Raise The Deads

It is well known that the Election Commission has the capabilities to resurrect dead voters come polling day and to register phantoms at home addresses without the occupants knowing about it. Just ask PKR deputy president Azmin Ali.

11 phantom voters were registered to his mother’s residential address. His mum who lives alone apparently did not approve of the other 11 phantoms, and she lodged a complaint.

Another Corruption

Jun 30: Abdul Rahman Bakri (Sabak Bernam UMNO Member of Parliament) ordered to enter defence. He is accused of making RM80,000 in false claims when he was Sungai Ayer Tawar assemblyperson.

Next PM of Thailand

Puea Thai Party candidate Yingluck Shinawatra (second left) gestures during a campaign stop in Bangkok June 30, 2011. Thailand will hold a general election on July 3.

Lateral Thinking

A man who'd just died is delivered to a local mortuary wearing an expensive, expertly tailored black suit.

The female blonde mortician asks the deceased's wife how she would like the body dressed. She points out that the man does look good in the black suit he is already wearing.

The widow, however, says that she always thought her husband looked his best in blue, and that she wants him in a blue suit. She gives the Blonde mortician a blank check and says, 'I don't care what it costs, but please have my husband in a blue suit for the viewing.'

The woman returns the next day for the wake. To her delight, she finds her husband dressed in a gorgeous blue suit with a subtle chalk stripe; the suit fits him perfectly...

She says to the mortician, 'Whatever this cost, I'm very satisfied... You did an excellent job and I'm very grateful. How much did you spend?'

To her astonishment, the blonde mortician presents her with the blank check.

'There's no charge,' she says.

'No, really, I must compensate you for the cost of that exquisite blue suit!' she says.

'Honestly, ma'am,' the blonde says, 'it cost nothing. You see, a deceased gentleman of about your husband's size was brought in shortly after you left yesterday, and he was wearing an attractive blue suit. I asked his wife if she minded him going to his grave wearing a black suit instead, and she said it made no difference as long as he looked nice.'

'So I just switched the heads.'

Tribunal For Consummer Claims

I received this from a Friend: I cannot confirm if this article is correct. All I can confirm is that this "Tribunal Tuntutan Pengguna Malaysia" is quite effective to settle disputes where the amount is RM25,000 and below.

Notice that most of the time, the receipt / invoice you received from the merchant carries this exclusion clause or similarly worded statement: 'Goods sold are not returnable' or 'No refund once sold'.

The thing that I have learnt from here is that : 'As long as the product is purchased for home use and not for business ( i.e. to be resold), the above exclusion clause is VOID.

That means, as long as the product is defective (or the product does not work as claimed by the sales pitch), regardless of what is worded, you CAN get back all your money spent. You do not have to accept a repair on the product or an exchange. You CAN ask for a refund. AND you are LEGALLY right and entitled to!

And most of the time the merchant will refuse to return you your money. Her advice? From her own experience ( and no less than 7 and all successful!) , she will threaten the merchant with four words: 'SEE YOU IN COURT!'

The court here refers to the Small Claims Tribunal Court. You don't have to tell them what court! All you have to pay is RM10 admin fee and the loser (the merchant) will have to refund you the money PLUS the admin fee!

Tribunal Tuntutan Pengguna Malaysia ,
Tingkat 16, Putra Place ,
100, Jalan Putra ,
50622 KUALA LUMPUR
Tel: 03 - 40492300 / 40424181 Fax: 03 - 40424259

http://ttpm.kpdnkk.gov.my/portal/index.php

The Tribunal for Consumer Claims is an independent body established under Section 85, Part XII of the Consumer Protection Act 1999. The Tribunal operates under the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism. The primary objective of establishing the Tribunal is to provide an alternative forum for consumers to file claims in a simple, inexpensive and speedy manner.

Generally a consumer means a person who buys goods and services for his personal use or for domestic or household purpose.

The Tribunal has jurisdiction in respect of any claim not more than RM 25,000.00 filed within 3 years of the dispute except the following claims

◦claims arising from personal injury or death;

◦claims for the recovery of land, or any estate or interest in land;

◦claims in which the title to any land, or any estate or interest in land, or any franchise, is in question;

◦in which there is a dispute concerning :-

◦- the entitlement of any person under a will or settlement or on any intestacy;

◦- goodwill;

◦- any choose in action;

◦- any trade secret or other intellectual property; and

◦where any other tribunal has been established under any other written law to hear and determine claims that are under the jurisdiction of that other tribunal.

