Saturday, November 24, 2007

Good bye Mr Howard


A great Prime Minister undeniably for Australians . I believe his lost of his seat and government can be attributed to differences of population tastes . Tastes and preferences have changed . People in Australia wanted something new ... something fresh ....
Mr Howard has been there for 11.5 years . But all the years he has been there , he did good job economically and politically . Though we all have differences of opinions in the war issue , we cannot rule out the fact that he has done alot and dedicated his years to the people of Australia .
As I am writing , I am watching live TV of Kevin Rudd's speech at The Australian paper website . I sure hope he does well !

Sunday, November 18, 2007

I'm Home Safely

I am home at last after a tiring 8 hour flight plus 2.5 hours on the road KL - Ipoh ! But glad that I'm safe and sound at home . Even sweeter to see my new Sony Camera T200 ! And what more to hear that dad just won 3 awards from his company !

Cool . Pals , I'm tired and won't be seeing you guys yet . But you can reach me at 012-5838408 . Let me know if any of you are back in Ipoh . Will go out for a meal with you guys .

Not gonna blog again anytime soon .... perhaps till I have the mood and time . Currently my study aka computer room has turned into a zone of books .... sis having SPM . So yeah .... not much space for me to use my ADSL and my laptop . Haha .

See ya guys around !

Sunday, November 11, 2007

WOW !!!!!!

Congratulations Bersih and the 40000 people who rallied at KL !! Never at any moment of yesterday did I expect the memorandum to successfully arrive at the gates of the Palace . Though I did hope that history is created .... and it did ! Amazing crowd ...

Anyway , I believe many more could have attended if not for the road blocks , arrests and traffic jams be it in non-KL states or inside KL . These could have put the protestors on a step back ... and also with the pouring rain over there ... it might demotivate people .

Rain huh .... cloud seeding again ? Or is it really natural rain yesterday ? Hmm . I hope no one was hurt as it was meant to be peaceful though illegal . Perhaps Pak Lah should not be too confident about going straight into elections instead of listening to problems like this .

You never know what to expect from all voters since there exists a medium of communication called Internet and since there exists a growing knowledgeable society .

But then , of course our friend Datuk Seri ZAM has the statistics of yesterday's event . Allow me to pick from Agendadaily.com



Dalam perkembangan berkaitan Menteri Penerangan Datuk Seri Zainuddin Maidin menolak dakwaan stesen televisyen satelit Al Jazeera bahawa polis telah bertindak keras terhadap petunjuk perasaan.

Beliau memberitahu stesen itu polis telah cuba menyuraikan tunjuk perasaan dengan menyembur air kerana ia adalah perhimpunan haram, tetapi setelah mereka enggan, polis membenarkan kumpulan itu berarak ke Istana Negara untuk menyampaikan memorandum menuntut pilihan raya bersih.

Polis telah berjaya mengendalikan tunjuk perasaan dengan baik, katanya semasa ditemuramah secara langsung oleh stesen itu melalui panggilan telefon

Beliau berkata demikian bagi mengulas mengenai perhimpunan haram anjuran Gabungan Pilihanraya Bersih dan Adil atau dikenali sebagai "Bersih" yang dianjurkan oleh 26 badan bukan kerajaan dan disertai parti pembangkang untuk menyerahkan memorandum berhubung beberapa tuntutan mengenai proses pilihan raya di negara ini kepada Istana Negara.

Zainuddin bila ditanya kenapa Malaysia tidak membenarkan tunjuk perasaan, berkata: "Tunjuk perasaan tidak perlu kerana pilihan raya tidak pernah gagal diadakan di Malaysia mengikut jadualnya." Menteri Penerangan turut mengecam Al Jazeera kerana membuat pertanyaan mengikut persepsi yang salah.

Beliau berkata wartawan Al Jazeera telah mempunyai persepsi sendiri sebelum datang ke Malaysia dan menambah: "Malaysia bukan Myanmar dan bukan Pakistan, Malaysia adalah sebuah negara demokrasi."

Zainuddin berkata kebanyakan penonton di Malaysia ketawa melihat kelakuan dan aksi wartawan Al Jazeera yang cuba memberikan gambaran seolah-olah tunjuk perasaan itu begitu buruk dengan menjerit-jerit sehingga terasa kepada mereka ia bukan keadaan yang sebenarnya.



Read the last paragraph . Datuk Seri ... betul ke kebanyakan penonton di Malaysia ketawa melihat kelakuan dan aksi wartawan Al Jazeera ?

First of all ... they are foreigners .... and what more to say journalists . Journalists' words reach millions in a minute or two . And if that happens , boom !! You will see our image getting smashed ... you will see a dip in financial sectors .... etc .

And I can't believe our Statistical Dept is so efficient !! The demonstration happened yesterday .... and you can then say it on TV that "KEBANYAKAN ORANG DI MALAYSIA KETAWA MELIHAT AKSI WARTAWAN AL JAZEERA" ??

Wow . Haha ... I wonder what Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz will say ..... what Pak Lah will say .... what Khairy will say ....

Maybe Datuk Seri Nazri will say "Mereka ini Bodoh" ... maybe Pak Lah will say "Saya pantang dicabar .... nanti tengoklah !" .... maybe Khairy will say "Semalam ada 40 ribu beruk" .

Yes yes ... you never know ...... now we all can begin to ponder , wonder , think , and wait to see what can our constitutional King do .

