Some old chess pals

Here are two chess illuminaries that I bumped into whilst at the CitiTel Hotel in Kuala Lumpur.

The first is Ignatius Leong, the secretary-general of the World Chess Federation who is based in his hometown, Singapore. He was around for a day to take a peek at the Malaysian Chess Festival. I've known him since the mid-1970s when he brought a group of Singaporean chess players to Penang as part of a tour that also took him to Ipoh and KL. My, that was a very long time ago and we have been keeping in touch all these years. He married recently and let me take this opportunity to wish him a belated blissful wedded life. Sorry, mate, I was too caught up with some domestic problems here in Penang at that time.

The second is Murray Chandler, originally from New Zealand who now makes England his home. I first knew him in 1974 at the inaugural Asian Team Chess Championship in Penang. At that time, he was a mere 14-year-old, all long haired and in shorts, while I was just six years older. Our ages today are still six years apart, haha! But he has now progressed to become a grandmaster. Me? I'm quite satisfied to stay as an international arbiter.

Cute but unneeded distractions

Babies are cute but they do not belong in serious chess tournaments. Babies are too temperamental and unpredictable. They cry at the least provocation. This disturbs people around them. That's distraction.

I was surprised that the arbiters in the Malaysian Chess Festival had allowed this lady to have her baby around her when she played her games at the Merdeka rapidchess open tournament and later, the AmBank chess challenge. Personally, I feel this is wrong. What is the message that we are trying to project: that the Malaysian Chess Festival is a serious event or a fun event?

To the top teams that played in the Merdeka rapidchess open, competing for the prize monies was not a fun business. To them, it was a serious event. But most of the other teams that played on the lower boards, perhaps the antics of a baby would be more tolerable. The organisers probably has this in mind when they allowed her to play with her baby on her lap.

But come to the Dato Arthur Tan memorial chess tournament and the AmBank chess challenge, both events being run side-by-side in the same function room, this lady should no longer be allowed such liberties. In the Arthur Tan event, we have top regional grandmasters and other titled players coming here to compete. They expect the highest professional level of organisation. Babies that make noise should be the last thing that the players should be concerned about.

Yes, I know that the organisers have arranged for her to sit beside a changing room where the player could go to attend to her baby's needs but this solution is rather unacceptable. Why allow the players to be distracted when the baby starts crying? I see no reason for this.

Well, I'm no longer at the CitiTel Hotel in Kuala Lumpur so I cannot obsserve the latest on this episode. But I hope efforts have been made to disallow cute distractions from serious chess events. This is my two cents' worth of opinion.

No knee-jerk reaction

"We had enough chances and we played fantastic football at times. We were just wasteful. There were so many opportunities to win it ourselves. I can't fault the performance - we completely dominated but we should have sewn the game up. We've given ourselves an uphill battle. Over the years we have always been able to overcome these things. We will have to do so again. But this is a league where if you make mistakes like this one, it punishes you. We need to get a win under our belts. We have to rely on our experience and make sure we do not get carried away with a knee-jerk reaction to it all."

1, 1, 0

Huh? What is this? I came back from Kuala Lumpur this evening only to find that my football team had lost in a derby match in England yesterday!

It's so embarrassing for the Premier League champions to start the new season without a win in three games. It's even more embarrassing for the Premier League champions to wallow in the bottom quarter of the league tables. It's their worst start since 1992.

I'm not one that'll run away from reproducing the league standings here. I defy every non-Manchester United fan as I take comfort that they will bounce back. It's not going to be easy but I know my team will claw their way back into reckoning.

In case anyone asks, I had intentionally chosen not to have Internet access in Kuala Lumpur where I had been all weekend. I chose not to connect to the world so that I have some peace of mind to enjoy myself. Yesss...

China, here I come!

I hear that wild bloggers may soon be trapped and shipped off to countries like China or Taiwan. That's the impression I get after I read a story in the New Straits Times today.

Cor ... isn't this great? I haven't set foot in China for many years and actually, I haven't visited Taiwan before. So it will be a great opportunity to visit my ancestral village in Fukien province when the time comes to be trapped and shipped. Maybe, if I go to Kuala Lumpur this afternoon, I'll have a greater chance to be noticed and selected. No need to be trapped.

In case you are wondering why the heck I'm monkeying about with words, just be reminded that the Famous Son-in-Law was quoted by Bernama on 28 July 2007:

"Umno wants bloggers who resort to slander to be brought to book, said Umno Youth deputy chief Khairy Jamaluddin. He said these bloggers did not think about the sensitivities of others and the repercussions their writings can cause. "There are no laws in the cyberworld except for the law of the jungle. As such, action must be taken so that the 'monkeys' behave."

