I am a descendent of the Sultan of Sulu

I have learned that I am descended from the Sultan of Sulu, the
original ruler of Sabah and still have rights over half of Sabah.
Unfortunately there is no more Sulu Sultanate. Those who claim to be
the Sultan are disputed. My great-grand parents had not emphasised
their once glorious ancestry because they live in poverty in Sabah.

Before anyone start questioning the chance of us being descendents of
the Sultan of Sulu, please note that the largest number of humans are
descendents of Genghis Khan. It was reported in Discovery Channel(or
was in NGC). The rationale is very simple. These great rulers need to
propage their genes the most so tend to have a large number of
offsprings. Kublai Khai had the habit of sending his daughters to
foreign lands in marriages.

The Sultan of Sulu is not as powerful as Genghis Khan so his
offsprings will not be as many as Genghis Khan but his descendants
should be among the most numerous in the Philippines and eastern part
of Sabah. In Sabah, there are not that many people who call themselves
as Tausug who speak the Suluk language. They are not even mentioned in
Sabah population census but they are very prominent as the leaders of
Sabahan natives. Tun Datu Mustapha and Datu Mat Salleh(mentioned in
Buckley's book) were Tausugs but they lead the more numerous Sabahan
natives.

Datu Mat Salleh was not recognised as a descendent of the Sultan of
Sulu but his wife was. On his death, his wife was sent back to the
Philippines.

The original Sultan of Sulu was an Arab missionary. The Sultan of
Brunei was also an Arab and he is related to the Sultan of Sulu. In
some books, they are thought to be brothers. So if you want to do a
DNA test, you can always verify against the DNA of the Sultan of
Brunei. Unlike the Sultan of Sulu, the Sultan of Brunei has maintained
their lineage to this day.

Another way of detecting it is to look for the Arabic features. One
prominent one is the large nose and other features as well. It is not
surprising that the Spaniards who fought against them were Moros
because they thought they were fighting against Arabs. This Moro label
is still applied to the Tausug current rebels. These Tausugs
differentiate themselves from the Bajau tribes. Academics and
Administrators call them Bajau but they don't call themselves with
this name. They use the names of their islands of origin.

For example, my people call ourselves Simunul as well. We are supposed
to come from Tubig Indangan. Actually there is a small Simunul Island
but they are the majority in the Tawi-tawi island. Tawi-tawi is
closest to Sabah and their women were said to be beautiful and they
are fair skinned. This is what many Filipinoes keep on telling me, but
strangely not from Sabahans. They are found in Kampung Bokara in
Sandakan and in Semporna.

I am beginning to notice that my nose is unusually large for Asian
people. I didn't took much notice earlier although I was surrounded by
my brothers and uncles who have large noses and once told about it
when I was inspecting spectacles. It is only when my children had
grown up that I am beginning to notice our uniqueness.

No wonder, conmen and other opportunists may try to exploit us by
claiming that we are the descendants of the Sultan of Sulu. My
father's cousin is supposed to be holding the royalty marks and
emblems but he never mentioned it to us directly. One family who is
not closely related to us also got these marks and had even gone to
Brunei but were said to be humiliated by having their hairs bald. A
few people claiming to representatives from the Philippines and Brunei
also went to see my late uncle but my family were never informed
formally and nothing concrete came out of it. I suspect my uncle and
cousins were conned by unscrupulous people.

One story that I heard was that out of 13 siblings only 5 survived. A
few people commented that it was due to our ancestors were cursed for
ignoring our royalty lineage. Our ancestors explained that these
titles were meaningless because they were just poor people in Sabah
where these titles are meaningless and do not feed the family. One
Filipino royal family however respected protocols when she visited
Kampung Bokara by honouring descendents of the Sultan of Sulu that
don't bother to trace their roots.Theser are stil heresay but unless
there is concrete proof that they are wrong, I presume that they have
some basis for them and tell my children to take note of this facts.

The story of Sabahans ignoring their titles is very common. My wife's
grandmother had abandoned her Siti title. Siti means that she is a
descendent of Prophet Muhammad. The men use the Sharif title but many
had ignore them. Filipinoes like to keep the Datu titles which are
usually given to chieftains.

Although these titles are meaningless nowadays, we should record our
ancestry because they are important for historical purposes and
medicine. Our diseases can be genetic as well. If we know the medical
history of our ancestors, we can diagnose our diseases. One such
disease is the Black Disease. I thought only the Tausugs have this
disease but the Bruneis also have them as well. I suffer a mild form
of it and so are my children. It is similar to Amok but is more easily
triggered and can cause us to faint, when our wishes are not
satisfied.

