What it means to me as a road paying toll user

I have been driving since 1989, and I have to say that roads these days really make travelling easier provided of course, that you can afford it.

Affordability here would mean that if you drive a car and wouldn't mind spending a few bucks to shorten your trip. Surely there is a percentage of road users out there that wouldn't mind paying because their trips are paid for by the company and then there are those who just wouldn't want to spend that few extra RM.

We have heard often enough about a certain former minister who was given the unofficial name of 'Semi-Toll'. Surely we all know it by now that the formulation of agreement with toll road concessionaires are done at the very high level, and the involvement of not only the works, but finance ministry as well as others. And lately, we now have leaked Official Secret Documents of toll concessions thhat were skewed towards their benefits.

Put all that aside, and look at the network of roads we have right now. The North South east West highways has made travelling all that much faster, and taking seasonal festive holidays into consideration, then we do need more network of roads.

Recently, we have now been told that PLUS highwways which is now probably the largest toll road operator in the region, which has had a positive outlook, and have been given the buy call by most analysts, is now up for sale (though there has been denials in the Dewan officially in reply to YB Wee Choo Keong's question)

The most recent to overide (quire rightly!!) the previous talked about proposals from Asas Serba (Former Renong - Halim Saad boys) and SMASH (Syed Mokhtar Inc) is the possibility of PLUS and more than likely UEM to go back to the RAKYAT via EPF!

Risen Jayaseelan of The Star seems to agree that if at all PLUS is to be offloaded, then why shouldn't it go back to the rakyat? After all, its basically a left hand to right hand deal that assures the rakyat that the deal will benefit the rakyat and that the management of the company will be responsible to the stakeholders, again the Rakyat.

Tell you what.....this blog has not been this excited since that....Airline messed the life of that stewardess!

But do come back again to find out why SMASH (that three lettered mining company which lost out on that car company....) seems to fall WAYYYYYYY SHORT of the EPF deal!

SPAD - Syed Hamid Albar suffers 'premature emasculation'

Sometimes, it is ok to say what you think, as an individual. But, it remains your personal opinion, which is why when some people make it to public office, they are then scrutinised for what they say.

And who can fault the general public from doing so.

Here are some examples, of those who have had to experience public backlash for what they have said.

Octavia Nasr - A Journo with CNN who was asked to leave following her tweet about a public figure in Iran - Read here - And she wasn't even a public servant. She shared her personal opinion on a public figure, that she respected a lot, and she had no fear in expressing that.

Kurt Westergaard - The Danish Cartoonist who drew the ire of Muslims worldwide when he depicted the Prophet Muhammad in an insulting caricature - had to pay with his personal freedom, in one incident when a somali man broke into his home to try to take his life. This is probably a more extreme case of drawing hatred through personal action. But nevertheless, he chose to do what he did and he is paying for it.

Khairy Jamaluddin - A distingusihed gentleman, who some will see as what personifies the young urban Malay man, well educated, but caught in no man's land of Malaysia politics. Voted chief of UMNO Youth, yet wielding no more support that what already pushed him to the possible highest office, post Tun Abdullah Badawi. He draws a lot of flak from within the party as well as outside, yet the average opposition supporter hopes that the likes of him will come out from UMNO to offer more support to the 'ultra liberal Malay' the likes of Harris Ibrahim and those hell bent on destroying BN and UMNO. He is known to have long drawn twitter-spats with some diehard UMNO bloggers, most notably Bigdog whom he ask if' he was obese and ugly' on twitter. Now MrYB, that is a no-no.

There are countless others, but last night, a former Minister whom I think is trying his level best to make a come back came up with an exclusive on what is the next level of rail transportation from KL to Johor - High speed rail.

It is really not that far fetched, but not having able to give numbers, or timeline, it appears to me that it was his personal opinion. Or was it SPADs? SPAD is supposed to be the definitive answer to Land public transportation woes. But since the announcement in June 2010, nothing much has moved, largely due to the fact that there are legislation involved and until that is solved, nothing gets to go.
So in yesterday's interview, Syed Hamid Albar says that high speed rail can transport passengers from Kl to Johor within an hour, and probably beyond that to Singapore too.

So was he speaking about the recently concluded POA meeting between Najib and Hsien Loong and that he was privy to the POA meeting, or was he speaking in terms of what can be ideal?

