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In the mood for love… letters! Posted: 11 Sep 2012 05:26 PM PDT Mint plant and coffee ice-cube. — Pictures by CK Lim and Kenny Mah KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 12 — "I wonder if there is anything inside?" she asks. We've brought a couple of your colleagues to Typica Café, a favourite haunt of ours, for some coffee and conversation. Nat King Cole croons in his sly timbre, Quizás, Quizás, Quizás. Sunlight fills the café with a gentle warmth. Tiny pots of mint and young coffee plants sit in a row by the window. The smell of freshly brewed coffee is in the air. And your colleagues, being the curious creatures that they are, inspect every corner of the café, from the long wooden benches made from a couple of rescued Chinese medicine shop signboards to trying every seat at every table available. That's when one of them discovers the old school desk, the sort with a lid on top. Coffee and love letter. I'm thinking, it's probably old files or accounts that the café owners have kept inside (they obviously would not have considered nosey customers), but instead, I reply "Why don't you have a look?" So she lifts up the lid of the desk and we look at its contents. No orderly stacks of financial records. In fact, it is all empty but for a couple of sheets of paper. One is pale white with English text. The other is yellowing around the edges, filled with tiny Chinese characters. Both are handwritten. "Are these letters?" you ask. "Maybe they are. I don't think we should read them though. They may be private." "Let's ask the girls whose these are. Maybe someone left them there by mistake. Maybe there's a contact number." Good idea. And so we ask the girls behind the bar if they knew about these letters. Kai Yin the manager smiles: "So you've found the love letters?" Love letters? "Yes, love letters. They are probably left by our customers. Some use the desk to exchange love letters," says the siphonist Mei Ying. She goes on to tell us how this all started: "We used to have a customer, a young guy, who had a crush on another customer who was his college mate. "She used to sit at that particular desk because she liked how small and solitary it was. Just perfect for two. But she sat alone. "Now, this guy has wanted to confess his feelings to her for quite a while now but couldn't muster up the courage to do so. "Finally one day he came to us for help. He came up with the idea of putting down the feelings he wanted to share with her in a letter and asked if he could hide the letter in the desk. Lifting the lid. "Of course we agreed and he did exactly that." "So the girl found the love letter?" you ask. "Actually, no. True, she did keep returning to the same desk to sit and have her coffee. "It just never occurred to any of us that she wouldn't be curious enough to open the lid and check what's inside the desk. "The poor boy never dared to tell her so he kept suffering in silence. "Finally, we couldn't take it anymore and suggested that she take a peek. Only then did she find the love letter and read it!" "That's so sweet. Did they get together in the end?" I ask. The girls smile wryly at us. It's another one of those bartender-type secrets that they will only spill if we order more drinks, or in this case, more coffee perhaps. Love letters in the desk. A couple of months later, it's our anniversary. Four years together and counting. We check into a nice hotel and we have a nice dinner. We were supposed to catch a movie before retiring to bed but you tell me you don't feel like watching one. You've had a change of mind; you think coffee would be nice. "How about Typica?" you ask. I smile and say "Sure." We don't come here often in the evenings but when we do, it's a completely different place. The streets of Pudu are dark and quiet. Nepalese workers returning from a day's labour chat quietly, walking hand in hand. The yellow glow of the street lamps lends a romantic tone to the café at night. You love flowers and so you're snapping yet another photograph of the latest blossoms sitting in an assortment of glass bottles filled with water. You are hovering over the love letters desk (as we've come to call it) so I suggest you check to see if there are any new letters. The café girls: Kai Yin the manager (top) and Mei Ying the siphonist. "Hey, guess what? There is one!" you exclaim. But instead of taking it up to read, you start taking pictures of it. Minutes pass like hours. The girls behind the bar sneak a look at me. I give a pained look of exasperation back. This could take months. "Wait a minute," you finally say, "is this letter for me?" I calmly reply, "You are really slow, you know that?" The entire café breaks into laughter. Everyone is in on it, you see. I had come by earlier that day and left a handwritten letter with the girls' full blessing, and anticipation. You see, they had finally told us what happened to the first love letter couple. No happy ending, unfortunately. The girl appreciated the gesture, but there was no spark. Ink and paper is no guarantee of affection or reciprocation. A few months after that, the boy left overseas for work. In the mood for love. They never met again. As strands of Rebecca Pan's "Bengawan Solo" serenade us, we sip our coffee. You are reading my love letter to you for the umpteenth time, smiling into your cup. The future, as ever, remains unknown, but here and now we are pretty happy together. And we don't need ink and paper to prove that. Typica Café, GL-08, Ground Floor, Shaw Parade Plaza, Changkat Thambi Dollah, 55100 Kuala Lumpur (Tel: 03-2145 032811). Business hours: 11am to 9pm Sundays - Thursdays; 11am to 10pm on Fridays and Saturdays; closed on Wednesdays. http://typicacafe.blogspot.com * Kenny writes and delivers love letters by hand. (Actual ink and paper are usually involved.) Read more of his musings on life and love at http://lifeforbeginners.com

