2012, a new year’s field of wishes

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A new year’s field of wishes

ON YOUR OWN by TAN THIAM HOCK

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GOVERNMENT TRANSFORMATION PROGRAMME

TODAY is the last day of 2011. Congrats for having survived another business year. Hope you have stayed healthy too.

As an entrepreneur, based on a scale of one to 10, have you had a good year? Moderate year? Or just another year that you would like to forget? What are your wishes for 2012 and beyond?

What if I start an entrepreneur wish list that I will send to our dear Prime Minister? Would you support me and write to me the one wish that you think should be included in the list? But please do not send me letters or post cards as I have no intention of physically delivering the sack loads to Putrajaya. It is bad for my poor back and also my golf swing which will then go from bad to worse.

And no long messages or long winded explanations either. He is a very busy man. If possible, keep it to one word. That should catch his attention.

If you are still uncertain on how to approach the one word, perhaps, I can be of some help. For instance, we will have an acronym eWISH1M which is one Malaysian entrepreneur wish. Then, from the dictionary, just pick one word and I am sure his circle of advisors and strategists will be able to analyse it from many different angles, some of which even you are not aware of. Here is an example:

To our dearest YAB PM eWISH1M “field”



If his super smart advisors interpret field as an expanse of open or cleared land suitable for pasture or tillage or playing, then he will recognise the wishes of the people to preserve the few green lungs and playing fields left in Klang Valley. Instruct the State Economic Development Corporations and and Government-Linked Companies to forego the development and profit potential and leave open fields alone.

Maybe one of the advisors will realise that fields like Rubber Research Institute of Malaysia, Sg Buloh should have been earmarked for low cost housing. Maybe it is possible to build three bedroom high rise apartments at a cost of RM 150,000 (no land cost) to cater to the needs of the poor.

What they deemed as valuable land should be used to house a valuable workforce that will feed the needs of the commercial capital of Malaysia. No poor man can afford a minimum RM400,000 house that will be built on this rubber field.

Malaysian entrepreneurs of all races are asking for a level playing field. Where opportunities are not hijacked by the privileged few. Why should a small retailer under the Economic Transformation Plan, have to borrow RM60,000 to revamp his store so that he can survive the onslaught of foreign hypermarkets when under the Government Transformation Programme (GTP), a very successful local multi millionaire retailer be given RM40mil to open retail stores? The GTP should be helping the needy, not the greedy.

On the field of expertise, the PM should be worried when the Employee's Provident Fund (EPF) second their chief investment officer (CIO) to manage a bank when the CIO should be managing our RM400bil savings. Like the other sovereign funds Khazanah Nasional Berhad and Permodalan Nasional Berhad, EPF should stick to their field of expertise which is fund investment and not fun management.

Even though it is quite intoxicating to act as powerful entrepreneurs when you are not, the supreme fund managers of our sovereign wealth and pension funds should realise that they are accountable to the citizens of Malaysia who are shareholders and stakeholders in the wealth of the nation.

In addition to fielding winnable candidates for the coming elections, the PM should appoint intelligent and capable field generals as ministers. Generals who can lead the nation into international economic battlefields not shrieking racial rhetorics in local fields. Generals who can field any MACC question and know what their family is up to. INTELLIGENT1Minister should be your next mission should you agree to accept your reappointment as PM-1.

Corporate Malaysia Inc operates like magnetic fields where greedy entrepreneurs are drawn to inept politicians and corrupt officials. Either you lead the field or you leave the field. Those in power reap the fields. Losers are sent to the killing fields.

And I will end my message to our dear PM with a plea Restore HONOUR1M.

Unfortunately, this might just be one word too many for his super smart advisors to comprehend. And wishful thinking on my part. Final reality check.

On a personal note, I have written on issues outside the field of entrepreneurship and as such will leave the field to the real writers.

It had started out as a challenge from the ever gracious CEO of Star Publications (M) Bhd and thanks to him, I now have a better appreciation of responsible journalism. And how not being able to write freely on issues close to your heart can be detrimental to your golf swing and your soul.

Many thanks to friends who texted and emailed their support. To those who wrote to me for all the right reasons, you kept me going week after week. Much appreciated.

To all eWannabes, Good luck.

To all entrepreneurs, Happy New Year.

The writer is an entrepreneur who hopes to shares his experience and insights with readers who want to take that giant leap into business but are not sure if they should. Email him at thtan@alliancecosmetics.com

Biz Talk 2011-12-17 Currency integration questioned (Video)

Biz Talk 2011-12-17 Currency integration questioned CCTV News - CNTV English

Jobless schizophrenic with 12 credit cards owes RM50,000

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By AMANDA NG YANN CHWEN and KATHY CHIN newsdesk@thestar.com.my

KUALA LUMPUR: An unemployed schizophrenic has landed himself with a RM50,000 debt – no thanks to his 12 credit cards.



MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Michael Chong said the man, known only as Y.F. Chong, 35, had approached him for help as he was afraid he would go to jail.

“Why was it so easy for him to get so many cards when his salary was only 1,500?” he asked reporters at a press conference at his office here yesterday.

Y.F., who used to work in a milling factory, said he would apply for every credit card offered to him by promoters at shopping centres and was approved for all of them.

He said that when he lost his job in October due to his condition, which was diagnosed in 2004, he started depending on his credit cards to get by.

“Previously, I used to pay for trips to spas and a holiday in Thailand with my credit cards,” he said, adding that he even took two supplementary cards for his mother and sister.

He said last year, the banks started demanding payment, adding that all his cards have now been cancelled.

“If I still had a job, I would pay off the debts by instalment, but I am jobless now,” said YF, who because of his condition, claims somebody is following him and poisoning his food.

