I believe that there must be some good men and women left in the Public sector~ be it the Police Force, the government and even in MACC. For a peace of mind, quit now and if you are brave, tell all about the corrupt ways of your colleagues. But fear and repercussion are not easy to overcome.
Let me tell you a true story. There was this honest cop, a high ranking officer that one day, due to his diligence and that of his men, arrested some big gangster bosses in Johor. He found evidences and wanted to press charges. His superiors, being partners with the gangsters immediately ordered this honest cop to withdraw his report and get all the gangster bosses released but he refused. Guess what? The honest cop was charged with some corruption charges and when his lawyer came to defend him, he too was charged with tax fraud. In the meantime, the gangsters continue to enjoy a prosperous life of crime and contribute to the 30% or so yearly increased in crime rate in Maalysia.
This story can be found in the MalaysiaToday website. But then again, you may say that MalaysiaToday talked cock. But you shallow in whole all the bullshit that the Malaysian government says.
Now Najib after his pilgrimage ( not sure whether he went to meet GOD or the Devil ) decided to call for a Royal Commission on the death of poor innocent Teoh Beng Hock. BUT the Royal Commission is only to investigate and report on MACC's procedures on questioning suspects. Hello ??? After some months, they will say that procedures can be subject to abuse blab blab blab and we should be more humane and give the interrogators some time of from question and overtime pay. Hey..what about the witness, suspects or what have you in custody. Ohh..they are not under the purview...so that's another commission's baby.
In the meantime, some junior magistrate will conduct an enquiry or inquest ( little powers are given and this magistrate has his hands tied ) on the death of Teoh. If judges can be influenced by saying Anwar sodomized even a camel, what is there hope that the truth will be told. Don't ordinary Malaysian see that this are all a joke to the Government.
We must take drastic actions. Writing, blogging and speeches are now useless. We must either stone the MACC building or just not pay taxes. If all of us do that, we will cripple the government into submission. They surely cannot arrest all of us , can they ? Some may suffer more but how many can say that they have suffered more than Teoh or his family or his unwed wife or his fatherless child.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
Are we going to sit still and wait for another death
Are we going to sit still and wait for another death ?
Teoh Beng Hock was just a 30 year old man aspiring to serve his country one day. He was to be engaged the day before his sudden death to his fiancee that is now 2 months pregnant with his child. Teoh is now dead.
I can only guess and conclude that Teoh definitely did not kill himself and that is what the authorities don't want us to believe. The two heads of MACC, Datuk Ser Ahmad Said Hamdan and Datuk Shukri both claimed that MACC is not responsible as Teoh have been released from questioning. The officers of MACC questioned and probably tormented a person for more than 8 hours until 4 am in the morning and then released him so they as claimed. According to them, Teoh was so tired he decided to take a rest in the settee until he decided to take some fresh air and jump out the window.
Are we to believe them? Teoh was released and as such, no longer MACC responsibility. Show us the release letter . How can MACC not be responsible ? He was killed in their premises for damn sake. The culture of disowning responsibility by Heads of Government departments and from Ministers are common in Malaysia. Until the day they are sacked, they will continue to disown responsibility.
I sense that the people are all getting really angry and frustrated and at worst, they will take to the streets and throw stones at MACC buildings. I say it is about time. After all, MACC only serves as UMNO's agents somewhat like how the SS and Nazis served Hitler.
We must no longer sit still and watched all those who are brave enough to fight for us suffer in vain. We must do our part even though it means we too may suffer the same fate. If we all rise together, what can the Police, Army or whatever that UMNO do against 10 Million people ? Yes, at least 10 Million of us hate this government and this is not a small number. If this happened in Thailand or even Indonesia, the present government would have fallen long ago.
Teoh Beng Hock was just a 30 year old man aspiring to serve his country one day. He was to be engaged the day before his sudden death to his fiancee that is now 2 months pregnant with his child. Teoh is now dead.
I can only guess and conclude that Teoh definitely did not kill himself and that is what the authorities don't want us to believe. The two heads of MACC, Datuk Ser Ahmad Said Hamdan and Datuk Shukri both claimed that MACC is not responsible as Teoh have been released from questioning. The officers of MACC questioned and probably tormented a person for more than 8 hours until 4 am in the morning and then released him so they as claimed. According to them, Teoh was so tired he decided to take a rest in the settee until he decided to take some fresh air and jump out the window.