Erotic cooking classes and food porn inspired by ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ Posted: 11 Sep 2012 04:38 PM PDT LOS ANGELES, Sept 12 — As the erotic series Fifty Shades of Grey — often referred to as 'Mommy Porn' — continues to enjoy worldwide popularity, fans and foodies are coming up with tantalising — and titillating — ways to indulge their libidinous appetites. From Fifty Shades of Grey-themed parties and menu ideas to cooking classes, the fastest-selling book of all time in Britain is steaming things up in the kitchen. The wildly popular 'Fifty Shades of Grey' series is spawning bondage-themed cooking classes and party ideas. — Picture courtesy of ©AVprophoto/shutterstock.com In California, for instance, a band of ladies recently participated in a cooking class themed after the raunchy trilogy, whipping up foods like Playroom Pretzel Ropes, Bondage Wrapped Shrimp with Vanilla Bean Citrus Beurre Blanc, and a dessert aptly called The Flogger, reported local paper The Ventura County Star. Alongside scenes of bondage and sadomasochism, food plays a subtle catalyst to Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey's deepening sexual relationship, as the couple indulges in the secondary pleasure with decadent foods. From predictable aphrodisiacs like oysters, wine, champagne and fresh strawberries, to high-brow meals like Beef Wellington, venison and duck with cherries, food often acts as a prelude or post-coital treat — a detail that fans and entrepreneurs alike are jumping on. The Cooking Channel offers a variety of menu ideas for a Fifty Shades of Grey-themed party or intimate dinner for two, with suggestions like Bratwurst — not because it's mentioned in the books, but for the 'visuals' — and vanilla, for Grey's refusal to engage in "vanilla sex". Foodily.com also offers recipe ideas using known aphrodisiacs with a menu that starts with a vanilla bean cocktail, oysters, a basil, fig and honey salad, and ends with chocolate and strawberries. Fans have likewise been adding photos to a Pinterest page of 'food porn' chronicling all the dishes mentioned throughout the trilogy with fastidious detail, including specific wine varieties — Pouilly Fumé — and Twinings tea. And trend-tracking site BuzzFeed also collected photos of Fifty Shades of Grey-themed desserts that include a layered cake in differing grey hues and tie-cookies. — AFP-Relaxnews

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Sleeping beauties await prince’s kiss in Ukraine exhibition Posted: 11 Sep 2012 05:36 AM PDT KIEV, Sept 11 — It wasn't exactly Prince Charming but one of Ukraine's "Sleeping Beauties" finally got a kiss on the lips as she dozed on a dais filmed by cameras — though unlike the fairy tale she never woke up. "I'm not sure I would marry precisely this girl, I just was curious whether she would open her eyes," said the young woman who dared the embrace while male visitors shied away. The venue was Ukraine's National Art Museum and the stakes were — marriage. Visitors at a wacky performance called "Sleeping Beauty" were allowed to kiss a series of volunteer Sleeping Beauties — but only if they signed an undertaking to marry the woman if she "wakes up". A visitor looks over a Sleeping Beauty at Ukraine's National Art Museum in Kiev. — AFP pic Those reluctant to commit to a perfect stranger were allowed to look at the "princess" slumbering in a white dress in the dimly lit room, but not lock lips. "I'm not ready to kiss a woman on the first date, and it's definitely the first time I've ever seen her," said Oleksandr Dankov, 43, after choosing not to steal a smooch. But "perhaps I'll come again", he told AFP. Yana Krasnokutska, 23, was more daring. "It's a fairy tale, so I was just curious to try it," she said, smiling after kissing the "Beauty" lightly on the lips. The performance was created by Ukrainian-Canadian artist Taras Polataiko, who said he had been working on this project for the past two years. He was inspired by the well-loved fairytale in which a young princess is put under a curse and sleeps for hundreds of years along with her kingdom. She is finally awoken by a kiss from a prince who loves her. The women in Kiev slept in public for two hour-long shifts each day, with a half-hour break in between. "The idea behind the project is patience," Polataiko told AFP. "Our people can be patient for a long time. While Beauty is sleeping, the entire kingdom is also sleeping. If the kingdom is to be woken, the Beauty must be woken." Polataiko said those he chose as his Sleeping Beauties were attractive women who were also looking for a steady partner. "All the five girls I've chosen are gorgeous, smart and waiting for a true love," he said, adding that he initially planned having only one Sleeping Beauty but ended giving the others a chance too. 