Disneyland in Malaysia?

Well, that was what strong rumours said UEM (United Engineers Malaysia), a Malaysian Government connect listed company, was trying to set up in its new township of Bandar Nusajaya in Johore, just across the Straits from Singapore. The rumours were never denied. In fact, UEM talked openly about it, and even travelled to Japan to meet with officials of Oriental Land, operator and licensee of Disney's Japan theme parks. Even though Disney denied outright it had any intention to set up Disneyland in Malaysia, UEM continued to talk about it. That was back in mid 2006. Looks like there is no more talk of it happening anymore.

So it looks like if any Malaysians wish to visit Disneyland, they will have to travel oversea. The largest Disney resort, in fact the world's largest vacation resort, is the Walt Disney World Resort, and that is located in Florida in the southeastern region of the United States of America. But for Malaysians, it will almost be like home as Florida has a sub-tropical climate mainly, with its south having a tropical climate. Florida has lots of tourist attractions and in fact a large part of its economy is derived from tourism. If you go to Florida, you will never be at a loss as to what to do. As for accommodation, you should check out Florida vacation rentals.

If themed parks are what you are going for, Orlando is the place. That is where Walt Disney World Resort with Epcot, Disney-MGM Studios and Universal Studios plus many other amusement parks are located. Epcot is one place where both children and adults will enjoy a glimpse into space and the future. Mission Space is a simulated space mission which uses a centrifuge to simulate the effects of lift-off from earth followed by the sensation of weightlessness in outer space. Sounds like fun? Then get your accommodation from Orlando vacation rentals.

Itching for a cruise to the Caribbeans? Think of Miami. That is where Miami Harbor, the world's largest harbor for cruise ships able to accommodate the largest cruise ship is located. Miami Beach is actually a separate city from Miami. Malaysian architects interested in Art Deco, Streamline Moderne, and Nautical Moderne architecture should go to South Beach in Miami Beach where it was first introduced in the 1930s. The popular TV show, Miami Vice, also brought world attention to Miami Beach. If nightlife and restaurants interest you, South Beach has lots of it. And the beach attracts photo shots like bees to honey. On your visit to South Beach, you will likely see beautiful models posing for photographers. And even though it is a public beach, you will see nude sunbathing, which may offend some Malaysians.

If you are planning to pay a visit to Miami Beach, book your accommodation at Miami Beach vacation rentals

United Kingdom's Legacy to Malaysia

The people from United Kingdom came to Malaysia (then Malaya) as exploiter and colonialist. They exploited the resources of our country which made their country rich. They looked down upon the local people as inferior and formed clubs from which the locals were excluded. Many of our country's ills have been blamed upon them, but they did leave behind something that had benefited the country. The mission schools were premier schools and produced many illustrious leaders of the country. They built good roads and railways. And most important of all, something happened in 1876 which eventually lead to a key part of Malaysia's economy.

London

The event I was referring to above was Sir Henry Wickham collecting and shipping 70,000 wild rubber tree seeds to Kew Gardens in London in 1875. They were probably germinated in glass houses (hot houses) like the one shown below:

Glass house photo uploaded to Flickr by Heraklit under Creative Commons license

There is actually a much larger hot house but those were uploaded to Flickr with All Rights Reserved. Anyway, some of the seed survived and germinated and were taken in 1877 to Ceylon and later to Malaysia in 1883. From those few trees, huge tracts of rubber tree plantations were planted and created an industry which was one of the mainstay of the Malaya's economy at the time of its independence from British colonial rule in 1957 and still form an important part of the economy now, though it has been overtaken by oil palm.

I had visited London in 1976 with my late wife, but foolishly spent most of our time in Oxford Street. If ever I have the chance to visit London again, Kew Gardens will be one place I will like to see as a place of origin of one of our country's economic pillars. In 1976, there were no Internet and we had to hunt for accommodation on arrival, not a pleasant task in a strange place. Now you have Cheap Hotels in United Kingdom which has a site specifically for London at Hotels in London. Unlike my experience in 1976, you wouldn't have to worry about having to sleep in the railway station if you can't find suitable accommodation on arrival.