Are we to believe them? Teoh was released and as such, no longer MACC responsibility. Show us the release letter . How can MACC not be responsible ? He was killed in their premises for damn sake. The culture of disowning responsibility by Heads of Government departments and from Ministers are common in Malaysia. Until the day they are sacked, they will continue to disown responsibility.
I sense that the people are all getting really angry and frustrated and at worst, they will take to the streets and throw stones at MACC buildings. I say it is about time. After all, MACC only serves as UMNO's agents somewhat like how the SS and Nazis served Hitler.
We must no longer sit still and watched all those who are brave enough to fight for us suffer in vain. We must do our part even though it means we too may suffer the same fate. If we all rise together, what can the Police, Army or whatever that UMNO do against 10 Million people ? Yes, at least 10 Million of us hate this government and this is not a small number. If this happened in Thailand or even Indonesia, the present government would have fallen long ago.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Malaysia future going backwards
The recent announcement by our Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister, Muhiddin that Science and Mathematics will revert back to native languages from English will set Malaysia back to the Dark Ages. The reason is purely political. To win more votes from the rural folks and the urban Chinese speaking Chinese. Noted that I did not say Urban Malays. I think most would like to see to maintain as an English taught subject.
Their reason given is very shallow like all decisions of the Government. There is negligible improvement when the subjects are taught in English. What happens when after another 6 years after the implementation and there is no improvement. Revert back to English? This ping pong policy of our Government destroy all confidence in most of us on the future of our children.
What the government should have done is to have English language schools or fully sponsored tuition classes to teach English in the rural areas. Get good English teachers from England. There are so many of them willing to work in Malaysia. I should know. I bump into so many of them in Phuket alone. They go there for 2 to 4 years, teach in private schools and enjoy their time diving. We can easily attract them to work in the rural areas of Pahang, Trengganu and Kelantan.
I am just an average Joe in Malaysia and cannot afford to send my children to fancy International schools but have to put them in National schools like most average Malaysians. I speak my Hokkien dialect fairly well but English better as I was educated in Christian Missionary school, La Salle. My children can hardly speak any Hokkien but that does not bother me. What is important is that they learn the languages that will offer them a better success in their future ie English and Mandarin.
I will vote out the silly people who wants to maintain or go backwards on their decision. I will even vote against Anwar Ibrahim. So what he has fought hard against the present Government? Adhoc policies to gain votes is not acceptable. In Malaysia, 70% of the votes from rural constituencies determined the composition of the seats of the government, so pleasing rural folks is more important to stay in power than pleasing the urbanites who fund the government in terms of income taxes.
Tulamben Dive report ~ June 2009
Tulamben Dive Report~ GOD ‘s Inaugural trip 19th to 23rd June 2009
I had the honor of leading GOD’s first trip out of
I have done so many trips before but this being my first under GOD, kind of made me more apprehensive and I hope that all will go down well with the group of 7 divers whom I regard as “ The Magnificent Seven”. It was also nearly the two years ago that I first met these 7 divers when I brought them to
We arrived around 1 pm from
After a 7 am wake up call, we headed for breakfast ( 3 course selection ) and then walked over to the beach facing the most dived sites in
It was a huge cargo ship which was sunk by torpedoes during the WWII and although the damaged vessel was brought back to the shore, a massive Volcano eruption from Gunung Agung in 1963 pushed back the wreck back to the sea to its current position. The wreck is scattered in several large chunks and there are several big holes in the hull where divers can swim through. The wreck is scattered about 100 meters on steeply sloping black sand.
Getting to the wreck is challenging for most of us who are not used to shore dives and walking on black gravel, stones and rocks. The trick is to wade in and don your fins when you are chest high in water. Better leave the regulator in your mouth as I experienced a near death incident because of this. More later.
The first photographic customer we met was the ghost pipefish. There was a pair at just 10 meters depth. Next was just a few bump heads feeding on hard coral. On a given day, you will see hundreds of bump heads as the wreck is their hotel. A school of about 100 jacks circle above the wreck and on approaching the wreck, I could understand why so many varieties of fishes lived or sheltered in the wreck which provides protection and a good breeding home. Nevertheless, a giant barracuda will suddenly dart in to catch unaware prey. I headed to 28 meters depth and to a particular gorgonian where there were 3 pygmy seahorses or Bargibant’s seahorses, Hippo-camous bargibanti waiting to be photographed. Engrossed in photography could catch you unaware with deco time and luckily my early years of “errors “ messages in my dive computer, made me more aware and all of us made it up safely with different stories to tell.
