December 10, 2006
Trojern’s wedding
Weddings are great, especially Malay weddings which can cater for a huge crowd and a buffet lunch with free sitting. I’ve been to many relatives wedding that as the old traditional Chinese ceremony on the first two days and dinner which is always atleast one hour late from it’s original time, all thanks to aunties and uncles who think arriving early or on time means he/she is desperate for the food. Now i know where the term Malaysian time comes from.
Anyway, back to happy news, Trojern, a fellow SNC member (which ironically don’t own a Neo) invited the club members to attend his wedding. Since it’s a joint wedding which is shared with another relative, he have it at a community hall at Ampang. The bride’s convoy came in a fleet of 16 Neo (from SNC) while the groom arrived later in a fleet of 20 Kenari (from Kenarianz).
Driving in a convoy is great and addictive as well. Especially when there’s new members on board who is still green to this convoy thingy. They just keep you on your toes, looking out for them. The food is great, tender chicken rendang. the beef is tender as well, unlike science fac canteen which is always tough as rubber. I’ve very surprised that the mass catered don’t taste like cater food at all. it was very well done, warm, not dry, not lumpy. it was perfect.
now, i’ll just let the pictures do the talking. too tired to narrate anymore.
Waiting for Keegan at Selayang Shell Station
Groups gathered waiting for groom to arrive.
Ein cleaning his car before the big convoy.
At the community hall.
Tunggu makan, siap pose sekali. 
Not only was the kereta pengantin decorated ikandarat’s car is decorated as well. police evidence
Zasryn finally stick her SNC sticker with Gate and G helping out.
December 7, 2006
Bagan Lalang Revisited
The first time i was here was early this year, Jan 06. Where Kembara.net organized a picnic here, at Bagan Lalang. And recently, last Sunday (2 Dec 06) I had a family organized picnic here. something different from our weekly shopping at 1U.
The beach at Bagan Lalang that we visited is actually a mudflat since it’s very near a river delta, hence, there are allot of sediments farther off the shore. It is sandy on the beach, but gets muddier further away from it. this gave me the chance to play some beach soccer. well, more like making long passing to one another since after all, the beach is wide and there are little visitors.
left to right: Albert (Cousin), Kim Yoong (Younger Bro), Me
I also took the chance to be naturalist by taking pictures of the fauna in the mudflats. The only good shots that i managed to take was some crabs which i had to wait, squatting for almost 5 minutes from them to resurface from their borrow.
I’m not too sure what crabs are these though.
Then later that day we headed north to find a place to eat and also stopped by Morib Beach. Somehow, Morib didn’t leave an impression on me. Maybe it was too crowded and too commercialized there with many merchant tents setup all along the beach and murky waters from the rising tide.
Anyway, looking forward to another visit to Bagan Lalang early next year. this time i’m planning to visit it during high tide.
December 4, 2006
First Reaction
Okay, this is called First Reaction.
Type what first comes to your mind
when you hear these 36 words/phrases.
Don’t think, and don’t go back and
change your answer. It doesn’t matter
how random it is, just type it.
1. Cigarettes
Death
2. Sex
Pleasure
3. Relationships
meant to last
4. Your Last Ex
Regretful
5. Drink
Vanilla Coke
6. Movie
Bruce Willies
7. Crack
Crack files for pirated applications
8.food
calories
9. Music
my MP3 collection
10. Friendster
My shout out place and for snooping around people’s affairs.
11. Cars
My Neo
12. Gas Prices
Wished i owned a gas station
14. Bon Jovi
oldies
15. Crush
puppy love
16. MySpace
loads very slowly
17. Worst Fear
My Neo got scratched
18. Marriage
The next thing i should do.
19. Fashion
Vogue
20. Brunettes
hot
21. Redheads
very hot
22. Work
Much time spent in front of the PC surfing
23. Pass the time
Much time spent in front of the PC surfing also
24. One night stands
fire and forget
25. Cell Phone
Sony Ericsson K750i
26: Annoyance
Missionaries who keep promoting their god and religion to me even when i declined their offer.
27: Pixie Stix
WTF is that?
28: Vanilla Ice cream
plain and simple.
29: French
romantic and sexy ascent
30: High School
best time of my life
31: Pajamas
looks funny. that’s why don’t have one
32. Wood
trees
33. Surfers
people who surf the internet like me.
34. Pictures
pictures
35. True Love
more than just ‘i love you’s takes dedication and responsibility
36. One Wish
money money money!
