Friday, May 25, 2007

It's nice to take a little break and be entertained by some Malaysian ruling party "actors" and "actresses".


Thursday, May 24, 2007

Are we in for an extended Visit Malaysia Year 2007?

Just out of curiousity, would VMY 2007 be extended to 31 August 2008 due to "overwhelming response" or VMY 2007 officially starts on 31 August 2007? Promotions are still on-going locally and abroad makes us Malaysians wonder.

VMY 2007 campaign was launched by YAB Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak, the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, took place at Dataran Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur, at midnight on 31 December 2005.

VMY 2007 was officially launched by the PM on 6 January 2007 which targets at 20.1 million tourist arrivals with RM44.5billion tourist receipts whlist Government VMY 2007 promotional spending reaching RM462million.

Has any country in the world actually extended their campaign beyond the designated visit year? Visit Malaysia "Truly Asia" Year 2008 in the pipeline?

Of MU & "Bocor" Government Buildings

The saga continues ...... and the final nail to this saga would be the legal repercussions of the agreement signed between AFC and Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) which was not known to MU as the statement on their official website says;

"Unfortunately, new information has come to the club’s attention concerning the FAM’s agreement with the AFC to act as host for the Asian Cup, which means the club cannot play the game without the official approval of the AFC," the statement said.

Now, getting the AFC to agree for this match to be stage is on in the hands of Hammam alone but the committee to agree to an exception to the agreement. Will other Asian Cup host countries like Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam be happy with this sudden turnaround?

FAM is also easily engaged in a turnaround by wanting for the match to go ahead after AAB threw his support instead of originally supporting Asian Cup and honoring the agreement.

Also, is this MU match saga sooooooo important that it warrants a debate in Parliament twice by the Tourism Ministry? Is Parliament a ground for such debate or should be restricted to debates affecting the country and people?

A certainty would be Malaysia Never Prevented MU's Malaysian Tour and should perhaps just come to Malaysia and play beach football or hold football clinics as suggested by Tengku Adnan!

We do hope a compromise can be met but really, it's been such a big fuss with even the PM getting into the fray while Malaysian Government Immigration HQ building "bocor here", another "bocor" in Entrepreneurial Development and Cooperative Ministry’s multi-purpose hall, Parliament house problems and spanking new second largest Court Complex in the world "bocor"! Including the 2 "Mulut Bocor" MPs of Jasin and Kinabatangan which PWD should include in their work scope to maintain their foul mouths!

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Between KL Sentral - LCCT and forth

I boarded an Aerobus from the LCCT Terminal in Sepang, KLIA to KL Sentral at 12:30am this morning out of curiosity of the service and basically on cost savings mode lah!

I had observed that cleanliness in bus is strict as he had instructed his asisstant to ensure a Philippino passenger do not spill his drinks on the bus which was absolutely great if he thinks of hygiene and comfort of passengers. As I was praising him for such attitude, he picked up an empty mineral water bottle and just flung it out of his window!!! Now I reserve my judgement on this driver!!

Looking at the drivers of Aerobus, you would immediately give you the feel that these are true express bus speed demons we used to see on the Noth South highways zipping well above the speed limit for public buses. The authorities don't need speed detectors to detect as they would be overtaking passenger cars which are travelling at 100kmph! What caught my attention during this trip had made me understand as to why the drivers themselves do not realise the speed they are driving .... the speedometer was faulty!!!! Whether it was on purpose or not being repaired is anyone's guess.

The next thing is you will see the driver picking up his mobile and desperately looking for his charger to charge his mobile while reading SMS with only his arms manouvring the steering wheels. It's either he is an experience driver or used to perform such stunts every trip. Now we know why we see incidences of buses brushing lorries, car as well as getting out of control.

SkyBus was neither much different as I experienced, bus driver talking on mobile phone while driving without handsfree and overtaking cars from the left and right, zipping in between cars and etc.

Have we the public or authorities got something to say or do before any untoward incidents happen to tourists/passengers on such buses as we are talking about VMY 2007 experience and now considering extending VMY "due to overwhelming response"?

What passengers need to do to experience such is invest in RM8/9 bus rides!! Or will the undercover police on express buses successfuly implemented during festive season be extended on such buses?

Monday, May 14, 2007

Bring On United Malaysia, Why The Big Fuss On Man Utd?

Asian Cup tournament is on from July 7-29 while Malaysia Select XI vs MU is on July 27.

What's the fuss about Malaysian football whether to play against MU or not? It can be understood that tourism spending from MU supporters all over Asia converging into Kuala Lumpur for this game may be affected and it's VMY 2007. MU supporters will be unhappy if the match is being cancelled and with the large number of MU supporters in Malaysia, they can surely affect the ruling party's chances in the next general election.

But the main question here is,

(a) Has AAB no confidence from the outset of the Malaysia team advancing from the group stages of the Asian Cup? We Malaysians realistically know our team's achievement but a no confidence from the leader is totally demoralising for the team and Malaysians. Does this also mean that EPL has more importance then national team and local league in the eyes of the Government?

(b) Where shall the focus for peak performance for the Malaysia football team be, MU game or Asian Cup? Any sportsmen will tell you that it's difficult to peak in a short time! Now we understand why they need the high performance centre in London!

(c) There was certainly lack of planning and co-ordination from the organizers at our end which is the root of the problem. With Tengku Ahmad Shah of FAM against MU playing here and the Malaysian Government wanting the game to go on ..... this is Malaysian sports scene today!

(d) Malaysia is the only national team MU is playing against in this Far East tour whilst the others are club/selection teams. Has the Malaysia national team/XI gone on par with the club teams of Japan, South Korea and Macau? Perhaps the current ranking says it all.

(e) Why is AAB all about ".... I want Red Devils here!" Is he a Red Devil? If he is, is he a Red Devil fan or supporter? Or he is induce to support this cause without understanding.

(f) Do we smell some fees attached to someone locally being lost?

Whatever it is, chances are we would be seeing more of players like Smith, Eagles, Fletcher, Richardson, Dong and Rossi in the starting line-up and the big guns in the last 30-20 minutes. They have done this before and so, what's the deal?

Just a thought, would it be better for UPB MyTeam playing against MU and at least we able to keep AAB, Malaysia Government especially Sports Ministry and Tourism Ministry, Khairy, FAM, AFC, FIFA and local promoters/organizers happy. Perhaps UPB MyTeam can spring a surprise on MU like other Asian club hopefuls.

Better to focus on bringing a UNITED Malaysia then the fuss over Manchester United!

Latest! 14 May 2007
The "sexist" and "foot in the mouth" fella had been quoted in Bernama suggesting MU to play beach soccer and/or hold clinics instead of the 90 minutes game to diffuse the situation. Is he alright or sponsorship pressure had gotten on these people?