Syabas, Malaysia won 2010 AFF Suzuki Cup

I must confess that I’m not a local football fan; I don’t know most of 11 except for Rajagopal, the coach, the most familiar face with macho mustache. But when Malaysia were up against Indonesia in the second leg of AFF final, I promptly switched on TV just like any other local football fans; it is very rare appearance of our football team in a final at regional stage. Of course, we don’t talk about Asia, Olympics or World Cup as we’re far of, very far indeed.

When Safee, the talented striker struck in the first goal, I knew the moment that we have waited for so long has finally come close to materialize. We have a 3-goal advantage from the first leg and Indonesia now needed 5 goals to overturn the deficit. I must take my hat off that our young players could play without fear at Gelora Bung Karno Stadium and for that fighting spirit, they’re worthy champions.

From the solid defense and counter attacks, it was not surprising that our players struck the first goal. Indonesian players were subsequently mounting pressure on us by fast attacks and yielded in 2 goals but perhaps they had wasted many opportunities in the first half, the 2-goal was not good enough to stop Malaysia to become the first ever football champion at South East Asia stage.

I have supported Arsenal for years even though they’re without a trophy for the past 5 years, mainly because of the team’s philosophy of developing young talents unlike its rival Chelsea, burning Abramovich’s billions to build a super-stars team. Of course money could do almost everything in this world but certainly not building characters that will keep us remember for a long long time.

Kudos to Rajagopal, for his foresightedness and capability to develop a winning team derived from a bunch of young and talented players. This is something that our sport is so lacking for long and hopefully the AFF Cup will be our turning point towards building a sport nation, cultivating more champions in the international stage.

A lot of people cheating...

While queuing at Marry Brown to take away some fried chicken for dinner last night one Malay gentleman cheekily asked me what happened to Sime Darby nowadays and how could there be so many cheating cases. At first I didn’t realize how could this gentleman know that I’m working for Sime, I paused for a moment then I realized that it was the T-shirt that I wore bearing the red Sime Darby logo.

I told the gentleman that it was nothing to do with us a.i, I’m attached to Plantation Division while the huge losses were incurred in other division. The gentleman seemed a bit dissatisfied with my answer and continued commenting that some top people were too greedy and cheated the company and unfortunately their greed not only tarnishing the image of the company but seriously affecting its financial health.

I was a bit reluctant to say yes or not as I didn’t have a clue of the background of that elderly Malay gentleman but found a bit impolite if I kept mum and say nothing. So, I told him that this sort of things happen very often in GLCs, Sime is not the first one and certainly not going to be the last one. I continued to say that all these CEOs or top people were actually appointed by the government and if these gung-ho elites failed to steer the companies to success, or the other way round, driving the company into the drain, then those who appointed them should also be held responsible.

I then smiled broadly to that chap, taking my 3-piece fried chicken and some salads and fries, walked out from the Marry Brown and drove to Commuter station to fetch my wife.

Somehow when a few fellas are committing some offences, people will take it as though the whole company is involved. I guess that’s how it goes, as most of us always perceive that policemen are all corrupted but in actual fact, it could be a few drops of black ink that polluted a bow of water.

Sifu there and who's here?

In China, the drivers of the tourist buses are respectfully called “sifu” or master. The local tour guides give a lot of respect to their drivers and along the tour getting advices and suggestions from them particularly on itineraries of visit and so on. The tourism authority of China also gives high respect to their tourist bus drivers and as such you can see that those drivers assigned to ferry foreign tourists are well experienced and knowledgeable at times that they could even politely correct some incorrect information provided by the local tour guide.

Perhaps, the word “sifu” carries a lot of weight and along with it a lot more responsibility.

During our tour to Yunnan-Dali-Lijiang a month ago, we travelled on hilly terrain on high altitude from Yunnan to Dali then Lijiang. The bus that we ride on needed to stop quite frequently not only to pump up diesel but also to cool off the brakes as going uphill and downhill will certainly lead to some overheating and it is extremely dangerous if the brakes are overheated especially going downhill.

In midway to Dali, all tourist buses needed to stop at a check point for inspection by the authority to ensure that the busses are mechanically fit for a long mountainous journey. I asked the sifu why bother to stop for at least half an hour to one hour just for the sake of inspection as our bus was still new. The sifu said it was mandatory inspection regardless of the age of the bus simply to make sure that no untoward incident occurs as the roads along the journey are winding and narrow on hilly terrain. It was for the safety of the passengers after all.

Back here in Malaysia, too bad that we are not giving that sort of respect to our bus drivers be it tourist buses or normal passenger buses. They don’t have that “sifu” status here and most of them are overworked to earn a meager of salary and if they are too tired due to long distance driving, accident may happen. It is very sad to see that 27 tourists from Thailand were killed as the double-decker tourist bus overturned at Simpang Pulai after coming down from Cameron Highland. These people supposedly here to enjoy a holiday but ended up with a tragedy that could possibly be avoided if the tour company put more emphasis on safety.

Is a double-decker suitable for hilly terrain such as Cameron Highland? Is it stable enough? Too bad that we always wait for a tragedy to strike, then finger-pointing games by all parties including the authorities will start all over again and solution is still far from avail.

When there is a leak....

There is an interesting article by Jemima Khan on the Guardian on why did she back Julian Assange, the controversial spokesperson of WikiLeaks who was arrested by the British authority under the request of their Swedish counterpart for alleged rapes or more precisely, performing sex with woman without putting on condoms. Jemima believes that there is a fundamental injustice to the arrest of Assange and thus presented herself in the court to act as a surety for him under the request of Assange’s lawyer.

