What The Toot! » Penang

Math by Datuk Dr. Teng Hock Nan

khensthoth — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:06:27 +0000

Here’s what the Penang Gerakan Chairman, who once were in a race to be the Penang Chief Minister before having their embarrassing asses “whoopped” by the DAP in the 12th General Election, said in a recent news:

Meanwhile, Teng, quoting MIDA’s statistics, said Penang received RM1.67 billion investment as at the third quarter this year.

The number, he said was eight times lower as compared to the investment secured in the corresponding period last year, which was at RM10.15 billion.

To be fair, I think I should use the original figures provided by MIDA available here. I should also point out that the figures are for the months January to August. The last I checked, “as at the third quarter this year” meant from “as at January to September” this year.

The figure for 2008 was RM 10,156,301,413, and the figure as at August 2009 is RM 1,664,533,609. When the numbers are rounded up to the nearest billion with two decimal places, that’s RM 10.16 billion for 2008 and RM 1.66 billion for 2009. How Datuk Dr. Teng got the figures of RM 10.15 billion and RM 1.67 billion is beyond my understanding.

Next, dividing the 2008 figure by 2009 figure, we get 6.1 – which meant as at August 2009, the amount of investment in the field of Manufacturing that the State of Penang received was 6.1 times lower compared to the same period last year. Clearly, 6.1 ≠ 8.

Even if we used the figures by Datuk Dr. Teng, it still doesn’t make sense no matter how you look at it:

10.15 ÷ 1.67 = 6.08

1.67 × 8 = 13.3

10.15÷ 8 = 1.27

So, there you have it. Mathematics according to the former Penang Chief Minister aspirant, Datuk Dr. Teng Hock Nan.

A Pictorial Guide to Causes of Traffic Congestion in Penang

khensthoth — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 09:16:24 +0000

So, you now know that when you park your car illegally, somebody is going to take a picture and upload it onto the Internet for the world to see. And next time, the number plates won’t be blurred so inconspicuously. =)

Cost and Completion Date of the Penang Second Bridge

khensthoth — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 10:00:47 +0000

October 10 2009 4:32 PM (16:32), BERNAMA News:

Bridge will be ready before 2013

October 10 2009 6.19 PM (18:19), TheStar News:

No, it's April 2013 and bridge is apparently spelled Bbridge.

It’s amazing how much news can change within 2 hours.

I decided to see how much the reported cost and anticipated date of completion of the Penang Second Bridge changed throughout the year, from 2003 to 2009. So I went through all the news source here and here, filtered the similar and obviously wrong ones, and plotted a beautiful graph:

Compiled from various news source from 2003 - 2009

Interestingly it was not too long ago in 2005 that Samy Vellu said the second bridge is not economically viable. Anyway, following the trends of the two graphs, we should be seeing further increase in cost and expected completion date. I shall be looking forward to April 2013 – I don’t remember the last time a Malaysian government mega-project was on-time and under-budget.

Hypocrites from Tanjung Bungah

khensthoth — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:30:34 +0000

Firstly, let me make one thing clear: I am a Tanjung Bungah resident. I strongly oppose the stance of Tanjung Bungah Residents’ Association (TBRA) in various issues, and I am supportive of Tanjung Bungah being classified as a Primary Development Corridor, provided that proper planning, including Traffic Impact Assessment (TIA) is done on subsequent projects.

Now that I have that quasi-disclaimer out of the way, time for some background: Originally Tanjung Bungah was zoned as a Secondary Development Corridor in the Penang State Structure Plan. After a lot of SNAFU which I do not want to get into, the area is now classified, uncertain and debatable, in the Primary Development Corridor. In Primary Corridor, the density limit is 30 units/acre, as opposed to 15 unit/acre in Secondary Corridor.

Now my story/rant starts. A few days ago, I saw this on the Chinese daily:

Essentially, some of the residents from The Cove want to sue the state government in regards to a project on the neighbouring lot, because the project was approved at a density limit of 30 units/acre. That is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard, primarily because it shows how hypocritical one can be.

