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If you're not going to speak up, how is the world supposed to know you exist? “Orang boleh pandai setinggi langit, tapi selama ia tidak menulis, ia akan hilang di dalam masyarakat dan dari sejarah.” - Ananta Prameodya Toer (Your intellect may soar to the sky but if you do not write, you will be lost from society and to history.)
Monday, July 08, 2013
Sunday, July 07, 2013
Rm140 million new Ipoh bus terminal: has to cajole or even force bus operators to use it?
'The RM140mil Amanjaya Terminal commenced operations last September but faced problems when several bus companies refused to move there from Medan Gopeng.
The bus operators cited the Amanjaya Terminal’s inconvenient location as one of the reasons why they preferred to continue operating from Medan Gopeng.
An agreement was finally inked between parties operating at both bus terminals in March, which stipulated that operators in Medan Gopeng had to shift to the Amanjaya Terminal by the end of April.'
'Faizal attributed the lack of passengers to the fact that some bus companies are still maintaining operations outside the terminal.
“Despite the state government issuing a directive to all bus operators in the city to move to the terminal, some are still operating at Gunung Rapat, Jalan Bendahara and Bercham.
“Since the terminal is far from the city centre, passengers would of course prefer to patronise these operators who are more centrally located.'
More:
Link
The bus operators cited the Amanjaya Terminal’s inconvenient location as one of the reasons why they preferred to continue operating from Medan Gopeng.
An agreement was finally inked between parties operating at both bus terminals in March, which stipulated that operators in Medan Gopeng had to shift to the Amanjaya Terminal by the end of April.'
'Faizal attributed the lack of passengers to the fact that some bus companies are still maintaining operations outside the terminal.
“Despite the state government issuing a directive to all bus operators in the city to move to the terminal, some are still operating at Gunung Rapat, Jalan Bendahara and Bercham.
“Since the terminal is far from the city centre, passengers would of course prefer to patronise these operators who are more centrally located.'
More:
Before the planners decided on the location of this modern bus terminal, they did not bother to ask the ordinary bus users. The politicians, as usual, were more concerned with having a brand new building so that it met with their criterion of a mega project. Of course, Amanjaya to Ipoh, is what Putrajaya is to Kuala Lumpur. It was meant to house all the government departments in a new area, far away from Ipoh city centre. So, the convenience of the public was last on their list of priorities. Now, with the new bus terminal under-used, bus operators are being arm-twisted to move into it, instead of operating from convenient locations in Ipoh city to suit the bus users! If not for the waste of public funds, I would use the Malay expression, 'Padan muka' or 'Serves them right' for not using their common sense.
Update:
“This is not fair to us because the bus companies have the advantage of being nearer to the city centre, making it convenient for passengers to purchase tickets from them rather than at the terminal.
“I’ve suffered losses amounting to more than RM10,000 a month due to the lack of passengers and I can’t even pay the wages of my 12 employees,” he lamented.
Faizal said the operators had also decided not to pay the monthly RM800 ticketing counter rent and RM6 bus toll at the terminal due to the losses.
“If the state government or SPAD does not solve this issue, I’m planning to set up a counter in the city and operate from there,” he said, adding that the other operators planned to do the same.
The distance from the Medan Kidd bus terminal located in the city centre to the Amanjaya Terminal is 10.5km.
Taxi fare between both terminals in the day is about RM20 while at night, it is about RM30.
Passengers would need to pay RM2.30 for a one-way shuttle bus trip from Medan Kidd to the new terminal.
Ticket seller Norhayati Hashim, 50, said since her bus company moved into the new terminal in April, it had lost more than 50% of its revenue.
“Previously, the bulk of our customers consisted of those who bought tickets from Ipoh to Kuala Lumpur, but now many do not buy tickets at the terminal.
Convenience store worker Siti Nurfatihah Razali, 22, said when the Medan Gopeng bus operators moved into the new terminal in April, there was only a slight increase in the number of customers.
“We anticipated more people when the operators moved in, but this did not happen and the store is making very little profit.
“Many passengers have complained that the terminal is inconvenient and was far from the city centre even though there are shuttle buses,” she said.
Perak Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abd Kadir said he hoped the bus operators at the terminal would hold discussions with the bus companies operating in the city centre over the matter.
“They (bus operators) should discuss and work together,” he said.
Dr Zambry stressed that the state could not force private bus companies operating in the city centre to move to the terminal.
“If we force them, there will be accusations that we are benefiting cronies,” he said.
“I will get a state official to liaise and coordinate with the operators and try to reach a solution,” he said.
