Home sweet home!!

After almost 8 years in Arusha, Tanzania, we are back in Malaysia!! We took 17 luggages, 7 boxes and 8 cabin baggages to be exact into the plane to Malaysia. World record?, nahhh... We decided to bring that many bcoz the kids nak mula skola asap n I start work on 4 feb n shipment for the bulk of our things will take time. We started to sort out things a week before departure. Slowly but surely. The last nite I did not sleep as just want to make sure everything is ok coz we left quite a few things for our staff. We initially wanted to hire 2 vans but looking at the numbers of our accompanied luggages n boxes, someone suggested that we hire a coaster.! Silly at first but very practical n convenient. So we found one. More or less 120us. Our friends were suprised or more or less terkejut beruk bila nampak coaster tu...tapi depa setuju with our decision. UN bought us biz class ticket qatar airways so we were given 50 kilos each. And 25 kilos each extra on top of that 50 kilos but we hav to pay 1st later claim.so al in all is 375kilos. We did weight n count and it was more or less 360 kilos. so when we arrived ther we had to use 6 trolleys! At the check in...since we r biz class passengers, the layanan bagus. They counted 367 kilos n my better half was there behind the counter to supervise everything...seasoned travellers tu! So dont play play with her..."hey boy put all fragile stickers! Hey boy dont just throw our bags"...dll arahan..hehhe In the end they charged us for 90 kilos for excess baggage only. 250 kilos r our eligibility, 20 kilos r given free to members but alis n me je yg members. So 10 kilos each. 7 kilos discount...but but the charges r 3853us!!!!!!! So bila naik plane...baguih punye layanan walaupun we took most of the ruang utk cabin luggages...seated besides me was an american black but light brown n speaks like an arab. he is a pilot with qatar too...he hated qatar but pay n perks r too good!! Anyway bila sampe doha we had less than 2 hours transit...the doha airport has different terminal for biz class n above passengers. ..so was nice. But shopping area is not big n merry like the ordinary terminal. So we had to hurry hurry mkn n shopping. Sampe msia...kitaorg window shopping n terjebak jugak beli brg sikit...we did that purposely becoz we know that our luggages will be put on the floor next to luggages carousel if lambat sampe there....so when we arrived there at the carousel. ..true enough all our luggages n boxes were put in one place...cantik je depa susun..so selamat la tulang blkg kami...so we used 5 trolleys n had to make 2 trips utk klua ke arrival lobby... Bila sampai arrival lobby my family da tunggu..n my two strong brothers ade gak to help us with our tonnes of luggages! So I hired a van n told them it was for our luggages n boxes n me only...org taxi kat counter x caya...had to explained many times to them the logic of my plan at least 3 times....ye la cant fault them coz depa x pernah jumpa org msia balik dr afrika. So two cars followed the van...to bukit jelutong. We r renting a fully furnished apt while waiting for our house to be ready...renovate sikit. So sampe apt tu had to hire one of the guards to carry the stuff sampe masuk dlm apt... Thanks to Allah everything was ok... The kids will start school on 18 feb. So talk to u later

How to pay your loan off faster

How to pay your loan off faster http://www.mortgagebroker.com.my/12ways.asp 1. Make extra repayments Making extra repayments would reduce the time to pay off the loan and you pay less in interest. The simple logic is that the sooner you pay off your loan, the more money you save in interest payments. The more you pay, the more you save. Time is money! For example, if you take up a loan of RM100,000 at 6.75% for 25 years, your monthly instalments will be about be about RM691. This equates to a total repayment of RM 207,203 over the term of your loan. If you pay the loan out over 15 years rather than 25, your monthly payment will be RM885 per month. But the total amount you will repay over the term of the loan will be only RM159,247 - saving you a whopping RM 47,956! Another way to get ahead of your loan commitments is to make your repayments as if you have a higher rate of interest. Get a loan at the lowest interest rate you can and add 1% or 2% to your repayment amount. So if you have a loan at about 7% and pay it off at 8% or 9%, you'll be paying off your loan quicker and thereby reducing your interest payments. Extra lump sums or regular additional repayments will help you cut many years off the term of your loan. 2. Make more frequent repayments Most banks allow you to repay your loan monthly fortnightly or weekly. By paying your loan fortnightly or weekly (rather than monthly), you get to reduce the term and cost of your loan. How does it work? Split your monthly payment in two and pay every fortnight. You'll hardly feel the difference in terms of your income, but it could save you thousands of ringgit over the term of your loan. The reason for this is that there are 26 fortnights in a year, but only 12 months. Paying fortnightly means that you will be effectively making 13 monthly payments every year. And this can make a big difference! Using our example from above, by paying monthly instalments, you will need to repay RM207,203 over the term of your loan. By paying fortnightly, you will save RM 22,602 in interest and 4.4 years off the loan. 3. Start repayments early During the first few years of your loan, it may seem that you are only paying interest and the principal isn't reducing at all. This is one of the unfortunate effects of compound interest. So to avoid this phenomena, you need to get some of the principal repaid early. One of the ways is to commence repayment of the monthly instalments (which include the principal) before they become due. For example, most loans financing an under-construction property require the borrowers to pay interest only during the construction of the property and to commence the monthly instalments upon the completion of the property. This means you only start repayment of the principal only upon the full release of the loan upon the completion of the property. If you start repayment of the monthly instalments (which include the principal) early, you get to reduce the principal early. Indeed for an Islamic loan, if you commence the repayment of the monthly instalments during the construction stage of the property, the bank will waive the “grace period profit” or the interest payable during the construction stage. Another way of starting repayments early is to ask your bank to base your repayments on the “thereafter” interest rates, rather than the introductory or “honeymoon” rates. Most standard variable housing loans provide for a lower repayment during the initial years when the attractive “honeymoon” interest rates are applicable. Ask your bank or mortgage consultant for a flat repayment scheme. 4. Pay all your mortgage costs upfront Some loan packages finance all your mortgage fees and expenses, ie, legal fees, stamp duty, disbursements, valuation fee and Mortgage Reducing Term Assurance. Don’t kid yourself. Such benefits are all added into the loan package concerned, either directly by adding to the amount of the loan or indirectly by charging you higher interest rates or a penalty fee if you do prepay your loan within 5 years. You are better off coming up with cash for your upfront costs. While this can seem a blessing, try to avoid doing this. Consider the following example: Borrower A borrows RM100,000 over 25 years at 6.75%. His upfront costs are RM5,000 but he has enough cash to make sure he can cover these. His total repayment over 25 years will be RM 207,203. Borrower B takes out the same loan but doesn't have enough cash to cover the upfront costs. So he borrows RM105,000, at the same rate. His total repayment over 25 years will be RM217,638. 5. Consolidate your debts One of the best ways of ensuring you pay off your loans quickly is to consolidate all your debts. Determine which of your debts carry higher interest rates and consolidate all of such debts under one housing loan. You take up a new or additional housing loan to settle and pay off your credit cards and personal loans. By doing so, you will cease to be charged interest at 18% or 12% on your credit cards or personal loans respectively. Instead you will be paying interest at the relatively lower housing loan rates. 6. Structure your loans If you have more than one mortgage – one on a residential property and another on a commercial/industrial property, it may make sense for you to take maximum loan on your former property and reduces the loan amount on the latter property. It is a known fact that banks prefer and favour housing loans and therefore offer very low and attractive interest rates for residential properties, as compared with that offered for commercial or industrial properties. Kindly seek your tax consultant’s advice on the tax implications of such a move. 7. Tax planning When you purchase a property for investment, you will want to take a loan which monthly instalments (together with the outgoings of such property, ie service charges, sinking fund, quit rent, assessment, taxes, etc) match the income (ie rentals) of such investment property. From an investor’s point of view, the property is self-financing and over the years, the property will pay off by itself and be free from any debts. As an investor of property, you may want to do some tax planning. All investors will have to pay tax on the “profit” of your investment, ie the surplus of the income over the expenses of the investment, ie, the outgoings of the property and the interest payable for the loan taken to acquire the property. Repayment of principal will not be considered as an expense. During the earlier years of a loan, much of the repayment is toward interest. Accordingly the “higher” interest payments reduce the profit of the investment and therefore the tax payable is lower. However after several years of repayments, as the loan is slowly paid down, more of the repayments will go towards the principal, as opposed to interest. When that happens, the expenses will reduce and the profit of your investment in the property will increase, and so will your taxes. In such an event it may be a good idea to increase the loan (by an additional loan or refinancing) and increase the interest payments and therefore reduces the taxes payable. Another tax saving that you may consider is if you have an investment property which has a loan on it and also a loan on the home you are staying in. You may want to reduce the latter loan and increase the former loan. The simple logic is you are paying tax on the investment property and not on the home you are staying in and therefore by increasing the interest repayment on the loan taken on the investment property would reduce the profit thereof and accordingly taxes payable for the same. 8. Get an all-in-one account An all-in-one account allows you to use your mortgage as your key financial product. This means you have one account into which you can pay all of your income and from which you pay your living expenses as well as making your mortgage repayments. An all-in-one account can make a huge difference to the speed at which you pay off your loan. Because the whole of your income is paid into the account, you are reducing the principal on which interest is charged. Of course every time you withdraw from the account for living expenses, the principal (and therefore interest liability) will increase but careful use of the all-in-one account can save you interest payments and cut short the term of your loan. For example if your loan balance is RM100,000, interest would be charged on a daily basis and charged on that full amount each month. If you have an all-in-one account, you remit all your income and savings, that moneys will off set and reduce the loan balance, upon which interest is charged. Rather than earn interest at the “low” saving or fixed deposit rates (3.2%), that moneys effectively reduce the loan balance and interest payments, thereby “earn” interest at the higher rate applicable to the loan (6.75%). An all-in-one account is also useful when you are able to make additional payments towards the loan. If you are only able to make the equivalent of the minimum repayment on your loan (and not put in any extra) you may be better off with a standard conventional loan, where the interest rate is lower. However, it's not unusual for borrowers using an all-in-one account to cut the term of the loan from 25 years to less than 15. 9. Use your credit cards Credit cards allow you to postpone the payment of your bills free from any interest if payment is made before the due date. You can charge all your bills to your credit cards and keep your money in an all-in-one account longer. Every day that your moneys is in the all-in-one account is another day that interest is calculated on a lower loan balance. As soon as you pay your credit cards’ bills out of your all-in-one account, interest will be charged on the higher loan balance. Take full advantage of the interest free days offered by your credit cards. Don’t forget to pay your credit cards’ bills before the due date thereof. 10. Refinance and save One of the best ways to repay your loan quickly is to refinance your loan to a lower rate but don’t change the amount of repayment. This means you continue to pay as if the interest rate is the higher existing rate. This will allow to pay off more of the principal with each payment and accordingly reduces the time you finish paying off the loan. For example, if you refinance a 25 years loan of RM100,000 from an interest rate of 7.5% (BLR + 0.75%) to 6.75% (BLR +0%) but continue to pay repayment based on the higher rate, you could cut about 3 years 9 months off the term of your loan and as much as RM33,255 in repayments. However make enquiries on what it will cost you to refinance. For example, there may be penalty fees payable on your existing loan and legal fee, stamp duty and valuation fees payable for your new loan. Work it all out and see if it makes financial sense to refinance. 11. Staying Informed Information is your greatest weapon. By staying informed about what is going on in the housing loan market, you might be able to stay a step or two ahead of your lender. And if you can stay one step ahead, you are already on your way to paying of your mortgage faster. With any long term commitment, there is always a tendency to let your loan roll along, pay your monthly instalments as and when they fall due and don’t think about it. This attitude can be a big mistake. Keep yourself abreast of what is developing in the mortgage industry and you might find that there are opportunities to put yourself ahead. Interest rates change and new products may allow you to seize an opportunity or negotiate a better deal. Stay informed and stay ahead of the game. 12. Get the ideal loan to suit your needs Getting the right loan the first time is the biggest consideration when it comes to saving money. You need to ensure that your loan is best suited to your circumstances. Shopping for an ideal loan may be difficult but it may be worth your while to invest some time to do some research. Make sure you speak to the bankers and mortgage consultants and search for information through the internet for the available loan packages in the market. Choosing a loan is about knowing what you want. Make a list of all the features of the loan packages that are important to you and rank them according to importance. And you will be able to filter through the arrays of loan packages and through the process of elimination, you'll see the one that's right for you. Remember, different loans have different purposes so you need to match a loan to your need. Ditching the features you don't need can reduce the interest rate of your loan.