So we must keep tract of our lineage. Thankfully there is a ew site
dedicated for this purpose, at www.geni.com. We can share these with
our close family who can then edit them. That is why we should not
invite strangers into the family tree. I had entered about 90 items
but my in-law who introduced it to me had entere more than 200.

He had managed to trace his lineage to a person who was the original
owner of Gomantong Caves, the largest bird's nest cave in Sabah.
However he cannot get back his rights unless he brings it to court. We
may not get any physical reward but at least we should respect the
spiritual needs of our ancestors. In this way we can benefit in this
world.

When more of us are beginning to update our family trees in geni, we
may then find out how close we all really are. However I find geni to
be too slow. It is still new so give it some time.

Obama is white and christian, idiot!

http://www.gmanews.tv/story/131820/Malaysia-debates-possibility-of-Obama-like-leader

If you read through the above article, you just can't help how stupid
these people are to compare with a non-muslim candidate in Malaysia.

Obama may look black but his mother is certainly white. His white
grandmother feature prominently in his campaign.
He is certainly not Muslim either, rather a devout Christian.

It is understandable that the majority of US citizens are white and
christians. Obama, by having white christian upbringing and cultures
share the visions and aspirations of the majority white and christians
of the US populatioin.

Similarly for Malaysia. The majority of the citizens in Malaysia are
Muslims and Malay, and it is only natural that a Muslim Malay will be
the prefered leader for the majority of Malaysians.

I'm sure there are much smarter pure Blacks in USA compared to Obama,
but if they are not practising Christians and have Whte families and
upbringing, they will have no hope at the moment, or in the immediate
future. The only time this will happen will be when White Christians
were to become the minority.

Similarly for Malaysia. It will be too much and certainly undemocratic
if Chinese non Muslims were to be elected as the leader of Malaysia as
long as Muslims with Malay cultures are still the majority. The
equivalent to Obama in Malaysia or Indonesia will be a half-malay
muslim with non-typical Malay surnames to be chosen as leaders of
Malaysia or Indonesia. This is already happening as many of these
leaders are only half Malays, e.g. Mahathir, whose father is Indian.

The only racial bias barrier that Obama has overcome is his name.
Obama is not a White Christian name, Mahathir is a typical Malay
Muslim name. When names like Kee Mustapha were to be the Prime
Minister of Malaysia, it will be the day, Malaysia can match Obama in
racial tolerance, but Kee Mustapha is already a State Secretary of
Sabah, but very few people notice the chinese surname, Kee.

Dengue Stupidity and Platelet Donation

My wife nearly died because of our ignorance of dengue fever. It is so fortunate that she had taken a routine blood test. In that test, her blood platelet was 8 when normally it should be 200. If it were 5, she would have died.

The problem is that there was no warning at all. She only suffers slight fever. There was no clear blood spots but on the second more thorough inspection, there were tiny blood spots on her legs and hips.

The only sure way of detecting haemorrhagic dengue fever, is by taking a blood count test that costs about RM25, the moment you feel cold and your bones painful. Your bones, not the joints. That is why dengue fever is also called bone-breaking fever.

Once the platelet were replenished, she should be safe. It is not blood donation that is required but platelet donation. You can extract platelet from blood but it is not efficient. It requires about 16 litres to extract about 100 cc of platelet so it is very inefficient. This is what is done at Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

There is an excellent article regarding platelet donations provided by Malta Blood Transfusion Service.

It shows that pooled blood is more risky because there are many donors. Also the platelet machine at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Kota Kinabalu, is painful and requires two insertion points. The machine at Sabah Medical Centre, uses only one insertion point for the vein and is less painful. The donor will feel cold and there is a danger of heart fluttering(jantung berdebar).

The cost per extraction is RM1000 but it allows donors to recuperate faster (2 weeks) despite spending more than an hour with the machine. We should wait for the day when machines can extract platelet efficiently even on normal blood that is already outside the body.

http://www.health.gov.mt/nbts/plateletph.htm

My first chess competition that is already obsolete

I joined my first official chess competition, called Sabah Rating Chess
Competition organised by the Sabah Chess Association.

I'm already 50 years old but suddenly had the urge to find out my chess
playing strength. I thought that I can get my rating at the competition.
I lost in all games competing against filipinoes who have made their
marks at the recent UMS Open Chess Competition.

