Reality bites

Well folks, belt-tightening time! The government has finally decided to set a time-table to "rationalise" subsidies ranging from sugar, cooking oil, flour to education, healthcare, highway tolls (i.e. highways with trunk/toll-free road alternative), gas and petrol. I 100% welcome this move which is the right move and a courageous move. It's time we were weaned off our addiction to subsidies and faced the real world. In this age of the global village, subsidies have no place. There will be political repercussions though, and managing those will of course be a top priority for the powers-that-be. The irony is that doing the right thing may land you in hot soup sometimes. But hey, who said that doing the right thing was easy?

The case for a two-party system in Malaysia

In Malaysia we have been ruled continuously by the Barisan Nasional government under various coalition names for the past 53 years. That's a long stretch by anyone's imagination and we have seen tremendous progress over that same time frame. But we have also seen numerous and colossal blunders from (to name just a few off-hand) the Bank Bumiputra-Carrian Group Scandal of the late 70s in which Jalil Ibrahim, the bank bumiputra auditor sent to Hong Kong to investigate the Scandal and who uncovered evidence of wrongdoing was murdered in Hong Kong (Jalil's murder case has not been solved to this day - the culprits were never brought to justice), highway concessions which were veiled in secrecy, privatisations carried out in name only but which really awarded largesse to politically-connected companies and now the Altantuya murder scandal which until today has never been clearly investigated and subject to scrutiny. We have had people like Mahathir saying that we should be "grateful" for government largesse and hence vote for the government. Wrong. The largesse comes from tax payers and the government is beholden to, never the master of the people. Gratitude does not figure in the picture unless you are corrupted so hopelessly that you see yourself as the giver of alms to a poor and deprived people when you yourself are being paid out of their pockets. What cheek, what temerity! I always get mad whenever the "gratitude" or "loyalty" card is bandied about. Voters have the right to vote for whomever they chose. Our votes cannot be bought. If we let our votes be bought we deserve the government that we get. And we haven't had a very good government so far.

Which goes to say lots about how we as a people are and what we are made of. Your vote is a precious commodity and before you exercise your vote you need to think seriously about the consequences of who you vote for. Cos you will be stuck with the donkey or monkey or hare or turtle that you voted for, for the next 5 years.

In Britain there are the Conservatives and Labour parties. In USA, the Republicans (GOP) and the Democrats. Even in India now there is the Congress (I) Party and the BJP. They all enjoy a 2-party system. I'm not saying that a 2-party system is the best thing but it is the minimal that a true democracy should grant its people. Otherwise, what is the point of an elections? It will just be a formality to re-appoint the same old faces to the seat of power.

Remember, the people whom you vote for has the power to pass laws that affect you. They have the power to decide how much taxes you pay, how those taxes will be spent, the educational policies, your future, your kids' future and the future direction of the country.

In a 2-party system, say if Malaysia has Barisan Nasional and the Pakatan Rakyat, it is simple straightforward and better. If Barisan fails to perform, vote them out. Vote in Pakatan. If Pakatan fails to perform, vote them out and vote in Barisan. In this way the politicians will be accountable and made to bear the burden of their policies. If they administer in a "As-I-Please" way, they will be booted out next elections. This is the true essence of a democracy. Not just to formally observe elections and put the same people back to power again regardless of what they do or say. Don't vote tribal, don't vote ethnic. Vote for who is more accountable. If they are not accountable, kick them out. Simple as that.

The time for a 2-party system in Malaysia is long overdue. I am sick of hearing people complain and bitch but at elections vote back the same clowns who gave them a hard time. Use your vote and don't take it lightly. Vote for the alternative if the incumbent is not performing. Don't settle for cheap slogans and cheap hand-outs. You deserve better. Your kids deserve better.

