"Pakar" or "Zakar", no "Perpaduan" but "Hampedal"

Must say that our sources is not too far off in their information on Dato Shafie Apdal's new political party except perhaps the party name.

In the previous posting, the political party claimed to be the new platform for Shafie will be Pakar. The only comment received was to suggest changing the alphabet "P" for "Z".

It was directly picking on Shafie's second marriage to Zahida Rafique. He still did not own up to an already open secret. Never trust someone who do not take responsibility for his own action.

Pakar or "Zakar" may not be the party. Another source claimed, it could be Perpaduan or Unity. That would tie together with Bersatu or the rejected acronym for PPBM.

Dato Rahman Dahlan commented in his Twitter and it was reported by Malaysiakini here, "I said this before. TSMY (Muhyiddin), TunM (Mahathir) & DSSA (Shafie) will only cannibalise support from current opposition. The defection of PKR's MP Penampang proved it!"

Darrell Leiking's departure created active discussion in Sabah social media, wrote Sabahan Phillip Golingai in The Star here.

One of the subject discussed was written in the previous posting. It is the possibility of PKR closing shop and a new political slogan to remove Malaya party out of Sabah.

Shafie Apdal to launch Pakar on Sept 29th

In an anticipated move, The Star Online reported Dato Seri Shafie Apdal will be taking over a dormant Sabah party as his political platform to take on BN in Sabah.

He was spotted at the ROS office this morning with Dato Jaujan Sambakong, state assemblymen for Sulabayan who quit UMNO together with Shafie.

In a related event, MP for Penampang, Darrell Leiking announced resignation from PKR yesterday. Only last week the PKR VP demanded Tun Dr Mahathir to admit Anwar was a victim of political persecution.

The former UMNO Penampang leader was also seen with Shafie at ROS this morning.

Sabah political analyst with a government agency saw this as an interesting development. Darell is a Murut and Bajau is not known to have close links with KDM.

Mahathir accused of messing up public transportation

The opening line in this travel and leisure website on Malaysia here claimed:

"In Malaysia, public transport is very developed and quite practical, and will save you the trouble of dealing with driving". 

However, the urban reality to those living in the Greater Kuala Lumpur and Klang Valley (Greater KL) is that it is far from the truth.

With Vision 2020 to be a developed nation a mere 4 years away, the land public transportation (LPT) for Greater KL is far from that a developed nation.

In places like the interior of Sarawak, even the basic rudimentary transportation need is yet fulfilled. If KL is still not in place, what can one expect for the rest of the country.

Public transport was not taken up seriously in the past thus the carpet had swell into a hill by the time Dato Najib could address the problem.

Maybe it is personal interest in play or resistance to change. And even be the underlying unstated reason behind the current political war cry to remove Najib.

1MDB could just be an excuse.

Public transportation to serve rakyat

Despite the recent hiccup at the Putra-LRT station and consequent bad handling and unsafe emergency procedures by Prasarana Malaysia, there were encouraging development on public transportation.

There was the commencement of the second MRT line that extends the reach of Putra-LRT commuters beyond Klana Jaya till last station off Putra Heights. The third line is at planning stage and will take commuters to Sungai Buloh-Serdang- Putarajaya.

In July, the MOU for the High Speed Rail from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore was inked. The 350km line will reduce travel time between the two destinations and make Kuala Lumpur and Singapore only one and half hour away.

Malaysia plan to spend almost RM70 billon on rail infrastructure. It is another people-centric economic initiative by Dato Najib.

This should have been the option over the economic development model based on subsidised petrol, tolled highway and Proton car ownership.

There was no interest in past administration to develop an efficient mass rail transport. KTM rail should have been changed for a wider gauge for faster, higher load, and modern rail transport.

Too many boo boo twisting to cover for past mistake.

MUSICAL INTERLUDE: Tell it like it is

By Aaron Neville

If you want something to play with
Go and find yourself a toy
Baby, my time is too expensive
And I'm not a little boy

If you are serious
Don't play with my heart, it makes me furious
But if you want me to love you
Then, baby, I will, girl, you know I will

Tell it like it is
Don't be ashamed to let your conscience be your guide
But I-I-I-I-I know deep down inside of me
I believe you love me, forget your foolish pride

O&G Emir to mess up another plantation company?

The way people get appointed for top post can be bewildering.

A friend send us this news report on the appointment of former FGV CEO, Datok Emir Mevani Abdullah in an advisory role at Tradewind.

His then appointment as CEO of FGV from an earlier position as Board Member of FGV to represent PEMANDU was itself questionable.

His integrity was first put into question for lying on his Phd degree. His professional background was in oil and gas and not oil from palm trees. In 2013, this blogger questioned then Minister Tan Sri Abdul Wahid Omar for mentioning him as one of the pride of Talent Corp. 

After leaving FGV for a questionable deal and it is not his first questionable deal (not going to rewrite it), this appointment came as a surprise. How long and successful has he been in the oil palm industry to give advise to another long time player in oil palm?

Eureka! Evenit ut Gluteus Maximus

Pronouned "Auw re ka! Evina tut glutae maximus" to mean "Eureka! It turned out to be the Gluteus Maximus" in Latin.

Prior to our April trip to Sarawak, an old back pain resurfaced.

It worsened upon our return and till today, it made us fear of sitting for long time to write. Unintentionally, it made us post-phoned work, including cleaning-up our work space and the mess from our books, magazines and files all over the house. And we got to return back a so-called "confidential" material misplaced in one of the many storage boxes.

It was really an unexpected problem. After undergoing through 2 months of relatively intensive dieting, and daily workout able to shed off about 25 lb, our muscles were supposed to be "loose" and stronger.

All the hard work was about being fit to roam through Sarawak. So before flying off to Miri, we went for a massage with a male masseur who claimed to have studied Aromatheraphy in India. The massage didn't help but highlighted the pain at a certain specific part.