The good Sultan on Prof Jamilah's memoir

I almost miss this one,

Sultan Nazrin Launches 'Legends, Lessons And Love: 

A Small Town And An English School

It's Sultan Nazrin launching a book by Prof Jamilah.

I think the Sultan likes the book very much as it seems that he had actually read the whole book and wrote his own speech which is actually a book review for the function.

excerpts 1;

He said the book written by prominent academician, Puan Sri Prof Dr Jamilah Ariffin which provided insights of not only the lives of individuals but also the education system during the nation's crucial transitional period, would be a good read for today's educationists.

"We can learn much about community and multi-culturalism from this richly detailed account of how these operated in those days.

"While we may not be able to return to that more innocent small-town past that this book so powerfully brings to live, there may again be valuable elements that we could learn from in our current efforts to build a harmonious multi-cultural society," he said when launching the book at Sime Darby Convention Centre, here today.

excerpts 2 ;

Elaborating Sultan Nazrin said the book provided rich details on various aspects of traditional British education model, with its kind but firm discipline by the teachers and successive principals, who fulfilled their roles in moulding the new generation with such dedication.

The school sought to build confidence and ambition among all its students, as part of an approach that emphasised service, duty, honesty and integrity," he said.

Sultan Nazrin said the book constantly reminded readers on the different ways in which multi-culturalism was experienced before the manipulation of racial or religious difference for political purposes that had become a feature of our politics since.

"As depicted in the many photos in the book, there were easy mingling of classmates from different races and religious background who met as equals on the school grounds.

"Friendships were then deepened through the many opportunities for inter-action and integration that were provided by the school and broader community," he said.

I need to get myself a copy of this book as Sultan Nazrin makes it as if it's such a good read.

Well, I believe in the good Sultan. He's one of the good guys. A better one, to be exact.

Anyway, maybe I can use Prof Jamilah's book as a guide for my own memoir.....which I'm still struggling to complete.

Writing a book is not easy like writing a blog like this.

It needs a lot of discipline...which I'm lacking.

Prof Jamilah, however, makes it as if it's no big deal as she keeps coming up with one book after another.

I posted these about her previous book,

A lady of substance

Of a book launch and review of a Saturday

By the way, I heard Prof Jamilah's husband is also writing his own book and from what I was told it's a biography.

I hope it will be published soon.

I also hope it's one of those no holds barred kinda books.

Would love to see Datuk Ghani kick some ass in his book.

That would be quite fun, don't you think?

Okay, need to get up and go to work now.

Cheers.

Tae-yang, Hyo-won and Shila

Been neglecting this blog for quite a while.

No real reason, actually.

Just lazy...well, there was CNY for one thing.

I think I over-celebrated it a bit too much that day.

Otherwise, it's just the usual.

It's nice not to be bothered with the usual politics for a bit.

Really.

I think I spend more time these days watching Korean dramas than monitoring the Malaysian political scene.

Last night, I watched the final 54th episode of

The Gentlemen of Wolgyesu Tailor Shop

I like the moral lessons of this family drama.

A bit too long but it was fun to watch.

My favourite characters are the couple Kang Tae-yang (played by Hyun Woo) and Min Hyo-won (played by Lee Se-young).

They are not the main characters but I like them the most because they are so positive about life.

I wish I could be positive like them too.

Lots of mushy mushy moments in this drama but I don't mind them so much.

Better watching them than keeping track of the endless Malaysian political nonsense.

Other than watching Korean drama, I also realised these past weeks that I like Shila Amzah very much and I think she's the best Malaysian singer ever.

I know, a lot of people may disagree with me but that's what I think of her after watching almost every other of her videos at YouTube.

I don't think any other Malaysian artiste has such a global impact as her.

It's just too bad that she's under appreciated here.

This is her performance that gave me the goosebumps,

Well, that's one amazing performance.

Okay, just that for this post.

I'll try to write something more serious later as I get back to my usual blogging pace.

Peace.

Melayu Proton (updated)

UPDATES

Please also read

Anger in cyberspace relating to Proton Bumiputra dealers

ORIGINAL POST

Someone yesterday asked me to read this Utusan interview with Malaysian Association of Malay Vehicle Importers and Traders (Pekema) president Datuk Zainuddin Abdul Rahman.

