A Taxi Driver With Stanford's PHD

Bio-chemist Dr Cai Minnjie who failed to land another research position after losing his job last year now happily prowls the streets as a cabbie.

SINGAPORE’S fraternity of taxi drivers, with its fair share of retrenched executives, has now an exalted new member – a PhD bio-chemist from Stanford University.

Prowling the streets of Singapore today is 57-year-old unemployed scientist Dr Cai Mingjie who lost his job at Singapore’s premier A-Star biomedical research institute last year.

The China-born naturalised citizen with 16 years of research accomplishments said he began driving a taxi last October after failed efforts to land another job.

The news shocked this nation, which holds an unshakable faith in the power of an advanced university education.

One surprised white-collar worker said he had believed that such a doctorate and experience was as good as life-long employment and success.

“If he has to drive a taxi, what chances do ordinary people like us have?” he asked.

I have met a number of highly qualified taxi drivers in recent years, including former managers and a retrenched engineer.

One cheerful driver – a former stock-broker – surprised me one day in giving me detailed reasons on what stocks to buy or avoid.

“At a time like this, the taxi business is probably the only business in Singapore that still actively recruits people,” said Dr Cai.

To me, his plight is taking Singapore into a new chapter.

“(I am) probably the only taxi driver in the world with a PhD from Stanford and a proven track record of scientific accomplishments ...,” blogged Dr Cai.

“I have been forced out of my research job at the height of my scientific career” and was unable to find another job “for reasons I can only describe as something uniquely Singapore”.

The story quickly spread far and wide over the Internet. Most Singaporeans expressed admiration for his ability to adapt so quickly to his new life. Two young Singaporeans asked for his taxi number, saying they would love to travel in his cab and talk to him.

“There’s so much he can pass on to me,” one said.

Others questioned why, despite his tremendous scientific experience, he is unable to find a teaching job.

His unhappy exit is generally attributed to a personal cause (he has alleged chaotic management by research heads) rather than any decline in Singapore’s bio-tech project, which appears to be surviving the downturn.

The case highlights a general weakening of the R and D (research and development) market in smallish Singapore.

“The bad economy means not many firms are hiring professional scientists,” one surfer said. “Academia isn’t much of a help – there’s a long history of too many PhDs chasing too few jobs.”

While the image of taxi drivers has received a tremendous boost, the same cannot be said of Singapore’s biomedical project – particularly its efforts to nourish home-grown research talent.

“It may turn more Singaporeans away from Life Sciences as a career,” said one blogger.

One writer said: “In my opinion, PhDs are useless, especially in Singapore. It’s just another certificate and doesn’t mean much.”

Another added: “The US is in a worse situation. Many are coming here to look for jobs.”

“I won’t want my child to study for years to end up driving a taxi,” said a housewife with a teenage daughter.

The naturalised Singaporean citizen underwent his PhD training at Stanford University, the majority of his work revolving around the study of yeast proteins.

His case is not unique. US research-scientist Douglas Prasher, who isolated the gene that creates the green fluorescent protein (and just missed the 2008 Chemistry Nobel Prize) faced similar straits.

Prasher moved from one research institution to another when his funding dried up, and he eventually quit science – to drive a courtesy shuttle in Alabama.

“Still, he remains humble and happy and seems content with his minivan driver job,” said a surfer.

With an evolving job market as more employers resort to multi-tasking and short-term contracts, more Singaporeans are chasing after split degrees, like accountancy and law or computer and business.

Others avoid post-graduate studies or specialised courses of a fixed discipline in favour of general or multi-discipline studies. “Experience is king” is the watchword; there has been a rush for no-pay internships.

“The future favours graduates with multiple skills and career flexibility, people who are able to adapt to different types of work,” one business executive said.

During the past few years, as globalisation deepened, there has been a growing disconnect between what Singaporeans studied in university and their subsequent careers.

It follows the trend in the developed world where old businesses disappear – almost overnight – and new ones spring up, which poses problems for graduates with an inflexible job expectation.

I know of a young man who graduated from one of America’s top civil engineering universities abandoning the construction hard hat for a teaching gown.

Another engineer I met is running his father’s lucrative coffee shop. Lawyers have become musicians or journalists, and so on.

Cases of people working in jobs unrelated to their university training have become so common that interviewers have stopped asking candidates questions like “Why should a trained scientist like you want to work as a junior executive with us?”

In the past, parents would crack their heads pondering what their children should study – accountancy or law or engineering, the so-called secure careers – and see them move single-mindedly into these professions.

A doctor was then a doctor, a biologist generally worked in the lab and a lawyer argued cases in courts – square pegs in square holes, so to speak.

Today the world is slowly moving away from this neat pattern

Malaysians live cheaply but paid poorly, too

AUG 29 – It pays to work in Switzerland: employees in Zurich and Geneva have the highest net wages in the world, a study by banking group UBS shows, while those in India’s Mumbai take home the lowest.

The world’s cheapest places to live were Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur, Manila in the Philippines, and India’s Delhi and Mumbai. But the average employee in many of these cities, as well as Jakarta and Nairobi, gets paid some of the world’s lowest salaries which have between 11 per cent and 15 per cent of the purchasing power of a salary in Zurich.

The Swiss cities were also ranked among the top five most expensive in the world in the bank’s 2009 “Price and Earnings” international study.

“With its extremely high gross wages and comparatively low tax rates, Switzerland is a very employee-friendly country,” the Swiss bank said in a statement.

“No other cities allows workers to take home more income at the end of the month than Zurich and Geneva.”

The study, published every three years, compares the income and purchasing power of employees in 73 cities across the globe, highlighting wide discrepancies in wages between different regions, and even within the same country.

The biggest gaps were found in Asia, the study said, with Tokyo ranking as one of the world’s five costliest cities while the capitals of developing countries such as Malaysia, the Philippines and India were all at the bottom of the price range.

Oslo was this year’s most expensive city, based on a standardised basket of 122 goods and services, followed by Zurich, Copenhagen, Geneva, Tokyo and New York.
When rents are factored in, however, New York rises to the top spot, the study said.

This year, the bank said currency fluctuations caused by the global economic crisis affected the rankings of several cities, most notably London, which was the second most expensive city in 2006, but which fell nearly 20 places following the pound’s drop earlier this year.

The analysis involved more than 30,000 data points, collected by several independent observers in each city, in March and April, the bank said. All amounts were converted into a single currency before being compared.

“An average wage-earner in Zurich and New York can buy an iPod nano from an Apple store after nine hours of work. At the other end of the spectrum, workers in Mumbai need to work 20 nine-hour days, roughly the equivalent of one month’s salary,” the study said.

Working hours also varied in the cities surveyed, with the study finding that on average, people in Asian and Middle Eastern cities work much more than the global average of 1,902 hours per year.

