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‘David Chang effect’ sweeping New York dining scene Posted: 03 Oct 2012 07:49 PM PDT David Chang's Momofuku Noodle Bar in New York. — AFP/Relaxnews NEW YORK, Oct 4 — New York is experiencing a phenomenon known as the "David Chang" effect, in which inventive but economical Asian eats are transforming the city's dining scene. That's one of the observed trends to come out of Zagat's annual New York City Restaurants survey released this week. Once described as the enfant terrible of the New York restaurant world, Chang has been exporting his Momofuku empire into international cities like Sydney, Australia and most recently Toronto, Canada, where the opening of four new outposts made headline news and drew snaking queues. His recipe for success? Reinventing popular Asian flavours and dishes in a dynamic, irreverent style and making his food widely accessible. His Momofuku Noodle Bar, for instance, specialises in ramen bowls and assorted pork buns, ranging from US$2 to US$18 (RM6.30 to RM56). At Ssäm bar, meanwhile, diners tuck into country hams, rotisserie duck, alongside spicy pork sausages and rice cakes, ranging from US$8 to US$26. Other popular Asian destinations include Mission Chinese, Pok Pok NY and RedFarm, which Zagat describes as 'variations' of the Momofuku concept. At the other end of the spectrum, meanwhile, are fine dining Asian addresses like Hakkasan, Jungsik and Kristalbelli. 'Creative but inhospitable' In addition to the "David Chang effect," the city is also adjusting to an increasingly common "no reservations" policy, Zagat says —  a trend that may be off-putting to some locals given that 62 per cent of readers said they wouldn't wait more than 30 minutes for a table. Zagat readers also gave Japanese restaurants the highest average food score at 24 out of a possible 30-point scale, followed by Spanish, Italian, American and French restaurants. And while diners gave the city top marks for creativity and diversity, the top complaint when dining out is lacklustre hospitality, followed by noise levels and prices. According to the 2013 edition of the Zagat survey, Eric Ripert's French seafood restaurant Le Bernardin took the top spot for best restaurant in New York City. Likewise, Michelin also released their latest restaurant ranking for the Big Apple this week, handing out single stars to nine more restaurants and adding one more restaurant to their two-star category. The Zagat 2013 New York City Restaurants Survey is out now and retails for US$15.95. — AFP/Relaxnews

Leonidas presents Aztec chocolate sculpture in progress Posted: 03 Oct 2012 06:21 PM PDT Jean-Luc Decluzeau at work for Leonidas. — AFP/Relaxnews PARIS, Oct 4 — With the opening of Paris's Salon du Chocolat less than a month away, Belgian chocolatier Leonidas has revealed the first photos of an impressive chocolate sculpture. The chocolate sculpture will be the biggest yet for Leonidas. The chocolatier has already pursued similar artistic endeavours, albeit on a slightly smaller scale, such as replicas of the French capital's Opera Garnier and Eiffel tower landmarks.  Once completed, the sculpture will stand ten feet high. — AFP/Relaxnews The theme for the 2012 edition of the Salon du Chocolat, "New Worlds", inspired chocolate artist Jean-Luc Decluzeau to work on a sculpture of the Aztec god of chocolate, Quetzalcoatl, that will stand three meters high (10 ft). The Salon du Chocolat will be held at the Porte de Versailles, in Paris, from October 31 to November 4. — AFP/Relaxnews

