Anonymity: Employees feel anonymous when their manager has little interest in them as people with unique lives, aspirations, and interests.
Irrelevance: This condition occurs when workers cannot see how their job makes a difference. "Every employee needs to know that the work they do impacts someone's life -- a customer, a coworker, even a supervisor -- in one way or another."
Immeasurement: This term describes the inability of employees to assess for themselves their contributions or success. As a result they often rely on the opinions of others -- usually the manager -- to measure their success.
Three Remedies for Job Misery
1. Assess your manager. Is the boss interested in and capable of addressing the three factors mentioned above? Most managers really do want to improve, in spite of the fact that they may seem disinterested or too busy.
2. Help your manager understand what you need. This could mean reviewing with your manager what the key measurements for success are for your job. Ask your boss, "Can you help me understand why this work I'm doing makes a difference to someone?"
3. Act more like the manager you want. Employees who take a greater interest in the lives of their managers are bound to infect them with the same kind of human interest they seek or find ways to let your manager know how his or her performance makes a positive difference for you.
Three Signs of a Miserable Job & The Remedies
Five Ways to Manage a Lousy Boss
Labels: ENGLISH, INDUSTRY INFO, WORKYou'd love your job—if only your boss wasn't such a jerk. But instead of whistling through the workday, you drill holes in your keyboard while stewing over a string of indignities.
Once you've made sure that the problem really is your boss, and not you, there may be little recourse but to quit or ask for another assignment. But before bailing out, here are some coping strategies for a variety of scenarios. First, put yourself in your boss's wingtips: Would such an approach work with you? If you think it might, then give these tactics a try:
1. Your boss is unfairly critical. Approach your boss with a positive spin. Explain that you really want to be a good employee and ask what you should be doing differently. If you're lucky, he'll thank you for taking the initiative and vow to give more praise and less criticism. More likely, however, you'll be told you need to improve, so be prepared for unflattering news. In either case, you'll gain a bit of respect—all but the most insecure boss will appreciate the fact that you solicited feedback and didn't blame him.
2. Your boss is a micromanager. Again, emphasize that you want to solve a problem and improve your performance: "I hope you can help me with something. I've noticed that you monitor my work very closely. Are you worried I can't or won't do the work? Is there anything I can do to give you more confidence in me?"
3. Your boss is a hothead. Anger is a physiological response to stress or annoyance, and some people secrete more adrenaline than others. So:
Recognize that when the boss is yelling, it's his physiology talking. That may help keep your own adrenaline in check and quell the natural instinct to blast back at him.
* Let him explode; interrupting might just add fuel to the fire.
* If you walk out, be aware that it will be taken as disrespect.
* Take deep breaths and try to listen to the substance of what he's saying—just because his tone is wrong doesn't mean his point is.
* When he's finished, have a measured response ready so you don't react impulsively: "I want to think seriously about what you've said. Can we get together later to discuss it?" Then address the issues once the boss has cooled down.
* If the tirades are abusive or too frequent, then of course you may have no choice but to report them to a higher-level manager. Or leave.
4. Your boss is ineffectual. He might be in over his head, distracted by family issues, burned out, or lazy. Nonetheless, you need to realize that you won't change your boss. Instead, get help from coworkers or more senior supervisors. Before going over your boss's head, first seek permission in a way that will allow him to save face: "I know you're busy. Would you mind if I asked Supervisor X for a bit of guidance?" Or "Could I speak with Y about that. He's an expert." If your boss says no (a sign that he probably is a poor manager), then you may have to go over his head without permission.
5. Your boss is unethical. Alas, it happens often, whether to line one's pockets, take credit for somebody else's ideas, or simply dodge work. Confronting your boss on this issue, no matter how tactfully, probably won't work, since you'll be challenging his honesty and maybe even threatening his own job. And tattling to someone else will probably invite reprisals. Unless you're willing to take that risk, you have only two real options: Live with the status quo, or leave for more ethical pastures.
DOES it matter what one calls God?
DOES it matter what one calls God? Would he answer to Allah but not X, Yahweh but not Y, Brahman not Z? Would he be confused if Christians called him 'Allah', Hindus 'Yahweh' and Muslims 'God'? Is he a linguistic chauvinist? Would he say: 'Call me 'God' as in English, not Gott as in German; Theos as in Greek, not Deus as in Latin; Allah as in Arabic, not Alaha as in Aramaic or Syriac?'
