He had a great day at his school today with all his friends...
I ordered a BEN 10 cup cakes for all and they just loved it!
more photos coming soon!
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
sharat's birthday today!
My son, Sheikh Sharat Shah is 3 years old today :)
He had a great day at his school today with all his friends...
I ordered a BEN 10 cup cakes for all and they just loved it!
more photos coming soon!
He had a great day at his school today with all his friends...
I ordered a BEN 10 cup cakes for all and they just loved it!
more photos coming soon!
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
POVERTY in the almighty MALAYSIA!
just to share an article i read in sin chew:
Although I have in my travels seen abject poverty in such diverse places as Addis Ababa, Dhaka, Dar es Salaam, Kolkata, Mumbai and Manila, I must confess to a feeling of utter revulsion and anger when confronted by stark deprivation in our supposedly well-governed and prosperous Malaysia.
The pockets of rural poverty in the Malay heartlands of Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan and Terengganu are islands of prosperity compared to the scene that churned my stomach and assailed my sense of guilt and outrage when I first ventured into the Iban long houses on the majestic Rejang.
It is not enough that we have robbed them of their ancestral lands and impoverished them in the process, but we also felt constrained to strip them naked of any residual personal dignity that they might still have by introducing policies that have succeeded in reducing them to the fringes of mainstream economic life.
The Orang Asli tribes and the Orang Hulu, the Malays from the interior, have a great deal in common with their Dayak friends. For all we care, they are Malaysia’s forgotten people, but not quite. Whenever an election is underway, be it a by-election or a general election, they find themselves the centre of attention, in great demand by the rich and powerful, all claiming to love and care for them.
Before the day is out, they are the proud possessors of a handful of crisp 50 ringgit notes. Four or five hundred ringgit is a princely sum to them, a king’s ransom, no less, in exchange for their votes. If some of them have become cunning, manipulative supplicants and sacrificed their values for a fistful of ringgit, remember it is we who have corrupted them.
Years of exposure to extreme poverty and unbridled exploitation have rendered many of these once proud and noble people, nature’s gentlemen, inured and insensitive to their own traditional values and value systems. They are reduced to living from hand to mouth, on handouts, from day to day.
What a tragedy to befall a people whose only sin is to trust those sworn to protect their native rights. They are bewildered to find themselves dispossessed, as their land is taken away without as much as “by your leave” for commercial exploitation by the towkay friends of the powerful.
Talking to many of them, the Ibans, I mean, I believe the only way we can restore their pride and dignity is by providing opportunities for regular employment. We are dealing with an ancient people with a distinctive culture. Even those among them whose lives have taken on an urban aspect continue to cling strenuously to their traditional practices. We who are strong have a duty to help the weak by not foisting on the Ibans and others our culture of corruption and other despicable practices.
Some years ago, an Indonesian anti-corruption activist friend of mine visited our country during the 11th general elections, as part of a privately funded election observer mission. His group spent a great deal of time in Sarawak and Sabah and told me that he was shocked by the scale of vote buying.
I was greatly embarrassed by his revelation because at an anti-corruption conference in The Hague at which I was invited to speak and he was a participant some two months earlier, I had said that while vote buying was rampant in party elections, the practice was unknown in general and state elections.
I was unbelievably naïve to believe the Barisan Nasional government propaganda. The scale of vote-buying must have been so massive as to shock my Indonesian anti-corruption fighter, used as he was to living and working in a corruption-infested nation. It is not that easy to shock an Indonesian over a corruption issue. But unlike Malaysia, Indonesia is on the mend as far as fighting corruption is concerned. In Malaysia, on the contrary, it is in indecently robust health.
Malaysia is blessed with rich natural resources and poverty as we have seen in Sabah, Sarawak, Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan and Terengganu can only be explained in terms of governance grounded on corruption and political excesses. When we look at the personal wealth accumulated by Chief Minister Taib of Sarawak at one extremity and the Ibans at the other, one begins to wonder what the future holds for Malaysia. I am not at all sanguine.