SHA has to learn that, since he is Chairman of SPAD, and legally SPAD cannot make any representations yet, he should just quietly sit down and plan, not talk about his plans, yet.

What's in and what's out....

A lot has been made about today's Headliner in The Star.

I can tell you that it is no longer 'in' to comment on Jho Low. Why?

Here is a man focussed on his goals, he has very firmly decided that no matter how many Malaysians have been attacking him, he is hell bent to stick with Malaysia.

And how can you fault a man who still carries his own bottle of water??
It certainly is no champagne bottle here!!

'Man and 50 friends holds world ransom'=Bad childhood

That was what the headlines should have read, rather than 'Pastor's plan to burn Koran' by the New York Times.

After all, with his little stunt, Terry Jones has risen from 0-333,000+ search pages on google.

Heck, he even has his own wiki now. Last modified on 10th September 2010, and was created on 17th August 2010.

In fact, the earliest recorded article was 17th August, and the next was September 8th!
That tells a lot about pulling of stunts like this right?

On..and off...and now maybe on again! This kinda people should be just hauled in.

Thank god in Malaysia, if someone wants to pull a trick like that, we have the sure hand of the authorities to put him where he belongs!

Kinda like that other guy, whom I had some respect for. Now, he just gone to proof further that he is a coward, and pointing fingers all the time!

So, people, welcome to the world of the internet, where the truth is not believed, even if you hear it from the accused themselves!

But the more sensational, the more coverage it gets! Just as in the movie, 'Untraceable' where a particular Killer posted videos on the internet, and as more viewers tuned in, the devices set up to kill the victim is sped up to do the grim task! The message? The more you are interested in it, the more the killer will 'please' his audience.

So, such is the case with this Terry Jones bugger.

There is no God, in his case! 50 followers? International? How does he even qualify that??
51 people can form a church?

I don't know about you. All things tell me that 'this guy had a bad childhood!'

Zaid wants you to know this....

I wasn't really going to post anything until after raya, which was why I put up a 'biar lambat, asalkan selamat' posting a couple of days ago.

And then, I read this.

Zaid Ibrahim who leapt at the opportunity to join PKR , presumably by most of his 'good following', was quick to point out then that he had no ambitions in the party when he did so.
It seems, he merely felt that PKR was the right party for him, principled, we are led to believe, and that it was not because that there would be the possibility of him to become the president of the party should Anwar Ibrahim be sent to jail for a second time (pending his trial, a-la Sodomy II that is)

Almost a year later, Zaid has now offered himself to be a candidate for the second man, and already, he is seen by many die hard PKR supporters as an UMNO agent in deep cover.

Funny, isn't it how one year can change so much for some people?

A year ago, this time, many were expecting a change in government.
A year ago, this time, some people suddenly disappeared, only to appear in another country, claiming to be a Malaysian, and fighting for her freedom, it seems.

Zaid in a recent statement said that ' "It's strange that they would react and behave this way. When I was accepted into the party a year ago, I was hailed as a hero and someone who is principled and brave, a political champion who did not care for position and status. Now, 12 months later, I have suddenly become a disloyal person, a shit-stirrer and someone who will sell the party to Umno. The personal attacks against me have been heightened. These remind me of the character assassination against me at the Hulu Selangor by-election, only then it was Umno which was whipping me."

They say lightning never strikes twice. So if UMNo has found out that Zaid is not one that is loyal to her sauce, what makes PKR supporters think that they have one who is loyal to theirs?

They say politics is a dirty game. Tee found out the hard way, when his boss put him out in the cold.

Malaysians must realise that the game they call politics is meant, for politicians only.

Don't for one think that the man on the street can be magically transformed into a politician that can 'make things happen'

P.S....I hear from a bird that a group that has transformed itself from apolitical is now speaking to a principled hero on the formation of another party, a direct membership to PR?

Drive safe, 'Biar Lambat, Asalkan Selamat'

Its the festive season once again, and instead of saying 'whats there to celebrate', 'its all downhill from here on' and all those complaints, I have one thing to remind you.

Take a good look around you and be thankful for what you have.

Appreciate what you have been blessed with and help those who need that extra hand along the way.

In this upcoming festive season, may all my muslim friends enjoy the Aidil Adha holidays that they have spent the whole month if not year observing, and to all Malaysians, be safe on the roads.