Ohh oooo looks like shitty days once more

This morning i logged on and found the local bourse had dipped below 1,300 points in as many as several months now after Fed Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's triumphant declaration that the US economy is out of the woods. Well, the US economy may be out of the woods, but Europe sure ain't getting out of the briars not yet by a long shot. In February this year i wrote about the coming great bust of 2010. My prediction looks almost like coming true earlier than i had thought. What with the sovereign debt crises in Greece/Europe, China's recent tightening of credit to stem property speculation and our nascent/very wobbly recovery and raising of interest rates, the stockmarket unsurprisingly took a dive. But perhaps it's just going to be the stockmarket taking a battering/going into correction mode and NOT the economy as a whole. Singapore registered its strongest first quarter growth since the 70s and we're doing pretty well too. Bargain-hunting time? Little grasshopper, the tender green shoots of recovery may remain tender for some time yet. I was really hoping nay, praying even for "De-coupling" vis-a-vis the Developed countries such as USA & Europe versus the BRIIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, Indonesia, China). But it looks like babylon (Europe) may yet bring us all down like a house of cards. Now is the time to see whether De-coupling has a place in our common vocabulary or it's just wishful thinking/pipedreams. As Suze Orman says and Yours Truly couldn't agree more with her: "Remember, people first then money then stuff". Suze my darling pumpernickel, you're the best.

light and easy

I've always been a big proponent/fan of renewable energy in general and solar power in particular. Hitherto i had always held the idealized belief that solar power is a never-ending and perpetual source of power with zero emissions and is 100% environmentally-friendly. But when i delved deeper into the subject today, i discovered that there may be a darker side to solar power as well as its obvious benefits. You see, currently a lot of solar power is produced by old-fashioned solar panels. The manufacturing of solar panels requires polysilicon, a material which is made from silicon. In the process of making polysilicon, a waste/by-product is produced, called silicon tetrachloride. Now silicon tetrachloride can be processed and recycled safely at high temperatures (1,800 degrees Fahrenheit) and put back into the production process. But this processing entails high investment costs and time. According to a Washington Post article dated March 9, 2008 by Ariana Enjung Cha, in China the problem is some companies that make polysilicon dump the waste/by-product silicon tetrachloride unprocessed in the factory's immediate surrounding countryside areas. Yep, just like that and easy as pie. Unprocessed silicon tetrachloride releases highly toxic and corrosive hydrochloric acid ("HCL" - remember secondary school chemistry class? yep the same stuff, old HCL) and generates fine powder silicon dioxide which is so fine that it can be easily ingested or inhaled. HCL is produced when silicon tetrachloride reacts with water in the soil. Crops cannot grow in this and it is certainly not suitable for people to live nearby. For each tonne of polysilicon produced, the process generates at least 4 tonnes of silicon tetrachloride liquid waste. And some Chinese companies manufacturing polysilicon have been dumping their unprocessed silicon tetrachloride wastes right outside their factories where there are rural communities living on and working the land. Crops die and the peasants complain but nothing is done except denials from the bosses and a promise from the local authorities to "look into the matter". Companies save a lot of money by not treating their silicon tetrachloride wastes. As you can imagine, the margin thins dramatically when you have to foot a huge electricity bill and additional manpower/time spent just to treat your waste/by-product. The solution? Just dump it.
In Malaysia we already have a solar power outfit "First Solar" operating a RM2 billion plant in Kulim, Kedah and it recently expanded its production lines there. Next to come to Malaysia, that is in Malacca where Yours Truly is domiciled, is another solar power outfit called Sun Power, a San Jose, California based company founded in 1985 (First Solar is also a US company). It's a given that they will be manufacturing solar panels which require polysilicon as raw material. Not a problem. Problem is when someone sets up a factory to produce polysilicon here and the aforementioned potentialities ala China, may then surface. If they are importing polysilicon say from China, we will not suffer the ill-effects of indiscriminate dumping of silicon tetrachloride here. I hope.

On a brighter note, there is new technology that doesn't require polysilicon, for example "Solar Paint" developed by Nanosolar (a solar power outfit also based in San Jose, California)and "Solar Ink". Popular Science magazine's Michael Moyer writes: "Imagine a solar panel without the panel. Just a coating, thin as a layer of paint that takes light and converts it to electricity. Popular Science's Innovation of the Year for 2007 is a solar cell that can be printed like paper and applied to roofs or any other flat surface, delivering solar energy at 1/10th the cost of a traditional glass and silicon cell."

