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		<title>Western war on Iran soon?</title>
		<link>https://rightways.wordpress.com/2012/01/30/western-war-on-iran-soon/</link>
		<comments>https://rightways.wordpress.com/2012/01/30/western-war-on-iran-soon/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 30 Jan 2012 03:45:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>rightways</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[civil liberties]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Defense]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[defense]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Main]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Iran]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Middle East]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[US new military strategy in Asia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[War]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Western powers]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://rightways.wordpress.com/?p=8626</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The new year is witnessing an escalation of a Western economic blockade against Iran while it has been claimed that Israel is preparing for a military strike. Can a war against Iran be avoided?

THE risk of the world being engulfed in a new and dangerous war is increasing. In recent weeks, Iran has come under greater pressure over its nuclear programme, and the chances of this leading to military conflict have escalated.

A recent article in New York Times magazine revealed that senior Israeli leaders were preparing for a strike on Iranian nuclear facilities in 2012.

The United States has intensified its initiative on trade and financial sanctions on Iran.

Republican candidates for the Presidency have been using high anti-Iran rhetoric.

And there is the possibility in a Presidential election year that the incumbent President may start a war to gain popularity.

In his State of the Union speech last week, President Barack Obama said he would take no option off the table to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.

Europe recently announced an embargo on Iranian oil. The European Union foreign ministers decided there would be no further oil contracts between its member states and Iran, and that existing oil delivery deals would be allowed to run only until July.

These actions are purportedly aimed at preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons. But Iran has insisted its research programme is for developing nuclear power, not weapons.

And there is no evidence that it is in fact developing, or intending to develop, weapons.

There is a danger of dramatic escalation of the present conflict through one of various scenarios, such as an Israeli attack on Iran (with or without United States assistance or approval) or an incident in the Persian Gulf involving Western and Iranian ships.

The US has doubled the number of aircraft carriers near the Persian Gulf, while French and British warships recently accompanied the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln into the Gulf.

These developments are creating the conditions for a slide into a catastrophic war.

On Jan 25, the New York Times carried an article – “Will Israel attack Iran?”– by Israeli journalist Ronen Bergman, an analyst who interviewed Israel’s Defence Minister Ehud Barak, vice-premier Moshe Ya’alon and others.

“After speaking with many senior Israeli leaders and chiefs of the military and the intelligence, I have come to believe that Israel will indeed strike Iran in 2012,” wrote Bergman.

This determination to strike comes despite many difficulties, listed by Bergman.

Iran has dispersed its nuclear installations throughout its vast territory, and Israel has limited air power and no aircraft carrier.

Even if an attack were successful, Iran would be able to rebuild the damaged or wrecked sites. And Iran had declared that it would strike back if attacked.

There is of course irony and double standards in this situation.

While Israel and the West decry the consequences if Iran obtains nuclear weapons capability, it is well known that Israel itself owns many nuclear weapons.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=rightways.wordpress.com&amp;blog=11914973&amp;post=8626&amp;subd=rightways&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<title>Corporate Malaysia history needs Muck</title>
		<link>https://rightways.wordpress.com/2012/01/30/corporate-malaysia-history-needs-muck/</link>
		<comments>https://rightways.wordpress.com/2012/01/30/corporate-malaysia-history-needs-muck/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 29 Jan 2012 16:55:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>rightways</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[civil liberties]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[History]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Corporate goverance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[corporate tussle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[history]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://rightways.wordpress.com/?p=8621</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Here are some important reminders of our business history

IT'S clear of late that Malaysia has an awkward relationship with its past. Controversy after controversy have shown that it's hard for us to agree on the facts and interpretation that form a widely accepted version of our history, or indeed, on what separates historical facts from mere stories.

This is troubling. George Santayana was a philosopher, essayist, poet and novelist, but if he is to be universally noted for just one thing, it should perhaps be for the fact that he wrote this: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Try arguing against that.