The Cove is like the quintessential high-density high-class condominium that is sprouting in Tanjung Bungah. Regardless of the actual density, the project looked quite cramped, probably because it is. It has 146 units built on 4 blocks. I know, because I checked. In order for it to be under the 15 units/acre limit, the land it was built on has to be 9.73 acre (146 ÷ 15 ≈ 9.73). In reality, the land area is around 5 acre. I know, because I checked. Taken together, that means the density of The Cove is more than 29 units/acre (146 ÷ 5.006 ≈ 29.165). As such, The Cove is just following the trend of the many apartments before it, such as Sri Golden Bay, which also has a density of higher than 15 units/acre.

My point is, the residents of The Cove are staying in a residential area with a density of 29 units/acre. They are the ones who benefited from the relatively cheap price of the condominium because the developer do not need to adhere to any 15 units/acre density limit in the first place. For them to oppose a neighbouring project because it would have a density more than of 15 units/acre, despite the fact that The Cove itself has a density so close to the new density limit (30 units/acre) the government is inclined towards, is highly ironic and extremely hypocritical.

Equally so is the aforementioned TBRA, who in this news indicated that they are supportive of the action by the residents of The Cove – the same TBRA who not so long ago were highly critical of The Cove, calling it an “eyesore”. I don’t know – perhaps they have got used to the “eyesore” after years of seeing it.

¥1.5 million = RM750 million

khensthoth — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 05:35:31 +0000

I read the Metro North news of TheStar everyday to find local news regarding Penang. Last week I saw something of interest.

Oriental-style city proposed

Amidst the good news, however, I found something really really depressing:

¥1.5 million = RM750 million

I know the value of the Ringgit is not much, and in fact is gradually decreasing, but I didn’t know it’s at such a fast pace. Apparently, ¥1 is equivalent to RM500 now. At this rate, we are going the way of Zimbabwe.

Seriously though, what is the point of having an editor in a newspaper if such mistake are not apparent to them. Luckily the Chinese daily got the figures right.

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!

Dear DAP Penang Webmaster

khensthoth — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 14:09:19 +0000

Dear DAP Penang Webmaster,

Firstly, as one of your strong state you are governing as at today, your website is, in my honest opinion, totally inedequate. Apart from a few photographs, a few YouTube videos, and some online polls, it is essentially only a blog, with a lot of the content originating from blogs of other Penang DAP leaders. Honestly, if you want to be a blog aggregator, you would be better off utilising a “planet” software like this, this or this. In fact, you should implement a Planet Penang DAP to aggregate all the blogs from the different politician together in one place.

Anyway, I digress too much. This post is not about the content on your website per se. If you want inspiration on what to do with your state website, just refer to the many websites of political parties around the world. I do, however, want to talk about my freedom. You see, this is what I see on your website:

Firefox 3.0.12 on Ubuntu 9.04

Being in the minority who chose to use a totally free (both gratis and libre) browser (Firefox 3) and operating system (Ubuntu 9.04), I thought it might just be my particular system. Thus, I decided to use a more mainstream browser in a more mainstream operating system to see what I presume you want your visitors to see when they visit your website:

Internet Explorer 6 on Windows XP SP3

Everything seems to be in order, which is why I decide to see how well other browsers in Windows XP would do. To my disappointment, this is what I see:

Firefox 2.0.0.20 on Windows XP SP3

I then decided to conduct a series of test, and the following result is as such:

Firefox 3.5.1 on Ubuntu 9.04

Safari Browser on iPhone OS 2.0

Opera 9.64 on Ubuntu 9.04

If you have not noticed a pattern, let me inform you. You see, both Internet Explorer and Opera browsers are proprietary software, which means they do not release their source code to the general public for inspection. They both use proprietary layout engine. Safari browser is proprietary as well, but they use the open source WebKit layout engine. Similarly, open source browser Firefox uses open source layout engine Gecko. I consider myself a open source movement supporter, and a proponent of open source software. While I do not have a deep hatred for proprietary softwares and companies, I do avoid them whenever I can.

It dawns upon me that a party who champions social freedom and equal rights requires me to use a proprietary browser and a proprietary layout engine just to view the website. This seems like a huge irony to me. Thus, DAP Penang Webmaster, please fix your website!

Sincerely,
WhatTheToot!

