78 cents...

Ouch.

that rock that bothers us all...

"I still maintain my stand that we have half the victory, and half the failure. All are rocks anyway, there is no mempelam (mango) there, nothing, not even a blade of grass. But people like to rub it in. But let's face it. Malaysia did not lose all. Whoever says that, either he or she does not understand the international law result, or they are playing belukar politics."

"It is a subjective assessment, of course. The fact that Batu Puteh is not with Malaysia now, I think that is the nagging problem. The fact that we have Middle Rocks, not many people appreciate."

Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim's opinion on ICJ's verdict to rule that Pedra Branca belongs to Singapore, while claiming that it should have been Malaysia's.

While I understand that our current Foreign Minister shouldn't be blamed for the lost of the island to Singapore, I seriously think he's in self-denial to claim that we have half the victory, when the only win situation is to claim back all our islands. Losing any of these rocks are just pure failure. Nothing else.

The maps of Malaysia put forward does not even recognise Batu Puteh as part of Malaysia, and it is purely our fault that the island was eventually awarded the the tiny country south of us. How can the important letters and documents go missing, and why do we let Singapore maintain the island independently in the first place?

Just concentrate to get back Batu Puteh and stop critisizing citizens for feeling disappointed that part of our country is lost.

just another manic monday...

Or not.

General Election 2008 is over, and things are back to normal. At least things look to be normal to me. In fact, Sunday was pretty normal too, much to my surprise. But I'm proud that this time around, Malaysians are mature enough and did not cause any troubles anywhere in the country after the elections.

A quick recap on what happened on Saturday, few prominent BN candidates were ousted from the Parliament.

S. Samy Vellu himself, with G. Palanivel, S. Sothinathan, S. Veerasingam and Dr K.S. Nijhar; the top five in MIC, won't be sitting in the Parliament for the next four years, arguably the worst casualty in BN's group of parties.

Gerakan's leader Dr Koh Tsu Koon lost, and lost big, in Penang, with only two of his party members remaining in the Parliament. PPP president M. Kayveas is in the losing end as well.

MCA's leader Ong Ka Ting stays, but many won't be joining him as Tan Chai Ho, Ong Tang Chuan, Wong Nai Chee, Fu Ah Kiow, Donald Lim and Chew Mei Fun among those rejected by the people.

Umno did not fare too well, big names Sharizat Abdul Jalil and Zainuddin Maidin are out.

Of all these names, Sharizat must have been the biggest surprise. Although Nurul Izzah does ooze some confidence and a leader in the making, I did not expect Sharizat to falter after all she has done for the country for the past few years.

Tsu Koon's defeat was down to his Motorola deal, obviously, and Samy Velly didn't make a good impression with his threats. MCA's list of losers are clearly due to their inability to voice out the people's unrest.

I believe the major reason why the Opposition had so much support this year is due to citizen's rejection to the Government. Easy assumption, with all the prices hiking up, poor management of funds ending up with hundreds of millions going to the drain (90 million to send an idiot to space as a participant? what the hell?), corruption, racial polarisation and discrimination among few.

Of the late 2 weeks, they did not do well even though the managed to control the local medias to broadcast and channel their 'successes', while hiding all the flaws from public. What they did not expect is that the internet nowadays provide more than adequate news, unfiltered ones, for the citizens. The Star, NST, TV3, RTM and the others, you guys should be ashamed for letting BN control you guys like muppets.

With BN denied their craved 2/3 majority, what will happen in the Parliament? It'll be some time before we can expect some major changes towards our lives, especially now that the combined PAS, DAP and PKR seek to make some voices heard with the five states won.

But still, expect changes. For better or worst.

and mommy told me tomorrow will be better...

So the Opposition did what they set out to do, deny Barisan Nasional the 2/3 majority.

My plea to the Opposition leaders,

We have made our voices heard now, we have shown that we can make a difference, and we have voted you all to help us achieve a better tomorrow.

Now it's time for you to show us what you can do, and don't let me and my fellow countrymen down.

We have gone lengths to show our support, and while I believe changes may not necessary always be better, at least we have hope. We can hope for a better governance and future for our beloved Malaysia, for the sake of every single Malaysian who stepped forward to be counted.

We voted you in, and we have the power to vote you out.

Goodluck, and God bless Malaysia!!!

tales of inks...

Flipped over the NST this morning and to my disgust the Election Commission has declared that the indelible ink will now not be used during voting procedures, 3 days before the big day.

News splashed across all national newspapers and blogs, internet news all over the world.

47,000 bottles of the indelible ink, costing the government RM2.4 million, was brought in over a week ago, and after 'much discussions' the EC chairperson Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman has confirmed that it will cause plenty of troubles and misunderstanding at the polling stations and decided against it.

Why, for Pete's sake, does he only manage to figure that out after spending RM2.4 million of us taxpayer's money is beyond my imaginations. I mean, look! I am paying my tax to subsidize the government to buy bottles of inks which are now practically going to be stored in some whoknowswhereisitgonnabe storeroom until they get expired and be disposed off!

This news just pisses me off and flipped my day.

I'm sure we will not be facing petroleum price hikes if these funds are used to subsidize petrol, plus all those cash gone in transactions in government bodies, or in another word, corruption.

Why is Abdul Rashid the EC chairperson? I can pick up a stone and throw it across the street, any man who gets hit can still make a better judgement than this guy. Especially when it involves so much money!

election...

So here it comes, election day next weekend, are you voting?

I heard on the radio yesterday where some people were discussing whether to vote the person or the party. Interesting debate, and in general the society (or the callers mostly) are bent on voting for the party regardless of who the candidate will be at their respective area. Is this a wise choice? Or will you choose based on a candidate who can help you and your community in general?

As for my personal preference, I'd like to remain on the fence in open blogs like this, so I wouldn't say what's my stand.

But I do remember back then in my university's election, I did encounter some laughable candidates. I remember a guy came into the lecture hall before the class begins, and tried to preach and convince us students to vote for him. On his manifesto, he vowed to discard MUET as a compulsory requirement for graduation.

I found it amusing and absurd, and I thought this guy would never win an election with silly ideas like that. In a world where people constantly try to improve themselves, why do we want to do that? Shouldn't we be looking forward to achieve better results and strive to be wiser?

How wrong was I. The idiot won, and MUET was discarded from the graduation requirement.

Our country is still young and growing. People, please vote wisely so that our country can prosper.

Happy be-earlied Election Day to everyone, may the best candidates win.