Shun

A real progress ...

2006-06-13T15:03:00.000+08:00

These days, I'm so into business and investment. These are what I need to learn about both of them :-

1) Business - the basic of all business is selling skills. Donald Trump says "A business is not a business if it doesnt sell." Many people who talked to me about doing business do not want to do any selling. They said, "I nak bisnes yang tak payah jual-jual." Selling skills is the most valuable skill one could learn.

Who's the super-salesperson named Ross Perot ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Perot

Selling, not managing, has always been Ross Perot's genius. At IBM he broke so many sales records that the company started capping his commissions. One can just imagine a younger Perot making a sales pitch, sitting across a desk from some executive who has never heard of a computer, leaning forward, looking oh-so-earnest, selling not just a machine but a promise of a new world. When it came time to start his own business, that salesmanship helped him parlay his $1,000 investment-the minimum required to incorporate under Texas law-into an empire.

2) Investment - I did a little bit of homework and I discovered that fund managers usually have Certified Financial Planner (CFP) or Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA). I need to get one of those and start exposing myself to investment.

What are my problems ?

1) Conflict of Interest : I'm working as a full-time programmer. I'm losing interest in my job since it doesnt have anything to do with business or investment. The company is wasting it's money by hiring me.

2) Time : Doing business or investment part-time doesnt sound so good to me. I think if I plan to excel in those as a part-timer, I'm underestimating those jobs. Excellence needs full-time efforts.

What to do ?

I resigned from IT job.

Are you nuts ?

I think if I dont take this chance now, I will regret it when I'm old. I think it's even nuttier to bet my future on a job that doesnt lead me to what I really want, which is business and investment.

Sayonara IT-chan *does anime dance*

My next plans ? A few plans. I'm a full-timer without a full-time job. (Beginning 13 July)

Do what you like and it will work out somehow

2006-06-13T14:45:00.000+08:00

Today... me, Bal and Munir had a lunch with our old time friend, Melati. We knew Melati back in the days of ATU. In my point of view, Melati is unique.

Melati quitted the ATU and she went to UIA to study Law. Yes, that was the time when everybody including me was going gaga over studying overseas. She really had guts and she really knows what she wants for a career.

Melati is preparing to go to Harvard this July to complete her Master in Law. Woot! That's the real American Top University. And she got there by taking the unusual path.

See... if you do what you sincerely like, things will work out somehow.

Where's the key to end our education woes?

2006-03-28T10:15:00.000+08:00

Malaysian has various ideas about the root of our education system woes (lack of standard, unfair admission policies). Generally, they can be divided into two warring sides. Pro-meritocracy and Pro-NEP.

Pro-NEP want the all universities to prioritize Bumiputera during admission. This includes quota systems and loans.

Pro-Meritocracy want all universities to choose students by merits and merits alone. Choose only the best to be given a place and loans.

What is the peculiar similarity between these 2 groups ? They are not interested in finding a sweet spot.
Both Pro-NEP and Pro-Meritocracy are responsible for the sad state of our education quality.

In my opinion, the reason why many demands were not entertained is because the people (in this case, the Pro-Meritocracy) demand radical changes instead of gradual changes . They want everything to change faster than a blink of an eye. "Amend the policies, make ALL universities practise meritocracy" says the Pro-Meritocracy. When you convey the image of the radicals, chances are, nobody will listen to you, no matter how good your points are.

The Pro-NEP (politicians and current government) biggest sin is their weakness in administration which has caused many illegible students to get their hands on the loans and the students poor performance to contaminate the used-to-be growing standards of our universities. Recently, my sister's friends who are granted loans each received RM 30000 in cash. Guess what, they bought cars with the money (Savvy, Swift etc).

Why do PTPPTN need to give the students that much cash? Why cant PTPTN pay the universities directly ? Why did the students spend the money that way ? Are they too stupid to realize that they need to pay back the money one day ? If that's the level of their intelligence, I'm not surprised if nobody hires them after they graduate.

Non-meritocracy system destroyed the quality in (at least) 2 ways :

1) Good students get mixed with bad students. There will be no worthy competition. It's the law of nature that the mediocre greatly outnumbers the talented. It's also the law of nature that the environment may influence one's productivity. Good student become lazy.

2) It destroys the simplest form of cause and effect that motivates people to work hard. "Government support is always there to help me when I need it". "Even if I work hard, nobody going to reward me with loans."

I wouldnt advise total meritocracy in universities yet because my real-life encounters with Bumiputera students who juggled homeworks and selling "kuih" on daily basis, who try hard but have limited opportunities, abilities and financial capabilities. I'm NOT a pure believer of "You can be anything you want as long as you try hard enough." Life is more complicated than that :)

My suggestion is we should save our most talented. Provide them all the chances they can get. Practise meritocracy just for the talented. The most talented is probably only 10% of the SPM'ers.Government can start doing this by making 2-3 (yes just 2-3, avoid radical changes) universities that are

1) Free from AUKU. This is important for the lecturers and students.
2) Run solely on meritocracy (both student and professors).
3) Provide loans/scholarship to all of its student (they are the best in nation so they deserve it)
4) Attractive pay for lecturers of course.

I can say this is the best investment for the country. But even if we are going to do this, who are eligible to run the institutions ? Who can we trust?

Hmmm..............

The Education Talk

2006-03-25T23:18:00.000+08:00

I went to the Education talk led by Anwar Ibrahim today. The panel members were representatives from Dong Zhong, Indian education committe and a Professor from UKM.

Anwar talked about how government made a huge mistake by making English as the medium of teaching for Sciences subjects. He talked about how government lowered the dignity of Bahasa Malaysia by doing that. He addressed Mahathir as "diktator" (I dont spell "dictator" because "diktator" suits the way he pronounced the word better :-) ). Suddenly he seemed so vehement talking about the poor life lived by Indians in estates and poor Chinese. As expected from an ex-politician.

The Indian representative talked too fast. I did not really understand his issues.Period.

The Dong Zhong guy talked something about UNESCO case studies that proved native language is the best medium to teach kids in schools. Hearing this, a question just popped in my head.

The Prof from UKM is the most interesting guy. He talked about why government should stop controlling the universities with AUKU and such. Also he clearly despises the government for using universities as a "present" for voters. That's why we have many good-for-nothing universities. The universities are built not for academic needs, but for political reasons. Stupid politicians.

I did not get a chance to ask question to the panel. So many people wanted to talk. Unfortunately, these people did not ask question to the panel. Instead, they started talking about their opinion that has nothing to do with what the panel has presented. An old man talked about the importance of 5 rukun Islam. Another guy (Chinese school ex head master) talked about the 100% greatness of Chinese school system that produced law-abiding citizens. LOL.
Another women accused the Malay teachers of practising nepotism and neglecting non-Malay students.

The question that I wanted to ask was :

"In my experience, I have seen a growing trend in the cities where English is slowly becoming the new mother tongue for Chinese, Indian and Malay families. Indian and Chinese who cant speak their mother tongue is not unusual anymore. 10 years ago (Form 1), I was studying at Damansara and non-Malay teachers teached many subjects in English. Unofficially, English was the medium. Despite that, school results was still excellent. Assuming the UNESCO reports are correct (mother tongue is the most effective medium), are Dong Zhong, Indian committee and Malay language champions ready to accept this "new" mother tongue at schools for the sake of learning efficiency?"

I really want them to answer this question. I wish those people did not spent too much time cracking jokes at the microphone.

Weekend Talk

2006-03-21T12:18:00.000+08:00

Last Sunday, I went to KL Sentral to meet some friends, namely Mr J and Mr B. We talked mostly about current issues (I love that) and discussed public (majority and minority) views on matters. Mr J talked about a Muslim guy named MSJT who admitted that he consumes liquor and he's proud of it, saying "Even Ibn Sina drinks liquor so liquor is not haram." MSJT is a member of a small group (SJT) that believes in the perfection of democracy and a ridiculously liberal version of Islam. This group read books related to religion and politics written by Machiavelli, Voltaire and so on.

Most Malaysian are not readers. Statistics show that most Malaysian hardly finish a book in a year. This is unfortunate because I think if people dont read, they dont have anything to think about. When they dont think, they dont give good arguments in debate. So most of the time when I engaged a non-reader Malaysian in a debate, their arguments are mostly emotional. Too much love novels and soap opera.

Sometimes even avid Malaysian readers can be a problem too. They read but they dont question what they read. MSJT said "Ibn Sina drinks liquors, I read about it in some books." How credible is that "some books"? Famous figures always have enemies. The books could be a propaganda. Even if that book is correct (Ibn Sina is an alcoholic), since when Ibn Sina precedes Nabi and Koran in guiding Muslim's life ?

In response to MSJT vehement belief of democracy perfection, Mr B stated that before people talk about democracy, they must state which democracy. American democracy? Malaysian democracy? There is quite a number of democracy flavors out there.

In many cases, I observed that when people are debate politics, they are debating about different things that shares the same name. For example Jack talks about Democracy A, Sally talks about Democracy B but they use the same term, which is Democracy. They fights over and over because their views differ. They are not aware that the differences is because A and B is not the same thing in the first place! Even if they realize the difference, they will keep fighting. In politics, the bigger commotion you make, the better it is for you. Intelligence can come later.

Next week I'm going to a dialogue. The panels are Anwar Ibrahim, someone from Dong Zhong and a professor from HUKM. The issue is education. Hopefully, it will be interesting.

This is the REAL hardcore entrepreneurship!

2006-02-01T16:33:00.000+08:00

Every person who plans to run his/her own business should read this. A great example where street-smarts beat book-smarts. A proof that almost anyone can be entrepreneur if they truly desire. No more old-fashioned excuse such as "I cant do business because the bank wont lend me USD 1.5 milion for my business startup." LOL

Bootstrapping: The Secret to Entrepreneurial SuccessFunding your own software venture results in a sales-focused and highly rewarding experience.
Greg Gianforte, CEO, RightNow Technologies

How do you launch a successful high-tech business? If you ask the typical MBA, they’ll give the same answer. Write a comprehensive in-depth business plan, take it to investors to secure a healthy initial round of funding, recruit the heaviest heavyweights you can, and start the PR machine cranking.

But, of course, they’d be completely wrong.

If you look at all start-ups, less than one percent get VC funding. Most are launched with less than $20,000. And some – including Dell – were created with less that $1,000. I personally started my first software company - which was acquired for $10 million by McAfee in 1994 - with a couple of friends and about $5,000 in cash. And I started RightNow Technologies - which went public August 4, 2004 and as of this writing has a market cap of $350 million - at my desk in Bozeman, Montana without any external funding whatsoever until the company was well-established with 400 customers.

That’s why the advice I’d give to anyone wanting to start a company today would be just the opposite of what they tell you in B-school. I’d tell you to “Bootstrap” it.

