What The Toot! » Government

Dear Chief Minister, Bear Some Responsibility

khensthoth — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 11:34:26 +0000

Dear Chief Minister, Mr. Lim Guan Eng:

Sorry to bother you, but it’s me again. Yea, the one who asked you to give a verifiable source to the data you quoted. Thanks to a reader, Leong JT, I now know the data first surfaced in Business Times. Crucially, it was the Transport Ministry’s special maritime adviser, Datuk Captain Abdul Rahim Abd Aziz who made the mistake in the data.

Obaid Mansor, PPSB General Manager of Containers Strategic Business Unit, clarified that they have notified the Ministry of Transport about the error, but it was not widely reported. He was being gentlemanly, compared to the Managing Director, in saying that perhaps “nobody saw that” and he believed you have “picked up the wrong report.”

Now that all that is sorted out, everything is fine and dandy – except for this. Sure, you are only quoting the figures from the ministry, and we all know he made an honest mistake. However, we also know you relied on the figures without verifying it first with PPSB. Perhaps the state government’s relationship with PPSB is less than friendly. In that case, you could have relied on the data provided by SERI.

We are not blaming you for relying on a wrong report. After all, it was wrong, and it’s not really your fault. We are, however, holding you accountable for making inaccurate conclusions without seeking clarifications. You did say “if there is anything wrong in the report, the person concerned should take the responsibility to correct it.” Therefore, we should hold you to the same standard you espouse, and you should take some responsibility for making the report that the cargo traffic dropped 24%.

Commentators from various websites seem to agree:

You cannot pass the ball back to the person preparing the report. You are the one reading it and therefore has to be 100% responsible for its accuracy. You are suppose to be the CEO of Penang and not a copy speech writer of Penang. I am not happy that each time after you have made a statement, and if someone points out to you of an error, straight away, you go into defensive gear and blame somebody for providing you the information. Ridiculous! (by concerned, 26/09/09, TheMalaysianInsider)

Its worrying when important figures like the CM of Penang can get his facts wrong! What message is this sending us! (by Dzurina Razuan, 24/9/09, TheEdge)

I do have to wonder – is it so hard to take responsibility for it, even partially? It is, after all, just your honest mistake. This is not even the first time you relied on false information, and for that you admitted your mistake and apologised in the State Assembly of Penang. What changed this time? By not admitting it was partially your fault, you appear to be playing the blame game and shirk responsibility. By apologising, you appear courteous and gentlemanly, and you show that you, like the 6.2 billion or so human in this world, are just human who sometimes do make mistakes.

So, Chief Minister, please do try to verify your information with various sources next time, and when you do make an honest mistake, please be responsible by admitting it. That is what Competency and Accountability is all about.

Sincerely,
WhatTheToot!

Dear Chief Minister, Citation Needed

khensthoth — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:46:49 +0000

Dear Chief Minister of Penang, Mr. Lim Guan Eng:

How are you? I hope you are doing well and has recovered from your flu. Recently you published in your blog that the traffic at Penang Port, managed by Penang Port Sdn. Bhd., has declined sharply. Specifically, you said that the twenty-foot equivalent unit at said port has declined by 24% in the second quarter of 2009, compared to the first quarter. You proceeded to show following table, and quoted the source of “Ports, Marine Department”:

Your blog post generated quite some news, and unlike all the news reports, I tried to verify the data you have given. I went to the website of the Marine Department of Malaysia as well as the Department of Statistics Malaysia, but I couldn’t find the aforementioned table. It might be that my searching skill or my information source is not as great as yours. However, without you actually providing a verifiable data source or link, you reminded me a well known XKCD comic:

Then, this news surfaced, and followed by this. The Managing Director of Penang Port, Datuk Ahmad Ibnihajar, lambasted you for quoting the wrong figure. Admittedly, his reaction is overly excessive, and his statement that your figures will tarnish the port and cause quite some financial implication is, in my opinion, a little exaggerated. He even called you a “clown”, as the Chinese daily reported, which is highly out of place.

He, however, does have a point. You see, I remembered a small research institution in Penang called SERI – the Socio-economical and Environmental Research Institute. In fact, SERI, which describe itself as the “Think Tank for the State of Penang”, has some prominent and re-nown researchers, and in fact is established by the State of Penang – the Penang State Government.