WikiLeaks offers a new type of investigative journalism and whether it is good or bad is highly controversial but when there are more and more classified information declassified, some people of higher authorities started to feel the pinch. For instance, when WikiLeaks revealed that Singaporean intelligence officials told their Australian counterparts that the de-facto leader of Pakatan Rakyat had indeed been guilty of the conduct he was accused of and it was a set up job, who do you think will feel the pinch? Will such leaks affect the outcome of the ongoing sodomy II trial?

Hence, it is not difficult to understand as to why the United States is so concerned about the extradition of Assange as perhaps they want to keep him shut before more truths are being revealed and those truths especially pertaining to war crime could potentially be tarnishing their credentials and reputations.

WikiLeaks poses threats only to those with hidden secrets and ulterior motives while for ordinary people who has no “cables”; the only leak we are more concerned of is a leaking roof during a raining day.

A pity kid seeing his mother jumping down from a flat

The 14-storey flats at Jalan Tun Dr. Ismail in Seremban is famous not for any good reason but a popular place for committing suicide. Yesterday, there was another such case, making it into 4 suicide cases in 2010. A mother jumped from the 13th floor in front of her 10-year old son and I wonder how cruel the mother was, leaving behind her son, letting the small boy be haunted by the traumatic scene for the rest of his life.

We have heard that gambling destroy many families and very sad that it always happened on the lower income groups and these people could have borrowed a lot of money from the Along which they could not pay back and thus have to encounter harassments from the loan sharks. Why are there so many illegal loan sharks around? In my small housing estate, you see many banners erecting one after another offering the so-called lucrative and tempting loans, these banners are all put up by the illegal loan sharks and sadly no actions were being taken by the authority as the banners are mushrooming almost everywhere.

The world that we live nowsaday has evolved into a materialistic world as compared to sixties or seventies. Temptations are everywhere and in all sorts of forms. For those ordinary wage earners or self-employs, the only available way to get rich is to win a lottery. Don’t you agree? Even if one day you discover that there is petroleum beneath the house that you stay, it is not going to bring you any good fortune, the petroleum belongs to the government.

Hence, all sorts of gambling, 4-digits, lottery and casinos whether legal or illegal, can easily find thousands and thousands of supporters. Even the investment in share markets also contain with it some elements of gambling, if not, all the share buyers will be making money and laughing all the way to the bank and we would not have heard so much about people losing all their saving through speculation on share markets.

As a 4-digits frequent buyer, I must say that it is the greed of a person that will land him or her in deep trouble rather than gambling per se. When greed is beyond control, it can develop into addiction that can destroy common sense and righteousness. Remember the brutal murder of the millionaire lady in Banting? You can see how a person’s greed can result in 4 innocent people were murdered senselessly.

I’m rather pity on the 10-year old boy that has surely been traumatized by her mother jumping from the 13th Floor of a flat in Seremban, in front of his own eyes. As the mother ended her own life, she also took away a normal life of her own child.

To Hebe

原来只是爱唱歌的女孩, 十年前组成女子天团风靡多少少男少女. 也许是三人当中较为平凡的, 没有S般可爱漂亮, 也没有E的男子头调皮性格. 也许不是特别出众, 但的的确确是个爱唱歌的女孩. 也许是三人当中唱得最好的, 但那重要吗? 必竟是偶像派, 唱得热热闹闹就好了. 但H也许心有不干, 十年前, 十年后, 还是要持续同样的模式, 歌唱得热热闹闹受欢迎就好了吗?

所以就有了離島, 所以有了寂寞寂寞就好.

我覺得這樣的距離很好

就隔著一片海互不打擾

我是一座離島, 人海邊的離島

世界和我禮貌微笑, 不擔心我這島居民太少

人口的密度 就這樣剛好

我是座小小島, 裝不下大煩惱

我是座小小島, 容易滿足的小島

懂的人懂得就好

我是座小小島, 心滿意足的小島

我愛的人愛我就好

应该不是巧合, 怎么听, 都象是一个失落感比较重的女孩在低声倾诉. 我是座小小島和我是一只小小鸟有异曲同工之处. 一只小小鸟透过老赵高亢、沙哑的嗓音, 唱出了每一個平凡男生隱藏在心裡的不安, 不满和激愤. 老赵虽沒有一张“藝人的臉”, 但成功在那個偶像當道的年代创造了一個傳奇.

SHE也许红遍台灣大江南北, 大陆和东南亚各地, 是数不清少男少女的偶像. 但对爱唱歌的Hebe来说, 没有一张属于自己的唱片肯定是一辈子的遗憾.

所以就有了離島, 所以有了寂寞寂寞就好.

对于一个年过四十安哥级的人来说, SHE 不过是年轻人的那杯茶, 歌唱得热热闹闹的, 就是触动不了内心底处. Hebe摆脱了SHE的偶象框框, 透过空靈清透的嗓音, 娓娓唱出十年磨练的人生高低起伏, 呈现出更高层次的感动.

To Hebe……是一张值得听了又听的专辑.

Fascinating Yunnan - Jade Dragon Mountain

Having visited China a couple of time since 2007 I somehow get addicted to it. Many friends have their preferences in holidaying in Europe, Australia or New Zealand, Japan, Korea or other famous destinations in North or South America but to me, holidaying in China is truly worth for money and more fascinating especially I can see for myself the historical sites that I have learned since young in school or through reading.

When I stepped on the great wall a year ago it was a little bit emotional and it makes you wonder how the ancient Chinese could build such a giant fortification which stretches more than 8,000 km to fence off their enemies. Thousands and thousands of lives were sacrificed. Bloods and tears were melted into the bricks and soils of the great wall. I guess that is something special for a Chinese educated person like me to visit the historical sites in China. There are some emotional attachments that make a holidaying trip more meaningful.

