Expectedly Unexpected

Finally, someone from Malaysia Today has voiced something that I thought was ridiculous in the first place.

The Government is Misleading Us About the Hike in Petrol Prices and RON Rating

Malaysia Today

5 September 2009

I’m quite fed up with The Star. They already have a sordid reputation of spinning cover for the government, and they still continue to do so even after getting lambasted online time and time again. They are really HOPELESS.

Recently, they posted a piece on the increase (yet another) in petrol price as the government discontinued RON92 petrol and replaced it with RON95. The government made use of the switch to increase the price of RON95 by 5 cents and jacked the price of RON97 all the way to RM 2.05 per liter, which is 25 cents (13.9%) higher.

This was what the Star wrote :

Quote:

How will you benefit from the new RON95 petrol? by LEONG HUNG YEE PETALING JAYA: RON95 was the buzz at neighbourhood petrol stations as consumers had to quickly grasp the differences between the RON92 (which is discontinued) and RON97 (which has been upgraded) and the new, more environment friendly oil. The first thing they want to know is how they will benefit from this change to RON95 which retails at RM1.80 per litre. “About 90% of motorists using RON97 (which has been upgraded to a premium product and sold at a higher price of RM2.05 per lire) can now switch to RON95,” said Domestic Trade, Cooperative and Consumer Affairs Ministry secretary-general Datuk Zain Mohd Dom. “The price of RM1.80 for RON95 will be capped at this level for the rest of the year,’’ Zain told StarBiz, referring to a statement earlier by Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob. “It moves within an active price range, depending on the price trend of oil gauged over a one-month period.’’ All this while, consumers have been using RON97 which is too powerful for cars today. “Take a look at car manuals and one will often find that RON95 is recommended,’’ said Zain, adding that RON97 had stronger ingredients that were more suitable for higher powered cars. RON (research octane number) measures the octane quality of fuel. It refers to the fuel’s ability to resist premature and uncontrolled combustion that occurs when fuel pre-ignites before ignition by the spark plug. The newly-introduced RON95 fuel is priced at RM1.80, five sen higher than that of RON92, which is leaded petrol. Concurrently, RON97 has been upgraded as a premium product and its price has gone up to RM2.05 from RM1.80. Ismail had said at a press conference on Tuesday although the price of RON95 was higher, the Government was still subsidising 33.81 sen per litre, which comes up to about RM304mil monthly. He said the upward revision of the prices was necessary as the global crude oil price had doubled since the announcement by former minister Datuk Shahrir Abdul Samad in March that RON95 would be sold at RM1.75. Currently, the Government is subsidising 42.72 sen per litre for RON97. While consumers who were using RON92 are required to pay more when they upgrade to RON95, those using RON97 and are able to downgrade to RON95 will save 25 sen per litre. According to car manufacturers, as long as the fuel used is not below the minimum RON requirement (RON91), it would be appropriate for any vehicle. Given that 90% of all cars can use the newly-launched RON95, this should provide savings for most consumers. All Perodua and Proton cars are compatible with RON95. “What you need to do is find out whether your car can run on RON95 or not. This information should be available in your car manual or on a sticker near your fuel flap,” an industry player A BMW Malaysia spokesman said there were no problems with RON95, in general, for BMW models although there was no technical data on performance. Performance cars such as Suzuki Swift Sport, Honda Civic Type R, Mitsubishi Airtrek Turbo, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, Range Rover and Skoda 200FSI are incompatible with RON95. Owners of cars that are incompatible with RON95 will have to fork out an extra RM10 for every 40 litres of RON97. Shell Malaysia Trading Sdn Bhd managing director Datuk Mohzani Wahab said the company remained confident that its revenue would increase this year, despite the anticipated lower sales of Shell Super 97 (RON97) due to the 25 sen price difference from the price of RON95. Mohzani said the RON95 had received encouraging response from motorists so far. Meanwhile, it was reported that Petronas Dagangan Bhd expected its RON95 fuel to register 95% sales. The company started selling RON95 in May and 65% of its consumers had opted for RON95 against RON92. said.

