With 2005 scurrying away fast, let's see what I consider as top ten green issues (tag) in Malaysia (tag) for 2005.

Topping my list is definitely the haze that covered Malaysia, no thanks to weak Indonesian enforcement and possibly, irresponsible Malaysian firms. With Malaysians breathing smog, the term "fog you" started to gain currency. This was a signal of a growing discontent, directed towards Indonesian ineffectiveness in handling a grave major regional environmental emergency. There was even a small protest in front of the Indonesian embassy in Kuala Lumpur, and I was there. Though the problem is no more, despite a decade of this annual haze, I've yet to see any concrete action taken to completely solve the problem. So far, people in ASEAN have been treating the symptoms but not the cause. Hence, mark my word - the haze will return in 2006. So, stock up those masks now.

Second to the haze is the mis-development of Bukit Cahaya Seri Alam Agriculture Park in Selangor. The park is a nature reserve - what's left of it anyway. Part of it was illegally developed by certain people and was approved by the local government in spite of the park's status. And this happened under the nose of the state Chief Minister. Believe it or not, the Chief Minister's office is not too far from the park. I'm very much dissatisfied with the outcome of the "investigation" since the people in the state government got away relatively unscathed. Those people should've been sacked and brought to justice - including the Chief Minister. But no. They even have the audacity to declare Selangor as a developed state...

Third is poarching and illegal trade of endangered wildlife. Remember the Malayan tiger that was butchered? How about the tiger cub that was saved from the soup bowl? That might be a tip of an iceberg but thanks to public exposure, awareness is starting to creep up. Slower than I would like but up nonetheless. Still, the government is not doing enough. Malaysia wildlife law needs serious upgrading. Or at least better enforcement.

Fourth is water shortage. It was rather surpising to see dams water level dangerously fell how it had fallen this year. The odd thing is, Malaysia is a tropical country and it suffers from water shortage. It's like, going to the north pole and having a shortage of snow! Well, not really but, you know. Water rationing was imposed at several places. Thank goodness Kuala Lumpur was spared. One thing history tells us is that we never learn. This shortage is set to happen again next year and I'm convinced of that.

Fifth is still about water. This time, it's about too much water. Northern Malaysian states suffered their worst flood in 30 years. The flood was partly due to above average torrential rain and inadequate drainage system. Crazy. Malaysians could have used that extra rain earlier but no, someone up there had a different idea. Meanwhile, Vietnam, mainland China and Japan suffered record breaking rain and snowfall. Possibility of a repeat? It depends on the climate.

Sixth, the Johor Department of the Environment fire. The fire did one thing - documents on a toxic waste case are in form of unreadable ashes now. The fire brings in suspicious circumstances given that the DOE was closing in on a toxic waste dumping case. Soon after, police comfirmed that it was an arsonist's work. Later, a DOE officer was murdered. He was the one that reported the fire and a few other things to the police.

Seventh, mistreatment of pets. But thanks to wide coverage by Malaysian press and in part to SPCA's efforts, Animal Ordinance 1953 is undergoing study and might have sharper teeth soon.

Number eight, bird flu. Malaysia wasn't hit hard but culling of chickens did occur in Kelantan, near the Thai border. If Malaysia had been hit harder, eight would have been too low a rank.

Ninth. Tsunami. The 2004 tsunami convinced authorities in Malaysia and indeed all around the world of the importance of mangrove swamps. Efforts to conserve and rehabilitate mangrove swamps are receiving much needed attention due to how the swamps softened the destructive force of the tsunami.

Finally, protection of green lungs in and around Kuala Lumpur. These green areas faced possible extinction but protests from local residents prevented that. Better still, the opposition comprises of influential and filthy rich people. Thus, any effort to violate the green areas in the future will meet above average, fierce opposition.

With that, happy new year to you. I'm off to witness some fireworks.

Reuters reports:

The U.S. embassy in Kuala Lumpur was closed on Friday due to a security threat, a spokeswoman in the Malaysian capital said.

"We got some information indicating there was a threat to the embassy and decided to close at 11.40 (22:40 EST) this morning," Kathryn Taylor said. "I'm afraid I can't be more specific."

Two possibilities.

One: another stupid braindead you-know-who zealot(s) is/are trying to spread his/her/their ideology of hate and fear to Malaysia (tag), while in the process, disturbing the peace. Worse, making life harder for the people that they claim to "fight" for.

Or: The people at the US embassy just wanted to get an extra day for themselves. Hey, if Monday is a holiday, it doesn't hurt to declare Friday as a day off too. Four-day weekend dude.

Pick one.

When I first heard that Proton (tag) was selling Agusta of Italy for €1, in my mind, it's purely economics and it's an acceptable immediate loss cutting step. Now, with this new cooperation with Volkswagen of Germany, it's rumored that Proton might cut its ties with Lotus. For me, this is starting to go beyond economics. According to Business Times:

This was the second provision Proton made for the year after RM165 million set aside in the first quarter. “(The sale) may be a prelude to a tie-up with VW. The German carmaker may have stipulated the sell-off of loss-making non-core assets as a precondition to taking up a strategic stake in Proton,” Mayban Securities added.

