Sapa, A Cultural Showcase

Hantu Laut

Our train left Hanoi at 9.15 p.m and arrived Lao Cai at 6 a.m next day and than two hours very misty drive up to Sapa.

I will not be writing a story.That will appear in my travel blog.

Just some photos of Sapa and how well the diverse cultural heritage are marketed in this country as tourism products.

Vietnam tourism is well established, thousands of tourist flocked to this place and Halong Bay every day.

It's amazing how fast they have moved after the war. They are well organised, efficient and very accommodating.The hotel we stayed in Hanoi is fantastic.They try their utmost to take care of your every needs, from getting electrical adapter, booking theater tickets to arranging your tours, they would do with a blink of the eye.

Vietnam is not shy to allow foreign investment in the tourism industry.There are many beautiful boutique hotels and restaurants owned and run by foreigners mostly Europeans and Australians.

In Sabah, rent-seeking politicians would want a big cut before they allow investors to come in which naturally drove away potential investors.First, they would jack up the price of land thinking that all foreign investors are suckers and then they would also want a free equity in the projects.

Kundasang in Sabah is a hovel compared to this place.It could have been better, just too bad we have brain dead politicians who travelled around the world but were as blind as the bats.

Sapa, a beautiful place with its varied ethnic hill tribes and terraced rice fields, it's really enchanting.

We trekked over 3 hours through numerous villages, sampling their way of life and braving the cold winter.It's freezing cold here.Because of the high altitude it is very cold, around 3-5 C during the day and can drop to 0-1 C at night.

This is a very safe country, you can go almost any place without having any fear of becoming target of criminals.

Payback Time

Hantu Laut

If "familiarity breeds contempt" than "arrogance breeds hate" and people do not forget.

"The Times They Are A-Changin" says or rather sings Bob Dylan.Some people think not.They live in the past.

Those siting high on the pedestal think they would be there forever.They forgot "what comes up must come down"

It does not pay to be arrogant no matter how successful you are.There will be a time when things will be a changing and you may have to eat the humble pie.

There will be a time when it's payback time from those you treat with contempt.

Puppet On A String ?

Hantu Laut

It's a shame, a menteri besar without a mind of his own, fickle and manipulated by people around him who have little respect for the constitution and the rule of law.

The craze for power have made him a laughing stock of those who understand the law. The Speaker of the Assembly, with due respect to his position, is a joker in the pack, he is completely out of depth with his statement that PR is considering amending the constitution with retrospective effect to break the impasse.

May I ask this gentleman how is he going to achieve the above when Pakatan Rakyat did not have two-thirds majority in the house. Is he expecting some UMNO assemblymen to join in storming the Bastille or they will just try to bulldoze like what they did in Perak and failed miserably.

One can easily guess the pressure coming from the coalition partners forcing Khalid to take such ludicrous action which placed him in an awkward and embarrassing situation. More like a puppet on a string than coming from a man who is a leader. It is without any doubt who the puppet masters are.

DAP has only one less seat than PKR in the state assembly making them just as powerful if not more. PKR has 14, DAP 13.Obviously, they have their power and influence under wraps to be used as and when necessary.

The right thing that Khalid should have done in the early stage was to negotiate not confront the Federal PSC. He has burn that bridge now and face the reality of either accepting the new state secretary and make the best of it or do the needful.......step down from his MB position.

Not only he is easily swayed, he contradicted himself on many occasions.Here, he says the Sultan told him that the Sultan was powerless to accept or reject any appointment since the day Mahathir amended the constitution.

Here, the palace refuted what he told the public about what the Sultan told him and with a new twist to the tale.Now, the Sultan claimed he has executive power to appoint or reject senior civil servant appointments in the state.In another word, the Sultan can hire and fire.This, is certainly unheard of before.

I am not sure whether I read the Malaysian Insider's report here correctly.It seems everyone in Selangor have gone bonkers or was it another case of poor understanding of the English language?