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United victory fails to lift doubts over prospects Posted: 03 Oct 2012 08:09 AM PDT Manchester United's Robin van Persie aknowledges supporters after the Champions League Group H soccer match against CFR Cluj in Cluj-Napoca, 426 km northwest of Bucharest, October 2, 2012. – Reuters pic LONDON, Oct 3 – Manchester United's win at CFR Cluj put them top of Champions League Group H with maximum points after two matches but doubts remain over their prospects of major successes this season. The key to the 2-1 victory in Romania yesterday was the way Wayne Rooney worked well in attack with new Dutch signing Robin van Persie, who scored both goals as the top scorers from the last Premier League season started together for the first time. Van Persie has now scored seven times in eight games since joining from Arsenal in the summer and while United always look dangerous going forwards, questions remain because they also look a danger – to themselves – at the back. On Saturday, their defensive frailties were exposed by Tottenham Hotspur, who beat them 3-2 to win at Old Trafford for the first time since 1989. United have fallen behind in six of the nine matches they have played this season and rallied to win in Cluj after again conceding first when Pantelis Kapetanos took advantage of some shoddy defending to strike after 14 minutes. All three Spurs goals came through the heart of the United defence, as did Cluj's strike, although the initial damage was done wide on the right, where Patrice Evra is looking a shadow of the player he was two years ago. The French defender was out of position and was stranded in the wrong place as Modou Sougou surged past him and cut the ball back for Kapetanos to sweep home with central defender Jonny Evans standing too far off him. United manager Alex Ferguson described the goal as "a real shocker" afterwards, and he has some real problems to solve at the back where, cruelly, United have been hit by a series of injuries to their defenders. Nemanja Vidic has joined Chris Smalling and Phil Jones, who have yet to play this season, on the sidelines, leaving the aging and slowing Rio Ferdinand to partner Evans most of the time. POSITIVE PAIRING Cluj were far from impressive for most of the match, but United, a team that has thrived with wingers down the years, played into their hands by operating without a wide man. The home side did one simple thing well by coming through United's soft centre and goalkeeper David Da Gea preserved his team's advantage with two late, smart saves. United played with a lack of real urgency or drive, and the only tangible positives Ferguson could take from a largely unimpressive performance was that United won and the pairing of Rooney and Van Persie, who scored 71 goals between them in all competitions last season, augurs well for the future. Rooney, playing the deeper provider to Van Persie's front man role, did a superb job as he continues to regain match fitness following a month-long injury layoff for a gashed thigh. He took the free-kick that Van Persie half-headed and half-shouldered home for the 29th minute equaliser and then provided a superb pass, curling the ball high into the Dutchman's path for the striker to score a brilliantly executed winner with the outside of his left foot. Ferguson enjoyed that one, telling reporters afterwards: "The second goal was absolutely fantastic. It was a good ball from Wayne and I thought he hit it too far in front of Van Persie – but his speed to get to the ball and the way he took the goal was fantastic." Overall, United need their injured defenders to return soon and their fit players to show a marked improvement if they are to seriously challenge for major honours this season. – Reuters

Vettel can turn the heat on Alonso Posted: 03 Oct 2012 07:40 AM PDT Red Bull Formula One driver Sebastian Vettel of Germany gestures after winning the Singapore F1 Grand Prix at the Marina Bay Street Circuit in Singapore September 23, 2012. – Reuters pic SUZUKA, Oct 3 – Sebastian Vettel won his second Formula One title in Suzuka last year but it will take more than another Japanese Grand Prix victory this weekend to put the Red Bull driver back on top of the world. The Red Bull driver, revved up after winning under the Singapore floodlights, lags Ferrari's championship leader Fernando Alonso by 29 points with six races remaining and everything to play for. Consistency is the key, with Red Bull plagued by alternator failures and Vettel's win nine days ago only his second in a season full of surprises. The 25-year-old has been on pole at Suzuka for the past three years, however, winning there in 2009 and 2010, and will fancy his chances even if Alonso, second last year, has a knack for appearing on the podium. "I love the Suzuka circuit. In short, it has the most amazing corners and brilliant fans, I really like coming here," Vettel said in a team preview. "I wish I had won in 2011, it was my third Formula One race on my favourite track and it still bothers me a bit that I took my world title with a third place." McLaren's Jenson Button, who considers Japan a home from home due to his Japanese girlfriend and long association with Honda, denied Vettel victory last year but will have a five-place handicap on the grid this time around due to an unscheduled gearbox change. His team mate Lewis Hamilton remains the talk of the paddock after the 2008 world champion's move to Mercedes next season in place of Michael Schumacher was announced last week to end months of speculation. NO DISTRACTIONS McLaren will want to shield Hamilton as far as possible from all the attention, with the Briton their best shot at the title even if his retirement in Singapore while leading left him 52 points adrift of Alonso. "Clearly there will be cause to be distracted in the next days and weeks," team principal Martin Whitmarsh, who has already signed Mexican Sergio Perez from Sauber to replace Hamilton, told reporters last week. "We've got to try and protect him from that. "If I know Lewis, he wants to win this year's world championship, he wants to win the remaining six races. "He's assured me that he's a McLaren man for the rest of this year and that he's going to be completely focused on winning and we are going to try and create as much protection of him and the environment in which he can do that." Schumacher, the seven times world champion who has enjoyed some of his most memorable career celebrations at Suzuka, will also be in the limelight at what could be his farewell to the Japanese circuit. "My motivation is completely intact after the news last week, especially because Suzuka is one of the season's highlights for me," Schumacher said in a team preview. "I enjoy the circuit, it has sections that challenge you as a driver like almost nowhere else. Then there are the fans: They love motor racing and it is fun to feel their passion." Kimi Raikkonen, who still holds the race lap record from his McLaren days in 2005 when he came from 17th on the grid in one of his finest victories, will also be a man to watch in the Lotus. The Finn has yet to win this season, despite being third overall, but Suzuka offers probably his best chance of the remaining races. "You need an aerodynamically strong car there, and a solid car to go through those fast, long sweeping corners. I think that suits the E20," he said. Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi will be the local hero, with Japanese fans more revved up than ever after he put his car on the front row in qualifying at the Belgian Grand Prix little more than a month ago. No Japanese has ever won his home grand prix but Kobayashi, whose team mate Perez has had three podium finishes this season including two second places, will have some dreaming of what might be possible. "I'm very much looking forward to my home Grand Prix in Suzuka. I think our car should be very fast there," said Kobayashi, who will have a new front wing and aerodynamic package on his Sauber. – Reuters

