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Saturday, April 7, 2007

Formula One: Malaysian GP or Singaporean GP?

I am not a person with interest in formula one race. I always get bored with the live telecast of any GP in Malaysian TV (RTM namely) and always curse Malaysian Information Ministry for wasting time showing such events. I don’t know if they are having good ratting for such events or gaining good revenue. Anyhow, the reasons why I don’t like the game are:-

  • I get fed-up seeing "Mat Rempit" race on Malaysian road. "Mat Rempit" is a famous calling for Malaysian night illegal road racers. The sounds always disturb me! Can't stand with it anymore!
  • Not anyone can play the game except F1 video game! How to get interest of the game if you yourself cannot play it? I don’t even know its rule!
  • Why should there be sexy girls showcasing their body before the game starts? To stimulate the driver? No wonder "Mat Rempit" also using the same style!
  • Sound pollution - Al Gore need to take note of this in his documentary "An Inconvenient Truth V2.0"

But recently I saw news reports saying Singapore is going to have its own version of formula one GP. In Singaporean version, the race will not be on a dedicated F1 circuit, but rather on public road and will be at night. To me, the main question is why Singapore is eager to have F1? Could these be the possibilities?

  • Singapore found that Malaysian "Mat Rempits" are glamorous. However, to save their face, they would like to have something similar but done more professionally. That's why it will be F1 race held at night and on public road!
  • Singapore, a country with low birth rate, wants to have more NIGHT life. The F1 sexy girls if seen on public road converted race circuit may stimulate roadside spectators as well as the drivers. The feasibility study may have shown projected higher birth rate. Soon, young Singaporean couples will be mandated to buy Singaporean F1 tickets.
  • Singapore Govt has changed its foreign policy to "Look North" policy. This will allow Singapore to copy whatever Malaysia (Singapore's North neighbour) is doing.
  • Tit-for-tat action for Malaysia's aim to attract investors coming to Singapore to Johor's Iskandar Development Region (IDR). Since Singapore has labelled Johor as "not safe", it does not want to attract thieves from Johor. So, no choice, need to attract good people from Putrajaya, a place near to Sepang F1 Circuit.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Who wants to stay home and serve here where meritocracy gives way to racial preference? I am a two-time graduate in University Malaya (masters and bachelors degree) and I used to hope that my children could enter a local university someday.

But with sliding university ranking and invisible barriers to keep non-malay students away, I have changed my mind. If I have the opportunity and money avails itself, I will send my children to overseas universities and ask them to emigrate there. We can rot and die here, but not the children.

This brain drain is not a problem to Umno at all. In fact, Umno is happy to see more and more of our talents leaving. Their power base will then be more secure.

All this started with Dr Mahathir. He believed that a half competent malay was better than a fully competent non-malay to serve the nation. This is clearly reflected in the progressive exclusion of non-malays from teaching profession academia, public service and other areas in the public sector as well GLCs since the early 1980s.

During Dr Mahathir's ethnic cleansing of the Malaysia public service, thousands of qualified non-malays left the country for Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, etc. Such departure was view positively by Dr Mahathir - it meant that there were more positions available for malays. That short-term thinking has had dire consequences.

During the regional economic boom of 1990s, Malaysia prospered. There was plenty of money. Incompetence and corruption did not matter - a failure could always be rectified through bailout; high costs (e.g. Proton) could always be neutralised through subsidies (for export) or higher prices (for local consumption).

The scenario today is different. Competition is stiff. Newcomers such as Vietnam are breathing down our neck. Giants (India and China) have awakened and are marching unimpeded.

Malaysia needs to exploit all its resources to meet the global challenge. Ignoring 40% of its most valuable resource (e.g. human capital - Indians, Chinese and East Malaysians) is no way to meet the challenge.

Badawi needs to put in place a policy for exploiting the most valuable resource Malaysia has - its people, including the Indians, Chinese and others. Otherwise, this resource will move away to the competitors of Malaysia.

If deployed properly, the talents will be a source of competitive advantage. If not deployed appropriately, the talents will become a source of relative competitive disadvantage for Malaysia when they end up in other countries.

Majority of the non-malays work in multinational companies. With the rate our government and GLCs pissing off these MNCs! These MNCs are moving out of Malaysia.

Get real! Why majority of the non-malays don't work inside GLCs? What do you think they would do when these MNCs are gone? Work in GLCs or emigrate outside Malaysia?

Some of my friends are always skeptical of Singapore.

