click the picture to get a larger imageThe article mentioned that mainland Chinese students are eroding the advantage of Singaporean students' superior command of Engish. The article I quoted earlier already mentioned the significant gulf between Singapore Primary 4 English curriculum as compared to form I contents in Malaysia.
What can Malaysia do, faced with such fierce competition?
The article highlighted a significant advantage Singapore has - having a multi-cultural background hence having a more adaptable and flexible mindset.
Actually Malaysia can claim to be more multi-cultural than Singapore, Malaysian Chinese definitely mix with more non-Chinese compared to their Singapore counterparts...and yet our multi-cultural heritage and advantage are being labelled as a threat, an intrusion, an invasion and a robbery. Talk about killing the goose that lay the golden eggs.
One would wonder the motive of such people dealing in currency of communal politics.
For decades, the bumiputera community is given protection and told incessantly that they cannot compete openly and fairly. Well competitiveness, independence and endurance is moulded via throwing people into deep end, rather than via overprotection and constant talking down to.
Just look at what South Koreans do to beef up their boys. How should Malaysia education and social systems teach the population to be tough, mentally as well as physically?
In the same newspaper, Malaysia was mentioned in these 2 reports....which makes me wonder...what would a foreigner think, after reading abou the first 2 articles? Would they like to invest or visit our beloved country? Would they have confidence in basing their employees, assets, families and future in Malaysia?
click to see enlarge image
Malaysians are expected to owe another RM90 billion from debts raised in 2011 alone; the years and years of accumulated debts as at 2008 alone was already RM213 billion.
In 2011, Najib's administration will almost double our debts and subject us to more foreign exchange risks. The loans are for infrastructure and property projects - not a whimper about healthcare, human capital development, education .... the soft skills so vital nowadays and Malaysians so lack of it nowadays.
When Najib gleefully announced his election budget for 2011, I wondered where the heck the money is going to come from, given the declining oil revenue and foreign as well as local investments; the apparent answer now, bluntly and without apology, shrinks my balls.
I do not know if the "projects" will generate enough revenue to repay the principals and interest and have enough crumbs for the rakyat to feed on. Who are going to rent the Menara Warisan Merdeka? Will KLCC become another Menara Dayabumi ghost building? Will the other commercial buildings owned by Malaysians be deprived of its existing tenants? Simple questions and no answers.
What I do know is that tax payers' money which could be used for hospitals, subsidy on food and medical supply, schools, street lighting, flood preventation, crime fighting, living expenses assistance to the handicap and aged will be forgone.
What I do not know is who are the financial service professionals that will earn a lot of fees from organising the loans? 
What will the rakyat get? According to Dr Kua Kia Soong in his writing entitled "Defence Ministry on a spending spree", RM1 billion can built 100 hospitals or 1,000 new schools or 10,000 new homes. So next year when the government borrows on average almost twice a month to raise RM90 billion, we will forgo 9,000 hospitals, 90,000 new schools or just 900,000 new homes. And we have people waiting for months just to have an appointment with public hospitals.
I know Najib did some lab studies on the ETP, NEM and what not. I did a low budget lab on my own. I asked a kindly old lady who should be more knowledgeable than me.
I asked her, "madam, what would you say to me if I were to borrow in your name without your consent, spend it on something that would not benefit you but you will just spend years and years of your life paying the debt off and not getting your medicines, better quality food and other necessitites of life."
The result of my lab study is as follows:
Inclusiveness is a big word. After more than 5 decades of communal politics, siege mentality and 'us & them' orientation of nation building, how do we heal the nation's wound?
Economic term-wise, NEM stated that one is entitled to affirmative action as long as one belongs to the low income 40% of household.
