1TooMany

Nothing wrong with the title ....... it's correct ........ 1TooMany.

The Prime Minister launched the 1Malaysia concept, back in April 2009, to foster closer relationship amongst the multi ethnic/racial society in Malaysia.

The Prime Minister is looking towards the 'One Dream, One People, One nation' and was glad that this has brought much positiveness to the nation. He has claimed that Malaysians are accepting the 1Malaysia concept which brought about the win in the recent Bagan Pinang by-election.

But I think he got carried away till the concepts of 1Region and 1World were mentioned when he addressed the 35th Unesco general conference’s opening plenary session. Not saying that it's impossible to achieve this two concepts but it's way too big. The United Nations is still experiencing certain difficulties in bringing nations to agree on grave issues all these years.

I'm sure that the concepts of 1Region and 1World can't beat the following 1 ....... 1Toilet!

What 1Toilet?

The state of Terengganu's Education, Higher Learning, Human Resource, Science and Technology Committee mooted the 1Toilet concept. Now how is this 1Toilet going to work along with 1Malaysia?

The 1Toilet was to get teachers and principals to share the same toilets with their students. Just by the virtue of sharing the same toilet will bring much transfer of wisdom from the teachers and principals to the students ?!??!?!?!??!??!

This is really getting 1TooMany now. Can we stop abusing the "1" thingy?

I think we should encourage all government-linked-companies to adopt this 1Toilet as well. I want to see all the Tun, Tan Sri and Datuk to share the same toilets with their managers, executives, clerks and office boys. I'm sure this will enhance the corporate mentality and thus, increase the productivity and effectiveness of each company.

What about 1Race? Bangsa Malaysia?

What other 1 should we have?

Reading: ‘1Toilet’ plan to let teachers and students mingle freely - Star
Tags: 1Malaysia, Malaysia, 1Toilet, 1Region, 1World, Unesco General Conference

Do We Pay When Contract is Breached?

It's sickening to read a newspaper article stating that "not a single reservoir in Selangor was cleaned or washed for the whole of last year". Not only that, even the Sungai Sireh water treatment plant in Kuala Selangor had not been washed for over 10 years.

What's happening? Who's in charge of it?

Let's see:-
* Raw water - State government of Selangor
* Water treatment - Puncak Niaga Holdings Bhd, Syarikat Pengeluaran Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Splash) and Konsortium Abass Sdn Bhd (ABASS)
* Distribution of clean, treated water to consumers - Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Syabas)

Our monthly water bill would have included all the above services - provision of raw water, water treatment and distribution of consumable water to us. Failure on one part of the services would have considered a breach of contract?

If they had not done / completed their works, why do we still need to pay the full amount? It's always at the expense of the consumers. What choice or say do we have when such things happen?

If we protest by not paying, we would be penalised.

If they didn't do their works, how should they be penalised?

Reading: Operators fail to follow clean-up schedule - Star
Tags: Puncak Niaga Holdings Bhd, Syarikat Pengeluaran Air Selangor Sdn Bhd, Splash, Konsortium Abass Sdn Bhd, ABASS, Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd, Syabas, Water Treatment Plant, Reservoir

Will Our Buildings Withstand Earthquake?

After experiencing those earthquake shakes at my condo and office building before, it's really not comforting to have read about a Bernama news report that Malaysian buildings cannot withstand a strong earthquake even if it happens at a neighbouring country.

Indonesia's many earthquakes have caused many tremors in Malaysia and a 6.0 Richter Scale shake in Indonesia could be felt in Malaysia easily.

A professor from the Universiti Sains Malaysia's Disaster Research Unit has commented that less than 1% of Malaysia's buildings have constructed the buildings factoring in the earthquake situation. My my.

Which of the buildings in Malaysia then?
Answer: Kuala Lumpur Twin Towers, Penang Bridge and Komtar. Only three structures? That's even less than 0.1%. For those of you whose buildings that are not mentioned .......... ahhh you know what to do.

My office building shook on 30 Sept 2009 when a strong earthquake hit Padang in Indonesia. It was a correct decision to evacuate the building no matter what.