Pengedar Bumiputera Proton tertekan 

So I did.

And I cringed.

Seriously, it's embarrassing.

The guy who asked me to read the interview described these Malay Proton dealers as tongkat-loving privileged Melayus.

I can't help but to agree with him.

They basically refused to upgrade their dealership and tried to use their bumiputera status to get away with it.

I even detected a hint of political blackmail.

And let me put it as it is, the whole interview reeks of racism.

Instead of addressing their own shortcomings, they accused the Proton management, which is now headed by a Chinese, of demanding the dealership upgrade to kill off their business and giving it to non-bumiputera.

It was malicious of them to go to Utusan to make this accusation.

It's clearly an attempt to rile up Malay sentiments in their favour.

If their complaints were genuine, they should have taken those to the Proton management and discuss the matter properly.

After all, Proton has helped them with their business all these years.

For how long more do they want to invoke their bumiputera status for these sorts of things in business.

Tak malu ke?

And these Malay dealers, are they poor that they are complaining about not having the money to upgrade their dealership?

Are they living in squatter houses, or big bunglows?

The one interviewed is a Datuk.

Are you poor Datuk?

What have you done with the profit of selling Proton cars all these years?

How much did you put aside for future investments of the business?

Or did you spent it all untuk berpoya-poya?

Now that Proton wants you to put some money into the business so that you all can develop your business together, you are pleading poverty.

On top of that you are accusing Proton of racism, while the actual fact is that, you are the ones who are racists.

Hey, how did these Melayu were choosen to become Proton dealers in the first place?

Political cable?

Or are they genuine businessmen?

And all these years they were riding the gravy train on their bumiputera ticket.

Never mind that Proton suffered all sorts of shit the whole while. They never said anything.

Now that there is light at the end of the dark Proton tunnel, they are making noises about their bumiputera status again.

What a bunch of jerks.

Hoi, enough la. You all are embarrassing the entire Malay race la.

Don't these people know that the Geely Chinese are the only ones who were actually willing to put up with these sorts of nonsense which comes with Proton.

The first choice of Proton partnership was actually the Japanese. And they surrendered straight away when they found out that they have to deal with such bullshit.

The French were even worse. They wanted the whole deal to go their way and they definitely couldn't care less about all these bumiputera thing.

I really don't get it why these Melayu became Proton dealers in the first place.

Don't they have the capacity to think?

If Geely didn't come in that day, Proton would have to be eventually shut down anyway.

Now that they are in there, they have to fix it.

No more all these pampering and tolerating nonsense.

No more lepaking around and enjoying the profit without thinking of saving some for the future.

So, adapt la.

If you can't, then close shop and balik kampung, okay.

I'm quite sure there are other more capable Malays that Proton can appoint as their dealers.

Enough of these embarrassing Malays, okay.

By the way, this is Proton's response to those complaining Melayu dealers;

Proton dealers told to upgrade outlets for a better future

Rafizi was right, Shahrir is spinning

There's a need to tell it as it is.

Click on the link to this commentary at The Mole to know why I say Rafizi was right and that Shahrir is spinning the Felda issue;

The “Um, actually….” late night press conference

Don't be lazy. Click on the link and read the commentary, okay.

To be more direct and telling it as it is, the commentary basically pointed out that Shahrir was lying when he announced that Felda has got back its "lost land".

The title should be "Shahrir is a liar, his pants are on fire".

Well, I have never been impressed with Shahrir even when everyone were all praising him for his supposed integrity and such.

This is what I wrote on the day of his appointment as Felda chairman in January last year;

The best guy to replace Shahrir in JB

Please click on the link and read it.

I wrote that when the other bloggers, especially the pro-BN ones were all falling heads over heels in their praises and adulation of the man.

Some of my friends from the BN side even suspected me of being an opposition sympathiser because of that.

But of course despite that, pro-Pakatan people still call me a dedak eating BN macai because I didn't become rabidly anti-government.

Well...whatever.

Back to Felda, the nonsense is now one of the most potent Pakatan's weapons as GE14 draws near.