What's more worrying is that there's no collective effort by corporate Malaysia to enrich what we know about the pivotal developments in the country's business landscape. Key documents, publications and other forms of information from companies should be aggregated, organised and presented to a broad audience.

In other words, we should have a Museum of Corporate Knowledge. As a bonus, it has an easy-to-remember acronym Muck.

Of course, it ought to have features you would find in any other top-notch museum, such as objects of great significance, dioramas, interactive displays, and narratives.

Considering that corporate Malaysia is well over a century old the Companies Commission of Malaysia's origins go back to the late 19th century a major challenge is to select the people and events that deserve to be showcased in Muck.

And after that task has been completed, there's the equally difficult job of designing exhibits that best tell the story behind each choice. Some suggestions:

The power of no power

The story: Lightning struck a transmission facility on Sept 29, 1992, causing a blackout throughout Peninsular Malaysia. It took 48 hours to fully restore electricity supply. The incident prompted the Government to allow others to enter the business of generating power, until then the monopoly of Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB).

This paved the way for the birth of the independent power producers (IPPs).

Six months after the blackout, TNB signed a 21-year power purchase agreement (PPAs) with YTL Corp Bhd. Four more PPAs were inked in 1993. These early PPAs are highly lucrative, to the point that they were regarded as lopsided in favour of the IPPs.

The terms of subsequent PPAs were less generous, but the structure of the IPP programme has proven to be less than ideal because of the strain on TNB. Attempts to renegotiate the first-generation PPAs have failed.

The exhibit: The TNB equipment damaged by the September 1992 lightning strike. This serves to remind us of how an act of God can have far-reaching consequences.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=rightways.wordpress.com&amp;blog=11914973&amp;post=8621&amp;subd=rightways&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<title>Malaysian History &amp; Legend; facts &amp; fallacies; myths, heroes or zeroes?</title>
		<link>https://rightways.wordpress.com/2012/01/29/malaysian-history-legend-facts-fallacies-myths-heroes-or-zeroes/</link>
		<comments>https://rightways.wordpress.com/2012/01/29/malaysian-history-legend-facts-fallacies-myths-heroes-or-zeroes/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 29 Jan 2012 06:58:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>rightways</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Main]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[civil liberties]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[History]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[legend]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[culture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Malaysia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[history]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Prof Khoo Kay Kim]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://rightways.wordpress.com/?p=8610</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Like Robin Hood and Sherlock Holmes in England, Hang Tuah could be cleverly promoted as a tourist attraction in Malacca.

THE current debate over whether the legendary warrior Hang Tuah actually existed or is merely a figment of imagination should be taken positively. At least there is a renewed interest in history, a subject many Malaysians regard as boring.

Our students have bad memories of studying History, which will be a compulsory subject in schools, because of unimaginative and uninspiring teachers who turned their classes into tedious note-taking exercises.

They did not inspire their students with stories of how we could learn from the past and how relevant history is to us. History is not about forcing students to just memorise dates and signing of treaties.

History is about his story, and teachers should respond with lively accounts, even personal trivia, of the personalities involved to spice up their classes.

With a short remark, Prof Emeritus Tan Sri Khoo Kay Kim restarted a debate on the existence of Hang Tuah, who is said to have lived during the reign of Sultan Mansur Shah in 15th century Malacca. Hang Tuah is believed to be the greatest of all of the sultan’s admirals and was described as a ferocious fighter. 

Our STPM Tamadun Islam reference books touch on Islamic history in China but some of the facts in the books must not be accepted at face value for some of the statements have been made without quoting any credible source.

There are some writers who have quoted non-Malaysian authors from the 20th century who had little knowledge about China’s history but merely based it on their fantasised ideas and twisted facts derived perhaps from their own assumptions.

The writers who touched on the topic have been an embarrassment to those in the academic fraternity as they had based their facts from what they had obtained from the old authors. For instance, the STPM books claim that the Ming Dynasty founder Zhu Yuanzhang (old spelling Chu Yuan-chang) was a Muslim, when in fact, he was not.

