The human factor - World Bank agrees with this blog!

On September 24th, this blog published GTP10MPETPNKRANKEANEMSRI.

In that post, I lamented the fact that the "human factor" has always been overlooked every time our government launches an economic initiative. Among others, I said :-

"I note however, that amidst the billions which are to be spent for electronics, transportation, financial centres and whatever, only 23 billions are to be spent for health services. And education will only see a 20 billion spending. Agriculture, the bedrock of our rural socio-economics scene in turn would only see 22 billion of  "investment"...

That screams of major imbalances in our socio-economics engineering (or re-engineering) processes."

Later, I added :-

"The thing is, Malaysia had no, notable or at all, industrial culture. One cannot start a culture by simply cutting a pink ribbon to a large industrial factory or plant. The support industries must be there. The whole infrastructure must be there. The human resources must be there. The experience from being knocked down and learning the hard way must be there. The whole networking must be there."

And finally, I said :-

"Whenever Malaysia unveil an economic plan, scant regard is paid to the human factor. We only focus on the money factor and almost nothing else.

What about the human factor? None is projected for human development and human resource development other than the scant 20 billion provided for the education sector."

I wonder whether anybody in PEMANDU would agree with me.

However, the Malaysian Insider, on 28th September 2010 quoted a report by the World Bank saying among others :-

"Malaysia is lacking in investment in human and physical capital leading to domestic savings greatly exceeding domestic investment."

"The bank noted that Malaysia, like its fellow middle-income neighbours Indonesia, Thailand and Philippines, is trying to move out of the middle-income trap but said it requires investment in infrastructure, equipment, education and skills in levels far exceeding what they are currently experiencing, which is well short of the Republic of Korea, Japan, and Singapore when they were at similar per capita income levels, when they were at the same development stage." (emphasis is mine)

The point which I was trying to make is that we seem to be far pre-occupied with physical and material developments without taking into account our capacity, as a people, to ignite, deal and cope with those developments.

We cannot underestimate the effect of non-organic economic growth on our society. Have we ever researched the rempit culture and various sub-cultures which emanate from it, for example? Has it any correlation with lower-income and lower-education group? Where do these people live? What kind of residence do they live in? What job do they do?

A case directly on point. What happened to the FELDA settlers in Negeri Sembilan who got about a million ringgit each after selling their land to a corporation for mass development some years ago?

Have they managed to double up their money by now? Or have they lost their money? How many have invested their money? What kind of investments, if any? How many have ventured into businesses?

I have heard stories of them marrying another wife. Some bought Harley Davidson. There are some who are involved in family disputes over the money. And some have lost everything after being cheated.

This is precisely the point. Those people were not used to having wealth. That however does not mean they are not supposed to have wealth. But the growth of their wealth has to be organic. Otherwise they would just go to waste.

By suddenly getting rich, they were hard pressed on how to behave; how to use their new found wealth properly and how to manage their wealth. In the end, their wealth became a burden on them. It became a source of family disputes. It became a home breaker as they seek humanly pleasures which were hitherto unavailable to them. At the end, some of them lost the money and their family too. What a debacle!

That is one of the human factor which we fail to even think about.

In Putrajaya, the Court building (Palace of Justice) is one of the nicest building anywhere in Malaysia. It must have cost hundreds of millions.

Here we are, in a multi hundred million building, where the highest Court of the land reside; where commercial disputes worth billions of dollars are adjudicated by learned Judges; where matters pertaining life and death are heard and determined; where civil liberties and freedom are discussed, argued about and determined. But just go to the canteen.

Behind the long table, the boys and girls serving us do not even look at us when we order our cup of teh tarik and nasi lemak. While taking our orders, they will be talking to each other. They don't even care to wear suitable clothing and on some days, they even appear dirty and unkempt. They never smile. You ask them more than two questions and they would give you a sour face. And their face look as if they hate to be there and they can't wait to be somewhere else.

We seem to be able to erect buildings of massive proportions; of beautiful architecture and of monumental cost. But what we lack is the human factor. The mere fact that we did not even think of housing in that building a proper restaurant fit for the people who work there and visit the building speaks volume of our innate inability to properly plan a building and all it's necessities. (On this note, the Petronas Twin Towers also do not have a nice restaurant opened to the public on top of the building to enable visitors to enjoy the height of the then tallest building in the world and the sight it offers - strange!).

