MH370: Lessons to Learn

This will probably be the biggest news this year although it's still March. No need for me to elaborate further on what happened on that fateful day, 8th March 2014 as this been covered daily since then. You are probably staying in Timbuktu if you've not heard of this. Dammit, there's even a Wikipedia page on it already.

I refrained from posting anything about this earlier for there are too many unconfirmed, wild rumours pertaining the incident to the flight MH370 and not wanting to join the bandwagons of self-appointed military experts, conspiracy theorists & aircraft investigators. On the cause of the disappearance, you have stories from alien abductions to pilot suicides. On its whereabouts, they even said the plane landed on the moon. Yes, u read me, landed on the moon !!!! And of course, the unrelevant news of the pilots' & passengers' private lives. Don't even mention the incompetencies of the related authorities in handling this crisis. Don't quote me. Irregardless of the outcome of this crisis, there's few lessons to be learned on crisis management, hard knock style by everyone.

LEADERSHIP

(1) Your true leadership character will be revealed during time of crisis. Delegation is one thing but people will be able to read your body language / actions if your are plainly avoiding or not. Ensured to be seen by your stakeholders (in this case your country citizens) during crucial time
(2) Speak if you're required to so. Silence is not golden each time as during time of crisis, people expect to hear voice from the highest authority for comforting reasons etc.
(3) The crisis should be made the main priority & any other unnecessary social appointments such as visits to the market, launching of new store etc should be cancelled or to get representative to attend instead.
(4) Give instructions from the start and get the tasks done immediately.

PUBLIC SPEAKING

(1) Have only ONE single voice (the most 2 people) of who knows what's going on and not having many unrelated people talking on different tunes/directions
(2) Be adaptable to the situation when facing the public and present yourself accordingly. Laugh when u need to and don't, if it doesn't requires you to do so.
(3) Get the concrete facts right before presenting it to the public. Providing assumptions or giving unimportant information will cause more frustrations.
(4) Being protective of your own is understandable but being defensive is the opposite. Know the differences of both and project yourselves accordingly with your words & statements
(5) Your words & tones carry different messages. Enrich your vocabs and brush off your spoken language to ensure you say the right words with the right tone, at the right time
(6) If you don't know what to talk, don't talk. Don't make yourself looked like a bloody fool when u said the wrong stuff at the wrong time

What's my stand up till today? Announcing of the plane "ended" in Indian ocean based on "conclusion from analysis" done is not a convincing answer to give to the families of 239 passengers on board. Specific explanation on how do you make the conclusion and giving concrete evidences are required here. We are facing international medias here and not any half-past-six journalists who will willingly accept all the answers given. It's mentally torturing really. Instinct tells us it has crashed but we don't have the proof up till today to substantiate the claim. This explains exactly, why I didn't give out any condolences or obituary messages till today.

One thing that hurts me individually on how we Malaysians manage this situation of getting the bad publicity from overseas people and medias. And here, we have people wanting to denounce their Malaysian citizenship. As much as we are frustrated on the whole scenario, we must not let our emotions cloud our rational minds and be confused on the differences between government and country. Mark Twain said "Loyalty to the country always, loyalty to the government, when its deserve it". We may be frustrated with the current government incompetencies in dealing with the MH370 crisis but this shouldn't shake our loyalty and love to the country. Everyone around the world may be cursing us like hell now but this does not mean we should be embarrassed to call ourselves Malaysians. Perception by others is created by humans and it can be changed too by you and me. We can't stop others from condemning us, which is why we should reciprocate by educating the unawares. Otherwise, if we, Malaysians don't do it, then who will? Protect our nation if you need to and let Almighty God deals with the uncontrollable factors.

Understanding GST: The Analysis II

Continuing from my previous posts on GST on the theory & analysis, this last post will focus on how GST affects us in our daily life, giving model scenarios in different fields. Below are analysis of the six areas that bound to take a substantial amount of our income.

FOOD/GROCERIES
As informed in my previous post, although some basic food & other items are exempted, there's the grey areas in the whole flow of selling of the goods to the end-part of the supply chain. The manner of how the GST will be charged on sales of these items (standard rate supplies, zero rated supplies & exempted supplies) at retailer level has not been clearly defined. Unless you are buying all your normal groceries at small sundry shops (which not subject to sales tax), barring any changes in implementation, GST shall be charged all across the board at retailer-level, which are the hypermarkets & supermarkets irregardless what items you are buying.