For once they have the opportunity to break the BN's Felda vote bank.

Why Shahrir and the gang need to spin the whole thing like that is beyond me.

Totally stupid media strategy.

It confirms my belief that BN has the worst set of media people this side of the planet.

Self serving pricks controlling the main stream media at the PMO, clueless ball-less editors who only care about datukship and big fat salary at the newspapers, etc etc.

These are the people who advise people in position like Shahrir's.

That's why it became stupid like that.

There, I'm telling you as it is.

Maybe next time I'll put all the names here and be damned with it.

Have a nice Sunday folks.

Cheers

Wahid on leadership and succession

Sent to me via WhatsApp just now;

Assalamualaikum & good evening. You may have read news reports on my statement relating to suggested limit of 10 years for CEOs.

CEOs should not be for over 10 years 

Please find below my eight thoughts on Leadership and Succession extracted from my Keynote Address at the Malaysian Leadership Summit organised by The Institute of Leadership Development, UiTM on 6 February 2018. I hope this will provide proper context & perspectives on the issue.

1. There are many aspects of leadership and succession that I can touch on. But perhaps I can confine it to eight. First is on the need to select the right leader. Many people have been asking, what does it take to be a good and sustainable leader? To my mind, beyond working hard and working smart, there are three prerequisites to becoming a good and sustainable leader; Unquestionable Integrity; Competency; and Humility. Integrity is about “doing the right thing even when no one is watching”. A competent leader with unquestionable integrity and who works very hard will enjoy a reputation that will precede him. Competency is about having the necessary knowledge and skills to do the job. Humility is about treating people with mutual respect, about staying grounded to our roots and about being cognisant that we all serve a greater purpose. Humility is also about knowing that you don’t know everything and that you can't succeed without teamwork.

2. Second is the need to put into place a proper succession planning and talent review process to cover key positions. Not just for the CEO and CEO-1 positions but also for CEO-2 and even CEO-3 positions for large organisations. For each position, identify 3 potential candidates, their state of readiness (whether Ready Now, within 2 years or 3 years or 5 years) and what is the intervention required to prepare them to succeed the incumbent. For such succession planning efforts to be successful, it needs to be driven from the top i.e. by the Board and Management alike. Best practice is for Management to conduct a talent review session twice a year.

3. Third is the need to strike a right balance between internal and external talent. I personally believe in nurturing our internal talent or 'grow your own timber'. This is important to provide the employees with good career progression opportunities. However it is also important to bring in external talent from time to time to refresh the organisation and bring in external perspectives. My rule of thumb is that all things being equal, one in every four or five senior positions should be filled externally. That means 75%-80% of positions to be filled by internal promotions.

4. Fourth is the need for rejuvenation. Whilst long serving CEOs provide stability to the organisation, there is also the risk of the leader and his organisation slipping into complacency. I believe there is enough empirical evidence to suggest the performance of many companies whose CEOs have been at the helm for more than 10 years would not be as good as the CEO's performance in the first 10 years. Therefore I subscribe to the belief that as a rule of thumb, no one should be in the same position for more than ten years, whether as a head of department or a CEO. If he or she is good, then give him or her a bigger role or give him or her the opportunity to lead a bigger organisation. I am pleased to note that PNB had already introduced a time limit of nine years for directors serving on the Board of its Group companies. I am therefore in favour of imposing time limits on the tenure of CEOs and Board members. This will instil greater discipline on the CEOs to identify and prepare his successor. Of course there are exceptions to the rule but they need to be appropriately justified.

5. Fifth is about Diversity as a source of strength. I always believe in diversity as a source of strength for any organisation. Diversity in terms of skills, gender, ethnicity, age and even nationality for multinational organisations. Organisations that embrace diversity tend to perform better and more sustainably. I am encouraged that most public listed companies have heeded the Prime Minister's call for greater gender diversity at the Board level. The time has come for such diversity to be broadened further to cover ethnic and age diversity not just at the Board level but also at Management level too.

