.: ShaolinTiger - Kung-Fu Geekery :.

So we arrived in Sabah to rain sadly, we got there quite early in the morning direct to Sandakan from KL and were picked up promptly by our first guide Adam - a very knowledgeable local tribal guy from the Sandakan area (I forget which tribe he was from, but he said they were river people often farming the flood plains surrounding rivers and estuaries).

The weather wasn't great so I didn't really take any pictures on the way there and it was raining and muddy as hell so the ride (once we got off road onto the plantation roads) was pretty crazy...something like the rollercoasters at Blackpool. So we basically hung on for dear life for the hour or so it took us to reach the resort (we got stuck a couple of times but Adam had some l33t driving skills and got us out of there).

There was hardly anyone at the resort when we got there, actually I think for the morning feeding time we were the only people there and there was a fantastic turn-out of both Silverred Leaf Monkeys (Lotong) and the Proboscis Monkeys (Monyet Belanda) we went to see.

If you don't know about the Proboscis Monkey they are actually an endangered species and if you haven't seen them, you should! People come from all over the world to visit the wildlife in Sabah and Sarawak. You can read more at Wikipedia here: Proboscis Monkey.

The other monkey we got very close to was the Silverred Monkey or the Silver Langur/Lutung which LOVES to eat long beans.

They have the cutest little orange juveniles too, even though this mother was too busy eating her beans..and almost lost her baby.

Read more

And a lot of others things too.

I guess as life goes on things change and you tend to spend your time doing different things. For me it seems to be almost obsessive, I get totally absorbed by things and can't stop it until I've gone to the highest level I can take it...which is usually pretty high.

It's been a while since I've eaten crab over at that place we always used to go, it used to be a regular occasion.

So did dinner together.

So did Asia Cafe before that.

So did Horus before that.

So did Diving before that.

Times do change, so do people - if it's good or bad I'm not really sure.

I think I've changed too, I'm pretty sure I'm not as much of an asshole as I used to be...well at least I think so

Perhaps I'm getting old.

It's odd how the dynamics of friendships change too when people get into relationships, especially serious ones. Or even when they move to a different area, groups of friends change, the way things are change.

Sometimes I do miss things, but then again I appreciate how things are now - I've found something I really love in Photography, a way to express myself again seen as though I've gotten bored of Hacking.

Career wise things have changed a lot too, definitely for the better.

The last company was eating me up, making me angry, burning my time, rotting my motivation - until I took back control.

I heard recently they haven't paid the staff for the last 2 months, so it looks like I made the right decision.

Anyway my motivation is coming back and I'm starting to get things done, next thing on the list is to revamp this site...it's underway already.

After that get my photography portfolio online, domain is already registered and the site is 50% developed, it should be coming soon..business cards are being printed for that too.

Perhaps this photography thing might lend a nice little side income.

Shutter Asia (SA) was set-up in March 2007 by a group of like-minded friends who were interested in photography and travel, the idea was for the site to become a friendly community for photography enthusiasts and travelers around Asia and other areas, for asking questions, sharing photographs & techniques, discussing travel and locations and learning in a welcoming and friendly atmosphere.

It's officially launching today, so do join up and contribute.

http://www.shutterasia.com

There is a lot of information on the Internet regarding photography and especially equipment and technical terms (Aperture, Shutter, White Balance etc) but it can be very daunting for a new user or even confusing for an intermediate user. We wanted to get away from the bad attitudes, gear talk, cliques and flaming of other sites and communities and create a relaxed, but knowledgeable user base that will eventually fill our forum wonderful information and images.

We also have a Flickr group you can join here:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/shutterasia/

And an active Shoutbox for real-time chat:

http://www.shutterasia.com/forum/shoutbox.php

If you have any feedback, let us know. Do introduce yourself and start posting pictures!

I wonder if I'll get any comments with no pictures only words

It's become such a habit to post picture, maybe I've overdosed on pictures this weekend, pictures of females anyway.

Let's just talk about what I did instead of looking at the results for once.

Was back to the office on Thursday and Friday...definately not enjoying the blue skies whilst stuck in my cubicle!

Friday night went for some good Indian food in Bangsar One at Sagar, then onto a local photography magazine TT (DCM), a TT for the uninitiated is a Teh Tarik or Technical Talk session, there are loads of groups that have these kind of meetings.

Basically it's for a group of ______ geeks to get together and talk about their hobby, equipment, techniques, upcoming events and so on (______ can be car/camera/fishing/bird watching/diving etc).