FINANCE
Financial services including all banking & insurance services are exempted

TRANSPORTATION
Transportation services such as LRT, taxi, train, ferry, boat & highway is exempted. Under certain circumstances as explained in this link, GST is taxable of these services too. Domestic transportation by air such as from KLIA to Penang, is GST taxable but taking flight from KLIA to international destinations is zero rated. On personal transportation, purchase of new cars is GST taxable. Buying petrol for your car is GST taxable. However, it is not clearly explained on what petrol price value of the GST will be taxed. In Singapore for instance, the price shown on the pump is already inclusive of GST. The receipt will specify the value of the GST shown separately. Judging from this, this should be practiced in Malaysia too.

EDUCATION
Enrolling your children in:-
- Government schools & tertiary institutions - GST-exempted
- Private nurseries/ kindergarden - GST exempted
- Private colleges / universities - GST taxable

UTILITIES
Electricity: Exemption given for first 200 units of electricity only. Calculating against the current TNB tariff rates (which I guess will be increased next year), this means any electricity bills costing minimum of MYR 43.60 are subject to GST 6%.

Water: Water supplies is a zero-rated supply & not taxable. However, the role of water concessionaires in Malaysia like Syabas in Selangor holds the key in deciding if this is GST taxable or not. Judging from the fact that Malaysian water concessionaires are either privatized government institutions or semi-private government vehicle, GST shall be taxable

Cable TV: Astro bills are GST taxable

Telecommunication: Supplies of telecommunication is a service, thus, all telecommunication-related bills such as Wi-Fi, handphone, fax etc are subject to GST

MEDICAL
Supplies of medical-related services such as consultancies & surgeries by government & private bodies are classified as exempted supplies. Thus, no GST involved.


With the lack of awareness given, this not surprising to see most people, especially in the rural & lower-income group are still in the dark about GST. Lastly, tackling the question on whether this GST implementation is good or bad??? 3 posts on this topic, giving you the useful information to decide for yourself. Not being diplomatic but it's depends on from which viewpoint you're looking at. Whether its from a macro-economist point of view, a government point of view or just an ordinary Joe's viewpoint, this is bound to be a hotly debated topic among politicians/citizens for years to come until the next election I guess.

A certain Mr. Prime Minister said GST will help the country from bankruptcy. Stupid explanation, I say. Greece & Portugal have GST & the countries are bankrupt. One thing I must say is, as a government of the day, the implementation of any new policy must comes with a clear direction, clear message to the people, giving realistic reasons (& not incredibly stupid reason like reducing diabetes among people by cutting sugar subsidies), besides coming up with standardized actions to complement it. U don't come out n say you need money to tackle the fiscal deficits but at the same time, wasted the citizen's money on unnecessary/unprofitable/doubtful projects. This is like a smoker father who tells his son not to smoke as it's bad for health. This won't gives u any credibility n will leads to loss of respect from the people. If only people from high above there can understand this basic rule......

Understanding GST: The Analysis I

Most of us have known by now that on 25th October, Prime Minister has announced Goods & Services Tax (GST) shall be fully implemented on April 1, 2015. This is not surprising actually, although many people are still in the dark about what's this all about. Besides sharing on my last post, I've linked a site which provide great, brief knowledge about what's GST all about.

Can't talk about all but I will focus more on the certain exempted supplies & zero-rated supplies by analyzing the framework against the current Malaysian environment. I'm no John Maynard Keynes nor Paul Krugman, not an economic graduate either, but just sharing on my thoughts on what could affect the daily lives of ordinary people like you and me. Do feel free to comment, if I was wrong or sharing your thoughts. A brief overview of the confirmed GST model given below. Sorry but the only source which is truly reliable, which clearly indicated what's being tabled on October 25th has only the Bahasa Malaysia version which indicate what it's tax u, what didn't & what is exempted

1) Tax rate: 6% rate, effective from April 1, 2015.
2) Exempted from GST:
- Basic food items such as rice, sugar, salt, flour, cooking oil, lentils, herbs and spices, salted fish, cincalok, budu & belacan
- Piped water supply
- First 200 units of electricity per month for domestic consumers
- Services provided by Government such as issuance of passports, licenses, health services and school education
- Sales, purchase & rental of residential properties
- Selected financial services such as all matters leading to issuance of letter of credits (LC), all financial matters (including purchase of marine insurance) related to goods to be exported, purchase of travel insurance, all personal banking-related matters, all personal insurance-related matters
- Transportation services such as bus, train, LRT, taxi, ferry, boat & highway toll
- All medical related services (government & private) including supplies & consultancies
- All service related to human remains, including funeral, cremation & consultancies