6. Speaking of diversity, some organisations get very defensive when we highlighted the lack of diversity in their organisations. They would immediately claim everything is based on merit. Which brings me to the Sixth point on the need for us to be conscious about the "Affinity-Favouritism-Cronyism-Prejudice Continuum". Well, we are all human beings and it is only natural for us to have affinity towards people from the same school, same university, same profession, same State, same clan, same ethnicity, same religion, and same nationality. For example, I studied at MRSM Seremban and I have great affinity towards former MRSM students. Similarly I am a Johorean and therefore I naturally have affinity towards my fellow Bangsa Johor. But if we do not contain our affinity, it can easily become favouritism. And if you don't control it, it will become cronyism. Eventually, it may even result in prejudice. I have worked in an organisation where a large number of the CEOs in the Group were from the same school. I have also come across a company where more than half of the senior management were from the same secondary school. In such a situation, you may be depriving your organisation of quality talent to propel your organisation. At the same time you may be depriving deserving candidates the opportunity to excel in their career. So it is useful for us to be conscious of the diversity in our organisation (or department) and ensure we do not practice favouritism nor cronyism.

7. Seventh is about giving the young people the opportunity to lead. I was fortunate to be given the opportunity to be the CEO of UEM-Renong Group when I was 37 years old. Dato' Abdul Rahman Ahmad was 32 when he was appointed as CEO of MRCB. Likewise Tan Sri Mohd Bakke Mohd Salleh (35), Dato' Seri Che Khalib Mohamad Noh (33), Dato' Shahril Ridza Ridzuan (32), Tan Sri Azman Yahya (30), Dato’ Mohammed Azlan Hashim (32) and many others were given the opportunity to be CEOs in their 30s and early 40s. Yet many of us now regard executives in their 30s and 40s as being too young to be CEOs. I have even come across some Board members opposing the appointment of someone as CEO for being too young. That CEO was 50 years old! The time has come for us to renew our commitment to nurture future leaders and have the courage to give some talented young managers, with the prerequisites of being a good leader of course, the opportunity to lead an organisation as CEO.

8. The Eighth point is about the need to develop quality leaders in sufficient quantity. Many organisations complain about how their managers and executives are being poached by competitors and other organisations. I tend to take a more liberal view on this. Surely it is quite flattering when other organisations regard the people you have trained as being good and talented. So, instead of complaining, what if you were to hire and train more people so that you will still have enough people even after half of the people you have trained left you after say ten years? These people whom you have trained will be your ambassadors and reference points in the future.

I hope you find this useful. Best regards. AWO. 07.02.18.

Rafizi oh Rafizi

The big story today is this;

MP Rafizi, ex-bank clerk get 30-month jail term

So, there are a lot of hue and cry over it in cyberspace at the moment.

Regular readers of this blog should know that I'm definitely not a fan of Shahrizat, the central political figure of the NFC issue which lead to the whole thing.

But still I was quite irritated by the complaints against the court decision, some of which were totally irrational.

They were as if Rafizi and the bank clerk were totally innocent.

They broke the law for heaven's sake.

Quoting a WhatsApp message forwarded by a friend ;

"Information yg ada kat bank tu confidential..cara dia expose tu tak betul...kerani tu ambik exposekan information tu...kalau tak ambik tindakan...nanti kita punya banking system akan hilang credibility n integrity...Aku bukan penyokong Shahrizat."

And they are yet to go to jail.

There's still the appeal process.

Even the Election Commission has said that

Rafizi remains MP until disposal of appeal

It's not as if he was bundled up and sent to jail right away.

So, chill la.

I think Azmin Ali would say the same thing about this.

Anyway, since there are already a lot of stuff out there now condemning the court decision, I would like to share this one which was sent to me via WhatsApp just now;

Why Rafizi does not deserve pity for NFC 30 months jail

Rafizi just released a sob story on how he fought for the rakyat and got punished with a 30 months jail for "exposing the corruption" NFC saga.

At the end of that sob story is the typical message to ask the public to donate to him.

The law is the law. While no one wants to see anyone go to jail, its important to set Rafizi;s story straight to tell you what actually happened.

Using bank statements of NFC Corp on March 7, 2012, Rafizi made the very public accusation that NFC corp had misappropriated  a RM250mil soft loan to buy luxury condominiums instead of breeding cattle.

