building roof collapse.. where else but in Terengganu

When I read the news about the collapse of the nearly completed varsity building Man killed in Varsity{building collapse} disaster.. I immediately looked at the location, and my instinct was correct, it's Terengganu again! Short of believing that the place seemed to be cursed, and that large structures will inevitably collapse due to supernatural reasons, I really feel it's time the Ministry of Works tell the public the real reasons for such unfortunate calamities to befall the State. Is it because of the availability of so much sand from the State's beaches that the resultant concrete mixture have been "compromised", or is it because the reinforced steel bars have been left to rust fo such a long time in the salty coastal air that they fail miserably to do their duty of buttressing the roofs of mosques, stadium, and now varsities.

The public would be happy to know the real reasons...

EARTH HOUR HEROICS... What for?

I agree with the writer of this letter, KL not dark enough during EARTH HOUR CHUAH PING SHIEN who feels that we are not showing enough concern about saving Mother Earth. However, I feel that the general public is resigned on such environmental issues and they feel that the Govt is just sloganeering when it announced recently in the UN that we will reduce carbon emissions by 40% by the year 2020. Why do I say that? Just as an example, the Paper also announced that the most prominent businessmen in Malaysia, to me, is also involved in the most destructive industry Sarawak shakers, and companies

For example one of the richest Malaysian tycoons, who made it to the 2010 Forbes "list of billionaires" is a timber tycoon best known for its vast timber interests, oil palm plantations and also large timber concessions in Papua New Guinea, Siberia, Brazil, central Africa (one of which is Gabon,) New Zealand, British Guyana (South America) and Russia. In its strategy to increase annual profits of the company, vast new tracts of forest in those mentioned areas will be felled each year. How long will it take before the 'assets' around the globe are completely depleted by such companies?

Let me ask our readers this question. Why should the public NOT feel apathetic towards the tokenism shown by the world during EARTH HOUR, when in fact most Govts condone the destructive businesses of many of its largest corporations. Timber extraction is one example, gold and diamond mining are some others. In these businesses too, there is NO sustainable development and the Earth is continuously being destroyed. Planting a tree to replace a 100 year old tree that has been felled is not sustainable development, no matter what the spin doctors say. What about land that has been totally denuded by the destructive mining of minerals?

Malaysians just do not care enough, and the daily increasing foreign immigrants worsen the situation. Do we have to wait for the last tree to be left standing, or the last drop of oil to be extracted before we realise that our grandhildren cannot eat gold?

Our incompetence is food for thought

Sometimes, it is in the Letters page that we find the most insightful comment of some of the woes befalling our country, Our incompetence is food for thought In this letter, Concerned Citizen pointed out the failings in the character and attitude of Malaysians compared to Filipinos, in a TV progam beamed to the world. He mentioned that our Malaysian chefs seem not to understand and follow instructions, and even missed the important cooking event. The food seemed to be of inferior quality, and on the night of the dinner, a VVIP arrived the 'normal' one and a half hours late.

The amazing thing was that when I read this letter, I was not surprised at all, just as sense of deja vu. The inability of our chefs to follow instructions properly is definitely due to their ignorance of the English Language, which I assumed was the language of communication for this international TV cooking event. As to the reason why our VVIP came almost two hours late, well, I guess this is pandemic in Malaysia, where being late is being great. Just to add to this, I have worked for a decade in the Philippines, where they have a similarly notorious culture of being late, due to the obnoxious traffic situation there, then and now.

But for this event, the Filipinos were even all on time.

A hint of all things wrong with Malaysians...

World Water Day. Are we serious about saving water?

Reading this feature today, Tapping the resource of clean water. World Water Day, is a timely reminder for all of us that we are living on borrowed time and that strong policies are required to save water for our future generations. The Water and Energy Consumer Association Malaysia secretary-general S. Piarapakaran.painted a very bleak picture of the situation in our nation, and the gist of it all is that State Governments and big corporations are in cahoots to destroy what is left of our pristine forests, the natural catchment areas for clean and potable water. This, in spite of existing laws designating areas as forest reserves and water catchment areas! This article has also reminded me of the letter that I wrote to your paper Preserve our forests.. in November 2009, wherein I have expressed my disappointment at the destructive policies of Timber companies, which seek only to make profits at the expense of our environment. The recent news that Beijing is experiencing unexpected sand storms caused by land being denuded of trees.. Do the reminders expressed by the writer on World Water Day thus be of any use? Not much, I am afraid, unless we start IMMEDIATELY to curtail the activities of big plantations and Timber corporations. And State Governments, who are only interested in filling up the State coffers..

To me the publishing of this feature, though welcomed, will only be responsible for the felling of a few more trees for the paper it's printed on, no more..:-(

Do we still need to depend on the E&E sector for economic growth?

The mainstream papers have all covered the state of the Electrical and Electronics Industry in Malaysia,(see links below), and considering the serious implications of any decisions that have to be made with National interests in mind, I think the Government should, in its new Economic Model to be presented soon, take into account whether FDIs from the Electrical and Electronics Industry is well worth the gains over its negative effects.

Points to Ponder:

• In the 70's and 80's the overwhelming reasons for the encouragement of FDI from the electronics Industry is that it will spur rapid growth in our nascent economy, and it will in addition provide tremendous employment opportunities for our relatively young nation. I remember, for example, a change of shift workers(operating a 3 shift day) in Motorola required more than 40 factory buses just to transport the ending shift workers out of the factory. Imagine the direct social benefits and its positive spillover effects of such vigorous activities.
  