Chapter 6 of NEM's concluding part stated that
"Households in the bottom 40% have an income of less than RM2,300 per month with a mean income of RM1,440. Income has risen over time. Whereas in 1990 60.6% of households had income below RM999, by 2009 this had fallen to 7.4% of households. 73% of the bottom 40% are bumiputera households. "
Ok fine. No problem with such findings. I believe disadvantaged people should be assisted regardless of race. I also believe communal base aid groups can co-exist together with national and other communal base aid groups and they are specialist in tackling specific issues hence it is fine to have Malay Chamber of Commerce, Chinese Chamber of Commerce, Indian Chamber of Commerce, Bajau Chamber of Commerce, KadazanDusun ... you get the drift.
However, the niche target groups should be made clear and transparent from the onset and avoid confusion to the public. Same concept as male toilets are for male and female toilets are for female.
I drop into the State Economy Development Agency of my home state, Perbadanan Kemajuan Negeri, Negeri Sembilan to see how the disadvantaged can be assisted.
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http://www.ns.gov.my/pknns/perkhidmatanTAP.html
PROGRAM AKADEMI TECHNOPRENEUR (TAP)
– "....melahirkan usahawan ICT di kalangan Bumiputra yang berwibawa di Negeri Sembilan....."
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so why not open up to non-bumiputra who are also in need of aid if vacant since before Y2K and the last time Liverpool were English league champions?
PROGRAM PEMBANGUNAN TAPAK PENGELUARAN PRODUK USAHAWAN ( TPPU )
....... Pengeluaran produk makanan adalah berdasarkan konsep “anchor” dan “vendor”. “Anchor” memainkan peranan sebagai orang tengah dalam mencari pasaran bagi produk – produk yang dikeluarkan dan memasarkan produk – produk tersebut. “Vendor” pula terlibat dalam menghasilkan produk – produk yang akan dipasarkan dan menjual produk – produk tersebut kepada “anchor” seperti yang telah ditetapkan oleh pihak PKNNS. Pihak PKNNS akan memastikan bahawa bahan – bahan mentah yang cukup dibekalkan kepada “vendor” supaya dapat menghasilkan produk – produk yang berkualiti dan dalam masa yang ditetapkan
......melibatkan tiga agensi utama iaitu MIDF selaku pemaju, MARA selaku pembiaya dan syarikat Muslim Best Food Industries Sdn Bhd selaku syarikat anchor.
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I am not against the above scheme, in fact I think if implemented properly, it can solve a of problems for a lot of people. However I wonder:
According to its balance sheet audited by Jabatan Audit Negara, as at 31 December 2009, PKNNS is financed by RM6,219,271 (2008: RM16,617,428) of federal government loan. This suggest all Malaysian tax payers have contributed to PKNNS's source of funds and we should wonder if PKNNS is channelling back the funds in an equitable manner in accordance with Najib's/APCO's 1Malaysia concept.
MCA has yet to reply in my blog post on this matter, "Another Scholarship Crises for MCA to Yelp at"despite the enthusiastic invitation of this commentator datuk tanah, November 29, 2010 19:48:49
Sigh, in the course of writing this blog post and the one above, I do wonder if there is a place where I can call it a true comfort zone that I can wholly belong.
I can only recall the words from a certain John Rambo. The colonel asked him during a short lull of mayhem, "what do you want, John?" Rambo's reply was, "what I want is my country to love me as much as I love my country."
I guess that will do for me too.
Well, according to the state financial statements, the purpose of the loan was "Membiayai Pembelian Tanah Bagi Penempatan Khinzir 2/1998", the tenure of the original RM22 million was 10 years and interest free. In 2009, RM345K was repaid hence RM8.3 million was still outstanding so it's a RM345K speech by YB Loke.
(if I remember correctly, 1998 was around the time when JE virus wiped out the pig livestock farming in Bukit Pelanduk. We even used to export pigs by the truck load to Singapore. The family of ex-national badminton player Yong Hock Kin was among those who were hit hard)
One of the directors is Dato' Mat Ali bin Hassan, probably the State Secretary (see extract of a mundane report below), who was appointed 30 April 2009 - some 6/7 months before YB Loke's speech. I suppose directorship follows the change of top administrator of the state. Menteri Besar Dato' Mohd bin Hassan might have a say in his appointment.
A glance at the summary financial information below provide the following: 