Manchester City

While there are lots of tourist attractions in London like Madam Toussauds which have wax statues of famous personalities. Unfortunately non of our national leaders were featured but I understand the Singapore Girls (SIA airlines hostesses) of our neighbor were included.

But you don't have to confine yourself to London to enjoy your visit to United Kingdom. There is Manchester City which has good, regular train connections with London Euston. Journey time is just around three hours. It is famous for its high-profile soccer teams including Manchester United. Malaysia's most successful budget airlines Air Asia has signed up for sponsorship as the Club’s Official Low Fare Airline, and has one of its plane by having one of its aircraft painted in the colors of the club and adorned with images of the club's elite players on both sides of the aircraft's fuselage. Visit Manchester City to see your favorite football team in action.

Manchester City Skyline with Beetham Tower standing tall recognizable by its plane lights at the top of the tower. Uploaded to Flickr by pit-yacker under the Creative Commons license

The latest addition to Manchester skyline it the Beetham Tower which is the highest building in United Kingdom outside of London. Beyond the modern architecture, there are also cultural activities like Manchester Jazz Festival considered the best contemporary jazz festival.

For accommodation in Manchester, a good place to book online is Hotels in Manchester.

Birmingham

Birmingham City is the second largest city of the United Kingdom and got its reputation as the workshop of the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century and the early 19th century. If you like museums and galleries, Birmingham is the city to visit. There are many renown museums and galleries including the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Aston Hall, Blakesley Hall, Museum of the Jewellery Quarters, the Barber Institute of Fine Arts which is a combination of an art gallery and a concert hall, and even the Cadbury World which shows visitors the stages and steps of chocolate production and the history of chocolate and the company.

You will see many churches and cathedrals in Birmingham, but there is one mosque which Muslims from Malaysia may be keen to visit - the Birmingham Central Mosque, one of the largest Muslim center in Europe. I am unable to find a photo uploaded using the Creative Commons license, so here is the next best I can do:

Birmingham Central Jamia Masjid Ghamkol Sharif uploaded to Flickr by amortize under the Creative Commons license

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For accommodation in Birmingham, go to Hotels in Birmingham.

Asia Hotels Blog

Here is an interesting blog I came across - AsiaHotels Blog. Malaysia's Tourism Department tagline is "Malaysia, truly Asia, and I can find 3 out of 4 categories in the Categories List in the right sidebar - China (2 posts at time of publishing), India (one post at time of publishing) and Thailand (two posts at time of publishing) which races are represented in Malaysia's population, the last one to a much smaller degree, mainly in the north.

This must be a fairly new blog as the oldest post I could find is dated Jul.13.2007 at Top 5 Ways to Spot Lady Boys in Thailand which give some good tips if you don't want to get entangled with sex change individuals. The second oldest post was dated July 16 2007 at 5 Weirdest Thing Chinese Eat in Guangzhou which may turn off westerners used to blander stuff, but will be of great interest to the Chinese diaspora who may not find such stuff in their adopted home country.

I could not find Malaysia in their Categories List, but hopefully Malaysia will get a spot there in due time, as Malaysia is an inseparable part of Asia.

As the blog looked like it only started in July, I am sure if you surf to that site in the future, you will find many more interesting posts about food, life, culture, etc. of Asia, and of course I look forward to finding posts on Malaysia.

Freedom of Information Act (FOI) for Malaysia

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Malaysian bloggers a new hope for Malaysia?

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My ties with Australia

I have close ties with Australia. I have a sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew living in Melbourne plus two nieces and a nephew in Sydney. My daughters had their tertiary education in Monash University and RMIT (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology) University in Melbourne. They have fond memories of Australia. Australia was kind enough to allow foreign students to work part-time to help defray their cost of studying there, which was a great lifting of a financial burden from my shoulder. I have a former colleague who is now staying permanently in Perth.

Perth, Western Australia

It will be nice to see my former colleague in Perth again after all these years. Further incentives are the many interesting places to visit and the the many events are are organised year round in Perth. Especially well known is Australia's largest and oldest multi-arts festival, the International Arts Festival (PIAF), held in Perth each summer showcasing some of the world's finest artists and performers. It brings together award-winning films direct from international film festivals, music from Leonard Bernstein's Candide inventive music of violinist Nigel Kennedy and cool jazz tunes. There is also the famous international writer's festival where authors descend on Perth to scrutinise and celebrate writing during the festival. The festival is traditionally closed by colorful fireworks display on the closing night.

