ChanKelwin.com

Question:
Where is the hottest spot in town on the eve of 5th June 2008 in Malaysia?

Answer:
Every single petrol station in the country. Thanks to the announcement made by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi that the price of petrol will increase 78 cents to RM2.70 at midnight.

Shortly after lunch today, I received a phone call from a close acquaintance alerting me that petrol price will be increased by as much as 50 cents starting midnight. I brushed aside the claim thinking that there is no way the government would increase it by that much. I recalled the previous time when the price of petrol was increased by 30 cents, people took it to the streets demonstrating on all. Therefore, 50 cents would be absurd.

I received an SMS a few hours later by the same person telling me that the price increase might not materialize after all only to hear my colleagues getting all excited about some “increase” moments later. I heard something about “70 cents”.

Fearing the worst, I immediately hop over to the Malaysiakini website and saw the headline — Fuel hike: 78 sen more to RM2.70 per litre. Right at the same time, both TheStar and NST’s website was crawling. I guess it must have been due to the announcement. At that very moment, many in the country must have been talking about the price hike.

I am sure this will have a huge impact on many people. Those who travel a lot in their vehicle will definitely feel a pinch a blow to the face. The price of food will increase as a direct result of the price hike. Gone are the days where one of my favorite food — roti canai — used to cost only 50 cents a piece. Nowadays, they are selling it for RM1 each.

So, what does this 78 cents petrol price hike mean to me? Apparently, not much. Well, at least not directly since I do not own a car. However, my expenses will definitely balloon if the price of food increases. So I guess everyone who eats will fill the pinch. Hell. I’m sure you have heard others complaining, “petrol price increase, rice price increase, toll price increase, only salary no increase”.

If that’s not enough, they are even raising the electric tariffs. Damn it! I hope my landlady won’t raise my rent since the electricity and water bill is included in the rent.

In the same Malaysiakini article, the Pee-M mentioned that the government plans to offer rebates to vehicle owners as a means to offset the petrol price increase. If (and that is a BIG IF) this “scheme” materializes, vehicles below 2000cc will enjoy an annual RM625 rebate while motorcycles up to 250cc will receive an annual RM150 rebate.

Below are some calculations (correct me if I’m wrong — it’s been some time):

An annual rebate of RM625 will only be worth RM52 per month.
70 liters of petrol at RM2.70/liter = RM189.00 (new price)
70 liters of petrol at RM1.92/liter = RM134.40 (old price)
Difference in price = RM54.60

Therefore, in order to fully “enjoy” the rebate-form-subsidy, you must not consume more than 70 liters of petrol per month. We have not even taken into consideration the increase of food items.

How much is 70 liters of fuel? 2 full tanks for a Viva-Kelisa type? I really have no idea.

Points to remember are that, firstly, this scheme is just a PLAN. It may or may not materialize. Secondly, the price of petrol will be adjusted monthly based on the market price because the government will only subsidize 30 cents (niamah so little) of the market price. Everyone better pray that it doesn’t or else we may see an increase to that RM2.70/liter mark again. Thirdly, the price could increase to between RM3 to 4 in August.

To be fair, the government cannot continue to subsidize the price of petrol forever. Can they? Therefore, reducing the subsidy can help the government save billions of ringgit, which is good (I guess). The fund that is supposed to be used to subsidize the price of petrol can then be channeled to other areas that benefit the people like building better transportation system, better/free healthcare, abolish the damn tolls, better education, better everything lah, simple.

What is the government planning to use those funds for? Public transportation is horrible, tolls are here to stay, education can never be free, healthcare will never be free… Ask them to be more transparent, they are not willing to. *sigh*

I am sure many have seen the above YouTube video circulating before the 12th General Elections. The question is what “stage” are you in now?

30 cents increase and there were demonstrations, tear gases and water canons. No reward for the one who can guess what 78 cents increase will do.

Well, the Prime Minister has once again asked the people “to change their lifestyle and be prudent following today’s hike“.

UBAH GAYA HIDUP! or…

Where have you been?
Why aren’t you updating your blog?
Go and update your blog lah.

Those are some of the remarks thrown to me from the people around me for the past few weeks. I am back from my break for over two months now. Unfortunately, my blog is left deserted and untouched (except for some comment monitoring) ever since.

Some of the reasons for my absence include:

• I was lazy.
• My addiction towards mapling resurfaced. I put the blame on both my younger siblings for this.
• Blogging about some of the current issues like the just ended General Elections might alert my own “internal-ISA department” to restrict my blog content.

I do miss blogging, I really do. Instead of listening to the voice at the back of my head speaking to myself like a madman, I get to voice it out, or at least pen/type it down.