Of course, Singapore intention is to protect their own interests (isn't what a government is for) - talented people are very mobile nowadays. Singapore also encounters brain drain to the West (US, EU, Australia), so they need new talents to come in.

They prefer Malaysians, as there are cultural ties - easy to adapt to the environment (multiracialism, language, weather, etc), like their Mr Everest climbers.

But they also welcome white mans, Thais, Indians, and Hong Kong Chinese too etc. Just take an MRT ride or go to the housing estates - you see many foreigners (not the illegal immigrant type).

We have our own national interests and should protect it, but we have more outflow of talent than inflow. Just see how we treat the economist who had a different method of calculating the bumi ratio of the economy - how to attract talent?

Some of my Malaysian friends have been offered citizenship and a few have accepted……….so those talents not going back to Malaysia.

Singapore is following US policy, US still attracted the best brains from all over the world regardless of color, check out the composition of employment in term of nationality in Silicon Valley and Nasa, you will know why it succeed, America is land of immigrants.

Umno policy is that if Umno cannot have it no other Malaysian should have it. Umno prefers a Mat Salleh (because that is a temporary situation) to have it rather than any other non-Umno Malaysian to have it.

I have been advising my relatives and friends for a long time since years ago - to encourage their children to apply for a Singapore scholarship to attend a university in Singapore even it that means she/he has to serve Singapore for 10 years.

At least, that will provide him for the future. So what is 10 years! He is free to utilise his talent as he pleases after that 10 years. I have 3 nephews who got Singapore scholarships, then served the Singapore government and are now working and being successful in Hong Kong and America.

They are heads of multinational companies. They will never be allowed to succeed in Malaysia because there is identification of race with jobs. All jobs even slightly, connected with the Umno government must have malay employees. That is the new NEP.

Dear Malaysians, I don't understand why the brains should not leave this country. The malays are definitely feel threaten by these brains, so we rather let them leave the country.

Malaysia pays peanuts and racially biased! That is why! Simple as that! Go to England, Australia and even the US hospitals and take a count of how many Malaysian born doctors are there, good doctors, man!

I traveled the world over and have lived in UK, Australia and the US. I have talked and met to these doctors. They not being unpatriotic, it is the Malaysia that is not doing the right thing!

I think Singapore should attack Malaysia and expand its territory to southern Johor. All the Indians and Chinese should migrate to southern Johor, and together with Singapore, forms a new Singapore.

Ex-Malaysians in exiles like myself will support this feasible plan. I am sure millions of overseas and mainland Chinese and Indians are excited about my suggestion.

When all the Muslim brothers from Uganda, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nigeria, Indonesia etc etc, become bumis, and enjoy the handout from NEP, there will be the day when the malays realize that they are being marginalize by its own Umno policy.

You can start counting the increasing numbers of Mamak in politics!

In Malaysia, we Malaysian Chinese just need to compete with fellow Malaysians only (where mostly lazy people). Easy to become rich as - we are governed by stupid and lazy people.

We can easily own several houses, luxury condos, own a bungalow at good location, and own and drive luxury cars in Malaysia.

In Singapore, not so easy, we have to compete with Singapore Chinese, Hong Kong Chinese, China Chinese and Taiwan Chinese. Not easy to become rich as Singapore government too smart.

Malaysia will continue to lose its talents not only to Singapore, and other countries but the Umno malays don't give a damn. Their thinking is so long as the malays benefit, the country can go to the pigs and dogs.

They hold the entrenched view that it is better for Malaysia to be another Zimbabwe or Nepal if being in the ranks of Singapore and Japan means malays losing out to the others.

Lim Keng Yaik said recently that Singapore was a small country, so it was easily to govern. In fact, it is not so. Because of its size, it lacks most of the factors of production that we learn in economics.

Land is scarce, and its domestic market is small. However, it recognises that what it has is its labours. No wonder that it is wooing all the brains from Malaysia, since Malaysia does not appreciate them.

Instead, Malaysia seems to be attracting the top criminals as shown by the sharp increase in crime rate. Malaysia with its oil, tin, rubber, oil palm etc, will not forever be able to beat a small country like Singapore because of its incompetent leaders and their cronies who are only interested in their own pockets.

Before the NEP, UM was one of the top universities in the world. After the NEP, it has become trash because it rejects the best minds. The only pro of NEP is if you are in Umno or a friend of theirs.