The research house speculates that the next major non-core asset to be sold could be its Group Lotus plc unit, as it reckon VW has superior engineering expertise and experience in performance cars in the Lamborghini and Bugatti marques.

“Lotus would, therefore, be a duplication of resources. At this juncture, this view is purely speculative,” said the research house.

I first came across it here:

1316 [Dow Jones] STOCK CALL: Mayban Securities speculates Proton's (5304.KU) sale of 57.8% Agusta stake "might be a prelude to a tie-up with Volkswagen". Move also shows new Proton management prepared to bite bullet, make painful decisions so as to turn around Proton. Also speculates Proton may sell 100%-owned sports carmaker Lotus in run-up to VW tie-up. But admits, "at this juncture, this view is purely speculative." Keeps Trading Buy call with MYR7 target price. Shares +2.4% at MYR6.30.(CAL)

I hope that Proton would hold on to Lotus. I hope, however the people inside Proton do the cost and benefit analysis, the result is that keeping Lotus brings on net benefit to Proton.

And if I weren't an economics graduate, I would say, screw the German and keep Lotus.

For the last few days, I've been out and about in some place south of Kuala Lumpur. Apart from falling off a bike in a very fashionable way and severely lacked stamina, I overheard a conversation between two Muslim Malay males, both were draped in Arabic dressing. The conversation was about westernized Malays. I wasn't sure if they were talking about me in particular though I was wearing a Michigan cap, a cargo pant and a bright shirt while my mp3 player was valiantly trying to entertain me until it ran out of juice. And it died out exactly when the conversation started to get interesting. Before that, I didn't eavesdrop on purpose - situation forced me to be where I was.

One of the two friends was lamenting on how the Malay society is rapidly being westernized at the expense of the Malay culture (tag). The person went on further by stating sooner or later, Malay culture would die out with morality and god phrased out by burgers and pizzas, g-strings and bikinis.

The other one agreed and began lambasting how inferior western cultures and moral are compared to Islam's. It was odd how they used the term Malay and Islamic culture interchangeably. Soon enough, as I followed the conversation quietly while tending to my cool wound, I realized that the Malay culture they were talking about was really Arabic culture. They made no distinction between Malay, Arab and Islam.

I rolled my eyes upon that discovery and felt how oxymoronic the situation at hand was. They were talking about the Malays abandoning Malay culture while they themselves were wearing something not Malay but entirely Arabic. Thanks to that, hypocrites is the best noun to describe the two Arabized Malays. I think, they would grasp very well what the word munafiqun means.

I'm no sociologist but I learned long ago that culture is a way of life. It doesn't matter how a person lives his or her life but however they choose to live it, it's their choice and that's their culture. In essence, they choose their culture and indeed, I choose my own.

I'm a Muslim Malay. At the same time, my culture is a hodgepodge of many cultures that I've had the luxury of interacting with. A hybrid culture if I may. Furthermore, I take that culture isn't a static intangible entity. It changes and adapts to time, just like how many of us do. This is especially true to hybrid cultures.

As a result, I appreciate diversity and am no purist. While no purist, I do hate how English words are being imported with impunity into the Malay language (check also Hijacking Bahasa Melayu at theCicak). If George Orwell were a Malay, he would agree with me since he did write that one should never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent in Politics and the English Language. But that is another topic to be harped at, at another time.

Due to my hybrid culture, I find the conversation mildly offensive. They were deriding part of my culture while turning a blind eye on their, through their other eye, sin. I would have offered my opinion to them about their clothing but with stamina low and knee in uncomfortable pain, I had no appetite for a potentially heated discussion on culture.

While giving the topic a thought, I realized that this hypocrisy is not exclusively the two Arabized fellows' problem. This Arabization is spreading fast and affecting Malaysian culture. Look no farther than Putrajaya. Notice how Arabic the city actually is? Where is the Malay in it? The Chinese or the Indian in it? The Dayak or the Iban, the Minang, the Bugis? Where's the Malaysian in it?

Then, look at PAS efforts to Arabize Terengganu and Kelantan. One time, I clearly remember that they banned wayang kulit, Mak Yong and other Malay heritage in the name of Islam. They even removed a giant turtle sculpture in Kuala Terengganu for the sake of Islam. As far as I care to remember, the sculpture was synonymous with Kuala Terengganu. A deduction - PAS banned the Malay culture and then encourages Arabic in place of cultural vacumn that PAS had created!

In reality, these Arabized Malays just hate everything that isn't Arabic, including things that are Malay. Here, by no mean I'm deriding the Arabs. Arabic culture is part of me. If I were dismissing Arabic culture, I would be dismissing mine too and that wouldn't be right. I'm merely debunking the two guys' thinking and their kind.

