A message on Hari Merdeka

A Chinese lady sent me this via Wassap earlier this evening,

She said it's for former Johor MB TS Abdul Ghani Othman and another person.

She probably read this posting of mine,

• Ghani, Umno election 2000 and Sultan Iskandar

Thanks Miss.

Since it's Merdeka Day and it's a quote of Tunku Abdul Rahman, the "Bapa Kemerdekaan" of Malaysia, I decided to share it with you all.

Selamat Hari Merdeka.

Parochialism affecting Petronas and it's not good for Malaysia

Parochialism is bad for Malaysia and its people.

Those who promote it are actually doing so for self interest, either it political or financial.

At least that's how I see the whole thing.

That's why I disagree with concepts such as Bangsa Johor, Sarawak for Sarawakians, etc.

All these can weaken the federation and could ultimately destroy our country.

No matter how proponents of such concepts tried to spin it, they will not be able to deny that to excessively promote such parochialism will undermine Malaysia itself.

Those who felt inclined to support such a concept should reflect on what such attitude will lead to.

Please do not blindly support such things.

It will not even be good for the people of any state if  they let themselves be seduced by such concepts.

Just look at the issues of oil royalties demands by Sarawak and the recent moratorium imposed against Petronas workers intended to be deployed in that state.

I had been told that Petronas people were not being nice enough in dealing with the Sarawakians, but that's besides the point as far as this posting is concerned.

What I'm more concerned is the parochialism sentiments being used in the bargaining process over those issues..

I have to agree with the arguments on the matter as put forth in this post by the blogger at BlackGold blog,

Petronas and Sarawak

Excerpts :

In reality, Petronas is a multinational and it should view hirings and appointments from a global perspective; within the Petronas universe, geographical and political boundaries should not exist other than some additional administrative processes, only its own structural boundaries matter when deploying staff.

It is only fair all around that employees with the right skills and experience are mobilised across the globe to meet the requirements of specific jobs.

Just as the freeze on work permits by Sarawak state have actually affected Petronas’ operations (and that of its suppliers and contractors), the restrictions of political boundaries may affect not only Petronas operation but also the career prospects of Sarawakians within Petronas.

Mobility across geographical areas is critical for any career development as it builds experience and skills while providing much needed exposure to different working environment that will only add value when being considered for career advancement.

I had done some digging too on the issue and these are 10 things that I feel Malaysians, particularly the people of Sarawak should realise:

1. More oil and gas projects around the world are being cancelled due to the current crude price slump.

2. The cancelled projects means more workers in the industry worldwide are losing their job.

3. The industry is not expecting things to improve soon and players are taking "drastic measures"to survive.

4. Petronas is doing the same and so far found itself with over 1,000 positions categorised as being "redundant".

5. The total number of Sarawakians, said to be unfairly dismissed by Petronas from their job in the State is 18. This triggered the recent uproar which led to the moratorium on Petronas workers coming from other states.

6. The 18 are actually among a batch of those (from Sarawak and other states) in the redundant positions. They were offered a very good voluntary separation scheme (VSS) package and assistance to find new jobs. They all accepted the offer.

7. More than three quarters of Petronas workforce in Sarawak, numbering about 5,000 are Sarawakians. But it should be noted that there are also many Sarawakians employed by Petronas for its operations in other states and across the world.

8. As pointed out in the post at the Black Gold blog, the moratorium on Petronas workers had caused disruptions to Petronas' operations and those of its foreign partners. This is not good for the reputation of Sarawak and Malaysia, at least within the world oil and gas industry, particularly as the country and state is known all these while as a reliable supplier of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

 9. Petronas has not been biased when it comes to employing or restructuring its workforce even though it does tries to accommodate in instances of political pressure such as what happened in Sarawak.

10. Based on what happened, it was clear that parochialism was used by certain quarters to play up the issue and it caused detrimental effects on Petronas, which is not good for Malaysia.  Revenues of Petronas is very important to the country. If Petronas fails, the country will be in quite a fix.

Do Johoreans need Bangsa Johor?

I thought I don't want to write about the Bangsa Johor issue again as I had written about it quite a while before the whole nonsense started a few days ago.

But the debate on it seems to be getting worse.

So, I think I better write a bit to reiterate my position on it.

Well, I had made clear what I think of the concept in this post in May this year,

We are Malaysians from the state of Johor, no more, no less

As I wrote there, I don't subscribe to the concept of Bangsa Johor despite being a Johorean.

In fact, I'm against all attempts to introduce any kind of new bangsa (race).

This is what I think of the Bangsa Malaysia concept which was first popularised by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who triggered the latest debate on Bangsa Johor with his statement a few days ago,

Bangsa Malaysia bullshit

That post is the third most read of this blog so far.

For me, there are bangsa Melayu, bangsa Cina, bangsa India etc.

And they are all Malaysians irrespective of those races of theirs.

To create a bangsa Malaysia or Bangsa Johor is the same as trying to create a bangsa Singapura or bangsa Amerika.

For me it's silly.

There's really no such things in the first place - the Singaporeans and Americans know that.

Do we Malaysians really need to do otherwise by creating all these bangsa concepts?

Do we want to be like Indonesians? They have Bangsa Indonesia.

But I'm quite sure most of us don't want to be like the Indonesians.

Their country is not as good as ours, don't you think?

Otherwise, why so many of them come to work here. Some even die while smuggling themselves to come here.

As for Bangsa Johor, if it's for cheering the JDT football team, okay lah.

For fun.

But I don't think it should be promoted beyond that.

I don't think we want to also later on have Bangsa Sarawak, Bangsa Sabah, Bangsa Kelantan, Bangsa Kedah etc.

What more if those bangsa start to claim that they are superior than other Malaysians and even want their states to break off from Malaysia.

It's possible to happen, isn't it?

What will happen to Malaysia then?

This concept of Bangsa Johor was actually only being bandied out after the last general election of 2013.

I hardly heard of it before that.

Then it was followed by several controversies connected to it, including some which involved calls for Johor to separate from Malaysia.

You can just google "bangsa johor" and read stories about those controversies.

I think they were all so unnecessary.

Same as the concept itself - unnecessary.

Honestly, I'm quite embarrassed whenever my friends from other states made fun of the whole thing.

