Of Millenials

I still have tonnes of books which I haven’t finished reading. One of which is the clash between Keynes and Hayek which I recommend to many. But there’s a write in the Times magazine which is really insightful on the new generation which they called “the millenia generation” ie born after 1990s. (Others have called them Gen Y) Its fundamental for parenting as well as political approaches. I find the write profound and thought of recording this on my blog.

These are quotes from the articles which I find interesting:

“Because millenials don’t respect authority, they also don’t resent it. That’s why they’re the first teens who aren’t rebelling.

They are most threatening and exciting generations…not because they’re trying to take over establishment but because they’re growing up without one.

They are fame obsessed…and convinced of their own greatness.

What millenials are most famous for besides narcissism is its effect: entitlement.

Now that they can socialize at every hour, peer pressure is anti-intellectual, anti historical and…anti eloquence.

Not only do they lack a kind of empathy that allows them to be concerned of others, but they have trouble intellectually understanding others’ point of view.

What they understand is how to turn themselves into brands. They have trained themselves to be reality-tv-ready.

A quote by an army trainer: “The previous generation I started recruiting was sort of do, do, do. This generation is think think think before we do it. They are 3 or 4 steps ahead.

Despite narcissism, all studies conclude they are nice and positive. They’re more accepting of differences and have many subcultures.

Its difficult for them to join counterculture when there’s no culture.

They are earnest and optimistic. Tinkerers more than dreamer. Their world is so flat that they have no leaders. They want constant approval and massive fear for missing out. They have acronyms for everything. They’re informed but inactive. They’re financially responsible. “

I have teenage children who the article prescribes well. Parents should take note of this.

Taktik kotor Pakatan Rakyat

I read with disgust what Rafizi is trying to do and utterly condemn his action. He wanted to challenge the decision of elections not in courts but with a partial tribunal. He knows that only a court can overturn the decision of an election. He knows he has to submit proof of a credible nature to courts. He knows that all those evidence have to be shown to and judged by the public at large. He knows that he needs to convince a knowledgeable and experienced judge. He knows the rule of tribunal is unclear and arbitrary. He knows the accused won’t submit to this illegal and unfair trial. He knows and should know that at the tribunal his opponent can and will not challenge his evidence. Probably they will not even be given a right to reply. He knows his evidence is not subject to scrutiny expected in courts. He knows at the tribunal the judge would be a friend/supporter or sympathiser. He knows the tribunal is organised by those who support him.

He knows he can manipulate and distort information. Shameful.

This is gutter politics. This is the politics of destruction. This is the politic of lies and treason. I totally condemn those who ask others for respect on the rule of law and due process but spit on those principles when they apply to them. Such person deserves the highest opprobrium that I can utter right now.

Ps: when reference to knowledge above is made, it includes implied knowledge that any reasonable person would or should have known in rafizi’s capacity.

Ps: rafizi lied imputing spoiled votes are fraudulent. Any spoilt votes has to be shown to each party’s counting agents and be agreed to. If any disagreed they would have objected to it. Rafizi pembohong besar.

Stop spreading lies

Of late we’ve been inundated with false election allegations. Worse, some are so gullible to believe nonsensical assertion as the truth. I need to set the record straight again.

Allegation of ballot box brought to the central counting centre

There’s been pictures after pictures showing people stopping ballot boxes going into the central counting centers and thinking that this is a proff that fraud is committed in the election.

This is one ridiculous argument. Currently, counting is carried out at your saluran ie the classroom you vote. Why? Coz they don’t want the issue of ballot boxes being introduced during transportation. This has been implemented lama dah.

What this means is that after the voting, counting is immediately carried out before both counting agents at the saluran. If there’s a break they will seal the box and it’ll be countersigned by the agents. The classroom is locked and guarded not by the police only but by all the counting agents. Unless you have a blind polling/counting agent, I assert that there’s absolutely no possibility to introduce new ballot boxed. Thus this is the reason you dont hear until today complains by any polling /counting agents on this ballot box.

Now when counting is done, its done before both parties counting agents. They show each votes to them and if the counting agent is not happy he is entitled to and will object. If its close you can ask for recount. Kira lah sampai puas hati. Then what they do is that they sign off the numbers in a form. This is most important.

Its from this number they tally at the central voting centre. You add up lah semua. Just maths. Do you count again the votes in the ballot box? No.

I’ve been saying this countless of times. Its difficult to cheat on polling day save if the polling agent tidur. I stand by it. I’m pleased to come across PR polling agent writing similar points. One in particular was Nurul izzah’s counting agent. We must stop this lie.

What about postal votes?

