PROPAGATING SUBSIDY/WELFARE MENTALITY
Recently, a politician (who else would it be) from an opposition party made noise via several newspaper reports announcing that he would take up to the government to approve in principle a motion that Petronas' profits "be distributed to the people, especially the needy".
This scares me a bit. Because there a lot (and I mean a lot) of people out there who are needy. Some are needy because they are really needy. A lot more are needy simply because they are greedy. Then there are those shameless, lazy lot who are always on the look-out for free hand-outs as their main source of income.
I'm also scared because after Petronas, which GLCs and other companies are going to be next? What kind of message are we sending to them? Don't do well because you will be punished for your success? What kind of message are we sending to investors?
More importantly, what kind of message are we sending to the masses and the riff raffs? That it's all right if you don't work hard in life because there are always companies like Petronas to help you out? That it's OK to waste time and resources on Akademi Fantasia, konsert-konsert hiburan and other lepak sessions? That it's OK to always depend on others to fill up your periuk nasi?
And I thought we wanted to do away with subsidy and welfare mentality, which, as long as it is propagated and sanctioned, will not help us move forward. There's no room for this in 2020's Malaysia.
I'm not an expert in economy (no kidding...) and I know very little about how the country is run (is it being run, really...?), but I think I would want to ask this particular politician to ask the government how it has been spending billions of ringgit companies like Petronas and other GLCs pay in taxes, dividends, royalties, etc.
Perhaps this particular politician should suggest to the government that hey, please set aside some money for programmes that will really help the needy and the riff raffs to develop their capability to help themselves and their brood better their miserable lives. Ajar diorang macamana nak memancing, jangan asyik dok kasi ikan kat diorang. Kita bukannya bangsa peminta sedekah...
REALITY FANTASISED
The good people at ASTRO recently introduced the 20 candidates shortlisted to try out as the 12 finalists for Akademi Fantasia 4. A lot of newspapers wrote about this, and carried the pictures of the kids. That means the reality programme will start soon.
The good people at ASTRO recently introduced the 20 candidates shortlisted to try out as the 12 finalists for Akademi Fantasia 4. A lot of newspapers wrote about this, and carried the pictures of the kids. That means the reality programme will start soon.
Yippee. I'm sure AF's die-hard fools can't wait to watch and part with their money to vote for their favourite candidates. A lot of poor fools will get poorer by the end of the season. And the sad part is, they don't realise that they are fools.
During the last season, I know of someone who spent as much as RM500 on SMS votes. Another person allocated about RM200 for each of her three children. And countless others I talked to were heavy voters as well. OKlah, if they have the money, why not, kan. People get satisfaction their own way.
Personally, though, I think this is extremely wasteful, not to mention stupid. What do you get in the end? Nothing. The only parties that gain would be the TV station, the SMS provider, and the candidates. And their hangers-on and users.
Yang memalukan most ialah, kebanyakan yang suka buang duit dan buang masa ni adalah orang-orang Melayu. Let there be some hiburan events, yang datang meramaikan majlis ialah orang-orang Melayu. Siap berkemah dan berkampung lagi. Bawak anak-anak sampai malam buta. Buang masa, buang duit. Yang masalahnya, diorang ni bukannya kaya sangat in the first place.
Yet, when prices of goods, petrol etc go up, they would be the first to cry murder. School fees go up, they complain. Prices of school books go up, they complain. But when it comes to hiburan, or Mawi, sanggup berkorban wang, jiwa dan raga. Orang Melayu.
I also read with disgust a couple of articles in this particular Malay tabloid. One of the 20 candidates wears a tudung. So the reporters wrote to suggest that she might have been selected by ASTRO because of her choice of attire. She could be popular because she could well be the female version of Mawi. So I suppose the would-be fool voters are supposed to forget that she could actually sing. And in another article, the same writers went so far as to suggest that this particular candidate could also win many votes because Mawi likes girls who wear tudung, and that she also might have all the qualities of a woman that Mawi idealises.
Aiyo. I am disgusted at the stupidity of it all. Of the articles. What were the reporters thinking? And their editors?
Personally, I feel that it's high time someone re-looked at the quality of journalism in this country. If we really want to educate our masses, please stop printing rubbish like these. They may be popular among the masses and the riff raff. But what's popular among them isn't necessarily good for them.
