Now, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi shows who’s in charge!

Via Bernama:

The government has no intention to boycott goods from the United States and Britain to protest against their support for Israel’s assault on Lebanon because the action can backfire on Malaysia, said Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

He said those who called for a boycott should think very deeply about it.

"We should not talk big and then have to backtrack when our action becomes a burden to us,"

"Boycott still on, KJ?" or "boycott KJ?"

By the end of year 2005, Malaysia Airlines (MAS) appointed Idris Jala as the new managing director and chief executive officer.

Inheriting heavy deficit incurred throughout the past administrations, the new MD realised the expectation of national ordeal on his shoulders, thus initiated a string of turnaround plan, trying to resuscitate the dying MAS.

Knowing that for the national carrier to succeed, Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak gave assurance that the Government will not meddle in the affairs of the national career, meaning to say that, micro-managing doesn’t exist between the Government and MAS.

Yesterday, Deputy Tourism Minister Donald Lim said Malaysian Airlines has been asked by the Cabinet to resume the Penang-Langkawi flights starting from September 1. Thus, reader Usman Bawang, apparently disappointed with the Government decision, sent a mailbag to this blogger. Excerpt:

Clearly the government is very forgetful, or at least they are hoping that the people are.

Read the rest of this entry »

[UPDATED VERSION] A few hours after the shocking news of former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad being attacked in Kota Bharu, there is another in the vicinity of KLCC.

(SOURCE: Malaysiakini, 28 July 2006)

The Star SMS alert at 2.20pm.

Police evicted Umno Youth deputy head Khairy Jamaluddin from KLCC after he broke security to hand over protest memo to US Sec of State Condoleezza Rice.

Why merely an inviction instead of being hand-cuffed for such high level of security invasion?

Just imagine, when the Sec of State is back to US and the boss George W. Bush asks out of his curiosity.

Bush: By the way, who’s the lucky one?

Condoleezza Rice: The son-in-law of Malaysia’s Prime Minister.

Food for thought.

[UPDATED VERSION] Via Rocky’s Bru:

11.36am … Sufi Yusoff, who is with the xPM, clarifies: The good doc did not faint but had to be rushed out of the airport following the attack. Sufi said he suggested that the programme for the day be called off, but Dr M insists that things go as planned.

Tun is all-right, let’s wait for updates.

The Star SMS alert at 2:05pm.

PM has directed the police to conduct a thorough probe into the mace attack on Tun Dr Mahathir, says those responsible must be punished severely.

Deputy Internal Security Minister Fu Ah Kiow said the mainstream media had complained of ‘double standards’ and the uneven playing field involving the traditional and Internet media.

Fu said in view of this, the government would study amending the Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA) to include the Internet and electronic media under the act.

When the Government setup the Multiemedia Super Corridor (MSC), it’s guaranteed that the Internet media is not bound by the restrictive PPPA and are thus exempt for the mandatory annual licensing provision which the government uses to ensure media toes the line.

In the past, through legislation and licensing laws, it may work. But, how about Malaysia in the midst of moving into the future mode? Blogger Ong Hock Chuan has this to say.

The Malaysian leadership does this every time they are under seige: Try to control the media, and hence what they think are the means of information to the rakyat. […]

With the traditional media already under their control, they are now focussing on legislating to tame the blogs and websites sites, which have become the mainstay of dissent and information for politically aware Malaysians. The government is now talking about amending the Printing and Publications Act so that they can assert control over the blogosphere and websites. […]

But resorting to such means of control is just another form of denial. It is time for the Malaysian leadership to realize that in the 21st Century, not only is the whole world watching, the whole world can upload what they see, hear and feel. The people in this new world are like the newspapers, TV and radio stations they would like to control, but can’t.

The only recourse is to enter into a discussion with these empowered lot of uploaders. Until they learn to do that they are bound to find control slipping from their hands fast. There is a saying that if all you have is a hammer, every problem begins to look like a nail.

Food for thought.

Malaysians use to say, Malaysia macam-macam ada. However, I beg to differ this time. I say, Malaysia memang boleh!

Via Bernama:

The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) that has come under heavy gunfire off late, has put up a bold front by setting 2018 as the target for the national team to qualify for the World Cup.

Speaking at a press conference to answer allegations levelled at the country’s football governing body, general-secretary Ibrahim Saad said that besides qualifying for the World Cup, the national squad must also win gold in SEA Games by 2009.

"Nobody, including we at the FAM, like to see the national team’s performance to drop but we are certainly doing what we can to elevate the status of football in the country and we need the cooperation of everybody involved.

"Finger pointing will not help Malaysian football to move forward but we accept and value the views and criticisms for the betterment of the game, and resigning en bloc is also not the solution," he said.

It’s also commendable and heartening to read the FAM to actually own the vision of 2018 qualification, for the reason I believe Malaysians irregardless of the ethics, cultural, skin colours will sing the same tune of unity towards the country.

It’s always my dream, millions of Malaysians’ dream, together with the Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s dream to see Malaysia through the World Cup.

However, it’s also worth mentioning that, instead of dreaming big for the next decade’s target, first thing first, let’s concentrate and stay focus into the golden light of the SEA Games, afterall, we’ve been pursuing the golden dream since ages ago yet all ended in vain.

