TOURISM

blogtunm.blogspot.com Tun M 

1. Tourism is not doing well. How can it when the COVID-19 pandemic does not allow people to be close to each other; when the spread of the disease is due to people with early infection carry the disease to wherever they go.

2. I am glad that Malaysia has found a solution that will bring torrents of tourists to the country.

3. It is, I am told, by appointing a candidate who had lost in several elections and losing his deposit as well, to be a senator and making him a Deputy Minister for Tourism.

4. And we have no money. We have spent RM600 billion.

5. Congratulations.

TEACHING

blogtunm.blogspot.com Tun M 

** This article was published in THE EDGE DAILY , April 26, 2021

1. Teaching started orally. Then came writing and reading. Teaching became easier. This was followed by books written by experts.

2. All this while teaching depends on teachers. They guide the students, explaining, questioning and answering.

3. But today we have the technology for recording and playback. The teachings by the best teachers can be recorded and played back repeatedly, the whole lesson or parts of it. These can be shown on the screen or on the wall for the whole class to see. Graphs and diagrams can be shown. The expert teacher can explain every part of the lesson. The class teacher can guide, stop the video, reverse it, listen to the expert teachers explaining repeatedly through the recording. The whole lesson can be shown repeatedly and the explanations listened to.

4. The graphs and illustrations would be explained by the recording teacher. The illustrations will be graphic and animated. The picture can be exploded (enlarged) so as to show the parts and how they are put together to form the whole product. The class teacher need not be answering question or explain the whole lesson.

5. With a good teacher recording the lessons on video with illustrations and animation, all the students from all the schools in the country will get the benefit of being taught by the same teachers.

6. This sort of instructions are already available on our computer. You can learn anything you may be interested in. You can learn how to cook anything you like – Malay, Chinese, Italian, Indian, Western recipes. You can produce wood carvings, assemble an engine, take it to pieces, build a house, or an airplane, or a drone etc. etc. You can learn any language, hear the correct pronunciations, hear video characters talking and even answering questions. The recording can be interactive. Like the text-books, the lessons will be prepared by the best teachers and every student will get the benefit.

7. It is about time we switch to recorded video lessons produced by the best teachers in the country and abroad (for English language, science and mathematics in English).

8. Teachers in classrooms would still be needed. But their task is to guide the students as they follow the lessons on the screen prepared by the best teachers. There would be no difference caused by the varying skills of the different teachers as we find now. In fact, as the class teacher guides the students, he himself or herself would learn more. The problems faced or the reaction of the students can be noted by the class teacher and conveyed to the expert teachers who had prepared the lessons. Improvements or corrections can be made. And all the corrections can be put into the lessons for the whole country to benefit.

9. As with the Youtube application, the particular subject can be accessed by typing the desired word. The search would be simple for anything the class wants to know. You do not have to search as in a library. All you have to do would be to type the word.

10. This system is especially useful for teaching languages. For English there is no longer a need to find good teachers. The English language course is available now. One can learn English by following the course. However, I must admit that reading books is still very important for learning the English language. The more books you read the more will you master the way English is spoken. It is not about stringing words together correctly. It is about knowing the phrases the English speakers use.

11. Thus instead of saying “It is raining heavily” the English would say, “It is raining cats and dogs”. Time is expressed by saying “Much water has flowed under the bridge”.

12. When reading a novel, you will come across these phrases. You don’t have to memorise them. If you read a lot you will come across the correct phrases often during your reading. And you will remember them because you are familiar with them.

13. We need to change the way we teach. The new technology will make teaching and learning much easier. I hope Malaysia would think about this idea. Remember the text books. They are written by the best teachers. They help the class teachers to understand and to teach. The electronically recorded lessons prepared by the best teachers are even better than books.

14. We accepted books when they were introduced. We should now accept electronically recorded lessons because they are even better than books.

15. Actually, most of these has somewhat been “forced” upon us due to the pandemic.

16. It had to a degree propelled us to a modern and contemporary way of teaching.

17. All we need to do is to explore and update our methods and keep abreast with the rapidly changing technology.

COVID-19

blogtunm.blogspot.com Tun M 

1. For the last thirteen days the number of new COVID-19 cases reported is above 2,000. Only one day has the new cases gone below 2,000. The last time the number was below 1,000 is almost a month ago.

2. Yes. The situation is serious. But the declaration of emergency has not made the numbers any less. Certainly Kelantan has become worse.