These are, of course, inane questions. Idiotic humans might ask them; God, if he exists, cannot possibly abide such silly questions.
Neti, neti, the Buddha would say when pressed by over-eager disciples to describe the nature of ultimate reality - 'not this, not this'.
Jews are reminded of the utter incapacity of language to encompass God by the Tetragrammaton - the four Hebrew consonants (Yod Heh Vau Heh) designating God, usually transliterated as YHWH in English. So sacrosanct is the name of God, observant Jews do not vocalise the Tetragrammaton, preferring instead to refer indirectly to Yahweh as Adonai ('my Lord') or Elohim ('God') or by means of euphemisms such as hash-Shem ('the Name') or Shem Hameforash ('the ineffable Name.').
Muslims are told by scripture that 'God has ninety-nine names' - among them 'the King, the Holy One, the Perfect Peace, Granter of security, Giver of protection, the Omnipotent, the Overwhelming, ' and so on. 'In congregate, (these names) affirm God's supreme perfection and cultivate deeper understanding of his beauty and majesty,' writes Dr Umar Faruq Abd-Allah, a Muslim scholar, in an article aptly titled One God, Many Names. They also affirm that the transcendent cannot possibly be fully encompassed by language.
Mystical literature illustrates the point. Here is a list of some phrases that one scholar culled from 17th century Christian mystical writings describing the experience of God: 'Inflaming transubstantiations ; super-essential unions; abyssal liquefactions; deific confrications; meridian holocausts in a visceral and medullar penetrability.'
The extravagance of these phrases illustrates how every attempt to describe religious experience has to be, of necessity, 'a raid on the inarticulate, ' as the poet T.S. Eliot put it. If God is ineffable - and all the religions are agreed that he is - a degree of linguistic modesty ought to figure among the prime religious virtues.
It is a lesson the religious, of all faiths, are apt to forget. Consider, for instance, how Reverend Pat Robertson, the American evangelist, spoke once of the names of God. Speaking of the Sept 11 terrorist attacks, he said: The conflict is about 'whether Hubal, the moon god of Mecca known as Allah, is supreme, or whether the Judeo-Christian Jehovah, God of the Bible, is supreme.'
Almost every word in that statement is nonsense. Firstly, Hubal was a pre-Islamic pagan god that Prophet Muhammad rejected. Secondly, 'Jehovah' is not a name that appears anywhere in the Jewish Bible. It is an English mistransliteration of the Jewish Tetragrammaton, YHWH. Most scholars now believe the Tetragrammaton is better vocalised in English as 'Yahweh'. And thirdly, 'Allah', far from being un-Christian, is related to the word that Jesus Christ himself - who spoke Aramaic, let us not forget, not English, Greek or Latin - would have used to refer to God: Elah or Alah.
Which brings us to the nonsense uttered on the other side - by the Muslim Pat Robertsons of Malaysia. Christians, they have ruled, cannot use 'Allah' to refer to God in Malay translations of the Bible. The word is unique to Islam, they insist. It would confuse Muslims - and presumably God too - if Christians used the same word. These assertions make no sense whatsoever - culturally, historically and linguistically.
To this day, hundreds of thousands of Arab Christians call God 'Allah'. Arabic-speaking Jews do the same. There is no indication Arabic-speaking Muslims have been confused as a result.
Arab scholars and Imams would know what linguists have established beyond a shadow of doubt: The words for 'God' in Arabic, Hebrew and Aramaic, all Semitic languages, are so closely related as to be virtually indistinguishable. The Abrahamic faiths - Judaism, Christianity and Islam - may have different conceptions of God, but etymologically- speaking, they all call God by the same name.
The Arabic Allah shares the same root as the Hebrew Elohim and the Aramaic Alaha. Elohim derives from eloh (Hebrew for 'God'), Alaha is an emphatic form of alah (Aramaic for 'God'), and Allah is linked to ilah (Arabic for 'God').
'All three of these Semitic words for 'God' - eloh, alah and ilah - are etymologically equivalent,' as Dr Abd-Allah notes. 'The slight modifications between them reflect different pronunciations conforming to the historical pattern of morphological shifts in each tongue.'