The World Bank has just validated what my thinking is. We lack human and  physical capital. And it espouses us to seriously look into "investment in infrastructure, equipment, education and skills" as we seem to need them in  "levels far exceeding what they (we) are currently experiencing."

The government will of course counter this argument by saying we have been producing thousands of graduates with skills in various disciplines yearly. Really? We have been producing graduates, yes. That I wholly agree. In various disciplines. Yes, I wholly agree with that too. But with skills? That I hesitate to answer.

I do not doubt the physical infrastructure that we have. The cost is however frightening. And the quality sometimes is doubtful. The usability is another matter altogether.

What is terribly clear from the recently announced initiatives though is the pittance that we are going to spend on education, healthcare and agriculture. The first two affect the whole country while the third one is the traditional rainmaker in our rural areas.

What that will create is serious imbalance between the haves and have-nots; between the urban and urbanites on one hand and the rural and its people on the other.

I am afraid that despite achieving the high income nation status (if ever we did), the gulf of divides in our society would just widen and deepen, bringing this nation into classes and sub-classes of people, each with different priorities and needs and with different attitudes, behaviours and social and economics - and even political - methodology.

As a nation, we would have failed miserably by then.

GTP10MPETPNKRANKEANEMSRI

Gentlemen, welcome to 1AcronymMalaysia.

In case you are left puzzled by the title of this article, do not adjust your screen.

It simply is the combination of the various acronyms which our government has conjured in the past year or so in order to identify the various transformational methodology which will be relied on  to propel Malaysia into a high income nation by year 2020.

They are:

• GTP - Government Transformation Programme
• 10MP -  the 10th Malaysia Plan (10MP)
• ETP -  the Economic Transformation Programme
• NKRA - the National Key Result Areas
• NKEA -  the National Key Economic Areas
• NEM -  the New Economic Model, and
• SRI - the Strategic Reform Initiatives

Note: Susu1Malaysia is not included, just in case you are wonderBra...sorry, wondering.

Basically, the plan is to steroid-drive the Malaysian economy by inundating it with mega projects which are projected to increase  GNI per capita income from RM20,770 (US$6,700) to at least RM46,500 (US$15,000), meeting the World Bank’s high-income benchmark by 2020. By doing that, it is hoped that Malaysia would triple its Gross National Income (GNI) from RM660 billion (2009) to RM1.7 trillion in 2020.

To do that, Malaysia would need to sustain a 6% GNI growth between 2011 and 2020 and a total  funding of over RM1.4 trillion, much of it would apparently come from the private sector.

Following are the key sectors:

• OIL AND GAS: It will see investments of RM218 billion over the next 10 years, starting with liquefied natural gas facilities in peninsular Malaysia by 2013. A 10-million tonne regional oil storage hub will be built in Johor state, next to Singapore, by 2015 to turn Malaysia-Singapore into an Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp type hub.
  By 2017, Malaysia will be the number one oil services hub in Asia and by 2020, there will be 5 gigawatts (GW) of hydro capacity, 1.25GW of solar and a nuclear plant.
• PALM OIL: It will see investments worth RM124 billion by 2020. This will help boost fresh fruit bunch yields to 23 percent from 20.5 percent and there will be a move into oleochemicals and more downstream industry. This will be led by Sime Darby, IOI, Kuala Lumpur Kepong and state plantations agency Felda.
• FINANCIAL SERVICES: This will see investments worth RM211 billion, mainly through leveraging Malaysia’s lead in Islamic finance to target markets like Turkey, Indonesia and Egypt.
• KUALA LUMPUR: The city will see investments worth RM172 billion, mainly in the Kuala Lumpur Mass Transit which includes 141km of tunnels built in the largest infrastructure project in Malaysia.
• TOURISM: It will see investments worth RM204 billion with plans to join up Kuala Lumpur’s shopping malls in an Singapore “Orchard Road” type development using walkways. There will be a “Malaysia Truly Asia” cultural centre to pull in the tourist dollar with “Broadway quality” traditional song and dance.
• ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONICS: It will see investments worth RM78 billion. Malaysia plans to become the world’s second largest solar panel maker by 2020 and to boost semiconductors, LEDs and industrial electronics.
• AGRICULTURE requires RM22 billion in investment.
• HEALTH will see RM23 billion of investments and will see a Kuala Lumpur suburb become a “health metropolis”.
• RETAIL AND WHOLESALE will see investments of RM255 billion.
• CREATIVE INDUSTRIES will add RM51 billion in investment.
• EDUCATION will see RM20 billion in investment.
• BUSINESS SERVICES will see RM41 billion invested.