Just an idea on investment

2012 is just around the corner. Many of us, I am sure, are eagerly waiting for ASB to announce its yearly dividend. Since it will become a hot topic very soon, let me take this opportunity to talk about my crazy idea.

There are around more than 10 funds issued and managed by PNB. Amongst those, there are 5 popular funds issued and managed by PNB. I also want to add 1 new fund called AHB by PHB. All of them can be termed as Capital Guaranteed Funds. In no particular order, they are the followings -

1) Amanah Saham Bumiputera (ASB) : launched in 2001 - Financial Period : Every 31 December, Approved Size Fund : UNLIMITED; for bumiputera only
2) Amanah Saham Wawasan 2020 (ASW2020) : launched in 1996, Approved Size Fund : 15.515 billion, Financial End : Every 31 August (but 51% for Bumi, 49% for Non Bumi - Non Bumi Unit fully subscribed)
3) Amanah Saham Malaysia (ASM) : launched in 2000, Approved Size Fund : 13.91 billion, Financial End : Every 31 March
4) AS1M : launched in 2009, Approved Size Fund : 10 billion, Financial End : Every 30 September
5) Amanah Saham Didik (ASD) - Performance - Launched in 2001 - Financial Period : Every 30 June, Approved Size Fund : 4.5; for bumiputera only. They said it is almost fully subscribed but you still can get them
6) Amanah Hartanah Bumiputera (AHB) : Launched in Nov 2010, issued and managed by PHB Overall dividend for year 2010-11 is 6.25%. For bumi only. They said they are giving dividend twice a year. I am expecting they will give around 6% after this. This is what we called Capital guaranteed REIT fund.

(A) ASB Performance -

Year 1990: Dividend = 8.00% , Bonus = 6.00% , Total = 14.00%
Year 1991: Dividend = 8.50% , Bonus = 4.00% , Total = 12.50%
Year 1992: Dividend = 7.50% , Bonus = 5.00% , Total = 12.50%
Year 1993: Dividend = 9.00% , Bonus = 4.50% , Total = 13.50%
Year 1994: Dividend = 9.00% , Bonus = 4.50% , Total = 13.50%
Year 1995: Dividend = 10.00% , Bonus = 3.00% , Total = 13.50%
Year 1996: Dividend = 10.25% , Bonus = 3.00% , Total = 13.25%
Year 1997: Dividend = 10.25% , Bonus = 1.25% , Total = 11.50%
Year 1998: Dividend = 8.00% , Bonus = 2.50% , Total = 10.50%
Year 1999: Dividend = 10.50% , Bonus = 1.50% , Total = 12.00%
Year 2000: Dividend = 9.75% , Bonus = 2.00% , Total = 11.75%
Year 2001: Dividend = 7.00% , Bonus = 3.00% , Total = 10.00%
Year 2002: Dividend = 7.00% , Bonus = 2.00% , Total = 9.00%
Year 2003: Dividend = 7.25% , Bonus = 2.00% , Total = 9.25%
Year 2004: Dividend = 7.25% , Bonus = 2.00% , Total = 9.25%
Year 2005: Dividend = 7.25% , Bonus = 2.00% , Total = 9.25%
Year 2006: Dividend = 7.30% , Bonus = 1.25% , Total = 8.55%
Year 2007: Dividend = 8.00% , Bonus = 1.00% , Total = 9.00%
Year 2008: Dividend = 7.00% , Bonus = 1.75% , Total = 8.75%
Year 2009: Dividend = 7.30% , Bonus = 1.25% , Total = 8.55%
Year 2010; Dividend = 7.50% , Bonus = 1.25% , Total = 8.75%

Average Dividend + Bonus = 10.897619%

(B) ASD Performance –

Year Dividend (sen)
2002 10.00
2003 6.80
2004 7.00
2005 7.20
2006 6.80
2007 7.00
2008 7.00
2009 6.30
2010 6.35
2011 6.50

Average Yearly Dividend : 7.095% per annum

(C) Performance of ASW2020, ASM and AS1M -
Year ASW2020 ASM AS1M
1997 10.10
1998 9.80
1999 8.20
2000 8.80
2001 7.25 7.80
2002 7.25 7.00
2003 6.60 6.60
2004 7.00 7.00
2005 7.10 7.20
2006 6.80 6.75
2007 8.00 6.80
2008 7.00 7.80
2009 6.30 6.25
2010 6.35 6.30 6.38
2011 6.50 6.38 6.50

ASW 2020 : 7.5366667% average yearly dividend
ASM : 6.8936364 average yearly dividend
AS1M : 6.44% average yearly dividend

To simplify –

(D) Average Yearly Dividend for these popular fund
31/12 ASB 10.9%
31/03 ASM 6.9%
31/03 AHB 3.25%
30/06 ASD 7.1%
31/08 ASW 2020 7.5%
30/09 AS1M 6.4%
30/09 AHB 3.25%

Important Note : Do you notice that dividends from all funds since 2009 (except ASB) are below 7%. As for ASB, since 2008, they had been giving dividends under 9%.

(E) What if :

1) Let say you have RM50,000, separate that amount into all these 6 funds
2) If you choose to do this, you will get income of more or less 10% in Jan, 10% in Apr, 7% in July, 7% in Sept and 9.5% in Oct. Look again at the table especially the dates of the announcement of the dividends. Instead of waiting every January and the 10% or less from your ASB alone, you will dividend 5 times a year. In other words, you are making your money works harder!
3) And you can reinvest the dividends you gained to get more dividends. Examples - you can reinvest the ASB's into AS1M account. Then ASW2020’s into ASM. Then maybe you will surpass the 9% dividend by ASB. You can also invest the dividends in other kind of investment like the ones shown below -

(i) Classic Investment : Pure Gold, Bank Rakyat's shares, Tabung Haji, Foreign Currency cash, Precious Metal/Stones, EPF, LTAT (for our soldiers), Angkasa (for our civil servant), conventional insurance, Koperasi, Properties, etc etc

(ii) Modern Investment : Bonds, Buying and Selling Shares, Unit Trust (All kinds), Investment Linked Insurance, Structured Investment, Franchise, Gold Investment Account, Foreign Currency Account, Hedge Fund, Palm Oil Scheme, Special Savings Account linked to your loan payment, etc etc

So, ok ek ko?