Historical evidence proves that Zhu Yuanzhang (also known as Ming Taizu, or the Emperor Hongwu) was once a Buddhist monk before he founded the Ming Dynasty in 1368.

Tan Sri Prof Emeritus Khoo Kay Kim provoked a storm of controversy when he said that there was no evidence that legendary warrior Hang Tuah ever existed. Malaysian Archaeologists Association president Datuk Prof Emeritus Dr Nik Hassan Shuhaimi Nik Abdul Rahman has refuted this claim, saying the tomb of Hang Tuah in Malacca proves the legendary warrior’s existence. Literary figure Dr Kassim Ahmad, who compiled the Hikayat Hang Tuah, also stressed that Hang Tuah was a real person. So did he exist or not? Arman Ahmad sits down with Khoo to find out<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=rightways.wordpress.com&amp;blog=11914973&amp;post=8610&amp;subd=rightways&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<title>Yuan or not to Yuan? Yuan way to new monetary order</title>
		<link>https://rightways.wordpress.com/2012/01/28/yuan-way-to-new-monetary-order-yuan-or-not-to-yuan/</link>
		<comments>https://rightways.wordpress.com/2012/01/28/yuan-way-to-new-monetary-order-yuan-or-not-to-yuan/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 28 Jan 2012 04:38:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>rightways</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Economy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Main]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[currency war]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[economics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[world]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[yuan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[yuan internationalization]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://rightways.wordpress.com/?p=8594</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[CHINESE New Year has come and will soon go. The eurozone debt crisis is well past two years. Yet uncertainty persists. The World Bank's January 2012 Global Economic Prospects reports:

“World economy has entered a very difficult phase characterised by significant downside risks and fragility and as a result, forecasts have been significantly downgraded. However, even achieving these much weaker outturns is very uncertain Overall, global economic conditions are fragile.”

This week's IMF World Economic Outlook says more of the same: “The global recovery is threatened by intensifying strains in the euro area and fragilities elsewhere.” China, India, South Africa and Brazil have entered a slowing phase.

No country and no region can escape the consequences of a serious downturn. Nevertheless, growth in the East Asia and Pacific region (excluding Japan) is expected to slowdown to about 7.8% in 2012 (8.4% in 2011) and stabilise in 2013.

This reflects continuing strong domestic demand (evident in third quarter or 3Q 2011 GDP) while exports will slow to about 2% due to Europe heading towards recession and sluggish rich “Organisation For Economic Coercion And Direction (OECD)” demand.

The middle-income nations are, I think, in a good position to weather the global slowdown, with significant space available for fiscal relaxation, adequate room for interest rate easing, ample high reserves and rather strong underpinning for domestic demand to rise.

I see the modest easing in China's growth being counterbalanced by a pick-up in GDP gains in 2013 over the rest of the region. Outside China, growth has slackened sharply to 4.8% in 2011 (6.9% in 2010), but is expected to strengthen in 2012, reaching 5.8% in 2013.

China

GDP growth in China, which accounts for 80% of the region, had eased to about 9.1% in 2011 (10.4% in 2010) and is expected to slacken further to a still robust 8.2%-8.4% in 2012.

The World Bank projections point to growth moderating at 8.3% in 2013, in line with its longer-term potential GDP. Expansion is expected to emanate from domestic demand, with private spending and fixed capital outlays contributing most of the growth in 2012.

For China, the health of the global economy and high-income Europe in particular, represents the key risk at this time. Domestic risks include property overheating, local government indebtedness, and bloating bank balance sheets.

The 4Q 2011 growth of 8.9% annoy investors who are looking for indications either weak enough to justify further policy easing or strong enough to allay fears of a hard landing. Bear in mind the forecast growth for 2012 will be the weakest in a decade, and may cool further as exports slump.

