… continued discussion…
ayheng:
I agree that we, as Malaysians, sometimes don’t take responsibility for their actions and don’t make decisions responsibly based on hard solid facts. Worse, we have that ‘tidak apa’ and ‘mudah lupa’ attitude.
For me, who have not voted yet, I am part of the PROBLEM of how the state of the country is in right now.
However, in reference to the highway issue, I will say that the opposition parties have made known their facts and the highway concesssionaire, Gamuda, have also came out on paper to make known their side of the story. I’m sure the audited accounts of Litrak will prove the concessionaire’s side of the story that they are not earning mountains of money off the hard work of the common people.
I feel that the issue at hand here is whether “The toll hike is burdening the common people unreasonably and hence a need for the government to use the public’s tax money to pay it off?”.
LoStBoYz:
I’m surprise you guys can take this sittting down, and give excuses like “this is a problem with developing countries” or “We vote with our dollars. We either take the highway, or we don’t”.
This has NOTHING to do with developing country, it has everything to do with GREED and SELFISHNESS. Even matured country like USA has financial scandals that become part of the text books as case studies (Enron?? Remember?).
I agree that “it has everything to do with GREED and SELFISHNESS”. Corruption is GREED and SELFISHNESS. We see politicians everywhere driving big cars and live in big houses. Inflation is GREED and SELFISHNESS. We see traders raising prices of RM1.00 PER BOWL of mee when it’s only an extra RM0.10 PER BOWL of mee for petrol price increase. Why? They want to drive big cars and live in big houses as well.
However, I want to change all that starting with myself. I feel that it’s one thing to be ‘tidak apa’ with the increase and another thing to understand the rationale behind the increase and to accept the decision responsibly as part of the community. I hope that I am part of the group that understands and accepts.
LoStBoYz:
“We vote with our dollars.” Sound goods isn’t it? So, you’re suggesting we don’t take the highway, take the trunk road to escape the toll? That sound more like a workaround than and actual solution to the problem. As I said in my earlier posts, I don’t mind paying for the service, but I mind paying more for the same service. Did you read the link I posted, do you know WHY you’re paying more for the tolls? So by voting with your dollar, you can change all that? This is 30 years of toll hike that we’re talking about. There is no escape clause for the government.
I don’t suggest we take the trunk roads as we can afford the toll comfortably. The only thing we are concerned about is how we got less money to spend on luxury items. I am concerned that I have to spend more money on tolls as well. Like I mentioned earlier, I am all about greed and selfishness as well.
However, in reading the article and the concessionaire’s point of view in the papers, I believe the concessioanire’s presented facts that we are paying more for the toll in order for the concessionaire to finance the long term loans taken, rather than milking money out of the public for all its worth. Again, our guide will be the concessionaire’s accounts and what our friends in the anti toll hike coalition finds there. I feel that the concessionaire is ‘innocent until proven guilty’.
Again, conspiracy theory does not interest me. Show me cold hard facts, Gamuda made coverup, or Gamuda shareholders making 100% returns on earnings?
LoStBoYz:
With the increase in petrol and tolls, all other stuff will slowly go up eventually, is your personal finances on par with the inflation rate? Is your projected saving seeing a dip? Kiyosaki books will tell you a lot on this.
Don’t remind me of my savings, you’ll trigger the Greed and Selfishness in me.
LoStBoYz:
“confidence in our system of governmance”, ugh. Malaysian cepat lupa, this is fact. Remember 9th Malaysia Plan? The multi-billion $$ package that is suppose to be execute last year? Where is it? Some goverment sector is still waiting for their 8th MP package.
I rather wait for the correct implementation rather than a botched attempt and hurried decisions which probably led to the poorly screened highway concession document that the government signed. (the government’s hands are not tied anyway… they can still negotiate, how else will Gamuda/Litrak get future projects with the government? but that’s another issue)
Carefully and accountably is the correct way to do things. Did I mention building a library extension takes 3 years in Australia where it only takes 6 months in Malaysia? Drawing from my experience in the Malaysian building industry, I can surmise that 90% of contracts are NOT READ at all due to the short time between planning and implementation. That, and shortage of manpower to do the job properly due to our culture of doing things as cheaply and quickly as possible. But don’t take my word for it. Check it out yourself.
