Possible Causes For Petrol Station Fire

What could be the possible causes for petrol station fire and sources of fire?

Recently we heard two incidents involving fire in petrol station and explosion in petrol station. For first case, it may be caused by the cellphone frequency wave that created sparks. It may be static spark that caused the fire.

Secondly, we do noticed after these two incidents that our nations actually have little knowledge about petrol station basic safety and precautions. Most people I suppose still not sure why cellphone is barred from being used around fuel pump. Why car engine must turn off when refuelling? Why we can't knock the nozzle against the fuel tank inlet after complete refuelling?

In saying so, we can summarised that Malaysian generally still have a very low safety concern and/or knowledge of petrol station regulations. At some petrol station you can easily see a group of people standing or squatting nearby petrol station smoking. They didn't realise that this may be dangerous to public as well as workers/people inside or around the petrol station.

Hope you guys will give some opinions on what you should and shouldn't do at petrol station and method of avoiding petrol station fire

Toll Fare Remains for 4 Highways!

Is it a good news that 4 of the several highways proposed to maintain its toll fares? Since toll fares are now remains, how much actually government has to pay in compensation to toll operators?

One wonder why this type of contract is being signed initially? Who on earth do not have the visual ambitious to see the growth in number of vehicles on the road after 20 years? It is ridiculous that such contract was signed to allow toll operator to revise their toll changes once every 3 years.

3 years is not short, yet it is still not very long. Just somewhat months ago I pay a total of RM2.50 one way to work, and now I need to pay RM3.80 one way to work. That's a raised of more than 50%, which can added up to some numbers over the years. And now due to increase of maintenance costs, energy costs etc, they are seeking the money from the public, which is hard earn with their blood and sweat.

I do not believe that these operators are running it at a lost. Vehicles on the road is increased day by day, and majority of them choose to pay toll fare than finding alternative route, because they know the alternative route may cost them more in petrol, me including.

So in listening that 4 of the highways fare will remain the same may be a good news to a lot of people, but in long term, it will not be good for us, as operators will seek a higher increase in toll fares to cover their lost from now and then. Perhaps this is just the same old pre-election tactic. Toll fare will remain same so long the election is not conducted yet.

Once election is over, there will be at least another 4 and a half year before we can query them again. Within this 4 yrs, many things can happened, and maybe the person in charge now will then become a toilet cleaner only. Who knows.

Also as per Samy Vallu said, government has to pay the operators somewhat RM 240 mil in order for them not to raise the toll fare. To be honest, I think this amount of money is peanuts comparing to what they are going to cost the consumers. Samy Vellu @ Semi Value can pay RM90 mil to carryout survey and repair of parliment house, without the roof maintenance and repair, that is a one off job, and by looking at this, to pay RM240 mil a year to toll operator is better than paying millions of ringgit to Russia to train our "Can-Or-Naut" This will last for a year, and others just that moment only

So conclusion is whether toll fare hike or remain, we, consumers will suffer most.

Should school lady student be cained if commited offences?

It is a norm that a male student will be punished when committed offences in school. Nowadays, students committed offences in school not only by male, but female students as well. Male students will be caned when committed faults, which is suppose to be. Question now is: Should female student be treated the same if committed fault?

I think it is fair that anyone breaking rules shall be punished and by mean of same punishment as well. If a male student is being caned, so do a female student. We shall have an equal standard regardless of male or female. Anyone if found guilty of wrong doing shall be punished equally regardless of its gender.

For a govt body to stood out and oppose to such punishment on female student is damaging and damning. Look at what happened recently in school, where majority of cases were involving female student. If this is not being taken seriously, things will soon be out of control, and by then it will be too late too little they could do to help or punish these minority. We do want the system being set correctly right from the beginning, not to change or alter subsequently and frequently to suit the condition then! (FYI this is exactly what happened in Malaysia right now in most of other aspect, where authority will only look into cases seriously after some damning things happened.)

Anwar Ibrahim the Scapegoat

Nazri has been saying that former DPM shall be held responsible for the recent 2 street demontration. Why is he saying so?

Whether Anwar Ibrahim is the main culprit behind the recent demos is still to be seen, but the way Nazri say reflected that they (government) just can't accept criticisms, and they will act in a coward way just to keep te public from keeping quiet.

Malaysia is suppose a democratic country, and people do have the rights to speech. Worst still is that if government is criticised, they are deem to be traitor, betrayer, inpatriotic etc. If government take criticisms negatively, then they will not improve and our country's development will move backwards, which is exactly what is happening now.

For Nazri to made such comment just show how naive and immature they are, and if government continue this way, we are all in trouble. Also for ISA to issue warning that action will be taken against demonstrator, why don't they use the same on people like mat rempits, corrupted officers etc? Why just demonstrators? It is because mat rempit could one day be a PM, whereas demonstrators can be a threat to them, so espect mat rempits more than demonstrators.

Can method against street demostration be used on Mat Rempits?

After the last 2 street demos, it suddenly appear in my mind that we can actually use the way authority used to counter the street demos, like water canon and baton charging towards crowds.

