The Road Hogs And Bastards Of Malaysia

Hantu Laut

The recent crash of an express bus on the North-South Expressway that took 12 lives was one too many,innumerably, making us looking worse than a third world country.

It defeats the whole idea of having modern infrastructures when you have people deeply entrenched in third-world mentality.

It's happening too often.Malaysia's highway fatalities is a great shame.It reflects a highly indiscipline society and apathetic government.It's a crying shame but who cares?

A clamp down on this deadly menace is much overdue.Drugs,overworked drivers and poor maintenance of vehicles just to maximise profits are the main culprits.

Drug addictions is a serious problem in this country which seems not to get the attention it should from the government.The fight against illicit drugs, if anything to go by, is dismal at most.There is no political will to declare total war on drug and zero tolerance to lessen it damaging effect on society

Our political leaders and honourable ministers just put a blind eye to the widespread use of drug particularly among bumiputera youths.Most drug addicts and loafers in this country are bumiputras.

Drugs, not just rampant among long-haul bus drivers and truck rivers they also prevails among the taxi drivers of Kuala Lumpur.Try engaging some of them with a conversation and you would soon find out they kind of hallucinate.

Accident do happen, but if it happened too often than it is no more mere accidents, it's apathy and gross negligence by the relevant authorities.

Inaction, this is where the government takes the blame.It is the same sad story as the ugly taxi drivers of KL where the government for umpteen years did not care two hoots the bad image they gave the country.

I was in Singapore last week and what a civilised city it was and taxi drivers just as civilised, polite,helpful, knew the city addresses well and spoke excellent English, some better than some of our ministers.

I would not have nice words for the taxi drivers of KL, nor would I have nice words for the bus drivers, bus operators, the relevant government agencies and most of all the minister in charge.The minister should take the utmost blame, he is elected to do a job and he ain't doing it well.This disgraceful mishap could have been avoided if stringent rules and monitoring had been put in place.

Majority of Malaysian motorists are unschooled in behaviour and would break, without any shame whatsoever, every possible rules under the highway codes, from speeding, jumping queue to overtaking on road shoulders.

The strange thing is, in Malaysia, law abiding motorists in the right queue are more than willing to give way to these unschooled bastards.This strange behaviour of allowing road criminals to get away with breaking the laws is one of the reasons for traffic crawl in major cities in this country.Doing disfavour to law and order and allowing lawbreakers to get through is Malaysian motorists version of road courtesy. In the West, you would be considered stupid and would meet the ire of other motorists.

What the government should do is to overhaul and tighten the rules for public transport operators by:

1.Requiring all drivers to take drug and medical test every 3 months.

2.All public carriers to be checked for road worthiness every 3 months.

3.Persons with known criminal convictions ,drug users and alcoholics should not be employed.

4.Stipulate maximum working hours for drivers.

5.All long distance buses must have spare driver.

6.Speed limiter to be installed on all public buses.

7.Operators with frequent crashes and summonses to be suspended from 3 to 6 months.Habitual offenders to lose their licences permanently.

These are simple rules that could be made compulsory, implemented and properly enforced.

Last year I took a bus from Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Ming City and was absolutely impressed with the conduct of the bus driver.The six-hour journey was pleasantly uneventful, there was no speeding or dangerous overtaking which are common on Malaysian highways.There was never a tense moment even though the road conditions were not as good as what we have.

Two weeks ago in Phnom Penh while having a drink at the FCC I got into a conversation with an Aussie who came from Perth and we were on the subject of the choatic driving conditions in Cambodia whence we progressed to where I came from. Proudly Malaysian! I say.It was a bit of an embarrassment when Mr Aussie told me that most of the fatal crashes in Western Australia involved Malaysians.

Some years back, I read an accident involving two Kancils and if pigs could fly, there were altogether 14 passengers in the two cars.How the hell can you squeeze seven people into a Kancil.

What is it with Malaysians, they have a death wish the moment they go behind the wheels?