Just came back from Yunnan a few days ago and it was another fascinating holiday over there. Beautiful scenery in Stone Forest (石林) and JiuXiang (九乡) at Kunming, the Jade Dragon (玉龙雪山) or Yulong Snow Mountain at Lijiang were the main attractions and for that reason these places were so crowded that there were long queues to get into cable cars or electric tourist carts. We took the cable car up to Yuen Shan Ping (云杉坪) which is about 4000 meter above sea level and none of us were affected by high altitude illness apart from one lady did complained of severe headache that resulted in her swallowing a dozen tablets of Panadol during our few days stay in Lijiang.

I specially admire an elderly couple of more than 70 years old which were so sturdy all along the trip to the Jade Dragon Mountain although the old lady which is 73 years old had to puff some oxygen from time to time. The local authority has required the tourists more than 70 years old to pre registered prior to visiting the Jade Dragon and our local tour guide which is of Naxi (纳西族) origin had duly did so when we arrived at Lijiang a day before going up to Jade Dragon.

I guess the thin air at high altitude did cause some adverse effect on me but not severe enough to develop into mountain sickness as my wife noticed that I was less enthusiastic or more sedative and weak at the Jade Mountain as compared to other scenic areas at the lower altitude. I guess that was right, it was my first experience at such an high altitude after all, you will definitely feel some difficulty in breathing if you walk a bit faster due to lower amount of oxygen in the air.

It was a good lesson learned after all and kudos to my wife which always walks much slower than me wherever we go, flat-out beating me at the Jade Mountain.

Positivity & Negativity

It makes me wonder how come a company could still incur huge financial losses despite of implementation of the so-called bullet-proof good management practices such as key performance indexes, risk management policies, SWOT analysis, whistle-blowing, accountability and transparency and so on and so forth. The funny part is that nobody in the company seemed to be aware of the financial implications until the company dropped a bombshell and out of the sudden, cost overruns amounting to billions of dollars gives us a real shock of life by the time it is already irreparable.

Often I attend our company’s townhall meeting seeing the big bosses presenting the quarterly result of their divisions and everything seemed so rosy and everyone seemed to be talking about how well the company is generating good profit. Some say as a leader you must know how to talk, how to talk convincingly. I guess all of the bosses know how to talk, or to be more specific; how to talk to impress rather than talking the real facts and consequences, good and bad alike.

That’s how it goes, if the bosses are all the while thinking and speaking positively and sweeping all the negativities into the carpets one of these days the so-called positive attitude will backfire. Very often in a meeting when we talk about negative things or something that opposed to the view of the bosses, the first thing you get is your boss will shoot you down and label you as negative. To them, everything is Malaysia Boleh, everything can be done despite knowing that there are shortcomings or limitations.

That’s how positivity backfires, it leads to irreparable damage sometimes. No doubt we have to be positive to face various challenges and obstacles in work or in life but understanding our own limitations is a prerequisite to converting a positive attitude into success. Negative attitude is not at all bad, it gives you a clearer picture of you own limitations and how should these limitations be tackled first prior to charting a workable roadmap to success.

A fantastic weekend; an explosive F1 Finale

It is a fantastic weekend for sport enthusiast; a 4-corner fight at Yas Marina to decide who will be crowned the 2010 F1 World Champion, EPL matches and the live telecasts on the Asian Games are all set for tonight. In the long history of F1 series, this is the first time that four drivers are still in contention for the World Champion going into the last race and it goes to show how tight this season is.

Red Bull with their “no-team order” and unbridled racing philosophy is a class above of the rest undoubtedly as their cars and drivers were supremely fast in many circuits and if not because of the DNFs and backfires of their strategy allowing both driver to race on each other, Webber or Vettel could have been leading the championship comfortably at this stage despite of now Webber is in second and Sebastian Vettel third with 8 and 15 points respectively adrift of the leader Alonso.

In the qualify session last night Vettel again proved that he is fast enough to defend the trophy he had won last year. It is the 10^th pole by Vettel in this season and it goes to show how quick this young lad is. Could he overturn a 15-point lead by Alonso and be crowned the youngest F1 World Champion? Would he move aside to let Mark Webber win the title shall Alonso is in third position? All these will be answered tonight.

It is going to be an explosive F1 Finale anyway and I hope that the weather is fine tonight so that the bloody sickening Astro live transmission would not get affected by rains.

Dove or Hawk?

A colleague dropped by and we had a short chat on some latest promotions of a few personnel in our company. Since merger, some people seem advance must faster than the others and definitely there are disappointment for those who failed to get promotion. There are people saying that so and so are the blue eye boys or girls of the new boss and therefore getting promotion much easier than the rest of the people, like riding on a helicopter so to speak.

A few of us were in fact asked by the boss to apply for a higher position some time back in June or July. I didn’t bother to apply and was not call up for the interview. My colleagues did and went for the interview and not surprising they were not successful and it turned out that the management already had someone in mind to sit in that position and funny enough the guy was not even called up for interview.

That’s how it works sometime. Bosses also want to be nice guys, they certainly do not want to offence anyone in the manner as such that they play their tricks to make you believe that you have a chance to be promoted even though they already have somebody in mind. Therefore they call up all those who are senior enough to be promoted to be the side-kicks so as to make the occasion merrier.

My colleagues then wondered how come some people got promoted without even have to attend the interviews while some others like us have to apply for a promotion. That’s crystal clear, I guess, those who were called up to attend the interviews are those without any realistic chance to be promoted, not in the boss’ book so to speak, as simple as that or otherwise why the double standard?

