Malaysia Plain Blog
Malaysia Rata
A weblog about life / politics/ impressions of Malaysia through the eyes of a foreigner




Malaysia UTC+8 hours
Monday 30 June, 2008
25 Jumada al-Thanni 1429AH

A weblog by Albert. From my home in Yan Kedah. I reside here since 1992. See here to know where Yan is.

« June 2006 »
Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
        1 2 3
4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28 29 30  



archive
- last 10 entries
24/06- bn representatives in the dewan
23/06- subsidy country
20/06- firefox 3.0
19/06- profitering.
14/06- grab your cookies...
14/06- pure discrimination
13/06- progress in hospital (3)
10/06- rm 4.00 a liter?
10/06- penang taxi's
10/06- a responsible husband....

  2008 (81)
  2007 (191)
  2006 (265)
  2005 (139)
  2004 (120)
  2003 (76)

categories
- All categories
- general
- politics Malaysia
- Penang
- Yan Kedah
- travel abroad
- TV
- religion
- internet / computers
- travel Malaysia
- environment
- foreign
- consumer affairs
- food
- living

links
� Albert's Personal Pages
� Pondok PHP (scripts)
� Oon Yeoh Transitions
� Jeff Ooi Screenshots
� Malaysiakini (news)
� Malaysia Today
� Religeous Policeman
� Kick de Fella
� Lim Kit Siang
� Mob's Crib

foreign news links
� Al Jazeera English
� Asia News Network
� Bangkok Post
� BBC Asia Pacific
� Bloomberg
� Channel News Asia
� Herald Tribune
� Jakarta Post
� Manilla Times
� Nation Thailand
� Straits Times Sing
� Time Asia
� Yahoo Asia News



blog search
Search:
Survey
Are you happy with the election outcome
   
Could have been better for the opposition.
 Very happy.
 So so.
 Unhappy.
 I dont care about politics
This WebLog is licensed under a Creative Commons agreement!

   SYNDICATION
  RSS 2.0 (XML) RSS 2.0

  ATOM 0.3 (XML) ATOM

  RSS 1.0 RSS 1.0


Current World Population:

Its getting full....Please stop breeding!















Weather image composition of SE Asia
Satelite weather photo of SE Asia

Map of central Georgetown Penang







Valid CSS! Valid HTML 4.01 Transitional
Blog category: all categories. - June 2006
Click here to return to June-2008, all categories.

 What a bastard! - by @lbert
  Posted:29/06/2006 - 12:21 - in category: politics Malaysia
I knew the parliament of Malaysia is mainly occupied by uncivilised circus people.
Probably Nazri is number one, but Bung Moktar Radin is really the bloody limit.
By telling Karpal Singh:
"Karpal you should be grateful that you did not die, but merely became wheelchair-bound"
What kind of idiot parliamentarians utters this kind of remarks?
Does this guy really have any education at all? All i can say is Jeeez...what a bastard!
| Permalink | no comments | Add Comment |

 Cabut lah - by @lbert
  Posted:28/06/2006 - 22:05 - in category: general
Yesterday i had to go to the dentist to have a filling repaired and a new cavity filled up.
Since i am in the generation who grew up between 45-50 in europe, malnutrition in one of the reasons why most people in the generation have bad teeth.
When i was 16-20 the holes appeared out of the blue sky. Lateron it disappeared luckily.
But now some of the 20-30 year old repair work has to be redone.
Anyway...this was the introduction to the story.
Already a few times i was at the dentist there were Malays also waiting for the dentist.
They came for 'cabut' one or more teeth. Yesterday there were 2 of them.
One even for 'cabut' 2 teeth. I find this amazing, do they care so little about there teeth that the only word they know is cabut?
All were younger people no more than 25-30, if they keep on extracting by the time they are 50, they have deformed bones and cannot even use gigi-plastic anymore....
They seem to care so little, they dont think of filling, crowning, no because that might hurt to much.
It was just a curious observation, and i was amazed that it only is one race who chooses to do this.
Or is it that repairing something you get only 1 time in your life is to expensive?
Maybe mahalnya, duit tak ada... is the right answer?
I dont know.
| Permalink | no comments | Add Comment |

 Who's in control - by @lbert
  Posted:27/06/2006 - 23:40 - in category: politics Malaysia
Is it really Mahathir versus Pak Lah?
I have my doubts whether all is about the policies of the present government.
There is more to it. To understand, you should see UMNO as a business conglomerate.
Just like MCA and some other parties.
UMNO is a multi million business, and the struggle now is probably who has the right to control the coffers of UMNO.
Of course various parties want their share or dividends and who's turn is it now?
The old Mahathir clique, or the clique that follows the present pm.
Money will create heated struggles.
Now that the son-in-laws and kris-wielding people want there share of power, some tense times lay ahead.
If the last group wins....i hope the country will be spared it, it will definitely lead to more polarized race-based problems.
And the racial harmony is already on a very steep down spiral for years in Malaysia.
| Permalink | no comments | Add Comment |

