Prayers for Hong Kong

May you be safe.

May you be free.

Being fair to budget travelers

I totally support Dr Mahathir on this one,

PM says unfair to impose same tax on passengers of low-cost and full service airlines

excerpts,

“We are studying (the tax). Obviously, if you charge the passengers the same exit tax for high-cost flights and low-cost flights, it is not fair,” the Prime Minister told a press conference after visiting RedQ, the AirAsia’s headquarters, here yesterday,

I just hope the study and right decision on the matter could be done as quickly as possible.

Also, since that one was on the departure tax, Dr Mahathir needs to look into the equally unfair passenger service charge (PSC) too.

Guan Eng as the finance minister responsible in imposing those taxes needs to learn from this one.

Don't simply squeeze people just because you assumed that they don't mind being squeezed.

Simple common sense la that one.

People who fly with budget airlines are budget travelers and for them every sen counts. Otherwise they wouldn't fly with budget airlines.

Some more, you give them substandard airport and expect them to pay the same tax as those who get to use the proper airport. That's simply stupid or even being grossly negligent.

It's like forcing people to pay the same for pasar malam goods and those sold at posh malls.

So, hopefully Guan Eng and the rest of the not so bright Cabinet members will learn and get their thinking right.

Don't simply say or do bullshit things and expect people to swallow them just because you thought you can get away with anything.

Impose all kind of unfair taxes and then blame the previous government - that tactic wouldn't work anymore, okay.

Really, they must learn from Dr Mahathir on things like this.

Do the right thing for the country as a whole and not just for your party's voters support base.

Dong Zong wins....DAP too

As I previously wrote, the Chinese educationists are indeed

Dr Mahathir's unbeaten opponents 

This is the final Cabinet's decision

No khat, Jawi in national-type 

schools only if PTA agree

Yup, they defeated Dr Mahathir again.

The handsome old man, as I also pointed previously, never came out looking good after a fight with the Dong Zong gang.

And now we also know who is the real boss in Pakatan Harapan.

DAP leaders can now once again be the Chinese heroes.

Well, good for them.

As for Pribumi Bersatu, all their talks about being the defenders of everything Malay and Islamic in Pakatan Harapan were just talks.

Okay, some Malays may think otherwise, but they are definitely not the majority.

Anyway, I told you all that I was with the Dong Zong gang on this - the khat thing was stupid in the first place.

So unnecessary.

For another point of view about the whole nonsense, read this

MCA leader dismisses khat flare-up as Mahathir’s ploy

excerpts;

“Basically, we are going back to the same 2Rs of race and religion to capture the voters’ imagination,” he said, adding that PH is aware that they need as much support as they can from the Malays in order to retain power.

“PH knows that without winning over the Malay votes from PAS and Umno, they will lose the government and the next GE15 results will not be in their favour. Thus, their seats in Putrajaya are as good as gone,” he opined.

Ti said Dr Mahathir’s recent attack against Dong Zong is the same strategy he employed after the general election in 1999 when “he lost the Malay popular support.”

For me, if that's the ploy, then it has backfired on Dr Mahathir quite badly.

Whatever it is, I still think DAP will get everyone in Pakatan to push Dr Mahathir out of the PM office by May next year and replace him with Anwar.

They can't afford Dr Mahathir pulling another stunt like the khat issue which could damage their absolute monopoly of the Chinese votes.

I believe that they rather not have any Malay vote at all as long as they can keep their support base intact.

DAP's choice; Dong Zong or Dr Mahathir

So, this is the latest on

Dr Mahathir's unbeaten opponents 

Mahathir labels Dong Zong as racist

excerpts ;

“Dong Zong is racist; we set up a campus in Vision School to put a Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan (SJK) Cina, a SJK Tamil and a sekolah kebangsaan (national school) in one campus, but they were against it.

“They are afraid to let their children mix with Malays, so they did not want it. They are against all (implemented by the government), never agreed with anything,”

Even the non-Chinese DAP who tried to bodek the Chinese for votes sudah kena from Dr Mahathir;

Meanwhile, commenting on a call by Klang MP Charles Santiago who wanted the power of the prime minister in making decisions curbed, Dr Mahathir cynically said he will refer to Charles before making any decision.

“In future, when making a decision, I will ask Charles Santiago; if he did not agree I will not make the decision. Of course, I have to obtain his view; he is on the same level as me,” he said. 

Really haywire for DAP this one.

