Ticking off from a exasperated french man-expat- foreign investor- to Malaysians

As the country continues with the "you poison my dog , i ll strangle your cat game", it must be quite befuddling to the expats in the country. This note may serve to enlighten a little on how they may seem to see us as we continue to bash each other over petty issues just to make a point. It may take a neutral observation from someone, from outside looking in to - without any emotional political baggage- to actually paint a clearer picture of the advantages of  being Malaysians. (with a command of multi lingual skills)
                                  Bryan

Dear all,

As a foreign investor in this country, it puzzles me to no end that Malaysians would fight all-day-long about their ethnicity, religion or the colour of their belly-button.

Foreign investors are not coming here for cheap labour anymore, Vietnam, and further ashore China, are far cheaper and better (little labour department there). The local market is a laugh, small in number and means, Indonesia or even Thailand are way more enticing if you look at quantity. Don't try to bluff me about common law and judiciary, unwritten rules and unpredictable judiciary rule Malaysia far out compared to Singapore. Don't even speak about >infrastructure, try taking a Malaysian taxi from KLCC to Bukit Bintang wearing a tie and sporting a laptop and you'll understand why foreign investors do not need a second trip to Malaysia. Nope, >none of these count favourably.

The very reason Malaysia (still) ends up with large semi-conductor factories, regional shared services and other multinational service >centres is, precisely, the ethnic diversity. I recently had a tax issue in Indonesia. Some obscure rules I could not even start to fathom blocked the conclusion of the yearly audit. Who sorted it out? Our Malaysian accountantwho speaks fluent bahasa flew down and got rid of the fuss in a couple of days. Had it been me, I might be in a Jakarta jail or even dead by now. I am now sourcing materials from China, needless to say I speak and write no Chinese, like most mat salleh, guess who helps me here? A Malaysian. I increasingly require Indian expertise in IT, law and finance. Needless to say, I can never hope to get through the thick accent and neither can my suppliers decipher anything I have to say. Guess who's doing the legwork? A Malaysian. Again. Surprised?

It does not stop there. I can consider myself lucky if my visiting clients from continental Europe can mutter 2 or 3 comprehensible sentences of English. Guess what they tell me once they get back

home? They love the way Malaysians speak English. It being a second language here, Malaysians go the extra mile to make themselves understood to Italian or French speakers who would have come back

from the UK or the US not having understood a thing!

Now rather than capitalise on this, Malaysians prefer to rant about ethnicity day in day out. Good for foreign devils, Malaysians seem bent on keeping us in business. Expensive (and sometimes useless)

expats are still needed in this country because Malaysians would rather have a costly foreigner on top than a plain co-national, due to wrong skin colour, religion or whatever. Thanks to the absurd

(and it pains me to stay polite) local university selection and incredible limitations, expats will be needed forever here. Contrast this with India or China. With their efficient if tough university systems. Chinese and Indian (current or former) nationals are actually taking over many Western companies' executive positions. Meanwhile Malaysian foreign graduates are happy taking up the jobs Westerners won't do at any price (e.g. dreary auditing jobs, low-pay F&B, etc.).

Proposals like DN knights' Satu Sekolah are a gunshot in Malaysia's foot. The day Malaysians shun their diversity under the guise of assimilation, Malaysia will have made sure it become Singapore's official dumping site. For Pete's sake, even the French, who used to champion assimilation all the way, are now teaching Arabic to second-generation French kids, because even they realise the potential loss.

What will make Malaysians feel like a common bangsa again? Shall we petition the British to come back so that Malaysians return to the united days of Hartal and AMCJA-PUTERA's people constitution?

Perhaps the Japanese would want to have a second shot? Or maybe the Dutch or the Portuguese?

If I were to be cynical, and I can tell you a number of my foreign clients are, I should tell you all to go on fighting one another for the crumbs. Please do tell each other "this ethnic community is lazy, that one is a bunch of avid crooks, that other one is just a bunch of miscreants", while foreigners can go on happily signing juicy deals with BN's cronies, hire the best talent for dirt cheap, rape nature (logging, gold mining anyone?), etc. but I won't. Why? I may be a silly idealist, but I still love this country, because I believe you guys can finally overcome your divisions and make this country a model for all to admire. Now, will you prove me right?