The Malaysia’s 12th General Elections did produce some shocking results. Even before the dust of the previous “tsunami” has settled, a new storm seems to be brewing. I don’t want to talk much about it so I’ll just link a few articles below.

“Najib Must Step Forward Now” – Malaysia Today
Khairy mahu cetus rusuhan? – Malaysia Today
Mukhriz’s press conference causes a stir – Malaysiakini
Mukhriz tells PM: Do the right thing – Malaysiakini

When our ex-PM and his son asked our current PM to “do the right thing”, I kept thinking about Russell Peters.

Quoting from 2 minutes 30 seconds into the video:

“Hey! Be a man.
Be a man. Do the right thing.”

Two (or three) days back, I received a very long comment for one of my older posts. The post is titled, UUM Students Faced With Immature Dress Code. The person who left the comment is a graduate from UUM. (S)He shared his/her experience studying and living in UUM with such strict rules for three years.

Since the comment is really long, I wouldn’t want to copy and paste the whole thing here. Just click this link to read the comment. From the comment, it is really difficult to identify the gender of the person who left the comment. At first I thought it must be a guy but then it could end up either way.

Below are some quotes from the comment.

It wasn’t too bad for the guys. It got from bad to worse for the girls, though. It went from formal attire, knee-length skirt to (in my final semester) long-sleeve only plus long pants for the girls. I even heard a couple of cases where girls who didn’t wear long-sleeved attire were barred from going into the library and being “disciplined”.

Some college administrators, on the other hand, seemed overzealous in imposing the rules. I have been reprimanded once, quite harshly, by the administrator of a residential college because I was wearing shorts to fill in water (the water dispensing machine was located just outside the college cafeteria) at 11.30 pm. Sure, there’s a 12am curfew (yes, there is) and I’m wearing shorts, but I’m just filling water. It’s not like I’m doing anything downright illegal! I have had to consciously remind myself to put on trousers every time I had to step outside my block for three years!

I spent three years studying in UKM and have never come across such ridiculous dress code ruling. I am truly thankful for that. There isn’t such a thing as a curfew but guys are not allowed in some areas (usually girl’s block) after a certain time (eg. 10pm). I’ve walked out of my block to the canteen way after midnight and there will still be people studying or just hanging around.

The way UUM implements their dress code makes me feel they are more like a military school instead. It is acceptable if they want their students to dress up smart (as in no torn jeans, micro skirts, super low cut jeans, mighty low cut blouse, etc). However, to go to the extend of “long sleeves only” is asking too much.

All I can say is thank goodness I didn’t choose to study in UUM.

First, it was the BERSIH rally on the 10th November. Hindraf organized another peaceful protest that brought forward more traffic jams caused by roadblocks setup by the police. The march was scheduled at about 10 am today. Unfortunately, tear gas and chemical-laced water was fired into the crowd in an attempt to disperse them as early as 7.40am as reported by Malaysiakini.

This is a very sad story to me. Not that I am taking any sides but to read and see things like this happening in Malaysia is beyond my comprehension. I guess it could be true that I have been sleeping in the Matrix for a little too long. Time to wake up, maybe?

In the video, P Uthayakumar, Hindraf legal adviser mentioned that the government of Malaysia tried to stop 100,000 people from gathering today by setting up roadblocks. People from all around the country were prevented from joining by having bus permits cancelled. Below are some other quotes by him taken from the video.

“They are even going into hotels, asking hotels not to accept Indians to stay in the hotels.”

“We also have information that the police are going to raid the hotels to lookout for Indians.”

UPDATE:
You can check bmahendran.com for more updates on this march, that is if his server could handle the load. There are almost 200 visitors on his page the last time I checked.

Al Jazeera report

Maybank used to provide their E-Banking service (Maybank2u) for free to individuals and companies. From my experience, the website becomes very slow or almost inaccessible in the daytime. I have always thought that they should upgrade their servers to accommodate the increasing number of users.

Unfortunately, Maybank has chosen a different approach to “solving” this problem. Only a few weeks ago, Maybank started charging small businesses — partnerships and professionals — a monthly fee of RM10 to use their E-Banking service. This fee will be automatically deducted from the customer’s account monthly until they wish to cancel the service.

As an alternative, those who do not want to be charged an extra RM10 monthly can use their phone banking service instead. They will need to apply for this service at their local branch. The number to call is 1300-88-6688. Unfortunately, I have been trying to call that number for the past hour but it is still engaged.

I am starting to feel very negative about Maybank now. They better improve their services. Maybe they should start at improving their staff’s morale. The protests by Maybank’s staffs in a few states just over a month ago aren’t doing any good to their image either. You can view some of the photos of the protest too.