Countdown to 4th Passenger Nightmare..

NEW YEAR DAY… that is the day if you don’t buckle up at the back, then the driver will be fined RM300. Well, I have 2 daughters, including a baby, who I don’t think like to buckle up, so how will I work around the problem? One method to solve this issue is to get extra passengers to fill up your car. I can get my mom and dad to sit in, so together with my wife, and elder daugther, that should fill up the entire car of 5 passengers… hence the making my baby the 4th passenger at the back free from traffic fines.

Does this increase the safety of my baby? NO for sure, but it sure save me 300 bucks or bribery money to the traffic police. This is what Malaysia is heading towards, why summon the driver in the first place if they don’t have enough passengers just because the infant does not like or the parent don’t have a baby seat. The issue of safety is not a concern because if there are more passengers, then the requirements are no longer needed.

At least it encourages car pooling for those with babies and no baby seats. Rediculous as it seems, WELCOME TO MALAYSIA! Fill up the car or get fined.

Oh, just make sure there are 3 people at the back who buckles up. Maybe you should just buckle up your dog to fill up the space and the kids at the back can roam FREELY. And when the police stop you, you show them your dog’s DOG license, my dog is Malaysian citizen too you know!!

No summons for fourth passenger in backseat…

“It is not silly because research has shown that the likelihood of a car having more than three passengers is only between 5% and 9%.” That was what the director general of the Road Safety Department say after announcing that the 4th passenger in backseat will not be fined. The Road Safety Department hoped that this would end the public debate on this matter once and for all.

Want to know what I think? This is typically another form of stupidity that the government is showing… that our country is being run by brainless people. Why do I say that? In my previous blog, I did say that either we implement the seatbelt rule for safety, or we don’t implement at all. Imagine that 4th passenger will not get fined as the Road Safety Department says its silly to do so as the likelihood of a car having more than 3 passengers is only 5 – 9%.

Then imagine this, 5th, 6th, 7th and even 8th passenger will also not be fined/summoned in this case. WHY? because it would be silly, definitely AS THE NUMBER OF PASSENGERS INCREASE, THE PERCENTAGE/”LIKELIHOOD” of this happening will be LESSER and LESSER, hence, based on the ROAD SAFETY DEPARTMENT, this would be SILLIERRRRRRRRR.

Historical Data

Here is a great table to show Malaysia’s fuel price based on historical data:

	RM/Litre	US$/每桶
01/10/00	1.20	35
20/10/01	1.30	20
01/05/02	1.32	26
31/10/02	1.33	28
01/03/03	1.35	31
01/05/04	1.37	38
01/10/04	1.42	47
05/05/05	1.52	48
30/07/05	1.62	57
26/02/06	1.92	63
05/06/08	2.70	120
17/11/08	2.00	55

Just thought its worth sharing with everyone.  Right now, fuel price is less than USD49.

Yo..10 cents?? No, its not our very own Malaysian Rapper.

This is what Badawi had to say for the recent price decrease: “As the world fuel price has had a sharp decrease lately, the Government has decided to once again reduce the retail price for the public’s benefit,”

Notice the word SHARP DECREASE, does it match with our 10cents? Public benefit?? or Government benefit? Anyway, if you don’t want to decrease the price to about RM1.60 per litre (which is what people in the US are paying), then why don’t you(the government) show us and be transparent, how much money is Malaysia making from this slow decrease in fuel price? I am not against Malaysia trying to make money, but I do want to challenge the government to tell us the profit figure and also show us in detail how the money is going to be spent. Don’t tell us that its suppose to cover for the RM625 that you have rebated to the people with lower cc cars, because the initial plan was to have that rebate in the first place and to subsidise 30cents per litre of fuel… that all has already been budgeted. Tell me what are you going to do with the money that you are making now with the sudden uninformed but assumed policy change.

Single school structure with an open mind…

Quote from the Star: Umno Youth chief aspirant Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir has called on the Government to abolish the vernacular school system to enhance unity among the people.

He said a single school system was the only way to check racial polarisation.

“The Government should consider introducing only a one school system with Bahasa Malaysia as the medium of instruction, except for the teaching of Science and Mathematics, which is already in English,” Mukhriz told reporters at Parliament House yesterday.

“Of course, pupils should then be given the option to study their mother tongue. Under this system, the Malays will also have the option of studying other languages like Chinese and Tamil, and this will further boost unity among the races,” the Umno Youth exco member added.

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This is my opinion:

1. Will single school system promote unity? YES … if you put everyone in one system, people tend to be groomed to have the same thinking and hence unity can be achieved. But this does not mean that the people will be smarter, they will not be able to think out of the box, hence Malaysia will be less competitive if we implement this system. Which is why in the corporate world, people don’t believe in “one structure” system. We should have open competition, no monopoly, otherwise Microsoft woudln’t have to spend so much money on lawsuites to fight their competitors.
2. Why would UMNO want to have a single school system? Answer is easy, if you can’t be as competitive as your competitors, you go to war with them, take over their country and force them to be like you and hopefully you will also be influenced to be more competitive like your competitors in the process.
3. Is Bahasa Malaysia the right medium of instruction? NO. We should look into the future, and when the world has already acknowledged that countries like China, India and Russia will overpower US in terms of economy, we should look into how to position our country the best way to cope with the change. One way is to learn the language of the strongest…. give parents the ability to choose which language they think is best for their children’s future… logically thinking, we should use medium of instruction such as English, Chinese, Tamil or even Russian depending and only use BM as “optional”. I will be a proud father if my daughter can master English, Chinese and Tamil. Like the Sultan of Selangor said ” Malaysia belongs to all races, not just the Malays. The country is what it is today because of the contributions of all races and that is something we must acknowledge.”
4. Then what is the best structure for our schooling system? OPEN system. I always believe that the most competitive environment will force the weak to surrender and the strong to strive… if we have an open schooling system, we will be able to create students who will be able to contribute to their country. The education ministry must realise that language is not everything, but it is the attitude towards education which is important. Hence they must concentrate more on determining the process to improve student discipline, to teach based on understanding rather than memorization. Not closing down variations of schools so that we can all be one narrow minded community.

No increments for spending next year??? Who said so?

If you are thinking about no increments next year, who said so? Asked Najib… he has already given you a choice, to have your own increment next year. Just choose not to submit your KWSP 17A form and you will automatically get 3% increment for your usage. Don’t think about the future as its too far away, hah! I know I am not going to submit the form, so I suppose I will get the 3% increment for myself, and the best thing is if you have already maxed out on EPF+lifeinsurance (>RM6000), you will get the 3% without additional tax… woohoo.

So, like people always say, life is short, so don’t take life too seriously…. maybe with this 3% you can buy some cheap shares and make more than EPF .

KLCI sustained with who’s $$$ ?

As I have predicted on my previous blog, when the world market slumps, our market is only down by less than 1%, but when the world market soars, we still go to red (slightly)…. today’s market for example just shows that our government is pumping money into the market. The question is who’s money? EPF? ASN? ASM? Recently seems like there are a lot of Amanah Saham Schemes released, which my wife happily bought some. I suppose the Billions of Ringgit they get from the release of the “Amanah” schemes will be used to show that MALAYSIA MASIH BOLEH.

STI is down 2% now, NIKKEI down 4.53%, Seoul down 3%…. but KLCI is only down 0.72%. Its 9.49am.