Eric

sourced: zorro -unmasked

Why we so desperately need a revival of English proficiency in our  country
http://dumdumtrivia.blogspot.com/2013/07/funny-clown-courtwhy-we-need-revival-of.html

Bangkok Airport Scams , legalized kidnapping and extortion??

 If you think our Malaysian boys in blue are bad enough as it is with “kopi” money for traffic violations or heftier sums for the corresponding breach of law. Have a read at the ingenuity of their Thai counterparts to squeeze tourist at the Bangkok airport. Clever Extortion within the law?
This is a true account and is apparently still going on selectively.

 So if you are travelling to Bangkok and have read this, don’t say you have not been forewarned. Just don’t be susceptible to petty greed when making purchases at the duty free shops inside the airport.

We have heard accounts of jet ski scams in Phuket to Pattaya ,the tuk tuk temple tour scams where you are lead to buy expensive tailor made suits made from cheapo materials  or  precious gems that are not so precious afterall, red light district scams where you are taken to certain bars and charged exorbitant sums for services and drinks and entertainment etc , but these are mainly street scams.

   Whereas this duty free shop scam  is fresh to me and done in the confines of the airport, with the complicity of the sales assistants to the  security guards and the airport cops working hand in hand. And demands for monetary settlements are amounts street scammers can only fantasize about.

Especially more targeted at Malaysians, Singaporeans or Indians who are perceived to be easier pickings because usually of the less fuss they make and just tend to let things slide. And richer perhaps than the western counterparts who will also probably raise a helluva stink if they were victimized.

Dear friends,

To those who like travelling abroad, here is a reminder.

I would like to relate an incident that happened recently. After attending a wedding in Shanghai, my cousin decided to visit Bangkok with his wife and brother in law.

To make a long story short, on the way back to KL with Air Asia, while waiting for the flight at the airport, the couple decided to wander off and do some duty free shopping.

At a duty free shop, they bought chocolates for grandkids and cigarettes for himself. And they were told that making chocolate purchases entitles them for a free gift in the form of chocolates as well.

All their purchases were placed at the cashier’s  counter and as they were about to make payment,they noticed a box of cigarettes placed on top of the 1 carton they bought on the counter , of the same brand. My cousin had paid for the chocolates and for the 1 carton of cigarettes as well and proceeded to put the purchases in a shopping bag, at first ignoring the singular box of cigarettes that was on top of his carton. 

  Then his wife pointed it out because she was under the impression that it also was a buy one free one gift as well. So he just without a second thought grabbed the box and proceeded to the departure hall to catch their flight. While they were waiting to board their flight, a security guard appeared and asked them if they had bought any cigarettes. So they responded sincerely showing the guard the items they had purchased at the duty free shop earlier, including also the box they assumed was a free gift for the cigarette purchase.

 That was when the security guard accused them of theft of the one box of cigarettes and wanted to take them to the police station to be charged for stealing. My cousin offered to pay for the cigarettes because he really thought it was a misunderstanding.

But the security guard refused and was adamant that they be brought to the airport police station. And the wife was advised to board the flight home. She refused and insisted to stay with her husband and go along to the police station. At the station, my cousin was requested to pay compensation of the sum of RM30, 000.00 if he wants to be released. Otherwise he will have to be held in custody till such time the amount is paid. Since they did not have the money and were unable to pay up, my cousin was locked up along with few other tourists that were in the same predicament.
 
And the wife had to go and stay at a friend’s place in Bangkok.

 At the jailhouse, there was actually a tourist of Indian nationality that had been locked up for over a month because his family was unable to come up with a demanded sum of USD $70,000, as he was accused of stealing a pen, when according to the guy, he was on his way to the counter to pay for it but as he was searching for the cashier counter, he mistakenly stepped out of the shop’s boundary and was immediately detained and accused of theft.

When my cousin was detained , his brother in law who was taking another flight with MAS wasn’t aware of his plight, he only found out after a text message was sent to him by the wife but by then he had already boarded the flight so was not allowed to go back to the airport. He immediately flew back to Bangkok soon as he arrived at KL on the same MAS flight. Meanwhile my cousin in KL got in touch with the Malaysian High Commision and few VIPs to inform them of the situation and see what can be done.The Bangkok police department ignored  appeals made by the Malaysian embassy staff and even some ministers from Malaysia.

