I like to read TheStar when they report on the silliness of our parliamentarians on both sides of the divide. Recently, there was a minor stunt by our opposition MPs, who have decided to politicise my idea of cycling to work. According to the article:
Four Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) MPs – Tian Chua (Batu), Hee Loy Sian (PJ Selatan), N. Gobalakrishnan (Padang Serai) and Zulkifli Nordin (Kulim Bandar Baru) – cycled to Parliament Monday as a mark of protest against the recent fuel hike.
Tian Chua said move was also to “appeal to the Cabinet Ministers to understand the difficulty in using bicycles or public transport” in the country. “Changing of lifestyles is not as easy as what the Government claims,” he told reporters.
He said that he and the three others had taken about 20 minutes to cycle from Bank Negara to the Dewan Rakyat. “It’s a difficult task because the road transport system here is not designed for bicycle use and cyclists will face problems cruising around town,” he said.
The opposition MPs should not have called it a protest. As protests go, this is a very silly and gimmicky stunt. They used to do really good protests but this is certainly not one. They should have positively spun it as an act of support for the government’s call to ubah gaya hidup (change lifestyles). It can also be spun as being an environmentally friendly move on their part. But no, they had to spin it as a lame attempt at a protest against the price hike. Silly.
Then, we have another MP from the ruling coalition, who calls the stunt, a cheap gimmick that is suitable for kids. He could have come up with something better, and praise the opposition MPs for supporting the government’s position on fuel prices and changing their lifestyle. He could even say that the ruling coalition MPs would lead by example and cycle over short distances. But instead, he claims that he isn’t stupid and he isn’t going to cycle, which implies that only stupid people follow the government’s call of ubah gaya hidup.
Wah, I just read something very interesting recently. Goodness knows if they’re true or not but it is quite likely. Here is an email that I took verbatim from another random blog:
Do what you like.
The price of gasoline at the petrol station is set by the Government, not PETRONAS. PETRONAS has done its patriotic duty by paying the dividends, royalties, corporate tax, petroleum tax etc to the Government for YOUR benefit (rakyat lah).
And bear in mind that 30% of its revenue comes from overseas operations, thus bringing in foreign exchange to the country.
OK. Assuming that you buy this idea proposed by whomever it was.
So PETRONAS will have reduced revenues. Bear in mind that the costs of operations are also increasing. So the profits are reduced. Then PETRONAS and other oil companies pay less tax.
Then the Government will have less revenue. (Note: at least 40% of Government revenue for 2007 came from the oil industry). With less revenue, there will be less Government projects (you can then forget about bridges and highways, and rail tracks, and smart schools and not-so-smart universities, and hospitals, etc). So contractors and consultants, and con-sultans and con-cronies will cry and scream. Makan batu lah..
The Government has already announced freezing of recruitment. So, many new graduates will be unemployed. Makan batu lagi. Maggi mee pun tak mampu dah. Later, all sorts of allowances for civil servants will have to be withdrawn. Treasury tak cukup duit.
On top of that the oil industry may have to scale back many of its new investments, totaling about 45 billion ringgit over the next few years. Contractors, service providers, steel fabricators, maritime service providers etc will join the ratapan tangisan – no jobs.
Don’t forget that PETRONAS is sponsoring thousands of students in universities and even high schools – at any one time there are more than 4,500 university students being sponsored by PETRONAS in Malaysian universities and overseas. Also more than 2,000 high school children receive minor scholarships – children of poor families.
Kalau PERTRONAS tak ada duit, kesian lah mereka di atas tu. Shall I ask them to see the proposer of this idea (to boycott PETRONAS) and seek help from them instead?
So, it is to YOUR benefit that you make sure PETRONAS keeps making enough money to support YOUR Government so that your children can continue to go to school without paying for fees and books, and to go to universities at peanuts rates.
CONCLUSION: Help yourself and your family and your country by making sure that PETRONAS keeps making profits. Go to the nearest PETRONAS station and fill up now!! Don’t forget that if you go to non-Petronas station, the profits that these companies get will go their shareholders OVERSEAS.
So, be patriotic. Do your duty. Go to PETRONAS!!
(I hope you guys will help to send this response to as many contacts as possible to counter this subversive proposal).
Rosti B Saruwono – Datuk Dr (VP_Edu/PETH)
Personally, I have no knowledge on the authenticity of this email. I do know Dr Rosti, though not on a personal level. I have no reason to suspect that this email is a fake. As PETRONAS’s VP of Education, he is in charge of the ESU as well as the various PETRONAS owned educational institutions, including a full fledge university. So, he definitely knows PETRONAS hiring policies and has his finger on the wider job market pulse.