Safety Last

khensthoth — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 19:36:40 +0000

I was watching a TEDTalk the other day, and a talk by Mike Rowe (of Dirty Jobs, Discovery Channel) touched on his experience on one particular job and the new perspectives he gained. One of these insights is the notion that safety might come second or third in a job, in spite of the constant call of “Safety First” in virtually every workplace.

Well, here in Penang, you do not have to wonder – because safety do come last.

Fire exit? What fire exit?

In a newly opened shopping mall, they built a perfectly functional fire escape only to lock it from the inside and stuff the walkway with boxes and other shit. In the typical “tak apa” (nonchalant) attitude of Penang, safety does come last. It really makes me wonder how this place got it’s Occpancy Certificate.* Malaysia Boleh!

* In fact I don’t think they ever did. There’s a HUGE pile of soil just dumped on the adjacent land. It’s not that hard to figure out where mall this is.

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.

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!

Penang State Assemblymen Emailing Experiment – Part I

khensthoth — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 15:48:40 +0000

I am having my exam right now, so I can only make a short post. Previously I have said that Penang has 40 state assemblyperson, 17 of which did not provide correct email addresses. That leaves 23 assemblyperson that I assume got their email. Out of this 23, how many have actually responded to me? I shall let the graph speak:

As you can see, only a few replied. Specifically, only 7 replied. The quality and content of their reply is, however, another story. Surprisingly, even one from BN responded to me.

Here’s a list of all the Penang State assemblyperson that have replied me (arranged by date of reply):

N14 Machang Bubuk – Honorary Mr. Tan Hock Leong (PKR) – May 18
N10 Seberang Jaya – Honorary Datuk Arif Shah Bin Haji Omar Shah (BN) – May 20
N24 Kebun Bunga – Honorary Mr. Ong Khan Lee (PKR) – May 24
N28 Komtar – Honorary Mr. Ng Wei Aik (DAP) – May 25
N33 Air Itam – Honorary Mr. Wong Hon Wai (DAP) – May 26
N29 Datok Keramat – Honorary Mr. Jagdeep Singh Deo (DAP) – May 28
N26 Padang Kota – Honorary Mr. Chow Kon Yeow (DAP) – June 2

I have to mention that Mr. Chow Kon Yeow replied after the arbitrary one-week limit I set for the assemblyperson to reply. The first two person replied only to the first email that I mentioned, and I never heard from them since. The next 5 assemblyperson all replied to the second email, which served as a friendly reminder that they haven’t replied my first mail.

It is appalling that only 30.4% of assemblymen who presumably got my mail bothered to give some form of reply. That’s only 17.5% of all the assemblymen we have in Penang. If they can’t reply to a simple email, how can they claim to represent us?

I also have to say that the issue has now become a non-issue, as Honorary Mr. Lim Guan Eng, the Chief Minister of Penang has decided to suspend the buying of laptop for the assemblymen temporarily.

Next up, we shall see the content of the emails. =)

Penang State Assemblymen Emailing Experiment – Prelude

khensthoth — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 17:18:15 +0000

Two weeks ago I decided to embark on an experiment – To ascertain if our newly elected state assemblyperson (yea, I am being politically and sexually correct), be they from the parties in power, or the opposition, are going to reply to a simple email. All email address are obtained from the Penang State Government ADUN Contacts site.
I sent the same email to all assemblyperson about the same issue. The email can be read here:

Dear Honorary Mr. State Assemblyman,

Firstly, I congratulate you in being elected as the state assemblyman in your constituency. I hope that in the next 4 – 5 years, you will be able to serve your constituency as well as the Penang state well. I also hope that emails like this to the state assemblymen are read and answered.

I would like to draw your attention to my blog post, under the same title as this email. I would like to know the general status and your opinion of the tender PKN/2008/T1. Is the tender now nullified, because the tender was made before DAP-PKR came into power? I would also like to know the outcome of the status: which company got the tender, at what price, and the specifications of the laptop.

While you have no obligation to reply, I would appreciate it very much if you do. The reply will be seen as a simple performance gauge. I think Penangites need to know about the tender, and I will humbly await your reply should you choose to look into it and choose to let me know. Thanks for your utmost attention among your busy schedule.