NOTE: The above opinion is not an invitation to buy or sell. It serves as a blogging activity of my investing thoughts and ideas, this does not represent an investment advisory service as I charge no subscription or management fees. The content on this site is provided as general information only and should not be taken as investment advice. All site content, shall not be construed as a recommendation to buy or sell any security or financial instrument. The ideas expressed are solely the opinions of the author. Any action that you take as a result of information, analysis, or commentary on this site is ultimately your responsibility. Consult your investment adviser before making any investment decisions.

Rumah Mampu Milik by our well-known cekik darah developers

I read somewhere that SP Setia bought a big parcel of land somewhere this three areas - Hulu Langat/Semenyih/Serendah for their rumah mampu milik housing project.

Mahsing already launched theirs at Rawang - M Residence.

Sime Darby Property said they will launch Bandar Ainsdale in Seremban end of this year. Click this link for more info http://www.starproperty.my/PropertyScene/TheStarOnlineHighlightBox/17430/0/0

I heard Tan&Tan (IGB) will launch new township by the name of Kundang North (in partnership with PKNS)!! Hah, have u heard about Kundang before? Kenapa tak percaya ye. Click this link - http://www.tantan.com/beritaTT/BTT_052011.pdf (Fyi, it is a sleepy town (with quite a few factories) smacked between Sg Buloh and Rawang).

Then this PR1MA thingy launched by our government. Here is the list of phase 1 for PR1MA -

No. Location Developer Size (Acre) No of Units Target
1 Presint 11, Putrajaya Putrajaya Holdings 7.6 560 Q3 2011
2 Bandar Tun Razak, Cheras SP Setia and Tradewinds 10.0 1320 Q4 2011
3 Cyberjaya Cyberview 14.8 794 Q1 2012
4 Bandar Ainsdale, Seremban Sime Darby 142.0 2,220 Q4 2011
5 Putra Heights, Subang Jaya Sime Darby 7.4 260 Q1 2012
6 Seremban Sentral MRCB 37.4 3,000 Q2 2012
7 Presint 11-2, Putrajaya Putrajaya Holdings 3.0 255 Q2 2012
8 Presint 5, Putrajaya Putrajaya Holdings 11.8 1,062 Q2 2012
9 Presint 17-1, Putrajaya Putrajaya Holdings 4.1 739 Q4 2013
10 Presint 17-2, Putrajaya Putrajaya Holdings 8.2 368 Q4 2013
11 Presint 19-1, Putrajaya Putrajaya Holdings 10.8 970 Q4 2015
12 Presint 19-2, Putrajaya Putrajaya Holdings 11.9 1,067 Q4 2015
13 Ara Damansara, Petaling Sime Darby 4.9 560 Q2 2012
14 Bandar Bukit Raja, Klang Sime Darby 102.9 2,090 Q2 2014
15 Elmina East, Shah Alam Sime Darby 31.2 420 Q3 2014
16 Presint 19-3, Putrajaya Putrajaya Holdings 9.1 823 Q4 2016
17 Elmina West, Shah Alam Sime Darby 620.0 6,300 Q3 2017
18 Kota Elmina, Sg. Buloh Sime Darby 400.0 3,950 Q3 2017
19 Lagong Mas, Petaling Sime Darby 620.0 6,300 Q3 2018
20 Sg. Besi, Kuala Lumpur 1MDB - 10,000 Under Planning
TOTAL 2,057.11 43,058

I am sure sites that are less than 20 acres will be dedicated to high rise residences. Projects no. 4, 14, 15 and 17 to 20 will definitely have landed properties. So watch out for them!

Are you new to auction? If yes, read this....

BUYING AT AUCTION:

The most important thing to remember is that under the Auction system, when you buy a property, there is no cooling off period as there is when you buy 'for sale'. The Auction sale is legally binding on the day.

*** These guidelines should help you with understanding the Auction process ***

BEFOREHAND:
1. Do your Research

When you are looking in an area, whether buying 'for sale' or through an Auction, research the prices in that area for the type
of property that you want.Find out about the good and bad features of the area, and comparative prices to other areas.
Look at similar properties to the type that you are seeking.

2.Attend Local Auctions

It is valuable experience to attend as many local Auctions as you can to see how the Auction proceeds. Observe how people bid, and who is at the Auction. Work out people's style of bidding. The same people may be bidding against you for your property in the near future.

3.Arrange your Finances

Ensure that you have your Finance in place prior to the Auction. Establish you bidding limit. Make sure you allow for all extra
costs, eg legal, stamp duty, finance fees etc.

WHEN YOU HAVE DECIDED ON THE PROPERTY:

1. Register your Intent with the Agent

Advise the Real Estate Agent if you are interested in a property. They will advise you if the Vendor would consider sale prior to Auction, and whether any offers have been received prior to the Auction Day.

2.Establish your Bidding Limit

It is important that you set your own bidding limit. Decide what the property is worth to you based on what you can afford. To make sure you can afford a property work out the limit on your loan and add 3% to the interest rate. If you could still make the
payment then that is a very safe limit.

3.Set an Uneven Limit

Wherever possible, it pays to set an uneven limit, rather than stopping on a round number. For example, rather than stopping at 410,000, try going to 411,000. A small $500 bid could make the difference if the other bidder is close to their limit.

4.Check the Paperwork

If you are seriously interested in a property and intend to bid you should have your Solicitor inspect the Contract of Sale. It is a good idea to have a good read through all the paperwork related to the Auction beforehand.
Wherever possible, contact the Agent handling the sale and ask them to provide you with a copy of the documentation. This is normally possible in the week prior to Auction.
Read through all of the documents and always ask if you are unsure of anything. It is important to clarify details such as settlement terms, deposit and fixtures before the auction commences.

5.Inspections

Get building and pest inspections done before the Auction.It is not possible to make an Auction purchase conditional on inspection results. Make sure that any reports or inspections have been carried out to your satisfaction before you attend the
Auction.

6.Ask for Help

Many people find the Auction process daunting. Don't be afraid to ask a friend, relative or Real Estate Agent,to assist you with your bidding.
Many people ask someone else to bid on their behalf as they may be less inclined to bid emotionally and will not exceed a predetermined limit.Make certain that they have very clear instructions in writing on what they can and can't
do on your behalf - remember, there is no cooling off period with an Auction.

ON AUCTION DAY:

1.Presentation is Important

If you look like an affluent, confident property buyer, this will help convince your competition that you won't stop until the
property is yours.
Remember that it isn't always the person with the most money that wins at auction. It is the person who convinces everyone else to stop bidding.

2.Check the Contract of Sale again

On the Auction Day you should always check that your copy of the Contract of Sale is exactly the same as the original Auction Contract and that there have been no late changes.

3.Bidding

Remember how an Auction looks from the Auctioneer's perspective. They are often looking at a large number of people who
are invariably turning around, whispering etc.
If you are standing at the back of this scene,or hidden in the shade of a tree,the Auctioneer may well miss your bid, particularly when you are bidding for the first time. Stand in clear sight of the Auctioneer and make your first bid obvious to them.
Make sure the Auctioneer understands what you are doing. Bid early, clearly and confidently, and avoid unusual sign language
that may be misunderstood. Buyers are usually reluctant to start bidding at Auction but the best policy is to bid loudly and
confidently signalling to all other bidders you intend to purchase the property or should the reserve price not be reached that you are given an opportunity in any further negotiations.

4.Keep Control of your Bidding

If the bidding is increasing in larger denominations than you are comfortable with, consider offering a lower denomination as your bid. The Auctioneer does have the right to refuse it, but there is absolutely no harm in trying.
It is important not to be drawn into a bidding war on a property you want. Emotion can lead to you paying more than you can afford and there is no cooling off period with an Auction.

5.Making a Deposit

When the property is sold at the Auction you are required to sign the Contract of Sale and pay a deposit of usually 10% or 5% on the spot. This can be paid by Personal or Bank Cheque or subject to prior approval with the Agent by Deposit Guarantee.

6.Don’t be upset, if you lose the bid:

The streets are full of them and there are plenty of opportunities or auctions out there
Don’t forget to claim back the 10% or 5% deposit that you have submitted

GUIDE TO BID AT PROPERTY AUCTION SALE

1. WHO MAY BID
- Intending Purchaser who possess a Bank Draft/Banker’s Cheque be equal to 5% or 10% (whichever applicable) of the Reserve Price is qualified to become a bidder.
- Qualified bidder may delegate another to act as an agent or representative in his behalf. The delegate is required to submit a Letter of Authority and NRIC card photocopy of the intending purchaser .

2. WHAT TO PRODUCE AT THE AUCTION.
- Bring along the NRIC card to qualify to bid and present it for identification and registration.
- Important to submit Bank Draft/Banker’s Cheque amounting 5% or 10% (whichever applicable) of the Reserve Price.
- Do bring extra fund as Additional Deposit to subsidize if there is increment on the Reserve Price.
- Specify your details required in the Bidder’s Registration Form.