It has been one too many cases involving mat rempits and it is now reached a worrying stage. Yet authority just sit back and do nothing about them, while they are all well prepared to countered those peaceful street demonstrators. Why? It is a very simple answer to that

Mat Rempits are dangerous and they could hurt whoever stands in their way, whereas peaceful demonstrator just won't do those coward acts. Mat Rempits are a bunch of brainless, stupid idiots who just take things into their own hand. Demonstrators were just trying to convey messages to government or aithority, yet they were treated in a bad manner.

If ISA seems street demos as illegal, is that mean Mat Rempits are legal? Can't they do anything about them? I believe if the authority starting to use the way they countered street demonstrators on Mat rempits, surely they will be put off by the tough action taken simply because nobody wants to die.

If no action is taken, mat rempits will growth even further. In saying so, I believe the one of the reason ISA do not act on mat rempits is because 99.99% of mat rempits are "Bumis"

Who is the most suitable candidate as next England Manager

Steve McLaren is now sacked. Question everyone would want to know is who's next? Must he be an Englishman? Will a foreign coach taking over at Soho Sq? Is there any good enough candidates from England for the vacant Manager post? These are all questions that has been asked over and over again.

If the next England Manager shall be an Englishman, I believe there isn't many choices left to be chosen. Probably Terry Venebles, Glenn Hoddle or Alan Curbishley and Sam Allardyce perhaps. Terry and Glenn have managed England before and both had a partial successful spells, and it is unlikely both will return. Alan and Sam is lacking the important international experience, which will make it difficult for English FA to pass the difficult and taxing job to either of them to prevent more shame happened to English National football team.

So that leaves the door open for foreign coaches, which I think is better than their local coaches. At least there is a quality and experience assurance. Among the possible candidates, I particularly like to see Fabio Capello being handed the tasks to bring the glory to England, just like what Marcello Lippi did with Italian National team during last World Cup.

Fabio Capello possessed the required skill in managing a super-pressurised job, and his past track record speaks for itself. He won numbers of champion medals with various teams, and he has been proven a true winner at club stage, and he too possessed a very good inter-personal skills and man-management skills. But he still haven't manage a national team just yet so he is eagerly wanted to take the difficult tasks ahead of him. So this will be his best opportunity to prove himself against the best national teams around. With his experience with various leagues' team, like AC Milan, AC Roma, Real Madrid and Juventus, he is by far the most suitable candidates around available. Marcello Lippi is another, but due to his success with Italian team last year, he is unlikely to do it with another nation just yet.

Other than Fabio Capello, Martin O'Niell and Filipe Scolari may be suitable to lead the Three Lions as well. Both men do possessed the required skills and experience to carryout such job, and it will be interesting to see either of the names mentioned above taking up the vacant England Manager job.

Can't wait for the Euro 2008 and World Cup 2010 Qualifiers to start.

Altantunya Murder Case

Can you believe that Mongolian lady, Altantunya Sharribuu murder case has gone into n-days of hearing, and there is a surprise 55th witness for the case.

It make the case looks like the murder of the lady is made well known to public, and that so many people were involved. Sorry to say this is the best tactic Malaysia Government has in order to make the case slowly and quietly disappeared.

By now I believe not many people actually know what has gone on with the case's trials, and also not many people actually interested in following the case anymore. That's just what the authority wants, and they succeeded in doing so.

Now you may read in newspaper the case's trials here and there in small column, and no one give a damn about it anymore simply because we already knew the final verdict of the trials. So better save the time for other big news.

Congrates Dato Seri Najib! Err.... Razak sorry!

Can Proton Turn Losses Into Profit Without Foreign Partnership

After a foreign partnership with Volkswagon broke off last week, Proton consistently assured the public that they have found a solution to turns thing around. They do not need a foreign partnership for this and that they are capable in doing so by themselve.

I do hope they could prove a lot of people outthere wrong by turning the table around with their own ability, but doubt it very, extremely much whether they have the ability and resources in doing so. I am not saying they must need a foreign partner to do it, but where their ability and capability lies is in everyone's sight.

Moreover car manufacturer now are more concern about the economical feasibility of fuel consumption for new models, safety of the car produced, joint venture in order to save costs etc, yet Proton had announced to public that they could save their business with their own ability, let alone the money needed for R&D of the new cars, safety improvementof the cars and many more.

In short term, it may seems likely Proton can make things happened. But for how long could they sustain their business in such manner? Can they really compete with other car manufacturers when others have move forward so much so that their product is at least 7 to 10 years ahead of Proton. Can Proton survive with an old technologies then?

I think most people would prefer to pay more for a foreign imported car, rather than saving tens of thousands just to buy Malaysian product, which they know will be of higher running costs over the years, and costs more in operating them.

Proton also referred to MAS in turning around their business from losing millions of ringgits into millions of profit. Do not forget that they obtained such profit thanks to the selling of MAS building and planes. Just how many more buildings and planes MAS has to be sold just to keep the book in black? Is Proton will follow suit MAS in selling their prized assets to keep their balance sheet black? Are they writing off unsold car into scrap to generate income? All these are unknown and before it is properly assess, do not make promises that may backfire at a later stage.