I define “Bootstrapping” as the act of starting a business with little or no external funding. Bootstrappers don’t write lengthy business plans, chase deep-pocketed investors, or indulge in overly academic market research exercises. Instead, they focus all of their considerable energy, brainpower, determination and skills on creating a business that can actually succeed in the real world.

In fact, I can offer at least eight solid reasons why Bootstrapping will consistently deliver better results than the “fund-and-burn” model that has become entrenched in Silicon Valley and elsewhere:

1. Bootstrapping ensures that you build your business on a legitimate, real-world value proposition. When you’re Bootstrapping, you’re forced to deal with customers and to fulfill their needs from Day One. If you have a lot of external funding, on the other hand, you can be fooled into thinking you’ve already created an actual business just because you’re paying salaries and rent. But you haven’t. You only have a business when you have paying customers. Bootstrappers know this instinctively, and never lose that customer focus.

2. Bootstrappers initiate the critical sales learning process sooner, not later. Selling is the hardest job of all. You have to learn how to be absolutely great at selling your product or service, and then teach others how to be absolutely great at selling it too. If you have too much cash-on-hand, it will take away from the urgency of initiating this process—so you wind up delaying the day when you screw up your courage, pick up the phone, and ask for that First Order. Bootstrappers are forced to start selling immediately as a matter of survival, which means they become better at selling sooner than their venture-funded counterparts.

3. Bootstrappers don’t waste money; they make it. If you have $100,000 or $1 million in funding, what do you do? Leave it in the bank? Of course not. You go out and spend it—or, to use the commonly accepted term, you “burn” it. This has actually become an accepted practice! Venture funding actually encourages the start-up to waste money long before a viable business has been established. In a Bootstrapping model, on the other hand, waste simply can’t occur because there is nothing to waste.

4. Bootstrapping accelerates time-to-market and time-to-profitability. If you go the Bootstrapping route, you can start your business immediately. Immediately! If you want to pursue external funding, on the other hand, you can’t start your business until everyone else tells you it’s OK. Venture capital firms might take up to a year or more to decide on whether to invest. They might want a 200-page business plan. Their funding requirements might force you to spend up to $50,000 in professional fees. Venture-funded entrepreneurs spend an inordinate amount of time trying to find sources of external funding—while Bootstrappers are already on the street looking for customers and closing deals.

5. Bootstrappers are less likely to make big, fatal financial mistakes. Because they don’t have huge amounts of cash, Bootstrappers can’t make the kinds of huge mistakes that often destroy venture-funded companies it. From a personal perspective, Bootstrappers are also at less risk—because they don’t have to put up the family home as collateral or jeopardize a lifetime of savings. They can start with whatever funds they feel comfortable investing to get things rolling and then fund the growth of their business with their actual initial revenue.

6. Bootstrappers are forced into unconventional thinking. Necessity truly is the mother of invention. Without a big cushion of cash, Bootstrappers are constantly forced to solve problems creatively. This results in innovative, outside-the-box approaches to everything from product design and manufacturing to marketing and sales.

7. Bootstrappers have more freedom and flexibility. When you take external funding, you become a slave to your business plan and you have to constantly answer to third parties: banks, private investors, grant agencies, etc. This destroys your ability to respond and adapt to unanticipated business challenges, changing market conditions, and unexpected business opportunities. Bootstrappers, on the other hand, aren’t hampered by these forces. They can change direction overnight if that’s what circumstances call for. This adaptability significantly increases their likelihood of near- and long-term success.

8. Bootstrappers wind up owning much, if not all, of what they create. This is a huge consideration. When Bootstrappers succeed, they get to keep their winnings. Some can even pass them along to their children. In a VC-backed company, on the other hand, you have to have to achieve a tremendous amount of growth to profit personally—since you have to fulfill your investors’ ROI expectations first. In fact, once you’re addicted to external financing, you can see your shares totally diluted by subsequent rounds of funding. So you can wind up with a successful business and little personal financial gain to show for it.

From my personal experience, I could add a ninth reason to this list: Bootstrapping is good, clean fun. When you Bootstrap a company, you’re far less likely to find yourself in situations where you have to make promises you can’t keep or where the temptations that go along with large sums of unearned cash present themselves. Instead, your entire focus is on creating value. You market, sell and serve your customers every day as if the business depended on it—because it does. And that commitment to achieving success by delivering value is really at the heart of the American business dream.

Given all these advantages, I believe we should all be doing more to promote the Bootstrapping model. It never fails to amaze me that our country’s MBA programs, for example, almost universally neglect Bootstrapping principles. It’s the classic “book smarts” vs. “street smarts” scenario being played out on The Apprentice every week on TV. Somehow, we’ve developed a business culture that believes business is more about borrowing money than making it. The fruit of this culture includes high-profile corporate failures, a new wave of burdensome regulation, and public mistrust of the business community.

This last item is particularly troubling. We simply can’t afford to have business cast in a negative light. The economy of our country depends on the next generation of young people initiating the next generation of business start-ups. For that to happen, we need to let them know that starting a business is a worthwhile thing to do with your life—and we need to teach them the best way to do it. Bootstrapping needs to take its rightful place in our schools and in our media.

By properly encouraging and training Bootstrappers, we can have a significant positive impact on our economy and promote a much healthier and more vibrant business culture across all markets.

Greg Gianforte is CEO and Founder of RightNow Technologies (Nasdaq: RNOW) which provides organizations with industry-leading on demand CRM solutions to build customer-focused businesses.

In June of 2003, Ernst & Young awarded Greg the Pacific Northwest 2003 Entrepreneur of the Year for the software category. Greg will formerly be presenting more about bootstrapping at The Sandhill Group’s Software 2005 Conference in April, 2005. Excerpts from this article and upcoming presentation are advance notes from his book “Bootstrapping Your Business,” published by Adams Media, due out this August, 2005, in bookstores nationwide.

The Why Question

2006-01-16T14:16:00.000+08:00

"Setiap yang berlaku ada hikmah disebaliknya"
(There's always a good reason behind everything that happened)

Sounds familiar? That's one of the lines that people tend to say whenever bad thing happens. I believe in these words 100 percently. I believe everything happens by the will of God and God never do anything for no good reason. Tsunami, earthquake, war and deaths; they all happen for good reasons. In another words, nothing ever happens without good reason. I'm in the mood of talking about reaching our goals in life. So let's talk about why people fail and succeed in their pursuit. (I havent live long enough to be sure about this thought, but I do believe this is at least 1% true .. hehehe)

In our everyday life, we confront the 5 questions. What, Who, When, How and Why. To me, the most important question is always "Why" question. For example, let's say Encik Boyan was caught stealing money. Here are the 5 questions.

1) What did he steal ? Money
2) Whom did he steal from? MakCik Timah
3) When did he steal it? At night, 11 pm
4) How did he steal it ? Break the window.
5) Why did he steal it? Too poor, need food (the real reason for stealing)

I like the "Why" question better because it helps us see the future and it is the root of everything. By knowing the answer to "Why" we can probably prevent problem in the future.
That's the importance of Why, eh ?

Even though "Why" is so important, many people fail to find a good answer to that question. It means, they dont have good reason for doing whatever they are doing. Since I said that, nothing happens for no good reason probably it can be concluded that without good reason, nothing can happen. No good reason = no success.

That's why many people who started business to get rich, failed tragically. They dont have good reason to get rich. Some people want to get rich because

1) I want to buy a bungalow.
2) I want to have 4 wives, its heaven.
3) I want BMW 5 series with body-kit.
4) Being rich is cool, time to show off.

Do you think all these reasons are good reasons (in God's point of view) to get rich? Absolutely not. Why would God grants your wish to be rich when there's no good reason to get rich? This is probably one of the reasons why people failed.

JK Rowling (Harry Potter's author) started writing the novel because she needed money to raise her children. She never dreamt of becoming a millionaire. But she does have a good reason to get rich.

George Soros (speculator, who was responsible for causing the 1997-1998 financial crisis in Asia, he made USD 1 billion a day after speculating pounds currency a few years ago) admitted that he cant stop making a lot of money. The reason? He needed the money to build "Open Society" and promote freedom of speech and human rights. Good reason but bad method.

Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar bin Syed Nor Al-Bukhary (Malaysian successful businessman) a founder to Yayasan Al-Bukhary that spends hundreds of millions to sponsor schools ,universities and orphans. Good reason to get rich.

Before we do anything, let's get the right answer to the "Why" question (in God's favor). Insya-Allah.

Stupid people, may I have your attention?

2005-12-28T09:22:00.000+08:00

Has anyone ever heard stories about Neil Armstrong embracing Islam after he heard "azan" on the moon? This story is false. 1-2 years ago, Neil Armstrong clarified that he's not a Muslim.

Where did this rumor come from? Surely it came from stupid people who tried to show the greatness of Islam by making stupid stories. Why do they have make up stories to make people accept Islam as the true religion? Do they actually think Islam need that kind of support?

Listen up morons, Islam is a great religion, so great that it does not need idiotic stories from idiotic people like you for support.

Now, you should stop making those stupid supernatural stories and go back into the hole you came from!

The 3 questions

2005-12-22T04:16:00.000+08:00

Here are the 3 questions

1) What do you like to do ?
2) What kind of person you are ?
3) Did you answer the 2 questions honestly ?

The details.

1) What do you like to do ?

Reason people can't honestly answer this question :

People are strongly influenced by their surroundings. They think they can have everything under control when subconciously they are being shaped into something that they are unaware of. For example, if people around them are in favor of the career as a doctor, they would most likely proclaim "I like to be a doctor (heck, I want to be a cook!)". Actually they are just attracted to the recognition and they wont admit it. If people ask,

"Do you really like this job?",
"Oh yes you bet I do, you know why (jargon straight from textbook here) bla bla.. ". (trying to act knowledgeable)

But people cant act cool forever. People WILL get tired at one point.

"Hey why the hell are you doing this job? This isnt what you studied for".
"You know what, (insert job) is boring." (Why the hell did you spend 4 years in college just to realize it's boring!!? )

From observation it can be seen that most kids want to be like their parents (dont expect kids to know what kind of job is good for them). Parents tend to take the "interest" shown as a positive sign . "Yeah that's my girl/boy!". Like father like son they say. For many years, parents start shaping the kid to be like them. The kids may follow the footsteps till one day they get tired of it because they lack GENUINE interest. For how long would they follow? Depends. Some kids started ditching school during their primary/secondary education days. Some smart ones actually finish the college but find themselves working in fields unrelated to their education background. Our society views this as a failure. Society shapes the people and keep these people do what they dont really like.

Let's say we can answer this question honestly now by truly understanding ourselves and "berpendirian teguh". What is the next question?

2) What kind of person you are ?

