Thursday, July 31, 2014

Stand With Palestine

Viva Palestina Malaysia (VPM) together with Aqsa Syarif will hold a a peaceful "Save the Children in Gaza" rally on Saturday Aug 2 from 3pm to 5pm at Dataran Merdeka in KL.

Viva La Palestine!

New Toll Rates At Causeway Via SIB From Tomorrow

And they doth protest too much.

So why do they?
Perhaps, because nobody likes to pay toll. It's another dent in one's pocket. It's a burden to the people. So, it is a big deal.
Also because having good roads and highways is a right of citizens of the country.
Who cares how much it cost to build those great highways that, in the end help to ease the grind of travelling on congested roads.
 
In this case, it is largely because un-informed and dis-informed people are so easily influenced and misled by politicians' (not political) propaganda, no matter how erroneous their arguments are.
The very politicians who are now enjoying shorter travel time to their constituencies on the very tolled highways they had attacked when the projects were proposed.

So, tomorrow (Aug 1) motorists entering Singapore through the Causeway via  the Sulltan Iskandar Building (SIB) will have to pay new toll rates.

Last Friday, the Malaysian Highway Authority announced the new toll rates -  RM9.70 and RM6.80 for inbound and outbound cars. For motorists exiting Malaysia and aentering Malaysia through the SIB.
JB residents using the 8km or so through the EDL, but not going into Singapore, need not pay.
Presently, motorists entering Malaysia through the SIB pay RM2.90.
Buses pay RM13.30 to and from Singapore, while taxis  - RM8.20 for a return trip.

It is quite a hike. No wonder, people - especially Johoreans - got riled up. They think it affects everyone.

It does not.

(This is under the Eastern Dispersal Link (EDL) and has actually solved Johor Baru's notorious traffic congestion.
 EDL is an 8.1km expressway that connects the end of the North-South Expressway (NSE) at Pandan Interchange to the CIQ in the city and is part of  Iskandar Development Region program.)

Here are the facts that the critics and naysayers won't tell you:

*  The EDL continues to be free for close to 180,000 users daily who do not go pass CIQ.
JB residents are benefiting from less congestion and better traffic flows.  Roads along the EDL have also been  upgraded .
* Out of 220,000 daily vehicles currently on the EDL highway, only 60,000 are the CIQ users and out of this 60,000 vehicles 80 per cent are Singapore-registered cars.
 * The EDL has also proven to be a major traffic solution for JB. For the past two years JB residents
have been enjoying less city congestion.

You know, there are many Malaysians working in Singapore using Singapore-registered vehicles so they don't pay Singapore's vehicles entry permit .
Singapore just increased VEP to RM90 per day, and I don't hear them complaining.

Besides paying  a lot for vehicle permits, they also pay ERP -  area road pricing - in Singapore.

As Johorean The Patriot says:
" While Singaporeans cannot drive Malaysian cars in Singapore and will be slapped with a hefty fine, we allow Malaysians to drive Singapore registered vehicles on Malaysian roads if it eases their purpose.
They pay road taxes to the Singapore government yet drive on Malaysian roads. They pay income taxes in Singapore, yet enjoy the cheap cost of living in Johor.
They cannot have it both ways.
Either they pay us a small sum while driving Singapore vehicles as a small compensation for using Malaysian roads or pay Singapore a high fee while driving Malaysian vehicles compensating Singapore for the same
."

So, yeah, perhaps it hurts. Just a little. But, as a blogger said: "you can't have your cake and eat it".

So go to  EDLConnects for more information.

Also do read these blog-postings :

Another Brick On The Wall

Jebat Must Die

Rocky's Bru

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Eid Mubarak

Or as we say it here -- Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri.

A time of celebration after a month of fasting. 
Joy and happiness.
But we know this Raya will not be that joyous, Nor will we be celebrating it as we have been in the past.

This year has been a grim 2014 for us all as we are still reeling from the shock of MH370 and MH17  .

Celebrate Eid, we must. But it will be sedate and low-key. We feel for those who lost their loved ones in the two tragedies.

Never the same.
No graves to visit.

Gone but never forgotten.

May time help heal your pain.