So DAP, you all want to throw out Dr Mahathir from Pakatan or not?

It's your Chinese support base or him, okay.

Guan Eng, you don't want to say the handsome old man has declared war against the Chinese ka?

As I previously wrote, the Chinese educationists will never back down on anything concerning the Chinese schools.

They will fight even the DAP over it.

And DAP know they can't fight these Dong Zong people as they will lose their all important undivided support of the Chinese community.

My bet is that DAP will push Dr Mahathir out, now that they realised that he is not going to be their puppet.

They will push Anwar up to be PM. They will have PKR and that Amanah lapdog to support them for it.

Anwar will give them everything they want as long as he can become the PM.

He will even lick Dong Zong if that's what DAP wanted in exchange for it to topple Dr Mahathir and give him the PM seat.

It's seriously moving towards that.

And what Dr Mahathir can do about it?

He can dissolves the parliament, and calls for general election.

If they think they can do without him, let them try to actually do that.

After that he can take a real rest somewhere. He's 94 after all.

Personally, I believe Pakatan will get massacred at the polls without Dr Mahathir.

Well, lets wait and see....this could be as early as next year.

Probably another case like Adib's

Someone asked me to write about the death of Syed Muhammad Danial Syed Syakir.

Honestly, I don't have the heart to write about it.

But since it was requested, this is what I think will happen ;

1. The AG will order an inquest instead of normal police investigation.

2. The inquest will conclude that Syed Muhammad Danial was hit by his own car and died.

3. Nothing happen after that and everyone will live happily ever after.

Just like in Adib's case.

Okay, that's all.

Oh, and this guy, the inquest will conclude, was actually trying to save Syed Muhammad Danial,

Alfatihah for arwah.

May Allah places him among his beloved.

Deepest condolences for his loved ones.

No U-turn - Dr Mahathir's stand on Lynas

This story from Fukuoka, Japan

Malaysia can’t drive Lynas out 

because investors are watching

should be titled "Final nail in the anti-Lynas coffin".

excerpts;

1 - Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad pointed to studies by experts that indicate that what Lynas produces is very low-level radioactive waste and not hazardous to health and he believes there is a way to further reduce the low-level radioactivity.

2 - “The report was made by experts but there are quarters who do not accept their decision. This poses a problem, if we ask the experts to make the study but we reject it. What is the purpose of asking the experts to make the study?” he asked.

Yup, Dr Mahathir is sticking to his belief which he wrote in his blog in May 2012 and this time he was supported by the findings of the review committee appointed by the Pakatan government last year.

LYNAS ← Chedet

excerpts;
8. As I understand it, the Lynas plant in Pahang does not involve activating any of the rare earth components to make them radioactive. The process cannot be harmful. As for the waste, it does not give off harmful radiation either. The waste is just ordinary earth which is normally mixed with the small amounts of rare earth. The necessity to export the waste does not arise.

And yes, Dr Mahathir's stand on the issue confirms that the anti-Lynas movement, led by DAP and PKR, was just based on lies....

....and spins....dramatic one at that. Just look at the faces of those liars.

My salute to Dr Mahathir for putting the interest of Malaysia ahead of the political interest of these liars, even though they are his allies in Pakatan.

Well, if he can turned against Umno and BN, of course he can do the same to these people whom he knew were lying about Lynas from back then when he wrote that post in support of Lynas in 2012.

Do also take note that Dr Mahathir had made all his most important statements on Lynas in Japan which depends heavily on the company to ensure its supply of rare-earth will not be threatened by China which control about 80 per cent of the mineral supply.

Lynas is the only significant supplier of rare-earth outside China and shutting it down would give China absolute monopoly of the mineral which is crucial in the production of IT components and operations of other high-tech industries.

Lynas actually holds the key to the survivability of the Western world in its conflict with China, such as the current trade war, and it's located in Malaysia.

I believe that Dr Mahathir knows the strategic importance that Lynas has gave to the country and that's why he rather brushed aside the demands of the anti-Lynas leaders from DAP and PKR, who only care about where their next votes will come from.

For a better understanding of Lynas' significance, I'm putting in full this article by South China Morning Post which was published on Thursday;

China's rare earth producers say they are ready 
to weaponise their supply stranglehold

The Association of China Rare Earth Industry, which represents almost 300 miners, processors and manufacturers, issued a statement yesterday, citing an Aug 5 meeting.