3. WHAT TO NOTE AT THE AUCTION.
- Always check the specific amount requested and the Bank Drafts/Banker’s Cheque are correctly payable.
- Unprepared and unattentiveness during call bids at the auction sale will make you lose a probable opportunity.
- Certainly do not bring personal or company cheques as Auction deposits.
- To be present earlier to avoid dissappointment.
- It is important to listen to the Auction proceeding very carefully to avoid unawareness.
- Observe the details provided are correct in the Contract of Sale before endorsement.
- Necessary to switch off or vibrate all your cell phones to avoid interuption during auction.

4. NECESSARY DOCUMENTS FOR BIDDING.
For an individual bidder:-
- a photocopy of his / her NRIC card (both sides)
- correspondence address
- telephone contact no.

For a Corporation:-
- a certified true copy of the Company’s Memorandum and Articles of Association.
- Form 24 and 49
- Board of Directors’ Resolution

For Agent/ Representative
- Letter of Authority from the Intending Purchaser
- a photocopy of the NRIC card (both sides)

5. HOMEWORK TO DO BEFORE ATTENDANCE AT AUCTION.
- Obtain the Proclamation, Conditions and Terms of Sale from the Auctioneer.
- Make necessary enquiries and confirm essential documents to be furnish for participation.
- Final check out with Auctioneer before turning up for auction.

Dont blame me for brain drain!

People always asked me how I managed to get a job within UN...

I somehow sensed that some of them so godsmacked considering im not this budak rajin n genius tapi selalu ponteng kelas n dpt gred biasa je...

Well, inilah yang dikatakan selalu...rezeki di tangan Tuhan selain dari yang lain yang hanya Allah saja tahu iaitu mati, anak, kubur n kahwin (errr ade betut ka?, ustaz)...

Anyway, should you need a career change but a challenging one...my suggestion is to think out of the box ie Malaysia. Malaysia is such a comfort zone for many of us. And when i said malaysia, it includes singapore, brunei and indonesia ya...

When i got the offer, i did not even know where is Arusha!! Just before i signed the offer letter, i opened the atlas.

You can go to unjobs.org, careers.un.org, totallylegal.com and even jobstreet.com.my

Im very sure many of you are well-qualified for the posts advertised in these websites...esp when u have masters, relevant experience at least 7 years and above, knows more than one language beisdes english (like Arabic, french, etc)...

And these organisations, they dont have the time to train you, so be prepared...

So what are you waiting for, surf the websites already!

Rumah bawah RM500,000!! (Improved version)

Semenjak dua menjak ni...harga rumah teres naik mencanak-canak. Sebabnya kos premium tanah naik serta bahan-bahan binaan naik mendadak dipengaruhi oleh faktor-faktor dalam dan luar negara.

Geram betul kalau difikirkan...kawasan paling mahal dalam Malaysia sekarang ialah Bukit Tunku, Desa Parkcity, Taman Melawati, Segambut (?!!!!), Mont Kiara, KLCC, Bukit Persekutuan, U Thant, Taman Desa, KL Eco City, etc etc...panjang listnya...kalu takde duit tukar 100 ribu 200 ribu dlm poket atau terselit kat celah gigi, jangan mimpi la...

BUT I found for you guys rumah teres baru yang harganya kurang dari 500 ribu dan developernya ada offer free legal fees, rebate, diskaun bumi, low down payment, etc etc...so cepat2 sebelum terlambat...semua ini dalam Selangor-KL area je ye.

1) Taman Desa Mas (Rawang)...heheheh Rawang, jangan main-main

Developer : www.mahumas.com

2) Alam Nusantara (next to Setia Alam, Setia Ecopark)

Developer : www.pkns.gov.my

3) Desa Coalfields (Sungai Buloh)

Developer : www.klk.com.my

4) M Residence (Rawang lagi!)

Developer : www.mahsing.com.my

5) Cassis, Emerald West (Guess what, Rawang lagi!! yes, yes)

Developer : www.guocoland.com.my

BUT if you have found other projects that offer something like the above projects, pleae tell me. Sometimes, some popular low profile and small to medium size developers (contohnya www.simasgroup.com.my), they wont advertise in the websites or papers, they just advertised by putting a large billboard next to the project site...in a matter of weeks or even days, habis semua kena sapu. By the way, for the above projects you can find more information in www.iproperty.com.my as some of the developers malas nak letak byk info tentang prject depa ni...contohnya site plan, sitemap.

You should look into Kajang area despite the recent flash flood nightmare. They will have MRT stations soon. One good developer is Trans Loyal Development but until now I cant find their website!! Strange yeah...

Talking about Kajang, I forgot to point out another developer that sells many houses less than 500k. TPPT Sdn bhd, a subsidiary of Bank Negara Malaysia!!! Dont play play. Yup, our own Bank Negara Malaysia, ladies and gentlemen!! I must say they produced/s good quality products. They have this project called Puncak Saujana. Boy, the units gone like karipap panas!! But this is your lucky day, they just launched a new phase with 57 units only. So hurry before it is too late. Click this link - http://www.tppt.com.my/pskajang_manja.html

There are other several websites and blogs that you should look into also in searching for your dream but reasonable priced house....recently completed house should be considered also...

You can look at www.myrealestate.com.my, www.propwall.my, www.fullhouse.com.my, www.realestate.net.my, propertymalaysia.blogsome.com (this is the place you should go through especially project review. They reviewed projects launched between 2005 and 2010. So all these projects they reviewed got completed between 2008 and 2010. So if you want to look for recently completed house and their original price, this is the place. And they will give their views according from the ordinary buyer perspective not from investor perspective), the Edge Property (google la), www.homeguru.com.my, www.beehomes.com.my, www.estate123.com (for commercial properties),...eh byk la lagi, jenuh aku buek free ad to all these websites...

If you are looking into Negeri Sembilan area...go to Bandar Enstek, Kota Sieramas, Bandar Sri Sendayan, Nilai Impian, Bandar Warisan Puteri, Seremban 2, etc etc.

So good luck in your search...if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email or post something in the comment area.

Kami kembali ke alam maya!/We are back, baby!!

Woot! Woot!!

It has been months since i updated my blog...

This is not a blog hangat hangat taik ayam ye...

We will return with a bang!!

Seni Orang Zanzibar

Pantai-pantai di Zanzibar

...kami nak pergi lagi!!

Kalau tak bersih putih serta tidak berbau lagi...

...aku pun tak tau camna nak cakap...

Adui, sakitnya ni...

Kes Pembelaan dah start...si Tertuduh dengan tiba2 pilih untuk beri keterangan dahulu...sejarah dalam Tribunal kami...

he started on 16 Nov and finished on 2 Dec...tolak Jumaat yang takde sesi dan weekends...ade la dalam 10 hari dia beri keterangan, janji 4-6 hari...tapi biasak la tu...

anyway, sebab kena dgr dgn khusyuk keterangan dia sampe sakit bahu dan salah bantal dibuatnya...dah dua minggu lebih sakit belakang bahu ni...bantal den da pukul2kan...

jadi kami sepasukan bz bz dgn mentelaah transccripts trials...dan meetings...

ni pun tgh amik break...

sambil tu pikiran ni tgh melayan apa yang nak dibuat coti krismas ni...

kat sini kena ikut coti omputih...cuti summer dan coti krismas dan tahun baru...sebab tu la da 6 kali raya di Afrika timur ni...

cadangnya nak gi pantai lagi...ntah ler...

trial akan di adjourned pada 17 Dec...dan akan sambung 17 Jan....

Basikal2 Malaysia di Tanzania

Kami ni walaupun nampak tembang (tembam+kembang), kami hebat berbasikal. Dont play play!!

Siap ade ngan helmet nya, knee pads, elbox pads...seluar ketat/tight yang ade pad kat celah kangkang tu, ala supaya bontot kita tak jadi leper tu...and kurang sakit lepas mengayuh...

Dulu jenuh nak ajar Haris berbasikal...satu kali dia pegi rempuh pokok tepi jalan...basikal tu hempap dia, nasib baik ade helmet tu...lepas tu ade skali tu...cabutkan tayar2 kecik yang tolon dia balance so tinggal la dua tayar besar tu....suruh la dia mengayuh di tgh2 jalan...after few seconds ok...tetiba, takde angin takde ribut terus dia ke tepi jalan n junam ke longkang!! melalak kesakitan...tanya dia camna bole jadi..."i dont know...it is like this bicycle has its own mind!!"

Anyway, now Irfan has one...he made me changed the seat and the helmet just becoz the one he likes got spiderman pics..



This bicycle is for Ayah...



This one is Ibu's...



This is for my princess...Iman



This is for Haris...



And this one for Irfan!

Morale of the story : Dont just think that you have to wear a helmet when riding a motorcycle, you have to do the same when you are on a bicycle...

I just love my chickens!!

Early this month, I hired a carpenter (we call them "fundi'') to build a bigger house for my chickens. I got around 20 chickens, they gave free-range eggs everyday...

So, I sat down and drew the plan for the fundi...hoping that he will follow exactly the blue print that I prepared...but I was wrong...it took him almost 5 days to complete it becoz he tried to build it using his own design...of course, as usual, I had to steer him back to the original plan...this is the always the case with the fundi here in Tanzania...you want a castle like house, they will give you a maasai like house, you want a chair, they will give you a classic sofa...

