Lynas Is Absolutely Safe

Regardless, the protestors with much courage and conviction shouted “Stop Lynas!” because of their concerns regarding the radiation pollution from the Lynas plant that is said to be the biggest in the world upon completion. (Read here)

The BN government has decided that Lynas is very safe. Who says it is not? Who says the radiation polution is going to be the biggest in the world when completed?

Proof that Lynas is SAFE – the BN logic
No point showing any reports from EIA studies. The layman on the streets of Pahang won’t understand. They have been misled.

Even though the government of Western Australia was reported to have rejected any proposition to receive any of the harzardous waste back, it appears that Malaysia is ever willing to keep it inside Pahang.

If BN government says it’s safe, it must be safe. What more to say it is in Najib’s home state too? Will our beloved PM put the state and the lives of the rakyat at risk? Of course not.

Actions to Demonstrate Safety
From today onwards, the official MB residence will move next to the Lynas plant. All the family members of the MB have volunteered to move together with the MB as a show of solidarity and prove that Lynas is definitely safe.

The entire Pahang BN state assemblymen will also take up their new residences around the Lynas plant just to prove that it is absolutely safe.

If the people living there now still feels unsafe, the state will relocate them faraway to avoid any unnecessary complaints. If only the state officials feel safe next to Lynas, it will have a strong impact on the rakyat to show how much they believe in their decision on Lynas.

To Top It Off
This one is a brilliant idea and you can’t top this.

The Cabinet will announce Najib’s Pahang home is moving next door to Lynas too. His entire family is joining Najib and Rosmah to build an awesome home fully paid by the federal government that overlooks the world’s largest rare earth processing plant.

The state tourism board will authorise an observation deck built at the edge of Najib’s new home next to Lynas. Imagine busloads of tourists coming to view Najib’s home and also getting a grand view of the world’s largest rare earth processing plant. It can probably equal the number if tourists viewing the world’s tallest twin towers.

This will encourage entreprenuers to sell trinklets that has a small amount of radiation. After all, the level of radiation will be safe and the souveniers will be one of a kind in the world.

Imagine this – made in Malaysia, safe level of radiation approved souvenier. You can’t get that anywhere in the world except in Kuantan. That will give Kuantan tourism the needed edge over Cherating with Club Med. Kuantan has Lynas.

Malaysia Boleh!

Pahang Economic Boom
The Lynas plant will create new jobs for Pahang. Many people will have new income. The young people from rural Pahang will have first preference to get lucrative jobs with Lynas complete with training.

With this new world’s largest plant will have new economic activities around it. Logistics, food and drinks, housing, foreign workers, even tourism.

How can this be bad?

It’s only rare earth and there will be all the BN government checks and balances for safety. After all, Lynas can be fined RM50m per mishap. Read more here.

That will go into the state government coffers for development of new initiatives that will benefit Pahang. And what bad thing can happen with a mishap? Don’t be silly!

Conclusion
So the whole world and all Malaysians can see that Lynas is a non-issue created by people who are jealous of Najib and the Pahang State for successfully luring Lynas Corp to Kuantan.

This is one of the key initiatives of foreign investments coming into Malaysia. A grand RM700m worth of it with all the rare earth waste that will be kept in Malaysia. After all, “Lynas has also agreed to place funds with the Malaysian government to ensure safe management of any remaining residues as required by the AELB,” the Australian miner told The Malaysian Insider in a statement. (Read here.)

Safely, of course!

(This posting is a tongue-in-cheek teaser intended for the light hearted for a chuckle of the day. Any references to people dead or alive or places are totally unintentional as they are supposed to be fictional only.)

Another Soi Lek Rant

MCA President Chua Soi Lek has a knack to say the darnest thing. Today, it was reported that he accused the DAP of fostering a 2-race political system instead of a 2-party political system.

Read the report here.

His trend of thought appears totally skewed and off tangent. Nobody saw that coming and is totally illogical.

Why is it that he must see things from a race viewpoint? He seems to feel that as an extrapolation of the recent Sarawak election results that the Chinese community is voting DAP and abandoned MCA but strangely MCA never stood for election at that time. How can this conclusion be made?

Why does he make such sweeping statements that ignore all non-Chinese voters who voted DAP and Pakatan Rakyat for that matter?