'It's a fairy tale' "We have three or four visitors every day willing to awake the Sleeping Beauty, both men and women," he told AFP. "This isn't a marriage agency. It's magic, it's a fairy tale. No one knows how it will end," said Polataiko. Natalya Bakovskaya, 27, was the first sleeping beauty to do a three-day stint waiting for her prince after her sisters told her about the casting call on television. "When it started, I got really involved in it and felt as if I was in a fairy tale," she told AFP. "I could hardly sleep with all the cameras and visitors on the first day, but afterwards I enjoyed the two hours of the rest in the middle of the day and even felt a kind of drowsiness," Bakovskaya said. She said she did not open her eyes and so never did find her prince, although one of the kisses she received was "especially memorable". Later she tried watching a video of her kisses to identify the young man who kissed her on the first day, but was not able to. The fairy tale ended with a non-traditional twist as the fourth Sleeping Beauty opened her eyes after a kiss, to find not a prince, but a princess. "I was astonished when I opened my eyes and saw a girl," translator Yana Gurzhiy, 24, told AFP after she decided to open her eyes when she was kissed on the forehead. Ukraine does not allow gay marriage, making it impossible for Gurzhiy to tie the knot with her pursuer, but she said she had felt a connection with the woman who kissed her, whom she named only as Katya. "I believe it is not a coincidence we had to meet this way. She's a very interesting person, so I hope we'll have some kind of professional and creative partnership." Any man hopeful of waking his Sleeping Beauty, the fairy tale re-enactment ended on Sunday. — AFP/Relaxnews

Burberry warning sends shiver through luxury sector Posted: 11 Sep 2012 02:49 AM PDT LONDON, Sept 11 — British fashion brand Burberry issued a profit warning today, the clearest sign yet that slowing economic growth in China and Europe's debt crisis are bringing a halt to the boom in demand for luxury clothes and accessories. The company, famous for its raincoats lined with a distinctive camel, red and black-check pattern, said it expected underlying full-year profit to be around the lower end of market forecasts. That sent its shares down 19 per cent and dragged down rivals including LVMH, the world's largest luxury goods group. China has been one of the main drivers of a boom in luxury brands, with consumers eager to buy designer labels, including Burberry's raincoats and other high-end fashions. But shares in luxury goods firms have wobbled in the past few months over worries about Europe's sovereign debt crisis and slowing growth in China and other emerging markets, where demand for designer brands has offset weaker trends in the United States and Europe. Morgan Stanley analysts said in a note to clients today that Burberry's statement was the first major disappointment for European luxury companies. Shares in France's LVMH and PPR were both down 4 per cent, while Switzerland's Richemont was down 3 per cent. Burberry said comparable-store sales did not grow in the 10 weeks to September 8, the bulk of its financial second quarter, compared with a year earlier. Total sales rose 6 per cent, underpinned entirely by new-store openings. That represented a marked slowdown from first-quarter retail revenue growth of 14 per cent and comparable-store sales up 6 per cent. The company reported a fall in first-quarter sales growth in July, as China slowed. "Given this background, we are tightly managing discretionary costs and taking appropriate actions to protect short-term profitability," chief executive Angela Ahrendts said today. Analysts had expected Burberry to post pretax profit for the year to March 2013 of £407 million (RM2 billion) to £451 million, with a consensus of £433.21 million, according to a Reuters poll of 18 analysts. "Burberry's latest results show that even the top end of the market isn't functioning at full capacity in the current economic climate," said Jaana Jatyri, CEO of fashion forecasting company, Trendstop.com. "The global economic crisis is dragging on and the longer it drags on the less confident even wealthier individuals become. Unfortunately, people lacking confidence do not shop at Burberry." — Reuters

