Arrogance

I don't understand why some people need to use excessive expletives to express themselves when ordinary words can be used to better effect in displaying one's arrogance, superiority complex and ingrained racism.

Case in point is a comment that I read recently in Annie's latest piece about a Hong Kong Drama 

The Election (Chinese: 選戰).

Just look at this comment by an anonymous commenter which I copied from Annie's comment section - 

The world knows which race can manage the country better (except where it concerns Islam and Malay customs); but most Chinese can accept having Malays to be the majority in government provide they govern reasonably; after all, this is a Malay majority country.

The world knows which race can manage the country better??? 

The world knows???  The entire whole wide world???

Except where it concerns Islam and Malay customs, of course.

You don't really expect such a superior race would deign to dirty their superior selves with any form of knowledge or understanding of the faith and sensitivities of the lower classes of the sub-human species that call themselves Melayu, do you?

If these Melayu got offended or their sensitivities trampled on, they have no right to fight back or defend their faith and customs because their faith, customs and way of life are just inferior to the Chinese, hence they should just take it like the sub-standard beings that they are.

That commenter must have shuddered at the thought that any superior being is expected to have to cater for the sensitivities of the lowly Muslims and Malays when deciding on something or when he/she is saying anything.

Probably that's the reason why some of these superior beings never, ever considered the sensitivities of the Muslims and Malays be it in their statements or in their acts.

When there are Muslims and Malays who fight back to defend they faith and customs amid the provocations?

Oh, those are the bigots, extremists, racists, you name it .. it has all been said and implied before.

.. most Chinese can accept having Malays to be the majority in government provide they govern reasonably; after all this is a Malay majority country.

Provided they govern reasonably??  By the standards defined by the superior race, I suppose?

Wow, such condescension from someone I can presume to be a member of the superior race.

How arrogant can one of these superior beings get? 

Oh you poor eminent Malays and liberal Malays of the Noor Farida, KJ and Saifuddin variety, you people most of them can accept to be part of the government because this is a Malay majority country after all, not because they believe that you are truly capable and at par with their kind, but because they think you can govern reasonably by their standards, i.e. you share their views that Malays who practice their culture and faith are inferior to the Chinese.

Mind you, only most, not all, which means there are members of the superior race who cannot accept even you liberal Malay bleeding hearts as part of the government either.

See, the problem with racists, they don't realise how racist they are because their racism is so ingrained in their psyche, in their culture, in their belief system, that they freely and shamelessly expose their racism while at the same time label everyone else who hold different views as racists.

I can go on and analyse further how every word in just that one paragraph was constructed to reflect the state of mind of this particular commenter at Annie's blog, but why bother continuing to do something that makes me feel only sick and disgusted, when the commenter obviously felt no shame in displaying his/her unhealthy state of mind?

Superior

I went to the nearest nursery to buy some potting soil this morning.

My palms needed re-potting as they had outgrown their pot.

I had been meaning to re-pot them since last week, but we ran out of potting soil, and so I had to buy some before I can give  them a new home.

We used to be able to get 7 bags of garden soil for ten ringgits, but today I was told that I must pay two ringgits for every bag, no matter how many I bought.

Since my beloved Kentia really needed a new pot to call home, and I am not particularly good at haggling, I went ahead and bought five bags anyway.

The Bangladesh national who served me was the only worker there, and he actually handled the cash register too.

We have so many foreign nationals working in this country and making a good living too.

The other day, Yaya told me she went to a shop nearby because she needed something urgently for the house and was served by a Bangladesh national who was absolutely fluent in Bahasa Melayu that she thought he had been here for years.

The conversation went something like this -

Yaya: Bagus la Bahasa Melayu awak.  Dah lama ke duduk sini?

Amer: Lama juga la kak.

Yaya: Ya ke?  Dah berapa tahun dah duduk sini?

Amer : Tujuh bulan kak.

Yaya: (Jaw dropped) ... Tapi Bahasa Melayu awak bagus betul.

Amer: Bukan susah nak belajar Bahasa Melayu.  Saya beli buku, belajar, cakap dengan orang yang datang beli di sini, tiga bulan saya dah boleh cakap macam ni.  Saya lebih pandai cakap Melayu dari boss saya.

This is not an isolated case - I have met quite a number of them myself.

I am beginning to conclude that these Bangladesh nationals are actually far smarter and more diligent, or in a single word, superior, than Malaysians who still cannot construct proper sentences in Bahasa Malaysia let alone speak fluently in the national language despite being born and bred here.

Oh by the way, here's a photo of my re-potted palms.

Pretty, aren't they?

Resigned

Apparently everyone is saying something about 1MDB.

Someone even asked me about what I think about the matter and even shared some juicy tidbits he got through his network.

My policy is, unless I have clear irrefutable evidence about anything, I will not offer an opinion either way.

Since the possibility of my getting anything of substance in the form of information or data about 1MDB is practically none, it looks like I would never opine on 1MDB, so I told him "I have no opinion on the matter".

I do keep track of the matter on the side, of course - I can't help it, tracking such things has become a habit I suppose - so I am not completely unaware of the stories revolving around 1MDB and the characters associated with it.

I do admit that if what I read were true, I do find their investment decisions rather dubious.

However, one must admit that the characters involved with 1MDB tend to be the type usually associated with the classy educated liberals of the Saifuddin and KJ kind - definitely not the Umno totok or Isma types who are classified by the classy educated liberal urbanites as "low class" rural bumpkins.

So maybe my low class non-eminent brain cannot decipher the brilliance behind their decisions.

I doubt that kicking Umno out and voting Pakatan in would make  GLCs investment more transparent, and based on how Pakatan-controlled states run their GLCs, I feel the situation will probably be worse.

Reading this article at dissidentvoice.org caused me to be resigned to the fact that regardless of who is in power, the elites will continue to accumulate greater wealth, while the middle to low income households continue to struggle to make ends meet, and the upper middle income liberal leftists continue to shout stridently for UBAH to their various versions of utopia, while the "eminent" Malays will continue to live their lives in the comfort of their pensioned cocoon reliving past glories and imagined goodwill.

On the global scale, we are just as much a subject of foreign manipulation as everyone else, and that won't change any time soon.

Looking Onwards

Someone invited me today to a reunion of sort.

I thanked them for the invitation but I am not really a reunion kind of gal.

It is not because I am not appreciative of the invitation, but I have decided to move on and have no wish to look back or to reminisce on old times.

I decided months back to cut whatever ties I have with non-essentials and moved on with my life.

If the people I left in Johor had wanted to be in touch with me, they could have easily contacted me a long time ago as they had my number, and some actually did.

Most did not.

Those who did only because they wanted to use my skills for the benefit of people who have no appreciation for what I can produce for them.

For some reason or other, every time someone from my past gives me a call or sends me a message, I instinctively think to myself "What do they want now?" as I know for certain that it is not my person that they value but my skills with number crunching and data analysis.

I am not disappointed, just resigned.