Did he not realise that Chinese also voted BN too or now that they are considered non-Chinese all of a sudden?

Soi Lek’s Strawman
Soi Lek loves to create the impression he is tackling a major issue where it is totally non-existent. It exists only in his skewed mind.

General sweeping statements are intended to cause friction and does not help in nation building.

If he thinks stirring this angle helps Malaysians vote MCA, then he must have his head in the sand. Look at all the Malaysians of all ethnic communities who voted MCA and BN. Why must it be Chinese vs Malay? This is very mischievious indeed.

His strawman that he is beating serves no benefit to the country and talking out loud of a myth doesn’t make it true.

His statements in this case belittles all Malaysian voters. There are no constituencies with only Chinese voters voting DAP. It just simply doesn’t exist but perhaps it can create a sensational topic for this MCA President.

Focus on Country Building Ideas to Swing Votes
Instead, Soi Lek should put his thinking cap on to tell Malaysians why they should vote MCA and BN.

It should be for the reasons they are more superior in ideas and execution to bring about dramatic growth and prosper all Malaysians.

It should be for the reasons that uphold justice and eradicate poverty and corruption.

Unfortunately, MCA has fallen prey to staging strawman arguments that drives voters away instead.

Bankrupt of Ideas?
MCA had lots of brilliant people or was that in the past such that they resort to racial slants?

Soi Lek should get himself a bunch of economic advisors who can prop him up as a country growth champion instead of saying such wild rantings and ravings.

MCA should look at how to help all Malaysians prosper instead of blaming one section of Malaysians for their failings.

He is much ado about nothing really!

Sugar Price Up 20 sen, Food and Drinks Will Also Go Up

UPDATED: Interesting reading…

“It was better when the sugar supply monopoly was held by the Kuok Group through the Perlis Plantations Bhd. There was no increase of sugar prices for 10 -15 years. But, the moment it came under the control of Felda Global, the price of sugar has gone up by RM0.85 cents per kilo in a short period of time,” he said (Roland Chia). Read here.

The Government is keeping their word in reducing subsidies for a number of essential items and today is SUGAR and a few days ago RON 97 petrol.

Read the news here from The Malaysian Insider.

As the Government continues on its path of reducing and eventually removing subsidies, why is it also playing PR saying Malaysia has no inflation? (Actually, if inflation is below 3%, technically there is no inflation.)

Income Shrink
Then, the poor man on the street feels the most pain as his disposable income continues to shrink by the day.

When there is no inflation, employers will use that gauge as a benchmark for increment. So he gets a 3% pay increase and that may help protect his lifestyle.

Wrong. With prices of goods going up, the real inflation is higher than 3%. If you don’t believe, watch how drinks will go up by 10% at the very least. Then food will go up by 20%.

Why is this so?

Street Economics
If a cup of coffee is RM1, it will surely go up to RM1.10 to RM1.30. That’s 10% to 30%. It surely will not be RM1.03 per inflationary rate but sugar rate of at least 10%.

A bowl of noodles being RM4 will become RM4.50 to RM5.00. That’s 10% to 25%.

The reason is simple. It’s the perceived tolerance of price hike that determines the new pricing level. It has nothing to do with the Govenment’s published information about inflation. It’s what sellers can convince buyers how their cost of raw materials have gone up so they have to increase a little bit (read a lot more than justifiable).

Moreover, price hike in sugar, flour, petrol, LPG and diesel will cause a rippling effect in price increases across food items. That’s the real inflation effects on Malaysians.

More to come
The Government has to wait to remove more subsidy to RON 95 until after the General Election. Just as the GST has to be KIV until the same time too. With GST, you who have not been paying taxes will start to pay when you buy foods and goods outside the protected list.

Now house ownership has become a real problem as the property market has gone so high such that the young Malaysian adults can no longer afford to buy them. They can barely afford to own a car, pay for food and rental. So, who says Malaysia has no inflation? Only Najib says we are OK.

Only if he asked us, we can tell him that it’s really the opposite. We are suffering because our money buys less things as time goes by, thanks to the Government efforts of removing subsidies but not removing corruption.

Call to action
It is time for the Government to step up to tell all of us middle and lower income group Malaysians how we are going to see improvements in the days ahead.

