my wish list for a better malaysia

After reading and listening to countless ceramahs about both PR and BN manisfesto, i thought of wanting to do my own wish list of what i hope the new ruling govt is able to achieve for a better malaysia.

1)Economy

Help to reduce the spiral cost of living, cost of house, cost of car, cost of petrol. Especially housing, which you spend your whole life paying for it.

Scrap  the Kedai 1Malaysia, Sarapan 1 Malaysia, we don’t need government to spend money to do something that create unfair competition to existing business owners. Instead, we should scrap out monopoly and under table business and let the market compete fairly and freely. Look at Digi,Maxis,Celcom competition, at the end, benefit the customers.

If Proton and MAS cannot compete, govt should not pump money to bail them. Let other companies that can provide good service with cheap price do the job.

2)Public Transport

Better public transport to reduce jam, more integrated bus-lrt route, easier access to public transport info, e.g. bus route made available on line, on bus stop, timely bus arrival, helpful website or mobile apps.

Increase the existing cabin size of LRT and MRT or add more trains.

3)Education System

Tamil and Chinese school should be recognized and given appropriate govt funds. But need to ensure BM and English is mandatory subject and also acts as a passing requirement. Should learn from each other, e.g. Chinese School good with maths. E.g. The Chinese schools association should teach other school how to teach better in maths. Each school can remain their own identity but more interaction should be done also. E.g. Indian school visit Malay school during hari raya event. Cultural exchange summer camp program etc for the youth to learn and appreciate each other’s culture.

Free govt uni level education. Entry to uni must be passed the merit. Ensure timely the quality of lecturers and relevance of subjects. We must improve and move up the global education ratings. Organize internship program for uni student so that easier for them to find employment. I think eventually all our govt uni should use English as the teaching language. Else our students can only compete locally, cannot compete with the world.

Scholarship given based on merit. Each time you hear news of straight A students unable to get scholarship, you think these smart student will work in Malaysia? We must secure local talents, then only we can continue more to attract oversea talent. The US and Singapore is a good example , a country that attract talent, because it is based on merit. You need good talents to run a good country.

English for Maths and Sains. Let’s face it, how much would you practise sains and maths in BM in workplace?

4)Educating Public

Eradicate biases knowledge->sarawakian don’t leave on tree, Kelantan Chinese under PAS rule no place to buy pork.

Must teach public about the truth of May 13, must learn and move on, don’t forever plague the people.

National Day parade should be celebrated at Sep16 instead of 31Aug.

Educate public on good financial habits.

4)Security and safety.

Increased salary of policeman to reduce the need of kopi-o. Train them and equip them better so that they can have a faster response time.

Army expenditure must be justified. Too many cases of brainless and over the top army purchase.

Add street lights where required and make sure to fix it quickly if spoiled.

Increase police patrolling. Heavier crime punishment and better enforcement.

Educate public on crime prevention. E.g. when going out for house for long holiday, when walking alone in street or car park…etc

5)Orang Asli status and rural development

They too are a part of Malaysia but have been neglected from the main stream for too long. Mainstream media only potrays Malays, Chinese, Indian.

More rural development projects. Access to water, electricity, school, medical, build roads, setup  agriculture. This beside helping the rural people, it also create more job opportunities, so that not everyone would need to look for job in KL. A well-managed farmer in US can earn more salary than an average office worker.

6) Increased oil royalties to state

The oil producing state like Terengganu, Sarawak remains among the poorest state in Malaysia. The increased royalties must be handled properly and declared public of its expenses, priority should be given to help the poor. By helping the poor means teaching them to fish and providing them the fishing equipment, not giving them the fish to eat only.

7)Environment Issues

More recycle center and bin collection, educate public, encourage private sector on green initiative project, shut down dangerous plant, lynas and raub, those excessive damps in Sarawak. Enforcement on illegal logging, the fines from the illegal logging should be use to plant back more trees.

Planting back more trees = reduce floods. To improve irrigation system in flood prone areas. Better if can prevent, rather than bearing the cost of the flood damages.

8) Government Admin

More transparent, show public the breakdown figures to implement new projects. Get public feedback before proceed to any big project.

More efficient, improve govt servant speed, get rid of lazy BN culture

More accessible, e.g. when road got hole,  call,sms,email launch complain, quickly fix it! e.g. take picture of road hole, email to local council.

All minister must declare their assets!

Say No to racism… minister that said something racist should be suspended and fine. Take out forms that require you to fill race.

A minister must have certain qualification or job experience in that particular field, e.g. education minister must have degree in education, been a teacher/headmaster before etc…because in BN, we see too many minister talking non-sense.

Should have more debate among governing and opposition. Like the TV broadcast in USA. So that both parties policy will be brought forward to the public and justified and also do let public ask question.

Government should find ways of not relying too much on foreign labour. E.g. encourage usage of advance machinery in construction and factory areas to reduce foreign labour.

All projects must be declared to public and done in stages. E.g we cannot suddenly announce to take out all tolls. The toll staff need time also to find jobs.

 

 

Of course, all the said above would be meaningless if we don't go to vote ourselves.  so guys and girls, remember to vote!

 

 

 

 

 

A more peaceful America, A more peaceful world

Obama's courage to set up more strict rules against firearms in the US is a brave move indeed. This is not the first time we've heard of gun killing in American school, but this is my first time that i see a American President having the guts to stand up on this issue and actually do something about it.

Some of you might wonder why after all this time, shouldn't this issue be raised a long long time ago? well, it is actually quite complicated. There are reasons why previous President didn't act against this issue. In fact, the reason is quite shameful and is deliberately not highlighted by media. You see, US is one of the biggest firearms producer and also one of the biggest consumer as well. These companies "donate" lots of money into election campaign, so it's like saying, "Hey, Mr President, if you come up with some fishy rules to ruin my business, kiss your funds good bye!". When you're running for the post of the most powerful person in the world, with such intense competition, it is hard to say no to these funds.

And thus, it began the vicious cycyle, firearms company pumps money in election, Presidents make sure firearms company interest is protected, firearms company make money, and pump money back into election again. Having stricker rules on firearms alone is not enough. The culture must change.

