The Star is a joke. Why I still read it on a daily basis is as much an unresolved mystery to me as to why rich and all powerful Najib is unable to get a better looking wife. (Ok you feminist out there, so I am being a sexist here, sue me!)

Yesterday's paper was another day of reporting on Malaysia and her nonsense.

From the front page:

Power supply for 95% of Sarawak by 2012

KUCHING: Ninety-five percent of Sarawak will be connected with electricity supply and 90% of the state’s households will enjoy treated water by 2012, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

He said the RM3.4bil allocation for infrastructure projects in Sarawak under the 10th Malaysia Plan and National Key Results Areas (NKRAs) was testimony to the close ties between the Federal Government and the state.

“This is our commitment to Sarawak. We have forged a good understanding that development projects be implemented smoothly, not only in the rural area but throughout the state,” Najib said at the launch of the rural electrification scheme at Rumah Juliana, Saratok, some 350km from here yesterday.

There are 3 ways to react to the headline grabber above.

If you do not have a brain and is a die hard BN supporter, this report will only strengthen your belief that BN is god's gift to man. In times when the country is suffering economically and bleeding financially, the PM has squeezed some money to the tune of RM3.4 billion to help the poor in Sarawak. Long live PM Najib!

If you are a fed-up Malaysian and has Anwar's poster in your bedroom, you will see this as scumbag Najib bribing his way into retaining Sarawak. And you swear that with such a move, the Sarawak state elections cannot be more than 6 months away.

Now if you are of sound mind and rational, you will be asking 'What the fuck?! You mean in Malaysia still got many people with no electricity and water ah? Sarawak not the richest state in the country meh? They have so banyak oil and timber you know. Are the Sarawakians stupid or do they enjoy pretending to be stupid to be buggered left, right and centre? '

Mr. PM is so proud that he is bringing basic living necessities to these poor bastards (of whom some are still clothed in nothing but loin cloths). Any other decent human will be so ashamed to have neglected this part of the country that he will be getting them Sarawakians the facilities in super hush hush manner. And yet this shameless queen-controlled freak of the nature is strutting his belly all over town pretending to be the people's saviour. Had I been a headhunter, I would have had my field day!

Sarawakians are supposed to be rich. The Sabahans are supposed to be rich. Yet they are poor beyond recognition. And they are not even an ordinary state to Malaysia. They are a partner to the Malaysian 'coalition'. Why the Sarawakians and Sabahans never revolted to get themselves out is another mystery in life. To me, it ranks pretty much high up there with Atlantis, UFOs and Yetis. (And again, Rosmah).

I also found this article sending the blood pressure meter a tick higher too.


Get CP 500 notice cancelled if you don’t earn extra income

PETALING JAYA: If you receive a notice of instalment payment (CP 500) from the Inland Revenue Board, do not panic!

The notice, which states the amount, due date and number of instalments, is meant for taxpayers with earnings other than monthly salaries such as income from business and rentals as well as commissions from multi-level marketing or insurance.

Those with a fixed salary, but without other earnings, should go to the branch handling their income tax files to have the notice cancelled.

IRB public relations officer Masrun Maslin admitted that IRB had received many complaints from taxpayers without side income who were issued with such notices.

“Do not panic. If you do not have any other means of income other than your monthly salary, just go to the branch handling your file for the notice to be cancelled immediately,” he said. However, he said taxpayers would still have to provide supporting documents such as the EA form to show that they did not have income other than their monthly salaries.

Masrun said taxpayers without side income were being issued with such notices due to possible errors in their income tax return forms. “For instance, they must have wrongly put dividends, bonuses or pensions in the other earnings column instead of the salary column.

“The system automatically captures the data on the other earnings and thus, the taxpayers will be issued the CP 500 notices.”

He said previously, the IRB would look at the list of those eligible for the tax liability on other earnings before issuing the notice.

A complainant who declined to be identified said he was upset upon receiving the notice.

He said he contacted the IRB branch handling his file and was advised to ignore it.

However, he was asked to call the branch again next month to check whether he would still have to settle the instalment payments.

“The officer told me that he had been receiving a lot of queries and complaints pertaining to the notice,” he added.

