Perak MB

According to this article in Sin Chew Daily, the Perak constitution does not allow a non-Malay to hold the position of Menteri Besar unless permission is granted by Sultan of Perak.

As a result, despite being the biggest winners in the Perak state elections, DAP will have to allow PKR or PAS to nominate a Malay candidate as the new MB, since all its candidates are Chinese, unless they wish to request for special permission by the Sultan.

The latest election marked a new dawn for Malaysia. I hope the opposition parties, whether PKR, DAP or PAS will be sincere in dismantling race-based politics in the coming years. They have surprised us with their performance in this election. Let them take up the challenge of creating one identity for Malaysians. Many Malaysians think it is difficult but many countries have managed to do so, hence it is not impossible.

Wind of change

The wind of change was a lot stronger than I thought. Opposition has managed deny BN of 2/3 majority and gained control of 5 states - Kelantan, Penang, Perak, Selangor and Kedah, compared to only 1 in the previous general election. Not only they have managed to win, they have won it with a handsome margin. Similar results were also obtained in parliamentary seats, with Opposition nearly clean sweeping KL.

I was quite skeptical that this election is going to make too much of a change as the mainstream media is usually biased against the opposition due to the hidden hands of Barisan Nasional. It's good to know that we do not blog in vain.

Khalid Ibrahim is likely to be the next Menteri Besar of Selangor, Lim Guan Eng the new Chief Minister of Penang, while the MB for Perak, Kedah and Kelantan has yet to be announced.

I hope this will teach the 4th floor boys a good lesson for their arrogance and ignorance. Malaysians have finally realised that they could make a difference at the ballot box.

Election jokes

Got these from Malaysiakini website. The first one is really funny!

(1) Barisan has announced that its new national symbol is the Condom, because it accurately reflects the government stance. A condom allows for inflation, halts production, destroys the next generation, protects a bunch of pricks and gives us a sense of security while we're actually being screwed!



(2) Pak Lah and Samy Vellu were in a helicopter looking down Kuala Lumpur. Pak Lah said, "Samy, if I throw two RM100 notes down, two people will be happy."

Not wanting to be outdone, Samy said, "If I throw 200 RM1 notes, 200 people will be happy."

The pilot heard the conversation and said, "If I throw the two of you down, 27 million Malaysians will be happy."



(3) Three guys were arguing as to what race Adam and Eve were. The Malay guy said they must be Malay as they are so good looking. The Chinese guy said that they must be Chinese as they are so calm even with a snake.

The Indian guy said that they must be Malaysian-Indian as they have no shelter, no clothes, no money, share one apple, advised by a snake who told them that they are living in paradise!



(4) Pak Lah, Najib, Shahrizat and Anwar were sitting in a KTM train heading up to Penang for campaigning. Near Ipoh, the train goes through a tunnel and it gets completely dark.

Suddenly there is a kissing sound and then a slap!

The train comes out of the tunnel. Shahrizat and Pak Lah are sitting there looking perplexed.

Najib is bent over holding his face, which is red from an apparent slap.

All of them remain diplomatic and nobody says anything.

Pak Lah is thinking: "These guys are all crazy after Shahrizat. Najib must have tried to kiss her in the tunnel. Very proper that she slapped him."

Shahrizat is thinking: "Najib must have moved to kiss me, but kissed Pak Lah instead and got slapped."

Najib is thinking: "Damn it, Pak Lah must have tried to kiss Shahrizat, she thought it was me and slapped me instead."

Anwar is thinking: "If this train goes through another tunnel, I could make another kissing sound and slap Najib again."



(5) Barisan wins the election. To celebrate, they decide to send more angkasawan to space. Najib calls together a group of Umnoputra cosmonauts.

Saudara saudara sekalian, we successfully sent our man Muzaffar to space using tax payers' money the last time. Since we have more than enough tax payers' money, the Cabinet has decided that you will all now fly to the sun.

But Datuk, we will be burnt to crisp.

Jangan takut, the Barisan government has thought of everything ... you will fly at night!



(6) Today's election brings to mind the old Northern Ireland election slogan - "VOTE EARLY AND VOTE OFTEN"

DAP Ceramah in Penang

I could never imagine such a big crowd at DAP's ceramah in Penang (estimated between 20,000 to 30,000). Wonder what are the sizes of DAP's ceramahs in PJ? Some of my relatives went to listen to Tony Pua.

No more indelible ink?

Election Commission has cancelled the use of indelible ink on polling day citing public order and security reasons.

After such a huge debate and spending so much of taxpayers' money on the indelible ink, the rules are suddenly changed on the 11th hour.

???