Remember the Utusan Malaysia reporter who thought 'ultra vires' uttered by Karpal Singh was insulting the Sultan.

Reported in Malaysia Insider:

“As the chief executive of the Selangor state government, the Sultan gave his blessings to one of the candidates. The PSD had after that agreed to the Sultan’s choice of candidate through a letter issued by the Public Services Department following Article 52 (1) and (2)a of the state constitution. This is a convention, a normal practice in Selangor,” Mohamad Munir said in a statement today.“As the chief executive of the Selangor state government, the Sultan gave his blessings to one of the candidates.

The sultans have certain powers but certainly not executive in nature.

Are we not of a constitutional monarchy system where the sultans only have ceremonial powers and remained apolitical.They only give assent to legislative bills and once a bill is tendered, with or without their assent, after a period of time the bill would effectively become law.

Maybe, we need more feedback from the palace spokesman Mohamad Munir on this very confusing issue.

Here, DAP do not feel good in restoring power back to the Sultan, if that is the right choice of word to describe the situation.

The sultans have never had lateral power in the administration of the states, it is always upon the advice of the respective menteri besar.So! who these clowns trying to fool. What? They think the Malay masses are all idiots to believe that they are trying to restore past glory back to the sultan that was robbed by Mahathir and UMNO in the past?

The sultans and the Yang Dipertuan Agong have never lost any of their powers.They are still head of the state and head of Islam.The only things of significant that Mahathir introduced was a new formula that automatically passed any parliamentary or legislative bills in the event the sultans or Agong refused to give assent. The other one was the setting up of a special court to try errant royals.

What wrongs has Mahathir done? Weren't they taken in the interests of the rakyat?

Some of you may remember Sandie Shaw.She won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1967 with the song "Puppet On A String"

Khalid Ibrahim:A Fool And His Money Are Soon Parted

Hantu Laut

How can Khalid Ibrahim work with a State Secretary appointed by his enemy?

How pitiful when you think you are the big boss and suddenly you are not.He is in a completely confused heap, an imbroglio, to say.

Do you know the English idiom "A fool and his money are soon parted" ?

Khalid Ibrahim, the Menteri Besar of Selangor have done exactly that through his own cockiness and laziness.

This man live in an "ivory tower" and I deeply sympathise with him. Sadly, he also has blurred vision of his own state constitution.

It wouldn't be wrong to say when you first become menteri besar of a state it would be in your interest to familiarise yourself with the state constitution.To make matters worse he now have a retinue of legal advisers and listen to some political analysts and professor from certain university who are even more cock-up in their intrepretation of the state constitution and will complicate the issue further.Some of this half-baked legal experts should be thrown to the hyenas. The law does not deal with moral obligation, it deals with the rule of law.

There is no constitutional crisis, the Selangor State Constitution was very clear on the appointment of its top three office-bearers. The Menteri Besar and the Sultan have no role in the appointments other than the "Oath of Secrecy" to be sworn in front of the MB. The relevant article is Article 52.

Khalid should have anticipated the Federal government move but obviously he didn't and failed to get the right advice from his own state legal resources. Selangor government has no PSC giving it no autonomy in the appointment of its top officers.

Pakatan should have called for his resignation for this great blunder which will further weaken the state government, instead of pointing the accusing finger at the Federal government.

Khalid should read Sun Tze's Art of War on how to deal with a problem when one is standing on weaker ground instead of blindly going to war with the Federal government who is sitting comfortably behind a fortified wall.

His refusal to allow the State Secretary to take an "Oath of Secrecy" should be viewed in contempt.

Will going to court resolve the impasse?

Certainly not! he wil only be cutting his nose to spite his face.

The idea of going to court is not to win the case but to fool the people that our judges are corrupted and controlled by the executive.

Not all the people know the law.

The government may win the case but they will win in the court of public opinion.

Or they can call for a street demo......... 'Pakatan's Way'