I can tell you for sure that IRB screwed up on this. And yet they have the guts to come out and say that the taxpayers 'could have filled up the forms wrongly'. Fuck you! Is it that difficult to simply say 'we messed up'. Is it that difficult? Instead of apologising, you turn it around and blame us. 'Us' because I receive the similar form too.

I could not even be bothered about the form when I received it. Simply put it, it is somewhere in the rubbish truck already. And to be really honest with you people, I didn't even open the form packed in a plastic envelope. I know what a CP500 is and I am not even interested in knowing how much they want me to fork out each month for god knows what reason they cook up.

I am not going to pay. Period. So why bother opening or calling for clarification.

And now IRB wants me to drive to their office, get a number, wait my turn and proof to their officers that I should not be getting the form of which they screwed up? You stupid dumb arses of the world! You messed it up, you clean in up. Don't involve me, please. Just fuck off and leave me alone.

So ladies and gentlemen, these are some of the latest development in Malaysia; summarised and explained. Enjoy your continued stay in Malaysia.


Note: I am not cheesed off as I was writing this. Choice of language is a very personal thing - quite difficult to explain. Besides, I think certain words drive messages through more effectively. Come on... we all are all grown ups. A little PG 13 won't hurt you. And we all know that no kids are reading these boring political sites la ok.

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During Chinese New Year, just like any other festivities, you meet up with friends and relatives. Lots of them. You chat about money, you gamble, chat about money again and then more gambling. Politics usually take a back seat - doesn't seem like an appropriate topic. Too much fire in it I guess.

What do people do with their money nowadays? My small sampling says buying properties - commercial and residential. Everyone seems to be into it. And we are not talking about about 1 or 2 units anymore nowadays.

I like properties. Capital appreciation could be in significant amounts. Or had you done your homework, someone else will be paying your monthly instalments via rentals. All you need is some downpayment (which in some cases has been brought down to negligible amounts by the developers) and a decent payslip to qualify for never before seen super low interest rates.

What we have now, particularly in the Klang Valley, are recipes for a property bubble that is getting out of hand. The bubble has been growing in size for the past few years with the KLCC area taking the lead. The super charged KLCC area is now a little dampen with the targeted foreigners affected by this never ending financial turmoil or 2008, 2009 and now 2010 (of which we have not seen the worse yet - I am confident).

Properties surrounding KLCC have dropped by some 30% to 40% since 2008 and have yet to recover. Many are betting that the prices will rebound as Singapore and Hong Kong have. I beg to differ. We will revisit this a little later.

But out of the KLCC area, favoured areas have not seen any slide in prices at all! Look at the hot areas of Puchong, Mont' Kiara, Mutiara Damansara, Bandar Utama, Setia Alam and Desa Park City; just to name a few. The IOIs, Gamudas, Sunrises, See Hoy Chans and SP Setias are coming up with all tricks in the book to keep their pockets fat. And the tricks are working darn well for them.

Developers are throwing offers, consumers (Klang Valley at least) are cash rich, home loans are dirt cheap, new launches are getting more and more expensive. This is heaven for property lovers! There is simply none better to do with your money with the stock market being too uncertain and the FD rates being close to being negligible.

Take the success story of SP Setia's Setia Alam. Did you know that they need not push for sale and neither do they need to spend vast amount of advertising money? All launches are sold out before it is actually launched. Yup. Snapped up like pisang goreng. Houses in the area have appreciated by at least 50% in the past 2 years. (And I am being conservative with the figure). I know of a buyer of a bungalow plot at Eco Park who paid RM55 per sq ft 5 years ago and had recently been offered RM145 per sq ft. He does not even know the exact location of his land. That is close to 200% profit in 5 years. Where else can you make such money?

Everyone is going nuts. Buy at launches and sell upon completion. The developers will ensure you make money as they push the prices of their new launches up. You pay RM25,000 downpayment for a RM500,000 house. The developer bears the legal and related costs. You pay nothing else as the bank pays the progress billings. You sell your unit at completion for RM750,000. And make RM250,000 with only RM25,000. So what if the government taxes me. Have you seen my returns vs cash outlay?

But if everyone is buying new launches, who's buying completed units? Take a tour of Setia Alam. The area is still rather quiet; okay it's new. But why aren't the completed units being filled up if the demand for the properties are truly that great? Simple. There are not enough people to fill up these premium locations. We have 27 million people but how many of them are located at Klang Valley? Property is being sold out because people are buying a few units each - all for property speculation. Bulk of these buyers don't intend to stay there. Okay some of them have a few mistresses but let's not go there. Everyone is making profits - but unrealised profits.