American has one culture which is very bad, the cowboy culture inherited since the wild wild west days. During those days, cowboys violated and moved into Native American Indian Lands. So conflicts are inevitable, so that's why everyhouse has a gun to "protect" themselves. When having a gun for self protection is justified by law and people have a culture of keeping firearms at home, thus the demand for firearms exist. When there's demand, there's supply. That's the natural laws of business. We cannot simply labeled firearms companies as the source of evil. It is the people, the consumer who "created" this company themselves. When there is no demand, the supplier would go out of business.

Hmm...if u look into this further, i think it's like a curse or karma. the European grabs and steal Native American Land, as a result, their future generation continue to cling on firearms in order for them to feel safe. So it is actually not easy to directly set up rules to completely ban firearms, they need to do it step by step, and it is not gonna be easy. They are still many people who protested against this stricker rules and still wants to have firearms, despite knowing the risk and the implication to the society.

Moving on... why does this title says a peaceful america will contribute to a more peaceful world? A few years ago, i watched a movie staring Nicholas Cage, called "Lord of War". It tells a story of an US underground arms dealer who sells firearms illegally to countries in conflict. This movie is really an eye opener as it gives you a glimpse of the darker side of US which probably the main media is pumped money to keep their mouth shut.

It does make sense if you think of it. US is one of the largest firearms producer. Firearms is made to kill, not for decoration. Peace is not good business for firearms, War is, Conflict is. Look at some of those dirt poor military controlled African countries, where do you think they get their firearms from? Do you think they have the technology to make firearms themselves?

To make things worse, the US keeps getting involved in other people's business and wage war with other countries, look at George W Bush admininstration, under him, he wage two wars, Afghan and Iraq. When there is war, the firearms make money again. Luckily GW Bush wouldn't be able to continue a 3rd term.

Luckily the next president Obama is not a warmonger, but a more grounded and more not-extreme crazy-thinking guy. GW Bush left the US in economic and politic shit when Obama took over, so they are many fixes and hardwork that needs to be done. Beside being able to give good speeches, Obama did live up to his "CHANGE" campaign through his actions. SALUTE! Hopefully it would pave up more paths to stricker gun rules in future. PEACE.

Lahad Datu Crisis

Recently some facebook users shared photos and commented that our Royal Malaysian Army is so poorly equipped that they need to take AirAsia to fly Lahad datu…. Before I jump on the wagon to share the news, I began to think why???

Is it our government’s military budget is misused or not enough? But then sometimes it is hard to prioritise distribution of funds for public usage or military usage, especially in era of peace. I believe they do have their own war plane, just that in emergency cases, if you want to transport troops faster to the warzone, anything will help, even taking commercial plane. By deploying troops faster to the field, they are able to protect more lives and halting the enemy’s advancement. Furthermore, these soldiers are going into a warzone not for vacation, for those unfortunate, it could be a one way ticket for them.



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When the Lahad Datu’s incident first hit the newsstand, there’s a rumour saying that the Sabah incursion is politically planned to delay the election, which I don’t think so. Because if this is a staged, you’ll be able to see our PM flew to Sabah the next day and appeared quickly to give a fiery speech in a soldier uniform with imprinted with One-Malaysia logo staging the PM is the hero publicity stunts.

But instead, I think the government reaction is a bit slow, sorry to say. As I think after the first landing, they should quickly send troops to occupy and surround the area. Instead, they even let the enemy advances into several different area, thus making more Sabahans lives at risk. The first week of negotiation I think is a complete BS. When you have armed men occupying your territory, do you still have the leisure to sit down teh-tarik and negotiate with them? The Malaysian Government should have DEMANDED that the armed men leave at once or face retaliation.

 I really think the Sulu Sultan claim on Sabah is a lost cause.

1) Sabah has been a part of Malaysia for 50years. A survey has been carried out during the formation and the people agreed to be part of Malaysia, not to be a part of Sulu.

2) The British has been paying money for acquiring Sabah to Sulu yearly, this is continued by the Malaysian government. It’s like you SOLD your house, but the new owner still pays you yearly rental, but then one day out of the blue you crash into their house and demanded your house to be returned to you! WTF logic is this?

3) If you want to make a claim like this, I think the more appropriate channel should is to bring the issue to international court. That’s what countries do when solving territory dispute. The moment you bring armed men to occupy another country’s territory, you’ve lost the respect for others and yourself, you no longer deserve the rights to negotiate terms. You would have just labelled yourself a terrorist.

One lucky thing is that the claim is not supported by the Philippine government itself, so at least it would not escalate further into an inter-country conflict. However I think that the Philippine government should put more pressure on the Sulu Sultan who’s currently reside in Manila. Someone needs to knock the fact into the head of Sulu Sultan that his claim is a lost cause and he should ordered the complete withdrawal of all forces at once. A leader who sends his men to a sure-lose battle with a sure-lose cause is a coward. If he withdraw his forces, at least he can be the leader that bite his own pride to prevent further bloodshed.

For the mess he’s caused, for the lives that was lost, the Sulu Sultan should be taken to court to be judged for his crimes. Death penalty may be out of question, as it may incur vengeance but at least he should take some responsibility for causing this mess. At the end of the day, he must sign a treaty to release the Sulu’s claim on Sabah and the Malaysian Government should stop paying money to them anymore.

Both Governments should proceed to do some long term collaboration projects to develop the poor and neglected Sulu states. Build more schools and build up the economy. Give the Sulu states reasons and opportunity to create more peace-loving and hardworking citizens. If there are more job opportunities back home, the Sulu people also wouldn’t flood to Sabah to look for job. Having tamed the Sulu states would also be a big relieve for the Manila Administration. At the end I believe this would be a win-win situation.

Let’s hope that the conflict can be resolved soon. PEACE.

Olympics Afterthought

The London Olympics 2012 has come to an end. As a Malaysian I’m proud that Dato Lee Chong Wei gave a very good fight till the end and got us a silver. As a Sarawakian I’m extra proud that Pandelela Rinong won the first Olympics medal for a non-badminton event. Malaysia is known for its strength in badminton, but to have someone from a non-badminton event that rise up to the world stage and grab an Olympics Medal is surely not an easy feat.


On the Paralympic event, Malaysian’s Hasihin struck silver in the archery event! Yet another great feat from a non-badminton event and most importantly, this dude did it from a wheelchair!

What I like about the Olympics beside the showcase of human’s highest physical and mental potential, one important aspect is that it greatly promote world peace.