"What's wrong with you all Johoreans? Not enough bangsa in this country is it, that you want to create a new one for yourself?" one of my friends teased.

Really. I feel that Johoreans don't need a new label such as Bangsa Johor which will makes them even more distinct from their fellow Malaysians.

That's why I disagree with it.

All this while, Johor have been doing quite well without such a concept, why the need for it now?

Unless of course if by promoting that concept, Johor can really gain something out of it instead of just an empty sense of pride.

For instance, if all the Bangsa Johor people can take back the whole stretch of coastal land from Stulang to Second Link along the bank of Tebrau Straits from the mainland Chinese - then I will also join the bandwagon and declare myself a member of Bangsa Johor.

Then it will worth something real.

Otherwise, I really think it's nothing more than just a vehicle to give Johoreans a sense of false pride, the same as the Bangsa Malaysia concept which actually did nothing much to unite Malaysians.

Please let it be the Shinkansen

The tender for Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail project is out,

I had explained why I prefer the project to be designed and executed the Japanese way in this post,

• Japanese trip and Shinkansen

I know for a fact that the Japanese are very keen to participate in the project.

I'm hoping they will be selected to help us instead of the others such as those from China or South Korea.

The Japanese are after all the best in this field.

To better understand my sentiments on this matter, please watch this half an hour NHK documentary on the Shinkansen,

Ghani, Umno election 2000 and Sultan Iskandar

I got a bit of time at the moment between my works.

So, I would like to entertain a commentator who wrote this in my last post,

Norick24 August 2016 at 16:16

Hi Annie,
You have been singing high of TS Abdul Ghani since I first read your blog. He would have been an ideal candidate to replace current PM but he remain low profile.. I'm eager to know more from you on the why..

First, let me thank Norick for the comment.

Actually, the answer to Norick's question is simple - Ghani has retired from politics.

That's about it.

But let me tell Norick and you all some more about the guy.

It should take a whole complete book to properly explain why I'm always so full of praise of TS Abdul Ghani Othman instead of just a blog post.

But, let me try my best here.

I think it's okay to write a bit more about the former Johor MB since he is now retired from politics and not a threat to anyone still in office.

Some of my friends actually thought that Ghani had given me something, either it be land, money, etc that I'm still writing nice things about him despite him already being retired.

The truth is, the only thing personal he had ever offered to assist me was to fund an acupuncture treatment for a boy with autism.

I really appreciate his kind gesture but declined the offer.

I'm being supportive of Ghani simply because he is a good man and a good leader.

Nothing more than that.

I believe that one of the main reasons why my blogging captain Rocky put this blog on his blogroll back then was because of that.

My political views were mostly neutral before I met Ghani in person for the first time in 2001.

Ghani is not a spectacular guy. He hardly gives fiery speeches or came out with statements which could drive the public into a frenzy.

I remember a Johor-based journalist once wrote that it's easier to squeeze water out of a rock than getting Ghani to say something bombastic.

But the guy is calm and collected. And he never tolerated much nonsense.

He believes that things must be done properly.

No hanky panky, no glamour.

On top of all that, the guy is very intelligent and with vision.

Any member of the Johor Civil Service who had worked closely with him can confirmed this assessment  about  Ghani.

I was impressed of him because of all that.

Ghani is also the only Umno leader up to this point who I can say with certainty of being incorruptible.

That's because I had been observing his leadership very closely for several years and found it hard to find faults with it.

I'm not saying that the guy is perfect but I found him as clean as a politician could be.

As with any other leader, Ghani has his detractors, but throughout his 18 years as Johor MB, the only real issue which could be pinned on his personal self is the sale of the Danga Bay land to businessman Lim Kang Ho during the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s. The rest that they tried to throw at him were just garbage.

To have a better understanding of what actually happened with that Danga Bay issue, please read this speech by Ghani on the 15th anniversary of Danga Bay which was posted on the now mothballed BIGCAT blog,

KPRJ and Danga Bay

Under Ghani's leadership, Johor enjoyed a holistic approach to its development, which enabled a balanced priorities between the urban and rural areas.

Bear in mind that the rapid development as witnessed in Iskandar Malaysia till now was initiated during his leadership.

For that, please read this other post in the BIGCAT blog,

Birth of Iskandar Malaysia - for non-Johoreans

There are a lot more I wish I can write about Ghani's achievements here but as I said, if I do so, this blog post may turned into a book.

So, let me save those for other postings, okay.

On Norick's inquiry as to Ghani, being an ideal candidate for the PM's job, let me take you back to the Umno election in the year 2000.

It was the only time Ghani had shown interest to move higher up the Umno leadership when he contested the vice-president post.

Ghani was at that time riding high after leading Johor BN to a 100 per cent victory in the State during the general election the previous year.

That, despite significant losses of the coalition in other states because of the Reformasi movement, triggered by the sacking and jailing of DS Anwar Ibrahim.

Ghani received the second highest number of nominations behind DS Najib Razak among the nine candidates who contested for the three vice-president slots.

It was also the lowest point in his relationship with his Johor MB predecessor TS Muhyiddin Yassin, when he was accused of blocking his former school classmate's nomination in Johor.

Ghani had denied the allegation.

The turning point of that contest came at the very end of the nomination period when Najib, along with Muhyiddin and former Selangor MB TS Muhammad Mohd Taib received the nomination from the Kubang Pasu division, which was headed by then Umno president and PM Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

The outcome of the Umno vice-president race 2000 was as reported by Utusan Malaysia here,

Kejutan Dalam Pemilihan Naib Presiden UMNO

I still remember at that time that even Dr Mahathir was shocked when his own division nominated Muhyiddin and Muhammad for the post, which was deemed a signal to the Umno delegates that the duo, along with Najib were the Umno president's choice.

Almost every observers that I know at that time discreetly cited one reason for the outcome - money politics.

I believe that because of that reason, Ghani never tried to contest for that post again.

He was dead against the practice of money politics and due to that he must had concluded that he would never be able to win.

I'm of the opinion, Umno would not be as messed up as it is now if Ghani had won that vice-president post instead of Muhyiddin who has now set-up Parti Pribumi Bersatu and Muhammad who had defected to Pas and now to Amanah.

