Clear and Present Danger

Great title eh! I saw the movie but that is not where this title comes from. It comes from the headlines of this morning's paper that I just read. The article goes to say that the warning signs are clear. A water crisis is looming and the two clear indicators are the pollution level of rivers and the demand for clean drinking water. This statement was given by the Director of the Drainage and Irrigation Department(DID). Very simple.


And I thought it had something to do with the atmosphere caused by the Americans. You know, all the rockets and probes that had been sent up that may have caused some sort of disturbance to our atmosphere thereby causing less rain to fall which could be considered as critically dangerous at present. As such - clear and present danger!

Or, it could have been due to that hole in the sky that was the hot topic among environmentalists some years back caused by the fumes from all the cars (mostly from America- again the culprits) and that this hole might somehow have positioned itself just above our country instead of going to the good old US of A . This could have resulted in all the moisture above our country being sucked up into that hole, thus depriving us of rain. This is a clear and present danger.

Instead, I read that the issue was about river pollution and increasing demand of drinking water! What a let down. As it is we don't even have giant monsters from space attacking our cities as in Tokyo and New York. Even the UFOs don't come here. Only silly statements.
We had pollution all the time. As long as the birth rate is greater than the death rate we will experience an increase in the demand for water. This increase can be stopped if a war breaks out and millions of people are killed. At present I think this is unlikely to happen. The Director's proposal to combat this clear and present danger is to increase water tariffs! The revenue from this increase would be transfered to DID who can then use it to rehabilitate rivers. This coming from a senior government servant!

In our country, water is a state matter. This means that every state government has the rights to its water revenue. Thus the Federal government cannot take that revenue earned from water supply. I am not against river rehabililtation. It was that proposal to raise the tariff. The government had just raised the fuel prices by 30 cents. This raise has raised a lot of other things like my regular bowl of noodles and not to mention the economy rice that we eat everyday. I think the Prime Minister is too smart to fall for something stupid like that. What the Director should have done was to ask the Federal government for grants to take care of the rivers. This will benefit the whole nation and the Prime Minister would probably approve it and would transfer some money from Petronas and pass it to the DID to carry out their job of keeping the rivers free from pollution. The procedure for the fund transfer might not necessarily be according to my description but generally that is what should have been done. NOT increasing tariffs!

Scholarships and Fairness

In one of our local news papers was a headline "Najib on the new realities - impossible to offer scholarships to all". This statement is from our Deputy Prime Minister. It is not a new reality. We have known it all along. It is just another political statement by a politician for want of something to say. In every country there will be winners and losers. Similarly, some will get scholarship and some won't, even if they are almost evenly qualified. The edge would have been in some extra-curricular activity. We understand that.

That is not the problem here in Malaysia. What is baffling is when students who get straight A's do not get the scholarship but those with less A's get the scholarship! The government has one policy for the media to publish but have a different one at the implementation stage. Either that or they have too many warlords who control the various departments who don't give a damn for the policies.

A perfect example would be the dressing policy. The government said there is no policy to force students to wear 'tudungs' (cloth to cover the hair on the head) but in so many schools the headmaster/headmistress or even the teachers think otherwise. Some teachers even pinch the students if the hair is not properly covered. They even ask the non-Muslims to cover during certain functions like school competitions in the name of uniformity! How cunning can you get. Another example would be the ruling by the International Islamic University for the female non-Muslim graduands to cover their hair on graduation day. When queried they say it is not religious but the university policy! When the French did not allow one student because she wore a scarf to school they were up in arms about freedom of religion. Hypocrites!

In some departments dealing with the public, the head of department even put up signs telling the public that they won't be allowed in if not properly dressed. The gall of some government servants. Properly dressed by whose standards? Who are they serving? Don't they know they are servants and not masters - hence government servants!

But I digress. The issue is about scholarships. We can only wait and see if this time around there is some fairness in the giving out of government scholarships. The intergrity of the Prime Minister is at stake here. He has made many statements about transparency and being fair to all the various races. We shall wait and see.

Fuel Price Hike

The government has allowed a fuel price hike of 30 cents per litre. In the good old days it used to be an increase of a few cents. Not anymore, as it is reported that the government needs the money to improve public transportation and for development projects! I thought maybe it was to offset the billions that was reported wasted on maintaining public buildings.