#prayforMH370 #prayforMH17 #saveMalaysiaAirlines 




Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Israel - An Apartheid State

Israel's atrocities against the Palestinian people are reminiscent of the Nazi genocide of the Jewish people. One is reminded of the Holocaust. And one cannot help but wonder how a people of the Holocaust could unleash the same kind of evil and horror on another.

I have always wondered about that. Did the Jews not suffer so cruelly under Hitler's Nazi?  So how could thee the heart to treat the Palestinians so cruelly? Why has Israel  been so relentless in trying to wipe out the Palestinian population? Targeting women and children seems to be an apt strategy.

Lenny Lapon was given an automatic Israeli citizenship in 2010 by virtue of the fact that he is a Jew. Yesterday, he renounced his citizenship.

He wrote:

"As a serious student of the Nazi Holocaust, I can only be horrified at the disgrace that the State of Israel and its Jewish supporters continue to bring upon the memory of Jewish Holocaust victims. It’s a moral abomination to emulate Nazi tactics in the name of the Jewish people and their alleged security: cowardly massive bombings and slaughter of civilian populations who have no air force to protect them, collective punishment and torture, mass incarcerations, destruction of thousands of homes, and the vicious blockade and ghettoization of Gaza.

Israel is not becoming an apartheid state—it already is one with separate and unequal laws and policing for its Jewish citizens on one hand and for its non-Jewish, mostly Arab citizens and victims of the occupation on the other hand."

His is just one of the many stories of Jews who are against Zionist Israel's  genocide of Palestinians.

Read his article in  Mondoweiss  HERE



Sunday, July 20, 2014

Al Fatehah : First Malay Woman Doctor Dies

 Today I received a text message from my physician Tan Sri Dr Ridzwan Abu Bakar to say that his mother had passed away. She was 95.
Al Fatehah

Here's the NST report.

Tan Sri Dr Salma Ismail, the country’s first Malay woman doctor, passed away this evening at Pantai Hospital in Bangsar at 6.15pm due to old age. She was 95.
Her eldest son, Tan Sri Dr Ridzwan Bakar said his mother died at 6.15pm, and that she was warded at the hospital recently.
He urged those who wanted to pay their last respects to her to do so before noon tomorrow (Monday) at No 6, Jalan Mesra, Off Jalan Aman, Kuala Lumpur.
“My mother’s determination to become a doctor superceded the norms of the time especially for a single Malay girl to journey from her hometown of Alor Star by boat to study in Singapore. But she did.”
The Second World War did not stop her from finishing her course, and it took her 11 years, which is longer than usual to finish her medical studies after it was interrupted by the war.
“She was the only girl candidate and the first in Kedah who passed the Senior Cambridge with distinction,” Dr Ridzwan said when contacted.
Dr Salma is the first Malay accredited doctor, after she completed her medical studies in 1947.
While studying midwifery in Dublin, Ireland, she met the late Datuk Dr Abu Bakar Ibrahim, also an Alor Star native and they later married.
Dr Ridzwan said his late father later became Director for the Institute of Medical Research.
Dr Salma returned to Alor Star to serve as the Royal Midwife to the late Sultanah of Kedah, following her studies in Dublin.
When Dr Abu Bakar was transferred to serve as Medical Superintendant of Kuala Lumpur General Hospital, Dr Salma became one of the first Malay private medical practitioners in the country to open a private clinic in 1967 – Klinik Salma - which still stands today. She retired from private practice at age 82.
Dr Ridzwan said his mother lived by the principle: “Have confidence in yourself, be honest, do not talk bad about others and give help to those who need it”.
She received the Bintang Cemerlang Kedah award in 1957 and Dato Paduka Mahkota Kedah (DPMK) in 1996 by the sultan of Kedah.
In 1997, she received her Tan Sri title after being conferred with the Panglima Setia Mahkota by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.
Dr Salma was also involved in the Higher Education Advisory Council, Governing Board of Tunku Kurshiah College, and was president of Private Practitioners Association of KL and president of the Pan-Pacific Southeast Asia Women Association.
She is survived by three children, who include Dr Ridzwan and six grandchildren.