Wanna Serve on the Film Censorship Board?

These days, the civil service is extra efficient.

Rakyat didahulukan! Prestasi diutamakan!

Sometime in the first brand new days of June, I received a phone call.

"Could you attend an interview for the post of Member of the Film Censorship Board on such and such a day?"

No formal letter. They want to save the jungle and prevent global warming!

Yes, I did remember downloading the forms from the Website of the Home Affairs Ministry to apply for this post.

" Boleh....." I replied.

" Lamakah interview ini?"

" Biasnya 2 jam". Hum, mighty long time for an interview....I thought.

So,  on the fateful day, I found myself in the ever majestic Putrajaya.

There were about half a dozen of us milling about the interview area.Mostly senior citizens; mostly with X generation values!

The Secretariat then invited us in. We were given specific chairs to sit on.

The Secretariat Chief then informed us that this was not going to be an ordinary interview but more of a discussion. We were there to share our views.

Everything was hunky dory until......

I was then told to do a translation of a short text from Bahasa Malaysia to Chinese.

I was definitely a non-starter!

So, I translated in English. Whatever they wanted to do with my translation, its theirs to decide. As far as I was concerned, I was never ever gonna be a Chinese based Censorship member. Just won't cut! Not at the Censorship Board.

Heard that of 5 Chinese candidates, four of them could not do the translation. For the two candidates whom they called for Indian Censorship membership, only one spoke Tamil,' like drinking water'. Sure, he gonna get the job!

So, there goes another bit of my life spent in the pursuit of humble irrelevance.

Anyway, you would never know. As a Christian, I do believe this.

"If God is for you, who can be against you?"

So, maybe once of those current serving members may just quit and they could just called me to take over pronto!

Life can be full of surprises, don't you agree?

EPF-Stabiliser or Destabiliser?

This is one interesting question as EPF is a juggernaut of a giant which can virtually move mountains as far as BSKL is concerned.

 I have been observing its actions lately. True, it made smart moves based on the dynamics of the market. Lately it has made small cute purchases as well as sold in large chunks.

Case in point-Ever since YTL Corp splitted its share into 5, EPF was in the market selling an enormous amount of it. To ensure that the price can be 'protected' so as not to lose its fair value, YTL Corp has also been in the market mopping up the shares thrown out by EPF. The share price has been gravitating because of EPF and bargain hunters had a field day almost all of May until the first week of June. It is only today that the Treasury buy-in by YTLCorp could stave off the mincing effect of the diabolical EPF.

 Interestingly, it has switched tacks. Now, it is starting to purchase small buy-ins into KLCCP  and KLK. Both are tightly held and I guess with little 'float'.

As I would expect their selling of  YTLCorp to taper off, providing some relief and respite from those buyers at YTLCorp, we could expect some upward action particularly in KLK and KLCCP.

EPF is no stabiliser. It is a destabiliser.

It is fortunate that we allow Treasury buy-ins on BSKL; otherwise EPF could really turn into some sort of 'rogue trader'!

So, watch these counters as EPF displays its devilish 'puppet master' stunts!