What is the origin of the name of Batu Ferringhi in Penang

How Malaysian are you #3?

When I first visited Penang, I stayed at one of the hotels on Batu Ferringhi and was quite curious as to how the place got the name.

Apparently, Ferringhi was originally a Malay term for the Portuguese people but was later used to refer to all Westerners. Batu refers to rock and according to what I read, it was probably the place where Westerners first landed and settled on Penang Island.

However, I have to mention that this is just one hypothesis and not confirmed.

What is the origin of the name 'Bukit Nanas'?

How Malaysian are you #4?

Most commentators on my FB page guessed correctly, Bukit Nanas is so named because it once had a lot of pineapples covering it.

It was once named as Bukit Gombak and historians think that it is one of the oldest settlements in Kuala Lumpur. There was once a fort on top of the hill and pineapples were planted to serve as natural defenses and the place came to be known as Bukit Nanas.

In 1872, during the Klang War or Selangor Civil War, the fort at Bukit Nanas was held by Tengku Kudin's forces including 500 soldiers, various mercenaries including Europeans and Chinese including the famous Kapitan Cina Yap Ah Loy. The pineapples did not help and after a seige by Raja Mahadi and his Mandailing forces, the Bukit was captured. Yap Ah Loy managed to escape to Klang.
This war was quite significant in Malaysian history because, it lead to direct British involvement in the affairs of the Malay states.

Convent Bukit Nanas established in 1899 and it's brother institution,St John's Institution, established in 1904, are among the oldest schools in Malaysia.

The Bukit Nanas Forest Reserve was gazetted in 1906, but its size has shrunk from 17.5ha to 9.3ha.

Post GST and the Business Crooks

After the new Malaysian Government announced the removal of GST, a lot of people were happy, hoping that prices would go down and people would have more money to spend overall. However, I was aware that there are certain business people, the crooks, who would use this opportunity to milk their customers like they did when GST was put into place previously, overnight prices went up and some restaurants still retained their service charges (as high as 10%). This has also happened in the past when fuel prices increase and the price of good would increase overnight, many times not proportional to the price rise. However, the worst part was that when the fuel prices went down, the price of goods and services did not go down.

Now consumers are more aware and social media was flooded with companies, mostly restaurants, which increased their prices when GST was removed - with people sharing images of receipts before and after showing no difference in prices. One famous example was that of a restaurant in Bangsar and the owner blamed it on a IT glitch. The authorities were also quick to investigate. However, in terms of prosecution, we have not really seen any of these  cheats being punished. Now they seem to be getting more blatant. Another restaurant in Bangsar have maintained the prices on their menu. On being confronted, the restaurant simply said that they had increased the prices by 6% (the same amount as the GST which was removed).

Let us act against these vultures and I sincerely hope that the authorities take stern action - not just fining them but closing these outlets.

What is the oldest recorded Kingdom in the Malaysian peninsula?

This is the 2nd quiz question I ran on my Facebook page. A few got it right.

Well the answer is Langkasuka which covered Kedah and parts of Patani (now in Thailand).

Historians believe the kingdom to have been founded around 1-2 AD. That's about 1400 years before the Malacca Sultanate.

Records of Langkasuka was found in the Book of Liang (Liáng Shū) compiled by a Yao Silian from the Chinese Liang Dynasty (502-557).

Archologists also refer to Kedah Tua to a civilization that existed in Kedah, which may be related to Langkasuka. Besides the famous ruins in the Bujang Valley, archeologists are now slowly uncovering relics from this ancient civilizations including ships and other amazing stuff.

However, not much is known about this civilization. In fact, not many Malaysians know that the Bujang Valley complex was declared as the home of the oldest civilization in South-East Asia.

Name the only Malaysian state which was once ruled by a Queen?

Many of my Malaysian friends are quite surprised when they find out that I know so many obscure fact about Malaysia even though I was not born here. So I thought it would be a great idea to share what I know about this beautiful country by asking you a Quiz about Malaysia regularly. This was my first quiz on my Facebook page.