One hopes that First Power and Sun Power will invest in Solar Paint/Solar Ink as well as producing traditional solar power panels. Woe betide us if anyone decides to make polysilicon in Malaysia, decides to save some money/increase profits the easy way and not process its waste/by-product silicon tetrachloride but just dumps it all in some kampung. Remember Asian Rare Earth's case in Bukit Merah, Perak during the 80s? I liked HCL better in the confines of my secondary school chemistry laboratory.

Miracle in Sibu

A few days ago Yours Truly made a dire prediction that the Sibu, Sarawak Parliamentary by-election would go the same way as the one in Hulu Selangor, Selangor. That massive vote-buying, promises of cash and aid infusions and "development" projects from the government would sway voters into voting for the government as it swayed the people of Hulu Selangor. I was wrong. The Opposition has won the Sibu seat, albeit by a slim majority of 398 votes. My respect for the people of Sarawak has gone up by at least 5 points (10 being perfect)to the region of 7 1/2. Perhaps it was the choice of candidate which mattered at the end of the day but the fact is that the people of Sibu rejected the corrupt and welcomed into their fold a veteran opposition campaigner who had thus far not won in any of the elections which he had thrown his hat in. This is good news indeed, it is very encouraging news and there is a ray of light. My hopes for a just and vibrant democracy in Malaysia hs revived and come back to life again. I am planning a little celebratory feast tomorrow.

Oily mess

The oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico has resulted in another catastrophic oil spill the likes of which have been unmatched since the Exxon Valdez tanker spill off the coast of Alaska on March 24, 1989. But it's unlikely that they can avert oil spills in future since there is always the risk of another oil rig exploding or an oil tanker hitting the rocks no matter how detailed the precautionary measures taken. All of which is even more convincing evidence of why we need to move away from reliance on fossil fuels as an energy source and explore and develop renewable energy sources such as solar, wind or ocean wave power. There will always be industrial uses for oil in plastics and fertilizers, but the bulk of oil consumed today is to supply our energy demand. Fossil fuel has been around for only a short 2 centuries, on an industrial scale at least, and the damage it has wrought on the environment has been nothing but short of catastrophic. It threatens our very survival as a species. For ancient fuel we have sacrificed clean air, clean environment for the smoggy choke of our cities. The costs in terms of health care and damage to the environment alone would make economic sense not to use oil as an energy source or at least to move away from oil immediately. With the age of the internet where the world wide web is a treasure trove of information and research tools, one hopes that research and development of renewable energy sources, especially solar power and its storage capabilities, will be greatly enhanced. Imagine waking up every morning to breath clean, pure air! No carbon monoxide emissions, no combustion engine produced CO2 added to the greenhouse effect, cars running on highly efficient solar panels with batteries to store enough solar power for a 100km drive! Will this become a reality for our children? Let's do it. We can, we can, we can.