I believe the there are at least 3 kinds of people (I read this from a book).

- Entrepreneur : People who are good at running his OWN business (boss).
- Intrapreneur : People who are good at running OTHER people business (makan gaji).
- Both (damn good laa these people).

Be sure that none of these types is better than the other. No such thing as Entre is better than Intra or vice versa. But generally it's a bad idea for Entre to be like Intra or vice versa.

I do not know surefire ways of identifying these types. "Tuan punya badan jer yang tau". Few pointers :

Entrepreneur are usually people who dont like following orders. They want freedom above everything else. They get bored after doing same thing for a long time. They like multitasking and dont like spending too much time on one work. Entre trying to be an Intra will suffer from depression.

Intrapreneur are people who can accept anything assigned to them as a challenge. They love the feeling when they are challenged and they prevailed. They dont want to be bothered by anything not related to the job. They like to focus on one job at a time. Intra trying to be an Entre will probably bankrupt because when you do own business, you have to love multitasking.

Entrepreneurs are best to work for themselves and Intrapreneur should do their best in their job (be a specialist).

Again, people may answer this question dishonestly because of the factors I mentioned earlier (recognition, peer pressure, society).

Now the third question.

3) Did you answer the 2 questions honestly ?

If the answer for this question is a "No", you should go back to those 2 questions and try to answer them correctly again.

Hmm.. what should I write about next?

Career blues ...

2005-12-22T02:50:00.000+08:00

Among my futsal friends, there was a guy who's currently studying Sports Science in the US. Hmm.... that's quiet an unusual field of study since most of my friends are either doctor or engineer. Then I meet this guy who just graduated from UK (engineering) who found himself a job at an advertising company. That's normal. People choosing a career different from their qualifications is normal nowadays and I want to talk why this people made such decisions. These decisions are NOT bad decisions.

I think many people who study IT, engineering and medical have no interest in what they are doing. They merely opted those fields because

1) You can get scholarship easier in those fields
2) Not only scholarship, you get to travel and live overseas
3) Just like why people revere imported products, "imported" education must be good too (they are good, but not suitable for everyone).
4) Gaji besar (used to, hehehe).

There are more reasons but I'm not going to discuss them. After several months in my career, I have learnt something very-very important.

1) To be successful, you need to be among the best.

If you are among the best, you will get promoted and survive the competition etc etc .... (you know what I'm going to say).

2) To be the best, you need creativity in your work.

Hah, this is the keyword, creativity. If you notice, "all" successful entities (companies and people) are creative. Apple with their iPods and Tony Fernandes (AirAsia CEO) with his uncanny management skills. Someone told me that the management model at AirAsia is currently being studied by management gurus because it doesnt exist in books. It's new, its creative! If you are creative, you will create something that your rivals dont have. In books, we say "competitive edge". This is the line that distinguish book-smart people from real expert.

3) To be creative in your work, you need to do the jobs that you love.

This is obvious. If you like the job you will learn faster and be able to apply what you learn better. When you love the job, you will get good at it before you realize it. This is where most people fail to see. Successful parents generally want their children to be like them.
For example, a successful banker (who loves his job) may want his children to be like him. He thinks if he can do it, his children can do it too. This is a misconception. People cannot be among the best if they dont love their job. What happens when the children fail? The parents will help the children and that's the root of cronyism. Cronyism happens when you try to fit someone unfit into the job. Why bother trying to do all this ? Money. If you think other fields cannot make money, then you are totally mistaken. Money will come to you when you excel. Doesn't matter what kind of work. Stop saying, "if you try hard you can be successful like me". If you dont like your job, the best you can be is a book-smart (average) and a book-smart can never beat a real enthusiast (expert) in terms of knowledge and ability to accomplish.
No wonder why in our classes, there are always students who are extremely smart in that course. Those people love what they are doing.

4) To love the job you are doing you have to err ...
I dont know why people love this and hate that. This is entirely up to you. Just make sure you know what you love. This is your freedom.

Coming next (wuish macam siaran tv pulak) ... 3 most important questions that may jeopardize your career life if you dont answer them truly-truly honestly.

When angry people got creative...and funny

2005-10-07T14:23:00.000+08:00

I was browsing online forums that talk about cars, and I came across these funny stuffs.

Name : Proton
Also referred to as : Protong, Potong, Protoon.

Name : Savvy and MyVi
Also referred to as : Sawi and Mawi (respectively)

Name : Gen2
Also referred to as : Gentut

"Proton...hmmmm, I guess people still buy it because its CHEAP(disregarding taxes). It has LOTUS handling(mooncake also got lotus inside). " - from an anti proton dude

LOL!

Not bad at all ....

2005-09-29T14:45:00.000+08:00

These are the excerpts from the news published in New Straits Times
"We can do better to compete with others"

For example, Malaysia’s government spending was deemed to be the second-least wasteful after Singapore’s. By comparison, Finland was 10th place, the US 20th, and Japan trailing at 68th position.

Hmm our government spend money better than developed countries, interesting.

Malaysia’s government regulations were also considered to be the third-least burdensome after Singapore’s and Hong Kong’s.

Malaysia’s law-making and regulatory oversight bodies were polled as the fifth-most effective.

Most notably, Malaysia was said to be the 11th-most neutral country when formulating policies and handing out government contracts, far ahead of even the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia.

Haha, most people who think developed countries are better than Malaysia when it comes to government contracts distribution must think again. But why do we feel like contract distribution injustice is widespread in Malaysia?

First, I guess it's because Malaysia is too small, when anything happens, it sounds like it happened right next door. US is many times bigger, people dont hear everything but they believe they know everything because they have free mass-media.

Second, many people, both educated and uneducated, tend to exaggerate things and blame others when they failed. For example, a guy named Joko who is educated but failed to get his get-rich-quick contract, began to tell everyone about contract distribution injustice, making it looks like the whole system is corrupted. Joko needs to blame something. Since Joko is educated, many people (especially those looking for reasons to be lazy) believe him. Blaming something is a lot easier than achieving something. That's why we have many people who are all talk. Ever heard of lines like "Alah, susahlah", "Penatlah...." and "Bosanlah..." ? Lazy-bums use those words everyday.

Hora-hora ...

Letter to Utusan for Ustaz and Ustazah (Hihihi)

2005-09-26T15:43:00.000+08:00

Saudara Pengarang,

Setelah menonton rancangan Forum Perdana Ehwal Islam (RTM) yang telah ke udara pada 23 September 2005, saya berasa terpanggil untuk menulis ke ruangan ini. Ehwal Islam pada malam itu membincangkan masalah-masalah sosial yang biasa kita dengar di mana-mana ceramah agama. Penyampaian ahli-ahli panel pada malam itu memang menarik, adakalanya ahli panel seperti berpantun. Sayangnya, topik yang dibincangkan amat mudah untuk dijangka.

Pada hemat saya, salah satu cara untuk meningkatkan pemahaman dan amalan agama masyarakat kita ialah dengan membangkitkan penghargaan umat terhadap syariat-syariat Islam. Ini boleh dicapai dengan cara menonjolkan kehebatan dan hikmah syariat Islam dalam kehidupan seharian. Contohnya, hari ini semua orang menyimpan wang di bank. Penceramah perlu mengambil peluang ini dengan menonjolkan kehebatan sistem perbankan Islam berbanding sistem perbankan konvensional yang diasaskan oleh Barat.

Pihak RTM dan penerbit rancangan tersebut perlu membincangkan isu-isu berkaitan Islam yang amat jarang dibincangkan dalam rancangan-rancangan seumpama ini. Topik yang boleh dibincangkan ialah kebaikan zakat dan kemanakah perginya jutaan wang kutipan zakat (termasuk wang-wang haram yang diserahkan kepada Baitulmal untuk dimanfaatkan). Jika cara perbelanjaan wang-wang zakat ini didedahkan kepada umum, orang ramai boleh menghargai kebaikan sistem zakat yang disyariatkan oleh agama. Kata orang putih "seeing is believing".

Dari pemerhatian saya, para penceramah agama amat kurang membincangkan Islam dari perspektif ekonomi dan kewangan. Ini adalah sesuatu yang janggal kerana kita sering mendengar ceramah yang berbunyi "Islam itu syumul (menyeluruh)" tetapi ceramah hanya tertumpu kepada masalah sosial,akhlak dan keluarga sahaja. Penceramah perlu bercakap mengenai perspektif Islam dalam isu-isu semasa, barulah umat boleh merasakan betapa syumulnya Islam itu.
Saya akhiri tulisan saya dengan mengulang cadangan-cadangan topik yang boleh dibincangkan dalam program-program agama.

1) Apakah kelebihan sistem perbankan Islam berbanding sistem konvensional Barat?
2) Mengapakah Rasulullah mengatakan pembaziran itu saudara syaitan? Huraikan kesan-kesan sosial dan kerugian ekonomi yang merosakkan. (daripada membazir, lebih baik melabur, tingkat pendapatan umat Islam jangka panjang, tidak perlu bergantung kepada PTPTN untuk ke universiti).
3) Apakah perspektif Islam dalam perpaduan antara kaum di negara kita? Perspektif Islam mengenai Parti Komunis Malaya?
4) Perspektif Islam atas gejala bunuh diri (7 rakyat mati setiap hari di Malaysia)?
5) Perspektif Islam ke atas orang yang gemar dengan skim cepat kaya dan penipuan dalam perniagaan.

Sekian, terima kasih.

Nice mailing list ...

2005-09-19T11:54:00.000+08:00

 This is from a mailing-list that I subscribed:

  While I'm glad to see that many out there remain relentlessly and passionately
 patriotic, not to mention hopelessly romantically optimistic (yes, I'm on an
 adjective roll here), perhaps historical facts will shed some light on what
 the future of our Space Program holds:
 
 EXHIBIT 1
 Initiative:
 The gov't announces an ambitious National Car to take on the Japanese,
 Koreans, Americans, Europeans, etc.
 
 Outcome:
 Proton remains in the ICU, and in talks with VeeDub ("No, really, we're not
 going to sell Proton...yada..yada...yada").  Only reason the plug has not been
 pulled sooner is that there are hundreds of jobs at stake at the SMEs.  SMEs,
 whose product quality (case in point, Proton's power windows), wouldn't pass
 VeeDubs lowest minimum standards (or even Hyundai's for that matter) - not the
 poor workers fault but the owner who's a close friend of so-and-so and got the
 contract through favoritism, not open biddin, and keeping most of the
 (illegally gained?) profits.  Citizens pay through the nose for cars while Dr.
 M's son gets to flaunt his Carrera GT (USD 450K in the USA!) and Naza gets a
 stable of Lambos.  Did I mention that Proton has been bailed out not once,
 twice, but THREE times?
 