All the Singaporeans I have met were very nice to me and treat me like one of theirs. We are the same people and I am always in favour of reunification with Singapore.

Anonymous said...

As I had said, it is free economy that work!

Do you believe that the teacher love your kid more than you?
Do you believe that the headmaster love your kid more than you?
Do you believe that the education minister love your kid more than you?

If the above answer is NO, why don't they give the right and choice to choose the school, back into the hand of the parent?

The problem in Malaysia is the government want to control everything! Down to the sugar price! They do it in the name of the citizens! By using a navy ship to deliver sugar is another form of subsidiary to the sugar factory, you are in fact using state resources!

The more you let the bureaucrats to control our everyday life, the more problems and ineffective the citizens will face!

Anonymous said...

We don't give a damn! We must make sure that 70% of the graduates are malays! If they can't get employed, create more job opportunities in civil works! Still can't revolve it, force the private companies to employ at least 30% malays in their companies!

Still can't solve it? Increased to 60%, to reflect the current population percentage! This is our land, we can do whatever we want. You don't like it, get lost! Semuanya ok!

If your kind (malays) have a little sense of dignity, should commit suicide long ago!

Furthermore, the suppression of information and subscribing to spoon-fed knowledge and spoon-fed news etc - we will be heading towards a cow ranch society. No need to exercise thinking power, the government do not need you to think and they prohibit you to think.

Talking about a centre of education excellence. Talking about achieving developed country status. You don't need to look far to see how far are we from achieving it.

I wonder whether our minister of education has any feeling of embarrassment or shame when he meets his counterparts of other countries.

It is not that Malaysia universities could not be in the top. We have been there in the past. The policy maker doesn't want it. They are willing to sacrifice Malaysia competitiveness for a particular group.

It has been 50 years. Malaysia has suffered for 50 years due to certain policies. With the natural resources we have, we could have achieved more than what our neighbour Singapore achieved.

It is so sad. Malaysia is a country with vast potential but under achieve. As time travel, this potential is gradually dwindling. When will they wake up?

60000 unemployed graduates summed up the quality of the universities: low quality staffs, low quality students. Smarter undergraduates are all local-overseas universities graduates or overseas graduates.

Since the 1980s, Singapore has been stealing all the good ones and that is why Singapore is well ahead than Malaysia in human resources. And they are now even stealing from Europe, Japan and US.

What is the result of our investment in Biovalley or Cyberjaya? Bolehland is good only for ideas but can't walk the talk. Vision 2020 is only a dream.

Politicians and rich peoples here rarely send their children to local universities. They know why.

Universities are seen as an opportunity for Umno to consolidate its political power base. As long as malays are given degrees even if they do not qualify for them, Umno rightly feels this will buy them loyalty. It is in fact Umno interest that malays remain insular insecure, narrow minded and uneducated. This makes it easier for them to control the noose.

Paradoxically, when you have uneducated malays, political Islam too flourishes. PAS and Umno are reverse sides of the same coin. They both flourish when there is ignorance, insecurity, racism and religious bigotry.

Malaysia public universities are not about education in its widest sense. They are political to a lesser extent PAS and breeding grounds for Umno.

Non-malays who want quality education so that they can be trained to be intellectual and to the best of their ability have to seek alternative sources. This often means going overseas. Sadly, most talented Malaysians do not return which is a terrible waste. But does Umno care? Like hell they do!

PAS and Umno are self serving. Malays must be kept in a pen like sheep and ensure they are dependent on you. One way is to give malays 'pangkat' in the form of university degrees but make sure they are worthless in quality so that only Umno will recognise your degrees and not the world.

Anonymous said...

Don't be like that, stupid Mahathir! Just look after your own shit! You are in a deep pool of dinosaur shit!

Singapore has all the reasons to be proud, beat your stupid ass a million times over in every area of governance of a country:

- Good government, close to 100% corruption free
- Education systems
- Economic progress (shit, compare Malaysia foreign reserves to Singapore, shame)
- City planning and cleanliness
- Transport systems
- SIA (while MAS had to sell shares to your crony and then relegated from buying back - hanky panky!)
- Racial harmony
- Housing development
- Health care systems
- etc……….

Long list to blur your old blurry eyes! You have got 22 years, not only did you not manage the country well, you messed it up.

Just compare the education backgrounds of the two country's cabinet members, and listen to the ministers of both parliaments speak. Even kids can tell you we have a zoo in Malaysia parliament with bunch of stupid monkeys.