As we grow old, we need a way to keep our brain active. Playing chess is
the cheapest and easiest way to exercise our brains. Reading is too
relaxing and does not exercise our judgement functions.

As I was waiting for the competition, I was talking to one of our
committe member who organised that competition. He introduced me to a
website dedicated for Sabah Chess community, www.sabahchess.com. He also
mentioned about online chess.

The moment I read the advertisement for the competition, I started
practising. I only had 2 days to practise. I used my mobile phone a
Motorola V3x to practise. The software is
http://www.getjar.com/products/4772/ChessbyCellufun. It is powerful. I
rarely beat it despite being able to take bake my moves. It is fast
enough at level 3 at my Motorola V3x and L6.

After the competition, I joined the Association and hopefully join in my
second competition on the 11th of December. Meanwhile, I am practising
hard online. My recommended site is www.chess.com because it has the
"Live Chess" for free for unlimited number of games. I initially tried
www.chesshere.com but it only allowed 5 games per day for free. My
rating at www.chess.com is now at ELO 1500. My 12 year old son, is now
at 1000. Our user ids are othmanskn and aqiblari.

For learning,
http://www.chessopeningsdatabase.com/index.php?main=Chess-Openings-Database
allows you to download common openings with percentage wins in pgn
format which can be viewed using http://www.zanchetta.net/CEBoard/ on
Pocket PC or ChessDB for PC. From ChessDb site you can download 3
million games but without any percentage win analysis. www.chess.com has
more chess game database with analysis but it is not free.

I shall force all my children to play these online chess games and find
out their ratings. It is a better alternative to playing online games
such as MapleStory and Dotta which my children are busy doing. Chess is
better because it has better support currently although I don't see any
difference between it and the other online games.

Rankings can also be applied to other competitive games as well and all
these games are just a waste of time. They are more for recreational
purposes, as bad as any video game or any sport for that matter. At
least chess and any video game is an activity to exercise our mind.
Unlike other AI controlled games, I have never been able to defeat Chess
games at the highest rating consistently, unlike other video games such
as Home World and Forge Alliance but the in future, society should
find a replacement for Chess that is more in line with current
technologies. Dotta is one such game but it will take time for it to get
as much recognition as Chess.

These online and computer monitored games allow us to view our ratings
and game playing records instantly and conveniently. This makes board
games obsolete. In future, Chess competitions should be done on Computer
Terminals.

--
Sabah is heaven. Beautiful shark-free beaches and mountains next to
civilisation with no natural and man-made disasters except Malaysia.
My homepage:
http://othman.000webhost.info/
http://othmana.tripod.com/

How safe is AirAsia Airbus?

Similar incident happened and it occurred at the same day as my
daughter's flight but on board was her classmate.

http://www.theborneopost.com/?p=41981

Initially I suspected a turbulance as reported in newspapers but the
damage is severe. I had experienced a 10s 10,000 feet drop in elevation
but there was no serious casualty. I also heard colleagues recalling
similar incidence with no major casualty.

Although AirAsia operates A320 instead of A330, their avionics and
control systems should be similar. The glitch may have affected both planes.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122347443249515219.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

CANBERRA, Australia -- A Qantas Airways Ltd. plane involved in a midair
incident over the Indian Ocean experienced an irregularity in its
onboard computer equipment that left the plane flying "of its own
accord," an aviation safety official said Wednesday.

Qantas, Australia's largest carrier, said about 75 passengers and crew
sustained injuries Tuesday ranging from abrasions to fractures on board
the Airbus A330-300 flight to Perth, Australia, from Singapore.

Julian Walsh, director of aviation safety at the Australian Transport
Safety Bureau, said an on-board electronic centralized aircraft
monitoring system indicated there was "some irregularity with the
elevator control system."

The aircraft departed from its normal flight at 37,000 feet, climbed 300
feet, "then as the crew were responding, the aircraft pitched down quite
suddenly and rapidly," he said.

"Certainly, there was a period of time when the aircraft performed of
its own accord," Mr. Walsh said.

The aircraft, built in 2003 and operated by Qantas since then, made an
emergency landing at a remote airfield at Learmonth, an Australian
defense force air base, near Exmouth, in Western Australia state.

Qantas said that of the 303 passengers and 10 crew on board the flight,
14 sustained injuries serious enough to require medical evacuation, and
about 30 other passengers and crew received treatment at Perth hospitals.