The Pedophiles Of Cambodia

Hantu Laut

If there is anything that is more conspicuous in Phnom Penh it is not so much the size of the Mekong but strangely enough, the humongous presence of Westerners in this poverty stricken country.Besides the normal tourists, they seemed to be everywhere and everywhere else in the country.

These are the long term residents, either working in the many foreign NGOs, doing their own business, or for some, just up to no good.

Why Cambodia needs so many NGOs is still a mystery.There are more than 2000 associations and NGOs operating in the country which have become a pain in Prime Minister Hun Sen's government's neck who said he has yet to see any positive signs coming out of the NGOs and that they are out of control...they insult the government in every way they possibly could just to ensure their financial survival.

Cambodia attracts all kinds of vagabonds just like the days of 'FILTH' of the eighties that found Hong Kong a basking paradise and an island of opportunity for those who can't make it in the great city of London.

'FILTH', as some of you might already know is an acronym that stands for "Failed in London Try Hong Kong" which become a derivative for the 'Old Filth', a novel by Jane Gardam.I will not elaborate on the story but the book is an interesting read of the stiffed upper lip and is easily available.

Cambodia gets different kind of 'filth'.Haven for the filthy foreign pedophiles.

In spite of messages displayed on billboards, behind buses and tuk-tuks warning visitors to the country of the heavy penalty for pedophiles, they obviously deter no one, and Cambodia seems to be a magnet for this type of people, coming here solely for the purpose of securing underage boys or girls as sex slaves lured by money offered to poor parents or procurers aided by official corruptions.

Remember British popster Gary Glitter who had a string of charges of child pornography and child sexual abuse.He lived in Cambodia until 2002 when he was permanently deported to Vietnam due to suspected child sexual abuse.They couldn't lay a finger on him because he used money to silent his victims from selling him out.He was finally caught in Vietnam for child sexual abuse but the authority couldn't pin him on rape charges for lack of evidence.Rape carry the death penalty in Vietnam.Guess! what money can do in poverty stricken countries.

After serving a short jail sentence Glitter was deported to Britain, his home country.

The perpetrators of this despicable crime appears to be unperturbed by their actions and some even bragged about their exploitation of these young children.

A picture I took while in Phnom Penh.

If you stay here long enough you can't help but noticed some of these geezers with girls who could be as young as their granddaughters.They do not show the slightest trace of shame to be seen in public and how they treat these poor Asian children as sex toys and keeping them in bondage by paying off the families.

I have no recourse to official data that provide statistics of the breakdown of the ethnic makeup of pedophiles but going by known cases in Thailand and Cambodia it is almost frothing to the brim with Westerners.The Asian parts may be well hidden by cultural camouflage

Poverty and corruptions are the sauces to this despicable crime and some of the innocent children knew no better that they have been sold into sexual servitude to men 6 to 7 times older than them and some of these girls hardly having reached puberty.

Poor families who can hardly have three decent meals a day and the sky as their roofs are tempted by the lure of money to part with their children with pittance that would only give them temporary relief.

Corrupt officials are the protectors of these despicable trade.

In August this year a Swedish newspaper reported of how a convicted pedophile boasted of having paid $11,000 to, presumably, court officials to get him acquitted in his appeal case.

A few weeks earlier child rights group Action Pour Les Enfants complained to the Interior and Justice Ministry to investigate a 65-year old Dutch sex offender under detention, bragging in his dairy of bribing court officials in Preah Shianok Province.

Many of these perverts get off the hook by paying bribes to police, court officials and other relevant authorities and coached their victims and families not to incriminate them through the same method, bribery.

In another case, Harvey Johnson, a 57-year old failed American real estate developer from Arizona moved to Phnom Penh under the guise of an English teacher.Johnson gives lessons out of his house.Being a teacher it gives him the opportunity to be near young boys and girls.

Unbeknown to Johnson, he has been under surveillance by a local nonprofit group called APLE.

Using undercover agents who managed to get close to Johnson, who spoke freely and without any sense of guilt of molesting young girls.His hours of conversation were taped and video recorded by hidden camera.He was also caught on camera selling child pornography to the undercover agent.

