Caning MPs?

Found this is the "sms-from-the-reader" section in The Star.

Some teenage girl students asked me why govt do not cane MPs who misbehave incl abuse of power & corruption? Any answers?

First, bravo to the student who asked the question, who defied the general perception that the youngsters now don't read or not even be bothered with the country's current affair.

2nd, express my worry to the teachers nowadays as they should be VERY well prepared to answer their students' questions. No more innocent kids like my generation.

3rd, it will be great to see those unpunished MPs for making countless shameful nuisance in the Parliament to be caned. Serves them right.

.......though it will NEVER happen.

Patrick Teoh says it right :
When surveys say nice things about the government, ministers and prime ministers are quickly quoted as saying the results show what the 'majority' want and are feeling or saying. But when it is the other way round it is almost always some Opposition or worse some Zionist scheme to discredit our wonderful majority-elected kerajaan (government in Malay). Just to clarify a bit here, I think that word comes from the root word raja which means king. Maybe now we understand why the government treats it's electors the way it does. Makes for some thinking eh?

Take la your blaardy bribes that allow you to build million Ringgit homes and send your children to schools abroad and allow your wives/husbands to shop in Paris, London, new York. Go ahead. A little bonus for you. But please make sure also la that the work you are supposed to do is done well la. Can ah? If you say can then you happy we happy everything kao tim

Like some Australian baarger told us straight in our faces already. Let's not always argue about how to cut and share the cake. Let's think about how to make the cake the biggest in the world. After all we all love records right?

For complete read also his other posts, please visit Niamah

Go read some of this ex-Radio 4 DJ rants. Also if you happen to have some spares besides buying the neverending sensational entertainment magazines or cerita seram booklets, get Off The Edge where Patrick has a column there.

A Laugh Very Much Needed

Wow... nothing beats a good laugh esp when the mood is quite down lately....

Hence I found my new hero (well...he was inducted to my hall of &%$me of favourite Malaysian politicians in the company of Nazri, Bung Mokhtar and One-Eye Jasin MP) , who provided me with a big hearty wuahahahahahahahaha-esque kind of laugh. Our country's Information Minister, whom some referred to as No-Information Minister, Zainuddin's phone interview with Al-Jazeera really made me laugh like mad.

Go search YouTube and you will find the bundle of joy aplenty to choose from. Pay attention to the English used by our ex-journalist/news editor (was he?) from NST.

Happy Laughing...nuff said.

Blog worth Reading

Presenting to you the blog of Marina Mahathir, whose column in The Star never fail to keep me wanting for more...

http://rantingsbymm.blogspot.com/

Will search for other contributors such as Azmi Sharom, Amir Muhammad etc.... (who else?)

I will link them in my list as well.

Wai Ming and Chii Lin

Let's talk about Wai Ming.......

http://thestar.com.my/sports/story.asp?file=/2007/11/27/sports/19579137&sec=sports

....who hails from KK Sabah, a LaSallian. Boys of courage boys of daring...full of manliness and will...... We are sons of La Salle everyone!!!! I think those in Form 6 will certainly remember having to walk all the way (or taking a bus for those rich ones) from La Salle in Tanjung Aru to Maktab Sabah JUST to support La Salle's rugby team!!! After school hours, which was considered as extra-curricular activities!!! The girls were trained to be cheerleaders as well.... ok, no fantastic cheer team that you will see in Disney movies for those pity Form 6 gals in La Salle. LIANGMOI WAS ONE OF THEM TOO!!!!!! And Lee Wai Ming was one of the La Salle team member, the captain if I remember it well.

......and Chii Lin

http://thestar.com.my/sports/story.asp?file=/2007/11/27/sports/19584267&sec=sports

.....who's going to make her debut in the Korat SEA Games after smashing her own national record just about 10 days before that. She's now training under Lim Keng Liat, another Sabahan from Sandakan who made the mark in the international arena for Malaysia.

Hm....I got a patriotic attack recently!!!