The following day, as the brother in law arrived at the Bangkok airport police station from KL, he immediately proceeded to make steps to free my cousin at the lock up. The Fee for release was negotiated from Rm30,000 to a discounted sum of Rm20,000 but the brother in law only had Rm11,000 with him . After more haggling over a frustrating period, the cops finally agreed to accept the Rm11,000. And would you know it , my cousin had not even being released from the lock up yet and they were already dividing the loot amongst themselves smugly. And to top it off, they were gleefully showing of all the foreign currency they had accumulated with this scam without any hint of shame or remorse from the ill gotten gains. 

Next day, my cousin was brought to a magistrate court where he was dealt with through a window. He was asked to plead guilty and was fined 2,000 baht (RM200) for the trouble, what happened to the RM11,000? No mention at all.

Fortunately, my cousin remembered an account of another tourist that was charged together with him and had tried to leave the country without asking for documentation verifying absolution for arrest and hence was detained again at the airport. SO my cousin requested them to issue a letter stating that his case had been resolved and he was allowed to return to his country.

To further compound things, as he was about to purchase a flight ticket back, (apparently the flight tickets are managed by the Bangkok immigration department).he was told that Air Asia flight tickets were sold out.Only available were MAS tickets which were more expensive. But when he wanted to use his credit card to purchase the MAS ticket since he was low on cash, and he stated that he had only enough cash to buy Air Asia, mysteriously ,the ticketing officer said that there were seats available on Air Asia after all...... (As if every stage there is a loophole for advantage exploiting)

The immigration dept. stamped on my cousin’s pasport and his wife’s as 'Thief'!  Not only that, he had to endure the humiliation of being handcuffed and brought to the plane. His passport was handed over to the crew of Air Asia and upon arrival at KL , KL immigration was asked to accompany him to their office at LCCT.


And it was there that my cousin was told that incidences like this happen all the time to our citizens but strangely , it has being kept under wraps.

 Our embassy officials also stated the same  and advised my cousin to inform his family and close friends not to go to Thailand for the time being until the political situation there stabilizes a bit. 

If these events had not happened to my kin, I might not have believed it..  seems so much like a movie plot, but believe it, it actually happened!

 Translated from the Malay version here:

http://maemahi.blogspot.com/2013/06/berhati2-ketika-melancong-ke-thailand.html

QUOTES BY THE FAMOUS AND INFAMOUS ON OPPRESSION !

WELL, GRASSHOPPER, LOOKS LIKE THE ANTS HAVE WISED UP AND ARE GATHERING!

                                     GIMME UR VOTE OR I LL SHOOT YOU IN THE FACE!!

Why scuba diving is so darn popular!

It is all about wet fun , underwater


http://scubadiversions.blogspot.com

Texting or FB ing or Twittering while driving..DON'T..! This Graphic video will make you think twice!

EVERY driver should see this, especially teens. It is very graphic and is recommended for 18 and older but if they wait till 18 to see it, they may not reach 18. Stuff like these happen all too often.
  PARENTS: Watch this by yourself first then WITH your kids. Explain to them that if they HAVE TO use their phone apps ,gadgets or text, pull over and stop in a SAFE location first, THEN use it.

This is the video that Rafizi meant by "Gantoi" , Zaid Hamidi.! Judge for yourself!

PKR has accused Ahmad Zahid Hamidi of spending more than 10 times the RM200,000 expense limit for his parliamentary seat campaign in GE13, to the tune of over RM2 million.

It has filed two election petitions against Zahid, accusing him of buying votes and overspending in the May 5 general election campaign.

Both petitions refer to videos posted by Zahid himself on his official website, stating that he had recruited 24,000 Bagan Datoh BN supporters, who are also local voters, as campaign workers in his run for the seat.

He also admitted, on video, to giving them RM100 and 5kg of rice each.

"He thinks he is smart in recruiting them as campaign workers and paying them, but on both counts he kantoi (is busted)," PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli told a press conference in Petaling Jaya today.

