Reducing Subsidy or Reducing Corruption?

On last week, Idris Jala revealed the fact that we are heavily subsidized and that if the country continues to be run that way, it will face bancruptcy by year 2019! (full details in http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/5/27/nation/20100527171008&sec=nation
Yes, we have to be awared that we are given the highest subsidies - 4.6 per cent of GDP even higher than Indonesia (2.7 per cent) & Philippines (0.2 per cent). What Idris failed to adress is the fact that the government operating expenditure has been soaring over the past years and that the deficiencies in the delivery system has caused billions of ringgit losses to the country.
Few recent examples are the PKFZ scandal and the huge overrun of Bakun Dam project. There were certainly misconduct by certain party which Rakyat ended up have to foot the bill.
On the other hand, what had government done in curbing corruption? Millions of Ringgit can be salvaged and channeled to even allowing greater subsidy for the poor if there is politically will to curb corruption. I felt ashamed to claim myself as Malaysian when looking at the deteriorating standing of us in the Corruption Index
.

You help me, I help you

The phrase "You help me, I help me" has become the most sought after
phrase in Google.
It ranks No 1 out of 2,680,000,000 search result!
Clicking on the link will
bring you to a video of our Prime Minister speaking to public while
campaigning in Rajang Park, Sibu.
He went to Sibu with a purpose, obviously was to hunt for votes so that
BN candidate could win the battle.
He stated his motive very clearly in the beginning of that speech:
"I want to make a deal with you", he said.
"can we have that understanding or not. the understanding is simple: You
help me, I help you."
Haha, sounds familiar? I just know that when most of our Malaysian
friends got stopped by the cop, it was either the cop making the offer or
we making the offer: "Boleh tolong tak, encik?". Then the officer will ask
(pretending he doesn't know): "Macam mana?".
It really made me think of the scene when watching our Top Government
Servant speaks the same tone.
To further ensure the Chinese folks in Sibu understand what he meant, he
made it more specific:"If you deliver me Robert Lau on Sunday, on Monday i will ask the check to be prepared."
And do you know how much was it? 5 million!
The most funny part is he thought that that 5 million is his money.
"Lu mau 5 just, gua mau Robert Lau menang.
Lu tak payah keluar duit, gua kena keluar duit"
Gosh! Do all our BIG people think that they own the country therefore all
the tax payers' money belongs to them? I tend to believe that they do.
I salute Sibu people for making the right choice. Though adding 1 to the
MP count for opposition does not change the overall status but it means
a rejection to vote baiting from someone who think he can fool the people
again and again.

Project with an international "giant"

I have been in my current project for close to 11 months already by now.
Go by our typical project lifecycle of 5-6 months, this project is considered "extremely" long. To be frank, I am very demoralized by the fact that it has been prolonged from March to Apr and then to May.
Well, there are things not within my control, more so for this project. It is part of a huge integrated project with so much of dependencies. My Company plays the role as provider for the portal solution as part of a bigger program managed by a big system integrator. Things did not go the way I would like it to be, particularly there were so much of slippage in other deliverables that had caused the project target to move from one date further to another.
It has not been a good project for me. Not a successfully one by my definition. Stakeholder management, for instance has been way weak with no clear ownership of deliverables. At times, no culprit could be identified for any delays let alone the accountability part of it.
This is a difficult project and difficult experience for me. But come to think about it, if it is not because of this project, how on earth will i realize that the rest of my previous projects were so manageable and successful?
It is a precious lesson.

Escalation

I thought it would have been a great year in career for me in the year of Ox last year but it turned out to be quite disappointing.
It was disastrous as I was literally having a very bad relationship with my counterpart at the other side of the camp (the system integrator of the project that I am running). We were in the fight mode, with lots of accussations and finger pointings that both have to resolve to due to things that are beyond our control.
This is the urgly fact about the big word "escalation".
I did not want to end the year like that but sadly I have to live with it and began a new year with the not-too-perfect spirit.
Lesson learned: Escalate when you think that you will get 99% if not 100% support from the people at the top. Otherwise, it marks the start of a tiring, long process of convicing even your own people not to mention people at the other camp.
Everyone are protecting their own interest, unless these people felt threaten, they may not support you full heartedly even they are in the same camp as you.
This isn't politic, this is the art of survival.
I regret been truthful.
Well, it is a lesson learned. After all work isn't everything in my life.

又是鸡奸这回事

近几天报章头条都是国会反对党领袖鸡奸案的审讯新闻。 说实在的，那还蛮沉闷的。
谁不知道安华有过十年前的一场鸡奸案，而现在又依样画葫芦地来多一场。相信也好，不信也好，我纳闷的是这事真那么有新闻价值吗？
看赛夫那年轻人在法庭上露骨的讲述被唱后庭花的经过，反而觉得那伤似乎没那么深。见图中对着大床指指点点的赛夫，像是要借案子的曝光度来羞辱安华的成分多一点。
不知道公正最终会站哪边，但很希望这戏会快快演完，因为看得人有点厌倦了。

小妮子爱说话

嘉已快步入两岁半了。近来在语言技巧方面很明显地提升了很多。
小妮子什么都会拿来问。见到剪草工人就问”what doing?" 意即 “what is he doing?"。看到报纸上足球员跌地的痛苦表情，劈口就问 ”what happened uncle?"。 女儿开始掌握简单句子了。
到这年龄，她对性别年龄也有了基本认识了。电视或书刊上男女老幼的图片画面她都能一一辨别 auntie, uncle, "kor kor", "jie jie", 妹妹， 弟弟 之分。
想在的嘉嘉，活像个”问题女生“。”十万个为什么“ 那种。任何时候任何事都会问一通。她的口头禅似乎变成了 ”what? why? 等等。
我知道这是她学习的另一里程碑。开始在提问中获得新的知识及技巧。现在要做的是认真聆听，有问必答。

BFM 89.9

Yes, I am going to talk about Radio Station.
I recently came across this station when performing my random "seek" at the FM frequencies on my boring drive to work in one morning.
It was the voice of Caroline Oh the ex Lite FM DJ that induced me to listen on. Then that was these funny slogans such as "Best Footfall Moment", "Bribe Free Malaysian", "Busy Finding Money" that attracted me to stay on. Out of curiousity, I was trying to find out what on earth is this station is all about.
Well, BFM is actually the first and only one Business radio station in Malaysia. Its main focus is obviously business news, market summary, exclusive interviews with corporate figures, etc. Sounds dry isn't it, but not really. The good thing about this station is that it strike a balance between business and entertainment. Segments such as sports, lifestyles, and entertainment info serve in between the music and business segments.
It is not my favourite station yet mainly due to the fact that the songs do not go too well with me. But the market snapshot at 9:15 am is a must listen for me as it starts my day up with some brief market info around the world.
BFM 89.9 is only available in Klang Valley, Seremban, and certain parts of Pahang though.