As I was driving back home this evening, I noticed scores of cars lining up at jam-packed petrol stations. All are scrambling to fill up at least one tank-full of petrol before the price increase by midnight. The same kiasu behavior was noted during the last price hike.
The fact is, there is only so much you can save from one pump. In the long run, what we all need to do is to change our lifestyles.
Based on a survey conducted (up to 2004) by the German Agency for Technical Co-operation, fuel price has been on a gradual rise (as below). Of late, the rise has been more dramatic. If anyone can find a comparison table from 2005 to 2007, please share! I think toll operators should subsidize our fuel price. What say you?
Malaysiakini posted this Malaysia-only table charting the spectacular price increase. Everything is increasing and my clients are not paying me more!
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The most important asset of a country is not its natural resources, but rather its human resources. This is especially true in a knowledge-based economy, which of course, will be the trend in the future if not already the trend in most of the western countries.
My daughter, who is in her final year medicine in Auckland, told me that a team of Singapore recruitment officers have just visited Auckland and talked to the Malaysian students there, offering jobs and training prospects for the final year students once they graduate.
My daughter also told me that over the last few years, quite a lot of her Malaysian seniors, after graduating from medical courses in New Zealand, have gone to Singapore to work as house officers and subsequently stayed back in Singapore for their postgraduate training. Similar teams are sent to UK and Australia for recruiting Malaysians there to work in Singapore.
About a year ago, Reuters reported: 'Malaysia is counting on bright, ambitious people like Tan Chye Ling for its future, to lead it away from manufacturing and into the knowledge age.'
But the 32-year-old scientist, a postgraduate in molecular biology, is not counting on Malaysia to look after her future.
'I felt very suppressed in Malaysia,' said Tan, who moved to neighbouring Singapore, the region's pacesetter for biotech investment, after a decade of study and research in Malaysia.
'I have benefited from the better research environment and salary scheme here. Things are much smoother,' she said by phone from the National University of Singapore where she is studying dust mites and allergies. Tan estimates that 60 percent of the research teams she works with in Singapore are from Malaysia, despite her country's efforts over several years to develop a biotech industry.
There is a serious problem facing Malaysia and that is the problem of 'brain drain'. Why are Malaysians overseas not coming back to work? Well, pay may be part of the reasons but it is not the main reason. Singapore recruitment teams offer Malaysian medical students a salary which is a few times what they would expect to get in Malaysia S$40000 a year for houseman after tax (equivalent to RM86000) which is about five times the pay of a houseman in Malaysia.
But, as I say, pay is not the main problem. The living expense overseas is high. And for a person working overseas, the loneliness and the stress level is also high. So not everyone opts to work overseas because of the pay. Many would not mind to work for a lesser pay if they can stay near to their loved ones. So why do people choose to work overseas, away from their loved ones?
Malaysia has many state-of-the-arts hospitals and research centres, which may even be the envy of many overseas countries. But hardware alone would not attract these experts to come home. In the medical field, I have so many friends/classmates working overseas, many in world-renowned centres. Why do they do that? Some of my classmates and friends did come back as specialists. After working a few years (many only lasted a few months), most got disillusioned and went off again.
There is really not much prospect of career advancement here. How many can hope to become a professor even when they are an acknowledged expert in their field? On the other hands, lesser beings are being promoted to professorship for doing much less. How many of them can have a say about how things are to be run? How many of them can blend into the local team where the work attitude is vastly different from that overseas?
There is an unwritten rule that even if the person is very good, the head of the team has to be someone from a certain ethnic group who may not be even half as good as him. In everyday life, some become disillusioned with the corruption, the red tape and the 'tidak apa' attitude of officialdom. For an overseas doctor applying to work back home, the application can take up to six months to get approved, whereas Singapore sends teams overseas to recruit them on the spot and offering them jobs immediately as long as they pass their final examinations. See the difference?
It is the sense of being wanted and being appreciated that make these people stay overseas. Back here, they are often made to feel that they are of a lower class. They do not feel wanted and they do not feel appreciated. That is the main reason.
For those with children, the education system further puts them off. Even school children can feel being discriminated against and one glaring example is the two system pre-university education.
All these make them pack their bags and off they go again, leaving behind their parents, perhaps their siblings, the friends they grew up together with and their favourite food that is often not available overseas. No one likes to be away from home but circumstances and a sense of being recognised for their worth make them go away. It is really sad.
Parents spend big sums of money on educating their children but the ones who benefit most are the Singaporeans, the British, the Australians, the Americans and so on. As long as race politics is not done away with, this problem of 'brain drain' will continue and Malaysia will always trail behind the advanced countries no matter how many Twin Towers and Putrajaya we build.
Everyday the only things the regime and its cronies do are to tell lies, nothing but telling lies!
On the other hand, the "mainstream media" is not doing any meaningful investigative reports but only helping the regime to spread lies.
As I had said, it is free economy that work!
Do you believe that the teacher love your kid more than you?
Do you believe that the headmaster love your kid more than you?
Do you believe that the education minister love your kid more than you?
If the above answer is NO, why don't they give the right and choice to choose the school, back into the hand of the parent?
The problem in Malaysia is the government want to control everything! Down to the sugar price! They do it in the name of the citizens! By using a navy ship to deliver sugar is another form of subsidiary to the sugar factory, you are in fact using state resources!
The more you let the bureaucrats to control our everyday life, the more problems and ineffective the citizens will face!
If you turn on BBC, there are fair and equal coverage on the UK opposition parties.
