Malaysian hospitality

I literally enjoyed a day of Malaysian hospitality yesterday. That’s the reason why I did not post anything. Woke up at 5.30am to have golf at Horizon Hills. The new maze of flyovers and viaducts still posed a serious problem to unwary drivers. My partner driver has driven in many many times and still can get lost quite easily.

I was aiming for Jalan Tun Razak, that means trying to get back to town instead of heading to KL. We missed a lane and the next familiar turn was Permas Jaya. We took it and fortunately I am quite familiar with that area, made a U turn towards the coastal road along Bukit Serene and was on our way to the Club.

Fine day for golf with bright sunny sun. On the 6^th hole after making a decent drive I was tripped by the tee box marker. Some jokers thought it was a great idea to carve the alphabet H to be unique, HH equal Horizon Hills. Nice. But it was too big and high, and being blue did not stand out from the green grass.

I stumbled, couldn’t control myself and smashed my face against the hard buggy track. There was a 5cm deep cut on my forehead and that was the end of my game. I ended at a nearby hospital, brand new, medium size and with the name of Columbia Hospital. Nice thought, sounding very American in bumi country. Indeed it was an American chain of hospitals.

What surprised me was the staff. All Malaysians, no pinoys, PRCs, Indians or Myanmese. There was a Dr Soh, a senior nurse Ms Lim, a staff nurse by name of Jawady or something like that, another Indian staff nurse and many local female Malays nurses. The uniform was smart and probably by a good designer. And they were first class in their attentiveness, politeness and very professional. And they work very well as a team, very friendly among themselves and to the patients.

There were quite a number of patients but they don’t seem to be queuing for several hours like here. And the number of hospital staff, especially the nurses, was clearly sufficient to do an efficient task.

The hospital is entering its third year and the equipment was brand new and modern. I was taken into the surgery theatre, spanking clean and modern. And that was after all the checks and X-ray, and everything was over in about 3 hours with 14 stitches to close my wounds.

With this kind of service, the club is paying for the bills and I never ask, they will pose a serious alternative to the atrociously expensive hospitals we have here. The service quality is as good and you can feel that they are looking after you with tender care.

The other big surprise, far away from the politicians, is that the people work harmoniously despite all the hype about racism in the country. Get rid of politics and the politicians, the people will not be spending time bickering against each other on stupid political issues. There was not the slightest tension arising from race related staff.

The politicians should stay far far away from the economy and industries and let the people run their own businesses and live their own lives in peace, harmony and prosperity. The only thing they need to do is to make the infrastructure efficient and easy for the people, and make sure the place is crime free.

The Sinkies will have a good alternative in JB and not be robbed in our hospitals.

It is criminal to force our young into huge debt

Do not force our young into acquiring huge debt in the purchase of properties. This is a very wicked thing to do when seemingly responsible people are blowing the trumpet of prudence and not spending beyond one’s means.

Young people, fresh from schools, should be encouraged to save rather than to force them into buying big ticket items that run into several hundred thousands or millions of dollars and hang a big mortgage mill on their necks. They should be saving their first few years of income to act as security, to cushion from upheavals and upsets in the early stage of their lives.

The govt should make it a priority to provide young people the opportunity to buy their first flat, to start life, in a thrifty manner. The outrageous income ceilings on first time buyers of public housing is daylight robbery, forbidding the young people from a little savings and forcing them to spend all their income/savings in their first home.

Only very wicked people would conceive of such a policy and peddle it as good. As it is, public housing is no longer cheap and the ceiling is obnoxiously low and unjustified.

Standardization of pre schools

Standardising pre schools or setting standards for pre schools. Are they joking? Pre schools are play schools, not the proper schools for older children. Are they going to set standards as to how many words a child must acquired in pre schools, how many numbers, how many this and that?

As far as educators are concerned, there are wide and varied views as to what pre schools should be, what is good or bad for the little children. There is still no agreement as to what is best or what should not be done. The thought of setting stands for pre schools could end up with the same problems as proper schools, academic achievements, banding and branding.

Perhaps they are not talking about such standards but the standards of the infrastructure and the teachers. What would probably be important are the quality and professional training of the pre schools teachers and their compensation. Raising the standards of the pre school teachers is important as better trained professionals would be better placed to look after the little tots relative to untrained caregivers that are not more than caretakers with little value add other than feeding and looking after their physical needs and safety.

Good and well trained professionals must be recognized and rewarded accordingly for their level of training and expertise. They have invested time and effort to be more knowledgeable and professional in their very specialized field of childcare that requires them to know and understand a whole new skills set and information.