Anyway, now, Im happy and I am sure my chickens are happy now...look at the pictures here -







The morale of the story here - if you make your animals/pets happy, they will make you happy too!!

What I learned from this interview and my view

1) Carry on exercising (jogging, swimming, walking, cycling, etc). If you stop, you make it worse. When you have these aches and pains, get some physiotherapy sessions

2) Heat pads relieve pain

3) Meditation is highly recommended (but for mUslims what kind of mediation is good besides solat and zikir?)

4) Tea is diuretic

5) If you drink cold water, you reduce the temperature of your nasal passages and throat and reduce your resistance to coughs and colds

6) So, warm water is good for your health!

7) You’re fearful of a libel suit? Then don’t issue these defamatory statements or make them where you have no basis. If you say you are right, prove it and and we dont deserve the reputation that we have now!

8) I think he is half correct when he said - "Malaysians saw it as a Malay country, all others are lodgers, “orang tumpangan”, and they the Bumiputras, sons of the soil, run the show. So the Sultans, the Chief Justice and judges, generals, police commissioner, the whole hierarchy is Malay. All the big contracts for Malays. Malay is the language of the schools although it does not get them into modern knowledge. So the Chinese build and find their own independent schools to teach Chinese, the Tamils create their own Tamil schools, which do not get them jobs. It’s a most unhappy situation" - time will tell!

9) The best way to keep your health is to keep on working. "I know if I rest I’ll slide downhill fast. No, my whole being has been stimulated by the daily challenge. If I suddenly drop it all, play golf, stroll around, watch the sunset, read novels, that’s downhill. It is the daily challenge, social contacts, meeting people, people like you, you press me, I answer, when I don’t…. what have I got tomorrow?" - so keep challenging yourself until your last breath

10) Do not judge a man until you’ve closed his coffin. So close the coffin, then decide and assess him becuase man may still do something foolish before the lid is closed

11) We are not perfect in everything, so even what we have done is wrong or nasty, make sure you do it for an honourable purpose of for the greater good! But dont use this as an excuse for your foolishness!

12) Whatever it is, my take is that English should our working language whether you like it or not it does give us progress because we’re connected to the world and it gets us to the modern knowledge

13) Somehow I agree that when he said "we have a very polarized Malaysia, Malays, Chinese and Indians in separate schools, living separate lives and not really getting on with one another".

13) Last but not least - Love your wife! (or wives for certain people) - tell her - To love, to hold and to cherish, in sickness and in health, for better or for worse, till death do us part.” and tell her "I would try and keep you company for as long as I can."


_______________________________________________________________________


Transcripts – New York Times/IHT interview Lee Kuan Yew
Posted by theonlinecitizen on September 13, 2010 71 Comments
The following is the transcript of the interview Seth Mydans had with Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, for the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune. The interview was held on 1 September 2010.

Mr Lee: “Thank you. When you are coming to 87, you are not very happy..”

Q: “Not. Well you should be glad that you’ve gotten way past where most of us will get.”

Mr Lee: “That is my trouble. So, when is the last leaf falling?”

Q: “Do you feel like that, do you feel like the leaves are coming off?”

Mr Lee: “Well, yes. I mean I can feel the gradual decline of energy and vitality and I mean generally every year when you know you are not on the same level as last year. But that is life.”

Q: “My mother used to say never get old.”

Mr Lee: “Well, there you will try never to think yourself old. I mean I keep fit, I swim, I cycle.”

Q: “And yoga, is that right? Meditation?”

Mr Lee: “Yes.”

Q: “Tell me about meditation?”

Mr Lee: “Well, I started it about two, three years ago when Ng Kok Song, the Chief Investment Officer of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, I knew he was doing meditation. His wife had died but he was completely serene. So, I said, how do you achieve this? He said I meditate everyday and so did my wife and when she was dying of cancer, she was totally serene because she meditated everyday and he gave me a video of her in her last few weeks completely composed completely relaxed and she and him had been meditating for years. Well, I said to him, you teach me. He is a devout Christian. He was taught by a man called Laurence Freeman, a Catholic. His guru was John Main a devout Catholic. When I was in London, Ng Kok Song introduced me to Laurence Freeman. In fact, he is coming on Saturday to visit Singapore, and we will do a meditation session. The problem is to keep the monkey mind from running off into all kinds of thoughts. It is most difficult to stay focused on the mantra. The discipline is to have a mantra which you keep repeating in your innermost heart, no need to voice it over and over again throughout the whole period of meditation. The mantra they recommended was a religious one. Ma Ra Na Ta, four syllables. Come To Me Oh Lord Jesus. So I said Okay, I am not a Catholic but I will try. He said you can take any other mantra, Buddhist Om Mi Tuo Fo, and keep repeating it. To me Ma Ran Na Ta is more soothing. So I used Ma Ra Na Ta. You must be disciplined. I find it helps me go to sleep after that. A certain tranquility settles over you. The day’s pressures and worries are pushed out. Then there’s less problem sleeping. I miss it sometimes when I am tired, or have gone out to a dinner and had wine. Then I cannot concentrate. Otherwise I stick to it.”

Q: “So…”

Mr Lee: “.. for a good meditator will do it for half-an-hour. I do it for 20 minutes.”

Q: “So, would you say like your friend who taught you, would you say you are serene?”

Mr Lee: “Well, not as serene as he is. He has done it for many years and he is a devout Catholic. That makes a difference. He believes in Jesus. He believes in the teachings of the Bible. He has lost his wife, a great calamity. But the wife was serene. He gave me this video to show how meditation helped her in her last few months. I do not think I can achieve his level of serenity. But I do achieve some composure.”

Q: “And do you find that at this time in your life you do find yourself getting closer to religion of one sort or another?”

Mr Lee: “I am an agnostic. I was brought up in a traditional Chinese family with ancestor worship. I would go to my grandfather’s grave on All Soul’s Day which is called “Qingming”. My father would bring me along, lay out food and candles and burn some paper money and kowtow three times over his tombstone. At home on specific days outside the kitchen he would put up two candles with my grandfather’s picture. But as I grew up, I questioned this because I think this is superstition. You are gone, you burn paper money, how can he collect the paper money where he is? After my father died, I dropped the practice. My youngest brother baptised my father as a Christian. He did not have the right to. He was a doctor and for the last weeks before my father’s life, he took my father to his house because he was a doctor and was able to keep my father comforted. I do not know if my father was fully aware when he was converted into Christianity.”

Q: “Converted your father?”

Mr Lee: “Yes.”

Q: “Well this happens when you get close to the end.”

Mr Lee: “Well, but I do not know whether my father agreed. At that time he may have been beyond making a rational decision. My brother assumed that he agreed and converted him.”

Q: “But…”

Mr Lee: “I am not converted.”

Q: “But when you reach that stage, you may wonder more than ever what is next?”

Mr Lee: “Well, what is next, I do not know. Nobody has ever come back. The Muslims say that there are seventy houris, beautiful women up there. But nobody has come back to confirm this.”

Q: “And you haven’t converted to Islam, knowing that?”

Mr Lee: “Most unlikely. The Buddhist believes in transmigration of the soul. If you live a good life, the reward is in your next migration, you will be a good being, not an ugly animal. It is a comforting thought, but my wife and I do not believe in it. She has been for two years bed-ridden, unable to speak after a series of strokes. I am not going to convert her. I am not going to allow anybody to convert her because I know it will be against what she believed in all her life. How do I comfort myself? Well, I say life is just like that. You can’t choose how you go unless you are going to take an overdose of sleeping pills, like sodium amytal. For just over two years, she has been inert in bed, but still cognitive. She understands when I talk to her, which I do every night. She keeps awake for me; I tell her about my day’s work, read her favourite poems.”

Q: ‘And what kind of books do you read to her?”

Mr Lee: “So much of my time is reading things online. The latest book which I want to read or re-read is Kim. It is a beautiful of description of India as it was in Kipling’s time. And he had an insight into the Indian mind and it is still basically that same society that I find when I visit India. “

Q: “When you spoke to Time Magazine a couple of years ago, you said Don Quixote was your favourite?”

Mr Lee: “Yes, I was just given the book, Don Quixote, a new translation.”

Q: “But people might find that ironic because he was fantasist who did not realistically choose his projects and you are sort of the opposite?”

Mr Lee: “No, no, you must have something fanciful and a flight of fancy. I had a colleague Rajaratnam who read Sci-Fi for his leisure.”’

Q: “And you?”:

Mr Lee: “No, I do not believe in Sci-Fi.”

Q: “But you must have something to fantasise.”

Mr Lee: “Well, at the moment, as I said, I would like to read Kim again. Why I thought of Kim was because I have just been through a list of audio books to choose for my wife. Jane Austen, Emily Bronte, books she has on her book shelf. So, I ticked off the ones I think she would find interesting. The one that caught my eye was Kim. She was into literature, from Alice in Wonderland, to Adventures with a Looking Glass, to Jane Austen’s Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice, and Sense and Sensibility. Jane Austen was her favourite writer because she wrote elegant and leisurely English prose of the 19th century. The prose flowed beautifully, described the human condition in a graceful way, and rolls off the tongue and in the mind. She enjoyed it. Also Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. She was an English Literature major.”

