INTERNET CONNECTION FINALLY..... PHEW..

After 3 months without internet at home, I finally got the connection yesterday, after fighting with the streamyx technical support for 3 previous sleepless nights. I collected a dubious looking modem from their agent's shop and I couldn't connect to the internet. The technical support when called, kept on blaming my notebook which forced me to switch to my daughter's computer and yet still no connection. I told them that there must be something wrong with the modem for the last 3 nights but they insisted that the modem was okay because 'the link light was stable'. I finally shouted to them on the fourth night that their modem was made in Puchong and I wanted a replacement or else. They sent me a new modem yesterday and when connected, I got my internet straight away. Bravo streamyx for making my life and I believe others also, difficult.

With the internet connection working, I hope I will be able to update regularly, I hope.

BETWEEN AUTOCRATIC AND NOT UP TO THE STANDARD

I had short conversation with a few old friends during tea break today. This one particular friend had been praising the current PM for allowing his ministers to speak out of their mind so freely unlike during the 22 years reign of PM Mahathir. He said PM Mahathir had run his cabinet ministers so autocraticly that nobody were allowed to speak.

Hmmm.... this particular friend must be a true believer of Malaysiakini, a convert of Karpalism or idolising the erected Anwar's giant cutout statue in Batu Caves.

Please bear in mind that during PM Mahathir reign, non of his cabinet ministers ever come close to his standard. During the cabinet meetings, most of them couldn't answer the questions thrown by Mahathir to them. They couldn't speak up because either they were not prepared of they were caught wrong footed.

Those days when Singapore was still in the Federation, there were 8 maverick MPs from Singapore. They were very smart and very sharp, and of course one of them was Lee Kuan Yew. The only MPs that can argue with them were Dr. Mahathir and Dr. Ismail (the late Tun Dr. Ismail).

Ask if any of the present cabinet ministers to be at par with Dr. Mahathir, Dr. Ismail and Lee Kuan Yew. The answer is none.

So, if you could not even come close to the standard of Tun Dr. Mahathir, don't blame him if you could not speak up your mind to him.

LOOSE ENDS

I am already back in KL for good and it is already for more than a week now. What a hectic life. It started with getting the children to school immediately a day after touched down while staying in a hotel for almost a week. Followed by searching for a house to rent in a few different locations. Fighting with traffics. Getting lost on the road (this is the worst part). Setting up phone and utilities accounts. Fasting month. All in all I have lost more than 5 kg. Not bad at all.

Now for the loose ends.

1. September 16 Just Passed By

The famous 'Black-Eyed September' ten years ago is not being remembered at all. September 16, 2008 just passed without being noticed. The so called new government is not happening. His credibility is tarnished. Has he got the froggy MPs? Yes, I believe he got the names. But just the names. Has he got the signed declaration by these MPs? The answer is of course no. Has he got the signed declarations, he would have paraded them and rally in a big way to the parliament and the King. Now he is in a face saving mode. Plan number one, request the PM to convene parliament emergency sitting, to put forward the motion of no confidence to the PM himself. What a joke. Can you imagine the PM is calling the parliament's emergency sitting to remove himself.

Plan number two to go to the King. This is the biggest face saving tactic. Of course we can expect the King to advise him not to go ahead with his plan for sake of national interest. He will play this to his advantage. He will heed to the King's advise and will not to go ahead with his plan in the name of full respect to the King. His face is saved, hoping that nobody would notice.

Just wait and see.

2. The World's Financial Crisis

The new Finance Minister declared that the re-pegging of the Ringgit is not necessary at the moment. He added that the Malaysian economy is resilient and has a little exposure to the US subprime financial crisis. This is quite true due to the fact that Malaysian banks unllike Singapore, do not practice selling and re-selling over and over again the mortgage papers, letters of guarantee, junk bonds and a lot more financial derivatives which became cancerous to the US financial system (imagine selling and re-selling the same papers for so many times, it is just like a 'Pak Man Telo' or 'Labu Peram' get rich schemes) . Although worried of the domino effect to the Malaysian economy, Tun Mahathir must be laughing to the US right now because he had predicted the scenario much earlier, but nobody bother to listen to him.