The Olympics idea originates from the Ancient Greek Olympics, where games where held as tributes to Gods. Whenever the Games are held, instead of fighting and killing each other, participants would lay down their arms, play the games fairly in the spirit of the Olympics.

Considering the amount of bloodshed that mankind had committed throughout history, the Olympics idea is actually a very noble idea. A necessity perhaps.

I’m going to take a radical example. Imagine, Osama Bin Laden. The former world’s most renowned terrorist. What if he never chooses to pick up a rifle? What if he chooses to train himself to run in the treacherous mountains of Afghanistan, ends up competing in the Olympic, and bringing home the 1st Olympics gold to his country?

A poverty and war thorn country boy from nowhere, trained all his life in harsh terrain, eventually competes in the Olympics, and became the best in the world. The world bear witness to this event especially all Afghan’s fellow tribes and countryman who put down their ages old feud aside, to cheer for their country’s first gold.

Imagine how good this story will continue to inspire the rest of the population. With the money from prizes and sponsors and his fame, Osama can help to create more awareness about his country’s flight. He can help to build new school, improve water system and many lives of Afghan.

Young children instead of forced to pick up rifle now has a good role model to look up to. Things would slowly and eventually change for the better. That is the power of hope. All this is far more better than what America alone can do for Afghanistan.

Some people say that the world cup is a bigger sport event than the Olympics. I think they say so because football fans are the craziest and fanatical fans in the world. However I think that the Olympics should be crowned the biggest sport event of all time because of the underlying message they promote – peace to all humanity.

This is Houg signing off. Peace!!

9th July 2011

Fellow Malaysians will remember this day as the day we stood up for a free and fair election for our beloved country.

Me, like many other fellow Malaysians who did not have the gut to march to the streets in KL, truly salute the bravery of those who dared the streets, the water cannons and tear gas.
We stayed at home, following the latest news and hope that things wouldn’t turn violent.

I was thinking, would the situation be different if I’m still single with nothing to lose?

During the 1st Bersih movement around 50,000 brave souls gathered in KL and were later disperse by police with the same fate. I think many people did not realize that this is actually the second Bersih rally. The news of the first rally was obviously banned in main local media and can only be found in internet. But imagine this, during the first rally, there was no major road block towards KL. If this time there was no road block, just imagine how many would turn up! By then, even if they assembled every policeman in the country, they will not be able to stop it!

I was quite surprise the normally neutral Agong would interfere with the situation. Before this I always believe that Agong was only a symbol and he don’t really need to do anything. Haha, now I have new respect for our Agong for his timely intervention to diffuse the tension.

But then, if it even requires Agong himself to come out, it really shows the weakness of the current government which failed to compromise with the Bersih movement and even need Agong to step in.

When Najib agreed to the solution to held the rally indoor in stadium, there was suddenly a great relief among the people. Finally a compromise has been made and everyone can be happy. I was even thinking, since it’s held in stadium and not on streets, it’s gonna be quite safe and then I can probably join too!

But the people can only be happy for one day. The next day Najib did a U-Turn saying that stadiums in KL are not available. I was like….WTF? For sure, Bersih would not agree with it. Why make things worse if you let them have the rally in the stadium in the first place? Now, they have no choice but to take it into the street, and by doing so would actually cause more havoc.

By doing so, it just reflect that the government is unable to keep their words. Most importantly, it shows that the government is afraid to revamp the election commission to be more fair and just, because deep down, they know, if the election is fair and just, they would lose more seats.

The way Najib handles this issue is just terrible. He choose to be a paranoid and narrow minded just like Utusan Malaysia and Perkasa. Come on lar….if Bersih is illegal, why Agong would want to meet them?

By denying Bersih to use the stadium in KL, this also shows disrespect to the Agong.
I’m sure Agong will remember this as well.

Of course the rally would be held in KL. KL is the capital for Malaysia. When you held international events, do you hold it in outskirts? Of course not!

If they say the rally itself would disrupt the business and security of the public, I don’t think so lo. I think those disrupt the business in KL are the road blocks, with nobody coming to KL, where will there be business. Actually if they are so many people coming into KL from other state, if I’m a businessman, I would have more customers to buy drinks, food, umbrella…etc.

I have a friend working at PWTC Home Deco, he says due to the road block, business is horribly bad, and yet they still need to pay for rental.

Another thing, if police just stand beside, let the people march without resistant would things turn chaotic? If the UMNO youth and Perkasa wouldn’t held counter rally on the same day, (which I’m glad the two groups didn’t met head on) would things turn chaotic?

No need to send riot police lar. Just send traffic police, instead of directing vehicles, appoint them to direct people marching. Direct people marching from one street to another street, like a city marathon. In the end, the people are able to express their point, no violent case reported, police able to perform their duty, people respect police more, and everyone go home happy.

But instead, the police choose to view the people, the very people they sworn to protect, as a threat and most be stop with water cannons, tear gas and batons. Sign…big big sign…

Previously when he launch 1Malaysia, I still actually think that BN still got some tiny little hope under his leadership. Even after he declared the wasteful Warisan Merdeka project, I just think that he’s just wasting the country’s money, that’s all. But then, for me, the way he handle this issue this time, he really cross the line. I now, officially and very clearly…… hate him. Too bad we cannot go to his facebook page and click dislike on his profile.

The way BN handles Bersih only increase the people’s hatred for the government. And I believe the people would remember very well this day when the next election comes.

If you’re reading this and you haven’t register as a voter yet. Quickly go to the nearest post office to register, as the process may need to take a few months to complete, you’ll never know when they will declare the next general election. Exercise your rights and do your part for a better Malaysia by casting the correct vote.

Hey, after you read this article, don’t just simply came to a conclusion, read more other news and see what is the majority of Malaysians thinking. Read more, hear more and you’ll know yourself how to determine the truth.

Once again, a big salute to those brave souls that dared the streets.

Proposed solution for Malaysian's brain drain

Every year in our wonderful country Malaysia, after SPM results are out, we would hear complains that top student are not offered scholarship but instead those certain group of people who are under-qualified got offered instead.