The answer is Kelantan. It was the only place in Malaysia to ever have a Queen as a ruler - Cik Siti Wan Kembang. Here is a pic.
Also, Kelantan is the only place in Malaysia where the King was killed by his wife in anger. Puteri Saadong who was the adopted daughter of Cik Siti Wan Kembang, killed her husband Raja Abdullah with her hair pin, for not keeping his promise.

Sorry, I do not have a higher resolution image. Please let me know if have one.

Renting a house - the only option for now.

Sometimes I find that many from the Baby Boomer generation are quite clueless with some of the issues that the current generation face.

Quite recently I was having a chat with an uncle and he was shocked when he learnt that we were paying RM2000/pm as rent for our house. He asked why I did not buy a house instead. The house I stay in has a market price of about RM1 Mil. Paying about RM2000pm, I can only afford a 2+1 condo costing about RM400K in the outskirts of the city with a down payment of around RM40K + extra charges around RM20K upfront for lawyer's fees, etc.

I guess most of them do not realise this because many of them already have a house which they bought a long time ago when owning a landed property was not a dream but something you could achieve with a bit of hard work.

Now, if I wanted to buy a landed property around PJ, I would have to cough up around RM6K every month for nearly 25 years. More than half my salary and I will be probably be retired long way before the end of 25 years.

In other words, I can only dream of a house in Kelana Jaya, PJ. So renting is the only option for now unless I come by some good fortune.

Found this great link which asks you: "Are You Financially Ready To Buy A House In Malaysia?"

End of year road trip

We recently went on one of the longest road trips I have ever driven.

First we drove up to Lumut to pick up my daughter who had been in a camp at Pulau Pangkor. It was a distance of nearly 200 KM.

From there we then drove to George Town, Penang, which was approx. 180 KMs. We stayed a night at The Northam All Suite Penang on Gurney Drive. A "luxury hotel|" which did not really live up to our expectations. Bit dated decor, old TV with bad reception and a jacuzzi that did not work. I don't know why but I did not complain despite the fact that it was one of the most expensive hotels I had ever stayed in. Maybe I was too tired or because it was the among the few places available during the holidays.

On the bright side we did not stay much in the Hotel and the highlight of the trip was a drive to Batu Ferringhi and dinner at Hard Rock Cafe, Penang.  My daughter was quite excited as it was her first visit to a Hard Rock Cafe anywhere.

It was crowded and we did not have any reservations but as we were about to drive away, the guy at the gate directed me to staff parking which had a few spaces. It was packed and we were asked to wait. We left our contact details and went to their shop to browse around. And as usual ended up buying a lot of their branded merchandise.

We then drove up to Kuala Perlis (approx. 180 KMs) and took a ferry to Pulau Langkawi (about 1 hour and 15 minutes) .

At Langkawi, we met up with my my in-laws who had flown there. We stayed at a house together. Not very comfortable but it was OK. Did some sight seeing and also discussed some potential future investment.

The highlight was the boat ride to the Kilim Karst Geoforest Park (Kuah). It was the first time I saw a monkey swimming in the sea (getting peanuts thrown by tourists). A money actually climbed into our boat and the kids were feeding him peanuts. Also saw the sea eagles after which the Islands are named as well as some bats in a cave.

Finally it was time to go back. However, we were way too tired as the traffic back to KL from Kuala Perlis was really bad and at some places we actually did not move for several minutes. We then decided to take a break at Ipoh (approx. 280 KMs). My wife booked online via her mobile phone and we stayed at the Impiana Hotel for the night - again quite dated but quite comfortable.

Called room service and my food was delicious but my sis-in-law was quite annoyed that her chicken was not fully cooked and we complained. The hotel refunded us the cost of that dish when we checked out (but only after my wife had a "long chat" with the lady at the reception.

We finally set off and reached our house about 2 and half hours later - a distance of nearly 195 KMs. Fortunately we set out in the morning and missed some terrible traffic jams later the same day.

I have to say, after more than 1000KMs, 3 hotels and one home stay, it was amazing to be back home and to sleep on my own bed. 

I want Happy Ads

I have had a pet peeve for quite a while but I cannot keep in in any longer.