If what he says about the government freezing hiring is true, then it will have effect on the overall economy and well being of the country. Our civil service has generally been a sort of last minute employer, putting a large number of people on payroll, in order to help reduce the unemployment rate in Malaysia. Through GLCs like PETRONAS, a similar policy is also practised to an extent.
If the freeze on hiring is because the government wishes to remove the crutches and encourage people to be independent and increase competition, then I think that it is a good move. However, if the hiring freeze is due to a monetary problem, as suggested by the text, then I’m a little worried. This taken with the idea of paying civil servants twice a month, makes the latter more plausible.
This has me very worried.
A government that is behaving as if it’s running out of cash, can be a little worrying. Our government has always been flush with oil money. So, I’m not sure if they would be able to handle the job if the fiscal conditions were tighter than before. If the situation does not improve quickly, I wonder if the government will actually do something unprecedented and start VSS-ing the civil servants.
Scary times indeed, but it’s all starting to make a lot more sense to me.
A recent news article says that our government is looking at adopting a system whereby motorists can buy a fixed amount of subsidised fuel each month and pay for the rest at market rate. Second Finance Minister Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop said the system includes providing Malaysian motorists with a special card for buying subsidised fuel. Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Shahrir Samad said that the present cash rebate system was not the perfect long-term solution, judging from the crowds of people rushing to collect their rebates. Shahrir said that as this was the first time the rebates were being given, there was plenty of room for it to be upgraded and improved upon.
All these important members of the cabinet, speaking on the issue, barely days after the fuel rebate system was kicked into service by the government, just does not make me sleep well at night. It clearly shows that this decision was rashly made without any sort of planning beyond the type that you do on the back of a napkin. However, that is not the main problem that I have with the whole idea of introducing a fuel card system.
Personally, I just see this fuel card system as a way for certain people to make more money. I do not understand why the government needs to issue a new card system for millions of citizens in the country, when everyone already owns the GMPC MyKad. Each and every one of us already has a smart card that holds our personal information.
Incidentally, with some foresight, our driving license information is already stored on these cards. The Road Transport Department (JPJ), is in charge of both motor vehicle registrations as well as issuing and renewing driving licences. Regardless of whether the rebate is per vehicle or per driver, the relational information between vehicle owners and valid drivers is already sitting in their databases.
On top of that, the MyKad is also tied to the MEPS system, which allows it to serve as a debit card. Therefore, the necessary framework for building a complete fuel payment and rebate system is already present on the card itself. As biometric information is also stored on the card, this can be used as an authentication layer and extra security level on the card.
There is seriously no need to build a completely new and independent system for this. Building a new an independent system would just incur unnecessary costs. It would mean that new smart cards would need to be issued. On top of that, an untested kludge would be needed to rebate someone on the fuel costs, extra to any present financial system already in place.
With the distribution of an extra card and payment system, I envision a new market cropping up for the sale and purchase of these cards. Assuming that the card allows certain amounts of fuel to be bought at below market rates, people who do not end up using their allocation of fuel will be able to sell their fuel balance to others, thus making themselves some cash. Assuming that the card has a total rebate value of RM625, anyone who needs a quick dose of cash could easily sell off the cards for RM500.
Either way, what happens is that the people who guzzle fuel, will end up abusing the system. What we actually need is a way to piggyback existing technology that is tested and secure. The MyKad already has authentication, payment and driving license information stored in it. The petrol kiosks are already securely connected to the banking networks through the credit card processing system.
Whenever fuel is purchased at the pump, the owner of the MyKad can be verified by visual inspection of the photograph, or by using a fingerprint reader. The license information can be captured along with the bank account information. These can be sent back through the banking network to the banks. The banks can then verify the information with JPJ and apply the rebates either as a discount on the payment or by debiting the person’s account directly, through the MEPS system which all the local banks tie into.
So, I don’t like this idea that is being bandied about. Period.
I’m rather curious with the recent decisions made by our government. As a result of the rising fuel prices, I had predicted that the government would raise the pay of the civil service, which would then force the private sector to follow suit, leading to a pay inflation in Malaysia. However, the government seems to have decided not to do that.
Instead, the government is now encouraging civil servants to seek employment outside the civil service to supplement their income. This is contrary to the General Orders of the civil service. All this time, it is general knowledge that although the GO exists, the government wouldn’t take any action against it’s employees. However, this time around, things are slightly different as the government is openly encouraging it’s employees to contravene the GO.
The idea of encouraging civil servants to get second jobs or start small businesses is only a very short term stop-gap measure. Assuming that the economy gets worse, then what? The civil servants are not immune from the effects of an ailing economy. With a limited economy, there are only so many things that you can sell, and so many part time jobs available. Assuming that the economy gets better, then what? Force all the civil servants to abandon their successful sources of secondary income in order to adhere to the GO? That would just be unfair to the civil servants who have put in an effort to make their little businesses work.