My initial prediction of tax rate to be imposed is minimum 4% to maximum 5%. Can't deny GST is a good way of tackling the government budget deficit but my honest opinion is that this could have been done way before this in the 90s. Even though there's regional economic crisis in 1997, Inflation is still at the low level & our GDP per capita was steadily increasing. Indonesia started implementing GST ( termed VAT in some countries) in 1984, Thailand in 1992, Singapore did it in 1994, Philippines in 1998. The fact that this GST bill has only be proposed to the Parliament in 2008 clearly made us pondered on how do we managed our macro-economy & micro-economy all this while. It's the question about implementing at the right time. True, 6% rate is still among the lowest in the region but this comes back-to-back with the reduction & abolishment of the subsidies for fuels, sugar & other items, which will cause chain reaction of price increase of all goods & services provided domestically. A basic economic model states inflation comes together with rising GDP & standard of living but if it's increasing above the manageable level, u know something is wrong about the implementation of the micro-economic policies.

One look of a model transaction with GST rate of 6%, it seems that the consumers only need to pay extra 6% on top of the current selling price. That is assuming there wont be any increase of the current selling price at the top level of the supply chain. Some claimed market price could also go down too. Based on explanation in my last post & this guide on process of getting GST refund by industries, there's bound to have many hidden costs incurred, starting at manufacturer's level. Getting consultancy services to implement GST, upgrading of the current accounting software or possibly purchase of new software, additional paperwork, hiring & training of staffs to handle all accounting matters & other additional responsibilities, depending which industries u are referring to. About the issue whether there will be price increase or not, throwing back the question, if u are the GST registered supplier/manufacturer/wholesaler & all above are additional costs incurred after the GST implementation, what will u do?

Took days to look thru all attached docs & in come many more questions. Law documents being law documents, it did not clearly indicate what u want to know about the exempted & zero rated supplies but it's the "unseen binding words" in the bill that caught u. To take some examples of our day-to-day transactions at retailing level for exempted items,:-

1) Medical related supplies
The whole tax flow for the whole supply chain is not clearly defined. Supplies of all medical-related goods is zero-rated. In reality, we buy medicines & pharmaceutical goods from Guardian, Watsons etc rather than clinics/hospitals. Are these companies classified as pharmacies which sells only pharmaceutical goods (which can be GST exempted) or rather, retailers (which is GST-taxable)? When we buy other items too, does this means we are to segregate the taxable supplied goods (toiletries, cosmetics etc) & exempted supplied goods (medicines, pharmaceutical goods) at cashier counters? What guideline is given to these companies which provide taxable supplies, zero-rated supplies & exempted supplies, all at the same time to the consumers? What will be practical operational procedure for these companies to tax the consumers?

2) Basic food items
Basic foods items listed above are also exempted but the whole tax flow for the whole supply chain is not clearly defined. Tell me which consumers buy these basic food items direct from manufacturers? Are we, the consumers getting sugar supplies from Prai Sugar or Central Sugar? Are we getting flour supplies from Baba's or Kuantan Flour Mill? We got all of these from retailers of big time hypermarkets & sundry shops. Sundry shops will be GST free but what can u say about Tesco, Giant etc, which clearly have more than the annual sales turnover threshold of MYR 500,000?  What guideline is given to these companies which provide taxable supplies, zero-rated supplies & exempted supplies, all at the same time to the consumers?

2) Government-supplied services
All government-supplied services is exempted. However, it is well known that government has privatized many of its supplies & the status of government linked companies (GLCs) supplied goods/services is not been clearly indicated. Importation of goods supplied to all full government bodies are duties & tax free as indicated under Provision 3, Customs Act 1967. Based on my experiences of dealings with Customs/Ministry of Finance (MOF), GLCs are not classified as government bodies & not eligible for exemption. Thus, it is safe to say GLCs' supplied goods & services such as Telekom M'sia telephone bills, Tenaga Nasional electricity bills are GST taxable. Getting same services from different source can be confusing for some too. For example, renewing your road tax from Road Transport Department is GST free but renewing the road tax from MYEG online web portal is GST taxable.