I also believe that another reason as to why Ghani never tried to move up in politics from his number one post in Johor was because of a story told to me by a close aide of him.

According to the story, Almarhum Sultan Iskandar Sultan Ismail had told Ghani that he wanted Ghani to remain as Johor MB as long as he was still alive.

I was told that Sultan Iskandar's exact words to Ghani were these,

"Ghani, engkau jangan nak berangan nak pergi mana-mana selagi aku masih hidup. Duduk diam-diam kat sini. Jaga Johor ni baik-baik."

Sultan Iskandar had actually blocked two serious attempts to replace Ghani as MB, that was in 2004 and 2008.

Ghani had declined all awards which were offered to him at the Federal level or by other states when he was MB and because of that he was only addressed as just a Datuk at that time.

He did so out of respect for Sultan Iskandar because his datukship was the Johor Darjah Kerabat 1, which was rarely conferred to a commoner.

If I'm not mistaken, there are only five commoners at the moment with that title. The others are Dr Mahathir, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Sarawak's Tun Abdul Taib Mahmud and former Bank Negara governor TS Zeti Akhtar Aziz.

To understand better the relationship between Ghani and Sultan Iskandar, please read yet another post in the BIGCAT blog,

Remembering the good old man of Bukit Serene

Ghani only accepted his Tan Sri title after he retired from politics and relocated himself to KL.

Till today I find it difficult to call him Tan Sri.

So far, he doesn't seems to mind me calling him Datuk, as I always had.

Learn from Sarawak on how to appreciate talents

Had a chat last night with a friend who is an expert of Sarawak and Sabah politics.

The guy told me that the establishment in those two states is more stable than its counterpart in the Peninsular because the leaders over there are very good at spotting and appreciating talents.

For the most recent example, he said the Sarawak government had hired the services of TS Mohd Hassan Marican as its adviser in its dealing with Petronas.

Mohd Hassan was Petronas' CEO from Feb 1995 to Feb 2010. He was also Petronas' acting chairman when he left the company.

This is his profile as provided by Bloomberg :

Mr. Mohd Hassan bin Marican is a Senior International Advisor of Temasek International Advisors, a subsidiary of Temasek Holdings. Mr. bin Marican served as Chief Executive Officer and President of Petroliam Nasional Berhad (PETRONAS) since February 1995 until February 4, 2010 and its Acting Chairman until February 4, 2010. Mr. bin Marican has over 30 years' experience in audit, accounting and management. He served as Senior Vice-President of finance for the national oil company PETRONAS from 1989 to 1995 and a Partner of accounting firm 1981 Hanafiah Raslan and Mohamed (Touche Touche& Co) from to 1989. He serves as the Chairman of Singapore Power. He serves as Chairman of Pavilion Energy Pte Ltd at Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited. He serves as Chairman of Pavilion Gas and Lan Ting Holdings. He has been Chairman of Sembcorp Marine since April 22, 2014. He served as the Chairman of Engen Limited, South Africa's leading oil refining and marketing company, which is a subsidiary of Petronas. He served as Chairman of MISC Berhad until February 2010. He served as Acting Chairman of the Board of Petroliam Nasional Bhd. until February 4, 2010. He served as the Chairman of the Board of Petronas Gas Bhd from August 1, 1991 to August 15, 2008. He served as the Chairman of other public listed companies under Petronas Group, namely Petronas Dagangan Berhad from March 29, 1995 to October 2005 and Malaysia International Shipping portion Berhad. He served as Deputy Chairman of Sembcorp Marine and serves as its Director. He has been Director of Malaysia International Shipping Corp. Bhd. since October 1997. He has been a Non-Executive & Independent Director of Sembcorp Utilities (Netherlands) N.V. and SembCorp Industries Ltd. since June 16, 2010. He serves as a Director of Regional Economic Development Authority of Sarawak, Sarawak Energy, Lambert Energy Advisory and MH Marican Advisory. He serves as a Board member of Bank Negara Malaysia and a member of the Board of Malaysia-Thailand Joint Authority, which oversees petroleum development in the overlapping area between Malaysia and Thailand. He serves as a Director of International Centre for Leadership in Finance. He served as a Director of MISC Berhad since October 3, 1997 until February 10, 2010. He served as a Director of ConocoPhillips Canada Funding Company I. He served as a Non Executive Director of Engen Ltd. He served as a Non Independent & Non Executive Director of Petronas Gas Bhd until August 15, 2008. He served as Director of Petronas Dagangan Bhd. He served as Director of Petroliam Nasional Bhd. until February 4, 2010. He is an Energy Governor and the Energy Community Chairman for the World Economic Forum (WEF). He is also a member of the International Investment Council for the Republic of South Africa. He is a member of the WEF's International Business Council and Council of 100 Leaders. He is also a member of the Commonwealth Business Council. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, as well as a member of the Malaysian Institute of Accountants and the Malaysian Institute of Certified Public Accountants. He holds a Honorary Doctorate from the University of Malaya.

Well, no wonder Sarawak seems to be getting the upper hand in its dealings with Petronas of late.

Mohd Hassan surely knows his stuff as far as Petronas is concerned.

The Sarawakians are very smart for getting his advise.

I wish the establishment over here in the Peninsular will get equally smart.

So far, they do not seem to be very good at spotting or even appreciating talents.

Their decisions on the matter appeared to be very much influenced by petty issues and favouritism.

There were too many examples of that.

I had seen good and talented people who were supportive of the establishment being cast aside in favour of those whose only interests and talents revolves solely around their own personal agendas.

My own significant experience in this matter was back then in Johor during preparations for the last general election in 2013.

A month before the date of GE13 was announced, PM DS Najib Razak went on a visit to Johor where part of itineraries was a briefing on Johor BN's preparations for the election.

The briefing was done by then State BN chairman and MB TS Abdul Ghani Othman.

At the end of the briefing, Najib expressed his satisfaction with what were presented and considered the preparations as being the most comprehensive as compared to those by other states.

The preparations were of course very comprehensive because they were carried out since just a few months after the 2008 general election.

Ghani was assisted by a small but dedicated team throughout months of  exhaustive visits to every corners of Johor to collect information and feedbacks as well as putting into effect measures to ensure BN's victory.