This isn’t the first time the government has attempted to delude the public about RON rating. Neither is this the first time The Star has done their bit to spin the story for the government and pass fallacy for fact. Greatly displeased, I wrote to the editors of The Star :

Quote:

I’m writing in reference to the piece “How will you benefit from the new RON95 petrol?” by Leong Hung Yee. I’m no motorhead but this is a misleading piece of spin. Here are the reasons why : 1. RON97 petrol, before and now, is the same product. It was not “upgraded” as the writer mentioned. 2. The government had earlier promised that the price for petrol will remain until the end of the year. The statement that RON95 will be capped at RM 1.80 is nothing more than an attempt to cover up the price hike. Then again, he’s a politician. 3. RON number does not measure the octane “quality” of the fuel. The octane rating is a measure of the RESISTANCE of petrol to premature detonation. It has nothing to do with fuel quality. The word “quality” should have never been mentioned, unless it was inserted intentionally to mislead the reader. 4. RON97 has “stronger” ingredients? A higher octane rating merely means the fuel is more resistant to premature detonation. It doesn’t mean the fuel is stronger or has stronger ingredients. 5. RON92 is NOT leaded petrol! Leaded petrol has been discontinued in Malaysia for years. RON92 is simply unleaded petrol with a Research Octane Number of 92! Seriously, has the journalistic and editorial quality at The Star dropped so low that neither the journalist or the editor bothered to do a little fact-checking before publishing the piece? If you do print a correction, please do inform the public that using petrol with a higher RON rating that your car’s engine supports is a waste of money. Petrol with a higher RON rating will NOT deliver better performance. If your car supports RON 91, then RON 91 is good enough.

I e-mailed that to them at 2:23 PM on Thursday, September 3rd. No response until today. No surprise.

As we approach Merdeka, I’m not exactly sure whether to be happy or sad about it. After 52 years of independence,  Malaysia has reached a new low in almost every aspect of life I can think of. Politics, crime, environmental pollution, economy, protests, etc.

I remember reading earlier this year, Kuala Lumpur is ranked the 4th most dangerous city to be in the WORLD! Not in South East Asia, not in Asia, IN THE WORLD! Looking at the other cities in the list, it’s unbelievable that KL is 4th in the list.

National crime rate increased 15% in 2006, and has been increasing ever since. 97% of the population feel unsafe while only 1% feel safe to be living in this country.

KL is also ranked the 3rd most environmentally polluted city in the world, after Bangalore and Chandigarh in India. The “haze season” seemed to be worsening every year and respiratory illnesses is increases year after year.

Recent protests (which shall not be named here) caused racial tensions and tipping the country into another May 13. Political parties’ internal and external conflicts ripple throughout the country, with everyone pointing fingers at everyone else except themselves. No one ever admits that they are wrong and move on. Instead, blame others and it goes in a circle. Again and again.

Worst is the economy. Being a fresh graduate, I feel the tight grip of the recession rippling through the country’s economy. Even Singapore is now out of the recession, but where are we? Still stuck in a recession even after several financial boosts from the government.

Just read the papers today, in order to achieve developed nation status by 2020, out economy needs to grow by 8% every year or else, Vision 2020 will all be for nothing but a national gimmick. An embarrassment to the country and a laughing stock for everyone else.

Independence Day is in 2 days. Wonder if I should be happy or sad? Who will bridge this gap?

Day 6 in Malaysia and I’m still severely jet lagged. Rolled around on the bed for 2 hours last night because I couldn’t sleep at all. My 1 week quarantine is almost over, but technically I didn’t quarantine myself at home. I just quarantined myself from my friends.

Malaysian are overly paranoids about this swine flu thing. All of them think that the minute the get it, they’ll definitely DIE! I blame this on the media for aggregating their swine flu stories. Either that or Malaysians don’t know how to read the papers. It’s CLEARLY STATED that those who died with swine flu had SERIOUS UNDERLYING HEALTH PROBLEMS. Unless Malaysians English standards has deteriorated beyond belief, serious underlying health problems is easily understandable.

