Malaysia: Don't We Mourn the Death of English?

All night yesterday, I was going through the new text of the English component of Literature for the 1119 English Paper for SPM beginning 2010. It was raining continuously outside. After completing the task, I reflected. Some of the poems and articles were well chosen,mind you. I like some of the poems but there was something not right on the novellas and the play.

Let me give my views on top of my head.

A: THE POEMS COMPONENT

In the Midst of Hardship: Well translated and very profound using a fantastic breadth of imagery. Very agrarian. Should appeal to the Malaysian psyche.

He Had Such Quiet Eyes: A beautifully written poem by Bibsy Soenharjo. Simple and at once impact-ful poem telling the innocence of a girl and the trap laid for her by an amorous lover.

Nature: Another well-chosen poem describing nature in the West Indies. Very colourful use of words and imagery.

Are You Still Playing Your Flute: One of the more lofty poem attempting to crossbreed Malaysian politics,sad realities and art. A higher level of understanding of Malaysian politics will stand a student in good stead here.The way it is written is reflective of 'Isle of Innisfree'.

B: THE SHORT STORIES COMPONENT

QWERTYUIOP: An interesting short story. The level of English is fit for Primary 6. That it is chosen for Upper Secondary English is hard to believe. I am upset.

THE FRUITCAKE SPECIAL: A simple story. Again the level is just too low for Upper Secondary English. Another disappointment here.


GULP AND GASP: An interesting play. I think this is still very simple for Upper Secondary. It will be right for Form 3. However, this comical play does give students an exposure to an English play particularly the literary devises used. That will be the only redeeming point, if at all that I can see. I will just tolerate this selection.

Now,do you still wonder why I am upset?

A Definitive Look at the Word, " Racist"

Nothing explains it better than the carton below. Can we still laugh at ourselves?

Overshadowing a Brand?

So what do you do when the one you use to promote your brand gets more famous than the brand. Remove him or her by ending the contract?

Yes, that is what US luxury knitwear maker St John did. They ended Angelina Jolie's contract which started in 2005 and put on a new look.


Jolie’s departure had been announced in June 2008.

St John chief executive Glenn McMahon told Women’s Wear Daily Angelina“overshadowed the brand. We wanted to make a clean break from actresses and steer away from blondes and cleanse the palette.”

During the years that Jolie promoted the company’s fashions, she became one of the most recognizable and sought-after celebrities in the world through her romance with actor Brad Pitt, their six children, and her charity work in Africa and other countries.

Singapore: Banks are Hiring again!

SINGAPORE, Jan 9 — A flurry of hiring is under way at many banks in Singapore, reversing the bloodletting of last year when the global financial crisis took a harsh toll on jobs.

More than 1,000 staff are being hired by banks, poised to cash in on the expected return of the good times. This is based on a check of banks by The Straits Times.

Many of the jobs are senior positions but entry level jobs are on offer too.

Headhunters say an entry level operations job starts at S$2,600 (RM6,240) a month, on average. Entry investment bankers, needing good qualifications, can start at S$8,000 (RM18,200).

Hundreds of banking jobs were lost here last year given that the financial services sector was at the epicentre of the global financial crisis.

British-based Barclays Bank, which rode out the crisis better than most, is leading the hiring resurgence with plans to add more than 500 staff here this year.

Most will be employed in the bank’s technology section, in general operations and in finance. Barclays already has more than 3,500 staff here.

Locally owned banks are expanding too. DBS Bank aims to fill more than 500 positions across the region including Singapore this year, from consumer to institutional and private banking.

Another British-based bank, HSBC, is recruiting 200 senior staff here this year in the wealth management field, ranging from managers to senior vice-presidents.

Malaysia’s Maybank aims to add at least 130 employees to its 1,300, including account managers, operations personnel, customer service staff and analysts.

Joining the hiring frenzy is Australian-based ANZ, with plans to double its 800-strong Singapore staff strength this year. The jump will come partly from staff taken under its wing after it bought RBS’ retail and commercial businesses.

From local to foreign, small players to big boys, almost all banks operating here have recruitment high on the agenda.

Morgan Stanley, State Bank of India, Standard Chartered Bank and OCBC Bank are just some of the others adding staff.

This hectic time for human resource staff at banks reflects newfound dynamism shaking up the financial sector here which accounted for 13 per cent of economic output in 2008.