Successful US technologies like Microsoft, HP and many more are buying back their stock in a big way. Microsoft is spending US$40 billions for this buyback scheme. Good for them as they are buying back their stock at the low price at present. They are actually protecting their interest. Successful Malaysian companies should do the same as their counters are traded so cheap in the KLSE. For those who has cash, I think this is the time to buy these oversold shares in the KLSE. Most good counters are traded more than 50% below their actual value.

THE STORY OF FOUR PEOPLE

It happened in almost every workplace, mine included. This is an old story about four people:

Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody.

There was an important job to be done and Everybody was asked to do it.

Everybody was sure Somebody would do it.

Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it.

Somebody got angry about it because it was Everybody's job.

Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that.

Everybody wouldn't do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when actually Nobody asked Anybody.

HOME SWEET HOME

In a couple of weeks I will be home for good. Should be there in the middle of Ramadhan and I will have Aidil Fitri in my hometown. It is not the Aidil Fitri that really matter to me, but seeing my mother is that I am looking forward so much. My mother has been sick for quite some time and I have been away for almost 9 years. Yes I am guilty for being away for so long and I am going to make amend to that. I am looking forward to see my mother in every available weekends that I have.

I also missed the lake just behind my mother's house and I look forward to bring my youngest girl fishing whenever we are there.

Home, here I come.

GOLF, NEVER TOO LATE TO LEARN

I always wanted to play golf, but I have never made an attempt to start. In 2002 when I was on duty trip to Cairo, I met by previous boss who did his best to talk me to start taking up golf. Despite my natural interest for golf, I still couldn't bring myself to the game. Probably I just don't want to leave my two girls in the weekends as golf could take the entire Saturday or Sunday.

But last week for some unknown reason, I bought a second hand golf set. I got a good friend to bring me to the driving range and he taught me and the Mrs to swing. He is good, probably by being a single handicapper and a regular tournaments leader. As for my swings, not too bad for a beginner. It cost £4.00 for 60 balls, not a bad price at all.

For the unknown reason, I think I have to blame it on the Wii console that I bought a few weeks ago. Golf looks so easy in Wii. The girls and I managed to get load of birdies and quite some eagles. But in the real golf, to hit the ball correctly is so difficult. I just learned that at the driving range.

Well let see if I am going to stick for the golf in Wii or golf in the real world.

In the meantime, do enjoy this video, forwarded by a friend, again. Korean trade unions struggle is a weird passion and the character fits that passion well.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

I went for a lunch with an old friend recently. Having a good time and caught-up with some good old days stuff that day. The thing that I am writing here is not about my good old friend or about the good old time stuff, but the manner how we are dealing with the ruthless or arrogant waiters or waitress who served us.

On this particular day, not only the waiter brought the wrong order, but he had refused to admit his mistake and responded to us in a very rude manner. I wanted to have my order changed and I wanted to see the manager. At this point my friend stopped me from getting the new order, but he let me see the manager. He said he will explain later on why he didn't want me to have my food changed.

At our request, the manager saw me and he apologised. He even offered me the new plate with the correct order, but my friend told him that we are okay with the present food. Since I was not changing for a new plate, the manager offered me half price for the food that afternoon. Not bad at all.

At coffee my friend told me that he was once worked as an assistant chef in one of the pubs in KL. He told me that he was in the same situation while working there. Being busy and tired, they, the people at the back kitchen did not like complains from the manager and most of the time the cook would spit in the replacement plate before being delivered to the complaining patron. I was shocked. Now I know why he refused to let me have my replacement order.

A lesson learnt that day. Do not let our food to be prepared at the mercy of other people who we do not come to term with.

Anyway, please enjoy this video, forwarded by a friend. You probably have seen it anyway.

HOW TO BEAT THE FUEL PRICE HIKE? GROW A LOT OF BANANAS AND SELL THE LEAVES

Once upon a time on one lazy Sunday afternoon, I asked the Mrs. to make some 'lepat pisang' and in response she asked me to go to Wing Yip to get some banana leaves. So, off I went to buy the illusive banana leaves, the item that is reserved only for the the rich and famous.