So there you are. It's official. Lim Kit Siang is a monkey. Jeff Ooi is a monkey. Raja Petra is a monkey. Nat Tan is a monkey. Kenny Sia is a monkey. Jeffrey is a confirmed monkey. I'm twice a monkey, since I'm writing two blogs. My daughter's a monkey too. Out there somewhere, I'm sure that I'm already a monkey's uncle. NameWee of Negarakuku fame is a monkey. Oh, I forgot...he's already in Taiwan. Already shipped there. Are you also a monkey? Do let me know if you are!

Bus drivers' shocking facts

I'm still on the topic of the Bukit Gantang bus crash earlier this week and the New Straits Times reports today that drivers of express buses and lorries plying the North-South Expressway spend too much time of the roads and have too little rest. About 45 percent of them drive more than 500km in a day and seven percent do twice this distance.

It's no wonder that with fatigue setting in, many of them admit to falling asleep at the wheel. Though most times the shut-eye is only momentary, meaning that the driver is jerked awake, it's enough to contribute to accidents on the road.

I can attest to this because last February, on my way back to Penang from Kuala Lumpur, as I was trying to overtake an express bus, I could sense the bus slowly creeping into my right of way. I pulled back and gave a loud tootle on my horn which woke up the bugger. He swung back to his lane and later, gave me a wave of his hand in apology when I tried to overtake him again, this time successfully.

The report in the NST said:

• Almost 60 percent of the drivers spent more than eight hours daily at the wheel;
• About three-quarters of the 1,000 drivers interviewed said they worked six or seven days a week;
• One driver drove from Bukit Kayu Hitam to Singapore, a distance of more than 1,000km, with only two 10-minute breaks;
• Many express buses do not have two drivers although this is required by law;
• Even if there is a co-driver, he is not actually resting but talking with the driver.

Telematics Mukaya (M) Sdn Bhd surveyed the drivers plying routes along the North-South Expressway in May and June this year. What a shame that the findings are only made public now, in the wake of the crash.

Sleeping on the job

Sun2Surf, the online version of theSun newspaper, hit the nail on the head today when it said that some authorities are sleeping on the job. The newspaper said lack of action from the Police and the Road Transport Department (RTD) contributed to the horror bus accident that happened in the early hours of Monday near Bukit Gantang in Perak.

Enforcement is shockingly poor and nobody is doing anything about it, said Sun2Surf, pointing to these observations:

• RTD's demerit point penalty system is as good as dead;
• The bus operators do not have access to RTD and the Police's online records to check on drivers they employ;
• The bus had failed the brake tests by Puspakom (privatised commercial vehicles inspection centre) four times;
• The bus had been summoned 19 times by the Police since 1991 and 79 times by RTD in the last five years;
• The driver had 13 traffic summonses and two warrants of arrest but the Police took no action against him.

I'm not surprised. We have always been a reactive society, never a proactive one. Only when accidents happen do we see the government, the politicians and the authorities stir into action. Even then, they'll pontificate and blow hot for a few weeks and then when the rakyat thinks that some action is finally going to be taken, everything will fizzle away. Memories sure fade fast for those not directly affected by the accident.

Yesterday over the RedFM radio station, it was mentioned that every bus was required to display a toll-free telephone number (1-800-88-9600) for the public to make complaints easily to the Lembaga Pelesenan Kenderaan Perdagangan (LPKP). I should also mention that the same toll-free number appears behind every commercial vehicle. This will include lorries and taxis. However, callers said that nobody seemed to be manning the toll-free number. Calls went unanswered. Even the RedFM announcers tried unsuccessfully to call the number at 9am.

If this is the attitude of the LPKP, it is no surprise that drivers of commercial vehicles are so emboldened on the roads because they know that nobody will ever manage to complain. Traffic police, RTD, LPKP ... they don't seem to be performing. Or perhaps they are inefficient. Or clueless. Or overworked. Or underpaid. Or overpaid. Or ... what?

Gee ... what a rightful mess. What a farce. But don't laugh, please don't laugh. It affects you too. You have a stake in this mess too. As long as we travel on the roads, each of us have a stake in this poor state of public safety. Only, let's just hope we won't ever be involved in it.

A lesson in humility

“You must always remember that no matter how high you climb up, you must come down the same way. Be good to those you meet on the way up. When you come down, you will meet them again, unless of course you decide to jump down and break your neck!”

