Can't Agree More With Kadir Jasin, Najib Not Beyond Stricture

Hantu Laut

I was once his ardent supporter but now filled with utter disgust with the kind of ineptitude, playing with religious fire and an economy that self-prophesying for imminent decline.

I have, on many instances, in my past postings wrote on the need to abolish subsidies and dismantle all monopolies and let prices find its own level. 

A government interference in a free market economy is a sure recipe for disaster, it's only a matter of time before the roof came down on us Malaysians. 

It makes one wonder why a cuppa in a Singapore hawker's stall is cheaper than a cuppa in a Malaysian hawker's stall when our neighbour has the highest per capita income in the world and higher standard of living and we still caught in the middle income trap and in all probability going down further south.

Najib must not forgets, the ball is in his court.

Najib is not beyond criticism for his inaction, only he can make the changes and take full blame for any undoing of his government.

I couldn't agree more with Kadir Jasin in his article reproduced below.

Najib is not above criticism, says former NST chief editor

Pro-government supporters should realise that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is not above criticism for Putrajaya’s cost-cutting measures which had resulted in price hikes, says a former editor of an Umno-linked newspaper.

Veteran journalist Datuk A. Kadir Jasin (pic) wrote that Najib and his advisers were not above criticism when the public react to Putrajaya's way of managing the national economy.

"It was Najib and his advisers during the general election who promised the people that prices will not be raised. So, who is going back on their word?" he asked in a posting in his The Scribe blog yesterday.

He also questioned whether the prime minister was an absolute monarch who could not be criticised or questioned.

"Or is he a living saint who is free from any kind of slip-ups?” asked Kadir, who was the group editor-in-chief of the New Straits Times when Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was the prime minister.

Since September, Putrajaya has introduced a series of cost-cutting measures to rein in a chronic budget deficit which includes a reduction of fuel subsidies, removal of subsidy for sugar, allowed an increase in power tariffs and confirmed the introduction of the goods and services tax (GST).

Putrajaya is also mulling a revision of toll rates while the 20% rebate offered to frequent users of tolled roads in the Klang Valley is being scrapped.

The increasing cost of goods and services had also triggered a protest on New Year's Eve by an undergraduate non-governmental organisation, Turun, which attracted more than 10,000 people.

In defending his strident criticism of Najib, the veteran journalist also rebuked his critics who had claimed that he only lambasted the prime minister on “economic management but did not offer advice and pointers”. Read more.

Editor Not Worth His Salt, Empty As The Vessels

Hantu Laut

Most citizens of high rectitude would not condone corruptions. 

Any talk against corruptions by the oppositions, I'll take with a pinch of salt. Never trust Greeks bearing gifts, which the Trojans paid for dearly. 

As they say "hypocrisy is homage that vice pays to virtue". 

Something is rotten in the Pakatan states. They also catch small fish to hoodwink the people that they tolerate no corruption. A false portrayal of zero tolerance for corruptions.

It does not matter if it was RM1.00 or RM1.0 million, corruption is corruption, as reprehensible as it can be, it can't be eradicated completely. Even in squeaky clean Singapore there is corruption.

Pakatan anti-corruption slogan to fish for votes is nothing more than typical salesman's baloney,  a deceptive talk, as empty as the vessels.

This ass of an editor can't tell the difference between real corruption and institutionalised affirmative action, just another deceptive writing to hoodwink the public.

A short excerpt from his editorial below:

So, while it is refreshing and laudatory to see mainstream newspapers reporting the Penang case that involves a civil servant and a political aide, questions remain why the local media is silent on the RM100 million National Defence Education Centre (Puspahanas).

Read more here.

There is a world of difference between the two, while one is real corruption the other is an extension of legitimate government policy.

Failure to build the project is breach of contract and has nothing to do with corruption as he made it out to be. 

As long as the covenant is still alive and there is no legal impediment against sale, transfer or disposal of the project/land to another party, the recipient has not broken any law. 

There are laws to take care of such breach, or criminal action, if there was such misdeed.

You can call it cronyism or institutionalised and legalised corruption, but it is legal and government can choose who they want to give the project to, with or without track record..

If given to Syed Mokhtar Al-bukhary the oppositions also make noise, say give him to much and that he may go bust and break all the banks in the country, give to Malay without track record also make noise. 

Make up your mind mate! You want the pie or the cake?

If you need track record than no Malays can ever be in business.

