Proton chairman Mohammed Azlan Hashim announced that its board of directors has decided not to renew CEO Tengku Mahaleel Ariff contract. He will step down from Tuesday (on leave) and officially out of the company starting from September. Replacement unknown for the time being. Quote:

“The board has resolved not to renew the tenure of the present group CEO beyond his existing tenure.” […]

“It’s a question of change, Proton is an institution, it is not about individuals.” […]

Coincidentally, Telekom Malaysia had appointed Mohammed Shazalli Ramly as the new CEO for Celcom, replacing Ramli Abbas who is going to complete his three-years tenure at Celcom August 31.

Currently, Mohammad Shazalli Ramly holds the CEO post of ntv7, another private TV operator in Malaysia.

This blogger can’t stop sensing another round of GLCs restructuring?

Only Pak Lah knows better.

[UPDATED VERSION] Yesterday, Jeff Ooi described MCA president Ong Ka Ting offered himself as a punching bag for Pemuda Umno who talk about 30% of New Economy Policy (NEP).

Education Minister Hishammuddin Hussein critisized Ong over his comments on Chinese newspaper reports that quoted Ong as saying that he disagreed with the call to revive the NEP in order to achieve 30% Bumiputera equity ownership and not align with the spirit of the policy address by Umno president Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Leave Hishammuddin alone, Ong as the chieftain of Malaysia largest Chinese party MCA take this as no issue and avoid using the media to talk about it. He even rejected the possibility of a special meeting as unnecessary but to talk to him on the sidelines of any meeting as suffice.

However, I believe that this is a too critical issue to discuss in such an informal manner as it touches on every Malaysian generally.

Seems like certain people just don’t get certain message from Pak Lah, ya?

Related Links:
- Dave Yoong | hi! nice to meet you, but i am a malaysian too :)

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Via Utusan Malaysia:

“Apa yang kita harapkan ialah usaha yang lebih gigih lagi untuk mencapai kemajuan Melayu seperti yang dihasratkan oleh DEB, itu yang telah diterima dulu, cuma ia satu kerja yang belum selesai, jadi kita hendak selesaikan kerja ini.”

“Tak pernah saya marah kaum lain. Saya hanya membuat teguan bantuan daripada mana-mana pihak.”ran kepada kaum saya sendiri kerana saya mahu orang Melayu maju dan tidak mengharapkan bantuan daripada mana-mana pihak.”

“Jadi saya hendak katakan dengan tegas jangan sekali-kali mana-mana surat khabar menimbulkan isu perkauman di sini,” kata Abdullah.

I’m curious, so I ask three questions.

#1: Was this issue distorted?

#2: Any spin-doctor here?

#3: Did Pak Lah bark up at the wrong tree?

And now, I rest my case.

USGS has classified a major earthquake, measuring 7.0 on the Ritcher Scale, occured at 1542 (GMT), 1142 (Malaysia Time), near Nicobar Islands, India Region.

It was felt as far away as Madras (Chennai) in India, and Phuket in Thailand.

NTV7 is the first to go live on this. Residents at Perlis, Kedah and Penang had been warned of the possibility that tsunami might hit again.

More updates soon!

Related Links:
- BBC | Major quake hits Nicobar Islands
- Google News

Wanita Umno chief Rafidah Aziz conscience is extremely clear, looking at the way she defends the Approved Permit (AP) policy for important cars.

#1 Quote:

"Malays have broken the Chinese monopoly of importing foreign cars by securing the sole right to import them from the principal companies and this is something to be proud of." […]

"Cars from makers like Honda, Suzuki and Audi were controlled by Chinese companies 30 years ago."

"Before, we never thought bumiputra would get the opportunity. But these young Malays went abroad and succeeded in taking the monopoly away." […]

This suggestion is being chided by no other than Umno Youth delegates itself who asked her to give them some.

The worth mentioned part was the poem which ended her speech.

#2 Quote:

Dasar AP sudah dihuraikan. Tiada apa yang hendak disembunyikan. Melayu berjaya kita banggakan. Bukti bangsa mampu, berkebolehan.

