Hello ! I Live Here Before:A Taste Of KL Taxi Driver's Hospitality

Hantu Laut

A hazy view of downtown KL from KL Tower


In spite of the sky scraping towers and gleaming high rise buildings and ultra modern and civilised looking city, there is an ugly side to this city that most locals were probably not aware of, or chose to ignore.

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that KL has one of the worst taxi drivers in the world, even taxi drivers in some less-developed countries are far better mannered than this bunch of loathsome morons.

Be they Malay, Indian or Chinese, they all behaved the same way.The few good ones have become the exception. Cheating, intimidation and rudeness had become trademarks of the profession.

The ill-mannered, crooked and loathsome taxi drivers of Kuala Lumpur would never ceased to cheat, offend and insult you. 

Cheating, refusal to use the meter and rudeness are rampant and well organised.Their intimidating behaviour not only offensive to tourists but also to out of town Malaysian like me. If you looked foreign they think you are a tourist and fair game for ripping-off.

As frontliners they have given the country a scary image and this 'Truly Asian' nation where being polite is part of the culture, is not what it  supposedly is as in Tourism Malaysia's commercial.




In KL if you hail a taxi the driver would first asked you where your are going and would than decide whether to take you, or not, or quote an exorbitant fare to discourage or try cheat you.

If he does take you than the 'Teksi Bermeter' sign atop his car become meaningless, he would not switch on his meter and would try to haggle price with you and more often than not you are the loser.

There are some who would switch on the meter and take you on a joy ride before delivering you to your destination.That's what happened to my wife and I a couple of days ago.

We boarded a taxi at Sungei Wang Plaza and asked the driver to take us to our apartment at the Ascott near Mandarin Oriental Hotel, a good walking distance if one dare attempt a walk in the blazing afternoon sun. Instead of going straight down Jalan Tun Ismail my crooked taxi driver thinking we are foreign tourists decided to turn into the jammed Jalan Bukit Bintang.

Realising what he was trying to do I asked him in Malay why he took this road instead of going straight down Sultan Ismail and turned right into Jalan P.Ramlee which was much nearer.... his answer was he wouldn't be able to make a turn to our place from Tun Ismail. I almost shouted you bloody moron! You think I am a fool! I decided to keep my silence and see what he does next.

Upon sensing my annoyance he decided to turn into a back lane, the infamous red light 'lorong' (lane) of Bukit Bintang that connects with Jalam Imbi.

The idiot had taken us full circle back to where we first started at Jalan Sultan Ismail and went straight down to Jalan P.Ramlee and finally on to Jalan Pinang to our apartment.He did exactly what he should have done in the first place.

Three days earlier my daughter, her husband and two of my grandchildren came over from Phnom Penh to join us for a family holiday and wanted to take a taxi from Modesto at Jalan P.Ramlee to KLCC, which is a five-minute walk, but since it was raining they decided to take a cab.

If there is anything more absurd and one that can make your blood boil is the sheer uncalled for rudeness and uncouth behaviour.The driver wanted RM20 for the short journey but my daughter refused to board his taxi. Guess what come next? He made a scene shouting at the top of his voice and giving some vulgar signs at my daughter.

One evening my wife and I was going to dinner at one of the restaurants at Starhill and instead of driving the car loaned to us by my brother-in-law, we decided it would be more convenient to take a cab and asked the doorman to get us one.We boarded the taxi having forgotten our previous experience. The driver told us it's RM15 and that quickly brought me to my senses and this time I actually shouted at the driver to stop for us to disembark.He unhappily reduced the price to RM5. We weren't ready what come next.The reduced fare turned into reckless driving trying to intimidate us with violent swinging of the vehicle whizzing through traffic to ensure us a most uncomfortable ride. I almost wanted to break the bastard's neck, if only I could without getting into trouble with the law.

The government minister advising passengers to note down details of errant taxi drivers and asking them to lodge report is as many have found out, a waste of time, nothing will come out of it.

Refusal to allow increase in taxi fare which taxi drivers have been asking for repeatedly but denied by the authority was the reason for the nasty and crooked behaviour of taxi drivers and in retaliation taxi drivers gang-up to show their displeasure by fleecing their passengers.

Across the causeway a taxi driver could face serious action including losing his licence if he refused to stop (except changing shift) to pick up passengers.

There, the government not only talked business, they also meant business.

Weathering The Storm

Hantu Laut

The US$700 billion bailout bill was passed by the US Congress with vote of 263 for and 176 against. Wall Street has successfully clobbered the US Government into submission into giving it huge sum of money to save it from total annihilation and save the nation from the brink of economic catastrophe say promoters of the bailout.

The passing of the bill was overwhelmingly supported by the Democrats.There were 172 Democrat votes and only 91 from the Republican.More Republicans(108) opposed the bill.They do not see it fits to support their Republican President.The passage of this bill was made possible by sweeteners given to some congressmen for their constituents, promises of tax breaks and other incentives. In Malaysia the oppositions would call it bribery and corruption.

