Tag Archives: Government

Merdeka Parade 2007

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I missed the Merdeka Parade last year coz I was lazy to wake up so early in the morning. This year is quite special as it is our 50th National Day, so I arrived the place before 6am, and the parking space was full! In fact, most of the parade groups, with thousands of participants, were ready and gathered at the Wawasan bus terminal before 7am.


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More than 50 groups from government departments, companies, organisations, schools, etc. joined the Merdeka Parade 2007. The weather was good. Everyone was in great mood. When I walked among the parade groups, a lot of them asked me to take their photo and wanted a copy of it. There are also some people who looked really serious.


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There were also a few organisations that we never heard of. For example, I thought Pemadam Negeri Sabah was selling eraser (rubber). Actually they are the “Terminator” of drug-abuse.


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As usual, the parade was started at 8am at Promenade Boulevard, the road next to Promenade Hotel, Marina Court, and Wawasan Plaza. There were a few shows in between, so it finished at 10:15am. I recorded two cool video clips in my last blog, you may click here to check them out.


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The road was expanded recently so its wide was doubled up. Since the crowd was not allowed to stand in the road, that means I could not come very close to take the photos of parade, like in year 2005. And it was more crowded this year, which made photo-shooting difficult. Luckily I brought a small foldable chair with me. Very tired to carry it around, but it let me to stand high and photograph without being blocked by people (and umbrella!). No choice lah, I am so short. Coz I shot from higher level, so I could include more faces and subjects into my photos. The outcome is very rewarding.


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However, I got too many photos so I only shared those special ones in my photo album. I used two camera to take pictures. Most of the photos were taken by my new Canon 400D SLR, another one is my old Sony Cybershot DSC-H1, coz it got 12x optical zoom and video recording function. Almost every vehicles with 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 wheels were in the parade that day.


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At first I thought I would see many Sabah bloggers around, but surprisingly I saw none ler. Where were you guys? Maybe you were at the other side. Hope to see your blog later. Probably due to the “NegaraKu” news, everyone stood stiff while narional anthem was played. Earlier the government also has warned the photographers not to move around. Suddenly everybody becomes so serious about it.


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Though it was morning, the day was getting hot soon. Then the party was over after 10am and thousands of people dispersed. In minute, Promenade Boulevard turned into a quiet place. Overall, I am quite happy with what I got, as they are all stamped with the memory of 50th Hari Merdeka, something of great value.


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Actually the show was still on, even though most has left. There was a demo of modern high-speed patrol boats on the sea. I tried to take a few snapshots. The boats were far away, but the waves they created were so strong that they caused big splash once they hit the shore. It caught me by surprise. My pant and camera were wet. Fortunately, the camera was ok.


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Related Posts:
Merdeka Parade 2005
50th Malaysia National Day

Photos taken in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Merdeka! Aramai…deka!!!

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Happy 50th National Day!!! But why not on Sep 16 ah? I also don’t know. Many years, every year we ask the same question but nobody from west side seems to bother. Nevermind lah, we still can have our Merdeka party going on happily until Sep 16, the day the “real” Malaysia born. HA! We got 1 more holiday. Heheh… well, I am already in holiday mood since Monday.

Syok lah, can off 3 days in a roll. These are rest days for most of you. But to bloggers, usually weekend and holiday are our busiest period. In fact, this blog was uploaded 2 days ago. By the time you read this, I would be missing somewhere for day. Any blogger coming to take photos of Merdeka Parade today? See you there, or see me on TV, haha…

After 50 years, I wish I can greet you again for 100th National Day, provided that I still blog until I lose all my teeth. Otherwise, I hope the hell has cybercafe and blog too. Burn some paper computer for me ok. Choi!

Photos taken in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

New Sumazau?

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I am so proud that our Sumazau dance is listed as one of the 50 National Treasures on Malaysia heritage list, according to the news on The Star and Daily Express in early July 2007. To find out more details about the listing, I visited the web site of Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage, Malaysia. I could not find the listing, so I did a search with the keyword “Sumazau”. Then I clicked one of the results that led to the page below:

To watch the video clip of Sumazau dance, I clicked on the movie link “.wmv” (Windows Media Video), on its top right corner. A small window pop-up, then I started to see a dance that doesn’t look so familiar to me. I thought I found the wrong video, but the video title was clearly saying “Sumazau Dance”. You can click the link here to see it yourselves. Is this a real Sumazau dance?