So, for those poor but top students,what can they do? since their own country don't want to help them, they get help from other countries that is willing to help them because they cherish talents. Other countries offer them scholarship, bond them for a few years, they got a decent job over there. Do you think they still want to return to their own mother country that didn't help them? and yet, their own mother country would label them as "Unpatriotic". Ironic isn't? Welcome to Malaysia!

Let's have an classic example, did you know that the pen drive is actually invented by a Malaysian? Mr. Pua Khein-Seng, which was rejected by local university set out for Taiwan. In the end, the pen drive was a "Taiwan Technology", instead of "Malaysian Technology"

The government seems to finally realized this issue, after so many years and waves of bombardment by the opposition party, the people and other international media. I believe this issue is serious to the point that the country itself has felt the effect of this brain drain.

So our dear PM setup Talent Corp in an effort to pull back our brain drain. It is funny because initially the country doesn't appreciate them but now they want them back by offering goodies. Goodies such as tax reduction etc. But hey, if they did this, it would be unfair to those talents that are currently residing in Malaysia!

Yo.. Dear PM & Talent Corp, instead of pulling back brain drain, you should stop brain drain, like not giving scholarship to some top students. It is more feasible and easier to retain compare to get them back. We learn this in economics, it is easier to retain existing customer rather to look for new ones.

Why government is afraid to give scholarship to top student since the scholarship comes with a working bond, the talents would still come back and contribute to Malaysia's growth.

Instead, they prefer to give scholarship to those un-deserved, which graduate with bad results and later become an unproductive worker, which doesn't contribute much to the country and yet still need government to feed them. It's a like spoon feeding a spoiled child that cannot stand on their own.

What does this mean then? Failed government policies that is suppose to help certain group to be more competitive ends up spoiling them. Instead of teaching them how to fish, the government just give feed them the fish.

The other ironic thing is that other minority which didn't received as much help as the government, due to this reason, they have no choice but to work harder in order to make a living and ends up with more competitive qualities than their spoon feed countrymen.

Of course, not everyone is like that. I'm just giving a general summary.

But then, government is made up of human being and human beings make mistake. This we can understand, the more important thing is that we need to correct the mistake to improve. The worst thing is that, government choose to keep one eye close and stubbornly don't want to admit their mistake. This is because, some of the current government officials themselves has been fully fed with fishes and they are too incompetent and dare not imagine that they would have to handle their own fishing rod.

Scholarship should only be given to those that is academically worthy. Meaning to say, if you got scholarship and yet you have bad results, the scholarship should be switch to loans that you'll need to pay back instead. If not, students would not appreciate it and take it for granted.

Think of it as an investment. Of course you want to invest on properties that would generate return for you, not invest on the property that doesn't generate return for you, and yet you'll still need to pump more money into it to keep it alive!

Let's think about it, 54 years of independence and yet our fellow countrymen still cannot be competitive? Let's just limit our scope to academic competitive. We have government sponsored primary and secondary school. But yet, how come privately sponsored vernacular school can produce better results?

Doesn't this mean the Education Ministry should look into why their government funded school cannot produce good result?

I do not expect the government would just abolish this current silly system of not giving scholarship to some top student due to "you know lar" reason. Unless we have a change of government, but then i think we should look into the roots of the problem, how to really make our fellow countrymen academically competitive.

Maybe i can humbly suggest a few.

1. Train teachers that knows how to fish, instead of teachers that take fish only. so that, they can teach the correct values and knowledge to their students.

2. Stress more on English. We see this very often. Many university graduates still can't speak a decent English. The situation has actually worsen compare to our previous generation that received English education from British colony era. In order to be competitive in today's world. English is a must. Mastery of English is the key and stepping stone to access the world's knowledge.

3. Stress more on Maths. Economy is run by business, business consist of figures, figures you need maths. It is another compulsory knowledge to be competitive beside English.

4. Stress more on secular studies. Religious studies feeds your spirit, but it doesn't feed your stomach. Over dosage of religion and over hunger is the formula for extremist. But hey, i'm not saying we should scrap religion, just that we should focus more time on reality.

7. Beside of just spoon feeding our students with knowledge, i believe we need to teach them creative thinking as well. We should inject creativity thinking into our existing subjects, to encourage student to think outside of the box. Of course, this is a less priority at the moment. We need to pump up more English + Maths first.

6. Organize joint school events during holidays that mix with other races. It's like a company team building. If you don't mix with other races, you'll have stereotype perceptions and distrust.

7. Gradually, we need to merge and unified our school. I'm not talking about the National School which puts one malay school, one indian school and one chinese school in the same compound. I don't think this actually work. All these school leaders should sit down and plan for a unified education subjects. Haha, i know it's gonna be hard. But i believe this is as important as what our fore fathers sit down and discuss the founding of Malaysia. We give and take, set our differences aside in order to pave way for a better future together.

I believe only if we can improve the quality of our students in primary and secondary school level, then only we can have a really fair, competitive and transparent method of allocating scholarship to top students. I believe this is the first step we can do to stop the brain drain.

416 Sarawak State Election

The election date was announce at the end of March, whereby I was back to Kuching for Qing Ming. Since the date is quite near, I don’t have enough leaves+ air ticket expensive. I didn’t go back to vote this time around. The General Election in 2008 was the first time I voted and I even help up in the polling booth which was quite an amazing experience!

Sign… this time around I can only watch political speech on youtube and facebook and reading Malaysian insider. Hmm…I think AirAsia should take this opportunity to offer flight ticket sales to Sarawak or any other state when there’s state election, they would have gain extra income, oh wait…unless government interfere? Oh damn…another self made conspiracy theory!

You see many leaders from both side of the party, Najib, DPM, Anwar, Lim Guan Eng, even Chua Soi Lek fly to Sarawak to do campaigning. Haha, I think if Najib didn’t come himself, opposition would win more votes! But this proves that BN is also afraid they may lose a majority this time. Najib comes and promise to bring development to the rural areas, but I’m thinking....walao…only after 50 plus years of independence, now you baru care about Sarawakians! Another important thing is that only last year BN declare 16 September as a holiday. Ahem, not that I’m happy with another public holiday, but if you think again, ngaiti…did the Federal Government really appreciate and honor Sabah Sarawak at all?

It is an open knowledge to Sarawakians that White Hair is totally corrupted. When I was in Uni graduation, we even joked about what we want to say to White Hair when he shake our hands..e.g. “I Hate You!”, “You Must Go!”