I'm quite liberal on culture and hence, I don't mind if one insists into living like the Arabs. I myself, at risk of redundancy, have said earlier that I choose my culture and one may choose his or hers own too as I've chosen mine.

Nevertheless, if you are the two fellows whom deride other Malays as abandoning Malay culture in favor of western's one, please take a look in a mirror. Before expressing that idea, please notice that you're abandoning Malay for Arabic. Arabic culture is not Malay and Malay is not Arabic. Being a Muslim isn't about being an Arab either.

I'm kinda in a hurry. So, this will be a quickie.

My mom wanted to simply throw way this blender. It's a little bit leaky down under.



I told her that she should recycle it but she said, it's easier to simply throw it away. I, feeling guilty seeing that thing goes unrecycle, took it and am turning it into a little economic experiment (tag). Bartering.

Inspired by one red paperclip, let's see how a blander will do me good.

Here's the deal: I want to do some bartering. If you for some reason that I don't want to know, want or need to this blender, offer me something and if our wants or needs, mostly wants, coincide, we'll trade. Simple. And no money please.

If you are interested, email me or simply leave behind a comment here. Aight?

Later.

Kedah's (tag) Chief Minister resigns today. With that, the current acting Chief Minister is expected to be "appointed" as the new Chief Minister by the Prime Minister. My question is, since Malaysia is a federation, why should the new Chief Minister need to be chosen by the federal government instead of being elected into office by the people of Kedah?

Of course, one could say that it's representative democracy; just as Malaysians don't elect our Prime Minister directly, Kedahans don't get to elect their Chief Minister directly too. But let's face it, if the Prime Minister doesn't approve, there'll be problem even if there's popular support.

The case is not limited to Kedah. Selangor's Chief Minister himself was chosen into office by the federal government and wasn't elected by the people of Selangor. The same case goes for Sabah - remember the cyclical premiership?

The only few exceptions to this in recent time are Kelantan since the early 90s and Terengganu in 1999. In both cases, a nutty opposition was in power.

It's no accident that all the states with its Chief Minister appointed by the federal government are states controlled by Barisan Nasional, which is the ruling coalition. Does this look like BN is violating the principle of federation and decentralization? Though the division between state and federal power is still largely intact, if things don't change, BN will overrun the spirit of the federation. Hell, BN's already on that by emphasizing August 31 more than September 16.

Just to note, decentralization is part of green's principles.

Yesterday in the Malaysian Upper House, the Malaysian Finance Ministry Parliamentary Secretary was reported of saying that "ringgit is relatively stable compared with the currencies of Malaysia's major trading partners after the government removed the ringgit peg on July 21."

More:

Hilmi said that since the transition, where the ringgit exchange rate was determined by market forces, the local currency had risen compared with the euro by 11.9 percent, yen (9.7 percent) and between 0.2 percent to 7.7 percent compared with regional currencies.

"After the depeg and up to Nov 30, the ringgit has increased compared with the US dollar by 0.6 percent to RM3.7783," he said in his reply to a question posed by Senator Datuk Seri Lam Kang Sang at the Dewan Negara sitting, here Tuesday.

Hilmi said that the ringgit also rose compared with the euro by 3.8 percent and yen by 6.7 percent and mixed against regional currencies.

The funny thing is, while what he said is true, somehow, I feel that he has conveniently omit what's going on in December 2005. For this month, the ringgit (tag) is growing weaker against:

USD


EUR


JPY


SGD


United States, Japan and Singapore are the top three major Malaysian trading partners.

From the graphs, capital flight is apparent.

Earlier last month, I realized that Malaysia seems to have a negative real interest rate. Soon after, Bank Negara raised Malaysian nominal interest rate up to 3%. At 3%, I feel the real interest rate is still negative. Another rate hike is a must for Malaysia to have positive real interest rate given that inflation is above 3%. A positive real interest might stop and reverse this December's run.

Unless the Bank Negara increases the rate and in turn, halts this gradual and minor capital outflow, I would hardly call ringgit as stable.

p/s - Chinese statisticians say: Whoops. We forgot to add USD280 billion into our 2004 GDP. With that corrected, we just want to say that we're the sixth largest economy in the world.

Others: Ack! You forgot USD280 billion? (Malaysian estimated GDP for 2005 according to Wikipedia is USD290 billion)

pp/s - SuprNova.org, the site that I depended on many things fun before it was shut down, speaks.

Northern Malaysian states on the Malay Peninsula are suffering the worst flood in 30 years (tag). It has been raining like crazy. Even in Kuala Lumpur, located hundreds of miles south, it's been raining like cats and dogs. I'm surprised that the city hasn't experience any flood.

The sky is starting to remind me of Ann Arbor; I could hardly see the sun everyday. Southern Thailand isn't spared too. If borders are drawn with a huge pen, the floodwater would've erased them with ease. After all this, the weather still won't relent.