In Wing Yip, the banana leaves were sold in the vegetable section, hidden among the 'kangkungs' and the long beans. Grabbed a packet and straight I went to the cashier. The taste of the freshly steamed 'lepat pisang' to go with the afternoon tea is already in my mind. The cashier scanned the packet and looked at me. 'Sir, the price is £4.82, do you still want it' she asked. I almost jumped. The last time I bought banana leaves there, the price was between £1 to £2. This time the price was more than double. But without the banana leaves I won't have my 'lepat pisang' that afternoon. So I just closed my eyes and paid £4.82 (RM30) for 575 grams of banana leaves.

Back home the Mrs asked, 'how much?'. I replied, 'macam biasa je'. So I got my lepat pisang that day. I felt like eating the 'lepat' together with all the banana leaves when thinking the exorbitant price that I had paid.

But what to do. If you want something, you just have to pay for the price.

BLOGGING CROSSROAD

When I started blogging, I just wanted to write about the good old days and a few experience in trading in stock market. Only lately I started writing about some political situation in Malaysia, which I slowly found to be petty and boring. Issues brought by the opposition are petty, response by the ruling coalition are petty and highlights by a few bloggers are also petty. I don't have to add myself and my blog to the list and therefore I will try not to write about politics anymore.

God bless our country.

THE CIRCUS IS IN TOWN. ACT 1 - KHALID IBRAHIM, TERESA KOK AND THEIR PIG FARM

Khalid Ibrahim and Teresa Kok had proudly announced the development of the biggest pig farm in the country, probably the biggest in the South East Asia. It is very clear that they are implementing the concept of ‘Malaysia Boleh’ that was incepted by Mahathir Mohammed quite some time ago, which made me wonder if there is any different between the BN and the PR. The pig farm is claimed to set an example for other states in Malaysia to follow. Wow, a grand PR vision, probably bigger than Vision 2020.

Well now it is clear that the first priority of the PR government is to have a mega modern pig farm and Selangor is taking the lead. Probably more to come when Anwar becomes the Prime Minister.

The play will become more interesting soon when the reaction of the local residence fell into deaf ears of the PR leaders. If they don’t listen, they too would become just like the BN, out of touch with the people.

The next time Teresa having a roast party, please don’t forget to invite Anwar Ibrahim, Khalid Ibrahim and all the Tuan Gurus from PAS. The more, the merrier. After all there are a lot more roast to come after the project is completed.

What a circus. A good show Pakatan Rakyat.

IT IS SNOWING IN APRIL

Last week we had just adjusted our watch to add one hour ahead, for the daylight saving time, which mean spring is already here. But today, yes.... today we have snow fall......... in April? Whatever happened to mother nature. It was not snowing in winter, but it is snowing in spring.




The tulips that came out are covered by snow. I hope the tulips will still be there tomorrow.

The front neighbour's children are playing in the snow. They must be missing the snow for the last whole year. Noticed the little girl with a pink teddy bear, she is cute.

A visitor came by in the snow. This shot is dedicated to Ms. Foxy who despised the 'musang'.

The view of the house from the backyard in snow.

This would be my final year enjoying the snow here.

KLSE, A VERY WEIRD AND STRANGE MARKET

Have you noticed the behaviour of KLSE lately? Noticed that there are a lot of companies with a good returns, but their share prices are cascading down. MAS has returned to the black, but its share is going down. Air Asia's profit and its fleets are increasing, but its share is going down. Even the house itself, the Bursa Malaysia Berhad has made 123% profit for the year 2007, but its share too is also going down. Likewise to all other profitable companies.

When the rest of the Asian's markets are going up, KLSE is going down. So, what is happening? Is it in any way related to the non-confidence of the government? The political uncertainty? Or Malaysia is no longer attractive politically and economically to the international financial community, which resulted the foreign funds just stop pouring in?

Or because everybody are busy reading Khir Toyo's blog?

A NON RACE-BASED POLITICAL CLIMATE IN MALAYSIA?

Politics in Malaysia has long been dominated by race-based political parties. To be cynical, probably Malaysia is the most racist country in the world where the racial difference and tensions are at the highest hierarchy where people are separated by their race-based political masters. The question now is whether we can have a true non race-based political climate in Malaysia, especially after the shocking outcome of the General Election 2008.

Well, first we have to categorize the percentage of certain ethnicity in a party to determine weather it is a race-based on not. I think we should agree that any party with more that 85% controlled by the specific ethnicity is categorized as a true race-based.

