THERE were hiccups earlier when members were to nominate candidates for various posts in PKR and now we are hearing stories on more administrative flaws in the party. The honest thing to do would be to admit that it is not without its problems but not where party secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution is concerned.
Today he has blamed everything and everyone else for the mess -- the Galas by-election (as if hundreds of thousands of PKR members are there so much so that they can't vote to choose their party leaders), the Malaysia Cup final last Saturday (which involved only Kelantan and Negri Sembilan) and the suspension of the Suara Keadilan permit by the Home Ministry (which takes out the sting from the run-up to the party polls.) Of course Saifuddin didn't say that there has been so much coverage on the PKR elections by the press and on cyberspace since several weeks ago, which more than makes up for any loss of "excitement" from the suspension. Furthermore the party organ only had a circulation of only 150,000, as claimed by Saifuddin, and that's peanuts compared to the combined readership and hits by the former.
In the first three days of the party polls the voter turnout has been a shameful 9 per cent at best and this for a party that is said to be Malaysia's hope for a better future and has a following of die-hard members so focussed on reformation. Bollocks. It claims to be many years ahead of Umno and its friends in the Barisan Nasional.......
My take is very simple and I have said this to friends. What we have seen of the administrative disarray in PKR proves one thing and that is its leaders have never given much thought to doing things right. Rather their priority appears to be trying to win votes in the general election, of scoring points through oratory and therefore arousing feelings of support amongst members. On a normal day the party appears so insignificant in its existence.
Monday, November 1, 2010
ONE MISTAKE AND THEN ANOTHER
I DON'T know about you but I am not convinced with the explanation given to the Dewan Rakyat on Friday by Tourism Minister Ng Yen Yen. The fact remains that her ministry bungled twice in the last few months and that's not good KPI.
First Ng had to respond to a statement by Batu MP Tian Chua that her three-day trip to Singapore should have cost something like RM30,000 instead of the RM90,000 mentioned in her written reply. According to Ng the actual amount was in fact RM16,446, with the mistake made by her officers.
Since the written reply was under her name one would have thought that Ng would have checked it thoroughly before approving it. It looks like she didn't. But given the situation, who outside of her ministry is to know that the correct figure she gave was indeed correct.
But this other part of her statement in Parliament on Friday was where the joke was -- and in this case she said that she did check the draft and found it to be ok, only to be told about basic errors in language in millions of promotional brochures printed for distribution at the Shanghai World Expo from May to October.
Ng's explanation: "I checked the final draft, there were no mistakes. The errors are by the printer in Shanghai." And maybe in an attempt to appease the vultures Ng gave this assurance: "We will not hire the printer anymore." Good but how often does her ministry need a printer from Shanghai?
She didn't check the draft of her written reply to Parliament but checked the draft of a brochure? Hmm.......
I was with a commercial printing company for 18 months many years ago and even then we need not have to input any text for a client because by that time in 1991 the technology was such that whatever we printed was first copied into negatives and then made into plates from positives from the client, which means that if there were mistakes in the text these could only come from the client. By now the technology has evolved further and depending on the press you use, even plates are no longer needed.
I would not believe anyone who tells me printers in Shanghai are still in the Stone Age, using methods we left behind for good decades ago.
I can tell you though that the Tourism Ministry and the Tourism Promotion Board have not been good with their numbers and may one day find the truth blowing up in their faces. Until then they will of course be lapping it up, happily utilising the generous allocations approved due to the "good work" (and returns) of and from the tourism sector. If only someone in the government does an audit diligently.....
First Ng had to respond to a statement by Batu MP Tian Chua that her three-day trip to Singapore should have cost something like RM30,000 instead of the RM90,000 mentioned in her written reply. According to Ng the actual amount was in fact RM16,446, with the mistake made by her officers.
Since the written reply was under her name one would have thought that Ng would have checked it thoroughly before approving it. It looks like she didn't. But given the situation, who outside of her ministry is to know that the correct figure she gave was indeed correct.
But this other part of her statement in Parliament on Friday was where the joke was -- and in this case she said that she did check the draft and found it to be ok, only to be told about basic errors in language in millions of promotional brochures printed for distribution at the Shanghai World Expo from May to October.
Ng's explanation: "I checked the final draft, there were no mistakes. The errors are by the printer in Shanghai." And maybe in an attempt to appease the vultures Ng gave this assurance: "We will not hire the printer anymore." Good but how often does her ministry need a printer from Shanghai?
She didn't check the draft of her written reply to Parliament but checked the draft of a brochure? Hmm.......
I was with a commercial printing company for 18 months many years ago and even then we need not have to input any text for a client because by that time in 1991 the technology was such that whatever we printed was first copied into negatives and then made into plates from positives from the client, which means that if there were mistakes in the text these could only come from the client. By now the technology has evolved further and depending on the press you use, even plates are no longer needed.
I would not believe anyone who tells me printers in Shanghai are still in the Stone Age, using methods we left behind for good decades ago.
I can tell you though that the Tourism Ministry and the Tourism Promotion Board have not been good with their numbers and may one day find the truth blowing up in their faces. Until then they will of course be lapping it up, happily utilising the generous allocations approved due to the "good work" (and returns) of and from the tourism sector. If only someone in the government does an audit diligently.....
APOLOGIES BUT I'M WRITING AGAIN
YES I know it's been a long time since I last wrote -- almost three months. The same reason. Busy with my layered cake business and also taking orders from friends for various types of Malay kuih. With plans to make the business grow also had to focus on looking for a place to set up a proper kitchen and storage facility. But my apologies to those who have been following Mana-mana closely and may have wondered what it was that kept me away.
Have finally found one courtesy of a friend. Now to the next phase of the business. God-willing everything should be full steam ahead come December, or the latest January 2011.
And having been asked by friends recently about my writings I decided that I must resume it soonest possible. Honestly I was also encouraged by a news item I had read in Saturday's NST, which is the subject of my first post since the third week of August. It may have been only a small news item to most people, buried deep inside the paper on Page 11. It titillated me enough and I hence want to share the joke with you.
Have finally found one courtesy of a friend. Now to the next phase of the business. God-willing everything should be full steam ahead come December, or the latest January 2011.
And having been asked by friends recently about my writings I decided that I must resume it soonest possible. Honestly I was also encouraged by a news item I had read in Saturday's NST, which is the subject of my first post since the third week of August. It may have been only a small news item to most people, buried deep inside the paper on Page 11. It titillated me enough and I hence want to share the joke with you.
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