Power of The Old Media (TOM)

DAP leader Teresa Kok was arrested under the Malaysian ISA when Utusan Melayu published a report alleging that she was involved in an effort to prohibit Azan, the muslim call to attend prayer. This is despite the denials by the authorities of the respective mosques that she was involved. See how powerful the media can be. No one is questioning how the report came about or who wrote the report and the basis of the report. A Malaysian citizen, a politician, is now in detention for 28 days and can be extended, all because of a newspaper report. Don't under estimate the power of TOM.

New laws to protect mentally ill

This law is timely given the statistics that 1 in 6 are mentally ill. With so many of them around us, it is important to protect them from harm by people who are responsible for their well being and people who are to protect them. Are there any laws to protect people who are not mentally ill but treated as one? Psychiatric problems sometimes are not clear cut. There have been instances of geniuses being diagnosed as cracks. The line between brilliance and insanity is very thin. There must be laws to protect the innocent from being wrongly diagnosed as mentally sick too.

Notable quote - Petra Raja Kamaruddin

A powerful quote from Raja Petra Kamaruddin There should be no bloodshed and loss of life. And ask the Malays in the opposition to come out in defence of their non-Malay brothers and sisters and warn the Umno Malays, in no uncertain terms, that they take to the streets at the risk of facing fellow Malays from the opposition who will defend their non-Malay brethren to the last drop of their blood. I, for one, am ready to stand by my Chinese and Indian comrades. So let Umno be warned." - Raja Petra Kamarudin, editor of Malaysia Today now under ISA detention. I copy the above quote from www.littlespeck.com. This is how far the progressive Malays in Malaysia have come, moving away from racial and parochial politics, into a new world of multi ethnicity, a future where all men are brothers.

Police arrest citizen to protect her

Well, that was what Syed Hamid said about the arrest to Sin Chew paper journalist Tan Hoon Cheng. He said he had information that harm might come to her. So the ISA was invoked to arrest her to protect her. Why didn't he go after those people that want to harm her? And now releasing her would it not expose her to harm again? The use of the ISA is now being questioned even by UMNO leaders and the de facto Law Minister Zaid Ibrahim is threatening to resign if not stopped. The Malaysian govt's use of the police against its political rivals and the willingness of the police officers to go along with it have turned Malaysia into a country not much different from Myanmar or other authoritarian states. Malaysia is quickly slipping away from its democratic principles. And this abuse of political and police power is no longer acceptable to the Malaysians both within and outside the govt. Maybe democracy will triumph against the evil of power.

'Silly' people working for free

Are there silly Singaporeans who are willing to work for free? Apparently there are. But given a society that believes in nothing is for free, that talents will not work for free, people who work for free must be non talents. Logical? If you are good, you must be paid handsomely. You must demand to be paid for your talent. Once you are afraid to demand for your talent, then you jolly well accept that you are not a talent. Only non talent work for free and thinking that they are talents. Obviously their work will amount to nothing much and no attention will be paid to them. I acknowledge that the TOC proposal on public transport requires a lot of effort, time and energy and talent. Is there anything new? The supertalents would have even more better ideas than the 6 points of TOC. These are full time employees, carefully selected, the creme al creme. Just tell them what you want and they will come up with the answers that you want. The problem is not in the solution. The problem is what does the govt want. If profit is the mission, no problem. If world class is what the govt wants, no problem. If you tell the supertalents that you want something good, reasonable, and reasonably cheap, they will give it to you. If you tell them you want a transport system that moves people, as many people as possible, at the lowest cost, not for profit, they will give it to you. There is no need to take more money from the motorists or anyone. No need to rob Peter to pay Paul. We are going in circles with this Peter and Paul formula. There are enough money in the system to provide an efficient service, with lesser profits.