However, the NFC company disputed this and sued Rafizi for defamation - a case which the NFC won in the high court. Rafizi then paid the RM300k in damages to NFC.

Essentially, Rafizi had broken the BAFIA act to expose private bank statements of NFC to make an allegation that was later proven by the court to be false.

The BAFIA law is very clear here. If you expose another persons bank statements, you broke the law. Rafizi knows this.

Why should he be given pity when he willingly and knowingly broke the law to slander someone else?

Rafizi wasn't even the first person to "expose" this NFC company's troubles. It was the govt itself that "exposed" NFC.

The 2010 Auditor-General’s Report saying that NFC had failed to comply with the objectives of its formation after a soft loan of RM250 million was given by the govt.

At the time of the March 2012 "expose" by Rafizi, The parliamentary Public Account’s Committee (PAC) was already examining the NFC issue based on what was revealed in the AG report. So was the MACC.
http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2012/03/19/nfcorp-yet-to-repay-soft-loan/

Rafizi wasn't even the "hero" who exposed the NFC so why should he deserves "pity" for playing the hero?

You must also remember that unlike the RM305mil overpriced reports for the Penang Tunnel, the RM250mil approved under Muhyiddin Yassin's Ministry of Agriculture then is a soft loan that NFC still have to bear interest costs on and repay the loan.

Yes, the project ran into implementation problems - partly due to the govt's delays in building an abattoir as well as proper roads leading to the farms - but at the end of the day, NFC still has to repay the loan with interest.

To say that Rafizi did not benefit from his slanderous and illegal March 2012  "expose" is certainly not correct.

Due to this, Rafizi rose out of obscurity to became a household name. He was then given the Pandan parliament seat to run in GE13, which he won and has drawn a RM29,000 monthly tax-free salary ever since.

Using his fame, he has also collected millions in donation from the public where some of the money was later traced to pay for a service fee for a Rafizi-owned company supplying manpower to Invoke.

Fame and fortune came his way due to this NFC "expose". Should we then pity Rafizi that "he got nothing" when he knowingly broke the law?

So, how?

You all tell me la.

Simply simply give free ammo

Someone showed me this write-up at prominent motoring site paultan.org yesterday,

Have cars in Malaysia become cheaper over the last few years?

excerpts 1;

It merited a flip to pages four and five of Berita Harian‘s Sunday edition, which revealed more examples of cars that are now cheaper compared to five years ago. According to the report, the Perodua Alza is now 14.18% (RM8,369.27) cheaper, the Proton Exora 2.25% (RM1,509.67) cheaper, the VW Golf 11.77% (RM20,000) cheaper, the Honda Jazz Hybrid 8% (RM7,650) cheaper, the Perodua Myvi 12.15% (RM6,124) cheaper, the Proton Preve 20.77% (RM15,157.19) cheaper, the Proton Saga 14.88% (RM6,220.71) cheaper and the Proton Persona (RM8,281.91) 15.59% cheaper.

excerpts 2;

Let’s start with the Perodua Alza. The 2013 price quoted (RM59,017) was for the 1.5 SE Manual while the 2018 price is for the 1.5 Standard Manual. If an apple to apple 1.5 Standard MT is made, the reduction is 2.1% and not 14.18% as claimed. At the Alza facelift launch in 2014, Perodua itself said that price reduction was between 2.1% and 7.4% depending on variant.

For the Proton Exora, the old price quoted (RM67,212) was in fact taken after a 2016 range-wide price increase, and not from 2013. The quoted price is also on-the-road with insurance (old) versus OTR without insurance (new), which of course makes a difference. In actual fact, the MPV was priced at RM63,552.54 in 2014, RM64,498 in 2015-2017 and RM65,702.33 now, but there’s more equipment in today’s car.

As for the Volkswagen Golf, the old price in the report is wrong. The Mk7 1.4 TSI was launched in early 2013 for RM157,888 (the same price as the outgoing Mk6 in final SE form) and not RM169,888 as printed byBH. The new price quoted is for today’s 1.4 Comfortline, which has less equipment. Today’s Highline is closer to the 2013 car in specs, plus a few extras. It retails for RM159,888.