As you can see, it won't end soon. Also, check out a current tropical storm that will hit Vietnam anytime soon today.

The floodwater, among other things, affects rice harvest in Malaysia. Paddy fields are devastated by the overflowing water. This is especially bad considering that northeast Malaysian states are the main rice producers in Malaysia and that the fields are scheduled for harvest in this coming January. Looks like the rice industry will have to import more rice soon. I doubt local fields will be able to provide the share it usually offers to the market.

Worse, it isn't just Malaysia that will suffer shortage of rice. Vietnam, which is one of the largest rice producers in Southeast Asia, suffers the same situation. Prices of rice in Southeast Asian markets should go up in the near future given that supply has been cut.

Digressing, price of chicken has gone up by 20 sen. Earlier, I had predicted a price decrease due to bird flu. Unfortunately, while playing around with the demand curve, I'd overlooked the supply function. The hike in chicken prices, ignoring inflation, could be due to the culling of chickens in Asia. With this flood, price could go up further, assuming demand curve is constant.

Though heavy raining this time of the year is typical in this part of the world, this year, the amount of rainfall is above average. Consider also the current situation in China and Japan - record breaking snowfall - and Vietnam - also record breaking rainfall. Finally, keep in mind that 2005 is, according to World Meteorological Organization, the second hottest year on reliable record.

Climate change? Too soon to ascertain but it's good to keep the possibility in mind.

p/s - Kristof versus O'Reilly. Fight! This is the best yet since Bush versus Kerry.

Very soon, the Bush administration might have another source of headache. Bolivians (tag) have just elected a socialist and an ally of Venezuelan Chavez as President. Some have gone farther and declared that this is Washington's nightmare.

Bolivia Elects a President Who Supports Coca Farming

By JUAN FORERO
Published: December 19, 2005

LA PAZ, Bolivia, Dec. 18 - Evo Morales, a candidate for president who has pledged to reverse a campaign financed by the United States to wipe out coca growing, scored a decisive victory in general elections in Bolivia on Sunday.

What interest me the most about Morales is that he's a former coca farmer.

Coca could be processed into cocaine. During the US War on Drug, the US had aggressively conducted coca eradication in Bolivia. Coca eradication continues even today. But not for long it seems.

Furthermore, Morales' party, Movement to Socialism - scary name by the way - has its origin as a coca interest group. Given the US hostility towards coca farming, it won't take a rocket scientist to predict what Bolivia's foreign policy will look like.

But what will happen to coca plantation? Will there be an expansion? If yes, would there be an increase of cocaine in the world market?

I think yes.

p/s - Boris tagged me but I'm being rather uncreative at the moment. But I've thought of one. I love old weird nationalistic songs. Currently, I can't get Ca-na-da, a song popular in 1967 celebrating 100 years of confederation, out of my head. The song could be heard at Expo 67. Found it while looking for Malaysia Forever, another nationalistic song sung in 1963 in Malaysian Singapore if I'm not mistaken.

So, one down, four to go.

Ajax (tag) won 2-0 against NAC. That's three consecutive victories in the Eredivisie. At the same time, excessive good luck brought Ajax from the seventh place to four.

On the same day Ajax faced NAC, all Ajax's nearest competitors ate too much grass and hence, allowing Ajax to march on. The sweetest is, of course, Feyenoord's loss to ADO Den Haag! Seeing Feyenoord losing to a team that sticks at the bottom is even better than seeing Manchester United failing to progress beyond Champions League's group stage.

Another much needed good news is Rosenborg. He seems to have found his form, scoring three goals in the last five matches. It might be too soon to celebrate but if Ajax has found its striker, the world will tremble.

Currently, AZ Alkmaar sits on top of the table, sharing points with second placed PSV. Feyenoord's third and Ajax, as mentioned earlier, up in fourth.

All in all, this revival looks good. w00t!

A tribute to Leo McGarry, a great character in a great TV series. A tribute to a great actor, John Spencer.

According to Wikipedia further:

During the episode The Portland Trip, it is strongly suggested by a conversation between the President and Leo that Leo attended the University of Michigan, at least for undergraduate work.

You will be missed.

'West Wing' Actor John Spencer Dies at 58
By LYNN ELBER, AP Television Writer

LOS ANGELES - Actor John Spencer, who played the role of Leo McGarry in "The West Wing," mirrored his character in several ways: Both were recovering alcoholics and both were driven.

"Like Leo, I've always been a workaholic, too," he told The Associated Press in a 2000 interview. "Through good times and bad, acting has been my escape, my joy, my nourishment. The drug for me, even better than alcohol, was acting."

Spencer died of a heart attack Friday. In a sad parallel to life, his character on the show had earlier suffered a heart attack that forced him to give up his White House job.

Spencer died after being admitted to a Los Angeles hospital during the night, said his publicist, Ron Hofmann. He would have been 59 on Tuesday.