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Vitamin D supplements don’t fend off colds, new study finds Posted: 03 Oct 2012 04:31 AM PDT A New Zealand study finds no evidence that taking vitamin D supplements can fend off colds. — shutterstock.com pic OTAGO (New Zealand), Oct 3 — A new study published Wednesday finds no evidence that taking vitamin D supplements can help keep colds at bay. While prior studies have suggested that vitamin D plays a role in the body's immune system, a team from New Zealand did the "gold standard" of tests, according to the BBC, which means a randomised placebo-controlled trial, to see if supplements of the vitamin had any impact on colds. The researchers from the University of Otago in Christchurch assigned 322 healthy adults to take either vitamin D supplements or a placebo once a month for 18 months. Participants received either an initial dose of 200,000 IU oral vitamin D, then 200,000 IU one month later, or a placebo administered in an identical dosing regimen. As reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, by the end of the study, both groups averaged just under four upper respiratory tract infections each, with symptoms lasting an average of 12 days in both groups. According to the BBC, adults catch between two and four colds a year and children up to 10 a year. While humans mostly get vitamin D from sunlight on skin, vitamin D does occur naturally in certain foods, such as oily fish like salmon and sardines. — AFP-Relaxnews

South Korea aims to bring calm at bridge over troubled water Posted: 03 Oct 2012 03:46 AM PDT SEOUL, Oct 3 — South Korea aims to promote a message of life and hope and at a bridge over the River Han in the capital, Seoul that has the unenviable reputation as the favourite place for people wanting to commit suicide. South Korea's suicide rate has been the highest among developed nations for the past eight years, with almost 43 people choosing to end their lives every day. The Mapo Bridge, one of 25 over the capital's river, has seen 108 suicide attempts in the past five years but authorities aim to bring that down by placing signs along it with messages such as: "the best part of your life is yet to come". "At first we considered constructing a wall but that is just a band-aid," said Seoul city government officer Park Haung-jae. "In fact, more people came to the river after screen doors were installed at subway stations," said Park, referring to screens at subway platforms to stem a spate of suicides there. The messages on the railing on the Mapo Bridge were chosen by psychiatrists and are aimed at reducing tension and even getting people to relax with humour. "Did you know gorillas all have blood type B?" reads one message. Another bears a standard Korean greeting: "Have you eaten yet?" "Doesn't it feel good to be outside walking on a bridge?" asks another, while another simply says, "Worries are nothing". Some photographs of cheerful members of a family have been posted and there's even a statue of a person comforting another. Park Young-ki, chairman of the Korea Suicide Prevention Union, said people considering suicide were highly agitated. "By looking at phrases or images they like it may help them come to themselves," Park said. "Those who try to commit suicide want someone to stop them." Experts say a major reason for South Korea's high suicide rate is a reluctance to bring up issues like mental illness or stress in a society in which people fear being stigmatised. — Reuters