December 1, 2006
Malaysia Bodoh
Many many thanks to Shah Andrew for introducing me to the initial Malaysia Bodoh article by Michael Backman. I’d have to say, his analysis is very accurate and it’s all basic common sense when it comes to the wasteful way the Malaysian government manages things. After reading bout the swearing in of some municipal council at a resort, it sure got my blood boiling. here’s an article which i find really interesting.
November 29, 2006
MY LAST column on wasteful government spending in Malaysia (Business, 15/11) generated a furore. I received more than 600 emails from readers, mostly Malaysians (both expatriate and in Malaysia) and nearly all supportive.
The column was the most emailed item on The Age’s website for six days straight and it was replicated in dozens of blogs worldwide.
My personal website received more than 50,000 hits. A Malaysian Government minister criticised the column publicly. And the Malaysian Opposition Leader issued a news release in its support.
The minister, Rafidah Aziz, Malaysia’s Minister for Trade and Industry, declared somewhat imperiously that she didn’t care what I said because I am a foreigner and I probably don’t know much about Malaysia anyway.
Rafidah knows her trade brief like few others. Her knowledge of the complex rules of the international trading system, with its many trade barriers, is remarkable. In meetings with other trade ministers, she rarely needs assistance from minders. Hard working and tenacious, I once thought she might make a reasonable prime minister.
But her technical abilities are marred by her mishandling of other issues, most recently her ministry’s allocation of much coveted car import permits. Most went to a handful of well-connected businessmen, including her own relatives.
The issue exploded in Malaysia late last year and she was lucky to keep her job.
And then there are the corruption allegations. In 1995, in a report to the attorney-general, the public prosecutor said there was a prima facie basis for Rafidah’s arrest and prosecution on five counts of corruption.
An opposition activist later acquired official documents that appeared to confirm this. He was jailed for two years under the Official Secrets Act simply for possessing them. Rafidah, on the other hand, was not even charged.
Rafidah added to her remarks about my column that no Malaysian should say such things. It’s little wonder that she doesn’t welcome scrutiny from her own people. But then the idea that Malaysians cannot comment publicly about how their country is run but a
non-Malaysian can, is disgraceful.
Perhaps Rafidah needs to be reminded who pays her salary.
And as if to underscore my points about waste, on the day that my column was published, an assistant minister told the Malaysian Parliament that Malaysia’s first astronaut to be sent into space next year aboard a Russian space mission will be tasked to play batu seremban, a traditional Malay children’s game played with pebbles, will do some batik painting and will make teh tarik, a type of Malaysian milky tea, all to see how these things can be done without gravity.
The day before, the Government announced that a new RM400 million ($A142 million) palace will be built for Malaysia’s king, a position that is almost entirely ceremonial.
And the week before a groundbreaking ceremony was held for a second bridge between Penang and the Malaysian peninsular costing RM3 billion, a bridge that many consider unnecessary.
Where would the money be better spent?
Education is the obvious answer. But not on school buildings, for it matters less in what children are educated than how. And how children are educated in Malaysia is a national disaster.
Learning is largely by rote. In an email to me last week, one Malaysian recalled her schooling as being in a system all about spoon-feeding, memory work and regurgitation.
Students are not encouraged to think for themselves and they become adults who swallow everything they’re told.
Even the existing system fails many. It has just emerged that in Sabah state, only 46 per cent of the students who had sat the UPSR — the exam that students sit before going to secondary school — had passed. One small school actually had a 100 per cent failure rate.
But does the Malaysian Government want creative, critical thinkers? Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi said to the ruling party’s recent general assembly Malaysia needed to make students creative. But that means they must be questioning and thus critical; what hope is there of that when one of Abdullah’s own ministers tells Malaysians that they cannot say the things that I can and hundreds of them write to me to complain because they don’t feel that they can complain to their own Government?
Malaysia needs to do something. Its oil will run out soon and it has lost much of its appeal to foreign investors — recent UN figures show that from 2004 to 2005, foreign investment in Malaysia fell by 14 per cent, when the world economy was enjoying one of its longest periods of growth. One might wonder what the Trade and Industry Minister has actually been doing.
But, while politicians from the ruling party preach about Malay nationalism, there are at least some who quietly go about the business of trying to secure the country’s future. Not all of them are Chinese.
Two weeks ago, Malaysia’s MMC Corporation, together with a local partner, won a $US30 billion infrastructure deal in Saudi Arabia. That’s a huge undertaking for any company, let alone a Malaysian one, and just as well too — someone has to pay the bills.