Nice.

I note however, that amidst the billions which are to be spent for electronics, transportation, financial centres and whatever, only 23 billions are to be spent for health services. And education will only see a 20 billion spending. Agriculture, the bedrock of our rural socio-economics scene in turn would only see 22 billion of  "investment".

Hell, even "creative industries" - the LimKokWing-naisation of the nation - would get 51 billion of investments, more than double the amount of each of the "neglected sectors."

That screams of major imbalances in our socio-economics engineering (or re-engineering) processes.

What ever happen to organic growth - as opposed to the turbo-charging or steroid-driven growth? Everybody knows, I presume, the negative impacts of steroid, no? Just look at Chris Benoit out-of-proportion body and the resultant murder-suicide of himself, his son and wife. Yes. That's the problem with steroid. As for turbo charging, suffice if I say that if a host of things are not upgraded in line with the turbo-charging needs, the engine would eventually explode.

Economically we have seen steroid-driven projects failing. Take Proton for example.

When Malaysia embarked on this ambitious project, it had absolutely no industrial culture. Malaysia, at that time, had not even learned to make a sewing machine. But Dr Mahathir thought he could pump up the industrialisation  of Malaysia by jumping into car manufacturing.

The result is for all to see. Mitsubishi, the technological partner, used Proton to dump it's 4 cylinder carburetor engine (the then outdated Magma engine) for the Saga when in fact every manufacturer was jumping for multi-valves fuel injection engines  during the time. That prompted Dr Mahathir to quip that the technological transfer was taking more time than expected.

Duties and taxes on non-national cars were increased so that Proton could survive. That continues till today. Had that been taken away, who would buy a Gen-2 or whatever as opposed to a Honda City, Toyota Vios or even a second hand BMW 3 series?

The same was done in the steel industry, by the introduction of Perwaja. Hundreds of millions of ringgits were spent and when the steel was finally rolled out, it was below acceptable quality. And the rest, as they say, is history. And history in Malaysia, is only good for the archives. Not to be analysed and learnt from.

The thing is, Malaysia had no, notable or at all, industrial culture. One cannot start a culture by simply cutting a pink ribbon to a large industrial factory or plant. The support industries must be there. The whole infrastructure must be there. The human resources must be there. The experience from being knocked down and learning the hard way must be there. The whole networking must be there.

Take the Sepang F1 circuit for example. I remember when it was first open, it was hoped that the circuit would be the catalyst for Malaysia to produce world-class drivers. 11 years on, where is our world class drivers?

One does not create world class drivers by having a world class circuit. Where is the racing culture in Malaysia, other than the rempit culture on the streets? The Sepang Circuit premier "local" race, namely, the Merdeka Endurance race, had managed to attract a 38 entries this year. In the meantime, smaller teams in the lower classes, which consists of Proton Satrias, Honda Civics and the likes, are pushed to a different race because they are simply not fit to race with the orang kaya teams.

This was done by forgetting that it was the smaller teams which drove the Merdeka Endurance race to success between 2003-2007.

Whenever Malaysia unveil an economic plan, scant regard is paid to the human factor. We only focus on the money factor and almost nothing else.

Among the 12 identified sectors, all, except for 2 or 3 sectors, are concentrated in the towns. Are there more towns than rural areas in Malaysia? Rural people are not entitled to earn US15000 per annum eh?

What about the human factor? None is projected for human development and human resource development other than the scant 20 billion provided for the education sector.

The Honourable Prime Minister has been loudly proclaiming that that Malaysia should be a fair and just society. What steps are being taken to achieve this goal?

What had happened to the promise to review the ISA for example? Why are we banning cartoon books? Why are we still whacking people carrying candles with batons? Why are the police still investigating frivolous police reports lodged against people who are trying to engage in healthy public dialogues on issues affecting the society? Why are the people being unnecessarily harassed for trying to be heard?

What is to be done about extremism? I know, we are supposed to fight it, according to the Hon. PM, but are we really fighting it? Well, kudos to the police for coming down hard on that moron Namewee. But what the heck has happened to the super duper investigations on Siti Inshah and the other headmaster in Kedah?

What about serious corruptions?

The pursuit of a fair and just society would remain fruitless without the infusion and continuous practice of equity, not only in the socio-economics,  but also the political, aspects of the society. Apart from that, democracy and independence from western colonisation would absolutely be worthless if no viable process is taken to fill them with emancipation of the people.