The Chinese economy is buffeted by two very different forces: (i) slow global growth will hurt Chinese exports (especially to its largest trading partner, European Union) which rose by 7% in December, and exporters foresee more trouble ahead; however, (ii) analysts point to strong retail sales (up 18% in December) reflecting rising wages and domestic spending which represented about 52% of GDP in the first quarter, higher than in 2009-11.

China is counting on its massive effort to build low-income “social housing” to provide enough demand to keep the real-estate market from collapsing.

It is unclear whether China can accelerate this program to build 36 million subsidised housing by 2015enough to house all of Germany's households. But financial markets are anticipating worse news ahead. After all, the Shanghai Composite Index fell 21% in 2011. As the adage goes, stock analysts did forecast 10 of the past 3 recessions!

The yuan

Appreciation of the yuan (renmimbiRMB) against the US dollar in 2012 is expected to slow to about 3%, from +4.7% in 2011. The yuan closed at 6.3190 at end 2011, up about 8% compared with June 10 (when China effectively ended its 2-year long peg to the US dollar and has gained 30% since mid-2005 when it was last revalued.

The slowdown reflects growing demand for the US dollar amid uncertainty, lower growth, diminishing trade surplus, and growing US military presence in Asia, according to China's Centre for Forecasting Science (of the Chinese Academy of Sciences) which reports directly to the State Council, China's Cabinet.

Much of it will be in the latter year as China is likely to keep the yuan relatively stable in the first half to allow time to assess the impact of goings-on in the euro-zone. Dollars are pumped in via state banks, providing markets with a clear signal it will not allow the yuan to depreciate, while not in a hurry to let it appreciate either. The yuan has since moved sideways.

The government of Zimbabwe is considering using China's Yuan as their national currency.
Bulawayo, Zimbabwe - From downtown shops that stock cheap clothing and shoes that fall apart after one wear, to mining concessions in platinum, gold and diamonds - the Chinese finger is now in virtually every Zimbabwean pie.

From city sidewalks to low-income suburbs, the Chinese have become part of the local population, and if some senior government bureaucrats have their way, the country could soon find itself adopting the Chinese Yuan as its official currency.

For some influential monetary policy czars, the massive assailing of the Zimbabwean economy by the Chinese now only requires the Yuan to strengthen these economic reconstruction efforts.

Invited by President Robert Mugabe as part of his infamous 2004 "Look East" policy to help drive the economy and employment creation, after relations with former traditional investment partners the European Union and United States soured, China has been able to create its own little sphere of influence and establish an ubiquitous presence in Zimbabwe.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=rightways.wordpress.com&amp;blog=11914973&amp;post=8594&amp;subd=rightways&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Measuring Happiness</title>
		<link>https://rightways.wordpress.com/2012/01/27/measuring-happiness/</link>
		<comments>https://rightways.wordpress.com/2012/01/27/measuring-happiness/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:35:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>rightways</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Economy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer service]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[happiness]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Management]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[satisfaction]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://rightways.wordpress.com/?p=8588</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Happiness has been a hot topic in business lately and I’ve been delighted to see such a serious subject get the attention it deserves in the corner office. In the Jeffersonian tradition, the “pursuit of happiness” is considered an inalienable right on par with life and liberty. Yet, until recently, managers here and elsewhere in the world made little effort to rigorously measure or manage happiness.

That was part of the reason I created the Net Promoter score (NPS) nine years ago. When I was considering various names for the new metric, I thought seriously about calling it the Net Happiness Score. We describe NPS as a measure of loyalty, but the overarching objective of the framework is to make people happy—so happy that they recommend a product or company to friends and loved ones so they can benefit from a similar experience.

Of course, I ended up calling it NPS. I decided against NHS as a name because I feared it might sound too corny or whimsical to hard-minded business execs, causing them to overlook the very real connection between how customers feel about their experience with a company and that company’s profitable, sustainable growth.