A spokesman at Airbus headquarters in Toulouse, France, said: "The
investigation is ongoing. We are supporting the investigation. It's
premature to speculate." The airline also said it would undertake its
own inquiry into the cause of the incident.

Separately, Qantas said Wednesday it will reduce its international fuel
surcharges by as much as 10% and cut domestic fares by as much as 3% in
response to recent falls in oil and jet fuel prices.
--
Sabah is heaven. Beautiful shark-free beaches and mountains next to
civilisation with no natural and man-made disasters except Malaysia.
My homepage:
http://othman.000webhost.info/
http://othmana.tripod.com/

McCAin vs Obama's Health Plans

As Obama has argued, the health of the nation's citizens is very
important in making US competitive in the world.

With this in mind, it is obvious that Obama's plan is much better and
Malaysia should emulate it. Obama's Health Plan is much more than what
is offered by the Malaysian Government under BN. In fact, Malaysia is
more similar to McCain's plan, making Malaysia more capitalist than USA.
So much rhetoric about a compassionate BN government.

McCain wants to treat Health Benefits as taxable salary, but give US5000
dollar rebate. Malaysia treats all Health Benefits as taxable salary and
never gives any rebate for Health Insurance.

Under Bush, Health Benefits are not taxable salary, which makes the
current US more humane and compassionate compared to Malaysia. No wonder
US is much more competitive compared to Malaysia. They have much
healthier workers.

All may change with McCain's plans. Despite giving rebates, it
discourages the giving of Health Benefits. Employers will be tempted to
offer higher salaries and workers will be tempted to under insure their
health care. What makes it worse is that, group insurance will be
difficult to negotiate making it much more difficult for older workers
to get health coverage.

Obama's plan offers competition to the private health care by offering
government organised and subsidised health care insurance. This is much
better than the current Malaysian BN govenment offering.

No wonder Malaysia is not competitive and cannot attract skilled
workers. Not only do they have low salaries, they also have much less
health care than even USA.

Malaysian may argue that patients suffering from contagious diseases are
given free treatments at government run hospitals, but this is most
probably provided for free also by the US government.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/07/us/politics/07health.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=politics&pagewanted=print
October 7, 2008
Business Cool Toward McCain's Health Coverage Plan
By KEVIN SACK

American business, typically a reliable Republican cheerleader, is
decidedly lukewarm about Senator John McCain's proposal to overhaul the
health care system by revamping the tax treatment of health benefits,
officials with leading trade groups say.

The officials, with organizations like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the
Business Roundtable and the National Federation of Independent Business,
predicted in recent interviews that the McCain plan, which eliminates
the exclusion of health benefits from income taxes, would accelerate the
erosion of employer-sponsored health insurance and do little to reduce
the number of uninsured from 45 million.

That is largely the argument made in recent days by Mr. McCain's
opponent, Senator Barack Obama, who has revived a dormant campaign
debate over health care with an intensified attack on the McCain plan.
Conscious that the issue plays well with swing voters, Mr. Obama devoted
a speech on Saturday to characterizing Mr. McCain's plan as "radical"
and a "Washington bait and switch," and he has reinforced the message in
four television advertisements.

That has set off a furious back-and-forth between the campaigns, with
the McCain campaign countering that Mr. Obama's plan also would
undermine employer coverage by mandating that medium and large companies
either provide insurance for their workers or pay a tax. The payments
would help subsidize a new government health plan for low-income people,
and some economists believe it would entice workers away from their
employer-sponsored coverage.

Mr. Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, opened his assault two
weeks ago by telling crowds that Mr. McCain "wants to tax your health
benefits." He did not explain that Mr. McCain, the Republican nominee,
would offer tax credits in exchange to cover the increased liability for
many Americans.

Over the weekend, Mr. Obama more accurately characterized the McCain
plan as a swap but one that would work to the detriment of millions.
Middle-class families, he said, would "watch the system they rely on
begin to unravel before their eyes."

The business leaders said that was also their fear. Despite steady
declines this decade, employers still provide coverage to 62 percent of
Americans younger than 65. Surveys show that they want to continue doing
so to attract and maintain a productive workforce.

The business leaders forecast that Mr. McCain's free-market approach
would impose particular burdens on small businesses and old-line
manufacturers that are already struggling.

"To some in the business community, this is very discomforting," said R.
Bruce Josten, executive vice president for government affairs at the
Chamber of Commerce. "The private marketplace, in my opinion, is ill
prepared today with an infrastructure for an individual-based health
insurance system."