Cambodia is teeming with sexual perverts of all kinds that tempt poor parents with money to part with their children .Some are known and convicted sex offenders in the West but could no longer get their hand on victims to fulfill their insatiable lust in their home countries where the punishment is severe.

Cambodia and Thailand have become their hunting ground due to poverty and corruptions, which allow them to work the system to their advantage.

Galas:A Long Shot For UMNO,Passing The Buck To Ku Li

Hantu Laut

There is much talk about Ku Li as candidate for Galas.

Tungku Razaleigh shouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole.He should not be inticed by the overture from the DPM whom I dread to think of as our next PM. It wouldn't be a feather in his cap for UMNO's new breed.He will be disappointed and hurt after the show ended.

Najib had acted as a true deputy when he was deputy to Pak Lah even under pressure from Mahathir to push Pak Lah out he has behaved nobly which I can't visualise the same with our current DPM.Political doublespeak and body language can tell a lot about a person.Muhyiddin's mixed signal does not bode well with Najib's 1 Malaysia.

Tengku should be beyond this meagre offering.The choice, off course, is his but I believe he wouldn't fall for it.

It is a thankless job. If UMNO loses he gets the blame and a bad name and if they win someone else gets the credit.

Galas, will be a testing ground whether UMNO has regained the Malay supports.It could be a long shot for the party.

If they have high regard for the Tungku than they should give him a high ministerial post as a show of appreciation and source of wisdom, not ask him, mind you he is not young anymore, to be the workhorse in an election.

Other than Najib, most of UMNO leaders are not the thinking lot, they only show their cleverness by being combative.

UN 'to appoint a Malaysian as first space ambassador to greet alien visitors'.What a joke?

Hantu Laut

What a joke! Is this for real?

What resources the UN has to be in the front line of this terrifying idea of receiving extraterrestrial visitors to our planet that could likely be not in peace but probably want a piece of our planet.

Wouldn't the Pentagon and other powerful nations be better equipped to deal with the aliens?

I hope they wouldn't incinerate Mazlan when they first saw her.

"Take me to your leader" If they come sooner than expected where would Mazlan take the aliens to, Obama, Najib or the useless Ban Ki-moon?

It must be an honour to accept such job.

A space ambassador could be appointed by the United Nations to act as the first point of contact for aliens trying to communicate with Earth.

Mazlan Othman, a Malaysian astrophysicist, is set to be tasked with co-ordinating humanity’s response if and when extraterrestrials make contact.

Aliens who landed on earth and asked: “Take me to your leader” would be directed to Mrs Othman.

She will set out the details of her proposed new role at a Royal Society conference in Buckinghamshire next week.

The 58-year-old is expected to tell delegates that the proposal has been prompted by the recent discovery of hundreds of planets orbiting other starts, which is thought to make the discovery of extraterrestrial life more probable than ever before.

Mrs Othman is currently head of the UN’s little known Office for Outer Space Affairs (Unoosa).

In a recent talk to fellow scientists, she said: “The continued search for extraterrestrial communication, by several entities, sustains the hope that some day human kind will received signals from extraterrestrials.

“When we do, we should have in place a coordinated response that takes into account all the sensitivities related to the subject. The UN is a ready-made mechanism for such coordination.”

Professor Richard Crowther, an expert in space law at the UK space agency who leads delegations to the UN, said: “Othman is absolutely the nearest thing we have to a ‘take me to your leader’ person”.

The plan to make Unoosa the co-ordinating body for dealing with alien encounters will be debated by UN scientific advisory committees and should eventually reach the body’s general assembly.

Opinion is divided about how future extraterrestrial visitors should be greeted. Under the Outer Space Treaty on 1967, which Unoosa oversees, UN members agreed to protect Earth against contamination by alien species by “sterilising” them.

Mrs Othman is understood to support a more tolerant approach.

But Professor Stephen Hawking has warned that alien interlopers should be treated with caution.

He said: “I imagine they might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their home planet. The outcome for us would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn’t turn out very well for the Native Americans.”

The Telegraph