the wacky wombat weblog

Amat memalukan angkara SPR kini menarik balik penggunaan dakwat kekal di pilihanraya umum (PRU) ini. Alasan yang diberi SPR memang tidak masuk akal. Mempermainkan parti pembangkang dengan isu ini adalah perkara yang remeh. Tetapi, pembaziran wang ringgit rakyat membeli dakwat kekal ini tidak boleh diambil ringan.

Semasa diumumkan yang SPR akan menggunakan dakwat kekal, mereka berkata dakwat ini perlu ditempah terlebih dahulu dan hanya dibeli berberapa hari sebelum hari mengundi. Ini adalah kerana dakwat ini mudah kering dan tidak boleh digunakan jika ia dibiarkan kering. Jadi, apa akan terjadi dengan stok dakwat hitam yang telah dibeli? Jual pada orang lain? Pakistan baru saja habis mengundi. Ataupun SPR tidak langsung berniat untuk membelinya dan wang yang diperuntukkan telah ditelan?

Haih tak kisahlah, BN nak main kotor dengan isu dakwat (dan pelbagai lagi isu - undi pos, undi hantu, undi sogok). Yang pasti kita yang tenat letih dengan perangai BN ini, hantar pesanan kita dengan tulisan pangkah dalam kotak yang betul pada kertas undi hari Sabtu ini. Kalau nak hantar juga perasaan marah ataupun dukacita terhadap SPR, tunjuklah jari anda kepada pegawai-pegawai SPR selepas mengundi. Terutamanya jari hantu

So it’s election time again for Malaysia. Alas, I wasn’t that politically-aware back when I was still in Malaysia so I did not register to vote. Not like I’d want to cast postal vote in case it get ‘manipulated’ on its way home to get counted. But here’s my 2 yen for the upcoming election:

I sure hope that Malaysians would vote wisely this time. With higher Internet penetration, blogs and alternative news media is more relevant than ever before. I hope every voting Malaysians would be able to exercise the right with utmost care for the country’s future. If you think things have been bad, this is high time to make it right.

If you’re worried about voting the opposition for their lack of experience in running the Government, it’s not like BN was very experienced since the independence. Both sides started with no experience at all. And after 50 years, the country is tilted so much to one side that if it continued without any balancing force, it will soon tip over and go backwards. We don’t want our country to go backwards, do we? But if you think it’s not gonna happen, well you’re wrong. It is already in motion, if you’re aware of the recent issues on almost everything - prices, policies, racial discrimination, etc.

And look at the capabilities of the current Government. Ever since the landslide victory in GE2004, Pak Lah’s administration have lowered and lowered the bar further. Who knows, if given yet another massive victory this time, Pak Lah will actually go limbo under the said bar and maybe even fall asleep under it!

Maybe it’s time to give the opposition a chance - it’s up to you. Come to think of it, will the opposition do much worse than what the current administration is capable of?

As for me, I’ll be sure to register myself to vote for the next election. It’s about time I exercise my right.

Inspired by the upcoming General Election 2008 in Malaysia

(shall write this blog post in Malay language)

Memanglah Malaysia Boleh, boleh pergi ke angkasa lepas, boleh menjelajah Kutub Selatan, boleh mendaki Gunung Everest, boleh membina bangunan pencakar langit yang tinggi, boleh macam-macamlah. Boleh juga membunuh warga Mongolia dengan bom C4, menahan isteri diplomat Indonesia, dan segala gelagat ahli politik yang memalukan nama negara Malaysia di mata dunia.

Akan tetapi, semua ini tidak penting bagi saya. Saya tidak lagi kisah atau merasa teramat bangga apabila negara Malaysia berjaya sekali lagi mencapai kejayaan di angkasa lepas, Antartik, ataupun di puncak Gunung Everest. Apakah pula kebolehan Malaysia di dalam negeri?

Saya dah mula berasa bosan setiap kali “Malaysia Boleh” dilaungkan. Lebih-lebih lagi apabila wang cukai rakyat Malaysia yang mengalir keluar apabila ianya dilaungkan.

Sebenarnya, isu-isu penting seperti sistem kehakiman dan pilihanraya yang bebas dan tidak dipengaruhi kerajaan perlu diutamakan. Persoalannya, mampukah negara Malaysia yang berusia 50 tahun memperbetulkan isu-isu ini dan bergerak kehadapan? Pak Lah, apa yang lebih penting, menghantar seorang rakyat Malaysia ke angkasa lepas sebagai seorang pelancong, atau menghadapi isu penting yang menyekat kemajuan negara?

Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor telah pun memulakan perjalanan ke angkasa lepas, bolehkah kita sekarang mula memberi perhatian kepada isu-isu sebenar di dalam negeri? Malaysia bolehkah?

What has it come to when the government pays RM214 for a set of screwdrivers that probably cost only RM40, and doesn’t do a thing to check for possible corrupted practices?

Read this on The Star online today. It’s simply ridiculous.

The Auditor-General’s report revealed that the government has been paying insanely high prices for what seems to be very generic tools when they funded the supplies tools for the National Youth Skills Institutes in Malaysia.