It will be too much to expect my former colleague to put me up in their cramped quarters, so that means hotels which should not be any problem with the existence of online booking sites like Hotels in Perth.

Sydney

Copyright under Creative Commons by ionsand uploaded to Flickr

Sydney is the state capital of New South Wales and the most populous city in Australia. Above is a view of the Sydney Harbour with the icon of Sydney, the Opera House with its complex tiled seashell roof on the left and the Sydney Harbour Bridge (fondly called the "coat hanger") on the right. The Opera House, while it is a beautiful architectural building earning itself a UNESCO World Heritage Site award on 28 June 2007, was one of the most difficult and expensive building to be constructed because of its shell roof design and the difficulty of tiling it. This is one building I will very much love to visit.

Again, expecting my nieces and nephew to put me up during my visit will again be too much to expect with their cramped student accommodation. I will have to depend on hotels again. This should again be not a problem with online searching and booking at Sydney Hotels.

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital city of Victoria and is infamous for its extreme, erratic and unreliable weather. However, it is a charming city which still uses tram system , which began operations in 1885, for public transportation. Unfortunately, most of its attractions are in the metropolitan areas while my sister stays far way in the suburbs. I will have to depend on hotel online booking sites like Melbourne Accommodation.

Adelaide

Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia, a coastal city beside the Southern Ocean. The Adelaide Festival Centre is Adelaide's first multi-purpose art center and its answer to the Sydney Opera House. It was built at a fraction of the cost of the Sydney Opera House, but attract as much art festival activities, and its acoustics are considered far superior, in fact, considered one of the best in Australia. Adelaide has gained itself a reputation as a city of culture mainly from the world famous biennial Adelaide Arts Festival, a gathering of world-renown performers, artists and writers.

I have no one I know in Adelaide, and for accommodation, I will have to depend on Hotels in Adelaide.

Malaysia at 50: Sedition Act and the Nationhood Forum

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People's Merdeka (Merdeka Dialogue): "Merdeka: Wither Bangsa Malaysia?": Report

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Malaysia and Spain: Similarity and differences

There is some similarity between Malaysia and Spain. Both have close connections with Islam.

History of Islam in Malaysia

Some says that Islam began to spread in Peninsular Malaysia in the 12th century. Others says conversion of Malays to Islam began in the 14th century, accelerating with the rise of the state of Malacca under the rule of a Muslim prince in the 15th century. According to Wikipedia, Islam first exists in Malay peninsular when Sultan Muzaffar Shah I of Kedah in the 12th century) was the first ruler to be known to convert to Islam.

Parameswara, after conversion to Islam took on the name of Sultan Megat Iskandar Shah, is the first Sultan of Melaka. He converted into Islam after marrying a princess from Pasai, of present day Indonesia. The conversion of the Sultanate of Malacca into Islam is the milestone of Islamisation of Malay people in Malaysia in the 14th century. However, there seem to be some controversy over this, with some attributing the name Sultan Megat Iskandar Shah to his son. I am no historian, and I will let this issue rest here.

History of Islam in Spain

While medieval Europe was still in the dark ages, Muslim Arabs entered Europe from the South. ABD AL-RAHMAN I, a survivor of a family of caliphs of the Arab empire, reached Spain in the mid-700's and became the first Caliph of Al-Andalus, the Moorish part of Spain, which occupied most of the Iberian Peninsula. He also set up the UMAYYAD Dynasty that ruled Al-Andalus for over three-hundred years. (Grolier, History of Spain).

By the beginning of the ninth century, Moorish Spain became the gem of Europe with its capital city, Cordova and it was then referred to as the golden age of Al-Andalus. Cordova, in southern Spain, became the intellectual center of Europe. There were bookshops and more than seventy libraries. In the great library of Cordova alone, there were some 600,000 manuscripts. Students from France and England traveled to Cordova to learn philosophy, science and medicine from Muslim, Christian and Jewish scholars. The period between the early 8th century to late 15th century had been referred to as the Golden Age of Islam when Al-Andalus was considered the center of global civilization.