But even today we still maintain a not-so-subtle link between NPS and happiness through the emoticons we use to report the scores.  For example, we communicate a Net Promoter Score of 75 with a wall of faces like this:

Net Promoter score emoticon wall

It’s pretty hard to miss the link between NPS and the emotional energy of happy or unhappy people when looking at a picture like this. Using emoticons to represent promoters, passives and detractors requires little additional explanation. What’s more, the happy, passive and angry faces illustrate that making people happy and earning their loyalty creates emotional outcomes, not just economic ones.

“If you figure out how to make employees happy and make customers happy, then the business just kind of takes care of itself,” says Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh. “It’s just about delivering happiness.”<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=rightways.wordpress.com&amp;blog=11914973&amp;post=8588&amp;subd=rightways&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<media:content url="http://blogs-images.forbes.com/baininsights/files/2012/01/Fred-Reichheld-207-150x150.jpg" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Fred Reichheld</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://blogs-images.forbes.com/baininsights/files/2012/01/hbr-blog-callout-1-13-12-V02.gif" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Net Promoter score emoticon wall</media:title>
		</media:content>
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		<item>
		<title>Obama and Bernanke: Cooking Up Another Market Bubble?</title>
		<link>https://rightways.wordpress.com/2012/01/27/obama-and-bernanke-cooking-up-another-market-bubble/</link>
		<comments>https://rightways.wordpress.com/2012/01/27/obama-and-bernanke-cooking-up-another-market-bubble/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 27 Jan 2012 08:44:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>rightways</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Economy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ben Bernanke]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[economy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[US]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://rightways.wordpress.com/?p=8581</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The two most important leaders on planet earth each delivered major public speeches in the last 24 hours. Last night U.S. President Barack Obama, in what might be the last State of the Union address of his political career, suggested that the economy is improving, unemployment is heading down, the world is safer, and America’s standing in the world vastly improved all because of his administration’s policies. In a press conference this afternoon, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke (by far, the most powerful non-elected person on the planet) delivered a more cautious assessment, suggesting that improved economic conditions, including decreased unemployment and steadily low inflation, will be affected by what happens in Europe and in the broader non-U.S. global economy (hint: China). Today’s upward rise in the U.S. stock market suggests that investors believe both men might be right. That is, there will be economic headwinds, but the U.S. will manage those headwinds well.

Just to make sure, Bernanke signaled that the Fed would keep interest rates low at least through 2014. This is unhappy news to America’s savers and the rabidly anti-Fed Ron Paul (who believes Fed money printing is the root cause of our economic malaise), but music to the ears of investors, new homebuyers, and for what Obama terms those “responsible homeowers” seeking home refinancing (who will now pay a 30-year mortgage rate of just 3.88%). Who knows, maybe housing principal forgiveness is on the way too (ah, heck, throw in a toaster while’s you’re at it).

But, with such initiatives, are Obama and Bernanke just cooking up another housing and market bubble to go along with the current student loan bubble?<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=rightways.wordpress.com&amp;blog=11914973&amp;post=8581&amp;subd=rightways&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<title>‘Trillionaire’ Emperor mocked by Netizens!</title>
		<link>https://rightways.wordpress.com/2012/01/27/trillionaire-emperor-mocked-by-netizens/</link>
		<comments>https://rightways.wordpress.com/2012/01/27/trillionaire-emperor-mocked-by-netizens/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 27 Jan 2012 03:37:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>rightways</dc:creator>
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		<category><![CDATA[Kamal]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://rightways.wordpress.com/?p=8573</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Tanjung Malim-born, who claims to be a “trillionaire” and the owner of treasure stashed away in a secret cave, has got the online community buzzing about his proclamation of royalty, too.

Most of the comments were scornful and sarcastic, with many calling Kamal Ashnawi the creator of a mighty tall tale.

In response, Kamal said he was not surprised by the negative reaction, saying the “common people” would soon see evidence of his claims.