Now, lets have a look at the major political parties in Peninsular Malaysia.

• UMNO (100% Malays) – definitely race-based.
• MCA (100% Chinese) – definitely race-based.
• MIC (100% Indians) – definitely race-based.
• PAS (100% Malays) – definitely race-based, hiding behind religious ideology.
• DAP (more than 90% Chinese) – definitely race-based, hiding behind democracy and meritocracy ideology.
• PKR (probably between 50% to 80% Malays) – lower rank of race-based.

UMNO, MCA and MIC in the National Front admitted that race-based is good and they have proved that they can work together for a long time. They say they have served their race well, until recently proven by the elections result that they are no longer serving their people except for themselves. They are no longer in touch with the people.

The Alternative Front is also race-based. PAS has been saying that they would have the representatives from other ethnicity, while we know very well that the statement is just a mere gimmick. They are all Islam and of course all Malays. DAP is also trying to project that they are multi-racial, and yet their speeches campaign are still in Chinese. Democracy and meritocracy are just an excuse to break the Malays special rights. The alliance of PAS and DAP is actually a marriage made in hell. Sooner or later the cracks will appear and the internal squabble will escalate and hell would break loose. Just wait and see. For a start they just can’t agree on the Perak’s MB as yet.

The best bet is PKR. They are trying to be a non race-based albeit the fact that the majority is still the Malays. They have a term until the next General Election to prove that they are non race-based and to serve all the races. They can have a good start, with Selangor as the most modern state in Malaysia in their hand. Do not mess it up.

Despite all the fiery speeches that all Malaysians are one race and the PKR is serving all Malaysians regardless their race, can PKR’s Anwar Ibrahim guarantee that his party is a true non race-based political party? To have a true non race-based party, can he guarantee that the followings are met?

• The Prime Minister to be chosen from any race.
• The Malay Special Rights to be abolished.
• The Chinese and Indian vernacular school to be abolished and be replaced with a Malaysian school for all. Other than National Language, Mandarin and Tamil to be made compulsory subjects in school.

If he can’t guarantee these, just shut-up. He is no different from all those above.

LOCAL GOVERNMENTS, THE FORGOTTEN REPRESENTATIONS IN THE MALAYSIAN ELECTIONS

So we are going for the 12th General Election on March 8, 2008. The war drums has started. Offensive attacks will begin between ruling coalition and the oppositions. War of posters and war of words will intensify until the day of casting votes. Of course money would flow to fish for votes as what is acknowledged by Khairy Jamaluddin. The general election in Malaysia is just like another festival. People are making money in various ways, bloggers included on the increased traffic to their sites.

But lest we forget, there is another branch of the government, another type of representatives we have not elected since the days of Sukarno’s confrontation on Malaysia, the local government representatives. They are representatives from the posts of the councillors to the highest post of mayors, from ‘Majlis Perbandaran’ to ‘Dewan Bandaraya’, who are being appointed to the throne by the state government. These representatives were once called The Little Napoleons.

When the Prime Minister complained that there are a lot of Little Napoleons in the government agencies, we were unsure which agencies he was referring to. He did not mentioned the local government straight away to avoid arousing people to pressure the government to re-enact local government elections again. But everybody knows that it was the local government representatives that make the biggest bulk of these Little Napoleons, his very own.

Originally elections in Malaysia exist at three levels, national, state and local level. National level elections are for the membership of the lower house of the Parliament, the Dewan Rakyat, state level elections are for the membership in the various State Legislative Assemblies and local level for the membership of local, town and city councils. Unfortunately the local government elections were suspended after the Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation in 1964. The suspension was never lifted and instead made permanent under the Local Government Act 1976. Under the Act, or laws of individual states where relevant, local government members are appointed by the state government, mostly by the respective Chief Ministers.

Why local elections would not be brought back? The answer is very simple, the ruling government knows from the worldwide experience that the oppositions tend to dominate the councils as the electorate desires for checks-and-balances on them. They would never allow this to to happen and they know very well that they are in control as amendments of the Local Government Act 1976 to re-enact local government elections would require constitutional two third majorities in the parliament, an advantage that they always have. Cost factor was added that holding additional elections are expensive affairs, to discourage its revival.