I believe that if not for those preparations, Johor which was hit hard by the Chinese tsunami of 2013 could had actually been lost to the opposition in similar fashion as Selangor due to the large number of Chinese electorates in that state.

Do bear in mind that up to 83 per cent of the Malay voters in Johor sided with BN at that time, which enabled the coalition to retain its two third majority in the state assembly despite the heavy losses in Chinese majority constituencies.

Ghani's small team which includes several experts in their respective fields was disbanded after he was no longer the MB.

Personally, I feel that it was a pity to waste the talents of that team.

They were really good and loyal to Umno and BN.

Unfortunately, not only were they not appreciated or being kept for further contributions, some were even hounded out to fend for themselves after their services were no longer needed.

It reached a point where I wrote this post just weeks after the general election in order to get a reprieve for some of the "small people" who once served Ghani at Kota Iskandar,

The eradication of Datuk Ghani 

That was one main reason why I always got frustrated with the establishment here.

There are other examples, but let me save them for other days.

Can't write too long as I need to get back to work now.

Cheers.

There should be better ways to handle Namewee's case

Do we really need to do this?

Police to get Interpol's help to locate three singers in Namewee's video clip

Or in fact, can we actually do that?

Check out this story, okay.

Obama inks Taiwan INTERPOL bid bill 

The country is only at bidding stage to be an observer of Interpol it seems.

At least that's how I understand it.

I found that just by googling.

No fancy research.

Furthermore I don't think China will let us touch those guys.

For China, Taiwan is part of it and the people of Taiwan its citizens.

No foreign interference allowed, if I'm not mistaken.

Anyway, what offences are we going to pin on those Taiwanese singers to make Interpol drag them here in the first place?

These are all so weird.

Honestly, I don't like the handling of the case at all.

In fact, I don't even like those images of Namewee being handcuffed.

Just look at this BBC headline,

Malaysian singer Namewee held for 'insulting Islam'

I know it's procedures and all but I feel that it makes us look a bit extreme.

I'm sure Namewee will not try to run away and instead cooperate with the authorities in the investigation of his music video.

Okay, the guy is a bit crazy but I feel the action taken against him was a bit harsh.

He is an artist, and artists tends to be a bit crazy.

And I think, if insulting is the offence, he and his gang actually insulted other religions too and not just Islam.

Whatever it is, the one giving him the trouble was the hacked video which he himself didn't post.

I know, many will disagree with me on this but that's alright. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

Freedom of expression is good.

In Namewee's case, he went a bit too far, I guess.

But still, the whole thing could be handled better.

A KFC dinner with a good Umno big shot

I was having a KFC dinner alone the other night when a friend and his family turned up at the place.

It was quite a pleasant surprise for me as I had not met him for quite a while.

My friend is quite a big shot at the Umno headquarters.

Yup, he still eats KFC despite being an important Umno guy and a Datuk.

His wife is also very nice and doesn't behave or even look like a Mak Datin.

I never called them Datuk and Datin.

Sounds weird to call my friends by those titles anyway.

My friend sat with me while his wife and children had their dinner at an adjoining table.

As usual, we mostly talked about politics.

His wife doesn't care much about such things.

She is a successful businesswoman and doesn't depend on her husband much for money.

I think she is even richer than her husband.

And nope, she also doesn't depend on her husband's political connections to be successful in business.

Really, I'm telling the truth about my friend and his wife.

There are indeed Umno people who are like that.

Anyway, my friend told me some latest developments in Umno's preparations for the next general election.

I can only tell you all that it's going to be much earlier than expected.

I asked him whether Umno is confident of winning and he said yes.

Reason - the opposition is in worse shape than BN.

I think he was being truthful about that.

The opposition is indeed in a mess at the moment.

Too much infighting.

And that, even when they are yet to win the election.

The earlier the general election is held, the less time for them to patch things up.

Nonetheless, my friend said there are still worries because the BN machineries are still plagued by glitches.

"Too many people are busy promoting things for their own vested interest. They spoiled everything," he said.

My friend also agrees with me that the best way to deal with Umno members who are unhappy with the leadership is not to throw them away.

"We must win back as many of them as we can," he said.

"Of course the hardcore ones have to go. Nothing much we can do about them anyway."

It was good to hear that.

So, it's not true that everyone at the top of Umno preaches that "either you are with us or against us" mantra.

I'm of the opinion that those who advocate that stupid phrase are either stupid or intentionally trying to tear Umno apart from within.

My friend also told me about how like minded Umno people such as himself are trying their best to stop others from using the party for their own personal interests.

He said it's not easy.

Well, at least now I know there are those who are still trying to do the right thing.

I wished him and his band of good Umno people all the best.

Another thing that I asked him was whether he feels that the mainstream media bosses are doing the right thing in their support for the establishment, especially in the way they harshly handled Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

My friend's face changed when I asked him that.

He then made a vulgar sign with his fingers but did so discreetly so that his wife and children didn't see it.

"Tu semua nak jaga kedudukan je," he said.

Well, what to do, everyone has to earn a living and that's all some people are good at.

My friend should know about these sorts of things.

He was in the thick of things when Pak Lah's people used the same tactic against Dr Mahathir and the outcome was the disastrous 2008 general election.

Relax, it's Saturday

Apparently, two Chinese want to pick up a fight with me today.

One is an ultra Chinese and the other a self-hating Chinese.

But today is a Saturday.

My rest day.

I'm not in the mood for such things.

By the way, I'm also quite tired of fighting.

It doesn't really add any value to my life.

So, I just want to rest.

It had been such a tiring week.

You all relax too, okay.

I recommend you all to do something relaxing but beneficial at the same time.

Such, maybe you all can consider watching this documentary about Japanese bamboo,

It's really nice and educational.

I had been to a Japanese bamboo forest.

It was on a fine autumn afternoon at a small town called Yamazaki, about 15 minutes train ride from Kyoto.

It was so peaceful there. A very memorable experience.

Eh, you all have a nice weekend, okay.

Don't fight all the time.

Peace.

So what, if their BM is not perfect

So, Goh Liu Ying and Chan Peng Soon managed to win silver medals instead of gold.

Pandelela Rinong and Cheong Jun Hoong also won silver.

Azizulhasni Awang won bronze.

Not so bad, okay.

