Local Sentiments

What I gathered from local news and local views in Penang and Parit Buntar, Perak.

• Many are unhappy and strongly disagree with the Sultan's decision on the Perak turmoil - many are wishing for an election to show BN how big they'll lose this time around.
  
• MACC's hypocrisy - unusual disclosure of their investigations, very quick and efficient when it comes to opposition parties, impossible when it comes to BN and its bedfellows - police, judges, etc.
  
• Chinese school to suffer because they invite opposition to fund raising event - It's sad to know that there are circulars that disallow all Malaysian schools from inviting Pakatan politicians, with threats of withdrawing government funds. Government funds is treated as BN funds and political tool when it should be used impartially on the education of our future generation.
• Elizabeth Wong scandal - Sad to know that it receives so much more coverage than all the corruption cases combined. While the debate on privacy and public morality of politicians is valid to certain extent, we are not practising the same standards when it comes to corruption. Her private life has no direct impact on her role; corruption, on the other hand is directly affecting the role of a politician. In Malaysia, corruption seem to be halal. Any revelations is quickly swept under the carpet.
  
• Labu LCCT - Maybe I can understand why Tony wanted his own airport. I flew in from Melbourne in Air Asia X. The airport terminal is OK on the inside. However, once we went past the exit, we thought we've landed in Africa! No joke. There was no proper signage to direct us to public transport. Touts were all over the place, offering taxi trips to KLIA for RM45 when it is just on the other side of the airport. After asking around, we managed to get on to a bus for just RM3. The bus is ill-equipped for travellers as there is no space of baggage. The driver and attendant are not in uniforms. The ride was scary especially when the bus is negotiating corners. We were so relieved to arrive at KLIA in the end. There was no proper sign at the terminal to show that we have arrived in KLIA. We saw a few foreign tourists struggling to understand where they were, so we offered our help, while feeling embarrassed about the condition of the current LCCT and the crappy services provided from there to KLIA. MAHB is definitely ripping Air Asia off for LCCT.
  

Back in Malaysia

Johanna and I arrived back in Malaysia on Friday evening. We were greeted at Penang Airport by my excited parents and brother. We started stuffing ourselves with all the Malaysian food we've missed in the last 14 months - Penang laksa, char koay teow, or chean (fried oysters with eggs), Penang Hokkien mee, rojak (fruits version), char siew (pork buns), lor mai kai (chicken glutinous rice), or koay (yam cake), tau foo fa (sweet soy pudding), Penang chendol, etc.

After spending two nights there we came back to my hometown. We bought a walking aid for my auntie who has serious knee problems. Hopefully she'll get used to using it.

Lompat Lagi

Tun Dr M has a very funny entry in his blog on the Perak turmoil which ended with "He he he!". He he he!

1. Sandiwara di Perak masih menggelikan hati. Ada lompat keluar kandang, ada lompat masuk kandang.

2. Duli Yang Maha Mulia Sultan sudah bertitah.

3. Tetapi Menteri Besar Pakatan tidak hendak berhenti jadi MB. Pejabatnya sudah dikosongkan oleh Polis.

4. Apakah Polis akan usung MB dan campak dia keluar? Tentu tidak kerana tiada peruntukan undang-undang yang mengizinkannya.

5. Pakatan boleh adakan Kerajaan minoriti. Demokrasi mengizinkan.

6. Tetapi kerajaan minoriti lemah. Dia boleh ditumbang dengan undi tidak percaya oleh majoriti ahli Dewan Undangan Negeri, kalau Dewan bersidang. Mungkin Pakatan tak mahu ada persidangan.

7. Siapakah yang berhak mengadakan persidangan? Bolehkah puak majoriti paksa Kerajaan minoriti adakan persidangan khas untuk undi tak percaya?

8. Jika tidak dapat paksa Kerajaan minoriti mengadakan persidangan mereka boleh ambil bermacam-macam tindakan untuk merosakkan negeri Perak. Apakah yang boleh dibuat kepada kerajaan minoriti jika ia kekalkan dirinya dan terus merosakkan negeri? Keadaan seperti ini masih kelabu; tak ada peruntukan undang-undang setakat yang saya tahu.

9. Mungkin pegawai tidak akan patuh kepada kerajaan minoriti ini. Tetapi pegawai profesional perlu akur akan perintah Kerajaan yang halal.

10. Kita hanya boleh pandang dan lihat sandiwara yang sedang berterusan. Anwar akan dapat banyak pengajaran daripada sandiwara ini kerana dialah yang beria-ia sangat untuk ada lompat katak yang terbesar pada September 16. Oh! Silap, September 24. Oh! Silap lagi.

11. Amat menggelikan hati mendengar telatah Anwar berkenaan Nasarudin Hashim (ADUN Bota) masuk PKR dan keluar daripada PKR.

12. Lompat masuk (perangkap) boleh tapi lompat keluar tak sah!! He, he, he!

Frogs - The aftermath

I'm no expert in law, but that doesn't stop me from thinking and asking myself a few questions regarding the Perak turmoil.

• 3 individuals have brought down the government voted in by the people. Is this fair?
  
• Did the people voted for these individuals in 308 or they voted for the party?
• What are the conditions for granting the dissolution of the state assembly?
  
• What if PKR managed to woo a few BN ADUNs to crossover in the next few weeks or months? How many times are we going to change the government?
  