 3rd world banks (2)... - by @lbert
  Posted:27/06/2006 - 15:24 - in category: general
As i said before i canceled my Hong Leong creditcard because they canceled internet access without informing their customers.
They think they can rule as they please.
So step 2 i asked for another card with a non-malaysian bank.
What is the problem you face if you are a non malaysian bank (although incorporated in Malaysia and tax paying!),
you cannot be a member of MEPS.
This means this you can withdraw money with your ATM card virtually nowhere, unless you are willing to pay RM 12- per withdrawal
Are Malaysian banks pissing in their pants so much that this kind of restrictions has to be imposed?
Ridiculous in 1 word. Of course if the attitude of Malaysian banks does not change people will run in droves to non malaysian banks if this restriction is removed.
But is Bank Negara so stupid that they don't see that this is the only way to force malaysian banks to change their mentality, or is Bank Negara having the same attitude problem? Well than it is plain stupid protection and food for the WTO that act against Malaysia.
| Permalink | no comments | Add Comment |

 Who runs Malaysia? - by @lbert
  Posted:26/06/2006 - 10:40 - in category: politics Malaysia
The former pm dr Mahathir had another press conference in which he spoke about the present government.
The whole thing was blacked out in the local press except for a Tamil newspaper it seems and the Sun which is carrying a scrutinized report.
It seems the order to black out was given by Kamal Khalid someone at the pm's office.
So it seems that the press is now ruled by Kamal Khalid and Kalimullah Hassan of the NST.
The rest of the country? Well according to Mahathir its not Pak Lah, but the son in law (Khairy Jamaludin)who rules....
And still the questions dr M poses are legitimate. They have never been answered.
All the loyalty pledges by all those ministers is nothing else than arse licking, the will do they same with any pm whoever it is, as long as they can protect their own pocket filling.
It is high time Abdullah shows some teeth, and if he has not got them he better steps down and leave the ruling of this country to someone with real perspective and guts.
And that is definitely NOT the current dpm!
| Permalink | no comments | Add Comment |

 Abandon the US $ - by @lbert
  Posted:22/06/2006 - 21:17 - in category: foreign
US is a bankrupt country, reject the US$

This is what Mahathir said in his speech today at Perdana Peace Forum.
For once he is right.
The US only exists because people want their money, because actually their money is just as worthless as the Indonesian Rupiah!
They have a totalized budget deficit that runs in the TRILLIONS of $$.
Can you write that amount??
If people abandon the greenback and finally change to Euro's or Yen, the american economy will collapse in no time.
This because of the fact that probably 70% of the dollars in the world (or is it more...) are outside the US.
So the whole world is in fact financing the US, because any other coutry with such a deficit would have already collapsed ages ago.
The American greed for oil and other resources makes them wage war which is financed by the world as a whole.
Can't we finally put an end to it? Before Iran is the next target!

Just abandon the holding of US dollars, switch!
Let Bush and his club finally go to hell where those f#ckers belong!
| Permalink | one comment | Add Comment |

 Politeness in Malaysia - by @lbert
  Posted:21/06/2006 - 18:32 - in category: general
The ranking of the 35 'politest' cities in the world, as published by Readers Digest.

New York USA 80%
Zurich Switzerland 77
Toronto Canada 70
Berlin Germany 68
S�o Paulo Brazil 68
Zagreb Croatia 68
Auckland New Zealand 67
Warsaw Poland 67
Mexico City Mexico 65
Stockholm Sweden 63
Budapest Hungary 60
Madrid Spain 60
Prague Czech Republic 60
Vienna Austria 60
Buenos Aires Argentina 57
Johannesburg South Africa 57
Lisbon Portugal 57
London United Kingdom 57
Paris France 57
Amsterdam Netherlands 52
Helsinki Finland 48
Manila Philippines 48
Milan Italy 47
Sydney Australia 47
Bangkok Thailand 45
Hong Kong 45
Ljubljana Slovenia 45
Jakarta Indonesia 43
Taipei Taiwan 43
Moscow Russia 42
Singapore 42
Seoul South Korea 40
Kuala Lumpur Malaysia 37
Bucharest Romania 35
Mumbai India 32

Well polite people we have.......Malaysia boleh!
read the article HERE
Almost topscorer from the bottom.
| Permalink | no comments | Add Comment |