In the first petition, PKR is claiming that what Zahid did, despite the payments to voters camouflaged as benefits to campaign workers, was outright vote buying and therefore an offence under the Election Offences Act.

The second petition accuses Zahid of illegally recruiting too many workers and using more money than he is allowed to under election regulations.

PKR is arguing that the amount of money needed to pay 24,000 'campaign workers' RM100 and 5kg of rice each, works out to more than RM2 million, which is over 10 times the RM200,000 limit imposed for a parliamentary seat campaign.

You can't please everyone all the time, so why bother!

Since ,you can't please everyone, so just gotta please yourself !

Is it possible to imagine how we can Re think and Re invent our schools!!

Imagine all the people sharing all the world.. You may say i am a dreamer..but i am not the only one..i hope some day you will join us,..and the world will think as one.

 Imagination fuels creativity and innovation..A trait we sorely need more of in our nation!

From Dr. Azly Rahman's  blog.
Imagine a scenario in Malaysian classrooms where primary school children learn the meaning of the word ‘peace’ and muhibbah in many different languages: Bahasa Malaysia, Bahasa Jawa, Siamese, Bugis, Bawean, Bangladeshi, Hokkien, Cantonese, Hakka, Tamil, Urdu, Tagalog, Hebrew, Arabic, Senoi, Jakun, Iban, and Kadazan-dusun.

Imagine the children, in weekly language word-study circles, explaining to each other the meaning of the word in their own language.

Imagine the children learning Language Arts and Social Studies exploring the interdisciplinary theme of the language they use at home.

Imagine them translating proverbs from their native language into English, and next illustrating them and next doing class presentations.

Imagine at the end of the year, the children and their parents proudly dressed up in their cultural outfits, singing songs in their native language without being laughed at, sharing food - in a cultural celebration night.

Imagine secondary school students doing their final school project on the meaning of their cultural practices and the relationship to their ethical belief system and how each may teach them to profess universal values of peace and social justice among different races.

Imagine all of them doing a project that analyses the themes of famous cross-cultural movies and using this vehicle to learn the concepts of cultural preservation and continuity.

Imagine, at the community college and university level, when theyhave had enough exposure and appreciation to linguistic and cultural diversity, Malaysians forming cross-cultural dialogue clubs, engaging in multiple literacies and multiple voices fora, interfaith circles of learning, transcultural network of friends and other innovations in multi-cultural social imaginations - so that we may not need communalism anymore as a basis for our national political design. (full text here)

Mortality, why dwell on it?

Doesn't take very much but the passing of a dear one  to remind us just how fleeting and tenuous our individual mortality is!

It has been very unsettling to me ever since a child until even now,fast approaching half a century in age, to view a lifeless body.!

      
 Most  recent being my very own mother, I am not a very religious person,my mind conceives that to believe in the supernatural,although on the verge of  surrendering to the spiritual desires of the heart, but the mind stubbornly resist when it cannot accept what it has problems rationalizing !.

      And there she was,laying peacefully, this lifeless form now, but wasn't that long ago when she was alive and existing and full of  love to give, this woman that had given me life,to whom i owe my existence, nurtured me ,protected me, mainly enabled me to feel that powerful unconditional maternal love! Till the  day she just went to sleep and never woke up!

     Even as my heart wrenches , just observing her lying in her casket,seemingly peaceful,  that very image triggering conflicting emotions and contradicting thoughts  that keep manifesting. A part of me yearns so much to believe that there is a higher realm,another plane of existence or consciousness for those who have exited their physical bodies and my mother is there in soul or spirit now, a thought that calms the restlessness  I feel to the core of my very own state of existence and conscious thought! 

    It bothers my rational mind to reconcile to the fact that the woman you loved and  worshiped like a saint has ceased to exist!    And hard as it is  to ponder, in all frankness, as a Being with a rigid logical mind,you  just cannot help but think that maybe , Thats it ! That body which used to be a vessel for a precious precious life full of love has gone  and it is no more. It is just what it is, a lifeless form devoid of normal human functions and conscious mind!  