More importantly, SERI publishes important monthly research articles since 2003 and compiles quarterly statistics about Penang since 1999. On Page 22 of their latest statistical report for the second quater of 2009, this table is included:

If you calculated the figures, you would notice that the second quarter TEU traffic actually increased from 199391 to 255322. An increase of 25931 TEU, which is 13% – not a drop of 24%.

I don’t really know why you didn’t refer to the figure given by the SERI report – maybe you didn’t know it existed. Well, this is me informing you about the existence of SERI and their wonderful reports and research articles. Seriously, they have some good information and ideas there. Moreover, you could have just given the Penang Port Sdn. Bhd. a call, and I assume they would have cleared your doubts about the declining cargo traffic.

Thus, Chief Minister, please do try to verify your data, and give a verifiable data source next time in accordance to your governing mantra of Competency, Accountability and Transparency. More importantly, please read the various publications by SERI. I’m sure you will greatly benefit from it, and you will govern the state even better.

Sincerely,
WhatTheToot!

Ahmad Said Hamdan – The Top Anti-Graft Buster

khensthoth — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:43:17 +0000

Thanks to the Niamah blogger, I finally knew why Malaysia is in the sorry state it is today in terms of corruption. It’s because the Cheif Commissioner of the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission is this guy:

The Top Anti-Graft Buster - Bernama pic

Still do not get it? Check out this news, or the screenshot below:

The proof

You see, graft means corruption, while buster means a person who breaks up something. In effect graft buster means one who stops corruption – the work in which ICAC actually do and in which MACC is supposed to do.

“Anti-graft buster”, on the other hand, means completely the opposite – one who stop those who breaks up corruption, or one who bust those who condemn corruption. With a “top anti-graft buster” being the head commissioner, no wonder MACC is in such a sorry state, and corruption is so rampant in Malaysia.

Oh, and by the way, this is the same Ahmad Said Hamdan made famous by the quote of “I can bet with you that it’s something that you will find on most men’s handphones”, in regards to this incident. Obviously, he is made fun of.I do wonder what I can find in HIS handphone.

Oh well, again, only in Malaysia…

I CAN HAS WEBSITE?

khensthoth — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 12:52:37 +0000

Well, in a truly Malaysia Boleh fashion, Malaysian are greeted today by the news that Rosmah Mansor now has a website. The Malaysian Insider even graced it by putting a screenshot of the website:

Rosmah Website Up

Immediately, in the back of my mind, this keep popping up for some reason:

Cheezburger lolcat

Oh wait, something seems to be wrong. Nothing a little GIMP can’t fix.

Website Lol-person

Ah. Much better.

The typical Malaysian humour kicks off in the comment section:

written by Chris Chong, August 04, 2009
Malaysians can now get up close and personal with Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, the Prime Minister’s wife”

Why would anyone want to do that?

written by Newchief, August 04, 2009
what a joker this is. she should instead be like mahathir’s wife who tries to be out of the lime-light when her husband was on the pm throne. instead, this rosmah wasted no time to publicise her self IN FULL … what a waist we have….HA…HA…HA.

More importantly though, who is she to use the resources from the Prime Minister’s Office? Why should taxpayer pay for her website bandwidth and server cost?

Only in Malaysia…

Stupid news and Members of Parliament

khensthoth — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 13:32:12 +0000

The newspaper in Malaysia is plagued with a lot of stupid and idiotic news recently. At least the situation is not as bad as Fiji, with headlines like “Man gets on bus.” Still, it’s pretty interesting to take a look at the Malaysian side:

Rise up, Malay!

That news was on the front page of a daily in Malay, Utusan Malaysia, more commonly known as the mouthpiece of UMNO, a political party consist chiefly of racists pretending to be statesmen. If that is not seditious, I do not know what is. The content in there is such nonsense it can come out of a person who has no basic understanding of democracy, parliament, or the Westminster system. Oh wait, they are quoting a Member of Pariah-ment. That made sense.

Ironically, in the print version, the second page shows a news about the Prime Minister saying he’s a Prime Minister for all races.

Next up, a news from a newspaper controlled by another political party in government (as at 2009), commonly very subservient to the aforementioned other political party:

No sex for tour guides

Sure, the safety of women must be taken care of, and tour guides shouldn’t be left out. Putting a blanket ban on tour guides of different sex sharing room, however, is almost as idiotic as the guy who uttered that Malays can form their own government (see above). How is that not a infringement of our personal freedom, rights and liberty?

