How to turn around a salted fish 咸鱼翻身

When the Prime Minister announced that the government is going to provide free e-mail accounts to all Malaysian aged 18 and above, the first thing that came into my mind was; what for? Most of the working adults will be given the e-mails by their employers and if you ask around, those youngsters could have easily more than one free e-mail account registered with Yahoo or Google.

As what commented by the Chief Minister of Penang, why free e-mails? Would it be better if the government can provide free access to internet? Then ordinary households can save some money on internet access. Then the PM mentioned that it will be a private initiative as the government is not using public fund for this project.

The second thing came to my mind, who is this private company and how is it going to benefit from this free project.

It turns out that Tricubes, a GN3 company listed at ACE, is going to spearhead this 1-Malaysian Email project that will cost about RM50mil private investment that includes the development of a web portal as a one-stop centre for government services such as social networking, checking of bills online and payments. I don’t know what is this GN3 stands for but apparently it indicates that this company is not in a good financial condition.

Immediately after the Prime Minister announced this project, the share price of Tricubes, which was earlier half-dead at half a cent per share shot up almost 400 over % to about 31.5 sen as at yesterday. Those shareholders or those insiders who knew about this project who could have bought the cheap shares beforehand and now stand to make a big fortune. Imagine making 400% return over a week, it is as though money is dropping from the sky.

Nothing is free in this world, if you want to strike a lottery; you first need to spend money to buy a ticket. This 1-Malaysia Email project seems to be very noble on a bright side but we don’t know on the other side, how much money have been scooped by those involved through the so-called legal mean of speculating the share market.

Dog world

Stray dogs are often a nuisance to the neighborhoods as they often feed on the food remnants from the dustbins and dirtying our streets. Dogs and cats are domesticated animals and thus depend on human to provide shelters and foods but have you ever wonder how these stray dogs survive in the wild?

Two days ago while visiting an estate in Kahang, Johor, I came across a few stray dogs that were feeding on the rats for survival. As the tractor leveling the fronds which were washed away from the frond-stacking rows due to recent floods, there were many rats, big ones and small ones all running out from their nests. And those stray dogs which were patiently waiting at the side immediately prey on these rats as they came out.

I guess for survival these stray dogs are still keeping their animal instincts with them as they have to keep their hunting ability for their foods. It was an interesting occurrence as we often think that only cats are equipped with the natural ability to catch rats but dogs, for their own survival in the wild, also preying on rats.

Few days ago my mother-in-laws was away from home for a night and when she came back, her dog refused to eat, as though she became sulky as she was left alone in the house. My mother in-laws even fried an egg to cheer up her dog but to no avail as she remained depressed for no apparent reason. You see, we always say that different people different luck but apparently different dogs are also having different lucks.

As the so-called high class pets are too pampered and thus tend to pick and choose their foods, the hard-luck stray dogs in the oil palm estates have to prey on rats to keep their stomach full. As my mother-in-laws’ Fifi is obese and advised by the veterinarian to shed some weight, those stray dogs have to endure the faith of hunting rats for survival.

Status quo but great loss to SUPP

There are a lot of similarities between just concluded Sarawak state elections and 308 general elections. The most apparent one being that Chinese voters are one-sidedly voting for opposition resulting in a great loss suffered by SUPP, the biggest Chinese party in BN of Sarawak. Even the president and deputy president of SUPP lost their seat and all the Chinese dominated seats in the capital city of Kuching went to DAP.

A great victory for DAP as they have won 12 out of 15 seats contested. Even though DAP this time around fielded relatively young candidates but their new bloods have successfully uprooted those from SUPP who have been sitting there for far too long. Some could have retired long ago but remain there for what? For the people? Or for personal gains and not forgetting their cronies for sure would want them to stay for as long as possible so that they could share a piece of cake in the government projects.

It is a status-quo anyhow, as the ruling coalition wins big in urban and remote areas. It is evident that there is still a polarization of politic preferences in Sarawak, just like West Malaysia as people in rural areas are still in fovour of BN led government while city folks are crying for a change. And should such a situation persists, there is little chances to see another political tsunami in the upcoming general election.

SUPP is surely facing a dilemma now, just like Gerakan and MCA in the past general election, even their president lost the seats contested. The previous state election in 2006 should have given a clue to SUPP that Chinese voters were no longer buying their old tricks of using development and the portfolio of deputy chief minister as a selling point.

If Gerakan President can be unseated as the chief minister of Penang, what so great about the deputy chief minister of SUPP?

Identity of the man in-action and the timing of its revelation

It is hard not to believe that the revelation of the sex video implicating an opposition leader and RPK’s confession to TV3 has nothing to do with the Sarawak election and maybe a national election soon after that if the poll outcomes favour the present government.

The sequence of events tells us that all these are planned rather than co-incidental. Why RPK, once the close ally to Anwar Ibrahim has not clarified his own statutory declaration that he didn’t in any way implicating the PM and his wife in the murder of the poor Mongolian lady and why is it now, just before the Sarawak election, he accepted an interview by TV3 to clear the air while all this while the public were fooled by his strong portrayal of involvement of PM and his wife? If RPK claimed that Anwar has lost his credibility, he himself has no integrity to even question Anwar’s credibility.

Politicians are using all sort of dirty tactics to win over the voters and their strategies are basically two; one, to give away all the sweeties prior to the election and thus you can see all sorts of promises given by the government from building a Chinese school to new tar roads right up to the rumah panjang in remote areas. Two; blackmailing the opposite camps by dirty tricks such as sex video, buying over their allies for all sorts of backstabbing, creating infighting , divide and rule so to speak.

Now that the police have confirmed the authenticity of the sex video and has even identified both of the hero and heroine in action, when are they going to reveal the true identity of the naked-man-in-action then, tomorrow morning just before the people of Sarawak casting their votes or wait before the general election? It will surely depend on their level of confidence then.

As it was reported that some of the grey areas have turned white after a string of visits by PM and his deputy and all the BN heavyweights, perhaps, the identity of the man in the sex video is not so critical at this point and it can be revealed prior to the general election then.

Royal town flooded again...just after 5 months

A fortnight ago my father rang me up asking whether I will be able to go back to Arau for Cheng Beng. I wasn’t sure at that point as there were some jobs at hand to meet the dateline but a week ago I told him that I will be going back as the workload eased slightly. Two days ago my dad rang me up again and this time around, he told me not to go back as it has been pouring days and nights resulting in severe floods occurring in some parts of my home town, the royal town Arau, where the palace of Perlis is located.

My dad told me that some of his friends were unable to Cheng Beng over the past week due to poor weather and some of them had been visiting the graves for a few times just to pack up the ceremonial stuff and went back home due to sudden rains. Well, it looks like not only living people are affected by rains but our deceased loved ones, who supposedly lying down there peacefully are also feeling the effect of La Nina.

A merely after 5 months after I wrote about my home town, the Royal town Arau affected by severe floods, quite a number of people in Arau and Kangar have to be evacuated again this time around as the authority have to release the water at the dams in worrying of over-flowing. It is even worst in Southern Thailand where the government have to use helicopters and aircraft carrier to evacuate stranded tourists at a few population vacation spots.

The weather has gone haywire and those living in low-lying areas have to endure the constant fear of floods during raining seasons. And for those farmers who suffer huge losses due to crop damage, only god knows why are they have to suffer from such predicament.