Hmm... I wanted to talk about the Malaysian governments efforts to get more talents and professionals to Malaysia. They were mainly targettting ex-Malaysians living abroad.

Well, needless to say, it was a disaster. Of the 90+ professionals that came back to Malaysia, only 1 is left now. How pathetic is that? Malaysia's government doesn't seem to do its homework well. It's not just about tax reduction, incentives and stuff. From the newspaper articles I read, these people were having problems to fit in the society, especially their spouses and children, who may not know Malay or English etc. Their spouses had problems or long delays to get permission to work, and they had problems looking for suitable International Schools for their children etc...

Why is it that the Malaysian government thinks that when they can get something started, everything will surely work out fine? They seem apathetic to the need of maintenence and long term effects of their projects. In my opinion meritocracy is not upheld although the officials claim that it is. How to explain the huge numbers of non-Bumiputera students scoring many A's but not given a place in University? Don't they even bother about the large amounts of their potential high-quality human resources 'leaking' abroad, especially to Singapore?

Just came back from Malaysia yesterday by the way. Noticed that more and more trees and flowers are planted in Batu Pahat and Johor Bahru. But something struck me. I haven't seen a hibiscus for AGES. And it's supposed to be the National Flower of Malaysia! No one seems to want to plant hibiscus anymore... And in many places in Skudai and also in Batu Pahat they are planting the golf-course type of grass. What for? Not really against it, but, the money used to buy these things should be used for other stuff first like tidying up the road shoulders, improve public amenities etc. Please prioritise! Argh!!!! Don't know what are all the politicians doing... Malaysia is a super unorganised place...

Anyway, while I was waiting for my bus back to BP I did some maths homework. Someone was staring at me but I didn't bother. But when I got on the bus I sat beside him... found out that he was studying his final year at Skudai's Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) . He was from Penang, studied in Perak and Melaka before but never been to Singapore. We were talking in Malay by the way. I had to apologize to him first because my Malay was 'rusty' (Maaf... Bahasa Melayu saya sudah karat!). Anyway, he did most of the talking. As he was studying things like drilling and searching for petroleum, he told me a lot about drills and wanting to work for Petronas and stuff. His first choice was actually Mechatronics but he didn't get it. Anyway, he wanted to meet his friends at Kolej Universiti Teknologi Tun Hussien Onn (KUiTTHO), which is incidentally where my parents work and where my brother studies. So I helped him get down at the right time. Finally I could rest! Haha... he talked to me all the way from JB to Parit Raja!

Hmm... this seems to be quite a long post. I'll write about the interesting names of places near Batu Pahat next time.... Concerning my results....well, I guess I'll just wait to get back a few papers before I say anything...