Overall, the most hours are worked in Cairo, followed by Seoul, while the least hours worked were in Lyon and Paris. – Reuters

Kelab Poligami Ikhwan

KUALA LUMPUR: “Kita buka tawaran kepada pelacur. Datanglah ke kelab kami untuk berpoligami. Nasib kamu (pelacur) akan jadi sangat indah (jika berpoligami).

“Jika jadi pelacur, belumpun tua, kamu sudah tiada nilai,” kata Penasihat Kelab Poligami Ikhwan (KPI), Hatijah Aam, 54.

KPI dilancarkan secara rasmi minggu lalu dengan matlamat utama ingin ‘menyuburkan’ amalan poligami di kalangan umat Islam negara ini.

Menurut Hatijah yang juga isteri kedua pengasas ajaran Al-Arqam, Ashaari Muhammad, poligami antara jalan keluar untuk golongan berkenaan kembali ke pangkal jalan dan menjalani kehidupan lebih baik.

Ketika ditemui di pejabat Global Ikhwan Sdn Bhd (GISB), Bandar Country Homes, Rawang, Selangor, Hatijah berkata, jika sudi berpoligami dan menjadi ahli KPI, golongan pelacur akan diberi bantuan dan dipulihkan.

Menurutnya, pelacur antara sasaran KPI untuk diajak berpoligami kerana ia sebahagian usaha memperbetulkan kepincangan masyarakat dan memperjuangkan poligami yang indah serta halal.

“Kita tiada tujuan apa-apa. Kita kasihan dengan nasib masyarakat kita hari ini, semua orang boleh cerita tetapi apa jalan keluarnya,” kata Hatijah.

Beliau berkata, selain pelacur, dua lagi golongan wanita yang turut dialu-alukan menyertai KPI untuk melaksanakan poligami ialah ibu tunggal dan anak dara lewat usia.

KPI kini mempunyai 646 ahli membabitkan 222 suami dan 524 isteri. Ketika ini semua ahli kelab berkenaan adalah anggota GISB.

Menurut Hatijah, KPI turut dibuka kepada masyarakat luar dan beliau mengakui reaksi diterima sangat menggalakkan.

Begitupun, katanya, kelab berkenaan bukan boleh disertai dengan sewenang-wenangnya kerana ada syarat perlu dipatuhi.

“Syarat utama, suami perlu membawa isteri kerana kita tidak buat di belakang isteri (secara rahsia). Wanita semestinya menentang poligami.

“Sebab itu kita akan beri pemahaman berbentuk kursus dan motivasi untuk tempoh tiga bulan sebelum keputusan dibuat tanpa paksaan.

“Yang penting, mereka diberi pemahaman, nanti disiplinnya boleh diikuti dan kerana itu perlu jadi ahli dulu, perlu ikut kursus,” katanya.

Hatijah berkata, satu lagi matlamat penubuhan KPI ialah membantu suami isteri yang bermasalah, terutama dalam usaha melaksanakan poligami.

“Ramai yang ada isteri satu lagi tetapi tidak tahu jalan keluar bagaimana hendak buat isteri pertama terima. Kita beri pemahaman kepada mereka,” katanya.

Hatijah berkata, bagi memastikan tiada yang mengambil kesempatan selain penganiayaan, KPI mempunyai badan pengawasan dan pemantauan.

“Selama ini kami memantau ahli kami. Jika ada yang melakukan perkara tidak betul, kita tentang. Takkan kita hendak biarkan mereka buat perkara tidak betul.

“Kita turut menjaga kebajikan ahli. Contohnya, jika ada ibu kehabisan susu anak, mereka boleh pergi mendapatkannya di kedai milik GISB tanpa bayaran,” katanya sambil memaklumkan, GISB mempunyai 1,000 premis perniagaan di seluruh negara.

Menurut Hatijah, GISB tiada kaitan dengan pergerakan Al-Arqam kerana ia diharamkan dan GISB bermula dari bawah hinggalah kepada apa yang ada sekarang.

“Penubuhan KPI juga bukan bertujuan menambah ahli kami, sebaliknya membantu golongan yang kami sasarkan,” katanya yang tidak menetapkan sasaran untuk jumlah ahli KPI.

Berkaitan tanggapan negatif yang sering dikaitkan dengan poligami, Hatijah berkata, KPI mampu menangkisnya hasil kejayaan ahli GISB melaksanakan poligami, selain dirinya yang berpengalaman bermadu kira-kira 30 tahun.

“Poligami yang kami katakan ini dibuktikan di kalangan kami sendiri, termasuk ahli KPI. Banyak kebaikan sebenarnya yang ada dalam poligami, tetapi ramai yang berprasangka negatif.

“Kerana itu kami jadikan poligami di kalangan kami sebagai bukti. Penubuhan KPI pasti akan mencetuskan kontroversi besar, tetapi kami sudah bersedia dengan jawapan.

“Kami juga sanggup bersemuka dengan sesiapa saja untuk melakukan perbincangan ilmiah,” katanya yang hadir bersama madunya, Noraziah Ibrahim, 51, yang juga isteri ketiga Ashaari serta sebahagian daripada 38 anak serta kira-kira 200 cucu

How Bernanke failed us?

While much or most of Wall Street seems to believe that Ben S. Bernanke deserves a second term as Federal Reserve chairman -- even if the reasoning is of the devil-you-know variety -- veteran economist Stephen Roach makes the case that Bernanke is responsible for much of the mess he’s now being paid to clean up.

"It is as if a doctor guilty of malpractice is being given credit for inventing a miracle cure," Roach, the chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, wrote in the Financial Times after President Obama renominated Bernanke on Tuesday. "Maybe the patient needs a new doctor."

Roach lists three strikes against Bernanke, whose reappointment must be confirmed by the Senate:

--- While a Fed governor from 2002 to mid-2005, Bernanke was a cheerleader for Chairman Alan Greenspan's view that the central bank shouldn’t be in the business of fighting asset bubbles by, say, tightening credit to deflate them. "On this count, he stood with his predecessor -- serial bubble-blowing Greenspan -- who argued that monetary authorities are best positioned to clean up the mess after the bursting of asset bubbles rather than to pre-empt the damage," Roach says.

Is there anyone left out there who believes that we're better off because the Fed allowed the housing bubble to inflate to such absurd proportions?

--- Bernanke supported the "global savings glut" defense of the 2001-2007 U.S. debt explosion. That defense held that America’s borrowing binge was in large part the logical result of the unprecedented wealth sloshing around the global financial system, much of which landed here. Roach argues that adherents of the glut defense in effect "exonerated the U.S. from its bubble-prone tendencies and pinned the blame on surplus savers in Asia."