I'll be sacrificing my Wikipedia user page for him for a few days.

Go Blue. And God bless.

In the next round of Champions League, Ajax will be up against - guest who? Hint: Italian team. Hint 2: Familiar faces. Drumroll please - Inter f-Milan!

Goddamned f-again! For the love of everything sensible in this world, why must Ajax face Italian teams and Arsenal every time there's a Champions League season at hand?

I'd have prefer anyone by the f-Italian. Somebody must've cursed Ajax over something: thy shall play the Italian (and Arsenal) forever and ever. Bah!

I don't believe Ajax has a chance to progress further beyond the last 16 stage. All seven possible teams that Ajax could have gone up against, namely f-Juventus, Barcelona, Villareal, AC f-Milan, Inter f-Milan, Lyon and Liverpool are too huge to handle given Ajax's current sorry state. Ajax's currently stand at sixth in the Eredivisie, under team such as NEC and RKC. Most embarrassing. Luckily, in the last few match, Ajax's bucking up.

Right now however, knowing that Ajax will be up against an Italian team again, Ajax must win. A Dutch win will show the crybaby in Milan how to differentiate between the beauty and the beast.

I had wanted to blog about the Music Council of Malaysia's call for a levy on blank CD-R earlier. For some reason however, it slipped off my mind. Thanks to an article in The Star today, it came back to me. I think, if you've been reading enough of my stuff, you know what I've to say. For those that don't, I'm don't share the same table with the Music Council.

The Music Council, according to an article in The Star, states that:

...it had asked for the levy because it is concerned over the loss in revenue to the music industry whenever customers make copies of music CDs (see In.Tech, Dec 8). It believes that two out of three CD-Rs sold in the country are used for copying audio-visual material.

The Recording Industry Association of Malaysia claimed that such “home recordings” are a serious problem for the industry.

The nature of the issue is almost similar to protectionism. Yet, this case isn't quite about competition because the music and CD-R aren't very comparable. But the bottomline is, an industry is trying to make their product relatively more competitive to some other good not by increasing the quality of their good but instead by forcing the other good's cost to go up. In the end, it's nothing more than an interest group with protectionism in mind.

Earlier, Malaysian telcos dealers and distributors have requested the certain Malaysian authority to restrict competition because competition hurts their profit.

By saying that I disagree with the levy, I'm not saying I accept piracy. Duplicating copyrighted media without permission, as much as I hate to admit it, is plain stealing. Still, accussing everybody that uses CD-R is involved in piracy is unfair. Imposing blanket levy is even more unfair.

What the music industry needs is a stronger anti-piracy enforcement, not protectionism. In fact, I'd rather see stakeholders in the music industry to initiate legal actions against those involved in piracy, like what the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has been doing against illegal file sharers for the past few years in the US. Legal actions won't introduce market frictions, unlike levying. At least in the long term.

p/s - for the whole morning, I couldn't access my own site. I couldn't access a few other sites like Screenshots either.

pp/s - turned out it wasn't just me. There was a network outage near Putrajaya yesterday. (via)

Ever wonder why an ASEAN Charter is being cooked up only 38 years after the formation of ASEAN? Ever wonder why it was Mahathir, Malaysian former prime minister, that first gave serious consideration to a formation of loose East Asian trade confederation? Ever wonder why all these are happenning only when Malaysia (tag) holds ASEAN's chair?

There's only one answer: it's Malaysian imperialism gone wild!

I don't know about you but I feel Malaysia is personally responsible in bringing Southeast Asian together. Don't believe me?

Remember before 1963, when there was Malaya? And then suddenly, there was Malaysia. Indonesia and the Philippines protested. Indonesia went further down the road and declared hostility against Malaysia. At the same thing, there was Malphilindo - a precursor of ASEAN - that main purpose was to cool down the mercury. Malphilindo was a smokescreen to ensure Malaysian survival - nothing else. Malphilindo failed but so did Indonesian hostility against Malaysia. Then, it was ASEAN.

Scholars believe that ASEAN at first was formed to counter communist insurgency which was rampant in Vietnam. Don't believe those scholars. They were paid by Malaysian agents to further the cause of Malaysian imperialism. ASEAN is formed primarily to guarantee Malaysia's dominance of Southeast Asian politics.

That's why when Singapore outdid us in economic development, we were furious and hold grunges against the people down south. We were also disappointed that Brunei turned down an offer to join the Malaysian Federation in 1963. And we funded the rebels in Mindanao when the Philippines tried to encourage separatist movement in Sabah. All these challenged Malaysian ambition.

After our failure to expand Malaysian dominance to Singapore and Brunei, we started to realize that federation is not the answer to ensure Malaysian superiority over Southeast Asia. We found three other more effective ways to expand our frontiers.

First was economic cooperation. Ever wonder the percentage of lands owned by Malaysian corporations in Indonesian Sumatra? Ever wonder why Malaysia, instead had joint-exploration agreement in the disputed areas in the Gulf of Thailand with Thailand? In spite of the gulf is actually named after Thailand? Got you thinking, didn't I?