This is Malaysia lah! Not U.S, Britain, France or Germany, we have our own government policy. 

My two cents worth of salt!

Is he worth his salt, or eating the opposition's salt?

My reason for joining PKR — Ibrahim Menudin

Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build bridges even when there are no rivers... Nikita Khrushchev
 

SEPT 20 — The eve of Malaysia Day marked a major turning point in my life. After a career spent largely out of the political limelight, I decided to enter mainstream politics and join Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR).

For some time now, I have felt a deep and growing sense of dissatisfaction with the way our country is run. We have achieved so much with what we have been given, and yet, 49 years after Malaysia was formed, and with eight years left until Wawasan 2020, many of us are still struggling with the basic necessities of life. Eighty per cent of our households still live on less than RM3,000 per month, and 40 per cent of our households live on RM1,500 per month. As the cost of living continues to increase, most of us will still struggle to make ends meet.

I joined PKR because I believe it is time for change. It is time that we took back the future, the future that is continually being promised to all of us, but is only being realised by so few.

In the shorter term, we have to tackle the economic mismanagement that is currently plaguing our country. The current administration's “solution” to spend our way out of our problems is not a solution; it is part of the problem. Our national debt stands at 53 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), more than Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, and at least one-third of our federal budget is funded by Petronas. We need to restructure the way our budget is funded and the way our budget is spent, and we need to re-think the way our government-linked companies (GLCs) operate.

In the longer term, we need to address our national standard of education. Our students are becoming less competitive because we have come to depend on a system of rote memorisation and indoctrination rather than on a system of building intellect and promoting lateral thinking. Thirty per cent of our students do not even complete SPM. Many private schools have been founded to address some concerns that our children are not getting the level of education they need. Our priority should be to raise the quality of education of all our national schools, so that if we want to send our children to private schools, it is because we want to, not because we feel we have to. Our overarching philosophy should be not just to educate our students, but to liberalise the minds of all Malaysians, young and old.

I am also entering PKR to help the people of Labuan. As a native of Labuan, I long to see a great and prosperous future for my homeland. I have been fortunate enough to have enjoyed immense opportunity. My goal now is to make these opportunities, and so many more, available to everyone, by allowing Labuan to realise its true potential. We need to lower the skyrocketing living costs that are burdening the average Labuanite, and properly position and promote Labuan as an international hub for oil and gas, education, and financial services.Read more.

The Purple Prose !

Hantu Laut


Remember! When we first learned to write English we were told about the correct usage of the language. 


Never start a sentence with a conjunction, an adjective is always followed by a noun and so forth. Those were the infant days of our learning process.


As many of you would know the English language has many pitfalls on the correct usage of words and grammar. 


Some of us do break the rules, murdering the language, preferring style over conformity.Some, killed the story they wrote with prolixity, quantity over substance. Some, are verbose, wordy and long-winded and the story got lost in translation. Some, are just not adapt to writing but tried anyway and got lost in the twilight world of ignorance. 


If you think that's all funny, nothing beats over-the-top word overkill.......it's there staring right at you.

PKR holds Umno responsible for ‘night of bloodshed’ in Lembah Pantai

Only two people were hurt in the fracas. The editor should be stoned for this laughable mix of contradiction and exaggeration.

The night saw a senior citizen suffering an open wound to the head after being hit with a stone and a 12-year-old possibly breaking her wrist.

What the hell a 12-year old doing attending a political ceramah? It shows Malaysian parents bear no discipline themselves exposing their kids to the smutty world of politics at such tender age.

"bloodshed" -slaughter, massacre, killing,wounding; carnage, butchery, bloodletting, bloodbath; violence,fighting, warfare; literary slaying.

From Lim Kit Siang's blog by Mariam Mokhtar

To make these links is to overlook decades of known atrocities committed by Umno to control the rakyat. We cannot ignore the wider picture in an effort to seek easy answers and scapegoats to explain these abhorrent actions.

The tragedy of May 13 was blamed on worsening Malay-Chinese relations, the Memali incident on a banned Islamic sect and the murder of Altantuya on a greedy vindictive woman. Scratch beneath the surface and a different picture emerges.

"atrocities" -cruelty,enormity, outrage, horror, monstrosity, obscenity, violation, crime,abuse; barbarity, barbarism, brutality, savagery, inhumanity,wickedness, evil, iniquity

Some become a joke unto themselves.

The purple prose!