 Alternative:
 Thailand has positioned itself as the auto center of SEA.  No Thai car brand
 but Thailand is one of the largest mini truck exporters in the world.  Major
 mfrs are opening plants and thousands of jobs are created.  Citizens pay
 reasonable prices for cars.  Everyone rejoices.
 
 EXHIBIT 2:
 Initiative:
 Gov't announces plans to make computer chips and proceeds to open two wafer
 fab plants, one in Kedah (hmmm...wonder why Kedah?), the other in Sarawak
 (cheap energy from Hydroelectric power)
 
 Outcome:
 These plants are 6" wafer fabs.  Even when they first came out, they were
 already a generation late (back then, it was 8", now 300mm/12" fab is
 standard).  Silterra is on ICU and I'm not sure about First Silicon.  Either
 way, funny how we don't hear about them anymore.
 
 EXHIBIT 3:
 Initiative:
 Gov't announces the creation of a SEA Silicon Valley i.e. Multimedia Super
 Corridor/Cyberjaya (I know the guy, then a McKinsey consultant, who came up
 with the "Cyber" prefix).  I attended the speech Dr. M made at Stanford
 (accompanied with the usual entourage of brown-nosing politicians who wouldn't
 know what an Ethernet cable is even if it smacked them in the face - newsflash
 - they still don't!).  Of course, being a Bay Area denizen, I realized that
 Silicon Valley is about the culture and people, not money, gov't tax breaks,
 or even infrastructure.
 
 Outcome:
 MDC and MSC sortof sputters along.  While not in ICU like the rest, it's a
 shadow of what it was originally intended.  As for the advisory committee with
 names such as Bill Gates and Kenichi Ohmae?  Let's just say that they were too
 embarassed to stay on and silently withdrew.
 
 EXHIBIT 4:
 Initiative:
 Gov't announces construction of F1 track in Sepang to attract tourists.
 
 Outcome:
 Recent polls by the FIA show that Sepang is one of the most boring circuits on
 the tour, from the audiences' perspective.  The rise of new circuits in
 Shanghai (huge Chinese market) and Turkey (proximity to the other European
 circuits and fan base) are crowding out the schedule.  I speculate that Sepang
 might be dropped from the F1 schedule in the near future.
 
 Alternative:
 If we were real hard-up for F1, we could've at least built a downtown circuit
 a la Monaco in Putrajaya (the wide streets would've been great).  That way the
 crowd actually has something else to do before the race and local commerce
 could benefit greatly.  Amazing what market research can do!
 
 EXHIBIT 5:
 Initiative:
 Gov't announces major Biotech push (about 10 years to late, IMHO, should've
 done that instead of MSC way back when but of course we had to jump on the
 dotcom bandwagon too!).
 
 Outcome:
 While this is still new, having been involved personally on the fringes, I
 have been unimpressed with the lack of strategic direction, cohesiveness,
 vague positioning of the country, disorganization, and lack of competitive
 assessment of where we stand vs. others.  Add to that the usual entourage of
 politicians whom, in this case, wouldn't know what a stemcell is if it came
 and smacked them in the face (which in this case, the stem cell would evolve
 into a despicable corrupt conniving lying organism).
 
 A few more to drive the point truly home:
 Perwaja - Steel mill in the name of progress - Financial mess, more bailouts,
 former CEO indicted (probably one of the biggest gangsters in the country)
 Bakun - Big dam for future power needs - Financial mess, moribund, loss of
 ecosystem, oh, and the damn guy who's supposed to make millions from the deal?
 He made millions suing the gov't for not honoring the contract (AFTER he made
 millions raping the virgin forests for lucrative tropical hardwood).
 
 Here are the odd success stories:
 EXHIBIT 1:
 Islamic Banking
 
 Why?
 Private sector silently pushes this forward, led by, among others, HSBC.
 
 EXHIBIT 2:
 Discount Airline Air Asia
 
 Why?
 Tony Fernandez, with his consumer driven Virgin Records background, sees the
 rising affluence combined with low cost economics of short haul quick
 turnaround regional flights.
 
 EXHIBIT 3:
 Petronas' expansion in Africa and former Russian states
 
 Why?
 Sr Mgmt recognizes the "white space" where the MNC giants like Exxon and Shell
 are afraid to play in and leverages the developing country/Islamic nation tie
 to gain exploration rights.
 
 Funny how things are more likely to succeed when the gov't does NOT get
 involved along with the (fill in the appropriate adjectives here)
 politicians.
 
 Those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat them, but I guess
 it's "once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more..."
 
 It's easy to say the above in hindsight but foresight analysis did show the
 challenge and problems of each initiative.  But then again, cronies can't get
 rich if there's no gov't incentive to spend the (blindly faithful) citizens'
 money, can they?
 
 Yeah, there's pork barrel politics in the US too.  Thousands of pet projects
 slipped into massive bills without the ability to do line item vetoes.  But at
 least it's a little more transparent out here.  And just like M'sia, private
 sector always pulls it off (Hollywood, Silicon Valley, Mercedes mfg jobs in
 Alabama, etc.) where the gov't fails (Katrina, anyone?)
 
 The defense (and prosecution?) rests...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------My reply
Hello all,

This is probably the first time I posted something to this listing. Kudos to Rezal for his informative post. Our government, just like any other government, makes bad and good decisions. There's no way to elect a government that does not make mistake since making mistake is the nature of man. Mistake is a matter of "when" rather than a matter of "if", it's imperative for us to be resilient whenever mishap occurs. Because of this, I'm optimistic about projects such as the space-project, Proton and biotech. Resilience is the key.

To me, there are at least 2 types of thinkers, professor-type and businessman-type. If the leaders are business-type, our country will be like Thailand, assemble the cars, make a lot of money, but no research whatsoever. We happened to have a professor-type leader, so we end up doing the research and make our own cars. Which one is better? None. It depends of what kind of person you are. If you're a business-type, you will think Proton is a failure. There's a fine line where the definition of "success" differs between these 2 groups. When people say "this project failed" they need to state from what viewpoint. I dont believe in "complete failure" as I believe there are always ways to look at things positively as well as negatively.

People tend to say "government should have done this and that". But I have one question for these people and myself. What were WE doing when government made the "wrong" decision, 10 years ago? Did we have a better idea? When we read the newspaper about Putrajaya plan 10 years ago, did we really think "oh no this is a bad move, I suggest government start a biotech project because I know its gonna be huge in 10 years". I bet most of us did not. Because nobody can see the future. Biotech is still in its infancy even in US. Almost everyone had no slightest idea about biotech back then. And then now, if we dont have MSC and other techno-parks, where can the biotech companies invest their money following the biotech push announced by the government? Now we have found a good use to the so-called failed MSC.

Another thing that never fail to amuse me is when people say, "Stop wasting money on mega projects, help the poor, develop the rural area please!" I wish they can be more specific. What do they mean by saying that? The government has done enough to help rural areas. Do they expect Felda settlements to become KL? Did villagers utilise the subsidy offered by government ? Some of them sold the subsidized fertilizer. They smuggled out our subsidized petrol to neighbouring countries. They sold the bumiputra contracts granted to them to the already-rich-nonbumiputra. They did those things and then yelled "help the poor bumi and rural areas". Should we cancel our projects envisioned by our geniuses so we can spend more money and time spoonfeeding them? Of course not. Recently in news, we have seen a 25 years-old Malay local univ grad who's now making RM30,000 per month as a farmer. Also another 22 years-old Malay villageboy from UiTM who's now making RM100,000 per month as an investor. Richer than most of us.

There are always weaknesses in our government, just as there are weaknesses in each of us. Let's do our best for the country and ourselves so we can leave everything beyond our control in God's hand.

Hmm foreigners.... ok ke ...?

2005-09-01T13:54:00.000+08:00

A few days ago, the Directors of MAS were considering the plan to hire foreigners for executive positions in MAS. According to the news, MAS sees this as a feasible measure since one of government-linked companies, Silterra Berhad (silicon manufacturer) has various executive positions being held by foreigners.

Prime Minister Abdullah Badwi said that MAS should try to hire locals to fill the positions and he is not against hiring foreigners if that is the best available option. Pemuda UMNO led by Hishammuddin is strongly against MAS plan. He believes such decision is inappropriate as it can be seen as another form of imperialism (sounds like Bodoh Sombong).

In my opinion, when we are considering individuals well-suited to carry these responsibilities, the most important issue is the ability of the individuals themselves to work the way we want them to. I personally agree with Abdullah Badwi that we should try to hire locals but if there's no one well-suited for the job, we may consider foreigners. Hiring foreigners to do executive work should not be seen as a form of imperialism, in fact the in this case, Malaysian shareholders are the bosses. The foreigner holding the CEO position is merely working for us, taking orders from us. "CEO" may sounds mighty but it doesnt change the fact that CEO still "cari makan" by obeying orders (Betul kan Mary? I'm with you :-) ).

I think it's important to be extremely careful when choosing foreigners to manage our GLC. Here are the reasons:

1) Foreign companies are capitalist, Malaysian GLCs' are not
Foreign companies are driven by profits alone. They dont do charity like Petronas does. Petronas profits are spent for Malaysian well-being. The best example is our gas price subsidized by Petronas. This is a large-scale charity work done just for the sake of Malaysian well-being. Ever heard any famous Fortune 100 companies spending that much money EVERY year for charity like this ? Maybe they do, but very seldom. Charity costs money and capitalists dont like to waste money. I'm not saying those capitalists had never done any charity. They do charities work but mainly because :
- to gain tax deduction.
- to gain free advertisement.
- to improve their images in the eyes of the locals.
All these reasons indirectly improve their business. It's all about making money.

2) Because their companies are capitalists, their workers are trained to work like a capitalist.
The foreign CEO's were educated to be a capitalist, worked for capitalist companies and gained skills to be a successful capitalist. They are good at working as a capitalist. There's a risk where they are unexperienced to handle large-scale charity work. Our GLCs' are organizations that make money and at the same time carry social responsibilities (during economic downturn, GLC employees did not lose their job while thousands of MNCs workers did). It takes more than just a money-making guru to fill our GLC positions.

It's very important for our authority to take these points into account. Don't be fooled by foreign CEO's successes before taking a good look at how they did it. Many foreign companies are like "orang bujang yang tiada tanggungan", while GLCs' are like "lelaki beristeri dan beranak 4". Gaji sama besar, otak sama pandai, kerja sama kuat, tapi tanggungannya berbeza.

Enuff talking for today!

Inconsistencies and the brain story.

2005-08-22T21:54:00.000+08:00

In the newspaper, it's recently reported that an Islamic political party whose stronghold is in a state in northern Peninsular Malaysia, invited Mawi of AF3 to sing in a concert in that state. The Islamic party is well-known for banning concerts with un-Islamic musics. When I read about this article, a few questions popped in my head.