How would it be possible to say Christians cannot say 'Allah' when Christ himself - who walked the face of the Earth six centuries before Prophet Muhammad did, and is accepted by Muslims as a prophet - would have said Alah, Elah or Alaha?
There are reasons why the Quran calls Jews and Christians ahl al-kitab - 'People of the Book'. They share the same religious texts as Muslims; they share similar revelations; and the Semitic languages they spoke are more closely linked than are Sanskrit, Latin, English and the other Indo-European languages.
There are two ways in which this linguistically meaningless argument in Malaysia may be resolved.
One, Malaysia's Islamic authorities might consider what word for 'God' the Prophet would have used when speaking to his wife's cousin Waraqa ibn Nawfal, a Christian. For two years after he first received God's revelations, the Prophet spoke of his experiences to nobody other than his wife Khadija and her cousin.
Would he have told his Christian relative: No you can't say 'Allah'; say 'Tuan' or 'God' or 'Deus'?
If the Malaysian authorities can confirm this could not possibly have been the case, then the matter might be closed: All Christians, like the Prophet's relative, may be allowed to say 'Allah'.
But if the authorities still insist that what was admissible for the Prophet's relative should be inadmissible now, for whatever reason, then they might consider another option. Denied the right to use 'Allah', Christian Malaysians may be allowed to go back to their linguistic roots, and use the Aramaic Alah or Alaha as Christ would have.
One letter 'l' less or one syllable 'a' more than 'Allah' - that should be enough to prevent the impossible and non-existent confusion of Islam and Christianity in Malaysia.
The Straits Times
Pak Lah's 5 famous sayings - all broken
Labels: ENGLISH, POLITICS, UNBELIEVABLEThe front-page headline of the mainstream media yesterday was on the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s speech at the Gerakan-MCA joint Chinese New Year open house in Penang on the first day of the Chinese New Year of the Rat, viz:
“LISTEN – Heed what the people say and correct your mistakes” – New Straits Times;
“Listen …Hear out the people and correct mistakes, PM tell leaders” – The Star; and
“Dengar masalah rakyat – Arahan Perdana Menteri kepada pemimpin BN supaya terus dapat sokongan” – Utusan Malaysia.
Which Gerakan or MCA national leader present at the Gerakan-MCA joint Chinese New Year open house would have dared tell or just whispered to Abdullah that it was the Prime Minister himself who needed such advice most!
Let me here tell the Prime Minister what Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon, Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting and no Gerakan or MCA leader dare to say – Pak Lah, you are the one who need most to heed the advice to listen to the people, which you promised to do when you first became Prime Minister more than 51 months ago but have failed to honour!
This was one of the five famous sayings of Abdullah in his first 10 days as the fifth Prime Minister of Malaysia in November 2003 which completely swept Malaysians off their feet and gave him the unprecedented landslide general election victory in March 2004, achieving what no other Prime Minister had ever done – crushing the Opposition and winning over 91 per cent of the parliamentary seats!
Malaysians will never forget the five famous pledges of Abdullah in his first 10 days as Prime Minister in November 2003, viz:
* “Work with me and not for me” –1.11.03
* “I will work very hard” – 1.11.03
* “I’ll serve with integrity, efficiency and fairness” – in Parliament 3.11.03
* “Top two issues – Government to focus on education and corruption” – 7.11.03
* “Tell me the truth” – 9.11.03
Something is very wrong when a Prime Minister at the end of his first term in office had to plead publicly: “I work very hard. I really mean it and you know it.”
The press reported that when Abdullah said this, he was greeted with applause from those who attended the Chinese Assembly Hall’s Chinese New Year Open House. But how many of those who politely applauded him believed him?
No one would have imagined that Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad would ever have to make such a declaration at any stage of his 22-year premiership that he had to work very hard – whether one agrees with his policies and actions or not. This had not happened to previous Prime Ministers. Why is it necessary for Abdullah to plead that he is hard-working after four years as Prime Minister?
Before Abdullah asks other Barisan Nasional leaders to conduct a self-examinination of their performance, Abdullah should do it to himself. I believe I dare say without contradiction that for the past full year of parliamentary meeting from March last year, Abdullah would have gone down in history as the Prime Minister who had the least parliamentary attendance of any Prime Minister in the 50-year history of Parliament although he holds the most number of Ministerial portfolios!