Singapore has all the reasons to be proud of. But they don't necessary taunt your thin skin emotional violent loose canon big mouth freaks.

You know from top to bottom, you have shamed your entire race to the max. The world is no longer isolated - it is borderless, news travels faster than the sound of your stinky fart.

And the whole world gets to see the stupidity and idiocy that so define you and the self-proclaimed sons-of-the-night-soil.

Anonymous said...

The very foundation of Umno are lies - lies about May 13 riot, lies about secularity of constitution, lies about special rights, lies about supremacy of court, and of course lies about the NEP.

How can our accountability and transparency not be limited by the very lies of the foundation of our governance?

Anonymous said...

I recently returned to Malaysia for a vacation and met up with a few old friends. We were talking about old times and present times, basically typical 'mamak stall' banter.

I couldn't help but ask their opinions about the current ho-ha between the prime ministers of old and new. We got talking about freedom of the press and corruption.

While they did agree with some of my points, they indirectly indicated there was a need for some 'necessary evils' for the sake of peace between races. I do not blame them for the BN machine over the years has instilled such fear in Malaysians through the propaganda, mainstream media and education system.

My friends told me there was no way they would let another coalition party rule the country, even to see if five years made a difference. A British philosopher once said, 'Neither a nation nor a man nor a crowd can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear'.

I am, however, encouraged that in recent years more questions are now being asked of ministers and BN cronies regarding corruption and suspicious business dealings. I am pleasantly surprised and happy that Dr Mahathir is doing what he is doing now.

Bear in mind he could just have retired quietly and enjoyed his life outside of politics. Perhaps he now realises the nasty seeds he has sown over the years and is trying to make things right while he still can.

I urge all Malaysians to keep questioning the current government engine, for as we all know there are not enough checks and balances to keep the ministers on their toes.

Anonymous said...

Islam in Malaysia is suppressing humanity, dignity and desire of a normal human being.

Islam in Malaysia is causing trouble to non-Muslims who goes about their everyday life to do what any other normal human being on earth are doing.

Islam in Malaysia does not respect traffic law when Muslims can park their cars all over the road and causes inconvenience to everybody.

Islam in Malaysia does not contribute to the progress of the malay race and any other race in Malaysia.

Islam felts threaten in Malaysia, when nobody actually gives a damn about them.

Anonymous said...

Malaysia belongs to the ethnic Chinese as much as the malays. The malays are not the original aborigines in malay Peninsula. They have only arrived in Malaysia just a few hundred years earlier than the Chinese who have been there since the Tang Dynasty or earlier.

And there are many other indigenous peoples in Sabah and Sarawak who are not related to malays at all. Therefore Malaysia is not the country of the malays alone. It is just as much the country of the Chinese and the many other races from the Indians to the many aborigines and indigenous peoples.

For the Chinese - the British colonial era was much more beneficial than the current malay bully era. During the British colonial era the malays were polite and the Chinese held just about all the highest positions in the government and the police.

Now there is hardly any Chinese left in the government and the police. And while the Chinese were allowed to do any business during the colonial era, they are now not allowed to do anything other than own a few shops.

The society was also much safer during the colonial era. There were hardly any crimes when the efficient Chinese police officers ran an efficient police force to minimize crimes.

And the Chinese were very safe being able to call on the protection of the Chinese dominated police. And the government was also very clean, corruption free and efficient under the British rule.

Now the government is just a cesspool of corruption where nothing is done. Therefore, for the Chinese - the malays are the daggers in the heart. If Malaysia had remained under the British rule, it would have grown as rich as Hong Kong. The worst thing that has happened for the Chinese is independence.

The Chinese have migrated to Malaysia and other Southeast Asia places as early as the Tang Dynasty more than 1000 years ago. For instance, Mountain Kinabalu means Chinese Widow (Mountain Kinabalu is in Sabah, East Malaysia).

This shows how long Chinese peoples have been in Southeast Asia. Chinese have certainly earned the right to feel they are rightful citizens of any country and place in Southeast Asia.

Furthermore, United Nations does not discriminate against immigrants in any country. The UN does not sanction a set of rights for so-called immigrants and natives. All have the same rights. Even in UK no Chinese or Indians have to pay more for food or for housing. But in Malaysia they do. Therefore, the Chinese and the Indians don't need to tolerate this.

It is also bad logic to say the Chinese are recent migrants to Malaysia. As indicated above, the Chinese have been in Malaysia hundreds of years before America was even 'discovered' by Columbus.

