On Doctors

Most of you probably have a friend or two who excelled in their academic curriculum in school. Most of these gifted individuals would probably go on to obtain a medical degree. Some would get into public institutions and some wouldn’t. Some may even have to fork a hefty some of money to get through med school. Lets look at the figures. The annual fee in the National University of Singapore alone is a whooping $116, 640 that’s about RM285k a year! That’s excluding housing and other living expenses. Assuming you were to invest RM285k a year at the current interest rate of 2.5% p.a. for 5 years, by using this formula:



You would have RM1, 535,500 at the end of the 5 years. That’s one point five million ringgit. A doctor working for the government can expect to earn about RM3.5k, RM4k tops. How long then would it take for the good doctor to earn back the money he invested in his education? Are you surprised then if I were to tell you that we as a country are short of doctors? 9000 men short in fact.

So where have all the medical students of Malaysia gone? Well presumably they’ve went on to stay at whichever country they got their medical degrees. I mean Australia is short on doctors and hell they pay well! About AUD70, 000 p.a.! I mean its something like this; a med school graduate who was offered to work in John Hopkins Hospital chose to work in Hospital Raja Perempuan Zainab II instead. Don’t know where that is? Well neither do I. It’s also not likely to happen I think. I mean its something like getting to bring Megan Fox out on a date in a Lamborghini but instead you choose to take Rafidah Aziz on a date on a Honda Cub! I’m sorry but that’s just not going to happen.


Photo editing courtesy of Malaysia LAH!

Of course it would be rather parochial for me to assume that a doctor is only motivated by money. Some act upon pure selflessness. Doctor Snuggles and Doctor Dolittle for example. Although the last time I checked they are entirely fictional. I mean one can only derive so much utility from acts of pure altruism alone. So when I found out that the doctor to population ratio is going from 1:1,361 today to 1:400 by 2020 I was genuinely staggered! How is it possible? Easy! We are simply going to accept doctors from just about every known and quite possibly unknown medical institution in the world. 320 institutions around the world! In contrast Singapore is only recognizing 120! Its as if Malaysia has gotten a shortage of beef and decided that the best course of action is to import Mad Cows from Britain because supply is just so plentiful! We in Malaysia need doctors. Good ones too. Something has to be done!

On Race

Here in Malaysia, we are very proud to be a very culturally diverse nation. We have the Bumiputeras of Sabah and Sarawak, the Chinese, the Indians and the Malays. What this creates is a sort of congregation of many cultures. Which is a good thing. However there are certain foibles to this.

You have the occasional racial discriminations and of course the Malay rights issue, which of course I would not go into. Some see the Bumiputeras as lazy and backwards thinking, the Chinese as selfish and greedy, the Indians as over calculating and stingy and the Malays as proud and backwards. And you would be right. But consider this. Regardless of race, aren’t we all a little lazy and conservative at times? Sometimes we are just plain self-centered and greedy. Other times we are just devious and slightly miserly. Being proud of ourselves and being resistant to change is just part of human nature.

Consider this fact. The Bumis value kinship; the Chinese prosperity, the Indians camaraderie, and the Malays warm hospitality. Why then does our government separate themselves based on race? Shouldn’t BN be a single united party? Instead of many parties separated by nothing but race? That’s just playing the race card isn’t it? The opposition is of course just as guilty.

I see myself, not as a Chinese Malaysian but rather a Malaysian but of Chinese ethnicity. I enjoy my cup of the tarik and nasi lemak just as much as an Indian man would enjoy Penang fried kueh tiaw and a Malay man roti canai. So then as a Malaysian, don’t play the race card don’t see yourself as a Bumi, Chinese, Indian or Malay. See yourself as simply Malaysian. Enjoy this congregation of many colours and flavours. There is nowhere else in the world quite like it. And remember never brandish your kris to make a point. We know someone did. Be more culturally sensitive. There are better venues to put forward your opinions.