--- Bernanke had little interest in fulfilling the Fed’s role as a regulator of banking-system excess. "The derivatives’ explosion, extreme leverage of regulated and shadow banks and excesses of mortgage lending were all flagrant abuses that both Mr. Bernanke and Mr. Greenspan could have said no to," Roach says. "But they did not."

Overall, Roach asserts, Bernanke "lacked the foresight and courage to resist the most reckless tendencies of the era of excess. The world needs central bankers who avoid problems, not those who specialize in post-crisis damage control."

An editorial in the Wall Street Journal also takes Bernanke to task for America’s recent bubble trouble, but doesn’t argue against a second term.

The Journal, though, wonders how Bernanke will get policy right in the economy’s post-rescue phase, assuming the Fed's rescue works:

"Everyone loves a central banker when he's flooding the economy with money, at least while the mania lasts. But Mr. Bernanke will sooner or later have to say no to the political class. This is something he has never done, and already there are signs in China and the edges of the dollar bloc of new asset bubbles. Mr. Bernanke has also tended to be a domestic central banker, ignoring the Fed's larger role as steward of the world's reserve currency.

"His money-withdrawal task will only be harder because of the Fed's extraordinary forays into fiscal policy and credit allocation since the crisis began. Mr. Bernanke has taken the Fed deep into picking winners and losers by industry (mortgages, student loans) and even companies (GMAC). The Bernanke Fed has also become nearly an arm of the Treasury by endorsing a spendthrift stimulus and by directly buying federal debt for the first time in a half-century."

-- Tom Petruno

More Malaysians turn to international schools

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 24 – More middle-class Malaysians are enrolling their children in international schools despite long waiting lists, as parents grow increasingly frustrated with the local education system.

Up to 2006, the only Malaysians who could send their children to these schools were those who had lived abroad for at least three years, or had a foreign spouse.

An exception was those with businesses that could attract foreign direct investments for the country. These business owners were wealthy Malaysians.

Thus, there were not many local students enrolled in international schools.

But since 2006 – when the rules were relaxed and international schools were allowed to enrol up to 40 per cent Malaysians – middle-class Malaysians have started placing their children in such schools, which have increased in number, from 32 three years ago to 40 now.

The number of Malaysian students has also gone up – from 2,608 among an estimated 10,000 students, or 26 per cent, in 2006, to 5,000 among an estimated 15,000 students, or 33 per cent, in 2009.

At least 20 more international schools are scheduled to open soon, according to school operators.

One reason some parents are transferring their children to international schools is the changes in the curriculum of the national schools.

One example: the decision last month to reverse the policy of teaching maths and science in English, which had been in effect for six years.

Another change was when the government decided to limit the number of subjects students are allowed to take for their O-levels, compared with the unlimited number previously.

“The Education Ministry is very fickle minded, they do not know what to do most of the time with the policies,” said property agent Tan Ching Suan, 49, who is unhappy with the constant changes in the local system.

So, even though the national schools are free of charge, she transferred her daughter to an international school two years ago.

More middle-class Malaysians have, like her, become willing to draw on their savings to send their children to the more expensive international schools.

Some of them also work overseas or are highly mobile. Having their children in international schools makes it easier for them when they move from one country to another.

Foreign schools charge from RM10,000 (S$4,000) to RM60,000 a year for pre-school to O-levels. Parents also have to pay a non-refundable fee to put their children on the waiting list as part of the enrolment process.

But the rates are getting more competitive as they increasingly take aim at Malaysia’s middle class.

Most of these schools are equipped with state-of-the-art facilities such as gymnasiums, swimming pools, tennis courts and studios for performing arts.

“When we expand our school and improve the facilities, it doesn’t mean that we want to take in more students. It is just to make it a better place for them,” says Simon Mann, the principal of Garden International School (GIS) in Kuala Lumpur.

As part of its regular upgrading, GIS recently spent RM2 million to resurface the school field with turf grass.

The 60-year-old GIS is the oldest international school in Malaysia. It has 2,000 students and 40 per cent of them are Malaysians.

The 5,000 Malaysian students in international schools are a drop in the ocean compared to the five million students in national schools. But the small proportion belies the growing demand. The waiting time can be two years.

“I registered my daughter in GIS two years ago but there was no news, so I had to enrol my child in Mutiara Grammar School instead,” said Aida Aleemah, 31.

Most international schools are in KL while some are in Penang and Pahang. Students in these schools are taught based on the British and American education systems.

The Malaysian government has never done a study on why some Malaysians prefer to send their children to international or private schools.

In fact, the Education Ministry feels that international schools play a complementary role in the education system. They provide an alternative to parents who are willing to pay for their children’s education.

“In a way private, schools have helped to lessen the burden of the government,” Education Ministry director-general Alimuddin Dom told The Straits Times in an e-mail interview. – The Straits Times

Colonisation reason for southern Thai conflict

We have to understand that the history of the southern Thailand is a clear cut case of Thai imperialism and colonisation. The southern Thai people are in fact Malays by race and Muslims by religion. They speak the Malay language.

The southern Thai Malays were the original settlers there with their own culture, their own religion, their own language and their own kingdom. The original name for the Narathiwat province was Menara. Songkhla originally was Singgora, Yala, Nibong and Satun, Setoi.

Their history can be traced back to the old and ancient Malay Kingdom of Langkasuka in the second century. They evolved over the years to become the Pattani Sultanate of the 19th century.

But by virtue of British-Siam Treaty of 1902, this southern region was divided between Thai and the British coloniser. And since then, the Thai government has imposed political, economic, social and cultural colonisation upon them.

A total cultural colonisation was imposed on them to the extent that they have had to change their own Malay-Muslim names to Thai ones. The Pattani Malays were not allowed to practice their own culture freely.

Their language, Malay, was suppressed and they were forced to adopt Thai culture and language which is totally alien to them. It is a complete and systematic Thai cultural domination perpetrated by a Thai colonisation agenda to permanently erase their Malay-Muslim origins.

This cultural colonisation was made worst with the southern provinces being economically alienated and left behind. The rate of unemployment among the people in the southern Thai region is the highest in that country as are the poverty rates.

Throughout the 1960s up to the 1980s, there was a massive transmigration of Thai-Buddhists from the north of Thailand to the south to ‘balance up’ the racial and religious demography of the southern provinces in favour of the ethnic Thais who are Buddhists.

There are many reasons that can be sought out for the southern Thailand conflict - economic inequality, high rate of unemployment, economic discrimination and alienation, separatist movement, drug problems, police and military corruption and abuse of power, cultural discrimination etc.

But the most important fact that most seem to forget is that the southern Thai provinces of Narathiwat, Yala, Patani, Songkhla and Satun were established through Thailand’s colonisation. And that is the fundamental reason for the southern Thai conflict.

