Legalize the Illegals?

Government was toying the ideas of legalize firecrackers ban during Chinese New Year.  But no decision was made till now to reverse the ban.
Strange, the loud noise of firecrackers and fireworks never stopped from New Year eve.  And I believe it will be continued till the 15th days of CNY.

Questions to be answered:

1. What's the purpose of a ban, where people don't care about the ban?
2. Any serious enforcement in upholding the ban?
3. If burning of firecrackers is illegal, how about import of fire crackers?  What happen to our custom?
4. If banning could not solve the problem, how about legalize it one and for all?  And government can earn extra import tax.

Inflated Low Cost Carrier

Gong Xi Fa Cai!  Just noticed our world best low cost carrier has inflated its price after Gong Xi Fa Cai.  And it's at an extremely high rate of 20%!!

• Hot seat price has increased from RM25 to RM30
• Pick a seat price has increased from RM5 to RM6
• Luggage (15Kg) has increased from RM30 to RM35
• Plus the unknown inflation

Traveling on the low cost carrier is no longer low cost, taxi fare to LCCT is more expensive, there are more fees charged (e.g. convenient fee which most people have no idea what is it), there are more delays ...

Comparatively, a full fare airlines fare is much more straight forward, and even at a cheaper price nowadays.  I need to seriously re-plan my future travelling, and should look at alternative in my next travel arrangement...

Budget 2010 Credit Card Tax - Malaysian Mudah Lupa?

Still remember that the PM announced in Budget 2010 that the government will be charging RM50 tax on every principal credit card and this amount can not be absorbed by the bank. (Read here)

The following diagram (from thestar.com.my) was the illustration from thestar.com.my on how customers could pay their credit card service tax:

Well, after a year, the "Malaysian Mudah Lupa" (Malaysian easily forget) attitude is surfacing on this issue.

What the banks had said previously already dumped into the thrash can, just for the seek of keeping old customer, and recruiting new customer. To recap what the banks had said:

• "our cardholders have the option to redeem (the service tax) using their points"
• "the credit card industry as a whole has come to a consensus that this tax will be borne by the cardholders and not the banks"
• "customers could also opt to use their reward points to redeem their service tax"

In order to keep customer, or to recruit new customer, some of the new promotion the banks had come out:

• Give away 10,000 free points, so that the card holder can use the free points to offset the RM50 credit card tax (Well, they still keep their promise, they did not absorb the tax, they only reward their customer with free reward points)
• Give cash rebate up front for new card approval (Same, again is reward and not absorb.)
• When you want to cancel your card, the bank can waive the tax with no condition.

Malaysian Mudah Lupa? Enforcement don't care? Time is diluting all policies? Revenue takes priority than compliance, till it's worthwhile to take calculated risk?

Numbers To Be "Proud" Of

From Bernama news, read here:

Souvenir sales at Shanghai’s Malaysian Pavilion reaches RM230,317

September 11, 2010

SHANGHAI, Sept 11 – Sales of souvenirs at the Malaysia Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo 2010 here reached RMB503,000 (RM230,317) over the past four months ...

According to Dr Ng, as of yesterday, the number of visitors to the Malaysia Pavilion had reached 4.715 million...

Not sure whether the reporter reported the wrong figures, or our tourism ministry gave the wrong numbers. This is definitely not something to be proud of, that you want to publish it.

4.715 million visitors, and the souvenirs sales was RM230,317 which translates to souvenir sales of less than 5 cents per visitor; or out of 20 visitors, 1 will spend RM1 on souvenir.

Oh please, use a better headline.

News of Denial

Caught my eyes to see so many news of denial on The Malaysian Insider front page:

1. Hisham denies links between bookies and football betting snub
2. Ulama denies joining Umno for protection
3. Finance Ministry denies compensating Vincent Tan
4. Selangor rep denies quitting PKR

There are too many accusers? Or there are too may lies?

The Worst Web Site - Unilever.com

Sometimes it's still acceptable to see some broken links in the web site. But a response like the above after you fill up the "Contact Us" page is totally UNACCEPTABLE.

It's same for unilever.com, and unilever.com.my. Does it mean "Don't contact us, we don't want to listen?"

Go Green? Walk The Talk Please!

Went to 1 Utama Shopping Complex last weekend, wanted to enjoy their White Christmas theme.

Recalled YB Elizabeth Wong was at 1Utama early this month, launching their "White Lyrical Christmas" theme. Also, there are a lot of publicity on 1Utama "Go Green Without Wrapping" and free recycle bags campaigns. Found the article at The Sun, read here.

When a corporate is embracing environment protection green campaign, we should laud their effort. But if a green campaign is run on the expense of the environment, we should all condemn this so called "talk green" publicity.