              And what dreads me the most is the thought that I eventually, as with every thing that lives and breathes,inexorably will be going the same  way,

                         The consciousness I possess now , which so acutely gives me self awareness that I am an  intelligent entity , a  being who recognizes my place and acknowledges my existence in the universe,  will  cease the self awareness when it is my time ,the conscious state extinguished like a flame of a candle which has used up all the wax, resting for all eternity! Sentient no more! 

       And it makes me look restlessly inward at my own mortality  ! What will happen when i arrive at that threshold and finally leave my physical body? Will I  still be  conscious and intelligent as a being ? Will I be a free drifting disembodied spirit looking at my own body, which used to carry my very self!  Or will I , this is which i feel most uneasy about, just be another lifeless form  of  flesh and bone, having lost the  very essence that makes me human! My awareness and intellect!

  I suppose if thats the case,then it wouldn't really matter to me anymore!

         

               So therefore, a thought lingers,  if we were to  look more in depth at human mortality, actually we really cannot be sure both ways,is there or isn't there a higher realm of consciousness? After departing from the human form, is our personal consciousness still intact? And moves on to the other realm!

  Nobody can agree nor deny for certain, except for church priests, monks or theologians !  I guess you have to die to know for sure! 

      There are so many unexplained mysterious happenings attributed to the spirit world , right here on earth , that strangely,spooky though it may be,actually gives a sense of hope to atheistic or nihilistic believers that there may be something  to this life after death premise, encouraging hope!

      We humans have a long history dating back tens of thousand of  years, since that time till right now and here,how many humans have existed and died,.probably in the bilions, all that conscious energy from them who have lived and passed on. Also,all the creatures of Mother Nature's creation,their bodies may have died off,but the life forces still lingers. 

     ,There is a personal thought I have,(bordering on Science fiction)  I'd like to think that , consciousness doesn't die, because its  a form of energy that lingers and seeks out other similar energies to mesh and then  just continously drifts on forward  through time,ever increasing its core with more and more sentient energy  without hosts bodies  joining in as it permeates our world, becomes stronger and stronger as a force,that somehow , present day people are tapping in to this energy force in their daily lives without realising it! (Just a hyphothesis mind you!)

 Does God exist?    
 Is there an Almighty ? Or is that very force the almighty in which we speak of !
  Being responsible for the creation of everything,?  Or do we owe our existence as humanity to mere chance and chemical reactions and evolution!

            
  What is consciousness and intelligence in the scheme of things in the universe? Is there a reason or purpose that we seem to be the only beings on this earth capable of intelligence. A totally random act of chance? Or the deliberate design of a omnipotent being,?

          But one things is for  sure! No matter what you believe, our physical tenure as existing beings is so very brief in the scale of the universe!  

       Surely there is more to this state of life and consciousness and self awareness!

   Therefore with that realization on just how brief our tenure on the earth is,50 years and 60 years is hardly anything at all in the scale of universal time,so  with what limited time we have in our physical bodies,lets make the most of it! Why dwell on things we are not sure off like life, death and mortality.

 Unless you are a very religious person, or a college professor or theologian or philosopher researching the subject there are just too many questions on life and living and purpose and dying and life after death!

           We cannot change what's inevitable, it will just be counter productive to worry too much about dying and what comes after  and in the process forgetting how to live.!

  I'd rather kick the bucket with a smile and realization that i 've done as much as i can to live life joyful and contented.,and didn't let too many anxious thoughts weigh me down!   

BryanBB

   

Cry baby syndrome!

Lady's Bleeding Ear Blamed On Speeding AirAsia Flight

An AirAsia passenger has claimed that she's been left almost deaf in her right ear because a pilot allegedly increased the speed of a flight from Guangzhou to Kuala Lumpur to make up for lost time.

KL florist Wong Chan told Guang Ming Daily she now has only five percent of her hearing in her right ear and blames it on a bumpy flight on the low-cost carrier, which at one point included flying through turbulence.

She said the turbulence caused the passengers, including her husband and her son, to cover their ears to ease the discomfort from the cabin pressure.

She also said the flight on 8th May was delayed 40 minutes, departing China only at 9:30PM but arriving at the LCCT at its original time of 12:55AM on the 9th, which makes her believe the pilot flew the plane faster to catch up on time.