Facebook user Khairul Nizam Anuarul Hakim said Kamal’s story was illogical and compared it to popular Japanese comic character Doraemon.

“The story of Doraemon seems more logical than this guy’s story,” he said.

Kamal, 48, a Dutch citizen, claimed, in an article published in The Star yesterday, that he was a descendant of royal families in China, India, Java and Siam.

He said 86.7% of the money in the world belonged to him as he had treasures hidden in a three-metre-high cave, with gold bars stacked up like a pagoda, US$15mil (RM46mil) in jade and US$10mil (RM31mil) in diamonds and stacks of US dollars.

Kamal, who hopes to be recognised as the Emperor of Indonesia soon, claimed that the treasures belonged to the dynasties that ruled China, and that there was more in other mountains and vaults all over the world.

He had shown documents, allegedly from a London branch of HSBC, to prove that he has five trillion euros (RM20 trillion) in an account there.

Kamal said he had come forward because there were too many false claims by others who said they were owners of the royal assets.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=rightways.wordpress.com&amp;blog=11914973&amp;post=8573&amp;subd=rightways&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<title>Will China&#8217;s rise shape Malaysian Chinese community?</title>
		<link>https://rightways.wordpress.com/2012/01/27/will-chinas-rise-shape-malaysian-chinese-community/</link>
		<comments>https://rightways.wordpress.com/2012/01/27/will-chinas-rise-shape-malaysian-chinese-community/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:01:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>rightways</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[civil liberties]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economy]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[History]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Main]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[China]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Chinese]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[culture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Malaysia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Malaysian Chinese]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://rightways.wordpress.com/?p=8565</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In Malaysia's northern state of Penang, a distinct shift is being felt in the immigrant Chinese community, as it rides the wave of China's economic rise.

The Leong San Tong Khoo Kongsi, one of the richest clan associations, used to send money back to their ancestral home in Fujian province, China.

But that is changing as places like Sin Aun, a fishing village that the clan members' families hail from, are now bustling and have no need for money sent from overseas.

"In the past, overseas Chinese were seen as more wealthy but now the Chinese from China are even richer than us," says the clan association's Khoo Boo Hong.

Indeed, Chinese money is becoming more visible in Penang. A bridge that is currently under construction is being partly financed by a cheap loan from the Chinese government. The 4.5bn Malaysian ringgit (US$1.4bn) project is set to be the longest bridge in South East Asia, stretching 24km (15 miles).
The Chinese community in Malaysia acts as a bridge for business opportunities in China. The Chinese community in Malaysia acts as a bridge for business opportunities in China.

In 2010, Malaysia was one of China's biggest trading partners from South East Asia. Two-way trade hit 147bn Malaysian ringgit (US$46.3bn) last year, with a push to more than double that amount by 2015.

'Special relationship'

Much of the trade has been established by the Chinese Malaysian community, says Oh Ei Sun, the former political secretary on Chinese affairs to Prime Minister Najib Razak.

Malaysia was the first South East Asian country to form diplomatic ties with China in 1974.
China's diaspora

    First major emigration in 14th-16thC by traders and seafarers
    Colonial powers used Chinese as labourers in SE Asia and the Americas
    But also have reputation for business success
    There are about 30m overseas Chinese in total
    Indonesia and Thailand have the biggest numbers - 7-9m each (estimates)
    Singapore has the highest concentration - 3m, or 75% of its population

As a result the two countries have a special relationship, and the Chinese in Malaysia have tried to exploit this kinship by developing business ties with China, says Mr Oh.

The Chinese began arriving on Malaysian shores in the early 15th Century. Today, they make up 24% of a population of 28 million, and have always been more prosperous than other ethnic communities. According to a 2011 Forbes magazine list, eight out of the top 10 richest Malaysians are ethnic Chinese.

