Chan Ah 8+1

I recall a cantonese comedy when I was back in school, a very popular one too. It starred Samuel Hui and Karl Maka aptly named Aces go Places (with a cantonese twang, Aesey goh Playsey)

Watch it if you are not chinese, but chances are you won't find it as funny as I did back then.

You see, comedy is somewhat unique to the individual, for example American slapstick comedy may not appeal to some, whereas British comedy with the dry wit may.

In Malaysia, we have our fair share of names, but they are still names. Given to their newborn by their proud parents, funny it may sound to you and I but they are still the names of these people, special to those around them.

For example, Chan Ah 8+1 is Chan Ah Kow (nine in cantonese)! and in the movie, emphasis was given on the star who chose to identify himself as 8+1 instead of 9!

But in the electoral list, names like Timun, Tepi Jalan and Atas Jalan may seem appear to be fictitious names concocted for a Phantim voter. It isn't.

And the Chairman ir the EC still shares an exact same name with another from Kelantan.

I have sat through a meeting with EC officials when a friend of mine was registered in a constituency far from where he is, yet they clarified that for some reason (and lawfully allowed until 2003) political parties were allowed to register voters simply by having a list presented to them.

And since then with the passing of new laws, the EC can remove names from the electoral role by means only allowed by law (you can check for it here).

I sincerely believe that here in Malaysia, we are balanced to the point that our government and opposition can work together to help Malaysia progress further. However, both the goverment and opposition has showed their ugly side, and it is up for us to decide again come the next GE.

We did decide the last election, yet we are led to believe that the elections was rigged. Today, it simply goes to show that there are people out there with funny names, but they are real people, and like responsible Malaysians, have registered themselves to vote come the next GE.

So, quit pointing fingers out there and go vote the next GE, who you think can contribute to improving Malaysia.

When lawyers lie, people die...

UPDATE: 20 May 2012
In my opinion, if you think that the law fraternity is all about black and white, I think you should give it a re-think. IMHO, its more like how you can skew an argument to your favour EVEN if evidence says otherwise.

Take for example this posting about a lawyer who subsequently found out that his bundle of document evidence that was used for a trial was different from what was being used by the judge. Apparently, the persecutor had inadvertently handed the defence attorney a copy of evidence that was not even introduced in court.

So how do you interpret it?
a. In matters where people get persecuted and incarcerated, a document that is introduced as affidavit can be wantonly dismissed as 'Opps! I forgot, your Honour!'
b. Your bundle differs from mine because I do not want you to see this!
c. Your bundle is different, but nevermind, the Judge did not even use that affidavit to reach his judgement.
d. You are too very sensitive to think that the persecutor hid the facts...its you that's misreading the whole thing.

I am not a lawyer but certainly (especially in recent weeks) can tell that lawyers are in the business of making their arguments heard and in that process, sway the fence sitters to support their argument.

But what happens when a lawyer goes up against the Attorney general chambers?? This is a whole different kettle of fish!

_________________________________________________________________________________

Ever heard that before? Lying lawyers on the stand? Just how many people will actually be able to understand the repercussions of that?

We get the doses of court drama only from TV, and when it happens in court, the blame squarely lies on the 'wayward judiciary system'....but WAIT!

I am not talking about Malaysian law!

In the case of lawyers and cases in court, if indeed one has taken steps to hide certain facts from being revealed, then that officer of the court would have committed serious perjury and can be disbarred and even jailed.

Though we see  it in movies, do we often come across this? The lack of it does not seem to show that it does not happen, so when this case was brought up in Singapore, a lawyer raised a red flag concerning his client when 'certain' facts were hidden.

In this particular case, a defending lawyer had noted that certain evidence was apparently corroborated and deduced from a certain police report made, and as a result affected the ability of his client to be defended without prejudice.

He subsequently queried the afidavits made by the DPP, which resulted in the Attorney General's Office complain to the BAR requesting this particular lawyer to be disbarred!

My, this is going to be interesting.


Take note of the language used......

All will be revealed in good time!

RTM goes mobile...finally

Although many are fast to condemn RTM for its slanted media, the same will also turn to it for national news.

For example, during the 2004 Tsunami, many complained that they could not the information from the national broadcaster.

And so, it came as a pleasant surprise that RTM had recently announced their mobile portal which enables live streaming to your handheld device, as well as the 'mutual content' sharing that was recently announced.

