Stock Take 2011

Alright, it’s almost the end of the year and it’s time for a stock take on how I scored on my list of New Year’s Resolutions!

  • Ramen Profitability
    My company has hit several milestones this year. I hired my first full-time staff this year and my company became a registered supplier to a major corporation. I’m currently waiting for management approval for a project. We completed negotiations about a week or two ago and it’s now the holiday season. So, the jury’s still out on this one but things are looking up.
  • Study Law
    Well, I have certainly started law school and have been studying as much law as I can manage. Consti and MLS seem manageable. Tort is friggin confusing. I’ve yet to cover Contract and Islamic Law but I intend to do so by the end of the year. So, this one is in the bag.
  • Chartered Engineer
    I attended my professional interview in early November and the results have been sent for approval. I’ve been told to wait for 6-8 weeks to hear back from them. Unfortunately, that’s smack in the middle of the holiday season. I don’t foresee any potential hurdles so, I expect to hear back positively from them early next year. So, this one is essentially in the bag.
  • Write a Book
    Darn, I’ve not done much for this one besides compile the materials. I’ve not actually started any writing. If I have the time, I might do some writing in the last two weeks of December. If I do, that would be a technical win.

So, things aren’t so bad considering that most people give up on their resolutions within the first month of the new year. That said, there is still a few more weeks to go before the year’s end. It’s still not too late to hit another milestone.

Go!

Kedai Rosak 1 Malaysia

How can they be let off scot free?I had just read an article in TheSun while having breakfast this morning on how the companies involved in the Kedai Rakyat 1 Malaysia (KR1M) scandal are getting off scot free. I almost spit out my Milo panas kurang manis as I was reading the article.

As quoted by the article,

…the decision not to charge KR1M has riled the Federation of Malaysian Consumer Associations (Fomca), whose president Datuk Marimuthu Nadason berated the ministry for its lack of action. “Shame on the Health Ministry for not taking firm action. The law is the law. There can be no double-standards (in this matter). Our food regulations are some of the best in Asia but if they look good only on paper, without implementation, you might as well disregard them,” he said.

The issue is not just that of a simple mislabelling – at the very least it is a gross misrepresentation and possibly even bordering on fraud with very real consequences.

How about the E-coli? I don’t see how the Ministry of Health can sit quiet on this matter. It’s the lives of our children that are in danger.

…the Health Ministry ordered 13 KR1M branded products – fresh milk, sweetened condensed creamer, condensed milk, oyster-flavoured sauce, fruit jam, canned chicken curry, mango cordial, ghee compounds, peanuts, peanut butter and sardines – removed from the shelves for relabelling. It also confirmed that the KR1M fresh milk tested positive for E. coli bacteria contamination, a strain of bacteria which cause food poisoning.

WTF?!

My biggest bug with this issue is that the 1Malaysia brand is being brought to disrepute by dishonest businessmen. Things are made worse by the fact that these stores are subsidised by the tax-payer. I would have thought that the government would have found someone more ethical and responsible to run their flagship stores.

R-A-H-M-A-N and M-A-H-A-T-H-I-R

I think that every Malaysian knows about the so-called self-fulfilling R-A-H-M-A-N prophecy, leading to our list of PMs from Rahman, Abdul Razak, Hussein Onn, Mahathir, Abdullah, and Najib. My sister recently came up with a new M-A-H-A-T-H-I-R prophecy, with the following list of PMs starting with Muhyiddin, Anwar, Hishamuddin, etc.

Unifi Service

I had Unifi installed in my company office yesterday, around noon. I subscribed to the BIZ5 business package for my office. As my office is a high-rise building, it uses a different technology to the residential installations – it uses the FTTC system that has the last mile connection using VDSL over copper. As a result, in order to install Unifi, they had to cut-off my Streamyx line in the process.