This crossover thingy is a PKR's (Anwar's) game. I don't think PAS and DAP actually support it. Now it has backfired big time. When is Anwar going to learn to be patient?

Personally I think we should have an anti-hopping law. In my opinion it is very unfair for an ADUN to switch sides without getting a fresh mandate, especially when it involves the change in government.

Further comments on our outgoing PM's quote in the Star:

Datuk Seri Abdullah has told Pakatan Rakyat to accept Barisan’s rule in Perak. “They should accept it just as we had accepted results of the general election,” he said.

How can the Perak turmoil be compared to what happened in 308? In 308, it was the rakyat who voted, what happened now is the caused by the decision of only 3 individuals.

Is that too complicated for him to grasp?

Anyway, hope the new BN government have learnt their lesson from 308. But the way they seize the government is definitely not a good start.

What we did on Chinese New Year Eve and Chinese New Year Day

We've made a spontaneous trip to the mountains on Chinese New Year Eve since we didn't have any reunion dinner to attend.

Our plan is to do canoeing in one of the National Parks in Victoria. We set off to Bright, a town in the middle of the Alpine National Park and Buffalo National Park in the morning. It took us more than 4 hours to get there. Since it was a spontaneous trip, we didn't made any arrangement for accommodation. We were told by the staff at Bright's information centre that the hotels in surrounding areas have been fully booked except for a hotel at Myrtleford, which is the other direction from where we were heading. In the end we've decided to take the risk. I managed to call up a motel from an advertisement in a tourist brochure and booked a room.

View Larger Map

Dinner Plain is located on Mt Hotham, which is part of the Alpine National Park.

On the way, we have to pass through the Mt Hotham summit. The area is full of ski resorts and chair lifts which were not in operation. There was hardly any sign of life around. I think this place is only popular in winter.


On top of Mt Hotham



We arrived at Dinner Plain around 5pm. The motel is located in a very nice and peaceful village. We were elated that our motel turned out to be very nice.


Rundells




The lobby






Dinner Plain village

We've decided to view the sunset on top of Mt Hotham based on the recommendation by a local shopkeeper. But before that we took dinner at a pizza joint there.

The sunset was really breathtaking. We could see 360 degrees of the whole mountain range, each layer with its own hue.

















The next morning, we had a very nice breakfast at the motel. It is probably the best we've had. We could really taste the difference in the quality of the food served.











After the great breakfast we headed off to Mt Buffalo. We were excited to get to Lake Catini where we planned to do canoeing. However, when we arrived there, there was no one in charge even though the canoes were there, without the paddle. I tried calling the phone numbers on the sign board but in vain. We had to give up canoeing and continued our journey to Horn, the summit of Mt Buffalo. We parked our car and started to follow the 1.5km track to the top. The view was equally breathtaking.





















It was a great trip indeed even though not the usual way of spending Chinese New Year Eve and Chinese New Year.

For more photos, please visit my Flickr.

Frogs

What say you?

It all started with Anwar's 916... Nothing much has happened thus far despite a lot dare and scare.

Perak (I consider myself a 1/2 Perakian 1/2 Penangite) has been in the news in the last few days:

• One Perak BN ADUN defected to Pakatan
• Two Perak Pakatan ADUN, who are facing corruption charges, defected to BN (maybe with the hope of saving their skins). BN may now wrest back Perak from Pakatan. But how can BN stoop so low to accept tainted frogs?
  
• The Perak BN ADUN who defected has now defected again (within days!) - since Pakatan may no longer be in power
  
• How much money is involved? According to Najib - zilch (No money is involved)
• Considering that many BN won seats have majority of less than 1,000 votes, if an election were to be called in Perak today, how much is Pakatan/BN going to win/lose?
  
• If BN were to wrest power, almost all ADUN will be from UMNO. What is MCA, Gerakan, MIC and other BN component parties' views?
  
• What if there are more frogs hopping around from either side in the next few weeks or months? Are we going to see a change in government every few weeks or months?
  
• The ball is now in Sultan Azlan Shah's (my most respected Sultan) court. I'm sure he'll make a wise decision for all Perakians
  
• There are rumours that many ADUN from Pakatan states are being lured by millions to crossover by BN - Are we going to see more frogs and more dramatic changes in the coming months?
  

It's all about money and positions. Who is standing for the rakyat when Malaysia and the whole world is facing economy crisis and job losses?

Flemington Race Course

24 January 2009

After sightseeing in Beaumaris, we decided to visit Footscray and Maribyrnong.

Footscray is a "Vietnamesetown" famous for its market with a lot of cheap and good food. Since it was quite late by that time, the town is almost dead.

We continued our journey to Maribyrnong just to look around since one of my colleague is living there. I saw the sign to Flemington and got a bit excited since that is the home to Melbourne Cup, the annual international horse racing event. So we went there and I managed a few shots of the place. From the stands, the scenery is great as we can see Melbourne's skyline all the way.

Ricketts Point, Beaumaris

24 January 2009

After leaving the Chinese New Year Carnival at Box Hill, we decided to go to Sandringham, which is south of Melbourne. We ended up on a beach a few kilometres further down in another town called Beaumaris.

The beach is very quiet and peaceful. I took the opportunity to take some shots while Johanna waited for me in the car.

I particularly love the shots taken in the glaring Australian sun's direction. The photos came out almost colourless.

I was surprised to see swans in the sea




A pelican with a few other big birds











More photos at my Flickr.