If female tour guides are open minded enough to stay with their male counterparts in the same room, what’s the problem here? If they are open minded enough to have casual sex with each other, who is Ng Yen Yen to stop that? What if they are having a stable relationship? What if they are husband and wife? The minister should concentrate on improving tourism in our countries instead.

In addition, I’ve been on a lot of tours – little of them have more than one tour guides. If there are, it is usually the case where one tour guide is from the local tour company and the other is the one accompanying the tourist from the home country. If these two tour guides wish to “do their parts” to promote globalisation, why stop them?

Sigh. Only in Malaysia, man. Malaysia Boleh!

Of differing opinion

khensthoth — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 04:49:59 +0000

Recently news are all about what our newly appointed Deputy Prime Minister said, and its unintended consequences.

Firstly, there’s the ungrateful comment:

Chinese are ungrateful, not Kingmakers.

You can search through Utusan Malaysia to see what he said in Bahasa Melayu. I am not going to bother. While there are some dissenting views, most of the blogosphere and the opposition are critical of him.

After the uproar, he blames the media – specifically the Chinese newspaper.

Blame the Chinese media

As far as I am concerned, MalaysianInsider was the first one to broke the news according to my trusty Google Reader, not the Chinese media. The Chinese media never even twist his words. I am not even going to comment about what he said, both prior to and after the whole incident, because so many people has already done so.

What I will say is this – That guy is supposed to be our new Deputy Prime Minister? Allah save Malaysia.

He is entitled to his view, however stupid, and I am entitled to mine, however offensive. And my view (to him) is this:

Fuck you, idiot.

Powerful Mangrish

khensthoth — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 03:54:31 +0000

Recently there has been a lot of commotion about the usage of the English language to teach Science and Mathematics in Malaysia. The government says having such policy will improve our English as a whole.

I shall not discuss the merits or disadvantage of the policy here. What I will do, is show you how bad the problem is:

Kapsyen? Diz ma Ingeris lvl!

This note is found on the roller blind of a shop in Malacca, in a relatively new mall. Again, it’s not that hard to figure out which mall is it, because there are only so many there.

Wrong spellings and bad grammar aside, at least they can still post a note in English. A more serious example is described by a doctor, who has a temporary staff who doesn’t comprehend basic English conversation.

The worst is that you only need to do a basic Google search to know how bad our English standard is in Malaysia.

Despite the severity of the problem, we still have Kerismuddin as our Education Minister. Again, Malaysia Boleh! Visi 2020 yo!

Stupid Quotes

khensthoth — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 05:14:22 +0000

Let’s talk about some stupid quotes by some politicians, and generally, people in power in Malaysia.

Stupid Idiot

The original news piece can be read in full here. If anyone wants any clarification, here’s the quote:

You should not use these at your whim and fancy.Are you qualified to speak about the caliph? Even the phrase “amar ma’ruf nahi mungkar” has been used in your posters all over the place.It has not been ascertained if you or even Professor P. Ramasamy is qualified to use them.The matter should be referred for clarification with the mufti who has to determine if you can use the caliph’s name and the phrase, - Datuk Seri Dr Hilmi Yahaya (Teluk Bahang-BN)

Who the heck gave Muslims or anyone the monopoly to talk about a single caliph or any Arabic verses. No doubt, it’s from the Quran, but it’s just like any verse in any language. So is the caliph’s name. Anyone has the right to use it, at one’s “whim and fancy”. Just like when I used Dr. Hilmi Yahaya’s name by calling him a stupid idiot.

Next up, another politician. This time, he is from the ruling party:

An assemblymen has urged the state to impose a RM10 tax on each foreign tourist visiting Penang to help improve public facilities which would lure more tourists to the state. “This proposal would help the state increase its earnings by RM10mil a year if a million foreign tourists visited Penang,’’ he said when debating the Budget 2009.

I know Penang is tight on money, but this is just ridiculous. Firstly, who constitute a foreign tourist? If Lau Keng Ee (DAP – Pengkalan Kota) meant international tourist, their numbers are estimated to be 1.4 million yearly. That’s just RM 14 million annually, provided that such stupid plans do not reduce the number of tourist. The whole state of Penang has a budget of over RM300 million, and RM14 million just does not seem significant anymore. Furthermore, who wants to visit Penang if it has an “entry fee”, and it’s perpetually dirty?