Regards,
(My Name)

I set the deadline for reply arbitarily at 2 weeks, primarily because I think it is sufficient to reply a single mail with even an automated reply with two weeks. At the end of week 1, I sent the following email as a friendly reminder:

Dear Honorary Mr. State Assemblymen/ Assemblywomen,

A week ago, I sent an email to you alerting you to the tender PKN/2008/T1. Specifically, it is about a tender for notebooks and printers for our state assemblymen, namely yourself. However, I notice that the price in the tender are a little high, which is why I am personally concerned with the specifications of the computers. Is the price justifiable, which company got the tender, at what price? These are the question that beg to be answered.

While I understand that your honorary is very busy with state matter, and I said you have no obligation to reply, I encouraged you to reply. A few assemblymen did reply. However, none have given a status to the tender.

Thus, this serve as a friendly reminder to you, honorary state assemblymen. If you do not plan to reply, please do give an indication or acknowledgement that you have read my email. I think such simple gesture is important to let other fellow Penangites know you are there, to make them feel appreciated.

I sincerely thank you in advance should you choose to reply or acknowledge me. Please do find out about the tender and let Penangites know. Thank you very much.

Sincerely,
(My Name)

I wish to see who would reply, and who would actually find out about the tender. Because the post is getting too long, I shall split the post into several parts.

But, let’s see Round One:

Penang has 40 state assemblyperson – 11 from UMNO (BN), 19 from DAP, 9 from PKR and 1 from PAS. Of these 40 representatives, 14 did not supply their email address in the website, another 3 either supplied the wrong email or their mailbox was full.

Of the 14 who did not supply their emails, 9 from BN, 1 from PAS, 2 from DAP, and 2 from PKR. The list is at the end of this post. N15 Padang Lalang – Honorary Mr. Tan Cheong Heng (DAP) supplied a wrong email address, N9 Bagan Dalam – Honorary Mr. Tanasekharan a/l Autherapady (DAP) mailbox was full and N36 Pantai jerejak – Honorary Mr. Sim Tze Tzin (PKR) email address wasn’t even registered, according to Gmail.

So, there you have it. In this modern world, if those representatives do not even have email addresses that you can contact them, what more can you expect of them? Email is one of the fastest, cheapest and most efficient way of communication, and if the representatives do not embrace it, how are they going to serve their constituents, particularly the younger generation adept with digital technology well? It’s their responsibility to check if the website has their emails listed, and supply the state with them if they are not listed. So, we have 17 not-so-responsible representatives. What can we expect from Penang?

Penang State Assemblyperson who did not have their email listed on Penang State Government Website:

N1 Penaga – Honorary Dato’ Haji Azhar Bin Ibrahim (BN)
N2 Bertam – Honorary Hajah Zabariah Binti Wahab (BN)
N3 Pinang Tunggal – Honorary Dato’ Haji Roslan Bin Saidin (BN)
N4 Permatang Berangan – Honorary Mr. Haji Shabudin Bin Yahaya (BN)
N5 Sungai Dua – Honorary Dato’ Haji Jasmin Bin Mohamed (BN)
N6 Telok Air Tawar – Honorary Dato’ Hajah Jahara Binti Hamid (BN)
N11 Pematang Pasir – Honorary Mr. Mohd. Hamdan Bin Abd. Rahman (PAS)
N17 Bukit Tengah – Honorary Mr. Ong Chin Wen (PKR)
N30 Sungai Pinang – Honorary Mr. Koid Teng Guan (DAP)
N32 Seri Delima – Honorary Mr. Sanisvara Nethaji Rayer a/l Rajaji (DAP)
N35 Batu Uban – Honorary Mr. Raveentharan a/l V.Subramaniam (PKR)
N38 Bayan Lepas – Honorary Mr. Syed Amerruddin Bin Dato’ Syed Ahmad (BN)
N39 Pulau Betong – Honorary Mr. Haji Muhamad Farid Bin Saad (BN)
N40 Telok Bahang – Honorary Dato’ Seri Haji Hilmi Bin Haji Yahaya (BN)

Municipal Council of Penang (MPPP) is DAMN RICH!

khensthoth — Thu, 29 May 2008 07:46:49 +0000

So, I was snooping around governmental websites of Penang again, and I have found some interesting things. I have seen the website of Municipal Council of Penang or Majils Perbandaran Pulau Pinang (MPPP) before, and seriously it’s one of the worst in the world. In this age of Web 2.0, the design of the website is as if they are designed well before the dot-com bubble even existed.

