RM1 Coin confusing

When BNM came out with this statement that the RM1 coin will cease to be legal tender effective from 7 December 2005, it has created lots of confusion to the public.

Bank Negara Malaysia announces today that effective 7 December 2005, the RM1 coin will cease to be legal tender and will be withdrawn from circulation.

The RM1 banknote will continue to be legal tender and will remain in circulation.

Members of the public will be given a three-month period from 7 September to 6 December 2005 to exchange the RM1 coins at face value without any charges at all branches of commercial banks, the main branches of Bank Simpanan Nasional and Bank Negara Malaysia's branches at Kuala Lumpur, Pulau Pinang, Johor Bahru, Kuala Terengganu, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu.

As expected, the traders and these people will be most affected by the decision.

Company badly hit by withdrawal of RM1 coin

Our company supplies and operates coin-operated self-service vending machines throughout the country. These machines use the RM1 coin. So you can imagine how shocked and upset we were on hearing the news of the withdrawal of the coin.

Bank Negara’s decision will badly affect operators of vending machines like us.

We cannot believe that when other countries have recently released new coins, we choose to remove our most widely used RM1 coin.

The withdrawal of the coin is going to cost my company and its customers more than RM200,000 to source and fit new coin acceptors to our machines.

Who is going to compensate us? Will a new coin be released soon?

Imagine that you can no longer use RM1 coin to get your trolleys at Giant or Carrefour, or you can not use the RM1 coin at some amusement parks. I know for sure that my kids may not able to ride the merry go round horses at level 5 of SOGO after the deadline unless they manage to re-configure the machines.

Question is, why is all the sudden?. One of this day I'm gonna catch up with Mr. Londe who's working with BNM to get the real story behind all this mess.

The worst part was that the BNM's press statement came only after one particular Chinese daily had broken the news.

The Old Man

When the Old Man cried baby for his rights to speak on human rights at a human rights conference organised by SUHAKAM, P Ramakrishnan came in solid with this piece.

Remember how you trampled on Human Rights, Dr M?

Dr Mahathir Mohamad's response to the protest by some 30 NGOs that he should not have been invited by Suhakam to speak on human rights is pathetic. He reportedly asked, “Are they denying me my human rights?”

In insisting on his human rights, he has forgotten the human rights that he and his government had denied to thousands of citizens. What about their rights, Mahathir? Did you ever pause to ponder about the rights of those who were locked up based on unsubstantiated and dubious claims? Did it bother you that they lost many, many years of their freedom while you were in charge of this country? Did it ever disturb you that many wasted their best years of their lives locked up in your jails without any recourse to justice?

Do you remember that on Oct 27, 1987 during Operation Lallang, more than a hundred citizens were arrested and detained under the obnoxious ISA while you were the prime minister, home minister and justice minister? They were denied the right to a fair trial and subjected to a grave injustice: many of them were harshly interrogated, cruelly locked away in solitary confinement, and mercilessly tortured. What justice did you extend to them?

You denied our right to information by legislating an undemocratic law that kept under wraps many of the abuses of your administration. This Act protected those who should have been prosecuted. Do you remember Mohd Ezam Mohd Nor's case? He was found guilty of possession of a document that was classified under the Official Secrets Act and was convicted and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment.

But you must know, as we do, that Ezam's conviction only confirmed that there was a document from the public prosecutor recommending the prosecution of certain top Umno people who were holding important government posts. Didn't this sordid episode deny Ezam's right to expose corruption in high places?

And what about Anwar Ibrahim? Were his human rights any concern of yours? He was handcuffed, blindfolded and beaten up in a cowardly manner by your top police officer. He was then found guilty of what were widely believed to be trumped-up charges and languished in jail for six years. Were you concerned about Anwar's human rights? Instead, you came up with that flippant and silly remark that Anwar's injuries could have been self-inflicted.

When your position as Umno president was in danger, the bonus system was introduced in the Umno elections to provide 10 bonus votes for every nomination received. As the incumbent you had the advantages that came with your position which put any likely challenger under a great disadvantage. Were you bothered about the human rights of your prospective challengers?

And during the general elections, what human rights did you extend to the opposition? Did they get equal airtime? Were they given enough time to campaign and put forth their programme to the electorate?

Did you extend the same development funds to opposition MPs that you gave to Barisan MPs? What about the human rights of those people who elected opposition MPs? Did you give a thought to them? Instead, you punished the people who elected the opposition MPs and denied them their right to development funds. The money you denied these people did not come from Barisan Nasional coffers - but that didn’t bother you one bit.

How did you treat the democratically elected PBS government? Were the human rights that you now claim for yourself ever extended to the people of Sabah? And how did you treat the people of Terengganu who threw out the Barisan Nasional government in 2000? After the Barisan’s defeat, you stopped the petroleum royalties that the state government had been enjoying for so many years. What about the human rights of the people of Terengganu and Sabah and their right to development? Did it ever prick your conscience?

What about the human rights of the natives of Sarawak? Didn't your government ride rough-shod over their rights when the Bakun Dam project bulldozed over their human rights? How many were displaced and did they receive adequate compensation for their forceful displacement? Didn’t they lose their right to their native customary land and their traditional way of life?

It was the writer, Mary McCarthy, who said it all: “An unrectified case of injustice has a terrible way of lingering, restlessly, in the social atmosphere.”

In your case, there were countless abuses and numerous human rights violations
during your long tenure of office. These cannot be so easily forgotten and glossed over. That is why we feel that your presence at the Suhakam Human Rights Day conference tomorrow is most inappropriate.


The writer is president of Aliran.

Enough said. Serves you right Old Man.

Langit ke Tujuh

I like this song.

It has been getting heavy airplay lately.

Langit ke Tujuh

Dulu kau pernah berkata
Andai kata kita bercinta
Akan kau bina mahligai
Yang terapung di langit ke tujuh
Sememangnya seakan khayalan belaka
Aku tak percaya.....

c/o
Kata-katamu hanya mimpi di siang hari
Kemarau panjang
Berpanas jua
Berteduh tidak

Hati kecil tak memahami
Mahligai itu ada di syurga
Terangilah mata hati
Agar dapat ku mengerti....

The song was composed by Azmeer and sung by Sharifah Zarina.

May be because of the feel that the singer put in the song.

Mmm......the melody has been ringing in my head since morning. So infectious.

Warning: Don't google search on the title. You may get into langit ke tujuh Ayah Pin. :)

Oh God please help

Oh God.................please help me.

So "£%^&&@ lazy today. Monday blues? Whatever.

Only managed to finish up and sent the first draft of the Info Memo to my client this morning. They were expecting it since last Thursday.

Let see, what else do I need to clear on my table:

(1) Opinion on conflict of interest on ABS issue. The merchant banker has been calling me since last Friday;

(2) Review comments and revise the documents for another PDS issue. I know the client will be calling soon;

(3) Application to Bursa for an off market transaction. Shuck! Why they didn't do it last time together with the earlier block of shares?

(4) An investment agreement for a client who wants to invest in a money changer business (not money laudering okay!). What they call it in malay? Pengurup Wang?. Where do they find that word in the first place.

Aarggggh. Tensionnya.

And my Maxis Data Card is not working. Cannot get connected. S****d. Always not functioning when I really needed it. Have to go to the Maxis centre again. It will be my third time!.