Speechless

It is totally disgusting, seeing a group of protesters carrying a severed cow’s head marching on the street, protesting relocation of an Indian temple to their area. I thought that this kind of thing only happened in the ancient times, like those headhunting practiced by certain tribes, or an ancient ritual where animals were beheaded for celebrations or ritual practices. In the present day, this sort of thing should not happen at all as it is uncivilized and too provocative, but too bad that it actually happened in our own country, a peace loving country, a multi-racial country where everybody respects each other even though they are different in terms of origin, religions, culture and many other things.

Along with the caning of a Kartika for consuming alcohol, this incident will surely attract wide coverage from the media around the world. Peace-loving people, human right activist and perhaps animal lovers throughout the world will surely condemn such inhumane act. It will surely tarnish the image of the country.

To sack or not to sack?

Apparently OTK is having a different standard, or shall I say moral standard, as compared to his predecessor OKT. Chua was not sacked when his infamous sex video scandal surfaced in the late 2007. But how come about 2 years later, he is sacked for the same offence after so long, and after being elected as the deputy president of MCA? How MCA could prosecute a person for an offence committed 2 years ago, I wonder. But that is politics; you can have a thousand of reasons to sack a person, especially if the person is not in tune with the president.

Fong Chan Onn pointed it out precisely the dilemma of MCA. He said MCA do not have any more capital for unrest in the party. The sacking of Chua would certainly trigger a further split in the party which already loses supports of the Chinese majority during the 8 March, 2008’s general election. Don’t forget Chua was elected as the deputy president even though the grassroots knew very well about the sex video, which to many was a frame up by his political enemy. Chua can only have himself to be blamed for not knowing that the safer place could very well be the most dangerous one.

To cane or not to cane?

Out of the sudden, Malaysia is in the international limelight again. This time around is because a Muslim lady was sentenced for 6 strokes of caning in offending the syariah laws of drinking alcohol. Then again, the Syariah Appeal Court has decided to defer the caning sentence as it is now the fasting month.

The Prime Minister has openly urged Kartika to appeal against the Syariah court to cane her. Sharizat, the minister of Women, Family and Community Development reiterated that the caning sentence meted out to Kartika is too extreme and the former Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir also opined that the punishment was too harsh especially for a woman committed the offence the first time. All these experienced politicians and leaders know that the caning sentence meted out to Kartika has already attracted wide coverage of foreign media. Certainly, our prime Minister would not want to let the whipping sentence on a woman because of drinking beer to tarnish the image of our country. Such punishment will surely be deemed too extreme and violation of human rights by foreigners who drink beers just like we drink coca-cola every day.

The problem now is that Kartika is willing to accept the punishment. Unlike others who committed the same offence and getting the same punishments but went on to appeal, she didn’t appeal and thus the authorities got caught up. Now, to cane or not to cane is not just a simple decision to call for but a rather complicated and in-depth review on the present laws is needed to better shape up our legal systems so as to avoid such confusion from recurring.

Change....

In life, change is inevitable. Some changes are too drastic to bear with. Some people lost their family, house, belongings everything over a split second which is too drastic a change, so unbearable, just like those who lost everything during Morakot typhoon struck Southern Taiwan on 8 August. To the victims, such a change is too cruel as they lost everything including hope over a split second, not the fault on their own doing, just a bad verdict from mother nature.

My office is going to be closed down end of this month. I shall be relocated to Lukut, not too bad as compared to my colleagues who were earlier transferred to Banting or Carey Island. At least Lukut is nearer to Seremban. Unlike my colleagues who need to wake up early in the morning to make in on time to Banting office, I can still continue to enjoy my sleep until 7.00am then only take a shower, breakfast then drive slowly to my office, not bad, not too bad at all.

I have been comfortably working in Seremban since 1999. Well, a good ten years, sweet memories which I hope will last much longer but with the merger, a change is in the way to break the complacency that I have enjoyed thus far. That is what it is, life goes on no matter rain or shine. We can only hope that the change is for betterment.

Cadbury NZ stop using palm oil

The oil palm growers have initiated the RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil) a few years ago knowing the consequence of bad impression of westerners on palm oil production. The cultivation of oil palm has long been associated with the destruction of tropical rain forest and also its biodiversity. The planters are always in a defensive mode when talk about the lost of forest and biodiversity due to the expansion of oil palm cultivation. We have to somehow admit that oil palm is growing on huge areas which were formerly rain forest. Just like any agriculture activities, lands are getting scare and therefore evasion into forest reserve is happening.

Agriculture is a mean to improve social economy for developing countries like Malaysia and Indonesia as the industry provide work opportunities and also improve infrastructure especially accessibility in remote areas. As an agronomist visiting plantations in remote areas in Sabah, Sarawak and Indonesia over the past 10 years, I can appreciate the development of remote areas brought about by the opening of oil palm or rubber plantations. From year to year, I can see the development of township or prosperity of remote areas as a result of plantation expansion.

However, there are irresponsible planters which are simply disobeying the good agriculture practices while doing the land clearing activities. One such example is that they use burning to clear land knowing very clearly that zero burning policy has been mandated by the government. Of course it is easier to burn as everything will turn into ash and that will make planting work much easier. At the same time, there are good planters who dedicatedly carry out agriculture activities according to the RSPO requirements. Now, can you tell me whether palm oil is good or bad as far as environment is concerned?

Whatever it is, it boils down to supply and demand. Very good example is that Cadbury New Zealand has bowed down to the pressure of NGOs to stop using palm oil in their products. Palm oil has been associated with the destruction of forests and wildlife by the environmentalists. As much as we want to dismiss the claims by the NGOs on the issue of rain forest destruction due to cultivation of palm oil, the oil palm planters must also be more environmentally conscious when clearing up new lands for oil palm. Rain forest should indeed be deemed as a world heritage and should be protected as it plays a key role to slow down the process of global warming. We can’t be felling down trees indiscriminately as these trees are also meant for future generations.