3. In India the new cases have gone beyond 300,000 a day. There is a shortage of oxygen and COVID-19 patients are dying because of lack of oxygen. This is not happening in Malaysia, not yet at least. But we need to be sure it will not happen.

4. The number of deaths has also been relatively small. That is probably because we have enough beds and facilities in our hospitals.

5. If the fourth wave hits us the overworked frontline staff may not be able to cope. And the hospitals may not have enough beds. Even under normal circumstances patients had to be left in the corridors with no life support.

6. If the numbers shoot up again to 4,000 plus a day, and it had done so before, would we be able to handle it? Treatment of serious COVID-19 cases is complex and dependent on the best support devices.

7. We depend mostly on masks and social space separation to minimise contacts. In flare-ups we need to lockdown. These are unpopular, but they are absolutely essential. Governments should not seek popularity but should impose – restrictions and oversee that they are obeyed.

8. Proper lockdowns as we did in the first four weeks of the pandemic was effective. There was not a single car on the road. The streets were all empty.

9. But the economic and social costs are huge. People lose jobs, have no income and no food even.

10. The Government says it had spent 600 billion Ringgits. We don’t really know how the money was spent. But people were allowed to have bazaar Ramadan because the demand for them is great during puasa. It is a chance for people to make some money.

11. But in COVID-19 terms the cost is high. I am sure the Kelantan spike is due to crowds and mass disregard for the SOPs.

12. Lockdown cause people to lose jobs, to be unable to do small business. The Government money should be distributed to these people. Giving a piddling sum once in a year will not do. There should be monthly amounts.

13. It is also important to set up food kitchens in critical places. Free food should be made available to everyone. In most cases the food should be delivered to the homes to avoid crowds rushing for food.

14. Online business should be encouraged. This means a food delivery service is needed. Many people could get employment in this delivery business. But they must adhere to the special SOP for them.

15. Shopping should be discouraged. All purchase should be made online. Retailers should also advertise online. And all payments must be online.

16. Factories which are labour intensive must reduce their labour force. There should be more robots and automation. Workers must observe social distancing strictly. Employers must ensure this in the factory.

17. Muslims performing mass prayers must ensure that they observe social separation. This should be done not only when praying but also when prayers are over and they leave the mosques. It is noticed that they forget about social distancing as they leave the mosques.

18. The COVID-19 pandemic can only be curbed if all SOPs are strictly followed. Private hospitals must be allowed to vaccinate. Vaccines such as Sputnik V and some Chinese vaccines should be certified. Also those being used in America where each day as many as 3 million vaccination are carried out.

19. I suppose the Government is doing its best. But there are other things that the Government should look at. A panel of doctors should be set up to advise the Government.

20. This virus is not going to go away easily. It can plague the world for a long time. The rich countries should cease spending hundreds of billions on ways to kill people. Their best scientists should study and develop ways to combat virus pandemic. At the same time researchers who play around with virus, bacteria and chemicals should be controlled to avoid accidental or deliberate spillage into the systems.

21. We will live with pandemic for a long time. We must learn how to survive. We must develop expertise in dealing with them.

AKU SOKONG DARURAT

blogtunm.blogspot.com Tun M 

1. Aku sokong darurat.

2. Tidak sokong bermakna derhaka kepada Raja.

3. Darurat diisytihar oleh Raja.

4. Polis boleh tangkap dan soal.

5. Mungkin tahan dan pakai baju oren.

6. Itu undang-undang.

7. Dan kita patuh kepada undang-undang – rule of law.

8. Raja boleh peturun kuasa kepada siapa sahaja.

9. Siapa-siapa sahaja.

10. Mungkinkah Salleh Bongkok Teloi Kanan?

11. Tak.

12. Mungkin Mahiaddin. Nampak dia lah siapa sahaja.

13. Kuasa tinggi. Boleh buat undang-undang sendiri.

14. Boleh ketepi Perlembagaan

15. Boleh ketepi semua undang-undang

16. Kebal – tak boleh didakwa di mahkamah. Tak boleh di ada Parlimen kerana Parlimen digantung hidup-hidup.

17. Siapa bantah undang-undang buatan satu orang ini. Boleh didenda 5 juta dan jel sepuluh tahun atau kedua-dua.

18. Undang-undang fake news sudah lulus.

19. Apa dia fake news.

20. Yang benar adalah fake boleh tangkap.

21. Yang fake adalah benar tak kena tangkap.

22. Aku sokong darurat.

THE RULE OF LAW

blogtunm.blogspot.com Tun M 

1. We believe in democracy and the rule of law.

2. But by declaring a state of emergency, the rule of the existing laws has been suspended.

3. The declaration itself did not follow the law on the declaration of emergency. The declaration had to be laid before Parliament. This was not done. Therefore the declaration is illegal.

