AFF Suzuki Cup Champions - Malaysia, declared 31st December 2010 a public holiday

Bravo to the young Malaysia football team in winning the AFF Suzuki Cup.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has declared 31st December 2010 a public holiday to celebrate Malaysia's winning of the AFF Suzuki Cup.

Many workers were delighted with the unexpected public holiday. I see smiley faces at the office on 30th December 2010 morning. Generally, the adhoc public holiday is most welcomed by the working class. They do not realize that such short term gain (no need to work for one day) will eventually creates negative impact to the national economy in long term.

Unfortunately, the decision will actually create massive damage to Malaysia, which is struggling to attract foreign investment as well as uplifting the competitiveness of the nation.

The public holiday is declared with short notice (approximately 24 hours). This has caused many operational plans of the corporates and SMEs gone haywire. For private sectors, the problems could be solved by paying the overtime rate. But, if the assignments or tasks that involved government agencies,  it is just too bad.

Malaysia, also known as 'Bolehland' has yet to change its attitude which is mandatory to be competence in the globalized world nowadays. 

Malaysia will still be a good place to live, but not a good place for career and investment.

The currency exchange rate between Malaysia Ringgit (MYR) and Singapore Dollar (SGD) is as below on 31st December 2010:

1 Singapore Dollar = 2.39047 Malaysian Ringgit 

Let's see what will be the rate in 31st December 2011. Figures (exchange rate) is telling truth.

Happy New Year and Good luck Malaysia!

Shield your love ones with a breath of fresh air

An educational video for anti passive-smoking initiative. Share this video and make the community cigarette smoke free.

Smoking in indoor areas kills not only the passive smokers, but the smokers as well.

Taiping Mali Cafe at Bandar Puteri Puchong

Bandar Puteri Puchong is always not my preference spot for meals as the restaurants in that area are not serving good food but the focus is more in renovation or atmosphere.

I was passing by Bandar Puteri Puchong on 12th November 2010 during lunch time. Without much thought, I decided to have a quick lunch at Taiping Mali Cafe, I do not expect very tasty food to be served by any restaurant in Bandar Puteri Puchong, a simple meal will do.

Taiping Mali Cafe shop front

Well, the menu left me with not much choice. It was a good sign as you really cannot expect the cook is good in preparing all kind of dishes. And I can bet that those restaurants that served up to 100 types of meals are just buying all the gravy and processed ingredients, while you order, they will opened up the packet from the fridge, heat it up and then put on the plate.

I ordered a plate of petai prawn rice while my friend ordered a plate of soya sauce pork rice. Well, the foods served in less than 3 minutes time (more efficient than fast food giant Mc Donald). The foods were cook and prepared in bulk prior to any ordering. Besides, the size of serving is merely 1/3 of what you can get from the ordinary mixed rice stalls.

In short, the food served by Taiping Mali Cafe is like you are buying a lunch plate from mixed rice stall, but instead of choosing 3 dishes + 1 soup of any combination (approx. MYR 4.00 at mixed rice stall), you only choose one and no soup (approx MYR 2.50 in mixed rice stall but Taiping Mali Cafe is demanding for MYR 8.90 for petai prawn rice and MYR7.90 for soya sauce pork rice) .

Cash bill issued by Taiping Mali Cafe

How about the quality of food? Does it taste good? The answer is any ordinary mixed rice stall can put Taiping Mali Cafe in their pocket.