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.