, tangkap” over the TV news, I just simply thought that these policemen were using their skills and talents on the wrong people at the wrong place. They are supposedly trained to tackle crime but just too bad that they are wasting their skills and time on the harmless civilians staging a hunger strike? No wonder the crime rates could not be contained.

Roh and Ah-Bian

Roh and Ah-Bian, both was former president of their respective country. Both shares a lot of similarities; they were from hardcore poor farmer families, studied hard to become lawyer, actively involved in human right movement in their younger days, rose to become the president of their country where corruptions and cronyism were so prevalent, pushed for political reform and fight against corruption and sadly, both also ended up being investigated for corruption after stepping down as president.

I was saddened by the news of Roh committed suicide a couple of days ago. He must be truly disturbed by the ongoing investigations on the corruption link to a businessman while he was in office. He and his family members were reportedly accepting bride amounting to US 6 million dollars. Perhaps the corruption charges were truly shameful to Roh, so unbearable that he decided to finish off his life by jumping down from a high cliff of about 100 feet while doing trekking.

It was a tragic end of life of an ex-president. But he set himself apart from his contemporaries with high dignity although his image was tainted by the corruption charges, but who can be sure that those still living a luxurious life after stepping down from high government office are as “clean”? Look at Ah-Bian of Taiwan, despite of strong evident suggesting that billions have been swindled out of Taiwan when he was in power, still playing up so many political tricks even in detention to paint himself white.

Despite the similarities between Roh and Ah-Bian, the only thing set them apart is their feelings of shame.

Good student denied of scholarship

A friend of mine from Segamat rang me up asking for opinion on how good Utar is as his son who scored 9A1 and 1A2 was turned down by JPA on scholarship to study in overseas or local universities. The reason he called was that my wife is lecturing in Utar and thus he thought that he may get some advices. This friend of mine is indeed a good father, very concerning on his children education. His daughter is also a high achiever, scoring straight As in her SPM examination last year and managed to get JPA scholarship to study in England. Perhaps this is the reason why his son is not getting scholarship this year as JPA may take into consideration the daughter already been given scholarship a year ago.

My friend intends to enroll his son into Utar which is giving full scholarship to his son in view of excellent SPM results. I told my friend to let the son wait for the appeal result as I think it is better to get him into Matrix rather than going into Utar. Not that Utar is not good, but comparing Utar with only 3 to 4 years of establishment, I would say local universities like UM, UKM, USM or UPM will provide a better environment for his brilliant son to pursue tertiary education. Firstly, the facilities, both hardware and software may not be as complete as government-funded universities, secondly, the quality of lecturers may also be an issue as there are not many with PhD qualifications and lastly, the intake of students may be of mixed qualities, thus it may not be a conducive and competitive environment for the smart one like his son.

In the past few days, there were many cases of excellent student not getting JPA scholarship for tertiary education. It is indeed very frustrating to see good students been denied by JPA for unknown reasons. JPA should indeed made the criteria clear to all so that the students would be satisfied with the reasons not being given a scholarship. Otherwise, these young talents will feel that they are not given a fair chance to pursue their dreams and how would we expect these young generation to serve this country faithfully in the future.

I told my friend it was a happy problem for him. Both the daughter and son are so capable and doing so excellently in their examination. He should be a proud father indeed. But I would say a few words to the brilliant but dejected son of his, or any other dejected young man not getting JPA scholarship, there is no perfection in life, sometime we just have to make do with what we have, but if you remain focus and determined despite all the obstacles, you will continue to strive in difficult environment, just remember that the richest person in the world not even complete his degree course.

A shopkeeper and a dog

A friend of mine emailed me an interesting article about a shopkeeper and a dog. Interestingly indeed, as it is related to the predicament of employees like you and me.