Auto-piloting and sugarcoating the economy just won’t do. Mr Prime Minister, please get new economic advisors or listen to the good ones who are in touch with reality.

No more PR please! Right now, Malaysians are bracing for another increase in foods and drinks prices because of the sugar price hike today to RM2.30, at almost 10%.

And this is a total of 58.6% increase since January 1, 2010, then at RM1.65 per kilo.

Christians Don’t Care Who is PM as long as …

The General Election is definitely around the corner. The season of building alarm bells for the Malay community against others communities to boost Malay votes for Umno has begun.

First, to demonise DAP and now the guns are trained on the Christian community. One on race, the other on religion. Both are equally sensitive but yet the PM has stayed silent to let this boil up.

Christian Issues
For the past few years, the Al-Kitab issue has been simmering with the confiscating of CDs and Bibles. Only a few weeks ago, Najib had to step into the muddied water regarding the Malay Bible to allow the Sarawakians to use the bible freely but not applying to Peninsular Christians.

Really a 1Malaysia, 2Rules situation.

But that appeasement helped not to let the issue boil over to hurt the BN votes too badly. BN survived the Al-Kitab woes but all strains and complaints remain unresolved.

Certainly, over the years, the freedom of Malaysians to worship have steadily eroded and curbed to the point the Al-Kitab was considered a national security threat under ISA. Such actions have pushed the Christians to a point that their patience quickly abated. In turn, they were accused of being extremists and threatening to Muslims for reasons that baffles everyone.

Now, pro-Umno bloggers have played up a seminar held in Penang as a political aspiration of DAP and Christians and lying to the public blatantly to stir up strife amongst the Muslims and Malay community against the Christians. If it was anybody else, they would have them locked up under ISA being seditious and all.

Umno daily, Utusan Malaysia, picked this up to publish as headline front page news thereby legitimizing the lies as truth and news.

And the authorities are looking the other way. In fact, Pembela had the gall to call on the police to investigate the Utusan propaganda.

Simple questions to answer: did anyone investigate the facts and truth of the matter or what pro-Umno bloggers and Utusan Malaysia say is always true? The answer is a vehement NO!

NO! Nobody checked the veracity prior to publishing the news which make these lies instead.

NO! Not everything they say is true. In cases like this, absolutely seditious, malicious and mischievious.

Lies, Lies, Lies
They accused the DAP working with the Christians to plan to change the position of Islam in the Constitution. They lie about the Christians wanting a Christian PM of Malaysia.

These are the worst kind of lies possible. Self generated without a shred of fact, self serving for a political purpose.

What is happening to our country?

The Christians Don’t Care
It is a fact Christians are not interested to touch the Constitution for whatever reason and they have zero interest in a Christian PM.

There is really no such need either. And the lies spreaded by pro-Umno bloggers serve to fan a fire that is not there just for political expediency.

The Christians don’t care for any of the things claimed so wildly concocted by blind politics. Christians only care for respect and constitutional right to freely worship. They ony want leaders who rule justly, fairly for everybody.

In fact, it is customary and instructed of Christians to pray for the leaders of the country that God will bless Malaysia, that we will have peace and harmony and prosperity and freedom to worship God.

By a sheer slanted view and incapable of appreciating Christianity, Utusan Malaysia propagated the lies of pro-Umno bloggers possibly to fan religious intolerance amongst Malays and to stir them up against non-Malays in hope they vote Umno in the upcoming General Elections.

This is most dangerous play and denying the truth and peaceableness of Christians and other religions.

No one can bring to pass any of the allegations. Not BN, not PR, certainly not DAP or most unlikely the Christians. So why all the ruckus and emotional uproar on baseless reports?

1Malaysia Fails
Najib’s 1Malaysia is about to be fully destroyed day by day by people related to Umno. It seems there are groups that will undermine Najib’s noble national unity interests.

But with Najib being quiet and not taking a clear stand to reprimand such dangerous behavior and seditious actions of Umno related parties, it seems that Najib may be assumed agreeable to these actions and thereby silently consented too.

This is not the time for Najib to be perceived weak and play to the Umno gallery to the detriment of his policies of unity as the PM for all Malaysians.

Speak up now, Mr Prime Minister. Take charge of unity or be accused of promoting a divide and conquer policy under your guise of 1Malaysia.

Do not fail Malaysia!