Syarikat francais mengimport kereta jenama ternama antarabangsa. Jangan curiga sesama kita. Menabur fitnah membuat dosa.

Kereta dijual di rumah kedai. Pengedar dilantik seluruh negara. Agenda Melayu belum selesai Bersamalah kita menjayakannya.

While some demanded her to apologise to Dr. Mahathir over the previous fiasco, mixed response are heard all-over the assembly, which can be read here and here.

However, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi declined to make any assumptions, only to describe her explanation as "complete and detailed".

Meanwhile, Rafidah Aziz promised to continue explaining to the whole Malaysia, from time to time. At the same time, I hope she can make profound realization over the AP policy, being made known that its being opposed internally within Umno delegates too.

She can claim herself as a "main entertainer", but deep insider her heart, she knows the facts.

The real one.

Association of Banks Malaysia (ABM) announced that its 14-members of banks will follow the Government in implementing five-day workweek.

ABM executive director Wong Suan Lye said banks need time to make necessary arrangements with working hours, cheque cleareance procedures (no clearing of cheques on Saturday) and lead-time for implementation.

At the same time, banks are to observe a minimum 32 banking hours a week, starting from 9:30am.

Banks are to observe a minimum of 32 banking hours a week based on a five-day week commencing from 9.30am.

However, the exact date of when the five-day workweek would take effect is not confirmed yet.

Related Link:
- Screenshots | 5-day week for banks?

It’s so great to be back online, being deprived of this “priviledge” for the past few days.

This time, a temporary halt to Cuti-Cuti Malaysia, I shall update the photos accordingly once it’s ready.

Meanwhile, seems like a big portion of Cuti-Cuti Malaysia is confined to shopping activities as a survey done by MasterCard International can be deemed true.

As for AirAsia, while rejecting the possibility of partnership with Valuair, a RM10 mil sponsorship deal was concluded with English Premier League Manchester United Football Club (MUFC) which will see the airline using images of players in their advertising campaign, Red Devil merchandise being sold on flights and paint a new Airbus A320 in Manchester United colours. Another deal soon, too?

How great it is would be if Cuti-Cuti Malaysia idea can be promoted like how AirAsia being marketed internationally?

Jul 16: Colmar Tropicale Resort, Bukit Tinggi, Pahang.

Cuti-Cuti Malaysia!

[UPDATED VERSION] June 24 - June 26: Phuket Club Med

A great place to have fun!

Ting Chew Peh confirmed that he didn’t want to miss the race.

He’ll take on incumbent Chan Kong Choy for the deputy president post come Aug 20.

Yes, I’m going to talk about Tony Fernandes’s AirAsia.

July 1: Tony announced that AirAsia will delay its plan to impose fuel surcharge, pending the Government’s decision on the rationalisation of domestic air services, even though Malaysia Airlines (MAS) has already raised its fuel surcharge starting from May 1.

“We hope the rationalisation will come soon. Fuel prices have continued to rise,” he said.

July 11: AirAsia announced fuel surcharge from RM5, depending on the destination, effective from July 14. However, Tony said AirAsia would consider reducing or scrapping the fuel surchage if fuel price returned to normalised levels.

July 12: AirAsia confirmed talks on possibility of flights to Hong Kong, due to the success of its Macau flight service.

However, Tony said that it’s still too early to speculate on this.

July 13: Analyst predicted that AirAsia and Tiger Airways are the most likely survivors for the consolidation plan among low-cost carriers, not to leave out this possible number 2.

For AirAsia to go farer and farer, I’m really proud of this unprecedented achievement, at least to be fair, within this region.

Even subsidised national carrier MAS also imposed fuel surcharge since May 1 while AirAsia manage to survive without invoke extra cost on its customers, this is a business model that GLCs must imitate or least to say, not to ignore it totally.

Nont only that, if AirAsia is being granted the right to fly to Hong Kong, it would be very interesting to watch how MAS traffic is going to be affected by that?

So now, we shall wait and see.

For sure, it won’t be a dull show.