Digital Fugue - Random Thots

Procedures

Procedures are meant to inculcate orderly manners in every process. In lay man's term, it means that procedures are suppose to make life easier for the average joe.

Unfortunately, that is not the case for most government agencies in Malaysia.
wankers...

Keris

The keris (double edged dagger of the Malay Archipelago) is such an intriguing piece of weapon. While I am not particularly obsessed by it, I have always admired it. Due to its wavy physique, it is said that it is easier to pull out a keris from the flesh as opposed to straight daggers which translates to more frag points in melee battles.

Then again, who can forget Hang Tuah's Keris, the mystical Taming Sari. Perhaps the Malay equivalent to the Excalibur, the Taming Sari was said to have magical powers that would make the bearer invincible.

A friend of mine forwarded this very informative link on the keris. For a little eye candy, checkout Jeroen Peter's Keris collection. There are also a few sites on Indonesian and Javanese Keris .

Wifi Spray

Want a faster Wifi access? Use Wifi Spray!
Surprisingly, this stuff is made in Malaysia. Another quality product from Bolehland!

*To be taken with a pinch tablespoon of salt! :o)

Fancy a free plasma TV?

Buy yourself a Peugeot 406 and get a Phillips plasma TV and home theatre system worth RM 25,000!
Buy a 206 or a 307 and get yourself a 29"flatscreen TV.

Yes, the offer is on from 16 April to 4 July 2004 from Cycle & Carriage Automobiles Sdn Bhd. Check your local dailies for details.

With the 406 getting the biggest deal on the table, that could only mean one thing: C&C is trying to get rid of their old stock. In other words... they are preparing for the arrival of the Peugeot 407! :)

What's next?

Now that BN has won the elections, the burden is up to them to fulfil their promise and serve the rakyat. From my observation, majority of the public would want to give Pak Lah a chance to prove himself worthy as a Prime Minister. Threading on my personal thoughts, while harbouring 2/3 majority is almost absolute, I doubt there would be any landslide if Dr. M is still in power.

While the next few weeks (if not months) would be honeymoon for the winners, the same cannot be said for Pak Lah. Garnering the support of the rakyat is one thing, Pak Lah have to strenghten his support from within the party. After all, he was appointed and not elected as Prime Minister. He need the strong support to really fight corruption and bring out the big fish. Pak Lah also must ensure the elected candidates deliver and serve the rakyat.

Personally, I would like to see the new government put more emphasis to develop Kelantan and Trengganu. With BN controlling Trengganu, the petroleum royalty should flow back to the state and not into the pockets of the elected reps.

But I worry the big win would make the new government big headed and ineficient. With minimal opposition in the parliament, every bill tabled would be passed without any question raised. And of course, we'll definitely see some of the elected rep sleeping in parliament as there will be fewer heated debate to disturb them. I guess we just have to wait and see.

And finally, since the majority of us have voted for BN, don't fret when the government decides to increase the telephone, electricity and other utilities tariffs, toll, petrol and car prices.

Malaysian F1 Grand Prix 2004

After casting my vote for the 2004 General Election in the morning, I head to Sepang to watch the Malaysian Grand Prix! A friend of mine managed to source out two free grandstand tickets and we got the best seat... right infront of Team BMW Williams F1 pitstop!
A brilliant race with Schumacher, Montoya and Button celebrating on the podium.

This guy was also spotted! :)

My thots on the election

With just two days left before Malaysians cast their votes, I share with you my thoughts on the General Election.

Since the parliament was dissolved, the events that followed were quite interesting. We see the nomination for BN was not annouced in one shot but the news about the nomination trickled one after another . All that happened not without a few raised eyebrows.

For a start we saw a few faces being dropped... and ironically a few faces that should have been dropped still still happily smiling. While the mainstream media portray the ruling party as being strong and stable, the actual fact, there are rifts in the component parties. Yes Team A, B and even C exists in not one but all the component parties.
Then, there was palace intervention.