New Queen of Sports

I have respect for the new queen of sports. I mean, besides Nicol David, who's undisputable as the Best Known Sports Woman of Malaysia, Wong Mew Choo IS the new sports' IT gal.

Watching her play yesterday against World No. 1, Lin Dan's sweetheart, Xie Xing Fang (which our Malaysian sports commentator irritatingly referred as Jie Sing Fang), her fighting spirit and stamina were really inspiring. She came early with full energy to knock down Xie in the 1st game 21-16 though went down tamely 21-8 in the 2nd game. Though the score showed a tame effort but her fighting spirit and never-give-up attitude were obvious and that alone earned a great deal of respect. The 3rd game was more thrilling with the scores keep tailing up each other but Mew Choo deserved the win with her stunning display of rally and sharp drop, not forgetting to mention some excellent net-play.

I was the usual me, watching sports game and supported (errr.....actually shouted) Mew Choo (again, the commentator annoying calling her Mei Choo). I broke the stool while jumping on it

my embarassing damage to the stool

Too bad her sweetheart, our Nation No. 1 Lee Chong Wei couldn't make it a double for us, also for them. But it's kinda like a consolation for Bao Chun Lai who was dubbed as "Qian Nian Lao Er/The Thousand No. 2", always playing as the second fiddle to Lin Dan.

Never Let Your Car Door Unlocked While Stopping

Sent my mom to town and while waiting for her, I double park in the Jalan Gudang area in Sandakan and the area was busy as usual.

Suddenly, a middle-aged man came to my seat window and greeted me with a big smile. I don't know him. He started to said a lot of things and asking about my father and how is he doing....

A : Tak kenal saya ke? Bapak masih kerja sana kah? (Can't recognize me? Your father still work there?)

I was blurred and didn't recognize who he was. At that time, I let my window down a bit, trying to hear clearer what he said.

A : Beritahu bapak, saya takde kerja kat MPS sudah. Sekarang kerja kat JPJ. Lain kali ada saman, bawak bagi saya settle. (Tell your father I'm not working in MPS-municipal hall. Now I'm in JPJ-road trasnport department. Next time, any summon tickets, give me, I can help to settle)

I was even more blurred. However, my suspicion started to building momentum.

A : Nama saya Awang. Bagi tahu bapak, lain kali ada saman, saya boleh settle. (My name is Awang. Tell your father I can settle your summon ticket next time.)

After this, he left but about 10 steps away, he turned back and said,

A : Bapak ada nombor saya? Nah... tulis ini....(Your father has my number? Come on, write this down...)

He walked to the passenger front door and I quickly LOCKED the door.

CK : Takpa, you cakap, I masuk telefon. (It's OK, you say, I enter into the phone)

A : (uttered some number)

He walked away after that and about 10 steps again, he came back to my window and said this,

A : Ada duit kah? Saya habis minyak, lupa bawak dompet. Bagi duit isi minyak sikit. (You have money? My tank is empty, forgot to bring my wallet. Give me some money to fill the tank)

NOW HE SHOWED THE TRUE COLOR As suspected, he didn't know my father or what-so-ever and he just want money. Of course I ignore him and he left after that.

This is not the climax of the story. When I fetch my mom back and told her the incident, she asked me to describe him and she said the same man did the same thing to her few years ago and he even managed to get inside the passenger front seat (my mom drives a school bus, normally not locked at all). Fortunately it was at the petrol station where my mom filled her tank and he left the car when my mom threatened to shout.

So, to ppl of Sandakan, next time if there's a middle-aged man, quite short and plump come approach you in your car, IGNORE HIM AND DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR!!!!

P/S : It's a pity cox he still use the same tactics for a few years. However, the fact that he's still using it means that the tactics works~sigh....

Pride and Shame

Written quite a few post on how proud I am of Patricia who hailed from the same state as mine, Sabah and her achievement. However, there're a lot of ppl out there who's actually shaming the state and the country.

