Snap Johor election is a good idea

 There was this story the other day;

Johor MB considers snap state election

Good lah. I'm all for it.

If they can have it in Melaka and more recently in Sarawak, why not in Johor too, right?

After all, there was no surge in number of Covid-19 cases after those previous two state elections.

The situation in Johor needs to be ratified anyway.

A state government shouldn't be let to operate with just a single majority seat in the legislative assembly.

It needs better mandate than that.

Well, if you all are Pakatan supporters, by right that news should be a good one as it's an opportunity for the opposition coalition to wrest back power in Johor.

But then came this story yesterday;

Johor Pakatan is not keen on snap election

excerpt;

The opposition coalition, in its statement today, said it would be insensitive to call for a snap poll because the people are currently burdened by the Covid-19 pandemic and its economic fallout.

The statement, which was jointly signed by Johor Amanah chairman Aminolhuda Hassan, Johor PKR chairman Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh and Johor DAP chairman Liew Chin Tong stated that all efforts, energy, commitment and funds should for now be channeled to help the people.

Well, actually we all know the real reason why the Pakatan people don't want the snap state election.

Except for in the overwhelmingly non-Malay majority constituencies, Pakatan will most likely be wiped out in Johor.

It will be a repeat of the recent Melaka state election, except that BN will be winning in an even bigger landslide victory.

Oh, Perikatan will lose even bigger too.

I'm quite confident with this prediction.

The Tanjung Piai by-election may be two years ago, but the result was indicative of the ground sentiment in Johor till today.

If I'm Hasni, I will call for the snap state polls and settle the matter as soon as possible.

Once the state administration has been stabilised, more works could be done for the good of the state.

My only hope is for Hasni to pick really good candidates for BN.

Please don't put crooks or weird people as candidates.

And please don't give Khaled Nordin a state seat to contest. 

He's after all an Umno vice-president and therefore should just contest a parliamentary seat.

Yeah, I would like to see him win back the Pasir Gudang parliamentary seat....if he could la.

So, Khaled should be given the opportunity to focus on that. Who knows, maybe he could ends up being the PM...like Ismail Sabri. Nobody ever thought of that before, right?

State seats in Pasir Gudang should be given to other people. Really.

Jangan lah ada lagi yang bertanding dua kerusi tapi kalah kedua-duanya sekali.

Away from the floods and Covid-19

 I spent the Christmas yesterday driving to the East Coast...and sleeping due to exhaustion.

Ya, I drove to where I am now as soon as the East Coast highway was opened to traffic.

The place where I was in Klang during the flood was still packed with relatives whose houses were submerged.

They still needed to stay there as the post-flood cleaning process would take quite a while.

I, on the other hand needed a break after sleeping on the sofa for several days in the crowded house.

My whole body was aching due to the discomfort caused by it.

Was a bit worried and did a Covid-19 test before making the trip yesterday and the result was negative. Alhamdulillah.

The trip itself was quite okay.

It was smooth except for a bit of traffic jam along the stretch near Sungai Dua between Bentong and Karak where they closed parts of the lanes due to damage caused by the floods.

I intend to stay here for at least a week.

My boss has yet to call me back to office, so I think it's quite okay to continue working from home or where ever I am now.

Anyway, I'm still scared of Covid-19 and trying my best to lessen the risk of being infected.

I hardly go out of the house these days.

I think Malaysians are of late mostly oblivious that scores of people died of Covid-19 everyday and thousands more were infected.

Maybe they were so used to it.

But really, the number of deaths and damages done by the floods was really not much if compared to that caused  the pandemic.

In fact, I think the floods this year was less severe than the last major one that was in late 2014.

The only difference was that the number of casualties this time was higher because Klang Valley was hit quite hard.

They were simply not prepared for it.

People and authorities in the Klang Valley don't really know what to do when the floods suddenly hit them, causing the extra number of casualties such as what happened in Taman Sri Muda in Shah Alam.

Even the early warning system were mostly focused on the East Coast.