The installation was done successfully quite quickly but a few hours after the installation, the connection developed real problems. The VOIP light would turn red periodically and the DSL light would also turn off periodically. The dial-tone on my phone also sounds all wrong now.

As you can see from the screen-shot above, the packet loss is about 50% of the traffic. Speedtest is a non-starter.

What cheeses me off is the horrible customer service. I called them up to complain (1-1779264751) but they could not set a time for the contractor to fix my problem. As a business that relies on the Internet, the down-time is causing me some real issues.

When I called up the contractor’s mobile directly, we got into an argument as he told me that he was too busy to come to my office to fix my problem as he had too many Unifi installation orders to fill. I tried to reason with him with regards to priorities but it didn’t seem to get through to him.

So, I called up TM again to lodge a complaint (1-1782149233) against the installer as well as I am thoroughly unsatisfied with their service. I do hope that TM does something about the quality of their third party contractors as they seem to let barely qualified people do the installation.

I’d like to reiterate again that this is a business package. TM needs to learn that they must provide a certain quality of service when dealing with business customers. Afterall, we are paying more and getting less for the Unifi packages. What businesses require is reliability and the fact that if I call up to complain, my complains will be addressed within a reasonably window.

Later in the day, a couple of contractors arrived at my office to take a look at the issue. It turns out that there were a number of problems. The port turned out to be faulty and they changed my physical port. Also, they installed a line fuse for me as they showed me that the installer yesterday did not do it – shoddy workmanship.

While they were working, a couple of Maxis contractors turned up and they were even shoddier than the one who did the installation for me yesterday. They did not even have any equipment with them and had to ask for stuff from my TM guys fixing the line for me.

The lesson that I learned from this episode is to keep bugging TM for good service and they will try their best to deliver. Kudos to the contractors who serviced me today.

Unifi Blues

Recently, I upgraded to Unifi at home.

Looking at the speed test results, I don’t really have much to complain about. I’m getting around 5Mbps rates and very fast ping times. The connections to overseas is also above the 3Mbps rate, useful for streaming videos.

However, my one sticking point with Unifi is the useless DIR-615 residential gateway supplied with it. This router suffers the same problems as the standard router supplied with Streamyx as well. They both required regular reboots.

I honestly think that someone in TM screwed up when customising the D-Link firmware because the issue disappeared after I upgraded the firmware on the Streamyx router from the custom TM firmware to the stock D-Link firmware.

Unfortunately, this option is not available for the Unifi router because the stock D-Link firmware does not have support for the IPTV. If I upgraded it, I would lose all IPTV capabilities. Therefore, I’m stuck with using the buggy router for now.

Fortunately, there are compatible routers that can be used in replacement of the Unifi router. But instead of spending more money for new routers, I think that I will just use the old Streamyx router alongside the Unifi router instead.

Chronicles of Macam Mana 2.5

Thank you, PSC!I groaned as I woke up this morning as I have had little sleep for the whole week. However, I told myself that it was my duty to go attend the public hearing of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Electoral Reforms again, today. Took a quick shower, got into my yellow t-shirt, and drove off.

So, I arrived at the parliament office and met up with some familiar faces. On my way there, I had been contemplating on whether or not to speak and to tell my story. I made up my mind to speak, on the spot, after a friend of mine mentioned that, “while they may make a mockery of the whole thing, we must not make a mockery of the process.”

While I agreed that we should all do our part, I had to also bear in mind certain realities in this country. However, I just decided to let the cards fall where they may and this was the opportunity that I have been waiting for, all these years.

Luckily, I had brought my laptop with me. So, I began drafting my statement, in Malay, and gathered the necessary evidence to support my case. I ended up submitting my statement with 10-pages of email attachments to back up my story.

I have to thank my friend for lending me her broadband so that I could print out the emails. I have to also thank the Parliament secretariat for lending me their printer to print out my submission.

I spent the whole day sitting and listening to the various parties. Today was better than yesterday as they had provided a video broadcast of the proceedings in the next room. Therefore, all the people interested to listen, including journalists, were sitting in the room.

