Sukan Asia Doha06

Sudah seminggu Sukan Asia bermula dan sudah seminggu juga aku meng'qado' tidur di pejabat. Setiap malam aku menonton siaran langsung dan juga aktiviti-aktiviti sukan yang telah dijalankan. Biasanya aku menonton sampai 3:30 pagi kemudian tv pula menonton aku. Apa istimewanya sukan Asia ni sampai aku tak tidur malam?..entahlah aku sendiri tidak tahu. Piala dunia tidak pula aku gila macam ini. Aku rasa mungkin ini pertama kali sukan berprestij dibuat di rantau Arab dan ada kelainan di mana sukarelawan-sukarelawan mereka pula baik lelaki atau perempuan semuanya menyerikan mata dan majoritinya menutup aurat ada yang berpurdah lagi tu.

Tak terasa hendak melihat aksi-aksi atlet Malaysia beraksi di Sukan Asia kali ini. Walaupun ada siaran langsung membabitkan Malaysia tetapi aku suka mengalih channel ke sukan lain. Tak berbaloi aku hendak menonton kalau main macam hangat-hangat taik ayam. Kalau ada channel aksi paralimpik kita waktu tu memang sudah pasti aku menonton aksi paralimpik kita walaupun siaran ulangan. Mereka itu lagi bersemangat kalau bermain.

Baik badminton, bolasepak, takraw semuanya hampeh. Aku menonton sekejap-sekejap saja. Acara berpasukan takraw yang menarik sedikit sebab ada aksi ejek-mengeje kedua-dua pasukan. Bolasepak aku tak berminat langsung hendak ambil tahu tetapi ada sekali aku tertonton siaran langsung Malaysia lawan Iraq itu pun setengah jam saja. Baru menonton 5 minit dah Iraq masukkan gol ke-4. Inilah pertama kali aku menonton pasukan Malaysia bermain di arena antarabangsa tetapi aku menonton bukan hendak menyokong Malaysia tetapi disebabkan pemain-pemain Iraq yang hensem-hensem. Bolehlah mencuci mata walaupun mereka main pun macam melepaskan batuk ditangga. Aku faham kerana yang lawan dengan mereka pasukan badut. Buang peluh saja tunjuk aksi lebih-lebih, baik simpan peluh tu untuk lawan pasukan lain. Kalau rating bolasepak Malaysia lawan Iraq paling tinggi masa tu inginlah diingatkan, lagi sekali disebut inginlah diingatkan bukan sebab orang ramai sokong Malaysia tetapi kerana pemain-pemain Iraqnya yang macho. Sudahlah pemain Malaysia semua tak hensem main pun macam orang tempang. Menghabiskan duit rakyat pergi hantar pasukan badut. Kepada FAM sebelum menghantar pasukan bolasepak ke arena antarabangsa tolonglah buat perlawanan persahabatan dengan pasukan bolasepak wanita kita atau kalau rasa nak pasukan antarabangsa bolehlah buat dengan Iran juara Sukan Asia Pasifik golongan orang kurang upaya (FESPIC) . Kalau Malaysia boleh kalahkan kedua-dua pasukan dengan gol paling kurang 20-0 barulah boleh hantar ke arena antarabangsa. Adioss!!

Malaysia boleh ke Malaysia bodoh

Kalau selama ini Malaysia "bolehland" boleh kritik pasal negara orang apa salahnya orang luar pula mengkritik Malaysiakan. Mari baca kritikan mamat Australia ini dan yang pasti kritikan seperti ini tidak dapat dikeluarkan oleh seorang pun rakyat Malaysia didada akhbarnya sendiri termasuk akhbar pembangkang....LU NAK MAMPUS KENA ISA??!!. Aku tak tahu apa motif engkau Michael Backman tapi aku suka sangat kritikan engkau. Teruskan sampai satu tahap aku pula benci dengan engkau muahahaha!!


While Malaysia fiddles, its opportunities are running dry
By Michael Backman
The Age
November 15, 2006

MALAYSIA'S been at it again, arguing about what proportion of the economy each of its two main races
— the Malays and the Chinese — owns. It's an argument that's been running for 40 years. That wealth
and race are not synonymous is important for national cohesion, but really it's time Malaysia grew up.