Why are there demonstration after demonstration?

What has happened to Malaysia now?: Why are there demonstration after demonstration, protest after protest? Is it really some culprits making use of the oportunity to create havoc to distabilise the nations? Or is it our incapable government that's causing all this problems?

Just a little over 2 weeks ago, a march from Dataran Merdeka to Istana by opposition parties. And 2 days ago there is another by mostly Indian community. Why were all these happened now? Why don't this happened few years back?

In it must be something which you and me don't know that some serious problems have occured or happened to caused such huge reactions from the publics. And it is not difficult to know why indeed.

Our current government is in a total shamble and mess, and I bet our leaders don't really know what to do with these situations and more importantly, they don't even know what are the root cause of these problems. They could only blame the opposition and oportunist that's creating these havoc, rather than self accessing their own acts.

This government is now full of incapable, corrupted, naive, ego, bias, aimless, brainless and senseless ministers, which have resulted in all the problems now. And to be frank, I feel that this government or administration is moving backwards faster in 4 years than the 22 years Tun Dr. Mahathir trying to bring the country forward.

Is England good enough?

Here's the question I believe hundreds of thousands of fans would like to ask. Is England good enough to qualify for Euro 2008?

My personal view on this is - England is good enough, but the coach/manager isn't. Why? First because Steve McLaren doesn't possess enough experience in international football. Secondly he choose players that get along with him and he likes. Third International football is a whole lot different from club football. Forth he plays who he thinks best for him, not the team ........ and a lot more.

No disrespect to Steve McLaren, he is a good football coach but he is not a good manager. A manager not only need to be good in coaching, but also in man-management and every aspects in football terms. He certainly has a good track record as a coach, but doesn't as a Manager. When he coach Man Utd under Sir Alex Ferguson, he can maximised and fully utilised his ability to the maximum, but when coaching Middlesbrough, he's unable to produce the same kind of results and team that made him famous for.

Like a lot of people said, 11 good players not neccessary make a good team, but a good team certainly have 11 good players. Team play is far more important than individuals. Like England team, they certainly have more than 2 sets of 11 good players, but these players just don't click in big matches. On paper they are good enough to beating any team in the world, including Italy, Brazil, Argentina, Holland etc. Yet they always failed at the moments mattered most. Why? Because they don't work for each other, but individuals.

Also English players nowadays are more like superstars than footballers. They earn big money at club levels, through commercial deals, TV appearances etc, and they may feel it's risky that they fought for their country in expense of the risk of losing personal interests. There aren't many players that's patriotic like Stevie G, Beckham, Owen Joe Cole and some lesser known players. It is felt that players like Frank Lampard, John Terry, Ashley Cole and others just follow the team for matches treating it as a short vacation. With such kind of attitude, England will just not progress no matter how many good or top class player they have, it just won't gel.

Conclusion, England can only progress further if they can find a proper and be counted coach/manager to properly, carefully choose and build the team. Good teams alwayshave contunuity and have heart for their nations.

In saying so, I just don't think England deserve to qualify for Euro 2008, and hopefully they are able to find a proper replacement for Steve McLaren and bringing the boys and men forward and achieve something for their nations.

Bravo Wong Mew Choo! Bravo Badminton Malaysia!

It's the most interesting and dramatic days for Malaysian Badminton today! Who on earth is expecting Malaysian to win a China Open Badminton tournament, let alone a women singles.

Wong Mew Choo has done one things that not many people in the world could do - defeating most of the chinese players at the own backyard, former and current world champions, world no 1s. Who would believe Wong Mew Choo will defeat Zhang Ning and Xie Xinfang on two consecutive days, at China's home tournament, and wins the title for our proud Malaysia Badminton history!

Now Wong Mew Choo certainly will walked into the Hall of Fame in Badminton world and I believe people from around the world will recognise Wong Mew Choo from now on! It also proof that Wong MC is no fluke when she defeated Xie Xinfang during the Badminton World Championship back in August '07. She is no fluke in defeating current world champion, Zu Lin in another tournament. Wong Mew Choo han now beaten not only all chinese top players in this single year but also other ex-chinese players and foreign players. We are now all hopeful that she will bring more joy to our national's women's games.

We hope Wong Mew Choo will eventually established herself as one of the force to be reckon in Badminton world. All these time we only bet on our men's to achieve our first ever gold medal in olympic tournament, but who knows the actual person that brings home this first ever olympic gold medals is a surprising Wong Mew Choo.

In contrast, Lee Chong Wei's performance today is just as dissapointing as expected. Lee CW is currently rank 2nd in the world and it is unbelievable that he could be affected easily by a few bad line calls. If he thinks line judges were unfair to him, he should have walked out from the game, rather than continue with such dismal plays. This has brought shame to our nations and image, as this shows how easily he could be affected, and how immature and naive his act was.