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‘Peter Grimes’ on beach is Britten 100 highlight Posted: 11 Sep 2012 07:03 AM PDT LONDON, Sept 11 — Benjamin Britten's searing opera "Peter Grimes" about a sadistic fisherman will be performed in June 2013 on the beach in the English coastal town that inspired it as part of a year-long centenary for the British composer who died in 1976. "We're going to put a stage on the beach and do it," Jonathan Reekie, chief executive of Aldeburgh Music, the music festival Britten founded and named for the east-coast town where the opera takes place, said today at the launch of the Britten 100 celebration. The festivities, promoted as "the widest ever celebration of a British composer", will include performances of Britten's works by orchestras, opera companies and conductors in 140 cities in 30 countries, plus a project to get 75,000 British schoolchildren to sing his music on "Friday Afternoons" all over the country, leading up to a big birthday bash on November 22. The Royal Mint is pitching in with the announcement that it will produce a new 50-pence coin depicting Britten, to go into circulation at the end of the year, and New York will have a year-long focus on his works, organisers said. There will be performances of Britten's pieces everywhere from Beijing to Moscow, which will see its first staging of the openly homosexual Britten's most overtly homosexual opera, "Death in Venice", based on Thomas Mann's novel. "The extraordinary scope of the plans announced today underlines Britten's truly global appeal and status as one of the most important cultural figures of the 20th century," Richard Jarman, director of the Britten-Pears Foundation, named for the composer and his companion, tenor Peter Pears, said. "He believed that music should be written to appeal directly to the listener and he wrote some of the most approachable music of the 20th century," Jarman, whose foundation will invest £6.5 million (RM31.9 million) in the centenary, added. As part of the celebration, cellist Matthew Barley will perform Britten's works in what are described as "unexpected places" across Britain, including not only concert halls and cathedrals but also shops, galleries, schools, cafes, heritage sites, woodlands and a rare performance in The Red House, where Britten and Pears lived and worked together in the close-knit Sussex fishing town of Aldeburgh. An undoubted highlight will be the performance of "Peter Grimes" on the beach in the town where, in the opera, the townsfolk turn against the obsessed, abusive and anti-social fisherman Grimes, who has lost two young apprentices in accidents, and force him to row out to sea in his fishing boat and drown himself. The opera, which had its premiere in 1945 at Sadler's Wells in London, was an instant hit and was performed in two dozen opera houses over the next three years, establishing Britten as a major force in 20th century music. "'Peter Grimes' is a rare example of an opera that is set in a real place that can be seen and readily identified today, so virtually all the settings of the opera are real places in the town of Aldeburgh. They exist today," Reekie said. "For anybody who's encountered the opera, it's impossible to stand on Aldeburgh beach and hear the sound of the shingle, the sound of the sea, the wheeling of seagulls and not connect it to the music." English tenor Alan Oke will sing the role of Grimes and Steuart Bedford, a Britten protege, will conduct the production in which local people, for whom Britten always had a lot of affection, will appear, Reekie said. He added that the opera would be mounted on a more elaborate stage than those used for rock concerts, but no "grandstand seating" would be provided for the audience. "If it rains, they'll get wet," he said. "But the opera includes a storm scene." — Reuters

Syria refugees drive Angelina Jolie to tears Posted: 11 Sep 2012 06:22 AM PDT Jolie speaks at a news conference at Al Zaatri refugee camp with Guterres (left) and Jordan's Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh (not in picture). — Reuters pic ZAATARI, Jordan, Sept 11 — Syrian refugees stuck in a dust-blown camp in Jordan gave gruesome accounts of civilians incinerated in their country's civil war to UN special envoy and actress Angelina Jolie today, moving her to tears. The United Nations is in the process of registering more than 250,000 refugees from the 17-month-old conflict in four neighbouring countries, with more than 100,000 arriving in August alone — 85,000 of those in Jordan. On average around 2,000 Syrians arrive each day in Jordan and the country has already declared the influx beyond what it can deal with, and appealed for international help. "Little children who were asked what they saw described body parts separated, and burnt people being pulled apart like chicken," Jolie told reporters after a two-day visit to Jordan's Zaatari camp. "A little nine-year-old girl said that. "It's been a very heavy experience because often at times you come to these camps ... and rarely do you come and meet them as they cross the border and get to know people the moment they become a refugee," she said, stopping to compose herself. "They will say: 'As the months go on there will be no more of us, our homes are gone, our families are gone'." Jolie listens to Foreign Minister Judeh at the news conference. — Reuters pic Escaping an escalating military campaign by President Bashar al-Assad's forces, refugees languish in an unfinished camp where aid agencies and authorities are struggling to provide the most basic shelter and facilities. At Zaatari, 28,000 people live in searing late summer heat