He’s probably one of the richest man in Malaysia, but people are afraid to vote against him, especially the rural poor. They are so poor and uneducated that BN will only need to give them money to ensure their votes.

But luckily the winds of change has arrived in Sarawak. It began as a small spark in the 2008 General Elections, where two DAP rockets won the Kuching seat to represent the people’s voice in Parliament. Malaysians has also seen the prove that the Opposition party is not just empty talks, they can govern a state successfully as well as seen in Penang & Selangor.

Honestly speaking, when I’m in my middle school days, I was thinking that the opposition is only making noise. But then, as I grew up more, began to work and experience the ups and downs of life, I began to feel that the things that opposition are complaining are not just for the sake of making noise, but these are really the things that affects you and me. Eventually I think that they are actually champions who would risk their lives of end up in jail in order to fight for the rights of the people.

Initially Malays would mostly vote for BN, but now, even Malays themselves vote for opposition e.g. Keadilan, because they too, want to see a change and a better, cleaner, fairer government as shown in the results of the political tsunami of 2008.

It is quite hurtful myself when I know that Sarawak has the largest resource in Malaysia but yet is the fourth poorest state. All those loggings without control by White hair is really destroying our beautiful landscape and only benefiting him and his cronies. Some Sarawakians even took to the street of London to protest about White Hair in order to get media attention. (because if they did so in Malaysia, they will end up in jail)

Because of all these silly reason, I want to see changes, not just for myself and family but also for the sake of our future. We have so much potential to become better, so we need to be more serious in exercising our democratic rights as a citizen and vote for our future, we can no longer say that it is non of my business because it affects us all.

On 416 the whole day, It’s like having butterflies in my stomach, I’m always enticing what the results are going to be. I was quite disappointed when I heard the result because I was expecting at least the opposition would deny BN the 2/3 majority due to the number of crowds that show up for opposition talks around Kuching, Sibu and Miri.

But at least, it was a great improvement for the opposition and now they would have a stepping stone in future. The hardcore poverty rural areas are still pretty much under BN’s grasp which provided the majority. There is still a lot of work that needs to be done in order to create more awareness and help out the rural folks.

Let’s hope and work hard for a better future, Sarawakians!

Meeting JJ at Tropicana City

On 18 December 2010, JJ was at Tropicana City Mall to promote his new album and give out autograph session for his album.

The event is scheduled to start at 3pm, but like many VIP...it started 3.40pm. I stand and below the stage since 2.40pm....and waited faithfully like a fan for almost 1 hour.

Even before i've arrive, they are already many people in front of me. Majority of those fans are young female students. So, at the least the waiting was not so bad:P
I was wondering whether i'm the oldest person around there...haha but then, i have a young face, if i don't tell anyone, i bet they wouldn't know:P

The MYFM DJ is doing a not so bad job to entertain and warm up the crowd. Suddenly the crowd screams as they saw JJ finally made it to the backstage. I notice the way he walk is quite cool. Don't know to describe it.


Anyway...the session starts off with some prize giving and contest.


I think JJ interact quite well with the MC and the audience as he is quite humorous and playfull too. In the contest session, whereby they ask audience to sing JJ's new song, finally he did joined in and sung a few part.

Haha, at least it's worth the wait. Seeing him singing live is a very intriguing experience for me. I'm very amazed of watching and listening as his voice came out from his mouth. He's a good singer with a really good voice. It's as it is like magic when his voice comes out from his mouth!

I left the place as the autograph session began. Hehe i didn't buy his CDs as I'm out of budget for this month..

Suddenly an idea occured to me.

If government want to fight against piracy, why don't they give tax relief for original CDs?

Here's the MTV of the song he sung. Enjoy!

Captain Malaysia

I was doing a facebook quiz - Which Marvel superhero are you?


I got Captain America as my result.

My friend, Mike suggested that I just need to change the five star into fourteen star and add a crescent moon then I'll become Captain Malaysia!

As i was LOLly, (laughing out loudly) Inspiration struck me and i actually think this can be a good idea! Not me being a superhero of course, but the changing of the design.


It is quite easy to design Captain Malaysia due to it's flag similarity with the USA flag.


Actually since primary school i was wondering if our Malaysian flag is copied from USA.

So i rush and grab my pencil began to draw a rip off version of Captain America and incorporating my friend's idea and adding some design myself too. I figure that i should color it to make it more eye-catching, which i glad i did.

I was doing what typical Malaysian do best. copy-cat other country's work of art and turning it into our own. Yeah, Malaysia Boleh! Hey, before you complain, be reminded that after Captain America, there's also Captain Canada, Captain Britain.

Oh well, to spice it up, I didn't just stop at re-designing the star. I replaced Captain America's antenna wing to Petronas Twin Tower mini replica! The fourteen stars is very difficult to draw so i didn't draw it accurately. I even made up stories like actually on Captain Malaysia's chest there is a fourteen star shape scar that he obtained during the communist insurgency. Hmm...something like that to make it cool, i wonder if i should continue to imagine more and then maybe i'll get a complete story!

Finally, i've also decided on a tagline for Captain Malaysia!

Captain Malaysia, Every Country Needs a Hero!

You know, in case they decide to make it into a movie, a superhero movie is not cool without a cool tagline!

Things would not be so great if i did something that many people already did. So,I google it to see if i'm the first one to design it, but unfortunately someone else did it first. And the photo got copyrighted some more! Don't Play Play!

Oh Dammit! But anyway, ladies and gentlemen let me present you, my latest syiok sendiri piece of art, Captain Malaysia!


Teng, Teng, Teng! Oii...please clap hand lar~

9 years without MAS airline

Last weekend i flew back to Kuching to attend my bro's graduation. Luckily that my dad has accumulated tons of MAS Enrich Card Reward point so he asked me to use it up (does not include airport tax of RM30 though:P) to take a free flight home.

Ever since AirAsia came to the market, i've not flown MAS since, the last time i flew MAS was in 2001 when i'm in Form 5. Wow, that's around 9 years ago! i almost don't quite remember the experience.

I even need to research on which public transport to go to KLIA. I found that the cheapest way is to take the Airport Coach from KL Sentral, which is RM10 one way. The bus is located at the same place as SkyBus in KL Sentral.