The thieving and plundering by those in power must stop because, as history tells us, it is only a matter of time before the forbearance of the long suffering poor takes on an ugly aspect, with consequences too dreadful to contemplate. The Government of Malaysia and the state governments of Sabah and Sarawak in particular can alleviate poverty by governing in the sole interest of the people. Najib’s people first is under close public scrutiny. (By TUNKU ABDUL AZIZ/MySinchew)
MySinchew 2010.05.15
I hope PM can read this article and start the the action now !!!
yes i know that GTP is the solution so to speak but frankly i am not that happy with it as there so many important issues and implementation strategies develop by the team is very much doubtfull!
one of the key factor that they missed out is the 'caringness' of the disabled or wht the gov or the media like to labeled 'OKU'.... In their main pillar of CHANGE or TRANFORMATION they missed this out! duuring the launching of the GTP at sunway hotel few months ago i did point this out to the CEO of the GTP and his officers... ofcoz he told me tahnk you this and that but i still dont see much change have been done... i think an independent audit committee need to look at the GTP implementation process if not it will be just another IDEA goes down the drain coz of bad IMPLEMENTATION!
Although I have in my travels seen abject poverty in such diverse places as Addis Ababa, Dhaka, Dar es Salaam, Kolkata, Mumbai and Manila, I must confess to a feeling of utter revulsion and anger when confronted by stark deprivation in our supposedly well-governed and prosperous Malaysia.
The pockets of rural poverty in the Malay heartlands of Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan and Terengganu are islands of prosperity compared to the scene that churned my stomach and assailed my sense of guilt and outrage when I first ventured into the Iban long houses on the majestic Rejang.
It is not enough that we have robbed them of their ancestral lands and impoverished them in the process, but we also felt constrained to strip them naked of any residual personal dignity that they might still have by introducing policies that have succeeded in reducing them to the fringes of mainstream economic life.
The Orang Asli tribes and the Orang Hulu, the Malays from the interior, have a great deal in common with their Dayak friends. For all we care, they are Malaysia’s forgotten people, but not quite. Whenever an election is underway, be it a by-election or a general election, they find themselves the centre of attention, in great demand by the rich and powerful, all claiming to love and care for them.
Before the day is out, they are the proud possessors of a handful of crisp 50 ringgit notes. Four or five hundred ringgit is a princely sum to them, a king’s ransom, no less, in exchange for their votes. If some of them have become cunning, manipulative supplicants and sacrificed their values for a fistful of ringgit, remember it is we who have corrupted them.
Years of exposure to extreme poverty and unbridled exploitation have rendered many of these once proud and noble people, nature’s gentlemen, inured and insensitive to their own traditional values and value systems. They are reduced to living from hand to mouth, on handouts, from day to day.
What a tragedy to befall a people whose only sin is to trust those sworn to protect their native rights. They are bewildered to find themselves dispossessed, as their land is taken away without as much as “by your leave” for commercial exploitation by the towkay friends of the powerful.
Talking to many of them, the Ibans, I mean, I believe the only way we can restore their pride and dignity is by providing opportunities for regular employment. We are dealing with an ancient people with a distinctive culture. Even those among them whose lives have taken on an urban aspect continue to cling strenuously to their traditional practices. We who are strong have a duty to help the weak by not foisting on the Ibans and others our culture of corruption and other despicable practices.
Some years ago, an Indonesian anti-corruption activist friend of mine visited our country during the 11th general elections, as part of a privately funded election observer mission. His group spent a great deal of time in Sarawak and Sabah and told me that he was shocked by the scale of vote buying.
I was greatly embarrassed by his revelation because at an anti-corruption conference in The Hague at which I was invited to speak and he was a participant some two months earlier, I had said that while vote buying was rampant in party elections, the practice was unknown in general and state elections.