This wealth imbalance has fuelled long-standing resentment among the Malay majority. It erupted into deadly race riots in 1969 - violence that two years later led the government to implement an affirmative action plan called the New Economic Policy.

This gave ethnic Malays and indigenous groups privileges over the Chinese and Indians, such as cheaper housing, priority in university scholarships and civil service jobs. The policy officially ended in 1990 but it has been succeeded by similar plans.
Businessman Lim Cheah Chooi hires Malaysian or Singaporean Chinese managers for his factories in China Lim Cheah Chooi hires Malaysian or Singaporean Chinese managers for his factories in China

"The quota system is still in place on so many levels," says Teo Nie Ching, a lawmaker from the opposition Democratic Action Party. This limits job prospects for Malaysian Chinese in certain businesses, including listed companies, she says.

"After so many generations [the Chinese] still feel that we are second class citizens," Ms Teo says.

Analysts say this sense of alienation has made many Malaysian Chinese look for opportunities elsewhere, including China.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=rightways.wordpress.com&amp;blog=11914973&amp;post=8565&amp;subd=rightways&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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			<media:title type="html">rightways</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">Khoo Boo Hong of the Leong San Tong Khoo Kongsi clan associations in Penang, Malaysia.</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">The Chinese community in Malaysia acts as a bridge for business opportunities in China.</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/57521000/jpg/_57521581_limcheahchooi.jpg" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Businessman Lim Cheah Chooi hires Malaysian or Singaporean Chinese managers for his factories in China</media:title>
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		<title>A &#8216;trillionaire&#8217; descendent of the Emperor of China is the ‘Emperor of Indonesia’?</title>
		<link>https://rightways.wordpress.com/2012/01/26/a-descendent-of-the-emperor-of-china-is-the-emperor-of-indonesia/</link>
		<comments>https://rightways.wordpress.com/2012/01/26/a-descendent-of-the-emperor-of-china-is-the-emperor-of-indonesia/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 26 Jan 2012 05:29:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>rightways</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[civil liberties]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[China]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Kamal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Royal family]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://rightways.wordpress.com/?p=8561</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A Tanjung Malim-born Dutch citizen claims he is a descendent of the Emperor of China and that his bloodline is linked to royal families in India, Java and Siam.

IT is not every day that you get to meet a trillionaire. So when I was invited to interview Kamal Ashnawi, a person I've never heard of, I said yes.

On Saturday morning, at a Kuala Lumpur hotel coffee house together with two of Kamal's aides, I waited for the so-called trillionaire.

Wearing a baseball cap, long-sleeved shirt and jeans, he sauntered over to our table. The two aides bowed, pressed their palms together to their forehead as if greeting royalty and kissed his hands.

“We call him Tuanku as he is a sultan from Indonesia,” one of the aides whispered to me.
The money trail: Kamal with a document which he claims proves that he is a trillionaire.

According to Kamal, he is a Dutch citizen born in Tanjung Malim, Perak, on Jan 1, 1964.

“I'm a descendent of the Emperor of China and in a history that went haywire, my family fled from China to Kedah. I traced my bloodline to the royal families of China, India, Java and Siam,” claimed the man who is also known as Raden Mas Prabhu Gusti Agung Ki Asmoro Wijoyo.

“I grew up in Tanjung Malim and my family here is very simple and ordinary. Nobody in my family talks about our royal blood and wealth. But my grandmother once told me: “You are special and, when the time comes, you will know.”

It was in Holland in the late 1980s that Kamal “found out who he really was”. A member of an Indonesian royal family, kicked out of the country by president Sukarno, told him he was of royal blood.

In London in the early 1990s, a lawyer told Kamal about his royal family's massive wealth. Unconvinced, he told the lawyer to prove his claims.

He and the lawyer flew from London to Hong Kong to meet the “keeper of the royal treasure”. From there, Kamal and the keeper travelled to Kunming in China.

They hiked up a mountain for four hours and reached a cave guarded by an old couple who, Kamal says, are immortals.