Second, claiming more areas and bringing them up to International Court of Justice. ICJ is a Malaysian puppet. The Americans know this and that's why they refuse to submit to the ICJ. Remember Sipadan and the other island? Does Pulau Batu Putih ring a bell? Ever wonder why Malaysia refuses to give up Tanjung Pagar to Singapore despite the fact that it's in Singapore? How about Ambalat? Spratly?

Third, funding of rebels. Mindanao, Aceh, southern Thailand. You think Malaysia doesn't have a hand on it? Isn't it a bit suspicious that all these provinces are located near Malaysian borders?

Unfortunately, the three methods take years, decade and perhaps centuries to realize Malaysian imperialism.

Hence, come the ultimate strategy, which is political and economic integration of Southeast Asia. Here is where ASEAN and the charter come into play. An ASEAN charter sets to pave a way to a more integrated Southeast Asian communitee. C'mon. Think.

Furthermore, when Myanmar gets into trouble, who is always there first? Malaysia. At the current WTO negoatiation, who represents ASEAN's interest? Malaysia. Some others too. Despite Malaysia has merely 24 million citizens while Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines have more than 60 million people each - Indonesia has more than 200 million people! -, how on do you explain Malaysian dominance in ASEAN? How could 24 million people control half a billion people in Southeast Asia?

Malaysian hands are the invisible hands within ASEAN. In reality, ASEAN is just another name for Persekutuan Malaysia Raya - Greater Malaysian Federation. The name isn't Greater Malaysian Federation because we don't want to alarm those in the other member states. From the look of it, it's working sublimely.

Previously, I had proposed ascension of Brunei, annexation of Sumatra, invitation to several troubled Malay Thai states and reintegration of Singapore into the Union. This was the situation:



In reality, Malaysia really is:



LOL! Watch out Australia!

When Malaysian lock-up detainee abuse scandal first came to surface, especially when a video of it was made public, I noticed a number of people tried to associate the scandal with discrimination and, ultimately, racism. Moreover, some tried to manipulate some sort of chauvinistic communal nationalism. I wholly disagree with the association; correlation does not imply causation is an apt phrase.

To me, this issue concerns neither ethnicity nor nationality. It's simply about persons being abused. No more than that. Nevertheless, the apparent fact at that time didn't help my case since, previously, all the abused detainees seemed disporportionately Chinese Malaysian and Chinese from People's Republic of China. Hence, I must say, I'm relieved with the revelation that the abused detainee in the video that was forced to strip and squat by a Malaysian police officer was not a Chinese from PRC but in fact, is a Malay Malaysian.

That disclosure vindicates my stance that there was no racism involved. This piece of information should render those that expounded that the scandal was tainted with discrimination and racism to sit in a corner and sulk. It proves that they're wrong. More importantly, it cleanly undoes those racist opportunists' crude works that tried to fire up communal feeling.

Of course, because my take is that ethnicity doesn't matter, the fact that the victim's a Malay shouldn't make the issue any less angering as it should be. But it does and it does because of the existence of those that always try to transpose every issue as communal issues. These people cry of discrimination while they, deep within themselves are racists. Without them, the fact that the victim's a Malay wouldn't comfort me by one bit.

Malaysian society is young when compared to many others. While we grow up, we need to realize that not everything is about discrimination and racism. At the same time, racists don't work in the open. They're among us, trying to cry "Discrimination!" or any other word in similar context even when it's not. Whenever we overhear somebody cries that, we must to ask ourselves, is it really about discrimination or racism or is someone trying to manipulate Malaysian complicated racial politics?

The ability to discern the two possibilities is paramount if we as Malaysians hope not to see the current Australian race riot to replicate itself in Malaysia as our second May 13 Incident.

Yeah, I know. I know. That's a lame entry title. Unoriginal. But they say, it's a form of flattery.

This one was taken near Dang Wangi, Kuala Lumpur (tag); in front of a shoe store.


Some passersby noticed me while I was taking the photo. And there was this WTF-kind of expression on their face. I'm sure that they were thinking, what so interesting about shoes.

For people that know me quite well, and as the picture suggests, I'm interested in the reflection, not the shoes.

This idea of shoot yourself in a mirror started when I first stumbled upon The Mirror Project. As of currently, I have 13 photos there. w00t!

p/s - god. I hate this shaman. I think I'm going to log into World of Warcraft again sometimes soon. I miss all the people in Sanct.

pp/s - What's going on here? (via)

ppp/s - now, this is what I call shrewd diplomacy.

Iran Offers U.S. Share in Nuclear Plants

By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writer Sun Dec 11, 8:18 PM ET

TEHRAN, Iran -
Iran opened the door Sunday for U.S. help in building a nuclear power plant — a move designed to ease American suspicions that Tehran is using its nuclear program as a cover to build atomic weapons.

