For people's own good

For people’s own good, is it?

 ‘ Sugar subsidy cut for people’s own good’

“The reduction of 20 sen per kilogramme in sugar subsidy is not to burden the people but done for their own good, ” says Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Deputy Minister Datuk Tan Lian Hoe. 

          “When the subsidy is reduced and the price goes up, people will consume less sugar and practise a healthy lifestyle including eating a healthy diet,” she told reporters at the parliament lobby, here yesterday.

          PM Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak when tabling the 2013 Budget in the Dewan Rakyat on Sept 28 announced the sugar subsidy reduction which took into consideration that 2.6 million Malaysians are diabetic.

          Tan, however, said the sugar subsidy reduction should be no excuse for traders and operators of eateries to increase prices of goods.

          She said errant traders could face legal action under the Price Control and Anti-Profiteering Act 2010 for indiscriminately raising prices.

          Under the Act, errant companies can be fined up to RM500,000 or ordered to pay a compound fine not exceeding RM250,000 which individuals can be fined up to RM100,000or face a jail term of up to 3 years or both, or face a compound fine of up to RM50,000.

          Tan said the public could act as the ‘eyes and ears’ of the government by monitoring prices of goods following reduced sugar subsidy and reporting to the ministry on irrelevant  price increase for appropriate action to be taken.

          According to the records, sugar as a controlled item had before this, undergone price increase four times since Jan 1, 2010, by 20 sen per kg, 25 sen since July 18, 2012, 20 sen (Dec 4, 2011), bringing the retail price to RM2.30 per kg until now.  (The Borneo Post, Wednesday October 3, 2012 Home)

          This is the whole article I type from the newspaper because I want to share with everybody the details.  It is exactly what is reported and I find this issue very interesting and challenging, too.  Sugar is an item that many people like my family do not use much.  Besides, my family only uses brown or cane sugar.  So and so, we are not affected as far as this item is concerned.  But it is considered an important item to those who use heavily in various foods or drinks in the busineses.  A price hike of 20 sen a kilo to make the retail price to reach RM2.30 per kilo no doubt will become a load to those who use a lot.  That is what is said, “Sikit, sikit jadi bukit.” 

It is what we believe that the price hike of 20 sen can bring a huge amount of money (a lot of profit) to the sugar manufacturers and increase the revenue of the government to a great extent.  The BN government led by Najib need this money to spare in BR1M in different ways to please people for their support.  Hence they need to hike the price of sugar to cover the expenses though they  are always self- deceivingly telling us, people that it is all for our own good.  This is our belief no matter how nice and sweet Tan Lian Hoe howls it is for people’s own good, not for their own gain.  We know it is their tactics and gimmick to win the hearts of the people when the 13^th general election is just imminent.  Almost every BN political thugs pow-bows and hows like a hound (paʊˈbaʊ and ˈhaʊ like a haʊnd) the help from the government is not to fish votes.  But who believes that it is not?

Do the BN government led by Najib really care for people?  Now let’s look at the prices of the houses of different types all around us.  Please be my eyes to investigate the houses and shop-houses around.  Are these buildings in right measurements and qualified for the prices they command?  Check the measurement of your houses and shop-houses.  Are the houses and shop-houses having the right measurements fitted for living and operating businesses respectively?  Who cares for our own good in this respect?  Houses one of the 4 basic needs in life are many times more important than sugar, right? 

Our BN Prime Ministers (from Tunku Abdul Rahman), Sultans, heads of the state, Chief Ministers, Ministers and those high ranking officers ………since time immemorial have never cared to find out whether the houses are built with right measurements and the municipal councils in different localities and districts always check and double-check the measurements of the houses and shop-houses in reality and in practice.  Are they just looking at the building plans   and signing the documents on the table blindly and getting the money under the table?  Swear on the holy book, be it Quran or Bible to say that there have never been such things!

Time is here now when people by troops and herds and flocks and swarms have awakened to the abuses of our political thugs.  For our micro and macro-environments, we know whom to curse and blame for our hardship and difficulties.  For the houses with restricted space / room, we should blame and curse our abusive political thugs for signing the approval and permits so lightly and blindly without due consideration for us, people.  They have failed to guard our interests like they guard sugar.  Our government have Price Control Act and Anti-Profiteering Act to protect such a small, small item.  Are these Acts applicable to big, big things like houses and shop-houses?  