1) What is the definition of Islamic music? Is "world music" genre brought by Mawi is considered Islamic music because it has the essence of Arabic music?

2) What was the reason behind the banning of concerts with un-Islamic music? Is it the song or the singer? The party said it was the songs that were considered "melalaikan" therefore they are banned.

3) "Aduh Saliha" (Mawi's song) can be classified as "melalaikan" since it's not about remembering Allah. That party invited Mawi to sing that song because Mawi has religious background. This doesnt seem right. Looks like the party banned the people, not the song. If you are religious, you are allowed to sing whatever you wish.

4) Do people actually think a role model artist like Mawi (or anyone else) can curb our youth's social and moral problems? I cant believe it. If people want to smoke weed, they smoke weed. They want to have pre-marital sex, they just do it. I cant believe anyone would actually stop and think "Hey (insert name here) is successful without doing this, I must follow him". Haha funny!

Here's another interesting article that answered the question that I had for years for myself. Why do I find it's hard to pay attention to my mom? According to scientist, when male hears male's voice, the brain processes the voice using the "logic-brain". When male hears female voice, the brain processes it using the "art-brain". Since female speech seldom sounds like an "art" (my mom doesnt sing when she talks to me) the brain cant process it nicely. Haha funny isnt it?

Macam-macam hal.

Secrets in the teachings.

2005-08-21T11:30:00.000+08:00

I read an article a few days ago about a discovery made by a Japanese researcher that eating the meal slowly will make us full without consuming too much. Is this the reason why Nabi taught us to munch 24 (or is it 40?) times before swallowing? Naturally, when we munch 24 times we will need more time to finish our food. Less food, less weight problem. This is a good tip to control weight. (Girls take note :-) )

It's also said in the Quran that, good men are for good women (and vice versa). Is this true? I believe it's true. For example, I heard about a gorgeous girl who's a "mata duitan" (materialistic). She only goes out with rich guys and she feels that's a natural thing to do as a woman. Shallow. Because of that attitude, she is very vulnerable to dishonest guys who use money to attract woman. "Good women for good men" and "bad women for bad men" are indeed true.

Why is it that Islam "wajibkan" man and woman who committed adultery to get married? Is it to protect the woman's future? Or is it because "bad man for bad women"? Probably it's because of both.

In the newspaper, a qari from Perlis suggested tilawah Al-Quran to adopt AF-style but without the SMS votes. I think AF is heavily "funded" by hordes of SMS lovers. Without SMS, how Tilawah AF going to fund itself? We will have a problem where people read Quran for fame. Is that what we want to nurture? Is it wise to kick someone out every week and cry like that person is going to Afterlife? The qari also said, the daily life of the participant will be fun to watch. It was fun to watch in AF because kids in AF jokes and plays around (even though most of the time they look corny). Can we expect participants in AF-Tilawah to joke around while learning the Quran? Is it ok to watch those participants chatting worldly matters during their spare time? That sounds odd. "Jauhkan perkara yang lagha", my Ustaz said to me .

Enuff ranting for today!

Pemikir-pemikir kita

2005-08-18T23:38:00.000+08:00

A few days ago, I read an interview with Prof Ungku Aziz, one of our brilliant thinkers. The topic was about the weakness of Malay's economics and the failure of DEB. I like his ideas and agree with him. Prof said,

"Orang Melayu ini miskin segala-galanya. Tiada duit, tiada pelajaran dan tiada semangat untuk maju. Orang Melayu perlu jadi kiasu kalau nak maju."

"Lihat buruh-buruh kontrak Indonesia. Mereka pun mampu buat 1200 ringgit sebulan sedangkan di kampung-kampung masih ramai orang Melayu miskin, pendapatan tak sampai 400 ringgit sebulan pun. Apa orang kampung kita tak boleh buat kerja kontrak pembinaan?"

A few days before that, I read an interview with The Proton CEO, Tengku Mahaleel. I find this man knows his priority and knows his job. I like Proton cars. I believe people who are crazily against Proton are one of these people.

1) The peacocks - People who always think "imported products are 100% better than local". These people are narrow minded people who would buy anything as long as it's imported. They dont really know what is quality. All that matters to them is to look cool by wearing imported stuffs. Padini and Dave's Deli are Malaysian products, but they probably have to exhibit Western image because many Malaysians are peacocks. Peacock, no matter how beautiful or stylish, is still just a bird. The peacocks are angry because they cant buy their imported cars cheap.

2) People who are the distributors of imported cars. These people dislike the huge tax incurred on their cars. Their cars are less affordable and if Proton doesnt exist their business could have been better. Only money matters to these people.

3) Impatient people who think "Proton isn't as good as Toyota or Hyundai because their management sucks, Proton grows too slow, I'm tired of waiting". These people dont know what it takes to achieve true success. They have no idea about the car industry and yet talk irresponsibly. Do they realize that all those Japanese and Korean companies are 40 years old and still have the protections back in their home country. Those Japanese and Korean dont whine "please stop protecting our national car". In Korea, it's said that the pump attendant wont serve you if you drive foreign cars.

Many people are being fooled by the amount of money made by Thailand's car assembling industry. They think Proton should have prospered better if we focus on car assembly. True, we can make more money by importing all the better and cheaper parts from China to gain competitive advantage. But do they realize that all the successful car companies like Ford and GM are not just car assemblers? They are car makers and designers. That's what Proton trying to do. Gaining its own capabilities to build cars from scratch. There is no shortcut in success. Diorang ni tau nak senang aje. Dasar pemalas berfikiran singkat.

Nice Dinner

2005-08-07T11:33:00.000+08:00

My father brought me to 51st MBAM anniversary dinner (Master Builders Association of Malaysia) at Sunway Lagoon Resort Hotel. I like the hotel very much. The theme was Chinese Food. There were speeches and musical performances, but the most important part of the night was the food. (haha)

The Menu

Special Hot and Cold Combination
Braised Sharks Fin Soup with Crab Meat and Roe (sedap jugak laa)
Deep Fried Whole Garoupa with Thai Chili Sauce (I didnt know Kerapu is called Garoupa, but the Kerapu was huge, it can swallow a chick if you want)
Roasted Chicken with Onion Sauce (boleylaa)
Deep Fried Ming Prawns (Anyone who have been to Chinese buffet must know this dish very well)
Hong Kong Kailan with Black Mushroom (Nice kailan and mushroom. but the kailan is too green)
Fried Rice with Chicken Cube Topped with Silver Ikan Bilis (boleylaa)
Chilled Soya Bean with Snow Fungus (sungguh tak sedap .. soy bean milk without sugar with snow fungus)
Shanghai Pancake (tak sempat makan, dont wanna wait)
Chinese Tea (the normal unsweetened tea we find in restaurants, but this one smells like 'colok', crazy)

I never heard of this association before, but this association is backed by many successful contractors. They have projects in Middle East and India. These projects arent small, they worth RM12 billion. Construction must be a lucrative business.

Yummy!

Family

2005-07-30T22:26:00.000+08:00

Today, my father told me to grab the cash from his wallet for pasar malam expenses. Then, I discovered a very old picture. It was my mom's picture in her 20's. Black and white. Whoa, I thought only young people keep their beloved ones picture in the wallet. Do your parent still keep those kind of picture in their wallet? Tell me, tell me.

Talking about my father. His already 52. But he's still strong and athletic. He used to play tennis, squasy, badminton and soccer. But nowadays, he only plays badminton once a week and yet, most young people in the jabatan cant beat him. Sometimes I hear him say, "young people these days, only know how to study, hopeless in sports". Sorry dad, that doesnt apply to me. I pretty sure I can beat in you in any sports. Bring it on. :-)

My father wanted to buy me a Savvy using my pizza-money (Ada ka patot?). My mom traded my sister's old Kancil, got herself 3 grand of cash and paid the downpayment. I owe my mom that much money now. I'm happy to get rid of that Kancil. It's a "real" Kancil because it can make deer's sound. Kreek, kreek like that. Dont believe me? Ask Mary, Nadia Musa, Nadiah Zawani and Ninie. They have experienced it. The previous owner of that Kancil cut the spring in his futile attempt to make the car runs faster. That car bumps alot each time it hit holes on the street. Annoying. I will get the new car in 2 weeks. I badly need a job to pay for that car now.

My sister is 20. She's doing IT at Unisel. She likes talking. And she loves her car. She washes it every week. When I get my car I will need to drive to Batang Berjuntai each time she wanna come back home. I have no problem. With Savvy you can travel from KL to JB in 30 minutes (according to that hillarious radio-ad). Har har har.

I miss the old days when I had small siblings to play with. Maybe I should ask my mom to adopt a sister for me. Hahaha. This house is quite. My bro and sis all went to Uni. People who still in this house is just me, my parent, 16 years-old Emi and 13 years-old Midi who likes to talk bout newspaper current issues. How boring. I need people who can layan my dumb jokes and habits. My sister,bro and my mom can. But I cant stand it when my mom counter my dumb jokes with hers. Cant win against her.

Ooh btw, I'd like to wish Selamat Pengantin Baru to Mozaid and Hawaiah. Selamat Berbahagia hingga ke anak cucu.

Enuff talking for today!

Joko's Shoes (fictious love-love story)

2005-07-27T01:19:00.000+08:00

Today, I'm going to try to fit in someone's shoes and write a fiction. This man is named Joko (Joko Suprianto, Wak Joko, Gusti Raden Joko, any name you like, doesnt matter).

Joko came from a rich family and he has a girlfriend. Even though Joko is rich, he's a good man and he wants to be successful with his own ability. That's why Joko works hard to build his career. Just like most men, Joko wants to be capable of taking care of his girlfriend one day. It doesnt matter if his girlfriend can be rich and successful by herself, the most important thing is Joko wants to be reliable. Joko wants the role of a caretaker. That role is very important to men in every relationship. People like Joko want to be at least as capable as their women. Joko would do anything to achieve that goal.

Sutinah is Joko's girlfriend. She's an exceptionally smart and ambitious girl with bright future. Joko wants Sutinah to pursue her dream career and achieve whatever she wants to achieve and at the same time Joko plans to work very hard to be a man worthy of taking care of Sutinah. Joko sets a certain standard for himself. Standard that defines "worthiness" as "being able to earn enough for the woman". Sutinah has the potential to be successful and shes going to work for a good company.

Unfortunately for Joko, after years of working hard, he feels unsatisfied with his achievements. He began to worry about what would happen if he cant achieve that standard. He began to worry about his future with Sutinah. "What if I'm not capable of taking care of Sutinah?". A man like Joko has pride and he doesnt want to rely of his family's wealth too much. Joko feels inferior, afraid and depressed. Joko began to question himself.

"I have been working for years and till today I still dont see my secure future. I dont know where I will be after 5 years. This is depressing, I cant even secure my own future, let alone Sutinah's."