As such, going to a reunion to meet up with people who have no regard for me as a person, only as a means to keep in touch in case they need my skills, seems such a waste of time.

Someone said its called "networking" but I call it phony.

I was in the business of "networking" once, and I know exactly why you have to "network" with people you detest and put up with the very things that make you detest them.

I am no longer in that business now, and I hope to God that I never have to "network" again.

Time waits for no one, and I have no wish to waste what time I have on hand on something that would be of no value to me or my loved ones, so a clean slate, a fresh start, and life goes on.

Clean Your Own House

I was going to write about Joe Biden's opinion about a particular case being tried in our courts as “Anwar Ibrahim’s appeal gives Malaysia a vital chance to make things right and promote confidence in its democracy & judiciary. -vp,”.

The twit also tweeted this “Amid growing US-Malaysia ties, Malaysian govt’s use of legal system & Sedition Act to stifle opposition raises rule of law concerns. -vp,”.

Since Chedet had already written what I wanted to write in as scathing a tone as he could manage as a statesman, I can only express my full agreement to Chedet here.

Well maybe he has to say something about international relations, and it is much easier to pick on small 3rd world countries that refused to allow their stooge to become Prime Minister.

Besides, it is altogether probable that Vice Presidents are only allowed to venture into international waters only in places not considered big enough or important enough to American interests - all the important stuff are reserved for presidential opining.

But Mr Biden, sir, didn't the Democrats lost significant number of seats to the GOP in the mid-term elections recently and lost control of both the House and the Senate to the Republicans?

Overall, the elections resulted in the largest Republican majority in the entire country in nearly a century, with 54 seats in the Senate, 246 (56.55%) in the House (which could rise to 247, or 56.78%), 31 governorships (62%), and 68 state legislative chambers. Moreover, Republicans gained their largest majority in the House since 1946, the largest majority in Congress overall since 1928, and the largest majority of state legislatures since 1928.
Source Wikipedia

Shouldn't that be of more concern to you?

Wouldn't addressing the matter that caused the Democrats' losses is far more relevant to your political career, or aren't you thinking of running for President of The United States of America, the one and only super power in the world, the one that decide what is wrong and what is right, who to destroy and who to bribe, which country to bomb to smithereens and who to be assassinated and sodomised?

If you become the next US President, you can opine on the state of much bigger countries, like Russia or Iran or China, and far bigger personalities like Putin and Ahmadinejad... far more impressive than throwing your support behind a geriatric who thinks he is much bigger than he actually is, or concerning yourself with Malaysia's Sedition Act that is neither as repressive nor as invasive as the USA Patriot Act.

So just leave us alone to deal with our situation the best way we can, because as I see it, all the countries where American brand of social liberation and democracy were touted as the cure for all social and political ills always end up in deep sxxx and never realise whatever form of social cohesion they were promised.

Rememberance

Today I received a call from an old college friend, whom I haven't seen for a long time.

The last time we chatted was when she called me to tell me that she didn't complete some of her courses that semester because her water broke during the finals exam week and only managed to sit for one paper.

And that was the reason Haze took a year off from full-time college to care for her baby.

It brought back memories of those carefree days when I was seventeen, young and naive, starting college in a foreign land away from family, home and everything familiar.

Haze, Indy and I were together almost from the first day that we met at the admission briefing.

As freshmen, we were required to stay at the dorms and despite being assigned different roomies, and aspiring to graduate with different degrees, we managed to spend an inordinate amount of time together.

It was just natural that when we were allowed to reside off-campus, the three of us decided to room together in a 3-bedroom rented apartment about four miles from college.

Haze was the attractive, vivacious one, tall and tanned with long wavy brown hair and an infectious laugh - she reminded me of Jennifer Lopez.

Indy was the more serious intellectual, petite and demure, with very fair skin and glossy black hair - looks very much like that actress Tiz Zakyah.

And I was like totally nondescript compared to them, although they insisted that I was an annoying Miss Know-It-All and just took control of every situation (I was just being practical, I don't know why they got annoyed when I was right most times).

Although we were so different in looks, personality and social background, and later took different directions in life, throughout the four years of college (Haze took one extra year to graduate because of her baby) we stayed close friends.

There were so many memories that we had together, some pretty hilarious.

There was that time when we were interviewed by the local papers and was featured in a pull out about summer school - Haze started receiving fan mail ...

What got her real scared was that one letter was written by a guy who was going to come and see her as soon as he was able to get out of jail where he was serving a 20-year sentence for manslaughter.

She was even thinking of transferring out.

Then there was that time when Indy and I were featured on footage of the local television news about foreign students enrollment and Indy was indignant as she wasn't a foreign student.

She actually called the station to protest only to be told that I was obviously foreign in my baju kurung, she just happened to be there with me.

However, the most memorable to me personally was when I was accosted by some pervert as I was walking home (the bus was late so I decided to walk) from the nearby hospital where I was doing some volunteer work, taking a shortcut across some unsavory parts of the city.

I managed to make some self-defense moves that left him lying on the icy sidewalk, which I thought was awesome, but when I  bragged to the others as soon as I saw them, I got totally lambasted for being foolhardy.

They took me to the police station to make a report and got blasted by the police officer too, with the both of them nodding in agreement.

I lost contact with them when I went home and then began working in Britain while they continued pursuing their lives across the Atlantic.

I am so glad that Indy managed to get hold of me and shared my number with Haze.

And so this posting is for friends that you cherish, shared discoveries that you treasure, and lasting friendships that make you feel warm inside.

Thriving in the heavy rain ...

We have had a lot of rain lately and our plants are thriving because of it.

Yay! Two more banana baby trees growing sprightly and healthy.  They are just too cute.

My mother's maiden hair fern gets all drenched and droopy after every rain shower, but they look green and healthy with many new shoots that will grow bushier as they age.

Here are the two sansviera babies among the other ornamentals growing in our backyard while mama sansviera is producing another baby on the post box ledge.

The curry tree is now reaching the roof and badly needs trimming, which I am certain Yaya will do once the rainy season is over.

While in front, the rose bushes are growing very strong shoots and I hope we will have more deep pink roses once the rainy season is over while the blush pink roses are still flowering non-stop although not as abundantly now that the sky seems to be permanently overcast.

Here's a photo of a deep pink rose that I captured last month.

I really should go and snap better pictures, but I am just plain lazy to take off downstairs just to get better pictures at the moment.

Now, if I have the Canon EOS 70D that I have been drooling over, I might just be motivated to actually spend time getting better photos to put up here.

With a phone camera?  These are good enough.

By the way, I went to IOI Mall Putrajaya with my family last Sunday purposely to spend time at the Aeon Index Living Mall.

Aeon Index Living Mall is a joint venture between Aeon Malaysia and Thai furniture manufacturer and retailer Index Living Mall.

The prices seemed reasonable enough and the furniture designs are more Asian, hence far more pleasing to our family Asian aesthetics.

I do like a couple of things that I may just buy for my room, an iron bed frame and a chilli red swivel chair, now that I am more or less a permanent resident in my sister's house.