After a year when banking jobs were like hen’s teeth, banks are emerging as one of the top customers of headhunters.

“There is a return to junior- to mid-level hires — fresh graduates and those with three to seven years of work experience. This was the volume segment which dried up last year, where senior and specialised areas were more in demand,” said Angela Kuek, manager of banking and financial services at recruitment agency Hudson Singapore.

Guy Day, managing director of another recruitment agency Ambition in Asia, said staff switching finance jobs can secure decent pay hikes. “Pre-crisis levels, we were seeing up to 20 per cent pay hikes, though we are not quite there yet.”

Banks in hiring mode are gearing up to meet clients’ needs as the economy rebounds. Wealth management seems hot, with many private banks seeking experienced bankers to cater to the well-heeled in Asia. The likes of UBS, JPMorgan Private Bank and SG Private Banking are all looking for more of this type of banker.

In good times, private banking talent is fiercely contested. Headhunters say top performers, even entire teams, could be poached by rivals dangling top dollar.

This means the ‘musical chairs’ banking jobs game is back on — after the music stopped completely and many chairs just disappeared when the crisis hit.

One of the first signs of the hiring blitz came in October when RBS Coutts Singapore suffered a mass exodus of about 70 staff - about a third of its headcount. They left to join former boss Hanspeter Brunner at BSI, a Swiss private bank.

Last month Deutsche Bank hired seven staff for its private wealth management business, including poaching senior DBS private banker Kwong Kin Mun.

That is a big turnaround from last year, when Reuters reported the bank had cut at least 50 staff from its wealth management arm here and in Hong Kong.

Still, not every bank is expanding aggressively. Citi Singapore, with 8,200 staff here, will keep numbers stable this year. ‘As we grow our business, we will continue to hire as and when necessary,’ said its HR director Lee Yan Hong.

Some like Japan’s Nomura are waiting and watching. After buying the European and Asian arms of Lehman Brothers, Nomura’s staff numbers here alone doubled to about 450, said Seiichiro Miyaoka, president of Nomura Singapore.

Sounding a note of caution, a new Morgan McKinley survey of HR managers across the financial services industry suggests recruitment will still be highly selective this year rather than widespread. — Straits Times

Can We Say " God Be With You" From Our Hearts?

So, it came to pass.

The powder-keg exploded in arson. One church was torched. One suffered minor damages from an exploded Molotov cocktail. The last one had an unexploded Molotov in its compound.It was understood that two churches received bomb threats.

There were some demonstrations in the various mosques after the weekly prayers.

Such a time as this is always the test of the moral fiber of the national leadership.That law and order prevailed during the demonstration does not matter. It should not be allowed to take place in the first instance. Such a time as this is where true statesmanship is born.


The unease in most towns was almost electric. Many were advised to stay clear from the vicinity of mosques.

The government has also got out the bulwark of its police force and the Fires Services too on stand-by duty. Are all this necessary? How does all this jive with the 1Malaysia concept?


No political points need be won from allowing such a show of defiance to take place now that the issue has been put back to the courts. Let the rule of law prevail while we go about our everyday business.

Asamalaikum means "God Be With You!" in Islam.


Can we practice that with all our fellow Malaysians, irrespective of race or religion?

HLB: Likely To Succeed in EON Takeover

Hong Leong Bank (HLB) is poised to make a voluntary general offer for the assets and liabilities of EON Capital which include EON Bank, Malaysia’s seventh smallest bank. If this takes place,the merger between the two would create a RM110.5 billion bank, the country’s fourth largest. This is the report filed by Business Times of Singapore today.

'HLB announced that the central bank had, via a letter dated Jan 6, indicated that it has no objections to the bank commencing negotiations with the boards of EON Capital and EON Bank to purchase the group’s assets and liabilities.

EON Capital, which is listed on the stock exchange of Kuala Lumpur, owns 100 per cent of EON Bank.

According to Malaysian law, a voluntary general offer would be deemed successful if 50.1 per cent of EON Capital’s shareholders agree to it.
Only one shareholder — the Hong Kong-based investment fund, Primus Pacific Partners might be opposed to it. Three years ago, the fund bought into EON Capital at a jaw-dropping RM9.55 apiece, a price that Quek would probably consider astronomical. And the opposite might be said about Quek’s speculated buying price (RM5.50- RM6) where Primus is concerned.