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ABBA museum to open in Stockholm Posted: 03 Oct 2012 08:10 AM PDT STOCKHOLM, Oct 3 – A museum dedicated to legendary Swedish disco group ABBA, which disbanded thirty years ago, will open in Stockholm this spring, former member Bjoern Ulvaeus announced today. "This is a Cinderella story worth telling," he said at a press conference. Bjorn Kristian Ulvaeus, a former member of the Swedish music group ABBA, at a press conference on October 3, 2012 in Stockholm announcing the new ABBA Museum. — AFP pic ABBA, one of the most popular and enduring bands of all time, formed in 1970 and shot to fame after winning the Eurovision contest in 1974. The band, which has sold more than 378 million records to date, split up in 1982 and has never reunited. The museum, named ABBA The Museum, is the first one to be dedicated to the group and will feature objects, clothes and films. It will be housed inside the Swedish Music Hall of Fame and will showcase not only the history of ABBA, but also the history of Swedish pop music through a range of permanent and temporary exhibitions. "There was a time when we wanted to do a museum about ABBA and nothing else, but both Benny (Andersson) and myself want it to be part of a broader context ... which is that of the history of Swedish pop music," Ulvaeus said. He said that all four members of the group have approved the museum exhibits. "I couldn't dream of a better place," Ulvaeus said. Ulvaeus said he was doubtful over becoming an object in a museum before he died, until realising that the group had "created a lot." The museum will open on the island of Djurgaarden, already home to several museums, this spring "before the tourist season begins", its managing director Mattias Hansson told AFP. He said he had little hope of all four ABBA members reuniting for the inauguration. "If they all come I would be very happy, but they decide for themselves," he said. According to Swedish daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter, Ulvaeus has offered to serve as a financial guarantor for the Hall of Fame, which is being built with private funds. — AFP-Relaxnews

Damon Albarn backs drive to find younger opera fans Posted: 03 Oct 2012 06:02 AM PDT LONDON, Oct 3 —The English National Opera launched a fresh initiative on Wednesday to attract new and younger audiences to an art form it acknowledged was still seen by many as the preserve of old and wealthy patrons. "Undress for the Opera" has the backing of former Blur frontman Damon Albarn, whose operatic work "Dr. Dee" was part of the ENO's 2011/12 season and attracted 60 per cent of new ticket buyers. Albarn, one of the biggest names in British pop, hesitated to call Dr. Dee an opera, reflecting the suspicion with which the art form is viewed by many. "I don't really know what to call it," Albarn told reporters at the ENO's Coliseum theatre in central London. "I struggle with the word opera because it's quite clear that I'm sort of swimming in deep water when I ever mention that word, so I try and avoid it." American-born film director Terry Gilliam, who directed Berlioz's "The Damnation of Faust" at the ENO last year and is planning to work with the company again, also backed the new drive to find opera converts. "I suppose I'm trying to bring in people like myself who didn't go to opera when they were younger, because I thought it was just for a bunch of old farts and a lot of bourgeoisie and people in dinner jackets," he said in a filmed interview. "It was an art for the rich and the successful and the almost dead." The ENO has helped to change that perception, aided by the fact that it performs operas in English and is housed in an old music hall which had "none of the pretensions of an opera house." Gilliam conceded that opera was expensive - a ticket in the stalls at the ENO costs between 83 and 95 pounds (RM409-468), and at the nearby Royal Opera House up to 250 pounds for a coveted seat to see a performance from German composer Richard Wagner's "Ring" cycle. Undress for the Opera offered the best seats for 25 pounds each, including a pre-performance introduction, at four designated nights during the 2012/13 season. Organisers said 100 seats would be made available under the favourable terms to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "Don Giovanni" on Nov. 15, Giuseppe Verdi's "La Traviata" on Feb. 7, 2013, the world premiere of "The Sunken Garden", by Dutch composer Michel van der Aa on April 18 and "The Perfect American" by U.S. composer Philip Glass on June 13. John Berry, the ENO's artistic director, said he wanted 40 per cent of his audience to be younger than 44 years old within the next 18 months from 30 per cent now. "Young people like informality and we want to say that you don't need ties or tiaras to enjoy opera at ENO," Berry said. Asked why he was backing the project, Albarn replied: "I'm quite clearly not someone who had any form of opera education and I've done it entirely instinctively and the fact that the English National Opera is prepared to encourage that is just a great sign of its health. "At some point I hope that I can deliver something to you (the ENO) that really ticks every single box but doesn't compromise where I come from as well, and if you can do that then you will, truly, get a new audience in here." — Reuters