Well, there were lots of complaints now with many blaming the authorities.

I noticed that the complaints this time were more than when the floods hit just the East Coast states or areas in rural Sabah and Sarawak.

Maybe people of Klang Valley know how to complain more, I guess.

Okay, I'm fine with that. It's normal to complain after a disaster.

However, I believe that we ourselves need to reflect on our attitude towards things such as global warming which could be a major contributor towards the disaster.

Our lack of concerns all these while may have caused disasters elsewhere.

I think people living in the more developed parts of the country should be more mindful about what others were going through in the rural areas.

We can never tell when things could turn bad for ourselves too.

It did occurred to me that maybe God is reminding us urban people not to be too dismissive of others due to our sense of entitlement and superiority over others.

That was actually my thought when I first read all those complaints.

Yup, I actually told myself to complain less and instead be more focused on what I could do to improve things.

Anyway, I'm still thankful to all the God's blessings despite the disasters.

Flood blues, poor connectivity and bullshits about 5G

I'm stuck for the past two days at a relative's house in Klang, perhaps the worst-hit by the floods.

Don't dare to try going home as I heard that the highways out of here had been cut off by flood water.

Reports indicated that the situation is quite bad, with over 11,000 already evacuated as I'm writing this.

I'm also quite frustrated because my phone line had been quite erratic, causing me not being able to make calls to inform my family of my situation.

This could be quite sticky if I'm in an emergency in the middle of this flood as I can't make a call for help.

It also kept switching from 4G to 3G, making access to internet quite hard.

Yesterday, I went to the nearbyAeon Big supermarket in Jalan Kapar to buy food supply but was not allowed in as I can't access MySejahtera. 

Really pissed off about that.

By the way, I'm using the relatively good Samsung Note 10 Plus, so that I don't think it's the phone's fault.

My aunt in Puchong told me that she was also having the same problem.

I suspect that the telcos were at it again, fooling around with their 3G and 4G platforms.

I expect these sort of problems will continue if they are to be given the 5G rollout project.

I really don't understand why some people keep harping on the DNB being given the project to improve the country's connectivity.

The other day, Anwar and his Pakatan people like that Fahmi guy of Lembah Pantai made so much noise in Parliament over the matter.

They among others talked about DNB being a vehicle for cronies to make money.

That's quite rich for someone like Anwar, who while in power with Umno back in the 90s kept a kennel of cronies himself.

Dr Mahathir, as the then Umno president had to even put the list of Anwar's cronies (along with his and others) outside the Umno general assembly hall to shut up the guy from barking about the matter.

Yup, Anwar had been talking about everyone's cronies since back then, while at the same time practiced the very same thing.

He really should follow Dr Mahathir's philosophy on this one - cronies will always be there in one form or another to make profits, just make sure their works benefit the people.

Anyway, in case you all didn't notice, the anti-DNB guys trying to get the 5G project for themselves also were said to include household cronies such as Vincent Tan, Ananda Krishnan and Mokhzani Mahathir.

Personally, I don't mind these cronies and their telcos getting the project as long as they can offer the same or better deal than what DNB is offering - mainly cheaper services and better connectivity, especially in the rural areas.

The problem is that they have been raking tonnes of money from us all these years while giving us crappy services.

Just look at the way they now messed up the handling of the 3G and 4G platforms.

I almost throw my phone on the wall yesterday because of that.

Ya, and I'm still sore that village kids had to climb trees to get connectivity for their online classes.

Oh, Anwar and his gang also talked about DNB being potentially another 1MDB.

That's really stretching the bullshit a little bit too far.

The whole thing had been done on open tender la, okay.

Read this,

DNB’s 5G rollout will not be another 1MDB-like scandal

excerpts;

Deputy Finance Minister II Yamani Hafez Musa told the Dewan Rakyat today that the tender process for the estimated RM12.5 billion project was evaluated by independent firm Ernst and Young (E&Y).

He said the tender process for DNB was structured by E&Y according to global standards, unlike the one by Goldman Sachs, which was chosen by 1MDB, without an open tender to raise bonds. 