We did the second dive to the right end of our resort at The Coral Wall which plunges to “out of bound “ depth. There is a massive sea fan at the corner and along the slopes are nice colorful soft corals, sponges and a variety of fishes. We caught the glimpse of the rare comet ( Calloplesiops altivelis ), a beautiful fish with elaborate finnage and a false eye.
The last dive of the day was in front of our resort, the Coral garden. At 3 pm , the current was around 1.5 knots and ribbon eels of all ages ( black for young to the yellow for old ) can be easily found. We surfaced about 50 meters before the
The second day we again did an early morning Liberty Wreck dive, followed by two dives at Seraya. Seraya is pure macro haven and is
We finished the day by doing a fourth dive at Alamanda which I consider the best dive site in the Tulamben area. The site profile was excellent which walls, little mounts, sandy resting areas and beautiful hard and soft corals. Good variety of fishes and nudibranches. This was our only boat dive.
The thing about Tulamben is that almost all the dive sites are shore dives so the right season to go there is important. Avoid the rainy period and period when sea is rough. Entering the water is one thing but getting out with high waves hitting your back and pushing you face down onto stones and rocks can be dangerous. Oh yes. My almost death drowning experience. I went into the water backwards and had just put on my fins and was watching the others coming in when I felt someone pushing me down into the water. I immediately inflated my BCD but in the struggle I could not find my regulator and I turned around underwater and realized that one of the divers was struggling and was climbing on top of me to keep afloat. I search for his inflator hose but there was no air entering his BCD. I managed to push my head out of the water and gasped a few breath of air. The dive guide managed to jump in and pulled the diver back to the shore.
I in the meantime was glad to be breathing and floating on the water with a fully inflated BCD. The diver panicked when he waded into the water and begin to sink when his BCD leaked. The slope steep sharply after just 3 meters from the shore. He also did not have his regulator on. Moral of the story, keep you regulator in your mouth. Less air for diving not important. Better to be safe. That happened on our second last dive and I am glad to say, after regaining his composure, the diver did the last dive on borrowed BCD. If he had skipped that dive, he may not have dived again.
We left the next day as we wanted to spend a relaxing night in Kuta and do some shopping and have some fine food. After dinner, we relaxed over a couple of drinks at Hard Rock Café where there was this 7 person band from
The next day, we boarded the 1pm flight back to KL.
Hammerhead John’s rating;
**** resort and food
***** divers
*** dive sites. We just didn’t like the shore diving
**** Overall package price
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Tubbataha reef- a disappointment
Well, someone forgot to tell all the large pelagic that we are going there.
We arrived at Tubbataha on the morning of 9th May after 12 hours overnight on the Apo Explorer. There were 16 of us, 10 from Malaysia and the other 6 from Singapore. We had very high hopes that this is the area to dive esp after a 45 minutes check out dive at Malayan wreck, my best check out dive todate.
Malayan wreck sits atop the reef at only 5 meters and the same wreck is a home to about 100 bumpheads which were just leaving home when we dived in at 8am. The visibility was around 35 meters with no current. We then swam towards the wall which drops to about 70 meters. Swimming at depths of 36 meters on our first dive was amazing. It is exactly like the Barracuda point at Sipadan minus the school of barracudas. There were sharks all over and it soon became clear to us that the reef is a nursery and kindergarden to reef sharks. Looking out into the blue, we saw only one thing...blue water. No large pelagic was swimming past us. Something amiss, I thought.
The following dives were all mostly similar, wall dives and beautiful reef that were mainly covered with hard corals or sandy bottom. There were few soft corals and hence, not many anemones and macro like nudibranches. We were really disappointed.
As we were using Nitrox most of the time, we were diving very close to our MOD ( maximum operating depth before oxygen turned toxic ) becos of the great visibility ( maybe that is why there is no pelagic...they are camera shy ). I did most of my first day dives with air as i wanted to explore the deep end and went down to 56 meters to see some juvenile barracudas.
Our dive on 9th May was on Full Moon and despite this, there were no current, the sea as calm as a dead woman, and no large pelagic. No Mantas, no rays, no whale sharks, hammerheads, etc etc. The conditions were perfect but no big stuff.
In most of our dives, we could hear dynamite exploding some 50 miles away. It was common to hear 2 to 3 explosions on each dive. Maybe these scare away the big fishes. Unless the filipino government takes some drastic actions, no fishes will dare come into filipino waters.