The most interesting and sparkly presentation was of course, by the Bersih representatives. We wasted precious minutes debating whether or not the “Bersih” submissions should be allowed, and whether or not the representatives could speak as individuals or as an unregistered organisation.

The audience in the listening room kept laughing at the antics of the PSC to stall and divert. However, the speakers generally kept their cool. As expected, it took a long time and by the time the committee broke for lunch, it was past 1.45pm.

I was scheduled to speak after lunch but due to some unexpected issues, I ended up being rescheduled to the back, which was fine by me. As long as I could say my piece, I would be the happiest man on earth, today.

Just before 5pm, I got my chance to speak. I read out my prepared statement, with some minor embellishments, and let it rip. Let’s just say that there were some small fireworks immediately after I spoke. The PSC demanded a formal response from the Elections Commission on the issues that I had raised.

Anyway, I have to say that I now rest my case on this issue. I have kept the evidence for so many years, just on the off-chance that I would be able to give it to someone who could do something with it. Today, I was presented the chance to do just that.

Carpe Diem.

I would not have been at peace with myself if I did not take the opportunity given to speak and highlight to the Elections Commission the glaring disconnect between what they say and what actually happens on the ground. It would also have been a waste of my email storage all these years.

Finally, I would also like to thank the PSC for giving me the opportunity to get the story out. It has been burning inside for a long time. I will continue working hard to ensure that no other Malaysian would be disenfranchised of their right to vote – within Malaysia and without.

Thank you, PSC.

PS: Looks like it’s been picked up by the press – TheStar, MalaysiaKini English, Malay, Chinese.

Not Quite Public Hearing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Coat_of_arms_of_Malaysia.svgI woke up really early (even though I slept really late) this morning, to attend my first public hearing in Parliament. I was quite excited and gung-ho at the opportunity to visit our Parliament. It was going to be my first visit to the Parliament in two decades.

When I got there and registered, I was really surprised that they served us breakfast. We were treated to some kuih and bihun goreng of the highest quality. Things seemed to be going well and I met a few familiar faces there.

Then, when the public hearing started proper, things began to turn a little sour. It turns out that this was not going to be a public public hearing. The excuse given was that the committee room was too small to fit everyone in there. So, only those with something to present, will be invited in.

There were quite a lot of us just milling about outside and we began joking about ‘storming the Bastille’ etc. When we suggested that they just broadcast the proceedings to the public gallery, so that the public who were interested in listening, could actually come to listen, the excuse was that there was no recording equipment outside.

Huh?

We were not quite happy. Fortunately, I am a little thick skinned. So, I crept in with the crowd anyway. The staff at the Parliament were also kind enough to bring in more chairs, though far shy of the number of chairs that they had arranged down-stairs for the meals.

I stayed until we broke for lunch and Friday prayers.

I had the opportunity to listen to several groups make their statements, including MCA, Putera MIC, Transparency International Malaysia, Blind People’s Association, Human Rights Party, Former Police Association etc. It was an interesting experience. I heard some good ideas and some down-right stupid ones.

However, everyone has their right to be heard and I kept silent throughout the proceedings in the morning. I listened quietly and read up on my Consti – Articles 113-120. I bring around my pocket-sized copy of the Consti around with me these days, just for reading.

I found something interesting while reading it this morning – Article 119(3b):

(3) A person is disqualified for being a elector in any election to the House of Representatives or the Legislative Assembly if-

(a) on the qualifying date he is detained as a person of unsound mind or is serving a sentence of imprisonment; or

(b) having before the qualifying date been convicted in any part of the Commonwealth of an offence and sentenced to death or imprisonment for a term exceeding twelve months, he remains liable on the qualifying date to suffer any punishment for that offence.

Shit. You can get disqualified if you committed a sufficiently severe offence, anywhere in the Commonwealth.