"Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You." Spoiled Malaysians

Hantu Laut

Malaysians are probably the most spoiled people on earth.Their subsidy mentality never seemed to end.Not only have they become too dependent on government's subsidies they have also become a thankless lot.

Maybe, Malaysians should be constantly reminded of John Kennedy's famous "Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country." Malaysians insatiable appetite for subsidies and corruptions would one day bankrupt the nation.

The Malaysian government subsidised anything from sugar,cooking oil to cooking gas, petrol and diesel.The list is not exhaustive.There are many other crutches provided by the government and Malaysians have taken it as their God's given right and not see it as a privilege.

The sorry state of this subsidy mentality is the fault of politicians and the government.It has now become extremely difficult to remove the subsidies without offending the rakyat and a probable backlash in the next general elections which the government is trying best to avoid by succumbing to the political blackmail.

This wanting to please the rakyat, an overture now getting even more ridiculous by a new set of proposals and the likely implementation of "Robbing Peter to pay Paul" policy in the new pricing mechanism for petrol and diesel making it appears that the government has ran out of sound economic ideas.There was no indication how the government going to police the system.

Without any offence to honest Malaysians, with the low level of honesty in this country, the system would be opened to abuse.The same that happened to all the subsidised commodities, through smuggling to neighbouring countries, would happen again.Unwittingly, the government or for that matter Malaysian taxpayers are also subsiding the Thais and Indonesians bordering this country.

This time the poor would sell the cheap fuel to their richer friends and families.Unless, the government have in mind a wartime type of quota to stop abuse.It would than makes the country looks like a third world country run by a tin-pot dictator.

The Malaysian government is living dangerously.When the black gold stopped flowing from the asses of the earth on our soils, we would be so screwed financially, the whole economic structure may collapse in a flash.Almost 40 percent of our budget comes from oil revenue.

It's about time the government remove the pricking pain, once and for all, abolish all subsidies particularly petrol and diesel.The two-tier pricing system is not going to make anyone happier but would open the doors to more abuse.

If the government is seriously concerned about the welfare of the poor and those living below the poverty line, it's probably cheaper and makes more sense to give them direct benefits, putting cash directly in their hands rather than spoiling the whole nation with various kind of subsidies.

Proposal to introduce GST is a move in the right direction.This would make tax collections more efficient and compensate some of the losses through evasion and avoidance by legal manipulations.

I just came back from Vietnam and Cambodia.The price of premium petrol in Cambodia is US$1.01 per liter.Malaysia, a much richer country with better standard of living pampered its citizens with cheap petrol, diesel and hosts of other things.

Among Descendents Of The Champa Kingdom

Taken from Hantu Laut's TravelPod

Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Thursday, November 26, 2009

I have always wanted to meet the Cham people to see how they live.Being a small minority, I was told, they are the most disenfranchised and marginalised group.They suffered genocide under the Khmer Rogue with almost half the population wiped out under the government ethnic cleansing policy.Islam was banned and some were even forced to eat pork by the Khmer Rogue.

The Cham people speak their own language but a significant number can speak the Malay language and looked as much Malay as any Malay from Peninsula Malaysia.They are the remnants of people from the Kingdom of Champa that once ruled a major part of Vietnam before the Vietnamese defeated them and the Chams and their king migrated to what is Cambodia today and some to Trengganu in Malaysia and the island of Hainan in China .The Cham king and his followers converted to Islam in the early 1600.

I was lucky that a friend who lives in Phnom Penh managed to arrange me to meet a Cham family just two days before Hari Raya Haji.They live within the city limit in a place named Beng Kork, a small enclave of Cham people

Haji Yunus and family members

.

Haji Mohammad Yunus who is head of the family is also the Imam of a mosque in the area.He is an affable man,soft spoken and speaks Malay with a Kelantanese accent.His daughter Mukmina, whom I find easier to understand, did Islamic study in Malaysia and is now an ustaza.She teaches young Muslim children how to recite the Koran and say the daily prayers.They live at subsistence level but seemed to be happy and comfortable with their lives.

Haji Yunus's son Fatih is married to a West Malaysian girl and lives in Malaysia and come to visit his parents here whenever the opportunity arises.All of them can read and speak Bahasa Melayu fluently and adopted the Malay customs and culture no difference from the Malays in Malaysia.

Malaysia appears to be the leading influence of Cham Muslims in Cambodia and is the educational centre for Cham children studying overseas, particularly in Islamic study.It gives them the same pride and joy of young Malaysians who studied overseas in UK,US or Australia.
Read more..

Pakatan's Little Commie

Hantu Laut

I left communist Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City for Phnom Penh yesterday.Like China, you really don't see much of communism left in this country other than in name.

However, I was shocked when I read this piece of news coming out of my country.

Can you imagine what they would do if they take over the Federal government?

Even former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed who was always critical of the press before never behaved like this little commie who is a 'NOBODY.'

Good save this country.

New Saigon,Old Charms

Taken from HantuLaut's TravelPod.

New Saigon,Old Charms

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Monday, November 23, 2009

This is the best time of the year to visit the Indo-China region.This is the time of the year when the climate changed from hot and humid to cooler weather, possibly a spin-off from winter in the Himalayas.The cool breeze takes heat off the land making it much more pleasant to walk around without suffering the intense heat of the hot and humid season that covers greater part of the year.

Cambodia ,Laos and Vietnam shared common borders with each other.With better roads now, overland journey from one country to the other is less arduous than ten or twenty years ago when overland travels were not only difficult and time-consuming but were also very risky particularly when going through less-traveled routes.

I took a bus from Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh City.The journey took about 6 hours with about 4 hours spent on Cambodian soil and the rest through Vietnam densely populated areas before reaching Ho Chi Minh City.Although, there are some similarities between the two countries, the contrasts and differences are more obvious.

For those who are not well-versed with the history of the region, it would be hard to understand how the difference in ethnicity, color and culture could be so diverse and endemic to a region that were so closed in history for thousand of years.The image, color and culture changed conspicuously as one crosses the border from Cambodia into Vietnam.

The Khmers looked very much like the Malays,Indonesians or Filipinos and are of darker complexion.The Vietnamese are more Chinese looking and in contrast with the Cambodians are fairer.In Vietnam, some of the phonation of the Vietnamese words even sound Chinese.

Ho Chi Minh City, is a city of motor-bikes, there mush be million of them here.After a few hours walking the street I realised they also form part of the city public transportation system, unofficially though.You can either hire a bike and ride it yourself, if you have the courage to meander through the maze of motor bikes in highly congested roads and the possibility of being run over by another motor bike or worse still, by a car or truck.For a first timer, it could be very unnerving.The easier way is to hitch a ride from one of them for a fee.There are always a few of them hanging around any side streets looking for business.They are cheap, fast and seemed dangerous, if you are not used to it

Saigon Notre-Dame Basilica

.There are three million of them in the city.

Taxis? It can drain your pockets very quickly.This must be one of the cities of the world where the taxi fare is ridiculously expensive.Never pay your fare in US currency, the mistake I made when I first got here.

Coming from Cambodia where the US Dollar is common denomination anywhere you go and you don't have to worry too much about exchange rate, I assumed neighboring Vietnam would be the same.Based on this assumption I didn't change currency at the border.

The taxi driver will take advantage of the exchange rate if you pay in US currency.The one I took converted US1.00 at 15,000 Dong.When I got to my hotel I checked the hotel rate was around 17,500.Read more...