My colleague then told me that since that interview incident he tried to be as humble and polite as possible and I asked him why. He said he noticed that those less offensive and polite people and sweet talkers tend to get promotion faster than the rest especially those hardcore rascals like us. I asked him what about a person’s contribution to the company then? What about the year of experience and loyalty then? He said all that not as important as whether or not you align yourself to the bosses.

Well said my friend. That’s the reality of working life as a wage earner.

Royal Town Arau flooded again....

As usual my home town Arau flooded again as it had been pouring over the past few days. I rang up my father this morning after reading newspaper reporting on the worsening of floods in the Northern states and fortunately my house was not affected but the Royal town Arau and my aunt’s house at Jitra was badly flooded. People in Jitra have been evacuated fearing that the floods may get worsen as it was reported that the water dam had to be released in worrying of its bursting due to too high water level.

Every year during monsoon period, flood is recurring but it’s a matter of big or small so people get use to it already and the government seems doing nothing about it. I remember when I was taking my SPM examination some twenty over years ago in that poor Royal town Arau, the examination hall was badly flooded. The exam supposed to be started in the morning but as we were waiting for the headmaster to bring the exam papers from Kangar, the water level kept on rising until the hall was submerged by 1 meter of flood water and our tables and chairs all floating around. Seeing that, the teacher asked all of us to carry our own table and chair to the second floor and we were all wet waist-down.

We kept on waiting until noon but the headmaster couldn't pass through Jejawi which was badly flooded and totally impassable by light vehicle and all of us were hungry, cold and shivering in panic. How to take exam in such condition? Well, some people living in the town may never have the bad experience of flood havoc but poor kampong boys and girls like me and my friends had seen the worst. Some of my friend's houses were completely submerged under flood water before.

And after so many years, floods is still recurring and everyone in the Northern state seems to get use to it. Hey it’s big or small only what, it will subside over a couple of days, the town folks may say. But what about those acres and acres of padi fields flooded and all went kaput? What about those sundry shops losing thousands and thousands of ringgit as all their barang all soaked by water? What about those furniture and electrical appliances of the ordinary family all damaged by floods?

The Prime Minister is so proud when he was announcing that the government is going to build another 100-storey high rise sophisticated building in KL and a few other high-tech related initiatives in the recent Economic Transformation Programmes. Perhaps he should look into it seriously to resolve those recurring issues such as floods affecting people in rural areas. I just wait and see if there is any minister visiting areas affected by severe floods in Kedah and Perlis and of course in Kelantan, a lot of the politician will be flocking there as the Galas by-election is just around the corner.

Alarm with GPS no help?

All this while I thought that Seremban is quite a safe place to stay due to its lesser crime as compared to other towns but I guess I was wrong. Even the Member of Parliament, Anthony Loke’s house was robbed and a few months ago a friend’s Toyota Fortuner was stolen from his house and today it was reported in the Star newspaper that another Toyota Fortuner was stolen from a businessman’s house in Seremban, and that car which was bought through a tender just a couple of day ago, even fixed with an alarm system with GPS but It seemed the supposedly advanced gadget did not work as the alarm system was not triggered and the GPS company could not even trace the vehicle whereabouts.

So the bad luck businessman is losing his hard-earned RM 134,000 as the car is waiting for transfer of ownership and thus no insurance coverage. It seems like there is a syndicate going around Seremban in stealing Toyota Fortuner as there were many incidents reported of late. The thieves must be targeting these popular vehicles in housing estates in Seremban, marking their targets and strike when the time is right as these car thefts seemed well planned and executed, leaving no traces and now even a Fortuner fixed with an alarm system with GPS can be stolen so easily without the notice of the owner right in front of his house.

I guess car thieves nowadays are very high tech and thus the Police need to be technologically well-equipped or otherwise they are losing out fast to the tech-savvy thieves and no wonder the car theft is on the rise as the Police is not capable of arresting the criminals.

From Serian to Mongkos

I have been staying for almost a week in a small town Serian, about 50 km away from Kuching the capital city of Sarawak, providing advisory services to a few state-owned oil palm estates here. It was my last day today visiting an estate in Mongkos and the estate sent their driver to pick me up from the one and only hotel in Serian early in the morning.

The old guy who has been working for about 25 years as a tractor driver transporting fruit bunches from the estate to the mill was reassigned to be a driver taking guests and collecting mails a couple of years ago due to his old ailment. I have known this old guy since a few years ago and many a time while fetching me to and fro the estate, this talkative old man telling me lots of stories, more appropriately his life stories.

This time around the old guy was so annoyed with his daughter who was supposedly on a boarding school in Serian, decided to quit the school even that there is only a few more weeks before her SPM examination. The old man was both furious and sad, as a laborer his whole life, earning a meager of salary to support his family, he has high hope on his children to study hard and excel in academic so that they could live a better lives than him, but alas none of his children completes the secondary school so the old man who are going to retire in a couple of months time naturally feels very disappointed.

As we drove closer to Mongkos, he saw kampong folks walking on the road going to work in their small padi field nearby, the old man pointed at them and said that probably his children were destined to be the laborers like them, earning their living in a hard way. Then he started to criticize the Prime Miniter Najib for not giving bonus to the civil servant but just a token of RM 500. I listened to this old guy patiently although he was actually telling me the same story again and again with some updates of latest hiccups whenever he fetches me from Serian to Mongkos.

It is just like when I’m travelling from remote area in Serian to the metropolitan Kuching, you see the changes in almost every aspects of life, from broken long-houses, scattered padi fields and black pepper farms, bad stretches of roads filled with potholes to high rise buildings, high-tech factories and sophisticated expressways, the complexity of life is also as such I guess. When the Prime Minister is proposing another 100-storey building to be built in KL, perhaps more attention should also be given to uplift the livelihoods of millions of people who are still struggling in poverty.