The opponents now know Lee will be easily been affected emotionally and this will become his weakness for his opponents to attack. Jung Joo-Young-Lee Yong-Dae walked out from the game after a few bad calls, and this act is to protest to the organiser of unfairness, unlike Lee CW's act. There's no point of continuing if you feel judges are against you and it will be better for CW to walk off than continuing. Best example is Taufik Hidayat. He will just walk out of the court if unfair calls is continuing for 3 to 4 times.

Probably Misbun Sidek, Lee CW's mentor is the one who instructed Lee CW to do so. Like people said "A good coach will produce a good student", and certainly Misbun has succeeded in this sense. Skill wise, I think Lee CW has been more excel than his mentor! (Sorry Misbun, no disrespect but like always the truth hurts)

Probably it's now the time to take some burden off our national men's contigents, so that they would perform more consistently without excessive pressure. I am a little disappointed with Koo-Tan in this China Open and hopefully they can make up during HK Open next week.

Another important issue, hopefully Malaysia media and press will not praise our player too much as this will do more harm than good. A norminal praise shall be enough and life moves on after whatever you won.

General Election and Petrol / Toll Prices Hike!

When is the General Election fall into? Will petrol price and toll fare go up next year? Is the rise of crude oil price affecting Tenaga Nasional Bhd operating costs and P&L and subsequently we have to bear the rising costs? These are all the question link together with each other where General Election date is concern.

After so many years of endurance, we all know when general election is coming up, surely there will be a lot of promises being made to public and most of them would not be fulfilled, just to comforting and convincing public to vote for them during the election. Once election over, these promises will be forgotten and things will changed. It is the same happening now. Question has been asked when will the next general election be? Will petrol and toll price rise after general election?

As crude oil price now soaring near to USD 100 per barrel mark, our government cannot sustain its subsidary towards petrol, and this has force the cabinet to rethink and trying to bring forward the election date. Secondly few highways operator has been submitting for approval in increasing the toll fares, but again government need to weight in how much votes they would lose should they approved the application for toll fare increase and also rise in petrol price.

So in order to calm things down, they have no choice, but to push the approval for both cases to after the election is carryout. Therefore they are thinking of bringing forward the election to somewhere before the end of 2007, which I believe is possible. Some expert had analysed that if election is not carryout by end 2007, it would be earliest by April 2008, which by then government would have to pay a lot of "compensation" on petrol and toll company.

So in order to save these millions of ringgit, they are now planning to hold the general election before the end of 2007, so upon succeeding his second term as PM, the government will announce that due to the high soaring of fuel price, we have no choice, but to increase the fuel price to save the government hundreds of millions and same goes to toll fares. If toll fare doesn't rise, government would need to pay the operators up to RM 300 millions per year in compensation.

In view of the above, can we blame the government to increase fuel price and toll fares? Government would have to pay hundreds of millions of ringgit to the respective sectors, which government would rather use for our country's developments. Yes development on what! You and I know most I guess! It's development and improvement of the pocket manufacturing!

Corruption in Land Office?

A Taiwanese businessman almost being cheated his RM 10 milion worth of land. It suprises him that his land had been sold to an outsider without his concern, and that Land Office record shows he is in the process in selling the piece of land again.

Question now is how this could happened when the actual owner has not sell the land? How could the "new" owner obtain the land title from? Within must be a person that is arranging all these, so "new" owner could sell the land to 3rd party to make profits.

The corrution situation is now happened everywhere, in every department. We are now worrying when will be our turn that our property were "sold" without our notice! If this happened, how can we prove our innocent? Will our case being looked into seriously? All these are just simple question that will be asked, and sure there will be no answer to it.

Even more surprising answer given when asked was the record of the land's transfer of name has been lost in their computer system, so there's no way to trace when, where and how this could happened. Why these things happened? It's all because these officers were paid to forget what's happening.

ACA agents are now already involve in so many investigation and surely enough they will not have time to investigate this issue. By the time ACA wanted to start the investigation, these involved person will be long gone into unknown, and our queries will never be solved. That's the scenario and it will continue to infinite.

Bravo Malaysia! Really "Malaysia Boleh"! Everything Boleh! God damn proud of your slogan!

Scratch-and-Win Syndicates

It has been so long since the scratch-and-win syndicates being exposed yet there are still so many people being trapped into such scams. Why? There's only one answer for it - GREED.

Human after all are still human, and majority, if not all will tend to have such greedy character within themselve. I've always read on newspaper that this or that person was conned in to scratch-and-win tricks, people using this tricks to conned me into such purchase etc. If the person is not greed and listen to such attractive prizes, do you think he or she would falls into such trap?

Therefore what I would like to say here is we must be alert at all time and be clear if there is really such easy money or prize to be won, like chinese always said " Is there such big frog jumping around the streets". Government or authority can only do a limited job with such syndicate and at the end, it still all depend on the person itself to prevent the syndicate to succeed in what they are expert in.

I don't mind sharing some of the tips to break their tricks. As a lot of people knows, these people, especially youngster are purposed trained to carryout such act. All you need to do is to break their sequences and ask them some unexpected question at different time. Also ask them the same question and various time again and again, sometimes with different wording. I personally faced these youngster before and they surrounded me, but somehow I could asked them some tricky questions, and they gave me different answers so I told them just to p***ed off because it's not a geniun contest.