On Driving and Accidents

Source:http://warnawarnimalaysia.blogspot.com/2008/05/zebra-crossing.html

OK time for a quiz! You see a zebra crossing what do you do?
a) Stop for pedestrians
b) Keep going
c) Never seen one
d) What’s a zebra crossing?
If you’ve answered (a) you’re probably not driving in Malaysia. Honestly, if you’re a Malaysian driver, in Malaysia you would be answering (b) (c) or (d) and I don’t blame you because if you were a Malaysian driver, you would probably have a very flagrant disregard for traffic laws. I of course am no exception. That of course leads to the very high accident rates we have in our proud nation. Take a look at this table:

Kemalangan 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
Jan-Jun
Maut 5,678 5,623 5719 5672 3,018
Parah 7,444 7,600 7373 7384 3,632
Ringan 33,147 25,905 15596 13979 6,690
Kerosakan 280,546 289,136 312564 336284 170,357
Jumlah 326,815 328,264 341,252 363,319 183,357

Source: http://www.rmp.gov.my/

You would notice that the Royal Malaysian Police decided not to include statistics for 2009 or the 2nd half of 2008 for that matter. Probably decided to go for a cup of tea. But if u take a close look at the statistics, you would be able to see a rising trend in the number of accidents. If one were to extrapolate the given data, in the year 2020 we would have roughly 500,000 accidents a year! We have about half a million cars and another half a million motorcycles on our roads in 2008 so at 183, 357 accidents for the first half of 2008 means that for every 100 cars on the road, there are 18 accidents and that’s only for the first half of the year. Assuming the trend continues, there would be 36 accidents per 100 cars by the end of 2008. I’ve not even factored in the festive season.

So we’ve established that we have a very high accident rate vis-à-vis the number of cars on the road. Which leads to one pressing question. Why in the world do we have so many road accidents? First of all is of course our road infrastructure. Far from being perfect, has led to many a car accident. But of course once you your off the motorways and into the B roads, you’d probably adapt your driving to suit the roads. You wouldn’t drive recklessly on kampung roads would you? So while on the surface, it may seem that our roads are to blame, it isn’t. At least not entirely. Next you have road builders and road repairmen who decide that the best time to get on with their jobs is between 8-10 am and 4-6pm. They also feel that it is sufficient to place only one road sign to indicate that they are doing nothing but closing down the roads for our apparent future convenience. This road sign is usually placed about 500cm away from their roadwork. But of course as a driver you’re expected to be vigilant on the road. Which means you have to watch your surroundings carefully. Which means we can’t blame them entirely as well.

So lets move on to something more pertinent. Speed. Speed kills! Apparently. That is why the government regularly holds campaigns to educate the public on the dangers of speeding. These campaigns usually come about during festive seasons. You may never have realized this, but occasionally during festivities our speed limit is reduced to 80. Of course nobody even knows that our speed limit is actually 90. This is because we as Malaysians see speeding as a right nay a way of life. But that’s not the problem is it? The problem is that there are some people who drive incredibly slowly congesting the road every time they have the urge to start their cars and go for a ride because they think that the slower you are the safer. Some drivers are so slow in fact that if you were to put a pot of soil in their cars, they would be able to grow taugehs every single time they go marketing. So you have some insane drivers driving at 160 and then you have some law-abiding citizens driving at 90 and some schmucks who drive at a very brisk 20. This causes accidents because people would be weaving in and out. Therefore I propose that instead of having a speed limit on our roads, as jerks that speed would never abide by them, have speed minimums instead. Keep the minimum to say 120. That way our roads would be safer and less congested. There. Killing two birds with one stone.

Like that is ever going to happen. Which leads to another thing. When we shift over to the outer lane, most of the time we get frustrated because there is usually a balding and fat middle-aged man driving with his 12-year-old girlfriend hogging the road. What happens then? We shift back to the inner lane in a futile attempt to undertake him. We shift back out and then back in. Weaving in and out of traffic in order to get ahead of this pig headed jerk. These people should be executed. That way not only will we have less congested roads; we would have effectively gotten rid of all the pedophiles in Malaysia.