with limited facilities and choking, dust-filled winds. "The world is watching as though they mean to humiliate the Syrian people," said Musa Awadat, a father of six. "We feel we are in a big detention centre and zoo, fenced around where everyone comes to capitalise on our suffering. We didn't flee from Syria to come here to another prison." Appeals not met UN refugee chief Antonio Guterres, who toured the camp with Jolie and Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh, said their visit was a message to the world "to help us and the Jordanian government in order to massively invest in improving the living conditions of the refugees in this camp". Jolie travelled to Syria in 2007 and again in 2009 to meet Iraqi refugees with her partner, actor Brad Pitt. During one trip they met Assad and his wife Asma, who later told Vanity Fair magazine that the couples lunched in the capital. Jolie, dressed in a black T-shirt with her hair tied back, said that all appeals for international funding to tackling the refugee crisis had "not been met". Syrian opposition groups say more than 27,000 people have died in an uprising that has lasted more than 17 months and has descended into outright civil war in the pivotal Arab state. "The complexity of this crisis is one of the aspects that sets it apart, and the speed at which people have fled Syria," UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards said in Geneva today. "With 100,000 having fled to neighbouring countries in the space of a single month, August, that makes it an extraordinary acceleration of this crisis," he told a news briefing. He said that almost 200,000 Syrians had crossed into Jordan, although not all were registered as refugees. In April, Jolie was promoted from serving as a UNHCR goodwill ambassador to a special envoy. — Reuters

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Booker-winning novelist Mantel back on shortlist Posted: 11 Sep 2012 06:14 AM PDT Malaysian writer, Tan Twan Eng is also shortlisted as a nominee for the Man Booker Prize for fiction this year for his book "The Garden of Evening Mists". — Reuters pic. LONDON, Sept 11 — Hilary Mantel, who won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 2009 with historical novel "Wolf Hall", is on the shortlist for the coveted award again for her sequel "Bring up the Bodies", organisers announced today. The other five nominees are Will Self ("Umbrella"), Deborah Levy ("Swimming Home"), Malaysia's Tan Twan Eng ("The Garden of Evening Mists") and first-time novelists Alison Moore ("The Lighthouse") and Indian author Jeet Thayil ("Narcopolis"). "We loved the shock of language shown in so many different ways and were exhilarated by the vigour and vividly defined values in the six books that we chose," said Peter Stothard, chair of the judges and editor of the Times Literary Supplement. The overall winner will be announced at a ceremony at London's Guildhall on October 16 and receive a cheque for £50,000 (RM247,000) plus a spike in sales that usually accompanies a major literary award. Last year's winner, "The Sense of An Ending" by Julian Barnes, has sold more than 300,000 print copies in the United Kingdom alone. Of the six shortlisted authors, two have previously been linked to the prize. Mantel won in 2009 with the first instalment of her Thomas Cromwell trilogy, and was longlisted in 2005 for "Beyond Black". Eng was longlisted for the prize in 2007 with his debut novel, "The Gift of Rain". The four other novelists including Self, who was described by organisers as a "radical of contemporary literature", appeared on the list for the first time. The shortlist features three major publishers — Faber & Faber, Fourth Estate and Bloomsbury - and three smaller regional publishers — Myrmidon Books, Salt and And Other Stories. Levy's novel Swimming Home is co-published by And Other Stories and Faber & Faber. Jonathan Ruppin, web editor at Foyles bookshops, praised the judges' selection, and added: "One can never discount the consistently brilliant Hilary Mantel and Will Self has surpassed himself with Umbrella, but I'm tipping Alison Moore's moody and exquisite The Lighthouse, to pull off a triumph for the dynamic world of indie publishing." The prize launched in 1969 to promote works of fiction written by citizens of the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland. — Reuters

Author Richard Bach’s condition improving Posted: 11 Sep 2012 06:02 AM PDT SEATTLE, Sept 11 — Richard Bach, author of the 1970s bestseller "Jonathan Livingston Seagull," who was seriously injured when his small plane flipped during a landing, is improving and will soon be moved out of intensive care, a hospital spokeswoman said. Doctors at Seattle's Harbourview Medical Center were upgrading Bach's condition to satisfactory from serious, spokeswoman Susan Gregg said. "He's improving." Bach, 76, clipped power lines with the landing gear of his 2008 Easton Gilbert Searey on Aug. 31 while trying to land on a grass airstrip on San Juan Island in northwestern Washington state. A group of young tourists found Bach, suspended upside down and strapped to his harness in the heavily damaged single-engine plane, and