Please be informed that postal votes look very different from ours. What does this mean? Their ballot papers are the same but inserted in a sealed envelop. They use postal services brought to the counting centre in postal bags. Only at the centre the envelop is open before the agents.

What transpired is that before election both polling agents witness before themselves how the ballots are inserted in an envelop. How its posted. This election, polling agents can actually see the conduct of postal votes and how they cast it into the postal bags. I repeat POSTAL BAGS. And then its brought to the centre. The envelopes are still sealed and only open before polling agents.

I have argued that I want the postal votes to expand. I don’t want to queue for 2 hours to vote. I should have the right of postal voting like citizens in other developed countries. But that’s a separate issue I will write later.

But point is the allegation of fraud on postal ballot box is ridiculous. None of the pictures showed picture of postal bags. They showed picture of ballot boxes but as written above its not important. The votes in the in ballot boxes have been counted,

Again please don’t spread false and fabricated news.

We have issues in our election procedure. But fraud is unlikely. Malapproportionment is an issue. The registration can be argued as an issue. But nothing justifies the treatment on alleged Banglas that’s being spread around. I’ve seen some are even PR supporters. Its a bigotted dehumanizing act that we did. Many took the laws into their own hands. This is shameful.

To Anwar and those of his ilk, I’m adamantly opposed to the method of changing government by rally. If you are unhappy you can and must bring this to court. Let us see your proof. Right now I’m just appalled by the selective recognition of the election. If you think there’s pervasive fraud, then don’t appoint MB of Selangor, Penang and Kelantan. You cannot recognise results that only favour you in particular in states that you won. Stop being selective and conning people.

Why we must reject LKS’ and DAP’s racial politics

As expected, the Chinese overwhelmingly supported DAP and PR and had left a bad aftertaste. The open broad support by the chinese has instead solidified the Malays towards BN. It has raised a big question on BN that whatever you do, the Chinese will never support BN. LKS aggressive support to decimate MCA to be the sole party for the Chinese has split our nation badly. The chinese rejection of the johorian way of compromise, will make johorian malays rethink of their longstanding approach of the chinese. I’ve written before, DAP has taken our country far too the right.

As a consequence, BN is mainly UMNO and Sabah Sarawak coalitions. MCA must honorably reject the offer to be part of the cabinet. Chinese should not be represented to be fair. They don’t want bn to represent them pun.

The DAP must learn to compromise. Its uncompromising push for its agenda actually hurts PAS the core of PR. The Malays see how PAS is made a pushover by DAP even in terms of religion. This, DAP must learn and reach out.

Najib I think will still be moderate. There will be clamoring for less inclusivity. Many will argue that even when the Chinese are wholly united, this is a worse case scenario: without the Chinese, BN is still strong and will win. The Malays must hold back and not play and follow the DAP hate game. This would be disastrous for our nation. BN must still show moderation and hold back the backlash. The outpouring of Malay support I saw a day before election should not be a demand for more hate. All of us must go back to the politics of moderation and compromise. That’s how we build our nation. That’s the spirit of our constitution. That’s the Nash equilibrium or point of social cohesion.

I’ve written before, to change this point of social cohesion, the Chinese must give in more to gain more. They must give up some of their exclusive rights (chinese schools eg) for Malays to not push for NEP. By pushing all to go their way it has brought a counter reaction of solidifying the Malays.

Umno will receive a major backlash I suspect for giving in too much. More will question najib’s approach. But umno too is hampered by this point of cohesion. If they want two third they must be more inclusive. Otherwise it’ll be a simple majority,

The Malays I hope can maintain their usual trait. Being tolerant. The next few months which include the umno election is critical in determining our future direction. They must hold back and be tolerant.

DAP in the meanwhile must also realise that this is the max they can gain in pr Nash equilibrium and will not help the Chinese interest anymore. As a gesture of compromise, a resignation of lks from dap politics to take all the blame for pushing this way, will help the moderate Malays in particular Najib.

Selamat Mengundi

We’ved been hearing two different perspectives for the last few weeks. From BN they are very confident of winning the election until they claim they are targeting 2/3. PR is also confident albeit a simple majority.

From the ceramah held, pr propaganda had a number of huge ceramahs. By my count BN had less than PR. This is just a feel since both blew up the figure. Most picture taken tries to show the most favourable anger.

As usual the truth lies in between.

In order to win in Malaysia, popularity votes do not determine winners. Its by constituency. An accurate account is to go constituency by constituency and thus judge it there. The one who wins is those who have the actual statistical account of each constituency..

