From Wikipedia:

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) (Malay: Suruhanjaya Pencegahan Rasuah Malaysia, (SPRM)) (formerly Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) or Badan Pencegah Rasuah (BPR)) is a government agency in Malaysia that investigates and persecutes corruption in the public and private sectors. The MACC was modeled after top anti-corruption agencies, such as the Independent Commission on Anti-Corruption (ICAC) in Hong Kong and the Independent Commission Against Corruption in New South Wales, Australia.

Personally, I think it’s an insult to Hong Kong’s ICAC when it is said that MACC is modelled after it. I don’t think MACC is anywhere near the prestige and level of ICAC, especially with all the recent ‘publicity’ they are getting. One would think the MACC is on a suicide path.

MACC seems to be ineffective in trying to investigate & take action against BIG cases like the PKFZ and MAS scandal. I think most of the time, I only read about some success in arresting cops taking bribes (probably those rm100 bribes).

MACC is also going to be a laughing stock after the latest Teoh Beng Hock inquest… Quoting The Star Online:
There were tense moments between Thai forensic pathologist Dr Pornthip Rojanasunand and Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) counsel Datuk Abdul Razak Musa during cross-examination in the inquest into political aide Teoh Beng Hock’s death.

At one juncture, Dr Pornthip asked Abdul Razak if he was really a lawyer.

But when Abdul Razak asked Dr Pornthip if she had ever jumped out of a window, counsel representing the Selangor Government Malik Imtiaz Sarwar said: “With questions like these, we would all want to jump out.”

I’m quite sure Dr Pornthip is probably thinking that Malaysians are morons if this is what we have as lawyer representing the government agency modeled after ICAC.

I think we should just disband MACC…

For the past few weeks, I have been shopping around for a music player. I wanted something thin and wall-mountable. I also wanted something that could play back mp3 files from a USB device.

My list narrowed down to just Philips and Panasonic (anyone can suggest something else?). Since I know there’s a Panashop near my parent’s place, I decided to drop by the shop yesterday evening on my way home.

While in the shop, I asked for a few models. Unfortunately, Tong Kong SS3 only had one out of the three I am interested in The salesperson checked their system and told me that the Tong Kong in SS2 has got the other two models I asked about. He told me I could check that shop and even gave me the indicative price.

So this evening, I went over to Tong Kong SS2. I asked for the model. I asked the salesperson about the price and told him what I had been told earlier — the indicative price given by the salesperson in Tong Kong SS3. Salesperson in the shop said its not possible. He can’t sell it to me at this price. He told me I should go back to Tong Kong SS3 and ask them to order for me instead. I told the salesperson I might just do that…

Since Tong Kong SS2 has a display model, I told the salesperson I wanted to try it out first before I go back to Tong Kong SS3 and get them to order it for me. I wanted to be sure it has all the features I want — playback from USB.

And guess what? The salesperson just walked away.

I was not sure if the display set was hooked up or not. Back in Tong Kong SS3, they had to connect the power, etc before I could test out another unit I was looking at.

At first I thought the salesperson was going to the counter to get some cables or something… I waited. But I realised after a minute or so that he’s not ‘servicing’ me anymore. He was entertaining another customer. After that, he just waited at the counter.

WTF?!?

I decided I can DIY — flicked the switch and was lucky that the unit is hooked up. The set powered up. I hooked my USB harddisk to the unit and waited… Waited some more… Nothing. I guess it does not work.

After 5 minutes, I walked out of the shop. The guy didn’t even bother to look at me, etc… So much for “Customer is King”. With Panasonic (or at least this shop and this salesperson), it seems more like “Customer is 5hit”.

This reminds me of another incident I had with the Panasonic brand.

A few months ago, I got my company to buy a Panasonic microwave. It came with the steamer function. Unfortunately, someone in the office accidentally threw away a component that is used by the steamer — the ceramic cover. I called the shop we had purchased the microwave from and they said they will try to place a spare part order for us. After a few weeks, we got the bad news — the salesperson who covers the outlet we purchased the microwave from had resigned. They had no idea who from Panasonic will be covering them and advised me to directly contact Panasonic.

That’s when I thought of Tong Kong SS3. I asked my mum to drop by the shop (since she lived nearby) and find out how much the ceramic cover would cost. My mum called me back and told me that the guy in Tong Kong SS3 says there is no such thing. In fact, he asked my mum if I meant the ceramic tray — FYI, this new microwave does not have a ceramic tray that turns inside the microwave. It seems the new technology employed in this microwave does not require the food to be rotated.