Fantastic Quotes

Heavy rains remind us of challenges in life. Never ask for a lighter rain. Just pray for a better umbrella. That is attitude.

When flood comes, fish eat ants and when flood recedes, ants eat fish. - Only time matters. Just hold on, God gives opportunity to everyone!

Life is not about finding the right person, but creating the right relationship, it's not how we care in the beginning, but how much we care till the very end.

Some people always throw stones in your path. It depends on what you make with them. A Wall or a Bridge? - Remember you are the architect of your life.

Search for a beautiful heart, but don't search for a beautiful face. Coz beautiful things are not always good, but good things are always beautiful.

It’s not important to hold all the good cards in life. But it’s important how well you play with the cards you hold.

Often when we lose all hope and think this is the end, God smiles from above and says, 'relax dear it’s just a bend, not the end.' - Have faith and have a successful life.

One of the basic differences between God and humans is, God gives, gives and forgives. But the human gets, gets, gets and forgets.

Be thankful in life....

Life Insurance Agent

In Hong Kong, when you tell people you work as an insurance agent, their first reaction is sudden awkwardness followed by: “Don’t sell me an insurance plan”, or “I’ve bought one already.”

Even if you change your title to “financial planner”, the result is the same. What generates this fear? After all, if you say you sell coffee or lemonade on the streets, people are more than happy to drop by and give you business.

My personal view after working in the industry is that people are afraid of planning for intangible and unforeseen events.

But insurance is a must-have product. Health care and benefits all come under the sector. And don’t forget the building you are living in or the car that you recently purchased. Are these products really that annoying?

Underwriters and actuaries work hard to calculate products that are suitable for every occupation. Insurance is the one financial product that everyone needs, regardless of age, gender or ethnicity.

Then why don’t most people give agents any respect, as if they don’t know what they are selling? Part of the problem, admittedly, has to do with the agents themselves. If salespeople constantly deliver a message of “please help me make my quota”, no one will show much sympathy for them.

Instead insurance agents should be intermediaries. They are there to tell you to help yourself. The service they provide is professional knowledge. They should know a bit about everything, including complex disease and different career paths, in order to service a broad range of clients.

In terms of education funds, savings plans or investment-linked vehicles, customers come to you thinking you are an expert in the field. Yet there are not that many true experts out there, which leads to the issue of talent. Unfortunately, the smartest people don’t always want to go into this sector.

But even if agents are not the most qualified or well educated individuals, showing your temper and despising them is just like getting angry with your maid. It benefits nobody.

Who Is Hamilton Naki

Hamilton Naki, a laborer who became a self-taught surgeon of such skill that Dr. Christiaan N. Barnard chose him to assist in the world's first human heart transplant in 1967, but whose contribution was kept secret for three decades because he was a black man in apartheid-era South Africa, died on May 29 at his home in Langa, near Cape Town. He was believed to have been 78. The cause apparently was heart trouble, according to African and British newspapers, which reported the death.

The transplant, which took place on Dec. 3, 1967, at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, made medical history. It also made Dr. Barnard, who was young, handsome and white, world famous.

Dr. Barnard began to acknowledge Mr. Naki's work only after the end of apartheid in 1991. In an interview shortly before his death in 2001, he called Mr. Naki "one of the great researchers of all time in the field of heart transplants."

Mr. Naki, who left school at 14 and had no formal medical training, spent five decades working at the University of Cape Town. Originally hired as a gardener there in about 1940, he acquired his formidable surgical skills through years of silent observation and covert practice at the university's medical school. He retired in 1991.

In 2003, the university awarded Mr. Naki an honorary master of science degree in medicine.

Although South Africa's apartheid laws forbade blacks from performing surgery on whites, Mr. Naki's skills were so esteemed that the university quietly looked the other way. He worked alongside Dr. Barnard for decades as a lab technician, perfecting his craft and assisting in many operations on people. Operating on animals, Mr. Naki also taught surgical techniques to generations of medical students.

"If Hamilton had had the opportunity to perform, he would have probably become a brilliant surgeon," Dr. Barnard told The Associated Press in 1993.