They only care about their own interests in the process of giving permits.  It is our general belief the BN political thugs, like Najib, Taib Mahmud and the cronies are paid the money on the table and under for the permits of any kind.  I hope Sibu BN political thugs like Wong Soon Koh, Tiong Thai King,..……. will stand out to refute for himself and  his other accomplices Taib Mahmud, James Masing, Jabu…….. not gaining a lump sum of money in the process of giving permits’ businesses of any kind.

          I don’t know what the right measurements of my house on the plan when the developer got the approval to build the houses.  And I don’t know whether SMC (Sibu Municipal Council headed by late Robert Lau then) had the officers to check the measurements of  these houses before giving the permits of occupation.  Otherwise, I don’t think the odd measurements my sitting room 21’8”  X 25’ 4” and my kitchen 9’4” X 13’10” (not 12’ as stated earlier) would take place.  What are the standard measurements for the sitting room and kitchen as well as rooms for the houses be there semi-detached or terraced?  Who was the minister of local government and community development then?  I wonder they have the standard measurements for houses now?  We have elected these ministers to represent us to guard our interests but they are more concerned with their own gains and the developers’ interests. 

          Now I think we people should wake up and demand the right standard of measurements for our houses.  We have the rights to demand for the minimum measurements of 25’ wide X 30’ long X 11’ high for the sitting room and 15’ wide X 20’ long X 11’ high for the kitchen and 15’ wide X 20’ long X 11’ high for the master room.  The other rooms set the standard at 15’ wide X 15’ long  X 11 high.  With these measurements, I don’t think anyone in Sibu / elsewhere will think of using hard earned money for extension and face up the risk of being sued. 

          For the single-storey, low-cost housing, give them the right measurements of sitting room, kitchen and rooms, too.  Set the standard 20’ wide X 25’ long and 12’ high for the sitting  room; 15’ wide X 20’ for the kitchen; 15’ X 15’ for the rooms.

          It is time to calculate the cost of bricks, cement, and lists of other sanitary facilities that are required to be installed and labour cost in details for each house to count the cost and profit seriously.  I think our government should exercise Price Control Act and Anti-profiteering Act on the house developers who often earn more than 100 – 200 % like Sesco in Sarawak or elsewhere.  These companies always plunder and exploit people.  People are aware of these but we are looking forward for a new system of government to resolve all these menaces for our own good. 

We can’t expect the BN government to provide these benefits and good services though they pow-bow and howl so much like  hounds.  But we don’t believe anymore after 55years Federal supremacy and 49 years in Federation.   Taib Mahmud 34 years as chief minister of Sarawak and his cronies only exploit and plunder us, people all the time.  He and his cronies are going to turn Sarawak into a place full of dams to damn us.  Who can stop them now to go ahead with the projects to pollute our environment?  We people want change of government for good and for sure. 

My house and Your houses

My house and your houses are one of 4 basic needs in life.  In these late n years after independence and after federation, we people are at the mercy of the BN government and their cronies.  To be more specific, in Sarawak, we people are at the mercy of Taib Mahmud and his cronies.  The houses in Sarawak are the best evidence of the quality of the BN government headed by Taib Mahmud whom we see the curse of us, Sarawakians for the difficulties, miseries and hardship we experience or witness.

He has amassed RM64.2 billion (RM642亿in the Chinese language) at the expense of us, Sarawakians.  We shall wait to see him diarrhoea (pour out and pass out) out all the shares that belong to us people that he has swallowed.   Now he enjoys all the fun and glories in life.  We shall see him some day live in shame, misery and humiliation like Hosni Mubarak, the toppled Egypt president for abusing his power.  He has clung to this pedestal seat as the chief minister of Sarawak for so long and only shit talk and shit talk about the progress of Sarawak.   

Now let’s go around Sarawak to assess and evaluate the houses be there semi-detached, terraced houses, flats and low-cost housing built through the developers for the past 30 past years.  Let’s tell the housing conditions in our areas to share.  I started observing the houses in Sibu now.  Hence I started to size up my house.  I measure them in terms of feet and inches.

I see that I live in mini-sized semi-detached house.  My sitting room is 26’ 8” in length and 21’4” in width.  The kitchen is only 12’ X 9’4” which is just too small and congested  for comfort.  I feel the squeeze of the place.  Those who saw my kitchen commented that I had too many things.  Yes, yes, I may have many kitchen wares that I can leave so many in the sink and containers unwashed for 3 meals.  I may have a bit more things than many middle class families.  But I still insist that the kitchen with the size 12’ X  9’4” is too small. 

