Chinese New Year 2013

A Typical Low-cost in Air Keroh Heights

As much as we want it, ours has become quite a dysfunctional family.

So all the siblings had their own reunion dinner as usual on a household basis. For me it was with my wife and our two kids.

Chinese New Year fare-our usual traditional dishes of ju hu char with salad leaves and sambal, curry chicken and peppered pig stomach soup.

On the first day of the New Year of the Snake, I went back to Malacca along with the kids and their Auntie Shaline.

I spent some quality time with my Dad as well as with my siblings (Jimmy and Edwin) and their families.

On the second day, I visited my mum and my sister Iriene and her family.

Well, today which is the fourth day is a working day and tomorrow, my daughter has to go back to her desk job.

So much for CNY 2013.

Stale Bull Gangnam Style on BSKL

Stale Bull Action?

It is now post CNY and today is the first day of trading.

What can be seen is stale bull action or possibly corporate buy-backs for the treasury to ensure that the stocks hold up in the advent of the impending 13th GE.

The pertinent indicator today will be volume.

I expect the trading on blue chips to be thin with support for government-backed counters such as FGV.

The telecommunications counters which has fallen quite a fair bit is improving marginally.

Large cap stocks are just maintaining their price range.

Do not expect an adrenal rush to occur anytime  amongst buyers.

No gangnam music is heard so far.

Master Drummer for Penang Votes

PM Najib has taken up Chinese drums to cajole the Penang voters of Chinese stock to stick with BN.

Heave-ho beat!

Will the hard beating of the Chinese drums do the trick?

Will he get the swing votes?

The Commoditisation of Decent Housing

Selling to Those Who Cannot Afford

The prices of housing is going up especially in prime areas in the Klang Valley.

The last four years saw terrace houses shooting to almost half a million ringgits in the Klang Valley.

About 85% of the workforce, mostly between the ages of  25 and 35 years of age, earns about RM 5,000 or less.

When houses go to prices beyond RM 400,000, it is difficult for them to buy as their income will only allow them to buy houses at about RM 250,000.

Sadly, such medium priced houses can only be bought south of Nilai or  north beyond Rawang. The cost of transport will 'kill you' if you buy so far away.

With developers producing high-priced houses, new graduates who are saddled with PTPN loan and car loans will find it hard to even secure  loans to buy houses.

As developers get more greedy and profit-driven and continue to build high priced housing schemes and banks continue to lend to those who actually cannot afford to own houses, the bubble may come and we may join the ranks of Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain anytime within the next 2 years or so, if we are not careful.

Many are speculating that the bubble will burst once buyers are no longer buying.

So, when there are no buyers, developers will be stuck with housing stocks and they would have to get rid of this overhang with more inventive marketing.

In my opinion, the bubble may have been postponed by BNM's 80% financing limit.

I also believe that developers are also slowly having less launches of boutique housing types and will build accordingly to a more conservative price-range.

So, while the the bubble may have occurred to some extent  in the commercial and condominium sector in the Klang Valley, I do not see it happening in landed residential property as yet.

So, I would expect those public-listed developers to continue building high priced boutique units in and around Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya.

So, let us look at the trend of property starts as the year roll by.

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Najib's Penang Gambit or Gamble?

Sometimes, we wonder.

How much do these Penang voters really dislike Najib?

The Gamble or Gambit for Penang?

To me, the answer is an almost clear neutral.

The Penang folks have nothing really against PM Najib.

Penang Bridge in its Splendour

They are really against bringing back the almost dead Gerakan and its already dead MCA ally and the unashamed UMNO Malay leadership sans the interests of the hearts of the Penang folks.

Prime property

So, whatever promises Najib makes, they will possibly take it with a sneer of disbelief as so far none of what Najib has said has come to fruition except for the Psy concert.

The offence or defense?

As the young is sought by Najib as they represent a formidable voting bloc, the younger Y  generation who are first time or second time voters will definitely see that whatever goodies brought over in this electioneering period be it the low-value upgrading of Han Chiang to a university college, it will not have any direct effect on them as they are already victims of a national system that is fast breaking down and plummeting to lower depths in almost all dimensions.

Then, they are quite happy with the current Guan Eng-led government which has administered quite fairly amongst all ethnic groups and transparently as well.

To me, Penang will be a broken dream once more for PM Najib with a fragmented Malay voting bloc (3 ways) and an UMNO in apparently deep, treacherous disarray.

PSY-Millions Gone in just Four Dances

Psy Dancing a Storm at Han Chiang College

I guess by 12.30 p.m today, it was all over.

Imagine 15 minutes and a purported RM 2 million was gone with the wind!

Psy pranced along doing 4 dances with one as an encore of the famous pony dance.

Hot Malaysian Cash!

It was blisteringly hot but entertained he did.

No one felt let down by this global sensation!

Najib's play to the gallery to win BN' s support at the show did not go down well with the audience with some loud  resounding "No"s to his call to support BN.

What a day for Najib.

On hindsight, was the Psy invitation move a faux pas for Najib?

MCA-Its Final Mummification and Curtain Fall?

Contemplating the Finale and Curtain Fall?

Say what you want,

Think what you want.

If you do not do what the current youngsters want, you will definitely be sent for mummification.

Their votes count!

And what is going to happen to MCA if they do not support MCA candidates in toto?

To recap the apparent scenarios:

The manipulative days in London of the taikoh turncoats who threw away the Chinese demands before it reach the Merdeka negotiation table are over.

The golden days of Tan Cheng Lock and Tan Siew Sin have been relegated into the dustbin of MCA history.

The championing days of gung-ho Lee San Choon as he stood  against  DAP's Chen Man Hin and won in a Chinese majority area of Seremban  are fully forgotten.

The bitter fight between Neo Yee Pan and Tan Koon Swan had plunged the party to new depths and led to the incarceration of the latter in a Singaporean prison and the former into political wilderness.

The sudden thrust into the limelight of the junior-status MCA president Ling Liong Sik who could hardly "talk " with PM Mahathir on the same level and which the later apparently completely disdained.

The sad and sterile Ong Ka Ting days where the MCA is just a stringer party where even third echelon UMNO leaders can chastise MCA in public in absolute glee and gloat at its impotency.

The brief Ong Tee Keat days when nothing but in-fighting occurs and the larger agenda of the Chinese continue to be forgotten.

The current 'eunuch' days of Chua Soi Lek where seemingly nothing said or done can ever benefit Chinese, both young and old.

The mummification process has started in earnest haste as the party is rolled along in the political desert like tumbleweeds in the wind.

Will the 13th GE be MCA's sad  finale and curtain fall?

Again, get the answers in June 2013.