Yamani was responding to concerns raised by Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (PH-Port Dickson) that the 5G network rollout via DNB may be a repeat of the 1MDB scandal.

He said Ericsson was selected over 13 other bidders as the 5G network provider in the country through a process, which was conducted by four panels consisting 50 local and international experts from 10 countries.

Anyway, I'm glad that Ericsson got the job instead of Huawei, which was among the main bidders.

I believe that if Huawei had got it, then the communists  may be able to have access to my phone and other devices. 

Seriously, I do fear that they then may be able to shut down this blog remotely from Beijing because of my pro-Taiwan stance.

Okay, I know mine is just an insignificant blog but with the communist in Beijing, anything could happen.

Eh, enough lah.

I need to try find food supply somewhere now.

Don't know when this flood is going to end.

Stay safe guys.

Cheers.

Don't let village kids risk falling off trees to get 5G connectivity

Annuar Musa had previously announced that the decision to let Finance Ministry's special purpose vehicle Digital National Bhd (DNB) handles the 5G rollout will be reconsidered.

Then the communication and multimedia minister yesterday said the government will take into account the views of MPs who opposed its plan for the 5G rollout via the single wholesale network concept.

Those MPs who are mostly from the Opposition have suddenly became IT experts and ardent defenders of the telcos on the issue.

They didn't seem to even notice that the country's

Rural connectivity remains poor with industry giving focus on urban areas

Well, it's probably because most, if not all of those Opposition MPs' constituencies are in the urban areas and therefore they couldn't care less about connectivity in the villages.

Yup, the whole point of the plan to let DNB handles the 5G rollout was to make sure the rural areas don't lag further behind as they currently do because the telcos only care about making even more money in the urban areas.

The MPs talked about letting market forces being the deciding factor in the 5G rollout, which was typical of urban people.

For them, it's the villagers fault that they live in the rural areas and getting poor connectivity.

And I honestly believe that they don't really care about village kids having to climb trees to get internet connection for their online classes.

The digital divide reached a flashpoint last year when 18-year-old Veveonah Mosibin, from Kg Sabanalang Pitas in Sabah, went viral in March 2020 after she posted a video of herself studying on top of a tree in order to sit for her exams.

Ya, they did make some noises for political mileage when such stories went viral but when the government wanted to really do something to address the problem, they talked about market forces and such.

They even defended the telcos which supposedly spent RM26 billion on the 4G platform yet still resulted in stories of kids on trees trying to get connected with their classes.

How much the telcos contributed or offer to contribute to your election funds YBs?

Why I asked?

Because I saw this earlier this morning,

Huawei’s alleged 5G manoeuvres in Malaysia

Hopefully it's not true.

Sorry, anything to do with the communists in Beijing raises the red flag in my brain.

Anyway, I'm hoping for the government to stay the course with its original 5G rollout plan, which prioritise equality between the urban and rural areas.

Why do we need to care too much about the telcos that have already made tonnes of money all these while despite giving Malaysians relatively poor services, especially in the rural areas?

I really don't understand why the government is even considering making a U-turn on the matter.

Eh, Annuar, after this, if a village kid got hurt or worse after falling down a tree to get internet connectivity, those Opposition MPs will still go after you, okay.

They will have memory loss about pressuring the government to give the 5G rollout to the telcos, which as usual will give priority to the urban areas where their constituencies are located.

Former leaders ending up in jail will become a norm

 The Court of Appeal today affirmed the High Court's conviction against Najib in the SRC case.

I was not surprised at all as the court yesterday already dismissed Najib's application to produce new evidence and even refused to postpone the trial after his defence team was quarantined due to Covid.

Guess, Anwar's Sodomy Two trial will remain as Malaysia's longest as it's quite obvious that the court system now has less tolerance for postponements than back then during that trial.

Still, we cannot discuss the decision to uphold Najib's conviction as it could lead to contempt of court.

I believe action will be taken now against those who committed the offence unlike back then when people got away with openly badmouthing the judiciary when Anwar's conviction was upheld by the appellate courts.

