Why should Malaysia involve itself so much in F1, which is just a millionaire's playground?

I was glad finally someone expressed his views on Malaysia's involvement in the F1 Proton's RM2.4billion 'joyride' is a bad idea as I feel that our country's leaders and decision makers are just using our taxes to have fun and to boost their own egos. 'Disappointed', the writer of this letter expressed it very well. " We are already paying a high price for Proton cars here, much higher than similar size cars in other countries ", he said. it's really sad and it's true.{I have read that the Suzuki Alto from Maruti India, will be imported CBT (completely built up) into Malaysia and will be retailed around RM 55,000, BUT this car RETAILS in India at only USD6000}.

However, what really amazes us, the poor citizens of the nation, is that, Malaysia, a developing country trying to achieve a high income and developed status, is doing it the wrong way. I am sure we would have noticed that NOT LESS than 3 Malaysian parties are now involved, overtly or covertly, in "sponsoring" the F1, namely, Proton with its Lotus brand, AirAsia also with its Lotus brand, and then there is Petronas pushing the Williams car...

Are all these expenditure necessary? Air Asia, maybe I can see that it is a part of its aggressive global branding strategy, but does Petronas and Proton need to spend so much of our money for the same purpose?

I think Petronas has been doing well even without such extravagance, and Proton? Maybe it should just send its executives to Perodua, to learn a thing or three from them, how to make a successful car for the rakyat. Having 'good' advisers does not mean it will make a profit.

Reading this news on a gloomy Monday morning, Evaporated milk to cost 30 sen more in Janauary 2011, I immediately thought of my two good friends who are retired and single, living on their own and depending solely on their pensions of about than RM1000 a month. My friends each rent a small room for RM400 a month in different parts of the city, and drive 25 year-old dilapidated cars, as public transport is woefully inadequate. In order to make ends meet, one of them buys a loaf of bread every three days, and that was his breakfast and lunch for the period. The other one skips a meal a day, preferring to wake up late in the morning, have a brunch of two Roti Canai and a glass of teh tarik, which will see him through until dinner time.

With the announced increase in the price of milk, and the expected increase in price of oil, you can imagine the cost of their basic requirements will further increase. I am not sure how they will cope, but I can understand their feelings of bitterness, having worked for the Govt for more than 33 years, and seeing their country "taken over" by millions of immigrants who will work for almost nothing, and seeing out the remaining days of their lives living just above the poverty line.

Please don't think these are isolated cases; If the Govt would just commission an independent research to survey public opinion on the streets it would come as a surprise to the Govt that many more people are out there suffering in silence, going from one hungry day to the next, praying for the Almighty to mercifully "take them away". Not only pensioners and retired teachers, but the small businessmen who cannot afford to save at all for their old ages. Talk to the fishermen, the farmers and the hawkers, do not just interview the senior executives, fund manager, and the CEOs to find out if such price increases will affect them.....

It's going to be a sad New Year for many

Happy New Year, anyway

Govt must realise how price hikes are hurting many retirees

Here we go again... Raping Forest Reserves!!!

It is indeed bad news on a Monday morning, when I opened The Star and read this report, Issuing Permits to Log forest RESERVES in Sabah! Two statements stand out, one each from the Sabah Environmental Protec­tion Association(SEPA) and a reply from the Forestry and Wildlife Departments(FWD). Allow me to quote them for clarity.

The SEPA expressed its deep concern that 4000 hectares of RESERVES are targeted for 'limited' logging and they said.. " Our worry is that allowing logging in a forest will result in the area being degraded to an extent that the authorities will eventually convert it into another oil palm plantation...."

The FWD replied that..." the department had appointed three trustees – the Tambunan District Officer, Tambunan Forest Office and the areas Native Chief – to issue permits for the area. and also said that those who want to log the area would be required to replant the area with trees once they had completed their operations....."