Jews and Christians lived in peace and harmony with their Muslim overlords and the society emphasise literary rather than religion. However, non-believers called dhimmis paid an extra tax! (If the declaration with no basis from the current Malaysian Constitution that Malaysia is an Islamic states, first the the former Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir and recently repeated by the current Deputy Prime Minister, become reality, Christians will become dhimmis (people of the Book) and will end up paying 3 taxes, tax to the Muslim authorities, tithes to the church (which unlike the zakat paid by Muslim in Malaysia, cannot be deducted from the taxable income plus the tax to Inland Revenue. I wonder what would have been the decisions of Sabah and Sarawak regarding joining the Federation of Malaysia if they even had a hint of this possibility happening). However,dhimmis have less rights than Muslim, and others have even less rights.

Islamic Spain have been credited by many as the source of Renaissance of Europe when Christian conquered Spain and obtained the vast works of the Greeks and Romans along with Arab philosophy and mathematics and translated the vast store of knowledge from Arabic to Latin. The concept of Zero (an Arabic word) came from the translations as well as the numerals we use today.

Muslim physicians made significant contributions to the field of medicine such as anatomy and physiology. Abu al-Qasim (Abulcasis) was regarded as the "father of modern surgery" with his Kitab al-Tasrif ("Book of Concessions"), a 30-volume medical encyclopedia which was later translated to Latin and used in European and Muslim medical schools for centuries.

Current state of Islam in Malaysia

According to the Constitution of Malaysia, Islam is the official religion. In the Reid's Commission, a clause was added that this should not imply that Malaysia (then Malaya) shall not be a secular state, but that have been excluded from the Constitution. At the time of the Federation of Malaysia's (then Malaya) formation, more than 50% of its population were non-Muslims. The non-Muslim population percentages have declined to about roughly 43% because the birthrate of Muslims also exceeded that of non-Muslims by a large margin, kicking Singapore out of the Federation in 1965, giving PR and citizenship to large numbers of illegal Muslim Filipinos from Mindanao and Muslim Indonesians from Sumatra and Java, and creating an environment hostile to non-Muslims inducing an estimated 1 million non-Muslim migrating to Western countries or to Singapore because they felt their future was no longer secure in Malaysia. According to U.S. Department of State
Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, as of May 2007, the Muslim population comprises 60.4% of the population, and I expect this to rise further.

Many Malaysian Muslim have indicated the desire to see Malaysia become an Islamic state despite the intention of the nation's founding fathers' to have Malaysia (then Malaya) as a secular state. The statements by the former Prime Minister and repeated recently by the current Deputy Prime Minister that Malaysia is an Islamic state (despite what is in the current Constitution) plus the few cases including a case of a non-Muslim couple married in the Civil Registry but where the husband converted to Islam and converted one of the sons to Islam without the consent of the non-Muslim wife, the refusal of the civil court to hear cases which they say falls under the jurisdiction of the syariah court and requiring the non-Muslim to seek recourse in the syariah court have caused great consternation among non-Muslims. It is clearly stated that the syariah court shall have jurisdiction over Muslim only. Non-Muslim Malaysians are watching with anxiety how the issue will eventually play out.

Current state of Islam in Spain

Spain as it is now can generally be considered Christian (Catholic) although I was told a great majority of its population do not attend Church regularly. The Muslim are in the minority. However, you can still see vestiges of its Islamic past, particularly in the south. Smaller palaces can be found in the historic Albaican quarter where there are still Muslims. However, many former mosques have been converted to churches with crosses on top of domes which revealed their former status. The Gothic Cathedral is an example. It was once the Great Mosque of Granada.

In Corboda, the former Grand Mosque of Cordoba (Le Mezquita), built in the 8th century, have been converted to The Holy Cathedral. This may be bad news for Muslims, but at least this prevented it from complete destruction. The muezzin's minaret have been replaced by the bell-tower. But there are still majestic arches and columns and the mihrab enclosed by a metal fence. There are several Quranic verses on the walls inscribed in Arabic calligraphy. Near the Mosque is the Alcazar (Al-Qasr in Arabic), built in the 8th century as the residence of the first Ummayad emir, Abdur Rehman with his statue. There is also the Ibn Rushd Islamic University which has a mosque.