Yaya found many things she liked for the house too and are already making plans to create the space for them.

Oh, and parking is free!  At least for the moment ...

I was going to write about Index ...

... but the blogs are a buzz about Umno bloggers being called bangang and some airhead not wanting to be ruled by the stupid.

Apparently pro-Umno bloggers were called bangang by Umno President, while somewhere else, Tun Mahathir's daughter claimed that she inherited her stupidity from her father.

And here I am planning to write a shallow piece about my trip to IOI Mall Putrajaya to check out the newly opened Index Home Living outlet.

I don't feel that I am included in that "bangang" category because I am not on Umno's payroll despite BigCat being born well after 2008 - heh ... so I am confident too that we are not among those categorised as moron by rockybru here.

The fact of the matter is that independence means I have no obligation to write all nice and sunny stuff about Umno and I have free reign to write what I like about anything I feel strongly about.

I do have clients whose reputation and image I am obliged to take care of, but they are not really in the business of scamming people so there aren't really anything negative that I can write about them.

Just as I am careful about protecting the interest of my clients, these bloggers are just as careful to protect the interests of their paymasters.

I am also aware that some of these bloggers actually do use their blogs to blackmail people into paying them, which I have blogged about here.

However, the thing is Mr Prime Minister (not that I think he even read BigCat but I am addressing him anyway), the problem lies not with the bloggers but their paymasters who are Umno warlords and Bahagian chiefs who probably used the "peruntukan" that Umno gave them, the chairmanships that you shut them up with and the business contracts that they managed to finagle from your administration to further their political career.

That is the reason you need to man up to the task of ridding your party of these warlords starting with those that have been intimidating and threatening you to get their way.

You spent so much time trying to bolster your personal popularity that you forget one fact, Umno leadership is not about just the President, it is about the entire leadership from the President down to the Ketua Cawangan.

Every single one of them contribute to the image of Umno on the ground, and if they are largely rotten ...

Darn it, why do I even bother?

As for the one who blamed her father for her stupidity ...

Makcik, you have had more than 50 years to improve the quality of your cerebral output by developing on whatever you inherited from your parents, and the best you can do is blame your lacking on your father?

At your age, you are still dragging your parents into the picture every time people say something about you that you dislike?

Wow, aren't we the bratty one?

Disappointed

I am largely disappointed by the recently concluded Umno General Assembly.

Maybe I was expecting too much because Tan Sri Muhyiddin's speech gave me hope.

I should have known better.

On one hand we have a bunch of clueless self-serving nincompoops, on the other a bunch of conceited pretentious egomaniacs.

What choice do the ordinary people have now?

Any wonder why most thinking people are simply fed up with the political situation, and would rather ignore the whole lot of them if it hadn't meant leaving the country to the dogs.

Thank God for the ordinary antics of my little nephews and niece that have kept me busy and entertained.

Oh yeah, my (adult) nieces are now here visiting and we are planning to eat out.

I was thinking of taking them to Alamanda for lunch and maybe some retail therapy, then maybe on to Mydin or Tesco to stock up on stationery for the upcoming school year (they are teachers).

Politicians?  Hah ... I have officially given up on them.

They all can continue on their merry ways for all I care, so long as they make sure public facilities are maintained and taken care of.

As for the MB of Selangor, his 100 days are almost up and it is almost end of the year and we'll see how he has performed.

Growing A Spine

Ha! Umno Preseident and Malaysian Prime Minister made a U-turn on the Sedition Act.

This is one U-turn I fully support, not because I am particularly enamoured by the Sedition Act, but because Najib is finally listening to the voices of the people who voted him into power that they wanted the Sedition Act to stay.

For you lot who did not vote for him in the last GE despite his promise to repeal the Sedition Act, just stop the whining, the griping and the lambasting.

Logically why would any sane individual go against the demands of the majority of his supporters when it is obvious that nothing he does would make his detractors desist from opposing him at the ballot box?

It is only right that he should be pandering to the people who supported him at the ballot box, not the ones who not only did not vote for his political party, but also publicly ridiculed and insulted him, his wife and his children.

Personally, I am sincerely tired of hearing the pretentious superior smugness of the DAP politicians, their non-stop whining dictating things according to their whims, the constant "it is Umno's fault, it is Excel fault, it is ROS fault, it is someone else's fault" every single time they messed up, the belligerence against those who do not share their opinions, and the holier-than-thou pronouncements on tweeter by political twits who seem to not care how their public tweeting magnify their lack of depth.

Next Najib needs to assert himself as leader of the majority in Malaysia, otherwise he will be just a wimp in the eyes of Malays and nons alike.

He should show more appreciation to leaders from the states that gave BN the most seats instead of pandering to the non-performing dead weights who are dependent upon the votes of the people whose welfare they seem to neglect.

And the first thing he should do is give the biadap and tak tahu malu MCA and Gerakan leadership some talking to.

So smug and self-righteous, telling Umno delegates what to say and what not to say when they have been saying whatever they wish to say without any consideration to the sensitivities of the majority of the Umno machinery on the ground who put them where they are.

They should be told to pull their weight instead of leaving everything to Umno - the work and the blame - they want to enjoy positions in government and yet insulting and threatening the majority of people who put them there.

Giving them face the way Najib has been simply adds to their arrogance and self-importance.

Self-reflection is not something they do voluntarily, so we should force them to do it to see where they really are in the Malaysian political scene - in my estimation they are at par with PSM.

Deal with Opposition sympathisers within Umno and stop giving them free reign with government and party funds.

If MCA refuse to do anything about The Star, that nest of DAP supporters, then Umno should do something about cutting them off from government departments subscriptions and funding - 80% of their commentaries are opposition-biased.

He has to deal with the enemies within before he can take the fight to the enemies without.

DPM's Speech

I watched Umno Deputy President Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin's speech last night in full and I feel hopeful again.

Maybe because I have not heard such frank admission of what is wrong with Umno from a senior party leader before.

If the Wanita, Pemuda and Puteri wings actually take DP's words and translate them into action maybe the future will not be looking too bleak.

I hope Shahrizat took note of DPM's statement to "berundur dengan cara terhormat" and let younger people takeover leadership of the party.

Surely Wanita have better alternatives than Shahrizat among the former Puteri members who have graduated into Wanita.

If not, what is the point of having Puteri?

Sure, there are many of these former Puteri leaders who are just a bunch of self-absorbed non-performing freeloaders using their position within Puteri to accumulate wealth.

I have even met one who admitted openly that she was in it for the business opportunities and contracts that she can acquire through her position as the Puteri Division Head.

But surely there are some who sincerely believe in the struggle for "Agama, Bangsa dan Tanah Air".

Let us have a strong and charismatic Wanita chief who is in her forties who can build and expand on Wanita's role as the backbone of Umno machinery on the ground.

I am also hopeful that Pemuda would actually do something to stop the rot currently infecting them beginning with its top leadership.

What I have observed during the time I was in Johor, working with people closely related with Umno machinery on the ground, Pemuda is completely out of touch with their support base.