This colonisation is the real issue, the rest are just the effects arising from the real issue. Even after more than hundred years of total political, economic and cultural colonisation by the Thai government, the people of southern Thailand are adamant on reclaiming their history, politics, economy, culture and dignity.

What is happening in southern Thailand now is a natural response from any people who have been politically, economically and culturally stripped - that is to resist and fight back.

Given the historical background of southern Thailand, there is no other way to end this bloody conflict except by allowing the southern Thai people to determine their own destiny. And this calls for nothing less than a referendum.

Singapore brands made in Malaysia

SINGAPORE, Aug 20 — Every August, many Johoreans who follow politics and current affairs have this habit of turning on their television sets to watch the live telecast of Singapore Prime Minister's National Day Rally speech.

This year, Lee Hsien Loong's speech lasted for more than three hours. I was more interested in two segments of his speech that had a “little connection” with us. In one segment, he praised Singapore's furniture companies for transforming themselves from a sunset to a sunrise industry. In another, he also singled out Hyflux, which was established by a Malaysian-born woman, for praise.

Lee said that while Singapore's furniture companies had set up factories in neighbouring countries because of lower production costs there, the Singapore brand was used as the selling point. In international markets, Singapore is not only the name of a country but also a symbol of good quality, a “special weapon” used by Singapore's companies to build up their business.

The “neighbouring countries” mentioned by Lee are bound to include Malaysia. The truth is, stories of “Singapore brands that are made in Malaysia” are plentiful. Straightaway, flowers and plants, ornamental fish and fruits come to mind.

As for Hyflux, the miraculous story of its founder Olivia Lum, an abandoned child who became a tycoon, also provides food for thought.

This “water queen”, whom prestigious American financial magazine Forbes named as the “richest woman in Southeast Asia”, was originally a Malaysian. Abandoned by her parents after she was born in a small town in Perak in 1961, she was adopted by a 63-year-old woman. When she was young, the family of six (the old woman had also adopted four other children) lived in a tiny dilapidated hut and relied on stored rain water for their daily needs.

However, her difficult childhood did not dampen her desire to learn. At the age of 16, good results enabled her to study at a junior college in Singapore. After graduating from the National University of Singapore later, she worked for a Dutch company as a chemist.

Perhaps the shortage of water during her early years led her to realise the importance of water and motivated her to carry out research and development on water sources. In 1989, she quit her job, and sold her flat and car to raise S$20,000 (RM48,000) to start Hyflux, whose core business is providing water filtration systems.

Malaysia-Singapore relations were once mired in a crisis because of the water supply issue. Who would have thought that a water treatment company set up by a Malaysian-born woman is today Singapore's largest supplier of water supply systems that not only meets 35 per cent of Singapore's water needs but has also expanded its operations to all over the world, thereby spreading Singapore's reputation worldwide.

Olivia Lum is now a Singapore citizen. Hers is another story of a “Singapore brand that is made in Malaysia”. — Business Times Singapore

The History of Rubber Baron In Amazon

Rubber is one of the most important products to come out of the rainforest. Though indigenous rainforest dwellers of South America have been using rubber for generations, it was not until 1839 that rubber had its first practical application in the industrial world. In that year, Charles Goodyear accidentally dropped rubber and sulfur on a hot stovetop, causing it to char like leather yet remain plastic and elastic. Vulcanization, a refined version of this process, transformed the white sap from the bark of the Hevea tree into an essential product for the industrial age.

With the invention of the automobile in the late 19th century, the rubber boom began. As demand for rubber soared small dumpy river towns like Manaus, Brazil, were transformed into over night into bustling centers of commerce. Manaus, situated on the Amazon where it is met by the Rio Negro, became the opulent heart of the rubber trade. Within a few short years Manaus had Brazil's first telephone system, 16 miles of streetcar tracks, and an electric grid for a city of a million, though it had a population of only 40,000. Vast fortunes were made by individuals, and "flaunting wealth became sport. Rubber barons lit cigars with $100 bank notes and slaked the thirst of their horses with silver buckets of chilled French champagne. Their wives, disdainful of the muddy waters of the Amazon, sent linens to Portugal to be laundered...They ate food imported from Europe...[and] in the wake of opulent dinners, some costing as much as $100,000, men retired to any one of a dozen elegant bordellos." The citizens of Manaus "were the highest per capita consumers of diamonds in the world."

The opulence of the rubber barons could only be exceeded by their brutality. Wild Hevea trees, like all primary rainforest trees are widely dispersed, an adaptation that protects species from the South American leaf blight which easily spreads through and decimates plantations. Thus to make a profit, barons had to acquire control over huge tracts of land. Most did so by by hiring their own private armies to defend their claims, acquire new land, and capture native laborers. Labor was always a problem so barons got creative. One baron created a stud farm, enslaving 600 Indian women whom he bred like cattle. Other barons like Julio Cesar Arana simply used terror to acquire and hold on to Indian slaves. Indians captured usually submitted because resistance only meant more suffering for the families. Young girls were sold as whores, while young men were bound, blindfolded, and had their genitals blasted off. As the Indians died, production soared: in the 12 years that Arana operated on the Putumayo River in Colombia, the native population fell from over 30,000 to less than 8,000 while he exported over 4000 tons of rubber earning over $75 million. The only thing that stopped the holocaust was the downfall of the Brazilian rubber market.

The Brazilian rubber market was crushed by the rapid development of the more efficient rubber plantations of Southeast Asia. However, the prospects of developing plantations did not begin on a high note. Rubber seeds, rich with oil and latex, could not survive the long Atlantic journey from Brazil. Finally, in 1876, an English planter, Henry Wickham, collected 70,000 seeds and shipped them to England. This shipment remains "a source of controversy. Brazilians, conveniently forgetting their entire agricultural economy is based on six imported plants-African oil palm, coffee from Ethiopia, cacao from Colombia and Ecuador, soybeans from China, and sugarcane from Southeast Asia-still speak of the "rubber theft" as a moment of infamy. Wickham himself, in his memoirs, lent a note of mystery to the deed, no doubt intending to elevate his own profile in the eyes of his peers. In fact, all evidence suggests that the exportation was a straight forward affair conducted in the open and actively facilitated by the Brazilian authorities in Belèm." In either case, 2800 of the seeds germinated and were sent to Colombo, Ceylon (present day Sri Lanka). After several false starts, including one planter in northern Borneo who felled his plantation after finding no rubber balls hanging from the branches, the prospects were grim. One major obstacle was the success of tea (Ceylon) and coffee (Malaya) gave planters no reason to try an untested crop.