 Party whip.... - by @lbert
  Posted:21/06/2006 - 11:59 - in category: politics Malaysia
I learned a new english word recently.
It must be a 100% Malaysian invention, its named party whip.
It is somebody who handles party discipline it seems.
Actually i thought it had to do with partying....
What does the existence of a party whip mean for parlementarians of Barisan?
Well the following:
  • You do NOT represent the voter who voted you into this circus. You only represent the party.
  • You shall not use your brains or have an independent opinion. The party will think for you!
  • You shall not listen to what your voters say, only to what the party says.
  • You shall never vote positive for an opposition motion, even if it is in favor of the ruling clique.
  • If your voters say you are a dummy, you answer them that you are a proud member of the BN coalition and that people will have to accept what the coalition thinks is good for them.

If you accept these rules, it leads to 1 conclusion:
Your are a moron with peanut sized brains!
| Permalink | no comments | Add Comment |

 9th Malaysia Plan - by @lbert
  Posted:19/06/2006 - 20:19 - in category: politics Malaysia
Under 9MP, the government deficit will amount to RM107.6 billion, or 3.4%, of the GDP. Total government debt by 2010 will spiral to RM351.3 billion, or 48.6% of GDP.
The 8th MP under Mahathir was already a disaster for the country and made the government almost bankrubt.
The 9th MP is even worse it seems....
This is an estimate, since in Malaysia no project has ever been within the budget.
This translates to [red]RM 13,500.00[/red] per inhabitant of Malaysia (if we take 26 million) This is an enormous amount, and will translate into another round of inflation (5% at least on top of the normal inflation) as budget deficits are never paid back, so they only translate in inflation.
This is unsustainable, so where has the money to come from? More taxes?
Time to stop tightening the belt and fighting corruption big time, all corrupt ministers / parlementarians OUT! Make the ACA independent so the finally get teeth, and seize the fortunes of those corrupters.
| Permalink | one comment | Add Comment |

 Smuggling sugar,diesel,rice... - by @lbert
  Posted:15/06/2006 - 20:38 - in category: general
As long as prices are manipulated (you might call it subsidized) in Malaysia, there will be smuggling in and out of the country.
Sugar is 40% cheaper here than Malaysia or Thailand, so there is money to be made.....
Diesel/petrol is roughly 40% cheaper than in thailand (26/28 baht) and 10% cheaper than Indonesia, so there is money to be made.....
Rice is 60% more expensive in Malaysia than in Thailand and Indonesia, so there is money to be made.......
Probably there are more items, like of course Malaysia's ridiculous taxes on beer/alcohol (Malays 'do not' drink, so it does not hurt the Bumis) without differentiation of the percentage, so there is money to be made....
And here smuggling still goes very peacefully.
I can tell you when Holland and Germany/Belgium had there 100% difference in butter prices, it was not that peaceful. Trailers loaded with tons of butter were rammed through custom barricades, there were even shoutouts.
It all proves that when you manipulate prices, you lose.
Who wants to stop the sugar smuggling? No one can. So do not subsidize!
The same for diesel/petrol and rice.
The subsidies of rice are only to get votes from the farmers for UMNO nothing else.
Rice growing in Malaysia has to much small holding compared to the present standard of living. A rice farmer should have at least 10-20 hectares of land, and not 2 or less like it is now. The government will keep on losing out if this silly policy is maintained, just for the sake of vote fishing. But than....Petronas cukup kaya loh....thats what the Tun said.
| Permalink | no comments | Add Comment |

 3rd world banks - by @lbert
  Posted:15/06/2006 - 00:00 - in category: general
In January i was told by my bank (Hong Leong) that use of my creditcard for paying over the internet to NON malaysian agents was temporary suspended due to fraud.
It would be reinstated by end of January.
Well good so far....
In March i wanted to book my tickets to Indonesia via Air Asia online.
The tickets in and from Malaysia i could pay.
The ticket from Surabaya to KL i could not pay! Card not valid. Payment in Rupiah.
So i call up Hong Leong (a not toll free number in KL!) and they tell me, that payments by creditcard to vendors outside Malaysia could not be made.
I told them, you said this was supposed to be rectified end of January. No sir, its still in effect.
So i wrote a nasty email to the HLB management, until today NO ANSWER.
Meanwhile i booked using an OCBC credit card of a friend.
Last night i wanted to book the same again for July. Now even tickets issued in Malaysia by Air Asia could not be paid.
So i call up the Creditcard Center again (again not toll free) and i am told that ALL internet payments have been suspended.
Well i more or less exploded. No one available besides the girl on the phone, what a service.... Hong Leong your credit card department is a 3rd world piece of rubbish.
Why can almost creditcard from every bank in Malaysia been used on the net, except the shitty piece of plastic of Hong Leong?
I pay RM 60- a year for this useless piece of plastic.
So far the only other shitty bank that does not allow internet payments (unless you pay extra...can you believe that) is Sotong Bank.
This country wants to be developed by 2020....but their banking industry is already 25 years behind with europe!
And i think Hong Leong is still in the stone age!
Well i have to get a credit card from a REAL bank, maybe HKSB, Citybank or OCBC because all malaysian banks are below any standard.
| Permalink | no comments | Add Comment |