Motorola 'bribed' to stay on

As a Penangite, I have been disappointed with its development for the past decade. Without sufficient effort in restoration and maintenance, George Town is living only in its past glory.

Quite a number of international companies which have operations in the Bayan Lepas Industrial Zone have pulled out of Penang for cheaper options in China. As the whole country is struggling to move up the value-chain, this is not surprising.

But I would never imagine the state government and federal government will stoop so low to offer 'bribes' to Motorola to stay on. The RM1 billion comes from the federal government coffers, meaning taxpayers' money. A highly confidential, 3-page letter dated 3 December last year, signed by CM Dr Koh Tsu Koon was sent to the PM seeking for 'help'.

In return of RM1 billion, Motorola agreed to invest RM350 million in the state last Tuesday. You do the maths.

A panic RM1 billion gamble to avoid bad press in the running up to general election? Do you think Motorola is the only company?

Even if it's done in the excuse of protecting jobs, how can this sort of arrangement be sustainable in the long run. Multinationals will probably come to Malaysia for free money.

Warkah untuk PM

In response to the Warkah untuk PM website launched by the Deputy PM.

Dear PM,

I would like to raise my concern on the crime rates in the country. I've been worried for my parents (who are in their golden age) lately as they have been victims of a two counts of theft within 3 weeks.

On the 2nd day of Chinese New Year, a thief attempted to break in to their house. He failed to do so, but managed to fish my father's wallet from one of the rooms through the window. The thief managed to withdraw a significant sum of money from 2 of his bank accounts. My father was deeply disappointed with the inspector who handled his case. He showed no interest in investigating the case at all. Imagine how many more people who are going to fall victim to this thief?

Sometime last week, my brother lost his bicycle from within the house compound. A theif has climbed into the compound to steal it at around 5am. My mum have been unable to sleep in peace due to these two events, combined with many other crimes suffered by the neighbours.

Everyday they hear of many other crimes in their housing area. The worst one involved a man who was robbed by Mat Rempits. He didn't have enough money on him and hence he phoned his son. His son was killed in a road accident on the way to help his father. There are many other cases of robberies and theft in the neighbourhood, a lot of them involving motorcycle gangs. As a result, residence in the area has paid a team every month to patrol the area, since there is not enough police presence. Despite this, the number of cases is still increasing. Many are living in fear.

Few months ago, my mother-in-law was robbed of her handbag in broad daylight. Not too long ago, one thief tried to steal my cousin's motorcycle but was caught. The most disappointing part is the police were reluctant to take action on the thief. Instead they tried to inconvenient my cousin by requiring him to leave his motorcycle at the police station for a few weeks in order to prosecute the thief.

My neighbours in PJ have also been victims of crime. Thieves have broken into the house of my left neighbour, ransacking the whole place while they are at work. The crime was committed at around noon time. A gang of motorcyclists attempted to steal the car of my opposite neighbour's friend in the middle of the night. Luckily my other neighbour woke up and raised the alert. Even so, the gang came back a few times to try their luck. Right before this year's Chinese New Year, my right neighbour's house was broken into while they are sleeping.

The list goes on... But the worst thing is the attitude of the policemen in handling criminal cases. Most of them have the tidak apa attitude. You promised IPCMC few years ago to improve the police force but until today nothing has been done while the crime rates have increased to a worrying level. Your son-in-law even open endorse Mat Rempits for his political gain.

This is just one of the many promises you've made to Malaysians after the last election. Please tell the rakyat why you deserve our votes for failing to fulfill most of the promises you have made?

You said you have big ears. But you have chosen not to listen to the grouses of many Malaysians in the past few months.

How can you convince me that this warkah is going to be read? How can you convince me that even if you have read this warkah, you are going to act on it? To me Warkah untuk PM is just another political gimmick, just like the newly tarred roads, new schools, etc. I can only hope that nothing more serious will happen to the people I love while you sleep on your job.

Lousy customer services

Johanna & I have moved in to this house since 7 February.

Ever since, we still have the following unresolved problems.

• Faulty bed - no holes were drilled on one of the piece where there were supposed to be 3
  
• No Internet broadband yet due to the delay in the provider in contacting us
  
• LCD TV that can't seem to change source to PC Input so that I can connect my laptop to it

Faulty Bed

We bought the bed from a Fantastic Furniture. The furniture are definitely good in terms of look and price. They are all made in Malaysia. Unfortunately, the quality is quite poor - not only the material but how the pieces are packaged. The quality of the material is of course expected given the price. But the packaging is somewhat disappointing. One piece of our bed is suppose to have 3 holes drilled into it but the holes are missing. Two other holes on two other pieces are in the wrong order. It took the furniture shop more than one week to send over a staff to inspect the pieces and until now we haven't heard from them about delivering us the replacement. The reason given was 'stock has yet to arrive from Sydney'.