This increase will trigger increases in many basic necessities. The people who will be hardest hit are the lower income groups who live in the cities. This group also includes the pensioners. I sincerely hope the present government has some concrete plans to control the price of basic necessities. Just look at what is happening inThailand and the Phillipines. We really don't need to reach such a stage to seek fairplay and justice for the citizens.

Please don't compare fuel prices with neighbouring countries without placing all the cards on the table. That will be like comparing an apple to an orange. I heard Brunei citizens don't have to pay taxes! How about comparing that? The good news is that there will be no further hikes for this year!!! If that is not good news I don't know what is!

Billions Wasted

The headlines in one of our local dailies read 'Billions wasted in repairing public buildings....' - statement made by our Prime Minister. "Due to poor maintenance of buildings and amenities, we have to allocate big sums of money for repairs. This is a loss,” he said.

All he has to do is to get the Works Minister to tweak the Public Works Department to carry out their job. They have the technical expertise and the manpower but due to poor leadership the department is not functioning as it should. As I have commented before it all goes back to management. The managers need to 'prune' their staff. Get rid of the dead wood for the good of the department as a whole. Many times the lazy and good for nothing staff are not reprimanded but instead are promoted so that they can be transfered to another section. The idiot is still an idiot but with a higher rank and more pay.

This also happens in the education ministry. The teachers hardly go to class and do their core business - teaching. They are involved in co-curriculum activities or some beautifying campaign started by some idiot education official higher up.

The Prime Minister also suggested that schools assign teachers to take charge of the management and maintenance of buildings and other facilities, adding that owners of other public buildings and amenities should also do the same. This will give another reason for the teachers not to go to their respective classes and teach.

It is better to flog the Public Works Department who already have the various technical staff to handle such matters throughout the country to start doing their jobs. It is not necessary for any more working paper or new guidelines for this problem to be handled by teachers or other non-technical staff. Just make sure the technicians do their job and make sure the teachers go to their class and teach. Good management, empowerment and enforcement...that's all you need.

Management Problem

It was reported in one of our local newspapers that 11 men were arrested during their mahjong session on the second day of the Chinese New Year. They were taken to the police lock-up and had their heads shaved! Incidentally most of these men were senior citizens. Their ages ranged between 31- 69. The 31 yr old was the owner of the coffeshop where the mahjong session was held. The police claimed it was standard procedure to shave the detainees in the lock-up. The Prime Minister has ordered the police to investigate the Kajang police to see if they had really followed police procedures as they claimed.

Meanwhile the 11 'bald men' are suing the police over the alleged mistreatment. My question is was it necessary for the police to shave their heads? Do they look like dangerous criminals? Do they pose a threat to the community? Any Malaysian police worth his salt knows that many Chinese play mahjong. Especially during the Chinese New Year. What is the big deal about these 11 old men? The Kajang OCPD must answer for his actions. He doesn't seem mature enough to hold the post.

I believe this is the main problem in our country. Many people are promoted to high posts even though they do not merit it. They haven't gone through the mill which would have moulded them for the tough job and the difficult decisions that need to be made during the course of their work. They get the post through some short cut or some unwritten rule of having only certain people at the top regardless of their calibre. When such things happen we get silly incidences which are blown up in the news.

The latest news is there will be a major shake-up in the top brass of our police force. Of the 14 names given in the paper only 1 is Chinese and the rest are Malays. Not one Indian at the top !
And the government wonders why the non-Malays don't join the police force! The answer is very simple .. nobody wants to be a coolie all their working life. Maybe it is time the government took a closer look at their policy for promotions and the opportunities available to the non-Malays in all sectors. This could make a difference in the way we manage this country. Just take a look at MAS. If the trend is allowed to go on we will be losing many more millions. Do we really need a mat salleh to tell us how to run our business? We can do it on our own. We only need to appoint the right Malaysians who are qualified regardles of their race.

Wake up and trust other races to be managers. We may make it to 2020 a stronger nation financially, fully committed to our multi-racial, multi-religious, tolerent and peaceful society. Anybody agree with me?

A Grain Of Sand Indeed!

Not too long ago I posted that inspirational poem about the oyster and the grain of sand inside it. Little did I know that I would be given "a grain of sand" in the passage way(urethra) that passes out urine. Anybody who has had this "grain of sand" would know what I am talking about.

It starts off as an irritation and then develops into a third degree torture. You cannot find any comfortable position and you feel nausea as well. Then your whole body sweats due to the extreme pain. You double up with pain and couldn't care less what people are thinking when they see you walking to the doctors' office with one hand on your side and your head looking down on the floor. You just want the pain to go away. Before the pain can be made to go away you will receive more pain. The needle into the arm to get blood for tests. Another prick on the finger tip to check for diabetes and a double on the rear, the pain killer, which is what I was waiting for. Even that shot took two hours to take effect. Then another needle on the back of the palm to give the drip.