The Chinese Will Unite The Malays In 13th General Elections

Hantu Laut

At last, some sensibility coming out of UMNO.

Here, Prime Minister Najib openly admitted the BN had lost its Chinese support.

I have not been wrong all along, in many of my past posts, in my conclusion that the BN has completely lost the Chinese support.MCA and Gerakan would soon be joining our prehistoric dinosaurs.

There is little comfort left for the Chinese leaders in BN knowing that their days are numbered. The results of the March 2008 General Elections has altered the political philosophy of the Chinese, which have been simmering under the lid for many decades.

The Malays, empirical students of the British are getting a dose of their own medicine and no matter how bitter the pill is, they would have to swallow it.

Never have they been more divided and the Chinese more united.

Today, the Chinese are cohesive force under the DAP umbrella.As I have always said, DAP would have almost clean sweep of the Chinese MP seats.DAP are more interested in MP seats rather than state seats that would give them greater voice in parliament.

UMNO's divide and rule policy of dividing the other races into splintered groups ended in March 2008.

Unbeknown to UMNO and least expected, it is the Malays that is now in serious trouble and seriously divided that could spell the end of "ketuanan Melayu" and the rise of Malay liberalism among the Malays younger generation.

UMNO old guards are still living in past glory, where intimidation, coercion, threat and fear are the order of the day.The simmering resentment of five decades yonder among non-Malays have blown the lid off the pressure cooker.The Malay leaders in UMNO are now scampering to re-assemble the broken pieces.Will they succeed?

Something strange is going to happen which has nothing to do with UMNO's efforts to unite the Malays.It would be the Chinese that eventually unite the Malays or rather the Chinese threat.

The Chinese threat that may or can dilute and weaken Malays political power would provide the impetus for Malay unity and the end of "ketuanan Melayu".The question is under which Malay umbrella would it be? UMNO or PAS?

PKR is out. The Malay masses do not consider PKR as a Malay party and it would be the weakest runner among the lot.The contender would be between PAS and UMNO.PAS has one disadvantage , its association with DAP, regarded by staunched Muslims as associating with the devil, the infidel, a name given by PAS to UMNO for associating with MCA and Gerakan before its own alliance with DAP.

UMNO has the edge over PAS as a vehicle for Malay unity but will UMNO leaders screw it up?

While PAS has diverted from its original Islamic brand, UMNO is still signing the same old song of Malay unity and "ketuanan Melayu", overtaking PAS in its quest for greater Malay and Muslims supports.Bowing to the Islamists with regard to foreign artists performing in Malaysia and proselytising of Muslims by Christians are the nutrients and part and parcel of UMNO strategy for Malay and Muslim unity.

The ultimate bogeymen...........Chinese threat and Christians proselytising Muslims.

UMNO may have to repossess all Malay dominated constituencies given to other BN parties in the past or risk bigger losses and loss of the government.

DAP, trying to appease the Malays, would field Malay candidates in the 13th GE in Malay dominated areas.

Not trying to stifle the enthusiasm of these Malay candidates, they all would lose miserably, with majority of them losing their deposits.They can only win if DAP put them in Chinese dominated areas but would DAP dare take the risk, the ire of its Chinese members.

We should not kid ourselves that this country is ready for multiracial and multicultural integration.We can be friends but when it comes to the crunch, blood is thicker than water.

Communal politics would still be alive and kicking in Malaysia. Even Kit Siang has openly called for Chinese to unite under DAP for greater say in the politics of this country.Those who think of "Satu Bangsa Malaysia" are dreamers, it would never happen in our lifetime.

It took America over 200 years to reach the halfway, the man they chose to be their president was only half-black, not the real "gagak"

A grandmother, a baby and Sabah’s poverty:A Sabah Story

FEB 15 — Waiting at the check-in lounge for my flight home to Kota Kinabalu, I saw a woman in her senior years looking rather forlorn. She looked to be at least in her 60s; far too old to be the mother of the newborn in her arms. Besides the baby, she was also clutching what looked like one of those carriers that would hold baby bottles and nappies.

When it was time for the plane to depart, she rose, awkwardly trying to juggle the baby and the bag.

I looked around for someone accompanying her, some relative or friend, but she seemed to be alone.

“Makcik seorang ka? (Are you alone, auntie?)” I asked.

She nodded. I asked to carry her bag and she thanked me, her eyes full of relief and the tenseness about her easing a little.