4. It is also noted that at the time the Prime Minister advised the Agong to declare a state of Emergency, his claim to be the Prime Minister of Malaysia was in doubt.

5. But the Government doesn’t care about its status. The Gazette that it issued makes it sound as if the Yang di-Pertuan Agong has taken over the Government and is now its Chief Executive.

6. All action and powers exercised under Emergency (Essential Powers) Ordinance are in the name of the Agong but His Majesty can authorise any person to act for him. The person concerned is not named but all the actions or exercise of power has clearly been carried out by Muhyiddin Yassin as Prime Minister.

7. In fact even when the Yang di-Pertuan Agong expressedly stated that Parliament may sit during the emergency, the Muhyiddin Government effectively rejected it.

8. It is obvious that the Prime Minister is acting based on the provision in the Ordinance that he and his Cabinet continues to exercise the powers under the constitution. But any action or laws that the Government passes which are in conflict or inconsistent with existing laws, the provision of the ordinance shall prevail and supercede.

9. Clearly the provisions of the Ordinance supersede even the Constitution – the supreme law of the country.

10. Thus, when taking temporary possession or in payment of compensation the Ordinance overrides the Federal Constitution. The Federal Government is protected against any action, suit, prosecution or any other proceeding in any court.

11. The immunity of the Prime Minister and his Government against any legal action is further strengthened by the effective suspension of Parliament. Normally a motion of non-confidence in the Prime Minister if passed in Parliament would result in its overthrow.

12. The only means left is a General Election. By not calling for an election even beyond the five-year term, the Government can remain in power.

13. Already several laws have been promulgated by this Government which supercede even existing laws including Constitutional laws. The supreme laws of the country no longer prevail.

14. The country is now ruled by decree. There is no longer any democracy. The voice of the people in a functioning democracy is via Parliament. But it is not open. The only description we can make of this Government is that it is a dictatorship.

15. And so we see wholesale dismissals, or removals of officers in Government institutions or companies in order to install pro-Government politicians in their places. Income taxes being revised allegedly because of wrong submissions before and corruption charges are being made against individuals who seem to have incurred the displeasure of the Government.

16. Business has also been politicised. Some contracts given during the previous Government have been revised and given to pro-Government individuals and parties. Approvals for projects are only for those which belong to Government supporters.

17. Many business people complain of corruption, of being asked for money up front if a project is to be approved.

18. But is the Emergency due to the threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic? So far nothing has been done that could not be done under the ordinary laws of the country. Malaysians have never disobeyed any decision to deal with the pandemic. They have accepted the heavy fines and jail terms of ten years without demur.

19. Let us be honest. This declaration of a state of emergency is not about fighting COVID-19. Not at all.

20. It is about politics. It is about a weak Government wanting to stay in power. For the people the price to pay is horrendous. They lose their freedom of speech and their right to change the Government. Many live in fear of being called up for questioning, for detention and harassment.

21. In the meantime the economy is shrinking as the Government grapples with the constraints on normal economic activities.

22. The Government is not even functioning properly as in experienced ministers are not able to deal with the political economic, social and health problems.

23. Wither the rule of law.

INDUSTRIALISATION

blogtunm.blogspot.com Tun M 

** This article was originally published in THE EDGE DAILY , April 19, 2021

1. We want to be a developed country. Industry, manufacturing industry will help us achieve this ambition. But we need to adopt a different strategy.

2. When we decided to industrialise, our objective was to give people some income. But we had no knowledge about manufacturing, no capital, no expertise in management and no knowledge of the market. So we decided on foreign direct investment.

3. It worked and we can say we have become an industrialised country. 80% of our exports now are made up of manufactured goods.

4. But we are still not a developed country. If we look at Japan, Korea and China, we will notice a difference. They industrialise through acquisition of technology and producing their own branded products to compete in the international market. And they succeeded. We now see Sony, Hitachi, Toshiba products from Japan. Hyundai, Kia, Samsung and LG from Korea. And now Huawei and all kinds of products from China.

5. We do not have Malaysian branded goods internationally except gloves although we produce sophisticated components for some of the best brands in the world.

6. It is time for us to change our strategy. We should produce not for the domestic market but for the world market. Currently we dominate the world in the production of rubber gloves.