Express buses going way too fast

Few weeks back while renewing my wife’s car road tax I was told that I could only renew it for six months as I have summons not settled and thus being blocked by the traffic police. So reluctantly I went to the Traffic Police HQ in Seremban 2 and not surprisingly there were all together 12 summons not settled since a few years ago not on my wife’s car which is registered under my name but my own car. It was the latest 3 summons that causing the traffic police to block the renewal of the road tax so like it or not, I paid RM 300 each and got clearance from the traffic police then I went back to JPJ to get my wife’s car renewed the road tax for a year.

That’s the price you pay for speeding, but as a frequent traveler due to work requirement, I guess I can’t really avoid getting summons unless I can abide to the laws all the way. But when you are on a long straight road, highway especially, it’s just boring to be slow. But going fast doesn’t mean that it is reckless driving as it depends on the situation. If there are too many cars on the road, it will be dangerous to be fast as you would not know what other cars may do suddenly but if there is a light traffic, I guess it is ok to be fast a little bit.

I have seen too many times that lorries driving very slowly on the third lane and these people should be summoned for obstructing traffic as there were long queue of vehicles following at the back. I have seen too frequently that express buses driving way faster than they should be. You can ask the frequent express bus passengers and 9 out of 10 will tell you their bad experiences of how express buses going way too fast than the permissible speed. The recent case of express bus causing havoc on the North-South Express Way is just another example. If the express bus was following a legal speed, how on earth could it be skipped to the opposite lane in the way knocking down 2 cars, a van and a bus, causing 12 death and so many injured?

For the commercial vehicle, the legal speed is 80/90 km/h, as you can see on the big sticker at the back of the vehicle. That means it should go only to a maximum of 80 km/h on the trunk road and 90 km/h on the high way and you guess how many express bus drivers will follow that? I can tell you practically none. The 80/90 km/h sticker is for display only, nobody actually following that speed limit.

When I sit on an airplane, I know that I have no control of my life; it is the pilot, the plane itself and the Almighty. Now it seems that the bus passengers are also facing the same fate, it is the driver, the bus and the Almighty that will decide their fates like it or not.

Instead of issuing so many summons ekor which is useless to deter people especially the bus driver to abide to the legal speed why not the traffic police put more effort to educate them such as from time to time having road safety campaigns, frequently visiting the errant bus company making sure that their drivers are well trained and educated.

Bus drivers or for that matter all drivers/riders should realize that their bad driving behavior can potentially kill many innocent lives and the recent bus accident is just another misfortune that can be prevented if the bus driver who was also killed in the accident, could abide to the speed limit.

My teacher

Attended my uncle’s funeral two days ago and met up with my primary school teacher. It is almost 30 years since I left the primary school and seeing my old teacher, all the sweet and sour memories started to come back one after another. Time flies and once the very strict and well respected teacher has become an old man, still well respected among the community in a small town Arau, frequently presence himself in giving moral supports to the families in need, big or small occasions, weddings or funerals alike.

Before I approached my teacher who was sitting with another guest and chit-chatting, my father gave me a reminder, asking me not to ask my teacher whether he could remember who I am. I guess I’m not stupid enough to ask that question as I know how could it be possible for an old teacher in his seventies to remember the name of all his students, which could be more than thousands? I walked to him and wished him and surprisingly he still remembered me, and asking how my younger brothers were doing. I guess he could be chatting with my father before seeing me and knowing that I was coming back to attend the funeral.

His teaching career spanned not less than 3 decades I guess, teaching my aunties, me and my younger brother through the sixties, seventies and eighties. I guess we hardly can find a teacher as committed as him nowadays. Those days when I was growing up in the seventies, there was no such thing as “pendatang” issues. Even though I was from a Chinese Primary School Hwa Aik for six year, I was then to Secondary School in Dato’ Sheik Ahmad, just a few kilometers from my house which was surrounded by Malay kampong. My dad speaks fluent Malay, my late-grandma spoke excellent Malay although my late-mother didn’t speak Malay at first but she learned up pretty fast, she was a well sought after tailor in Arau, a lot of Malay ladies engaged her in stitching baju kurung, I remember how my mom getting herself so busy before Hari Raya as her customers would be coming to our house to ask for their baju kurung.

I hardly can remember any of my teachers in the secondary school or lecturers in the University but I surely cannot forget someone who is so committed to his duty as a teacher not only in the school but as a good friend to the parents and a role model to the community in a small town Arau.

As all these racism issues become more disturbing than ever mainly being cooked up by crooked-mind politicians, it seems the peaceful and harmonious days in the seventies or eighties have passed us as more and more politicians choose to take the racist’s path to achieve their ulterior motives.

What seemingly Ok may not be Ok

Sometimes, it takes a tragedy to remind us that a seemingly OK thing can lead to a regrettable incident. We often see monkeys loitering around our housing estate and we thought that it was OK. There are stray dogs running around and we thought that it was OK and some people even feeding them up and thus stray dogs breed more stray dogs on the streets.

Sometimes you see herds of cow or goat roaming at the road side and we thought that it was OK and nobody seems to bother about it except perhaps those driving in those kampong areas often have to be extra careful about the cow or goat cross the road out of the sudden.

It is saddened to read about a pitiful baby girl in Seremban succumbed to death reportedly being attacked by a wild monkey. I guess we could never imagine that such bizarre thing can happen but it happened and the first-time mother who had just given birth to her unfortunate baby girl has to possibly endure a life-long heartache as a result.

After carrying the baby for a good 10 months, undergoing the labour pain and how cruel life is, the baby girl just managed to breathe a few days of fresh air and a miserable monkey took away her life.