And what is truly scary is the perception of the property prices in Klang Valley. Buyers live on the herd mentality. Everyone is chasing this area so I have better get one too. Never mind if the prices are already high. People who bought the same area 5 years ago have doubled their value. So and so area is even more expensive.

Hang on. That is not how a property should be valued. What have happened to fundamentals? Down the drain. What we have now is a typical bubble. The bubble will grow larger and larger. But all bubblegums will burst at one stage when it is no longer sustainable. The Klang Valley property market is close to that.

Let us take a back seat and see the larger picture. Don't compare. But look at the properties individually. 22 x 75 terrace houses in Bandar Utama are going for RM700,000, intermediate unit. That's not a lot of space. And you definitely have to park your extra cars outside your house. 22 x 75 terrace houses in Desa Parkcity is going for above RM1,000,000. That's Kepong not too long ago.

These are terrace houses. Intermediate units. Not semi-ds or bungalows. Not all of them are even nice to look at. But in what way are the prices justifiable? Do you know what is the average Malaysian's household income? Did you know that most Malaysians do not earn RM10,000 a month?

How do these people pay their monthly instalments? And you are telling me that this is sustainable? That the property prices will continue to appreciate? It sure looks like Malaysians are incapable of taking a step back and look at the situation. What I find astonishing is that Malaysians actually believe the pitchings of the sales guy and property agent. It is like saying you believe that our used car dealers refurbish their used units prior to selling to you.

Semi-ds in Setia Eco Park are going for RM1,200,000. And the buyers quietly tell you that 'it is not even that big'. Yeah. Exactly my point. But then they tell you that it is cheaper than Bandar Utama or Desa Parkcity.

If this is not a bubble I don't know what is. Have you even heard of stories about commercial properties?

We are not Singapore. Neither are we Hong Kong. I am not saying this because they are advanced economy while we are not. I am saying this because they are blardie islands for crying out loud. They don't really have that much land you know. We on the other hand have a whole lot of land. When the developers are done with Puchong, they move to Semenyih. When those in Setia Alam are done, they move to Rawang. The Bandar Utama fellas probably already got their Sungai Buloh land ready. We have a lot of land and very little people. The Singaporeans and Hongkies have a lot of people but very little land. That is certainly not apple to apple.

Property prices must be supported by fundamentals. The market must be in equilibrium of demand and supply. Speculative trading will not last. Low interest rates will not last. I hope many of you realise that when the property bubble bursts and your houses are worth 60% of your loan, the banks will not give you a 40% discount. Neither will they help you to extend your loan tenure to 100 years because you have 5 properties to pay for.

A little gambling is good. I love it actually. I was heavy into property a few years back but I've trimmed them down the past few years because I think we have breached the fundamentals. Where is the balance of risks? My view is that our property market is too risky now. High risk, high gain - yes, that's true. But irrational risks puts you back 10 to 20 years when the bubble bursts. Why risk all that you have worked for in the past 10 to 20 years just to increase your pool by another 50%? Is it worth it?

Is Malaysia still what she is 10 years ago when we were the darling of trades? Will there be a sub-prime 2? Will the sovereign debt defaults escalate?

Lets assume that the bubble continues to grow for the next year or 2. Then comes GE 13. If Pakatan wins, our Malaysian economy will fall into a hundred pieces. Make no mistake about this. No FDIs love a political unstable country. In fact foreign funds will flow out. Our stock market will crash. The economy will slow down to a halt. But I am prepared for this. We want a new government and so for that we must be prepared to start afresh from ground zero. If Pakatan does win, expect us to take a while to climb up. Maybe 5 years if we are lucky. Maybe 10.

And this is what I told my friends last week. Here I am calling for a change in government. And people are telling me that I must invest in properties. And if I do and then Pakatan wins, I may lose say RM500,000 in property value. So, do I fight for what I truly want to fight for so that I get the ultimate chance to lose half a million bucks in money I do not have and then repay the bank for the rest of my live? I must be the ultimate masochist to be doing that!

