The ghost, the thief and the beast

Chapter 1

A young and well- built man called Ah Seng just move into our kampong. After failing to locate his relative who supposed to stay in our kampong, he has no way to go, so he settles down just beside the waste land of our kampong, building an attap shelter for himself, and start farming varies kind of vegetable.

At first not a single one in our kampong man or woman has any interest in him. Ah Seng, however, also did not bother or appear to have any interest in our quiet and simple daily life, his only contact with us is when he sells some of the vegetables that he farmed in our morning pasar.

Thing changes after this morning event; we saw Ah Seng running from the back of his shelter toward his usual selling spot in the pasar, his hand is holding a plastic container filled full with water, his face so excited looking into the container, shaking...

We realise there is a very big and shinning golden fish inside the tank of water, Ah Seng told us he got to discover this golden fish in the early hour of this morning just beside our kampong main river, the odd looking golden fish laying beside the bank of the river crying for help, felt pity for the creature, Ah Seng finally decided to use the plastic container tank to safe the life of the golden fish.

Strange thing happened right after the fish was safely put into the tank, Ah Seng told us, the golden fish appear to know his kindness, in return, the fish vomits a precious looking and colorful stone into Ah Seng's palm! No one in the street believing the story of Ah Seng, "Bluffing!" "Don't bluff!" everyone said.

The same night, all of the kampong folks are attracted by the bright light coming out from Ah Seng shelter, it appeals that the stone vomited by the gold fish this morning in return of the kindness of Ah Seng is, in fact, a much valuable object, they call it "Night Shining Pearl" in the far east, this stone can turns the energy it conserves from the day light into lighting at night! The whole kampong feels much excited, proud and lucky for this "Night Shining Pearl" is rumored to be able to bring about good prosperity!

Ah Seng while still living with his simple peasant live, feel changes around him. He realises that the kampong folks long deserted him are now trying to go near or connected with him, or try to communicate and, finally in a short period of time he is accepted as part of the kampong family! Ah Seng feels secure, worm and at home in the new environment, he seems to make up his mind to make this place as his long term settlement….

Not only that, thing happens in an unexpected way.....

Chapter 2

One late night, under the cover of the cloud, a thief breaks into Ah Seng house intending to steal the “Night Shining Pearl”. Unfortunately, he is captured by Ah Seng immediately after he set his foot on the soil of Ah Seng bed room. Even thought, this guy has his face covered by a black color mask, Ah Seng can identify him right there, he is Mr. Siva from the corner of Jalan Kampong 3, he stays with his 80 year old mother and two still schooling sisters, Siva uses to beg Ah Seng for some term in his purchases, knowing Siva’s situation and understand that he is the only financial tower of his 4 members family, Ah Seng usually gives Siva 2 months term for his purchase.

“Why do you want to do this?” Ah Seng asks, “……..” Siva remains silent as he knows how it hurts to break a friend’s truth. “You shouldn’t have even think of this,” Ah Seng says,”Even if you success in stealing my precious stone, you can’t exchange it for much value, you know you are at the low level of our society, you do not know anyone who can pay you well to risk this one time!”, “All you will get may be a few months comfortable life, that’s it man! It’s not worth it to risk this one time for a criminal record that will be attached to you for the rest of you life, you have no one in the power that will help you, what will happen to your two sisters and your aged mom if you are lock up in jail?!” With that final word, Siva breaks down and beg forgiveness from Ah Seng, no one know what their last conversation is, all we know is Ah Seng just did not make an official report.

Chapter 3

One day after much hard work from the padi field, Ah Seng decides to return to his shelter as the sky turning from bright sunny day to dark cloud and than showering. As Ah Seng step out from the bath room into his bed room, he sees Mei Ling laying provocatively on his bed, wearing only a lace nightie showing almost every inch of her sweet, sexy, young and healthy body. Also a young and healthy man, Ah Seng gives no thought at this second, who care after all, no one will blame me, this is so normal that we shall mate, he jump into his own bed and…

Mei Ling, a young professional coming from a wealthy family from our kampong, holding Ah Seng’s strong and hard body with her two arms and whispers seductively into Ah Seng ears, ”If you give me your golden fish and the Night Shining Pearl as the gift, I’m all yours tonight…you can do what ever you like on me….”. After much careful thought, Ah Seng has cool himself down and say, “It’s not worthy to give up your virginity just for material gain gal, you should find a husband that love and adore you for the rest of your life, and living happily ever after, with your kids and family!”, “Who know your future husband might bring you even more satisfactory life better than you now risk stamping a historical dirt into your pure and clean record! This dirty record will follow you for the rest of your life!” Realising her almost not returnable mistake, Mei Ling thank Ah Seng for giving her a chance toward a greater future.