Finally in 1895, Henry Ridley, head of Singapore's botanical garden, persuaded two coffee growers to plant two acres (.8 ha) of Hevea trees. Twelve years later more than 300,000 ha of rubber grew in plantations in Ceylon and Malaya. New innovations increased efficiency and production doubled every two years. Rubber could be produced at only a fraction of the cost of collecting wild rubber in Brazil. By 1910, Brazilian production had fallen to 50%. In 1914, Brazil's market share was down around 30%; 1918 - 20%, and 1940 - 1.3%.

However the second world war threatened to shift the rubber wealth. With Japan occupying prime rubber producing areas in Southeast Asia, the US feared it would run out of the vital material. Every tire, hose, seal, valve, and inch of wiring required rubber. The Rubber Development Corporation, the chief overseer of rubber acquisition, sought out other sources including establishing a rubber program that sent intrepid explorers into the Amazon seeking rubber specimen that would be used to produce high yields, superior product, and possibility of resistance against leaf blight. The ultimate goal of the program was to establish rubber plantations close to home. In addition to searching the Amazon and establishing experimental plantations in Latin America, the program came up with some novel plans to produce rubber including planting Dandelions in 41 states. Extensive work on synthetic rubber yielded a product that, in time, economists predicted would replace natural rubber. By 1964 synthetic rubber made up 75% of the market.

However the situation changed drastically with the OPEC oil embargo of 1973 which doubled the price of synthetic rubber and made oil consumers more conscious of their gas mileage. The concern over gas mileage brought an unexpected threat to the synthetic market: the widespread adoption of the radial tire. The radial tire replaced the simple bias tires (which made up 90% of the market only 5 years earlier) and within a few years virtually all cars were rolling on radials. Synthetic rubber did not have the strength for radials; only natural rubber could provide the required sturdiness. By 1993 natural rubber had recaptured 39% of the domestic market. Today nearly 50% of every auto tire and 100% of all aircraft tires are made of natural rubber. 85% of this rubber is imported from Southeast Asia meaning that the US is highly susceptible to disruptions caused by an embargo or worse, the unintentional or intentional introduction of leaf blight into plantations. None of the trees in plantations across Southeast Asia has resistance to blight so "a single act of biological terrorism, the systematic introduction of fungal spores so small as to be readily concealed in a shoe, could wipe out the plantations, shutting down production of natural rubber for at least a decade. It is difficult to think of any other raw material that is as vital and vulnerable."

Variety of Scam In Malaysia

Animal vaccine:

These vaccines are ostensibly for farmers to use on their animals to help them breed faster. The demonstrations conducted by the con men are so convincing that the victims do not hesitate to buy the “magic vaccine” despite its high price.

Currency exchange:

Customers are offered extraordinary rates when they want to convert their money.

Inheritance:

Syndicates would use seemingly authentic documents to assure their victims that a great grandfather or close relative had died, leaving tons of money without an heir.

The victims are told that they would be charged a service fee and that they would then have a share of the riches. Once the money is paid out to the fraudster, he would disapppear.

Parcel delivery:

‘Easy’ money: Yet another press conference by Commercial Crime Investigation Department director Comm Datuk Koh Hong Sun on the Nigerian 419 scam.

Professionals such as lecturers and executives who surt the Internet frequently are often the victims. After befriending the victims through online chats, the conman would send them a parcel purportedly containing a “gift” such as a laptop, a watch or even jewellery.

Victims are told that the parcel had been held up by Customs, so they must pay a processing fee to retrieve the parcel.

Once the fee is banked into a local bank account, there would still be no sign of the parcel.

Job offers:

Foreigners are dangled job positions in Malaysian hotels, multinational companies and telecommunication firms with promises of good salaries.

All the dealings are done via Internet. The victims are mostly from countries such as Qatar, Pakistan and the Philippines. They would be asked to pay for “visas” and “work permit fees”.

Lotteries:

Victims are told that through their email addresses, they have been selected as lottery winners where the prizes come in US dollars or pound sterling. To get the money, the victim has to be a member of a club and would be asked to pay very high membership fees.

Jewellery:

A syndicate would offer to sell gold in a form known as “granules”. The dealings often take place in hotel rooms where victims would be shown the genuine stuff initially but they would later discover that all they got is just a packet of metal powder.

“Bomoh”:

This usually involves celebrities and the wealthy who are eager to double their riches. The syndicate would use a piece of yellow cloth, a candle and the Quran, besides chantings.

Victims are persuaded to leave a certain amount of money inside a bag. The are not allowed to open it until a specific time. Later, they would discover that all the money inside the bag had been quietly taken out and replaced with paper.

Credit card:

The suspects would use forged credit cards to settle their purchases at shopping malls, then reselling the items at a higher price later.

Drug-dealing:

Local women are made use of to smuggle drugs out of the country in exchange for jobs overseas.

How the Black Money scam works

KUALA LUMPUR: The Black Money scam, also known as the Nigerian 419 scam, was reported by Interpol to have surfaced in Malaysia in 1998.

(419 refers to a section of a Nigerian law that deals with fraud.)

Most of these con artists enter the country on a social visit pass which allows them to stay up to 30 days.

They tend to enrol in local colleges, some even reputable ones, just to obtain student visas so that they could extend their stay here.

These so-called students are believed to pay off college staff to mark their attendance.


They would then send out random emails and SMS, promising huge piles of money. Usually a “processing fee” is required in advance from their targets.

In some of the cases, the victim lost big amounts of money without realising it until the fraudster goes missing.

They are such smooth operators that a number of victims took loans from Ah Longs to pay them.

In the Black Money scam, victims are told about a stash of bank notes which had been dyed black to avoid Customs detection. The money was supposedly kept in a safe somewhere and the victim should purchase a type of chemical to wash off the dye which would then unveil “genuine” US dollars.


‘Easy’ money: Yet another press conference by Commercial Crime Investigation Department director Comm Datuk Koh Hong Sun on the Nigerian 419 scam

The victim would be promised a share of the money.

The supposed origin of the riches varied with each new victim. The most popular version is that the money is the lost fortunes of former Nigerian dictator General Abacha which need to be transported out of Nigeria without the Customs knowing it.

Commercial Crime Investigation Department director Comm Datuk Koh Hong Sun said the con men, upon meeting their target, would produce a small vial of washing liquid called “Universal Automatic Washer” and ask the victim to select any black bank note at random.

The black banknote would be washed but with a sleight of hand,the con man would substitute it with a real note.

Victims are given the “washed” bank notes and are encouraged to verify their authenticity at a money changer.


Black magic: With sleight of hand, a real note will appear when a black note is ‘washed.’

“They would ask the victim to buy the chemical in order to process more money and that the costs of the chemicals are very high,” he said.

These con artists modus operandi of “layering,” where a different person is sent to each meeting with the victim.

According to sources, places like Puchong Prima, a hotel in Ampang and several areas in Kepong are regular meeting spots for such transactions.

