The 666th post for an entry on PAS. It truly couldn't be any more appropriate than this.

Earlier today, Pengkalan Pasir Assemblyman Wan Abdul Aziz Wan Jaafar passed away, leaving a state assembly seat in Kelantan up for grab. This death should remind PAS what they had found out in the last Malaysian general election - PAS is in trouble. How big a trouble:

Wan Abdul Aziz contested on a PAS ticket in the last general election and beat the Barisan Nasional's candidate, Hanafi Mamat, by a slim 55-vote majority.

He polled 7,168 against Hanafi's 7,113.

And the bigger picture:

"The present situation is really interesting. If prior to this PAS held 24 seats and Barisan Nasional (BN) 21, now PAS has only 23 seats...Can't say much, but its an interesting development," he said this when met by reporters after paying his last respects to Wan Abdul Aziz at the latter's home in Kubang Bemban, Pasir Mas.

This is also a sneak peak at PAS u-turn in trying to look more moderate. In my opinion however, this u-turn might backfire.

PAS is not alone in this u-turn and certainly no the first. While PAS is slowly trying to relabel itself as moderate Islamist party, UMNO has been doing a more-Islamic-than-PAS ever since Abdullah Ahmad Badawi became UMNO President with his Islam Hadhari. I personally think Islam Hadhari is balderdash but what's important is, UMNO's u-turn has been tested and it works. That's all the matters.

PAS u-turn however is a little bit risky. By becoming more moderate, PAS may stand a chance nationally but not on state level. PAS doesn't need to move leftward in the political spectrum in Kelantan. Reason is, the population there is already stuck in the right. Too much shifting to the left will see PAS risking disfranchising its base. Already, when PAS invited Mawi to perform in Kelantan, crack was showing within PAS ranks.

But then, I have the impression that Mawi's concert was a sellout. This so-called Mawi-factor might be an asset instead of a liability. You'll never know but given what I know right now, I'll put my money on UMNO this time.

As for me, I don't really care who will win. Whether it will be PAS or UMNO, I don't see how it changes the dynamic in Kelantan state assembly. PAS still won't control two thirds of the state assembly and UMNO or BN, still won't get half of total seat. This upcoming by-election, which needs to be held within the next 60 days, is more about psychology.

Nevertheless, the next 60 days will be important for battleground Kelantan. Pengkalan Pasir by-election will serve as a signal of things to come in 2008. Or 2009.

p/s - oh yeah, joining the bandwagon, Happy Halloween to those that celebrate it. Er, I mean, Deepavali.

Indonesia, while mocking justice, is fast becoming a nation that runs on farcical judiciary.

Australian Schapelle Corby is sentenced to 20 years behind bars for attempting to smuggle marijuana into the country while another Australian Michelle Leslie faces the possibility of maximum 15 years in jail for ecstasy. Abu Bakar Bashir, the cleric who has been found guilty of conspiring in the 2002 Bali attack which killed more than 200 people on the other hand received merely three years of jail time - that penalty has been reduced to mere 20 months.

Doing drugs is bad and I at least am willing to agree to that. It however is certainly no worse than murder. But no, no - the Indonesian authority has differing view.

Indonesian Justice Minister Hamid Awaluddin is reported of saying that the psychopath fundamentalist and murderer Abu Bakar Bashir is eligible for further lessening in conjunction of the upcoming Eid. This is absolutely absurd and distastefully dishonors victims of the Bali bombing.

If the Indonesian authority decides to shorten the killer cleric's sentence soon, they might as well release him and supply all the explosives he needs for future ops.

Or maybe, this is Indonesia's idea of Halloween.

I was a little bit bored yesterday. So, I wandered around with a camera by my side.



This one was taken somewhere near my home. It's an old stone staircase and some part of it suffers minor erosion while moss covers the stair's cracks.

I'm not sure whether this is a good photo - maybe I should have lowered the lense by a few degrees more - but I personally like it due to the photo's noticeable depth of field.

p/s - This person deserves a harsh punishment for what he has done to the cats. Unfortunately, due to our pathetic law and partly to inflation, I have a feeling that the accused will get away with a mere RM200 fine. If he is unlucky, maybe a few days in lockup, no more than that. If you feel such act deserves severer punishment, please sign SPCA sponsored petition.

About fourty years ago, in the Malaysian Parliament, in Malay, by Lee Kuan Yew:

How does the Malay in the kampong find his way out into this modernised civil society? By becoming servants of the 0.3 per cent who would have the money to hire them to clean their shoe, open their motorcar doors? ... Of course there are Chinese millionaires in big cars and big houses. Is it the answer to make a few Malay millionaires with big cars and big houses? How does telling a Malay bus driver that he should support the party of his Malay director (UMNO) and the Chinese bus conductor to join another party of his Chinese director (MCA) - how does that improve the standards of the Malay bus driver and the Chinese bus conductor who are both workers in the same company?

If we delude people into believing that they are poor because there are no Malay rights or because opposition members oppose Malay rights, where are we going to end up? You let people in the kampongs believe that they are poor because we don't speak Malay, because the government does not write in Malay, so he expects a miracle to take place in 1967 (the year Malay would become the national and sole official language). The moment we all start speaking Malay, he is going to have an uplift in the standard of living, and if doesn't happen, what happens then?

Meanwhile, whenever there is a failure of economic, social and educational policies, you come back and say, oh, these wicked Chinese, Indian and others opposing Malay rights. They don't oppose Malay rights. They, the Malay, have the right as Malaysian citizens to go up to the level of training and education that the more competitive societies, the non-Malay society, has produced. That is what must be done, isn't it? Not to feed them with this obscurantist doctrine that all they have got to do is to get Malay rights for the few special Malays and their problem has been resolved. ...