Then, there has also been recent suggestions by the government to pay it’s employees twice a month, instead of monthly. The excuse is that this will help the civil servants manage their expenses better by only releasing their pay packets, half a month at a time. This doesn’t make any sense to me as everything else is synchronised to a monthly pay cycle. So, bills will still need to be paid at the end of the month, with only half the pay packet in the bank.
What this silly idea suggests to me is that the government may be having some cash flow problems, which worries me. As usual, I think that our present government has gone bonkers. They are not thinking things through and only taking the short view. Maybe they don’t feel that they will be in power very much longer, and will leave the cleaning up to whomever takes over after. If that is true, it’s a rather sad situation for the rest of us to be in.
In light of recent developments in Malaysia, with the computers of certain prominent anti-establishment bloggers, consistently being confiscated for dubious investigative purposes, I thought that it might be a suitable time to write a little about information security. The whole idea behind information security isn’t to foil justice, but to make sure that the rights of people are not infringed.
With harddisk sizes going into the Terabyte range, there are lots of things stored on a person’s personal computer, including personal information that nobody has any right to access. Sometimes, these confiscated computers are subject to random checks in the hope of finding something, anything, that can be used to entrap the owner. So, let’s start with the basics.
Email Security
Although the technology has been around for more than a decade, I’m surprised that most people do not know about it, much less use it. Email, is transmitted in the clear. So, anything that is said through an email, can be easily intercepted and read by others. The only way to protect the content of email messages is through the use of public key (PKI) cryptography.
The most commonly used software is PGP or if you want an open source version, GNUPG (GPG). Both these software integrate fairly well with all popular email programmes, whether it be Outlook, Thunderbird or Kmail. So, you wouldn’t even need to know any voodoo to get it to work. If you use a webmail programme, these tools also provide a regular text based mode, which can encrypt/decrypt plain text documents, which you can then cut-and-paste into the webmail client.
This software allows you to encrypt every email that you write, so that the only person who can read it is your intended receipient. So, I would urge everyone to install and learn how to use these tools. These tools should be used for all business communications as well, if you don’t want your competition eavesdropping on your sensitive communiques.
How PKI works is by exchanging public keys. A public key is a very large number that is represented in text, as shown below. When you send me an email message, your private key and my public key is used to generate a secret key that is used to encrypt the message. When I receive it, I will be able to decode the email using my private key and your public key. So, at no time would either of us need to expose our private keys. All these things happen mathemagically.
Any eavesdropper would only end up reading a bunch of random letters and numbers (much like the ones above). As an additional step of protection, do not store your emails locally in an unencrypted form. Leave them encrypted and have your email programme decrypt them each time you wish to read them. All these steps add an additional layer of protection.
There are no known exploits that can easily defeat this scheme, at least not until computers can factorise extremely large numbers quickly enough, at which point, you just double the size of the encryption key and continue using it. The easiest way to steal a PKI protected email is to just haul you to court and force you to divulge it’s contents.
Harddisk Security
It’s no use just protecting our communications channel if we do not protect our data storage as well. So, all harddisks, whether internal or external, should be encrypted. Truecrypt is a tool that runs on all platforms, which allows on-the-fly-encryption (OTFE). OTFE essentially intercepts all access to the harddisk and encrypts anything being saved and decrypts anything being read, transparently.
So, if you ever lose your laptop due to carelessness, theft or legal confiscation, at the very least, your data is safely tucked away. Anyone who tries to access your data without the correct keys, will only end up reading a bunch of random gibberish again. So, all your private communications, photos and videos, will be protected under heavy lock and key.
However, there is one caveat to using OTFE encryption, which only applies if you’re traveling to the US. The government is legally allowed to make copies of your harddisk data at the border. If your computer is encrypted, they are also empowered to deny you entry or to confiscate your computer. So, it may not be a good idea to travel with encrypted data through US customs.
There is one currently known exploit, to defeat this system, but it involves a lot of preplanning. The attacker would need to physically compromise your computer within minutes of it being shutdown, and preserve the memory contents by freezing your memory module, as illustrated through the following video. The solution to this problem is to not leave your computer running, unattended. Given enough off-time, the following attack would not be plausible.
Wah, I just read something very interesting recently. Goodness knows if they’re true or not but it is quite likely. Here is an email that I took verbatim from another 
A recent news 
I’m rather curious with the recent decisions made by our government. As a result of the rising fuel prices, I had predicted that the government would raise the pay of the civil service, which would then force the private sector to follow suit, leading to a pay inflation in Malaysia. However, the government seems to have decided not to do that.