After that a coffee at Starbucks with Paul Tan for his birthday, happy birthday Paul and hope you are enjoying the D80

Saturday morning was off to 1-Utama for a quick lunch and then a chance to shoot catwalk models for the Photogenic contest sponsored by Shong Lee.

This was my first try at shooting catwalk and my first competition.

It was quite fun and quite easy although my compositions were not very creative my technique was decent, I'll post more and some tips on DigiSniper.

Saturday night was a light dinner with KY at the Mee Sua place, then off home to process some pics and sleep early..

Early because Sunday morning..I got up at 8.30am! For an outdoor model shoot, again another first for me, I'm not really good at portrait/model shooting and it's something I really need to work on. So I'm practising and trying to improve.

After that it was off to 1-Utama again for the competition prize ceremony and to collection my consellation prize (I came 10th out of 21 entrants), which is not bad for my first try and I shot without flash..

Got horribly lost in KL after that picking something up, then there was a downpour and the roads flooded...so I got stuck and stressed, by the time I got home it was too late to go to a BBQ I was invited for..so I chilled at home, processed a few of the model shoot pics from the morning, I did ok Need some work on posing the models though.

So that's two firsts this weekend, popped my cherry twice in one weekend!

And today, back to work zz..

The Orang Asli are the native people of Malaysia, the Aboriginals of this region.

The Orang Asli are the indigenous minority peoples of Peninsular Malaysia. The name is a Malay term which transliterates as 'original peoples' or 'first peoples.' It is a collective term introduced by anthropologists and administrators for the 18 sub-ethnic groups generally classified for official purposes under Negrito, Senoi and Proto-Malay. They numbered 105,000 in 1997 representing a mere 0.5 per cent of the national population.

Source: Orang Asli of Peninsular Malaysia

The Museum itself though is freaking HARD to find, we actually went the day before, after the butterfly park, but got there around 5pm just as the place closed...

But it looked interesting so we headed back the next day!

The Museum is actually very well organised, clean, bright and interesting, it's a shame the sign boards are SO bad and it's not really publicised..I know local people that don't know about it. I only knew about it because I'd seen the sign board to it on the MRR2 and my Mom told me about (so it is in SOME tourist literature).

The whole guest book was full of comments about lacking signboards and horrible directions, most visitors were from Gombak as no-one else could find it.

There are photos and descriptions of the various tribes made up of 3 basic consituents spread around peninsular Malaysia (Negrito, Senoi, and Proto-Malay).

Apparently there were some jungle army units made up from all Orang Asli folks as they knew the land better than anyone, pretty interesting reading.

There are some amazing things they've made (Both practical and artistic), like this suit made from tree fibres (Seluar Kulit Kayu).

They have some beautiful pieces, I wish we could support them by buying their art!

They have mockups of various things like an Orang Asli wedding and various tree houses, boats and other implements for day to day living.

The blowpipes are pretty scary, long long long man, the darts must travel some distance.

It's set in a beautiful location too, in a rather rural area of surrounded by forest near the International Islamic University Malaysia.

A beautiful sunny day and a very interesting place to visit, easy to spend a couple of hours there although towards the end on the upper floor a lot of the information was in Malay only and didn't have English versions, which was sad. It's a nice place to see though as there is no-one there you can go at your own pace and take your time to appreciate the unique Orang Asli carvings and craftworks.

If you want to go there, hit the MRR2 until you see the sign for the museum or follow the directions for Gombak off the MRR2 (Jalan Gombak) keep going until you the Gombak signs are missing and you see Jalan Bentong, just keep going all the way, you'll pass loads of houses, shops etc, you should see Batu 8 or something, keep going the museum is at Batu 10, on the right side.

Don't worry if you don't see any signs, because well there aren't any until you get there.

After this Mom went back to UK, so this was the end of the trip, I hope you enjoyed it.

Related:

Department of Orang Asli Affairs
Orang Asli at Wikipedia
IIUM
Orang Asli Museum (Worst Map EVAR)

Suanie, is right about one thing, this guest blogging is kind of fun. I can just say any thing I like and it really doesn't matter. Well, I say that but if Shaolin gets back and has no readers, I might very well have to find a large rock to hide under. Unless, of course I cunningly blame it all on Suanie...
I found quite an interesting article on the bbc today.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4644540.stm

What a total gimp, sent it to the wrong addresses, and then tried to recall it. God, we are not all use out look and exchange you monkey, so the recall thing doesn't work. Still, funny. Thats what you get for using an address book and mailing lists

And then there is http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4630694.stm I am not sure what to make of that, is google right or wrong. I guess it depends on what information they really want. If it was just a list of words, and search rates then its not a big deal. Unless they want the ip of the person searching as well. Then that would be a bit out of order.