...

"America can take part in international bidding for the construction of Iran's nuclear power plant if they observe the basic standards and quality," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said in a news conference.

Erm...

p4/s - Wizards of Winter (via).

They'll get booed. Well, maybe not all but Ann Coulter sure had earful. She also brilliantly called her audience stupid. No. She actually called her audience stupider.

Ann Coulter to hecklers: You're stupider than I am

STORRS, Connecticut (AP) -- Conservative columnist Ann Coulter cut short a speech at the University of Connecticut amid boos and jeers, and decided to hold a question-and-answer session instead.

"I love to engage in repartee with people who are stupider than I am," Coulter told the crowd of 2,600 Wednesday.

Boo!

Somebody at Norwich Bulletin wrote something marvelous about the uber-polemicist's speech:

The UConn College Republicans' stated reason for inviting Coulter to speak, for $16,000, was to promote conservative thought on campus. In actuality, they paid for a circus, and they got one.

Right on.

Too bad she graduated from Michigan.

India must be dreaming. It wants a free trade treaty with ASEAN (tag) but at the same time wants too many stuff excluded from the FTA. What was India thinking? Did they think they can bully us into it?

I'm glad to know that ASEAN, represented by Malaysian trade minister, gives India a solid no today. I think India hasn't realized that ASEAN doesn't take shit.

No FTA is better than one-sided FTA. ASEAN deserves a better deal.

So, Barisan Nasional won Pengkalan Pasir with a slim margin. A recount confirmed BN's victory. But does this mean PAS in deep shit? More precisely, if this by-election acts as a signal for the next Malaysian general election, does this mean support for Barisan Nasional's growing in Kelantan?

Quite hard to say. Let's see some statistics to see how hard it is.

First of all, we know from the New Straits Times that the first count showed that BN received 7419 votes, PAS 7290, Ibrahim Ali 414 and there were 160 spoiled votes. In total, 15283 votes.

Now, let's assume two things to make life simpler.

Kick Ibrahim Ali out of our equation, like how he was kicked from UMNO. And then, we shoved all the spoiled votes into Ibrahim Ali's throat before we kick him. That leaves us a total of 14709.

Thanks to the two assumptions, now we have only BN and PAS to worry about. The assumptions help making things easier since it allows us to use bootstrapping method - the easiest way to get a standard error. Bootstrapping gives us a standard deviation of roughly 0.5 with 60.64 for SE.

Now, my hypothesis is that the difference between BN and PAS - a difference of 129 votes - is zero. That makes t = 129/60.64, which makes t about 2.13. t is as in the t-distribution.

Using t-test, the hypothesis at 25% significance level is rejected.

However, at 10% and lower significance levels, the hypothesis is significant. Doesn't necessarily mean it must be accepted but it can't be rejected.

So, did anybody win outright statistically? I don't know. It's likely the answer is no. More importantly, if this is a signal of things to come in 2008, Pengkalan Pasir is a crystal ball with industrial defect.

Anyway, given this entry is written at 2 AM, you might be reading crap with bad statistics. Hah!

Heh. I myself am not convinced with the statistics; the hypothesis testing in particular looks odd. I've done this before extensively but I haven't touched real statistics in a long time. So, you are more than welcomed to check them up or even refined them to include Ibrahim Ali and the spoiled votes.

According to national TV, at 2120 Malaysian time, Barisan Nasional won Pengkalan Pasir by a small margin. Because of the small margin, a recount is due tomorrow - thanks to that, this win is unofficial. But somehow, I doubt there that there will be a different picture tomorrow.

Whatever it may be, I hope the Election Commission will publish the standard error for the by-election. Let's see how uncertain the result really is.

For those who want to know about why a recount is due, statistically, read more about confidence interval at Wikipedia. Quite light, compared to what I had to suffer during my junior year at Michigan.

And heh. What did I tell you?

Pay up.

I wonder, how Ibrahim Ali did in the competition. Hmm...

A cat catching a not-so-catnap in a morning, on, of all places, my bed.



Knowing that this particular cat loves sleeping on my bed, now, I may have discovered a reason why I always find myself with little red scratches almost every morning.

The photo is obviously overexposed. Still, I like the details of his bosom. But now, it's time to give the cat some scratches of his own.

p/s - haha. if everyone thinks like this, Barisan Nasional will have serious problem. It's in Malay. If you don't understand it, then you'll have to learn Malay. =)

When limited members of a society benefit from restricted competition at others' expense, it's all too possible that a protectionist (tag) is lurking somewhere, menacingly. According to The Star yesterday:

Prepaid mobile phone users may no longer enjoy the convenience of buying their top-up cards at sundry shops and coffeeshops.

The Energy, Water and Communications Ministry is considering barring telecommunications companies from appointing such stores as retail agents for the cards."

Minister Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik said the move was vital to protect the business of telecommunications distributors and dealers.