She said the pain in her ear lasted until she got home, and then her ear started to bleed. She told the paper she went to a clinic where she was given antibiotics, but when her condition stayed the same, she turned to a specialist.

"The doctor said my right eardrum was injured under the air pressure and I have to be treated for half a year, to observe whether it will heal by itself. If not, I would have to undergo a surgery to mend it," she said.

On top of the hearing loss, she said it feels as if her ear is always blocked and that it hurts whenever she coughs. She said because of her condition, she's unable to work and has to rely on painkillers and sleeping pills every night.

She said she was told to avoid flying for six months, meaning her travel plans to Bali, Phuket and Taiwan have been grounded. She said her son had bought her tickets as a Mother's Day gift and estimates the loss at around RM1,300. 

"I hope AirAsia can compensate me, be it for my medical bill or the psychological impact caused by the incident," said Wong, 59, adding that she has sought the help of Teratai state assemblywoman Tiew Way Keng because she didn't have any flight insurance.

AirAsia has reportedly confirmed receiving the complaint, and a spokesperson issued a statement saying the airline "welcomes other passengers who face similar situations in the same flight to provide us with details". 

Source: Guang Ming daily

Published: 3rd June 2013

What and why Turkish are protesting,and how it started!

Istanbul, Turkey - Nobody predicted that a minor sit-in protest, launched to prevent the demolition of trees in a park in the heart of Istanbul, would soon turn into unprecedented country-wide demonstrations and riots against the Turkish government. Use of force by the police against peaceful protesters in Taksim's Gezi Park, combined with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's escalating statements about the incident, have been the last straw for many Turks frustrated with the policies of the self-defined conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP). Nine days after the initial sit-in, the protests have reportedly spread to at least 48 Turkish cities with two deaths and hundreds, if not thousands, of protesters and police officers injured. How it began It was a sunny and busy spring day in Istanbul on May 28 when about 100 activists started a sit-in protest in Gezi Park. The goal was to prevent authorities from dismantling one of the only green areas in the heart of the city for the sake of an urban development project. Raiding the park on the morning of May 30, the police used tear gas and water cannons to force the peaceful activists out of the area. This was followed by the burning of activists' tents and belongings. The activists, most of whom were students, called for help through the internet. Hundreds of supporters rushed to the area and helped re-gain control of the park. The police raid that followed the next morning caused thousands of protesters to pour into the streets leading to Taksim. They were met by police barricades keeping protesters from entering the square. Following mostly peaceful demonstrations, some clashes and the use of much tear gas continued through the night; the police let the protesters enter Taksim Square on Saturday afternoon. The demonstrators included some members of left-wing groups and nationalists, but the majority were middle-class, secular Turks. Some arrived at the protest area wearing helmets and goggles and carrying medical equipment to avoid the effects of tear gas. "The police has surpassed itself in the level of violence," Emma Sinclair, a senior Turkey researcher of Human Rights Watch, told Al Jazeera, saying authorities had used excessive force. Opposition 'weakness' The government, for its part, apologised for the initial police raid on the camp, saying police officers had indeed used excessive force. Hatem Ete of the Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research, a think-tank close to the government, links the riots to the weakness of the opposition parties in Turkey. According to Ete, some groups in Turkish society see themselves as negatively affected by the events of the last 10 years, as certain military, judicial, media and business circles lost ground. "They also perceive some policies of the AK Party as a threat to their lifestyle, and this threat creates an opposing identity," Ete told Al Jazeera. "Given the opposition parties are far from shifting these concerns to the political arena and far from matching against the AK Party, the concerns of this part of the society keeps growing." Youth on the streets Turkish youth, who have often been regarded as apolitical since a military coup in 1980 and its subsequent restoration in 1983, have flowed into the streets, clashing with police across the country. "It is the first time I join a demonstration and I am not affiliated to any political group," Kerem Gencay, a 28-year-old marketing employee, told Al Jazeera. Like many demonstrators, he stressed that he joined the protests in an individual capacity. "I came here on Friday after the police crackdown on people who were passively resisting to demolition