Emancipation comes with knowledge. And what knowledge will see the light of day if the society is blinkered and shielded away from the truth and prevented from a civil discourse of matters which affect the society at large?

Where are the NKRA-GTP-Whatchamacallit for all these?

The human factor. That's what is being overlooked, over and over again by us.

But I supposed, it is not important. Because it cannot be measured in numbers.

Do we fear Perkasa?

I refer to a post at Rocky's Bru titled "The irrational fear of Perkasa".

Perkasa.

What does that name evoke? Fear? Unlikely.

To me and many others, that name is almost comical and tragic at the same time, quite in the same mould as Roberto Benigni's "Life is beautiful," only that the later was poignant and sorrowful, rather than tragic.

Perkasa is comical in the way it - through its leader, Dato' Ibrahim Ali and its various extras whose names I do not even care to remember - went around calling people who do not agree with its views names. YB Khairy Jamaludin knows about this well. Minister Nazri also knows about this very well.

Whenever Perkasa's views are opposed or critisised, Perkasa has been unable to counter such  oppositions or critics. When Perkasa cannot rebut another's opinion, what would it do? Yes. It will attack the person who expresses the opinion rather than the opinion itself.

And so, Khairy Jamaludin was a “stupid”, “crazy”, “feeble-minded” and a “confused child”. according to Dato' Ibrahim Ali. And not to mention, also "mentally ill."

Just look at one full sentence by Dato' Ibrahim Ali about YB Khairy:-

“This is the talk of a stupid, brainless person. He is talking like a crazy person."  (source is here.)

Then, who would forget the "shit, shit, shit" Al-Jazeera interview? In full view of international audience, Perkasa's real ugly, uncouth, unrefined and even uncivilised nature reveal itself. It is comical.

And it is tragic. It is tragic because the international community may think - and I am sure they do think - that Malaysians in general are as uncouth as these Perkasa creatures. And that my friends, is a insult to Malaysia and to all Malaysians.

It is also an insult to the Prime Minister, because as I am told, the Prime Minister has a voracious appetite for knowledge and is an avid reader. And what an insult would be to the Prime Minister if the international community thinks that Malaysians are generally uncouth because of that Al-Jazeera interview with Dato' Ibrahim Ali.

Ah, let's not forget about all the police report.

That Perkasa is only able to shout and scream slogans and misleading statements about rights which do not exist is exemplified by its inability to accept YB Nurul Izaah's polite, but firm, invitation to debate on the purview of Article 153 of the Federal Constitution.

Perkasa's response - and no less than Minister Sharizat's response (I am addressing her as a Minister in a loose sense) - to YB Nurul Izzah's clear articulation on the subject matter was taken right from the 1st line of the 1st Chapter of Dr Mahathir's guidelines to a  discourse, namely, twist and hijack the issue.

This they did by saying YB Nurul Izzah had "challenged" article 153. When in fact she did nothing of that sorts.

By twisting - and thereby, hijacking - the real issue, they hoped to make YB Nurul looked bad. To challenge article 153 would make YB Nurul anti-Malay "rights" and therefore anti-Malay. How convenient.

This tactic has been employed so many times. Ustaz Asri, the former Perlis mufti, of course, is branded as a "Wahabbi" and therefore anti-Islam. Zaid Ibrahim is of course an "alcoholic" and therefore is unfit. Haris Ibrahim is a "liberal-secularist" and therefore he is also anti-Malay, anti-Islam and anti-whatever.

What YB Nurul was trying to do was to set out the REAL provision of article 153. She never challenged it. To challenge it would mean she was asking that that article ought to be repealed or amended. But she was not doing that.

Since she challenged article 153, according to these real smart people, she has committed an offence. The standard offence nowadays is of course the dreaded "S" offence. No, it's not sodomy. It is sedition.

And so Perkasa had to lodge a police report against YB Nurul. And then they would take pictures of themselves while holding the police report.

That's the standard operating procedure.

The new IGP should come down hard on this kind of police report. It wastes the police's time and the tax payers' money. The police has many other more important things to do. Like investigating murders, corruptions, breach of trusts, drug trafficking and taking care of the traffic during this festivity. Not to spend time on all these totally moronic police reports.

But then again, that's Perkasa. Nothing more and nothing less.

And now, YB KJ, Minister Nazri, Minister Khalid and Datuk Tengku Adnan, the secretary general of UMNO have come out to distance UMNO from Perkasa. These are big people. Not some cikus from UMNO. Can we take it then that UMNO now does not want to be associated with - and is not associated with - Perkasa?