Give Abdullah some time. His policies now are to buildup the ‘non-polluting’ industries like tourism and the tech industry by upgrading our schools. I like that he upgrades our police and justice system by luring better quality candidates (can you imagine our police system can only lure thugs and corrupted people due to its low pay of RM1,000? Unprofessional!). As much as I would like our dear PM to inject money into the economy and build us some mega projects, I rather he tackle the fundamentals which are plaguing our community.
LoStBoYz:
I do agree with ONE thing, the choice is ours. Vote with our heart and mind come election day (being political here, sorry) don’t bring $$$ into the picture.
I’ll still give Abdullah a vote until proven otherwise.
LoStBoYz:
Another interesting site for you to look into “the other side of the coin”, an alternative news apart from the newspaper you’re been reading.
www.malaysia-today.net
Hard to give the site any sort of credibility when the editor himself admit in The Star newspaper that a lot of things in his website are sensational, controversial news which appeals to the masses despite being hearsay and have no backing facts whatsoever. Not to say everything is false, but the inability to differentiate truths and lies makes the whole thing hard to swallow anyway.
We all like to say certain factions in Umno Youth makes Chinese the scapegoat for everything. Is there any truth in that? This website makes the government the scapegoat for everything as well. Is there any truth in that?
At the end of the day, these discussions and so called ‘alternative’ news serves to raise my/our awareness of the Malaysian political situation. How we act on it depends on us. I will try to vote next time and continue to take my stand against corruption. I am proud to say that I did not bribe in the driving exam despite having to take it twice. It might be a difficult way, but I will do my part in my way.
So, is the toll hike burdening the people? Some study might be in order, but I am not one of the people burdened.
… discussion continued…
jack208:
Well said. Most ppl actually forgot the “cost” of such transparency. And the convenience too. I bet most ppl “bribed” their way out of court coz more convenient, saves time, dun have to take leave to attend to the matter…. etc so they feed the hands that bite them.
Similarly in such developed countries, you are also EXPECTED to pay for all the software, games, songs and movies that you play/watch. No more cheapo CDs or disc at rm5 or rm8. You pay all original prices.
btw in Russia, it’s common practice “corruption” is actually parked as a tax-deductible business expenses.
Lostboyz:I’m surprise you guys can take this sittting down, and give excuses like “this is a problem with developing countries” or “We vote with our dollars. We either take the highway, or we don’t”.
This has NOTHING to do with developing country, it has everything to do with GREED and SELFISHNESS. Even matured country like USA has financial scandals that become part of the text books as case studies (Enron?? Remember?).
“We vote with our dollars.” Sound goods isn’t it? So, you’re suggesting we don’t take the highway, take the trunk road to escape the toll? That sound more like a workaround than and actual solution to the problem. As I said in my earlier posts, I don’t mind paying for the service, but I mind paying more for the same service. Did you read the link I posted, do you know WHY you’re paying more for the tolls? So by voting with your dollar, you can change all that? This is 30 years of toll hike that we’re talking about. There is no escape clause for the government.
With the increase in petrol and tolls, all other stuff will slowly go up eventually, is your personal finances on par with the inflation rate? Is your projected saving seeing a dip? Kiyosaki books will tell you a lot on this.
“confidence in our system of governmance”, ugh. Malaysian cepat lupa, this is fact. Remember 9th Malaysia Plan? The multi-billion $$ package that is suppose to be execute last year? Where is it? Some goverment sector is still waiting for their 8th MP package.
I do agree with ONE thing, the choice is ours. Vote with our heart and mind come election day (being political here, sorry) don’t bring $$$ into the picture.