I did hear from friends that not all their colleagues evacuated their offices on that day with some saying that it's just a tremor from Indonesia (if it was an earthquake) and some said that there's no earthquake in Malaysia. Some people really take things for granted.

A structural engineer has told me before that even if it was just a tremor due to an earthquake that has happened faraway, a building may not collapse immediately. Structural damage may have occured but we don't know. If there was a damage and if the structure was built according to actual designs, the structure could withstand the damage temporarily up to say thirty minutes. That's enough time to evacuate and walk faraway from the building.

What about you? Will you evacuate or you are more worried about what others may say about you being the first person to run away?

Reading: Less Than One Per Cent Of Buildings In Malaysia Have Earthquake Preventive Measures - Bernama

Related post - Earthquake Shook My Office Building
Tags: Kuala Lumpur Twin Towers, Penang Bridge, Komtar, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Disaster Research Unit, Earthquake, Richter Scale, Structural Engineer

Sorry State of Public Asset

Going to certain government offices (I can say that this applies to any part of the world) is something that many people do not look forward to. The queues would be long, waiting period for the processing of documents may be hours and the worst of all would be the waiting area are congested.

But it won't beat the situation as shown below -
Tags: Government Office

Barred From Leaving Malaysia

Recently, there were some Malaysians that were barred from leaving Malaysia. Who are they? Wanted criminals? Tax evaders?

It seems that the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) and the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) are conducting such checks in collaboration with the Immigration Dept and managed to catch up with many income tax and loan defaulters.

Those badly affected were Malaysia Airlines employees who have to travel frequently in their line of duty. It was affecting the cabin crews and can you imagine that you are trying to board your plane (or report for duty in the airplane) and you were stopped at the Immigration check point.

The last minute replacement crew would have been rushed from somewhere to replace that crew that was barred from leaving Malaysia.

In a way, I can't pity such people as they have a duty to settle their income tax or loans. If you have taxes or loans to be paid, do pay first because you are obliged to do so. It could also be a chicken and egg story where a cabin crew needs to 'fly' to earn their income in order to pay for the taxes or loans.

Unfortunately, I have also heard from someone that even though you had made payments to PTPTN, the people working there were slow in updating the files. In due time, info on bad loan accounts were sent to the Immigration Dept to nab such culprits.

In this case, I agree that income tax defaulters/evaders should be barred for they were supposed to pay taxes based on preceding year's income. They have earned the income but failed to remit the required amount. It's their bad financial management then. They chose to default.

Some are really innocent. Some acted as if they were innocent. Why did it happen in the first place? It happened because these people took it for granted.

The Malaysian Airlines System Employees' Union (MASEU) is calling for a review on the travel ban on income tax and study loan defaulters. What for? To protect people who flout the laws?

Unless these staff had agreed on settlement plans with IRB or PTPTN in advance, they should barred. Well, you were barred because you failed to do something properly. Whose fault in the first place?

If it was IRB or PTPTN that didn't update their files even though settlement agreements/payments were made, then we should get those fellas in IRB or PTPTN to compensate for the loss of income of those that were barred from travelling for no reasons. Fair?

It works in both ways, cannot be just penalising the defaulters but also the bad performers.

Reading: MAS employees want review of travel ban on tax, loan defaulters - Star
Tags: Inland Revenue Board, IRB, National Higher Education Fund Corporation, PTPTN, Immigration Dept, Malaysian Airlines System Employees' Union, MASEU, Malaysia Airlines

Malaysia Finished Behind Laos

"Malaysia Finished Behind Laos" - when I saw that headline in the online news, I got a very good feeling that it was related to football. True enough, it was. How devastating!

If you think that it was alright because it was just the Under-19 team representing Malaysia, please bear in mind that this group of players (if they are the best) would be representing Malaysia for as long as they can play. So, don't think of World Cup qualifications for the next 10 years???????

Hopefully they can spot a few other talented players over the years to beef up this squad.

How can Malaysia's football development be so poor? Whose fault? Our future doesn't look bright at all. Foundation is always the main thing.

If you were to say 'please give them a chance', I would tell you to follow up with the on-going Under-20 World Cup being held in Egypt. Look at who has qualified for this World Cup tournament.