I think we can make that conclusion.

Well at least I will make that conclusion, personally.

The Prime Minister wants change. He wants to transform Malaysia and the Malays in general. He wants the Malays to stop being spoon fed and promote meritocracy. Of course he is not doing away with affirmative actions just yet, because he recognises the needs for such actions.

However, I believe the Prime Minister wants to change the way the affirmative actions are being implemented. He wants to introduce a semblance of accountability to it. A certain level of defined methodology which is rooted in meritocracy to it.

But I also believe he is facing a revolt from within his own party about what he wants to do, particularly the was he wants to redefine the affirmative actions and its methodology. Sometime, the perception is, even his own deputy is against him on this.

And of course we have Dr Mahathir Mohamad who is dead against the Prime Minister's well intent moves. And Perkasa - like Dr Mahathir - is also dead against it. in fact, personally, it is my perception that Perkasa is just echoing Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

No, not echoing. But parroting him. Yes, that's more apt.

So, it is high time that UMNO, as a party, puts a stop to this insidious counter-movements against its own President, who happens to be our Prime Minister. He needs full support of UMNO for this much needed - if a bit radical to the Malays - change which he intends to introduce. And he also needs support from the BN component parties.

These supports are not forthcoming. MCA is too lame to do anything. MIC is mired in internal problems. AS for the others, I do not even know their names to begin with.

The statements by YB KJ and gang wouldn't have come at a better time for the Prime  Minister.

However, I note with a bit of puzzlement, that no such statement has been forthcoming from the likes of Minister Hishamuddin; Minister Shafie Afdal, the Wanita Wing chief, Minister Rais and other top leaders of UMNO.

And so it makes me wonder what UMNO's official stand on Perkasa is.

But one thing is clear.

To many, Perkasa is not feared. Let alone irrationally feared.

What is feared is what Perkasa and its ilk represent.

And I don't think there is any need for me to spell out what they represent.

A letter to Malaysia, on its birthday*

* by John Baptist, a groovy man with a groovy name and whose favourite song is "It's a groovy kind of love.".

My beloved country,

We are 47 years old as a nation.  Much has been achieved, much more must. By the will of God, we came together, human beings from different geographies but of the same biology. We pledged by a solemn oath to share our future together as a nation of equals, all subject only to God and the rule of law. Let us live true to that oath.

Much time has been wasted on how we are to divide the materialistic wealth of this nation amongst its people. I say ‘wasted’ because ironically, the majority of us purport to be believers of religions that urge us to focus on the hereafter, not on wealth and this world that is temporary. We display very little evidence of bearing the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and faithfulness as a nation, despite our claim to be religious. We need to change this.

It is never too late. It takes a small body of believers in a cause to alter the course of a nation. And I verily believe that we are not small in numbers, but merely unaware of the true number of us who wish to stand united together, marching along in the path that we collectively desire for our nation and future. We must therefore refuse to be the enemy that we abhor. If we regard racism as an enemy and we rightly should, we should never allow even an ounce of racism to persist within us – remember that a little yeast works through the entire dough. There are many common enemies we share - corruption, crime, discrimination and moral turpitude to name a few. The fastest way to eliminate these enemies is not to allow them to take root in our personal lives. Silence is not an option when things are ill done and we must speak up.

I believe and I urge you to believe, that this change we desire will come. It cannot be held back by the dams of parochial and selfish interests. Those who stand in the way of this change will not succeed. Change may be unsettling but it is a necessary pain, a prelude to genuine progress. Let us persevere and ensure that the means we use are just as pure as the ends we seek. Happy Malaysia Day, my fellow Malaysians. What God has brought together, let no man put asunder. 

Selamat Hari Raya

ARTiculations wishes all Muslim  Selamat Hari Raya Aidul Fitri Maaf Dzahir Batin. May Allah accept or Ramadhan and bless our Syawal and the months following it.

A very happy holiday to all non-Muslims.

May this festive season bring all of us joy and reasons to celebrate our one-ness together.

And do drive carefully.

Salam.

Holy mother CRAP - why is Hassan Skodeng smiling?

As most of you might already know, Irwan Abdul Rahman aka Hassan Skodeng, an editor of the Malay Mail and the owner of the blog Nose4news was charged yesterday.

He was charged under section  233 (1) (a) Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) Act. If convicted, he can be fined up to RM50,000 or jailed up to a year, or both.