Its chief is more interested in gaining popularity among the classy urbanites who despise them, while seemingly intent on transforming the movement into an insular grouping of shallow and self-centred individuals that have managed to totally alienate the majority of younger Malay professionals who find  their pretentious posturings repellent.

I have long ago lost any respect whatsoever for Khairy Jamaluddin and consider whatever he has to say politically as just noise because from my perspective his actions do not seem to reflect his words when it comes to upholding "Agama, Bangsa dan Tanah Air".

Is it any wonder that I am more attuned to ISMA than I am to Umno?

Pemuda too have grown irrelevant among the grassroots because none of them seem to be part of the grassroots.

The problem with Umno is, they value verbal abilities above and beyond substance.

What is the point of being articulate if whatever you are articulating is without any substance?

I saw Umno Supreme Council member Puad Zarkashi on TV last night and I was struck by how he seems to be in love with his own voice and opinions, someone who can talk endlessly in such a round-about way that I was bored to a point where whatever he said just became noise in my ears.

If nothing is done to reverse the decline in Pemuda, imagine the future of Umno leadership filled with Puad Zarkashi clones being impressed with themselves, and an Umno President being surrounded by his special officers who are openly DAP and PKR members instead of just sympathisers and covert supporters like now.

RON95

My brother told me that most people he talked to were unhappy that the government is doing away with the RON95 subsidy.

I do understand why some people are protesting against it - mostly because every petrol price hike had always been accompanied by higher prices of goods and services.

So there is an expectation that without the subsidy, petrol prices would increase, and that would lead to increase in prices of consumer goods and services.

For the majority of the lower income group, I believe that they are most affected by the increase in prices of consumer goods and services associated with petrol price increases, not the actual petrol price increase itself.

As for me, from a purely practical perspective, I agree that we should do away with fuel subsidies, and now is the best time to do it what with the sharp falls in global crude prices.

Other countries are taking advantage of the lower crude prices to reduce or even do away their petrol subsidies too.

However, I am just way too lazy to lay down my reasoning in detail here - I'd rather waste my time with my digital dolls.

If you insist, read about what is happening and being said elsewhere about petrol/fuel subsidies here, here, here, here, here and here.

Or you can just google for "fuel subsidies" within the past week and you will have a whole lot of references.

Just don't read the Opposition blogs - they are experts in taking advantage of any situation to fan the anti-anti-government sentiments, hence are not reliable sources of facts and data.

Oh, and read up about the local perspective here at Economics Malaysia.

Friendship

Mikail spent the morning with us today as his mom had to go to Putrajaya for something related to her business.

He is Deen's age, and next year they will be in the same class.

Incidentally, Yaya too had some business to settle in town, so she went off straight after sending Al to school for the end-of-year prize-giving ceremony or something.

Both Deen and Mikail got the day off from school as school is practically over for these two average achievers.

Since I am now working from home, I babysat both boys while doing stuff on the computer, while the adults went about their business.

Lunch was easy - rice, fried chicken, coleslaw - as all the things that Deen likes seems to be Mikail's favorite too, so that wasn't too difficult to prepare.

They spent the entire morning playing games on their iPads, bragging about their various achievements like boys tend to do.

I was periodically interrupted by either one of them, "Auntie, nak ribena", "Aunt Sel, nak mango", "Auntie, Adik buat camni (demonstrating the irritating act)", and so on and so forth ...

Ah yes, everyone calls Deen Adik, it seems, even little Ara who is barely three years old addresses him as Adik.

I am not too keen on these boys spending the larger part of their time gaming, but I remember that at one time I was just as obsessed with computer games as they are now with their iPad games.

The difference being, I was well passed my UPSR years when I caught the gaming bug, while these boys are just eight year-olds who still can't construct proper sentences.

Al came home early today, and immediately sat in front of the computer browsing for things a nine-year-old would be interested in - today he is fascinated with planets, stars, and constellations, having finally moved on from pyramids, pharaohs, Musa A.S. and Harun A.S.

That means tonight I will probably be inundated with questions about planets, stars and constellations.

That's what we do before tucking them in, answer questions about what they learned during the day, be it in the classroom, at the playground or on the internet.

I sincerely hope that Al's and Deen's innocence can be preserved for as long as possible and that they will continue to talk to us and share their interests with us throughout their growing up years.

We have always been a rather close-knit family, and we hope that these boys will not only be brothers, but also good friends that will support and take care of each other.

Shunning Politics

Someone wondered why I don't seem to write anything remotely political these days.

The thing is, when I decided to write about my life in general, I didn't realise how little politics affect my life.

The Bumiputra quota in housing means nothing to me or my immediate family because none of us bought our homes under that scheme even though we are all registered as Melayu in our identity cards.

When the nons quibble about Bumiputra discounts, I find it irrelevant because we never bought our homes with the Bumiputra discount, not even our father when he bought his retirement home.

When people talk about the need for low cost housing - it makes no difference to me because none of us are qualified for low cost housing.

As for Malay Reserve Land except for a few acres of palm oil in Johor, the rest of our properties are not on Malay Reserve Land.

While the politicians get all excited about Malay first Malaysian second, it makes no difference to me whatsoever because I have always encountered racial discrimination at the workplace because I am considered a Malay first by my largely non-Malay employers and by-passed for training and promotions on the basis that I will get that training from trained seniors, who happened to be non-Malays.

That sort of justified the tag "assistant" in assignments even though I ended up doing the bulk of the work.

I heard one of the senior managers once said "we are transferring our skills to our Bumiputera colleagues" as if Malays were incapable of acquiring those skills themselves should they were given the training directly.

Has any politician said anything for the average Malay professional facing discrimination in organisations with largely non-Malay management?

It is really funny that I got more acknowledgement from the HQ in Britain than I did from the Malaysian office when it comes to ideas and job accomplishment.

My Malaysian bosses questioned why the departments from HQ offered all-expenses paid training to me directly instead of asking for their recommendations, when they had never considered that I was never sent by the office for training anywhere and yet expected me to "assist" the trained colleagues to complete their assignments.

They even refused to grant me time off for the 5-week professional license training programme offered at no cost to me by the HQ, while at the same time two others were given the go-ahead to attend the same programme and the office were willing to pay for it.

Once, I was also reminded by a senior manager not to wear baju kurung for a presentation because the client was not a government department, something that I never encountered when I was working in Britain.

Hilarious, considering my previous job in Britain required me to do a lot of site visits and meeting clients in various settings, even a boardroom presentation.

How's that for discrimination?

I was considered a rebellious upstart and not fit for grade promotion, but various department heads were offering me lateral movements into their departments, one even offering me a position at a reduced grade - to streamline with the others doing the same things in his department - while making it like he was doing me a favor.

And these are the kind of people in the pool of "top echelons of professionals" in that particular field being head-hunted by multinationals for ever increasing remunerations.

Some of them are even Malays.

