Just another joker.....(in Malaysia's political circus)

Nizar Not First To Refuse To Quit.
By Alan Ting

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 5 (Bernama) -- Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin is not the first menteri besar or chief minister who refused to step down after no longer able to command the confidence of the House under certain circumstances. (Tell who would want to let go of power and money?....unless he carry with him some self respect and dignity)

In Malaysia's political history, there was a menteri besar and a chief minister who had refused to do so previously.First was Stephen Kalong Ningkan who served as the first chief minister of Sarawak between July 1963 and September 1966.Ningkan is probably best known for triggering the first constitutional crisis in the country when he refused to vacate his office after being dismissed by the Yang Dipertua Negeri or Sarawak Governor at that time.

As leader of the state legislature, he was said to have ceased to command the confidence of the majority of the council and the governor proceeded to appoint a new chief minister.

Ningkan's refusal to vacate his office, resulted in a constitutional impasse that he was perceived to threaten the fragile unity of Malaysia, barely three years after its formation on Sept 16, 1963.On Sept 14, 1966, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong proclaimed a state of emergency in Sarawak on the basis that its security was threatened by the constitutional crisis.Ningkan appealed against his dismissal all the way to the Privy Council in London, Malaysia's then final appellate court, but lost his appeal for a declaration that he was still chief minister of Sarawak. (There you go...these sort of jokers will fight their might and even can bring the matter up to international court hoping to get some back-up form the mat sallehs....gosh...power and money surely can stripped a man off their everything)

Another case involved the then-Kelantan menteri besar, Mohamed Nasir, in 1977, who had ignored efforts to remove him from office for defying party instructions.He was removed from office after demonstrations that degenerated to violence and looting, prompting the Federal Government, at the behest of the King, to declare emergency rule in the state.(And because of their greediness; although they won't admit it, people have to go through hassle to kick them out of their office!)

Today, the Sultan of Perak, Sultan Azlan Shah ordered Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin and his state executive councillors to step down with immediate effect, failing which the posts are considered vacant.
The Office of the Sultan of Perak issued a statement after His Majesty met all the 28 Barisan Nasional (BN) assemblymen and the three independents that the Sultan was convinced that Mohammad Nizar had ceased to command the confidence of the majority of the state assembly members.-- BERNAMA

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To readers who are not well informed about current political scenario in Malaysia, or may i just say political scenario after Dr Mahathir, our beloved laser mouth, cynical former Prime Minister 'gave' office to Abdullah Badawi; the political arena in this country would put the Cirque du Soleil to shame.

There had been almost everything.
From scandals, to murders and whatever you might think of. They have it in Malaysia.
I assume the people of Malaysia would have gotten over the loathful feeling hearing all sort of stories told and untold (told by newspaper and blogs and untold by word of mouth and again, blogs) to being rather ticklish to the act and stories Malaysian politician will come out with.

It is so horribly amusing and fun and I am pretty sure the Malaysian people would take this as their comfort during this economic turmoil.

The Parliament has become a playing ground for all these jokers, and when they had enough of playing there, they would create some interesting " i know what you did" and "i will tell what you did" just to brighten up the scene.

Their current play right now is the "Lompat Katak" translated to English "Froggy Jump" or " Jump of the Frogs" whichever you deem suitable.

The actors are the ADUNs also known as KATAKs (Katak is frog in English)

Leukemia

Two days ago I had been told of a bad news that one of the family here have had their daughter diagnosed having acute leukemia.

It was a shock even to receive news much ealier mentioning that she was hospitalised after going there for a check-up for having feeling lethargy and very pale palms, when the hospital decided to hold her back and the thorough check-up revealed that she is suspected having anemia.

I visited her in the hospital later on that day. She looked rather jovial, face and lips pinkish after having two pints of bloods in her body. And despite that they just 'drilled' her back bone earlier to get some liquid from her bone marrow, she still have time to smile and talk to visitors.
I guess the dear family must have been quite relieve when the doctor said that it was probably anemia.
Nevertheless the following day report was the devastating day for all of them.

It took me by surprise.
She is only 18 years old.
She had been the 'leader' of the kids here in this small community and was the energetic and vibrant type unlike some other girls. She is never the restless typical girlish type; the type of girl that I would prefer.

I was told a while ago that she refuses to accept that she is having an acute leukemia and I think no one in her shoes would want to accept it just as the matter of fact like that. Without having any symptom whatsoever except complaining of having feeling lethargic and weak, they thought it was just normal body changes.