Tubbataha reef is beautiful and it definitely beats places like the Great Barrier Reef in terms of marine life and there are corals ( many barrel corals ) of enormous sizes. It is definitely a breeding ground for turtles, sharks, Napoleon wrasses, octopus and reef fishes. Maybe it was parent days off when we were there.
The renown washing dive site was also a disappointment. Someone switched off the power and no noticeable current were felt. Imagine..we had brought reef hooks, gloves, mini anchors etc etc.
Some brought down some dirty linen.
We visited the Ranger's station that houses around 10 Rangers that patrol the area to keep out fisherman and pirates . It also double up as a T-shirt sales center.
Our group of 10 Malaysian makes use of the nights drinking away the beer that cost USD1 per can and the two bottles of liquor that we brought. The other 6 Singapore divers kept to themselves mostly except on the last night when they decide to have fun with us.
The manager of the boat, Colin who is a Canadian is great and very attentive to our needs. The crew on board the Apo Explorer who we were told only earns less than RM150 a month, are friendly and good at their work. The Malaysian gang were so taken by the services and each of us gave USD40 to the crew as tips. Sad to say, the Singaporean group only gave a fraction of this.
We arrived at Tubbataha on the morning of 9th May after 12 hours overnight on the Apo Explorer. There were 16 of us, 10 from Malaysia and the other 6 from Singapore. We had very high hopes that this is the area to dive esp after a 45 minutes check out dive at Malayan wreck, my best check out dive todate.
Malayan wreck sits atop the reef at only 5 meters and the same wreck is a home to about 100 bumpheads which were just leaving home when we dived in at 8am. The visibility was around 35 meters with no current. We then swam towards the wall which drops to about 70 meters. Swimming at depths of 36 meters on our first dive was amazing. It is exactly like the Barracuda point at Sipadan minus the school of barracudas. There were sharks all over and it soon became clear to us that the reef is a nursery and kindergarden to reef sharks. Looking out into the blue, we saw only one thing...blue water. No large pelagic was swimming past us. Something amiss, I thought.
The following dives were all mostly similar, wall dives and beautiful reef that were mainly covered with hard corals or sandy bottom. There were few soft corals and hence, not many anemones and macro like nudibranches. We were really disappointed.
As we were using Nitrox most of the time, we were diving very close to our MOD ( maximum operating depth before oxygen turned toxic ) becos of the great visibility ( maybe that is why there is no pelagic...they are camera shy ). I did most of my first day dives with air as i wanted to explore the deep end and went down to 56 meters to see some juvenile barracudas.
Our dive on 9th May was on Full Moon and despite this, there were no current, the sea as calm as a dead woman, and no large pelagic. No Mantas, no rays, no whale sharks, hammerheads, etc etc. The conditions were perfect but no big stuff.
In most of our dives, we could hear dynamite exploding some 50 miles away. It was common to hear 2 to 3 explosions on each dive. Maybe these scare away the big fishes. Unless the filipino government takes some drastic actions, no fishes will dare come into filipino waters.
Tubbataha reef is beautiful and it definitely beats places like the Great Barrier Reef in terms of marine life and there are corals ( many barrel corals ) of enormous sizes. It is definitely a breeding ground for turtles, sharks, Napoleon wrasses, octopus and reef fishes. Maybe it was parent days off when we were there.
The renown washing dive site was also a disappointment. Someone switched off the power and no noticeable current were felt. Imagine..we had brought reef hooks, gloves, mini anchors etc etc.
Some brought down some dirty linen.
We visited the Ranger's station that houses around 10 Rangers that patrol the area to keep out fisherman and pirates . It also double up as a T-shirt sales center.
Our group of 10 Malaysian makes use of the nights drinking away the beer that cost USD1 per can and the two bottles of liquor that we brought. The other 6 Singapore divers kept to themselves mostly except on the last night when they decide to have fun with us.
The manager of the boat, Colin who is a Canadian is great and very attentive to our needs. The crew on board the Apo Explorer who we were told only earns less than RM150 a month, are friendly and good at their work. The Malaysian gang were so taken by the services and each of us gave USD40 to the crew as tips. Sad to say, the Singaporean group only gave a fraction of this.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Tubbataha "the Africa of diving"
Tubbataha. Never heard of it ? Well, it is described in one dive magazine as" The Africa of Diving"- Wild and Unexplored. And I will be going there this Friday, 8th may 2009.
Where is this place ?? Tubbataha reef is an atoll coral reef located in the Sulu sea of the Philippines. It is a marine sanctuary protected as a National park and is nominated as the New 7 Wonders of Natural World.