Internet Broadband

Internet is always a priority for us. We were quite appalled to find out the in Australia, broadband packages start off with around 400MB of monthly bandwidth, some with maximum of only 2GB! For a 400MB 'deal', the cost is $30 per month. This is really outrageous! Not even enough to check e-mail and read news.

The first day after we moved in, I immediately registered for one of the rare high bandwidth services provided by iiNET. The product is an award-winning product called Naked DSL, meaning I won't need to register for a separate phone line as iiNET will not require me to do so. After the registration, the only thing I received so far is an e-mail with my customer ID stating that my service will be provided within the next 10 to 20 days. Ever since I haven't heard from them and it has already been more than 15 days after my registration. The logical thing is to call them up. And so I tried only to be greeted by the automated service informing me that they are suffering from higher than usual number of calls and I can expect to be connected in 30 minutes, no matter what time of the day I called (attempts so far, 8am, 1am, 1pm). Right now I don't even know whether this company will really contact me, other than sending me their monthly newsletter. Because of this I have not been updating my Flickr for a long time as one upload will be more than 1GB usually. Jo & I are depending on our mobile broadband service provided by 3 with only 2GB monthly limit. So far 3's service has been good, both for phone and Internet, unlike Optus where we need to wait for more than 30 minutes to get connected to the customer service only to end up with a rude, unhelpful Indian with a difficult to understand accent on the other end.

LCD TV

We've bought a Samsung LA32R81BD TV on the 11th. I was so excited to connect it to my Dell 640m laptops. But after more than 2 weeks posting my problem on Internet forums, calling support, I still can't choose the PC Input in the source list of my TV even though my laptop can detect the TV as a monitor. It is also extremely difficult to contact Samsung customer service. My first e-mail (with product serial number) was ignored, the second one was replied but telling me to call the support helpline. Of course the reason I e-mailed them is because it is impossible to get through to them by calling the helpline. Eventually I managed to get through one morning by calling at 8.30am when the helpline starts operating, only to be told to contact one of the service agents. I tried calling the number provided to the service agent and the whole process of being put on hold started again. In the end I had to give up again. The worst thing is while being kept on hold, this message kept on being repeated.

We know your time is valuable. We will try our very best to connect you shortly.

Just get more people in the call centre! This applies to all other Australian customer service we've experienced except for 3. But 3 is not perfect either. In my latest phone + mobile broadband bill, I was charged more than $300 for cancellation fee, i.e. breaking my mobile broadband contract. I never cancel my contract in the first place. In fact I'm using the service now to post this blog. The good thing is it's not difficult to call them. I was told that their IT systems is F-up and many people have reported the same problem. Sigh.

No doubt it is very relaxing to work in this lovely country. But everyone is probably relaxing too much to provide good services.

From this experience I've learnt to appreciate Malaysia's tele customer service. It is so easy to call Maybank, Maxis and even Astro. In the past Astro has poor reputation for being uncontactable. But they've come a long way ever since.

Finally moved in!

Updated: Managed to take some photos yesterday. The frustrating thing is our faulty bed has not been replaced!

After more than 2 months putting up in Janet's and Duane's place in Melbourne, Johanna and I have finally found our own apartment, right opposite Albert Park. We are really grateful to Janet and Duane for their generosity in allowing us to share their great apartment.

Our new place is an apartment within a heritage building built in 1930s. But the apartment has been nicely refurbished. It is only 300m away from my workplace (AIG Life) along St Kilda Road. Come March, I may be able to watch the Australian Gran Prix from my window if the organisers do not put up high barriers around Albert Park. The apartment is very spacious, with 2 bedrooms.

We got our keys last Wednesday evening. The weekend before that we have booked our furniture so that they could be delivered within the week itself. Last weekend we bought electrical appliances, including an LCD TV and a fridge. We've rented a car so that we could buy other household items as well. Despite the hefty amount spent, it was great to shop for all these together with Jo. It is a part of marriage which I haven't experienced before as I've got my home in Malaysia before getting married.

The furniture arrived on Thursday and ever since we've been busy fixing them up. Both of us really enjoyed the DIY experience. Unfortunately, there was some defect on a piece of wood for our bed. Apparently, three holes are missing from it. We are still waiting for the furniture shop to come over to inspect and replace the faulty piece. Otherwise, everything has been put in place. We've also cooked our first meal over the weekend.

More pictures to follow soon.

Shooting Melbourne

Some of the photos I've taken lately.

CBD from Southbank


Eureka Tower, the tallest building in Melbourne


Yarra River with CBD on the far side


Rod Laver Arena on the day of the Final between Djokovic and Tsonga