However, yesterday I went down to the ground with a few others. I must admit I did not carry out an acceptable polling standards. We pick a spot in town and queried people passing by. I personally tried to stop as many as I can to have a feel. Almost all in my way. About 90%++ so happen to be Malays. So its not reflective of our population. Most there went about shopping. A very random feel.

But my goodness the result was surprising. For the Malays I personally found out that 80 to 90% openly admit to vote for BN. Its like an outpouring of frustration. For non Malays I can’t conclude into diferrent races but noted many non Chinese openly proudly admit they will vote BN today. I take those who avoided the question or appear holding back as PR supporters.

Now I’m not going to justify my method. Told you its not done scientifically and not representative of our nation. But its my truth. You can argue to the contrary you have a contrary subjective findings. So is my subjective truth. I saw and heard from the whole family and their body language. Whatever you want to say, I saw it with my eyes. You may see it differently but I have a story to tell. You call me a liar and I will respond in kind. I don’t do that and protect my integrity.

My conclusion is that the result of GE will split us further. The Chinese are overwhelmingly united on one side with an open display of support. A huge substantial Malay voters (from the low to middle class) albeit less vocal with BN. Indians mainly to BN. And its i believe a fair reflection taking into account of my Facebook friends. Those with PR has been super vocal. Many are just quiet. The only difference is that my friends are roughly 80% professionals and those I met yesterday are from low to middle income. Among my Malay professional friends I believe about 50/50 for bn. However I note Malay professional form a much smaller percentage of the Malay population.

This is not going to be good. We’ve become more polarized.

I wish all Malaysians happy voting. Be safe. Play safe and clean. Accept the decision. Challenge unfair result in court. Respect the majority determined by our Westminster model.

IPP: Why must PR bloggers always lie.

I am now having a fight with pro pr blogger donplaypuk.

I really don’t know why these people like to show off their ignorance. And then because of ignorance accuse others of wrong doings. Really something wrong with their values.

Now he alleged like many blind follower that the new IPPs are robbing TNB. He alleges that there’s already 55% reserve margin, so why should we have any new power plants. Any increase is as usual to rob the rakyat.

Man. Some people are really off. So this is my reply. Its sarcastic. Pardon me for my language. ( DPP stands for donplaypuk.) I’ve sanitized a bit. The reply is as follows:

“….. I know what. Why don’t we appoint mahaguru Dpp as our system planner amacam? Lets see how he plans our electricity demand. Nak tak? ….

First lets gets the facts right. We look at peninsular electricity generation capacity. Why not Sabah and Sarawak? Coz they’re not connected. Whatever they do, we can’t use their electricity.

So what is actually the reserve. Is it 55%? Lets see Energy Commission’s figure. Latest figure (2011) says that the electrical generation capacity for peninsular is 21000 MW (megawatt). What does this means? The maximum electricity all plants can produce is 21k MW.

So what’s the usage in 2011? According to EC, 15500MW. There is a difference of approx 6000MW excess capacity. I’m not sure how 55% was derived from. But the next question is this 6k a lot?

How do we decide? We see how much demand and how much capacity we have in the future. Now its public knowledge that in a couple of years, all 1st generation IPP will retire. What’s the total production lost from the system because of it? Its 4300MW. (Just google. its public info) It means we’re going to be short of 4300MW.

What about demand? EC predicted demand to grow by 3%++ per year. Meaning to say if 3% from 2011 we need another 3100 MW by 2016.

So if we appoint DPP who doesn’t believe we should build anymore power plant, what will happen in 2016? Hmmm. 6000 MW minus 4300 MW (1st gen IPP lost) and minus another 3100 MW (growth projection) is … Alamak tak cukup electricity lah.

So you see how [ridiculous] this mahaguru DPP is. Pretend to know. But really an ignorant dumb fool.”

PS: unknown to DPP, no one builds power plant in a day. It takes 3 to 5/6 years. So that’s why we need to plan.

PAS bigots? Its fine to support biggots?

I have written many countless times, an action must have the same value irrespective of the doer. If one you like does an act you deemed good, a similar act of your foe must be right as well. Politicians con us all the times (for amplication to many, it includes PR). I am not that surprise if many follow this personality driven value, but find even those who appear intelligent are unable to distinguish this simple right or wrong. Now as election nears I’m inundated by rubbish propaganda that I think we’re a screwed nation.

The last write was telling. It was a simple value of not degrading our servicemen/government purely on the basis they are paid or its their duty. It doesn’t mean you can’t criticise them for not performing. It doesn’t mean that you need to support. But if one does good you recognise the effort. It doesn’t matter if its PR or BN.