Along the banks of Guadalquivir (derived from al-Wadi al-Kabir, or Great River, in Arabic) is a historic fort, the Tower of Calahorra (Arabic Qalah al-Harrah, or The Fort of Freedom), which houses an excellent Arab-funded Islamic Museum.

In Seville, there is Seville's Cathedral and its La Giralda (The Minaret). You can walk to the top of the 165-feet tall Minaret by gently sloping ramps. Other evidences of its Islamic past are an Arabic-language wall plate at the entrance to the minaret that tells of its architect, Abu Yusuf Ya'qub, and the huge entry gate with Islamic design and 12th century Arabic inscriptions.

Other legacies of the Islamic past of Spain are the presence of Arabic words and phrases like almirante (al-amir), almohade (al-mohtasub), arroz (al-ruz), guitarra (qitar), aceituna (zaytuna), etc.

Travelling in Spain

If you decide to travel to Spain to see the remains of its glorious Islamic past, you will most likely first land in Madrid, the capital and the largest Spanish city. The second largest city is Barcelona, the capital and most populous city of Catalonia. You can travel by road, train or fly. The train journey between Madrid and Barcelona will take anything 5 and a half hours to 9 hours depending on the train service you use, compared to just over an hour when you fly. And if you fly, check-in time is not too long.

Daily flights from Barcelona airport to Madrid, Barajas, are operated throughout the day between 7.00hr. to 23.00hr. by Air Europa with flight time of only 1 hour 15 minutes. Expect ticket prices of between 94 Euros to 320 Euros return plus 12 Euro service charge.

Accommodation

When I was travelling around Europe 30 years ago, I had to hunt for accommodation on my own on arrival. That is not a pleasant situation. There was no Internet then. Now you have better choices. Now, with the Internet You can book your accommodation ahead of arrival via sites like Hotels Español (Spanish Hotels). For accommodation in Madrid, you can go to Hotels en Madrid. Can't read Spanish? No problem, go to Hotels in Madrid. For accommodation in Barcelona, try Hoteles en Barcelona. For its English version, go to Hotels in Barcelona. Now, with these conveniences, you don't have to go through the hardship I experienced 30 years ago, hunting for accommodation on arrival at a strange place and always faced with the prospects of finding all hotel rooms fully booked or not suitable either in terms of location or price.

50th Merdeka Anniversary Nation Building Dialogue

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People's Merdeka (Merdeka Dialogue)

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Malaysia, Germany and Austria

When I was a student in Europe 30 years ago, I had the good fortune to travel to Frankfurt and Cologne. We travelled in a car then. I was in Belgium then. Germany and Belgium are neighbours, and the expressways were good. My memory is a bit hazy now, but I remember most, if not all, were one day trip.

The place I remembered most is the historical Cologne Cathedral with its remarkable Gothic architecture and which I understand has now been bestowed the honor of being a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Don't remember much of my visit to Frankfurt except that it seemed to be a very modern city. I remembered Oktoberfest, the crowd on the street, the free flowing beer (didn't touch it myself though), the frankfurters and the sauerkraut.
My family visited Fantasialand (Phantasialand) in Bruhl. I think we went in a guided tour this time. This must be Germany's answer to Disneyland. I remembered taking my young daughter on a roller-coaster ride. It was only after the ride started that I started fearing for her, but it was too late to turn back then.

When Malaysia (then Malaya) gained its independence from United Kingdom in 1957, Germany quickly established formal diplomatic relations with the federation. There are now over 400 German companies in Malaysia while several Malaysian companies have been investing in interesting projects in Germany. My former classmate Au Fook Yew (Colin Au) bought over a a huge disused former Zeppelin warehouse in Brand, a hamlet about 35 miles south-east of Berlin, for what he called a bargain price of 14 million Euro, intending to turn it into an indoor 'tropical island paradise' to be called the 'Tropical Islands Congress Centre'. I understand that unfortunately, his bold venture is failing and he is no longer actively involved in its management, though still retaining his 25% stake in the venture. Although it may be failing, the project have created more than 600 jobs for the locals and gave dozens of firms in the region work contracts, plus the warehouse would probably have remained idle, and taxpayers would be saddled with the maintenance costs.