EDUCATING MALAYSIAN DRIVERS
Out of desperation to curb unnecessary ("unnecessary" is subjective here) road deaths, the government has come up with plans to educate would-be Malaysian drivers from young. Melentur buluh biarlah dari rebungnya.
I'm all for education. It's the most wonderful gift. It empowers people to aspire for something better, something higher. So, this move by the government ought to be received by all with open arms, and mind.
I hope in the proposed curriculum or module, they would be smart enough to include the following tips:
- Emergency lanes are for people to stop their vehicles in real emergencies, not for ciloking other vehicles.
- Hazard lights should be turned on only when vehicles are stationary, not when you're doing 60kmh during heavy rain.
- Slow pokes should drive on the left lane, and not hog the fast lane.
- Right/left indicators are not ornamental in purpose.
- Zebra crossings are meant for people to cross the road, so please stop when you see people crossing. They are never meant for zebras.
- Don't pack more than four (I've seen as many as seven) people in a Kancil.
Of course, like many other educational lessons, you tend to forget what you learn.
For this, I have a very simple solution. Stop selling cars to stupid people. Make them take a test or something, to prove that they're in fact have a bit of brain before they get to drive.
GOODBYE RIFF RAFF, HELLO WELL-HEELED
The last of the occupants of Flat Pekeliling have yet to leave the buildings, but the developers appointed to redevelop this 15ha prime land have already dished out their plans. Yes. Projek hartanah gaya mewah, named Taman Sari Riverside Garden City, will replace the decrepit flats.
The developers have ingeniously divided the area into 20 parcels, named Parcels A through Y, where starting this month different buildings and facilities will be erected. Yes, a lot of people will be turned on by the ka-ching sound the project will bring. Construction alone will cost RM3 billion, an amount that will give considerable staying power for many, no doubt. Yup. We just love erections, don't we?
There will be condominiums, townhouses, hotels, shopping complexes, service apartments, offices -- all come with the adjective mewah. I suppose the demand for luxury living and lifestyle is ever on the rise. So, get rid of the riff raff. Let them go stay in the backwoods of Setapak Jaya for all DBKL cares. Bring in the well-heeled. For the sake of the well-heeled, let's hope that the project will be completed. We don't want another eyesore in that area, like the all-suite office building that another developer started there almost a decade ago.
I hope DBKL has also included brilliant plans to ease traffic in that area, especially when construction starts. I can imagine the bottleneck that all rate and taxpayers like me have to go through everyday will get many times worse than it already is.
But hey, ka-ching rules, once again.
WASTAGE WASTAGE
I was in Johore over the Wesak Day weekend to attend a friend's wedding. Finally, the guy got hitched, much to the delight of his family, no doubt. I wish him and the wife well. As we were driving from Kluang to Mersing, where the wedding reception was held, I noticed an imposing house on a hill, with ornate fencing and well tended compound. "Oh, that's the DO's residence," my Johore-born and bred sister volunteered. Me, who was Kelantan-born and bred, thought the house was fit for at least a Menteri Besar. Definitely it was much, much better looking than the house of Kelantan's Menteri Besar.
"So much wastage we have in Johore," said my sister, gesturing now to a row of potted plants lining one of Kluang's thoroughfares. The money, she said, should have been spent elsewhere. Uhmm, I agreed, as my thought raced back to KL, where DBKL has also been on a city beautification drive for some time now. A lot of streets in the city have been "beautified" with potted plants, flower beds and hanging baskets.
They do make the streets look pleasant. But the thing is, DBKL chooses to use plants that probably last three to four weeks on most of its flower beds. After that, they die and would be replaced. It looks like DBKL needs a lot of money to keep replacing these plants. Which translates into ... wastage, and oh, how could I forget ... lucrative income for the contracted nurseries.
Why can't DBKL use more lasting perennials? Those that require less maintenance? I'm sure there are lots of other species in the contractors' nurseries that its landscape consultants could choose. Yup. Landscape consultants. There's such a profession, you know.
Use the money on more relevant stuff, lah. Like fixing up those potholes, providing more pedestrian-friendly side-walks, upgrading and maintaining public toilets. These are just a few examples.