At least two government agencies — the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and Khazanah Nasional — which collectively hold 22.1 per cent of EON Capital are said to be favourably disposed towards the HLB bid.

But the key people who have to be persuaded are businessman Rin Kei Mei and Sarawak billionaire Tiong Hiew King who collectively hold 33.2 per cent of the financial firm. Both of them are said to be eyeing a price at around RM8, which would be around 1.4 times book value.

And that could be the rub. Local news reports citing sources have said that Quek Leng Chan, the reclusive controlling shareholder of HLB, would only be willing to pay between RM5.50 and RM6 per EON Capital share which would value the bank at 1-1.2 times book. That may be a trifle cheap for the 2 businessmen’s tastes.

Indeed, there is no certainty that a deal will be struck as this isn’t the first time Hong Leong Bank has eyed EON Capital. A previous attempt several years ago had stalled over pricing: Quek isn’t known to pay more than what he considers a fair price.

But the central bank seems attracted to the idea of merger, which is why some analysts think a happy compromise might be struck. Indeed, the move towards a possible merger reflects the central bank’s desire to winnow the Malaysian banking sector to a few large banks, the better to withstand increased foreign competition starting this year. Currently Malaysia has eight local banks.'

To my mind, whether Hong Leong Bank takes over EON or not is not really important. If it does not, other parties will be making a beeline to it. Also, if Hong Leong Bank is not careful, it will be targetted for absorption as the banking market becomes more competitive and 'smallish' banks like Hong-Leong Bank will be hot for the gobble!

RWS: Michelin Star Chefs

The world’s most Michelin-star-decorated chef, Joel Robuchon, leads a team of celebrity chefs who will open restaurants at Resorts World Sentosa.

Robuchon, who has 25 Michelin stars, will make his debut in Singapore in May with three restaurants — Joel Robuchon Fine Dining, a high-end French restaurant, the more casual L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon, known for its swanky red and black decor and bar counter dining, and The Pastry Shop and Lounge.

The other Michelin-starred chef to set up shop is Kunio Tokuoka, the chef-owner of three-Michelin-starred restaurant Kyoto Kitcho Arashiyama and one-Michelin-starred Hana Kitcho in Kyoto, Japan.

This is the first time chef Kunio is venturing out of Japan. The kaiseki restaurant, called Kunio, is slated to open in April at Resorts World Sentosa’s all-suite hotel, Crockfords Tower. Kaiseki refers to a multi-course dinner where the dishes are made from the freshest seasonal ingredients.

The other two chefs are New York-based Susur Lee, known for starting up Club Chinois in the late 1990s, and Australian chef Scott Webster.

Lee has teamed up with Tung Lok Group to open Asian fusion restaurant Chinois in Hotel Michael, while Webster will be opening Osia, a modern Australian restaurant which used to be located in London’s Haymarket from 2003 to 2005.

Chinois and Osia will open at the end of this month.

Roger Lienhard, Resorts World’s vice-president of food and beverage and rooms, says the chefs were chosen to “balance” the cuisine and culture of the hotels, and to make each of their offerings unique.

On picking Robuchon over other French chefs, he says: “We wanted French cuisine. And in French cuisine, the discipline is very important.

“In the end, we felt that Robuchon was the man who was going to give us the commitment of what we want to do and what we want to strive for.”

All in, Resorts World Sentosa will boast more than 60 food and beverage outlets ranging from outlets offering hawker dishes to cafes to fine dining restaurants.

Last year, Marina Bay Sands announced that no fewer than six celebrity chefs will open restaurants at its resort.

This includes big names such as Wolfgang Puck of Spago restaurant in Beverly Hills, Daniel Boulud of three-Michelin-starred French restaurant Daniel in New York, Santi Santamaria of three-Michelin-starred Can Fabes in Spain, and Mario Batali of Italian restaurants Babbo and Lupa in New York. The resort has postponed its opening till April this year.

Resorts World Sentosa will open on Jan 20, with four hotels — Hotel Michael, Festive Hotel, Hard Rock Hotel and Crockfords Tower, and 10 food and beverage outlets, which includes Palio, a Tuscan restaurant in Hotel Michael.

The resort, which expects to attract 13 million visitors a year, has not announced the opening of its Universal Studios theme park and casino.

So, what do we do now? Taste the food first while we wait for the rides and the casino playoffs.