Now Who Is Being Irrational?

I joined the Facebook protest against PNB's proposed Menara Warisan because I sincerely believe that the project is unnecessary and because the Facebook initiative was a bi-partisan effort to request a rethink despite being a government supporter. I guess the government thought the effort was just a fly in the ointment but it slowly took off and the site is now targeting a million Facebook fan support to show the citizen's displeasure over the project. And that is just it, despite some attempts to polarise the page with anti government rants, overall it is an apolitical outlet for the real people's thinking.

Thus it is ridiculous for me to see someone with the stature of the Deputy Prime Minister ridiculing the people's own statements by saying that these statements are due to jealousy and that there is a hidden hand to ostracise the whole project. He even questioned the people's wisdom and paternalistically said not to question PNB's commercial wisdom that supposedly has brought billions of wealth to Malaysia so they must be correct this time and all the time.

But you are forgetting YAB, this is a citizen's action group that has shown it has traction and holds the pulse of the people in real time and with real access. It has managed to unify the people to voice out their displeasure against the project. So whether you like it or not, this is a 1Malaysia effort so do not pompously question the motives and intelligence of the supporters. These are real people with real concerns who really think that the money can be spent more wisely elsewhere. So get your act together or you may yet find yourselves paying the price politically. Now is not the time for the government to ignore the aspirations of the people when the Nation is facing challenges politically and economically. In exasperation, Malaysians may even find themselves introducing to Malaysia a new financial term in place of a 'bank run'. A 'Mutual Fund Run' anyone?

Not Transparent Enough For You Still?

For the dissenters who always says the BN Government is like an Ostrich and covers things up with rosy pictures, let's hear of what you think of this bold admission in the Executive Summary of the Economic Transformation Roadmap.

BUSINESS AS USUAL IS NOT ENOUGH

Malaysia is at a critical point in its economic development. There has been a loss of growth momentum over the past decade, and it has become increasingly clear that the historical drivers of growth can no longer be relied on to deliver strong economic outcomes. It is more difficult to generate high rates of economic growth in an increasingly competitive global economy. Growth can no longer be taken for granted, but needs to be earned. There are four reasons why a fundamentally new approach is required.


Historical Growth Engines are Slowing Down

Malaysia’s relatively sluggish economic performance over the past several years indicates that the historical engines of Malaysia’s economic growth are slowing down. A large part of the reason for this relatively poor growth performance has been slow labour productivity growth. To transform productivity, significant improvements are required in two areas. First, the level of business investment will need to be substantially increased. Achieving the 6 percent annual growth rate to 2020 will require private investment to grow by more than 12 percent over the next five years, a significant increase from the 2 percent per annum growth achieved in the past five years. Second, enhanced investments in human capital will be made to support a high-skilled, knowledge-based and innovation-intensive economy.


Risk of Being Stuck in the Middle

Malaysia is no longer able to remain competitive with low-income countries as a high volume, low-cost producer. At the same time it has not yet moved up the value chain and become competitive with high-income countries. Other countries are more competitive than Malaysia in both low-cost production and in high-value markets. This is not a sustainable position. Strategies that were successful in driving Malaysia’s transformation from a poor country, reliant on rubber and tin at Independence, into a diversified middle-income economy are not appropriate for the next stage of Malaysia’s developmental journey.


An Unsustainable Fiscal Position

Malaysia has run fiscal deficits every year since 1998, with a deficit of 7 percent of GDP recorded for 2009. Moving back to fiscal sustainability and achieving the Government’s commitment of a deficit of 3 percent of GDP by 2015 will require a change in direction. Investor attitudes to sovereign debt have changed significantly over the past two years, and capital markets may be less inclined to finance sovereign debt on the terms they have extended in the past. There is also increasing evidence of fiscal policy competition between countries, with governments cutting corporate tax rates to obtain a competitive edge. In order for Malaysia to offer competitive personal and corporate tax rates and invest in education, research, public services and infrastructure, it will need to strengthen its fiscal position substantially.

Increasing Global Competition for Markets, Capital and Talent

The global economy is becoming much more competitive. The emergence of new, highly competitive regional and global companies has eroded the strong position of Malaysian-based companies in the manufacturing and services sectors. In addition, companies, investors and talent have an increasing number of opportunities and location options. Malaysia, therefore, needs to demonstrate a clear value proposition in order to attract and retain them. Moreover, many other governments are aggressively positioning themselves to compete for talent and capital. The low levels of foreign direct investment (FDI) that Malaysia has attracted over the past decade are one indication of a weakening competitive position.

THE ETP IS PART OF A COMPREHENSIVE GOVERNMENT AGENDA

The ETP is the Government’s economic agenda in response to these challenges.