Can all the big companies stop with all the weepy, sad, sentimental ads for every festive occasion - Hari Raya, sad ad. Chinese New Year, Sad ad. Deepawali, Sad ad. I am sick of these ads. We are already depressed with all the crazy stories in the news, stress at work, inflation, economy and so on.

I blame the late Yasmin Ahmed. She was an amazing film maker and I liked her ads but she started a trend which shows no sign of ending.

PLEASE, PLEASE make happy, funny, uplifting, motivating ads the next festive season

Please share if you agree.


The only funny festive ad in ages

Are millennials to blame?

When people talk about millennials, most of the time you never hear any thing positive. Often people will be complaining of their "attitude problem", lack of interest, not hard working, no initiative, cynical, lazy, disrespectful, etc. - the list goes on.

Though there is some truth in this - I wondered what made them like that - what makes them different from previous generations and are they really that bad.

The former questions are harder to answer but the answer to the last questions is clearly a big "No!". These young people can be really passionate about a number of issues affecting society. Often it turns out, it is the Baby boomers and X-gen who are the cynics.

The millennials grew up with scandals, corruption, and an extremely competitive World. I was shocked when I learnt that only kids with 8 As in their STPM or  4 flat A -levels could enter University of Malaya. People say kids do not play outside anymore and blame gadgets but I realise that now kids do not have time from homework and tutions, piano, swimming and taekwondo lessons to go out and play. Many parents in the city do not even let their kids out of sight for fear that their kids might get abducted and I think about my childhood where I could just go out and ride my bike and roam around the neighbourhood for hours.

I recently met up with one of my ex-students and was shocked when he told me his salary in a well known MNC. It was just RM 500 more than what I used to get in my first job after my MBA 15 years ago. That's right - salaries have not increased in the last 15 years. Prices of everything has gone up several times and in fact several businesses here are taking consumers for a ride blaming everything from petrol prices to GST and of course the Government. But the fact is that for many their profit margins are way over the top. For example, it is crazy that Bananas are cheaper in the UK as compared to Malaysia. The bananas in the UK come from the West Indies or South America and is cheaper than in Malaysia which is a tropical country and where Bananas are grown.

Employers continue to complain that Millennials are not loyal and lazy Blah! Blah! Blah!

You pay them peanuts while expecting them to work like dogs like we used to several years ago - leaving the office only in the evening after the boss leaves with no overtime. You expect them to continue working in high pressure environment without complaining while you drive around in luxury cars which can buy a medium cost link house.

Talking about houses, many of these millennials have no hope of ever owning their own house in the Klang Valley unless they have generous parents who buy it for them or at least help out with the initial down payment.

No wonder the Millennials have an "attitude problem".

Water quality

Everyone we know here in Malaysia has water filters installed in their houses - normally a big one outside and another one inside. In fact the water quality situation has given rise to a huge industry here in Malaysia with several companies offering a range of water purifiers and filters - I guess the most popular ones are the reverse osmosis machines costing thousands of dollars.

Soon after we got back from the UK and moved into our rented house, we too realised that we needed to install water filters. It was costly but it was absolutely necessary considering the terrible quality of water. 

It was not this bad when we left the country nearly 9 years ago. Moreover, the water supply was privatised and theoretically the service and quality ought to be better. Unfortunately, this is not the case. The quality of water has literally gone down the drain. Not sure what the problem is due to - is it due to old rusted pipes?

Look at the backwash of our external filter just after one week. It looks like black coffee.

The authorities seriously need to do something about this. 

Pavements and cycling paths in Malaysia

Pavements are non-existent near my current house and we have to watch out for cars and motorbikes as our gate opens up to a busy main road. Where there are pavements, they are full of obstacles - utility poles, uneven and cracked paving and some wise guy has even planted trees right in the middle of the paths at the side of his house. There is no way I am going to allow my kids to cycle around the neighbourhood with their friends like they did back in the UK.

However, this is a very old locality and I expected the new developments to be better planned considering the growing ageing population, moving towards a developed nation status, etc. but was left disappointed after looking at some of the new property developments in Malaysia. Apart from a few upmarket projects, most seem to have done away with pavements (or sidewalks as the Americans call it) - forget about cycling paths. So I guess these developers expect people to walk on the roads or not walk at all - only use cars and vehicles. What about cyclists, elderly and handicapped people on wheelchairs?