What seemingly OK may not be OK after all!!!

Age is catching up...

Celebrated my wife birthday a couple of day ago and mine will also be around the corner. We bought RM 75 a piece birthday cake from Secret Recipe and it was the most expensive cake we had bought so far and there is still half of it lying in the refrigerator. I don’t celebrate birthday as to me getting older is not something good to be celebrated.

But like it or not, time flies and we often didn’t realize it until there are some signs. Yesterday while having my eye sight checked, the optometrist asked me whether I’m having any difficulty in reading and I said no. He said I have the farsightedness as well apart from my normal nearsightedness. I said come-on, I’m not even 40 years old yet and farsightedness, is it possible? The optometrist snubbed, raised his eyebrows and smiling to me as though he was telling me to come to the painful reality of getting older.

A couple of months ago I felt the knee pain when I was jogging with my wife. It had never happened before but I know that it will happen someday. I know that I could be seriously short of Ca as I’m allergic to milk and as a heavy coffee drinker, all the Ca required for bone will be draining out fast. Knee pain is quite new to me but my teeth are rotting faster than ever. Worst still, I could hear the scratching sound when doing squatting or kneeling and that’s horrible. I went to the pharmacy and was recommended to take some supplements of Glucosamine. Like it or not I have to take it as I don’t want to be affected by joint pain when I’m going on tour to Kunming, China next month.

Like it or not, age is catching up and that’s a reality of life that everyone will have to go through.

Is more expensive cigarette a good way to deter smoking?

It doesn’t bother me how much cigarette prices are going up tomorrow. But the question is whether it is effective to encourage people to quit smoking by increasing the prices exorbitantly. It may to a certain extent as a 20-stick pack will now cost about RM 10 and that's a lot for an average income person. I guess most of the smokers will turn to the smuggled cigarettes which are cheaper. As it was reported by the Star, there are approximately 100 types of smuggled cigarettes available in the local market.

If you are in Sabah, especially in places like Lahad Datu, Sandakan or Tawau, you can see many toddlers peddling around selling illegal cigarettes. These are very young street kids, boys and girls alike either following their parents or they themselves squatting outside the coffee shops or wet market selling illegal cigarettes. Very often you can see the young boys are puffing as well when they are selling.

Increasing the prices of cigarettes may not necessary be effective to deter people from smoking if cheaper options of smuggled cigarettes is easy available. Hence, the Ministry of Health should instead impose stricter rule to widen the demarcation of non-smoking areas especially in the restaurants even the open air ones. Very often we can see the irresponsible people smoke openly in the restaurant even there are babies or toddlers around them. It is a smoker’s choice to disregard the health hazard posed by cigarettes, but our authority on the other hand is not doing enough to protect the non-smokers especially the young kids from the inhalation of nicotine especially in public areas.

Indonesian workers slam anti-Malaysia activists

I must say Indonesian workers are among the toughest people capable of working under very harsh environments such as those at remote oil palm estates lacking basic facilities i.e water and electricity. They can survive without proper water supply and bathe themselves and doing washing at the river. I must say our oil palm industry as a whole owe a big thank you to the Indonesian workers working here. Without them, we would not be able to harvest the fruit bunches to churn out the much precious palm oil which is the third largest economy contributor of our country.

Labour shortage problem has become more critical of late as the labour requirement has grown exponentially in tandem with huge expansion of oil palm plantation both locally and in Indonesia. There are information saying that Indonesian oil palm companies are recalling their experienced workers in Malaysia to go back to serve their own turf. These Indonesian companies are willing to pay the experienced workers handsomely equivalent to what they are getting here.

It is disgusting to read about a 26-year old Indonesian maid was physically and sexually abused by her employers in Penang a couple of days ago. The errant employers are treating their maid as though she is a slave. Such irresponsible employers must be penalized by the authority as no one should treat another person as a slave, remember all men and women are created equal. The maids work for their employers in exchange of their wages and the relationship should be a cordial one, it is not slavery. If these maids are not up to expectation, go back to the agent for an exchange or whatever, but why torture them?

The strained relationship between Malaysia and Indonesia is not doing any good to both of the country. Indonesia is a big labour market and Malaysia requires a huge supply of labour, so why fighting while we should actually complement each other?

A victory at last.....

When two finest players meet each other in a final, a dynamic and interesting match is always expected. But in the past, we have seen too many disappointments when Lee Chong Wei meeting up with his arch nemesis, Lin Dan, the nearest one being the past Thomas Cup where Lee lost to Lin Dan dismally.

I guess Malaysian fans including me never give up on Lee Chong Wei or for that matter Koo and Tan whenever they play against the world best as apart from squash, badminton is our only pride at the world sport stage. We were close to win our first Olympic gold medal but it was Lin Dan who stood in our way, defeating Lee Chong Wei with much of an ease.

In Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium, surprisingly there were many Malaysians supporting Lee playing in the men-single final. You could hear loud voices chanting Malaysia Boleh in supporting of the much confident Lee. When Lee edged Lin Dan in a closely fought match, the Malaysian fans roared in the stadium, it was such an ecstatic mood while our hero Lee Chong Wei smiled broadly, breathing a sigh of relief perhaps, long awaited victory at last.

The Japan Open should be a good boost for Lee, no home ground advantage for both, only determination set the difference. Lin Dan played brilliantly so did Lee but our hero somehow with nerves of steel refused to let hot favorite Lin Dan to tame him for another time. Congratulation to Datuk Lee but for how long can we depend on him to shoulder such a heavy responsibility of the sole flag bearer in the international sport arena.

