Maya Karin to Wed

German-Indonesian beauty Maya Karin Roelcke, 29, is to tie the knot on Aug 14 with Muhammad Ali 'Steven' Abdullah, 38, a Mathematics teacher of British origin at Alice Smith International School, Kuala Lumpur.

This piece of news will undoubtedly lay to rest speculation and rumour about her marrying an expatriate , which have been going on for the last few months.

The wedding ceremony, to be held in Milan, Italy includes a simple outdoor 'akad nikah' ceremony followed by a dinner reception. This will be followed by another wedding reception in Kuala Lumpur on Aug 29.

Muhammad Ali, who was also known as Steven David Shorthose, has been residing in Malaysia for the last 12 years. The couple met about 7 years ago.

According to Maya, they met after she attended several meetings at the private school where Steven was teaching, as her sister, Irina Melati and brother Amrin studied there.

"Steven and I get along really well. He takes good care of me and knows how to make me laugh.

"Steven has all the qualities I want in a man."

Maya and her family will be leaving for Italy on Aug 6.

The actress' German father, Gottfried Roelcke, a Hanoi-based town planner, is due to join the 20-member entourage comprising family members and relatives.

"I am just as exited as any bride but I don't intend to dwell too much on the wedding preparation."

On her plans after the wedding, Maya said she would continue acting.

"I love my job. Steven has been very understanding. I foresee only minor changes in my life later."

Source: New Straits Times, 5 July 2008.

My Say: This piece of news also put to rest all previous speculations and rumours surrounding Maya, including those which said that she was linked to this VIP, that celebrity and so on. But I suppose having been an artiste for so long, Maya by now must be immuned to all these. After all, what would an artiste's life be without rumours and speculations? In any case, it's her life. She has every right to live it as she likes. It can't be worse than Hollywood.

Day of Good News for BN

The past couple of weeks have not been too good for Malaysia's ruling coalition, BN, politically speaking. First, there was the bombshell by its component party SAPP that it had lost confidence on the Prime Minister and BN chairman Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and planned on moving a motion of no-confidence against him in Parliament, something unprecedented. (For the record, the motion has not been tabled.)

Next, Raja Petra or RPK, one of Malaysia's top bloggers, alleged in a sworn statement that the country's Deputy Prime Minister and his wife were involved in the murder of Mongolian model Altantuya. Then, the BN lost an Assembly seat in the State of Perlis through an election petition filed by the Opposition. A by-election will now be held but BN is trying to prevent that from happening through legal means.

Yesterday, a Private Investigator hired by one of the suspects in the murder case made a host of allegations against DPM Najib including the fact that he had a sexual relationship with the late model.

Then, all of a sudden today, less than 24 hours after his first sworn statement, the PI, Balasubramaniam made another statement retracting the first one, saying it was made under duress.

Also today, the Ipoh High Court rejected two petitions to annul the election results against a BN Member of Parliament and a BN Assemblyman of the State of Perak. This means that UMNO Women's Wing chief Rafidah Aziz can continue to be MP for Kuala Kangsar and Raja Ahmad Zainuddin also of UMNO (a BN component) the Assemblyman for Kubu Gajah.

Looks like all in all this has been a day of good news for BN. It could certainly use some good news after what it went through the past fortnight.

The images below, reproduced from today's Star newspaper, is self-explanatory. Click on the image for a larger view.

Update: (Saturday 5 July) Balasubramaniam's nephew has lodged a police report saying that his uncle, aunty and their three children are missing. Police have denied that they have been arrested. Police also said both of the PI's Statutory Declarations will be investigated including from the motive angle.

MAS Staff Vs Air Asia Staff?

In today's business world, it is not uncommon to find companies competing against each other; using all kinds of strategy. It is not even unusual to find them at loggerheads openly through the media.

But the staff of one company quarreling openly with the staff of another through the press? I don't know whether this is happening elsewhere in the world, but it certainly is over here in Malaysia. This recent newspaper clipping speaks for itself. Click on image for a larger view.

MAS' statement was made by its Employees Union (Maseu), but Air Asia does not have a staff union yet. So what do you do when you don't have an employees' union? Simple, release your statement through your company's communications team, as Air Asia did.

I wonder what's next? The staff of New Straits Times and The Star (both Malaysian newspapers) quarreling with each other openly?

A friend of mine used to say: "Certain things can only happen in Malaysia!"

Another friend said: "In Sabah, anything goes!"

No offence meant, after all I am a Malaysian and Sabahan myself.

Thank You MAXIS

This afternoon, I finally received the good news that I have been expecting from Maxis, my 012 telco mobile service provider. The sms message went like this:-

"Our voice and SMS service have now been restored. Your next bill will have a 50% rebate on your monthly subscription fee.Thank you for your support."