Like RM10,000 for a technical tool set that costs RM 400?? And the list goes on.

Hasn’t it occured to anyone to check what was going on when the proposed budget ballooned from 400 million to 700 million? You mean nobody noticed the suspicious budget that doubled twofold?!?! 0_o Amazing. Dunno how to count izzit?

This is what truly annoys me about my home country. No proper governance, no transparency, and money squandered away for the benefits of the filthy selected rich ones.

When I first came to Singapore to study 6 years ago (gosh so long ago!), I was still optimistic, and dreaming of going back to KL to live and work there. What to do, I was 18 and I missed home.

But after all these years and witnessing what goes on in the news and among the people, all desire of returning home to ’serve my country’ has vanished.

No way I’m going back there in the near future to wallow in mediocrity and fear for my safety on the roads, and suffer through high cost of living. (Contrary to what many think, Singapore is a much more affordable city to work and live in. But that’s material for another blog post. :p)

Not to mention the rising tension of racism and religious difference. Nothing’s happened, but signs of the society being delineated along racial religious lines are just too obvious to ignore.

Once you’ve travelled abroad, seen other cities and all, then you start to see all the possibilities that could have been, but are wiped off because of greed, inefficiency, selfishness and narrow-mindedness. The future definitely doesn’t look too good.

Singapore isn’t the best city in the world to live in (I’m still trying to find out which city is), but I think I’d live better and happier here. So for now, I’ll just shelf my KL plans. For now it’ll just be my hometown, where I go back only for visits to my family and friends, and ‘real’ food.

According to BERNAMA, the misinformed minister has called for RTM to feature pictures of buildings, particularly corporate premises if the national flag, Jalur Gemilang is not flown at the buildings. So what does this mean?

It very well means you can now opt to buy a big canvas banner to advertise your business/products on your building rather than spend it on a Jalur Gemilang flag. You’ll get your business featured on the national TV station and free advertising!

ZAM also calls for the flag to be flown on vehicles on the road “as a symbol of their support and love for the country which had brought prosperity to them”. So in return of getting squeezed with crappy overpriced cars by the Govt and the AP crap, we should fly the flag to show support for such prosperity that benefitted the AP kings. Bagus!

Well, according to Mike Tyson anyway (read: Berita Harian in Malay). If he’s right about foreign organizations paying bloggers back home up to RM 100k per month, I’m gonna buy the first ticket back to KL and be a full-time blogger. But then again, these words came from the very person that made a police report accusing RPK of insulting the Agong and Islam in his blog.

Does Mike Tyson have any factual proof to substantiate his claims? He’s the one who’s caught in public trying to carry out millions of dollars in Australia. He should know better than to throw out such wild claims about money.

And then there were the rumours of UMNO cyber-troopers being paid in excess of RM 2k per month to create havoc in blogs. If UMNO really can pay for these cyber-troopers, why can’t bloggers get paid for their writing too? Probably because they know that they can’t pay the bloggers enough to stop writing the truth? And if both claims about all these money is involved is true, then UMNO better be able to cough up for more cyber-troopers otherwise it won’t stand a chance to fight.

In the meantime, I feel the term “Information” in the minds of our politicians is more likely a synonym to misinformation. Coz now we have the Information Minister and UMNO Information Chief being constantly misinformed.

UPDATE: Pay me the market rate of RM 100,000 a month and I will blog on whatever topics you like. My blog loyalty goes to the financial sponsor. It doesn’t matter if you’re a foreign organization, UMNO, or even an influentially-yet-misinformed minister or senator. Interested? Contact me today! Offers less than the market rate mentioned above will not be entertained.

“KIMANIS (Sabah), July 28 (Bernama) — Umno wants bloggers who resort to slander to be brought to book, said Umno Youth deputy chief Khairy Jamaluddin.

He said these bloggers did not think about the sensitivities of others and the repercussions their writings can cause.

“There are no laws in the cyberworld except for the law of the jungle. As such, action must be taken so that the “monkeys” behave,” he told reporters after opening the Papar, Kimanis and Sipitang Umno Youth annual delegates conference here today.

Khairy said there were some bloggers who thought they were above the law.

He said this when asked about Malaysia-Today webmaster Raja Petra Kamaruddin being called by the police for alleged seditious comments posted on it.

Khairy added that he too had been slandered on websites but had yet to take legal action because the case might take a long time to be settled.” - BERNAMA

And that comes from someone who brags about his stupidity of owning an iPhone in his column on a national newspaper and using it via roaming (since it can’t be unlocked yet) back home in Malaysia. The very same person who would hang out with the Mat Rempits and ride around by-election towns without wearing a helmet (isn’t that against the law? Oh wait, he’s the son-in-law of our Prime Minister).

The very person who thinks that bloggers do not care for the sensitivity of others, yet this very person is the one who goes around raising racial issues and having no respect at all for foreign leaders when he acted in outrage in a demonstration in town when US Secretary of State Condeleezza Rice was around.

Who’s the monkey now?