Well, let's just wait for Najib's next stage of appeal at Federal Court.

Anyway, Najib still have tonnes of other charges against him and then there are those other Umno leaders facing their own multiple post-GE14 charges.

So lots of fun still for those who enjoy this kind of drama.

The way I see it, we are just becoming like other countries where previous leaders ended up in jail when they are no longer in power.

Just the other day the court in Myanmar sent Nobel Prize winner Aung Sang Sukyi to jail with multiple charges more, including corruption, waiting on the side.

Najib same level as Aung Sang Sukyi not so bad, isn't it?

Really, no big deal, okay.

I'm also quite sure now that this trend of former leaders ending up in jail will continue in this country.

My prediction is that BN people in government will soon push for the next general election to be held and looking at what happened in Melaka the other day, they are going to win it big time.

Once they are fully back in power they will dig into any wrongdoing done by their opponents after GE14 in 2018.

I'm quite sure they will find something that will stand in court.

Then we will have another round of fun watching a witch hunting session.

Heck, they may even dig way back into things that happened during Dr Mahathir's first administration just to get back at the handsome old man.

Yup, they will most likely chase after those who committed offences during Muhyiddin's administration too.

Well, just wait and see lah.

Oh, by the way, Guan Eng's corruption case is still underway and that one is fun to watch too.

Man who loves his wife too much may end up being victim of political smear campaign

 I received inquiries from two ex-journalists about this story yesterday,

Businessman’s Bangsar offices raided in major money laundering, tax evasion probe

excerpts;

A source close to the investigations told MalaysiaNow that the raid some two weeks ago in Bangsar followed months of investigations into alleged money laundering and tax evasion involving hundreds of millions of ringgit.

It said officers had seized “some documents and items” as part of the probe.

It is also learnt that the raids were carried out while Vinod was out the country.

Both ex-journalists who contacted me about the nonsense basically asked whether those at The Vibes were okay.

That's because The Vibes is part of the Vinod guy's Petra Group and they were worried about their former colleagues who work there.

That's how journalists are these days. Even those who have left the media industry are always worried about one another whenever there is a story that may lead to more lay offs among them.

The two ex-journalists asked me about the Vinod story because I previously wrote this post about him,

Stop whacking the guy who created jobs for journalists

Yup, click on that link if you want to know how the guy created jobs for journalists who were being laid off left, right and centre not too long ago.

Well, I actually told the ex-journalists that their friends are safe.

That's because I know the story by that Azmin's portal was just a follow-up to an old bullshit.

I wrote about that one in this post;

About Hungarian ventilators and why God creates rich fools

I did however double checked on the so-called raid of the Petra Group office and this was what I found out;

- LHDN and MACC officials visited the office over two weeks ago when the company's senior people were not around.

- They asked some questions and were provided with what they needed.

Err...that's all that happened. 

Nothing dramatic like the office being ransacked and boxes of documents and stuff being hauled up into lorries like what they did to Najib back in 2018.

As to why the Azmin's portal blew up the incident in its story to a point of describing it as a scandal of the same size as 1MDB was as I explained in my previous post - it's just part of the Azmin-Anwar feud.

Azmin is trying to whack Vinod because he is an Anwar's supporter.

That's all there is to it. Really.

Well, I actually met and talked with Vinod only once but that was enough to convince me that he's an okay guy.

Quite humble for a rich man, who is relatively young at 53.

I noted only one peculiar thing about him though - the guy is so genuinely in love with his wife.

Rich men are normally not like that....probably because of their mistresses.

Seriously, I know about this sort of stuff just by observing the way men behave around their wives.

Can't blame Vinod though because his wife is very pretty and elegant - a bit like a Chinese Audrey Hepburn.

That, however, made me conclude that the guy is not very good in politics.

Men who love their wives too much tend to be idealists who end up making poor political choices.

Yup, that's my theory on why Vinod is supporting Anwar.