For example recently a MP said this, "Yes, we can see a tunnel (terowong) in her skirt"

read more : http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/11/16/parliament/19486566&sec=parliament

and when he did apologize for his degrading remark, he further explain, "He said he only meant it as a joke as he was not referring to any body parts of a woman. He added that the "terowong" he meant was the gap between the stewardess' skirt and legs"

To me, the explanation is just like "menegakkan benang yang basah". Did he really think that we will believe him? Though sad to say, the people in his constitution does believe him.

Oh, mind you, this comes from a MP who's chairing the General Assembly of the biggest political party in the nation. And no wonder the other MPs such as the previous one from my homestate MP "Bocor" and MP'"Tutup Sebelah Mata / Close-One-Eye" still harassing the sancitity of the parliament.

Enough with the shame stuff, another great achievement by another Sabah-born who's an elected senator, the first Asian-born to sit in the Australian parliament. Looks like she's on Kevin Rudd's opposition side, who's set to take down Howard in the coming election.
Readmore:http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/11/21/nation/19535032&sec=nation

The Court Case - Long Long Time Ago

I remembered reading something about sensitivity nowadays in our so-called multicultural society nowadays somewhere in Star; the writer Wong Sai-Wan and Marina Mahathir both delved on this issue before. According to them, who has lived longer than me, comparing to the early days of Malaysia days, people are not as sensitive.

Why I brought up this sensitive issue? It's because if the story I'm gonna tell soon happened now, it will be made into some big brohuha. OK, the story is like this......

This new classmate of ours, let's call him K befriends both R and S where one of them is actually Muslim. K is naughty and in a way or other managed to con both of them to eat the food he brought from home, which contain meat that was prohibited. When R realized that, he complained to Teacher J. ( And yes......I was destined to write this post because I bumped into Teacher J just now, like 30 mins before this in Giant. ) Teacher J decided to practise his creative teaching method and set-up a court to trial the case!!! And I still remember he elected a judge and 2 lawyers, both the prosecutor and accused (thanks for the legal advice). Liangmoi was actually one of the lawyer and the other was FPL. The judge was Leslie (well... if you guys still remember her... the runner). I forgot how the case went but I remember what Teacher J said as the conclusion, "Memandangkan kes ini tidak dapat diselesaikan di mahkamah rendah, maka Cikgu akan membawa kes ini ke mahkamah tinggi (jumpa guru besar)" translated as "Since this case cannot be solved by this court, I will bring it to the Higher Court (which in this case, the headmaster).

Well, K was definitely guilty and should be punished. But what I want to bring up is that pulling pranks was one of the things schoolkids do a lot and sometime it didn't do anything to harm the friendship among them. Of course I don't know where're R and S now but I'm sure if K saw them and recognize them, they may remember this old case and smiled about it.

Like Marina and Sai Wan said before, we have to learn to laugh at ourselves sometimes.

P/S : I dunno what's the verdict of the Higher Court. If K is reading this, do drop some lights please.

The Gal Who Made Sandakan Proud.......

Alan really searched every corner for Patricia's picture and the latest one is with her family during some award ceremony I supposed.

Here's the pic: http://thesisofacruelangel.blogspot.com/2007/11/picture-of-kapten.html

On the far left is Augustine and far right is Ignatius, with parents, I presume.

Bravo Patricia!!!

Self-Search

Inspired by Alan's search of Coolie Sink's stuff on the internet, I did the same and found that this blog of mine was linked in Lluis Coloma's website, mainly on my write-up for the 2nd Miri International Jazz Festival. No wonder one of my friend said the same as well after self search on internet.

Here's their link on the page :
http://lluiscoloma.com/en/noticiaDet.asp?id=19 You can click on atanck for my write-up.

Thanks Lluis Coloma. I can only listen to your albums now.... luckily I bought 2 of them.

Movie Re-cap

Watched quite a few movies in the past two weeks, courtesy of boring hotel TV channels and the need to clear the unwatched gems in my collections, or rather those lent by my best mate, Sherry.