Please tell me if I was wrong in picturing the whole flow & I seriously hope, I was wrong too. And we can brainstorm/share together. That's all for now & not wanting to prolong this post, my next post shall focus on the affected industries related to our day-to-day tasks, explaining if its taxable supplies to us or not.

Understanding GST: The Theory & Malaysian Framework

GST, or goods & service tax is one of the hotly debated topics among local politicians & economists for the past 5 years. It was made one of the mostly discussed topics during the last election. Being in a freight forwarding industry, which need me to be at the front line at the first level of the import flow (which I will explain later), I'm pretty interested in getting to know on how does it works & studying how much of impact it will have to our local economy. Will try to explain it as simple as possible, compiling information from multiple sources.

GST is a form of value added tax, or commonly known as VAT. The main purpose of VAT is to generate tax revenues to the government, similar to the corporate income tax or personal income tax. More than 160 nations in the world today practice this form of taxation. With China & other top 10 most populous nations in the world in the list as well, it's not surprising an estimated of 90% of world population live in countries with VAT or GST.

Quoting source from Wikipedia, VAT is a consumption tax, which levied on the supply of goods and services at each stage of supply chain from the supplier up to the retail stage of the distribution. In simple term, VAT is collected on the value of goods or services that have been provided each time there is a transaction (sales/purchase).

Current Malaysian Tax Framework
(source: GST)

a) Sales Tax
- Introduced as a single stage consumption tax, levied, charged and paid on goods manufactured locally and imported
- Reduced rate at 5% for non-essential foodstuff and building materials
- General rate of 10%
- Levied on locally manufactured goods at the time of goods are sold or disposed of
- Levied on imported goods at the time of goods declarations
- Government collects tax at manufacturer's level only
- Element of sales tax embedded in the price paid by consumer (in simple term, hidden cost)

b) Service Tax
- Introduced as a single stage consumption tax, levied, charged and paid on specific service provided by a taxable person in Malaysia
- Flat rate of 6% (effective January 2011)
- Government collects tax when service provided to consumer
- Imposed by businesses in hospitality industry (hotels, restaurants, pubs & spas), licensed under service tax act
- Not to be confused with service charge (levied to consumers at 10% rate), which is a sort of replacement for tipping charge for the hospitality provider though not necessarily so

c) Import Duties
- Levied on goods brought into Malaysia
- Varies from 5% to 40%, depending on nature of products
- Duties determined by government using classifications of HS codes for each goods
- Element of duties paid embedded in the price paid by consumer

d) Export Duties
- Levied on goods produced for sale outside Malaysia
- Varies from 0.2% to 10%, depending on nature of products
- Duties determined by government using classifications of HS codes for each goods

e) Excise Duties
- Levied on critical / sin goods such as automobiles, liquor, beer & tobacco products
- Varies from 15% - 105%, depending on nature of products
- Duties determined by government using classifications of HS codes for each goods
- Element of duties paid embedded in the price paid by consumer

The proposed GST will replace sales tax & service tax

Proposed GST Framework

Business making taxable supplies, with annual sales turnover which has exceeded the prescribed threshold of MYR 500,000.00 are liable to be registered under Goods & Service Tax Act 2009. This includes individual, sole proprietor, company, partnership, estate & even trust, union, club, society, association or any other organization including government department of local authority which is involved in the business making taxable supplies in Malaysia. Business who are not registered under GST Act does not need to pay for GST or charge GST to the customer, but they can voluntarily register into it. Check the flow below, using the 4% rate as the model



In simple understanding of the GST regime, although tax is collected throughout the supply chain, it is only the final consumer who pays for it. As explained above, the businesses may recover the tax at every stage of the value chain of a taxable product or service until it reaches the final consumer. As of today (1/10/2013) indicated in Royal Malaysian Customs website, below are industries exempted from collecting GST although Ernst & Young website showed otherwise.

1) Medical services (government & private)
2) Supplies by government, eg. education services, issuance of passport by Immigration, issuance of road tax by Ministry of Transport etc.

However, specific supplies such as water supply & rubbish collections by state government are subjected to GST due to the commercial nature of the services. Supplies made by government statutory bodies & local authorities will also be subject to GST. Example list of statutory bodies are attached. This also means taxable supplies provided by semi-government institutions such as Tenaga Nasional, Telekom are also subject to GST.