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Not so casual, actually… Posted: 02 Oct 2012 04:21 PM PDT KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 3 — Just as in "Desperate Housewives", JK Rowling's first adult novel The Casual Vacancy, begins with a death. In the case of the book, it is the death of Barry Fairbrother, the parish councillor of the fictional small town of Pagford. Thus begins the rush for the plum position in the town's administrative body left by the "casual vacancy". A character in a famous video game once likened people to rugs: shake them a few times and marvel at the amount of dirt that comes out. In this case, the whole town is the rug and, good grief, the kinds of dirt that gets shaken out by the race for the councillor's seat. With the mystique attached to Rowling's blockbusting Harry Potter series, many wondered if she could weave another similarly successful spell with more mundane items: small-town politics, class wars, and a tangled web of intrigue and deceit among the residents that comes to light in the wake of a councillor's sudden departure. The novel was said to be partly based on Rowling's childhood in Gloucestershire, so there is, of course, no magic in this novel. But do expect skeletons in closets, ghosts from the past, and a voice from beyond the grave enabled by technology. For someone who has completed the decade-long Homeric multi-volume epic about a boy wizard, it can be a Herculean effort to wrap up a story in one book. Though Rowling somehow manages to do so, it still feels overwritten. The novel starts off painfully slow as the stage is set and some background is established. The Pagford council is currently saddled with the Fields, a high-maintenance (costly) adjacent housing area plagued by a host of social ills. The council's snooty faction wants nothing to do with the Fields, while the altruists aligned with the deceased councillor want to preserve the status quo. Free from child-safe restraints that held her back for over 10 years, Rowling lets it rip. She annoys the hell out of readers with the grim, distressing portrayal of a town's fraying social fabric. Still, the level of estrangement in some of the families is extreme. The grown-ups and kids appear terribly self-absorbed in the beginning, lost in their own worries and pursuits. It gets worse as the story ponderously rolls on, no thanks to Rowling's over-characterisation of the people and places. Bits of bracket-encased backstory and flashbacks are inserted between present dialogue and narrative, making for a really tedious and choppy read. Secret thoughts and schemes are laid bare for all to gawp at. And many characters swear a lot. That one still finds it all believable is perhaps a sign of the times. By the time you get close to page 400 you decide that the whole town and the novel are beyond salvation. But just when you're ready to hurl your Avara Kedavras, a tragedy occurs, followed by a miracle. Bhai Kanhaiya, a guru admired by the mother of the town's Sikh family, once served water to wounded soldiers from both sides of a conflict because "the light of God shines from every soul". Like the spirit of hope at the bottom of Pandora's box, the guru's compassion appears from within an unexpected source during the novel's darkest phase, initiating an incredible transformation. No magic? The speed at which this happens, after about 460 pages of misery, gloom, racism, misogyny, drugs, domestic abuse and other choice examples of despicable human behaviour, is nothing short of magical. Some may find this incredulous, even with some suspension of disbelief. Kinder hearts, however, may feel differently. So maybe Rowling did work a tiny bit of her familiar alchemy into a realistic Muggleland fable about the worst and best in people, albeit one hobbled by a large cast, too much detail, a glacial build-up to an abrupt finale (with Rihanna and Jay-Z? Seriously?) and, perhaps, by the pressure to repeat her multi-book success with a single-book one. Whether that little bit of magic can cut through the hype and criticism remains to be seen; it's barely a week since its release, after all. Disappointed fans, meanwhile, can take heart in the news that she's pondering a release a "director's cut" of several Harry Potter books and a possible return to the Potterverse. The Casual Vacancy JK Rowling, Little, Brown (September 2012) 503 pages Fiction Alan Wong is an editor and book reviewer.

