There are days I wonder if our government does anything at all to keep the law and order around here. Right opposite my office building in Brickfields is a public road opposite a few apartments, just along the LRT tracks. Bellow these tracks are legal free parking spots, yellow boxes for the residents of the area and for people to park. There are no signs to indicate any fees that needed to be payed, and no DBKL people ever issue summons as its a legal parking area. Then suddently out of the blue, we have 2 thugs who decided to make some money and they have started to “collect” parking fees from the people to “allow” them to park thier cars there. They give them a “receipt” and say, must pay. They treaten to scratch the cars if you don’t. Sigh. This is a common problem in Malaysia. You see it all over the place. In streets like Bukit Bintang at night, random people will come out place some chairs on a public street and then charge people to park there. When will the government do something about this? Do they even care?

Is it just me, or is there like no Merdeka feeling this year? Sure, there are a few flags here and there, but it feels to me like Malaysia is not really celebrating our 51st birthday this year. Sigh. What a dissapointement. I think the government is so concerned about Permatang Pauh that our nations 51st birthday has lost its importance. You read the papers today all you read about is Anwar this, Saiful this, Permatang pauh that. Such a sad state of events for Malaysia.

Having said that, I am also very disappointed with all those bloggers who are running the Malaysian flag upside down. No matter how bad things may seem in this nation, there is no excuse for defaming our flag. We live in peace! There are no wars! We have no famine! Sure we have the crazy mat rempits riding around everywhere, but they are so mild compared to the armed militia in some African or Asian countries. I am ashamed at those people who fly the colors of our nation upside down.

Love Malaysia!

What?? You got to be kidding? If a non-malay teacher hurled racial slurs at Malay students and did the same thing, she would have been put in jail for sedition! What type of double standard is our ministry of education preaching here. An apology is not enough. She should be fired and fined. Criminal charges should be brought up against her. In this day and age, with our government preaching about racial harmony and “Bangsa Malaysia”, to have somebody who influences our young during the crucial years of formal education to behave in such a deplorable manner? How could this be acceptable.

Teacher To Be Transfered
[source]

BANTING: A secondary school teacher accused of hurling racial slurs against her Indian students recently is on leave prior to her transfer on Monday.

Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Senator T. Murugiah, who visited SMK Telok Panglima Garang yesterday, said the teacher regretted the incident and had apologised to the students.

“She also said that she did not expect things to become so serious and has agreed to be transferred to another school,” added Murugiah who was accompanied by officers from the Education Ministry and the Prime Minister’s Department’s Public Complaints Bureau.

Two students lodged police reports against the female history teacher last Friday alleging that she had made derogatory remarks about Indian students and called them unflattering names.

According to Murugiah, recommendations would also be made to the Education Ministry to institute disciplinary action against her.

He said the issue was now considered closed and advised members of the Indian community as well as parents of the affected students to accept the teacher’s apology.

However, relatives of the affected students as well as the members of the Telok Panglima Garang Indian community refused to regard the matter as closed.

“She must make a public apology as she insulted all Indians and be transferred to a desk job and not allowed to teach anymore,” said the group’s spokesman S. Muthamil Selvan.

Coalition of Malaysian Indian NGOs secretary Gunaraj George concurred and said his organisation was preparing a memorandum on the matter to be presented to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

Sigh, Will Malaysian companies ever have good customer service? I applied for my Telephone fixed line and streamxy 2 weeks ago, and only on Monday did I find out the phone is functioning. What about streamxy? Well, the people there insisted that I pay for rental of thier modem, even though I told them I already have my own modem, so why would I pay them for something I don’t need? Then they said they don’t have my IC details, though I signed up at a TM Point together with my phone line, and then finally when I managed to call them again today, they told me its not ready and to call back 7 working days from now to see if its working. If its still not working 7 working days from now, call them back. I asked them if they could call me when its ready, they said ,”No.” You must call us. We don’t call you. Sigh. This is Malaysia at its best?

Hmmm…When I read this headline this morning, I was already pissed. Pah Lah is upset? Who really cares if he is upset or not. Does he take the MRR2 everyday? Was he stuck in massive jams? Did pieces of the carbon fiber reinforced plastic thing drop on his car? Sigh. I think somebody needs to be fired over this! We just spent RM70 million 2 years ago! Whats the ACA doing to investigate this? Sigh. I honestly think the Public Roads department needs to go through an independent audit to make sure RM70 million was actually spent on the roads and did not end up in somebodies pocket. Its only a matter of time before the lack of accountability when it comes to our roads and highways cost us with the lives of innocent people. Pak Lah, I blame you personally for this. I am upset over MRR2.

Pak Lah upset by MRR2 woes
[source]

PUTRAJAYA: Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is disappointed that problems have re-appeared on the Middle Ring Road II (MRR2) despite the RM70mil spent just two years ago to fix a similar problem.

“This could have been easily avoided if those responsible had ensured that earlier repair works had been done properly. If this had been done, there would be no damage and the rakyat would not be fuming,” he told Prime Minister’s Department staffers at a monthly gathering yesterday.

What was more worrying, the Prime Minister said, was if accidents or even deaths were to occur as a result of a road collapsed caused by the damage on the MMR2.

Three of 18 panels of carbon fibre reinforced plastic fell from Pillar 28 of the highway on Sunday morning, but the Works Ministry said the MRR2 is structurally safe despite a scare that saw a temporary closure of a ramp.

The six-lane elevated section of highway will be reduced to four lanes near the Kompleks Desa for the next three weeks as a safety precaution pending investigation.

Deputy director-general of Public Works I Datuk Mohamad Husin said a special task force had been formed to investigate and supervise repairs by the contractor.

He said there were no new cracks nor had old cracks reappeared since yesterday.

He said the flyover was safe for use as only 12 reinforced plastic panels were needed to keep the pier sturdy.

Abdullah also reminded civil servants about the importance of providing good administrative and management services, saying that since the people were directly affected by services provided, they would either be happy or “terribly angry” with the way the Government was run.

“We can avoid the people’s wrath by ensuring that we serve efficiently. We should not do things that will anger the people and make them feel that civil servants are corrupted.

“Good traits are needed to avoid accusations and it is easy to accuse anyone nowadays, especially on the Internet.

“I am not saying that that all those who blog and use the Internet are not good. There are responsible users but there are also those who say the most preposterous things. If we want to avoid this, we have to make sure we do things properly and efficiently,” he said.