If You Are Fundamentally Screwed Blame It On Mahathir

Hantu Laut

I am beginning to think Malaysians are not very smart lot, the very reason we are left behind countries like Singapore,Hong Kong,Taiwan and South Korea.

Malaysians are just too smart for their own good.

The government have provided more than basic infrastructures and opportunities for the people to grow with the time. 

As former Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi said "We have first world infrastructures but third world mentality" We are left behind the real tiger economies because of us, not because of the government.Government can only do so much. 

The greatness of a nation much depend on its citizens, the attitude and aptitude of the people.

Unfortunately, Malaysians are too slow or too lazy to change. 

They want the luxury and comfort of the Western's world standard of living but do not want to put in the effort and hard work, unlike the Taiwanese, South Koreans, Hongkees and Singaporeans, some working as long as 12 hours a day.

Today, these tiger economies of Asia are rewarded with higher wages and better standard of living. 

Malaysians, have become accustomed to the dependent mentality, the "teenage syndrome". Years of government subsidies have spoiled them as they yearn for more and more subsidy. It has the cheapest petrol price in the region yet they still complained to no end. 

Anwar Ibrahim has promised to reduce the price of petrol if Pakatan win the next general elections. Hanging the carrot, stupid Malaysians believe him. 

Pakatan have promised to reduce the prices of almost every conceivable consumables, it makes one wonder from where are they going to get the money. Unless, they increase the debt ceiling there is no way they can finance all that they have promised. Malaysia have set its debt ceiling at 55% of GDP and the present debt to GDP ratio is hovering around 52/53%.

If contradiction is the buzz word, it's surely in Pakatan, they have also promised to reduce the budget deficit. 

Malaysians have the habit of blaming their government for their failures and shortcomings.If they are civil servant stagnated in their positions they will blame the government instead of their own incompetence. 

It has become pivotal point to blame Mahathir for everything that have gone wrong with this country, but this beautiful country is far from being a beggar's state, we have yet to slide into the gutter. 

When it come to investing, the average Malaysians are just as clueless, either of poor judgment or insatiable greed.

Many of you  must have read the recent  debacle of some gold trading houses that have been caught operating without licences by Bank Negara. Some members of the opposition and the inimitibly stupid investors blamed Mahathir  for asking them to invest in gold ... accused Mahathir of saying it is better to invest in gold than keeping your money in the bank.

We all know Mahathir had never been an investment guru and would never be one, if stupid is as stupid can be, these investors should have known better,  politicising the issue will not bring their money back.

Some of the investors have set up Facebook account supporting the companies and demanding Bank Negara to stop its action against the companies.One such company called Genneva  has a Facebook set up by its subscribers and have the bloody cheek to blame Bank Negara for their dilemma out of their own stupidity. The Facebook here.

Every sensible investor should know the first mandatory requirement before you part with your money, if the companies are not accredited banks or investment institutions approved by Bank Negara, is to check on the background of the company.

What brings these people to such investment companies? It is greed,  because such companies offer high return that can tempt even those with a sliver of greed and most Ponzi schemes offer nonsensical guaranteed return that anyone who knows about money matters wouldn't touch them with a ten-foot pole. Any company that promised to pay monthly or quarterly dividends should be high on the suspect list of Ponzi scheme.

You can buy paper gold through most banks in Malaysia, why don't these people buy from these accredited banks? Simply because such banks don't guarantee return on your investment, be it gold, unit trusts or any other investment. The only guaranted return a bank can give you is time (fixed) deposit,  which currently pays miserable rate, hence, the attraction to Ponzi schemes.

Malaysians never seemed to learn their lessons from the past. There have been many cases of Ponzi schemes in the past that have defrauded investors of million of ringgits yet thousands still flocked to such schemes without second thought. 

The Swisscash Investment programme, an Internet based scam was one such bogus investment house that defrauded Malaysians of millions of ringgit. The investors learned a bitter lesson with this too-good-to-be-true scheme that promised 300 % return in 15 months. With SC and Bank Negara intervention investors managed to get back 20 cents to the ringgit of their money, which, otherwise, would have been naught.

These greedy Malaysians who think they have the midas touch again blamed the government for their bad judgement and rapacious desire to get rich quickly in a get-rich-quick schemes.

Phnom Penh

Stirring The Hornet's Nest ! The "BIADAB" Culture

Hantu Laut

It is indeed something that we should not teach our children to do, it is not our culture, it is not our ways. 

There are better and civilised ways to oppose the government without resorting to the "kurang ajar" culture that could lead to widespread unrest.

Stepping on our leaders' photos and desecrating them has never been our political culture. 

Malaysians are taking their new found freedom too far and such behaviour if not curtailed may have dire consequence in this multiracial nation.

Whether you are Malays, Chinese or Indians, all cultures teach you the same thing of respecting elders and filial piety towards your parents.

Do not for one moment think all cultures are the same. There can be vast differences even among Asian cultures.

Do you know in Thailand and most Buddish countries the head is considered most sacred and touching someone's head is considered rude and insulting.

In Thai culture like most other Asian culture using your feet to point at people is also considered rude.