Tunku Abdul Rahman
Prime Minister, Malaysia
1957 - 1970

Month of the hungry ghosts

According to the Chinese lunar calendar, today is the first day of the seventh lunar month. That's right ... it's the season of the hungry ghosts. One whole month of it. And all over Penang, temporary stages have been erected to pay homage to the God of the Underworld. He's a fierce looking character as he needs to be, in order to keep the hungry ghosts under control as they are let loose from the underworld once a year.

The seventh lunar month is a time for us earthly dwellers to commemorate our departed ancestors. There'll be prayer sessions at various temples.

Normally, my family will go to the Heong Sun See temple in Tanjung Tokong.


The temple's trustees would have erected a makeshift shelter to hold the temporary paper tablets. There'll be a few hundred paper tablets and the busiest days are usually the weekends.


The Heong Sun See temple actually stands out like a sore thumb amidst a sea of Malay kampung houses. But it is very interesting to see that the Malay residents tolerate this once-a-year prayer sessions. That's religious harmony!

Penang's tram tracks

One of the most significant decisions ever made by the Penang Island Municipal Council (MPPP) in 2004 must be the preservation of the old tram tracks unearthed at the junction of Penang Road and Chulia Street during roadworks.

The MPPP did the right thing, because the tracks come from a bye-gone age when tramcars ruled the streets of George Town, not the cars or buses of today. The tram cars were living proof that Penang had a good public transportation network that stretched from Weld Quay, passing through Chulia Street, Penang Road, Dato Kramat Road and thence to Ayer Itam village. This was the nerve line of Penang, bringing people from the interior of the island to the port where Penang's entreport trade was its lifeline.

Today, the MPPP has unearthed a further stretch of tram tracks along Penang Road that curved from Chulia Street towards the Campbell Street junction. It will be significant if the MPPP chooses to preserve these tracks as well.

As a Penangite, I will support any proposal to the Penang state government that it rehabilitate the tracks and reintroduce tramcars to service the inner city. We should be proud of our heritage and this is indeed one of many in Penang.

Lost in KL

I've been away a few days and no, I did not enjoy getting lost in Kuala Lumpur. My misadventures while driving on KL roads can probably fill a few postings but I'm not going to say anything much.

Sigh...travelling around KL even with a comprehensive road map can be such an ordeal. The one thing I can say about road maps is that they are never totally accurate, even that one inch-thick tome. But luckily, I could still remember some of the old landmarks around the city. It helped me a lot while I got from Point A to Point B although in the process, I had to go through Point C, Point D, Point E, Point F, etc etc etc....

Anyway, I'm back in Penang for a few days. But I shall be driving down to KL again this Friday. It's my annual visit to the Malaysia Chess Festival at the CitiTel MidValley except that this time, I have an extra duty to accompany my son to Maju Junction for the Malaysian Yo-Yo championship. It'll be another busy weekend of driving but I hope to leave my car at the CitiTel MidValley's carpark and take the KTM Komuter and monorail services to our destinations. I really don't need that kind of stress.

Gabriel Heinze affair

What do you make of the Gabriel Heinze affair? Should Sir Alex Ferguson allow him to leave for Liverpool or should Manchester United stick to their guns and insist that he stay put or go back to Spain?

The longer the drama is played out, Manchester United will be at the losing end. Right now, they are insisting that the player's agreement over-rides any letter or verbal approval that Heinze may leave if another club comes up with a transfer offer (STG6.8 million) that meets United's demands. This, I believe Manchester United isot wrong. And although Heinze is seeking help by going to the Premier League's arbitration panel, United is confident that the Premier League will decide in the club's favour.

But even if the Premier League confirms that Manchester United are well within their rights not to sell the player to Liverpool, what is likely to happen next?

1. Heinze has already compromised his position with the club. His loyalty is now suspect.
2. Ferguson is unlikely to use Heinze as a first-choice player in the team.
3. Heinze looks likely to be banished to the reserve team. This will seriously affect his international carrer in the Argentine team.
4. Heinze may refuse to play even for the reserve team.
5. In the meantime, United is contracted to continue paying Heinze's salary unless they claim that Heinze's refusal to play violates the terms of the contract.
6. Heinze is willing to sit out the next two years until the end of his contract.
7. At the end of the contract, Heinze gets a free Bosman transfer to wherever he wants to go.
8. United gets nothing in return.
9. However, Heinze will be 31-years-old, at an age when teams start to lose interest in a player.

