Is this the antidote to 9/11?

Saturday sans platic bags

The campaign to save the environment seems to be in full gear:  No plastic bags on Saturday.  Well, that is the beginning of a long campaign. Howeverthere is cynicism in all this.  While the shoppers are deprived of the usual plastic bags to carry their purchase, they are offered to buy  bags to carry them - plastic bags, a more expensive ones at that.  Somebody seems keen to turn every situation into a financial gain!

But let's take a hard look at the directive.  By 'hard' I mean 'rational' or 'logical'.

No plastic bags does not mean no bags at all!  The entrepreneurs seem to understand this very well, and that's why they sell bags albeit plastic bags all the same.

Does the campaign to save the environment mean to present unnecessary hardships to shoppers so much so that they desert supermarkets on Saturday just to come back the next day when plastic bags are given away freely?

No plastic bags means no plastic bags but you can use paper bags.  Why not provide paper bags on Saturdays, and indeed any day of the week.  Malaysians, let's be rational.  Let's use the good, old paper bags everyday.  They are biodegradable, recyclable, and do not pose danger to the environment.

Pandai Dr M melawak

Jika segala yang dikatakannya dalam beberapa minggu kebelakangan ini benar, maka sungguh Tun Dr Mahathir PM yang unggul.  Tingkah lakunya semasa menakhodai kapal yang bernama Malaysia itu menyerupai Malaikat.

1.  Minggu lepas Tun berkata dia telah menemui tokoh pembangkang pada tahun 1987 sebelum Operasi Lalang.

2.  Namun tokoh-tokoh pembangkang, termasuk yang dihumban ke dalam penjara dalam Operasi itu, terpinga-pinga kerana tidak ingat pernah diajak berunding oleh PM ketika itu.

3.  Apabila dicabar, Tun Dr menegaskan memang benar dia dah jumpa pembangkang, malangnya memori menggagalkannya:  Dia tak ingat rupa tokoh pembangkang yang ditemuinya ...  Maklumlah, Tun mudah lupa.

4.  Dia juga kata dia memang tak mahu menjalankan Operasi Lalang, iaitu tidak mahu menangkap tokoh pembangkang dan menghumbankan mereka ke panjara di bawah ISA tanpa hak pembicaraan.  Tetapi malang sekali lagi tegasnya, Polis lebih berkuasa daripada PM.  Dengan kehendak Polis, berlakulah Operasi Lalang yang menghantui rakyat Malaysia sehngga kini.  

5.  Hari ini Tun Dr M menegaskan pula dia memang benar-benar berhasrat nak hapuskan ISA ketika dia jadi PM.  Aduhai apalah nasib, Polis menepis tangannya yang sedang menandatangani surat perisytiharan penghapusan itu, lantas terpelantinglah pena dari tangannya; yang lain tinggallah sejarah.

6. Alangkah kerdilnyajawatan  PM di bumi Malaysia dan betapa perkasanya Polis.  Sahlah Malaysia negara Polis.
7.  Sungguh lucu Che Det oooii ...  

Menyambut St Valentine's Day adalah haram

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What happened to Tenang By Election?

By Steven Choong

BN claimed a huge victory in last night by-election. BN wanted a big victory to create the perception that Johor is still BN fortress. Well, on the surface, they appeared to have succeeded with a 3707 majority with Dato Chua Soi Lek claiming the Chinese had gone back to support BN.

The big win by BN is nothing but a created number.

BN has access to meteorological forecast and would have known that it would be a wet period during the campaigning period as well as the polling day. Also, it is a day which was just 3 days before Chinese new year and so would be a perfect day to ensure low turn-out for non-Malay areas as those working outstation would not come back to vote.

The 2nd and 3rd generation Felda settlers also would not come back to vote. We witnessed that the government machinery were mainly deployed in Malay areas to carry voters to the polling centers. Requests from PAS to have trucks deployed in Labis Utara met with many excuses as to why a truck or boat could not be deployed to ferry voters from the town to the polling center.

Hence, Labis Utara recorded the lowest turn-out rate of 48%. Whereas, the Malay areas recorded exceptional turn-out rate with Chemplak Barat registering 89%, Felda Tenang 81%, and Chemplak 79%. The other 3 Malay majority areas were all registering above 72% turn-out rate. This would mean that the lowest turn-out rate was even higher than the average turn-out rate of 70% in 2008.

There were also incidents of phantom voters and also votes buying which all contributed to a higher majority for BN.

What if the voters turn-out rate in the 6 Malay majority areas were normalized as if they are like the other 6 non-Malay majority areas? The non-Malay majority areas have an average turn-out rate of 56% and so if we normalize the 6 Malay majority area to that of 56% turn-out rate, the majority would have reduced by about 1,350 votes and the majority would only be 2,350 votes. The overall normalized Malay support would have increased by 1% to 23%.

PAS lost in Labis Timor and Labis in this PRK. The major factor was because of low turn-out rate for older and younger voters and also the decreased support from Malay and Indian. In general, the overall Malay support had reduced from about 22% to 12% and the overall Indian support had reduced from 50% to 20%.

However, the overall Chinese support has increased from 53% to 60% with Labis Tengah registering the highest of 72% and Tenang Station the lowest of 47%. The other 2 Chinese majority areas of Labis Timor and Labis registering 67% and 65% Chinese support respectively. The above has proven that Dato Chua Soi Lek had misled the public by saying that Chinese voters had gone back to the BN.

- Steven Choong was the PKR operations manager at Tenang