Toll Hike Hits Hard - October 15th

It doesn't rain but it pours - and our cash-hungry rulers have done it again! WTF!!!

We live in dangerous times

Published: 1 August 2015

Ooi Kok Hin graduated from The Ohio State University with a degree in Political Science and Philosophy. He is also the author of the book, "Aku Kafir, Kau Siapa" , published by DuBook Press.

The current political turmoil and the impending clash between the newly minted Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Bersih 4.0 are going to shake our political landscape, for better or worse.

Zahid, who is also the Home Minister, would want to flex his muscle to show who’s in charge. Going by recent events, it is unlikely that he will let the Bersih 4.0 organisers and protesters have it their way.

1MDB is turning out to be a snowball crisis for Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s administration.

The financial scandal claimed its biggest victim yet, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

The former deputy prime minister, who has nearly nothing to do with 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), was euphemistically “dropped” from the Cabinet under a reshuffle.

- See more at: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/opinion/ooi-kok-hin/article/we-live-in-dangerous-times

I agree with author that we are indeed living in dangerous times. So few can get away with so much is worrying. The people have a little under four weeks to Bersih 4.0. Whether it can gather an attendance larger than the highest turnout thus far of 300,000 remains to be seen but I am optimistic it can.

DPM Muhyiddin Axed

Mad gets madder as The Moo is sacked as Deputy PM along with a few others that I won't even bother to name. In his place comes the hardliner Zahid Hamidi.

Anyone can see how this will play out. Eliminate anyone not singing your tune to suppress all opposition especially from within the party. Muhyiddin paid the price for his critical view of PM's handling or lack of in explaining the 1MDB debacle.

To further erode any progress in the ongoing investigations, Attorney General Abdul Gani Patail, who was part of a task force investigating 1MDB, also was “terminated… for health reasons,” as claimed in a government statement statement.

Welcome to the zoo!

2015 - Start of the Breakdown?

It has been two and a half months since 6% GST was implemented on April 1st and prices of many goods have spiked. All this despite half-baked claims by ministers who preached that prices will remain unchanged and in some goods even reduce.

The timing of this consumption tax could not have come at a most inconvenient time when generally the economy was already flat. Malaysians must be very clueless or very lazy - so docile in accepting anything as FATE!

Fuel (i.e. petrol) subsidy was removed on December 1, 2014 when world prices were at an all-time low. Still we got a raw deal as our pump prices were controlled by government and not a true reflection of real world prices. Today we pay RM2.05 per litre for RON95 and you don't have to be Einstein to know it will be higher in the coming months.

On the Opposition front, the pact of PKR, PAS and DAP is virtually over following PAS reneging on agreement not to impose Islamic law. All this is good news to the ruling coalition and we wonder if the next election (GE14) will matter.

Oh well, that's life!

Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim Found Guilty

The case, or should I say saga has been ongoing since 1998 when Anwar was arrested on some say, trumped-up sodomy charge is finally over. The Court of Appeal handed down a 5-year sentence on Anwar.

In a year many see as challenging with the average Malaysian struggling to survive with prices of daily essentials having risen over the past months is this a preview of more to come? Is this not politically motivated? The ruling government says no but the PM is backed in to a tight corner with some within plotting moves against him, this must be his carpe diem moment.

We wonder if it is a master stroke or an own goal!

And Yet Another Plane Crash?

AirAsia Flight QZ8501 from Surabaya, Indonesia, en route to Singapore  on 28 December 2014,  crashed in bad weather, killing all 155 passengers and seven crew on board. Two days after the crash, debris from the plane and human remains were found floating in the Karimata Strait. 

 

Searchers located wreckage on the sea floor beginning on 3 January, and the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder were recovered by 13 January. 

Today the Indonesian military announced that the recovery operation is over after 31 days. In all searchers have managed to recover 70 bodies from the sea, leaving 92 still unaccounted for.

2014 is certainly a tragic year for Malaysian aviation.