A normal kitchen should be 20’ in length and 15’ in width.  With such a size of kitchen I have to make good use of the room beside the kitchen to put the refrigerators, an oven, a piano……..

I really feel the squeeze of the kitchen when I am not allowed to put the 3’ X 5’ dining table outside the kitchen to be put in a corner of the sitting room.

I wonder if the self-interested minister of local government and community development can imagine the congestion and squeeze we feel about the kitchens and understand why we need the extension of the place.  Hence the Sibu Municipal Council should hand off on the extension or face the curses of us people. 

It is time our minister of local government and community to speak up for the house buyers and set a standard size of 15’ X 20’ for the kitchen to prevent the business of extension to take place or they will be flushed out like shit.   Let  house owners have some freedom for extension if they need to.   We understand that Taib Mahmud and his cronies all live in palace-like mansion.  I wonder what the size of their kitchens in feet and inches. 

I hope there will be a house buyer association to protect house buyers’ rights.  Otherwise, we will be at the mercy of these political thugs who always approve at the developers’ advantages.  Hence I witness houses have become more and more expensive but there is no improvement in quality.  Can you imagine that a terraced house in the middle is priced at RM340,000 now?  It is like kompong fish sold at RM30 a kilo.    

I wonder

-->

I wonder how much RM1 billion is.                              23Sep12

It is said/rumoured Taib Mahmud and his family have amassed RM64.2billion （RM642亿in Chinese）. 

I often try to figure if the money is expressed in RM100 dollar notes to be put in A4 sized paper boxes.  I wonder how many boxes are needed to hold RM1 billion.

If we stack up 5 boxes in height and 10 boxes across how many kilometres they will run up to.  Well, well, well, and then  RM64.2 billions,  I wonder how many kilometres these boxes will occupy the road. 

I wonder how many billions they can call their own and how many billions in ringgit are ill-gotten through different means of corruption and collusion. 

I wonder whether this is the main reason why he has become so wealthy at the expense of us Sarawakians.  Sarawakians are deprived of so many opportunities and basic facilities as a whole because of him.  He controls almost everything in Sarawak to his advantage.  He and his family enjoy all kinds of luxury at our expense.  We are at the mercy of him. 

          I wonder how much he is responsible for the poor road system and conditions  in Sarawak.  We all feel ashamed of the poor quality of the Pan-Borneo “Highway” which is narrow and winding, more like a kampong road but is forcefully crowned “Highway”.  Whenever I see muddy road people travel, I curse Taib Mahmud and his cronies for the plight.  He and his cronies have plundered us for so long and neglected our needs and interests.  Look at the quality of the houses we see around.  We have to pay more and more for the houses which does not prove of their worth in terms of size and space.  We people are exploited all to the full advantage of Taib Mahmud and his cronies and developers.

I wonder if this is the reason why the 30% equity to Bumiputra still has not reached the targeted point because it has been all taken by the political thugs like Taib Mahmud and his family, his cronies and those related to them.  In other words, it has all been taken by those who are in a circle within the reach to these advantages.  For those who are outside this circle can only watch them become mega-wealthy at their expense.  It is just like every time when we see them banqueted with all the good foods.  Only they have the access to the real food.  We people can only feast through pictures.   For the resources in Sarawak, we people outside the circle can only watch and feel frustrated when only this circle of people enjoy all the fruit of development at our expense. 

     I wonder what ground he stood on when he spoke on “Integrity” to those in civil service.  I saw this activity in the newspaper.  (The Borneo Post).  People like me, of course, laughed our hearts out to see such a scene.  An arch corrupt person and liar who lacked the every quality of integrity to speech on the value of  “Integrity”.  I wonder how many would listen to him / take him seriously.  Pei………….. (we spat or I spat)

          I wonder who does not think he is a laughing stock and a fool who enjoys fooling around and indulges in lying and ‘stealing /swindling /embezzling’.  I wonder how many Sarawakians still take him as a person seriously.  He was so, treacherous,  artful and crafty that so many Sarawakians were fooled by him to believe what the BN government could do for them.  Nowadays, I believe more and more Sarawakians have seen him through and discovered the truth and realised the lies he has said.  It is as clear as the make-up / pretence that a granddaughter aged lady would fall in love with an old man in grandfather rank, 46 years her senior.  