So hope this will bring some "innocent" victims to their attention to avoid being tricked into the scam.

VW-Proton Deal Off!

As expected, Proton's partnership deal with VW has finally called off, after months of negotiating. I don't really feel dissapointed as this has been expected since long time ago. For some reason I got a feeling that this deal would not happen at all. After few attempts trying to negotiate a deal, Proton is still unable to comes to term with VW that VW will gain full control upon its takeover bid.

I've heard some rumour that Proton is reluctant to let VW gain control of its operations and for their own egoistic, they just can't let VW gain the control of Proton. So for that reason, Proton is still unable to find a partner, or an investor to invest in their plant. Moreover the management of Proton from top management ill the bottom level is all a disease to its operationals.

Corruptions, incapability, mis-management, without long term view or prospect, fancy thinking, unrealistic thinking, poor control and many more issues had contributed to all its problem now, and yet they still don't realised it until today. Yet they still claiming that their business has started to turn good this year and they are capable to sustain its operation without foreign investor's help. It's all nonsense talk that trying to convince the nation and cover up their failure to lure a foreign partnership.

From an outside source, it is known that Malaysia should not have produce car in the first place simply because Malaysia's population is not high enough for it to produce its own car. It will take at least 20 years to recover back the costs of its products, which is the Proton Saga. Until today we still can see the similarity in this, which is the Proton Iswara. Now, 2007 is the 22nd years of its production, and they already recoup back its costs for this line, and they are now planning for its replacement car from next year onwards.

Country like Australia did planned to produce their own car, but due to this reason, they call it off. Australia does have a similar population as Malaysia, and if they think it is not feasible to produce car, why would Proton think it's feasible to produce? For 'Malaysia Boleh'? For their faces egoistic sake?

Secondly is Proton product has no quality control at all. Right from the very first model until now, the quality is so poor that it is known as a 'Milo tin' car. The quality from its engine to all the accessories is of poor standard product, or rather reject product, so they would be able to sold at lowest possible price. But to be honest, Proton car prices are not cheap now comparing to foreign car and its quality and safety features.

Another point is, for its Gen 2 car, I think it's a complete failure project, and all Gen 2 car came out from factory is without proper QC checked. They rushed the product in order to get them on road in the first instant. With this a lot ofGen 2 were recalled back to factory for replacement parts here and there. Some even get their car changed because it's irrepairable.

Proton has been putting up stickers on their car stating its car contained Lotus Engineering, Lotus Handling Engineering etc. All this is just a sticker and in actual fact, there is non of these thing exists in the car. They are able to put up such stickers simply because they cought over Lotus and making use of their name to boost its sales. In actual fact, all the Proton cars use sub-standard product in their cars.

As for the called off deals with VW, Proton thinks they have too much to lose if VW taking over the operational side of Proton. For them they would be losing control of the company and also their ego. This is a Malaysian car, and it can't be controlled by a foreign company. So they have no choice but to forced off foreign investor. Mitsubishi is another example. They pulled out long time ago after knowing such scenario would happened.

Just look at UK's Rover cars, they had been took over by BMW for few years, and guess what! BMW took over Rover purely because they would want the Range Rover 4x4 technology, which is famous for in 4x4 around the world, and in succeeding of getting the technology. Finally they came out with their own 4x4 product, X5 series and then sold off Rover because Rover has been losing money all the while since its taking over.

UK Government has no choice but taking over Rover back because it's a product of UK and the government can't see it collapse. Then what happen? Few years after taking over from BMW, UK government too was forced to call it quit, and let it go burst simply because they could not sustain the lost incurred by Rover year by year.

The same would happen in Malaysia Proton if it is not carefully dealed with. From what I could see, it will only be the same way as Rover of UK and UK government. Maybe, just maybe Malaysia government will not call it quit because it's one of the proudest Malaysian's 'Malaysia Boleh'!

Educational Standard and Pressure on Students

Recently we've heard of a student committed suitside after receiving her UPSR result because she didn't obtain what is expected.

Question now is: Are there too much pressure for students nowadays? Where are those excessive pressure come from? Is it really matter if you score straight A's in the public examinations? Are the sandard of these examination still maintain as where it belongs decades ago?

Since two or three years ago, I'd heard from various news channels that this student score 10 A's, that student scored 14 A's, the other score 16 A's in SPM, PMR or any public examinations etc, do these result really mean they are more capable than others? I don't think so. A person can be excel in study but when comes to society, they may be just a ordinary like others because exams is just an exams. Working or society life is more than just study. People have to always live and learnt. Learning is never ending. So why bother to score as many A's as like 14 or 16. During my time in SPM, the maximum subjects could be taken is 10, and during that time not many people can score 10 A1's. It would be excellent if you could score 7 to 8 A1's.

In saying so, I believe today's SPM or PMR exams standard have dropped significantly and educational dept has made it in such a way that it would be a lot easier to score A's so that result looks good every year, but they didn't realise in the drop in standard. Maybe, just maybe this has resulted in the drop of our university's ranking amongst the top university around the world. If educational dept can revert it back to the old systems, I think our general standard of education will improve and subsequently our university standard will revert back to its level same as old days.