I was unbelievably naïve to believe the Barisan Nasional government propaganda. The scale of vote-buying must have been so massive as to shock my Indonesian anti-corruption fighter, used as he was to living and working in a corruption-infested nation. It is not that easy to shock an Indonesian over a corruption issue. But unlike Malaysia, Indonesia is on the mend as far as fighting corruption is concerned. In Malaysia, on the contrary, it is in indecently robust health.
Malaysia is blessed with rich natural resources and poverty as we have seen in Sabah, Sarawak, Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan and Terengganu can only be explained in terms of governance grounded on corruption and political excesses. When we look at the personal wealth accumulated by Chief Minister Taib of Sarawak at one extremity and the Ibans at the other, one begins to wonder what the future holds for Malaysia. I am not at all sanguine.
The thieving and plundering by those in power must stop because, as history tells us, it is only a matter of time before the forbearance of the long suffering poor takes on an ugly aspect, with consequences too dreadful to contemplate. The Government of Malaysia and the state governments of Sabah and Sarawak in particular can alleviate poverty by governing in the sole interest of the people. Najib’s people first is under close public scrutiny. (By TUNKU ABDUL AZIZ/MySinchew)
MySinchew 2010.05.15
I hope PM can read this article and start the the action now !!!
yes i know that GTP is the solution so to speak but frankly i am not that happy with it as there so many important issues and implementation strategies develop by the team is very much doubtfull!
one of the key factor that they missed out is the 'caringness' of the disabled or wht the gov or the media like to labeled 'OKU'.... In their main pillar of CHANGE or TRANFORMATION they missed this out! duuring the launching of the GTP at sunway hotel few months ago i did point this out to the CEO of the GTP and his officers... ofcoz he told me tahnk you this and that but i still dont see much change have been done... i think an independent audit committee need to look at the GTP implementation process if not it will be just another IDEA goes down the drain coz of bad IMPLEMENTATION!
Sibu: after the by-election
SIBU by election result was a slap to BN leaders...
Opposition received 2942 more votes compared to the 8 March general elections while the Sarawak United People's Party (SUPP) or (BN) received only 691 less votes. DAP was able to win as 70% Chinese voters gave their support to DAP, the party was able to gain its first victory in Sarawak.
Basically Sibu is just one of the district that is poorly develop in Sarawak... in fact there is so many district in Malaysia as a whole tht are desperately need of development and growth.
The Rakyat living in this locations have been waiting for ages for some creative and innovative ideas from the government to develop their homeground so that their livelyhood will become better and they too can be part of the malaysian business eco-system instead of trying their level best to survive in life in their petty daily jobs and business...
BN win in hulu selangor for me is by pure luck as the margin of their victory is very very small! BN's luck ran out in Sibu simply bcoz the Rakyat has spoken! they want a change as for ages they have been waiting for development as even their local issues like floods etc have not been resolved and lots of lifestocks, etc lost whenever big floods occur.
I still believe in BN but i really think that PM should let go a few no result and no sincere heart leaders and replace them with leaders who believe in honesty as a way of life and will develop their nation with the interest of the Rakyat and not his pockets and his ego!
The big question now is ... is it logical for PM to 'locate' these 'saints'?
is it logical for this appointed 'saints' to do their job without 'making money' for themselves so that they can 'buy' their way in and out situations, etc...???
The answer is simple...
Whenever you do things with good heart and good intention (NIAT) anything u do will be blessed by the CREATOR and any obstacle comes in your way...u will have the wisdon to handle it with open mind and with full of calm!
on other note; Sometimes i like to read and get facts from our local chinese newspapers to compare with our english/bm papers :)
below (italic) was taken from www.mysinchew.com
18 may 2010; Pakatan Rakyat (PR) was really annoyed recently. It suffered a defeat in the Hulu Selangor by-election while some of its members withdrew or switched parties, and a PKR Member of Parliament (MP) even revealed corruption in the Selangor-owned Kumpulan Semesta Sdn Bhd (KSSB). Barisan Nasional (BN) had been ridiculing it but the victory in the Sibu by-election this time has greatly boosted its morale.