It's a tough world out there and there can be little sympathy for a country that prefers to argue about
how to divide wealth rather than get on with the job of creating it.

The long-held aim is for 30 per cent of corporate equity to be in Malay hands, but the figure that the
Government uses to justify handing over huge swathes of public companies to Malays but not to other
races is absurd. It bases its figure on equity valued, not at market value, but at par value.

Many shares have a par value of say $1 but a market value of $12. And so the Government figure (18.9
per cent is the most recent figure) is a gross underestimate. Last month a paper by a researcher at a
local think-tank came up with a figure of 45 per cent based on actual stock prices. All hell broke loose.
The paper was withdrawn and the researcher resigned in protest. Part of the problem is that he is
Chinese.

"Malaysia boleh!" is Malaysia's national catch cry. It translates to "Malaysia can!" and Malaysia certainly
can. Few countries are as good at wasting money. It is richly endowed with natural resources and the
national obsession seems to be to extract these, sell them off and then collectively spray the proceeds
up against the wall.

This all happens in the context of Malaysia's grossly inflated sense of its place in the world.

Most Malaysians are convinced that the eyes of the world are on their country and that their leaders are
world figures. This is thanks to Malaysia's tame media and the bravado of former prime minister Mahathir
Mohamad. The truth is, few people on the streets of London or New York could point to Malaysia on a
map much less name its prime minister or capital city.

As if to make this point, a recent episode of The Simpsons features a newsreader trying to announce
that a tidal wave had hit some place called Kuala Lumpur. He couldn't pronounce the city's name and so
made up one, as if no-one cared anyway. But the joke was on the script writers — Kuala Lumpur is
inland.

Petronas, the national oil company is well run, particularly when compared to the disaster that passes for
a national oil company in neighbouring Indonesia. But in some respects, this is Malaysia's problem. The
very success of Petronas means that it is used to underwrite all manner of excess.

The KLCC development in central Kuala Lumpur is an example. It includes the Twin Towers, the tallest
buildings in the world when they were built, which was their point. It certainly wasn't that there was an
office shortage in Kuala Lumpur — there wasn't.

Malaysians are very proud of these towers. Goodness knows why. They had little to do with them. The
money for them came out of the ground and the engineering was contracted out to South Korean
companies. They don't even run the shopping centre that's beneath them. That's handled by Australia's
Westfield.

Next year, a Malaysian astronaut will go into space aboard a Russian rocket — the first Malay in space.
And the cost? $RM95 million ($A34.3 million), to be footed by Malaysian taxpayers. The Science and
Technology Minister has said that a moon landing in 2020 is the next target, aboard a US flight. There's
no indication of what the Americans will charge for this, assuming there's even a chance that they will
consider it. But what is Malaysia getting by using the space programs of others as a taxi service? There
are no obvious technical benefits, but no doubt Malaysians will be told once again, that they are "boleh".
The trouble is, they're not. It's not their space program.

Back in July, the Government announced that it would spend $RM490 million on a sports complex near
the London Olympics site so that Malaysian athletes can train there and "get used to cold weather". But
the summer Olympics are held in the summer.

So what is the complex's real purpose? The dozens of goodwill missions by ministers and bureaucrats to
London to check on the centre's construction and then on the athletes while they train might provide a
clue.

Bank bale outs, a formula one racing track, an entire new capital city — Petronas has paid for them all.
It's been an orgy of nonsense that Malaysia can ill afford.

Why? Because Malaysia's oil will run out in about 19 years. As it is, Malaysia will become a net oil
importer in 2011 — that's just five years away.

So it's in this context that the latest debate about race and wealth is so sad.

It is time to move on, time to prepare the economy for life after oil. But, like Nero fiddling while Rome
burned, the Malaysian Government is more interested in stunts like sending a Malaysian into space
when Malaysia's inadequate schools could have done with the cash, and arguing about wealth
distribution using transparently ridiculous statistics.

That's not Malaysia "boleh", that's Malaysia "bodoh" (stupid).