I'm finally done with Lee Kuan Yew's The Singapore Story and I enjoyed it, especially the last few chapters. The book however leaves me behind a few questions. What if we had stayed true to the Federation? What if Singapore were still a Malaysian state? I can't help but wonder, could Malaysian Malaysia be a reality today if Singapore weren't expelled from the Federation?

I think yes.

Lee Kuan Yew's People's Action Party (PAP), given time and if Singapore weren't expelled from the Federation, would have outmaneuvered the Alliance. Perhaps, given the competition, United Malays National Organization (UMNO) would have turned into United Malaysians National Organization, as Onn Jaafar had envisioned earlier.

Yet, UMNO, seeing that possibility, acted quickly and put their interest first, Malaysia's second. They expelled Singapore instead to secure their monopoly of power.

Yes, if Singapore were still part of Malaysia, I truly believe we would have a Malaysian Malaysia by now.

Remember my entry about wanting to read Burgess' Malayan Trilogy?

Immediately after posting the entry, I left my desktop and headed straight for a bookstore at the base of Petronas Twin Towers to look for it. The books weren't in store however and I was rather disappointed that I couldn't find it. Right now, the internet and some obscure second-hand bookstores in Kuala Lumpur are my best bet.

However, instead of getting the trilogy, I went on a minor spending spree, spending, quite unbelievable, RM132 on three paperbacks - Burgess' The Wanting Seed, Lewis' Liar's Poker and Stiglitz's (I attended his lecture back in Michigan! w00t!) The Roaring Nineties - while I had only brought RM50 with me. Given the situation, I was forced to use my debit card.

On debit card, might I add that Malaysia really needs to upgrade its financial system, urgently. I don't know how it's like in Thailand or Singapore but the US is far, far up there and it makes me feels that all the economics I learned at Michigan is part of an elaborate science-fiction. No kidding.

Anyway, I used to remember that imported paperback on average cost merely RM25 back in the early 1990s. After 1997, it cost around RM30 each and now, on average, it's RM40++.

I wasn't familiar with Malaysian pricing at first and you could imagine that I was in shock. But then, after I silently converted MYR into USD in my mind, the prices didn't seem to be too outrageous. In fact, this case actually almost conforms to Law of One Price. After realizing that, that shock turned into a sigh.

Still, I couldn't quite believe that three paperbacks cost me more than a hundred buck.

After the disappointment and the shock that became a sigh, I strolled from the Twin Towers towards Jalan Ampang. To my delight, there are patches of green here and there right before the interception of Jalan Ampang and Jalan Yap Kwan Seng (I think).



At least, I don't have to pay to enjoy a bit of green amidst Kuala Lumpur's smog.

When I saw the fire hydrant in the middle of a green patch, I became attracted to it at once. The contrast is just remarkable, at least to my untrained eyes. And before you keep wondering why I never keep the object of interest in the middle of the photo, suffice to say that I prefer non-conventional style, whatever that's supposed to mean.

Bird flu (tag) has now reached Europe. Less than 72 hours ago, British authority has confirmed that the parrot that died in quarantine was infected by the same bird flu that is affecting many birds in a number of countries. Closer to home, another person dies in Indonesia due to the flu. Thailand also has another confirmed death less than 24 hours ago. Malaysia (tag) on the other hand has yet to report any death notwithstanding an earlier quarantine and culling of poultry carried out near the Malaysian-Thai border.

The thing is, in Malaysia, people are preparing for two major celebrations - Eid ul-Fitr and Deepavali. This pushes demand for poultry and chicken up and hence, the high price. What I find surprising however is that, in the light for an expected flu pandemic, prices have yet to fall. At my place near Keramat, Kuala Lumpur, prices are stuck at its ceiling, RM6 per kilogram; a dollar is currently about 3.77 ringgit. Eggs on the other hand are sold at about 26 sen (not cent!) each; I'm unaware of its ceiling though.

The ceilings are set nationwide by the Malaysian Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs. Some states like Sabah and Sawarak may have different ceilings. Some kind of implicit agreement between traders to not undercut each other is also apparent. However, that's another story which I'm uninterested this time and unable to talk further given that I don't know costs faced by chicken traders.

Back to the issue at hand, I'd expect consumers to scale back demand and hence forcing traders to lower their prices. Reason is, consumers should be worried with development surrounding bird flu worldwide and more importantly, regionally. And when consumers have certain concerns on bird flu, they'd be a bit conservative in chicken consumption. Yet, prices haven't budged by one bit due to bird flu.

I can only think three reasons why prices have gone down yet.

One, the people have full confidence in the government. The Malaysian government has so far done a good job regarding bird flu. They were fast and decisive in that case in the state of Kelantan and this builds up credibility. Even more so when SARS and Nipah virus were successfully handled with aid from the US CDC.

Reason number two is ignorance. Ignorance, as some would say, is bliss. Some people, as unbelievable as it may seem, just couldn't be bothered to read. Some even can't differentiate SARS from bird flu and I suspect, many others don't even know what the hell H5N1 is.

The third is the couldn't care less attitude. I bet that this is the most probable case for most locals. If this is actually the case, who could blame them. Despite all the developments and the consumption level, Malaysia has yet to encounter a human case unlike Indonesia and Thailand.