Health economists are ideologically divided over Mr. McCain's plan.
Analysts who support it project that it might provide coverage to 25
million people, while critics predict that the number of newly insured
would peak at five million and then decline.

Though Mr. McCain says his plan would not add to federal spending, the
Tax Policy Center has estimated that it will cost at least $1.3 trillion
over 10 years. And while right-leaning economists emphasize that the
plan would provide a tax cut for the average American, opponents respond
that certain high-earners will face an increase and that some in the
middle class may break even only by reducing their coverage.

The centerpiece of Mr. McCain's plan is the elimination of the provision
that has, since 1954, excluded the value of employer-sponsored health
benefits from a worker's taxable income. The exclusion can be worth
thousands of dollars for some workers.

In its place, Mr. McCain would offer all Americans income tax credits of
$2,500 per person or $5,000 per family for heath coverage, regardless of
how they bought it.

Mr. McCain would not change the ability of companies to deduct health
benefits as a business expense on their corporate income taxes. And
advisers have said he would continue to exclude the value of health
benefits from the payroll taxes that finance Social Security and Medicare.

The income-tax exclusion benefits 162.5 million Americans but costs the
federal government $145.3 billion in foregone revenue, second only to
the tax break for retirement account contributions, according to the
Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation.

Still, the exclusion has encouraged the pooling of workers into large
purchasing groups that tend to lower costs. And with group coverage, no
one can be denied coverage, everyone pays the same rates and the healthy
and wealthy essentially subsidize the sick and the poor. Consequently,
it is often more expensive to buy equivalent coverage as an individual,
partly because insurers pass along the administrative costs of weeding
out unacceptable risks.

The exclusion has long been criticized as unfair because the 18 million
people who buy health insurance on their own are not entitled to it.
Critics also say that it is most valuable to those in high tax brackets
with the costliest health plans, that it contributes to job-lock, and
that the subsidization of group insurance encourages people to buy more
coverage and consume more health care than they need, driving up health
spending.

Mr. McCain and his health advisers argue that replacing the tax
exclusion with tax credits for all would encourage consumers to shop
more deliberately, stoking competition in the marketplace and lowering
premiums. He would allow them to shop for policies across state lines.

"It will help to change the whole dynamic of the current health care
system by putting individuals and families back in charge and forcing
insurance companies to respond with better service at lower cost," Mr.
McCain wrote recently in The New England Journal of Medicine.

For some workers, depending on their tax bracket and insurance costs,
the new tax credits would exceed the value of the tax exclusion, making
the swap profitable. But with the average employer-sponsored family
policy costing $12,680 this year, other workers would find the exchange
a losing proposition. They would either have to spend more, reduce their
coverage or persuade employers to make up the difference.

Officials with eight business trade groups contacted by The New York
Times predicted the McCain plan would raise costs and force some
employers to stop providing health benefits.

A recent survey of 187 corporate executives by the American Benefits
Council and Miller & Chevalier, a consulting firm, found that
three-fourths felt the repeal of the tax exclusion would have a "strong
negative impact" on their workers. Only 4 percent said they would
provide additional pay to fill any gaps.

John J. Castellani, president of the Business Roundtable, an association
of leading chief executive officers, said his group instead supported
extending the tax exclusion to those who bought coverage on their own.

"One of the things we don't want to do," Mr. Castellani said, "is
jeopardize 170 million Americans who do get insurance through their
employers."

A number of business officials are worried that Mr. McCain's tax credits
would lure young and healthy workers into the individual market to take
advantage of cheaper, less-generous policies. That, they say, would
leave employers to cover an older and sicker pool of workers, forcing up
premiums.

Workers who found that they had less buying power with the tax credits
than with the tax exclusion could be expected to pressure employers to
raise salaries or benefit subsidies, the business officials said.

"There are huge questions about the $5,000 per family being an
insufficient amount in terms of being able to purchase the same
coverage," said Mr. Josten with the Chamber of Commerce.

Helen B. Darling, president of the National Business Group on Health, a
coalition of 300 companies, agreed that many workers would face a net
loss. "The last thing you want to do to the average working person,
especially when you're bailing out big financial companies, is take
something they hold near and dear partially away," Ms. Darling said.

Economists forecast that the problem would worsen over time because Mr.
McCain, according to advisers, would index his tax credits to overall
inflation. Health insurance premiums have grown four times faster than
inflation since 1999.

James A. Klein, president of the American Benefits Council, said concern
that the tax credits would not keep up with inflation was a primary
reason his 280 member companies "take a very dim view" of repealing the
tax exclusion.