Of all countries, Laos? And kudos to Laos for the fantastic results knowing the fact their resources/facilities are way below what Malaysia can provide for their team.

Why am I bothered with this football progress since it's so poor? I'm passionate about it since young and would love to see my own country being up there. That's why! Not just because I like to ridicule.

Reading: Malaysia finish behind Laos - Star
Tags: Laos, Football, Soccer, Under-20 World Cup

Bloggers Invited By Federal Government

Received an invitation from the Ministry of Federal Territories last week to be present for the Blog4FT campaign which was to be held at Pavilion KL on Monday.

I did question the person who invited me as I was wondering how did he obtain my email address and how did he get to know that I was a blogger. You know what I mean when you receive an email from the Federal Government people.

Found out that he was the Special Officer to the Minister too. A small world indeed when my colleague told me he knew this guy after reading the email invitation for this event.

Took leave on Monday and ran around to settle some stuff for the new house and rushed back to shower prior to departing for Pavilion KL. Quite a jam along Jalan Sultan Ismail after exiting Smart Tunnel. Arrived at the centre of Pavilion and saw that it was filled with chairs in view of the launching of the Blog4FT campaign.

The shopping centre was beautifully decorated with Kolam designs in anticipation of the forthcoming Deepavali festival on 17 Oct 2009.

Back to the campaign. What's the campaign about?

The Ministry is engaging bloggers and traditional media to write about stuff / happenings in the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Labuan.

Browse through the dedicated website for this event itself, Blog4FT. Are you game for it? A blogging competition is being held and the Ministry actually encourages you to blog positively and promote FT indirectly.

It's opened to anyone divided into four categories, namely:-
* Malaysian Public - This category is open to all Malaysian citizens except those that fall under the Malaysian Media or the Junior Categories.

* Junior - This category is open only to Malaysian citizens below the age of 18 as at 31 December 2009.

* Malaysian Media - This category is open to employees of Malaysian Media Companies registered with the Malaysian Government.

* International - This category is open to non-Malaysian citizens.

I found that this is a good move indeed as this Ministry is trying to build good rapport with the bloggers instead of threatening bloggers as done by another ministry (which do not deserve my mention).

Registered my goodself upon arrival and was told that the event may begin around 3.15pm. My guess was correct. The little delay to the start of the event attended by big shots was expected.

Don't know how many bloggers were invited but felt privileged to be one of the bloggers.

While waiting for the event to begin, I dropped by at Dome cafe which was located just besides the event area. Made full use of the RM5 voucher (part of the door gift) and ordered a Tiramisu cake (a blogger has forgotten to take picture of his food?!?!??!). After deducting the RM5, the cake cost me RM9.95.

The arrival of the special guests was welcomed by a group of drum instruments performers. Can't take a picture as they were seated on the other end of the stage. You get to see different races playing their own drums (must learn the names of those drums) and they were able to rhyme it beautifully.

The Minister, YB Dato' Raja Nong Chik, gave a short speech telling us that he just got the hang of the internet and high technology era because of pressures from his kids.

After much persuasion from his kids (not those in kindergarten mind you but teens), he caught up with it really fast and is now known as the Facebook Minister in the Cabinet for having a thriving Facebook account.

Sadly and maybe unfortunately, the Ministry of Federal Territories' website is not updated and bearing in mind that the event was organised by the same ministry, they should have taken more responsibility in updating the name of the Minister. It's still showing the previous Minister's name and the previous organisation chart ......... tsk tsk tsk.

C'mon, please update your website.

At the end of the speech, a number of guests were called to the stage to press a button I supposed and it initiated a "biometric scanner". That's what it says at the screen behind them.

Thereafter, a short skit was presented by five individuals depicting how they were brought up in FT since young and what FT was to them.

At the closing of the event, representatives from the Ministry, organiser, sponsors stood at stage for a photo session.

The event (especially the blogging competition's prizes) was sponsored by some large Malaysian companies.









Walked up to the 4th floor to take this picture of the event area.















Could see a better effect of the Kolam design from up there.
Tags: Blog4FT, Ministry of Federal Territories, Pavilion KL, Kolam Design, Deepavali, Raja Nong Chik