“US consumers must shoulder the cost from US-imposed tariffs,” the association said.

China’s rare earth producers, who control the lion’s share of the world’s output of the elements, said they are ready to use their dominance of the industry as a weapon in the country’s year-long trade war with their customers in the United States.

Chinese producers will pass any tariffs on their exports to customers, in a move that would almost certainly add to the cost of the magnets, motors, light-emitting diodes and hundreds of other devices, according to an industry guild that represents almost 300 miners, processors and manufacturers of rare earth-based products.

The industry “resolutely supports the nation’s counter measures against US import tariffs on Chinese products,” the Association of China Rare Earth Industry said in a statement yesterday citing the consensus from an Aug 5 meeting. “US consumers must shoulder the costs from US-imposed tariffs.”

The statement by the state-dominated industry is the clearest sign that China is ready to turn its rare earth deposits into a trade weapon, after a year of negotiations to untangle a complex web of tit-for-tat tariffs ended in impasse.

US President Donald Trump upped the ante on Aug 1, when he tweeted he would slap a 10% tariff on US$300 billion of Chinese products effective Sept 1, excluding rare earths.

China produces over 80% of the world’s rare earths, and a major portion of processed products that are found in most smartphones, electric vehicles, wind turbines and military equipment from radars to sensors.

The US imports most of the rare earths it uses from China. Washington DC last year put Chinese rare earth materials on its proposed product list for tariffs but later took them out.

This isn’t the first attempt by Chinese producers to turn their industry dominance into a trade or diplomatic weapon.

China banned exports to Japan after a 2010 territorial dispute, which resulted in a complaint to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and a push by Japanese industry to develop substitutes and alternatives, ultimately hurting Chinese producers.

“The second round of nationwide environmental compliance inspection has already started, posing a big test for miners and processors,” Citic Securities chief cyclical industries analyst Ao Chung said in a report on Monday.

“The rise in compliance costs could further squeeze out non-compliant capacities, tightening rare earth supply.”

This could result in higher product prices, benefiting companies that are in compliance, Chung noted, adding the prospect of more US tariffs raises the urgency of more policies favourable to the rare earth industry.

The statement by the rare earth guild weighed on the stock prices of producers, even as the China and Hong Kong equity markets advanced amid stronger trade data.

China Rare Earth Holdings fell by as much as 3.6% in an advancing market to HK$0.53 in Hong Kong. China Minmetals Rare Earth fell by as much as 5.7% in Shenzhen to 14.80 yuan, while China Northern Rare Earth Group (600111 CH) declined 3.9% to 11.83 yuan in Shanghai.

In view of the trade war with the US, Chinese producers should also diversify their exports and actively participate in opportunities stemming from Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative, the industry guild said.

The BRI aims to foster closer economic partnerships with Southeast, South and Central Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe, initially through infrastructure construction.

The industry body emphasised that its members need to continue to push for “supply side structural reform and better serve the domestic market” so as to maintain China’s lead in the global rare earth industry.

The reform refers to the elimination of inefficient, outdated and environmentally damaging mining and processing methods.

To make it easier to achieve this, Beijing in recent years has forced the previously-fragmented industry to consolidate into six groups, led by state-owned companies.

Dr Mahathir's unbeaten opponents (updated)

UPDATES at 11:34 Aug 7

Someone pointed this story to me just now

Chinese educationist groups 

okay with khat implementation

and said, "Hey, Dr Mahathir wins la."

Then I told him to read the whole story till the end and pay particular attention to these paragraphs,

excerpts;

At a meeting yesterday, the groups had signed a statement calling for the deferment of the decision to introduce khat in the Year 4 Bahasa Melayu syllabus in vernacular schools next year.

They had said it did not help Chinese and Tamil primary school students to increase their standard of Malay and that changes to the existing school syllabus should only be done by meeting the needs of each school stream.

It's as good as saying no to the whole thing, or at the very least, a strategic retreat.

They will continue to call for the deferment until the government gives up or until Dr Mahathir is no longer around.

There is no way the Chinese educationists will ever back down. That has been their stance for half a century.

If Dr Mahathir really forces them, they will campaign against Pakatan in the next general election. Pakatan can't survive if the Chinese votes are split even for a bit.

As for the FMT headline, it was just to accommodate the DAP and in a way to give face to Dr Mahathir.

It's too embarrassing if they were seen as failing to subdue the Chinese educationists AGAIN.