Talk about landscaping, I used to enjoy driving south. I thought the NSE was one of the better-landscaped highways. All those mature trees and flowering plants that served as the divider of the opposing lanes were so cantik and colourful.
Not anymore. The owner-operator of the NSE is upgrading some stretches of the highway into three-lane carriageway, and has been uprooting and destroying all those wonderful trees and plants. What a shame. In their place, I assume, would be the cold metal barrier.
Personally, I don't think the upgrading is quite necessary. OK. May be at busy stretches near Senawang. But at the rest of the highways? No need, lah. Having three lanes per way would further confuse the already confused Malaysian drivers. As of now, they think that the middle lane is the slow lane, so they overtake using both the left lane and the fast lane. Besides, the left lane is almost always empty.
Logically speaking, having three lanes per way is also not very safe. I think when driving, it would be easier to predict the reaction of other drivers on a two-lane carriageway if something happens on one of the lanes. After all, you only have two lanes to negotiate. Kalau ada tiga lanes, macam tak berape sure nak pegi to which lane if something happens.
But hey, someone needs to make money. The work was sanctioned by the government. Ka-ching for the builders. I read the owner-operator issued bonds to raise fund to use for the upgrading work. Ka-ching for the financial institutions involved. And if there's an increase in toll charges once the upgrading is complete, ka-ching for the owner-operator. After that, it can go chink-chink champagne glasses with its sister company the builders.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY UMNO...OR NOT
UMNO celebrates its 60th anniversary today. I can image lots of my Malay brethren yippeeing about in Johore Baru. Yup, 100,000 or more people. That's a blessing. I'm not quite up to seeing that circus in KL.
Frankly, I think they should be reflecting more than celebrating. OK. So UMNO has done a lot for the Malay people. What it should be reflecting on now is how to move all the Melayus to the next century. And I'm not just talking physical here, but more on mental shift.
As a bangsa, as a nation, we somehow are moving. Backwards, that is. While others moved on to more important things in this globalised existence, we seem to be dealing more and more with issues that are so remeh-temeh they are laughable, if you're not a tax payer who expect value for my money like me.
People are becoming more narrow-minded, their views more myopic. Elected leaders are showing more and more of their moronic side that makes me wonder how and why they were elected in the first place. Ooops. I forgot. Money politics.
Personally, I would have loved to grow up and live during the days of my parents and their parents, when people were more tolerant, more open-minded, more intelligent, more honest, more real...
PUBLIC TOILETS AND THE PUBLIC
Today a local tabloid carried an article on the lack rubber (spray) hoses in the toilets of a leading shopping complex for people to wash their behinds (and private parts) after they finished doing their business. Wah. Big issue.
Today a local tabloid carried an article on the lack rubber (spray) hoses in the toilets of a leading shopping complex for people to wash their behinds (and private parts) after they finished doing their business. Wah. Big issue.
The article, taking up half a page, came complete with quotes from alleged patrons, all parroting the writer's sentiments. I wished I had been interviewed as well, for I would have given the writer a piece of my mind.
I mean, hello, rubber hoses? Where has the writer been? How many shopping complexes, hotels, conference centres and other higher-end places boast rubber hoses in their public rest rooms anymore?
Instead, most of these toilets now come with hygienic, clean, state-of-the-art "cleansing" system that doesn't involve hoses. As a Muslim myself, I prefer NOT to use toilets that have hoses, because they're usually wet and filthy. The hoses are never placed properly, most of the time they'd be on the wet floor or in the toilet bowls. And I'm expected to USE them? I won't touch them with a ten-foot pole, thank you very much.
The particular shopping complex the writer was ranting about, its toilets are among the cleanest. Its toilet seats are clean, the floor mopped dry (and I mean dry, NOT damp) every few minutes, the flush works, and the built-in water spray is so easy to use. It's much more convenient than a rubber hose, or any other types of spray. They also almost never run out of tissue paper, and each stall is installed with a sanitiser box.
Tolonglah. We are not talking about some backwater rest-stops, here. It's time that the Press did their part to try bring our riff raff masses into the twenty-first century.
And the rubber hose? Leave it at home. Someone may need it to water the plants, or wash the porch, or both.