(Actually almost everyone around his age worries about their future. But unlike Joko, I dont have a girlfriend so I dont have to worry too much and I can work at my own pace. Nobody's relying on me and there's nothing at stake except my own future alone.)

"I'm not sure if working overseas is good for my career. But I'm sure it's the best for Sutinah. I will tell Sutinah not to shape her career according to relationship. "

"Ahh! the harder I work, the foggier my future seems to be. I dont know what I'm doing anymore, I dont know who I am. Now I dont know what I want to be."

Joko is confused and he's a victim of the standard set by himself. The reason Joko feels the strong urge to earn enough money is because Joko needs to live up to high expectations.

(If "enough money" means making RM 3500 per month for some people, for people who came from rich family like Joko, "enough money" could probably means RM12000 per month, which is almost unrealistic for someone around his age to accomplish alone.)

Joko has seen many people around him becoming successful without realizing that those people used their connections or just being lucky. A number of them dont work by themselves like Joko does. Some of them are rich just from inheritance.

Sutinah planned to work oversea because of Joko. She is sad because Joko probably not going to work oversea. Sutinah feels like cancelling that plan. She was angry because of Joko's irresponsibility. The relationship is having a problem. Sutinah thinks relationship must comes first. No matter what happens, staying together is the most important thing. (Typical woman's thoughts).

Joko doesnt want Sutinah to plan her future according to relationship because Joko himself is unsure about his future. But he knows working oversea is the best for Sutinah and he wants Sutinah to pursue it. "She has the bright future. Why should I be a hindrance?". Joko thinks both his career and Sutinah's come first. Love alone doesnt put food on the table. (Typical man's thoughts).

Love between Joko and Sutinah is like the peaks of 2 mountains. Sometimes there are clouds and fogs between the peaks, but everyone knows the two peaks exists and will continue to exist.

Lalala, back in my own shoes.

Smart and rich men...

2005-07-17T22:34:00.000+08:00

This morning, I was relaxing and breakfasting (is there such word?) at mamak restaurant with my copy of New Sunday Times. It was 8:30 am. I was reading the paper and eating roti canai with teh tarik. Since it's Sunday, many people were there. Families, factory workers and youngsters were having their morning fills. As I was browsing the newspaper, my eyes caught an article that probably has the answer to a question asked to me by a good female friend 2 months ago.
The question was (it sounded something like this, I dont remember).

"Sometimes I wonder, why men are allowed to have up to 4 wives? I know it's because rich men can help poor women, but most of the time, men married more than one because of men's own needs. It's not about helping woman. They are just taking advantage. No justice."

My knowledge about things like this is quite limited. But I agree with her, most men committed polygamy for their own needs. I tried to answer her question with my limited knowledge.

"I think it's because not many men are capable of taking care of women and children. Most rich men could. Also marrying more than one women means more responsibilities. Men need to be fair to all of his wives. If he cant be fair, women can ask for divorce and he still need to pay money to raise the children. Not to mention the burden he will face in afterlife if he fails to be fair."

That was my answer. It's insufficient. The explanation I have given explains what would happen in afterlife, but what is the scientific reason for allowing polygamy? There has to be a scientific reason. This article has it.

"More money makes the man hornier" (should be "hornier man makes more money")
(dumb and misleading title, but it works to attract reader. I wasnt attracted, I just have the habit of reading all articles. Believe me :-) Here are the excerpts.)

"As their incomes rise, both men and women are more likely to have higher sex drive, a survey of almost 30000 people from 170 countries found. Only among men, however, does this translate into more frequent sex."

"Sex drive in men and women is thought to be influenced by the male hormone testosterone, which is also associated with assertiveness. High level of the hormone may make people more competitive and pushy, and, thus more likely to earn more, while independently increasing their libido."

The bottom-line is, men with high level of testosterone have the competitiveness that help him be a high-earner and a successful person. That hormone is also the reason to his high sex drive.

Maybe this is the reason rich men are allowed polygamy?
What would happen if polygamy is prohibited for rich men?
Maybe they will end up like Bill Clinton, cheating behind Hillary with Monica? Bill Clinton lost his power after that.
Probably because rich and successful men are the backbone of our country, if they are sexually-deprived, they cant do their job and our country will fall?
Maybe allowing them to marry many women will protect those rich men from getting into scandals that ruin their career and the future of those who rely on him ? (Company owner caught in scandals, lose his business, many people become unemployed).

But now we know, "polygamy for men's own needs" is a fact. Is this kind of polygamy wrong? I dont know. God knows best.

Malu tak bertempat, tak malu pun tak bertempat.

2005-07-15T10:16:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, 11 am, I went to Suria KLCC food court. It was Thursday and there were many people, mostly women. It makes me wonder, dont these people have jobs? There were many middle-aged women shopping alone. There were tourists from China too. From these scenarios, I can deduce that many women married a men rich enough for those women to spend time at a classy mall like Suria instead of working. Good for them. :)

As I reached the food court, suddenly I saw a man lying on the floor with his head on a woman's lap. He was having a seizure in front of Teppanyaki. There were 2 women around him, presumably his family. I went to see to him. I asked,

"Dah panggil doktor dah ?"
"Belum, tapi takpe nanti dia okay," one of the woman said.
(Mana ada okay, budak tu macam nak mati jer. Orang Malaysia nih malu mintak tolong tak bertempat.)

A guard came. He talked to his walkie-talkie and a few minutes later a few guards arrived to help. There were many people around that area having their lunch. I wonder how can they eat and watch without doing anything? Tak rasa malu ke? Tak malu pun tak bertempat.

Orang Malaysia, orang Malaysia.

Those unreal reality shows

2005-07-07T04:54:00.000+08:00

I noticed that nowadays, we have way too many reality shows on tv. Malaysian tv is also following the dumb trend in USA where everyone (and their grandmothers :) ) wants to produce their own reality shows which are not that real.

Akademi Fanstasia for example is a reality show ( I hate to use this term "reality" to describe it but whatever) where a few "students" were selected to learn singing and dancing in a place where they are not allowed to see or hear about the outside world (ala-ala boarding school). This show is extremely popular that almost everyone talks about it. Many of the students, in my opinion are not even a better singer than a few of my friends (Mary, Conchita, Lana and many other who are on a level way above of many AF students :) ). This show is meant to discover new talents and train them to be successful artists. In reality, this show is more about popularity contest and just a little bit of talent show. The winners are 100% voted by the audiences and the results are ridiculous most of the time. Many students are voted because they are good looking, good looking and good looking. They dont have to be necessarily talented.

Everyday, the participants live the life of a fish in aquarium in my house. Why aquarium? First, the house where AF students reside is like an aquarium; they are not allowed to leave it. Second, you can watch many things fishes do in their life (except what those fishes do behind the corals ..toilet, bedroom in real life). When the fishes do something amazing, we cheer. But those fishes seldom do anything interesting or smart or fascinating. They are beautiful of course, but nothing extraordinary (some of them look like ikan bandaraya though .. but its ok :) ) .

I dont understand why AF tries to make the students all-rounder artists. If I'm the mentor, I will find the best genre for each student and train them in that direction. Just look at our respectable artists like Siti Nurhaliza, Awie, Ella, Ramli Sarip, Aishah etc. These people are great singers and they dont sing all kind of songs. Ever heard of Awie or Ramli Sarip singing dangdut? Siti singing rock? (maybe she did, but she's not famous for that) Ella singing Irama Malaysia ? It's better to excel at singing 1-2 genre than to sing 10-20 genre averagely. Average means failure in this industry.

What are the products of AF? AF is a reality show that produces artists that will not survive in reality. Irony isnt it? How many of these participants actually become successful? Even the champions are not that successful either. Too many workers but not enough jobs. They simply cant compete with our current top artists. If they cant be unique, they will not go any higher than that.

Enuff ranting for today!

About our Proton ...

2005-07-05T01:27:00.000+08:00

Lately, there's a tension between Proton and the government. Tan Sri Mahaleel (Proton CEO) has been reported to criticize our automotive policy. Mahaleel accused the government for helping Naza more than they helped Proton. Proton was also criticized by Menteris for not being competitive. I didn't know what was the problem, but after I read a letter from an Utusan's reader, Mahaleel comments make a lot of sense to me.
Here are the important excerpts :

"Proton hanya menuntut persaingan lebih adil"

"Ketika jurutera-jurutera Proton sibuk memerah otak mereka bentuk casis kereta baru, jurutera kereta nasional lain hanya sibuk mereka bentuk kosmetik kereta import yang akan dipasang di Malaysia.
Sedang Proton membelanjakan hampir satu pertiga pendapatannya terhadap aktiviti-aktiviti R&D, kereta nasional lain hanya sibuk mengikat perjanjian dengan pengeluar kereta asing untuk dipasang di Malaysia dan sibuk memohon status kereta nasional."

Comment : I dont know about Perodua, but Naza Ria is made by Kia. Naza just put their name on it.

"Proton, tidak seperti kereta nasional yang lain mempunyai tugas yang lebih berat untuk sama-sama membangunkan vendor-vendor tempatan tersebut.
Proton terikat untuk menggunakan komponen vendor-vendor tempatan semata-mata hendak merealisasikan matlamat tersebut, walaupun Proton boleh mendapat komponen yang sama dengan harga dan kualiti yang lebih baik dari negara lain di Asia Tenggara seperti Thailand dan Indonesia."

"Bagi saya, lupakanlah dasar atau matlamat penubuhan Proton yang asal dan ambillah kesempatan daripada AFTA dan globalisasi dengan mendapatkan komponen dari luar negara yang jauh lebih baik dan murah.
Apa yang penting adalah survival Proton itu sendiri, bukan survival vendor-vendor tempatan.
Pada masa yang sama, saya menggesa pihak kerajaan menimbang semula status kereta nasional dengan hanya memberi status tersebut terhadap kereta yang direka bentuk dan dibangunkan 100 peratus di Malaysia sahaja."

Comments : Nampak gaya mungkin banyak vendor tempatan akan gulung tikar kecuali vendor yang betul-betul kompetitif. Sebab kalau vendor slow, Proton tak boleh keep up dengan foreign cars. Hanya kereta yang dibangunkan 100% di Malaysia layak dipanggil kereta nasional. Kalau setakat tampal-tampal brand macam Naza Ria tu, sesiapa pon boley buat kereta. Suruh Proton buat deal dengan Ferrari, jual Proton Terra Rossa, Proton F50. Dah dapat kereta sport nasional.
I went to Google to look for articles related to Proton. Then I found an interesting analogy. Burger Ramly vs Proton. Hahaha

The excerpts :

This point is best illustrated with a Ramli Burger analogy someone posted on an online forum. I'm reproducing it verbatim (grammatical and spelling errors left intact): "Burger Ramli is sold at about RM2 whereas 'imported' McDonald's burger is sold at about RM4.