I guess it is a step towards the right direction with the competition act (anti monopoly) that is also set to follow soon.

And this was done not by Malaysia first, but in fact by our neighbours down south.

A couple of years back, as a direct result of bidding fro two companies there, the broadcasting rights for that country shot up 3 fold, and along with that the content sharing agreement came to being.

So in Malaysia, where satelite TV has been a boon and bain to some, popular sports events will be streamed live to those who do not even have these set top boxes. In other words, you can watch them for FREE!!

But what is perhaps more surprising is that the ENGLISH Premier League is also lumped in ...good for us, but not so good for ASTRO, no??

Thank you SKMM/MCMC......

YES! PAS for everyone indeed!

Quite some time ago, a few of my blogger friends whom considered me a sell-out came out with their guns blazing and placed their support fully behind PAS and believed wholesale that PAS is a changed party and is the party for everyone.

In fact MCA had come out many times to remind voters to be vary of the two faced PAS, as their intentions all along is to gain power to 'islamise' Malaysia the way they see it.

And now its proven yet again that PAS is out to go ahead with their plans, and which better place to do it than in Kedah! (can you imagine if Perak was still in PAS's control??)

If you haven't heard it yet, the Kedah state government has proceeded to amend a state enactment to give ABSOLUTE power to the state mufti and fatwa committee, which basically means that from now on fatwa (edict of religious nature)  made by the mufti of Kedah will be absolute. And not even the Sultan of Kedah can challenge it, wlthough by right the Sultan is the head of state for religious matters as well.

To those who still think that PAS is for everyone, try understanding the possibilities of this new amendment which has caused the Tunku Laksamana Kedah, Tunku Mansor Tunku Kassim to lodge a police report on the above matter. His action clearly indicates that the royal establishment is threatened by this move.

What do you think then? PAS for everyone still?

500 laid off staff?? and who is responsible again??

Which GLC can this be? Laying off 500 staff without compensation!

Surely, this will cause hardship to the staff members and their families.

I recall the other day, a friend told me that a family friend had been laid off recently, and under tremendous pressure and stress both from family and outside, he simply packed up his things and left. Nothing said.

So, today i found this in The Star. Paycomm? My guess is if it did involve a GLC, then making it public via the political channel would get more publicity right?

So in steps the spokesman for Paycomm, Shahrin Abdullah and well, now the shit hits the fan!
So is it surprising that these stories made these papers then? No!

But what is surprising is the fact that the story is skewed. Should I say, not surprising!

What do we know for a fact then?

1. 500 aid off employees! = Really BAD
2. Harakah lead me to believe that TIME had something to do with this = Really BAD! (Let's nail these buggers!)
3. Human Resource Ministry said on April 2 that they will step in to solve problem = GOOD!
4. Aiks? April 20th and still no news, but wait! The lay off was in August last year!! = REALLY REALLY BAD!! (but sorry guys from PAYCOMM, my wifey had to wait 8 years! for her case to get solved in Industrial courts!!)
5. '"Sebahagian besar daripada kami berharap akan ada syarikat lain yang ambil alih tak kira lah GLC ke apa tapi mereka tidak mahu berada di bawah Datuk Farid lagi." says Shahrin Abdullah....
ehh, abang! Datuk Farid yang mana? Tak nampak pun nama dia dalam org chart TIME!!???

Something is not right here!

A Good Friday, that can be 'good-er'

Today marks a very important day for Catholics.

Its the day that Jesus was crucified on the cross.  A day of remembrance and prayer.

In Malaysia, only in Sabah and Sarawak where there is a sizable amount of Christians, Good Friday is
a public holiday. Why not? After all, Malaysia is truly Asia, very 1Malaysia.

I recall when I was still schooling when we had to get special permission to get off school early so that we can prepare for the evening mass where I had to perform duties as an altar server. And I also recall that for Catholic students, our principal Director (Datuk Brother Lawrence Spitzig, and then Brother Cassian Pappu) would release us earlier from class so that we could attend afternoon mass at St.John's cathedral.

Perhaps the 'persecution' that one blogging mother blogged about was a reference to Good Friday not being a holiday? I would call it persecution, but if our very understanding Prime Minister can see that barriers of a religious nature in a multi ethnic, mutli cultural and multi religious country should not exist in every sense, then perhaps we can also eliminate the many neigh sayers there are especially in the Christian community.