cut him loose from the wreckage. Bach is now able to enjoy chocolate milk and respond to verbal commands such as "cough" and "give a thumbs up." He was expected to be moved out of intensive care late yesterday, son James Bach told Reuters. "He can say some words, but it's hard for him. so he mostly sticks to 'yes' or 'no,' the son said. "We still can't tell if he understands that he is in the hospital and why he is there. But he asked for chocolate milk today — so at least his love of chocolate milk is intact," said the younger Bach, 46. "We think it's going to be a long slow recovery. We're taking it one day at a time. We're optimistic." The author's injuries included a head blow that caused internal bleeding, bruised ribs, a bruised shoulder that doctors initially thought was broken and a right eye that remains shut, his son said. "Jonathan Livingston Seagull," the story of a seagull expelled from his clan after he pushes himself to become an extraordinary flyer, was published in 1970. It topped the New York Times best-sellers list two years later and was made into a movie in 1973. — Reuters

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Polis kesan individu hina gambar pemimpin Pakatan Rakyat Posted: 11 Sep 2012 03:02 AM PDT KUALA TERENGGANU, 11 Sept — Polis sedang mengesan individu yang bertanggungjawab melakukan perbuatan menghina gambar pemimpin Pakatan Rakyat yang disiarkan di sebuah portal berita Jumaat lepas.  Timbalan Ketua Jabatan Siasatan Jenayah/Perundangan Terengganu Supt Luqman Abdul Rahman berkata siasatan dilakukan setelah polis menerima laporan berkenaan perkara itu di Balai Polis Kerteh, Kemaman, Sabtu lepas. "Gambar dalam portal berkenaan menunjukkan beberapa lelaki melakukan perbuatan menghina pemimpin Pakatan Rakyat antaranya Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang dan Datuk Seri Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat. "Salah seorang daripada mereka seolah-olah membuang air kecil pada gambar pemimpin itu. Perbuatan yang dilakukan ini kita kira sangat serius kerana ia menyalahi undang-undang," katanya pada sidang media di sini, hari ini. Luqman berkata setakat ini polis masih mengesan sama ada kejadian sebenar berlaku di Terengganu atau di tempat lain serta latar belakang kesemua suspek.  Beliau menggesa individu yang bertanggungjawab tampil menyerah diri secepat mungkin dan meminta orang ramai yang mempunyai maklumat menghubungi balai polis berhampiran. — Bernama

NGO sokong Suaram, desak kerajaan hentikan gangguan Posted: 11 Sep 2012 02:09 AM PDT KUALA LUMPUR, 11 Sept — Pertubuhan bukan kerajaan (NGO) hari ini berdiri bersatu dengan Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram) dan meminta kerajaan untuk berhenti menggunakan penjawat awam untuk mengganggu mereka. Pengerusi bersama Gabungan Pilihan Raya Bersih dan Adil (BERSIH), Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan memberitahu pemberita bahawa pihak berkuasa sendiri tidak secara langsung menyiasat ke Suaram, sekali gus meningkatkan syak wasangka tentang motivasi politik. "Kami juga ingin mempersoalkan mengapa Syarikat Suruhanjaya Syarikat Malaysia (SSM) hanya melancarkan siasatan sekarang, selepas presiden Jaringan Melayu Malaysia (JMM) mempersoalkan kesahihan Suaram sebagai sebuah NGO," kata Ambiga, yang mewakili 135 NGO. MENYUSUL LAGI

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Meningkat daya saing negara?: Tangani bersama ‘Penagihan Tegar’ Umno-BN. Posted: 10 Sep 2012 05:55 PM PDT Meningkat daya saing negara?: Tangani bersama 'Penagihan Tegar' Umno-BN. SEPT 11 — Ketika kedudukan daya-saing global (Global Competitive Report, GCR) dilaporkan oleh World Economic Forum (WEF) dalam kajian Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), melonjak dari tangga ke  25 tahun 2010 ke tangga 21 untuk tahun 2011 yakni peningkatan 5 mata, PEMANDU segera membuat kenyataan bahawa program Program Transformasi Kerajaan (GTP) dan Program Transformasi Ekonomi (ETP) kerajaan telah Berjaya menatijahkan prestasi yang baik. Dalam laporan GCI terkini, bukan sahaja Malaysia tidak dapat mengekalkan kekdudukannya pada tangga ke-25, bahkan telah jatuh 4 anak tangga ke kedudukan 24 sekaligus meletakkan prestasinya lebih rendah dari kedudukannya berbanding sebelum PEMANDU melancarkan program GTP dan ETPnya. Seperti PEMANDU telah mensabitkan kejayaan prestasinya  dahulu kepada GTP dan ETP, beranikah PEMANDU terangkan kepada rakyat kenyataan bahawa GTP dan ETP yang dikendali PEMANDU telah jelasnya Gagal menambahbaik prestasi daya-saing Negara bahkan sebaliknya menyebabkan penurunannya? PEMANDU yang merupakan kunci penggerak Agenda Transformasi Kerajaan Najib-BN kini, mesti bertanggung jawab menjelaskan apakah dan sebab apakah kejatuhan ini berlaku sekaligus menunjukkan dan mengesahkan bahawa dakwaan Pakatan dan pihak NGOs dan analysts, ada kebenarannya. Metodologi Laporan GCI ini menggunakan 30% data statistik dengan 33 kriteria, 70 per cent data kajian (survey) dengan 78 kriteria dari pungutan pandangan pihak Eksekutif. Laporan ini juga menekankan aspek factor-faktor pengkeupayaan (enabling factors) yang mampu menjana pertumbuhan yang mapan dan bersifat jangka–sederhana dan jauh dengan menggunakan 11 tunggak kritikal (pillars) dengan 111 indikator penting. Dengan pencapaian yang tidak memberansangkan ini, rakyat ingin tahu apa lagi dari kelemahan GTP dan ETP yang menjadikan ianya tidak mampu menjana daya-saing yang diharapkan Najib dan pemimpin Umno-BN kini?  