Tonight, One Buck Short, will be on Channel V, AMP. Its a 30 minute show, on the 24th of June 2008, at 8pm. ASTRO carries Channel V (and if you’re not in Malaysia, its on various networks). Watch them!
I’m excited about One Buck Short. Its a band I tend to track, and photograph when the opportunity arises. I have sets, from 2005 when there were at Celcom/8TV Homegrown, and in 2007 when they were at JamAsia’s re-opening. I have photos from their launch that still require processing, so expect them to arrive online soon enough.
Malaysia recently had a 40% increase in fuel prices, where the old rate was RM1.92, and the new rate is RM2.70 (there is still a 30 sen subsidy).
Now, lets investigate the cost of living, and discuss earning power (therefore, spending power).
Australia has the concept of a Federal Minimum Wage (FMW), which currently stands at AUD$13.74 per hour. If you work a 40-hour work week, for 4 weeks (notice that this then gives you a 13 month pay cheque), that’s about AUD$2,200/month, and a yearly income of about AUD$28,579.20. Yes, even for flipping burgers at McDonalds, you get at least 2.2k/month!
Malaysia has no concept of minimum wages. With foreign labour available relatively cheaply, fresh graduates tend to earn RM1,800/month. Flipping burgers at Burger King? I hear (OK, I lie; I’ve seen this advertised outside a BK store) the salary rate is about RM560/month (that’s a measly RM3.50/hour).
OK, so the tax laws are different. Australia exempts you on your first $6,000/year. Malaysia has over 10 million workers, and only about 1.2 million pay taxes (you are tax exempt if your monthly salary is less than RM3,000). In fact, those in the highest 28% bracket currently stand at a paltry 38,500 people.
But the cost of living, is also different. A book, that costs USD$20, will cost about AUD$25-30 in Borders; the same book will cost RM85 in Malaysia! Its no wonder, Malaysians are said to not read very much.
So, books aren’t necessities. Lets look at milk. 1L in Australia would set you back AUD$2.03 (this being Pura Milk, which I’m fond of drinking). 1L in Malaysia (Dutch Lady) would set you back RM3.39. Ouch! Dollar-to-dollar, that is a $1.36 difference for an essential item.
Back to fuel… Its hovering at about AUD$1.60/L, and $1.70 is not far off. Think about paying RM2.70/L, with talk of it going up in the near future, also not far off. Then remember, the difference in wages. And take into account the cost of living.
Remember, in Asia, Malaysia isn’t deemed “bad”, or “third world”. In terms of development (South East Asia, at least), it stands next to Singapore.
Rudd, mate, if you’re not pushing for higher wages, don’t bother pushing for an end to petrol subsidies.
What made Marie Digby? I’ve heard about her on the radio from time to time, while I do the unnatural act of driving somewhere. Now, I’ve been invited to an event, where the tagline says that she’s “a star born from YouTube”. I had to dig further.
Decided to watch the famous video. Its just her, sitting with her guitar, performing an acoustic version of Rihana’s Umbrella. Nothing fancy. I’m told she sat in front of her MacBook to make the “hit”.
Grassroots marketing? Bands try much harder, and still feel the pain of becoming somewhat famous. What makes her different? Beauty (she’s of Japanese-American heritage)? Sultry look?
I wonder what her tipping point was. She’s had it easy, when you think about it. The Internet has popularised so many good things, and even if you rewind back say fifteen years ago, there is no way an artist would have made it easily, via grassroots events/stunts.
Aren’t you glad you’re part of the free software revolution? If not for Linux (SuSE), Python, MySQL, and lots and lots of disk, you will not be seeing Marie Digby, now will you? And naturally, if not for the ease-of-use of her Apple laptop, and how they’ve become commodity hardware (15 years ago, there were for “graphics professionals” and were sordidly expensive). Times do change.
Maybe I’ll go to the event… if I’m not too jet-lagged (imagine, planning a month in advance to be jet-lagged)…
The Economist, is easily one of my favourite magazines out there. I occasionally buy a copy from the newsstand, but more often than not, get it free while I’m on a plane. I think the tipping point to subscription for me, happened today. Some articles I’d like to bring to your attention, with select quotes.
“In five states, including the most populous, the opposition will form the government. This is extremely good news for many reasons. The most basic is that democracies need a vibrant and credible opposition. Any party that stays in power for half a century is liable to show signs of complacency, arrogance and corruption, and UMNO is no exception.”
“Second, the election result is a victory for hope over fear. At times the government has used harsh laws against opponents.” It goes on to say, “the National Front has played on the fears evoked by the ghosts of 1969, when opposition advances at the polls were followed by bloody race riots. A vote for the opposition, went the none-too-subtle message, would risk bloodshed as the Malay majority took its revenge on
the minorities. Yet it was not only many ethnic-Chinese voters (about a quarter of the population) and, especially, disgruntled ethnic Indians
(about 8%) who deserted the National Front. Many Malays switched too.”
It wasn’t electoral suicide: “That is a third reason for optimism: communal tension may not be the tinderbox that Malaysia has for so long assumed it to be. If so, the result may herald new thinking about the institutionalised racism of the pro-Malay affirmative-action policies introduced after 1969. The opposition parties campaigned on a platform of “colour-blind” affirmative action—help for those who need it, not for a particular ethnic group.”
On the NEP? “Many seem to have recognised that the policy has become less a means for redistributing wealth to the disadvantaged than a vehicle for
corruption and cronyism.”