The issue of destroying our limited forest reserves have been debated in your papers for some time now, and what is really upsetting us is the same reply the authorities have dished out again and again to justify the approval to log from a forest reserve. Obviously the authorities think that, the rakyat believe in what is begin said, and more importantly to them, they have responded appropriately to the problem by giving a press statement.

Anyone who has an interest in the future of our country and the preservation of our unique forests as part of a global program of protecting its biodiversity, should pursue answers to the following:

• What is the intention of the Government to declare and designate an area a FOREST RESERVE? Can we then just destroy it with the issue of a simple logging permit from a local authority?
• How can the planting of a sapling ever replace a 100 year old tree, taken from the reserve?
  
• Will the "extraction" of the 100 year old tree be done in a manner that NO other part of the forest or the undergrowth will be destroyed? In other words, will the 100 year old tree be the ONLY plant that is "extracted" and killed, under the licence issued?
  
• Can the peripheral areas around the felled tree, which is the natural habitat of our precious wildlife and other valuable plants be replaced by planting of "imported" saplings and seeds? What about the escalation of soil erosion in the denuded areas?
  
• In order to fell and to extract the tress from a limited area of the Reserve, will it be essential for the permit holder to destroy other parts of the Forest in order to build roads and storage areas, and to bring in heavy equipment to do his job?
  
• Have the FWD calculated the "collateral" damage a permit holder will cause to the rest of the reserves, while he is supposed to be only removing the 100 year old tree, for example.?
  

I think the Govt and all responsible citizens should clamour for a detailed answer to these issues, and ask that a proper national strategy be drawn up to articulate our objectives to protect our forests and allow them to regenerate for our future generations, and also for the World.

Don't procrastinate anymore for political expediency. Can we eat sand, when the last of our trees and rivers have gone?

Act now to save our Forests!!!!!!!!!!!

Using newspapers to teach the English Language

The reports on the ongoing turmoil in PKR is a "mother lode" source for the teaching of English, more than, I would say, the "letters to the Editor" pages. When the 'fun' started, Zaid has been assailed as a "bull in a China shop" . If you look at these articles today, you will find more similes and metaphors, and will surely make the learning of English an enthusiastic and fun experience.. ... click here>> Zaid a thorn in PKR's flesh and Zaid is not Barisan's Trojan horse.. Other phrases of note are

• blue eyed boy
• get under the skin
• elections have been bastardised
• not a poodle to anyone

Using animals in the reporting seem to be the favourite, and in the coming days, you may find the inclusion of such phrases as,

• Zaid is jumping like a "cat on a hot tin roof" and not willing to "bite the bullet"
  
• behaving like a "dog in the manger" or "sour grapes"
• having a "bee in the bonnet"
• or casting "pearls before swine"
• tries to "hit while the iron is hot"
• screaming till the "cows come home"
• is a "snake in the grass"
• and is accusing the leaders of behaving like the three monkeys, "see ho evil, hear no evil and speak no evil"

hahahahahahah

Thumbs-up for Penang government

As expected, there is hue and cry over the decision of the Penang State Government to further ban the use of plastic bags next year, No Plastic rule may cost jobs.. but for once, i am happy to see that there is political will to do something right, for the long term good of the nation

Such unpopular decisions will come at a "political cost" but it is good to see that there are politicians willing to take the risk for the betterment of the nation. We cannot always fall back on the reason that people will suffer through the loss of jobs and employment opportunities, and even the closure of some businesses, just so that we can continue destroying the nation, and deplete it of natural resources that should be saved for future generations.

Our Government cannot maintain that it's striving to achieve a "green" status, but at the same time turn a blind eye to unethical practices and protests by selfish businessmen who will only look at short term profits and nothing else. Collectively, as a nation we must be proud to feel "ownership" of the country and must realise that hard work and sacrifice are needed to keep it safe and healthy for generations to come.