Using laptops along with a special software, the con men are also able to forge government documents.

Comm Koh, who confirmed this, said that raids on the “students’ residence” found no textbooks but merely computers and laptops.

In a raid conducted by the police recently, police arrested 29 Nigerians at their office at Metro Prima in Kepong.

All those arrested claimed that they were undergraduates in the Klang Valley, showing their student cards instead of passports. A check by The Star showed that some colleges here had about 70% African students.

These places provide hassle-free enrolment for foreign students who pay application fees ranging from US$170 to US$330.

Investigations also revealed that these so- called students did not have a clear financial source, yet they had no problems paying tuition fees and sending money home to their countries.

In fact, some of them live in posh condominiums and drive luxury cars like the BMW X5.

They are also known to use local women to carry out their deception, targeting single mothers or college students and using their bank accounts to conduct their shady business.

Some of them, when caught by police, would falsely claim to be Muslims and recite verses from the Quran to gain sympathy, said sources.

Most of these con artists are deported to their home countries as authorities usually lack evidence to charge them.

However, a number of them would return to Malaysia under different passports.

Comm Koh said the authorities were using biometric systems as a measure against such the conmen to prevent them from returning.

“But as long as there are Malaysians who are fuelled by greed, there will be someone to take advantage of them,” he said.

DNA evidence can be fabricated

NEW YORK, Aug 18 — Scientists in Israel have demonstrated that it is possible to fabricate DNA evidence, undermining the credibility of what has been considered the gold standard of proof in criminal cases.

The scientists fabricated blood and saliva samples containing DNA from a person other than the donor of the blood and saliva. They also showed that if they had access to a DNA profile in a database, they could construct a sample of DNA to match that profile without obtaining any tissue from that person.

“You can just engineer a crime scene,” said Dan Frumkin, lead author of the paper, which has been published online by the journal Forensic Science International: Genetics. “Any biology undergraduate could perform this.”

Frumkin is a founder of Nucleix, a company based in Tel Aviv that has developed a test to distinguish real DNA samples from fake ones that it hopes to sell to forensics laboratories.

The planting of fabricated DNA evidence at a crime scene is only one implication of the findings. A potential invasion of personal privacy is another.
Using some of the same techniques, it may be possible to scavenge anyone’s DNA from a discarded drinking cup or cigarette butt and turn it into a saliva sample that could be submitted to a genetic testing company that measures ancestry or the risk of getting various diseases. Celebrities might have to fear “genetic paparazzi,” said Gail H. Javitt of the Genetics and Public Policy Centre at Johns Hopkins University.

Tania Simoncelli, science adviser to the American Civil Liberties Union, said the findings were worrisome.

“DNA is a lot easier to plant at a crime scene than fingerprints,” she said. “We’re creating a criminal justice system that is increasingly relying on this technology.”

John M. Butler, leader of the human identity testing project at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, said he was “impressed at how well they were able to fabricate the fake DNA profiles.” However, he added, “I think your average criminal wouldn’t be able to do something like that.”

The scientists fabricated DNA samples two ways. One required a real, if tiny, DNA sample, perhaps from a strand of hair or drinking cup. They amplified the tiny sample into a large quantity of DNA using a standard technique called whole genome amplification.

Of course, a drinking cup or piece of hair might itself be left at a crime scene to frame someone, but blood or saliva may be more believable.

The authors of the paper took blood from a woman and centrifuged it to remove the white cells, which contain DNA. To the remaining red cells they added DNA that had been amplified from a man’s hair.

Since red cells do not contain DNA, all of the genetic material in the blood sample was from the man. The authors sent it to a leading American forensics laboratory, which analysed it as if it were a normal sample of a man’s blood.

The other technique relied on DNA profiles, stored in law enforcement databases as a series of numbers and letters corresponding to variations at 13 spots in a person’s genome.

From a pooled sample of many people’s DNA, the scientists cloned tiny DNA snippets representing the common variants at each spot, creating a library of such snippets. To prepare a DNA sample matching any profile, they just mixed the proper snippets together. They said that a library of 425 different DNA snippets would be enough to cover every conceivable profile.

Nucleix’s test to tell if a sample has been fabricated relies on the fact that amplified DNA — which would be used in either deception — is not methylated, meaning it lacks certain molecules that are attached to the DNA at specific points, usually to inactivate genes. — NYT

The Malay struggle and the traitors

By Suflan Shamsuddin

As Malays, we need to understand what our struggle is before we start labeling anyone a traitor. Today, many Malays think that the Malay struggle is about maintaining Ketuanan Melayu, and the continuance of preferential treatment. But is that right?

My Tok and his compatriots supported a struggle against the Malayan Union to ensure their freedom from economic and political oppression. If Tok was alive, I am sure he would have said that the belief perpetuated by ultra Malays about Ketuanan Melayu was not what he fought for. For him, it was all about having control over your own destiny.

True, without the NEP, the growing economic disparity would have created great resentment. But if medicine is consumed beyond the right dosage, isn’t there a risk that it poisons the blood stream or becomes an addiction? Will it not ultimately lower the immunity and resilience of its user? The world is fast becoming a global market place, which means that a Malay can no longer hide behind the NEP or special Malay rights to compete.

If Malays need their dependency to be fed, then can we stand in judgment of those that feed? Leaders are important and must be respected. But aren’t they elected to serve the long-term needs of the rakyat and not vice versa? Tok would have said that the dependency on special rights is no different than colonialism. Except that instead of a white man who has control of how I think and what I do, it is some other ruling elite.

So to me, the real struggle of the Malays isn’t about maintaining their special rights. That is a destructive fallacy. Instead it is about embracing and embedding the following attributes:

Let’s start with personal accountability. We need a struggle that entrenches in the Malay a sense of personal accountability. If you don’t have this sense of accountability, it’s never ever your fault. You will always blame others. You will never know true happiness because you don’t know what it feels to succeed on your own. You will feel helpless without your benefactor, and you’ll see monsters everywhere without him. And the fear of his desertion will make you content with the food he feeds, even if it is bad for you. Complacency with what you have extinguishes the “fire in your belly” to self-improve. You’ll be afraid, or think it not to be your place to ask, ‘is what we have good enough?’ You won’t quite fully appreciate what you have been given. But if what you’ve been given is taken away, all you will do is whine and complain. You cannot motivate yourself to succeed, or to improve your circumstances, or to try to influence change, on your own. You cannot develop a sense of your own self worth, without which, you can never develop self-confidence. And without self-confidence you will never know the true limits of your capacity, nor test them. And any sense of pride you’ll have will be misplaced. And you will loathe criticism, as opposed to see it as a means to self-improvement. Pride comes before the fall.