“Privacy groups say any sample could reveal the identities of Google users indirectly”. I like privacy groups, they say so many stupid things. Thats a statement with just so much commitment. It goes on to say that it worries them because the government want to make more use of Internet data to fight crime. So, they are against fighting crime, no wonder they are so into privacy.

One of the things they want is a list of sites for the keywords, so one wonders why some little government monkey doesn't just google it? Or is it to complicated a task? I am sure they could get a temp or some thing to do the job....

I am not I guess really in to the whole privacy thing, I don't worry who is watching my Internet activity any more then I worry about the hundreds of CCTV cameras watching me as I walk around the streets. Its not like I have any thing to hide. Ok, I have my secretes, card numbers, passwords and such but I really couldn't care less who knows I visited the BBC today, or I surfed porn last week. I don't even mind the idea of ID cards, I have to carry my passport as ID any way, and some a small card that fits in my wallet would be better. Oh, hold on... thats a driving license, so for most people they have to carry that if they drive, which is to say when they go any where. But ye, so, I don't see what all the fuss is about.

God, talk about getting all serious, on a different note I have next to no ability to spell, so I thought in the name of being understood I would use a spell checker, Interestingly Open Office doesn't think “Google” is a word, or “blog”. I can go with the blog, but isn't “google” a word officially now?

Seems like Yahoo! is trying to take over the world just like Google is (Gmail, Google Maps, Froogle, Google Base, Google Images, Google Groups, Google Video etc..)

Then Google bought blogger and got into the blogging scene.

Now Yahoo! is trying to catch up, first they bought flickr, now it's just been disclosed they have purchased del.icio.us the blog aggregation service.

We're proud to announce that del.icio.us has joined the Yahoo! family. Together we'll continue to improve how people discover, remember and share on the Internet, with a big emphasis on the power of community. We're excited to be working with the Yahoo! Search team - they definitely get social systems and their potential to change the web. (We're also excited to be joining our fraternal twin Flickr!)

Source: Slashdot

Seems like the war is heating up.

Skype is crying along with their new owners eBay as Yahoo! aswell have just entered the VoIP market, adding good voice capabilities to Yahoo Messenger.

The Yahoo! Internet portal is extending the use of its VoIP capacity built into its Instant Messenger product to take on Skype. The company says that within the next few days it will be debuting a new service 'Phone Out', with cheap call charges from computers to phones, and 'Phone In', a budget priced subscription service for phone callers to call computer users.

Source: PCPro

I like Google Talk though, the voice quality is very good.

Google is also piloting it's click to call service.

Gmail has got RSS support finally, but it's only one line at the top, pretty neat still.

Google's Gmail email service now sports a new feature for displaying RSS feeds, dubbed Web Clips. You might remember this name, as it is the same name Google Desktop refers to RSS feeds. Web Clips for Gmail were announced a long time ago sometime during the summer but they were finally stable enough to release to the general public. You can check out the what's new page for Gmail here. Essentially, you subscribe to a bunch of feeds and everytime you log into Gmail it loads the lastest title from each feed which you can scroll through with left/right arrows. Don't forget to check the actual post about Web Clips for Gmail on the Google Blog

Source: Slashdot

I also found VoIPbuster by chance, which has some very nice rates for international calls, some destinations are free as long as you have $10 credit.

Technorati tag: Slashdot, Yahoo, Tech News, VoIP

Yeah, so finally the Redang trip came...sadly now it's gone

Ah well, it was a great break and we did some nature loving activities too in the name of Project Aware.

We left home at some ungodly hour (5am) in a couple of taxis heading to KLIA, where we had a McD style Big Breakfast (They should call it the small breakfast though, as I could eat 3..)

We arrived at Kuala Terengganu after a smooth enough flight..

A coach trip to the jetty, then we jammed ourselves into a boat for the hour or so across to the Island.

We were greeted by the beautiful white sands of Redangs long beach, clear blue water and the crazy beach boys.

Then a nice sleep...we stayed at Redang Beach Resort

And first dive of the trip..