Q: “You are naming books on the list, not necessarily books you have already read, yes?”

Mr Lee: “I would have read some of them.”

Q: “Like a Jane Austen book, or Canterbury Tales?”

Mr Lee: “No, Canterbury Tales, I had to do it for my second year English Literature course in Raffles College. For a person in the 15th Century, he wrote very modern stuff. I didn’t find his English all that archaic. I find those Scottish poets difficult to read. Sometimes I don’t make sense of their Scottish brogue. My wife makes sense of them. Then Shakespeare’s sonnets.”

Q: “You read those?”

Mr Lee: “I read those sonnets when I did English literature in my freshman’s year. She read them.”

Q: “When you say she reads them now, you’re the one who reads them, yes?”

Mr Lee: “Yes, I read them to her.”

Q: “But you go to her.”

Mr Lee: “Yes, I read from an Anthology of Poems which she has, and several other anthologies. So I know her favourite poems. She had flagged them. I read them to her.”

Q: “She’s in the hospital? You go to the hospital?”

Mr Lee: “No, no, she’s at home. We’ve got a hospital bed and nurses attending to her. We used to share the same room. Now I’m staying in the next room. I have to get used to her groans and grunts when she’s uncomfortable from a dry throat and they pump in a spray moisture called “Biothene” which soothes her throat, and they suck out phlegm. Because she can’t get up, she can’t breathe fully. The phlegm accumulates in the chest but you can’t suck it out from the chest, you’ve got to wait until she coughs and it goes out to her throat. They suck it out, and she’s relieved. They sit her up and tap her back. It’s very distressing, but that’s life.”

Q: “Yes, your daughter on Sunday wrote a moving column, movingly about the situation referring to you.”

Mr Lee: “How did you come to read it?”

Q: “Somebody said you’ve got to read that column, so I read it.”

Mr Lee: “You don’t get the Straits Times.”

Q: “I get it online actually. I certainly do, I follow Singapore online and she wrote that the whole family suffers of course from this and she wrote the one who’s been hurting the most and is yet carrying on stoically is my father.”

Mr Lee: “What to do? What else can I do? I can’t break down. Life has got to go on. I try to busy myself, but from time to time in idle moments, my mind goes back to the happy days we were up and about together.”

Q: “When you go to visit her, is that the time when your mind goes back?”

Mr Lee: “No, not then. My daughter’s fished out many old photographs for this piece she wrote and picked out a dozen or two dozen photographs from the digital copies which somebody had kept at the Singapore Press Holdings. When I look at them, I thought how lucky I was. I had 61 years of happiness. We’ve got to go sometime, so I’m not sure who’s going first, whether she or me. So I told her, I’ve been looking at the marriage vows of the Christians. The best I read was,” To love, to hold and to cherish, in sickness and in health, for better or for worse, till death do us part.” I told her I would try and keep you company for as long as I can. She understood.”

Q: “Yes, it’s been really.”

Mr Lee: “What to do? What can you do in this situation? I can say get rid of the nurses. Then the maids won’t know how to turn her over and then she gets pneumonia. That ends the suffering. But human beings being what we are, I do the best for her and the best is to give her a competent nurse who moves her, massages her, turns her over, so no bed sores. I’ve got a hospital bed with air cushions so no bed sores. Well, that’s life. Make her comfortable.”

Q: “And for yourself, you feel the weight of age more than you have in the past?”

Mr Lee: “I’m not sure. I marginally must have. It’s stress. However, I look at it, I mean, it’s stress. That’s life. But it’s a different kind of stress from the kind of stress I faced, political stresses. Dire situations for Singapore, dire situations for myself when we broke off from Malaysia, the Malays in Singapore could have rioted and gone for me and they suddenly found themselves back as a minority because the Tunku kicked us out. That’s different, that’s intense stress and it’s over but this is stress which goes on. One doctor told me, you may think that when she’s gone you’re relieved but you’ll be sad when she’s gone because there’s still the human being here, there’s still somebody you talk to and she knows what you’re saying and you’ll miss that. Well, I don’t know, I haven’t come to that but I think I’ll probably will because it’s now two years, May, June, July, August, September, two years and four months. It’s become a part of my life.”

Q: “She’s how old now?”

Mr Lee: “She’s two-and-a-half years older than me, so she’s coming on to 90.”

Q: “But you did make a reference in an interview with Time magazine to something that goes beyond reason as you put it. You referred to the real enemy by Pierre D’Harcourt who talked about people surviving the Nazi, it’s better that they have something to believe in.”

Mr Lee: “Yes, of course.”

Q: “And you said that the Communists and the deeply religious fought on and survived. There are some things in the human spirit that are beyond reason.”

Mr Lee: “I believe that to be true. Look, I saw my friend and cabinet colleague who’s a deeply religious Catholic. He was Finance Minister, a fine man. In 1983, he had a heart attack. He was in hospital, in ICU, he improved and was taken out of ICU. Then he had a second heart attack and I knew it was bad. I went to see him and the priest was giving him the last rites as a Catholic. Absolutely fearless, he showed no distress, no fear, the family was around him, his wife and daughters, he had four daughters. With priest delivering the last rites, he knew he was reaching the end. But his mind was clear but absolutely calm.”

Q: “Well, I am more like you. We don’t have something to cling to.”

Mr Lee: “That’s our problem.”

Q: “But also the way people see you is supremely reasonable person, reason is the ultimate.”

Mr Lee: “Well, that’s the way I’ve been working.”

Q: “Well, you did mention to Tom Plate, they think they know me but they only know the public me?”

Mr Lee: “Yeah, the private view is you have emotions for your close members of your family. We are a close family, not just my sons and my wife and my parents but my brothers and my sister. So my youngest brother, a doctor as I told you, he just sent me an email that my second brother was dying of a bleeding colon, diverticulitis. And later the third brother now has got prostate cancer and has spread into his lymph nodes. So I asked what’re the chances of survival. It’s not gotten to the bones yet, so they’re doing chemotherapy and if you can prevent it from going into the bones, he’ll be okay for a few more years. If it does get to the bones, then that’s the end. I don’t think my brother knows. But I’ll probably go and see him.”

Q: “But you yourself have been fit. You have a stent, you had heart problem late last year but besides that do you have ailments?”

Mr Lee: “Well, aches and pains of a geriatric person, joints, muscles but all non-terminal. I go in for a physiotherapy, maintenance once a week, they give me a rub over because when I cycle, my thighs get sore, knees get a little painful, and so the hips.”

Q: “These are the signs of age.”

Mr Lee: “Yeah, of course.”

Q: “I’m 64. I’m beginning to feel that and I don’t like it and I don’t want to admit to myself.”

Mr Lee: “But if you stop exercising, you make it worse. That’s what my doctors tell me, just carry on. When you have these aches and pains, we’ll give you physiotherapy. I’ve learnt to use heat pads at home. So after the physiotherapy, once a week, if I feel my thighs are sore, I just have a heat pad there. You put in the microwave oven and you tie it around your thighs or your ankles or your calves. It relieves the pain.”

Q: “So you continue to cycle.”

Mr Lee: “Oh yeah.”

Q: “Treadmill?

Mr Lee: “No, I don’t do the treadmill. I walk but not always. When I’ve cycled enough I don’t walk.”

Q: “That’s your primary exercise, swimming?”

Mr Lee: “Yeah, I swim everyday, it’s relaxing.”

Q: “What other secrets, I see you drink hot water?”

Mr Lee: “Yes.”

Q: “Tell me about it.”

Mr Lee: “Well, I used to drink tea but tea is a diuretic, but I didn’t know that. I used to drink litres of it. In the 1980s, I was having a conference with Zhou Ziyang who was then Secretary-General of the Communist Party in the Great Hall of the People. The Chinese came in and poured more tea and hot water. I was scoffing it down because it kept my throat moistened, my BP was up because more liquid was in me. Halfway through, I said please stop. I’m dashing off. I had to relief myself. Then my doctors said don’t you know that tea is a diuretic? I don’t like coffee, it gives me a sour stomach, so okay, let’s switch to water.”

Q: “You know you had the hot water when I met you a couple of years ago and after I told my wife about that, she switched to hot water. She’s not sure why except that you drink hot water, so she’s decided to.”

Mr Lee: “Well, cold water, this was from my ENT man. If you drink cold water, you reduce the temperature of your nasal passages and throat and reduce your resistance to coughs and colds. So I take warm water, body temperature. I don’t scald myself with boiling hot water. I avoid that. But my daughter puts blocks of ice into her coffee and drinks it up. She’s all right, she’s only 50-plus.

Q: “Let me ask a question about the outside world a little bit. Singapore is a great success story even though people criticize this and that. When you look back, you can be proud of what you’ve done and I assume you are. Are there things that you regret, things that you wished you could achieve that you couldn’t?”

Mr Lee: “Well, first I regret having been turfed out of Malaysia. I think if the Tunku had kept us together, what we did in Singapore, had Malaysia accepted a multiracial base for their society, much of what we’ve achieved in Singapore would be achieved in Malaysia. But not as much because it’s a much broader base. We would have improved inter-racial relations and an improved holistic situation. Now we have a very polarized Malaysia, Malays, Chinese and Indians in separate schools, living separate lives and not really getting on with one another. You read them. That’s bad for us as close neighbours.”