Do we really need local elections? The answer is a big yes. I pay all sorts of taxes and local taxes ranging from council tax, assessment tax, land tax and etc. I do not want an appointed representatives messing around with my money. I want to elect my own representatives to handle my money and provide the services that I deserve. I do not want Zakaria Mat Deros’s saga to happen again and I definitely do not want the Bukit Cerakah ecological destruction to repeat again, a blame I point direct to these appointed 'Little Napoleons'.

I do not want the appointed local representatives. I want the elected local representatives, elected by the people and answerable to the people. If they do not do their job, be sure they won’t be elected by the people in the next term. I do not care much about the national and state level representatives, they are not handling our daily affairs, they are useless anyway.

Ironically, none of the oppositions fought for revival of the local elections in their manifestos, none heard from Anwar Ibrahim, to my greatest frustration. Probably he will appoint his very own Little Napoleons, if he ever gets the top job.

LOOKING FOR FREE PDF CONVERTER

I am in a dire need of a pdf converter and I was told by my IT friend that I can get a free version of it in the internet. So the search began. After wasting so much time, I still couldn't get the free version that I was looking for. The price of the paid versions ranging from US17.00 to US250.00.

I am now turning to my friends in the blogging world, if anybody out there know where to get the free and good version of pdf converter. Please let me know ya guys.....

THE WACKY BUS DRIVERS

Wacky Bus Driver #01

Route KL/Kajang, via old Kajang Road, sometime during a weekend while I was still a student. I used to visit my sister in Kajang. My brother in-law worked as an officer in Kajang Prison. I visited them from KL almost every weekends to see my favourite one year old niece. Just love my niece so much that made me took the trips although sometimes my pockets run dry for the bus fare.

I found KL/Kajang bus drivers rather strange those days. They drove the bus like they owned the bus company. Most of the time they stop the bus in front of their house and their wife and kids would run to the bus to deliver their packed meal. Got used to it and it didn't bother me at all.

But in one my KL/Kajang trips, one of the driver took things to a bit too much. In this particular incident, a few naughty boys in the bus were disturbing a girl. The girl screamed at the boys a few times and the bus driver couldn't stand it anymore. He stopped the bus and went to the boys, scolded and warned them not to disturb the poor girl, or else. Because of the sheer size of the bus driver, the boys were afraid and stopped disturbing the girl. Along the journey, the boys got off the bus one by one until the last of the naughty boy left.

Finally the last boy pressed the buzzer which mean he was going off the bus and that will be the end of the misery of the girl, the other passengers and the bus driver. When the bus stopped, at the door, the boy gave the bus driver the F words (Malaysian version of F words), spitted on his face, jumped off the bus and ran away into the village.

The bus driver got off the bus and gave the boy a chase. After a few minutes both of them disappeared amongst the village houses.

The bus engine was still running and everybody thought he would be back very soon and all of us would be back on our way. Well he did not return after five minutes, and okay he might be coming back very soon. Ten minutes later we were still waiting, there was no sign of him. Now all of us were getting restless. A few other later busses passed us already. The big question mark was, is he ever coming back to continue the journey?

Finally. the bus driver came back after twenty minutes, cursing under his breath, then got on to the bus and started to drive towards Kajang.

There was no doubt either he didn't get the boy or he was whacked by the boy's father.

Wacky Bus Driver #02

Route KL/Kelang via Subang Jaya. Sometimes during a weekday when I started working. I took KL/Kelang via Subang Jaya bus. That was the best way to commute for me as I can't afford to buy a motorbike, let alone to buy a car. I was renting a flat near the municipal council football field with a few friends.

The KL/Kelang bus drivers behaved differently. They thought they were the Formula One drivers. They sped the bus immediately from stand still, braked heavily when approaching traffic light or stopping and took a very sharp corners. You would definitely swerved left and right heavily and you had to hold to anything you can hold.

In this particular incident, it was rainy and I was in the bus on my way home to Subang Jaya from work. The bus was a bit packed and there was this passenger, a huge lady standing and holding an umbrella. One of the passenger, a nicely dressed gentleman offered his aisle seat to her and she took it with thanks.

And as usual the bus driver did his thing, speeding and swerving the bus. It was kind of cool as I can see that this huge lady swerved along. Probably she was enjoying the Formula One bus. I was seating two seats behind her.