Grandma slaughtering chicken

When I was a small kid living in a small town Arau the only thing I hated so much during festive season was too see how my grandma slaughtered a chicken. She would slit the chicken’s neck, then dropped the chicken at the side of our well and the chicken would then be reflectively jumping up and down, flapping its wings and making hell lot of suffering noise. Fortunately my grandma didn’t just chop off the head or otherwise it will be a nightmare seeing the chicken running around with their heads cut off. It would take quite some time before the blood was drained out completely before grandma started to pluck the chicken.

The scene was so bloody that come to think of it, I really salute my grandma for her bravery to slaughter the chicken. I can get fainted if I see too much of blood, so when grandma asked me to catch a chicken for slaughtering, I always ended up running away from her rather than helping her catching chicken.

Nowadays, some psychotic people are simply killing people as though they are slaughtering chicken. When the news of the millionaire businesswoman and her companions were brutally murdered and theirs remains burnt into ashes, I wonder what had happened to our society and why are there so many psychotics around us, murdering people simply because of business rivalry. Worst still, a reputable lawyer in Banting who has a Datuk title was among the suspects arrested.

Remember some days ago the de-facto law minister’s call to abolish death penalty and saying that it was wrong to take someone’s life? Well, he may just have to think over it again.

4 Siblings surviving on biscuits

Last week while I was sitting in a coffee shop in Sibu with a friend and his contractor, we heard a vocal singing a Mandarin karaoke from afar. As we were wondering who sang karaoke so early in the morning, we saw one handicapped man without both of his legs sitting in a wheelchair, pushed by another limping handicapped person, singing a mobile karaoke, begging for money.

The voice was so soothing that when you look at that pitiful man without both legs, it make you wonder how unfair god is, giving some and not giving some, putting such a good singing talent in a pitifully handicapped body. As the car parks outside the coffee shop were all full, the wheelchair bound singer couldn’t come close to us. Seeing that these handicapped men could not come up to where were sitting, a lady sitting next table to us stood up and walked out of the coffee shop to give some donations. My friend Chong Kok Siong quickly pulled out 10 ringgit from his pocket and I did the same, asking the nice lady to pass up the donations for us.

Such unfortunate things happen all over the world. Sometimes I wonder how lucky we are, to be able to live a normal and healthy life. Not rich enough to live luxuriously but mean enough to have our stomach full each day. But there are unfortunate people everywhere, some know how to seek help, some don’t. Just a few days ago there was a piece of news on the Star reporting on a poor guy running away from Along, can’t even feed his 4 kids with proper meals. The 4 siblings were reportedly surviving on biscuits and have never tasted a grain of rice in their life as the father was unemployed and can’t afford to provide the kids with proper meals and accommodation.

I looked at the pictures of the skinny girls and boy apparently under nourished; I shake my head in disbelief. At least what the father should do is to seek help, or to send the children to the orphanage house or to look for someone who is capable to raise up these kids. Certainly they deserve to live a better life, to get education so that they would not be like their father, living uncertain life, running there hiding here. They can have a better future if the father is brave enough to seek help but unfortunately their father chooses to let things go as what it is, letting the poor kids hiding inside an abandoned workshop, eating biscuit day and night to stave off hunger.

Sometimes I wonder why these people want to have babies if they can’t afford to raise them. Why want to let the poor kids suffer, as though suffering is a way of life that everyone has to go through.

The culture of Kiam-siap (Thrifty)

We had the opportunity to interact with the new acting President/CEO of Sime Darby via a townhall session conducted yesterday. After all the bad news and huge losses suffered by the Energy and Utility Division of the company, I guess the employees are eager to hear from the new President himself what he has to offer to make Sime a more successful company or rather how can he steer the company out of the recent blunder of the E&U division. Since the disclosure of the huge provision for losses for E&U, the share prices of Sime had been spiraling downward causing once the biggest company in term of market capitalization in Bursa Malaysia to shamefully shrink into the third position behind Maybank and Public bank.

This man, from the first impression is down to earth sort of person, not the usually flamboyant or gung-ho types of businessmen we always see. He speaks business and he means business. Hence, no extravagant expenditures one can expect from him. He had said that it was no point spending lots of money to decorate his office with Versace outfits and expensive furniture and so on but if there is a need to expand the business he will spend. Quoting an example of when he was negotiating the sugar business with Robert Kuok’s Perlis Plantation, he was rather impressed with the thrift culture adopted by Robert Kuok. The office of PPB was simple, and the breakfast provided during the negotiations was also simple, just coffee, tea and some nyonya kuih. But if you walk into any Shangri-La Hotel, you will get the first class reception with all the premier facilities. To make it simple, Datuk Bekke reiterated that, the culture of thrift will be the way going forward, spending money at the right place to generate more values for the company and shareholders, and stop all unnecessary spending.

He originated from Penang and thus I guess he knows a little bit of Hokkein, he mentioned the word “kiam-siap” which means thrifty and his speech was basically surrounded by the culture of thrift and cost efficiency. Unlike the usually gung-ho types of businessmen, this time around we have a person who speaks business and means business to helm the company. He had mentioned during the townhall that the “bleeding” has stopped with all the provision have been made to counter the losses of E&U Division. Hence let begin a new journey with a down-to-earth captain to sail through the varying sea and wind conditions, exploring the new frontier.

It’s incorrect to take someone’s life

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department has called for the abolishment of death penalty as he was in the opinion that it’s incorrect to take someone’s life. He is probably right as the justice system may not be perfect and there could be possibilities that death penalty be handed down to innocent people.