In this context, politicians must also not think parochially, but must react above political constraints and mutually agree to make further decisions to ensure all Malaysians enjoy living healthy and dignified lives. Some of the "unpopular" decisions that have to made are

• Reduce or stop the use of foreign menial labour in the country; encouraging such low wage earning labour (in many instances illegally acquired) only serve to pollute the environment, cause social problems, and cause our nation to be branded a "human trafficking" hub
• Promote the use of Internationally approved type of incinerators to dispose off and manage our waste; at the same time ensure all local councils enforce a uniform recycling policy for household and industrial waste
• Implement a National Forest Strategy to demarcate the size of our depleting Forest Reserves; the Policy must include independent and internationally verifiable procedures to ensure the Designated Forest Reserve Areas WILL NEVER be trespassed. This policy will elicit loud protests from many parties, not least among them timber tycoons and 'connected' politicians, but can we allow our dwindling reserves and Water Catchment areas to be abused anymore. The annually increasing severity of floods is testimony that we cannot flinch from our sacred duty to protect our nation and our forests.
  

Of course, there are many more areas that the governments can look into, many more unpopular decisions that will have to be made, but if the leaders of out nation believe in what they are doing, let the 'plastic bag ban' be the first step towards making our country great again...

Thumbs up for Penang Govt.

Is the Ministry of Transport working at all??

Yet another gruesome express bus accident and yet another heartfelt response from a reader, Punish Bus Operators too! Professor Hasman Shah Abdullah feels that with the almost daily occurrences of such tragic accidents, the public has become desensitized to these reports. The Government should heed his call that... " it could give the “People First” slogan real punch by forcing the installation of speed limiters in all buses to ensure no driver can, for whatever reason, place the passengers in jeopardy." he added, " Many Transport Ministers have tried but meekly conceded to the industry lobby. It is time to place the industry second and the “people (passengers) first.”

But what raised my heckles is another tame statement made by the Minister of Transport, who said after this gruesome accident, " It is the responsibility of bus operators and owners to ensure that the drivers they hire have valid driving licences,... “If they do not have a licence, they should not be allowed to drive.." The same Minister was reported to have said in the other horrible express bus accident near Simpang Ampat, Pedas, that "according to a Ministry analysis of the accident, if the bus has NOT speeded, the lives may not have been lost"

Come on Mr Dato Minister, we know that! Don't be so patronizing!! Professor Hazman has correctly pointed out that the one big reason that the Ministry seems to be so powerless, is that it always has acceded to the "requests" of the Industry. Even when the Ministry has ALREADY approved of speed limiting devices to be installed, nothing seems to be done.

How much more blood do you want on your hands, Minister, before we can see beyond "industry profits and slave labour" and give the rakyat the service they deserve?

In Japan, the Minister of Transport would have committed 'hara kiri'

Reckess Littering by foreign workers!

I REFER to the report “Villagers in Muar don’t want factories” (The Star, Nov 1). Once a tranquil and beautiful town, Muar has now turned into a busy industrial site with hundreds of heavy vehicles entering and leaving the area daily.

But what was more insidious and more revealing was the remark made by one of the villagers that “the drains are clogged because the foreign workers throw their rubbish there”... the more than 1,000 foreign workers “imported” to man the factories.

Read in conjunction with the other news in the same issue like “A heap of landfill woes,” the statement is portentous of the disaster we are going to have on our hands.

Just imagine more than three million foreign workers (and increasing daily) legally and illegally brought into the country to maintain Malaysia as a “low wage paying nation,” and what sort of rubbish mess they are creating.

It’s a daily occurrence that has happened right in front of my house. Foreign workers returning from their 16-hour shift work at a nearby restaurant drinking from plastic bags filled with teh tarik throw the empty bags into the nearest available drain.

Likewise, contract workers at nearby houses under renovation also use the drains for their empty plastic bags and plastic food packages.

No wonder the disease Leptospirosis is spreading like wildfire, with Dengue close on its heels.

Concern over littering by foreign workers