The victory in the Sibu by-election has an enormous political significance to PR. It shows that PR is still influential and it is not that easy for BN to retrieve the two-thirds majority.
Wong Ho Leng received 2942 more votes compared to the 8 March general elections while the Sarawak United People's Party (SUPP) received only 691 less votes. DAP was able to win because the turnout rate has increased by 3%. As 70% Chinese voters gave their support to DAP, the party was able to gain its first victory in Sarawak.
There are national and local factors for BN's defeat:
1.Chinese voters hope to consolidate the two-party system: As BN is proceeding forward, PR's parliamentary seats have been reduced to 77. The withdrawal of Wangsa Maju MP Wee Choo Keong from PKR before the polling started has caused BN a step closer to the two-thirds majority.
It is believed that some voters voted for PR as they wanted to maintain checks and balances. Interests of the minority will, after all, be better protected under a two-party system.
2.Local factors: Even though Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had visited Sibu for three times, the "1Malaysia" concept takes time to bring effects and thus, it is unable to offset the impact of local factors.
Sibu has been lack of development in recent years and the flooding problem has not yet been resolved. These are issues concerned by voters.
3.DAP's election strategy is effective: After learning a lesson from the Hulu Selangor by-election, DAP started its election mechanism earlier this time. Under the leadership of party adviser Lim Kit Siang, leaders of all levels were fully mobilised to fight for votes during the election campaign. And their efforts bore fruits.
DAP has become an election expert after experiencing a lot of election battles over all these years, particularly the battle in Tanjung, Penang. DAP's motto of "Sibu for change" has won the hearts of the voters.
In contrast, SUPP's campaign strategy has failed to keep up the pace of voters. Chinese voters have been immune to the Islamic state issue. It is useless to play up the Islamic state issue now.
DAP's victory in the by-election has improved its status in PR as when PR is gradually defeating, it has won the Sibu parliamentary seat and at the same time, it has become the largest component party of PR with 29 parliamentary seats.
The victory in Sibu has also strengthened the cooperation of PR's component parties in Sarawak. It can help them to resolve the conflicts earlier.
However, PR should not conclude based on only a by-election that the 8 March political tsunami has reached Sabah and Sarawak, giving it an opportunity to seize the Sarawak state power, as Sibu is a Chinese constituency but Iban and Melanau voters are still supporting BN.
If PR is unable to spread its message of change to inland areas, BN will still be able to hold tight the state power of Sarawak.
BN won the Hulu Selangor by-election but lost the Sibu by-election. It shows that the BN government still needs to step up the efforts to reform. Particularly, it needs to focus on the implementation of the New economic Model (NEM) and 10th Malaysia Plan to avoid too many of political disputes.
Politics is a long journey and we should not make a conclusion based on only a by-election. Both BN and PR still need to work harder. (By LIM SUE GOAN/ Translated by SOONG PHUI JEE/ Sin Chew Daily)
Opposition received 2942 more votes compared to the 8 March general elections while the Sarawak United People's Party (SUPP) or (BN) received only 691 less votes. DAP was able to win as 70% Chinese voters gave their support to DAP, the party was able to gain its first victory in Sarawak.
Basically Sibu is just one of the district that is poorly develop in Sarawak... in fact there is so many district in Malaysia as a whole tht are desperately need of development and growth.
The Rakyat living in this locations have been waiting for ages for some creative and innovative ideas from the government to develop their homeground so that their livelyhood will become better and they too can be part of the malaysian business eco-system instead of trying their level best to survive in life in their petty daily jobs and business...
BN win in hulu selangor for me is by pure luck as the margin of their victory is very very small! BN's luck ran out in Sibu simply bcoz the Rakyat has spoken! they want a change as for ages they have been waiting for development as even their local issues like floods etc have not been resolved and lots of lifestocks, etc lost whenever big floods occur.
I still believe in BN but i really think that PM should let go a few no result and no sincere heart leaders and replace them with leaders who believe in honesty as a way of life and will develop their nation with the interest of the Rakyat and not his pockets and his ego!
