Dr Mahathir is right about the AirAsia case

I couldn't agree more with Dr Mahathir when I read this yesterday,

PM defends AirAsia, 

says “offset” is not bribery

excerpts;

He said it is normal to ask for an “offset” in business dealings provided the money is not taken for personal use.

Dr Mahathir said even the government would ask for an offset when making purchases.

“For instance, when we buy planes we will ask for an offset. Whether you consider an offset as bribery, it is up to you, ” he told the media after a session with Education Ministry staff here.

Dr Mahathir, who was asked to comment on the allegations against AirAsia also questioned why an offset should not be accepted when making a purchase on a high-priced item.

In business, an offset is when losses in one business are made up for by increases in another, or when payments due and owed are used to cancel each other in accounting.

I have from the start of this issue felt that AirAsia was not guilty and that's why I posted this,

Shooting down AirAsia, the Malaysian whacking culture

Seriously, I believe that many of those who joyfully jumped at the opportunity to accuse the budget airline of wrong doing that day were mostly its old enemies.

They simply whacked AirAsia as if it's already guilty.

I never like it when someone was judged  even before being given the right to defend himself/herself.

It always never ends well.

In this case, it's basically AirAsia being judged guilty because Airbus sad so and so to the UK authorities to get its neck off the chopping block.

AirAsia was never even contacted by the UK authorities to defend itself.

You can read about that here,

AirAsia was never approached 

by SFO over Airbus case

And they did try to explain what the facts of their case.

excerpts;

Their statement today noted that Caterham F1, the company alleged to have been sponsored improperly by Airbus, was at the relevant time a Formula 1 Racing team that had gone round the globe promoting amongst others AirAsia, AirAsia X and Airbus.

It added that throughout the period when the duo were shareholders in Caterham, the company made no profits and was eventually disposed of in 2014.

It stressed that Caterham was a company for branding exercise and not to make profits.

That's the "off set" thing there, I guess.

Anyway, I'm glad that Dr Mahathir said what needed to be be said about the case.

Politics aside, when he's right, I'm going to say that he's right.

Well, I hope AirAsia will continue to fly and its thousands of staff as well as others can continue to "cari makan".

The country needs Malaysian entities such as AirAsia to do well, especially in these troubled times.

Malaysia Baru's freedom of speech

Yesterday, there was this story,

Journalist charged over 'fear-inducing'

 coronavirus social media posts

excerpts;

Wan Noor Hayati faces a maximum two years' imprisonment, or a fine, or both, if convicted.

This story actually made international headlines, with some focusing on particularly the freedom of speech part.

So, what did this journalist actually posted on her Facebook page that they came down so hard on her?

Turned out that it was this,

Well, is that fear inducing?

Yup, going to prison for two years for writing that is indeed fear inducing.

Truly Malaysia Baru.

Personally, I think the journalist would have been okay if she didn't put that "LGE" bit in her post.

Well, guys, do be careful with what you write these days.This is Pakatan in power.

So much for freedom of speech and expression in Malaysia.

And they said BN was bad....sigh.

Well, there you have it.

I better not write too much. Don't feel like spending two years in jail.

Shooting down AirAsia, the Malaysian whacking culture

Saw several tweets celebrating statements by Securities Commission and MACC that they will investigate AirAsia for alleged involvement in the Airbus probe, which has since been settled.

Typical of those Malaysians who made that tweets.

We do enjoy seeing anything good that actually ours getting in trouble, don't we?

Especially if we have personal grudge against the entity such as AirAsia or the people there.

We don't even really care whether the allegations were true or false.

Whack first....truth can come later.

Seronok whacking other people ni....good ego booster, yes?

Well, in response

AirAsia denies involvement as alleged in Airbus probe by the UK

But, do we care?

Nope.

We just want to whack the budget airline because its successful and its Malaysian. Really.

Somehow, it irritate us to see something Malaysian being so successful.

If we can make it crash and close shop, the better, right?

What? Because AirAsia's boss Tony Fernandes is an irritating guy? Come on la, I'm no fan of Tony too, but what that has anything to do with Malaysia having the best budget airline in the world.

In fac,t I think AirAsia is just about the few remaining things that we Malaysians can still be proud of in this age of Malaysia Baru.

Seriously, its mostly bad nowadays, okay.

Malaysia Airlines? Well, I don't have to comment on the state of affairs of that national carrier, don't I?

But as I wrote above, we just can't stand someone like us or something like ours doing better. We are just itchy to see others' failure.