 Now it gets interesting.... - by @lbert
  Posted:14/06/2006 - 13:28 - in category: politics Malaysia
The Pak Lah - Mahathir rift took an interesting turn today.
Mathias Chang, Mahatir's former political secretary, challenged Kalimulah Hassan (NST) and Khairy Jamaluddin (Pak Lah's son in law) to declare their assets before and after Abdullah's ascension. That will be food for the ACA if they ever act.....
Probably Changs's interview will be blacked out in the printed media, and for sure in the toilet paper NST.
| Permalink | no comments | Add Comment |

 Kopi Viagra - by @lbert
  Posted:11/06/2006 - 21:47 - in category: general
From the Daily Express in Sarawak:
Viagra added to coffee powder products: Latiff
25 May, 2006
Kota Kinabalu: The Health Ministry has uncovered a coffee company's ploy of mixing its coffee powder products with Viagra just to make the coffee extra special.

Deputy Health Minister, Datuk Dr Haji Abd. Latiff Ahmad, said they found this after doing clinical tests on a sample of the 'special' coffee powder known as "Kopi Kuat" (strong coffee) sold in the market at RM14 per packet.

"We suspected something amiss upon finding out the price of this coffee powder. We then took a sample and sent it to our laboratory for testing and we found it contains Viagra�hat's why it was called Kopi Kuat (strong coffee)'," he said.

"This particular case arose after the product was registered under the Food Regulations Act. Probably due to strong competition, the company involved put in other additional elements into its coffee powder as to make its coffee more tastier or special. This is what we call a post registration issue," he said.

Similarly in the case of medicine products including herbal medicines, he said the Ministry is always conducting random checks to test samples of the products available in the market to make sure what consumers consume are exactly what is stated when the product went through the registration process.
Thats coffee with real UMP!
| Permalink | no comments | Add Comment |

 Right to demonstrate - by @lbert
  Posted:11/06/2006 - 17:25 - in category: politics Malaysia
The statement by the PM that demo's against the government are useless and only give problems to shopowners ...., and the statement 'demonstrations are not part of our Malaysian culture'.
The is the biggest uttered nonsense if have heard in a long time.
Demo's in Malaysia have always been disallowed so how can you say its not part of the culture.
People have the right to demonstrate peacefully, but in Malaysia every peaceful demo (by non government parties and the likes) are always turned into a mess by the monkeys of the FRU. These people dont know the meaning of the word peacefull, they just hammer on demonstrators as in the last demo that was turned into a bloody mess by these so called 'defenders of the public'.
I can understand that people have to ask for a permit for a demo, but to non government linked organizations its allways denied, only UMNO gets permits.
So people have no other means than just demonstrate without a permit.
And if they are hammered on by the FRU do they have the right to throw stones at the police, as one of the PAS leaders said, well i think you have the right to defend yourself against brutal force.......
Even closed door gatherings are pestered by (government linked) mobs, and what does the police do? Right stop the meetings and the mob goes free.
Thats democracy in Malaysia. Its not democracy its hypocrisy by the ruling government (read UMNO). This wants to be a developed nation by 2020?
They just piss in their pants by the idea that something like Thailand (Thaksin) might happen to UMNO one day. And that was ALL peacefull!
| Permalink | no comments | Add Comment |

 Smartass - by @lbert
  Posted:08/06/2006 - 11:05 - in category: general
From the news...
Underwater mines could be used by terrorists in an easy and cheap way of destroying ships and disrupting trade, Malaysia's armed forces chief said according to a report today.
Smartass this armed forces chief, cant you keep this kind of observations indoors instead of bringing them in the open?
Did this smartass realize that he might give terrorists some ideas?
| Permalink | no comments | Add Comment |