Moving on, the old price for the Honda Jazz Hybrid was from the previous-gen CBU imported version. If you compare the previous-gen CKD version (launched in 2012 for RM87,404.50 OTR without insurance) with today’s CKD Jazz Hybrid, it’s a 2.9% drop, not 8%.

For the Perodua Myvi, the prices used by the report was for the old 1.3 SE AT versus the new 1.3 Standard G MT, which is not like for like. In 2013, the cheapest Myvi was priced at RM40,650.45. The most affordable new Myvi is the 1.3 MT at RM44,300, but it must be said that one gets significantly more equipment today – LED headlamps, keyless entry and start, VSA, four airbags versus two.

For the Proton Preve, the old price mentioned is from the sedan’s launch back in 2012 – RM72,990 for a 1.6 CFE Premium, OTR with insurance. The new price mentioned is for a 1.6 NA Manual, OTR without insurance. Pitting high spec auto with base spec manual will of course result in a big difference in price.

Staying with Proton, the old Saga price used is for the 1.3 Executive MT while the new price is for the current 1.3 Standard MT, both OTR without insurance. In 2013, the cheapest Saga one could buy was the 1.3 SV MT for RM32,836.50. Today, a new 1.3 Standard MT is RM35,590.29, but you get ABS.

excerpt 3;

So, it’s clear that the new versus old prices in the report were cherry picked for convenience, without taking into account variants and specifications. Based on the old prices we’ve dug up, it appears that car prices have not come down by much in general.

I tried to find the BH Ahad report but it's nowhere to be found.

This is all I got which I screen captured;

Maybe I didn't search properly or maybe they had taken it down.

But I did notice that paultan.org write-up, which was also translated into Bahasa Malaysia was picked up by the pro-Pakatan people such as this,

CELAH GELEGAR - Mencari Kebenaran Yang Sebenar

Free ammo, if you ask me.

Something like that "exclusive" lost Felda land report.

They just say it's another BN spin. A few extra votes for them lah.

I'm not sure what the BH people were trying to do coming up with that report which was shredded by paultan.org

I thought things were better now with those newspapers

after the Media Prima civil war

I was told that they have got rid of all the useless senior editors and replaced them with top notched ones...and of course that brilliant three-in-one newspaper restructure thing.

Well, guess they need to do better and not let this kind of slip-ups (or plain stupidity) happen again.

The general election is coming, okay.

GE14 will be like GE12...guess only

A Singaporean friend yesterday asked me whether BN can win the coming GE14 and if so, could it be better than it did the GE13.

Well, I don't think I'm capable of giving a 100 per cent sure answer to that.

I have not done any survey or even been on the ground enough to really know how things are with the real political situation.

So, I did what most others usually do when posed with such a question - I gave my take on it based on what little I saw around me and the political mood of people who are connected to me.

I told my friend that I think this coming GE14 may likely be similar to GE12 of 2008.

At least the mood seems the same.

At that time, Dr Mahathir was instrumental in causing quite severe damage to the BN led by Pak Lah.

This time though he went a step further by forming Pribumi Bersatu, which aim is not only to oust Najib, but to even defeat BN and Umno altogether.

I'm quite sure now that his effort has managed to take away a sizeable chunk of Malay support from BN.

Among the signs that I personally noticed of this is in the WhatsApp group conversation of my school alumni.

There used to be lively political debates among us in that group but nowadays it's just a one way street going the opposition way.

I used to be among those who passionately argued for BN, but now I just don't bother to do that anymore.

I see no point in doing so anyway because I would most likely be swamped by the others.

Some of those who used to be pro-establishment and argued for it more passionately than me had even switched sides and became ferociously anti-BN.

But then again, almost all of my alumni are middle class Malay professionals and urbanites, a segment of society not known to be too fond of Umno or BN.

Still, the fact that some of us had chose to switch sides to the opposition may reflects on what's happening on the ground.

Back in 2008, some of my pro-establishment friends did the same. They were rebelling against the Pak Lah's administration, particularly the so-called Fourth Floor Boys led by KJ.

It turned out that what's happening among my friends at that time was also happening on the ground.

That year BN lost Penang, Kedah, Perak, Selangor and most FT parliamentary seats. Pas also retained Kelantan.