It looks like a lose-lose situation for both club and player unless one of the European clubs does Heinze a favour before this present transfer window closes.

But the question remains: unless Heinze moves to Spain, will United want to see their investment in this player go down the drain? Or will they ultimately bite the bullet and allow Heinze to be the first player since 1964 to cross from Manchester to Liverpool?

Durian

Do you love durians? I love durians. It's almost the end of the durian season already but I always feel that I can never have enough of the fruit. Worse yet, my regular durian supplier at Bao Sheng Durian Farm in Sungai Pinang says I'll have to wait until next year before I can get my next fix from his orchard.

So what can I do in the meantime? I know, I know, there are lotsa durians still on sale on the streets of Penang. I can always go and satiate my hunger by the roadside. So that I don't stink up the car forever with my burps, my wife placed a huge chunk of charcoal somewhere below the back seat to catch the odour.

But you know what? I've just learnt that some enterprising nut of a company has managed to bottle durian puree with papayas and what not, and sell the mess as a health drink! Imagine...now you can have a healthy glass of durian juice all year round. More...the juice can supposedly help lift your spirits and make you happy. Golly, talk about a wonder juice! Or a wonder fruit for that matter. No wonder I'm usually so happy after demonstrating my wanton display of durian gluttony. I'd be so happy that I would be thinking of my next durian adventure.

I haven't seen any one selling the wonder drink here yet but I betcha it'll not be well accepted in South-East Asia. Who wants to take durian from a bottle when you can have it fresh from the orchard or the roadside stall? I don't mind waiting for the next season to come by. Nothing ever beats the real thing. It's only wimps who cannot stand the fruit's fragrance that will want to venture near this bottle of Durian Fusion.

Yes, that's the name of the product. Durian Fusion. And mind you, it's not cheap. A small 33-oz bottle will set you back by about USD54. Crazy. For that amount of money, I can buy possibly 15 to 20 fresh durians with all sorts of exotic names such as Hor Lor, Ang Heh, Ganja, Lipan and the ever-popular D600, D604, D24 and D11 to feed my family for the whole season.

My last durian was the Ganja. Two fruits for a mere RM10. It was bitter and creamy, and it glued my mouth up tight. It was sheer heaven. Better than some durian drink? You bet!

Edwin van der Sar 3, Petr Cech 0

I've just prepared this montage and I'm dedicating it to Jeffrey and Manchester United fans everywhere, especially in Malaysia where we had been denied the pleasure of seeing our team live in action here last month. After the long wait for the new season to begin, I'm sure we in the blogosphere can now join the players to whoop around earnestly, like the monkeys that we've been made out to be, in celebration of winning the Community Shield.

Either or? No, neither nor!

Dear Mr Prime Minister,

Thank you for setting the record straight for our future generation. It is my wish, in our 50th year of independence, that there'll be no further pronouncements on this issue by PM-wannabes who seek their own personal political mileages.

"Malaysia is not a secular state and neither is it a theocratic state. We are a government that is based on parliamentary democracy - a government that is responsible to Parliament and the people, a government made up of Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and Christians, a government that works together and discusses together development policies for the nation.

"We have always given attention to every group and our leadership is based on consensus among all races. This is what makes Malaysia unique and this diversity has enabled us to live in peace and harmony. Our country’s multi-ethnic and multi-religious compositions have never been a problem to Malaysians. Be it a surau, masjid, temple or church, when there is a need for it, the Government gives the necessary aid. Secular nations do not practise such freedom. To them, religious practice can only be done at home."

Dato Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
speaking at a mass gathering at the
Tuanku Bainun Teachers' Training College
Mengkuang, Penang
4 Aug 2007

References:
PM: Malaysia is neither a secular nor theocratic state
Don't abuse freedom of expression, warns PM

PC pasar malam

I don't know why it continues to attract me, because the items that are placed on sale during every PC Fair look pretty much the same from one pasar malam to another and the crowd is predictably just as bad as the previous fair. Yet, I still go there every time. Why, why?? Guess I'm a big sucker for torture. Monkeying around with my digicam, I took some pictures of life inside the pasar malam.


Originally, the fair occupied only the indoor stadium but since last April, the organisers allowed exhibitors to place their stalls at the concourse area that runs around the stadium. Just as packed as indoors.


Blew RM97 on a LiteOn 18x DVD/CD Writer/Rewriter for my home desktop computer and RM80 on a Sandisk 2Gb SD card for my camera. I don't know whether spending 90 minutes there was worth it or not. Did I emerge feeling that I got a good bargain? Probably, but if I choose to visit this pasar malam again on Sunday evening before it packs up, I'll most probably get my toys at even cheaper prices.

