PM Najib, Tun Abdullah... Tun Jeanne?

Najib is officially the country's 6th Prime Minister. Congratulations to him.

Abdullah Badawi is now a holder of the highest honour in Malaysia - Tun. Congratulations to him.

Jeanne Abdullah is also now a holder of Tun.

Quiz: which of the above is the odd one out?

Mobile Phones in Classrooms

Refer to this news article.

I only have one question regarding this quote:

“Having handphones in classrooms are disruptive because pupils are found to be more intent on sending SMS rather than paying attention to the lessons,” he told reporters after chairing a meeting of the Committee on Controlling Discipli nary Problems in Schools yesterday.

Question: Did the deputy minister conduct any meaningful survey / study on this issue? How did he come to the conclusion that having handphones in classrooms are disruptive? Where did he get his information that pupils are found to be sending SMS rather than paying attention to lessons?

Next he also mentions the following:

“I urge parents not to allow their children to carry mobile phones to schools. In cases of emergency, the school office phone is always available,” he said.

Question: Is the school office phone really available for students use? How can it cater to the hundreds of students when the final bell rings and parents are looking for ways to communicate with their children on where to wait for the car?

Basically, the ministry is still stuck in the 20th century, in the unconnected era. In this age of seamless always-on communication, I would actually encourage the use of any ICT device, and this includes handphones (mobile communication devices) that are able to access the Internet and help students in supplementing their lessons with independent online research. If discipline is such a concern, then the school administrations should think of better ways, such as imposing a "silent mode only" ruling in classrooms, and training teachers to cope with the new generation of connected young leaders.

Indefinitely...

The proposed toll hike has been postponed indefinitely (meaning, after the 3 by elections and a certain political party's general assembly)... while the highway users do not have to fork out extra money for traveling on expressways, our taxpayer monies go to compensating the highway concessionaires for "lost profit"... sheesh... with this type of terms in the contract, profits are guaranteed for the concessionaire anyway. It makes me want to start a RM2 company and "bid" for future highway concessions!

zubedy's message to Malaysian politicians

I know about zubedy because CJ once worked with them, and I think that this company is really unique in their posturing and Malaysian way of life.

In today's The Star, zubedy put out a full page advertisement. However, the message it carries is so much more than self promotion and marketing. You can read the message here. The message is plain and simple: "Please stop the power chase, call for a truce and focus on the economy."

Yes, it's time for Malaysian politicians to stop fighting and start focusing on the economy! We are going to experience a recession soon, if it has not already started. Where is our economic reform committee? Where is our economic stimulus plan? Where is our government in these times of need? Who is running the country?!

GONE!

Perak is gone... it's official... the Sultan of Perak has called the PR MB to resign!

This marks a return to tyranny for Perakians...

Gomen say I greedy wor...

Don't belif me? See la...

PAS non muslim wing?

This announcement has interesting implications. For starters, the party name PAS (Islamic Party of Malaysia) will be a misnomer, as it will also have a non-muslim wing. What other possible implications will be at hand?

Perdana expensive to maintain?

That's according to the Perak State Government.

My opinion? I think the normal Perdanas are not expensive to maintain. Rather, it's the Perdana Executive version (essentially a "kereta potong" version of the original Perdana), the elongated version that is chopped up to modify the length of the car.

If properly serviced (and driven), the cars should not be so expensive to maintain, otherwise Proton will not be selling the car at all!

Obama Victory Speech

I finally watched US President-Elect Barack Obama's victory speech on the night of the US general elections. I must say that he is a very inspiring figure, and the speech itself was truly mesmerizing and it sent chills up my spine. He's a great orator, and a symbol of change to Americans and to the world.

I wonder if the day will come for us in this part of the world?

WTF?!?!?!?!?!

Read this article, and then decide for yourself regarding these key phrases and what organization should they refer to...

- consistently broken laws, and their illegal demonstrations turned violent and incited racial hatred

- causing a commotion at the open house

- disseminated messages that could cause racial and religious tension. They created fear among the people. They even threatened people’s lives

- groups that propagate extremism and stir up racial and religious tension

Gone-Lah

Bye bye...

The insult...

Scenario: you have been a partner in a coalition of parties that make up the ruling government of the day. Due to unfavourable circumstances, your party had a fallout with the majority party, and are mulling pulling out of the coalition.

And here's what your senior party members call you: Parti Perosak!

916

........

tak jadi lah.............

This is how we spend our money...

Out of an annual budget of RM200 billion, almost 75% is purely operational. What this means is that we only have RM50 billion to pump into development, foreign investment, and social welfare. A cursory glance at the trend graph below shows that in just 10 years, operational expenditure has increased by 300%, indicating the critical degree of inefficiency and bloat in the government today.

We need to see a break down of this RM150 billion, to identify where this money really goes to!

Petty & Merajuk...

Update 29-Aug-08 1.08pm:

Hannah has responded. You go, girl!

Original:

For someone who isn't even elected by the people of this nation, this guy just wants to be petty about seating arrangements and even merajuk and wanted to walk out of the meeting...

Merdeka!

This is a historic day, indeed...

Are the people really fed up with Pakatan Rakyat?

Apparently so, according to Muhammad son of Muhammad.


But, my question to him is... did he perform any survey regarding this matter? Did he really go around asking the opinions of the Rakyat? Or is this is own conclusion based on his own gut feeling?

If it is indeed just his own opinion, then The Star should have used a very different story approach!

Fed up indeed!

The petrol price increase

So, our "beloved" BN government has decided to increase the price of petrol by 78sen/liter effective 12.00am Thursday. While I do agree that this will eventually happen as it is really necessary to go to market rates for this commodity, I am irked by the way it is actually implemented. And I do agree with the views of this reader.

Why did the government have to announce such a heavy increase in a matter of hours? This action will encourage kiasu drivers and petrol hoarders to fill up their vehicles/containers with petrol. It will also cause petrol stations to run out of the resource and cause multiple traffic congestions everywhere because of the long lines to fill up the tanks.

Why not implement it like this? Announce that at the end of 39 days, the price of petrol would have been increased by 78sen/liter. Then implement a 2sen/liter increase per day so that there is not such a big shock of increase and also this will discourage too many kiasu people to fill up at the same time (after all, you can only save 2sen/liter compared to the next day). It will also discourage hoarders, because the petrol kept for too long becomes stale.

Wow... Khir Toyo is speaking "live" as the Opposition Leader!

Updated 12.45pm:

Despite the massive lagging of the streaming video, from what snippets I managed to listen to, I am now confused whether BN is still the state government, or the state opposition, and whether PR is the new state government or still in opposition mode.

Still debating about trivial stuff, focusing too much on the past, and unfortunately unable to look forward and chart a new future for our state. Talking about exco village lah, then talking about wrongdoings of the BN government lah... wtf?

Where are the debates on education? How about transportation and traffic? Over development? Protecting green lungs? Where's the intelligence???

Original:

I bet he didn't see this coming at all. For all his boasting of a zero opposition state, he is now sitting in a position that he predicted would not even exist!

View the live proceedings of the Selangor State Assembly here.

Gerakan calls for 2nd vote in Federal Territories!

Can you believe this? I thought that Gerakan was virtually wiped out after the General Elections, but I suppose they are trying to remain relevant.

If this proposal goes through, it will be a breakthrough in local governance. The other states will be pressured to return the 3rd vote to the raykat. This will auger well for the people, especially after being mistreated by local councils for the past 50 years.