For the accounting aspect of handling GST, registered person/company is required to submit all tax returns within stipulated period given by government between 3-6 months, depending on threshold set. All payments are to be made to Royal Malaysian Customs, acting on behalf of government. Claiming GST refunds, however is to be made within 14 working days to Royal Malaysian Customs if claim is submitted online or 28 working days if the claim is submitted manually. Refund of tax maybe offset against other unpaid GST, customs & excise duties. All business & accounting records relating to GST transactions are to be kept in Bahasa Malaysia or English for a period of 7 years.

I've attached some relevant guides for more clarifications of the above. A basic overflow of the proposed Malaysian framework of GST. Attached also is a link for getting guides for companies in different industries. As of today, the general understanding is that GST will be implemented in year 2015. We were made to understand that when it is announced, everyone will be given 18-24 months to be GST ready.

For those who don't know, Malaysia has been experiencing budget deficits since 1999. In simple terms, budget deficit means that the government spends more money than it receives. With the economy downturn happening across the region & observing the local political/economic environment, my prediction is the GST could be pushed forward to year 2014 & will be announced in Budget 2014, scheduled this October 18th. Do bear in mind, at time of this blog post, before the announcement of this bill, all information here may not be treated as 100% accurate. I'm purely sharing information with all, with the current reliable sources which I've linked all over this post and giving you all a picture of current framework (at the time of posting) & what might happens. My next post shall be on the analysis & impact to the individual, company & economy as a whole. This of course, will be depending on the announcement of Budget 2014 and shall be posted after it.

Overdue Updates

One blink of any eye & it's end of February now. There's the second annual Akurians trip held in Langkawi last December, Chinese New Year celebrations & the current political circus goin on nationwide (Perak & Selangor to be exact)

Sorry to the Akurians for not posting anything bout the trip. Next post okay?? Let me begin here with HAPPY NEW YEAR, HAPPY PONGGAL, HAPPY THAIPUSAM, HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR to everyone there...that wishes alone explain how much time passed since my last post...

Just that too frustrated with current local issues to write a post. As we knew here, economic situation in tis part of the world is not doing well. Being in the freight forwarding line, servicing mostly semiconductor firms, my company was in the frontline of affected parties. Factories are closing down & retrenching workers, causing thousands (but I believe it could run into hundred thousands) of people left jobless. For those barely surviving, drastic cost-cutting measures are being implemented. Paycut, longer shutdown period etc, anythin else under the sun that can be done to minimise the costs. Some companies are just only operating 4 days a week as some existing staffs forced to take unpaid leaves. Don't even mention about OT here. Worst part is nothing much really been done to help the worst-affected industries, at least to help them to sustain. Japan, the strongest economy in Asia has announced it's being in a recession & even Singapore has done it. And this is the funny part, here our beloved PM in-waiting insists the country is unaffected with the current state of world economy & we're not showing any decline and that we have the strong fundamentals to sustain. Wondering what fundamentals he meant & if he actually knew what he's talking about.

Don't even wanna mention the current political circus going on in the federal & state governments where all the players are acting as if the world is their oyster. The in-word now seems to be "stimulus package"...Statements after statement given, first stimulus, second stimulus etc...The question is where is the so-called packages? What is the projected domestic growth after the stimulus given? Which industries will be given priorities? Where is the roadmap of all those packages?? As one citizen Anas Zubedy correctly said it in an open advertorial in Star newspaper on 26th February, it's the people who suffer the most now. Check it out at thestar.com.my. Problem with those politicians is that thought of admitting about a problem equals to admitting their weaknesses. Listen here, everybody knew this recession thingy is like a lifecycle & bound to happen to every country. It's about being realistic & going through the tough times together to ensure there's food on the table for everyone. People will understand & not to the extent of ignoring the pleas of those who voted you into power.

I pray for wisdom to be given to those not able to be rationalise things. I pray for forgiveness for those who preach to others but don't admit of their own shortcomings/mistakes. I pray for strength to be given to those who lost their jobs and still need to feed their families. I pray for perseverance to be given to those having huge debts & problems piling up. I pray for courage to be given to those are still unsure how to remedy the setbacks they're facing now. And most of all, I pray for those on the verge of breaking down to continue to believe in themselves & Him in these trying times.