But as a result of partisanship many pro pr supporters believe that is a valid position. They don’t want to recognise anything that BN does so no way its a good value. But funny thing these same people ask people to support pr in recognition of pr governments efforts. Tak da pula argument they being paid or its their duty. Funny value these people have and still believe they are right.

I have been writing for years on this. Don’t do this. It will lead to ridiculous conclusion. For example, as a result of calling TPM merely based on his statement, one staunch pro pr now have to call all PAS leaders as bigots based on the same basis. He condemns both as racist and bigots but because of PR he had to support whom he called the bigots. Then what makes him. He is putting himself deeper and deeper into a corner. In the first place it was not wrong pun but because of propaganda he was taken in.

So don’t do this. Just take a step back. Assess the act and not the doer. Ask how does it apply to you and your foe. Otherwise you get a result where you condemn racism but support bigotry. Then proudly tell the world its a right stand while others laugh at the hypocritical position.

Being ingrate is a good value?

I keep coming up with people around the blog arguing time and again that we should not recognise the efforts of the government or civil servants because they are being paid and its a duty to provide.

It went to the extent that I saw Norman’s KRU was criticized that all the “rezeki” comes from Allah so we don’t have to thank those who contribute.

Our politicians are really screwed and the followers are really blind. Don’t everybody realise that these same politicians go around town parading their achievement and what they have done and never an inch say its part of their duties. Its hypocritical.

As a value, I have written many times that all politicians without exception have defective values which we shouldn’t follow. We must always check and recheck the values of their action. And how we measure this is always to see what value we want to inculcate in our children.

I think as a parental value, we must always appreciate effort and if we benefit from them we must always say thank you. Thus children must always appreciate what the parents do (even though defective) and say thank you to them notwithstanding its the parents obligations to provide. To impart other values are simply wrong to me.

Following from here, we inculcate in our children appreciation of efforts especially when they receive the benefit. Thus, we teach our children to appreciate say efforts of our army or even the traffic cop who manages the traffic under the hot sun notwithstanding they are paid to do it. Its just right and good manners.

This is where many got it wrong. Every effort done by government (be it bn or pr) should be recognised despite they’re being paid. We dont be selective. I’ve been involved in some neac meetings last time, and really appreciate how people proposed ideas and solutions. Also appreciated how government servants push to implement the recommendations. Its an incredible effort. And for that I have major issues with politicians and followers to dismiss this effort on the basis that its their duty and have been paid for it.

These criticism devalues the efforts for the sake of partisanship. This is wrong. Worse we don’t know what we want and make hypocritical stand. For example, many don’t realise it was a huge effort to create domestic growth engine in view of unfavorable worldwide economic environment. The ETP and Pemandu I thought was exemplary in their effort and we should praise them rather than ridiculing it on insignificant point. So we know what stand we take. But now we condemn ETP but offered no new domestic growth engine. I think this value is wrong and simply condemn what is good for us.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t criticise. We can and we should on the policy or execution shortcomings thereof. But we don’t criticise by saying its your job to do it so we don’t appreciate it. Thus I have no problem bn claiming brim as their initiatives and so rightly take recognition of it. Similarly with pr initiatives as they now tout everywhere. As a rakyat we want both bn and pr to compete for our benefit. No one should be excuse for non performance. The argument that an effort should not be recognised on the basis that its one’s duty or job is just plain wrong for me.

Ps: Main part of the doc is from my previous comment which I think merit a distinct post.

Direct or indirect subsidies?

Past few days have been interesting. I’ve been called to give some talk and the articulation of issues herein have been helpful. It became more interesting trying to explain the issues to ordinary people as most are just confused with propagandas. Thus thought of restating some of the stand.

BRIM

BR1M cannot be by any extension of any meaning be corruption. Or is it “Lu Tolong Gua or Gua Tolong Lu”. If it is then PR is also corrupt and practice Lu Tolong Gua.

PR in their manifestos has allocated billions of direct handout. This is similar to BN. Anyone says otherwise must get their heads check. . But seriously same act must have similar value. Any other interpretation is hypocritical. The issue on direct handout is what is the limit for this. However I much prefer less handout but if we can afford it I’m not so against giving the money to people.

As a principle I think any handout must be direct to targeted group. I’ve been recommending to the government for a while for direct handout. Indirect subsidy does not only misallocate resources but does not benefit the target group.

For example, the petrol subsidy. We compare one who has a Mercedes 500 S (I’m a Beemer fan ) and one who has meager income who only owns a motorcycle (kapchai) and takes public transportation to work. Now the car of 5000 cc will definitely consume more petrol than the motorbike. The Merc owner does not need the subsidy but he benefitted most. The one needing it is the one who uses the bus but he does not benefit the subsidy.