Finally, a fatwa has been issued on yoga, after one was issued on tomboy recently. This is the worst of all.

Only the physical aspect of yoga without the mantras and elements of worshipping outwardly was not wrong (in Islam). However, yoga was not to be encouraged among Muslims for fear that it could erode their Islamic faith since the physical part was a component of yoga practice as a whole. – Datuk Dr Abdul Shukor Husin, Chairman of National Fatwa Council of Malaysia

Fark. Fark on so many levels! I guess they fail to realise most yoga centres just teach the physical exercise without any mantras. Next, how are they going to implement it? Raid yoga centres, raid private homes? Prevent muslims from buying yoga books? Fark! If a Muslim’s faith can so be eroded so easily, clearly he doesn’t deserve to be one.

Sometimes I do wonder about the intellectual capabilities of the politicians in Malaysia, ruling or not.

Of Triplets and Aids

khensthoth — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 11:39:11 +0000

WARNING: This post may induce uncontrollable urge to write angry emails and to “flame” me.
WARNING: This post may also be controversial. If you are uncomfortable, DO NOT continue reading.

I was reading the news again, when I came across this and this. While most people will feel love and warmth when they read the news, I on the other hand, think otherwise.

Triplets bring joy and hardship

The first report was dated 18th July. It brings to the attention a couple with five children, including a triplets, and talks about how hard life is going to be now that they have the new triplets.

To the aid of the triplets' parents

The second report is dated today, and it talks about the people feeling good about themselves donating to this couple, and how are different people trying to help them differently. Heck, another Chinese Daily has also reported that three Australians, Melbournians to be exact has decided to support the expenses of the triplets by wiring at least RM350 into the account of the father monthly. They will also encourage their friends and family to donate when they are back in Melbourne.

While I will not dwell with the issue of the age difference between the man and wife, which really is a non-issue here, I really have to comment on their financial planning. A family of four earning a combined household income of RM1500 really has NO BUSINESS reproducing. In fact, I am not even sure the monthly income will be enough to sustain the two older kids through primary, secondary and even tertiary education. We also have to consider that the father is of “retirement age”. How long can he keep up with the same income? How can he cope with rising living expenses?

Haven’t the family heard about proper financial planning, proper family planning, and contraception? They can have all the bodily pleasure they want, but considering their income, they really should not be trying for any more children. People will refute me by saying it’s their right to reproduce, and I will agree completely. However, it’s also their rights and responsibility to make sure they have the income to support any addition to the family.

And what’s with the amount of charity and donation the couple is receiving? What kind of message are we sending here – that if you are poor you can have all the kids you want and people will take care of them for you? If the parents have no means of raising the children, then they should let them go, and let them be adopted. How can one be sure that they will not spend all the donations and aids in one go? When should the aid stop? In fact, what if the aid stops coming suddenly – what next?

That said, I hope the government start thinking seriously about providing family planning session to the people, particularly towards families who are prone to reproduce excessively without considering their financial situation. One of the reasons of poverty is the lack of financial and family planning. Education is the answer to poverty – NOT aid.

Wisdom Teeth

BERNAMA Should Learn to Spell

khensthoth — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 08:14:54 +0000

The importance of spell-checking and double-checking one’s work cannot be stressed any further. Most bloggers (including me) do not normally spell-check their post, but in fact, they should. An article, and the mistakes in the article says a lot about the author. I swear I shall spell check and double check my work, including this blog, in the future.

It’s one thing for bloggers and amateurs to make mistake, it’s another thing when formal news source do the same. I was reading news online, when I came across the following:

Australian Prime Minister is Ruud!

In one heading, there are two mistakes: “Ruud” and “Bilaterial”. While “bilaterial” has been corrected, as of today, no one has bothered to correct “Ruud” yet. The post still can be found here. That’s extremely “Ruud” of TheMalaysianInsider.com to misspell the last name of a Prime Minister from another country. That’s all fine, until I scroll down to the bottom of the news and read the news source – BERNAMA.

Non-Malaysian might not know this, but BERNAMA, short for Berita Nasional Malaysia, literally Malaysian National News, is the Malaysian National News Agency. Immediately, I search for “Ruud” on the website, and I swear I could not have made this up, this is what I see:

Ruud's visit again

As of today, the news complete with the mistake can still be read. Since the news from The Malaysian Insider is sourced from Bernama, it’s mildly acceptable for them to make the mistake, but it doesn’t exempt them from spell checking their articles, especially with a huge ass heading of “Ruud”.