7. We should be able to identify other products for the world market.

8. We are blessed with a lot of raw materials. We have rubber and palm oil of course. But we also have tin, silica sand, rare earth, bauxite and maybe other minerals. We should identify products using these raw materials. But if we do, we should aim for the world market. We should be big in the particular product.

9. There are thousands of products made from rubber. Malaysia should produce all the rubber tyres of the world – airplane tyres, tractor tyres, wheelbarrow and lawn mower tyres etc. Like rubber gloves we should be big in some of these products.

10. Rare earth is much needed for batteries. As we turn to electrification to reduce pollution with CO2, more and more batteries would be needed. Already motorcars can do 400km per charge. With research, the range would increase. And the millions of cars switching to EV would need huge numbers of batteries using Lithium-Ion magnets.

11. Power plants using gas would depend upon many components which we can manufacture. We may not have the raw materials. But we can import them. Already Malaysia can produce solar panels and turbines.

12. We do not really have a glass industry. The demand for glassware can be met by our abundance of silica sand. We produce sheet glass but we export mainly silica sand with no added value. There are also industrial usage for glass which we can manufacture.

13. Our universities should train engineers. The capability of Malaysians is enormous. We had no knowledge about animation before. Now we produce a number of good animated films. There are no films involved. Everything is electronics now. Apart from entertainment, there are demands for animation in many industries.

14. Animation makes teaching easier. We can see how the inside of engines work. The parts can be illustrated individually, assembled through animation, sliced through to show how the parts work. We can see how the parts work with animation.

15. We are already producing composite parts of airplanes. We can do more. Precision engineering can be so precise that the products would perform faultlessly.

16. It is a mistake to limit ourselves to supplying the domestic market. Korea does not need ships as the land is continuous. But Korea decided to build ships for the world market. Today Korea builds most of the big ships in the world. Korea even built a gas liquefaction plant on a floating platform. Petronas has two of them.

17. South Korea builds cars and lithium-ion batteries for the world. And it is one of the two biggest producers of micro-chips for the world.

18. We are world beaters too. We have been the biggest canned pineapple producers, tin and rubber and palm oil producers in the world at one time. Now we are falling behind others in these fields. Yet we can be very big in manufacturing if we aim at the world market. We have the capacity. There should be a new policy to encourage the manufacture of products for the world market.

19. The Government should support big locally owned industries so that we can be fully industrialised. If we can give tax-free incentives to FDI, we should be able to do the same for our big industries to supply the world.

20. Now we are in the information age. This is a new power which lends itself to the invention of other products, to automation and robotics. Everything that we do today can be enhanced by artificial intelligence.

21. We don’t need labour intensive manufacturing i.e., dependence on foreign workers. We need to discourage such industries. We have to replace them with local engineers trained to handle robots and automated machines.

22. Our palm oil and rubber estates need workers. We should reduce acreage for these estates while depending on other kinds of agriculture. Modern agriculture depends more on technology than manual workers.

23. By changing our industries and agriculture to depend less on labour, we will be rid of our foreign workers. It would be painful. Those depending on foreign workers will scream. But the answer is not to increase the quota for foreign workers but to switch to other industries and automation.

MALAYSIAN AGRICULTURE

blogtunm.blogspot.com Tun M 

1. There is something wrong with agriculture in Malaysia. Even after independence we still have locals owning small uneconomic land holdings. The British were granted huge forest land to clear and grow rubber and later oil palm.

2. The great British companies developed huge estates of tens of thousands of acres. They were run by experienced estate managers. The labourers were imported from India. They did very well indeed.

3. Seeing their success the locals began to plant rubber and later oil palm. But their holdings were small, generally about two or three acres. They tended their small farms by themselves, confining themselves to only one crop.

4. Naturally they did not do well. With such small holdings and without professional managers, they could hardly make ends meet.

5. The Government responded with advice and subsidies. But the problems of the small holders remained.

6. What everyone should have noticed was that we needed large estates to do well. Small holdings cannot be efficient or economic. This is obvious. But we make no attempt to correct. Also we did not think of mix farming to mitigate down turns.

7. It is time that we acknowledge these mistakes and correct them. Firstly we need to make the holdings big. How do we do this. The obvious answer is to amalgamate the small holdings so as to have a big enough estate.

8. Landowners will not like it. But models of large estates of, say, a thousand acres should be developed by Mardi or some private enterprise. The thousand acres should be managed by trained farm managers with local labour.

9. Next identify a suitable main crop. e.g. rubber or oil palm. Only one third of the land should be planted with the main crop.

