Categories
Environment Politics & government

[1015] Of where’s Prime Minister Waldo?

Despite all the bad decisions Bush had made, at least during the aftermath of Katrina, when New Orleans fell into anarchy, he as the President of the United States committed himself to the rescue effort mobilized throughout the affected areas. While Johor and several other states are suffering major flooding, one has to wonder, where’s our Prime Minister?

He’s not in Malaysia but instead, he’s still on holiday, vacationing, somewhere abroad. When I read a blogger expressing his disgust of that fact, I share the blogger’s sentiment. Moreover, with people, real Malaysians, are cut off from power, clean water and food as long as four days, the Prime Minister is more interested in defending himself against an allegation that he purchased a MYR 30 million yatch.

As far as the flood is concerned, I honestly believe that our Prime Minister has failed us, Malaysians. In absence of the top executive person in the country, the Deputy Prime Minister taken over the job of sorting this out. The Johor Chief Minister seems to be active in the rescue effort too. Kudos to them but the jury is out there. They will have to excel if both of them prefer history to be kind to them.

I’m so glad that a state-wide emergency has been declared:

Malaysia had declared a state of emergency yesterday and civil defense personnel, volunteers, and members of the armed forces took part in evacuation and rescue operations.

I can’t find any local media reporting an the declaration of the emergency. I’m not sure whether that’s due to my ignorance, the fact that the media has yet to report it or the foreign source is wrong. Assuming good faith, nevertheless, if this is an emergency as I understand it, the emergency allows state and federal machineries to direct full energy into the ongoing rescue effort. The declaration of emergency however makes the Prime Minister looks even worse — Prime Minister is nowhere in sight amid state-sanctioned emergency!

Today, the Prime Minister expresses sadness over the disaster:

Najib said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi expressed his sadness over the flood situation and asked the Federal and state agencies to help the people. Abdullah had conveyed the message to Najib over the phone.

Mr. Prime Minister, merely expressing sadness is not enough. You must act on it. Come back home and supervise the rescue effort in Johor and other states. According to a news report, residents in the affected areas have been without food and water as many as four days. How long since you last had your dinner, Mr. Prime Minister?

Categories
Economics

[1014] Of property prices set to go up

The government has eased up restriction on trade. In particular, within the property industry. In the NST today:

KUALA LUMPUR: Foreigners can now own or invest in as many houses costing more than RM250,000 per unit as they want in Malaysia.

In a statement yesterday, the Prime Minister’s Office said effective today, foreigners can buy residential units costing RM250,000 or more without seeking approval from the Foreign Investment Committee (FIC) under the Economic Planning Unit of the Prime Minister’s Department.

What will this liberalization do?

Foreign demand for local property will increase total demand for property in Malaysia. That will increase property prices, while holding supply constant, with all else being equal. It might also add more liquidity in the property market.

Today might be a good day to invest in properties, if supply is unable to cope with the future demand surge.

Categories
Politics & government

[1013] Of dear minister, what if the communists…

I’m attracted to a post by The Sensintrovert that highlights an episode on the current communist memorial controversy between Malaysian information minister Zainuddin Maidin and certain fraction within the Chinese Malaysian community. In the article by Bernama:

Zainuddin, who is also the Member of Parliament for Merbok, had alleged during a speech at a Merbok Puteri Umno function last week that such memorials had been found at private Chinese cemeteries in Sarawak and in Nilai, Negeri Sembilan.

According to him, memorials should only be erected for those who had fought for the country’s independence or against the communists, irrespective of which group or movement they belonged to.

Dear minister, what if the communists had fought for Malayan independence? When the communists were fighting for Malayan independence, where was UMNO?

The communists did fight for Malayan independence and by your own qualification, memorials for the communists could be erected.

Regardless, not that I support typical communist ideals, sir, it’s none of your business. Those memorials are on private properties.

“We should not pay tribute to one movement or group that involved only a particular race but individuals or larger organisations that had played instrumental roles for the benefit of all the races in the country,” he said.

Oh, really? What about UMNO which its membership involved only a particular race?

Categories
Environment

[1012] Of is the record rainfall in Johor part of a larger trend?

According to news, Johor is practically under water after receiving above average rainfall on Monday and Tuesday. Singapore wasn’t spare either. Record breaking could be use to describe the rainfall in Johor and Singapore.

Bloomberg reports:

Out of 31 monitoring stations in Johor, 24 recorded “very heavy” rainfall of more than 60 millimeters yesterday, according to the Department of Irrigation and Drainage’s Web site. The highest rainfall of 289 millimeters was recorded in Johor Baru.

The Star reports that in Johor, nearly 30,000 people have been evacuated…

MUAR: Nearly 30,000 people have been evacuated in Johor following the extraordinary heavy rainfall over the past three days, Mentri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman said.

…while Singapore suffered the worst rainfall in 75 years:

SINGAPORE: Singapore on Tuesday was hit by the third highest rainfall recorded in 75 years.

The 24-hour rainfall recorded was 366 mm.

About a year ago, northern Malaysian states along with southern Thai states suffered record breaking rainfall that caused massive flood. China, Japan and Vietnam each suffer their own record breaking snow and rainfall. Keep in mind while that occurred, the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was the most active seasons in recorded history. In An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore said “…Japan reported a record number of typhoons“.

The historic disaster in Johor makes me think, is it possible to link it to climate change?

The world is currently experiencing El Niño and El Niño is supposed to bring less rainfall to Southeast Asia on average, not more. If it’s true that climate change should cause more rainfall in this part of the world, and if it’s true that El Niño had actually reduced the amount of rainfall in Southeast Asia, imagine what it would be like if there were no El Niño.

In Malaysia, the mainstream society never really gives the issue of climate change a thought. We’re too pre-occupied with moral policing, religion, ethnicity and other trivial things appeal to our inferiority complex that do nothing to solve real pressing issues like the economy, education and the environment. It’s time for us to at least pay a little more attention to the environment and investigate the possible link between extreme natural climatic disasters that are hitting us year by year lately with a global trend that is climate change.

Categories
Photography

[1011] Of canoes at Titiwangsa Lake Garden

Last Friday, I was at the Great Green Promotion, organized by the Malaysian Nature Society. On the way back to my place, I stopped by Lake Titiwangsa. It’s been awhile since I last visited the place and I was curious if it has the same atmosphere it had when I last was there.

Large section of the park is under renovation, probably related to the Eye on Malaysia ferris wheel, for the Visit Malaysia Year event:

KUALA LUMPUR: A 60-metre high structure ‘Eye on Malaysia’, similar to the ‘London Eye’, will be unveiled at the launch of Visit Malaysia Year 2007 on Jan 6 at Taman Tasik Titiwangsa here.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, at a click of a button, would light up the Ferris wheel with 42 gondolas to start the celebrations.

I also brought my camera along and took some snapshots. The one I like the best, from a pool of mediocre photos, is a shot of canoes:

Some rights reserved. By Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams.

One thing for sure, the park felt smaller.