America faced serious liquidity problem with huge NPL(non performing loans) in the mortgage markets that have affected other sectors of the economy.The tight liquidity had made bank borrowings difficult to secure.In simple term the banks don't have enough money to lend or those that have are reluctant to lend for fear of default.Without the bailout the economy could grind to a halt.A period of depression is not a far-fetched scenario.

In September 159,000 jobs were slashed bringing total unemployment figure to 800,000 for the year, sign of a sinking economy. With credit slowing down and in some cases dried up most businesses find it difficult to conduct their routine business.The credit crunch have adversely affected those seeking finance for their businesses and those seeking personal financing.It's the men in the street that suffered most rather than those on Wall Street.Those on Wall Street would have accumulated huge stacks of cash to ride the recession in comfort.

America is a big consumers society with very low saving rate.Majority of American live on credit from buying their houses,cars,furniture to their daily needs.

Cyclic recession is a normal phenomenon in the economy when the bubble had overinflated and needs to burst to readjust.It would bring contraction to the economy.

What you see now is not the normal circle but the folly, irresponsibility and greed of men.The desire to amass fortunes as fast as possible through highly speculative financial instruments. In the case of Freddie Mac and Maggie May most of their troubles started when they over-extended their credit facilities through indiscriminate lending and massive factoring of mortgages from other financial institutions with tacit support of the Bush administration.

The Federal Reserve and the Treasury as supervising and regulating bodies would have to shoulder much of the blame for allowing the situation to deteriorate to such unmanageable level where they could have intervened earlier to stop the rot in the financial system.Bernanke may not have the nose and ears of former Chairman Alan Greenspan.

Now that the bill has been passed by Congress it would be imperative for the US Government to find out what causes the meltdown and who were responsible for it.

Our Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak recently said that Malaysia would not be affected by any recession or financial meltdown in the US, I would urge the DPM to re-consider his conclusion that we are actually insulated against such economic disaster. Instead, as Finance Minister he has the responsibility to take precautionary measures to protect the economy.To simply say we are impregnable is reckless.Malaysia as an exporting nation is dependent on the global economy.A sick USA would make the whole world sick and Malaysia would suffer more because of its significant volume of trades in export.

Beware of so-called financial experts who intentionally give wrong advice to make sure you make mistakes and undermine your position.

Sabah Population Explosion

Hantu Laut

SAPP's MP for Sepanggar Eric Mojimbun said he would reveal the details that led to Sabah population explosion.He said the population has increased by a mind-boggling 285% between 1970 to 2000.

Sabahans have always complained about the high presence of aliens among the population and much to their frustration the Federal Government have ignored their plea to take appropriate action to rid the state of illegal immigrants.

Many aliens have been issued with Malaysian identity cards clandestinely by some unknown elements to fulfill their own political agenda.The Federal have time and again refused to look into the problems in spite of repeated calls by some Sabah leaders.Most Sabahans are at a loss as their pleas have fallen on deaf ears and the State Government has no power to deal with the matter.

The UNDP charts below would show that the fear of Sabah being overwhelmed by foreigners is not unfounded.

UNDP - Sabah Human Development Statistics - Upload a Document to Scribd

From the above charts one can conclude that Sabahans fear of becoming foreigners in their own land is real and if that is not enough it is also the poorest state in Malaysia due to years of plunder by state leaders and past neglect by the central power.

Although I may not agree with some of SAPP recent political rhetoric I believe an expos'e would be most welcome to reveal the truth and bring to book those responsible for this treacherous act.

The population in 1970 was 653,800.In 2007 the official figure was 3.4 million. The true figure of true Sabahan population would not be more than 1.5 million.To make matter worse the supposedly transient population had become permanent residents and multiplying faster than the local population and overwhelming the state public health care, educational facilities and other public amenities.

Don't you think we have become foreigners in our own land ?

American Get Screwed

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The US Senate has approved the US$700 billion bailout package to save the moribund financial sector from biting the dust.The contentious bill is expected to go back to the House of Representatives tomorrow for final approval by congressmen.

This is the biggest bailout in the history of America without which the economy could go under and into serious depression similar to the Great Depression of the 1930s which started with the meltdown at Wall Street on 29 October 1929 that precipitated widespread panic and the onset of a prolonged depression not only in America but throughout the world.

Chicago, 1931

Shouldn't the top billionaires in America who probably had benefited much from the troubles of the financial markets also be asked to come to the rescue?

Much of the troubles started from highly innovative and risky financial derivatives, over-extended credit,over-speculation of trading in stocks and bad financial management.Some of the top CEOs in America are undeservedly overpaid with some having pay packages running into hundreds of million.Their over-indulgence in highly speculative financial derivatives were the cause of the meltdown.

In America,the poor getting poorer ,the rich getting richer and the taxpayers getting screwed.

The American taxpayers should demand that the government should also find the culprits to this astronomical financial disaster and bring them to book if there were criminal act in their dealings.

The financial system has gone completely kaput.The banks assets to capital ratio are diminishing every day and whether the US$700 billion is sufficient to save the sinking ship is not yet known.

The rest of the world should brace themselves for the shock waves that may reach their shores soon.