Singapore Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew is now 84, but you can’t deny the fact that, he speaks like a 22-years-old IT savvy youngster.

"It is in our interest to make them feel welcomed, and to integrate them into our community, because they are the extra megabytes in our computer. The Singaporeans form the hard disk whether it’s 5 gigabyte or whatever, you need this extra megabyte to be able to cope with all the expansion which we are now experiencing."

During the annual Tanjong Pagar Chinese New Year dinner last Friday, he spoke vividly of opening up Singapore to embrace globalization and transforming Singapore into a lively and vibrant city.

In contrast, crossing the straits, we boost of having Mat Cemerlang.

Low tide or high tide, blame it on weather, global warming and etc.

You know how I feel? I feel it’s like at a near similar stage to how the Govenrment convinces Malaysians that Malaysia still offer the lowest priced petrol after Brunei in South East Asia region when they decided to increase the petrol price.

One up for blogger Aisehman for spotting the inexplainable.

Why blogger Stephen Francis intimidated S Samy Vellu? No, he isn’t as sucky as Dracula, really.

You know, throughout the years, Samy Vellu has proven himself to be one of the century greatest entertainer (Click here for my massive collection of Samy Vellu puking fun at every single Malaysian, from Ayoyo Samy until calling upon all Malaysians to call his mobile phone!) and the latest, he is featured on YouTube too.

Call this the power of digital evolution, he is known in every single corner of this world and on top of that, proven credibility!

So, why hate him, Stephen?

Trust me, we Malaysia does have a lot of great ideas, it’s just the implementation stage that failed its people.

The latest, according to Immigration Director General Wahid Md. Don, paperless passport application starting from mid-2007 and applicants would be able to obtain the passport within 40 minutes and 2 hours.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to be sarcastic as I do hope that this idea will not go down the drain like remaining typical ideas. Instant processing of paperless passport application would have provided enormous convenience, such as saving precious time on waiting line, unnecessary procedures and etc.

It’s the constant and sustained deliverable throughout that we would like to witness as the benefit of giving this idea the benefit of doubt, proven the usual case to be untrue.

On Jan 1, a 17-year-old Boeing 737-400 Adam Air passenger plane flying from Surabaya to Manado with 96 passengers and six crew aboard crashes on Sulawesi island.

Barely 2 months afterwards, another Boeing 737-300 operated by Adam Air made a hard landing in the country’s second largest city last Wednesday which cracked its body into a bent shape. Subsequently, the plane has been painted into white, interestingly, why?

This had prompted the Indonesia Transport Ministry to conduct safety checks on all 737-300s operated by Indonesia domestic airlines and further expand the inspection on seven 737-300s operated by Adam Air. Many people who had booked tickets with Adam Air have asked for their money back.

Meanwhile, our Transport Minister Chan Kong Choy assured that no-frills airlines in Malaysia were safe and adhered to the highest international safety standards. Furthermore, new local airlines is going to be up and running soon, operating from the Penang International Airport in Bayan Lepas by April.

Oh by the way, Adam Air was awarded the Low Cost Airlines of the Year 2006. In the future, trust the greatest award no more, your life is absolutely much precious than that.

Oppss, I was selected as one of the player, with Zorro Unmasked as the coach?

(SOURCE: Kickdefella)

Meanwhile, blogger Sheih is looking for sponsors. He can’t be joking.

Jakarta based Malaysian blogger Ong Hock Chuan ended the mind playing game since the first day of Chinese New Year by revealing a new kid in the "blog", being positioned by Ong as someone who is in between Jeff Ooi and Rocky, Kalimullah Masheerul Hassan and Brendan Pereira.

Needless of any introduction, he is The Star’s Deputy Group EIC Wong Chun Wai (http://www.wongchunwai.com). Currently, archive of his weekly articles had been uploaded and according to Ong’s informant, he wil begin with new real blog posting soon.

Welcome to the blogosphere, you’re part of us now!

Today is March 20.

(SOURCE: Kickdefella)

Put aside the "I blog for money" notation as shown in the poster above, Happy Birthday to Bloggers United - No Fear.

Chinese New Year 2007 is coming soon and I was telling myself not to read ant not to blog for a few days. However, I can’t help but to feel for affected Indian communities over the Maika Holdings shares issues, hence feel compelled to blog about this.

For those who are uninitiated, Maika Holdings was established in 1982 as the investment arm of Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), purportedly to enable Indian Malaysians to share in the country’s economy growth. Samy Vellu’s son S Vell Paari, is Maika Holdings’s CEO.

In April 1992, it was discovered that Maika Holdings involved in a  9 million Telekom shares scandal. Excerpt from Wikipedia:

In April 1992, when it was discovered that 9 million Telekom shares that were originally offered to Maika Holdings Berhad had been rechannelled to three unknown companies, SB Management Services Sdn. Bhd., Advanced Personal Computers Sdn. Bhd., and Clearway Sdn. Bhd. The first two companies RM2 shell companies, whereas the son and brother in law of S. Samy Vellu (President of the Malaysian Indian Congress) were the directors of the last.

Latest Scandal

Last November, Samy Vellu gave a personal assurance that that investors would receive RM130 for every RM100 invested by Feb 15. He further assured shareholders will get back their money in three months.

"Shareholders who invested in Maika because of me will not be cheated. I will never let them down," said Samy Vellu in a temple function in Johor yesterday.

"For those who want their money back, I have made arrangements to give it back to them in three months," he said.

"For all these shareholders and investors, Samy Vellu is the guarantee"

Even then, shareholders do not believe what’s being promised by Samy Vellu despite his personal guarantee.

"This is nothing new. I will not believe him until I see my money returned to me," said A Mutthiah who had invested in Maika in early 1980s.

Tamil-language daily Makkal Osai has been running a countdown to the deadline, publishing articles from grassroots leaders and shareholders reminding Samy Vellu and Vell Paari about the repayment.

(SOURCE: Malaysiakini, 13 February 2007)

Denial Mode

On Feb 13, it was reported by Malaysiakini that a Maika official said the assurance given by Samy Vellu to give RM130 for every RM100 invested was not a plan mooted by the investment arm.

"We have not heard of that plan until Samy Vellu was quoted in the Tamil papers as giving that assurance,"

Subsequently, a police report was lodged by Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) vice-chief S Manikavagam, urging IGP and ACA to reopen investigation into the Maika issue and called upon Attorney General Abdul Gani Patail to charge Samy Vellu, his son and the directors for fraud and criminal breach of trust.

About 100 people standing outside the Maika office and called on the Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to sack Samy Vellu.

(SOURCE: Malaysiakini, 16 February 2007)

As much as majority of Malaysians would love him to be sacked, let’s recognize the fact that his position as the cabinet minister is almost unassailable as the Indian’s community sole representative, therefore making him invincible. Also, bear in mind that Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi doesn’t have the right to sack him from his presidency as he was elected by the MIC members.

Now, questions that we need to ask:

1) Did the MIC president S Samy Vellu make the personal guarantee of RM130 return for RM100 invested?

2) If Samy Vellu made the promise, why Maika official denied the existence of the plan?

A big hypocrite indeed.

Goodbye to the year of dog, let’s usher in the chinese year of golden pig.

I’d like to take this opportunity to wish everyone of you an abundance of good fortune and a year filled with serenity.

Gong Xi Fa Cai!