Secondly, we need the struggle to make Malays achievement orientated. To work under pressure and to accept that there are no short cuts. This is how self-discipline is nourished. They must know what it means to take personal risks, and to work hard and to earn rewards. To learn to be persistent and patient, and be willing to differ instant gratification. And where appropriate to push the envelope and themselves. They must know the thrill of true success and the agony of defeat. They cannot be artificially suspended in the safe zone between the two, knowing neither. Nor must they be subjected to a culture which pre-determines or pre-judges what success or failure means. They must learn that true success is when the individual achieves what he desires. For himself and for those whom he cares for.

Thirdly, the struggle must make Malays develop the capacity of independent reasoning. To be able to identify and understand all the different issues that might be relevant to a particular challenge with which they are faced, and to be able to join the dots to form patterns from which to abstract a proper diagnosis. And to do so, by exercising rational thought, and not prejudice or biasness. If the Malays are too used to being spoon-fed the answer to everything, and are constantly told by their family, their community or by the establishment, that there is only one way to look at a problem, they will never develop the capacity for independent and mature thought no matter what the problem might relate to. If they are not given full and transparent access to all the issues, they will not be able to identify the patterns, learn the art of abstraction and know how to contextualize the issues at hand. They therefore need to be willing to challenge the status quo and understand the limits to deference.

Finally, the struggle must make Malays develop a sense of fair play. And that simply means that if you are to interact in society, you must be willing to play by its rules. A game of golf might provide for a handicap system, but pretending to find a lost ball in the rough, by dropping one from your pocket is still cheating. A wise man said, “A duty dodged is like a debt unpaid; it is only deferred, and we must come back and settle the account at last." So even if a Malay might benefit from affirmative action plans, he must play by the rules. By playing by the book he exercises respect and regard for our legal framework and commonly held values. Nobody should be above the law. Due process is a right and must be protected. And justice must not just be done, but must be seen to be done.

A person who has those four attributes will have a good chance of success no matter in what circumstances he is placed. He needs no special rights to survive. It does not matter whether he inherits a ton of cash, is stranded on a desert island, has a PhD, or has stopped schooling after primary school to support his family. His chance to make the best of his life, and be in control of his destiny would have increased significantly by possessing such qualities. This is what the struggle is all about. And the more we think about it, we realize that this struggle is the same for all Malaysians, no matter what might our background be.

So when you look to identify who is the traitor and who is true to the struggle, ask yourself this: who wants us to develop these attributes and who impedes us from doing the same? It is the former that are our champions, and the latter that are the traitors.

So when you see someone pointing to someone else and shouting, “Traitor!” you might now realize that his finger is actually pointing the wrong way. It should be pointing to himself!