I stupidly didn't take enough weights (not accounting for the bulky, new and therefore buoyant BCD they gave me), and had real problems descending...

Must have been swimming like a zig-zag, after that I got passed a few weights and was ok...

I noticed myself getting nauseous towards the end of the dive (around 45 mins..) and thought uh-oh...I've had this before..

Sure enough when I got out, everything was spinning and I was dizzy as hell, oh well no more diving for me! Inner ear problems from the changing pressure of swimming in a zig-zag, I proceeded to sleep for 15 hours..and got up the next day

The dive was ok, nothing amazing, the dive master we had was a bit noob, so he took us to not so great locations, partially the reason why I sat out the rest of the dives.

And what a beautiful day it was.

After that all us naturalists got ready to clean up the beach for project Aware (Aquatic World Awareness, Responsibility and Education).

It was a stunning day, although a little hot for picking up rubbish on the beach..

And I was still a little dizzy 0_0

We got given the worst area too, the other groups had 1 bin-bag per group, we finished 1/2 bags per PERSON in our group, we got the corner of the beach and it seemed to be some kind of dumping ground, oh well, at least we sorted it out

I got myself a cert anyway and a free t-shirt for helping the beach clean-up..

This is my favourite shot of the lot.

The whole gang just before we left, so sad

Of course we munched loads of Keropok Lekor, as it's awesome there!

And we played Baccarat for cans of Coke while we waited for the plane, God pau'ed us all!

Of course we headed to Misai when we got back to stuff ourselves with our favourites foods, which we did..

The end! It was a great trip, really enjoyed it, even though I was dizzy haha, at least I didn't get burnt, neh neh

Full Gallery here: Redang Sept 2005

Are you liable for the comments other people post on your blog? That's the question at hand..

The issue has come up previously in regards to Internet Forums (Bulletin Boards) and Newsgroups (including those stored on-line like Dejanews - now Google Groups).

Someone is being sued for the comments SOMEONE ELSE made on his blog..

Aaron is being sued over comments left on his blog by his readers about a notoriously unsavoury company called Traffic Power, or 1p. Within the Search industry, these people are regarded as the lowest of the low, and if you dig through some of those Search results, or the links at the bottom of this post, you'll find all the gory details. Suffice to say, they are considered theives and villains by the overwhelming majority of the Search Marketing community.

Full story is here: NOTICE! YOU HAVE BEEN SUED

There have been a lot of suings going on over Internet and newsgroups post by the Scientology folks aswell, they are a very aggressive organisation.

Activist Keith Henson was sued for posting a portion of Scientology's writings to the Internet. Henson defended himself in court without a lawyer, while at the same time he carried out protests and pickets against Scientology. The court found that Henson had committed copyright infringement, though the damage award against Henson was immense: $150,000

I actually almost got sued before for posting libelous information about a company of spammers on a very high traffic website I happened to own, and posting some stupid things on Usenet too, I was kind of pissed.

Be very careful what you write online.

Yahoo was sued before for content posted by others on it's message boards too.

Yahoo Sued over Message Board Posts

An attorney has sued Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) Latest News about Yahoo, charging the portal didn't do enough to help him stop personal attacks against him on its message boards. He hopes to make the suit a class action.

I'll be following this story, and I recommend you do to.

Well my last post Racial Bias in Malaysia and Racism in General.. caused quite a stir, reaching almost 70 comments, many of which are very high quality. Thus I vote myself for PPS Ping of the year seen as though it's that time on the calendar! (PPS Second Birthday). BTW seen as though I can't actually vote for myself, you can all vote for me instead!

So this post is a continuation of the previous topic, a summary of comments and discussions that sprouted elsewhere as 60+ comments is a little to much for most people to read, as a lot of them are very long and involved, thanks to everyone who took the time to comment properly and give their input, and thanks also for all the praise, it's good to be appreciated. I have read all of the comments in full and replied to those where I had something else to add, there are many interesting points and I believe comments from all of the ethnic groups within Malaysia so it gives a good representation of the current state of affairs.

Some people seemed to think I was saying that Malays are naturally dumb or something, that definately wasn't my intention and it shouldn't be interpreted as such, for my reply to one comment I shall quote myself..

Actually I never said Malays were stupid or untilligent, they just don't have to work hard, so why would they?