1. Joy Luck Club

Adapted from the book of Amy Tan of the same name, watched now after more than 10 years from its release date really do no justice to it. Apart from the unknown actors except Ming-Na Wen and Russell Wong (maybe not known to you guys as well....), all the actressess were unknown, at least to us in this part of the world. The acting was stiff and the story line seems to be faithfully faithfully based on the book. Not a flick I enjoy and personally I don't think it will stand the test of time.

...from http://www.impawards.com/1998/central_station_ver2.html

2. Central Station

Helmed by the talented Brazillian director, Walter Salles, who gave us The Motorcycle Diaries and Paris, Je'Taime in the later days, this movie featured the very talented Fernando Montenegro who was nominated in the 1998 Oscar as the rare non-American/British actress honored in the category. Her portrayal of the old woman who's not entirely angelic in her way of life really caught attention, naturally and non-actingly. The little kid in the movie also is the charming factor shining throughout the whole movie. Can be treated as a road-movie with a twist and deserved any attention and time spent. Some even wonder why it lost out to La Vita e Bella in the same year!!! Highly recommended though Sherry complained that it was a tad slow.

...from http://www.impawards.com/1998/central_station_ver1.html

3. Manchurian Candidate

Great acting chop from a commendable castings consists of Meryl Streep, Denzel Washington, Jeffrey Wright and Liev Schreiber with fleshed out character managed to turn this remake into a commendable thriller. Greatly relevent especially with the gulf war and etc hot on the plate.

Captain Yapp and the Flying Sing

Haha.... seems Alan caught the bug and only now I know she held a special place in his heart. Good luck Patricia. Of course it's really a proud moment for her and her family. Seriously, I think our alma mater Sung Siew should really get hold of her when she's back to Sandakan to motivate our students who's drowned in endless homeworks and tuition and forgot about the fun and other learning activities while in school.

Speaking of flying sing, who in 5D Class of 96 can forget his famous act that catapulted him to the peak of his fame defying the dominatrix grip of the You-Know-Who(YKW) in SS that time. (I shall not name him as I dun think I'm qualified to, as I never enrol to his tuition class) His cool cat answer of astro-travelling spared the class some laugh and indeed YKW himself was impressed as well. The remaining normally gruelling hours of the subject in lab was filled with some unanswered questions and lingering awe as Flying Sing enchanted us with his mini-lecture on astro travelling with big bombastic words such as "out of the host", "state of mind" and dozens more that eluded my memory as I can't even spell the words, let alone understand the theory or explanations behind them. I forgot how his mini-lecture ended but Flying Sing was spared of the punishment, which ranges from the usual standing during the whole period, standing in the middle of the basketball field, which YKW used to describe as "jaga gelanggang" and made us all squirmed in silent laughter.

Also came back in my memory is another famous incident happened to Flying Sing when he first came to Sandakan and enrolled in Sung Siew Primary School. He was the new-boy and as the tough-guy kid he was, he refused to pay the insurance when Cikgu Anna or Cikgu Jumain (was it Std 3 that time or Std 5?.... I remember it's that classroom though....) collect the RM5 insurance.

He cool-catly answered "Saya boleh jaga diri sendiri" (I can take care of myself)

During recess time on that day itself, he famously fell down in the car park after unsuccessfully jumping over the steel chain in the car park at the back of our school. IMMEDIATELY that day. I wonder how many of the 90' Class 5 Merah still remember that incident...

Of course, his signature act or "doi biu zok" is somewhere edging along the sensitive lines during Std 5 times as well when he introduced prohibited meat to our other classmates..... but maybe that will be another story in another post.... And also his kungfu stunts during secondary school and uni years...maybe that one leave it to Alan to be the storyteller...

P/S : Didn't see Flying Sing for quite some years already and hope he's doing well.

Taiwan - Transport Galore

How many type of transport you use during a travel??? This Taiwan trip, I used these:

1. Airplane (courtesy of MAS Matta Fair)
Took about 3 hours from KK to Taipei. Normal 737 only. No leg-space!!!

2. High Speed Railway

Shinkansen-like. A costly way to travel. RM100plus from Taipei to Chiayi.

3. Train

Took this slow yet dependable (it's punctual in Taiwan, not KTM) from Taipei to Ruifang enroute to JiuFen. Also to Hualien enroute to Taroko Gorge.