Everyone is happy bcos you have a choice. Even if you can't afford RM4 you can still have a good quality tasty Burger Ramli at RM2. Nobody is complaining about burgers in Malaysia.

"Proton should emulate Burger Ramli which is a regional success. Imagine, if there is a Burger Ramla which is inefficient and of low quality.

"They sell at RM4 but nobody want to eat because doesn't taste nice and expensive. So everyone eat imported burger.

"So Burger Ramla ask government to impose burger tax. So, with burger tax, imported burgers sells at RM10 each.

"Most people cannot afford. So, have to eat horrible tasting Burger Ramla which is now selling at RM6 to take advantage of the government protection.

"So in the end, the government and Burger Ramla gains and the people suffer because have to fork out RM6 to eat one miserable burger ... If only Proton can follow Burger Ramli, there will be no complaints about car prices."

The above analogy is a crude way of putting it, but I think it accurately captures the feeling many Malaysians feel about Proton.

Schadenfreude is never a virtue but can we blame any Malaysian for feeling that way?

We've been paying high car prices for nearly two decades now. This naturally begs the question: What's the point of having a national car if it results in all cars being expensive?

Hmmm.. I wonder what Proton gonna do to face the AFTA. Let's wait and see.
Maybe I should wait till next year to buy a car? Hehehe.

Enuff talking for today!

The boring Qaisy dan Laila ...

2005-07-05T00:47:00.000+08:00

I went to watch a movie with my family. It was Qaisy dan Laila. My parent was excited to watch it because the movie seems different from standard Malay movies. What's so different about it? It was shot in Afghanistan (woo oversea tuh).

Here's the synopsis of the movie. Laila is a girl who was raised in a wealthy family. One day she thinks she needs to help Afghanistan people. So she went to Afghanistan to help her "kakak angkat" (Umie Aida). There, she met Qaisy, an Afghan who works for Malaysian Relief Team (MERIT). This is a story about love between 2 people who came from different culture and lifestyle blah blah blah. It's also meant to portray the hard life of the Afghans.

Is this a good movie? Nope. For me this movie is just like a documentary about Afghanistan. Lakonan macam kayu. The hero and heroine are newcomers. I can understand that. The biggest problem about the movie is I dont understand the main characters. They have weird personalities.

Laila is a girl who seems friendly and she loves Afghani kids. There's a scene where Laila seems to hate her mother so much. Maybe I missed something so I dunno why she hates her, but the way her hatred is expressed toward her mother is too weird. She smiled from ear to ear for a few seconds before she tarik-muka. When you see her like that, you will be like "Wth is wrong with her?". Another funny scene is when Laila asked an Afghan kid to draw pictures. The kid drew a picture of an airplane bombing the Afghans. Laila then said,

"Hey everyone look at this nice drawing, drew it. Give her a good clap". (claps)

Again, I was like "Wth is wrong with her?" It's a picture of people bombed to death mercilessly. For God sake, how can you tell people to cheer at something like that? Gosh, freaking idiot! (Napoleon Dynamite style).

Qaisy is an Afghan guy who has too much pride. I dont like him because he seems to be proud of the hardship that the Afghans have gone through. He also acts like the Afghans are living the worst life in this whole world. Remember, no matter how bad you think your life is, there's always someone living a worse life than yours. Qaisy also likes to act cool but when he fights, he's hopeless. Always got his butt kicked so bad.

There are scenes where helicopters attacked the village. The movie did not say anything about those aggressors and the reason behind the aggression. It seems like someone in Afghanistan have a sadistic hobby of killing innocent people. The way the aggressors cause the havoc is also fun to watch. Each of them, wielded a machinegun, ran 2-3 steps forward, did a 360 degree spin while shooting at the sky, ran forward 2-3 steps again, spin again, its a loop. I must say the aggressors were badly programmed by the director (hahaha). Try imagining 3-5 people doing that together, its like a dance. A dance where nobody clapped nor cheered. A dance where the music went "Rat-tat-tat" and the singers hollered "Argh!!". This movie has weak scripts. Script-writers from RPI can do better.

Anyway, this movie taught me to be grateful about the good life we have in Malaysia. We never have to worry about what to eat today nor which road is landmine-free. Let's pray so this prosperity lasts forever.

Enuff talking for today!

Shopping di M'sia ... best wooo !

2005-06-30T20:11:00.000+08:00

Fuiyo, today I spent all day shopping with my sister. I just realize that I can now talk to her about things that normally sound too mature to be discussed with her. I forgot she's already 20. That's what happens when you spent almost all your life in boarding schools and overseas. Everybody in my family call my sister "Adik" even though she's not the youngest. She still has 2 younger brother.

Me : Adik, ko ade boyfriend ?
Adik : Hah!? Mana ada! Dari mana pulak datangnye boyfriend tu?
Me : Aku ingat Akim (her older brother and my younger bro) kata ko ade boyfriend. Takde ke?
Adik : Hah... mana ade....
Me : Ooooo ........
Adik : .......
Me : ......
Adik : Man, ko ade girlfriend tak?
Me : Hah!? Mana ada! Dari mana pulak datangnye girlfriend tu?
Adik : Hahahah ... mana laa tau .. ko nampak gaya macam ade jer ..
Me : Hoh? Ape benda yang aku buat yang nampak macam aku ade girlfriend?
Adik : Ko nampak lain jer .. ader laa .. rahsia .. betul ker ko takde ?
Me : Betul takde (OMG do I look like a player or mat jiwang? .. I'm supposed to look brutal with my botak head)
Adik : Hohohohohoh ...
Me : Ko nak yang macam mane dik ?
Adik : Hohohoho .. ikut suka ko ler ....
Me : ... (hish budak nih)

We went to Pertama Complex because I wanted to get a new cellphone. The Nokia 3310 that I inherited from my mom is quite "broken" (read .. tak cun dan nampak kuno!.. tak sesuai dengan jiwa muda! Hahaha). We walked around a few minutes, looking for Nokia flip. Akhirnya jumpa Nokia 2650. I like it very much because its a flip (flip has big screen and big buttons) and it doesnt have aerial. I hate aerial. I traded (read.. gadai harta pusaka) my 3310 to get 100 bucks discount .. so I only paid Rm300 .. thats quite cheap. That phone is actually a Korean version. How did I know that? The manual is in Korean .. and the buttons have korean alphabets. How cool is that? ..
After that we went to Bukit Raja shopping mall to watch War of the Worlds but the movie was full. So we went to Nandos. I ordered extra spicy chicken and it was damn SPICY! I sipped my sister's Milo ais (actually I sipped half of it, couldnt help it) and asked her to order another glass of that Milo. The waitress was taking her time preparing it while I was suffering and it felt like fire was coming out of my ears. Suddenly, I got this brilliant but not cool idea. I went to the sink, and I drinked the tap water (konon-kononnye berkumur). Yes! It was that bad. Even Mary's ultra spicy fried rice wasnt that hot.

Me : Kat mane nak beli boxers ? RM20 sehelai, mahal sangatlaa ...
Adik : Try Reject Shop ... kat situ barang bagus tapi murah sikit.
Me : Tapi Reject Shop nanti boxer dia mesti berlubang-lubang kan .. kata "Reject". (corny joke)
Adik : HAHAHAHAHAR ...

We went to Reject Shop because I need to get boxers. I bought 5 of them for 50 bucks. Good brand too. That's good because in US, you can get 4 for 50 dollar if you are lucky.
We went home after that. Lalala .. habis almost 400 ringgit today ..

Anak-anak orang kaya yang pelik ....

2005-06-29T15:08:00.000+08:00

In my life, I have a number of kenalan who belong to wealthy families. Today, I'm going to talk about one thing that I dislike about some of these rich kids. Many of my rich kenalan have one thing in common, Ego (maybe I should say stupid ego, ego tak bertempat!). What do I mean by ego tak bertempat?
A little bit about their background/habit. These rich kids were raised by successful parents. Their parents could be echelons in companies, government organizations or business owners. Many of these kids have attitudes by which they refuse to be assisted by their parents in their career. They refused to work in the same company as their parents do, refused to help their parents run the family business and try to stay away from their parents so people wont say "Alah, dia tu harapkan bapak dia jer nak berjaya".
At this point you may wonder what's wrong with having those attitudes. You're right. There's nothing wrong. The only thing that makes it wrong is the fact that all these rich kids have another thing in common. They are unable to start a career by themselves (because of bad school grades). Because they cant find a career of their own and they dont want to rely on their parents, they become penganggur. How stupid is that? If you cant find a career, ask help from your parent laaa ... menganggur buat apa? Mintak tolong parent malu, menghabis beras kat rumah tak malu .. Bongok ke ?
These rich kids are stupid in various ways. First they absolutely have no idea what is hard life. To them, hard life is probably having to wash your own clothes, dishes and cook the food. They have no idea how blessed it is to have successful parents. Yet, they are "asking" for hard life.
Second, these kids dont realize that having successful parent means the door to pursue riskier but brighter future is open for them. Successful parent is like an insurance. If you fail, you can get help. Failure is not a bad thing.
Third, they dont realize that sometimes our ambitious parents could not achieve what they want just because umur tak panjang. For example, let say my father wants his company to be the biggest in KL, but he couldnt do it because he's already old, what's wrong with me to take over the company and pursue his dream? Isnt that a noble job that a child can do for his parent?
Fourth, these kids dont realize that it doesnt matter where you start, but it does matter where you end up. For example, some rich kids dont want to take over the business because if they do, they look like they do not achieve much in life (Yelah, masuk-masuk dah jadi CEO). This is wrong. Kalau masuk-masuk dah jadi CEO, cubalah kerja keras supaya boley jadi CEO for 3-4 more companies, kan bagus. Maju ekonomi Melayu. Doesnt matter where you start as long as when you retire, you are way higher than where you started. IF you can do that, nobody will look down on you. If you started as a CEO and then retired as the same CEO, then that's really bad. Buat ape nak berlagak, belajar rendah diri, terima bantuan orang (bukan orang lain pun, parent sendiri) and put your hard work in a more beneficial direction.
To all those rich kids, be an opportunist. Grab any opportunity you can get and work hard. You are doing this for the sake of your family and your race. Dont waste their future just because you think "its not cool." Even Bill Gates doesnt look cool (nerdy :) )
Enuff ranting for today...

Hmm business is the way to go .. someday ..

2005-06-24T15:21:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, I met my old friend named Icham. He's a Business student and currently working part-time at a local auditing company as an auditor. Whenever we hang-out together, our topic of discussion is of course, business. Recently, I just feel a strong urge to start my own business someday. I'm not going to be a salaryman my entire life. I'm going to work for a good company for several years while planning and researching business opportunities and start the business. Where did that urge came from?