Malaysia's national news agency Bernama even have a story about AirAsia shares going down after the allegations against the airline. Hello, the market is bad all over la this morning, because of the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak getting worse.

Never mind. I know, it's pointless trying to get people to correct themselves over these sort of things. They just enjoy whacking so much.

Just like during the run-up to the last general election.People want to believe the stories told to them so much because they enjoyed listening to those stories.

They don't want to believe the truth because there's no fun in it.

And of course those assigned to tell the truth were lousy at their work while those who told the lies did a great job.

Now that we know the truth, we simply have to bear with the lies and be patient until the next general election.

I hope it doesn't have to come to something like that in this AirAsia case.

If the airline does badly, thousands of its employees would be affected and the impact will be quite bad for the country's economy as a whole.

I don't think we want something like that to happen.

We may change back the government to BN if we don't like the current Pakatan one but I don't think we can easily replace AirAsia if it closes shop just because some people don't like it due to some old itchiness.

Things not to do as you celebrate CNY

Someone forwarded this video to me yesterday and it spoilt my CNY mood quite a bit.

Why did the man have to beat up the bus driver like that?

And why did the bus driver just yelped so meekly instead of fighting back.

So many of these road rage cases these days.

Remember that one, when a guy was beaten to death in a road rage case.

What are they so angry about?

Is the guy who beat the bus driver drunk? He doesn't look drunk to me.

So many drunk driving cases too of late.

People died because of them.

Hopefully you don't drive when drunk, especially with the CNY celebrations going on right now.

If you drink, even a single mug of beer, please ask someone to drive you home.

Or take a Grab.

Don't take a risk on this one.

Anyway, I think the authorities should do something about this aspect of road safety rather than making life difficult for people by forcing them to buy all those expensive child seats for cars.

Another thing that worries me during this CNY season is the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak.

Over 50 had died in China with thousands others in hospital.

We got four confirmed cases in Malaysia so far.

This kind of virus can kill hundreds of million if not contained.

I hope the authorities will do their best to prevent its spread here.

They must take cases like this seriously

Public health at risk

 excerpts :

JOHOR BARU, 26 January 2020: A 2-year-old Chinese boy with coronavirus symptoms was allegedly taken out of a public hospital by his parents yesterday against medical advice.

According to the Harian Metro report, a 26-year-old doctor had attended to the boy at 10.18pm on the eve of Chinese New Year.

The boy’s parents allegedly declined to be quarantined as they wanted to take a flight to China early in the morning on the first day of Chinese New Year.

The patient was found to have influenza like symptoms such as fever and coughing and was referred to a private hospital.

The doctor confirmed the boy tested positive for the coronavirus but when they informed the parents the boy had to be quarantined, the parents said they had to catch a 10am flight.

Well, some people are just like that - selfish.

If it's a zombie virus, we would all be turned into zombies because of selfish people like that.

Yup, you watched those zombie movies where most of the time some stupid characters caused the epidemic to become worse because of their selfishness.

Same in real life too.

But then again, some people are just selfish like that. They can't help themselves being like that.

Maybe its the way they were brought up or maybe its their culture and social conditioning that driving them to be selfish.

Well, I don't mind selfish people too much except when they cause harm to others or put everyone at risk due to their selfishness.

Whatever it is, let us try to be good decent people....especially during this CNY festivities.

Don't beat up bus drivers, get drunk and drive and kill people, spread the Wuhan virus or turn people into zombies.

Also, if possible, don't support DAP anymore....come on, you still support that childish Guan Eng, who is a complete failure as finance minister?

Okay, I know I'm asking too much for that one....never mind, go ahead and be a zombie,

Cheers.

Happy New Year

Wishing you a year of great health and great wealth.

Take care.

Forming own opinion and learning from Taiwanese

Surfed around a bit just now to see what others are commenting.

As usual, lots of hot air and ego out there.

I'm right, you are wrong, ALWAYS.

Well, that's how it is with people.

That's why I  don't really like to read commentaries.

Especially on politics.

When I surfed for them, I normally don't read the entire stuff and just do so to see what others were interested in.

The first few paragraphs normally were just enough to make me....tired.

Too many people who know so little yet commenting so much as if they know everything.

Mostly bullshit, actually.

Then there are those who wrote so much about things such as religion and morals while at the same time committing transgressions all over the place.

For instance, I know one very prominent man who wrote quite a bit about Islam in his blog, claiming he's better than the religious scholars whom he condemned, yet he never solat and drink beer all the time.

Okay, I'm not religious or moral too by comparison, but at least I don't go around condemning the alim ulama.