On a heavier note, it’s the haze season once again. The dry season always brings in the haze from neighbouring Indonesia. To make things worse, it’s getting from bad to worse every year! The WHO should charge the Indonesian government for letting their citizens burn their forests down without any control whatsoever! This is giving us Malaysians lots of respiratory illnesses that is completely unnecessary.

To end things on a lighter note, more pics from my Eurotrip!

Chateau Versailles Royal Courtyard

Tour Eiffel

Personally, if our Prime Minister wants to change the New Economic Policy (NEP), I wouldn’t mind if its still there just that the government should change the policy to cater to the poor and needy instead of covering all Malays. Obviously the rich Malays don’t need any discounts for housing and preferential treatment to enter universities as they can send thier kids overseas for a much better education. They already have all the money, why do they still need more discounts on housing while the poor Malays still can’t even afford to buy a small low cost house?

The NEP should only apply to the group of Malays that earn below a certain amount. This will assure that no one can abuse the NEP for their own benefit (if the rumours are true) and everyone will be happy. The rich ones don’t need it as I’m sure their paychecks is proof that they have arrived at the corridors of success. The Chinese and Indians agreed to give the Malays privileges in order to get our citizenship 50 years ago, hence, as a Malaysian Chinese I should honour that agreement although it fundamentally goes against several human rights laws.

If the government implemented these changes mentioned above, Malaysia would be a better place and everyone will be happy.

Stocktube

8 May 2009

Chinese are a bunch of Cowards

Five thousand years of Chinese Civilization have transformed the Chinese into a unique race which possessed all the necessary ingredients to survive in a harsh environment. But they are still the same homo-sapiens that are clever yet selfish and cowards. Although the Chinese are complex they’re relatively easy to understand once you mix with them. And they don’t call Singaporean “Kiasu” (fear of losing) and “Kiasi” (afraid of death) without any good reason. As usual there’re two sides of the coin and hence the Chinese are known to be rich (or rather economical capable) yet they need to be led and controlled under communism regime for obvious reason.

Generally the Chinese (in China) are weak in politics thanks to thousands of years under autocratic dynasties’ rule. From the first emperor Qin Shi Huang to the last emperor Pu Yi, the Chinese never tasted real politics let alone democracy. So when the Taiwan’s lawmakers started throwing punches and chairs, spraying water at each other, pulling hairs and literally transformed the House into a wrestling hall, it was understandable as they were just infants learning the rope of democracy. However the Chinese are very good in business so much so that they “may be” the first race that invented corruption (whether they realize it or not) in order to speed up the business deals.

Because of the “Kiasu” characteristic, the Chinese are always in front of the queue when come to the business of making money regardless whether it is legitimate or illegitimate. They can naturally smell the aroma of money miles away and they are willing to enter the ring of no-holds-barred for the sake of making money. There’s not a single business which can make money without the presence of Chinese. From stock market speculators to drug smuggling you will see the Chinese have some parts in it. Yes, the Chinese are brilliant and can make huge amount of money quite easily but that’s because they’re a great spender as well. They can create an efficient economy mill within a small town with ease and you wonder how the hell the community can prosper. As a comparison, go to a kampong dominated by ethnic-Malay and your jaw will drop to the floor.

Unfortunately the Chinese are “Kiasi” at the same time. They have extremely high level of tolerance and as long as they can bring food to the table for their family, they can accept intimidation, inefficient and even a very corrupted government. That was the reason why they never strike back even though their husbands and sons were brutally killed and their wives and daughters were gang-raped during the riot in Indonesia of which many said was engineered by General Wiranto and endorsed by President Suharto. The Chinese have done a calculated risk and knew it wasn’t a battle for them thus they migrated leaving behind the debris but not before transferred billions of dollars out of Indonesia (mostly to Singapore). They understand the concept of live another day and you will still be alive to avenge your losses. Fight a losing battle and you’ll lose your life cheaply.