So forget your dreams for a while about who should sit at the throne of power in Putrajaya. The reality has been clearly stated on what we are facing as a nation to survive economically. Read the ETP here and consider if you can assist to help our nation. Forget the rhetoric of the politikus and see what we can do with the government of the day, whether you like this fact or otherwise.

Karipap On The Train

It was with a little nostalgia when I read about the home stay rail packages launched by the Tourism Ministry, especially the sentence "the train will pass at least 21 small stations for people to experience the rural life". I have seen the related TV series “Welcome to the Rail World” and notes that these are basically about going for a home stay vacation by rail trips.

I wonder however if people realised that the journey used to be the adventure, rather than the destination. I still remember till today watching the green landscape passing you by via an open window, rather than getting enclosed in air conditioned airtight container that somehow disengaged you from the surroundings. In addition you also wonder if there would be a derailment that may delay the journey, either by weather or more dreamily by CT bandits sabotaging the tracks because as a young boy you can't help fantasize such things after watching emergency era armoured trains on display at the station.

Yet the most potent memory about such rail trips was the peddlers brigade who swarmed the coaches at each stop and went along for a short ride till the next stop, in the meantime peddling their wares which usually are an assortment of snacks or drink packets. Because of these peddlers, pity the buffet coach push cart salesman on board as his wares conspicuously do not receive any attention the nearer the next train station. The funny thing is that even though the best food etched in my mind is those curry puffs being sold by peddlers who got on at Tanjung Malim train station, I have not managed to get a similarly tasty piece outside the station or train ride, even though in the town when my family stayed there. Must be specially made to be sold on board the trains I guess. The other funny thing is, I have always wondered how these peddlers managed to get back to their original station in time for the next train, rearmed with fresh food and drinks for the itinerant travellers.

I hope the powers that be realise that these activities can be a touristy attraction on their own and not a nuisance, as I have seen travelogues featuring these on board peddlers as an added attraction. Think about it so that our rail journeys will not be too sterile.

So this is humane society?

Hmm I wonder how could innocent dogs that was doing what comes naturally after not being fed was put down rather than tranquilized and maybe fed so that they would calm down. Was this a case of tidak apa or pure laziness or some sort of payback thought of by some smart ass in the team. The dogs are already judged and despatched even though their owners have not even had their day in court. These council workers should have their wrists slapped for this blatant inhumanity instead. It would have been easy to call any of the animal protection societies to handle the dogs if they are not up to the job themselves.

BANTING MURDERS: Lawyers' nine dogs put down

Six Rottweilers, two Dalmations and a bulldog were put down by lethal tranquilisers at the poultry farm in Sungai Gadung, believed to the scene of a quadruple murder.

The officers were seen entering the farm at 8.15am and left about two hours later with the carcasses in a pick-up lorry.

According to sources, since the murders were uncovered, the hungry dogs which were left unattended became aggressive and attacked other animals in the farm, such as goats, ducks and chickens.

The source said police had told the district council to catch the dogs but the team despatched to the area decided to put the dogs down as they were aggressive.

The carcasses were taken to the Sungai Sedu landfill in Telok Datuk, near here, to be buried.

Mosquito Genocide?

A Taiwanese woman has been reported to have won prize money for catching 1.5 kilos of mosquitoes or an estimated 4 million of the pests in just one month in a contest organised by a insect trap maker. Instead of being amazed by the feat, our local governments and health authorities should seriously check how this was done and in the event the insect traps actually contributed to the catch, to invite the company to set up shop here to manufacture for domestic consumption. Maybe then the fight against disease carrying vectors can be won especially if similar contests can be held. Who knows a local champion can actually be discovered through such measures so that we do not have to depend on "foreign technology".

Mon Aug 2, 5:41 am ET

TAIPEI (AFP) – A Taiwanese woman has taken a sizeable bite out of Taiwan's mosquito population, and won a 3,000 US dollar cash prize, by catching around 4 million of the bloodsuckers in just one month.

Huang Yu-yen, from southern Taiwan's Yunlin county, beat 72 rivals with a catch weighing in at more than 1.5 kilogrammes (3lbs 5oz), competition organisers Imbictus International, a company that makes insect traps, said.

The haul was more than double that of her nearest rival.

The company has sent an application to Guinness World Records asking that Huang be recognised as the world's leading killer of the pest.

Mosquitoes have been a major public health hazard in Taiwan, especially as carriers of malaria until its official eradication on the island in 1965. They are still responsible for the spread of dengue fever.

Do not put too much pressure on them la!