Anyway, it took me a bit of explaining on the phone to the salesperson, including asking him to walk to his display set, open the cover, look inside, etc to finally get him to understand what I wanted. Even then, it was his colleague who actually understood what I was asking for.

Well, all I can say from my two experience (in less than 1 year) is… I’m staying away from Panasonic products. If trying to buy a Panasonic product is going to be such a painful experience, I wonder what after sales service is going to be like!

And you know what is ironic? The Panasonic booklet which I got from the shop had one page explaining why we should visit and buy from Panashop. It listed something like 8 or 9 points including (get this) — friendly service and sales people who know their product. What a laugh!

Dunno if the I should put ‘professional’ in inverted commas or ‘leaders’. But since I don’t view the person as a leader, I guess I’ll put the inverted commas on ‘leader’.

Screenshot from The Star Online

When friends ask me for advise, I always tell them to be ‘smart’ about what you post on the internet — be it a reply in forums, FB posts or even tweets on Twitter. What more if you are a public figure. We should always be mindful of what we speak or write.

As a leader, is it necessary to keep everyone in ‘suspense’ over the stupid OMG remark? Do you need to tweet about the movie you are watching halfway? Would a responsible person tweet something that leaves it open to interpretation?

What if we see someone tweet “Running away from the psycho stalker”? Naturally we’d think the person is in such a situation and needs assistance. Then one week later, the person says… “Oh, its just a movie I was watching.”

You’d be wondering if it’s April Fool’s day or the person is just trying to be a clown, right?

No doubt every individual is unique. No two person in the world is the same. And so, we have different attitudes, different characteristics, different beliefs, different ideologies, different looks, etc…

In a planet filled with diversity, we need to respect each other. Not run them down or chase them out.

We also need to understand some are born less smart than others… Hence the “empty vessels” and their remarks appearing in papers, blogs, etc… In such cases, its always better to just ignore such remarks. After all, when a madman on the street starts talking nonsense or when a mad dog at the road side starts barking, we just cautiously walk away, right?

Indah Water Konsortium Sdn Bhd, a national sewerage company, wholly-owned by the Minister of Finance Incorporated, is responsible for providing sewerage services, operating and maintaining over 5,750 public sewage treatment plants and 13,000km networks of sewerage pipelines since April 1994.

We got our first Indah Water bill about two weeks back and it came as a surprise to me. I know that quite sometime back, there were people making a fuss about the charges but I never paid any attention to it. After all, that was many years back and I wasn’t the one paying the bills.

Indah Water has been advertising in the papers, explaining and rationalising the charges. You would have probably seen it in the papers and even on their website.

I find this advertisement to be a bit ‘misleading’, especially for the pipe water portion, which is, in a way, related to Indah Water. I mean, waste water and sewarage — They come from either piped water to the house or the piped water is required to flush our toilets.

Now the thing is… I don’t pay anything for my water. The first 20m3 usage per month, which is equivalent to rm11.40 since piped water is charged at rm0.57/m3, is subsidised by the state government (Thank you, PR!). We don’t abuse this free water subsidy. We only use what we need and usually, its only about 10m3 per month.

Back to Indah Water… I am being slapped with a charge of rm8 per month (that is about rm0.80 to treat every 1m3 of water I use in my house)! I think rm8 per month is a lot of money to charge per household!

And how did Indah Water come up with the rm40 average use? That is almost 70m3 of water and I think that’s a lot since my 10m3 usage includes daily use of the washing machine (a lot to wash when you have a baby at home), water filter backwash, cooking, cleaning, bathing, etc for a family of 3.

If we look at 80m3 usage per month (for ease of calculation but roughly based on Indah Water’s advertised average use of rm40 — which I feel, is very misleading), then the rm8 charge by Indah Water seems reasonable — it’s about 0.10 to treat every 1m3 of water used in the house. But if you don’t use that much of water… Then I think the rm8 charge is ridiculous!

Personally, I think Indah Water should have its billing merged or tied to our water bill instead. Charge for what we use (or how much water Indah Water needs to treat). Imagine a household using only 1m3 and having to pay rm8 monthly for the supposed ‘water treatment service’. Yeah, I know some will say there’s the cost of building up the treatment plant, etc… But common, that should already be included in the monthly charge when they did their calculations, etc… Right?

*sigh*

I was at Giant Kelana Jaya today to do some shopping and I noticed this…

rm9.39 for 12 packets of Maggi noodles

A few steps away, I see…

rm8.39 for also 12 packets of Maggi noodles

Logically speaking, it is the same ‘end product’ for the customers — 12 packets of Maggi noodles. But I guess for the manufacturer (and Giant), they are not the same. It is all about the SKU.