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No quick fix for East Malaysia Posted: 02 Oct 2012 04:20 PM PDT OCT 3 ― "All you East Malaysians need to do is vote out BN!" I hear that time and time again from various people in Peninsular Malaysia and it's getting frankly tiresome. I apologise to Sarawakians in advance for having to explain things on your behalf, but I have lived in your state so am not totally clueless. Unlike the many who think that all that is needed is a Braveheart-like uprising where the united peoples of Sabah and Sarawak rise up against tyranny and all that jazz. It's not that simple. And that's my biggest beef with opposition rhetoric. It oversimplifies things, forgetting context and ignoring the complexities of East Malaysia. One challenge both Sabah and Sarawak have is geography. We're far removed from West Malaysia, quite literally, and in some ways it has worked out for the best but has also made integration tricky. There are far too many assumptions on each side about the other and "getting to know" each other requires a two- to three-hour flight. Sarawak is a huge state and its terrain makes traversing it prohibitively expensive. The Penans and other interior-dwelling folk have it worse; they are forced to trek hours to the nearest transport stop to get to the nearest city. They do not have ready access to the things we city dwellers take for granted: piped water, electronic and physical media, hospitals and decent schools. Even on the outskirts of Kota Kinabalu, the state capital of Sabah, there are schools that are little more than glorified shacks with crowded classrooms and malnourished children. Don't get me started on the West Malaysian teachers who refuse their postings to Sabah and Sarawak or clamour to be sent home as soon as possible. Racial tolerance is more pronounced here. Yet, the reality is that despite the "peace" between the various races in East Malaysia, it isn't easy to get them on the same page politically. Sabah, for instance, has various splinter parties that are also quite clearly delineated by race. SUPP is predominantly Chinese, PBS is mostly Sabah Bumiputera with a few Chinese people, the Muslim Bumiputeras once mostly congregated in USNO, but the BN-friendly now are in Umno. It's not much different in Sarawak. The various communities may get along better but dig down and their politics is the same old selfish Malaysian politics. It's never about what's best for the state or the country; it's about what's best for their own communities. Let the Penans rot in the jungles so long as my community gets first pick of lucrative contracts. That is the reality of the Malaysian mindset; the preoccupation with what's best for your own kind to the detriment of everyone else. Malaysians don't seem to believe in "win-win." It's "I take everything and everyone else can go die-lah." Which explains our love for monopolies. PKR's already shot itself in the foot by refusing to co-operate with local parties in Sabah and Sarawak. How am I, as a native from Sabah, supposed to place trust in a party that made Azmin Ali Sabah PKR chief? How am I supposed to believe that Anwar Ibrahim and his cohort won't do the same thing and just hand out division chief titles to people from the peninsula as "rewards" to the faithful once the state is won? What Pakatan Rakyat should be doing is forming alliances with local opposition parties. Instead, it intends to compete against them. Of course, BN will probably end up winning because of split votes. Don't get me started on people harping on about how Sarawakians should all unite and toss its current chief minister out. Here's news for you: The reason he's still in power is because the people who have benefitted from his position like him where he is. Ponder that for a moment. It took Bruno Manser to come in and unite the various Penan tribes. It will take more than a well-meaning Swiss to unite the various factions in the two states. Sadly the people trying to play catalyst are not altruistic crusaders but those with an eye on Putrajaya. By the way, because I have to keep reminding you, Sabah did vote against BN. But BN "convinced" PBS MPs to jump ship in the biggest "frog" incident in Malaysian history. Back in the day, Anwar Ibrahim was proud to be seen as "delivering" the state back to BN. It's not that simple; it was never that simple; it will never be that simple. So word of advice to Pakatan: When three words can sum up your campaign ("BN is bad!"), you need to do a lot better. * The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.