Regardless, it would be very interesting to see how price and demand for chicken and other domestic fowls will react in the next few months or even years. If prices are still persistent at ceilings after a full outbreak occurs, Malaysia poises to become a few millions fewer. Needless to say, bad for the labor market but hey, who cares for the labor market, right?

p/s - read this Scientific American's article on bird flu while you sit quietly at a corner, waiting to ride this expected pandemic out.

pp/s - just found out that there is a Bird Flu Monitor blog.

I just found out that Anthony Burgess (tag), the great Anthony Burgess, taught at the Malay College during the 1950s. For those that don't recognize Burgess, he wrote A Clockwork Orange. For those that have no idea what A Clockwork Orange is about, go read the book or watch Kubrick's adaptation of it. If you don't plan to read or watch it, boy, you'll be missing something in your life.

History never fails to amaze me. The more one delves into piles of bits and bytes, more one realizes the grandeur of life and one's relationship with it.

And suddenly, I feel the urge to read more Burgess'. What a good timing it is since I'm almost done with Lee Kuan Yew' The Singapore Story (shamefully the abridged edition) while my Crichton's Prey is probably lost somewhere in the Pacific. I need a something new to read and hey, there's nothing wrong with another Burgess.

I think I'm going to read The Long Day Wanes which comprises of three parts - Time for a Tiger, The Enemy in the Blanket and Beds in the East. It appears that the trilogy is set in Malaya.

After reading it, I then may claim another page or three at Wikipedia by writing a review or three. Hah!

p/s - a tribute to Rosa Park. Her courage brought us a fairer world.

pp/s - Michigan haters, rejoice! Darn...

I found Overheard in Ann Arbor via Ann Arbor is Overrated and I'm lovin' it. And wow, OIAA via AAIO. Talk about coincidence.

Somehow, that site makes me miss Ann Arbor and undergrad life even more. I'm reserving a spot for OIAA in my blogroll. It, together with AAIO, is now immortalized. Sort of. And McDonald's sucks.

Also, this might be old but Berkeley is trying to tell Ann Arbor something...

Anyway, for the sake of making the bear happy, I am neutral on the Miers nomination.

p/s - Ben Bernanke is the next Fed chairman. Who's Bernanke? Don't ask me.

When I was attending Malaysia Forum at Stanford last May, there was this out worldly project dubbed the Jamban Revolution. Jamban is a crude Malay word for washroom. Capital or little 'j', it doesn't matter but it was about an ideal; worthy, if I might add, of consideration. The revolution aimed to rally the masses to push for more hygienic Malaysian public washrooms. "Three cheers for an admirable cause". I had yelled inside my head but I had serious doubt whether the project would take off. And indeed, it didn't. However, I think first step towards the J-Revolution is a dry washroom.

Malaysians are used to wet lavatories and typical Malaysians usually have problem with it. Splashed water here and there, not swept, untaken care of � one could only wonder what one could step on on a bad hair day inside a Malaysian public washroom.

Worse, no amount of campaigns to raise civic consciousness may help improve Malaysian jamban scene. Nope. I�m convinced. Hell, if even the state of our jambans in our Parliament is not spared from the neglect, it will take more than a jamban ministry to take care of our washrooms. No matter how highly maintained a washroom might be, the atmosphere inside it will degrade exponentially. Almost uniquely Malaysians!

Hence, enter the dry regime!

The dry regime, the Jamban Revolution will bring on a new order in Malaysian jambans. A new order where the floor is clean, recycled paper towel hangs on a side waiting to be reap or even electronic dryers powered by green energy to save the trees!

Imagine the would-be outcomes of this glorious revolution, comrades!

Down with wet regime. They are nothing but mere impedance to our march towards a better society. A society which we may sit on a bowel and answer nature�s call without worries. A society which suspicious water patches are things of the past. A society free from fear.

Comrades! For Motherland, we must overthrow the dirty wet regime. Unite friends, brothers! For Motherland, comrades! We must unite! March forward for a greener pasture and shout it out loud brothers!

What do we want? Better jambans!

When do we want it? Now!

What do we want? Better jambans!

When do we want it? Now!

Viva la revolucion!

Alright. I think I'm getting too excited.

p/s - pee ass V was lucky.

While I was scouring the internet for the latest development on a possible new bridge to link Malaysia and Singapore together, I came across an Asia Times' article that touches on India's ambition in the Andaman Sea. I find the article a tad disturbing and it changes my perspective towards Malaysian and ASEAN's defense and security. This might be a knee-jerk reaction but it convinces me of the need for Malaysia and ASEAN to strengthen its military forces.

The article highlights Indian motivation of establishing a major naval base near the Andaman Sea, a body of water located at the northern mouth of Strait of Malacca. Among the main reasons for such move are increasing Chinese influence in Myanmar, piracy in Straits of Malacca and trade. Concurrently, these three factors more or less concern ASEAN and Malaysia.

The author of the article states that China is controlling several ports in Myanmar and Chinese influence in the Andaman Sea is extraordinary considering the area is actually part of the Indian Ocean instead of the Pacific. Slowly, it seems that Myanmar is becoming a Chinse forward base. This is even more so when China and Myanmar agree to have better land links between themselves. This grants China access to the Indian Ocean.

In event of a confrontation between People's Republic of China and Republic of China, the conflict might even affect Malaysia and ASEAN disproportionately badly. This is because if the conflict escalates to a stage that includes more than one large power, trade might be severely affected since China will be able to flex its muscle in both the South China Sea and the Andaman Sea. Both seas are important gateways to ASEAN.