So is NHK (Japan), so is KBS (Korea), so is CNN (America), so is CBC (Canada), so is ABC (Australia).
Even in our neighboring Thailand, their TV coverage is fair for both ruling and opposition parties!
Only in this Umno hijacked country that you find most lop-sided idiotic coverage on Umno and its running dog partners!
For Royal Professor Ungku Aziz to say that there was no social contract between the founding fathers of our nation, this has put a nail in the coffin on those ultra-malays who still see Ketuanan Melayu as a cornerstone for race relationships in this country.
While other matured and well-developed nations have put to rest the 'master and slave' relationship among the various races, it baffles the mind of thinking people why should such policy still remain relevant in this 21st century here in Malaysia. We might call our British colonial masters 'Sir' or 'Tuan' in the early days but after half-a-century of independence, don't you think that such thinking is out of date?
Mind you, the United States who imported Negros from Africa a few centuries ago to be the white man's slave might have a black man to be their next president if Obama wins the ticket to the White House in the coming US presidential elections.
Malay rights have been ensconced in the federal constitution and cannot be taken away unless by a two-thirds majority in parliament subject to the malay rulers approval. No one doubts that in the early days, the bumis especially the malays, needed affirmative actions to take them out of their cycle of poverty to be on par with other races, especially the Chinese.
But the NEP has outlived it purpose and it should be replaced with a new policy which will eradicate poverty regardless of creed and race.
The playing field should be more even and let the best among the best compete among themselves in order for our nation to progress in the future. Why should rich malays with their 'right political connections' obtain a big slice of the economic cake while the poor people are denied such opportunities to get them out of their cycle of poverty?
To be a respected race, the malays must discard the notion that the government will always have to provide them with opportunities in studies and business as if it was their birth right. The malays should be able to compete with the other races on an equal footing and work hard to improve their lot rather than expecting handouts from the government.
Ungku Aziz , a towering malay whose intellectual thinking is way ahead of his time, has opened a Pandora Box's with his outright statement that there is no written 'social contract' among the various races prior to independence. Umno politicians will now cry foul about his daring statement as they will always use the Ketuanan Melayu bogey to win the hearts and minds of the malays to support their cause. .
But the malays cannot be in a denial mode anymore. We must accept the fact that in the brave new world that we live in where people and capital move to places where no restrictions are imposed, the old way of doing business by having quota systems will drive capital away from our country and the people will suffer in the end if business opportunities pass our shores.
The malays should look at their Singapore brethren who are no less the worse although unlike their Malaysian cousins, they does not have any NEP policy to get a leg up in society. There is no short cut for success unless you work hard for it.
This can only happen in Bolehland. Thank heaven, I don't live in Malaysia anymore. But I pity my comrades there. Someone should assassinate Bodowi to teach Malaysian politicians a lesson. Looks like the only way out……….
Ex-Malaysian in US.
Singapore facing a difference situation if compared to Malaysia. Singapore government cannot simply put a malay to hold a high post in order to fill the quota.
Singapore not like Malaysia where they can simply fill a incompetence malay in government company like Proton, MAS and etc……….If those parasite race failed, Malaysia government will ask the non-malays to clean up the mess!
Why Malaysia can afford this even though losing out so much of money? It is because we got so many resources to feed the malay pig if compared to Singapore which is got nothing!
That is why so many malays cannot survive in oversea because they need the government tongkat all the time!
I cannot but agree with some writers. As I plan to move my family overseas, I feel really sad for my country and friends I am going to leave behind.
Mahathir was a great man and he could have done a lot for the country. He was determined, intelligent, sarcastic, well qualified and witty but unfortunately, somewhere along the way he succumbed to human failings like all of us.
He became a slave to ego and greed and as a result, his heart was corrupted and he could not see beyond himself. Alas, it is too late now.
I can see no great Malaysian leaders in the pipeline. Initially, I thought that Hisham could have been a great leader being a professional but after the 'keris' incidents and his racists remarks, I know he won't be going far.
A great leader must be a leader for all, irrespective of race.
Life is full of regrets when we look back but the one regret I am not prepared to have is my children's future as I may not be around to see the next generation lead their life. As parents, what are we working for if not for our children, the next generation?
Sad to say, most of our leaders cannot see that and ironically, they are the one blessed with the power to shape the future generations, including their children.
The BN has criminalised all our freedoms.
We cannot walk as a group, we cannot put up a banner on our own building, we cannot have equal radio and TV time for all registered political parties to reach out to citizens to explain party policies, we cannot have access to information, we cannot have a reasonable campaign period prior to election, we cannot have a licence as a matter of right to publish, we cannot challenge any ministerial decisions in any court of law.
Our basic fundamental rights and freedoms have all been taken away through subsidiary regulations and laws.
True enough, Article 153 of the 1957 Federal Constitution does provide for the special position of malays, natives of Sabah and Sarawak, and other marginalised groups.
However, what this special position means is open for debate.
Some believe it merely meant socio-economic position, one that changes dynamically and hence can be renegotiated.
Further, pre-independence documents - the Cobbold Commission Report, Federation of Malaya Constitutional Proposals and the Reid Commission Report - reveal that this position was meant to be temporary.
The "special right" of malays was therefore understood not as a God-given mark, but recognition of socio-economic status until such a time this could be elevated.
Malaysia is slowly and surely turning into a very sick place. We must finish off Umno and its cronies to cure the country from this acute sickness.
Agree with all of you. I have three cousins who are doctors. None of them want to work in Malaysia!
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