ORIGINAL POST

I'm really against forcing anyone doing things which were not really necessary.

That's why I'm against forcing students learning "khat" in school.

I really meant it when I said I'm

In support of Dong Zong and Jiao Zong 

over the matter.

I think it's a stupid and an unnecessary move by the Education Ministry.

Why can't they use the resources for the "khat" classes to actually really improve students' knowledge of the national language?

Maybe it's for Pakatan to win over the Malays, but that's political and why do they have to burden the students for it like that?

Anyway, I think it's going to backfire on them.

If we look back at the history of Dr Mahathir's career, the only group of opponents that he failed to subdue were the Chinese educationists.

He always came out worse after a fight with them.

Operation Lalang

for instance is a black mark of Dr Mahathir's first administration.

Its main trigger was this,

excerpts :

The immediate cause, however, was the Ministry of Education's decision to appoint some 100 senior assistants and supervisors to Chinese-medium primary schools.^[8] Concerns were raised by Chinese politicians and organizations that those appointed were Chinese who were not Chinese-educated, implying that students and parents might be forced to use English or Malay to communicate with the school personnel. Chinese educationalist groups contended that the move would limit the usage of Chinese in these schools.

On 11 October 1987, a 2,000-strong gathering was held by the United Chinese School Committees Association of Malaysia (UCSCAM, the association of Chinese school teachers and trustees, also known as Dong Jiao Zong) at the Hainanese Association Building beside the Thean Hou Temple in Kuala Lumpur. It was joined by prominent politicians from Chinese-based parties such as MCA's Deputy President and Labour Minister Lee Kim Sai, the leader of Democratic Action Party (DAP) Lim Kit Siang, as well as representatives from GERAKAN and other parties. The meeting resolved to call a three-day boycott in Chinese schools if the government did not settle the appointments issue.^[8] The boycott was called off at the eleventh hour to allow time for the government to resolve the issue, nevertheless 57 schools went ahead with the strike on 15 October, either because they did not receive the notice of postponement, or they disagreed with the decision.^[9]

After that, Dr Mahathir attempted to introduce the Sekolah Wawasan concept which was to integrate Chinese schools into the mainstream. It was also thwarted by the Chinese educationists.

Then there's also the Suqiu memorandum controversy in 1999. At that time it was said that Dr Mahathir accepted the pledge of support from Chinese community leaders - many of whom were Chinese educationists - for the general election that year. In return, he was to fulfil their wishes should BN wins. BN did not even manage to win 40 per cent of Malay votes due to the Anwar's Reformasi movement at that time but was saved by the Chinese votes. Dr Mahathir however denied having promised anything to the Suqiu leaders. Just days before the
Lunas by-election
in November 2000, Dr Mahathir made a remark during a press conference in Alor Star likening the Suqiu leaders to communists and extremists. As a result, BN lost the by-election that it should have won after the Chinese voters switched to support the opposition because of the remark he made.

Now Dr Mahathir is having another round of confrontation with the Chinese educationists and I suspect that he may not come out of this one looking any good either.

After all, Pakatan still needs the full support of the Chinese community for the next general election.

No matter how much they hate BN and it's allies, the Chinese community may still prefer them than those who threaten their institutions - the Chinese schools being one of its most cherished.

I think DAP will be hard pressed on this one. We will just have to wait for it to announce its leadership's "collective stand" on the khat issue in the next few days.

DAP is after all not a great defender of Chinese schools, the same as their big brother PAP of Singapore which destroyed the Chinese school system in that republic to quash its opposition within the community.

Whatever it is, this is going to be a headache for them.

As for the BN supporters who have been whacking the Chinese community over this issue.....honestly, I don't understand them.

By right, they should be standing with the Chinese educationists on this one.

The enemy of our enemy is our friend.....something like that.

Well, maybe they were being too wrapped up with the idea of Perpaduan Ummah that they felt the need to whack anything that appears to be against it.

Actually, they should realise that Perpaduan Ummah is not about whacking other races who defended their rights.

It's about getting ourselves united and not about going after others, okay.

By the way, I also don't understand why we need to make everyone become like ourselves.

I never believe in forcing anyone to assimilate, or even integrate for that matter.

Why can't we be our unique selves and still be Malaysians?

Bangsa Malaysia?

Click on this link to my previous post in February 2014 to know what I think of the Bangsa Malaysia concept;

• Bangsa Malaysia bullshit