“Even before election night, the internet had already played a big part in the vote. Malaysia has an unusual combination of high internet
penetration and pliant mainstream media. It is therefore fertile ground for cyber-politics. According to the government’s multimedia regulator,
3.9m of the country’s 28m people have dial-up internet subscriptions and 1.2m broadband. Some 60% of the population, it reckons, use the
internet. Even if that is an overestimate, the limitations of the mainstream media are enough to drive politics online.”
On why Dr. Mahathir did something useful: “Television hardly ever covers opposition rallies and speeches. But the online world is delightfully free. Anxious to make Malaysia a high-tech cyber-hub, the county’s former prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, exempted websites from the annual licensing requirements that help keep print publications deferential. The 1998 Communications and Multimedia Act decreed that there would be no censorship of the internet.”
“Mr Pua thinks all parties underestimated the effects of “secondary access” to the internet, as news broken on the web—of opposition rallies, for example—was disseminated by word-of-mouth and mobile-phone text messages.”"Most worrying for the government and the mainstream media, Malaysia is young. A new generation sees the internet as its primary news source.”
“After 22 years of rule by the abrasive and authoritarian Mahathir Mohamad, Mr Badawi was seen as more conciliatory and more committed to tackling corruption. He has indeed offered a less acerbic style. But few believe corruption has lessened. Instead, there has been a series of ugly scandals. And the high-flying Mr Khairy, Mr Badawi’s son-in-law (and a former intern at The Economist), has become what one observer calls a “walking, talking, boasting” symbol of nepotism.”
That’s a lesser known fact - Khairy Jamaluddin, was an intern at The Economist.
“M. Manoharan, an ethnic-Indian lawyer, was elected to the state assembly of Selangor, despite being detained without charge under the
Internal Security Act after a street protest last November. He was elected in a predominantly ethnic-Chinese constituency.”
Once you’re done reading the amazing Economist, don’t hesitate to read the comments as well (that’s something you can’t get in the paper version of The Economist, eh?).
First off, I must apologise to my regular blog readers for all the recent politically motivated content. Its mostly over; well at least the regular pace it was at the last couple of weeks.
Malaysia made history on March 8 2008, during her 12th General Elections. The Barisan Nasional was denied a 2/3rds majority (only about 61% control now), and five states, including the most prominent Selangor (heard the phrase, Klang Valley? Its the economic powerhouse of Malaysia). The last time this happened, there was a dark day in Malaysian history, that have subsequently been written out of the history books. Don’t they learn? History is bound to repeat itself…
I was awake till past 5.30am that fateful day, chatting with the #myoss’ers, and numerous friends on various IM networks. As the results flowed in, everyone was in a state of good shock. This has to be the first general elections, where I saw so many people have a large interest, staying awake, awaiting results. It looks like the Malaysians finally decided, a change needed to happen.
Stalwarts were replaced - Samy Vellu, longest serving cabinet minister lost his Sg. Siput seat, reminding me of November 2007, when John Howard himself lost his own seat in Bennelong, during the Australian Elections.
The ruling coalition blamed the rise of the Internet and online media, for their downfall. I say they had it coming. Part of the New Economic Policy, favoured sending ethnic Malay-Muslims overseas, on a scholarship, for an education; little do they know, that they are all taught to think and started enjoying the good life (eating pork, drinking alcohol, gambling, et al) and wanted it when they had to return to Malaysia. Anwar, vows to end race-based favouritism, and focus on the NEP being there to help deal with issues of poverty (i.e. not to enrich the UMNO leaders and their cronies).
Already, there is talk about implementing a Freedom of Information Act (reported at Malaysiakini, as a statement made by Khalid Ibrahim, the new Selangor MB). I can only hope this translates to action, ASAP.
Friend, open source advocate, popular blogger, participant in NGO events (to be honest, where I first met him - Asia Source, in Bangalore) , Jeff Ooi, has also won by a great majority. I couldn’t be happier for him.
The young, who couldn’t even vote, turned up at the election rallies, and I’m proud to say, a friend from school, Shazeea Banu, was interviewed on Channel News Asia, about why she supports Nurul Izzah (Anwar’s daughter, who also defeated the incumbent with a pretty nice majority).
All in all, congratulations Malaysia. Exciting times are ahead, and here’s me tipping my glass, to you becoming the economic powerhouse that you used to be.
Public Service Announcement: Malaysiakini’s DNS servers have been knocked off the Internet. Basically, they’re pointing to 127.0.0.1, which is localhost (your machine). Live reports of election results are still available, just access Malaysiakini via their IP address: http://122.0.17.30/.
Reason behind the DNS being unavailable is unknown, but do keep up with the Malaysiakini DNS Suspended! post.
There are also 6 mirrors at the time of writing… And remember, the hand that rocks the DNS, is the hand that rules the Internet (or something like that)
With the upcoming general elections in Malaysia, I’m sure quite a number are fed up of reading mainstream news, that really are extensions of the ruling coalition government; aka they’re government mouthpieces. Now’s your chance to read Malaysiakini for free, until March 10 2008. Its the general election special.
Colin Charles is a open source software hacker, photographer, world traveller, and journalist.
I live in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, after having spent many years in Melbourne, Australia. I tend not to spend too much time in KL, as I have a hectic travel schedule.
I work in the Database Group, at Sun Microsystems, after the acquisition of MySQL.
This is a personal web log, and the opinions here in no way reflect the opinions of my past, present, or future: clients, employers, or associates. Standard disclaimers apply.