Even if the fear of China controlling both seas is unfounded, piracy and the threat of terrorism by themselves should be enough to convince Malaysia to have a stronger military. Already Malaysia and Indonesia have been criticized for security lax in the Strait of Malacca and this has attracted eyes towards the region. Other than the United States that has been rebuffed by both Malaysia and Indonesia, India too is quietly observing the situation in the strait. The article further states that it seems that the US has given its "tacit approval of India's assertion of naval control over the Andaman Sea". All these might be steps taken to implicitly tackle piracy and terrorism.

If piracy and terrorism are indeed the case for the renewed militaristic attention on Southeast Asia, it would be wise for Malaysia and its neighbors to quickly build up their naval prowess. Stronger naval capabilities may bring about greater security and less piracy. More importantly, it would take away a reason for foreign military attention on Southeast Asia.

A Malaysian military buildup might invoke a Southeast Asian arms race. The last time such a thing seriously happened was back in the 1990s when Malaysia added a fleet of jet fighters and frigates under its command. If I remember correctly, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand themselves found themselves in the sedated fray.

In my opinion, an arms race might be the one thing ASEAN needs right now. An arms race will bring a net benefit to ASEAN members by discouraging any foreign power from exercising excessive influence on ASEAN borders.

Taxes I suppose.

Regardless, almost everybody has opinion of their own. It's more prevalent than IPod in our society. Just log on the internet and it will overwhelm us. Sometimes, I swear I'll puke if another person gives me a piece of his mind. This and that and that and this all over again � it just doesn't end. It's a perpetual blabbering that makes people goes nut. Yet, I and many others can�t seem to have enough of it. I still want to announce the world of I feel and I�m still willing to listen to others� two cents. After years of trying to listen, I think I�ve reached a stage where I could categorize most opinions into a number of classes based on several dimensions.

In my not so humble opinion, opinion may be described by five dimensions:

Informed-uninformed dimension
An informed opinion is the best kind of opinion in this dimension. A person that expresses an informed opinion is usually familiar with the field he or she is commenting on. This doesn't have to be the case but usually it is. As such, this kind of opinion comes from those of whom are from tertiary institutions and professional circles or at the very least, those that with knowledge or experience on a particular field.

Below informed view is one when if we see or hear it, we won't be able to agree or disagree without further information. There's some truth to it and we might want to believe but to accept it without scrutiny is irrational. It's simply something that best kept at the back of our mind and revisit it later when the time is right.

At the other end of the spectrum is uninformed view. This kind of opinion is definitely disagreeable at first sight and it's disagreeable not due to point of views or biases but purely because of facts. In short, it's bullshit - like global wamring causes worsening earthquake or Bush is an alien from outer space. Pretending experts and worst of all, trolls, belong here. People with uninformed opinion are usually field outsiders though outsiders do offer respectable opinions from time to time.

Intelligibility
Opinion could also be seen from intelligibility. I can think of only two classes � articulateness and incoherence. An articulated view is the one that we'll get the point even with the most artificial skimming while incoherent opinion is akin to reading or listening to a Martian. Incoherent views are usually ignored by most people and occasionally however, flaming may occur due to misunderstanding or frustration. Intelligibility is also dependent on a person ability of being concise.

Friendliness
Friendliness is highly dependent on point of views. Therefore, an opinion may be seen as friendly to a person but offensive to another.

No blood boils when one reads a friendly view. At least I won't. This view is not too critical of an idea and there are flowery congratulations, praises and agreeable people abounding almost everywhere. Biases also an implicit characteristic - hey, they say birds of the same feather flock together.

Number two has a neutral stance. It's could be critical or giving credit where credit is due but the bottomline is, it's done in good faith. Most opinions of this kind are positive in nature; positive as in descriptive or antonym to normative.

Then there's hostile view and here's where most polemicists sit. This, coupled with incoherencies, is a recipe for mudslinging. It's all about right versus left, Ann Coulter and Al Franken or Malaysian blogosphere own illogical Menj and silly Rajan. This particular class is where all hope of intelligent discussion is already forsaken at the earliest possible point. It's fun though � it what makes a crowd cheers for a bull�s eye and murmurs when a punch is thrown below the belt.

Agreeability
Like friendliness, agreeability is dependent on point of view. Perhaps, agreeability depends on the previous three variables too.

Freedom
This is probably the most important variable there is when it comes to opinion. It is the one thing that determines if there is anything to hear to or read in the first place.

I once heard a joke about free speech - if here's my two cents and it costs a penny for your thought, what happened to another penny?

Like I said earlier, taxes.

I'm not a person that care for celebrities' gossips and stuff. I don't care whether Britney Spears was a virgin when she said she was or whether Lindsay Lohan's boobies are fake or who the f- is this Siti Nurhaliza's Datuk K. However, I can't help it with this one. Too amusing for me to ignore, especially when a professor made a witty remark:

"It's just one of those ironies of life that he'd be called as a juror," said Laurie Levenson, a professor at Loyola School of Law who monitored Jackson's trial.

Never a dull moment.

p/s - Laputan Logic is back! Or, at least, he blogged eight days ago after a very long hiatus.

My deepest thought for the Prime Minister. But you cannot and must not succumb to sorrow. Malaysia cannot afford to have a weak leader, especially during a turbulent time when Thailand freely blames Malaysia for its own incompetence and terrorism strikes as close as Bali.

We need you to be strong. If you need us, we'll be here for you. Just be strong.

p/s - remember the slaughtered tiger? The guy was fined merely RM7,000 along with four months jail time. I'm convinced that Malaysian environmental law is a farce.