Today is not 31 August. But I have to talk about 31 August 1957. That date, ladies and gentlemen, is the day God decides to punish all Malayans. Am not sure why God did it, but maybe some of these people were beggars and prostitutes in their previous lives and they had to pay for their sins in the present. I don't know.

What I do know is that the Brits left and in came new lords to rule over Malayans.

In 12 years time from 1957, the people will be instigated to kill each another. And that dark event will forever be held as a threat by certain factions of the Malaysian society to rule over the minorities with fear. And in 50 odd years time the country failed.

Why must the Brits leave? We now know that the Brits were dead broke after World War II. Why can't the Brits been more entrepreneurial with Malaya? They didn't leave Hong Kong. And they 'came back' to Singapore. (I hope they curse their luck when oil was found in the 70s.)

Damn Brits. And all they left us was a lousy piece of constitution. What is so sacred about this constitution thing anyway? What does it mean? What is the point of us even having this scroll or book or whatever you want to call it. Our constitution holds no meaning. It does not protect the people. What is the point of us being taught Keluhuran Perlembagaan when in reality it is all bullshit. And what is with the rest of the Rukun Negara. We shout Kepercayaan Kepada Tuhan but Tuhan is used against us. We shout Kesetiaan Kepada Raja dan Negara but our raja sold us out. We shout Kedaulatan Undang-Undang but undang-undang is used against us when we fight for ourselves. We shout Kesopanan dan Kesusilaan but our leaders call us beggars and prostitutes.

Look at us Malaysians. Orphans unloved by our government. Political pawns of our rulers and government. Our lives are but statistics in the eye of the very people entrusted by us to govern our nation. We have no basic human rights. We have no rights to defend ourselves. We have no rights to choose our leaders. We have no rights to speak or write. Every such notion presented to us are but wayang kulit shows. In the eye of our government, it is best that we eat, sleep and shit. (Actually about 60% of the population is on that routine already. The remaining 40% are considered rebels; communists!)

This is not an article of pointless ramblings. I want to remind all you readers that yes, the Brits left us to die. Yes, UMNO violate us in every possible way. Yes, they can take whatever they want from us even when we refuse to give it to them. But we the rakyat of Malaysia will not back down.

I know many of you are feeling tired. I know many of you have been dispirited when we have been pushing, pushing and pushing for the past 2-3 years (at least) only to see our efforts being taken apart by UMNO, MCA, MIC, MACC, PDRM and the fucking judges. But we the rakyat of Malaysia will not back down.

We will fight! And we will fight harder than ever. We will push for PR to be better. We will continue to criticise PR. We will continue to push for garbage to be kicked out of PKR, PAS and DAP. Our fight for the next general elections starts now.

In GE 12, the rakyat's theme was simple - anyone but BN. Place a dog next to BN and the rakyat will place a cross on the dog. But the same strategy will not work again in GE 13. In true advertising, people want something new and fresh. New concepts. And this is what the central working committee of PR has to start working on.

And I believe that keeping it simple and going back to basics always work - PR must be the capable alternative.

The people will not buy 'BN is so bad that we will definitely be better than them' anymore. If PR truly believe in this, we are doomed. Come GE 13, PR must show the people that it has quality to govern. So far, PR has failed in this aspect in all states it captured in 2009. Everywhere you go, people are frustrated with this serious flaw in PR. It is natural for humans to be impatient. The people are not stupid. Furthermore, it is human nature that people do not favour changes. If BN is fucked-up and so is the alternative PR, then why change from Fucked-Up No. 1 to Fucked-Up No. 2?

PR must now present the people with a true reason to vote for her. Sympathy votes will not take you to Putrajaya. Remember this.

Talking about the Perak frogs may win you the state but not the parliament. Talking about Teoh Beng Hock may win you cheers and claps but will not win you the federal government. Talking about Anwar being framed will get the crowd chanting 'reformasi' but again it will not take the PR chief into Seri Perdana.

The people must see credible personalities emerging from PR. This is a lengthy mindset changing process. There must be credible people who are capable of being appointed ministers. And the rakyat must be familiar with these candidates. They must be household names way before GE 13. PR must start to bring these people to the surface. Do you seriously expect the people to put Tian Chua or Jeff Ooi to be a minister? Zulkifli Nordin for Minister of Education?

Pakatan must show us rakyat that you are serious in running for the government. You cannot expect to be given the parliament only for you to look for suitable MPs after that. The people have gone against rationalities once. It will not be done again. Politics affect the well-being of the people and you do not get them toying with their livelihood too many times in their short lifetime.