As i reached KLIA, i was abit loss actually because the place is very huge compared to LCCT and i need to walk quite a distance before i reach my destination. There weren't many people around eventhough during sunday noon.

A simple equation begun to form in my head:

Big place + Few People = Under usage = Waste of Resources.

Oh well, the main reason is because there are more people flying AirAsia of course.
hmm....with such high maintenance and low customer it's not difficult to imagine how KLIA account book looks like.

For MAS flight, if you online checked in you need to be at the departure gate 30 minute before the flight,compared to AirAsia which is one hour.

Oh...as you board the plane, there's a tray of newspaper you can pick from to read, which is good if your flight would take a while and this is unvailable in AirAsia.

Once i went into the plane, i saw that seat are filled with different colours which is a good sight to behold compared to AirAsia's singular black colored seat. What i mean by this is that somehow for me, looking at a variety of bright vibrant colors would make my eyes more at ease when air pressure build up in plane.

I also observed that there's only two seats located near the emergency exit, which i think is more appropriate because it give sufficient space in case of emergency compared to AirAsia whereby there are three seats.

Then the highlight of the journey was of course, the food! Yes, the Food! 9 years without MAS made me forgot that they serve food for free during the trip. well, not exactly free as it is add up to your bill. Nevertheless i was as excited as a little kid, hey come to think of it. Last time i tasted airline food was 9 years ago!

I opened up my lunchbox and was surprised to see they didn't gave one, not two, but three Ferrero Rocher as dessert! wow such luxury! Beside the main dish, they also have a fruit cake, a small mineral water and another cup of drink, choices of fruit juice or tea or coffee.

I savored and took my time to wipe clean every inches of the dish. I was beginning to like it because the whole eating process actually is a good time killing method and a perfect distraction on plane compared to like, sleeping.

And yes, you can get unlimited drinks refills, you just need to ask nicely which i glad i did, muahaha. I heard from my friend that if your flight is very empty, you could actually ask them to give you another extra dish!

Haha, anyway, the whole eating experience was the highlight, you can't really compare this part with AirAsia whereby the food is not included in your flight. As the Chinese saying goes "一分钱，一分货" .

Hmm...but if given opportunity if i don't need to pay, of course i'll go for MAS:P

Malaysian Day

Thanks to Najib, starting 2010, 16th September 2010 shall be a holiday every year. For some it may be just another holiday. But I believe this day holds more meaning for Sabahans and Sarawakians than West Malaysians.

Probably it's because most Malaysian especially West Malaysian are more familiar with our 31st August National Day rather than 16th September Malaysian Day. In fact, Tunku Abdul Rahman would want to make Malaysian Day the same day as 31 August if not for communist and other issues from Indonesia, Brunei,Philippine and etc during that period.

Which reminds me of the History lesson that i learned in secondary school whereby early Independent fighters spread Nationalism through written press. Without this freedom of press by British Administration, Nationalism would not spread as quickly as it would. It's ironic, today, now that we are independent after 53 years, our government would not allow the full freedom of press, we Malaysians are being denied by the very own platform that our grandfathers used as a Nationalism tool. I was thinking about this issue because of the recent news of a Malaysian cartoonist being arrested for publishing his work as it is deemed too sensitive.

I don't think the general public is still too un-educated to know how to judge for oneself. sign...it's all because of those incumbent political players playing the race cards.

As we see more and more of these negative headline, it really made us think about the good old Malaysian days, like those Yasmin Ahmad Merdeka Day Petronas commercial. Recently i came upon this video link in facebook and i found it very interesting.

I think it is a great short movie that every Malaysian should watch. This is the first movie that clearly and truthfully projects how the general Malays, Chinese and Indians view each other. It even made me a bit discomfort, which is good as truth is not always a sweet candy. By openly expressing our view, although it may hurt it is the first step to further understand one another.

Instead of vainly hiding all these facts pretending it does not exist, isn't it better to face it truthfully and with courage and a open and rational mind? What would be the most amazing thing is that despite all the difference, we would still be able to put our differences aside and live harmoniously and work together for a better Malaysia.

It is just like in personal relationship, the difference is that this is in a much more larger scale.

Anyway, do take your time to see the short movie and slowly digest and think about it.

Gadoh from Pusat KOMAS on Vimeo.

Happy 53 Year Old Malaysia

I was arranging my excess coin one fine day whereby i suddenly received an inspiration to use coins to buil my own replica of the Petronas Twin Towers. Actually i've always think the building's design are like as if it is being pilled up with multiple giant coins.

Too bad i couldn't pilled up 88 floor due to limited 50cents and 20 cents coin which are more stable. 10 cents coin are not stable when pilled up very high.

Anyway i contribute this magnificent work of art as a birthday gift for my beloved country - Malaysia.



picture taken from thestaronline.

Earlier this year, i came upon a comic book - Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj: His Life Journey Leading to the Declaration of Independence (1903 - 1957) By Eugene Yu.
It's an illustrated cartoon describing our very own "Father" of Malaysia's childhood days to the day Malaysia obtained Independence.

I quite enjoy reading this humorous book and i highly recommend it especially to the younger generation of Malaysian to get to learn our history in a fun and entertaining method.

It describe how our ancestor fought bravely to achieve Independence for our country and we are proud to do it without bloodshed. It also highlighted the importance of the early MCA-UMNO alliance that formed the Barisan Nasional.

Back in those good old days, MCA was a founding parter of BN, nowadays it seems more like MCA is an employee of UMNO. What has happen to this trust and partnership throughout these years?

Some people may say we are lucky to live in a peacefull harmony country so we shouldn't complain about it.

At 53 years old, actually we can do better. I was a bit upset to learn that during the 1970s Malaysia is even more developed than South Korea. But look at us today. Oh well...we don't need to look so far, just a bridge away our neighbour, Singapore. Look how they thrived and developed.

Every country has their own problems, this we cannot compare, but one thing we can compare and one thing that makes the difference is the country's Management. It all comes down to how you allocate and use your country's resources, wisely or wastefully.

This is Houg, signing off and hoping for a better Malaysia.

Happy Birthday, Malaysia~.

Street Fighter Legacy

wow, saw this video via a friend's link in facebook...and all i gotta say is...awesome! double awesome! Finally..for god's sake, a Street Fighter film that is loyal to the Video Game.