It's already the best Olympic outing for the country, if I'm not mistaken.

Anyway, Malaysia can still hope for gold from Goh V.Shem and Tan Wee Kiong.

Then, there's Datuk Lee Chong Wei.

It's good to be able to celebrate their achievements.

By the way, I don't think most of us really care about our athletes' race or religion.

I also don't think most of us really care whether they speak perfect Bahasa Malaysia or being "proper Malaysians yang mempunyai ciri-ciri rakyat Malaysia sejati"....whatever the hell that is.

I know that I don't care about that.

Those guys are out there battling it out and giving it all for the country.

For me that makes them good enough Malaysians.

In fact, for me they are better Malaysians than some of us who can speak perfect Bahasa Malaysia and oh so patriotic lah kununnya.

I'm saying all these because of these comments from my last post,

Blue17 August 2016 at 21:52

Lets hope they are not only cute in the court but speak fluent BM. No point winning the medals but speak the language which is understood by those in the mainland only.

Anonymous18 August 2016 at 11:37
Blue, you are hoping for a miracle. They are not patriotic like the Indonesians, Thais to name a few. Malaysia is just a land of opportunity for them

Tuan Blue18 August 2016 at 14:15
As long as they carry the Jalur Gemilang, then the people hope that they are equally good in BM as much as they do with mandarin. This is the least that they can do as the citizen on this country.

Anonymous18 August 2016 at 14:45
i agree with 11:37
malaysia is a land of opportunity for chinese and indian
no matter what they said with their mouth
theyll be need to be the same level of patriotism like indonesia, minus their gloomy economic situations
ill vote for single stream school, once that established, then things will be progress more positively

There are a few more but I think those are sufficient as samples.

Seriously guys, what's wrong with you all?

So what if some of us, our athletes included, can't speak proper BM.

For me, that doesn't make them any less patriotic than myself or any of you.

My mother can't speak perfect BM even after all these years married to my father, but I know for a fact that she really loves this country.

When Malaysia was savaged in the Chinese web forums after MH370 went missing, she went in there and battled it out in defense of this country.

And she even defended the BN government despite herself (from what i know) being a supporter of DAP.

She told me that she did so because when foreigners and even some Malaysians attacked our government in a time of crisis, it's the same as attacking our country itself.

Myself and most of you all can't do that and probably won't even be bothered.

My mother was educated in a Chinese school and a university in Taiwan.

So, she can do what she did.

And she did it for her love of this country.

Nobody paid her to do it, okay.

By the way, do you think all Englishmen can speak perfect English?

Or Chinesemen, can they all speak perfect Mandarin or Cantonese, or Hokkien or whatever?

No, right.

Does that makes them lesser Englishmen or Chinese?

I don't think so.

If we want to talk about being like the Indonesians for example, do we really want our country to be like Indonesia?

Or Thailand?

Or the Philippines?

I don't think so.

Why can't we just appreciate the way we are and just get along with minimum prejudices?

We are unique and we are like that because this country is designed to be so.

Read the constitution and you will realise that what we are now is how it was intended by the founding fathers when they set-up this country called Malaysia.

Let's not destroy it because we think we are more Malaysian than the next person because we can speak BM better, or we think our racial background is more Malaysian, or our religion is more Malaysian.

Guys, let's pray that our Olympic athletes (and all of us for that matter) will never end up like in this
story,

That's just the trailer.

The movie is also in Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFQB9GaWYVk

Hoping for cute Chinese to bring home gold

Noticed that someone was trying to be cute just now.

Okay lah. Better than being angry and hateful all the time.

Whatever it is, I think in order to be cute after so much hating, there should be some build up first.

A sudden jump from being hateful to cuteness doesn't really work, okay.

It's just unnatural.

Let's say the objects of cuteness are Chinese, but you have been running down the race for quite a while. You should tone down the hating first before using them to show people that you are cute.

That would be better, isn't it?

This should apply to crazy ultra-Malays who want to throw the Chinese into the sea or self-hating Chinese with a grudge against member/members of his/her own race.

You can't say today "Umat Islam Melayu mesti bersatu bagi menentang Cina dajjal yang mahu merampas kuasa dinegara ini. Percaya lah saya kerana saya pun Cina," and the next day says "Ohhhh...seronoknya. Empat orang Cina Malaysia seperti saya bakal membawa pulang pingat emas untuk negara. Saya bangga pencapaian mereka. Satuuuu Malaysia!!!"

Really. It just doesn't work that way.

Sounds fake, isn't it?

Well, the best is still not to hate our fellow Malaysians just because of their race or religion.

We may disagree on a lot of things but always bear in mind that at the end of the days, we still need to share this country.

It's not so bad to share, okay.

And when something great happens, we can share the joy together.

Genuinely, that is.

All the best to our mixed and male doubles at the Rio Olympics badminton finals.


p.s There was a request for me to put up the picture of our lady shuttler who is among them.

The very pretty Goh Liu Ying. Try not to be jealous of her.

Okay, I'm putting up the pictures of the guys too for good measure.

Chan Peng Soon, who is Goh's partner. Quite handsome too.

Goh V. Shem and Tan Wee Kiong. Very energetic and bersemangat guys. 

Go Jazlan !

Deputy Home Minister DS Nur Jazlan Mohamed actually replied to my queries about the possibility of our passports being made in China.

He said,

No go for made-in-China Malaysian passports

Please click on the link to read the whole thing.

Excerpts;

“We are investigating this,” Nur Jazlan told The Mole after being queried about the matter. “There are specific conditions in the contract that they (Datasonic) have to fulfill.”

When asked whether the government will stop Datasonic from making Malaysian passports in China if the company indeed plans to do so, Nur Jazlan wrote this via Whatsapp: “For sure”.

 “The passports were assembled here previously. There are security issues involved,” he added .

The claims were first circulated by anonymous blogger, Annie via her latest post in her ‘Life of Annie’ blog.

Hey, Jazlan is not so bad, isn't he?

At least he was paying attention and pro-active to concerns over the matter.

For that, I'm putting a better picture of him in this blog,

See, he looks better grinning and in suit. Got flowers in the background some more.

Sorry Jazlan, can't find a less chubby looking picture of you. That one you simply have to exercise and diet a bit, okay.

