Palace of Tears

A new RM400 million palace complex project which will be built on 96.52 ha site on top of Jalan Duta hill will commence next June and is expected to complete in 2009. The project was directly awarded to Kumpulan Seni Reka Sdn Bhd and Maya Maju Sdn Bhd. Rumours said that the latter company is directly linked to the 'Malaysia's First In-law' with joint-partnership with 'Malaysia's Most Beautiful Actress - Lady Vampire Nice Smelling Prostitute of The Night'. Whether it's true or simply rumours, I'm not going to touch on that subject.

As long as Malaysia being Malaysia, I'm pretty much confident that the palace complex will be the most technological advanced palace in the world, if not the entire universe, spotting the very latest and greatest gadgets people including Bill Gates can ever dream of.

Just couple of hours after the launching ceremony, the Oppositions have started swirls. Swirls that include the need of having another palace and how the project was tendered. Backbenchers responded by saying no one can question the project as that is part of showing loyalty to the Royals as stated in the second 'Rukun Negara'.

Being a proud-non partisan-law abiding-tax paying citizen who upholds the Rukun Negara at the highest level, I do agree that the Royal Institutions have full rights over building new palaces especially if the existing ones pre-dated Independence Day. If you compare the Jabatan Perdana Menteri complex with the current Istana Negara complex, you can see the vast difference between the new and old architectures. While I do agree it is time for the Royals to move to a new home, I DONT think NOW is the right time. At the time when the economy is at bust, inflation is on the rise and the government keeps telling us of their inability to give subsidies and make us pay steep premiums on everything such as petrols, groceries, tolls, electricity, water, etc.., now they decide to use the extra funds to fund another palace??

I think it is about time the government pay close attention to our best interest. As the government is feeling the heat of the economic slowdown, we The People too are feeling exactly the same. If the government feels that they can no longer give us subsidies coz of lack of fund, we too can't afford ourselves to pay the extra premium. I dont think it is fair to use that reason simply to choke us, forcing us and at the same time, tells us the increase "dijamin tak membebankan". On top of that, is the government aware that the so-called government funds are really PUBLIC FUNDS?? They come from income tax, road tax, etc. That means, we too have the rights to give out our opinions on projects or activties that may involve us. I agree with the government's noble intention to reduce the nation's deficit, however, to pass the sufferings to the people, that act in itself is not noble.

In conclusion, i do hope the present government cut back on unnecessarily spending that will not bring benefits to the people and make the economic situation from existing bad to worse. We want to be proud of the "National Palace". And at the same time, we do not want a "National Palace of Tears". I'm sure the King would understand.

Traffic cops!! Open your eyes, wider pls..

Although I'm not an avid fan of F1 or A1 races, i do hate driving below 80kmph on highways. Not just driving slow frustrate other drivers following at the back, it can also cause major accident and death.

Take an example, imagine you are driving on LDP heading to work doing the average speed as other road users. Then you have this Kancil EX850 cutting in your lane without signal and start driving 40% slower than the average speed of other road users. Urgh.. Okay.. Now you have to hit the brakes, causing you and other road users behind you to slow down. This, as a matter of fact, will cause traffic jam because of the exponential braking effect. This is when you start to become restless. You can see clearly there's no road user in front of that Kancil EX850 and yet the driver still drives slow. To top it off, this Kancil EX850 has broken brake light which creates more problem to you as not knowing whether he/she is braking or not. Maybe he/she thinks drive slow save lifes, or merely obeying the maximum speed limit. Well, you are late for work. So, what would you do at this moment? Okay.. You have several options: (1) Over take this Kancil EX850 on the left and then cut back the right lane and continue on with the average speed of other road users, (2) Start hi-beaming and honk the bejesus out of this 'pelanduk' and make him/her scared and not to touch the steering wheel ever again.

Let's investigate Option 1. In most cases, we tend to use Option 1, simply because we dont one to create tension in ourselves, especially since it's the start of day and we dont want this incident to ruin the beautiful morning.

So, here you are ready to overtake this snail pace Kancil EX850 on the left. You start flashing your left signal and suddenly, you feel kinda hard to switch lane. Other road users on this left lane start pressing harder on their gas pedal not allowing you to jump in. Damnn!! Now, it's a matter of who's the better driver competition. Okay.. without hesitation, you quickly turn your wheel and ...................................... you wish you never did that move. It's a bad call. Well, who's to blame on this accident?

a) Is it your fault?
b) Is it the other road user who hit your rear end's fault?
or c) Is it that damn Kancil EX850 who has no courtesy whatsoever's fault?

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Let's investigate Option 2.

So, you start hi-beaming the Kancil EX850. One .. Two Flash. Then, you wait for the respond....... No respond. Then you repeat, One .. Two Flash............ Again, no respond or sign that the Kancil EX850 wants to switch lane. Okay, now you feel you need to start on another tempo. One.. Two Flash.. Honk Honk........ Your stress level increases every second and got into heart arrest and ............................... you wish you never did that move. It's a bad call. Now you are resting on hospital bed with broken spine, bones and bang up face. Your car is in even worse condition. Well, who's to blame on this freak accident?

a) Is it your fault?
b) Is it the other road user who hit your rear end while you lost control of you vehicle's fault?
or c) Is it that damn Kancil EX850 who has no courtesy whatsoever's fault?

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In conclusion, to our beloved traffic cops. As i have mentioned in the above, with all due respect, speed is not the only cause of road accidents. There are many others and should be given the same amount of attention. Road blocks won't do any good. Below are some of the reasons that can cause road accidents. These include but not limited to:

• Driving slow on the fast lane
• Driving on fast lane even when not overtaking other vehicle
• Changing lanes without using blinking lights aka signals
• Driving with broken brake lights (extremely dangerous)
• Drivers who have poor eye sight or with hearing problem (especially senior citizens)
• Drivers who just like to hit the brakes for no apparent reason
• Drivers with bad temper
• Drivers with no sense of courtesy
• etc....