Another interesting site for you to look into “the other side of the coin”, an alternative news apart from the newspaper you’re been reading.
www.malaysia-today.net
… discussion continuing…
Normally, only gaming stuff goes here. But this was discussed in my boardgaming forum and this is the first time I thought long and hard about what I’m posting, so I would like to share:
jack208: tis topic started by a very frustrated Padawan from Klang. So is the toll hike affecting your gaming activities? I shud prob add is the petrol price increase affecting your gaming too!
Lostboyz: You guys are lucky I guess. I unfortunately stay in Klang and work in Sri Petaling, so Kesas is the only way there.
Used to be RM1.50 x 3 x 22 x 2 = RM198/Month
Now its RM2.2 x 3 x 22 x 2 = RM290/Month!!! A RM100/Month hike in Toll expenses. Does it affects my gaming? In a way I guess, now I potentially lose RM1200/year of budget in buying boardgames.
If the service level of Kesas increased in lieu of the hike, I might not complain so much, eg. paying so much more = travelling time reduced, why not? But unfortunately I still see the same jam EVERY other day.
Imagine, if a boardgame cost RM200 on the average, some boardgame seller just lost potential 6 boardgames sale due to the toll hike.
Some people might say, who cares, I’m don’t travel on Kesas, I’m not affected. Then I’d suggest you read this and weep :
http://www.jeffooi.com/2007/01/for_whom_the_tolls_toll_2.php#comments
I’m not being political mind you, just being an average joe working on an average job day dreaming about whether will he get an increment of RM1200 to cover such crazy expenses…… Imagine.
ayheng: This is the problem with developing countries… blatant corruption. I’m sure a lot of the highway cost is bloated due to the need to pay off certain factors. Even China with all its chinese people suffer from it.. and is even accepted practice there! It’s not fair to blame the public highway companies as the only people who benefits are the public who buys shares in that company. The board still have a corporate responsibility to their shareholders.
What we can do now is to educate our children and support anti-corruption in small ways, like PAYING your speeding fines instead of bribing your way out of it, so that our future will be less corrupted.
Remember, when you’re in a developed country with no corruption, you are expected to behave this way as well. The government will be more transparent and fair, you will PAY 50% of your salary to TAX, and you will unfortunately still pay the same price for your TOLL fees due to risk factor in UNION safety laws and minimum wage laws and road safety laws. Part of our tax will go to support all the lazy bums who are ‘between jobs’ because it is not humane to let them starve. Transparency and safety regulations and environment laws and workers’ rights to ‘fair’ working hours will STILL make your daily goods prices go up.
However, the consolation we will have is that our currency will appreciate to be on par with US due to confidence in our system of governmance and we will get cheap boardgames for once.
Anyway, is our choice. We vote with our dollars. We either take the highway, or we don’t.
Another year another gaming. This year, for the first 2007 gaming event, Boardgamecafe have an outing at a nearby newly opened Cafe called Old Town Kopitiam! What better way to kick off the year’s activities by yumcha-ing while gaming.
(Ipoh White Coffee!)
At 8.00pm the gamers start to assemble themselves at the cafe. Most of them start themselves on dinner while waiting for late comers.
(Heng eating)
(Alan - left and Marcus - right, eating)
After a lite dinner, the gamers continue to the next item on the menu: El Grande!
This medium weight Euro-strategy game is currently one of the top ten game on boardgamegeek.com. It has an impressive background, coming from renown designer Wolfgang Kramer, who along with Richard Ulrich created this game which won the German 1996 boardgaming awards: Spiel Des Jahres and Deutscher Spiele Preis.
The game itself is an interesting Area-majority game. Players win points by having the most caballeros (knights) in the various regions of Spain circa medieval times. The main draw of the game comes from two interlocking mechanics:
(turn order bidding cards)
1. Players each have a limited set of 13 cards numbered 1 to 13 from which they use to bid each turn. The card determines turn order as well as the no. of caballeros they can bring from the reserve to the frontline that particular turn. Here, players have to balance between being first in turn and bringing enough caballeros out in readiness to control the regions. Being first in turn is important because:
(action cards)
2. Players, according to turn order, gets to pick from a set of 5 action cards. These action cards determine the no. of caballeros a player can send from their frontline onto the regions on the board. These action cards also have different special abilities, ranging from messing with your opponents’ pieces to scoring additional points. Here, players have to balance between choosing a powerful ability and sending enough caballeros out to control the regions.