Well, it�s part of the time again when some of us will be able to watch the Champions League live while others could only hope that they could have the luxury of camping in front of the idiot's box. I�m somewhere in the middle. I really want to watch Ajax � Thun game. However, no thanks to ESPN, the nearest thing to an Ajax match is Arsenal � Sparta.

As such, I�m not sure whether I�m blessed or not. The soccer god can�t seem to decide whether I deserve hell or heaven. So, he gave me a satellite dish.


But I suppose soccer god does reserve some love for me because one of my neighbors has only some sort of antenna.


The sky was exceptionally blue today. Only now do I know why blue is associated with freedom. After all these years, it had never occured to me until today. I'm loving the color blue even more. Heh. Go Blue!

Thank heavens that the Wolverines beat the Nittany Lions. Maybe next year Paterno. Next year.

Anyway, back to soccer.

Really, I shouldn�t be too apprehensive about Ajax � Thun match. First of all, it�s a game in Amsterdam. It�s a home match. Secondly, though Ajax is not a superpower anymore, it�s Thun! It originates from a country that produces watch! And cheese. With holes! And also home of neutrality. In fact, Thun should be neutral whenever Ajax abuses Thun�s defense! Too many exclamation marks make this awkward! Don�t you think so! I mean, don�t you think so?

Then again, comparing Ajax performance against Thun, I and indeed Ajax have every reason to not take Thun lightly. Arsenal got lucky at Highbury while Sparta Prague, of which almost beat Ajax, got beaten by Thun!

In league action, Ajax several days was held scoreless against Heracles while Thun had a goal fest � they won 5 � 1 against other obscure team.

When I expressed my thoughts at Ajaxtalk.nl, a person replied, approximately, "...relax. We are Ajax and they are Thun". One of them even replied in Dutch, "...'Holy sh**, it's cold', sprak een Amerikaanse toeriste toen zij het strand van Noordwijk af kwam lopen." I'm not sure what it means since the translator doesn't seem to be doing a good work. But it sounds sarcastic and I do think he don�t quite realize that I�m not an American.

Whatever it is, the ideal results from Group B would be Arsenal and Ajax�s win. This will increase Ajax�s chance of progressing to the next stage via second place.

Also, I hope all Italians lose. Nuff said.

Several days ago, Malaysian press highlighted a case in which a Malayan tiger was cut up into pieces and stored inside a refrigerator.


Tiger is an officially recognized endangered species worldwide. This killing should take any nature lover up to arms. However, what riles me up further is the weak punishment:

It is an offence to possess tiger meat and an offender could be jailed up to five years or fined up to RM15,000.

Tiger trafficking is a lucrative black-market trade as body parts of the animal could be processed into traditional medicine in countries such as Thailand and China. Each animal is said to fetch between RM20,000 and RM30,000.

I�m not sure if the possessor of the tiger carcass was indeed the poacher but if he is, imagine if he had gotten away with the prize - he will, on average, be better off.

Say there�s a 50-50 chance of being caught and getting away. Also, assume that if the person�s found guilty, then he or she will face maximum fine of RM15,000. At the same time, if he gets away, the person will receive RM20,000. RM20,000 is the lower limit of the range given by the news report.

Hence, his expected gain will be RM2,500. This might be a simple binomial model but it tells me that this particular environmental law does not sufficiently deal with environmental crime. I mean, come on. On average, a person is actually being rewarded for breaking the law.

It�s worth noting that the same scenario is applicable to the logging industry. I realize that way back in 2004.

I suspect that when most Malaysian environmental laws were first enacted, the monetary punishment was indeed high. However, the real value of the monetary penalties has been progressively eroded by inflation. In fact, I believe this is the case for Malaysian animal protection laws too.

According to Selangor chapter of Malaysian Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), penalties for animal abuse is too low. These two cases are perfect illustration:

SPCA Calls for Harsher Penalties for Animal Abuse
Following the recent two cases brought to Court by Jabatan Haiwan Enforcement Officers (DVS), SPCA is appealing to the Courts and the Law makers and decision makers to take into account the seriousness of these cases and the inadequate penalties at present are being issued.

The first case, a Breeder in Cheras was fined RM200 for cruelty to 13 dogs, the charge was expected to be for each individual dog (i.e. 13 X RM200) and the lack of a ban of keeping animals after prosecution for cruelty means that each dog was returned to the owner to continue a life of suffering and production.

The second case, a Daschund named Tim, was chained so tightly round his neck that the chain had become embedded into the skin and a six inch wound exposed a bloody mess around his neck. The owner in this case was fined RM200 and had to spend one day in jail. The dog is to be returned to the owner. Tim is still recovering from his injury and several operations to remove the chain from his neck.

SPCA is currently running a campaign to convince the Malaysian government to amend Malaysian Animal Ordinance 1953 and introduce harsher penalties. The law was first enacted in 1953 and 52 years are definitely enough for inflation to render the law toothless.

The bottom line is that inflation cannot be ignored. Failure to recognize the inflationary impact on these set of laws will result in failure to curb environmental crime. This in the end underlines the need for lawmakers to talk in real term. But lawmakers and many others never do. I wonder why.

p/s - this person has a talent for trouble. And a talent for retardness too.

pp/s - a father names his son Oliver Google Kai as a tribute to Google.

My life almost ended a few days ago. My internet connection died out on me and caused me to live in agony for three days. Three freaking days. Do you know how it felt like?

Terrible! It was as if I had lost a cause to live!

But at least it gave me a reason to pay a nearby wet market a visit. I brought my camera with me too.



