Treating the symptoms, not the disease, that's Malaysia

Reading this letter Proper diagnosis, early treatment immediately after reading the headline news Infected teen girl has unwittingly exposed 20 people to A (H1N1) virus gives me the feeling of deep unease. In the letter by Elaine Wong, wherein she described how her husband almost died of dengue fever, and how the Govt and Private hospital staff seemingly took a nonchalant attitude towards patients, even with a very strong suspicion of having contracted dengue. Her printed remark that her husband would go to Indonesia for medical treatment, the next time he becomes ill is a slap on the face of our Health Services. More ominously, it brings out the scary thought.... Is our country and our Govt capable of keeping the spread of the H1Ni flu pandemic under control. Are our experienced doctors just concerned with making money,and thus treat the symptoms and not the disease? It will be a sad day for our country, if indeed Malaysians again exhibit the uncaring attitude in the wake of an attack by a virulent virus

Malaysia's Electronic Toll Collections; where is it going?

There has been so much written about an efficient toll collection system, and the ensuing confusing messages that we get from the Works Minister, see the news releases... Gantry system to collect Toll? ( Extract ... " We want a system where motorists can pay toll while driving at 110kph and need not stop,” Shaziman told reporters after opening the Sepakat Bestari programme organised by the Information Department here yesterday. Shaziman said the current method of collecting toll was outdated and inefficient.) and Gantry toll system to take effect 2010 (Extract .. " Under the system, the start and end of the journey will be electronically recorded when a motorist passes under a gantry. The toll fee will be automatically deducted via a prepaid card installed in the vehicle....") that I feel it's only right that your newpapers get full details from the Authority so the toll paying public can be clear on what they are facing, once the Gantry system is implemented in the City, and later throughout the country. To aid your enquiries so that we get the clear picture, please be guided by the following:

• By Gantry system, do you mean the vehicles can pass at around 100kph in any lane under the Gantry, or do they have to pass under the gantry but only at designated lanes, just as the present Touch N Go and Smartag systems force the cars to do so? is 110kph a safe speed to do so, if the lanes are restricted, and is it also safe for those who use the Gantry system to speed in the vicinity of those who are paying cash, T &G, and Smartag. At present, we know that even with Smartag, it's dangerous to drive more than 30kph when approaching the toll plaza.
• As reported, under the new Gantry system, cars have to purchase PREpaid cards to be installed in the vehicles, to be sensed eletronically by the Gantry's transponders. Pray tell me, what is the difference with this payment method against the existing T & G and th Smartag systems, which is only an infra red touch n go reader, anyway.. To use the new prepaid cards, which we assume is not Touch n Go, do the car owners have to also buy new readers, which presumably can be accurately read while the vehicle is speeding approximately 100kph under the Gantry.
• Under the Gantry system, which is supposed to allow the dispersal of vehicles speedily at the toll plaza bottle necks, it is then assumed that there are no lane barriers to stop the vehicles with expired prepaid cards, or prepaid cards with insufficient balances. How do the authorities prevent the passage of vehicles with invalid prepaid cards, and more pertinent to ask is, how will the authorities prevent those vehicles to go through without any prepaid card at all... Are the Gantries to be installed for Open or Closed Toll collections? The present Touch N Go is flexible, as it can be used for both modes of collection.
  
• When the new Gantry system is implemented, will the Touch N Go and Smartag systems still be in place? If so, won't the public have another problem to face at the toll plazas, when these 3 systems "fight" for the right of way? Will the concessionaires be burdened with additional infrastructure costs, and finally will the public be asked to purchase another 'reader' on top of the Smartag?
  

In countries where the Gantry type of toll collections are in force, like in Singapore, Australia and in Europe, it is based on the premise that non collection of such tolls can be kept at a minimum, and the most important fact is that non payment is minimised by strict enforcement. There is also a strong culture of trustworthiness too, and car owners are allowed to pay those fees on a monthly basis, like as in a telephone bill. In Malaysia, neither of those conditions exist, and that is why even though this was supposed to be a Gantry system, the authorities have suggested a prepaid card and reader, thus negating the effects of non stop non cash toll collections.If the new Gantry system is implemented only with prepaid cards, I feel that we are just going to be burdened with another touch nGo/smartag system, which will not be helpful at all. Remember, the only reason why we use lane barriers in all Malaysian toll plazas, is , without, those lane barriers, unpaid tolls would easliy rise to 50% of all collections. And having lane barriers with Gantry type systems and prepaid cards is just like NOT having non-stop tolling at all. YOu may ask, what about Post paid payment of Tolls with the Gantry system, ie the tolls can be paid like a monthly telephone bill. Unlike telephone bills which are paid, as users cannot allow their lines ot be cut off, who is to go after and enforce penaties for non payment of tolls? the police? That is not the solution, as millions of tickets issued by the Police have remained upaid to date..

I think we harrassed users of the expressway need a good explanation, dont you think so Editors?

Can you build a golf course on a 30% slope?