It is only a 3 minute short film, but i do hope that it can be made into a movie. The slow time fight scenes look good, and yes...Hadoken and all the essential combo all are available:D

For Video Games turned Movie genre, the character is the most important and must look as similar to the original Video Games as possible. From the short clip, yes...i'm happy to see that...especially the actor playing Ryu is not fully Ang Mo. Ken really looks like the Video Game's copy. Getting martial art based actor is also a lot better than getting actors who don't and requires additional training, because all this would contribute to the quality of the fight scenes.

Their custom and cinematography are great too! The little watery effect makes them look somehow real and somehow CGI. Yes..i like this effect becomes it looks more like a Video Game Character + Live Action Character effect hahaha.


Previous SF films are just terrible, the director's doesn't seem to play the game before and don't pay attention to detail. Remember the Jon Claude Van Damn as Guile in SF? Ngaiti...crappy storyline and i hate the fact the Ryu who is supposed to the main character is downplayed as a side kick. Many of their character outfit and looks poorly resemble the Video Game character.


SF - The Legend of Chun Li, hmmm....this film is much better than the first SF movie. First,Actress is pretty. Things i don't like is that Balrog/Vega the masked guy is not cool enough..although there's many improvement that can be done, but at least it raise up the standard of what SF movie should be...the ending that shows they will be looking for Ryu packs a punch! BTW, did anyone notice that Chun Li's master is actually the Mortal Kombat's Liu Kang?>_<

Hmm...All things said, i really hope that they can make it into a good movie this time around:D

CNY 2010 - The Year of the Tiger.

Hehe i know it's a late very late entry...anyway here it goes:P

Farewell to the Bull which has worked hard and passed a year of much economic turbulence and change.

This year we celebrate Chinese Lunar New Year of the Tiger, a beast that is traditionally regards a totem to ward off evil spirits.

Chinese worldwide celebrate this special occasion and I’m grateful and glad that I’m able to make it home for the family reunion dinner.

This year, the first day of CNY falls on February 14, yup the same date as Valentine Day! So some people couldn’t celebrate it on that day as they’ll be going back to hometown to celebrate CNY. I quite pity the flower sellers because they need to work on CNY and I don’t think the sales would be good for them as most people would be busy with CNY.

Beside all the Ang Paus, delicious food, beautiful fireworks, holidays spirit, I think the most important part of CNY is because for some, it is the only time of the year for friends and family to meet up together.

Specially for those not staying in hometown, like me I’ll go for family and friends gathering and to catch up on status as some of them I would only meet up once a year.
Visiting and planning gathering can be quite difficult as you get older you’ll have more different commitments and somehow you’ll feel more lazy>_<.

This CNY holiday I didn’t managed to find up most of my friends compared to last year. Sign…I guest I need to be more aggressive in visiting next year. I didn’t managed to sing karaoke too…big big sign…I was wondering whether my age of karaoke has passed and is now on the declining stages? Huh? Nooooooo…Tidakkkkkkk….Wo Bu Yao~~~~ T_T

Therefore I sincerely apologize if I couldn’t meet up with some people or didn’t send them CNY sms haha. (Now got facebook ma…) But really I still want to wish everyone a very Happy Chinese New Year and may the roaring tiger brings you and your family an abundance of happiness and health! (and some extra wealth too!)

Oscar & Siaw Hui wedding.

Two weeks before CNY, I traveled back to Kuching to attend a friend’s wedding. Luckily I was able to book early and the fare was quite cheap, both way only cost me RM68.


I’ve known the bride, Siaw Hui back in my Uni days. It was my semester break and I was looking for part time jobs. I happen to saw a notice board in Kuching Civic Center library and so I called her up and went there for an interview of a waiter’s position.

The name of the café was called “Daydream” and the place was quite a bit off the road and I remembered the first time when I met her. I got a 0.5 stun as I didn’t expect to meet up someone pretty haha. I was instantly put into work without interviewing and next minute I’m already carrying dishes and wiping and clearing tables. I even need to borrow handphone from her to inform my parents that I’ve gotten a part time job as my handphone was low bat that time.

So that is how I became a “Daydreamer”. Daydream was only 6 months old when I joined and I was quite proud to be first student from Batu Lintang Secondary School to work there. Hehe, it was quite fun to see that as years goes by, I was able to recognize all those faces from Batu Lintang waiter/waitress that worked there and I’m able to think of myself as some sort of pioneer haha.

Slowly I got more familiarize with Siaw Hui and her friends and I was quite surprised that we do have some friendship chemistry. This is something new for me in a way that this is the first time I build up a friendship outside friends from my school circle. So when we’re not working, we would go to have a drink/dinner, watch movies or even go for outing trips.

Hehe, my Daydream friends is guilty as charged for being the first gang to bring me to Karaoke. The first song I sang in karaoke is Jay Chou’s “星晴” from his first album and they say I sing quite ok and this is how I became a Karaoke Addict:P


This is the first time I become a “sister” of the bride. I helped out with some of the preparation of the games for the bridegroom’s “brother” and to print out the “love declaration” letter. The love declaration is written by Siaw Hui herself and is quite original and perfectly portrays her mischievous and down-to-earth humor.


Another funny thing is that the letter is written in Chinese which the bridegroom doesn’t understand, therefore he needs a translator to read it out to him before he can read out the declaration himself.


Their dinner was held in Pullman hotel, Kuching. It’s the newest hotel in town and this was also the first time I’ve been there. The place was beautifully decorated and the food taste good too.

I met an inspiring person on my same table. He’s in a wheelchair, getting government socso living allowance but this does not stop him from just being someone on wheelchair awaiting help only. He even run his own textile printing business and is quite an optimistic person. He even joked that he is the most crazy wheelchairer in town, constantly going around socializing, doing business like normal people do. Wow, I feel honored to know someone like this and I think it is quite inspiring for others.

Here's more pics of the wedding day.


They specially rent and decorated a bus for 'brothers' and 'sisters'.


Frozen bananas...brothers gotta eat this!


another obstacles, brothers gotta do push up while finishing licking chili sauce on the plate below their face>_<


Bear bear getting married:)


Sisters posing


surprise!


what are they plotting? hmm....


show me the money~


white sisters gang posing, luckly i wear white...the bride forget to inform me!


wah..got "tang yuan"..hehe very happy can eat "tang yuan"


Piggy bank, XXXL, gotta have one of these!