I wouldn't if I was in the same situation, why not take advantage of it? That's the smart thing to do. The fact is it fucks up the country, and yes many of the Malays I get to work with are dumb, why cos if you read the whole article you'd see:

Most of the talented people in the country leave, because of this exact problem.

The hard working, smart people don't benefit proportionally in Malaysia as they should, so they leave, this includes Malays along with the other races. There is no meritocracy, I agree it's easier for a Malay to rise to the upper echelons, but that's generally for the public sector, not the private sector. There is a still a seperation.

Some points made about change or the hope of change..

Nicely written by KY:

Racial tensions will solve itself in a few generations, provided religious freedom is granted.

The system was in place primarily to diffuse tension between the difference races by archiving some sort of financial and educational equality. In that sense, it is quite a success, I'm quite sure many of us wouldn't want to have the situation like Philipines, Indonesia, or Thailand; where you either completely lose your racial identify, or you face ridiculous racial treatment in the society, take your pick.

Time has changed and the system is outdated, I agree with you. It is mostly due to the greed of the power that be to maximize their profit, hence we are staying in status quo.

With the recent change of administration, I am hoping we are slowly seeing the beginning to and end of this... I really hope to.

Another observation I made is that the Malays outside KL seem a lot more hard-working than those in KL, that's from my personal experience, those in KL seem more indoctrinated in the system and reliant upon the benefits they receive.

A good point from Belacan:

in one part of my group, i find many smart and hardworking malay blokes but in another part of the group, you find people who have been sitting there and get gaji buta. that's why my boss, who is a Malay, sent people like me to kick some asses.

this is a social thingy. i have been told by a few pro-umno malay youths that the time has come to wake up his fellow folks, but need to thread carefully.

first of all, let's start by eradicating poverty irrespective of race. the implementors should not just focus on the malay poor. what about the chinese, indian and orang asli poor? altho i am generalising, but sadly, i think public perception is as such.

Eloquently put from YP, questions that need to be answered:

I guess the main reason the special rights was put into place is no longer valid these days. There's racial harmony in the country (as compared to the 1950s) and the poverty gap between Malays and non-Malays is much smaller now.

Do the non-Malays want these rights in place? Do the Malays themselves want these rights in place? I'm sure if you'll get a mixture of different answers (both yes and no) from both groups. Ideas like keeping people happy, wanting the extra edge.. or ideas like fighting for equality or not wanting one's abilities to be undermined just because one has special rights...

Is there a need for special rights to be in place in this time and day? Yes.. because the non-Malay bumis (who, I believe are actually classified differently from the Malays) still need it.. but do they get as easy access to it?

Something needs to be done, but I doubt our government will do anything in the near future. The seat of power is something too precious to risk.

The truth of human nature from tigerjoe:

My main argument in having the NEP phased out is that what was once provided as a privilege, is now seen by so many as an entitlement. That is just plain wrong, as it gives clear indication that specific privileges are being taken for granted.

Something given for free will have no value to the recipient; unless they always remember that it is given as a gift. When one remembers, then only will one place a value on that gift. The day we forget is the day we take the gift for granted, and fail to treat our gifts properly.

Very well worded opinion from dawg:

Fantastic post mate! You certainly hit the nail on the head.

I can't help but agree with your assertion that the anachronistic racial policies currently enforced by the government is leading the country down the road of utter ruin.

To gain that valuable piece of insight one only has to look at the state of Malaysian society today. The education system is a disgrace. The civil service is irredeemably corrupt.
The government-backed oligarchies are massively inefficient and utterly hopeless in the face of free competition due to suffocating protectionism. And to what end? That the political parties may retain the support of the grass roots? That the politicians, with their vested interest in the status quo, may continue to reap without sowing?

Racially -polarised politcs should not have to be a part of the equation of power any longer. It is detrimental to the holistic development of the society as a whole and it will only perpetuate the blight of sectarianism in our midst. Yet we still find our supposed betters delivering the same populist rhetoric and pandering to the same racist tendencies in order to maintain their respective bases of power. And thus we find education, the only viable antidote to racism, prostituted on the altar of power in the name of satisfying those racist tendencies and thereby perpetuating the vicious cycle of racism electing racism! Such is the sorry state of Malaysian politics.

I was born a Malaysian and I will die a Malaysian. Malaysia is more of a homeland to me than either China or India ever will be. So why am I still being treated like a barely tolerated outsider in my own country, my rodina?

Shao, I salute thee for bringing this matter to light.

