Finance Minister...??

The toll problem of 'private' highways in Malaysia which are normally built with funds from the public (on at least guaranteed by the public via short fall annual compensation) is a perennial issue that just refuses to go away.

Malaysia must be one of the few countries in the world where there is absolutely zero risk for a 'private' company that is fortunate enough to be given a toll highway concession. In any business, especially where private equity/loan is used to fund a venture, the investor would do unending due diligence and studies to ascertain viability of a project. If the project shows unfavourable return, and there are no alternatives, the project would be abandon.

Not so in Malaysia; all one needs to do is get the concession, and even if the project shows negative return, dont worry, the government will compensate you, annually, if at the end of the day, no one uses the highway because it is too expensive, there is absolutely no difference between using the highway or public road since both are equally jammed up, or your financial projections were so optimistic that you knew there would be shortfall for the next 20 years in terms of utraffic volume, fret not. The government will pay you!!

So, what is there to worry?

And now we have this so called Minister telling the whole world that it will take some RM231 billion to take over the highway because he has factor in 'future incurring cost'. That is the same as saying, tomorrow we will pave the highway with gold, or why even stop at RM231 billion? Why not go all the way and say it will cost us RM450 billion in the future??

This has got to be the most 'stupid' comment from a person who is suppose to be the person in charge of the financial health. Either he is completely devoid of business sense or he is really stupid.

take you pick..

Here is the story....

OSCA Nite 2009

Imagine meeting classmates you have not met for some 28 years; what would be the questions? Would you recognise them? Have they changed? Have you changed? Do they still have hair? Are they more rounded? What do they do now?

The Ex-Sabah Collegians Association (OSCA) held it's reunion dinner at the Pacific Sutera Hotel in Kota Kinabalu on 6th Nov 2009. The guest of honour was the Chief Minister of Sabah, Datuk Musa Aman, who apparently was also an ex collegian.

The event and speeches were more akin to some political gathering since the speeches were constantly punctuated with the current hip phrase of '1this' and '1that'. There were words like '1Malaysia', '1Sabah', '1Osca' and a few other '1's'. It was really getting rather political; i thought reunions of old friends are normally times to remember olden days, naughty events, misdeeds, good deeds, friends gone, friends afar...

Anyway, despite all that, it was a good evening for the form 5 students of year 1981. There were some 30 of us; the single largest year! And it was truly amazing and fun to meet with friends whom we last met after form 5, 28 years ago. Our group was one of the 'younger' group and we had to show our age by being the loudest. The jabbering and laughter constantly punctuated the air despite the on going speech from none other than the CM himself. Heck, we were there as equals, ex collegians of a once great institute of learning, and we were meeting long lost friends; who the heck would have time to listen to political speeches? We were certainly not there to 'bodek' the CM with so called 'spontaneous' claps everytime he made some remarks. We were certainly not in mood to listen...!!

Whether this will be the first and last time we attend this event has yet to be seen. It is probably more enjoyable if we had something to ourselves...

BUT, the fun was in meeting with old friends again.

Bangkok, Thailand

Was in Bangkok last week to attend, of all subject matters, a conference on Hospital Resources and Financial Optimisation. The venue was the Landmark Bangkok, which is quite a nice and swanky hotel.

The event itself was an eye opener. The level of professionalism and capabilities of private hospitals in Thailand was simply amazing. For example, the Bumrungrad Hospital, is more akin to a 5 stars hotel than a hospital!! Compared to what we have as being the best now in Malaysia, presumably the Prince Court Hospital, Bumrungrad is amazing.

The medical staffs at these private hospitals are well recognised experts in their own rights, and a few, quite internationally known as well.

It is time for Malaysians to stop deluding ourselves with what we think we have and be realistic. The Thais have far outpaced us and they are well pulling ahead of us this very moment.

Malaysia's private health care has a long way to go....

16th Sept 1963

On this day, a new country called Malaysia, was formed out of a union of the Malaya, Sarawak and Sabah. However, Malaysia has been celebrating it's Hari Kemerdekaan (Independence Day) on 31st August every yeear for as long as i can remember.

My question is: what the heck were we celebrating all these years since Malaysia did not come about on 31st August?

Yellowish headlights lenses.

One of the problem with vehicle's headlights that uses polycarbonate plastic material is the inevitable yellowing effect with time. Over time, the yellowing effect will penetrate affect the lens, and not just a surface phenomenon.

The E200 Kompressor wagon, eventhough a Mercedes, is also not spared from this misery. The end result? A fantastically dull looking head lamps.


During one of those vehicle service at Mercedes' workshop, i paid a sum of RM300 to try to have the lenses polished. The end result was barely discernible. I was resigned to the fact that I would either have to live with this, or have the lights completely changed.

Until I saw this at Ace Hardware for a princely sum of RM9.50.


The instructions were simple. Wipe on, and after the liquid has dried, buff it off. Simple.

I did that, and the end result?


I was pretty amazed with the end result; even when i was budding off the dried residue, it was like an incredible sudden change in the appearance of the lenses! The lenses now at least look a bit more cleaner and probably will not illicit as many comments.

The amazing part of all this? I was duped into paying RM300 at a Mercedes workshop to have the lenses polished with any noticeable improvement when all that was needed was a RM9.50 bottle of liquid from a DIY store. And to think I probably used less than RM0.50 worth of the liquid from that bottle.

So, anyone wants to try the wonder head light lenses polishing liquid?

sohai

this must have happened during the audition for Malaysian Idol...

one thing for sure, this guy has rather thick skin and an even thicker skull....

lol...

Moving Windmills: The William Kamkwamba story

This is the kind of inspiration and innovative spirit and zeal that will enable mankind to progress.... Imagine, a school dropout propelling his family, his village and his community to a better living standards, standards that we take very much for granted.

Well done, William Kamkwamba.