Putting all those aside, no doubt BN will win this election. Here's why:

1) Money, Money, Money
First of all, they have the financial muscle to help them out with the campaigning. Of course with loaded business personalities representing BN, most of them have no problems forking out the dough for campaigning. For those who cant afford, there are a lot of local companies that are willing to "donate" to the ruling party (or were they asked to "donate").
I was told that the Election Commission's budget to run this year's election is RM 120 million. The amount is for election commission alone, i guess the money that goes in to campaigning can easily double that amount.
Off the record, I wonder if the recent sale of Telekom shares by Khazanah Nasional have anything to do with the election.

2) Malaysians are content.
What do Malaysians do in their past time? Complain. We like to complain but we dont take charge and change the system. While we like to complain, we are still too comfortable for a change.
This issue also revolve along the "tidak apa" attitude.

3) BN hedging on stability
This goes hand in hand with my earlier point. Knowing that Malaysians like being Malaysian, the ruling party decided to bank on the average behavior of the average Malaysian.

4) Malaysians are apologetic
With Dr.M out of the picture and all, everything seemed to be fine. All the grudge against the system miraculously dissapeared. They were all actually swept under the carpet and it would only take the next government to do something stupid to expose the dirt under the carpet. Again, the "tidak apa" attitude.

5) Giving chance
Basically, most middle income Malaysians would like to see how Pak Lah perform. Four months is not enough to gauge the capabilities of a leader.

6) The Opposition got no issues
Need I say more?

7) Perks
As silly as it may sound, the care taker government are giving small perks to the public. The Jalan Pahang Toll consessionaire have ceased toll collection today and the Penchala link will have extended their toll free period till 21st March.

Then again, there are a few things BN could do to boost their ratings:
1) No increase in toll and petrol price for at least one year.
2) Rakyat friendly budget for 2005 (tax breaks etc)
3) More perks for the rakyat
4) Review of the ringgit peg
5) Economic stimulus packages
6) Public holiday if they win the election

Having said that, I believe the opposition should put up a strong fight in this general election. Afterall if BN wins, toll will definitely keep on increasing... and despite the campaign highlighting the comparison of fuel prices in our country with other countries, the price of fuel will infact increase by a few cents if not later this year, next year. Who knows, telephone and electricity tariffs might also increase.

It would be nice to see the opposition deny the 2/3 majority, but the rate they are going currently, I dont think they would be able to acheive the feat. However, I do hope the opposition would put a good fight and win a few more seats. Afterall this would eventually put BN on their toes rather than celebrating their victory until the next election comes. The Parliament would also be less happening without the presence of the opposition. And that would definitely give way for the wakil rakyats to visit Lala-Land while Parliament is in session. Im sure the rakyat would not want to vote a sleepy head to serve them. So, exercise your rights and vote wisely!

Before I go, here's a brilliant read.

Cultural Bridge

Some people say music is a great tool for bridging cultures. But even music have been a victim of segregation a long time ago. What we now know as R&B, is a by product of the segregation of music during the days of slavery and civil war in America.

In Malaysia, with vast cultures and races intermixing the society, there need to be numerous cultural bridges that would eventually bind the society together and create a unique cultural identity. Music is one, as seen by the recent success and popularity of a musically inclined reality game show.

While trying to find the common denominator about being Malaysian, The Malaysiana Digests have uncovered another cultural bridge among Malaysians... food.
I couldn't agree more with the masses.

Old KL Map

While cleaning up an old cabinet, I came across a street map of the towns in Malaysia including Singapore. The copyright on the map indicates that it was printed in 1960 and published for Mobiloil.

©Rand McNally & Company 1960

Today, the same area look like this.

Email me if you want a better scan. Other towns include Georgetown, Ipoh and Singapore.

52 cents?

This is a teleconversation between me and my cellphone careline officer.

Careline Officer (CO): Good morning sir, how can I help you?
Me: Yeah... my phone was barred, im wondering why...
CO: Can I have your mobile number sir?
Me: xxx-xxx xxx
CO: Thank you sir, can I have your name sir?
Me: KaZ
CO: Thank you Mr. KaZ... let me check on your status...
3 seconds later
CO: Sir, according to our system you have outstanding amount...
Me: Outstanding amount? How much is it?
CO: 52 cents.
Me: D-oh...!

There you go... my phone was barred because of 52 cents. The 5 minute call to the careline probably cost more.