Look at the following photo, this is the white Christmas decoration at 1Utama:

I enjoyed it too. It really gave me a white Christmas feeling. But look around the stage? What are those tall white decoration?

I took the following picture at the back of the stage:

You are absolutely right! These are TREEs! These are well growing TREEs being cut down, striped off the leaves, and painted in white for this white Christmas decoration.

Walked around 1Utama, you will find hundred of these poor white trees serving as white Christmas decoration. My heart was fast sinking. I just hoped that 1Utama will clarify that these trees are not trees, they are just white dummy,.... I really hope ....

A white Christmas theme, a Go Green campaign, launched by a Green portfolio state exco, on the expense of hundred of innocent well growing trees.

This should be a good lesson learned by all the corporate, don't just talk green, walk green first before you talk green! Millions pair of eyes are guarding on these green opportunists. If you don't walk green, you will get a black publicity for your talk green campaign.

Don't Set The Wrong Example

(Photo taken from www.sinchew.com.my)

Dear YB and VIPs, were you all briefed how to wear the safety helmet? Do you know what's the meaning of yellow safety helmet? Were you all brief on the site safety procedures?

Also, were you all on safety boots?

Please, don't surrender your own safety for cheap publicity.

They Still Don't Get It!

KL to have dedicated bus lanes from 2011

Friday December 18, 2009, The Star Online (Read Here)

It's not about the infrastructure, it's the mentality. We can build hundreds of bus stops, buy thousands of buses, promise more improvement ...

If the service mentality don't change, all will go back to square one. Bus not on time, or never on the road; reckless drivers; inconvenient routes. More scary thought, worse traffic jam because of these "dedicated bus lanes".

Where Does The Money Come From?

GST Bill tabled, fierce debates expected

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Read the full article here.

..."government is estimating an increase of RM1 billion in tax collection or RM13 billion"...

..."businesses save RM4 billion from GST while exporters, RM1.4 billion, he claimed."...

Consumers buy products and services from businesses; Businesses pay tax to government.

When government collects RM1 billion more tax, we are expecting the businesses to pay RM1 billion more tax to balance up the equation so that the consumers do not need to pay more. However, the businesses are still saving RM4 billion. Then who's responsible for the government's RM1 billion extra tax, and the businesses RM 4 billion saving?

In lay man mathematic, this does not look right at all, probably the economists can enlighten us how this is being calculated.

Morally Wrong, Legally Clean

Lingam morally wrong, legally clean: Nazri

Nov 9, 09 5:33pm (www.malaysiakini.com)

No stranger to causing uproars, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz struck again today. This time over the VK Lingam issue.

So, what's the message that the government trying to send to the general public? It's okay to be morally wrong, but as long as you are legally right? Why spending billions of dollar in our education system teaching our kids moral and responsibility, where the leader in this country does not care so much about moral.

This is just tip of the iceberg when it comes to moral and legal debate.

- The queue cutting drivers

- The public who refuse to vacant their seat to the needy in the train or bus

- The developer in PJ who want to take back his land currently used as a major access road

...

We should promote a morally right and legally clean society!!

Clean Bottled Water??

If your house / office is using the bottle drinking water, and think that it is hygienic and worth the price that you are paying, think twice. Look at the photo below, this is how these waters are bottled. Not from the clean manufacturing facility or factory, but just from the roadside water dispenser machine.

BTW, this photo was taken in TTDI, KL.

High Crime Rate Is Just Perception?

Sad and disappointed to hear our top cop saying that the high crime rate in this country is just perception, and the figures do not reflect so.

I'm staying in a residents' paid guarded community, in order to have a better sense of security and safety for my family and myself. Prior to us paying, organizing and taking charge of our own safety, I hardly feel secure even in my house. At night, I scared of burglar and thief. Day time I'm scared of the parang wielding robbers, or break in, or the petty metal thief. This all change after we take charge and pay for our own safety.

In Klang Valley and other part of Malaysia as a whole, thousand of residential areas are paying for their own safety. Who's the one that's responsible for bringing down the crime rate (if the figures are true)? The cops? Or we ourselves who pay and take charge of our own safety?

We cannot denied that the cops had done a good job in certain aspect of crime fighting especially nacrotic related crime (which is hardly relevant to me). But as far as crimes related to personal safety, they still have lots of room to imporve.

Same Old Stories

Was in Guilin China for the past 5 days, and had not read Malaysia news for the past 5 days too. Had a good time enjoying the Guilin scenery, and observing what's happening in China.

One thing that opened up my mind is that China's tourism industry has evolved from foreign tourists dependent to local tourists driven. At most of the tourist areas, conservatively the local tourists to foreign tourists ratio can go up to 80:20.

Apparently China has managed to create a self-sufficient economy without heavily relying on the outside world. Hence, I truly believe that China will be well prepared for this coming global economy turmoil.