Many months ago the government of Taiwan had also called for the abolishment of death penalty but it was strongly opposed by certain quarters. Bai Bing-Bing was one of the Taiwanese artists opposed strongly to the proposal by the Taiwanese government to abolish death penalty. The poor lady lost her only daughter who was murdered by the kidnappers. The cruel kidnappers cut the finger of the poor little girl and sent it to her mother demanding ransom. Bai Bing-Bing had said that she would never forgive the kidnappers and cursed that these people rot in hell. For money, some people can even kill a small little girl, and who are they to have the right to take away other’s lives?

Death penalty serves little purpose to deter serious crime such as murder or drug trafficking as such things happen everywhere, with or without death penalty. But if someone has killed somebody else intentionally, then his or her life should also be taken away through a fair trial otherwise, there will be no justice in this world, as some people simply do not value life. Two days ago, a security guard murdered two of his colleagues simply because of a small argument and today, a homemade bomb which was intentionally placed in front of an apartment in Cheras killed one lady and injuring a few others. Thousands of lives killed by the 911 terrorists and do they deserve only life imprisonment or something more justifiable?

Zero tolerance to racist remarks

Well done, Mr. Prime Minister for your affirmation on “the government will not tolerate anyone making racist remarks”. The case of the head mistress uttering racist remarks to the students warrant us to look into this seriously, as the school is none other than the institution to not only educating our future generations, to equip them with all necessary knowledge and skills so that they could face the world when they are adults but more importantly, it is the place to cultivate racial harmony by learning to accept each other despite of different races and religions. That’s crucial as to most of us, school is the first place we come into contact with our friends from other races and it is when we started to learn how to live harmoniously with our friends from different races. To this regards, the teachers have to set a good example. If the teachers are also racists, how could the younger generations be educated to accept each other despite of their different background?

Racism is nothing new to mankind as it happens all over the world from then till now. Even the same clan may also have conflicts that could lead to major confrontation. That’s human. But Malaysia is a peaceful country as a whole, despite of multi-racial and different religions, this is a country that can accept each other even though we are different. But if someone comes and tell you that if you don’t like here then you should go back to the place that your ancestors originated, that’s simply too shallow-minded and worst still if the teachers are saying such things. It is not easy to be a teacher nowadays as discipline of the students is getting from worst to bad. The younger generations are well exposed nowadays as modern technologies and better living environments have made them becoming little smart alec, forgetting how to respect their teachers or older people. Just look at the 3 idiots splashing paint at a surau in Seremban. Can this be a racial issue or is it just a vandalism?

Following the affirmation of the Prime Minister, the government should act justly on anyone who makes racist remarks, be it civil servants or politicians from the government or opposition. But if the government is using its machinery to get rid of the opposition in the name of racism, it will breed more hatred and doing nothing good in enhancing racial harmony.

Lackadaisical assault team.....

I guess I’ve seen too much of these Hollywood movies as I always perceived the SWAT team of any country can swiftly turn off any probable security threats, dangerous or violent situations. I was dead wrong, as the Philippines’ SWAT team was so amateur in their handling of the hostage siege leading to the death of 8 Hong Kong tourists.

Remember "Bad Boys" the movie, where detectives Will smith and Martin Lawrence evaded so swiftly into the hideout of the drug kingpin to rescue the hostage? Very impressive isn’t it? But it will never happen in reality especially if the police themselves are so corrupted. You think they will risk their lives to save yours? Come on, think it over again. To many of us, our impression of the blue shirt is that when they were wearing white shirts waving you to slow down, and stop you at a road side asking you whether you know you are committing traffic offences and asking you whether you need any special help.

Even the Philippines Police admitted their assault team was inadequately trained, armed and led. What the fuck, you don’t say this after 8 foreign tourists were killed, after one of your sacked cop turned amok with an M-16 and after your top cops acted so lackadaisically. You should have said this before ANYTHING HAPPEN, before it was too late. I guess the terrorists in Philippines’ are better trained and equipped than their Police as their best of the best didn’t even know how to break through the windows of hostage bus or the sniper can’t even finish off the gunman when there were ample opportunities. For the past many years, too many incidents of Chinese businessmen being kidnapped and some hostages were brutally killed, and it was said that some cases had the involvement of corrupted Police.

As we are mourning for the unfortunate people who were killed by an amok cop in the capital city of Philippines, we too have to bear in mind that if our cops are corrupted, the whole nation will also be in serious threat, like a time bomb awaiting to explode.

Come on-lar Counsel, you can do better than this

Many years ago a friend of mine attended a job interview and he was so annoyed with the arrogant interviewers, he stood up, fucked off the interviewers before they could even start up the interview and walked off. When he told me the story I laughed like mad. The interviewers were boosting themselves, criticizing our local universities produced low class graduates like my friend. These interviewers who were overseas graduates acted so proudly as though they were so superior to local grads like us.

My friend, the forever quick temper but righteous guy, gave these ang-mo-sai a good lesson; he told them off; if their foreign education were so good, why bother coming back to Malaysia, earning a meager salary? They should have stay put in US and earn big money, after all their parents could have spent a few hundred thousand to send them oversea, is it worth to come back here to earn a few thousands a month? A local grad also can earn that much salary, so to speak.

There is an old Chinese proverb “50 steps laughing at 100 steps”, which originated form a story in ancient war time, a soldier from a defeated side who ran for his life but laughed at another soldier who ran 50 more steps ahead of him. The moral of the story, why laughing at the other if we are also so-so only?

Just like the counsel of MACC who questioned the credibility and qualification of Dr Pornthip, asking her whether she aware that her university was not recognized by the Malaysian government and thus her qualification was questionable, to which Dr Pornthip countered with much self-esteem, "I do not know if my university is recognised here. But I know that it is one of the top five universities in Asia. You should not look down on Asians" The knee-jerk and such appropriate reply immediately silenced that idiotic counsel but garnered lots of cheers and supports from the courtroom.