of Gezi Park. I am happy with what it has evolved into because it is right; the government seeks to interfere with people's lifestyles." Another protester, 26-year-old publicist Nihan Dinc, said she is worried about the direction of the country under the governing AK Party. "We are here for our freedom, for a space to breath. We are here to be able to kiss in public, consume alcohol, read without any censorship. We are here for a life without any pressure from the state," Dinc said. Prime Minister Erdogan thinks that he is a sultan, he does not listen to anybody, consult with anybody. He thinks he can do whatever he wants. Yesim Polat, protester Others say the prime minister, who was democratically elected with a large mandate, is acting like an authoritarian. "Prime Minister Erdogan thinks that he is a sultan, he does not listen to anybody, consult with anybody," said Yesim Polat, a 22-year-old student. "He thinks he can do whatever he wants." Those views are shared by most protesters. A recent poll by Istanbul Bilgi University researchers who talked to 3,000 activists revealed that the demonstrators' anger is directed strictly towards Erdogan, not his aides nor his political party; 92.4 percent of the participants said that they have taken to the streets because of Erdogan's "authoritarian" attitude. Fuat Keyman, a professor of political science at Sabanci University in Istanbul, told Al Jazeera that the recent social backlash was specifically directed at the prime minister. "Five or six years ago there was social reaction against the AK Party. Today Erdogan is the only target," he said, adding the riots have broken out because there was no response to democratic action and that media has a responsibility in the outcome. How did it come to this? Before the protests erupted, recent developments had worried and frustrated many secular Turks. Erdogan has publicly criticised the content of some TV shows, made frequent statements opposing alcohol consumption, and spoken out against public displays of affection. He recently called all people who consumed alcohol "alcoholics" but then changed his definition to "the ones who drink on a regular basis". The prime minister also supported an announcement calling on young couples to act "in line with moral values" and not to kiss at a subway station in Ankara. Following the adoption of recent restrictions on alcohol, shops entitled to sell the drinks must close by 10pm. The new law also forbids advertising alcoholic products, and prohibits alcohol licenses for businesses within 100 metres of places of worship or education. In the past, the government also proposed outlawing adultery and abortion, but stepped back after public uproars. Erdogan has disregarded the protesters, calling them "looters" and dismissing them as "marginal" or "ideological" groups. "No one has the right to increase tensions with the excuse that trees are being demolished," Erdogan said in a recent public address. In his references to the issue, he often referred to the economic and environmental success of the government, calling himself "the servant of the nation". In its almost 11 years of AKP governance, Turkey has achieved unprecedented economic success, transforming a crisis-hit economy into a quickly growing one fuelled by trade and foreign investment. 'Message has been taken' Meanwhile, other voices in the government as well as Turkish President Abdullah Gul tried to ease tensions. Gul asked the protesters to go home, saying: "The message has been taken. Democracy is not only about [the] ballot box." Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc apologised for the police's actions against the initial protests in Gezi Park, though he added the government did not "owe anything to those causing harm". Erdogan frequently makes remarks about his party's legitimacy and the fact that it won 50 percent of the votes in 2011 elections. Despite the president's and deputy prime minister's conciliatory remarks, Erdogan has stood his ground - and the demonstrations have shown no signs of abating. Turkey's social crisis looks set to continue.

Source: Al Jazeera

True justice

What can a judge do? Here is  a poignant tale making the rounds of how justice of a divine variety is realised by a human judge.

With age comes wisdom, but sometimes age comes alone. – Oscar Wilde

This is a touching story of a “nenek” who stole a piece of tapioca for her hungry grandchild charged in court in a country rich in natural resources, minerals and oil and gas but the majority of whoserakyat are living below the poverty line. Will the rakyat of Malaysia be in this state under Najib’s Umno rule for the next five years?

As it is, Malaysia is the world champion in GDP in terms of the nation’s plundering, pilfering and siphoning of money to other countries. Ministers’ 100-200 per cent pay hike, GST, subsidy removal, AES implementation nationwide and many more much of it for the benefit and pockets of Umno cronies, but nothing much in comparison for the rakyat.

So those who put Umno in power are to be blamed – getting a one-time RM500-RM1000 payment and you will be sucked through the high prices of GST and subsidy removal forever.