Well, back to Malaysia, years after years, we do not seem to move ahead fast enough. Our pace is far slower than our potential. Same old stories on the newspaper:- your rights, my rights; your race, my race; your scandals, my stories; your accusations, my explanations ...

WAKE UP!! Malaysia. If we don't do anything constructive now, we will have plenty of time to talk about all the above when our economy crashes.

Consumer Power? Or Be More Realistic?

The PM urged all to use the consumers power to bring down prices of goods. Read The Star article here.

Unlike stock market, I think all of us know that in the consumer market, once the price of the products and services go up, the likelihood that they come down is almost nil. Even if it comes down, it will be like the way the government handle the fuel price, increase by 40%, but drop only a mere 5% at one time.

Spending more time, and burn more petrol to travel further to buy a 5% cheaper goods and services, very unlikely I'm going to do this.

The damaged had already been done, let's move on to do the more important things i.e. to tackle the worldwide financial turmoil.

The Damage Had Already Been Done

Gov't set to announce fuel price cut

Aug 1, 08 2:07pm (www.malaysiakini.com)

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi today said the government was set to announce a cut in fuel prices, following a 41-percent hike in June that stirred protests.

Good to hear that, but it was meaningless. The damage had already been done. Costing of living had already shot up. Even though the government cut the fuel price, I doubt it can be restored back to the previous level.

Government has cut down their projects; private companies has changed their bearing from expansion mode to survival mode; inflation rate has rocketed to 7.7% (which I still believe the real life figure is much higher); job market looks shaky and consumer's spending is dropping (Generally a restaurant business dropped 20%-30% after the fuel price increase).

There is an old chinese saying: "If you know that this is the consequence, why you want to do it in the first place?" I don't believe none of the economist/expert warned the government before they announced the 78 cents fuel price increase. Why? Why do this at the expense of the general public?

Sue The Public Smokers

Was having breakfast with my wife and son at a restaurant this morning. It's NOT a non-smoking restaurant. Unfortunately we were seated beside a table full of male smokers. It destroyed our "breakfast mode", and we left as soon as we finished our food, of course inhaled a lots of "complementary" passive smokes.

According to tons of research conducted, smoking is the greatest risk factor for cancer. Read the article by Cancer Research UK here. Passive smoking has the same or even greater risk. Read the extract of the BMJ article here.

Though we are only exposed to the passive smokes for that few minutes, but no doubt we were mentally stressed, and left with some damage lung cells.

Some time one day, when I have the resource, I will bring these public smokers to court for attempt to cause injury/sickness to other. Or bring the restaurant owner to court for negligence for not taking care the interest of non-smokers, when the restaurant is not designated as "smoking only" or "non-smoking" restaurant.

Public Reserved Land or Private Reserved Land?

In KL/PJ city, every inch of land is so precious that lot of people are trying to take advantage to gain extra inches of public land for private use.

This is original backyard view as built by the developer, a 10 feet buffer zone between the backyard with the road shoulder.


This is what had been extended by the house owner. The plants are cleared, and are replaced with a piece of concrete wall:


Is this legal? Can these house owners claim ownership of the 10 feet buffer zone land?

Better Public Transport for KL?

KL folks promised better public transport
Fauwaz Abdul Aziz | Jul 11, 08 6:25pm
Commuters in Kuala Lumpur have been assured of improvements in infrastructure and public transportation in line with the overall increase in transport costs.

As long as KL Monorail Stesen KL Sentral still remained in Brickfield, and not inside Stesen Sentral KL building, I doubt all the promises and plans.

By its name, public transport is meant for the use of the public, and not the local council, government or the operating company. Public interest should be put as the first priority in any public transport plan.

I used the KL Monorail to connect to Putra LRT at KL Sentral once. After that experience, I concluded that driving is still the better alternative to travel in KL, despite the traffic jams, occasional floods, and the recent petrol price hike.

News? Or Advertisement?

8pm is the prime time slot for news. For mandarin news viewers, you can choose either RTM2 or 8tv. 8tv definitely has the better newscasters and production crews. Their newscasters are fluent in delivering the message, and the messages are short and clear.

As opposed, though after the "rebranding" exercise, the only significant change I see in RTM2 Mandarin news is the recruitment of a batch of young and energetic newscasters. Technical glitches are still so frequent, volume is like yoyo, loud and soft and loud and soft, till you get intimidated. When there is a technical glitch, the newscaster will look stunned, and dunno what to do next.

If you think 8tv Mandarin news is good, not really. Watching 8tv Mandarin news is like watching advertisement. There are far too much advertisements in that half an hour slot. Often I felt I am not watching the news, but being brainwashed by certain advertisers. The negative effect is, I never buy that particular brand of product. Sorry, dear advertiser. You get what you deserved.