Do politicians even care why Malay professionals in many non-Malay dominated organisations have always carried the stigma of being a Malay before anything else is considered, unless they embrace the so-called "corporate" culture that is practiced by the ruling classes within the organisation?

Does anyone care?

Bananas

Two of our banana trees at the back are currently fruiting.

We have decided to allow them to ripen naturally before harvesting because they will be sweeter that way.

The grove started with a young plant that was a gift from our brother.

Considering that Yaya never planned to plant bananas at the back, that grove has been very productive over the past two years.

We have had three humongous stems of fruits and 'hearts' although this time around, Yaya decided not to harvest the 'hearts' because we see a couple of beautiful tiny birds drinking nectar off them every morning.

I love the banana 'hearts' which we would normally just boil in salted water and eat with rice as 'ulam'.

Usually Yaya would prepare a 'sambal' dip to eat with a variety of 'ulam' that include fresh long beans, steamed okra, 'pucuk ubi', 'pegaga', 'cekur', or just store-bought vegetables prepared raw or steamed, but I prefer to eat them without the dip.

The first 2 banana fruit stems we harvested from the grove were humongous giants that we couldn't really recognise as a specific variety that we normally find - you know, not 'pisang embun' or 'pisang raja', or 'pisang Cavendish' and certainly not 'pisang emas'.

Al took one look at them and refused to eat them even though he loves bananas, his reason was they were 'mutated giant bananas that may be alive'.

The imagination of children can be quite trying sometimes ...

But the third bunch we harvested were smaller, and we actually managed to polish them off within 3 days.

The leaves are plentiful too, useful for a variety of things in the kitchen, such as wrapping fish before grilling them, forming a base to steam 'pau', lining the bowl of nasi lemak, and wrapping 'kueh' for steaming.

Some of those who visited us were amazed to see a grove of banana trees in our tiny backyard, among other plants, but honestly, they are really good as not only they provide fruits and leaves, but also shade.

My room, which is at the back of the house, is cooler now that some of the leaf steams have grown tall enough to reach the upper level of the house.

At night, they move back and forth in the night breeze to create eerie shadows on the windows, and being the scaredy cat that I am, I always draw down the curtains nowadays.

Taekwondo Grading

Today the boys went for their Taekwondo grading.

Me: So, macam mana grading tadi?

Al: OK

Me: Did you do well?

Al: OK

Me: What about Adik?

Deen: (silence)

Yaya: Hmm ... pencapaian Adik is questionable ... (demonstrated how Adik held himself during grading)

Me: Hahaha ...

Last week Al was aiming for a double promotion to a green belt.  He still does.  Because Sir promised an icecream treat for those who managed to get double promotion.

Heh ... and I thought it was for the pride of donning a green belt.

Digital Dolls

Someone asked after my health, wondering whether I had not been writing regularly like I resolved to do because of ill health.

Yes, it was rather bad these past few days, more so when my asthma acted up as well, but I am okay, just not up to spending long hours in front of the computer.

Today is another day spent indoors, browsing the latest happenings as well as working on one of my hobbies, creating custom content for a favorite game.

I used to be an enthusiastic gamer, but now I reserve my gaming on just a few games that I have on my phone, while The Sims 2 is the only one I have on my computer.

Okay, The Sims 4 is out, but I am still playing and creating for my TS2 primarily because I can't really afford another game right now, though the review from The Sims Community seems to indicate that it is worth a buy.

I started playing The Sims ages ago when a friend gave me her entire CD collection because she had moved on to The Sims 2.

Back then it was a very simple game, playing digital dolls and dollhouses, and even then I was making custom skins and furnishings for my digital dolls because that game was rather limited, but I was just too parsimonious back then to spend money for a game as much of the custom content for it was from pay-sites.

When I got a job and was earning quite a bit, I could afford to buy TS2 with all the expansion packs, so my game was pretty much complete, but I couldn't get rid of the creative bug, and I was totally convinced pay-sites were evil, and creating for TS2 was a lot of fun too.

So I continued creating custom content for my game, got active in The Sims community, interacting with the absolutely brilliant custom content creators in the community and cluing in on the occasional ensuing dramas.

I gained and learned so much from the community and that added to the enjoyment of playing and creating for the game.

Even so, I never got onto TS3 bandwagon when it was introduced, despite getting the base game free courtesy of a friendly online acquaintance, primarily because it was too resource hungry and I'd rather not spend a lot of money on a high-end computer just to play games.

And now that TS4 is out, it is very unlikely that I would ever get TS3, not that I was going to get TS4 anyways.

Back to School

I was very poorly yesterday that I could hardly walk, but I am so glad and thankful that I am healthier today.

The reason being, I promised the boys that we would begin to look for their workbooks for next year.

I know, school holidays haven't begun yet, but this is really the best time to buy stuff for school as almost all the department stores and supermarkets are having their Back To School promotion.

Stationery, books, uniform, shoes and school bags are at least 10% to 20% cheaper than they normally are.

We went to Mydin USJ after Zuhr today to check out on their Back to School offering, and the place was chock full of people that I was practically claustrophobic.

We bought two sets of workbooks for each of them but since we still have plenty of stationery from this year's stock, we did not buy anything other than a couple of pencil cases and some exercise books for Sekolah Agama.

The prices were not much different from the usual Mydin bundled prices either.

Stocking up on stationery and art supplies is an important part of our Going Back to School annual ritual.

My sister is very particular about checking and comparing prices although that doesn't necessarily mean that she will only buy the cheapest because she believes in value for money.

For instance, she will only stock up on colorful Faber-Castell dust-free erasers because these erase cleanly and minimise tearing, colored pencils for everyday use are always Steadtler because their vibrant colors mean a little goes a long way, and sharpeners are usually the ones by Papermate as they last longer than the others we've tried even though they tend to be pricier than the rest.

However, besides Faber-Castell 2B pencils, she would also stock up on Tesco brand 2B pencils for everyday use as these are good enough for school even though the price is almost half of other brands.

Besides the set of 12 Steadtler colored pencils for schoolwork, we also stock up on some Stabilo jumbo colored pencils primarily for artwork, not only because of the vibrant colors, but the size of the pencils makes it easy for the boys to fill up the empty spaces with color.

Al has begun using oil pastels in DSV (Dunia Seni Visual - Visual Art World) classes, so we bought a few different brands to try out - Crayola, Pentel, Astar, Buncho - but settled on Buncho primarily because of the price, while the quality is good enough for primary school children's artwork.

I like drawing and doing artwork too, so I am a bit invested in the stocking up of oil pastels and colored pencils as I would sometimes "teach" Al on how to use blending techniques using his oil pastels, or show Deen on how to color his clouds using colored pencils.

I used to work with acrylic on canvas, but nowadays, drawing block paper, crayons, oil pastels and colored pencils are sufficient to make me a happy woman.

Being Relevant

Someone asked me why am I not writing anything about SIS being declared as deviating from Islam by the Selangor Fatwa Committee.

Honestly, I have nothing to say about the whole thing.