Chapter 4

One day after returning from the pasar, he finds out that the much respected 66 years old kampong chief is waiting to see him in front of his shelter. Pak Rudin has been the Chief of this kampong for as long as anyone can remember, the only memory people has is he always win in the election; his face is plastered with welcoming smile and his worm hearted way of speaking have long won over most of the kampong folks. He talks to Ah Seng in the most sincerely way as he can and as he ever could, “Ah Seng, my son, ever after you first move into our kampong, my instinct tell me that you are a much capable young man our kampong ever has, since you have lost both your parents in a much tragic way earlier, I decide to look after you as my own son for you well being, I have always taken you as the most valuable human asset our kampong owns, I promise to promote you as the future chief of this kampong as I see the quality inside you!.”

Ah Seng seems to be very touched by what Pak Rudin has said. “As a wise and much experience man in this area, I also come to advise you to leave those ugly and problematic making golden fish and Night Shining Pearl as soon as possible, for it does not only blocking the future self development of yours, they also corrupt you into believing that you are blessed and do not need to work hard, it brings no benefits to you at all! You must leave those materialistic for your own good! As a father, I will not harm you or trick you, I hope you will listen to me.”

Ah Seng curiously asks,” How do I leave those evil object as I have no nothing else left toward a greater dream? Can you help me?” The Chief Pak Rudin immediately answer,” Don’t worry kids I’ll take care of that for you, I suggest we shall sell those evil objects to someone else for a compensation, this way we are both win-win, you get to get rid of those evil spell and in the return has some sort of monetary compensation in hand, and the other party gains what he wants. Hmmmmmmm…what do you think if I suggest you sell both the golden fish and the Night Shining Pearl for 1000 kilo of gold? What do you think?” After a short period of silent, Ah Seng answers,” Thank you Pak, if you can help me get rid of those evil objects, I do not need 1000 kilo of gold, just do as best as you can lah, may be 800 will be sufficient.” . Hearing this, The Chief Pak Rudin almost burst out laughing from the deepest part of his lung, but as a much knowledgeable and well experienced man, he uses to hide his feeling very well, this time no less, for he know the Night Shining Pearl alone can bring him a fortune (may be 20 times of 1000 kilo of gold), especially if it’s used in the right way, for example if the Pearl is to be given as a gift to the Minister and even the…., hahahahaha, it’s worth not even a mere monetary can count!

Pretending to be calm so that he can act normally, Pak Rudin rushes back to his kampong chief official resident and straight away bring out 800 kilo of gold to Ah Seng. Ah Seng almost knee down crying for the kindness of Pak Rudin from saving him from the evil spell. Today, both men are the happiest man on earth!

Chapter 5

As night falls, Pak Rudin realises no only that the Night Shining Pearl dose not shine at all, the golden fish seems to turn upside down while swimming in the water! Calling all the members of his family and the rest of relatives, Pak Rudin and his men rushes to Ah Seng’s shelter only to find that it was abandoned!

Ah Seng disappears just like his strangely appearance at the beginning of this story….

‘Think glocal, become billionaires’

He is repeating them again 13 months after!
I am really curious about DPM Najib called for 'GLOCAL"!? Why does a Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister only call for Malay entrepreneurs to go glocal?
Oh i see! Because he is a Malay!
But, i tot he is also the second man in the power of corridor of a country - Malaysia, where it's claimed more than 3 large group of race live happy ever after?!
Talking about billionaires, i alway wonder whether Mr Robert Kok ever recognized himself as a Malaysian or not, as he spend most of his time out of Malaysia, furthermore, how many billion dollar of him is in fact made in Malaysia, hmmm... i wonder....