The interplay between these two mechanics provide lots of choices and agonising decisions for the players each turn. The game plays out in nine turns, during which there is a scoring round after the 3rd, 6th and final turn. And here’s where the fun part begins. In addition to the regions of Spain, the players can opt to influence the King, by tossing their caballeros into this massive tower on one side of the board.
(ze castille to drop caballeros into)
In addition to scoring valuable points, these caballeros are then sent out by their players onto one of the regions on the board! There’ll be plenty of screwage happening as players secretly send their caballeros to usurp regions which their opponents thought was safe! Evil, evil moves galore…
<secret region selection wheel>
In this game, almost all are newbies as Jeff Au sat out. The players are Lai Wah, Marcus, Henry, Alan and myself (Heng). Marcus focused on bringing out lots of caballeros by using the lower turn order cards. However his strategy did him no avail as he can’t get enough caballeros out to gain majority control of the most regions on the board. Henry fared no better as he seemed to run into opposition everywhere he send his caballeros. Alan did a slow buildup and despite making a few mistakes, still managed a respectable second towards the end. Heng pulled out to an early lead only to suffer consecutive attacks which dropped him to 3rd place. Lai Wah, snagging the points heavy Castille region early, pulled away from the pack as she picked scoring cards one after the other to rack up huge points. Good choice of strategy for Lai Wah as she thumps the guys with an unassailable lead despite a late attempt to sabotage her regions.
(intense concentration!)
<no one bothers Marcus (yellow), it’s good to go for the low scoring regions sometimes!>
<aha! i have more caballeros in the castille than you, senor!>
By the time we finished El Grande, Old Town Kopitiam is packed to the brim! Sure is a hip and happening place!
<old town photo>
Some curious customers also came over and see what the bunch of people poring over boards and wooden bits is doing… By this time, Wai Yan has joined us and marcus brought out his game of Saboteur for a seven player extravaganza.
This is an interesting role game a-la Bang!. Players are secretly assigned the role of Dwarf miners or saboteurs and given a handful of cards. The interesting part of the game is that players play cards onto the table to build a mining shaft towards the gold card. Miners will try to reach the gold while the saboteurs have to ensure that the miners do not get there. The winning team gets a certain amount of gold and then the roles are assigned randomly again. The game is played to three rounds and it’s quick and easy. Players, depending on their cards, can help build shaft, sabotage another player’s equipment, destroy tunnet shafts, etc. A quick and dirty game!
<fun fun sabotage game! (from left - Lai Wah, Marcus, Henry, Alan, Heng)>
After that, we went back to Bang! for a quick fun game of sheriff and 2 deputies versus 3 outlaws and one renegade. The outlaws in this game tried very hard to disguise themselves as one of the deputies… so much so that they gunned each other down! Another easy job for the sheriff as Wai Yan mops up the last outlaw and renegade with lots of cards and ammos to spare (she even can afford to jail her own deputy twice!) Advice for the outlaws: next time, just gun hard and fast for the sheriff, take one for the team!
<bang! bang! a 7 player favourite!>
At 12pm midnite, the girls bid the guys goodnite as the guys continue gaming back in Boardgamecafe with Marcus’ favourite - 18GA. After a quick refresher for Alan and an explanation of the rules for Henry, the gamers are good to go. The private companies are bidded up separately by different players and Marcus triggered the purchase by going for the cheapest company. His strategy seems to be going for the public companies. The stock round sees four different companies startup by four different players while Heng opt to sit out and become an investor instead.