Lebih khusus lagi, Malaysia mengalami kejatuhan dalam 77 indikator dan penambahbaikan dalam 48 indikator dengan 23 tidak berganjak atas apa jua sebabnya. Kejatuhan markah Malaysia dari 5.08 dalam tahun  2011 kepada 5.06 tahun ini mengakibatkan juga Malaysia dipintas oleh beberapa Negara seperti Korea, Luxembourg, NewZeland dan UAE. Sementara kita bersedia mengiktiraf PEMANDU dalam apa yang jua yang baik di segi pencapaian negara (dalam laporan ini), namun yang ketara ialah lebih banyak perkara-perkara menyinggung ekonomi dan program transformasi kerajaan, yang nampaknya menunjukkan kemerosotan daya-saing. Contoh-contoh kegagalan Negara adalah dalam hal 'Kedudukan Imbangan Belanjawan Negara' dalam Strategic Reform Initiatives (SRI) yang merudum dari 110 ke tangga 96, 'Pengurangan Jenayah dan Keganasan' di bawah NKRA yang jatuh dari tangga 69 ke 63, dan 'Kerancakan Persaingan Tempatan' yang jatuh dari 36 ke 26.    Penelitian yang lebih terperinci akan menyerlahkan bahawa indikator-indikator penting yang disebutkan contoh-contohnya ini, mampu memahamkan kita bahawa 'transformasi ekonomi' negara bakal gagal kalaulah kerajaan Najib ini hanya ghariah dan cepat untuk mewawarkan pebagai projek mega dalam infrastruktur dan pembinaan, sementara gagal meletakkan asas-asas atau penekanan yang lebih kukuh dan mapan dalam menjana pertumbuhan mapan yang bersifat jangka-panjang. WEF telah mengenalpasti bahawa antara faktor yang merencat pencapaian prestasi ekonomi sesebuah negara ialah birokrasi kerajaan yang tidak efisien dan system 'delivery' yang lemah, rasuah dan ketirisan, ketidakcukupan tenaga berketrampilan dan berpendidikan tinggi, etika kerja yang tidak mantap dan peraturan dan undang-undang buruh yang terlalu menyekat. Sebaliknya pula negara-negara yang berkedudukan tinggi seperti Switzerland yang menduduki tangga daya-saing pertama, diikuti oleh Singapore, Finland, Sweden, Netherlands, Germany, US, UK, Hong Kong dan Japan mempunyai ciri-ciri yang berbeza. Negara-negara ini, berbeda dengan Malaysia, dikesani sebagai memilikki kelebihan dan kelainan seperti persaingan pasaran yang rancak (intense) dan efisien (tidak diherot oleh monopoli dan oligopoli serta amalan-amalan kronisme) dan mempunyai iklim serta kerangka bisnes yang mesra dan sangat membantu, disamping mempunyai daya penyelidikan dan inovasi serta kehadiran ramai pekerja 'berpengetahuan' dan ' enterprising' (daya keusahawanan yang tinggi). Najib wajar tahu bahawa tidak akan dapat dikeluarkan negara dari 'kereputan' dan 'kelembapan' ekonominya akibat ianya telah terlalu dikongkong  dengan budaya 'kronisme' yang mencekik dan membunuh persaingan sihat dan mengherot pasaran menjadikan ia kerap tidak efisien dengan monopoli-oligopoli, dan 'subsidi yang regresif' yang menguntungkan golongan yang kaya dan pihak yang punya pertalian politik serta bisnes dengan penguasa BN. Najib wajar tahu bahawa segala cita-cita besarnya tentang transformasi akan gagal seandainya ia tidak didahulukan dengan Reformasi yang 'genuine' dan menyeluruh dalam aspek politik, penambahbaikan institusi-institusi kritikal negara agar benar-benar bebas dan berintegriti tinggi (SPR, SPRM , PDRM, Judisiari) dan etik serta sikap penguasa serta pihak birokrat yang semestinya bebas rasuah dan penyalahgunaan kuasa. Tidak guna kalau secara zahir komited dengan system 'Tender Terbuka', tetapi telah awal awal lagi mengurniakan kontrak kepada kroni seperti dalam kes pemberian kontrak kepada konsortium George Kent dalam RM1 bilion LRT Ampang, mengulangi tabiat lama mengurniakan kontrak kontrak dalam kes MRT SBK (Sungai Buloh-Kajang) sedikit waktu dahulu. Terlalu panjang senarai buruk amalan Umno-BN yang mesti dipertanggungjawabkan. Sampai bila mahu begini? Pemberian pelbagai projek mega MRT, Suruhanjaya Tenaga (EC) dalam pemabaharuan kontrak IPP dalam waktu terdekat akan ditunggu semua pihak dan akan dinilai dalam World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY) oleh Institute for Management Development (IMD) dan 'Doing Business' Report (DB) oleh Bank Dunia, disamping GCR oleh WEF. Najib dan BN tidak akan belajar untuk mengalami serta menghayati 'Reformasi Sebenar' selagi mereka tidak dikalahkan dalam satu pilihanraya kerana jelasnya keputusan PRU ke-12 belum cukup parah untuk mengajar mereka. Maaf, saya terpaksa sifatkan tabiat Najib-BN ini persis seumpama seorang 'Penagih Tegar' yang meskipun telah cuba berubah dengan memakai kopiah dan menunjukkan bahawa beliau telah 'reformed' namun sebaik sahaja wujud 'peluang', akan terus 'tersungkur' akibat daya kekebalan 'ketahanan' yang sangat rapuh untuk 'terjerumus' kembali buat kesekiankalinya kepada cara dan tabiat lamanya! 'NFC' adalah lambang 'penagihan tegar' Umno dan 'PKFZ' akan menjadi symbol kesepaduan pimpinan BN 'merompak' negara. Umno sejak tiga dekad mutakhir ini telah dihinggapi kebejatan Rasuah dan kerasukan tamak haloba sehingga telah menjadi sinonim parti Melayu terbesar ini dengan narratif sedih dan mengecewakan ini. Mengeluarkan negara dari kebejatan ini bagi memungkinkan dayasaing negara dilonjakkan menuntut supaya Umno-BN ditangani terlebih dahulu atau bersama dari kebejatan Rasuah dan salah-guna kuasa yang menjadi kelaziman dan darah-daging sebahagian besar kepimpin tertinggi dan menyangkit hingga ke akar umbinya. Dzulkelfy Ahmad merupakan Ketua Pegawai Eksekutif Pusat Penyelidikan PAS. * The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.