The big question now is ... is it logical for PM to 'locate' these 'saints'?
is it logical for this appointed 'saints' to do their job without 'making money' for themselves so that they can 'buy' their way in and out situations, etc...???
The answer is simple...
Whenever you do things with good heart and good intention (NIAT) anything u do will be blessed by the CREATOR and any obstacle comes in your way...u will have the wisdon to handle it with open mind and with full of calm!
on other note; Sometimes i like to read and get facts from our local chinese newspapers to compare with our english/bm papers :)
below (italic) was taken from www.mysinchew.com
18 may 2010; Pakatan Rakyat (PR) was really annoyed recently. It suffered a defeat in the Hulu Selangor by-election while some of its members withdrew or switched parties, and a PKR Member of Parliament (MP) even revealed corruption in the Selangor-owned Kumpulan Semesta Sdn Bhd (KSSB). Barisan Nasional (BN) had been ridiculing it but the victory in the Sibu by-election this time has greatly boosted its morale.
The victory in the Sibu by-election has an enormous political significance to PR. It shows that PR is still influential and it is not that easy for BN to retrieve the two-thirds majority.
Wong Ho Leng received 2942 more votes compared to the 8 March general elections while the Sarawak United People's Party (SUPP) received only 691 less votes. DAP was able to win because the turnout rate has increased by 3%. As 70% Chinese voters gave their support to DAP, the party was able to gain its first victory in Sarawak.
There are national and local factors for BN's defeat:
1.Chinese voters hope to consolidate the two-party system: As BN is proceeding forward, PR's parliamentary seats have been reduced to 77. The withdrawal of Wangsa Maju MP Wee Choo Keong from PKR before the polling started has caused BN a step closer to the two-thirds majority.
It is believed that some voters voted for PR as they wanted to maintain checks and balances. Interests of the minority will, after all, be better protected under a two-party system.
2.Local factors: Even though Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had visited Sibu for three times, the "1Malaysia" concept takes time to bring effects and thus, it is unable to offset the impact of local factors.
Sibu has been lack of development in recent years and the flooding problem has not yet been resolved. These are issues concerned by voters.
3.DAP's election strategy is effective: After learning a lesson from the Hulu Selangor by-election, DAP started its election mechanism earlier this time. Under the leadership of party adviser Lim Kit Siang, leaders of all levels were fully mobilised to fight for votes during the election campaign. And their efforts bore fruits.
DAP has become an election expert after experiencing a lot of election battles over all these years, particularly the battle in Tanjung, Penang. DAP's motto of "Sibu for change" has won the hearts of the voters.
In contrast, SUPP's campaign strategy has failed to keep up the pace of voters. Chinese voters have been immune to the Islamic state issue. It is useless to play up the Islamic state issue now.
DAP's victory in the by-election has improved its status in PR as when PR is gradually defeating, it has won the Sibu parliamentary seat and at the same time, it has become the largest component party of PR with 29 parliamentary seats.
The victory in Sibu has also strengthened the cooperation of PR's component parties in Sarawak. It can help them to resolve the conflicts earlier.
However, PR should not conclude based on only a by-election that the 8 March political tsunami has reached Sabah and Sarawak, giving it an opportunity to seize the Sarawak state power, as Sibu is a Chinese constituency but Iban and Melanau voters are still supporting BN.
If PR is unable to spread its message of change to inland areas, BN will still be able to hold tight the state power of Sarawak.
BN won the Hulu Selangor by-election but lost the Sibu by-election. It shows that the BN government still needs to step up the efforts to reform. Particularly, it needs to focus on the implementation of the New economic Model (NEM) and 10th Malaysia Plan to avoid too many of political disputes.
Politics is a long journey and we should not make a conclusion based on only a by-election. Both BN and PR still need to work harder. (By LIM SUE GOAN/ Translated by SOONG PHUI JEE/ Sin Chew Daily)
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