4. Bus

From Chiayi to Alishan, due to the railway damage in Alishan, took this instead. So disappointed!!! Took the city bus in Taipei as well, RM1.20 for most of the intra-city ride.

5. Taxi

Reasonably priced in Taipei and majority of the driver knows the importance of good service attitude and never been refused, unlike in KL, "Jam lah...", "Tak pi sana lah" and dozens of excuses.

6. Boat

Roaming around the Sun Moon Lake, enjoying the magnificent sunset.

7. Van (Hyundai)
5am in the morning in Alishan to watch the sunrise and then took another one that brought us from Alishan to Sun Moon Lake.

8. MRT
MRT rules in Taipei just like it did in Singapore though I can't say the same for its brother in KL.

9. Motorcycle
This was the highlight of my Taiwan trip in which we drove a motorcycle from Hualien to Taroko Gorge all by ourselves!!!!!!!!!!!!! License???? Err........the weather was nice :)

10.Walking on Foot
Of course who can dispute that the best way to travel is by foot. Walk and walk and walk... you will find the unexpected.

Oct 22 - Taiwan, Here I Come!!!!!!!!!!!

Taiwan airport basically has nothing to boast about, unlike our very own KLIA who's the architecture marvel in the middle of oil palm estate or the Suvarnabumi Bangkok who's having a game of spotting where's the leak... it's plain and simple. But for someone who arrived about 10plus at night, all I'm asking for is an airport that is not that big to minimize walking. Direction-wise is perfectly OK since I understand Chinese.

First night will be staying in Taipei House, a hostel which is not a very good choice as I stayed in much better hostel before. The area the hostel is located is quiet, Songshan Rd, which has quite a number of foreigners staying around as it's quite near to a lot of foreign language school. Hence the hostel is full of foreigners. Get better hostel if you have time and budget.

Finding the hostel was interesting enough. The alley where the hostel is lurking deep inside comes with the CCTV-ed street light. What's that? It comes with some sensor which will light up the light once it detected human (by movement???) and I was left in awe. I mean I was immediately letting off my guard a little bit though the area is extremely quiet.

So where's the next stop you ask? Well... MAS did provide meal but that was not enough for youngsters like us haha.... So we went to the ever-dependable McD for late night supper about 11pm plus. The McD as usual is the brightly-lit place with aircond with its staple meals. Late-night worker and some uncle/aunties were sleeping in the particular McD joint we went. Maybe I should save the money staying in that Taipei House and tumpang in McD instead. Youngster holding pen and book and each-other's hand on the other were still having meal cum studying (oh ye ke tu?) in the wee small hour of the morning.

The meals ordered. McD, the best fries among all!!! :)

Tak sangka my first meal in Taiwan was McD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cintailah Malaysia time : It's becoming a habit due to the nature of work, I always look at the packaging of the goods and I found out that the tomato sauce sachet in Taiwan McD was indeed made in Malaysia!!! Subang to be exact.

Bravo Patricia - Errmmm.... Sandakan Boleh!!!

The snippets below is from the Sunday Star 18th Nov 2007. (The title with the errmmm..... didn't mean to doubt Patricia's achievement but merely the writer's hesitation to succumb to the cliche-used-to-death mantra of the self-fulfilling-prophecy-esque nature of Malaysian....so, ignore the internal dilemma of him)

KOTA KINABALU: A Sabahan’s quest to become the nation’s first female astronaut is getting the backing of women’s groups in the state.
They are certain that RMAF pilot Kapt Patricia Yapp Syau Yin will do the country proud if she achieves her space travel dream.
They said Kapt Yapp, one of the nation’s first female MiG-29 fighter pilots, had the “right stuff” to become an astronaut and hoped that she would be given a chance, just like the country’s first Angkasawan Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor.
Kapt Yapp, 30, who won the Ratu Inspirasi contest on TV3 recently, said she hoped to become Malaysia’s first woman astronaut.
She said the country’s recent success in sending the first Malaysian into space had opened the eyes of many people, including herself, and she hoped to continue that success.