Putrajaya and Cyberjaya are probably the only places in Malaysia which have taken these issues into account. Recently the Government has been talking about healthy lifestyles - about the need to encourage people to walk more and cycle but these new developments indicate otherwise. I seriously think that the Government needs to put in some kind of regulation in place that new developments need to have pavements and pedestrian friendly housing areas. Any thoughts?

Non-payment of loans by older generation hurting future generations

It is a bad time to be a fresh University student in Malaysia today. The National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN)has announced loan cuts of 5% for students in public institutions of higher learning and 15% for those studying in private institutions of higher learning. This came into effect last weekend.

Apparently the main reason is that many borrowers have not repaid their loans. I know that there is a similar situation in the UK as well. According to PTPN Chairman, Datuk Shamsul Anuar Nasarah, the total PTPTN loan repayment received up to August 31 this year was RM5.37 billion or 45.62% instead of the RM 11.77 billion, the corporation was supposed to receive.

I know a number of fresh graduates either do not have a job or are poorly paid, if they do and they have an excuse. However, I suspect that there are several people earning huge salaries who have not bothered to pay off their debts. I am not sure what are the reason but if you are one of them, please pay off your loans as you are seriously hurting the prospects of future generations.

And for guilty Muslims out there, if you are concerned about the issue of petting dogs, wearing hijab or other current issues, you should be aware that Islam also takes the matter of debt very seriously and Muslims are urged to avoid it as much as possible.

A sad day and why I will not ride a motorcycle

As I was driving to work this morning I noticed this motorcycle weaving in and out between traffic and driving quite fast. Then there were these cars changing lanes without signaling. A recipe for disaster, I thought to myself.

A couple of minutes later, there was a huge traffic jam on the expressway and immediately guessed that there must have been an accident. I was right and I passed a body on the road covered under white sheet, a motorbike crushed by a car. I do not know if it was the same motorcyclist but this is the third serious accident I have come across recently, one just happening before my eyes - a biker crashing into a car parked by the road. All cases involved motorcycles.

This follows the recent Karak highway accident last Sunday, which left two motorcyclists dead and one seriously injured.

In fact, according to news report early this year, 59% of all deaths in road accidents were motorcyclists. Of course this may be due to the high number of motorcycles in this country (almost 50:50 ratio with cars).

What can be done?

Special motorbike lanes, access to personal protective equipment including riding clothing and most important of all, education.

I had toyed with the idea of getting a superbike and riding everywhere but not anymore.

Back in Malaysia 1: Housing and Driving

After eight years in the UK, we packed our bags and moved back to Malaysia. It has been slightly more than a month now and our years in the UK already feels like a dream.

Our first priority was to find a place to live. The first few weeks were pretty hectic. We were in my in-laws and lived out of our suitcases until we finally found a house to rent nearby after looking at several condominiums and houses. The agents wanted to know all kind of personal information, namely our ethnicity, our occupation, number of kids, etc., etc. Apparently, several landlords will not rent out their places to people of a particular ethnicity. This was something shocking as we did expect this in multi-ethnic Malaysia. We did not have this kind of issues a few years ago. Maybe an area of research interest for my sociologist friends. Compared with our small house back in Coventry, the house is massive and some rooms are still empty. Unlike other Malaysians, we did not bring back furniture and have to buy everything new.

Skyscrapers have come up everywhere. New highways and flyovers as well. I now need a sat-nav while driving as I am not familiar with some of the roads any more. Some of our favourite hang-out places have disappeared or have moved while others have not changed at all.

Talking about driving, it may be my imagination and years of driving in the UK but the drivers now seem to be more aggressive here and will break the traffic rules if they can get away with it. I have a huge issue with people who simply do not use their side indications while changing lanes or cutting into your lanes. One of my friends told me that a lot of drivers are so selfish that they speed up when you indicate to change lanes or move in from a side road. I do a lot of defensive driving now and will give way to other drivers, sometimes annoying my wife a lot. May be I am more mature now and I just want to take it easy and get to my destination and home safe.