We chatted for awhile and she told me the baby was her daughter’s. The baby’s parents were both working in the Peninsula because it was the only place to find work. But neither earned enough for them to be able to afford childcare so it was left to her to look after the infant.

A steward, noticing that I’d helped the old woman with her bag, smiled and thanked me. At least I wasn’t the only one who noticed. Sadly the rest of my fellow passengers were a little too preoccupied to lend a hand to the old woman. I am sure the steward would likely have taken her bag for her on the plane; he took it from me when she reached her seat, placing it in the overhead compartment for her.

She had another relative waiting for her when she arrived at the airport, fortunately. Otherwise, she, the baby and the bag would be on a rickety bus home and I’m not sure if someone would have been kind enough to take her bag.

I look at the old woman and think of my middle- and upper-middle class friends in the Klang Valley with helpers. They fuss about their “stupid”, “untrustworthy” help and few things are as discussed by these “tai-tais” than how hard it is to find good help.

But maids are a luxury; they don’t see that. The working class can’t afford maids and rely on relatives to look after the children while they work. But what if there is no doting grandparent or widowed aunt? Affordable childcare facilities aren’t easy to find and are out of reach for families that take home less than RM2,500 a month.Read more.

Altsom:Malaysian Insider The Master Embellisher

Hantu Laut

What you read in Malaysian Insider is not necessary exactly the same with what was reported from the sources they picked up some of their news.

They report on Altsom paying bribes in Malaysia was highly embellished and stinks of politics.Sure, there are many corrupt deals in Malaysia, but should so-called purveyor of news indulged in gutter journalism and embellished news they sourced from other parties.

Read what the various foreign newspapers published.They all carry exactly the same story except Malaysian Insider. There was no specific mention of Tenaga or any other Malaysian companies in the other reports.

Read the full report from Malaysian Insider:

By Shannon Teoh

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 23 — French engineering group Alstom was fined RM133 million by Swiss authorities after its employees were found to have bribed civil servants in at least three cases including the award of contracts in Malaysia.

It is the second French company in as many years to be fined for bribing government officials in Malaysia, after telco firm Alcatel-Lucent paid RM435 million to resolve US criminal and civil probes in December 2010.

The four-year probe centred on payments made by Alstom Network Schweiz AG to middlemen — termed “commercial agents” by the company — in return for securing government contracts to build power stations in 15 countries since the 1990s.

The Financial Times reported today that the Swiss Office of the Attorney-General said it had not found criminal wrongdoing by the French company and a Swiss affiliate, which, “as far as can be ascertained” did not know about the bribes.

“But it accused Alstom of ‘failing to meet the standards for an international group employing over 75,000 people’, sanctioning the group for ‘corporate negligence’,” the international business daily said.

The Washington Post also reported Alstom as saying it was satisfied with the outcome of the case as it concluded “the absence of any system or so called slush funds used for bribery of civil servants.”

Alstom supplied Malakoff’s gas-fired power plant in Lumut. — industcards.com pic

But the US daily also reported the French firm as acknowledging “that prosecutors had concluded that ‘improper payments were made to civil servants in Latvia, Malaysia and Tunisia.’”

“In two out of these three cases, Alstom itself would appear to be a victim of the actions of some of its employees, who would have benefited from kickbacks. In the third one, Alstom was simply a subcontractor of a consortium,” the company said, according to Reuters.

Alstom was awarded a RM2.8 billion contract by Tenaga Nasional earlier this year to provide key power generation equipment to Southeast Asia’s first 1,000-megawatt (MW) supercritical coal-fired power plant Manjung, Malaysia.

It also won turnkey contracts in 1994 and 2000 to build four power plants including the 1,300MW Lumut and the 670MW Kuala Langat plants and deals in 2003 and 2004 to install environmental control systems for the Tanjung Bin and Jimah coal-fired power plants.

Alstom was also appointed by Tenaga to supply two 125MW hydro power turbines, a generator and ancillaries for the 250MW Hulu Terengganu hydro power plant in 2010.

Alstom says it is “the largest original equipment manufacturer in Malaysia” having supplied key equipment for nearly 7.5 gigawatt (GW) of the country’s installed power generation capacity.

The ruling will have significant repercussions for a concurrent criminal investigation by Britain’s Serious Fraud Office. Brazil is also investigating some of the company’s contracts.