When the drip filled up my bladder I was taken for an ultra-sound scan which didn't clearly show the "grain of sand". When I went to the 'loo' I was able to let go of all that fluid. The doctor said maybe it got flushed out. I was able to go home around 5.00pm. I checked in at 10.00am.
At least now I know it wasn't my kidneys, or some other serious thing that had gone wrong inside my body. Thank God for that.

Now I have to drink lots of water. A friend said she heard that drinking beer could also help. So, cheers mate! I am certainly no oyster! heh heh ... it's good to be free from pain.

An Oyster

An inspirational poem :

An Oyster

There once was an oyster

Whose story I tell,

Who found that some sand

Had got into his shell.

It was only a grain,

but it gave him great pain.

For oysters have feelings

Although they're so plain.

Now, did he berate

the harsh workings of fate

That had brought him

To such a deplorable state?

Did he curse at the government,

Cry for election,

And claim that the sea should

Have given him protection?

'No,' he said to himself

As he lay on a shell,

Since I cannot remove it,

I shall try to improve it.

Now the years have rolled around,

As the years always do,

And he came to his ultimate

Destiny ­ stew.

And the small grain of sand

That had bothered him so

Was a beautiful pearl

All richly aglow.

Now the tale has a moral,

for isn't it grand

What an oyster can do

With a morsel of sand?

What couldn't we do

If we'd only begin

With some of the things

That get under our skin.

[ Author Unknown ]

Injustice

I read in the paper today that it has been eight months since the last arrival of aid to the Tsunami victims in Aceh Besar. Why? Is it because of inclement weather? Is it because there is no access to the site where the victims have taken refuge? Is it because of lack of manpower to distribute the aid or lack of transportation? None of the above.

The newspaper reports, "The Belawan Customs and Excise Office has detained 117 containers filled with tsunami aid such as food, clothes, medicines and generators, at Belawan Port in Medan for the past eight months due to 'inadequate documentation' ". And the acting regent of Nias Selatan who is also the secretary to the North Sumatra Disaster Management Committee said that there was a major likelihood that the tsunami aid officially being detained at the Balawan port could actually have been stolen. It doesn't say if he is taking any action on this disturbing news. The newspaper article also mentions that several months ago, canned fish donated by the World Food Programme to the tsunami survivors were instead found being sold in the Medan markets!

My question is, if all these things are known by the authorities, what the hell are they doing about it? How can a nation of over 200 million allow a few corrupt civil servants to do as they please at the expense of so many suffering survivors. Or is it because the corrupt number is not just a few but in fact a larger number? I wonder. This is one place where justice must not only be done but must be seen to be done to get back the confidence of its people and the international community in the elected government.

In the local scene our Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has stated that matters concerning religious conversion needed to be spelt out plainly in the Federal Constitution and other laws to prevent confusion among Malaysians. This is a timely statement especially after the ugly wrangle between family and religious authority for M. Moorthy’s soul.

One local daily reports that "For the family — Kaliammal’s and others in a similar predicament now and in the future — it has been shown beyond dispute that conversions to Islam can no longer be left as a private concern, as they can in legal systems where there is a clear separation of church and state." This country is multi-cultural, multi-religious and multi-lingual with some atheists thrown in. We need to have tolerence of each other's beliefs and customs. We cannot demand that one must adhere to the others' laws. It will never happen. History has shown us that there will be blood baths whenever religion and politics become bed fellows. Let's hope and pray that such a thing never happens to this country.

If the country is allowed to be run by religious characters who hide behind their 'holy books' or 'holy garbs' we are in for a terrible time. Take the fatwa issued by Rashad Hassan Khalil of Egypt, a former dean of Al-Azhar University's Faculty of Syariah. He says "being completely naked during the act of coitus annuls the marriage." For such a 'learned' man, couldn't he have explored something to improve the quality of life or encouraged his followers to be honest, sincere and caring to his fellow men so that such incidents like the tsunami aid being stuck at the Belawan port does not occur. What happens to a husband and his wife in their bedroom has become an international issue now! So, the message is very clear. Leave religion out of politics and leave politics out of religion. Otherwise we will have 'religious nuts' running the country. Vote wisely.