Author Archive

Bala changes tune over statutory declaration

July 4th, 2008
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Statutory declaration is plaything is it? Can make and retract as you like? Waste people’s time and money only. Don’t know how many people wasted money buying newspaper today.

Just like Lingam, Bala also causes more misery and bad name for the Indian community. How people want to have faith in you if keep on changing tune as you like?

p balasubramaniam private investigator altantuya murder case

Yesterday he was all smiles, today the Malaysiakini photo shows a glum face.

It takes guts to go through this. Unfortunately, not many of us are able to face it when the going gets tough. Bribed, threatened, cajoled, misled?

From his changed declaration, we can see that those that specifically mention Najib Tun Razak have been altered or deleted. Also, do note that the things mentioned are those have been in public knowledge all this while. We have seen emailed photos of the deceased with certain people. We have read emails on the RM500k money. We heard rumors of marriage. Only the Singapore diamond exhibitions sounds new (to me at least).

This can only mean two things – its a lie from the beginning and he was coached/forced to make those declarations, or its true and he was forced to remove those damaging statements. There’s a third possibility – the two declarations were preplanned so as to insinuate that Bala was forced to change his declaration. In other words, purposely make a false declaration, then pretend to be threatened and change it.

Najib obviously denies all the allegations made earlier. All lies he says. Badawi says no comments.

Whatever it is, only one will survive this round of battle – Najib or Anwar. We can expect more lies and half-truths from both parties as they play a dangerous game of chess.

RapidKL bus price change!

July 4th, 2008
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The news did not say if its an increase or decrease of fare, just “fare for stage buses according to zones”. Obviously, things seldom decrease, so one can expect an increase in prices, perhaps for certain category of users. More pain in the pocket 🙁

CVLB director says this new structure was to replace the current system of tickets
lasting a whole day for many trips.

Sudah jatuh, ditimpa tangga?

Advice on Blogging for uni students

July 4th, 2008
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I was surprised to read this piece in NST. Few contentious points which I feel needs to be clarified.

1. I think only a seasoned and well-respected (by online communities) blogger can give such an advice. I doubt the vice chancellor blog. If he does, then I apologise. If he doesn’t, then his advice is not worth much.

2. He also asked students to stay away from blogs that gave negative information about the government. And he goes on to say that he believes students have the ability to distinguish between right and wrong. Kind of contradicting. Negative not necessarily means wrong, positive doesn’t mean its true. If this is the case, one might as well stop reading newspapers!

3. People blog for various reasons – personal, hobby, organisation, business, political, entertainment etc. Writing against certain things is not wrong as long as it is personal opinion or comes with facts. For example, one can write in support of using drugs for pleasure, either based on facts or own opinion (BTW, I’m not advocating usage of drugs). The readers can make their own decision based on what the writer wrote.

4. “It is not a crime to blog or to comment in any blog. But it is the
blogger’s responsibility to give correct and positive information so
that it does not affect the government and university management
” – said the VC. I don’t think its anyone’s responsibility to give positive information. One can only give facts or opinions. If it stinks, it stinks. You can’t write that its fragrant, can you?

He did mention that its good for students to blog or read them so that can be exposed to more

Breakdown of funds for temples and churches

July 4th, 2008
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Earlier, we read about the amount of money spent for mosques and other places of worship in general.

In today’s Star (hard copy) breakdown of the expenses for places of worship is given as below:

RM3.93 million for Hindu temples
RM3.16 million for other temples
RM1.6 million for churches

It is clarified that since 1991, RM1 million for physical development of churches and temples, and another RM1 million for Hindu temples have been allocated since year 2000.

Now, we can see that temples and churches individually receive less money than Hindu temples, but if combined, its more by RM0.83 million (3.16 + 1.6 – 3.93).

I can only assume that there is less allocation for churches since they are located in strategic areas with least disturbance, have good support from the affluent section of community they serve, or the churches have moved into shoplots, thus reducing maintenance cost. However, I wonder if this cost includes assistance to churches located in Sabah and Sarawak, where there are many Christians among the privileged people there.

Other temples most likely refer to Taoist temples, which again usually have an association, foundation or group supporting it.

For Hindu temples, due to the many sects in Hinduism, there is more temples to be maintained. Then, there’s the issue of relocation or compensation when temples make way for development.

For the period between 2005 and 2008, total money received by these places of worship:

RM8.1 million
+ RM8 million (RM2 million x 4)
= RM16.1million.

Mosques and surau got RM428 million in the same period.

As I said earlier, its a major injustice when the total amount given to these temples (RM16.1 million) in the last four years is just 3.6% of the total allocation (RM428 million + RM16.1 million). The mosques and surau are allocated 26.58 times MORE money than combination of all other places of worship.

Whatever happened to “Kepercayaan Kepada Tuhan”?

UMIC Bowling 2008 is back

July 4th, 2008
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