Remember, 'Biar Lambat, Asalkan Selamat' (better to be late than to be sorry)

To all of you who still think Malaysia is the beeeeeeeeeeesteeeest place on earth, remember that and mend all cracks!

Its tough being a blogger

Who can forget the first ever case brought against two bloggers, Rocky and Jeff by NST?
We all know now that it wasn't NST per se, but some goons who thought that it was the best way to shut up two, now prominent bloggers, one who e=went on to become a member of parliament, and the other a group editorial advisor for a publishing company.

Hell! I was asked to stop commenting about MAS indiscretions, something I still hope to spill put someday.

But for now, its Hassan Skodeng. I met him before, but knowing him or not is not the issue.

The issue is that Hassan, like Rocky, Jeff, and a few others have been brought in front of the court of law to intimidate the many others that have the right to opinion. Opinion remains that, opinion.

But a joke? If one cannot tell the difference between humour and rumour, then surely life would be tough.

I remember reading his piece, reproduced below pasted from rocky bru, and thought to myself that wouldn't that be something if TNB was to take action against him......

By Hassan Skodeng
TNB to sue WWF over Earth Hour

KUALA LUMPUR — Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB), Malaysia’s premier energy provider today announced that they were taking legal action against the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) for organising the Earth Hour, a global movement that makes a stand against climate change by turning off all non-essential lights and electrical equipment for an hour every year.

In a Press conference, TNB president and CEO Dato’ Sri Che Khalib Mohd Noh said that the annual worldwide symbolic gesture, which this year would be observed this Saturday at 8.30pm, is nothing more than an ‘arrogant and thoughtless viral movement’ aimed to hurt power companies such as TNB.

CHE KHALIB: These people are inconsiderate. “Obviously these green-minded fellows think they’re really cute, organising such an irresponsible campaign,” said Che Khalib angrily. “They say ‘turn off your lights for an hour’ and people do. I bet that really makes them feel all powerful.

“What these western colonialists fail to grasp is how such drastic action affects the poor companies like us. One hour of unused electricity means an hour of wastage for TNB. Did you know that last year’s Earth Hour costed us millions in unrealised revenue?” asked Che Khalib, seething.

“How do you think that affected our production? We couldn’t exactly turn off our power plants just because a large number of Malaysians turn off their lights at the same time. So imagine all that wasted energy.

“This year, we expect even more people to fall for this global con-job,” added Che Khalib.

“So there’ll be more lights turned off. KL alone would be engulfed in darkness. Yes, sure, it may seem fun to some, running around in complete darkness. But that also means TNB would get less money. Tell me, what am I supposed to say to the kids of this electrical technician when we can’t give bonus this year?” asked Che Khalib, as he pointed to a TNB staff manning the lights for the Press conference.

He added, “In light of such inconsiderate actions by these tree huggers, TNB has no choice but to take legal action against the Earth Hour organisers, WWF. We’ll wait for our accountants to come back with the loss figure after this year’s Earth Hour, and we plan to sue them for that same amount. We may even add a hundred million ringgit or so, to teach them a lesson.”

Che Khalib also reminded Malaysians to ignore the Earth Hour, calling it a ‘cultural invasion, a concerted assault by extreme liberal forces aimed to destabilise poorer nations’.

“We are Malaysians, and we should be proud of our lights. Every night we should go out and see the beautiful sparkling lights in our city skylines. Don’t be ashamed of the lights,” said Che Khalib, as he unveiled a set of pictures showing the Petronas Twin Towers and the surrounding buildings consequently going dark during last year’s Earth Hour.

God knows how many people tripped over things and hurt themselves in the complete darkness, not to mention the number of bad people going around doing naughty things, knowing the authorities could not see them.

“Let’s reverse the order of these pictures this year, and fight for the rights to our lights,” continued Che Khalib. “Let’s unite as 1Malaysia, and tell these green terrorists that we will not go dark! We will not switch off! Let’s tell them that we love our lights!

“POWERRR… EXTREME!” he screamed, as powerful clusters of foglamps flooded the conference room with ultra-bright and hot light, temporarily blinding everyone present, and signalling the end of the Press conference.

In solidarity with Hassan Skodeng!

Shhhhhhhhssshhhh...Blogging is tough!
p.s....the 'article' above is meant to tickle your funnybone....unless of course if you are the CEO of TNB!