51 Years of Progress or What??

Our nation celebrated its 51st year of independence recently on August 31. However, recent events of our politicians making fuss over racial issues in public, which completely ignored the feelings of the ordinary people like u and me. Just make everyone thinking where are we actually heading to after 51 years of so-called de-colonisation & freedom of outside interferences.
Not wanting to highlight any particular incident of so-called being insensitive to other races, the question is are we still that shallow-minded despite of 51 years of independence. Come on lahh, 51 years and those people still dont know what to speak & what not to speak, especially when ur in public? Dont ur mum teach u about adab & budi bahasa (manners & decorum)??

Nation building indeed a tough & takes long winding roads to complete it. Historical facts showed it takes generations for people mindset to change & accepting them. It takes 3 centuries for America to recognise the equal rights for the black people, thanks to a certain Martin Luther King. And now, they're having Barack Obama, an African-American as candidate for president. Does this showed our nation is still too young & our people still too naive to recognise equality among people? Will it takes us centuries for our people to start respecting each other like ur own blood? Read an article (cant remember whom) and it said something like "Our skins maybe of different colours but inside us, our blood are of same colour. Our physical bodies maybe different but our souls are one"

Glad that my life was filled with beautiful, colourful people from all walks of life. And I thanked God for letting me having these people in my life. Certainly few childish,stupid statements from some donkeys wouldnt change my thoughts that there's indeed still hope for the us. Hope for people to change. Hope for people for accept. Hope for people to learn to love & respect. And hope gotta be followed up with actions for its to be fulfilled. Question now is what can we do for a start to make a change. As said earlier in my last post, it's all starts from us. We need to make the changes ourselves by practicing ourselves. Learn to respect if u wanna be respected. Learn to care if u wanna be cared for. Learn to love if u wanna be loved. Learn to be considerate if u want others to be considerate towards u......enough said.

Aftermath Next??

After March 8th 2008, June 4 must be the second most shocking day for most Malaysians in 2008. Petrol prices was increased 78 cents to ridiculously RM2.70 per litre while diesel prices skyrocketed to RM 2.58 per litre, up RM1 from previous price.

I've been bombarded with forwarded emails for whole day, with emails stating of how we were actually cheated by government, how our petrol price can be controlled etc etc. Honestly, those stuffs just don't strike me anymore. Why the cry over split milk? Not that government will turn back its decision despite of the massive outcry by the rakyat, the actual kingmaker who chose the government of the day. In fact, the increase is unevitable, being in line with the increasing world market price of crude oil. We all knew it's going to happen but the rate of increase apparently caught everyone in a shock.

In one report, Idris Jala, MD of Malaysia Airlines said there's actually more than enough of oil supply in the world at the moment but the rising prices are works of speculators. Being an ex-Shell guy added more credentials to his statement. There's some Soros' out there making hell of a profit & there's no one seems to care about stopping this (increasing prices) It's coming....it has happened & nothing we can do to stop it. We just need to move on. The magic question now is - how are the ordinary citizens (that's you & me) goin to move on from here???

This is just the beginning with the impending aftermath of a national level inflation, as predicted by economicians & politicians. Tenaga Nasional has increased its rates of electricity supply. Coupled with the continued rising prices of rice, all basic stuffs in our daily life will bound to cost more with some parties will take full advantage by increasing the prices unnecessarily. The "roti canai" I had for breakfast near my place in SS14 Subang yesterday, now costs me RM1.10 each !!!! Being in an airfreight forwarding industry means I'm in the frontline of the worse hit affected industries. Trucking costs increased two fold in a space of a day. One full tank for a 40-footer trailer now costs RM750.00. Airlines has given hints of increasing fuel surcharges within a month. The most painful truth is being tied to contract agreement with customers, we're unable to divert the increased costs back to them.

Back to the question, it's time to sit down & lists down the things in order to negate the inflation. Let me think about it & share with all next time...

Dawn of A New Era

March 8, 2008...mark tis date for it's the most significant & eventful day in the history of M'sian elections. It would have been known by now (unless ur staying in a jungle far far deep inside Taman Negara) that BN was denied 2/3 majority in Parliament & lost 5 states to the Opposition coalition parties at that.