Similarly, before Abdullah could credibly ask other Barisan Nasional leaders to “listen” and heed what the people say to correct their mistakes, he must himself set a good example. Abdullah has said that he has “Big Ears” but his “Big Ears” have not ensured that his famous saying, “Tell me the truth” is taken seriously in Cabinet, Barisan Nasional or the Malaysian press – or the country would not have been plagued with so many nation-building, political, economic, educational, social, cultural and religious problems.
This is not the time to assess in detail Abdullah’s five famous sayings and pledges made in his first 10 days as Prime Minister. Suffice it to say that Abdullah has broken and dishonoured everyone of them – aided and abetted by the entire Cabinet (rightly dismissed as “half-past six” Cabinet by Tun Mahathir) and Barisan Nasional leadership.
The Prime Minister must rightly be reminded of his five famous sayings and pledges – a task which could not be performed by any Umno, MCA, Gerakan, MIC, SUPP or any Barisan Nasional leader. This is what the DAP and Malaysian voters must do, forthrightly, vigorously and critically, in the 12th general election campaign
Lim Kit Siang
Fish Breeder In Rotten Situation
SUNGAI PETANI: A cut in power supply for six hours cost a fish breeder losses of RM1 million after some 150,000 barramundi (ikan siakap putih) died when its oxygen supply was interrupted two days ago.
Relating the incident, Lim Bun Thong, 43, said on Monday at 9.30pm the power supply was suddenly interrupted in Kampung Sungai Layar Ujung here where his two ponds of fish were located.
“Knowing that the fish would only survive for three hours without oxygen, I quickly called up the Tenaga Nasional Berhad office here,”he said.
“I called the office every 10 minutes to follow-up on their progress in restoring the power supply.” The power supplywas down until 3.30am on Tuesday and the dead fish started floating on the pond.
“Iwas frustrated each time I called up the TNB office. The officers gave me the same answer: that the power supply problem had been resolved.
“But it was only at 3.30am that the electricity supply was back. But it was too late.” Lim said he tried to substitute the power supply with a generator but it did not work.
It was three months since the generator was last used.
“I could not do anything except look at the dead fish in both the ponds.” Lim started to breed the barramundi seven months ago.
They would weigh between 600g and 2kg when fully grown and when sold to wholesalers would fetch RM12 per kilogramme for the Chinese New Year.
“The loss is unbearable and this is the first time such an incident has happened since I ve n t u r e d into fish breeding two years ago,”he said.
Lim is seeking advice from his friends whether he should take action against TNB.
Meanwhile, state TNB general manager Abdul Haris Abdul Karim said its main intake station in Taman Dahlia and Pulau Tiga here had technical problems about 10pm that night.
The problem in Taman Dahlia was resolved at 10.55pm. However, in Pulau Tiga, the interruption of power supply was only resolved at 3.30am.
Abdul Haris said the incident was unintentional and the station in Pulau Tiga was having some major technical problem.
“TNB always does its best to resolve any problem,” he added. - New Straits Times
13 - Badawi's lucky number
Labels: ENGLISH, INDUSTRY INFO, NATION, POLITICSTHIRTEEN is a number deemed to be unlucky by some traditions.
But not for the Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who has often talked about 13 being his lucky number.
Even his official car registration number is 13.
Political analysts in Malaysia are using this number as a guide to when the country's 12th general elections will be called.
'For the 11th general election, the Prime Minister called for it on 3 March, 2004,' a political observer, who declined to be named, said.
Add up the numbers.
Three, three (for March), two and four, and the total is 13.
He said although this year's digits (2008) would make it difficult to achieve a sum of 13 from the date, there is a chance that the PM would make the announcement on 13 Feb.
'Then again, we can toy with other dates such as 29 Feb, 19 Feb and maybe even 18 Apr,' he said.
The Malaysian news agency Bernama recently quoted a fengshui master saying that Mr Abdullah, born in the Year of the Rabbit, would benefit from his lucky number 13 in 2008.
Reverend Yong, founder of Foretell Feng Shui Services and a practitioner for 21 years, said that dates with that number (13) or any combination of it would be good for the PM.
Under Malaysia's system of parliamentary democracy, the PM has the sole discretion to recommend the dissolution of parliament to the King.
Once parliament is dissolved, the Election Commission will conduct the general election and fix the nomination and polling dates.
