Friday, August 29, 2008

Of Flash floods, Bloggers, Puspakom and Crude Oil

Ok wow, DSAI won the Permatang Pauh seat, big surprise there. Let's move on, shall we.

KL and Klang Valley was again hit by flash flood. Even after the massive spending on SMART tunnel, it seems that the construction of the tunnel for the sole purpose of deviating rain water has been proven to be ineffective.

Just after the by-election, the latest news is about Malaysia Today to be blocked by all 19 Internet Service Providers in Malaysia. Bloggers are furious claiming that it is breaching the MSC Act of not censoring the Net. Wiki had some issues with falsified claims about personalities but it also had a self-correcting system whereby web users worldwide voluntarily "police" the contents of the site. If bloggers want complete freedom of speech, bloggers must be responsible for what they write and be accountable for it. It says a lot about your character.

With the arrest of 28 Puspakom staff over alleged corruption, it goes to show that Malaysians are willing to pay off everyone and everything to get things moving. No wonder we still have illegal buses operating during the festive seasons with half-drugged drivers with enormous amount of unpaid tickets and fines. The crackdown is commendable and should be continued. Quality staffing for ACA should be increased as I reckon their workload is piling up heavily and it is a matter of time before they begin suffocating with bureaucracy and red tape.

It will be a couple of years to go until Malaysia becomes a net importer of crude oil. What does this translate to us? Definitely less revenue from local production. That is why Petronas continues to invest in hot properties around the world for continued supply and revenue for the Government. However, how long can Petronas become the cash cow for Malaysia? What is the next engine of growth for the country? Palm oil? Services? Manufacturing? Retail? Tourism?

4 comments:

bats said...

i'm with you on the freedom of speech thing and bloggers. but if Syed Hamid has so much faith in the courts, which he has proclaimed over and over again lately, what's the excuse for censoring the internet? if someone writes shite, take em to court, not censor the internet. is it harsh if i call his justification idiotic?

thing about the SMART tunnel is, there was never total buy-in by the DID, of all people. the fact that the goverment has poured millions into what appears to be a dud, well, that's yet another example of our money well spent.

here's an idea. how about we clean up the drains? how about that? deepen a few of em (cheaper than a god damned billion ringgit tunnel). what's the drainage like in places where we can't see the drains? all clogged up with crap? why not clean that up? sounds insane, i know... but why not give it a go eh?

while we're at it, why not spend some money on developing cheap, high capacity solar cells? word is china has got a few exports looking at cost efficient solar energy. could just be a rumour though. i bet the chief would think it is just a rumour.

i mean, we can send some dentist to space for a ride, why not spend some money looking at sustainable energy? unless the spaceman brought back some funky rock/energon cube from cybertron that could solve all our energy issues. if he did, then i take all my ridicule towards this space circus, i mean program, back.

i take it baaaaacccckkk!!!!

Azril said...

I remember some years ago a common friend of ours applied to be an ACA enforcer. This friend of ours is intelligent, well-spoken, and would be one of the best investigative enforcers ACA would ever have. He himself is financially independent, thereby the low wages offered by ACA was not a problem for him.

He was told that he was overqualified. I wonder if ACA still adopts the same policy today?

There is a saying that goes something like this:

"A man will not understand something if his salary requires him to not understand it"

Could it be that by virtue of our friend not needing the ACA salary he could then conveniently 'understand' the situation and conduct investigations as how he saw fit?

opcharlie said...

> censoring the Net is probably not a good idea, but it sure makes a point to some quarters, that's the idea.
> cleaning up the drains is a great plan. we clog up our drains and we expect the Govt to clean it up and when flood comes, we blame the Govt. When election comes, we vote against the Govt. What does that tell you? I think enforcement must be tighten up. It's good that we're beefing up PDRM. Local Govt also needs some. There's a lot of revenue to be made from parking tickets, surprisingly, seeing that Malaysians surely don't care about where they park and who they block in the process.
> There is some incentives from Budget 2009 for alternative energy but nothing of significance or substance. Other countries are way ahead than us. We are evaluating the "N" option, which is a good sign.
> The space program is a good PR exercise for Malaysia, just like F1. Maybe the timing was not right since a lot of people were unhappy with the Govt over basic daily stuff. The selection of candidate might be questionable because of some rumors about him. We should re-evaluate our priorities. Is generating patents and strengthening Proton's global reach more important than sending someone to space?
> Azril, on mindset. Ya, we had another friend who tried out for PTD and was rejected on a similar basis. Sometimes you have to play along to fit in. If you portray yourself as being too intelligent or too smart, people tend to shy away. If you want radical changes, people would shut you down. Just like that big Malay political party. It's always a challenge to be accepted.

bats said...

it's the government's (mainly council) responsibility to to clean up the drains, regardless if people voted for them or not.

that approach might currently be in practice, i.e. stay away from area so and so because the MP is from the opposition front, but unfortunately this politics of revenge modus operandi can't be justified.