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After the conclusion of the Permatang Pauh by election last Tuesday, I feel like I have to write something here – not as supporter of anybody but as a responsible Malaysian citizen. Firstly, congratulations to former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim for his victory. This victory is very much personal to Anwar because it is supposed to mark his comeback into Malaysian political scene. However, it is not really a victory when you managed to do something that people have already expected you to do. Say for example, people know that you would get full marks in your additional maths examination, by getting that full mark means nothing more than eating a cake with a fork. Having said that, winning the by election is still a success by any standard. Secondly, the by election results showed us that at least the opposition still have a chance of winning an election. Some of you might not agree with me, but I still believe that if the government can rig election results, why would they let th

Last Friday would be two weeks since I started working and I have to say that working life is not that bad at all. I mean, it is a hassle having to wake up early in the morning to go to work, but I have been doing that since I was 11 years old anyway. So, that was not really a problem to me. Since I just started working, I am still a Management Trainee and right now I am working in the International Fund Management Department (IFMD). PNB invests money in both Malaysia and abroad, so the main job of IFMD is to invest PNB’s money in overseas capital market. May I add here that the money that PNB uses for international investments are PNB’s money, which means, IFMD does not use the money from the unit trusts managed by ASNB. So what have I been doing for the past two weeks? I am currently working on a standardised economic fact sheet so that our portfolio managers would have all economic data readily available at the tip of their fingers. And yes, preparing fact sheets is tedious and real

I have not been updating my blog because I am in the middle of getting myself to working life. I will write more on that in other entry. But for now, I just want to express my sadness over the Black 26. I can only hope and pray that things will get better after this. P.S. Working life can be both fun and boring at the same time.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced two days ago that a ‘Majlis Ekonomi’ will be set up to tackle economic problems in this country. This council will help the government to come up with solutions to lower inflation and slow economic growth. While I welcome this move – albeit too late – I also have to ask one question. During the economic crisis of 1998, the government at that time set up Majlis Tindakan Ekonomi Negara (MTEN), which eventually helped the country to get out of the recession. For many years after that, MTEN was also involved in helping the government to write their annual budget. My question is, why do we need another Majlis Ekonomi? What the hell happen to MTEN? Is MTEN not qualified enough? Or is MTEN no longer exist? As usual, my question will be left unanswered but that is not my main concern. My only concern is for whether this so-called Majlis Ekonomi can come up with anything solid to ease the burden of my fellow Malaysians during this difficult time.

Apparently, to our so-called leaders, democracy kills. Therefore, democracy must be avoided at any costs. I am talking about this one political party that supposed to represent the Malays in Malaysia. I have always have a soft spot for this one political party. However, lately, I am beginning to have my doubt. I mean, how can I continue to support a political party that has no respect towards democracy? But then again, there is no such political party anyway in this country. Going back to this political party, how can the supreme council of the party recommend the members not to contest in certain positions? I find it absurd that an elected leader of a party can name his/her successor, who is also supposed to be elected by the members. Who gave them the rights to name his/her successor? A Prime Minister can do that because it is his prerogative in choosing his successor. But an elected leader of a party does not have such privileges. In fact, he cannot even recommend to the members who