The reef is made up of two atolls which are 5 miles apart and in between is a channel that provides passage to all large pelagic and fishes. Wall dives, reef dives, drift dives and "washing machine' dives are all available here. The marine life here is so vivid and diverse that this sanctuary rivals the Great Barrier reef.
Declared a Unesco world heritage site in 1993, Tubbataha can only be visited by Liveaboards that weather only permits entry in March to June each year.
The Magnificent 10 of us will be going and hopefully all 10 returns will fish tales......more soon.
Where is this place ?? Tubbataha reef is an atoll coral reef located in the Sulu sea of the Philippines. It is a marine sanctuary protected as a National park and is nominated as the New 7 Wonders of Natural World.
The reef is made up of two atolls which are 5 miles apart and in between is a channel that provides passage to all large pelagic and fishes. Wall dives, reef dives, drift dives and "washing machine' dives are all available here. The marine life here is so vivid and diverse that this sanctuary rivals the Great Barrier reef.
Declared a Unesco world heritage site in 1993, Tubbataha can only be visited by Liveaboards that weather only permits entry in March to June each year.
The Magnificent 10 of us will be going and hopefully all 10 returns will fish tales......more soon.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Thin line between Love and Hate 2
An unpleasant incident compelled me to write on this subject again. After a few drinks last night with PJ's group at Armada, I came home to once again find my neighbour ( 2 doors away ) 's car parked in front of my house ( at the other half, not blocking my gate ). This fellow has 4 cars ( wife and 2 kids ) and they parked their car all outside neighbours house and not inside his own house. He has been doing it for a year now since he moved in. As we all leaved in terraced houses, it can be annoying as I will then have to park my car inside the house's compound which is very troublesome for my wife to move in and out with her car. So I got mad and paste a notice "not to park outside my house ' with my phone no and name. Guess what. He called me up at 7am this morning on his way to work and said I should have gone to his house and settle the matter. Firstly, would he had welcomed me middle of the night or I must wait until he gets back at night. We do not know each other and being hot headed, situation may get out of hand. Over the phone, he says he has the right to park anywhere as the land does not belong to me and he is someone that I should be afraid of. After some shouting on the phone, I cut him off and tried to go back to sleep thinking anticipating a problematic day ahead.
However, I thought i better settle this as my wife was really sore with me and had left home for office early. I sms Zainuddin, the neighbour, and said that he caught me in a bad mood this morning from my hangover and that I want to meet him for breakfast as there should not be bad blood between neighbours. To cut a long story short, he promised not to park in front of my house and I told him that I will park on my side of the house and his small car can still park on the other half. Comprehend?? At the end of all this, we agree that society has made us all cold to each other and we now hardly know our neighbours.
Anyway, if i had not made the attempt to defuse the situation, who knows even a bloodbath may ensure. It is indeed a thin line between love and hate. My wife probably hated me like mad for arguing with the neighbour although she often complains that the neighbour parks their car outside our house. There was one time that he left one of his car there for one complete month without moving it.
The incident above is some which we faced in everyday life. Don't you at times wish you drove a 16 wheel truck and ramp thru all those who drives at snail pace on the fast lane and will not barged despite your continuously flashing of the headlights and then honking.
I told my wife we should have a gathering and invite the neighbours to get to know them. I fully blamed UMNO for making us hostile and cold to each other. In fact, I even blame UMNO when my goldfish dies....
However, I thought i better settle this as my wife was really sore with me and had left home for office early. I sms Zainuddin, the neighbour, and said that he caught me in a bad mood this morning from my hangover and that I want to meet him for breakfast as there should not be bad blood between neighbours. To cut a long story short, he promised not to park in front of my house and I told him that I will park on my side of the house and his small car can still park on the other half. Comprehend?? At the end of all this, we agree that society has made us all cold to each other and we now hardly know our neighbours.
Anyway, if i had not made the attempt to defuse the situation, who knows even a bloodbath may ensure. It is indeed a thin line between love and hate. My wife probably hated me like mad for arguing with the neighbour although she often complains that the neighbour parks their car outside our house. There was one time that he left one of his car there for one complete month without moving it.
The incident above is some which we faced in everyday life. Don't you at times wish you drove a 16 wheel truck and ramp thru all those who drives at snail pace on the fast lane and will not barged despite your continuously flashing of the headlights and then honking.
I told my wife we should have a gathering and invite the neighbours to get to know them. I fully blamed UMNO for making us hostile and cold to each other. In fact, I even blame UMNO when my goldfish dies....
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