Having said that the Chinese would not tolerate if their country is at stake as can be seen when the China was invaded many times by outsiders. In fact historically the Chinese never invaded other countries (if my old memory serves me right) but was enjoying many civil wars within the current modern China territory. The Chinese had the greatest opportunity to expand their empire during the height of their naval power under Admiral Zheng He when the China generally ruled the seas but they didn’t. They’re happy to show off their power and as long as you do not poke their nose, they’ll leave you alone. And for this simple reason former PM Mahathir once said Malaysia (and other countries) has everything to gain and nothing to lose if China continues to prosper although the other superpower U.S. didn’t think so, out of jealousy I supposed.

Unlike the Chinese, the ethnic-Malays are specialists when come to the topic of politics. They’re willing to risk everything for their political beliefs including their lives and for this reason the UMNO supporters were easily intimidated and demoralized with the presence of a bigger crowds from PAS, both consists of Malays. There’re reasons why the “Bersih” rally was a huge success but the supposedly “Perak” rally yesterday was, well, a failure. Unlike the “Bersih” rally, there was no serious organizer for the “Perak” rally and everyone “thought” people will show-up naturally as if it was a “Michael Jackson” concert. But sadly the urge for the rally never reach the Perakians. Furthermore the “Kiasi” Chinese will only turn up if they see scores of Malays turn up. It was like a 100:1 ratio – if there’re 100 Malays then you’ll probably see 1 Chinese *grin*. They need PAS-Malays to lead them, period.

Seriously most of the Chinese in Ipoh consists of middle-age or retiree who do not have the stamina to run should they greeted by tear-gas. Also, they do not read blogs but still subscribe to the government-controlled newspaper, mind you. In addition, many of these Chinese are still haunted by the 13th May 1969 bloody incident. The youngsters who are “relatively brave” have mostly migrated to towns such as Kuala Lumpur, Johore Bharu or Singapore. They have yet to see that should they be whacked by UMNO-Malays, the PAS-Malays will come to their rescue and can you blame the Chinese considering they’re one bunch of “Kiasi” cowards?

Now, after seeing how an Indian-Hindu Speaker Sivakumar was humiliated and dragged away as if he was a stray-dog by, God knows if they’re real police, do you think the already “Kiasi” Chinese will not think thrice to come out, if there’s another rally in the future? If the so-called police can treat a Speaker in such manner, what guarantees are there that an average-Joes will not ended up like toasted-bread with several broken bones? Yes, in this case the Malays are well-built wrestlers such as Hulk Hogan, Batista, Triple-H or Goldberg but the Chinese are just novice with body no better than Tian Chua. So it’s not a level playing field with Tian Chua holding a poster while Hulk Hogan holding a steel-bar thirsty for blood. Oh yeah! Do you want to know the court’s decision on Monday to decide who the rightful Chief Minister of Perak is? I’ve the crystal ball for this *grin*.

Read an interesting article over at Malaysian Insider. Pretty sad statistics and income figures. Something we have to overcome, very very soon.

The Malaysian Insider

4th May 2009

To Reach First World, Malaysia has to pass Gabon

KUALA LUMPUR, May 4 – Malaysia will have to fundamentally rework its economy to become more productive and R&D based if it is serious about making the quantum leap to become a high income economy and move out of the income bracket currently occupied by countries such as Gabon and Botswana. The nation, one of the wealthiest in Asia at the time of independence in 1957, has now fallen behind Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore and is now trying to play catch up.

In his recent Workers Day message, prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak says he wants Malaysia to be a high income economy. “We will not allow the country to remain as it is but find ways to achieve a quantum leap so that we can be in the high income bracket,” he told reporters.

The prime minister has it right that Malaysia will have to make a quantum leap if figures provided by the World Bank are anything to go by.

The World Bank classifies a high income country as having a gross national income (GNI) per capita of US$11,456 or more. According to the latest figures available from the World Bank, in 2007, Malaysia had a GNI per capita of US$6,420, far behind high income societies such as Singapore (US$32,340), South Korea (US$19,730), Japan (US$37,790), Hong Kong (US$31,560), Australia (US$35,760), Finland (US$44,300), and Switzerland (US$60,820) and Norway (US$77,370).