Secondly parents nowadays are more emphasising in obtaining marvellous result from their kids, and that directly or indirectly contributed in inserting more pressure for their children. Comparing students now and during our time of studying, we only went for tuition on subjects which we think needed extra guidance or where we are poor at, so we could catch up with other subjects and make it more evenly matched.

In contrast, majority of students now go for tuition classes, whether it is needed or not. They just simply attended tuition class because other attended. Students already studying at school for around 6 hours, and yet they could spend almost the same duration of time on attending tuition classes. Unless school teachers don't do their job properly, or they are incapable to do such job, then we send the kids for tuition class.

By saying this, I would ike to emphasis on the standard of teachers in school nowadays. I believe alot of teachers would just go to school to do what they suppose to do, without putting any extra effort into their job, and then trying to convince student to take up tuition classes to enhance their knowledge. Why? It is because a teacher's salary is isn't enough to sustain today's high living standard anymore, and how to make more money with their capability? Tuition class because it's their expertise in teaching. So children will not learn a lot during school, but from tuition class.

If that's the case, why bother to setting up school here and there, and this problem is still exists. Probably our government need to look into govt servant's welfare and salary structure more carefully. I know this will costs government a lot of money, but if government can stop subsidising unneccessary expenses to unneccessary people, I believe government will have a lot to spare for this matter.

Ou government has spent too much unneccessary money on unneccessary people, and I think it is time for those people to buck up and be counted. You can't depend on government's help all the time, and it is unfair to others who work hard, contributed and subsidising you for your laziness, incapability and irresponsibility senses. Otherwise our government will go burst one day by doing so and our country will not move forward, but only move backwards into the same old pre-independent days.

Below Par Servants

Selangor govt declared that they will sack those below-par servants. Can they really do it?

From personal experience, I found that almost 75% to 80% of the state govt servants are below par. If they are to sack them, then who will replace them? How long will they take to familiarise and carryout their duties? Is there any other way to improve their efficiency rather than sacking them?

I think sacking below-par servant is not the solution, but self awareness and sense of responsibility play a big part in achieving effective and efficient team. State ovt shall think of a way to make these servants im their attitude, being responsible and rewards orientated. That way will be a better way than sacking below-par servants.

Climbing of Mount Kinabalu

I planned to go Mount Kinabalu climbing since last June and finally I manage o made reservation for next year, 9 months after plan and I am looking forward to the trip.

To my surprise, the booking is only open 6 months before the date of climbing, but booking was full only few days into its opening. Looks like there are many others mt. climbing lovers who always wanted to go experience it, like us.

This will be myfirst time climbing Kinabalu and I'm not sure what to expect from it. If anyone who has been there, probably you could share your experience with us and give us some tips as what to prepare, any special training needed etc.

Really appreciate your input! Thanks

FIA Justice Speaks For Itself!

McLaren Mercedes F1 team has been trying to win the driver's championship for Lewis Hamilton off the track and they are still seeking of any opportunity to snatch it from Kimi Raikonen.

It will be just a waste of time for Ron Dennis's team, simply because if the Brazilian GP result overturned in their favour, the silver arrows will still lose out at the end. Why?

First they claimed BMW and Sauber gain advantage of running a cooler fuel, which given their drivers better performance of their cars respectively. What about the data they themself obtained from Ferrari? They do not gain advantages themself from those data obtained?

So poor old Ron, just keep your thought to yourself and focusing on next year's challenge rather than biting BMW and Sauber's tails. If results is overturned, I am sure FIA would taken away all Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso's points as well, just to show fairness to all other teams. Whatever the final verdict, Kimi and Ferrari will still be the 2007 Champions.

Good luck to your clarification seeking Ron!

Comment of Thierry Rommel

Everyone entitle to their own view, and so do Thierry Rommel! He's seen what he seen here, and also the way authority handled such scenario. If he feels that it's improper, then he's entitle to say what he says. If government feels it's incorrect, all they need is to clarify the issue, not demanding for public apology, take back the words he said, told others to keep their mouth shut etc. This make it sounds like Malaysia government is a "gangster"!

Our government always emphasis on democracy, freedom of speech etc. If they had heard what they don't like, they could easily clarify with the responsibled person, not making such noise that Rommel interfered Malaysia Internal affairs, he's nobody to make such comment.

I found that eventhough Malaysia is declare as a democracy country, but I feel the way our government's way of doing things more like a communist country. For example, they can say what they like, and any objection will treat as betrayer, traitor. If government heard something against them, they will find a way to cover it up, and ake action against those responsible for it! That means we have no rights to voice our opinion, and we can only say things government like to hear!

That's absolutely wrong, and with this way, Malaysia development will only go backwards.

Videoclip Report

Cabinet will seek more views of other ministers if the 3-member panel report on the controversial videoclip missed some point!

Sure it is good to seek more views and opinions, but sometimes it can have the reverse effect as well! The more views and opinions you have, the more complicated the issue will be, simply because everyone will have different view and opinion of their own! In view of this, it may caused more uncertainty and arguement. Then all the hardwork and effort will be wasted.