Sumazau dance comes with different variations in different regions and tribes, but the general style and movement are quite “standard” that you still can tell whether it is Sumazau. I expect something more “classic” and authentic from a official government source. However, this one seems far too innovative to me.

How come the Sumazau dancers in this video dance more like chicken than birds lah? There was no male partner, too many waist twisting, steps too big. Kind of cute but… funny leh.. Sumazau is a National Heritage. Don’t play play oh.

Not only the rhythm and movement, even the music also doesn’t sound right. In my past experience, I saw only gong and drum were used in most cases. The one played in this video sounds more like the music of other ethnic groups. If everyone confirms it is a wrong dance, maybe I should inform them to do a more proper documentary of Sumazau. I also find that their description about the dance also a bit odd, but I can’t tell what’s wrong. Probably you can read it and tell me…

Another presentation style of Sumazau:

My First Xmas Gift

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Finally I kena saman. I have been driving for over 10 years and never got fined. It was my fault so I can’t blame anyone. From the recent newspaper, you would read that police and DBKK are very hardworking in giving out Christmas present, SAMAN. I am one of the lucky ones. Christmas is approaching so the traffic jam is getting worse, and it is very hard to find a parking space.

I parked my car at the wrong place at the wrong day. It was used to be very “safe” area. I knew I was screwed, when I saw the police motorbikes near to my car. The traffic policemen were still busy writing tickets for other cars next to mine (damn… I would escape if I came 5 minutes earlier…). I walked to him to asked how much I got fined. “RM70!” I felt my legs lost a bit of strength. Then I asked nicely if I could got fined less. Fortunately I met a nice one. He changed the offense item to minor one, which will cost me RM30. I moved away my car immediately, and prayed that he didn’t see my malfunction rear light…

The first time I went to the police station to pay the fine, they said the line was down (huh?!) and they couldn’t process it manually. So I came back the next day. The queue was not long but it was frustrating that every driver asked for a discount or dispute at the counter, each taking 5 to 10 minutes. When I paid my ticket, I also checked out the fine of other traffic offences (please note that the amount is subject to vary. Sometimes they even have “promotion” prices), FYI:

Offence Fine
Failing to park parallel to road side RM30
Parking on the wrong side of road RM30
Parking in contravention of a traffic sign RM70
Causing unnecessary obstruction of traffic RM70
Parking within 30 feet of corner RM70
Parking within 30 feet of bus stop sign RM70
Parking within 10 feet of fire hydrant stand pipe RM70
Parking too far from side of road RM70
Parking opposite double white lines RM70
Failing to exhibit front/rear/number plate lights RM100+
Failing to exhibit road tax license or unlicensed vehicle RM100+
Colour of paintwork changed RM100+
Using tyre without sufficient tread RM100+
Incorrect, indistinct or obscured number plate RM100+

You may check out the promotion prices below. Such a DEEP DISCOUNT!!! No wonder nobody wants to pay the fine on time.

Tanjung Aru Beach

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Many locals have lot of memory at Tanjung Aru Beach. You may find many lovers start their romance there (later they may proceed to other beach to “do” their romance, probably that’s where I came from).

A lot of changes have taken place. When I was a kid, Tanjung Aru Beach was a favourite swimming spot for many. Now very few do that, coz of the dirty water flowing to the sea from the smelly longkang (drain) nearby. In the past, I collected seashells from here, but today I find more garbage.

Besides ourselves, I am not sure who should keep the beach clean. But if we want to advertise Tanjung Aru Beach as a tourism spot, we should work harder. There are many rubbish, such as plastic bags, bottle, wood, leaves, left on the beach for many weeks and nobody cleaned them on daily basis.

Even the playground facilities in the Phillip Park worn out and rusted, not safe for the kids to play. If anything unhappy happens, who shall responsible?

Many think of changing the world but few think of changing ourselves. We also need to do our part to keep this place clean. There are dozens of dustbin around, but many still throw the junk to the sand. I think the cleanliness campaign to “educate” our people is a waste of money. Since primary school, all were already educated not to dump waste everywhere. More effort should be taken to punish those litter bugs. Littering is plainly a self-interest act, as most of them won’t throw rubbish into their house.

Dedicated to Sabah people? Give me a break please.