On Math and Science in English

Close your eyes. Imagine yourself a few years back. If you’re thinking about your kindy days you’ve gone a bit too far. If you’re in your green pants or your light blue pinafore, go back a little further. Actually just go back to Primary 4. Some may remember the blatant meanness of their teachers and their wanton cruelty towards their students. Other may have fond memories of playing Digimon and the inevitable washing of toilets that followed. Notwithstanding, during this transitional period, we were exposed to new things in life as well as in our academic curriculum. We were now upper primary school students! Most significant however, was the introduction of science and perhaps kajian tempatan, which I remember to be the love child of geography and history. Quite boring if I remember correctly. The name Parameswara keeps popping up in my head for some strange reason. But anyway if you are around my age, give or take a few years (I'am 22 btw) you would remember studying both subjects in Bahasa Malaysia. I didn’t have any problems then, and I don’t have any problems now.

But that is because I am privileged enough to be sufficiently well versed in English and despite being in the science stream during my secondary school years, I went into commerce during my college years. Why did I go into commerce? Partly because I fared badly in biology. And physics. And chemistry. And that I have absolutely no aptitude for math nor science for that matter. Nevertheless, those who stayed true to science and went on to obtain a degree in engineering, medicine or something in the field of math or science will find that they have at some point in time had to relearn a thing or two. This is mostly because most universities teach in English. Unless of course you went to Germany to pursue a degree in mechanical engineering with hopes of being the next Ferdinand Porsche in which case your failure to immerse yourself in German is largely your own fault. So when the government announced that math and science would once again be taught in English, the notion was well received by the public. Sort of. Anyway the plan took off and before long math and science was introduced or rather reintroduced to our public schools. Now however we are reverting back to having math and science lessons in BM!

The reason? Some students cannot keep up with the aforementioned subjects being taught in English. To me the idea of reverting back to teaching Math and Science in BM is like the mother who refuses to take her newborn for vaccinations because the queue in the clinic was too long. She refuses to suffer the temporary pain of waiting in line, so in the long run her baby would almost certainly die of diseases which are largely kept at bay due to the offerings of modern medicine. To keep teaching Math and Science in English now may seem difficult. But trust me when I say this. It’s nothing short of some short-term pain for long-term gain.

Why do I say so? Well its simple. For Malaysia to compete on a global scale, it is just absolutely essential that the youth of the nation be able to read and write in English well. Lets look at the facts. What is the lingua franca of the international business? English. How about Science? Technology? Aviation? Care to fashion a guess? It has even replaced French as the language of diplomacy after the Second World War. So there is no denying then, that English is extremely important. Nik Aziz would probably hunt me down with his bomohs and parangs for saying this but I would say that, on higher level, English is a lot more important than Bahasa Malaysia. While I acknowledge the need for Malaysia to maintain its national identity by keeping the national language alive and active, to maintain a good level of English among the Rakyat is crucial. It comes down to this really, do you want to wait in line and have your daughter vaccinated or do you want her to die of smallpox? I’d wait in line.

On Broadband

What would you do if you’re not on vacation and you do not have a computer? Actually let me rephrase that. Can you live without your computer? If your answer is yes then stop reading. If your answer is no then let me ask you this: Are you happy with your broadband connection? If you are living in Malaysia, like me, your answer would most probably be a NO. I don’t even have to explain why, because like most Malaysians, you’re probably stuck with Streamyx. Streamyx, Malaysia’s premier broadband service. It offers unlimited access at very reasonable prices. The end.

