Thousands of Malaysians, two scenarios in two countries and a Prime Minister.

In Perth, Australia …

(SOURCE: Malaysiakini, 10 January 2007)

In Johor, Malaysia …

(SOURCE: Screenshots, 10 January 2007)

(SOURCE: Sreenshots, 10 January 2007)

Now, let the pictures tell their stories.

Meanwhile, a Malaysiakini reader has this to say:

"(At a time when parts of) Johor were under water (resulting in) 17 casualties, I was unable to swallow (the reports and photos)."

Can you?

In 2005, low-cost carrier AirAsia offered 2,000,000 zero fare seats.

This year, in conjunction with VMY 2007, another 1,000,000 seats for free, a few days after the announcement of Air Asia X.

(SOURCE: AirAsia)

As 2007 is the Visit Malaysia Year, this time, I opted for domestic destination.

To my fellow readers and friends across Asian countries, welcome to Malaysia! You can’t be wrong for making yourself as part of the million family.

Via Bernama:

Dr Mahathir was also asked to comment on Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s remark in an interview with the Bangkok Post that criticism against Khairy Jamaluddin had smashed his son-in-law’s pot of rice.

"It is a very big rice bowl, running into hundreds of millions of dollars (ringgit). How much rice can you eat," the former Prime Minister said.

Insufficiency might be the keyword.

Talk about "Scratch & Win", losers are everywhere and the latest incident nearly costs a life!

According to Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry’s Consumer Claims Tribunal chairman Rungit Singh, scratch-and-win scams formed the greatest number of cases taken to the tribunal nationwide, with 1,571 cases pending. 1,066 complaints were lodged at the National Consumer Complaints Centre while the number of unreported cases is estimated to be in the tens of thousands, together with 241 police reports lodged nationwide on scratch-and-win tricks last year.

Is it greed that turns people into naive fools who become victims or negligence of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry in discharging its responsibilities?

It was a peaceful protest.

Huge turnout!

Selamat Bayar Tol Baru 2007?

Cemerlang, Gemilang, Temberang!

Is the Government listening?

Meanwhile, the next demonstration against the toll hikes would be held at 4pm on Jan 14 at the Gombak toll plaza of the Kuala Lumpur-Karak Highway.

Thanks reader Charles for the photos.

To Tony Fernandes, X doesn’t stand for Xpress but Xtra long.

(SOURCE: BBC, 5 January 2007)

"We are proud in being able to continue to lead and revolutionize aviation industry in Asia, just as we did with AirAsia," […]

"Ultimately the launch of AirAsia X will bring independence to the long haul low cost traveler by providing a choice of service for their long-haul travel requirement."

Starting from July, AirAsia X, a new long haul budget service by Fly Asian Xpress (FAX), will start operations in July by flying to Manchester, Huangzhou and Tianjin with the lowest ticket price at RM9.99, targetting to be on sales from next month.

The Transport Ministry has granted AirAsia X landing rights at 36 international destinations in Asia, Europe and Australia. Among them are Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, Melbourne and Osaka.

Despite rumours that AirAsia X would tie-up with the United Kingdom-based Virgin Group and EasyJet to launch this, Fernandes named no partners. However, he admitted there is on-going discussion with easyJet and Virgin Atlantic and would tie up with other low-cost carriers "in order to increase connectivity and route network".

Meanwhile, NST reported that MAS in a statement, national carrier Malaysiar Airlines (MAS) said it is confident that there is room for both a full service airline and a long-haul low-cost carrier in Malaysia.

Poor Americans.

The Minister explained since they belong to the minority group as compared to 17.5 million tourists, it’s a negligible case as reported by Malaysiakini.

Or in another word, what he was trying to say is: I can’t be bothered!

Niamah!!!

From the mouth of former Menteri Besar of Selangor Muhammad Muhd Taib.

"I notice Abdullah is very firm in determining the direction of the country. If some people say he has lost direction, I disagree. Abdullah is very clear in where he wants to go,"

The most prolific apple-polishing statement so far to embark on year 2007, right on time to welcome back the PM Abdullah Ahmad Badawi from his vacation.

The Star SMS alert at 5:32pm.

Fly Asian Xpress (FAX) has been given air traffic rights to operator long haul services to in’tl routes not flown by MAS to Asia, Australia and Europe.

I’m truly thrilled. First by the impending long haul budget experience and hats off to this real practitioner of Blue Ocean Strategy!

How to create uncontested market space and make competition irrelevant, sounds familiar?

The Edge Daily reported that AirAsia’s Tony Fernandes is scheduled to call for a press conference on Friday (Jan 5) on "a revolutionary service that will change the face of aviation travel forever".

It’s Fly Asian Express (FAX), not AirAsia as reported earlier, an executive told Dow Jones Newswires.