“If you tried to pass them without their blessing, you would cough blood and die,” he said.

Inside the three-metre-high cave, Kamal saw gold bars stacked like a pagoda, US$15mil (RM46mil) in jade and US$10mil (RM31mil) in diamonds and stacks of US dollars.

“I took a gold bar and knocked it on a rock. It was really gold. The treasure is the wealth of the dynasties that ruled China. Their wealth was also kept in other mountains and in vaults all over the world,” he said.

About three years ago, when Kamal watched Nicholas Cage's movie National Treasure, he laughed.

“The treasure in the movie was small compared to the wealth I saw in the mountain,” he said.

Next, Kamal told of his meeting two years ago in Kuala Lumpur with Dr Wong Eng Po, a royal physician from China.

Dr Wong placed his hand on Kamal's bald head, then immediately bowed in front of Kamal and ordered his five followers to do the same.

“He said I was the reincarnation of Emperor Nurhaci (1661-1626) of China. He felt an energy on my head which was superhuman because an emperor, unlike an ordinary human, has to think more.

“I'm the reincarnation of two emperors of China,” Kamal added.

He elaborated that a few years ago, the royal family decided he would be the sole administrator of the royal wealth kept in secret accounts in about 1,000 banks worldwide.

“This means that 86.7% of the world's money belongs to me,” he said.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=rightways.wordpress.com&amp;blog=11914973&amp;post=8561&amp;subd=rightways&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<title>ROWE for an honest living ?</title>
		<link>https://rightways.wordpress.com/2012/01/26/rowe-for-an-honest-living/</link>
		<comments>https://rightways.wordpress.com/2012/01/26/rowe-for-an-honest-living/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 26 Jan 2012 03:48:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>rightways</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Economy]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[chanage management]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[ROWE]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[work]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://rightways.wordpress.com/?p=8557</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The traditional economy of working long hours no longer works in a global economy that does not recognise time zones and deadlines.

MUCH has been written about the number of holidays and company leave days Malaysians have. What is apparent is the effect on productivity. Thus, begs the question: What is true productivity?

A number of columnists have shared their views. Is it true productivity when employees leave late simply because of the following reasons:

&#62; The boss is working late or there is an unwritten code that until the boss leaves, no one else can; and

&#62; The longer you stay at work, even if you are on Facebook, you are a good worker?

Peer pressure is a factor; another are long meetings with no set agenda and goals.

Perhaps Malaysian companies and business owners would do well to look at the US and Europe. Despite their worsening economies, a movement that addresses work-life balance is gaining ground.

Why Work Sucks and How To Fix It, written by Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson (www.gorowe.com) is about creating a results-only work environment (ROWE). Hot on the heels of lifestyle gurus such as Tim Ferris of the 4-Hour Workweek, Ressler and Thompson write about and offer solutions to the never-ending circus of meetings, schedules and clock-ins.

The traditional economy of working long hours from Monday to Friday, and also weekends, no longer works in a global economy that does not “understand” time zones and deadlines.

Home life, chores like doing the laundry, missing the children’s school concert — there has to be a better way to make a living.

You may wonder what is the difference between a flexible work arrangement and a ROWE.

Simply put, with flexi hours the employee needs permission and faces limited options. It is management controlled, requires policies, focusses on time-off, and there is high demand and low control.

ROWE offers the worker the following: No permission is needed and the working boundaries are unlimited. The employee manages his or her KPIs, and this requires accountability and clear goals.

If these are not met, out you go. ROWE focusses on tangible business results and it is high demand with high control.

Employers should view ROWE as beneficial to their businesses. They stop paying people for activities (Facebook anyone?) and start paying for outcomes.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=rightways.wordpress.com&amp;blog=11914973&amp;post=8557&amp;subd=rightways&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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			<media:title type="html">Cover of &#34;Why Work Sucks and How to Fix I...</media:title>
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