Another nice point here from YP:

We see unhappy non-Malays seeking to leave the country. We see Malaysians opting to stay and work overseas. We see Malaysians sending their children to other countries to study and telling them to settle down there. The idea is simple, Malaysians don't mind being treated as second class citizens elsewhere, but definitly not in their own country. From the other side of the matter, we see Malays enjoying the rights but yet, there are groups of Malays wishing that these rights not be in place anymore... simply because no matter what they do, their success is always attributed to their race and the special rights they are accorded. I wonder if this is fair to them. As in every race, there are the more capable people and the less capable... so in a way, I feel that the whole idea of having special rights is undermining the capability of our Malay counterparts.

I believe the fundemental flaw with the system is it's based on 'Bumi' status, not anything else, Chinese can be poor too, so can Indians, and the other minorities (Iban, Kadazan, Melanau), which in part are Second class bumi's. Which again, brings about more inequality..

I also reinforce again it's a social problem, kids are given their ideals mainly by their parents, and later in their lifes by teachers and peers..If Malay familes at home put down Chinese for various reasons, and Chinese families at home put down Malays for whatever reasons the new generations will continue to have the same resentment against the other races.

Some of these issues are covered in Sepet for example where orkid get scholarship for getting 5As in her SPM while Mr. Sepet gets nothing for getting 7As in his SPM. Sadly this is a direct relation to reality. Someone mentioned about the 5% discounts, that's not the major issue here, mainly it's the lack of equality or even meritocracy in the education system, the lack of fairness in government projects (Tenders are not accepted on price, quality, experience or ability of the company to do the job in a professional manner, they are awarded to family or friends).

From a Sarawakian Bumiputera:

I dislike the preferential treatment that us Bumiputeras are entitled to. Most of the time, whoever's in charge translate bumiputeras into 'Malays', while conviniently leaving out the non-Malays bumiputeras. These type of people are also the ones that are denying permit to open new temples and churches. The preferential treatment made us lazy. Even when we didn't study hard, there will be an opening in the university for us. Even when we didn't have the proper qualifications, there will be work for us. This made us lazier by the day. While I feel that it is justified in 1957, I don't think it has a bearing in the 21st century where you have to work hard, by yourself, to succeed.

Is the problem religious? Racial? Social? Cultural? So many factors to take into consideration, the general consensus is however it should be discussed, it should be solved and people shouldlook into positive reform of the government policies with a light to improving disparity between races (Both in economic terms and relating to education).

Someone else mentioned the line:

It's ok the Chinese are rich, they can afford to pay for their kids to study overseas

But it's not like they have a choice is it? And many are not rich, they forgo new cars or moving to a bigger house to sponsor their kids to study overseas, I wouldn't consider that rich, and often they can only afford to send one of their children, not all.

Many Malaysia Chinese students also end up with personal bonds for 100,000RM to a private company or to the civil service (teachers taking TESOL overseas for example), which they have to work out due to lack of options, lack of money from their parents and lack of government sponsorship..

I can give a real world example that I encountered this week, and things in the same vein through-out this project..This is not intended to be racist, it's just what I've experienced and demonstrates the flaws in the system and the attitudes it promotes.

There are 9 critical business processes, 2 headed by Chinese, 1 by Indian and 6 by Malay

When we ask for information required for our project from these departments:

• The Chinese heads often call us to clarify exactly what we want
• They also give us complete answers and more information than we require thus making our job easier
• The Indian head also provides full information and a little more than required
• One of the Malay heads gives good information, but sometimes has to be pushed to submit
• 3 of the Malay deparments give adequate information and have to be pushed to submit
• The other 2 rarely respond and we have to escalate the issue, then we get minimal information

There was an interesting article today too about the Religious issue and PAS in particular..

So a group of younger candidates from urban professional backgrounds is trying to put its stamp on the party. (PAS)

They want to rebrand it as one that is capable of managing effectively a dynamic modern economy, albeit running it in accordance with Islamic principles.

However, they are unlikely to be able to dismantle the biggest hurdle to the party winning power - its insistence on an Islamic state.

That is an anathema to the more than 40% of Malaysians who follow religions other than Islam, and it is likely to stall efforts to unite Pas with the country's other opposition parties - vital if they are to reduce, let alone overturn, the government's huge parliamentary majority.

Source: BBC News

Some guy behind me just noticed me typing and asked about my blog, I wonder if he'll read it

Anyway I think that's enough about this topic for the moment, thanks for the great discussion everyone.