With quality and trained professionals as the standard, the pre schools should be allowed the freedom to design their own programmes for the toddlers. Some may emphasize play, creativity, relationship, social skills, confidence, cognitive skills, motor skills, etc. Different schools should be allowed to market their own programmes that may be very different from another school. The last thing that pre schools should become is straight jacket curriculum and ended up as factories with a standard mould and producing one type of toys that will respond similarly when the right button is pressed. Variety and free wheeling activities are the keys at this tender age and regimentation or standardization should be frown upon.

In praise of great Sinkie schemes

The last few days have seen many young Sinkies crying out loud and screaming for blood. They are unhappy about the rising property prices. On the other hand, 800,000 Sinkies with HDB flats and many more with private properties are quietly congratulating themselves of their new found fortunes. And many are secretly praising the great schemes that the govt have devised to make them all so rich.

What the young Sinkies did not know or could not understand is that this great scheme of paying forward will also reward them when their time comes. Their parents bought flats at $20k/$30k and are now worth $400k or more. Some bought at $200k and are worth $800k or so. So what is the problem for them to pay a million now when they could see their flats worth several millions later? Just close the eyes and pay, and good things will happen. Don’t worry. No need to worry. We have the brightest and most talented with the best interest and intent to serve the people managing the schemes. It is all for the good of the people. Be thankful and grateful

This is a housing scheme, savings scheme and retirement scheme all rolled into one. All Sinkies that faithfully follow this scheme will be handsomely rewarded. The current oldies will retire as millionaires. The young today will retire as multi millionaires or billionaires in times to come. It is a sure win scheme.

Look at the good stuff, the bright future ahead and stop complaining. The schemes are very well thought out and planned by the best talents money can buy. Trust me.

Malaysia’s third grade thinking ticking again

I call it envy thinking or missing the woods for the trees. Malaysia is unhappy that their companies are paying Malaysian employees less than Sinkie employees. They want to pay their employees as much as the workers in Sinkieland are being paid.

The first question, are the Malaysian workers really underpaid? I don’t think so. A Malaysian employee earning RM3000 or RM5000 will probably be much well off than his Sinkie counterpart earning $3000 or $5000. His cost of living is so much cheaper relatively and he could own a much bigger home, maybe even landed properties than the Micky Mouse flats which Sinkies called home and so bloody proud of it. But you can’t blame them when they have been so conditioned to think less is best.

And every Malaysian could easily own a car to travel around the vast country and paying cheaper petrol for it. Everything costs lesser in Malaysia when it used to be the other way. What is this talk about Malaysian workers being underpaid? Maybe the companies could pay them much more if they take into consideration the cheaper cost of business and rentals, not forgetting their top management are not robbing the companies to pay themselves crazy. They can afford to and still be more competitive than their Sinkie counterparts. That is the reason why many Sinkie companies are moving over, and more will do so.

Does Malaysia seriously think that it should go the Sinkie way, to price itself out of competition in the international market? China’s manufacturing factories are being pressurized by the Americans to pay more and to price themselves out. Is this what Malaysia wants? The Sinkie model is designed for self destruct in the next 10 or 20 years, or earlier should a major world crisis hit. Life will go on as per normal in Malaysia should it happen. Sinkies will be jumping off from their million dollar Mickey Mouse flats when they cannot service the huge mortgages and debt that they have acquired. The truth is that the average Sinkies are all heavily in debt and this will only get worst.

The issue of Malaysiansskilled personnel working in Sin is a totally different problem. The proximity of Sin and the comparatively higher salary, and the ability to return and spend the money in Malaysia is a strategic factor Malaysia would have to cope with. But this is not the only reason for the brain drain. The Malaysian govt should know better why. Given a decent govt policy to value their own talents on their own merits, many Malaysians would be the first to run back to Malaysia today. Their salary though comparatively lower than Sin does not mean that their standard of living will be lower as the cost of living is so much lower. Simply put, it is bad govt policies that created this problem.

Malaysia should be thankful that its economic system has not been taken down the Sinkie way, a system that is unsustainable and is likely to cause much grief in a crisis. The Malaysian system will grow slowly and steadily. They need not work themselves to death. They can afford to stop in their path to smell the roses and take a nap under the coconut trees.

Sinkies will die or be in deep shit if they stop working before they die at the ripe old age of 80 or 90. Malaysia should stop this rubbish envy thinking and look at how blessed it is and can only get better with good and positive govt economic and political policies. Malaysia can only get better. Sin can only get worst. And Malaysian workers are not paid worst relative to their cost of living.

When or if the Malaysian govt embarks on a path of enlightened economic policies, and discards the unproductive and counter productive political policies, it will seriously undermine the economic development of Sin. Many of the highly trained and experienced Malaysians would rush back to lift up the quality of life in Malaysia in all fields. Malaysia could be a shining first world country when the talents returned. The past policies were doing just the reverse, leveling down in all aspects of economic, technology and social endeavours.