Q: “So at that time, you found yourself with Singapore and you have transformed it. And my question would be how do you assess your own satisfaction with what you’ve achieved? What didn’t work?”

Mr Lee: “Well, the greatest satisfaction I had was my colleagues and I, were of that generation who were turfed out of Malaysia suffered two years under a racial policy decided that we will go the other way. We will not as a majority squeeze the minority because once we’re by ourselves, the Chinese become the majority. We made quite sure whatever your race, language or religion, you are an equal citizen and we’ll drum that into the people and I think our Chinese understand and today we have an integrated society. Our Malays are English-educated, they’re no longer like the Malays in Malaysia and you can see there are some still wearing headscarves but very modern looking.”

Q: “That doesn’t sound like a regret to me.”

Mr Lee: “No, no, but the regret is there’s such a narrow base to build this enormous edifice, so I’ve got to tell the next generation, please do not take for granted what’s been built. If you forget that this is a small island which we are built upon and reach a 100 storeys high tower block and may go up to 150 if you are wise. But if you believe that it’s permanent, it will come tumbling down and you will never get a second chance.”

Q: “I wonder if that is a concern of yours about the next generation. I saw your discussion with a group of young people before the last election and they were saying what they want is a lot of these values from the West, an open political marketplace and even playing field in all of these things and you said well, if that’s the way you feel, I’m very sad.”

Mr Lee: “Because you play it that way, if you have dissension, if you chose the easy way to Muslim votes and switch to racial politics, this society is finished. The easiest way to get majority vote is vote for me, we’re Chinese, they’re Indians, they’re Malays. Our society will be ripped apart. If you do not have a cohesive society, you cannot make progress.”

Q: “But is that a concern that the younger generation doesn’t realize as much as it should?”

Mr Lee: “I believe they have come to believe that this is a natural state of affairs, and they can take liberties with it. They think you can put it on auto-pilot. I know that is never so. We have crafted a set of very intricate rules, no housing blocks shall have more than a percentage of so many Chinese, so many percent Malays, Indians. All are thoroughly mixed. Willy-nilly, your neighbours are Indians, Malays, you go to the same shopping malls, you go to the same schools, the same playing fields, you go up and down the same lifts. We cannot allow segregation.”

Q: “There are people who think that Singapore may lighten up a little bit when you go, that the rules will become a little looser and if that happens, that might be something that’s a concern to you.”

Mr Lee: “No, you can go looser where it’s not race, language and religion because those are deeply gut issues and it will surface the moment you start playing on them. It’s inevitable, but on other areas, policies, right or wrong, disparity of opportunities, rich and poor, well go ahead. But don’t play race, language, religion. We’ve got here, we’ve become cohesive, keep it that way. We’ve not used Chinese as a majority language because it will split the population. We have English as our working language, it’s equal for everybody, and it’s given us the progress because we’re connected to the world. If you want to keep your Malay, or your Chinese, or your Tamil, Urdu or whatever, do that as a second language, not equal to your first language. It’s up to you, how high a standard you want to achieve.”

Q: “The public view of you is as a very strict, cerebral, unsentimental. Catherine Lim, “an authoritarian, no-nonsense manner that has little use for sentiment”.”

Mr Lee: “She’s a novelist, therefore, she simplifies a person’s character, make graphic caricature of me. But is anybody that simple or simplistic?”

Q: “Sentiment though, you don’t show that very much in public.”

Mr Lee: “Well, that’s a Chinese ideal. A gentleman in Chinese ideal, the junzi (君子) is someone who is always composed and possessed of himself and doesn’t lose his temper and doesn’t lose his tongue. That’s what I try to do, except when I got turfed out from Malaysia. Then, I just couldn’t help it.”

Q: “One aspect of the way you’ve constructed Singapore is a certain level of fear perhaps in the population. You described yourself as a street fighter, knuckle duster and so forth.”

Mr Lee: “Yes.”

Q: “And that produces among some people a level of fear and I want to tell you what a taxi driver said when I said I was going to interview you. He said, safer not to ask him anything. If you ask him, somebody will follow you. We’re not in politics so just let him do the politics.”

Mr Lee: “How old is he?’

Q: “I’m sorry, middle aged, I don’t know.”

Mr Lee: “I go out. I’m no longer the Prime Minister. I don’t have to do the difficult things. Everybody wants to shake my hands, everybody wants me to autograph something. Everybody wants to get around me to take a photo. So it’s a problem.

Q: “Yes but…”

Mr Lee: “Because I’m no longer in charge, I don’t have to do the hard things. I’ve laid the foundation and they know that because of that foundation, they’re enjoying this life.’

Q: “So when you were the one directly in-charge, you had to be tough, you had to be a fighter.”

Mr Lee: “Yes, of course. I had to fight left-wingers, Communists, pro-Communist groups who had killer squads. If I didn’t have the guts and the gumption to take them on, there wouldn’t be the Singapore. They would have taken over and it would have collapsed. I also had to fight the Malay Ultras when we were in Malaysia for two years.”

Q: “Well, you don’t have a lot of dissidents in prison but you’re known for your libel suits which keeps a lot of people at bay.”

Mr Lee: “We are non-corrupt. We lead modest lives, so it’s difficult to malign us. What’s the easy way to get a leader down? He’s a hypocrite, he is corrupt, he pretends to be this when in fact he’s that. That’s what they’re trying to do to me. Well, prove it, if what you say is right, then I don’t deserve this reputation. Why must you say these things without foundation? I’m taking you to court, you’ve made these allegations, I’m open to your cross-examination.”

Q: “But that may produce what I was talking about, about a level of fear.”

Mr Lee: “No, you’re fearful of a libel suit? Then don’t issue these defamatory statements or make them where you have no basis. The Western correspondent, especially those who hop in and hop out got to find something to show that they are impartial, that they’re not just taken in by the Singapore growth story. They say we keep down the opposition, how? Libel suits. Absolute rubbish. We have opponents in Parliament who have attacked us on policy, no libel suits against them and even in Parliament they are privileged to make defamatory allegation and cannot be sued. But they don’t. They know it is not true.”

Q: “Let me ask a last question. Again back to Tom Plate, “I’m not serious all the time. Everyone needs to have a good laugh now and then to see the funny side of things and to laugh at himself”.”

Mr Lee: “Yes, of course.”

Q: “How about that?”

Mr Lee: “You have to be that.”

Q: “So what makes you laugh?”

Mr Lee: “Many things, the absurdity of it, many things in life. Sometimes, I meet witty people, have conversations, they make sharp remarks, I laugh.

Q: “And when you laugh at yourself as you said?”

Mr Lee: “That’s very frequent. Yeah, I’m reaching 87, trying to keep fit, presenting a vigorous figure and it’s an effort and is it worth the effort? I laugh at myself trying to keep a bold front. It’s become my habit. I just carry on.”

Q: “So it’s the whole broad picture of things that you find funny?”

Mr Lee: “Yes, life as a whole has many abnormalities, of course.”

Q: “Your public life together with your private life, what you’ve done over things people write about you and Singapore, that overall is something that you can find funny?”

Mr Lee: “Yes, of course.

Q: “You made one of the few people who laugh at Singapore.”

Mr Lee: “Let me give you a Chinese proverb “do not judge a man until you’ve closed his coffin. Do not judge a man.” Close the coffin, then decide. Then you assess him. I may still do something foolish before the lid is closed on me.”

Q: “So you’re waiting for the final verdict?”

Mr Lee: “No, the final verdict will not be in the obituaries. The final verdict will be when the PhD students dig out the archives, read my old papers, assess what my enemies have said, sift the evidence and seek the truth? I’m not saying that everything I did was right, but everything I did was for an honourable purpose. I had to do some nasty things, locking fellows up without trial.”

Q: “For the greater good?

Mr Lee: “Well, yes, because otherwise they are running around and causing havoc playing on Chinese language and culture, and accusing me of destroying Chinese education. You’ve not been here when the Communists were running around. They do not believe in the democratic process. They don’t believe in one man, one vote. They believe in one bullet, one vote. They had killer squads. But they at the same time had a united front exploiting the democratic game. It gave them cover. But my business, my job was to make sure that they did not succeed. Sometimes you just got to lock the leaders up. They are confusing the people. The reality is that if you allow these people to work up animosity against the government because it’s keeping down the Chinese language, because we’ve promoted English, keeping down Chinese culture because you have allowed English literature, and we suppress our Chinese values and the Chinese language, the Chinese press, well, you will break up the society. They harp on these things when they know they are not true. They know that if you actually do in Chinese language and culture, the Chinese will riot and the society must break up.”

Q: “So leadership is a constant battle?”

Mr Lee: “In a multiracial situation like this, it is. Malaysia took the different line; Malaysians saw it as a Malay country, all others are lodgers, “orang tumpangan”, and they the Bumiputras, sons of the soil, run the show. So the Sultans, the Chief Justice and judges, generals, police commissioner, the whole hierarchy is Malay. All the big contracts for Malays. Malay is the language of the schools although it does not get them into modern knowledge. So the Chinese build and find their own independent schools to teach Chinese, the Tamils create their own Tamil schools, which do not get them jobs. It’s a most unhappy situation.”

