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.