Salute to Patricia who had made it to become the first female MiG-29 fighter pilot though I am not convinced that being the first female Malaysian space tourist will do anything to enhance her credit or achievement.

Why I posted her here? She's actually from Sandakan, yes... the tiny hometown of mine plagued by power disruption endlessly. And yes, she's from my alma mater as well... SM Sung Siew!!! I seriously think the school now needs to find more information about her and let her be the school model for the students.

I remembered her as my senior and also my superior during the Majlis Pengawas time... She was the Ketua Pengawas (HP-Head Prefect) under the supervision of Mr. Michael Tan, who's the Guru Disiplin. She's the Head Prefect for the whole school and that time I was one of the small-prawn under her in-charging of the afternoon session, i.e. Remove Class-Form 2, together with Gavin, Rowena and gang. Her trademark is her big friendly smile constantly plastered on her face. Below is the picture of her in the Star....

Well... I'm wondering should I dig out her old picture from the school magazine but fear that it will be violating her privacy. Anyway, proud of you Patricia!!!

Further reading..... http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/11/18/nation/19508568&sec=nation

Couch Surfing (CS) and Hospitality Club (HC) Friends V

Introducing............ ChiaChun. A great CS member in Taipei. Stayed at her place in Taipei for 2 nights and chatted for quite a while as well hehe... even though I think she was tired after work. Thanks my fren!!!

And because of her, I the chance to use iPhone for the first time!!!!! Tried it with my own hands the gung-ho flipping action on the touch screen. Well, she made me promised not to write anything on iPhone in her CS Profile and yes... I kept that promise but I couldn't help but mention it here though... still keeping my promise right fren?

She's friendly and helpful and full of funny and interesting stories about her travel and I would love to hear more from her. Her work is interesting as well and we shared the love of books. She recommended me the nice library in Beitou. Though I just passed by the library in the bus but the building from outside totally amazed me especially its natural light glass window design. Read that it even snatched the Best Design award in the newspaper when I'm still in Taiwan. She's a great friend and definitely welcomed here in Sabah!!! Oh yeah... will definitely ask her to roam the bookstore in Taipei next time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Couch Surfing!!! Hope to hear more stories from you my friend!!!

Oct 22 - Onset to My Taiwan Trip

KK airport is always the best in terms of location. Nearby to the city itself and also the offer of breathtaking sunset view are some of the reasons to justify that.

Taken while waiting in the departure hall to Taipei....

The Mission - liangmoi

As usual, all of liangmoi's friends will not be spared from being given a list of CDs or DVDs to purchase on her behalf and I, being labeled as the DHL of course is on-the-mission again.

The list as followed :

1. Eason Chan - What's Going On...?

2. Nicky Lee 李玖哲 - 想太多

3. Monkey Majik - 天马行空

4. Tackey & Tsubasa - Greatest Hits

5. Soler - 2x

6. 罗美玲 - 我是罗美玲

7. 藤木直人 - Turning Note

8. 盛夏光年 (DVD)

Of course the list is not that short but I only buy selectively for her. Well... some of the album she listed, I'm never gonna buy for her!!! e.g. Vic Zhou's - Aku Bukan F4, never ever. Sorry Vic's fans out there.... Furthermore, that album can be bought in Malaysia kan?

CK's shopping in Taipei

The albums I bought.

Tizzy Bac

One of my favourite singer : Bobby Chen 陈升 - 丽江的春天 Summer in Li-Jiang

这位太太 - 是谁

蔡健雅 - Hello and Goodbye

Note that all the photos above taken with another album as background and it is the best album I bought this time, after having searching for their album unsuccessfully, rightfully deserve an individual post dedicated to it.

I'm Back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They said happy times fly fast!!! And indeed, it is....

Ended my trip to Taiwan and it's a GREAT one. Will definitely blog it but this old set of bones needed some rejuvenation and rest, also to sort out some photos to blog about...

Anyway, I'm back.... and great to blog again haha...........