Marcus’ ACL and Jeff’s W&A got off to a flying start with a little boost from Heng’s investments. Alan’s Central and Henry’s Georgia however did not acquire enough market capitalisation to startup. With W&A in the North and ACL in the south, both companies operated freely and the earnings start to come in. However, both CEO Jeff and Marcus were quite prudent with their earnings, resulting in non declaration of dividends a few times in a row. Investor Heng got frustrated and started investing in Central.
Pretty Soon, Alan’s Central was up and running, playing with the big boys W&A and ACL. Investors this time were kept happy and CEO Alan declared dividends one after another. Henry’s Georgia was another story as investors declined to invest due to its dimming prospects from the gradual hemming in by ACL and W&A.
As the railroads expand, so did the towns and suddenly, Georgia was back in the game. Georgia was allowed to run unchecked through the upgraded towns as ACL and W&A assessed each other as the greatest threat and started sabotaging each other. Central started facing problems from its dividend declaring ways when it found that it hit an expansion block and needed to save money to upgrade its trains. Sensing the end is near, investors unanimously dumped its stocks in favour of stocks managed by more prudent CEOs.
ACL and W&A continued to expand their horizons as their CEOs took the plunge and invest in another company each. Jeff started GA while Marcus brought up SAL. Both companies, however, were to experience different fortunes as it becomes clear that SAL was a fake front for CEO Marcus to make money! SAL sold all its assets to its sister company ACL and the company became a dead company. Marcus tried to offload his president’s share certificate as part of his operation:hotsun campaign to bankrupt his rival CEOs. Unfortunately, the securities commission got wind of his dirty tactics and slapped him with a share selling restriction, much to the relief of Henry. Muttering about pansy securities commission, Marcus lost wind as he thought that his career was over.
Jeff’s GA was managed more prudently and he managed to work it up to a respectable position, much to the delight of its investors. By this time however, Henry’s Georgia was making loads of money, drawing attention from investor Heng, who snapped up half of the shares. Central stocks was plunging to a new low as CEO Alan again declared no dividends in a desperate attempt to keep up with the train upgrades. ACL, W&A and GA now focused on the new Georgia threat and attempted to shut out Georgia’s lucrative routes.
By now, the game was reaching a climax and one CEO after another started declaring dividends to buff up their own personal fortunes. CEO Henry has the last laugh as his company pushed him to the top as the richest person in 18GA, followed by Jeff with his twin investment machines W&A and GA. Heng narrowly missed second and had to settle for third with his investment strategies. Marcus got burned by his own hot sun, but still finished a respectable fourth. Alan did not recover from his early frivolous spending ways and finished last.
Overall, this was an interesting game in which the ‘vets’ (Henry) crushed the ‘noobs’ (Jeff and Marcus). However, it was a close race to the finish as the ‘noobs’ were close in overtaking the ‘vets’ as the money in the bank ran out, signalling the game end.
One thing which I learned in the game was to pick the proper investment but don’t let go until the company was sure to go bust. The last part of the game came down to a frenzied dividend declaring session where the stock prices experienced a long and continuous bull run, which unfortunately I was unable to take part fully due to some ill-advised disposal of ‘apparently’ non-performing stocks.
Marcus still lamented about his attempt to bankrupt another player foiled by the rulebook while winner Henry was still bewildered about how he won as he was still reeling from the myriad of options offered in the game.
<18GA madness with stocks dumping and route blockings!>
After the game, Jeff took out his copy of 7ages and Antiquity to wow us, which they do since both the games are stuffed chock full of bits… real gamers’ galore. And after a bit of chit-chatting, the gamers then headed home… at 4.30am in the morning. Phew, a real eventful nite for all! Next stop, Antiquity!
Ok, being the lazy bugger that I am, I’m going to just cut and paste the link to Alvin’s report: http://niched.blogspot.com/2007/01/camland-new-year.html
Pretty much summarise the whole trip. I would just like to add that the Bang! game and That’s Life! game was the star of the trip, getting repeat plays through out the trip. Sounds of “I’m your vice! I’m your vice!” as well as “That’s Life! That’s Life!” still sounding through my ears….
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