The first is my first visit in more than almost five years. Fun. It wasn't too smelly as I had imagined it before. Well, I'm not being truthful about the fun part. I mean, it's fun seeing economics at work.

In one case, there were two traders and each was selling the same good - noodle packs. However, price was dissimilar and I saw most people went for the cheaper ones. It's cool seeing competition at work and knowing that rudimentary economics work. It's weird however that the undercut trader never really reduced her price.

And somehow, price ceilings enforced by the government were never observed because the market prices seemed lower. I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong.

Anyway, in the picture, the guy is selling coconut milk. Behind him a huge stock of coconuts.

And alright. I lied. The photo was taken a few days earlier before my connection went kaput. Instead, I spent the whole three days trying to figure out what was wrong. I disabled the network card, re-enabled it, uninstalled it, re-installed it, power cycled it, hammer'd it, unscrewed and re-unscrewed it and then finally calling for tech support. And damn, tech support was damn stubborn. At least, he was polite.

I told him the possible source and he wouldn't listen! He kept suggesting steps that I should take that I had taken! Bah!

For some reason, I decided to get a little bit creative when I saw my mom's vase. I'm not sure whether it's crystal or glass but I know almost dropped it.


It took me 15 shots to get it right. It was simply hard for me to get the right kind of lighting to produce the picture. This photo is the final shot. It's less than perfect due to the camera's flash but what the hell.

Is Amazonian rainforest a myth?


I saw the picture while reading about Amazon's latest crisis. Some parts of Brazil are currently experiencing severe drought. The situation is so bad that water level at parts of the mighty Amazon River dropped below its seasonal normal.

This is more frightening considering the fact that water level dropped five feet 35 miles from Manaus while the Amazon near Manaus looks something like this:



Both pictures are not mine and I hope fair use is applicable for the first photo. The credit for the first reads AP Photo/A Critica, Euzivaldo Queiroz. The second is a public domain media taken from Wikipedia.

How high will price be before consumers cut back demand for crude oil? I asked the same question more than a year ago.

It seems that USD70 per barrel is the price. My gut tells me that the prices which demand turned direction is lower due to lag. Probably in the range of USD60 to USD70 per barrel. Even before that, SUV sales had decreased tremendously.

Crude oil prices at the New York Mercantile Exchange for November delivery hover around USD62 per barrel while November Brent lingers at USD59 per barrel. The fall in crude prices started during early September after prices reached USD70 per barrel in last August. The fall is happening in spite of production capacity loss due to Hurricance Katrina.

So, are we going to see continuing fall in prices?

The looming winter in the US and Europe is expected to be colder than usual. Unless prices could cushion its rise during the upcoming winter, I don't expect this price decrease would continue unabated.

But some innovations might help reduce demand of crude oil just like what happened during oil crisis in the 70s. Malaysia is planning to mix biofuel with gas while hydrid vehicles are hot in the US. Still, we'll may only know for certain where we are when the northern winter ends in April next year (May for People's Republic of Ann Arbor).

Whatever it is, a falling demand is a bad thing for OPEC. They do have the incentive to increase production to lower prices a bit. The last time crude oil prices broke some records, oil became really cheap for about two decades because fuel consumption efficiency was forced to increase.

p/s - wow! Deja vu!

So, Mohamed Isa Abdul Samad has been found guilty of corruption by UMNO disciplinary committee weeks ago. He made an appeal and the committee reduces his penalty.

However, why the case hasn�t been brought up to anti-corruption agency? Am I missing something here? Is federal law inapplicable to a political party's internal matter?

p/s - two persons won the Prize in Economics for "having enhanced our understanding of conflict and cooperation through game-theory analysis".

Project Petaling Street is all good and cool but it suffers one complication � how many participants are too many participants? In short, what is its carrying capacity? Will it fail if the limit, if any, is not observed?

Allow me to explain further.

PPS, or to be precise, its ping portal, PPS Pings � hereafter PPS � is a first-in, first-out list (FIFO). The list itself has limited slots.

If there are five slots in a clean list and if person A is the first pinger, he will sit on top of that list. Later, when four other persons ping the list after person A, A will sit at the bottom of the list while the four persons will sit on the top four slots. It follows that if a sixth person pings the list, person A will get the boot. In short, if there are n slots, the person on top of the list will be out of the picture when pinger (n+1) pings.

All this assumes strictly one-to-one relationship; a person leads to a ping and a ping leads to a person. This assumption is not true (enthusiastic posters, as a PPS founder calls them, like Kahsoon and Otis, is a proof) but it definitely simplifies our model. Once we�ve laid out the model, then you and I could relax the restriction considerably.

With FIFO explained, let�s talk about rate. Let�s also assume that each slot receives x visitors per time unit. Here, I don�t think one-to-one assumption is critical but for consistency�s sake, let�s just assume one-to-one relationship.

Assume further that each ping is pinged into the list at a rate of a ping per time unit. Holding time unit constant, the rate is dependent on the number of pings. Subsequently, a ping goes down the list at that rate. Therefore, person on top of the list will be out by the (n+1)th time unit. Also, amount of visitors of that ping will be x(n).

So, imagine that a slot receives 60 visitors per hour and there are five slots. With this setup, a ping will attract 300 visitors throughout its lifetime in the list. Now, what if a ping switches a slot per minute?

That would make each slot a visitor and a total of five visitors throughout the ping's lifetime. What if, the rate is a ping per second?

Oh, boy. A ping gets a sixtieth of a person; total a twelfth of a person. Ugly.

