Friday, August 10, 2007

Let All Races Benefit

'Let all races benefit from govt funds,' is the statement made by our Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

Doesn't it sound like a bait before the fishing begins? We know elections is around the corner. This is the same man who made the statement that Malaysia is an Islamic country knowing fully well what is written in the Federal Constitution. He was probably fishing for votes among the rural Muslims. Now he wants to give handouts to the non-Muslims to garner their votes. I wonder how many people will be taken in by this?

We don't need handouts. We need clear policies governing our basic needs like freedom of worship, a place for our children in the universities, jobs for those who graduate and business opportunities for our children who want to venture out into the business world. At the moment the little Napoleons in the various government departments dictate who should get a place in the university, who should get scholarship, who should get the business licence and who should get promoted! Most of the time it looks like all this is done by looking at the racial card.

If the DPM is serious about what he said, he needs to just look at the government departments and see how many non-bumiputras are employed there. Check the Ministry of Education and see how many Principals of schools are non-bumiputras. That's not too dificult to do. If you want all races to benefit, make sure they all have access to higher education so that they can take care of themselves. No need for handouts from any political party.

Below is an example of a handout that is vague :
A Selangor state assemblyman, when contacted, said Barisan assemblymen receive about “a few hundred thousand ringgit” a year to organise programmes for the rakyat.
“It is already a practice for the assemblymen to share the allocation with local Barisan component party leaders.
“However, the money cannot go to any political party.
“Rather, the parties will recommend where we should channel the allocation and the money will go straight to the rakyat,” he said.


Has any money ever gone straight to the "rakyat"? It sounds like a money train. The train will stop at designated places and the train driver will just throw out bags of money to the people waiting at the respective stations! How wonderful!

Thursday, August 02, 2007

Wedding Anniversaries

What is it with anniversaries that causes so many flare ups and frictions between couples? All because one party forgot the date! And another thing is the menu for that special event. Even that can be a big problem.

One good friend of mine asked what we had planned for our anniversary which incidentally falls on this day. I told her nothing special. We woke up in the morning to go to market to buy fruits. Had our breakfast there. Came back to do the household chores as usual. We had a good lunch together with our younger son. Tom yam chicken soup, fish, clay-pot tauhu and vegetables with a nice cold drink. This is what we like.

I think couples should learn to enjoy each others company everyday then anniversaries will not be a problem. You don’t need candle-lit dinners and champagne. The only time we use candles is when there is a blackout. We try not to eat during that time as the visibility will be poor and there will be uninvited guests flitting around the candles and land on the food!

And further more, when you gaze at each other’s eyes there will be no more twinkles in the eyes. Twitching maybe and the dull reflection of the candles! Get real.

What we would really enjoy is opening up a number of durians, say around 10 numbers, and sit on the kitchen floor and finish them off! Now that, would be a great event for an anniversary! We have ordered the durians and are now awaiting their arrival.