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterised by a breakdown of thought processes and by poor emotional responsiveness. Symptoms include auditory hallucinations, paranoia or delusions,

He claimed that when he tried to file for bankruptcy, the Official Assignee office asked him to pay another RM1,500 for filing charges.

“I couldn’t as I didn’t have the money,” he said.

Chong expressed amazement that YF managed to get 12 credit cards.

He said he had tried to apply for a Gold Card more than 10 years ago, and was rejected.

“Why is it so easy to apply for credit cards now?” he asked.

Chong added that it was not surprising that so many young people in the country were in serious debt.

“There’s something really wrong with the current system,” he said, adding that banks should have a more thorough vetting process.

‘He is a good father’, man chained kids!

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The man may have chained kids out of desperation

BUTTERWORTH: The man accused of shackling his children in a bathroom is not as cruel as he had been made out to be, according to his neighbours and police.

Breaking free: The chains on the girl’s leg being removed at the house in Jalan Raja Uda. — GARY CHEN / The Star >>

“Their relationship is very close.

“The children would give their father a goodbye kiss whenever he leaves the house,” said a neighbour, known only as Lee.

Lee said the man had been under much stress since his Thai wife left home about a month ago.

Another neighbour, who wished to be known only as Gan, said the father was a friendly man and he seldom scolded his children.

“I am not sure why he decided to chain the kids, but I guess he was at wit’s end on how to take care of them,” said Gan, who runs a plastics shop next to the double-storey shoplot in Taman Mawar on Jalan Raja Uda where the family stays.

The two children, aged two and six, had been chained inside the bathroom of their home on Wednesday.

Authorities broke into the place after being alerted by neighbours who heard them crying.

Their father has been detained while the children have been warded at the Seberang Jaya Hospital.

Gan said the children were usually left in the one-bedroom home on the first floor when the father went out to deliver goods to customers from 3pm to 10pm.

“He is very busy as he runs a shop on the ground floor while his children live upstairs,” he said.

Asked about the children’s behaviour, Gan said the two-year-old boy was naughty and had thrown toys and chairs out from the balcony.

Another neighbour, Soy, said that she would give the children some bread when she heard their cries.

Penang police chief Deputy Comm Datuk Wira Ayub Yaakob said the community must play its role and help the family instead of blaming the man for his action.



“We must not just look at the case from the criminal aspect.

“Obviously, he was under a lot of stress and he needs help and support from the community at this point,” he said yesterday.

Meanwhile, Raymond Tan, the uncle of the two siblings, has stepped in to take temporary custody of the two children.

The North Seberang Prai district Welfare Department will apply for a court order to grant temporary custody to Tan, pending the outcome of investigations into the case.

Penang Health, Welfare, Caring Society and Environment Committee chairman Phee Boon Poh said Tan had agreed to temporarily care for his nephew and niece, and they would live with his family at his home in Bayan Baru.

He said Tan told him that the children’s father had expressed remorse but explained that he had no choice as his son was hyperactive.

“Sometimes, the child would throw things around at his home and the father decided to chain him as he was afraid that his son might run out of the house,” said Phee, who visited them at the hospital.
Both the children were in good health.

Tan said his 40-year-old brother worked as a chemical supplier and that he was a caring man who loved his children.

“My brother has never done such a thing before and I was shocked over the incident.”

Tan said his Thai sister-in-law, who is said to be two months’ pregnant, had gone backto her hometown in Bangkok to visit her family. -  The Star

Kids home alone and chained

By M. SIVANANTHA SHARMA, KOW KWAN YEE and FONG KEE SOON north@thestar.com.my

BUTTERWORTH: Two children, aged two and six, were left home alone for hours and worse, they were chained in the bathroom.

Their father, a despatcher in his 40s, left them chained in their house in Jalan Raja Uda, apparently for “being naughty”.

The girl and her younger brother were left without food for about four hours before they were finally rescued on Wednesday.

Sorry state: The two-year-old chained near a toilet bowl in the bathroom of the house in Jalan Raja Uda.>>
North Seberang Prai OCPD Asst Comm Zulkifli Alias said neighbours who heard the children's cries called a volunteer patrol team, who then alerted the police and Welfare Department.

“The authorities broke into the house through the front door and freed the children,” he said.

When met at the Seberang Jaya Hospital where they were admitted to, the six-year-old girl said: “I was scared and hungry so my brother and I began shouting for our father.”

When asked whether she or her brother was in pain, she said no.

The girl, however, seemed unable to answer when asked whether they had been chained previously.

She said there had been no visits from relatives since they were sent to the hospital.

ACP Zulkifli said the father claimed that the children were naughty, so he chained them and left them without food as punishment.

He also told police that his wife left home about a month ago.

Police picked up a man at a shophouse in Taman Mawar shortly after the children were rescued at about 8.40pm. He has been remanded for four days.

“Initial investigations revealed that the children were chained before he left for work at about 3pm,” ACP Zulkifli said at the district police headquarters in Bertam, Kepala Batas, yesterday.

A neighbour, who works as a mechanic, said he heard the crying while he was at his workshop, which was next to the shoplot near Jalan Raja Uda where the children live.

“I heard them crying at around 2pm on Wednesday. I did not think much of it as I thought the kids were just quarrelling,” said the neighbour who declined to be named.

“So I was shocked to see Rela members at the house around 8.45pm. I only realised the kids were chained when some of them showed me the photographs,” he said.

He said he often heard the children crying since his car workshop opened for business about a month ago.

A Chinese vernacular newspaper in its evening edition quoted the father as saying that he was forced to chain his children because they would dirty the house if they were left unattended.

Penang Health, Welfare, Caring Society and Environment Committee chairman Phee Boon Poh said the children would be placed under the custody of the Welfare Department for now.