BERNAMA’s mistake, is another thing. It’s the Malaysian National News Agency, man! If they can make such simple mistake, what about the average Malaysian?

Now I know why our national English level suck ass. Maybe Australia should consider terminating the “bilaterial” ties with Malaysia.

Efficiency of the Penang State Secretariat Office

khensthoth — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 17:21:51 +0000

We here at WhatTheToot! seldom (read: almost never) praise anyone. Heck, the whole point of this website is to record the Toot stuff in the world, and to record the rants and displeasure that we have.

This post, however, is an exception. Today I am going to praise two organisation. The first being the State Secretariat Office of Penang. A few days ago, I saw another quotation which interest me. It seeks out company providing the software subscription for Lotus Note, a proprietary software. I am a self-proclaimed Open Source supporter and enthusiast, and when I saw that, I wrote an email to the State Secretariat Office:

To whom it may concern,

Hi. Firstly I applaud the Penang State Secretariat Office for the well-designed website. I have been looking at websites of different departments and agencies of Penang state and it appears to me that Penang State Secretariat Office website is one of the, if not, the best designed and user friendly website.

I also express my sincere gratitude towards the Office for your role in keeping the various departments and agencies under the responsibility of the Office functioning at its best.

I have been monitoring the tenders and quotations listed on the Penang State Portal (website) and I have recently come across the quotation aforementioned (PTMKN/2008/SH2). Specifically, it’s about the supply of Software Subscription of Lotus Notes to this Office.

I plead with you to reverse this decision. If anything, the state should move away from proprietary software and embrace open source culture. The obvious benefit would be cost, since one would not be tied to licensing cost. Next, surely the state doesn’t want to be “lock-in” to a specific software of a specific vendor.

The Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU) has approve and encourage the use of Open Source Software in public sector through the Open Source Competency Centre (OSCC). Sadly, while other states like Malacca seems to be proceeding and embracing the usage of open source software in public software very well, Penang state seems to be lagging behind.

Thus, I hope you would reconsider the quotation, and modernise the public service in Penang by the use of open source software. I am sure the licensing cost and software subscription could be better spend in other development of Penang state.

Lastly, I hope that this email will be read and I humbly await your reply. Your earliest response is very much appreciated. Thank you very much.

For more information, please see the OSCC website:
http://www.oscc.org.my/

Within 24 hours, Abdul Hamid Md Noor, the Information Technology Officer from the State Information Technology and Communication Office replied my email:

Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us and we appreciate your comments on the open source software.

For your information, the State offices are currently using Lotus Notes as our collaboration tools and maximizing the usage on the same platform for our workflow and knowledge base or document base applications. Thus it’s quite abrupt at this point of time for us to reverse this decision.

However, I would like to inform you that we also adhere to MAMPU guidelines on the usage of open source software as our premier choice for any new ICT projects. FYI, most of our applications run on open source software, for example you can see that our State Portal & SUK Office portal are on open source.

That is the kind of speed in replying email I am seeking. You do not need two weeks to reply an email. Another person I would like to praise is Syed Yusof Ibrahim who is in charge of the Corporate Services of RapidPenang. I have been emailing him back and forth a lot. Typically, his reply would come in less than 24 hours, more often in the range of 5 hours.

That is the kind of efficiency I am looking for. In this modern world, you don’t actually need official, material form that comes in snail mail. Using email save cost and time. And yet, our assemblymen doesn’t seem to understand this.

I still haven’t received any reply from any of the assemblyperson other than the ones mentioned in other post. It’s been a month. That’s their efficiency. Maybe they should learn a thing or two from the public sector itself.

Penang State Assemblymen Emailing Experiment – Part IV

khensthoth — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 03:22:58 +0000

This shall be the last part of the experiment. We have seen the good and the bad. Now, the ugly.

Honorary Mr. Ong Khan Lee (PKR) from N24 Kebun Bunga replied to my email on May 24. I present to you the verbatim (that means word-for-word) reply from him:

Personally I m not aware of the price and tender but what I know so far that each of us will be given a laptop and printer and this was approved by the previous government!

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device via Vodafone-Celcom Mobile.

Yea, Mr. Ong Khan Lee. Personally I am not aware of the price too. If I did, I wouldn’t have asked you. And if I asked that means I hope you could find out for me, you know, since you’re an assemblyman and all and you supposedly have more power than I do.