Reading the article below reminded me of my own experience with my own daughter. I admit that I put pressure on her to do well in her UPSR in the years before, but in the exam year I backed off and told her that this is it, it is now all up to her and the only thing I did was send her to a few examination seminars to motivate her and teach her some exam taking techniques. The fact is that even though I was no slouch myself in my own exams, I personally do not believe in last moment cramming for exams, as consistency in studying would do you better in exams was my personal philosophy. In fact my own UPSR equivalent exam was a blur to me, as I do not remember making any special effort to ace the exams, except later on I with my other class mates was called up during assembly to receive special awards for acing the exams as a special occassion for my primary school, as my batch was at the time the first group to have so many aces. This finally made me realise this exam was something special. But still this do not merit to me the pressure I see some parents put on their children, as although I was not there a similar incident to what happened in the article that was related to me by my wife shows that even with the best of efforts your kid cannot guarantee that they will ace the exam even when they are one of the identified potential scorers. Thus I do no mind my daughter was called Puteri Tak Disangka (The Surprise Ace) by her teacher when her name was called up as one of the scorers, but I pitied her potential scorer classmate named Puteri who stood up when that name was called, as Puteri herself was not called up finally. Imagine what went through her when the fact sunk in at the end.

The sadder fact is that of the 39 aces in her school, only two managed to get into residential schools, so what basis do you put pressure on your kid to struggle for good results at this age. My non bumi school mates scored aces at that age even though they didn' have a chance to get a similar reward of going to a residential school as I did, but when I asked them what motivated them their basic answer was that studying was a responsiblity to their family and not a chore in the sense of not being pressured, so they could actually realise their potential while still being kids. I quote from the article "I don’t remember going through all that in Year Six. I ran, played and learnt how to cycle. I rode my mum’s big bicycle till I fell and hurt my knee. And I still can laugh about that. My parents never put pressure on me to score. Whatever the grades on my report card, they just smiled and signed it. They knew I studied hard and played like mad, too …. just like my peers then." In fact I believe we all took a modified view of our school motto where instead of "Pray Hard, Study Hard" it became to be "Play Hard, Study Hard". So to parents of upcoming UPSR taking kids, why don't you pause a moment and consider this other quote from the article;

" Comparing my days and now, I see so much has changed. Society looks up to top scorers without realising we are actually creating unbalanced pupils. At Primary level, why can’t we just let them enjoy their life, like we used to?

To those who got straight As, congratulations. But what about the others who did not? Their self-esteem would have dropped a notch and this would affect with them throughout their Secondary school life. And we’d start blaming them again. Is that fair?"

Our kids will have their SPM and Uni days to prove their worth in exams, so try to avoid making them exam or study phobic in the preceeding years is my advice.

So if you would like to read the article, click this.

Treasuring The Malay Family Recipes

Even though there have been many Malay recipe books published and most are in Malay, I fear that these mostly concentrate on basic Malay dishes that keeps being repeated in new cookbooks that to me makes them run of the mill. It is as if hot Malay dishes are limited to just a few select familiar dishes, like rendang and nasi lemak. The fact is that count dishes from the individual states and Malay ethnicity, you can actually easily find a different thousand dishes alone, and that does not include an individual family's take on the dish. The more unfamiliar in general dishes like my family's besamah and gulai daun ubi tumbuk are the ones that risks the most of being forgotten, if the collection of recipes in the Malaysia family that usually rely on agak-agak measurement or guesstimates dies out with the older generation, possibly leaving us with the knowledge of making only generic Malay dishes.

Thus I am heartened by the fact there now seems to be a movement to publish treasured family recipes in order to keep them for posterity. I believe this was initially started by members of the Royal families as a way to share royal kitchen recipes with the masses, though since they are mostly published as expensive coffee table books I wonder how many of us from the masses could actually afford the cook book. Nonetheless a more affordable book from our first Prime Minister kitchen started the ball rolling although the latest Selera Perdana is yet published as an expesive coffee book again, and we now see ordinary families archiving their kitchen legacies in print, be it in the Malaysian languange, bi-lingual or even English.

Being one family's collection of recipes, these cookbooks usually reflect their author's family ethnic or state origins, like the cookbook " A taste of Batu Gajah" that is close to my own family's heritage and heart. The underlying thread that passes through this book and two others that are now in my collection, namely Nostalgia Bonda and Resipi Bonda, with Bonda being the formal name for mother in Malay is that these are actually a collection of the family matriarch's recipes. Thus in a sense all of us get a chance to share in a mother's homecooking through such surrogate memoirs.

So my advice to those interested to purchase such a book of malay recipes, it is better to buy these simpler publications than those published as coffee table books, as these collection of family treasures prepared from a mother's heart, as a buah tangan even though we may not actually get to taste their air tangan.