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Yes, I think I am becoming obsessed with this Malay Drama show. I always look forward to watching the show every day. The irony of Angkara Cinta is despite the title of the show, it is not a love story at all. At least not to me. Sure, the are several love stories in the show such as Luqman and Adira, Haqeem and Adira, Haqeem and Jijie, and Luqman and Adira again, but these love stories are just in the background and do not form the major part of the storyline. The reason I say this is because if you take away these love stories, Angkara Cinta would still stand on its own. We would still be able to see the struggle of Luqman and Haqeem, as well as, Indah and Mariani in dealing with the situations that they are in. And to me, that's what makes Angkara Cinta great and stand out relative to other Malay Drama on the television nowadays. The show also highlighted several mental health issues that are not talked about in Malaysia generally, and the Malay community specially. Malays, for ...

Many detractors of Tun Dr Mahathir blamed him for causing the fall of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government in February 2020. They blamed him for quitting his position for no apparent reasons whatsoever. To be honest, none of us (save for a select few) really know what had happened behind the curtains and behind Tun's thick skull. As long as we are not Tun himself or those select few, we are all merely speculating at best. To me, I just want to focus on what Tun had said publicly because those are on record and no one can really dispute them. Tun had repeatedly said that he had resigned because he no longer had the support of the parliament as Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu). Two things here, mathematically, what Tun said about the his support from the parliament is true. Secondly, this was what Tun had said, what really went behind the scene was really up to anyone's guess. For one moment, let us just take Tun's words at their face value. The moment Tun felt that he...

We have heard the #kitamintalima campaign and more recently, a group of people from the Wangsa Maju constituency is appealing to the King for the current State of Emergency to be ended earlier than the 1 August 2021 set by the current emergency proclamation. While I appreciate the intention of these people as there are those who believe and think that the current government is incompetent in managing the COVID-19 pandemic, I cannot fully agree with the campaign being directed to the King. As a constitutional monarch, the King can only act upon the advise of the Prime Minister and there are very rare occasions where the King has the absolute power or discretion in carrying out his duties. One of the discretion that he has is in determining the who should be the Prime Minister. In this respect, he had used his discretion in February 2020. Some might argue that the King should have summoned for a parliament sitting so that the MPs can openly vote for the new Prime Minister. While that may...

It has been almost a year of living with the COVID-19 pandemic and the end is far away. The pandemic had changed many ways how we live our lives, where working and schooling from home have now become the new normal. I have been working from home since March 2020 and the transition was not too difficult as I had initially anticipated. However, things changed when I decided to join a new organisation in December 2020. I will tell you that joining a new organisation under a 100% working-from-home setting is not easy. I guess it is human nature to have face-to-face connections with another human being. Joining a new organisation with new colleagues behind the computer screen is definitely not the same with the usual physical reporting to duty. And settling down is not easy too because there are a lot of stuff that need to be arranged for example, the staff access card, office laptop, setting up the virtual private network, etc. It is day 40 at the new workplace and I don't think I have...

I am disgusted by the arrogance shown by the Prime Minister in his speech yesterday. He was commenting on the call for a particular minister to resign for underperforming his duties. While I am indifference as to the minister’s performance, I felt shocked that the Prime Minister’s remarks that his decisions cannot be questioned. He went on to say that as the Prime Minister, he knows what is best for the country and therefore no one can ever doubt his decisions. He also went as far as saying that as the Prime Minister, it is his to right to decide whatever he deems fit for the people. Mainstream media describe the Prime Minister’s statement as charismatic. I describe it as downright arrogant. In short, the Prime Minister is describing himself as a prophet, who is sent by God for the betterment of mankind – or in this case, the Malaysians. Therefore, people are supposed to just sit quietly and listen to whatever he is saying and obey his decree to the letter. To give the Prime Minister t...

When are they going to realize this? It does not matter who brought, stepped, and spat on the cow head. It does not matter if they are UMNO members. It does not matter if they are PKR members. It does not matter if they are PAS member. It does not matter if they are DAP, MCA, MIC members. What matters is, the media has their pictures and videos. What matters is, from those pictures and videos, we can charge them in court. What matters is that the court has to find them guilty and they have to be punished. I personally do not give a damn from which party they came from. I especially do not give a damn if they are not even residences of Section 23. But I give a damn if they are not punished for their insensitive actions. So please stop all these drama on which party was behind the whole thing because that is not even the issue at hand. Our politicians have this habit of deviating from the real issue at hand. That is one trademark – apart from corrupted – of our politicians that I despise...

Happy Merdeka Day. After 52 years of independence, we still have not moved from not respecting other races and religions. This year’s Merdeka Day was tarnished by an appalled act by some residences of a certain city in Malaysia. I can try to understand the frustration of the residences over the plan to build a Hindu Temple within the vicinity of their homes. But, does that justify their actions? I seriously do not think so, especially the Hindus are not the party to blame in this issue. The Hindus in the area has as much rights as their Muslim neighbours for a place of worship. That is one fact that no one could deny. But, it is the authority that has the power to decide where and the places of worship can and cannot be built. Of course this is a delicate matter, but an intelligent authority would definitely be able to handle this matter swiftly without this turned into a racial issue. I honestly have no solution because I have no access to population data of the area. And I certainly ...