For one thing, I am not an Islamic scholar, so how am I supposed to comment on something that had been discussed and analysed by a committee of learned men on the subject of the aqidah and the things that would be considered a deviation from the faith.

However, I do find Zainah Anwar blaming Putrajaya for the fatwa as rather comical.

Come on, you want the federal government to curtail the states' fatwa committee?  In this case, the Selangor Fatwa Committee?

The Selangor that is currently governed and administered by a PKR Menteri Besar?

And with a Sultan who has already said that fatwa was released with his endorsement?

And you are blaming Putrajaya?

It is easy ain't it, playing the blame game?

My question is, why take pot shots at Putrajaya when your gripe is with the Selangor state?

Hello makcik, even SIS' judicial review was filed against Majlis Agama Islam Selangor, Selangor Fatwa Committee and the Selangor State Government.

Putrajaya wasn't in on it la ...

Or is that a mandatory requirement of being a The Star columnist, if there is someone that you want to blame something on, blame Putrajaya?

Poor Health

Today I am not very healthy, a bit of flu, some coughing and running a temperature.

Not too serious but it makes me feel rather lethargic and achy all over.

Outside, it is raining rather heavily.

The thunder frightened little Ara, and she refused to go home with Mummy so she is spending the night here.

The boys are not too happy, but they don't have much choice as my sister has agreed for Ara to stay the night.

Today Al and Deen came home excited; apparently Deen performed better than Al in Math, scoring 100%, and Al was excitedly telling my sister about it on his behalf before he quietened down a bit and showed us his math results - 96%.

I think Al was over confident, as he would have scored 100% too if he hadn't been so careless with his sums.

As expected, Al did poorly on his Bahasa Malaysia comprehension paper - only a B.

I am not sure why they make Bahasa Malaysia so difficult for the kids.

Some of the questions stumped even me - and my BM isn't really too bad.

No wonder Al loathes BM and given the choice, he would rather learn his Arabic than do his BM exercises.

Unfortunately BM counts for two papers in the UPSR and contibutes two fifths of the total for their final academic ranking, so with his poor showing this time around we managed to convince him to spend more time doing his BM exercises and reading if he wanted to top his class.

I hope his resolve to not neglect his BM exercises and reading lasts through to next year and we don't have to get into a scolding tone just to get him to open the supplementary exercises we bought him.

Which reminds me, we will be going to Mydin this weekend to find suitable supplementary books for the boys.

I hope to be sufficiently recovered so I can go with my sis as I immensely enjoy browsing for books, even if they are for others.

As for now, my mission is to drink plenty of plain water and get enough sleep, so good night.

Young Career

I was going to post something last night before going to bed but was interrupted and then it was just too late in the night and I was feeling unusually tired last night, so I went straight to bed instead.

I guess I broke my resolve to write daily just a day after making it.

Never mind, it is not a life or death thing and is of no consequence to others even if I am upset that I manage to break it so soon after making it.

The thing about resolutions is, it is very difficult to keep if it isn't something that can real in life-threatening situations such as cutting out on sugar and rich food or you will die within six months .

Or living a frugal life to have sufficient savings to own an asset which you can live in, i.e. a home, instead of going through life with rentals as a permanent part of your living expenses that contribute to cost of living.

Anyways, home ownership is something close to my heart as I believe a house is an asset, although a major purchase, one that will appreciate in value with time, while in contrast, a car can be equally expensive but will depreciate drastically.

When I first started working, I was renting a tiny room some 30 miles from where I work in the city and took the train or the bus to work.

Fortunately, public transport was very good, but I did have to walk quite a bit to the bus stand, and even further to the train station but I consider that as healthy exercise.

I lived on cheese (it was cheap) and cucumber (the most readily available vegetable) sandwiches and would stop by the fishmonger for some plaice or trout as a treat once a month, which I would pan-grill in foil.

Even though my landlady, Linda, was very generous and allowed me to use the kitchen, she consumed a lot of pork, the cheapest meat that a working class Brit could afford at the time, so I couldn't really use her pots and pans nor her dishes, hence the foil.

Linda, then a 27 year-old model from Chester, was by no means poor, but she was from a working class family and understood the importance of having something to fall back on, so she was saving for retirement even then.

That is something I learned from Linda, saving for retirement should start early, and by God's Will, you will not be too dependent on anyone when you are no longer working.

Within 6 months of working, I managed to save enough for the down payment of a 2-bedroom terrace house in a nice quiet neighborhood near where I was renting, although I still saw Linda often  for tea whenever she wasn't away on assignment.

Even with mortgage payments, my expenses wasn't that much more than renting, and when I took in a tenant, it helped to pay the bills too.

It was an old house, so was not very energy efficient, and the heating expenses was rather high especially in December and January, but using a timer to turn on/off the heat helped to save gas bills.

By then, I could also afford a car, a green Citroen CX, that I got cheap from a friend at work.

And so, by age 22, I was already a proud owner of a terrace house, albeit in a working class neighborhood, and a car that gave me the freedom of movement for my weekend adventures.

Garden

I spent a bit of time tinkering about the front yard.

Well, it was hardly a couple of yards in length, really, but we have some ornamental plants lining one side of the house.

It wasn't much of a garden, just some plants that had been in the family for a long time.

Almost every plant has a history.

We have a sago palm sprawling under the climbing roses, courtesy of an old tree that Dad treasured and on which he spent as much time as he did his orchids.

We have three other potted palms, a couple of areca palms that Mom planted when we were children that we sort of inherited, and a kentia palm that I got for my birthday.

Yes, I buy myself gifts.  Often.

I also got myself a sanseviera plant, more commonly known as mother-in-law's tongue, currently tucked on a ledge by the postbox, simply because I love the variegated leaves and it is supremely easy to take care of.

It had been on my nightstand, my work desk, in the library near my favorite chair where I would tuck in with a good book.

And it had produced numerous little babies, two of which are still growing happily in pots in the backyard.

Then of course the roses climbing up the kaffir lime tree that we grew for the occasional rendang, deep pink and blush pink, which were grown from cuttings that we got from Mom's favorite roses, which she grew from cuttings that she got from Gran's house.

These roses are really hardy, and they grow and bloom abundantly all year round.

See, aren't they pretty?

I took that photo this morning.  And they smell heavenly.

There are other plants, of course, the neglected ficus bonsai that I got as a gift from my brother, the lily that a family friend bought but left in our care that seems to now be a permanent resident in a corner near the entrance, and my sister's euphorbia with orange flowers which she kept saying she still wanted but is still there under the porch.  

We have sweet potato plants practically functioning as ground cover, but they also provide shoots that we would harvest regularly.

My sister planted lemon grass, ginger and tumeric in a sunny corner, the only place the lemon grass would grow.

Since we rarely eat out, they are useful for the kitchen, especially the lemon grass, and pretty too if well taken care of.

We also have a potted pomegranate, a gift from our sister-in-law, that my sister is trying to grow and coax fruits from.

We had more plants at the back, more edible than ornamental, but most are in pots for easy re-arranging as we do not have a very large backyard either.