Thursday, November 08, 2007

A Country Rich in Diversity

Happy Deepavali to all my Hindu friends . It will be nice if I can get my hands on my neighbour's curry now !

Actually Malaysia is a very wonderful place . Take a moment and ponder . Though politically we might have quarrels , and we might have spikes in our friendship at times .... but festivals always unite us all .

That is why I believe Malaysia has managed to keep together as a united nation for 50 years all because of the many festivals and celebrations we all have . Happy mood in Malaysia comes almost every month on average !

Happy Deepavali .

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Winter in a Summer

Well , over the last few days , Canberra experienced rain ..... and when I mean rain ... it is really rain . We rarely have any rain except for the drizzles .

It was really a stormy night two days back I think . This morning I wake up feeling cold . I thought it should be getting warmer .... because after all ... it is summer . Cold days only happen a few days in summer .

Turned on my Yahoo Widgets a moment ago . Was extremely surprised with the 5 day forecast . Temperature today is 11-17 deg , Wed 10-16 deg , Thurs 10-17 deg , Fri 11-17 , Sat 11-17 . Wind chills are approximately 11 deg . These temperature seems more like autumn or winter to me than summer .

Winter in a summer .

Monday, November 05, 2007

Ku Bantah Cadangan Umno Overseas Club

Yes that's right . You read the title of this post correctly . I strongly object to the proposal by UMNO Overseas Club to reinstate Bahasa Melayu as the national language .

The following is an article from The Star :


Group: Rename the national language Bahasa Melayu

KUALA LUMPUR: The Overseas Umno Clubs Alumni will submit a resolution to the supreme council to reinstate Bahasa Melayu as the national language. Alumni deputy chairman Datuk Rais Zainudin said that although the term for the national language now was Bahasa Malaysia, it was still the Malay language. “It is only proper to use the original term instead of renaming the language,” he said. For example, in the United States the official language is the English language, not American language. The term “English” is retained to indicate the origin of the language. The call to reinstate Bahasa Melayu was among several resolutions passed during the Third Malay Agenda Seminar: Malays 2057 – 1st Series: Politics at PWTC here yesterday.


To those who don't know , Malaysia used to be known as Tanah Melayu . Due to the independence conditions granted by the Brits , we became Malaya and soon together with Sabah and Sarawak , we are now the popular Malaysia Truly Asia nation .

The same goes for our national language . It is true that the Malay language became the national language . For harmony and unity , after going through changes here and there in title , we have gone back to calling it Bahasa Malaysia .

Reasons for doing that I believe coincide with the Vision 2020's statement .... "To create a united Bangsa Malaysia" . Why then is UMNO Overseas Club proposing to change it back to Bahasa Melayu ?

Could it be there is a sense of insecurity that the identity of Malays will be taken away ? Impossible . If by languages spoken we can identify the race of a person , then I definitely can be a mainland Chinese , a Hong Kee , a Malay .... perhaps partly Japanese too . My dad could even be partly Indian because he can speak a little of it since his mates working in his plant used to be Indians .

So why is UOC pressuring the UMNO led government of Malaysia to do so ? One wonders why . It would be making a fool of the Cabinet if they revert it back . It would seem like the government has lost all control and are willing to kowtow to any groups or lobbyists .

Malaysia evolved from Malaya which in turn came from the name Tanah Melayu . For unity and harmony , we all called Malaysia our home . Why can't we call it Bahasa Malaysia then ? I believe the English had many "clans" last time . But they were all united under one national name called English and it is now the international language though till today I can't understand why the Japanese and Koreans can excel without it .

So I believe it is a wise choice to keep it as Bahasa Malaysia and let life move on from there . Make it an identity for Malaysia . It has been 50 years . We have not even synchronized our identity yet . How then can we take the world by storm ?

One wonders .

Friday, November 02, 2007

Crisis for Me

Firstly , exam this morning was tough ... too theoratical .... sigh ... that's Financial Economics . Anyway , hm . Just got some bad news from home about Hong Kong trip .

Booked during Matta Fair . The tour agency Tropical Touch from Ipoh had some attractive package of HK-China tour . Dad liked it and chose it for the family . We were told or rather "assured" that flights to HK will be in the morning . Mom said HK was nice during her last trip few years ago and she wants to extend another two nights .

So .... I did the searching and booked a reasonably priced hotel for the extensions . We told the tour agent that our return flight is preferably in the evening or late noon . We were again "assured" .

Today , mom told me the agent said our flight to HK will be in the late noon and return flight is early morning around 11am . So much for assurance !!!?!?

So mom went to my Australian flight ticketing agent (another firm) and she was helpful in checking the system of flights to and from HK . We found out that there are other flight times still available !! Mom asked Tropical Touch for a refund of just the ticket prices but we will still go for the tour package because we wanted other flight times and Tropical Touch couldn't do it for us . Mom wanted to ask her friend to book just the flights for her .

Guess what's the refund ? RM 1315 . According to mom's friend , the cost of the ticket is actually RM 1340 + tax of RM 197 . And the refund .... obviously Tropical Touch have swallowed up at least RM 197 ... and let me remind you .... thats RM 197 per person . I have four people in my family including me !

Ridiculous psycho greedy mongers !!

I have been loyal to MAS since I started flying . Except the time I went to Japan under the Japan Govt scholarship ... there was no choice but to fly JAL . Now in this trip ... i have to fly Cathay Pacific ... arrgh ...

Bad luck .... bad luck !