dulled and duller

i don't know what, it must be the current prolonged hot spell combined with the staidness of sleepy hollow that makes a man feel out of sorts in all sorts of ways. Outwardly i'm the same as usual, but inside there is a puppy howling to be let out. This is when i feel like taking a trip OUT of the Golden Chersonese and be away for maybe a week or so - so that i can regain my lost perspective on things important and not-so-important. One gets mired in the customary pettiness of day-to-day living simply by being fixed to one place and routine for too long. My cough has almost completely cured itself, after a dose of antibiotics and boiled menthol leaves over a span of 1 1/2 weeks - which prescription was responsible for curing me I cannot tell. ok, first things first. The reason why over 300,000 fellow countrymen have emigrated abroad in the last couple of years? Well for all the usual reasons. Politics, a sense of grievance, greener pastures (this is probably the greatest lure) and a sense of despondency over the state of this here our dear old Golden Chersonese. An old uncle friend kept saying to me whenever we met up: "Get out now while you are still young!" Uncle I'm not young (but i didn't let slip my chronological age to dear old uncle. People always assume that yours truly is young but some are smart enough to suspect otherwise). Uncle was convinced that sleepy hollow was a dying community. And he's probably right in many ways. Short of being overawed by the voting pattern in the next general election which i wearily predict will return the same old folks to their accustomed seats of power (hey look at Hulu Selangor and coming soon-to-be Sibu) and you'll see what i mean. I always could depend on our voters voting intelligently. Or not. So the sense of despondency hangs thick and creepily in the air. Confounding me, adding to my asthmatic cough. The thickness which i caanot swallow anyway at all easily. Oh Lord pity me, a fool! Someone wrote a poem about that. Nice things in life come at a price, so i have grown to believe in a dark despairing way. Nothing oh nothing save perhaps for the love of God, is free. No one is holding you back, and yet you let yourself be a "victim" of circumstance. The loneliness of the long distance runner - aye, if only my hip allows me to run as before. I can understand why people pop themselves. Life is too dull, too tragic, too unbearably stupid and brutal for some of us to put up with. But most of us are too cowardly to take our own lives. And not courageous enough to live it to its fullest. We exist in a twilight of the almost-netherworld, neither living nor dead. Just existing, as a HongKong friend in a moment of quiet reflection once told me. We exist simply because we are afraid. We vote for the same people simply because we are afraid. We let fear govern our lives. We are not strong enough, not brave enough, to change our destinies. Well, but life has to go on! There was the black death, and life went on. There was WW1, and life went on. WW2, and life continued. The polar caps are melting, so what life goes on. It goes on and on and on. Says Monty Python : Always Look On The Bright Side of Life. Oh brother we must!

fevered ramblings

a dry hacking cough, fever at 38 degrees celcius and bed-ridden for most of this afternoon was how yours truly came to be. i gallantly went to work till shortly after 11.20am today when the dry hacking coughs made their presence volubly heard in my office. Not wanting to waste more manpower by transmitting my flu/cough viruses to my esteemed co-workers, i took MC for the rest of the day. The Minah at the company clinic was wearing a surgical mask when i explained to her how i probably caught the flu/cough from my mum. The stetoscope, tongue depresssor and head thermometer examination was over fairly quickly and she prescribed some antibiotics, cough syrup and fever pills. On my way home i dropped by at the local wet market to pick up some papayas and pineapples, fruits that i like to think will have a beneficial effect on my sickly condition. Reached home and quickly showered, had my lunch and took the minah's medicines and went straight to bed. Woke up around 3pm, had a tea of sliced peeled apples (2 apples) took the minah's medicines again and read today's papers and a book. Time runs really slowly when you're not working. Then when you're working it doesn't run fast enough for you to clock off work and run back into the safety of home and hearth. But anyway, the flu virus seems to be everywhere now so a word of caution to my friends and the wise : stay away from crowds. unless your own brings home the virus, which means you're fated to be sick.

I'm almost tempted to go for the free H1N1 flu jabs at the government clinic nearby but most of people i spoke to have shyed away due to fears about getting sicker or possible side-effects after receiving the H1N1 jabs. But the thought continues to play out in my head and i will probably make up my mind about whether to get the free H1N1 jab over the next few days.

Headlines news today: Malaysia to get 1st nuclear power plant up and running by 2021. I don't want to sound like a wet blanket, but as i recall in the not-too-distant past calls have been made loud and clear to preserve south east asia as a nuke-free zone much in the same spirit as New Zealand? But having said that, i do recognise the need to source for power other than our oil and coal power stations. Hmmm, i hope our nuclear power plant won't be like the power plants in SimCity that explode after 20 years. And i think of how they're going to get rid of the nuclear waste. Cruises to nowhere? load them onto ships and keep paying the sailors, hahaha. But what about solar power? We're practically drenched in sun in Malaysia, no fear of lingering overcast days here. Anyway, whatever the outcome, let's pray and hope that we live to see our kids/grandkids live in a safe and secure environment free of the mushroom cloud.