I must admit that I would react the same if told of this kind of news when all I'm feeling is just normal lethargy.

I wish her well and hope she and the family would be given strenght by God to go through this difficult situations.
It is devastsating.
It is killing and it is a timed life already for her now.
But I would hope she will understand that we will pass on later. We will leave behind all our loved ones and price possessions.

I wish i could tell her that this is the start of her new beginning.
I hope she will brave through this ordeal and have all the mental and emotional strenght.

As always, when come to this kind of situation, it is another wake up call for us to be cautious in our lifestyle, which includes the diet that we have everyday, the supplements that helps fill in those invisible holes in our nutrition compartment, and never take things and people for granted.

You might not know when would be the last you going to spend time with them.

Some information on leukemia can be found here: http://www.medicinenet.com/leukemia/article.htm.

Save earth.

Stop plastic bag usage.

It was my spring cleaning day.
So i decided to start off with the laundry cum store room and the kitchen cabinet.

I cant believe how many pieces of paper and plastic bags accumulated from various shopping trips i had. All type of sizes; from small, to medium, to big and to extra extra big.

Like most people I have been reusing the hypermarket grocery plastic bags for my kitchen waste, bathroom and other trash can liners up to the extend to storing dirty cloth diapers when we were out of the house.

I still remember those time when i was still in my primary years, following my mother to the neighbourhood sundry shop. As far as i can remember she would usually carry home simple brown paper bag home instead of plastic bag. Unlike now, i could not recall when actually the era of the brown bag being taken over by plastic.

I love shopping and even love it more if given paper bag instead of the plastic one.

In fact while I was back in my home country I have had this discussion on trying to promote the usage of paper bags with the help of the local ministry. Nevertheless, due to lack of studies and not enough details together with being occupied with on-going businesses, the idea was just an idea.

It is my dream to want to see paper bag being use widely. I would also want to experience being treated like ordinary person when i bring my own cloth bag while shopping for grocery and not attract strange looks from the others.

Of course we have to be realistic. Totally eliminating the usage of plastic bags are ridiculous. Consumer products in this decade uses more plastic than other material. Name it and most of it will be wrapped in that substance.

We still need it to put away our daily rubbish. We can't be using paper bag to do so. The key word is moderation.

Plastic as we all know are made of oil. It is non-biodegradable and will take 1,000 years to break down in a landfill. Our favourite fizzy drink can of cola or juices in aluminium can would need more or less 100 years to biodegrade.While plastic milk cartons will break down in 5 years.

But paper will only require 2-5 months to biodegrade.

The effort in banning plastic bags have been quite evident in countries such as US and Australia while the United Kingdom is taking effort in cutting the usage of plastic bags by 25%. The time has come for us to start changing our way of life i.e.; the usage of plastic bags and being too dependable on them.

Besides saving the world in the long run, which many of us, including me who initially don't care much what will happen in 100 years from now, the reasons why we need to eliminate the plastic bag is purely because it come from oil. Oil is the main substance of plastic bag thus increasing CO2 emissions. Which will later have an affect to the greenhouse gases that are vital in helping determine the temperature of the Earth.


Without it the world that we are living now would likely be so cold to the extend unable to be lived on. Although many factors such as the sun and the water cycle are responsible for the Earth's weather and energy balance, if all else was held equal and stable the planet's average temperature should be considerably lower without greenhouse gases.
(The gases function in an atmosphere is to absorb and emit radiation within the thermal infrared range. This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect.)

Many of us might not be aware that plastic bags also causes unnecessary costs that we have to pay. It is not safe for infant or children if they play with it, it kills wild life and even can kill sea living creatures if they got entangled with discarded plastic bags.

The most interesting effort in eliminating the usage of plastic bags was one moves by Whole Foods in the US when they announce plans to stop offering disposable, plastic grocery bags in all 270 stores in the USA, Canada and United Kingdom from April last year (to commemorate the Earth-day) until end of 2008.

According to the company's spokesperson during that stop-plastic-bag day; roughly 100 million plastic bags will be kept out of the environment.
They offered several options: free paper bags in four sizes made from 100% recycled paper, reusable bags 80% made from recycled plastic bottles for 99 cents and canvas bags selling for $6.99 to $35.
They also encourage consumers to bring their own bags by taking 5 cents to 10 cents off the bill for each.


I wonder when will we start here.....