It’s time to do the right thing, rather than preaching the big thing yet can’t product anything!

(SOURCE: Miss Universe)

Well, she is Nadine Chandrawinata, the Indonesia’s representative in Miss Universe 2006.

She did not make it to the finals of the Sunday competition in Los Angeles, which was won by Miss Puerto Rico, but she had drawn heavy media coverage in Indonesia, partly because of her mixed Indonesian-German parentage and Eurasian looks.

A militant Islamic group has filed a police report against Indonesia’s Miss Universe candidate accusing her of indecency, a lawyer for the organization said on Tuesday.

Nadine Chandrawinata’s participation in the contest and display of her body in a swimsuit there "is actually insulting for Indonesian dignity and women", Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) attorney Sugito told Reuters.

This reminded me of the Playboy magazine which arrived in Indonesia three months ago, with an edition specially created to take account of local customs — no photographs of nude women, no nudity at all.

Fairly predictably, the FPI which specializes in attacks on nightclubs and gambling dens, threw rocks at the Playboy office in Jakarta, forced the magazine to move to Bali, where foreign tourists parade their skimpy swimsuits and frolic in alcohol-suffused nightclubs.

Subsequently, the Indonesian Society Against Piracy and Pornography (MAPPI), which is pushing the anti-pornography bill, filed suit against the magazine, prompting the police investigation into the editorial team and then being charged with indecency.

What I’m wondering is, what’s the point of going after a lady (which might do Indonesian proud?) in the 2-pieces bikini and a magazine titled PlayBoy (due to its fame apparently!) which contains no photographs of NO nudity at all?

While blogger Ong Hock Chuan is kind enough to call this "Universal Destruction", however, don’t get conned by part of the negative exemplary mentioned above, afterall, you would simply amazed by the liberalisation level shown!

Coincidentally, on the similar day itself, Singapore has also suffered from a disruption in it’s Mass Rapit Transit (MRT) service. The North East Line (NEL), operated by public transport company SBS Transit came to a stand still as of lunch time.

Reader Will Hunting sent in a mailbag with a comparison between the railway transit services offered at both sides. Sad but true enough. Excerpt:

One practises transparency all the way to the management level officials, with the operator’s director making a media appearance and clarification interview at the site of disruption, while another remains "not contactable" at press time, yesterday, with no cause of accident mentioned.

One practises immediate response and damage control, while the other merely… (From the Malaysiakini letter, it seems to be a norm for PUTRA LRT commuters to expect glitches during rainy days even?!)

One’s citizens complains about being trapped too long in a train, while the other complains about having to walk a couple of extra hundred meters to find out there are no train service.

One thinks that "everything we have is good enough" while the other thinks that "everything we have should be better".

So, what is the standard operating procedure for emergencies? Why there isn’t any swift evacuation during emergency?

Read the rest of this entry »

A disgruntled LRT commuter Shalina Azhar takes thing into her own and wrote a long letter to Malaysiakini.

"How difficult is it to make an announcement to the affected customers? How can a big company like RapidKL that manages the LRT lines not know how to communicate with its passengers?" she asked.

My questions to SPNB therefore are:

• What is the SoP (standard operating procedure) for emergencies?
• What is the response time for such emergencies? Should you not be rescuing passengers after only a few minutes?
• What are the steps being taken to ensure that this does not happen again?

How can passengers communicate with the control room when all the mechanisms to do so in the train do not serve their purpose? We were pressing the red button and smashing the glass and yet nobody got back to us.

I am angry. And fearful. Why can’t Malaysian companies really think of the many lives that are in their hands daily and do everything in their power to safeguard it?

Customer service is not just about smiling faces and a friendly approach. It is about the value and worth attached to each and every customer.

And I detest knowing that Syarikat Prasarana Negara Berhad, which owns RapidKL, thinks that my life is expendable.

Let me reverberate the similar question asked on the previous entry: Why there isn’t any swift evacuation during emergency?

Watch out this space, more updates soon!

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To those who travel on Putra Light Rail Transit (LRT) everyday, you should have known what happened to the service yesterday.

For those who fortunately miss the accident, over 1,000 passengers were left stranded in the tunnel between the Central Market and Dang Wangi stations when the electric-powered trains suddenly stopped at 7pm.

No one was seriously injured in the incident except for four women who fainted in the trains’ coaches, where all three trains were packed with between 300 and 400 people on their way home after work.

"The passengers in the three trains waited for about an hour before exiting via the emergency doors." […]

A passenger on one of the trains, Vijaya Nachiaappan, 36, said that he was disappointed by the slow response by the management of the service in bringing the passengers to safety.

"People became panicky after waiting almost 40 minutes for the train to move and started kicking its doors before the emergency doors were managed to be opened," he said.

One must be pondering why there isn’t any swift evacuation during emergency? You don’t need scientific brain to realize being stranded in a packed environment for 40 minutes is totally unbelievable and unacceptable!

Also, Malaysia Mega Sales Carnival 2006 kicked off a few days ago, imagine tourists among those who are stucked in there? What an experience!

Something is amiss.