Ceteris paribus, the rate of which a ping goes down the list depends on the number of pinger. However, the more pingers there are in a timeframe, the greater the rate and as such, less visitors for every ping. The dilemma is, PPS wouldn�t be so successful if it weren�t for all those pingers. I would probably explain how more pingers leads to more visitors later. But I do have a feeling that at first, more pingers leads to more visitors until at one more point, any additional pinger will lead to less visitors.

This brings us back to the question how many participants are too many participants? In short, what is its carrying capacity? And when the carrying capacity is known, should PPS administrator put a cap on number of pinger? Or at least control the rate?

These are normative questions � there is no right or wrong. Nevertheless, by answering this, you might realize where you sit in economic freedom spectrum with controlled economy on the left-hand side and free market on the right-hand side. Of course, basing your political belief on this is absurd but hell, its fun.

So far, PPS Pings� rules state that:

PPS will not tolerate ping flooding. Multiple pings within 7 minutes of each other is considered ping flooding, no exceptions, even if you are an �enthusiastic blogger�. It does not matter whether the content is duplicate or different from the previous ping. It is your responsibility to ensure your blog does not multi-ping PPS in consecutive fashion.

This alone is an attempt to control the rate. Does this mean the administrator distrusts free market?

I don�t know but it seems that rule is not strictly enforced.

However, I�m content to say that this is an attempt to prevent abuse and maybe, even market failure. The current DoS attack is similar to market failure there where is too many pings that visitors for each slot goes down to zero, albeit PPS fails due to bandwidth flight (capital flight? LOL!) first before market failure actually takes place.

Do you know?


Most likely an honest typo and it deserves a blind eye. There's really no reason to announce to the world that BBC committed a typo. Hell, if I had aspired to become a grammar police, I'd have to give myself a good spanking.

Yet, when I first saw the mistake on TV yesterday, I actually ran to my room, rummaged my desk for my cam, ran back to the TV and took a snapshot.

Another proud moment brought to you by the __earthinc.

p/s - it's time to sulk at a corner.

Should Turkey be allowed to join the European Union?

Tony Blair believes Turkey EU's answer for the future. Austria and a few others on the other hand don't quite relish the prospect of Turkey as Euroland's 26th member. I wish Turkey the best but halfway around the world, how would ASEAN member states react to East Timor as the grouping's 11th member?

Currently, ASEAN has ten members with Papua New Guinea as an observer. In 2002, East Timor expressed its intention of gaining an observer status in ASEAN. The country proves its seriousness by informing ASEAN of its willingness to sign a non-aggression pact with the grouping.

In my opinion, the country's greatest obstacle of gaining membership is Indonesia. Indonesia is like father of the bride. If the father hates you, you're practically screwed. Maybe not father. Maybe just the older brother.

Reason is, the more influential ASEAN members - namely Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines - have traditionally stood by the Indonesian side whenever East Timor hit the headlines in the recent past. Though Indonesian atrocity was deplorable, the four nations had to refrain themselves from criticizing Indonesia in the name of solidarity.

Fortunately for East Timor, Indonesia doesn't seem to hold any grunge against the tiny state despite the two countries' turbulent past. Indonesia had previously annexed East Timor in 1975. East Timor later gained independence in 2002 via an United Nations-administered referendum in 1999. With Indonesia out of the way, East Timor can rest assured that the four members and the rest of ASEAN will not object save, maybe, Myanmar.

Myanmar currently disapproves the notion of East Timor as an observer - much less a membership - due to East Timor's support for Aung San Suu Kyi. I do think however that if East Timor could somewhat water down its explicit support of Aung San Suu Kyi, then Myanmar might retract its objection.

Regardless, East Timor has a lot of catching up to do. With respect to that, I believe ASEAN has unique role to play in East Timor's effort to build up itself. Yet, ASEAN has done little to aid East Timor. Instead, Australia is East Timor's most active partner. ASEAN must play a greater role in East Timor if the 10-member group wishes to see a stronger ASEAN.

p/s - I saw this on BBC's ticker last night. I thought it's old news but heh, all hail to the greatest theocracy the world has ever known. LOL!

pp/s - cold feet?

Minnesota last defeated the Wolverines in 1986.

"You look at that whole series and it's kind of lopsided," Minnesota coach Glen Mason said. "If I had it my way, I wouldn't play them anymore. Michigan has those types of series with a lot of teams."

Let's hope Michigan won't do anything too interesting. Minnesota in the past few years is that kind of team which you think they gonna lose but somehow, due to final minutes miracles, we are the winner instead.

I hope Michigan will stop that trend and win outright. The best thing is, Michigan has the psychological advantage to do that.

Well, may the best team win. (BTW, the Little Brown Jug is ours).

Earlier today, according to AFP, at least 11 embassies in Malaysia received suspicious packages.

The packages -- which also contained compact discs and an unidentified liquid -- were aimed at taking advantage of the security situation after the bomb attacks on the Indonesian island of Bali, police said.

Five missions -- the United States, Russia, Britain, France and Australia -- received packages on Wednesday bringing the number of missions hit by the scare to at least 11, Kuala Lumpur police chief Mustafa Abdullah told AFP.

"You have been infected with a biochemical weapon. Curse you for what you have done to the Muslim ummah," the note in each letter said, according to the police chief.

The Star of Malaysia has a local version of it.

Usually during April Fool's Day, some of my overzealous colleagues would remind me that April Fool's is a western, more precisely Christian's invention and the act of celebrating it could be considered as a sin. Well, it seems that our overzealous friends have found how to celebrate April Fool's without collecting sins!

Wait, yesterday was not Ramadan. It was in fact Sha'aban. Maybe, it should be known as Sha'aban Fool's Day.