Germany is one of the biggest foreign investor in Malaysia. The two-way trade in goods between and in 2005 came to 7 billion Euro, which makes Germany the biggest European trading partner of Malaysia. Among the ASEAN countries, Malaysia, just behind Singapore, has for many years been Germany's principal trading partner.

If you do visit Germany for business or leisure, do visit its neighbour, Austria, too. The connections between the two country is good. Germany's national airlines, Lufthansa fly direct to Vienna from Berlin, the capital cities of the two countries. Lufthansa frequently have special online only deals plus a 'happy hour' page where visitors can bid for flights) you would be wise to check online for Lufthansa's latest prices. Unless you are a multi-millionaire like Colin Au who probably will stick to business class full service Lufthansa, you may also want to consider the many budget no-frills airlines flying between Germany and Austria. Air Berlin, for example offer flights to Vienna from Dortmund, Hamburg and Duesseldorf, Germanwings also fly to the Austrian capital, Vienna, from Cologne-Bonn and Sky Europe have a very special deal for flight from Stuttgart to Vienna via Bratislava which is just 50km from Vienna. From Bratislava you can ride a SkyShuttle bus to Vienna for an extra 10 Euro.

In your travel, you probably wouldn't want to be faced with the prospect of having to sleep in places like the railway station if on arrival, all hotels happened to be fully booked. To ensure that unpleasant situations like that don't happen to you, do book you accommodation ahead of your arrival. You can do that conveniently online via Billige Hotels in Deutschland Unterkunft (Approved German Hotels). If you are going to stay in Berlin, go to Hotels in Berlin. If you can't handle German, go to Hotels in Berlin. For Vienna, try Hotels in Vienna and Hotels in Vienna for the English version. With hotel rooms booked well ahead of arrival, you can then travel assured that you will not be caught with the prospect of hunting for accommodation in a strange land, and perhaps be faced with the possibility of finding no suitable accommodation.

Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah, Sultan of Selangor: More hope for Malaysia?

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Poll: Is the world flat or round?

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Bangsa Malaysia Merdeka Get-together: 25th August, 2007

Event : Bangsa Malaysia Merdeka Get-together
Date : 25th August, 2007 (Saturday)
Time : 8.30pm

Venue : Blog House ( home of Malaysian All Blogs )
No.66, Lorong Setiabistari, Damansara Heights, KL.

For the 25th, the event can only accommodate 200 people and attendance is by invitation only. If you are very sure that you can make it, please send an e-mail to
bangsamalaysiamerdeka at gmail dot com (replace at with @ and dot with .) if you want to attend the get-together.

There will also be a forum/workshop 'Bangsa Malaysia: The Way Forward' at 5pm
on the same day and at the same venue.

Confirmed speakers for the forum / workshop are :

1. Dato Zaid Ibrahim
2. Zorro Unmasked
3. Jayanath Appudurai
4. Rocky's Bru
5. Malik Imtiaz Sarwar
6. Azmi Sharom

If you wish to attend the forum/workshop plus the get-together, please send an e-mail to bangsamalaysiaforum at gmail dot com (replace at with @ and dot with .)

In your email, please provide the following details :

1. Name (as per Identity Card) and Identity Card number

2. Contact number

3. A little bit about yourself (where you're from, what you do) [This might help us decide their response]

4. For those wanting to attend the forum plus workshop, briefly tell us how you think you might contribute to making Bangsa Malaysia a reality.

The organisers have given an assurance that all particulars furnished will be treated with utmost confidence.

Here is a map to Blog House for those who have been invited and for those who intend to attend. BTW, as of Sat, 18 Aug 2007 21:03:13 -0700, when I got permission to use the map, I have been told to remind readers who're interested to participate in this Bangsa Malaysia gathering to register as soon aa possible too, which means places are still available:

Map to No.66, Lorong Setiabistari, Damansara Heights, Kuala Lumpur. (Blog House)

Think carefully before you convert to Islam

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Malaysia Parliament House

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Parliamentary Roundtable to reaffirm Malaysia is a secular state with Islam as the official religion and not an Islamic State: Report

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Beef import cartel broken. A beginning to the end of monopolies in Malaysia?