The rm9.39 pack is labelled as 12-packs whereas the rm8.39 is actually packed as 10+2. It’s a bit stupid, right?

But if you look at it from Giant’s point of view… Anyone who does not realise it would may end up with the higher priced item. Even if you noticed it like me, you may still end up taking the wrong item… Like what I did this afternoon. Somehow, there were a few rm9.39 packs on the rack that was meant for the rm8.39. I took one of them and only after paying did I realise I took the wrong one. And it took me 20 minutes to get a refund and buy the rm8.39 pack… *sigh*

It was made worse by the fact that the customer service lady was utterly rude and not helpful. I highlighted the confusing prices to her (there were two different pricing for what seems to be the same thing) and she just pretended not to hear me.

I was told a fresh IT grad in Singapore can earn about SGD1800 – SGD2000 per month. A fresh grad in Malaysia earns about the same figure, rm1800 – rm2000 per month.

Economy rice is Singapore can be as cheap as SGD2.50 for a plate of rice and three types of vegetable dishes.. It costs me rm3.50 in KL. Vegetarian fried rice in Singapore costs SGD3.00. It costs at least rm3.50 in Malaysia.

Is it any wonder why Malaysians are flocking over to Singapore?

I like to be involved in community projects. And recently, I took up the challenge of organising a ‘gotong-royong’ for my place community, Setia Alam. I even have a ‘theme’ for it — Health. Part of the plan was to distribute health flyers to the residents. Dengue has always been a concern, so I thought I’d distribute dengue awareness brochures. And since A(H1N1) is the ‘IN’ thing, I thought it would be good if we could also include A(H1N1) flyers.

I was sure the Ministry of Health (MOH) would have printed lots of flyers, posters, banners, etc… I was quite sure MOH would be happy that we would help them distribute the flyers to the community. So, I made a few calls…

Boy, was I very disappointed. MOH said they can’t give me the 20 000 brochures I requested (10k for each). They can only give me a few hundred and I’ll have to photocopy or print the rest… Aw, common… How come businesses are willing to spend some money to print advertising pamphlets for everyone in Setia Alam but the MOH is unable to do so? How much would 20k brochures cost anyway? I know loan sharks can afford that. Hypermarkets can afford to print booklets! So why can’t the government?

I find this to be really disappointing. It seems like a really half-hearted effort by MOH. On one hand they want to raise awareness, on the other hand, they are not willing to spend money. And it would seem our goverment prefers to spend money on other needless things like…

How to annoy your customer…
A: Answer the phone with an indifferent tone to send the message that you don’t care why the customer called…

How to annoy your ex-customer…
A: Call your ex-customer and ask them how you can win them back. Promise to send them a hardcopy of your offer and then break the promise…

I recently called Hatch Home Concept to find out how I can go about making the payment for my sofa as well as the expected delivery time. The person who answered my call first asked for my name in a very, very indifferent tone. He then put me on hold and then got back to me 15 seconds later asking me to call back in 10 minutes time because the salesperson I wanted to talk to was on the phone. Hmmm… When I called back 10 minutes later, I got the speak to my salesperson. Even she spoke to me in that indifferent tone. Honestly, if it wasn’t the fact that they had good reasons for me to pick their sofa over Recliners and Sofas, I would not have been their customer… If salesperson can behave like that, I wonder what can I expect from after-sales person…

Maxis called me on Tuesday. They asked me if there is anything they could do to make me revert back to Maxis. They said there will be ZERO moving cost. Everything is FREE. They even suggested a phone plan for me as well a free phone offer. I asked them to email or fax over the details to me so I could do a comparison. Maxis said they would email and fax me the next day… Wednesday came and left. Same for Thursday. It’s now Friday… Maybe they got the wrong Adrian Tai?

Anyway, nowadays when a Telco tells me its ZERO moving cost and everything is FREE, I get skeptical. I’m quite sure Digi told me the same thing and I found out later that I was charged rm10 for stamp duty. Two lines means rm20. I’ve yet to actually make an official complaint — will probably do so sometime next week. Must work up my ‘machine-gun’ mood first…

What is it with Malaysian drivers? They like to hog the fast lane even when they’re driving 50km/h on a 110km/h highway. They don’t care about the traffic they are building up behind them… They don’t care if the left lanes (slow lanes) are empty. Is it an EGO thing? All I know is… Road hogs are such a pain and nuisance!