My Photo of the Week

bow and arrow

ang goo goo

Now I really believe that as you get older, you will behave more and more like a child. And this, my dear Tun, is called dementia.

Life

Was in JB this noon after I hastily attached the scanned article and summarized the gist and hit the “Send” button. The train glided smoothly along the track and I was lucky to secure a seat despite a weekday. It isn’t until 3 more weeks before the national day, but you could already smell the gaiety in the air with banners and posters and flags tiling the HDB flats like the Merlion’s scales.

A trip from City Square to Johor Jaya cost me a hefty RM16. And I heard there will be a 30% hike for public transport fare this coming month. Isn’t it irony when you see the neighboring country cutting down fares to ease the people’s burden, while our tanahair conveniently adopted the opposite practice at these trying times? The entire trip cruising in our elegantly spacious national cab – Proton Iswara (Saga) – was a wonderful experience, which makes me feel that a private ride is imminent.

The cabbie, a Chinese in his 30s, looked nondescript in his uniform. His skin is tanned, probably a result of lining up outside the malls in his cab, waiting for passengers under the tropical sun. His demeanour was calm and quiet at first, but once he recognized my Malaysian accent, he morphed into an ebullient character, sharing his everyday life along the way while trying a couple of times to keep away from other people’s rear bumper. Despite the adversities, he told me that life has to go on and he has to move on no matter what. I wondered if he is unperturbed by the bitter conditions due to his tenacity or he has relent to fate that any extra effort would be futile.

I drifted back to those times, when the skies were starry black at night. Except for the restless chorus of the cicadas, the surrounding was silent. And here in the garden city, the night sky is always pinkish, and you know why.

Thanks for heeding my advice, but

I post my comment on Toyo's blog and of course I got some very negative feedbacks from his supporters. Nonetheless, Toyo finally published his S&P and loan agreements on his blog.

And Dr. M had voice out that his own mansion only cost, RM1 million, how the hell did Toyo get to buy himself a RM3.5 million asset plus 0.5 million to touch up. Those years in politics really paid of as Toyo did learnt a trick or two to divert focus. A ruckus or two in the state assembly and voila, he is out of the limelight.

Remember what I told ya?

Happy Birthday, My Dear

Hope you enjoyed the food and the ambience:)

不能顶

今天和实验室里的一位马来西亚同事吃午饭，路上一直听他骂。骂什么？骂政府。最经典的一句话是，“马来西亚的国立大专，天才进去变庸才、庸才进去变蠢材。”不知各位学子们有什么看法？

我可不是在侮辱国家或政府。实际上，我们的大专堪称得上是一流的学府，竞争力不输给海外大学。虽然世界排名年年不进反退，难道你没听到我们的大专每年都比海外大专强吗？人比人，气死人。但是，我们不比行吗？不比的话，能让反对党知道我们的教育有多成功吗？只是我们比较的对象一直在改变。从中国到韩国、越南到泰国、印尼到非洲。可能下一次，我们得和火星比一比了。这种比上不足，比下有余的思想所带来的后果，是我们的停滞不前啊！

再看看我们马来西亚多元种族的政策，样样都以马来人优先。什么固打制、特权、这些都说明了马来领导们承认他们的民族是软弱的民族、缺乏竞争能力，所以需要保护，需要其他民族“放水”。但是，我们的同胞朋友真得那么差吗？非也非也。这些都是巫统或国阵领导人的浅见、一个可以为自己谋私利、中饱私囊的理由。

眼看我们邻国都开始出口无形资产（教育、管理、技术），我们还在傻傻的做我们的消费国。纵然有诺大片的棕油园、胶林、矿产，我们的经济还是郁郁不振。别人的经济蛋糕一直在增大面积，而我们还在细细品尝发了霉的酸乳酪，还不是每个人都分得到。

最近废除了以英文教数理的政策，我为千千万万的学子们感到不幸。当初的仓促推行，其实已经是一个错误。你想吧，我们这一代的老师们多数都是受马来文教育的，叫他们讲英文都已经不行了，书写更是不用说了，怎么去教我们的下一代呀！老马说这是为了提高我们的英文水平、提高我们的竞争力和团结人民。马屁放得响啊! 那为什么Muhyiddin那天还惊讶得表示他不知道SPM毕业不需要及格？如今的种族分裂还不是你们国政搞出来的吗？现在又朝令夕改。我在想，政府到底把人民的前途当作什么？

因为你们的贪污，经济板块50年不变、出了查宫、又建基宫。
因为你们的没有计划，我们变成白老鼠，实验的对象。
因为你们的种族主义，让国家不能任人用贤、人才流失、让我们分裂。
因为你们的无能和自闭，外边已经让我们望尘莫及了，你们还以为是阴霾哩。

国阵执政的能力，大家可是有目共睹的了。。。

那天父亲随我到新加坡一趟，他感叹地说了一句话，言犹在耳，“马来西亚这几十年真的是在原地踏步呀！”

In Malaysia, not only the Sultans can have palaces o_0

Zaobao reported that the former Selangor MB, Khir Toyo owns a mansion worth a finger-biting RM24million in Shah Alam. For english, read here.

Facts and figures from zaobao:

• Land area = 0.3 hectares = 32,291.73 sqft (Waramashit! No wonder the press named it the Khir Palace.)
• Land value = RM4 mil (This translates into RM123.87/sqft.)
• Construction cost = RM18 mil
• Furnishing Cost = RM2 mil
• Total cost = RM24 mil

The present Selangor MB revealed that the monthly salary plus allowance of an MB is RM48k. This totalled up to RM4.6mil for 8 years, which is the duration Khir Toyo held the post as Selangor MB. So the question is how can he afford to own the luxurious mansion?

Khir Toyo responsed to the million dollar question by claiming that he bought the land and the house for RM3.5 mil, loaned from HSBC in his blog and further clarified that he is paying a whopping RM15k monthly instalment for his palace with his business income.

Whatever claims it might be, the figures produced by Toyo are dubious and mind him, it might backfire. I urge him to make public the S&P agreement with the previous owner and the HSBC loan agreement to clear his name.

MACC should be on the move now rather than minum pagi, petang and malam. Nonetheless, corruption or not, I guess that Khir Toyo will eventually elude all allegations either way, and move into his mansion with a high-profile house warming party like nothing's ever happened. Hello, remember the Zakaria Palace?

Let's wait and see.

Neuro-Associative Conditioning (NAC)

1. Decide what you really want and what's preventing you from having it now.
2. Associate massive pain to not changing now and massive pleasure to the experience of changing now.
3. Interrupt the limiting pattern.
4. Create new, powerful alternative.
5. Condition the new pattern until it's consistent.

Looks simple yet practicing is an entire different thing.