Siaw Hui is a good girl and I believe she’ll make a good wife. Haha, This is Houg, signing off with a big cheers for the newly wed.

Siao Hui, 要幸福喔:)

Rocket United

walk by SS2 and discovered this shop. At first i thought it's a place for football fans to gather...cos Manchester United pop out from my head. then at second glance i see all the pictures of DAP...then i know it's a DAP shop.

Its feels like a very political driven concept (very obvious) and frankly I do feel a bit of discomfort as I walk pass the stall. It does not have the warm welcoming feeling of most coffee shop do.

But then I was driven by curiosity, after all, I’ve never seen or been to such store before. Then my mind starts thinking…hmm…what would their menu be like? Rocket Char-Kuey Tiaw? Rocket Fried Rice? Or Rocket Super Lunch Set~ guarantee to rocket you to the sky~~etc…etc…and suddenly it feels like fun!



The café started business since 8th August 2009. And the menu…first page explain a little history of forming of DAP…and the food list....Nope...there’s no Rocket Char-Kuey Tiaw or Rocket something something....just ordinary café food and drinks.

The price I think is slightly a bit high but it’s still normal price range for those food café in SS2. The food taste ok too. Just ok, not super nice or special.


The 1st floor has better looking and design! They got this big sofa whereby you can lay down and eat!

I think when next time there’s a DAP talk in town, it would be held there. So if you’re disgruntled with the government you can go to this place to eat and talk about politics with your friends as the environment would give you a mood to do so:P
But then, political oriented café may only appear to certain demographic of people so I’m not sure whether it’s really going to be a successfully business.

Then again, maybe their ultimate goal is not business but instead it’s politics. Would we be seeing any PAS café or UMNO café in future?

ASIMO

image taken from here

went to one Utama today to meet friends and played some bowling and coincedently ASIMO was in town! it attracted alot of audience when the show started, especially parents bring their children to see it. this robot has travelled around the world and of course, we wouldn't miss the chance to see it.

ASIMO stands for Advanced Step in Innovate Mobility. i heard of ASIMO before and read some of it from advertisement, especially it's symbolic slogan "it inspires us to dream". but one thing for sure, to see it with your own eyes really amazed you. i was thinking like whether if there is a human within the suit or not, because ASIMO's movement is quite fluent like human and has many humanlike behaviours.

it can mimic other people's movement like run, dance, wave hands, claps hands and many more. more amazing is that it is not pre-programmed to do all this movement but instead it is able to respond according to its environment.


image taken from here

one of the gigs that i know it perform is that it can received a tray from a human personnel, walk to the other end of stage and put the tray on the table.

ASIMO's voice and design is quite alike children. i think maybe it's because to don't make it look too intidimating and make it more friendly and lovable looking instead like children. after reading from the website, i've get to know that it's 120cm height is idealy for operating in a living human environment,whereby it is tall enough to open the door, operate copier machines, do stuff on the tables..etc..wow..the japanese really did alot of R&D on this!


image taken from here

i saw from the website, whereby it can even conduct a sympony! you should watch the video of how gracefull ASIMO's hand movements are while it is conducting! walao...really amazing..haha, i duno how many times i use amazing already:P

although the show last about 20minutes, i think it's quite inspiring (like the slogan) it somehow inspires hopes for a better future as well, whereby technology can bring many amazing changes to our lifes. it also made me think that robots or advanced intelligent are not necessary evil and would turn against human race like those in the movies haha, it all depends on our hands really.

for more information about ASIMO, check out it's website here

haha, i suddenly realize that my surname is in the middle of its name:P

a touching comic strip of china's 5.12 earthquake stories.

i've received a forwarded email from my friend, which reads:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello. This is Coco Wang.

As you know the breaking news of 5.12 Earthquake in China, almost all the TV channels in China are broadcasting 24 hours non-stop of every development and stories of all the rescue operations in all damaged locations.

I don't know how much information the BBC or any UK media received from us, I imagine the UK audiences were presented with the major developments of the incident, but you are probably unaware of many important and inside details which are only known to people inside China.

The amount of incredibly moving stories of victims, rescuers, and volunteers is simply shocking at the moment. I have been collecting newspapers of all the stories, and telling them in the form of comic strips. I hope these stories could show the UK readers the love, warmth and courage of the Chinese people, also the sad and cruel reality of the horrible 5.12 Earthquake.

I am back home in Beijing now. Thousands of heart-breaking stories are happening 24 hours non-stop everyday, some are so sad that you can hardly bear, some are incredibly moving that you just can't stop crying... I wanted to go to the front to help with all those people, some of my friends have already gone there, but I heard that the traffic needed to be kept totally clear for rescue transportation at the moment, people like me without knowledge of first-aid and experience of rescue operations going there now would cause choas and trouble... but I can't just sit at home and do nothing, I have been crying my eyes out in the past three days, I have never felt more proud of my country and people... their love, courage and kindness rock me to my core! I have decided to tell these touching stories by drawing comics. I am going to send you comic strips almost everyday from now on, I hope you could know something about the earthquake in China, although you don't have to do anything, but I hope you could feel our love and hope.

Thank you all so much.





















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to frankly tell the truth i didn't responded alot to the sichuan province earthquake news. i just knew that it was a very big earthquake and many lives are taken. this comic strip, (luckily it's a comic strip as real pictures would be too horrible to see) really open up my eyes.

regardless on how authenticated these stories are, nevertheless it's all a touching stories, and a living example and showcase of human courage and spirit under dire disastrous conditions. damn at one point as read, i do feel my eyeballs getting wet.

a very thanks to the author of the strips who compilled and drew this strip and a very thanks to my friend who sended me this forwarded email. haha, frankly this forwarded email touched my heart and that i feel that i should post it up at my blog to share with others.

there's also one or two comic strips that is humorous, at least to lighten up the mood of the readers abit as most stories are sad one.

as a malaysian, we are truly blessed to live in a place whereby there's not much natural disaster. of course, there's the yearly haze and floods, but compare to other countries that have earthquakes, volcanos, typhoon, tsunami..etc.. we should really be glad that we live in such paradise.

before we forget, let us give a tribute to all the brave people of the rescue teams and the survivors, and the heroes that perish in order to save others.