So what will happen then? Case dropped because the result is inconclusive and that there are too many doubts on the videoclip presented. It's just simple as that! That's the way the authority carryout their job, and it's the easiest and simplest way of getting out of trouble! Just look at Altantunya case now!

It will surely be the other way round if the scenario is reverse, like Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim is the main suspect in the video! Conclusion will be made only after a simple, effective 3-man Panel investigation and report!

Same old Schummi!

When F1 teams tested their cars at Spain's Circuit De Catalunya few days ago, some was surprise that Michael Schumacher appeared to test for Ferrari's old and new cars. Even more surprise is that after a year out of the red machine he once loved, and still love now, he has lost none of his speed.

Over the 2-3 days testing, Schummi posted the quickest time for the 2 official tests there. Even McLaren Mercedes's test driver Pedro De La Rosa, who is as quick as any other top driver in the silver arrow, is about 4 tenth outside Schummi's time. Imagine if Schummi did not retire at the end of last year, who will win the F1 Driver's Championship? That leave open to debate, but one thing is certain, Schummi will always be there to fight for the championship!

Ferrari will surely be benefited from Schummi's input on the technical side as well as performance, and so do Kimi and Filipe. I hope both will continue where Schummi left off and carry on winning for Ferrari the driver's and constructor's title for years to come!

SMART Tunnel

When I listen to news this mornin, and was shocked to hear that SMART Tunnel is not meant for car/vehicle usage. This is the statement released from Drainage and Irrigation Dept. (DID)

If SMART tunnel is not meant for car use, they should design from the beginning that no public road to go through and only for flood water diversion. Moreover the tunnel conssts of 2 or level, which the top level is for car used, and the 2nd and 3rd level is for flood water diversion.

It will not cause confusion if they say temporarily lower level of tunnel still incomplete and hence top level is use for water diversion. If SMART tunnel is designated for flood water diversion, and not traffic diversion, why would they plan for the toll plaza at th entrance and exit of the tunnel in the first place? Why are they plan for the tunnel to go thru one of the busiest road around to diversify some of the traffic? I think plans are there to build a tunnel to diversify traffic as well as flood water when needed.

Congrates to AirAsia

AirAsia has won the Asia-Pacific Aviation's Airline of the Yr 2007. This shows that they can now being consider as one of the best airliners and for the last 2 to 3 yrs, they keep on improving their services. That's a good sign and we can expecting more improvement from AirAsia.

I remember not so long ago, impression on AirAsia is they are just a low-cost carrier, delay and cancellation of flights is just a normal cases. Recently I did use AirAsia's service and I found that their service has improved by a lot and flight delay/cancellation has reduced significantly as well. They are getting new planes delivery all the time and I believe sooner their plane will be much comfortable.

Price wise they no doubt is a lot cheaper than other airliners because they are operating at a low-cost concept, but comparing to Europe's low-cost airliners, my comment is AirAsia has a better service than their Europe conterpart! (This is purely my personal observation and thought)

Again congrates to AirAsia!

Jerai MP Open his mouth again!

I can't believe Datuk Badruddin Amiruldin get away yet again with his irresponsible comment! He is famous for his 'Bocor' comment (if I'm not mistaken) and also one comment directed at Kapal Singh as well as disable community. Worst still is that this is not the first time he made some silly comment without thinking thru his brain, and he sill has the gut to say it was a joke.

If this act is done during Dr. M time, I am quite sure he would be discarded from exco and post he held. It is a shameful act and comment made against a particular group of people and this only shows how naive and irresponsible this person can be and also how he could be in the post he is right now!

Hope someone up in the UMNO higher-rank people to seriously look into Badruddin's act & behaviour, and remove him from any sort of post within to prevent UMNO to be humiliated by such childish and brainless person

Malaysia's Universities Ranking

I'm really amazed by the excuses given for our sliding in universities ranking. It has become a norm for government to find some excuses to try comforting our nations that the sliding in ranking is indeed due to the different way of measures. Do we feel better in listening so?

Not fo me at least. If your rankin is sliding downwards, you should look at yourself and ask are we really that incompetent and is there any room for improvements? Rather than doing so, our government came out first to blame the panel of different way of determining the ranking, and worse still is they brought up one of the well known Singapore University name to mentioned they too are sliding down the ranking.

This is the way of thinking of a loser and with this kind of mindset, we will never going to improve and there will be only one way to go for all our universities - DOWN. So I do not believe much into what our government said in this case and unless the university do some self assessment to improve.

For our government, it is either you said so to comforting our nation or you are treating the nation as a brainless creature. To the nation, do you feel better if it is really due to different determining way of ranking? If yes please do so and you will feel much better

Fuel Subsiding Issue

Not really sure if the government proposed new different subsidise scheme for petrol will work.