Malaysia falls into the World Bank’s upper middle income bracket defined as GNI per capita of between US$3,706 and US$11,455. Other countries with similar GNI per capita include Gabon (US$7,020), Russia (US$7,530), Romania (US$6,390) and Botswana (US$6,120).

Industry officials warn, however, that without addressing key issues such as productivity and subsidy mentalities, Malaysia will not be able to transform itself into a sustainable high income society. Many Malaysian companies have become dependent on a relatively weak currency, cheap foreign labour and subsidies for electricity and water instead of striving to become more efficient and developing high quality and high value good and services.

Shamsuddin Bardan, executive director at the Malaysian Employers Federation says that wages should be commensurate with productivity and points to Singapore as a benchmark that Malaysia should compare itself against.

“If you look at unit cost of production, Singapore is still more competitive and  that is why they are able to attract foreign direct investment, despite their wages being two to three times higher than ours,” he told The Malaysian Insider.

“The most important thing to do now is to make a national effort to increase productivity. If, for example, we can enhance productivity to at least half that of Singapore, then wages can go up proportionately.”

Malaysia’s lack of R&D and investment in downstream activities means that it has wasted the opportunity to leverage its natural resources into a high income base unlike other resource rich countries like New Zealand, Norway, Canada or Australia.

“You need to leverage on raw materials and move further downstream,” says Chris Eng, head of research at OSK Research. “We need to move more into trading and value added manufacturing.”

He adds that Malaysia needs to wean itself off cheap foreign labour and subsidies and prioritise research and development (R&D) in order to move into high value economic activities.

He also believes that subsidies and reliance on foreign labour have to go.

“If you make subsidies and foreign labour an option, people will always fall back on this option to attract investment by offering cheap utilities rather than a world class infrastructure and an efficient workforce.”

The weak ringgit is another obstacle to moving up the ranks of the wealthy.

While favoured by many low end manufacturers, a weak currency also makes imported goods more expensive, including capital goods such as sophisticated equipment required for high-end manufacturing and R&D.

A weak currency also means imported inflation, thus making Malaysians feel poorer as they cannot afford to buy the same goods and services of their counterparts in, say, Singapore or Australia.

It also makes it difficult for Malaysian companies to expand abroad as the cost of setting up overseas operations become prohibitive since one ringgit is worth little abroad.

On a dollar-to-ringgit basis, Malaysians do not appear too badly off. According to one senior executive with an international accounting firm, Malaysian accounting fresh graduates earn about RM2,500 per month as compared to about US$3,000 for their peers in the United States.

However, when factoring in the ability to purchase imported goods or to travel abroad, the value of the income shrinks dramatically due to the unfavourable exchange rate.

“Their Income becomes real when they go overseas. Once you travel outside, you find that you are a pauper. If you want to enjoy a high income, you need a strong exchange rate,” says the senior executive.

Recent news in the media about our DPM commenting about the Chinese being ungrateful and that we should “repent” and return to the BN. Which ever way it is, there’s definitely one very important phrase in democracy that our government don’t seem to remember.

People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.

V – V for Vendetta

Without the people, the government wouldn’t even exist in the first place. Obviously our government still have a lot to learn even after 50 years of governance.

A very good essay of Malaysian culture in roughly 1000 words.

Malaysia Today

3 April 2008

A lesson in Malaysian culture, for foreigners

Ladies, ladies, ladies, let’s get down to business.

Welcome to Malaysia. You are going to be here for at least two years and to make your stay here enjoyable and free of sticky situations, we shall take you through a crash course in how to understand Malaysian culture.

First of all, there is no such thing as a Malaysian. What we have are four groupings labelled as Bumiputera, which is another word for Malay; Chinese, spelt C-I-N-A and pronounced Chee-Ner; Indians, sometimes referred to as Keling or Hindu by the Bumiputera; and the lain-lain or ‘others’. We, I’m afraid, do not fit into any of these four categories. The Bumiputeras call us ‘Mat Salleh’ while the Chinese refer to us as ‘Kwai Loh’.