When the bus was approaching Subang Parade after exiting Federal Highway, the driver took a very sharp corner. In such a sharp swerve, the lady lost control and fell on her bump on to the aisle. She composed her cool and climbed back to her seat. I could see that everybody in the bus were about to laugh, but they held back. The driver saw what had happened in his mirror and I could see that he was worried. One can expect an extreme reaction from the lady, but she just kept her cool and behaved as nothing had happened. By this time the driver slowed down and tried to behave in his driving.

After a few corners, the lady pressed the buzzer and the driver stopped the bus. When she walked towards the door the whole bus were quiet. Everybody must had expected an outburst to the driver from the lady, but she walked to the door elegantly with a sweet smile. Nevertheless, the bus driver looked panic.

Just before she exited the bus, ADOII......... the bus driver yelled. She had whacked the bus driver with her umbrella and walked elegantly exiting the bus.

By now the whole bus bursted into laughter. Served the bus driver right.

MOVE ASIDE LEWIS HAMILTON

This is the Formula 1 multi-team fastest time test result in Jerez, Spain for 3 days ending 16th January 2008:

Fernando Alonso (Renault) 1:19:503
Kimi Raikonnen (Ferrari) 1:19:708
Felipe Massa (Ferrari) 1:19:772
Nico Rosberg (Williams) 1:19:775
Timo Glock (Toyota) 1:19:779
Heiki Kovalainen (McLaren) 1:19:780
Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) 1:20:099

After the dust of 2007 Formula 1 settled, Lewis Hamilton was hailed by the British media as though he had won the 2007 championship albeit the fact that he was beaten fair and square by the worthy champion, Kimi Raikonnen. He was also projected by the media to win the 2008 championship.

Looking at the result above, I don't think Lewis Hamilton will walk away as the 2008 champion. He would eventually have a tough time with his team mate Heiki Kovalainen, just like what he had given Alonso in 2007.

My best bet for 2008 champion would still be Alonso and Raikonnen. I would also expect the unexpected good showing by Massa, Rosberg, Piquet, Kovalainen and Glock.

As for Hamilton, just watch out for the guys above and for the unreliablility of McLaren car. Raikonnen did't win the 2003 and 2005 championships because of the unreliability issues when he was with McLaren.

Hamilton choked out in 2007 also because of the same issue.

Sorry, my money is not on you Hamilton.

TRADING BASED ON RUMOURS OR TRADING BASED ON RESEARCH?

Before I start with anything, I would like to welcome a long time friend to the 'trading club'. He knows this message is for him when he reads this. Welcome to the club bro.

Well..... I received a text from the other fellow investor a few days ago, 'knapa x beli uemworld leh buat duit le beb n hubline, gtronic beli le cepat'. I replied , 'pasal hubline leh naik?'. He responded, 'Sbb lama tak gerak n business dia v good this year.'

Hmm.... and so I texted my remiser to buy 35 lots. A small investment to that counter considering I am not going to dump all my money on this one. This counter is not even in the 20 counters that I tracked. I bought because I trust my friend and he is an experience investor. He took a lot of market rumours seriously and so far he gained a lot out of it. He took a lot of bold transactions too which I don't even consider. I target medium term investment for this counter, between 3 to 6 months and let see how it goes. At present it is going down.... *sigh*. Even if I am not going to make money on this counter, it is alright for me. I just want see if my friend's hunch is working.

I have changed my investment strategy recently. I am putting my money in a few counters instead of one counter like I used to do before. I researched the 20 counters that I tracked. The capital, the profit and lost, the shareholders etc. I have a good idea at what price to buy and what price I should sell. I am waiting for market shocks, and I would go in and buy. Shocks normally happen a few times in a year. You just can't believe the price of a good counters drop down rapidly at that time.

Just let see what 2008 would land me in.

MY WEBSITE VISITORS COUNTER

Dang....... my website counter gave up on me. It just stop and I have to put a new one, starting from zero again. I have got more than 2000 hits (wooo this is a lot for a small time blogger like me) and I have to start all over again.

C'est la vie.

Something just gave up without you even realize it.

Not that I really need the counter. But seeing the numbers adding-up is fun actually.