And I didn't dye my hair blonde either.

Also, I'm not fat.

But seriously, do we need to read those commentaries to form our own opinion about things?

Get the news, and decide for ourselves what it's all about. How about that?

Well, seriously I'm a bit fed up with Malaysian politics at the moment.

All sort of nonsense.

Today, we even have this story,

Selangor rep, four political officers nabbed at drug party

I heard the assemblyman is from Pribumi Bersatu.

Bagus sangat lah perangai tu.

I hope the Kimanis folks will teach them a lesson at their by-election later this week.

Whatever it is, I'm really tired of discussing those monkeys running the country.

It's depressing, okay.

Taiwan's politics is better.

The people there made the right choice on Saturday.

Very happy for them.

Taiwan's Tsai wins landslide in stinging result for China

Tsai Ing-wen

Really hope the communists in Beijing will realise that given the chance, no one is willing to be oppressed by them. Just like what is happening in Hong Kong.

We, in Malaysia should learn from the Taiwanese. Don't let ourselves be ruled by a dictator or an oppressive entity.

We should cherish and defend our freedom and democracy.

And of course, let us all not be stupid by choosing the same monkeys again to rule over us in the next general election.

The need to handle small things first

Last day of my long leave. Going back to KL later this afternoon.

I have refrained from writing while on this leave because I need to focus on settling some personal matters.

Alhamdulillah, they were mostly settled now.

As to what had been happening the past week, I think things were not so bad. Of course they were not so good either.

Well, no one is yet to kill someone for stupid reasons here in Malaysia, which is good, at least in my opinion. That's despite the country getting messed up quite a bit of late.

But honestly, I have nothing to be cheerful about at the moment.

For instance, I didn't really wish anyone a happy new year that day because I don't think 2020 is going to be a happy year.

So many shits are bound to hit the fan as the year progresses, in my opinion.

For one thing, the Mahathir-Anwar power transition issue is expected to come to boil in May.

That alone is a cause of anxiety for many as the economy will suffer from the uncertainty, much like it was throughout last year.

Investors are not really keen to invest in a country clouded in anxiety and uncertainty, okay.

I also don't see any concrete move by the government so far to make things better for the common people.

The Cabinet is still full of incompetent people. Some are outright stupid and divisive.

Some cheered the departure of that Maszlee guy from the Education Ministry saying that it's a sign that the government is trying to improve itself.

But I think that's not true.

It's just politics, actually.

Some in DAP are even claiming credit for it to appease the rebellious Chinese who now support the community's educationists who are at odd with the current government.

Personally, I think there are others in the Cabinet who should leave ahead of Maszlee because they are worse than that guy. Waytha Moorthy is one of them.

Let's just wait for the resignation of other useless ministers from Pakatan parties other than Dr Mahathir's Pribumi Bersatu.

If that happened, then maybe I'm wrong about the Pakatan government being a rubbish government.

But till then, I rather have a pessimistic look at things this year because of the rubbish government.

Well, that does not however mean I'm not going to do something to improve things, at least at my personal level.

I need to focus more at improving myself, for one thing.

No point in me trying to correct big things, like changing the rubbish government that we have now while I can't keep my own personal things in order.

First, I need to clean up my room once I get back in KL later today.

It's in a mess when I left it to go on this long leave the other day.

Then, I also need to do better at work.

Need to do more to motivate myself.

I also need to practice better for the sport that I took up.

Set a proper achievable goal for it.

Yup, I need to do that sort of things correct first. Among other things.

As for this blog, I think I need to get back to basics.

I wrote several years back that I treat this blog more as a personal diary of my thoughts on things that happened around me.

It still is.

I didn't even try to make it popular or force people to read it.

For one thing, I didn't try to promote it on other social media platforms like Facebook or Tweeter.

I don't even have any active account of those.

I'm actually very uncomfortable with the idea of forcing my thoughts on other people.

People who wanted to read my thoughts really have to come to this blog to do so at their own choice.

I know, it's old fashion in this age of social media, but that's just the way I am.

Oh, by the way, I also want to repeat what I wrote before that I don't want to be famous or respected and such.

Really.

That's because I find all that very tiring.

By the way, I have quite a manageable level of ego, so I don't really care about what people think of my writings.

Well, that's all for this first post of 2020.

I need to pack up now before going back to KL.

Sigh.

I wish I don't have to go back there, but I need to keep my job and earn a living.

Need to remember that as this year progresses.....no matter what shit happens, life still needs to go on.

And I will persevere, insyaAllah.

Cheers.