Anyway, based on Jazlan's response, I conclude that,

1. Jazlan doesn't know yet where Datasonic will make the passports and their microchips.

That's because he said "We are investigating this". Otherwise he would have said "No, that Annie is lying and a fraud. Don't read that bitch's blog because she is Pro-Tun and being paid by DAP. Datasonic is not going to make our passports in China. I know for certain that Datasonic will make the passports in Balakong. They told me so".

Okay, Jazlan is nice and would never says it like that, but I know someone else who most certainly would :)

I think my sources was telling the truth too when they said PM DS Najib Razak was not aware of what's Datasonic's plan. If a deputy minister in charge of the whole thing was not aware, how could the PM knows about it, right?

I feel that Datasonic and a lot of other people are not being transparent enough over this matter.

They are expecting the rakyat to just accept whatever they are doing.

And for that, we have to pay them some more. In this case, RM1.6 billion.

2. The government will not allow the passports to be made in China.

Jazlan said, “The passports were assembled here previously. There are security issues involved,”

That's reassuring.

At least I know that the government doesn't compromise on security issues.

Ya lah, if we want to have our shoes or clothes being made in China, then it's okay.

But our passports?


Well, anyway, I'm expecting Datasonic to come out with a statement soon saying that they are not going to make the passports in China.

Of course that's expected of them now things are out in the open.

They will quickly set up plants in Balakong to produce the microchips and print the passport booklets.

And for that we may have to expect more early morning long queues at the immigration counters.

What to do?

Redha saja lah.

I'm wishing good luck to Jazlan in his investigation.

Thanks anyway Datuk for responding.

Next time you come back to Pulai, I will belanja you makan tempe goreng, okay :)

Malaysian passports and security microchips to be wholly made in China?

First, let's get back to my last post,

Jazlan should just kick out those vendors 

Pay particular attention to this story by The Star dated Aug 3 which I highlighted,

Datasonic says it has delivered sufficient chips 

Click on that link to read it.

If you are too lazy to click on it, at least read these excerpts which I picked for that post,

1. PETALING JAYA: Datasonic Group Bhd will take on the role as the main contractor for Malaysian passports, supplying the booklets as well as the datapages with microchips to the Immigration Department from Dec 1, 2016.

2. Over the past six months, Datasonic had secured RM802.53mil in contracts, mainly relating to the Immigration Department.

Chew said in a recent interview that the company is poised to secure another RM800mil worth of IT-related contracts from the Government in the next six months, a move which would significantly boost its order book.

Okay, now let me tell you about some information that I got yesterday.

I was told by very reliable sources that Datasonic is going to produce all the passport booklets and their security microchips in China.

Yes, our passports are going to be wholly made in China.

I repeat again - MADE IN CHINA.

Malaysian passports are now and previously made locally and under the close supervision of the government.

This is important mostly because of security reasons.

If indeed Datasonic is to make the passports and their security microchips in China as I was told, how is the government going to continue to ensure no third party have access to the data contained in the passports, and those microchips?

And what are there to ensure that Malaysian passports are not going to be produced for lets say those who are using them for human trafficking and such?

These are made in China passports, okay.

I think you all know what they said about things made in China.

Bear in mind that Malaysian passports are perhaps the most valued in the world.

It allows you to enter all countries in the world except Israel.

Again, what prompted the government to allow Datasonic to take over from a provenly good contractor to do the job and doing it in such a manner which may compromise the security of the country and its citizens?

My sources told me that the whole thing involves very powerful people who by comparison makes Deputy Home Minister DS Nur Jazlan Mohamed whom I highlighted in the last post as nothing but a small fry.

I asked why PM DS Najib Razak is not doing anything about the whole thing.

This is the exact response from my sources,

"The PM is not aware of this matter. At least not yet."

That sounds ridiculous, but my sources insisted that it was true.

"If anyone wants to know why the PM is yet to know about this potential security breach, ask the KSN," my sources added.

KSN is Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Ali Hamsa.

Actually, I later on find that it's quite weird why my sources mentioned Ali Hamsa, despite later on saying the guy is also a small fry in the matter, similar to Jazlan.

Maybe I will ask them more about it when I meet them again.

And why didn't the newspapers highlight this matter?

If a lowly insignificant blogger like me can find out about it, surely they must have known too, right?

They should be asking those questions I asked above, I think.

"They are also already in the bag," said my sources.

I'm not really sure what my sources meant by that, but didn't ask for clarification. Not really important I think.

I just hope now that the PM will find out soon about this whole thing and stop it before it's too late.

As according to the report which I highlighted, Datasonic already secured about RM800 million contract to do the whole thing and will get another portion of about the same amount soon for some other similar jobs for the government.

That's RM1.6 billion of rakyat's money to be spent paying these people who are going to make our passports and its security microchips in China.

Do you all think that's good?

I don't think so.

Really, the currently long queues at the Immigration counters is not the biggest thing about the issue which Malaysians should worry about.

Jazlan should just kick out those vendors (updated)

UPDATES

Several commentators have made references about an individual whom they called "Smelly Blobby" or something like that.

I want you all to know that the individual is definitely not our dear Nur Jazlan.

Nur Jazlan is not smelly or blobby.

Nur Jazlan is just a bit chubby, okay.

Jangan marah Datuk.

Datuk kan cool :)


ORIGINAL POST

It's quite ironic that this story came out yesterday while many Malaysians are currently unhappy with the long queues at Immigration counters,

IRIS CORP TO SUPPLY 2.5 MLN NIGERIAN ePASSPORTS

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 11 (Bernama) -- IRIS Corporation Bhd will be supplying 2.5 million Nigerian electronic passports (ePassports) under a US$42.49 million contract with Nigeria-based firm IRIS Smart Technologies Ltd.

In a filing to Bursa Malaysia today, IRIS Corp said the contract is for three years from the date it was signed.

"IRIS Corp shall, from time to time, supply and deliver such quantities of the e-Passport in accordance with the letters of credit issued by IRIS Smart as specified in the agreement," the inventor of the world's first ePassport and multi-application smart card said.

-- BERNAMA

As stated in that short story, Iris Corp is the world's inventor of ePassport and multi-application smart card, which is something Malaysia should be proud of.