Put an End to Racial Politics

When will the political leaders of Malaysia ever learn that all Malaysians must be taken care of at the same time regardless who is voted to represent them.

The ethnicity doesn’t matter at all. It must be true Malaysian leaders representing all Malaysians and no bias to any one group.

At the present state of our country, all political assessments are still along ethnic lines. After 53 years, this narrow view is deeper than ever before prompting PM Najib to come up with the 1Malaysia slogan for unity.

That chameleon slogan uttered even as a greeting like “Selamat 1Malaysia” has given rise to the most obscure meanings and now it means anything to anyone who makes any sense out of it. Meaningless at best.

No point arguing what it means because even PM Najib doesn’t even know himself it seems with conflicting words coming out from him as he plays to the gallery.

In anticipation to GE13, Umno will realise that if MCA is rejected, BN will not be able to regain the 2/3 majority. However, PAS has also pointed out that with an 8% swing in Malay votes to Pakatan Rakyat, BN will lose the election.

Strange that all analysis remains along ethnic lines but that’s not how Malaysian thinks anymore.

In most if not all constituencies, it is impossible for a mere single ethnic group to determine the win of a seat. You need Malaysians from all ethnic background to win seats.

Yes, there are still racial bigots who will vote along racial lines. They can’t understand the bigger country picture.

Then there are those who are party bigots. They will vote their party no matter what. However, we see a change in GE12 where party members abandoning their own parties to vote the opposition or spoiling their votes in protest, the latter being the foolish.

Ignore the rantings that ethnicity in the Government will be best to represent various groups.

In modern Malaysia in the 21st century, all leaders voted to power MUST represent the interests of all parties without fear or favor. It is the capability of the leader and the political group leadership that matters as they seek to serve all Malaysians especially those in need.

Let’s choose wisely for our political representation in the country’s government. It is not the ethnic background. It is the capability to represent us all regardless of ethnic background.

Listen to the voices of those who present themselves for our votes and hear clearly what they say. See through their charade and cut to the chase. What have they done and what more can they do to make our lives better. Not tell us how to vote.

Let Malaysians NOT be divided but united to face the world. We need each other to make this happen.

Vote MCA for Chinese Representation in the Government – Irrelevant

The recent rantings by Chua Soi Lek and PM Najib miss the mark altogether.

It is a fact that the Chinese support for MCA is now at a dismal state. But it didn’t have to do with Chinese votes.

It is also a fact that it is not only the Chinese that voted for MCA. There are Malays, Indians and other communities who also voted.

Generalizing and singling out the Chinese is absolutely wrong and is factually incorrect and also dismisses all others in the process.

When the call is for 1Malaysia, why does it matter on the call that Chinese representation in the Government will be affected if MCA loses Chinese votes?

In GE12, Chinese voted for MCA, MIC, Umno, etc. Not every seat is MCA. They also voted for opposition parties. They did not vote with the mind of having more Chinese representation in the Government.

Just as in the recent Sarawak election that not only Chinese voted DAP but also the Malays, Dayaks and Ibans.

Nothing Racial Please
On the contrary, they as well as many Malaysians from all communities voted for who they felt can lead the country for a better future. It didn’t matter what ethnic background was the candidate from. It was the bigger picture that mattered.

In fact, GE12 is a true reflection of 1Malaysia where voters voted for who they felt can best represent their future. There were no racial lines drawn except where politicians forced it.

So why did Soi Lek and Najib mislead Malaysians with such political blackmail as some has called it?

Political Fear
The general fear of losing support makes politicians act strangely. They fear their political powers subsiding and hence, such irrational reactions and rhetorics.

MCA is now down in the dumps and need to drum up general support as it gasps for political air for survival. They can see how Gerakan operates today. MCA can be just that or worse.

Did the MCA not realise their own members do not support them? Soi Lek must deal with them first and then to address the shortcomings of MCA in relation to Malaysians at large because all communities voted for or against them.

Think General Election, Think About All Malaysians
Malaysians do not really think racial lines when it comes to elections. Certainly, there are those diehard bigots who are partisan but most Malaysians vote for those who can make their lives better.

Of course, some may say this is naïve and many Malaysians do vote whoever gives them money.

We can’t change that overnight but hopefully that change can come soon enough.