The Swiss authority also looked at alleged wrongdoing by Alstom in 12 other countries but did not find compelling evidence.

In July, a former Alcatel employee was charged in the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court with giving a RM25,000 bribe to a Telekom Malaysia (TM) officer, in a case linked to the French company’s admission last year that it had bribed government officials to win a US$85 million (RM255 million) contract.

From The Wall Street Journal

By Samuel Rubenfeld

The Swiss Office of the Attorney General said Tuesday it closed a probe into Alstom SA, and ordered a unit to pay 38.5 million Swiss francs ($42.2 million)

lstom Network Schweiz AG, a unit of the French power engineering and train company, was fined CHF2.5 million for negligence in implementing proper controls to prevent bribery by company officials in Latvia, Tunisia and Malaysia, and it was ordered to pay an additional CHF36 million for profits connected to the negligence. Dow Jones Newswires reported on the story, and there’s more here, here, here and here.

The Swiss attorney general said in a statement that during a broader investigation of Alstom, eventually focused on 15 countries, it found that the company “had implemented a compliance policy that was suitable in principle, but that it had not enforced it with the necessary persistence.”

A summary judgement issued by the attorney general’s office said the group “failed to meet the standards” of an entity employing 75,000 people around the globe. Alstom’s compliance department was understaffed, it said, and “filled with employees with too little experience and/or training in compliance issues.”

That lack of experienced compliance personnel, according to the Swiss attorney general’s office, enabled the corruption to happen without the knowledge of the French parent.

“The investigation showed that consultants engaged by Alstom on the basis of consultancy agreements in the mentioned three countries had forwarded a considerable part of their success fees to foreign decision makers and thereby had influenced the latter in favor of Alstom,” the statement said.

Alstom said in its own statement that the use of consultants for tenders is both legal and customary so long as their relationship “correspond[s] to actual services and [does] not contribute to illicit activities led by these partners.”

The company is not going to appeal the finding, it said. Further, it burnished itself in the wake of the announcement, saying the company did not engage in systemic corruption.

“Alstom notes with satisfaction that, after thorough investigations, the Office of Attorney General has concluded the absence of any system or so called slush funds used for bribery of civil servants to illegally obtain contracts,” it said in the statement.

The company is under investigation for alleged bribery by the U.S. Justice Department, as well as by authorities in several other countries, including the U.K.Read more.

From Washington Post/Bloomberg

BERN, Switzerland — A subsidiary of French engineering company Alstom SA has been ordered to pay 39 million Swiss francs ($42.7 million) in fines and compensation to end a long-running corruption case in Switzerland, prosecutors said Tuesday.

The four-year probe centered on payments made by Alstom Network Schweiz AG to middlemen — termed “commercial agents” by the company — in return for securing government contracts to build power stations in 15 countries since the 1990s.Read more.

From Reuters

By Dominique Vidalon

PARIS, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Swiss authorities have fined French power and engineering group Alstom 38.5 million Swiss francs ($42 million) for corporate negligence, after a global bribery probe.

Alstom said on Tuesday it was fined 2.5 million francs for negligence in three cases involving company officials in Latvia, Malaysia and Tunisia. It must also pay around 36 million francs, corresponding to estimated profit related to the cases.

"In two out of these three cases, Alstom itself would appear to be a victim of the actions of some of its employees, who would have benefited from kickbacks, 'enriching themselves at the expense of the company'," Alstom said.Read more.

From Swissinfo

The Swiss subsidiary of French transport and engineering company Alstom has been found guilty of corporate negligence following a lengthy corruption inquiry.

The Swiss Federal Prosecutor’s Office said on Tuesday Alstom Network Schweiz AG had been fined SFr2.5 million ($2.74 million) and ordered to pay SFr36.4 million in compensation relating to three cases where it had failed to prevent the bribery of foreign officials in Latvia, Tunisia and Malaysia.

The punishment comes after investigations into the company’s actions in 15 countries were reopened in 2008. The investigation concluded that Alstom had failed to enforce a compliance policy with the “necessary persistence”.

“Therefore, acts of bribery in Latvia, Tunisia and Malaysia were not prevented,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

“The investigation showed that consultants engaged by Alstom… had forwarded a considerable part of their success fees to foreign decision makers [in the countries concerned] and thereby had influenced the latter in favour of Alstom.”

The prosecutor’s office said that after “considerable investigative efforts” it had detected some breaches of internal compliance methods, but no additional acts of bribery in the other 12 countries.