Sigh...yesterday being a Friday as well, I had hoped upon hope that by 8pm, the normal jam at the Penang Bridge would have cleared up. No, it had not. At one stage, I felt so claustrophobic, hemmed in on all my four sides by either huge buses or trailers. Luckily, I emerged with my sanity intact.

Hello, goodbye

IN

Owen Hargreaves (from Bayern Munich), Nani (from Sporting Lisbon), Anderson (from Porto), Carlos Tevez (from West Ham)

OUT

Giuseppe Rossi (Villarreal), Kieran Richardson (to Sunderland), Alan Smith (to Newcastle)

IN??

This is nine-year-old Rhain Davis, the wunderkind from Australia, who has been accepted into the Manchester United football academy after his step-overs, ala Ronaldo, excited the club and wowed at least four million viewers on YouTube.

OFA tavern

It's amazing how much can be achieved at the Old Frees' Association when there is a will or a reason to do them. For instance, at this year's annual general meeting in April, a resolution was passed by the floor to convert a part of the building into a tavern for members.


As usual, there was a lot of noise on the pros and cons of having a tavern, with most objections coming from the older members. But the objections were blown away when a young voice among the members - I believe he was in his mid-20s - finally stood up to ask whether the OFA was really serious to attract new blood into the association.

If it was, then it was time that the OFA consider introducing activities and benefits that the younger members could and would relate to. Approving the tavern, where only soft drinks and perhaps beer would be served, would be a necessary first step to attract them. It was an impassioned plea and luckily, it did not fall on deaf ears. Personally, I was amused when nobody else could find enough steam to object further to the plan.

Four months later, the tavern is ready. There'll be an official open to the tavern on 10 Aug 2007 at 6pm. I'm looking forward to it.

theSun says: ONLY three months...

Was theSun newspaper trying to tell us something when it made this report on 31 July 2007? I saw this on its web edition:



The paper could have simply said "Three months jail for former CLP exam director for tampering with 2001 results" but nooo.... it chose to add the capitalised word "ONLY" into the heading. Now, what other inference can we make?

theSun said Sessions Court Judge Harmindar Singh Dhaliwal had handed down two three-month jail sentences on the guilty former examination director of the Certificate in Legal Practice (CLP) Khalid Yusoff - the first for tampering with the July 2001 CLP examination results and the second for misleading the Legal Profession Qualifying Board in approving the results, the sentences to run concurrently - but allowed him a stay of execution pending appeal.

"I should make it clear that if not for the stirring mitigating circumstances (by Counsel), a substantive term of imprisonment would have been imposed," said Harmindar. What happened was that during mitigation, Khalid's counsel Jagjit Singh broke down when he pleaded that his client be spared a prison sentence.

Nevertheless, the judge had this to add pointedly:

"To my mind, any reasonable person in your shoes with even a quarter of your experience, qualifications and career that you have would know that the methods you employed in this case cannot possibly be right. How is it possible for a candidate who has achieved only 15 marks out of 100 be considered to have passed.

"I think it is time for you to take responsibility for your own actions. To put it in crude terms, no one put a gun to your head when you were carrying out your functions. Your predecessor had alerted you to the pitfall that may befall you in the discharge of your duty. In the final analysis, a man with a distinguished career as yours should know and did in fact know that you had to act in a manner beyond reproach."

Getting away scot free!

It's a record of sorts that I am blogging about local environmental issues for three days in a row.

On my way to work yesterday, I noticed this school bus belching smoke from its exhaust. Unfortunately, I was unable to photograph it at its worse because my camera was not ready. And when the camera was ready, the bus refused to put on its worst show for me.

Yet, I was fortunate enough to have snapped evidence of its pollution of the environment. I pity the motorcyclists who had to suffer when the bus passed them by. They were caught by surprise.

This is the first shot from my camera. At first, it was just a very modest cloud of exhaust: a very small phoot!


Then, as the bus accelerated, the exhaust smoke became darker and developed more body: a much bolder phooot!!


Until the driver finally thought what the heck and decided to step on the acceleratorl. If you think this huge cloud of dirty exhaust was bad enough, let me tell you that it was much, much worse just moments earlier when my camera wasn't ready: phoooot, braap!!!



The bus registration number is KAJ 3417, in case you are looking for new four-digit numbers to buy for this weekend.