One day, a shopkeeper saw a dog coming into his shop and he then shooed the dog away, thinking that it was a stray dog. After a while, the dog came in again. The shopkeeper then went closer to the dog and noticed that there was a note coupled with some money in the mouth of the dog. The shopkeeper then took the note and it was a list of groceries presumably wanted by the owner of the dog and the money to buy them. The shopkeeper then put all the groceries into a plastic bag and then put the bag into the mouth of the dog. The dog then left the shop and proceeded back home. The shopkeeper was so impressed with the smartness of the dog and decided to follow it to see who the owner is, so cleverly trained up his dog. As the shopkeeper was following the dog, he was so impressed that the dog knew to observe the traffic light, using zebra line and even knew how to take a bus to go back home. After reaching its house, the dog knocked its head on the door a few times and then the owner of the dog opened the door and took up all the groceries. After that, the owner started to beat the dog and abusing and kicking it. The shopkeeper was so surprise and ran over to stop the guy. “What the hell are you doing? It is such a brilliant dog. Why are you abusing it?” The shopkeeper asked. The owner responded; “You call this brilliant, clever? It is the third time this week that it forgotten to bring the door key”

The moral of the story; You may continue to exceed onlookers’ expectation, but will always fall short of your boss’ expectation.

The Lampner’s Law of Employment says; when leaving your work late, you will go unnoticed. But when you leave work early, you will meet your boss at the parking lot.

Zambry comparing himself to Nelson Mandela and Gandhi?

I was amused this morning when reading on a short article on the Star where the in out in Menteri Besar of Perak comparing the suffering he and his comrades encountered to those endured by Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi. What kinds of suffering these buggers have endured actually, I don’t know. I thought that was just a political tussle to topple PKR led state government in order to regain BN supremacy in Perak? How could he compare himself with Nelson Mandela whose was imprisoned for most the productive years of his life, and Mahatma Gandhi who scarified his life for the independence of his country? He suffers nothing, he was just lucky to be hand-picked by the PM to be the Mentari Besar of Perak in a chaotic cross-over saga.

Wake up from your self-imagined political struggle, the court case is still going on even though the people over the country have already sick of it.

Decoding Secrets of Oil Palm Genome

I attended the invitation by Sime Darby on its announcement of a breakthrough discover which was graced by the Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Najib at KLCC yesterday. All participants were clueless on what the new discovery were all about as there were no hints stated on the invitation card. It was unveiled that the breakthrough was indeed the complete sequencing, assembling and annotating of oil palm genome, a project initiated a few years ago with the collaboration from experts from MIT, USA costing the company some RM40 million. The application of this breakthrough were said to be able to produce extremely productive oil palm trees that would increase the productivity of oil palm by a whopping 100%, from the current oil yield per hectare per year of 5 mt to 10 mt.

It was a very impressive breakthrough indeed, but how can this innovation be applied to produce super gene palms or genetically modified palms which could turn the conventional breeding upside down remains to be seen. In the past, many research findings were launched in very high profile manner but suffered natural death just a couple of years later. I hope this unparalleled breakthrough of Sime Darby will go along way not only producing high yielding varieties that will give higher return to the plantation companies but also benefiting small holders and also human race as palm oil can be used as bio-fuel to reduce the dependent on the exhaustive fosil fuel.

4 out of 5 for Jenson and continue rotting for Ferrari and McLaren

Phew…………Jenson Button crossing the finishing line alongside the Champion Lewis Hamilton, but wait a second, Hamilton was one lap behind the 2009 Spanish Champion. It was 4 out of 5 for Jenson, and he has been finishing on the podium 5 of out 5, what an amazing season for Brawn GP, and what a dismal performance for Ferrari and McLaren, the big-buck teams.

Ferrari continue with their worst ever season, Kimi Raikkonen was down with a mechanical problem and Massa was not given enough gas to finish the race. Massa was in a good fourth when he was told by the team over the radio to slow down to save fuel, otherwise he could face the risk of not having enough fuel to finish the race, what a silly mistake by Ferrari. That resulted in Vettel and Alonso passing him one after another and leaving the poor Massa, driving slowil in desperation for the mistake yet again made by the traditionally supreme and precise in pit strategy and crew efficiency. McLaren was not making any significant progress either; Kovaleinen couldn’t finish the race due to mechanical failure and Hamilton taking the chequered flag alongside Jenson Button but only a lap behind. Imagine a Formula 1 champion being lapped by a driver not even competitive enough to win points in the previous season, how could a champion take it?

It goes to show that big bucks does not necessary equate to success in Formula 1. Alonso said that Formula 1 is about the whole package; the team, the car, the drivers, the engineers, luck and many factors can make a team to win race. What Ferrari and McLaren lacking this season despite their multi-million budgets and can they recover in time to be in the race for 2009 championship, only time will tell.

