Follow-up: How rotten is the system - work in progress

This will be a very very long post. Unfortunately or should i be thankfull, I dont have the time to do this in one sitting as workload appears a bit on the heavy side now.

There are numerous federal, state and local authority departments and offices in Malaysia. At federal level, you have the various ministries and agencies. At State government level we have the various committees, district offices, land offices, departments and agencies. The local government level has various local authorities such as the city hall, district councils, municipal councils, and other agencies.

I hope to slowly list down as much as possible each of these units of governance and the way the system of governance has allowed or encouraged or resulted in corruption to root in.

A. Local Government level
B. State Government level
C. Federal Government level

A. Local Government level
Local authorities - city hall, district council, municipal council
These are the people who run the day-to-day management at ground level.

1.Licencing of business
2.Rubbish/waste collection and disposal
3.Advertising and banners, permits
4.Assessment
5.Health checks on businesses
6.Town planning countrol and development control
7.Building plan approval, engineering
8.Parking
9.Enforcement units
10.Landscaping

Malaysia Boleh? Malaysia Airlines definitely TAK Boleh!

The jury may still be out whether Malaysia Boleh, cos as the days and months pass by, it seems the country's situation is just worsening in terms of governance as well as attractiveness as a place for business and secured comfy living.

This afternoon, I surfed into MAS (thats Malaysia Airlines)'s website to checkout prices of tickets to a particular city in India. I've had plans for a long time to re-visit but circumstances had not permitted.

There I was keying in the dates, sometime in April this year being the planned dates, for a 2 week trip. Being away from KL meant I had to have connecting flights from this small cowboy border town to KL. 3 adults and 2 young ones. The fare amount came up to RM26,005.00 inclusive of taxes!!!!!! Bloody shit, I can fly to europe at cheaper prices. Surely something was wrong.

So I avoided multi-stopover menu, and checked out the direct flights. Here to KL and back. KL to India and back.

Here to KL and back totalled to RM1310 only. (damn expensive in comparison to Air Asia!). Surprise surprise! The return fare KL to India was RM7,080.00 The total fare amounted to RM8390.00. Thats RM17,615 more cheaper!!! In other words, RM17,615 was the cost of getting them to carry my luggage between connecting flights!

As Madnoh would have said.. tiuuuuuuuuu! to MAS.

Its a new year, but its the same ol ..same ol.. shit

2006 went by like a breeze. It was by far one of the lousiest years.

Anyway, Happy New Year! May the year be filled with loads of fun, much happiness and good health.

Its visit malaysia year. But nothing much has changed. The country is still in a screwed up state. The top continues to screw the bottom. The uncivil service continues to rake in the percentages at the expense of my tax payment.

Driving along Jalan Wong Ah Fook in JB, just before turning into Jalan Gereja, you will notice a traffic cone and some other stuff put onto the left lane to warn people of the bad condition of the road. Its been like that for 2 weeks or more. Ever since the heavy rains late december. Almost the entire city that looks like a cowboy border town is in a state of mess.

Reading the papers only gets you more depressed.

I've been toying with this thought past few weeks. Someone should start this, to document the extent of the CBT problem. The culture of croynism and subcontracting. Getting contracts and deals, and then immediately selling it to others and making clean profit. The coffee money problem. The kickbacks. The inflated tender prices. The inflated privatisation agreements. The ridiculous Independent Power Producer contracts. Its CBT. Criminal Breach of Trust.

For example, the national service transportation fiasco. The contracts are given to cronies who are not in the transport business. They just sub it to others who sub it to others...it goes on. Tax payers pay a hefty sum, the cronies make easy money, and the poor fella who does the transport business gets peanuts for providing the actual service.

Multiply this with the contracts for uniform, food, etc in the NS. Add further the various ministries that we have, each having numerous departments. And thats only the federal government.

Add further the State Government and its various departments at state, district and mukim levels. At each "profit centre" tax payers monies are paid at inflated rates for services and products.

That is the tip of the iceberg. What about all the close one eye deals. All the coffee money that needs to be paid. At every department, there is bound to be such occurences. This is their shameless way of becoming rich, without working for it.

This is rotten state of affairs we are all in. How i wish the general elections was held now. Let the public show their displeasure.

Yes, visit malaysia. Write all the good stuff. May all the shit rise too for more to see.