 Selangor landslide. - by @lbert
  Posted:07/06/2006 - 23:21 - in category: politics Malaysia
The developed stated Selangor had a mishap again, i lost count.
And all the Mentri Besar can do is to talk, assign blame and make excuses. I would like him to assume responsibility for the environment crisis in �developed� state of Selangor.
It seems he is not willing to so it is high time this corrupt clique is send home and Selangor finally gets MB with responsibility!
Let the present one and his rakan2 finally go tanam jagung!
| Permalink | no comments | Add Comment |

 Malaysia cost of living. - by @lbert
  Posted:05/06/2006 - 17:02 - in category: general
Since i recently spent a few weeks in Thailand and a few weeks in Indonesia, i was astonished how much cheaper these countries are than Malaysia.
Since many products are made in Malaysia and exported to Thailand or Indonesia it makes it more weird......
The differences are giant and up 40-50%, so i got the feeling that a lot of manufacturers/importers are screwing Malaysia big time!
Samples:
Listerine: Malaysia 17.++ Thaland 11.++ Indonesia 10.++
Pepsodent 190 gr: Malaysia 4.00 Indonesia 2.20 Thailand hard to get.
Tomatoes: Malaysia 3-4.00 Thailand 2.00 Indonesia 0.80-1.20 per kg
Chicken: Malaysia 5.50-6.00 Thailand 4.00 Indonesia 3.50-4.00
Pork: Malaysia 12.00 Thailand 5-6.00 (HALF PRICE!!)
Rice: Malaysia 2.++ Thailand 1.20 Indonesia 1.20-1.40 (some area sell per liter)
Textile mans shirt: Malaysia 20-25.00 Thailand 10-12.00 Indonesia 8-10.00 (all for same quality)
These are just some samples......it just proves that profit margins in Malaysia are totally ridiculous.
Diesel Malaysia 1.58 Thailand 2.60 Indonesia 1.68
This proves that noone can blame it on transportation costs!
All those supermarkets and hypermarkets make their money to easy.
Carefour and Tesco in Thailand and Carefour in Indonesia carry a range that is TWICE as big as in Malaysia!
Thailand has 7eleven on every street corner with very affordable prices, Malaysia damned expensive.
Well i can carry on but the above proves what kind on shitty consumer organizations Malaysia has.
| Permalink | one comment | Add Comment |

 Lelaki Komunis terakhir - by @lbert
  Posted:05/06/2006 - 11:42 - in category: politics Malaysia
The banning of this documentary shows again the narrow mind of the Malaysian government.
They think they always have to think for the rakyat. Well peanut brain sized ministers, people have minds of their own, or are you afraid the real truth will be show?
Not only the communists made mistakes, they malaysian government made many as well (and still makes).
This is supposed to be a democratic country. People have the rights to know about the communist activities during the war and the post-war period.
The problem is that the Malaysian government (read UMNO) cannot stand objective opinions!
| Permalink | no comments | Add Comment |

 StreamyX shit - by @lbert
  Posted:02/06/2006 - 11:21 - in category: internet / computers
The international connections of StreamyX are in one word SHIT!
If you complain about it to their customer service they send you back a crappy answer in how to set your modem properly and do a speed test.
Well i did a speedtest but to a sever in europe (because we dont live on the island Malaysia as TM is thinking) the result is a disaster.
It is worse than a 33K dial up connection.
If you call StreamyX every time they say, yes we have international browsing problems. Well i heard that for month now, my question WHEN IS TM GOING TO PAY FOR REAL CONNECTIONS TO THE WORLD????
Even RM 66 or 88 by now for the shitty StreamyX service is more than 50% overcharged. And 1 mB or 500K connections at best efford? Don't make me laugh, it is less than 50K to Europe!
| Permalink | no comments | Add Comment |

 Hillsite projects - by @lbert
  Posted:02/06/2006 - 09:10 - in category: environment
The government said the law should be followed and no clearing of hills for hillside projects.
Well who checks it? Disaster after disaster is happening and no one does anything.
Go to Penang Tanjung Bunga and see there for your self ..... take the road to Batu Feringgi and see for yourself, you will be scared to death if you see the crazy hill projects build there. They are waiting for the next highland tower disaster!
But the Penang government is to busy in figuring out how they can fill their pockets with POR and a new bridge, rather than do the work they are supposed to do.
| Permalink | no comments | Add Comment |


| show all
| |

All views are personal. I do not take any stand for or against any political party / group or whatever. I just express my feelings on the subjects, they might be harsh sometimes, but you are free to give your comments
( if you are frank enough to give a real email address).
-- All email links of comments (if displayed) are protected against email grabbers, the email address is only made visible in the browser --
-- It is send as a hex notation. --


PointOfView Version 7.1. Go here for the code.
Last modified on: 31-03-2008 04:01:29
This page has been viewed 54,652 times since June 2003.