Are we selling shoes to African in Johor?

Two young shoe salesman go to Africa, when they see African never wear any shoe, one of them was so disappointed and say," How unlucky i'm to invest and sell shoe in a land that never know the need of it! Now, i can't even recover my flight ticket to here!", having say so, the other guy yells," What an opportunity for my shoe business! I'll be hefty rich since no one is selling shoe here, this market is all mine!"
We are all very familiar with this story, but this story does not end here.
What i wanted to say is, the above story might be a good case study for direct sale or insurance company in motivating their sales personnels to think positively, but if you are really the latter salesman who choose to open a shoe making factory in Africa, i will guarantee your failure!
The reason is simple, positive thinking and determination is a requirement in the course of implementation of a business decision, it's however not the factor in the judgment to start a business, the first criteria to start a business is indeed, the MARKET!
Relating to subject of the market force, i'm thinking about the development of Iskandar Economic Zone in Johor which was just recently being lunched by our PM. Are we not selling shoes to the African if the Iskandar Economic Zone still crying for the implementation of NEP?

Dilemma? What dilemma?

British Prime Minister in his speech (Labour Party Conference) said, -

"................... We abandoned the ridiculous, self-imposed dilemma between principle and power.

We went back to first principles, to our values, our real values, those that are timeless, and separated them from doctrine and dogma that had been ravaged by time.

In doing so, we freed Britain at long last from the reactionary choice that dominated British politics for so long: between individual prosperity and a caring society.

We proved that economic efficiency and social justice are not opposites but partners in progress.

We defied conventional political wisdom and so changed it.

Around that we built a new political coalition......"

I'm hoping one day, all of our politician has this foresight and vision....

Water and Diamond Paradox

"Water and Diamond Paradox" - Adam Smith 1723-1790
This simple economic situation come to strike me recently.

Solve this problem then you will know why we are where we are?!

This simple economic question is "Water and Diamond Paradox"; Why diamond is more expensive than water, while without water we can not live, but without a diamond we will not die?

Some economists suggest that its because there are two type of 'VALUE', one is known as 'value in use' while the other one known as 'value in exchange'. In this case water is obviuosly high in its 'value in use' than its 'value in exchange'. Unfortunately, this reasoning is less convincing.

Forgeting the above reasoning, we may argue that it is because of differents "Subjective Valuation of individual' that lead to this
conclusion that diamond is more valuable than water.

So far, the given reasons seem merely pointing to worthless fact, just like saying the sun rises from the east.

I'll rather suggest that there is no such thing as subjective valuation, but rather it's the basic principle of demand and supply. In this case the 'Demand' is definately subjective! Since the "demand'is subjective, we therefore can never 'Fix A Price' for a certain commodity, the action of control a fix price on a certain goods will bound to create more problems.

Mind you, this is known in 18 century!!!!!!!!!

Sending Sugar By Navy Ship

"I am sending my 'battleships' to Sabah and Sarawak......" said Minister Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal, in The Star 25th Sep 2006

I just wonder what had happened to Malaysia's state of economy nowaday? Using a navy ship to distribute sugar? This is not even happened in the poorest country like Bangladesh nor does it happen to the most populated country like India or China.

Here in Malaysia, we yet again blaming and pointing finger to each other, but refuse anf deny the basic principle of the Free Economy!

Malaysia was blessed by its large pool of natural resources, but wake up man!!! We can no longer depand on it any more, it's especially so in this globalisational of economy.

The sooner we synergIse into the track of global economy the easier we can survive or even excel, if lucky.

Of course to bite the bullet is never easy, but beware of the consequence of not doing it, we are heading to disasterous end economically and hence politically.

State of Malaysia Economy

RM90M to create 1000 new enterpreneurs?

Just get a news about Government promoting agriculture industry in Kelantan by giving out RM90M, planning to create another 1000 successful agriculture entrepreneurs in 5 year time.
By simple calculation of 90M divided by 1000 person, its like each person can get RM90K, assuming not a single cent is wasted or abused.
I'll bet on the opposite of the coin that this project is bound to fail! Two reasons:
1) This industry must be run in big scale to be able to profit
2) Malaysia is lacking in term of technology application and geographical resources (we have too many mountain!)
This industry is just not our niche.
It can only create stable household income for the farmer, nothing more.