Hamilton Naki was born, most likely in 1926, in a poor, rural village in Transkei, a largely black former British protectorate in what is now South Africa's Eastern Cape Province. At 14, lacking the money to continue his education, he hitchhiked to Cape Town to find work. The university hired him to tend its grounds and tennis courts.

In the late 1950's, Mr. Naki took a job at the medical school, where he cleaned lab animals' cages. He was quickly recognized for his intelligence, keen powers of observation and steady hands, and was gradually allowed to become involved in more serious work.

Mr. Naki learned to anesthetize animals, and eventually to do surgery on them, operating on rabbits, pigs, dogs and even a giraffe. Many of the animal surgeries he performed, including coronary bypasses and heart and liver transplants, helped to perfect techniques that were later used on humans.

"Hamilton Naki had better technical skills than I did," Dr. Barnard said in an interview quoted in The Daily Telegraph of London this week. "He was a better craftsman than me, especially when it came to stitching, and had very good hands."
But because of his race, Mr. Naki's role in the world's first heart transplant remained unknown for years.

On Dec. 2, 1967, Denise Darvall, a young white South African woman, was hit by a car as she was crossing a Cape Town street. Taken to Groote Schuur Hospital, she was declared brain-dead. Her family gave permission for her heart to be transplanted into the chest of Louis Washkansky, a 55-year-old grocer whose own heart was failing.
As a black man, Mr. Naki could not operate on Ms. Darvall even after she was dead. But Dr. Barnard so prized his ability that he drafted him as a member of the team that would lift out her heart.

In a painstaking operation lasting many hours, Mr. Naki's team removed Ms. Darvall's heart, washing it repeatedly to cleanse it of her blood before introducing some of Mr. Washkansky's. On Dec. 3, Dr. Barnard transplanted the heart into Mr. Washkansky, who lived for 18 days before dying of pneumonia.

During his years at the university, Mr. Naki lived on the outskirts of Cape Town in a one-room shack without electricity or running water. When he retired, he was paid a gardener's pension, far less than a lab technician's.

Mr. Naki is survived by several children, and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, according to the reports in overseas news media.

In 2002, Mr. Naki was awarded the Order of Mapungubwe, one of South Africa's highest honors, for outstanding contribution to medical science.

In an interview with The Guardian of London in 2003, Mr. Naki expressed little bitterness about a lifetime spent working in the shadows. "I was called one of the backroom boys," he said. "They put the white people out front. If people published pictures of me, they would have gone to jail."

Alliance Islamic Bank

Alliance Islamic Bank Berhad, a subsidiary of Alliance Bank Malaysia Berhad, has announced the introduction of the Alliance Family Takaful Investment-Linked Plan, a Shariah-compliant family takaful investment-linked product.

This product launch is a tripartite collaboration between Alliance Islamic Bank Berhad with Takaful Ikhlas Sdn Bhd (Takaful IKHLAS), a general and life takaful provider, and FWU Malaysia Sdn Bhd (FWU Malaysia), a subsidiary of German-based financial services provider, FWU Group.

The Alliance Family Takaful Investment-Linked Plan is a savings and investment plan that comes with family takaful coverage and is suitable for customers who wish to plan for their future financial needs such as for retirement, children's education or even solely for generating wealth purposes. This also serves to fill the gap of takaful provision and to meet the growing demand for Islamic banking and Takaful products.

"This partnership is in tandem with Bank Negara's promotion of Islamic Banking and Takaful in the country and supports the Government's overall aspiration to make Malaysia the regional hub for international Islamic banking, finance and insurance," said Tuan Haji Yahya Ibrahim, CEO of Alliance Islamic Bank.

"Alliance Bank is proud to lend the strength of our branch network in support of this collaboration," added Ronnie Lim, Head of Consumer Banking, Alliance Bank Malaysia Berhad. "We believe that this partnership offers a product suite that complements both our conventional and Islamic banking services."

Malaysian Hero

The 'real' Malaysian history would honour people like Sybil Kathigasu who epitomises racial unity. Come June 12, it will be exactly 63 years since Sybil Kathigasu, the freedom fighter, died. Most Malaysians know little of her. This is mainly because she, along with many other distinguished non-Malay freedom fighters, have, been “buried” and forgotten.

