Feed Sophie!

This is the latest pix of me at the vet. Mom and dad brought me to the vet because I had rashes. I have been taking medicine that made me sleepy. :-(

Anyway, dad has started a donation drive (you can see the donation button on the top right hand corner of this blog) to help give me enough sustenance to continue writing for this blog. He doesn't think it will raise much as netizens generally want information, news or analysis, for free. But he's hopeful there will be some kindred souls who will contribute financially to this blog. Please feel free to donate whatever amount if you like what you read here.

Hopefully, there will be enough money to buy me dog cookies or bring me to the vet.

After all, it's not easy maintaining a blog. It's a dog's life!!! :-)

Images of Beijing, part 4

Uncle Fatso has sent some lovely pix of Beijing. It's a montage of old Beijing such as the cave-like gate of the famous Tiananmen square, a former brothel with red lanterns, and street fare such as orange-colour fried starfish and skewered fried crab.

Malaysian crime story

The Malaysian government has finally woken up from its slumber in the fight against crimes in the southern state of Johor following a public outcry.

According to New Straits Times and The Star today, the cabinet has decided to deploy an additional 400 policemen and 200 more police patrol cars in the state “as soon as possible”. The government has also agreed to police recommendations to set up three new police districts in Johor Baru. Malaysia will deploy 300 police personnel from the General Operations Force and another 100 from the Federal Reserve Unit (Generic pix of riot police from Wikipedia) to patrol the streets of JB over the “next few days”.

Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak said the public should continue to have confidence in the police force. "We are taking immediate action to bring down the crime rate in Johor," he reportedly said.

Will this be enough? Obviously not. In the same papers today, one can read about the brutal rapes of two young girls in JB, and the sensational murder case in Kuala Lumpur of the Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu who was killed by a trigger-happy person or persons and then blown to pieces by special army explosives.

It’s good to deploy the no-nonsense riot police under the Federal Reserve Unit but the overall battle plans are just too incremental considering the gravity of the crime situation in JB and KL.

Malaysia must have a long-term action plan against criminals in the country.

First, Malaysia must clean up its own police force. There have been way too many accounts of bribery and trigger-happy policemen in the country. Care must be taken to ensure that policemen do not go overboard in the next few days to prove a point.

Second, it’s time to be more radical and embark on a major blitz against criminals who obviously feel quite at home in JB and KL. This means tackling crimes at the street level and tackling the root causes in crime-infested areas. This could mean installing cameras (with real-time monitoring by real policemen who don’t sleep on the job) in crime-prone areas. And this could also involve move to deport foreigners or banish citizens who engage in criminal activities like pirated VCDs, drugs and prostitution. The laundry list is quite long.

Third, go after the crime warlords. Banish them forever or engineer moles to expose their big brothers (adapted from Infernal Affairs). It’s quite pointless to wipe out the runners if certain quarters in security forces continue to plan “raids” together with warlords.

Without a long-term concerted effort, the warlords and their soldiers will simply take a break and go into a slumber in the next few days, and resurface when the latest police operation is over.

Singapore fugitives in JB, part 2

There's been another case of crime in Johor Baru with a Singapore connection.

According to The Star on Monday, a man, who has been on the wanted list in Singapore for 20 years, and two others have been detained in connection with the kidnapping of a businessman’s son in JB.

The report said the three men, in their 20s to 40s, were arrested in a series of raids around the city soon after the 23-year-old victim was released after a ransom of RM600,000 was paid recently. The suspects initially asked for a RM1 million ransom.

The report didn't make it clear whether the mastermind of the plot is a Singaporean, although it said he's a hardcore criminal wanted in Singapore for committing several armed robberies.

This is not the first case of cross-border crime in JB. According to an earlier posting, there were many other fugitives in Singapore who had fled to neighbouring Malaysia such as Singaporean one-eyed dragon Tan Chor Jin and Malaysian Took Leng How in the Huang Na case. They were eventually tracked down by police in the two countries and brought to justice in Singapore.

But the latest kidnapping case in JB is probably eclipsed by the beginning of the sensational case in Kuala Lumpur -- the murder of Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu (pix from Guang Ming daily via ST).

The Malaysia press have been working overtime to report the case. Please see The Star, which has posted plenty of pix and video clips of the trial.

Defence analyst Abdul Razak Baginda and two other special action force policemen have been accused of the gruesome murder -- she was shot twice in the head before she was blown to bits by C4 explosives. Razak Baginda has acknowledged having an eight-month extramarital affair with Shaariibuu from late 2004.

Many reports have also said that Razak Baginda is a close associate of Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak, who has vehemently denied any involvement in the case.

The Mongolian model case will definitely continue to hog the headlines.

Images of Beijing, part 3

Uncle Fatso has taken some contrasting pix of the old and the new during his train ride to Beijing. You can see old houses and new apartments, old train and new train system. Of course, some things remain unchanged -- the railway tracks.