This is no doubt a protectionist's wet dream.

Think about it.

If the government enacts the restriction, on one hand, the would be adversely affected business owners would lose legitimate future income - reduction in wealth - to the groups that are lobbying the government to restrict competition. In simpler term, it's called stealing. Theives steal and those lobbyists are downright robbers.

We, the consumers on the other hand, would have to purchase these cards from few selected sellers. That means consumers have to put forth extra effort - another word for cost - in order to search and purchase a good.

Worse, these sellers would monopolize a market niche when they aren't supposed to under efficient conditions. Meanwhile, it might be true that the consumers won't have to fork extra cash to make a purchase with the new ruling, but a loss in convenience is a loss in consumers surplus.

The government mustn't let this new, unfair ruling come into being. The telcos distributors and dealers are merely thinking about their profits and absolutely not about the market efficiency. Neither do they care for other individuals and groups with honest wants and needs.

For these reasons, that restriction mustn't be imposed. Free market must reign supreme, for fairness' sake, in the name of the people.

One more thing - if the lobbyists' side can't stand the heat, they should get out of the kitchen.

p/s - Ajax is currently in deep shit, again. But this win helps a lot.

This is one of those amusing but useless findings over the net. Type exactly "Pemuda UMNO website" into Google's search bar and hit "I'm Feeling Lucky".

The biggest secret in Malaysia politics! UMNO Youth is PAS! The two devils are indeed one!

Yup. On Google currently, it directs to PAS website. Another one of those creepy signs that PAS and UMNO are merging onto a spot to the right of Malaysian political spectrum.

I found this out while I was trying to confirm a story on Malaysia Today. Anyway, does anybody actually believe everything written in Malaysia Today?

p/s - Hook. Em. Horns. Bah...

The current SEA Games (tag) has been rather entertaining so far. Diplomatically-wise, that is. Recently, Thai Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, accused that the host, the Philippines of being biased in officiating the regional biennial game. And it doesn't end there: Thaksin plans to raise the issue at the upcoming ASEAN meeting in Kuala Lumpur.

Me - WTF?

But anyway, the Filipino President Gloria Arroyo then ordered an investigation into the allegation. The investigation, concluded 24 hours later revealed no unfair officiating has occurred.

Yes - the Philippines is accused of cheating and the Philippines conducted the investigation and the Philippines cleared themselves up. I suppose "conflict of interest" is an unheard concept. Not that I'm accussing of anything but still, it's fishy.

However, that's not the best part. The best thing is that some Filipinos conducted a protest - yes, a real protest - in front of the Thai embassy in Manila over Thaksin's remark. Soon afterwards, Filipino legislators are demanding apology from Thaksin.

Folks, cool down. Take a deep breathe and think. It's just a game. Stop acting like kids.

I mean, look at Malaysia. Vietnam cheated Malaysia but Malaysians aren't over the top about it. At most, the Malaysian delegates lodged an official, in game, protest. What happens in a game stays in that game. Be a sportman.

Hell, look at how Malaysians deal with real diplomatic issues - while Indonesians were willing to go up in arms against Malaysia over Ambalat not too long ago, Malaysians just took it easy. Have a cup of teh tarik. Chill out. Oh, you want to ganyang Malaysia? Mari, mari. No need to gaduh-gaduhlah.

Point is, relax. Even Malaysia and Singapore aren't at each other throat, yet. If Malaysia and Singapore don't plan to get into a little squabbling, then nobody should be. Please, there's no need to outdo us.

Nevertheless, Thaksin does make a bad diplomat. Still, he brought up a legitimate concern. The Philippines needs to be more professional in hosting the Games. Already, several other countries are having some misgiving about this edition of the Games. Rigging your own election might be your internal matter but the SEA Games doesn't quite fall into that category.

On the same day I digitized the Jamek Mosque, I took quite a number of photographs in and around Kuala Lumpur (tag). This is a row of deteriorating, badly damaged shophouses in the capital. Specifically, around the Dang Wangi light rail transit station. In spite of the building appearance, surpisingly, it hasn't been abandoned.



It's a disheartening feeling to see buildings that once characterized Malayan cities falling into disrepair, eaten by time relentlessly. Compare all this to Singaporean shophouses. What a difference it is.

To be fair, there are other better preserved buildings of similar type here in the capital but I wish there were more. Malaysians certainly could learn a thing or two from our friends down south.

When I wanted to get shots of the structure for my collection, at first, I was a bit apprehensive to approach it. The place rather secluded; you'll never know when a prick's going to come up to you and ask for your wallet. Nevertheless, in the end, my curiosity got the better of me. And nothing unsavory happened.

About the photo, I had to ticker with it so that the colors are more defined. The original is rather bland; too bland to be of any interest. I feel my photo don't do justice to my subject. While I was there, I was awed at the sight. There was something grand and sad about it. And the original failed to capture that feeling. Even the edited version doesn't properly convey the message across.