The company used to be the supplier of our ePassports when the technology was first introduced and if I'm not mistaken our country is the first to use it.

I remember that it was a breeze when I applied for my passport at the Immigration Department office in JB about four years ago.

At that time, I thought the days of early morning long queues in front of the Immigration offices was no more.

Then suddenly we have these sorts of posts in the blogs,

Passport glitch: Just who is responsible?

   

Passport fiasco: Who to blame? 

And these are earlier reports on the matter,

Ministry issues ultimatum to passport vendor over defects

Datasonic says it has delivered sufficient chips 

Stop bickering, focus on public interest

If you read those reports, you can see that Deputy Home Minister DS Nur Jazlan Mohamed was in the thick of things.

I sorts of highlighted Jazlan in my last post and I got messages saying that Jazlan must be happy with it. 

Whatever. I was just trying to be fair to him being my MP and all.

Anyway, I don't think that he even read my insignificant blog, okay.

Well, this time, I'm expressing my hope aloud for someone to ask Jazlan who the hell actually own those new Immigration's vendors which screwed up things.

They can deny the mess is their fault and give all sorts of excuses, but the fact remains that the people suffered and not very happy with the government because of the problem.

Why they were appointed to replace the proven Iris Corp in the first place?

They got big cables ka or what?

If I'm Jazlan, I would have kicked out the vendors right away and get Iris Corp back to do the job. 

According to one of the reports, Jazlan said the Ministry is going to review the arrangement with the vendors.

Review?

What more to review la Jazlan.

Just read about the suffering of the people at the Immigration counters, okay.

For me, that's good enough a review as it is.

Really.

Jazlan, you scared of them or what?

Somehow I got the feeling that nothing is going to happen.

Just read these excerpts from one of the reports;

PETALING JAYA: Datasonic Group Bhd will take on the role as the main contractor for Malaysian passports, supplying the booklets as well as the datapages with microchips to the Immigration Department from Dec 1, 2016.

and this,

Over the past six months, Datasonic had secured RM802.53mil in contracts, mainly relating to the Immigration Department.

Chew said in a recent interview that the company is poised to secure another RM800mil worth of IT-related contracts from the Government in the next six months, a move which would significantly boost its order book.

Those people will make even more money and we will be expected to accept things as it is.

The issue will died off soon and we will be back to accepting that it is normal to wait outside the Immigration office at 4.30am to get our passport done.

Some will even say things like this,

"Biasa la, nak passport kena la macam tu. Kat mana-mana dalam dunia ni pun macam tu la. Tak pecaya tanya la geng Pak Hitam yang datang dari Afrika tu."

Well, I think if later on you ask one of those Nigerian guys who goes around from table to table at the mamak restaurant selling belts and other leather goods, he will tell you,

"No lah, our passports get done very fast one. Tak da masaalah punya."

Yup, Nigeria is getting ahead of us. Iris Corp is doing their passports what.

Jazlan, do something, okay.

Otherwise, next election you just contest in Kempas.

No need to become MP and deputy minister or whatever.

Suruh Uncle Rashid Kasman je ganti engko bertanding kat parliament Pulai.

Boleh? 

It's not so black and white

In my last post, I wrote that I have issues with advisers of PM DS Najib Razak.

Someone asked me about it, so I was trying to be honest.

It doesn't matter to me if the advisers were unhappy with me if they read that.

I just simply don't like the way they do things.

Anyway, it's not the first time I wrote such things.

If you check this blog's archive, you will find that I have been saying that, way before the Umno rebellion started last year.

However, you all should know that I don't like many of those around Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad too.

Those such as that lady who was being hysterical on video screaming "kencing, kencing, kencing".

I don't want to be led by people such as that.

Come on, a lady shouldn't behave crazy like that in public no matter what.

If she thinks Najib stole those money, why can't she just say it properly?

Why the hysterics?

And I don't like them encouraging the 92 years old Dr Mahathir going to the ground to fight at that age.

For me, they are as bad as those on Najib's side who whacked the old man.

That's why I prefer not to join any of them.

I also have friends on both sides.

I don't want to fight any of them.

It doesn't matter to me if they no longer regard me as their friend because I didn't join their cause.

For me, friends will always be friends.

Maybe I'm being naive, but as far as I'm concerned, politics can't make me hate my friends.

Anyway, as I had previously said, I will vote in the next general election as according to my conscience.

Despite arguments by both sides, I rather decide the matter depending on how things end up for me.

I will ask myself :

- Does voting for the opposition makes things better?

- Does voting for BN makes it worse?

So far, my life is neither really better nor worse.

Therefore, I guess I have to wait until election time.

Still, it's going to be quite difficult for me.

Honestly, I wish I can vote for BN again.

My MP is DS Nurjazlan Mohamed.

I don't mind him so much because he is a good MP who take care of his constituents.

Dr Mahathir doesn't like him because he quit PAC to be a deputy minister.

But I still like Jazlan despite that.

Well, I think I like him better than some crazy Pas, Amanah or whatever guy who may contest against him.

I also believe that Jazlan tried his best under the circumstances.

Furthermore, the few times I met him, he was genuinely nice to me.

So, it's hard for me to vote against him, okay.

For state seat, I'm in Pengkalan Rinting.

In the last general election, I voted for the MCA guy but he lost to the DAP candidate.

So, how about the next election?

No matter what, I don't think I can make myself vote for DAP.

I'm too allergic to that party.

Just look at this guy,

Can you blame me for saying that?

See, it's not going to be easy for me even if things get bad for myself.

It's all not so black and white, okay.

Some people are so sure in what they believe in, but I'm just not like that.

I tend to question things.

I have to be 100 per cent convinced before I make a decision.

That's because I have encountered so many people who were not what they seemed to be.

And there were many occasions before where I got it all wrong because I was not careful enough with my judgement.

I'm not ashamed to admit that.

I don't like that and have no wish to make such mistakes again.

That's why I'm very careful.

But that's just me.

You all decide for yourself what you want to believe.

I'm not going to tell you to think like this or like that or decide like this or like that.

However, I would like to just suggest for you all to try decide rationally, okay.

Try to think before making a decision and please don't simply believe in what others told you.

Nothing wrong with that suggestion, right?

Okay, that's all.