My personal experience had shown what can happen when two different cultures clashed.

Some years ago I went trekking/camping into the jungle of Borneo with a group of people who are members of the same society. With the group was a couple of Westerners. One morning while a few of us were having breakfast with our food placed on the ground, one "orang putih" trying to get out of the tent just walked over our food, but his girlfriend, who was a Chinese girl went around us to find her way out. My Chinese friend from Sarawak went livid and a fight almost broke our between him and the white man, who was still clueless, what have triggered my friend's anger. 

In Asian culture, not only you must not walk over food, it is also tabooed to walk over anyone laying on the floor.

These are cultures of the East that some Westerners have no clue about and found it ludicrously outdated, which they often make fun of.

Those protesting at Padang Merdeka and stomping on the Prime Minister's photos were not ignorant 'orang putihs' but were Malaysians who should have known better that what they did was against the 'adat' of this country.

This country is not run by a tyrannical leader for him to deserve such treatment. 

It is sad that some pro-Pakatan supporters have resorted to the "kurang ajar" and "biadab" culture toward the national flag and Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak. 

Anwar Ibrahim supported the flag bearers and called it a lesson in history here. Lim Guan Eng demanded why no action was taken against Perkasa when they burned his photos.

Who is Anwar trying to fool? Is he promoting his culture of protests and defiance that has been his trademark from his younger days and a man who never kept his words, changing at his whims and fancies.

Guess who set leadership by example?

Stepping on and desecrating Najib's photo, though not criminal act, is considered an insult in our culture.

Belittling the national flag and aggrandising the flag of Malaya.

Like monkeys do we have to ape the West and copy the negative aspects of their culture.

Some opposition leaders called it creativity.

Sad to say, some never learn from history that what they have done was exactly what trigger off the race riot on 13th May 1969.

Vote for "PAKATAN" and vote for the "BIADAB" culture.

Itu Peribahasa English Lah, Bodoh!

Hantu Laut

Is she ignorant or she thinks it is Mahathir that is ignorant? 

Read what Nurul Izzah says here about Mahathir's use of the English idiom "better the devil you know (than the devil you don't)" which means "it is wiser to deal with someone familiar, though you may not like them, than to deal with someone who you do not know, who might be worse."

"I'm disappointed that Mahathir called Najib a devil...he is not," she told a press conference today.

Hahaha! Of course Najib is a devil in the eyes of Pakatan leaders and supporters as much as I and many others see the devil in her father Anwar Ibrahim and other Pakatan leaders.

Is she a product of our local education system that only study English as a subject and go no further?

Dear Nurul Izzah! It's metaphoric.

This Minister Stupid Or What?

Hantu Laut


Obviously, the Minister is only listening to employers who wouldn't want to pay the minimum wage to maximise profits for themselves.


Has she randomly interviewed employees to find out their side of the story and the true situation? This minister is only trying to prove a point to justify the mistake made in the computation of minimum wage for East Malaysia.


The current median wage for Sabah could be RM577 but that is an anomaly that have not been corrected for decades because of the presence of illegal immigrants who are prepared to accept low pay.Why should Sabahans be subjected to such poor treatment.


It is also ironic that the proposed minimum wage in Sabah and Sarawak is lower than West Malaysia, whereas the cost of living is much higher in East Malaysia.


The West Malaysian civil servants who did the computation should have their heads examine.I reckoned they are just too lazy to carry out a fact finding mission to get the correct data and reliable feedback from the ground.


I simply could not accept the argument that RM800 minimum wage is too much and would kill Sabah economy.It's absurd, a lame excuse and a lot of craps where it is coming from.


Employers in Sabah are used to low productivity whereby they employ two persons to do one person's job.This is false economy and the minister should be bright enough to understand what she just said is a lot of rubbish. Minimum wage for Sabah should be higher than West Malaysia.


I pay my maid who is a foreigner on work pass RM1,000.00 per month, free food, free accommodation and paid return fare every two years to her country for 3 weeks holiday.I don't believe people, particularly, Sabahans, should earn anything less than RM1,000. per month.


To reduce costs employers should teach their workers to be more systematic to increase productivity.Your workers performance is dependent on how you train them.Paying less is not going help increase productivity, it'll only help keep us in the economic backwater.


Businesses may close shop if, Sabah minimum wage RM900: Minister


Kuala Lumpur: The RM800 monthly minimum wage set for Sabah, Sarawak and Labuan is far above the current median wage, Deputy Minister of Human Resources Datuk Maznah Mazlan said Monday.

She said the current median wage for Sabah and Labuan was RM577 whereas in Sarawak it was RM738.

"In Sabah, for example, the RM800 minimum wage is 39 per cent more than the median wage, which means that no less than 50 per cent of workers in Sabah will get a raise of at least 39 per cent," she said after opening the Human Resource Ministry-National Institute of Public Administration (Intan) executive discourse on "Implementation of Minimum Wage Catalyst for a High-Income Nation", here.

Maznah said the minimum wage set for Sabah, Sarawak and Labuan was agreed upon by representatives of both employees and employers, after taking into consideration the different factors affecting the states involved.