What a disgrace?

Today headlines in all major diaries were none other than chaotic conditions of Perak state assembly. Two menteri besar, two speakers, two state governments, what the hell is happening? The state representatives elected by the people supposed to work for the people, but these buggers are now fighting rather hard among themselves for power. People’s needs and state development, put aside first, and the police was so keen in assisting the in-coming state government, arresting supporters from the dethroned Pakatan Rakyat state government, even the speaker could not be spared, he was practically lifted on his chair and carried away by the police, what a disrespect to a speaker, what a mess, what a disgrace and what the hell is going to happen in our politics.

Two days ago Chelsea were robbed a place in the final of the UEFA championship by a sub-standard Norwegian referee. A few clear cut penalties were dismissed because of his poor judgment. Of cause the players and supporters alike were angry. Diedier Drogba went to the extent of shouting “a fucking disgrace” to the referee; I can hear it clearly thru the live telecast. When you are robbed for something, surely you will be angry. In the case of Perak state government, when the Pakatan Rakyat were dethroned simply due to the frog-hopping of their 3 reps, they will surely be angry, not only the elected representatives, even the people are sick of all these seemingly never ending political turmoil. Who robbed the people of Perak in this case? Who is the sub-standard referee?

EPF stimulating KLCI??

The KLCI has been bullish over the past few days. Some quarters suspected that EPF is behind the scene, pushing up the composite index as the global financial crisis is far from over and the investor sentiment remains negative. More economic experts doubted the current impressive recovery in global stock markets could be sustained as the worst is not over yet.

EPF should be extremely careful with their investment in the stock market and there should not be any attempts by them to “salvage” any companies in trouble be it GLCs or any other. In addition, they should not be risking the contributors’ retirement funds just to paint a picture that KLCI is recovering. If their investment is not sustainable, the contributors will be the scapegoats receiving poor dividends the following year.

Natural Disaster? Human Factors?

In Mandarin, untoward incidents can be generally classified as natural disaster (天灾) or human error (人祸). Natural disaster is beyond our control, it is simply occurrence without the involvement of human, it is decided upon by the mother nature. On the other hand, human error is solely the adverse consequences of the act of human. But the effect of these two unfortunate occurrences is the same, as they both lead to environment, financial and worst still human losses.

Come this 12 May, it will be exactly a year after the deadly 2008 Sichuan earthquake which killed about 69,000 people, injured some 374,000 and about 18,000 went missing. It was the deadliest earthquake since the 1976 Tangshan earthquake which killed at least 240,000 people in China. The Sichuan earthquake left about 5 million people homeless, and severely affected China merely a few months before China hosted the 2008 Olympic.

People around the world wept for the earthquake victims but our tears will never be enough to console the people who lost almost everything, their families, their children, their homes, and most of all, hopes. That fated day of 12 May 2008 destroyed the lives of millions of people in Sichuan province, and exactly one year later, some have left the disaster-hit home town to start a new lives somewhere, some are still there but no one know deep inside their heart, have the victims recovering from the mental stress of the aftermath, no one know for sure.

Chinese will always say “god got no eyes” when something bad happened to them. In this instance, not only god got no eyes, but how about thousands and thousands of young children who were killed not by the direct effect of the earthquake but by the collapse of the co-called to-fu dregs school building which were sub-standard and collapsed easily because of the construction scandal involving corruption practices of local government officials? There were approximately 7000 school buildings reportedly built with sub-standard materials but approved for public uses by the local authorities. Thousands and thousands parents were crying fouls as they believed their children were killed not because of the earthquake but human error. The schools were supposedly built to provide shelter to a future generation while they were studying, but the greed of irresponsible people has destroyed a future generation, how cruel was that? In China, where a single child is implemented to control the population, you can imagine how hearth-broken the parents who lost their one and only child. No monetary compensation will ever make up to suffering they have gone through.

Mother nature may have whatever reason for causing the earthquake, that we may not be able to understand, but those people involving in corruption practices which lead to the collapse of school building so easily should be brought to justice, so that the young souls of the victims who died in the school will rest in peace.