Mr. McCain theorizes that if the government's subsidization of health
care is capped, consumers will cut back on their use of the system,
slowing the growth in spending. But critics worry that he overestimates
his ability to control health costs, and that a growing number of people
will find they cannot obtain traditional coverage.
--
Sabah is heaven. Beautiful shark-free beaches and mountains next to
civilisation with no natural and man-made disasters except Malaysia.
My homepage:
http://othman.000webhost.info/
http://othmana.tripod.com/

Re: USA started affirmative action, not Malaysia

On Oct 2, 12:24 am, adchin <adc...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Yup, cronies come in all races and creed.  Has nothing to do with having
> to be a Malay person in order to become a minister's crony.
>
> Ok, so back to your subject title of affirmative action.  It's misused in
> Malaysia, do you agree ?  Now what would you do, if you were in the
> position to address this issue ?

1. Give campaigns on "following rules". Malaysians just love to break
all rules. Corruption and misuses are just a manifestation of the
culture of the society.

Many businessmen in Malaysia, proudly proclaims that the only way to
succeed in business is through corruption. When confronted with the
Singapore and Brunei cases, I'm ridiculed of being too naive.

Some even argue that Malaysia is different so normal rules do not
apply. Rules about inflation and monetary policies, and even
engineering practises. The trouble is, they don't have any rule
themselves. The trouble with not following any rule at all is that, we
cannot determine what had been done and therefore cannot make a
thorough analysis.

All rules are not static. They have to be changed with time,but all
these must be documented so that we can monitor the effectiveness of
each rule and reason why they behave the way it was.

2. If some rules are rotten, then request for changes. Unfortunately
Malaysians frown on giving ideas. They view it as giving away secrets
and some even view as insulting.

There should be a way to encourage Malaysians to contribute ideas and
be rewarded for them. Many people question me as to what I can achieve
by giving ideas. Actually many of my ideas were implemented:

A. Internet was my idea. Jaring was initially set up as uucp network
only. Of course, I'm not the only one giving ideas, but I was one of
the few who emailed Awanglah directly with these ideas. He used to
joke with me about KA9Q protocol, but recently, I noticed that Windows
Internet protocols owe a lot to Ka9q.

B. ADSL(Streamyx) was my idea that I posted in this newgroup. Within a
few weeks, Mahathir made the order to TM to introduce ADSL, or
broadband, quoting my exact phrase, "although it is not profitable
now, ...".

The coincidence is just too much. Either Mahathir reads newsgroups, or
someone had forwarded the comments to him, or someone reading this
newsgroup, had forwarded to their respective political or lobby
groups, to be forwarded to the PM.

The latest one was a suggesting for the coast guard equivalent for
Malaysia that I sent through the PM(Abdullah)'s suggestion website.

Also implemented within weeks of me sending these ideas.

Unfortunately I was not even recognised for giving these ideas.
Someone could have stolen my ideas but it does not matter to me,
because we need someone else to develop these ideas, someone closer to
the establishments.

Still, we must encourage people to reward those who give ideas by
giving certificates, at least, or even better cash rewards, and it
should not be restricted who give complete ideas. Partial ideas should
be rewarded as well, because without partial ideas, subsequent
developments will not be possible.

It is due to the lack of respect for Malaysians for Intellectual
Property Rights. Plagiarism is an accepted way of life, when actually
it is equivalent to stealing. We don't lose much by refraining from
plagiarism except our pride which is false anyway and sooner or later
will be detected anyway.

Plagiarism is very different from outright copying, but is even worse.
Copying is usually accepted because it is part of learning but to
pretend that it originates from you is plagiarism. What is difficult
or costly about identifying the originators of ideas or articles or
information? Virtually nothing, but the impact can be very great, the
difference between success or failure of entire nations.

3. Increase the salaries of enforcement officers and people with
powers, such as Ministers and Mayors.

You may say that it rewards crooked people but actually it will
encourage honest people to join and compete for these posts.

If salaries of these posts are so low, honest people will know for
sure that they will not make ends meet and therefore will look for
better paying jobs that do not tempt them with illegal activities.
Dishonest people will fight for these power jobs because they know
that they can get much better side income.

This had been implemented in Singapore and it is very successful.

This is difficult in Malaysia because we have a low regard for labour.
WE are proud in exploiting fellow human beings by paying them so
little, but in the end, we will lose all our talented people.

If we pay our craftsmen better, we will encourage them to improve and
retain those skills.