Me and Icham was lepak'ing at a local mamak restaurant and we were talking about why Chinese people are better than Malay in economy. Malay and Chinese people can be as smart as each other, no doubt. But why are the Chinese still conquering a large portion of our economy? The reason is because Chinese are business pioneers. Their ancestors started doing business ages ago while Malay were working as farmers. Many successful Chinese are businessmen and many successful Malay makan gaji.

You may think if Malay can earn a lot of money by makan gaji and Chinese earn the same amount by doing business, Malay economy should be fine. Wrong. The huge difference between makan gaji and running business is YOU CAN NEVER INHERIT PROFESSIONAL JOB. If my father is Intel's CEO, can I inherit his position? Of course not. If my father owns and runs a huge corporation, can I inherit the company later? Of course I can and that's perfectly acceptable even if there are many smarter people out there. Businessman owns his career but makan gaji people (no matter how successful they are) do not own their career. Makan gaji people cannot pass the source of their wealth to their heirs. There's an old-saying, if you want to help the poor, teach them fishing skills instead of giving them fish. This is no longer adequate. Malays teach their children how to fish, but Chinese give their children fishing skills and the whole fishing boat (business).

Chinese people inherit their family businesses and that's why their ancestors and heirs prosper. This is why our Nabi said, 9/10 of the doors of rezeki is business.
At this point, I think our government 30 years old policy (to improve Malay's economy) has backfired and helped (a bit) at the same time. The government tried to help Malay by giving them education (teach fishing skills) but did not encourage them enough to run successful business (build their own fishing boat). How many times do we hear the government sponsoring students to study business-related subjects overseas? Almost never. How many times do we hear about students sponsored to study engineering and medical? All the time. What happens to these engineers and doctors? They joined our middle class citizens and live happily ever after. What happened to their children? Study engineering or medical like their parent did and be no better than their parents.

What if the children are more stupid than the parents? If he's Malay, he will just work as a blue collar worker. If he's Chinese, his parent will try to teach him how to run business and then pass the family business to him. The stupid Chinese kid still win and stupid Malay kid lose.

Enuf ranting for today!

My last roles?

2005-06-23T04:49:00.000+08:00

I'm currently in Malaysia after enduring the 20 hours flight from Newark -> Stockholm -> KL. Abe, Tody, Ipeng and my other friends sent me to the airport. At the airport, while hugging each of them, I wept. The thoughts that I'm uncertain about the day we will see each other again were grievous. I had a full inspection on me by the security, it took too much time but at least I had a reason to stay a bit longer. I had to run to the gate to catch the plane.

Fera was travelling with me. On the flight to Newark, we didnt talk much. I guess we were too sad to say anything. I thought I wanted to talk about stuff so I can forget about weeping, but everybody was asleep. Fera told me something good again today (she reads alot of good stuffs).

"What people want in life is a role. They want to play a role in someone's life."

That's so true. That explains why I like to help people with things. I probably want a role in my friends life and the life of people that I care about. If you listen to their problem, you are a listener. If you advise, you're an advisor. You keep playing roles in friendships. That's what makes friendship works. And people play their role just because they want to. It's sad to lose the chance to play the roles.

Fera brought a really heavy handbag. She staggered when she tried to carry it. It had 10 lbs of cards sent by Eric. She said she forgot to ship them away. But I think she just want those cards to be around her all the time. Talk about the power of loooooooove (echo effects). I bet she brought those cards to classes everyday as well. Haha. She looked kinda funny carrying that so I helped her with that bag. So I got 3 things on me. A backpack with 2 laptops in it, my Les Paul on the left and Fera's bag on my right. As I carried her bag, I almost weep again. I thought, "This could be my last role in her life. A helper. I'm gonna do my best". The bag was abit heavy but I said to her "Do not underestimate the Jeevan." I was glad that she let me carry that.

The last role I played with Abe, Tody and Ipeng is probably as a tear-jerker. Tody especially, cant stand guys crying and hugging him. Ipeng was wearing a sunglasses in the airport, but I wonder why :). Abe seemed to have alot of dusts in his eyes. It's a bit embarassing for guys like me to weep in public (Fera said I looked like penjahat because I'm bald, penjahat shouldnt cry), but I dont care. It's NOT ok for guys to weep over small matters, but my friends are NOT small matters. Heck, even Dr. Mahathir wept in public. The last role I played with wanzaw is as an anime lender (anime lagi...). He got my long-lost GTO cds'. I'm going to Kelantan to take them back and eat seafood.

During the whole trip, people asked about my guitar several times. Feels like a rockstar. But even a rockstar needs to pay taxes. At KLIA, I paid 300 ringgit for guitar amp tax. That's a lot of money. If the Custom people ask you about the value of your electrical appliances, tell them a realistic and small number because the tax is freaking 30%.

Guys, come back to Malaysia and let's play one more time (Mary too). Like Kak Zef said, "You guys are one big happy family".

I'm going back to Malaysia to do ... err.. what?

2005-06-15T11:43:00.000+08:00

Sheesh, in one week, I will be back in M'sia. Currently, I still have no direction to go. I wanted to work in US, but it seems like I have no luck. I think I have tried all I can to get a job in US, so I have no regret. Lately, I heard a lot of bad news about fresh graduate careers in M'sia. I believe there are good reasons to everything that happens including the fact that I failed to find a job in US. This is what people call "takdir". I'm eager to know what God has for me. I have believed in Him for all my life and there's no reason to doubt Him now.
I hate to leave US. I like the way things are. I like the people that I know here. I want all of my friends to be around me all the time especially Fera, Abe, Tody, Ipeng, Mary, Wanzaw, Hanim and "them". I wish someone would invent Doraemon's "Pintu Suka Hati" so I can visit everyone anytime.
Right now, I'm afraid. I'm afraid of them forgetting me someday. I'm afraid of losing my memories with them too. Dear my beloved friends, if one day we cross our paths again and you guys dont remember me anymore, I'm sooooo going to kick your asses. No exception :-)

Note to self : I'm going to need my sunglasses while I'm on the plane.

Hmm .. about career choice.

2005-06-15T11:12:00.000+08:00

I'm graduating. For some reasons, I'm not happy at all about graduating. Why? Because I just realized that the dream that my friends and I had when we were young; to have a successful career in technology fields (engineer, IT'er); is a mere illusion. Why illusion? At this time it seems going back to M'sia to work is not appealing to me. I'm an IT graduate, but I have lost my interest in technical job. I'm more interested in business. Yes. Business.
Why business ? I have met a friend in US whom is very bright. He studied Electrical Engineering and graduated with a 4.00. But he wanted to be a businessman. He told me that there are 4 kinds of people in this world.
1) People without time and without money : college students
2) People with time and without money : lazy people who does nothing in life.
3) People without time and with money : professionals who makan gaji. Engineer for example, alot of work, less holiday, alot of money too.
4) People with time and with money : businessman, got money and got time (he owns his company so he can leave for vacation whenever he wants)
That's why I like business.
So why the hell did I spend 4 years studying IT? Sometimes we think we like to do something when actually we dont like doing it. Sometimes we think we like a job just because we happen to be talented in it. In my case, I thought I like IT jobs because I can do IT jobs. Sometimes we think a career is good for us because our parents are doing fine in it or our parents told us that it's a good choice for us. Seems like what I like to do as a hobby (IT) is not what I like to do for a living (business). Hmm... how am I going to start a career in business? That's the big question.

About Muslim in US....

2005-04-07T04:11:00.000+08:00

I have observed one interesting thing about Muslims in US. Just like any other Muslims in the world, Muslim in US also promotes good practice of religion (solat, tudung, and so on). But the method they incorporated here is different than what you would see in Malaysia.
The method that they use can be called marketing/advertising. The Muslim community put up posters, campaigns, talk (not ceramah) about tudung and so on. This approach is so much better because it "invites" people to practice religion. In Malaysia, most of the time, it seems like people "orders" each other to practice religion. Why cant we do this method too ? I think we are too gelojoh in trying to get people to practice religion. People always go for quick fixes to do anything. The methods are too harsh. For example, if a student didn't wear tudung, call her to teachers room and scold/nasihat her. That's what we did. Isnt it better if teachers talk to her parents instead. Most school girls dont wear tudung because their parents dont want them to wear in the first place. When you scold the kid, subconsciously it gives the impression that religion is bad because it goes against parents will. And then again teachers need to know how to talk about religion with parents. They need communication, social and psychology skills. I wonder if they are trained for these. Obviously this is the most important skills for teachers.
Something is definitely wrong in our way of teaching Islam. I have come to realize that we have "pra-sangka" between some religious (R) people and some non-religious (NR) people. Some R people thinks NR people are bad because they go against God's will. Some NR people thinks R people have low opinion on them because R people must feel they are better than NR people. Why is this happening? It's because some R people are too harsh when they try to advise NR people. Why too harsh? Lack of interpersonal, psychological and social skill is probably one of the reasons. Our Prophet Muhammad is a master of these skills.
Even if we have all the skills to advise people about religion and make them feel "loved" at the same time, this problem will not go away if we are too result-oriented. When the result is bad, people will stop using the "smooth" way and go back to the harsh way. What can we do about this? Keep in mind that Abu Talib, our Prophet's uncle, who spent all his life protecting and taking care of our Prophet, was not a Muslim. He was never a Muslim. Our Prophet did persuade him to be Muslim, but he just didnt want to and Prophet did not resolve to harsh method. He passed away as a non-Muslim.
"Whatever we do, human hearts still belong to God. Only God can change the hearts."

Enuff ranting for today!

My thought about school in US ...

2005-04-06T03:53:00.000+08:00

....I go to university, studying IT and the courses have a lot of readings. If you are wondering what is IT, its basically a course where you learn to apply IT in businesses. Comp Eng and CS make the hardware and software respectively, and IT ppl learn how to use these stuffs in advertisement, marketing, financial and information system etc.
I had my primary education and went to high school in Malaysia. And I have come to realize that in US students are exposed to reading materials that looks like they are written by extremists. What I mean extremists is, when discussing an issue, the material either 100% pros or 100% cons. Students are required to read both of them ... its seldom to find a material that try to balance the pro and cons. In order not to be an extremists, student need to mix both of them themselves. I dont know about what kind of materials students in Malaysia 's univ have, but in high school, most of the reading materials try to acknowledge the pros and cons all the time. And as usual, the discussions has no conclusion. I guess thats normal because if all issues have one agreeable conclusion, there would be no war.
That's all for now kot ?

Hmm just opened the blog today

2005-03-28T02:42:00.000+08:00

I just opened the blog today, the reason I need a blog is because I like to write about my thoughts but I like to remain anonymous. Blog is safer and easier than diary too. Feel free to read and give me feedbacks.