More:
The Star Perak Metro: Bus operators in a fix
http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Community/2013/07/06/Bus-operators-in-a-fix-Group-wants-govt-to-compel-companies-to-move-to-new-terminal.aspx
Update:
“This is not fair to us because the bus companies have the advantage of being nearer to the city centre, making it convenient for passengers to purchase tickets from them rather than at the terminal.
“I’ve suffered losses amounting to more than RM10,000 a month due to the lack of passengers and I can’t even pay the wages of my 12 employees,” he lamented.
Faizal said the operators had also decided not to pay the monthly RM800 ticketing counter rent and RM6 bus toll at the terminal due to the losses.
“If the state government or SPAD does not solve this issue, I’m planning to set up a counter in the city and operate from there,” he said, adding that the other operators planned to do the same.
The distance from the Medan Kidd bus terminal located in the city centre to the Amanjaya Terminal is 10.5km.
Taxi fare between both terminals in the day is about RM20 while at night, it is about RM30.
Passengers would need to pay RM2.30 for a one-way shuttle bus trip from Medan Kidd to the new terminal.
Ticket seller Norhayati Hashim, 50, said since her bus company moved into the new terminal in April, it had lost more than 50% of its revenue.
“Previously, the bulk of our customers consisted of those who bought tickets from Ipoh to Kuala Lumpur, but now many do not buy tickets at the terminal.
Convenience store worker Siti Nurfatihah Razali, 22, said when the Medan Gopeng bus operators moved into the new terminal in April, there was only a slight increase in the number of customers.
“We anticipated more people when the operators moved in, but this did not happen and the store is making very little profit.
“Many passengers have complained that the terminal is inconvenient and was far from the city centre even though there are shuttle buses,” she said.
Perak Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abd Kadir said he hoped the bus operators at the terminal would hold discussions with the bus companies operating in the city centre over the matter.
“They (bus operators) should discuss and work together,” he said.
Dr Zambry stressed that the state could not force private bus companies operating in the city centre to move to the terminal.
“If we force them, there will be accusations that we are benefiting cronies,” he said.
“I will get a state official to liaise and coordinate with the operators and try to reach a solution,” he said.
More:
The Star Perak Metro: Bus operators in a fix
http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Community/2013/07/06/Bus-operators-in-a-fix-Group-wants-govt-to-compel-companies-to-move-to-new-terminal.aspx
Friday, July 05, 2013
Syabas! For record remunerations when company owes billions
The best part was when a small group of shareholders think he is worth every million payable to him!
A quick look at the history of Selangor's water privatisation during Khir Toyo's time would confirm people's suspicions that everything Umno touches would benefit certain cronies at the expense of the people. The good thing is that the excesses costed Umno the most valuable state in Malaysia.
Selangor administration under Pakatan tried to undo as much as possible the lop-sided contracts but without success in their first term. Now, the federal government had finally given its approval, after Selangor MB conceded the necessity of having Langat 2. It seems like a compromise to settle once and for, the water woes of the people (much of it created to discredit Pakatan MB's efforts, to the extent of filming water shortage acted for propaganda purposes).
For 2012, Chairman Rozali Ismail will be paid a record Rm33.4, presumably as a form of golden handshake. But it was shameless by any standard, for someone to benefit himself to such an extent, when the company owes billions, especially when it involves water, a natural commodity which we all need to survive and which we have in abundance naturally.
That the water privatisation was deliberately planned to benefit the then state ruling party and its cronies was obvious, especially when it was done after Penang had successfully privatised water efficiently to benefit the people, surprisingly under another component party of BN, Gerakan. It was for a different reason that Gerakan lost control of Penang in GE12, and coud not regain it in GE13.
More on the matter from some selected comments in Malaysiakini:
http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/234847
Thursday, July 04, 2013
Prince William has Indian ancestry?
Results of DNA tests have sparked off interest among royal watchers all over the world, also particularly in India...
According to Daily Mail:
Revealed: William's Indian ancestry. DNA tests show future monarch has clear genetic line to the former 'Jewel in the Crown' from Diana's side
DNA testing proves that the Duke of Cambridge is of Indian ancestry
He will become first King of England with genetic link to India
Prince William's great-great-great-great-great grandmother was half-Indian
William will be first and last monarch with the DNA link as it can only be passed on by a mother
Revelation will prompt calls for prince to make maiden visit to the country
More:
Prince William's Indian DNA piques interest, not innuendo. That's progress
Some Anglo-Indian people used to go to extraordinary, even tragic lengths to hide their heritage. Reactions to the story about Prince William's Indian roots are much more relaxed
'Still, it would have been difficult then to foresee the day last week when the second in line to the British throne would be declared to have a tiny portion of Indian ancestry, and that this disclosure should spark a mild interest and celebration rather than an oo-ah prurience and notions of a family's ancestral disgrace.'