Noticed a lot of foreign auto brands on the roads - I may be mistaken but seems to be more Toyotas and Hondas on the roads as compared to Proton cars now. And every 2nd car is a Perodua Myvi - the most popular model for now. Also seems like there are a lot of luxury brands - mostly older model Mercedes. But the fact is that there are lot of cars on the roads. I noticed that some houses have 5 cars parked out in the front. We have 2 in front of ours - my dad's car which I am using and my wife's new car, which we just got day-before-yesterday. Until the public transport improves, I guess more and more people will be using their own cars. A trip from my in-laws house to our house just 7 minutes away, can sometimes take up to half-an-hour. Definitely cannot rely on the estimated times given by my sat-nav.

Anyway, that was in brief about the housing and driving issues we faced. I will be blogging more about life here in Malaysia.

Palace of the Golden Horses Malaysia

Some pics from my short stay at the hotel. Was there for a conference - Global Conference on Business and Economics Research 2013, organised by the Faculty of Economics and Management, Universiti Putra Malaysia.

View from my window:

Artificial waterfall

The Horse theme is everywhere:

Table Lamp

Even on the ceiling

With my brother-in-law

For a 5 star hotel and all the hype, did not really live up to my expectations:
There was no food in the mini fridge, cracks on the tiles, no extra tea bags or coffee (though they did refill it once I asked for it), limited TV channels, stationary with worn out covers.

To be fair, I did not really use all their facilities and did have the chance to go for a stroll around the huge hotel grounds. The room they provided was huge and clean, the conference rooms were good, the food was fantastic and the staff were really friendly.

In the name of Allah

A lot of my friends here in the UK have been asking me about the recent controversy over use of the word 'Allah' by Christians in Malaysia‎. I was not actually sure what it was all about myself and did some research.

It all started when the Government of Malaysia banned the use of the word "Allah" by non-Muslims. Apparently this issue was raised up by a few people who objected to the words being used in Bibles - most of them printed in Indonesia. Then recently Malaysia's high court overturned the ban following a lawsuit filed in 2007 by The Herald - a Catholic newspaper.

It then became a political issue and the debate even spilled onto the Blogosphere. A number of Christian bloggers blogged in support of the court's decision while other bloggers were against it - some claiming it to be a attack on Malay rights.

Following the court ruling, several churches in Malaysia have come under a spate of fire-bombings and vandalism attacks - nine at last count

Initially, I was wondering why Christians would want to use the word "Allah" - which is God in Arabic (not restricted to Muslims) when the Bahasa Malaysia word for God is actually Tuhan. However, I later found the word has been in use in Christian publications and church services for a number of years before this whole controversy and violence.

I totally disagree with people who claim that this would lead to confusion among Muslims and encourage them to convert to Christianity. Burning houses of worship is definitely not a very religious activity.

A lot of people don't see the positive side - everyone in Malaysia regardless of faith should be encouraged to use the word Allah to refer to God. Hopefully people will then come to realise that we are all praying to the same "God". Thus one less reason to fight over.

Just my opinion and you may disagree.

Malaysia Boleh

A funny mail that was forwarded to me today:



After having dug to a depth of 1000 meters last year, Swedish scientists found traces of copper wire dating back 1000 years and came to the conclusion that their ancestors already had a telephone network more than 1000 years ago.

Not to be outdone by the Swedes, in the weeks that followed, English scientists dug to a depth of 2000 meters and shortly after headlines in the UK newspapers read; English archaeologists have found traces of 2000 year old fibber-optic cable and have concluded that their ancestors already had an advanced high-tech digital communications network a thousand years earlier than the Swedes.

One week later, Malaysian newspapers reported the following:

"After digging as deep as 5000 meters in paddy fields in Kedah, Malaysian scientists have found absolutely nothing. They, therefore, have concluded that 5000 years ago, Malaysian's inhabitants were already using wireless technology."

MALAYSIA CAN!!!!!

In defence of Pak Lah

Tun Abdullah bin Haji Ahmad Badawi stepped down as Prime Minister of Malaysia two weeks ago and people already seem to have forgotten him. I am quite disappointed that nobody seems to have anything nice to say about this man.