The website design is so bad and outdated that in fact they ask you to have Flash 5 installed, and best viewed in IE 4.0, on a resolution of 800×600. Seriously man, Flash has been acquired by Adobe and is up to version 9.02, IE up to 7.0 and the typical screen resolution is now 1024×768.

My browser at 800×600, and I don’t use IE.

Worse yet, if you were to actually use a screen resolution of 800×600, you have to SCROLL!!!

My Firefox 3.0 RC1 again at 800×600.
Hi our Mayor (or President) of MPPP. Hope you hire someone to redesign the website!

Well. That’s all fine, until I saw the statistics site, which list their income. I am utterly shocked!

The unit on top of the column is RM Million. Total income for 2007 – RM 201,229,912 Million. In other words, that is RM 201.2 Trillion. You heard it right. TRILLION! Even the US Federal budget cannot match that.

Let’s hope that MPPP and our President of MPPP, Dato’ Zainal Rahim bin Seman, use that massive income to hire people who knows:

Real, effective, and nice web design
How to make tables
How to double check their work before publishing it on the internet

[UPDATE]: Table has been changed. Who says blogs don’t have power to change anything? =)
[UPDATE 2]: MPPP website revamped. Tables do not exist any more, and as such, the link do not work.

Penangites Disrespectful of Captain Francis Light

khensthoth — Tue, 20 May 2008 22:52:26 +0000

In Penang and generally Malaysia, in order to get things done, you have to know people. Not ordinary Average Joe on the streets – powerful, well-connected people like politicians. Not only you have to know them, you have to know them well.

What’s a good chance of getting to know your politicians better AND in the same time practice the famous Penang cheapskate and kiasu (afraid of failure) attitude? The yearly Gerakan and/ or Penang State Government Chinese New Year open house at Fort Cornwallis, close to the Diamond Jubilee Clock Tower.

Why cheapskate? Mention “FREE FOOD” and see Penangites flock to your event, no matter what the event is.

Anyway, there’s a statue of Sir Francis Light, the founder of Penang and George Town, in Fort Cornwallis. This is how elegant it looks normally:

Photo by fishandchinkers in Flickr.

This is how the statue looks like during the annual CNY Open House:

The respect average Penangite have for Sir Francis Light? None whatsoever.

Cheapskate-ness for free food + Laziness to find any recycle bin > Respect for Sir Francis Light.

He should really rise from his grave and cast a damning spell on Penang. Oh wait – he probably did. That’s why Penang doesn’t really grow and develop much, and George Town is turning into a ghost city.

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.

Notebook and Printer for Penang State Assemblymen

khensthoth — Thu, 15 May 2008 10:58:00 +0000

I was snooping around Penang State Government website this few days. Design issues aside, one this that caught my attention was one of the Tender/ Quotation (Bahasa Malaysia) section. Specifically, there’s a tender with the following details:

Tender No. : PKN/2008/T1
Tender Name: Supply, Ship, Assemble and Test Notebooks and Printers for the Speaker and State Assemblymen of Penang
Opening Date: 26 February 2008
Closing Date: 18 March 2008
Department: Penang State Secretariat Office

As you can see, the tender prices range from RM 146,062.50 to RM 266,500.00. Since Penang has 40 State Assemblymen, that would mean the price range from RM 3651.60 to RM 6662.50 for each assemblyman!

While I appreciate the effort of the State Secretariat Office for moving into the IT age by providing notebooks and printers for our assemblymen, I do wonder about the price. Is the price justifiable? What are the model/ specifications of the notebooks and printers? Do the new assemblymen really need new laptops and printers? Do they need such a good notebooks and printers?

The average offer price of all the tenders is around RM 211,914.20 – RM 5297.85 per assemblyman. This is the price for supplying, shipping, assembling, and testing a notebook and a printer? What the TOOT?!

UPDATE: According to a news report, the state government has decided to suspend the purchase of computer notebook and printer sets for all 40 assemblypersons in the state legislative house, saving an estimated RM300,000.