Ours is becoming really a classless society. No, not the type advocated by Marx -- we all know what DID NOT happen with communism. I'm talking about a society whose members are ditching all social norms, values and etiquette, about people who have no manners and are just plain rude. People yang takde kelas.... And they could be anyone, anywhere. From the average riff-raff in the streets to elected politicians sitting in parliament. From sports figures on the courts to corporate hotshots in the boardrooms. They are everywhere. And this worries me, and should worry you, too. The moment the government started its budi bahasa budaya kita campaign, we should have had a collective seizure of massive, epileptic proportions.
What's happening? Weren't we supposed to be a people steeped in kesopananan and kesusilaan, so rich with budi bahasa and pekerti mulia? Whether we are Melayu, Cina, India, or Lain-Lain -- we all clung (or at least our parents and their parents, and the parents of their parents, did) to a set of values that shape and define who we are and how we interact with other people. So kenape sekarang semua orang kurang ajar? People are rude on the road, people rude at the food stalls, people are rude in the office, people are rude, period.
I wonder what parents are teaching their kids nowadays. Not much, I suppose. Especially when the parents themselves are not the best of examples. Most are too busy or too ignorant to care. And they keep breeding. Rabbits after rude rabbits. 
Over the Labour Day weekend, I went to Penang -- you know, the so-called Pearl of the Orient (although personally I think the lustre has long gone) -- for a wedding. The last time I toured the island (short nasi kandar-makan stops don't count) was 13 years ago, so I looked so much forward to the trip. Besides the makan-makan, which my traveling companion really relished in, there were lots of other things and places to do and see. All in all, it was rather enjoyable. Until I did a bit of post-trip accounting, that is. Food and lodging aside, fuel and toll charges took a big bite out of my traveling budget. No wonder a lot of my friends say they can't really afford to cuti-cuti Malaysia. Especially now when petrol prices are what they are. Coupled that with the toll charges, my kocek is now so kosong I have to suppress those nasi kandar urges so that I won't go binge at any of the cut-throat, second-rate outlets we have in KL.
Talk about petrol, I wasted a lot of it when that fuel-guzzler of mine got stuck in traffic due to some demonstration over fuel price hike. OK la, to protest is good, I suppose, after all we should all root for the freedom of expression, and this is a free country, relatively speaking. So, I just parked my vehicle on the road side, and watched the demonstrators. One thing struck me, though. I wasn't clear whether they were protesting against the government or Petronas. To me, if protestors want to protest, they have to make sure that they're protesting against the right party. This way, they would get their issues and messages right. Otherwise, the issues and messages will bercampur-aduk and will confuse people more. I'm all for the freedom of expression, but I'm also for taking accountability for what you say. We can't all be like politicians. Some of us have to be responsible, so tak elok cakap sesuka hati without getting our basic facts right.
A lot of people marah-marah because fuel prices went up, and a lot were also angry at Petronas. Mana pegi keuntungan Petronas? What happens to Petronas' money? Why can't Petronas subsidise prices? Watching the protestors that day, I think a lot of people missed the point. What people should be asking is: What is being done with the billions of ringgit Petronas has paid to the government in royalty, dividend, tax, and export duty? Kalau baca Press reports, last year alone Petronas paid RM31 billion to the government, more than half of its operating profit. Yang Petronas dah bayar sejak 1974, was close to RM250 billion. So apa yang telah dibuat with all the money?
To me, don't ask what happens to Petronas' profits, because the money the company makes is for the company to keep for its business expansion, for technology acquisition, for capacity/capability building etc. After all, Petronas IS a company, governed by all the rules and regulations, just like any other company, kan? The company already paid what is due to the government. What the government does with this money, this is what I want to know.
Hish, kalau betul la apa yang newspapers cakap, I wonder mana pegi RM31 billion tahun lepas? Mana pegi RM250 billion yang dah dibayar since 1974? Kalau la sebegini banyak, kenapa must I still pay income tax????So, my suggestion is: leave Petronas alone, la. Kalau nak sangat tahu how much the company makes, check out its website. Ask for its annual report. It does publish annual reports, audited some more, so don't say the company is not transparent.
The not-so-transparent party, I feel, is the government. I also want to know what it does with all those billions...
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