I guess we are lucky that we can afford to own a home, no matter that it is small.  Many others who earn far more than we do apparently seems to find it difficult to afford a house.

To be honest, I am not really sure how they did their pricing, but I do think that nowadays houses are indeed exorbitantly priced.

To give an example, when my sister bought this house two years ago, it was undeniably affordable, below RM300K and we thought it was pretty much a great buy.

Two months later, they began marketing the row of houses opposite the one my sister bought, and when I made enquiries with the intention to buy, I was shocked to find that the price was almost 60% more.

It couldn't possibly be the cost of land as those houses share the same street as ours, nor could it be the cost of materials, as they were eventually built and delivered at the same time as ours.

Someone really should explain the reason for such a large disparity between the prices of houses on the same street.  The salesman definitely couldn't.

Renewal

It has been quite a while since my last posting.

The reason is, I was chatting with Mimi a few weeks back and she told me that my writing had gone seriously serious.

She asked whether I was alright.

That got me thinking that I may need to re-look at the purpose of this blog.

It was originally set up to be a shout box, an outlet for us to voice out our opinions about current issues and rant about life in general.

Looking back, I realise that BigCat has indeed turned very serious and dry, probably because I am that kind of person, overly serious, highly analytic and rather dry.

I know that there is nothing wrong with being serious, analytical and dry, for that is largely a family trait.

We are all more or less like that, except for my weird journalist brother; the rest of us are technically inclined, so I am not at all concerned with my inability to be witty and funny and weird.

That's variety for you; we have the gifted and interesting people who can effortlessly create something out of nothing, and then you have the ordinary that can't seem to get similar result no matter how hard they tried.

Of course there are those whom they call the charismatic types who can convince you of anything, justify their every action no matter how unjustified, and lie through their teeth without batting an eyelid.

Then there are the megalomaniac types with their entitlement complex, willing to do anything and everything, or use anyone and everyone to fulfill their wants and desires to dominate, no matter how twisted and overindulgent.

However, I digress.

I have decided that I will take this opportunity to take a new direction and try to loosen up a bit and start writing more regular but more of inconsequential things.

It is a new month, a new beginning, a new direction.

I will try to write something everyday; like a daily notation that let the light and shallow in me to shine through.

But it has to start tomorrow.  Today is just an intro.

PR1MA

I have never paid much attention to any of the 1M schemes that the present administration is so fond of introducing that the most recent complaint from HBA surprised me and made a strong enough impression to have a look at the PR1MA scheme.

As far as I can see, PR1MA aims to make home ownership affordable.

I can't say the few projects it has embarked upon is any indication of how successful they are, but building houses by the thousands isn't exactly something you can achieve within a couple of months considering the more than 800,000 applicants for the few projects that has been initiated.

However, I wouldn't go as far as to dismiss them out right.

So I find it strange that Chang Kim Loong of the National House Buyers Association, that organisation which is supposed to look out for the interests of house buyers, went all out and said that PR1MA's working relationship with private developers will raise house prices.

What caught my attention was the headlines -

PR1MA Corp's move will raise house prices: HBA

Now that seems to indicate fact as opposed to speculation, but upon reading the first paragraph, I realised that Chang was criticising PR1MA's decision to work with private developers which he claimed will only see PR1MA houses being priced only slightly lower than market prices.

Sun Daily ... tsk, tsk, tsk ...

The fact that he is using an NGO that was supposedly protecting the interest of house buyers to whitewash what is obviously a politically motivated piece really gets on my nerve, so I just have to give my opinion here.

The first reason he cited was "developers will add their profits to the price tags, which could push prices of PR1MA houses to almost the same level as market prices".

The key word is "could" that means it isn't a fact, and even if it is true, the price would still be below what he termed as "market price".

PR1MA is supposed to build affordable houses, not sub-standard housing for the less moneyed.  So why does he expect these affordable homes to cost a lot less than his definition of "market price"?

One of the cost in building urban housing is attributed to the cost of land, so by providing the land, PR1MA has solved that particular problem.

As for his assertion that prices are unlikely to remain low due to 'various "excuses" such as higher cost of materials and shortage of workers', I reckon it is true that materials can become unreasonably costly to smaller developers.

However, PR1MA can easily control that at the source by setting up their own materials supply chain to service their JV companies.  With the numbers they are building, they definitely have economies of scale.

All the marketing and selling will be done by PR1MA anyway, that will eliminate cost of sales for the developers, while they can claim the warranty cost against PR1MA, as and when incurred as opposed to costed in the price, hence removing the cost of warranty from the selling price.

As for labor force, I don't see how different would it be for PR1MA to manage these developers from how a large developer would manage their various housing projects under their various companies.

There is no such thing as pulling wool over the eyes of anyone because the buyer can always refuse to buy the property if he/she thinks it isn't up to his expectations and he/she can opt for the non-PR1MA housing offered by developers at only "slightly higher" than the fixed PR1MA prices.

Who these developers are and how they are chosen is immaterial as long as it does not affect the "fixed" pricing of PR1MA houses.

As to why a JV as opposed to contract out, well now, why, for example, Talam Corporation build Taman Saujana Puchong using Expand Factor Sdn Bhd as the developer instead of owning the project and contracting it out to Expand Factor Sdn Bhd?

Besides, why compare PR1MA with privatisation of government amenities?  Housing is not amenities.

Never was it stated that PR1MA will be just building "government housing" or "state housing" or "council housing", although I expect the Rent-to-Own housing would be more of this nature.

As for PR1MA for second time house buyers, why not?  As a matter of policy, moms should be entitled to house-ownership too, in case anything happens to the family unit.

Presumably the number of PR1MA houses would increase as more projects are secured and more land is made available for housing - so all that about insufficient numbers to meet demand of first time buyers and all should not be a consideration when setting policies.

His obvious insinuation of political discrimination against opposition-controlled states and victimisation of people in those states, seriously, I don't see why PR1MA housing cannot be built in opposition-controlled states if the state administrations are willing to set aside land for PR1MA housing and provide their full co-operation instead of taking pot shots at federal agencies like they are wont to do.  Afterall, state governments control all land matters.

I doubt that putting PR1MA under the purview of the Ministry of Housing and Local Government as he suggested would make any difference as that Ministry have not been able to do much all these while to control the developers from building premium-priced housing to maximised profit and neglecting affordable housing that makes it necessary for PR1MA in the first place.

My conclusion?

This dude is as fake as they come.

New MB

We now have a new Mentri Besar in Selangor.

Congratulations and all my best wishes YAB.

I sincerely hope you can steer the Selangor administration to focus on improving services and infrastructure maintenance for the benefit of the rakyat as opposed to feeding the political frenzy that has been taking centre stage in Selangor ever since Pakatan took over the State administration.

It is not about commanding respect from the people but about carrying the burden of the job for the betterment of the rakyat in good faith and integrity of conduct.

Neither is being MB about agitating the public by taking politics to the streets or about making tons of money to be hoarded away or to justify huge salaries, allowances and bonuses.