7 Signs That You're a Bad Boss
Labels: ENGLISH, INDUSTRY INFO, WORK1. The staff has developed guidelines for dealing with you and quietly passes them to new employees. "Never suggest that there might be another way of doing something," they might say. Or "Act self-deprecating so he doesn't feel threatened."
2. You have one or two fanatical acolytes. Yes, such devotion may be a testament to your fabulousness. But often when a boss is perceived as universally loathed, the staff opportunist offers herself up as sole confidante and friend, seeking power and favor at the expense of more honest, critical employees.
3. You never see people walk by. Employees would rather circumnavigate the entire office to get to the coffee machine or bathroom than take the shortcut past your door and risk being invited in.
4. Your 360-degree evaluations come back short and full of generically positive comments, with one very mild criticism ("Sometimes she works too damn hard for her own good") thrown in for credibility's sake.
5. People don't volunteer for your pet projects. The idea sucks, and they're afraid to tell you, or it's brilliant, but the consequences for letting you down are too terrible to imagine. And, of course, if it's your pet project, you'll probably work on it as well. Which means more time spent...gulp...with you.
6. You have legions of former employees, but they rarely give your name as a reference for new jobs. Either they don't trust you to give them their due, or they worry that because they were so miserable working for you, your recollections will also be dismal.
7. You have legions of former employees, period. If your staff falls away like linty Post-it notes, ask yourself: Is high turnover the problem? Or am I?
Serious Trouble
As more time passes our country is being run into the tong sampah. The economic management of the country is in a shambles. The Finance Minister is also the Prime Minister who is a first class non-performer.
He does not know anything about what is going on in the economy. He has handed over the management of the economy to the 2nd Finance Minister who is also a non-performer who has somehow convinced the Prime Minister and the ignoramuses who populate the Cabinet that he has exceptional economic management skills.
The 2nd Finance Minister came up with the idea of diesel subsidies for the bumiputra inshore fishermen which has destroyed the inshore fishing industry. Fishermen do not fish any more. They smuggle diesel and earn more money. Now there are serious fights brewing over control of the many 'persatuan nelayan' because the persatuan nelayan has access to the diesel subsidy quotas too. Who would have imagined that even fishermen can be messed up? But this is what is happening now in our country thanks to the incompetent Prime Minister and his equally incompetent 2nd Finance Minister.
Throughout 22 years of Dr Mahathir's rule there rarely or never was any strike, especially by bus drivers, general workers and factory workers. But yesterday almost all the bus drivers on Penang island went on strike, crippling movement on the island. Thousands of people were late for work, causing great economic loss to the island's economy. The strike has still not been resolved. If the strike continues, the government may have no choice but to use the ISA to arrest the strike leaders. Then the BN will lose Penang to the opposition in the coming general elections. This bus strike in Penang has already cost the BN thousands of votes.
The day before that, bus drivers in Kuala Lumpur operating the KL - Shah Alam route also went on strike. They were told to collect more fares or their pay would be cut. This is totally stupid. How are bus drivers going to collect more fares if there are not enough people boarding the buses? How are there going to be enough people boarding the buses when many of the foreign investor-owned factories along the PJ - Shah Alam sector have closed down and moved to China? How are we going to get more foreign investors if the Minister of the MITI says 'the foreign investors can go elsewhere if they don't like our policies'?
The bus drivers in Penang want more pay to meet the sky-rocketing costs of living. But the 2nd Finance Minister has said that the inflation rate in the country is just 2%, there is nothing to worry about. The management of the bus company in Penang is headed by Chinese who are Gerakan party appointees. The striking bus drivers are mostly Malays. The relatively wealthy Chinese on Penang do not take the bus as much as the Malays, so the management has decided to play tough guy. They have told the bus drivers that those who strike will be fired.
If the bus drivers in Penang are given the wage increases which they have demanded, it is possible that other bus drivers, general workers and factory workers in other parts of the country will soon go on strike too. The price increases do not affect Penang island only.
Thousands of retired policemen are also angry with the Government and will not be voting for the BN either. These are the retired policemen who have been forcefully pressed back into service as part of the Prime Minister's idea to fight the escalating crime rates in the country. The Government has performed an illegal act by forcing the retired policemen back to work. One angry retired Policeman said 'Dia kata ini perintah Perdana Menteri' (They say this is an order from the Prime Minister). These retired Policemen will not be voting for the BN either.