          I wonder what our respected MACC would do if it is proved to be true.  We know it is a heavy task to MACC but it is also a good opportunity for Malaysian Anti-corruption Commission to prove himself/ itself worthy of what he/ it stands.  We people are watching.   We people are more or less ready to flush out those who serve no purpose at all but block the progress of democracy.  This is the trend and be prepared.  Believe it or not, just wait and see.

Houses in comparison and in grievances

Houses in comparison and in grievances                                                 17Sep2012

          Sarawak in federation for 40 + 9 years, we see or I see the development go in extremes.  I will present the pictures in Sarawak.   You can present the pictures of the conditions in your states to show how the BN government has led the country as a whole.  It is time for us people to set the wheel of democracy going for the good and future of all of us.

          Quite a proper terraced house to live in has become a very heavy task to at least 50% of the people .  These people struggle hard all throughout their life to sustain a house.  To another 20%, they can only afford to live in kennel-like houses throughout their life.  For the 10%, they can hardly have a house call their own. 

For about 15%, well, well, well, they may live in semi-detached houses.  With the size and limitation,  it is hard not to feel the squeeze of the building to live in.   There are top 5% living in palace-like houses.  Taib Mahmud and his cronies are in this bracket.  In Sibu, everybody knows Wong Soon Koh live in a palace-like mansion.  Tiong Tai King , our SMC chairman live in style, too.   I bet he has the heart to suppress any extension also at all cost.  People say it is near impossible to get the permission to extend your houses. 

Hence it is hard for not to conclude that this is the government By, For and Of  Taib Mahmud and his cronies as well as those related to them in different business connections.  I often see that there is a lot of corruption and collusion business between these leaders and the consortiums.  We people are always at the mercy or expense of these shark-like leaders. 

  You may often hear Taib Mahmud and his cronies  bark saying that every resident should have a house call his/er own.  But the houses we have around are getting smaller and smaller but more and more expensive.  Is this not the practice called collusion?  Find out if it is true that  Taib Mahmud and his cronies only care about the interests of their own and the developers.   They are blind to see people’s needs.

          With such a size and limitation, 80% of us want the renovation to improve the houses.  BUT they will not be granted the permission for the activity easily.  They are apathy.  They force people to take law in their hand.  We have no choice as we need the space to accommodate.  I live in a mini-semi-detached house and I would like to extend the kitchen but…………I know I can’t for many reasons. 

We have some stupid friends who always tell me to compare myself with those living in kennel-like houses to get the sense of satisfaction with the house conditions.  I can see that these stupid friends do not know what standard mean to them.

Hence I curse the government and the developer for building such a small kitchen.  Thus I can understand very well why my friends and relatives would try hard to save enough to renovate the houses.  I can also understand why more and more people like me curse and curse Taib Mahmud and his cronies especially the minister responsible to signature the agreement for the size of the houses.  Houses are one the basic needs of the people.  It should be built properly to the best interest of the people.  If our housing ministers have been sincere and good to us people and always have the house-buyers on their minds and empathetic, I am convinced to say that these quality of houses won’t exist easily. 

          We really feel ashamed and sorry to see kennel-like low cost housing built to coop up the poor, poor people.  When some of  these people have tried to extend the houses, the authority are ever ready to come to suppress them.  Lately in Sibu Jaya, Sibu, Sarawak, some people there want to improve their kennel-like houses but the leader 丁永豪 (district councillor ) say they will have to dismantle at all cost!  Alamat!  What a curse! What a shame! What a pity!   What  a cold blooded person to say so!  I wonder what size of house he lives in.  Here I would like to advise him to live in the kennel-like house for a year before he takes any action against these poor people.  Remember we people are looking and feeling for them.  We people will band up to flush all these shit leaders out in the course of time.  Believe it or not, just wait and see.

What rights do people have?  Najib and other leaders bark a lot saying “People first!”   The houses that we bear witness are well evidenced of who is first in reality.  I hope Taib Mahmud and the leaders of his cronies would not shit and blind talk anymore.  The more they talk on how they care for us, the more abhorrent we feel towards them when we see the great discrepancies between words and actions.

          Lately again Taib Mahmud and other BN leaders in Sarawak shit and bark saying, that earning RM150,000 a month is possible for Sarawakians under SCORE (See Hua Daily News 31^st August 2010).  I wonder how many and how to attain this goal.  Shit-shit talk is no doubt so easylah.  Is shit a kind of food to them, too and food for your thought?