The point we must make is for politicians to uphold 1Malaysia and speak about Malaysians at large, not by race but by NEEDS. Malaysians have needs that politicians must address. It affects all communities.

When it floods, we must help all affected by it.

When there is injustice, we must stand up against it no matter who it is.

When there is poverty, we must help them all regardless what race they are and who they voted for.

This is in essence a true 1 Malaysia. It is about giving help and hope to ALL Malaysians, not a particular group.

If all the politicians clamor is for particular groups, then let only those groups pay income tax and all others be exempted. That is fair.

Obviously, there’s fair and there’s fair depending on who executes the fairness. That is politics. But Malaysians are simple people who wants a better future for us and our children.

Focus on what matters to Malaysians, not the political parties. Then the voters will know what to do when their time comes.

New Samsung Galaxy S II

More than an iPhone Lookalike

UPDATED: Samsung Galaxy S II: iPhone 4 Fighter First Class (1-Aug)

Little did I expect the Samsung pda phone packing so much and giving the Apple iPhone 4 a run for its money. Meet the new and soon to arrive Samsung Galaxy S II.

The anticipated arrival is anytime soon. May is as good a month to welcome a top of the line PDA phone.

iPhone Lookalike
A casual glance at the Galaxy S II makes you wonder how the iPhone grew in size. The frameless round edged profile gives Galaxy S II a similar appearance as the iPhone, at least its front profile.

But that’s where the similarity ends. This nifty baby is 0.2mm thinner than the fabulous SE Xperia Arc. And a whole lot more inside.

For a detailed specification, check it out here.

Dual Core Processors
The Samsung Galaxy S II is amongst the first batch of souped up PDA phones that uses the Dual-core 1.2GHz ARM Cortex-A9 proccessor, Mali-400MP GPU, Orion chipset.

Simply put, this is a turbo charged device. It will hum naturally without any noticeable lag as it has turbo for primary processing as well as graphics.

In fact, this can be considered as powerful as the high end netbooks.

Superb Display
The benchmark for device displays is the iPhone 4 Retina Display.

The Galaxy S II uses Super AMOLED Plus capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors with – 480 x 800 pixels, 4.3 inches
– Gorilla Glass display
– TouchWiz UI v4.0
– Multi-touch input method.

Samsung has been using AMOLED screens in its high end phones to set them apart from other manufacturers. This is the first time such screens are used in the Android phones. It won’t be long that the Galaxy Tab will spot the screen too.

Battery Life
It is incredible that Samsung is able to pack a hefty 1650mAH battery in that ever slim body. This is truly an amazing engineering feat.

1080p@30fps Video
Using an 8M rear camera, the Galaxy S II can take exceptional photo as well as HD video. Instead of spotting a mini HDMI like the Xperia Arc, Galaxy S II has chosen the new Mobile High-Definition Link (MHL).

The MHL Specification was developed by Nokia Corporation, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Silicon Image, Inc., Sony Corporation, and Toshiba Corporation as a standard for mobile wired connectivity, to enable the development of standard-compliant mobile and display products across a broad connectivity ecosystem.

This standard will soon be found on all devices that require HD output. Perhaps the iPhone will catch up on this one soon enough in the next iPhone edition.

Conclusion
The Galaxy S II is certainly a new generation from its Galaxy S predecessor. It comes with 16GB/32GB memory and a 1GB internal RAM.

There in the palm of your hand is a turbo charged netbook equivalent powered PDA phone with no downside really.

The price should be around RM2,100 and can be even lower depending on how aggressive Samsung is going to compete with this beauty of a baby!

Update: The retail price is RM2,099 and is now available from all Samsung mobile outlets. Word has it that the first batch had sold out.

Najib, Soi Lek Message has no meaning to Malaysians

Najib has declared that if the Chinese won’t support MCA that they will lose their representation in the Government.

Chua Soi Lek today came out to defend Najib and said that is the reality, not a threat, that should MCA fare worse in the next General Election that they will stay out of the government.

These statements and comments about them have made headlines and waves throughout the main stream media as well as on the net.

What difference will it make to Malaysians?

Rhetorical

The latest rantings appear to be rhetorical given that MCA had the worst election results in recent years winning 15 out of 40 parliamentary seats in GE12.