I don’t know if the last line was automatically generated from his BlackBerry® or what. I presume it is.

What surprised me more was the use of the punctuation – the exclamation mark (!) at the end of his email. When I first received it, I do not know how to interpret it. I asked my brother and he said it was of excitement. I see it as anger.

Maybe my emails has come as an annoyance to him and he decided to say “Piss off” with the exclamation mark. I still do not know. As if that’s not enough, two days later on 27 May he sent me another email, saying this:

!

That’s all. If you don’t believe me, have a look:

Yea, he seems pretty pissed to me. A screenshot from my Gmail.

Well, I have no idea whatsoever what he was trying to present to me. Maybe it was a typing mistake or something. Or maybe even the BlackBerry® is angry with my email and decided to say piss off to me one more time.

Well, the real reason for it? We will never know. That’s another mystery of the universe.

Penang State Assemblymen Emailing Experiment – Part III

khensthoth — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 07:00:14 +0000

Well, we know that 57.5% of state assemblyperson in Penang publish their email address online, and we also know that only 30.4% of that bothered to reply. We have also seen those emails from assemblymen who apparently forgot to reply my email. Now I have to give credit where credit is due and praise some assemblymen for their reply, with some quality. Not just some oh-I-don’t-know-why-don’t-you-check-the-state-treasury-office.

Honorary Mr. Ng Wei Aik (DAP) from N28 Komtar wrote this to me on May 25. He was the first to notify me of the status of the tender (ongoing) and thus the first who gave satisfactory reply. However, his tone in the email could have been better.:

The tender process is still on going. Anyone can bid the tender provided the company offer the lowest price. All these will be decided by a tender committee, which the government will not interfere its decision making. If you are interested, then you can bid for the tender.

Non of us can give you the answer on the status of tender because we are not involved in the tender committee. However, we will ensure the whole process is complying with the CAT – Competency, Accountability and Transparency principles.

Ng Wei Aik

Political Secretary to Penang Chief Minister

State Assemblyman for Komtar

Credits to him for publishing his mobile phone number in his reply, as well as 3 blogs and 1 alternate email to contact him. He also didn’t call himself a Y.B. (Honorary). Good Job!

Honorary Mr. Wong Hon Wai (DAP) from N33 Air Itam replied on May 26. His reply was swift – the first saying he will check it out, and the second letting me know of the status of the tender:

Dear (My Name),
1. As of now, No company has been awarded for the tender.

2. You are invited to observe the Dewan Negeri proceeding which will be held sometime in July.

Regards,
Wong Hon Wai

Again, professional-looking, formal and simple. Just what an email ought to be, especially from an assemblyman. Oh hey, no Y.B. too.

Honorary Mr. Chow Kon Yeow (DAP) from N26 Padang Kota replied on June 2. His reply came late, as I received it after the arbitrary two-week limit I set for them to reply the email. I figure two weeks is enough to find out about the status of the tender, and write a reply to me. Nevertheless, he took the liberty and the effort to write to me. He’s what he wrote:

Dear Sir,
The State Financial Office is still trying to source for the notebooks and printers with the required specs at the most reasonable price. TQ.

Simple, acceptable, but I don’t like using TQ as “Thank You.” That is just my perspective though. No calling oneself Y.B. too.

It just came to me that those who gave satisfactory reply didn’t address themselves as Y.B. That’s a good thing.

No toot material in this post, but I just have to do it to give credits to the 3 assemblymen. Next up, last reply from an assemblyman. Good stuff.

Penang State Assemblymen Emailing Experiment – Part II

khensthoth — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 16:01:39 +0000

So, after establishing how many state assemblyperson actually publish contactable email address, and how many state assemblyperson actually replied my email, let’s now turn our attention to the content. In other words, having looked the quantity, let’s look at the quality.

In this post, we will only look at 3 assemblymen whose task management is probably a little questionable.

Honorary Mr. Tan Hock Leong (PKR) from N14 Machang Bubuk wrote this to me on May 18. To give him some credit, he was the fastest and the first to reply. He said this:

Thank you for your email for notifying me about the tender PKN/2008/T1.
Will find out the status of the tender as soon as possible.