An announcement that the cartel that controls the beef import into Malaysia will be broken was made by Datuk Dr. Aziz Jamaluddin, the Director-General of the Veterinary Services Department as a result of a decision made by Agro-Based Industry Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin. This is good news for Malaysia as it will stop the control of beef prices by certain group and will probably lead to lower beef prices in Malaysia.

I publish a post Raja Dr Nazrin Shah, the Raja Muda (Crown Prince) of Perak, hope for Malaysia where the cutting statements made by the Crown Prince was reproduced. Dare we hope that these statements are having an impact on the leaders of Malaysia?

Raja Dr Nazrin Shah, Raja Muda (Crown Prince) of Perak, hope for Malaysia

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AllMalaysian Bloggers Project: Guide to Malaysia placed in top 20

Received the good news that this blog "Guide to Malaysia" has been selected to be placed in the top 20 blogs of the AllMalaysian Bloggers Project from some 800+ entries! I am deeply honored. We were also asked to put a "Vote" button in this blog, which has been duly done. It is the second from the top of the right sidebar. I hope you will help this blog along by voting for it. It will be greatly appreciated.

Unfortunately, the organizers have made the voting system a bit complicated. You will have to register for a MyStar account. As a MyStar member, you can access the following MyStar services:
• 30-Day Archives
• Business Research Articles
• Classifieds Booking
• Contests
• Games
• My Portfolio
• Citizen's Blog
• Stock Charts

Once you have registered, you will have to go back to Guide to Malaysia again and click on the "Vote Me" button. This will again bring you to the "Submit a blog" page. However, this time, click on the "AM Bloggers Project" on the left sidebar. In the new page, click on Top 20 AllMalaysianBloggers, then click Vote for your top 5 blogs now.

If anyone have found a less torturous method of voting, please let us know by commenting in the COMMENTS below.

Let us be more appreciative of our police

There are good cops and bad cops. There are some bad cops who take bribes and give the Malaysian Police (Polis Diraja Malaysia) a bad name. I am very sure there are plenty of good cops in our Malaysian Police (Polis Diraja Malaysia). Let us not allow a few black sheep's prevent us on appreciating the good cops, what they are doing to make our beloved country secure and safe for us, and what they have to go through in doing their jobs and the risks they expose themselves to. Think of, for example, the traffic police standing in the middle of a junction directing traffic to make traffic flow more tolerable during peak traffic hours to motorists. They stand expose to the moving vehicles and the possibility of being hit by a careless driver. Think of the air pollution they have to put up with. I wish that one day, I can stop briefly near them, wind down the window and say "terima kasih" (thank you). Unfortunately, I am retired and all my cars have been given to the children. I do drive on extremely rare occasions, but even if I should get such opportunity and do what I said I would like to do, the impatient motorists behind me are not going to be very happy, and that is saying it mildly.

Police put their lives at risk everyday. There are many good cops who loyally hold on to their principles of serving the public. Their acts are not publicised and frequently not appreciated by people because in the first place, they do not get onto the front page of the newspapers. Those pages are reserved for the ruling politicians in our country. People say bad things about the police force just because of a few black sheep. I think that is not fair. They don't know that every year, there are many who get killed or injured in the line of duty.

See what some of them have to endure in the line of duty:

Constable Peter Wong from the Brickfields police station on an operation against drug addicts was bitten by an addict, and as you know, drug addicts are highly likely to be also HIV/AIDS sufferer. The HIV virus can be transmitted via saliva. How would you like to be bitten by a such a person?

Then there is another cop who was in an anti-narcotics squad on a dadah raid in the Chow Kit area. Suddenly, he let out a scream. Asked what happened, he said "Aku kena cucuk," (I got jabbed) and then quickly rushed off to a nearby clinic. Unfortunately, I don't think the clinic can do much for him because the doctor there will not be able to help him get the HIV virus out of his system if he was unfortunate to be infected. And it will be some time before he can find out if he had been spared or infected.

Come on. Let us not allow a few black sheep prevent us from appreciating our police force who put their lives and welfare at risk in their line of duty.