10 Traffic Items that Don’t Work in Sabah – Part 2 of 2

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Continued from Part 1

Item 6. Zebra Crossing
Since young, my mom already taught me, “DO NOT trust zebra line! If you walk on it, the ghost will catch you!” I took her words seriously so I survive until today. It reminds me of a TV scene of a group of zebra crossing the river and got attacked by fierce crocodiles. Keep in mind, Sabah drivers only give way to cows. Other living things such as dogs, cats, lizards, rats, human… must give way to cars, if they don’t want to become a flat object on the road, running over and over by the cars. I have seen so many times the drivers honked the people who tried to cross the zebra lines.

Item 7. Speed Limit Label
What is this label for ah? Can someone explain why the vehicles with this label fly like wind on the road? They can overtake me easily, even though I drive at 90++KM/H. Impressive. Probably the design of our speed meters are different.

Item 8. “Berhenti” Sign
By right, if you reach this sign, you must STOP totally, no matter there is other car crossing or not. You will 100% fail the driving test, or kena fined, if you don’t follow this rule in other countries.

Item 9. Lines
I already forgot what they mean. You may ask the mini bus drivers who like to Berhenti-Henti.

Item 10. Yellow Light
Technically, Yellow light means STOP. But in Sabah, it means “SPEED UP!!! GO! GO!! GO!!!” If you try to stop, the old uncle driver behind will honk you (Sorry, my life and safety are more important, so I don’t care how fucking pissed off you are. You won’t pay for my medical bill anyway).

Due to all the factors I mentioned, the ambulance may not able to rescue us on time, if anything happens. Take care buddy. OH, BTW!!! Did I tell you that the emergency lane is not working well too?

10 Traffic Items that Don’t Work in Sabah – Part 1 of 2

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This blog took quite a long time to prepare. I had to go to many places to take the photos. I split the article into two blog entries as there are too many photos, slowing down the page. Such things have become part of our life, and they are not new to Sabahans. I just organised them a bit and posted them here for fun. Hope you enjoy reading it.

Item 1. The “Ikut Kiri Jika Tidak Memotong” Sign
Anyone still know what it means? I remember many years ago, RTM even showed a TV programme to educate the drivers not to block others on the highway. To be honest, a good driver doesn’t need such “reminder” coz sticking to left has become his habit. And idiot drivers will just ignore this sign and continue to piss off the good drivers. We should change the sign to “Memotong Kepala Jika Tidak Ikut Kiri”.

Item 2. Fly-Over
Sabahans cross road like cow. Cow just follows its heart to go whenever it likes, without seeing the danger ahead. To force people using the flyover, if you put fence or obstacle in the middle of the road, later you will find a big hole in them, or many tries to climb (and crawl) over it day in day out.

Item 3. Road Drainage System
Even the roads in city needs only a 10-minute rain to get flooded. The funny thing is that very often the flooded road is just next to an EMPTY longkang (drain). Whenever it rains, we guarantee got traffic jam.

If it rains for an hour, many will know that Penampang will flood, rain another hour, OK, Telipok must be flooded now, another hour again, the turn of Kolombong… we know the list so well, as if flood is very normal, sad huh. More than half of us are very well-trained in driving through the water. I personally experienced a few times the pleasure of driving my car to higher ground in the midnight, due to the flood caused by heavy rain.

Item 4. “Road Not Flat” Sign
Tell me. How many road in Sabah is totally flat? I have almost forgotten how it feels to drive on a good road. To get back the feeling, I will drive from KK to Yayasan Sabah / Wisma Innoprise. That’s the BEST road in whole Sabah. Why? Because many VIPs and big heads’ office are there. Someone want to polish shoes and angkat kaki lor.

Item 5. Street Light
Thanks to SESB, there is no chance that any street light can function 100% of the time. During blackout, I have to drive my car in “auto-pilot” mode, by using the mental map stored in my memory. Another problem is the tall tree that blocks the street light.

Read Part 2 >>

Confusing Road Lines

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Probably I am OLD. Til now, I really have problem with the road between Karamunsing Police Station and Sadong Jaya. It is so confusing. Everytime I enter the lane below, the confusing lines will give me a moment of shock, like I am being asked to make a live or death decision in split second.

Below is another picture of the road, viewing from other side.

At night, due to darkness, we can’t see the colours clearly so the road will look like below.

The problem is that they use black paint to cover the old white lines, as a lazy fix. However, under limited lighting, both yellow and black paint will have same level of reflection, so both new and old lines appear equally clear to the drivers.