Teoh's Death

I for one, would very much like to know the outcome of Teoh Beng Hock's death. The reason he died and what actually causes his death. So many speculations have taken place and even the ongoing enquiries do not seem to satisfy my curiousity. Why a young man like him ended his life like that?

If he committed suicide, was it a split second decision? Can a person with so much going on for him did that? Or if indeed he was murdered, what was the motive for killing him? People just don't kill another for the fun of it. There must be a motive. Was it a first degree murder or a second degree case? The answers given by the famed Thais pathologist were even more perplexed. 80% homicide and 20% suicide. This was based on the reports and photographs of the deceased without the actual examining of the body. The Malaysian pathologists still think that Teoh took his own life.

How I wish the enquiry on his death is devoid of any form of politics. Politicians can make a mountain out of a molehill. Sometimes they are so emotional that they got caught up with it by not being objective. Let the authority do their jobs first. Do not undermine other people's credibility just because their answer do not meet your requirement. The sad thing is that Teoh's death is being made a political mileage by some people.

For coming winter months

The winter months are coming. The news said that it is going to be a colder one than last year. It should not be of concern to me since I live in the tropics. But I'm worrying still because my son is living in the US. And he is cooking on his own and a terrible cook he is. When the weather is bad, I'm sure he's not going out to buy any groceries. Can he survive?

My advice is for him to stock on certain items so that he will not die kebuluran. Son, go and buy a lot of potatoes, eggs and mayonnaise. You can make baked potatoes, potato salad, fries, potato gratin...even bergedil. Don't forget to buy milk by the gallons. Cereals, biscuits and carrots too. You may think that I'm over concerned... after all this is his second winter. But last year, he had all his meals at the school cafeteria so I'm not worried at all.

Ask any mother, when they call their children..The first question will almost always be, ' dah makan?' right?..So I guess it's okay for me to worry.. knowing Nabil, he would rather curl up in bed than harrowing the snow to buy some groceries.. Stock up okay.

Will the JKR takes over?

Last month, my husband called our developer asking the progress of our apartment. The one we bought almost 9 years ago. We have an on and off relationship with this particular developer. Just imagine after 9 longgggg years the answer that we got was that they are abandoning the project. The apartment as I see it is about 80% completed. They have sold the land adjacent to the apartment for 21 million dollars and yet they do not want to complete the project.

To their mind, completing the project will incur them losses. To me , this is business. You lose some and you gain some. If your overall business brings you profit, then a little loss is still okay. But no.. they do not want to incur any losses.
It is okay if their customers suffer losses but not them. I'm sure many buyers are in the same shoe as we are. How are we going to solve this? The banks expect us to pay the monthly installment, some of us still have to pay the rent of houses that we are staying in...for how long?

Will the government help us? Can we sue the developer for breach of contract? To me, these developers have the criminal intent to not complete the project. Hence can we sue them for criminal breach of contract? To blacklist them will be the least of their concern, since they will set up another company using a different name and have proxies who act on their behalf. Time and time again they will do this and nothing is done to punish them.

I have a suggestion.. do like the Chinese government do. These people will have to face the firing squad. I know it is harsh. But the lives of thousands also have been harsh due to their doings. And if you do not have any money to develop a project and complete them, by all means.. don't be in business. The JKR can take over the completion of all abandoned projects to help the purchasers. Instead of monitoring these developers, the JKR should develop and complete the projects. The government can liase with the banks to pay for the progresive payment and I'm sure the buyers will be grateful to the government. Any projects that have not been completed after lets say 6 years should be taken over by the government.

The funny thing is that most projects that have been abandoned are mostly low to medium cost projects. We hardly ever heard of expensive projects being abandoned... maybe a few that involved the vacant land. Please do something otherwise we will have imbalance in the social standing.. the poor becomes poorer and the rich becomes richer and richer.

What should I do?

I hope I'm not too late ..wishing all my readers a happy Eid Mubarak, maaf zahir batin. It's been a long, long time since I wrote in my column/blog. So many things had happened since, some good and some not so good. Whatever it is, I have to accept everything with an open heart.

This is the second raya we celebrate without my son . He's away studying and will only be coming back for holidays next year. Two of my very dear friends lost their husbands during the ramadhan. My aunt had a mastectomy just before fasting and I found out only after raya. And today my close friend called to tell me that she has the cancer too. How should I comfort her in times like this?

How can I pretend that everything is alright when it is not? What should I say to her? What's the right words? How can I be of help? What if she refuse any help?What should I do? She, herself ,had just lost a sister a few months ago to cancer..

My prayers go to her. I hope she will be strong in fighting this. I hope Allah will grant her courage and strength to face this adversity. I hope the cancer will go away after the chemotherapy. At this moment, that's the only thing I can do...HOPE.