That is what TM advertises but what it actually provides is a sub standard Internet connection that makes dial up seem pretty brisk. So once you do a Google search on the user reviews of Streamyx:

• Excellent Speeds
• Low latency
• Excellent customer service

Are among the things, which you WOULDN’T be able to find about Streamyx. Rather what you are more likely to find is something like this:

• Very slow la!
• Ping damn high
• The woman on the phone damn bo kuan
• THROTTLING
• TM nuts
• TM sux
• TM can go die


Of course once you search harder you will find that there are many other user comments regarding Streamyx and I assure you, none of them will be good ones. Go to TM’s Wiki page, (here’s the link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TMnet) and you can see that despite Wikipedia’s best efforts at keeping articles neutral, this one is obviously very far from it. A fellow Streamyx user probably wrote it. At this point I probably sound like some biased jerk that is simply ranting on and on about how mediocre Streamyx is. While it is true that I am far from being satisfied with the service TM provides, the impartial fact is this; Streamyx is indeed a below par broadband service. If anyone has anything to say otherwise, please feel free to place a commentd unless of course you’re Jeremy Kung in which case if you have any comments please feel free to keep it to yourself.

If you’ve kept up with our local news, you would probably know that our government aims to have 75% broadband penetration by 2010. So far in 2008 the figure was actually closer to around 12%. I fail to see why the government wants to achieve such a high and unrealistic penetration rate. To me it is quite a hollow goal. Why? Simply because our broadband well err… sucks. At this level of quality, having 75% penetration is akin to a country with no petrol stations wanting every one of its households to have a car. Pretty pointless.

Of course I am nothing but a casual user. I do not run an e-commerce business or some other business that would require very heavy bandwidth. I'm pretty confident most of you are casual users as well, which begs the question of whether or not having better broadband is beneficial for the country as a whole inn economic terms as well as social. Malaysia has, for a very long time had the desire to be a global ICT hub. Lots of money spent, lots of infrastructure built. There’s even a township, which I will not name built for this very purpose. It starts with P. It ends with A and it’s not too far from KLIA. However, in order to be an ICT hub, what does a country need? First off you need the I, which stands for info. The government doesn’t really need to provide that. Then you need the C, which stands for communications. For that to happen you need Internet connectivity. So yes, it will be beneficial for the country economically. There’s even evidence that faster Internet speeds will improve productivity. Whether it is socially beneficial, I will not go into because social issues are always debatable.

So we’ve established that having better broadband will benefit the country, what now? Typically then, instead of having a monopoly on the last mile connections, the government should open up to other companies. Familiar sounding suggestion eh? Familiar and quite apparently unrealistic. I do have other more realistic ideas though. For one they could base their services on quotas. I mean what’s the point of having unlimited access when we are limited by throttling? Provide say 100gbs a month without throttling. Charge the subsequent bandwidth usage. And because TM believes P2P to be ‘unfair’ this would be a good compromise for both parties. I can still download but not that much. Sounds pretty fair to me. Lately Streamyx has been advertising speeds of up to 4mbps. Lets face it, they can advertise speeds of up to 100000000000gbps and its likely that we are never ever going to get it. So lets be realistic here, instead of constantly trying to woo more users by offering higher and higher speeds, just maintain the current speed of 1mpbs and actually provide it. In fact, revert back to 512kbps but provide us with good speeds, low latency and please for the love of god do not throttle us.

On Proton

The brainchild of former Prime Minister Tun Mahathir bin Mohamad, Proton produced their first car back in 1985. Proton is a subject of much controversy amongst Malaysians, mainly because Proton cars are seen as lousy and unreliable, and only sell well here in Malaysia because of protectionist measures. Some Proton models are just poorly designed; take the Proton Juara for example:

Just take a look at it! Then there’s the Proton Savvy, with its tagline “Built for Fun”. It seems that Proton literally built this machine JUST for fun without considering much about its design. But enough of that. Lets look at Proton Saga’s timeline. Proton’s flagship if you will. First introduced in 1985, it looked like this.

A "few" years later in 2008 it looked like this:

Pretty much the same really. So much for creativity. Here’s Mitsubishi Lancer’s (the Saga was based on this) time-line instead. In 1985, it looked like this.