10. The rest of the land should be planted with vegetable, quick fruiting fruit trees such as melons etc, other fruit trees such as pineapple, durian, guava etc. A fish pond for tropical fresh water fish, goats and maybe two dozen heads of cattle.

11. At any one time there should be something to sell. The produce can be sold locally or an exporter can collect from all the farms the products for packaging and export.

12. The landowners should get a share equivalent to the size of their land from the profits made. They can choose to work or just enjoy the profits.

13. The universities should train farm managers. Once we have demonstrated the profitability of large farms and mix farming, the small holders would be more willing to have their small holdings amalgamated to form farms of a thousand acres or more.

14. Ownership of the land should remain with the land owners. They should retain their grants to assure them that they have not been expropriated.

15. There may be other ideas. But this proposal should be given a try. We import RM60 billion of vegetables a year. This project will not only secure our supply of vegetable but would save a lot of foreign exchange.

16. Today rural poverty is a fact of life. It is largely due to the wrong agricultural practice. It is time that we change. I am proposing this change.

** This article was originally published in THE EDGE DAILY , April 12, 2021

DUIT BUTA

blogtunm.blogspot.com Tun M 

1. Apa lebih sedap dari dapat duit buta.

2. Itulah ajaran Cikgu Najib.

3. Tak payah kerja, cuma pangkah saja, dapat duit.

4. Lompat – lagi banyak duit. Rakyat pilih Kerajaan. Penyangak beli wakil pilihan rakyat.

5. More duit buta. Belum jadi wakil rakyat tak ada harga.

6. Oleh itu bertanding dalam PRU. Menang. Parti pun menang. Jadi Kerajaan.

7. Harga wakil rakyat Kerajaan naik melambung.

8. Fikir. Dari seorang yang tak ada seduit pun ditawar lima million Ringgit jika sanggup lompat.

9. Bodohlah kalau tak lompat. Sesungguhnya politik lebih cepat kaya dari berniaga.

10. Boleh jadi sampai Perdana Menteri.

11. Pendapatan naik, peluang rasuah – banyak duit lagi.

12. Apa jadi pada maruah. Itu biar kepada orang lain.

13. Biar mereka bersyarah, biar mereka mengeluh.

14. Datang PRU – mereka pun jual undi. Jadi wakil rakyat jual bangsa, jual negara, jual agama.

15. Politik lebih untung dari berniaga.

16. Tak payah buat apa. Duit buta datang bercurah.

17. Sedap sungguh duit buta.

CASH IS KING

blogtunm.blogspot.com Tun M 
1. Kenapakah Cash (tunai) itu King (Raja). Cash is King. Kerana cash berkuasa.

2. Demikian kalau bagi cash, sanggup bunuh orang pun boleh. Apatah lagi cuma untuk lompat parti.

3. Dinding tinggi pun lepas. Kalau nak bertanding dalam PRU, guna cash tetap menang punya.

4. Tak cukup cash, curi la.

5. Nanti kena tangkap. Tak, hulur cash, tak jadi tangkap.

6. Kalau milik billion-billion tetap menang PRU.

7. Curi depan mata pun tak apa. Menang PRU, selamat dari dicekup, dibicara.

8. Cash boleh selamat – penyangak pun.

9. Apa nak takut, curi depan mata banyak-banyak, sogok banyak-banyak cash – Lepaih, tak kena hukum.

10. Kalau hukum, hukuman tak jalan. Okaylah.

11. Ayuh semua orang, guna cash. Kamu selamat.

12. Kata IGP penjenayah ditolong oleh orang termasuk polis supaya lari. Selamat diri.

13. Kuasa cash la tu! Ada cash semua boleh. Malaysia boleh – Boleh apa? Boleh buat apa sahaja jika ada cash – termasuk menyamun.

14. Tak cukup cash – dengan kuasa yang dikurnia oleh rakyat yang dapat cash, tubuh syarikat, pinjam duit, curi duit cukup untuk selamat diri dan menang PRU.

15. Fikirlah. Tak pernah ada duit tiba-tiba diberi lima million.

16. Bodohlah kalau tak balaih.

17. Hilang negara pun tak apa. Bangsa dipelekeh pun tak apa.

18. Aku sekarang millionaire.

19. Apa kata kalau kita jual negara? How much? Right price – pay in cash, tax free, okay.

20. Jangan dengaq orang itu. Dia pun balaih. Cuma tak ada bukti. Tak akan jadi Perdana Menteri 20 tahun tak balaih. Tentu balaih punya.

21. Pedulikan.