First of all, how can the government classify or differentiate the rich and poor? Ar they classify by the car makes they driven? Do all drivers need to produce payslip at petrol station to clarify their income before refuelling? Or there will be a taxman at every petrol station to carryout each individual refuelling driver? All this is just nonsense, and will only make the already diseased corruption to be aggrevated to a new height level

If government really wanted to cut down the subsiding on petrol, then all nations shall bare the same burden, not for the riches to bare for the poors. This will be very unfair to the riches (by no mean to disrespect the poors) because they worked hard for their money earned.

For sure by early next year we, the vehicle owners will have to pay for a much higher fuel price due to the significant increase in crude oil price, and subsequently prices for a lot of things will increase too, no doubt about that and finally a higher inflation rate. So anyone know any good idea to counter this problem? Sure no pay/salary inflation from you boss of course!

Malaysia's "Can-or-Naut"

Finally Dr. Shek back to earth after few day's travelling to the space, funded by Malaysian tax payers' money! Surely he enjoy the trip of his life, where a lot of people can only envy. So now the nation is quiet on this and hopefully this will only be the one and only time. No more space traveller from Malaysia ever again!

It is funny enough that Malaysia's thinking of expanding their research, or funding for the space mission, yet they have not got a clue what they are doing (Sorry to say but that's my gut feeling telling me this).

It is extremely unlucky that the test sample carried out in space were damaged during the landing, and that we might need another trip to ISS before the test result can be concluded. (Huh... luckily for Dr. Shek, no report is needed from you for now at least)

At the same time, China has launch their own rocket up to space, and towards moon. All they used is their local engineers, local parts, local technology and their local people. They successfully send their man up to space twice by using their own creative rocket, and their astronaut returned earth safely.

I'm not saying how good the Chinese is, but only how lousy Malaysian could be. We (tax payers) are funding the government a wasteful project to send a "Can-Or-Naut" to space, just to show our national flag in the ISS, yet they are cheering during the take-off, activity in space, and the return of the Can-Or-Naut without noticing it's actually our hard earn money that's spent like burning waste papers. Those money could be better off spend on other aspects like public service improvement etc

So folks, please wake up and realise that a lot of this government's project are actually notes printing machine to them, and we are the machine that's printing notes to them!

Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Jeanne Badawi!

It is quite funny that our PM's wife told reporters that she is meant to be together with Abdullah Badawi. What's the purpose of telling the nation of this? I can't figure it out other than make me think Badawi actually was having affairs with Jeanne long before Badawi's first wife's (Endon) death.

How long after Endon's death that Badawi re-married with Jeanne? If they don't have any affairs, how can it be so quick that Badawi married her? Why she's telling the nation they meant to be together? If they really meant to be together, while Endon still alive, what will happen? Badawi divorcing Endon and marry with Jeanne? Is that what is suppose to happened?

Being the wife of a country's PM, she suppose to be wise enough to watch what she said. Rather than talking about some current affairs, she's telling all about her private life. It looks like everyone in the country is interested in knowing how Badawi manage to get Jeanne's heart, how romantic Badawi can be, what kind of food he likes etc.

Come on! I think all nation is concern about what is happening in surrounding, what's the current affairs etc, not what's happening with our PM in his cozy home, what's he doing at home etc. So to hear someone of Jeanne's status saying such childish comments is shocking and it prove that Badawi and Jeanne doesn't really knowing what's happening around them up to this date!

I really feel sorry for both of them!

P/s: My apology if mis-spell Mrs. Badawi's name as Jeanne.

Lee Chong Wei won again!

First of all I would like to congrate Lee CW for winning the French Open Badminton Championship. Well done boy!

I would like to stress a thing about Chong Wei is: Whenever he loses to an opponent, there bound to be some excuse for the lost. If it hadn't been for that reason, he would have won all competitions he participated in. Is that really possible? Come on Chong Wei. Face the thruth. You are No. 2 in the ranking and even 1st rank player do not win all competitions he participated, let alone you Mr Lee "Kampung Boy" Chong Wei.

I remember last week whe he lost to Bao Chunlai during the Danish Open Championship, he blamed it on his knee injury and it might affecting his performance in the French Open. Quite lucky enough your knee heal quicker than you thought, and also everybody in Malaysia. And you won the French Open by beating Bao Chunlai in the final so easily. It proved you are a class above Mr. Bao, just it is unfortunate you injured your knee, otherwise it would have been you that wins the Danish Open rather than Lin Dan because you are so confident of beating Lin Dan.

Lee CW is such pityful cry-baby. If you think you are top of the world, then you should prove it everytime you step on court, not blaming this or that after defeats, and praise your effort when wins. That's a very unprofessional act and it's a huge disgrace for me as a chinese. Chinese always have the guts to take praises as well as criticisms. I don't see that charateristic in Chong Wei mainly because of his ................ correct! Coach. Why is beyond my writing. Just imagine yourself.

So I am not happy at all even if Chong Wei wins all the Open Championships and Master Series titles, and fail to live up to expectation in big tournaments. For me a great player is who can perform to the highest level at the highest level of tournaments. So unless Chong Wei wins the major tournament, he is just a "Jaguh Kampung" to me forever and ever!

Buk-up Ching Wei! Prove me wrong! (I doubt you can. Sorry!)