Somehow I feel that the same thing is going to happen again.

I told my Singaporean friend this.

My instinct says Pakatan is going to retain Penang and Selangor, captures Kedah and maybe Perak as well as more FT parliamentary seats.

They may also capture more parliamentary seats in the other states, particularly those in Johor, Malacca and Negeri Sembilan.

But do bear in mind that these are just how I feel things will be for GE14.

These are purely my guess, okay.

Do excuse me for that because I believe most other people do the same these days when they talk about  politics, especially when it comes to possible outcome of elections.

They agak-agak saja.

But of course, many of them tend to present their guess as the real deal.

That's just the way people are.

Well, never mind.

Time will tell.

Simple GE14 plan

According to Bernama,

Najib Indicates Election May Be In July

I think that's very logical.

It's almost pushing it till the end of the August deadline. Something like the last GE in 2013.

That's almost half a year from now.

I wish it could be earlier but July is okay with me.

Early enough for me to go on my much delayed travel later in the year.

Well, I expect things to really hot up from now on.

Ceramah here,  gatherings there....etc.

All the dirt throwing will intensify too.

Unlike during the last election, I'm not planning to take active part this time.

The most that I'll do is to comment a bit on things in this blog.

I'm not even sure yet whether I'll drive down to Johor to vote.

If I do, I'll decide whom my vote for on polling day itself.

If I'm happy with things, I'll vote BN. If I'm unhappy with things, I'll vote Pakatan.

Simple.

Actually, I'm tired of listening to the arguments of both sides.

Tired of them too.

Some simply simply hantam me just because I refused to follow their side.

So cocky in their belief that they were right all the time.

Chill people.

It's just politics, okay.

So, the bottom line for me this time is myself.

Am I better or worse off since May 5 2013.

That's about it.

No need to quarrel too much.

End game - not the land but KLVC project

So,

Felda Sets Up Committee For Negotiations With SPSB

Guess Felda chairman TS Shahrir Abdul Samad now wants a better deal for the KLVC project....whatever that would be.

The report stated,

excerpts;

According to the statement, the committee was chaired by member of the board of directors of Felda Datuk Dr Yusof Ismail who represented the Finance Ministry, another Felda board member Datuk Nik Azman Nik Abdul Majid who represented the Prime Minister's Department (JPM), Felda general maanger Datuk Ab Ghani Mohd Ali and Datuk Zainal Abidin Abu Hassan as a JPM representative.

"Felda will also request the government to appoint a representative from the Public Private Partnership (UKAS), JPM in the committee.

The committee members are basically PMO and MOF people.

Well, who can argue with them la.

I'm quite sure Shahrir (and whomever are with him on this) will get what he (or they) wants with the KLVC project.

Well, back then Shahrir said,

Felda only wants its land back

He had insisted that he was only concerned about the land transfer and not the KLVC project and that the two were different issues.

Yea right. Whatever.

Anyway, I actually don't really care who get what in this issue.

After all, as I wrote at the start of this nonsense,

• Felda land noises is just another palace intrigue

Let them quarrel over it, and may they choke on the money coming out of the project if they don't deserve it.

Actually, I was just a little bit pissed only because they made so much noise over it that the whole thing became an issue and people got all riled up over it.

As Rocky pointed out in his post,

Felda's negotiators and Lurah Bilut 2.0

excerpts;

I only wish Shahrir had formed this Special Committee earlier, much earlier. We know for a fact that the developer had offered to "return" the "lost" land to him sometime last year, long before Berita Harian's Dec 21 sensational piece. That would have been a good time for Shahrir as the still relatively new Felda chairman  to set up such a committee to discuss, diplomatically, new terms with the developer. 

Yes Shahrir, why can't you settle this issue nicely like that?

And don't bluff people about the planted Berita Harian story, okay.

You really think those editors can keep their mouth shut about who ordered them to run the story?

The whole nonsense was so unnecessary.

Ni lah masaalahnya kalau rasa diri sendiri je pandai sentiasa.

Felda 2.0 project?

Okay, the settlers will be very happy with this and vote for BN. They will forget about all the nonsense.

Sure. Whatever.