My thoughts on Malaysia

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This is probably the first time that I am writing about my feeling on Malaysia. I have about 8 mins before I need to prepare for work. Its time to work!

In the last General Election – we have seen that the opposition(then) has won the election. It is a surprise to a lot of people. To be honest. A lot of people has a lot of hope for the Pakatan Harapan to win, but never thought that they would. I would say who I support as voting is secret. When the news that they have won came out, it took many hours before the official declaration was made. I remember staying up so late for this. I guess – deep inside myself – I am hoping for a better Malaysia.

Couple of weeks has passed, so many press conferences, so many news, so many appointments, and have we seen any changes. Well there were some. The one that really impacted the Rakyat was GST. GST was set to zero rate and practically giving all of Malaysians a tax holiday. 3 months from now, SST will be reintroduced again. It definitely spurred a lot of spending. Can see from the shopping malls all – a lot of people are out shopping. Perhaps to buy stuffs for Raya that is next week.

I feel that the country has a lot of potential. Perhaps in the previous ruling party, people were allegedly greedy and siphoned off a considerable amount of money. Despite strong economic fundamentals, there were a lot of alleged misuse of public funds for personal gains. All they way from the top. This is of course are just allegation and not yet proven.

Days after the election, the previous Prime Minister was barred from leaving the country, police was called in to do searches in his houses and offices. Stash of cash and luxury items were seized. Amazingly – this is something that very interesting indeed. Basic common sense will say that this is definitely comes from bribes and commissions from major projects (we are talking about few hundred millions here).

Well – as a Prime Minister, you probably make about approximately MYR100k per month, no way you would be able to save even 10M. Is it greed? I don’t know. These are unproved allegations that we will need to wait for the police to continue to investigate and determined whether its true or not. The previous prime minister has lawyered up, getting some of the best lawyers in the world (coming from US!). I guess based on the rule of law, he needs to be given the right to defend himself.

We need to remember that its never a one person act. Being in power for more than 60 years, it is an ecosystem that has been broken. Some of my acquaintance that has strong ties to then government of the day are living in luxury. I am not talking about businessmen but politically aligned individuals. Well – that is a career for them and let it be. I just hope that what ever the outcome is, the more important part is for the greater good of the rakyat is taken care off.

As what I’ve been telling people, witch hunt is not something that we want to see. People should stop politicking and start governing. I know it is difficult for the current government to do that because they have been trying very hard to get to Putrajaya, and finally the hard earned effort materialized. And now is the harder part of the work which is to make it work.

I have strong believe that this will work. 100 days may be to short to determined how successful is the current government. Some quick wins are possible (like GST) – but there are more work that needs to be done to make it work. Remember, happy people does not equate to a successful country. We do have a very strong economic fundamentals – and with the new government, I strongly believe it’ll give a much needed boost to bring us to the next level.

I think I wrote enough for now. Its time to go to work. Perhaps another day I can continue whining 🙂

Its a brand new Malaysia

Fun Posts, I Love Malaysia

May 9th was Malaysia 14th General Election. Out of all the election that I have experienced in my lifetime, this seems to be the most important election ever. I have never seen such a strong showing from both opposing parties (coalition).

For the past 6 decades, Malaysia has been ruled by Barisan Nasional, and in recent years there have been plagued by various issues from GST, 1MDB to corruption and all sorts. The Rakyat is disgusted by some of the actions and events that had happened in the past few years and as any other democratic process, they have made their voices heard. I know that in the last General Election (2013) – they did try to unseat to switch over but that failed. And finally now it happened. In fact – I should not use the word they but should use the word we because I am myself a Rakyat.

I took upon myself to think about who I am going to vote – and of course my vote is a secret. I am not politically aligned to any party but I do vote based on what I think is right. I know a lot of people express their political affiliation in public, but I don’t. I do love the country and I will do what I can in my capacity to help. I may not have done much but I will try to do more.

I am very happy with the outcome of the election because I see the Rakyat’s voice has finally been heard. And to be honest – for once I see people becoming a lot more patriotic that ever. I have heard people saying that the national anthem “NegaraKu” being sung at odd places like pub and bars. Amazing. Felt like theres a renewed confidence in the country and this is good. Very good indeed. In fact – there’s so many things that I have not seen is happening now like – people reading newspaper! watching mainstream news like TV1 and TV3. I think things are moving to a the greater good now 🙂

We are moving into a healthy direction. People voices are now heard, the question now is whether the ruling government will make the best of their time up there. It is not easy to rule a country – what more fix what is wrong. The ruling government has less than 5 years to show and demonstrate that they can do the job. Otherwise the Rakyat will speak again and may even switch them out. Though its counter productive but this is how democracy works. I do hope that the ruling government will bring the best out of all Malaysians. I am looking forward for a renewed Malaysia.

There will be knee jerk reaction from the market – given that this is the first time that the government actually change! There will be a lot of new faces running the government. Most of them will be their first time. I believe that we can do this, for a better Malaysia.

Pulau Indah

I Love Malaysia, Photography

Second shoot of the day. Pulau Indah.

The location of the shoot is as follows. Its pretty far, about 70 kilometers from KL. Initially I wanted to go hunt for Pokemon – but too bad the place itself barely had any pokemon. The pokestop is also off limits. Was looking for Pokegym 🙁

It’s not so straightforward to get here. After driving behind large container yards, I reach thru a dirt. Not knowing where it heading I continue to push on. Driving alone in a these situation is pretty scary (and exciting)

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Sleepy Town

8am – still closed

Laid back

Old 60s-ish building

Some are still made of wood

Behrang Stesen

I Love Malaysia, Photography

This morning I did a quick visit to Slim River. Again in search of Kilang Roti Mokhtar. I did find the location and saw the factory, but as this is a Raya Weekend – the factory is closed. So much of driving up at 6am in order to get there by 7am. As I was going back, I was just making detour as and when needed. Found this small little town called Behrang Stesen. Located somewhere not far from Slim River.

I was expecting an old train station, but what appeared was a town that is called Behrang Stesen! Confusing. Spent some time over there. Town is quite quaint and extremely laid back. Here are some collection of my photos.

Here are is 360 degree view of the photo.

Post from RICOH THETA. #theta360 – Spherical Image – RICOH THETA

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Zika Virus – Are we ready

I Love Malaysia

Zika virus is a virus that has been classified as a “Pandemic in Progress” by World Health Organization. It is a global public health emergency. Scary to the fact that Zika is now spread all over the world. I am not sure whether we are prepared for this.

History

Based on the chart from BBC – Zika virus started in Uganda and then later expanded to the different continents and latest to Brazil, and now it goes worldwide. Singapore are now on full alert with 242 cases as of 4^th September 2016.

What is Zika

This is a good infographics from WHO. Click here. To me this is the interesting fact:

Zika is carried by the same mosquito that causes dengue! We in Malaysia already struggle to curb dengue and now Zika, it is going to be interesting yet scary journey for us. Dengue outbreak is something that can be curb by human. We need to take preventive steps to stop mosquito breeding. Post outbreak measures are useless. We need to start now!

This video is a good introduction to Zika

What should I do now?

Go and check to see you are breeding Aedes!

More Than Words

Seriously…..