Blown out of proportion?

Rais may not be the most popular of Ministers amongst some Malaysians but he is still the Minister, so it comes a s aurprise to some when he decided to comment on the supposed cancelled ballet performance of the upcoming 'The Ballet Illuminations by the Singapore Dance Theatre.

Wouldn't it be the best time for him now to announce that future performances that involves the arts WILL NO LONGER need any approvals? Laws on illicit and pornographic performances are already there, so why then do we still need this 'Approval' from big brother?

The sooner we do away with this, the more we will see the likes of 'TaliPAS' who protests every form of concert performances, and the likes......what do you think?

No ban on Singapore ballet act

PETALING JAYA: The Government has not banned a proposed ballet performance by a Singapore dance company at the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre (KLPac) this weekend, said Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim.

The Information, Communications and Culture Minister refuted an online media report that a permit had been denied due to “indecent” costumes.

In a series of tweets yesterday evening, Dr Rais said he “strongly urged” for the ballet performance, featuring classical and contemporary works, to be held here.

He wrote under his Twitter handle @DrRaisYatim that “The Ballet Illuminations by Singapore Dance Theatre wasn’t rejected, no applications were made.”

However, he later clarified that KLPac had only sent in the permit application to the ministry’s Central Agency for Application for Filming and Performance by Foreign Artistes (Puspal) yesterday afternoon.

An online news portal reported yesterday that a local dance organisation, MyDance Alliance, said Puspal had rejected the permit.

Meanwhile, Bernama reported a Puspal official as saying that there might have been some miscommunication by the groups claiming that the performance had been banned.

He said Puspal’s committee would consider the application, adding that no problems were expected since it had approved a similar application two years ago.

There was also a notice on Puspal’s website, saying the report by the online news portal was inaccurate and unfounded.

In an immediate response, KLPac executive producer and co-founder Datuk Faridah Merican said it was unfortunate that the situation had been “blown out of proportion”.

She said the required documentation had been personally submitted by KLPac production manager Freddy Tan to Puspal on March 7.

Tan was advised on March 28 that the submission was rejected due to reasons of “costuming” and “foreign performers”, added Faridah.

“It is obvious that there has been some serious miscommunication in the series of events that led to Puspal’s verbal notification of non-approval,” she said in a statement.

The production, Ballet Illuminations by the Singapore Dance Theatre, has been postponed indefinitely.- The Star

A politician's instinct......

Haven't they ever heard of the BOSSES RULE?

Whats it again?

Rule no 1...The BOSS is ALWAYS right
Rule no 2...If the boss is WRONG, refer RULE No.1

So when Kamilia sensed that her boss was going down in flames (or rather smoking, but no flames yet), and
no doubt boosted by her own loyal supporters, she jumped on the chance at whacking a nail into
Sharizat's coffin.

This is not strange in politics, when you want to kill your enemy kill them swiftly. In the case that it
involves your own, 'borrow a sword' as what the chinese would say....so in this case, Kamilia was doubly quick to jump the gun by demanding that her boss step down as wanita supremo.

But I guess it was a little too soon, don't you think? More so that now their big boss has come out to say that
there is no need for Sharizat to leave....yet. Don't get the message wrong.

After all, Najib did say....She has taken the moral responsibility although there is no proof of any illegal deed on her part, but as the issue involves her family, she has taken that responsibility, a most honourable way to let go her position in the cabinet.

"Because the post of Wanita Umno head is an elected post and based on the principle that a perosn is innocent as long as there is no proof for an alleged offence, there is no reason for Shahrizat's Wanita Umno post to be sacrified or for her to let go of the post," he said.'

I heard someone who was standing next to me say that there goes the UMNO behaviour again, protecting their own. 

Whatever happened to 'innocent until proven guilty' ?

I can still recall the MCA rush to fill the void when CSL announced his resignation. And precisely then when a certain ex-MCA member had to 'tah-fei-kei' because he announced his own departure just before that erupted, and jumped ship to what he thought was going to be the next government.......

Politics....if only we were all politicians, then we would be seeing things from a different perspective.

Whatever it is, Sharizat will have to face her executioners, if and only if it is proven that her family had unfairly benefitted from the whole NFC saga.