I refer to the business article, YNH PLANS CONDO PROJECT ATOP GENTING HIGHLANDS from which I have extracted a statement made by the company, as follows:

Extract:...." The land that YNH bought is near the top where the temperature is around 15 to 16 degrees Celsius, he said. Although the land YNH bought is sizeable, only 30% to 40% is suitable for development as the slope on the rest is too steep. “We’ll use the rest of the land for a golf course and jungle trekking,”

I have to inform you that I am slightly confused by the Statement, which I presume is the truth. A responsible company like YNH will I think, be happy to clarify and elaborate on some of the issues that have confused me, arising from the statement, bulletized below:

• If only 30% of the land is suitable for development, and the rest of the land is too steep, how do you propose to build the Golf course on the slopes? I am not a golf player, but I am an avid golf fan,(I even know that an "albatross" can only be achieved on a par 5 hole), and I wonder how do you play on Greens that are sloping? What about water hazards and ponds? How do you build water holes on slopes? How do you travel from one hole to the next? By Cable Car? If you have to 'level' the slopes for the greens, will you not be ACTUALLY destroying the slopes and even the Highlands itself?
  
• By building on only the 30% of the available flat land, will you STILL NOT destroy the surrounding area, while you are "developing" it??
• Was the land that YNH purchased previously part of the Pahang Forest Reserve, and if it were, when was it "declassified"?
  
• Will there be an EIA study commissioned, and the Report made available to the authorities and to the Public, before the project is allowed to kick off?
  

I also regret to have raise these questions, but from a layman's point of view, it is difficult to visualize how such an area atop the Highlands can be developed so extensively without causing extensive and irrevocable damage to what little that we have left of out "heritage".

Rogue Bus Drivers and Indifferent Authorities

I read this report in the paper with some malaise Mother and her two young children die in fiery crash (extract: "...ACP Ibrahim said that the bus driver, who hails from Pasir Gudang and has six traffic summonses for various traffic offences, would be charged in court today.....") and a deep sense of foreboding. A few days ago, another horrific crash involving an express bus also reported that the bus driver had several summons and speeding tickets.Inevitably, whenever an accident occurs involving an Express bus, the drivers all seem to be unrepentant offenders. My question here is: Why have the bus owners shown such an irresponsible attitude and not monitor the performances of their drivers to the extent they cause the deaths of many innocents. As for the Police, why is there no tracking done on those "persistent" offenders, especially if they are bus drivers? From the moral point of view, these parties can be brought to court by the kins of the deceased as 'accomplices' to the incidents that caused the deaths of their loved ones.
When will Malaysians ever learn to care? I have also written to the Ministry of Transport more than a year back, on the necessity to physically limit the speed of express buses, and I was told then by Dato Suret singh the Ministry was studying a prototype. I am sure the Ministry do not take more than 2 years to "study a prototype"??
The Ministry, the Police and the Bus owners should sit down and act on this. Do not let the 'screams' of profits drown our consciences

Water Wastage: State Govt the biggest culprit

I read this report Conserve water from now, Klang Valley folk warned with some anger. In my mind, when the 'new' State government offered free water to all the residents of Selangor as a reward for getting voted into power, I wrote to The Star, stating that the limited resources of the State and country should not be "hijacked" for political expediency. The letter was not published, and I did not expect it to be. Now, even at the beginning of the drought season, we are warned to conserve water in the Klang Valley. Just as an aside, the new water policy providing cheap water to all in Selangor may be partially responsible for the mushrooming of many "snow wash" car washing stations operating (most probably without licence) in PJ. It does not take anyone long to figure out that the amount of water needed to 'snow wash' one car. My guesstimate would be, enough drinking and washing water daily for at least 10 small families.

In addition to advising residents not to wash cars and water gardens using hoses but to use buckets, it would be also timely for the authorities to suggest the following:

• Do not take showers for longer than 5 minutes
• Maintain all pipes and cisterns at the TOILETS of all food outlets, restaurants, public places, places of worship, wholesale markets and construction sites, and ensure they the function properly and do not leak.
  

It is unfortunate that as our valuable resources continue to dwindle through increased usage and lack of supervision, our politicians continue to make "knee jerk" decisions that do more harm than good to our environment in the long term. When will we ever learn?

Veiled View of Equal Rights.

Veiled View of Equal Rights..

Extract................. " Isn’t that odd, when God gave us the strength to bear children and put up with infinite patience the foibles of men?

When men admit to weakness in order to justify supremacy – as in women should cover themselves so that men cannot be tempted – you have to wonder who are the disabled beings here....".

".........................The worst part of all this is that attitudes such as these are not limited to political parties who want to impose a mono-religious form of government.These attitudes also exist among those who otherwise put themselves in opposition to such a party.You hear the same things at their general assemblies as well.The danger is that these entities want to engage one another.To engage, one seeks to find common ground. Is discrimination against women one of them?...."

Dear Marina,

I am emailing this column to my friends who do not read The Star, (and to those who read only the Sports pages and the Obituaries), as I feel the silent majority of males also agree to your comments. Nail on the head, and that is why it's so scary. Your column also bring to my mind the 2 occasions that your Dad has stated that he fears that we Malaysians are becoming more STUPID. The first was when he said that we are allowing intelligent Malaysians to leave the country but at the same time we 'import' the not so smart foreigners to mess our country up. The second occasion was more recent, when he almost pleaded for us NOT to forsake learning the English Language, stating that, if that were done, Malaysians would again become stupid. I would only disagree with him on the time frame, as I feel that we Malaysians are already stupid now.

On a more personal note, I am wondering how those 'Other' political parties in the coalition must now feel, and those women who have voted for change in the March 8 elections!

Demand in China for Bird's Nest

Demand in China for Bird's Nest

With increased demand, can Bird's Nest be "made from Melamine"?