Nearing the end of his tenure, it seemed like almost everyone was after him. I heard a number of Malays complaining that he had weakened the position of the Malays. On the other hand, the Chinese and the Indians were unsatisfied with him as well.

I guess the problem was that when he was made the Prime Minister, Malaysians expected great - almost impossible things from him. They expected him to wipe out corruption from the country, increase transparency, improve human rights, freedom of the press, etc. etc.

The fact is that he did. The press in Malaysia has never been this freer. He also initiated several campaigns to reduce corruption including the "Saya Anti-Rasuah" campaign. Whether these were successful or not is debatable.

Almost anyone who had to deal with Government agencies will tell you that the level of service quality had improved tremendously as compared to the previous Mahathir era. Of course certain departments have a long way to go before they achieve Bersih, Cekap, Amanah dan Toleransi (Clean, Efficient, Trustworthy and Tolerant).

One of the main reasons I have a soft spot was because I once was in huge trouble and I wrote to him directly as a last resort when all my efforts to solve it were in vain. I was really amazed when he (or his secretary) actually directed the Government officials involved to solve my problem with a letter copied to me as well. All this happened within two weeks. I had actually sent letters to other officials as well but no reply till date.

So what went wrong?

People suddenly realised that they could voice out what they felt and I guess the blogosphere had a role in this. This is illustrated by the fact that a few prominent bloggers were elected to the Malaysian Parliament. It suddenly seemed like Malaysia was filled with corruption and scandals. While the fact is that these had been happening from before, only that these were just rumours that went around via word-of-mouth and rarely read and analysed by so many people - common citizens. So opening up the media might have done him a lot of harm and he couldn't put a lid on it after people had tasted the fruits of freedom of speech.

Another thing that really hurt Pak Lah was the strained relations with the former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad. There are several reasons and I wouldn't want to go into it. Tun Mahathir has a lot of admirers in Malaysia and even outside (including myself) and you can imagine the impact of every word against his successor.

Most people also blame Pak Lah's son-in-law, Khairy Jamaluddin for pulling him down. I have not seen any proof that Khairy was ever involved in any wrong doing but I guess a lot of the older politicians were wary of his rapid rise in influence.

Last of all, I blame his PR people for failing him. They totally ignored the blogosphere as well. Pak Lah certainly had a image problem. I am sure everyone has received a forwarded email with a picture of him falling asleep at some event or the other. In the end, everyone got the impression of a PM that didn't care. I wonder why his people never did anything about this. I know of a couple of brilliant old professors who have the same problem and used to fall asleep at all the academic meetings. All the people around knew their problem but just ignored it because they were aware how brilliant they were. However, it's different in the case of a politician, more so the Prime Minister of the country. For them, image is everything.

I guess I could go on and on but I am sure there are a lot of others like me who are sad to see Pak Lah go.

First Commentator
Emila

Melayu Boleh revisited

One thing about Search Engine Optimisation is that you cannot afford to rest on your laurels. Take my 'Melayu Boleh' project for example - which started out as a competition initiated by Mohd. Suhaimy but later became a personal campaign to dislodge porn blogs from Google search results for the above search terms.

I eventually won the challenge on February 02, 2007. That was a great effort and in fact, the first results page didn't have any links to porn sits for a while.

On January 12, 2007, my post was #4 in Google search results for melayu boleh. It even went up to #2 and I think that was the highest it ever went up to.

It later dropped and I had to work hard to bring it back to #8 position in Google - 18 Aug 2008.

However, I stopped bothering after a while and now my post is nowhere to be found on Google results.

You can Digg it here.

Datuk Nicol David

A few years back I wrote a blog post "Datuk Nicol", calling for reigning world woman's squash champion Nicol David to be awarded a Datukship. However, I never thought that it would become a reality considering her age, etc. etc.

Well today, I learnt that she was awarded the Darjah Setia Pangkuan Negeri (DSPN) award which carries the title Datuk, by the Penang state government. Only 25 years old, she is the state's youngest Datuk.


Photo from "Nicol David Online".

Congratulations Nicol. You deserve it.