Alternatives to salvaging our education system Posted: 10 Sep 2012 04:51 PM PDT SEPT 11 —  There is a general consensus that the solution to many of the problems concerning a society stems from education or the lack of it. Think about the problems in our community -- political awareness, social awareness, appreciation for the humanities, economic understanding and so forth -- and most of the time, the answer to these problems is education. Quite often, these problems stem from the fact that we may not have a sound understanding of issues and very often, we should have learned it in, perhaps, school. For example, what part of our education system teaches us the true meaning of politics? Where is it in our system that teaches us the understanding of the arts -- not just of the West but also of our own, South-east Asian flavour? In Malaysia, particularly, our education problems stem just beyond Science and Math being taught in Bahasa Malaysia, and beyond the differences of vernacular schools and national schools. The truth is that our entire education system, not just parts of it, needs a major overhaul. Our education system fails not just to prepare many of us for the working world, it also fails to prepare us to be wholesome human beings. A good proportion of our society seems oblivious to matters beyond their own field. The fact of the matter is that nothing operates in a vacuum. Everything in this world is indirectly related to another issue. Yes, everything is related. Think about it: medicine will have some relation to economics (think healthcare systems), politics will have some relation to the arts (think of George Orwell who wrote brilliant dystopian novels) and so on. The fact that many students are completely sucked into just their own academic material is worrying. Many issues in politics, economics and the arts are so inherently intertwined in our lives. Yet many people do not understand these issues or have half-understandings, or choose not to care! I suppose I need to state a bias. Perhaps the lack of understanding beyond a person's main academic field bothers me greatly because of my background as a liberal arts student, where there is emphasis on breadth learning. That coupled with the fact that I am in a culture where students from the sciences are able to engage in conversations about the humanities and the arts (and vice versa) makes it, altogether, a refreshing experience. Realistically, it is almost impossible to overhaul our education institutions in a short span of time, given how politicized our education systems have become. For the time being, I would like to present what I think we can do to instil education beyond schools and universities. Then perhaps later on, in another article, I would talk about ways to incorporate this into an education system. 1.    Talk to people from different backgrounds If you are in the Science field, approach someone from a completely different field such as the Humanities or the Arts. If you had previously thought that economics or politics is boring, talk to someone who is passionate about it as they may be able to distil the terminology into ways that you may understand. 2.    Utilise social networking One thing about social networking that I absolutely love is its power to disseminate information quickly. Having established that, I urge those who are creative to find ways and means to distribute information about issues you think are important. Create a talk show on Youtube. Make infographics to be shared on social networking sites. The possibilities are endless! 3.    Be bold If you have questions, ask. If you want to clarify something with someone who is more knowledgeable in a particular field, go for it. 4.    Share the love There is no shame in being extremely passionate about a particular field. If you know of friends who say that what you are interested is boring, perhaps you may want to ask why they are disenchanted. Probe them. Get them to get interested. Make them see things the way you do by telling them the interesting things about your field. Show them how your field matters (because I am sure it does). If we are able to take small steps like this collectively, we will at least be able to do something real other than just sitting around and complaining about our problems behind a computer screen. Instead of waiting around for higher ups to get moving, this is a temporary solution to a big problem. After all, change does not come from waiting around and complaining. It comes from people who are actively involved in small processes that ultimately result in big changes. * The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.

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