It is about making sure that service to the rakyat and economic development of the state through the state machinery continue to be of paramount importance when making decisions.

I hereby pledge to lay off posting about Selangor governance until end of the year to see how you can improve our situation including road maintenance, water supply and of course environmental cleanliness.

That would more or less come to about 100 days, so there should be plenty of time for you to assess the situation and take the necessary steps.

If things improve, at least in my neighborhood and my usual haunts here in Selangor, then I would say so.

Truth Be Told

The email that Annie received and published here about Golongan Melayu Bangsat touched me because I kind of agree with the writer's point of view.

I have heard and read about many of the excesses of this kind of Melayu lately that I share the writer's despair sometimes.

Truth be told, I find it difficult to write about these things, not because of the possibility of my getting in trouble because of it, but because I find it so incredibly sad for my people.

It is difficult to face the truth when the very people whom we put our hopes and trust to protect and preserve our pride and heritage are the very ones destroying them, squandering what little we have to feed their rapacious need for material wealth.

I tend to take the cowardly route of writing about the little things that happen around me rather than touch on this subject of abhorrent betrayal by people in positions of power simply because it is much easier to handle the occasional petty detractors with their shallow snipes at my person than write about a difficult subject that borders on being seditious.

But the matter will not go away, because the rampant plundering is continuing unchecked and people who have been bought are now the ones making all the decisions that exacerbate the corruption that will destroy the very foundation of our political power - the only power we have in this land of our ancestors.

And the people at the helm of our ever declining political power are not doing anything about it, continuing to further destroy our power base in their effort to retain whatever tenuous hold they have on power without considering the generations to come.

The helpless despair is overwhelming whenever I try to tackle the subject, as I have not been able to detach myself enough to be able to write about it without being personal.

I guess all I am left with at the moment is my faith that the Almighty Knows best, and if the people I love were to gradually be reduced to an ignoble community living in pockets of poverty to serve the interest of the powerful elites of various creeds - then maybe there is a reason for it.

For every beginning, there is an end.  Only Allah is eternal.

Toll

Apparently Singapore LTA has decided to increase their toll charges at the Causeway because, according to them, Malaysia revised the toll charges at the Causeway and according to their (newly created) matching policy, they are obliged to do so.

So if you are angry, be angry at Malaysia, not at them, because even (an idiot) MP from Johor said so too.

In a statement today, the Singapore Land Transport Authority (LTA) said the new rates were in tandem with the republic’s long-standing policy of matching toll charges at the Causeway and Second Link to those set by Malaysia.

“In view of Malaysia’s recent revision in toll charges at the Causeway, from 1 October 2014, Singapore’s toll charges for all vehicles (except motorcycles) leaving Singapore through the Causeway will be increased to match the new Malaysian toll.

“A new matching Causeway toll will also be implemented for all vehicles (except motorcycles) entering Singapore. There are no changes to the toll charges at the Second Link,” the statement read.

Read the rest here at NST and here is a short brief at Berita Harian and here at CNA.

Eh Madam Teo ma'am, I checked with my friend and he told me that as far as he knew the toll remains RM2.90 at the causeway.

This is his message to me "There is no increase in the toll, the toll remain at RM2.90 at the causeway. if Singapore want to go on the matching policy as per said by Singapore's Senior Minister of State for Transport, Josephine Teo, there's no reason to increase."

What is this matching policy crap?  When was this signed?  Which agreement?  I have never heard of this policy and the people I asked told "never heard of such a policy until recently".

You people so hard up for the cash or what?

Or is this some obscure way to punish vehicles using the Causeway, but blaming it on Malaysia instead of owning up?

Eh, what's that?  The new toll at CIQ?

Aiyo, Madam Teo, those charges are for the infrastructure, you know, the routes and the inner ring road leading to CIQ and also for the EDL highway, nothing to do with charging vehicles using the Causeway or entry and exit to and from Singapore.

It is even run by different people.

Somebody has to pay for all that new facilities, you know, why not the people who use the facilities?

Besides, from my point of view, those working in Singapore and not paying taxes to the Malaysian Government shouldn't make noise about paying for such facilities because they pay their taxes in Singapore, so don't expect Malaysian tax payers to pay for their convenience to work in Singapore.

Madam Teo, care to tell me what new infrastructure Singapore built to justify the toll hike and added cost per exit?

Why, you don't have a reason to raise toll, but must blame it on something or someone because Singapore Authorities are so efficient, so good, so wonderful that anything bad must be because of someone else?

Suka-suka hati blame other people for you own cekik darah moves eh?

Just like Malaysian opposition politicians and political activists lah you Singaporean authorities, dump all the dirt at other people's door while you eat all the cake.

This art of blaming the Malaysian Government for everything bad, you learned from our politicians or our politicians learned from you?

Or is this pointing fingers mentality something that they teach at that "School for Classy People" that classy urbanites in Malaysia and Singapore go to?

First World Singapore mentality is not that different from our own brand of political loonies that created the current mess in Selangor after all.

While I was Away

I have been offline these last few days and thus out of touch with current happenings back at home.

On the Selangor political front, it seems that PAS finally grew a backbone, Tuanku Sultan expressed his "disappointment" with PKR and DAP publicly, and indeed went beyond stating that PKR and DAP were rude but also treasonous.

There was a commenter here who objected to my description of PKR and DAP as biadap (rude) and besar kepala (big-headed) in their dealings with the Istana and titah Tuanku, but I think that particular anon failed to understand the language of Raja-Raja Melayu and the etiquette of Istana Melayu.

"Titah" was not a request, it was an order.

I guess only a Melayu would understand how insulting the actions of PKR and DAP leaders were when they defied the Istana.

I also learned that Tunku Jalil is ill.

I pray that he remains strong in the face of such an ordeal and with Allah's blessing, will recover his health.

He is one of the nicest people I have ever met and I wish him well.

Then of course there is all that talk about various statements and writings of former Chief Judge Tun Hamid Omar.

I also read Helen Ang's writing on the subject.

Besides being inspired by Helen to actually write about my thoughts, I have great respect for her thorough determination to write about what she feels is right, no matter what.

I find all the posturings of the MCA and Gerakan lately not only annoying but also despicable.

My own personal view is, MCA should really shut up when it comes to Cina interests in Malaysia including anything related with historical facts.

You people only represent less than 10% of the Cina in this country, and your meager seats in the Parliament and State Assemblies are courtesy of the Malay voters, which means you are actually representing the Malays there.

Let the DAP speak for the Cina who voted for them en masse.

Be careful about whom you disparage as you may not survive as a political entity with you dignity intact in the next rounds of elections, and you will join Gerakan as BN's almost-dead coalition member, shamefully hanging on to Umno's coattails in order to be relevant and yet bashing the very party that gave it any semblance of life.

MCA and Gerakan betul-betul muka tak malu.

Oh, another thing, my sister was offended by the expletive-riddled comments in my blog, so I have decided to prune any comment I deem as excessively offensive to the viewing public.

My blog, my right.