Cows on the roads.

In my earlier post, I have grunted that all the sign boards on the roads, in Malaysia, are in the Malay language, disadvantaging the foreign visitors, workers and tourists. There is no change yet. Foreigners are still free to interpret the information and instructions on the sign boards as they wished.

Well, still talking of the roads, have you driven on a Malaysian highway? Of course, you would have since they are so convenient. Along the highway, you would have surely noticed a yellow sign board with a cow's picture in black. You would have expected to see the text underneath the picture of the cow to say 'Be careful of cows on the road' or something like that, in Malay, of course (and you would have hoped someone would translate that to you). But what we actually see is just this; 'HATI- HATI MEMANDU' or when translated into English, that will be 'DRIVE CAREFULLY'. Looks like they are telling us 'You cow, drive carefully!

Actually, the letterings would have been enough. But they chose to have a picture of the cow along! Ha ha! You get it?

May be they could be right! Many drivers in Malaysia drive like cows on the roads, especially on the highways! Proof? All those accidents happening daily!

Reimage Malaysian Airlines (MAS)

Poor Malaysia. Poor MAS (Malaysian Airlines)! It is getting well known to the world, all for the wrong reasons – all of them sad. Just less than five months ago, on July 8, Flight MH370 was strongly presumed as dived into the Indian Ocean. That Boeing 777 was on a trip from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Beijing in China. The search for its whereabouts is still going on. In that calamity a total of 239 people went missing, presumably drowned in the ocean. I am always hoping and praying it is not true.

Now this. News is everywhere that a Malaysian Airlines plane, Flight MH17, also a Boeing 777, on its way from Amsterdam, Holland to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, was, in the words of American Vice president Joe Biden, “was blown out of the sky” by surface-to-air missile launched in Ukraine. It is strongly alleged that Pro-Russian rebels shot it down on Thursday 17 thinking that it was a military transport plane belonging to Ukraine. 283 passengers and 15 crew members died in the mishap. How tragic!

People would now hesitate to travel by air and especially by MAS planes. They may think that traveling by MAS planes could be a bad omen. Though, this was not the fault of the MAS authorities it was just a bad coincidence that MAS had the misfortune to be involved in both the mishaps, in just a so very short time, hence, registering strongly a bad and disapproving impression in people’s minds.

Without the Malaysian government’s help the MAS Airlines would surely close down. One way for the airlines to get out of this predicament and doldrums and is to get the name 'MAS' out of the people’s minds. 'MAS' had been a good name. It came from the Malay word 'EMAS' which means gold. But the golden airline is losing its shine fast. if not lost already. Yes, change to a new name. It could be National Airways of Malaysia (NAM), Malaysian International Airlines (MIA) or just Air Malaysia or any other name at all, but not MAS. MAS would only remind the people of the MASS loss of human lives.

Selamat Datang Ke Malaysia! (Welcome to Malaysia!)

Malaysian authorities from all levels, from the Prime Minister downwards, have been harping on the need to attract more Malaysian visitors and tourists to Malaysia, but they fail to realize that Malaysia is so tourist-unfriendly. Just look at the signboards everywhere, they are mainly written in Malay language; the directions to the places of interest or necessity, you name it, they would be in Malay. Even the safety instructions beside the highways and byways are only in the Malay language. How are the people from overseas going to understand ‘ Pandu Laju Maut Menunggu’. I am a citizen, belonging to Malaysia and so very well understand what the sign says. But pity the poor foreigner. For all we know, he could be just speeding, not knowing that death awaits him!

Okay, fair enough. You must be proud of the national language. But it should not be at the expense of inconveniencing the much welcome tourists. You are not going to lose your pride if English translations are placed below the Malay signage. Make the English signage smaller then, if  it satisfies your ego. At the end of the day, you are not going to lose anything. In fact, you are going to earn admiration and appreciation from the foreign guests, and even from the foreign workers who are living in the millions here now.  

The spillover effect is that, even our own citizens will have a chance to grasp a thing or two of the English language, if all the signboards have English translations.

MH370 saga

 

What a predicament Malaysia is in. It is getting flaks from various people and foreign organizations that it is not giving a clear picture of what happened to the Malaysian Airlines plane, Flight No. MH370.

MAS (Malaysian Airlines) plane Flight No. MH370, with 239 people aboard left the KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport) Airport, on the morning of 8^th March at 12.41 am (Saturday). It was supposed to land in Beijing, China at 6.30 am but never did.

The MAS authorities and distinguished Malaysian government personnels, including the Malaysian Prime Minister himself, did clarify regarding the strange and sudden disappearance of the plane from the  flight control radar, and the various steps being taken to find the missing plane. However, these explanations did not seem to satisfy some ears, actually many ears. Those people seem to want Malaysia to say out-rightly these things; that the plane has crashed somewhere, or dived into the sea, or had landed somewhere. Or, had been hijacked; due to the later discovery that two men had used stolen passports to get on the plane. How can a God fearing country like Malaysia say those statements, without any concrete proof? 

So it is obvious and understandable why the authorities and spokesmen of Malaysia are sticking to this statement; that they really don’t know what, really, happened to the MH370 plane – a well equipped and technically advanced American Boeing 777-200. And they are trying in every possible way to discover the missing plane. The Malaysian authorities do not want to break the people’s hearts with just assumptions and unproven statements; neither do they want to give them false hopes. 

Or, come to think of it. If they really gave them false hopes is that wrong? Hope, is what life is all about. But, rethinking over, it, indeed, looks wrong, so very wrong! Bless their souls.

Just for fun

Then there is the story of the woman who got mixed up with the temperature and fuel meters of her car; she thought the temperature meter was showing a very cool engine and the fuel meter was showing full! Her car got burnt!

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Why is that when I am driving a lot of ideas and jovial opinions come to my mind but later when I really sit down in front of my computer to write those down to update my blog they just don’t reappear!

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“Shoot at will!” the commander shouted.

“Got him!” a soldier yelled.

“Who?”

“Will!”

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They say, 'The best things in life are free', including advice… though I doubt if that’s a ‘best thing’.

More On The Utusan Malaysia Question

“Apa lagi Cina mahu”? This was the question posed by the pro Government Daily, the Utusan Malaysia, on the heels of the result of the 13th Malaysian General Election. The result had indicated that most Malaysian Chinese had voted for the opposition.

The question attracted great attention and comments, probably partly due to its stark rudeness in nature. Looking at that in English, it almost went like “What does the Chinaman want now?”

Of course Utusan Malaysia could have gently put that question as “Apalagi rakyat Malaysia keturunan Cina hendak lagi?” In English that would sound close to “What does the Malaysian Chinese want now?” Which is more diplomatic. Looks like Utusan Malaysia wantonly did that to get the people, and especially, the Malaysian Chinese to take notice.

And why not? Look at the Malaysian Chinese, now. They are owners of most of the businesses in Malaysia; shops, factories and business services of every kind. In fact, they control the Malaysian economy. Every town in Malaysia is a Chinatown! Of course, this just did not happen out of the air. The Malaysian Chinese worked hard for it, they being inclined or guided towards business since very young. All this happened during the past 55 years’ rule of the ruling party, the Barisan Nasional (initially known as Alliance). Fundamentally, the Malaysian Chinese are well off.

So, actually, it is not wrong for Utusan Malaysia to ask “Apa lagi rakyat Malaysia keturunan Cina hendak lagi?” The question arose, probably, due to some rumblings from the Chinese community of malaysia, both before and after the election.