Great Wall and UMNO..shaken and collapsed..

one may has just been agonizingly ‘disturbed’, the other one  has totally trembled (i guess). which one?

Malaysian politics have come to such an intriguing twist. at least, the Malay politics. What’s up with UMNO, people? the party that has fought so hard for the Malays, for the economic and physical development of our beloved Bolehland.. for the social development and religion? i leave that to you.  I  will not talk much about the sinking sampan, because as Datu Seri Samy Vellu mentioned, it is UMNO internal-problem. leave it to the ‘family’ to solve their troubles. We should care, but  what can we actually do about it? Malay unity is at its lowest, even within a party; what more can we say about the Islamic unity. But like a minister said, Dr.M must has hated Pak Lah more than he actually love the party. Thats quite true..just how can you help to save a company, or a society, if you are out of it? Should we give PakLah another chance? I think it’s fair to give him time to plan for his stepping down, but Chedet didn’t think so. He wanted immediate actions, he wanted Najib to bite his trap into pulling PakLah down, but to no avail. He is a man of vision and mission, but wut he did was adding more worry to us all. Is it for the sake of party and people, or purely emotional? But let’s hope it ‘ll trigger change and improvement. i will not talk about UMNO because its their problem and so far i am being neutral and do not belong to any specific political stance, yet..but i will talk about Malays. as seen from a young, learning fellow. later.

Enough of the local drama.

Another big, anxious (and obviously more global and pressing) matter today is the earthquake in China. they may have won the Thomas Cup, but back in the country? yesterday, a 102-year old ‘senior’ citizen was rescued, after a week trapped. boy, he must have 9 lives, because a normal guy at his age would have died of heart attack after such occurrence and in taht condition for such a long time. a newborn baby was also saved days earlier, n a few..  but apart from that? death toll could be more than 50,000; 5 million people became homeless and are exposed to post-quake hazards, disease outbreaks.. they set the Olympics to start off on 8-8-2008, but i seriously dont think they’re being lucky enough this year.   The snowstorm came first, and then Tibet rioting was a worldwide signal. Ironically, the 7.9 magnitude quake happened 88 day before the Olypics open on August 8. Apart from numbers, Chinese people also believe in animal astrology, so what is wrong with the year of Rat? they partly blamed their supreme leaders today that they were born in the year of Horse. Horse and Rat wouldn’t match, rite?  Also, the year of Rat is symbolised by earth and water; an unstable relationship in 2008. They are made to believe in those, but what i believe is, if God want to punish and put us into test, He will just do it..

 

 

 Chinese bloggers blame the government for ignoring the natural signs that may alert people that disaster was coming. Water level in a pond plunged to people’s amaze, thousands of toads appeared on streets and few hours before the quake, animals at a local zoo began acting strangely. It was reported that the quake impact was actually felt as far as Pakistan and the cyclone-hit Myanmar. So, should we in Malaysia act nothing, just be happy and act like there is nothing to be fear of? apart from donating into China and Myanmar Relief Funds, we can plan our own disaster management and mitigation plan. I used to believe that our country is major natural disaster-free, but what has the lesson of tsunami teach us? That we should now be serious in our disaster management. We could learn from Japan on their disaster planning and management..the disaster alert system, the building positioning, design methods, construction materials, repair and reconstruction plan..  Maybe i will have my say on disaster planning later. it is an interesting topic for me..if i get lucky, before anything else hit us..

NCER – in the pipeline or just a pipe dream?

This article is posted here as published in The Star, May 13 (page N51) with the title ” Northern region must see growth”.

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 I refer to the report ‘Perak waiting for share of NCER funds’ (The Star, May 10). Perak is the latest state to adopt the Northern Corridor Implementation Agency Act 2008 and is now banking on the Federal Government to fulfill its promise to fairly distribute the needed funds in order to develop the participating states of Northern Corridor Economic Region (NCER).

 

Penang was the first state to adopt the Act, with the intention to speed up the state’s economic development. Thus, it has shown the trust given by the participating states and their intention to work with the Federal Government as to attract and facilitate local and international investments that will subsequently enhance the economic growth of the states in the northern region.       

 

NCER is done with the planning and publicity stage, so we should at least be moving slowly into the implementation part of it. But since the shifts of state governments in most of the northern states, economic growth is obviously not moving fast enough and in some cases not in the right direction. It is sad to learn that the Federal Government has decided to scrap the proposed RM24mil Agropolitan project in Baling, Kedah as it would have helped the Pakatan Rakyat-led state government improve the economic level of the people in the area.  Also in Penang, a tender for the proposed monorail project was already submitted by Scomi Group Berhad but the Federal and state government is taking quite a long time now to decide, although the process was reported as to be “very transparent”.        

 

The Barisan Nasional-led Federal government cannot underestimate the power of newly-elected state governments, as they must be having the support of local people and also trust to manage the economic growth of their respective states.  Under the Act’s Clause 1 (5), all decisions on development projects within the planned Corridor should be made collectively by the members of the NCER board of directors, which comprises of not only the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and the federal ministers, but also the heads of the four states. Thus, the government at every level should develop and execute policies and proper procedure that that will assist local and international investors to invest in the Corridor.

 

We could learn from the approaches made by the Government of Papua New Guinea regarding their rules and guidelines on investment that has successfully improved its Foreign Direct Investments. In order to promote investors, federal agencies such as the Economic Planning Unit and Federal Town and Country Planning Department (JPBD) should work closely with the state governments and local councils as to ensure the focus of economic and physical developments of the northern states is well managed and is realistic to bring not only growth to the economy but also to incorporate the guiding principles and strategies that will provide complete and sufficient infrastructure, equipped with the latest information technology advancements. It should also solve the pressing local and international issues like the needs of affordable housing, nature’s preservation and also the current global food crisis.

 

The allocation of two representatives from private sector in the board is also crucial to seek fresh ideas and promote involvement from professionals as they also have a lot to offer, and may have alternate views on how to develop the states.

 

There are a lot of other factors that can either boost or deteriorate the success rate of NCER such as our land laws and legal government tender process, but let’s hope that NCER and other Corridors that have been promoted pre-election become a reality.

 

mukadimah

salam n welcome to you.  so from now on i will be writing here, instead of my previous blog at Friendster. why? should i be bothered to answer such unnecessary question? well, maybe because i want to be a serious blogger from now on and i have this perception that real bloggers do not use Friendster blog. hah, how lame and harsh (and maybe sarcastic?). another more-acceptable reason is that i think that prevous blog is full of crap. well, i do think that i may be writing more crap, but apart from just (apologize me for my choice of word) b**s**tting around, i am going to write about matters that concern,  that worth my time and your time. i will write because

1. i want to practice my freedom of speech and i feel responsible to do so. if i don’t, i would feel emotionally restrained and my mind could blow up. 
2. i want to be heard. so if people read my views and thoughts, i will be satisfied. i could use the conventional way by posting my views in the newspaper, but i dare say that with the openness given by internet other alternative media, the The Printing Presses and Publications Act has become irrelevant and a ‘burden’ for the formal media, for now. I will let Mr. Karam Singh Walia and his TV3 crew become the ‘local authority’ for more pressing issues and needy citizens.  
3. i want to improve my english, and broaden my knowledge. no doubt that learning is an ongoing process. why afraid to share our ideas,if we are not being ‘seditious’. And lastly,
4. i like writing and if you like to read, i hope i can help you one way or another.  i always gain and if you gain something too, then we should be thankful.

Everything has to start somewhere..