Seems like tomorrow’s fuel-hike demo is going ahead in Kelana Jaya; hope that there won’t be any violent crash during the rally, and I hope that the protestors are fighting on the right cause and not for political reasons.
There is no point protesting against the petrol hike… the fuel subsidy was wrong and should have been gone long ago. It there is anything to complain about… it’s about corruption, poor public transportation and the government failure in improving our living standard for the past decade.
Inflation is something inevitable; what really strike Malaysians these days is the failure to improve our earning-capability since the 1997 economic crisis. With exceptions of a few professions, the salary and income levels of most jobs are not on par with inflation rate for the past decade… some sectors are actually falling behind the pre-1997 era.
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The Edge has reported that Walt Disney Co is looking to build a theme park on a 500-acre site in the Iskandar development zone in Johor. [Reuters]
Malaysian press are rather quiet about this.
It would be a good thing for Malaysia if the plan becomes a reality. It will boost our tourism, offers job opportunities and raise our country’s name internationally.
Malaysia should be a good place for Disneyland to startup; we do have the crowd and Malaysians do like theme parks in general.
I am a bit skeptical on building it in Johor though; I am not really sure how Johor is like in recent years. Perhaps it could be a better place than Klang Valley, but I think building it somewhere near Kuala Lumpur is a better option.
Conglomerate Cahya Mata Sarawak Bhd (CMS) and global Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto Tuesday (August 7) signed an agreement for the proposed development of an aluminium smelter in Sarawak. [Bernama]
Malaysia doesn’t have rich resource of bauxite (raw mineral for aluminium), we don’t have a large market for aluminium, and our labor cost is no longer the cheapest these days… the only reason for Rio Tinto to invest in Sarawak is because of its demand for high power supply, which the controversial Bakun Dam will be able to provide.
This raise my questions… why do we build the Bakun Dam at the first place? Isn’t Bakun built to supply sufficient energy for Malaysia for the next few decades?
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Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi is happily announcing one mega development project after another… the Iskandar Development Region (IDR), Northern Corridor Economic Region (NCER) and other billion Ringgit projects like Trans-Peninsular Oil Pipeline and all the railway projects etc.
It is easy to come out with a plan, but lots of questions remain uncertain… is it feasible to work on all those mega projects at the same time? Are Malaysians capable of funding the projects ourselves? How are we going to attract foreign investments? Who are going to benefit from the projects? What will happen to the projects if another economic crisis landed on Malaysia like in 1997?
Do we need these projects?
Perak government has spent millions if not billions to develop various industrial areas; most of those areas are close to being wasteland now. It is easy to draw planning and providing infrastructure, but what happen if we could not attract people to invest at those areas? And do we really need all these development?
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