So now we are back to square one. Deputy Prime Minister announced today that the teaching of science and maths will revert to Bahasa Melayu or Bahasa Malaysia (I still don’t know what they call it these days because the keep changing it every time we have a new Information Minister). The reason for the flip-flop was because the gap between rural and urban students have widen since the introduction of the policy in 2003. Let me get this straight, is the Deputy Prime Minister trying to tell everyone that before the teaching of science and maths in English, the performance of the rural students are at par with the urban students? If that is true, I think our education system must have been the best in the world. So, basically the teaching of maths and science in English policy had ruined our education system. Hail to the government for making things right for everybody. From 2012 onwards, we would see the equal performance of both rural and urban students in public examinations. Parents w...

When Datuk Seri Nizar just shouted in the parliament on Monday, I just thought that the former Mentri Besar had just found a new low in his behaviour – even lower than the attempted hunger strike a month ago. However, when Datuk Seri Nizar said, his action in the Parliament was spontaneous, I just realize that this so-called Datuk Seri can actually go lower than any dirt can go (pardon the language). I honestly do not mind if any of our MPs would want to convey their message by wearing a badge or a headband. I can also tolerate some sub-intelligent actions by them such as shouting in the august house because that’s what our MPs do. I did have an entry in this blog labelling our MPs as monkeys. But, to actually tell the press that whatever you did in the parliament on Monday was purely spontaneous, that’s just…well…lets just not go there shall we? If its not for the hypocrisy, I would have noted his actions in the parliament as bold (though that doesn’t mean I approve it). But, since Da...

I is very unfortunate that we, Malaysians live in this country where its politicians only want to do what they do best, politicking. The latest circus in town is the resignation of Penanti Assemblyman, which effectively means another by-election will be held within the next 60 days. I don’t mind if we have a by-election when the incumbent rep dies or found guilty in courts but, I do mind if an incumbent just resign over personal matters or just allegations. I am happy for a rep with a government position to let go their post over personal matters or allegations over something but not – definitely not – for parliamentary or state assembly seat. The reason being, you were elected – read elected – by your constituents. If you were charged in court and found guilty, by law you would automatically vacant your seats anyway. So, until proven guilty, why should you resign? And if your constituents do not like you anymore, they can always vote you off in the next election. Here is what I am sug...

When I put up the ‘Daulat Tuanku’ banner in my blog, I am referring to the act of former Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Ir. Mohammad Nizar to not to resign when asked by the Sultan to do so. No matter how unfair it may seem, the Sultan had made his decision. And I think, assuming Datuk Seri is a gentlemen, he should have respected the Sultan’s decision and resigned from his position. The question on whether the Sultan’s action is legitimate or not should only be determined by the court and not by public act of defiance or demonstration. From this, I do agree with Lim Kit Siang that if Karpal Singh decided to sue Sultan Perak, then he should be given the opportunity to file the lawsuit. Whether the lawsuit will be accepted by the court or not, it is again up to the court to decide.

I think at the moment, everyone is already aware of what is happening in Perak. Some call it a constitutional crisis, others call it political crisis but I think, it should be called a time-waster. For goodness’ sake, the whole world is facing the worst economic crisis since the 1930’s Great Depression. And instead of focusing on how to improve our economy, our politicians – so-called Wakil Rakyat’ – are not even putting the Rakyat’s interests at heart. All they care is about how to become and maintain their position as a government. First of all, in an ideal democratic world, in a situation like this, a fresh election should be called so that the people can actually voice out their opinion through the ballot paper. But, one should take a holistic approach and I believe the Sultan of Perak took this approach. At the current economic crisis, should we be concerned about democracy or about having food on our table? Let’s think for a while, and look around us carefully. Everyday, we are h...

I just came back from Ulu Yam when I heard the news from my sister-in-law. And my heart goes to those who were affected. As at this afternoon, four were found dead while some are still trapped under the rubble and some were already relocated to Datuk Keramat. For your information, this is the third time it happen this week. First is in Ulu Yam, then Jalan Semantan in Damansara. I am taken aback by Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s statement on not permitting hillside development because we should already have this policy since the Highland Towers tragedy. Don’t we already have this policy already or someone is not doing their job right? OK, lets put this aside for a moment and focus on rescuing the survivors of the Bukit Antarabangsa landslide tragedy.

Succession plan was never provided for under the party constitution. So, why bother having a so-called plan in the first place? Such succession plan will only work if the duration of the plan does not clash with party election. That is a simple politics 101, of which I am sure seasoned politicians like Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz know at the back of her head. And as one of the people who were vocal in asking Pak Lah not to defend his position as the party President, I think our Kak Dah would know already that her time is up. But then again, if one wants to uphold the party constitution, Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz should defend her position because she has the nominations needed to contest in the Party Election in March 2009. Therefore, asking her not to contest is very wrong indeed. I would say, let Kak Dah defend her post because that is what the party members want. And at the same time, let Datuk Kamilla contest the Deputy Wanita Chief post because again, the members have spoken. The question tha...

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...

Was it our fault? Have you ever been kicked in the nut after being punched in your stomach? I think most Malaysians would say yes to that question. Only after not less than two months of announcing the biggest fuel prices hike in history, few days ago the government also agreed to increase fares for express bus services. The government stopped short of saying by how much the fare will be increased. Like I said in my last entry, the people who are badly affected by this difficult time are the low income people who probably have been using the same Kancil 660cc for the past 10 years. They might have 4-5 kids who are still in school. Taking up advice by their beloved Deputy Prime Minister to change their lifestyle, they seek to lower their travelling expenses by taking express bus services to go to their hometown. But now, even than last ray of hope looks bleak. I also read in The Star yesterday how students are struggling especially in buying books. I’m talking about the college and univ...