Whatever.

I'm mildly unhappy at the moment. So I thought, a picture would probably lighten me up.



This is part of Singapore City's waterfront at night. I'm delighted to see finally see it with my own eyes. However, I was surprised to find out that this section of the city is so far inland. What was more surprising is the extent of Singapore's land reclamation projects. No wonder the Malaysian government was nervous when Singapore started to reclaim land near the Malaysian Johor - Singaporean line. If it had continued unchecked, there would probably be nothing selat about Tebrau Straits anymore.

This is an edited version since the original was too dark to be appreciated. This one is the original.



I added some contrast and a little bit of adaptive light. Not sure how adaptive light works but it sure makes the picture presentable. To me, presenting an edited photo is almost surmountable to cheating. Alas, most of my Singapore photos suck badly; I have no choice. I have to commit a sin!

Talking about sin, let's see if this Ramadan witnesses a decrease in terrorism perpetrated by Muslims. I skeptical though. I've always held that Ramadan is the month with the most hypocrites around.

p/s - ah, no wonder there is still no update on PPS. It's down. Looks like DoS attack.

The match will start in a few minutes. I expect drama.

I also watched Arsenal - Birmingham match earlier and I must say, I am disappointed with the result; Arsenal won 1 - 0 and it was due to an unfortunate own goal. Birmingham deserved a point based on Taylor's performance and the fact that they were down to ten men but still managed to keep Arsenal struggled.

God curses van Persie, Arsenal and Feyenoord.

Anyway, yeah, opera in Anfield!

p/s - halftime! 2 - 1 in Chelsea's favor. Didier Drogba's assist that led the Damien Duff's goal is so cool that it's hot.

pp/s - full time. 4 - 1. Liverpool players are going to get an earful of Benitez. And hands down. Didier Drogba is my man of the match. The first three goals were made possible by him. Also, Chelsea is fast becoming Rangers of England - they are dominating the English Premier League. Full point from eight matches while the nearest competitor, Charlton nine points behind with a game in hand.

ppp/s - should have mentioned this earlier but better late than never.

Imagine there's no countries,
It isnt hard to do,
Nothing to kill or die for,
No religion too,
Imagine all the people
living life in peace...

- John Lennon (1940 - 1980)

Dedicated to people of Bali and everyone else that was there when it happened.

Dams around Klang Valley are running low on water. Despite that, I see some people water their plants during a rainy day while others wash their vehicles as if fresh water is an unlimited commodity. Disgusted by the indifference shown by those people, I sat on a corner one day and tried to think what could make them care before water actually ran out and subsequently, the need of rationing. It didn't take me long before I realized that the answer a mere basic supply and demand model.

Currently, at least in Kuala Lumpur, consumers face tiered-pricing scheme. The first 20 cubic meter cost RM 0.57 per cubic meter. The next 15 cost RM 0.91 per cubic meter and anything extra costs RM 1.70 per cubic meter. Now, because the prices are fixed regardless of supply level - assuming ceteris paribus of course! - consumers really don't have the incentive to conserve whenever there's a shortage.

If we could somehow float the water price according to abundance, perhaps the flexible price or prices itself could give an appropriate signal to consumers. To put it bluntly, whenever there's unreasonable scarcity, the price would say "hey bitch, conserve for fuck's sake". After all, efficient pricing theory suggests that in free market, without asymmetrical information, all information is expressed in prices. Yes, only in economics where all information could be compressed into a number...

Those that are unable and unwilling to conserve will be forced to pay more. Just imagine how high water prices should be right now in Kuala Lumpur. Note too that water supply is not an easily tradable commodity. So, as an example, if there is a water shortage in Kuala Lumpur, we really can�t just import it from, say, Singapore even if water is cheaper there. Hell, I don�t know why we want to import water from Singapore. But I trust you get the idea.

However, since water is a basic necessity of life, and the poor might be able to afford a high priced water, perhaps we should impose a price ceiling up to a certain amount (or even some quota per person in an average household) - an amount sufficient enough to sustain a non-wasteful lifestyle � something similar to the original first-20-cubic-meter-cost-57-cent (or sen) scheme. Anything higher than that amount should be charged at equilibrium price. Or, maybe even at equilibrium price plus any loss incurred due to the price ceiling. Since it should be very expensive in real term, conservation is almost guaranteed.

Four paragraphs to describe supply side; one paragraph for demand side. One paragraph to rule them all. Ack! Imagine the same thing but diametrically. Price will be higher due to low supply and high demand.

With exorbitant price, demand should decrease (assuming demand elasticity allows a decrease) and bring about a state where rates of water discharge at various dams are lower than replenishing rates. Thus, making an increase of supply possible. And greater supply lowers water price. With this regime, it's obvious that water price will sway a lot but it will be at a dynamic equilibrium and more importantly, it's an efficient and sustainable pricing. At the same time, it will combat Kuala Lumpur and Klang Valley's problem.

And if demand outstrips supply, perhaps the reality of ridiculously high water price would actually rally local masses to demand certain somebody to finish up a project that connects Pahang�s water cache to Selangor's. I wonder who is that certain somebody is...?

p/s - I've installed WordPress on my server. It's here. Still need to import Blogger's stuff into WordPress. I'm not sure about using WordPress right now. I kind of have this sense of loyalty to Blogger. But having a complete control of everything is tempting.

pp/s - na na na na na, na na na na na, na-na-na na-na-na na-na-na na, Let's Go Blue! The Wolverines defeated the Spartans in OT again!