Catitan Trip Ke Pattani-Yala-Narathiwat Ogos 2009

Wilayah selatan Thailand yang sedang bergolak menimbulkan keinginan untuk saya melawat biarpun berkemungkinan bakal mengundang risiko yang tidak diduga. Namun begitu sy memang jenis yang berani ambil risiko asalkan nisbah risk : reward bernilai positif (menuruk Robert kiyosaki dalam bukunya Retired Young Retired Rich ) . Antara wilayah2 yang bergolak itu ialah Pattani, Yala dan Narathiwat. Kumpulan pejuang pemisah melayu pattani telah melancarkan serangan2 gerila terhadap pasukan keselamatan dan orang awam menyebabkan kematian mencecah ribuan orang sejak tahun 2004. Krisis yang masih tiada penyelesaian ini telah menyebabkan wilayah2 terbabit kurang dikunjungi oleh pelancong2 luar. Sebelum krisis berlaku ramai rakyat melaysia berkunjung ke wilayah2 terbabit yang sebahagian besar masyaraktnya berketurunan melayu dan beragama islam. Mengikut sejarah wilayah Pattani, Yala dan Narathiwat adalah sebahagian daripada kerajaan melayu Kedah sejak kurun yang ke 12. Malangnya pihak British telah memberikan wilayah ini kepada kerajaan Siam sejak tahun 1990an atas sebab2 tertentu. Sepatutnya wilayah terbabit menjadi sebahagian dari Negara Malaysia disebabkan oleh faktor geografi, keturunan dan agama penduduk asal di kawasan terbabit.
Perjalanan saya bermula dari Bukit Kayu Hitam menyeberangi sempadan Malaysia-Thailand melalui Dannok dan seterusnya menaiki mini bas ke stesen bas Hatyai dengan tambang 55 baht untuk perjalanan sejauh lebih kurang 50 km dengan mengambil masa lebih kurang 1 jam. Dari stesen hatyai seterusnya saya menaiki bas mini (van) ke Bandar Pattani dengan tambang 100baht untuk perjalanan sejauh 100km mengambil masa lebih kurang 1jam 30minit. Sampai ke Bandar Pattani pada pukul 4 ptg waktu tempatan (waktu Thailand awal 1 jam dari waktu Malaysia) . Dari stesen bas Pattani sy menaiki teksi motor ke Hotel My Garden dgn bayaran tambang 2 baht. Kadar harga bilik di hotel itu sebanyak 550baht , bilik agak luas dan selesa tapi tiada kemudahan internet. Jadi untuk guna internet sy terpaksa pergi ke cc berdekatan dgn kos 2 baht sejam. Ada banyak cc kat Bandar Pattani, sy lihat ramai budak2 byk dok main online games macam cc2 kat Malaysia. Sebelah petang sy berjalan ronda2 sekitar Bandar Pattani sambil ambil gambar2 dan mencuba makanan2 tempatan yang agak berlainan dari makanan2 kat Malaysia. Kebanyakan orang melayu Pattani boleh faham cakap melayu, jadi tiada masalah komunikasi seperti yang sy alami kat Satun. Biarpun Bandar Pattani agak kecil namun pemandangannya agak cantik sebab terletak berdekatan laut. Kebanyakan penduduknya bekerja sebagai nelayan dan mengusahakan perusahaan berkaitan hasil laut. Bandarnya agak tenang dan tiada kesesakan lalu lintas.
Pada pagi hari ke-2 sy berada kat Bandar Pattani, sy bergerak tempat2 menarik kat Pattani seperti masjid Pattani, Kubur raja Pattani, Univ ersiti Prince of Songkla cawangan Pattani, taman reakrasi dan lain2 lagi. Sy menaiki teksi motor yg dipandu oleh pak cik mohamad yg merupakan penduduk asal Pattani . Beliau pernah bekerja kat Pulau Pinang semasa zaman muda dulu. Beliau banyak memberikan maklumat2 berkaitan Bandar dan wilayah Pattani. Selepas 3 jam bergerak dengan teksi motor sekitar Pattani sy kembali ke hotel untuk check out. Tambang yang dikenakan oleh pakcik mohamad ialah sebanyak 300 baht, lebih kurang rm 30.
Pada pukul 12 tengahari waktu tempatan sy bergerak ke Bandar Yala dengan menaiki teksi . Teksi ini dinaiki sekali oleh 4 orang warga tempatan, bayaran sorang sebanyak 50 baht. Perjalanan ke Bandar Yala sejauh 40 km dari Pattani memakan masa lebih kurang 30 minit. Kat Yala saya menginap kat hotel Yala Rama dengan kos 390 baht. Bilik lebih luas dari hotel kat Pattani. Saya mendapat bilik kat tingkat 8 yang mempunyai pemandangan luas Bandar Yala. Bandar Yala 2 kali ganda lebih besar dari Bandar Pattani. Bandar ini mempunyai stesen keretapi yang menghubungkan Sungai Golok di wilayah Narathiwat dan Hatyai di wilayah Songkla. Hotel ini terletak berdekatan stesen keretapi Yala. Pada sebelah petang saya keluar ronda2 sekitar Bandar Yala sambil mengambil gambar2 serta berkenalan dengan orang2 tempatan. Ramai juga warga tempatan berturunan melayu yang boleh cakap melayu. Wilayah Yala yang bersempadan dengan negeri kedah dan perak terkenal dengan hutan dan bukit bukau yang luas, buah-buahan tempatan seperti durian, dokong, rambutan memang banyak terdapat serta murah disini. Bandar Betong berdekatan Pengkalan Hulu, Perak adalah bandar yang terletak diwilayah Yala. Bandar Yala agak teratur, bersih dan tenteram. Dengan penduduk yang majority beragama islam, terdapat banyak masjid kat Bandar Yala. Pada waktu magrib dan isyak kedengaran azan berkumandang di sekitar Bandar Yala. Selepas pkl 9 malam,Bandar Yala jadi sepi, kebanyakkan kedai telah ditutup kecuali 7-11 yg banyak terdapat di mana bandar atau pekan di negeri Thailand. Saya nampak askar2 meronda di lorong2 kecil sekitar bandar membawa lampu suluh serta lengkap bersenjata M-16. Memang kehadiran askar2 amat jelas kelihatan di wilayah2 selatan Thailand kecuali Satun. Setiap 5 km ada sekatan jalan raya siap skali kawat berduri serta guni pasir yang dijadikan kubu kecil atas atau tepi jalan raya. Juga ditempat2 awam seperti sekolah, pasaraya, pejabat2 kerajaan terhadap kehadiran askar2 lengkap bersenjata meronda2.
Pada hari ke-3 saya bergerak menuju ke Bandar Narathiwat dengan menaiki keretapi. Sebelum itu sy berpeluang melihat perarakan berpancaragam para pelajar sekolah sempena hari jadi raja perempuan siam. Keluar dari hotel pukul 8 waktu tempatan, breakfast nasi kerabu dgn tea panas kat gerai depan hotel dgn kos 30 baht. Nasi kerabu ini agak special kerana ada pelbagai jenis ulama, telur separuh masak 1 biji, kuah budu dan lain2. Berbeza dengan nasi kerabu yg sy makan kat Kota Bharu, Kelantan. Kat Yala pun ada juga tempat nama Kota Baru. Perjalanan menaiki keretapi dari Bandar Yala ke Tanjung Mat memakan masa lebih 1 jam dengan tiket kelas kedua berharga 60 baht. Dari stesen Tanjung Mat sy menaiki tut-tut ke Bandar Narathiwat dengan tambang 2 baht, anggara jarak 15 km. Sampai ke Bandar Narathiwat pada pukul 12 tgh waktu tempatan terus ambik teksi motor milik pak cik mat yg pandai cakap melayu, selalu datang ke Malaysia. Pak cik Mat bawa sy melawat tempat2 menarik kat Bandar Narathiwat seperti pantai Narathiwat, Taksin Palace, Mesjid Narathiwat dan jalan2 sekitar Bandar. Bandar narathiwat kecil sedikit dari Bandar Pattani mempunyai pemandangan yang cantik sebab terletak berhampiran laut Teluk Thailand. Majoriti penduduk beragama islam dan berketurunan melayu dan kebanyakannya boleh cakap melayu. Saya makan tengah hari kat gerai tepi pantai Narathiwat, makan dengan pak cit mat, makan nasi dgn ikan siakap masak tiga rasa serta sup perut. Masakannya agak pedas tetapi sedap jugak, lain dari yg biasa sy makan kat Malaysia. Jumlah bayarannya ialah 300 baht, boleh tahan jugak. Kat Malaysia tak dapat harga macam tu.
Selepas 2 jam ronda sekitar Bandar Narathiwat , pak cik mat hantar saya ke stesen bas Narathiwat untuk naik mini bas (van) kembali ke Bandar Yala. Bayaran tambang yg dikenakan oleh pak mat ialah 200 baht. Sampai kat stesen bas pkl 2 petang waktu tempatan, terus beli tiket berharga 100 baht. Lepas tunggu hampir 3 jam baru mini bas ni bergerak sebab tunggu penumpang bagi penuh atau minimum 5 orang baru blh jalan. Boring juga tunggu lama2 kat stesen tu. Perjalanan dari Narathiwat ke Bandar Yala mengambil masa lebih 1 jam dengan jarak perjalanan hampir 100 km. Sampai kat hotel Yala Rama pada pukul 630 petang, hari dah gelap, awan mendung gelap, hujun turun renyai2.
Pada hari terakhir sy berada kat bandar Yala di Selatan Thailand, check out pkl 8.00 pagi, terus ke stesen keretapi beli tiket ke bandar Hatyai dengan kos 28 baht. Lebih kurang pukul 845 pagi keretapi dari Sungai Golok ke Surat Thani sampai, gerabak2 kebanyakann penuh sesak dengan penumpang. Perjalanan menaiki keretapi dari bandar Yala ke Hatyai mengambil masa lebih kurang 2 jam. Sampai kat hatyai lebih kurang pkl 11 pagi, terus beli tiket keretapi ke Padang Besar untuk balik Malaysia. Waktu perjalanan pada pukul 2.20 ptg waktu Thailand. Sementara menunggu keretapi , saya kluar ronda2 sekitar bandar Hatyai dan singgah minum kat hotel Crystal sambil guna internet Wifi secara percuma. Pada pukul 4 ptg waktu Thailand barulah keretapi KTM bergerak ke Padang Besar, sampai kat sana lebih kurang pukul 6.15 waktu Malaysia.
Ringkasan Perjalanan :-
- Jarak : 500 km
- Bajet : rm 300
- Pengangkutan awam : Mini Bas (Van), Keretapi, Tut-tut, Teksi Motor
- Jangkamasa : 4 hari 3 malam
- Risiko : Tinggi