Never in my lifetime I've seen newspapers were selling like hot cakes. I can't even got a copy of my favourite Malay Mail & Sun newspaper (probably the most bias-free newspapers in the market) for one week !!!! Been reading the Malaysiakini.com news website for it's been made freely accessible for public for one week. Floods of mails/columns/posts awakened me to the fact that people's thoughts has indeed change & this time around, they made their votes count. Political tsunami, waves of changes or whatever they call it, the elections this time will bound to be the benchmark of many future election campaigns to come. Vox populi (means voices of people in French) caused the rakyat to show Makkal Sakthi (means people power in Tamil) & many other factors prompted people to give the vote of their lifetime. Not goin to dwell on analysing how & why it happens since there are countless people out there giving great concise, bias-free analysis. Check out http://www.malaysiakini.com/

Talked to many people (my peers) before elections & most of them includes me did not register to vote. Reason is we're way too disillusioned with the state of politics all over. People might change in different office terms but things remains the same. Public money are wasted on extravagant so-called study trips & buildings of many "white elephants" (especially in the local council level). Voices of the people was heard went unheeded. Corrupted officials went unpunished or rather punished lightly (think of a certain Klang man, now DEAD). One minister frankly spoke of the existence of many little Napoleons in local governments. Many other issues were ignored & authorities closed their one eye on it. So why the heck we need to queue up for hours just to cross the blank box in a small piece of paper when rakyat $$$ will still be squandered by those Napoleons?? And we're partly at faults for choosing these people. The results of the elections has clearly showed that democracy is indeed alive here & changed my thoughts (I'm sure to most of us as well) on the power of people to decide the political outcome of the country.

M'sian political landscape is no longer the same & it's the fact everyone (that's u and me) need to accept & adapt to it. Seems like some losers were still unable to accept their losts, acting like crybabies & blaming everyone else but themselves. Even the winners shouldn't be spared too, now that everyone want a piece of cake for themselves & caused infighting over positions. This is my message to all: CUT ALL THE CRAPS & GET DOWN TO WORK !!!!

To the winners: Now that u've been voted into office, stop the infighting & re-adjust ur
ideologies if u need to, now that ur governing the multi-racial states. Do your best to fulfill ur promises to us, the rakyat who will decide on ur performance next election.
To the losers: It's not the end of the world & stop acting like sore losers.Do your own self
reflections & read Billi Lim's book "Dare to Fail" if u still dun understand. Get back to grassroots & find the root causes on your failures. Work to regain our trust in you.

Okay, I shall now go to the nearest post office to register my name for next elections. Dammit...should have done this many donkey years back when I reached 21.

Being Multi Racial

"Multi-racial" has to be one of the widely used word in M'sia. It's always included in every messages by all politicians for any major occasions such as New Year, CNY, Raya, Deepavali etc etc.

Now...why am I talking about tis multi racial thingy when I'm here in M'sia, a melting pot for all cultures that u know of?? In recent times, we could hear politicians telling how can we integrate all races, uniting everyone with a single language, single aim, creating a Bangsa M'sia etc etc...Just sharing my pieces of opinions based on my personal experiences.

To create a single bangsa will take us generations to achieve it. We're just too different with our own beliefs, values etc. To follow the Indonesian concept, whereby everyone are forced to have "Indonesian names" and other languages are prohibited will be disastrous & go against what's stated in our Constitution. Instead of banging heads to come out with solutions, we should leave it as the way it is. Take a peek at the Tourism M'sia "Malaysia - Truly Asia" promo and u will understand what I'm trying to say. Diversity should be seen as a strength instead of barriers. We dun really need to be ONE to be united.

It's the basic values that need to be taught to the children by parents, educators etc. When ur loved, u will learn to love. When ur respected, u will learn to respect. When u have respect & tolerance for other people, u will get to understand the person. When all these are in places, unity will naturally follows. From primary skool up till working life, I'm pleased to have frens from all walks of life.

My recent trip to Cameron with bunch of colleagues (of different races) was a classic example (Shall talk bout the trip in next blog). Despite not knowing each other well, the trip turned out to be fun. Of cos people have certain religious or cultural restrictions that could deter our personal indulgences (eg eating pork/beef), the best thing to do is to recognise & accept. Mutual solutions can then be sorted out when we're being "sincerely frank" with each other. When we learn about give and take, personal sacrifice (eg on food) is only a minor thing to do.

Tis weekend will be eventful with me attending Emma's engagement evening function and the MU vs Gunners crunch match after that with my bunch of muhibbah frens from Fifth Formers. till then...