Section 233 (1) (a) of the CMA states that:

(1) A person who —
(a) by means of any network facilities or network service or applications service knowingly —
(i) makes, creates or solicits; and
(ii) initiates the transmission of,

any comment, request, suggestion or other communication which is obscene, indecent, false, menacing or offensive in character with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass another person,

commits an offence.

The reason for his charge was an article he wrote, entitled “TNB to sue WWF over earth hour” earlier this year."

That article, as every reasonable person in the whole universe, with a semblance of any sense of humour and a bit of brain between his or her ears would know, was a satire or parody. It was intended as a joke. But of course, some thick glue on this planet did not get the joke. And so he was charged.

I have not seen the exact charge. But media report, including from the Malaysian Insider reported that he was charged as above.

Now. Let's have a closer look at it.

The question is this. Is the article obscene, indecent, false, menacing or offensive in character? And was it published with  intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass another person?

Let's not go into intent. Because we all know that Nose4news is modelled on The 0nion, an American news satire organisation. Furthermore, it is already said umpteen times that the article was intended as a satire.

How about obscene? No. It wasn't. But of course, it was obscenely funny. We can also take out "indecent", "menacing" and "offensive" from the equation.

The only thing which might stick then is whether the article was "false."

Here is where it becomes interesting. A good friend of mine - a big wig legal eagle in an international corporation - prompted me to the Content Code of the Communications and Multimedia Content Forum of Malaysia (CMCF).

CMCF mind you, was established by non other than the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission itself. CMCF came out with the Content Code.

The interesting thing about the content code is its Chapter 2 on "Guideline on Content." Item 7.3 of Chapter 2 says:

"7.3

Content which is false, is expressly prohibited except in any of the following circumstances:
(a) satire and parody;
(b) where it is clear to an ordinary user that the content is fiction."

So, satires and parodies are expressly and very clearly excluded from the definition of "false" content.

This is MCMC's own regulation. And yet they are charging Hassan Skodeng.

Now I am wondering whether this whole charge is a satire and parody of the state all of us are in right now in this blessed country.

No wonder Hassan Skodeng is smiling.

Speaking of charging people, I would like to refer to the dude who doctored the Lim Guan Eng's picture below .

The doctored picture is on the left while the original is on the right.

This publication is surely and definitely  false, menacing or offensive in character with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass another person. In fact, it is also seditious.

So MCMC, what are you going to do about that picture? If that picture was a joke, it sure as hell is not funny.

Holy mother CRAP!

I have written about how Tenaga Nasional Berhad or some people in TNB could not see the light from the bright. Please see my article titled No joke please, we are TNB!!!

And today, I learned from Rocky's Bru that Malaysia has again been dragged into legal infamy by some really bright spark in the Multimedia and Communications authority in Malaysia.

Yes. The author who wrote that TNB parody/satire is going to be charged in Court tomorrow, apparently under section 233(1)(a) of the Multimedia and Communications Act 1998, for allegedly  “creating and spreading lies with the malicious intent to hurt others.” Please go to his blog, Nose4news for this story.

We have lost the plot so many times.

Submarines which could not dive. Slaughtered a cow in the Parliament. An MP got semput after eating durian and mutton in the Parliament. Jet engines from the Royal Air Force were stolen and nobody knew about it for yonks. A reporter was detained under the ISA to protect her own safety. Jean Todt became our ambassador for tourism (what the heck has happened to him, by the way?).

Then of course we have Ibrahim Ali and his Taming Sari wielding followers around town lodging police reports after police reports while posing in front of cameras holding the police report for everybody to see their stupidity. Latest I heard a police report is going to be lodged because telur ayam had naik harga. 

Recently, we have a pronouncement of legendary proportion that meritocracy is racist. And non-Muslims cannot be in a mosque. Teenage baby dumpers should be sentenced to death. A Chinese MP is deemed dirty. Headmistress spewing racist remarks. A rapper insulting the headmistress in a video. A top legal man demonstrating in Court how to strangle oneself.

All are classic Malaysian-esque display of moronic orgies. It's like we are all living in a porn of stupidity, where everyday, everyone of us tries hard to outdo each other's stupidity.

For God's sake, that article by Hassan Skodeng WAS A JOKE! Which part of  the word "joke" which we do not understand? Have we all become wet blankets? Or incorrigible kill joy?

I hope the Judge would see the light and dismiss this utterly laughable, ludicrous and not to mention ridiculous charge.