If the white Americans are entitled to consider themselves masters of America, then certainly the Chinese have even more moral right to consider themselves masters of Malaysia.

As I have pointed out before, Sabah and Sarawak are not homelands of the malays. The Chinese were in Sabah and Sarawak long before the malays were ever there.

The Chinese have been there longer than the whites have been in America. The Chinese have been in Sabah and Sarawak even longer than the malays. The Chinese have been responsible for most of the wealth of Malaysia. Therefore, they are entitled to consider themselves equal owners of Malaysia.

As I said, the Chinese had been in the government, the military and the police under the British but are now out of the government, the military and the police under the malays. The Chinese were also allowed much more freedom to do business under the British than under the malays.

In fact, the Chinese can now do no more than own small shops. So it is obvious that the Chinese had been better treated by the British than by the malays. Just because the British had created division between the Chinese and the malays does not mean the Chinese are now treated better by the malays.

I have no doubt at all, that if the British had not left, Malaysia would be just as developed and prosperous as Hong Kong or Singapore. The stupid malays have ruined the Malaysia economy while robbing the Chinese.

I didn't see the Chinese fighting the malays under the colonial rule. If there were any fighting - it started after the British had left when the malays started killing the Chinese in the May 13 incident in 1969. And now the malays are constantly threatening the Chinese with more massacres similar to the May 13.

Anonymous said...

Malaysia is be a Taliban state! Teaching kids to kill people, preaching hates and angers, chasing away investors with their seditious, racist, insensitive, incendiary, extremist utterances, unfair to non-malays.

Enough is enough!

To all the people out there, Please vote for a change! Vote the opposition! Vote the DAP!

Anonymous said...

Nope. You got the equation wrong.

BN won was because there is no equal playing field. In a free democratic country, all parties are given adequate airtime on national television, newspaper, Late Show with David Letterman, etc.

Here, coverage is only for BN. Each time you switch on the TV, you will see our Bapa Slogan sleepy face. You don't have a chance to catch a glimpse of any of our oppositions figure. Tell me when was the last time you watch Anwar on national TV?

All the draconian laws in Malaysia prohibit free speech, and our local mainstream media will have to abide by it. Try to switch on to any of our TV news at 8 o'clock later and the answer is very clear there.

In conclusion, our oppositions are not weak. It is the unfair level of playing field. Period.

tokmoh said...

One man's poison can be other man's meat. What may appear to you to be just a mat salleh's version of mat rempit race can be a passion for us who viewed them on certain Sunday evenings (once a fortnight usually).

Bt plz, dun ever equate F1's standard to mat rempit race. Unlike mat rempit, F1 is full of professional engineers from the top universities in the world such as Imperial College London, MIT, Oxbridge, etc. Are you to tell me that while we all always feel proud if our children get entry from those top universities, then should they enter F1, we should mock them for supporting what appears to be a mat salleh's version of mat rempit's race?

F1 is done professionally on tracks, while mat rempit races are done on public road, endangering other road users unlike F1, which endangers nobody save the driver. Mat rempit do crimes to get money to bet n get their drugs, while F1 drivers are sponsored and monitored strictly against drugs. Mat rempit are reckless on the road all the time, while F1 drivers' only offend on the road is speeding, bt even then, Michael Schumacher himself has always encouraged ppl to drive responsibly and safely, in fact, he sets himself as an example when he's off-track.

More importantly, F1 is a display of engineering capabilities, which can never be a bad thing. If you just make some research on Google abt F1, its technology is simply mind-boggling and begs belief. For engineers and race drivers, to be able to enter F1 is like a dream come true to them, just like those candidates in The Apprentice being appointed by Donald Trump. They are, what you call, the peak of what human can achieve in car’s technology, and you want to condemn it just because they waste time, petrol, noisy, and encourage raping? Mind you, unlike the m**** businessmen, they don’t slack, in fact, they are constantly improving race after race to improve efficiency. Surely, improvement can never be a bad thing.

SG wants to host F1, why condemn? Now Sepang can hv a competitor in SEA, now u want to condemn it? Did you know that the owner of F1 complained recently that Sepang is now too dirty wit rubbish everywhere? Sepang is now no difference than Proton: w/o competition, they slack!! Now SG wants to join, they must buck-up or buck-out!! If you want to keep condemning SG for this, then stop pretending to support rocket and vote for your beloved Barang Naik gamen.

Get your facts right before mocking F1.