Get cracked up, get working. And get Ku Li.

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Mark these words: Sovereign Default

Not many people are exposed to these words (ummm... ok, me at least). But this will be the catch phrase for 2010. Forget 'sub-prime'. The new lingo is sovereign default. And this 2 big words will bring the entire world down to it's knees.

I am a believer that there will be a double dip in the world recession simply because I do not believe that the current pump priming of economies globally is going to be able to pull us out of the on-going financial crisis. Apparently the world economy is on some kind of a rebound now. Green shoots sprouting everywhere. Is it? Personally I don't think so.

The Dubai fiasco had started the double dip. US$50 to $60 billion may seem like chicken feet compared to what the US government had to deal with (read: hundreds of billions). But is the Dubai case isolated? That will be the most important question.

What are the unfolding effects? For starters, we are now being told that a large portion of the Dubai debts is owned by British banks. The Brits are at the end of their wits and this will not go down well with their already very ill economy. And if the Brits get kicked, the Frenchies will get their knickers twisted. And the Germans then hammered. You get what I mean.

And amidst all this, a new form of disaster has emerged. Sovereign debt. The Greeks are, pardon my language; in deep shit. Sort of knee high. So that's quite a lot of shit. Their government is unable to repay their bonds. Sovereign bonds are government bonds which are issued and denominated in foreign currency. So upon maturity, the issuing government will have to repay the bond holders in the denominated foreign currency. If the said government is unable to purchase the said foreign currency for repayment of debt, they are screwed.

And this is what we are facing now. We in Malaysia are not getting a lot of coverage on this, yet. Just like the beginning of the sub-prime crisis in the States. We are after all frogs living under coconut shells.

Your next question will be: Greece? So what? Not that big economy aren't they? And it is such questions which show the naivety of Malaysians. It is only in Malaysia where we 'live on our very own island'. Everyone else in the world live dependently upon one another.

The Greeks' default will pull with them their business partners and the European Union. Portugal is already on the radar right now and all is not well with Christiano-Ronaldo-land. Their credit default risk has just reached the ceiling. Not very good signs if you ask me. So, who else are going down? One by one, other related nations will get pulled down together - and drown.

What is causing this mayhem? Budget deficit. Government pump priming their nation out of the credit crisis started by Wall Street. A budget deficit means that the nation budgeted expenditure exceeds its income. In our lay man term, spending in excess of your means. When we need to spend more than our paycheck, we have the credit card(s). For governments, they issue bonds. Get the dough now, pay in the future. The Greeks and Portuguese are in their 'future' now, and they don't have money to pay. So, that's the basics of it - at least from my understanding.

So, if this default disease proves more lethal than AH1N1, guess where the virus is going to spread to? Everywhere. Including the Americans who are borrowing money from their descendants of 2098. Will this spark another round of major credit crisis when the 1st of 2 years ago is still not solved yet. The likely answer is a yes. And this time there will be no more trillion dollars printed to rescue the Americans. Not that their money printing machine is broken, they simply do not have the means to do it anymore. So, come the double dip, the Americans will perish. Millions of Americans will be living on streets or huddling up under flyovers.

And the same shit is going to hit Malaysia this time. There is not going to be any money for Najib to spend his way out this time around. PNB can't even sell a quarter of its recent RM10 billion bond. The country is already as dry as a salted fish.

And rumours have it that Singapore is high on the potential sovereign default list. Their budget deficit is also crazy ass high. This is very worrying. Everytime Singapore sneezes, we shit in our pants. We do trade with them, like, a lot. Really really a lot. Back in the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997, Thailand brought the entire South East Asia down with it. And we aren't even that economically active with them as compared to Singapore. And to make matters worse, Singapore is a mini US. Only geographically distanced. If the Americans die, the Singaporeans die. If the Singaporeans die, we die!

So folks, pray that the world does not end on 10 December 2012. Pray Nibiru comes quicker, much quicker. At least we don't have to see Najib and gang make life a living hell for us ordinary Malaysians in the coming very desperate times. Plus we know they are not smart enough to prepare Malaysia for rainy days.

The world is crumbling and all Malaysia is concerned of is who buggered whom. Dumb fucks!

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