Honorary Datuk Arif Shah Bin Haji Omar Shah (BN) from N10 Seberang Jaya said the following on May 20. To his credit, he was the second to reply, and THE ONLY assemblyman from Barisan Nasional to reply. However, his reply lacked the proper capitalisation, excessive use of “..” and “.,” (which are not even standard punctuations), and over abbreviation:

dear mr.(My Name) ., As an assemblymen we are not aware of any purchases made by the govt.pl.write to the state treasury and hopefully they can give you the related detailsetc.. thank you and regards..yb datuk arif shah .,

Ya, Honorary Datuk Arif Shah, I know assemblymen are not aware of the purchase. That’s why I decided to notify you. And, you as the representative of the people should find it out. After all, the notebooks and printers are for the assemblymen, i.e. you. Sadly I don’t think the state treasury will reply my mail. Oh wait, the state treasury is not even in charge of this tender. The tender is from the Penang State Secretariat Office.

Honorary Mr. Jagdeep Singh Deo (DAP) from N29 Datok Keramat sent this to me on May 28. Here’s the simple reply, but probably one of the most professional-looking in terms of formatting, but again, excessive use of abbreviation:

Mr (My Name),

Thk you for your email and i will get back to u at the the soonest possible time.

YB Jagdeep Singh Deo

I sent replies to these assemblymen reminding them about my email and the ongoing tender, hoping to get a reply. Sadly, I never did hear from them again. Perhaps in their busy schedules they have forgotten to reply me.

And for that, I recommend all of them getting some form of “To-Do List” application. But to forget to even reply a simple email, is seriously TOOT!

Taxi is Public Transport!

khensthoth — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:13:41 +0000

I was reading the news of Malaysia when I came across this news:

Immediately, I was taken aback. Wait, taken aback is probably an understatment. I was utterly shocked. Apparently taxi is public transportation.

By providing loan for individual taxi permits, one thereby increase the number of taxi. Then, something magical happens and it becomes “one of the ways to improve public transportation,” according to the Malaysian Entrepreneurial Development and Cooperative Minister Datuk Noh Omar.

I don’t know. Last time I check, public transportation refers more to buses, trains, ferries, trams et cetera – vehicles that transport a lot of people efficiently. Last time I checked, taxi is a car, seats 4 to 10 (van), and is thus one of the most inefficient mode of “public transportation” available.

The minister go one to say that there are currently 21000 taxis in Klang Valley and they want an additional 3000 taxis to “achieve a ratio of one taxi for every 500 people”. Right – putting more cars on the already congested road helps improve public transportation. Great idea from our minister. Might it be because he is the minister of Entrepreneurial Development and Cooperative, not that of Transport? (Weird, I know. There are more weird things in the Malaysian Government.)

Oh, and RM 100 million? In addition to the RM 200 million already allocated to the Public Transport Development Fund? This numbers seems to be dwarfed by the RM 2 billion cost cutting measure by the government, and the RM 13.7 billion expected to be saved from the recent reduction in subsidy.

What the Toot are those people thinking!?

Efficiency of Penang DAP

khensthoth — Fri, 16 May 2008 23:13:53 +0000

Recently, there’s a news report in one of the Chinese daily in Malaysia, Guang Ming Daily saying the following (if you read mandarin):

Translation of first paragraph:
Lim Guan Eng said that he is a Chief Minister from “Rocket” (Democratic Action Party) and as such, he will demand speed and efficiency when he does anything. If his City Councillors, EXCO, State Assemblymen and Parliamentary Representatives are slow in doing things, he will shoot (scold) them.

Sure. Let’s refer to another news report by another Chinese daily, Kwong Wah Newspaper.

Translation of Title and Date:
DAP Penang Official Website – Relaunch by Mid-Month
2008-04-02 11.35 P.M.

Basically the news says that the website have been facing unknown problems, and Teh Yee Cheu, the webmaster for the website hopes that it will be functional again by the middle of the month. The report was written in April.

May 15 has come and passed. Here’s how the website look like:

DAPPenang.org as of Monday May 12, 2008 8.53 A.M.

Unfortunately the webmaster, also the State Assemblyman for Tanjung Bungah, has embarked on a journey to Xiamen to (hopefully) raise RM500,000 for charity.

Speed and Efficiency my new Chief Minister of Penang? I beg to differ. The fact that your party can’t even maintain an official local party website online, and can’t relaunch it in more than one month speaks a lot about your party.

Penang DAP is TOOT, and by extension so is Penang Government. It disappoints me a whole lot.