Now, while I said there is no such thing as a Malaysian, the Indians and Chinese will insist you refer to them as Malaysians. The Indians, however, would argue that they are Indians and will talk about Indian rights and Indian interests. But, while they claim to be Indians, you must not call them Indians. They will get very offended. You must call them Malaysians. And the same goes for the Chinese.

For the Malays it is even more complicating. They insist they are Bumiputeras, which means ‘sons of the soil’. But they will demand you refer to them as Melayu and they will argue about things such as Ketuanan Melayu, which means Malays as Lords, and other such rhetoric. But never mind, over time you will begin to understand how Malaysians think, which will eventually give you the impression that they can’t really think.

Each grouping has its own culture when it comes to gatherings. Chinese culture is quite straightforward. They love lavish dinners and young half-naked women dancing and singing on stage while they eat. The Malaysian government has officially adopted this as Chinese culture and you will notice that all government-sponsored gatherings will be of the like.

Malay gatherings are not as sexy. They always start their gatherings by screaming ‘Ketuanan Melayu’ and which will end with the kissing of little curved knives that are called keris, pronounced ‘Chris’. Being Muslims, they are not allowed to have young half-naked women publicly singing and dancing on stage. Most of these things are done behind closed doors and away from the public eye.

Indian culture, when it comes to gatherings, is less sexy or militant. Normally, they will invite the President of the Malaysian Indian Congress to grace their gatherings and they will sing his praises, hug him, and kiss his hand. Sometimes, they go into frenzy and will wail and throw slippers at him. It, of course, depends on what time of the day it is to see which ritual the Indians would adopt.

You will never see a Chinese chauffeur. While most of the big and lavish cars are owned by the Chinese, their chauffeurs are always either Malays or Indians. The same goes for security guards. They are all either Indians, Malays or lain-lain, never Chinese. We assume this is because the Chinese do not trust their own kind to drive their cars or to handle their security.

When entering a Malaysian home you must take off your shoes. This appears to be the one and only thing that all four groupings share in common. When you invite Malaysians to your home you will notice that they will also take off their shoes before entering. So it is advisable to place a shoe rack outside your house in the event you wish to invite Malaysians over to your home.

Religious holidays are synonymous with the handing out of little packets that contain money. The Chinese will hand out red packets and the Malays green packets. The Indians do not appear to share this Chinese and Malay custom of handing out packets of money on religious holidays. However, they will never refuse receiving it if you offer them one, especially during an election.

The official language for Malaysia is not constant and keeps changing. It used to be Bahasa Kebangsaan and then was changed to Bahasa Melayu. Then, for a short while, the government adopted Bahasa Baku as the official language. Now, the official language is Bahasa Malaysia. Actually, all four are the same except for the spelling, which changes each time they switch over.

Therefore, there is no such thing as a Malaysian language per se. So, maybe this is the problem the government faces in establishing an official language for Malaysia. Most of the Malay vocabulary is borrowed from the Thai, Indian, Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch, Arabic and English languages. I was told there are only five or six words that can be regarded as originally Malay.

The federal government is led by three main political parties within the ruling coalition called Barisan Nasional. You will notice, however, that the names of all three of these parties — Umno, MCA and MIC — are in English. None are in the Malaysian national language. Nevertheless, all these three parties are very passionate about defending the Malaysian national language even though none of them use the Malaysian national language in their party names.

Okay, that ends our first lesson in how to understand Malaysian culture. Tomorrow, we shall talk about other aspects of Malaysian culture and traditions, such as the education and economic policies of this country and the quota system attached to these policies. The education quota system is actually quite easy to understand. In certain institutions of higher learning, 100% of the students are Malays and none of the other groupings are allowed places in these institutions.

We hope, by the end of this three-day crash course, you will be able to understand Malaysia better. Invariably, you will discover that Malaysians are quite difficult to comprehend. They say one thing but they mean the opposite. For example, when you invite them to join you for dinner, they will say ‘no thank you’. Actually, they mean ‘yes please’. And if you take that to literally mean ‘no thank you’ they will get very upset and consider you sombong or pompous.

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