Mudslinging by Mahathir.

A DVD is selling on the streets and pasar malams with contents showing Mahathir attacking the Malaysian govt. He accused the govt of lacking courage and the country going to the dogs. By saying that the govt is lacking courage, he is actually calling all those in govt as cowards. And by saying the latter, he is saying that the country is run by dogs. This is a very offensive terminology in a muslim country when dogs or angin are tabooed in the religion, a very derogatory term. Mahathir should count himself lucky to be in Malaysia. In some countries he will be sued until his pants drop. Those words he used not only challenged the credibility of the govt, he is also attacking the sacred institutions of govt and defaming the leaders.

hi fellas, i hope i am not boring you people

i have been chatting here for quite a while and i am running in danger of boring all of you. the internet is revolutionary in a way. before the blog and the internet forum, we are all at the mercy of the printed and controlled media. they speak, we listen. and when we want to speak by sending them beautifully written letters, they decide whether what you wrote serve their interest or purpose. if not, they will simply throw it in the waste paper basket. you wasted all your effort for nothing. they are our masters. now you don't need anyone's approval to see your words in print. today, the internet has return to us our voice, our right to speak our mind. and all at the press of a few buttons. no one is there to arrogate himself to be your master, to control or manage what you can say or what you cannot say. it is a different kind of freedom. but of course this freedom comes with responsibility. we can use this tool for many different purposes, for selfish goals or, we can fantasise a little by saying that we can use it to benefit society. it may be an illusion, but there is no harm in giving ourselves a little purpose in life. otherwise we will just be chatting at random and quite aimlessly. think about it and voice out your thoughts, and you do not know when or how it could have shape other people's ideas. and if your intention is good, maybe down along the line, your thoughts or ideas could give birth to some better thoughts and ideas. feel free, feel less inhibited, communicate and share your ideas around. cheers.

cost of living and job loss watches

i have created two threads in redbeanforum.com to monitor these two issues that are close to the hearts of the people as these affect them directly and can be very painful. also, both are issues that the elected govt has promised to do for the people. the two threads will monitor the developments in these areas and all of you are encourage to contribute to these threads. primarily we want to see what the govt is doing to reduce the cost of living and to create jobs and not destroying jobs or offering jobs to foreigners at the expense of the citizens. PRs are not citizens and should have lower priority in terms of benefits from govt policies vis a vis citizens. the govt must not forget the contributions and sacrifices of citizens towards the nation and the people who voted them to power.

before smrt raises its fare again

The SMRT is making huge profits again. It has been making profits for many years in the hundreds of millions. And all along it has been claiming that cost is rising and it will lose money if transport fare is not raised. And that they are accountable to theirshareholders as a private company. Is it really a private company in the true sense? Can anyone remember that $6 billion was used from taxpayers money to build the infrastructure which has since been written off. (I stand corrected if anyone can prove to me that I am wrong on this.) Now the management of the SMRT are happily managing the company for profits made from none other than the taxpayers who contributed the $6 billion to its initial cost. If the SMRT is to regard itself as a purely private company, and making money for its shareholders as its primary objective, then it is only right and fair that SMRT make provisions to repay the $6 billion back to the people as it has no obligation to the people. For being given the right as a monopoly business, it cannot lose money like any other business. It only needs to raise fares to cover whatever it wants to cover and whatever profits it wants to make. Where else can there be such a sure to profit business? Where is the business risk? The privatisation does not really benefit the people except shareholders. It is a misnomer to claim that without privatisation it will be inefficient and will run at a loss. This is an insult to all govt andstatutory boards, that they are inefficient because they are not privatised. And in case of a stats board, if the management isinefficient they should be fired and replaced with a new management team. Turning it private is a lousy excuse to improve efficiency. I don't believe that stats board are inefficient just because they are not privatised.

better than pyramid scheme

If I can get hold of the people's money, say $100k per person and guarantee them a small return, maybe 2% better than the bank rate, and they have no right to ask them back, wow, won't that be nice? Then I can use it to invest in anything I want. If I make money, I will reward myself with big fat bonuses, and pat myself on the back and tell everyone how clever I am. If I lose money, I will just call it a bad business decision beyond my control. I still collect my management fee, and even give myself a big raise. And If I cannot afford to pay the dividends, I will only rewrite the terms and extend the payout later, or make them contribute more. This provision will make chit funds and pyramid schemes so amaturish. And also, I will make sure that nobody knows the account. It is only for me to know. Won't that be nice?