Here's the Lancer in 1991. Looks familiar doesn't it?

Here is the Lancer again. This time in its 1997 iteration. Another familiar sight? Hmmm.

Now lets skip ahead a few years to 2008.

A far cry from the saga. Of course once you go past the looks, Proton cars do drive pretty well right? Well they do actually. At least for about 50 kms. What happens after that? Well usually by then it breaks down. Then you have to bring it in for a service. Then on your drive home, it breaks down again. Whatever, at least their cheap right? Well no. The cheapest Proton Savvy comes in at RM33, 549, with that amount of money you’d be able to get a Honda Jazz just about anywhere else in the world. How much does a Honda Jazz cost in Malaysia? RM 104,800 for the cheapest model. At this point you would probably be thinking that I am being unfair with my comparison, the price difference between the two cars is just too great. Point well taken. But you’re wrong. The Savvy and the Jazz are both aimed at the same target markets. Their dimensions are similar and their engine sizes are also about the same. So in fact, they should be similarly priced.

But of course I am not here to tell you how ripped off you are when it comes to cars. No I am not. Reading this, your probably Malaysian so you’d probably know by now that foreign cars which are usually of better quality, come at a great premium. No I will not go into that. Rather, lets look at the facts. Proton employs around 10000 workers ergo they create jobs. They have distribution channels, which involve many local businessmen ergo they create entrepreneurs. So is Proton such a bad idea after all? Seems not. But the knock-on effect it created is highly undesirable, i.e. the high cost of owning an imported car. Now despite the high ownership cost of cars, you would think that car ownership in Malaysia is very low. But you’re wrong. It is in fact relatively high, at 273 cars for every 1000 people. In comparison, our neighbour to the south, Indonesia has only 21 cars for every 1000 people. And oh! I would seem pretty biased if I were to exclude Singapore on purpose! Well Singapore has 158 cars for every 1000 people. That’s actually less than Malaysia! Surprised?

So ideally then, the protectionist measures in place should be removed completely.This would allow us to buy Honda Jazzes in place of Savvys and Camrys in place of Perdanas. But then what would happen to Proton? Any guesses here? My guess is that Proton will face collapse. Quite likely to be overnight, frankly speaking. So of course then the removal of these measures is in no way a viable option. Jobs will be lost and businesses will go bust. This would be detrimental to our economy. Is there then, a viable option which would make everybody happy? Lets take a step back for a second. If I do not have a car, in order for me to get from Point A to B I would have to walk. Failing that, i.e. the destination is too far, I would have to take the bus, again if it’s still too far, the train. But here’s the problem. Lets say I stay in Kampung Kasipillay and I would like to shop at Mid Valley. Without a car how would I get there? Too far to walk. So bus? No? Train? Again No. By relying on public transportation, I might accidently end up in Hap Chai Thailand. It seems that I would have to take a cab then. This option would cost me about, well lets see. Saturn.

So basically what I am trying to say is this. Proton is STAYING, no matter what we say or do! What we can hope for is better public transportation. I mean come on! For a nation to develop itself, good public transportation is paramount. If our public transportation does improve, we wouldn’t need to have so many cars around. If that happens the demand for cars would drop. Which would then mean that there would be less people shopping for a Proton. When the demand falls, so does the supply. Hopefully then Proton would improve itself and be able to compete with other carmakers without the aid of protectionism, because at this point Proton would have to be more competitive or it will simply die a natural death. When that happens (the former hopefully) the government would have no choice but to reduce the price of importing foreign cars. After all what other measures can the government put into place to drive the sales of Protons? Deliberately sabotaging public transport? I personally like the idea of Malaysia having an active automobile industry I just don’t like the idea that it is only alive because of unfair advantages. So for those wanting to buy an Evo X or a GTR but simply can’t afford one, lobby for better public transportation. While it may take a little longer than simply stealing one, it is the only viable solution we can to this predicament we are facing. After all its simple economics, demand drives supply.