• Oil was not expensive then, and our wages very low, in real terms. There was real benefit to the nation then, and Malaysia provided the Japanese and American companies with a low cost production environment to the burgeoning Electronics Industry worldwide. Hundreds of thousands of Malaysians with little education, but with relatively good English skills found stable employment. And the country benefited tremendously.
  
• Fast forward to 2010. The electronics Industry is being subsidised on its fuel costs, while the Govt is deliberating removing fuel subsidy altogether, or just restrict it to citizens
• Workers at the factories are mainly foreign (Vietnamese?), and for various reasons, the main one, being low wages, local citizens are not available. Can it be that we are losing in terms of skills and language mastery to foreigners to the extent that jobs that have been especially created for locals are now up for grabs by foreigners
• If this be the case, are there now more Cons than Pros in protecting and encouraging foreign FDIs for the Electronics Industry into our country? Can we absorb any more foreign labour without serious deleterious social effects (housing and environmental degradation, crime, clash of cultures, sharing of limited resources like land, food and potable water, etc). Do the economic gains far outweigh the damage done to our country?
  

Malaysia risks losing Japanese FDIs

Freeze on Foreign Labour hits Electronics Industry

Japanese firms concerned over subsidy system

I sincerely hope the NEM that will be announced soon will address these issues, not just about protecting Malay rights! We risk being called the 'basket case' of South East Asia

FOREIGNERS TAKE OVER KLANG ALLEYS!

There is a feeling of helplessness and despair when I read this feature in StarMetro today,FOREIGNERS TAKE OVER KLANG ALLEYS! and a gnawing fear that our Government (State as well as Federal) have lost its direction in controlling the fast growing influx of foreigners into our country. How are we going to even start to control our own destiny when we cannot even limit the damage done to our country because of unmitigated migration of foreigners into our country: The Klang Municipal Council officials seem to also not know what to do, as foreigners like the Myanmaris, the Nepalese and the Indonesians take over whole alleys for their illicit businesses. Now, parts of Klang have been named after the nations from which they come. I feel it's time the State and Federal Govts stand up to face the problem squarely, and answer the following questions with a view to making some real decisions:

• Is it the Government's policy to allow foreign workers only working visas, and that these working visas have specific conditions and duration?
  
• Have the Government ensured that those with expired visas have left the country? Who does the Monitoring?
• Are foreigners allowed to conduct retail and other businesses in Malaysia, and if so, why, and are they given business licences?
  
• Are locals allowed to rent or lease their premises to foreigners, who have no documentary evidence that they have been allowed to conduct businesses in Malaysia? Especially if those foreigners have overstayed their working visas.
  
• If foreigners are NOT ALLOWED TO DO BUSINESS HERE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, why are they allowed to take over shops and alleys. These include premises at Petaling Street, the Selayang wholesale market, among many others.
  

Why keep talking about being a high income nation, when in a few years' time, the number of foreigners will equal the number of Malaysians in its own country? We should be committed to fight to keep our assets to ourselves, protect our shores, and save our diminishing resources like oil and potable water for our citizens. If we look around the Asia Pacific region, including Australia, we see that their Govts take hard and even unpopular steps to ward off blatant and unproductive migration. Only by limiting foreign labour to the minimum can we move towards a high income nation status, not when we have at least 10 million of them to support in 5 years' time. Instead we may soon join the ranks of those "failed nations" around the world..

Think about it

Need to limit foreign labour
Ban Foreign Workers
Stop the Influx of foreigners!

Can Insurance companies abandon their social responsibilities??

I have read this letter with interest, Is this for Public Interest? :-( and feel compelled to add my experience of Insurance companies breaching earlier promises made during the purchase of the policy. My son bought a full life policy from a VERY reputable Insurance company {AIA} (at least that was what it apparently was before the Financial turmoil in 2008), in order that his beneficiaries or dependents may be 'covered' in the event of any calamity befalling him. At the time of the signing of the policy, 1997, he accepted a clause in the Policy that stated that in the 13th year (2010), which is defined as the Critical Year, he can cease payment of his premiums, and he will be covered until the maturity year of the Policy, that is, year 2074. We have since enquired with our Agent, a dear friend, who 'warned' us that, though my son could go ahead with the cessation of the payment of his premium after the 13th or the Critical Year, there is now NO guarantee that he will not be asked again, a few years down the road, to continue with his premium payments or risk losing everything he has previously already paid up. That according to the agent, is because of the returns that the Insurance companies envisaged to be receiving in 1997 has failed miserably to materialize, and rather than do the noble thing and honour the agreements made in the Policy, (like the Malaysian Govt does to its Toll Concession Agreements), the Insurance company has chosen the easier path, and save its own neck by breaking its promise to the Insured.

Why are insurance companies allowed to make excessive profits in good times, providing us with security and social comfort in the process, but then are also allowed to abandon its principles because of losses made through reckless underwriting, driven by massive greed? This is NOT an isolated case, if the authorities care to investigate, we the aggrieved parties would be happy to provide the details.

What good is our AG and the MACC?

I read the column, Bring in [the team of external] Auditors... with a sense of deep sadness, not because of the usual apparent abuse of power and corruption issues that have been raised, but because of the call by Citizen Nades for a team of External Auditors to look into the Sports Ministry's alleged shenanigans. I have no doubt that many of our citizens have little trust in those august institutions such as the Auditor General and the MACC, but I am sure, if they make up their minds, they are up to it to do a creditable, objective and transparent review of the activities of the sports Ministry, as required by law, without fear or favour. I think, much as we feel they will mess up the job, we should call on them first. Let them show us there are still some honest people in the Government service after all, and let us give them the chance to bring back the public trust, by announcing that investigations will commence forthwith.

Auditor General gets first bite..