He wants to do good so much that he believes in Anwar's very persuasive talks.

If not for his support for Anwar, Vinod most likely doesn't need to put up with the Azmin's portal's smear campaign against him.

Anyway, do check what Vinod did with his extra money if you don't believe me about him trying to do good things.

I actually told him during that single encounter I had with him that I thought he was crazy for setting up The Vibes to help journalists who lost and about to lose their jobs when even powerful news organisations were abandoning them.

Vinod just laughed when I said that.

He seemed contented that he managed to help those journalists.

Well, hopefully he  laughed off this latest attempt to smear his reputation too.

5G roll-out for Malaysian public, not for telcos to make even more profits

I'm actually a bit uncomfortable with the hate directed at the government's decision to employ its special purpose vehicle Digital Nasional Bhd (DNB) to handle Malaysia's 5G roll-out.

I believe that the explanation by Finance Minister Zafrul on the matter in Dewan Rakyat yesterday was good enough,

Zafrul expects public to benefit from proposed DNB-telcos deal 

excerpts;

He told the Dewan Rakyat today that was so because the government’s special purpose vehicle (SPV) on the 5G roll-out, Digital Nasional Bhd (DNB) will charge telecommunication companies (telcos) less than 20 sen per gigabyte for it.

He pointed out that the cost of producing a gigabyte under the telcos’ current 4G network is around 45 to 55 sen per gigabyte.

He estimated that the telcos will have to pay between RM3.5 billion and RM4 billion to DNB over a period of 10 years, which according to him would be cheaper then them developing their own 5G network infrastructure.

He said the telcos would need to spend up to RM1 billion per year if they are to invest in setting up their own 5G network.

Good what that with the deal we can get to use our phones and other gadgets at a cheaper cost.

I don't know how DNB is going to make it so much cheaper than if the whole thing be given to the telcos but Zafrul has put himself on the line by saying that.

It more or less means that the government has committed itself to keep the cost low. 

If it turns out to be just bullshit later, we can always fry Zafrul and the gang.

Anyway, why didn't the telcos counter whatever the DNB is selling to the public on the project by maybe arguing that they could offer an even better deal?

Why did their proposed 5G roll-out plan costs so much more than DNB's?

Was it to make the public continue to pay a lot more for their services?

As far as I'm concerned, as long as what is being done benefits the public, I have no problem with it.

I couldn't care less whether the telcos make more profits or otherwise.

Anyway, I have been told that some people are lobbying for the government to set up another entity to compete with DNB on the 5G project so that it wouldn't be a monopolistic venture controlled by cronies.

Well, if the government wants to consider that, then it must make sure the other proposed entity care to compete in the rural areas unlike the telcos, which have always been competing exclusively for the market in urban areas where the profits were.

Seriously, I'm of the opinion that our telcos, which were among the most profitable in the world only care about their profits.

Otherwise, how can anyone explain this;

Reports put Malaysia's 4G speeds at global bottom tier 

excerpts;

Among 100 countries, Malaysia ranked lower than Asean neighbours Vietnam, Thailand, and even poverty-stricken Laos when it came to “Best Mobile Experience” related to 4G LTE wireless broadband speeds, based on global independent data company Tutela’s report in September 2020.

The Tutela report titled “Global Mobile Experience: Country-level Comparison”, ranked Malaysia at 81, three notches below Indonesia’s 78.

Laos is number 75 on the ranking, below Thailand’s 74 and Vietnam’s 50. Meanwhile, Singapore is among the best 20 in the world at the 17th spot.

Yup, they gave us crap services yet make themselves lots of profits.

Kids in the villages have to climb trees to get connectivity for their online classes,  okay.

What's the point then with all the talk of the telcos going against monopoly while the public is getting a lousy deal despite  their supposed competition?

Honestly, I think that our telcos are just competing to make more profits for themselves at the expense of we all Malaysians and nothing else.

Unless they could offer something better to the public compared to what Zafrul had said about the DNB deal, I would like to suggest for them and their lobby group to just shut up about the 5G roll-out.