Malaysia economy Vs. London

I think it's more interesting to walk the market, rather than to short on politic.
Having just coming back from London after i left 15 year ago, i feel like i need to record down some lines for later reference.
1) I am always told that Malaysia have make a good efford in attracting different kinds of tourists into our country, people from all over the world come visit Malaysia. Well, compare to London, we are nut, i can not even see much British in their street!
2) China town: Well, London's buildings hardly change for ages. China town is still China town 15 year ago, but the waitress changes from Hong Kongee to Malaysian, because they know not only Cantonese, English but also Mandarin. There are so many Main Land chinese students!! You just can't ignore them, they are all around!
3) Main Land Chinese students: It show the strenght of China growing economical power, sadly nothing else yet!
4) Booming Real Estate: The housing is up 3-fold from just 4 year ago. If you bought an one bed room apartment in Dorkland 10 year ago, it will cost u $100K pound (about RM$400K), now if you sell, it's $300K pound (about RM$2Mil), you make a handsome RM$1.60 mil.
5) Burst? HaHaHa, you might make a big mistake!
6) Harrods: This hundred year household name is own by a muslim. Just imagine Mas own by a Christian (Or may be Glocal Malaysian Indian)? HaHaHa, how can this kind of free economy burst??
7) Transport: I spend $24 pound for 7 days transport fee and can not finish it! It's no way you can do this in Kuala Lumpur, sadly. Can we improve? No, no way, for the reason we all know why.
8) Living expenses: Basic salary for school leaver is $1200 pound per month, graduate is $1600 - $1900 pound, a Doc degree $4k to $7K, remember most of the work force will not want to become there own boss. Two person lunch or dinner in a proper restaurant cost about $30 - $70 pound. McD basic $2.99 pound. Bedsit from $20 pound per week, studio from $70 pound per week, basically $200 pound per week you can get good accomodation for 2 -4 persons.
It's not expensive at all considering if you are a local.
9) Car: God Dame it! A brand new Volve cost u $18k pound (about RM$117K), Jaguar $28K pound (about RM$180K) God Dame it!
10) Limited company can be set within 5 hours, cost u $100 pound!

I'm so speechless....

Glocal Malay? Or Glocal Malaysian?

Feeling uneasy not to make a comment about what The Deputy PM just promoting - Glocal Malay - a globalised local Malay race.
I'm sure there will not be any negative comment coming out from local newspaper tomorrow morning, after all, how could you? The deputy PM is not only the Deputy PM in his standing as Malaysian second powerful man, but he is also representing the strongest community base upon race in Malaysia, namely UMNO.
I, as an individual, however, have an alternative view on this issue.
1) I believe for you to keep your house clean, you can not just hide your rubbish under the sofa; it's noncent to suggest we shall not open up our debate on issue related to our basic priciple of constitutional right given to us.
2) A person of such high ranking shall not mix up his higher duty of representing all of Malaysian's interest with the narrow race issue. These appear to have conflict of interest and create and promoting unfair policy. Well, i will never show my preference amoung my sons, unless the other is not mine!
3) To help a particular community is not wrong, because we are not a full beliver of capitalism, unlike the American. But helping one community base upon race is itself unproductive toward the developing of a country. My opinion is, it's even worst for the development of those being helped! The fact is, sadly, we all know this.
4) To have a fair society, we shall chose to help the poor regardless of their races. Even this, there might still be misbehaviour in administration of its goal.
5) But politic is politic, as we all know it. I'm hopeless as to the changes of this issue in Malaysia. Let wait and see how thing unfold. At the mean while, we are silented.

Sunkist story going on..

After having said that Sunkist has disappeared from Malaysia market for so long, i notice the advertisement of Sunkist by a local hypermarket just about two week after i post the last blog.
Well, if what i said is right, then Malaysian should celebrate its getting stronger economy?!
Of caurse, there might not been a single reason that the famous Califonia citrus fruit is back on the shelves...
See if i can find out more reasons.