Of course, also in karma’s way will be those who aided and abetted in the many instances of cheating throughout the campaign in GE13 that contributed to the ensuing questionable mandate. Now, here’s the story …

The Nenek

An Indonesian Judge, Marzuki, was sitting in judgment of an old woman who pleaded guilty to stealing some tapioca from a plantation.

In her defence, she pleaded that she did this because she was poor, her son was sick and her grandchild was hungry.

The plantation manager insisted that she be punished as a deterrent to others.

The judge, going through the documents, then looked up and told the nenek, “I’m sorry but I cannot make any exception to the law and you must be punished.”

Accordingly, our nenek was fined Rp1 million (US$100) or jailed two-and-a-half years. She wept as she could not pay the fine.

The judge then took off his hat, put in Rp1 million into it and said, “In the name of justice, I fine all who are in the court Rp50000 (US$5.50) as dwellers of this city and letting a child starve until her grandmother had to steal to feed her grandchild. The registrar shall now collect the fines from all the accused.”

The court collected Rp3.5 million (US$200). Once the fine was paid off, the rest was given to our nenek. The fines collected included those from the plantation manager!

This short story succinctly shows what a judge can do to achieve justice, despite the sometimes inhuman strictures of man-made law. To his eternal credit, Judge Marzuki meted out justice of a divine variety.

Extracted from http://aliran.com/14203.html

We Don't Need A "Strong" Leader Ala Mahathir

MONDAY, JUNE 10, 2013

We Don't Need A "Strong" Leader Ala Mahathir But One Who Has Good Morals And Strong Moral Convictions

Mahathir's 23 year reign has long being dismissed by thinking Malaysians as being more destructive than constructive for the nation.

He happened to be the Pm at a time when some say even a donkey could have done economically as well for the nation with its eyes closed.So, we are not going to talk about the 7% annual growth, KLCC or Sepang or Formula 1 or the now moribund MSC.

If you wanted to talk of those, you have to talk about Taiwan, Korea, Singapore and even Thailand - the so-called Asian Tigers - who all did much better than us with less natural resources.

We will focus more on what Mahathir's reign has wrought to the nation's psyche and institutions or the legacy of corruption and corrupting influences we have inherited.

Racial polarisation became entrenched during his divisive premiership, not helped the least by BTN's alleged indoctrination of racial supremacy. Before him, few Malaysians saw each other in racial terms.

Ahmad, Ah Chong, Muthu played as a team. We invited each other to our homes and did not think twice about visiting each other.

Mahathir also emasculated the judiciary with the infamous sacking of the Lord President and several senior judges on dubious grounds; the august institution has yet to recover from the body blow.

Today, very unfortunately, few Malaysians see the judiciary as their last bastion or fountain of justice.

The police, too, appear to have been compromised to do the bidding of their political masters and the AG's Chambers has come to be seen as a mere adjunct to the Pm's department instead of being the custodian of the public law fearlessly prosecuting in the public interest, not selectively to serve the private interests of the administration and the connected.

Public projects are farmed out to cronies, families and the connected under the skirt of the Official Secrets Act and accountability has become a dirty word.

All these done in the name of the interest of the rakyat, but benefit few in numbers.

No business, at least the public ones, seem to be able to move without the expedient of grease and greasing, so much so that one ex woman minister even challenged her ex colleagues to prove that they were clean.

Mahathir was able to do whatever he wanted to because he was strong and nobody dared challenge him.

No, we dont't need a strong leader, we need one who has good morals and strong moral convictions to do the right things, not the convenient and corrupting ones.

What can we expect Najib or the Najib administration to do?

Najib himself is implicated in the still unresolved scandal of the Scorpene submarines and the death of a Mongolian beauty.

His administration has inherited all the debilitating diseases of the previous administrations before him.

And recently implicated too, in the alleged cheating at the polls, including the claims of the treasonous use of foreign voters to pad the numbers.

Can such a Pm and such an administration so encumbered and enervated do what is necessary to put the nation back on the path to reconciliation and progress?

No, we need an entirely new leader, one who has good morals and strong moral convictions and an entirely new administration to heal the nation and move forward

http://lifeasanordinarymalaysian.blogspot.com/2013/06/we-dont-need-strong-leader-ala-mahathir.html