It’s similar with electric and water subsidies. A house with a swimming pool will definitely consume more electricity and water than one small PPR flat for ordinary citizens. Why should the former benefit from the subsidy than the one who has a small dwelling.

And to compound the matter, when we lower utility charges we make it cheaper than it is and people use it wastefully. As a result we have systemic problem like our water industry where there’s not enough money to sustain a proper operation resulting in a high non resource water (NRW). So we lose up to 50% of production. We haven’t changed the tariff for years and some in decades. And people don’t appreciate it pun. It’s too cheap. Look at the waste. But if you charge they appreciate. Look at how much they’re willing to pay for mineral water. By paying the same amount for water tariff instead of mineral water, they could have 1000 times more of drinkable water. This misallocation of water should be stopped.

So going forward we must decrease indirect subsidies and increase the direct subsidies.

This is where PR totally got it wrong and spin ridiculous populist position. It says its concerned with the well being of those ordinary people. But if you see their promise of cutting down utilities price and abandon all this direct subsidies to all those income below certain salary like Br1m (they even call this corrupt practices), it will affect ordinary Malaysians more and enrich further the rich. The ordinary people need to know this.

Not so proud2bmalaysian

It has been an interesting skirmish with Proud2bmalaysian. (He has a blog by the same name). What started to be a very promising debate turned out to be a non stater. I must admit that I like his style of writing and civility. However the manner he argued was totally wrong and dishonest.

I guess its part of my fault. I had hoped it would be a dialectic discussion but it turned out that he is so densely partisan that he didn’t know what is right and what is wrong. I contemplated whether I should write a piece of him but as I’ve encountered him elsewhere, I think others must be aware of his manner. Also I want to articulate some grounds for having a proper discourse. Of course there are others unable to have dialectic discourse, for example those who name call me or accuse me without prove being a paid cyber trooper. For these type of people I reserve my right to reply in kind and not resort to a dialectic discourse. They can’t understand anyway. In the mains most Malaysians I’ve encountered fall in this category. However I have encountered a few who are sincere thought provoking and able to enlighten us with their knowledge and perspectives. To these people I reply with respect they accorded.

Now what did p2b did wrong or things which we shouldn’t do to have a proper discourse.

1) be consistent and don’t change goal posts. If you change admit it. That’s honesty in having intellectual discussion. P2b’s write on 98 issues jump from one end to the other end. He disagreed with what I said initially but at the end came to my earlier position. Yet he still failed to admit his various positions. When this was pointed out he feigned he didn’t know my position.

2) put a position of principles and apply to the facts. P2b agreed to my general principles and when put the facts he refused to apply it saying its not science. He quoted an article which also repeated my statement of fact. But he simply refused to apply the facts since he is partisan. But strange he can condemn others based on the same subject matter “which is not science”

3) don’t lie and spread falsehood. P2b has been caught with this. But there was no remorse and he tried to justify himself. This is a no no.

4) don’t ask others to prove but you yourself make unproven allegation.

5) don’t argue that you cannot rely on public information because you have personal and private information which negates public information. In a dialectic discourse you must base on public information. Then you argue the accuracy of it. If you don’t rely on public info how can we even argue on the same basis.

P2b initial attack on ETP is like that. He thumbs down public info. His argument on money supply was worse. When he couldn’t defend himself he argued its because there’s no public info available. But there’s plethora of public info on Malaysian money supplies by third parties. You know how they obtain this? Bnm publishes this info to the public at least annually. P2b must stop this manner of argument. We must rely on public info. If he has personal or private info he should use it to counter the public information.

6) in any event never argue a position as true based on private information which you cannot disclose. This is one of the most low down method of discussion. It’s worse when p2b has argued before that we cannot rely on public information because he has personal and private information to the contrary. And when asked to disclose he argued its private and confidential. This is the lowest form of argument in a dialectic debate. It’s dishonesty pure and simple. And worse he tried to turn the table to ask me to prove things which I don’t allege, to deviate.

I find p2b highly appalling. A dishonest guy willing to resort to lies to spread falsehood. Unless he learns his lesson to have integrity I will not engage him dialectically. I will treat him like most pro pr supporter who attack me without basis. That is with scorn.

And further he had refused to publish my commentary criticizing his write. Previously he condemns MSM for not publishing contrarian views but now he himself does what he condemns. I’m very sorry for my language, but Ill be blunt. I find p2b not only hypocritical but [utterly reprehensible]. He got his values and moralities inside out.