Has Muar town 'gone to the Birds?'

I am a Muarian, and am very proud of it. There is nothing that I like to do better than to return to the town occasionally to visit my siblings and to eat some of the famous Otak-otak or the Ikan assam pedas while in town.(not to mention the 'mee pok' and the durians)

Yesterday afternoon, I took my wife for a leisurely walk in the town centre, and our walk took us around Jalan Ali, Jalan Abdullah, Jalan Meriam and Jalan Yahya. All over town, we could see pedlars selling the ubiquitous otak and many shops carried the famous Muar coffee brands like '434' '282' 'AAA', among many others. It was pleasant memories,and good for the soul.

However, against the backdrop of vehicle noises, we could hear an incessant twittering, and to my horror, I suddenly realised that Muar town, has through the years, been turned into a noisy Swiftlet breeding town. Wherever you turn, you can see double storey shophouses with closed darkened windows, and there you can hear twitters emanating from them. Some of these enclosed structures are even built on top of the double storey shops! What was even more amazing is that the residents in the shops surrounding the many swiflet 'farms' seem oblivious to the noise, and also the the health hazards posed by this business.

One more fact that stood out in the swiftlet business in Muar is that they seem to be concentrated only in the town areas, or areas where there are a collection of shops. Driving just out of town, we can also see more breeding structures in places where there are shops being built. In fact, we even noticed that some new shops have already been 'converted' into swiftlet homes.

I am not anti business, and I am glad my fellow Muarians have found a way to earn some lucrative income. But have the swiftlet 'homes' been approved according to the terms and guidelines issued by the Government, which, if I have not read incorrectly, the homes should be built in agricultural areas, and should be of some distance (500 metres??) from any residential areas?

Has the local authorities in Muar a different set of guidelines for swiftlet breeding? I love my town, please do not let be degraded by unscrupulous or worse, corrupt practices.

Muar a swiftlet farm!!
The Sun E paper on Swiftlets
Swift action please!

Malaysian Forests taking a back seat.

I suppose on reading this piece of business news, Malaysia is king of wood products export, one would expect Malaysians to be celebrating some sort of achievement, but on delving deeper into the report, I think there are some questions that cross the mind. First is the news that the Asia Pacific region has only 2% of the certified forests in the world while North America has the bulk at 54%. What this revelation means to us is that, the Asia Pacific region is arguably doing the most damage to its remaining virgin forests and forest reserves, and though it's mentioned in the report that Malaysia has the largest area of "certified" tropical forests, I am not sure this is one fact that we can be proud of.

All the more a nebulous claim for fame, if we read further the challenges facing 'forest certification' which, "include the conduct of macro-environmental impact assessment at FMU level (for Peninsular Malaysia), protection of endangered species of flora and fauna, avoid or minimise pollution of water sources as well as avoid or minimise conversion of natural forest to forest plantations and/or non-forest land use."

My confusion here is, how will Malaysia maintain its claim that it's exporting 'certified timber' which mandates that the country must protect its "endangered species of flora and fauna, avoid or minimise pollution of water sources as well as avoid or minimise conversion of natural forest to forest plantations and/or non-forest land use", when we know for a fact that all timber producing companies are increasing ANNUALLY their hardwood production from existing forests, and that the ever increasing acreage of forest plantations initiated by some State Governments are just in a nascent stage.

What we see here is, again, short term profits take precedence over the long term survival of the forests, and of Mother Earth herself..

Malaysian Forests taking a back seat.

Rude taxi drivers

Reading this letter from Jin Kobayashi, [Taxi drivers] A bad image for the country, which is easily the fifth letter in a fortnight on errant taxi and airport limousine drivers, I am beginning to think if there is anything we can do to redress the situation. No amount of policing and fines will address the situation, if it's the drivers themselves who want to continue to flout the law, be rude and obnoxious, and to drive like there's no tomorrow and maintain their vehicles in an almost 'scrap' condition'!

Let me give an example of the taxi services in Singapore; the drivers there too have a hard time making a living, they too curse and blame the government for their problems, and they also complain endlessly the rules that they have to abide by, and that they have to work until they die, for the pittance they get. But, they always use meters, converse with the passengers, their vehicles are spick and span, regardless of the age of the vehicles, and they go anywhere the passengers ask them to, anytime.

Why is there such a difference? Can we change the mindset of our taxi drivers, and can we make them grateful that they have a job or business, no matter how tough it is? Can the Government transformation program transform the taxi business, and why are we not make a strong effort to do it?

Too many readers have written to the Press in recent times for the Govt to ignore this problem of obdurate Malaysian taxi drivers, but alas, I see the lack of political will to do what has to be done.

We need to fix the problem of rude taxi drivers

slow start to alien registration

Reading this news that only Over 7,000 legal workers registered in biometric system in 3 days looks like it's a VERY slow process. Doing a simple mental arithmetic, completing the registration of 2 million Legal workers, (not including maids??), the whole exercise would take almost 3 years, not including Sundays!!! How are the maids to be registered then?

I am just wondering how the Amnesty exercise for the illegals are going to work out.. Do they stay illegal for three years, or will they be deported, or is the amnesty in force for the whole duration, as this will take more than three years, unless thousands of "authorised agents" are appointed.

It sure looks like a big mess to me, and I think the concerned public would like to get some clarifications, and of course, I would breathe a huge sigh of relief, if I am proven terribly wrong

need to hasten registration of alien workers

Foreigners and Social Ills

While reading the report on the slow start to the biometric registration of foreign workers in Malaysia, Many still confused over Alien registration I came across these reports of crime where foreigners are also involved. In Vietnamese kill two roommates several Vietnamese had a fight over a petty matter, and two were killed, while in the report about a car theft, Car theft suspect shot dead. the Pakistani robber was shot dead for resisting arrest.

I cannot but feel, after reading this (the reported incidents) that our nation is beginning to experience the ill effects of arbitrarily and easily allowing for 'any kind' of foreign labour to come and work in the country. Not long ago, it seems that the only foreigners who maybe involved in petty crimes are the Indonesians, who through easy access to our country have come in droves, abetted most probably by immoral agents and corrupt Immigration officials.

Now it seems that crime in this country has taken an 'international hue'. Besides the two cases reported in your papers today, we have read all too frequently, drug trafficking arrests of Iranians and Africans, and illegal social 'business' monopolised by the Chinese, Thais, Indonesians, and Filipinas, among other things. We too have heard about gang clashes between groups of poorly paid Indonesians and Bangladeshis at construction sites.

All these have exacted a very high cost from our nation, such as large increases in police work to monitor and minimise such crimes. Other costs are not so direct, but the millions of foreigners also tax our natural resources like drinking water and living quarters, and because they do not feel any "ownership" of the country, they treat it as one massive garbage dump. All these just because Malaysians do not want to pay reasonable wages for work done, or are too pampered to do menial work.

With the biometric registration of the millions of foreigners, even though we are trying to make sure we can control the problem of too many illegal workers in the country, we seem to be acknowledging the fact that we are willing to pay a high price for the "convenience" of cheap labour.

I am not too sure if, by doing this, we are on the right road to a high income nation. Even our neighbour is now beginning to feel dragged down by the social ills of the unmitigated influx of ungrateful foreigners.

Paying the price for cheap foreign labour