Considering that their service was only down for 1-2 days, this is certainly a bonus. By right, they can just just divide the number of days the service was down by 30 (days a month) and that's all you get for rebate.

Today's Maxis sms is certainly a far cry from the one it sent earlier this week, which went like this:-

"Thank you for your patience and support during our recent service disruption. Full service is being restored."

There was no mention of rebate. I checked the Maxis web site, also nothing. Had today's notice came later, say next week, I could have opted for another telco like Celcom or Digi.

Anyway, thank you Maxis. It's better late than never. In public relations term, this is called 'Damage Control'. After all, to be fair, it is not as if other telcos never had any problem.

Solution to Rising Scool Bus Fares?

As we all know, the recent steep fuel price increase has had an effect on practically the prices of everything else in Malaysia in general and Sabah in particular. This includes school bus fares.

I was reading a local Chinese newspaper in the coffeeshop this morning when I saw an article of a parent of pupils saying: " We pity the school bus owner, but who to pity us?" In the same article, of course, the school bus operators explained that they had no choice but to raise the fares for otherwise they may as well stop driving the buses.

When I returned to the office and checked my e-mail after breakfast, low-and-behold!, I found a mail with the above photograph. Solution to the expensive school bus fares? It is said that necessity is the mother of invention.

Thanks to Cyril M who e-mailed the pix to my friend who in turn forwarded it to me.

Click on the image for a larger view.

Eat More Borneo Fruits

The upper half of the advertisement.
(Click on image for a larger view)

The lower half of the advertisement.

(Click on image for a larger view)

I reproduce here an advertisement inserted by the Malaysian government in local newspapers recently. The advertisement was issued by the Ministry of Tourism in conjunction with the 'Colours of Malaysia' festival last month.

In view of the title of the festival, one would naturally think of a cultural extravaganza including parading traditional dances, lights and so on. It is however good thinking on the part of the Ministry to take the opportunity to also promote Malaysian fruits.

Although the festival which was held last month is now over, there are two reasons why I reproduce this ad. Firstly, to encourage my fellow-bloggers and visitors to my blog to eat more local fruits. I think we need to be more patriotic (National Day is next month) and support our local fruits industry. I am sure we have relatives who are farmers. Those of you who are well-traveled or well-read would know that all countries in the world are proud of their produce which they export including fruits. So why can't we be proud of ours?

In any case local fruits are much cheaper than imported ones and yet the vitamins are the same if not better. I mean if you want to eat, once in a while, Carlifornia oranges which are not grown in Malaysia, what to do lah! That's your right, I know. I don't know about you, but in my case the money that I save by buying local fruits instead of imported ones can certainly be put to good use like filling my car's petrol tank! I mean, before the fuel price hike, RM60 can fill my MyVi 1.3's tank already but now only 3/4 full.

The second reason why I reproduce this ad is that I cant help but notice that apart from the main Jom Makan-Makan (Let's Go Eat) or Citrarasa Malaysia (Taste of Malaysia) event held in the national capital Kuala Lumpur from June 6-8, supporting events were also held in other other States except Sabah! Melaka had theirs from May 30-June 1, Johor June 6-8, Pahang June 13-15, Terengganu June 20-22, and Sarawak June 20-22.

I can understand that the event was not held in Kelantan, Kedah, Perlis, Penang and Selangor because these States are now governed by the Opposition (Pakatan Rakyat). Just in case the people in the Ministry of Tourism forgot, I would like to remind them that Sabah has since 1994 been governed by the BN!

If the excuse of the Ministry is that Sabah was busy with the Harvest Festival, I would like to remind them that so was Sarawak. Infact, we had our Kaamatan at the end of May two days before our neighbouring State had their Gawai . Besides, if the Federal Government can hold its national-level Kaamatan do in Sabah on the very same day that we had our State-level 'do', which was on May 31, I can't see why the 'Fruits Fest', as I call it, can't be extended to Sabah. They had the whole month of June to do it! As the Malay saying goes, "If you really want to do something then there are 1,000 ways or reasons to do it, but if you don't want to do something, there will also be 1,000 excuses!".

I hope the Ministry won't come up with the excuse that Sabah has no unique local fruits. Who says so? Infact, some of our unique fruits are not even found in Peninsular Malaysia. One good example is the Tarap. In 1982, as a young officer I was chosen by the Sabah government to participate in a week-long goodwill study tour of West Malaysia organised by the National Unity Department.

Part of of programme saw us visiting farms and orchards in the Peninsular. By the time we were about to leave for home, we had tasted almost every kind of fruits found there except Tarap. It seems that their version of Tarap is a wild fruit found only in the forests and seldom eaten. This led one of our participants, the late Bishop Datuk Simon Fung, to remark to our West Malaysian friend: "Next time come to Sabah to eat Tarap."

So, Ministry of Tourism and Sabah Members of Parliament, if you are reading this, please make sure that Sabah is in next year.