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.