Mdm Yeong: “I thought that was the last question.”

Q: “This is the last part of the last question. So your career has been a struggle to keep things going in the right way and you’ve also said that the best way to keep your health is to keep on working. Are you tired of it by this point? Do you feel like you want to rest?”

Mr Lee: “No, I don’t. I know if I rest I’ll slide downhill fast. No, my whole being has been stimulated by the daily challenge. If I suddenly drop it all, play golf, stroll around, watch the sunset, read novels, that’s downhill. It is the daily challenge, social contacts, meeting people, people like you, you press me, I answer, when I don’t…. what have I got tomorrow?”

Mdm Yeong: “You have two more events coming up. One is the Radin Mas Community.”

Mr Lee: “Oh yeah. I got it.”

Mdm Yeong: “And then you have other call, courtesy call on the 3rd.”

Mr Lee: “We are social animals. Without that interaction with people, you are isolated. The worst punishment you can give a person is the isolation ward. You get hallucinations. Four walls, no books, no nothing. By way of example, Henry Kissinger wants to speak to me. So I said okay, we’ll speak on Sunday. What about? We are meeting in Sao Paolo at a J P Morgan International Advisory Board. He wants to talk to me to check certain facts on China. My mind is kept alive, I go to China once a year at least. I meet Chinese leaders. So it’s a constant stimulus as I keep up to date. Supposing I sit back, I don’t think about China, just watch videos. I am off to Moscow, Kiev and Paris on the 15th of September. Three days Moscow, three days Kiev, four days Paris. Moscow I am involved in the Skolkovo Business School which President Medvedev, when he wasn’t President started. I promised to go if he did not fix it in the winter. So they fix it for September. I look at the fires, I said wow this is no good.”

Q: “It’s not going to be freezing if there are fires.”

Mr Lee: “No but our embassy says the skies have cleared. Kiev because the President has invited me specially and will fly me from Moscow to Kiev and then fly me on to Paris. Paris I am on the TOTAL Advisory Board together with Joe Nye and a few others. They want a presentation on what are China’s strengths and weaknesses. That keeps me alive. It’s just not my impressionistic views of China but one that has to be backed by facts and figures. So my team works out the facts and figures, and I check to see if they tally with my impressions. But it’s a constant stimulus to keep alive, and up-to-date. If I stop it, it’s downhill.”

Q: “Well, I hope you continue. Thank you very much, I really enjoyed this interview.”

What is the purpose?

Have you ever read this article in BBC News...titled Reading Arabic "Hard for Brain"?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-11181457

And you know who made this research...Israelis scientists from University of Haifa!!

And why BBC put this article under health section?

And why you chose Arabic and announced to the whole world?

Why you chose such title? Cant you give a better and not so confusing title?

Is there any sinister objective behind the publication of this article?

Are you saying Hebrew, Russian, Mongolian, Chinese, etc are not hard for anyone's brain?

When I read this article for the first time, I said to myself...oh ok but after second reading, I said...wait a minute...
______________________________________

The article-

Israeli scientists believe they have identified why Arabic is particularly hard to learn to read.

The University of Haifa team say people use both sides of their brain when they begin reading a language - but when learning Arabic this is wasting effort.

The detail of Arabic characters means students should use only the left side of their brain because that side is better at distinguishing detail.

The findings from the study of 40 people are reported in Neuropsychology.

When someone learns to read Arabic they have to work out which letters are which, and which ones go with which sounds.

It is the ability to tell letters apart that seems to work differently in Arabic - because telling the characters apart involves looking at very small details such as the placement of dots.

Professor Zohar Eviatar, who led the research team, said: "The particular characteristics of Arabic make it hard for the right hemisphere to be involved. When you are starting something new, there is a lot of [right hemisphere] involvement."

Clearer differences
The researchers looked at 40 university students. Some of the students only spoke Hebrew, while some also spoke and read Arabic well.

In order to work out which side of the brain reads letters, the researchers flashed letters for a 10th of a second to one side of a screen or the other.

When the eyes see something for just a short time, and it is at one side of a screen, only one brain hemisphere is quick enough to process the image.

The team measured how fast and how accurate the students were when they tried to tell letters apart, first in Hebrew and then in Arabic.

All the students could read Hebrew well, and they all used both left and right hemispheres to tell Hebrew letters apart.

The same thing has previously been found with letters used in English.

Characters in English and Hebrew are easier to tell apart because there are clearer differences between them than there are in Arabic.

Sensitivity
When they looked at the students' reading of Arabic letters it gave the team a clue about why children find the language difficult to learn to read.

The Hebrew-only speakers behaved like children just starting to read most languages - they tried to tell Arabic letters apart, managed to do it slowly but made a lot of mistakes, and used both hemispheres of their brains.

The good Arabic readers, however, only used their left hemispheres to tell Arabic letters apart.

The researchers were intrigued by this and investigated further. They wanted to know why the right hemisphere was not working when reading Arabic letters, so they set a right hemisphere challenge.

They showed the students pairs of extremely similar Arabic letters - with just "local" differences - and letters that are more different - with "global" differences.

When the Arabic readers saw similar letters with their right hemispheres, they answered randomly - they could not tell them apart at all.

"The right hemisphere is more sensitive to the global aspects of what it's looking at, while the left hemisphere is more sensitive to the local features," says Professor Eviatar.

The team think this may give them some clues about what readers may be doing wrong when they begin to try to read Arabic.

Reading hope
Both young children and adults call on both hemispheres to help them learn a new task.

And using both hemispheres is the right thing to do when reading English or Hebrew - so children's learning strategies would be fine if they were reading another language.

But previous research has found that the right hemisphere is not that good at distinguishing small details, so readers starting to learn Arabic have to learn to focus on small details, which is not natural to them, but could help them shift to their left hemispheres.

Now the researchers want to compare new and highly expert Arabic readers in the hope of finding out what their brains are doing when they look at letters.

Ultimately, they would like to work out how to teach Arabic reading better to children, including helping them to tell letters apart and how to remember which sound goes with which letter.

Please share your thoughts on this article...

Finally...

...my team has closed our case (Prosecution stage)...Defence will start their case earliest in November.

And I just got back from Kigali (Rwanda). I was there to represent my team for the video-link testimony.

Last two weeks, I was in Kampala. I went there to interview Defence Alibi Witness.

It has been hectic since I got back in Arusha late July.

So forgive me for not posting anything for more than a month. I do miss my blog...

But time was not on my side.

Eid Fitr (Aidilfitri) is just around the corner. My family and I are planning to celebrate it in Nairobi this time. The reason - there will be Commonwealth Parliament Association meeting...and many Malaysians will be there to attend such meeting.

I have been to four East African countries - Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda. I must say Kampala is the best city (amongst the capital cities of East African countries) I have ever been.

And I have a tooth ache...I must stop here.

We are back in Arusha!!

After almost 15 hours of flight and 5 hours of drive, "home sweet home"!

Jetlag is still there...will take a couple of days to get over it.

The next thing - unpack! which we hate...

Then we have to make sure the utilities, chickens, cable tv, internet r ok...so far the internet, water, electricity and chickens r ok, and thank God our chickens have multiplied!! now the number is 19...soon it is going to be 29, God willing.

I am still at my house..Im supposed to go to the office an hour ago but since my body and mind are yet to synchronize to Arusha tunes...will let the office wait.

A couple of weeks from now will be Ramadhan! So selamat berpuasa semua!!

Snippets

1) Ownernya cuti-cuti Malaysia so blognya cuti la!

2) Sedapnya durian kucing tidur dan musang king!!

3) Wa sokong, besides Chelsea, Real Madrid sekarang...Mourinho factor!!

4) Sudah puas i makan petai dan tempoyak!!

5) Dalam masa 9 hari, kami akan balik ke Arusha!

Lesen Judi Vincent Tan

Sedar tak sekarang sejak mulanya World Cup 2010, banyak berita di newspaper, tv, etc bookie haram or tauke judi haram kena serbu dan tangkap dan ada yang tengah on the run?

So apa maksudnya disini?

Saya tak tahulah orang ramai paham ke sejarah lesen judi Vincent Tan ni...tapi apa yang saya baca dan faham adalah -

1) Lesen judi itu sudah diisukan pada tahun 80an kepada dia tapi dia pulangkan balik ke kerajaan dengan syarat dia boleh mintak balik lesen tu pada bila-bila masa...

2) Tak jelas pulak kenapa dia pulangkan. Mungkin masa lesen judi tu diisukan masa tu ekonomi teruk, ingat tak tahun 87 ke 88 masa ekonomi negara jatuh...so tak berbaloi dia jalankan judi masa tu...

3) Jadi, sekarang VT rasa masakini cocok bagi dia mintak balik lesen tu...mungkin dia rasa org Malaysia da ramai orang kaya serta canggih...

4) Sebab tu our PM Najib said 'the government did not issue any licence to VT or his company'...in other words, our government is just returning the VT's licence that was issued years ago!!

Correct me if Im wrong.

Thus, I feel that all these news about illegal bookies arrested had to be sensationalized in order to justify the move!

Ok ke ko?