And how are foreign investors and tourists going to come to our country with this type of crap happening almost every other day? We have just got over the 60,000 strong Bersih protest and the 25,000 strong Hindraf protest in Kuala Lumpur. The KLCC was completely shut down again last week when another 3,000 people protested over the price increases of food and essential items. Over 150 people were arrested by the police.
The government of Abdullah Badawi is more concerned with winning the elections than managing the country effectively. But even there they are having serious problems. UMNO politics in Perlis are in a shambles. UMNO leaders in Perlis are already telling their supporters to vote for the opposition this time around. The situation is not rosy in Penang either. A few UMNO leaders have said at ceramah that they do not want 2nd Finance Minister Nor Mohd Yakop to contest any seats in Penang. The 2nd Finance Minister is seen as an outsider who cannot speak Malay or mix well with the people on the ground. But the real issue is that there is a major power struggle in UMNO Penang itself.
There is a question mark about who will be the candidate for Putrajaya. The incumbent Tengku Adnan may be taken out. Who will replace him? Again, after being kicked out of Penang, the 2nd Finance Minister is believed to be eyeing this seat too but so is the Prime Minister's son-in-law.
The country is slowly but surely slipping into chaos. The longer the general elections are postponed the better it will be for the opposition because, with each passing day, more and more crap keeps coming to the surface. The Prime Minister has to be replaced. The country can do without an imbecile as a Prime Minister. The leadership of the country also needs to be thoroughly revamped. The present set of morons who sit in Cabinet must be replaced.
But even changing the Prime Minister is not going to save this country. We need a complete overhaul of all our policies. Malaysia has to become part of the real world. Right now we are not rooted in reality. That is the real problem.
Sultan Zulhasnan
Labels: ENGLISH, NATION, POLITICSThere is no doubt that the Federal Territory Minister is 'King of the Hill' today. But that has not always been the case in the past, in the period that covered at least one of the projects you chose to highlight.
It is therefore misleading, if not outright dangerous, for you to link the current FT Minister to the projects. Let's go back into history and see what I mean.
Up to the time of Mohd Said, it seems successive Mayors only had to report to the PM and they responded to the PM's directives or instructions as how things were done and 'given out'. The FT Minister (cant remember when the post was created) did not figure in the equation at all.
Then came Mohd Said's term and he and his Director-General couldn't see eye to eye on how things 'were done'. Each was virtually claiming the other was monopolising the business end of the body.
Things virtually came to a halt at DBKL thanks to internal rift between the two big chiefs which resulted in the unceremonious removal of the Major. One thing led to another and the Sec-Gen eventually took over as Mayor.
Up to that stage, the Mayor still had direct access to the PM and nothing significant was done without the PM's endorsement. However, each successive FT Minister demanded more and more say in deciding 'things'.
Somewhere along the line, the current FT Minister came into the picture demanding more opportunities for his political allies. The Mayor obviously had other ideas and still insisted on going about his business in his own way, i.e. doing things to meet his priorities and only bowing out if the PM chose to intervene.
The FT Minister was incensed and even went on record demanding the Mayor be elected and that the Mayor be must Kuala Lumpur born. Then a golden opportunity arose and the FT Minister jumped at it to cut the Mayor to size.
If you can recall, the previous Mayor, the D-G for DBKL for the past so many years, gained notoriety through fainting at one of his functions. Then someone wrote poison pen letters about him which culminated in a booklet being distributed for free (or was it RM5.00?) at Masjid India. Then there were incidents with City Hall staff concerning premises that resulted in the almost sealing of City Hall by Court officials.
If you also can recall, the tenure of the previous Mayor was unceremoniously brought to a quick end, but not before the FT Minister and the Mayor went public with their internal squabbles.
So, the current situation in DBKL is peaceful again because the current Mayor is the Minister's man and if you want anything from DBKL you just need to go to the Minister and you get what you want.
I have not heard the FT Minister calling for the Mayor to be an elected post or to be a citizen of FT lately, have you?
I know as a fact that at least one of the projects which was decided entirely by the previous Mayor, his team and the EPU/MOF, and the Minister was not involved. The contractor is linked to the financing of the Kepala Batas UMNO division.
Do I need to say more?