Sybil is the only Malaysian woman to have ever received the distinguished George Medal (GM) for gallantry and bravery. Instituted by the late King George VI, the GM recognises both civilian gallantry in the face of enemy action and brave deeds.

She wrote a book “No Dram of Mercy”, which gives an insightful account of a woman of great courage who should be held as a beacon and role model to all Malaysians.
In the 1940s, Sybil sacrificed a great deal in the fight for freedom of Malaya .
Born on Sept 3, 1899 in Medan , Indonesia , Sybil Medan Daly a Singhalese Sri Lankan was a trained nurse and midwife.



In 1919 she married Dr Abdon Clement Kathigasu and they were blessed with two daughters, Olga and Thavam. Later on, the couple adopted a son, William Pillay.
Sybil and Abdon operated a clinic in Brewster Road , now known as Jalan Sultan Idris Shah in Ipoh , Perak, for 14 years before the war descended on them.

Sybil’s warmth, readiness to help and her fluency in Cantonese made her popular with the local Chinese community. Then came the war and the invasion of Malaya by the Japanese army in 1941. When the Japanese army occupied Ipoh , Sybil and her family moved away to Papan, a small town fringing Ipoh .

Papan would soon prove to become a turning point in Sybil’s life. It was here that Sybil began “consolidating” her commitment to helping the local community who were members of the Malayan People’s Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA).

Sybil secretly supplied medicines, medical services and information to the underground guerilla forces of the Fifth Independent Regiment of MPAJA freedom fighters who camped in nearby hills and jungles.

She also secretly kept shortwave radio sets and clandestinely listened to BBC broadcasts to keep in touch with the situation around the world, especially in Britain and Europe .

Those acts were, at the time, considered criminal and highly subversive by the military administration of Japan in Malaya .

It has been told and retold by many that Sybil and her husband had treated more than 6,000 guerilla fighters who fought relentlessly for the independence of Malaya.

Eventually Sybil and her husband were caught.The Japanese army arrested them in 1943.
They promised to release Sybil and her husband but on condition that she revealed the names of the MPAJA forces. But Sybil was adamant and refused to do so.

In fact, she is said to have told the Japanese government that she was “willing to die with my family, then disclose the 30,000 MPAJA and family members who fought for independence of Malaya ”.

Sybil was prepared to face the punishment by the Japanese army. They punished her husband, son and her daughter Thavam, who was then seven years old. But Sybil, who suffered the anguish of knowing her family’s pain, did not relent. She refused to betray the MPAJA members and their families. Finally, Sybil was sent to Batu Gajah prison where she was further tortured.


According to her memoir, the Japanese army sprayed soap water into her vagina and forced her to sit for hours on ice cubes and she was not allowed to sleep. Sybil survived three years of torture and torment under the Japanese army and was only relased after Japan lost the war.

Following her release, Sybil was flown to Britain for medical treatment. It was there that she wrote her now famous memoir, “No Dram of Mercy”. She went on to write a second book “Face of Courage”, which gave a revealing insight into her family.

But the three years of incessant torture by the Japanese army took its toll on Sybil.
Sybil died on June 12, 1948, in Britain , seven months after she was released from her Batu Gajah prison cell.

Her body was initially buried in Lanark , Scotland , but was later returned to Ipoh and buried at the Roman Catholic cemetery beside St Michael’s Church. The older generation who are familiar with the Sybil Kathigasu story recalled how her remains arrived in Penang from Scotland by ship and transported to her home in Ipoh ’s Brewster Road . It was one of the largest funeral processions ever seen in Malaysia .



Sybil, the Malayan heroine, was treated in royal style. Some 100,000 people from all over the country turned up to say goodbye.Even people from as far as Thailand , Vietnam , Borneo and Indonesia came to pay their respects.

In Ipoh , a road is named after her to commemorate her bravery and Sybil’s shophouse at 74, Main Road , Papan, is now being presevered by Law Siak Hong, the president of the Perak Heritage Society.

In 2008, the Actor Studio’s in Kuala Lumpur produced a play and trained her grand-niece Elaine Daly to play the title role of “Sybil”.

There’s also a Singapore TV drama series titled “The Price of Peace” about her life.
Sybil’s life is perhaps the best example of unity – an Singhalese Sri Lankan women who willingly sacrificed her life for MPAJA members who were mostly Chinese who fought for the independence of Malaya and Malays.