Much ado about nothing Posted: 02 Oct 2012 04:14 PM PDT OCT 3 ― After all the hoopla in the preceding weeks about the government's annual Budget, there is a strange feeling of it having been to all purposes a bit of a non-event. Even the near hysterical tone of the "spot on" theme of The Star's coverage of the Budget last year was replaced this time around by an almost factual tenor in the reporting of the Budget in the same newspaper. It's almost as if the prime minister was unable to either take the radical measures demanded by most economists or the equally radically populist measures demanded by his coalition given that that the general election is around the corner. It all came out a bit half hearted. Government revenue growth projections are almost flat, subsidies are largely intact, there are no real efforts to rein in the deficit except by hoping for better GDP growth next year, the GST was not even mentioned and corporate tax rates are unchanged. Clearly this was not a year for hard measures to either stimulate private investment or reduce government spending. On the other hand, even measures that would have been welcomed as lightening the middle-class burden such as lowering the individual income tax rates or increasing exemptions on income tax, substantially increasing the real property gains tax (RPGT) rates to curb speculation in the mid-level property market or even extending the cost of living allowance to the private sector have not come to fruition. In many ways, the continuation of the cash handouts to various groups betrays the BN's assumptions about the political maturity of Malaysian voters. They may not be wrong. After last year's BR1M handouts, the prime minister's popularity showed a marked uptick for a period of about three months. The political arithmetic seems to be that the average voter is so overwhelmed by gratitude in the face of a cash handout that a rise in popularity of the ruling coalition and consequently votes in the election immediately after are assured. But the problem with repeating handouts or bonuses to civil servants is the law of diminishing returns. In the case when these begin to be seen as commonplace, the level of gratitude is the obvious casualty. Even if the obvious irrelevance of such handouts in enhancing national productivity or welfare is ignored, big news measures such as reducing excise on cars or even abolishing the PTPTN would have had a much bigger impact on the government's popularity. In any case, this was the last real chance for the incumbent government before the elections to showcase statesmanship over politics, leadership over short-term populism and inclusivity over divisiveness. An opportunity it seems to have completely ignored. An opportunity to replace race-based politics with a needs and merit based approach, an opportunity to come down hard on institutionalised corruption and nepotism, an opportunity to shift government expenditure to a developmental agenda rather than one keeping an already bloated civil service happy, an opportunity to reform an education system where only the wealthy can access world class learning and an opportunity to promote gender equality over entrenched patriarchies. The cost of inaction on all these areas is a much larger story than the one on a Budget that ostensibly tried to please everyone but will genuinely please very few. In a world growing more competitive daily, narrow partisan agendas using race and religion intent on distracting Malaysians from the drastic measures required to move to a high income nation may prove ultimately suicidal, even for race and religion to thrive. If this Budget is actually seen by the rakyat as a panacea for all its ills and the government rewarded accordingly, then it is truly a nation very easily pleased, deserving of the policies it lives under. * The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.

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Pakatan akan anjurkan perhimpunan pada 3 November tuntut pilihan raya bersih Posted: 03 Oct 2012 02:21 AM PDT KUALA LUMPUR, 3 Okt — Pakatan Rakyat (PR) akan mengadakan perhimpunan besar-besaran pada 3 November untuk menuntut pilihan raya yang bersih, kata Timbalan Presiden PAS Mohamad Sabu (gambar) hari ini. Beliau berkata keputusan ini dibuat kerana mereka mendapati "bahawa lapan tuntutan Gabungan Pilihan Raya Bersih dan Adil (Bersih 2.0) hampir tidak diendahkan oleh pemerintah (Barisan Nasional)". Bersih 2.0 menuntut daftar pemilih dibersihkan, reformasi sistem undi pos, gunakan dakwat kekal, tempoh kempen minimum 21 hari, akses kepada media yang adil, pengukuhan institusi awam, hentikan rasuah dan politik kotor. Gerakan reformasi pilihan raya itu juga telah berkata bahawa ia akan mengadakan konsert pada 13 Oktober untuk mengingatkan Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya (SPR) bahawa lapan tuntutan masih belum ditunaikan. MENYUSUL LAGI

Belanjawan 2013 bukti kerajaan prihatin, bukan raih undi — Palanivel Posted: 03 Oct 2012 02:11 AM PDT KUALA LUMPUR, 3 Okt — Belanjawan 2013 adalah satu lagi bukti keprihatinan kerajaan Barisan Nasional (BN), bukan untuk meraih undi seperti yang didakwa pembangkang, kata Presiden MIC Datuk Seri G Palanivel (gambar). Beliau berkata menerusi belanjawan itu, kerajaan menyediakan peruntukan meliputi semua kaum termasuk India yang menerima jumlah agak besar, antaranya RM50 juta untuk melatih 3,200 pelajar.  "Kerajaan di bawah pimpinan Barisan Nasional sentiasa mengutamakan kebajikan serta keperluan rakyat," katanya kepada pemberita selepas menyerahkan cek Kumpulan Wang Biasiswa Tan Sri Manickavasagam, di sini hari ini. Kumpulan Wang Biasiswa Tan Sri Manickavasagam itu memperuntukkan sejumlah RM1.1 juta dalam bentuk pinjaman kepada 66 pelajar India miskin bagi melanjutkan pelajaran ke peringkat ijazah di dalam  dan luar negara. Palanivel yang juga Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri berkata pinjaman itu adalah sebahagian daripada usaha MIC untuk membantu meringankan beban pelajar miskin. "Setiap pelajar diperuntukkan pinjaman antara RM15,000 dan RM18,000 bergantung kepada bidang pengajian mereka," katanya. — Bernama

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