It dismissed proceedings against parent company Alstom SA in relation to the Latvian, Tunisian and Malaysian cases after imposing costs of SFr1 million.

In a statement, Alstom said it was satisfied that the Swiss prosecutor’s office had not found evidence “of any system or so-called slush funds used for bribery of civil servants to illegally obtain contracts”.

The company said that in two of the three cases were it was found to be at fault, it was a “victim of the actions of some of its employees”, while in the third, Alstom was “simply a subcontractor of a consortium”.Read more

Why I Stayed - A Profundity

Here is why I stayed — John Rahman

May 28, 2011

MAY 28 — I shall start with a story of hope.

Two, actually.

I had an ex-colleague who runs a car wash business in one of the most ulu places in Peninsular Malaysia. It’s a simple business, so simple that his wife just sits under a tree all day long collecting money and supervising some school kids they employ to do the dirty work. He keeps his day job while earning a cool RM7,000 side income every month.

In my skyscraper of an office now, an old makcik pushes around a shopping cart (probably nicked while the guards at the nearby hypermarket weren’t looking!) filled to the brim with knick-knacks, kacang, muruku and stuff. She comes by once a week and without fail, my colleagues and I will stock up on junk food to munch on while working. Based on sales on our floor alone — okay, maybe we are gluttons! — but we estimate she profits around RM50 per floor, and with well over 50 floors in the building, she must earn at least RM2,000 a week (tax free!).

We can complain about spiralling cost of living, but these are ordinary people taking full advantage of the abundance of opportunities in Malaysia to earn a living. This is the land of opportunity. If an illegal immigrant can come here and earn a living, justly or not, there is no reason why a person like me, born and bred in this environment, with ample knowledge of how things work — for better or for worse — cannot make it big.

I shall say this, whether or not people choose to leave the country is entirely up to them. Everybody has their own dreams and ambitions, and if migrating overseas takes you closer to those dreams, so be it. But do not give excuses to justify you leaving. You don’t need an excuse, certainly not a bad one, to pursue your life-long goals.

You do not need to blame the crummy education system — it is crummy, but it is an education system we all grew up with and I would like to think that a lot of us turned out fine.

You can’t blame racism or glass ceilings because everyone honest enough to admit will tell you that glass ceilings exist EVERYWHERE. The current debate over the “tradition” of Europeans as the de facto head of the IMF should tell you more than you need to know about glass ceilings.

All those crummy reasons don’t hold up because while Malaysians are busy flocking to Singapore, Singaporeans are busy flocking elsewhere too. That is where the whole argument falls apart. Do we see some green pasture across the straits that the Singaporeans don’t see? And do the Indonesians see something green about KL that we don’t?

My friends, this is the age of globalisation. Borders between countries are blurring. This is not like the time where miners came to Malaya from China with the sole purpose of better economic prospects. Today, there are Malaysians working in Sudan, Dutchmen working in Nigeria, Americans working in Siberia. Do you think these people are where they are because of some misguided notion that these places are better than their homeland? No, people work where they work and people build a home where they do because this is where life takes them.

When addressing his own country’s emigrant issue, Rajiv Ghandi once said: “A brain drain is better than a brain in the drain.” That we, as Malaysians, are deemed capable enough to be able to work anywhere in the world is a clear indication of our talents. And whether the people migrating will choose to admit it or not, these are talents nourished by the foundations we built for ourselves while growing up on the streets of KL, Ipoh and JB.

I can go on and on about how I want to change this country, how I want to make a difference. That is all true, but that is also secondary. People can claim that they are leaving because of better prospects, a more comfortable life. That is probably true as well, but still a secondary issue.Read more.

(Drove from KK to Sandakan yesterday and Sandakan to Lahad Datu today.My last trip on these roads was 3 years ago and I cursed every mile of the way how we had been had.Today, the road conditions have degenerated so badly your car could be your very coffin.Maybe, the PM,CM and all the ministers should board 1BUS and see how wonderful their trip would be on Sabah's hellish roads, just waiting to maim or kill you.

Not only the Federal Minister of Health should resign, the Minister of Works should also resign.Sabah, by rights should have dual-carriageways linking East and West and North and South.

On my way to Tabin Wildlife Reserve.Will have lots of photos, probably too busy, no politics, no posting, just enjoy God's gifts to mankind, nature and tranquility of the jungle - Hantu Laut)