Peace

Annie and Najib's advisers

Someone asked me the other day why I 'm being harsh towards the advisers of PM DS Najib Razak.

Apparently he read this post by my blogging captain Rocky,

"If Mahathir was my father ..."

Excerpts:

Of all the online scribes who have tried to remain "neutral" in the protracted Mahathir-Najib fight, I think Life of Annie tried the hardest. She has been frank but fair in her commentaries on Najib Razak although she has been harsh towards the PM's so-called advisers, and she has deftly avoided any kind of personal diatribe aimed at Mahathir.


I have many reasons for not liking the Najib's advisers but one of the biggest is how they badly treated good people and prefer to hire mercenaries such as those who encourage Umno to tear itself apart from within.

"Either you are with us or against us" they preached.

These mercenaries also promote the idea of Umno being an extremist Islamic Malay party.

"Combine with Pas, throw out MCA, Gerakan, etc" they said.

"Hate the Chinese, hate the Christians, etc" they added.

And these people tried to promote individuals who never apologise for calling Umno a racist party and practicing a system of government similar to apartheid and white supremacy.

Let me tell you all a story.

Back in the run-up to the last general election, I was helping Johor Umno prepares the defence of the state.

Despite that, I was at first quite okay with then Johor DAP chief Dr Boo Cheng Hau.

That was until he came up with an article in some publication equating our civil servants as being similar to those of former apartheid regime in South Africa and Nazi Germany.

This is a reply to Dr Boo's article written by former Johor NST bureau chief Ben Tan, who is a Christian Chinese,

'Nazi' label a disservice to the civil service

2011/07/04
By Ben Tan

MOST of the time, I am all for free speech, as long as the speaker or writer can be truthful and back up their words with facts. I even agree with the recent controversial Facebook posting by Johor DAP chairman Dr Boo Cheng Hau on the country's civil service with regard to the lack of participation of non-Malays.

But my support ends there as I feel that his statements that our country is run along the lines of a totalitarian state akin to the Third Reich of Nazi Germany were unfair. His remarks were reported in the New Straits Times last Friday.

Dr Boo, who is also Skudai assemblyman, had on June 18, posted his article titled "Isn't a one-race civil service a form of apartheid?" on The Centre for Policy Initiatives website, which was later linked to his own Facebook page. This later caused a stir at the state assembly meeting last Thursday.

Being born and bred in this country for over 35 years, I do not see it being a police state or run militarily like how Germany was under the Nazis.

My opinion is that Dr Boo is being overly dramatic in drawing parallels between our country and "Nazi Germany" and also the civil service in promoting "racist", apartheid-like policies.

In his article, which has received widespread links in several online portals and blogs, Dr Boo alleged that Malaysia has a "huge and largely ethnic Malay civil service, completely loyal to Umno, but increasingly incompetent" and that is the biggest obstacle to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's 1Malaysia.

"Non-Malays have been gradually cleansed from the public sector with only a few remaining now in crucial and inevitable sectors such as teaching in vernacular schools."

Dr Boo then described Umno members as "ultra-nationalists" who defend majority-race dominance as justifiable, as opposed to the minority-race dominance previously in South Africa, under apartheid.

"Like other totalitarian states in history such as the Third Reich of Nazi Germany, Umno needs a large number of Malay civil servants to control the populace through racism," he added.

Interestingly, in his Easter Day message in April, Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, too, had hinted at "Hitlerian" ideas and had asked Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders if it was wrong to oppose racial supremacy.

A Malay friend of mine, who is a rank and file personnel attached with the Johor police contingent, disagreed with Dr Boo and described his statement as being over-the-top, to the extent of mildly promoting racism. My friend, 25, had spent the past three years in service.

He said he would like to see the participation of more Chinese, Indians and those from other races in joinng the force as it would be an ideal platform to promote unity.

"But it's more of a choice for the non-Malays. They feel that the private sector can offer much more, thus the lack of appeal to join the civil service," he said, adding that the issue was far from just favouring a particular race.

This generally-held perception is accepted by many. You just cannot stop people who want a better life for themselves. After all, it is not like we are forced to serve our entire lives with the civil service.

Like most Chinese Malaysians, I am happy to say that I am not forced to wear shirts with a "Saya Cina" patch and interned in concentration camps, to be ethnically cleansed or gassed to death like how the Nazis did the Jews.

On the other hand, I enjoy the company of many Malay friends that I have had the opportunity to meet during the course of my work. There are some that I even consider my mentors.

Conversely, my Malay friends, some from varied backgrounds, also hold the same respect for me.

In many ways, I think Dr Boo's analogy of our country with the Third Reich and the apartheid regime is unfair.

The Nazis, under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, used the race card (or rather, the claimed supreme Aryan race) to crush any opposition, but it ultimately burned itself out. The word "Nazi" is today a dirty word.

The same goes to the now-defunct apartheid regime of South Africa.

So, with Dr Boo's article, we appear to be revisiting another nasty label in an attempt to provoke society. Such reference is nothing new, but it appears to be resurrecting itself for possible political gains. The issue of non-Malay participation in our country's civil service is quite well known and have been highlighted by the media many times before.

Dr Boo, or even those that tend to agree with the issue of non-Malay participation in the civil service, should instead come out with solutions instead of making a comparison on how similar we are to failed totalitarian regimes that run along racial lines.

I am not against constructive criticism. I do it all the time myself as I am doing it now.

But pulling out the racial card, such as Nazi-labelling, is a cheap trick that desensitise with a profound meaning that should be reserved only for its historical significance and the horrors that they were known for.

Ben Tan was then heavily condemned by a lackey of Dr Boo.

I wrote about the scum in this post,

Meroyan bottom of wok

I'm not even going to dirty this blog page with the link to that rant against Ben Tan.

And you know what, now one of those hired mercenaries is attacking me for what I wrote about that buntut kuali.

As for Ben Tan, he was the one who led the Johor NST team during the GE13.

I know him around that time and think he did a decent job in support of the establishment.

However , NST, which was supposed to be pro-establishment and led by supporters of Najib forced Ben Tan to quit his job last year over some petty issues.

And what Najib's advisers do about these sorts of things?

Nothing.

Instead they hired those mercenaries.

And this Ben Tan's story is not the only one.

Yup, that's one of my main issues with Najib's advisers.