Yet they continued to remain in the cabinet with 4 ministerial positions.

Gerakan, who was almost cleaned out, had Koh Tsu Koon becoming a minister via a senatorship backdoor even after declaring not to accept it if offered. Now that is history.

The statements made appear mostly rhetorical and many construe them as threats to the Chinese community. However, the reality is that most people who read such political rhetorics have pooh-poohed or ignored them as mad rantings.

Can the government of the day ignore the needs of any community? The answer is a clear NO! So what are these statements intended for?

Waning Support

The analysis that MCA and Gerakan have lost the support of the Chinese community and that they have backed DAP instead appears to have sparked the maddening ravings.

This is a skewed view of BN and in attempting to sow seeds of discord and confusion in the political arena, BN has aimed at the Chinese community especially because of the recent DAP success in the Sarawak election.

The reality is that many Malaysians are losing patience on BN and have lost the respect for MCA and Gerakan. It is not just the Chinese community.

In every constituency are always mixed with multi communities. The seats that DAP won had Chinese, Iban, Dayak, Melanau, etc. and they voted against BN.

There are also Chinese, Iban, Dayak, Melanau, etc. who voted for BN. These statements by Najib and Soi Lek will be taken that these voters who voted for BN are irrelevant. Only the Chinese is the primary cause of the loss of BN seats. That is an absolutely narrow and extreme view to cast a blame and find a political scapegoat.

Instead of improving the weaknesses that voters perceive the BN had and to make amends to win their support, such rantings only confirm the feelings of voters to continue to vote against BN.

Soi Lek is sure to lose more support for the MCA with empty lip service.

Mature Malaysians

Malaysian voters are generally more mature and know how to weigh the words of politicians. The general feeling is not about how great the opposition leaders are but how bad they feel against the BN.

The opposition has successfully rode this tide of disenchantment against the BN and GE12 along with the recent Sarawak election has seen the attitude towards the opposition growing very positive.

It has been clearly seen that the issues the opposition raised are all things that affect all Malaysians. The weak economy, rise of inflation and petrol prices, stagnant wages, etc are real problems we all face and they attempt to show how they can resolve them if voted to power.

On the other hand, BN kept on with personal attacks on Anwar, “sex video” revelation and the writing off the opposition claims on how they can improve the lives of Malaysians by saying it will bankrupt the country actually puts off all Malaysians.

Najib can’t put up any decent initiatives to prove he can do the job of improving our lives. Publicity of the Government Transformation Programs have drawn more doubts than positive support. Malaysia losing FDI to countries like Indonesia and Philippines cannot be excused and Najib has remained erriely silent on this matter.

Malaysians Suffer

In reality, all Malaysians, not just the Chinese community, are suffering. The prolonged agony started in the late 90’s at the time of a global crisis and when Anwar was incarcerated. Malaysia never bounced back.

After the Mahathir era, the Badawi era saw no movement. Now the Najib era has seen only hot air publicity to talk up economic growth.

Malaysians are at their wits end now and no amount of positive spin by Najib and gang or such diversions on the Chinese community can change it.

Unless and until the general lives of Malaysians improve in a real way (not perceived), the sentiments against the BN will continue to grow and it has no communal lines.

Mere Distractions

Politics make strange bedfellows. MCA in BN means MCA supports all Umno stands for and Umno supports all MCA stands for, at least in appearance for as long as the tolerance of each other remains bearable.

Political diversions such as these racial statements will continue as long as they think the diversion works.

Malaysians will ignore them and sentiments against BN will grow until they show they care for all Malaysians by fixing things that affect our lives. GE13 is not that thing but if it takes GE13 to make a statement, Malaysians may just rise to the occasion.

Make the Change Now

BN, please do something to improve our lives. Political rhetorics and blame on any community means nothing to us! So far, it’s been nato – no action, talk only!

What difference will support of MCA mean to the Chinese community and all Malaysians who vote for them? What difference has MCA ministerial positions mean for them? So far, if voting MCA means more of the same, there’s really no upside to voting MCA.

Tell all Malaysians something different, something more definite, things that will improve our cost and standard of living now! Before many more Malaysians run away.

That’s what all Malaysians care about. Not useless politicking like picking on particular communities for BN failings. You had 53 years already. You should know what and how to do it.

Don’t wait until it’s too late!