'Anglo-Indian settlements in India used to grieve that some of their most celebrated offspring denied or played down their origins, and many Anglo-Indians could recite a list of the stars they felt had in some way disowned or neglected them. In Lucknow, it was Cliff Richard; in Kolkata, Peter Sarstedt; in Chennai, Engelbert Humperdink. In the railway town of Chakradharpur, dull under its locomotive smoke, I once heard an unexpected boast that Marlon Brando's first wife, Anna Kashfi, had lived there. And it turned out she may well have done – as Joanna O'Callaghan, a half-Indian girl who emigrated with her family from Bengal to Cardiff in 1947. "There is no Indian blood in my family or my husband's family," her mother said, omitting the fact that her husband wasn't Kashfi's father, who was Indian.'
More:
'The hunt was on today in India for possible cousins and relatives of Britain’s Prince William after it emerged he has a sliver of Indian ancestry.
Attention was focused on the city of Surat in the state of Gujarat after it was was revealed that Eliza Kewark, Prince William’s great, great, great, great, great grandmother, was of Indian origin. In 1812, Ms Kewark gave birth to Prince Williams’s great, great, great, great grandmother, Katharine Scott Forbes.'
'The Scottish-based company carried out tests on DNA supplied by two of Eliza's living direct descendants, who are both third cousins of Princess Diana's mother, Frances Shand Kydd. The tests revealed that Prince William carries Eliza's mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). Mitochondrial DNA is a small piece of DNA inherited mostly unchanged from a mother to her children.
Tests showed that Ms Kewark had an extremely rare form of mtDNA, that has only been found in 14 other people, 13 in India and one in Nepal. Those involved in the project believe all the evidence they have gathered shows that her genetic heritage through her motherline was Indian. And as writer Patrick French, author of an exhaustive book on India, pointed out, it means the second-in-line to the throne is 1/256th Indian.'
More:
More:
Wednesday, July 03, 2013
MACC supposed to emulate Hong Kong's ICAC, but it failed even to imitate
When ACA (Anti-Corruption Agency) morphed into MACC (Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission), it was declared as modelled after HK's ICAC (Independent Commission Against Corruption) with an implied objective to emulate the latter's well known success.
When ACA was formed with Harun Hashim as Director, it was well known for its success in efficient investigation and successful conviction of a number of high level politicians. Perhaps, it was too efficient for comfort to BN political leaders, and somehow, Dr. Mahathir changed the rules and politicians who lived beyond their means were not investigated. Together with OSA, ministers and heads of ministries who were inclined, must have had a field day in enriching themselves, virtually with impunity.
Perception? Well, most people would not be surprised when Rafizi revealed MACC's appalling record when compared with ICAC.
In an immediate response, a BN smart alec came out with an 'explanation':
'Later in Parliament when Rafizi was debating the royal address, Jerlun MP Datuk Othman Aziz said the ICAC figures only showed that Hong Kong had more corruption cases.'!!!
From The Malaysian Insider:
MACC’s record is"shocking” says PKR’s Rafizi
BY ELIZABETH ZACHARIAH
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has a dismal record in combating corruption, says PKR’s Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli.
Rafizi said this after comparing the MACC’s record with its Hong Kong counterpart, the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).
He made the observation after receiving a written reply from Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Senator Datuk Paul Low on the agency’s record in fighting graft.
Low had provided a comparison of the agency’s record with its Hong Kong counterpart.
Rafizi said based on statistics obtained from MACC's annual report in 2011, the commission only has a 20% hit rate when it comes to investigating complaints, which paled in comparison with ICAC's wjhich was 77%.
What was worse, he said, was the percentage of the number of investigation papers that were opened against the number of reports received.
"ICAC's percentage is 77% while MACC's is a shocking 20%.
"That means only one in five reports is investigated. So if you file a report with MACC, chances are it won't be investigated anyway.
"The rate of successful convictions of MACC (68%) also pales in comparison to ICAC, which recorded 86%.
"So not only does the ICAC receive more tipoffs, opens more investigation papers, but (it) also has more convictions.
He challenged Low to increase the effectiveness of MACC by working to improve the percentage of investigation papers and its conviction rates.
"He must make sure that MACC can be comparable to the ICAC."
July 3, 2013.
Meanwhile...
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