She said if the minimum wage was set at RM900 like in the peninsula, it was feared that employers, especially the smaller ones, would face difficulty in carrying on their business or might have to shut down altogether.

"The surge to RM900 would shock employers and it certainly has its implications whereby employees could lose jobs, which would ultimately lead to many other problems," she said.

The Congress of Unions of Employees in the Public and Civil Services (Cuepacs) had called on the Government to set the minimum wage for the private sector in Sabah and Sarawak at RM1,000, saying employees in those states faced a high cost of living.

While announcing the minimum wage on April 30, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had said that the difference in the wage was just for a start and that the Government hoped it could be streamlined to a single rate nationwide.- Bernama

Low IQ & Conservative Beliefs Linked to Prejudice/Racism

There's no gentle way to put it: People who give in to racism and prejudice may simply be dumb, according to a new study that is bound to stir public controversy.

The research finds that children with low intelligence are more likely to hold prejudiced attitudes as adults. These findings point to a vicious cycle, according to lead researcher Gordon Hodson, a psychologist at Brock University in Ontario. Low-intelligence adults tend to gravitate toward socially conservative ideologies, the study found. Those ideologies, in turn, stress hierarchy and resistance to change, attitudes that can contribute to prejudice, Hodson wrote in an email to LiveScience.

"Prejudice is extremely complex and multifaceted, making it critical that any factors contributing to bias are uncovered and understood," he said.

Controversy ahead

The findings combine three hot-button topics.

"They've pulled off the trifecta of controversial topics," said Brian Nosek, a social and cognitive psychologist at the University of Virginia who was not involved in the study. "When one selects intelligence, political ideology and racism and looks at any of the relationships between those three variables, it's bound to upset somebody."

Polling data and social and political science research do show that prejudice is more common in those who hold right-wing ideals that those of other political persuasions, Nosek told LiveScience. [7 Thoughts That Are Bad For You]

"The unique contribution here is trying to make some progress on the most challenging aspect of this," Nosek said, referring to the new study. "It's not that a relationship like that exists, but why it exists."

Brains and bias

Earlier studies have found links between low levels of education and higher levels of prejudice, Hodson said, so studying intelligence seemed a logical next step. The researchers turned to two studies of citizens in the United Kingdom, one that has followed babies since their births in March 1958, and another that did the same for babies born in April 1970. The children in the studies had their intelligence assessed at age 10 or 11; as adults ages 30 or 33, their levels of social conservatism and racism were measured. [Life's Extremes: Democrat vs. Republican]

In the first study, verbal and nonverbal intelligence was measured using tests that asked people to find similarities and differences between words, shapes and symbols. The second study measured cognitive abilities in four ways, including number recall, shape-drawing tasks, defining words and identifying patterns and similarities among words. Average IQ is set at 100.

Social conservatives were defined as people who agreed with a laundry list of statements such as "Family life suffers if mum is working full-time," and "Schools should teach children to obey authority." Attitudes toward other races were captured by measuring agreement with statements such as "I wouldn't mind working with people from other races." (These questions measured overt prejudiced attitudes, but most people, no matter how egalitarian, do hold unconscious racial biases; Hodson's work can't speak to this "underground" racism.)

As suspected, low intelligence in childhood corresponded with racism in adulthood. But the factor that explained the relationship between these two variables was political: When researchers included social conservatism in the analysis, those ideologies accounted for much of the link between brains and bias.

People with lower cognitive abilities also had less contact with people of other races.Read more.

Do you believe in the finding.Let's hear from you.

Malaysians Are Not So Stupid After All.

The dumbest quiz answers, ever

31 January 2008, 13:32

By Paul Majendie

London - Question: What was Gandhi's first name? Contestant's answer: Goosey Goosey.

Warning to all those know-alls who shout at the television screen when contestants offer dumb answers to blindingly obvious questions - one day that could be you.

From regional radio shows to "Who Wants To be a Millionaire?" and "University Challenge," people make fools of themselves - as Internet site www.jumpingjacksbar.com found in collating some of the worst howlers.

Here are leading contenders for the "Dumb Down" gold medal:

Presenter: What happened in Dallas on November 22, 1963?

Contestant: I don't know, I wasn't watching it then.

Presenter: Which American actor is married to Nicole Kidman?

Contestant: Forrest Gump

Presenter: In which country is Mount Everest?

Contestant: Er, it's not in Scotland is it?

Presenter: Name a film starring Bob Hoskins that is also the name of a famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci

Contestant: Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Presenter: In which European city was the first opera house opened in 1637?

Contestant: Sydney

Presenter: How long did the Six-Day War between Egypt and Israel last?

Contestant: (after long pause) Fourteen days

Presenter: Where did the D-Day landings take place?

Contestant: (after pause) Pearl Harbor?

Presenter: What is the currency in India

Contestant: Ramadan

Presenter: Johnny Weissmuller died on this day. Which jungle-swinging character clad only in a loin cloth did he play?

Contestant: Jesus

Taken from the Independent

Just for the fun, try it, be honest and see how many right answers you can get.You can leave your answers in the comment box.

For the dumbest, the morons and those with idiotic tendency, the answers are in the comment box.